Chapter 635 - Storm of the Abyss (VIII) (Patreon)

Shufen felt her world spin upside down with each passing second.

It all began when a little shrimp Xing Feng began assigning them all roles--the boy was a literal ten-year-old, if that, and was telling everyone where to go, and nobody seemed to have an iota of a problem with it.

"Sister Lan, you'll have to take the first few bouts on your own," the boy said. "Sister Xiu, be her shadow for a bit, but only step in if absolutely necessary. Brother Rayce, as there will be a massive gap in realms, you'll have to empower them enough with words to close the gap to at least three major realms. Brother Zhao, aim for the gaps; he will not take us seriously, but I doubt you'll have an easy killshot immediately. Try to at least inflict a persistent wound. Uncle Yimu--"

"--it's brother, you little bastard! Brother!"

"... brother Yimu," little boy rolled his eyes for a moment. "You have the most experience with someone of that realm. As Master says, you'll be the safety. Attack at your own discretion. Aunt Shufen," for a moment, Shufen truly, deeply, unmistakably wanted to also declare that she should be called Sister, but she felt if she actually did it, she would betray the woman in her more so than ever before. "Uh, I, I don't know how you fight. Maybe stay with brother Rayce and protect him?"

She wanted to refute it, but obliged. Parts of her were deeply curious about these children; her keen insight was on a perpetual fire around them, as her estimates seemed entirely incongruous with the reality of things. She felt legitimate fear from most of them, as if they were heralds of destruction rather than children.

Then again, it made sense. Any man with the capacity to 'conquer' Divine Blade was all but guaranteed to be a Divinely Mandated sort. It was no wonder that he'd have a gaggle of otherworldly children with him, even if they appeared somewhat weak on the surface.

"We'll start slow," little Feng continued. "Create a lull--and listen for the signals."

"Let's go."

They broke off into their assigned roles, with little Feng drawing further back to seemingly observe. She, per her 'instructions', stuck to the strange oddity within the group--a Shaman. She'd met a few Shamans before in her life but had never interacted with one long enough to truly understand their depth. As such, when she saw him ripping parchments, she mused for a moment that they were simply lesser talisman weavers--until those words manifested.

Light sputtered out in droves, converging toward the dashing shadows across the entire hall, first reaching Wan Lan who stormed to the front in the perfect moment--Wild Twins, or whatever their name was, were blown back like cannonballs, with Wan Lan stepping into the cloaked figure's range at just the right moment, sending forth a punch.

It didn't really do anything--the cloaked figure defended against it with ease, using a pommel of a sword to deflect it, and cutting down with the sword toward Wan Lan's head, likely expecting it to cut cleanly through. Instead, the young woman raised both her arms, grabbed the sword--by the blade--with her hands, and pulled with such ferocity that she actually managed to rip it out of the cloaked figure's hands.

"Eh?!!" Shufen was perhaps even more shocked than the figure was. After all, the claymore was hefty--even from the back, Shufen knew it weighed at least a ton or so, with over three inches of width at its narrowest.

Unfortunately, the claymore disappeared from within her hands and appeared back in the cloaked figure's a moment later, prompting the young woman to snort in derision.

"What? Big boy can't handle a little girl without his big stick?" Shufen winced a bit while the other kids laughed, quickly chiming in.

"Don't make fun of him, Sister," that was Dai Xiu. "He probably needs that stick to walk around with how old he is."

"Yes," even Xi Zhao chimed in. "We need to respect the elderly. Especially the ones who can't defend themselves."

And then it became a bit... scathing.

"Poor guy is hiding his face, his body, and needs a stick to walk around," Dai Xiu said. "Can you imagine how deplorably ugly and destitute he must be? As Master said, a face only a mother could love. Except, he might be ugly enough that even his mother didn't love him."

Shufen whipped her head backwards and stared at Lu Qi who was sitting leisurely at the back, having a seemingly casual conversation with his new 'friends'.

What the hell is that moron teaching them?!

Even she was feeling the bubble of anger, to say nothing of the figure whose eyes were spitting venom as they cleaved forth with the sword, aiming once again for Wan Lan's head. Except, this time around they'd wrapped the blade in eighteen thick layers of Qi, executing some kind of an art. Shufen thought fully the young woman would leap sideways and dodge as the strike was relatively slow, but... she didn't. She stayed rooted in place, welcoming the descent of the blade and, once again, stopping it... with her one hand.

She stood a mountain, arm extended out above her, open-palmed, holding the entire claymore back as dust and vapors and plumes of energy were spewed outwardly. Her feet sank an inch or two into the stone, kicking up dust and debris, and yet she completely managed to dissipate the full brunt of the sword's momentum in those two inches.

Shufen's lips gaped until her jaw hit the floor, her eyes and her mind at odds with one another--the latter being beyond certain that what the former were seeing was a mirage, an illusion, something entirely unreal.

"You can have it back," Wan Lan said. "I don't need a stick to walk." she compressed Qi into her palm and flung the sword away--it actually drew a massive arc in the air, pulling the cloaked figure's arm back and even their entire body for a few inches before they stopped.

Shufen heard a few exclamations of shock behind her--undoubtedly coming from their guests--and felt heard. Why was everybody else so nonchalant about this? How was it possible that a young woman in the Revolving Core Realm casually deflected and even pushed someone who was at the very least a Demigod? While she heard of geniuses skipping realms, the ones who skipped realms like this were the 'Divine Blade' category--as in, the historical figures capable of quite literally usurping the Heavens.

While everyone was staring--or, at least while she hoped everyone else was staring--an array of light came flying from the left. It was so thin that it was practically invisible, on top of making no sound as it moved. So silent, so ethereal, Shufen was certain if it was aimed at her, she'd be split in half by the time she realized what happened.

The cloaked figure noticed it just in time, swinging out with the claymore somewhat casually; after all, the attack was weak, giving up strength for the stealth.

... or that's what Shufen thought, at least.

The reality was the opposite--the collision was like a barrel of compressed Qi. It detonated so massively that the entire hall quaked and shook, and she found herself losing her footing and even falling down, having to use Qi to stabilize herself. In the meantime, the cloaked figure was absolutely blasted backwards, slammed into one of the pillars, carving out a fine hole in it. Were the pillar not protected by what looked to be hundreds of arrays, most of which were utterly annihilated in the process, they would have undoubtedly been pommeled out of the entire building and into the lake.

Shufen's hear thumped like a war drum, and she felt the blood freeze in her vein as a very simple, and quite poignant, question emerged in her mind: Who the hell are these kids?!!