After wheezing and panting heavily for a few seconds, Ba Yun barked out in harsh, guttural laughter.

"Kill me?" he snarled. "I would like to see you try!"

I said nothing and merely watched as he retrieved an item from his pocket and slapped it onto his chest. At first I thought it was some sort of ornamental plate, but after a few seconds it became clear that it was a Spirit Armament. Black tendrils of disturbing qi burst out of the plate, resembling some sort of abysmal demon clawing its way out of h.e.l.l. The dark shadows crept over his body, forming some sort of armor that protected his body. An armor-type Spirit Armament, then.

Ba Yun"s spirit armor was pretty ugly, though. Then again, what did I expect from a Spirit Armament possessed by one of the demonic members of the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect? I wasn"t surprised to see those dark, almost ooze-like armor give him a demonic visage.

"Oh, how scary."

I sighed and shook my head before pretending to quiver in fear.

"Gr….argh!"

Ba Yun was growling incoherently, his mind completely lost to rage and vengeance. He raised a hand, where a cl.u.s.ter of black tendrils lengthened and sharpened into a thick, solid spirit blade. His current demeanor kind of reminded me of Venom. What a creepy Spirit Armament. I had never seen anything like it before.

"Ku ku ku ku ku…"

Ba Yun chuckled as he crouched down on the ground for a moment, as if waiting for the shadowy armor to take hold and fully form. Then he straightened up and grinned at me. I stared back at the demonic visage, half-expecting a forked tongue to flick out. But too bad the black qi wasn"t some sort of alien symbiont.

"Earlier, you used Shadow Steps, didn"t you? A footwork technique."

Snarling, Ba Yun glared at me from under that shadowy qi helm. But his mouth was still clearly visible, and twisted into a toothy grin.

"I shall throw those same words you said to me back at you. Shall I demonstrate to you how to use a real footwork technique?"

Smiling, I beckoned him forward. "By all means."

Ba Yun"s legs tensed, the sheer force of that movement crunching the ground underneath his feet and reducing concrete into rubble.

And then he disappeared.

The dark shadow blade sliced down toward me, a clear intent on Ba Yun"s part to cleave me into two.

How slow…

"Demonic Shadow Strike!"

And he still even has the idiocy to yell his technique"s name as he unleashes it. Should have spent that energy into increasing his speed instead.

As the black blade slashed down toward me, it was my turn to disappear.

CRUNCH!

"!!"

Even as the ground exploded into rubble from the tremendous impact, and even as debris showered him, Ba Yun spun around to slash above. His instincts were good, and he almost got me. However, I twisted my body in midair and dodged his shadow blade by a hair"s breadth. Tapping my foot on his shoulder, I propelled myself away.

d.a.m.n it…thanks to his counterattack, I wasn"t able to use Seismic Step again!

Ba Yun had learned from his previous mistake and was relying on intuition to guess where I was, spinning around to slash me when I dodged to the s.p.a.ce behind him. Once again, I evaded his shadowy strikes by the thinnest of margins.

"Kuh!"

Kicking off the ground, I retaliated by springing at him and slicing with my frost swords. Each ice blade swept in from different directions, sliding under his shadowy blade and sinking deeply into his torso. Or so I believed, until I found the frozen blades lodged within his Spirit Armor.

That"s one tough Spirit Armor…

Worse, I wasn"t able to pull my ice swords out, and was forced to abandon them when Ba Yun countered with another sweeping slice of his shadowy sword.

"FEI WU!"

Roaring, Ba Yun went berserk and lashed out blindly. Even though I had only dealt him superficial wounds, it was clear that they went through and he was hurting pretty badly. Blood dripped from his wounds where my ice swords remained embedded within his flesh.

"KILL YOU!"

I twisted around to dodge his shadowy strike and slid to the side, seizing an opening to launch another attack of my own.

"Heh!" Ba Yun chuckled, despite realizing that he was wide open. "What are you going to attack me with?"

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d evidently thought that I was disarmed because I was forced to abandon my swords. Unfortunately for him…

Shing!

I froze two new ice swords and slashed him from the side, drawing up a geyser of blood. Ba Yun bellowed and staggered back from the impact.

"You were saying?"

And then Ba Yun"s grimace turned into a sneer and I realized that his taking the full brunt of my attack was a feint.

Wham!

"Kuh!"

Despite blocking his shadow sword with my ice swords, which I crossed instinctively, the frozen blades shattered instantly and I was hurled across the room. As blood leaked out of my mouth, I swore under my breath.

"Not powerful enough, huh?"

Flipping myself in midair, I skidded across the ground in an attempt to halt my momentum. Generating a new ice sword, I stabbed the ground to arrest my backward slide, even as the shattered ice sprayed me.

"!"

Unfortunately, Ba Yun wasn"t going to wait for me to stabilize myself. He was suddenly in front of me.

Even as I raised my sword to protect myself, he kicked me in the gut and sent me flying across the room. This time, I couldn"t right myself. I was flung across the air, helpless and unable to do anything. Before I knew it, I crashed into the opposite wall with a thunderous thud.

"Kuh! Ugh…!"

A cobweb of cracks expanded rapidly underneath my body, the impact leaving a large dented crater in the reinforced concrete. Blood dribbled from my mouth and I swayed, dazed and winded, before sliding down the wall and crashing onto the ground in a cloud of dust.

"..."

Blood streamed down my head, and my body hurt all over. But this pain was nothing compared to the excruciating agony that Ba Yun put me through during the past two weeks. Something of this level…I could still stand. I could still endure.

I could still fight.

Rising shakily to my feet, I created another new pair of ice swords and watched Ba Yun from a safe distance.

Ba Yun is much stronger than me, physically. And he has more qi than I do. But I have the advantage in speed…and perhaps intelligence.

It would be foolish to engage directly in a head-on battle. I would surely lose if I tried to contest him in strength. He would undoubtedly overpower me with his brutal Demonic Shadow Strike and Demon Shadow Sword.

In contrast, my Ghost Shadow Sword depended on speed rather than power. The Ghost Bear might be physically strong, but I wasn"t. I had to rely on my superior speed and agility to overcome an overwhelmingly stronger foe.

"You know…your footwork is disappointing. I thought you wanted to show me "real" footwork, but all you"ve done so far is rely on brute force and raw strength. You"re so slow."

"Guh…gah! f.u.c.king brat!"

Ba Yun took the bait and bellowed at me. I merely smiled and lowered my ice swords, inviting him to charge.

"What, did I touch a nerve?"

"I"ll show you! Shadow Dash!"

Another inexplicable instance of Ba Yun shouting the names of his techniques out when he used them. I merely shook my head and then disappeared right before his charge carried him right through the s.p.a.ce where I was standing on a millisecond ago.

"?!"

Snarling, Ba Yun turned around while flailing aggressively, hoping to somehow slash me with his shadow sword.

"Where did you go?"

"So this is your so-called "real" footwork technique?"

I cut his back open, sending another spray of blood gushing high into the air. Then I frowned. The damage wasn"t as much as I would like. The Spirit Armor was doing its job and protecting him from suffering a fatal wound.

"How disappointing." I shook my head as I stepped back. "If this is your demonstration of a "real" footwork technique, then I"ll be happier learning a "fake" one that"s vastly superior."

"Gah! b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

I stepped back and allowed Ba Yun"s shadow strike to sweep past in front of me, narrowly missing by a few millimeters. But no matter how close he was to hitting me, a miss was a miss. That said, I couldn"t afford to get hit by him.

Boom!

Jumping up, I used my footwork techniques to disappear once again before Ba Yun pulverized the ground I was standing on, his ma.s.sive shadow blade utterly crushing the concrete into a pool of broken debris.

I can"t let him hit me…if I receive a direct hit from that, it"s over. He has an overwhelming advantage in a short-range fight. He"s too strong for me to trade blows with. And that Spirit Armor is protecting him from the worst of my attacks.

In other words, if I wanted to defeat him, I had to find a way to break through that Spirit Armor first. Otherwise I could shave away at his defenses all day and still not bring the huge b.a.s.t.a.r.d down.

The question was…how?

Speed. That"s the only advantage I have. And my footwork techniques.

I was so glad that Teacher Jiao taught me all those footwork techniques. Duo and Tui had been integral to me escaping so far.

And now…

"KILL YOU!"

Bellowing ferociously, Ba Yun dove toward me again. As usual, he was so slow…

Eh?

I could see his movements, almost as if he was in slow motion. I could see the currents of qi raging around him. I could see the trajectories of his movement, how he would move and where he would be if he continued doing what he was doing right now.

So that"s how it is.

Liu. The fourth footwork technique that Teacher Jiao taught me. I could finally put it into good use now.

Stepping into Ba Yun"s path, I disrupted the qi flow and blocked the trajectory of his movements. Ba Yun"s eyes widened when he suddenly found himself losing his balance and toppling over into an undignified heap.

"You…what did you do?!"

He swung his shadow sword at me, but I could clearly see the trajectory and stopped the movement even before it completed, my ice sword occupying the s.p.a.ce his shadow sword was supposed to take.

"?!"

Ba Yun sought to retreat, but I cut off his path of retreat, my ice swords occupying the trajectory where he was supposed to move to.

"UGH!"

More blood splattered onto the ground and Ba Yun staggered backward as he shrieked in pain. He slashed desperately at me, and this time he used so much raw power that I was forced to retreat rather than disrupt his move.

"You! What did you just do?!"

"I"m not stupid to tell my enemy what I"m doing to fight him."

Suppressing the desire to roll my eyes, I struck again. Ba Yun staggered back as I opened up a new wound on him. Growling, he slashed at me, but I avoided blocking his blow head-on. Jumping on top of his shadow sword, I spun around and delivered a Shadow Kick to his gut, causing him to double over in pain.

But as strong as he was, Ba Yun recovered quickly and struck again, almost cutting me in half at my midriff. Fortunately, I was able to use my footwork to evade and appear above him. With his sword stuck on the ground, I spun in the air and delivered a roundhouse kick that would have made any Lunar Rabbit proud.

"ARGH!"

The blow snapped Ba Yun"s head back and he stumbled backward, his ears ringing from the impact. I landed and stabbed his chest with my swords, only for the ice blades to shatter against his st.u.r.dy Spirit Armor.

"Hah!"

Despite the pain, Ba Yun could still crow in triumph when he saw that my Ghost Shadow Sword had not much effect on him. Seizing what he saw as an opportunity, he countered with a large sweep of his shadow blade.

But I was no longer there.

"?!"

Dancing about, I kicked him from the side, causing him to drop to one knee as a sickening crack echoed throughout the room.

"My knee! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d…!"

He slashed at me again, but I was already waltzing away. Spinning around, I delivered a second roundhouse kick that caused his head to snap back with a spray of saliva and blood.

"Gah!"

Again, he tried to cut me down, but I was already darting away with my footwork and deftly retreating to a safe distance.

"Stop running around like a pesky bug, d.a.m.n it! Stop escaping and dodging my attacks!"

"Are you an idiot?" I sighed as I ducked under another sweep that was meant to take my head off. "Who the h.e.l.l is stupid enough to listen to a command like that? Do you really expect me to stand still and let you hit me?"

"I am strong! Stronger than you! That"s my right as the stronger one! Weak trash like you should just submit and let us feed on you!"

"Then do it. If you"re as strong as you claim, then you should have no problem catching me, right?" I punctuated my scorn with another kick to his other leg, causing him to kneel. "You aren"t strong just because you say you are. You have to prove it with actions, rather than words."

That was right. As with ideals of justice, honor and virtue, just using words to claim that one was strong was useless if he didn"t have the strength to back his claims up. In the end, it would remain an empty claim, just hot air.

Ideals, bragging, whatever…no matter what I want to do, I need to back it up with actions.

"Kuh!"

Ba Yun swung around in hopes of catching me off guard, but I was already disappearing from his view and striking from his peripheral vision. His frustration grew and he let out an enraged roar. Ignoring him, I continued to chip away at his armor.

No…am I really chipping away at his Spirit Armor? It seems that he"ll just temporarily repair the damage by infusing it with his qi.

If this turned into a battle of attrition, it would be to my disadvantage. After all, Ba Yun clearly had more qi than I did. Furthermore, this served to hit home the difference between someone who wielded a Spirit Weapon and someone who didn"t. One day, I had to find and procure myself a Spirit Weapon of my own.

For now, however, I should focus on defeating my opponent first. Otherwise that future would never come to pa.s.s.

I"ve no choice. I"ve to smash through his Spirit Armor in one go. Overwhelm his defenses so that I can deal a fatal blow.

"STOP RUNNING AROUND!"

Even as I calmly a.n.a.lyzed and came up with tactics and countermeasures, Ba Yun was giving in to his frustration, growing increasingly infuriated with his failure to capture me or land a clean hit. I dodged under another of his frantic slashes, and then used Jin to charge ahead and knee him in the face. Ba Yun grunted as his spirit helm caved in, but he didn"t fall.

As I suspected, the spirit helm was restored in a few moments, with Ba Yun repairing it with his innate qi.

Yup…then I"ll have to do this then.

Taking a deep breath, I gathered more of the surrounding qi to me while dodging another vicious attack. Just as Ba Yun performed a ma.s.sive attack that practically cleaved the entire room in half – his shadowy blade destroying the ground and leaving an enormous fissure, I disappeared.

"Not this s.h.i.t again!" Ba Yun howled.

"Don"t worry," I replied as I reappeared above him and planted a foot on his helm. "I"m going to change things up a little."

Seismic Step.

Colliding the surrounding qi with my pure, volatile qi, I obliterated Ba Yun"s Spirit Armor in one go. Blood shot outward in an ascending shower, almost like a volcano erupting. Ba Yun"s mouth gaped and his eyes rolled in his sockets as he fell to his knees, his body half-destroyed by my powerful attack. This time, I had made sure to use a lot more of the surrounding qi, and thus the effects of my Seismic Step was amplified several times more than the previous one.

As ominous and revolting as the surrounding deathly yin qi was, it was totally worth it taking the time to gather and acc.u.mulate more of the surrounding qi and using it. Besides, I had suffered through worse revulsion than this…

The Parasitic Wasps and their larvae using my body as a host came to mind.

The only trace left of Ba Yun"s Spirit Armor was currently the cracked, ornamental plate that I saw him retrieve from his pocket earlier. Right now, it was nothing more than a useless, broken breastplate, the writhing shadows disappearing into it as it shattered under the force of my attack.

And with his Spirit Armor destroyed, Ba Yun was left vulnerable and exposed to the full power of my attacks.

"Gah…! AAAAH!"

Coughing out in blood, Ba Yun lay sprawled on the ground. He attempted to materialize another shadow sword and slash it at me, but I also forged my own ice sword out of the air and stabbed his arm, impaling it to the ground.

"AAAAAH! GAAAAH!"

Ba Yun howled in agony as he thrashed about, writhing desperately. However, he was unable to free his arm from the ice sword that was riveting that limb to the floor. Wailing pathetically, he sought to clutch his pinned arm with his other hand.

"Oh no, you don"t."

With a single flick of my hand, I stabbed his left arm into the ground. Ba Yun hollered something incoherently and his thrashing grew more violent.

"What was that?"

I c.o.c.ked my head to the side as I listened to Ba Yun"s wailing. He was weeping and staring up at me with tears in his eyes.

"M…m…monster…"

"Me? A monster?"

Something inside me snapped when I heard that. Forging a third ice sword, I stabbed his right leg, impaling the thick meat of his thigh to the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"You haven"t looked in the mirror, have you? Calling others a monster…are you aware of what you"ve done?"

I stabbed his left leg with a fourth sword, eliciting another shriek of pain.

"You"re the true monster here. And I"m not talking about your hideous appearance." Shaking my head, I stepped on the fingers of his right hand and crushed them, breaking the bones with a single step. Ba Yun howled.

"NO!!! Please…!"

"Hmph." I snorted as he wailed and begged pathetically. "Did you ever stop when I asked you to?"

"I…I…I…"

"…didn"t." I finished his sentence for him. "You ma.s.sacred villagers because your sect tells you to. You drained their qi to grow stronger. You killed for fun. You tortured people because it amused you. Your very actions are monstrous. You call other people a monster, but you"re the true monster here."

I glared at the pathetic, whimpering form of Ba Yun, feeling disgusted.

"But I"ll admit it…I"m probably a monster too. I"ve no choice. I"ve to become a monster to fight a monster. I realized what I had to become in order to fight monsters like you." Leaning closer, I whispered into his ear. "You"re the one who forced me to become a monster."

That was right. Originally, I wasn"t a monster. The one who turned me into a monster was the sick and s.a.d.i.s.tic Ba Yun. He was the real monster.

And now that monster was about to be devoured by a monster he himself had created.

"Hii...!"

Ba Yun squealed as he struggled against his frozen restraints, but it was useless. The ice swords weren"t just pinning his limbs to the ground. They were freezing his limbs. A layer of ice was gradually expanding over his arms and legs, metamorphosing his flesh into icy crystals.

"And I have to thank you."

This time I was smiling broadly. Ba Yun turned up to look at me with confused, teary eyes, not sure what I was saying.

"Just like you learned from the orthodox martial artist, I also learned from your mistakes."

"…eh?"

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d didn"t realize what mistakes he had made. That was fine.

"I won"t make the same mistake as you did…the mistake of not killing me immediately. The mistake of deciding to let me live so that you can torture me to your heart"s content. The mistake of not sucking my qi right from the beginning."

The same mistake all villains made, letting the protagonist live so that they could "torture" him. As I suspected, it would be a decision that would return to haunt them. After all, the protagonist was an ent.i.ty who always escaped and prevailed over his enemies.

Ba Yun was no different. Except that the torture he inflicted on me was horrendous and unforgivable.

That was fine. I was about to deliver my wrathful vengeance and pay him back for every ounce of pain he dealt to me.

Straddling Ba Yun, I reached out and thrust my hand into his back, tearing his spine open and reaching all the way into his dantian.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"…you"re right. We have the same elemental affinity. And even though your shadow techniques are laughably inferior to Heaven and Earth Formula, there are still some similarities. This will make the process of absorbing and a.s.similating your qi a lot faster."

Saying so, I began to absorb Ba Yun"s qi directly from his dantian.

"Please…please don"t…please…spare me…"

Ba Yun whimpered and begged desperately, tears rolling from his eyes. I impa.s.sively regarded his pleading expression for a moment, and then grinned as I continued to suck his qi essence dry.

"I warned you, didn"t I? I told you I will make you will regret this."