STNS: Chaoter 464 (Patreon)

Wu Jian stood just outside the entrance to the large hall that housed their foes. The two terracotta guardians were back in their usual positions, standing on either side of the massive door. He was hesitant to step inside. Battle would be upon them the moment they entered. The idea excited him, but he didn’t want to get someone else killed because he lacked power. Their last battle had ended in their inglorious defeat and they’d lost two of their members. Would they have enough fighting power now that they were down to just four cultivators?

“All of you should take one of these,” said Master Yun Chi, holding out his hand and summoning a four small bottles. Each one contained a single pill. “I didn’t want to use them for this, but I do not believe we have much of a choice.”

“Are these… strengthening pills?” asked Tang Tiantian.“They are Chi-Infusion Pills, a potent concoction renown for their ability to bolster the physical and spiritual attributes of anyone who consumes it. They will grant you unparalleled strength and vitality for a limited period of time. By taking these pills, you’ll have enhanced strength, heightened agility, greater mental clarity, increased vitality, and three times the chi output than you normally would.”

As everyone took a bottle, Master Yun Chi grimaced.

“I didn’t want to use these because of the drawbacks.The effects are temporary and will wane in a few hours. Once that happens, you will feel much weaker than before. Prolonged use of these may also lead to dependency. You could even overexert yourself too much while under the effects and that might result in a sequelae.”

“I see why you didn’t want to use these,” Wu Jian mumbled. “To be frank, I’m not keen on using pills to increase my strength like this… but I don’t think we have much choice.”

Wu Jian was confident he could destroy one of those terracotta guardians, but it would require everything he had. These pills would go a long way toward easing the burden. He was sure he’d be able to finish the fight that much faster, but it wouldn’t be his own strength that won. He’d be borrowing strength from something else.

“Don’t let Zhou Lihua catch you saying that,” Lili Ling warned him. “She became an alchemist for you. I know she wants to refine pills like this for you in the future. If you said those words to her…”

“Ah… you’re right. I’ll have to rethink my opinions on alchemy pills.”

“You changed your tune quite fast,” Tang Tiantian teased.

Wu Jian shrugged. “I’m not so stubborn that I’d willfully ignore the desires of someone I love.”

It was true that Wu Jian enjoyed testing his limits. He liked putting everything he had into his battles and seeing how much further he could push himself. However, Wu Jian loved the women who had given themselves to him more than he loved acquiring strength. Strength was just a means to an end, after all. He needed strength to protect the people important to him. There was a lot more to protecting someone than just making sure they didn’t come to physical harm. If he couldn’t protect his loved one’s emotions, then he would be a failure as a man.

“You’re a pretty good man, you know that?” said Tang Tiantian.

“I guess. Anyway, let’s do this.”

The time for battle had come. Wu Jian and the others popped open the bottle and tilted the pill into their mouths. He felt the pill slide down his throat as he swallowed it. This pill was harder than others he had taken. There was no outer casing containing all the medicinal ingredients. He could almost feel the pill settle in his stomach.

Nothing happened at first, and for a moment, he wondered if maybe the pill hadn’t worked, but then a rush of energy blitzed through him. It felt like he had suddenly gained the strength of a hundred men. Now he knew why this pill was so dangerous. Anything that gave someone such feelings of invulnerability could become problematic if they became reliant on it. He would need to be careful not to let himself become like that.

“All right. Let’s go!” Tang Tiantian said.

Master Yun Chi and Lili Ling hung back as Wu Jian, Tang Tiantian, and the two surviving guards stepped into the hallway. The terracotta guardians didn’t begin moving until they made it to the door. Wu Jian hung back as Tang Tiantian and the other two engaged the artificial creations in battle.

Tang Tiantian was already quite strong. She was a skilled combatant who had proven herself during the tournament in the Xia Dynasty, and here, now, she was proving herself again. The woman had chosen to battle the dual-scimitar wielding guardian. The way she moved between its attacks was masterful and skilled. Part of her incredible grace was surely the result of the pill they had taken, but pills alone couldn’t explain her talent.

Even with the pill increasing her prowess, Tang Tiantian still couldn’t land a blow strong enough to finish it off. She extended her pole with chi. It struck the terracotta guardian clean on the chest, but while it caused the creature to stumble back, her attack didn’t even leave so much as a dent.

The other two were even worse off. Their cultivation might have been a bit higher than Tang Tiantian, but the cultivation method she practiced was far better. It gave her strength beyond her cultivation level. Like her, the other two were also purely physical fighters. Their strength came from enhancing their bodies to the limit. The most basic kinds of cultivation methods were ones that enhanced a person’s physique. Only methods like Hou Jingshu’s Nine Heavenly Dragons Embodiment were exceptions to the rule, being legendary cultivation methods that invoked the strength of a dragon. Still, they were managing to hold off the terracotta guardian and that was all he could ask for.

Okay. Time to go to work.

Wu Jian took a deep breath and, with this single inhale, he invoked the power of the blood resting within his dantian. He could feel the transformation take hold as even more power rushed through his body. Chi flowed at an increased rate through his dantian and meridians, suffusing every single limb with power.

His body changed. The muscles that he had so carefully cultivated bulged and strained, tearing apart his shirt and even some of his pants. His shoes were similarly shredded when clawed nails grew from his feet. The hair on his head grew longer, reaching all the way down to his butt and becoming spikier. It not only grew. It also changed color, shifting from his normal black to a brilliant silver with black stripes. While his eyes weren’t visible beneath his mask, he knew they had also become a glowing yellow.

The terracotta guardians’ functions were very basic. They could sense a person through their chi, but they couldn’t determine or identify who was a larger threat. That explained why they continued fighting Tang Tiantian and the other two even after he had transformed.

Wu Jian didn’t worry about that.

Summoning Pale Moon, Wu Jian tightly gripped the weapon with both hands and raised it above his head. He channeled his chi into the blade. So much chi was being fused into his weapon that it began vibrating. He worried for a moment that his weapon might shatter, but this was a legendary blade, and it held strong against his might. Wu Jian took another deep breath and compressed all that chi until it was turned into a fine point, then shifted its nature from pure chi to chi infused with the Dao of Space. The once brilliant silver chi became black as the night sky.

“I will only have one shot at this! I need you three to line those warriors up!” Wu Jian ordered.

“That’s a tall order! But let’s see what we can do!” Tang Tiantian shouted back. “All right, you two! Move over to me!”

The three worked together, moving closer to each other. Wu Jian waited and waited and waited as the terracotta guardians lumbered after their foes with surprisingly swift movements. He narrowed his eyes as time seemed to stand still. It was taking so long. Finally, the warriors were lined up, perhaps not as neatly as he would have liked, but this was the best he could hope for.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY NOW!”

[Cleaving the Heavens in a Single Stroke - Spatial Variant]

The three cultivators quickly leapt aside as Wu Jian swung his sword down with a ferocious roar. Nothing happened for a moment. All was still. Then, like a storm suddenly sweeping through, a massive force of power and light erupted, blinding everyone present. Wu Jian only saw the spatial blade he had unleashed slice through the first terracotta guardian before the light filled his vision.

Wu Jian had put everything he had into that single attack, so the moment he unleashed it, his transformation wore off and exhaustion set in. His body ached. He wanted to sleep. His head felt so heavy that he had to let it hang as he breathed deeply. Slumping to the ground, he looked up as the light faded.

Hmmm… the building didn’t suffer any damage at all. Just what is this place made of?

Cleaving the Heavens in a Single Stroke was an attack powerful enough to split mountains in two. He might not have strength equal to his master, but he wasn’t weak either. His attack should have split the ground at least. However, the ground and wall remained as pristine now as it ever had.

Well, at least our enemies are done for.

Both terracotta guardians had been split apart. One of them was sliced neatly in half. The other hadn’t been so cleanly cut, but it had still been split diagonally through the chest. Both guardians lay in two pieces on the floor. They weren’t moving, so he assumed they were dead.

Tang Tiantian whistled as she walked over to him. “That’s quite the attack you have. I wouldn’t want to get hit with that.”

Wu Jian smiled behind his mask. “An attack like that would reduce a normal cultivator to dust.”

“I can believe it.”

With the guardians defeated, Master Yun Chi and Lili Ling came into the hallway. The alchemist master was quite pleased. However, he wanted to get a move on right away, but Wu Jian needed to rest. He had used up every ounce of strength he possessed, wringing everything he could from the pill he had taken and putting it all into a single attack. He couldn’t even move under his own strength.

While Master Yun Chi was impatient, he decided they could wait for a day before moving on.

A day passed, and with great anticipation, they opened the door the guardians had been protecting. What lay beyond the door looked like an ancient and mystical tomb. A bottomless chasm lay between them and an ornate golden coffin with beautiful symbols carved into its surface. The coffin’s lid was shaped like a woman--a beautiful woman with flowing locks of hair. He assumed that was Queen Medusa.

They were unable to fly in this place, so they weren’t sure how to proceed, but then, as if by magic, several stone steps materialized in the air before them. Wu Jian sensed the Dao of Space at work. He studied the phenomenon as he followed the others across the chasm. They soon stepped onto solid ground once more and stood before the coffin.

It was not just a coffin that was present. There were also several treasure chests. They were ornately designed from gold and silver, with symbols and leaf-patterns intricately carved onto their surfaces. He didn’t see a lock on any of them. Did that mean they could just open them, or were they booby trapped?

“They won’t be trapped,” Master Yun Chi assured them as though he could read Wu Jian’s thoughts. “Cultivators dislike setting traps on their treasures because it means any treasure inside would likely be destroyed as a result of the trap going off. We should be safe.”

Well.

They opened the chests one at a time and discovered a plethora of useful items from armor and weapons to cultivation pills. These chests were bigger on the inside than they looked. Someone had used the Dao of Space to expand the interior. Everything inside was also fresh. Even the pills were still usable despite having been locked away for who knew how long.

While they were busy opening the chests, Master Yun Chi stood before the coffin and began creating a sequence of hand seals. Chi flowed through his body before, ending his sequence on a tiger seal, he released his chi. It flowed into the tomb. A rumbling echoed around them as the coffin opened.

What lay inside was the corpse of a perfectly preserved and beautiful woman. It was easy to tell she was dead for she lacked even an ounce of chi. However, her body remained as pristine now as it had in life. Her long black hair was flowing and complimented her elegant facial features. She was quite curvy. Her bountiful assets were barely constrained by her immodest dress, little more than strips of cloth that covered her chest. She wore a skirt, but it was short enough that her long, lean legs were in full view.

Is this Queen Medusa???

“Oh my. It seems I have visitors.”

Wu Jian almost jumped out of his skin as a voice he didn’t recognize spoke up. Everyone quickly readied themselves for battle. Meanwhile, the voice chortled.

“You needn’t be so startled. I am but a humble spirit, unable to do anything to you all except, I suppose, congratulate you on making it past all my traps.”

Everyone looked up and found a woman floating above them. It was the same woman enshrined in the coffin. Her body was translucent, bare feet dangling at eye level. She smiled at them, though he thought her eyes were focused on him.

“Are you… Queen Medusa?” asked Master Yun Chi.

“I am indeed her. Though I think that should be obvious.”

Master Yun Chi bowed his head. “My apologies. I am just… shocked.”

“Is this your first time seeing a spirit then?”

“It is.”

“Hmmm. Well, there are not many who can become spirits like me. I might have failed to ascend to godhood, but I was still exceedingly powerful. Only someone on the cusp of breaking through their mortal coil may become like this… though I do not know if that’s a good thing. You don’t realize how boring it is being a spirit.”

No one knew what to say, so they said nothing.

“In either event, you have made it this far, and I have no need for these treasures. You may have them. I am also willing to grace you with a single wish. Should it be within my power to grant, I will give unto you a boon.” She turned to Wu Jian. “Well, young man? You are the one who so easily bested my terracotta guardians. What is it that you wish for?”