The Reckoning of Blood Vengeance

1,668 words

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The dense sound of galloping hooves rang out as a black, iron-like torrent rapidly advanced along the main road. Upon the tall, armored steeds sat knights clad in black armor, their eyes as cold as if they had crawled out from a mountain of the dead. Ahead of this iron torrent, a mighty fortress came into view.

The guards on the walls of that castle were nodding off; they had been at peace for far too long. With the strength and influence of ‘Heavenly Sun Fortress’, who would dare to attack them?

“Hm?”

The vibrations of the dense hooves reached one of the guards. Squinting into the distance, amidst the flickering light of the torches embedded in the city walls, he could just make out the glint of armor far away.

“Not good.” The guard was startled. He took another look and roughly estimated there were at least several hundred riders. His face turning pale with fear, he immediately grabbed his horn and blew into it with all his might.

“Wooooo~~~”

The low, sonorous sound of the war-horn instantly spread throughout the entire fortress. The castle erupted into chaos. Masses of armored soldiers charged out, while many women and children awoke. Soon, the battlements were lined with soldiers, their expressions solemn and many carrying the aura of killers—clearly hardened veterans who had tasted blood.

“Using the war-horn? It’s been an age since we last used the war-horn at Heavenly Sun Fortress.” A white-bearded old man in a gray robe, surrounded by a crowd of attendants, ascended the city wall.

Heavenly Sun Fortress’s danger warnings were divided into three levels; sounding the war-horn was the highest level!

“Who dares to provoke Heavenly Sun Fortress, hmph.” A burly man with a scar on his face sneered from the side. “Let’s see just who’s so bold.”

“Come, Fifth Brother, let’s take a look.”

The group of men, led by the white-bearded old man, reached the wall and looked out into the distance. As they looked, every single one of their expressions changed. The distant riders had drawn much closer. The foremost riders were already beginning to halt, stopping roughly a hundred zhang from the wall. They could clearly make out the appearance of these heavy cavalrymen.

“Icy Riders?” The white-bearded old man squinted, muttering to himself. “Why would the Icy Riders come here?”

“It’s the Icy Riders.”

“The Icy Riders number thirty thousand. For nearly three thousand to come here, it must be at least a Commander who has the authority to lead that many out.”

“Father, what do we do now?”

The surrounding men all looked at the white-bearded old man, who was the lord of Heavenly Sun Fortress.

The old man frowned and said in a low voice, “My Heavenly Sun Fortress might be able to annihilate this batch of Icy Riders if we go all out, but the casualties would be horrific. Furthermore, it would enrage the entity who founded the Icy Riders…”

“Father, then…”

“We can only try to find a way to make them withdraw voluntarily.”

…

Rumble~~~ The three thousand riders swiftly gathered before Heavenly Sun Fortress. Soon, all the riders came to a halt. At their head was a commander clad in silver armor. The silver-armored knight wore a helmet with a visor; only a pair of eyes was visible. He looked at the white-bearded old man on the wall and said calmly, “Li Tianxun, your time is up.”

“Time is up?” The faces of the people of Heavenly Sun Fortress on the wall turned ugly. From the opening words, it was clear this matter would not be resolved easily.

“Commander, I wonder how I have offended you?” The white-bearded old man laughed heartily, his voice echoing across heaven and earth. After all, he was a Xiantian Grandmaster. “My elder brother’s first disciple, ‘Immortal Tongxiao’, happens to be staying as a guest in my fortress. I suggest you withdraw. If you disturb Immortal Tongxiao, the consequences for you will be severe.”

“Immortal Tongxiao? Who says he’s here just because you claim he is?” The silver-armored knight said coldly.

The white-bearded old man immediately called out in a loud voice, “Immortal Tongxiao!”

“Uncle, you may simply address me as Tongxiao; there is no need to call me ‘Immortal’.” A streak of light flew out from the castle, revealing a green-robed man standing atop a flying sword. The cold wind blew, rustling the hem of his robe… As he flew through the air on his sword, the soldiers of Heavenly Sun Fortress immediately grew excited.

“Icy Riders.” The green-robed man looked down from above and said calmly, “My Celestial Luminous Palace and your Icy Riders have no great enmity. I suggest you withdraw.”

“So he really is here…” The silver-armored knight’s voice was low.

“I, Heavenly Sun Fortress, do not know how we have offended the Icy Riders. Afterwards, I will certainly send someone with an apology and compensation.” The white-bearded old man was still trying to yield and smile. Neither the Icy Riders nor Celestial Luminous Palace were forces he could afford to provoke.

“The General’s guess was correct.” The silver-armored knight continued in a low voice. “Elders, I trouble you.”

“Leave this Tongxiao brat to us.”

Whoosh. Whoosh.

Two streaks of light flew out from amidst the Icy Riders. They were two knights also clad in armor. Their auras exploded outward, each one actually being slightly stronger than Immortal Tongxiao.

“Elders of the Icy Riders?” The green-robed man, who had been standing calmly on his flying sword in midair, immediately changed expression. The Icy Riders had ten Commanders, each leading three hundred riders… But in truth, all thirty thousand riders were merely disciples of that ‘General’. From among these riders, the stronger ones were selected to serve as Squad Leaders, Company Leaders, and Commanders. Commanders were generally at the Xiantian Grandmaster level.

If one advanced a step further and entered the Zifu Disciple level, they no longer needed to lead troops; they directly became an Elder.

Every Elder was considered a ‘former Commander’. The most terrifying aspect of the Icy Riders was that General and the group of Elders!

“My Celestial Luminous Palace and your Icy Riders…” Immortal Tongxiao’s face changed as he quickly spoke. Every single Zifu cultivator of the Icy Riders had risen from endless slaughter and was extremely fearsome.

“Celestial Luminous Palace no longer exists.” The two Elders in the air both spoke.

“What?!” Immortal Tongxiao’s expression changed dramatically.

“Go and accompany them in death.”

With that, one of the Elders manipulated a crescent of bloody moonlight towards Immortal Tongxiao, and battle erupted instantly.

…

“Kill.” The silver-armored Knight Commander immediately gave the order.

The defenders of Heavenly Sun Fortress were already panicking. The appearance of two ‘Immortals’ from within the Icy Riders had completely broken their morale. With a thunderous crash, the city gate was smashed open. For the Icy Riders, breaking through the gate of this fortress was far too simple.

The slaughter began instantly.

The prepared Icy Riders… were far more than the hastily assembled defenders of Heavenly Sun Fortress could withstand.

“Ah…” A fleeing woman was cleaved in two by a saber.

“Mother! Mother!”

“I’ll fight you to the death!” One child after another was slain.

Blood flowed like rivers within Heavenly Sun Fortress.

The white-bearded old man had completely gone mad, but he could not hold them back. He roared in fury: “Even if your Icy Riders are going to war with Celestial Luminous Palace, why attack my Heavenly Sun Fortress? How have we offended you?”

“Why attack you? Tianxun, you old scoundrel, do you still remember me?” The silver-armored knight, who had been fighting the most savagely, lifted his visor, revealing an ugly face covered in scars.

“Who are you?” The white-bearded old man did not recognize him.

“It seems you’ve done so many evil deeds, you can’t even recall them all. Do you remember that night thirty-nine years ago, when you carved wound after wound into a child’s face…” The silver-armored knight’s voice was filled with endless hatred.

“You… weren’t you dead?” The white-bearded old man was, after all, a Xiantian Grandmaster. He was able to recall the memory quickly enough, but he found it hard to believe.

“Yes, it would have been better if I had died. But I didn’t. Though I lost a lot of blood, I didn’t die. I had a hard life, and I clung to it. I survived from a pile of corpses… When I awoke that day, of the thirty thousand plus people in my tribe, I was the only one left alive. Though I survived, I wished I were dead. I swore then that I would destroy your Heavenly Sun Fortress. From that day on, I renamed myself ‘Blood Vengeance’. I walked step by step to my current position and became a personal disciple of the General.”

“You, you…” The white-bearded old man looked at the man with the hideous, scarred face and felt a chill in his heart.

With the power of the Icy Riders, this Commander could have long ago had his face restored. But he had not, clearly because he had always held onto this hatred.

“You actually latched onto Celestial Luminous Palace, how hateful! My master could see the hatred in my heart and finally asked me… I told him everything. My master said — then let’s destroy Celestial Luminous Palace. It would be good for the world if that Lord of Celestial Luminous Palace died.” The silver-armored knight continued his slaughter, constantly closing in on the white-bearded old man.

“It’s over.”

The white-bearded old man had never imagined that, because of him, the ‘General’ who created the Icy Riders would make a move against Celestial Luminous Palace. All of the Icy Riders were madmen. The entity who created the Icy Riders, the ‘General’, was the biggest madman under heaven. No one dared to provoke him, and even Celestial Luminous Palace was doomed to be destroyed.

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Reading Guide Decoding

Cold Steel and Old Scars: A Karmic Ledger Paid in Blood

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter is a masterful example of the karmic retribution narrative that is deeply embedded in Xianxia DNA. In Chinese folk morality, an unpaid debt of blood is not erased by time—it waits, grows, and eventually returns with interest. The silver-armored Commander’s scarred face is a powerful symbol: he chose not to heal it, because healing would feel like forgetting. This is the uncompromising logic of the Xianxia revenge narrative—justice is not served by courts; it is collected by the survivor who refused to die.

Also worth noting: the name ‘Blood Vengeance’ (血仇, xuè chóu) is a self-chosen alias—a common trope in martial arts fiction where a character discards their birth name as a vow. By renaming himself, this Commander has turned his entire identity into a weapon aimed at the past. There is no room for mercy in a man who has already died and was reborn as pure hatred.

The Icy Rider organization itself reflects a brutal social hierarchy: even Commander-level fighters are only at Xiantian Grandmaster. Breaking through to Zifu makes you an Elder, freeing you from leading troops. This is a classic Xianxia power-tier mechanic. The fact that the ‘General’—the unnamed founder—would destroy an entire Immortal sect just to clear his disciple’s path to revenge shows the extreme end of Xianxia’s master-disciple loyalty system: a master who treats his disciple’s grudge as a sect-level war.

Karmic retribution

The Xianxia principle that unpunished evil accumulates as karmic debt, which will return with compound interest. Revenge stories in this genre are often framed as a mechanism of cosmic balance rather than simple vengeance.

Chapter Overview

This chapter delivers a self-contained tragedy that feels ripped straight from a Xianxia crime dossier. We open on the brutal siege of Heavenly Sun Fortress by the infamous Icy Riders—a three-thousand-strong cavalry force of cold-eyed killers. The fortress lord, Li Tianxun, initially believes he has a trump card: the backing of ‘Immortal Tongxiao’ from Celestial Luminous Palace. But when the Icy Riders reveal not one but two Zifu-level Elders among their ranks—and casually announce that Celestial Luminous Palace itself has been obliterated—the battle is already decided. The chapter’s core is a devastating revenge flashback: the Icy Rider Commander uncovers his scarred, unhealed face and reveals that thirty-nine years ago, Li Tianxun had ordered the mutilation of a child—the sole survivor of a massacre. That child is now this commander, “Blood Vengeance.” What follows is not a fair fight, but a karmic ledger being balanced with cold steel.

Key Plot Points

The Icy Riders arrive at Heavenly Sun Fortress without warning; three thousand armored riders form an iron ring before the gates.
Li Tianxun tries diplomacy and invokes Immortal Tongxiao of Celestial Luminous Palace as a deterrent.
Immortal Tongxiao appears, confirming his presence, but the Icy Riders’ two Elders reveal that Celestial Luminous Palace has already been destroyed.
Tongxiao is engaged in battle by the Elders; his fate is sealed.
The Icy Riders breach the gate in a single charge; the fortress defenders, caught off guard, are slaughtered.
Women and children are killed without mercy; the massacre is total.
The silver-armored Commander lifts his visor, revealing a face covered in unhealed scars.
He reveals his identity: the sole survivor of a tribe of over thirty thousand, all of whom were murdered by Li Tianxun’s orders when he was a child.
He had himself carved with wounds and left for dead; he survived against all odds, renamed himself ‘Blood Vengeance,’ and climbed the ranks to become a personal disciple of the Icy Riders’ General.
His final words drop a bombshell: Li Tianxun’s connection to Celestial Luminous Palace is what sealed the Palace’s doom, as the General decided to destroy the entire sect just to grant his disciple his revenge.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a standalone short story within the larger epic, and it hits like a freight train. If you’re a fan of tragic backstories that justify every ounce of cold-blooded violence, this is your feast. The commander’s reveal is deliciously grim: he survived a massacre as a child, scarred beyond recognition, only to grow up and become a monster who serves an even bigger monster. The revenge is not clean or righteous—it’s messy, collateral-damage-filled, and ethically gray. That’s what makes it feel real in Xianxia terms. There’s no hero coming to save the fortress. There’s no last-minute twist where Li Tianxun is innocent. The chapter ends exactly as it was fated to end from the first page.

The Western reader looking for a moral anchor will be frustrated: women and children die, and the ‘hero’ of this mini-arc is a scarred, vengeance-fueled killer who spent decades in the mud to get here. But that’s exactly the point. Xianxia does not apologize for its cruelty. It invites you to watch the karmic wheel turn, and to ask yourself: would I have survived what he survived, and if I did, would I have become him?

For Ji Ning fans: this chapter is a breather episode, a standalone vignette that builds the world’s dark texture. No Ji Ning. No cultivation breakthroughs. Just pure, undiluted revenge as a human force of nature.