Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 507: Outplayed

Chapter 507: Outplayed

How?

How!?

Dasha sent a devastating kick but Igor had already jumped back and retreated, tearing away the knife stuck to the end of his foot from his flesh. It wasn’t just any knife he stuck there. ’An Anti magic knife—!?’

No wonder his Qi Sense nor his natural instincts hadn’t detected it! Damn, his Internal Healing wasn’t able to immediately heal the wound inflicted and Igor was able to make safe amounts of distance. The knife was long and deep and penetrated his liver.

Igor did a side-jump, then another, and then fainted in order to shoot his bow and arrow. These ones were made of shadows. Invisible. The same as that archer from the Monster Slayers. Dasha’s sight could not keep track.

"Tch!"

He backed away, trying to evade them but Igor already took that into account and adjusted. Twenty arrows rained down on him, concentrated so that his spacing was limited. Dasha managed to block his way through anyway. The genius listened to the whips of air and acted accordingly. Taking away one or two senses was foolish. It meant nothing.

"Ho?"

Even so, Dasha held his side, silent, while Igor carried himself with swagger. The Great Sin had been outplayed.

"A Cultivator fresh with a Golden Core...don’t think you’re the only one of your kind I’ve encountered. I used to kill freaky Demonic Sect fighters for lunch." Igor barked out a laugh, then dropped his hips down, anti-magic knives out.

With Tu Na Breathing, he steadily inhaled and exhaled. He steadily recovered his Qi Sense and healed his wound.

"Ah, look at that. Exhale the dirty Qi, inhale the pure Qi—the core principle of Tu Na Breathing. Quite difficult as it requires the body to pick out clean Qi and avoid the dirty. Very fast for what it does too. To be able to do it in a combat and not meditation, you must have some years of battle experience under your belt, hm?"

Igor returned his knives and brought his fists, which with a click of a button on his forearm retracted a gauntlet. Anti-magic gauntlets, Dasha surmised.

’This old man...possesses zero talent. However, he makes up for it by sharpening his skill and technique. Plenty of anti-magic weaponry like knives and gauntlets. He adjusted as soon as he realized I had Tu Nu Breathing. He’s planning something. Pure experience and age is at hand here.’

A mind like his would be useful.

Hrm.

"Do you write?"

"Oh! Lookie there, he speaks!" Igor laughed. "I do keep a journal on me, yes. Now, a question for a question, what manner of Cultivator are you? You’re nothing like the Justice Sect and haven’t imitated anything close to their thousand gate fighting style. You certainly aren’t a member of the Imperial Family. You remind me of those from the Demonic Sect and that’s obviously impossible. So who are you? Who mentors you in the art of Cultivation? And why hasn’t he taught you Elemental Breathing? You would think you would learn it by now."

Elemental Breathing: Taking Natural Qi and kneading it into an element of one’s choosing. Divided into Early, Middle, Late, Peak, and Supreme and sacred among Cultivators. Having no mentor of any sort, Dasha could not possibly learn this breathing style. He had nothing to go off of other than visuals and vague descriptions of outsiders.

See, unlike the basics of Cultivation, Breathing Techniques were not to be written down, only learned through oral speak and mentorship. Dasha managed to perfect Tu Na Breathing because it was famous. Its secrets were known to the public. The same could be said for Natural Breathing and Reverse Breathing.

But Elemental Breathing was highly specific and highly protected. Dasha suspected if he involved himself with any of the Chinese Sects, he might quickly learn what it was through observation. That was not the path he chose. Dasha chose his own path in order to maximize other kinds of influences. If he limited himself through a single Sect, he would be limited by their teachings and the framework of their organization.

Dasha Pang did things his own way.

He lifted a hand, pulling it close to his face, and a beam of black sharply manifested. A length of pure Qi focused into a point.

[ New skill learned : Qi Blade (Early Stage) ]

[ Qi Blade (Early Stage) upgraded into Qi Blade (Middle Stage) ]

The quality of Qi was the above an ordinary Core Formation Early Stage Cultivation. Dasha Pang was careful in his diet, eating monster meat and intaking the proper potions.

"A Qi Blade? That’s surprising."

’I was having trouble manifesting a Qi Blade—until you showed me that little lightning spear of yours. You made a mistake showing that to me.’

Simply manifesting Qi was not what the Qi Blade was about. There appeared to be momentum within the Qi Blade, so rapid and fast that it could slice through almost anything. Except momentum alone did not give what Dasha required, until now.

The secret of the Qi Blade lay at the starting point, entry point at the ring and index finger, and the ending point. Although the length itself consisted of rapid rotation, special attention was necessary for the mentioned starting point (at the wrist), the ring finger, index finger, and end point.

Dasha slowly brought his arm to the side, unaimed.

’Rapid rotations so fast that it can theoretically slice through anything.’

A low, thrumming hum built deep in the air, like the growl of a coming storm — vrrrmmmmmmm. Then sharper crackles of energy snapped across the blade — k’tzz, k’tzz, zhhhaaaak!

’Combine that with a lightning elemental and you gain an even sharper blade.’

[ New skill learned : Lightning Qi Blade (Middle Stage) ]

Igor was taken aback slightly, hence why he did not attack. He took precautions. Dasha planned to overwhelm those precautions.

’Electro-step.’

Electro-step met Electro-step. That’s right, Igor possessed it too and he dove in, slipping past Dasha to land an elbow to the back of his head—or so he thought. Dasha caught his elbow with his other hand and swung with his Qi Blade. Igor jerked back, a narrow miss that still led to a gap in his armour, and brought out his knives.

Clang, clang, clang!

Igor didn’t just meet him knife to Qi Blade, he outsped him and landed a scratch to his shoulder. His healing could not cope with anti-magic. Suddenly, Dasha was on the back-foot, despite his new blade. With every swing, the blade split the air itself with a ripping shriek — SHRRAAAAK! — leaving a trail of crackling static behind. Igor’s knife met the Qi Blade, used its momentum to spin behind him and slash across where his spine was. If Dasha had seen read his movement, that might have sliced him in half...!

Slash! Igor dodged under the blade and slammed a fist into his stomach, pulling back while leaving behind a knife.

"..."

Blood poured upon Igor’s retreat. He was smirking and the moment Dasha attempted to resume close-quarter combat and activate Counterflow Stance, Igor slammed down his spear.

A long metal of black composed that, to Dasha’s shock, started to absorb the lightning from his Qi Blade.

"I call this baby the Lightning Rod!"

As Igor proclaimed, it zapped the lightning from his Qi Blade and destabilized it into nothing. In the next moment—

"Gsshnghhk!!"

A spear pierced his heart, the black metal sticking completely through him. Dasha could not even stand on his feet, eyes wide and blood gurgling from his throat.