Chapter 17
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Chapter 17: No Break, No Stand, Break and Then Stand
The pressure of the Lord of Destruction was palpable, a weight that You Wuxie could barely support. Each step deeper into the Void Destruction Hall compounded the intensity, as if Mount Tai itself threatened to crush him. The air vibrated with an odd frequency, swallowing sounds whole, leaving only You Wuxie’s terrified kowtows and the occasional movement of his lips, whispering apologies or explanations into the void.
Fengyun Wuji, powerless against the spatial barriers, could only acquiesce to the silence. But then, a gaze fell upon him, heavy and scrutinizing. A snap of invisible force brought him to his knees, a gesture that tore through his pride. Never before, in all his existence, had Fengyun Wuji bowed to another. The humiliation stung, but the pressure only grew as he fought against it, leading to the brutal fracture of his knee, blood seeping from every orifice.
His roar, a promise of vengeance, echoed towards the Void Destruction Hall, “Today’s humiliation I shall etch in my heart, and one day, I will return it a thousandfold!”
The hall shuddered, and from its depths, an invisible force hurled Fengyun Wuji across the sky, a speck in the vastness, his body hurtling for hundreds of thousands of miles.
“Arrogant whelp! To dare such impertinence… Hahaha… Hum, in these millions of years, he is indeed the first. Left Dharma Protector, heed my command, seize that child for me. I wish to see just how unyielding his pride truly is!” The voice of the Lord of Destruction resonated with anger and command, filling the air above the Void Destruction Hall.
A gray-haired man emerged, his eyes devoid of color, a stark white that mirrored the clouds’ tumultuous dance. Leaning on a slender sword, he moved with a deliberate slowness that belied his true speed. As lightning forked across the heavens, he pursued its path with an uncanny swiftness.
“You Wuxie, your audacity!” The mid-air reprimand boomed as You Wuxie, in a daring move, shot towards where Fengyun Wuji had been flung. This act of defiance drew the Lord of Destruction’s wrath, a divine consciousness striking You Wuxie with a force that left him bleeding and reeling.
“But he resembles my lost disciple, taken by demons, so alike in their unyielding spirit, in their disobedience to me…” You Wuxie’s heart ached with the memory of his beloved apprentice, a son he had lost to the cruelty of demons. Never had You Wuxie been so protective, so determined to keep what he treasured most.
In the dimness of the sky, You Wuxie watched as Fengyun Wuji, with a tenacity that defied his injuries, summoned the Earth Demon Sword, a technique beyond his capacity. A massive sword of mud and ice, speckled with red, roared towards the gray-haired man, the Left Dharma Protector of the Palace of Destruction.
The man’s lips moved with disdain, “Overwhelming foolishness.”
Unsheathing not his sword, with a mere palm strike, he shattered the Earth Demon Sword and, with the same motion, sent Fengyun Wuji crashing into the earth.
A cry of pain pierced the air as Fengyun Wuji’s chest burst open, blood gushing forth like a fountain.
“No!” You Wuxie’s roar of anguish echoed as he dove towards the fallen figure, his body radiating a dual glow of red and blue, a blazing inferno in his hands aimed at the gray-robed man.
The man, unmoved, met the attack with a single, dismissive palm strike, sending You Wuxie flying with a display of their vast disparity in power.
Turning back to the massive crater left behind, the gray-robed man stepped into the void, walking away with a gait that seemed leisurely yet was swift.
“Mo Yue, don’t… Please don’t go!” You Wuxie, dismissed and injured, rose and rushed towards where Fengyun Wuji had been thrown.
At the bottom of the pit, Fengyun Wuji lay motionless, his chest a gaping wound, blood pooling at the bottom.
You Wuxie, feeling for a breath, found none, confirming the worst. The Left Dharma Protector would not have left had there been any doubt of death.
“Mo Yue… Mo Yue…” You Wuxie, the once indomitable figure, was now a broken elder, weeping over the loss of his beloved disciple.
Unnoticed by You Wuxie, a peculiar power coursed through Fengyun Wuji, growing stronger with each passing moment, mending his shattered meridians.
After an indeterminate time, Fengyun Wuji groaned back to life, a sensation not missed by You Wuxie.
“Mo Yue… Mo Yue! You live, you still live!” You Wuxie’s joy was boundless.
Not broken, not stood, only after breaking can one stand. The Nine Turns of Life and Death Mystery Technique, at the moment of Fengyun Wuji’s fatal injury, finally broke through to the second level, “Worse than Death.” His true energy circulated within him at ten times the volume and speed of before.
In the second level of the Nine Turns of Life and Death Mystery Technique, “Worse than Death,” the body’s vitality was akin to that of a gravely ill person, lifeless, as if dead. The deeper the cultivation, the heavier the air of death. Fengyun Wuji was in such a peculiar state…