Chapter 137
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"After him!"
"Don't let him escape!"
"Bloody bastard, trying to make a fool out of us?!"
I could hear the yelling of the Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples chasing after me, and judging from their voices, they were slowly but surely catching up.
Perfect.
Dashing along the corridor, I could both feel the temperature plummet and sense the rapid thickening density of frozen yin qi that curled monstrously across the atmosphere like alien tendrils, greedily stretching out to ensnare anyone foolish or reckless enough to run into its cold, deadly embrace.
I was one such reckless fella, but either way would end in my death, so I decided to at least bring my enemies to hell with me.
Furthermore, because I practiced ice techniques, I might stand a slight chance of surviving the icy hell that was the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation for at least a few minutes. Even more so than the dudes who were chasing me.
There!
I caught sight of the cavern where ghostly white fog drifted out in plumes, resembling smoke. Gritting my teeth as my body began to scream warnings and shiver violently from the exteme cold, I plunged myself deep into the cavern while gathering as much qi within my system as possible to protect my body from the dangerous temperatures.
"He went in there!"
"After him!"
"Hah! How stupid! He ran himself into a corner!"
"We can corner him now!"
The idiots didn't realize that they were walking into a trap. I had to fight to suppress my laughter as I slid across the slippery floor. The ground was glazed over by ice, which made it difficult to run over, but obviously that posed no threat to skilled martial artists.
Fortunately, I had no intention of running over the ice. I had gone into a sitting position to conserve as much energy as possible and focused on generating my own icy qi to counteract that of the trap, preventing myself from turning into ice.
The disciples from the Tian Sha Sect plunged in after me gleefully, thinking that they had me cornered.
The joke was on them.
"What…?!"
"Argh!"
"NOOO!!!"
In an instant, fourteen of the fifteen elite martial artists who were left over from the Tian Sha Sect after Zhu Jiao's slaughter of their cannon fodder and lower ranks (to be fair, I did contribute to the body count, having slain a few of the lower-ranked disciples myself), immediately froze. Their bodies were encased in ice, the demonic sect disciples completely caught off guard and taken by surprise by the viciousness of the demonic icy qi that saturated the hellish cavern I sought refuge in.
Now there would be existences beyond the fourth wall complaining about how unrealistic this was, that there was no way the Tian Sha Sect disciples wouldn't have seen a trap coming, given how there was an obvious drop in temperature and so much icy qi. Or that they were complete idiots and their actions didn't make sense. But think about it. They were chasing me, and I was running in this direction despite the drop in temperature. In other words, they had no reason to think that I was running into a death-trap that would potentially kill me. They also thought that if I could endure the drop in temperature, how was it possible that they, elite martial artists of the renowned and notorious Heavenly Fiend Sect, could not?
And thus, they continued to chase after me, never suspecting that I was essentially risking my own death by razor-thin margins, and was just as prepared to sacrifice my own life to ensure our mutual destruction.
"You…!"
Even though he had followed them in, Li Xue Wu was the last one to enter, and thus the least affected. The moment he beginning to freeze over, he quickly shattered the ice that was slowly spreading over his body with a violent surge of qi and instinctively leaped out of the cavern. Even though he was still shivering from the cold that was wafting out of the cavern's entrance, he stood his ground and glared at me from outside.
"You fucker! You…you killed my sect seniors and juniors!"
I gave him a baleful stare, wondering what was it with logic and xianxia villains.
"You guys tried to kill me, you know? Don't tell me you thought people would just let you kill them without fighting back? If you want to take a life, you have to be prepared to be killed too. That's the basics of fighting. If you don't have the courage to take the risk of being killed, then you have no right to kill others."
"…fucker! Come out here!"
I laughed. "And let you kill me? I'm not an idiot like you or your fellow sect members." I gestured to the fourteen frozen statues for emphasis.
"Fuck you!" Li Xue Wu roared, seething. He balled his fists in rage, but knew he couldn't come in or he would end up like the rest. However, he did still have a move up his sleeve. Rearing his spear back, he threw it at me, the projectile turning into a blood-red dragon as it sought to tear me apart.
Boom!
I managed to roll away, shattered ice raining down on me as I evaded the blood-red dragon. The dragon reverted back into a spear as it was mystically drawn back to Li Xue Wu's hand even though all he did was stand outside.
"How are you able to withstand the cold?" he demanded when he saw me get up and brush the frost off my clothing. I shrugged.
"Take a guess."
Li Xue Wu gritted his teeth, but he recalled me using ice techniques earlier to defend against their attacks. Cursing under his breath, he threw his spear again, hoping to wear me down as I dove to the side, hidden under all the blast of snow.
To be fair, Li Xue Wu's strategy was sound. He could safely stand at the entrance and bombard me from a safe distance without ever needing to set foot inside the icy death trap. On the other hand, the cold was slowly seeping my strength away, I was severely injured, and both my stamina and qi were running out. Furthermore, I could only withstand the cold for minutes at most. Already I could see the ice spreading across my limbs and slowing my movements further.
If I didn't get out of the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation soon, I would eventually freeze to death in a minute or two. If I did get out, as injured as I was, I would be easy prey for the murderous Li Xue Wu.
Was there anything I could do to reverse my situation and turn the tables on my opponent?
As a third strike sent another white spray of frost high into the ceiling, shielding me from my enemy, a gleam caught my eye. Glancing around briefly, I spotted a bottle of elixir, its contents glowing gently against the white snow.
That's right! This place was supposed to be filled with elixirs and spirit artifacts to lure greedy intruders inside and right into the death trap!
That was what the little marten…I mean Qi Lin told his disciple, Zhu Jiao. In other words, within the trap were actually treasures and elixirs!
"Ha ha ha! You won't last much longer at this rate!"
Outside, Li Xue Wu burst out laughing as he continued hurling his spear at me, and seeing my clumsy attempts at evasion and lack of retaliation, he realized my predicament. Armed with the knowledge that he could wear me down quicker and accelerate my death, his assault grew fiercer and more vicious.
"Die!"
Boom!
I had to duck under the spear as it blew up another space inside the icy cavern, and was hit by a sludge of half-melted ice. Choking and gurgling, I tried to swim through the piling snow, which had been created from the heat and blast from Li Xue Wu's attacks.
Fortunately, it was Li Xue Wu's assault that ironically shielded me from his view. Thanks to that, he had no idea what I intended to do.
Where is it? Where is the elixir I need?
Dumbly rummaging around the collection of elixirs, I desperately searched for a healing one that was on par with the Green Dragon Spring water that I had drunk all those years ago.
"…there!"
And just like that, I finally stumbled across a bottle that was labeled Green Dragon Crystal Potion. Given that the Green Dragon Spring water was imbued its healing effects by the Green Dragon Crystal, that bottle was exactly what I was looking for.
"Come on…"
I tried to grab the bottle, but I dropped it, partly because Li Xue Wu delivered another attack, and also partly because my fingers had gone numb from frostbite. I could see the skin greying, the damage spreading through my hands as the extreme cold worked to kill me.
"Fuck!"
I swore under my breath as I fumbled for the bottle, which had fallen onto the ice and was rolling away. Diving after it and at the same time avoiding having my head taken off by Li Xue Wu's three section spear, I clamped both my palms on opposite sides of the bottle and firmly grabbed it. hugging it close to my chest, I gritted my teeth and tried to unscrew the cap with my numb fingers – which was a lot more difficult than you imagine, unless you had experienced Minnesota or Siberia, in which case you probably know what I was talking about. After pouring the last vestiges of qi into my fingers and forcing the bottle open, I gulped down its contents as quickly as someone who had just been sentenced to chugging stupid cocktails as a punishment game.
Immediately I felt a lot better as the elixir went into effect, healing my wounds and mending the cuts that had frozen over. Hell, even my frostbitten fingers began to heal and I felt energized as a fresh wave of qi surged within my body.
"Thank heavens…" I breathed as I closed my eyes momentarily in relief, allowing the elixir several seconds to do its work. Then realizing that its good work would be undone if I continued to remain in the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation, I immediately sprang out of the cavern, twisting my body in midair to avoid Li Xue Wu's hurtling spear, and landing in front of the shocked Tian Sha Sect head disciple.
"What…?"
Before he could fully form a word with his mouth that was hanging open, I kicked him with a Lunar Rabbit kick that hurled him across the corridor and sent him crashing against the wall with a thunderous crack. The stone wall actually buckled from the tremendous impact and Li Xue Wu slid down with a groan, blood dribbling from his mouth.
"!!"
I spun around as Li Xue Wu's spear streaked back out of the icy cavern and almost impaled me. Grimacing and forcing himself back to his feet, Li Xue Wu snatched his three section spear back and then pointed it at me.
"Fucker, you'll pay for that!"
"Actually," I corrected. "You still owe me a great debt for what you and your sect disciples did to me earlier. And to my friend as well. I plan on collecting that debt." A cold smile spread ominously across my face. "With interest."
"!!!"
Li Xue Wu suppressed an involuntary shiver as he stepped back, tightening his grip on his spear. He eyed my sword warily, which I had just drawn again, now that I had chosen to fight instead of run, and scoffed.
"How?"
"For starters," I replied I materialized in front of a shocked Li Xue Wu, having used Jin to advance forward. "Like this."
I slashed him with my sword, and he barely managed to block my strike with his spear. Credit to him, he almost took me by surprise by suddenly separating his spear into three sections and changing the trajectory of his attack, scraping my cheek. But while he was so focused on attacking and locking down my sword, I dropped to a crouch and kicked him in the belly, knocking him over.
"Kuh!"
Li Xue Wu threw a hand out to push himself back onto his feet by doing a backflip, but he managed to retreat to a safe distance.
Now that it was a one-on-one fight, the odds were finally even. I proceeded forward cautiously, refusing to let my guard down, but also refusing to let this bastard go after all he did to me. As I did with Qi Fu Ren, I was going to eliminate him to prevent further troubles down the road. If he was more reasonable, we could have just settled this, but knowing his type, he would just seek revenge.
And I wasn't good-natured enough to let him leave so that he would attack me again in future. Furthermore, by his own admission, his demonic sect had been robbing and murdering other people all this time, so I was going to ensure that there would be no future victims. Of course, I didn't think this was justice, nor did I claimed to be any sort of hero, but I didn't want to let this bastard go and later learn that a close friend of mine, such as Tong Xue or Tang Qi Hong or even someone from my family was murdered by this guy or his followers.
Such problems were best tackled at the root.
"Argh! Demonic Dragon Strike!"
With a yell, Li Xue Wu slashed at me with his spear again, but I deflected it with my sword. Sparks flew as his weapon collided against my blade, screeching like fingernails on a blackboard (and making my ears hurt). I then twisted my sword and answered with a riposte that gouged a huge chunk of flesh from his shoulder.
"Ugh!"
In less than half an hour, I had completely turned the tables on Li Xue Wu. Not only did I lure his elite sect mates into a trap that sealed their icy doom, I was now dominating him in battle, especially after recovering upon drinking a Green Dragon Crystal potion. Buoyed by my advantage, I pressed on and struck at him, but he managed to bend his spear around to parry my sword. Twisting around, he kicked at me, but I managed to parry his foot with my leg.
Using Liu, I was able to blend in with his movements and knocked him off balance. Cursing as he fell, Li Xue Wu lashed out with his snaking spear, which turned into a blood-red dragon that snarled as it tried to bite me. I tossed my sword up and impaled the dragon, and at the same time dropped to a crouch and swept my feet to knock Li Xue Wu's legs out from under him and then kicked him in the chest with a Shadow Kick.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling across the corridor, smashing through the wall and momentarily disappearing under the falling rubble.
"Hu…"
I wiped the blood off my mouth and took a deep breath, steadily regaining my composure. It appeared that the Green Dragon Crystal potion was taking effects, the mystical elixir coursing through my veins and strengthening my body.
Otherwise I would never have been able to gain such a large advantage over a prodigy like Li Xue Wu.
"Huff…huff…"
Li Xue Wu was slowly rising to his feet, blood streaming down his formerly handsome face. He glared at me, pure hatred in his inky black eyes. I had to admit, the guy was tenacious, and even though I had been somewhat rejuvenated by the Green Dragon Crystal potion, he had left several fresh injuries on me.
"AAAAH!"
Roaring in fury, Li Xue Wu lunged at me again. I blocked his first strike, but he twisted around and slashed me with another segment of his three section spear. Unable to parry this time, I felt blood splash across my face and a red blinding pain surged through my senses. My glasses were dislodged and fell to the ground in two pieces, stained with blood.
"Hey!" I yelled. "You do not break my glasses!"
"Oh, shut up!"
Wiith a snarl, Li Xue Wu thrust his spear forward again. Staggering backward, still half-blinded by the blood that dripped from a diagonal slash across the bridge of my nose, I parried his strike, but was knocked off my feet by another section.
"Kuh!"
Pain exploded in my skull as I stumbled backward, stars filling my already blood-red vision. I tried to block his next attack, but he jabbed me in the stomach with the blunt end of his spear, causing me to double over.
Gritting my teeth, I unleashed my Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula, freezing everything in the vicinity, but Li Xue Wu effortlessly shattered the ice and countered with a riposte that almost took off my ear. From the blood that trickled down my face, it seemed that I hadn't completely dodged it, but at least my ear was still in one piece.
I checked with my hand to make sure.
"You're no match for me!" Li Xue Wu sneered. "I'm the prodigy of the Heavenly Fiend Sect! There's no way you can…"
The guy talked too much. I didn't even bother to wait for him to finish, instead slashing at him. Li Xue Wu blocked with one section of his spear and used the other two sections to counterattack, but I quickly unleashed a huge blast of qi.
Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!
"?!"
Boom!
Li Xue Wu was thrown against the wall, blood spurting from his mouth. He bounced off the wall and staggered to his feet, but before he could fully recover, I was already using a second Heavenly Draconic Meteor Sword technique to knock him off his feet and send him sprawling on the ground. Gritting his teeth, Li Xue Wu forced himself back to his feet and threw his spear at me, but I dodged it before unleashing a meteoric blast from my sword.
The destructive qi engulfed him, and Li Xue Wu screamed as he vanished in the blinding conflagration.
"Huff…"
Breathing heavily, I seized the chance to correct my breathing and wiped the blood away from my face. Using an ice technique, I froze the wound to stem the bleeding. Fortunately, some effects of the Green Dragon Crystal potion remained, and the wound healed, but more slowly than before. There wouldn't be much time before the healing effects ran out.
I had to finish this fight before that happened.
Jumping forward just as Li Xue Wu staggered out of the azure conflagration, his body fuming, I executed another Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike that knocked away his spear and almost bisected him. In fact, his spear, which was in all likelihood a Spirit Treasure Weapon, was probably the only reason why he survived, otherwise my sword strike would have smashed it apart and obliterated the guy.
Even so, as I said before, Li Xue Wu was pretty tenacious. And a prodigy. At the moment I attacked, he retaliated with a counterattack, piercing my side with his spear while he fell, and the both of us crashed several meters away from each other, scarred by the exchange.
"Huff…"
Fortunately, the injury wasn't deep and I was up again, holding my sword up. I noticed that it was pretty battered from the furious exchanges with the three section spear. Obviously, against a Spirit Treasure Weapon, a normal weapon that was of low quality would be slowly eroded away, and since the gap between our strengths wasn't that large, Li Xue Wu would hold a slight advantage with his better Spirit Armament.
Even so, he had taken a lot of damage from my strike, and his body was still smoldering and bleeding in many places. His crash had even created a crater in the ground where he landed. Extremely furious, Li Xue Wu reared to his full height despite his injuries and bellowed at me.
"You forced me to use this!"
"Use what?"
Stupid question. I regretted ever asking that. I should probably have used the time to lunge forward and attack, but admittedly I wouldn't have made it in time to stop Li Xue Wu from using his ultimate technique.
"Man and Sword as One!"
Holding his spear up, Li Xue Wu shouted. I blinked as a fog of qi blasted around him, buffeting me with violent shockwaves. All around us, the stone walls cracked, and the stalactites hanging from above crashed down, shaken loose from the tremendous force. To my horror, Li Xue Wu's qi surged exponentially, almost saturating the entire place with demonic qi. I wished I could simply absorb the qi from the surroundings, but Heaven and Earth Absorption did not work that conveniently. I would be tempted to absorb Li Xue Wu's qi, but again, he obviously wasn't going to sit down and let me suck the qi from him.
Just like what I said earlier, nobody was stupid enough to give up and die just because you told them to.
"Man and Sword as One…"
I swallowed as I watched the enormous amount of swirling qi flood across the relatively narrow space. Now that I sensed the actual qi emanating from Li Xue Wu, I couldn't help but feel that it was disgusting somehow…tainted, or unclean.
Okay, hell no. I sure as hell ain't gonna suck that sort of qi. I didn't know why I felt so repulsed by his qi, but it probably had something to do with the way the Tian Sha Sect cultivated. It felt so…wrong somehow.
"…"
As expected of the prodigy of the Tian Sha Sect (though from what I later learned, Yan Qing Wu was more of a prodigy than Li Xue Wu, being a Six Star Constitution and all that – which led to Li Xue Wu claiming her as his future wife, much to her annoyance), to have already reached the peak of all martial arts at such a young age.
"I can't believe I'm forced to use Man and Sword as One in a place like this…"
Stepping out of the violent maelstrom of dense qi, Li Xue Wu was cursing. I almost gaped when I saw that his three section spear had changed.
No…it probably wasn't correct to call it a three section spear any longer.
Unlike the former blood red spear, the Spirit Treasure Weapon had transformed into three colossal weapons, linked to each other by massive metallic chains. Each of the weapons were bell-shaped blades, with the one in the middle being curved and wide. A single dragon was engraved onto the center of that broad blade, with the tip of its tail glowing red, but otherwise the rest of the body was a dull silver.
In his right and left hands, Li Xue Wu held huge blades, the one in his left faintly resembling the tip of an enormous spear and the other looking like a gigantic hatchet.
"Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear."
I threw both my hands up into the air, irritated, when Li Xue Wu proudly proclaimed the name of his newly transformed treasure weapon.
"Why don't you just call that technique Bankai?!"
Li Xue Wu's nostrils flared. "Don't you dare compare my Man and Sword as One technique to something from a trash manga."
"Hey!" I protested angrily. "Bleach is not trash!"
"Hmph!" Li Xue Wu snorted. "Tite Kubo rushed the ending. It was so unsatisfactory, especially that last part of the Quincy arc!"
"…yeah, that we can agree on. I wish Tite Kubo Sensei could have given it a proper ending and wasn't forced to end the manga prematurely." I couldn't believe that someone from this timeline actually read Bleach. Seemed like Japanese manga also existed in this alternate history. "By the way, I think it's called the Thousand Year War arc."
"Even so, that was pretty bad, even by Tite Kubo's standards…" Li Xue Wu caught himself and suddenly glowered at me. "Stop trying to distract me! Are you trying to buy time or something!? It's not going to work!"
Actually, I wasn't. The remark came out of my mouth before I knew it, and I never expected Li Xue Wu to have read Bleach as well.
The qi flickered around Li Xue Wu, coalescing into the form of an insubstantial blood-red dragon that rose into the air like an inferno. I felt perspiration drip down my face as I shuddered from the potent display of power.
"Didn't you know?" Li Xue Wu sneered when he saw my stunned expression. "Man and Sword as One allows you to spiritually fuse with your weapon, which then unlocks the true power…the true potential of your weapon! In other words, this is Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is the true form of my Heavenly Blood Spear!"
Suddenly, I recalled the full-body armor that Zhu Jiao managed to attain in the middle of my duel with him during the tournament final last year. He had metamorphized his gauntlets after using his Golden Kirin Sacred Beast techniques, which mysteriously changed the shape of his spirit armament.
In other words, Zhu Jiao had also achieved Man and Sword as One without even realizing it (and it was in the middle of a pivotal battle too, as expected of a typical xianxia protagonist)! That guy was getting more and more Mary Sue-ish…
"That's pretty amazing," I conceded with a wry smile. Li Xue Wu snorted.
"Quit flattering me. I haven't released enough qi to impress you yet."
His legs bent slightly and the ground underneath his feet began to crumble as he exerted pressure on them, getting ready to propel himself toward me in a single jump.
"You can decide whether it's amazing or not…"
Whoom!
He leaped from the smoldering crater that he had crashed into earlier to swing his newly awakened Spirit Treasure Weapon at me.
"…after I kill you!"
With a scream, he swung his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear at me. I parried his first strike with my sword, only to be completely blown away by his sheer strength.
"Kuh!"
Tumbling helpessly in midair, unable to halt my momentum, I managed to right myself and skidded to a stop while panting heavily.
"!!"
Blinking, I saw that my sword had cracked, the blade being almost completely shattered from receiving that single strike earlier.
"Hah!"
With a gleeful cry of triumph, Li Xue Wu descended upon me from above, swinging his hatchet-like weapon. I reacted on reflex, swinging my sword up to parry it and countered with a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike, but he instantly obliterated my sword despite two gigantic clouds of qi colliding violently.
Shards of metal rained down on my face, but I was able to use my footwork technique to evade before he smashed a crater into the ground where I was standing on milliseconds ago with his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear.
"Huff…!"
Stumbling to the side, I spun around to face the chuckling Li Xue Wu, analyzing his newly evolved weapon.
Power! I realized as I stared at the three spears. His Man and Sword as One technique is a large mass of sheer power! It doesn't augment his defensive capabilities, doesn't enhance his speed or doesn't boost his arcane techniques…it is just overwhelming destructive power!
Fortunately, even without my glasses, I could see something that sparked a small ray of hope within me.
However, because he focuses completely on power, this renders his Spirit Weapon vulnerable to my attacks!
Thanks to the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike I unleashed to counter his attack earlier, I had managed to take off a huge chunk of the hatchet and left a lage, visible crack. In other words, Li Xue Wu was not invincible!
I could win this!
"Heh heh heh!"
Li Xue Wu chuckled as he watched my reaction. Aware that I was disarmed and at an overwhelming disadvantage, I instinctively took a step back. Even though I was aware that Li Xue Wu could be beaten, I no longer possessed the means to do so. Without a sword, I wouldn't be able to defend against his brute strength and raw destructive power.
I guess I'll have to rely on speed then…eh?
I blinked when I suddenly noticed something. Li Xue Wu was laughing boisterously as he spun the middle blade excitedly. His qi seemed to be rising even more than before. Earlier, I was almost caught off guard by his terrifying destructive power and raw strength, but now he seemed to be growing stronger than before.
Additionally, I didn't know if it was my imagination, but the dragon carved into the middle blade seemed to be glowing red…initially being a dull silver, the glaring red light had crept up to halfway the dragon's serpentine body, which seemed to grow along with Li Xue Wu's qi pressure.
"Seems you've noticed, huh?"
"?!"
Confused, I stared at Li Xue Wu, who continued to guffaw with a big grin on his handsome face. He stared at me with amused, inky black eyes.
"My Heavenly Blood Spear is a pretty lazy fellow. Even though I forcibly awoke him with Man and Sword as One, he's still half-asleep. The only way I can get him to full power is by slashing my opponent or allowing my enemy to hack me. That will speed up his awakening process."
"I thought you hated Bleach," I muttered, trying not to bury my face in my palm. "Why are you ripping off Madarame Ikkaku's Bankai?"
Li Xue Wu deliberately ignored me.
"And when the dragon becomes completely red, that's when Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is at its most powerful, and that's when its destructive strength will be at its peak!"
As if on cue, the red light reached the tip of the dragon's snout and the draconic emblem flared up like a supernova. Li Xue Wu's qi also reached its peak, to the extent that the entire cave seemed to shudder. The stone walls, ground and ceiling around him began to crumble, the rocks breaking apart from his sheer presence.
"Let's go!"
My eyebrow twitched. "Do you really think I'm that stupid to confront you head-on without a weapon?"
On the other hand, Li Xue Wu was intelligent enough to exploit the situation. He wasn't going to let me go, and thus he lunged forward, carving a trail of destruction and ruin as he sought to obliterate me.
Obviously I couldn't take such a powerful attack head-on, or I would end up like that pitiful Arrancar who died at Ikkaku's hands.
But how…?
Taking a deep breath, I poured all my qi into my feet and tried to rely on both my footwork techniques and Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. With the corridor being as narrow as it was, there was no way I could escape, and I knew Li Xue Wu would just use his overwhelming power to catapult himself forward like a projectile and catch up with me if I turned to flee.
No, I was going to have to stand my ground here.
"DIE!"
Li Xue Wu thrust his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear forward, piercing me in the chest and blowing up the entire place with his sheer amounts of qi. He narrowed his eyes when he saw my figure shimmer and vanish.
"Hah! I saw this trick earlier…it won't work on me twice!"
Recognizing my Ying, Li Xue Wu spun around, smashing the walls with his enormous Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear as he did so, and struck at where he thought I was.
Fortunately, I had already anticipated that a prodigy like him would have seen through what he deemed were paltry tricks.
Flipping my body in midair, I smashed my foot into his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear and unleashed a devastating Seismic Step that almost shattered the huge blade.
"Bastard!"
With a roar, Li Xue Wu swung his crumbling spear blade forward, and I was forced to retreat with Tui. Otherwise I would have lost my foot there.
Hopping back, I barely managed to regain my balance when Li Xue Wu slashed at me again with his other hatchet.
"I don't know what kind of tricks you used, but the moment you failed to destroy my Spirit Weapon with that foot attack of yours, you've lost!"
"We'll see about that," I replied, using Duo to evade his strike. Li Xue Wu continued to rampage around the corridor, undeterred, hoping to get me with one or two attacks.
He almost got me, and I was forced to retreat. Relying on his genius intuition, Li Xue Wu managed to pinpoint my location and spun around to strike at me. I dodged it by a hair's breadth and vanished before his eyes as I kicked the ground desperately.
"Hah! As if I wouldn't know where you went!"
Li Xue Wu swung his hatchet around at his back, only for it to pass through empty space.
But that was a feint. The gigantic middle blade in his other hand lashed out in the opposite direction, right at where my figure materialized.
"?"
"Did you think I wouldn't expect you to appear there with your footwork techniques?" Li Xue Wu grinned. "I told you, the same trick won't work on me twice!"
Swoosh!
"?!"
Li Xue Wu's mouth gaped when he sliced through yet another shadow. My illusory figure grinned at him before vanishing.
"I know. That's why I didn't use the same trick twice."
While Li Xue Wu flailed around, I mocked him from the shadows, unseen.
"You…!"
Swearing and cursing loudly, Li Xue Wu whirled around again, trying to seek me. His blades sliced through the ceiling, causing a rain of stalactites, which shattered when they collided against his dense aura of qi.
He almost made it.
Almost.
But being the prodigy that he was, Li Xue Wu was able to deliver a devastating attack by swinging his spear right where he thought I would be. He was correct, but he missed by several centimeters.
For I wasn't standing up straight, nor was I aiming for a fatal blow. Li Xue Wu had anticipated a sneak attack to his neck or head, for me to rupture a carotid artery or jugular vein, or at least for me to smash his head in with a Seismic Step like I did to his spear-like weapon.
However, I didn't intend to do that.
Dropping low and almost hugging the ground, I propelled myself upward and launched a Lunar Rabbbit kick that struck Li Xue Wu in his midriff, right under his guard and before he could bring down his weapon to sever my leg. At the same time, I unleashed whatever pure qi I had, igniting the volatile energy with explosive force.
Boom!
"ARGH!"
Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling backward from the force, unable to halt his momentum. He crashed into the icy chamber, rolling on the ground for a few moments before he finally stopped himself by stabbing his hatchet into the ice and arresting his slide.
"You think this will be enough to kill me?!" he roared as he rose to his feet, glaring at me. I smiled and shook my head.
"No, but that will."
"Huh?!"
Too late, Li Xue Wu realized that he was in the same chamber where I had almost frozen to death earlier, where the rest of his sect mates had frozen to death, their bodies still lingering in the glacial cavern as icy statues.
"No…!"
Li Xue Wu howled as he tried to leap out, but even though he possessed Man and Sword as One, he didn't possess the same resistance to ice techniques as I did.
"Get me out of here!" he hollered. He was trying to clamber out of the chamber, but I firmly stood in his way and snorted.
"Why should I?"
"Do you know who I am?!" Li Xue Wu bellowed, getting desperate. "I'm the son of the Patriarch of Tian Sha Sect! The son of the Tian Sha Sect Leader, Li Tian Zun!"
Oh, I heard of Li Tian Zun, all right. Also known as Tian Sha Tian Zun, he was the current sect leader and patriarch of the Heavenly Fiend Sect. he was notorious for being extremely cruel, merciless and brutal, massacring entire villages and being powerful enough to destroy entire regiments of Imperial Guard. He was currently one of the most powerful demonic martial artists in the Great Zhou Empire, ranking among the three Supreme Evils.
However, I couldn't care less even if Li Xue Wu's father was the Zhou Emperor himself. So I merely shrugged.
"So?"
"W…what do you mean so…?" Li Xue Wu stammered in disbelief, as if not understanding why I wasn't afraid. "If you kill me, my father and Tian Sha Sect will bring their entire power down to crush you! You'll regret ever killing me!"
"And that matters now?"
"A…ah?!"
Li Xue Wu stared at me, his expression frozen as ice slowly coated over his once-handsome face, which had now turned blue from the cold.
I smiled thinly.
"You're an idiot, aren't you? Think about it. If I kill you now, who's going to know? Who's going to tell your sect that I killed you? In fact, that's all the more reason to ensure that you die here. Dead men tell no tales."
Li Xue Wu wept, but his tears instantly froze into crystals because of the cold.
"Y…you will regret…t…this!" he swore, his teeth chattering.
"No, I won't. And besides…" My expression grew dark. "I don't care who you are. The moment you tried to kill me, you should be prepared to be killed. I don't care if your father is the emperor himself. I want you dead, therefore you'll die."
Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. The only reason why I could kill Li Xue Wu without hesitation was because there would be no witnesses. Without evidence, no one could charge me with murder. Fortunately, there were no closed circuit cameras and security footage within the tomb to capture my actions.
Therefore I would be safe from any legal complications.
"Now you know how it feels to be on the receiving end of your arrogance, ruthlessness and muderous behavior, right?"
I couldn't help but savor Li Xue Wu's despair. He glared at me defiantly, screaming obscenities that I could no longer hear because his vocal chords had frozen over and ice was coating his tongue fear and desperation shrouding his frost-encrusted ice.
And then it was finally over.
It didn't even take another five seconds before he completely froze over, both his body and gigantic spear transmuting into ice as the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation closed its deadly grip around him.
"Rest in peace," I told him, my smile spreading wider. "In an eternal icy grave just perfect for you."
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
"After him!"
"Don't let him escape!"
"Bloody bastard, trying to make a fool out of us?!"
I could hear the yelling of the Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples chasing after me, and judging from their voices, they were slowly but surely catching up.
Perfect.
Dashing along the corridor, I could both feel the temperature plummet and sense the rapid thickening density of frozen yin qi that curled monstrously across the atmosphere like alien tendrils, greedily stretching out to ensnare anyone foolish or reckless enough to run into its cold, deadly embrace.
I was one such reckless fella, but either way would end in my death, so I decided to at least bring my enemies to hell with me.
Furthermore, because I practiced ice techniques, I might stand a slight chance of surviving the icy hell that was the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation for at least a few minutes. Even more so than the dudes who were chasing me.
There!
I caught sight of the cavern where ghostly white fog drifted out in plumes, resembling smoke. Gritting my teeth as my body began to scream warnings and shiver violently from the exteme cold, I plunged myself deep into the cavern while gathering as much qi within my system as possible to protect my body from the dangerous temperatures.
"He went in there!"
"After him!"
"Hah! How stupid! He ran himself into a corner!"
"We can corner him now!"
The idiots didn't realize that they were walking into a trap. I had to fight to suppress my laughter as I slid across the slippery floor. The ground was glazed over by ice, which made it difficult to run over, but obviously that posed no threat to skilled martial artists.
Fortunately, I had no intention of running over the ice. I had gone into a sitting position to conserve as much energy as possible and focused on generating my own icy qi to counteract that of the trap, preventing myself from turning into ice.
The disciples from the Tian Sha Sect plunged in after me gleefully, thinking that they had me cornered.
The joke was on them.
"What…?!"
"Argh!"
"NOOO!!!"
In an instant, fourteen of the fifteen elite martial artists who were left over from the Tian Sha Sect after Zhu Jiao's slaughter of their cannon fodder and lower ranks (to be fair, I did contribute to the body count, having slain a few of the lower-ranked disciples myself), immediately froze. Their bodies were encased in ice, the demonic sect disciples completely caught off guard and taken by surprise by the viciousness of the demonic icy qi that saturated the hellish cavern I sought refuge in.
Now there would be existences beyond the fourth wall complaining about how unrealistic this was, that there was no way the Tian Sha Sect disciples wouldn't have seen a trap coming, given how there was an obvious drop in temperature and so much icy qi. Or that they were complete idiots and their actions didn't make sense. But think about it. They were chasing me, and I was running in this direction despite the drop in temperature. In other words, they had no reason to think that I was running into a death-trap that would potentially kill me. They also thought that if I could endure the drop in temperature, how was it possible that they, elite martial artists of the renowned and notorious Heavenly Fiend Sect, could not?
And thus, they continued to chase after me, never suspecting that I was essentially risking my own death by razor-thin margins, and was just as prepared to sacrifice my own life to ensure our mutual destruction.
"You…!"
Even though he had followed them in, Li Xue Wu was the last one to enter, and thus the least affected. The moment he beginning to freeze over, he quickly shattered the ice that was slowly spreading over his body with a violent surge of qi and instinctively leaped out of the cavern. Even though he was still shivering from the cold that was wafting out of the cavern's entrance, he stood his ground and glared at me from outside.
"You fucker! You…you killed my sect seniors and juniors!"
I gave him a baleful stare, wondering what was it with logic and xianxia villains.
"You guys tried to kill me, you know? Don't tell me you thought people would just let you kill them without fighting back? If you want to take a life, you have to be prepared to be killed too. That's the basics of fighting. If you don't have the courage to take the risk of being killed, then you have no right to kill others."
"…fucker! Come out here!"
I laughed. "And let you kill me? I'm not an idiot like you or your fellow sect members." I gestured to the fourteen frozen statues for emphasis.
"Fuck you!" Li Xue Wu roared, seething. He balled his fists in rage, but knew he couldn't come in or he would end up like the rest. However, he did still have a move up his sleeve. Rearing his spear back, he threw it at me, the projectile turning into a blood-red dragon as it sought to tear me apart.
Boom!
I managed to roll away, shattered ice raining down on me as I evaded the blood-red dragon. The dragon reverted back into a spear as it was mystically drawn back to Li Xue Wu's hand even though all he did was stand outside.
"How are you able to withstand the cold?" he demanded when he saw me get up and brush the frost off my clothing. I shrugged.
"Take a guess."
Li Xue Wu gritted his teeth, but he recalled me using ice techniques earlier to defend against their attacks. Cursing under his breath, he threw his spear again, hoping to wear me down as I dove to the side, hidden under all the blast of snow.
To be fair, Li Xue Wu's strategy was sound. He could safely stand at the entrance and bombard me from a safe distance without ever needing to set foot inside the icy death trap. On the other hand, the cold was slowly seeping my strength away, I was severely injured, and both my stamina and qi were running out. Furthermore, I could only withstand the cold for minutes at most. Already I could see the ice spreading across my limbs and slowing my movements further.
If I didn't get out of the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation soon, I would eventually freeze to death in a minute or two. If I did get out, as injured as I was, I would be easy prey for the murderous Li Xue Wu.
Was there anything I could do to reverse my situation and turn the tables on my opponent?
As a third strike sent another white spray of frost high into the ceiling, shielding me from my enemy, a gleam caught my eye. Glancing around briefly, I spotted a bottle of elixir, its contents glowing gently against the white snow.
That's right! This place was supposed to be filled with elixirs and spirit artifacts to lure greedy intruders inside and right into the death trap!
That was what the little marten…I mean Qi Lin told his disciple, Zhu Jiao. In other words, within the trap were actually treasures and elixirs!
"Ha ha ha! You won't last much longer at this rate!"
Outside, Li Xue Wu burst out laughing as he continued hurling his spear at me, and seeing my clumsy attempts at evasion and lack of retaliation, he realized my predicament. Armed with the knowledge that he could wear me down quicker and accelerate my death, his assault grew fiercer and more vicious.
"Die!"
Boom!
I had to duck under the spear as it blew up another space inside the icy cavern, and was hit by a sludge of half-melted ice. Choking and gurgling, I tried to swim through the piling snow, which had been created from the heat and blast from Li Xue Wu's attacks.
Fortunately, it was Li Xue Wu's assault that ironically shielded me from his view. Thanks to that, he had no idea what I intended to do.
Where is it? Where is the elixir I need?
Dumbly rummaging around the collection of elixirs, I desperately searched for a healing one that was on par with the Green Dragon Spring water that I had drunk all those years ago.
"…there!"
And just like that, I finally stumbled across a bottle that was labeled Green Dragon Crystal Potion. Given that the Green Dragon Spring water was imbued its healing effects by the Green Dragon Crystal, that bottle was exactly what I was looking for.
"Come on…"
I tried to grab the bottle, but I dropped it, partly because Li Xue Wu delivered another attack, and also partly because my fingers had gone numb from frostbite. I could see the skin greying, the damage spreading through my hands as the extreme cold worked to kill me.
"Fuck!"
I swore under my breath as I fumbled for the bottle, which had fallen onto the ice and was rolling away. Diving after it and at the same time avoiding having my head taken off by Li Xue Wu's three section spear, I clamped both my palms on opposite sides of the bottle and firmly grabbed it. hugging it close to my chest, I gritted my teeth and tried to unscrew the cap with my numb fingers – which was a lot more difficult than you imagine, unless you had experienced Minnesota or Siberia, in which case you probably know what I was talking about. After pouring the last vestiges of qi into my fingers and forcing the bottle open, I gulped down its contents as quickly as someone who had just been sentenced to chugging stupid cocktails as a punishment game.
Immediately I felt a lot better as the elixir went into effect, healing my wounds and mending the cuts that had frozen over. Hell, even my frostbitten fingers began to heal and I felt energized as a fresh wave of qi surged within my body.
"Thank heavens…" I breathed as I closed my eyes momentarily in relief, allowing the elixir several seconds to do its work. Then realizing that its good work would be undone if I continued to remain in the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation, I immediately sprang out of the cavern, twisting my body in midair to avoid Li Xue Wu's hurtling spear, and landing in front of the shocked Tian Sha Sect head disciple.
"What…?"
Before he could fully form a word with his mouth that was hanging open, I kicked him with a Lunar Rabbit kick that hurled him across the corridor and sent him crashing against the wall with a thunderous crack. The stone wall actually buckled from the tremendous impact and Li Xue Wu slid down with a groan, blood dribbling from his mouth.
"!!"
I spun around as Li Xue Wu's spear streaked back out of the icy cavern and almost impaled me. Grimacing and forcing himself back to his feet, Li Xue Wu snatched his three section spear back and then pointed it at me.
"Fucker, you'll pay for that!"
"Actually," I corrected. "You still owe me a great debt for what you and your sect disciples did to me earlier. And to my friend as well. I plan on collecting that debt." A cold smile spread ominously across my face. "With interest."
"!!!"
Li Xue Wu suppressed an involuntary shiver as he stepped back, tightening his grip on his spear. He eyed my sword warily, which I had just drawn again, now that I had chosen to fight instead of run, and scoffed.
"How?"
"For starters," I replied I materialized in front of a shocked Li Xue Wu, having used Jin to advance forward. "Like this."
I slashed him with my sword, and he barely managed to block my strike with his spear. Credit to him, he almost took me by surprise by suddenly separating his spear into three sections and changing the trajectory of his attack, scraping my cheek. But while he was so focused on attacking and locking down my sword, I dropped to a crouch and kicked him in the belly, knocking him over.
"Kuh!"
Li Xue Wu threw a hand out to push himself back onto his feet by doing a backflip, but he managed to retreat to a safe distance.
Now that it was a one-on-one fight, the odds were finally even. I proceeded forward cautiously, refusing to let my guard down, but also refusing to let this bastard go after all he did to me. As I did with Qi Fu Ren, I was going to eliminate him to prevent further troubles down the road. If he was more reasonable, we could have just settled this, but knowing his type, he would just seek revenge.
And I wasn't good-natured enough to let him leave so that he would attack me again in future. Furthermore, by his own admission, his demonic sect had been robbing and murdering other people all this time, so I was going to ensure that there would be no future victims. Of course, I didn't think this was justice, nor did I claimed to be any sort of hero, but I didn't want to let this bastard go and later learn that a close friend of mine, such as Tong Xue or Tang Qi Hong or even someone from my family was murdered by this guy or his followers.
Such problems were best tackled at the root.
"Argh! Demonic Dragon Strike!"
With a yell, Li Xue Wu slashed at me with his spear again, but I deflected it with my sword. Sparks flew as his weapon collided against my blade, screeching like fingernails on a blackboard (and making my ears hurt). I then twisted my sword and answered with a riposte that gouged a huge chunk of flesh from his shoulder.
"Ugh!"
In less than half an hour, I had completely turned the tables on Li Xue Wu. Not only did I lure his elite sect mates into a trap that sealed their icy doom, I was now dominating him in battle, especially after recovering upon drinking a Green Dragon Crystal potion. Buoyed by my advantage, I pressed on and struck at him, but he managed to bend his spear around to parry my sword. Twisting around, he kicked at me, but I managed to parry his foot with my leg.
Using Liu, I was able to blend in with his movements and knocked him off balance. Cursing as he fell, Li Xue Wu lashed out with his snaking spear, which turned into a blood-red dragon that snarled as it tried to bite me. I tossed my sword up and impaled the dragon, and at the same time dropped to a crouch and swept my feet to knock Li Xue Wu's legs out from under him and then kicked him in the chest with a Shadow Kick.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling across the corridor, smashing through the wall and momentarily disappearing under the falling rubble.
"Hu…"
I wiped the blood off my mouth and took a deep breath, steadily regaining my composure. It appeared that the Green Dragon Crystal potion was taking effects, the mystical elixir coursing through my veins and strengthening my body.
Otherwise I would never have been able to gain such a large advantage over a prodigy like Li Xue Wu.
"Huff…huff…"
Li Xue Wu was slowly rising to his feet, blood streaming down his formerly handsome face. He glared at me, pure hatred in his inky black eyes. I had to admit, the guy was tenacious, and even though I had been somewhat rejuvenated by the Green Dragon Crystal potion, he had left several fresh injuries on me.
"AAAAH!"
Roaring in fury, Li Xue Wu lunged at me again. I blocked his first strike, but he twisted around and slashed me with another segment of his three section spear. Unable to parry this time, I felt blood splash across my face and a red blinding pain surged through my senses. My glasses were dislodged and fell to the ground in two pieces, stained with blood.
"Hey!" I yelled. "You do not break my glasses!"
"Oh, shut up!"
Wiith a snarl, Li Xue Wu thrust his spear forward again. Staggering backward, still half-blinded by the blood that dripped from a diagonal slash across the bridge of my nose, I parried his strike, but was knocked off my feet by another section.
"Kuh!"
Pain exploded in my skull as I stumbled backward, stars filling my already blood-red vision. I tried to block his next attack, but he jabbed me in the stomach with the blunt end of his spear, causing me to double over.
Gritting my teeth, I unleashed my Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula, freezing everything in the vicinity, but Li Xue Wu effortlessly shattered the ice and countered with a riposte that almost took off my ear. From the blood that trickled down my face, it seemed that I hadn't completely dodged it, but at least my ear was still in one piece.
I checked with my hand to make sure.
"You're no match for me!" Li Xue Wu sneered. "I'm the prodigy of the Heavenly Fiend Sect! There's no way you can…"
The guy talked too much. I didn't even bother to wait for him to finish, instead slashing at him. Li Xue Wu blocked with one section of his spear and used the other two sections to counterattack, but I quickly unleashed a huge blast of qi.
Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!
"?!"
Boom!
Li Xue Wu was thrown against the wall, blood spurting from his mouth. He bounced off the wall and staggered to his feet, but before he could fully recover, I was already using a second Heavenly Draconic Meteor Sword technique to knock him off his feet and send him sprawling on the ground. Gritting his teeth, Li Xue Wu forced himself back to his feet and threw his spear at me, but I dodged it before unleashing a meteoric blast from my sword.
The destructive qi engulfed him, and Li Xue Wu screamed as he vanished in the blinding conflagration.
"Huff…"
Breathing heavily, I seized the chance to correct my breathing and wiped the blood away from my face. Using an ice technique, I froze the wound to stem the bleeding. Fortunately, some effects of the Green Dragon Crystal potion remained, and the wound healed, but more slowly than before. There wouldn't be much time before the healing effects ran out.
I had to finish this fight before that happened.
Jumping forward just as Li Xue Wu staggered out of the azure conflagration, his body fuming, I executed another Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike that knocked away his spear and almost bisected him. In fact, his spear, which was in all likelihood a Spirit Treasure Weapon, was probably the only reason why he survived, otherwise my sword strike would have smashed it apart and obliterated the guy.
Even so, as I said before, Li Xue Wu was pretty tenacious. And a prodigy. At the moment I attacked, he retaliated with a counterattack, piercing my side with his spear while he fell, and the both of us crashed several meters away from each other, scarred by the exchange.
"Huff…"
Fortunately, the injury wasn't deep and I was up again, holding my sword up. I noticed that it was pretty battered from the furious exchanges with the three section spear. Obviously, against a Spirit Treasure Weapon, a normal weapon that was of low quality would be slowly eroded away, and since the gap between our strengths wasn't that large, Li Xue Wu would hold a slight advantage with his better Spirit Armament.
Even so, he had taken a lot of damage from my strike, and his body was still smoldering and bleeding in many places. His crash had even created a crater in the ground where he landed. Extremely furious, Li Xue Wu reared to his full height despite his injuries and bellowed at me.
"You forced me to use this!"
"Use what?"
Stupid question. I regretted ever asking that. I should probably have used the time to lunge forward and attack, but admittedly I wouldn't have made it in time to stop Li Xue Wu from using his ultimate technique.
"Man and Sword as One!"
Holding his spear up, Li Xue Wu shouted. I blinked as a fog of qi blasted around him, buffeting me with violent shockwaves. All around us, the stone walls cracked, and the stalactites hanging from above crashed down, shaken loose from the tremendous force. To my horror, Li Xue Wu's qi surged exponentially, almost saturating the entire place with demonic qi. I wished I could simply absorb the qi from the surroundings, but Heaven and Earth Absorption did not work that conveniently. I would be tempted to absorb Li Xue Wu's qi, but again, he obviously wasn't going to sit down and let me suck the qi from him.
Just like what I said earlier, nobody was stupid enough to give up and die just because you told them to.
"Man and Sword as One…"
I swallowed as I watched the enormous amount of swirling qi flood across the relatively narrow space. Now that I sensed the actual qi emanating from Li Xue Wu, I couldn't help but feel that it was disgusting somehow…tainted, or unclean.
Okay, hell no. I sure as hell ain't gonna suck that sort of qi. I didn't know why I felt so repulsed by his qi, but it probably had something to do with the way the Tian Sha Sect cultivated. It felt so…wrong somehow.
"…"
As expected of the prodigy of the Tian Sha Sect (though from what I later learned, Yan Qing Wu was more of a prodigy than Li Xue Wu, being a Six Star Constitution and all that – which led to Li Xue Wu claiming her as his future wife, much to her annoyance), to have already reached the peak of all martial arts at such a young age.
"I can't believe I'm forced to use Man and Sword as One in a place like this…"
Stepping out of the violent maelstrom of dense qi, Li Xue Wu was cursing. I almost gaped when I saw that his three section spear had changed.
No…it probably wasn't correct to call it a three section spear any longer.
Unlike the former blood red spear, the Spirit Treasure Weapon had transformed into three colossal weapons, linked to each other by massive metallic chains. Each of the weapons were bell-shaped blades, with the one in the middle being curved and wide. A single dragon was engraved onto the center of that broad blade, with the tip of its tail glowing red, but otherwise the rest of the body was a dull silver.
In his right and left hands, Li Xue Wu held huge blades, the one in his left faintly resembling the tip of an enormous spear and the other looking like a gigantic hatchet.
"Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear."
I threw both my hands up into the air, irritated, when Li Xue Wu proudly proclaimed the name of his newly transformed treasure weapon.
"Why don't you just call that technique Bankai?!"
Li Xue Wu's nostrils flared. "Don't you dare compare my Man and Sword as One technique to something from a trash manga."
"Hey!" I protested angrily. "Bleach is not trash!"
"Hmph!" Li Xue Wu snorted. "Tite Kubo rushed the ending. It was so unsatisfactory, especially that last part of the Quincy arc!"
"…yeah, that we can agree on. I wish Tite Kubo Sensei could have given it a proper ending and wasn't forced to end the manga prematurely." I couldn't believe that someone from this timeline actually read Bleach. Seemed like Japanese manga also existed in this alternate history. "By the way, I think it's called the Thousand Year War arc."
"Even so, that was pretty bad, even by Tite Kubo's standards…" Li Xue Wu caught himself and suddenly glowered at me. "Stop trying to distract me! Are you trying to buy time or something!? It's not going to work!"
Actually, I wasn't. The remark came out of my mouth before I knew it, and I never expected Li Xue Wu to have read Bleach as well.
The qi flickered around Li Xue Wu, coalescing into the form of an insubstantial blood-red dragon that rose into the air like an inferno. I felt perspiration drip down my face as I shuddered from the potent display of power.
"Didn't you know?" Li Xue Wu sneered when he saw my stunned expression. "Man and Sword as One allows you to spiritually fuse with your weapon, which then unlocks the true power…the true potential of your weapon! In other words, this is Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is the true form of my Heavenly Blood Spear!"
Suddenly, I recalled the full-body armor that Zhu Jiao managed to attain in the middle of my duel with him during the tournament final last year. He had metamorphized his gauntlets after using his Golden Kirin Sacred Beast techniques, which mysteriously changed the shape of his spirit armament.
In other words, Zhu Jiao had also achieved Man and Sword as One without even realizing it (and it was in the middle of a pivotal battle too, as expected of a typical xianxia protagonist)! That guy was getting more and more Mary Sue-ish…
"That's pretty amazing," I conceded with a wry smile. Li Xue Wu snorted.
"Quit flattering me. I haven't released enough qi to impress you yet."
His legs bent slightly and the ground underneath his feet began to crumble as he exerted pressure on them, getting ready to propel himself toward me in a single jump.
"You can decide whether it's amazing or not…"
Whoom!
He leaped from the smoldering crater that he had crashed into earlier to swing his newly awakened Spirit Treasure Weapon at me.
"…after I kill you!"
With a scream, he swung his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear at me. I parried his first strike with my sword, only to be completely blown away by his sheer strength.
"Kuh!"
Tumbling helpessly in midair, unable to halt my momentum, I managed to right myself and skidded to a stop while panting heavily.
"!!"
Blinking, I saw that my sword had cracked, the blade being almost completely shattered from receiving that single strike earlier.
"Hah!"
With a gleeful cry of triumph, Li Xue Wu descended upon me from above, swinging his hatchet-like weapon. I reacted on reflex, swinging my sword up to parry it and countered with a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike, but he instantly obliterated my sword despite two gigantic clouds of qi colliding violently.
Shards of metal rained down on my face, but I was able to use my footwork technique to evade before he smashed a crater into the ground where I was standing on milliseconds ago with his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear.
"Huff…!"
Stumbling to the side, I spun around to face the chuckling Li Xue Wu, analyzing his newly evolved weapon.
Power! I realized as I stared at the three spears. His Man and Sword as One technique is a large mass of sheer power! It doesn't augment his defensive capabilities, doesn't enhance his speed or doesn't boost his arcane techniques…it is just overwhelming destructive power!
Fortunately, even without my glasses, I could see something that sparked a small ray of hope within me.
However, because he focuses completely on power, this renders his Spirit Weapon vulnerable to my attacks!
Thanks to the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike I unleashed to counter his attack earlier, I had managed to take off a huge chunk of the hatchet and left a lage, visible crack. In other words, Li Xue Wu was not invincible!
I could win this!
"Heh heh heh!"
Li Xue Wu chuckled as he watched my reaction. Aware that I was disarmed and at an overwhelming disadvantage, I instinctively took a step back. Even though I was aware that Li Xue Wu could be beaten, I no longer possessed the means to do so. Without a sword, I wouldn't be able to defend against his brute strength and raw destructive power.
I guess I'll have to rely on speed then…eh?
I blinked when I suddenly noticed something. Li Xue Wu was laughing boisterously as he spun the middle blade excitedly. His qi seemed to be rising even more than before. Earlier, I was almost caught off guard by his terrifying destructive power and raw strength, but now he seemed to be growing stronger than before.
Additionally, I didn't know if it was my imagination, but the dragon carved into the middle blade seemed to be glowing red…initially being a dull silver, the glaring red light had crept up to halfway the dragon's serpentine body, which seemed to grow along with Li Xue Wu's qi pressure.
"Seems you've noticed, huh?"
"?!"
Confused, I stared at Li Xue Wu, who continued to guffaw with a big grin on his handsome face. He stared at me with amused, inky black eyes.
"My Heavenly Blood Spear is a pretty lazy fellow. Even though I forcibly awoke him with Man and Sword as One, he's still half-asleep. The only way I can get him to full power is by slashing my opponent or allowing my enemy to hack me. That will speed up his awakening process."
"I thought you hated Bleach," I muttered, trying not to bury my face in my palm. "Why are you ripping off Madarame Ikkaku's Bankai?"
Li Xue Wu deliberately ignored me.
"And when the dragon becomes completely red, that's when Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is at its most powerful, and that's when its destructive strength will be at its peak!"
As if on cue, the red light reached the tip of the dragon's snout and the draconic emblem flared up like a supernova. Li Xue Wu's qi also reached its peak, to the extent that the entire cave seemed to shudder. The stone walls, ground and ceiling around him began to crumble, the rocks breaking apart from his sheer presence.
"Let's go!"
My eyebrow twitched. "Do you really think I'm that stupid to confront you head-on without a weapon?"
On the other hand, Li Xue Wu was intelligent enough to exploit the situation. He wasn't going to let me go, and thus he lunged forward, carving a trail of destruction and ruin as he sought to obliterate me.
Obviously I couldn't take such a powerful attack head-on, or I would end up like that pitiful Arrancar who died at Ikkaku's hands.
But how…?
Taking a deep breath, I poured all my qi into my feet and tried to rely on both my footwork techniques and Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. With the corridor being as narrow as it was, there was no way I could escape, and I knew Li Xue Wu would just use his overwhelming power to catapult himself forward like a projectile and catch up with me if I turned to flee.
No, I was going to have to stand my ground here.
"DIE!"
Li Xue Wu thrust his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear forward, piercing me in the chest and blowing up the entire place with his sheer amounts of qi. He narrowed his eyes when he saw my figure shimmer and vanish.
"Hah! I saw this trick earlier…it won't work on me twice!"
Recognizing my Ying, Li Xue Wu spun around, smashing the walls with his enormous Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear as he did so, and struck at where he thought I was.
Fortunately, I had already anticipated that a prodigy like him would have seen through what he deemed were paltry tricks.
Flipping my body in midair, I smashed my foot into his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear and unleashed a devastating Seismic Step that almost shattered the huge blade.
"Bastard!"
With a roar, Li Xue Wu swung his crumbling spear blade forward, and I was forced to retreat with Tui. Otherwise I would have lost my foot there.
Hopping back, I barely managed to regain my balance when Li Xue Wu slashed at me again with his other hatchet.
"I don't know what kind of tricks you used, but the moment you failed to destroy my Spirit Weapon with that foot attack of yours, you've lost!"
"We'll see about that," I replied, using Duo to evade his strike. Li Xue Wu continued to rampage around the corridor, undeterred, hoping to get me with one or two attacks.
He almost got me, and I was forced to retreat. Relying on his genius intuition, Li Xue Wu managed to pinpoint my location and spun around to strike at me. I dodged it by a hair's breadth and vanished before his eyes as I kicked the ground desperately.
"Hah! As if I wouldn't know where you went!"
Li Xue Wu swung his hatchet around at his back, only for it to pass through empty space.
But that was a feint. The gigantic middle blade in his other hand lashed out in the opposite direction, right at where my figure materialized.
"?"
"Did you think I wouldn't expect you to appear there with your footwork techniques?" Li Xue Wu grinned. "I told you, the same trick won't work on me twice!"
Swoosh!
"?!"
Li Xue Wu's mouth gaped when he sliced through yet another shadow. My illusory figure grinned at him before vanishing.
"I know. That's why I didn't use the same trick twice."
While Li Xue Wu flailed around, I mocked him from the shadows, unseen.
"You…!"
Swearing and cursing loudly, Li Xue Wu whirled around again, trying to seek me. His blades sliced through the ceiling, causing a rain of stalactites, which shattered when they collided against his dense aura of qi.
He almost made it.
Almost.
But being the prodigy that he was, Li Xue Wu was able to deliver a devastating attack by swinging his spear right where he thought I would be. He was correct, but he missed by several centimeters.
For I wasn't standing up straight, nor was I aiming for a fatal blow. Li Xue Wu had anticipated a sneak attack to his neck or head, for me to rupture a carotid artery or jugular vein, or at least for me to smash his head in with a Seismic Step like I did to his spear-like weapon.
However, I didn't intend to do that.
Dropping low and almost hugging the ground, I propelled myself upward and launched a Lunar Rabbbit kick that struck Li Xue Wu in his midriff, right under his guard and before he could bring down his weapon to sever my leg. At the same time, I unleashed whatever pure qi I had, igniting the volatile energy with explosive force.
Boom!
"ARGH!"
Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling backward from the force, unable to halt his momentum. He crashed into the icy chamber, rolling on the ground for a few moments before he finally stopped himself by stabbing his hatchet into the ice and arresting his slide.
"You think this will be enough to kill me?!" he roared as he rose to his feet, glaring at me. I smiled and shook my head.
"No, but that will."
"Huh?!"
Too late, Li Xue Wu realized that he was in the same chamber where I had almost frozen to death earlier, where the rest of his sect mates had frozen to death, their bodies still lingering in the glacial cavern as icy statues.
"No…!"
Li Xue Wu howled as he tried to leap out, but even though he possessed Man and Sword as One, he didn't possess the same resistance to ice techniques as I did.
"Get me out of here!" he hollered. He was trying to clamber out of the chamber, but I firmly stood in his way and snorted.
"Why should I?"
"Do you know who I am?!" Li Xue Wu bellowed, getting desperate. "I'm the son of the Patriarch of Tian Sha Sect! The son of the Tian Sha Sect Leader, Li Tian Zun!"
Oh, I heard of Li Tian Zun, all right. Also known as Tian Sha Tian Zun, he was the current sect leader and patriarch of the Heavenly Fiend Sect. he was notorious for being extremely cruel, merciless and brutal, massacring entire villages and being powerful enough to destroy entire regiments of Imperial Guard. He was currently one of the most powerful demonic martial artists in the Great Zhou Empire, ranking among the three Supreme Evils.
However, I couldn't care less even if Li Xue Wu's father was the Zhou Emperor himself. So I merely shrugged.
"So?"
"W…what do you mean so…?" Li Xue Wu stammered in disbelief, as if not understanding why I wasn't afraid. "If you kill me, my father and Tian Sha Sect will bring their entire power down to crush you! You'll regret ever killing me!"
"And that matters now?"
"A…ah?!"
Li Xue Wu stared at me, his expression frozen as ice slowly coated over his once-handsome face, which had now turned blue from the cold.
I smiled thinly.
"You're an idiot, aren't you? Think about it. If I kill you now, who's going to know? Who's going to tell your sect that I killed you? In fact, that's all the more reason to ensure that you die here. Dead men tell no tales."
Li Xue Wu wept, but his tears instantly froze into crystals because of the cold.
"Y…you will regret…t…this!" he swore, his teeth chattering.
"No, I won't. And besides…" My expression grew dark. "I don't care who you are. The moment you tried to kill me, you should be prepared to be killed. I don't care if your father is the emperor himself. I want you dead, therefore you'll die."
Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. The only reason why I could kill Li Xue Wu without hesitation was because there would be no witnesses. Without evidence, no one could charge me with murder. Fortunately, there were no closed circuit cameras and security footage within the tomb to capture my actions.
Therefore I would be safe from any legal complications.
"Now you know how it feels to be on the receiving end of your arrogance, ruthlessness and muderous behavior, right?"
I couldn't help but savor Li Xue Wu's despair. He glared at me defiantly, screaming obscenities that I could no longer hear because his vocal chords had frozen over and ice was coating his tongue fear and desperation shrouding his frost-encrusted ice.
And then it was finally over.
It didn't even take another five seconds before he completely froze over, both his body and gigantic spear transmuting into ice as the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation closed its deadly grip around him.
"Rest in peace," I told him, my smile spreading wider. "In an eternal icy grave just perfect for you."
"After him!""Don't let him escape!""Bloody bastard, trying to make a fool out of us?!"I could hear the yelling of the Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples chasing after me, and judging from their voices, they were slowly but surely catching up.Perfect.Dashing along the corridor, I could both feel the temperature plummet and sense the rapid thickening density of frozen yin qi that curled monstrously across the atmosphere like alien tendrils, greedily stretching out to ensnare anyone foolish or reckless enough to run into its cold, deadly embrace.I was one such reckless fella, but either way would end in my death, so I decided to at least bring my enemies to hell with me.Furthermore, because I practiced ice techniques, I might stand a slight chance of surviving the icy hell that was the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation for at least a few minutes. Even more so than the dudes who were chasing me.There!I caught sight of the cavern where ghostly white fog drifted out in plumes, resembling smoke. Gritting my teeth as my body began to scream warnings and shiver violently from the exteme cold, I plunged myself deep into the cavern while gathering as much qi within my system as possible to protect my body from the dangerous temperatures."He went in there!""After him!""Hah! How stupid! He ran himself into a corner!""We can corner him now!"The idiots didn't realize that they were walking into a trap. I had to fight to suppress my laughter as I slid across the slippery floor. The ground was glazed over by ice, which made it difficult to run over, but obviously that posed no threat to skilled martial artists.Fortunately, I had no intention of running over the ice. I had gone into a sitting position to conserve as much energy as possible and focused on generating my own icy qi to counteract that of the trap, preventing myself from turning into ice.The disciples from the Tian Sha Sect plunged in after me gleefully, thinking that they had me cornered.The joke was on them."What?!""Argh!""NOOO!!!"In an instant, fourteen of the fifteen elite martial artists who were left over from the Tian Sha Sect after Zhu Jiao's slaughter of their cannon fodder and lower ranks to be fair, I did contribute to the body count, having slain a few of the lower-ranked disciples myself, immediately froze. Their bodies were encased in ice, the demonic sect disciples completely caught off guard and taken by surprise by the viciousness of the demonic icy qi that saturated the hellish cavern I sought refuge in.Now there would be existences beyond the fourth wall complaining about how unrealistic this was, that there was no way the Tian Sha Sect disciples wouldn't have seen a trap coming, given how there was an obvious drop in temperature and so much icy qi. Or that they were complete idiots and their actions didn't make sense. But think about it. They were chasing me, and I was running in this direction despite the drop in temperature. In other words, they had no reason to think that I was running into a death-trap that would potentially kill me. They also thought that if I could endure the drop in temperature, how was it possible that they, elite martial artists of the renowned and notorious Heavenly Fiend Sect, could not?And thus, they continued to chase after me, never suspecting that I was essentially risking my own death by razor-thin margins, and was just as prepared to sacrifice my own life to ensure our mutual destruction."You!"Even though he had followed them in, Li Xue Wu was the last one to enter, and thus the least affected. The moment he beginning to freeze over, he quickly shattered the ice that was slowly spreading over his body with a violent surge of qi and instinctively leaped out of the cavern. Even though he was still shivering from the cold that was wafting out of the cavern's entrance, he stood his ground and glared at me from outside."You fucker! Youyou killed my sect seniors and juniors!"I gave him a baleful stare, wondering what was it with logic and xianxia villains."You guys tried to kill me, you know? Don't tell me you thought people would just let you kill them without fighting back? If you want to take a life, you have to be prepared to be killed too. That's the basics of fighting. If you don't have the courage to take the risk of being killed, then you have no right to kill others.""fucker! Come out here!"I laughed. "And let you kill me? I'm not an idiot like you or your fellow sect members." I gestured to the fourteen frozen statues for emphasis."Fuck you!" Li Xue Wu roared, seething. He balled his fists in rage, but knew he couldn't come in or he would end up like the rest. However, he did still have a move up his sleeve. Rearing his spear back, he threw it at me, the projectile turning into a blood-red dragon as it sought to tear me apart.Boom!I managed to roll away, shattered ice raining down on me as I evaded the blood-red dragon. The dragon reverted back into a spear as it was mystically drawn back to Li Xue Wu's hand even though all he did was stand outside."How are you able to withstand the cold?" he demanded when he saw me get up and brush the frost off my clothing. I shrugged."Take a guess."Li Xue Wu gritted his teeth, but he recalled me using ice techniques earlier to defend against their attacks. Cursing under his breath, he threw his spear again, hoping to wear me down as I dove to the side, hidden under all the blast of snow.To be fair, Li Xue Wu's strategy was sound. He could safely stand at the entrance and bombard me from a safe distance without ever needing to set foot inside the icy death trap. On the other hand, the cold was slowly seeping my strength away, I was severely injured, and both my stamina and qi were running out. Furthermore, I could only withstand the cold for minutes at most. Already I could see the ice spreading across my limbs and slowing my movements further.If I didn't get out of the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation soon, I would eventually freeze to death in a minute or two. If I did get out, as injured as I was, I would be easy prey for the murderous Li Xue Wu.Was there anything I could do to reverse my situation and turn the tables on my opponent?As a third strike sent another white spray of frost high into the ceiling, shielding me from my enemy, a gleam caught my eye. Glancing around briefly, I spotted a bottle of elixir, its contents glowing gently against the white snow.That's right! This place was supposed to be filled with elixirs and spirit artifacts to lure greedy intruders inside and right into the death trap!That was what the little martenI mean Qi Lin told his disciple, Zhu Jiao. In other words, within the trap were actually treasures and elixirs!"Ha ha ha! You won't last much longer at this rate!"Outside, Li Xue Wu burst out laughing as he continued hurling his spear at me, and seeing my clumsy attempts at evasion and lack of retaliation, he realized my predicament. Armed with the knowledge that he could wear me down quicker and accelerate my death, his assault grew fiercer and more vicious."Die!"Boom!I had to duck under the spear as it blew up another space inside the icy cavern, and was hit by a sludge of half-melted ice. Choking and gurgling, I tried to swim through the piling snow, which had been created from the heat and blast from Li Xue Wu's attacks.Fortunately, it was Li Xue Wu's assault that ironically shielded me from his view. Thanks to that, he had no idea what I intended to do.Where is it? Where is the elixir I need?Dumbly rummaging around the collection of elixirs, I desperately searched for a healing one that was on par with the Green Dragon Spring water that I had drunk all those years ago."there!"And just like that, I finally stumbled across a bottle that was labeled Green Dragon Crystal Potion. Given that the Green Dragon Spring water was imbued its healing effects by the Green Dragon Crystal, that bottle was exactly what I was looking for."Come on"I tried to grab the bottle, but I dropped it, partly because Li Xue Wu delivered another attack, and also partly because my fingers had gone numb from frostbite. I could see the skin greying, the damage spreading through my hands as the extreme cold worked to kill me."Fuck!"I swore under my breath as I fumbled for the bottle, which had fallen onto the ice and was rolling away. Diving after it and at the same time avoiding having my head taken off by Li Xue Wu's three section spear, I clamped both my palms on opposite sides of the bottle and firmly grabbed it. hugging it close to my chest, I gritted my teeth and tried to unscrew the cap with my numb fingers which was a lot more difficult than you imagine, unless you had experienced Minnesota or Siberia, in which case you probably know what I was talking about. After pouring the last vestiges of qi into my fingers and forcing the bottle open, I gulped down its contents as quickly as someone who had just been sentenced to chugging stupid cocktails as a punishment game.Immediately I felt a lot better as the elixir went into effect, healing my wounds and mending the cuts that had frozen over. Hell, even my frostbitten fingers began to heal and I felt energized as a fresh wave of qi surged within my body."Thank heavens" I breathed as I closed my eyes momentarily in relief, allowing the elixir several seconds to do its work. Then realizing that its good work would be undone if I continued to remain in the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation, I immediately sprang out of the cavern, twisting my body in midair to avoid Li Xue Wu's hurtling spear, and landing in front of the shocked Tian Sha Sect head disciple."What?"Before he could fully form a word with his mouth that was hanging open, I kicked him with a Lunar Rabbit kick that hurled him across the corridor and sent him crashing against the wall with a thunderous crack. The stone wall actually buckled from the tremendous impact and Li Xue Wu slid down with a groan, blood dribbling from his mouth."!!"I spun around as Li Xue Wu's spear streaked back out of the icy cavern and almost impaled me. Grimacing and forcing himself back to his feet, Li Xue Wu snatched his three section spear back and then pointed it at me."Fucker, you'll pay for that!""Actually," I corrected. "You still owe me a great debt for what you and your sect disciples did to me earlier. And to my friend as well. I plan on collecting that debt." A cold smile spread ominously across my face. "With interest.""!!!"Li Xue Wu suppressed an involuntary shiver as he stepped back, tightening his grip on his spear. He eyed my sword warily, which I had just drawn again, now that I had chosen to fight instead of run, and scoffed."How?""For starters," I replied I materialized in front of a shocked Li Xue Wu, having used Jin to advance forward. "Like this."I slashed him with my sword, and he barely managed to block my strike with his spear. Credit to him, he almost took me by surprise by suddenly separating his spear into three sections and changing the trajectory of his attack, scraping my cheek. But while he was so focused on attacking and locking down my sword, I dropped to a crouch and kicked him in the belly, knocking him over."Kuh!"Li Xue Wu threw a hand out to push himself back onto his feet by doing a backflip, but he managed to retreat to a safe distance.Now that it was a one-on-one fight, the odds were finally even. I proceeded forward cautiously, refusing to let my guard down, but also refusing to let this bastard go after all he did to me. As I did with Qi Fu Ren, I was going to eliminate him to prevent further troubles down the road. If he was more reasonable, we could have just settled this, but knowing his type, he would just seek revenge.And I wasn't good-natured enough to let him leave so that he would attack me again in future. Furthermore, by his own admission, his demonic sect had been robbing and murdering other people all this time, so I was going to ensure that there would be no future victims. Of course, I didn't think this was justice, nor did I claimed to be any sort of hero, but I didn't want to let this bastard go and later learn that a close friend of mine, such as Tong Xue or Tang Qi Hong or even someone from my family was murdered by this guy or his followers.Such problems were best tackled at the root."Argh! Demonic Dragon Strike!"With a yell, Li Xue Wu slashed at me with his spear again, but I deflected it with my sword. Sparks flew as his weapon collided against my blade, screeching like fingernails on a blackboard and making my ears hurt. I then twisted my sword and answered with a riposte that gouged a huge chunk of flesh from his shoulder."Ugh!"In less than half an hour, I had completely turned the tables on Li Xue Wu. Not only did I lure his elite sect mates into a trap that sealed their icy doom, I was now dominating him in battle, especially after recovering upon drinking a Green Dragon Crystal potion. Buoyed by my advantage, I pressed on and struck at him, but he managed to bend his spear around to parry my sword. Twisting around, he kicked at me, but I managed to parry his foot with my leg.Using Liu, I was able to blend in with his movements and knocked him off balance. Cursing as he fell, Li Xue Wu lashed out with his snaking spear, which turned into a blood-red dragon that snarled as it tried to bite me. I tossed my sword up and impaled the dragon, and at the same time dropped to a crouch and swept my feet to knock Li Xue Wu's legs out from under him and then kicked him in the chest with a Shadow Kick."AAAAAAARGH!"Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling across the corridor, smashing through the wall and momentarily disappearing under the falling rubble."Hu"I wiped the blood off my mouth and took a deep breath, steadily regaining my composure. It appeared that the Green Dragon Crystal potion was taking effects, the mystical elixir coursing through my veins and strengthening my body.Otherwise I would never have been able to gain such a large advantage over a prodigy like Li Xue Wu."Huffhuff"Li Xue Wu was slowly rising to his feet, blood streaming down his formerly handsome face. He glared at me, pure hatred in his inky black eyes. I had to admit, the guy was tenacious, and even though I had been somewhat rejuvenated by the Green Dragon Crystal potion, he had left several fresh injuries on me."AAAAH!"Roaring in fury, Li Xue Wu lunged at me again. I blocked his first strike, but he twisted around and slashed me with another segment of his three section spear. Unable to parry this time, I felt blood splash across my face and a red blinding pain surged through my senses. My glasses were dislodged and fell to the ground in two pieces, stained with blood."Hey!" I yelled. "You do not break my glasses!""Oh, shut up!"Wiith a snarl, Li Xue Wu thrust his spear forward again. Staggering backward, still half-blinded by the blood that dripped from a diagonal slash across the bridge of my nose, I parried his strike, but was knocked off my feet by another section."Kuh!"Pain exploded in my skull as I stumbled backward, stars filling my already blood-red vision. I tried to block his next attack, but he jabbed me in the stomach with the blunt end of his spear, causing me to double over.Gritting my teeth, I unleashed my Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula, freezing everything in the vicinity, but Li Xue Wu effortlessly shattered the ice and countered with a riposte that almost took off my ear. From the blood that trickled down my face, it seemed that I hadn't completely dodged it, but at least my ear was still in one piece.I checked with my hand to make sure."You're no match for me!" Li Xue Wu sneered. "I'm the prodigy of the Heavenly Fiend Sect! There's no way you can"The guy talked too much. I didn't even bother to wait for him to finish, instead slashing at him. Li Xue Wu blocked with one section of his spear and used the other two sections to counterattack, but I quickly unleashed a huge blast of qi.Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!"?!"Boom!Li Xue Wu was thrown against the wall, blood spurting from his mouth. He bounced off the wall and staggered to his feet, but before he could fully recover, I was already using a second Heavenly Draconic Meteor Sword technique to knock him off his feet and send him sprawling on the ground. Gritting his teeth, Li Xue Wu forced himself back to his feet and threw his spear at me, but I dodged it before unleashing a meteoric blast from my sword.The destructive qi engulfed him, and Li Xue Wu screamed as he vanished in the blinding conflagration."Huff"Breathing heavily, I seized the chance to correct my breathing and wiped the blood away from my face. Using an ice technique, I froze the wound to stem the bleeding. Fortunately, some effects of the Green Dragon Crystal potion remained, and the wound healed, but more slowly than before. There wouldn't be much time before the healing effects ran out.I had to finish this fight before that happened.Jumping forward just as Li Xue Wu staggered out of the azure conflagration, his body fuming, I executed another Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike that knocked away his spear and almost bisected him. In fact, his spear, which was in all likelihood a Spirit Treasure Weapon, was probably the only reason why he survived, otherwise my sword strike would have smashed it apart and obliterated the guy.Even so, as I said before, Li Xue Wu was pretty tenacious. And a prodigy. At the moment I attacked, he retaliated with a counterattack, piercing my side with his spear while he fell, and the both of us crashed several meters away from each other, scarred by the exchange."Huff"Fortunately, the injury wasn't deep and I was up again, holding my sword up. I noticed that it was pretty battered from the furious exchanges with the three section spear. Obviously, against a Spirit Treasure Weapon, a normal weapon that was of low quality would be slowly eroded away, and since the gap between our strengths wasn't that large, Li Xue Wu would hold a slight advantage with his better Spirit Armament.Even so, he had taken a lot of damage from my strike, and his body was still smoldering and bleeding in many places. His crash had even created a crater in the ground where he landed. Extremely furious, Li Xue Wu reared to his full height despite his injuries and bellowed at me."You forced me to use this!""Use what?"Stupid question. I regretted ever asking that. I should probably have used the time to lunge forward and attack, but admittedly I wouldn't have made it in time to stop Li Xue Wu from using his ultimate technique."Man and Sword as One!"Holding his spear up, Li Xue Wu shouted. I blinked as a fog of qi blasted around him, buffeting me with violent shockwaves. All around us, the stone walls cracked, and the stalactites hanging from above crashed down, shaken loose from the tremendous force. To my horror, Li Xue Wu's qi surged exponentially, almost saturating the entire place with demonic qi. I wished I could simply absorb the qi from the surroundings, but Heaven and Earth Absorption did not work that conveniently. I would be tempted to absorb Li Xue Wu's qi, but again, he obviously wasn't going to sit down and let me suck the qi from him.Just like what I said earlier, nobody was stupid enough to give up and die just because you told them to."Man and Sword as One"I swallowed as I watched the enormous amount of swirling qi flood across the relatively narrow space. Now that I sensed the actual qi emanating from Li Xue Wu, I couldn't help but feel that it was disgusting somehowtainted, or unclean.Okay, hell no. I sure as hell ain't gonna suck that sort of qi. I didn't know why I felt so repulsed by his qi, but it probably had something to do with the way the Tian Sha Sect cultivated. It felt sowrong somehow.""As expected of the prodigy of the Tian Sha Sect though from what I later learned, Yan Qing Wu was more of a prodigy than Li Xue Wu, being a Six Star Constitution and all that which led to Li Xue Wu claiming her as his future wife, much to her annoyance, to have already reached the peak of all martial arts at such a young age."I can't believe I'm forced to use Man and Sword as One in a place like this"Stepping out of the violent maelstrom of dense qi, Li Xue Wu was cursing. I almost gaped when I saw that his three section spear had changed.Noit probably wasn't correct to call it a three section spear any longer.Unlike the former blood red spear, the Spirit Treasure Weapon had transformed into three colossal weapons, linked to each other by massive metallic chains. Each of the weapons were bell-shaped blades, with the one in the middle being curved and wide. A single dragon was engraved onto the center of that broad blade, with the tip of its tail glowing red, but otherwise the rest of the body was a dull silver.In his right and left hands, Li Xue Wu held huge blades, the one in his left faintly resembling the tip of an enormous spear and the other looking like a gigantic hatchet."Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear."I threw both my hands up into the air, irritated, when Li Xue Wu proudly proclaimed the name of his newly transformed treasure weapon."Why don't you just call that technique Bankai?!"Li Xue Wu's nostrils flared. "Don't you dare compare my Man and Sword as One technique to something from a trash manga.""Hey!" I protested angrily. "Bleach is not trash!""Hmph!" Li Xue Wu snorted. "Tite Kubo rushed the ending. It was so unsatisfactory, especially that last part of the Quincy arc!""yeah, that we can agree on. I wish Tite Kubo Sensei could have given it a proper ending and wasn't forced to end the manga prematurely." I couldn't believe that someone from this timeline actually read Bleach. Seemed like Japanese manga also existed in this alternate history. "By the way, I think it's called the Thousand Year War arc.""Even so, that was pretty bad, even by Tite Kubo's standards" Li Xue Wu caught himself and suddenly glowered at me. "Stop trying to distract me! Are you trying to buy time or something!? It's not going to work!"Actually, I wasn't. The remark came out of my mouth before I knew it, and I never expected Li Xue Wu to have read Bleach as well.The qi flickered around Li Xue Wu, coalescing into the form of an insubstantial blood-red dragon that rose into the air like an inferno. I felt perspiration drip down my face as I shuddered from the potent display of power."Didn't you know?" Li Xue Wu sneered when he saw my stunned expression. "Man and Sword as One allows you to spiritually fuse with your weapon, which then unlocks the true powerthe true potential of your weapon! In other words, this is Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is the true form of my Heavenly Blood Spear!"Suddenly, I recalled the full-body armor that Zhu Jiao managed to attain in the middle of my duel with him during the tournament final last year. He had metamorphized his gauntlets after using his Golden Kirin Sacred Beast techniques, which mysteriously changed the shape of his spirit armament.In other words, Zhu Jiao had also achieved Man and Sword as One without even realizing it and it was in the middle of a pivotal battle too, as expected of a typical xianxia protagonist! That guy was getting more and more Mary Sue-ish"That's pretty amazing," I conceded with a wry smile. Li Xue Wu snorted."Quit flattering me. I haven't released enough qi to impress you yet."His legs bent slightly and the ground underneath his feet began to crumble as he exerted pressure on them, getting ready to propel himself toward me in a single jump."You can decide whether it's amazing or not"Whoom!He leaped from the smoldering crater that he had crashed into earlier to swing his newly awakened Spirit Treasure Weapon at me."after I kill you!"With a scream, he swung his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear at me. I parried his first strike with my sword, only to be completely blown away by his sheer strength."Kuh!"Tumbling helpessly in midair, unable to halt my momentum, I managed to right myself and skidded to a stop while panting heavily."!!"Blinking, I saw that my sword had cracked, the blade being almost completely shattered from receiving that single strike earlier."Hah!"With a gleeful cry of triumph, Li Xue Wu descended upon me from above, swinging his hatchet-like weapon. I reacted on reflex, swinging my sword up to parry it and countered with a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike, but he instantly obliterated my sword despite two gigantic clouds of qi colliding violently.Shards of metal rained down on my face, but I was able to use my footwork technique to evade before he smashed a crater into the ground where I was standing on milliseconds ago with his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear."Huff!"Stumbling to the side, I spun around to face the chuckling Li Xue Wu, analyzing his newly evolved weapon.Power! I realized as I stared at the three spears. His Man and Sword as One technique is a large mass of sheer power! It doesn't augment his defensive capabilities, doesn't enhance his speed or doesn't boost his arcane techniquesit is just overwhelming destructive power!Fortunately, even without my glasses, I could see something that sparked a small ray of hope within me.However, because he focuses completely on power, this renders his Spirit Weapon vulnerable to my attacks!Thanks to the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike I unleashed to counter his attack earlier, I had managed to take off a huge chunk of the hatchet and left a lage, visible crack. In other words, Li Xue Wu was not invincible!I could win this!"Heh heh heh!"Li Xue Wu chuckled as he watched my reaction. Aware that I was disarmed and at an overwhelming disadvantage, I instinctively took a step back. Even though I was aware that Li Xue Wu could be beaten, I no longer possessed the means to do so. Without a sword, I wouldn't be able to defend against his brute strength and raw destructive power.I guess I'll have to rely on speed theneh?I blinked when I suddenly noticed something. Li Xue Wu was laughing boisterously as he spun the middle blade excitedly. His qi seemed to be rising even more than before. Earlier, I was almost caught off guard by his terrifying destructive power and raw strength, but now he seemed to be growing stronger than before.Additionally, I didn't know if it was my imagination, but the dragon carved into the middle blade seemed to be glowing redinitially being a dull silver, the glaring red light had crept up to halfway the dragon's serpentine body, which seemed to grow along with Li Xue Wu's qi pressure."Seems you've noticed, huh?""?!"Confused, I stared at Li Xue Wu, who continued to guffaw with a big grin on his handsome face. He stared at me with amused, inky black eyes."My Heavenly Blood Spear is a pretty lazy fellow. Even though I forcibly awoke him with Man and Sword as One, he's still half-asleep. The only way I can get him to full power is by slashing my opponent or allowing my enemy to hack me. That will speed up his awakening process.""I thought you hated Bleach," I muttered, trying not to bury my face in my palm. "Why are you ripping off Madarame Ikkaku's Bankai?"Li Xue Wu deliberately ignored me."And when the dragon becomes completely red, that's when Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear is at its most powerful, and that's when its destructive strength will be at its peak!"As if on cue, the red light reached the tip of the dragon's snout and the draconic emblem flared up like a supernova. Li Xue Wu's qi also reached its peak, to the extent that the entire cave seemed to shudder. The stone walls, ground and ceiling around him began to crumble, the rocks breaking apart from his sheer presence."Let's go!"My eyebrow twitched. "Do you really think I'm that stupid to confront you head-on without a weapon?"On the other hand, Li Xue Wu was intelligent enough to exploit the situation. He wasn't going to let me go, and thus he lunged forward, carving a trail of destruction and ruin as he sought to obliterate me.Obviously I couldn't take such a powerful attack head-on, or I would end up like that pitiful Arrancar who died at Ikkaku's hands.But how?Taking a deep breath, I poured all my qi into my feet and tried to rely on both my footwork techniques and Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. With the corridor being as narrow as it was, there was no way I could escape, and I knew Li Xue Wu would just use his overwhelming power to catapult himself forward like a projectile and catch up with me if I turned to flee.No, I was going to have to stand my ground here."DIE!"Li Xue Wu thrust his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear forward, piercing me in the chest and blowing up the entire place with his sheer amounts of qi. He narrowed his eyes when he saw my figure shimmer and vanish."Hah! I saw this trick earlierit won't work on me twice!"Recognizing my Ying, Li Xue Wu spun around, smashing the walls with his enormous Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear as he did so, and struck at where he thought I was.Fortunately, I had already anticipated that a prodigy like him would have seen through what he deemed were paltry tricks.Flipping my body in midair, I smashed my foot into his Dragon Gate Heavenly Blood Spear and unleashed a devastating Seismic Step that almost shattered the huge blade."Bastard!"With a roar, Li Xue Wu swung his crumbling spear blade forward, and I was forced to retreat with Tui. Otherwise I would have lost my foot there.Hopping back, I barely managed to regain my balance when Li Xue Wu slashed at me again with his other hatchet."I don't know what kind of tricks you used, but the moment you failed to destroy my Spirit Weapon with that foot attack of yours, you've lost!""We'll see about that," I replied, using Duo to evade his strike. Li Xue Wu continued to rampage around the corridor, undeterred, hoping to get me with one or two attacks.He almost got me, and I was forced to retreat. Relying on his genius intuition, Li Xue Wu managed to pinpoint my location and spun around to strike at me. I dodged it by a hair's breadth and vanished before his eyes as I kicked the ground desperately."Hah! As if I wouldn't know where you went!"Li Xue Wu swung his hatchet around at his back, only for it to pass through empty space.But that was a feint. The gigantic middle blade in his other hand lashed out in the opposite direction, right at where my figure materialized."?""Did you think I wouldn't expect you to appear there with your footwork techniques?" Li Xue Wu grinned. "I told you, the same trick won't work on me twice!"Swoosh!"?!"Li Xue Wu's mouth gaped when he sliced through yet another shadow. My illusory figure grinned at him before vanishing."I know. That's why I didn't use the same trick twice."While Li Xue Wu flailed around, I mocked him from the shadows, unseen."You!"Swearing and cursing loudly, Li Xue Wu whirled around again, trying to seek me. His blades sliced through the ceiling, causing a rain of stalactites, which shattered when they collided against his dense aura of qi.He almost made it.Almost.But being the prodigy that he was, Li Xue Wu was able to deliver a devastating attack by swinging his spear right where he thought I would be. He was correct, but he missed by several centimeters.For I wasn't standing up straight, nor was I aiming for a fatal blow. Li Xue Wu had anticipated a sneak attack to his neck or head, for me to rupture a carotid artery or jugular vein, or at least for me to smash his head in with a Seismic Step like I did to his spear-like weapon.However, I didn't intend to do that.Dropping low and almost hugging the ground, I propelled myself upward and launched a Lunar Rabbbit kick that struck Li Xue Wu in his midriff, right under his guard and before he could bring down his weapon to sever my leg. At the same time, I unleashed whatever pure qi I had, igniting the volatile energy with explosive force.Boom!"ARGH!"Li Xue Wu was sent hurtling backward from the force, unable to halt his momentum. He crashed into the icy chamber, rolling on the ground for a few moments before he finally stopped himself by stabbing his hatchet into the ice and arresting his slide."You think this will be enough to kill me?!" he roared as he rose to his feet, glaring at me. I smiled and shook my head."No, but that will.""Huh?!"Too late, Li Xue Wu realized that he was in the same chamber where I had almost frozen to death earlier, where the rest of his sect mates had frozen to death, their bodies still lingering in the glacial cavern as icy statues."No!"Li Xue Wu howled as he tried to leap out, but even though he possessed Man and Sword as One, he didn't possess the same resistance to ice techniques as I did."Get me out of here!" he hollered. He was trying to clamber out of the chamber, but I firmly stood in his way and snorted."Why should I?""Do you know who I am?!" Li Xue Wu bellowed, getting desperate. "I'm the son of the Patriarch of Tian Sha Sect! The son of the Tian Sha Sect Leader, Li Tian Zun!"Oh, I heard of Li Tian Zun, all right. Also known as Tian Sha Tian Zun, he was the current sect leader and patriarch of the Heavenly Fiend Sect. he was notorious for being extremely cruel, merciless and brutal, massacring entire villages and being powerful enough to destroy entire regiments of Imperial Guard. He was currently one of the most powerful demonic martial artists in the Great Zhou Empire, ranking among the three Supreme Evils.However, I couldn't care less even if Li Xue Wu's father was the Zhou Emperor himself. So I merely shrugged."So?""Wwhat do you mean so?" Li Xue Wu stammered in disbelief, as if not understanding why I wasn't afraid. "If you kill me, my father and Tian Sha Sect will bring their entire power down to crush you! You'll regret ever killing me!""And that matters now?""Aah?!"Li Xue Wu stared at me, his expression frozen as ice slowly coated over his once-handsome face, which had now turned blue from the cold.I smiled thinly."You're an idiot, aren't you? Think about it. If I kill you now, who's going to know? Who's going to tell your sect that I killed you? In fact, that's all the more reason to ensure that you die here. Dead men tell no tales."Li Xue Wu wept, but his tears instantly froze into crystals because of the cold."Yyou will regrettthis!" he swore, his teeth chattering."No, I won't. And besides" My expression grew dark. "I don't care who you are. The moment you tried to kill me, you should be prepared to be killed. I don't care if your father is the emperor himself. I want you dead, therefore you'll die."Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. The only reason why I could kill Li Xue Wu without hesitation was because there would be no witnesses. Without evidence, no one could charge me with murder. Fortunately, there were no closed circuit cameras and security footage within the tomb to capture my actions.Therefore I would be safe from any legal complications."Now you know how it feels to be on the receiving end of your arrogance, ruthlessness and muderous behavior, right?"I couldn't help but savor Li Xue Wu's despair. He glared at me defiantly, screaming obscenities that I could no longer hear because his vocal chords had frozen over and ice was coating his tongue fear and desperation shrouding his frost-encrusted ice.And then it was finally over.It didn't even take another five seconds before he completely froze over, both his body and gigantic spear transmuting into ice as the Nine Thousand Yin Ice Hell Formation closed its deadly grip around him."Rest in peace," I told him, my smile spreading wider. "In an eternal icy grave just perfect for you."
