Inheritance

by Gore, A. P.

  “Another down.” Wei cleaned his sword on the cloth of his opponent.

  “You’re courting death.” Shouting, Tiang Chi attacked. “Wood Splitting Sword.” His sword reverberated with an intense brown light and sent a shockwave at Wei. Wherever the shockwave passed, the grass and weeds growing on the ground swayed with it, increasing the attack’s power by a little. Combined with Tiang Chi’s layer seven qi Foundation Realm cultivation, by the time the shockwave reached Wei, it had power equal to a layer eight qi Foundation Realm cultivator.

  Wei squinted. It was a wood attributed attack, and it had gained support from nature when it passed through the grass. Only a Gold Grade martial skill could borrow help from nature. This guy wasn’t a nobody.

  Before Wei could think of a solution, the attack had reached him. It was so fast that he had no time to prepare.

  Wei frowned. The shockwave was spread over a few feet of area, so there was no option to dodge or initiate a One Sword Strike. The only option was to take it head on, but he wasn’t sure if he could face it like that.

  “Mad Elephant Stomp.” Wei slammed his foot on the ground, sending a physical force tearing through the earth. The shockwave generated from his stomp clashed with the shockwave from Tiang Chi’s attack, but Tiang Chi’s shockwave decimated Wei’s and continued charging forward.

  But it had lost around forty percent of its power, and that was enough for Wei to take it head on.

  Pulling his elbow back, Wei sent a palm attack with all his physical force behind it. He regretted not learning any martial skill for palm attacks. If he had one, this would be easier.

  Their attacks clashed in mid-air, generating a small cloud of dust and broken grass blades.

  “How did he do that?” Someone shouted from the crowd because Wei had neutralized Tiang Chi’s best attack, and as far as they could tell, Wei only had layer eight qi Refinement Realm cultivation.

  “How did you . . .?” Tiang Chi shouted and sent another sword attack aimed at Wei.

  However, Wei was ready, and he used a One Sword Strike to neutralize the whole attack. His One Sword Strike had almost reached the middle completion, and it could dissipate seventy percent of the incoming attack. The remaining thirty percent, Wei took with his body, burning a blood pearl here and there to neutralize it.

  Yet he had to stagger backward a few feet to neutralize the attack completely.

  “Impossible.” Tiang Chi pushed his fingers through his hair and let it loose. Now he looked like a lunatic. “I’ll kill you. How can an ant like you dare to stop my attack?” Shouting, he sent another sword attack. “Wood Annihilation Sword.”

  Wei furrowed his brow. This sword strike was more powerful than the previous one, and if he wanted to take it head on, he would suffer some internal injuries. He could burn dozens of blood pearls to match its strength, but he would still suffer serious injuries. His body could only manage burning a few blood pearls at any given time.

  But he didn’t have to do any of that. The attack was slow as fuck.

  “My time.” Sidestepping, Wei avoided the vertical shockwave sent by Tiang Chi and counterattacked. “One Sword Strike.” His sword descended like lightning striking down from the heavens. The strike had everything he had. All his physical power amplified by ten blood pearls. It could obliterate a layer seven qi Foundation Realm cultivator easily. That was the difference between a body cultivator and a qi cultivator. Body cultivators could always trample through the qi cultivators a few ranks above them.

  For the first time since their battle started, fear flashed through Tiang Chi’s eyes. If he couldn’t neutralize this attack, he would lose miserably.

  “Weighted Boulder Force.” Five men surrounded Wei out of nowhere and placed their hands on the ground, sending their earth qi into the ground.

  Suddenly everything around Wei weighed more than before. His blood churned inside, and his speed halved in the blink of a second. His ferocious sword strike looked like a child swinging his sword.

  “Damn.” These bastards had used an earth-based martial skill to manipulate the surrounding area. Once a person reached the Foundation Realm, they could send a little of their qi into other objects, but it wasn’t sufficient to manipulate five elements. It could only produce some superficial effects around weapons or their clothes, but there were some martial skills that used multiple people to overcome this deficiency. They worked as a team and manipulated elements impossible on an individual level.

  And this team had a martial skill that allowed them to manipulate the earth element.

  Wei’s blood churned inside his body as the pressure on his whole body increased drastically. It was as if he stood below a heavy waterfall that weighed tons. Every move he made took twice the amount of energy it would normally take.

  This was bad.

  “Wang Sin, what are you waiting for? Join hands with others and increase the pressure to three times the gravity. I want to see how he dares to counterattack,” Tiang Chi shouted, but he didn’t dare come forward because Wei was staring at him.

  Wei gazed at the four men pinning him down with a strange earth type of martial skill. They were here for only this purpose. They were support type martial artists, and if he took one of them, he would be free of this strange skill. But if one more joined, he would be in trouble.

  Triple the earth’s gravity would be a huge blow to his battle powers.

  Triple the earth’s gravity. His lips curled upward in a frantic smile. This was tailor made for him.

  Chapter 41

  Uninvited guest

  Intense pressure pulled Li Wei down. Like nectar attracting bees, the gravity field pulled every muscle in his body downwards. Every single piece of his body weighed three times what it should.

  Even moving an eyelid became a drag.

  With every step, the pressure increased. His shoulders slumped; his tattered sky-blue robe hugged his muscles tightly. The weight was pushing him down, and if this continued, he would kneel before his enemy.

  “Break for me.” Wei flexed his muscles, raising his chin and then his shoulders. It couldn’t push him down. His undying will rushed through his blood, giving him a strange sense of newfound strength.

  His bones cracked, and he finally stood erect, like an emperor going against thousands of enemies.

  Licking his lips, he absorbed moisture from the air. Despite immense tension in his muscles, his mind was active and running faster than ever. This was his opportunity to practice the Blood Gravity Field Divine Art.

  Tiang Chi snorted. “Wei Lin, give up. You can’t go against three times the gravity. Even a Bone Baptization Realm expert would slump under the pressure of this gravity art.”

  Wei chuckled like a madman. Rather than feeling troubled, he welcomed this pressure. Now all he needed was to focus his mind on his blood and sense the feeling of the gravity. Yes, he had to comprehend gravity and stimulate his blood to form a shield to negate the effects. It was a weird method, but that shield would become the Blood Earth Force Divine Art.

  Well, that was how it was written in the description. But how did he do it? Just think about his blood forming a small shield around his body?

  Damn. Suddenly he realized he had no idea how he was supposed to practice this divine art. On top of that, focusing on the gravity was nearly impossible. Tiang Chi stood a few feet away. How could Wei focus on the feeling?

  “Again.” Wei chuckled, provoking Tiang Chi.

  “Wei Lin. You overestimate yourself. Today you’ll die by my sword.” Tiang Chi swiped his sword down, sending a shockwave at Wei.

  Wei smirked. If this moron thought he could beat him with some gravity field, then he was a fool.

  “One Sword Strike.” Wei used all his strength and inserted his pure qi into his arms, using his qi as an extra push to increase his battle power. Using his qi to strengthen his arms increased his attack power.

  His bones cracked and muscles flexed to the limit when his sword acted against the gravi
ty and slashed down, meeting Tiang Chi’s shockwave head on.

  When their attacks met, Wei felt the pure qi inside his sword weakening. Against an overbearing force, his qi trembled. It was too weak compared to the incoming attack.

  Tiang Chi’s attack overpowered him and crashed against his chest.

  A long cut appeared on his chest, dying his robe with blood. Blood sprayed out and painted a dusty patch around his body in red. The force wasn’t done, though. It had penetrated his muscles and now rampaged inside his body, tearing his veins and muscles. Added with the pressure from the gravity field, it felt like his body was being crushed under a mad elephant’s feet.

  “Fuck!” Wei groaned and staggered back to neutralize the force, but it was too much, and he ended up spitting blood everywhere.

  Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation tickling his blood. For a moment he could sense the gravity field around him. But it was only for a moment. It vanished as soon as his external wounds healed.

  Did he sense it when he bled?

  He wanted to test further, but Tiang Chi didn’t give him a chance and attacked again.

  Gritting his teeth, Wei attacked back with the One Sword Strike. Thanks to the gravity field, Tiang Chi only used short-range attacks from outside of the field. If he walked into the gravity field, his attacks would become suppressed too.

  But it was only a momentary advantage for Wei.

  Every attack crashed into his body and wounded him more. After three attacks, his ribs were exposed, and he lost an enormous amount of blood. If it wasn’t for his Blood Essence Body cultivation, he would have died already.

  “Again.” Wei wiped blood from his eyes and struck back. If he didn’t want to train under the gravity field, he would have used Mad Elephant Stomp to scatter the earth element users. So, he had to continue enduring and bleeding.

  In less than ten breaths he had suffered six attacks, and his body looked like a blood demon from hell.

  Yet, he was smiling. It hurt like anything, and he wished it would be over, but whenever he bled, he felt like his blood gained a little more understanding of the gravity field. Whenever his blood was exposed to the gravity, it formed a small shield around itself to negate the effect.

  Damn, how could he forget the creed of his cultivation art?

  Blood above all.

  Thinking about that, he realized what fuckery this cultivation art was. To initiate, he’d had to bleed. To advance, he had to bleed. To comprehend, he had to bleed. If this continued, one day he might have to bleed for farting too.

  Fucking insane. He had to bleed to comprehend gravity. What else could he call this if not insanity?

  He sighed dejectedly. That was a scary thought, and he didn’t want to end up like that.

  But right now, he had to endure attack after attack and learn at the same time.

  Fifteenth attack.

  Sixteenth attack.

  Soon ten minutes passed, and Wei had endured over one hundred attacks. There wasn’t a single patch left on his body from which he didn’t bleed, but the more he bled, the more he understood the mysteries of the gravity field. Whenever he leaked a drop of blood, he felt like he connected with a vast force that encompassed everything and everyone. It had power beyond what anyone could dream of, ready to be harnessed.

  But he couldn’t harness it yet. He could only feel it and learn it.

  However, this was just the first step. The connection was growing stronger the more he bled.

  His body jolted, and the small grains of dust around him floated up, defying gravity. They dropped the very next moment, but he felt an intimacy that he had never felt before with any other element.

  Was this the Qi Intimacy everyone noticed when they first reached the qi Foundation Realm and conjured their attributed qi? Or was it the Intent of Earth?

  No. It was something different. It wasn’t Qi Intimacy. It was connected to the Essence of Heaven and Earth.

  It was better than Qi Intimacy, but not to the level of Intent of Earth.

  Qi was a product of essence energy conversion, so it more or less failed when compared with corresponding essence energy. But coming into contact with attributed essence energy was very rare. Essence energy was pure like heart’s blood. In nature, one couldn’t absorb it directly. Only after some herb or beast harnessed it into attributed essence could one absorb it for their own use.

  Humans couldn’t convert pure essence energy into attributed essence energy.

  But today he had defied the heavens. His blood was absorbing earth essence energy from the gravity field. With the earth essence energy entering his blood and forming tiny shields around every drop of his blood, as more blood was exposed, his blood absorbed more essence, and he could feel the gravity effect being rendered ineffective.

  Wow!

  This was way different from the fire essence type body cultivation art he’d practiced in his previous life. He used to run everywhere to find fire-based natural objects to increase his cultivation, and here he was absorbing it with ease. Even after absorbing hundreds of fire-based fruits and natural objects, he never felt connected with fire essence energy. Here he could do it with ease.

  All he had to do was shed some blood.

  “Break,” Wei shouted. The shackles of the gravity field crumbled under his will, and newfound power coursed through his body. Everything around him was under his control.

  “One Sword Strike.” His sword swiped downward, stronger and faster than before, as if gravity helped him deliver his attack. Suddenly he realized he had reached middle completion of the One Sword Strike’s first level.

  “How could it be . . .” Tiang Chi shouted; his attack had failed to reach Wei.

  “It’s my turn,” Wei roared and stomped his foot, his blood bursting with power. The gravity field was still there, but it didn’t affect him as much as before. “Mad Elephant Stomp.” When his foot slammed on the ground, a pulse spread through the ground, hitting the six people using the earth type martial art to suppress him.

  “My qi, it’s going berserk.” One of the persons using earth type martial art spat blood and fell unconscious while others staggered backward, their faces turning pale like someone had sucked the blood out of their bodies.

  “One Sword Strike.” His sword thrust downward, sending a shockwave toward Tiang Chi.

  Tiang Chi counterattacked. “Wood Annihilation Sword.” It was his strongest attack.

  Wei was about to counterattack when he sensed danger. Something very powerful was coming at his neck. It had already reached close, and his divine sense had failed to detect it.

  Wei’s heart quivered. Impending doom was closing in on him, and he couldn’t detect its trajectory. His divine sense was stretched to the limit, yet he couldn’t sense it. His mind was screaming at him that this could take his life in one shot.

  Ignoring Tiang Chi’s incoming attack, Wei twirled on his toes and threw his body to the right.

  He was one step late. Something swooshed through the air and pierced through his shoulder and came out the other side. Something bright blue had put a hole in his shoulder.

  Blood oozed out of him like a stream welling from the ground. There was no stopping it, and his healing wasn’t working either. He felt like his connection with his qi and essence was broken, and he couldn’t use any of his powers.

  There was only one thing he knew of that could seal one’s cultivation. A Spirit Sealing Talisman.

  This was a Spirit Sealing Talisman, a rare ancient talisman that could seal its opponent’s cultivation completely. For the next thirty days he wouldn’t be able to use his qi or essence energy.

  At least, that would happen if he survived this ordeal.

  His mood darkened. This was the worst possible situation he could think of.

  While staggering forward, he looked over his shoulder and saw Ding Su staring at him, holding a green pendant emitting a strange blue light. It was indeed a Spirit Sealing Talisman.

  But why
did Ding Su sneak-attack him?

  “Die, you motherfucker!” Tiang Chi swiped down with his sword, and Wei could feel the immense pressure bearing down on his skin, but there was nothing he could do.

  After doing everything perfect, he was still at the end of his life.

  A voice popped into his mind. “Kid, if you agree to one of my conditions, I’ll help you get out of this mess.”

  Chapter 42

  Upheaval

  Dust settled, and his blue robe fluttered in the air. He stood erect, like a prince, ready to slaughter everyone.

  Sun Nuan’s heart fluttered. Wei Lin had resisted Tiang Chi’s attack, and he looked to be in control. With ease, he had overpowered Tiang Chi’s attack.

  But how?

  Wei Lin was under the three times gravity field induced by the Crouching Dragon Group. Even a layer two Bone Baptization Realm cultivator couldn’t get out of this, and yet Wei Lin had done something in the Refinement Realm. She didn’t believe he had body cultivation greater than layer five in the Foundation Realm, or he wouldn’t have struggled against Tiang Chi at all.

  What was the limit of his power? Was he even a human? Or a demon?

  She couldn’t guess. The more she saw him defy the odds, the more her heart tightened. Someone like him was going to die, and that was the State of Zin’s loss.

  But she was helpless.

  Her fingers clenched in a fist. If only she had reached the peak of the Bone Baptization Realm like her brother, the crown prince, her father would have handed her more powers. She could have easily saved her mother and wouldn’t have had to come running here for the Two-Colored Poison Repelling Flower.

  But it seemed like she didn’t have to worry anymore. Wei Lin had defied the odds and overpowered Tiang Chi. He would be safe until the battle was over. And once they were out of here, she would do everything she could to protect him. Outside of this tower, she wasn’t as helpless as she was inside.