"A foolish decision!" Elder Tan's voice thundered, resonating with a chilling, authoritative timbre that cut through the tense air. In the next instant, an overwhelming wave of Qi emanated from his imposing figure, descending like an oppressive vortex upon the gathered unorthodox martial artists scattered haphazardly across the dusty village square.
BOOM!
A thunderous cracking erupted underfoot, the shockwave from Elder Tan's released power splintering the hard-packed dirt road into an intricate web of fissures radiating outward.
Heavy, labored groans tore from the mouths of the unorthodox martial artists as waves of invisible force slammed into them, sweat instantly beading on their ashen faces and soaking through their tattered robes.
Crimson blossomed across fabric and flesh alike as flayed wounds—inflicted by some unseen, razor-edged power—opened with agonizing ferocity, hot blood welling forth in rivulets from the grievous lacerations.
Simultaneously, the Kunlun sect's Inner Disciples sprang into urgent action, their robes billowing as they moved with decisive haste to evacuate the frozen, wide-eyed civilians trapped amidst the rapidly escalating conflict.
Without an instant's delay, the disciples shepherded the terrified innocents to safety, sweeping them away from the imminent danger crackling in the atmosphere like an oncoming storm.
However...no one could have anticipated the catastrophic turn of events that unfolded next.
CLANK!
In the span of a heartbeat, the crushing weight dissipated, the oppressive aura vanishing as abruptly as it had manifested.
A jarring, metallic grind shattered the stillness as Elder Tan's slender jian moved with blinding speed, intercepting a massive pair of steel claws—each talon as long as a man's arm and wicked-sharp as a bear's—that had erupted from below to strike at his defenses. The resulting shockwave kicked up a swirling veil of dust and debris.
"Ke-kek! Did you really think we wouldn't be prepared?!" The sinister, reedy cackle sliced through the chaos like a rusted blade.
Diminutive but radiating malevolent menace, the figure of the Black Scorpion Society's vice-leader materialized from the roiling dust—a wizened, hunched silhouette whose hoarse voice belied the incredible force with which he suddenly launched himself forward, his tiny frame channeling Earth-shattering might to drive Elder Tan's feet back, carving parallel trenches in the shattered road.
However...
SWOOSH!
Before Elder Tan could regain his defensive posture, the razor-sharp silhouette of an immense saber materialized like a looming specter, its jagged shadow cast long over his tall frame.
White robes snapping in the swirling winds, Elder Tan's jian flashed with preternatural speed, the tempered blade raised just in time to deflect the wicked arc of the incoming strike.
The resounding clash of tempered steel echoed with bone-jarring force, the shockwave of this latest impact noticeably heavier than those previous.
Elder Tan's imposing figure—rooted in an unwavering horse stance—trembled almost imperceptibly as his back knee dipped beneath the immense opposing power bearing down upon him.
His blazing eyes narrowed with fire intensity, teeth clenched until the cords of muscle in his jaw stood out in harsh relief as he met the new attacker's assault with every part of his considerable strength.
Towering before the Elder Tan in a strutting challenge stood the unmistakable form of the Sky Demon Cult's vice-leader, a veritable juggernaut of a man whose broad shoulders and thick, corded muscles rippled with barely leashed power beneath his tattered, disheveled robes.
His meaty hands—calloused and scarred from a lifetime of combat—gripped the massive saber's worn leather wrappings, leveraging the full force of his prodigious bulk to press the wicked, curved edge against Elder Tan's defensive jian in an unrelenting test of sheer physicality.
All of this played out beneath the watchful gaze of Ji Wuye, eyes surveying every nuance from his elevated perch atop a nearby black-tiled rooftop. From this prime vantage, he tracked the growing chaos as the remaining Elders rushed to aid .
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But...something seemed amiss. 'Pure physical force… neither of them unleashing their techniques,' he mused inwardly, brow furrowing slightly as he scrutinized the furious but almost ritualized clash below.
It was true—for all the ferocity of their strikes, both sides fought using little more than raw, mundane strength tempered by decades of training, refraining from infusing their blows with the full force of their powerful Qi. The only exception had been Elder Tan’s initial deployment of the Sword Zone.
What a pity.
As deafening concussions from their titanic clashes echoed through the air, shockwaves rippled outward, whipping the dust into chaotic, swirling eddies. Martial artists below the 8th Realm quickly retreated.
As expected, the vice-leaders of the unorthodox martial artists were steadily being overwhelmed. Outnumbered and outmatched by the Elders of the righteous factions, they were forced back, step by step, toward the outskirts of the village.
As for the remaining unorthodox martial artists scattered through the streets and alleys...
SWOOSH!
A sudden flicker of movement in his peripheral vision snapped Ji Wuye's head around, glacial poise sharpening to heightened focus as a faint, sinuous coil of wispy blue energy manifested in the air before him.
The ghostly, flowing form twisted and spiraled through the chaotic atmosphere like a ribbon caught in an upwelling draft, tracing the arcing descent of a shadow that plummeted from the heavens toward his rooftop perch with dizzying speed.
In a blurred instant, the glinting edge of a jian flashed with deadly purpose, arcing downward to bisect him.
But…
Ji Wuye moved with the boneless, fluid grace of a master, his lithe form twisting aside in a blurred sidestep as the attacker's blade slashed past with a whisper of displaced air.
His martial robes snapped like banners as his body leaned into the evasion, knees bent to drop his center of gravity as his left collarbone angled forward, presenting the ideal line for his counterstrike.
One arm extended in a singleminded blur, fist cocked back to deliver that single, annihilating impact squarely into the attacker's unprotected core.
BANG!
A deafening shockwave rippled through the air, the concussive force billowing outward like a physical blow as Ji Wuye's fist drove home with devastating precision.
The sickening crunch of shattering bone and pulverized flesh accompanied the intruder's agonized "GAHK!" as his strike exploded through his defenses.
Ji Wuye's knuckles sank deep into the pliant meat of the descending attacker's abdomen with the force of a meteor's impact.
The focused power of the blow obliterated the man's rectus abdominis in a spray of ruptured muscle fibers, the shockwave reverberating inward to pulverize the solar plexus nerve bundle in a blinding flash of white-hot agony.
Organs shuddered and tore like overripe fruit under the onslaught - the pancreas disintegrating into a slurry of dissolved tissue while the liver hemorrhaged in violent spasms, flooding the peritoneal cavity with thick, arterial blood.
Blood welled up in thick runnels, seeping through shredded fabric to soak the tattered robe in a spreading crimson stain.
Yet Ji Wuye's grip remained unshakable as an eagle's talons as his free hand shot out, fisting into the central panel of the robe to yank the material aside with cold disdain.His impassive face studied the groaning attacker dangling from his grasp, lips pressing into a tight line.
"They are so fragile," Ji Wuye remarked, voice devoid of any heat as he held the half-conscious figure aloft with insulting ease, one-handed grip bunching the bloody fabric at the man's midsection so that he hung limply suspended in midair.
However, as Ji Wuye rose smoothly from his combat crouch, the tension leaving his frame...
"Hiks!"
The ragged, uneven hiccup of panicked breathing snagged Ji Wuye's focus like a hook. His eyes snapped to another wide-eyed unorthodox martial artist, standing frozen nearby, jian gripped in trembling fists as he fought a losing battle to still the uncontrollable shaking that rendered his blade's edge erratic and wild in the aftermath of witnessing such overwhelming power unleashed.
Like an arrow loosed from a fully drawn bow, Ji Wuye's form suddenly blurred into motion, vanishing from sight in a dizzying flicker. In that same instant, the limp, unconscious body of the first attacker was airborne, hurled in a graceless arc to slam into the frozen, trembling unorthodox martial artist with bone-jarring force.
"ARGHH!"
The panicked scream tore from the renegade's throat as the bloody, broken form came hurtling toward his horrified gaze. On sheer instinct, he slashed out with his jian in a desperate defensive parry, the wavering edge of his blade wreathed in a flickering corona of bluish Qi that bloomed outward to enfold his entire body in a shimmering membrane of protective energy.
But who could have anticipated the gut-wrenching sight that manifested before his very eyes?
A stranger's hand - the skin smooth and milk-pale yet visibly corded with pulsing veins and blood-streaked muscle - erupted into view from nothingness, hovering with casual menace precisely at the level of his solar plexus.
Clutched in that terrible grip was something fleshy and pulsing...something undeniably alive, its feeble flutters of motion visible even as shock stole the unorthodox martial artist's breath.
It was his heart.
The unorthodox martial artist froze, eyes blown wide in primal terror as Ji Wuye's impassive face materialized like a ghost, his free hand thrusting forward in a blur to impale the protective qi shroud and puncture unerringly through flesh and bone into the very core of the man's being.
Reality fractured in a sickening rush of warm wetness as the unorthodox martial artist's vision went black, his body crumpling bonelessly to the tiles as Ji Wuye stepped casually back, hand dripping arterial gore yet expression as placid as a frozen lake.
Blood spattered in viscous runnels across Ji Wuye's features, yet he radiated an eerie calm, bending with fluid economy of motion to scoop up the fallen jian from his latest attacker's limp grasp. Straightening, he gripped the sullied blade with casual detachment before...
SLASH!
...lashing out in a blindingly swift cut that unleashed a shockwave of razor-keen force to slice through the surrounding air, cleansing the blade of its grisly stains in a sweeping arc of coruscating energy. The unleashed power sheared through the atmosphere in a blinding crescent before dissipating into silence.
As for the remaining unorthodox martial artists...
Despite witnessing their leaders being steadily overwhelmed and forced farther from the sect, the remaining unorthodox martial artists seemed to draw a manic, desperate strength from their despair. Every last one of them surged forward in a final, frenzied charge—recklessly and insanely striving to breach the Kunlun grounds.
‘So, the entire assault is that blunt and straightforward?’ Ji Wuye muttered to himself, his brow furrowing in rare confusion as he observed the chaos unfolding before him.
Were these unorthodox martial artists truly willing to risk the annihilation of their entire force for the sake of the Grapes of Longevity in such a reckless, all-or-nothing offensive?
To make matters stranger, none of the vice-leaders had employed any martial techniques or advanced moves.
That is, until the explosion rent the air like a physical blow.
BOOM!
The deafening detonation shattered the stillness in a thunderclap of upheaved earth and debris, a percussive force that rocked the battlefield with seismic intensity. Then the voice boomed out - a sound so deep and resonant it felt like the very rumble of thunder given form.
"HAHAHA! Thank you for waiting for me!"
The words lashed out in a commanding bellow that cracked like a lightning strike slamming into the tortured ground. The sheer force of that reverberating bellow sent the righteous Elders buckling, flung back by the kinetic impact of its fury even as the earth itself seemed to tremble in sympathetic quakes beneath their staggered stances.