771 Hero and Death (1/2)

”Snort...” Someone was amused by this strange name. But his smile soon disappeared.

Within the blowing hurricane, it was nearly suffocating.

The center of the battlefield was no longer visible, and only the destructive storm could be faintly glimpsed. Thunder and electricity intertwined. This was a storm created by a single person.

A terrible tornado rushed into the sky.

Someone was using their own individual power to resist the full-scale siege of the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline!

”There's nothing funny about this,” Bai Heng said coldly. ”In legends, once it started it could pin the seas under only its own weight, trapping the mighty power of the tides. Before Tai Changqing took it away it had pinned the North Sea for 400 years, settling 4,800 months worth of tides. The natives called it 'The Needle that Pins the Sea,' the artifact that the Celestial Emperor sent down to the mortal world. Before I had seen it with my own eyes I thought it was a legend and a joke. I never would have thought that something so terrifying would exist in the human world.” He paused, lifted his cup and filled it with the dust on the wind. He then overturned it, pouring the bloody dust back into the wind.

Twisted pieces of iron shrieked through the violent wind, shattering the porcelain cup in his hand and leaving a torn wound.

Bai Heng lowered his head and looked at the wound in his finger. He licked it and his expression became calm.

”Look, in the face of it, no natural disaster is worth fearing. Everyone, this is the strongest musician under the Emperor's command. As long as he makes up his mind and sacrifices himself he can easily destroy our coalition forces. After Master Yuan dies in battle, I am afraid we will have to directly face that hero's power...”

Amid the silence, Bai Heng grinned and turned to say farewell, ”So, I will go ahead and prepare. I would ask that you all stay calm and don't get too excited.”

Soon his figure melted into the distance and was not seen again.

…

In the violent storm, a power that exceeded the limits of the imagination swept across, cracking the earth and distorting it. A great quantity of soil was swept up into the air and surrounded the void weapon, creating a fierce tornado.

The distorted gravity enveloped the hero's hands. The power that was originally unrealistic became real under human observation, creating a field so dark that even light was distorted.

He held the weapon that had once fettered the ocean and tethered the tides and tidal waves like wild horses. After overlooking the terrible cost and countercharge, it had become an all-conquering weapon.

The sand that was drawn in by the gravity surrounded it, creating an ultra-dense substance even greater than steel, just as satellites were bound by the gravitational force of their star.

In reality, it was unlikely that there was any material in the physical world that could withstand a frontal attack from it.

The cost of harnessing this power, even for this man who had transformed into a hero, was probably not as easy to pay as he had imagined.

The power that had been exchanged for the burning of a catastrophe was the qualification needed to use this terrifying force.

In such a chaotic environment, the aether still retained its substance, resisting the gravitational attraction. But a line of silver light still peeled off the hero's body, tangling up into a circle and wrapping around the dark area like the thorns around a rose.

That was the mark of burning life.

With this power you were unbreakable!

Facing the power accumulated by the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline for centuries, Mr. Hu roared, and instead of showing weakness, pressed harder and harder against the siege, dealing a heavy wound to the Torch Dragon.

Even so, a huge hole opened up in his chest. The sword that had nearly pierced the heavens stabbed out from Yuan Changqing, piercing through earth, water, fire, and wind, tearing through rain and iron. Under the cohesion of the sword movement aether transformed into iron light, too fine for humans to discern, that slashed forward along with the Chun Jun sword.

The sword should have stabbed into empty air, but just like light penetrating into water, after heavy refraction under the deflection of gravity to an angle too fine to measure, it entered the enemy's chest.

There was only a slender slice in the chest, but a riotous blast of aether burst a hole in Mr. Hu's back. If he had not already transformed into a non-human, he would already have been smashed to pieces by the chaos of the sword.

Faced with such enormous pressure, Yuan Changqing's offensive had not only not slowed down but had grown more and more fierce.

It seemed like he was… indescribably happy.

The things which he had desired for so long was right before him.

A strong enemy and death.

Both of them were now at his fingertips.

And so, he reveled like a wild beast.

After abandoning his cumbersome body, Yuan Changqing had incarnated a Holy Spirit with the Chun Jun Scepter. Now, bearing the brunt of the storm as well as Mr. Hu's offensive was like the rust was being ground away in an unreasonably fierce manner.

He wore his learning lightly.

Yuan Changqing's music theory itself was something he had sought from death itself. After 20 years of loneliness and waiting for what he had exchanged for was an unprecedented increase in power.

It was not an increase in quantity, but a change in quality.

It was not even a promotion of his Scepter and music theory. In the Chun Jun Sword, the elements formed of gathered killing power expanded wildly, emitting a huge amount of pressure.

In his ecstasy, the elements continued to expand and shrink, shatter and reform. They were born and destroyed dozens of times, divided into four parts which intertwined with each other layer upon layer until it formed a strange matrix. When the four intertwined into a ring Yuan Changqing's figure grew thinner and more frightening.

He had already integrated everything into the Chun Jun Sword.

Even the Chun Jun Sword, which had been forged from the bones of lords of past eras could not withstand such insane power, and faint cracks appeared on it. In the end, in his ecstasy, Yuan Changqing turned the sword around, aimed it at his body, and cut horizontally.

After two passes with the sword, he fell apart along with the Chun Jun Sword.

In the blazing light, the furnace of creation played out once again. An endless amount of aether came together, flying with the four lines of elements and forming four completely different images.

He sought death within death.

In his display of abandoning his life, he had grasped the essence and meaning of life… and then had completely abandoned that cumbersome thing!

He had gazed at death, he had pursued death, and finally… he had become death!