There were very few people who could truly claim to be able to look death in the eyes with defiance.

Battle-hardened warriors who have encountered death so many times that it no longer struck fear in them. People who’ve lost everything and had nothing else to lose. People who’ve made peace with the fact that they were about to die, but were willing to accept that fact with open arms. People who were so powerful that they were confident

Only the most heroic, the most insane, the most dedicated, the most powerful, etc.

Lin Siyuan fell under none of those categories.

He was just a simple relic smith. A beginner relic smith who had started cultivating barely half a year prior. And sure, he had managed to do what nobody else had managed to do before, that is forge his own body and nascent soul into a relic, but he barely had any time at all to explore or make use of his newfound abilities.

In the face of an unpredictable, yet incomparably bright future, he had no desire or reason to seek death.

Thus, in the face of it, he was caught woefully unprepared.

As the tier 5 snake demon loomed over him and Luo Han, Siyuan was completely frozen, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open as the demon’s killing intent swept over the two like a tidal wave. His sword was barely in his grip, in danger of dropping out of it at any moment.

“Welp,” Luo Han says “We’ve officially stepped foot into the worst case scenario. We’re still in its aura, but now it’s pissed off.”

Siyuan didn’t respond. His fingers twitched slightly around the hilt of his blade, but he was still stock still as a statue, frozen out of fear. Even as the snake raised its tail once again to bring it down on the two cultivators, he remained completely unresponsive.

“Siyuan!”

Luo Han’s voice cut through his daze. He looked up just in time to see the large shadow of the snake’s tail blade slamming right down towards him.

He instinctively flinched, raising his guard and closing his eyes despite knowing full well how futile it would be to guard against an attack from a beast of this strength. Right before he felt any heavy impact however, he felt somebody grab the back of his robe’s collar and forcefully pull him to the side, nearly causing Siyuan to lose his footing.

He opened his eyes just as a very loud BOOM resounded throughout the open plains. His eyes widened when he saw Luo Han standing in front of him.

“Luo Han!” he exclaimed.

But then, he noticed that his posture was off. His upper body was straight, but he seemed a bit shorter than he was supposed to be?

Siyuan looked down. His eyes widened at what he saw.

One of Luo Han’s legs was bloodied and bent at an unusual angle. Luo Han himself was breathing hard, his teeth grit. Despite the amount of pain he must have been at that moment, he made no other sound than some quiet, pained grunting.

“Luo Han! Your leg!” Siyuan exclaimed.

“Yeah, that last attack grazed me,” Luo Han says with a slight hiss of pain. “That damn snake was definitely holding back earlier. Even if I were in top condition, I wouldn’t be able to match its speed. Much less now.”

Siyuan felt his throat become dry. If the two of them had even the tiniest sliver of a chance of getting away before, now, they didn’t even have that anymore! He felt himself beginning to hyperventilate.

I don’t want to die! I’m still too young! What can I do, what can I do…

He was about to call Luo Han’s name again, but before he could, Luo Han turned around and laid a hand on his shoulder. Despite the solemn situation the two of them were in, there was a reassuring smile on his face. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips and the side of his head, but he paid that no mind.

“I’m so sorry, Siyuan,” he said. He turned his head to spit out a glob of blood. “If I hadn’t suggested that you come along with me, then you wouldn’t be stuck here in this situation with me. But don’t worry.”

He lightly squeezes Siyuan’s shoulder.

“No matter what, I’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

The battle cultivator’s words brought Siyuan a slight sense of relief. That was at least until he got the slight implication behind Luo Han’s words.

“No matter what, I’ll find a way to get you out of here…at any cost.”

He didn’t have time to dwell on that before Luo Han forcefully pulled him to the side just as the ground suddenly exploded under the two. Luo Han released his hand from Siyuan’s shoulder before moving it down to the hilt of the sword at his hip. For the first time since they left the Mystic River sect that morning, he drew his blade.

A long, sleek blade emerged from the sheath. The sword looked identical to any other spiritsteel on the surface, but as was any relic made from Siyuan’s own two hands, it was anything but.

Wind exploded from all around Luo Han’s body as his qi flared up once again. He reared his sword back.

The entirety of it began to glow with potent qi before…

Luo Han suddenly grabs onto Siyuan’s collar again and the two go soaring off to the side. Right after that, the snake swung its tail and swept it over the ground the two cultivators were standing on not an instant before. Not giving the two a chance of a reprieve, it immediately raises its tail blade and swings it down onto the two.

Luo Han doesn’t dodge, however. He simply looks defiantly up at the incoming tail and, despite it being way out of the blade’s range, swings his sword at it.

A loud whoosh could be heard before, mysteriously, a long, horizontal gash suddenly appeared along the underside of the snake’s tail out of nowhere. The snake let out a pained hiss as its tail was parried upwards.

“Prepare another arrow, Siyuan!” he exclaimed. “I’m going to blast it right about…”

Siyuan quickly nodded before closing his eyes and clapping his hands together. A bright, golden aura surrounded his body as he began to gather qi into his hands once again. Luo Han reared back his blade, its sharp point pointed right at the beast as it recovered. Qi exploded from all around his body before…

“Now!”

He thrust his blade forward.

The sword relic that Luo Han currently held in his hand held an unusual purpose. Unlike other swords, its blade wasn’t the part of the sword that was meant to inflict harm upon the opponent. Rather, the blade was meant to serve as a mere base. A base on which its user could create a blade of sheer qi out of!

Manifesting sturdy, physical objects out of just qi alone was an achievement that even the most advanced experts in the land had difficulty with. Such a skill required not only a naturally abnormal source of qi from which to pull from, but also a very high level of qi control. Even then, in most cases, it was highly inadequate as projected items made of qi were, most of the time, fragile and hard to maintain for long periods of time. Far inferior to relics.

That is, if it was done without aid.

When Siyuan was forging this sword relic, long before he even thought of giving it to the battle cultivator, he had this in mind. That was the whole concept of the relic, to act as a template from which one can create a blade of qi around. It wasn’t exactly the same as creating a qi blade out of nowhere, but it served the same utility as a blade of qi, that is being as durable as any other sword, but with the added benefit of elemental affinity.

However, such a relic was very simple to make and far below Siyuan’s standards and something even completely uneducated smiths would have no trouble making. In fact, a relic didn’t even really need a core in order to carry out that purpose. So, he added a secondary purpose to it: to act as a “catalyst.”

A “catalyst” that would strengthen the qi formed around the “template,” that is the qi blade. Not only would it strengthen the qi blade, making it stronger and more durable, it would also allow the user to massively increase its size. And since the blade was made of qi, there was no problem with the hilt not being big enough to support the blade.

In essence, although it was fairly simple compared to the more advanced relics out there, it was still a very effective tool to a battle cultivator. A very large-bladed sword that was also no heavier than any other sword and had an elemental affinity made for a fairly simple, yet effective weapon.

When he was planning out this relic’s design, he had meant for it to be a one and done project to qualify getting into the Mystic River sect’s beginner relic smithing class, not a weapon to keep and tend to over a long period of time. Thus, convenience of use wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he forged it. Had he not met Luo Han right after he was admitted into the school, he would have sold it off. This was because, to him at least, it was simply too dangerous to use.

As he was testing it, he found that there was a slight flaw in its design. He had made the template from which to form the blade from and the catalyst of which to enhance it, but he had forgotten about something to allow the blade to maintain its shape. Qi was’t physical, so in order for it to maintain a constant shape, there had to be something that kept it in that shape. Thus, the qi “blade” wasn’t really a blade. Rather, it was a large mass of congealed qi, not escaping the blade simply because of the template that held it in. This led to the qi blade not being one rigid shape in the form of a blade, but rather flexible.

A flexible blade was unseen before in the cultivation world. Relics could grant a spiritsteel weapon supernatural properties, but it wouldn’t change the fact that spiritsteel was spiritsteel, a rigid metal. By accident, Siyuan had made a revolutionary weapon and not even he knew that. It wasn’t exactly easy to use, however. When Siyuan gave it a test run out of curiosity, he had immediately projected a fully sized qi blade on complete accident, swung it around just a bit too hard, and nearly got his sword arm lopped off as the blade looped around his body and nearly sliced right through his shoulder. That was the day he found out just why blades, very sharp, harmful blades, were made rigid.

Luo Han, however, was obviously far superior to Siyuan in terms of combat skill. A weapon that Siyuan nearly crippled himself using looked as if it was merely another part of Luo Han’s body.

As the battle cultivator thrust his sword in the snake’s direction, wind exploded all around his body. At the same time, as his qi blade formed, it blasted forward from the sword relic’s hilt.

Luo Han’s elemental affinity was that of wind. Thus, his qi held the properties of wind. That included being almost completely invisible.

Thus, the snake beast quite literally didn’t know what hit it when a large, invisible mass of qi suddenly slammed right into its body, blasting it backwards.

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But Luo Han wasn’t done yet. He roared, following that thrust up with a fierce sideways slash.

The thrust was undoubtedly powerful, but not quite powerful enough to even break through the snake demon’s tough skin. Luo Han’s follow-up slash, however, was enough.

The sideways slash left a long, horizontal gash along the snake’s body, causing it to hiss in pain. Taking its first really harmful blow of the fight, it was inevitable that it would be caught by surprise by the sudden development.

“Now, Siyuan!” he shouted. “Right in the eye!”

At that moment, Siyuan’s eyes snapped open. He immediately aimed the tip of his sword at the snake’s head. A spark of yellow energy appeared at the sword’s tip for just an instant before, with a loud boom, an “Arrow” was fired from the blade. One just as vibrant and powerful as his previous one.

The transition was done perfectly. Not even a second passed between Luo Han’s attack and the firing of Siyuan’s “Arrow.” Concerning that, should Siyuan’s “Arrow” hit, it wouldn’t have been incorrect to assume that Luo Han’s plan might have worked. Even against an angered Aura Manifestation beast.

However, Luo Han had made a fatal miscalculation.

The demon before him was a snake. If there was anything at all that snakes were known for, it was their speed.

Luo Han had put all of his strength into that last attack of his. Assured that when he projected his qi blade forward, it would do so with the most force he could possibly muster. Making sure that the sharp blade would be able to dig into the snake’s flesh before tearing a gash into it. A seemingly trivial wound that took all of his strength, but one that he thought would be enough regardless.

Except, it wasn't. Against a beast of the Aura Manifestation realm, Luo Han’s attack was still too weak.

The snake came back to its senses quickly. Much more quickly than Luo Han had thought.

Thus, just as Siyuan’s “Arrow” was about to hit it, it came back to its senses and very rapidly moved sideways, cleanly dodging it.

The bright, golden arrow, crackling with energy, shot into the empty air like a second star. Meanwhile, both Luo Han and Siyuan’s eyes widened.

“Huh?” Luo Han said. “S*%t!”

This time, when the snake attacked, it showed off why snakes were known for their speed.

When it attacked, it was so quick that even Luo Han just barely saw it coming.

The snake’s tail thrusted forward, tearing through the earth under it. Luo Han’s eyes widened before he grabbed the collar of Siyuan’s robe. Wind exploded all around them before the two disappeared just before the snake’s blade could reach them.

Luo Han and Siyuan appeared a good distance away. Just as they did, Luo Han suddenly fell forward. Before he could fall too far, he planted his sword into the ground, using it as support. He was on one knee, both hands gripped tightly around his sword relic’s hilt. He was breathing very hard, sweat running profusely down his face.

Siyuan’s eyes widened as he rushed forward to support his friend. It was very obvious to see that the battle cultivator was starting to experience the symptoms of qi deviation from having such a depleted qi supply. He was quick to dig a qi recovery pill out of his robe and force it into Luo Han’s mouth. The battle cultivator swallowed the pill. He patted Siyuan’s hand as a light aura of wind returned to his body, slowly getting back onto his feet and pulling his sword from the ground, and getting back into a defensive stance.

However, anybody could see that the battle cultivator was not in a sufficient state for another lengthy exchange with the Aura Manifestation beast. The qi recovery pill might have helped Luo Han recover his exhausted qi supply, but it didn’t do much to help with his physical exhaustion.

Having dodged multiple attacks and exchanged blows with a beast two cultivation realms above him, it could only be expected that he would be running low on energy.

That was when the snake demon returned its attention to the two cultivators. As Luo Han prepared himself once again to take on the beast, Siyuan couldn’t help but see that the battle cultivator was in no condition at all to fight against the Aura Manifestation beast. And with one leg not in good condition, it couldn’t be said that they could even run if they needed to.

At that moment, after two failed escape attempts which had taken them all that they had, when their situation had become the worst since the cultivators first came face-to-face with the Aura Manifestation demon, Siyuan was met with a miserable truth.

The next exchange of blows…could only end with Luo Han’s death.

Even with the powerful battle cultivator standing before him protectively, apprehension was beginning to flood his mind. Before the two began truly battling with the demon, he already had such an idea. But now, after their failed escape attempts, he was truly starting to feel the hopelessness. Not only that, Luo Han was injured and exhausted and Siyuan, although he was in a better condition, knew he wasn’t even nearly strong enough to exchange blows with an Aura Manifestation demon.

And with Luo Han’s death…will come his own.

Fear of death began to encroach on him once again. It threatened to freeze him in place once again as he saw the inevitability of their situation.

No matter how he saw it, it was simply impossible that both of them would make it out of this place alive.

At that moment, he suddenly froze. But this time, it wasn’t in fear.

Months ago, before Siyuan had locked himself inside of his own room and went over dozens of years worth of research, Luo Han had said something that planted the idea of smithing a relic out of himself into his head. When he heard Luo Han say that, the idea struck him like a bolt of lightning. It left him so mesmerized in his own thoughts that he was left frozen in place.

In this very situation, that exact same thing happened.

And when it struck him, he immediately knew what to do.

Before he could even gather his own thoughts, his legs suddenly propelled themselves forward, as if out of his control.

In front of them, the snake opened up its large jaws, baring its large, sharp fangs at the two and letting out a very loud hiss. It immediately shot forward at blinding speeds, its whole body a mere blur as it shot towards the two cultivators. When it moved, it moved fast. Faster than Luo han had ever seen it move before. So fast that not even he could fully see it. By the time Luo Han realized that it had moved, the snake had already thrusted its tail blade right at the battle cultivator.

Before his eyes could even do so much as widen, however, he was suddenly shoved to the side.

In the very next instance, in front of Luo Han’s very wide eyes, the snake speared its tail blade right through the figure who had suddenly taken his place.

The figure of his trusted friend and personal relic smith, Lin Siyuan.

He could only watch in shock as he finally saw Siyuan, the tail’s sharp tip having driven itself right through its body. The smith’s eyes widened momentarily as he coughed out blood. His sword dropped out of his hand.

“Siyuan?!” he shouted. His voice was wrought with panic as he registered what had just happened right before him.

The relic smith couldn’t have possibly imagined how painful it would be to have a blade driven right through his abdomen. It was hard to breathe, as every time he took in a breath, a searing pain shot throughout his whole body from his abdomen.

Yet, despite that, there was a smile on his face. A gentle, reassuring smile.

He turned his head to Luo Han, who was staring at the smith with surprise and horror. His mouth hung open as his sword lay loose at his side.

When he and Luo Han began to face off against this beast, when Siyuan felt that there was no hope in escaping from it, Luo Han had turned to him with a very similar expression. A smile of confidence, and a reassurance that everything was going to be okay. In the face of what might as well have been death itself, he remained courageous. And that courage was infectious, spreading to Siyuan and soothing him of his apprehension.

He was afraid. Afraid to die. Afraid to have his life ended with still so much to look forward to. But at that time, Siyuan realized, Luo Han must have also been afraid to die, in contrary to what he assumed. Standing before something that was so much stronger than he was, with nothing but himself to protect Siyuan. Yet he didn’t back down. He was calm and collected as he faced the demon and formulated a plan.

Now, Siyuan would do the same.

I’m sorry, Luo Han. You know as much as I do that it is impossible that both of us will make it back to the sect alive.

A golden aura appeared around his body as he mustered up his qi. As he was lifted into the air, he closed his eyes and clapped his hands together.

If you try to escape with me, you will be too slow. I’ll just be nothing more than a deadweight who will slow you down. But if you were on your own, you would be able to escape, right?

Of course, Luo Han couldn’t read Siyuan’s thoughts. However, Luo Han was smart. It didn’t take him long to realize what Siyuan wanted to do.

And what Siyuan wanted him to do.

Everything around the battle cultivator seemed to slow down to a mere crawl. His eyes were wide as he watched Siyuan be lifted into the air by the snake’s tail, up to its mouth. The snake began to open its large jaws, as if deciding to swallow the cultivator whole. Luo Han knew that he should do something. At the very least, do something to leave Siyuan’s body in one piece so that he could give the smith a proper burial.

But he knew what Siyuan wanted. He had been friends with the relic smith for only half a year, yet the two of them spent so much time around each other that although they worked in completely different fields, they were both somewhat attuned to each other.

The normally quiet smith couldn’t have been louder if he shouted his intentions. He intentionally stepped right into an attack that he knew would kill him, an attack from the snake’s tail nonetheless. He was heavily dampening the snake’s offensive potential by temporarily disabling its main weapon with his own body.

All so that he could open up a window of opportunity. Not for Luo Han to attack, but for him to escape.

Luo Han could see that, clear as day.

That was why, at that moment, the battle cultivator, completely invincible to anybody in the same cultivation realm as him, did something he had never done before. He took that window and…

With tears in his eyes, he immediately turned tail and fled.

The snake almost immediately noticed Luo Han’s attempt to flee. It turned to him, hissing. It reared back its head as if to lash out at him with the smith still impaled in its tail.

But Siyuan wouldn’t let it.

All the while, as the snake had lifted the smith up to its head, he had begun gathering qi towards his hands. But not just the qi flowing within his meridians and his dantians. No, that wouldn’t have been enough.

He offered his life up on a silver platter to allow Luo Han an opportunity to escape with his life. He didn’t have the slightest expectation that he would come out of this alive. That was why he decided to initiate his plan before he could let his anxiety take over and steer him away.

Now, with no chance of survival left, he made sure to pull no punches.

Thus, it wasn’t just from his dantians and his meridians that he pulled qi from. It was also directly from his nascent soul. Essentially, he was drawing out his own life force in order to draw even more qi into his hands. Such a technique was not taught by the Mystic River sect. But it was so simple that anybody with half-adequate qi control could do it. Rarely anybody did it though, because when one did…it usually came at the cost of one’s life.

When Luo Han began his escape, Siyuan waited for the snake beast to notice him out of the corner of its eye. When he saw it turn its head, away from the smith…that was when he struck.

With his hands clapped together, he pointed his fingers right at the beast’s head.

Immediately, his aura suddenly intensified until it was almost blindingly bright. A bright spark of yellow gathered at his fingertips, aimed right at the snake’s turned head. A spark that glowed in the sky like a second sun with so much metal-aligned energy that in a small area around Siyuan, it even suppressed the demon’s own aura. This was going to be easily the largest and most powerful “Arrow” that Siyuan would ever fire.

Even more than that…it crackled with lightning.

The snake beast was fast. Fast enough to fully turn its head to Siyuan as the smith was charging up his attack. By the time the beast noticed, it was already too late. It couldn’t do more than whip its head in the direction of the smith impaled on its tail before Siyuan just smiled…

And shot the “Arrow” right at the space between the snake’s eyes.

A loud boom, a sound not too different from that of lightning, rang throughout the land as Siyuan’s “Arrow” found its mark.

It was as if, for a moment, a second sun had appeared in the sky. As quickly as it had appeared, however, it disappeared. That was enough, though.

Siyuan slowly closed his eyes as the snake let out a loud hissing sound and began to thrash around. It wasn’t like he could see anyway, a yellow-whitish haze making it almost impossible to see. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the familiar sound of warping.

Eventually, the snake’s thrashing caused him to fly off of the snake’s tail blade. Pain seared through his body around where he was stabbed through, but the pain seemed much duller than it was supposed to be.

Getting stabbed right through my chest, then self-inflicting myself with serious qi deviation, he thought to himself. That voice in his head seemed quiet, however. More far-away. If the snake doesn’t accidentally kill me, then the blood loss definitely will. I was kind of hoping that I’d survive by some miracle, but it looks like that won’t be the case.

Regardless of these thoughts running through his head, there was a smile on his face. When it came to two Qi Manifestation cultivators coming upon a tier 5 beast, a beast as strong as a cultivator in the Aura Manifestation realm unknowingly, having one escape to tell the tale was an immense accomplishment. The idea brought so much satisfaction to him that it got his mind off the fact that he was about to die.

Live long and prosper, Luo Han. I have no doubt that the things in the future that you will accomplish will be no less than amazing.

I’m sorry. Farewell, friend.

…

With that last farewell, his thoughts finally went silent.