Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 184. Killing His Way Through.
For a brief moment, Laien was tempted to slow down and harass the thirty-man group that was the closest to him, but his better sense prevented him from doing so. He was quite eager to use his newly acquired strengths, indeed, but he was able to keep his excitement under control and not do anything too excessively stupid. He might have killed a whole bunch of strong experts in an incredibly short period of time, including a martial master of the fifth rank, but it wasn’t guaranteed that he would be able to repeat this feat as easily the next time around. To top it off, once he made the effort to confirm and focused wholeheartedly on using his aura to probe those chasing after him, he discovered a total of five martial masters of the fifth rank and well over thirty martial masters of the fourth rank. All of those experts were Abdain’s subordinates, too, so none of them were weak.
“Instead of thinking about stupid things,” he reprimanded himself with a sour smile. “I should make use of the time they’re giving me and get as close to the frontlines as possible. They’re still cautious of the abilities I displayed a moment ago, but I suspect they won’t be willing to simply let me go. They don’t seem like idiots, so they will sooner or later realize that killing me once I join the White Sword’s men of Julien’s men will become pretty much impossible,” he mulled over calmly. He wanted to improve his strength and to pass the Shadow Trials at the same time, but just because those two goals necessitated taking risks, he didn’t think they equaled acting in a thoughtless, berserk-like way.
“Still,” he mused, a slight smile returning to his face. “I would have stopped for a bit if I was as fast as Yin. Regrettably, most of the martial masters of the fourth rank and above after considerably faster than me. Most of the wind-element martial masters of the third rank can probably run faster than I can, too, so taking my time here would really be a bad idea,” he reminded himself, trying not to get too complacent. He was excited about the progress he was making and indeed, he was growing stronger at an astonishing rate, but it didn’t mean he was invincible. Especially in a situation like this one where he could easily end up facing a large number of powerful enemies on his own without the means to escape when needed, he could ill-afford to act recklessly.
Once around twenty seconds passed with him and his pursuers running at the roughly same speed of almost two hundred kilometers per hour, something appeared to finally be about to change. He sensed that the five martial masters within the group of two hundred plus of his enemies got closer together and started having a conversation while restricting their voices with their Qi. Then, another ten seconds later, all the ruby-golden-robed martial masters of the third rank separated from their group and joined the regular experts further in the back. Those regular martial masters had been falling behind for quite some time, so they sighed with relief once a portion of the elites joined them.
As for the five martial masters of the fifth rank and, after a quick count which Laien did, thirty-three martial masters of the fourth rank, their group sped up and split into five. Two of the new ‘units’ were but singular martial masters of the fifth rank and from what Laien could tell, they seemed to have a fire-element affinity. The remaining three groups were each led by one of the three remaining martial masters of the fifth rank and consisted of eleven martial masters of the fourth rank.
Two of these large groups started flanking him, while the third group started closing the distance directly from behind. The remaining two lone experts split up and placed themselves in-between the three groups, at his sides. The two of them looked quite vigilant and Laien could tell that they were releasing their aura abundantly and were pushing their battle sense to the extremes. By the looks of it, the two of them had been tasked with pinning down the magic propelled by his Phantasmal Essence, or so Laien assumed. “As expected, those elites of Abdain’s aren’t to be taken lightly,” he told himself and laughed weakly. He had killed many of those elites this very day, but within this forest in particular, where he was fighting alone, one mistake against them could prove fatal.
“Good thing I didn’t slow down,” Laien murmured while readying himself to repel the incoming offensive. "I should be about twenty seconds away from the frontlines. In a high-level battle, twenty seconds is a long enough time for many things to happen, but it should be manageable,” he thought and licked his lips, overcome by a strange mix of calmness and excitement. His mind was clear, his senses were sharp, and his body brimmed with energy. If there ever was a time for him to effortlessly display one hundred percent of his abilities, then it was most definitely right now.
He didn’t need to wait long for an opportunity to appear as once those two groups that had been running to his sides overtook him, they changed directions and moved to pincer attack him. The dozen-strong units were coming at him from the left and right in front of him and then, directly from behind. In addition, the two lone martial masters of the fifth rank were coming closer directly from his right and left. On one hand, a joint offensive of this kind was incredibly dangerous, but on the other, he was grateful that they hadn’t chosen to risk it and weren’t slamming him with martial techniques from left and right. While he felt that he would be able to survive such an assault and use it to flee to the frontlines thanks to his defensive spells and abilities, it would be too boring. Or, in other words, he wouldn’t have a chance to improve all that much under a coarse barrage of attacks.
“Since you want to try me, then let’s go ahead!” Laien thought eagerly and sent out his water-element Phantasmal Essence towards the group coming from the front, to his left. He had likely ended up shifting his path somewhat to the right after the last engagement, so he was planning to adjust that on the run. Yet, even he didn’t quite expect what happened the very moment he released his river-like wave of Phantasmal Energy. Those dozen martial masters all roused their Qi and released fire-element and wind-element martial techniques straight at it.
“Uh, okay?” Flabbergasted, Laien welcomed the gift with open arms. He willed for the Phantasmal Energy to transform into a solid block of ice and at the same time, he employed his Ice Body technique in anticipation of the shockwave. The next instant, the mass of wind and fire met his ice and despite the former being vastly superior in strength to the latter, the collision destabilized the already rough balance of the joined mass of martial techniques and caused a huge explosion.
The explosion naturally entailed a mass of dust and dirt flying up into the air alongside pieces of rocks and shards of scattered wood. Considering the close proximity and the rampaging bits flames and wind blades, the individuals with weaker defenses amongst the dozen-strong group suffered some mild wounds. The spreading shockwave also halted their advance for a period of time and even blew all them a few dozen meters away, with the only exception being their leader, a wind-element martial master, who had been able to bear with the impact and pressed on ahead.
However, as decisive and spectacular as this attempt to destroy Laien’s Phantasmal Essence and hopefully cause him to suffer a backlash because of it, was, the consequences of it weren’t something those men had been able to predict. After all, they had assumed that using such unusual magic entailed some kind of risk behind it, so they were bent on destroying it first and then finishing the Ice Devil off. Yet, little did they know that even if they did manage to whittle the Phantasmal Essence down through repeated powerful attacks, it would do no harm to Laien. In fact, he could then simply create another river-like wave of Phantasmal Energy whenever he wanted.
So, when Laien appeared out of the cloud of dust, his hair having turned white with but the exception of one strand of black and his skin having turned pale-white and almost jade-like, it came as a total surprise to those experts on the other side of the explosion. In particular, the lone fire-element martial master of the fifth rank who had helped figure out the details of their tactic was taken off-guard more than those weaker brothers of theirs as he had come to have too many assumptions in his heart. As a result, his reaction was a heartbeat later than it should have been once he saw Laien sprinting towards him at an unnaturally high speed while appearing to be totally unhurt in any way, be it physical or the spiritual one.
The thought of blowing Laien away just in case with a martial technique came to him, but he realized he had no time to do that as a broad swing of Laien’s spear was already coming his way. What made his eyes open wide, though, was that the same sensation in the air which one of their three main attacking groups had targeted appeared once again, but for some reason, it felt even stronger than before! He could tell that this mass of weird energy mixed into the water around Laien’s spear and caused its power to increase exponentially. Then, just as a terrifying realization about the nature of this weird air hit him, he blocked Laien’s swipe, only to suddenly sense that the majority of power around the spear detached from it and flooded towards his hand and his entire arm!
The rate at which his fire-element Qi was broken through was fast, but he should have still been able to somehow react. However, because he had startled himself with a ridiculous thought just before, he was once again delayed by just a little bit in his reaction. As a result, by the time he directed enough fire-element Qi to push the freezing cold out of his right arm, the entire limb became useless. His skin turned dead-black and it started cracking and oozing out blood and even his bones were crumbling! As his entire arm seemed to be rotting away in the matter of split-seconds, he failed to restrain himself and roared in pain. The sensation of having his entire arm not merely cut apart or burned, but destroyed so thoroughly that it seemed to be rotting away, was unbearable to him.
Of course, he paid the price for losing focus the next instant as the back-end thrust of Laien’s spear caught him in the stomach. To his terror, the man discovered that the strange entity which had enabled Laien’s spiritual energy and Qi to freeze his arm so easily was once again present in the attack. With the blow landing so close to his Qi Origin, he was unable to prevent it from getting damaged, what in turn caused his control and strength to drop. Thus, as he took a few steps back, his abdomen was soon covered in a layer of frost and the very instant his defenses gave in, his Qi Origin shattered into pieces and in the blink of an eye, the powerful cold spread all over his body.
“That’s one down,” Laien said contentedly and without wasting any time, he rushed over the dead man’s body and kept running away. In this case, though, the optimal path he needed to take was just above the corpse, so he didn’t refrain from collecting the man’s interspatial ring. “I wonder what they will do now,” he asked himself with a smile. Thanks to his empowered insights, he needed to use far less energy to deal with any weaker attacks, like for example that shockwave from before. Although it would be a bit tough, he was decently confident in killing most of those people if they insisted on attacking him with abandon. After all, even though it was counterintuitive, it was the easiest for him to kill his enemies when they were the ones giving their all to attack him.
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“They are all coming straight at me?” he noticed through his aura and took a quick glance to his left and right. Before he could fully escape the encirclement, the two of the dozen-strong groups seemed to have thrown caution to the wind. The group that had been to his right and to the front, and the group which had been behind him, both of them were closing onto him from his sides. He could tell that the leader of the third group and the second of the lone martial masters of the fifth rank were closing onto him from behind as would soon get out of the cloud of dust. He was under quite some pressure as all those killing intents locked onto him, but the smile on his face merely grew wider.
“If you think you can kill me by swarming me with numbers, then let me prove you wrong!” Laien laughed in his heart. He would have been in trouble before his breakthrough, but now, fending off those people was far from impossible! Someone looking from outside might assume that he was an all-rounder since there was no aspect of cultivation that he was particularly weak in, but those who were familiar with him, and naturally he himself, knew that his greatest strength was his defense!
“Water Flow Spear Art!” he called out silently and converged his Phantasmal Essence of water into his spear, causing the usually calmly flowing water to stir and transform. It hadn’t been all that apparent when he used his Phantasmal Essence for brief powerful attacks, but now that he spread it out evenly and maintained it, the difference was visible to naked eye. Just like the scenery within the Phantasmal World, the water and icy mist around his spear awakened and established a resonance. At places, the streams were slow and tranquil, at other spots they were wild and unstoppable like a storm, all of them bound tightly together by the united flow of water-element energy. Lastly, the layer of icy mist grew thicker and spread out further, covering even the palm of Laien’s own hand.
All those elites that were about to swarm Laien were able to see and sense this change occur, but as they were in the middle of a war, they suppressed their anxiety and fear and didn’t slow down at all. With two fire-element and two wind-element martial masters of the fifth rank at the lead, they all moved to attack pretty much without regard for their own lives.
As for Laien, as impressed as he was by the courage, or perhaps loyalty, of those men, he refrained from integrating his Phantasmal Essence of Inferno into his spear. Though, it wasn’t because he was worried about controlling it or anything like that. It should be remembered that he had been able to block, albeit briefly, a martial master of the seventh rank with his spear arts! Be it four or ten martial masters of the fifth rank, they wouldn’t be able to break his defenses head-on in anything close to a short period of time! Moreover, with the three surges of Phantasmal Essence of Inferno available to him, Laien was planning to see just how far could he take his defensive prowess.
“But before that!” he thought with a half-chuckle and changed directions, turning to his left and heading straight at one of the incoming groups. He was excited, but he didn’t forget that all the while defending, he ought to keep moving northwards as fast as possible! Dealing with this group of experts was challenging yet doable, but if the enemy numbers rose too much, it would be over.
“Now then,” Laien focused his attention on the wind-element martial master that was in front of him, and with whom he would clash first. “I should try to reduce the pressure a little bit, shouldn’t I?” he mused and swept out with his spear. In the beginning, it almost looked as if he was intending to meet the powerful slash brimming with wind-element Qi without any tricks, but he twisted his body and shifted his spear before the two slashes could connect. Two catch the enemy’s attack, draw it in and redirect its power somewhere else, this was the most basic principle behind his spear arts.
The man he was facing was quite fast and agile though, so the moment he saw the adjustments Laien made, he too acted. However, by this point, since his sword and Laien’s spear were just about to meet, he discovered that the wind-element Qi around his sword was being steadily eroded by the white mist while the blow itself was caught in the wild currents of water around the spear. He felt as if something pulled onto the blade of his sword and threw it sideways and he needed to use all of his strength just to prevent his attack from changing course. Yet, this in turn robbed his blow of the majority of its strength, so the moment the blade of his sword met the shaft of Laien’s spear, it could only give in and be pushed off to the side.
“What are those spear arts?!” The man felt like shouting. He had heard something about the Ice Devil being powerful in melee combat, but he came to think of those things as mistaken rumors once he saw the mighty and incomprehensible magic this Devil was able to employ. He didn’t think that the young-looking boy, this Ice Devil, would also possess spear arts at such a high level that he couldn’t see through them in the slightest! Apart from the idea of using as much Qi as possible in one big martial technique, he could see no other way to break through this Devil’s spear arts!
“Eh? No!” Once he sensed three streaks spiritual energy surge out of the Ice Devil’s body and straight at his chest, through his momentarily open guard, he wanted to yell in panic. He had seen others die in a similar way, so he knew what was about to happen! He knew and yet, there was nothing he could do apart from rousing his Qi to the limit and hoping to defend! In his desperation, he punched at one of the three forming spikes of ice with his left hand and somehow managed to shatter it at the price of having the skin all over his hand and forearm freeze solid, with the cold almost invading his muscles. This was a success, admittedly, but a minor one, and one which ultimately wasn’t enough to save his life as the two other spikes formed successfully and pierced his stomach.
“That’s the second,” Laien mused, unaware that he was still smiling while in the middle of this battle. With the strongest of the enemies in front of him gone, he continued the fluid motion of his spear and moved onwards all the while defending from the incoming blows. It would have been impossible for him to stop twelve people at once, but given the restraints of space, usually only three of them were able to try and attack him more or less at once with four happening rarely. Thus, he would disable the one that was blocking his way and move the swipe sideways to prevent the second one from getting too close. At the same time, he would constantly manipulate up to three strands of his spiritual energy filled with the Phantasmal Essence of Inferno to either outright kill the third person or defend from the remaining two on the occasions he had to deal with four enemies at once.
What at first looked like him getting swarmed by twelve martial masters of the fourth rank very quickly proved to be those twelve repeatedly attempting to kill him and failing at their attempts constantly. With almost every push of theirs, one of their comrades would fall to the ever-reforming ice spikes while their attacks, no matter how strong, weak or sneaky, would all fail to penetrate Laien’s Water Flow Spear Art. Moreover, once their clash was heading towards the end, one last major event happened, about which those of them who lived would never be able to forget.
“Water element? Two of them?” Laien smirked when he saw that the last group of four that was attacking him just before he would be able to break free and start running away again contained two dual water-element experts. The men had pure water-element cultivation bases in both their Qi and spiritual energy, though the spiritual ones of theirs were one rank lower, at the third Realm of Heroes. It was rare to see practitioners like that and in a large-scale battle, their value couldn’t be underestimated. Considering this much, Laien thought it would be a pity to leave them alive!
Against water-element practitioners, he didn’t need to fear anything. Just like Yin possessed an overwhelming elemental advantage against lightning-element practitioners thanks to his Heavenly Lightning Martial Realm, he had the same kind of an advantage against water-element practitioners! With his Absolute Water Spiritual Domain and Absolute Water Martial Realm, he was already the bane of all water-element practitioners, and in particular of all spiritual masters who tended to use huge amounts of natural spiritual energy in their spells! Now that he possessed something as miraculous as a Phantasmal World of the water element within his Spiritual Core, he doubted if there was even one person in this world who could stand up to him in terms of controlling water!
Thus, with the four men attacking him, he seemingly ignored the two that were in front of him and merely sent out two pure strands of his water-element spiritual energy towards them, only adding the strength of his Aspects and the Principle of Energy in form of just-in-case insurance. He swung his spear at one of the two enemies behind his back but unlike at all the other times, he had some more room to maneuver and so he didn’t release the man’s weapon once he grabbed it with the currents of his Water Flow Spear Art. Those actions of his appeared weird to those four men and to all the other martial masters who were paying attention to the exchange, but then four things that together could be described as mind-numbing happened simultaneously!
Laien’s spear moved forward and thrust through one of the martial masters of the fourth rank, killing him. Then to the side, the three spikes of ice, with which those present had become horrifyingly familiar with, killed the second of the four men. This alone, however, wouldn’t be enough to frighten everybody present. No, it was only when they saw that the two remaining men suddenly stopped mid-motion and noticed that their Qi turned sluggish, for their bodies to then literally implode from within the next second. The two dual experts of the water element looked like fountains of blood for a brief second as blood spurted from all orifices of their bodies under such pressure that their eyeballs turned into bloody mush and their otherwise durable skin turned into bloody mincemeat.
Leaving the shocked bunch of enemies to their own devices, Laien sped away with a satisfied smile on his face. He was able to quickly make some distance between himself and the remaining thirty or so of his pursuers, mainly thanks to those men slowing down considerably. Glad that he wouldn’t be forced to actually deal with all of them attacking to the last man, Laien breathed with relief. He was confident in facing those people on his own, but this didn’t mean it wouldn’t be risky. If he didn’t slip up he would win, but one mistake could be fatal. All in all, if he stayed and fought those people with the limited Qi and spiritual energy he had left, he judged that he would have around half-half chance to either kill them all or be the one who ends up killed.
What Laien didn’t really know was that those ruby-golden-experts would have indeed been willing to fight him to the last man, but their orders were different. Additionally, none of them liked how this war was progressing and in their hearts, many blamed Yimar Maar’s incompetence for the current state of things. Thus, it wasn’t much of a surprise that they chose to retreat once they judged it wasn’t worth trying to kill Laien, the ‘Ice Devil’, with their numbers and under present circumstances.
Be it as it may, after another thirty seconds of running, Laien encountered a group of White Sword members that was exchanging blows with a twice as numerous unit led by six ruby-golden martial masters. Apparently, the frontline had shifted further to the north than he had thought, but only by a little bit. Still, now that his enemies were wary of him and the information about his abilities was bound to spread, it would be very dangerous for him to attempt any solo missions. So, for the time being, he assumed that it would be fine if he stayed with his allies and helped them out a bit.
“I won’t count those kills though,” he murmured before rushing towards the two fighting groups. He wouldn’t want to cheat in his game with Yin, after all.