Chapter 9: Thunder Will Know Our Names
Lightning flashed across the night sky, a jagged streak that painted the forest in silver fire. Thunder rolled in seconds later, a growl that rumbled through the trees and into Jin's chest. The storm had arrived.
But it wasn't the only one.
They were being hunted.
Jin and Mei Lian had moved fast since the masked attacker's ambush, but the presence was always there—lurking. Watching. Not always visible, but felt. Like a thread tugging at the edge of Jin's consciousness, vibrating with malice. He didn't know who they were or what they wanted, only that they were drawn to him. Or rather, to what he had become.
"Two," Mei said quietly, her hand resting on her sword's hilt. "Maybe three. They've been tailing us since the shrine."
Jin adjusted the guqin across his back. "Why not attack?"
"They're waiting. Testing us. Probably hoping we'll get tired."
He gave her a sideways glance. "You tired?"
She didn't answer.
He already knew.
They both were.
Mei had a fresh bandage on her side from the last encounter. Her movements were crisp but slower. Jin had pushed his resonance further than ever before in the last two days. Every time he tapped into sorrow or longing or desire to summon force, it drained something from him. Something he didn't fully understand yet.
They weren't strong enough to fight three full cultivators head-on. Not yet.
So they ran.
---
The forest thinned by dawn. Mist clung low to the ground, wrapping the trees in pale veils. The storm had passed, but the air still thrummed with tension.
Jin crouched near a creek, splashing cold water on his face. It did little to wash away the exhaustion. He looked over his shoulder at Mei, who stood at the treeline, with sharp eyes.
"We won't outrun them forever," she said.
He nodded. "Then we stop running."
She turned slowly. "You're not ready."
"I wasn't ready when I broke through. I wasn't ready when I fought that masked freak. But I keep surviving."
"Barely."
He stood, brushing damp hair from his eyes. "You've been holding back."
Mei stiffened.
"In training. In battle. With me."
"I can't—"
"You can. You just won't."
She took a step toward him, voice low. "Do you think I don't want to? Do you think I don't feel it burning in my chest every time I see you bleed for this path?"
"Then show me."
Her mouth opened—then closed.
Silence.
Wind stirred the leaves overhead.
Jin walked closer. "You told me once that emotional cultivation is dangerous. That letting yourself feel can destroy you."
"Yes."
"But what if we felt together?"
She stared at him. Something behind her eyes cracked—quietly.
He reached for his guqin, strummed a single chord. Not with sorrow this time, nor anger. This one came from the deep, buried root of his hope. Of connection.
The air shimmered.
Mei closed her eyes.
Then, for the first time, she pulled her own guqin from her back.
It was black wood, lacquered with silver trim. Elegant. Cold.
She sat across from him and placed it on her knees.
He waited.
Her fingers brushed the strings. A soft note echoed, shaped from hesitation and memory. He strummed in reply, his chord laced with gentle longing.
Resonance.
It flowed between them. Discordant at first. Then gradually, painfully, it began to align.
Emotion meeting emotion.
It was not like synchronized swordplay. This was deeper. More raw. Their feelings brushed and tangled and flared—two people stripped bare in a space between sound and spirit.
Jin felt it before she spoke.
Pain.
Regret.
Loss.
"I once loved someone," she said, voice nearly inaudible.
Jin kept playing, not speaking.
"We trained together. Laughed. Fought. Grew strong."
Another chord from her guqin—grief so thick it ached.
"I believed we would ascend together. That we'd reach the immortal realms side by side."
A pause.
"Then one day, I hesitated."
Jin's notes faltered.
"He fell. Protecting me."
Silence.
She looked at him with red-ringed eyes. "That's why I sealed myself. Why I teach detachment. Emotion is chaos. It costs too much."
"And yet... you still feel," Jin said softly.
Her hands shook.
"Yes."
They played again. Now stronger. Louder. The harmonization wasn't perfect, but it was real. Mei let it flow through her—not as a teacher, but as a woman wounded and healing.
They didn't notice the three cultivators stepping from the mist until the resonance struck them like a beacon.
"Well, well," the leader said. "Looks like we caught them in the middle of a duet."
---
The battle was instant.
Jin sprang to his feet, using the last chord's lingering energy to push out a barrier of pressure. Mei flipped backward, landing lightly, blades in hand.
The attackers spread out.
All wore gray robes. Uniformed. Coordinated. Not rogues—disciples of some lesser-known sect, perhaps hired mercenaries drawn by the surge of emotional energy.
The first charged at Jin with a spear.
Jin met him with a strum of rage and sorrow. The sound twisted into force, blasting the man off his feet and into a tree.
The second flanked Mei.
She danced between sword slashes, striking with graceful, precise cuts, her own resonance now blending into each movement. A rhythm of wind and pain.
The third—the leader—watched.
Not attacking.
Not helping.
Just... studying.
Jin moved to engage, but the leader raised a hand. "I'm not here to kill you, boy."
"Strange way of showing it."
"That was a test. You passed."
Jin blinked. "What?"
"You're the one from the reports. The Resonant Flame. The boy whose cultivation bleeds emotion."
Jin felt Mei tense beside him.
"I have no title," he said coldly.
"You will. And it'll be louder than mine."
Lightning cracked again overhead, echoing the tension.
The leader smiled. "My name is Shen Ruin. I represent the Hollow Court."
Mei inhaled sharply.
Jin looked to her. "You know them?"
"They're not a sect," she said, eyes narrowing. "They're a faction. Secretive. Dangerous. They specialize in forbidden cultivation methods."
Shen Ruin chuckled. "Forbidden is such a heavy word. We prefer... misunderstood."
"What do you want from me?" Jin asked.
"To offer you a choice. Join us. Learn to master what no one else dares touch. Or... stay on this path and die as a footnote in someone else's legend."
Jin stepped forward. "If your methods work, why aren't you legendary?"
A flicker of something dark passed across Shen Ruin's face.
Then he laughed again. "Very well. I'll let you ponder."
He stepped back into the mist.
"Until we meet again, Resonant Flame."
And then they were gone.
---
Mei let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Jin turned to her. "Hollow Court. What do you know?"
"Enough to know that if they want you... you're more dangerous than even I thought."
He didn't answer. Just looked up at the sky.
Thunder rolled again, softer this time.
"They'll be back," he said.
"Yes."
"And so will we."
She looked at him.
He reached out, fingers brushing hers.
Mei didn't pull away.