Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 213 - Ice Sword Print

At two-star returned prime cultivation, Luo Han was the strongest among the group apart from the leaders, Bai Qing and Zhou Kuang. He had been training in one of the lesser secret realms, Frozen Moon realm. There, he encountered the opportunity of his lifetime; he accidentally absorbed the essence of an Ancestral Frozen Moon crystal and a fearsome chill had entered his meridians since, making the quality of his Qi better than most other two-star returned prime Warriors.

Luo Han only got in the palace a year ago, the then-condensed prime Warrior broke through to two-star returned prime stage in just eleven months’ time. With his quick rise to fame, he attached himself to Zhou Kuang’s group and was therefore introduced to powerful cultivators on the black dragon list.

A year ago, Luo Han did not stand out as an initiate, but due to his cultivation speed, he quickly earned himself the status of a rising star of the palace because of his talent, luck and network strategies.

“Bai Qing, this is a chance for you to shine, why are you passing the opportunity to Luo Han? He is useful but he is not loyal, we have to be careful. We might one day be bitten by our own dog if we fed it too much.” Zhou Kuang stared at Luo Han’s silhouette, said with a faint evil glow in his eyes.

“Zhou Kuang, how long have we been in this palace?” Bai Qing smiled as he avoided answering the question.

“Three years.” Zhou Kuang answered hesitantly, failed to see the relevance of his partner’s question.

“How about Luo Han? How many years has he spent here?”

“Why are we talking about this? He was an initiate before today’s induction are you stupid?!”

“Fine! Let me put it in perspective. Do you think Luo Han will be weaker than us in two years’ time?” Bai Qing gave up being cryptical.

“Oh…” Zhou Kuang was at a lost of words as he realized Luo Han’s overlooked potential. ‘With this cultivational speed and efficiency, he might even get himself into the black dragon list when he manages to breakthrough.’

“Some people are destined to do extraordinary things, he is one of them, with or without our help. This kid has greater potential than either of us, his talent will bring him into the black dragon list. He is not for us to control.” Bai Qing’s eyes flashed a glow of wisdom, he stepped up next to his partner and whispered. “To me, his intention was pretty clear from the start, he adhered to us because he wanted the connections we had. I would have done the same in his situation, it was a smart move.”

“If we help him to get his name out… In less than another year, he could become the training partner of a top hundred lister. Then our little group will be dancing with the dragons.” He smiled, continued whispering into Zhou Kuang’s ears. “I will make sure he remembers that we gave him the chance to shine.”

“You are overthinking it, why don’t you spend your time worrying about people and things you can count on?” Zhou Kuang chuckled, the pair had been through tough times together but their views often differed.

“The Bai family is one of the sixteen superpowers, we have been through the test of time, wars and politics. I am not a direct descendant of the bloodline, if I want to have a say in my family I will have to gather my own force and show them I am capable of solving problems of a larger scale.” BaiQing sighed with a sense of regret. “If Luo Han turns out to be unreliable, I will just have to find someone else with similar potential and earn his or her trust all over again.”

“I thought your family is over a thousand years old, you sound so smart but I think you are making simple things more complicated when you can just train harder like him.” Zhou Kuang reluctantly shook his head and look towards the square. “The newbie is not weak, how long do you think he will last against Luo Han?”

“Within three blows.” Bai Qing narrowed his eyes, laughed confidently, “as a newbie, he is extraordinary. However Luo Han outclasses him slightly.”

The temperature at the square dropped drastically as Luo Han’s figure appeared in front of the initiates.

“They sent Luo Han!” Baili Hengtian suddenly became cautious as he recognized the built and the ice blue eyes. “Zhou Kuang and Bai Qing really wants to end the show right now!?”

The caretaker sighed, having seen Luo Han’s capabilities, he was aware that even himself, a well seasoned two-star returned prime Warrior would have trouble staying on his feet for more than a few exchanges with whom Ye Wei was about to face.

“You are an excellent cultivator!” Luo Han silently walked up to to the center of the ring, aimed his penetrating blue eyes directly at Ye Wei.

“I could say the same to you. Your Qi is very special!” Ye Wei smiled calmly, replied with a friendly tone while his eyes were lit up by competitive his spirit. ‘This palace is just incredible, I can’t wait to fight and learn from the stronger ones on the black dragon list!’

“You are probably the strongest initiate in a long while, but as much as I appreciate new blood like you, there are traditions to be kept!” Luo Han slowly lifted his arms as his Qi rushed out, the golden blue strands of energy froze the water in the air, covered his palms with a layer of glittering crystals.

The crystals grew and turned into a flowing gust, refracting the sunlight and shone millions of rainbows onto the ring.

“Sometimes you just can’t force tradition onto changing tide!” Ye Wei smiled and filled his body with Qi. His muscles bulged up and his Qi presence span like a hurricane.

Both Ye Wei and Luo Han stood still but the battle has already begun. The gusts of flowing crystals and the hurricane of Qi crashed onto each other as the two cultivators sped up the Qi flow within their meridians.

“This is shocking!”

“So this is his true strength!?”

The initiates were forced to back up to the edges of the square, shocked by the vigorous Qi disturbance.

“Unbelievable! He is new like us but it seems like he is not losing ground against these veterans!”

“Do you think he can win this fight?”

“This veteran is much stronger than the last one! Don’t be overconfident, be careful!”

Feeling suppressed, the initiates wanted to break even. They were nervous for Ye Wei as all of them could feel Luo Han was clearly stronger than Feng Shan.

“Ye Wei is very strong, he might even be stronger than me, but Luo Han’s power is literally from another realm…” Baili Hengtian muttered, “I just can’t see a newbie winning, it will take at least a lister’s strength and experience to take Luo Han down cleanly.”

“The real question here is how long can Ye Wei last before falling. If he shows enough potential he might be approached by the listers, when that happens nobody will dare to touch him.”

Luo Han’s stare became aggressive as his Qi flow reached its quickest. His hands quickly whizzed through air, making hundreds of strange hand seals within seconds, guided the surrounding primal energy to himself.

Surges of wild energy then lifted him high up in the sky and sped up the freezing gusts. The air in the square became thicker as the mosture began to solidify.

“Swoosh!”

Millions of ice crystal converged into a globe as Luo Han finished making the set of hand seals. The globe expanded then shattered, forming hundreds of ice swords, each of them ten feet long, and all held together by sequences of blue runes.

Luo Han then clenched his fists, rearranged the swords into a large array with his will-force. The frozen sword array span rapidly, pulling heat out of the square as it grew.

“This is the Ice Sword Print! Does he want to kill Ye Wei?” Baili Hengtian’s heart dropped, shocked by Luo Han’s decision.

Rumored to be a high-level Earth stance, the Ice Sword Print was a rare, long lost stance. Its manifesto was found by Luo Han during his training in the Frozen Moon realm.

Although he was yet to fully understand its power, Luo Han’s frozen Qi complimented the rune set and he was able to use the Ice Sword Print at peak low-level Earth grade.

“I only use this stance in special occasions, you should see your defeat as an honor!” Luo Han’s body was steadily floating in the air, his voice rumbled like thunder. The ice swords were then rearranged to make eight trigrams, turned into a gigantic array.

“Rumble!”

The Array crashed down violently in a zigzag movement, emitted series of irregular energy waves as it traveled rapidly cut through the thickened air. Ye Wei could feel his limbs were becoming heavier and his Qi flow was slowing as the array approached.

“Calling this a powerful stance is an understatement…”Ye Wei muttered as he looked at the spinning swords, not panicking the slightest though under immense physical pressure. Having learned the basics of the Eternal Star Stance, he was not even planning on using extra Qi to defend himself.