The moment the pressure lightened, I immediately rolled away with a huff. Darkon pursued, hacking away with his sword and leaving great furrows in the earth while cleaving apart trees unfortunate enough to be standing in the area.

"Ha ha ha ha! Die!"

Darkon crowed as he swung his sword in a series of basic patterns that ravaged the poor swamp we were in. Right now I was no longer avoiding the denizens of the Toxic Marshes. Venmous serpents, deadly crocodiles, swarms of poisonous bugs, and a myriad of other creatures dwelling the foul swamp were caught in the melee, ending up in noxious, steaming pieces. It seemed that even these poisonous creatures were unable to withstand the toxins that Darkon wielded, despite being bearers of poison themselves.

Or perhaps that was the impression I got from seeing their corpses. After all, none of them were alive for me to see the effects of Darkon"s toxins. They were mostly cut apart into numerous pieces before the poison could take effect.

"Huff…"

I retreated as far back as I could, right as a crocodile emerged from the swamp, only fur Darkon"s blade to cleave it in half. The monster growled in shock and agony, the life fading from its eyes as both halves fell back into the swamp with a big splash.

Poor dude.

"Hora, hora, hora!" Darkon was shouting in what sounded like j.a.panese as he continued to swing wildly at me. "Are you just going to keep running away?!"

I gave him a baleful stare. "Uh…yeah? What kind of idiot would just stand around and let you hit him?"

"Oh, shut up!" Darkon swung at me again, and I used my footwork technique to evade it. A poor tree, and the venomous serpent coiled around it were cut into pieces as Darkon"s sword sliced through them.

"What…? You"re the one who asked me that question."

"I never asked you to answer!"

What kind of logic was that? Then why even bother asking me that question? Furthermore, why was it that he could talk, but I couldn"t?

"Power speaks for itself!" Darkon shouted, sounding exactly like the edgelord he was named after. "Unlike you, who"s nothing more than a pathetic, suicidal martyr fighting for the Martial Arts Alliance for the sake of the "people"?! You so-called orthodox martial artists give too much face to the welps! Just because they are poor doesn"t mean they are good. Why should you should sacrifice yourself to people who more likely than not will not amount to anything? Just so you can have a good conscience? Pretty pathetic!"

"Oh, wow…your edge is making me bleed." I couldn"t help but cringe at his words. "And who are you to judge if people "will not amount to anything"? That sort of arrogant mentality is pretty pathetic."

"Power speaks for itself!" Darkon repeated with a sneer.

I couldn"t help but snort. "Power? What sort of power? Economic power? Martial strength? Knowledge? See, that"s the problem with you self-centered and selfish edgelords, always thinking only about yourselves. So people who chose to be farmers should just die and not receive protection because they are "weak"? They don"t amount to anything because they don"t practice martial arts? If all farmers die, then where are you going to get your food? If all people who work in banks die, then what"s going to happen to your money and savings? If all people who work in the manufacture industry die, then where are you going to get your clothes, your equipment, weapons, and the things you are using now? They don"t amount to anything just because they are not powerful? So you should just let them die? What kind of bulls.h.i.t logic is that?"

"SHUT UP! You"re weaker than me, so you should just die! Power is truth!"

"Also, you seem to forget something. We become martial artists…we join the military in order to protect the nation. So what"s the point of becoming strong, learning how to fight, arming ourselves with weapons if we just save ourselves and leave our citizens and families die just because they are "weak" and "don"t amount to anything"? Isn"t the whole reason we become martial artists to fulfill our duty to the Great Zhou Empire and protect the people and our loved ones? Imagine if your family is killed by monsters one day. Are you going to say, "they deserve it because they are weak"? How about this scenario then? If a martial artist sacrificed himself to save your family from a monster, are you going to mock him for being a suicidal martyr, and say that he shouldn"t have sacrificed his life to protect your family and the other people aboard a train from monsters because your family are weak and don"t amount to anything?"

"Oh, shut up!" Darkon screamed. "And yes! If my family is weak, they deserve to die! In fact…" he grinned hideously. "I was the one who murdered those pathetic weaklings with my very own hands! I poisoned them to death! Such weaklings don"t have the right to be my family!"

Oh wow, the edgelord had definitely gone over the edge. Still, he was right about one thing, though. if I didn"t have the power to bring him to justice, then he could keep doing whatever he liked without suffering the repercussions of his atrocities.

"The Black Venom Cult is my new family!" Darkon continued shouting. "They are strong! They are powerful! Only they amount to anything! We can do whatever we want, kill, plunder, murder, ****, as long as we have the strength! None of those bulls.h.i.t, pathetic morality principles can restrain us! We will do like we have because we have the power! We can carry out experiments on humans beause they are weaker than us! We can poison people to death because they"re weaker than us!" he cackled wildly. "Strength is the only thing that matters! Everyone else can go die!"

"So what happens if you meet someone who"s stronger than you, and he wants you dead?" I asked dryly.

"No such person exists! The Black Venom Cult is the strongest sect ever!" Darkon howled. "And I will prove it by killing you and the entire Martial Arts Alliance!"

He slashed at me again in an attempt to draw blood and trying to poison me. He still had no clue that I was immune to his poisons.

Even though Heaven and Earth Formula still granted me immunity to venom, that didn"t mean I wanted to get hit by that blade. It hurt like h.e.l.l, and it would be excruciating for me when my body struggled to adapt to the toxins in my system. During that brief moment of vulnerability, Darkon could easily deliver a killing blow, especially when he realized something was amiss, or he wanted to ensure I was dead.

I wasn"t going to take the risk.

"You"ll never amount to anything!" Darkon continued raving. "Because you"re weaker than me!"

I was getting sick of hearing that phrase. So when Darkon closed in, I kicked him in the knee. He grunted as his leg buckled, but because he was so much stronger than me physically, I didn"t do much damage.

Not that I ever intended to do much damage to him.

Darkon pivoted on his other leg and swung his sword backward, but I managed to cross my swords and parry the blow. Above, six qi beams sliced down and struck Darkon, but he condensed his protective qi aura and withsthood the blows.

"Pathetic!" he shouted. "You think these weird ranged attacks would have any effect on me?"

Boom!

His qi surged again, and he blasted me back with a toxic wave of qi that almost overwhelmed Snow Aegis when it swooped down to handle the blast. d.a.m.n, I was going to need to repair my Spirit Shield after this. The corrosive qi was beginning to take its toll.

On the other hand, the toxins on his sword weren"t potent enough to damage my Shadow Fox and Azure Lotus Sword. Perhaps it was because I was the one who forged Snow Aegis, so my skills weren"t that good and thus my Spirit Shield was of a lower quality.

Well, it didn"t matter. I would worry about that later.

Kicking off the ground, I vanished from behind Snow Aegis and appeared behind Darkon. His reflexes were impressive as ever, and he whirled about to face me, his sword carving upward in a counter. I slapped it away with Shadow Fox and stabbed him with Azure Lotus Sword, but Darkon twisted to the side and narrowly escaped a hit to his vital point.

Fortunately, I was able to leave a huge cut on his chest, and ice began spreading rapidly from his wound to cover a good part of his left chest, shoulder and upper arm.

"What is this?" he growled. Before he could shatter the ice with his qi, I ducked down and launched a kick from below, connecting with his chin while his movements were still sluggish.

Thunk!

"Gah!"

Darkon staggered back, cursing. I twisted around and kicked him again, causing him to double over, and then brought both my swords down.

Clang!

My opponent barely brought his sword up in time and blocked both of my blades. Using his superior strength, he forced me off him and rammed his elbow into my face. I ducked to the side, but he still grazed me in the temple, causing my gla.s.ses to fly off somewhere into the swamp while a trickle of blood dripped down my face.

"Kuh…"

I staggered back, blinded for a bit, but Darkon seized the chance to swat me away with his sword. I crossed both my swords to parry it, only to be lifted off my feet and be sent hurtling quite a distance away. More so, because I had been slightly knocked off balance.

"Hah!"

Darkon shattered the ice with his qi, and then shook the frosty fragments off. He glared at me as he gathered more of his qi into his sword. Ominous fumes began to billow out of his weapon, swirling around in a noxious miasma around him.

"I can"t believe you forced me to use this. Venom Dragon Strike!"

He lunged ahead and slashed at me. While I was still sprawled on the ground, I quickly reached up with my hand (still clutching a sword) and called forth Snow Aegis. My Spirit Shield spun rapidly as it streaked across the swamp and deposited itself between me and my enemy, receiving his full-force blow with a deafening clang.

"f.u.c.king, irritating shield!"

Darkon kicked it away with brute force and then slashed at me. Fortunately, I had finally recovered and was back on my feet.
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"Venom Dragon Strike!"

Unlike the annoying edgelord, I didn"t shout out the name of my technique and just unleashed Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike. Both our attacks collided with a violent explosion that vaporized the swamp into boiling steam and unsettled the leaves on trees for about a kilometer in radius from our location.

"Huff…"

Despite using one of my most powerful attacks, I still found myself outmatched and overwhelmed by Darkon. His attack caused me to stumble backward, his purplish-black qi overwhelming my pure black qi. Coughing, I desperately tried to right my balance.

"Hah!"

Crowing triumphantly, Darkon descended upon me with a huge slash.

"I told you, power speaks for itself! If you"re weak, you have no right to live! You have no right to receive protection from others! Only the strong should be allowed to survive! All weaklings never amount to anything and should just die!"

This edgelord was getting on my nerves.

However, I honestly was having trouble keeping up with his attacks and matching him blow for blow. Darkon was too fast, too strong and too edgy. He was driving me back, and my swords were almost breaking as I desperately tried to halt his onslaught. Azure Lotus Sword and Shadow Fox trembled violently in my grasp, their blades nearly unable to withstand his relentless a.s.sault. I staggered back with a heave, only for Drakon to drive me back with a particularly vicious swing.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Darkon was roaring with laughter as he swung his sword again and again, battering me. I couldn"t even get Snow Aegis to fly in and interpose itself between us, nor could I direct my mobile turrets. Every ounce of attention was devoted entirely to surviving this barrage of attacks.

Darkon suddenly kicked me, causing me to double over. Even as my legs buckled, I held my swords up to block his next strike, only for him to unleash another Venom Dragon Strike. I countered that by freezing the s.p.a.ce between us, by the corrosive qi blast disintegrated the ice and rolled over me. Yelping, I fell back, only for Darkon to punch me in the gut.

"Gah!"

Again, I was sent hurtling helplessly across the air. I managed to right myself in midair and landed on my feet, but Darkon sought to exploit that moment of vulnerability and dove forward to deliver the finishing blow. Before he could, however, my six mobile turrets fired upon him with devastating qi beams, forcing him to veer away.

"Tch!" he clicked his tongue. If he had focused his qi into movement or attacking, he wouldn"t be able to condense it into a protective qi aura dense enough to absorb the qi beams without taking any damage.

I panted as I corrected my stance and raised both my swords again. Even though I was hastily bombarding the running Darkon with qi beams, he weaved through the swamp, cleverly using the trees for cover before vaulting himself to the s.p.a.ce right in front of me. I almost didn"t react in time before he swung his sword.

Clang!

"Ugh!"

Despite parrying the blow, I was almost blown back. The f.u.c.ker had used his momentum to add to the power of his attack, his significant weight making a difference. We both tumbled backward, with Darkon slashing at me with unbridled glee.

"Just die already!"

Nope. I refuse. Unfortunately, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was one-sidedly forcing his twisted values upon me. He truly believed that power was everything, and the weak should just get culled. That the strong should never sacrifice themselves to protect those weaker than them, that the weak don"t deserve it because they would never amount to anything.

He was just absolving responsibility of those who had taken up the martial way. No, he didn"t understand the true meaning of power. Power wasn"t just physical strength or martial ability. There were many kinds of power. Economic power. Artistic ability. Technological knowledge. Literary finess. Clever construction. Manufacturing skills. Farming techniques. Society was built upon a collective of people. Not everyone could be warriors. Not everyone could be farmers. Not everyone could be artisans or manufacturers. Sure, there were many unscrupulous people who screwed others over, like Darkon, but by and large society and civilizations survived with people helping each other.

Claiming that the strong shouldn"t sacrifice people who "would never amount to anything" and should just leave the weak to die for themselves rather than being suicidal martyrs, that concept was just self-centered to the extreme. If you let all the laborers and construction workers die, who would build your houses? Where would you live in? If you refuse to help farmers who were being attacked by bandits (in history) and monsters (in the present) because it"s not worth sacrificing your worthless life for people who "never amount to anything", then what are you going to eat? Are you going to just survive on monster meat for the rest of your sad life? And you claim that these people who built homes for you to stay in or grow crops for your favorite food that you take for granted would "never amount to anything" all because you"re "stronger" than them?

What kind of f.u.c.king logic is that?

Fueled by the rage at his selfishness, I stood my ground and swung my swords, unleashing another Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike at pointblank range. Darkon cursed as blood spewed from his arms, but he gripped his sword tightly and retaliated with a riposte. I deflected his attack and countered with a quick thrust, getting under his defenses and nicking him in the ribs. He growled and slashed at me in an attempt to cleave me, but I managed to duck under it and counter with a backward swing that left a gash over his chest.

Good. Darkon might be physically and spiritually stronger than me, but I was faster and more agile. I could win this, through causing my enemy"s death by a thousand cuts! I just needed to maintain this pace…

"?!"

Darkon suddenly unleashed yet another Venom Dragon Strike. The miasma hit my face, blinding my eyes and causing me to stagger back.

"Ugh!"

"Hah! Finally! Now that you"ve been poisoned, this will be the beginning of the end of you, you worthless worm!"

Laughing triumphantly, Darkon slashed at me again. Blinded, I couldn"t see his attacks, but I was able to rely on my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps to track his movements by the flow of his qi, and barely deflected them.

"Hmm? You have great instincts and reflexes, but they won"t be enough. Just fall to my attacks!"

Roaring, Darkon pressed harder, and I fell back, trying my best to antic.i.p.ate his attacks.

Clang! Bang!

I felt myself getting pushed back, step by step. Ironcally enough, I could handle his attacks better by following the flow of his qi than seeing them. On the other hand, my offensive techniques were halved and I could no longer counter. Right now, I could only completely rely on evasion and defense. That was the weakness of Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps.

The near-miraculous technique allowed me to read the flow and movement of my opponents, and thus evade them completely, or stop their attacks before they could complete them, disrupting their techniques. However, by focusing all of my spiritual senses into that, I wasn"t able to devote my qi and mind into counterattacks.

"?"

Darkon seemed to notice that something was amiss. Even though I couldn"t see his expression, he must have furrowed his brow for I sensed his frustration and rage spiking up. His movements grew more impatient and his attacks more reckless. He wanted to finish me off quickly, and thought he had the advantage after blinding me (temporarily), yet I was evading him better than before. He didn"t notice that I had lost the ability to counterattack, though, but he probably took it for granted that I would be worse off after being poisoned.

Yet, despite being poisoned, I didn"t slow down at all, and my complesion wasn"t paling. I wasn"t convulsing, my muscles weren"t locking up, and I wasn"t going into shock. My eyes continued to stung, but this was a minor poison, especially when compared to the other toxins I had experienced before, and my immune system responded swiftly to stamp it out.

My eyes remained sightless for now, but that was fine. Keeping them closed, I relied entirely on evading by reading my opponent"s flow of qi.

"Why hasn"t he dropped dead already?!" Darkon demanded, swinging his sword. I hopped back, evading it by the narrowest millimeter, and then swung to the side as he reversed the trajectory of his sword, escaping the sharp blade by a hair"s breadth.

At the same time, I could understand the same frustration he felt. I was slowly being ground down by his attacks, and I couldn"t waste too much time on this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I still needed to get to their base and grab their Black Venom Toxin.

The poison that Darkon used was clearly not the same toxins that infected Song Ting Yu and Yi Ding Si. It was too mild, too…weak. I was sure the Black Venom Toxin was a lot more potent than the ones that Darkon wielded.

That meant I couldn"t simply kill him and take the toxins from his body. I needed to ransack the repository of toxins in the Black Venom Cult"s base camp. And this guy was delaying me from achieving that goal.

"Kuh!"

I sidestepped yet another attack, and then deflected Darkon"s blade. His qi pused dangerously as he prepared to unleash another powerful strike, and I reflexively jumped away to what I hoped was a safe distance while pulling my Snow Aegis down.

Kaboom!

Another explosion rang as Snow Aegis was sent barreling away from another of Darkon"s powerful Venom Dragon Strike. With my Spirit Shield out of the way, Darkon pounced on me, swinging his sword down. I still couldn"t see, but I could sense his approach.

"!!"

Demonic qi?!

I could "see" a tsunami of demonic qi barreling upon me, embodied by Darkon as he descended upon me. I wasn"t sure how to describe it, but it wasn"t visual yet I could still somehow "see" his qi.

Clang!

I blocked his first strike, my swords shuddering from the tremendous impact, and staggered back, only to be forced to deflect a second strike. Knocked off balance, I gripped my swords tightly and tried to track my opponent"s demonic qi.

The third attack knocked me back and I rode the momentum behind it, jumping further back to widen the distance between myself and my opponent.

"I…can see the demonic qi as a vortex?"

I could see a storm of purplish qi raging and swirling in front of me. Instead of taking human form, it resembled more of a force of nature. Then again, martial artists were essentially forces of nature, taking natural qi and converting it into their own use.

So this made sense.

Taking a deep breath, I focused all my attention on the swirling tempests of energy. I could make out a fissure where the flow of demonic qi collided, which somehow stood out to me as important. Something Master mentioned once during my week of training struck me, but I couldn"t recall the exact words.

My ephiphany paid off, especially when what seemed like lightning or sparks crackled and exploded from the collision of the demonic qi. There was only one spot – a gigantic spot, no doubt – but just a single one where the violent collision of demonic energies produced a storm of bright, white lightning.

Skidding backward, I ground my feet down and forced myself to a halt. Gritting my teeth, I dropped Shadow Fox and gripped Azure Lotus Sword with both hands, pulling it back for one decisive swing.

"Right there!"

Instinctively (combined with the nagging feeling that Master taught me something similar), I yelled and slashed at the crack of lightning between the collision of demonic energies, and a golden wave of qi erupted from my sword, slicing through the white lightning and drowning it out with its blinding, golden light.

The golden wave of qi that erupted from my sword surged through the gap of lightning, cutting across the swirling maelstroms of demonic qi and pierced through the heavens!

"Ugh?!"

Darkon realized something was amiss and quickly brought his sword up to block the blow, but it was useless.

"What…what the h.e.l.l is this?!" he screamed.

I gave no answer, and merely left it to the golden tsuami of destructive qi. Darkon was blown back from the sheer force, his sword shattering near instantly, and then he was engulfed by my most powerful attack ever.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

That was his last shriek, and then Darkon completely disintegrated. An irony, if I ever heard of one. All that spouting about how the weak never amounted to anything, the strong could and should do whatever they like, and how power spoke for himself, and he ended up being overpowered by someone who was weaker than him.

The golden blast of qi ravaged the swamp, obliterating trees and gouging out a huge chunk of earth, leaving a damp, steaming crater. As the blinding light finally faded away, my sight slowly returned and I could finally see the devastation I had caused for myself.

"That"s…"

My eyes widened and a bead of perspiration dripped down my face as I took in the site of destruction.

About seven gigantic fissures had been carved into the ground right in front of me, splitting the earth into several ravines. Huffing from the exertion, I dropped to my knee and picked up Shadow Sword. Panting, I leaned on my swords as I tried to absorb what I had just done.

"Hu…"

Sucking in a deep breath, I glanced at the devastared ravines for any sign of my former enemy, but as expected, I couldn"t locate him. I couldn"t even sense his qi. There were traces of his qi lingering around the area, but those were mere discharges from his techniques during our battle, and not his qi signature emanated when he was alive.

"Is it over?"

I could scarcely believed that I had just prevailed over an enemy who was much stronger than me. The relief that washed over me was immense.

But more importantly, I had no idea what I had just done.

No. I knew. I recalled the technique that Master showed me once, during that brief one-week training in the underworld.

"Heh…so that was the Heaven and Earth Strike…"

The Heaven and Earth Strike – the technique that allowed me to slay a hundred demons with a single swing of my sword. It seemed that I had finally executed it successfully. After years of failures and frustration.

"This is the first step to truly mastering Heaven and Earth Formula."

I picked up my swords and stared at them, my hands still trembling ever so slightly. That was a close battle. Too close for my comfort. If I hadn"t unleashed Heaven and Earth Strike when I did, then I might be the one who died.

However, it wasn"t as if I had mastered Heaven and Earth Strike. I was merely blindly swinging my sword around. That was a fluke. If asked to execute Heaven and Earth Strike again, I wasn"t sure if I could pull it off.

How did I do it earlier? I wondered. Grasping my sword, I tried to replicate the feeling, but failed. Shaking my head, I was about to proceed toward Tong Xue"s position, but spotted something sparkling in the devastation.

"That"s…"

My gla.s.ses. Thankfully, it was just outside the area where my Heaven and Earth Strike had hit, so it didn"t get destroyed. I hastily grabbed it and put them on. This pair was something that Tang Qi Hong modified, so along with my Shadow Fox, they were something very dear to me.

I couldn"t afford to lose them.

Taking a deep breath, I straightened up and began looking for Tong Xue. I hoped he could prevail over his foe.