Chapter 467: The Fine Line between Life and Death
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Tongues of flames from the Flowing Fire blazed across the horizon. As if being borne by the wind, Meng Qi zipped through the air with help of his magical blade. At the speed of a darting falcon, he shunted forward with blinding speed, covering hundreds of meters in a single breath. From high above, he pounced onto the Wolf King.
But the Wolf King seemed to have long anticipated him. With just the slightest of a pause, he swung off to another course as effortlessly as a free-flowing stream, evading Meng Qi’s gambit with extraordinary ease. He gave a burst of speed, seizing the opportunity to escape.
Still, the power and abilities of his Precious Weapon was not his to wield freely with his will. It was futile if his quarry still could not be caught despite the enhancement of speed and ability of temporary flight. He simply lacked the required dexterity and skill to wield the power to the fullest potential.
At that moment, Meng Qi banked and twisted in mid-air. Defying logic and physics he spun and glided towards the Wolf King with the grace of a fairy dancing in the air.
The Wolf King ha no more cunning tricks up his sleeves, leaving him naked to Meng Qi’s imminent strike.
From slow, graceful strokes that turned into blinding slashes with ferocity, Meng Qi unleashed a tide of vicious hacks upon the Wolf King!
Dark clouds converged atop the deathmatch, sending serpentine bolts of lightning to the ground. Muffled groans of thunder descended upon the earth.
Boom! Boom!
Bolts of lightning the girth of buckets rained down, cascading from the sky and striking Meng Qi’s blade, infusing the instrument of death with power from the skies.
Greenish currents of the lightning danced and crackled around the Heaven Inflicted Pain as the lightning-galvanized saber swung down and struck the Wolf King like the Judgement of Heaven.
Wolf King was not overly concerned. Cold and unfeeling, all he had was a taste for blood. Dim rays of light shone from the holes that emerged around him. He used the tips of the jade-ink bones on his left hand and turned his entire person into a killing sword.
Heaven had created countless things for humanity, yet humans had never done anything in return. Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
Sword light lit up all around them. Unleashing a murderous aura, Wolf King stabbed at the strongest point in his opponent’s Thunder Punishment—the core of Meng Qi’s momentum.
The sword momentum was ancient and clumsy, but remained largely unchanged. However, it was drenched in a thick murderous aura as if it were the dark side of the world, the end of life, and the conclusion of Dharma and Logos. Not even the Thunder Punishment could alter it.
Wolf King’s flesh shriveled and he became even thinner than he already was, but the crazed murderousness in his eyes did not dim, not even the slightest.
Meng Qi’s gaze was resolute, slashing with his sword without a hint of doubt.
“In this same scenario last year, I merely opened my eight acupores but already, I am strong enough to severely injure you!”
“Today, what is there to fear if I have the upper hand?”
Boom!
The Green Thunder exploded and gushed , overflowing, with the intention to kill, withering the lush weeds growing nearby and instantly scorching them. Lightning flowers appeared on the ground.
Pitter-patter. It began pouring heavily, revitalizing the wilted grass. Mist rose from the ground.
Over in Gegengol, a sleep-deprived Agula heard the faint sound of thunder. The Exterior experts all widened their eyes in bewilderment. The Bayan Valley was far out of the reach of their senses.
Wolf King took several steps backward, his right hand lowered by his side. His shoulders sagged but his hand did nt break, unlike last time.
In the past year, he seemed to have done something terrible to his right hand!
Meng Qi’s meridian in his right hand had been attacked by Wolf King’s murderous intent. His hand felt numb and there was a stabbing pain in his Vital Spirit, having recieved several internal injuries. Just as his feet touched the ground, he rebounded like a bowstring and executed his Sacrifice Formula gracefully, using his Flowing Fire.
His swordwill was the first to advance toward Wolf King, followed by his sword—the unchanged would surely defeat the ten thousand changes!
Eyes tinted red, Wolf King spat out Blood Essence. His right hand was pressed on his left arm and ripped it away with a forceful pull. Then, as if he was using a spear, he hurled his left arm at his opponent.
His jade-ink bones appeared, the five fingers fixed in a claw. Murderous aura gushed out and the uncanny sword’s trajectory managed to block Meng Qi’s Heavenly Fairy.
Meng Qi did not halt and, amidst the exchanging of blows, took a step forward with his sword raised.
“Kill!”
His voice was like the booming thunder, and his sword the divine punishment. Amid the rumbling were the five bolts of lightning!
The Green Thunder lit up the entire valley as Meng Qi lifted his sword high to slash his opponent.
Wolf King burst with a force of ferocity and countered his opponent’s strength with his own. He once again materialized his sword.
Under the serene ray of light, he was all skin and bones. However, momentum was quickly concentrating on the Qi point. It was mixed with the ferocity and cruelty that had seen four Half-step Exterior Scenery masters killed. He brandished his sword and welcomed that power.
Boom!
Thunderous booms sounded in succession and stones shattered. All around Wolf King, lightning flashed, turning his surroundings into a wasteland.
Meng Qi met Wolf King’s eyes; one pair valiant and the other indifferent, but crackling with electricity.
Wolf King’s right hand was crippled and no longer capable of battle. Fresh blooked leaked from the side of his mouth. His body was marked with lighting strikes and strange thunder patterns.
Meng Qi was in no better condition. The golden glow enveloping his right hand was faint and his skin bulged with veins. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth like a black line marking his face.
The pouring rain did not help. Wolf King swayed ever so slightly, seeming incredibly weak.
“Kill!” Meng Qi swelled with courage, wielding his sword in his left hand to attack.
Wolf King’s eyes were as cold and still as ever, without a shred of weakness. His mid-brows suddenly swelled and a darkness enveloped him. His murderous rage transformed into his killing sword!
At the most crucial moment, gathering the momentum of the Qi point attained from murdering four Half-step Exterior Scenery masters, at the line between life and death, he decided not to wait and make his breakthrough!
Once he succeeded, he would be a perfect Half-step Exterior Scenery master but lose all hope of achieving the realm in one step like He Jiu and Wang Siyuan.
This was his last attack, but his most effective one!
“He escaped…?” That was the first idea that crossed Meng Qi’s mind.
“But can he even escape?”
The carefully cultivated willpower that allowed him to dismiss his feeling of dread, fear, and weakness. His eyes remained clear and resolute as he thrust his Flowing Fire.
“Even if you succeed in breaking through, your realm still isn’t stable yet! Never mind the fact that you’re just in the midst of breaking through!”
Only a fine line separated life and death. If it was not Wolf King’s death, then it would be his!
His sword light was bright and clean, pure and adulterated, so beautiful that it was hard to describe. But compared to the previous Heavenly Fire, this sword movement felt even more urgent. It was as if he could only go forward without any thought of retreating, as if neither of them would live unless the other died. Transforming into a shooting star, he charged at Wolf King.
Wolf King’s entire being was surrounded by many killing swords. The swords spread out to form a protective screen that was hard to breach.
The Qi point became entangled and, under their mutual attacks in the unyielding battle, Meng Qi’s breath rose alongside Wolf King’s momentum.
Crash! The sound resounded in their hearts. Meng Qi’s consciousness suddenly expanded as if he had broken through a certain obstacle.
The smell of soil, the scorch marks, the insects deep underground, the night breeze, the killing sword formed out of Sword Qi—all of this flooded into Meng Qi’s mind.
At that moment, he felt like he was indistinguishable from heaven and earth. The ground began to move up and down around him to form a raging sea of Vital Qi. He entered the bubble in the sea and his pores opened up to breathe, filling him with an incredible joy.
“The world’s eyes has become my own!” Everything that happened nearby was conjured up on his mind, even the number of strands of hair on Wolf King’s head!
Though he couldn’t detect the flow of Wolf King’s genuine Qi, the killing swords formed out of murderous intention were no longer a secret.
The crimson sword lights were trembling feebly, masquerading as swimming fish, as it moved toward Meng Qi alongside the pool of murderous intention. It continued to move on despite the mounting danger, avoiding any obstacle.
A blinding outburst of sword light pierced through the darkness. The nearby mountains, stones, and ground all lost their foundation at the same time and turned into mud. A puff of black gas belched to the sky.
It was similar to Aunt Bai’s breakthrough. It seemed that Wolf King had succeeded!
The darkness disappeared. A dim ray of light pierced through the dark clouds to shine upon the valley. Meng Qi stood opposite Wolf King, his sword drooping from his hand. A long wound trailed down his chest, emitting the faint golden glow. He seemed like he would die soon.
The flesh in his wound began to wither, quicking eating down toward his internal organs. It felt rather strange. Furthermore, Meng Qi’s mind was clearly dispirited and his body was drained of any energy.
No emotion appeared on Wolf King’s thin face, and his eyes were as cool as usual. Yet a new sword wound had appeared on his mid-brows, neither deep nor shallow. Blood trickled from the wound and trailed down his forehead to the bridge of his nose. With a soft sound, it fell to the scorched ground.
The radiance of the Flowing Fire rose into the sky, swallowing up the drop of blood with the sharp tip of the sword.
Thud! Wolf King crashed onto the ground face-first, all his vitality dissipating. Even until his death, he had never showed any hint of confusion, hesitation, nostalgia, or regret. He had been cold and bloodthirsty until the very end!
Thud! Meng Qi also fell to the ground face-first. All his exhaustion had finally crept up on him and he could no longer support himself.
It wasn’t simply that he had exhausted all his energy. It was also due to Wolf King’s perfect Half-step to the Exterior stroke! If he had not mastered Hidden Latch, enlightened the Apertures, or reached the consummate stage, he might really have ended up dying alongside Wolf King.
Though he knew all the commotion they had caused earlier would’ve alarmed the masters nearby, he had no desire to move even the tip of his fingers.
In the silence, he felt his sea of Vital Qi envelop his entire being. He could only smell the damp soil. The fish swimming in the nearby lake had been shocked by the thunder earlier.
The bright stars were none other than the Grand Sun itself, arranged in a row as many cosmos overlapped with one another. Their place of origin was the same… Meng Qi let out a breath and felt his body relax. He looked at the dark clouds and the faint starlight peeking through the clouds. He felt his mind become serene and peaceful. Later, he would also feel the distant response from the Grand Sun, the stars, as well as the Chaotic Hole. But when he looked up, he felt nothing.
This was the Oneness of Heaven and Men realm, the realm that would no longer subside.
To think that his path and nature would be this compatible!
The corresponding Aperture acupoints expelled Vital Qi. The Grand Sun rose secretly, amid the glinting stars and dusky Chaotic Hole. His spiritual and physical strength began to return to normal. He felt as comfortable as he would have felt after a hot bath.
He forced himself to get back on his feet and swallow a Recovery Pill. He searched Wolf King’s body for spoils and tried his best to leave before people came around.
He found nothing on Wolf King’s body, only that strange jade-ink sword fashioned out of his arm.
…
The successive sounds of thunder made Agula feel like a frightened bird, and a sudden thought crossed his mind.
“Could… Could it be that Wolf King has made a breakthrough somewhere nearby? Why else would there only be the sound of thunder but no rain in Gegengol?” He was frightened out of his wits and paced anxiously.
“We’ll head straight south once daylight comes and hide in the Central Plains!” Agula decided. It was fine if he was dead, but he couldn’t hide with Jin Zhangqu, could he?
The night dragged on as if it was a torturous punishment. When Agula finally saw the first light of the day, he nearly collapsed in relief.
Just as he was about to order his guards to pack up, he saw the entrance of the tent flip open. A person walked in.
“Who is it?” he cried in surprise, planning to berate the person for his rudeness.
“Are the guards outside eating shit? I would have died a hundred times if I had depended on them to keep me safe from Wolf King!”
Augla’s words stuck in his throat. Instead, he was both shocked and pleasantly surprised to see who it was. “Brother Zhe Bie, you’re finally willing to leave? Hurry, protect me as I head south!”
Agula had already recognized the person to be Meng Qi. The latter’s face was clean-shaven, making him look even more delicate. But his long hair was mussed and his body was bloody. He was held a head in his hand.
“You?” Agula asked, putting up his guard. He was perplexed.
Meng Qi hurled the head at Agula’s feet.
“Wolf King won’t be coming anymore,” he said calmly.
Agula’s pupils dilated. He stared at the head and its pair of cold eyes, the same ones that had appeared in his nightmares!
He saw Meng Qi turn away without a word and walk calmly out of the tent. His figure was tall and straight. He did not exhibit any hint of loftiness but instead an air of boundlessness.
“He… He really killed Wolf King… He killed Wolf King by himself!” Agula was slack-jawed, his gaze frozen.
The entrance to his tent flipped open once again. Sunlight illuminated Meng Qi’s body, revealing the blood stains on his clothes. It was a sight that would be etched deep in Agula’s mind, one he would never forget.
…
In the Six Fan School in Luoyang, the head arrester was reading the news coming from the east. He was astonished beyond words.
“Wolf King has killed yet another Half-step Exterior Scenery master?”
“He’s gone mad!”
“He… He’s too outrageous!”
“He’s definitely the most outrageous warrior in the Ranking List of Young Masters in the past century!”
“Even though he has had yet to perfect his Half-step Exterior Scenery realm, after enlightening the Apertures, he has been killing ordinary Half-step masters like it was nothing. This is… This is too…”
They lamented on and on before deciding to include the news in Wolf King’s battle records.
Just then, an arrester burst into the room and shouted, “Urgent news from the north!”
“What is it? Did Wolf King kill yet another Half-step?” someone asked, preparing himself.
“No idea.” He began to rip open the letter. Suddenly, his hand shook and the note fell to the ground.
“This… This…” he stammered.
Everyone focused their attention on the note and saw the words written on it:
‘Killing Blade has killed Wolf King in the Bayan Valley.’
The sentence was eight claps of thunder, shocking them out of their placid peace.