Mac Ta

Mac Ta, ranked third on the Eastern Plains Huyen Bang.

He was the highest-ranked challenger to personally issue a challenge to Hao Nhien since the tournament began, and his name alone was enough to wipe the smile from Luu Van’s face the moment he heard it.

Three days before the battle, on the highest floor of Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion, the file placed before Hao Nhien was far thinner than those prepared for his previous opponents.

He read through it once, then went over it a second time before finally setting it down.

“That’s all?”

Luu Van nodded.

“That’s all. Mac Ta almost never appears in public. No one knows where he cultivates, and neither his sect nor his clan background is clear. Even most of the battles through which he maintained his Huyen Bang ranking took place where no spectators were present.”

Hao Nhien glanced again at the few brief lines recorded in the jade slip.

The only thing that could be considered nearly certain was that very few people who had actively sought out Mac Ta to challenge his ranking ever returned intact. Some disappeared completely. Some were found dead afterward. Of the few lucky enough to survive, some had lost their sanity, while others had suffered such severe damage to their souls that they could no longer clearly describe what they had experienced.

Luu Van lowered his voice.

“Three years ago, a sword cultivator ranked eighteenth challenged Mac Ta near the border of the Eastern Plains. After the battle, people found him inside a stone cave. He was still alive, but his soul had been torn so badly that he could only repeat one sentence.”

Hao Nhien looked up.

“What sentence?”

“Don’t let him get close.”

The room remained silent for several breaths.

Luu Van took out another jade slip and placed it on the table.

“There is one more lead. Several strongholds suspected of belonging to the Yin Soul Cult were destroyed in the past, and the yin qi left behind at those places was extremely similar to what had been recorded around the sites where Mac Ta fought. But there still isn’t enough evidence to make a definite conclusion.”

Hao Nhien tapped one finger lightly against the tabletop.

The Yin Soul Cult.

He was no stranger to that name. In the desert, he had once destroyed a ritual used to summon yin soldiers and had fought cultivators who controlled wandering souls and sinister arts. Those methods did not merely attack the body. They could also strike directly at the soul.

Luu Van looked at him.

“If he really is from the Yin Soul Cult, do you still intend to fight?”

“The challenge has already been accepted.”

“I know.”

Luu Van sighed.

“What I’m asking is whether, after learning all this, you still want to go through with it.”

Hao Nhien looked at the thin file before him for a while before answering.

“If he came only for the Huyen Bang, I’ll fight him. If he has another purpose, then I want to know what it is even more.”

Luu Van did not try to persuade him again.

News of the battle quickly spread throughout Hoa Van, though outsiders knew only one simple fact.

Quan Hao Nhien, first on the Huyen Bang.

Against Mac Ta, ranked third.

Those two rankings alone were enough to push the already crowded Hoa Van Town to its limits once again.

Not everyone knew Mac Ta, but anyone who truly followed the Eastern Plains Huyen Bang understood what third place meant. Before Doc Hanh left, Mac Ta had remained near the very top of the ranking for many years. He rarely fought upward, yet almost no one had ever managed to force him down.

A position like that could not be maintained by luck.

On the day of the battle, the central square was already packed from early morning.

Hao Nhien arrived at the arena shortly before the match. From above, he could see that the formations around the battlefield had been checked repeatedly. Beyond the ordinary barriers meant to contain sword qi and shockwaves, the formation masters had added another layer specifically designed to suppress leaking yin qi and soul fluctuations.

Lieu Thien Van and Cat Thanh were already present.

Luu Thanh had deployed two additional guard units around the square.

In the front rows, Hao Nhien saw Quan Nha, Tieu Lan, and Tieu Nhan. This time, Tieu Nhan no longer looked excited as she had during the earlier matches, while Tieu Lan had already prepared pills at her side.

He looked only briefly before withdrawing his gaze.

Bong!

The great bell rang.

Hao Nhien guided the Tieu Dao Sword down onto the arena. Cheers immediately surged around the square, but only a few breaths later they began to fade on their own.

Across from him, a layer of gray mist had somehow begun spreading low across the stone floor. Thin yin qi moved with it, rapidly lowering the temperature around the arena. A damp, rancid smell like earth from an ancient grave drifted through the air.

The surrounding formations immediately lit up.

A figure slowly emerged from the mist.

Mac Ta was so thin that his body seemed almost swallowed by the loose gray robe hanging from his frame. His back was slightly hunched, and a broad hat concealed most of his face, revealing only a sharp chin and bluish-purple lips. His arms hung lower than those of an ordinary man, ending in skeletal hands tipped with curved black nails like hooks.

A drop of black liquid fell from one fingertip onto the stone.

Sizzle.

White smoke rose, leaving a small pit behind.

Hao Nhien glanced at the mark of corrosion, then lifted his eyes toward the face hidden beneath the brim.

Mac Ta stopped more than ten zhang away and slowly raised his head.

Cloudy gray eyes looked toward Hao Nhien without obvious anger or killing intent. There was only a cold curiosity, like someone examining a useful piece of material.

“A very clean soul. Strong blood and vitality as well.”

His voice was thin and hoarse.

“No wonder you can sit in that position.”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

The Huyen Bang token flew from his hand and landed in the designated position on the left side of the arena.

Mac Ta tilted his head slightly.

“I had wanted to watch a little longer and see what was so special about the man standing at the top of the Huyen Bang.”

He raised one hand. Yin qi began gathering into black threads around his fingers. With a light flick, an exceptional-grade spirit stone dropped into the locking slot on the right.

The referee immediately shouted:

“Both sides, prepare!”

Hao Nhien watched the black threads moving around his opponent’s hand.

Bong!

The bell had barely sounded when the Fire Spirit Sword left its sheath.

A line of fire tore through the mist, forcing the yin qi ahead apart. Hao Nhien followed immediately, Phong Van Step rapidly accelerating his movement.

The distance of more than thirty zhang disappeared quickly.

Twenty.

Fifteen.

Ten.

Just as Mac Ta was about to complete his hand seal, the invisible Spirit Wings behind Hao Nhien burst for one extremely brief instant.

Whoosh!

The final ten zhang nearly vanished.

The Fire Spirit Sword slashed down.

The blade cut straight through Mac Ta’s shoulder, yet no blood sprayed out.

Hao Nhien immediately sensed something was wrong.

The body before him collapsed like a layer of dry skin emptied of all flesh and bone, then exploded into a cloud of yin qi.

A hoarse voice sounded from behind him.

“Very fast.”

Hao Nhien twisted his sword around.

Clang!

Two black claws struck the blade at the same instant.

Fire spiritual qi erupted along the Fire Spirit Sword, while Hao Nhien caught a tiny strand of Lightning from the fluctuations around the formation system and guided it through the meridian route he had tempered for that purpose before releasing it through his sword arm.

Crackle!

Lightning flashed at the point of contact.

Mac Ta immediately pulled his hand back, sliding sideways like a shadow.

Hao Nhien did not pursue.

The two once again stood more than ten zhang apart, with only the dry human skin lying between them on the stone.

Mac Ta lowered his head to look at the scorch mark on his nail, then smiled faintly.

“Wind, Fire, and even Lightning.”

He looked up.

“And extremely fast burst speed.”

Hao Nhien’s gaze cooled slightly.

After only a single exchange, Mac Ta had already begun analyzing the way he fought.

Third place truly was different from his previous opponents.

Please read this story on NovelPhoenix, where its author publishes it; this copy was taken without permission.

Mac Ta reached into his robe and took out a small black flag.

He gave it a light wave.

Boom!

The flagstaff instantly extended to more than one zhang before stabbing into the arena floor.

Yin wind howled.

The flag unfurled, distorted faces slowly appearing across its surface.

One black shadow rushed out.

Then a second.

A third.

Within only a few breaths, hundreds of yin souls had poured from the banner. Their wails did not merely strike the ears but directly shook the sea of consciousness.

Hao Nhien immediately circulated Soul Art.

A startled cry rose from the stands.

“Yin Soul Banner!”

More voices followed at once.

“A technique of the Yin Soul Cult!”

Hao Nhien did not look toward the audience.

The first wave of yin souls had already reached him.

He raised the Fire Spirit Sword, coating its blade in Fire spiritual qi. At the same time, he continuously sensed and drew in tiny Lightning fluctuations from around the formation through separate meridian routes.

He swept his sword horizontally.

Firelight tore through more than ten black figures, and immediately afterward, the Lightning strands Hao Nhien had guided from the environment erupted through the opened routes at the points of contact.

Crackle!

Shrill screams immediately filled the air. The yin souls struck by Lightning disintegrated far faster than the others, while even the yin qi that had begun gathering again was disrupted into chaos.

Hao Nhien immediately confirmed what he had suspected.

Lightning truly possessed a powerful suppressive effect against this kind of yin force.

But there were still too many souls behind them.

They knew neither pain nor fear. They continued pouring through the mist and rushing toward him without pause. As Hao Nhien fought while changing positions, he began to see the faces hidden beneath the layers of yin qi more clearly.

One had lost nearly half his face, yet still wore the clothing of a wandering cultivator. A woman clutched her head with both hands, her features twisted as if she were still enduring the agony she had suffered before death. Farther away was a smaller figure with only half a body remaining, its blurred form being dragged forward by threads of yin qi like a puppet.

The sight gradually chilled Hao Nhien’s eyes.

These were not shapes formed from ordinary spiritual qi, nor were they empty constructs created by some technique.

These broken souls had once belonged to living people.

Now all that remained were distorted fragments of consciousness refined into tools and imprisoned inside the banner.

The Fire Spirit Sword cut apart another yin soul rushing toward him.

“Yin Soul Cult.”

His voice lowered.

“So it really is you.”

Mac Ta heard him but did not deny it. He merely looked at Hao Nhien, slowly raising one finger to his lips.

“Shh.”

Then he lightly flicked his fingertip.

The ground beneath the Yin Soul Banner immediately darkened, a pool of yin qi spreading like black water. Pale claws began crawling up from within it, followed by rotten wolf heads and large skeletons bound together by countless strands of yin force.

Within only a few breaths, more than ten Black Corpse Demon Wolves had appeared.

They did not attack immediately. Instead, they separated and slowly closed a ring around Hao Nhien.

Mac Ta looked at him.

“One isn’t difficult for you to kill.”

His smile deepened slightly.

“What about ten?”

“What about a hundred?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

Killing them one by one truly was not difficult.

But it was also meaningless.

The source was still Mac Ta and the Yin Soul Banner behind him.

Hao Nhien stepped forward.

Phong Van Step unfolded immediately.

The corpse wolves lunged at once, claws sealing off his advance from several directions. Hao Nhien continuously shifted between the openings, the Fire Spirit Sword and Tieu Dao Sword alternately deflecting attacks that came too close.

The moment a gap appeared, the invisible Spirit Wings burst.

Whoosh!

His body shot through the encirclement and rushed straight toward Mac Ta.

But before the distance had even closed to ten zhang, Hao Nhien’s sea of consciousness suddenly trembled violently.

Nothing touched his body.

Yet an icy pressure directly tightened around his soul.

His thoughts slowed for an instant, the scene before him seeming to stretch unnaturally, while the rhythm of his Spirit Wings immediately faltered.

Mac Ta raised his head.

A dark violet light flashed through his cloudy gray eyes.

“Got you.”

He reached forward.

Inside Hao Nhien’s sea of consciousness, an enormous claw formed from yin force instantly appeared, bypassing body and meridians to seize directly at his soul.

Boom!

Soul Art erupted into full circulation.

Hao Nhien’s soul tightened into a single whole, preventing the claw from dragging it out despite its grip.

His sea of consciousness shook violently.

A sharp pain stabbed directly through his mind.

But Hao Nhien also immediately understood why the survivors of Mac Ta’s previous battles had left only one warning.

Do not let him get close.

The area within roughly ten zhang of Mac Ta was the most dangerous zone.

Soul Art could keep Hao Nhien’s soul from being directly torn out, but if he remained inside that range, the pressure would only continue increasing.

He did not try to destroy the claw.

The Spirit Wings burst again.

His body shot backward beyond the ten-zhang boundary.

The pressure on his soul immediately dropped, and the claw lost most of its grip before quickly dissolving.

But the moment Hao Nhien touched down, three Black Corpse Demon Wolves were already upon him.

One claw was blocked by the Fire Spirit Sword.

The second wolf was knocked aside by the Tieu Dao Sword.

The third swept past his shoulder.

Rip!

His white robe tore open.

Three bloody lines appeared across his flesh and were almost immediately coated in black qi.

The icy sensation lasted only an instant before becoming a burning itch deep beneath the skin.

Poison.

Hao Nhien immediately sealed the area around the wound with Fire spiritual qi to slow the poison’s spread, while swallowing a Detoxification Pill he had prepared in advance.

The medicinal force quickly dispersed.

The burning itch weakened but did not disappear completely.

Mac Ta’s poison was stronger than Co Am’s.

Ahead, Mac Ta paused for only an instant after Hao Nhien escaped the soul claw, then immediately stepped forward.

The pressure zone around his soul moved with him.

Invisible to the eye, but Hao Nhien could clearly feel its boundary.

About ten zhang.

Mac Ta spoke slowly.

“Keep retreating.”

“Ten zhang, then twenty, then thirty.”

He continued advancing.

“I want to see how long this arena will let you run.”

The corpse wolves pressed in from both sides. Mac Ta’s soul field sealed the path forward, while the surrounding yin souls continuously interfered and wore down Hao Nhien’s spiritual qi. At the same time, the poison in his wounds continued working quietly.

Hao Nhien understood perfectly well that time was no longer on his side.

Mac Ta had completed his battlefield.

Hao Nhien continued defending while constantly changing direction, retreating from unfavorable positions step by step. The Spirit Wings had to burst twice more to escape near-complete encirclements, causing the shoulder and back regions that repeatedly bore their load to begin burning painfully. Even so, one Black Corpse Demon Wolf still managed to rake across his side, tearing his robe and leaving another bloody wound.

Yet the more pressure he faced, the clearer Hao Nhien’s thoughts became.

If he continued breaking through each layer one by one, he would only be following the rhythm Mac Ta wanted.

The corpse wolves could continue being summoned. The Yin Soul Banner still held countless souls. The soul field made every approach dangerous, while the poison in his body ensured that the longer the battle continued, the greater Mac Ta’s advantage became.

To break this situation, Hao Nhien could no longer deal with each component separately.

He had to destroy the entire system in one strike.

His gaze immediately dropped toward the area around the Yin Soul Banner, where the Black Corpse Demon Wolves guarded the surrounding directions and yin qi continuously converged, forming the center of the entire battlefield structure.

The moment he decided, Hao Nhien stepped onto the Tieu Dao Sword and shot upward, escaping the corpse beasts’ immediate reach.

Mac Ta instantly recognized his intention.

The Yin Soul Banner shook violently.

More than ten Black Corpse Demon Wolves raised their heads and leapt from the ground, while dozens of yin souls rushed upward from both sides. Clearly, Mac Ta had no intention of giving Hao Nhien time to prepare anything.

Hao Nhien did not need much time.

While his body was still rising, Wind qi had already begun gathering before his left hand. The currents normally used to support movement abruptly changed direction and twisted together into a vortex that grew smaller and denser by the moment.

A Black Corpse Demon Wolf reached him first.

The Tieu Dao Sword immediately left his feet and swept sideways.

Clang!

Its claw was knocked aside, but two more yin souls shot through the opening.

Hao Nhien twisted away from one while the Fire Spirit Sword swept through the other. At the same time, Fire spiritual qi surged along his arm and blade before being directed straight into the center of the forming vortex.

Boom!

The structure before him immediately trembled.

Mac Ta did not stop.

With a sweep of his hand, three more Black Corpse Demon Wolves changed direction and rushed upward from both sides and behind. His soul field also expanded vertically, trying to drag Hao Nhien back into its suppressive range.

The instant that icy pressure touched his sea of consciousness, Soul Art began circulating.

Hao Nhien knew he had almost no time left.

Wind and Fire had barely stabilized when he opened the meridian routes tempered through repeated exposure to Lightning and began sensing the tiny Lightning fluctuations around the formation system below.

One strand of Lightning was guided in.

Then a second.

Crackle!

The moment the first Lightning strand entered, the entire structure before him convulsed violently.

Fire and Lightning did not merge.

Each force tried to break free according to its own nature, forcing Hao Nhien to continuously adjust the surrounding Wind and hold them together inside a temporary unstable structure.

A claw was already reaching his ribs.

The Spirit Wings burst.

Whoosh!

Hao Nhien shifted off the attack line by the narrowest margin, but the sudden movement caused the Shatter structure before him to tremble even more violently.

His shoulder instantly tightened.

If he lost control now, he would be the first one caught in the explosion.

Mac Ta below had already seen that.

“Not finished yet.”

His hoarse voice carried upward.

“Then don’t finish it.”

The Yin Soul Banner shook again.

Hundreds of yin souls rushed upward at once, almost completely covering the space ahead of Hao Nhien.

There was no longer enough time for further refinement.

The mass of power before him had compressed to less than a chi across. Orange-red Fire twisted in thin spirals under the restraint of Wind, while silver-violet Lightning strands raced wildly between them.

This was still not the complete form he wanted.

But it was enough.

Hao Nhien tightened his grip on the Fire Spirit Sword.

“Shatter.”

One sword came down.

The red-violet mass broke away from his control and shot straight toward the center of the yin network below.

Mac Ta shouted:

“Block it!”

The corpse beasts surged upward first.

The yin souls flooded behind them.

Shatter struck the first defensive layer.

For one brief instant, almost nothing happened.

Then the structure lost balance.

Boom!

Wind erupted first, ripping countless gaps through the yin qi and opening paths for the two forces trapped within.

Lightning immediately surged through those openings, striking directly into the yin connections binding the skeletons together.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

A chain of electrical explosions tore across the battlefield.

The charging Black Corpse Demon Wolves all froze as the yin links within them were disrupted.

Then Fire erupted.

The flames followed the paths Lightning had torn open and surged deep into the internal structures of the corpse beasts, while Wind continued driving heat and destructive force along the newly formed cracks.

One Black Corpse Demon Wolf suddenly swelled from within.

Boom!

Its skeleton exploded apart.

The second shattered next, then the third, each collapsing as the broken yin connections failed to recover before Fire and Lightning tore through them again.

Within only a few breaths, the entire corpse-beast network fell into chaos.

The soul field around Mac Ta also shook violently.

The first defensive layer of yin qi shattered.

The second began cracking.

The Yin Soul Banner trembled fiercely.

Crack!

One corner of the flag burned through.

The remaining force pierced the final defense and struck Mac Ta directly.

Boom!

His thin body was blasted backward.

The broad hat vanished into the chaotic air, and a large section of his gray robe tore away. Mac Ta slammed into the stone floor and skidded more than ten zhang before vomiting a mouthful of black blood.

The instant the blood touched stone, white smoke rose.

The entire arena shook.

Formation lines across the floor blazed with light, while all four formation pillars erupted at once to keep the barrier from collapsing. A crack spread from the center of the explosion and stopped just short of the arena’s edge.

Dust and smoke swallowed everything.

Hao Nhien descended from above.

The moment both feet touched the ground, a sharp pain surged through his shoulders. The areas of his shoulders and back repeatedly burdened by the Spirit Wings burned fiercely, while his sword arm trembled slightly.

The Shatter he had just used had succeeded.

Its power was far greater than the primitive form he had once tested.

But the near-loss of balance in the final instant also made one thing very clear.

This form had only reached the point of being usable.

It was still far from complete.

Wind slowly pushed the remaining smoke to both sides.

Hao Nhien saw the large crater at the center of the arena and blackened bone fragments scattered around it. Most of the Black Corpse Demon Wolves had been destroyed, more than half of the yin souls had dispersed, and the Yin Soul Banner lay several zhang from the crater with one corner burned away.

Mac Ta lay on his side farther ahead.

Half his robe had nearly been torn off. Burn marks covered his exposed flesh, and black blood continued dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Outside the barrier, the entire square remained silent for several breaths before shocked cries began erupting.

Hao Nhien paid them no attention.

His eyes never left Mac Ta.

One breath.

Two.

Then the sound of loose stone rolling came from ahead.

Clack.

A scorched hand slowly pressed against the ground.

Mac Ta moved.

He pushed himself onto one knee, then gradually stood. His body leaned heavily to one side, black blood continuing to fall, but he did not collapse.

Hao Nhien tightened his grip on the Fire Spirit Sword.

Mac Ta lowered his head to look at the scorched remains of the Yin Soul Banner, then slowly raised his eyes.

The cloudy gray gaze had changed completely.

The cold curiosity from earlier was gone.

So was the look of someone studying a useful piece of material.

What remained was something far deeper.

“Shatter…”

His voice was rough and broken.

“Lightning tears apart the yin qi. Fire follows through. Wind keeps the two from breaking away too early…”

He looked over the devastation around him.

“You are forcing three powers that do not belong on the same path to erupt at the same point.”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

But a chill moved through his heart.

Mac Ta had taken the attack head-on and yet had still seen through most of its underlying principle.

He might not understand exactly how Hao Nhien coordinated the three forces, but that level of observation alone was already frightening.

Mac Ta suddenly laughed.

At first it was only a faint, raspy sound.

“Khah…”

“Khah khah…”

Then he threw back his head and laughed loudly.

“Interesting.”

“Truly interesting.”

The laughter echoed across the ruined arena, so hoarse that it barely sounded human anymore.

Hao Nhien did not advance.

Because at that exact moment, Soul Art within his sea of consciousness began circulating on its own.

A cold sensation completely unlike anything from earlier in the battle slowly spread outward.

It was different from yin qi.

Different from poison.

Different even from the soul field Mac Ta had used until now.

It did not radiate from outside Mac Ta’s body.

It felt as though something far deeper was awakening from within his very soul.

Hao Nhien tightened his grip on the Fire Spirit Sword.

Mac Ta slowly raised one hand to his face.

Five fingers pressed against the scorched skin.

Then dragged downward.

Crack.

A fissure appeared across his cheek and slowly spread lower.

Hao Nhien immediately realized it was not a wound.

It felt as if everything he had been looking at since the beginning of the battle had only been a layer of skin wrapped around something else.

The fissure continued spreading down Mac Ta’s neck.

At the same time, the presence buried deep within his soul began to awaken.