"I never saw that Spirit Weapon before!" he growled. I shrugged.

"Um, yeah." When I first encountered Jiang Jun Hao and the Heavenly Way Sect, I still hadn"t finished forging Snow Aegis yet. In fact, the whole reason why I went to the Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s tomb (where I met them) in the first place was to obtain the necessary Spirit Materials to defuse the incompatible components to complete my Snow Aegis.

"That"s not possible!" Jiang Jun Hao growled.

"Why?" I rolled my eyes. "Because I"m just a sidekick character who"s not supposed to improve or get anything new, and exist solely for the sake of being a foil to the developing protagonist, to emphasize how much stronger he has gotten in contrast to an insignificant mob character like me?"

"YES!"

…I give up. This guy was an idiot who couldn"t be saved. Rather, I moved on to a more pressing concern.

"I know you"re trying to kill me because the Martial Arts Alliance ordered you to destroy Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, but you seem to be harboring a grudge against me for some reason."

"Of course!" Jiang Jun Hao sneered. "Even if the Martial Arts Alliance didn"t order it, I would eventually have sought you out and kill you anyway!"

"Huh? Why?" I frowned, perplexed. "I never did anything to you. I don"t mean to distance myself, but I didn"t help Zhu Jiao or interfere in his battle with you at all. I don"t remember doing anything to earn such hatred."

"Hah!" Jiang Jun Hao snorted. "You"re a friend of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Zhu Jiao. That"s more than enough reason for me to kill you!"

…what the f.u.c.k?

No, seriously. What the f.u.c.k? What the h.e.l.l was wrong with this idiot? His justification for killing me wasn"t because I actually did anything to him, but simply because I was a friend of Zhu Jiao? That was it?

To a certain extent, I somewhat understood his mentality. Just like typical villains, in order to defeat the protagonist or take revenge on him, they would aim for his friends and loved ones, targeting those closely a.s.sociated with him so that they could hold them hostages or drive him to a corner after bringing him despair.

No doubt, Jiang Jun Hao planned to kill me, and then bring my head to Zhu Jiao to mock him, to show that the price of offending him was steep, and even if he couldn"t defeat Zhu Jiao in a head-on battle, he could take revenge by targeting his loved ones.

Now the problem was that Jiang Jun Hao was supposed to be a righteous member of the orthodox Heavenly Way Sect. But his actions and mentality were that of a second-rate clichéd villain destined to get crushed by the protagonist. Eventually. If I understood my role right, I was to fall here today so that Zhu Jiao would have a motivation to grow even stronger (as if he wasn"t strong enough already) and destroy the Heavenly Way Sect in future, or at least the Jiang clan.

Then again, Heavenly Way Sect was a member of the Martial Arts Alliance, a supposedly orthodox organization that claimed itself to be the embodiment of righteousness, justice and honor, yet stooped to commiting criminal atrocities and genocide such as waging war just so they could plunder a subordinate sect"s wealth and resources.

This world was truly full of hypocrites.

Honestly, I couldn"t care less about their hypocrisy. They were enemies who had come to invade our sect, and thus they will pay dearly for it. The outcome remained the same. It was just that so many xianxia novels indulged in this hypocrisy, but take themselves too seriously. The characters in the stories seemed to accept this hypocrisy and complete lack of logic as normal, and no one ever pointed out to the enemies how stupid and hypocritical their rationale was (like how they could go around killing and beating people up, but their victims weren"t allowed to fight back because "they are strong" and the strong eat the weak). Only someone who broke the fourth wall realized just how inane, childish, immature and completely f.u.c.ked up those antagonists were.

The only solution was to defeat and wipe out these idiots. I hope.

"Fei Wu!"

Tong Xue and the rest were gathering behind me, presumably to fight against the disciples of Heavenly Way Sect that Jiang Jun Hao had taken long.

"Let"s get rid of the invaders," I suggested simply. If I was a cliché protagonist, I would probably use this chance to show off my skills and defeat the whole group of Heavenly Way Sect disciples by myself, so that the author could as usual w.a.n.k off to how awesome his protagonist was (such as Li Fu Chen being the ultimate Mary Sue who could do everything that other people couldn"t, Lin Dong showing off to everyone how rapidly and powerful he had grown in a single year, etc.). Worse, no matter how much the protagonist had proven himself, there would always be a crowd that love to trash-talk him, make snide comments about the protagonist overestimating himself and betting that he would get thrashed, just so the author could slap their pathetic faces with how G.o.dly the protagonist was as he proved all of them wrong.

But I was more practical than that, and I wasn"t that arrogant or complacent to think I could defeat a group by myself.

"Let"s go!" our squad leader, Jing Wei, issused his instructions and everyone lurched forward immediately to meet our new enemies head-on.

"Young Master Jiang, leave this idiot to me!"

One of Jiang Jun Hao"s subordinates shouted as he charged at me, swinging a ma.s.sive claymore to cleave me in half. I blocked his gigantic blade with Snow Aegis and countered with a volley of qi beams from above. Credit to the subordinate, he evaded it easily, rolling away and springing back to his feet to unleash a qi blast at me.

"You"re not qualified to face Master Jiang!" the subordinate sneered. "I, Jiang Yan Pan, am more than enough to crush you!"

"Not this bulls.h.i.t again." I sighed. As much as I wanted to complain about the cliché crowd or side characters trash-talking the protagonist just so he could slap their faces later, it turned out that this Jiang Yan Pan had good reason to be confident. He was dodging all of my qi beams easily, and retaliating with heavy blows that sent violent vibrations through my Snow Aegis.

However, he was far from the level of Wu Tuo, who I had barely managed to fight on par against despite the famous Cloud Sky Mountain martial artist missing an arm. This wasn"t to say I could thrash him as easily as Lin Dong did to w.a.n.g Yan and w.a.n.g Pan (then again, what did you expect from a Mary Sue protagonist) or Li Fu Chen to practically every opponent in his generation despite them supposedly having a better Star Bone Frame than him. Speaking of which, that stupid trash-talking crowd always gossiped about how Lin Dong looked ordinary, or how Li Fu Chen overstepped his boundaries before being proven wrong in the most humiliating fashion ever.

Fortunately, no such crowd existed in reality. No, seriously. When you were fighting for your lives in a battlefield, what idiot would group around with others to gossip and trash-talk the protagonist, especially when you knew absolutely nothing about the protagonist? It was funny how they always a.s.sumed the protagonist was weak solely because they had never heard of him before or some other vague, stupid reason that made no sense whatsoever.

Bam!

Unfortunately, this wasn"t the time to bemoan the complete lack of logic, or the baffling mystery of why crowds always seem to jump into conclusions and made inane a.s.sumptions about the protagonist (never occurred to them that the protagonist"s confidence was because he was aware of both his own strength and the opponent"s, and not because he was a frog in the well – again, an irony that was totally lost on these trash-talking morons). Jiang Yan Pan was slashing furiously at me, his claymore carving chunks of concrete out of the plaza.

Clang!

Again and again, I parried his bows with Snow Aegis, or otherwise used my footwork techniques to easily evade him. I retaliated, of course, firing precise qi beams or trying to kick him from his blind spots such as behind him, but to my lack of surprise, Jiang Yan Pan"s instincts were impressive. Of course they had to be – otherwise Jiang Jun Hao wouldn"t have brought him along as an elite retinue. As stupid as he was, he was no r.e.t.a.r.d.

"Stop ducking around!" Jiang Yan Pan hollered as he tried to pursue me, only for me to deftly stay out of his reach with a couple of steps and skillful footwork. Dodging his claymore, I kicked him with Shadow Kick, but he blocked it with his ma.s.sive blade.

"Kuh…!"

As expected of a high grade Spirit Weapon. Not only did it completely deflect my attack, it sent shockwaves up my spine from the impact. I quickly retreated and then drew my Azure Lotus Sword. Evidently I could only prevail by using a Spirit Sword of my own.

"f.u.c.k!"

Weaving through the barrage of qi beams that my Snow Aegis fired upon him, with a surprising grace that belied his size and the fact that he was wielding a c.u.mbersome, heavy weapon, Jiang Yan Pan slashed at me again, and I blocked with Snow Aegis. While he was struggling to press his claymore down to knock my Spirit Shield out of the way, I practically danced from behind Snow Aegis in an elegant motion and thrust my Azure Lotus Sword at him.

"!"

Realizing the danger, Jiang Yan Pan withdrew his claymore and blocked my Azure Lotus Sword. Ice began spreading around his claymore at the point of contact, and Jiang Yan Pan flexed his qi to shatter it.

With a roar, he charged forward and cleaved at me with his claymore. This time, he was faster than before, to the point I wasn"t able to bring Snow Aegis down to block his attack in time. Wielding Azure Lotus Sword, I weighed down by my own weapon and my mobility was slightly decreased – even if it was very slight, in a high-level match, that little disparity made all the difference. That was why I didn"t just always draw Azure Lotus Sword from the very start. I preferred to rely on my speed and agility, evading attacks and striking with kicks.

However, if the opponent was too tough to the extent that my kicks were pretty much ineffective, I had no choice but to use my sword. This wasn"t to say I resented it, though. Rather, I very much enjoyed fighting with my sword.

Grinning as I parried Jiang Yan Pan"s claymore, I stood my ground fiercely before unleashing a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike at pointblank range. A spirit Weapon vastly improved my offensive capabilities while removing most of the risk of me getting injured, and this time Jiang Yan Pan found himself blasted backward despite blocking my technique with his claymore. He skidded a few meters back, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

"Huff…"

Plunging his claymore onto the ground, Jiang Yan Pan leaned over and panted heavily. He glared at me before heaving his claymore up and unleashing a qi blast of his own.

Even though I wanted to replicate the Heaven and Earth Reversal technique that I had just seen Ancestral Master used, I still wasn"t able to execute it properly, and could only cut apart the blast without turning it back on its wielder. Having antic.i.p.ated that, Jiang Yan Pan was already launching himself toward me, swinging his claymore down vengefully.

I parried his strike, my knees buckling and the ground around my feet shattering from the tremendous impact. Gritting my teeth, I tried to ward Jiang Yan Pan off, but he gleefully used his superior size and weight to press down on me, driving me deeper into the crumbling ground.

"Ugh…"

Chewing my lip and watching as the ma.s.sive blade slowly but surely inch closer to my face, I made a snap decision. Maintaining my grip on Azure Lotus Sword with my right hand, I reached for my floating Snow Aegis and drew a second sword with my left. This time, the sword I retrieved was unremarkable, one of those cheap, ma.s.s-produced low quality Spirit Swords that Nine-Tailed Fox Sect manufactured for rank-and-file troops.

Before Jiang Yan Pan realized what was happening, I thrust the second sword under his claymore and below his guard, nicking his side. Again, to his credit, Jiang Yan Pan reacted in impressive fashion, his instincts saving him from a lethal stab and forcing him to spin away as my blade cut shallowly into his skin, but otherwise didn"t deal a decisive blow.

"f.u.c.ker!" Jiang Yan Pan swore and swung around, his claymore coming from a hard, violent angle. I took a step back, retreating out of his reach, but Jiang Yan Pan reversed his swung from the opposite direction with such speed I couldn"t avoid the next one – more so, now that I was weighed down by two swords instead of one.

Fortunately, it was those two swords that saved my life. I blocked the claymore with the sword in my left hand, just barely stopping it a centimeter or two away from eviscerating my body, and then thrust my Azure Lotus Sword in. Jiang Yan Pan managed to evade that as well, but not completely. And with his claymore pressing against my ordinary sword, he couldn"t block the blade with anything but bare flesh.

"Argh!"

He staggered back as my Azure Lotus Sword left a mark, drawing blood. Withdrawing his claymore and forcing me to retreat with a clumsy but powerful downward swung that splintered the ground, Jiang Yan Pan clutched his midriff when I had stabbed him. His eyes widened when he saw the huge patch of ice spreading across his body.

"What is this?!"

I didn"t waste time replying. Instead, I plunged my sword into the ground before he could recover.

"Enhance Armament!"

The s.p.a.ce around us immediately froze, ice materializing and entombing Jiang Yan Pan while covering the cracked floor in a translucent sheet. The temperature dropped sharply, and the air began to mist, particularly as flames and lightning from other martial artists engaging the Blood Blades pa.s.sed through the s.p.a.ce and vice versa.

"UGH!"

With a holler, Jiang Yan Pan expended a large amount of qi to smash his way out of the ice, but I was already waiting for him. Delivering a series of high-speed strikes with both my swords, both my blades disappeared into blurs that were almost too fast for Jiang Yan Pan to follow. To be fair, if he was an ordinary opponent, he would have been cut into pieces long ago. Only his amazing instincts allowed him to dodge the fatal strikes by the barest minimum, allowing him to escape what would otherwise be certain death.

However, Jiang Yan Pan was still reduced to a b.l.o.o.d.y mess, blood dripping from numerous wounds as he found himself backing away to a corner. Huffing, he tried to lash out with his claymore, but I deflected it easily with my ordinary sword while striking out with Azure Lotus Sword. Ice appeared across his injuries, but he exerted his qi once again, wincing as he reopened his wounds whenever he shattered the ice into frosty fragments.

Even if he could withstand my barrage of attacks now, he would eventually die a death from a thousand cuts. The bloodloss was also gradually reaping a fearsome toll on him – I noticed that his movements were growing slower, and I was landing more hits than before.

"f.u.c.k you, author!" an existence from beyond the fourth wall screamed. "Who cares about your duel against an insignificant trash side character? Just have the main character fight against Jiang Jun Hao, and then save the sect already! Stop dragging things out!"

If only things were that simple. Some of the readers appeared to have completely subscribed to the stupid unrealism and bulls.h.i.t of xianxia stories, and a.s.sumed that every insignificant mob character was trash, existing solely as cannon fodder for the protagonist to stomp to the ground before thrashing the "main" antagonist of the arc. That was utter rubbish. Reality was not as convenient as that. Real enemies did not simply roll over and die before the might of a Mary Sue protagonist. It was insulting to label any random person a mob character and a.s.sume that he was weak and just there for the protagonist to crush him just so the latter would look good.

In reality, a person would meet many difficulties and challenges. He would face adversities who would hamper his goals, strong opponents who would give them quite the run for their money even though they had never met them before or had never heard of their names before. Such was life, always springing trouble upon me at the most unexpected moments. It was disrespectful and arrogant for anyone to a.s.sume that Jiang Yan Pan would just keel over and die in a single second of facing me in combat. He was a real person, not some random mob character created by an author to make the protagonist look good.

Besides, being complacent would only lead to my death. And if I was arrogant and looked down upon other people for being weak or whatever, then I would be a ma.s.sive hypocrite. What right would I have to condemn other people for their arrogance and belittling of others if I did the exact same thing (an irony lost to the readers demanding that I crush all "mob characters" in my path in a few sentences while complaining I was only doing this to drag things out – no, that was reality for you)? Only by giving Jiang Yan Pan the respect he deserved (not for his personality, but for his combat skills), would I be able to survive this battle unscathed.

Underestimating an opponent was more liable to get one killed – something that those edgelord readers demanding for power fantaies and wish fulfilment never comprehended.

Fortunately, there was no one to save Jiang Yan Pan. Everyone else was occupied with preserving their own skin, clashing furiously against their respective opponents. I was gratified to see that many of the Heavenly Way Sect disciples had been killed, and in contrast, few Blood Blades had fallen.

Good.

Honestly, if this was a cliché xianxia story, everyone would just serve as a crowd while Jiang Yan Pan and all the elite Heavenly Way Sect disciples attacked me, trash-talk me for not knowing my place, while I effortlessly crushed all of the elite disciples" attacks before slapping Jiang Yan Pan. Never mind it made no sense that everyone just stood by and watched while an entire sect ganged up and attacked me – eve though they were supposed to be from the same sect as me. Of course, the author would give some bulls.h.i.t reason about me being from the branch sect, and thus an insgnificant member with the status of an ant who wasn"t worth the trouble of helping. If that was the case, then what was the f.u.c.king point of having branch sects in the first place? Might as well allow us to break off and become independent, since there was no benefit to being under the main sect. Usually these branch and main clans worked on the principle of the latter protecting the former, thus the former would be happy to be under the clan umbrella and contributed by paying tribute or working in some form or another – if the main sect abandoned the branch and didn"t protect them, then there was absolutely no reason for the branch to be a branch. Might as well just renounce the clan name and become independent.

Of course, the author couldn"t have that. He needed an excuse for the protagonist to fight on his own against so many people his own clan members trash-talk and looked down on him, only to be slapped in the face when the protagonist proved them wrong. It was the most contrived situation ever, second only to Lin Feng"s bulls.h.i.t experiences and the idiotic crowd that appeared wherever he was, to watch him trounce some arrogant young master from some sect who picked a fight with him over the most inane reasons ever…

"Shut up!"

I realized I was rambling out loud. Whoops. Sorry. Come to think of it, my own rants were becoming rather repet.i.tive, and by now readers should be sick of reading them. Okay, I was sick of some of the comments demanding that I be a G.o.d mode Mary Sue and complaining about me being too weak, but that was no excuse to lauch into yet another rant in the middle of a battle.

With a roar, not paying to whatever I was grumbling earlier, Jiang Yan Pan charged at me with his claymore. His blade exploded with ferocious qi and he swung it at me. I could see his muscles expanding and growing, the veins and blood vessels bulging out of his skin as he supercharged his body. Horrified, I retreated as far away as I could with Tui.

This was a physical enhancement technique that granted the user an exponential increase in strength and a sudden burst in qi flow. His offensive and defensive power would multiply several dozen times within a short period, but this technique was also a double-edged sword. the whole reason why the user couldn"t maintain it for anything longer than a few minutes was because this technique dealt ma.s.sive damage to one"s physical body, rupturing the muscles from overstrain and causing qi vessels to erupt and burst from the excessive flow of qi. It would place tremendous stress on his tendons, joints and body, forcing it to endure power that it normally wasn"t capable of holding.

If I was able to escape Jiang Yan Pan"s attacks until his technique expired, it would certainly be my victory. After that, he would no longer be in any condition to fight. However, on the flip side, if he landed even a single attack on me, he would completely obliterate me.

In a different sense, fighting Jiang Yan Pan was more dangerous than battling against Wu Tuo earlier. This guy was literally staking his life on this technique and throwing everything he had at me.

"DIE!"

He sprang forward at an unbelievable speed, almost catching me by surprise. Despite his swelling body and temporary increase in size, he hurtled forward like a bullet, disappearing into a blur. I almost couldn"t react in time, bringing my Snow Aegis down to meet his charge.

Jiang Yan Pan"s claymore collided with Snow Aegis, causing it to shudder violently from the tremendous impact. I flinched as the s.p.a.ce behind Snow Aegis (where I was occupying) literally rippled as immense shockwaves buffted me and the place around me. The ground underneath my feet crumbled and disintegrated from the sheer power.
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"UWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

With a bellow, Jiang Yan Pan actually succeeded in pushing my Snow Aegis back, cracking the first barrier in the layers of dense, protective qi that had appeared in front of the indomitable Spirit Shield. He stomped forward, each of his steps leaving a small crater in the ground, not just because of the sheer force but also dissolving from the potent, destructive qi that emanated from his body.

I was actually being pushed back by the immense attack, my steps faltering as I stumbled backward while being buffeted by the vicious shockwaves.

"Like h.e.l.l I"ll fall here!"

Snarling in determination, I slammed my foot forwad and stubbornly stood my ground. Glaring at my opponent, who was barely visible behind my Snow Aegis, I suddenly comprehended the flow of qi around him.

With Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I could sense and "see" the incredible amounts of qi circulating around his abused body. Even though they were pouring out of his enhanced body in what seemed like fumes, I was able to pick out how uneven the flow of his qi was. There were portions of his body where the amount of qi was vast, like a sea, to the point the excessive qi was actually corroding his body, and there were areas where there was a lot less qi, where the defensive aura protecting that particular part was not as st.u.r.dy as the wall of qi guarding the rest of his body. And these areas shifted and changed – sometimes, the lesser amount of qi and weakening barriers overlapped with the body areas that had been mercilessly corroded by the extreme quant.i.ties of qi.

Only someone like me who had mastered Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps would have been able to pick those vulnerabilities out.

"…"

This being the case, there was no point waiting for Jiang Yan Pan"s technique to expire. I might as well eliminate him right here, right now. Deliver the finishing blow, and then move on to other opponents. There were so many enemies swarming into Tushan City and trying to destroy Nine-Tailed Fox Sect right now. I couldn"t afford to be bogged down by a single opponent.

Darting out from behind my Snow Aegis, I stabbed at his weak point with my left sword. Swollen with qi and his body bulking up so much, Jiang Yan Pan was able to respond very quickly, spinning around to swat at me with his claymore and demolish me in a single strike.

I was forced to deflect his claymore with my sword, which was utterly destroyed at the moment of collision, causing shrapnel to rain down on both of us. Jiang Yan Pan instinctively recoiled as he sought to avoid the sharp, metallic shards, but I plowed through determinedly, utterly focused on that single weak point I had singled out and thrusting my Azure Lotus Sword at it.

Having already blocked my first attack with his claymore, Jiang Yan Pan"s guard was lowered. But he didn"t worry, for he had complete faith in his own technique and the incredible surge of qi that now shielded his body to halt my attack.

Unfortunately, he couldn"t tell that I had selected that area precisely because it was one of the spots that were the most unshielded right now. Without the same Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps that I had learned, there was no way for him to tell.

"!!!!"

Jiang Yan Pan"s jaw dropped when my sword pierced him, the blade of Azure Lotus Sword driving itself deep into his shoulder. Frosty qi immediately spread out from the point of injury, filling his body with indescribable chill.

"f.u.c.ker!"

With a roar, Jiang Yan Pan drew his claymore back to cleave me in half, but I didn"t wait for him to retaliate.

Instead, I unleashed Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike at pointblank range, releasing my destructive qi directly into his body and ripping my opponent from the inside out.

And just like that, Jiang Yan Pan exploded into blood and viscera, his entire body torn apart by the tremendous surge of qi. Already overtaxed by the excessive quant.i.ties of qi that he had forcibly acc.u.mulated into his body, it was unable to withstand another tremendous injection of qi, moreover one that was meant to destroy with a vengeance.

"Huff…huff…"

Wiping the blood off my face and my gla.s.ses, I straightened up and shook the blood off the blade of my sword.

Shing!

"!"

I immediately jumped away in reflex as something streaked toward the air, seeking to drill a hole in me. Snow Aegis hovered in front of me as the projectile swung around and shot toward me again, blocking it. Drawing a third sword from Snow Aegis, I managed to knock the incessant spear away from my Spirit Shield and sent it spinning haplessly away.

For only a few seconds.

"Hmph. Lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

The gigantic golden spear that had just tried to murder me immediately straightened up and obediently flew toward the hand of Jiang Jun Hao. The ma.s.sive Spirit Weapon immediately shrank as he reached out to grab it, becoming a more manageable size. Twirling his Heavenly Spear stylishly, Jiang Jun Hao slowly strolled toward me.

"So you even managed to defeat Jiang Yan Pan, huh?" he sneered before planting his Heavenly Spear fiercely on the ground, causing a slight tremor. His arrogant aura seemed to burst forth from his body, saturating the plaza and ruffling both his hair and clothes. "Looks like I really have to step in and deal with you myself."

I chuckled even as I confronted Jiang Jun Hao, unperturbed by his formidable aura of aggressive qi.

"You want to step in and deal with me? Are you sure?"

As if to emphasize my point, I c.o.c.ked my head to the side and glanced in the direction of the elders. Currently, Shen Tian Yi and Long Shen were engaged in a bitter and intense battle with my Ancestral Master. None of the parties involved could pull back, or the battle would tilt toward the other"s favor. Then I turned back to stare at Jiang Jun Hao and smirked cynically.

"This time around, you can"t rely on anybody to pull your a.s.s out of danger when you"re getting beaten to death, you know?"