Bing slowly lowered his shield into the pool of his blood. Chun, Hu Tao, and Bing watched as the shield sucked it up like a swarm of starving mosquitoes. A powerful source of qi was building up inside Bing’s shield. No one but himself knew exactly what was happening. He preferred to keep it this way as well, pulling off this technique required him to lose a vast amount of blood. Shoving all those recovery pills down his gullet does have risks that comes along with the vastly enhanced recovery speed.
The first downside was that controlling his qi would be far more difficult due to the buildup of pill residue inside his body. The second one reduced the effectiveness of any pills further ingested into the body which could range from 50% to 100%. These two drawbacks by themselves force cultivators to carefully think about the near future and whether or not they can handle these risks in battle. Bing didn’t have much of a choice in thinking about taking these risks or not.
He couldn’t very well just run away and leave everyone to die. There were a lot of reasons why he believed that wouldn’t work out for the best for him. So, there was no need for him to list them out. He just had to suck it up and fight to his best ability. Even if there was a voice in the back of his mind constantly whispering to him that he should just run away. Bing shushed this voice by presenting some logic to it.
‘He would be able to catch me no matter how hard I try to run.’ Swift Devil wouldn’t save him from someone as fast as Chun Huan.
“I don’t like how cocky you’ve gotten. I’ll kill you now before you decide to show me anymore surprises.” Chun decided, feeling an unease about Bing’s new confidence.
He suddenly appeared in front of Bing with his blade, intending to chop his neck off.
“I’m really not a fan of fighting strong people...” Bing softly spoke.
Just before Chun’s sword touched his neck, the quick-footed Qi Consolidator halted his strike and rapidly jumped back in fright. Several sharp bones jutted from the ground aimed directly at Chun. The reason why he stopped his attack was because of those bones. If he didn’t, he would’ve been impaled to death.
The bones spread out a large distance around Bing and Chun. Surrounding them in a circular formation. Bing gestured with his hand and rose it upward. His bones danced to his commands and shot forth from the ground high into the sky. They moved like fearsome flying serpents with their movements. A mesmerizing sight that would induce a feeling of terror and despair in the one that was watching them as they came together and formed a dominion of bones. A land filled with diverse shapes and skeletal substances, all controlled by Bing’s will.
Chun and Bing were locked inside a giant cage of bones. There was no escape as far as Chun could tell besides killing Bing. Since that was his plan already, there wasn’t much of a difference this technique did. It did look cool though, he had to admit that.
Chun raced towards Bing once again and slashed at him. But once again his killing attempt was halted by bones! An unusually large bone spike thrusted up from the ground that saved Bing from his strike as it almost skewered him. That was another close call.
‘What the hell is with this piggy?’ Chun thought to himself.
“Inside here, I can control everything you see. I know it seems really strong but I can only use this technique for 30 seconds this time around. So, try to make things easy on me and die within that time.” Bing asked politely.
Immediately after finishing his statement, a bone attempted to pierce Chun from the back of his skull. Sweat dripped down his face after narrowly dodging that dangerous spike. But the danger was far from over for Chun. Chun’s speed and senses were put to the absolute test as countless numbers of deadly osseous materials chased after him. Bing had to motion with his hands to manipulate the bones into homing in on Chun because of his lacking qi control being barely enough to manage this life-threatening technique.
It didn’t matter what direction the speedster tried to run, Bing’s bones appeared in all directions at all times with this domain. Forcing the Qi Consolidator into using most of his qi to deflect lethal strikes from landing on him. Sharp cuts started to appear on his body from the crazy number of spikes coming at him. His speed aided him but in this tight and enclosed space, it was only a matter of time before he was overwhelmed and killed by Bing’s spikes. Or at least, that was what Bing was desperately hoping.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Chun’s constant grin slowly transitioned into a fierce scowl. Ever since the start of their battle, he’s had a cocky smile on his face. Bing was satisfied he managed to push a Qi Consolidator into going all out against him. It might be only because of his shield that he’s still alive right now but it was still something to be proud of in his opinion.
“I can’t believe I actually have to use my full strength in a battle against a Qi Gatherer! No wonder my clan is after your head! With strength like this, it's only a matter of time before you attempt to take revenge!”
“Please die already... My 30 seconds are almost up.” Bing pleaded.
“Not a chance in hell will I die from a Qi Gatherer! Crazy Wind God’s Frenzied Dance!” Bing lost sight of him again.
He sighed in annoyance at how unfair this match up was. He was about to try and just randomly stab places inside the dome but not even a second after he lost sight of the Huan clan member, a distinct clang rang out in his ears. Revealing to him that Chun just tried to murder him again and just figured out that Bing’s body was protected by bones. After not even being able to react to his attack and only surviving due to his cautious nature to protect his life first in every situation, Bing fully encased his body in a suit of armor using bones.
Chun didn’t give up as he unleashed hundreds of sword strikes on Bing’s immobile figure. Bing wished he could also cover his ears from the constant clanging from outside his armor but that would be too much to ask for. He was waiting for Chun to tire himself out, guessing that he couldn’t keep this up for long. Unfortunately, he himself also didn’t have much time left. It was time to fall to his last resort plan. Worst case scenario, he dies and Chun escapes unharmed. Best case scenario, he’s on the brink of life and death and Chun dies. The most likely outcome would be both of them dying.
‘I really hope the Empress has something to bring back the dead...’ Bing hoped with all his heart as he began channeling his qi within his palms.
The amount of qi control needed to simply create this technique was absurd, not to mention using it. Far too much in Bing’s opinion. As a body cultivator, his control over his qi was naturally lacking as there wasn’t a need for him to control qi as adeptly as a qi cultivator would. His body would do most of the work just by flowing qi through certain parts of his body in specific patterns. Bing didn’t need to control, condense, alter, shape, or manipulate much of anything when performing his martial arts.
This was without adding the fact that he downed a lot of recovery pills and mostly shot his already pathetic amount of qi control to hell. It would be a miracle on top of a miracle if he could even pull off this special technique. A miracle he has no choice but to rely on. Without using this, the only thing he could do was lie down and accept his death.
“Haah... I’m so tired... Couldn’t just make it easy on me, could you?” Bing muttered as a miniscule orb flashed in between his palms.
Chun never let up his attacks since the creation of Bing’s bone armor. Bing figured he must be pissed out of his mind. He definitely wouldn’t let him have an easy death. Bing hated pain as well, if he forgot to mention.
“Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!” Chun repeated with such murderous passion.
“Come on...” Bing pleaded to himself.
A small orb flashed in the middle of the hands once again. Bing urged with all his heart for it to stay this time. As far as he could tell, he only had 5 seconds left. Within these 5 seconds, he needed to shape this technique and properly form it with the specific qi elements required.
“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Bing’s nerves rose to the extreme.
It was as if an hourglass was above his head, almost fully emptied from the top half. This was the most stressful situation he’s ever been in and doubted this would be the last either if he somehow survived through this. Knowing the Empress and the rest of his allies, this seemed like it would be something that’ll happen on the regular for them. A small smile appeared on Bing’s face. Maybe he was becoming a bit abnormal as well hanging around them...
“I can’t die now!” He shouted. There was still too much he had to do in this life. He hasn’t even gotten a girlfriend yet! Or kids!
The constantly flickering orb between Bing’s hands finally solidified into something tangible. The sheer amount of qi radiating from something so tiny shocked Chun greatly! He somehow increased the intensity of his sword strikes to get through Bing’s armor faster. Bing fueled the sphere with all of his emotions. He wasn’t even close to having it made completely. In its current state, it wasn’t even a tenth of the way finished.
“But this’ll have to do!” All the bones crumbled into a fine white dust around them, painting the land an ashy white color.
Chun saw the creamy white flesh of Bing and grinned with delight. He aimed a fatal cut towards Bing with his sword infused with qi to increase the sharpness of his attack. Bing gritted his teeth and locked eyes with the Huan bastard after his life. Let’s see if it's his fate to die today.
“Yin of Destruction & Yang of Creation Infinite Sphere!” Bing forcefully brought his palms together.
And then everything went white.