"All of you, over here! Hey, listen up! Anyone without identification, come this way! We’ll issue you temporary Twin Cities ID, so you can stay in Zaun and Piltover for free. For this entire week, the Twin Cities will cover all of your normal expenses!"

On the steel bridge spanning the strait, standing out over the sea, several enforcers, from both Piltover and Zaun, were shouting themselves hoarse at the constant stream of arrivals.

One group would be escorted by enforcers into the newly developed district of the Twin Cities, and almost immediately another group would appear, waiting to be received by Twin Cities enforcers.

Scenes like this were playing out at the other docks and road entrances as well.

The reason for such an enormous influx of people was simple, four days from now would be the wedding day of Zaun’s ruler, Logan. Starting today, the Twin Cities would waive the entry tax for one full week, and anyone who signed their name, took a photo, and received temporary identification would have all normal expenses in the Twin Cities covered.

And by normal expenses, that naturally meant food, lodging, and transportation. Transit was free, meals were free, housing was free.

Every bit of it would be paid for by Councilor Talis. As the publicly acknowledged richest man in the Twin Cities, Councilor Talis was also serving as Logan’s best man and the financial sponsor of the wedding.

As far as money went, this was no big deal for the Twin Cities. Forget one week, even if the number of visitors doubled and they had to cover a whole month, it still would not seriously hurt them. At most, it would be a small cut.

So the trouble was not financial. The real problem was manpower.

Every enforcer from both cities had been deployed. With this much traffic, if things were not tightly controlled, accidents were inevitable.

People were coming from all over the world, respectable folk, criminals, merchants, wanderers, pirates, lone wolves, all kinds. In a crowd like this, there were bound to be some with bad tempers, and those were exactly the people the enforcers were watching most closely.

Damn it, if anything happened during Councilor Logan’s wedding, then all of them would look like a joke in uniform.

"Ekko! Over here!"

A voice suddenly called out to the white-haired boy standing on his hextech hoverboard and looking over the bridge. Ekko looked down and saw that it was Marsen.

"Get over here, quick!" Marsen called again.

He was sitting behind a desk at the moment, his face red with strain. People were packed around him, and Ekko even spotted a few oddly dressed Vastaya in the crowd.

"What’s wrong? Shift change isn’t for another half hour." Ekko dropped lightly to the ground. In all the Twin Cities, nobody handled a hoverboard better than he did. After all, he was the one who had built the thing.

Don’t let Ekko’s current look, model student, upstanding young man, fool you. A few years ago, he had been a gang leader. The Firelights had been a major force resisting Silco. As their leader, how could he possibly have been some frail bookworm?

Marsen stood up, grabbed Ekko by the arm, shoved him toward the seat, and said miserably, "Do me a favor. My stomach is killing me. Cover for me for a bit."

"What about the others?" Ekko asked with a laugh.

"They’ve all got their own things to deal with. Isn’t Scar leading a group through the new city with Vi right now? If I had anyone else, why would I be calling you over?" Marsen said, hunched over in pain.

Seeing that, Ekko stopped teasing him. He nodded and said with a grin, "All right, I get it. Go on, I’ll handle things here."

"Good. Drinks are on me tonight." The moment Marsen finished speaking, he bolted down the enforcer passage to the side and vanished almost immediately.

Sitting behind the desk, Ekko looked over the registration paperwork, then flipped the sign beside him around.

An enforcer maintaining order not far ahead saw it, immediately pointed at a few people, and shouted, "You, you, and you, right, you too, come with me to get your ID processed."

Soon a group arrived at Ekko’s side. He looked up, pen in hand, at the young man in front of him, whose face was half-covered with a scarf.

"Name."

"Slory."

"Where are you from?"

"Nashramae."

"A Shuriman, got it. Sign your name on this sheet. If you can’t write, use the ink pad beside it. Don’t worry, there are only two statements on this paper." Ekko noticed the young man’s expression tighten, so he spoke more gently.

"First, I will strictly obey all laws of the Twin Cities."

"Second, I will take responsibility for all of my actions in the Twin Cities."

"Remember the notices the enforcers shouted at the docks earlier? Those are also written on the paper." What Ekko meant was that the rules the enforcers had called out earlier were exactly the laws he was agreeing to follow.

The young man nodded, took the pen, and wrote down his name.

Once he finished, he looked at Ekko. Ekko put the paper into the drawer beneath the desk, then looked up and said, "You can go. Wait over there, an enforcer will take you inside in a bit. Once you get your pass, you can choose a place to stay. And finally, I hope you enjoy yourself this week."

The young man was clearly excited. He nodded hard. "Thank you."

He was a Shuriman from Nashramae, a fabric merchant, and he had come to the Twin Cities this time hoping to find opportunities, maybe meet some merchants and expand his sales routes.

In the past, he would never have had the chance. Just setting sail cost a fortune. But this time, because a very important person was getting married, the Twin Cities had activated their Hexgates all over the world, and hextech airships were running nonstop between nations, covering the cost of travel to and from the Twin Cities.

That helped him tremendously. Seven days, even if he failed to meet any merchants worth doing business with, the trip would still broaden his horizons immensely. All it cost him was some time and effort, right?

"Next."

Ekko processed one person after another at a brisk pace.

Just as he was starting to feel bored, the sky suddenly seemed to dim.

Ekko felt himself swallowed by shadow. He looked up and saw a figure in a tattered cloak standing before him. The figure was not especially tall, at least not by height alone. Councilor Talis was definitely taller than him.

But wasn’t this guy a little too broad?

Ekko stared blankly at him. The man’s exposed arms beneath the cloak had purple skin, and the muscles bulged like forged steel. Dirty bandages were wrapped around his wrists. Even though they looked filthy, they gave off no foul smell, only a faint herbal scent.

Across his back he carried something wrapped in bandages. Its shape looked like a long staff, but the top was thicker. Through the wrappings, it looked almost like a torch at first glance.

But what kind of torch was that long?

Then Ekko looked higher and saw his face, a mask?

The steel mask had several small holes in it, and a dim blue light shone faintly through them. The man was looking down at him.

"N-name."

"Jax," the man said flatly.

"Where are you from?" Ekko swallowed. He was usually fearless. He had even taken part in the Freljord campaign, although at the time he had mostly just followed Sejuani’s people around. Still, he had witnessed the wars of the gods. Those gigantic figures had left a huge impression on him. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

But if Ekko were being honest, he was someone who had seen real monsters, even demigods, and yet now, facing this man called Jax, he was actually feeling fear.

"Where am I from?" Jax repeated. Then he said calmly, "I’m a man with no homeland."

"No homeland? That makes things a little difficult. It’d be better if you could be more specific," Ekko said at once.

"Then put me down as Shuriman," Jax replied.

"All right. Shuriman." Ekko nodded.

Then he asked Jax a few more questions. Despite the intimidating presence rolling off him, Jax answered every one of them.

After that came the signature. Jax shook his head at the pen Ekko offered him and looked instead at the ink pad beside it.

Then he reached out his hand, and the moment Ekko saw it, his eyes widened into circles.

The purple skin was one thing. The iron-hard slabs of muscle were another. But what was going on with those fingers?

Jax’s hand was huge. Ekko had no doubt it could grab his whole head in one go. But the problem was, it only had three fingers.

His thumb was thick, and the other two fingers were long and broad. Each one was about the size of three normal fingers put together.

"All right, you can go over there. And remember, once you sign this, if you make trouble in the Twin Cities, we have the right to arrest you and throw you in prison," Ekko warned him.

But Jax did not leave. Instead, he turned around, crossed his arms, and looked at someone behind him.

"???" Ekko froze.

What was that supposed to mean?

He leaned to one side to peer past Jax and saw a middle-aged man with long black hair. He was lean, somewhat short, and had extraordinarily beautiful eyes. There was a striking mark on his forehead, and below it hung a very long beard. His bearing was completely different from everyone else present.

There was something indescribable about him, gentle, refined, still, serene.

Jax turned to look at him and suddenly said, "Come on. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time."

The middle-aged man blinked, then shook his head. "Waiting for me? I don’t know you."

"Does that matter?" Jax smiled. An enforcer beside him reached out to push him, but Jax stood there as if he had not noticed. "I didn’t expect this trip to lead me to two strong people already. Counting the woman I met on the way here, that makes three... For a very long time, I couldn’t find even one opponent worth fighting. This time, I found three!"

"And you’re stronger than the other two!" Jax said to him.

"First warning! Follow the enforcers’ instructions! Do not block the way!" Several enforcers pushing at Jax had their faces red with effort. A handful of grown men were shoving him, but he did not move at all. He stood there like a wall.

Seeing this, Ekko stopped the enforcers.

He could tell this Jax was no ordinary man, and that middle-aged man over there was no ordinary man either.

The world was vast, and strong people were everywhere. If not for Logan, the Twin Cities would still be blindly treating themselves as the center of the world, thinking they were powerful. But after seeing so many unbelievable things with Logan, Ekko knew there was a whole class of people in this world who were monsters.

Udyr of the Winter’s Claw was one. Karma of Ionia was one. Swain of Noxus was one.

Ekko did not know whether these two could compare with those monsters, but even if they could not, they probably were not far off.

Damn it, this was not something a few enforcers could handle.

Vander probably could not handle it either.

This was obviously the kind of thing only Logan could deal with.

Ekko felt a headache coming on, and after a moment of silence, the middle-aged man finally spoke.

"I have no intention of sparring with you. I came to the Twin Cities to see Jayce Talis," he said evenly to Jax.

"You don’t want to spar with me? Now that’s strange. From where I’m standing, you and I are the same kind of person." Jax tilted his head, then strode a few steps closer to him.

The other man said, "If this were the past, I would gladly accept. But not now. I have something more important to do."

A flicker of anger stirred in Jax.

Among all the people he had seen over the past thousand years, this middle-aged man was the one most like himself. Yet now this man was saying he did not want to spar.

Was there really anything more important than pursuing the Martial Path, than exploring it?

For people like them, it was difficult to find a truly fitting opponent in a lifetime. Having a worthy rival was no easy thing.

"Do you even hear yourself? You’re defiling your own Martial Path! I’ve been watching you from the moment you stepped onto the docks. Your sword intent is sharp beyond doubt. You’re stronger than the wanderer I dealt with earlier. And now that you’ve seen me, you’re telling me you don’t want to spar?"

As Jax spoke, his arm suddenly flexed, and the long staff on his back whipped forward with terrifying speed.

No one present saw exactly what happened. They only felt a wild gust of wind sweep past, and then they saw Jax holding the staff in his hand.

Helplessness showed in the middle-aged man’s beautiful narrow eyes. He cupped his hands slightly and said, "I understand what you mean. But I have burdens of my own. If all you do is chase the Martial Path, you will only lose yourself. I’ve gone through that before."

Jax’s hand tightened.

Just now, he had hurled the staff at the man, but the man had merely lifted a hand and lightly redirected it, using deft force to send the staff back.

That skill... just as he thought, his judgment had not been wrong.

This man’s strength truly was not much less than his own.

But how old could he be? Jax had lived for over a thousand years.

"I can’t understand it." Seeing that the man truly had no desire to spar, Jax suddenly found the whole thing dull.

For a warrior like him, the greatest joy was nothing more than finding an opponent worth fighting, one who matched him evenly. And in Jax’s eyes, the other man should have been exactly that kind of person.

There were plenty of powerful beings in this world, but humans who could rely on martial skill to bring down supernatural creatures were far too rare.

The woman with the sword and the wanderer with the longsword were both very strong too, but to Jax, their strength existed only in technique. Their bodies and souls were too weak.

If he sparred with them, Jax had to seal away his power, or one careless mistake would kill them. But this man was different. Against him, Jax could go all out.

But the man did not have the heart for it.

That truly troubled Jax.

Still, Jax was not an unreasonable brute. He turned and walked toward the enforcers’ side, leaving behind a single sentence.

"I don’t know what burden you carry, but from where I stand, if you miss your chance with me, you’ll regret it, just as I’m disappointed right now."

The middle-aged man watched Jax’s retreating back and hesitated where he stood. Just as the enforcer Ekko had assigned was about to lead Jax into the Twin Cities, the middle-aged man suddenly moved. He took a single step forward.

Jax stopped walking but did not turn around.

"Once I’ve finished what I came to do, if you’re still here, then we’ll find a place and... explore the Martial Path."

His long sleeves stirred though there was no wind. A powerful will swept across the area. The calm presence around the middle-aged man changed, becoming extraordinarily sharp. With seriousness in his beautiful eyes, he spoke to Jax’s back.

"Good! I’ll wait for you, one year, five years, ten years, even a hundred years! If your business isn’t done, then I won’t leave!" Hearing those words, Jax burst into laughter.

That sword intent told Jax everything he needed to know.

He truly did have burdens of his own, because that sword intent let Jax feel the man’s heart.

Strong, unyielding, yet tinged with bitterness and a trace of loneliness.

He had not lived very long, but his insight and the things he had endured were no less real.

"I understand how you feel now. I’ll be waiting for you!"

Jax strode forward, waving one arm without turning back. "Icathia, Jax!"

And in his ears came the other man’s reply.

"Wuju School, Yi."

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