Chương 146: Fire VS Wood

I had always thought that the saying "fire beats wood" was a little too simplistic as a rule. Nature is full of plants that thrive after forest fires and seeds that germinate in ash and trees whose bark evolved over a long time to survive flames. So yeah, the relationship between wood and fire was more complex and nuanced than that old saying made it sound.

But as I watched Zhang Ruiyang's burning sword cut through another cluster of my razor leaves like they were nothing, I had to at least acknowledge that in a direct fight, fire did have some significant advantages over wood.

"Your technique is impressive," he said, settling into a ready stance with his blade leaving trails of orange light in the air behind it as he moved, "but fire will always consume wood, that's the natural order of things." I could feel Han Renyi's anxiety spiking in the back of my mind, "he's right, fire rouqi users have always been effective against wood tech—""Natural order?"

I said out loud, cutting off both of them at the same time while I measured the distance between myself and Zhang Ruiyang, "nature is a lot more complicated than that and besides," I let myself smile a little, "who said anything about playing fair?" Zhang Ruiyang's eyes narrowed at that, but his stance stayed perfect which was the mark of someone who had been doing this for a very long time and wasn't going to let a comment like that throw him off.

"You know," he said, "I trained most of the guards in this compound personally, taught them everything they know about rouqi control and combat techniques." His eyes went hard, "which means I know how difficult it would have been to eliminate them as you did tonight, you're not a Tier 1 Rouqin."

"You're right," I agreed, keeping my tone casual while using my connection to the surrounding plants to get a better feel for what I had to work with in this garden, there was plenty of cover around us but most of it was decorative and had never been intended for anything like combat.

"I'm not ordinary, but then again," I gestured toward the burning sword, "neither are you." He acknowledged that with a slight nod, "in my younger days, they called me the Crimson Duelist, back when there was still enough rouqi in the world for dueling circuits to exist." There was a bitterness that crept into his voice when he said that, "now I teach spoiled merchants' sons how to not stab themselves with their own weapons."

"Quite a career change," I said, and I was noticing something interesting about how the heat from his blade was affecting the plants nearby, the temperature increase wasn't uniform, he was somehow focusing the heat into patterns which was not what I expected, "why work for someone like Zhou Shentong?"

"Because he pays well and I don't ask stupid questions," Zhang Ruiyang's sword traced a slow arc through the air leaving a faint trail of flames behind it, "questions like how a young master from a merchant family can manipulate plants so directly."

So, he had noticed that something was off about my abilities which wasn't that surprising, someone with his level of experience was always going to notice that my techniques didn't match the local style and approach, I needed to redirect this conversation somewhere else.

"And I don't recall the Three-Leaf Clover Sect being known for fire techniques," I said, "yet here we are." That made him smile a little, "not everything is as it appears young master Han, sometimes the best to survive in a dying world is to adapt and become something new." There was probably wisdom in that, even if he didn't mean it the way I was taking it, and I filed it away to think about later because right now I needed to focus on the fight that was about to happen whether I was ready for it or not.

"Azure," I thought, keeping my eyes on Zhang Ruiyang the entire time, "what do you think?"

"His rouqi control is exceptional," Azure replied, "despite the world's limitations, he has learned to maximize every bit of energy available to him, be careful Master, we cannot afford to waste power here when we still need to deal with Zhou Shentong afterward." He was right about that, and this fight needed to end, the problem was I wasn't sure I could make that happen against someone like this.

The garden had gone quiet around us, and neither of us moved for a long moment, two people across from each other both waiting for the right moment to commit to something. A single leaf came off a nearby tree and floated down between us. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The moment it hit the ground; everything happened at once. He was standing there and then his burning blade was already screaming toward my throat.

The speed was impressive because if I hadn't been ready and already moving to dodge, that first strike would have ended the fight permanently. I Blink Stepped backward to create some distance, but Zhang Ruiyang had already anticipated that, and his free hand made a sharp gesture and the air around me erupted into flames from multiple directions at the same time.

The Aegis Mark's barrier flared and absorbed most of the heat, but I could still feel the intensity of it pressing against my skin and this wasn't normal fire either, there was something about how it moved that was seeking out any gaps in my defense rather than spreading outward the way fire behaves.

"Interesting barrier technique," Zhang Ruiyang said, already flowing into his next attack without any pause between movements, "but how long can it last against sustained fire pressure?" He had a point about that because the Aegis Mark was designed for short intense bursts of combat and not for prolonged exposure to elemental attacks. I needed to change the pace of this exchange before he could settle into a rhythm of grinding down my defenses.

I triggered Leaf Storm and sent a wave of razor sharp leaves at him from multiple angles at once and as I expected he countered it with a spinning slash that surrounded him in a sphere of flames and burned through my attack before any of it could reach him. But that had been a distraction anyway. While he was dealing with the leaves, I had already used Blink Step to appear above him with Vine Whip already activated and multiple vines shot out from my right hand aimed at entangling his sword arm.

Zhang Ruiyang's response was educational. Instead of trying to dodge or burn through the vines, he caught one of them with his free hand and used my own momentum to pull himself into a spin, fire rouqi surged through his body as he moved and my vines weren't binding him at all. He was using them as leverage to launch himself toward me with his burning sword leading the way, and it happened so fast that I barely managed to sever the vines before he could turn my own technique against me.

The tip of his blade still scored a burning line across my chest as I Blink Stepped away.

"Creative," he said landing with control, "but predictable, wood users always try to bind their opponents first, it's instinct for all of you." I pressed my hand against the burn on my chest, "speaking from experience?"

"I've fought my share of wood cultivators over the years," he began circling me slowly and his blade left trails of fire hanging in the air that formed a kind of glowing barrier cutting off certain angles of movement, "they all make the same mistake every time, trying to overwhelm fire with quantity, but it doesn't matter how many leaves or vines you throw at me because fire will always burn through all of it."

He punctuated that with another focused blast of flames, and I dove behind a boulder, but the fire curved around it which forced me to Blink Step again. This approach wasn't working; every exchange was costing me more energy than it was costing him, and Zhang Ruiyang seemed to be getting more efficient with each attack like the fight was warming him up rather than wearing him down.

"Master," Azure said, "he has been forcing you to move this entire time, each dodge has put you closer to being cornered against the far wall." He was right. I had been so focused on surviving each individual exchange that I hadn't noticed the larger pattern at all, Zhang Ruiyang wasn't attacking, he was methodically cutting off my escape routes and reducing my maneuvering space one movement at a time, and I had been letting it happen.

"Any suggestions?"

"His efficiency is both his strength and a potential weakness," Azure said, "he is so focused on energy control that he may be vulnerable to something unexpected that doesn't fit the patterns he's trained to counter." Before I could think about what that might look like in practice, Zhang Ruiyang extinguished his burning sword and dropped into a low stance that I didn't recognize at all, "let's see how you handle something more traditional." And then he shot forward and his fist was right in my face.

I barely got my arm up in time to block it, but the impact still sent me stumbling several steps backward. The man hit with an extraordinary amount of force for someone his size.

"A hundred years of combat experience," he said while he worked through me methodically, not giving me any opening to set up any of my techniques, "you have power, I'll give you that, but power without foundation and experience is just—" He cut off mid-sentence when his next punch connected solidly with my jaw and it was a strike, the kind that should have put me flat on the ground, but I took it and stayed on my feet. The look of surprise on his face was almost worth the pain.

"Interesting," he muttered, shaking out his hand slowly, "your body's durability is unusual." As the fight kept going, I was starting to read his rhythm more clearly, he liked quick combinations, three or four strikes chained together where each hit set up the positioning for the next one, and the individual techniques weren't complicated but the way he linked them was devastating and left little room to work with.

I was taking more hits than I was landing by a margin, but every exchange was giving me information, how he shifted his weight just before a kick, the way he used subtle angle adjustments to maximize the impact of each strike, the precise timing of his breathing as he moved through each combination.

"Your technique is familiar," he said during a brief pause where we were both circling each other carefully, "but not like anything I've encountered before, almost like..." he trailed off and studied me with narrowed eyes. I used the moment to check my condition, and it wasn't great, multiple bruises, possibly a cracked rib, my left arm was going numb from blocking his strikes repeatedly, but my qi reinforced body was holding up better than it should have been.

Every hit that landed seemed to surprise him a little more than the last one which was at least something. But I had to be honest with myself that this wasn't working, his experience was overwhelming my raw power, and I needed to change something about this fight, or it was only going to end one way. I needed to stop playing his game and do something he hadn't spent a hundred years training to counter.