Horse-carriage-sized Dark Wolves launched themselves at Ji Wuye. Gigantic shark-like jaws unhinged, saliva dripping from rows of serrated fangs eager to rip and tear his flesh.
Ji Wuye, the ferocious assault's target, kept his crimson eyes steely and focused. His fingers gripped the hilt of his jian sword. He dropped into a low stance, thighs tensed as if carved from granite, knees bent so severely that virile muscle cords strained against his skin in the deep gloom of the Dungeon.
A guttural growl rumbled from Ji Wuye's chest as his eyes narrowed to slits. "Huff..." The faintest expulsion of breath carried an imperceptible vibration that seemed to distort the air around him. A fierce crimson glint flashed across his irises, and in that fractured instant, the world around him slowed to a crawl. Translucent screens shimmered into existence:
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/xzhnv7X/Notif-1.webp]
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/n6FQDZv/Notif-1.webp]
Within this dilated moment, faint ephemeral afterimages of the lunging Dark Wolves flickered, their movements cleaved into a multitude of potential trajectories. Some phantom jaws gaped towards his head, others swept low aiming for his legs, while others contorted to shred his torso asunder.
His Quick Adaptation skill parsed every potentiality: attempting to slip between their massive bodies would leave openings to be crushed underfoot, while trying to cut them down one by one provided too many opportunities to be blindsided and grievously wounded. Each probabilistic path seemed to terminate in his gruesome demise.
Yet Ji Wuye's crimson gaze remained unflinching, devoid of even a tremor of panic or fear. A ghost of a smirk played across his lips. 'A perfect opportunity to unveil her sword art.'
In excruciating slow motion, Ji Wuye's upper body descended, coiling his power. The constrained explosive force in his rooted legs caused hairline fractures to splinter outwards across the Dungeon ground in an ever-expanding spider's web. The jian sword in his white-knuckled grip pulsed with a menacing ruddy luminescence, like bubbling blood given maleficent life.
As his descent reached its nadir, Ji Wuye's entire being became a wound spring, every fiber compacted with pure kinetic potential. Then, time burst its stagnant chrysalis and resumed its inexorable flow.
BLAST!
An apocalyptic shockwave detonated from where Ji Wuye had crouched, the eruption of force generating a choking cloud of pulverized stone and debris. The Dark Wolves, their momentum now their undoing, were blasted like raggedy-furred missiles amidst the thunderous concussion.
The Kun was once a mere fish, content to glide through still waters in pursuit of effortless sustenance. Yet one day, this existence was no longer enough. The Kun felt an unquenchable thirst to elevate itself, to transcend the boundaries that tamed its current, to pierce the heavens themselves. And so the Kun beseeched the venerable Old Turtle for arcane wisdom - the secret to soaring freely, as effortlessly as birds cut through the wind and sky.
No matter how earnestly the Kun implored or how fervently it attempted the prescribed methods, none yielded the coveted ability to take to the skies. The ancient Old Turtle's weathered features creased with mirthful laughter at the fish's persistent determination, and even the birds seemed to mock its lofty aspirations with disdainful shrieks.
Yet the Kun refused to be dissuaded. It studied the eddies and currents of the wind, scrutinizing how birds caught updrafts and manipulated airflow to achieve buoyancy. Each failure was a lesson etched into its resolute scales.
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Finally, on a fateful day when heavenly forces clashed in a tempestuous melee, the Kun seized its chance. As thunderclaps boomed and gale winds lashed the waters into frothing chaos, the fish leapt from the churning surface. It propelled itself skyward with every ounce of strength, risking becoming prey to the very birds it emulated or being struck by arcing tendrils of lightning.
In that breathless suspended moment, a miracle transpired. The howling winds sheared at the Kun's scales like knives, while driving rains lashed its wounds with nourishing rejuvenation. The thunderous reverberations seemed to catalyze an elemental metamorphosis as feathers erupted from its body in resplendent plumage where once only scales had been.
The Kun's bodily rise continued to accelerate as gossamer wings unfurled, catching the tempest's fury to ascend higher and higher. In a transcendent apotheosis, the former fish, the Kun, transformed into the majestic Peng, a creature of the air soaring freely amidst the unbridled elemental chaos.
Similarly, within the expansive inky darkness of the Dungeon, Ji Wuye's form rocketed skyward from the swirling dust cloud kicked up by his thunderous initial strike. His lithe body seemed to defy gravity itself as he pierced the gloom towards the vaulted stone ceiling. The jian sword clutched in his grip trailed scintillating arcs of bubbling crimson light, as if the blade dripped with ethereal blood.
Ji Wuye's crimson eyes, more vibrant than freshly spilled rubies, slanted in an eagle's focused gaze as he assessed the Dark Wolves scattered below. His lips curled in a supremely confident smile as he reached the apex of his meteoric ascent, the muscles in his arms and shoulders coiling with restrained power.
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/v4x74dM/Notif-1.webp]
Meanwhile, in their confused state, struggling to reorient after the seismic shockwave, the Dark Wolves had no opportunity to brace as Ji Wuye's form became a living cyclone. His jian sword blurred in a vertical uppercut of blinding speed, the crimson light engulfing the blade elongating into a phantasmic crescent twice the wolf's staggering size.
SWOOSH!
A concussive sonic boom reverberated through the chamber as the gargantuan energy slash bisected the Dungeon ceiling, raining down shrapnel. Yet this was merely the precursor harbinger of devastation.
An azure maelstrom, a compression wave of superheated air and force, detonated forth from the arc of Ji Wuye's strike. It surged towards the staggered Dark Wolves with the speed and intensity of a cyclonic firestorm.
Primal survival instincts blazed as the ethereal tempest bore down upon them. Snapping from their daze, the Dark Wolves planted their enormous paws and braced, jaws unhinged in bestial roars of challenge. Fur bristled with static charge as the storm's vanguard caressed their obsidian hides...
Then the terrible azure wave hit.
SPLAT!
A dense blood mist erupted outwards in a 360-degree sphere, obscuring even Ji Wuye's enhanced vision momentarily. When it cleared, the ground was rendered in a visceral tapestry of mutilated flesh and shattered bone.
Ropes of steaming viscera painted the walls. Dismembered limbs and partially bisected cadavers were strewn like abattoir offal amidst rapidly congealing pools of blood. The Dark Wolves' intimidating display of defiance was met with absolute and overwhelming obliteration.
Ji Wuye alighted easily back onto the ground, surveying the grotesque aftermath with a sense of grim satisfaction. At the same time, he gazed at several transparent screens in the corner of his view:
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/dkcvMHw/Notif-2.webp]
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/dkcvMHw/Notif-2.webp]
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/dkcvMHw/Notif-2.webp]
...
By the time Ji Wuye finished absorbing the information displayed on the lengthy transparent screens, the view before him had become a veritable killing ground. A gruesome mound of eviscerated Dark Wolf cadavers, each easily the size of a horse-drawn carriage, dominated the gory scene.
'This sword art is truly formidable,' Ji Wuye praised inwardly, a glimmer of respect kindling behind his crimson eyes. 'No wonder Song Jia's Master was renowned as the WindBlade Emperor. Just the second mere move of his style carries such overwhelming power.'
The true devastation of the Rising Gale technique lay not in the slashing arc itself, but in the catastrophic aftermath it generated. The vertical uppercut slash served as the catalyst, violently compressing the air into a hyper-condensed blade of superheated force that detonated forth in an apocalyptic shockwave upon impact.
Now, with the presence of the Tower of the Gods, that kind of monster, such as the Five Emperors and other old monsters of Jianghu, must have evolved into something else. But disappointment flashed in Ji Wuye's gaze as he remembered their statement in the previous timeline.
"What useless prattle they spouted, proclaiming this Era belongs to the new generation." Ji Wuye's tone dripped with condescending derision. "If those so-called Emperors had simply participated alongside the true monsters of the Jianghu realm, we would not have met such unmitigated failure..."
HOWL!
The bestial cry shattered Ji Wuye's musing reverie. He spun to face the source - the remnant pack of Dark Wolves that Song Jia had engaged. His eyes found her kneeling amidst the canine nightmares, back rigidly straight yet shoulders heaving with each ragged breath. Spatters of blood radiated outwards from her form in a macabre halo.
The flickering torchlight threw her ghastly appearance into lurid prominence. Her once pristine white martial robe was utterly soaked through, fabric greedily drinking in every spare drop of the blood that sheened her skin. Yet despite her feral visage, what captured Ji Wuye's attention was the look of rapturous satisfaction playing across Song Jia's lips.
"Bwahaha! I did it, Master! Hahaha!" Her crazed laughter rang out in peals of unbridled jubilation, uncaring of how blood spilled past her lips to be swallowed with each gulp of air.
'Now then, shall we explore further?' Turning his attention forwards once more, Ji Wuye strode onwards into the lightless depths, leaving Song Jia alone.