An intense pressure weighed down on the whole mountain, making it increasingly difficult for everyone to breath. This was the Heaven-slaying Sword, the most potent magic combat magic of the Skygale Sect. It was created thousands of years ago by the founder of the Sect, and since then, it has remained the cornerstone of the Sect"s ident.i.ty in the Violet Manor.
Yunya Zi swung the magically-constructed sword of gold, slashing down callously at his foe, the stroke sending a shudder across the mountain. Xiao Chen gazed up at the incoming strike. He recognized the aura of the crushing tension bearing down on him. This was the same technique that Tiangu Zi had once used; the one that had almost reduce Li Muxue into cinders!
"Is this the best you can do? Show me what you can!" His voice thundered, the Devil Qi emanating from his self churning wildly. The Blood Lotus Demon Blade materialized in his grasp. His sabre began to gleam scarlet-red as if it was bathed in blood, ringing like a monstrous beast"s howl as Xiao Chen unleashed the Dragon Slay technique. He swung his blade, and a dark crimson gash streaked through the air, striking at the Heaven-slaying Sword now falling on him.
The blows from both sword and sabre met and exploded, creating a large rip in the continuum of s.p.a.ce and time. The explosion of the two blows imploded, sending forth an overwhelming shockwave and billowing waves of dust while many in the square were thrown off their feet by the force.
Winds continued thrashing wildly around them as if the weather itself was unsettled by the magnitude of the battle. Yunya Zi glided down to the ground gently. Xiao Chen, maimed and bloodied, spat a mouthful of blood down his tattered clothing. He staggered unstably, struggling to maintain his balance by using his sword to keep himself up.
"Big Brother!" Murong Xian"er screamed from a distance. She was about to leap into the air to come to him, but Xiao Chen raised an arm quickly to stop her. "Don"t come here!" He yelled, before another gulp of blood spewed from his mouth. The Dragon Slay technique was still paler in comparison to the sheer might of a warrior nearing the Nascent Soul Realm.
Yunya Zi marched toward Xiao Chen proudly. "On this day," he declared coolly, "You shall die! And your blood I"d offer to the souls of my dead student!" He raised a hand, readying himself to deliver the final coup de grace but a loud voice called suddenly, "Stay your hand please, Senior Yunya!"
Yu Yifeng flew over to help, but Yunya Zi spat, "Not even your teacher will be able to save him now! Leave!" His stroke veered abruptly away from Xiao Chen, instead, striking straight at Yu Yifeng.
The stroke hit him cleanly. Being struck by a force so powerful whilst in mid-air, Yu Yifeng was thrown backward, crashing to the ground. "Brother Yifeng!" Xiao Chen cried, and shot a scathing glare at Yunya Zi.
But he was badly wounded by the stroke from the Heaven-slaying Sword. In his present state, he was no match for Yunya Zi. But they were interrupted by the notice of another four approaching auras. Four shafts of light shot through the sky and onto the ground, turning into another four elderly men, the Four Elders of the Skygale Sect.
Their arrival seemed sudden, for Yunya Zi was surprised to see them. "Why are you here?" He asked them, and the Elder of the East Chamber, the leader of the four, bowed and reported themselves, "We"re here at the Leader"s behest, Honored Immortal."
"I see," Yunya Zi muttered, his head nodding faintly, "Tianyun Zi is worried about me. Never mind." He motioned toward Murong Xian"er, who was standing not far away. "Take the girl first and go back," he instructed the four before returning his attention to Xiao Chen. "I must finish him today," he eyed hatefully at Xiao Chen, "Lest he becomes a powerful enemy of the Skygale Sect in the future!"
Unlike Zhang Qinglian and some others of insidious character, Yunya Zi at least maintained the decency of voicing his thoughts aloud instead of trying to justifying his motives with falsehoods.
Then it dawned upon Xiao Chen: the Skygale Sect were here for Xian"er! She embodied a strange but rich spiritual energy which made her the perfect energy source for the Skygale Sect to erect the Blood Soul Formation for their founder"s resurrection! They had been unable to secure an Earth Spiritual Meridian like the Wuw.a.n.g Wind Cloud City, hence they had to set their sights on Xian"er.
With the orders of their former leader, the four Elders immediately flew toward Murong Xian"er. Being cultivators of the Core Forming Realm, it took but merely a blink of an eye for them to reach her. Xiao Chen lunged over and swung his blade at the Elder of the West Chamber who was at the rear of the group. The older man retaliated with a blow from his fists only to be knocked back and wounded by his greater strength. The Elder stared at his foe with disbelief, finally understanding why Yunya Zi wished Xiao Chen dead.
He had not expected that with strengths to be able to survive Yunya Zi"s blow, Xiao Chen would at least possessed powers nearing the Nascent Soul Realm.
Xiao Chen"s second stroke was about to fall when Yunya Zi bolted over to help. With his bare hands, Yunya Zi caught hold of the blade of Xiao Chen"s sabre and delivered a flurry of punches and blows, hitting Xiao Chen squarely in the chest, causing more blood to spew from the latter"s mouth.
"Just bring her back!" Yunya Zi barked at the four Elders, "I"ll handle him myself!" As he spoke, he channeled his powers, preparing to unleash a second barrage of the onslaught on Xiao Chen. The latter struggled to his feet, wiping off the blood from the edges of his lips. "You"ll never leave with her! Not in a thousand years!" Xiao Chen spat adamantly. He summoned another rush of True Energy and disgorged another torrent of Devil Qi that fanned out toward all directions around him.
"First Diabolic Shift! My blood as fists!"
From every wound and gash on Xiao Chen"s battered self, blood began seeping out and acc.u.mulated into a large dark-crimson floating blob hovering before him. The gigantic globule of blood morphed into the shape of a huge palm, pulsing with a scary and terrible power within. "NO! Big Brother Xiao Chen! No!" Murong Xian"er screamed again, her expression aghast with panic.
Yunya Zi stared intently with his unblinking eyes at the palm-shaped ma.s.s of blood, realizing its danger. He summoned another burst of True Energy and smote hard, sending an auric projectile at the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.s. His blow contained so much power that it threw up scuds of winds and dust in its wake. But before it reached near the b.l.o.o.d.y palm-shaped ma.s.s, it disappeared! Yunya Zi"s eyes widened with shock! His energy projectile was dissipated completely merely by the sheer force radiating from the ma.s.s of blood! But before he could evade, the gigantic palm charged toward him at break-neck speed!
With a deafening bang, the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.s slammed into Yunya Zi, throwing him off his feet. Yunya Zi crashed into the ground and spat blood from his mouth. The four Elders, having apprehended Murong Xian"er, were about to leave when they witnessed the scene and immediately turned back.
"The girl has abundant spiritual energy! Go with haste!" Yunya Zi shouted hoa.r.s.ely, "I"ll handle this myself!" He summoned every ounce of True Energy, readying himself but Xiao Chen had released the Second Diabolic Shift.
The Devil"s Three Turns that Xiao Chen unleashed today, were utterly stronger than the Devil"s Three Turns that he had performed at the Three Pure Sect. The four Elders raced back to help their former leader. But a golden t.i.tanic fist materialized in mid-air suddenly. A mighty and electrifying force radiated strongly from the tightly-grasped hand, threatening to pulverize everything in sight. "Go! I"ll stop him!" The Elder shouted and immediately morphed into a ray of light that shot straight at Xiao Chen.
"No! Come back!" Yunya Zi squealed at the top of his voice. But he was too late; the golden fist was a gargantuan conjuration of Xiao Chen every shred of True Qi he could muster. The fist coursed with pure destructive intensity, waiting to carnage like a volcano ready to erupt.
The golden fist smote mercilessly upon the Elder of the South Chamber, completely disintegrating him. Shocked gasps and horrified yelps rose from among the crowd in the square. Never could anyone had believed that a single stroke could have easily reduced a warrior of the Core Forming Realm into dust.
"Heaven-slaying Sword!" Yunya Zi screamed, his eyes bloodshot and maniacal. He conjured his most potent technique again, infusing more power into this version that even the sky was flooded gold by its brilliance.
"Third Diabolic Shift! My soul as a blade!"
Xiao Chen released a feral howl. The cloudless weather that spanned for miles immediately gave way to dark c.u.mulonimbuses that swallowed the sky hole with rays of lightning flashing sporadically as the sky groaned angrily above. The silhouette of a wicked-looking sabre appeared in mid-air, its girth and presence dwarfing the prominence and the size of the Heaven-slaying Sword.
The crowd was seized with a panic dread of confusion and turmoil. The might Xiao Chen displayed was far beyond their imagination. The common folk of the city of Wu Province at tens of miles away, all noticed the demonic silhouette looming precariously above the peak. Pandemonium and anarchy were everywhere. No one below knew what was happening, although they felt difficulty as they breathed as a result of the heavy and tense pressure of Xiao Chen"s boiling powers.
Yunya Zi, now horrified with shock, murmured, "Impossible... It"s his soul..." He had never expected that his foe was able to use his own soul as a source of power. Fearing the worst, he knew this was a stroke that he could never be able to weather.
"This is what your Skygale Sect owes me, Yunya Zi! I"ll have your life as compensation!"
With a savage howl, the colossal sabre came down with the force of like a mallet upon an anvil, striking upon the peak with a force that could have torn open the earth. The impact of its stroke ruptured the very fabric of time and s.p.a.ce, causing a vortex to appear.
But before Xiao Chen launched his final strike, his eyes wandered to Luo Shangyan and the sobbing Murong Xian"er. A kaleidoscope of images from his past pa.s.sed before him; he remembered his teacher from thousands of year ago and thought of Li Muxue and Hua Weiyang. The sight and memory of his loved ones almost made him hesitated as he wondered if he would still be able to see their faces again.
The Devil"s Three Turns were a discipline of techniques that expended the spirit and vigor of its user. It was almost impossible for a person to survive after unleashing all Three Turns.
But he knew full well that he had no other choice.
The catastrophic force of the Third Diabolic Shift destroyed everything in the square, reducing them into dust even before the blade of the gigantic sabre hit its mark. The foundations of the great halls and towers perched atop the mountain began to give way and crumble before the explosion from the strike annihilated what was left, turning rubbles and debris into soot and grime.
The entire mountain shook violently and dust rose into the air like smoke from a furnace. There was no way of knowing if there were any collateral damage or losses of life. Minutes pa.s.sed as the scuds of dust began to die down. The entire square had been cloven into two, people began to realize, and in its center, a huge chasm was formed by the destructive force of the blow. Yunya Zi laid sprawled on the ground, panting for life. He was drenched in blood, still clinging to his dear life.
"Big Brother Xiao Chen..." Murong Xian"er gasped before she fainted out of shock.
Everyone else who had survived the devastating impact was still dazed and bewildered until Yunya Zi"s hoa.r.s.e voice pierced through the silence, "He must not leave alive!" With this cry, everyone immediately understood: with only a single blow to kill a warrior of the Core Forming Realm and a stroke with his sabre to seriously wound a grandmaster nearing the Nascent Soul Realm, Xiao Chen"s name would henceforth be widely-known across the whole Violet Manor!
Prompted by the vain command by Yunya Zi, the three surviving Elders sprang into action. Woe would follow the Skygale Sect as long as Xiao Chen remain. But he was standing motionless in the wind, his face pale as Death. The Elder of the East Chamber was the first to notice his opportunity. He vanished, only to reappear suddenly before Xiao Chen, and landed a blow with all his might.
The blow hit the now defenseless Xiao Chen, tremendously powerful, enormously strong, that he was sent crashing backward, collapsing to the ground like a fallen leave, almost dead and disheveled.
"Junior Brother Xiao!" Luo Shangyan"s shrill cry came from afar. A few disciples of the Jade Qing Sect were restraining her, holding her back from rushing over to Xiao Chen.
Murmurs and gasps of incredulity and shock filled the onlookers. Even the Elder of the East Chamber could hardly suppress his amazement. A stroke with his full might would have been able to blast any Core Forming Realm cultivator into nothing but a mist of blood and viscera. But not only did he failed to kill Xiao Chen, instead, there also was not even a bruise or mark on Xiao Chen"s body which was as st.u.r.dy as the strongest steel!
The Elders of the West and North Chambers hurled themselves at Xiao Chen and were about to land another barrage of blows on him when a hollow voice echoed loudly from the distant horizon, "A leaf and flower, a sheaf of dust, let the flowers fall and leave no dust..." The voice, ringing far and distant at first, suddenly chimed so clearly as if the voice itself was speaking into everyone"s ears. Still, there was no sight of the origin of the voice.
"Hahahaha! I, the None-flower Dust, am come again!" The voice boomed again, "Strike as hard as you will, the three of you old sniveling seniles, and I will return the same favor to you, ten times over!"