"Let's play, shall we?"

||||||---

Before Yi Shan has the chance to free himself from being lodged to the tree, a water blade nears his shoulder.

Yi Shan unsheathes his sword, cutting the water blade in half.

He creates a Gang Sphere and destroys the tree he's stuck in to free himself.

Boom.

An explosion occurs as the Gang Sphere breaks apart the tree into hundreds of small pieces.

After being freed from the tree, Yi Shan finds himself staring at a fist flying toward him, a gift from the burly man.

Yi Shan sidesteps the fist and delivers an elbow strike mixed with Gang Qi towards the man's arm.

"Oomph!"

'Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit you too hard?'

At that comment, the burly man's already bulging vein throbbed, swelling even further with barely contained fury.

'He's easily angered. How'd he live to reach Qi Building?'

He then recalled the punch thrown earlier and wasted no time questioning further, leaping just in time to dodge another blow rocketing toward his chest.

He spun mid-air, his leg slicing through the air before his foot connected with the man's head.

"Ow!"

The screams, however, did not come from the burly man—they belonged to Yi Shan.

He immediately air walks away from the burly man's location.

'Is his head made of steel?'

Another water blade is thrown towards his location as he's air walking away.

He reached for his sheath, drew his sword, and slashed through the water blade, splitting it in two.

'I think I know who that is. Have those two arrived?'

'I guess I should get ready to enact my plan.'

He looks over again to the burly man which he ran from and a glint appears in his eyes as he looks at him.

"Perfect."

He halts mid-air, balancing with bursts of Gang Qi propulsion, then launches himself toward the burly man.

Midway through, he calmly sheaths his sword.

With a swift motion, he summons two Gang Spheres, enveloping them in a dense layer of Gang Qi.

He molds the Gang Qi into the shape of a bow, notching the Gang Spheres like arrows.

Without hesitation, he aims at a particular bush and releases the Gang Spheres, sending them hurtling toward it.

'That'll keep him busy.'

He turns his head back towards his prey.

The burly man, not fond of his tactics leaps after Yi Shan.

Both of them rocket toward each other like falcons.

The burly man makes the first move and throws a fist as they near each other.

Yi Shan skillfully dodges the fist and attacks using 6 Gang Spheres aimed at the man's stomach.

"Argh!"

A wisp of the energy in the punch thrown by the man floats around Yi Shan.

He immediately disperses it all towards his surroundings.

The burly man envelops his hand in metal Qi and attacks Yi Shan.

Yi Shan leaped onto the burly man's hand, balancing on it for the second time.

"You leave your arm open too much, you know. It's my second time seeing this view; I thought you'd learn but I guess third time's the charm, right?"

The burly man already extremely aggravated does not notice the metal Qi leaving his hand.

A relentless back-and-forth ensued between Yi Shan and the burly man, an eternal cycle of strikes and counters that seemed destined never to end.

'This guy is the perfect fuel source.'

A smug smile could be seen on Yi Shan's face as he dodges all of the man's strikes with ease.

The burly man having seen enough of Yi Shan's shenanigans envelops his entire body in metal Qi.

The smug smile on Yi Shan's face faded as he sensed danger.

'This can't be good, can it?'

Yi Shan immediately protects himself with a layer of Gang Qi and prepares a healing talisman just in case.

The burly man's body starts to bulge as the layer of metal Qi that covers his body starts to expand.

The metal Qi transforms into tiny spikes laid over his entire body.

The burly man then spoke his first words since the beginning of the fight.

"Baek Clan: Body Technique."

"Metallic Hell."

As he uttered his final words, the spikes adorning his body began to detach one by one, launching themselves in different directions around him.

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A barrage of spikes hurtled toward Yi Shan with terrifying speed.

Swiftly regaining his composure, he began to dodge the incoming projectiles.

Performing the Dance of the Graceful Maiden, he evades most of the spikes.

However, the keyword here is "most," as a few still found their way into Yi Shan's body.

Yi Shan glanced at his body and noticed the spikes embedded in his left arm and stomach.

'If Min-i found out I wasn't able to dodge them all, she'd kill me.'

A shiver ran down his spine as memories of the gut-wrenching lessons Min-i had put him through resurfaced.

He turned his gaze to his opponent, who appeared exhausted from expending a massive amount of Qi.

"Tsk." said the burly man.

An annoyed grunt escaped the burly man upon realizing his attack hadn't finished Yi Shan.

'Is he upset that he didn't hurt me more? He injured an arm!'

In that moment, Yi Shan was hit by the same realization he had encountered every time he fought with cultivators.

'Inhuman.'

Just like when he faced the Six-Eared Monkey, he came to understand one thing about the great deities known as cultivators.

Inhuman.

Baek Shen, Baek Long, Baek Wu, Baek Meng, and all the other cultivators he had battled shared a singular trait.

They were inhuman.

Beings capable of turning the ocean with a mere flick of their hand.

How could a mortal martial artist possibly best the harbingers of calamity, you may ask?

What could the puny martial artist use to defeat those great beings?

Themselves.

Yi Shan starts to control the energy he had stolen from the burly man. The Qi that was once metal is now pure refined sword energy.

The two opponents lock eyes as they stand hovering in the air.

The burly man tries to attack Yi Shan but is stopped by dense sword energy.

The burly man is exhausted after using the secret body technique of the Baek Clan and can't find an opening to attack Yi Shan.

Yi Shan focuses the Qi on his sword and begins his assault.

9 Gang Spheres rotate around his sword along with the Qi stolen from the burly man.

Yi Shan begins with a downwards slash.

He then blocks the vision of the burly man using dense sword Qi also fogging his divinse sense in the process.

He makes a sword lunge towards the burly man's stomach.

The burly man is able to dodge but wasn't able to prevent any injuries.

Yi Shan begins a myriad of sword moves towards his opponent.

He aims towards his left shoulder.

Cut.

He spins in the air and makes circular patterns with his sword.

A dozen cuts is made from the spinning barrage on the burly man.

He attempts but Yi Shan predicts exactly where he'll dodge.

The burly man angered by Yi Shan's dominance in the fight gives out a powerful punch.

Yi Shan doesn't dodge this time and instead blocks with his sword.

He parries his fist and makes a giant sideways slash across his chest.

Slash, slash, slash.

Dozens of sword wounds appear on the burly man as Yi Shan keeps on with his onslaught of sword attacks.

The burly man attempts to grab Yi Shan with his gigantic hand.

Yi Shan ducks the hand and accumulates the stolen Qi on his hand.

"Have a taste of what metal feels, will ya?"

His attack leaves shockwaves that even the burly man isn't able to swat away.

While still ducking, Yi Shan prepares to do a horizontal strike when a giant water tentacle grazes him.

He dodges the water tentacle but loses the initiative against the burly man as a consequence.

Baek Wu is seen standing on the ground with dozens of water tentacles propping from his back.

The burly man grabs Yi Shan as a counter and begins plummeting towards the ground.

Yi Shan coils around the burly man and is now the one pushing towards the ground.

The burly man smiles as spikes appear on his chest which soon eject themselves and dart towards Yi Shan.

Yi Shan jumps off of the burly man and lands opposite to the spot where Baek Wu and the burly man are stationed.

"Uncle Long, could you be more careful about where you throw your spikes next time? They hurt like hell, and you know it."

These words were spoken nonchalantly by Baek Wu, the individual with water tentacles sprouting from his back, as he casually pulled a spike from his leg.

"Did you give the artifact to Baek Meng?"

Baek Long asked Baek Wu with impatience

"Did it as soon as we arrived."

Baek Long thought for a moment before answering in a hoarse voice.

"He should be close to finishing the formation then."

"Should be or we'll be in a sticky situation."

Baek Wu glared at Yi Shan, who wore an innocent expression in response to Baek Wu's hate-filled gaze.

The glare seemed to have struck a cord in Baek Wu as he immediately hurtled one of his water tentacles towards Yi Shan.

Yi Shan dodged the water tentacle by moving slightly to the side.

"So, Wu-wu, still can't aim, I see."

Baek Wu retaliated by hurling a water tentacle sideways at Yi Shan, but he evaded it with a simple hop.

"Jump rope? Nice one, Wu-wu."

"Silence, thief. You stole our clan's ancestral whetstone. Don't feign ignorance in front of us."

"Stole? Wu-wu, you bet the stone as the prize in our fight whereas I bet my life."

"It was a fair deal but you didn't keep your end of the promise."

Yi Shan is then seen ducking the fist of Baek Long who had snuck up behind Yi Shan during Baek Wu and Yi Shan's conversation.

"Sneak attacks are no fair you know."

Yi Shan then uses his sword the slice the tendons of Baek Long's left shoulder.

"This one is payback, kay."

Yi Shan then uses the back of Baek Long to propel himself onto a nearby tree.

Baek Wu hurls his tentacles towards the tree where Yi Shan landed.

He leaps off the tree onto a nearby one.

Boom!

The tree that he just left exploded from the force of Baek Wu's attack.

Yi Shan uses some healing talismans from his bag to heal his injuries as he dodges Baek Wu's water tentacle onslaught.

He prepares to jump trees again when a tentacle blocks his path mid jump.

Yi Shan smiles and slashes through it landing safely on the tree.

'Learning now, are we?' Yi Shan thinks as the tree he just left exploded into tiny pieces.

The burly man appears out of nowhere and strikes Yi Shan.

He blocks with his sword but is launched backwards by the strike.

The strike sent him crashing to the spot where he had dueled with Baek Shen.

As he lands, a tentacle from Baek Wu is flying towards him.

He cuts it and at the same time dodges a strike from the burly man who had just launched himself from the tree and towards Yi Shan.

He drove his sword into Baek Long's injured shoulder and, using Gang Spheres, severed it cleanly from his body.

"ARGH!"

A blood-curdling scream is heard from Baek Long as his arm is severed off.

Yi Shan is then seen dodging several water tentacles sprouting from Baek Wu's back.

As he's dodging the tentacles mid-air, a blinding rainbow light could be seen shooting towards him.

Yi Shan senses immense danger and dread covers him from head to toe.

He lands on the ground and immediately activates the Eighth Move of the Plum Blossom Bloom technique.

'I'll die if I don't use it now.'

Yi Shan knew that if he didn't commit fully that he'd be dead where he stood.

Eighth Move: Plum Blossom Bloom.

All of the sword energy gathered by Yi Shan ever since the beginning of his fight with Baek Meng is used to make a shield ahead of Yi Shan.

Soon the rainbow light reaches Yi Shan and slams against his shield.

The shield lasts for a few seconds before beginning to crack.

The rainbow light slams against the shield like a giant typhoon.

A natural disaster one could say.

Yi Shan tries thinking of a way through.

He can't.

Yi Shan could only see the road to death ahead.

That was until.

::Do it::

Yi Shan regains some bit of sense as he hears someone calling out to him.

::Do it::

Yi Shan tries to act like he didn't hear what the voice said and accepts his death.

Until...

A rough hand pats his back and pushes him forward.

"But my swo-"

Yi Shan tries to stop the pushing when.

Another hand appears and pushes him forward.

The hand of a woman Yi Shan was familiar with.

The hand of Min Hua.

"It'll be fine, you'll be fine, now go." The woman replies in an impatient tone.

Yi Shan can't bring himself to attack with his already worn-down sword.

"It'll break." Yi Shan says with a single tear falling from his face.

"It won't"

The woman softly replied.

"Do we have to take care of everything for you? Pampered brat."

A monkey with six ears appears behind Yi Shan pushes him forward again.

"Now go, shoo. You're wasting my time."

Yi Shan finally steels his resolve.

At the same time the shield breaks and the light arrives at his doorstep.

He swings.

He swings the blade he cherished more than anyone in the whole wide world.

His blade.

His sword combined with leftover energy fights with the rainbow light weakened by his shield.

The sword and rainbow light clash.

To Yi Shan, the clash felt longer than any other clash in his life.

It finally ended after what felt like an eternity

Yi Shan's blade had pierced the light.

The light disperses as Yi Shan is the only one standing looking at the stunned Baek Clan members who's mouths are open at the spectacle.

Crack.

Cracks appear on Yi Shan's blade until finally.

Shatter.

His blade shattered.

Thousand Demon Blade (4)