STNS: Chapter 569 (Patreon)

“THUNDER ROAR!”

The soundwave from Baatar Altan’s technique struck Wu Jian point blank. It felt like his body was being rattled from the inside out. His Qi was vibrating with such intensity that it hurt and made all of his muscles lock up. The veins on his arms, legs, and neck throbbed angrily as though the blood flowing through them was going to burst out.

“It’s over!!”

Wu Jian felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind. He was lifted off the ground. A moment seemed to pass before the air around him wooshed. He couldn’t figure out what was happening at first, but then he looked up--or down?--and saw the ground rushing to meet his face.

***

“EARTH SHATTER SLAM!!!”

Baatar Erdan shouted the name of his technique as he slammed Wu Jian head first into the ground. A boom resounded across the colosseum like rumbling thunder and a massive cloud of dust was launched into the air as the ground split apart. Baatar Erden leapt out of the dust, which eventually settled to reveal Wu Jian, buried headfirst in the ground. Only his limp legs were visible.

“I-is he going to be okay?!” asked Töri Qiang. “Fuck. Did he really lose? If he lost, I’m so dead. Oh, dammit. Why did I decide to throw my lot in with him…”

As Töri Qiang fretted, Wu Meiying studied Wu Jian’s still frame with a keen eye.

“What do you think?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“That’s not enough to bring him down,” Wu Meiying stated with certainty.

“Then what’s he doing?” asked Töri Qiang.

“Planning his next attack,” said Zhou Lihua. She might have changed to the Dao of Alchemy, but that did not mean she didn’t know cultivators. She was still well-versed in combat and understood Wu Jian’s methods just as well as anyone.

“Ha ha ha! Do you see that?!” laughed Baatar Erden. “Is this really the man who defeated the Khan?!”

“Do not sound so arrogant,” Baatar Tomor muttered. “We might have won, but we lost seven of us.”

Baatar Khasar was still conscious, but with his windpipe crushed, it would only be a matter of time before he went down. The other six were lying strewn across the battlefield. Each had been knocked clean out.

“I can’t believe there’s someone out there who can defeat so many of us. I’m not even sure if the previous Khan could do that,” Baatar Chuulun said.

“You give this brat way too much credit,” Baatar Erden grumbled. “He’s just a child who still stinks of his mother’s milk. I bet he only recently stopped sucking on her teet.”

Before anyone else could speak, an all-encompassing aura swept over them. It felt similar to the one Wu Jian had first unleashed, but it was even stronger, and it pushed down on the remaining Twelve Fangs of Khan, sending them crashing to their knees.

“What… is this…?” Baatar Temur asked with a grunt of strain.

“Could it be… no way! Is he… still alive?!” Baatar Tomor shouted in shock.

Eyes turned toward Wu Jian--or where Wu Jian had been. The area where he’d been buried was now just a hole. The young man in question was no longer there.

“Where did… Erden! Behind you!!!” Baatar Altan shouted--too little too late.

“Wha--”

Baatar Erden did not even have time to turn around before something struck him in the back with so much force that his body bent in ways it was not meant to. The sound of his bones being crushed seemed abnormally loud.

Before anyone had time to even gasp, the man was blasted away, crashed into a wall, and blew the entire thing sky high. The colosseum wall on that side crumbled. Several people in the stands screamed as the falling wall threatened to cave in on them, but the elite guards of Khan moved into action, securing the people and getting them to safety.

The remaining four fangs looked from where Baatar Erden had crashed to where he had been before he was sent flying. Standing in his place was a man. Wu Jian. Nothing looked different between now and before, but his aura had completely changed. It was like night and day. The young man standing before them exuded a black and white aura that made everyone present want to fall on their knees in worship. The remaining four fangs were all on their knees and struggling to stand. When he looked up at them, it was with ice blue eyes that froze their blood.

And then he vanished.

“What the--” Baatar Altan barely had time to say two words before something slammed into his face with enough force that his entire world went dark.

As he crumpled to the ground, Wu Jian turned on a dime as Baatar Temur and Baatar Chuluun tried to attack him with a pincer maneuver. He grabbed them both by the heads, then slammed their heads together. A loud cracking sound echoed around the colosseum. This wasn’t enough to knock them out, but it did disorient them, and Wu Jian used that moment to teleport them both into the air with him. As they fell, he wrapped his arms around them and began spinning, faster and faster, until they were like blurs of motions.

Then they reached the ground.

Wu Jian teleported himself away, but the two fangs crashed head first into the ground. An attack of this caliber was enough to kill a normal cultivator. The two were not dead. Anyone who could sense Qi could sense they were still alive, but they were not going to be walking any time soon.

The last person remaining was Baatar Tomor. He was still kneeling on the ground, his mind reeling as he watched Wu Jian walk over to him. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his breathing grew labored. His eyes became pools of fear and awe. As the young man drew over to him, looming above him like a mountain overshadowing a hill, Baatar Tomor lost it.

He rolled over onto his back and displayed his belly.

Wu Jian saw this, sucked in a deep breath, and released a roar that shook the heavens and earth. It was so loud that it traveled through the colosseum, across the city, and swept over the plains. It was a roar signifying his victory.

***

The battle was over. Wu Jian was victorious. However, that did not mean his tasks were done. There was so much to do now that he had proven himself fit for the position of Khan. He planned to turn the Heavenly White Tigers into a fighting force that would work alongside the various dragon clans. That first meant inviting the dragons over. They already knew what Wu Jian was planning because they had talked about it before leaving, but whether the tigers and dragons would be able to work together was another story.

Two large fish rarely ever got along.

In any case, in order to bring the dragons over, they would need to establish a portal that would let them warp here. Establishing a portal involved creating two gates and connecting them through a time-space portal. They had created a portal in Azure Dragon City, so now they would need to do one here.

However, that would wait until tomorrow.

At the moment, Wu Jian was resting from his battle. He had managed to win, but it had drained him of his Qi. The Twelve Fangs of Khan had indeed been powerful opponents. His last series of attacks had used up everything that he had. Were it not for him dredging up the last of his power and expelling it in a single short burst, he would have lost.

“You really did a number on yourself this time,” Zhou Lihua said as she rubbed some soothing aloe on his skin. The feeling of her soft fingers on his back was heavenly. “You were extremely reckless to take on all Twelve Fangs of Khan at the same time.”

“Ha ha ha. Yeah,” Wu Jian agreed, then groaned. Zhou Lihua was pushing her fingers into his back, working out the knots in his muscles. “But I… I needed to do something flashy to assert my dominance… since I disregarded their traditions.”

“…”

Zhou Lihua said nothing for a moment. She let her hands glide over his back, gently probing his muscles until she found one that was stiff, then dug her fingers into it. Wu Jian melted. He felt like puddy in her hands. He hadn’t realized she was this skilled at massages.

“I understand what you were doing. Since you upturned their traditions, you needed to prove that you have the strength to do so. I’m not admonishing you. I promise. I was just worried about you,” Zhou Lihua said at last.

“But you also had faith in me… right?” he asked with only a slight grunt. She had just pushed down on his trapezius. This one was particularly tense, filled with knots, and the sudden pressure gave him extreme discomfort.

“Of course. I always have faith in you.”

Zhou Lihua stopped working on his back and closed the distance between them. He sighed when her chest smashed into his back and her hands went around to his front. It was nice. So nice. The feeling of her chest rubbing against his skin as her hands went to work on his pectorals was heavenly. His only regret was that, because she was behind him, he couldn’t bury his face in her chest.

“By the way, how are the Twelve Fangs of Khan?” he asked, only for his breath to hitch as Zhou Lihua pressed her lips to his neck. It wasn’t really a kiss. However, the feeling of her mouth on his skin sent his body into overdrive. He wasn’t Hou Jingshu. Combat didn’t make him horny, but the touch of a woman he loved was enough to drive him insane.

He had asked Zhou Lihua to refine alchemy pills that would heal the Twelve Fangs of Khan. She had done that before coming to see him.

“They will heal in short order… well, some of them will take a few months to heal even with my alchemy pills, but they will all be fine,” she answered dutifully.

“Good.”

Wu Jian had gone through a lot of trouble to conquer the Heavenly White Tigers, so the last thing he wanted was for his most powerful fighting force to be crippled. That was another reason this battle had been so difficult. Trying to defeat opponents with a cultivation the same as or higher than his own was already hard enough without trying to keep them alive.

“Jian… thank you for talking to Meiying for me. She has been… very hard to deal with ever since we reunited. I was starting to run out of patience, but I don’t want to say anything that would cause our rift to widen even fruther,” Zhou Lihua said. She stopped rubbing his body and instead wrapped her arms around him, holding him close.

“Mmm. You’re welcome.”

No words needed to be said between them. While he generally tried to let the women sort their differences out themselves, he knew that sometimes it would be necessary for him to intervene. This had been one of those times. Wu Meiying had gone out of line. It was especially bad for her because she was the reason he had even begun chasing after Zhou Lihua in the first place.

“You know, we’re all alone right now… and Mei’s not gonna bother us…”

“You bring up very good points. I promised Meiying that I wouldn’t lose my chastity to you just yet… but as you well know… there are plenty of other things we can do…”

Zhou Lihua stood up and walked around, until she was in front of him, then knelt. Her coy smile as she reached out to grasp him was filled with equal parts teasing and embarrassment. This woman was much more innocent than her fox-like appearance would suggest.

“Um… I’m still not used to doing this. Please excuse me.”

“Why are you being so poliiiiIIIIITE?!”

Wu Jian’s words were drowned out when Zhou Lihua lowered her head between his legs. With the late afternoon sun streaming in, Wu Jian enjoyed his time with Zhou Lihua to the fullest.