Master, This Poor Disciple Died Again Today

Chapter 590: Blood vs. Death

Hui fired another of the void attacks at her. She dodged back, darting into the trees, and vanished. He stood over the teleportation formation, waiting.

Fundamentally, I’ve already lost this battle. She’s fighting me from a clone, and only has to reach the teleportation formation to win. Her life isn’t at stake, and on top of that, she has a win condition beyond killing me. I, on the other hand, need to destroy that clone of hers—that I already know can withstand a void attack—and steal back the orb. So I also have an alternative win condition… but if I succeed, she can always keep fighting me in an attempt to kill me and take it back, whereas if she succeeds in getting to the teleportation formation, I lose.

He glanced down at the stakes. There’s no real point in disrupting the visible part of the formation. The spell is actually tethered to the qi vein in the earth, not the stakes, after all. Although they’ll cause the spell to slowly break down if they aren’t in place, they won’t cause the spell to dissipate quickly enough for it to make a difference to me. Better to leave the stakes so I know where the spell is.

I might have started from a losing position… but that doesn’t matter. One way or another, I’m taking my children back.

And it’s not as if I have no tricks up my sleeves.

A droplet of blood flew at him from behind one of the trees. Hui extended the outer layer of his barrier technique to meet it. The second the two touched, the barrier shattered.

Hui’s eyes widened. This is only half her strength? She must be peak seventh realm, maybe even eighth realm. I can’t let my guard down, even facing half her might. Hui drew in his barriers and gestured. A duck flew forth, hurtling toward the blood droplet. It snapped it up, then stopped. Its body trembled.

Huh? I thought it was just a highly-concentrated blood qi attack. The death ducks can’t handle it?

With a floomf, the death duck’s body fattened, instantly going from sleek duck to the kind of chonk more associated with broiler chickens and the original Fatty. A pleased expression on its face, it waddled back toward Hui and fell into his dantian more than flew.

Ah. I suppose it was highly concentrated, then. Something like highly concentrated calories, from the death ducks’ perspective! Oh well. As long as the death ducks and I can handle it. Hui extended his barrier again, waiting for the next attack.

A ring of blood closed in around him, flying toward where he stood. Shue Yinyue darted forth from behind it, charging for the teleportation formation.

Trying to force me out of the formation so she can activate it and escape? No, no. This small cultivator won’t allow it!

Hui gestured again. A dozen death ducks lifted out from his dantian and flew around him, forming a ring of death qi. The death qi ring clashed into the blood qi ring. The two wobbled, fighting against one another. The blood qi began to overwhelm the death qi ring. It absorbed it and pressed inward, flying toward Hui.

Shue Yinyue laughed. “A freshly ascended seventh-realm cultivator? You don’t stand a chance. Flee now. I have no reason to kill you, as long as I can take these children!”

The blood qi ring closed in around Hui. Closer and closer, hurtling shut. Shue Yinyue followed it at a pace’s distance. Reaching behind her, she drew out blood-colored needles. “And if you won’t flee—”

“Elder Sister, do I look like the type to flee?” Hui snapped his fingers.

Don’t misjudge me. I’d play dead first!

Black corrupted its way through the blood qi, patchy black death qi splotches breaking through the red blood qi until none of the blood qi remained. Hui spread his hand, and the ring flew outward, hurtling toward Shue Yinyue instead of him.

Shue Yinyue’s eyes widened. The ring bit into her body and sliced it in half. Blood dripped down. “You—you—”

The blood reached her lower half, and instantly congealed. She reformed, only a few centimeters shorter where the ring had passed through her. The shock on her face morphed into derision as her true emotions shone through. Patting her stomach, she laughed in his face. “Did you think that was enough to kill me?”

“Naturally not, Elder Sister,” Hui returned. Darting his hand forward, he latched onto her neck in the blink of an eye. His hand curled into a claw, and a strange dark aura surrounded it as he activated the barrier-melting-hand man’s technique. The technique flayed the blood clone apart. Bits of blood and flesh flew everywhere as the qi holding them together fell apart.

Hui grinned. As I thought! The blood clone isn’t a true body. Slash it, hack it, crush it… as long as one drop of blood remains, it can reform… though it might be a bit small by that point. However, it doesn’t matter if the blood remains if the qi structure that holds it together has been destroyed!

Hmm, that barrier-melting-hand man… I wonder if he realized the true potential of his technique? A skill like this has almost no limits! Using it on barriers is such a waste! This can be used to break any spell, maybe even wreck secret realms—

Hui’s dantian whirled at top speed. Even then, qi rapidly sucked out of him. The melting technique slowed as his qi supply dwindled. He took a deep breath, breathing in the qi around him to replenish his supply, but that barely put a dent in the amount of qi the technique drew out of him.

No, no. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Hui. It’s a powerful technique, but even decaying this much of Shue Yinyue is exhausting me. I think… if I had to guess, the deeper entrenched the spell is, the more powerful the qi, the more difficult it is for the technique to decay it away. Something like an attack spell or barrier is easy to destroy, and certainly, gripping an unprepared person by the body could ruin their qi passages, but up against a well-formed spell or secret realm? I’d still have an easier time and use less qi to directly unravel the spell than to treat this as a hammer and go around using it to hammer through secret realms.

Still, it’s a valuable technique to have!

Shue Yinyue jerked away from him. Hui flew with her, pushing his hand deeper into her rapidly-decaying body. A little more…!

Bai Xue’s voice echoed in his head. Hui! I need more qi!

Hui bit his lip. Now? Ah—sorry, Elder Sister! I’m fighting… a dangerous opponent, and she has our children! I have no qi to spare!

She has our children? You’ve found our children?

Overhead, a sudden blast of fire burst out. The man with the barrier-melting hand flew back, limp as a ragdoll. A supernova-bright fireball slammed down toward Shue Yinyue from on high, a meteor from heaven. Within, Bai Xue’s face distorted from hatred. “Give them back!”

From afar, a bolt of white swordlight shot forth. Li Xiang closed in from the other side, her face as unreadable as ever, but her eyes alight with fury.

Caught between the three of them, Shue Yinyue’s eyes widened, in true fear this time. She curled her body up and transformed into an orb of blood. A thick shell of crystallized blood formed around her, deflecting Hui’s hand away. He caught a brief glimpse of the dark orb that held their children before it vanished into the shell.josei

From within the shell, her voice echoed out. “You will never break through my blood barrier!”

Li Xiang’s eyes glittered. She raised her sword.

Bai Xue harrumphed. He sped up, hurtling toward the ball. “We’ll see about that.”

Hui fell back, giving the two room for their attacks. Ah… small cultivator should take care to avoid getting caught up in a mother’s fury!