Chapter 4 – The Title of Fel

  Jia Yunya was the only child of a merchant guild leader. She didn’t start out cultivating like those families that were built on that life. It wasn’t even something she had considered, at least until her mother died. Since then, she had used her family’s riches to boost her cultivation level, using spirit stones in order to make up for lost time. Perhaps her father thought this would just be a phase, or maybe it wasn’t all that big of a deal to do a little cultivating, so he set it up so she would have a safe time in the Administrator’s Archive pocket world.

  Now they were being chased by several Dharma cultivators, who she knew were among the strongest in the world.

  Yunya watched the cultivators close in on them. She didn’t know what to expect and had started to feel fear; but when she looked at Diyuan, her guard on this trip, she started to feel at ease. He was a human like her, where he got shocked or felt his own panic—or at least she thought so. But give him a minute and his mind would race to find a solution. Even now, he already looked calm enough that she could be convinced that this was a vacation trip. It was giving her a reassuring effect; she wondered if this was what it was like to have an older sibling.

  The floating cloud artifact they were on slowed to a stop as the other cultivators with the energy wings swooped in front of them. Most of them weren’t one of the five that had been waiting outside the pocket world entrance. She learned to recognize some of the clans based on what they wore or their style. There were 4 Gu people, 3 of those fiery Honglie fighters, and 3 of those too-smart Celine people.

  “Elder Yifan,” Gu Guan said, the same one that was there from the start outside the portal rift. “I don’t believe our conversation was finished.”

  Yunya was watching Grandpa Yifan. He wasn’t her real grandpa, nor had she even known that he had some connection with her family until recently. He apparently had a deep friendship with her great grand grandfather, or something. That was the thing with cultivators: they could live for a long time, but several generations of the non-cultivators could pass by.

  Grandpa Yifan’s face looked like a statue now—cold and hard. She never wanted him to look at her that way.

  “Well, now, it seems you’re set on a proper chat, aren’t you?” Grandpa Yifan said, his long white beard swaying gently in the breeze. “But words would be wasted when your intent is so clear. You wish a fight, then?”

  The floating cloud descended to the ground, touching with a soft thud before it wisped into smoke that traveled up to the insides of Grandpa Yifan’s sleeve. He turned to Yunya for a brief moment, and his sharp eyes softening for a moment when he met her gaze. He then turned to speak to Diyuan.

  “Lad, my cloud is bound to my blood—it’ll not carry you further.” He reached out and touched Diyuan on the shoulder. “You’ll have to stand your ground here, but I’ve faith in you. Keep little Yunya safe above all else. She’s not ready for a brawl like this. Use that sharp mind of yours: control the field, don’t let them surround you, and strike fast to thin their numbers. But you are a Fel, so my words may be unnecessary.” His gave an encouraging smile. Then, to her privately, he did one of those secret messages. [Little Yunya, do as he says. No hero work. He does a good trick at deceiving his enemies sometimes, so listening to him will help him the most. Let’s have some tea when we return.] His words were filled with a humming warmth.

  He smiled as energy wings appeared behind his back. He flew up to meet the other cultivators who waited for him in the sky.

  “Come—I have an interesting arte I would like to test,” he said and flew off in a direction away from them and away from where the Zhengyi patriarch was at. She was reminded that he was leaving because they would otherwise “accidentally” miss him and hit them instead. It was just like in the pocket world, where people would make excuses to kill someone else. That wasn’t something her stomach was used to yet.

  The two of them were left alone in the plains. It was mostly flat, with bumpy hills here and there in the distance, and some big rocks that sprinkled the area. The sky still had some of the white clouds circle away from where the patriarch did his palm attack. She watched and counted the number of people that followed Grandpa Yifan.

  “Ten people!” Yunya tugged at Diyuan’s torn sleeve. She hoped he knew something she didn’t. “How can one person fight ten?”

  “Hmm?” Diyuan turned to her. “It’s not really ten people, though. Most of them aren’t level 5 Dharma, and it takes at least five level 4 Dharma cultivators to equal one level 5. So, it isn’t like he’s guaranteed to lose. There’s also that saying about old man Yifan: he’ll only die when he chooses to.”

  “Okay, then what about us?” She didn’t want to come off as annoying, but a lot of things were going wrong today. When she met Diyuan this morning for the first time, she thought they could have some rapport, since they were the same age. Instead, he had treated her like a nuisance for wasting his time. He was much different now, though. The heavenly tablet was a secret they shared. “Aren’t there six people coming towards us? Didn’t you say Mugong was at the Spiritweave realm? How are we going to get out of here?”

  “We?” Diyuan looked her, his face hard to read. Sometimes she wished she could know what he was thinking. “I made an agreement with your father to get you home safely, and I’m including your belongings into that promise. The Zhengyi don’t go back on their word once we give it, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

  Yunya opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted her.

  “Yun Yun,” he said in a serious tone. A knowing look. He didn’t need to say anything after that. They both had their duty now. Hers was to make it back. His was to make sure she made it back. But the gnawing feeling she had was that he might think it was okay for him to not come back at all.

  The metal disc passed them and descended to the ground, blocking their path forward. On it was everyone from the pocket world: Gu Mugong, the two Honglie fighters, the two Celing people, but only the one Lianhua flowery guy. The other Lianhua person that was knocked unconscious after the patriarch’s attack was not among them.

  As they landed, the disc shrunk to fit onto Mugong’s palm, which then vanished. The others spread out, forming a line. Two versus six.

  “Well, well, Fel Diyuan!” Gu Mugong snapped open his fan, his robes swishing. “Did you ever dream such a day might come? Were you aware that a Fel wielder seldom reaches the Dharma level? What, I wonder, might account for such a tragic shortfall?”

  Diyuan made his sword appear and rested it on his shoulder. Yunya readied herself and made her own thin sword appear.

  “I’m more interested in how you convinced them to join you. Surely they don’t think they’ll walk away alive?” Diyuan had his own confident smirk. Boy, did she wish she had that same confidence right now.

  “Ha! I can’t wait to put you in your place,” one of the Honglie guys said. The markings on his arms glowed slightly and weird transparent beast claws formed around his hands. “Do you think just because you killed a few people that you’re invincible? Back where I’m from, killing someone in a tournament is normal. How about I show you what that feels like? Hey, Panji! Hurry with the pills.”

  The Lianhua guy, Panji, made a pill jar appear in his hand and uncorked it, bringing out four pills. The fresh fragrance filled the air. He tossed a pill to the Honglie and the Celing clan members. Each one of them popped the pill in their mouth and sat to meditate.

  Yunya stepped forward, ready to attack, but Diyuan didn’t make a move. Instead, Gu Mugong simply stood in front of the four defenseless people, while Panji stood off to the side.

  “Why aren’t we attacking?” Yunya whispered. “Is this also one of those etiquette things?” She had heard about some people talk about their honor of not attacking defenseless people, but Diyuan didn’t seem to be like one of them.

  Diyuan tapped his sword on his shoulder, relaxed. “I would if it was an option. Why do you think Mugong had them take their pill down here rather than on his flying artifact, where we wouldn’t be able to reach? It’s a power move. He’s acting as if he’ll defend them, but in reality, if I attack them, then he’ll attack you, so he knows I can’t make a move.”

  At that moment, she hated being the one to hold him back. But it was true that she lacked any realistic combat experience. The things she learned from her hired tutor was specific to her Flashblind Thrust arte, which she no longer had. And while she had successfully absorbed the Heavenly Fairy Stance, it didn’t actually do anything by itself. Did Diyuan account for that?

  “So, then, what about me?” She asked in a hushed voice. “I’m not exactly strong, you know. And there’s six of them…”

  “Four, more like,” Diyuan said. “The Lianhua person doesn’t have real combat experience and will instead just feed them pills when they’re injured. Mugong won’t step forth, so it’s just the Honglie and the Celing guys we need to worry about. I’ve been thinking on what’s the best way to prepare you and I think I got it figured out, so listen up—from left to right…”

  He pointed his sword to the leftmost person, the Honglie guy who had made the claws—who Diyuan dubbed as “Beast-claw” going forward. He described what his combat style would be like, a rushing bull that should normally be evaded rather than blocked. The markings on their sleeveless arms were supposed to represent a demonic beast, but from her angle she couldn’t see how.

  The second Honglie guy had a twin-headed snake markings on his arms. Each head was supposed to breath out a poisonous smoke and the other one a flame, but apparently at the Foundation level he wouldn’t be able to do either. This one was dubbed as “Snake-head.”

  “I’m curious to know what his fighting style is like,” Diyuan mused. “From what I know, those markings work best with whip-like weapons, allowing their spirit energy to flow through it and control it like a snake. Not that it matters for us now, since he’d need to be at the Spiritweave realm to do that. In any case, you won’t need to worry about them at all, since I will face them both myself the entire time.”

  She nodded. But if he was going to fight both of them, then did that mean she would fight both Celing people at once? Did he think she had a trick up her sleeve? Because she didn’t.

  He moved on to describe the Celing people. One of them was a needle-finesser. The more experienced Celing members could throw needles and paralyze people with them. Some would also coat their needles in poisons to make it extra lethal.

  “But we won’t need to worry about that,” Diyuan taught. “Poisons that affect us at level 3 Foundation and above require needles made out of demonic beast bone, and no one will give some of that to a novice who probably still can’t hit his mark consistently. We’ll just call this guy ‘Needle-nose,’ because he puts his nose into places when he should keep quiet.”

  He then went to described the last person, the final Celing guy, but stopped and thought for a second. After a moment, he nodded as if figuring something out.

  “That one doesn’t use needles. His hands are too calloused. He’s probably terrible at long range weapons. Not sure what melee weapon he’ll be using instead.”

  Yunya had no idea how he could figure those types of things out. She was starting to think that maybe he was just a genius at everything. Gu Mugong, who was silently listening this entire time, turned his body to get a better view of the Celing guy’s hands. He looked back at Diyuan with a raised eyebrow.

  “A curious hobby you have, Fel Diyuan, studying a man’s hands so intently.” He held up his own hand to examine it. “But perhaps that is why we get along so well—mine are no doubt pristine, causing many a women to succumb to jealousy. Deliver the rings, and I might just permit you to graze this perfection.”

  Diyuan ignored him and kept speaking to her. “You’ll only ever need to fight one at a time, I’ll make sure of it,” he said. “If you get the chance to kill, then do it without hesitation. They might not all have the same bloodlust, but they are now working with Mugong, who will kill if we end on the losing side. If you hesitate, I’ll be the one who ends up dead first.”

  Yunya swallowed and nodded. How did he expect her to fight only one at a time? Was he just going to ask nicely? Then there was Gu Mugong, but apparently Gu Mugong won’t step forth to fight? Why? He was the highest level cultivator here.

  She then remembered that Diyuan gained two things in the pocket world. A dagger spirit artifact and a new arte. Maybe that was going to be their road to success.

  Her arms began to tremble as they silently waited. The anticipation was making it hard for her to breathe.

  “You know, I was taught by one of the Xuanying Watchers,” Diyuan said. He was casual and relaxed, like an impending battle wasn’t about to hit them. “I learned how to fight multiple people at once and to keep an eye on my allies.”

  “Was your teacher famous?” Yunya asked. She didn’t know why she asked that.

  “Eh. He’s dead now. Killed by being surrounded. Kind of like us now.” He laughed, but stopped when he saw her horrified look. “Okay, bad joke. It was demonic beasts, though. So a little different.”

  “Seriously!” She wanted to reach out to punch him. But she realized her arms weren’t shaking anymore.

  The four who took the pills were done meditating and stood up. A flash of pinkish red energy wrapped around them before vanishing; their bodies invigorated by the enhancement. Their eyes locked onto Diyuan and Yunya with an assurance of victory, while Mugong and the Lianhua youth stood back, the former fanning himself lazily and the latter clutching his pill jar, ready to assist. Yunya tensed, ready.

  “Yun Yun,” Diyuan said under his breath, “You’ll face Needle-nose first. Don’t let him keep his distance, rush him down. When he throws, deflect with your sword.”

  Yunya nodded, her hands turning white as she gripped tighter.

  Beast-claw’s markings flared to life. The claws of a beast covered his hands with a transparent energy. “Let’s tear him apart!” He roared, his voice filled with bloodlust. The second Honglie, Snake-head, had his own markings glow. A transparent serpent head appeared on both hands, similar to the beast-claw guy.

  Beast-claw charged first. He ran straight to Diyuan and shoved the energy claws into the ground and forcefully ripping it up. The claws must have done something underground because multiple chunks of earth flew towards Diyuan like projectiles. Beast-claw then charged towards Yunya, the weaker of the two.

  But Diyuan didn’t dodge the earth projectiles. He ran straight into it—a flicker of his sword and a twist of his body—and he landed next to Beast-claw without injury, kicking Beast-claw’s juggernaut momentum in the knee, forcing a stumble. As Diyuan spun his sword once, to strike through Beast-claw, the snake-head Honglie was there and did something disgusting.

  Snake-head’s arms bent and twisted, as if they had no bones, as if they were the whips themselves. Diyuan dodged back. Beast-claw was back up. As Yunya watched, Diyuan flicked a dagger towards her. She flinched and heard a ting sound—a needle set to pierce her eye fell uselessly after being deflected.

  A single look from Diyuan made her feel dumb as rocks. She focused on the other two.

  The two Celing guys ran forward now, where the melee-focused one had pulled out a spear from his storage ring and the needle-finesser kept away from the battle, with his weapons between each of his fingers.

  Celing-spear (the name she dubbed since Diyuan didn’t give one) ran at her. Despite Diyuan saying her first opponent would be Needle-nose, it seemed real combat was unpredictable. She readied herself to deflect the spear when a torrent of earth projects—from beast-claw again, no doubt—flew through the air and forced Celing-spear to block. He saw that Diyuan’s back was open to attack and went for it.

  Yunya was about to scream out for Diyuan’s name when he casually sidestepped the attack he shouldn’t have been able to see, and did some weird sword trick that redirected the spear that had aimed for his back; he casually followed up with a cut across Celing-spear’s arm. Yunya flinched seeing the skin rip so easily.

  “Yun Yun. Focus,” was all Diyuan had to say.

  She nodded, turned to Needle-nose, the one opponent Diyuan had said she would face off against, and saw a glint of the sunlight fly towards her—a needle. Yunya deflected it with her sword by pure instinct rather than any grand skill. She ran towards him. From the corner of her eye, she saw Snake-head guy’s arm wrapped unnaturally around the hilt of Diyuan’s sword, pulling his arm.

  She shouldn’t be distracted.

  Every time Needle-nose swished his arm in the air a thin needle flew her way. Deflect, deflect, deflect. A searing pain started to grow inside; her internal wounds were flaring up as she was using her cultivation energy to move in a supernatural way. She got close and swung her sword down; not with any real intent or goal except to hit somewhere. Needle-nose had a short dagger in his other hand in an instant and parried.

  “Pill!”

  Yunya heard Snake-head call out as she jumped away from Needle-nose. Panji threw a pill in the air, which the other person caught and began meditating on the spot. He had a gash across his chest, blood filling the spot.

  Another glint in the air, which Yunya deflected again. But as she did so, there was a second hidden needle just behind it—she could only stare as it came to pierce her.

  Ting! A dagger intercepted it, causing it to fall uselessly to the ground like before. She couldn’t help but look at Diyuan now in awe, who had two puncture marks on his arm, which oozed blood, but otherwise didn’t look tired at all as the other two enemy cultivators tried to hit him from his blind spot. Duck, dodge, twist. For Diyuan to have caught that second needle, he would have needed to know ahead of time that she wouldn’t have noticed. Even Needle-nose was surprised. It didn’t seem like Diyuan was paying attention to them at all, but every now and then his eyes flickered towards her, then back to his own battle.

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  “Ce Jingyi!” The Honglie beast-claw guy growled. “Throw a damn needle our way! Any range attack would be good. Swap with this useless spear clansman of yours!”

  Needle-nose, who was apparently named Ce Jingyi, left Yunya alone and moved around Diyuan. The spearman came towards her, making him her new one-on-one opponent, but his face showed he didn’t have much experience doing these types of things. He had a wound on his arm from Diyuan, making the spear be unsteady. A wound big enough to mess him up, but not big enough to require a pill apparently.

  They engaged in their own battle. Yunya really started to feel the pain flare inside her now, and the Celing-spear grimacing as he pushed his spear recklessly at her, but she wasn’t skilled enough to take advantage of any opening. Another call for a pill came from Diyuan’s side of things.

  The ground tremored, causing everyone to pause briefly; near the ground where the Zhengyi patriarch fought now had several pillars rising above the earth. They would sometimes glow and shoot out a beam of light, but it was too far from them to see what else was happening. The rumble came to a stop after the final pillar rose.

  “Spiral Needle Cascade!” Needle-nose shouted, bringing everyone back to the battle. He held up his hand, holding a needle between his fingers. The needle flew forward without him throwing it and a vortex followed behind. Diyuan wasn’t able to dodge as the needle struck his sword-arm shoulder. Diyuan realized quickly that he was losing the use of that arm; he made his sword vanish into his storage ring and then reappear immediately into his offhand.

  Yunya and Celing-spear clashed some more when he slipped on the grass, losing his footing. Yunya, with the fearful image of Diyuan losing the use of one of his arms, closed the gap and slashed down with all her strength, feeling the burn inside her increase. She felt how her steel cut through his shoulder and arm as he pulled back. He jumped away and called out. “Pill!”

  She took a moment to look at Diyuan’s battlefield again. It was two-on-one, where Beast-claw had retreated for a pill and Snake-head returned. She realized that they were too occupied to notice her and that Needle-nose had his back towards her. She rushed forward and thrust her sword. He turned as he realized she was there, but too late.

  The sword pierced through the chest. It didn’t slide through without resistance. She felt something rough grind against her sword; bones. A gasp came out of Needle-nose’s lips, his eyes widening in shock, his mouth opening as he choked out, “N-no…”

  Yunya froze. Her hands were locked around the hilt, unable to let go. She felt the warmth of his body. She saw his face, his eyes wide, a silent plea in them. She suddenly remembered his name, which had been called out earlier: Ce Jingyi. He, like her, was a person who had his own life. Ce Jingyi’s body shuddered and went limp, falling backwards and releasing the sword. The sounds of the battle dimmed; her breath filled her ears now.

  “Jingyi!” Celing-spear shouted, still sitting in a lotus position, absorbing the Lianhua healing pill.

  Gu Mugong, standing guard by the backlines, widened his eyes in a mockery of shock. “Heavens protect us! The Zhengyi princess—a merciless butcher in the making! A murderer! Poor Jingyi, he trembled, begging for mercy, yet she slew him mercilessly. Why, I swear I saw her spit upon his dying face.”

  She heard the voices, but her own vision was blurring. She knew she should focus but the feeling in her hand wouldn’t go away. The look in his eyes. The plea. She wished she had never started cultivating.

  A hand on her shoulder. Diyuan.

  It distracted her from her thoughts. The fight against Diyuan seemed to have paused as the enemy side was having an internal conflict.

  “When are you going to step in and fight!” Beast-claw shouted.

  Gu Mugong fanned himself despite the cool breeze. “Did I not say to force his Stunlock Bind arte?” The look of disdain entered his eyes. “Must I do everything myself?”

  Diyuan’s grip on her shoulder tightened. She looked up at him and saw his calm face. He had more puncture holes now, on his arms and on his side. They showed evidence of bleeding, but weren’t anymore. The needle that was in his shoulder was now gone, arm usable again.

  Diyuan spoke to her. “He’s afraid of my Stunlock Bind arte since it’ll paralyze the person temporarily. I won’t be able to do it for a time after activating it, and since Mugong’s aware of what I can do after using it, he’s a bit of a coward. I knew he wasn’t going to step until the arte was exhausted.” He smiled, more for her benefit.

  She realized that him explaining that brought her back to the present. She felt the vast difference in experience between her and him; he could cut and kill without a problem, but she froze up mid-battle after killing someone who had wanted to kill her. They all might be young adults, but it seemed like the cultivator families experienced death more readily than her.

  She got a clearer view of Diyuan’s wounds; they might not be bleeding now, because of his internal arte, but that didn’t mean he felt no pain. With resolve building, she understood that her actions took out one of their enemies permanently. She had helped him.

  Diyuan continued. “But if you were going to spit on someone, try to avoid the mouth. Some clans might consider that to be disrespectful.”

  She gave him a deadeye stare. “You know, I was seeing you in a positive light just now, why did you have to go and ruin it?” Yunya shrugged off his hand from her shoulder, not aggressively, but more to show that she was ready to continue. Diyuan nodded in approval.

  “Two healing, one dead,” Diyuan observed. “This is the perfect time to break through their line. Yun Yun—I need you to run straight through and don’t stop. Don’t fight back. Just run and keeping running until you’re safely back. Do you understand?”

  Even though Diyuan was speaking quietly enough for her, they had still heard it. Beast-claw and Celing-spear were absorbing the pills, but it looked like they were willing to get up and start attacking before they finished. Gu Mugong was more at attention now, too.

  “And Gu Mugong?” Yunya asked.

  “He will attack because I will use my stun arte here. This was the moment I was waiting for. Are you ready?”

  Yunya nodded. It was her duty to make it back and she knew it was his duty to ensure she made it back. She told herself that as long as she was out of the picture, then he could focus better against everyone. She wouldn’t let her thoughts wander about any potential death for him. He’ll survive. He has to.

  Diyuan charged forward. She followed, making her sword disappear. She was focused only on running through. Beast-claw tried to stand up but grabbed his injured leg as he stumbled down. Celing-spear, wounded on both arms now—one from Diyuan and one from her—stood to hold his spear but couldn’t get a grip to them. Diyuan intercepted Snake-head as Yunya ran past the two injured ones. She side-eyed Gu Mugong, but he was poised to jump forward, not at her, but towards Diyuan. He was out of vision when she heard him move.

  A guttural scream. It was so high pitched that it didn’t match the voice of anyone there, but she trusted it wasn’t Diyuan. Clash of steel. She ran, heat burning within her, her internal wounds flaring up, and now the taste of blood coming to her mouth. Her enemies behind. Clang of metals just behind her—two daggers flew past her head, where she knew one was meant to hit her and the other to deflect and protect her.

  Suddenly Diyuan was knocked back so hard that he was now somewhat in front of her. The hit had such force that he staggered to get his footing.

  “Roll!” Diyuan commanded.

  She dropped and rolled, and felt a humming force pass by where her head was just at. She got back up and kept running, noticing Diyuan now blocking Mugong’s fan, which had a blue energy coating it. She could see him strain against it, despite the fan looking so fragile and weak. It slipped past his sword and Diyuan twisted his body to dodge—but it wasn’t fast enough. The fan’s edge caught the side of his neck, carving a long gash. A rush of blood burst from the wound in a thick, pulsing stream. Dark crimson gushed out down the side of his neck and soaked into his torn robes.

  Diyuan’s hand flew to his neck, pressing against the wound, his fingers instantly drenched as blood welled up between them, seeping through his fingers. Pain washed over his face. He noticed her looking and called out in a raspy voice. “Keep running!”

  He charged forward until he was out of her peripheral. Another clash of steel. Yunya couldn’t get the image out of her head as her own blood began to pool in her mouth, coming in through her teeth. Her internal wounds continued to flare, but she would press on. The sounds of battle behind her kept getting further and further away. She kept running. Even after the sounds of battle were now far enough that she couldn’t hear anything, she continued to run anyway.

  She looked to the sky, hoping to see their own reinforcements come in by now. But it was empty. Fear that Diyuan wouldn’t survive settled deeply into her heart.

  ***

  Diyuan’s Benediction Balm was working overtime. The blood on his neck had mostly dried, forming a crusty, flaky layer that cracked when he moved. It stuck to his robes, pulling at the fabric. It no longer seeped, though looked as if it should. However, in exchange for mending that wound, the puncture holes from Snake-head started to burn up in pain again, which his healing arte had been suppressing.

  “Finally, he’s about to go down!” Beast-claw said, breathing heavily, blood coating his own robes.

  The battlefield was different now. Yunya had escaped, though that could still change if Diyuan couldn’t keep Mugong too busy to fly off with his flying artifact. In the distance, the Lianhua pill dispenser waited with the Snake-head. The poor Honglie guy was now missing an arm, which the pill wouldn’t help with in the short term. Diyuan had used his Stunlock Bind arte on him, attempting to take his head.

  Mugong noticed Diyuan examining the battlefield during the brief respite as everyone but Mugong was catching their breaths. “Surely, you realized how transparent you were? Your Stunlock Bind would only target him. You are quite defenseless to his attacks—hence your striking likeness to a sponge, though I’ll confess the holes do look quite lovely on you.”

  Diyuan said nothing, letting his healing arte continue to work, most of its effort still on the neck wound. Mugong wasn’t wrong, though. The Honglie with the snake markings on his arms was able to transform his arms into something rubbery and lacking bones. It could curve around his sword and bite into his skin with the snake-fangs that were created around the hands. A burning sensation would remain in the bite marks unless suppressed. Diyuan did want to kill Snake-head, but had to settle with removing a limb due to Mugong’s interference.

  But now that Yunya was gone, things were going to be different. Until now, he had not revealed either the Wind’s Edge spirit artifact, nor his new arte: Emperor’s Rule. Diyuan figured that if either of those got revealed while Yunya was here, the battle dynamics would change dramatically. Mugong may not have waited until Diyuan used his stun arte before intervening, even at risk of major injury.

  Wind’s Edge was something he would still continue to hide. Diyuan’s swordplay could cut his opponent easily, but looking at Mugong, what would normally be deep gashes was instead simple scratches that couldn’t draw blood; a difference of cultivation levels and Mugong’s defensive internal arte. Wind’s Edge could make up for it, allowing Diyuan to pierce through the defenses, but he needed to be certain the reveal would kill Mugong, not wound him.

  “Playtime draws to its end,” Mugong said. “Our little dance these past two years, delightful though it was, must conclude with a curtain’s close.” A blue energy wrapped around his fan, its glow a reminder of how heavy the strike was going to be, and he poised, ready to jump in. Across the field, the Honglie beast-claw guy mirrored his stance, ready to pounce. The Celing person with a spear was also ready to close the gap. Both had finished healing. It was now one versus three, where the other two—Snake-head and Lianhua pill man—was a distance away.

  Diyuan decide to prepare his warp, the slow carving of an invisible tunnel with his Emperor’s Rule’s arte. He carved the tunnel towards Beast-claw. While Mugong was the bigger threat, Diyuan wasn’t sure if he could kill him in a single blow yet.

  All three enemies froze. The Celing guy took a step back.

  “Hey, Mugong, what’s that supposed to mean?” Beast-claw asked.

  Mugong didn’t say anything, but kept a careful observation of Diyuan.

  Diyuan was confused. The three of them somehow became more cautious of him now, but they shouldn’t be able to see the tunnel he was carving. In fact, they were looking at his face, not the Emperor’s Rule carving towards the Honglie man.

  The Celing guy stabbed the ground with his spear and got down to one knee, placing both hands on the ground.

  “I’ll create a formation,” the Celing guy started, “don’t let him step out until I’m done. I may not be good with combat weapons, but no one is better than me at formation speed. And since Fel Diyuan waited until the Zhengyi girl left, or waited until Gu Mugong joined, to show whatever that new skill is, I recommend we wait for me to finish.”

  The ground around Diyuan began to glow, markings appeared in specific designs, all joining together in one official formation. Mugong, still silent, circled around the edge, while the Honglie guy stayed opposite; their method to prevent Diyuan from leaving. He still didn’t know what they were seeing to make them so cautious, but one thing was certain, it wasn’t the Honglie guy he needed to kill first, but the one who was setting up the formation.

  The Celing guy looked up. His formation was almost done. “I don’t know what makes you so confident, not even bothering to try to leave my formation. I heard that only one person can hold the Fel title at a time. Once the holder dies, the person who kills him becomes the new Fel. And whoever can survive long enough to reach the Dharma realm wins. But you know what? I’m going to hunt down people from the Zhengyi clan. Your people will call me their personal Fel. Remember my name: Gong Xu!”

  The formation completed. It lit up and created a pressure on Diyuan. When he moved his hand, it moved in a delayed fashion, where his thoughts and his actions were not synced with each other.

  “Kill him now!” Gong Xu shouted. “It doesn’t matter if his eyes are glowing!”

  Beast-claw charged in. Mugong, still apparently wary, threw his fan instead, which was wrapped in the blue Spiritweave energy. Both drew close. The Honglie claws swung down. Mugong’s fan was at his neck. Yet Diyuan did not make a move to defend himself. He stared at Gong Xu.

  Just as the attacks struck Diyuan, he vanished from their sight. A sharp, reverberating noise sliced through the air, followed by a humming noise that lingered. All three snapped their necks to where the sound came from.

  Standing behind Gong Xu was Yuhan Diyuan, as if teleporting instantaneously. A blow of air pushed out where Diyuan appeared, causing his hair and his robes to flow. The sunlight from the sky darkened his appearance. His eyes glowed.

  “Now you will know why I am called Fel,” Diyuan said. He lifted his sword up and struck down at the defenseless Celing clan member.

  “No! Wait!” Gong Xu called out, but his words were not heeded.

  Diyuan’s sword pierced through his chest, ending his life instantly. The formation created to trap Diyuan vanished with the light in Gong Xu’s eyes. The body dropped to the ground. Diyuan’s sword dripped blood.

  “Glowing eyes? How annoying.” Diyuan touched the edge of his eyes. “Here I thought this would be an assassination arte, yet not only does it give away my position when I move, but it also reveals when I’m using it.”

  Mugong’s fan returned to him, but his shocked eyes stayed on Diyuan. He then looked at the motionless body of Gong Xu, then back to Diyuan. Mugong smirked, though it faltered for a moment. “Fel Diyuan, you do have a flair for stealing the stage.” He held up his fan to cover the lower half of his face. It didn’t hide the fact that he was thinking he had miscalculated somewhere. “A pity, though. That fool’s arrogance would’ve carried him further had you not intervened.”

  Beast-claw, meanwhile, stood rooted in place where he had tried to strike Diyuan down. There was a disbelief in his eyes as his eyes were locked on the blood pooling beneath Gong Xu corpse. “You—only a coward strikes from behind!”

  Diyuan bent down and took off the storage ring from the dead body. When he stood, he teleported.

  From Mugong’s and the Beast-claw’s point-of-view, Diyuan disappeared again in a blink of an eye. They heard the reverberating noise behind the Honglie guy, who instinctively spun to block. His arms had formed defensive scales in response, but it was too slow. His forearm was pierced halfway through from Diyuan’s sword, but was stopped when Beast-claw took hold of the blade with his other hand. He pushed it out and jumped back.

  The Honglie guy shouted out in pain, gripping the gashing wound. “Pill! And Mugong, do something!”

  Diyuan felt the pressure on his core from using the instant-version of Emperor’s Rule. Diyuan looked over at Mugong, but his eyes must have still been glowing since Mugong took a step back and decided to wave and twist his fan around him, creating a translucent barrier around himself.

  This battlefield belonged to Diyuan. The Lianhua pill dispenser was still too far off from throwing a pill to Beast-claw, so Diyuan would kill the Honglie man first. Then it’ll effectively just be him versus Mugong.

  The sky suddenly darkened. Black clouds appeared and swirled, covering the sun and expanded out even further. From the center of it a large sword, titanic in nature, came point down slowly. It was the battle between Ancestor Tianhou and Gu Guoxiong, miles away from them. Two golden giant transparent arms appeared in the sky as well, and clapped down to catch the sword. The golden arms looked weird, as they weren’t attached to a body.

  Even though the sword stopped, the force it created kept pressing down, warping the air around the distant battlefield. The ground beneath couldn’t resist and started to crack and tilt, creating jagged sharp lands. The scene was like looking at a painting of an ancient battle from days of eld, as some old people would say. Diyuan couldn’t feel any of its power from where he was at, not that he minded.

  “I think we’ll need to redo the map,” Diyuan murmured.

  He let his healing arte continue to do its work as they all watched. It wasn’t everyday they saw peak powerhouses go at it. Mugong seemed content to wait where he was at. The two Honglie people both had severely injured limbs, whether missing or almost cleanly cut offed, so in reality this was likely going to end with Diyuan’s win. Mugong might survive, but he always ended up surviving somehow.

  The dark clouds began to dissipate with the disappearance of the giant sword and golden hands. A good small distraction that was. At least until a voice projected out.

  “My Gu clan, fall back. I will use my domain and create history,” Gu Guoxiong said.

  Diyuan raised an eyebrow, not knowing what that meant, but saw the sudden shift in Mugong’s demeaner. In an instant, Mugong pulled out his metal flying spirit artifact and enlarged it. He jumped on it and lifted off.

  Diyuan wasn’t going to let him fly off so easily. He teleported onto the platform with a burst of air pushing out from his landing spot. Beast-claw, still gripping his forearm, flared the markings on his body once more, jumping towards them with a force that left the ground beneath him cracked. He landed on the disc. Mugong kept the disc moving forward.

  “Turn around!” Beast-claw said, pointing as his clansman and the Lianhua guy, who were running towards them. He then looked at Diyuan and flared his beast-claw into existence for his good arm.

  “Our lives hang by a thread as is!” Mugong seethed. “And no fighting! If my disc tips even for a heartbeat, I’ll tumble you both off!”

  “Domain: Craigshatter Upheaval.”

  Gu Guoxiong’s voice echoed throughout the land, distant yet as if he was right at their shoulders. Diyuan searched the battlefield of the Dharma powerhouses. A sphere of shimmering runes formed, large enough that it touched both the ground and the sky. Then it burst outward and vanished, a shockwave rippling the horizon.

  At first Diyuan saw just a flicker where the sphere was; dirt falling upward. As seconds passed, those specks became jagged clumps, then boulders—some the size of wagons, others the size of a house. Grand and visible cracks could be seen even at this distance, which became the boulders being lifted into the air. The earth groaned as the fracture split wider, racing outward like veins.

  Outward towards them.

  Diyuan felt the air thickening, humming with a pressure that reminded him of when his ancestor used his palm strike.

  It was coming for them.

  “Mugong, what is that supposed to be?” Diyuan gripped his sword tighter.

  Mugong didn’t even glance back. “Domains were only supposed to be an upper world power…” He murmured it, more to himself.

  The chaos surged closer. Diyuan could now see the ground beneath them shatter into pieces, not yet lifting to the sky. It was marking how extensive the domain would be, already stretching to be miles wide.

  The disc started to shake. Mugong pivoted at them as if to blame them, but saw that the air around them was warping itself. Diyuan felt a light pull on his body. The earth below shattered. The land torn asunder, boulders falling upward. The disc bucked wildly; Mugong cursed, dropping to a crouch and gripping the edge. Diyuan mimicked, tightly grabbing the metal. A storm of earth was upon them.

  Large boulders zipped by, falling upward and threatening to hit them, but Mugong maneuvered his disc out the way. The Honglie guy kept his balance, still standing. It soon became a field of obstacles—above, below, and all around, seemingly nonthreatening at first glance.

  Then the strange pull Diyuan felt earlier suddenly became stronger, as if he was being lifted up. His grip tightened at the edge of the disc. He could feel his legs lift from the platform, so he strained his muscles to keep them in place. Mugong’s body had a similar experience, except he was being forced to the side. A shout from the Honglie guy. They looked and saw the third passenger fall from the platform—not down but diagonally.

  “Gravity shift!” Mugong shouted.

  Diyuan saw it by watching the Honglie guy. The boulder he was drawn towards had also pulled in other rocks. When the first rock hit the boulder, it pulsed out a wave of fire, hitting the Honglie guy, who screamed out in pain. He hit the boulder, but then “fell” to another one, where another wave of fire was set off, hitting him again. His skin was turning black, becoming a crisp of what it was. His mouth was open to scream again, but no sound came out.

  Diyuan lost visual contact as boulders were now moving left and right, smashing and hitting each other, exploding out in a fiery rhythm.

  “Diyuan, I hope you were paying attention,” Mugong said, dropping his fancy act. “Because I’m not sure which way is up anymore.”

  And Diyuan knew why. As they were being pulled, their sense of “down” shifted. There was enough debris that they couldn’t see the earth below or the sky above. For all they knew, they could have been flying in circles. Mugong still dodged any fiery explosions he could predict.

  It was a minefield.

  Then a miscalculation. The disc hit a boulder, throwing both of them off. They fell in different directions, gravity pulling them separately. Diyuan saw the boulder he was about to hit pulse out its fire, which vanished right before Diyuan hit it. He landed, safely. He felt other boulders smash into the one he was on, but it seemed only the first hit would cause the “mine” to explode.

  Mugong landed as well, not as safely according to part of the singed robes, but his body didn’t become as damaged as the Honglie’s did. The difference in cultivation levels.

  The flying spirit artifact was out of sight, lost in the minefield. The two of them looked at each other with a raw and unguarded look. They weren’t enemies at this time. They were two weak ants that had been caught up in another’s fight. They each felt the pull of gravity shifting, lifting their feet off of the ground, wondering how long they would last before they died.