Excruciating pain forced Tung-Fong Sau Man to his knees. His muscles trembled unnaturally; every inch of his meridians was dry. Tung-Fong Sau Man forced himself to remain conscious, even biting his own lips again to stay awake. Lightning continued to rumble in the skies above; the power it was accumulating seemed to be far more horrifying than Lui Yam’s prior move.
Tung-Fong Sau Man was already at his physical limit from the exhaustion of all his soul energy; one could only imagine how Lui Yam was faring. Lui Yam had extracted every bit of soul energy from his meridians. His meridians were not just empty at this point. Lui Yam knew his own condition—most of his meridians had ruptured. The pain he was enduring was absolutely unimaginable.
Rage just as easily numbs the senses as it blinds the eyes.
“Fall!”
Lui Yam pressed his hands down once again and the one thousand deadly lightning bolts rushed toward Tung-Fong Sau Man, loyal messengers of the underworld come to claim his life.
Boom.
Every bolt that crashed upon the dragon palace would pulverise a piece of its construction. In less than a dozen seconds, over three hundred lightning bolts had descended, destroying nearly half of the dragon palace! Another three hundred more and Tung-Fong Sau Man’s fortress would be razed to the ground. And there were still four hundred more lightning bolts to go!
Tung-Fong Sau Man stared as his dragon palace crumbled quicker than expected. He felt no fear, but a hint of guilt.
“It seems like children are truly the most precious things to their parents.”
He could see how badly injured Lui Yam was—how far he had pushed himself—even from a distance. Lui Yam’s body was covered in fissures, blood seeping out of every inch of his skin. His eyes were bloodshot and the veins on his forehead were swollen. He would have collapsed a long time ago if not for that last shred of anger keeping him up.
The last wave of lightning was finally about to crash. The last pillars of the dragon pillars had been ground to dust and Tung-Fong Sau Man’s figure was exposed. Lui Yam was overwhelmed. He would finally avenge her daughter. In his own mind, he was screaming out loud, “Finally! A few more strikes and I can bury this imbecile to rot here forever!”
Unfortunately, fate has a way of toying with mortals. Rarely does anyone ever get their way.
A voice rang out, shattering Lui Yam’s dream of vengeance, “Lethality: The Four Dragon Emperor’s Array of Salvation.”
Four beams of dark green energy shot out from the distance and landed around Tung-Fong Sau Man, transforming into four dragon emperors, each with the body of a man and the head of a dragon. Every one of them wore a crown and held a talisman in their grasp. They waved their hands and an array was formed, blocking all incoming attacks.
A man in sky-blue robes approached, followed by two parties. They were the people who had been running through the forest earlier. The man in blue robes made a seal and shouted, “Blue Emperor, Red Emperor, dispel the lightning!”
Two of the dragon emperors standing around Tung-Fong Sau Man cast their talismans into the thundercloud above. In just a few seconds, the clouds dissipated and the moon was revealed once more.
The two groups split apart. One of them, led by an elderly man with white hair, hurried to Lui Yam’s side. They formed a defensive perimeter, watching for any hostile movements. The other group stayed behind the man with the sky-blue robes. Tension filled the air.
Cough. Cough.
Lui Yam could no longer hold back the blood rushing up his throat. He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. One of the warriors beside him hastily placed a hand on his pulse and checked the condition of his body. He could sense that Lui Yam’s soul energy was completely exhausted and immediately decided of his own accord to feed a large amount of pure soul energy into Lui Yam’s meridians to help him recover. There was no better time to prove his worth and be rewarded by the clan.
However, Lui Yam’s meridians were so fragile now that they could not even endure any bit of foreign energy. His injured meridians were provoked and he coughed up another mouthful of blood. The elderly man flew into a rage at the sight of this. He sent the warrior flying with a single palm strike.
“Fool.”
He then quickly put his hand on Lui Yam’s pulse and gently surveyed his body with his soul energy. The elderly man was shocked by what he saw. He hastily took out a pill and put it in Lui Yam’s mouth. The pill melted instantly and poured down his throat as a liquid. The elderly man then pressed on a few of Lui Yam’s pressure points. It was only then that Lui Yam’s face regained a bit of its colour. The seeping of the blood from his pores was temporarily stopped as well. Lui Yam barely managed to get on his feet with the old man’s help. The pill was extraordinarily effective and most certainly incredibly valuable.
Lui Yam endured the pain coming from all over his body and forced a few words out of his injured throat.
“He dies. Or war.”
Shock was written on the elderly man’s face when he heard this. His mind was in turmoil. A war between two ancient clans wouldn’t just involve the fates of both clans, but the political standing of many other clans as well. In fact, many unaffiliated martial artists across the realm would be dragged into the conflict too. A war between the two clans would mean a complete reshuffling of the martial world.
The elderly man immediately spoke up. “Please reconsider, clan master. A war would have great, rippling effects. I, Lui Sung, am not a coward, but I do not wish for the clan master’s legacy to be tarnished…”
Lui Yam raised his hand slightly, motioning for Lui Sung to shut up. He then looked in the direction of the man in blue robes. He was not waiting simply for the man’s answer; he was waiting for a result that would decide the future of the two clans.
The man in blue robes stood by Tung-Fong Sau Man’s side, both hands folded behind his back. He looked at Lui Yam calmly and said nothing. After a long while, he finally opened his mouth to speak.
“Clan Master Lui, I have always heard that you loved your daughter more than your own life. I can tell that’s true judging from your injuries. However, obligation-wise, I, Yin Mou, have orders from the clan to bring him back; personally, Sau Man is my brother. There is no way I will watch him die at your hands.”
Green veins appeared on Lui Yam’s head again when he heard Tung-Fong Yin Mou’s reply. His already erratic breathing weakened even further from anger. He coughed several times before the uncomfortable knot in his chest was gone. Lui Sung hurriedly patted his back to try to calm him down.
Before Lui Yam could rebuke him, Tung-Fong Yin Mou spoke again.
“However, I can swear on my name as the heir of the Tung-Fong clan that his powers will be sealed completely and that he will never see the light of day again.”
Lui Yam stared straight at Tung-Fong Yin Mou’s face when he heard this, as if trying to discern any tricks. However, Tung-Fong Yin Mou appeared to be as honest as could be; he showed no hesitation no matter how Lui Yam glared at him. The charisma of the Tung-Fong heir was clear for all to see. His each and every word was worth its weight in gold. Everything he said could be trusted.
However, Lui Yam refused to let things end like this. His feelings wouldn’t allow for it. He had ignored the fact that he was of an older generation to pursue a young man like Tung-Fong Sau Man; he had pushed himself to the limit and injured himself for all this; he had even threatened war. If he were to return to the clan without getting a single thing to show for it, he wouldn’t ever have the face to show himself again.
Tung-Fong Yin Mou continued talking.
“If you are willing to let things be, everything that happened here today will stay between our two clans. Moreover, the Tung-Fong Clan will provide you with our best pills to aid and hasten your recovery.”
Lui Yam started to consider the offer now. If he had the choice, he would rather kill Tung-Fong Sau Man and have no legendary pills to show for it. However, judging from the attitude of the Tung-Fong Clan, it wasn’t too likely that he would get his way.
“I want the bastard child.” Lui Yam stared at the baby on Sau Man’s back.
Tung-Fong Yin Mou glanced over and shook his head. “My nephew is already dead.”
Lui Yam was stunned to hear this. He sensed carefully and realised that the baby only had wisps of life force left in its body. It seemed like it was truly dead. He turned around and declared through gritted teeth, “The ties between our clans are done. We are allies no more.”
He then gave the order to return to the clan without looking back at the Tung-Fongs again. The entire group vanished from sight in an instant.
Tung-Fong Yin Mou looked at his brother kneeling on the ground. The calm indifference that his brother always wore on his face was gone and there was barely any life in his eyes. A hundred different emotions welled up inside Yin Mou when he saw what his younger brother had been reduced to.
“Let’s go home, Sau Man.”
Tung-Fong Sau Man raised his head slowly, his vacant eyes like an unfocused camera. He stared at Tung-Fong Yin Mou’s face and said meekly, “Just kill me, brother.”
Tung-Fong Yin Mou did not reply. Both he and Sau Man understood what tremendous trouble Sau Man’s actions had caused the clan this time. Not only had they lost a valuable pill, the incident had also tarnished the reputation of the Tung-Fong Clan. They were laughingstocks of the ancient clans now—Tung-Fongs were the sort to steal the women of their own brothers. Tung-Fong Yin Mou had not been lying earlier. It was almost certain that the life awaiting Tung-Fong Sau Man when he returned would be one of eternal darkness and suffering.
More than that, he understood that his brother had lost all hope in life. Setting aside the fact that he would never see his lover again, his own child had just died moments after it was born. No one could possibly live with all that.
The drizzling showed no signs of stopping even after all this while. The droplets that occasionally landed on the blue robes made everything all the more tragic. Tung-Fong Yin Mou raised his hand and drew a dragon seal in midair as he chanted, “Lethality: Nine Dragon Runes; Edict of Restrainment.”
He pointed with two fingers and the hovering seal split into nine tiny golden dragons. The dragons entered Tung-Fong Sau Man’s body and greedily devoured what soul energy remained in him.
“Ah!”
The pain coming from all over his body was unbearable. His already tattered body could not endure the torture. Wounds both fresh and old were stimulated and he started coughing up blood on his knees.
“Young master…” one of the people in the group couldn’t help but cry out. They took out a pill to give to Tung-Fong Sau Man.
“This is what he deserves,” Tung-Fong Yin Mou said coldly.
His words carried authority with them. That person didn’t dare to do anything more. They put the pill back and helplessly watched as Tung-Fong Sau Man suffered.
Once a prodigy, trapped by love and now here he was.
The nine dragons had grown significantly after absorbing Tung-Fong Sau Man’s soul energy. They followed along the meridian paths and slowly arrived at the martial heart—the source of every martial artist’s power. They stared at the weakened black dragon inside and then rushed forward to restrain the dragon. The black dragon tried to resist, roaring in anger, but it was no match to the golden dragons. Soon, it was completely restrained.
The soul energy fluctuation coming from Tung-Fong Sau Man had vanished entirely. He could no longer resist as someone from the party carried him by the shoulder.
He pleaded with the last of his strength, “Brother, can you throw my son a proper funeral?”
Tung-Fong Yin Mou nodded and some of his entourage took the cloth off of Tung-Fong Sau Man’s back. Soul energy erupted from everyone’s feet as they vanished into the night, leaving Tung-Fong Yin Mou alone in the forest.
He looked up at the night sky, accompanied only by the four dragon emperors. A sense of sorrow rose out of nowhere and clouded his heart. He shook his head and sighed.
“Two is a match; three is a curse.”
He kicked against the ground and disappeared beyond the horizon. Only the scars of battle were left on the earth, witness to what had happened tonight.
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