Imminent
Song Chi frowned as he was disappointed his former ally would behave so unbecomingly when he was cornered. He had been long aware that many things in life were outside of his control, but he held on to a shred of hope until he saw the state of the renowned monk before him when wealth and power were on the line.
Song Chi shook his head. “I’ve seen your despicable ways; however, it’s irrefutable that competence makes right in the pugilistic world. Since you can’t beat me today, no amount of strategy will help you. Last chance: hand it over, or I won’t show mercy.”
Song Chi brought his blade back, except he aimed it at a primary meridian this time. Hitting accupoints was typically performed using fingers, but experts in internal disciplines could also achieve the same outcome using their fists and palms. Song Chi was able to perform the stunt as he melded Sundering the Nine Heavens into his broadswordplay. As impressive as that was, Xun Feng suddenly uncorking a palm attack strong enough to knock Song Chi’s blade off its trajectory and almost unbalancing him was even more surprising.
Song Chi took several hasty steps back and reassumed his stance. That was the strongest palm strike Xun Feng had executed ever since they started fighting. Despite Xun Feng being quite strong to begin with, he was supposed to be considerably weaker than Song Chi. Song Chi wasn’t one to believe in luck, and the explanation was only a glance away.
Even though Song Chi had never seen the wriggly purple squiggles on Xun Feng’s arm before, he was certain that they were the magic behind the palm strike that was arguably four times’ stronger than usual. After all, the arm was now an entire circumference larger was the arm Xun Feng used to deflect his weapon. As an exemplar to follow among the orthodox sects, Cold Mountain Temple wouldn’t suddenly create an unorthodox discipline just to oppose the imperial court. Additionally, nobody passed down martial arts by happenstance. Nobody would change the energy-moulding method, techniques, mental cultivation and applications without reason. In other words, the discipline didn’t just land in Cold Mountain Temple’s lap. By extension, it had to be a discipline that Cold Mountain Temple passed down.
Xun Feng was virtually selected instantly when they decided to choose candidates to enter the capital for the imperial exams. He wasn’t the best fighter or the smartest among Liaoliao’s senior disciples; however, he was the one who obeyed Liaoliao more than anyone. For that reason, he was chosen for the job without a second thought, and that was why he was taught the discipline.
The original Lotus Every Step was a harmonious discipline without an ounce of evil. Owing to Liaoliao’s character, though, it became an unorthodox discipline that went from pure to dark. It wouldn’t have been as formidable as it was if it weren’t for the fact that Liaoliao had an alternative mental cultivation method.
The monk who befriended Tu Yunting was more advanced than the latter as a martial artist. His Unfettered mental cultivation helped the practitioner escape the limits of Lotus Every Steps, so it reduced the side-effects of the discipline. Unfortunately for Liaoliao, he couldn’t comprehend Unfettered in its entirety and therefore couldn’t maximise it. As such, he feared someone could grasp the true essence of the discipline. To avoid that scenario, he kept Cold Mountain Temple’s mental cultivation a secret whilst teaching his wrong version of Lotus Every Step to his disciples. It, therefore, resulted in his four senior disciples frequently going wrong in their training. The most obvious proof of it were their purple veins and nefarious aura that Liaoliao tried to hide. On top of that, some of them struggled to control their emotions – as one would expect of learning a sinister discipline. Nevertheless, it didn’t make Lotus Every Step harmless.
Notwithstanding the problems with learning the incorrect material, they still managed to obtain hard-to-match power. Prior to Xun Feng leaving, Liaoliao taught Xun Feng the discipline again from scratch based on the new knowledge he picked up over the last two decades. Thanks to Xun Feng’s existing foundations, the new version was a huge upgrade.
“What discipline is that?” Song Chi suddenly felt he didn’t know Xun Feng at all.
“Hahaha! How would you recognise a sophisticated discipline that’s been passed down for centuries?”
Song Chi performed Misty Dreams Swamp again. Not allowing an opponent to implement their skill set was the right choice. Even if one did gain a significant amount of damage output, internal energy limits didn’t change. Using a mental cultivation discipline to enhance strength came at a cost. In Xun Feng’s case, using his arm with the purple veins would expend more internal energy than usual. It was akin to taking a loan you before you were sure you could repay it. On top of that, there was no way to compensate for a large skill gap in a short time frame.
Xun Feng was on his back foot again not long after they resumed fighting as expected. In exchange for strong joint locking techniques, Xun Feng sacrificed his ability to adjust and utilise variety on his right arm. While Xun Feng struggled to catch Song Chi’s swings, Song Chi had no issue overpowering and hurting Xun Feng. Just because Song Chi didn’t adopt stiffness in Misty Dreams Swamp, it didn’t mean his swings lacked power.
Xun Feng only just realised that he was nowhere close to Song Chi in terms of skill. Putting aside their level difference in skills requiring internal energy, Song Chi had a higher aptitude in creativity. Even the extra might that his right arm offered wasn’t enough to compensate for the gap in skill. Meanwhile, Song Chi noticed Xun Feng’s internal energy rapidly fading and his arm gradually shrinking. Xun Feng was well aware that he was far from gaining an upper hand, let alone winning. Nonetheless, today’s scenario was a little special.
Xun Feng took in a deep breath, then extended his right arm. There wasn’t anything special about the way he extended it, but the force produced nearly disarmed Song Chi, ending Song Chi’s flurry.
Song Chi was able to quickly identify how Xun Feng managed to increase his output when his internal energy stores had dropped. “... Nine Dragons Fire Jade.”
“Hahahaha, you truly are a smart guy. If only you weren’t overconfident. Did you know that this is pointless to you lot trying to oversee it, but it’s virtually a godsend for me?”
Because Liaoliao learnt an incorrect version of Lotus Every Step and accumulated an extreme amount of sinister energy, controlling his body became awfully difficult. Expecting to train internal disciplines for his body was a nigh hopeless endeavour, so his only hope was using external items. The yang heat of Nine Dragons Fire Jade functioned as an eraser of the sinister energy within him, allowing him to return to his prime. Sucking out the unwanted energy in him was the new idea he discovered twenty years ago.
Xun Feng utilised it in the very manner Liaoliao wanted to use it. The fact that it could suck out the unwanted energy was the reason he dared to touch it with his bare hands and had no qualms placing it in the box. Instead of the heat energy hurting him, it relieved him of his agony. Instead of losing energy as his arm returned to normal, he gained strength. Having experienced the miraculous result, he was sure Liaoliao would be able to reign supreme in the martial world going forwards.
Song Chi realised it was extremely difficult to win from their last exchange. There was no way he could match Xun Feng’s internal energy when the latter had a tool to boost it. Moreover, Song Chi hadn’t figured out the limits of Xun Feng’s right arm. Thus, Song Chi jumped back to disengage. He was never one to try fighting when it was bound to be a messy fight.
There were plenty of people around who wanted to tear Xun Feng apart. Hence, there was bound to be no shortage of helpers if they could change locations. However, Xun Feng’s giddy smile made Song Chi uneasy. Still, it was riskier to stick around, so Song Chi continued retreating. All of a sudden, he felt his qi drop so drastically that he returned to his feet. Upon landing, he felt a sharp slicing pain from his rib. When he couldn’t contain it with his own qi, he realised he had fallen for a ploy.n0veluSb.c0M
“Hahaha, I knew you wouldn’t join me from last night, so what makes you think I’d risk letting you go? You think I was born yesterday? Song Chi, you’ve put in painstaking efforts for Song Clan, but you just don’t see which path is the best path.”
