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Bell of Avici

The blade of my sword skidded along the earth, cutting a line through the earth and completing the array before fading away. And then— I could feel the array activating under my feet! With this, I would be able to disrupt Wujiu's qi barrier!

But that was not enough. I needed to cut through her arm, or she would kill me. I had solved one face of the dilemma, but how would I solve the second?

What had Natsuki said? She had said... throw it.

I took two steps forward, away from Wujiu, towards the flaming spike flying at me. I caught the spike in my hands, and my hands immediately caught flame, my flesh rapidly charring and flaking away at the same time that my legs began to freeze under the utpala's gaze. I did not need to stop the spike. I only needed to redirect it! And likewise, I did not need to silence these flames. I only needed to dye them black, black with destruction, black with Natsuki's power!

Grimacing, I gripped the spike with all the force I could muster, and burned a black flame in it the same way I would create a black qi sword. At first my black embers merely petered under the brilliant crimson flames, but summoning my force, summoning Natuski's power, I poured more qi into them, until the spike and my hands alike were wrapped in a layer of shadowlike flame so thick that their very form scattered away!

I turned back to Wujiu, who was now only a few meters away from me. Dragging the weight of the spike behind me, I thrust my heel into the burning earth, and discharged my qi into the array. The array glowed white and sent both our qi barriers scattering, though its light could not be seen through the thick smoke. I swung my torso forward, generating enough force in my arms to redirect the spike upwards, there, towards the elbow of Wujiu's sword arm, the elbow she held out in front of her as she prepared a backhanded slash.

The spike crashed through her qi barrier, then bore a burning black hole right through her elbow! With a cry of pain Wujiu coughed up a cloud of blood, but she was in no position to stop the spike. With its momentum it carried her arm along with her body several dozen meters back, before it finally fell and pinned her burning arm to the ground!

The smoke subsided.

Finally catching my breath, I looked over the arena.

Before one's eyes, frost stretching endlessly,

above one's head, a sun that granted not but rather stole life,

and at one's feet, flames burning eternally.

Truly, it was a hell.

And yet this was not even the final form of this technique. There were, after all, eight hells of frost and eight hells of flame, of which Wujiu had only used the sixth form each, and there were a further eight superior hells. I could only hope that either the sword did not grant power over the rest, or she was not skilled enough to use them.

In the few seconds that I had taken to launch my last attack, my legs had frozen solid. I could no longer move or even feel them. But my attack had worked, and as she struggled to free herself from the rose-thorn spike that had crushed her elbow, the hell began fading away. The pillars of ice began to melt, the utpala overhead began to shrivel, and the flames began to subside. They did not completely disappear, but they weakened enough that I was able to reach down and force the blood in my legs to begin moving again with blue magic.

I limped back and picked up my sword hilt.

—"This black flame... why won't it go out?!"

Wujiu had freed herself from the spike, but there was yet a hole burning with black flame in her arm. She clamped her hand over it, but she could neither smother it nor heal it. That was the power of destruction, of the element of earth!

And me? My right leg was almost ready for another burst of golden qi. Once it was ready, I would end this duel. I would close my eyes and cut through her throat, and her qi barrier would not stop me. So I held my sword hilt out to the side, and set it aflame in black and purple.

Holding her sword in her off-hand, Wujiu struggled to her feet. "You really are a trickster, Bai Chunxue," she gasped. "To think you'd have a technique that could break through qi barriers. Where the hell did you find something like that? Is that also part of the Law of Seven Elements?"

I shook my head. "It's just basic alchemy. If it weren't for the flames on the ground, you might have seen it earlier."

"Really?" Wujiu exhaled sharply, and the dirt ceased to burn. Immediately, she froze in horror. She could not see the entirety of the array, but she could see its lines and curves carved in the dirt, and the audience, in elevated stands—

—"Did Bai Chunxue draw an array around the entire arena?!"

"Was that why he was running around like that earlier?! What a cheap trick!"

"Hey! Anyone know what that array does?!"

"I think it disrupts qi flow...!"

"How could something so underhanded work on someone in the Spirit Severing realm?!"

"This is bullshit! Bai Chunxue, you bastard, you shouldn't have survived that!"

"Stop cheating and die already, Bai Chunxue!"

I sighed. What else could you expect of a mob?

"Wang Wujiu!" I shouted. "This duel is over!"

I thrust my sword back into its sheath, along which I ran gold and blue qi to maximize the explosive force of the quick-draw. Then I tapped my right foot thrice against the ground, and crackling golden qi began fluttering around and through it.

It was time.

"Railgun: Kaxili!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I flashed forward.

And yet, as if she was expecting it, I saw a terrible sneer on Wujiu's face.

"Eternal Suffering—"

She held her sword in her off-hand, then— without even the slightest hesitation— thrust it through her injured arm, severing it completely. Before it even hit the ground, it shriveled and crumbled to dust, taking my black embers with it. She had sacrificed it. Without the slightest hesitation, she had sacrificed her own arm, and I could not imagine what terrible technique she would call forth with that price.

"Eighth Form: Avici."

Avici. The name struck pure terror in my heart, and the moment I let that terror crawl up my spine into my brain,

everything went dark.

I could not see the world around me, nor could I feel the extension of my own limbs, nor could I sense the flow of qi within or without me. My sword, gone. My qi, gone. Wujiu, gone. Even the sound of my heartbeat travelling up through my veins and the sound of my breath travelling out through the air— they all vanished into the singular silence, or rather, into a singular droning noise, a noise that, though I thought I could hear it, was so similar to utter silence that I could not tell if it was really there or if it was nothing more than an invention of the ears I no longer had.

All there was was an endless unitary nothingness, and within it, my consciousness, my consciousness unbound and ungrounded, like the image of the floating man, with no body, no perception, no reality.

There was nothing, no, not even pain.

Here there was nothing, nothing but the inventions of my own mind, thoughts trapped within thoughts—

Fear! Terror! Death! I felt as though my death was imminent, that in only a moment's time the nothingness would embrace my consciousness and snuff it out like a candle-flame. The anxiety grew, it gnawed at me, it fed upon my lack of sensation! My mind burned, my everything burned only under an endless and unceasing fear of death! What else could I feel?! Cut off from the world, not knowing the state of my life, how could I feel anything but fear of death?!

Here, in this realm without beginning without end, without limit without bound, without sight without sound— here, foolish as I was, I could not help but think of the Heart Sutra—

> Listen, Sheli-zi,

> material form itself is shapeless emptiness

> and shapeless emptiness itself is material form.

> The other four skhandas, of sensation, perception, thought, and consciousness, are likewise.

> All things are empty:

> Nothing is born, nothing dies,

> Nothing is pure, nothing is stained,

> nothing waxes, and nothing wanes.

Here I was, cut off from the first three skhandas: my body, my sensation, and my perception. If I had been enlightened, if I did not cling to my temporal form, then perhaps I would not suffer so. If I could free myself from that attachment, just as Samudra had freed himself from his own in Ashoka's torture-chambers, then certainly, I would be able to find a way to break out of this infinite nightmare.

But I was not enlightened! I could not do the impossible! I was just a normal person, a weak-willed scholar! And so I feared nothing more than death! Death! Death— I was going to die! I did not know how, but I was certain that at any moment, I would die! And yet there was nothing I could do about it! I had no arms with which to defend myself! I had no legs on which to flee! I had no power with which to fight back! I had nothing but my fear, my terror, and my regret! Regret, endless regret, flooding over my mind like the crashing waves of a tsunami. I did not want to die! I was done with my revenge, sure, but I still had a life to live! I was going to go to the Imperial University and become a scholar. That was what I had promised Natsuki—

Natsuki—

Natsuki... was she here? Was she here with me, in this nothingness?

—"y.....st ...e"

A voice, a voice from somewhere, reached out to me. But I could not make it out among the endless silence. I focused my attention on its source, and implored it, with all my will, to speak once more.

—".... m...t li..."

Once more, please, once more...

—"ou..us.....v..."

Once more! Speak to me once more! I beg of you, with your words deliver me from the darkness and cast the silence away!

—"You must live."

Her voice rang clear in my head! I grasped onto it, took hold of it, held tight to it, and as I did first my hands and then my arms emerged from the void, and then my body, and then the rest of the world.

I breathed, and I felt the frosty air passing through my nose.

I blinked, and I saw the world before me.

I tightened my grip on my sword, and I felt my muscles activating.

By the force of Natsuki's inhuman interference, I was free from Wujiu's illusion magic. I was alive! I would not die, not yet!

I opened my eyes wide and tried to find my bearings. I was— half a meter away from Wujiu. Only half a breath's time had passed while I was in the illusion. My sword was still there, though it was frozen in midair. And so I let it swing! I carried my strike through, my horizontal strike, still aiming for her neck!

Wujiu's eyes opened wide. Of course she did not expect me to attack! Of course she did not expect me to break out of her technique! Yet nonetheless she responded with absolute decisiveness! In the moment of delay that it took me to accelerate my arms, she ducked under them, and—

"—Khhgh!"

I heard myself coughing up blood. I did not know why.

I looked down, and saw that her sword had pierced through my stomach, right below my ribcage.

She pulled her sword out of my stomach, and I staggered back, my knees crumpling under me.

I was too late. I had not escaped the illusion quickly enough, and now—

Dropping her sword to the ground, Wujiu stepped forward and thrust her fist into my lower abdomen. She rotated and twisted her wrist a few times, before finally pulling out a dull gray gem. It was— my dantian, the center of my cultivation, the container of my golden core.

I collapsed to the ground, unable to move.