Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 35. The Trial of Strength. (Part I)
“What a strange place. How long do you think these stairs are?~” Shade asked lightheartedly, his mood having taken a complete shift compared to half an hour ago.
The three squad leaders behind Shade smiled awkwardly. They were used to this master’s eccentric behavior and knew he most likely didn’t expect anyone to answer his question. Most often he would mention a specific person if he wanted him to reply; he wouldn’t throw words into the wind and expect someone to answer to them.
“As much as I enjoy walking, let’s hurry up, shall we?” Shade said casually, sending his voice all the way to the back of the line with a little help from his Qi. He smiled slightly and jumped, crossing many dozens of stairs at once. He then merely hit one of the stairs with his foot ever so lightly and propelled himself onwards, moving downwards at a quick peace akin to a gust of wind.
The three squad leaders and their subordinates followed suit, moving in the exact same way as Shade. The only sound accompanying their passage was the fluttering of the cloaks they were wearing, thus making their movements appear ghastly and ethereal, nearly as if it wasn’t a group of humans that was passing, but a bunch of black specters closing onto the unlucky person who had invaded their tomb and disturbed their eternal rest.
The bandit bosses could only laugh weakly when they saw the manner in which the black-cloaked subordinates of Shade’s descended the stairs. Their movements might have appeared simple and indeed, most of those two thousand elite men they had brought with themselves would be able to mimic them; though only if they were alone! To actually move in a tight group in this smooth, coordinated manner required each and every member of it to control their strength perfectly and aim for a specific distance with each jump, with the precision of one stair! And not only that, they also needed to move at exactly same peace and angle; just one of them failing would result in most of the group stumbling down like a mass of stones.
“We are running down!” Black Lion ordered and began hurrying to catch up to Shade and his men. The other six bandit bosses who came with him didn’t argue, but despite everything, it was rubbing them in a sore spot that they needed to obey Black Lion’s orders.
The two thousand bandits weren’t moving as gracefully as Shade’s subordinates, but they weren’t any slower. It wasn’t because they were incredibly strong physically or anything like that though; Shade was only strolling ahead at a leisure peace. That was the only reason those bandits were able to keep up with him and his men.
About three minutes later, Shade emerged from the tunnel and entered the huge cave. Before him painted itself the same scene Laien and Yin had seen; two sanctuaries on both sides of the road and further ahead, a lake and a gigantic tree, everything bathed in a mixture of blue and red light.
Shade smirked and leaped onto the roof of one of the sanctuaries. He made a few more light jumps and seated himself at an ornament above one of the windows, on the side facing the lake and the Holy Tree. His one hundred and eight subordinates also jumped onto the building, making use of the spacious and beautifully sculpted roof to find comfortable spots to stand or crouch at.
“Huoooh?” Shade couldn’t help but reveal a surprised look on his face when he took a better look at the lakeside and the two youths present there. He smiled, the scene causing him to feel pretty amused and intrigued.
The black-haired youth appeared to be meditating; and since he didn’t stop even now, he had probably come upon a great stroke of luck and gained a spontaneous insight! Such chances weren’t easy to come by and if they weren’t used immediately, they would almost always be lost and wasted. As for the green-haired youth, he stood there calmly in front of his friend, with twin swords in his hands, gazing upon the newly arrived group with a stubborn and a bit bloodthirsty look in his eyes.
“Good, good,” Shade said to himself. He had heard quite a bit about those two, but it was the first time he was seeing them in person. The first impression the boys made on him was pretty good; they deserved the reputation of two little monsters that had rampaged through the Anarchic Lands unobstructed. He didn’t even need to probe the boys with his aura to know they were exceptional.
Feeling a bunch of looks being sent his way from the road below, Shade turned his head and located Black Lion amongst the crowd of bandits on the street. “One boss and his men at a time. Those who succeed in killing those two kids will be heavily rewarded,” he said almost dismissively and shooed at the bandits with his hand. He would give those two some leeway… but if their luck was too poor, then he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them. After all, luck was a part of one’s self; without it, even the most peerless genius wouldn’t reach the ultimate heights.
In contrast to Shade who was calm in his statement, Black Lion and the bandit bosses were stirred up by his words. Heavy rewards! One could imagine what treasures and resources they would receive if even Shade referred to them as ‘heavy rewards’! And for killing two children no less! Though… was this really so simple? Those less hot-blooded of them couldn’t not think about it. Yes, those brats were famous in the Anarchic Lands for and were labeled as monsters, but could just one of them resist three hundred elite guards of a major boss?
Black Lion was one of those struck by this hesitation. He had been about to say that he and his men would go first to make it impossible for others to snatch this chance from under his nose, but now he wasn’t so sure if it would be a good idea anymore.
“That’s why you old farts will never achieve anything great,” the youngest of the seven bosses present said with a contemptuous laugh. “Since you are all cowering in fear when all you need to do is catch your prey, then I will go ahead and take the rewards for myself,” he said and began walking forward. One step, two steps… ten steps. He frowned; were none of those six going to stop them? Was there really something he wasn’t aware of in this task issued by Shade? They only needed to kill two brats, right? And one of them appeared to be in the middle of meditating; it couldn’t be simpler than that.
The young boss snorted, dismissing those unfounded worries. “Come on you bastards, we have a reward to claim!” he called out to his two hundred men, who all responded with vigorous shouts of approval. “He’s just one kid, two if the other one is only pretending. What can they do? I bet the rumors about them annihilating a whole camp of hundreds of men are over-exaggerated,” he tried to convince himself silently. He had brazenly spoken that he would claim the reward, there was no way he could back off at this point; as people were saying in the far west, once you had ridden a tiger it wasn’t possible to jump off whenever you wished.
From the sanctuaries to the lakeside where Yin stood was around a kilometer of a distance. The young boss and his two hundred men didn’t rush; their targets had nowhere to run away. The young boss ordered his men to stop when around thirty meters were left between them and the green-haired, dual-wielding youth.
“Monsters of the Anarchic Lands, what a joke,” the young boss said with a snort. Now that he was up close, weren’t those two just children, twelve years old at best? What was there to be scared about?
“Anyone who approaches us dies,” Yin said coldly and that very second stopped suppressing his killing intent. Given his character, he rarely wanted to murder someone so strongly that he would emit a killing intent, but this time he was protecting someone dear to him; how could he keep his cool given his young age?
The young boss was about to laugh at the green-haired youth’s words, but the murderous aura which spread from the youth caused the words to go up and down his throat. He himself was a martial master of the first rank, so he barely suppressed his instinctive reaction and didn’t take a step back. Many of his two hundred subordinates, however, weren’t as tough. Those closest to Yin began rapidly retreating, the weaker of them turning deathly pale and shivering all over. This kind of killing intent was comparable to a Great Chieftain’s! This youth truly was a monster!
“It’s only his aura, stop panicking,” the young boss spoke in as calm of a voice as he could, trying to appear confident before his men. “You really think he is as strong as that killing intent of his? What a joke; look at him! He is just a child! Follow me!” he ordered, armed himself with a sword and began walking forward.
A good half of the two hundred bandits behind the young boss was still too scared to stake a step, but those older and more experienced fellas gathered their courage and began approaching the green-haired youth. When a dozen of them attacked at once, what would one person be able to do? With their young boss leading they didn’t fear even marital masters of the third rank, not to mention a child! So what if he had a little strong killing intent? He would perish nonetheless!
Yin frowned slightly as around eighty men began walking at him from the front. He had already probed them with his aura and thus knew this group didn’t pose a challenge to him. However, the main problem was the force that remained by the sanctuaries and those black-cloaked men and their black-masked man. Especially that man was giving him a very, very bad feeling.
“It looks like he is playing with us, but trusting his words would be foolish,” Yin thought quietly. He couldn’t expect enemies to come in nice and orderly waves; he needed to be ready to repel an all-out attack from them all… in which he wasn’t confident in the slightest. That black-masked man was one huge problem, but he felt that those black-cloaked subordinates of his weren’t pushovers either. One wrong step and forget Laien’s breakthrough, they could both very well die here.
“Worrying won’t help, let’s do it!” he encouraged himself and roused his Qi. Thankfully those bandits were approaching him carefully; they weren’t swarming him and Laien. Had they done that it would have been hard to manage, but since they didn’t… it was a time to sow a seed of fear into all those thugs!
The young boss raised his guard when he saw Yin moving ever so slightly, but how could an average martial master of the first rank like him be prepared for what was about to come? He saw a surge of lightning covering Yin’s body and his twin swords, then in the blink of an eye found the youth directly in front of himself. He had no time to react at all; the sword in the youth’s hand slashed downward at an angle, cutting twenty centimeters deep into his head. The blade didn’t stop there; it cut through his torso like a hot knife through butter, causing a considerable amount of blood and gore to splatter around.
Before the young boss’s men could understand what had happened, Yin rushed towards one side, slashing with each step he was taking. His body moved swiftly, becoming less than a blur only for the split second when he would strike down another man or woman. In an instant over a dozen of them died, blood and intestines splashing all over the area. Yin had taken a special care to cut those bandits apart in the most gruesome way possible; he not only sent heads flying, but he purposely slashed them in halves to create a truly bloody massacre.
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With their leader dead and their comrades dying one after another, those bandits in the forefront didn’t even think about continuing their attack. They turned around and began fleeing, many of them crying out in fear and screaming about a monster.
Yin continued cutting down the stragglers, intent on reducing the overall numbers of his enemies as much as possible. He pursued the bunch for two hundred meters and in just below ten seconds since this clash had begun, managed to slay seventy or eighty of the attackers. He didn’t chase too far, however; at the two hundred meters mark he stopped, watching the backs of the running bandits with a cold gaze, crimson blood flowing down his twin swords and his forearms and slowly dripping onto the ground.
A broad smile emerged on Shade’s face as he watched this scene. This green-haired youth had dealt with those two hundred splendidly! From the ability he had displayed so far this youth could be considered an elite marital master of the first rank; this kind of strength would make the story about him and his friend annihilating a large camp on their own believable. Moreover, this image of the youth standing there with his clothes and hands all bloody and daring anyone else to come to him was extremely to his liking!
“Thirty, take your men and kill those who are running,” Shade said in a happy tone, his gaze still focused on the green-haired youth. “I’m pretty sure he was called Yin, huh?” he recalled and nodded contentedly when thirty-six Shadows of his leaped off of the roof and attacked the bandits fleeing from Yin. It didn’t take much longer than five seconds for over a hundred of them to be killed; the difference between his Shadows and some random bandits was like the one between mud and clouds.
Black Lion swallowed nervously. When he had seen this green-haired youth massacre that young boss and his men he had felt extremely glad he hadn’t recklessly chosen to go first. Yet, now that Shade ordered the ‘deserters’ to be killed he started having a sorrowful premonition.
“The rest of you, go and kill those youths,” Shade said calmly, confirming Black Lion’s worries. Their lives didn’t matter in the end; Shade treated them as nothing more than cannon fodder! “Ah right, before I forget. Using projectile weapons is a disqualification, okay?~” Shade added with a laugh, causing those who had been thinking about using bows and crossbows to curse silently. Their lives really didn’t matter at all to Shade, eh? He was obviously using them as a tempering stone for that green-haired kid, but all they could do was feel a helpless anger.
Looking upon the two bloody fields, one left by the green-haired youth and the second one by the Shadows, who by now had retreated back onto the roof, made the bandit bosses and their subordinates realize what it really meant to be stuck between rock and a hard place. None of them was enthusiastic about attacking that monstrous green-haired youth; they knew that many of them would die before they would be able to tire that monster out and kill him. However, that path at the very least left them a way to survive as the other one involved angering Shade, in which event those terrifying Shadows would undoubtedly be sent out to kill them all.
“Let’s surround him and attack together,” Black Lion said with a grim expression on his face. “You saw his speed, we can’t contest with that. Attack that black-haired kid and force the other one to stay in place! I refuse to believe we won’t be able to kill him together if he is forced to stand his ground!” he spoke loudly, enhancing his voice with Qi. The ones who needed encouragement weren’t the leaders, but the subordinates; had it not been for Shade ordering his Shadows to kill those who fled the fight many of them would quietly back away to the stairs with a very obvious goal in mind.
All in all, it was one thing to be in command of a well-trained army with a common goal in mind and another to be leading a mob of self-serving bandits. Black Lion was aware of it and that was why he proposed a simple method of dealing with the green-haired youth; he knew that anything that relied on cooperation and precise planning would undoubtedly fail. In truth, it would already be good if their men showed enough courage to attack this monstrosity knowing that the first few hundred of them would die under the slashes of those twin swords.
The five other bandit bosses were similarly extremely discontent with the lot Shade had assigned to them in this battle, but they had no other choice than to swallow their complaints. Shade promised to reward them, but what were heavy rewards worth if they no longer had their lives to make use of them? They had all seen that this green-haired youth had targeted the leader before proceeding to kill others; it was a very sensible choice on his part, but it made them incredibly reluctant to place themselves on the frontlines.
“We either get rich by killing those kids,” Black Lion said grimly, sending his voice far with the aid of his Qi. “Or we get killed by Shadows. Attack with all you have or die,” he said to raise everyone’s spirits, yet could only laugh in his heart when the men and women under their joint command responded with a deathly silence.
Which one of the bandits would gladly throw himself into the maws of death? They all had decently strong cultivation bases averaging at eighth mortal realm; had they wanted they could have easily become soldiers or mercenaries! However, they didn’t want this kind of life and thus they chose the lives of outlaws. Ironically, they were being demanded to act like soldiers and apparently were supposed to give their lives up for some kind of greater goal; how could they swallow a pill so bitter?
Black Lion grit his teeth and began walking forward, keeping his gaze focused on the green-haired youth, who in the meantime had retreated back to the lakeside and once again stood about ten meters away from his meditating friend. “If no one follows me I will really be heading there just to die a pitiful death.” The thought crossed Black Lion’s mind. He did breathe with relief when the remaining five bosses joined him and relaxed slightly when he heard the sounds of many footsteps following from further behind.
“Let’s split up and attack him from five sides at the same time,” Black Lion suggested. “Just keep in mind that those who run or don’t fight will be killed by Shadows anyway,” he added in a low voice, but purposely caused his words to go all the way to the back of the lines of their subordinates.
“And how do you want to decide who leads the charge?” one of the bosses asked with a rueful smile. It was obvious enough to him that his men wouldn’t attack if he didn’t lead them from the forefront, but at the same time, he really didn’t want to die either. There was also the matter of trusting that all six groups would attack simultaneously and one of them wouldn’t slow down or stop to increase their chances of surviving. They were all outlaws for Heaven’s sake! They were inherently incapable of cooperating in any meaningful way. Had they been a regular army, this task of killing two talented kids would have been simplicity in itself.
“We lead the charge, what other choice do we have?” Black Lion replied quietly. “Let’s do it like that. All five of us aim at that meditating kid. We attack at the same time; the one the green-haired monster chooses to attack will be the unlucky one. We kill that black-haired kid, then all swarm the green-haired one. Fine?” he suggested, trying to compromise as much as possible. This plan was a bit reckless, but it gave them a far better chance of survival compared to some aimless charge. It was also simple enough for them to execute.
“Fine.”
“It looks like the most sensible option.”
“Tch.”
The other five bosses all agreed; some of them easier than the others and some with more reluctance, but most importantly they all managed to settle upon one idea. They split up like planned, each of them commanding three hundred of his own strongest subordinates.
Black Lion took one of the two frontal spots and the other four bosses spread to the sides. The two furthermost of them considered sending half of their men to attack from the lake, but the boys were around fifty meters away from the lakeside; since the effects of such a maneuver would be minuscule, if not pointless, they decided against it.
“They actually came to an agreement, how amusing,” Shade said merrily and leaned back, resting his back against the wall. “Do your best, do your best~” he said with a laugh, wondering if those boys would manage to pass the Shadow Trials and in the end and become Shades. The strength Yin displayed was great, but it would still be far too lacking to consider him having passed the Trial of Strength. There was also the need to test the other boy; there was still so much work to do!
Yin groaned at the sight of nearly two thousand bandits surrounding him and Laien. He wanted to make them too scared to attack, but all the effort he had put into making the first clash as gruesome as possible got dismantled by that black-masked man with one decisive command and one threat.
“If you are going to finish anytime soon, then please feel free to do it,” Yin said with a weak smile, backing off all the way until he stood right next to Laien. He took a deep breath, then released the air slowly through his mouth. At the same time, he split a portion of his focus and stirred up a certain portion of his insights, causing a mystical golden rune converged from his and Laien’s accumulated insights into the Principle of Energy to take shape and appear within his soul realm.
The negative aspect of the Principle of Energy had little use to him; the neutral one, he had always been using almost intuitively. The positive aspect… would be exactly what he needed in the predicament he found himself in.
It took the bandits a while to position themselves and to gather the courage, but after about three minutes the six bosses let out rallying cries and led the swarm to attack. From atop the roof of one of the sanctuaries, Shade’s eyes glittered with anticipation. His one hundred and eight Shadows also watched the scene, most of them curious as to what was going to happen.
Yin tightened the grip on the hilts of his twin swords, repeatedly telling himself to wait. Two hundred meters was much too far. One hundred and fifty, the five groups joined into one. One hundred meters, the bandits began slowing down as their leaders had failed to predict the lack of space resulting from nearly two thousand people charging at the same spot. Fifty meters… dangerous, but also not yet…!
Finally, when the six leaders stepped within the range of thirty meters, Yin took a step forward and took a swing with both of his twin swords, his arms crossing at his chest. A white-blue lightning surged around the blades, its strength and quantity far surpassing the usual amount Yin used while fighting. Yin continued to transform more of his Qi into lighting, causing the two masses to grow and spread, forming what looked like two ten-meters long wings behind his back. The charging bandits and their bosses were stunned and terrified by the aura this technique was giving off, but they had no means of stopping.
Twenty meters. It was then when Yin mercilessly swung his twin swords and set the two wings of lightning into motion. A six-meter high cascade of lightning rushed out, forming a deadly crescent of powerful elemental energy. Hundreds of bandits cried out in fear as the lightning hit them, but their cries ended very abruptly as the lightning invaded their bodies and literally burned from them the inside.
The crescent field of lightning kept expanding outwards until it dispersed after eighty meters. The leftover sparks of lightning danced in the air, while hundreds of bodies began dropping to the ground. Those below eighth mortal realm died instantly, while the stronger ones or those who were lucky enough to be further in the back suffered major internal injuries. They weren’t in any kind of state to fight. The power unleashed by this attack had surprised even Yin; he didn’t expect it, but this technique alone had directly killed the bandit bosses and everyone in the front!
Those in the front might have taken a full brunt of the lighting onto them, but for an area of effect technique of a martial artist to be capable of killing martial masters from twenty meters away… it couldn’t be described as monstrous anymore; it was a realm only reached in legends and fairy tales!
“The Raging Storm…” Yin revealed a happy smile as he was hit by a sudden realization. He had finally gained basic insights into one of the Profound Mysteries of Lightning! Paired up with his deep understanding of Aspects and the golden rune supporting his Principle of Energy, the Raging Storm allowed his technique to evolve much further than he had ever thought was possible! The eighty meters range of the crescent was one proof, and the strength of the lightning released was another proof!
Yin smiled a bit more confidently and swept the stunned bandits with his gaze. Not one of the remaining thousand bandits dared to move or to make any slightest sound. They knew that running away meant death, but charging forward was the same thing! Rather, this green-haired monster… no, this abomination terrified them much more than those Shadows! With one attack this youth had killed hundreds of them! What in the world was this kid?!
It was hard to say who moved first, but in a mere few seconds one thousand bandits all turned on their heels and started fleeing for their lives in a crazy stampede. It was too much for them; they just wanted to get out of here and wake up for this damned nightmare!