The Path through the Heavens: A LitRPG Wuxia Series (The Heavenly Throne Book 6)

by Yuri Ajin

  He put the Plant in his Ring and left the cave. No sooner had he put his foot on the snow than a blurry silhouette flashed in front of him. Or rather, a residue of it. It was difficult to call it a figure. The person was moving too fast.

  Not a nanosecond later, he felt a sharp pain and lost feeling in his right hand and legs. His vision blurred and he lost his balance.

  By the time his back touched the ground, his vision had already recovered and legs regenerated. All that was missing was his right hand.

  Where the hell is it...?

  Glancing to the right, he saw An’na rushing toward a blond elf, who observed the charging phoenix with utter indifference. It wasn’t until he removed the Ring from Kai’s severed hand and threw it away that he paid attention to the attack that had almost reached him.

  Once the phoenix was a few inches away from the elf, his eyes suddenly shone with pure golden light. The elf was invisible to almost everyone, but Kai still managed to see traces of his aura with the Ultimate Focus and Mind Gates. However, using them in this state cost him another twenty years of his life.

  Time seemed to stop. The phoenix slowed down, its wings tracing fiery crescents in the air as it inched toward its target like a turtle. The elf was the only object in the area moving at normal speed. He calmly walked past the bird and then ran up to An’na, who, to her credit, managed to see him but couldn’t react as she was moving at the speed of an old lady with a walker.

  Without taking the blade out from its scabbard, the elf hit her in the solar plexus. With a gasp, she bent over and fell to the ground. The elf hit her again. Fortunately, this time she managed to react. Instead of her head, the scabbard collided with her sword.

  Kai was able to see only a series of afterimages of this all.

  Space and Sword... Perfect understanding of the Force of Form... Kai realized, regaining his hand. But what is this luminous element? It’s definitely not Yang...

  “You’re right. It’s not. It’s something much rarer... The Path of Light. The fastest element,” Rune’Tan explained. “Judging by its strength, this elf has achieved perfect mastery of the Force of Fusion. Considering his level, this is a great achievement. Do you know who this is, Kai?”

  “No... I don’t think I’ve ever seen him...”

  “Lightus Sixt. The first of the Cloud Ten.”

  Malvur jumped at Lightus and swung his glaive. Sidestepping, Lightus caught Shacks’ arrow that flew near his head. There was an explosion and Lightus was thrown back several feet. But he remained unharmed.

  “Looking for this?” Kai asked, holding the Three-Bladed Flower in his hand.

  Turning in his direction, Lightus raised his eyebrows in surprise and then looked at Kai’s Ring that was still in his hands.

  “Interesting.”

  “Well, I decided to take all the contents of my Ring out before you snatched it,” Kai explained, hiding the Plant.

  “Well, well... Seems that I’ve underestimated you... Yes, I’m here for the Three-Bladed Flower. I don’t know if you understand how valuable this Plant is to swordsmen. However, since you managed to surprise me, instead of fighting you, I’ll make you an offer — the Plant in exchange for thirty million Coins.”

  Kai observed him. Lightus was tall and thin like most elves, with delicate features. His luxurious black and white robe with golden patterns was adorned with blue stones that emanated power. A large gold pendant hung from his neck, and a beautiful diadem in the form of a bird spreading its wings, in the center of which was a similar blue stone, rested on top of his long blond hair. In one of his gloved hands, he held a long black blade, still sheathed in its scabbard.

  “Even if you hadn’t attacked, I still wouldn’t have sold the Flower,” Kai replied. “And now I want to sell it even less.”

  “I see. Well, in that case, I have no choice but to take it on my own.” With a sigh, Lightus looked at his subordinates who had already pushed aside all the Cloud Anarchists. “Don’t interfere. I’ll take care of these six myself.”

  “You took me by surprise! I bet you wouldn’t be able to defeat me in a fair fight!” An’na hissed, merging with the Spirits of Sword and Fire.

  “You’re rather arrogant,” Malvur said, expanding to his real size, and used his most powerful technique to summon an armor, reinforced by a Spirit of Earth.

  “Fun as you are to play with, you shouldn’t have messed with our friend.” Shacks grinned, also merging with his Spirits. In the blink of an eye, an arrow was already notched and the string pulled.

  “Don’t underestimate him,” Ranmaru warned them. “I can’t draw his ki. He’s strong.”

  What an interesting bunch... Do they think they can win? Lightus arched an eyebrow. Against me? Against the best student in the Abode? Fools.

  His eyes flashed and his skin became covered with shiny gold threads.

  “Be careful. This is the Spirit of Light...” Rune’Tan warned. “I can’t determine its strength. That Royal-rank diadem of his prevents me from feeling his soul.”

  Six techniques flew at Lightus. However, he was no longer where he was a second ago. In a flash of light, he rushed forward, heading straight for An’na. She raised her sword to protect herself but Malvur suddenly appeared in front of her, glaive at the ready. Steel met steel in a shower of sparks.

  Particle Reflection, Lightus activated his technique.

  Formed when the weapons collided, a bright flash turned the darkness of the night into the light of day. Malvur was lifted off the ground and he was tossed aside. All the power he put into the attack turned against him. He collided with An’na and they both flew into a snowdrift.

  I’ll deal with the weak ones first, Lightus decided, heading toward Ailenx.

  Suddenly, he shifted to the left, leaving a crater in the place where he had just been. A moment later, he had to dodge again, first avoiding Ranmaru’s sand technique, and then his sword.

  Raising his right palm, Lightus pointed it at his opponent. The beam of light that had formed in its center easily pierced through the sand and the artifact armor, and almost reached Ranmaru’s chest when he suddenly disappeared, having swapped places with Kai via the Step Through the Snow technique.

  The beam punctured Kai’s right lung instead, but he didn’t care. He was already lowering his swords, releasing two techniques at once.

  A giant wave of light burst out of Lightus’ scabbard to meet Kai’s attacks, incinerating the air around it and sweeping Kai away. He was saved by the ice armor.

  As he tried to move, Lightus realized that he was frozen to the ground. At the same time, a dozen reinforced arrows and water spears rushed at him from Ailenx’s direction, and four of Shacks’ doubles came out of hiding. Clenching his fist, Lightus chuckled, forming a sphere of bright light that destroyed everything within a radius of several feet.

  “Where is he?!” Ailenx blurted out, opening his eyes.

  “Here.”

  The blunt end of Lightus’s scabbard pierced Ailenx’s back and exited through his chest. The only thing that Ailenx was able to do before he collapsed was to activate his strongest healing technique and channel all the available ki into it.

  “Get away from him!” Malvur growled and waved his glaive.

  Lightus held up his scabbard to deflect the blade, but this time his technique didn’t work. Malvur realized that he needed to inject even more ki than Lightus would into the attack in order to overpower his Particle Reflection technique. This was tricky because he had to find the right moment for the additional infusion of ki. Pour it too soon and it’d disperse before time. Pouring it too late wasn’t an option if he wanted to live.

  The recoil made Malvur stagger back a couple of feet and knocked Lightus back into a rock.

  His opulent robe, which was actually artifact armor, bore the brunt of the impact, while the rest of the damage was absorbed by his defense technique. Before he reached the rock, he sensed Shacks’ arrow close to him. This time, only one.

 
; Having felt the power put into this attack, he didn’t even think about deflecting it. Trying to do anything against such a blow seemed risky. His defense wasn’t that good.

  Lightus activated the Field of Superiority and used it to push himself out of the arrow’s path, dodging it even though it was seemingly impossible.

  Once his feet touched the ground, he rushed forward, not paying attention to the explosion caused by the arrow smashing into the rock. He wanted to deal with Ranmaru next but An’na blocked his path, trapping herself and him in a huge dome of fire.

  “I can deal with you on my own.”

  “Are you sure?” Lightus asked condescendingly.

  In the blink of an eye, he appeared to the left of her.

  But An’na was ready.

  Steel met the metal of Lightus’ scabbard and an exchange of blows began. Two figures disappeared and reappeared in different places within the dome. Techniques flashed, their echoes shaking the ground.

  “Not bad. You’ve got skill, but your movements need improvement. You lack experience,” Lightus said, deflecting An’na’s attacks. “You overestimate yourself.”

  “Look who’s talking!” An’na grinned, bringing down her sword. “Shut up and fight!”

  Before their weapons could touch, the tendons in Lightus’ legs were cut. His defensive technique stopped the following attack.

  What is this?! he thought, shocked. Is this... Is this really the Will of the Sword?!

  In the next moment, An’na disappeared, having switched places with Malvur, whose massive glaive collided with Lightus’ scabbard.

  Malvur was only slightly pushed back, while the shockwave pierced Lightus’ flesh. The ground under his feet caved in, forming a small crater, and he coughed out blood.

  Just as he began to fall back, another one of Shacks’ doubles emerged out of nowhere. Its dagger managed to enter a couple of inches under Lightus’ shoulder before he destroyed the double. But he was too late. The poison was already in his bloodstream.

  The final attack came from above in the form of hundreds of ice blades and sand, boosted by An’na’s Sword Will.

  There was an explosion. The ground shook. Lightus’ aura disappeared.

  Everyone froze, waiting for the dust and ice to settle.

  “Looks like I relaxed a bit too much.” An’na heard from behind before she was knocked out by a powerful and well-aimed blow to the head.

  Lightus was on his feet again. Unharmed. The Healing Light Technique allowed him not only to restore the tendons and bones damaged by Malvur’s attack but also to get rid of the poison. On top of that, he had visibly changed. His eyes were still emitting light, but it was somehow distorted.

  He had merged with another Spirit. The Spirit of Space.

  “It’s high time I get serious and end this charade.”

  To do this, he’d use the most powerful combination of his powers. The one that gave him his nickname — the Elusive, and made him the cultivator who could teleport and move at the speed of light.

  Chapter 27

  NO CHOICE

  The fight lasted less than a minute.

  With his left foot on Ranmaru’s head, Lightus surveyed the battlefield. Seriously beaten and unconscious, number Ten hadn’t done much against him in this fight. He couldn’t oppose Lightus’ speed. The Desolation, his strongest skill, had no effect on the elf as he possessed a powerful Master’s Will. On the other hand, Lightus had no problem using the Field to hold down Ranmaru’s attacks.

  A dozen feet away to their left, Malvur was struggling to breathe. With his right leg broken in several places, he was forced to kneel, leaning against his glaive. His left eyelid was swollen, forcing his eye shut, and his head was buzzing. Other than that, he looked relatively unharmed. But only from the outside. He had severe internal injuries.

  Shacks was nowhere to be seen, having left to lick his wounds. At some point, Lightus got to him, telling him apart from his doppelgängers. Only a couple of attacks hit him, but they were strong.

  As for Lightus himself, he was unharmed. His sword was still in its scabbard, and he didn’t even need to use the Forces of Sword in this fight, which was odd as cultivators couldn’t use most of their techniques without a weapon or another medium. Unless they had perfect energy control, like Kai.

  As he was the heir of the great Sixt family, who received an active bloodline, Lightus was insanely strong even for someone of his level.

  Not only ancestors of powerful beasts could pass on their physical and spirit abilities, as well as bloodlines, to their descendants. Other beings, including Spirits, could transfer a certain part of their power to their offspring.

  Lightus inherited the blood of the founder of the Sixt family — a great master who almost gained divine power and managed to reach the level of the Perfect One on the Path of Light, one called The Lord of Luminous Heavens. His great ancestor settled in Nikrim even before the ancient war that nearly wiped the entire human civilization from this world. His children acquired a particle of his power, which was then passed on from generation to generation.

  The war didn’t only hit humankind. Elves also suffered greatly. The power of the Sixt clan declined. The purity of its blood was tainted, and the power of its descendants began to fade. By now, barely one in a thousand members of the family had an active bloodline. It was present in others, too, but only in traces. Attempts to forcefully activate it led to either death or madness.

  Lightus was among the lucky ones. His father was the head of the family and a tenth-level Holy Lord, and his mother was at the third level. They both had an inactive bloodline and belonged to two and distant family branches. However, both had reached such a high level of development that their child was born with a gift.

  The power of Luminous Heavens that Lightus had inherited had four aspects, which corresponded to the four basic Forces of the Path of Light: Speed, Incineration, Healing Light, and Distortion. Almost all carriers of active blood had only one aspect. Lightus had two.

  Speed and Incineration.

  His affinity for Light turned out to be so strong that he was able to master the Force of Speed even before he gained the ability to control ki at the age of ten.

  By now, Lightus had achieved tremendous success in learning the Path of Light. He was a mid-level Exorcist, but the fact that he gained perfect understanding of the Force of Fusion, being only at the initial level, allowed him to rise to first place on the List in just six months.

  The strength of any element depended not only on the direct presence of this Force but also on the degree of its connection to the soul, mind, and body of a cultivator. And Lightus was more strongly connected with Light than any cultivator was with their element. An’na and Malvur who had also mastered the Force of Fusion on their Paths were inferior to him, even though An’na had reached the next Stage and had her Sword Sphere.

  On top of that, Lightus didn’t fight alone. Inside, he had support from a Senior Spirit of Space, as well as a Young Light Elemental.

  Bending one such Elemental to your will was considered almost impossible, no matter how strong the cultivator was. If a True Master tried to put it in their soul, it could kill them, and no seals that usually deprived the Spirits of their power were helpful here. Such a fate would have awaited Lightus if not for his close connection with the element of Light that allowed him to safely absorb and take control over the Elemental.

  In addition to all this, he had a lot of experience fighting talented cultivators. Before he came to the Cloud Abode, he constantly fought against the strongest cultivators of the entire Tael kingdom.

  Even when he became the first on the List, Lightus didn’t stop honing his skills, constantly training with other members of the Ten, and hunting down the most dangerous monsters in the anomaly zones. He even crossed paths with the strongest cultivators of the other two Abodes.

  The heir of the Sixt family was truly powerful, so it wasn’t surprising that he dealt with Kai and his friends. Fi
rst, with Malvur, then with An’na.

  It was only after the girl lost consciousness that Lightus decided that it was better not to tempt fate and underestimate Kai. He clearly remembered his fight with Ranmaru and all the skills he had so far demonstrated at the Abode.

  Wasting no time, he nailed Kai to the ground with his Field. With his speed and quick thinking, he was a potential threat and needed to be eliminated. He knew that Kai wouldn’t be able to resist as he was unaccustomed to using this skill and his will was weaker.

  Then he beat Shacks, quickly got rid of Ailenx, and the last person he attacked was Ranmaru.

  “It’s over,” Lightus announced, turning to Kai. Nodding in the direction of his friends, he added, “Give me the Flower, or I’ll kill them.”

  Three of them, to be more precise. I can’t kill the girl and you lest I risk messing up my plans. Once the elections begin, the Key candidates are untouchable. Good thing I found out about it in time.

  Lightus wasn’t bluffing. He would’ve killed his own mother for the Three-Bladed Flower if she’d refuse to hand it over. He was certain that Kai and his friends had no idea just how valuable this Plant actually was.

  The Flower grew in zones that were so dangerous that only Holy Lords dared to search for it, and was the main ingredient for the Blade Unity Infusion that allowed a cultivator to enter the state of special enlightenment. In it, they were capable of either finding the correct way of achieving the Path of Sword’s Force of Fusion or increasing the degree of unity with the element in their body, soul, and mind, therefore increasing the chance of creating a Sword Sphere in the future. This was why even masters sought this miraculous herb.

  The fact that the Anarchists found the Flower here, in a relatively safe area, was nothing short of a miracle.

  Like most other Spirit Plants, this Flower occasionally changed its location, looking for a new source of nutrients, such as a cultivator’s powerful sword, left over from the time of the ancient war, which slowly rusted away, emitting Force particles.