Chapter 240: A Savior’s Violence

"Ru Yi..."

Ru Yi tried to answer, but only a faint breath escaped her. Her hand remained pressed against her side, yet blood continued to seep between her fingers. The wound was deeper than either woman first realized.

"Let me see it," Lieyin begged.

Ru Yi shook her head, trying to push her away. "I’m fine. Just go back to wherever you came from, I don’t need you." Not anymore.

"You’re bleeding through your clothes and losing a lot of blood," Lieyin tried to reason with her. "You’re practically dying!"

Ru Yi pushed weakly at her chest. "I said I’m fine."

Lieyin could see her face losing all its color. "You’re such a terrible liar." She carefully pulled Ru Yi’s hand away from the wound. What she saw made her stomach tightened with unease.

The skin around the stab wound had turned unnaturally dark. It wasn’t bruised. It looked as though smoke had settled beneath Ru Yi’s skin, spreading outward from the wound in thin black veins.

Lieyin immediately placed her hand over it. "Don’t move." Spiritual energy flowed from her hand.

At first nothing happened. Then Ru Yi’s body convulsed, and a burst of black shadow erupted from beneath Lieyin’s palm.

Lieyin recoiled. "What—?"

Another stream of darkness spilled from the wound, twisting around Ru Yi’s waist before disappearing into the ground.

Lieyin tried again, she pushed more spiritual energy into Ru Yi. The result was worse. The wound swallowed all the energy, but instead of closing, the darkness seemed to drink her energy and push it back out as shadows.

Lieyin stared in disbelief. "Your wound is rejecting my spiritual energy." She’d never seen anything like this before.

Ru Yi’s breathing was uneven. "It isn’t the wound," she rasped. "It’s my shadow."

The words made Lieyin’s expression tighten. "What did Sheng do to you?" she muttered to herself. Maybe letting Ru Yi go was the worst decision they’d ever made.

Kael approached them, his face grim. "How bad is it?"

Lieyin didn’t answer immediately. She kept one hand against Ru Yi’s side, trying to stabilize the bleeding without forcing more spiritual energy into the wound.

Finally, in a defeated voice, she answered. "I’m trying to heal her, but it’s not working."

Kael’s forehead scrunched up. "What do you mean?"

"Every time I send energy into the wound, her shadow consumes it."

"That doesn’t even make sense—"

A shout came from the battlefield. The remaining soldiers from both armies were beginning to regroup.

Han Zheng was dead.

General Sheng was dead.

Without either commander to give orders, hundreds of soldiers stood facing one another with weapons still drawn. They were uncertain whether the battle had ended or merely changed shape.

Kael looked at them, then back at Lieyin. "We have another problem on our hands. Both Generals are dead. Neither side has anyone left to command them."

Lieyin looked across the battlefield. Some soldiers looked frightened, others were angry. A few had already begun raising their weapons again.

Kael lowered his voice. "If they start fighting again, we’re going to be caught in the middle of it."

Lieyin slowly rose.

Ru Yi caught her wrist in a loose grip. "Don’t go."

Lieyin looked down at her, seeing the worry so deeply etched into her features. Maybe all hope wasn’t lost between them after all. "I’ll be back, it should only take a while."

Ru Yi’s fingers slipped off.

Against Lieyin’s better judgement she bent down and pressed her lips against Ru Yi’s brow. "Kael will look after you."

She walked into the center of the ruined road, her sword hanging loosely at her side. "Lower your weapons." Her voice wasn’t loud, it didn’t need to be.

The soldiers looked at her, one of them stepping forward. "The last time I checked you were stripped of your title. You have no power to command us anymore."

Lieyin’s expression remained calm even though her blood was boiling on the inside. "Let’s be quick with this. Lower your weapons and we can all leave here unscathed. I have someone to take care of."

Another soldier laughed bitterly. "You really expect imperial soldiers to obey some wandering woman?" he stepped closer. "You might have had authority in the past, but not anymore."

Lieyin’s hand tightened on her sword. She’d really wished they’d obey so she wouldn’t resort to violence.

Ru Yi never said it directly to her face, but Lieyin knew that she didn’t like the violence that seemed to govern Lieyin’s life.

Kael watched her from behind. He knew that expression on her face. "Lieyin..." he warned quietly.

The soldier stepped even closer. "You have no command over us. So run along, you’re not even allowed to be standing on this land right now. Or you’ve forgotten about your exile?"

Lieyin looked him square in the face but didn’t offer any answer.

He smiled. "Exactly."

It didn’t take half a second for the control inside Lieyin to finally break loose. She drew her sword so fast the soldier barely had any time to defend himself.

Her blade flashed and he fell.

The battlefield erupted. Soldiers raised their weapons and charged. Lieyin moved through them without hesitation or fear, using her anger as fuel.

She became a blur of steel, morphing into the true wolf she was.

One soldier attacked from her left. She turned, caught his blade and sent him crashing into the dirt before striking the weapon from his hand and finishing the fight with a single precise movement.

Two more came together.

Lieyin stepped between them. Her sword swept once and they both fell to the ground.

"Kill her!"

The command spread through the ranks and hundreds surged through her.

Kael swore under his breath. "Lieyin!"

But she was already moving. Her sword became almost impossible to follow. She slipped between blades, ducked beneath spears, and turned every attack against the soldiers who launched it. Her fury had stripped away every trace of humanity from her.

They had asked what authority she possessed, and now they were learning the answer.

She didn’t need a title, or an army. She had simply watched Ru Yi bleed and that was enough. Within minutes the battlefield had completely changed.

The soldiers who had once stood in formation were either dead, wounded, or running into the surrounding forest.

Lieyin stood alone among the wreckage, breathing heavily. Her sword dripped with blood. But that wasn’t what made Ru Yi freeze.

It was the soft smile on Lieyin’s face, like she was truly at peace after letting her monsters come out to play.