Chapter 141: The Battle at the Summit, Part One

Arrogant, conceited, yet so firm and natural that he seemed merely to be stating a fact, announcing an inevitable result.

Yue Kai laughed. With a casual extension of his hand, the curved blade appeared as if by magic. It angled toward the heavens, still mottled with rust, yet somehow it radiated a resolute intent to pierce the sky.

“To die beneath this blade would be the greatest glory of your life.”

His tone was equally firm and conceited, yet it held not the slightest trace of battle lust. Though he clearly stood there, he seemed to be thousands of meters away, distant and unreachable. This bizarre sensation was an illusion brought about by Yue Kai’s superior mental strength, which directly affected his opponent’s mind.

“I entered the path of cultivation at the age of five and began practicing the Way of Slaughter. I have cultivated for fifty years and slain countless enemies. All my life, I have sought a true battle. You are worthy of forcing me to use the Bloodmark Blade’s ultimate technique.”

As his voice fell, blood began to flow from his hand. It ran along the hilt and slid down the blade. The vivid red stood out all the more sharply against the blade’s gleaming surface. More astonishing still, the blood did not drip to the ground. It was absorbed directly by the blade.

A blood-drinking blade?

Yue Kai was startled, but he grew even more cautious. According to the Professor, any weapon that required blood to nourish and activate it was never to be underestimated. His own use of the Heavy Pull was the best example. Now Xi Shan was feeding his own blood to the blade; clearly, it was no ordinary weapon. It was a pity that his own curved blade lacked such a function. Otherwise, its power would surely increase dramatically.

The blood continued to drip. The long blade devoured it greedily, like a starving child, without wasting a single drop.

“Feeding the blade with blood and becoming one with it—that is the secret of my Bloodmark Blade. Yue Kai, among the living, you are the first to learn this secret. Unfortunately, you will never have the chance to tell anyone else.”

Xi Shan’s expression grew colder. A trace of blood-red gradually surfaced in his eyes. It was impossible to tell whether the reflected glow of blood had dyed them red, or whether his eyes themselves had already turned scarlet.

“His strength hasn’t increased, but his aura has become even more terrifying. His mental defenses are tighter, leaving me nowhere to strike. And this blade gives me an extremely strange feeling.”

Yue Kai’s thoughts turned. He narrowed his eyes and gave a cold laugh.

“If that’s the case, what are we waiting for? Fight!”

The moment the final word left his mouth, his eyes flew open. In an instant, his aura underwent a dramatic transformation. When he moved, heaven and earth truly seemed to tremble. It was entirely different from the harmony with the natural world he had displayed before.

Only a moment earlier, all had been calm and still. In the next, raging waves surged. Heaven and earth changed color. Yue Kai vanished, crossing the distance in a single step and appearing behind Xi Shan. His curved blade swung silently, as though space were merely a great cake that could be sliced apart with ease. His violent aura and gentle movement formed such a stark contrast that it made the heart feel deeply unsettled.

With a soft hiss, there was no dazzling burst of true energy, yet a clear slash remained suspended in the air for a long time, as though space itself had truly been split in two.

Clang!

Xi Shan’s body seemed not to move, yet the Bloodmark Blade blocked Yue Kai’s attack with perfect accuracy. Again, there was no explosion of true energy, but the entire world seemed to shudder. The invisible shock did not erupt where the two blades met. Instead, it exploded more than a dozen meters away, as if struck by a powerful shock wave. Ripples spread through the air, and countless boulders shattered in an instant.

“Ha! A boundless sea of blood, with corpses for boats!”

Xi Shan gave a cold shout. His eyes had already turned the blood-red of a mutated beast. The gleaming blade trembled violently, releasing a shrill cry as scarlet color surfaced across it. An endless killing intent rolled outward like an exploding bomb, threatening to tear apart the surrounding void.

Although Xi Shan’s mental strength was nowhere near that of Yue Kai, who had cultivated the Illusory God Formula, the terrifying killing aura erupting from the blade at that moment was like a demon king awakening from hell and opening its enormous maw to swallow every living creature in the world. It made a helpless feeling rise from the depths of one’s heart, leaving no strength to resist.

More frightening still, everything before Yue Kai’s eyes was veiled in scarlet, as though the entire world had sunk into a sea of blood. Even the air he breathed carried a thick, nauseating scent of blood.

Even Yue Kai, whose will was as steadfast as rock, could not help but change expression. He abruptly closed his eyes. Whirlpools appeared within them, and the Illusory God Formula sprang into action. In an instant, time seemed to solidify and slow to a crawl, while the scene before him gradually became clear.

The Illusory God Formula possessed absolute restraint over mental illusions. In the blink of an eye, it saw through the essence of the illusion before him.

The process seemed to last a long time, yet in truth it occurred in an instant. Yue Kai’s mind focused. With a thunderous shout, his body twisted with uncanny flexibility, and the Return-One-Step Technique was pushed to its limit. His curved blade rotated with his body, unleashing an astonishingly sharp blade aura. The void seemed to ignite, forming a ring of fire, while the vaporous energy scorched the air until it blurred.

Swish, swish, swish!

Xi Shan’s gaze was as cold and sharp as a blade, and he remained unmoved. As his body twisted, the scarlet long blade pursued its prey like a shark scenting blood, its speed barely inferior to Yue Kai’s.

His wrist trembled. With a sharp whoosh, scarlet blade energy scattered into points of bloody light like bullets fired from a gun, enveloping Yue Kai.

Feeling the terrifying killing intent behind him, Yue Kai was not surprised in the least. His feet shifted, and in an instant he changed positions several times. At the same time, he swung his curved blade seemingly at random, yet each strike precisely blocked his opponent’s blade energy.

“So you are a mental mutant as well. No wonder you had the nerve to oppose the Xi family. Unfortunately, your strength is far too weak. You are destined to die beneath my Bloodmark Blade!”

Xi Shan’s expression did not change. He appeared utterly cold and ruthless. As his wrist turned, the blade’s radiance surged, and scarlet energy spread outward like a vast net descending over Yue Kai.

“He can actually keep up with the Return-One-Step Technique. How is that possible?”

Yue Kai was greatly shaken. He had not expected that even after using the Return-One-Step Technique, he still could not escape his opponent’s pursuit. Xi Shan clung to him like a parasite burrowing into bone.

“Hmph! Within my sea of blood, no change can escape my perception. Yue Kai, prepare to die!”

With a cold shout, Xi Shan lunged forward in a strange, darting motion. The long blade in his hand had become completely blood-red, as though it had just been drawn from a pool of blood. It radiated an evil, bewitching power that seemed capable of ensnaring the soul.

Yue Kai’s eyes shifted. He suddenly turned around and advanced instead of retreating, charging directly into the sea of blood. His curved blade rose, then crashed downward. The vaporous energy erupted like a volcano, transforming into red flames that burst outward, as though intending to burn the gloom to ashes.

Xi Shan snorted coldly. The scarlet blade trembled repeatedly, releasing waves of blade energy one after another. This bizarre method of attack was completely beyond expectation.

The vibrations were far faster than swinging the blade, yet their power had not diminished in the slightest. Relying on his tremendous spiritual energy, every wave of blade energy possessed the power to cut through iron as though it were mud. Anyone struck by it would be doomed—even steel would be destroyed.

Under such extreme pressure, Yue Kai’s battle intent soared. He felt no fear whatsoever. Instead, a strange excitement surged through him. It was the innate thirst for battle hidden within his bloodline, finally stirring into action.

The fire-element vaporous energy, possessing even greater destructive force, collided violently with the scarlet blade energy. The continuous impacts rang out clearly, and in that brief exchange, no fewer than eighteen thunderous clashes sounded.

Crimson streams of energy rolled outward like a hurricane, sweeping everything from the ground and leaving it utterly bare.

Yue Kai seemed unable to withstand the tremendous force of the recoil and floated backward like a willow catkin. Xi Shan, meanwhile, remained as steady as a rock, utterly motionless. The scarlet long blade had transcended the very meaning of a blade, becoming an extension of his arm. It hacked, sliced, and swept from bizarre angles at unbelievable speed. Terrifying blade light instantly shredded everything ahead of it into countless fragments.

Yue Kai drove his power to its limit and did not dare be careless. The terror of this battle had actually surpassed his previous clash with Sang Qing. Though the two seemed evenly matched and Yue Kai had yet to suffer any real injury, he was standing at the edge of life and death almost every second.

Xi Shan’s attacks were all killing blows. Once struck, there was absolutely no chance of survival. Relying on a level of Minor Perception that was twice as strong as Yue Kai’s, he attacked without restraint. His long blade seemed to leave no opening untouched, and every strike targeted Yue Kai’s vital points.

Yue Kai was suspended in midair, yet he did not fall as Xi Shan had predicted. The strange nature of the Return-One-Step Technique had once again caused his opponent’s prediction to fail. However, within the blood-colored domain Xi Shan had deliberately created, he hardly needed his eyes to sense every change. Realizing that something was wrong, he immediately shifted his footing and adjusted his body. The scarlet blade spun like an elf, releasing a shrill cry before shooting abruptly toward a certain point in the void.

In midair, Yue Kai was horrified. He had never imagined that Xi Shan could be so difficult to deal with. His Return-One-Step Technique was so strange and unpredictable that it left no trace to follow, yet his opponent had actually anticipated it. It was simply impossible!

Fortunately, Yue Kai had already perfected the Return-One-Step Technique, and his Chess Combat Art was no empty reputation. He did not hesitate to expend more vaporous energy and shifted again, barely dodging the attack. The place where he had been moments before was pierced through by the scarlet blade, and the terrifying killing intent that erupted from it chilled the heart.

With his supernatural ability working in conjunction with the Illusory God Formula, Yue Kai’s Chess Combat Art usually enabled him to anticipate his enemy’s moves, control the entire battle, and remain invincible. This was the first time he had encountered a situation like this. Yue Kai knew that the vast world held countless marvels and that experts emerged endlessly. His Chess Combat Art was not truly invincible beneath the heavens, but he had not expected to face such a challenge so soon.

In an instant, several battle strategies formed in his mind, yet each one failed because of Xi Shan’s astonishing ability to predict his moves.

Yue Kai felt as though he possessed tremendous strength but had nowhere to exert it. Often, before he could even complete a single attack, he was interrupted by an even more ferocious assault from his opponent. The frustration was maddening.

If not for the profound mysteries of the Return-One-Step Technique, and the formidable power of the Illusory God Formula combined with his supernatural ability, Yue Kai would likely already have been lying dead on the ground.