259 Chapter 258: Getting Whipped (1/2)
Blood spurted from my mouth as my head was whipped backward and I staggered, my vision exploding from the pain.
While I toppled over, the whip tightened around my Azure Lotus Sword, which I still refused to let go of. With a jerk of his hand, Sha Chen yanked his whip back, the flexible weapon making a beautiful arc in the air as it withdrew. Thanks to that, I was still being pinned down as long as I refused to abandon my precious weapon.
Recognizing that, the Dark Sage's lips curled into a sneer. With his other hand, he lashed out with his other whip. While I was still in the midst of falling over, the second whip snaked out viciously, almost like a striking serpent that wanted to tear into my skin and drink my blood.
For a moment, it seemed that I had lost consciousness. I was falling over, my head still blank and my vision still blurred from the earlier shock. However, right before the whip reached me, my eyes opened slightly behind my glasses, almost gleaming.
Ka-boom!
The whip struck and the ground exploded in a dust of soil and steam. In that moment, Sha Chen's sight of me was obscured by the billowing white cloud.
Only for a second, though.
Suddenly, I dashed out of the exploding white steam and dust, uncaring of whether the whip was still tightly coiled around my Azure Lotus Sword or not. Like a monster, I charged recklessly, refusing to be stopped by anything.
”!”
In just that split second, Sha Chen hesitated, taken aback by my sudden ferocity. His eyes widened and his mind froze as he tried to process what he was seeing.
”How did you…?”
He then shook his head, as if to say that it didn't matter. Narrowing his eyes, he jerked his left arm up again.
While I was dashing toward the Dark Sage using Jin, behind me Sha Chen's other whip whipped toward me mercilessly, uncoiling violently. I sensed the cruel qi flowing through the barbed whip, but as I was already in the middle of executing a footwork technique, I was far from able to abruptly alter my current trajectory.
”!”
The whip in Sha Chen's right hand released my Azure Lotus Sword, almost as if coming to a life, and struck me like a venomous serpent. With one attacking from the front, and the other coming from behind, there was no way I could avoid either. Both whips lashed out and flayed my flesh brutally, tearing through my skin and halting me in the middle of my supposedly inexorable advance.
”Ugh…!”
Blood spurted from numerous wounds all over my body as I struggled against the barbed whips, their cruel hooks biting deep into my flesh and tearing chunks of skin out. Red-hot pain continued to surge through my system, almost causing my mind to blank out.
Unable to endure the excruciating agony, I stumbled…and then crashed heavily onto the ground a distance away from the stationary Sha Chen, unable to even complete my charge. His whips continued to strike me from range, shattering the ground and blasting more dirt and soil into the air. A merciless wind howled as sonic booms thundered across the desolate remains of the swamp.
”Hmph.”
Sha Chen raised his right arm, allowing his whip to coil around it again, almost like a sated serpent returning to its nest. He grinned and shook his head in amusement, watching my prone figure on the ground. I was slowly rising to my feet, blood freckling my lips and clenched teeth, my body still throbbing from the agonies he inflicted on me.
However, the Dark Sage took no pity on me despite my sorry sight. Rather, he seemed to be taking pleasure in my pain.
”Did you really think you can escape my Venom Iron Whip?” he sneered.
I wiped the blood from my mouth and forced myself to an upright posture. Shrugging, I tried to form a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.
”I could try.”
”Hmm?”
Sha Chen blinked when he noticed the enormous amounts of qi gathering around me. Even so, he continued to stand still, his whips coiled around both arms. As usual, he was underestimating me, refusing to attack.
Perhaps he was curious to see what I would do now, after being cornered.
Not wasting the chance he gave me, I continued to urgently gather more qi into both my swords. It was his own folly that he released my Azure Lotus Sword from his grasp. Right now, I was infusing my Spirit Sword with a tremendous amount of qi, pulling it back for an aggressive swing.
Amused, Sha Chen snorted, a smile spreading over his aged, wrinkled face.
”Heh…so you still intend to struggle, huh?”
Closing my eyes, I tried to picture the battle I had against Darkon. How the clashing clouds of qi were perceived my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. And how that shining, demonic light in the middle was sparked by the colliding clouds of qi.
I could almost see it…yeah, I could almost grasp the sensation…
Heaven and Earth Strike.
Swinging my Azure Lotus Sword, I unleashed a devastating wave of destructive qi, the golden blast of energy surging forward to engulf Sha Chen.
Like a tidal wave, the golden tsunami of destructive qi carved a devastating path through the desolate wasteland, gouging out yet another crater…or this time, a tunnel or ravine. Earth, soil, everything simply disintegrated as they were swallowed up by my Heaven and Earth Strike.
Sha Chen watched the ever-expanding wave of golden qi, but he didn't budge from his spot. Instead, he smiled as he studied my technique curiously.
”Ho…yes, yes! This is indeed the Heaven and Earth Strike that Tian Mo used against me back then! When we were young! I never thought I would get to see it again, not after all this time! You truly are his disciple!”
Then he raised both his hands, which were wreathed by his slowly uncoiling whips. The Heavenly Venom King began gathering large amounts of qi of his own.
”Mass Incendiary Strike!” he shouted gleefully as his crimson qi reached its peak and ignited into a roaring inferno.
His hellish flames struck my Heaven and Earth Strike head-on and exploded. It was almost like a nuke had went off, so huge was the explosion that vague mushroom cloud rose to pierce the heavens. The earth shattered from the colossal impact, unable to withstand the supernatural forces that tore its surface apart.
”!”
I blinked as the blinding lights from the explosion dazzled me. Fortunately, my glasses were still working, and the filters automatically set in to protect my eyes, but I still had to shield myself from the colossal shockwaves that were surging outward from the point of detonation.
”Damn it…”
Lowering my hand after the shockwaves abated, I was astonished to see a set of twin tornadoes intertwined with each other, spinning rapidly as they drilled devastatingly into the ground before merging into a single gigantic whirlwind.
”…!”
My jaw dropped as I watched the growing gargantuan tornado continue to ravage the broken ground, twisting and dancing around as it expanded to break through the heavens. It took me a moment to realize that I was inside the tornado.
The eye of the storm, as it were.
Opposite me was Sha Chen, the Dark Sage completely unaffected by the shockwaves that had battered the both of us.
He faced me from the opposite end of the raging whirlwind, a smirk on his face. Qi continued to swirl about him like a tempest, almost as if it was drawing strength from the surrounding tornado. He ground his feet firmly onto the ground and chuckled.
”Yes…this is it! It's been so long! I never thought I would actually face a technique of this power and magnitude! It's like reliving my youth again!”
He grinned as he stared at me, his aged eyes brimming with excitement.
In contrast to his vigor, I was still stumbling from random remnants of shockwaves that occasionally struck out from the surrounding tornado. Even though I didn't budge, I flinched as they whipped my battered body mercilessly.
”Ugh…”
Cold perspiration poured down my face as I struggled to endure the storm. Gritting my teeth, I tried to raise my swords in a defensive stance.
I was too late.
Sha Chen's whips lashed out before I could react and bit deeply into me, drawing more blood. I staggered from the blow, almost taken out. Grinding my foot against the ground, I furiously slashed at the incoming whips, but they seemed to disappear.
”…?”
My eyes widened, and then my bewilderment was replaced by red-hot agony as what seemed like knives stabbed deeply into my chest. Blood splattered my uniform and chin, and I stared down blankly in disbelief.
Both of Sha Chen's whips had somehow drilled into my chest, puncturing my lungs mercilessly and filling them with blood.
”Argh…”
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to withstand the pain and not topple over. Like hell I was going to let this take me down!
Dropping both of my swords and allowing them to sink slightly into the fragile soil, I grabbed both whips with my hands and began to pull them out, a shriek of pain leaving my lips as their barbed surfaces scraped through the insides of my body.
”You think I'll let you pull them out that easily?”
Laughing in savage delight, Sha Chen unleashed his corrosive qi along the length of his whips, pouring them directly into my body. For a moment, I was lifted off my feet and sent flying into the air, the maelstrom of enemy qi pounding my body and threatening to destroy it from the inside out, but I gathered as much of my qi as possible to suppress the buildup of foreign qi, and drive it out of my body. The titanic struggle manifested itself in a series of explosions around me that caused both my swords to vibrate intensely despite being embedded deeply in the soil.