Chương 334: Truths and Lies (XX)

What the hell is happening?! Lu Yuhan's mind was reeling, more so than ever before in his life. This entire 'battle'... it was strange. Stranger than anything he'd experienced before. Try as he may, even after purposefully ignoring the ache of his scar, he couldn't conjure half--no, not even a quarter —of his strength. Any time he tried to imbue a concept into his attacks, it was as though there was a higher force that stopped him.

He couldn't summon or manipulate Laws, he couldn't nullify lesser martial arts, he couldn't use the overpowering quality of his Qi to dismantle any other. It was as though he were forced to fight with both his arms tied behind his back while he was on his knees as well as blindfolded. But... it wasn't natural. He'd felt the natural restrictions of Heavenly Laws before, and they were not like this.

This felt more suffocating; while, with the natural restrictions, it was a literal 'restraint,' this was more akin to a 'lock'. A lock that prevented him from doing anything he wanted to do. Then there were those monsters... that attack right now, from that boy, had a strange wrap to it--it wasn't Qi, but rather mana. It meant that there was a shaman among them, and judging by the sheer level of that attack, as it managed to actually wound him, it was not a low-circle tier one.

Two more shadows were flying toward him, as though there was wind behind them flurrying them onwards, and then there was the boy in front of him.... he didn't seem tired. In fact, none of them did--it was as though they had inexhaustible quantities of Qi, but that wasn't the case. Though they all had reserves generally greater than others on their level, it wasn't by such a cosmic amount; rather than the total reserves, it seemed more that they recovered Qi so quickly it was borderline impossible.

He'd never seen anyone--not even his Master--recover Qi as speedily as they did. Even if they occasionally used Qi Recovery Pills, the general rule was that only about 30% of the pill's total Qi could be safely consumed, and it would have to be done so over the course of an hour, at least. But they? Minutes, at most, with barely leaving any residual Qi. The boy's blade descended yet again. Clang. His arm vibrated all the way to his shoulder; it wasn't merely physical strength but something more.

Though he outmatched the quantity of Qi, still, the purity... the purity of his Qi was somehow lesser. With each subsequent clash, it was like a hammer striking truth into his bones: this boy, who looked no older than fifteen, had purer Qi than he, someone who once reached a Nirvana, did.

"Impossible!!" he hissed angrily, his breath hitching as he forced a wave of shadows to push the boy back.

"How... how do you have such a pure Qi?! It's impossible!"

"Impossible?" the boy tilted his head with a faint smirk, his robes fluttering amidst the violent winds of their clash.

"Few things are impossible in this world... though even those don't apply to me." Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Lu Yuhan frowned at the boy's provocative words yet couldn't find it in him to refute them. He slammed his palms together yet again, summoning an array of enshadowed daggers; yet, like all previous times, once he tried to imbue laws or concepts into them... he faltered.

Something in him snapped like a branch of a tree bent too forward, unable to endure the pressure any longer. The sword came at him yet again, this time around pushing him back. It made no sense! He was a Sage! He'd touched Dao! He'd reached Nirvana! So why was he being pushed back by a mere child?! --no, it wasn't just one anymore. Two streaks of light came from either of his sides, one drowning in a sheen of twilight and the other sun-colored with deep tinges of scarlet.

Within them, frames of two young girls emerged, and, to his abject horror... they were breaking through. They were both breaking through into the Spirit Manifestation Realm at the same time, in the middle of a battle, without seemingly any proper preparation! And yet... they weren't being decimated by Qi Deviation. The horror stories of his Seniors, clamoring about the importance of a suitable environment for breakthroughs, ran inside his mind like the hallowed bells... yet seemingly rang hollow.

The visages of the spirits were visibly emerging from behind them, though the shapes remained somewhat vague.... he had to run. As soon as the thought emerged, just at the point of another clash with the boy, shame swept through him; the fact that he even considered it, facing three children who were yet to do much of anything with their lives, caused incomparable shame to swell.

But, regardless, once the thought emerged, it was like an incessant parasite--even more so when he deflected the two girls' attacks, realizing that, although nowhere on the level of the boy's, they were enough to endanger the current him. He had to find Yawen and run.

"Get out of the way!" he roared, abandoning all pride. He channeled as much Qi as he could into his palms, executing one of the mythical arts of the Order that he was forbidden from using on the outside-- Silent Palm of the Void. It wasn't yet time for the world to truly know of them, and if the many-eyes caught the whiff of the Order's scent, all the work might be undone... but he had no other way. Darkness swelled from his palm, thick and terrible, erasing all light, sound, and life within its boundaries.

It headed directly toward the boy, intended to open up a path through which he could run, but the boy... smirked. He smirked with ease at his ultimate trump card, raising the blade and swinging down in a strange manner--it wasn't a straight cut, but it wasn't curved either; it was as though he drove the sword down in six different directions, all at once, pulsing out Qi in a specific way that seemed to disturb the world itself.

The array of energy was invisible as it clashed with the palm and, without much resistance, cracked it in six pieces, disintegrating the darkness into ash and leaving his face equally ashen. Shit! He spun around and bolted backwards, intending to leave all by himself--though it ached to leave Yawen behind, he couldn't die. Not after so much time, not after so much suffering.

Though he thought the path would be open, the two girls appeared yet again, their fists extended, visage of a mountain and a sea imbued within them.

"WHAT?!!!" He couldn't contain a roar of horror within when he realized that those fists were imbued with concepts--brats who were still in the process of reaching the Spirit Manifestation Realm had somehow managed to imbue their attacks with concepts. He hurriedly put up a barrier, but it collapsed like a porcelain vase, with the two fists managing to strike his shoulder and abdomen.

Bones cracked as diffusion of concepts wreaked havoc within his meridians, forcing him to expend almost all his remaining Qi reserves on just containing them. Something swelled up in his throat as he found himself belching blood--thickly black. Before he could even process it, all his hairs stood up, every instinct in his body screaming at him to move, to dodge, to get as far away as possible.

But all he could do was twist his neck and look back; there, the boy stood upright, sword gracefully extended, already having completed the cutting motion. Within the grasp of the blade's light, he saw a Law--no... it wasn't a Law, it was Dao. Dao of Sword. Something nobody in the Order had achieved. A fifteen-year-old boy conjured a sword strike imbued with the Dao of Sword. Who the hell are these people...? A thought flashed in his mind as the sword strike descended.

He didn't even bother putting up any barriers, as it would have been pointless--at least, he mused as the light began to fade, he died to something so grand and so majestic, rather than the natural death of a common person. He died to Dao. Grand, beautiful, and all-devouring.