I threw open the door just as the footsteps thundered up the last flight of stairs. No point in waiting for them to come to me.

  Ten cultivators fanned out before me. Nine Adepts, strutting with misplaced arrogance came first. Following them inside stalked the Martial Realm cultivator that had to be their leader. More rock than man with thick braids of black hair that reached to the pauldrons of his heavy armor.

  Lovely. Just what I needed to work out some of my anger.

  As I prepared a technique they stopped and, as one, the Adepts kowtowed before me. Their leader remained on his feet but gave me a deep bow precisely judged to acknowledge the cultivation gap between us. At the Vanguard Stage of the Martial Realm then, judging by the depth of his bow. The presence of a cultivator at the final stage of the Martial Realm, and on the cusp of breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, confirmed that this was no random abduction.

  Irritatingly, as a Vanguard he was also more powerful that I was right now. I had the power of a Warrior stage cultivator, at best, right now. So still in the Martial Realm like him, but a couple of stages below him. Not that I had a problem fighting up a stage or two, it was just so tedious to have to grind them down.

  Anyway, maybe this wouldn't come to violence. I was pleased to see that finally someone was giving me the respect I was due.

  The Vanguard waited bent over and I allowed the silence to draw out before speaking.

  "Rise."

  As he rose from his bow he looked at the bodies scattered around the room and frowned. Yet, appropriately, he waited for me to speak first before opening his mouth.

  "And you are?" Even in my weakened stage the arrogance of imperial command colored my voice.

  "This one is Han Kuanglie, a humble cultivator of the element of Earth." He kept his head slightly bowed, a proper show of deference to a superior cultivator. Whatever else he was, he was courteous.

  "Explain why I have been insulted in this manner." I gestured to the broken manacles. "What exactly is going on here?"

  Kuanglie's expression remained controlled. "The Master of the Celestial Currents should be reassured that it took significant planning and an incredible amount of resources to reach this point. The ritual alone required…"

  "That is not an answer." My words cut through his blithering. I was losing patience. "Why am I here? Who authorized this abduction? What purpose does it serve?"

  A flicker of discomfort crossed Kuanglie's face. The man stood like a mountain, yet something in my questions had disturbed his composure.

  "I..." For the first time, his confidence wavered. "This one finds himself embarrassed at his own answer, but he has no other to give. This one's orders were explicit."

  His gaze drifted to the dead guards scattered across the floor, their blood still pooling beneath their broken bodies.

  "And the embarrassment is not just from this one. For such weaklings to have been given death at the hand of the Beacon of the Boundless Deep gives them too much face."

  I inclined my head in acknowledgement. "You are correct. However they were buzzing around and distracting me so I swatted them."

  A small smile flickered across his lips and then was gone. "This one will inform their families of their deaths and ensure they burn offerings in your praise. Then this one will wipe out their bloodline as an inadequate compensation for their audacity at daring to gaze upon your visage." Excessive, but I would take it." However, that all said, this one must ask your exaltedness to return to your throne."

  He gestured at the chair that I had woken up in. "It is a testament to your vaunted prowess that you awoke months earlier than we were led to expect. Similarly it was, of course, hubris to assume that any suppression manacles could contain The Emperor of the Tidebound Seas." He winced at that. "Although this trusting fool was assured that they could hold a cultivator in the Transcendent Realm. Rest easy that there will be painful words addressed to the unworthy sect of Master Artificers that created them. But that is an issue below your notice. For now though, your seat, Emperor." He gestured again.

  I raised an eyebrow. "You really think that I'll do that?"

  Kuanglie inclined his head. "Of course I don't, but in your weakened state I shall have to insist. I apologize in advance for my impudence. Burden of the Ten Thousand Peaks."

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  Well if we were going to fight at least he had stopped with all of that 'this one' nonsense. His aura rolled out over me heavy with, well, the weight of mountains as his skill suggested. It was always going to come to this. A quick scan of his ki patterns confirmed that the pocket dimension was linked to his soul. That was all I had time for as, even as he stood still, his Adepts drew their weapons and rushed towards me.

  The first Adept lunged forward with a fire-imbued blade. Pathetic. I sidestepped and drove my palm into his chest, channeling a thin stream of water-element ki through the strike. "Crushing Tide Palm."

  Pain flared through me as the Adept flew backward, with his chest crushed, but I had no time to ponder the disproportionate ki drain.

  Two more attacked from opposite sides. I dropped low, sweeping one's legs while blocking the other's strike even as I poured ki into my Storm Wake Meridian to reinforce my forearm.

  Four more rushed me. I launched myself upward, barely avoiding their coordinated attack. Spinning as I landed back in their midst they fell as one. They would never rise again.

  Despite being able to defeat them in seconds, this was all wrong. Without access to my cores and meridians my reserves were depleting at an alarming rate. Each technique cost far more ki than it should and I had no way of replenishing it.

  "Who sent you?" I cringed as my fist thudded into the last Adept's sternum. That was a truly inelegant question.

  The Vanguard's face hardened as his final subordinate collapsed and he let out a sigh. He unsheathed a blade that hummed with spirit engravings. A soul bound weapon hungry to feed. Of course it was. I suppressed a sigh. Why was nothing easy?

  "You have destroyed my most talented disciples. It is not unexpected but it is unfortunate." Killing intent now rolled off him like an avalanche. "Contract or not, with the greatest respect to your eminence, honor and my Dao demands that I exact retribution."

  "Contract?" I parried his first strike. It was imbued with techniques both from him and his weapon and the collision of our energies sent lightning bolts crackling over my arm. "Who could possibly pay well enough for you to die trying to contain me?"

  His lips curled. "Someone who knows exactly what you're worth, Emperor-from-another-world."

  Another world? Was I no longer on my own planet?

  Kuanglie's foot stamped the ground. "Obsidian Edge Reaping!"

  Black crystalline blades erupted from the floor in a sweeping pattern, aiming for my ankles and knees. The attack was brutal and efficient, designed to cripple rather than kill.

  "Reef Barrier Formation," I countered, channeling ki into a circular pattern around me. The obsidian edges crashed against my defense like waves against a coral reef and shattered into harmless fragments.

  "Your reputation does not do you justice, Emperor. Despite everything that has been done to you, you continue to exhibit an exemplary defense for someone so diminished," Kuanglie's voice remained respectful despite the frustration in his eyes.

  "I'm not going to lie, I can't tell if you're complimenting me or simply patronizing me."

  Despite my flippant words, my brain was whirring as I tried to come up with a way through this. My ki reserves were draining faster than I could have imagined. Two, perhaps three more techniques before I would be completely out. Not that Han Kuanglie would need to know that.

  Kuanglie drew himself up, shoulders squared like a mountain about to launch an avalanche. "With all due respect, Emperor, I shall end this now. Mountain Lord's Rebuke!"

  The air grew dense as he gathered power, the floor beneath him cracking under the pressure. Earth-element ki swirled around him in suffocating waves, building toward a single devastating strike. His finisher then.

  Much as it pained me to admit it, I couldn't weather a fully powered technique from a Vanguard stage cultivator. Not in this state.

  "Whirlpool Tendrils Snare." I sent a frustratingly large portion of my remaining ki in thin, spiraling ropes that wrapped around his meridians to constrict them. If I couldn't take this technique head on then I would stop him using it in the first place.

  Kuanglie's eyes widened as his technique collapsed with his ki pathways suddenly blocked. Then his mouth quirked in what seemed to be a genuine smile. "If esteemed senior wishes to fight without the use of ki then so be it. I am honored that you see fit to bestow pointers on this unworthy junior." With that he charged towards me with his blade held in a perfect attacking stance.

  Honestly, I couldn't help but like Han Kuanglie. Under different circumstances I might have extended an invitation to him to join my sect. But the circumstances weren't different.

  Our exchange became a blur of strikes and counters. His soul bound sword against my limbs. He was good, very good, but I would expect nothing less from someone who was sent against me. I was better, of course I was, but my ki reserves were nearly empty and I didn't have full access to my abilities. In fact without my superior experience, my hamstrung abilities would have led to me being quickly defeated.

  His blade sliced across my ribs and I staggered back with blood soaking my tunic. Worse than the pain, the soul bound sword was draining me of what ki I had left even faster.

  "Any last words, Navigator of Heaven’s Will, before I reluctantly spill your life's blood?" Triumph and pride shone in his eyes as he raised his sword.

  I laughed, and spat red onto the floor even as my fingers traced patterns in the air.

  "Just two. Abyssal Maelstrom."