Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 144. Thirty Days Deadline.
“Damn it!” Jasmine cursed silently as the two men sped past her. She had already grown slightly worried the moment she had seen their elements and had felt their cultivation bases that were at the peak of the fifth Realm of Heroes. However, once again she was helpless to prevent this certain development as the critical chasm in her abilities was brought to light. In a battle where she had powerful allies to rely on, she was an unstoppable existence. However, the moment enemies chose to ignore her and chase after a vulnerable target, there was little she could do to stop them.
“I can’t let them get away for free.” Jasmine made the decision in an instant. She knew how strong Laien and Yin were and she had seen how well the two of them could cooperate with each other, but she could instinctively tell that they wouldn’t be a match for those two marital masters. She would have been more optimistic had those two men used elements like water or fire, but with the speed-oriented wind and lightning, they would prove to be of lethal danger to the boys.
Thus, even as the one hundred and fifty riders were about to crash into her, Jasmine forced herself to turn around and after sliding for a good two or three seconds, she sped in the opposite direction. Only two hundred meters or so separated her and the riders once she started regaining her speed, but that was enough. She was far faster than those horses, so she would be in danger for only a few seconds before she left the effective range of the martial techniques and spells of those riders. However, what she didn’t expect to happen was that an extremely well-coordinated barrage of attacks would be sent not at her, but at the ground in front of her almost immediately.
She could instinctually tell that even with her durable body of a peak martial master of the fifth rank, she would receive heavy wounds were she to recklessly charge forward. With no other choice, she hit the ground with her feet and slowed down, then turned around while focusing her Qi on her back. The explosion of the Qi and spiritual energy of various elements came the next instant, creating a powerful shockwave. Yet, instead of being disadvantaged by the burst, Jasmine endured it and used it to propel herself forward. If she couldn’t run after those two men immediately, then she would do so after slaughtering a good portion of those people, especially the spiritual masters amongst them!
“Please don’t die until I come,” she pleaded in her heart. There were many other things she wanted to ask for to happen, like the boys understanding the situation they were in and leading those two elite martial masters closer to her and not further away, but she had no time to spare for thinking. At the moment, she needed to wholeheartedly focus on eliminating those threats that were like longs under her feet. She couldn’t afford to be delayed by even a second, so she needed to do it in the most efficient and the fastest way possible! So, she emptied her mind and focused on fighting.
“Good,” the short-haired man said while glancing over his shoulder. “It looks like they at least made themselves useful, older brother,” he said with a content smile. Yimar Maar had told them to use those men from the Faren Yimarate as they pleased and mentioned that keeping them in their country would only bring trouble in the long-term. It wasn’t hard to understand what results Yimar Maar expected from them, so having those fools stall the Death Reaper of Makarash while they went after those two kiddos was actually a development the two of them could be very pleased with.
“Focus on running instead of grinning,” the long-haired man said with a calm smile, then increased the intensity of the lightning around his body by a level and sped up further.
The short-haired man frowned slightly, but did the same and used more Qi and his wind element to accelerate. Dashing in this manner was far more taxing on their bodies compared to keeping up their normal top-speed, but by the looks of it, his older brother really didn’t want to risk clashing with Jasmine. Keeping this tempo up for those mere twelve or thirteen kilometers wouldn’t be a problem, but they would gain a few seconds in the meanwhile. It was a bit annoying since in the end, all they needed to do was to capture two brats, but he wouldn’t argue with his older brother because of that.
“Remember,” the long-haired man brought up in a very serious tone. “We’ve been warned of the strength of those two. Rumors or not, treat them as if they are as strong as elite martial masters of the third rank,” he reminded, knowing that his younger brother tended to get ahead of himself due to his arrogance. Still… it wasn’t like he fully trusted the rumors from the Faren Yimarate and the Ruishi Federation either, but he didn’t wish for to be met with any nasty surprises.
“Yeah, sure,” the short-haired man replied resignedly. He knew there was no point nor time for him to argue with his older brother, so he could only adhere to his instructions. As much as he thought the idea of two twelve-year-olds being as strong as elite martial masters of the third rank was ludicrous, he had learned from experience that he would usually be better off if he listened to his brother. Thus, he took the advice to heart and remained highly on guard against those two boys.
At the same time the two men were exchanging a few words, Laien and Yin were doing the same as they rode with abandon.
“We’re lucky,” Laien said with a slight smile. At the moment, they were speeding at around four hundred kilometers per hours, but those two men were running at a speed almost twice that. In twenty-five or thirty seconds, the two elites would catch up to them. However, instead of despairing or even showing signs of worry, be it him or Yin, they appeared quite relaxed. “I’ll hold that wind-element one back. You can deal with the other one now that you’ve fully recovered, right?” he asked, though only to confirm what the two of them already knew. Their spiritual bond had been steadily becoming stronger over the past two and a half months, so by this point, short of actually having a detailed conversation, they could effortlessly communicate without using any words.
“I’ll try my best,” Yin replied with a clear smile. “We did wait six days instead of four just for that, after all,” he added wryly. With all the dangerous endeavors he had gotten through together with Laien, he knew how to keep his cool. They were lucky this time around, but it didn’t mean that they were guaranteed to win against enemies so strong. Although the two men were still a few kilometers away, they could feel the aura of the Qi the two were releasing; the men were peak marital masters of the fifth rank, and by the looks of it, they weren’t run-off-the-mill experts either!
However, despite the potential danger the two of them were in, Yin in particular was almost feeling guilty for being so excited. Ever since yesterday evening, he could feel the powerful and restless warmth that swelled in the lower part of his stomach, a sign that his Qi Origin had fully accustomed itself to its new state. He had experimented a bit with this new prowess as he circulated his Qi, but he hadn’t had a chance to use it properly just yet. A peak martial master of the fifth rank, he would be a perfect testing subject!
“I’ll need three seconds,” he said confidently and glanced at Laien, who in turn nodded in understanding. Ending this battle quickly would be most advantageous to them and the key to achieving that was Yin! Since Yin said he needed three seconds, he would make sure that that wind-element marital master wouldn’t be able to interfere in Yin’s duel in any way for at least that long.
“And if possible…” Laien laughed in his heart. If possible, he would also try to kill his opponent if an occasion presented itself to him. His cultivation base might not have improved nearly as much as Yin’s, but he had reaped many benefits since the battle against Yimar Furi and his people, with his improvements in the Principle of Energy and the Water Flow Sword Art standing head and shoulders above the rest. It needed to be remembered that even against Reian, neither he nor Yin had truly gone all-out; they didn’t reveal several of their true trump cards! It could be said that apart from one another, there was no one else who truly understood exactly how strong the two of them had become. This advantage brought by the unknown wasn’t one to be underestimated.
“Stop and dismount,” the long-haired man shouted with the aid of his Qi the moment they reached within the distance of five hundred meters from the boys. “You have three seconds. After that, we will attack,” he warned sternly. In just a little bit, he and his younger brother would enter the effective range of their martial techniques. By then, killing those horses would be simplicity in itself. However, if there was an easy way to avoid killing their own spoils of battle, then they would take it.
“Let’s see if they will try to struggle,” he thought to himself and ever so briefly, glanced over his shoulder. Jasmine had just about laid waste to most of those idiots from the Faren Yimarate and was finishing off the few who could obstruct her from giving chase. “They did better than expected. We’ve got full forty-five seconds until she can catch up to us,” he thought contentedly. An intense battle between experts rarely took longer than a minute, much less a fight against two kids, no matter how strong they were. Capturing them was going to be a bit troublesome if they truly were as strong as the rumors claimed, but it was more than manageable within the timeframe they had.
“Oh?” he raised his eyebrows, seeing the two boys exchange a look and nod at each other. Were they agreeing to surrender, perhaps? He was almost sure that was it, but to his surprise, he then saw the two youths propel themselves off their saddles and skillfully twist their bodies in the air. The boys kicked the saddles lightly and at the same time, flew straight towards them while rousing their Qi.
“What is this desperate attack?” the younger of the two men laughed, a mocking smile appearing on his face. He needed to admit that the aura of that black-haired kid who was flying at him from a few dozen meters away was strong, so strong that it was comparable to that of a martial master of the third rank. The white spear that appeared within the boy’s hand also looked like it was a precious artifact, comparable to the eighty-one Heavenly Treasures. Yet, the difference between an elite martial master of the fifth rank and an average martial master of the third rank was immense.
Were it not for his older brother’s repeated warnings, he would have been ready to play around and torment that stubborn kid for a bit before subduing him. He didn’t want to listen to his older brother’s nagging afterward though, so he reluctantly readied himself to exchange a few blows with that boy. Yimar Maar shouldn’t complain much if he roughed the kid up a bit, no? The kid’s Qi was of water element, so unless he cut him up properly, it would be hard to subdue him.
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The distance of a few dozen meters was negligible given the speed their two parties were moving at. It didn’t even take a full second before both Laien and Yin approached their respective enemies, and just as they were about to clash with them, the boys finally employed the full prowess of their insights, their auras soaring in strength by many qualitative levels in but an instant.
The short-haired wind-element martial master almost choked on his own tongue when the seemingly harmless killing intent of the black-haired kid’s reached inconceivable levels. Moreover, the boy’s aura grew far stronger at the same instant. To his astonishment, he sensed how in the blink of an eye the air around the boy’s spear filled with a huge amount of Qi and spiritual energy. He then saw how the wave of energy started transforming into a mass of water and ice which flooded towards him, giving him a very dangerous feeling! He couldn’t understand how could the boy be able to use a martial technique and a spell so fast, without any preparation…! He had thought he was being careful by staying in a battle-ready state, but he didn’t accumulate enough Qi to instantly respond with a martial technique on his own…!
“Fuck!” he cursed and kicked the ground, jumping to his left as hard as he could. He was aware that he had reacted too late to dodge this attack entirely even with his speed, but he could at least alleviate some of its power by moving out of its way! His wind element was powerful offensively and it gave him great defensive prowess, but the latter one only came from his speed! He couldn’t afford to take an attack this powerful head-on and hope to get away scot-free!
Simultaneously, a dozen meters to the other side, a similar situation was plying out. The long-haired man was startled when he sensed the sudden increase in power of the green-haired boy’s. However, he had been more cautious than his younger brother and made the effort to keep enough Qi ready to use whenever he wanted. The kid’s aura and lighting were both unimaginably powerful, both only a bit weaker than the respective aspects of his own. His mind refused to believe that a young boy could possibly be so powerful, but he didn’t allow those thoughts to distract him.
He met the slash of one of the boy’s twin sword with his sword and immediately, having confirmed that he indeed held an advantage in terms of the quality and amount of Qi, he subconsciously relaxed a little. No matter how cool-headed he was, he would inevitably grow somewhat nervous when facing such a freak of nature… but it was only the next second, when the scene before his eyes suddenly filled with a beautiful shade of emerald green, that his heart skipped a beat.
The innate sensation of powerlessness and the desire to submit appeared before any thoughts had time to surface in his mind. In a split-second, he sensed how all the Qi within his body grew chaotic, threatening to go out of control and tear him apart from within. Instinctually, he suppressed it forcefully in order to avoid sustaining heavy internal injuries. Yet, at the same time, he felt how all the lightning-element Qi that his sword and body were engulfed in started receding at a frighteningly fast rate, pushed both by the invisible pressure of superiority and by the raw strength of that… that…!
“Emerald lightning?!” the long-haired man cried out silently, all the hair standing high all over his body. He was one of the strongest lightning-element martial masters in the world, but he had never seen nor heard about a lightning like that! Its power was out of this world! How could a mere child be able to wield a power like that? How could someone who was only at the peak of the ninth mortal realm be suppressing him, an exalted peak marital master of the fifth rank?!
“Fuck off!” he yelled inwardly and pushed against the sword of the green-haired boy’s with all of his strength. His arms were already grown numb and his skin was starting to turn into charcoal, so he was desperate to gain some distance and regroup! That boy must have used some kind of a forbidden technique to momentarily increase his strength, but even if he was superior to him in terms of Qi for those seconds, the difference in physical strength was still there…!
Or, so the long-haired man thought when to his shock, he felt how he pushed that twin sword away in a weirdly smooth and unforceful way. The blades remained tightly pressed against each other, but instead of being blown away by the force, the green-haired youth twisted his body and stepped inwards, slightly to the side, allowing the whole strength behind the push to be entirely wasted.
“Elemental Sword of Lightning…” Yin murmured in his heart. Just as he had gotten out of the way of the man’s sword and released his twin sword from the push, he prepared to execute his strongest close-range martial technique. Currently, he was feeling ecstatic as the Heavenly Lightning fused with Qi and roamed throughout his body. With the aid of the Heavenly Lightning Martial Realm he had gotten from that azure-haired youth, he could easily control the destructive power of the Heavenly Lightning even without transforming into his magical beast form! And to top it off, he could tell that his emerald lightning was incomparably purer than the one he had been able to employ originally! This sensation of absolute strength… it was so good that it was giving him shivers!
Still, as much as he was feeling great, he didn’t dare to grow overconfident. He employed his martial technique without hesitation and attacked the man, sending his emerald sword of lightning out in a manner that was neither a slash nor a thrust, aiming at the middle of the man’s torso. As powerful as his Heavenly Lightning was, he could tell how great the expenditure of his Qi needed to be in order to sustain it! Even though his reservoir of Qi had gotten a fair bit bigger now that he was half a step into the Realm of Heroes, he could tell that the longest amount of time he would be able to fight in this enhanced state was at most… seven seconds!
He would be able to employ this overwhelming power only for seven seconds while maintaining the highest level of combat prowess, but that was enough!
Sensing the looming death, the long-haired man overexerted himself and ignored the chaotic Qi within his body in order to employ lightning steps. The world blurred in front of his eyes for a split-second as he retreated backwards; he could tell that just this one action had resulted in a great amount of mayhem inside his body. The moment that kid released his emerald lightning, he was forced to divert almost half of his strength to suppressing his own Qi. He also needed to at least try and defend himself from being burned by the raging green lightning, so he had no strength left to use Lightning Steps in time. Had he not made an instantaneous decision to sustain internal wounds in exchange for gaining distance and time, he suspected he would have died there.
Now he only needed to turn and run until the duration of that secret art ended, if it hadn’t ended already… “Klaurgh!” Yet, he coughed up a huge amount of blood as he felt a splitting pain spread from the left side of his chest. At the same time, he noticed that the green-haired youth was still in front of him! Did his Lightning Steps fail to activate? No, he felt himself moving just fine! So… that kid actually followed him? He also used Lightning Steps and moved alongside? But… that was impossible! Doing something like that, what monstrous level of skill and ability did it require?!
“… Twin Thunder,” Yin finished saying silently and threw the second of his twin swords forward. He had kept his cool and used all his experience and strength, so with the aid of his powerful aura, he managed to follow the Lightning Steps of that man’s. Now, he immediately unleashed the second part of his new and improved martial technique while empowering himself with the Heavenly Lightning. He had worried that the man was going to do something unexpected, but thankfully, he managed to get a clean hit in and ripped off the man’s head from his body in one clean blow.
“Whew.” Now that the man died, Yin sighed with relief and quickly withdrew his Heavenly Lightning to limit the consumption of his Qi. Thanks to his innate Heavenly Lightning and the Heavenly Lightning Martial Realm, he held an absolute elemental advantage in this battle, but he had still ended up sweating quite a bit. Had this man been aware of his strength and abilities from the very beginning, this fight wouldn’t have ended so easily. Thankfully, he did manage to make great use of his explosive strength and of his Sword Art, which was slowing taking shape, to claim a quick victory.
“Older brother!” At this very time, the short-haired man emerged from behind the wave of water and ice which had both wounded the right side of his body and obstructed his vision for a moment. When he saw his beloved brother dead, beheaded by the green-haired youth, was instantly consumed with rage. He stopped paying Laien any attention and forcefully used a great amount of Qi, then dashed straight at Yin at a great speed, using the famed Wind Steps!
The burden the Wind Steps brought to the practitioner’s body was far greater compared to the Lightning Steps and their flexibility was far lower too. However, in exchange, their straight-line speed exceeded that of the Lightning Steps by a considerable degree. The short-haired man naturally wasn’t yet able to use his movement technique without sustaining heavy wounds; even Mustafa at his prime had been unable to do so, much less him! However, all he wanted to do was to murder that green-haired boy! If he could do that, then he wouldn’t care about anything else!
In the end, however, all he managed to do was to give Yin a bit of a fright as he appeared a few meters away from him, then fell down to the ground with several thick spikes of ice drilled through his torso and limbs. His eyes lifeless and his internal organs frozen, he fell dead, failing to understand what had killed him even when the death took him into its embrace.
“Imbecile,” Laien laughed heartily, satisfied with the outcome of this brief but dangerous battle. After he sensed that Yin killed the other man, he was ready to struggle against this wind-element practitioner. With no elemental advantage to make use of, it would be hard for him and Yin to actually achieve victory against an elite martial master of the fifth rank, even if they cooperated. The most likely outcome would have been the man using his speed to flee. Alas, no such thing ended up happening. “The aura manipulating techniques we learned from Alen and the full foundations of the Aspect of Awareness the two of us have. As far as perception goes, we are likely far ahead of most high-level experts around the world,” he thought contentedly as he ran up to Yin.
Be it in his or in Yin’s case, the final deciding factor they made use of to end their duels was their perception. Yin followed the long-haired man’s Lightning Steps, while he sensed that the short-haired man was about to use Wind Steps, guessed the direction and prepared some tough ice spikes in his way. Although things like spatial awareness and speed perception weren’t as flashy and noticeable when one battled, as it proved, they were still an essential part of one’s skill set.
“Good job,” Yin said merrily. It was dangerous to be sure, but the two of them managed to obtain a perfect victory.
“You too,” Laien said with a smile. “Your lightning was incredibly powerful, eh? Again I’m far behind you, I gotta work hard to catch up,” he mentioned lightheartedly. The short-haired man might not have sensed much due to the mass of Qi and spiritual energy that blocked his vision and obstructed his senses, but he wasn’t under such restrictions. He suspected that if he and Yin were to spar seriously today, then the moment Yin used his emerald lightning he would lose instantly… and truth to be told, he suspected that the moment Yin polished up his new Sword Art, he would be unable to gain an upper hand against him even in a regular spar, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Were it not for the spiritual bond that connected them, Yin would have felt a little awkward. However, since the two of them could share their thoughts and emotions, he only laughed happily and didn’t say anything useless. He was happy whenever Laien grew stronger and similarly, Laien was also happy to see him growing stronger. As for the origins of his Heavenly Lightning Martial Realm, it was just like Laien had said back then and like he was thinking now; the two of them had simply helped each other out, propelling themselves to new heights. Each of them had their own great gains they had reaped back then, so things like debt didn’t need to be mentioned.