Xiang Yu observed the charging cultivator, steadying his stance as he prepared for impact. Despite the enormous power difference between them, he felt a glimmer of confidence. Within this talisman-laden battlefield, the playing field had become somewhat equalized. The Core Formation expert might possess overwhelming strength, but his movement was now severely restricted.
The man approached with fury burning in his eyes, his fist leading the charge—yet Xiang Yu noted how the cultivator moved with heightened caution. Having fallen for Xiang Yu's tricks twice already, the man was clearly determined not to be caught off guard again.
As the powerful fist closed in, Xiang Yu raised his sword to meet it, deliberately channeling lightning qi through the blade to maximize its effectiveness against the man's demonic energy. The collision sent vibrations through both combatants, forcing them to slide backward from the impact.
Xiang Yu glanced appreciatively at his sword as they separated. I should thank that assassin for giving me such an excellent lightning technique, he thought. If he weren't trying to kill me, I'd definitely light some incense in his honor.
From their brief exchange, Xiang Yu confirmed what he had suspected—the cultivator's strength had indeed diminished considerably. However, the man had also raised his guard completely, which meant defeating him would require significantly more effort than before.
Fortunately, with battle instinct maxed to the mortal limit, detecting gaps in the man's defense wasn't particularly challenging for Xiang Yu. He charged forward with his lightning-infused sword raised high.
The Core Formation expert glanced behind himself nervously, noticing the absence of footprints in Xiang Yu's wake. He couldn't retreat—what if there were more unseen talismans in the ground behind him?
Dammit, I'll just face him head-on, the cultivator decided. Even if I'm not at full power, what could a mere disciple from a low-level sect possibly do to me?
He raised his arms defensively as Xiang Yu closed the distance. The sword struck against the man's forearms, its force completely nullified by the cultivator's superior strength. But this was merely a distraction—Xiang Yu's other hand moved in a fluid motion, executing a fire palm strike directly toward the man's chest.
Hmph! Just this basic technique? the cultivator thought smugly, blocking the sword with just one arm while moving his free hand to counter Xiang Yu's palm with his own.
When their palms collided, they initially seemed evenly matched—but in the next instant, the Core Formation expert's expression transformed from confidence to shock.
"What?" he gasped, staring at the point where their hands met. His eyes widened as he realized the fire palm had suddenly changed into a lightning palm.
Xiang Yu merely smiled. With his heightened battle awareness, advanced mind level, and the versatile Transcendent Dao Physique that allowed seamless manipulation of different energies, switching elements without any cooldown was effortless. Fooling the overconfident cultivator had been almost too easy.
Though he couldn't inflict significant damage with this maneuver alone, it created the perfect opening for his true strategy. With the man's concentration momentarily disrupted, Xiang Yu twisted his hand, easily breaking free from their deadlock. As the opposing force suddenly vanished, the cultivator's weight shifted forward unexpectedly.
Seizing this opportunity, Xiang Yu closed his hand firmly around the man's arm, clamping down with surprising strength to prevent the limb from being used defensively. In the same fluid motion, he maneuvered his lightning-crackling sword toward the cultivator's exposed neck—now perfectly aligned with his blade due to the man's compromised balance.
The Core Formation expert's expression darkened as he watched the sword approach his vulnerable throat, death seemingly imminent.
Then came an unexpected sound—the distinctive clank of metal striking metal. Xiang Yu's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized what had happened: the desperate cultivator had actually caught the sword with his teeth! Despite his maxed battle instinct, there were still cultivation world tactics that Xiang Yu couldn't anticipate.
The man was sweating profusely, his jaw clenched around the blade as lightning energy seeped into his gums, causing them to bleed. Despite the pain, he maintained his desperate hold on the weapon.
Xiang Yu recovered from his surprise almost instantly and delivered a powerful kick to the man's jaw. The force separated the cultivator from the sword, along with several bloody teeth that went flying through the air.
The impact sent the Core Formation expert tumbling backward, but he quickly stabilized himself mid-air, hovering cautiously to avoid triggering any buried talismans below. His expression twisted with rage and frustration as he hovered safely above the battlefield.
"Fuck this!" the cultivator spat, rising several meters higher above Xiang Yu. He began forming a ball of fiery energy between his palms, the radiance growing brighter and more intense until it resembled a miniature sun.
"He wouldn't... right?" Xiang Yu's lips twitched nervously as realization dawned. He had assumed the man's arrogance and pride would prevent him from considering such a desperate tactic. But it seemed the cultivator actually intended to obliterate the entire clearing with a massive explosion.
If this happened, Xiang Yu would be in grave danger. He hadn't anticipated the man would resort to such a method...
...
Dark energy gathered and swirled around Elder Mei, intensifying with each passing moment. The sinister power expanded outward, growing larger and more concentrated until he was completely immersed in its malevolent embrace. The ominous sight caused Elder Guo to instinctively step backward, his brow furrowed as he wondered what the elder was up to.
With a blood-curdling scream that echoed throughout the courtyard, Elder Mei began absorbing the dark energy directly into his body. His physical form underwent a horrific transformation as the demonic power reshaped him. His robes tore apart, unable to contain his rapidly expanding musculature, revealing a powerfully built physique rippling with strength. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
The years seemed to melt away from his appearance. Wrinkles vanished, his weathered skin tightened, and his elderly features reverted to those of a man in his prime. Most striking was his hair—the white strands of age darkened and then blazed into a brilliant crimson, flowing around his head like living flames.
From the center of his forehead, a horn emerged, pushing through skin and bone with a sickening crack. The protrusion was obsidian black at its base, gradually transitioning to a blood-red tip.
"Guo Shantian!" The transformed Elder Mei roared, his voice deeper and more resonant than before. "Always interfering with my plans!" His crimson eyes burned with decades of accumulated hatred. "Today, let's see if you or I will die!"
...
"Little girl, don't be in such a hurry to leave..."
A voice echoed through the chamber, prompting Li Yao to whirl around instantly. Her eyes darted to every corner, every shadow, yet she saw no one. Her hand instinctively moved to her sword hilt.
[So he finally decided to show himself,] the Empress remarked with disdain.
"Show himself?" Li Yao's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Did you know he was there all this time?"
[Of course,] the Empress replied, her voice dripping with pride. [How could such a low-level soul escape my notice?]
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Li Yao demanded, her grip tightening on her sword.
[I didn't see the need to,]
"Didn't—" Li Yao began, then sighed in resignation. "Nevermind." She paused, curiosity overtaking her momentary frustration. "What do you mean by 'low-level soul'? Is it the same as you?"
[Hmph, how could you compare me to such a person?] The Empress's indignation was palpable. [My soul is eternal and undying. This is just a small nascent soul—it barely passes for a soul at all.]
Li Yao gave up pursuing the conversation. The Empress was boasting too much.
"No need to be so on guard. I'm not an enemy," the voice spoke again, clearer this time, as if drawing closer though still remaining invisible.
"Says the person who's hiding," Li Yao retorted, her fingers still firm around her sword hilt as she continued scanning the chamber vigilantly.
The voice released a weary sigh. "It's not that I'm hiding. It's just that I can't come out."
"My name is Feng Tianxu," the voice continued.
Li Yao's eyes widened, her lips parting in shock. "Wait, that's..."
"That's right," the voice completed her thought. "I am the ancestor of the Azure Cloud Sword Sect."
...
In the grand hall of the Wuming Cult, an elder approached the sect master.
"Sect master, do you really think that he can do it?" the elder inquired, his voice tinged with a hint of doubt despite his efforts to conceal it.
The sect leader merely smiled.
He sat upon a throne carved from black jade, fingers drumming idly against the armrest. "Of course. Although Mei Zhiyuan is quite arrogant and prideful, there is no way he could fail the mission," he replied with absolute confidence.
The elder clasped his hands behind his back, brow furrowed. "Still, why did you have to go this roundabout way?" he pressed further. "With the sect master's strength, there aren't many who can match you in the eastern region. Why did you have to risk it using this method?"
The leader's laughter echoed throughout the hall, causing several disciples attending in the shadows to shiver involuntarily. "Although it's true that I'm quite strong, I'm just a single person," he explained, leaning forward slightly. "The orthodox sect masters are wary of my power but they can't outright attack me. If I were to make a move, even against a low-level sect—it's still an orthodox sect. If those old fools decided to take this as an excuse to gang up on me..."
He left the sentence unfinished, but the elder nodded in understanding.
"Besides," the sect master continued, his voice dropping to an almost affectionate tone, "I'm not risking anything. Among his generation, Mei Zhiyuan is the masterpiece I created. There is no way he can lose." An evil smile spread across his face.
...
Xiang Yu watched the growing flame attack with dread, his mind racing through possible countermeasures. Should he coat his sword with lightning and attempt to split the fireball? No, this wasn't some fantasy movie. Besides, even if he somehow managed such a feat, what if the separated halves crashed into his carefully buried talismans? The resulting chain reaction would only hasten his demise.
His thoughts turned to using earth qi to burrow underground for escape. That wouldn't work either—disturbing the ground would trigger the very talismans he'd planted, sending him to meet his ancestors even sooner. Damn it! He'd cornered himself with his own strategy.
"All those novels lied," he thought bitterly. Weren't villains supposed to be predictable idiots? Shouldn't this cultivator be cursing and blindly charging at him instead of employing such effective tactics? Xiang Yu exhaled slowly, recognizing he was getting too agitated. He needed to maintain his composure and find a solution. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
Before he could formulate a plan, he noticed something concerning. "Hmm, why is it still getting bigger?" he muttered, observing the expanding fireball. "Wait..."
Realization struck him—the Core Formation expert had actually thrown the attack. This wasn't following the script at all! Shouldn't the man first demand he kowtow three times, then perhaps magnanimously offer to leave his corpse intact?
The fireball continued growing in size as it descended toward him, the heat intensifying with each passing second. Xiang Yu wondered if this truly marked the end of his journey. "Junior sister," he thought wistfully, "it seems I can't marry you in this lifetime."
Just as he'd resigned himself to his fate, he felt something shift inside him. "Wait! That's..." His expression transformed from resignation to hope. "It seems luck is still on my side."
Meanwhile, the Core Formation cultivator pushed the massive fireball toward Xiang Yu, his face deliberately devoid of emotion. Internally, he was certain this attack would annihilate the troublesome youth. He refrained from voicing any curses or premature celebrations—he didn't want to jinx his victory.
He reflected on the strange progression of their encounter. Initially, he'd dismissed Xiang Yu as a powerless mortal, yet the young man had managed to injure him. He'd attributed this to luck, but then Xiang Yu had killed both his subordinates. Perhaps extraordinary fortune was at play? But after suffering a second and third injury at the youth's hands, coincidence seemed increasingly implausible.
More unsettling was how Xiang Yu had maintained control throughout their battle despite his apparent weakness. It felt as though the young cultivator was orchestrating every exchange, making the Core Formation expert dance in the palm of his hand. He wouldn't be surprised if Xiang Yu was actually some ancient master using rejuvenation arts—that battle awareness was unnervingly precise. Facing him evoked the same uneasiness as confronting the sect master; no, not even the sect master gave him such a "seen though" feeling.
He needed to end this quickly before Xiang Yu somehow reversed their positions yet again.
"Hmm... where's the chain reaction?" the cultivator wondered. He'd expected the buried talismans to begin exploding, creating a domino effect of destruction. Could Xiang Yu have been bluffing all along?
Then he noticed something peculiar. "Is it just me, or is the fireball growing smaller?" From his elevated position, he couldn't see beneath the massive flaming sphere, and since it was made of qi, it interfered with his qi sense.
After brief deliberation, he descended from his vantage point, gliding cautiously toward the ground. His suspicions were confirmed—the flame was indeed diminishing in size. Within seconds, the entire attack had vanished completely.
Xiang Yu's face split into a smug smile that made the Core Formation cultivator uneasy.
...
As Xiang Yu observed the incoming fireball, resignation settling over him, he suddenly felt something stir deep within his core. A familiar energy pulsed through his meridians, demanding his attention. Recognition dawned on his face as he identified the source—his Abyssal Void Flame awakening in response to the threat.
A smile spread across his features as he remembered Elder Huang's words about the flame. "...but when I tried to absorb this flame, it also tried to absorb my flames..." she had said. He hadn't paid attention to this before but now...
That had been when the Abyssal Void Flame was still in the seventh grade. Now, after his system's exponential growth, it had nearly reached the fifth grade.
"Looks like luck is still on my side," Xiang Yu murmured, confidence replacing his earlier despair. With this improved spirit flame, he doubted the Core Formation cultivator's ordinary qi-based fireball stood a chance. He could feel the Abyssal Void Flame's hunger—its primal desire to consume other flames pulsing through their connection.
As the massive fireball approached, its heat scorching the air between them, Xiang Yu raised his hand. The Abyssal Void Flame manifested before him, hovering above his palm—an impossible darkness that absorbed all light rather than emitting it. The flame cast no shadows and reflected nothing; its surface was a perfect void broken only by occasional white sparks flickering within its depths.
To any observer, it resembled a miniature black hole. And it might as well have been as the approaching fireball began behaving strangely. The enormous sphere of destructive energy started swirling like a tornado, its trajectory bending toward the void flame as if caught in an irresistible gravitational pull. What began as a subtle distortion quickly intensified, the fireball elongating and spiraling toward Xiang Yu's palm with increasing speed.
Xiang Yu felt the raw power of the incoming attack—violent, chaotic, and destructive—but the moment it made contact with his Abyssal Void Flame, the energy settled instantly, as though tamed by a greater force. The fireball's essence poured into his spirit flame like water down a drain, feeding it, though Xiang Yu noted the contribution to his flame's growth wasn't particularly significant.
The vortex accelerated, the fireball's rotation becoming a blur of motion as the last portions of the attack vanished into the Abyssal Void Flame's endless hunger. Within seconds, the devastating attack had completely disappeared, leaving nothing between Xiang Yu and the Core Formation cultivator who hovered above.
The man stared down at Xiang Yu, his expression transitioning from confident victory to stunned disbelief. What divine ability was that? And was that truly a spirit flame? When he focused on the dark flame hovering above Xiang Yu's palm, all color drained from his face.
For just an instant—a fraction of a second so brief he nearly missed it—the Abyssal Void Flame had looked back at him. In that moment, raw existential dread flooded through the cultivator's body. An overwhelming certainty of his own mortality gripped him, as though he'd glimpsed the ultimate end of all things within that bottomless darkness.
"No!" The thought screamed through his mind. "I need to get out of here." The mission, Elder Mei's orders, the sect's objectives—fuck all that. He wanted nothing to do with whatever eldritch entity this youth commanded.
When Xiang Yu noticed the man's expression of absolute terror, he didn't understand the cause, but he recognized an opportunity. With the powerful cultivator momentarily distracted and hovering at low altitude, this was his chance to strike decisively before the man could ascend beyond his reach.
With this thought burning in his mind, Xiang Yu activated his final trump card...
...