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As the two techniques with immense spiritual qi clashed, a cluster of smoke erupted between them, but Tian Ye and Yang Wei's gaze had always been fixed on each other. Even with a smokescreen, they knew each other's position so they charged forward with their swords.
Clang!
The two wooden swords collided fiercely, but the moment Tian Ye's blade struck, it slid through Yang Wei's weapon, rushing towards his face.
Yang Wei instinctively tried to retreat, but before he could fully react, Tian Ye's sword was already near his face.
"Flowing River Sword Technique, 3rd Form, Returning Tide."
Despite the spiritual qi extending from Tian Ye's blade and into Yang Wei's neck, he remained unscratched due to a thick layer of spiritual qi forming outside his neck shielding him from harm.
Furthermore, rather than resisting, he allowed the force from Tian Ye's strike to send him soaring into the sky.
Mid-air, Yang Wei adjusted his stance. He held the wooden sword firmly with both hands, channeled spiritual qi through it, extending the blade's tip by five meters.
Tian Ye, not relaxing any of his muscles, prepared for Yang Wei's counter attack.
And as he heard Yang Wei mutter, "Crescent Moon Sword Technique, 3rd Movement—Full Moon's Song." The extended spiritual qi from the tip of his sword unexpectedly bent, transforming the sword into a whip!
Tian Ye's eyes widened in surprise, 'What a flexible martial arts technique the crescent moon sword technique is, but… it's specialty is long distance after all so I just have to get nearer and the 3rd Movement will lose it's advantage.'
Coming up with this thought, He dodged Yang Wei's whip-like sword attack.
The whip-like sword attack of Yang Wei hit the ground and smoothly carved a sword mark on the ground.
As Yang Wei slowly fell from the air, he kept swinging his whip-like sword attacks again and again only for Tian Ye to weave through them, getting closer and closer.
The sound coming from the Fighting Stage changed. It was no longer filled with the clashing of blades, it was now filled with the snapping sound of whips, followed by a boom from the impact each time it struck the ground.
As Tian Ye got near but was still quite far away from Yang Wei, he decided to not use Flowing River Sword Technique but Yang Wei's Crescent Moon Sword Technique.
"Crescent Moon Sword Technique, 1st Movement, Moonlight!"
A crescent-shaped spiritual qi began flying towards Yang Wei making him open his mouth wide in surprise for a little while but immediately retracted his whip-like sword and attacked the same way.
"Crescent Moon Sword Technique, 1st Movement, Moonlight!"
As it clashed, his "Moonlight" technique went past Tian Ye's "Moonlight."
'Looks like my qi control over that technique isn't that proficient yet.'
Tian Ye wasn't surprised but nodded in understanding because he didn't really practice it and just wanted to copy Yang Wei on the spur of the moment.
Tian Ye stepped backwards to dodge Yang Wei's incoming attack and let Yang Wei's feet reach the ground.
Their eyes met, after a few moments of silence, they burst out laughing and finally, with battle intent, Tian Ye and Yang Wei gripped their swords again tightly.
Before they could charge and attack each other, an unexpected thing happened. It was what no one expected at all but it did happen.
Boom!
A deafening explosion roared through the air.
The force struck with terrifying speed that no one could notice. The explosion engulfed Yang Wei, along with Sun He, and Zhao Feng who were watching, a little distance behind him. In contrast, Tian Ye wasn't engulfed but was sent flying from the shockwave of the explosion.
His body that was sent flying went through a series of trees destroying them from the sheer force of the shockwave of the explosion.
His body was being pressed down more and more by the second until it finally stopped at 1 meter of being buried into a thick rock.
A few moments later, Tian Ye, fixed into the wall, thought, dazed and confused, 'What just happened?'
As this thought arose from his mind, he vomited a mouthful of blood, and his body began to bleed. From his ears, nose, to his pores, blood poured out as if a plastic filled with water had been punctured by needles from all over the place.
He also regained his senses despite the initial shock. His body felt pain all over like he had been beaten and tortured for a long time. He hadn't felt this kind of pain even when sparring with his master to the point of bleeding.
Although he felt pain and bled throughout his body, he gritted his teeth wanting to know what had just happened so he forced his battered body from it's serious injuries and climbed out of the thick rock he had been buried in and as he went out, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded at the sight he saw.
The trees that were originally numerous within the forest were all toppled, a huge hole in the middle, like a nuclear missile had exploded from the middle.
He dragged his body, his left feet apparently broken from the way that it didn't seem to move. His right hand as well, but still forced himself to walk to that huge hole he sees.
As he got nearer and nearer, he felt his heart beating faster and faster the adrenaline from his sudden serious injuries running out.
And when he stood beside the huge hole, it was like he was standing at the side of a cliff extending a few kilometers down.
Below was a fist-like mark making him tilt his head in confusion, 'A fist mark?'
He then looked and analyzed the surrounding and after recognizing the new geographical changes, he then realized that half of the mountain had disappeared and what remained was this cliff-like structure.
With a helpless laugh, his feet knelt to the ground, 'Did my sect just disappear? Just like that?'
"Zhao Feng…? Sun He…? Yang Wei…? Master…? Elders…? Sect Leader…? Where are you?" He muttered in disbelief hoping that someone would tell him that it was all a joke. He tried to look around and when his eyes turned to the sky, he saw a crack. Subtle thunder sounded, he didn't hear it initially because his ears were ruptured to the point of bleeding but maybe due to his natural recovery rate, it healed slightly.
When he saw the fist-like mark, he was confused, but when he saw the spatial crack it all finally made sense.
With the countless cultivation novels he had read in his past life, he instantly understood what this meant.
How could their lowly sect get the hatred of a great cultivator? They were simply unworthy! They were ant!
All that's left is that they were simply caught up in a stray attack between great cultivators fighting in the distance or even perhaps in another realm!
"Wasn't I going to have a casual generic cultivation progression story with like I've ready in cultivation novels with how my life had been proceeding so far? pfft…" He muttered to himself before a dry laugh sounded from his mouth.
He could no longer feel the pain from his body and as he knelt on the ground, he smashed his head to the ground as well then laughed even more, "Of course not… Hahaha! The world is never that kind!"
"Hahaha, what did I expect? This world or that world, there's no difference! It's always cruel, one could say that this world is even more so! I just got lucky to be born in a cultivation sect and I thought I was some kind of protagonists like in the cultivation novels I've read?"
His remaining abled arm held his stomach as he began to laugh more and more, "Hahahaha!"
Then came the thought of his friends, tears flowing out of his eyes, "Zhao Feng… Sun He… Yang Wei… Master…"
Then came the anger of the unfairness of the world's laws, "HA!!!!!!! WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?! WHY COULDN'T YOU LEAVE ME BE?! HEAVENS!!!!!! ANSWER ME!!!!!!!!!!!"
He used a huge amount of spiritual qi in his body to deliver a punch to the ground creating a crater a few meters in diameter.
"WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!! WHY ME?!!!!!" He screamed in anger as he continued punching the ground with spiritual qi, the crater becoming bigger and bigger.
The crack on the ground began to spread throughout and then finally, the rocks collapsed opening a slope from the crater and into the deep cliff.
His body began rolling down the slope but he didn't stop his body from rolling down the cliff.
Tears falling from his eyes, he thought in despair, 'This kind of life… it's better to just die again…'
He closed his eyes as he fell of the cliff but suddenly after a few seconds of falling, when he neared the ground, he opened his eyes again and injected spiritual qi to his remaining abled arm and softened his landing by punching into the ground.
Boom!
"Hah! I can't even kill myself! Why am I so useless?!" He screamed to the top of his lungs, his lifeless yet full of life eyes teared up as he punched the ground again and again.
"This is all a dream! It's all a dream! I refuse to believe it! This world should be kind to me! Zhao Feng! Sun He! Yang Wei! Master! You're all alive right?! Answer me?! You're alive! Don't joke around?! This isn't funny!!!! Answer me!!"
Countless exploding sounds rang in the cliff as he punched the ground again and again, his spiritual qi had already run out, now, he was only using his physical body causing cracks on his fists, the bones started showing out of it while it was filled with blood.
He knelt in the middle of the crater motionless as he looked at the spatial crack in the sky, recovering itself as if nothing special had happened.
Seeing this, he couldn't help muttering words filled with sadness, "Why… Why couldn't you just let me be happy…"
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