Chapter 202: Ever-Evolving Power
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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As Orion was engulfed in explosions, the remaining clones fighting him rejoiced. As the boy fell from the skies, they realized that, although the explosions were immensely strong...
The damage he sustained wasn’t as severe.
“Ugh, you cheaters!” he said angrily. “You keep using all kinds of tricky abilities! I’m going to beat you up!”
The boy rushed back towards them, even as he bled. Each drop of his blood fuels his aura, turning stronger and stronger and stronger!
“{Divine White Wolf Heavenly Fangs}!”
With a furious roar, his Aura exploded, transforming into a massive red and white wolf with dozens of heads, opening their jaws, and biting down anything in front of him.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The shields and attacks from the clones were useless, instantly tearing them down to pieces one after another as they quickly exploded into crystalized fragments.
“Impossible…! He killed two already?!”
The remaining clone, only one, was shocked beyond belief at what it had seen, his powers surging; however, the more Clones died, the more power the single remaining clone gained as it didn’t have to share it between them.
“His wounds are also still bleeding, but they don’t look too bad beyond surface-level…! Although his skin is not tough, his muscles and bones are not easy to pierce through! What a monster of a son you have, Bing Xue!”
Maybe in another life, he would have taken the boy as one of his few disciples, turning him into a living calamity that he could control, an adoptive son with immense potential that would always obey him.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case now; the boy was coming for his life!
“RAAARRGGH!”
With a furious feral roar, Orion opened his jaws, firing yet another devastating beam towards Fang Gu Lan’s clone.
BOOOM!
The beam should have destroyed the last clone, but instead the clone had gathered the dozens of crystalized fragments the other clones left behind, rapidly fusing them into an armor for its protection.
“Haaah…! That was close.” He smiled viciously. “The more clones die, the stronger the remaining ones become, you know? I suppose that’s not something your little child's brain could realize.
“Huh?!” Orion was surprised his foe had sustained almost no damage. “So that’s why…!”
“Yes, that’s why the clones felt stronger the longer the fight went!” Laughed Fang Gu Lan. “The best strategy is to kill them all in a single attack, something your mother had figured out long ago; to think you took this long, it’s already too late!”
The technique that Fang Gu Lan created was more complex than Orion or Athena had imagined before; it not only created a bunch of clones made out of his own Ki instantly, but the less remained after the initial amount, the stronger the remaining ones would become.
Of course, wouldn’t it be easier to simply create a single, strong clone? Well, it was within the technique’s conditions and effects for them to be many at the beginning, and this also was what made the technique so strong.
By fooling foes into thinking the fight was easy at the beginning, only for the remaining clones to utterly destroy them upon a few of them died.
Alongside that, they could also control the remaining crystalized fragments of the clones that died, utilizing them to create Formations, Weapons, Armor, or strengthen themselves even further.
“Huuuh…”
Orion sighed as he concentrated, focusing on the foe in front of him. His aura fluctuated around his body, constantly growing stronger.
His wounds were quickly regenerated and left not even scars behind, making Fang Gu Lan click his tongue that all the damage he did ended being for nothing.
“Ah well, it doesn’t matter how much you heal yourself; it’s over, kid,” he smiled. “Now, show me your face of despair as I tear your body and soul to shreds!”
The Venerable manifested a rainbow sword out of the remaining crystalized fragments, rushing towards Orion at lightning speed! He moved so fast that not a single person other than Orion could even see him moving at all.
“There!”
Orion gritted his teeth as he intercepted a descending attack from above. Fang Gu Lan’s swordsmanship techniques couldn’t compare to his mother, whom he had faced head-on.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Nnggh…!”
The Venerable was rapidly being seen through, as Orion evaded his sword attacks, which only carried brute force and had poor dexterity and agility to them.
The boy used his sharp claws to imbue them with his inherited version of Soul Blade, making it possible for his own wolf claws to be like swords.
"Yeah, you might’ve gotten stronger, but you can’t compare to mom’s swordsmanship!” The boy roared furiously, charging his claws with even more power.
“{Divine White Wolf’s Heavenly Blade Claws}!”
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
A storm of white and silver slashing waves reached Fang Gu Lan’s powerful clone, shattering through his armor and rapidly beginning to weaken it.
“Dammit! He’s destroying my armor already?! No, this can’t be happening to me!”
Fang Gu Lan quickly harnessed his powers once more, injecting more of the one he possessed into his clone, the armor rapidly darkened, gaining some aspects of his true body’s current armor.
“Don’t look down on me!”
The furious Clone roared furiously, his Aura exploding into endless darkness born from the Reverse Symbols that the original body had stolen from the mysterious otherworldly heroes that landed on his world by chance.
“RAAAHHH!”
His sword grew several meters bigger, overflowing with darkness and red energies, swinging it down to generate dozens of explosive shockwaves of energy capable of cutting through most things.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Orion felt his claws being sliced and shattered, his fingers bleeding a little as he realized the greater power that the clone gained out of nowhere.
“He’s using the power his true body gained?” Orion looked upwards. “That’s the power mama’s fighting against!”
“Heheh… HAHAHAHA!” Fang Gu Lan’s clone laughed maliciously. “Everything in Murim, and now this world, shall belong to me and me alone! I am the only one that can plunder even the heavens! See what this power is? It’s nothing but what I’ve rightfully taken from someone else, their Fate and Strength, all mine now!”
As he laughed, he rushed towards Orion; his attacks became incredibly fast and chaotic, irregular and almost unpredictable. He appeared and disappeared, leaving explosions of darkness and red mist everywhere.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Orion was once again being overwhelmed; he was unable to land a single hit, Fang Gu Lan’s clone becoming faster and faster, fueled by the dark powers he had taken from heroes from another world!
It wasn’t just merely a thing of cultivation anymore; when powers from other worlds that work through different laws and physics are brought to the table, unpredictable challenges occur.
“Orion!”
Athena rushed down, the fragments of the clones she destroyed rapidly swirling around her as she fused them with her Formation like before, creating a powerful set of armor once more.
“That set of armor… that’s the same that the main body is wearing while fighting mom…!” Athena thought, glancing up into the skies. “It seems weaker now, but I can work with that.”
The fragments contain some of Fang Gu Lan’s power and even a connection to his Origin. These fragments couldn’t be seen by anybody else than him, or so he imagined, but Athena was perhaps the only one, aside from perhaps Bing Xue, that could see them.
And also turn them into her own power!
“{Divine White Heaven Formation Arts}: {Heavenly Heroic Armor Formation}!”
FLAAASH!
The fragments merged with the Sky itself surrounding her, white clouds wrapping around her body as her own endless fountain of Ki fueled the entire armor, materializing it.
“Woah… This armor is…?!” Athena was surprised, looking at her own armor in surprise, which ended up giving her more power than she imagined.
Her armor’s appearance remained semi-mechanical but wasn’t as bulky as before and was much slenderer and compact around her body, which had temporarily aged in her “strengthened form.”.
It had sharp silver shoulder pads, golden linings here and there, and a helmet shaped like a white wolf’s head made of white metal, with glowing golden eyes made of crystal.
To make things more shocking, the chest had a crystalized golden heart, fueling the armor with an otherworldly power.
“By trying to imitate that armor through his clone fragments and my own formation, I think I’ve made something I never thought possible…”
Athena, the brightest of Bing Xue’s children, was shocked by her own genius!
FLASH!
With a single step down, her body moved instantly towards Fang Gu Lan’s clone, punching it on the head with immense force.
BOOOM!
An explosion of white light engulfed the dark ranger-like Venerable clone, the dark clouds constantly wrapping his body, instantly beginning to dissipate.
“W-What is that light?!”
The Clone glared at Athena with anger, realizing that her new form was strange, resembling the armor of the heroes he had caught and stolen their power, and even his own armor.
“Sister!”
Orion was surprised his sister had arrived for his rescue, as it was always the opposite when it came to such things.
“Orion! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine! Just a bit overwhelmed, but I can go on forever!”
The boy’s Aura surged even stronger than before; he was purposely taking damage to fuel his Aura’s power, as it possessed an Innate Power his mother had discovered that she simply called “Berserk-type Aura”.
It was a type of Aura that absorbed power the more damage the owner received, enhancing and strengthening its effects, materialization, embodiment, form, and durability.
This was something usually rare in the world of Murim, but not impossible! Cultivators with great Talents were usually born with “Aura Types”, Berserk-type Aura was a rather rare one, but that Bing Xue had faced a few times before.
There were other, more terrifying types of Auras though... Such as Fang Gu Lan’s “Devour-type Aura” which absorbs the energy of foes that it touches and fights against, weakening them over time.
“You…! Unbelievable!” Fang Gu Lan muttered. “Again, you stole my powers! YOU FAKER!”
The furious Fang Gu Lan rushed towards Athena, swinging his giant black sword against her. The girl and her brother intercepted him together, their strength combined as one.
CLAAASH!
“You separated us because you can’t go against us together, can’t you?!” Orion smiled.
“As long as we’re together, we are invincible!” Athena roared.
“W-What?! What is this strength?! ACK!”
Fang Gu Lan screamed, his sword being pushed back with immense force as Orion’s Soul Blade Claws tore through its blade and generated cracks, only for Athena’s thrusting attacks with her spear to shatter the sword completely.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“T-The sword…!”
Fang Gu Lan tried to regenerate the sword by reusing the fragments, but Athena grabbed them with her hands and then threw them towards her brother, purifying the darkness in the process.
“Brother! You need an armor too! Mama’s protection seems unable to completely protect against someone like him!”
“Okay! Fine!”
“{Divine White Heaven Formation Arts}: {Heavenly Heroic Armor Formation}!”
FLAAASH!
Orion swallowed his pride as a warrior that liked using only his body, as an armor similar to his sister appeared around his body, although it was larger like his body, with a wilder look. The wolf-shaped helmet was also more feral, with longer teeth and red eyes; the white armor was slightly grayer as well, with red colors instead of gold.
RUMBLE!
As if the two armors synchronized, the moment Athena gave one to her brother, her own also grew stronger, their Bonds as Siblings strengthening their armor together with themselves.
“Impossible…! No!” Fang Gu Lan was frustrated; this had never happened to him before. “You’re copying my own Armor?! Who gave you the right?! And you don’t even possess their powers… This is nonsensical!”
What Fang Gu Lan didn’t know was that the Symbols he corrupted hadn’t simply become darker versions of themselves. They were like coins with two different sides. The darker side he had created was empowering him, but the original side of these Symbols remained within his own body.
And because they couldn’t unleash their power, they instead began to channel it towards those that could, chosen ones that fought for justice!
As long as he kept unleashing the power of the Corrupted Symbols, the original Symbols Powers would not go anywhere but would simply find new hosts, even when they were within his possession.
And right now…
Hope and Reliability had found their new hosts.
“The Symbols…!” Fang Gu Lan gritted his teeth in frustration. “Why are they shining within them, even though I have them with me?!”
“Prepare yourself!”
“We’re not going easy anymore!”
The two siblings charged forward, punching the clone from every angle at the same time; their sharp metallic claws tore through his black armor with mighty attacks.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Uuurrggh! You bastards!”
Each of their attacks generated explosions of yellow and black light, the power of the Symbols manifesting fiercer than ever before the more they fought.
“{Seven-Headed Black Heaven Dragon}!”
The armor of Fang Gu Lan’s clone shapeshifted out of nowhere, seven gigantic mechanical dragon heads surging from his body out of nowhere, attacking Athena and Orion at the same time, pushing the siblings far away!
CRAAASH!
However, they quickly went back, punching, kicking, and clawing their way through the black steel as the draconic robot heads were being destroyed one after another, shooting red lasers that they reflected with their fists.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“T-They’re invincible or something?!”
Fang Gu Lan charged against them, materializing dozens of black swords against them, which the siblings shattered with their fists, each of their punches generating explosions of enormous quantities of Ki.
Until finally, they reached him!
“No…! I won’t go down so easily! This clone is my strongest one!”
The Venerable was furious and frustrated; he was unable to comprehend what was wrong with his opponents, but they seemed to have endless potential… and stamina!
No matter how they handled, they simply would stand back up and fight again.
“Dammit! Stop…! STOP I SAID!”
Eventually, he couldn’t even defend or intercept their blows anymore; like two stars of white light and black light, the two siblings constantly attacked him from every angle, descending at rapid speed.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
His black armor started giving up, shattering apart more and more, until eventually…
Crack, crack…!
CRASH!
“Aarrgh! No!”
The clone screamed as his armor broke down to pieces and dissipated.
“T-The power…! Why is it not working on my clone anymore?!”
He didn’t realize that the more these new armors punched the dark armor, the more they collected the power of the symbols he was drawing power from.
“This is as far as you’re going!”
“Take this and this!”
The siblings began ganging on him mercilessly, breaking his arms and legs, tearing apart his hair mercilessly, and then, eventually, as Fang Gu Lan screamed angrily and cried, they crushed him completely with a combined attack!
“{Combination Technique}: {Heavenly Wolf’s Howl}!”
Their Auras converged into a gigantic white and black wolf, howling furiously, as a massive beam of pure Heavenly Ki consumed the clone entirely!
“T-This is ridiculous!”
BOOOMMM!!!
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