Dyon stared at the manifestation in the sky, his heart palpitating.
He could feel the demon sage blood within his raging at the thought of an inferior bloodline displaying such dominance… But Dyon knew fully well he hadn’t absorbed nearly enough of it for it to have any effect other than subtly boosting his body’s strength.
However, his Celestial Deer essence and Demon qilin essence roared to life, covering him in black scales coated with crystals. Dyon’s body began to sound off thunderous booms, disdaining the Black Jade Dragon’s suppression.
Dyon took deep breaths… he had used a lot of stamina in his last move. Not only had he fused space and time wills, he also coated his weapon’s hell arrays with sword spirits melded with even more wills! And yet, Chenglei’s defenses had reached an ungodly level… he didn’t even have a scratch on him…
Suddenly Dyon’s mind flashed with an idea, ‘that could work…’
Leaping backwards, Dyon continued to steady his breathing, gripping his sword in his hand as his Weapon’s Hall disappeared.
The dragon coiled around Chenglei, hiding him within its long body…
Dyon’s eyes narrowed, ‘he’s preparing something…’
BOOM!
Dyon looked over to see Jade and RI’s battle reaching its climax. Ri had settled into her Kitsune form, her dark hair flapping in the wind wildly as she slashed her sword out again and again… melding it with endless pieces of water, ice and wind wills.
Jade, however, didn’t seem to lose out in anyway. Her moon manifestation seemed to see all things, and yet, it also reflected all things. Purple-Black energies rotated around her, deflecting Ri’s blows… however, she couldn’t find an opening to attack either.
“it’s not so good to take your eyes off of your opponent in such a situation,” Chenglei said faintly.
Dyon’s eyes snapped back, widening in shock.
Chenglei’s body had increased yet another size, even to the point of towering over 3 meters. His hands now had clear claws on them and even his teeth had sharpened. And what was maybe the most shocking: his spear had changed to one of the transcendent level…
Chenglei suddenly tossed his spear into the air, leaping to stand on the head of his manifestation.
The crowd gapped in shock… ‘His manifestation has a corporeal body?!’
Dyon winced, ‘6th stage soul… that’s the only way…’
Although Dyon could boost his soul to the 6th stage, it had a massive effect on him. And Dyon could clearly see that Chenglei could only tap into this soul power because he entered the 3rd stage of his Black Jade Body. The only good news was that Chenglei was using a soul boosting technique whereas Dyon’s boost was a part of him, which meant Chenglei was on an even shorter leash than him.
However, Dyon also knew holding anything back would do him no good right now.
“Grandfather! I’m going to use it!”
Elder Daiyu nodded faintly, still standing in the air quietly with his hands clasped behind his back.
“shit…” Dyon muttered under his breath, ‘I guess it’s time.’
BOOM!
Majestic wings burst from Dyon’s back as his Angel manifestation appeared.
Chenglei’s eyes narrowed… he could tell that if it wasn’t for his soul stage currently being higher, Dyon’s manifestations without a doubt surpassed his, ‘who is this kid?! Twin manifestations?!’
Dyon didn’t care for Chenglei’s surprise, instead flapping his wings and launching himself into the air.
‘I can’t use this too soon… I’ll only have one shot… my stamina isn’t doing too good right now…’
Dyon stared intently at Chenglei and his floating spear, ‘just what is he going to do?’
Suddenly, the temperature started rising drastically.
‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…’ thought Dyon.
Chenglei’s Black Jade Dragon had opened its mouth, positioning the spear just in front of it. Chenglei himself sat cross-legged, his face the picture of concentration and fatigue.
Spear will gathered wildly as the spear seemed to begin to glow under the rising heat.
‘how am I supposed to get close to that… that spear will is a death sentence…’
Chenglei’s spear will had reached an unprecendented level. It was clear he had understood at least two paths along it… the sharpness path… and the dominance path… a dominance path that couldn’t help but incite his demonic will to all new levels…
BOOM!
The spear instantaneously lost its form, being engulfed in endless flames.
BOOM!
The temperature rose again as layers and layers of spear will coated the raging technique… it was almost like another sun had formed in the mouth of the dragon…
The crowd suddenly realize that 300 meters wouldn’t be enough… they stood, the elders taking the young and fleeing…
Ri suddenly appeared by Dyon’s side, a sheen of sweat on her forehead, but wearing a complacent smile.
Dyon shivered as he realized she had a clump of silver hair in her hand and Jade who lied a distance away… was decidedly more… bald.
Despite the danger of the situation, Dyon couldn’t help but laugh, “pft.”
Shaking his head, Dyon focused, “we can’t get close… I can only prepare a technique to counter… are you sure you want to stand by my side?…”
Ri flicked Dyon’s forehead, “don’t ask me stupid questions or I’ll make you swallow all this hair.”
Dyon smiled, wrapping a wing around Ri as they stood in the air.
Bring his hands together, Dyon took a deep breath, realizing Chenglei was about to reach the peak of his technique, “I’ve never tried this before…” he said quietly.
BOOM!
Endless heat steamed off of Dyon in the face of Chenglei’s growing sun… and yet, it had nothing to do with Chenglei.
Dyon’s soul exploded in strength, climbing rapidly to the middle of the 6th stage, causing his aurora to dance with happiness.
And then… Dyon did something he had never done before… instead of creating tens of weapon’s hell arrays, he created just one… but the size… was enormous.
Dyon grunted under the strain of creating an array on such a large scale, but he suddenly felt a peaceful feeling as a soft hand found its way to his back. Dyon was quickly flooded with such a pure feeling of health and happiness that he almost forgot he was in battle.
“Thank you, Ri… this makes this much easier…”
BOOM!
Dyon’s array expanded in size again and again… until it towered behind him at well more than 500 meters in height and shining a blinding purple-gold, completely dwarfing Chenglei’s dragon… and yet, it was as though it would collapse under the pressure at any time…
Chenglei seemed unperturbed by the change. Although there was a size difference, that difference was only due to how much less refined Dyon’s technique was… the scale of something didn’t always equate to its power…
“Watch closely…” Chenglei said faintly, “This is the legacy of the Daiyu clan…”
The temperature seemed to raise to even yet another level. A ball of fire, spear and demonic will raged in the skies, looming domineeringly in the mouth of the dragon.
Suddenly, a spear of epic proportions appeared at the center of Dyon’s array… spinning ever so slowly…
Chenglei’s eyes snapped open, “Know despair… Black Jade Sun: Annihilation!”
A piercing roar tore through the sky, a raging tempest of wind and fire slicing through space as though there was nothing in existence worthy of being in front of its might.
Dyon stood in the face of all of this with Ri by his side, a black-red sun that seemed to block out everything in existence speeding towards them.
Closing his eyes, Dyon took a deep breath, feeling his skin searing under the endless heat.
“Weapon’s Hell Array Variant… Devour…”
Suddenly the large array began to pick up its pace, spinning more ferociously as a white purity began to coat it… it was oddly gentle in the face of so much that wasn’t.
Ri looked up to see Dyon’s face in resolute concentration. She shifted her gaze to her uncle, a man who she had long since taken in as her father…
Uncle Acacia’s face twitched. He wanted to move to help, but, he felt a faint pressure locking him and everyone else… It seemed Elder Daiyu would allow them to retreat but had no intention of letting them help.
Elder Daiyu chuckled, “I think it’s best if you all stay put… Did you see me interfere when my daughter-in-law was scalped?”
Jade, however, was shaking in rage… her arm was bent in an odd direction and deep claw marks could be seen across her face and chest, ‘she’s… a monster…’
Jade shivered thinking of the power Ri tapped into to bring her to this pitiful state. But, that made her no less angry, ‘die then…’
But, for some inexplicable reason… when she looked up to see Dyon facing this danger with Ri by his side, she felt a rare something in her heart… something she couldn’t name or place… but whatever that feeling was… it had only started the day she met Dyon.
Slowly getting up, Jade walked towards the battle, wanting to be by Chenglei.
And that was when, Dyon’s eyes finally opened.
The light within them was so blinding that they could have been spears of their own… cutting through the air like blades of purple gold.
Dyon’s muscles flared under the strain of his powered soul, pushing everything he had into this.
The dragon’s roar vibrated the air, shaking the buildings and cracking the marble.
It was one man against one beast.
It was the fiery pits of hell against heaven’s judgement.
It was a final blow against a final blow…
Suddenly, Dyon finally released his spear, grabbing onto Ri’s waist and leaping backwards.
BOOM!
The spear spun furiously into the Black Jade Sun, the dragon still roaring furiously – adding as much power as Chenglei could channel into it.
Chenglei’s eyes widened, ‘What’s going on… it shouldn’t be like this!’
Dyon watched, hands on his knees as Ri supported him.
The weapon’s hell array pierced forward, seemingly soaking up Chenglei’s technique as its own.
Dyon smirked, “looks like I was right…”
Regardless of what form an attack using a manifestation took, it was always at its base form a soul-based technique. Meaning, it could be negated with techniques meant to negate soul type techniques… and what technique was better at doing that than Dyon’s defensive type soul technique: Devour.
If you then couple that with the cleansing power of celestial will… what could stand up to it?
BOOM!
Blinding lights and concussive explosions filled the square, a tempest of blacks, reds and whites spinning into the air as a raging tornado.
The wind kicked up, destroying and slicing anything in its path. Dyon had no choice but to curl his wings around himself and Ri, allowing his manifestation to loom over them protectively.
“NO!” Elder Daiyu moved toward Chenglei but found himself blocked by Deryth and Sinaht.
“You can’t expect us to let you through so easily, do you?” said Grand Elder Deryth faintly.
Elder Daiyu’s hand flashed as a very familiar treasure appeared… the Demolition Cube.
“I think it’s best you two get out of my way.”
The cube opened into 4 sections, revealing a blinding sphere of light.
Elder Daiyu was truly worried. He sensed a familiar air in the technique Dyon just used… and if he was right… Chenglei’s manifestation was in danger! How could he allow his grandson to be crippled like he was?! Even a partially damaged manifestation would have massive effects on one’s future. And the idea of that technique being the very one that shattered his dao was making him sick to his stomach!
‘How did this child master a technique like this already?!’
The old man was fully aware that at the level Dyon’s technique was at, the mere second stage of the first act, he wouldn’t even make a dent on a dao formation… but, against a person of similar soul strength to himself?! The results would be catastrophic!
Elder Diayu winced as he poured his power into the Demolition Cube… the power required to be of threat to Celestial Stage Experts was too much for him in this state, but he did it anyway. He had to make it before Chenglei’s manifestation was completely destroyed!
BOOM!
“AAGGGHHHHH.”
Chenglei screamed in agony as Dyon’s technique began to eat away at his dragon.
It felt like his soul was being shattered… bent… distorted… He had practiced a soul cultivation technique before, but it felt nothing like this!
Suddenly, Dyon felt a pat on his shoulder. He spun quickly, agitated. He was heavily fatigued, so he was giving his aurora a rest – because of this, he hadn’t felt anyone sneak up on him.
But, the sight he found made him sigh in relief, “Aeson… thank you…”
Aeson had used the opportunity while Elder Daiyu was distracted by Chenglei’s pain to take Meiying away.
Dyon was pale, but he still stood to pat the seemingly comatose girl on the head, “you’ve suffered a lot…” he said softly.
Dyon turned to Ri who was still holding him up, “I need your help Ri.”
Ri nodded, knowing what Dyon meant. Dyon wanted to use Ri’s aurora as a boost to his own like he had when healing Ri in dead kings valley. That way, he could heal Meiying in his fatigued state.
With blazing fires and battling elders as a backdrop, Dyon slowly melded his aurora with Ri’s to pick at the array locking down Meiying.
Suddenly, Meiying’s eyes began to brighten from their dull state.
She looked up, confused. Seeing Dyon’s pale continence, she was startled, “Dyon?…”
Meiying’s eyes widened with realization, “Dyon quickly, fix the array you just broke.”
Dyon’s brows furrowed, “but it’s almost gone…”
Meiying shook her head vigorously, “no, no, no. You can’t possibly understand the scale of what you’re trying to get in the way of. You have to put the seal back on me.”
“Can you tell me?” Dyon questioned. He already faintly knew what Meiying wanted to do… but he didn’t feel comfortable with it.
Meiying rolled her eyes, turning her gaze to Ri, “can you tell my stupid brother-in-law that he’s not the only one who can dive head first into danger please?”
Ri giggled, flicking Dyon’s forehead, “can’t you tell she’s made up her mind? Give her a key to the array so she can open and close it.”
Dyon frowned in thought. For Meiying to be able to use the key on her own, she needs an awakened aurora… at least to a partial state….
Ri sighed, “your senses are really dull when you’re tired. She already has her aurora awakened partially. In fact, it’s at 39%.”
Dyon was stunned. Suddenly, he eyes flashed with a realization, ‘the Daiyu clan needs people with auroras… or maybe, they need their important pawns to have auroras… is this part of why they attacked the Celestial Deer Sect? Why do they need so many things that improve the senses? Meiying’s compass… Jade’s manifestation… and now auroras?’
Dyon’s eyes widened further, ‘the aurora awakening steps from dead kings valley!’
Suddenly it all fit together. Although Dyon still didn’t know the exact reason, it was clear they were searching for something… and they needed people to help them. Having the aurora awakening steps would have been a huge plus to that.
Dyon sighed, seeing Meiying’s resolute face. She was still so young, thrust into a world like this by her own father of all things, “I’ll add the key and one other thing… I’ll save you when the time is right,” Dyon said gently, “your big sisters miss you…”
Meiying’s eyes glistened as she nodded, a last tear falling as they dulled…
Dyon watched as Meiying fell into another trance like state… he wanted to save her, but he knew having someone close to the Daiyu family was for the best.
Suddenly, Dyon started violently coughing, blood seeping out of his mouth.
“Dyon! Release your manifestation you idiot!” Ri’s eyes glistened with worry as she propped Dyon up.
Aeson watched quietly as Ri tended to Dyon lovingly. He hadn’t said a word since appearing, but it was clear he was hurt. But, what could Dyon and Ri do about it?
But, Aeson could hardly focus on those feelings for too long… because behind where the four of them stood, Chenglei’s screams of agony had finally ceased… but, they couldn’t see through the dust.
“we need to bring Meiying back to them without them noticing or else she’ll be suspected…” Dyon said through coughs.
Aeson nodded faintly, vanishing with Meiying.
Ri blushed as she slowly created a striking blue array for them to sit on. She was slightly embarrassed about being so slow compared to Dyon, but, there wasn’t much she could do about that.
Soon, they looked up to see a raging battle still going on… the worst part was that Grand Elder Deryth and Sinaht were in sorry states, and yet, other than his pale face, Elder Daiyu looked untouched.
Suddenly, their attentions became focused on the finally dispersing dust cloud…
“Ri… what happened to Jade?” Dyon said leaning against her.
Ri shrugged, “I attacked her face with the best will combinations I have… she’ll be hard-pressed to heal herself. You can say she’s quite the ugly duckling now,” she said proudly.
Dyon chuckled, “I guess that’s all we can do for now…”
A pensive look surfaced on Ri’s face, “she’s superficial and her personality is shallow. This is the best way to hurt her right now.”
Dyon nodded… but, neither of them knew just how right they were.
Within the dust cloud, Jade had paused her search for Chenglei, suddenly realizing that her medicinal pills weren’t working.
‘what’s going on?’ she thought.
Then, a realization hit her, ‘THAT BITCH!’
Jade was truly absolutely revolting now.
Her arm hung awkwardly to side. Her face had deep and unhealing claw marks on them. Her hair was nonexistent except for a few strands that made her look absolutely ridiculous.
The worst part was that Ri hadn’t stopped there. Jade’s once flawless body was riddled with blood and was now scarring over instead of healing properly.
Jade screeched in agitation, clawing at her skin to open her wounds again to try and heal them properly.
But, nothing she did worked… Ri’s will was too powerful for her to handle and the Elvin Kingdom’s alchemy wasn’t advanced enough…
She raged in the dust cloud, clawing at her face and body again and again… but all she succeeded in doing was deepening her scars…
Her finger nails became bloody and torn… tears streamed down her face as she dug into her skin again and again, unwilling to accept this.
“No, no, no. THIS WAS ALL PEOPLE EVER LIKED ABOUT ME!”
Jade fell to the ground, banging her fists into the marble again and again and again.
“AAAGGGHHHHHHH.”
Suddenly, Jade’s screeches became maniacal laughter. She had clawed at her face so much that her tears were indecipherable from the blood that streaked down.
Not bothering to clean herself up, Jade stood, muttering nonsensical things to herself, “good, good” she said, “very good.”
The thing was that healing within the martial world was very complex… if your body was weak, healing yourself was quite simple because the building blocks of your body were simple… however, the more powerful you became, the harder it was to heal yourself… and the more powerful those who attacked you were… and the less they wanted you to heal yourself… the less likely you would succeed.
Maybe if Jade had been patient, waiting for a better pill or a better expert to heal her, her appearance could be saved… but her obsession with the thoughts of others didn’t allow her to want to exist in a world where she was anything other than perfect for even a second…
And thus, a monster was born… without feelings… without beauty… and with just a single sole purpose: Kill.
**
The elders, noticing the situation was already in hand, finally let Elder Daiyu go. They could faintly understand that Dyon was allowing the Daiyu clan off easy for the benefit of the Elvin Kingdom… if the Daiyu clan’s plans were truly thwarted here, all of their wrath would be directed towards them… and although their king was very powerful, he was not only missing, they also had no way of knowing how powerful the Daiyu clan was… For all they knew, King Acacia was nothing in the face other their best experts.
Elder Deryth finally touched down to the center of square, and what he saw, made the rage within him boil.
Jade sat on her knees beside Chenglei who was clearly incapacitated. The last remaining bits of clothing on him were only the last fragments of his silver pants.
His pale face caused the scarlet blood running from his cracked lips to look like the last vestiges of his life.
Elder Deryth only spared the disheveled Jade a single glance before crouching down and raising a trembling hand to his grandson.
His anger was palpable. It wasn’t that he thought the 25th White Mother would pick a bad successor… but he had had confidence in his grandson, and now it had backfired… What if he had attacked himself instead? What if he had just forgotten about his role as an elder? He turned a sharp gaze toward Dyon, prepared to kill him before leaving… but then, he suddenly remembered the elders in the sky… he didn’t have time to deal with them and minimize damage to Chenglei…
Dyon suddenly coughed, looking towards Elder Daiyu, “you know this situation as well as I do, Elder Daiyu… I also know what you came her for… but let me tell you now: find another way.”
Elder Daiyu’s eyes sharpened, “why shouldn’t I just return with a larger army?”
Dyon wanted to laugh, but he was in too much pain… the strain of pushing himself so hard was definitely getting to him.
“for one, if the Daiyu clan wanted to move on such a large scale, they would have already… but, it’s clear you don’t want anyone to know how powerful you are just yet…
Secondly, if you had dao formation experts to use, you wouldn’t have a need to be covert in such a weak universe. Plus, my master’s memories make it quite clear that they erased all of your dao formation experts from existence… or at the very least, crippled them like you…” Dyon spoke slowly, gauging Elder Daiyu’s reaction to this.
His master’s memories had no such thing because even if they existed, they would be locked, but he was hoping that Elder Daiyu would reveal something in his emotions… maybe if his judgement wasn’t clouded by Chenglei’s situation he wouldn’t have… but the sharpening in his eyes told Dyon all he needed to know.
With a smile, Dyon continued, “thirdly, it wouldn’t be in your best interest to attack a kingdom under my protection… especially with how much you rely on soul techniques and how that’s very easily countered by Devour… no? Can you afford for more to end up like Chenglei? What would happen if I taught Sinaht and Grand Elder Daiyu that technique? Would your fight with them have ended so simply?”
Elder Daiyu said nothing, instead looking toward Jade, “Will you be of use? Or should I kill you now?”
Jade said nothing for a long while before speaking, “You’re the only one I have any worth to.”
Elder Daiyu nodded, waving his hand to take her along with Chenglei and Meiying.
Dyon sighed in relief, happy he didn’t have to reveal his stone puppet trump cards.
But before Elder Daiyu left, he said one last thing that made Dyon furrow his eyebrows.
“You’re from the mortal realm of this planet, yet you protect those of the martial realm… I wonder if you’ll do the same once you know the truth…”
What Dyon didn’t see was that as soon as those words left Elder Daiyu’s mouth, he aged by another century… –> <img src=’https://st.moonquill.com/avatar/129′ alt=”…” class=”avatar-img rounded-circle border border-4 border-body”> <h6 class=”header-pretitle”> Author’s Note </h6> <h1 class=”header-title”> Awespec </h1> <h3 class=”header-subtitle text-white”>Welp.. Jade’s as crazy as can be… Chenglei’s manifestation is heavily damaged… and Elder Daiyu was trying to drop truth bombs, but clearly there’s a punishment for that… yikes</h3>