Leizi the Thunderbringer

[Code Name] Leizi

[Gender] Female

[Combat Experience] 6 Years

[Place of Birth] Yan

[Date of Birth] Mar 5

[Race] Kylin

[Height] 171cm

[Infection Status]

Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

[Physical Strength] Standard

[Mobility] Excellent

[Physical Resilience] Standard

[Tactical Acumen] Excellent

[Combat Skill] Excellent

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Exceptional

Lin Qingyan, former deputy minister at Yan's Judicial Review Office. She returned to the Tianshi Bureaus to study Lei Fa after resigning from her post, stopping at Rhodes Island during her journeys and taking part in some field missions.

Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this Operator is believed to be non-infected.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 0%

Operator Leizi shows no signs of Originium infection.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.12u/L

Operator Leizi rarely comes into contact with Originium.

I laid down casually upon hearing the news that Leizi was visiting Rhodes Island again, then sit back up when I saw her updated resume. This time, she comes as a Tianshi, and her investigation authorization with Rhodes Island has expired. Does this mean that Rhodes Island no longer needs to be on guard with her official background?

One thing is clear at least—her movements are now regular and predictable. Thundercracks can be heard from the training room at the crack of dawn when she is not on missions, then she can be seen reading in the library in the afternoon. She completes her missions flawlessly and without complaint. She is a regular visitor to the bar with Blaze, though she never drinks herself. Other than requesting to see Zuo Le's mission assessments on her, she has never made any unusual requests.

This change in Leizi must have something to do with the case she had been working on for years, though the incessant pursuit of justice always comes at a price, especially for someone as stubborn and unwavering as her. She has never been overly concerned with titles and power, but that was hardly the only price she paid. It had long occurred to me that life would not be easy for someone like her, and the path that her lightning illuminates is often a treacherous one.

We do not pry into her private life, as long as it does not affect the operations she takes part in. Whether she sees her work here as a kind of R&R or a trial for herself, her performance is exemplary, and it has been a long time since I have received a complaint about her breaking any electrical appliances. That alone is reason enough to welcome her continued presence on Rhodes Island.

Leizi entered the Tianshi Bureaus at a young age. Her background brought her into contact with masters such as Cyanstorm Count since her youth, but even she could not become his pupil without going through the Bureaus' application process. Public examinations are the only way to be accepted into the Tianshi Bureaus; everyone is assessed in the same way, with no shortcuts or backdoors.

Yan's public examinations are famously difficult. It is extremely rare for an underage student to pass them, and many examinees have spent decades memorizing the books yet still fail to pass. The Lei Fa examination in particular requires examinees to demonstrate both outstanding aptitude for thunder-related Arts, as well as excellent knowledge and understanding of the laws of Yan. It takes considerable time for the average student to master even one of these two.

As one of the youngest students of the Tianshi Bureaus, Leizi was also known for rejecting a visit from Cyanstorm Count during her examination preparation to avoid any appearance of impropriety, even though the elderly Tianshi had only intended to give a few tips to the promising student without revealing any confidential information. In the end, she passed the examinations without any help.

There is a Yanese saying that a child's demeanor at the age of three reveals everything about the rest of their life. Leizi seems to be living proof of it: no longer burdened by holding a formal office, she enjoys chatting over a drink at the bar with Blaze. As long as her conviction remains firm, there is nothing that can break her.

These sorts of problems were commonplace in the thirteen villages and towns that I visited on my journey to the west this year. A typical case would be an old farmer whose land was forcibly purchased without receiving proper compensation. With his pleas ignored by the officials, he was forced to turn to theft to survive, but was promptly arrested. In despair over the future of his family, he was about to hang himself in front of the government office when I ran across him.

I was shocked at first, but as I studied the laws regarding the purchase and sale of land, I found that there were certain gray areas that could entrap a farmer into signing an unfair contract. I spent hours looking into books and records, but was still unable to find a legal basis to claim justice for the farmer. In the end, I offered to help him in a different way.

On the day that the land was scheduled to be handed over, the buyer came to run the farmer out. He laughed at the farmer and said the contract was signed without duress and was perfectly lawful, that he could go to the courts if he had a problem and not even heaven could do anything about it. At that moment, a crack of thunder rang out from a cloudless sky, following the buyer wherever he went. Believing that he had incurred the wrath of heaven, he finally coughed up the compensation.

The issue was resolved, but my heart remained uneasy. Thunder might achieve justice for one man, but it takes a meticulous code of law to achieve justice for all. As such, I propose the following amendments to the relevant laws...

—From Leizi's legal studies reports during her time as a student at the Tianshi Bureaus

Once we let our guard down around Leizi during her second stint on Rhodes Island, we found her to be unpretentious and easy to get along with. We were able to satisfy our curiosity and learn more about Lei Fa, a traditional school of Originium Arts that has special significance in Yan.

We knew that Lei Fa was more than just a kind of Arts for Yan, and represents both personal excellence and public justice. From Leizi's experiences during her studies, however, we've seen that the legacy of Lei Fa is passed down in a far more down-to-earth way than we thought. As a recognized heir of Lei Fa, she spends half her time at the Tianshi Bureau working on her Arts skills, learning not just how to control thunder and lightning, but also natural sciences such as meteorology and physics. The other half of her time is spent studying the laws and judgments of Yan.

Other than the use of thunder-realated Arts, heirs of Lei Fa seem no different from other law students. They usually go on to work in Yan's judiciary after they graduate. Each generation of heirs, however, work diligently on their Arts, because thunder and lightning carry great significance in Yanese culture. They represent divine judgment, signifying the people's hopes that those who do evil will by smote by lightning. Heirs of Lei Fa study Arts less for their practical value in combat, but for how they support their conviction to punish evil.

We have spoken to Leizi about her future. Although we would certainly welcome such an outstanding operator, with no official ties to any government, participating in Rhodes Island's operations for the long haul, we also understand that she cannot cast her responsibilities aside as an heir to Lei Fa.

Leizi does not avoid the topic when asked; she admits that she is thinking about returning to the Judicial Review Office, though she has not given us a specific timeline. The path to achieving spiritual excellence could take days, months, or years, but she is happy to go with her heart. With a clear goal in mind, she now takes things much easier than before.

After the matter of Mangshan Town was concluded, the geist of a silk fan followed Leizi for a while, tripping her as she walked and cooling her food when she ate. She paid it little heed, but decided to question it when she realized that it had followed her all the way to the border of town. To her surprise, she learned that the geist sought death after seeing how she had rid a sword of its geisthood with lightning.

The geist had wanted to become human for years, but had become disillusioned after seeing the chaos that engulfed Mangshan Town, and the treacherous and greedy side of humanity. Feeling that there was little meaning in becoming human after all, it believed only a quick end by lightning could grant it eternal peace.

I was curious as to how Leizi dealt with it, whether she brought the lightning down or not, but she continued with her monologue, saying that humans could be greedy and selfish, but they were also responsible for so many wonderful things in life, and that recognizing this was the first step to becoming human, and that it was understandable that the geist found it hard to accept.

I agreed with her and said that there will always be people who refuse to give in to the sinful nature of man. However, virtue need not stand alone if one finds friends who share the same ideals.

In the end, Leizi never told me what happened to the geist, but I thought I saw a pair of curious eyes on the fan that she casually took out as she was talking, taking in every detail of the world around it.