Chapter 139: Survival
She stepped forward. No Thunder Flame, no Thunder Wing, just raw physical strength.
The ground exploded beneath her feet. The gap of over ten meters vanished, and Laira’s right fist hurtled straight at QingZhu. The air pressure from the punch bent every bamboo stalk around them to either side at once.
QingZhu remained seated.
Not until the fist was less than half a meter from her face did she raise her hand. Her palm touched Laira’s wrist, just a single touch, then her body angled slightly.
Laira immediately felt all of her force pulled off its trajectory.
Before she could react, QingZhu’s other hand was on her elbow, and the tip of her foot hooked lightly behind Laira’s heel.
The world flipped upside down.
Laira was slammed into the ground. The earth shook with a heavy thud, and a shallow crater appeared beneath her back.
The bamboo forest fell silent.
Ruo Yan stared.
Laira stared too.
QingZhu had already returned to her original posture at some point, seated at the table, one hand still resting on her teacup.
Laira lay on the ground for a few seconds, then slowly sat up. "...Again."
QingZhu nodded.
Laira charged again. This time she was more careful, switching from a fist to a claw, shoulders lowered, center of gravity held steady.
QingZhu stood up.
The moment they made contact, Laira was on the ground again.
This time Ruo Yan saw it more clearly. QingZhu wasn’t physically stronger than Laira in that exchange. She had simply made Laira’s force travel in the wrong direction, then used the Red Dragon’s own momentum and strength to break her center of gravity.
Laira lay on the ground, red hair spread out in a wide fan. She stared at the sky, then at QingZhu.
"That’s not fair."
QingZhu tilted her head slightly. "What part?"
"What’s your rank?"
"Sovereign tier one."
Laira shot upright instantly. "There! You’re Sovereign, and I’m not even Gold yet. Obviously it’s not fair."
QingZhu looked at her, the smile on her lips still gentle. "Out there, it won’t be fair either."
Laira froze.
QingZhu stepped closer and stopped before her. "There are races born stronger than you are right now. There are those who had resources shoved into them before they could walk. There are people who possess items you’ve never even seen, and there are those who’ll wait until you’re wounded before they make their move."
She shifted her gaze to Ruo Yan. "There will also be people several tiers above you who still choose to ambush."
Both of them immediately thought of Marcus.
"If you meet them one day, are you going to say ’that’s not fair’ and then wait for them to lower their level before fighting you?"
Laira didn’t answer. The displeasure on her face had vanished. Ruo Yan also uncrossed her arms.
QingZhu watched both their reactions, then finally nodded. "Now we can actually begin."
She pointed toward the stretch of bamboo forest behind her. "I won’t be teaching you two how to get stronger."
QingZhu smiled.
"I’ll be teaching you how to survive when you meet someone stronger than yourselves."
On the first day, Laira was thrown to the ground seventeen times.
On the second day, she was only thrown nine times, but QingZhu used a single bamboo branch to shatter every Soul Thread Ruo Yan had strung throughout the forest in just three breaths.
By the third day, the two began working together.
Laira no longer charged straight in. Ruo Yan used Soul Threads to shift her center of gravity midair, causing her attack angle to change right before reaching the target. The Necromancer was responsible for sealing off retreat paths, while Laira was forced to learn how to hold back a portion of her strength instead of pouring everything into the first blow.
QingZhu still beat them.
But for the first time, she had to take a step back.
Just one step.
Laira looked at the footprint in the dirt and grinned so broadly that QingZhu had to tap her on the head with a bamboo branch.
"Don’t celebrate too early."
"You just stepped back."
"Yes."
"I pushed a Sovereign back."
"I was using less than a fraction of my strength."
Laira’s grin froze.
Ruo Yan turned away, her shoulders trembling slightly.
"Are you laughing?" Laira asked.
"No."
"I can see it."
"You’re seeing things."
QingZhu looked at the two of them and shook her head, though the corner of her mouth curved too.
On the fourth day, atop the tower, the last Energy Crystal in Ethan’s hand cracked apart. The light inside was drained completely, and the Celestial Gate within his body shuddered violently.
Silver tier ten.
Ethan opened his eyes.
The white crystal blocks QingLian had left behind sat before him. He placed his right hand on the first one.
"Here we go."
Energy flooded in.
A bell rang out.
Not inside the tower.
From outside.
Before Ethan could even turn his head, the entire Celestial Gate within his body erupted in a fierce blaze of light. The final wall between Silver and Gold shattered.
In the sky above the mountain range, the clouds suddenly stopped moving. A band of golden light appeared, followed by violet, blue, red, white. The colors didn’t blend into a rainbow but arranged themselves in distinct layers, as though something that had always been hidden behind the sky was revealing itself one tier at a time.
Bells from the palatial halls below began ringing on their own. Birds and beasts in the forest went silent. The surface of the mountain lake rippled in concentric rings despite the absence of any wind.
QingLian, sitting in the pavilion drinking tea, suddenly looked up.
QingZhu in the bamboo forest also lowered her hand.
"Oh?"
Laira and Ruo Yan both turned toward the tower.
Ethan saw none of it.
His consciousness had been pulled into a white void.
Before him was only a notification panel.
[Gold threshold reached.]
[First choice is beginning to shape the future path.]
[Current path: Partner.]
[Do you wish to abandon the current choice and establish a new path?]
[This is the final opportunity to change with minimal loss.]
Ethan looked at the words. Not a single trace of hesitation appeared in his mind.
Laira.
Ruo Yan.
Every time the two of them had shielded him.
The nights in Spring Village.
The three Golem Cores Ruo Yan still kept.
The half of Thunder Wing he had given to Laira with his own hands.
Ethan laughed.
"No."
The notification paused.
[Confirmed.]
[Partner path retained.]
[Completing Gold transformation.]
...
The white space cracked apart.
In that very instant, Ethan felt a gaze from very far away. So far that the distance no longer seemed measured in kilometers or even worlds. It pierced through space, pierced through something resembling time, and rested on him for just a moment.
Ethan raised his head on instinct.
He saw nothing.
But he knew something had just looked at him.
Another sensation appeared simultaneously, as though somewhere beyond reach, several existences had just noticed a new life crossing through some kind of door. Some were indifferent, some were curious, and a few of those gazes made his skin turn cold.
Then everything vanished.
Consciousness returned to his body.
Ethan opened his eyes.
Gold tier one.
The power inside his body was completely different from before.
But before he could fully take it in, his left arm grew warm. The violet-black lines on the Primordial Armor flared, and the Void Flame trembled.
Ethan frowned immediately.
But this time it didn’t surge up his upper arm, nor did it try to break through the suppression.
It contracted.
Very clearly.
Like a creature that had just sensed something that made its instincts recoil.
Ethan looked at his left arm. For the first time, the Void Flame’s fluctuation reminded him of something.
Fear.
The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward. "So you know fear too?"
The Void Flame didn’t answer, only shrank a little deeper beneath the Primordial Armor.
Ethan clenched his fist. The faint golden light of Gold ran through every energy line in his body.
He laughed softly.
"Looks like the Void isn’t so untouchable after all."
At the same moment Ethan entered Gold, another surge of energy erupted in the bamboo forest.
Laira had been charging toward QingZhu when she suddenly stopped mid-stride. Golden light poured from her body, the bamboo leaves around her were blasted skyward by the pressure, and her long red hair streamed violently behind her. The Thunder Wing that had fused with her dragon wings unfurled on its own, electricity racing along each metallic feather, while the crimson-violet Thunder Flame on her hands burned far brighter than before.
Behind her, Ruo Yan froze at the same time. Her Soul Threads hummed, a layer of faint golden light spreading from the mark on the back of her hand across her entire body, then traveling along the threads to the Necromancer standing beside her.
Both auras spiked simultaneously.
QingZhu planted her bamboo staff against the ground. She didn’t intervene, only stood still and waited.
A few minutes later, the light around Laira and Ruo Yan gradually receded.
Laira opened her eyes first. She clenched her fist, and the air inside her palm produced a very small pop.
Gold tier one.
She immediately looked at QingZhu, a smile slowly forming.
QingZhu saw it. "Want to try?"
"Just a little."
Ruo Yan had barely finished her breakthrough when she heard that, and immediately turned. "Laira."
"I’m Gold now."
"I know."
"I’m way stronger than before."
Ruo Yan looked at QingZhu. "I know that too."
Laira lowered her center of gravity. "Then let’s try once."
Ruo Yan sighed. "I’ll stand far away."
QingZhu let out a very soft laugh. She bent down and casually picked up a bamboo staff just over a meter long from beside her. Not a weapon, just a freshly cut piece of bamboo.
Laira looked at it.
For some reason, the grin on her face faded slightly.
QingZhu asked: "Ready?"
Laira still refused to back down. "Bring it."
QingZhu raised the staff, then swung it down.
There was no immediate explosion.
For one brief instant, the entire forest held nothing but the rustle of bamboo leaves.
Then in the sky above, a colossal phantom of a bamboo staff appeared.