Chapter 422: The Price of Impulsiveness!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
No one had noticed the kitten before this.
Why would there be a cat in the chaotic battlefield, much less one that was hovering high in the air?
It was only the size of a clenched fist – how had it gotten up there?
Still, the kitten looked harmless enough...
Tens of thousands of people beneath them were watching the unexpected events unfold with a sense of trepidation; an uneasy feeling arose within them as they shouted in unison, "Be careful!"
"Meow!"
With a soft purr, Whitey Two's paw went viciously for the unguarded back of the Ziyou expert's head.
Slap!
The expert's head practically disintegrated under the vicious strike.
His body seemed to still be in disbelief, unable to comprehend what had just happened as it turned in midair, trying to see who it was that had killed him.
There was nothing behind him just a moment ago!
How could he have been ambushed? This should not be! It was impossible!
His body followed the last order his head had given, actually turning around in the air; his chest faced the back, but his last wish was still in vain because his eyes would never be able to see it!
His body came to a shuddering stop before dropping. Until his very last breath, he was stumped, dying without a clear cause.
An expert of the times had passed soundlessly into the underworld!
The countless people beneath watched the scene unfold with unblinking eyes. Everyone felt as if the world was only shaded in black and white; there were no other colors!
This was a nightmare!
The initial failure of Ding Yunlu's vow had caused everyone present to experience a sense of despair, but when this man had appeared to tackle Yun Yang, forcing him into a failed saber form execution, everyone's hopes were reignited. They had thought that this nightmare was finally ending.
Ironically, it was their savior that met his end, and with that crumbled the last of their hope. The people had fallen into an even darker nightmare!
Yun Yang did not know who he had killed, but the crowd gathered below him clearly know who the deceased had been.
The man was a legendary figure in the Empire of Ziyou. He was the King of Sword, Qu Hanxue, who was well-known in his generation; his reputation was like the noon sun that shone upon everyone.
The moment he struck, all the swords in the city would respond accordingly!
He was a mythical character, a living legend, yet he had perished so easily right in front of everyone's eyes! Even the sword he had always carried with him, an item of fantasy and legend, had been shattered into a dozen pieces!
This was a truth no one could accept.
A King of Sword who had just announced that his opponent was running out of tricks was immediately forced back, wounded by the technique he said he had seen in the past and was not even given a death befitting his status – his head had been shattered by a fist-sized kitten!
What an embarrassing way to die!
Everyone watched the sky with chins lifted in bewilderment; the sky was empty.
They looked high and low for the kitten that had just killed the King of Sword, Qu Hanxue, but it was gone and nobody seemed to have seen where it went.
It was easy to think that it was all in their imaginations.
The kitten was gone the moment one woke up from the dream.
However, Qu Hanxue was dead!
He was, without a doubt, deceased.
The three men who rushed over from afar was stunned, watching the scene with disbelief brimming in their eyes. They could not help slowing down as they approached the scene.
Had Qu Hanxue just died meaninglessly?
Had the attack by the King of Sword left a single mark on Supreme Cloud?
Did he not discern the other's techniques? Did he not say that the other was exhausting his tricks?
He should have been holding the upper hand. Why was he the one to die instead?
They were shocked and hesitant on their next course of action, but Yun Yang was not stunned nor did he hesitate. He seized the opportunity and charged forward another thousand feet; the saber light gleamed, still as radiant in the sky.
From the moment he had flown up until now, he had stayed in the air for three hours – it was a terrifying amount of time!
The three men who rushed over had already been left far behind.
Even if these three people were to catch up, Yun Yang would not be in a passive stance anymore, since they were already shaken by Qu Hanxue's unexpected downfall and that would impact their combat power. Yun Yang still had more tricks up his sleeves; sufficient to take down the trio. Besides, he was far in front, his three pursuers were too far away to apprehend him.
Suddenly, an exceptionally strong aura appeared in front of Yun Yang, slightly towards the left of his path.
Yun Yang's gaze came into focus as his body swayed like a willow branch blown by the wind.
A hunched figure had appeared out of thin air and hovered a hundred feet away on his left. Almost immediately, the apparition executed a palm strike in Yun Yang's direction.
The strike was powerful and had an earth-shattering impact. As the palm flew out, the space around the person coalesced into a murky darkness, phasing into stark emptiness.
A black hole that was no less than thirty feet in circumference formed around the figure and swallowed everything around it, producing a strong, gravitational field. Yun Yang was unable to manifest into wind nor cloud, but even if he could, he would have been slowed down by the strong suction.
The figure had already struck out a few breathes ago, but the shrill cry akin to a ghost's howl could only be heard now. The speed of his force was actually faster than sound!
It was the Elder Hei.
Yun Yang recognized the person instantly – it was the old eunuch who had been serving by the Ziyou emperor's side.
The attack allowed Yun Yang to judge the old eunuch's ability straightaway; the old man was a fourth heaven pinnacle!
It was a dreadfully powerful capability, much higher than that of Yun Yang, and was even more deadly than Venerable Lord Saber's had been.
The dreadful force's coverage extended far and wide; Yun Yang could not avoid it's incredibly strong pull.
To the casual onlooker, Yun Yang appeared to have been trapped by the strong gravity and the unexpected turn of events as well, unable to avoid falling into the trap in time. He had only made a slight tilt to avoid the strike but had hesitated and changed to countering with both palms stretching outwards hastily. It seemed like an incredibly rushed response.
In spite of this, there were slivers of green pulsing around his palms.
Boom!
Elder Hei was certain that his attack had landed on his target but it felt like he had landed his strike on cotton instead; there was no solid body to receive his powerful blow. To top it off, there seemed to an inexplicable pulling force from the opponent's hands as well!
This time, however, Elder Hei was the one who could not help leaning forward from his misguided estimation. His reflexes were swift as he concentrated all his strength on his feet and sunk thirty feet downwards at once. He leaned back to regain his balance.
As for Supreme Cloud, it seemed that he had suffered a larger impact as he was flung far away with a loud crash.
However, Elder Hei, who looked like he was on the winning side, did not look at all pleased. He knew that the situation was not right. The other party had the capacity to throw him off balance, so there was no way he could have been flung away by the impact. The only explanation would be that everything was a setup; it would be the only reasonable way. Therefore, there must be a motive for him to fling himself away.
Even as he pondered upon this, Elder Hei cried shrilly, "Stop him!"
Seeing that Elder Hei was about to deal severe damage to Supreme Cloud as the latter was still flung far despite being able to take the strike, the three experts who were rushing over swiftly felt a mix of emotions.
F*cking hell, whether we're fast or slow, we managed to run over at the most critical moment but this old eunuch has reaped the rewards again!
Isn't it better if we just didn't appear?
He paused for a moment before he came to a complete stop.
When the old eunuch's shrill voice cried out in warning, the three experts could not react in time. When they picked up speed again, they were simply a beat too slow.
What they could see was Supreme Wind flying off like a cannon upon the impactful strike; there were actually wisps of green smoke in the air when he shot through; it was evident that his speed had reached frightening heights.
He was headed to the General Wudi Ancestral Hall!
Elder Hei's powerful palm strike that punched a hole in space, in addition to Supreme Cloud's personal kinetic force, enabled the latter's flight to speed him through five thousand feet of space in the blink of an eye, and send him through the General Ancestral Hall's wall with a loud crash.
Amidst the smog, Supreme Cloud had vanished!
Elder Hei catapulted forward, turning into a vague shadow in the sky. With a piercing cry, he flew towards the ancestral hall as well.
The other three men followed suit quickly, but instead of reflecting on their failure, the trio was reveling in Elder Hei's misery, "This old fellow has been tricked!"
Yun Yang had absorbed Elder Hei's force, leveraging on it to fly away. Despite successfully guarding himself, his true cultivation base was still much weaker than that of the latter. The Endless Divine Art had guarded his heart and meridians, but his internal organs were still bruised by the abrupt surge of power.
For a moment, his internal organs felt as if they were ablaze as blood spilled from his mouth and nose. Gulping in a mouthful of basic Qi, he enabled himself to shoot like a meteor, following his planned trail, and forcefully broke through into General Wudi's ancestral hall.
Scanning the hall, he saw the three statues and tablets of General Wudi and family. Underneath, there were two bags of remains wrapped in yellow cloth. In front, them was the podium for incense with wisps of smoke rising slowly from it.
Without hesitation, Yun Yang crushed all three statues and grabbed the yellow cloth-covered remains and the memorial tablets, keeping them in his storage ring and hollering, "The Empire of Ziyou has fallen. General Wudi, follow me home!"
"Reunited from now on!"
Before his words could even echo in the air, Yun Yang had moved again, breaking through another wall and shooting out amidst the smog. He was like a hawk that pierced the clouds, soaring high into the sky.
At the same time, the majestic General Wudi Tower that was one of Zilong City's landmarks tilted slowly. The tower top, hundreds of feet tall, collapsed in the direction of Yun Yang's departure!
The two times Yun Yang had broken through its wall had obviously shaken the building's foundations and when the man had charged through the wall for the second time, he had aimed well so that the tower would have no more support.
The collapsing noise was accompanied by a sky full of smog and dust which obscured most of the people's vision. As for Yun Yang, he had sped himself up to his limit.
All of his goals for this trip, including the additional ones, had been accomplished. Right now, his only objective was to leave.
When he had first bolted his way out, what had kept him up was the anguish that could barely be vented and a fury that was suppressed to its limits. They only made him want to kill and to run rampant.
He knew that it was an impulsive and reckless thought, but he had just gone through a massacre, so it was to be expected.
Although he knew that doing so was not befitting his identity as the Nine Supremes' think tank and was not the choice of any wise man, his rationale was long gone from the tide of fury and anguish that washed over him.
After all, he was only a youth no more than twenty years old…
However, Yun Yang's rationale came back to him when he was halfway through his slaughtering. He immediately felt that his actions were foolish and he was only deceiving himself.
At the very least, he could only be so daring because the Four Seasons Tower's mightiest experts who were guarding this place had all been killed by Jun Moyan.
Yun Yang asked himself with a hand on his heart; on the contrary, would he still dare be as impulsive if the fifth or sixth heaven experts of Four Seasons Tower were still here? If Jun Moyan had not completed his promise of killing all four heads of the tower, what should he do?
For Jun Moyan to kill the four people was within his planned expectation, but what if Jun Moyan did not regard the Medallion of Gratitude highly?
After all, the Medallion of Gratitude was taken care of by Old Dugu, who was no longer here.
Thinking deeper, Jun Moyan was still from the Empire of Ziyou. He had helped him out of friendship, but what if he had broken his promise and killed him instead?
Yun Yang was drenched in an outpouring of sweat just thinking about these things.
Yun Yang had already put himself in that situation; he had already charged out impulsively. If he were to just leave in haste, it would be rather disrespectful. He had already acted foolishly and recklessly, thus he had gone on with it. After catching a glimpse of Shangguan Lingxiu, Yun Yang decided easily that he would just take the chance and bring General Wudi's remains home.
Ziyou's national luck was already gone, swept away by Yun Yang - the imperial jade seal's fortune had been emptied out, while the national treasure was only a shell now. From a certain perspective, it could be said that the Empire of Ziyou had already fallen.
As such, General Shangguan Wudi's vow all those years ago could be considered complete. The difference was slight; one could not be perfect after all.
Therefore, Yun Yang would send Shangguan Wudi's remains home.
I have been impulsive, but I don't regret a single moment of it. I will just go on with it to the end!
However, I still have to compensate for my impulsiveness and stupidity with something of value.
Suddenly, a whistling sound could be heard. A long-ranged Siege Quarrel had been released amidst the clamor of shouts and screams.
Yun Yang had just bolted out of the thick smog and the Siege Quarrel had brushed past him, less than thirty feet away. It was evident that the marksman was a skilled one; furthermore, Yun Yang's deific consciousness told him that there were three people who were rushing over from his left and right while there were six people coming from behind him.
From the front, a Siege Quarrel was barrelling down towards him.
With a growl, Yun Yang's explosive forward motion changed direction abruptly to soar upwards diagonally, like a firework that had been released.
His abdomen tightened, but he felt the slice of cold steel followed by a burning sense of friction. Fragments of his clothes flew away as the smell of his flesh being burned from the high temperature the speeding quarrel had generated wafted in the air.
Droplets of blood splattered onto the ground.
The Siege Quarrel had finally wounded Yun Yang.
The quarrel had come in at a delicate angle. Yun Yang's forward charge was swift and even though his reflexes were quick enough to shift his direction, he had still suffered a slight injury. However, Yun Yang still managed to avoid the arrow head-on. He then stomped hard on the Siege Quarrel.
He poured his entire cultivation base into this stomp. The Siege Quarrel turned half an arc in the air and went speeding towards the chest and abdomen of Elder Hei who was rushing over!
The Siege Quarrel flew like an arrow; it possessed the entirety of Yun Yang's strength. Endowed with frightening speed and augmented by its hefty weight, it had the formidable capacity to kill an immortal or even a deity.
Elder Hei knew what was coming for him – how would he dare block it head-on? He drifted away quickly while Yun Yang's lean form soared another five hundred feet up into the air from the leveraging force of his stomp. He looked like a human-shaped kite that was gliding swiftly in the sky; from the ground, he was only the size of a watermelon.
Whitey Two that was high up in the sky suddenly cried out and appeared under Yun Yang's legs. The two recombined to form a single entity of man and beast.
Whitey Two's snow-white body spread out as it carried Yun Yang and flew up vertically. In the blink of an eye, they had ascended thousands of feet into the sky!
The dozen people who were soaring upwards were bewildered; some even staggered in midair and almost fell down.
He had a flying mystical beast! How could he be apprehended?
The hefty Siege Quarrel had finally been pointed in the right direction, but the soldier manoeuvring the machine was dumbstruck.
How could they do it?
Their opponent was now a small black dot in their eyes – how were they supposed to attack him?
This was just like using a high impact cannon to kill a mosquito.
Theoretically, he was still within range, but it practically impossible to hit him.
The Deicide Bow archers were stunned as well.
Shooting furiously, their hands had long been doused in blood, but their target had still managed to escape into the sky.
"It's not a flying mystical beast, that's an Eclipse Panther!
Elder Hei almost spat blood.
His opponent had leveraged on his force to charge into the General Wudi Ancestral Hall, causing the structure to collapse at once. He had then fled amidst the chaos and flown thousands of feet into the sky!
Their clash earlier indicated that his opponent's prowess was not as dreadful as it seemed; as long as they could fight hand to hand, Elder Hei was sure he could take him down.
Unfortunately, his opponent had fled into the high heavens!
Elder Hei could not help thinking about the commonly used line, "If you're so great, why don't you go right to heaven?"
It seemed a rather apt description at this point in time.
He now faced an extremely awkward situation.
The others were rolling their eyes as well.
Yes, you're right – that's not a flying mystical beast, but the Eclipse Panther has the ability to stay in the air as well. Of course, it can't fly for miles on end like the hawk or roc, but it would still be no problem for it to say aloft in the air for a quarter of an hour!
They, on the other hand, did not have any such ability. They could only take turns to attack by soaring upwards. With their strength, flying this high was basically discounting half of their cultivation base.
To fight with Supreme Cloud like this, they were practically handing their heads over to him on a platter.
In the sky, the Eclipse Panther carried Supreme Cloud away as they flew in a straight line towards the west gate.
On the ground, hundreds of thousands of people looked on in confusion.
The devastating battle had gone on for a whole day, and this was the outcome?
Another wave of attacks erupted from the Siege Quarrel and Deicide Bows but the results were as expected – absolutely futile!
The seventeen or eighteen heaven realm experts paused two hundred feet in the air as if they were on display – it was too risky to go up, too embarrassing to go down.
To be caught in such an awkward state was terribly upsetting.
Elder Hei gathered the group together. "There's only one way now!"
Another elder snorted and said, "I know Artisan Hei's way. It's none other than sending at least eight people up into arranging the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation then exerting their life force to lock down Supreme Cloud and limit his movements as much as possible so that he can't escape. Then the other four will complete the kill, am I right?"
The other elder said coldly, "This is one of the ways, but I am certain Elder Hei won't be one of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation members. This formation will, of course, be formed by us."
Elder Hei said icily, "I am not a selfish person. If there is a need to sacrifice for the country's peace, I don't mind. However, my cultivation base is the highest here and will deal the most damage to Supreme Cloud!"
The others smirked without saying anything.
Someone chuckled, "That's right, my cultivation base is low, I should die! I'm in debt to the country and its people, am I not? Still, where does your sense of greater justice come from, Elder Hei? We have families, wives, our people, countless people whom we can sacrifice ourselves for, but are you only doing this for the country and people?"
Elder Hei's face flushed purple as a murderous rage wrapped itself around him.
Another person said, "So what if Supreme Cloud escapes? Kill the two mystical beasts down there. We can at least break one of his arms, this way!"
This was bullsh*t of course- how could two mystical beasts be an arm of Supreme Cloud? Everyone knew that it was impossible. Supreme Cloud's power stemmed from the Nine Supremes' arcane skills and had nothing to do with mystical beasts.
In spite of this, the other dozen men agreed at once. "This idea is a great one."
"The two mystical beasts are too dangerous. They need to be eliminated."
"Let's go down!"
The group then charged downwards with high fighting spirits, leaving Elder Hei standing alone in the sky.
Elder Hei stood still, feeling the sky above him turning black.
Beneath him, the two beasts were viciously killing anyone within reach in the dense crowd. Deicide arrows and Siege Quarrels that could not harm Yun Yang opened up fatal wounds on their bodies. They were already badly injured after just a brief foray amidst the crowd.
Yun Yang was riding Whitey Three in the sky. Looking at the carnage, he wanted to charge down. From how things looked at the moment, he realized that he could escape unscathed!
As long as Whitey Three flew low and turned invisible in his pocket, he could go down and scoop up the bear and snake, turn them small and soar up again. Whitey Three could still rise to their current height swiftly.
They could then leave in peace.
Just as he was about to travel down, the warning siren in his heart began to shrill. An extreme sense of danger arose and raised goosebumps through his entire being.
His reflexes were considered among the best in this world. As long as he could sense the slightest bit of danger, he could move to avoid any harm that came his way.
In this case, however, he was too late.