Chapter 47 (Patreon)

Thunderfist Yu huffed a breath from his nose, leaning on a long spear with its flat end embedded into the ground. It’s bladed edge glinted off the lantern light around it, slick in the rain. I plastered an irreverent smile on my face.

Yu growled under the conical hat above him.

“You killed Brother Kai.” Thunderfist Yu said. “It’s a price you can only repay in blood.”

I pointed my sword toward him.

“I think you still owe me quite a few brother’s worth of blood, then.” I said. “How many other Scion’s have you killed who passed through here? Do you not fear the Grim Tempest? Or maybe… you want to die?”

Thunderfist Yu snorted.

“Feng Jin himself encouraged us to test the other scions passed this place. You’re too naive.”

I felt my eyes widen. In the same moment, with no warning, Yu whipped his spear forward.

[Stormbreak Riposte] pushed me beyond my limit to meet his spear. Concussive force erupted from where our blades collided with a sound of thunder, sending me sliding over the muddy boardwalk over the city, rain splattering around our collision. Yu pounced forward. I leaned back. His blade swept through the veil beneath my hat, exposing mist and rain onto my face. A musty smell clung to the man through the rain, like a wet dog mixed with a drug den.

We traded blows three more times before I could fully shape the Anti-Lightning Herald’s sword technique.

My blade crackled with dark lightning and then we clashed again.

The power of an Upper Second Realm cultivator shouldn’t be underestimated; with his Dantian reinforced, the qi he could exert at once was above mine. I had no doubt that my qi was more refined from my enhanced Willpower, empowering my techniques far beyond any peer cultivator. But there was a quality to the raw quantity of power Yu exerted.

When the Anti-Lightning Herald’s shaped qi met the thunderous blows of concussive force rolling off of Thunderfist Yu’s spear, Thunderfist Yu’s technique simply… stopped.

Now it was my turn to push him back.

Our blades stopped only a hair’s breadth away from eachother, over and over again as I forced him backward to maintain his higher reach. The power of our technique’s forced our blades apart. My movement technique activated. I spun, moving faster and faster to try to step through his guard.

Then he stabbed downward, releasing a shock wave that nearly swept me off my feet. I jumped back to recover.

“Bastard Scion. All the resources they gave you and you could barely catch up to my Realm.” Yu made an ugly face. Then he spat. “If I had what you had, I would be a god. Not here in Storm’s Edge. How are you silencing my Thunder Strikes?”

“There’s no need to explain anything to a dead man.” I said.

Truth be told, I didn’t know. The Anti-Metal spirit-beast I had fought in the other world had exerted properties not related to metal spirit beasts. I had never questioned the damage the anti-lightning techniques did; they seemed to conduct, burn, and destroy, just like lightning and storm techniques.

This was my first time clashing with a peer cultivator to see that there was something more subtle to it. The Anti-Lightning seemed to disrupt his shaped techniques.

“I’ll show you something nice today. A spear form I perfected hunting beasts in the Stormwall. You’ll die like one.”

Yu shifted his handling of the spear, grabbing it at the middle with one hand instead of holding it with both. I felt the shaped technique fluctuate. Yu’s open hand curled into a claw as he swung the spear around like a staff weapon; I blocked the haft of his spear with my sword when it raced toward me. The black lightning on my blade bit into the wood… but didn’t cut it in half.

I grunted. That was a higher grade weapon. Where did he —

His left hand erupted with Thunder. I used [Vascaran Steel] to block again. He gave me no time to think as he leapt toward me once more.

Every time I met his weapon, I chipped away at it; wood and blade both were bit by my sword, chunks falling away to the ground. But he was landing blows by extending his reach, hitting me with concussive strikes without his arm actually connecting. A snarl crept up his face.

He thought that he was going to chip me down, trading his weapon for my life in a series of a dozen blows. That wasn’t going to happen.

I blocked a downward swing of his spear weapon. Then I activated [Stormbreak Riposte] for a second time in this fight.

In only the split second between blocking the downward swing of Yu’s staff and him extending his fist to use his Thunder Punch — or whatever he called it — my entire body bent.

The tip of my sword, buzzing with black lightning, blocked his extended palm, cutting off his technique, and four of his fingers.

Yu screamed and jumped backward, the scream turning from shock to rage without stopping.

He looked around at the cultivators staring around him, who seemed to be collectively shocked. I steadied my breathing, lifting up my sword in invitation. I would have bruises on my stomach tomorrow for this fight, but none of these First Realm thugs would contribute to them.

“What are you all standing around for! Kill him!”

I let the movement technique in my legs roar to life, dancing in the rain as I spun. A cultivators head hit the floor. I spun. I disconnected an arm. A sword rung as it bounced off the wooden ground. I kicked it toward Thunderfist Yu. He dashed into the line of his low rate soldiers.

My blade pierced an eye. I switched to a one hand stance, the lightning on the blade dissipating and reforming in only a second. My enhanced Willpower and practice meant I reformed the technique faster than I ever had before.

Only in a real fight can a cultivator find their limit.

Cut. Stab. Spin. Block. Thrust.

The water on the ground ran red.

First Realm cultivators may as well have been mortals to me. Many of the thugs here may have been able to kill twenty mortals before dying. But I could kill a hundred of these bandits before they landed a blow.

[Danger Sense] activated. I forced [Stormbreak Riposte,] spinning to my back where I smacked away Thunderfist Yu’s spear. He extended his other hand.

Cultivation techniques were refined and perfected over hundreds of years. They would take into account things like ‘what happens if you try to use this technique missing a finger,’ and they might be weaker for it, but they wouldn’t blow all your qi out of your body. The thing about crudely made techniques designed by low-rate thugs who were so cowardly they abandoned their post in their army is that they lacked those centuries of refinement.

Blood and thunder splattered toward me from Thunderfist Yu’s left palm. He coughed, gagged, and spurted blood.

I ran my sword through his neck and kicked him away.

[You have reached level 32!]

The fight stopped.

“He tried to stab me in the back.” I said. It was more me noting it aloud than anything. Rogue Cultivators were truly honorless. I raised my voice. “Does anyone else want to throw their lives away today?”

The cultivator nearest me threw his weapon to the ground, then himself, prostrating in the bloody dirt.

“Forgive me! I was forced by Thunderfist Yu!” The man said.

I didn’t believe him, but that was fine. I wasn’t here to slaughter the entire town. Someone had to be strong enough to fight back the spirit-beasts that would surely assault even this place.

“If I find out you’re still assaulting my brothers and sisters, I will return here and wipe this city away.” I proclaimed.

Wen crossed around the street with the two boar’s in tow. The cultivators parted around him as he pulled them forward.

“Done here?” Wen asked.

“Looks like it.” I replied.

“Tiny, don’t — ” I heard a crunching noise, looking over to see Tiny — one of the two boars — biting into Thunderfist Yu with gruesome enthusiasm.

Wen struggled to pull the two boards away on their reins.

I turned to the cultivators around us.

“Lead the way to the Southern Gate. Open it for us.”