222. #4,352

The Training Grounds sprawled before Alistair like a monument to controlled violence. Seeing the ocean part like the Red Sea above his head felt strange.

The attendants at the Training Grounds had the funny idea of placing him and Xaden in the first arena. There wasn’t anything different about the stillwater ring, but more eyes were watching.

Alistair spotted several of his friends at the edge of the arena. Red, of course, and then Pristine and Gu Fuhao. Jinti and Nora Seaborn were there as well, giving him a wave, while Thalen and Severus also made an appearance. He felt honored that the 58th-ranked inner disciple Chu Hua (who moved up a spot in the past week) came to see his duel.

People showed that he never would have guessed in a million years—Serena Moonshine, his former opponent in Felons vs. Fellows gave him a flirtatious smile. The ever radiant Nyssara Tiarvon, flanked by two almost auraless men, kept an emotionless visage.

Dev'rox gave him a little shove. “So many great beauties. You can’t disappoint. I’m sure Fuhao will understand if you do a little crowd work. After you win, you should crown one of those ladies as your queen.”

Alistair furrowed his brow. “Is that a tradition here?”

“No, I just thought it’d be funny. An eligible bachelor such as yourself shouldn’t be tied down to any one woman. They’re not worthy.”

“Dev'rox, I really didn’t need to hear that from you.”

Xaden Katronius waited inside the arena, his posture radiating confidence. His appearance wasn’t anything extraordinary—sandy hair cropped military-short with ice-blue eyes that tracked movement with predatory calculation.

There was no doubt he was at the Middle Adept, most likely level 140-148 from his calculations. The liquid and compressed nature of his aura felt markedly different to Alistair’s own.

Xaden Katronious challenges you to a duel.

Rules: No Domain (as per standard).

Alistair stepped into the arena, walking past the stillwater with ease. The moment his head passed through the barrier, the true size of the space became evident, the sleek white floor stretching a mile across.

Is this the true size and the outside is compressed, or is the outside the true size and the inside is expanded? Or does that even matter? Dev'rox, you’re the space guy?

“Figure it out for yourself,” the imp pouted. “You don’t even want my help anymore these days, sending me off on all these missions.”

Alistair shook his head. The arena’s countdown began. Three... two... one...

Like his match against Feng Wei, they started a thousand feet apart.

Unlike Feng Wei, Xaden was a Middle Adept and a fifteen-year veteran of the outer sect. Alistair knew that by dutifully obeying the top dogs, Xaden would bring honor to his family and receive resources that were key to his livelihood.

Such was the way of the world. While his opponent now was much stronger than Feng Wei, Alistair was much stronger than he was back then. Level 109 to level 102 was 7 more in the Adept realm, not to mention his new Threefold-Awakening Mutra states and extra stats.

Dragorphism Cadence became his home, a blood-red aura surrounding his body as scales formed around his eyes.

His opponent took a fighting stance. This time, Alistair would be the aggressor.

With one [Mindshift], he appeared in front of Xaden, arcing his body to throw an earth-shattering punch.

A near skin-tight [Force Fist] careened toward the disciple’s face. Instead of dodging or blocking, Xaden threw his own punch, a bone-encrusted gauntlet forming around his fist in a fraction of a second.

The two of them traded blows. [Force Fist] collided with jaw while the bony punch dug into Alistair’s stomach.

With a flex of his [Steel Body], Alistair mitigated much of the damage, but with their stat differential, it still felt like getting reamed by a sledgehammer. Conversely, he felt his knuckles crack bone.

Xaden didn’t seem to let the attack hurt him, using the momentum to flip around into a spinning back kick. In a more extreme version of Alistair’s joint manipulation, he split open the skin of his ankle and let his foot extend several feet forward via a cord of muscle, nerves, and chain-like bone.

Alistair barely ducked the attached foot, losing a chunk of his voluminous hair. Dragon’s Blood Mastery used his Mana to begin healing the internal damage. His nue clone vanished—either Xaden guessed correctly, or he had a method to detect it, since he had struck Alistair with zero hesitation.

The extended foot returned to its ankle and knitted back together like nothing had happened. All of a sudden, a dozen chunks of bone flew out of Xaden’s skin, rippling and morphing into razor-thin discs in the air.

Show me more, Alistair thought within Dragorphism Cadence, the red aura shimmering. Once he saw his opponent’s arsenal, he could adapt and overcome with ease.

Applying [Dharmic Gaze] to [Reality Sense] allowed him to see the various timelines. The flow of Time was completely different than that of Fate. Mere words couldn’t fully explain the difference. To summarize the practical difference, he found that he didn’t see as deeply, but covered more potential variety.

Additionally, without Karma as a source, he used up Stamina to peer into Time. With his innate Karmic merit, other types of flows would have difficulty seeing into his future.

The bone discs flew at him, spinning at thousands of RPM such that the bodily fluids surrounding their surface flew out like pressurized jet streams.

Alistair activated [Frozen Claw], using the new Tier 4 aspect to fire hundreds of ice senbon at both the discs and the incoming jets. The frozen needles disrupted and froze the liquid while clashing with the discs in miniature explosions.

Each [Frozen Claw] allowed him to manifest around a hundred needles, so he spammed it three times to clear out the attacks. A fourth time went straight toward Xaden himself, but he dodged with practiced ease.

Alistair managed to lodge a single needle into his opponent’s thigh, but the outer disciple merely flexed and it shot out. The wound closed almost instantly after, the amount of spiritual disruption not nearly enough to affect him.

Xaden leaped forward, his legs bending into springs of perfectly efficient compression. Alistair leaned out of the way of his straight punch, but he grew claws out of the sole of his foot to slow himself down to a halt.

An enormous horn shot out of Xaden’s back. Alistair switched into Bodhi Consciousness, flashes of golden lightning appearing around his body, his hair standing on end. He grabbed the horn, yet the force was greater than he expected, impaling his abdomen an inch deep.

Alistair shot forth a [Force Fist] elbow, aiming for Xaden’s ribs. In a move out of his own playbook, the Middle Adept accepted the blow to strike back, going for a bone-encrusted kick toward Alistair’s face.

Time slowed to a halt as he used Dev'rox’s mental processing. Alistair’s [Force Fist] connected a fraction of a second before Xaden’s kick could reach his face. The impact shattered three of Xaden’s ribs with a sickening crack, sending a shockwave through the disciple’s torso.

In that infinitesimal moment between his strike landing and the Middle Adept’s monstrous bone-coated leg striking his face, Alistair activated [Mindshift].

The world blurred into the black-and-white of the mindspace as he vanished, leaving Xaden’s foot to slice through empty air where his nose had been just microseconds before.

Alistair reappeared thirty feet away, switching back to Dragorphism Cadence. His eyes narrowed, listening to the Tune of the Fight as Xaden’s body began rapidly regenerating. Broken ribs visibly reset themselves beneath the skin with audible clicks, splayed flesh knitting itself together.

Xaden’s chest bulged grotesquely as four bony spikes erupted from his sternum. His stomach distended, then he vomited a stream of yellowish-green fluid that hissed as it ate through the arena floor, spreading rapidly in all directions.

Through [Reality Sense], he saw that the upper layer of the floor was much less dense than the true boundary, but even still, anything that acidic would eat through his body like hydrochloric acid through a hamburger.

While he kept spewing more and more acid, the #4,352 ranked disciple thrust his palms forward. Jets of blood sprayed from newly formed holes on his wrists, flowing in sharpened crescents on top of the acid.

There was a foreign Dao present in those attacks, one that Alistair had never encountered before.

“It feels multivalent to me, combining a Dao of the Nexus of the Nature and the Nexus of Manifestation,” Dev'rox offered.

Alistair launched a counter-attack with [Frozen Claws], creating thousands of ice senbon to intercept the blood crescents. The frozen needles and blood waves collided mid-air, creating a mist of pink-tinged ice crystals that hung suspended for a moment before showering down.

Switching for a brief moment to Dualist Impermanence, two [Frozen Claws] pierced the tidal wave of acid. While his body appeared to onlookers as a haze on a hot summer’s day, his power was anything but uncertain. Alistair froze potent stomach acid into frosted ice in mere seconds, his state allowing him to subvert Xaden’s Dao with minimal usage of his own.

As the crystal acid and blood hail fell, Xaden charged.

His arms elongated unnaturally, bone spurs erupting out of the radius and ulna. Twin bone lances flew toward Alistair, bolstered by his arms tearing apart at the seams.

Instead of dodging, Alistair stepped forward, intentionally allowing one bone lance to pierce through his shoulder. [Steel Body] and his increased Constitution blunted the impact, preventing it from fully goring him.

Gripping the bone lance with the opposite hand, Alistair channeled [Lightning of Justice] with a tenth of his nue pool.

Because they were already connected, the golden lightning struck nigh-instantaneously. With reactions almost equal to Alistair’s own, Xaden severed his own arm with a spray of blood, only getting struck with the less powerful splitting bolts of lightning.

The Middle Adept leaped backward, his severed arm already regenerating. Even the electric burns from the lightning were fading fast. With a flick of his wrist, the discarded limb suddenly animated, exploding into a swarm of bone shards that shot toward Alistair from below.

[Monk Motionlessness] detected the threat first, so he switched to Bodhi Consciousness. Alistair twisted his body and avoided the majority, but several shards embedded themselves across his core and limbs.

Alistair flexed with [Steel Body], not letting the shards penetrate more than half an inch, but Xaden wasn’t done.

With the flex of his aura, he channeled Dao energy, cracking the sealed ice strewn about the arena. The acid rose from the ashes, forming humanoid figures that stumbled toward Alistair.

At the same time, Xaden’s body distorted grotesquely, his skeletal structure visibly shifting. His ribcage expanded outward into an armored carapace, while his skin split apart, allowing for muscle and bone to show through.

Alistair decided it was time to test another weapon in his arsenal. Through his connection to Ashendar, he summoned the red dragon’s power. Dragonfire flowed from his soulcore onto the tip of his finger.

The dragonfire condensed down even further than Alistair had ever tried before, accelerated by experience with the substance. A single point of red-orange flame shone with white hot brilliance.

From the tiny point no larger than a pea, a devastating cone of destruction emerged. The acid constructs vaporized instantly with shrill hisses as the conflagration carved through everything, so intense that the oxygen in the air vanished.

With such a heavy concentration, once the flames struck the floor, they billowed outward. Eventually, the entire mile-long arena was covered in fire. The thermobaric explosions helped disperse the flames, taking several seconds to die down.

Xaden stood encased in what appeared to be a cocoon of carbonized bone. The blackened shell cracked and fell away, revealing the Middle Adept relatively unharmed but surprised by the sheer power of the attack, which had incorporated almost 1,000 points of Mana.

I see, Alistair thought as he analyzed the threads of Dao energy and Mana running through Xaden’s body and bone cocoon with [Reality Sense]. The orchestra crescendoed, new notes appearing as he started to understand Xaden better.

Xaden wasted no time launching his counterattack. His arms melted into his body, reforming as eight blade-like appendages of hardened bone and cartilage. He charged with shocking speed, his transformed body becoming a whirlwind of bladed limbs.

Alistair engaged the disciple in hand-to-hand combat, or should he say, hand-to-bone saw of death combat.

Even with all his innate skill and Dragorphism Cadence backing him up, it was a tall task. As they became a blur of blows, Alistair got put on the back foot. There were just too many limbs, and all of them were just as fast as him, albeit with inferior reflexes.

It was a testament to the gap between Middle and Early Adept. Despite being presumably an Endurance-based cultivator, Xaden’s Agility was around equal to his own.

Every second, over a dozen cuts appeared all over his body. Inner leg, outer forearm, cheek, chest, and abdomen. Alistair would only land a single punch for every five slices, falling short against the power of eight-bladed arms.

His saving grace was Spiritual Fighter’s Echo. While only inflicting minor damage, the fact that each punch came with an aftershock added up over time.

Alistair threw a jab. Two blades sliced his forearm while another two arms intercepted the punch. He used that as an opportunity to activate [Blood Hand] and {Crimson Bones}, spears of blood affinity Mana and real bone alike exploding out of his arm and piercing the enemy.

All the while, the Tune of the Fight blared in his mind. A path to victory opened up. Nothing in this world could not be overcome with adaptation. Humanity would never stop progressing, never stop evolving.

Man approaching the Heavens.

Xaden slammed both palms into the ground. The arena floor rippled like water as hundreds of bone spikes erupted in a wave pattern racing toward Alistair.

Alistair [Mindshifted] a hundred feet into the sky to avoid the bone wave. Xaden anticipated the evasion, his jaw unhinging and stretching impossibly wide as a concentrated jet of stomach acid shot upward.

The pressurized acid pierced straight through his stomach. Xaden lifted his head, allowing it to cut through a five-inch stretch of flesh before Alistair [Mindshifted] again.

The moment his feet touched the ground, bone whips formed from the earlier spikes wrapped around both his and the nue clone’s legs. Xaden controlled the whips with his fingertips on all eight hands.

The whips, full of Dao energy that spoke to truths of bodily authority and regeneration, lifted Alistair and slammed him into the ground repeatedly. The Dao restricted his movement Skill and etherealization, allowing no easy escape.

BOOM! Each impact drove the bone fragments deeper into his flesh. His vision blurred. The sheer brutality and force that a Middle Adept could impart was unreal.

More, he thought within the raging torrent of Dragorphism Cadence. His dragonlike greed drove him mad as his consciousness began to fade. Push further.

Dragon’s Blood Mastery went into overtime to heal the blunt force trauma and gored abdomen. Internal organs knitted themselves back together, internal bleeding reversing. His neurons revived and re-established connections.

Alistair felt his body break apart. Only five seconds of getting slammed and his bones were breaking too fast for his regeneration to handle. What felt like gallons of blood from the previous lacerations and bone shards on top of the internal bleeding accumulated on the sleek white floor of the arena.

Another second passed. CRACK! His skull split open for a moment, blood rushing out his head. It was now or never.

With a tremendous effort, he channeled [Blood Hand] on top of his freehand shaping. His own spilled blood had finally accumulated enough volume. The sanguine liquid rose from the arena floor, filled with the Dao of the Ghost and Fist, hardening into crystalline spears that severed the bone whips.

Freed but severely wounded, Alistair staggered to his feet. Blood soaked his robes. His breathing was labored, all his organ systems still barely functioning.

Alistair entered Dualist Impermanence, flushing out the foreign Dao from where the whips cut him.

Xaden pressed his advantage, believing Alistair was near defeat. His entire torso split open vertically, internal organs shifting to make way for a massive column of fused bone that coalesced at his centerline.

Bone spurs erupted from every surface of his body. With a guttural sound, the Middle Adept initiated his final technique.

His body began to shudder violently. Skin bulged in dozens of places as if something was trying to break free from within. Blood vessels rose to the surface, pulsating visibly. His eyes rolled back, showing only whites.

With a sound like tearing fabric, his entire body exploded outward, sending a shockwave of bone shrapnel, blood, and acidic fluids in all directions.

The explosion was meant to be impossible to dodge—a spherical kill zone extending hundreds of feet in every direction. Normal cultivators would be shredded instantly.

That was exactly what he had been waiting for.

The tenebrous aura of Dualist Impermanence came first. Alistair applied this to [Frozen Claw] once more, attacking the massive amount of Dao energy within the explosion.

While he used his ice affinity Skill, he did three more things. First, he activated [Draconic Roar]. Second, he etheralized his body with the Dao of the Ghost. Third, even in his ghostly form, he flexed every muscle so tight his bones ached and strained.

Remnants of bone shrapnel, acidic fluid, and blood crashed into his body, [Frozen Claw] and [Draconic Roar] unable to handle everything.

In his ghostly, etherealized state, most passed through him—yet not all, lingering Dao energy striking his ghost body.

Pain flared across his spectral form. Ghost and flesh, ethereal and physical, somehow coexisting in a paradoxical state. Even as the bone fragments passed through his incorporeal form, Alistair maintained his flexed muscles, his physical flesh somehow exerting force despite not truly being there.

The contradiction created a resonance between states of being. Alistair’s understanding of the inner workings of his flesh reached the zenith. The severe injuries he had sustained earlier helped his understanding, remembering how his body had used blood essence to recover. [Steel Body] reached its absolute limit, forced to reconcile opposing truths.

[Steel Body] achieved its special upgrade function, reaching a new form.

The [Steel Body] was not just a physical attribute, but a state of being. The Skill evolved to encompass the paradox, allowing Alistair’s skeletal structure to exist partially in the ethereal plane while maintaining physical substance. His bones became physically tougher yet also more spiritual.

At the center of the fading explosion, protected by a small casing of plasma, floated Xaden’s intact brain. Already, tendrils of biological material were spreading outward as the Middle Adept began reformation at an astonishing pace.

Dragorphism Cadence had recorded every aspect of Xaden’s abilities, compiling a perfect counter-strategy. The Tune of the Fight presented a set of melodies that he followed to a tee. The red aura of the state appeared once more as he analyzed the reformation process.

Xaden’s brain was sending out pulses of Dao energy, each signaling to construct a different part of his anatomy in careful sequence—skeletal structure first, then nerves, blood vessels, organs, muscle tissue, fat, and finally skin.

Time to interrupt the rhythm.

Alistair summoned the remainder of Ashendar’s dragonfire, directing it at the nascent bone structure forming around the brain casing.

The red-orange flames engulfed the emerging skeleton, superheating calcium deposits and preventing crystallization. Without proper bone structure, the rest of the regeneration process would falter.

Xaden’s brain pulsed desperately, redirecting energy to counter the dragonfire. Heat-resistant muscle fibers attempted to form directly—an impressive adaptation.

Perfect. Just as expected.

Alistair switched tactics, [Mindshifting] forward and unleashing [Blood Hand]. Spikes of blood affinity Mana speared the muscle, absorbing the life force.

But that wasn’t all. As the nerves began forming, he countered those too, with a [Lightning of Justice] that interrupted the bioelectrical signals.

The Middle Adept’s brain casing began to vibrate as it fought to adapt to this new assault. Blood vessels sprouted rapidly, seeking to cool overheating tissues and deliver emergency resources.

One might think that [Blood Hand] would be the best counter, but that was fighting life force with life force. Alistair wasn’t sure if he was up to challenge a Middle Adept body cultivator in that field.

Instead, he used [Frozen Claw], crystallizing the blood vessels. With each adaptation Xaden attempted, Alistair was one step ahead, overwhelming the process through counters rather than brute strength alone.

Finally, as a last desperate measure, Xaden's brain casing began to secrete a thick, transparent membrane—a pure distillation of his body’s healing essence.

Alistair struck with a perfectly timed [Force Fist], the truths of the Fist echoing through the Dao.

One truth became clear. No matter what the defense, no matter how well-made or the quality of the material, all defenses eventually would fall to a perfectly placed strike.

Ripples of coral-colored Mana and Dao energy spread through the healing essence like cracks in glass, disrupting the fundamental principle itself.

Where the healing membrane tried to adapt, it encountered Spiritual Fighter’s Echo as Alistair continuously struck with nearly a hundred [Force Fists], exhausting the last of his Mana pool.

The arena’s barriers flashed red once, signaling the end of the duel.

Winner:

Alistair Tan

Outer Disciple Rank: 6,875 -> 6,621

(Merit Points: 4,235 -> 4,458)

Loser:

Xaden Katronius

Outer Disciple Rank: 4,352 -> 4,499

Xaden’s brain, suddenly free from Alistair’s constant pressure, slowly reformed. He redirected the energy to form eyes, a mouth, and ears, which looked very strange as his brain sat on the ground.

“You weren’t even fully serious,” the mouth said quietly. “You let yourself get hit. You were testing yourself the entire time.”

Alistair nodded. It wasn’t as if Xaden Katronius hadn’t been an opponent that tested his limits, but he did accept more damage than necessary to evolve [Steel Body].

If we had fought in the real world, there’s no telling how it would have gone. A Middle Adept’s Domain contains a First Law, plus he probably has a life-saving treasures.

But still, his victory over a man over thirty levels higher was an accomplishment to be proud of.

Alistair waited ten more seconds for Xaden to fully reform. The fact that he could even still remake his body after that beating was impressive, as the arena only healed the fatal blow.

There was something off about his new body, which he quickly covered in a robe of hair, but it would do for now. Alistair helped the disciple up to his feet in a display of sportsmanship that had the crowd applauding.

Truth be told, he had exhausted nearly all his Stamina and Mana himself. But he sucked it up and showed no sign of weakness.

As they exited the arena, Alistair’s friends rushed forward with expressions of concern and admiration. Dev'rox smiled inside his soul, giving him a nod of approval.

Alistair’s attention, however, was already elsewhere—analyzing his newly upgraded [Steel Body].

Korinth Kaevor was trying to take him down, and he wasn’t going to go gently into the good night.