STNS: Chapter 563 (Patreon)

Wu Jian felt an immense pressure emanating from the man before them. He walked down a set of stone steps leading to the Hall of the King.

That must be him… the Khan.

Batu Khan was taller than most men, at least several heads taller than even the tallest person Wu Jian knew, broad of shoulder and heavy with muscles that seemed to have been carved from stone. He had a presence about him that commanded silence. The wild, untamed aura he radiated was the kind born not of refinement but sheer dominance. It was the kind Wu Jian expected from a predator at the top of the food chain. Yet for all his ferocity, there was something undeniably noble in his bearing, an arrogance that seemed to all but declare he had been born to rule.

The Khan looked at each person in turn. His lips curled in distaste, his disgust growing ever more apparent as he met eyes with each person… until his eyes fell upon Wu Jian.

“I smell the scent of our deity upon you,” Batu Khan declared as he descended the last step. He sniffed again, nose wrinkling. “Yet I also smell many other scents on you… most notably the stench of that disgusting dragon.” He glanced at Hou Jingshu.

“And?” Wu Jian asked, stepping forward until he was standing right in front of the Khan. “What’s it to you?”

Wu Jian was dwarfed by this man. It was more than just a difference in height. The Khan was so much taller than him that he was like a fawn standing before a massive bear. Despite this, Wu Jian showed no fear, felt no fear. He released his aura, which manifested like dark flames that caused cracks to spread across the ground.

Batu Khan grinned. His mouth was full of fangs. “Hooo? You think you can beat me in a fight… boy?”

The Khan released his own aura, which exploded from his body like a geyser bursting out of the ground. Pressure swept over the area. All the elite guards and Töri Qiang fell to their knees. Those who had come with Wu Jian remained standing, but even they took a step back. The only one who didn’t want Hou Jingshu, whose body shivered as a grin threatened to split her face.

“I wish I was the one fighting him,” she said.

Wu Meiying glanced at the other woman and sighed. “Battle maniac.”

Wu Jian did not flinch from the man’s aura. Instead, he released even greater strength. More of the ground was destroyed. The area around them cratered. They now stood on a platform surrounded by a gouge that went in a circle around it. Yet neither side relented, and the ground began to shake. Even the Hall of the Kings rattled as though being shaken down to its foundations.

“Hmmm. You’ve quite the aura for one so young, but you’re still too green behind the ears.”

Batu Khan claimed as his aura exploded with even greater force. Wu Jian had been unable to sense this man’s aura ever since he appeared, which meant his cultivation was higher, but now, with his aura fully unleashed, Wu Jian could feel it.

Second Subrealm of the Perfection Realm.

Wu Jian was only at the first subrealm of the Realization Realm. His power had increased massively from when he was at the Seeker Realm, and he had a much greater awareness of the world around him alongside his Dao. That said, the Perfection Realm was the pinnacle of power on this planet. It was the strongest realm a person could attain here. This meant Batu Khan was a man at the peak.

Not that it mattered.

Time ticked by.

A moment passed.

Then Batu Khan moved. He threw a punch. There was no warning, no movement from the Khan. He attacked from the position he was standing in.

Wu Jian had still seen it, and he crossed his arms to block, but the punch had blasted him backward. He soared past the crater, then dragged his feet along the ground. Steam rose from his arms after he skidded to a stop. That punch had hurt. However, his bones were fine. Nothing had been broken.

“Is that all you’ve got?” asked Wu Jian as Batu Khan stepped out of their crater.

“Impudent child, I am just getting started,” The Khan said.

After receiving that initial punch, Wu Jian decided to go all in. He blasted off the ground, which cracked underneath him, and met Batu Khan’s fist with his own. An explosion of compressed air burst between them, splitting the ground some more and pushing the pair back. They skidded across the ground. Stopping, they both glanced at the other person before rushing forward once more and beginning an all out clash of nothing but pure brute strength. Their fists, fueled by Qi, slammed into each other over and over. More air burst as fist met fist. It was more localized this time, which allowed them to stay close and continue punching.

While Wu Jian couldn’t match this man’s cultivation, his physical strength was immense, allowing him to remain evenly matched with Batu Khan.

Perhaps, if this had been before he refined his body within the qi storm, he would not have been able to fight this man on even terms, but now, he was going blow for blow.

His head rattled as the man slammed a fist into it. However, he dug in his heels, drew his fist back, and slammed it into the man’s torso. Power exploded from the attack as the man’s side caved in briefly. Batu Khan grunted before taking Wu Jian’s face into his hand, lifting him into the air, and slamming him into the ground. While the ground cratered beneath him and his head rung, Wu Jian pressed his hands into the ground, lifted his feet, and kicked. Both feet landed firmly on Batu Khan’s chest and launched him clear into the air. Wu Jian leapt to his feet, bent his knees, and jumped. He burst upward, soared past The Khan, then dropped. He planted both feet firmly into Batu Khan’s back and launched him toward the ground.

***

The ground rumbled as Batu Khan’s body struck the ground, and Töri Qiang squawked both because the shockwave threatened to knock him off his feet and because THE Khan had just been slammed into the ground by someone with a much lower cultivation than himself. He didn’t understand how this was possible. He still didn’t think the Khan would lose, but it shocked him that someone could stand toe to toe with him.

“How… how is he able to fight on even footing with The Khan?” he asked.

This question had been something he had asked himself. It was rhetorical and meant for no one’s ears but his own. However, Wu Meiying must have heard him, for she smiled and answered.

“Because Jian is strong.” She looked up. Wu Jian was floating in the sky has a cloud of dust rose where Batu Khan had struck earth. “Jian has struggled his entire life, fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of strength he can get. Adversity creates strength. Just as iron must be hammered and tempered in fire to become steel, cultivators must be hammered and tempered by struggle to become strong. Without resistance, there is no reason to adapt or improve.”

She paused, as though giving Töri Qiang time to think, but she didn’t let him speak and continued on.

“Batu Khan was born strong. He’s never had to struggle. Strength came to him as naturally as breathing… and that is why he’s weak. A life without challenges leads to stagnation. Without adversity, without struggles to overcome, a cultivator’s foundation will remain shallow.”

Töri Qiang gawked. “You think The Khan is weak?”

Wu Meiying gave him a look. “I don’t think he is weak. I know he is weak.”

Töri Qiang didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. This woman had just dismissed the greatest leader the Heavenly White Tigers had ever had as weak. The pinnacle of strength all members of the clan looked up to and admired, weak? If he was weak, then what did that make the rest of them?

He wanted to say something, but a roar that shook the heavens echoed around them seconds before Batu Khan burst from the dust cloud and struck Wu Jian with clawed hands--or so it appeared at first. Wu Jian had vanished a split second before the attack hit, reappeared in his blindspot, and grabbed his arm. Töri Qiang could do little more than watch in shock as Wu Jian spun around and tossed The Khan back to the ground.

Then he disappeared.

What is going on?

Wu Jian appeared beneath Batu Khan and rammed two fists into the man’s side. The strength behind his attack was so immense that The Khan was launched into the air once more, but then he was sent soaring again when Wu Jian appeared once more and attacked. He did this over and over and over, disappearing and reappearing, until Batu Khan was constantly being blasted away before he could recover.

What is he doing?! How is he doing this?!

“He’s gotten much better at using the Dao of Space,” Zhou Lihua commented, eyes glimmering. “I remember the first time he ever teleported… he lost an arm because he didn’t understand what he was doing. Look at him now? He’s able to teleport from one place to another so smoothly and so quickly that I can barely keep up.”

The Dao of Space?! Teleportation?!

Töri Qiang hadn’t known about Wu Jian’s powers. Up until now, the young man had relying purely on his physical strength to fight. He couldn’t believe this cultivator, who couldn’t have been much older than twenty, was able to use a Dao as complex and esoteric as space.

“Does seeing this make you wish you had chosen a path other than the Dao of Alchemy?” asked Wu Meiying with a grin.

Sonic booms rang through the air as Wu Jian continued to slap Batu Khan around like a straw doll battered by raging winds.

Zhou Lihua shrugged. “A little. I realize that, as an alchemist, there are many things I cannot help Jian with. I can’t fight alongside him like you and Jingshu can--and I won’t deny that I miss testing my strength in combat like I did when we were children. However…” She paused as Wu Jian kicked Batu Khan in the face and sent him crashing back down to the ground. “There are things I can do for Jian as an alchemist that no one else can.” She cast Wu Meiying a teasing grin. “You could say I’m irreplaceable."

Wu Meiying raised an eyebrow. “Don’t be so sure. There are plenty of alchemists with greater knowledge than you.”

“But none of them know Jian like I do.”

“I know him better than you ever will.”

“No, you know his reincarnations better. That doesn’t mean you know the current Jian better. I’ve spent far more time with him in this incarnation than you have. I’d say that, between the two of us, I know him a lot better than you do.”

“I can’t ignore a comment like that. Shall this Wu Meiying regale you with all the tales I have of his childhood?”

“Tell me about his childhood all you want. I can share more about what he’s been doing in the last several years than you ever could.”

The two beautiful women began arguing, and Töri Qiang could do little more than stare at them. Why were they not worried? Yes, Wu Jian was currently winning, or so it seemed, but The Khan was strong, no matter what Wu Meiying said. Surely, they should be at least a little concerned, right?

“That fight looks so fun. Ugh, I wish I had been born a tiger instead of a dragon,” Hou Jingshu complained. “Then I’d be the one fighting The Khan instead of Jian.”

Youmei nodded. “Fighting him would be a good test of my strength.”

Töri Qiang thought he might cry.

They’re all crazy!