by Mars Gravity
Yun Che slowly stood up. Without his arm to support him, it was a bit difficult. “You want to die, but I don’t… I selected the heavy sword so that I could take care of the people I chose to protect. The first person to fall under the protection of my heavy sword is not a family member, or a loved one, or even a friend. It’s you…. If I’m not capable of defending the very first person to come under my protection, then how can I continue to use the heavy sword?
“Today, I’ll bet my life and my dignity to show you, you who hates men… what is… a true man!!”
“UAHHHHHHH!!!”
Yun Che opened his eyes to its extreme limit as he let out his hoarse cry. He jerked the right side of his body, causing the dislocated arm to snap forward. It clicked back into place with a popping sound…. It only took a moment, but the pain was unimaginable. However, Yun Che didn’t so much as frown. His arm was now back in its original position, but couldn’t be moved forward. He gripped the hilt of the heavy sword and looked at the approaching Stone Dragon General. He laughed, a laughter grim and shrill.
“Burning… Heart!!”
As the two words erupted from his mouth, his eyes suddenly filled with a light red color. Evil God’s Profound Veins’ second gate —— Burning Heart, a gate that he would never dare to open under any circumstances, was forcibly opened by him in his most weakened state.
Inside the Sky Poison Pearl, Yun Che’s action caused Jasmine to turn pale in shock. She opened her mouth, but then immediately bit down the words that nearly left her mouth. While accessing Yun Che’s current condition, she went into a daze; her vision became hazy as an indistinct figure that she always yearned for appeared before her eyes. Then, it slowly overlapped with Yun Che’s current form…
His personality seemed very, very much like that of her older brother…
In order to protect those he must protect, in order to protect his own pride and honor…
He knew what he had to do, and he knew what would happen if he did… However, he would never hesitate. Furthermore, there wasn’t anyone who could stop him…
When “Burning Heart”, the Evil God’s second gate, opened, the previously exhausted body was suddenly filled with an incomparable vigor. But at the same time, it also gave rise to unstable energy ripples. Yun Che gripped the heavy sword and let out a roar of rage. He hurled the heavy sword toward the incoming Stone Dragon General…. The blade of the sword danced with scarlet Phoenix Flames.
“Phoenix Break!!”
This Phoenix Break did not send forth a blazing phoenix. but rather, a flaming heavy sword!
Flames danced madly upon the surface of the heavy sword’s blade as it transformed into an enormous steel phoenix. It shot forward toward the Stone Dragon General as flames filled with unstoppable power rippled. Yun Che flew along behind it. As he did, phoenix flames burst out around him, as a pair of resplendent illusory phoenix wings sprouted from his back.
“Empyrean Dance of the Phoenix Wing!!”
They flew through the air, sword and man!
Bang!!!!
The heavy sword stabbed into the chest of the Stone Dragon General, sending flames bursting out. Massive tongues of fire engulfed the Stone Dragon General, shoving its torso backward. The force of the explosion caused Yun Che’s torso to also bend backwards. Thrown off balance, he lost control and spun down towards the ground.
He spun in midair, while keeping one arm encircled protectively around Chu Yuechan. His other hand reached out to grab the heavy sword as it flew back toward him. Vicious violence glittered in his eyes as he raised the heavy sword high into the air…
“Sky… Wolf… Slash!!”
“Haah!!!”
A massive wind chaotically sprung up, and a blue wolf howling at the sky flashed behind Yun Che. As Yun Che brandished the heavy sword, the wolf shot forward, carrying with it power seemingly sufficient to collapse the heavens and crush the earth.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…..
The wolf charged, leaving a deep gully in its wake as it shot forward. It reached the fallen Stone Dragon General in the blink of an eye, slamming into it and sent the Stone Dragon General flying up into the air. The immense power of the attack knocked the Stone Dragon General a full one hundred meters away. It slammed into the side of the mountain, then slowly slid down toward the ground. Crumbling rocks and debris rained down onto it, burying it completely. Only its heavy sword remained on the outside.
Chu Yuechan watched mutely as all of this happened, seemingly having lost the ability to even think.
“Did… did it… work?” she said. She felt as if she were in some sort of dream. Despite such a serious injury, despite being drained of energy, Yun Che had suddenly erupted with a shocking amount of power…. He was like some sort of monster. It was as if his body didn’t have any bottom line.
The only answer she received was the ear-splitting drone of the heavy sword.
Chu Yuechan forced her tiny head to look up. When she caught sight of Yun Che’s face, her eyes instantly grew wide.
Yun Che’s eyes were closed, and two thin streams of blood seeped out from their corners. Blood also oozed out of his mouth, nose and ears.
Drip… drip….
Faint but intense cracking sounds could be heard, emanating from Yun Che’s skin, blood vessels and bones. The skin on his face, arms, and body… were slowly being filled with cracks. Blood oozed out of the cracks. Over a few breaths of time, his face began to fill with similar narrow cracks. It looked like parched, dry earth… beneath his clothes, cracks covered the rest of his body. Beneath his skin, his blood vessels and bones also seemed to be splitting apart.
Using the Burning Heart in a normal situation was dangerous enough. But to use it in a weakened state was even worse. Yun Che had predicted that something like this would happen. The three moves he had made after using Burning Heart had completely sapped him of all energy and will. Perhaps it would turn out to be his final blaze of glory before dying.
Ba-thump….
Yun Che’s left arm went limp and Little Fairy dropped to the ground. Then, Yun Che fell flat onto the ground, unmoving. He didn’t even have a chance to utter a single word to Little Fairy.
“Yun Che… Yun Che… Yun Che!!”
Chu Yuechan’s cried out as loud as she could and reached out to touch him with her right arm, the only arm she could move. However, she was simply too weak. The half pace that existed between them was a gap too far to cross. She looked at Yun Che, who laid there motionless, hemorrhaging blood, and her heart began to throb with pain…. It was a pain she had never felt before, mixed with a deep dread —— dread that Yun Che might die.
Before she realized what was happening, her vision began to grown blurry. This fact filled her mind with numbness and confusion, because… she was crying. Dozens of years had passed in which she never imagined that she would cry, especially not for a man so beneath her. What was unfamiliar, were not only her uncontrollable tears, nor the unbearable pain which stabbed into her heart like an arrow, but also deep fear.
Here she was, crying. She didn’t know why she was crying, or why she felt pain, or why she was scared…. She began to weep; great billowing waves of weeping that she couldn’t prevent, and couldn’t stop.
“Yun Che… Yun Che!” she cried with a voice filled with helplessness and sorrow.
Boom!!
Her shouts did not provoke any response from Yun Che. However, over at the base of the mountain, the sounds of crumbling rocks suddenly sounded out. The Stone Dragon General suddenly emerged from the pile of rubble. Debris showered off its body as it stood up once more.
Chapter 185: Between Life and Death (2)
The Stone Dragon General lifted its heavy sword and walked forward step by step; each step was like the approaching footsteps of a Death God.
Chu Yuechan motionlessly stared blankly. In this certain death situation, the Yun Che who was completely covered in blood, made her, who had been wholeheartedly seeking death, suddenly possess
an intense will to live. Because her current life was desperately protected by Yun Che’s own life and conviction. If she died, all of Yun Che’s efforts and injuries would have all been for naught. Whether it was for herself, or for everything he had done for her, she did not want to die anymore… and even more so, did not want Yun Che to die.
If it was the her before today, eliminating this Stone Dragon General would only take a split second. But at this moment, this enemy that she would’ve never taken a glance at previously, had become a Death God that she was incapable of opposing. Every step the Stone Dragon General took to draw near, her expression became all the more ice-cold and unwilling… At this moment, her eyes suddenly flashed and she remembered something that she had long forgotten for many years.
She struggled to open her right hand and took out an extremely small glass bead from her spatial ring. Then, she used every inch of her strength to pinch it into pieces. Immediately, the shattered bead released an expanse of an ice-blue brilliant aurora. After that, the blue radiance flashed and formed a flowing ice-aurora barrier around Chu Yuechan and Yun Che.
The Stone Dragon General currently within five steps away. Its body rammed against the barrier and was bounced back by the tough barrier. The Stone Dragon General took a step back, raised the gigantic sword in its hands, and heavy smashed at the barrier.
Boom!!
The Stone Dragon General exploded with power yet the ice-blue barrier only rippled faintly and did not show any signs of being damaged. However, the Stone Dragon General’s body was repelled by the tremor and was knocked two steps back. Unresigned, it continued onwards and repeatedly attacked the barrier with its heavy sword but it was never able to make any sort of crack on the barrier.
The bead that Chu Yuechan had shattered was called the “Frozen Soul Bead”. After breaking it into pieces, a “Frozen Soul Barrier” would be released. The longest duration a Frozen Soul Barrier could last was ten hours. Not only that, any profound practitioner lower than the Sky Profound Realm was incapable of damaging it.
This Frozen Soul Bead was given to her by her master when she was around the age of twenty to use during a life-threatening situation. But only a few years after that, she had already broken through into the Sky Profound Realm, so there weren’t any situations in which she had to use it. Ten or so years had passed so she simply had already forgotten about the Frozen Soul Bead’s existence. However, just a moment ago, when her passion to live ignited once more, she suddenly remembered it.
Although the Stone Dragon General wielded a Sky Profound heavy sword, its own profound strength was merely at the Spirit Profound Realm; it was fundamentally impossible for it to split open this Frozen Soul Barrier. The surrounding Stone Dragon Warriors that were summoned by the Stone Dragon General all charged forward and all sorts of weaponry bombarded the barrier. But even if these Stone Dragon Warriors came again a hundred times, or a thousand times, there was no way of making even a sliver of an dent on the barrier.
Inside the Frozen Soul Barrier, they were safe for the time being. Although Yun Che was motionless, bleed from all seven apertures on his head, and was riddled with scars, Chu Yuechan still faintly sensed his extremely weak life force. Under the temporary protection of the Frozen Soul Barrier, she silently watched Yun Che and waited for a miracle to happen… Which was Yun Che standing up again. Since he was able to stand up so many times before, he was definitely able to stand up once more.
Yun Che indeed had not died yet, and he was actually completely conscious the entire time. He just could not feel his body, couldn’t see anything, and could not hear anything. His completely awake consciousness was also especially fuzzy. If it weren’t for the support of his unwavering willpower, this wisp of consciousness would have long since dissipated.
The three drops of Phoenix blood actively circulated near his heart and protected the last of his life force within its flames.
I can’t… die yet…
How can… I die… here…
Little aunt’s waiting for me… Senior sister’s also waiting for me… Jasmine gave me a new lease in life, and I haven’t even fulfilled a single one of my promises to her…
I absolutely… cannot… die!!
His barely remaining consciousness had completely transformed into a will to live. He knew clearly, that in order to live, he had to forcibly suppress the rupturing of his body brought about by Burning Heart right away. It was just that the current him was incapable of mobilizing his internal energy. The opening of Burning Heart, had also completely paralyzed his profound veins. The only thing he could arouse was the Great Way of the Buddha that was within his consciousness.
He was incapable of sensing anything from the outside world, so he was naturally unable to be disturbed. Under this sort of state, his mind reached a sort of concentrated peak. Inside his mind, the profound formula for the Great Way of the Buddha clearly surfaced…
I, am the master of everything in this world. Buddha exists in my heart, so I am worthy of the Great Way…
The Great Way of the Buddha slowly began to activate. Using his consciousness as the starting point, it slowly spread toward his broken body and gradually began to absorb in nature’s essence.
The Great Way of the Buddha’s fundamentals just happened to use the essence of nature to temper one’s own body. It would bestow the body with an enormous strength that was extremely resilient and could also rapidly quicken an injury’s recovery. At the lowest of levels, the Great Way of the Buddha could absorb the essence of nature. At the intermediate level, it could then take in the origin of nature’s essence. And at the later stages, legend has it that it could absorb the original essence of Primordial Gods.
Yun Che’s current injuries were too severe and was a fine line away from death. The activated Great Way of the Buddha was no more than a cup of water on a flaming cart of firewood; the speed at which it recovered his injuries was completely incapable of catching up to the speed of his injuries worsening. His body’s vitality left him at a quicker rate than it absorbing the essence of nature. However, Yun Che was completely unaware of everything that was happening; he merely clung onto his will to live. While tenaciously refusing to allow the last of his consciousness to fade, he desperately channeled the Great Way of the Buddha.
The Great Way of the Buddha’s profound formula slowly drifted in Yun Che’s consciousness. Yun Che’s entire consciousness concentrated upon it… Suddenly, these profound words became indistinct and then rapidly scattered about. Then, a slowly rotating silver colored pagoda appeared in its place… Afterwards, the slowly rotating pagoda enlarged, and then enlarged again, until it filled his entire consciousness…
Ping…
This silver colored pagoda in his consciousness shattered into pieces after slightly trembling, and became brilliant silver rays of light that filled the sky… At the same time, a faint layer of silvery radiance also surfaced upon Yun Che’s body that was riddled with scars.
The Great Way of the Buddha’s circulation suddenly became quicker; as if pulled in by an immense force, the essence of nature in the surroundings was quickly absorbed by Yun Che’s body. At the moment, his body that was currently riddled with ghastly cracks suddenly became the most optimal state in which he could take in the world’s elements.
The operation of the Great Way of the Buddha became faster and faster, and the absorption of nature’s essence also hastened with it. Gradually, it reached the extreme limit of the Great Way of the Buddha’s first stage, yet it still did not stop and operated at an even faster rate than Yun Che at peak condition.
The different aura was sensed by Chu Yuechan. She tilted her head and stared blankly at Yun Che… Currently, his entire body was covered in a thick layer of silver light, and this layer of silver light still continued to faintly expand as every crack that could be distinguished by the naked eye, slowly healed. Those minute cracks from before had now completely disappeared without a trace.