Yeong Mishil stared down at the proffered weapon, the crowd around them watching with bated breath. Yoshika’s offer was more than just a show of dominance. Every culture recognized, one way or another, that not all disputes could be settled by arbitration. Some grudges were too personal, some conflicts too ingrained to ever go away. If there was one tradition that all three of the continent’s great nations shared, it was the typical method of resolving such disputes.
The duel.
The tradition had mostly fallen out of favor in Goryeo, outside of the watered down sparring practiced by battlemages working their way through the college military tracks. But it was still extremely common in both Yamato and Qin, and the tradition was still common enough that everybody saw Yoshika’s challenge for what it was.
Her dispute with the Yeong clan was settled in the eyes of the law, but the grudge remained. Yoshika was offering Lady Yeong a chance to settle her personal grudge once and for all. All she had to do was take it.
After a moment of hesitation, she sneered down at Yoshika and snatched the knife out of her hand, accepting the challenge. A susurrus went through the gathered nobility. Duels were rare, but exciting spectacles—an unexpected source of entertainment for those who had no stake in the conflict.
“As the challenged party, I demand the right to appoint a champion to fight on my behalf.”
Yeong Mishil grinned as if she’d just caught Yoshika in a trap, but it was a predictable move.
“That’s fine. Do you have one prepared, or should we defer this to another occasion?”
It was a little unfair, but Lady Yeong was no xiantian mage, and the ones present all had strong loyalties that they wouldn’t be willing to threaten for the sake of a minor noble’s wounded pride. Yoshika had no doubt that the lady would be able to find someone to fight for her, but by then, this incident would be a distant memory and the duel would be little more than a formality.
To her surprise, however, the lady laughed.
“Oh, I have one in mind. Miss Ice, might I prevail upon that mercenary nature of yours to put this upstart in her place?”
The Ice elemental, who’d been mostly ignoring the proceedings turned to regard them. Each motion was accompanied by the quiet tinkling of the elemental’s icy joints shattering and reforming. Its voice was quiet and feminine, with an airy, ethereal quality to it.
“You know my price.”
“My house will pay it.”
The elemental turned to examine Yoshika, its frozen visage staring into her soul. Yoshika could feel its domain probing hers, and she blocked the invasion, meeting its gaze head-on. The elemental turned back to Lady Yeong.
“Double. To be delivered regardless of outcome.”
“Wh—that’s preposterous! You cannot expect me to agree to such outrageous terms!”
“I can. Though the duel is legal, the target is of significant political importance. Furthermore, she is strong. She has defeated Magma before. Accepting places my life and reputation in jeopardy, and while I am stronger than Magma, I cannot guarantee success. You have my terms.”
Yeong Mishil bit her lip so hard it drew blood, staring down at the knife in her hands—the symbolic representation of her one chance to finally avenge her son.
“Fine. I accept. You’d better win.”
“As previously stated, I cannot guarantee success.”
Seong Min stepped forward and clapped once for attention.
“Lady High Arbiter Yoshika challenges Lady Yeong Mishil to a duel, as the challenged party, Lady Yeong Misil appoints the greater Ice elemental as her representative. The duel will be conducted immediately in the outer courtyard. I will stand witness. The nature of the duel will be full contact to death or yield, do all parties agree?”
They did, and the crowd quickly reconvened outside. Yoshika couldn’t help but feel like even the wide open outer courtyard of Songdo’s grand palace was a stiflingly small battleground for a duel between xiantian fighters. She assumed that Seong Min and the other xiantian witnesses would be making an effort to prevent any collateral damage.
She took her place opposite the Ice elemental and smiled wryly.
“What does an elemental need money for, anyway?”
“My price is not paid in currency. Regardless, capital can serve as an efficient medium for the storage and transfer of effort from an unproductive task—such as dueling you—to something more practical.”
“Yeah, that was a rhetorical question.”
Yoshika rested her hand on Jianmo’s hilt. She was in Eui’s body, and though she always had access to all of Yoshika’s techniques, Eui’s would be most efficient. Unfortunately, Eui’s techniques were generally also her most deadly and destructive ones, and though it was officially a duel to the death, she had no intention of killing Iseul’s mother.
The elemental was pragmatic to a fault—she could trust it to yield once the match was decided.
Seong Min glanced between them.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Are both combatants ready?”
Yoshika and Ice both nodded in confirmation.
“Begin!”
The elemental wasted no time. The word hadn’t even left Seong Min’s lips before Yoshika could feel the air around herself shifting, rearranging itself into a crystalline lattice faster than even most cultivators could react.
It was a similar technique to Lin Xiulan’s icy imprisonment, but where Lin Xiulan had to concentrate her divine essence into a well-practiced art, the elemental cast its spell as easily as breathing.
Eui wasn’t as fast as Jia or Kaede. Though her destructive power was unmatched, she lacked the constitution to make good use of their movement techniques. The elemental had already identified that her ability to dodge was limited, and was seeking to end the fight before it even had a chance to start.
Yoshika allowed the spell to form around her, concentrating her own power on a counterattack. In the blink of an eye, she was completely encased in a solid block of ice—the very air freezing around her.
The next moment, she exploded out of it, her body encased in a fiery aura shaped like a phoenix. True Awakening of the Dragon’s Heart was a technique that Eui rarely bothered using, but for once, the simple flame aura that her Yang-aligned soul produced was exactly the right tool for the situation.
With a flap of her fiery wings, Yoshika sent a barrage of flaming feathers raining down towards the Ice elemental. It raised a barrier of ice, which exploded into steam as the feathers collided with it.
Realizing that directly sealing Yoshika wouldn’t work, the elemental switched tactics. Lances of ice shot up from the ground, spiking unnaturally to cut off Yoshika’s movements. Her aura of fire wasn’t enough to melt the spears, and if she tried to just break through, the shards launched themselves at her at supersonic speeds.
Yoshika backed off, slashing through the air with Jianmo and channeling her power through the Earth Rending Sword technique. The blade of qi flew through the air and cut past the elemental’s barrier like butter.
Ice shifted to the side, allowing the blade to cut through its body and release a burst of unnaturally cold mist that froze the air solid—a very similar reactive defense to that of the Magma elemental she’d fought before.
Much like Magma, the ice elemental’s movements were calculated to prevent damage to its core and nothing else. In an instant, the wound resealed itself and the pair were back to square one.
The first exchange had lasted less than a second, with neither of them able to do more than just scout each other out.
Neither had used any divine arts, but Yoshika could immediately tell that the duel wouldn’t end until they did. Unlike the Magma elemental, Ice was not trying to test or gauge Yoshika. Its attacks were precise, measured, and most of all—deadly.
It knew that Yoshika didn’t want to kill it, but it had no such qualms, and it was perfectly comfortable taking advantage of that dynamic. It hadn’t been boasting about being stronger than Magma, either. Jianmo had once remarked that those born in the divine realm tended to focus on power over technique, but Yoshika wasn’t getting that impression from Ice.
If anything, the elemental was saving its strength. Searching for the perfect opportunity to land a decisive blow.
If things continued as they were, Yoshika wouldn’t be able to force the elemental to yield before it found an opportunity to destroy her body.
She decided to take her chances on an escalation. Void was still present, and it had intervened before she could kill Magma. She could only hope that the same would hold true here. Moreover, she simply couldn’t afford to hold back against a foe as strong as Ice.
Yoshika dove towards the elemental, cutting through its barriers and ignoring the spikes of ice that tried to intercept her, relying on a combination of her mana shield and flame aura to protect her. She sustained some superficial injuries, but her prediction paid off—without being able to seal her movements directly, the elemental couldn’t stop her from forcing a close-quarters engagement.
Sending a wave of destructive essence through Jianmo, she thrust her sword at the frigid core within the elemental’s chest. This time, Ice did more than just protect its core. Its entire upper half shattered, the core retreating lower within its body. The mist it left behind clung to Eui’s sword arm, and in a moment of instinctive panic, she returned Jianmo to her soul realm.
She was just in time. The mist penetrated her enchanted robes and sank deep into her flesh, freezing it instantly. It crept deeper still, the penetrating cold seeping through her meridians and making its way into her very soul.
Yoshika trembled as she desperately fought back against the invasive essence. The ice elemental’s avoidant fighting style had been a trap—luring her into forcing a melee confrontation. Now, it wasn’t just Eui’s body that was at risk. If Ice’s technique was allowed to propagate, it would freeze her entire soul and kill all of her.
With a grunt of exertion and a force of will, Yoshika expelled the invasive essence, destroying her right arm and part of her chest in the process. She cycled essence through her healing technique to stop the bleeding and seal the wound, but regeneration was going to take time. Like her own Destruction essence, the elemental’s frigid mist left damage that went beyond the flesh.
Yoshika recalled Jianmo, wielding them in her left hand. The ice elemental really wasn’t holding back. That attack had been meant to kill her. Not just destroy her body, but actually annihilate her—body and soul.
It had been stupid to think that she could get away with fighting for a yield. This was no sparring match.
“Jianmo, we’re going to kill it.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice, darling. I don’t hate that merciful attitude of yours, but you should have done it from the start!”
Eui’s eyes glowed bright red as she focused her power within Jianmo, drawing on a fragment of her burgeoning divinity to impose her will on reality. Arcs of black lightning crackled along her body, annihilating the air and ground wherever it touched.
Sacred Art: Sixth Arm of Asura—Star Sundering—
“STOP!”
Seong Min’s voice was quickly followed by that of the elemental.
“I yield.”
Yoshika tried to abort her attack, but the power of Destruction could not be denied. Distantly, she was aware of Seong Min desperately trying to force the crowd back as her essence ran out of control. The technique had to go somewhere, and if she turned it inward then her body’s obliteration would be the least of her worries.
An inky black portal to nowhere opened up in front of her. Yoshika’s domain could not penetrate the portal, but she felt the power seeping from it. Where all things came from, and where all things would return, where nothing could be destroyed because Nothing could exist.
Yoshika thrust her sword, not into but towards the portal. The power flowed out of her, diffusing harmlessly in the Void beyond.
She gasped in relief, brushing the hair out of her face as she tried to regain her composure. That had been far too close. Even if the fight hadn’t been stopped, her attack would have done far more than just kill the Ice elemental.
There were multiple xiantian powers around to prevent collateral damage, but there was only so much they could do against such an unbridled force of destruction. Yoshika internally berated herself for losing her composure like that.
A hollow, empty voice echoed around her, artfully composed from the absence of sound.
“Well fought. Your growth has greatly exceeded my expectations.”