While I toppled over, the whip tightened around my Azure Lotus Sword, which I still refused to let go of. With a jerk of his hand, Sha Chen yanked his whip back, the flexible weapon making a beautiful arc in the air as it withdrew. Thanks to that, I was still being pinned down as long as I refused to abandon my precious weapon.

Recognizing that, the Dark Sage"s lips curled into a sneer. With his other hand, he lashed out with his other whip. While I was still in the midst of falling over, the second whip snaked out viciously, almost like a striking serpent that wanted to tear into my skin and drink my blood.

For a moment, it seemed that I had lost consciousness. I was falling over, my head still blank and my vision still blurred from the earlier shock. However, right before the whip reached me, my eyes opened slightly behind my gla.s.ses, almost gleaming.

Kboom!

The whip struck and the ground exploded in a dust of soil and steam. In that moment, Sha Chen"s sight of me was obscured by the billowing white cloud.

Only for a second, though.

Suddenly, I dashed out of the exploding white steam and dust, uncaring of whether the whip was still tightly coiled around my Azure Lotus Sword or not. Like a monster, I charged recklessly, refusing to be stopped by anything.

"!"

In just that split second, Sha Chen hesitated, taken aback by my sudden ferocity. His eyes widened and his mind froze as he tried to process what he was seeing.

"How did you…?"

He then shook his head, as if to say that it didn"t matter. Narrowing his eyes, he jerked his left arm up again.

While I was dashing toward the Dark Sage using Jin, behind me Sha Chen"s other whip whipped toward me mercilessly, uncoiling violently. I sensed the cruel qi flowing through the barbed whip, but as I was already in the middle of executing a footwork technique, I was far from able to abruptly alter my current trajectory.

"!"

The whip in Sha Chen"s right hand released my Azure Lotus Sword, almost as if coming to a life, and struck me like a venomous serpent. With one attacking from the front, and the other coming from behind, there was no way I could avoid either. Both whips lashed out and flayed my flesh brutally, tearing through my skin and halting me in the middle of my supposedly inexorable advance.

"Ugh…!"

Blood spurted from numerous wounds all over my body as I struggled against the barbed whips, their cruel hooks biting deep into my flesh and tearing chunks of skin out. Red-hot pain continued to surge through my system, almost causing my mind to blank out.

Unable to endure the excruciating agony, I stumbled…and then crashed heavily onto the ground a distance away from the stationary Sha Chen, unable to even complete my charge. His whips continued to strike me from range, shattering the ground and blasting more dirt and soil into the air. A merciless wind howled as sonic booms thundered across the desolate remains of the swamp.

"Hmph."

Sha Chen raised his right arm, allowing his whip to coil around it again, almost like a sated serpent returning to its nest. He grinned and shook his head in amus.e.m.e.nt, watching my p.r.o.ne figure on the ground. I was slowly rising to my feet, blood freckling my lips and clenched teeth, my body still throbbing from the agonies he inflicted on me.

However, the Dark Sage took no pity on me despite my sorry sight. Rather, he seemed to be taking pleasure in my pain.

"Did you really think you can escape my Venom Iron Whip?" he sneered.

I wiped the blood from my mouth and forced myself to an upright posture. Shrugging, I tried to form a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"I could try."

"Hmm?"

Sha Chen blinked when he noticed the enormous amounts of qi gathering around me. Even so, he continued to stand still, his whips coiled around both arms. As usual, he was underestimating me, refusing to attack.

Perhaps he was curious to see what I would do now, after being cornered.

Not wasting the chance he gave me, I continued to urgently gather more qi into both my swords. It was his own folly that he released my Azure Lotus Sword from his grasp. Right now, I was infusing my Spirit Sword with a tremendous amount of qi, pulling it back for an aggressive swing.

Amused, Sha Chen snorted, a smile spreading over his aged, wrinkled face.

"Heh…so you still intend to struggle, huh?"

Closing my eyes, I tried to picture the battle I had against Darkon. How the clashing clouds of qi were perceived my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. And how that shining, demonic light in the middle was sparked by the colliding clouds of qi.

I could almost see it…yeah, I could almost grasp the sensation…

Heaven and Earth Strike.

Swinging my Azure Lotus Sword, I unleashed a devastating wave of destructive qi, the golden blast of energy surging forward to engulf Sha Chen.

Like a tidal wave, the golden tsunami of destructive qi carved a devastating path through the desolate wasteland, gouging out yet another crater…or this time, a tunnel or ravine. Earth, soil, everything simply disintegrated as they were swallowed up by my Heaven and Earth Strike.

Sha Chen watched the ever-expanding wave of golden qi, but he didn"t budge from his spot. Instead, he smiled as he studied my technique curiously.

"Ho…yes, yes! This is indeed the Heaven and Earth Strike that Tian Mo used against me back then! When we were young! I never thought I would get to see it again, not after all this time! You truly are his disciple!"

Then he raised both his hands, which were wreathed by his slowly uncoiling whips. The Heavenly Venom King began gathering large amounts of qi of his own.

"Ma.s.s Incendiary Strike!" he shouted gleefully as his crimson qi reached its peak and ignited into a roaring inferno.

His h.e.l.lish flames struck my Heaven and Earth Strike head-on and exploded. It was almost like a nuke had went off, so huge was the explosion that vague mushroom cloud rose to pierce the heavens. The earth shattered from the colossal impact, unable to withstand the supernatural forces that tore its surface apart.

"!"

I blinked as the blinding lights from the explosion dazzled me. Fortunately, my gla.s.ses were still working, and the filters automatically set in to protect my eyes, but I still had to shield myself from the colossal shockwaves that were surging outward from the point of detonation.

"d.a.m.n it…"

Lowering my hand after the shockwaves abated, I was astonished to see a set of twin tornadoes intertwined with each other, spinning rapidly as they drilled devastatingly into the ground before merging into a single gigantic whirlwind.

"…!"

My jaw dropped as I watched the growing gargantuan tornado continue to ravage the broken ground, twisting and dancing around as it expanded to break through the heavens. It took me a moment to realize that I was inside the tornado.

The eye of the storm, as it were.

Opposite me was Sha Chen, the Dark Sage completely unaffected by the shockwaves that had battered the both of us.

He faced me from the opposite end of the raging whirlwind, a smirk on his face. Qi continued to swirl about him like a tempest, almost as if it was drawing strength from the surrounding tornado. He ground his feet firmly onto the ground and chuckled.

"Yes…this is it! It"s been so long! I never thought I would actually face a technique of this power and magnitude! It"s like reliving my youth again!"

He grinned as he stared at me, his aged eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement.

In contrast to his vigor, I was still stumbling from random remnants of shockwaves that occasionally struck out from the surrounding tornado. Even though I didn"t budge, I flinched as they whipped my battered body mercilessly.

"Ugh…"

Cold perspiration poured down my face as I struggled to endure the storm. Gritting my teeth, I tried to raise my swords in a defensive stance.

I was too late.

Sha Chen"s whips lashed out before I could react and bit deeply into me, drawing more blood. I staggered from the blow, almost taken out. Grinding my foot against the ground, I furiously slashed at the incoming whips, but they seemed to disappear.

"…?"

My eyes widened, and then my bewilderment was replaced by red-hot agony as what seemed like knives stabbed deeply into my chest. Blood splattered my uniform and chin, and I stared down blankly in disbelief.

Both of Sha Chen"s whips had somehow drilled into my chest, puncturing my lungs mercilessly and filling them with blood.

"Argh…"

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to withstand the pain and not topple over. Like h.e.l.l I was going to let this take me down!

Dropping both of my swords and allowing them to sink slightly into the fragile soil, I grabbed both whips with my hands and began to pull them out, a shriek of pain leaving my lips as their barbed surfaces sc.r.a.ped through the insides of my body.

"You think I"ll let you pull them out that easily?"

Laughing in savage delight, Sha Chen unleashed his corrosive qi along the length of his whips, pouring them directly into my body. For a moment, I was lifted off my feet and sent flying into the air, the maelstrom of enemy qi pounding my body and threatening to destroy it from the inside out, but I gathered as much of my qi as possible to suppress the buildup of foreign qi, and drive it out of my body. The t.i.tanic struggle manifested itself in a series of explosions around me that caused both my swords to vibrate intensely despite being embedded deeply in the soil.

The damp earth was being blown up and thrown up to be sucked by the whirlwind-like vortex of qi that surrounded us. For a moment, I was thrown into the air, almost as if I was yet another helpless victim doomed to be blown upward into the merciless tornado, and my figure was swallowed up by a tidal wave of damp soil and mud.

Kboom!

Gritting my teeth, I unleashed whatever purified qi I had gathered earlier, and the invasive qi was violently repelled from my body. The tornado that threatened to suck me up into the highest reaches of its funnel was ripped apart from inside, and the mud and damp soil that had coalesced into a single sea that attempted to drown me was broken apart into countless debris that rained down like brown hail. In the midst of the muddy hail, the ground erupted into a fissure, and the tornado that surrounded the both of us was torn apart, dissipating into nothingness.

The explosions and fissures reached all the way to Sha Chen, but he remained standing where he was, refusing to move. It was almost as if he was completely unaffected, the debris avoiding him on purpose. In truth, anything that tried to hit him, whether the size of a grain of sand, or a chunk of earth the size of a concrete block, all disintegrated the moment they came into contact with his invisible, fiery qi barrier that suffused his figure like an aura.

Ignoring the devastation around him, Sha Chen instead focused on me. I had landed back on the ground after expelling his qi on his body, and my bloodied hands were still grasping both whips that had impaled me.

"UUUUUUUUUUGH!"

With a roar, I tightened my grip on both whips and determinedly pulled them out, despite the h.e.l.lish excruciating pain the extraction caused. My legs and body trembled from the effort, but I continued to crouch in a low stance, refusing to fall.

"Ugh…"

Heaving, I winced from the pain. After all, I was only human, not a G.o.d. My countless injuries were burning feverishly, and blood continued to drip from cuts on my faces, arms and body. I was struggling to maintain my breathing, my chest hurting with each gasp, and perspiration poured down my pale complexion.

"Tsk." Sha Chen clicked his tongue, still grinning in amus.e.m.e.nt. "You still want to fight, huh? Even though you know how futile it is?"

He then sent his whip snaking out at me once more, renewing his brutal attacks. Even though I had yanked them out, both whips still possessed their savage strength, and they uncoiled and blasted me off my feet before I could defend myself against them. My head was thrown back, my eyes rolling in their sockets, as blood spurted from my mouth.

As I fell backward, no longer able to maintain my balance, Sha Chen continued to a.s.sail me with his writhing whips, the cruel weapons still thirsty for blood.

Another lash struck me and sent me hurtling several meters away. I helplessly crashed into the ground and skidded backward, carving a broken trail of soil and stone and cracking the ground with a shallow fissure.

Opening my eyes, I caught sight of a demonic visage. The Dark Sage was standing proud and tall in the distance, his whips dancing elegantly but cruelly around him. Once again, I was reminded of what a formidable opponent he was.

The strongest enemy I had ever faced…was I finally going to die this time?

My head hit the ground and my body went still.

"…"

For a moment, for just a split second, I wondered if I should just give up here.

After all, this was the moment where a Deus ex Machina would descend to save me. A stronger martial artist of another realm, perhaps Xiao Zhang or someone from the Martial Arts Alliance, or a powerful martial artist who was pa.s.sing by would swoop in, fight Sha Chen, and allow me to escape. Or maybe Tong Xue had reached Duchun Town by now and reinforcements were on their way.

You know, the typical cliché. It happened in almost all xianxia stories. The protagonist, like Qin Lie or Li Fu Chen, or Xiao Yan or Lin Dong, or Lin Feng or Chu Feng or…you get the point. Every time they were about to get killed, their plot armor kicks in, they suddenly get a breakthrough, or a Deus ex Machina who conveniently swoop past and save them, then they go train for the next ten to fifty chapters, then return to a rematch to kick Sha Chen"s a.s.s, most likely in front of a crowd who go, "pathetic protagonist overestimating himself, he will definitely die." Then he proves them wrong, they get slapped in the face and start praising the protagonist to high heaven for being a "genius." Never mind that the genius only survived because of Deus ex Machina, and him going to train for fifty chapters while for some inconceivable reason his enemy remains at the same strength as fifty chapters ago. So the main characters are the only ones capable of growing stronger, huh?

Yeah…so let"s just wait for someone to save me, like Xiao Yan or Lin Dong did. Maybe Xue Li, ahem, I mean Tian Yu Di would suddenly appear from nowhere to save me. Speaking of which, where did my Ancestral Master go? He kind of disappeared after the failed invasion of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. I almost forgot about him.

Yup, if we were to go by clichés, this would be the perfect opportunity for him to make his reappearance!

…shin…

Silence. Even as I lay sprawled on the ground, I sensed no other martial artist within range for miles around. Looked like I was alone, and I couldn"t expect help from a convenient Deus ex Machina. This was reality, after all. Stronger martial artists didn"t just happen to be conveniently pa.s.sing by and swoop down to save some random kid they never met in their whole life. Or even if they did know the kid, they wouldn"t be coincidentally stumbling across the place where he happened to be, like so many xianxia stories had you believe.

Nope, if I wanted to get out of this situation, I could only rely on myself. Perhaps I had plot armor like all other xianxia protagonists, but it was a terrible quality plot armor that required me to depend completely on my own hard work, skills and intelligence rather than resorting to convenient Deus ex Machina rescues or bulls.h.i.t breakthroughs in the middle of a battle. Ah, f.u.c.k…remembering how Zhu Jiao benefited from that just p.i.s.sed me off.

My fingers twitched as the qi inside my body began to boil from rage, especially at the desperation of my situation, and how I was treated so differently from cliché protagonists such as Zhu Jiao and the whole list of xianxia protagonists I mentioned above. The world was unfair, harsh and cruel. Reality wasn"t going to bend backward just to favor someone, not unless you happen to be a protagonist.

f.u.c.k it. If I was going to die here, then I was going to die fighting.

"Hmm?"

Sha Chen noticed the change in my disposition, surprised at the sudden surge of my qi. He watched as I sat up, my qi boiling about me.

"…stay down, brat," he ordered. I ignored him and rose to a kneeling position. My body still hurt like h.e.l.l, and it was getting a little difficult to stand, but my qi was helping me ease the pain somewhat. It was the adrenaline and endorphins coursing through my system, I bet.

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to my feet. My azure qi continued to steam furiously from my body as I radiated fighting intent. I wasn"t going to die pathetically lying down. If I was going to die, then I would go down fighting to the very last second.

Taking a deep breath, I staggered forward, only to stop and grab both of my swords, which were still sticking out of the dirt. With a determined yell, I yanked both of them out of the ground. Still staggering weakly, I held up both swords and crouched into an offensive position. Wisps of azure and black qi began rising from both blades.

"?!"

Sha Chen suddenly froze when he noticed something.

He was watching me as I dropped into a combative stance. The black, demonic qi that was swirling around me had coalesced into a single, gigantic form. A ghostly figure hovered above me, its face slowly shifting as it took on human features.

A human face, to be exact.

"...!"

Sha Chen stared at the ghostly aura that had formed above me, his eyes fixated on the phantom face. His eyes narrowed when he realized that he recognized the features, the beard, and long wavy hair. And those dark eyes.

"The Absolute One, Tian Mo!" he growled in fury, his veins beginning to bulge in his temple.

The ghostly visage of Master merely stared back silently and neutrally, but the Dark Sage couldn"t help but feel as if he was being mocked.
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"This world is not meant for the dead to exist in," Sha Chen snarled, his own furious qi billowing outward and ripping the ground apart. Debris and soil drifted around him, held aloft by his oceanic amount of qi. "Begone!"

Raising both his hands, Sha Chen gathered a tremendous amount of venomous qi into his hands, his whips loosening around his arms and spinning enegetically as they drank in the sheer power that flowed into him.

Woooooo…!

"Ma.s.s Incendiary Death Blast!" he roared, and unleashed a gargantuan wave of flaming qi in my direction. The inferno razed through the former swampland, leaving scorched soil and earth in its wake, and inexorably advanced upon my position.

Heaving and panting heavily, still in the grip of excruciating agony, I bit my lip as I watched the h.e.l.lish wave of flames wash toward me. My legs buckled, but I gritted my teeth and maintained my stance, refusing to fall.

Very well…let me meet this attack of his with my own!

Stabbing Shadow Fox into the earth, I gripped Azure Lotus Sword with both hands. Infusing the azure blade with as much qi as possible, I raised it high into the air.

The inferno continued to streak toward me mercilessly, heedless of my defiant last stand. In the face of impending doom, I swung my sword down with a determined shout.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike.

The azure qi that left my sword was immediately vanquished by the advancing inferno. My Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike was no match for Sha Chen"s Ma.s.s Incendiary Death Blast. It last about four seconds before it was swallowed up and disappeared.

Even so, I refused to accept my death obediently. Raising my sword again, I slashed at the incoming wave, my azure blade biting into the crimson inferno and cleaving the surface apart. Superheated flames washed on other side of me, immolating the soil, but for a moment I was untouched by the flames, my sword cleaving apart an empty s.p.a.ce where I could stand without getting burned.

For only a moment.

And then the flames surged past my sword and swallowed me up. Despite doing my best to shield myself with protective qi, I disappeared inside the catastrophic explosion, my body consumed by the crimson blast.

Boom!

My entire world turned red.

Woo…

A few moments, a cold wind blew over the blasted soil. The Dark Sage"s furious attack had carved a canyon into the swamp, a ravine that spread for over ten meters wide and half as deep. Acrid fumes billowed outward from its scorched edges.

Sha Chen grimly stood at one edge of the canyon, his whips still curling and thrashing around his stationary figure.

He raised his head and watched my airborne figure. I had slumped downward, my head hanging loosely from my head, and my body limp. I was held suspended in the air by his whips, which were coiled around me and hanging me upward as if preparing me for an execution.

The whips tightened and crushed the life out of me, but I was no longer in any shape to respond. Blood dripped from my mouth and numerous wounds where the barbed leather of the whips had hooked into my skin. The light in my eyes had almost faded.

"Hmph."

In contrast to my sorry state, Sha Chen smirked triumphantly.