Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 36. The Trial of Strength. (Part II)

“Let them be,” Shade waved his hand dismissively just as his Shadows were about to move, sparks of excitement shining in his eyes. He couldn’t care less about those fleeing bandits so it was okay for his Shadows not to waste their effort on something as pointless as killing them. At the moment all he cared about was this green-haired youth, Yin, and the brilliant skill he had displayed. If the black-haired kid had a similar degree of strength then he would be simply ecstatic!

“Thirty, take your men and go probe the green-haired kid out,” Shade said somewhat lightheartedly, but also somewhat seriously. “Give the other one some time… but if he doesn’t finish soon, kill him,” he ordered, not allowing his high appraisal of Yin to sway his judgment during the trial. If the black-haired kid wasn’t destined to pass, then he would die; it was that simple.

“Yes, Master,” the number thirty lowered his head, then jumped down onto the street along with the thirty-five Shadows under his command. “Clean that field up, we aren’t going to be fighting on top of corpses,” he said to his men with a little smirk on his face. He was a fairly new Shadow, but his talent was good and his personality was pretty similar to Shade’s; he understood his master’s mood from the kind of orders he gave and from the tone of his words.

From what he could tell this time around, Shade appeared to have taken a liking to that green-haired youth and so he was giving the boys some leeway. It wasn’t hard to then figure out that Shade wished to temper them, not to kill them. After all, if a squad of Shadows attacked those two boys together… the number thirty snorted at the thought. Even with the kind of strength, this green-haired boy had displayed he wouldn’t be able to resist a combined assault of thirty-six Shadows.

As the number thirty waited, the thirty-five Shadows under him took out their weapons and began killing those bandits that were still alive, but unable to move. They then began drawing all corpses, gore and even most of the blood from the area into their interspatial rings.

Yin observed the actions of the black-cloaked men with some anxiety; since they were being so nonchalant, they needed to be confident in their ability to deal with him. Either that or they didn’t care about their lives.

On the other hand, the good thing about this delay was that he was given some time to recover. In order to use the ‘Wings of the Storm’, or however he would, in the end, decide to call that technique, he had expended about thirty percent of his Qi. Truth to be told if he could have he would have had used more of it back then, not having known that he would suddenly gain insights into the Profound Mystery of Raging Storm, but thirty percent was the hard limit of his body. He was incapable of using more Qi than that in one attack without injuring himself and risking a loss of control over his ability.

When the Shadows cleaning the field get closer to him and Laien, Yin naturally tensed up, waiting for an ambush or a surprise attack. Especially when they were just twenty meters away he couldn’t help but think they would suddenly start the battle, but nothing like that happened. “Some of them are at the peak of the ninth mortal realm, but most are at the first realm of heroes,” Yin found out after probing those Shadows who approached close with thin strands of aura. He also noted that those in the mortal realm were all old men or even elderly in appearance, whereas those in the realm of heroes all looked like youngsters in their early twenties.

“That should be about it,” the number thirty nodded with satisfaction. “Come here, come here~ Tell me, who wants to give this kid a try first?” he asked playfully; whether imitating Shade’s manner of speech or just being himself, it was hard to say.

“The old ones have the priority before the young ones, no?” a gray-haired man said with a laugh. “This boy is strong, who knows what other techniques he is hiding? Allow this man who is already half a step in the other world to have some fun with him,” the man added leisurely. He had at most ten years of longevity left; his combat strength would soon begin deteriorating. He also had almost no hope to break into the Realm of Heroes as he had started cultivating was too late in his life. Thus, right now was the best opportunity for him to make use of what little strength he had accumulated in those old bones of his.

“Mm, try not to get yourself killed,” the number thirty said with a little sigh. When he had only joined Shade it was this old man who took take of him, helped him with training and protected him during missions. He didn’t want to see him risking death, but he wouldn’t stop him if the battle was what he desired.

The gray-haired man laughed, saying nothing in response. He separated from the group and began walking towards the green-haired youth. Since they stood more or less two hundred meters away it didn’t take him long before he got close. He smiled at the boy amiably and raised his sword; he chuckled quietly, able to guess why the kid had such a surprised look on his face.

Just like the gray-haired man thought, Yin was thrown off by the behavior of the black-cloaked men before him. Did they intend to duel him one by one? Or was this just the beginning of something else? No matter how he looked at it, this old man at the peak of the ninth mortal realm wasn’t a match for him. So, what were those people planning?

“No daydreaming,” the gray-haired man reprimanded with a smile, his figure dissipating into shadows as he approached Yin frontally in but an instant.

Yin’s heart skipped a beat as he hurriedly raised his twin swords to block the downward slash of the man’s sword. What kind of speed was that?! This shadow-based movement technique was nearly as fast as his own lightning steps! It was on an entirely different level compared to the black-cloaked men he had seen fighting in Neil City! “Eh?!” Yin gasped inwardly when his twin swords met the gray-haired man’s sword. The force of the blow was so high he was forced three steps back and had he not been careful, he would have probably lost grip of his twin swords.

Despite being shocked, Yin hurriedly roused his Qi and filled his twin swords with lightning and the combined power of his insights. In that clash before he hadn’t had enough time to react so it ended up being a pure contest of strength, as the gray-haired man similarly used no Qi in his attack. Yin was pretty sure his physical strength was already comparable to that of an average martial master of the first rank but didn’t that also mean that this gray-haired man’s body was at a level higher than that?

“Good strength!” the gray-haired man praised, then followed suit after Yin and engulfed his sword in darkness-element Qi. The blade of his sword appeared as if it had been swallowed by back nothingness; even the light around was being distorted, turning dim and blurry. Inside this cover of shadows the steel had been entirely painted with the blackest of darkness, which turned into an almost liquid form and resembled a layer of mercury.

Yin’s eyes went wide when he swept the gray-haired man’s sword with his aura. Unmistakingly, he could sense a clear but hidden presence of Aspects in the man’s Qi! And not only that, there also seemed to be at least one Profound Mystery of Darkness in there and who knows what more!

“No wonder they were so calm,” Yin said to himself, giving his best to calm down his nerves. He wasn’t one to be arrogant, but he had come to view himself as someone at an entirely different level compared to normal practitioners. He had never thought he would face an old man with insights as profound as this one, and the man was merely a subordinate! There was still nearly thirty black-cloaked martial masters of the first rank in the group before him and twice as much on the roof of the sanctuary! Not to mention that black-masked leader of theirs!

For the first time in years, Yin genuinely worried for his life. He felt his hands tremble slightly, what he quickly suppressed with some effort. He knew that the moment those black-cloaked men decided to kill him, he would die. The awareness was weighing on his mind heavily, but he pushed it away as far back as he could so he could concentrate on the ongoing fight.

“Ready or not, here I come,” the gray-haired man said with a laugh, treating this life or death duel as nothing more but another lesson given to a youth. He didn’t think he was strong enough to qualify as this little monster’s teacher, but he wasn’t a person to become all grim and serious in battle.

Holding the sword with one hand he stepped forward and slashed at Yin, who responded with a similar strike. Their swords collided, lightning and darkness interfering. For a split second the two forces seemed to be at the stalemate, but then the darkness engulfing the old man’s sword and even the mercury-like essence on the sword’s blade were both split apart by the white-blue lightning. This time, it was the gray-haired man who was forced back by three steps, the sword nearly falling out of his hand!

The gray-haired man didn’t let this little defeat get to him and attacked once again. This time, however, Yin was a bit more confident; he had also calmed down and stopped thinking about useless things. By the looks of it, his own insights were a fair bit deeper than this old man’s, considering how little Qi he had used to infuse lightning into his twin swords and how much the man used to create this strange shadow and mercury-like blade of his. Knowing that he wasn’t outclassed, Yin regained his spirit and went on the offensive.

The gray-haired man chuckled helplessly as instead of attacking Yin as he wanted, he was instantly forced into defensive by a barrage of quick slashes of Yin’s twin swords. He was being suppressed so thoroughly he couldn’t do anything else but defend, and even that was becoming harder and harder. After blocking three dozens of blows, his hands began feeling numb from the repeated impacts. He was able to protect himself from lightning so far, but he was using up his Qi at a rapid rate.

“This boy is strong,” the gray-haired man thought quietly. “Who knows, he might even be recognized by master and pass the Trial of Strength,” he mused, deep inside already having accepted that in a few more breaths of time he would be killed by this green-haired youth.

Despite this acceptance, the gray-haired man wasn’t planning to sell his life cheaply. He used a Shadow Step movement technique and suddenly dissipated into shadows, moving behind Yin almost instantly. He slashed, expecting the youth to use his own movement technique, but to his surprise saw Yin turn his body around while making two short steps and retreating slightly, just in time to repel his slash!

“So confident? Your perception is excellent. Let’s see if this old man can leave at least a single wound on your body,” the gray-haired man mused with a smile. He didn’t want to tire the youth out or anything like this, so he chose to push his own body to the limits and executed the Shadow Step once again, changing positions and just like before moving behind Yin’s back.

Shadow Step wasn’t nearly as fast as Lightning Step, but it could be used to quickly travel long distances at a cost of large amounts of Qi. If used in battle, however, it had similar restrictions to Lightning Step; it was very hard on the user’s body to enter the shadows and leave them repeatedly. With his sturdy body, the gray-haired man could execute his movement technique four or five times before his muscles and Qi paths began suffering any serious backlash, but he was fully planning to disregard those limitations. He had lived a good life, then became a practitioner like he always wanted to. He didn’t want to die in bed from old age, he much preferred to go out fighting.

However, how could he have expected that just after the third time he showed his Shadow Step, he would find a sword thrust through his stomach the exact moment he left the shadows? Before he could do anything, a surge of lightning ravaged his body from inside, destroying his internal organs and shattering his Qi paths. Even if he swung his sword now in an act of desperation, he wouldn’t be able to muster enough strength to cut through this boy’s skin.

“Well done…” he said with his last breath, then closed his eyes peacefully and fell to the ground with a slight smile on his face.

Yin took a deep breath and turned around, sparing a brief look at this gray-haired old man before returning his attention to the remaining black-cloaked men in the nearby group.

The kind of counter with which Yin had killed the gray-haired man might have seemed simple, but It required otherworldly confidence and ability. It was very hard to pick up on the movements of someone using a movement technique; one needed to start moving the very instant the technique was employed and needed to fine-tune his reaction during those split-seconds to then deliver a lethal blow. This kind of counterattack was very dangerous because, in case of a failure, one would be left totally open for an attack. Yin had only dared to try it because he had learned new ways of manipulating his aura and was capable of tracing the gray-haired man’s movements with ease. Had it not been for that, he wouldn’t have taken this gamble just to save some of his Qi and endurance.

“Old man…” the number thirty shook his head. The gray-haired man died with a smile on his face, but how could he not harbor ill feelings towards the one who killed him?

“Don’t worry leader, we shall make do with this brat,” a short-haired girl that looked to be around sixteen, seventeen years old said confidently. She was currently at the middle ninth mortal realm, with just a little more time she would be able to advance to the late ninth mortal realm, then smoothly to the peak and to the Realm of Heroes! With her talent and given her young age, she would experience no bottlenecks at all.

“Little sister, you aren’t a match for this boy,” a long-haired woman in her early twenties reminded with a smile. Her little sister was unarguably more talented than her, but she was only a little stronger than the gray-haired man had been. Fighting this boy would be way too dangerous for her.

“That’s why I said ‘we’, big sister,” the short-haired girl said with a smirk. “I know the extent of my abilities. I will support you like usual and you kill that brat,” she added wryly and licked her lips in excitement for the fight to come. She had been training so much ever since she could remember, but she never had an opportunity to fight anyone strong! She couldn’t wait to cross her own twin swords with that brat’s.

“Well…” the long-haired woman clicked her tongue quietly and looked at their leader. Would it be fine for them to proceed in this way?

“Go,” the number thirty said without an ounce of playfulness in his voice. “If you kill this brat I will make sure to prepare some nice rewards for you,” he added, causing the short-haired girl and the long-haired woman to feel startled. Did Shade order them to only play with this green-haired youth? Yes, it could be interpreted as their master being silly as he almost always was, but they had a feeling Shade didn’t want to see Yin killed.

“You think master would have sent us to die?” the number thirty asked with a snort. “The trial isn’t over yet. He doesn’t want us to attack those kids all at once, but he also doesn’t want us to go easy on them,” he explained, then added with a sarcastic smile. “But if you think you can afford to fight that kid without going all out, then feel free to do it. I will make sure to bury your corpses in a nice place and I will even prepare tombstones for you.”

The short-haired girl grimaced, but the long-haired one smiled with understanding. Similarly to the latter of the two most of the unit members relaxed a little as they came to understand what their task was and how they would proceed from this point onwards.

“Make sure to be careful when using your Shadow Step,” the long-haired woman reminded her little sister and started walking forward, holding a spear with her both hands in case the kid rushed out and attacked them all of the sudden. “He is kinda cute, a pity we need to kill him,” she said with a sigh. If this kid wasn’t so abnormal she would have made him into her pet, but there was no way she could subdue such a monstrosity. The most she could manage was to kill him.

“A spear wielder and a twin sword user,” Yin couldn’t help but smile a little. It would be quite hard for him to deal with two of those black-cloaked guys at once, but they couldn’t have chosen a worse matchup as far as weapons went. He seriously doubted this girl was more skilled with twin swords than him and he was pretty sure this woman wasn’t better at using spear than Laien.

When the two roused their Qi and covered their weapons in a pretty much identical mix of shadows and mercury-like liquid Yin wasn’t surprised; he already expected the two to have insights comparable to that gray-haired man’s. He steadied himself and raised his twin swords, ready to begin the fight at any moment.

The long-haired woman attacked first, choosing the simplest frontal assault and deciding against using her movement technique unless absolutely necessary. The moment she got in range of her spear, she thrust it forward while aiming at Yin’s collarbone. At the same time, her little sister went into a position to the right, ready to launch an attack at Yin’s side or back.

A slight smile remained on Yin’s face as he twisted his body lightly and took a step forward, simultaneously deflecting the thrust of the spear with one of his twin swords. Before the long-haired woman had time to pull back for another thrust as she had planned to do, he stepped too close and made it unwieldy for her to attempt anymore thrusting motions.

In the duel against the gray-haired man Yin didn’t really get to display his agility and speed too much; and those two were his strongest aspects! In addition to his experience in fighting a spear wielder, he was able to easily grasp the correct timing to step in without taking the brunt of the thrust. This much was obvious to Yin, but it was quite a bit of a surprise for the long-haired woman to have suddenly found herself in close quarters against a dual wielder!

All she could do was to defend with the shaft of her spear and wait for her little sister to attack this kid from behind. Even though she would be at a disadvantage, she was sure she could take as much as a few dozen consecutive blows from this kid before being wounded; she was a martial master of the first rank, had many deep insights and practices a top-level Qi Manipulating Art! If needed she could also resort to the techniques she had mastered and either attack this kid or protect her life.

The first slash of Yin’s twin sword was successfully blocked by her; and in face, it was so easy that it made the long-haired woman frown. She expected to be stronger than this kid, but not by this much! Just to be on the careful side she roused a large amount of her Qi, preparing to create the mercury-like layer on any part of her body just in case.

Yet, when Yin’s sword exploded with speed that she couldn’t follow with her eyes nor senses all she could do was to try and block instinctively. Alas, how could she compare to master spear-wielder like Laien and his water-element defense? Even Laien had been heavily wounded by this strike of Yin’s the first time he saw it, much less someone who wanted to defend with darkness-element!

Elemental Sword of Lightning; Thunder! The sword in Yin’s right hand burst forward like lightning, moving in a neither slashing nor piercing motion. The blade easily cut into the long-haired woman’s flesh, ripping out a huge, thirty centimeters long piece of flesh from her chest and turning half of her ribs along with her wishbone into powder, only missing heart by a few centimeters.

The long-haired woman coughed and vomited a mouthful of blood. The body of a martial master was durable and it wasn’t easy to kill one, but this wound was definitely lethal. She wouldn’t die instantly but would bleed out to death in the span of a minute or two. She attempted to rouse her Qi to unleash an offensive technique at the green-haired kid, but no longer had sufficient amount of control over her energy.

“Big sis!” the short-haired girl shouted, her eyes shining with unbound fury. As her big sister’s body was falling to the ground she used the Shadow Step movement art to attack Yin… alas, she was too agitated and failed to employ the technique at its full potential.

The moment the short-haired girl appeared Yin had already turned around halfway and without taking risks, slashed out with the sword in his left hand and cut the short-haired into two pieces at her waist. Yet, to his shock the girl still mustered enough strength to launch an all-out attack with her twin swords, using up all the Qi in her body and in consequence rupturing all her Qi paths.

In the nick of time, Yin executed his movement art and moved away, allowing the two lashes of darkness to slash the ground and leave a huge, forty meters long cross mark on it. The stones themselves appeared to have been decomposed by this strange energy and they crumbled into themselves, the scar left on the ground growing quite a bit deeper until the leftover Qi fully dissipated.

“That was scary.” Yin felt a chill run down his spine. Had he been just a little bit slower he would have taken this attack head-on. He might not have died, but he surely would have been wounded very seriously. He didn’t think that those black-cloaked men would know how to use such a lethal offensive technique! He was seriously lucky to have killed this long-haired woman quickly, otherwise, those two could have very well made him use up most of his Qi in order to win.

“Huh?” Startled, Yin looked over his shoulder when he sensed a very dim presence suddenly appear beside Laien. He wanted to curse, but he had no time to do it; he was more than thirty meters away from Laien after having desperately dodged the short-haired girl’s last-resort attack! He wouldn’t make it in time…!

“If he isn’t destined to join the trial, he shall die,” the number thirty thought contentedly, happy to personally rob that green-haired brat of a friend. He wasn’t planning on letting that boy intervene either, so he simply slashed down with his sword at the black-haired kid’s shoulder with all his strength.

Shade frowned a little on the roof, but said nothing and continued watching. He the performance of Yin’s was splendid; he could already let him pass the Trial of Strength. The other kid, however… since he wasn’t willing to defend himself, he could as well die. A bit of a pity, but oh well.

Such were Shade’s thoughts, but the unamused look on his face quickly changed into a flabbergasted one when he saw Yin erupt with a mass of emerald lightning. The twin swords of Yin’s disappeared and in the blink of an eye, Yin transformed into a streak of lightning that almost instantly arrived by the number thirty’s side!

Being mid-slash, the number thirty had no time to react. All he saw was a beastly shape out of the corner of his eye before a set of sharp teeth sank into his neck and chest. He felt his body being raised into the air, then he felt a sharp pull; he heard his spine cracking as a large portion of his flesh was ripped off of his body. He was sent flying through the air and landed on the ground powerlessly, his head only holding onto the rest of his body with a bit of muscle and skin.

The number thirty’s mouth moved in a mute expression of unwillingness as he was forced to welcome death, the last thing he saw being a spiky-furred silver wolf with a bloody muzzle growling at him in his rage.