by Jeremy Bai
The flood dragon nearest him shivered for a moment, then coiled up into a tight ball before shooting toward the incoming Kun-Peng.
Moments later, the other three flood dragons similarly began to charge toward the Kun-Peng, apparently having been given compelling orders just like the first one.
Under the stunned gazes of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, four one-hundred-meter-long flood dragons charged toward the gargantuan Kun-Peng with its two-hundred-meter wingspan.
Wind from Kun-Peng’s wings swept across the beach like gale-force gusts as it bore down on the reanimated flood dragon corpses.
The first to reach the giant bird was the flood dragon that Geng Long had summoned. Right before they were about to slam into each other, the flood dragon opened its mouth and screamed, letting out a blast of black liquid colder than ice. It shot out like water from a fountain, causing cracking sounds to fill the air.
Kun-Peng was huge, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t agile. It pulled its wings in and spun to the side, completely dodging the blast of freezing black liquid, then lashing out with its talons to grab the flood dragon.
As for the black liquid, it sailed past the spot the Kun-Peng had just occupied, slamming into the water of the bay, much of which was frozen upon impact.
Meanwhile, Kun-Peng dropped down toward the ground, crushing the flood dragon into the earth below on a spot only about a hundred meters away from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect itself. The ground quaked as the flood dragon was shoved into the soil. Kun-Peng lashed its sharp beak down toward the creature’s throat. However, before its beak could make contact, the second flood dragon arrived, sending a blast of freezing liquid toward Kun-Peng’s torso. Kun-Peng lurched to the side just in time, managing to escape the blast, but losing its grip on the first flood dragon, whose head snaked around as it snapped at Kun-Peng’s leg with viciously sharp teeth. The second flood dragon closed in, similarly lashing its jaws at Kun-Peng’s right wing.
The developments that were taking place were almost too shocking for the Dragon-Phoenix Sect to process.
Kun-Peng and the two flood dragons were beginning to fight back and forth, causing the ground to shake violently. However, there were still two more flood dragons closing in.
Although Kun-Peng was vastly larger than the flood dragons, it was already having trouble tangling with two of them. If two more joined the fight, it was easy to imagine how quickly the battle could turn in the favor of the flood dragons.
The first person to recover his senses was Sun Mai. Of everyone present, he had the most experience with mystical phenomena like this. After all, he had traveled the streams of time, had glimpsed things that no other mortal had ever glimpsed, other than Du Qian. In fact, although no one present would have any way to know it, and perhaps no one ever would, Sun Mai had witnessed Kun-Peng’s birth, countless years in the past.
Sun Mai’s hands clenched into fists as he raised his voice. “Profound Masters, this mighty bird is Kun-Peng, a righteous servant of the Enlightened Goddess. Who will join me in taking the fight to one of these wicked flood dragons to buy Kun-Peng a bit of breathing room?”
Chapter 88: Exchanging Blows
Mao Yun was the first to step forward. Brandishing his axe, he said, “Let’s take the head off of one of these worms!”
The One-Armed Iron Titan Tie Gangwen flicked his sleeve and growled, “It’s been a long time since we fought side by side, Grandmaster Sun.”
“I will fight,” Lawat said. As usual, he was dressed in traditional Kithiri garb and wielded the long, sickle-shaped blade that was common in Nangu, a look which had earned him the nickname Golden Djinn.
One by one, the profound masters voiced their intent to join Sun Mai in fighting one of the flood dragons.
“That one!” Sun Mai said, pointing to the farthest of the dragons, which was speeding in an arcing path that would bring it past them within seconds. “Keep the fight away from the rest of the sect!”
With that, Sun Mai leapt into motion, calling up his qinggong to speed away from the sect, his robes flapping in the wind. The other profound masters followed, preparing weapons and martial arts techniques. Despite being expert fighters, each of them having combat experience far beyond most other people in the world, none of them had ever fought an enemy as enormous as this.
As for the flood dragon, it was completely focused on Kun-Peng, and it didn’t notice the lowly humans converging upon it from the side.
As Sun Mai neared it, he waved his fingers through the air. “Sword Rain of the Scholar God!”
More than two dozen illusory swords sprang into being around him, which then slashed through the air toward the flood dragon.
The flood dragon was taken completely by surprise as the volley of swords slashed into the base of its neck with such force that it twisted to the side, lost altitude, and slammed into the ground, sending dirt and sand flying out in all directions.
As it did, the nearest of the profound masters unleashed further attacks, including a blast of energy that resembled a spear, a flying dagger that blazed with white fire, and a violet lightning bolt.
Before the flood dragon knew what was happening, it was hit again and again with numerous attacks, causing it to howl in anger.
However, after the initial surprise, the creature snapped its head around to glare in the direction of the approaching heroes, its eyes shining with blue light. Although a few rotting scales had been knocked off or melted, it didn’t seem seriously hurt.
The flood dragon seemed to inhale, whereupon Sun Mai shouted, “Don’t let the liquid touch you, and definitely don’t let it get past us to touch the sect!”
A moment later, a blast of frigid black liquid erupted from the flood dragon’s mouth, heading not only toward the profound masters, but the rest of the sect behind them.
Sun Mai spun to the side with barely a moment to spare. Some of the liquid even hit the corner of this robe, freezing it into a solid mass that shattered a moment later.
“Sleeve Cyclone!” Tie Gangwen growled, spinning his long sleeve in a circular motion, which sent wind screaming out in front of him to meet the black liquid.
The cyclone began to suck up the black liquid, and yet it was clearly not on the same level as the flood dragon’s attack. A moment later, the wind began to collapse, having neutralized only about half of the black stream of liquid, which continued to stream through the air.
“Lava Arrow!” Wang Tian let loose an arrow, which transformed into a stream of burning, molten rock.
When the freezing black liquid and the burning lava touched each other, a high-pitched screech rang out, along with a shock wave that sent clouds of dust and sand up into the air.
Sun Mai landed off to the side, drew a sword from his side, and called out, “Press the attack. Kill it before it releases another blast!”
Moments before, when Sun Mai had been calling for the profound masters to intercept the flood dragon, not all of them had joined him. Sunan and Bao had remained behind as well.
“You two,” Sunan said, pointing to two of the remaining profound masters. “Go handle that Bone Slicer to the west.” Next, he looked at Blackleaf from the Hen-Shi Sect. “Can you take care of the Bone Slicers to the north?”
Blackleaf nodded and led his men away immediately.
“Ma Ge,” Sunan continued, “you stay with me and Bao.”
“I can handle him myself,” Bao said through gritted teeth. She took a step forward.
“Maybe you can,” Sunan said, stepping to follow her, “but the safest thing—” Before he could finish his sentence, his legs buckled, and he dropped forward onto his knees. Then he reached up and placed his right palm on his chest.
Bao turned to look at him, a slight frown of concern on her face. “Sunan?”
Ma Ge kneeled down and felt the pulse at his left wrist. “Poison,” she said a moment later.
Bao’s eyes widened. “Lin Cuirou poisoned you?”
Sunan settled backward into a cross
-legged position, placing his still-sheathed Wind Saber across his knees. Closing his eyes, he said, “Yes. I thought perhaps it was a trick, but apparently not.”
“You—”
“Go,” Sunan interrupted. “Take care of that bastard once and for all. I can handle a bit of poison. Lawat, you back her up.” Resting his hands on top of each other in his lap, palms up, he began to meditate.
Bao looked over at some of the lower-ranking members of the sect a few meters away. “You six, come stand guard over the Dragon Sovereign!”
With that, she turned toward Geng Long. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.”
Moments before, Geng Long had been transfixed by the shocking fight erupting between the flood dragons and Kun-Peng. However, his attention was quickly drawn back to Bao as she began to walk toward him across the sandy soil, with Ma Ge following close behind. Although he was surprised to see Sunan sitting cross-legged in meditation, he ignored him.
“Just you two against me?” he said loudly. “Feeling suicidal?”
“This will be one on one,” Bao replied. “The only question will be how long it takes for me to kill you. You stay back, Ma Ge. Don’t interfere unless absolutely necessary.”
Geng Long chuckled coldly, reaching over his shoulder to unstrap what appeared to be the femur bone of some enormous animal, the end of which had been sharpened into a point. The surface of the bone itself had been carved with countless strange symbols. It was pitch black, although it was impossible to tell whether that was by natural occurrence or because it had been dyed.
Geng Long gripped the unsharpened end with one hand, then slowly ran the index and middle finger of his other hand down the length of the bone, muttering words in an incomprehensible language.
Countless bone spurs erupted from the strange symbols on the pitch-black bone, and the bone itself began to grow longer. Originally, it had only been about half a meter long, but in the blink of an eye, it was a full meter in length, and then two. In the end, it was a full three meters long!
Geng Long slowly lowered the enormous weapon to rest on his shoulder. “Even if ten of you came at me at once, I’d still cut you all in half.”
Bao wasn’t in the mood for banter, nor did she care for a protracted fight.
“Drop that weapon,” she said, glaring into his eyes.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she could sense the power of the Phoenix Crown flowing out and boring into Geng Long’s mind.
Geng Long’s eyes widened, and the hand which gripped the bone sword twitched. However, a moment later, his eyes narrowed.
“So that’s how you got into the fortress,” he said. “Nice trick. Thankfully, the King of the Pure Ones trained me well. Mind tricks like that won’t work on me.”
Bao was now only twenty meters away from Geng Long. Considering that her Phoenix Crown didn’t affect Geng Long, she decided to draw upon her next most powerful move. Some qi fighters preferred to start with their weakest moves and save the powerful ones for later in the fight when, presumably, the opponent was more tired and had used enough of their own techniques to reveal a weakness. But not Bao.
Using her rage to channel her qi along the same pathways as she had discovered years ago on Zhifu Shan, she slashed her right hand through the air and growled, “Rage Holocaust.”
Five beams of red energy shot out from her fingers, which rapidly expanded in width until they merged with each other, forming a one-meter-wide column of destruction that hewed a massive furrow into the quaking ground as it bore down on a shocked Geng Long.
There was no time for Geng Long to ponder the situation or how to defend himself. Reacting on pure instinct, he swung his bone sword off his shoulder and, in the final moment before the column hit him, assumed a defensive stance with the sword held out horizontally in front of him.
The instant the column of energy made contact with the bone sword, red sparks erupted in a fountain, and Geng Long was shoved backward. He tried to dig his feet into the soil to hold his ground, but it did no good. Intense rumbling sounds filled the air as he was pushed backward one meter, two meters, five meters, ten meters…
The entire time, red sparks sprayed out in all directions, including onto Geng Long himself. When they hit his bone armor, they sizzled, leaving behind nicks and scratches, and when they touched his flesh, they smoked and burned. Geng Long howled at the top of his lungs, drawing on all of his energy to push back against the column of energy.
At the thirty-meter mark, he finally stopped moving. He shoved his bone sword forward with all the strength he could muster. As he did, the bone sword’s serrated edge tore into the column of energy, ripping it apart right in the middle, sending a tempest of red sparks out in all directions as the column was completely destroyed.
As the energy faded away, Geng Long stood there panting at the end of a seventy-meter-long trench that separated him from Bao. His bone armor was in bad condition, and his face was covered with countless burns and patches of melted, seared flesh. And yet, a wild gleam could be seen in his eyes as he once again hefted his bone sword up onto his shoulder.
“Impressive, Bao. Much better than last time. Too bad you won’t be able to use that move again anytime soon. Also, now I’m at the perfect distance to use one of my favorite techniques. Bone Meteor!”
As he spoke, he stamped his right foot down onto the ground, releasing a burst of energy that sent a minor shock wave rolling out as he shot up into the air.
To Bao, it looked like a qinggong technique, although she couldn’t be certain. Geng Long became a blur as he shot up in an arcing path, reaching a height of about twenty-five meters before he began to plummet back down toward her. As he sailed through the air, he spun his enormous bone sword like a wheel, creating a black blur that virtually crackled with qi energy.
Bao’s first instinct was to run to the side, but even as she did, the black blur changed course, as if it were locked on to her person. As it closed in, she realized that she had no choice but to meet the blow, and yet she had no weapons to do so other than the daggers in her sleeve.
And two ordinary daggers were definitely not enough to stop that wheel.
Chapter 89: Souls
Sunan closed his eyes and tuned out the sounds around him.
Back in the fortress, he hadn’t felt any effects from the poison. He hadn’t even been able to detect its presence in his blood. Only after the complete evacuation, when the sect leadership began to confer, did he break out into a cold sweat. Then before he knew it, his heart was racing, and he had begun to cough.
It had been imperceptible at first, and the appearance of the flood dragons and Kun-Peng had been so shocking that he had been swept up in the events.
Now, as he cast his awareness inward, he became more aware than ever of the racing of his heart. With every passing moment, it beat faster and faster.
So that’s why I didn’t notice it before. It’s only in my heart. Although Sunan was no physician, he knew that the human body had limits.
If my heart doesn’t slow down, he thought, what will happen? Will it stop? Or collapse? Whatever happened, it would fatal, of that he was sure.
He attempted to breathe more slowly to calm himself, and he also tried to slow his qi flow. However, none of those things did any good. Bit by bit, his heart raced and raced toward what was certain death.
I need to calm my heart, Sunan thought. Calm.
He thought back to years before when he’d climbed almost to the very top of Zun Shan to meditate. His qi flow had been altered during that state of meditation, leading him into a state of profound calmness. In the years that had followed, he had contemplated how his qi had flowed and had replicated it on a few occasions. However, other than the state of deep calm, it had never proven particularly useful.
He altered the flow of his qi to match that same qi flow he had discovered on Zun Shan.
Within moments, his heart rate stabilized. Then, as he continued to send his qi flo
wing through those particular meridians, the beating began to slow.
However, as his heart began to calm, he noticed countless minute objects flowing out from it into his blood vessels.
That’s the poison.
His heart was beating as calmly as if he were floating on the top of a lake. But the poison was still present inside of him. To Sunan, it seemed as if hours had passed, but from the moment he had fell to his knees until his heart calmed, only a few breaths of time had passed.
Is Bao safe?
He opened his left eye just a crack, and the sight that met his eyes almost caused his heart to begin racing again.
Bao was standing about twenty meters away or so, looking up at what appeared to be an enormous black wheel falling out of the sky directly toward her. She almost seemed rooted in place, as if she couldn’t move.
When Sunan focused more closely on the black wheel, he realized that it was Geng Long, wielding a sword that was so exaggeratedly long it was almost comical. However, there was nothing comical about the energy fluctuations rolling off of him. Even with this one brief glance, Sunan could tell with certainty that if Bao were to be struck by this technique, she should be grievously injured, perhaps even killed.
Sunan took his right hand off his knee and grabbed the hilt of his Wind Saber.
“Bao!” he shouted, drawing the Wind Saber from its scabbard and throwing it in her direction.
He had kept his Wind Saber sheathed for a very long time, not even drawing it during his fight with Lin Cuirou. The scabbard within which it was sheathed was the same one Ruan the Flamingo had created for him to wear on his wedding day. The spell formation in that scabbard could focus and build up the power of the Wind Saber over time, allowing it to reach shocking levels.
When Bao heard Sunan calling her name, she glanced back and saw his Wind Saber speeding toward her in a blur.
During their years in Nangu, they had done a bit of experimentation, and they were sure that if the Wind Saber and the Phoenix Crown were used together, the resonance between them would unleash devastating force. However, because of the volatile way the two objects reacted to each other’s presence, they had never actually gone so far as to use them together in a fight.