The wind wrapped itself around the rain and haze as the natural elements a.s.saulted everything. The group exposed was soaked by the rain, regardless of what they wore to protect themselves from the unrelenting storm. A swordsman pulled out a flask of wine and took several large gulps before ordering, "He’s been cursed by the Elder and shouldn’t be able to run. Hurry up and search, hunt him down."Several people echoed his words as the message was pa.s.sed around. People weren’t cautious any longer. They started charging straight into the thick bushes and forests in search for their victim. A fighter threw himself to the ground and sniffed it, smelling the unmistakable stench of blood. He then shouted out, "He’s hurt. Hurry, this direction. Chase him down."
An entire group of people headed in that direction and started looking for him. The rain made it extremely tough for them to navigate through the terrain.
…...
The doors to the elevator opened, revealing a single walkway. Lamps were hanging on the wall, a few meters away from each others, emitting a dim light. The lamps caused the corridor to appear to be very long. Past a particular point, shadows were the only thing visible.
Pei Zi Yun started walking down the corridor. After twenty meters, there was a turn for him to take. All of a sudden, a black shadow darted past him, causing his hair to stand on edge.
"It’s here again!"
"Stars Transposition!"
The images cracked and shattered before his eyes as he shut them tightly. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the brightness. The skies were still shrouded with dark clouds, like a single large cloud looming over a mountain. Raindrops were splattering down on his face as he felt a mouthful of rainwater.
Gradually, his mind started to regain some clarity before he noticed he was lying beneath a huge boulder within the reeds. Unless a person were to pay careful attention to the boulder, it would be hard to notice anyone lying there.
‘To curse is to cause a series of terrifying visuals to appear before the victim. It is akin to being severely drunk, except the dreams are extremely vivid and scary. There are several ways of breaking past the curse. The most effective way is using pure mental strength to break through.’
‘I’ve been shattering each sequence, one after another. Up to a certain point, I was already aware that it was all an illusion and thus, it didn’t affect me as much.’
‘It’s daytime now huh?’
Just as he was thinking, he heard a loud crash. A lightning cracked in the distance, revealing the shadows of several people still searching for him.
‘System!’
A Plum Blossom appeared before his eyes as it gradually grew bigger before becoming an information interface. It bore with it faint light perception as it floated into view, displaying a series of numbers and words.
"Divine Powers: Stars Transposition Level 2 (99.9% Completed)"
‘I’m almost there. The volumes of novels which I’ve written are gradually adding to my prestige level and increasing my divine powers.’
"Hurry find him. He must be within the reeds. Use your blades and hack your way through it." A swordsman who was dressed in coa.r.s.e hemp robes looked clearly fatigued as he hacked through the reeds.
The swordsman’s robes had been soaked through a long time ago. He hacked through the reeds a swing at a time. A gust of wind blew as the reeds collapsed layer by layer. When he slashed through the thickest layer, an empty s.p.a.ce appeared as he stared right at Pei Zi Yun.
The swordsman was startled, not expecting to see anyone after an entire night of futile searching. Pei Zi Yun swung his sword at him, slitting a gash in his throat. Blood spurted out from his wound and stained the reeds. The rest of the swordsmen behind were astounded. In that split second, some of them turned bent down to get a better look, others hacked away at the reeds, and even more had whistles in their mouths ready to blow it. Pei Zi Yun had frozen them all in place with his spell.
The next second pa.s.sed and someone shouted out, "We found him! Kill him now!"
Several more shouts rang out as dozens of swordsmen dove into the reeds. When they noticed Pei Zi Yun standing there, armed with his swords, n.o.body dared to advance.
"Die!" After staring at each others for several moments, one of the swordsman charged toward him.
Pei Zi Yun closed his eyes and saw the numbers on his information interface jump.
"Divine Powers: Stars Transformation Level 2 (100% Completed)"
Pei Zi Yun tapped on it without a second thought causing abrupt changes to take place before his eyes.
"Divine Powers : Stars Transposition Level 3"
After reaching the third level, his vision started to clear up tremendously. All the black hazy dark energy in his vision had been reduced by more than half and he saw several shadows springing up. Although he was still hallucinating, it became clear to him what was real and what wasn’t.
"Go to h.e.l.l!" A swordsman hacked his way towards Pei Zi Yun.
"Hehe, that’s funny." Pei Zi Yun’s shadow turned into a blur as he moved and reappeared on the swordsman’s right. With a flash of his sword, he hacked right at the man’s hips, severing his body into two.
"Blinding Light!" A white flash of light appeared, piercing through their eyes. In that instant, Pei Zi Yun moved once again.
"Ouh!" Three of them screamed out in pain, as they dropped their blades and fell to the ground.
"Stop!" Another pair of swordsmen charged into the frey.
"Zhng, zhng zhng!" Sparks burst forth from the contact between swords as the gleam of the sword shot all across in a mad frenzy. They exchanged several more blows before both sides halted to the sound of the whistle blowing.
Pei Zi Yun darted away as he felt the point of one of their swords sc.r.a.p against his ribs, causing his robes to tear.
All of a sudden, the pair stood up still, completely rigid before falling to their knees as they twitched uncontrollably. Blood dripped all around, staining the entire place red.
"Your sword techniques are pretty good, especially when you work together. You are really a match for me. Besides, you’re Daoists too, and know how to guard yourselves against my spells."
"But so what?" Pei Zi Yun observed his surroundings and grinned sinisterly, "Your endurance isn’t high enough. As long as I continue in my a.s.sault without giving you time to catch your breath, you wouldn’t be able to keep up with me after my seventh stroke. In the eighth stroke, I would claim your lives."
"To adapt to your surroundings without taking anything for granted. That was the way a military strategist thinks."
"Without knowing such things, you can never lead an army. If you don’t have experience leading an army, how can you hope to excel in combat? You are nothing!" Pei Zi Yun stormed towards them, "Now, I shall send you along your way."
"Quicksand Technique!"
Shadows flew in all directions as they scrambled towards Pei Zi Yun. The swordsmen shouted several unintelligible words as they raised their blades to strike. They knew that if they didn’t kill this man, he would take their lives.
"Pu!" The pair continued dashing forward. After three or four steps, they finally succ.u.mbed to the quicksand beneath their feet.
A sword burst forth as quick as lightning, as it struck several times in rapid succession. "Zhng" Pei Zi Yun finally managed to find a gap within the swordsman"s defenses. The gleam of his sword broke apart from the other sword, as his head flew high up into the air.
"Paralysis Technique!" Pei Zi Yun took several steps back but wasn’t caught off balance. He then struck out at the remaining person, "It’s better to nip the problem in the bud rather than to keep facing all these worthless men."
"All of you shall die!"
He turned his sword to the left, and heard the soft groans of yet two more men as they collapsed to the ground, blood spurting in all directions.
At this point, the rest of the Daoists and swordsmen screamed out as they turned around and fled.
‘I shall smash the enemy ranks into pieces, even if it means chasing after them.’ Pei Zi Yun shouted to himself before he turned in hot pursuit. He had been the hunted for the past few days, and had even been ambushed. He finally lashed out in furious anger, ready to have his revenge.
"Die!" The gleam of his sword burst out, as a fleeing swordsman took the full blow of Pei Zi Yun’s strike. He gave a cry of agony before taking another two steps, finally falling to the ground, dead.
Shan Shen Temple
"Pu!" Elder Xu’s entire body turned rigid, as if he had been struck by lightning and spat out an entire mouthful of blood. The pair of Daoists seated across him gave low groans as they fell over as well.
"Elder Xu, what’s wrong?" Someone hurriedly supported him.
"I’m fine. Pei Zi Yun’s weapon has abruptly increased in power. Our Dao arts and curses have little effect on him now. We’ve been affected by the backlash."
"Quick, take a look at those two."
Elder Xu spoke loudly, and the rest of his men rushed over to help the pair of Daoists who had fallen over. They remained limp on the ground, unmoving. It seemed like their body temperatures were still warm, and their hearts and pulses were still beating. However, they were completely unresponsive. They looked exactly like dead men.
Elder Xu stretched out a hand to nudge them, but none of them reacted. His heart sank.
"Elder Xu, we’ve just received word that everyone we sent to the forest are dead. There has been no reply from the talismans." Someone anxiously reported.
Elder Xu didn’t ask for anymore information. Everything became clear to him. Pei Zi Yun managed to struggle free from the curse and turned around to kill off all the fighters and swordsmen sent out. Elder Xu truly didn’t antic.i.p.ate the fact that he could break out of the curse.
A Daoist then turned to look at Elder Xu as he said in panic, "What should we do now? What’s…. What’s the best course of action…."
"Don’t panic!" Elder Xu gradually calmed himself down.
"Pei Zi Yun is experienced in battle, and has killed numerous of people. Our sect has a long standing history, and fought even more battles than Pei Zi Yun. However, these disciples which we sent out aren’t very experienced, and hadn’t dealt with someone as powerful as Pei Zi Yun before. That’s the reason we failed."
"However, we’ve managed to contain him for three days. That’s a victory in itself." Elder Xu spoke out.
The Daoist listened to him and started to calm down as well, "What Elder Xu is trying to say, is that this is a lesson learnt. When it comes to dealing with such a proficient fighter, we should not take it as capturing just another person."
Another Daoist listened to this and mumbled to himself, "When I first heard Senior Elder saying that if we fail to kill him, we should at least stall him for three days, I had my doubts. I finally understand now. If we were unable to kill him, it would be difficult to escape from him after. Now that we can still escape after three days, it is a victory of sorts, which would enable us to plan our next steps."
Elder Xu nodded his head, "Our mission was to kill him, or to stall him for three days. Now that time’s up. All of you should hurry and flee. There’s no need to remain here. I shall take the rest of the men and try and stall him further."
Elder Xu issued the command confidently. However, his heart was in ruins. He was the Elder chosen to lead in this mission. This result was nothing more than a failure. If he had fled before anyone else, he would have been severely punished. He hence decided to try and resist Pei Zi Yun at this point, to redeem himself.
"Ai, he’s only a Yin Master and not even an Earth Immortal yet. If he were to be a little stronger, we would be able to overcome everything else." Someone blurted out under his breath.
"That’s enough. No need to speak further. You should all leave now." Elder Xu ordered.
All of a sudden, a cold laughter could be heard, "Do you really think you can escape?"
"Who’s that?" The swordsman who was charged with protecting them stepped forward and drew his sword defensively.
"Is it really you?" Elder Xu looked at the door and saw a shadow emerge. His robes were torn and tattered, and he was even bleeding slightly.
Pei Zi Yun then walked through the door and laughed sinisterly, "I’ve been looking for you, and managed to find you here effortlessly. I’m extremely glad to finally be able to kill an Elder from the Dark Altar Sect."
Seeing the person before him speaking with such disrespect, Elder Xu replied him coldly, "Pei Zi Yun, you really managed to get here quickly. I have to admit, you exceeded my expectations. But do you honestly think you can kill us?"
"I’ve already killed so many people, why should I be afraid of the four of you?" Pei Zi Yun laughed. "Do you really think I would let you off? Once I kill all of you, it would be equivalent to killing another twenty more people from the sect. Your Dark Altar Sect would sustain huge losses."
The entire room was filled with killing intent, radiating out from all sides.
"Is that so? But you still can’t kill us!" Elder Xu glared at him before raising a finger. Vines started to sprout from the door and the ground, wrapping Pei Zi Yun tightly in the vines.
Pei Zi Yun dashed forward and slashed at the vines which were trapping him. A single vine burst into thousands of sparks as a vibrating sound could be heard from the strike. The vine was severed from its roots and fell to the ground. As long as a fully grown poisonous snake, it refused to die down and wrapped itself around Pei Zi Yun’s feet.
"Elder Chen." Seeing such a situation, someone spoke out. Elder Xu shook his head, signalling that he wouldn’t be able to maintain this spell for long. His hands were still moving as he upkept the spell.
Within seconds, another dozen of canes and vines emerged, as they wrapped around Pei Zi Yun, causing him to be immobilized.
Seeing that he had been restrained, Pei Zi Yun was surprised. He didn’t know that the trapping spell could be used to such an extent. He then asked, "How long do you think you can keep this up?"
Elder Xu cleared his throat, "Pei Zi Yun, you are indeed a genius, a man in a million. But how can your little worthless sect handle the might of Dark Altar Sect?"