47 – Battle At the Foot of Lingshan

“Thirty five shots.” Danxing counts. 

It took 40 shots, half of his entire Qi to project and maintain the fog. Five railgun shots in the alpha strike, one dead. The rest were protected by either life-saving talismans or their artifacts.

Whether Juéchén forgot or has spent all of his life saving talisman is irrelevant. He’s dead. From his corpse, a Soul Brand rises and flies straight into the fog. Impossible to dodge, branding Danxing’s soul. Clutching his chest in sudden panic, patting his body frantically at how sudden and invasive the attack had been. Whatever it is, have marked and cursed them and he will deal with it later.

Retaliations came swiftly and ferociously.

Jiànxīn moved first. His sword flashed, unleashing dozens of razor-sharp Sword Qi slashes that tore through the air like silver lightning. Each strike carried the unyielding will of the Ōuyáng family’s signature sword arts, precise, relentless, and capable of cutting through mountains.

Beside him, Pòjūn roared as he unleashed two mighty fists. The air exploded with raw physical power, sending two colossal Qi strikes that shook the earth itself. The ground cracked and trembled under the force of his body cultivation, each punch carrying the weight of a falling meteor.

Above them, Féndào and Yáoguāng coordinated seamlessly. With their respective fans, they gathered fire and wind into a devastating fiery typhoon. Féndào’s flames burned with the fury of the Gōngsūn family’s fire cultivation, while Yáoguāng’s winds howled with seductive yet deadly grace, merging into a roaring inferno that threatened to incinerate everything in its path.

All of it was swallowed by the black fog.

There was no sound. No explosion. No indication that any of it had worked. The attacks simply vanished into the darkness, consumed without a trace.

“Thiry two shots.” Danxing counts. 

As the fog covered the entire valley, he had hunkered down near the far edge of the black mist. Since all the attacks were directed toward the center, the sword slashes and fists missed him entirely. Only the blazing typhoon grazed the edges of his AT field.

He repeated his trick. Since the fog was made from his projections and soul sense, he could instantly manifest new ones from anywhere within it. Four more lines of divine sense emerged. Four railguns materialized from different angles within the fog and fired immediately.

This time, no one underestimated the enemy. Jiànxīn easily cut down the projectile even as it flew in complete silence. Pòjūn raised his gauntleted hand, and the bullet struck harmlessly against his artifact. More prepared this time, Yáoguāng wove a spell with her giant fan, blocking the bullet entirely and shattering the spell at the same time, but she remained unharmed. Only Féndào was still overwhelmed. Being the slowest of the group, he was unable to react to the sheer speed of the attack. He sacrificed his fan to intercept it, destroying the artifact in the process. From this shot, the next target was acquired.

“Twenty eight shots.” The countdown continues.

“COWARD!” Pòjūn bellowed in rage, trying to charge into the fog before more lines of divine sense could emerge. This time, nine appeared at once. Three toward Jiànxīn and Pòjūn. Two toward Yáoguāng. One toward Féndào. From wildly different angles.

Pòjūn blocked the bullets aimed at his head and heart. But the third shot landed directly on his side, targeting his liver. It penetrated his skin and flesh, but only just. He tanked the railgun shot with little more than a stagger. Yáoguāng wove a spell once more and tried to evade using her movement technique. Her spell blocked one shot. The other tore a massive chunk from her shoulder as she barely dodged. Féndào screamed in fear as he activated another talisman and vanished from the battlefield.

Only Jiànxīn moved with effortless grace. He cut through the three bullets with a single fluid motion, then countered with brilliant sword slashes in a mesmerizing sword dance. The Ōuyáng family’s signature sword arts came alive.

The first move cut down the bullets and delivered an equal number of slashes back into the fog. The second move doubled the attack. The third move doubled it again. Each strike carved through the valley, slicing trees, rocks, and earth as if they were paper. The fourth move focused all his Qi from the previous three into a single, cataclysmic cross slash. A mighty sword intent erupted, splitting the black fog into four clean sections and revealing the devastated landscape beneath. The entire valley was covered in sword marks. Trees felled, boulders cleaved, and the ground scarred with deep gashes.

Danxing lay on his back, having narrowly evaded the cross slash. His AT field shimmered, having blocked the few strikes that came his way. Nine shots had been used for the railguns, and another nine consumed to protect himself.

“With me, Pòjūn!” Jiànxīn shouted, rushing toward the fog.

But then he sensed that Pòjūn had rushed somewhere else. He glanced back, only to see the massive body cultivator charging straight at Yáoguāng, who was barely keeping herself aloft while trying to heal her wound. A line of divine sense was aiming directly at her, the one that had made Pòjūn abandon their formation. Veins of anger bulged across his sweaty face. Jiànxīn’s eyes could not widen any further. Of all things to be distracted by in battle.

His gaze snapped back to his target. The fog was slowly knitting itself back together. And he saw the disgusting grin the creature had made, if it could even be called one. The deer skull’s jaw opened wide, revealing layers of wolf, serpent, and human jaws beneath. Mockery was thick in its intent.

Jiànxīn tried to rush even faster before the fog closed completely. Only to feel another danger directly above his head. He used all his momentum to twist his body and evade the silent projectile. Even as he could cut through it, he knew that without the new sword artifact in his hands, his old sword would have been destroyed already. He twisted mid-air, diverting his momentum forward into a sudden halt and reversal. Only to realize the Xuan hadn’t fired. The fog was closing once more, fully covering the valley.

Jiànxīn could at most execute the entire sword dance one more time. Two if he burned his lifespan. The thought of cutting his losses and running away flashed across his mind. Only to be replaced with burning hatred and anger. He glared at Pòjūn’s back. The bastard had made him waste an entire opportunity, and the Xuan had mocked them for it. The humiliation of even considering retreat turned into pure rage.

Then a soothing wind came his way, alleviating his exhaustion and the inner wound he hadn’t realized he had suffered from suddenly twisting and pulling back. Jiànxīn looked toward Yáoguāng. She had finally used her family’s signature healing winds technique. Right… It is clear that everyone fighting is exhausted. Both Pòjūn and Yáoguāng still had their uses.

“Ten shots.” Danxing counted. 

After quickly killing one and forcing another to retreat, he never thought the remaining three would be so difficult to deal with. At this point, he had hoped they would simply run away. But looking at the pitch-black halos of hatred covering the swordsman and the body cultivator, that seemed impossible. The most dangerous one was the sword cultivator, who had made his threat abundantly clear. It was safe to assume that if Danxing had less than his full Qi, the last cross slash would have cut him clean in two.

His mind raced. This was the most dangerous moment of his life, in this world or the last. Yet he couldn’t stop grinning. Adrenaline surged through his body, far more potent than when he had lost twice his personal net worth in family fortune in the stock market. For him, this was more fun than any action VR game he had ever played. Plans formed in his mind as he still had the other thing he had developed. But he needed to deal with the sword cultivator or the body cultivator one at a time. Then there was the healer, who had made herself a priority target.

“XUAN DANXING!” the body cultivator roared. “I, Dōngfāng Pòjūn, will…”

“Fuck off, chucklenuts!” Danxing shouted back through the fog, interrupting his monologue.

Whatever his words translated to in the others’ ears, they clearly struck a nerve. Fresh veins bulged across Pòjūn’s face as enormous Qi erupted from his body. He reabsorbed it, turning his skin first red, then a metallic bronze. He slammed his fist into the ground and took a running stance before charging into the fog in a single explosive step. Much faster than the sword cultivator.

But preparations had been made. Pòjūn’s face and body met something elastic. Determined to push through, he kept charging forward. Danxing, meanwhile, used his Qi and soul power to continuously reinforce the giant rubber barrier. It became a tug of war, the reinforced rubber versus Pòjūn’s raw advance. Jiànxīn was also advancing, but he had been slightly surprised by Pòjūn’s explosive strength and speed, missing the chance to move in at the same time.

Danxing needed to act fast. He sent a line of divine sense toward Jiànxīn, not to fire, but to force him to slow down. Jiànxīn hesitated, advancing in cautious steps. It was enough. It will not work next time.

For Pòjūn, Danxing projected a slippery surface beneath his next step. The brief loss of momentum was all it took for the giant rubber barrier to snap forward, launching the massive body cultivator far out of the valley and out of the fight for the time being. The giant rubber had cost three shots.

To buy time against Jiànxīn once more, a real illusion of a truck materialized directly in front of his face as he closed in on the fog. That cost one more shot.

At the same time, more lines of divine sense appeared, targeting Yáoguāng, who was flying away. Whether she was taking a better position or actually retreating, Danxing couldn’t take any chances. A single healing spell from her could decide whether his plan against Jiànxīn worked or not. Two railguns fired. Then he projected two more CIWS systems, firing for a full second. All of it cost four shots.

Yáoguāng used her spell once more, burning her lifespan to block both railgun shots before the spell shattered. Left completely exposed, she is quickly torn apart by the thousands of rounds from the CIWS.

“Last two shots.” 

Finally, Danxing prepares the last trump card and takes out five hundred spirit stones, half of his entire fortune. Already grinded into fine dust the night before. With the last two shots of Qi, he ran forward. Railgun in his hands.

He emerges from the fog, aiming at Jianxin.

BOOOM!

The railgun roared with its deafening sound for the first time during this battle. As before, Jiànxīn easily cut the bullet in half and advanced toward the exhausted shell.

Danxing fires the second shot. Jianxin cut the bullet and Danxing in half. 

“Haha!” Jiànxīn allowed himself a laugh. A sense of achievement and elation surged through him. He had killed the fearsome Xuan. Already he can feel the praise and congratulation as when he returns to his family. Now, his claim for the seat of the family head will be even stronger.

“WOOOOO!” Danxing whooped as he swung. Another Danxing appeared behind him with the Great Thundergod Steps, channeling thunder Qi and momentum into the hammer. The horizontal strike hit Jiànxīn squarely on the side of his head. The force shook the earth and sent his body cartwheeling through the air, blood splattering everywhere.

This was his trump card. Creating a lifelike clone with his projection, remotely controlled via divine sense. He had discovered it while developing options to run away. Latency wasn’t an issue. Accurate control is possible as long as the clone and the real body weren’t performing complicated movements at the same time, and the clone can host their own temporary Qi. While the clone advanced with the railgun and what little Qi left, the real body had snorted the spirit stone dust. Flooding his mind with Qi and high.

But the battle is not over yet. Pojun returns. With even more hate and rage than before as he passes the dead body of Yaoguang. Another soul brand emerges from her corpse and marks Danxing. But he ignored this for now in favor of dealing with the charging berserker.

After snorting the spirit stone dust, he is now fresh with half of his Qi once more. Even as it affects his mind.

“Come and get some!” Danxing shouted in glee. 

Summoning five railguns, all firing at the same time. Pojun only covers his head and heart. Tanking anything else without slowing down. Danxing projects a bigger railgun. The one that vaporizes the golden core corpse puppet.

“GAH!” But Danxing suddenly screamed. A sword pierces him from behind. The high already made it impossible to concentrate on more than one thing, making him vulnerable as he didn’t maintain the AT field. Then his concentration broke and the large railgun vanished. Looking back, Jianxin uses the last of his Qi for one last attack. Hatred etched in his face. A railgun shot destroys the rest of his head. Only then another soul brand emerges from his corpse and mark Danxing.

Pojun took advantage of the chance. Using a few of his lifespan for a burst of speed. Capturing Danxing in his arms before he can even look back at him. Then, Pojun tightened his arms. Determined to crush the Xuan in his arms.

“AAAH!” Danxing screamed in pain. Bones cracking as Pojun crushes him. 

The mind affected with the high and pain and not accustomed with pain in general, precision and intent becomes difficult. So Danxing pulls the black fog and compresses them towards Pojun. Pushing out all of his current Qi into the fog. Now worth the entire eighty railgun shots, Danxing simply wills it to explode like a thermobaric missile.

BOOOOM

The explosion wiped the valley of all traces of battles. Making a new crater directly in front of the entrance. The smoke quickly vanishes as it is remnants of the projection. Pojun lying on his back at the center of the crater, body fully burned. But still breathing.

Danxing rises a few steps away from him. Hand on the hole in his chest, moving awkwardly from the pain in his bones towards Pojun.

“Monster.” Pojun said for the first time in fear.

A hoof slammed into his face. The veneer of the human foot and boot is already long gone. Then again and again as Danxing stomps his face. Not stopping even as another soul brand has marked him.

“I. already. Ask. if we. can all leave… alive!” Then he clutched his chest in pain. “Motherfucker.”

Swaying dangerously. From pain, exhaustion, and an addled mind. Hyperventilating even as it is painful to breathe. The Qi in his head turns chaotic after everything. 

Then he found himself back at that fateful night. The corpse of a young woman at his feet.

“Give me your hands!” A familiar voice shouted. It was… Eric. His classmate and the son of a priest.

“Huh?” Danxing still cannot process this.

“Give me your goddamn hands!” The priest’s son took both of his hands and poured a bottle of water on it. “This sin is not on your hands so wake up! We have to do something!"

—

I am back at the present. Realizing that I am projecting what little of Qi I have left to wash my hand on the corpse of the body cultivator. Then, among all the pain in my head, chest, and everything, there’s a sheer disgusting discomfort on my hoof. Bits of the corpse’s head are stuck in it.

“Uugh.” I wipe my hoof at the pants the corpse wears.

Well, this all went better than planned. The wounds and pain are irrelevant and will be gone soon. Just need to…

“Haha!” Then came an out of place laugh. 

It was the one that vanished and ran with the talisman. Ugly greedy grin and eyes plastered on his sweaty face.

I shot my last railgun fire as something pierced my head.

—

Two bodies fall to the ground. Fendao had his head destroyed. Danxing has a very thin dagger pierced through his skull. The former have not retreated all this time. Banking on hiding and stealing the prestige and killing after the Xuan have killed everyone. This way, not only he gets the prestige, he gets all the artifacts and fortune of everyone that died. Though of course, he will never enjoy this as he let himself slip at the last moment from sheer anticipation.

“NOOO!” Yinrui screamed from the archway entrance of the Lingshan temple. Multiple times she wants to jump in and help. But understand that she will contribute nothing but trouble. 

“So be it. The Xuan have been slain. A great evil has departed from this world.” Changsheng announced and pressed his palm together in prayer. 

Fumo at the side, also praying. But feeling bitter for Danxing’s death. After all, he is the one that brought him here.

But then there’s a familiar footsteps coming from behind. The monks that noticed and looked back, immediately parted ways in a mix of horror and awe. The tall figure walks back to the entrance among the parting monks. Surprising Changsheng, Fumo, and Yinrui. The latter two can’t exactly conceal their joy.

“Well now. I’ll… leave for real now.” Danxing said as he stepped down the stairs once more.

This is his trump card. While his attention and control is limited and requires constant divine sense connection.

The clone can create more clones.