Chapter 199: Brutal Battle Across The Heavens
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Fang Gu Lan had his Venerable Heart shattered, destabilizing his energy fluctuations and weakening him severely. The reason was simple: Bing Xue’s ability, Divine Photon Essence, was specifically made to target ethereal organs within the bodies of Immortals and Primordials, especially the latter.
After her ascension into a Primordial Immemorial Venerable, its power had been multiplied several times, giving her the ability to grasp the heart and instantly crush it with her bare hands. No other Venerable so far has been capable of doing this so openly and easily.
The reason was simple… Bing Xue had designed most of her arsenal around killing Venerables; her growth, her everything—it has all been shaped by her endless desire to kill them.
Why? The answer was rather simple as well.
It was because she found them to be a menace that must be eliminated. They were corrupt all-powerful kings; they brought the demise of millions and were selfish, self-centered men that never thought about the future or the wellbeing of others surrounding them.
Their crimes were endless, and their atrocities were never-ending. In the world of Murim, she was the very first Venerable to actually prioritize and care about mortals and the wellbeing of people in general.
She was the first to actually worry about their future and pity them…
The perspective of a hard-working woman in a modern Earth Society had made her mind completely different.
Despite Fang Gu Lan originating from Earth as well, his past life was full of regrets, self-hatred, and frustrations of the things he couldn’t accomplish, while never having the energy or the drive to move and do something to improve his life either.
“We might have common origins; we both originated from this world, didn’t we, Fang Gu Lan?!”
Bing Xue clashed against the monstrosity before her, who expanded into a massive eldritch aberration over a kilometer big.
The clouds in the sky began to merge with his body as his energy fluctuations were disrupted, leaking everywhere and forcing his body to take upon its “true form”.
“BING XUEEEEAAAGGHH!” With an aberrant scream that reverberated across the skies, Fang Gu Lan spoke. “YOU ARE NOTHINGGGG COMPARED TO MEEEE…! I HATE THIS WORLD! I’LL DESTROY IT…! I’LL SHATTER IT APART AFTER I’M DONE WITH YOUUUUU!”
“A part of me pities your past life for having made you into the hateful monster you’ve become…” Bing Xue sighed. “But despite all the things that society might have made you go through before, it doesn’t mean the world needs to be destroyed! It doesn’t mean that you must abandon your humanity! Why… just why did you become like this?!”
“BECAUSE I HATE…! I HATE IT ALL!!! I HATE HUMANS… I HATE PEOPLE! I HATE THOSE THAT LOVE! I HATE THOSE THAT HAVE EVERYTHING I DIDN’T HAVE! I HATE THEM… I EVEN HATE THEM UNFORTUNATE! THEY’RE ALL SO PATHETIC, DISGUSTING! ALL OF YOU DESERVE TO DIE!”
With hatred and fury, Fang Gu Lan manifested his powers, as his body grew seven gigantic arms shaped as dragons, rushing towards Bing Xue at once.
“AND I DESPISE WOMEN LIKE YOU! WOMEN THAT THINK THEY’RE BETTER THAN MEN! WOMEN THAT THINK THEY CAN BE MORE THAN JUST WHORES AND BITCHES THAT SUCK COCK AND TAKE DICK! YOUR ONLY PURPOSE IS TO GIVE BIRTH TO CHILDREN AND BE MEN’S SLAVES!”
Bing Xue sighed. As she waved her hands, gigantic blades made of light and darkness converged together, slicing through the serpentine draconic heads as they came rushing down, cutting them into pieces.
“I’ve never hated men; I’ve never thought I am better than men, and I have also never said any of such things,” she said. “I only and simply think that everyone deserves a chance, even… even I deserve one. My gender simply does not matter, Fang Gu Lan! Why do you blame me for things I never thought?! Based on all the atrocities you’ve committed… You should’ve expected that one day someone would kill you!”
“SILENCE, WOMAN!”
All of Fang Gu Lan’s sliced draconic arms exploded as hundreds of explosions engulfed Bing Xue, bombarding her from every direction.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
She resisted the explosions, hardening her body and glancing at the monstrosity; his gigantic body began to grow smaller; the Venerable Heart was already halfway regenerated.
“It’s useless! You love to talk as if you knew everything, as if you were intellectual, but the moment someone else confronts your ideals and thoughts, you rage and become insufferable,” Bing Xue said. “I remember that back then I tried to reason with you; I tried to appeal to our similar origins… I had even considered not killing you but making you an ally, to forgive you for everything you’ve done before… But you only aimed for my body; it was the only thing you ever wanted, the only thing you ever thought when looking at me. Even despite being as strong as I am, you simply don’t see me as a person, don’t you?”
“HEHEHE… HAHAHAHA! YEAH, BECAUSE WOMEN AREN’T PEOPLE, STUPID BITCH! THEY’RE SACKS OF MEAT!”
Fang Gu Lan roared as dozens of draconic heads opened through his entire body, firing dozens of beams of tremendous power, warping and rippling through space as they reached Bing Xue.
“I see that once more, there’s just no point in reasoning with you again…” Bing Xue nodded. “If anything, I admire your resolve and your heart to keep up with your wicked ideals until the very end. It’s admirable… if anything.”
“DON’T YOU DARE PITY MEEEEE!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The beams reached Bing Xue, and Fang Gu Lan made sure to accumulate them all within a single point, trying to completely melt Bing Xue out of existence.
At the same time, several fragments of himself appeared around her, forming a large Heavenly Formation glowing with seven different colors.
His aim had become rather clear, as Bing Xue felt several shockwaves of power trying to weaken her and drain her energy.
“I see, so you’re trying to drain my power before you kill me…” Bing Xue nodded.
“IT’S OVER, BING XUEEEEEERRRGGHH!”
As the monstrous Venerable roared, countless rainbow chains manifested, wrapping Bing Xue’s entire body until not even her hair could be seen; her power was immediately suppressed.
“Heheh… HAHAHAHA!”
The Venerable felt a new surge of power through his body; his form was almost already back to humanoid form, although half of it was still monstrous and eldritch.
Bing Xue’s energies reached his body, rapidly refilling him with new Venerable Ki!
“It’s amazing…! This power…! Why did a woman have it?! It doesn’t make sense!” he laughed. “It’s all mine anyway! At the end, that’s all you could do, Bing Xue. You were destined to become nothing but the resources for my ascension!”
The young-looking venerable rejoiced as he laughed like a maniac; the Divine Photon Essence of Bing Xue was now his, alongside her Dark Abyss Essence and even the Void itself!
“With this power, I can do anything; I will even…!”
FLUOSH!
“Ugh?!”
However, he quickly realized there was something seriously wrong with this energy as it wrapped around his body, and it began to extract his own energy instead.
“Uuuaaarrgh! W-What is the meaning of this?! Uggh…! S-Stop!”
Fang Gu Lan realized too late that the energy never truly became his; within that energy there was also Primal Power, a power with its own mind, which Bing Xue had learned to control.
By copying how it existed and worked, she was able to become the energy itself and control it with her will, no matter where it was.
FLASH!
Suddenly, an ethereal Bing Xue manifested from behind Fang Gu Lan, his energies being drained and forming her entire body, as he realized the chains he crated collapsed, revealing...
Nothing!
There was no Bing Xue corpse or something; she had completely disappeared.
“S-She let me absorb her to do this—UGH?!”
CRASH!
Before Fang Gu Lan could respond to this, he felt his heart shattering again. Bing Xue used this moment to infiltrate the inside of his body to destroy it.
“Uuuaaarrggh!”
His entire body exploded again, becoming a swirling mess of various colored clouds, tentacles, eyes, and mouths. He kept trying to keep himself together and refine the entirety of Bing Xue’s energy form.
But it was utterly impossible!
“You’re trying to refine a Venerable? Don’t be a fool.”
Bing Xue filled Fang Gu Lan’s entire body with her own energies constantly exploding, his body beginning to also explode, falling apart into pieces and fragments apart.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“S-Stop…! STOOOP!”
He quickly expelled Bing Xue from his body as her form materialized instantly, summoning her sword and swinging it against his dozens of tentacles and arms.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
She slashed through his entire being, which constantly rejoined and merged back together. In his anger, Fang Gu Lan attacked, manifesting hundreds of fists and punching Bing Xue with all of them.
He activated several Martial Arts related to punches, explosions of Immortal Venerable Ki erupting everywhere, yet Bing Xue kept it up with her sword alone even as she battled a behemoth.
“GRRRHHHH…! GRAAAHHH!”
Despite being constantly sliced and shattered apart, Fang Gu Lan had incredible durability and stamina, rapidly reforming once more, his monstrous body unable to accept his defeat.
“{Seven Heavenly Paths}: {Primordial Chaos Catastrophe}!!!”
With a furious scream, Bing Xue realized that the seven swirling colors within the core of Fang Gu Lan merged into pure Primordial Chaos like before, and then he unleashed it at once, destroying space and time in his wake.
TRUUUMMM!!!
Bing Xue readied herself to fight that almighty attack, combining the Void Essence, her Soul Blade Arts, and her Divinities together with her Divine Photon Essence and her Demonic Energies.
While holding the sword with both of her hands, her rainbow eyes glowed brightly.
“{Divine Yin And Yang Harmonious Soul Blade Arts}”
Her sword manifested darkness and light, combining together and swirling against each other, rapidly forming a massive blade.
“{Balance Disruption Arts}”
Then, the energies began clashing against each other, too unstable to maintain themselves together for long, generating a massive amount of destructive repulsion force.
“{Blade of Origin: Primordial Calamity}”
RUMBLE!
Bing Xue swung her blade down, slicing through the Primordial Chaos attack and completely splitting it apart, as space shattered once more, generating massive ripples across the skies.
SLAAASH!
Her attack didn’t stop there as it continued slicing through Fang Gu Lan’s massive body, the blade beginning to rapidly destroy his entire existence.
“Uuuaarrgghh! W-What is this attack?! Is this even swordsmanship?!”
He quickly broke himself down to pieces and then merged back together away from the blade, only for a massive explosion to erupt behind him, sending him flying right towards Bing Xue.
“What’s wrong? I thought you were stronger?”
Bing Xue’s Aura manifested, resembling her half-snake form as six massive fists punched through Fang Gu Lan’s entire body, her energies constantly forming balance and then making it collapse to generate even more damage and destruction.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Nnnggghhhh!”
Fang Gu Lan’s soul was taking too much damage despite all his efforts; his body and energy were unstable after his heart had been destroyed twice too.
At the end, unlike the great masters of Murim, he was someone who relied on his System to gain all his power, making his own techniques and fighting style very sloppy, as he relied on overwhelming his foes and bringing massive misfortune to them.
However, through his entire battle against Bing Xue, he had been unable to even touch her Fate! His System had worked just fine with the other Cultivators of Murim, whom unknowingly ended up having their Fates stolen by his System, greatly empowering him.
And even those otherworldly heroes he found, whose Fate and Powers were now his…
Bing Xue’s Fate was simply too big, too powerful, and too bright for him to even touch, and it was a fate that wasn’t a destiny given to her since birth.
“I-I’ve never seen a Fate like this before…!”
It wasn’t granted to her; it was a Fate built by her own efforts and even her suffering. Through all these years, she survived, evolved, and continued battling.
A Fate that was based completely on her own strength, the power she built!
It could be said that Bing Xue’s original Fate was so unremarkable that she should have never been able to accomplish anything at all.
Yet… even then, she did?
“This is ridiculous! It’s unfair…! Why?! Why is she so damn special when she had nothing?! She was destined to die like any other dog! Why is she here to begin with?! This damn woman! She’s the root of all my misfortune! Of all my suffering!”
Rage fueled his entire being his techniques, martial arts, and fighting style were terrible, and Bing Xue’s mastery over her abilities showed how massive of a gap there was between the two even when their cultivation levels were almost close to one another.
“She embodies everything I hate,” he thought, his anger fueling his powers. “She’s all I hate! Everything… I must kill her; I have to kill her!”
Bing Xue battled against him as he was being torn to shreds, Fang Gu Lan barely alive while trying to fight back, but it seemed that their gap continued to increase as she revealed her true powers.
“I need more power…! I NEED MORE!”
He screamed, as Bing Xue glared at him with disbelief.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Suddenly, several floating runes emerged around him, all shaped as different symbols that embodied… Emotions.
“The Power of these Otherworldly Bastards…! I’ll use it to defeat you!”
The Symbols of five different colors merged with his body, rapidly beginning to stabilize it as his new heart was crystalized instantly.
And then…
RUMBLE!
A black storm manifested around his body, transforming his entire being.
“What are you trying to do?!”
Bing Xue rushed to stop him, swinging her sword and unleashing her attacks with her Venerable Aura.
However…!
BAAAM!
A powerful shockwave stopped the attacks, as massive pressure pushed Bing Xue away.
“T-This is…?! This is not his power! Where did he get this?!”
“Hahaha… HAHAHAHAH!”
Fang Gu Lan emerged from amidst the dark storm; his entire body regressed to his human form, but it was now completely covered from head to toe with a skin-tight black suit.
It seemed semi-modern, mechanical in some areas, pitch black with purple colors here and there, and the symbols he absorbed were infused into the suit, now corrupted, looking dark red, like cursed runes.
His helmet resembled a furious black dragon, with a black visor made of some sort of transparent material, his entire design resembling some sort of hero from a Saturday morning show, but corrupt and dark.
“What kind of ridiculous outfit is this?” Bing Xue twitched her eyebrows in confusion.
“Call it whatever you want!” Fang Gu Lan laughed, summoning a black spear from his suit’s strange, alien powers. “But this is the power that’ll kill you, Bing Xue!”
CLAAASH!
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Author’s Note: Yes, Fang Gu Lan became a Dark Power Ranger after stealing the power of the others.