Zarthos
patreon
020 - To Live and Die by the Sword
🕑 Added 2024-07-06 11:29:32 +0000 UTCWhile off-balance from losing her weapon, Yun Jingfei couldn't avoid the fierce metal halberd crashing down on her. She could only jump backwards in a desperate effort to lessen the blow. She raised both her arms and crossed them in front of her head, knowing full well it wouldn't change anything.
With slight regrets in her heart that her path would be cut short, she awaited her inevitable end. She didn't cry nor beg for mercy; she only looked at her opponent with a firm gaze, wishing she could have battled once more, proving her worth.
Fortunately, her wish would be granted shortly. A small blue barrier flickered an inch above her crossed arms, which stopped the halberd’s momentum just enough for her to evade. Still, as she lacked proper footing, the impact propelled her backwards until she crashed into the nearby wall.
The courtyard's wall had long been in disrepair from years of neglect, which Qin Yun had also been responsible for. As such, it couldn't withstand the impact. The stones dislodged from their weak anchors and fell on top of her, burying her under their weight.
Ma Mingzhu gloated about how unfortunate Qin Yun was to already be a widow weeks after his marriage, without even bothering to check the veracity of her claims. Still, Qin Yun’s expression at that moment infuriated her. Unlike the despair she wished to see, Qin Yun only showed his usual look of indifference, laced with a hint of pity for his stepmother's unhinged reactions, for he knew that such a weak setback wouldn’t deter his wife in the slightest.
Confirming Qin Yun’s suspicions, the man holding the halberd's gaze was riveted on the pile of rubble as if awaiting something to emerge from its depths. As if not to thwart his expectations, the pile of stone exploded, reducing most of the rocks into small peddles that fell like rain, echoing their melody as they collided with the courtyard's cobblestone floor.
In the centre of it all was Yun Jingfei, unscathed but somewhat dusty as she held a steel sword in her slender hand. While most had missed it, Qin Yun wouldn't let his wife struggle without a way to resist. In the later stages of sword cultivation, the sword itself would become unnecessary, but Yun Jingfei wasn't there yet. She needed a conduit for her path. Qin Yun had given her just that.
As she flew back after the blow, Qin Yun had discretely delivered this weapon to her landing point. It had been easy, considering that his black box was invisible to anyone but him. He only had to infuse some of his Qi to make it hover in her path and dispense the weapon.
While he could have given her something more substantial than a mere steel sword, Qin Yun knew that reliance on an overpowered weapon would only impede her path. Only through hardship could one soar. This couldn't be more true than on a sword path. This was also why Yun Jingfei mostly only used a wooden blade during her training.
With a steel sword in hand, Yun Jingfei's confidence soared. She wouldn't repeat the same mistake. She eyed her opponent, seeking any hint of weakness, until finally she found one. She lunged forward again, repeating what she already knew wouldn't work.
The man in golden armour knew so as well and couldn't help but sneer. He braced himself to receive her attack as the brown lotus platform hovering over his head spun with renewed vigour as if a testament to his strength.
A single metre before their clash, Yun Jingfei's foot dug deep into the ground, changing the course of her charge. While the strain on her leg was immense, her training in recent days had forged her muscles into something that wouldn't break under the heaviest loads without altering their appearances. As such, the man was utterly dumbfounded that she could even achieve such a thing.
She was propelled to the side before her other leg dug into the ground, repeating her previous actions. She brandished her sword forward, aiming for the side of his head. While the man wore a helmet, such a blow would be devastating, regardless.
Expecting a frontal assault, the man had poured all his Qi into defences and couldn't react in time. He had no other choice than to parry the blow using his arm, hoping that the armour would be enough to stop the edge coming toward him. If anything, he was confident that a mere steel sword couldn't compete against an armour artifact of this class.
How wrong he was. Naturally, a typical steel edge wouldn't cut into this golden armour. Yet, the man had failed to account for its wielder. Yun Jingfei stomped on the ground, forcefully changing the path of her blade once again. Drawing an arc upwards with its point. The two collided, yet the blade moved much too swiftly in the air that not even the Qi-wrapped armour could thwart its momentum.
The thick Qi spewing out of the armour was split apart as the blade followed its trajectory unimpeded. Then came the armour itself. Its golden hue resulted from the materials used in its construction: a Golden-Skinned Bull.
While a Golden Bull wasn’t some rare and exotic animal, nor particularly coveted, its hide was especially tough, which made it a fine choice to be used as armour. Furthermore, this armour had been carefully refined into an artifact, thus further improving its attributes. The man’s confidence in this armour was warranted, as up until now, no one below the Void Core Realm had managed to put even the slighted dent into it.
As such, what came next stupefied him. A small amount of the Qi the armour had spewed forth wrapped around Yun Jingfei's blade before separating into two identical parts and grinding against each other. This act caused a second edge that overlapped with the one already present on the steel sword.
Those two edges plunged into the armour simultaneously, overloading what it could resist. The armour shook slightly as it opposed the impact but soon fell apart as the Qi wrapping the blade dug into it before causing a small explosion. With nothing impeding its path, the blade dug into the man's arm, severing it just below the elbow.
While the man was a seasoned cultivator working for the Ma Clan, the act of seeing his severed limb fly in the air, spewing its blood everywhere, left the man stunned momentarily before he felt the pain that the blade had caused him to rush to his brain.
His eyes were bloodshot as he howled like a madman, clutching his severed stump, refusing to acquiesce to the reality that this limb was now missing. Seeing an opportunity, Yun Jingfei struck again, but the overbearingness of her last blow was gone, resulting in a lacklustre attempt. Her sword only collided with the man's breastplate, bouncing off it.
Dumbfounded, she took her distance to reassess her situation. The man wouldn't let her get away. Lost in a fit of insanity for losing his limb, he threw said limb back to her, which she swatted away using the broad side of her blade, only to see the man charge her down, this time with the familiar halberd firmly in his remaining hand. He flailed it around, forgetting all his training, only to somehow hope to catch her with his blade in the end.
She evaded each blow with the slightest of margins, trying to find where she had gone wrong with the second blow. She was sure her form had been impeccable and had put just as much strength in the strike, yet something felt lacking.
A short distance away, Qin Yun looked at his wife and couldn't help but shake his head. While she was talented, exceptionally so as she had barely been on this path a few weeks, her inexperience showed. She had only managed a single strike before she let it go to her head, feeling complacent. She had forgotten that she cultivated not the sword but the mind.
She could display such power again through a firm mind and extreme focus. Unfortunately, she was now distraught, unable to find the answer she sought amid battle. Worse yet, the man, in his madness, wouldn't let her recompose herself.
She parried the man's blow as she retreated, yet her weapon was a simple steel blade and couldn't hope to match the man's black halberd. Small chips appeared on the blade with each strike, further reducing its cutting power. Before long, her blade would be on the verge of breaking once again, and she would be unarmed.
Still, this sense of desperation was precisely what she needed. Yun Jingfei wasn't the sheltered type anymore, the one to simply let rain wash over her without resisting. She refused to let herself be helpless to change her fight. She would fight even knowing she would most likely lose.
Her knuckles paled as she tightened her grip over her sword, then chose to advance over retreating. Such a sudden shift shocked the man, and he barely blocked the blow to his midsection using the shaft of his halberd. This slight pause gave Yun Jingfei just enough time to clear her mind. The only thoughts remaining were the sword in her hand and the path it would take.
The man, still reeling from the loss of his hand, charged forward once again. Brandishing his weapon high above his head, the man sought to cleave her in half in one swift motion. With a firm resolve, Yun Jingfei chose to mimic his actions. Only, she took on a Dragonfly Stance.
The man scoffed at her attempt since he was the one with the greater reach, pouring all his Qi into the strike as he let his blade fall. Still, despite being the last to move, Yun Jingfei's blade was the first to arrive.
She took a large step forward, deeply imprinting her boot's sole into the stone pavement. The floor cracked, unable to bear the weight of that step, yet Yun Jingfei remained steadfast as if a mountain braving a hurricane.
Her blade fell, cutting the Qi wrapping the incoming halberd, severing it only to absorb a part of it on its own edge. The man, still sure of his victory, didn't even bother to put any thought into defence, yet this would come back to bite him.
As the halberd's blade was much more massive than a simple steel sword, it was also much slower. Yun Jingfei's sword was the first to collide with the halberd's shaft before the heavy blade could reach her head. Contrary to the man’s expectations, the shaft couldn’t bear the tyrannical Qi wrapping the sword’s edge and collapsed under the strain. The blade cut through unimpeded before embedding itself into the man’s armour. This time, however, Yun Jingfei’s sword didn’t fizzle out instantly and collided with the armour, causing a deep cut that reached the man’s torso. Although the wound bled profusely, Qin Yun figured the man would survive, provided he was given immediate attention.
As for the blade heading for Yun Jingfei’s head, as the man couldn’t control it any longer, it slipped from his hand and flew in the air before embedding itself into a nearby tree, toppling it in the process.
The man fell face first into a puddle of his own blood, unresponsive, while his armour dulled greatly, becoming nothing more than a giant paperweight. Yun Jingfei didn't know if he still drew breath, but she didn't care. He came at her with the intent to kill, and she simply reciprocated in kind. He shouldn't have expected any mercy from her at that point, not even if Qin Yun had asked her not to.
Still, she couldn't celebrate her victory for long as she felt an overbearing pressure pin her where she stood. She tried to struggle, but she had put most of her strength in her last attack and was spent. She gritted her teeth and willed her muscles to move, yet nothing seemed to be working. Soon after, she had a sense of impending doom loom over her.
A short distance away, Ma Mingzhu was seething. All her plans amounted to nothing, and she would have to bring them to fruition herself. A dark green lotus appeared above her head, which consisted of a complete platform with a sphere of light hovering over it. Three rings of light spun and intersected over its surface.
Yun Jingfei gasped and struggled even more, yet it was all in vain. The woman’s earlier contempt was gone, replaced with pure coldness and an urge to kill. She didn’t say a word and simply brought a palm forward, launching an attack in the same motion.
The palm grew as it closed the distance, pressing on Yun Jingfei evermore. She knew she couldn't resist as this was a strike from someone at the third level of the Golden Core Realm, something much too far from her current realm. She could only wait for that palm to swallow her.
Comments
Zarthos
Two different things. Also, the development of their lotus is different, which is the biggest hint.
Jack Trowell
Whybisnitnsometimes'called'vlidncore and others golden core? Or are they two distinct levels?
