"Xieren, are you sure you can do it?" Duke Qiu stared at his son who yawned softly and nodded, he was called over to the Patriarch's official room early morning.
Getting the jist of everything the duo talked about, Xieren gave his answer.
"I just have to destroy the supply depots don't I?" He replied to his father who clenched his fist and bonked him on the head.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Xieren shouted indignantly and glared at Qiu Chen who narrowed his eyes and sighed loudly...
"As of now, I asked you that question as a father... not as the Patriarch... I'm going to send my dear son into the battlefield and God forbid if something happened, do you understand what I'm going through?" Duke Qiu asked tiredly and shook his head.
"Xieren, I know you are strong... very strong, but you need to understand that if the enemy has the right instruments, you will end up dying! So please stop acting so carefree when everyone is so worried..." Qiu Chen stopped talking and went through his belongings.
"...I"
"...I understand father, I'm sorry" Xieren looked apologetic, he realised that everything that happened was taken very lightly by him, and with renewed vigor, he readied himself for the upcoming events and prepared to exit the room.
"Wait!" Duke Qiu called his son back and passed him a sword.
Xieren held his hand out and grabbed the hilt. The sword was beautiful, a sheath of pure white, reminding him of a wintry blizzard, and the elegant crimson coloured lines overlapping the whiteness, creating an artistic contrast between the two colours.
"Take it" Duke Qiu said, breaking the silence between the two.
"But aren't you going to use it?" Xieren asked him in confusion, Duke Qiu shrugged and grabbed a different sword.
Appearance wise, Xieren's sword won however, there was a strange aura around it that seemed to twist and turn the air around it.
"Do you feel like a blade is placed on your neck?" Qiu Chen inquired about the weird aura to which Xieren nodded fast.
'Incredible!' He gawked at the powerful sword in his father's possession.
Qiu Chen kept the sword away, however it was easily distinguishable from the rest he had with him, none of the other swords were black!
"It looks dangerous!" Xieren remarked, whatever he wanted to say got stuck in his throat as the sword's aura seemed like it would not let him open his mouth in it's presence.
"It is dangerous, I got it from the Divine Cloud Kingdom... back when I was younger and was a general, leading the sixth army. The soldiers had looted the palace leaving only a single pitch black sword, which only I could hold onto!" Duke Qiu continued.
"Several soldiers had tried to, but they were immediately rejected, they were found beside the sword unmoving and sliced at various locations of the body" By ending his small nostalgia trip, he pat Xieren's shoulder.
"Just... come home alive, that's all that matters..." Qiu Chen was never the emotional type, he was too hard headed for it and awkwardly showed his love for his son through something they both could understand...
"Those men you will lead are some of the best in our clan, they will follow every order of yours as long as it isn't detrimental to the success of the mission, excluding a retreat order" Xieren shrugged at this information.
"Take it seriously!" Duke Qiu scolded him again as Xieren sweatdropped.
Seeing his son not reacting in the way he hoped, Duke Qiu took out another sword and threw it at his son.
"No one changes in a day!" Xieren shouted and ran away from the room.
•••••
"Your highness, the Wu clan, Yang clan and the Hōjo clan, have revolted against the empire" The calm voice of the Four Heads leader entered Tang Fan's ears that twitched in annoyance.
"Is that so? Maybe we can swoop them down once and for all!" Tang Fan suggested with an evil smirk.
"Even with all that power, the Qiu family won't have enough flexibility to keep aiding the weak link of the alliance... the Hōjo clan. They might have a few tricks up their sleeves but nothing our army can't handle... then I can..." Tang Fan gulped loudly in anticipation, reminiscing the cold beauty, Akagi.
"Don't you think so too, Tang Yin?" He then asked the man kneeling Infront of him.
"Your highness, please do not use my name so casually" Tang Yin responded harshly.
"Tch! Fine, Pixiu, are you happy now?" The emperor asked sarcastically and stared at the man with a disdainful look in his eyes.
"..."
"Anyway, we need to act as if we care about the commoners... but with the flow of money at a hold, our economy might be affected slightly. So tell the guards to ease the lockdown for a few weeks, I don't think the Qiu family has the guts to strike now..." Tang Fan concluded.
"It will be done" Pixiu said and transformed into a cloud of smoke that dissipated...
•••••
Meanwhile at the Qiu manor, several men and women gathered inside a dimly lit room.
"Young Lord, what are your orders?" A man asked Xieren respectfully.
"Orders? We need to make a plan first" Xieren chuckled at the embarrassed man that went quiet.
"What is the plan, Young Lord?" A cold voice entered his ears, making him shiver involuntarily.
'So Mei came back' He thought and sighed in relief, maybe his previous speculations were wrong. Xieren then shook his head off of the unnecessary thoughts and took out a map.
"A space ring!" He heard several gasps of awe and glanced at them.
"Is something wrong?" Xieren asked them in confusion.
"No No Young Lord, it's just that... you have a powerful space ring at such a young age!" A man explained.
"Space rings can only be worn by people with high cultivation levels, so to speak, those with high levels of Qi as they need a constant supply to run... once they are contracted to you, you can't remove the connection and if one doesn't have enough Qi they will die and if someone had been fighting and had dangerously low levels of Qi they to will die, so we don't usually wear them" The man then showed his hands, indeed there were no rings that Xieren could see within him.
"I see..." Xieren then looked at his ring for a few seconds and cleared his throat.
"Anyway, we are going off topic, anyway... this map shows the supposed supply depots for the emperor's army. There are three armouries within the city, some are heavily guarded and others... not so much. Also, we will be using guerilla tactics against the Imperial forces as they have a bigger army than ours, so expect a few questionable orders from me!" Xieren reminded them.
"Umm... Young master, what are Guerilla tactics?" Mei asked him curiously, she couldn't help herself and get enamored by Xieren's enthusiasm when speaking about the things he was interested in, it made him look very innocent and she couldn't handle it...
"Guerilla tactics is basically unconventional methods of fighting the enemy, especially when they have a bigger army. Bigger armies are inflexible and harder to control when routed. We use this to our advantage by mostly using hit and run tactics and also psychological attacks against them, such as sleep deprivation. And armies have rules they must follow that constricts their movement..."
"Young Lord, you make it sound like we don't have rules..." A female cultivator said, feeling uncomfortable with what her lord said...
"In the abstract we do... but, that depends from person to person!" Xieren shrugged his shoulders, not bothered at all by the looks of horror coming from his subordinates.
"This is one of the reasons why I was given this group, there are several other groups but pops assigned me knowing I'm the most experienced when it comes to this type of stuff" Xieren laughed.
"Hmm... but if you still don't get it, then an example would be that, we will place explosive talismans in the routes where soldiers would move through, in the city, including civilian roads"
"But why?!" Several cries of shock reverberated in the room.
"For my amusement!" Xieren smiled menacingly as the group face palmed in frustration, they were part of the Qiu clan and knew of Xieren and his quirks, since he was an infant...
'Now I feel guilty for the enemy...' Several of the prayed inwardly.
"And, to confuse them... I want them to run around a little bit before coming to the conclusion that we did it..." Xieren shrugged and took the map off of the table.
"Make sure to buy a lot of explosive talismans because we will be using a lot of them" Xieren warned them as the group nodded awkwardly.
"Gather at this room by sunset, our mission will start tomorrow, early morning" He ordered them before he stepped out of the room.
"Young Lord, isn't it too risky?!" Mei shouted in defiance as Xieren sighed in annoyance.
"Contrary to popular belief, soldiers are likely to stay more alert at night than at morning because they feel safer when they can see everything. Therefore, attacking them in the morning, atleast in my opinion, will be a devastating blow to their morale" Xieren felt his jaw get sore and left, leaving the group to contemplate his words.
'My dear Akagi is waiting for me!' Xieren whistled happily and walked out of the room which in turn got the coldest glare from Mei.
"What just happened?"
"I think we got duped into becoming criminals..."
"Do you think we will survive?"
"Without a doubt..."