Chapter 644 - Storm of the Abyss (XVII) (Patreon)

Thunder was an aberration of colors, Mao Wuhan moaned inwardly. She'd never seen anything quite like it in all her many years of living. Though she fought many others who followed Dao of Lightning, she'd never come across someone who was so... particular with it.

The woman she fought used lightning as if it were a multi-tool of sorts. Just like how Mao Wuhan had a sword that she would use to convey her Intent and Will of her Dao, the woman used lightning itself to do the same, but suffused with other notions.

Just now, Mao Wuhan struck from a flank, appearing as an apparition in the flow state of combat, seemingly catching the woman off guard. There was a breath of distance between the two when Wuhan swung her sword, yet the tendrils of lightning crackled through the woman's skin and formed a deflective barrier that managed to parry Wuhan's attack just long enough for the woman to bolt away, creating a hundred or so feet of distance between the two.

All the while, long tendrils of lightning were crashing from above, some deeply velvet, some breathtakingly azure, and some, horribly, pitch black.

She regretted it, the fight. Falling for a provocation like a child. And yet, her pride would not let her back down. It wasn't as if she was losing--rather, neither was losing. Then again, neither was winning either. Both were simply flinging arts at each other with quite a lot of reservation behind them, fearful they'd tear apart the membrane around them. Should that happen, Wuhan knew that the entire auction house would be obliterated, and whoever was still fighting for their lives would perish right that instant.

So, rather than a fight, this became more of a performative dance--both were entertaining the notion, knowing just the same the battle didn't really mean anything. If Wuhan wanted to inflict a wound that would matter, she would have to put herself in a position to be wounded back. That was simply something she wouldn't do unless the entire sect was facing extinction--especially now that she was contemplating attempting the Ascension.

The dance continued, where the symphony was woven from the melodies of elements and swords clashing and crashing. Some high, some low. A performance with no audience at all.

**

Mao Yuhan wanted to scream, yet couldn't afford the energy to do so. Just as she had recovered from the earlier blunder, ready to help those who bravely stalled for her, she met a wall so stalwart she feared even if she cloned herself ten times over, she might not break through.

The wall was encompassing, casting a Domain around her that she could not escape. She had to fight the figure head-on, had to break through the mountains, but couldn't. She could hear them, on the outside, the ongoing clashes. The occasional moan and yelp of agony and pain. The drizzle of blood as it continued to pool into a river that would scar the stone beneath it for all eternity.

Though she could hear, she could not help. She wanted to bound the walls around her, but they pressed her. Her sword felt stiff, slow, weak. Even if she had fallen behind her peers in the recent times, even if she didn't train nearly as much as she could, she always had confidence in her attack--she was unrivaled. In fact, even her Master, in an equal realm, was weaker in a head-on collision.

But, for the first time in many, many, many years, she felt deep limitations. She cut forward, her sword rattling in her grip as dazzling burst of light swept out, forming a projection of Sword Intent so overpowering that she was confident in being able to harm someone at the Eternal Barrier Realm with it, and the projection grew until it was at least forty yards long, and it slammed into a wall only to barely make a gash in it.

Earth, dirt, and stone mixed in a soup that rumbled and fell down, but the gash that was there began to heal almost immediately.

"It's futile," the man said as she gnashed her teeth. "If you wish to get out, you must kill me."

She turned over and looked at him--he was standing some hundred yards from her, appearing undefended. However, she knew better. After all, she already attempted to do just that--kill the man. The moment she got locked in this prison, she attacked with all her might, but he was... a mountain. Perhaps even more so than these walls which surrounded her.

His mastery of Earth Qi was so profound and so specific, if she were slightly bit more arrogant, she would believe that he was groomed from birth to counter specifically her. No matter which of the Heavenly Sword Arts she used, it felt as if the man had a counter for them. Her speed, which was usually one of her most formidable assets, hardly helped her; the man had so many layers of defenses that she had to forgo her speed and focus entirely on destruction just to barely get through a layer or two at a time.

She drew back, mist of Sword Qi drifting around her figure; motes of light converged as she danced sideways, just a breath before a massive pillar of earth shot upward from the ground like a spear tip.

Her frown deepened.

That was the first time the man attacked, and soon came the second as yet another pillar of earth erupted, forcing her to launch herself sideways, rolling while accruing Sword Qi within her sword and slashing it out mid-flight, sending out a spectacular array of light. It curved and bent along the path, as earth began to coalesce from motes of Qi around the man, creating a spherical barrier that the sword light collided with. Though the sphere was shattered into a rain of debris and dust that unfurled outwardly, the man remained standing in the exact same spot still, having not moved once.

She was just about to attack yet again when she came to a halt--she wasn't the exception, either, as even the man's expression finally changed as he glanced back toward the inner portions of the auction house from where a scream that froze the blood in Mao Yuhan's veins arrived right then.

"NOOOO!!! STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU DEVIL!!! GO AWAY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Just then, a pillar of light so black and so twisted and so disgusting shot up, bursting through the roof of the auction house and ascending as far as the sky itself. It undulated like a writhing, unfeeling thing, lasting for a second or two before it exploded into a drizzle of ink-black goo, scattering across everywhere though never quite making contact with anything, vanishing like ash and smoke.

That voice... the fear contained within it, the pure, unadulterated terror. It gnawed away at her psyche and heart, and slowly began to infiltrate her soul. Whoever can cause a cultivator to fear that much... they must be a monster. And even if she beat this man, she would have to face that monster, all by herself.

No--

"Tsk, useless trash," the man spoke as he clicked his tongue. Huh? "Can't even hold back some nobodies."

... it's not an enemy?

It was like a ray of light piercing through the thickest of darkness, giving her hope. If that monster was on their side... then maybe, just maybe, they stood an actual chance.