Chapter 38 – Mayhem Storm

  With the death of Niu Bolin, the battle started anew. Discussions were no longer allowed.

  The Foundation cultivators from each side went at each other’s throats once more. Youzhi spun his spear and aimed to attack Diyuan, but Yao Luchen swung first, forcing the spearman to focus on him.

  A level 1 Spiritweave cultivator versus a competent level 3 Spiritweave cultivator should have been one sided, but Yao Luchen having his phantom spawn next to him with a different sword for a different combat style would bring enough confusion to aid him. The Sable Shapers team, Yibei and the women who had recovered from their demonic energy attack, were back on their feet and had the Mudpit Bog formation working, hitting Youzhi as their primary target to help out Yao Luchen.

  There were still four Spiritweave enemy cultivators left to contend with. The two Junior Sisters faced off against Feng Xueying; their umbrella and fan had the blue Spiritweave energy around it, but they did not start fighting yet.

  Deacon Hu was closest to Diyuan as he had been standing with Niu Bolin. Diyuan had his black sword out and swiftly made to end Deacon Hu in one move to even the playing field, if only a little.

  But Zi Qin was there to parry him. She swung her silver sword up effortlessly, causing him to miss his target. Deacon Hu jumped back, looked at Niu Bolin’s dead body, then sprinted away.

  He’s running? Why?

  Zi Qin must have had the same question because she tracked the fleeing man with her eyes. The clash of battle and shouts around them brought them back to reality. Both Zi Qin and Diyuan made eye contact momentarily.

  “Senior Zi Qin!” Youzhi shouted. “They’re killing righteous immortals! And he commands a demonic beast himself! What more do you need?”

  She looked at the now dead Niu Bolin and exhaled through her nose. Her decision was made.

  Zi Qin jumped at Diyuan and attacked. He blocked her swing with his black cold steel sword, though the force of the hit was more impactful than any other cultivator he had experienced so far. A level 4 Spiritweave cultivator; she had the strength of four level 3 Spiritweave cultivators.

  But even then, she wasn’t expecting him to hold on as “easily” as he had. She likely expected her cultivation level to suppress him.

  Diyuan’s defensive stance would never fail against her, especially not when the rippled beneath her feet gave her away. It told him where she placed her weight, whether she intended to move forward or elsewhere. It was effectively broadcasting what she would do next. He would take all the information he could get. However, no matter how much information he had, he wasn’t sure how he would win against a level 4.

  Seeing their Senior Sister finally fighting, Xiaoya and Min began their fight against Feng Xueying. Diyuan couldn’t pay attention to that as he needed to focus on his target.

  Di Guilin appeared and did an underside tail swipe. Zi Qin didn’t even bother to block so Diyuan thought she was about to get smacked. Instead, ripples of water blocked the hit, forming into a tortoise’s shell. The impact of the hit still knocked her into the air, but that seemed to be more of a deliberate move on her part. She stopped midair above the courtyard, with the small ripple of water under her feet preventing her from falling. She held out her sword before her. Blue blade beams shot forward at Diyuan. He blocked it with his full weight.

  A movement to the side. Di Guilin floated next to Diyuan. In that moment, a plan was formed, one that they both knew.

  Diyuan jumped up as high as he could. Di Guilin floated up. As Diyuan started to come back down, Di Guilin caught him on its back and continued to fly up.

  He now had his own personal flying mount.

  Zi Qin no longer had aerial supremacy. Her long-range sword beams meant nothing as Diyuan could block it and still fly towards her.

  She jumped backwards and continued to strike. Each step from her was a glide, bouncing midair. They were no longer above the Black Brigade courtyard. Those in the distance could easily pick them out as Di Guilin had its white glow of a body. The people of the city were outside at night, unable to sleep due to all the noise and loud voice projections. They pointed at Diyuan and Zi Qin’s fight.

  A shift in battle; she jumped towards him instead of away. They clashed swords. Diyuan strained his muscles as he gritted his teeth, while adjusting his footing on Di Guilin’s back. He could see Zi Qin’s face. Her eyes were narrow, but she wasn’t straining like he was.

  What tools did he have to face against her? His Wind’s Edge would have to be his weapon of choice since he wouldn’t be able to pierce her skin otherwise. He had Extinction; perhaps he could use that in some way?

  But of course, the biggest new toy would be the thing under his feet.

  Di Guilin.

  His Avatar Incarnation had its own abilities. When Diyuan fed it spirit artifacts before it went into its egg, it obtained two unique skills.

  The first skill was a cold aura. It could emit an aura that could weaken nearby artes. Diyuan wouldn’t use that as he was worried it would hurt his side down below more than the enemy side. However, that cold aura could be condensed into a cold breath attack.

  The second skill wasn’t useful for open air combat as it gave his puppet immunity to spirit detection. The white glowing serpentine dragon was in the Spiritweave realm, but even Diyuan couldn’t detect if it was level 1 or otherwise. Not as useful since it glowed, so stealth wasn’t an option for it.

  Even with the new tools, the fight against Zi Qin would take time. Could his own people hold off long enough until reinforcements arrived?

  “Would you believe me if I said I thought he would come back to life?” Diyuan said. He looked down at Yao Luchen’s battle. No concern there still. The phantom version got hit by Youzhi’s moonlight stun arte, but it turned out phantoms were immune to stuns in general.

  “Your intentions don’t matter anymore,” Zi Qin said. “I can stop this fighting if you surrender yourself to the Virtuous Wind Sect.”

  Though she said that, she held her hands near each other. Ripples of water pulsed out, followed with a soft ding sound. It repeated three times. Nothing else seemed to happen otherwise.

  “And Youzhi would agree to that? After Niu Bolin’s death?” Diyuan now looked at Feng Xueying’s battle.

  Feng Xueying was holding up surprisingly well against the two unique weapon styles of Xiaoya’s umbrella and Min’s fan. Those two Junior Sisters would have shined if there was more open space for combat, but anything they did here might result in friendly fire. But what if Feng Xueying got pushed back to the point where they had the opportunity to cause fatal damage?

  If that was the case, shouldn’t Diyuan stun one of them and do a quick kill—

  Flash of steel. Di Guilin pivoted and sharply moved sideways. Diyuan’s reflex had him turn his body. Zi Qin thrusted her sword to where Diyuan’s neck had been just moments earlier.

  She was faster now.

  Diyuan chastised himself for being distracted and gave her his full focus. The two clashed swords. There were no more rippled below her feet for some reason, yet she floated in the sky anyway. He hit her with limitless Stunlock Bind, but it didn’t seem to do anything as she was unaffected. She jumped back—not a slow glide, but quick movement like she was on the ground. Zi Qin held out her sword and shot out her same blade beams. But now even those were more powerful than before. The size of them created a ripple as it went through the air.

  Di Guilin shot out its frost breath. The blade beam went through it. Diyuan prepared his full weight to block, ready for impact. He was surprised by how much lighter it was. It was probably around the strength of a level 3 Spiritweave or slightly stronger, but definitely not as strong as it should have been.

  The frost breath to weaken artes worked well, then.

  The strange change in Zi Qin’s movements continued. While she was suddenly swifter and more responsive, the movement became abnormal near impacts. When he clashed swords with her, the moment of impact felt off based on what his eyes were visually seeing. It seemed like she shifted several inches in one direction or another when physical contact was made, like her body was being teleported through some arte. As the fight progressed, that shift extended inches, sometimes to the point where his sword wasn’t landing where he wanted it to land.

  Time for a different approach. Diyuan brought out his Wind’s Edge. He jumped off of Di Guilin to the open air on the side. His Avatar Incarnation, already fully aware of everything he intended, flew the opposite direction to flank her. He used limitless Emperor’s Rule to create solid air beneath him in preparation to double jump towards her.

  The solid air never formed.

  Diyuan didn’t even have time to think about what went wrong. With limitless Emperor’s Rule failing, he began to fall to the ground. He teleported up to—

  The teleportation failed.

  It failed in the same way it failed when trying to teleport through a solid object.

  Zi Qin noticed his downward fall and looked below him, as if she thought he planned to join the battle below. She held out a finger and pointed it at him. The air around Diyuan formed into a protective bubble, encasing him. He felt the thickness of it, so his movements were slowed, as if he was in water.

  In water…

  That’s what’s happening!

  His puppet was aware of his thoughts and was already looking around for confirmation. It was night so visibility wasn’t as clear, but now that they were looking for the clue they ended up seeing it. The city below them waved ever so slightly. Like seeing through clear water.

  Zi Qin had created gigantic water zone, almost invisible. It covered everything, from their battle in the air to the Black Brigade courtyard down below. It didn’t interfere with anyone’s battle for the most part; no one even noticed it was there.

  Based on what he experienced from it already, her movements flowed better since she was essentially now a fish in water. That might explain why the ripples below her feet vanished. Perhaps her water-based artes would be stronger in it.

  This field, or mini domain in a sense, would also explain why his teleportation arte failed. It’s not air he’s going through, but her breathable water.

  In short, he had been hard countered. Whether she was aware of it or not, he didn’t know.

  He still didn’t know why her body shifted or had an illusion of being somewhere it wasn’t. For now, he needed to focus getting out of his bubble prison. He swung his spirit artifact to the edge of the bubble that encased him, but his movements were so sluggish that it was like he was in the Mudpit Bog formation itself. He couldn’t do enough damage to break free.

  So he began charging Extinction.

  Diyuan closed his eyes and saw things from his Avatar Incarnation’s perspective. Zi Qin had continued her fighting with Di Guilin. She held up her open hand. The space before her palm formed into a transparent sword. Not blue, like most Spiritweave artes, but colorless. Zi Qin pointed and the newly formed sword obeyed her commanded.

  She controlled the flying sword to soar through the air—or water? Di Guilin spun and hit it with its tail and...

  Diyuan sensed that the hit for Di Guilin felt good. Something odd must have happened to Zi Qin as well, because she momentarily stopped controlling her flying sword and simply blinked a few times. Once she got her bearings, she continued her flying sword attack, though not to pierce her foe. When it hit the ghostly body, the flying sword dragged itself on the flat of its blade against Di Guilin. The touch itself resonated something.

  For Di Guilin, it was like it was being fed a spirit artifact without actually eating one. Or, more recently, it was like the Sword parchment paper it ate the moment it stepped out of Diyuan’s storage ring.

  Her flying sword is Sword Intent, Diyuan realized. Even though now wasn’t the time for it, it was confirmation of his theory that the energy that came from dead spirit artifacts was indeed intent, so something with pure intent like a formed flying sword would be the perfect meal for his Avatar Incarnation.

  Whether to make Di Guilin eat the flying sword or not would need to be put on hold.

  Extinction was ready.

  His puppet flew towards him and sent a frost breath attack towards his bubble prison. Diyuan swung his fist forth and called out the name of the arte, though it sounded distorted in the thicker water he was in.

  A small problem, however. The Extinction attack was something that already made his forward punch go slow, but now that he was in the water that made him sluggish, he wasn’t able to fully extend his arm in time. A flash of heat struck through his lower arm as the arte exploded outward from there.

  The water prison bubble burst. The power pushed everything away from Diyuan. He felt the vibration of Extinction shake his bones. His puppet was already underneath him to catch his fall.

  That hit of Extinction didn’t seem very strong compared to when he had used it against the formation barrier. Did the water absorb a good chunk of the impact?

  But Zi Qin didn’t seem to think it was a small feat.

  “You just broke that,” Zi Qin said dumbfounded. “Even a peak Early Stage would find it difficult to break free.”

  “Thank you for taking it easy on me,” Diyuan said, hiding any grimace from the pain in his arm. While Diyuan spoke, he gave Di Guilin instructions to check the battle below.

  And that was how they discovered another one of the mini water domain’s secrets. What Diyuan saw when he looked at Zi Qin was different than what Di Guilin saw through its eyes.

  Through both of their perspectives, Zi Qin was slightly off position in different directions.

  Water refraction.

  Then, based on both of their perspectives, couldn’t they pinpoint where the real body was at?

  But that was when his puppet discovered something odd about the battle in the courtyard. This aqua zone that Zi Qin had set up reached over there for a reason. Since the start of the second round of fighting, not a single person had died. Not from the Black Brigade side or even from the Niu family.

  Which was odd considering that Diyuan had taught his Sable Watchers how to work as a team for an efficient kill. There were small deceitful movements, where strikes that should have killed instead missed just barely, as if the person attacking was seeing something different.

  The water refraction was working down there, too. It was working in a way to keep everyone alive. It also worked against Youzhi to help Yao Luchen avoid wounds. Not a single person had figured out that this was happening.

  A chill inside Diyuan made his hair tingle. It was the realization that Zi Qin was in control of the battlefield. Diyuan had been proud of his own battlefield control, where he could stun multiple people at once every ten seconds.

  There was no such limitation for her.

  If she didn’t want anyone to die, they wouldn’t. But what would happen if she turned her zone arte against the Black Brigade? Diyuan needed to manually control his stun arte, but Zi Qin’s arte worked through her will alone, not needing her attention. What a fearful thing.

  “What is your arte called?” Diyuan asked.

  “The water prison?” Zi Qin seemed content to not fight.

  “No, this.” Diyuan made a circle motion with his finger to indicate everywhere around them.

  Zi Qin’s eyes widened for a split second before she recovered her composure. “Aqueous Bend Field. You seem to have a knack on how to identify the purposes of artes, much like in your fight with Junior Youzhi.”

  Diyuan looked to the side. Running down the street towards them was a big woman, Zhai Xiaomao the Left Guardian. She was only level 1 Spiritweave at the moment, but with enough time she would also be level 4 Spiritweave like Zi Qin. The Left Guardian was making haste as she saw Diyuan and Zi Qin fighting in the air. She would be here soon to help in the battle.

  Something was confusing for Diyuan. Right now, Zi Qin did not appear to have the will to fight. But that made no sense to him since just waiting here would resolve nothing and his reinforcements would eventually overwhelm the opposing side.

  Except for that one moment where she randomly tried to slice him open, she was content to just wait.

  Zi Qin looked towards the courtyard. [Junior Sister Xiaoya, move your battle back and get in the way of the Niu family. Don’t let them take Patriarch Niu Bolin’s body away.]

  Diyuan looked down to see what she was talking about. Two members of the Niu family were secretly trying to move their patriarch away, but Xiaoya did an unnecessary wide swing of her umbrella, creating a bit of a wind push towards the Niu family; some fell over. Xiaoya jumped back and got in their way, but made it look like a natural result of her fight against Feng Xueying.

  “Forgive me, I just need a breather,” she huffed with her poor acting skills.

  Min and Feng Xueying were alone to one-on-one each other, but the fight itself could hardly be called fierce. Both of them had noticed that Zi Qin and Diyuan weren’t fighting to the death themselves so they sort of mimicked the lack of urgency.

  Diyuan’s puppet sent information to him and merged memories in real time. It was showing Diyuan that Zi Qin was watching him carefully as he watched her Junior Sisters. The Avatar Incarnation noted that she clenched around her silver sword and her other hand was ready to flick her flying sword towards him.

  Indeed. Zi Qin wasn’t showing any urgency except when it involved her Junior Sisters. When she suddenly attacked him with ferocity, was it because…?

  Diyuan made it a point to make eye contact with her. He changed his body stance to show he was no longer willing to fight. She tilted her head, wondering what he would do next.

  Then, as an experiment, he thought about how to kill Xiaoya, who was easily exposed in the backline.

  Zi Qin turned her foot and narrowed her eyes. He knew she would jump in and attack the moment she noticed any movement from him. Perhaps she thought he would teleport, not knowing he couldn’t in her Aqueous Bend Field.

  “You can sense Killing Intent,” Diyuan stated.

  She realized that he didn’t actually intend to kill her Junior Sister and was only testing her.

  “So you are aware you’re cultivating Killing Intent,” she said.

  This would be the second time, since Feng Xueying, where someone “sensed” his Killing Intent. So as long as he thought it, they would know? But the first time he considered attacking the two Junior Sisters it was more to strategize his options, not necessarily to act on it.

  “If you’re cultivating it,” Zi Qin continued, “then why did you use so much when you killed the Niu family’s patriarch? Even if he was a demonic cultivator, we might not ever know.”

  Huh? What was she talking about?

  “You don’t know,” Zi Qin said after reading the confusion on his face. “How strange. With your Killing Intent so condensed, you should have understood at least this much.”

  Once again, Diyuan didn’t know what she was talking about. “The most I know about Killing Intent is the fact that Feng Xueying said she felt something from me before, and that’s it.”

  Zi Qin nodded like that made sense to her. She looked down below at Niu Bolin’s dead body.

  The body was no longer lifeless.

  Red needle threads came out from the blood that had bubbled out from Niu Bolin’s chest wound, stitching up the hole and closing it. The frozen face—the anger, the opened eyes—did not twitch or suggest life; however, the whites of the eyes turned black and the normal eye color became red.

  And glowed.

  “He’s resurrecting!” Zi Qin’s voice projected. She pointed at the body, creating the same water bubble prison around him like she had for Diyuan.

  Diyuan realized she had been waiting for this moment. She must have suspected Niu Bolin to be a demonic cultivator as well.

  The battle in the courtyard slowed as everyone looked around and settled on the water prison.

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  “Senior Zi Qin, what are you talking about?” Youzhi asked, not yet ready to put down his spear. His hands were white from how tightly he was holding his weapon. A sign of frustration that his battle wasn’t going how he wanted.

  Diyuan crossed his arms to watch the scene unfold. He had never seen a demonic cultivator before. He was curious to see what would happen. Considering how everyone made a big deal out of it, the new Niu Bolin should at least put up a decent fight. But, then again, Niu Bolin was only a level 1 Spiritweave cultivator.

  Gloating sounded good right about now. A satisfaction like this should be indulged.

  Unfortunately, what happened next would prevent Diyuan from doing that.

  Xiaoya was the closest to the water prison as she had been near the body. While Niu Bolin remained apparently lifeless on the ground, a red energy swirled around him. His chest rose. Breathing. His eyes blinked. The frozen angry face smoothed into something calmer.

  “Senior Zi Qin, we both know demonic cultivators don’t take this long to come back to life! This is obviously his doing! We saw what happened when he lost control of his energy earlier.”

  Youzhi would remain adamant that Diyuan was the villain, it seemed.

  Then the red energy took form. It solidified as a second transparent skin around Niu Bolin’s body. The man floated up—no, a red energy tail was pushing him up, with a curved spike at the end of it. Diyuan thought he had seen that form before.

  Once Niu Bolin was on two feet, the tail shrunk back into the layer of red around him. His red eyes look at the closest person to him, Xiaoya. He swung his fist, a futile task since Zi Qin’s barrier was strong enough to prevent him from breaking it, except the red energy around his fist transformed and became clawed. It grew in size and ripped right through the water prison; the length of the giant claw extended and struck Xiaoya.

  Xiaoya’s body refracted, moving her two feet to the side, but the side of the claw still got her. A chunk of her flesh was carved out from the side of her torso. She opened her mouth in pain but no sound came out.

  “Junior Sister!” Zi Qin shouted.

  The red energy around Niu Bolin’s head transformed and became the shape of a demonic beast. Now Diyuan knew where he recognized the tail and claw. It was the body parts of a Lionsmane Stalker. The red transparent head opened its jaw.

  A roar erupted. The water prison bubble popped. A shockwave rippled out from the head.

  Everything went white. Diyuan couldn’t move or see. His body had been locked.

  He was stunned.

  But his Avatar Incarnation wasn’t.

  Diyuan entered Di Guilin’s vision to see what was happening. Everyone else had been hit by the roar and was frozen in place. Niu Bolin went forward and wrapped his hand around the fallen Xiaoya’s neck. The red energy pulsed around the hand for some reason.

  A blue sword swung at the demonic cultivator. Yao Luchen’s phantom had been immune to the roar and was up and about, even though the real Yao Luchen was frozen in place along with everyone else in the courtyard. Niu Bolin jumped away. Since Di Guilin also seemed to be immune to stuns, it charged in and sent out a frost breath attack. The ground turned white momentarily around Niu Bolin. The glowing red eyes looked at them. The man noticed something down the street and made the split decision to run. But he didn’t run on two feet; the energy around him grew into the shape of the full body of a Lionsmane Stalker and leapt across the street to a rooftop.

  Di Guilin followed with the stunned Diyuan still on its back. The Avatar Incarnation looked down the street to see what had spooked the demonic cultivator and saw Zhai Xiaomao running down. The Left Guardian’s eyes were wide when she noticed the demonic cultivator’s energy.

  The stun wore off. Diyuan was able to move and see again. He turned to look at the courtyard behind him. Zi Qin had abandoned the thought of chasing Niu Bolin and instead went straight to Xiaoya. Youzhi had dropped his spear and was just staring at Xiaoya, who was bleeding out and gasping for air. Diyuan’s healing arte was still in its exhaustion period so he couldn’t help anyone by staying there.

  “Get out of here you fool Holy Daughter!” Zhai Xiaomao shouted. “My arte can amplify pills! Give me one of them high-grade healing pills and I’ll take care of your Junior Sister. Go after the demonic cultivator!”

  Diyuan was far ahead of them now as Di Guilin had kept flying forward, chasing after Niu Bolin. While all of this was happening, there was one thought that had crossed his mind.

  That’s it? This is a demonic cultivator?

  He didn’t understand why everyone made a big deal out of it. If anything, what he had witnessed was simply the cultivation style similar to the Honglie clan’s method. They, too, could use energy of a demonic beast to wrap around themselves. Sometimes the Honglie clan’s cultivators could transform their literal body parts into something that resembled a demonic beast, and other times it was a full-on energy body.

  From what he understood, the Honglie clan could pick one demonic beast as their cultivation path and mimic their capabilities. But if there was any difference between the styles of what he was witnessing now versus the Honglie clan, it was that this demonic cultivator had the red glowing eyes on black. The Honglie clan never had that and they had tattoos on their arms, so Diyuan figured that was necessary for some reason.

  Oh, and another big difference was probably how demonic cultivators could come back to life after dying. That was also new.

  Niu Bolin ripped through rooftops. Its red claws sunk through and pulled out bits of the roof as he jumped across the street down to the next building.

  The Black Brigade had evacuated the nearby areas incase the battle resulted in bigger destruction than they were planning, but they were now past vacant area now. These houses would still have people in them; or perhaps would even have more people if they took on those who temporarily left their homes for tonight.

  Diyuan looked behind to see who else was making their way to chase Niu Bolin. Only Zi Qin was visible, but she was incredibly slow. Each bounce she took in the air resulted in a glide until she bounced again with the water rippling under her feet. She wouldn’t be able to catch up with that speed.

  Niu Bolin noticed Diyuan chasing behind on his white glowing dragon. The demonic cultivator’s expression still seemed serene in the face of what was happening. Red energy spikes grew out of the elbow portion of the Lionsmane Stalker’s body. He angled it and shot several red spikes at Diyuan, who managed to swerve and dodge them all. At one point, the demonic cultivator suddenly changed directions, jumping towards him. A spiked tail protracted from the red energy and took a swing. Diyuan jumped up off his puppet’s back as it spun to swing its own tail.

  The chase continued.

  Diyuan tried to stun the man, but nothing happened. Perhaps the red energy protected him. Niu Bolin stopped jumping from rooftops and landed on the street, standing up straight. The Lionsmane Stalker form shrunk so the red energy covered his body like a second skin once more.

  They were in the middle of a residential area. Some people were outside and had been watching in the different directions for the action that was happening tonight, thinking they were safe. They saw the white dragon flying overhead and shouted, running away or into their homes.

  Diyuan hopped off Di Guilin’s back and faced off against Niu Bolin. His puppet flew up above them to act as a beacon for others to know where they were at.

  “Look at all these fools,” Niu Bolin said. His voice was distorted and had a reverberating effect on it, like it was layered. “Why do you care for mortals so?”

  Diyuan examined the man’s face, which was as emotionless as it had been since the demonic cultivator came back to life.

  “Interesting,” Diyuan said. “I heard demonic cultivators lose their mind, but you seem sound enough. Makes you wonder what’ll happen to the Niu family after all of this is done.”

  A talisman popped in the air high above the city. A message talisman. Both Diyuan and Niu Bolin looked up at it.

  Zi Qin’s voice echoed out. “Niu Bolin has become a demonic cultivator. All hostilities are to cease and join hands in stopping him. All people of Fengpo city, if he is near your area, you must flee immediately!”

  Diyuan furrowed his brows. Once again, he didn’t understand why a big deal was being made out of a demonic cultivator.

  Niu Bolin attacked. Diyuan had his black cold steel sword out and met him in the middle. Niu Bolin’s hand opened like a claw, causing the red energy around it to grow in size and shape itself like the Lionsmane Stalker’s claw. The black sword hit it but got caught when the claw closed around the weapon. A tail formed and the spiked end of it swung at him. Diyuan summoned forth his Wind’s Edge to parry.

  Then something strange happened to the black sword.

  The black cold steel material was a unique metal within the Tribulation Shroud. It wasn’t something that could be mined, but was instead found in pocket worlds. It was known for its defensive capabilities due to how it could absorb impacts and artes into nothingness. But that also made it very difficult to forge. The black cold steel sword was also cold, hence the name. Forges struggled to find ways to shape it. But it was a peculiar kind of cold, since snow couldn’t accumulate on top of it.

  That was just how things were with the black cold steel metal.

  So when his black sword warmed in his hand, he gasped and looked to see if something was wrong.

  Niu Bolin also quickly let go and jumped away, looking at his red demonic claw.

  Nothing looked different. Nothing else happened. It was just an odd sensation to feel something as warm when it had always been cold. Why did his sword resonate with the demonic energy?

  It was a thought that he’d have to think about later. Niu Bolin charged in again and they clashed. The black cold steel weapon would warm and cool, but did nothing special otherwise. Niu Bolin’s strength, however, was abnormal. For someone who was only a level 1 Spiritweave cultivator, his hits had weight that was stronger than a level 3 cultivator, but not quite at level 4 Spiritweave. Each impact would be absorbed when it hit his black sword.

  Niu Bolin jumped back and clapped his hands together. Red energy swirled around…

  Where have I seen that pose before?

  Niu Bolin dropped to one knee and put his hands on the road.

  The ground bent up and flowed away in all directions, like it was water instead.

  The Earthen Brothers! This was their arte! How was Niu Bolin using someone else’s arte?

  But it wasn’t one-to-one to the Earthen Brother’s arte. When Feng Xueying had fought the second and stronger brother, he had used this skill. The difference, however, was how much smaller the wave was yesterday. Last night, it had only come up to their ankles.

  Now, it came up to his waist.

  The waist-high earth wave spread throughout the area. It rolled to a tree, uprooting it and causing its trunk to shatter and pop, shooting pieces all over. It hit the first home. The foundation shattered completely, causing the building to collapse. The houses next to it were struck as well, falling apart.

  Screams and shouts.

  There were people inside those homes!

  The earth wave reached Diyuan, who jumped up over it. The size and area of this version of the arte went far beyond the original version. The entire neighborhood was being undone. Each house met destruction as if it was built on sand. The wave reached some people who were still nearby and only began fleeing now. The earth picked them up over the wave, where they stumbled down on the other side.

  But then Diyuan remembered the second part of the arte.

  The ground was about to explode in a cascading fashion.

  A thunderclap. It came from everywhere and all at once. The ground issued a rejection order.

  The wide area immediately around Niu Bolin detonated upwards. Slabs of packed earth shot up. Some as wide as a person was tall, but others larger still, as big as a room. Houses shattered into pieces as the rocks flung right through it.

  And people were thrown into the air with it. Some shattered through weaker walls or roofs. Others had their bodies shattered first. A woman held her child as a tilting slab brought them several dozens of feet into the air before they were thrown off, helpless. A man flipped with his arms windmilling.

  Di Guilin came down as swiftly as it could. Diyuan jumped on its back. The second cascade hit. A new circular area exploded, launching large chunks into the air—and more people into the air. Di Guilin was just outside of that hit. They wouldn’t be able to escape the third hit. His Avatar Incarnation looked to enter the second explosion before the third went off, but even that was dangerous. The large boulders collided with each other, breaking apart and smashing everything in between.

  Everyone will die, Diyuan realized.

  He stretched out his hands and focused. Limitless Bonegrit Dreadflesh would allow him to take damage that someone else was about to receive. Until now, he had only ever used it on one person at a time.

  Time to find out just how much he could stretch his limitless internal arte.

  Diyuan saw and sensed what he could. He identified the people and added them to the list for his arte to apply. He got five people. A dozen. Two dozen. More and more. He wasn’t sure how far he’d stretched his arte, but once he felt like he was at the maximum, he activated the arte.

  The ground beneath exploded. Di Guilin flew into the second cascade zone. The roar of the earth ripped through the night.

  Diyuan felt an invisible pressure hit him on the side. Another on his head. His arm felt like it was being twisted backwards. Every hit he experienced was a hit that was meant for the people he had applied his defensive arte to. His defenses held on, but these hits were more impactful than they should have been. Was it because he stretched the arte too thin?

  Di Guilin swerved around the falling debris. No other sounds could be heard except the rocks smashing into each other as the thunderous roar of earthfall rained and smashed into the ground.

  His arms twitched. His torso got beaten. His head squeezed. His body strained as it took the damage for everyone.

  Despite being only seconds long, it felt like minutes before the final boulder hit the ground. Dust and smoke filled the air. Diyuan sensed a Spiritweave cultivator. Di Guilin flew through the dust towards them.

  The dust swirled and blew away. At the center of it was Zhai Tielong, the Right Guardian, who had both spears out and had just done some spinning motion. With him was Manager Fanjian and the street team, consisting of some Black Brigade members and the platoon of troops belonging to the Sunset Garden.

  They had their weapons out when they saw the glowing white serpentine dragon, but paused after seeing Diyuan on top.

  Diyuan jumped off with his arms still stretched out. “The…people!” he strained to say.

  Di Guilin flew towards where some people were, stuck under debris.

  Manager Fanjian gave orders and everyone went to clean up the rubble. Zhai Tielong didn’t move. He eyed behind Diyuan, where the dust was too thick to reveal anything.

  The Right Guardian rushed forward with his spear thrusting forth. Through the dust, a large boulder came at them. Zhai Tielong shattered it effortlessly.

  The dust swirled upwards. Min’s fan appeared, coated with blue Spiritweave energy. The fan spun and sucked in the dust to give everyone their visibility back.

  A different screeching roar. Youzhi came down from the sky with immense power. He struck the area where Niu Bolin was at. A beam of light appeared where he landed.

  The landscape between that battle and where Diyuan was at had changed drastically. Some areas were jagged craters. Other areas had towers of broken earth that was still settling as smaller boulders were crushed under the weight. The larger boulder rolling over it caused pressure to hit Diyuan’s side; someone was under there.

  Yao Luchen and his phantom appeared in the distance and joined Youzhi in battle against the demonic cultivator.

  Di Guilin was guiding people, to show them where to dig others out. When people identified the spots, it would go to the next area. The first group of people were already being pulled out now. Diyuan released them from his arte as they ran to safety.

  Three soft dings could barely be heard. Zi Qin was in the air, creating her Aqueous Bend Field.

  The boulders shook. They began to roll in the wrong direction. They attached and clung to one another.

  The rock golem stood, three times as tall as a person.

  Zhai Tielong ran towards it with a spear in each hand. The golem smashed a fist down. Zhai Tielong, who had regained up to level 2 Spiritweave for his cultivation, struck back, knocking the fist away.

  His wife, the Left Guardian, rushed past Diyuan and joined her husband in battle.

  Feng Xueying slid and stopped in front of Diyuan. She looked at him with his arms stretched out and his straining face. He wanted to say something through sound transmission, but he wasn’t able to use a limitless internal arte and an external arte at the same time, and without limitless Mesmer’s Echo, his sound transmission stuff wouldn’t work. A limitation he never needed to worry about before since he trained himself to swap between them seamlessly as needed.

  But he didn’t need to communicate anything. Feng Xueying realized things herself.

  “You’re using your shield arte on everyone,” she said it as a statement. “If we use artes to dig people out faster, will that be fine?”

  Diyuan nodded.

  She went to Manager Fanjian and explained the situation. Word spread quickly. More Black Brigade members were joining them. People from the Yao family had arrived and were helping dig people out. Some took out talismans and caused an explosion to clear out a zone. Diyuan could feel every hit. He started to feel the blood between his teeth. They were under the impression that the common people were simply shielded, not that he would take the damage himself.

  The speed of which they could rescue those buried increased exponentially. The strain on his body lessened as fewer people needed his protection. When they were freed, they came out of the situation with only cuts and bruises, claiming a miraculous survival.

  Feng Xueying was next to Diyuan again. She had both swords in hand, ready for battle, but remained next to him. “I don’t understand, how is Niu Bolin using the Earthen Brothers’ artes?”

  He didn’t have an answer for her.

  She looked around at the battlefield then up to the empty sky. Feng Xueying then turned and focused on Diyuan’s storage ring.

  “That White River Feather you bought at the auction, may I have it?”

  Diyuan didn’t know what she had planned but he made the feather appear in his hand as a response; he was still straining his hands outward and found talking to require more effort than needed. She took it and ran off to the side.

  He watched the Right and Left Guardian fight against the golem. They destroyed it with a combined attack—he with his dual spears and she with her fists.

  A rumbling shook the ground. The debris of the neighborhood rose and sank, like a wave.

  The cascading arte was happening a second time.

  Zhai Tielong and Xiaomao turned to each other and clasped hands.

  Not really an appropriate time to be romantic.

  But it wasn’t a romantic gesture. Blue Spiritweave energy circled around both of them and then separated, growing and solidifying into a giant body. The blue transparent body appeared, equipped fully in armor and a full face-covering helmet. In this body’s hand was a large glaive. It reminded Diyuan of a golden Dharma body, but it was only about as tall as one of those golems from before. The body didn’t look like either of them, but a statue soldier from some ancient past. It spun the glaive above its head for a moment before stabbing it into the ground.

  The earth wave that was spreading out came to a sudden halt.

  A thunderclap.

  The first of the earth cascades went off. The overall arte wouldn’t be as wide due to the Guardian’s creation, but it hadn’t completely stopped Niu Bolins’ attack. The boulders launched into the air once more.

  The Guardian’s giant being disappeared. They both ran forward while looking up at the sky. They intended to intercept as many of the falling boulders as necessary.

  Many of the boulders were caught by a water prison before it could go anywhere. Zi Qin locked down as many as she could. Some still made it past.

  The Foundation level cultivators prepared themselves to destroy any boulders that came down near people who couldn’t help themselves. In the chaos of the battlefield, Diyuan saw some commoners flee in the distance. One of them was Guard Yiyi’s grandmother, leading a small family.

  A giant boulder was falling towards them.

  No one else saw it. Zi Qin and the Guardians had missed it or were too focused elsewhere. Diyuan couldn’t add them to his defensive arte without resetting it up. He could only watch as their death arrived.

  A blue light struck the slab of earth that would have killed them. An arrow the size of a lance caused the boulder to disintegrate completely.

  On a rooftop a bit away, the Young Master of the Strongbow Style pulled back his bowstring, charging an energy arrow until its size was disproportionately large, and fired it off. A person zoomed passed by him. Auntie Mei Yi. Her threads from her fingertips tethered to the rooftops in front of her, propelling her forward to join the fight.

  Diyuan felt like he was getting kicked on the side of his head. People were still using artes to clear out the rubble to get people out. Di Guilin finished showing where the last buried person was and flew to catch a hit of a falling rock to protect those who came to help dig. Afterwards, his puppet went to get a visual on what was happening in the battle against Niu Bolin.

  It was Niu Bolin versus several people. Youzhi, Yao Luchen, Min, and Zi Qin’s flying sword. The red demonic energy appeared cracked in several places, but he was otherwise unharmed. Three spiked tails stretched out and struck at his three opponents. Niu Bolin rushed forward and took hold of Youzhi’s spear in his red demonic claws. The tails pulled back and struck Youzhi in several places. The red energy pulsed, like it was absorbing something.

  Youzhi gasped as the spiked blades from the tail sank in deeper.

  A water beam struck Niu Bolin in the head. Zi Qin zoomed in and her flying sword sliced in multiple places. Each hit created a new crack in the energy. Niu Bolin jumped back and used another arte. This time, an umbrella formed from his energy and the canopy of it opened, pushing them all back with a force of wind.

  That seemed to be an arte that belonged to Xiaoya.

  And now that he had absorbed something from Youzhi, the demonic cultivator used that next.

  With everyone knocked away from him, a big twister formed with him at the eye of it. The chunk of debris in the area floated up and joined into the spinning chorus.

  Feng Xueying, with the Wind River Feather attached to one of her arms, purposely high jumped onto one of those floating boulders, entering into the dangerous tornado. She vanished from sight.

  Just as that was starting, Diyuan felt the last of his protected commoners be freed of the rubble. He finally undid his limitless Bonegrit Dreadflesh and collected himself. The second he let go of his defensive arte, he felt it break, entering a three-day exhaustion period.

  He was now without both of his limitless internal artes.

  After watching the battle unfold, he had come up with a plan that could ensure victory. Assuming this red energy had the defensive capabilities of someone at level 3 Spiritweave or higher, a more forceful piercing hit would be needed.

  And Diyuan knew how to do just that.

  Di Guilin had turned around and joined him. He jumped on its back and brought out Wind’s Edge. They flew forward.

  He began charging Extinction. His arm was still in pain from using it earlier and now he didn’t have his limitless internal arte to help. This next use of Extinction would cause quite a bit of damage.

  The wind spun into a tornado. It did not pull people, but earth. It continued to grow and acted as the final barrier to prevent people from reaching Niu Bolin.

  Every now and then, a slab of earth would shoot out like a projectile. The distance it flung went far beyond the current destruction, risking those even further away. But the Strongbow Style cultivator would always aim and shoot them down, protecting the city.

  “Paved a path for Junior Diyuan!” Zi Qin’s voice projected for all to hear.

  Ah, she must have sensed my Killing Intent.

  Zi Qin had faith that whatever plan Diyuan had, he would succeed.

  Niu Bolin, by himself in the eye of the storm, marked Diyuan as his target. The tornado now shot slabs of earth towards him. The Strongbow Style arrows would hit the boulders as they came out, ensuring none could live long enough to strike its intended target.

  A dust storm appeared out of nowhere and swirled to block vision. Min’s fan spun into view to counter it, pulling everything to its will. The dust storm dispersed before it became a problem.

  Some of the boulders shook and formed into the upper half of a golem, with the intent to strike down Diyuan. The Guardian’s giant being appeared once more and shoulder tackled it out of the way.

  Two Lionsmane Stalker’s red spikes pierced through the tornado. Yao Luchen and his phantom jumped up to intercept. They weren’t capable of stopping it completely, but could redirect it away. They flew back by the force of the hits. The spikes struck uselessly to the ground.

  A giant palm hand broke through the tornado, launching debris in every direction. The size of the palm was that of a gigantic being. Diyuan maneuvered around the debris, but he would not be able to dodge the palm in time.

  Threads circled around the palm. It tightened and sliced through it, causing it to break into dozens of pieces. Auntie Mei Yi was in the air above him and had her threads target all other debris coming his way.

  The hole in the tornado that the palm strike created was closing up, but it wasn’t fast enough. Diyuan flew through it and entered the eye of the geo whirlwind.

  Niu Bolin was at the center. He had a finger pointed at him. A miniature moon appeared at the tip of it; Youzhi’s stunning arte. It shot off faster than he expected since Niu Bolin didn’t need to call the name of the arte.

  If he got stunned now, it could ruin his entire plan!

  Just before the stun hit him, it bent away.

  Zi Qin’s refraction.

  With Zi Qin being the last to open a path for him, he jumped off of Di Guilin’s back and threw his Wind’s Edge spirit artifact. His Avatar Incarnation spun and struck the back of it like a hammer. The dagger struck Niu Bolin’s head, but it only sank in about half an inch into the red energy that surrounded the demonic cultivator, keeping his real body safe.

  But that didn’t matter. The dagger was the nail and Diyuan was the hammer.

  “Extinction!” Diyuan shouted with all his might.

  He swung his fist forward as he fell towards his enemy.

  Without his limitless Bonegrit Dreadflesh, he felt the backlash with an impact he hadn’t before. Energy built up on his arm and spread through his body, causing internal damage. He held on as he finished his punch.

  The power struck the hilt of his spirit artifact, still lodged halfway through Niu Bolin’s red energy.

  At this close distance, Diyuan could see how expressionless Niu Bolin still was. Strangely, he felt like there was a face on the surface of the red energy, but he couldn’t tell if it was simply due to the red glowing eyes that Niu Bolin had.

  Extinction created a flash of light. The burst of power threw Diyuan backwards. Something caught him; Di Guilin. It coiled and protected him for whatever came next. Diyuan felt pain all over his body. Blood came from his nose and mouth. His vision blurred. He squinted to see the results of his attack.

  Wind’s Edge had fallen to the ground.

  Niu Bolin stood. The red energy was completely gone now. The red glowing eyes slowly dimmed back to a normal color. The man was not dead, but the demonic energy had dissipated.

  A shadowed figure dropped from the sky. Feng Xueying’s knee planted into the unsuspecting Niu Bolin. A loud crack met the air as something broke in Niu Bolin’s back. The man whiplashed forward, his head flung backwards. In that brief moment, his throat was exposed.

  Feng Xueying had her sword to his neck and sliced it in one fluid smooth motion.

  She was still atop Niu Bolin when the body hit the ground. Blood poured out from his neck. Both Feng Xueying and Diyuan looked at each other in the silence of the night, their heavy breathing basically synced.

  Did she really climb atop the tornado using just that feather to jump around?

  But the silence ended as a new rumbling of earth came crashing down. The tornado’s power ended. Everything was coming to collapse on them.

  Diyuan got on Di Guilin’s back as they flew up. Feng Xueying held up an arm, which had the White River Feather attached to it. She jumped once and let it carry her like an artificial wing. They both dodged the incoming boulders. She leapt off the rocks and joined Diyuan on Di Guilin’s back. They were high above when the last of the rubble came crashing down.

  Smoke and dust filled the air once more.

  Diyuan was on one knee and felt the raspiness in his throat. He would need to swap internal artes to begin the healing process soon. Feng Xueying had a hand on his shoulder as she looked down.

  “I think we forgot your magic artifact down there.”

  Diyuan chuckled, though it caused him some pain in his chest.

  The dust slowly cleared up. Di Guilin kept them up in the air for a moment longer as Min and Zhai Tielong used their weapons to disperse the smoke. Diyuan looked around. A large portion of this section of the city had been completely destroyed. There were likely many people he wasn’t able to save with his limitless Bonegrit Dreadflesh. Rescue attempts would need to continue until all bodies were accounted for.

  Diyuan could see Youzhi walking away from everything. He dragged his spear on the ground behind him as he left.

  A brief conversation happened below. Yao Luchen asked if Niu Bolin could come back to life again a second time. Auntie Mei Yi answered and said that a Spiritweave demonic cultivator could only come back once, so the matter was over.

  [Junior Diyuan,] Zi Qin’s voice entered his mind. She said something about treating people and a healing spot. The words sort of muddled in his mind, but it sounded like she was asking for permission about something. He nodded.

  “Those who have been injured heavily are to go to the Black Brigade for treatment,” Zi Qin projected to everyone. “If you’re unaware, wounds that occur in a fight against a demonic cultivator are unlike normal ones. The abundant spiritual energy there will assist.”

  As for what happened next, that would be a problem for later when he recovered.

  The battle of Fengpo city was over.