Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 490: The Slums Vs Players

Chapter 490: The Slums Vs Players

The Slums were quieter than usual.

That was the first sign.

Dasha’s ears twitched. The subtle sounds of life—the distant shuffling of the homeless, the wheezing coughs of the sick, the low murmurs of criminals whispering in alleyways—were suddenly gone.

It was unnatural.

His hands remained clasped behind his back as he walked beside Sun-young. His expression was unreadable, but inwardly, his mind was working at terrifying speed.

"The ground," Dasha murmured. "A monster is coming."

Sun-young didn’t react right away, but he noticed the shift in her stance. Her hands tightened, her fingers briefly flexing. She had heard the warning, and more importantly—she believed him.

His warning came true and the earth split open.

A monstrous, pale-scaled serpent burst from the ground, its maw lined with jagged fangs dripping with a venom so potent the very air around it shimmered. The beast’s body was thick with sinewy muscle, its head larger than a warhorse. Twin, dead black eyes fixed onto them with a hunger that was almost sentient.

The serpent lunged.

Sun-young leaped.

The moment the serpent struck, she was already gone. Her form blurred, vanishing from sight as the creature’s fangs slammed into the place where she had been. In the same breath, a black arc of anti-magic cut across the air.

"Distortion Slash!"

The serpent’s head was cleaved clean through, the anti-magic severing its body as if it were slicing through mist. The sheer effectiveness of the attack was almost unfair—the creature’s natural durability, its magic-resistant scales, all of it meant nothing against Sun-young’s blade.

The serpent’s body convulsed violently, then fell still.

Dasha barely moved. His expression didn’t shift. His hands remained behind his back. But inwardly, he had already begun analyzing.

’That was no ordinary creature.’

The way it moved, the way it hunted. It had been waiting. These serpents were not mindless beasts. They observed. They strategized. And that meant—

The ground shook violently.

A second presence. Much larger.

Sun-young turned just as the massive serpent erupted from the street. Unlike the first, this one was colossal—at least three times the size. Its pale scales bore deep scars, its hide thick enough that even anti-magic would have difficulty severing it in one strike. This was no ordinary predator.

This was the father.

The Father Serpent let out a guttural, horrifying hiss, its forked tongue tasting the air. The beast did not attack immediately. It studied Sun-young, its intelligence undeniable.

And then the Father Serpent struck faster than something its size should be capable of.

Sun-young reacted just as quickly. She met its attack head-on. She fought with a two-handed grip, the stance of a Kumdo practitioner—stable, powerful, absolute. They clashed, dark metal bearing down on flesh, and both human and snake were forced to bounce and try again.

The Father Serpent opened its jaws and hissed to blast out a gush of green venom. Sun-young did not falter. She dove right at the venom, her wooden sword arcing toward the nasty hiss of magic.

"Nullifying Slash."

The moment the wooden blade made contact, the serpent’s venom magic was nullified. She sliced right through it, letting the rest splatter onto the nearby buildings. The Father Serpent enchanted scales, its unnatural speed—all of it was rendered meaningless. Sun-young’s blade sank into its forehead. Her feet planted, she proceeded to run and inflict several more giant cuts.

But the battle was far from over.

The serpent recoiled and hurled her away. Sun-young smashed into a nearby building with both feet. The Father Serpent did not attack blindly this time. It observed.

Sun-young exhaled slowly, sword in the building and perching herself on top of it.

Dasha watched.

The efficiency.

The brutal perfection of her movements. She did not waste even a fraction of excess energy. Her blade followed the shortest path to the kill. Her stance adapted to the environment—uneven terrain, collapsing structures, the thick mana in the air—all of it was incorporated into her combat style.

She was here to train.

The Templars had sent her here. Not to complete some humanitarian mission. Not to simply fight demons.

This was a trial.

A forging ground.

And she was passing.

The Father Serpent lunged again. This time, its massive tail swept out, collapsing a wall of rubble into a storm of deadly debris. Sun-young did not retreat.

She burst forward in a cloak of anti-magic, too fast and strong for the serpent to deflect with its tail, and she used the debris as footholds. The serpent roared, attempting a second blast of venom—but she was already in position. Already face to face with its stomach.

Her blade glowed with black anti-magic.

"Distortion Slash."

The slash tore through the entire length of the serpent’s body from the top-down. It was as though it ceased.

Its head fell last, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Sun-young landed lightly.

There was no celebration. No sigh of relief. No arrogance in her expression. She simply wiped her blade clean, despite it being wooden.

She turned to Dasha.

She did not ask why he had simply stood there, watching with his hands behind his back.

They simply continued west.

***

"You are training, I see."

"..."

Sun-young slayed monster after monster, beast after beast, demon after demon. He studied her. He examined her. Without his Qi Sense, Dasha was still mighty capable. He started to understand the kind of woman she was.

’In terms of swordsmanship, her talent is unparalleled. I have never seen anything like it. The Templars no doubt know about this.’

The Templars wished to further hone her talent. They had to. They were running out of time.

"Everybody knows it. In the Heavenly Tower, there is one gate that stays permanently the same. The same gate that follows a certain land and people. Gate 35: Eusebius and the Burning Water. It is the obligation of the Templars to do this gate. It is a tradition and mark of progress for the students. The Templars have only failed this twice before: once during the Enlightenment Era and another during the Golden Generation. Other than that, it is always the Templars that are expected to do this objective. It is a must. It is a mark of a generation of Templars that are blessed by God."

"..."

"Jack the Ripper killed all your peers. Now, it is only you and a handful of others that will have to complete Gate 25."

"...how far until we reach the cult’s base?" Madame Sun-young asked.

"Not far."

The Slums opened up. What were once tight alleyways and roads became sparse grasslands. Dark swaths of land with structures spaced out like dots. Territory was scarce and tightly-guarded. Hrm.

"Can you hide your Qi?" Dasha asked.

"No."

"Invisibility of any kind?"

"No."

Then they were going to be walking through razor-thin margins. Territories were fickle and as they had been taught, the Slums did not hesitate to attack and kill. Reason and logic was not necessary. Dasha did not use Qi Sense on what lay ahead of them either. Too risky. His eyes scanned the dark plains and he decided they should turn.

"If we go this direction, we die."

Sun-young did not question it. Some things were better off unsaid.

They alternated between silent walks and bursts of speed until they found a proper angle to go further west. Much darker, much slimier, a semi-circle that would theoretically take them where they wanted.

Their path was a desolate rural wasteland where civilization had long withered. Here, nature had reclaimed the ruins, but it was the kind Dasha had seen in black books. In rumours and legend. The plant life that everybody considered wrong.

The trees were bloated, their bark split open with pulsating, vein-like roots that exhaled clouds of toxic mist. The grass was blackened and sharp, like thousands of tiny needles waiting to pierce the flesh of any who stepped upon it. And the Natural Qi, so bad that Dasha’s first attempt at Tu Na Breathing nearly suffocated his Qi.

Dasha and Sun-young walked in absolute silence. Somehow, it was darker here than anywhere else in the Underground.

They both sensed it.

They were being hunted.

Dasha’s fingers twitched. Sun-young’s wooden blade was held at her side, relaxed but ready and her anti-magic still nullifying his Qi Sense. Dasha would have to rely on his other senses.

The first attack came with Dasha feeling the stir in the air.

A blur of darkness leaped from the treetops, a humanoid beast with huge limbs and a gaping maw filled with spiraling teeth. It moved like a broken puppet, its joints bending in ways they shouldn’t as it shot toward Dasha at inhuman speed.

Dasha did not step back.

Instead—he stepped forward.

His knee slammed into the creature’s ribcage, his body turning with the force of the impact. There was a sickening crack, but the thing did not stop—it wrapped its grotesque arms around his torso, clinging, biting, screeching.

A second creature dropped from above, lunging at Sun-young.

Her blade flashed.

Nullifying Slash.

The instant her wooden sword struck, the monster’s enchantments were erased. Its shadow-like body solidified, losing its unnatural elasticity. It attempted to retreat, but Sun-young was not as kind as she introduced herself to be.

Her second strike took its head clean off.

Meanwhile, Dasha tore the first creature off his body, his fingers ripping through its flesh as he flung it aside.

Were these demons? Monsters? Both? Who knew. They were of the Slums and they were obstacles they had to crush.

More dropped down from the trees. More wished to kill.

Dasha’s eyes flickered. Electro-step.

His form blurred as he shot through the battlefield like a black streak of lightning. He appeared behind one of the humanoid monsters before it could react, his palm piercing straight through its back and out of its chest.

No heart. Fascinating.

Another silver humanoid monster attacked from the side—he dodged, his movement so efficient it barely seemed like he moved at all.

Sun-young fought twice as fiercely.

Her Distortion Slashes cut through entire groups of monsters at once. Her blade, despite being wood, shattered bones, split flesh, and erased magic entirely.

But no matter how many they killed, more arrived.

The Slums had always been a hellscape, but this was different. These creatures were not merely demons or beasts—they were born of the Slums itself.

A horrid shriek rang out.

Something larger emerged from the ruins.

A colossal, centipede-like abomination, its body composed of hundreds of writhing human torsos fused together, their mouths open in endless, silent screams. It moved unnaturally fast, its many hands grasping, pulling, tearing at the ground as it rushed toward them.

Dasha’s expression did not change. His Qi roared.

Sun-young tightened her grip.

The battle had no end.

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