"Miss Zi, watch out!" Ye Mu shouted, hurriedly parrying a shard of ice aiming for her neck with three leaves.
Zi Moyan, nodding, used a spell of her own to propel a large wave of flames at Xiao Chen, but the latter casually summoned powerful icy winds, sweeping the fire as if nothing, demonstrating the power difference between the early and grand perfection stage. Even then, Zi Moyan, not yet out of tricks, used one of the wind spells she accessed with the evolution of her scripture, forcefully taking control of the cold wind, before heating it up, turning it into a fiery whirlwind of flames.
"Sometimes, you have to abandon defense to succeed in offense" she said. "And as the saying goes, the best of defenses is atta- Oh, for heavens' sake!"
In no time, the flames of the whirlwind had been frozen, completely extinguished, which revealed Xiao Chen, covered in minor injuries that were already healing.
"Interesting, though the defense is a bit lacking, the offensive power indeed is above that of a regular mid stage Core Formation, maybe even close to some late stage ones" the elder praised. "That said, while impressive…"
More ice shards formed around her, and quickly turned into long ice spears, aimed at them:
"Neglecting actual defense is far too often equating courting death" she said.
As the ice spears rushed forward in perfect coordination, the Spirit Beast hastily placed himself in front of his comrade, decisively adapting his killer move into a defensive move:
"Deadly Autumn Leaves Storm!"
But even the hurricane of red leaves, wrapped around them like a shield, could only intercept around two thirds of the ice spears. Ye Mu, in despair, used his own body to protect Zi Moyan, clawing at the remaining spears, and even biting one to pieces. However, one last trait of ice was threatening Zi Moyan, in a way that she seemingly would be unable to defend. Without hesitation, the fox got in the way, blocking it with its own body, groaning as his articulation was teared off.
"Sacrificing yourself for others is honorable, but if giving up your life can only delay the inevitable by a bit, then it's pointless"
Before he had realized it, the elder of the Xiao clan was already next to him: she had used the spears to hide herself to advance toward them!
"Damnation!" the fox swore.
But with this injury, his mobility was not enough to parry or dodge. Xiao Chen, holding an ice spear, was aiming for his middle dantian and, closing his eyes, he just accepted his fate. However, at this moment, Zi Moyan suddenly grabbed the spear in the hands of Xiao Chen. For an instant, both the Xiao clan's elder and the fox were stupefied by such recklessness but, in an unexpected turn of events, she perfectly accompanied the movement, using an advanced wind spell to guide the blow and deviate it from Ye Mu.
Then, in a second time, she used fire in order to propel them both, making Xiao Chen lose balance and fall forward. Finally, with a turn over herself, she accumulated more flames, increased their temperature so they turned blue, and directly threw them at Xiao Chen's back, inflicting severe damages upon her. The whole sequence of action had been so fluid that it looked like the movement of a dance!
And yet…
"Oh, this bitch has to be kidding, why are you not dead with that!" Zi Moyan complained, incredulous as she saw the thin layer of ice on the elder's back.
Even with her perfect timing, Xiao Chen had somehow managed to partially defend, protecting her head, neck and middle dantian.
"Argh… faking being unable to defend to catch me off-guard, your cunning truly is worthy of a bright star of the demonic path, indeed" she groaned in pain. "You are ready to let your own companion hurt himself to protect you even though you could have managed on your own just so you could get a chance to hurt me? How disloyal"
Zi Moyan grinned and aimed her middle finger at her:
"If we can't kill you fast enough, we are dead anyway, so why bother thinking about the risk for any of us? That's typical righteous cultivator thinking! Right now, the real risks are simply the minutes were you remain alive, with each one increasing our chances to die, so please…"
She started executing her killer move:
"Stop being an annoying bitch and die faster than us!"
dancing around, carrying the wind along with her movement as she inserted fire into it. The flames, red and blue, intertwining in the air stream such as blood flowing in veins, made her killer move look as if it was alive:
"Blazing Devouring Vortex!"
As the explosions resounded all around, Xiao Fengyu, hidden behind a large rock, armed his bow, a one-use Core Formation level artifact given by his master, and aimed it at Baotian, who was focused on his fight with his master.
'With that, our relationship with both the Liu can and the Divine Storm sects will get better, and my master will finally forgive me!' he thought. 'Die, Zhang Baotian!'
But in the next moment, incredulous, he looked down, and saw the blade of a sword coming out of his abdomen:
"...
Uh?"
While Xiao Fengyu was having trouble registering what was happening to him, Hanchen spun the blade in the wound before taking it off roughly.
"Argh! Ahh! Ahh, argh!"
Struck by the thunderous pain, Xiao Fengyun held his stomach, desperately trying to stop his internal organs from coming out. He looked up at Hanchen, his eyes full of shock.
"Did you think that because fifteen years passed, I have forgotten what you did? Forgiven it" he asked. "You always picked on me back in the clan, when we were co-disciple almost every day. But I never told master, and you know why? Because I firmly believed in benevolence, that everyone deserves a chance to do better… but you? You betrayed me, plotted against me, and laughed while trying to kill me with your own hands. You don't deserve any more chances senior brother"
As Xiao Fengyu was on the ground, looking up at him, he struggled for a few seconds with the pain before being able to talk:
"You think… I'm the only one? You didn't even… seem to know this guy… was Zhang Baotian… he was obviously disguising himself… for sinister reasons, like taking your talent…"
"Probably" Hanchen replied, not denying. "For the last years, senior Ba… or Zhang, I suppose, never acted anything but friendly to me, but I can definitely imagine it being a scheme, maybe he was even planning to use some blood sacrifice technique on me and was only waiting for me to reach the Qi Building realm so I wouldn't be able to defend myself. But so what?
I believe in benevolence, not righteousness nor code of behavior like master does. If I can help someone I will but if I have to ally with someone bearing ill intents to survive, I will too. Without him, we won't be able to escape, thus…"
Hanchen bent the bow, now in his hands. With his last bits of clarity, Xiao Fengyu realized that he had used the conversation as a distraction to steal it, this scoundrel!
"I choose life!" Hanchen exclaimed, aiming at elder Xiao Chen and shooting.
A powerful arrow of ice, as strong as a mid stage Core Formation killer move, flew toward her back. The elder, who had been focusing her power to block Zi Moyan's killer move, was struck squarely and, under the pain, was unable to maintain her defense, being hit by both moves at once, and falling down mercilessly, struggling to regenerate.
"Miss Zi, her core, I can see it" Ye Mu exclaimed, flying forward to attack. "It's not completely destroyed yet but it has cracked, we can destroy it while she is down!"
Without hesitation, Zi Moyan followed him in the assault. In the same sequence of action, Hanchen took out the few one-time charms he had stolen from the Liu clan and managed to keep until now, and activated them, aiming at Liu Jianhong, the elder of this very same clan, without the slightest bit of shame!
"Senior Ba, on the ground!" he shouted.
Baotian, realizing what was happening, quickly went down and only Liu Jianhong was hit. The latter, who had hastily used his armed hand, the right one, to defend himself, found his entire right arm being shredded apart from his body.
"He was already weakened, we can kill him now!" Baotian shouted without an ounce of hesitation.
Hanchen, clenching his teeth and overcoming the guilt inside of him, flew alongside him to finish Liu Jianhong.
It truly seemed as if the fight was about to end right there. However…
"A… Activate… Soul Burning Heavenly Salvation!"
In an unexpected turn of events, Xiao Fengyu was back up, his injuries having healed enough for him to survive!
"Damn it, the wounds… they're healing!" Zi Moyan exclaimed.
Indeed, Baotian's cuts were quickly recovering. Similarly, Ye Mu's shoulder recovered. But instead of being happy, the face of the quartet quickly darkened: even though their wounds were much worse than their own, Xiao Chen and Liu Jianhong's bodies had also almost completely regenerated!
"No… Why…" Baotian muttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.
All their progress until now had been erased, and all their trump cards had already been revealed. Moreover, as Zhenyun would quickly be there, they would be forced to go for an offensive strategy, greatly limiting their range of action. By now, it was even more established: they would lose.
However, strangely, neither Liu Jianhong or Xiao Chen looked particularly happy. They only understood why when they saw blood gushing out of Xiao Fengyu in large quantity, like a small cascade:
"I d-did… uergh… it" he said, vomiting blood.
Xiao Fengyu had always been a bitter person, with a strong inferiority complex. When he saw how talented Hanchen was and realized that he might take his place as their master's favorite disciple, he didn't hesitate a single second before scheming for him to be expelled from the clan, and even to hunt him down afterward. It had all worked out, as his master never seriously punished him, and he felt as if he had truly bested a rival.
And yet, in the fifteen following years, not once had he felt better. Every day, he had lived in fear that Hanchen would use his Shadow Embodying True Physic, coming back for revenge. His master had not seemed to care much either, calling the fear a rightful punishment. Living in fear everyday, ironically, his inferiority complex only became worse as time passed. His fear too. When he had been dragged there by the elder, he had been so close to a panic attack that she had eventually granted him a life-saving artifact:
Take it, Fengyu, she had said. This artifact is one-use, but it'll allow you to heal any injuries inflicted by any cultivator under the Nascent Soul realm. However, only use it enough to heal the worst injuries: it uses parts of your soul to do so. In the best case, it will only incapacitate you and, in the worst, it will shatter your soul and kill you on the spot. Be careful, my disciple.
It had only been a few days ago and yet, even if it had been ten or twenty years ago, Fengyu would have remembered it the same. It might have been the only instance after Hanchen's expulsion… that his master had shown such care for him.
Even then, he wouldn't have sacrificed his life for her. But when Hanchen stabbed him, and he fell on the ground, he had an illumination. Even if he healed himself, he would not survive. He would have been too weakened to help in any meaningful way and, in this situation, when the other two died, he would be killed too, pathetically, meaninglessly.
And so, for the first time of his life, realizing that his life had come to its end, he decided to act on his benevolence, as Hanchen had once preached. Burning his own soul, he had extended the range of the Soul Burning Heavenly Salvation, enduring the pain and managing to reach the two Core Formation righteous cultivators. Seeing them heal so fast before his vision blurred, he couldn't help but smile, half bitterly and half sweetly:
"I did it… Hanchen… ugh… when it doesn't cost too much… you must help others… I see the essence of benevolence now… as well as you"
He began to fall forward again:
"I finally… caught up"
And so, Xiao Fengyu's short life ended, leaving a renewed hopelessness in the hearts of Baotian, Zi Moyan, Ye Mu and Hanchen himself.