[One Cut, One Kill reached level 5!]

[Death’s Descent reached level 4!]

Waves of black flowed off my blade like bubble black clouds; the darkness surrounded my sword and inched up my arm as I dove downward. All of my Strength, two of my skills, and every drop of qi I could muster flowed into the attack.

Long concentrated his qi up into his sword. His reserves dipped lower and lower as he tortured the Spiritbeast. I expected to bounce off his defensive technique, to wound him superficially.

I cleaved through his arm instead.

The Omen Alligator was just trying to eat me, but its motivations were near beastial instinct, an endless drive to progress, no different from almost any cultivator. I acted the same as I slaughtered monsters on the Savage Expanse. I would kill the alligator as well, given Long’s position. But I wouldn’t torture it.

Long didn’t make a noise as he staggered to the side; his aura screamed for him. It filled the air, pins and needles against my skin, like static electricity coming before lightning as Long staggered away. The Omen Alligator groaned weakly.

[Stormbreak Riposte] activated before I even processed what happened. My sword clashed with Long’s. Black clouds spilled out from around his feet, filling the area around us. He strengthened his mentality and dove on in me an instant, striking for the neck. I hadn’t even sensed his movement technique; he had shaped it so fast and efficiently as to render me blind to it.

I shaped the technique of the Anti-Lightning Herald as Long’s aura raged around me, even more tempestous than when I had removed his arm. He shot backwards, seeming to float over the ground on the cloud of black around my feet. I stood and held the sword ready to guard as black lightning climbed its edge.

At my feet, Long’s cloud slowed me, the air resisting me. I pushed through it like mud. But Long didn’t approach me again. He whipped his sword up.

A wave of gold lightning rose between the tip of his sword and the cloud, arcing forward in a slow moving crescent.

If I was an ordinary cultivator, I would be dead. The cloud at my feet slowed me; dodging the wide sweep of lightning would be impossible.

But I wasn’t an ordinary cultivator. There was one thing I could do. The Anti-Lightning Herald technique had destroyed the Thunderfist’s concussive blows. It should do the same here.

My hands practically shook as I forced the Anti-Lightning Herald technique as high as I could. With my enhanced Willpower, I refined my qi to a remarkably fine extent. The lightning on the blade danced and crackled, sparks flying into the air, seeking something to contact. I swung and hit the arc of gold.

There was a flash.

Black lightning shot down Long’s technique, striking the ground with a crack. The smell of burning ozone filled the tunnel. For a single instant, the entire tunnel went dark, as the qi in the air was desroyed.

Not just the qi from the technique. The qi all around us. The feeling of dead air free of qi was sickeningly wrong. With the qi gone, the passive lightning in the Stormwall tunnel cut off; the yellow stones used the storm qi in the air to provide light. Already, qi was rushing inward to fill the space, as if it abhorred the vacuum of it.

I didn’t wait for the lights to come back on. The technique around my feet collapsed as part of it was disrupted and the rest ran out of qi to sustian itself.

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In the pitch black tunnel, the minor enhancement of my stats wasn’t enough to see. But [Identify] worked fine. I spammed the skill as I shot forward, sweeping my arm through the air.

Steel clashed with steel as I forced all my Strength into a two armed push, throwing Long’s blade aside and spamming [Identify] as I prepared to swipe again.

[Heavenly Cloud Ruin Road Brick]

[Heavenly Cloud Ruin Road Rubble]

[Rainshadow Long, Middle Third Realm Path of Thunder’s Inheritor Cultivator]

I swiped forward. My blade met resistance that crackled and sparked and then cut through it into flesh. Long’s aura screamed as I turned and reoriented myself.

The lights in the ceiling and floor began to glow, dim at first, then slowly brighter. They revealed Long standing across from me, a gash cut into his robe. Blood flowed down his side. Billowing black began to spread from his feet as he used an external qi technique to control the battle once again. I needed to end this fast, before he called on his thugs to help him fight. I didn’t know if they could navigate his technique, sharing his path.

The black lightning of the Anti-Lightning technique had travelled from his ranged technique down to the cloud, which made me wonder if I could send it through the cloud back to long. I swung toward the ground, my blade passing through the cloud. It dispsered like wisps of smoke where I hit it.

The black lightning connected to. The connection didn’t break as I raised the sword, flickering arcs of black dancing throughout the cloud and spreading backward like a fire. They obliterated the half formed technique and raced into Long. He staggered backwards. His aura flickered and faded before reasserting itself. Long staggered back.

“It’s dishonorable to stab a cultivator in the back.” Long shouted. His voice boomed in the tunnel, making me wince.

“This was never a fair fight to begin with.” I said. “You shouldn’t be losing.”

Long’s aura screamed. I hadn’t lied. His cultivation was so far beyond me that this fight shouldn’t have been close. My heart race and sweat coated my palms.

Inspite of every advantage Long enjoyed, I was beating him. Long practically roared as he reformed his technique, throwing sweeping crescents of lightning. I stepped forward as I met each one, crossing the room toward him.

“See — how long — your qi — lasts!”

He shouted between every technique. My qi was draining rapidly as I expended so much to destroy his techniques.

But I crossed the room before I ran out.

My blade stabbed through his neck, piercing the black curtain hanging from his head. His aura reached the highest intensity it had throughout the entire fight. Then it disappeared entirely, popping.

I was panting. My meridians were sore from the concentrated power I had rammed through them, inspite of years of reinforcement and training. But I didn’t have time to sit and worry about Long, there were still Thunderfists alive.

I kicked him backward into the wall and turned just in time to see the Thunderfists running away. But they hadn’t just ran — they had taken every last mount with them.

“Wait — you bastards!” I shouted. I needed one of those mounts to continue my trip through the Stormwall. They had even taken the dismounted Waxenmare’s left behind. The cultivators paid me no heed as they ran.

I shaped my movement technique to chase them. With the Anti-Light movement technique, I could catch them and —

My dantian hovered dangerously around twenty pecrcent. I could catch up to them and die. Maybe thats why they took the mounts — so that I wouldn’t follow them.

I groaned. The Omen Alligator whined pitifully.

Grimacing at the beast, I prepared my sword. The least I could do was put it out of its misery. As if sensing my intention, the Alligator flopped over. The noise thudded and reverberated through the entire tunnel as it stretched out its neck.

[Divine Spiritbeast Soveriegn Activated]

[The Emperor, a middle third realm Omen Alligator, has submitted to you. You may choose to form a pact. The pact will provent The Emperor from harming you whether intentionally or through neglect. Both of your cultivations will be affected.]

[Accept?]

[Y\N]

I hesitated. I did still need a mount… but if the pact was something like Littlebird’s, there would be a persistant connecton between my Dantian and the Omen Alligator.

But there was no point if the Omen Alligator instantly died. I would need to wait for it to heal too… but that shouldn’t take long since its body was tempered.

Another day or two and it would be able to walk again. Without reaching the Fourth Realm it would be down a leg… but it had five working ones.

That would be faster. And I could cultivate atop its back, offsetting any drain in my cultivation. I mentally nudged the system to accept.

The pact tore a hole in my Dantian, almost all of my qi guttering out in seconds. I staggered, pulling more qi in, but slower than it was being drained. The Alligator made a confused noise. My ears rang. The ground slammed into my face.