Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 99 – Stars

It didn’t take long before most of the Warriors’ stances were destroyed and turned into a small mist of scattered primal energy.

Only Xue Yao’s lotus swords, Hong Xun’s golden bell, Jin Yan’s spear, and Lin Zi Yan’s purple lotus were still intact to contend with the enormous green sword. “What a joke!” Mo Ya sneered disdainfully while looking at what was left of the coordinated attack as he laughed arrogantly behind his Qi sword.

“Zoom! Zoom!”

Mo Ya grunted, and the Qi sword started vibrating. Beams of green light burst out as their pressure wave spread to fill the hall.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

First, the green ripples connected to Xue Yao’s stance, and all of the petal swords shook then shattered with an intense cracking noise.

Shorty after, Mo Ya’s stance crashed onto the spinning bell and Jin Yan’s spear simultaneously. Both shattered immediately upon contact. Only moments after, Mo Ya struck Lin Zi Yan’s stance; the only thing between the Warriors and a violent death.

If Lin Zi Yan’s lotus broke now, the Qi sword would be on course to slice every cultivator in the temple.

“D*mn it!” Ye Wei ground his teeth as he tore two medium-grade scrolls in a row, but the weakened, ordinary low-level Myst stances did nothing to Mo Ya’s fierce sword.

Lin Zi Yan’s front teeth tightly clenched into her lip as she channeled more of her Qi to sustain the purple lotus which was showing signs of fracturing under the impact of Mo Ya’s incredibly powerful strike.

The force of Mo Ya’s sword seemed never ending. The pulsating pressure waves repeatedly impacted Lin Zi Yan’s lotus stance, and the recoil force was making her paler by the second as a thin trail of blood flowed down her mouth.

Although Lin Zi Yan’s bloodline meant her Qi was as dense and powerful as if she were a ten-star Warrior, her two-star Warrior body had no way to keep up with Mo Ya’s newfound power. In a prolonged fight, her body couldn’t hold up to the body strength of a condensed prime Warrior.

“Little Wei, run!” Lin Zi Yan used her voice transmission technique to warn Ye Wei in the noisy hall.

Ye Wei shook his head. When everyone used their scrolls and arms, he already took out the iron talisman as his backup plan. It had been absorbing a lot of residual Qi as all the stances were shattered by the might of Mo Ya’s attack; unfortunately, only thirty-seven grooves on the talisman were currently lit up. It was not even halfway ready to be used again.

‘Hang in there; it shouldn’t take much longer!’

It was none of Mo Ya’s concern that everyone wanted more time; that they wanted to live longer. They were only souls to be crushed in his eyes, and his Qi sword kept crashing down mercilessly.

‘Hey, kid!’

A hoarse voice echoed inside Ye Wei’s head.

‘Mister is that you?! Can you help us?’ Ye Wei raised his head to see Pu Yuan was winking at him in the blue light, so he replied.

‘I am just a spectral guardian,’ Pu Yuan shook his head reluctantly at Ye Wei and directly sent the message into Ye Wei’s mind. ‘I can only act upon someone who has broken the rules my master laid down when he put the seal on my soul…’

‘However,’ Pu Yuan paused for a second. ‘I can’t do much to him but you can!’’ His calm voice sounded in Ye Wei’s mind again.

‘Me?’ Ye Wei looked back and frowned.

‘Little man, I want you to remember the power you felt from the revolving cosmos!’ Pu Yuan’s words echoed in Ye Wei’s head.

Ye Wei was puzzled. ‘Huh? I only just deciphered the Supernova stance, and I am just a ten-star Student right now. Even if I managed to use it perfectly, it would be no stronger than a low-level Myst stance… That’s not going to do much to Mo Ya!’

While Ye Wei was still confused by Pu Yuan’s cryptic message, the illuminating figure moved. It turned into a flash and flew towards Ye Wei so quick that it couldn’t be seen by the human eye.

“Bang!”

Before Ye Wei even noticed, the shining figure invaded his body.

‘What is this feeling…’ All he felt was a dense surge of energy throughout his entire body.

Ye Wei lowered his head and looked at his clenched fists in disbelief. He could tell that the energy inside him was slowly evolving, and there was shock and excitement in his widened eyes.

“Crack! Crack!”

Lin Zi Yan was exhausted. Her Qi was quickly draining, and she could no longer hold her stance together. With a loud rumble, the purple flower was split into two by the green sword’s sharp edge.

“Brumm!”

As the purple lotus was torn, there was nothing now between the Warriors and the sword but empty space, as the unstoppable crushing force approached them mercilessly.

Lin Zi Yan stood in front of everyone else to push her stance forwards towards Mo Ya, and now she would be the first to be hit by Autumn Grace’s power because of her positioning.

Mo Ya’s Qi sword brought with it a whirlwind causing Lin Zi Yan’s robe to flutter and her hair to scatter in the breeze. She sighed as her life flashed before her eyes.

Her parents, her family, her childhood… She could remember all the tiny details of her life. Of how her mother used to braid her hair… Ye Wei also appeared in her mind. How the shy boy brainlessly entered her training room, how they held hands and took a walk towards the setting sun at South Star Academy. She was happy that he was one of the last things she thought about.

“Get behind me! I will not let him touch a hair on your head while I am still breathing.” A familiar voice sounded in her ears as she gently turned her head to see that Ye Wei’s determined eyes were only a few inches away from hers.

Ye Wei grabbed Lin Yan’s waist and dragged her behind him right before the sword was going to land on her head.

‘Power of the cosmos…’

Primal energy condensed into nebula shapes around Ye Wei’s body, and the Qi within him was arranging into constellation patterns as the surge of energy began to rotate and flow. His meridians continuously compressed then expanded his Qi forming it into a raw explosive energy only found from the birth of stars.

After merging with the figure, Ye Wei’s body was strengthened, and the power of his Supernova stance overflowed as he threw his fist towards the large Qi sword.

“Bang!”

The moment Ye Wei’s fist hit the sword a thundering rumble filled the hall and two visible, conical waves of recoiling force exploded from the point of impact.

Everyone raised their heads and turned from Lin Zi Yan to the source of the explosion. They were shocked to see Ye Wei’s silhouette blocking what they thought would end their lives.

The Qi sword was over thirty meters long, yet Ye Wei, with his average build, was standing under it, somehow holding it firmly. It seemed that the sharp edge was not able to cut through.

“How, How is this possible?!” Jin Yan couldn’t quite figure out how a mere Student could hold Mo Ya’s sword in place. He knew he couldn’t take on Mo Ya alone even before the breakthrough.

“This is…” Hong Xun, Xue You, and the rest of the Warriors widened their eyes and looked at Ye Wei with shock.

None of them could understand how Ye Wei overcame the cultivation deficit between them to go against this green sword everyone feared.

“Little Wei!” Lin Zi Yan was stunned. She noticed Ye Wei was fighting without a scroll in his hand, which even if he did would take more than a medium-grade scroll to fight Mo Ya.

“What is this madness?” Mo Ya frowned. He never thought Ye Wei, the boy who he didn’t even notice before today could so easily make his first fight as a condensed prime Warrior difficult.

“Crack! Crack!”

The green blade suddenly emitted a cracking sound seemingly caused by Ye Wei’s fist, as the cloud of Qi around it thickened and formed a shape of nebula-like clouds.

Under the pressure the green sword started breaking, and from the middle of Ye Wei’s fist numerous fractures ran along the blade to the pommel and to the sword tip, then suddenly it shattered with a deafening sound.

Seeing the Qi sword shattered, Ye We quickly rushed towards Mo Ya leaving a blur in the air after disappearing.

“How is this possible?!” Mo Ya’s laughing face froze with unconcealed shock. He thought Ye Wei had used a scroll or a mystic arm to temporarily stop his stance but was not so sure now.

“You deserve death!”

Ye Wei reappeared in front of Mo Ya in a flash. ‘You disgusting, treacherous waste of a human life!’ Ye Wei said while coldly staring into Mo Ya’s shocked eyes.

“You…”

Mo Ya stared at Ye Wei in disbelief. Before he could finish his sentence, a blinding blue light in the shape of a fist appeared in front of him. He immediately lifted his sword to his chest with the reflex and speed of a condensed prime Warrior; he attempted to defend himself against the fist’s deadly momentum.

Ye Wei’s fist left a trail in the air like a shooting star, and it created a bell-like sound as it landed on the sword. The fearsome force crashed right through Mo Ya sending him flying like a stringless kite towards the jade disc.

“Bang!”

A rusty sweet taste filled Mo Ya’s mouth as he realized it with his own blood.

“That is an incredibly powerful stance…” Mo Ya thought while looking at Ye Wei with incomprehensible surprise and horror. ‘How can a Student possess such power?!’

‘Is this the power of Supernova stance’s amplifying effect!?” Ye Wei looked down at his hands in shock; he could not believe how heavy his tiny fist hit.

After Ye Wei was granted the figure’s energy from Pu Yuan, his strength could match a peak ten-star Warrior, and with the Supernova stance his strength tripled!

With that kind of power, it was not a surprise that he could knock Mo Ya down even through his sword!

‘I had the strength to strike down a condensed prime Warrior from just the basic form of the Supernova stance…’ Ye Wei started to understand what Pu Yuan meant.

‘So this is the power of the cosmos… Now let me try the second evolution of this stance.’ Ye Wei narrowed his eyes and redistributed his will-force to three hundred and fifteen different places around his body. He was enjoying the feeling of powerful energy slowly flowing through his veins..

As Ye Wei changed the runic array in his body, the constellation patterns rotated, expanded, and brightened and two halos appeared over the top of his head emitting a fierce pressure wave.