by Yuri Ajin
How?! He hasn’t even mastered the Force of Fusion! The difference between our techniques must be significant! Did he achieve this level only thanks to physical strength?
Kai’s fist collided with Mia’s arms, with which she had covered her face. The Living Armor on her forearms cracked and she was thrown back. Fortunately, the shield took on most of the attack so it didn’t deal much damage to her.
Mia hadn’t yet landed, but Kai was already next to her. He was about to unleash a series of powerful attacks to break through her armor and Cover and finish her off but he was stopped.
A spear of lightning flew toward him. Deciding to withstand the blow instead of dodging it, Kai froze himself in place with the help of energy. His Armor was slightly damaged, but he remained unharmed.
Pushing aside the spear, Kai was about to attack but Mia had wisely used the second of time she received. Lightning flew from her hands, hitting Kai in the form of a bright and wide beam. He dodged but a pair of ten-foot-tall wooden dolls immediately pounced on him, knocking him to the ground. He managed to throw them off but a couple of dozen more similar creatures surrounded him.
An army of dolls and a whirlwind of leaves rushed toward Kai, who surrounded himself with a cloud of dark fog. Yin instantly destroyed the whirlwind and proceeded toward the puppets. They turned out to be much stronger than the leaves but they did suffer some damage, due to which their speed dropped sharply. Taking advantage of this, Kai tried to jump out of their way when a sudden flash of powerful lightning struck him from the sky.
But Mia didn’t stop there, sending a dozen sparkling swords at Kai. A moment later, there was a bright flash that lit up the sky, followed by roaring explosions.
When the dust settled and the rumbling subsided, Mia saw a crater, in the center of which was a cracked ice sphere. Inside of it was Kai. Protected by the Impenetrable Repelling Field Technique and the partially broken Ice Armor, he was relatively unharmed.
After taking a few steps, Kai was about to jump when his body was suddenly constrained. This time it wasn’t the vines, but Lightning penetrating his flesh. He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t get rid of it immediately, which Mia took advantage of.
Several lianas burst out of the ground, burrowing themselves into Kai’s flesh.
Activating the Life Drain Technique, the seeds of which had dug itself into Kai’s defense along with the recent attacks, Mia hoped that she’d put an end to this fight.
Kai began to feel his strength leave him. His ki didn’t budge, but the strength of his physical body flowed like water through his fingers, sucked out by the very plants that were holding him down.
After a moment of struggle, he activated his bloodline, replenishing all the wasted energy and strength. After getting rid of the Lightning that was binding him, he saturated his surroundings with a huge amount of Yin particles and began to destroy the plants that had become one with his flesh. But the vines were instantly restored, using the vital force drawn from his body.
Realizing that getting rid of them wouldn’t be so easy, Kai decided to deal with Mia and nip this problem at the root. But before he could even take a step, he fell to his knees, having lost control over his muscles due to invading plants growing inside him.
“It’s pointless to fight it. Once you get caught in Life Drain, nothing can save you,” Mia said. She stayed away as she was afraid that Kai could still use long-range techniques to fight her. “I suggest you remove your Field and let me kill you. You’ll be better off. You’ll suffer less.”
But Kai wasn’t listening. He tried to destroy the vines, which had formed a cocoon around him by this point, by letting them absorb not only his vitality but also particles of Yin and the Cold Void. He saw that these plants were connected with Mia via their roots, transforming his vitality into energy and pouring into her.
“It’s useless!” Mia laughed, feeling what Kai was trying to do. “Plants are some of the best natural filters. Don’t even think about harming me through my own technique. It won’t work.”
And she was right. Kai really didn’t manage to hurt her that way. But this didn’t mean that he was going to give up.
In almost any battle, you should strive to use the minimum strength necessary to win. This is the only way you can hone your skills to perfection. Kai remembered Acilla’s words. She was now watching him through the Pact and following his progress. You can consider this an additional test, the one with weights. Not physical, but mental. Such things are needed to prevent the cultivator from winning solely through brute force and force them to adapt and look for ways to win using only the necessary minimum. This is how you’ll learn to realize the maximum potential of your abilities. From now on, skill should be more important than strength. And although you don’t need to spend many years preparing your soul for a breakthrough, your speed of development will still drop because you’ll need to collect more and more rare resources each time. And that’s the time you should use to hone your skills.
It was because of this lesson that he wasn’t using Rampage of Life, Ultimate Focus, or even a sword right now. He even tried to save ki as much as he could. Under such restrictions, he only had two options if he wanted to win. The first one was to try to use the Field and Space instead of muscles to control his body and try to get close to Mia to inflict enough damage to sever her connection with Life Drain.
The idea was both tempting and challenging at the same time. However, he didn’t have time to try to put it in motion. He came to help his friends, not test his limits and hone his skills.
Therefore, he switched to the second idea that came to mind. Acilla had instructed him to learn to adapt to his opponents and look for weak points, while simultaneously being aware of his strengths and weaknesses. And that was precisely what he was going to do now.
Mia frowned. More than half a minute had passed, and she still couldn’t drain Kai. It was as if his life force was infinite.
What kind of bloodline does he have?! she thought, irritated, and then grinned. Whatever. I’ll break through his barrier eventually... And when I do...
She began to form her strongest Lightning technique using the ki she took from Kai. She was almost done creating a dozen attacks when she suddenly flinched.
“What’s that?” she asked in surprise, feeling a strange impulse come to her through the vines.
In the next moment, her eyes widened and her body shook uncontrollably. She tried to redirect the increased flow of alien Forces but there was so much that she couldn’t control it. She decided to dispel the technique, but, to her surprise, it didn’t work. It was like trying to stop a waterfall using just her hands.
She knew that she could try to forcibly break the connection and then burn the plants with Lightning, but the bond had become so strong that any attempt to abruptly end it could result in a soul injury.
So the only way to deal with this problem was to slowly and carefully dismantle the link. And although this caused her considerable spirit pain, her soul would be safe. But still, one problem remained — she didn’t know if she’d have time to sever the connection before her body was torn from an overabundance of energy.
For the first few seconds, it seemed that she’d manage. She even smiled, thinking that everything would work out when the flow of Kai’s life force increased almost fivefold. At the same moment, she felt a wild pain throughout her entire body. The capillaries in her eyes burst, and a second later, her skin began to peel off. Her organs, including the brain, turned to mush.
Mia died.
Kai finally emerged from the crater formed by Mia’s recent attacks, encircled by a dark whirlwind. Yin rapidly destroyed the remains of the plants, burning off some of Kai’s skin in the process. It hurt, but he didn’t mind as it’d grow back within moments.
His plan to beat Mia was simple, but it allowed him to discover a new facet of his abilities. Whenever Mia would take a bit of his energy, he would immediately restore the missing amount. Curious about just h
ow much she could take, Kai decided to test Mia’s limits, temporarily forcing his body to regenerate faster with the help of Yang. The process was somewhat similar to Eight Flashes of Yang. However, instead of a quick release of compressed regeneration, he used it measuredly and not in such a large amount. This turned out to be enough for Mia to lose control and die by her own technique.
Upon reaching the corpse, Kai took Mia’s token and the Rings she had obtained over the past eleven days. Then he examined himself. Realizing that his clothes were in tatters, he tore them off and tailored himself a beautiful snow-white robe from the particles of Cold Void.
Although it seemed that Kai was close to losing this battle, he didn’t even spend fifteen percent of his strength. Mia, on the other hand, lost about fifty percent of her energy during the fight and almost one-third of her spirit stamina.
However, it’d be a lie to say that this victory was achieved through skill alone. Mia got unlucky. She was a Master of Techniques — a cultivator who specialized in ranged attacks through the use of techniques. For such masters, the main tactic was to keep their opponent at bay and defeat them with powerful attacks from a distance. Except Kai turned out to be one of those rare individuals who possessed a high defense, quality regeneration, and great speed. It was cultivators like Lightus and him that were considered the worst opponents for most ranged fighters.
Kai returned to the gate. Having destroyed it with one blow, he took the reward — a Spirit Fruit with a Fire attribute — and finally entered the city.
All that remained was to find his friends and get to the final outpost.
Chapter 39
REVENGE
Once he entered the gates, Kai expanded his spirit perception as far as it would go, using one of Rune’Tan’s secret skills. After reaching the Exorcist Stage, Kai’s aura became bigger, and with the ability to significantly expand it, he could now cover the whole city.
He sensed more than a dozen auras. Three of them belonged to his friends who had already gathered in the center. Judging by the dome of calm energy that surrounded them, all three were meditating now.
Figuring that they didn’t need him at the moment, he concentrated on other parts of the city. Not too far, he felt Kenji’s aura.
Might as well pay him a visit...
And although the dwarf was guarding one of the outposts, the two didn’t fight. Instead, they greeted each other, and only then did Kai rush to his friends.
The journey took several minutes. Kai hid his aura so that the other Guardians wouldn’t find him, and made his way to the dilapidated castle located in the center of the city. Before he approached it, his friends’ auras disappeared, and their team was disbanded. This alerted him, and he hastened his step.
Entering the building and scanning the environment with energy vision and spirit perception, he made his way to the huge hall on the top floor and examined it for the last traces of his friends.
“You’re late,” he heard someone’s voice from behind.
Turning abruptly, he saw a cloaked and masked figure. It looked as if it didn’t care about anything, studying the inscriptions on the walls.
The figure didn’t show its aura, and its presence couldn’t be detected unless you were looking straight at it. Even Rune’Tan didn’t sense its soul. However, Kai knew that it was Nomen.
“This place has quite an interesting history,” Nomen continued. “This dimension, called the Aive Hidden Valley, was actually a kind of a ship for traveling between worlds. It was created by people of a certain sect from a nearby world in order to flee their homeland during the great war. To do this, they used the most complex teleportation arrays. Unfortunately, nothing remains of them,” he said and turned around. “They got to Nikrim a long time ago, where they settled until the end of the war. There, they met a certain powerful cultivator and swore allegiance to him. But once he died, so did they. I wonder how the ship survived...” Nomen leaned his chin on his hand. “It says here that there was a second such ship, which also got to Nikrim. It’s a pity that we don’t know where it is. Also, a part of the sect didn’t swear allegiance to anyone. The fate of this group is unknown. This is intriguing ...”
“What’s going on? Why don’t I feel a soul, although I can clearly sense that you’re standing next to someone? Are you deliberately hiding information from me?” Acilla asked. She could feel the same things as Kai through the Pact, but she didn’t have access to Kai’s vision, hearing, and other perception organs, unlike Rune’Tan. “Or are they using a technique?”
“I don’t feel him with my aura either,” Kai replied. “But there are no techniques around him.”
“Really now?” she asked, surprised. “Even a Divine Stage cultivator can’t hide from your perception unless they’re using a technique. Who is this guy anyway?"
“We’ve met him before. He calls himself Nomen,” Rune’Tan explained. “Kai can see his astral body and the amount of ki he has, so we can say for sure that he’s a mid-level Exorcist. But that’s only part of the truth. His soul and abilities are incomprehensible to me. I dare to assume that at one point he was a god.”
“Is that so?” Acilla frowned. “Interesting...”
After that, she fell silent.
“Are you the Guardian of this place?” Kai asked, ignoring Nomen’s story.
“No. This castle doesn’t have a Guardian. I was asked to defend the north gate, but I decided to take a walk instead. My legs were growing tired from standing in one place.”
“Then where are my friends?”
“You probably think that I did something to them...” Nomen shook his head. “I didn’t touch them. I helped them, actually. Although they’re not here, they’re still in the Aive Hidden Valley. They’re... over there,” he said and pointed up.
Kai looked up. Part of the ceiling was missing, so his gaze settled on the heavens. However, apart from clouds and the endless blue sky, he saw nothing.
“Sixty miles above the city, a little to the side, there’s a small floating island. This is the final outpost. That’s where they went,” Nomen explained.
“How did they get up there?”
“There’s a teleport in this castle. I helped them figure out how to activate it.”
They should’ve sensed me coming. So why did they still decide to go fight Lightus on their own? They must’ve gotten stronger after that fight in the mountains to be at least a little confident in their victory. Kai reasoned. If that’s the case, then I don’t mind letting them fight. But... I also have my own goals...
“Where’s the teleport?”
“Right behind you.”
Kai turned and looked around. The only thing that stood out was a small platform around a silvery pillar stuck into the floor, covered with strange symbols. Walking toward it, he heard Nomen’s voice.
“You need help?”
After examining the array, Kai admitted to himself that he didn’t know how to use it. To figure it out, he’d probably need to meditate for several hours on the platform itself, using energy vision.
“I wouldn’t mind a tip,” he replied.
“Stand inside. Take hold of the pillar with your hands, and then start pouring ki into the symbols that I’ll draw with my energy.”
Kai stared at Nomen for a few seconds before he finally nodded, deciding to trust him. Nomen must’ve had a reason to help him. But if he decided to play him a fool, Kai had Acilla and Rune’Tan to aid him.
***
Meanwhile, on the floating island, a fight was taking place.
Over the past month, An’na, Shacks, and Malvur had become very skilled in using their movement techniques, training hard as if they had been preparing specially for this battle.
Recognizing the trio as a serious threat, Lightus used more strength than he had during their last encounter. He even unsheathed his blade.
But the main reason for his dominance were the difference in combat experience and the fact that the trio was poorly prepared.<
br />
An’na owned only two elements — Sword and Fire. She couldn’t compete with Space and Light, even if she surpassed Lightus on the Path of Sword.
Malvur followed the Path of Space, but he mainly used it for destruction, not for acceleration. With his heavy protection, he would’ve hardly been able to develop high speed without it.
Roughly the same was true for Shacks. He had just begun to study the Path of Lightning. As for the Mist and Arrow, he could win with them only if he had the terrain advantage. And on a small, flat island in the middle of the sky, he didn’t.
This didn’t mean that with their elements and fighting styles, the trio couldn’t win. As skillful and talented cultivators, they had a chance. Still, all this boiled down to experience and skill, which Lightus had a lot of.
Of course, there were other ways to win, such as surpassing your opponent’s raw strength in the way a Holy Lord was superior to an Exorcist. An’na and Malvur would’ve defeated Lightus back in the mountains had there not been one “but” — Lightus’ Elemental of Light. That nullified the difference in the amount of ki. That time, he had more of it than the three of them put together, which brought him victory.
Almost a minute and a half had passed since the beginning of the fight, and the trio was already barely holding on. Their energy and spirit stamina were running out, and they were covered with wounds. Malvur lost his hand and Shacks his left eye. An’na received several deep stabs in her stomach and chest, which, fortunately, she was able to close with the cauterizing healing power of Fire.
Lightus wasn’t having it all that good either. The trio’s excellent teamwork allowed them to inflict a lot of damage. And although Lightus either dodged or defended himself with a barrier from most attacks, they were still able to draw blood. More than once.
But no matter what they did, it was clear that they’d lose. The weapons were slipping from their hands, and they had no strength left to create techniques. All they could do was move, defend, and cover one another.