Chapter 208: Go Beyond!
Listen While Reading: Sword of Courage-----
Bing Xue clashed with all her might against Fang Gu Lan, the two Venerables rapidly approaching the climax of their gigantic, heaven-defying battle across the skies and dimensions. Their massive Dimensional and Divine Domains clashed, creating a Spatial Singularity that began to shatter the very fabric of space with each blow.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Explosions of conflicting energies erupted everywhere as Bing Xue unleashed an endless rain of thousands of Soul Blades from her expanding Domain, which Fang Gu Lan could only see was a garden where swords grew from the ground and fell from the sky endlessly within a primordial realm of Yin and Yang energies.
It was perhaps a more bizarre Domain than his own, one that Bing Xue was able to create through her combination of the Skills and her own Swordsmanship Arts, alongside her Blade Dao Enlightenment reaching a new Stage.
“She’s simply creating incredibly powerful Soul Artifacts out of that Domain and firing them at me! Is that even a strategy?” He thought, gritting his teeth. “No, the power of my Domain is superior! Alongside this Suit, and the Symbols I stole from those Otherworldly Heroes, I still got a chance!”
The young Venerable’s black suit gained more and more cracks as the rain of swords reached, cutting and slicing through his entire armor and suit, rapidly spreading more accumulated damage.
The darkness emerging from all the Corrupted Symbols was rapidly regenerating the suit over and over again, but it reached the point where Bing Xue’s attacks became endless!
Every minute, every ten seconds, every one second, every nanosecond, from every damned angle, from every spatial area within his surroundings.
Swords.
Swords.
And more swords!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Can you even call this Swordsmanship?! This is just Sorcery! Aaaarrgh!”
Fang Gu Lan grew more and more frustrated; his Black Storm Dragon, which made up all of his domain, roared, dozens of heads firing void beams against Bing Xue to stop her.
“So you’re trying to distract me—not bad, but that won’t work either way!” Bing Xue smiled, rapidly manifesting her Yin and Yang Sword once more.
Her Domain twisted around it, the Realm made of Yin and Yang Energies merging with her Yin and Yang Sword, fusing with it, and temporarily awakening her sword’s ultimate form.
“Through the path of the sword, I don’t need anything else!”
She fully committed to the blade, the only weapon she held on since her early years in Murim, the only “friend” that never betrayed her, the only “companion” that never tried to sell her, the only “family” that would not backstab her.
Even when she was still a young, frail woman in a hostile world that wanted to use her and discard her, to slaughter her and leave her as nothing but fertilizer for the dirt where rice grew, the sword was by her side.
She slept with the sword, she hunted with the sword, she killed with the sword… and she also protected with it.
Because despite how dreadful that world was, there was innocence; there were good people hiding, trembling beneath the gaze of the Immortals and their corrupted Cultivator Sects.
Despite resenting Murim and its terrifying, ruthless culture, Bing Xue did not punish the world or its people.
She protected them with this very blade she was holding, and she loved them; she raised them and taught them that there was a better, brighter path.
And so, when she swung her sword for the last time, defeating her last foe, Humanity’s Great Ancestor, she brought Murim to a new Era.
The first Era of Peace.
“With this blade, I shall split the heavens and open a new, brighter path towards Harmony, Peace, and Prosperity!”
“What are you even talking about?!”
Fang Gu Lan couldn’t understand, as someone inherently cruel and chaotic, the eternal pursuit for peace and harmony that Bing Xue always sought.
And how far this led her, how far this led her blade.
Memories of the past surged through her eyes, of the suffering and the happy moments, which only came after the suffering was finally over.
When she went beyond and slayed even the Ancestor of Humanity, the root of Murim’s rotten culture.
This was her Path, her Story.
Her Dao Essence surged from her body, resonating with her Divinities and her Domain.
And then Bing Xue went beyond.
“{Primordial Yin and Yang Essence Soul Blade}: {Aura of Eternal Harmony}!”
FLAAASH!
As she swung her blade, Bing Xue cleaved through space and time, reaching Fang Gu Lan in an instant.
The young Venerable screamed in disbelief, harnessing all of his Domain in front of him to protect himself from the slicing wave of pure light.
“Don’t you dare look down on me!”
As he screamed, filled with utter frustration and anger, the two primary emotions that composed his very being—the darkness of his suit and his cultivation powers—merged into one.
TRUUUM!
A gigantic spiral manifested, melting through space and time, clashing against Bing Xue’s swordsmanship attack.
The eternal aura of harmony confronted the endless darkness of despair.
The two clashing Domains began to distort, rapidly beginning to melt as if they were made out of liquid.
As they melted, the droplets of melted domain pierced through space, creating countless tiny black holes beneath their clash.
RUMBLE!
Bing Xue, however, continued attacking. Her sword moved forward, never stopping for a second.
The spiraling darkness that Fang Gu Lan had conjured out of desperation began to be sliced.
Yes, even a singularity capable of distorting and melting space as if it were liquid was being sliced.
“I am the soul of my blade; with it I open the path to light. Through the path of light, I walk towards the harmony I seek. And through the harmony I’ve found, I open the heavens to achieve the impossible.”
Bing Xue recited her mantra, boosting her own strength as she reinforced her beliefs. Her Dao of the Blade glowed the brightest it could ever glow, piercing reality.
And slicing through it.
SLAAASH!
“Aargh?!”
Fang Gu Lan saw Bing Xue’s sword cutting through his body and his soul.
All at once.
Slowly, the sword descended, rapidly slicing through his Existence, Rooted within the Fabric of Reality.
“W-What is this?!” he screamed. “T-This light…!”
Fang Gu Lan started to fall into despair, as eternal light was everything else he could see.
And of course, her eyes.
Her rainbow eyes, gazing across the Aura of Harmony.
“N-No…! Wait a second! I can’t die again! Black Storm Dragon! Do something! D-Do… Something?”
However, there was no response; the Corrupted Symbols were already doing everything they could to save him.
But ultimately, they gave up.
“Bing Xue…! Stop…! Guuggh?! S-STOOOOP!”
Fang Gu Lan screamed like a monster, his entire body distorting monstrously as he tried to survive by any means necessary.
SLAAASH!
Yet it was futile, as thousands of blades sliced and stabbed his entire body the more he tried to stretch and escape.
“It’s futile. Repent as you die once more, Fang Gu Lan!”
Bing Xue had no mercy, slicing through his body once, and then, through her powers, he was sliced one thousand times, his body exploding, reduced to countless tiny pieces.
“UUUUAAAAGGGHHH!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As Fang Gu Lan screamed in utter agony, his Domain began to grow distorted, rapidly starting to fall apart. Bing Xue had considered absorbing what was left of him but felt disgusted by the idea and left.
She didn’t need his disgusting powers, even less if they were made by the Heavenly Will; to her, it might have even been a plot from that being to make her absorb a part of him.
“Better be safe than sorry.”
She quickly broke out of the collapsing domain, leaving it entirely as space began to fragment and fall apart.
The war that was happening around her Pagoda continued despite Fang Gu Lan’s defeat, however. Although the quantity of Immortals had been reduced greatly, they were still here, attacking the pagoda and fighting her troops.
“I should get this finished; strange things are happening in Washington, and there’s a massive thing in the stratosphere, rapidly descending at that…” Bing Xue glanced into the skies. “Now-”
TRUUUM!
Her eyes, however, widened slightly as she felt something.
Something utterly malicious.
A presence so disgusting, depraved, and monstrous that it felt as if it were the embodiment of all evil.
“What?”
She glanced at the collapsing space; she was sure that Fang Gu Lan had died, yet why did she feel another being there?
Something so powerful, immensely strong at that?
Perhaps even more than the Venerable she had slain?!
“I…”
RUMBLE!
The space continued shaking, shattering, and falling apart.
“AM…!”
TRUUUM!
Black clouds gathered around the collapsing spatial walls as a massive black claw suddenly emerged from within its cracks, tearing space open.
“FREE!”
CRAAASH!
The black claws tore through space as Bing Xue felt a tremendous malice and darkness engulf the skies, turning them black instantly.
The ground beneath started to turn red, becoming a sea of blood by merely letting this being speak.
Its existence alone distorted reality.
“What in the world has that bastard unleashed?!”
As Bing Xue glanced at the monster emerge, she quickly dispersed her Doppelgangers everywhere to ensure their survival.
“AT LONG LAST! DEUS EX MACHINA, I AM DONE WITH BEING YOUR PUPPET!”
The monster surged from within the cracks, a massive, over five-hundred-meter-tall titan made of black, silver, purple, and red steel.
As it stepped out of the spatial fracture, Bing Xue noticed what it looked like, its shape and form!
“That’s… a dragon? No wait…!”
Bing Xue remembered what Fang Gu Lan had said.
About a “Black Storm Dragon” that was giving him powers.
This entity, this monstrosity beyond space and time.
It was that Black Storm Dragon.
“THE UNIVERSE SHALL KNOW MY TYRANNY ONCE MORE! ALL OF YOU WILL BURN! ALL OF YOU WILL DIE! FOR I AM THE EMBODIMENT OF CALAMITY!”
RUMBLE!
The battles happening beneath suddenly came to a halt as everyone glanced at the massive mechanical dragon, a long Chinese-like dragon with a serpentine, coiling body and three massive heads.
“So this was the origin of those Symbols that he Corrupted?” Wondered Bing Xue. “Were they originally this thing?”
The Black Storm Dragon glared at Bing Xue with his six crimson, glowing eyes, its massive metallic body beginning to rapidly move towards her.
“Aaah… I must thank you dearly.”
The entity spoke with a much smaller tone of voice.
“If it wasn’t because you killed him just in the right moment, this wouldn’t have been possible! That fool’s death fed me with enough power for me to unleash my true self into the world! The Seal that Separated me into the Symbols and Purified my Existence is gone! And now, I am finally liberated! Thank you! Thank you very much! Now… Become my first meal!”
The dragon was the embodiment of calamity and chaos, thanking Bing Xue and then instantly rushing to devour her, fully knowing the amount of power she had could help him regain more of his original strength.
“Whatever you are, I won’t let you do as you please.” Bing Xue said, her entire body beginning to grow larger as her Aura transformed into a gigantic eight-headed snake, which then merged with her. “I must stop you right here, right now!”
RUMBLE!
Her entire being transformed, amassing the power of Skills, Demonic Energies, her own Cultivation and her Physique, further fusing her own body with her Aura and even her own Domain.
A special technique, a transformation she had only unleashed once before against the Primal Spider Goddess, a divine being that slightly matched her power.
However, for this thing?
She had to do it without hesitation!
.
.
.
In the distance, a machine giant of black and red walked through the deserted wastelands, moving as quickly as it could through them.
By his side, a gigantic mechanical red and golden lion ran forward, roaring while moving, as its mechanical arms were incredibly fast and dexterous.
A Japanese man wearing a red suit themed after a lion stood on top of this creature, glancing into the distance while squinting his eyes.
“We’re almost getting there; I can feel it; the Symbols are- Ugh?!”
BA DUM!
BA DUM!
BA DUM!
However, out of nowhere, the Symbol of Courage within his body started to tremble, as if afraid of something, his heart began racing.
“W-What in the world?!”
He looked into the skies, and so did his companion and enemy; the skies darkened as an aura of eternal and pure evil spread through the world.
“The power of the Symbols?! Why are they distorted… dark?!” the man cried. “Dammit, we have to get there quickly! Crimson Lion, hurry!”
“GRAAAAOOH!”
The mechanical lion roared, unleashing a powerful crimson aura and moving faster. The mechanical giant by their side panicked.
“Wait a second! Don’t leave me behind, you bastards!”
As they moved towards their destination, however, they were completely unaware that somebody else was chasing them.
A being within many bodies.
“What’s this? Another being to turn into my vessel? How interesting!”
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