Immortal Paladin

[POV: Kong Bo]

Kong Bo could not move.

Not even a finger.

Every muscle in his body had become completely unresponsive, as though his flesh had ceased to belong to him. He tried to force his arm to move, but there was no reaction. His sword remained in his hand, yet even that felt as though it belonged to someone else.

“What did you do?” he asked through Qi Speech, grinding his teeth.

Tian Mei stood several steps away.

“There’s no need to explain myself to you.”

Her eyes glowed with an eerie blue light. She raised one hand. The corpse of Mai Duyi, which Kong Bo had reduced to a bloody smear moments ago, suddenly began to move.

Flesh reconstructed itself. Bones reformed. Blood returned to veins. The dead man's body was restored before Kong Bo's eyes. Mai Duyi opened his eyes and stretched his neck. “That was unpleasant.” He rolled his shoulders as though he had merely woken from an uncomfortable sleep. “I’m glad you were able to avenge my death so quickly, coming to my rescue. But I fear that we’ve fallen into a trap.”

Anna stopped plucking the strings of her harp. The long-eared woman looked toward the sky. “The city was suddenly covered by a barrier. Any ideas?”

Tian Mei and Mai Duyi looked toward Kong Bo.

Kong Bo's expression remained cold.

When Tian Mei's eyes turned toward him, the sensation was unsettling. Her gaze seemed to bore directly through his body and soul.

Kong Bo had thought he understood the situation. He had believed that Tian Mei's mysterious technique had merely restricted his body, preventing him from moving while she resurrected Mai Duyi.

He had been wrong.

Her gaze was digging deeper.

It was as though she were searching through his thoughts, examining the very structure of his soul.

“He has no idea what is happening, either,” Tian Mei said.

Mai Duyi nodded. He reached into his pocket dimension and produced several strangely shaped weapons. Guns. He raised them toward the enormous dome covering the city.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The shots struck the barrier in a strange sequence.

Mai Duyi continued firing, changing the angle and timing of every shot as though conducting some sort of experiment. After a moment, he lowered the weapons. His expression became grim. “I’m not getting anything from my probes. I fear this is the work of Nongmin.”

He looked toward Tian Mei and Anna.

“This is a trap.”

The moment he said those words, the night sky changed. Countless points of light appeared overhead.

Kong Bo looked up. His eyes widened at the sight of floating ships. Dozens of them. Then hundreds. They emerged from warped space, their enormous bodies appearing one after another as they descended through the night sky.

Kong Bo's expression finally changed.

The others were similarly stunned. Even Tian Mei looked surprised. Anna's fingers tightened around her harp. Mai Duyi stared upward. Kong Bo was no different. He had fought alongside Nongmin. He had heard countless stories about the young man's inventions and cultivation technology. But he had never imagined this.

Warping was a unique piece of technology created by Nongmin through the combination of several incredibly complicated branches of cultivation technology. Even among immortals, such a creation was extraordinary.

Yet Nongmin had apparently built enough of these ships to deploy an entire fleet in just the short time that had passed.

Tian Mei's expression hardened.

“We need to run.”

Her eyes shifted toward Kong Bo.

“You're going to buy us time.”

Kong Bo's eyes narrowed. He wanted to refuse. He wanted to move. But his body remained completely still.

Tian Mei clasped her hands together. Her eyes closed. Her body immediately went limp. She fell unconscious.

Mai Duyi caught her before she hit the ground.

“She's out.”

Anna moved beside him. The two exchanged a glance before immediately fleeing.

Kong Bo watched them leave, and then he felt something inside him. It was a strange presence. It was not his own. His body moved outside his will. His sword arm shifted without his permission. His fingers tightened around the hilt.

"Possession," hissed Kong Bo, realizing what was happening.

Tian Mei had not merely immobilized him. She had taken control of him. A technique this potent was practically unheard of.

Kong Bo had heard rumors of his father's enemy, the Supreme Bearer, possessing a similar ability. He had always treated those stories as something distant, something he would never personally experience.

Now he understood why such a technique was feared. There was a difference between hearing about possession of this level and having someone else wear your body like a suit.

Kong Bo's body turned toward the sky. The fleet began descending through the barrier. Then they opened fire.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless projectiles rained from the sky. The remaining city was engulfed in explosions. Buildings disappeared. Streets collapsed. The ground shook violently as the fleet systematically destroyed everything beneath them.

Then Kong Bo heard his own mouth speak.

“You will do a fine distraction.”

Tian Mei's voice came from his throat.

Kong Bo's eyes narrowed. His body moved. His sword swung. A brilliant slash crossed the night sky. One of the descending ships split apart from bow to stern.

Boom!

The wreckage exploded in midair. But before the debris could fall, dozens of weapons locked onto Kong Bo. A barrage descended. The force behind every projectile was equivalent to a Tenth Realm cultivator.

Kong Bo's sword moved on its own.

Clang!

Clang!

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Clang!

He parried one projectile after another, sending them screaming into the surrounding ruins. Yet there were too many. The density of the barrage overwhelmed even his defenses. Several projectiles slipped through.

Boom!

The impacts struck his body.

Kong Bo winced. Blood trickled from his lips. His body continued moving. His sword continued swinging. And the Sword Emperor realized that for the first time in his life, he was not fighting with his own will.

His bloodthirst as a warrior was dampened, a sense of dread slowly enveloping him.

…

..

.

[POV: Anna]

Anna muttered a soft prayer beneath her breath.

The city was finished.

There was no saving it anymore. The streets had already been reduced to ruins, the buildings had been torn apart, and the bombardment from the sky continued without mercy. Countless lives had been caught in a conflict that had nothing to do with them.

Anna lowered her eyes. Her voice was barely audible beneath the explosions.

“Great Guard, Da Wei… Please guide these fallen souls into your embrace.”

She could do nothing else.

The prayer was all she could offer to the people who had died.

“Follow me. I know the way,” Anna said.

Mai Duyi followed her through the ruins with Tian Mei unconscious in his arms.

Anna's songs had long since stopped being ordinary music. They had become something far more profound. Her melodies directly touched the laws of the universe, manipulating principles that even Rulers of Laws would require tens of thousands of years to comprehend. It was an absurd achievement for an immortal.

For a single-layer immortal, it was almost unthinkable.

Yet Anna's songs had reached that level.

Right now, Anna was being guided by a song as they made there retreat.

Mai Duyi suddenly stopped. “I can feel multiple presences coming from the ships.”

Anna looked back. The sound of something crashing into the ground immediately followed. A massive piece of debris fell from the sky and slammed into the street ahead of them.

Dust erupted.

Anna raised her harp, ready to defend herself.

The dust slowly settled. Something moved within the rubble. A humanoid figure climbed out. Its body was composed entirely of strange metallic materials, its limbs constructed with an unnatural precision that made it resemble a puppet rather than a living creature.

Another figure landed behind it, then another, and then dozens more.

Anna's expression became solemn at the sight of the Dragoons.

They were puppets created by Nongmin.

Each one was powered by spirit stones and secret techniques that Anna did not fully understand. Their bodies were made from special metals capable of enduring tremendous punishment, while their internal formations supplied them with the strength of cultivators.

Every Dragoon possessed at least the cultivation strength of the Ninth Realm. And there were many of them.

Mai Duyi raised his guns.

Bang!

The first Dragoon's head snapped backward. A second shot struck its chest. The weapon had not been aimed at the puppet's head. It had been aimed at its core. The Dragoon collapsed.

Another charged.

Bang!

Another fell.

Bang!

Another.

Mai Duyi moved backward while firing, each shot finding the precise location of the core. One after another, the Dragoons fell. But more replaced them.

Anna's expression changed. They were multiplying. Every time Mai Duyi destroyed one, another descended from the ships. Their numbers showed no sign of decreasing.

Mai Duyi clicked his tongue. “This could get too dangerous even for us.”

Anna felt it too.

The Dragoons were not merely attacking them. They were coordinating. Everything in the universe possessed its own ripple. Its own rhythm. Its own song! Anna could hear those songs.

She listened carefully.

The metallic bodies of the Dragoons resonated with something in the distance. Their formations were communicating with the ships above, sending information through an intricate network of energy.

Every Dragoon carried the same song. And through that song, they summoned more of themselves. The moment one was destroyed, the others communicated its death. When the ships responded, more Dragoons descended.

It was seamless.

An army that could replace its soldiers faster than they could destroy them.

“Stop shooting them,” Anna said.

Mai Duyi glanced toward her. “What?”

“Focus on our retreat. If we keep killing them, they'll only keep sending more.”

Mai Duyi understood immediately. He stopped trying to destroy the Dragoons. Instead, he changed his aim. A shot struck one Dragoon's knee. The puppet stumbled. Another shot struck its elbow. Its arm went limp.

Suddenly, the sky erupted.

Boom!

A brilliant slash tore through the fleet. One of the ships was sliced apart. Another followed. Then a third. The remotely controlled Kong Bo continued cutting through the ships above them, each sword strike destroying another vessel.

Even possessed, the Sword Emperor was terrifying. Tian Mei's control had turned him into a weapon. Fortunately, that weapon was currently pointed toward their pursuers.

Anna looked at Mai Duyi.

“I'll hide us.”

She lifted her harp. Her fingers gently touched the strings. Pluck. A single note emerged. Her voice joined the melody. The song was neither powerful nor violent. Instead, it carried sadness and isolation. The loneliness of someone standing in an empty world with nobody left to hear their voice.

The sound spread through the ruins. The Dragoons slowed. Their metallic bodies became indistinct. The world around Anna and Mai Duyi seemed to fade. The song wrapped around them, bending their presence into the silence between one note and the next.

For one fleeting moment, Anna and Mai Duyi no longer existed within the perception of the universe. It was a song inspired by Fan Shi's powers, so it was potent in its stealth.

In the blink of an eye, the two escaped there pursuers.

…

..

.

[POV: Tian Mei]

The Soul Possession was a technique derived from the Divine Possession of the Holy Emperor.

There was, however, a fundamental difference between the two.

Divine Possession allowed the Holy Emperor's divinity to descend upon another body, turning the target into a vessel for his power. Tian Mei's technique was far more limited. Instead of possessing someone through divinity, she used her eyes to invade the target's soul and seize control of their body.

Her ocular powers had only existed for two generations.

Compared to the ancient techniques that had been refined over countless ages, they were still young. Their breadth was limited, and many of their applications remained incomplete. Tian Mei's father had created several of the techniques himself, while she had developed others under his guidance and the teachings of the Holy Emperor.

Soul Possession was one of their ultimate techniques.

And right now, Tian Mei was using it.

Through Kong Bo's body, she wreaked havoc across the sky.

The Sword Emperor's body moved like a storm, his sword carving enormous arcs through the night as more ships descended through the dome. Explosions illuminated the ruined city beneath them, while pieces of destroyed vessels rained from the sky.

It was a spectacular sight.

Tian Mei barely had the luxury of appreciating it. She had an objective. Her sword swept forward. A sharp aura blade erupted from its edge and shot toward two approaching ships.

The blade split into two.

Boom! Boom!

Both aura blades slammed into the vessels, yet the ships merely trembled.

Tian Mei's expression tightened.

The aura blades failed to propagate.

She had seen Kong Bo perform the same technique earlier. His cutting aura had struck one projectile, split apart, then continued multiplying until an entire storm of blades had filled the battlefield.

She could not replicate it, because the ship was absorbing the force of the aura in a way that disrupt the technique. The ships were also far more durable than she had anticipated, making there destruction more difficult.

Tian Mei was forced to destroy them one at a time.

The number of ships continued increasing. She was slowly being overwhelmed. That was the greatest flaw of Soul Possession.

Unlike Divine Possession, Tian Mei could not use her original abilities through the possessed body. Her ocular powers remained within her own soul. Even though she had taken complete control of Kong Bo's body, she could not simply bring her entire arsenal of techniques with her.

Fortunately, Kong Bo himself was strong enough to hold his ground.

Inside the depths of her mind, Tian Mei suddenly felt resistance.

"Get out of my body."

Kong Bo's consciousness struggled against her. His will was fierce. Even with his body completely under her control, his soul had not surrendered.

Tian Mei's expression remained calm.

"Stop resisting."

"You think I'll let you use my body?"

Kong Bo's voice carried the fury of a warrior whose very existence had been violated.

"I will take it back."

Tian Mei did not answer. Instead, she tightened her control. Kong Bo's body swung its sword again. Another ship exploded. But the longer the battle continued, the harsher the situation became.

Of course, Tian Mei had considered the possibility of a trap. In fact, it had been one of the possibilities she had discussed before coming here. Nongmin was not foolish. If Tian Mei's camp had entered the city with their full force, there was always the possibility that Nongmin had prepared something specifically to deal with them.

Still, Tian Mei had chosen to come. She had brought her allies. She had intended to overwhelm the enemy before Nongmin could properly react. That plan had already achieved something.

They had captured Kong Bo and resurrected Mai Duyi.

Even this trap could not erase the advantages they had gained. Well, as long as they could escape the encirclement. If they managed to escape this place, the odds would unquestionably fall to their side.

Her thoughts shifted.

The inside of Kong Bo's mind was far more informative than she had expected. His memories, experiences, understanding of swordsmanship, and perception of the world were quite educational.

Tian Mei could see fragments of all of them through Soul Possession. It was almost like standing inside an enormous library. She could understand why the Sword Emperor had reached such heights. His martial path was extraordinarily refined.

Suddenly, the atmosphere became strange. The ships stopped. The battlefield fell silent for a brief moment. Someone appeared before Tian Mei's possessed vessel. A young man stood in the air. He did not look particularly imposing.

However, Tian Mei recognized him immediately. Her heart sank.

The young man looked directly at Kong Bo. No. At her. His gaze seemed to pass through the Sword Emperor's body and reach directly into the depths of his and her soul.

Tian Mei froze.

“Hello, Tian Mei.”

Her blood ran cold.

Nongmin's gaze remained fixed upon her.

“How is your father doing?”