6.7 - Great Serpent Qhingzhao

He Yu flexed his spirit, but didn’t fully release it, cycling just enough of his cultivation base to push against the serpent’s own presence. Next to him, Chen Fei did the same. He saluted Qingzhao, but gave no more respect than that. They were, as far as he was concerned, equals here.

“Apologies, serpent,” he said. “I am called He Yu. I was unaware this mountain was your home. We will not stay, as our destination lies far beyond these peaks. I have no wish to trouble you, and want no trouble in return.”

“Humans,” Qingzhao said, ending the word with a sibilant hiss. “Flee, return whence you came. Do not set foot upon my mountain home.”

“We cannot,” Chen Fei said. “We can pay, if that’s what you require. Spirit stones, perhaps even cores from beasts we’ve encountered.”

Qingzhao’s tongue flicked out, tasting the air. Its eyes narrowed in an unnervingly human expression of suspicion and doubt. “You may leave, or you may perish.”

“We will do neither,” He Yu said. His guandao manifested in his hand, and he planted it in the path beside him.

Great blue and gold wings beat against the air, kicking up dust and grit from the path. All along the mountain slope behind them, bark and needles were stripped from trunk and branch. A path of devastation reached to the very base of the mountain. He Yu and Chen Fei stood their ground, spirits still restrained except for what they needed to stand against Qingzhao’s display. The serpent’s tongue flicked out once again.

“I have given you chance enough.”

Another beat of the serpent’s wings, and it rose into the air above the path. Arcs of lightning reached from wingtip to wingtip—the span between enough to fill the sky. Qingzhao coiled around the sun and opened its mouth. The sky, clear as crystal, poured down heaven and wind and tore apart the mountain. Chunks of earth and stone tumbled down to the desert far below.

He Yu answered in kind. The whole of his cultivation base billowed out, like Qingzhao, releasing the full might of a peak Soul Refining expert upon the world. The sky darkened, then turned black like the deepest night. The only light that remained was that of the flashing clouds and the six pillars that rose around him. He Yu called his own lightning. Arcs of purple and green and gold split the sky and danced between the pillars of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering. Wind curled around He Yu and Qingzhao alike, howling over the slope as rain beat down in steady sheets.

With conflict now inevitable, Chen Fei joined He Yu. She’d long since arrived at the peak of Soul Refining, and her spirit had grown as mighty as ever. A mountain erupted from the bare earth, alone and strong and tall. Veins of metal, a thousand li deep and wide, shot through the rugged stone of its slopes. A single star hung in the sky, directly above the peak, casting gentle light down upon the lone titan. Earth and metal and mountain qi rooted the aspects of wind and sky, threatening He Yu and Qingzhao both, threatening to pull them to earth where their reign of the heavens meant nothing.

Three spirits at the peak of Soul Refining clashed upon the mountain slopes. He Yu had trained against Chen Fei and the others plenty of times. He’d even sometimes exchanged pointers with Tan Zihao. But in the confines of Jade Mountain Citadel, even with the powerful scripts protecting their training area, none of them could unleash their full might. Although he remembered his clash against Tan Qingsheng well, it was nothing compared to this. He Yu had long since accepted the truth that each realm was a wider river than the last. Even so, he wasn’t truly prepared.

In an instant, the mountainside crumbled under the combined weight of their spirits. Heaven split the sky, called down by He Yu and Qingzhao both. Chunks of earth simply vanished where it touched, with great boulders reduced to rubble. Winds with the force of a hundred mighty gales picked up what was left, sending debris crashing into trees, and triggering half a dozen landslides on the nearby peaks. Rain from He Yu’s darkening storm washed away what survived the brush of heaven’s wrath. Earth turned to mud, and half of a mountain collapsed.

Chen Fei’s presence called pillars of stone and walls of earth. She became a bulwark against the collapse of the mountain itself, bolstering the sodden slopes. Veins of metal sent heaven coursing away from where it struck, redirecting the power deep into the earth, where its destruction could be limited. The mountain reformed, earth and stone pushed out from the very roots of the world to fill in the calamity from the heavens, only to be ripped down so it could be built anew once again.

All this, and they’d not yet exchanged any techniques. Once, what seemed like a lifetime ago, Zhang Lifen had told He Yu that a cultivator’s spirit pressed itself upon the world. He’d not fully grasped it then, and with the wisdom of cultivation and age, he knew he only partly grasped it now. He was only of the Sixth Realm—Soul Refining. At the peak, yes, but they still had more realms to go. He Yu held no illusions about where he stood. As vast as his cultivation base had become, it was still a pale candle compared to Jin Xifeng.

Reaching out with his guandao, He Yu called forth Heaven’s Descending Blade. The blackened sky lit up like day once again. Great sheets of lightning poured forth, guided by his formation of the Crashing Wind. Before him, Qingzhao answered in kind. With another beat of blue and gold wings, wind churned the storm, tearing holes in the clouds. Holes where Qingzhao’s own lightning reached down, crashing into He Yu’s technique and spirit both.

Chen Fei strode across the mountains as though they were anthills. The lion’s head helm of the Titan’s Panoply formed over her head, obscuring what He Yu knew to be an expression of grim determination. Her steps crushed entire mountains beneath her feet, and her spirit rebuilt them in her wake. She reached out, gripping Qingzhao in a massive gauntleted hand. Formation characters shone in the storm’s darkness and an explosion of silver sparks accompanied the relentless drumbeat of her strikes.

Qingzhao was not to be outdone. The serpent beat its wings once again and curled around the sky. It called down heaven and summoned the winds. Its spirit crashed over them both, and above, a bronze bell hung in the violent churning air. Struck by an unseen hand, the bell rang out, waves of sound crashing over He Yu and Chen Fei both. The ground broke, becoming like liquid beneath the eternally resounding bell as sound built and built, redoubling and crashing and rising all at once. Stones shattered. Mountains collapsed. Still the sound came, unending.

Three immortal spirits spoke their nature, their truth. Part of what made one a hero was deeds of legend. What sort of legend couldn’t stand against even a Soul Refining beast? Jin Xifeng stood a full two realms above him. Should he want to challenge her, He Yu needed to smash through everything that stood in his way, even if he smashed a stubborn serpent too territorial for its own good. His techniques manifested through his connection with his Dao of Heroism. Regrettable, yes. But also necessary. Not all choices were easy.

By his side, Chen Fei acted as both his shield, and an anchor for his task and purpose. She caught techniques meant for him, turning them aside with formation barriers worthy of rivaling the greatest scriptors’ work. What she couldn’t deflect, she endured. Heaven and wind seemed failed to touch her time and again, glancing off the ever-renewing suit of armor that clad her in a bastion of unassailable might. The Dao of Protection thrummed through her spirit. She took blows that would send a lesser cultivator to their grave, and she returned them a hundred-fold.

The initial clash ended. Techniques faded, their echoes shaking the pillars of heaven and earth. He Yu and Chen Fei stood together, with fist and guandao both held at the ready. One of Qingzhao’s wings twitched, clearly broken in several places. One of its eye oozed half-dried blood, even as Qingzhao forced it open to glare out at them both. He Yu hadn’t escaped unscathed, but Qingzhao had gotten the worse of it by far. Silently, they met each other’s eyes. Qingzhao dipped its head, if only fractionally. Killing intent crashed over the mountains, and the battle rejoined.

A creature such as this had its pride. Even should that pride send it to its grave, Qingzhao would go with its head held high. With no quarter given nor asked, the three spirits renewed their clash. For how long they fought, He Yu couldn’t truly have said. But when at long last it came to an end, He Yu and Chen Fei stood over Qingzhao’s corpse amidst destruction the likes of which he could hardly comprehend. Cradling his arm, broken at some point during the fight, He Yu popped a pill in his mouth and bit down. Medicinal qi flooded his meridians, and his flesh and bones began to stitch themselves back together.

Chen Fei knelt next to the great serpent. “This is valuable material for you,” she said, turning back to He Yu. Outwardly she was in far better shape than he was, owing to the defensive nature of her techniques and her Dao of Protection. Still, He Yu could feel her qi. Her meridians must be screaming at her, after all she’d put herself through.

He wasn’t going to argue. During the battle, he’d seen more than enough of Qingzhao’s cultivation. Wind and heaven were two of the three aspects he cultivated. The core alone would be a powerful boost to his cultivation, even unrefined. If he could match it with a water aspected core or natural treasure? The refiners back at Jade Mountain Citadel could craft a potent elixir using such high-grade ingredients.

Together, they set about to processing the serpent’s remains. As they worked, He Yu couldn’t help but marvel at what they’d done. The surrounding mountains had been leveled and remade countless times during their fight. The peaks that rose to either side of the pass were wholly unrecognizable. The whole of the land around them was scoured of life. The once-densely wooded slopes were all but bare, dotted only with the oldest and heartiest trees and herbs. Plants that had existed long enough and absorbed enough qi that they’d withstood the cataclysm that had raged for over a week. That was, perhaps, the greatest shock. The battle, while he’d been in it, had seemed like it only took moments. But when the skies cleared and they could finally see the moon above, Chen Fei had determined how long they’d been fighting for.

Eventually, they finished peeling back the skin, and set it out to cure. Chen Fei had opened a cave in the mountainside for them to cultivate and wait for the treatment of the serpent’s hide to finish. According to her, it was worth almost as much as the core—it would go a long way to fashioning a potent treasure for He Yu when they turned it over to the Jade Kingdom’s artificers. Although he didn’t yet know what sort of treasure he’d make from it, he’d have plenty of time to decide.

After another week, the skin was done. They rolled it up, and He Yu stowed it in his storage treasure. They’d been left well enough alone while they waited—the fight had chased off anything for a thousand li in any direction. It meant they’d nothing to hunt, but the cores and the meat would have only been a bonus. They still had plenty of spirit stones to replenish their cultivation base with.

Once more, they set off. With Chen Fei on her bronze disc, and He Yu buoyed by the winds themselves, they made their way through the pass. A day later, He Yu caught his first glimpse of the great steppe. Far below, the land was a vast expanse of—well, nothing. Flat. Broken only by low rolling hills, barely tall enough to be called such. The mountains fell sharply towards that grassy plain below, and the sky seemed to carry on for eternity.

Somewhere, deep in the expanse beyond the Mountains of Heaven, lay the key to reaching the Seventh Realm. They key to Divine Body Attainment. Together, He Yu and Chen Fei began their descent.