Stella charged toward the Lunarshade guards, but it was hard to focus. Headache aside, it was rather distracting to have the philosophy and teachings of the Supreme Nirvana Finger technique forcefully passed down to her via the chorus of her ancestors.
Humans fear scorpion tails and ant stings, so why wouldn't the gods fear the wrath of humankind's finger?
It's not about the size of one's weapon but its capability to kill.
Swords breed fear in the enemy, raising their guard. Nobody fears a finger.
Through all the conflicting lessons shouted at her and the tingling feeling of the technique returning to her like an old trained muscle, Stella inferred that the Supreme Nirvana Finger technique had multiple stages.
Stage one was all about understanding Nirvana. From the visions and memories playing in her mind, it seemed that cultivators of this technique usually began by meditating on the concept of Nirvana, learning to detach from desires and emotions, which helps stabilize and purify their inner energy.
As lofty as that sounds, this really means purging the body of heart demons and maintaining a clear mind while fighting, as the technique demands an immense amount of Qi to be concentrated into a single point before striking. Stella mused. I have Ash's truffles to purge my heart demons, the passive effect of my bloodline keeps me calm in battle, and my spirit roots are so pure that I can freely control the Qi in my body with ease. Why do I feel like I am cheating sometimes?
Having already completed stage one, Stella focused on stage two, the art of Qi Gathering. This was the main part of the technique and was quite simple. All she had to do was condense her Qi into an extremely dense state in her finger, allowing explosive power to be channeled through minimal physical movement.
When I killed the first guard, I rammed my finger all the way into his brain, but against weaklings like these, a simple tap should be enough.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Deciding to test the technique on the fly, Stella calmly stepped within strike range of a Lunarshade cultivator at the forefront of the group rushing toward her. His face was red, twisted in rage, and he bared his teeth as he went for a wide swing. "Die, you crazy bitch," he shouted as a white glow reminiscent of condensed moonlight covered his entire body and sword.
He is being empowered by the moonlight but is only in the late stages of the Soul Fire Realm, as I don't feel the pressure of a Star Core. This will be a good test of this technique's piercing power. Stella took a half step backward and leaned back so the sword harmlessly passed her over her chest. Straightening up with a grin, she reached forward and gently placed her index finger on the man's forehead as he tried to recover his stance from overswinging.
"Goodbye," Stella said.
"Wha—" The man's eyes widened before Stella unleashed all the dense 6th stage Star Core Qi she had condensed into a single point at her fingertip. The spot on his forehead rippled as the spatial Qi pulsed out. Unable to resist the attack, the moonlight energy shrouding him dispersed in a wave, and his head exploded backward, showering the other cultivators in blood and cutting them with shards of flying bone.
The headless corpse collapsed like a sack of potatoes at Stella's feet to the beat of the gong from the Holy Moon Gambling house. The alarm was still ongoing, so it was up to the people hiding inside to either come out and fight or flee.
Despite the easy victory, Stella frowned as she looked at her finger. I guess it works, but I could have achieved the same thing with a punch or sword swing for a tenth of the Qi. Also, I have to direct all my Qi to my fingertip, leaving the rest of the body less defended. I suppose this technique would be ideal for assassinating people or piercing someone's defenses, but against these weaklings, this is a real waste.
Stella lept backward to put some space between herself and the Lunarshade guards as her Qi recovered. Now that she was further away, she realized another issue.
Unlike a sword, a finger has no range. I had to get up close to use the technique, which was fine against these guards. But what if I was against a void cultivator? That would be far too risky.
Stella sighed as she calmly gazed at the other Lunarshade guards, who were wide-eyed from the shock of seeing one of their own killed in such a brutal way. Their faces and white robes were stained red from the blast, and there was a carpet of blood between them and Stella.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Unfortunately, she had run her mouth and promised to defeat everyone here with a single finger, so she would have to shed her tears over the wasted Qi later and suck it up for now.
"Come at me," Stella said as if bored, beckoning them to come closer with her finger. The five cultivators all stared at her gesturing finger, which she had used to kill the last two and didn't dare step forward.
"Got cold feet? Fine, let's make this quick and easy then." Stella used the Supreme Nirvana Finger, drawing most of the Qi in her body toward her index finger.
Now, who should I target this time? Stella narrowed her eyes at the Lunarshade guards. In the middle of the group was an older-looking woman who was bald and had no eyebrows, which Stella found rather odd. She also seems to be the strongest left in the group as a first-stage Star Core, so I should eliminate her next. Once all of these people are dead, I will have fulfilled my promise to my ancestors and can go back to using my sword instead of this wasteful finger technique.
Stella used Spatial Step to close the gap, but to her surprise, she was flung out of the technique early, stumbling before the bald woman instead of appearing behind like she had intended. Barely managing to catch her footing, she found herself surrounded and confused.
What the hell happened? Stella wondered and searched for the answer by looking within. All of her Qi was greedily consumed by the Supreme Nirvana Finger technique, meaning there wasn't enough left over for a Qi-intensive technique like Spatial Step.
Having found the problem, Stella faced a more imminent threat. She was surrounded, and the bald woman staring her down was in the Star Core Realm. Although a few stages below her, Stella's life was in danger as she had recklessly consumed all of her Qi.
Luckily, her bloodline kept her calm in such a situation, so she worked without hesitation to eliminate the strongest target. Armed with nothing but a death's touch, Stella moved her body to ram her finger into the woman's chest with the intent of blowing her heart to pieces.
The bald woman answered her attack in kind by reaching up with her free hand and grabbing Stella's wrist, holding it an inch away from her robes. To Stella's surprise, she didn't have the strength to wrestle out of the woman's grip.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"You caught the other two by surprise," the woman mocked as she pushed Stella's hand away to a safe distance. "But now that I know your trick, what will you do?"
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Stella twisted her wrist and curled her finger so it touched the woman's wrist. "I will do this." There was a moment of realization on the bald woman's face before Stella unleashed the stored-up Qi straight into her hand. A pulse of spatial Qi erupted out, making the air ripple—washing away the bald woman's moonlight protection and obliterating her hand and part of her arm in a shower of blood.
That should buy me some time—Stella shelved that thought as the bald woman was unfazed by her missing hand and used her other to swing her moonlight-wreathed sword downward—oh shit.
Stella managed to tilt her body to the side to avoid the blade from splitting her head open like an egg, but the sword came too fast to entirely avoid and bit into her shoulder. She hissed through gritted teeth as a sharp pain like no other informed her of the deep wound and broken shoulder bones.
At this moment, Stella finally realized she had been blinded by arrogance. These opponents were indeed beneath her in terms of cultivation. But she had handicapped herself to bait her ancestors into giving her a technique she was undeserving of, that she had no experience using, and learning its limitations in actual combat.
She dropped to one knee, as she didn't have enough Qi within her body to resist the downward force of the bald woman's sword. She noticed the surrounding cultivators raising their hands, and after a flash of moonlight energy, her body was encased in ice. It burned her skin and made her want to scream.
"Stella!" Ashlock's voice thundered in her mind.
"Tree... help..." Stella gasped out.
"Muttering nonsense before your execution?" The bald woman sneered as she raised the sword above her head. Her eyes were ice cold, and Stella noticed the woman's hand rapidly regrowing from the moonlight. "I will bring your head to the Lord so he may claim your bounty."
No! I don't want to die. Stella's eyes widened as she pushed as much Qi as she could muster into her earrings. The woman glaring down at her briefly faltered under Stella's gaze, which is what she had hoped for. However, due to the earrings' activation, the calmness of her bloodline faded alongside the whispers, as she had gone against her promise of only using her finger. Perhaps as punishment, she now had a pounding headache reminiscent of the backlash she suffered from overusing her ability at the alchemy tournament.
Movement techniques are fine, but outside help from an artifact seems to have angered my ancestors. I guess they dislike borrowing power from someone else. Stella frowned. She had not only shamed herself but also her bloodline, which she didn't think would bother her, but weirdly, it did.
A sudden wrathful pressure blanketed the area, carried by a howling wind that made all the Lunarshade guards stumble back and cover their faces. Meanwhile, Stella could only look up as a crack appeared in the sky and the wind rustled her hair. For a moment, she thought it was her ancestors deciding to smite her down, but to her relief, her opponents had angered an evil god.
Looks like my carelessness has made Tree angry. Stella smiled wearily through the pain and felt rather pathetic having to be saved by her Dad while fighting such weak opponents, but it would be a lie to say she wasn't relieved.
"What is happening?" the bald woman shouted to her subordinates as she blinked away the madness and ignored Stella in favor of watching the sky being torn apart into a colossal rift.
"We don't know," one of the other cultivators replied.
"Contact the Grand Elder!" another shouted, "Tell him his son is about to be attacked by an unknown powerhouse."
"By who, though?!" A third one shouted.
"You hurt a Princess," Stella muttered over the chaotic wind, "So now you face the King."
The bald woman glared at her, unable to get close due to the wind, "Still uttering such delusions, you crazed drunk?" She pointed to the sky and screamed over the howling wind, "That's the power of a Nascent Soul Realm or even a Monarch Realm cultivator, not some fake King of your unknown Ashfallen Sect. I know the name and powers of every reported Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, and none of them can open such a rift! How can you look so smug? You are going to die alongside the rest of us."
Stella looked up at the rift with a warm smile as her hair was tossed about in the wind. "I wouldn't be so sure."
"Oh yeah? I will cut you down myself then."
"Threatening me in this situation is a bad idea," Stella said simply, angering the woman further.
"What nonsense—" A shadow loomed overhead, followed by the entire ground trembling as the bald woman was pulverized under a fist of black wood.
Stella grinned at the towering Ent of black wood, which looked down at her with two burning eyes of lilac flames. "Thank you, Titus!"
"M-Monster..." one of the Lunarshade guards dropped his sword and turned to run. A smaller portal appeared behind him, and a black vine ending in a giant spike shot out and impaled him. He let out a loud gasp as the air escaped his lungs and was then dragged away back to Red Vine Peak.
The other guards met a similar fate, including the ones Diana was battling with. In a mere moment, Ash had come in and wiped the battlefield clean.
Stella sighed in relief, "Phew, that was almost bad..."
"Are you alright, Stella?" Ash asked in a panic, "Just hold on. I am sending more help."
"What?" Stella shouted in surprise. The battle was over. "There's no need—"
Alas, her overprotective Dad wouldn't listen to her.
The ground trembled again as Ent's began raining from the sky and surrounded her. Sol kneeled before her, fished out multiple wisps of light, and pressed them into her body to heal her wounds.
"Tree, this is embarrassing," Stella grumbled as Titus channeled spatial Qi into her body, and Zeus carefully used his lightning to melt away the ice encasing her body.
"This is the least I can do. They dared to hurt you, so now I will kill them all," Ash replied nonchalantly.
"But it was my fault." Stella sighed. I was also the one brutally killing them in the first place...
"Stella, there is only one thing I care about in this world: those under the Ashfallen Sect. Let me show these moon-loving bastards what this false King can do when they hurt one of my own."
He is serious. Stella gulped. This was the most angry she had ever heard him.
The doors to the Holy Moon Gambling house swung open, and a giant bald-headed man with pupilless eyes adorned in an extravagant bathrobe, assisted in walking by a group of beautiful cultivators, stepped outside and glared up at the rift overhead.
"Who dares slaughter my guards?" the man bellowed to the sky, his voice carried by Qi.
"Is that Albis Lunarshade?" Ash asked.
Stella shook her head, "No."
"No?" Ash questioned while barely holding back his rage.
Stella summoned her sword to her hand and rolled her shoulders. Thanks to Titus, she was now filled with enough Qi to fight. She turned on her heel and used Spatial Step to catch up to a fleeing Seth.
Seth turned in time to meet her sword with his own in a shower of sparks. After the brief exchange, they parted.
"How did you know?" Seth asked as the wind from Ashlock's pressure made his hood fly back, revealing a bald head.
"Where do I even begin? You knew far too much about Albis Lunarshade for an Iron Seeker bounty hunter. The robes barely managed to hide your broad figure, and weirdly, the bald woman guard knew about me and my bounty as if she had been warned beforehand, which only you should have known about. However, most importantly," Stella pointed her sword to the moon, "Even though you haven't revealed your soul flames once, I noticed you grew in strength and speed once the moon appeared. From all of this, I deduced you are Albis Lunarshade, which means the fat bastard that just came out of the pavilion must be your Father, the Grand Elder of house Lunarshade."
Albis Lunarshade removed his mask to reveal his hairless face and pupilless eyes, which made Stella shiver a little at how soulless and creepy he looked. Evelyn had to endure this person for so many years? No wonder she hates Nox with a burning passion.
"Smart girl," Albis said with a shark-like grin. "After hearing the Lotus Informant we pay off shout out your name, I had hoped to claim your high bounty for myself without getting my Father involved. But now that you have killed his guards and insulted him, I fear this has escalated beyond my original intentions. It was nice knowing you, but there is no hope for you to leave this place alive."
He speaks as if he will survive after angering Tree. Stella shook her head. What a foolish man.
"Bold words for a family about to face extinction."
Albis raised a hairless brow at her bold words, but his smile soon faded as a second pressure descended upon the battlefield, and the sky darkened even further. The stars and moonlight vanished under a sprawling cloud of silver ash originating from the rift.
Stella smiled as the guardian beast of the Ashfallen Sect graced the battlefield with his presence, and the cloud began to condense into the shape of a spider that loomed overhead.
"What in the nine realms is that?" Albis muttered in disbelief.
Stella kept quiet, enjoying his confusion as His Highness King Larry, the Herald of the Divine Ash, descended to eliminate those who stood in his Master's way.
Tonight, there would be a slaughter.
