"Understood."
Vale gave a slow, calm nod. "Then let's begin."
Kael cracked his neck, a jagged cackle escaping his throat. "Good."
With those words, their figures turned into a blur, whipping up howling gusts of wind as they charged.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The earth shuddered beneath their violent strides.
As the gap closed, their bodies were instantly swallowed by two spheres of Aether.
Kael’s Aether flared a predatory golden-red, thick with the stench of slaughter.
Skybane Aether.
Vale’s Aether shimmered a ghostly black-gray, radiating a sinister chill as if echoing the screams of the dead.
Netherfiend Aether.
Reaching the forest’s edge, both men stomped the ground with bone-breaking force.
BOOM!
The terrain groaned.
In a flash, they launched hundreds of meters into the sky, adjusted their weight in the void, and plunged like meteors.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—
Their velocity hit a terminal peak. As the forest floor rushed up, both men vibrated the Aether surrounding them.
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ—
Once they crossed a specific altitude, the Aether suddenly quaked, triggering a strange, external resonance.
It felt like they had punctured an invisible veil.
The forest vanished from their sight, replaced by ancient buildings, high towers, and pavilions clustered like a sprawling city.
The headquarters of the Heavenreach Sect.
BANG—
BANG—
They struck the ground with thunderous impact. Knees bent, cracks spider-webbed beneath their boots, and the entire courtyard corridor trembled under the shockwave.
"What is happening?"
"Who goes there?!"
Several disciples in sect robes, clutching swords and blades, rushed out with shouts of alarm.
Vale spared them a single glance, drew the short spear from his waist, and struck. Sharp air blasts sliced cleanly through their necks. Blood and brain matter splattered against the stone walls.
The power gap was laughable.
Vale didn't even need Aether—simply moving his limbs was enough to butcher them.
Kael laughed like a madman, stomping the earth and leaping dozens of meters to smash through a courtyard wall, charging deeper into the sect.
Vale twisted his twin black spears into a single long polearm. With a relaxed grin, he flicked the ground—
BANG!
The stone beneath him shattered as his spear bent into a full moon. With a deep, metallic hum, it catapulted him over a hundred meters into the air.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH—
He flipped mid-flight, then dove like a descending dragon.
Black, drill-shaped Aether blasts erupted from his spear—dozens of them—howling as they streaked toward every tower and balcony in sight.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
In seconds, over a dozen stone buildings and towers collapsed into a roar of debris and dust.
Screams and panic filled the air, a chaotic symphony of terror.
"How dare you!"
An old man with a long beard leapt into the air, landing near Vale with fury etched into his face. "You, Dreadlance, dare to assault my Heavenreach Sect?! Do you think clinging to Seraphine means—"
BOOM!
A gray-black drill blast silenced his voice forever.
"Aether... from the rumors?!"
The elder’s eyes widened in horror as he desperately drew his heavy sword.
But before he could even raise the blade, the Netherfiend Aether slammed into him, pulverizing both the man and his weapon into red mist.
Behind his remains, the courtyard wall collapsed with a deafening roar.
"What?! Aether is this powerful?!"
The arriving Heavenreach experts turned pale.
Their faces twisted in panic as they scrambled away from their positions.
Vale laughed again, unleashing another horizontal barrage of black blasts.
The experts scattered like frightened birds.
Only after reaching safe ground did they dare to retaliate with their arts.
Flying swords, bolts of lightning, streams of fire, and glowing talismans surged toward Vale.
Yet his long spear danced, parrying them all. BANG after BANG, their attacks shattered into useless sparks and mist.
"Useless trash. Die."
Vale grinned cruelly, repeating his assault. Multiple energy blasts pierced the air, blowing the experts into clouds of shredded flesh before they could even react.
Meanwhile...
BANG!
A heavy, red-painted wooden door exploded inward. Kael stormed into a martial training ground, his very presence radiating bloodlust.
"Who th—"
BANG!
SNAP. CRACKLE. CRUNCH!
Kael stomped without looking. The guard’s head popped like a melon, his corpse tossed skyward.
WHOOSH—
Kael gripped the wall, scaling several dozen meters in heartbeats. He reached the top and scanned his surroundings.
Under the rising sun, a vast estate of towers, gardens, and cliffs stretched for thousands of mu.
The full grandeur of the Heavenreach Sect unfolded before him.
"So majestic. This would make a fine vacation home for Master."
Kael stroked his chin, watching the training martial artists below. "But first, I need to clean house."
He leapt down.
BANG!
Kael landed hard, sending a shockwave across the field that startled every disciple present.
"What’s happening?"
"Who the hell is that?!"
"Who are you!?"
Kael slowly raised his head.
Wherever his gaze landed, hardened martial artists in tight formations stepped forward, blades drawn.
One burly man strode out, gave Kael a cold look, and sneered, “I don’t know how you slipped past the formation, but if you dare to provoke the Heavenreach Sect…”
His eyes narrowed. “There is only one path—death.”
Hmph.
Kael exhaled a sharp, cold breath.
Then—
BOOM!!
The stone floor beneath his feet exploded, shards flying like shrapnel. He surged forward, one leg sweeping in a lethal arc—
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH—!!
Hundreds of sharp stone fragments tore through the air like a machine-gun burst.
They ripped through the burly man, rending flesh and armor, and sliced through the ranks behind him. Dozens collapsed in mid-charge.
“AAARGH!”
“MY LEG!!”
“HELP—!”
Blood flooded the stone tiles. In mere seconds, the thirty-meter front line was annihilated.
Crimson mist hung in the air. Panic and screams echoed.
Farther back, enraged martial artists howled as they surged forward.
“Kill him!!”
“You little bastard!!”
Kael stood calmly, his chest rising.
Then—he inhaled.
HISSS—
A massive volume of air rushed into his lungs, vacuuming the battlefield. The wind howled in reverse, flapping cloth and shaking debris.
And then—he roared.
“THE ONE WHO DESTROYS YOUR SECT—IS ME, KAEL!!!”
The blast of sound shook the ruins. Echoes thundered against the mountain walls. Weaker enemies staggered, blood dripping from their ears.
Kael didn’t wait.
He leapt, slamming both feet into the stone wall behind him.
BOOM!!
The wall buckled under the blow. The recoil launched him forward like a cannonball.
His figure streaked through the air—a human missile, tearing toward the screaming crowd.
In that instant, distance evaporated.
His fists clenched.
Strength—hundreds of tons compressed into his frame—exploded as he crashed into them.
BANG!!!
Blood sprayed like a fountain. Limbs flew into the air.
In a single blow, thirty people were pulverized, reduced to splattered fragments across the courtyard.
But Kael was only getting started.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
He hit the ground and erupted again.
Fists swung in brutal arcs—each one a steel storm, smashing bodies like drums. Bones snapped, skulls shattered, and flesh turned to pulp.
Surrounding disciples screamed as they were torn apart. No time to beg. No time to flee.
Blood soaked the stones. Guts spilled. The scent of iron dominated the air.
Kael howled with laughter amidst the carnage. “HAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
He kicked aside a dying man, snatching the soldier's saber mid-fall. With a wild grin, Kael unleashed a storm of golden-red Saber Qi—
WHOOOOSH—!!
Like a fiery dragon’s breath, it roared forward, cleaving through more than a dozen enemies in one sweep before fading into the haze.
Up on the terrace, a stunned martial arts instructor watching the bloodbath from afar gaped in total disbelief.
“W-What was that?! Some kind of finishing move?!”
He swallowed hard, eyes gleaming with sudden hope. Then he shouted at the top of his lungs:
“He’s spent!! That was his ultimate move—he’s got nothing left!! Everyone, get your asses over here!!”
"You say I have nothing left?"
Kael heard the words from afar and chuckled darkly. His eyes narrowed—then twisted into a feral snarl.
"Then watch closely."
With a sharp breath, he lifted his saber and unleashed a dozen blazing arcs of golden-red energy in all directions.
SWISH! SLASH! SWISH! SLASH!
The air screamed.
"AAAGHH—!!"
"Help!!"
"Heavens—!!"
"Monster! MONSTER!!"
In the blink of an eye, every martial artist within a hundred-meter radius was shredded by the saber qi—mercilessly, utterly. Blood spurted like fountains. Limbs were severed. Heads flew. Flesh ripped from bone.
Even the instructor from before had no time to scream.
The golden-red energy sliced through them like a butcher's blade through paper, dyeing the training grounds in waves of red and gore.
The earth was slick with entrails. The smell—coppery, thick, suffocating.
Hoo~
Kael stood alone among the corpses.
His saber clattered from his fingers, crashing into the blood-soaked ground.
He inhaled deeply, eyes glazed with madness.
The carnage intoxicated him.
"Master was right..." he whispered, trembling. "To ascend in martial arts... one must be baptized in blood."
His eyes snapped open—clear. Bright. Enlightened.
Around him, streaks of crimson saber energy spontaneously coiled in the air, humming like restless spirits.
Kael had broken through.
Not by meditation. Not by patience.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
By slaughter.
The Phantom Armament stage.
But Kael was no ordinary martial artist.
He was born for this.
Martial truths came to him like instinct. Like breathing.
Still lost in that raw surge of power, Kael bent down again, picked up his saber—and without warning, slashed forward.
BANG!
A vacuum blade exploded outward, flying over ten meters and carving a deep trench into the earth.
He froze.
His gaze became distant. Unfocused.
Then—
"If I apply the force control from Drifting Cloud Hands..."
He began to move.
Calmly. Methodically.
Mimicking Seraphine’s technique—not with fists, but with the saber.
His swings grew smaller.
Tighter.
Faster.
And faster.
Until his arm, though steady as iron, began to blur.
Buzz—
The saber vibrated.
High-frequency oscillation.
The air around the blade distorted, rippling like heat over fire.
Then—
SWISH!
Kael’s arm vanished into a streak of fragmented afterimages.
FWOOOOOM—
A sharp ripping sound tore through the air.
From the saber’s tip, a swirling vortex burst forward like a lance, stabbing straight through a concrete wall twenty meters away.
BOOM!!
Dust exploded.
When it cleared, a crater the size of a washbasin marked the wall—deep, clean, brutal.
Kael stared.
Then smiled.
Wide.
"This feeling..."
His eyes gleamed with unfiltered exhilaration.
"A saber technique."
"Born from me!"
He roared with laughter, his saber vibrating in his grip.
BUZZ—BUZZ—BZZZZ—
The weapon sang like a divine instrument—no, like a demonic beast awakening.
He struck again.
Once—twice—nine times in a heartbeat.
Each slash chained seamlessly into the next.
SWISHSWISHSWISHSWISH!!
A flowing arc of light formed in the air, curving together like a celestial serpent—
—and then roared.
ROAR!!!
The saber light took shape.
A Silver Dragon with inverted scales, its mouth open in fury, charged forward with earth-rending force.
Twenty meters away, the wall ahead crumbled—
Not broken. Not cracked.
Pulverized.
CLANG!
Kael dropped the saber again. It sank halfway into the blood-slick ground.
He stared up at the sky, dazed.
Then, in a low, reverent whisper:
"I think... I just created a saber art."
...
“THE ONE WHO DESTROYS YOUR SECT—IS ME, KAEL!!!”
At a secluded lake deep within the Heavenreach Sect’s territory, an aging Taoist sat fishing alone, his presence nearly indistinguishable from the stillness of the world around him.
But when that distant dragon’s roar split the sky—his brows lifted. Slowly, he raised his head and stared in the direction of the sound.
"Destroy?" he murmured, voice calm and ancient. "Bold words for a brat."
The old Taoist stood.
His frame, surprisingly, mirrored that of the deceased Xelorian.
This man was Aurel, Xelorian’s senior brother—and the hidden Grand Elder of the Heavenreach Sect.
His talent, his cultivation—surpassed even his junior brother’s. But his temperament was aloof, indifferent to the martial world. For a century, he had lived in quiet seclusion.
So quiet, in fact, that the modern martial world had forgotten he existed.
Until now.
Tap... tap... tap...
Footsteps echoed.
Through the misty forest came Vale, his black spear resting across his shoulders. Blood dripped rhythmically from the shaft, painting red trails behind him.
From the bodies of countless disciples impaled moments earlier.
Vale looked at the figure by the lake.
“Didn’t expect it,” he said, grinning. “The Heavenreach Sect still had a hidden monster left alive.”
As he approached, he felt it—a life force beyond the Evershield Body. Not as wild as Velos’, perhaps, but deeper. More refined. And clearly at the same level.
He, too, had touched the path forward.
Vale chuckled. “Master’s foresight... truly divine.”
The old Taoist turned fully to face him.
"Dreadlance Vale." Aurel’s voice was slow, but carried weight. “I’ve heard your name... but I never expected you to reach it as well.”
Vale stroked his beard with dry, blood-streaked fingers. “Yes. All thanks to Her Highness.”
“Your Master... the so-called ‘Lumen Shepherd’—the Ninth Princess of Emberlight.” Aurel’s gaze darkened. “This hermit has long wanted to settle accounts with her.”
He scoffed. “I spent a century in seclusion, painstakingly grasping the truth of martial rebirth. And someone like you reached it first? How absurd.”
Vale tilted his head.
Laughed.
“Are those your last words, old man?”
Aurel’s pupils contracted.
He understood at once.
This battle could not be avoided.
“Good!”
Aurel let out a thunderous shout.
He launched forward, earth cracking beneath his feet as he exploded toward Vale in a blur of motion.
"Then let us fight!"
Vale didn’t move. A heavy black light surged around him, like shadows swirling through armor.
In the next instant, Aurel had already crossed a hundred meters and was swinging a fist straight toward Vale’s face.
CRACK!!!
Their fists collided.
The shockwave ruptured the air, unleashing a blastwave so intense it bent trees, stripped leaves, and rippled across the lake’s surface.
But neither man relented.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Their silhouettes flickered and blurred, exchanging hundreds of blows in seconds. Each strike detonated a pocket of compressed air, shaking the world like low thunder. Leaves, dust, and blades of grass swirled into an airborne vortex.
The air screamed under pressure.
Then:
Aurel suddenly kicked forward, using the force to leap back over a hundred meters.
WHOOSH!
Vale caught the blow on his forearm, absorbed the momentum, and likewise retreated, landing lightly on the surface of the lake.
Not sinking.
Not even disturbing a ripple.
For him, the water’s surface may as well have been stone.
He looked down at his trembling hands, frowning.
Aurel stood on the shore, his robes fluttering.
“You’ve refined your body to this degree...”
Vale grinned and flexed his fingers.
“Not bad yourself,” he admitted. “Even after converting all my vital energy into Aether, I still couldn’t overpower you.”
“Vital energy, converted into Aether...”
Aurel’s expression hardened. “So that’s the cultivation method... of that person?”
“Correct.”
Vale nodded, his tone calm yet reverent. “Master united the strength of all martial arts under heaven, distilled wisdom from v? s? generations, and shattered the ancient limits. She has become... number one beneath the heaven.”
He tapped his chest lightly.
“What I’ve grasped is not even a tenth of what Master holds.”
Aurel’s gaze deepened. He slowly raised his head and let out a long sigh, like someone reminiscing across centuries.
“When I was but a child—seven, eight years old—I had never trained, yet my body already bore a thousand pounds of natural strength. No one could match me.”
“And once I began my martial path... my growth was explosive.”
His voice was quiet, but each word struck like thunder.
“When I reached the Evershield Body, my strength had reached two hundred thousand pounds. For a time, there wasn’t anyone under heaven who could take a single strike from me.”
He paused.
“That was when I withdrew from the world. I sought more than strength—I sought transcendence.”
His voice trailed off into silence.
“Fifty years,” Aurel murmured. “Fifty years of isolation. For half a century I labored without progress, until the heavens stirred days ago. In that upheaval, I cu?i cùng c?ng broke through the celestial threshold.”
“I stepped onto the forward path.”
His aura swelled with the weight of legend.
“My body and vital energy surged severalfold. At last... I touched a realm no one had ever seen before.”
“But even so...” Aurel’s voice cooled like steel meeting frost. “Even so, I can only barely match the disciple of that woman.”
A faint trembling crept into his eyes.
“How can this be?!”
With that cry, the old Taoist ripped the blue steel longsword from his waist and pointed it at Vale.
Then, his form blurred.
In a flash, he crossed the hundred-meter gap, blade aimed like a comet at Vale’s forehead.
“Starlit Sword Intent!!”
A roaring column of starlight surged behind Aurel’s strike—violent, divine. It crashed forward like a flood meant to purify the mortal world with blood and ash.
Even the placid lake surged beneath its pressure. Four-meter waves rose and crashed, charging toward Vale in tandem with the sword.
“Beautiful technique.”
Vale’s eyes lit with thrill.
CRACK!
He flicked his wrist. The black dreadlance in his hand coiled like a serpent, then lashed forward.
“Dragonwave Dreadlance!!”
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Spear shadows whirled into a single pitch-black vortex, cleaving the rising waves apart like paper and reducing them to harmless mist.
In an instant, fog blanketed the lake.
Misty air shimmered with droplets. Light fractured. Shapes turned dreamlike, the lakeside shimmering like some celestial immortal’s domain.
But within that illusion:
Death lingered.
Only a heartbeat passed.
CLANG!
Blade and spear met.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Sparks rained down. The two figures vanished into the fog, their shadows crossing and clashing like ghosts in a storm.
Vale’s spear was fierce and unpredictable, like lightning with a mind of its own.
Aurel’s sword was vast and cold, like the arc of the moon over still water.
From the fog came flashes of steel and streaks of black, flickering in and out like fireflies in a nightmare.
Their tempo quickened.
Their blows roared louder.
The mist was alive with thunder.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Steel shrieked. Wind howled. Trees bent. The lake churned.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Echoes reverberated across the valley, like giants pounding war drums in the dark.
Then, suddenly:
“Argh!!!”
A scream tore through the haze.
Followed by the sound of something crashing, hard.
Two silhouettes burst from the fog.
They landed, one on each side of the bank.
CRACK!
The blue steel sword shattered, scattering shards like falling stars.
Aurel stood frozen.
Then, with a horrible sound, his right arm burst apart. Flesh and blood flew in all directions as the limb disintegrated, leaving only a mangled shoulder spurting gore.
The severed arm thudded onto the dirt.
“Hoo ~”
The old Taoist clutched his severed shoulder, his voice dry and ragged. “What a vicious force... What is that technique? It devoured my sect’s thousand-year Immortalsteel Sword... and my entire arm along with it!”
Across from him, Vale discarded his damaged long spear with a casual flick.
The weapon hit the ground with a hollow clang—war-worn, cracked, and useless.
“That,” Vale said darkly, “was Dragonwave Crash—a miracle crafted by my master herself.”
“If this old man had wielded the technique with true perfection... you wouldn’t still be speaking. You’d have been reduced to black blood and pulp with the first strike.”
The old Taoist, instead of reacting in fear or anger, laughed hoarsely, full of admiration.
“Formidable. Truly formidable.” He nodded with reluctant praise. “After trading blows with you... I'm even more curious—what kind of presence must the legendary Lumen Shepherd truly be?”
Vale's expression chilled.
“Too bad,” he muttered, “you’ll never find out.”
BOOM!!!
The ground under Vale's feet abruptly sank, crushed three inches deep from the pressure of his stance.
WHOOSH!
A black blur erupted forward like a demon cutting through fog—Vale vanished, then reappeared a hundred meters away, fist screaming toward Aurel’s face.
The old Taoist didn’t flinch.
He looked up and murmured into the wind:
“Immortalsteel Sword Aegis… show me your truth.”
BANG!!
A dark, hexagonal phantom shield blinked into existence just as Vale’s fist arrived.
It blocked the strike, but only for a breath.
With a resounding crack, the shield shattered like glass struck by thunder.
Vale’s foot rose next, swinging in a vicious arc toward Aurel’s lower back.
BANG!!
More phantom black shields pulsed into view, layering in defense, each one flickering like oil on water.
Vale narrowed his eyes.
“Dragonwave Multi-Shock.”
His foot surged forward again, this time swirling with the chaotic fusion of Yin and Yang energy.
The forces wove together like twin serpents, boring through the shields.
In an instant, they too were obliterated.
Vale didn’t wait.
His palms pressed together, then drove straight toward the back of Aurel’s skull.
BANG!!
A shield shaped like stacked hexagonal plates shimmered into place.
It managed to deflect the blow, but the sheer force sent Aurel flying, spinning through the air like a leaf caught in a gale.
Before he landed, Vale had already taken to the sky.
The air beneath his feet cracked like glass as he shot forward, wreathed in swirling torrents of heavy black Aether.
BOOM!!!
They collided mid-air.
Aurel’s body was swallowed whole by a churning mass of negative energy, dark vortexes spinning outward like spirals of destruction.
What followed was carnage.
Fists.
Feet.
Palms.
Claws.
Rips.
Stomps.
Vale became an endless barrage of shadow-strikes, his body blurring into countless streaks of black.
He weaved around Aurel like a predator made of smoke and gravity, each blow distorting the air around them into vacuum pockets.
Every strike echoed like an explosion trapped inside a temple bell.
WHAM!! WHAM!! WHAM!!
Shockwaves rippled outward, bending the trees in great rustling waves, as if the forest itself recoiled from the battle.
Yet despite the flurry of savage blows, Vale’s mind remained razor-sharp, cold as winter steel, analyzing each clash, each reaction.
He was probing.
Testing.
Seeking the truth behind the Taoist’s strange martial art.
Aurel’s defenses were clearly more than physical.
He had invoked something ancient.
And Vale meant to tear it apart.
Immortalsteel Sword Aegis.
Once activated, a colony of spectral armor plates several feet thick emerged and cycled continuously around Aurel's body, layer after layer, inside and out, like a living, breathing organism.
Each time Vale’s spear, fist, or kick landed, the armor shimmered, adjusted, and replenished itself.
Not a single blow broke through.
The attacks were brutal. Loud. Explosive.
But in truth, they didn’t even scratch the shell.
WHOOSH
Vale drew a long arc through the air and landed lightly a hundred meters away, ceasing his barrage.
He frowned.
“That chill in your shields… that’s Starlit Sword Qi, isn’t it?”
Aurel slowly rose from a half-kneeling stance, now surrounded by thick, ink-black phantasmal plates swirling silently in the air.
“You recognize it.”
His voice was low and cold.
“Of course you do. Your Master… stole our sect’s most sacred technique, the Primordial Ether Unification Art. If she taught you, you would naturally recognize her theft.”
He extended both arms outward. The armor colony responded, growing denser, more luminous with rippling sword veins of light.
“Starlit Sword Qi is not something one masters easily,” Aurel continued. “Even with my natural talent, it took me decades to condense just one hundred and eight streaks of it.”
He lifted his gaze proudly.
“Only by forming sword veins throughout my body… and using them to open the inner and outer circulatory systems… was I able to absorb Ether from the heavens and finally step onto the path forward in martial arts.”
He slammed his foot down. A low hum rippled through the armor.
“This, Immortalsteel Sword Aegis, is built on that same foundation. As long as my sword veins remain unbroken, this armor is endless.
Under heaven, none can defeat me.”
His words were modest.
But his face radiated pure arrogance.
Clearly, he believed no one else in the world could have forged such a technique.
Vale only shook his head.
“Then it’s clear,” he said.
“You’re still not good enough.”
Aurel’s eyes narrowed.
“…What?”
Vale bared his teeth in a wicked grin.
“Did you know my Master once condensed fifty thousand Sword Qi streaks… in a single night?”
Silence.
Then,
“BULLSHIT!”
Aurel’s face contorted in disbelief.
“Don’t spew such ridiculous dogshit!! Impossible! Even a body made of solid starsteel would be obliterated by that kind of sword energy! You’re mad!”
But Vale only sneered.
“Typical. When weaklings see something they can’t comprehend, they call it impossible.”
He laughed darkly.
“You’re weak. Not just in body, but in spirit.
Your will is brittle. Cracking. Shattering.”
He raised a hand.
“I look down on you, old man.”
Aurel’s face trembled violently.
His eyes turned bloodshot.
“YOU—YOU DARE DISTURB MY DAO HEART?!”
Behind him, the rear layer of phantom shields collapsed inward, forming a concave cavity, and from within it, a massive thrusting force suddenly surged.
BOOM!!!
A roaring sonic boom erupted.
Air pressure detonated in rings. White shockwaves rippled outward in concentric circles.
WHOOSH!!
The old Taoist, wrapped in armor, shot into the sky like a cannonball, hundreds of meters high, his grim face glaring down like a god of wrath.
“DIIIIIEEE!!!”
The wind shrieked.
The sky cracked.
His armored body blazed through the heavens like a flaming meteor, trailing bursts of ethereal pressure in its wake.
Vale looked up, unshaken.
“So… even your turtle shell knows how to spit qi. No wonder you can accelerate so rapidly, ignoring wind resistance.”
He sighed.
“To leap from zero to supersonic in just a few meters… Not bad, old man. Not bad at all.”
Then he took a deep breath, and whispered:
“…Alas, this disciple is still lacking.”
He shut his eyes.
And began communicating with the slumbering black Sword Qi embedded deep in his body, his Master’s gift.
In the skies above, Aurel saw Vale standing still, not even raising a guard.
He grinned viciously, teeth bared with killing intent.
“Running dry already, Vale?”
A pause. Then a savage grin.
“Now it’s my turn!”
BOOM!!
A thunderous roar split the air.
The sword shields on Aurel’s body retracted inward, forming a long tunnel along his chest and arm, like a railgun loaded with cosmic force.
“This move was meant for your Master,” he growled.
“But since you’re so desperate to die,
You’ll be the first to taste it!!”
He drove his fist forward.
Hundreds of tons of explosive might gathered inside the sword-shield tunnel.
Each segment pressurized, stacked, and detonated in sequence, like a collapsing star.
At the tunnel’s end, a giant black hollow glyph bloomed into existence.
The glyph seized the full weight of that destructive force, amplified it, then fired it like a divine judgment down to earth.
A beam of force, thick as a divine pillar, slammed toward Vale with a voice like thunder:
“Reincarnation Severance—SEAL OF HEAVENFALL!!!”
