254 Chapter 253: Heaven and Earth Strike (2/2)

Despite parrying the blow, I was almost blown back. The fucker had used his momentum to add to the power of his attack, his significant weight making a difference. We both tumbled backward, with Darkon slashing at me with unbridled glee.

”Just die already!”

Nope. I refuse. Unfortunately, the bastard was one-sidedly forcing his twisted values upon me. He truly believed that power was everything, and the weak should just get culled. That the strong should never sacrifice themselves to protect those weaker than them, that the weak don't deserve it because they would never amount to anything.

He was just absolving responsibility of those who had taken up the martial way. No, he didn't understand the true meaning of power. Power wasn't just physical strength or martial ability. There were many kinds of power. Economic power. Artistic ability. Technological knowledge. Literary finess. Clever construction. Manufacturing skills. Farming techniques. Society was built upon a collective of people. Not everyone could be warriors. Not everyone could be farmers. Not everyone could be artisans or manufacturers. Sure, there were many unscrupulous people who screwed others over, like Darkon, but by and large society and civilizations survived with people helping each other.

Claiming that the strong shouldn't sacrifice people who ”would never amount to anything” and should just leave the weak to die for themselves rather than being suicidal martyrs, that concept was just self-centered to the extreme. If you let all the laborers and construction workers die, who would build your houses? Where would you live in? If you refuse to help farmers who were being attacked by bandits (in history) and monsters (in the present) because it's not worth sacrificing your worthless life for people who ”never amount to anything”, then what are you going to eat? Are you going to just survive on monster meat for the rest of your sad life? And you claim that these people who built homes for you to stay in or grow crops for your favorite food that you take for granted would ”never amount to anything” all because you're ”stronger” than them?

What kind of fucking logic is that?

Fueled by the rage at his selfishness, I stood my ground and swung my swords, unleashing another Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike at pointblank range. Darkon cursed as blood spewed from his arms, but he gripped his sword tightly and retaliated with a riposte. I deflected his attack and countered with a quick thrust, getting under his defenses and nicking him in the ribs. He growled and slashed at me in an attempt to cleave me, but I managed to duck under it and counter with a backward swing that left a gash over his chest.

Good. Darkon might be physically and spiritually stronger than me, but I was faster and more agile. I could win this, through causing my enemy's death by a thousand cuts! I just needed to maintain this pace…

”?!”

Darkon suddenly unleashed yet another Venom Dragon Strike. The miasma hit my face, blinding my eyes and causing me to stagger back.

”Ugh!”

”Hah! Finally! Now that you've been poisoned, this will be the beginning of the end of you, you worthless worm!”

Laughing triumphantly, Darkon slashed at me again. Blinded, I couldn't see his attacks, but I was able to rely on my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps to track his movements by the flow of his qi, and barely deflected them.

”Hmm? You have great instincts and reflexes, but they won't be enough. Just fall to my attacks!”

Roaring, Darkon pressed harder, and I fell back, trying my best to anticipate his attacks.

Clang! Bang!

I felt myself getting pushed back, step by step. Ironcally enough, I could handle his attacks better by following the flow of his qi than seeing them. On the other hand, my offensive techniques were halved and I could no longer counter. Right now, I could only completely rely on evasion and defense. That was the weakness of Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps.

The near-miraculous technique allowed me to read the flow and movement of my opponents, and thus evade them completely, or stop their attacks before they could complete them, disrupting their techniques. However, by focusing all of my spiritual senses into that, I wasn't able to devote my qi and mind into counterattacks.

”?”

Darkon seemed to notice that something was amiss. Even though I couldn't see his expression, he must have furrowed his brow for I sensed his frustration and rage spiking up. His movements grew more impatient and his attacks more reckless. He wanted to finish me off quickly, and thought he had the advantage after blinding me (temporarily), yet I was evading him better than before. He didn't notice that I had lost the ability to counterattack, though, but he probably took it for granted that I would be worse off after being poisoned.

Yet, despite being poisoned, I didn't slow down at all, and my complesion wasn't paling. I wasn't convulsing, my muscles weren't locking up, and I wasn't going into shock. My eyes continued to stung, but this was a minor poison, especially when compared to the other toxins I had experienced before, and my immune system responded swiftly to stamp it out.

My eyes remained sightless for now, but that was fine. Keeping them closed, I relied entirely on evading by reading my opponent's flow of qi.

”Why hasn't he dropped dead already?!” Darkon demanded, swinging his sword. I hopped back, evading it by the narrowest millimeter, and then swung to the side as he reversed the trajectory of his sword, escaping the sharp blade by a hair's breadth.

At the same time, I could understand the same frustration he felt. I was slowly being ground down by his attacks, and I couldn't waste too much time on this bastard. I still needed to get to their base and grab their Black Venom Toxin.

The poison that Darkon used was clearly not the same toxins that infected Song Ting Yu and Yi Ding Si. It was too mild, too…weak. I was sure the Black Venom Toxin was a lot more potent than the ones that Darkon wielded.

That meant I couldn't simply kill him and take the toxins from his body. I needed to ransack the repository of toxins in the Black Venom Cult's base camp. And this guy was delaying me from achieving that goal.

”Kuh!”

I sidestepped yet another attack, and then deflected Darkon's blade. His qi pused dangerously as he prepared to unleash another powerful strike, and I reflexively jumped away to what I hoped was a safe distance while pulling my Snow Aegis down.

Kaboom!

Another explosion rang as Snow Aegis was sent barreling away from another of Darkon's powerful Venom Dragon Strike. With my Spirit Shield out of the way, Darkon pounced on me, swinging his sword down. I still couldn't see, but I could sense his approach.

”!!”

Demonic qi?!

I could ”see” a tsunami of demonic qi barreling upon me, embodied by Darkon as he descended upon me. I wasn't sure how to describe it, but it wasn't visual yet I could still somehow ”see” his qi.

Clang!

I blocked his first strike, my swords shuddering from the tremendous impact, and staggered back, only to be forced to deflect a second strike. Knocked off balance, I gripped my swords tightly and tried to track my opponent's demonic qi.

The third attack knocked me back and I rode the momentum behind it, jumping further back to widen the distance between myself and my opponent.

”I…can see the demonic qi as a vortex?”

I could see a storm of purplish qi raging and swirling in front of me. Instead of taking human form, it resembled more of a force of nature. Then again, martial artists were essentially forces of nature, taking natural qi and converting it into their own use.

So this made sense.

Taking a deep breath, I focused all my attention on the swirling tempests of energy. I could make out a fissure where the flow of demonic qi collided, which somehow stood out to me as important. Something Master mentioned once during my week of training struck me, but I couldn't recall the exact words.

My ephiphany paid off, especially when what seemed like lightning or sparks crackled and exploded from the collision of the demonic qi. There was only one spot – a gigantic spot, no doubt – but just a single one where the violent collision of demonic energies produced a storm of bright, white lightning.

Skidding backward, I ground my feet down and forced myself to a halt. Gritting my teeth, I dropped Shadow Fox and gripped Azure Lotus Sword with both hands, pulling it back for one decisive swing.

”Right there!”

Instinctively (combined with the nagging feeling that Master taught me something similar), I yelled and slashed at the crack of lightning between the collision of demonic energies, and a golden wave of qi erupted from my sword, slicing through the white lightning and drowning it out with its blinding, golden light.

The golden wave of qi that erupted from my sword surged through the gap of lightning, cutting across the swirling maelstroms of demonic qi and pierced through the heavens!

”Ugh?!”

Darkon realized something was amiss and quickly brought his sword up to block the blow, but it was useless.

”What…what the hell is this?!” he screamed.

I gave no answer, and merely left it to the golden tsuami of destructive qi. Darkon was blown back from the sheer force, his sword shattering near instantly, and then he was engulfed by my most powerful attack ever.

”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

That was his last shriek, and then Darkon completely disintegrated. An irony, if I ever heard of one. All that spouting about how the weak never amounted to anything, the strong could and should do whatever they like, and how power spoke for himself, and he ended up being overpowered by someone who was weaker than him.

The golden blast of qi ravaged the swamp, obliterating trees and gouging out a huge chunk of earth, leaving a damp, steaming crater. As the blinding light finally faded away, my sight slowly returned and I could finally see the devastation I had caused for myself.

”That's…”

My eyes widened and a bead of perspiration dripped down my face as I took in the site of destruction.

About seven gigantic fissures had been carved into the ground right in front of me, splitting the earth into several ravines. Huffing from the exertion, I dropped to my knee and picked up Shadow Sword. Panting, I leaned on my swords as I tried to absorb what I had just done.

”Hu…”

Sucking in a deep breath, I glanced at the devastared ravines for any sign of my former enemy, but as expected, I couldn't locate him. I couldn't even sense his qi. There were traces of his qi lingering around the area, but those were mere discharges from his techniques during our battle, and not his qi signature emanated when he was alive.

”Is it over?”

I could scarcely believed that I had just prevailed over an enemy who was much stronger than me. The relief that washed over me was immense.

But more importantly, I had no idea what I had just done.

No. I knew. I recalled the technique that Master showed me once, during that brief one-week training in the underworld.

”Heh…so that was the Heaven and Earth Strike…”

The Heaven and Earth Strike – the technique that allowed me to slay a hundred demons with a single swing of my sword. It seemed that I had finally executed it successfully. After years of failures and frustration.

”This is the first step to truly mastering Heaven and Earth Formula.”

I picked up my swords and stared at them, my hands still trembling ever so slightly. That was a close battle. Too close for my comfort. If I hadn't unleashed Heaven and Earth Strike when I did, then I might be the one who died.

However, it wasn't as if I had mastered Heaven and Earth Strike. I was merely blindly swinging my sword around. That was a fluke. If asked to execute Heaven and Earth Strike again, I wasn't sure if I could pull it off.

How did I do it earlier? I wondered. Grasping my sword, I tried to replicate the feeling, but failed. Shaking my head, I was about to proceed toward Tong Xue's position, but spotted something sparkling in the devastation.

”That's…”

My glasses. Thankfully, it was just outside the area where my Heaven and Earth Strike had hit, so it didn't get destroyed. I hastily grabbed it and put them on. This pair was something that Tang Qi Hong modified, so along with my Shadow Fox, they were something very dear to me.

I couldn't afford to lose them.

Taking a deep breath, I straightened up and began looking for Tong Xue. I hoped he could prevail over his foe.