Chapter 131: Impossible-grade Mission (4): Forbidden Combat Art
The ground caved in by at least 4 metres from the sheer force of the rebound as the middle-aged man sprinted.
"Forbidden combat art: Qi Mortem," the middle-aged man roared as the surrounding qi was instantly drawn into his body like a black hole. All the qi entered his body and was rapidly converted into wind Qi.
The wind Qi concentrated in his legs, causing them to expand to an exaggerated degree, resembling the essence of wind itself.
It was as if the old man was tearing through the void. He covered a distance of a kilometre in a matter of seconds, his speed reaching an extremely terrifying level as he closed in on Lu Zhen.
Suddenly, Lu Zhen's instincts went haywire as he heard a deafening tearing sound greater than anything he had experienced.
Lu Zhen wanted to jump to the side; however, he wasn't given a moment. Still, Lu Zhen was able to jump a little, causing the trajectory of the attack to be redirected from slicing through his neck.
Swish!
Lu Zhen violently coughed up blood as he felt a katana cleanly slice through him. It cut his vertebra in half, almost reaching his heart in that swift slash.
Lu Zhen's vision dimmed as he fell to the ground. However, Lu Zhen hurriedly rolled to the side, ignoring the pain he felt in his back as he swiftly coated his vertebrae with his wood qi to support him, with blood trailing behind him on the ground as Lu Zhen rolled.
A katana sliced at the previous place where Lu Zhen had fallen down in a terrifying speed creating a carter of 2 metres just from the sheer force of the katana in the ground.
After making a safe distance, Lu Zhen turned back in a quick motion, and what he saw shocked Lu Zhen.
The man could no longer be called middle-aged. His once half-black and few white hairs had turned completely white. His entire face seemed to have become wrinkled, his entire skin seemed to have clung to his bone with no meat or muscles, almost like a skeleton. His height had also seemed to have decreased significantly.
"Did you use a forbidden combat art?" Lu Zhen's eyes widened as he again rolled, dodging another katana slash with the support of his wood qi in his back to temporarily join and heal his broken vertebra.
The man had a regretful expression when he saw Lu Zhen dodging.
"How does this brat have such an instinct?" he thought. He had initially planned to behead Lu Zhen but he changed his trajectory just in the nick of time, leaving Lu Zhen with a deep cut in his back instead of directly beheading him.
"How much can you heal?" The man sneered as he looked at the barely moving Lu Zhen, whose posture was strange due to the broken vertebra.
"You…" Suddenly, Lu Zhen blended into the shadows, vanishing from sight.
"Are you using that trick again?" The man swiftly reached a place as he gathered all the wind qi in his qi pathways, preparing to attack in a certain direction.
However, he frowned as he felt his vitality seeping away at a rapid pace. "I should end this quickly. I don't have much time," he thought.
Lu Zhen suddenly appeared at the right side of the man from the shadows as he threw a punch. The man was caught off-guard as he was pushed back by a little. However instead of the man being hurt, Lu Zhen's entire arm had small cuts, making his blood gush out and almost rendering his arm unusable as even his tendons were damaged.
Lu Zhen didn't give up, throwing another punch with his other arm.
The man sneered as he allowed Lu Zhen to hit him. He stood there with his skeletal figure, unaffected.
"Remember the person who killed you. You monster, Xia Di," he roared as he raised his katana.
"Dragon Vajra Slash."
The surrounding qi was still being absorbed by Xia Di, like a sponge instantly converting it into wind qi in his body, providing him with an infinite source of wind energy. The katana in his hands seemed to have a faint vision of a white dragon as it crackled with wind.
Lu Zhen saw a vision of a faint white dragon, seemingly the god of wind himself, controlling the wind effortlessly and creating storms out of nowhere.
He hurriedly used his [Verdant Whirlwind] trying to cancel the move as Lu Zhen tried to ignore the distraction from the vision as much as possible, but to his despair, he found that he couldn't conjure any wind even when he used the combat art.
"I am not going to die here," a ruthless glint flashed in Lu Zhen's eyes. He channeled every last bit of his wood Qi, coating his legs with it. With the full weight of his body, he drove himself into the ground like a drill, narrowly avoiding Xia Di's lethal strike.
As Lu Zhen's body burrowed deeper into the ground, it was as though the very fabric of the void itself was being torn asunder by the swinging katana. It produced a violent and terrifying wind, reminiscent of the magnificent white dragon from his vision, shattering everything in its path as it reached up towards the sky.
The dragon-shaped vortex seemed to ascend to the sky, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. After travelling for some distance, a thunderous "boom" reverberated through the sky, resembling a nuclear explosion. The clouds parted, and a mushroom-shaped void appeared in the sky, revealing the radiant sun.
"Huff! Huff!" his entire body was devoid of vitality as his skin stuck to his bone however he was still somehow alive.
"Little brat, I've won," the skeleton-like figure said, his frail hand barely lifting the katana as he went for Lu Zhen, the blade aiming directly for his skull.
Lu Zhen's eyes widened in sheer helplessness as he could only watch the deadly trajectory of the katana. Time appeared to slow down, and he felt entirely powerless.
"Am I going to die? Just after I was transmigrated to this world. What did I do wrong to die so quickly?" his thoughts raced as the blade approached.