197 Chapter 196: Fight between Friends (2/2)

”Thank you.” Pang Feng momentarily stopped his attack to look at me seriously. ”I really appreciate it.”

Then he struck, but I had seen his attack coming from far away with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps and dodged it easily.

”But even so, that won't change my mind. I will bring Tang Qi Hong with me, even if she ends up hating me!”

”Then I'll just have to stop you.”

His fist met my blade, and ice spread around his knuckles. Pang Feng unleashed a burst of qi to shatter the ice, but I had jumped up using footwork and kicked him in the face, causing him to stagger. Another thrust from my sword at one of those swirling maelstroms of qi that I could perceive with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps was enough to obliterate his second armor and send him staggering back, and I followed up with a kick that almost knocked him off his feet.

”Ugh…”

Pang Feng righted himself before dropping to a knee, breathing heavily. I capitalized on the moment to finish him off, but he suddenly launched an uppercut. If I hadn't detected his abrupt ambush with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, he would have punched a hole through my body.

”Wow…you even managed to avoid that…”

Pang Feng shook his head and forced a bitter smile as I vaulted away and landed a safe distance from him. I shrugged.

”Still want to go at it?”

”…”

Pang Feng closed his eyes for a moment and slowly rose to his feet.

”Sorry, but I'm going to make a selfish request.” His eyes wandered away from me and rested on Tang Qi Hong, who was still being guarded by my hovering Snow Aegis. ”Let's finish this fight with the next attack. Otherwise our fight is going to attract unwanted attention from the other sects, and they'll come in here and abduct Qi Hong when we've weakened and wounded each other.”

He then faced me seriously.

”Let's both use our most powerful attacks and decide this once and for all.”

”Fine.” I gripped my Azure Lotus Sword and nodded, confronting Pang Feng evenly. I honestly didn't have too much time to waste over this, so I might as well accept his request and get this done and over with. Pang Feng was still a friend, and as such I trusted him not to pull any despicable moves. He might be a bloody hypocrite, but he wasn't scheming enough to backstab me.

Pang Feng dropped to a stance and gathered as much golden rock qi into his fist as possible. The ground beneath his feet crumbled and I could see the stones elegantly rising into the air, drifting along his qi and weaving around him in a beautiful pattern. A few of the stones actually levitated behind him, seeming to form angelic wings. I could see a gargantuan terracotta warrior manifest behind him, its immense figure intangible and shimmering.

”Amazing,” I said, impressed. ”I'm sorry, but I don't know any fancy tricks like that. All I can do is channel all my qi into my sword.”

As I mentined that, my azure sword glowed black as all my qi gushed into it. Pang Feng raised his head, and he probably saw a black, demonic dragon hovering behind me in the same manner as his terracotta warrior.

This was my ultimate attack, Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike.

”Let's do this.”

I nodded in agreement, and the both of us charged at each other.

From a distance, it looked as if a golden cloud and a black cloud had collided with each other before exploding fiercely, demolishing the buildings on either side of the street.

*

The smoke and black and white qi slowly faded away.

Both Pang Feng and I stood a few meters away from each other, having rushed past our opponent and not turning around.

”Ugh!”

Blood spurted from my mouth and I dropped to a knee, clutching my chest. Panting heavily, I leaned on my sword and forced myself to remain conscious. Damn, but I had taken quite a bit of damage from that attack.

Pang Feng raised his hand and watched quietly as his golden armor crumbled and faded away. He clenched his fist and turned around. Blood streamed down his face and chest, and he wavered for a moment, but remained standing.

”…”

Tang Qi Hong studied the both of us from a distance, still protected by my Snow Aegis, which had stopped the blasts from the collision of our qi from reaching her. It was clear from her gaze that she was shocked by what she had just witnessed.

”Damn it,” I muttered as my vision swam. After all that big talk, and I lost to Pang Feng?

However, Pang Feng did not share the same opinion as me. Even as he remained standing, he set his eyes on me.

”It's your victory,” he declared.

”Huh?” I turned around, only to see the last of Pang Feng's armor disappear and he collapsed, the golden glow of his skin vanishing completely. He hit the dirt facedown, unmoving. My injuries forgotten, I forced myself to my feet and rushed to his side, checking to make sure he was all right. ”Oi! Hang in there!”

To my immense relief, Pang Feng was still alive. He was breathing shallowly, but he had taken a lot of damage. Well, I just used Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike on him, so obviously he wouldn't come away unscathed.

”Phew…” After I exhaled, I began to apply emergency first aid. First, to staunch the bleeding. Of course, this being reality, there was no magic spirit pill where I could feed him and he would heal in a few minutes. And I didn't know any healing techniques like Teacher Yi Liao or Qing Xin Xia or members from the Green Dragon Sect.

Fortunately, Pang Feng's life was not in any danger. I sent his phone a message, and got up. Since Pang Feng was part of Cloud Sky Mountain, I doubted any of the invading sects would go after him. They should have been informed of his defection from Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and rejoining Cloud Sky Mountain, at least if Wu Tuo had been competent enough.

”Let's go.”

Not knowing any medical techniques, I still needed to get Tang Qi Hong treated, so I picked her up and carried her back toward the direction of the sect.

Tang Qi Hong glanced worriedly at Pang Feng, and I smiled reassuringly.

”Pang Feng is fine. He'll be all right. I've applied first aid, and when he wakes up, he'll return to Cloud Sky Mountain. He won't be in any danger.”

I had left him a message on his phone, telling him that I would keep Tang Qi Hong safe, and that he should take care of himself and return to Cloud Sky Mountain immediately.

Tang Qi Hong closed her eyes, looking a little relieved. At least she was much better than a certain Tang Si Qi, who only cared whether Qin Lie won and couldn't be bothered about the original Pang Feng's wellbeing, and was only interested in who was the ”true victor” instead of, you know, worrying if Pang Feng was still alive, or his condition after falling and creating a huge crater in the earth. Then again, what do you expect from xianxia stories, where the heroines cared nothing about other people except the protagonists, and treated every other side characters as fodder?

A good while later, Pang Feng finally woke up. He reached and felt for the patches and bandages I had put on him, and smiled wryly.

”Even after fighting almost to the death, you still took care of me.” He shook his head. ”Fei Wu, you really are an idiot. I guess that's why we're friends.”

Sitting up, he stared at the sky bitterly and raised his bandaged hands.

”Huh…I guess I lost, huh?” he then caught sight of his phone beside him, and swiping the screen, saw the text message I had left for him. He glanced through it and then shook his head again before staggering to his feet. ”Fine, I'll listen to you, since you won.”

As he trudged back toward Cloud Sky Mountain, he glanced back at the devastated remains of the street and raised an eyebrow.

”Those techniques that he used…they weren't just ice techniques from Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula or Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. Especially that last sword strike…it was neither Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship nor Nine-Tailed Frost Fox. And his evasion techniques, that was not from either of those…”

Suddenly he recalled something he read from long ago. A lost technique that allowed one to evade flawlessly, and even allowed one to read the opponent's qi and pick out weaknesses and openings.

Touching his chest, his eyes widened.

”Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps…why does Fei Wu know Heaven and Earth Formula?!”

From what Pang Feng remembered, Heaven and Earth Formula was the martial art of the evil, demonic sect, Heaven and Earth Sect. A sect that had struck terror into the Martial Arts Alliance and the civilians of the Great Zhou Empire just years ago, and it took the combined might of the various orthodox sects in the Martial Arts Alliance to bring down the former sect leader, Tian Mo. Tian Mo himself was the Absolute One, a tyrannical demonic martial artist who massacred entire villages and towns just to achieve supremacy.

Even the Imperial Guard had trouble fighting against the Heaven and Earth Sect.

”Why does Fei Wu know a martial art from such a terrifying demonic sect? What is his relationship with the Heaven and Earth Sect?”

Pang Feng felt disturbed as he returned to Great Nature's Heart. The moment he stepped inside, he pushed those uneasy thoughts out of his mind and walked past Wu Tuo, who was currently giving a group of Cloud Sky Mountain sect martial artists orders. The group was gathered around a holographic tactical display, which presented a map of Tushan City. It didn't take a genius to tell that they were busily strategizing an assault on Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.

Pang Yun was among the group, and she stood up when she caught sight of Pang Feng trudging past them.

”Brother!”

”Oh!”

”Pang Feng!”

Wu Tuo and the other martial artists turned to look at him, taking in his sorry state, the bandages and his injuries. Wu Tuo looked extremely astonished.

”Are you all right?”

”Yeah.” Pang Feng didn't elaborate. Wu Tuo studied him for a moment, and realized something was missing.

”Where's Tang Qi Hong? What happened? Did you decide to let her go?”

He could hardly conceive that Pang Feng would lose to a ”nobody” like me. As I said, they were like frogs in a well, only comparing their martial artists' strength against people within the same sect and not bothering to find out about other sects.

Clearly, Wu Tuo had thought that Pang Feng had decided to let Tang Qi Hong go and respect her decision. Earlier, when Pang Yun returned, she had briefly explained what happened, and how I asked Tang Qi Hong to decide for herself. But that didn't make sense. Pang Feng took too long to return if that was just the case, and it also didn't explain the injuries.

So Wu Tuo probably dismissed it as Pang Feng having a change of heart in the middle of the battle, and forfeiting the match to respect Tang Qi Hong, for some obscure reason. Either way, the thought of Pang Feng losing never crossed his mind.

”I lost,” Pang Feng replied in a single quiet sentence. ”I lost to Fei Wu.”

”What…?” Wu Tuo's jaw dropped. Pang Feng didn't elaborate and moved on, but Wu Tuo stood in his way. ”How…?”

”He was stronger than me,” Pang Feng answered simply. He didn't share any of his worries or speculation about me being from the Heaven and Earth Sect. He knew the implications of that, and that if the news of me being linked to a demonic sect went out, I would be in trouble. The Martial Arts Alliance had largely ignored me for now because I was deemed insignificant (I wasn't Qin Lie, after all), but if they learned that I had connections to a demonic sect, they would seek to hunt me down, kill me or ”bring me to justice” like the hypocrites they were.

As much as we fought earlier, we were still friends, and Pang Feng still held some regard for me.

Shoving past a stunned Wu Tuo, Pang Feng continued on toward the back of the Great Nature's Heart.

”I'm injured and need some time to recover. Please don't disturb me.”

Everyone could only watched, astounded, as Pang Feng emotionless walked out of the room without another word.

”This is the first time Pang Feng has lost to someone from his generation,” one of the martial artists murmured in disbelief.

”Everyone loses.” Wu Tuo had finally snapped out of his stupor and shook his head. ”We can only hope he grows from it and not get too down from this minor setback. More importantly, everyone, back to the mission!”