Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 37. The Trial of Strength. (Part III)
“A magical beast!” Shade uttered in an amazed voice. “A human-shaped magical beast!” he repeated the words as if he couldn’t believe his own eyes. He had already been impressed with Yin’s strength, but he would have never expected him to be a genuine human-shaped magical beast! “Silver fur, emerald lightning… I don’t think I’ve ever seen this race of a magical beast. Just where did he come from?” he wondered with a childish smile on his face while wiggling his legs impatiently, acting as if he had just received the best toy in the whole world.
“Aah~ I want to hurry up and go play with him~” Shade said aloud, then tilted his head and glanced at the two numbers at his side. “Go and attack that black-haired kid. Play a little with this wolfie~” he said merrily, his voice alone ascertaining that he had a wide smile on his face. By this point he didn’t care about that black-haired kid anymore; all his attention had shifted towards Yin.
The number twenty-nine and the number twenty-eight prevented their emotions from showing up on their faces just in time to avoid a disaster. Shade was usually quite reasonable despite his strange disposition, especially when dealing with his subordinates… but there were times when Shade simply stopped caring about anything in the world, anything but the one person or thing that rouse his curiosity to a high degree and made him want to play around.
“Yes, Master,” the two of them said obediently, but deep inside were stricken with grief. They saw the ridiculous speed at which this silver wolf moved and even from this distance could tell how terrifying that emerald lightning was. Yet, they were supposed to ‘play’ with this beast? What kind of bad joke was that? How many of them would die during this game? If such an option existed they would have objected to Shade’s command, but they all knew their master’s orders were absolute.
“Thirty is dead,” one of the Shadows from the number thirty’s unit said grimly when the other two units joined them, then laughed when he saw the looks on the newcomers’ faces. “You can feel it now that you are close, eh? This murderous aura is so thick it makes it hard to breathe,” he said helplessly, able to guess what Shade’s orders were without having heard them.
“In master’s words,” the number twenty-nine spoke up. “We are to attack that black-haired kid and play with the wolf,” he said with an ironic smirk.
“As I thought,” the man from the number thirty’s unit said with a sigh. “I know there is no argument to be had when master orders something, but dying here just for master’s amusement isn’t exactly the dream of my life. So, how about we give our best to kill that black-haired kid? This beast will surely protect him to the end; just look at him growling at us and showing us those white, bloody fangs. Well, since the beast will obstruct us… we will be forced to kill it,” he elaborated on his idea, the other Shadows listening to him nodding in support and understanding.
“Master will be in a bad mood for a few days, but he shouldn’t be too angry with us,” the number twenty-eight said wryly. If they actually managed to kill this beast without expending too much of their own blood then Shade would most likely come to think the beast was too lacking, or ‘not destined to survive’ as Shade himself would say.
“If everyone agrees, I suggest the standard hunt-and-kill tactic for dealing with a powerful guard,” the number twenty-nine reaffirmed just to be sure. Those who deserved to call themselves Shadows had all been trained very thoroughly so there shouldn’t have been a need for him to say those words, so the fact that he did could only be prescribed to the amount of pressure he was feeling from the silver-furred magical beast standing guard two hundred meters away from them.
The hundred and two Shadows and the number twenty-eight all remained silent, thus confirming they agreed with the plan that had been put forth.
The number twenty-nine stepped forward and was soon joined by five other Shadows, all of whom similarly specialized in the Shadow Step movement technique and were able to employ it to its utmost efficiency. The six of them steeled themselves as they smiled ruefully; they were truly about to engage an enraged magical beast of the utmost top-class. For any of them alone it would have been a pure act of insanity, but together they had high hopes of succeeding.
“Go,” the number twenty-nine said in a low voice, after what he and the five other Shadows split apart, circling around the spot the wolf and the black-haired boy were in order to attack him from all sides at once. The remaining Shadows also prepared themselves to charge over, but they didn’t close the distance just yet.
“Laien, he is…” Yin forgot himself for a split second as he felt Laien’s very soul shudder violently, but just as quickly stabilize and expand in power. He himself didn’t have a high affinity towards the water element, but he was very sensitive to the natural energy of the world; he could see the countless elemental sparks which had been moving slowly in a vortex around Laien stir up, as if they were extremely excited.
At this moment, however, the six Shadows began their attack. Thanks to his heightened senses, Yin had heard those people speaking just before and was aware which one was the leader and which five were only subordinates. “Just a little longer,” he thought as he roused his Qi to the utmost, the amount of emerald lightning dancing all over his spike silver fur tripling in an instant. He clawed at the rocky ground and rushed at one of the five weaker Shadows; only to be met with the man retreating with his darkness-element movement art without any delay.
Having known this would happen, Yin aided himself with his strands of aura to precisely locate the three men rushing at Laien from behind him. He stepped strongly, then disappeared in a flash of emerald lightning; when he appeared again, he clawed at the head of one of the Shadows. Four lines of lightning arced in the air following his claw, meeting the man before he could even execute his movement technique to flee. His body was split into five bloody pieces and spattered into a mass of roasted flesh.
The number twenty-nine and the remaining four Shadows didn’t blink an eye at the death of their comrade, instead directly targeting the black-haired kid. They passed by Yin with their Shadow Step movement technique and appeared by the black-haired boy’s side, already slashing and thrusting with their weapons.
Their logic had been to make it impossible for this beast to unleash lightning onto them unless the black-haired kid got hit too, but to their shock, the wolf didn’t hesitate at all; he howled, sending an avalanche of clustered emerald lightning into their direction.
The number twenty-nine executed Shadow Step again and retreated sideways, fearing the wave of lightning would go beyond the distance his movement art allowed him to flee. He just barely dodged the attack, his back tingling dangerously with sparks of lightning, but the other four weren’t as lucky. They had chosen to retreat backward and failed to move away far enough; after appearing thirty meters away they attempted to defend themselves with the protective layer of mercury-like Qi, but when they were struck by the lightning their defenses broke like paper and they died instantly.
Three mighty martial masters of the first rank died to a ranged attack… the power of this lightning was indeed terrifying!
“What the?” the number twenty-nine gasped when he noticed that the black-haired boy was perfectly fine despite having taken the brunt of the lightning. Was this beast capable of such a minute control of his technique or was this black-haired kid immune to lightning? None of that made any sense to him, but it wasn’t like he had time to ponder on those questions.
Everything seemed to be going well enough for Yin, but by this point, he had used up nearly two-thirds of his Qi. Yet, that wasn’t his biggest problem at the moment.
Having just released a big technique, Yin was momentarily weakened. The window was less than a second; it was just the time he needed to fill his body with Qi from the Qi Origin again, but the Shadows that had been lying in wait grasped it perfectly. They had begun moving early, so over a dozen of them made it in time to attack; and so they did.
Yin shattered a spear coming at him with his fangs and cleaved away a greatsword, but even he couldn’t simultaneously defend against a dozen of coordinated attacks. His fur and body were tough; tough enough to make it hard for an average martial master of the third rank to wound him, but those Shadows all wielded the power of Aspects and Profound Mysteries. They were clearly stronger than average martial masters of the third, perhaps even fourth rank despite being only at the first Realm of Heroes. Thus, the spears they thrush and the swords with which they slashed cut through Yin’s silver fur, then sank into his skin and muscles.
Yin let out a pitiful scowl as four spears pierced his body from the front. He wanted to protect himself, but didn’t have enough time or strength; a halberdier slashed along his stomach, leaving a large wound and ripping off a piece of meat and fur off of his body; five swords slashed at his torso and limbs, three of them cutting his muscles and two just barely stopping on the bones of his legs.
Before the rest of the Shadows could join the assault or before this dozen struck again, Yin used all his strength to free himself from the spears struck in his front and forced himself to use Lightning Step movement technique to retreat. The emerald lighting surged and he did escape, but his body screamed in pain as did; his wounds got even worse, especially the one on his stomach made by a halberdier and the two bone-deep wounds on his legs. He trembled and fell to the ground, unable to support himself despite the will to fight to the very end.
“Looks like the got him,” the number twenty-nine breathed with relief, having just used the Shadow Step to approach the black-haired boy once more. He worried he might not be able to dodge this beast a second time, but he still had been prepared to divert his attention if needed. He shifted his gaze to the black-haired boy, then sighed inwardly as he swung his sword downward. That human-shaped magical beast did everything in its power to protect this kid, but he didn’t wake up nor did he forcefully stop his breakthrough to help. It was quite a sad thing, but none of it mattered anymore.
Yin, even in this state gazed at the Shadow who was attacking Laien instead of caring about those who were coming over to finish him off. He attempted to stand up, but his legs once again gave away; he still had Qi left, but his physical body no longer had the strength to battle. He howled, the sound carrying anger, pain and helpless frustration, along with a promise of revenge. The sound was so otherworldly that the Shadows coming over to kill him off stopped in their tracks, the fear of a wounded beast’s last desperate assault preventing them from taking even a step closer.
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The number twenty-nine didn’t stop though; he completed the slash and struck Laien’s shoulder… struck Laien’s shoulder… “Eh?” the man blinked, feeling how his sword stopped at the shoulder bone. He used Qi in this attack! This slash should have cut this boy in half! So how did it stop at the bone?
The next second air itself rumbled as the countless water elemental sparks were finally set in motion, all of them happily rushing inside Laien’s body. The accumulation of energy was so high that even the number twenty-nine and the other Shadows started seeing the elemental sparks, the scene causing them to become dumbfounded. Elemental energy could only be slowly absorbed through meditation and practice! There was no way a ridiculously huge amount of it should enter one’s body!
The number twenty-nine was overcome with an imminent sense of danger. He tried to pull his sword out to strike with it again, but to his horror found out that he was unable to do so! He cursed and let of the hilt, but as he wanted to rush away… he felt that his back turned into a stiff board. It took him a moment to understand what was going on, but just as he did the pervasive cold filled his brain and killed him on the spot, soon turning his whole body into an ice statue.
Shade, who had been rather displeased to see his new toy being broken by his ‘children’, trembled in excitement. He smiled widely and licked his lips, his body shaking in ecstasy. To think this trial would have brought him not one, but two great surprises! It really was worth the effort!
“Finally complete,” Laien mused to himself, overcome with the pleasant feeling of advancement. He breathed in, Qi and spiritual energy both coursing through his body and filling it to the very brim. The two energies resonated with each other and blended in, perhaps not becoming one, but behaving like two parts of one whole without any friction between them. “The connection is perfect, they really joined like the fire and water elements in the lake!” he exclaimed in his heart, his martial cultivation based beginning to rise at an astonishing speed.
He felt it instantly break through to the sixth mortal realm, then continue going up and up. It entered seventh, and just then his spiritual cultivation broke through to the eighth!
The ecstatic feeling continued as Laien went through the baptism of water element energy of the world. Two breaths of time later his martial cultivation base advanced once again, leveling itself with the spiritual one and stabilizing at the early eighth mortal realm. With the breakthrough done, Laien opened his eyes and frowned slightly. He controlled a bit of spiritual energy and pushed the sword out of his shoulder, letting it fall onto the frozen ground with a metallic clang. His flesh then regenerated rapidly, the wound disappearing in under one second.
“What happened here?” Laien asked himself, the alarmed but also relieved emotions of Yin’s reaching him through their spiritual bond. He stood up and shoved the frozen black-cloaked man to the ground, where he cracked into quite a few large pieces. Then, he saw Yin… in his magical beast form, miserable and wounded all over. He also saw the bloodied weapons of the black-cloaked men and needed no more explanation. Yin must have protected him and in order to do that, he had gotten himself wounded so badly…! Those black-cloaked people… he would slaughter them all!
The Shadows trembled violently when a wave of bloodthirsty killing intent smashed at them like a tidal wave. The murderous aura of the beast was terrifying, but the killing intent of this boy… it was out of this world! It made them feel as if they were only ants crawling on the ground, waiting to be crushed! They all couldn’t help but start backing off; even their master’s killing intent wasn’t so dreadful! Was this black-haired boy also a monster of some kind?!
“Bastards…” Laien said quietly, his voice filled with raging fury. Without him being aware of it, his insights into the Aspect of Wrath began skyrocketing; but even if he realized it was going on, he wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. He wasted no time and leaped over to Yin and crouched beside him, then put his hand on his silver, spiky fur. The two of them looked at each other, exchanging words and feelings only they would know about or be able to comprehend. At the same time, a large amount of water engulfed Yin’s body and focused on his wounds, which despite their seriousness began disappearing so fast one could see the process with the naked eye.
Truth to be told, even after Laien made his breakthrough his healing capabilities shouldn’t have been so high and in fact, they weren’t. It was only because of the Blood Pact between him and Yin that he found it as easy to heal Yin as to regenerate wound on his own body; Yin’s lightning wouldn’t wound Laien unless Yin wanted it to do that and by the looks of it, the other way around was true too! This discovery was something new to Laien and it made him wonder why Yin hadn’t mentioned it earlier… but he also didn’t find it as easy to heal Yin before today.
When all his wounds disappeared, Yin transformed back into his human form and covered his body with his usual set of clothes. He took out his twin swords and stood up, and so did Laien, the two of them readying themselves to battle. Although Yin could use his emerald lightning only in his magical beast form, the Qi consumption of that lightning was too high. Additionally, his magical beast transformation brought certain advantages, but also certain limitations. It simply wasn’t suited to fighting those Shadows, especially when he no longer was standing alone.
“Think you can hold up for a bit longer?” Laien asked, knowing that Yin’s body will be weakened after healing. Most likely Yin would be able to use only sixty to seventy percent of his full strength, but without him, it would be hard to deal with this large group of black-cloaked men. After all, over seventy of them were martial masters of the first rank! To have had wounded Yin so badly they needed to be uncommonly strong martial masters too.
“I’m fine,” Yin said with a slight smile. “I will leave most of the fun to you, okay?” he added with a laugh, to what Laien smirked in response.
“I got it, let’s go,” Laien said and roused both his Qi and spiritual energy at once, making full use of the martial art he had come up with. He withdrew his white spear which was soon covered by a layer of white frost, but this time his preparations didn’t end at that. His skin began turning pale-white, the air near his body turning into white mist from the cold his skin alone released. His black eyes were clouded with white, making his pupils display a strange mixture of white and black colors; even his hair changed, most of it turning silvery in color with some strands of black mixed in.
“Feels good…” Laien murmured, the sensation of power in his body intoxicating his senses. Yet, even though he relaxed, his hatred didn’t die down the slightest bit. He took a step forward, the ground freezing over as he did. He lowered his stance and kicked the ground, moving at a speed only one, perhaps two levels slower than Yin at his full strength!
Yin didn’t fall behind either and charged forward, lightning dancing on the blades of his twin swords. He was rather tired, so all the speed he could muster was just about equal to Laien’s current speed; it was just enough to allow them to fight together freely!
The Shadows didn’t know what to do in this situation. They didn’t want to fight those two anymore, but they had no clear orders and Shade was staying silent too. Now that those two boys attacked them, they had no choice but to engage in a fight! Most of them were too mentally tried to think about anything complicated; since their master wasn’t saying anything they would just try to kill those two abominations and be done with it! That green-haired boy needed to be running on the last fumes, he shouldn’t be able to fight for long!
Laien laughed deep inside when he saw the old woman he had targeted attempt to block his spear with her sword. He simply adjusted the aim a little and thrust the spear out with a single hand, knocking the woman’s blade aside and piercing her chest through. He then quickly pulled out and shifted his attention to the rest of his enemies; as for the woman, her heart and most of her internal organs had been frozen solid. She was as dead as one could be while still standing up.
“Oho,” Laien noticed five black-cloaked men using a movement technique to attack him from the back and from the sides. In the past, he would have been in serious trouble, but now he wasn’t worried in the slightest. He didn’t even use his Guardian to employ magic; he thrust his spear again, killing one of the men the very instant he reemerged from within the shadows. He sensed one more of them being struck down by Yin, but that still left three attacks flying at his body, didn’t it?
A spear and two swords Landed at various parts of Laien’s body, but mostly around his torso. Of course, Lain wasn’t confident enough to take them head-on so he had moved a bit as to not take the full force of those attacks, and that was enough. When those darkness-engulfed weapons managed to hit, their blows carried perhaps half of their original strength with only one being at about eighty percent as it did land well.
The three Shadows rejoiced at first, but their faces soon turned ugly as they realized the sensation of cutting flesh wasn’t there. Instead, it was as if they had all struck at a huge chunk of steel! To their shock, all the strongest of their blows did was draw a bit of blood from Laien’s back, whereas the other two had only cut his clothes and left merely two white marks on his skin!
Before the three of them had a chance to be properly frightened, three small spikes of ice formed in the air and shot out towards their chests so fast they had no time to react at all. The small spikes weren’t too powerful and even a normal protection of Qi could destroy them, but they were simply too fast! They easily pierced through those three’s chests and ruptured their hearts, thus ending their lives!
The Shadows who saw this first exchanged unfold in such a catastrophic manner all grew desperate. Feeling they had nothing to lose they attack en masse, a dozen of them striking both at Laien and Yin at the same time. Either they killed those boys or they died! There was no other way out of this situation!
Laien smirked, pulling upon a huge amount of his Qi and spiritual energy. He drew almost thirty percent of both at once, but he didn’t feel overexerted at all! In the past using half of his spiritual power in one magic caused him to suffer greatly, but now he was using a power larger than that without any backlash! It simply felt too amazing to have all their energy course through his body!
An image of a man releasing a Forbidden Spell flashed past his eyes as he prepared to unleash the magic he was preparing. “Freezing Nova,” he called out the name in his thoughts, releasing a huge amount of chilling wind in all directions! The spiritual energy and Qi flooded the air, joining together and enhancing each other; the moisture in the air in the area of hundreds of matters converged into falling shards of ice as the freezing air spread around.
Those Shadows that were closest to Laien all turned into statues of ice, while those who were further away suffered heavy injuries. There were about twenty of them who had defended successfully though; and as they did, they watched their comrades fall over, half-dead or dying. This magic released by that black-haired… no, silver-black-haired boy was too frightening! It was even scarier than those wings of lightning the green-haired kid had used before!
“Tch, I can’t control it at all,” Laien grumbled aloud. Had it not been for his lacking ability, he should have been able to turn all those black-cloaked men into shards of ice. However, he had quickly lost control of his spell and only killed those closest to him. What wounded the others was a chaotic ‘puff’ of the cold air mixed with his Qi and spiritual energy, but still, all in all, the result was satisfactory.
Those twenty odd Shadows who survived the Forbidden Magic released by Laien began retreating step by step, their very souls overcome with fear. They had never seen monsters so powerful! What kind of ‘Trial of Strength’?! This was unfair to the point of slaughter! They might not have been elites of the Shadows under Shade’s control, but they were still exceptionally powerful! And yet almost all of them had been killed by two twelve-year-old youths! This was… this was… beyond anything that could be expressed in words!
Laien smirked again, then exchanged a glance with Yin as they walked out of the immediate field of frozen black-cloaked men.
The twenty remaining Shadows, with the number twenty-eight amongst them no longer spared time for thinking. They started running away as fast as they could, retreating all the way to the sanctuaries. With their strength they couldn’t hold a candle to those two monsters; they needed to rely on the protection of their master.
As for who was stronger between Shade and those two youths… despite being frightened of the two, they had no doubts. Shade was the stronger one, and overwhelmingly so!