"Die!" Teng Wuba shouted.
The moment Leng Jufeng raised the spear to its highest point, Teng Wuba's skin took on a bloody color as a red mist began to pour out of his pores. Teng Wuba's body blurred, and the next thing Leng Junfeng knew, the sword tip was a mere millisecond away from piercing his eye.
Teng Wuba revealed a toothy smile as blood splashed into the air.
"Ahhh!" Leng Junfeng screamed as he backed away, one hand clutching his bleeding eye.
"You deserve to die!" Teng Wuba shouted as if mad. He swung his sword crazily with no semblance of swordsmanship. It would have been more effective if he had a bludgeon instead of a sword in his current berserker state.
Leng Junfeng continued to retreat. Blood coated the right side of his face and marred his spear shaft. The sound of metal striking metal continued to ring as he tried his best to block Teng Wuba's furious strikes. Each time the sword struck his spear, Leng Junfeng felt his hands turn numb from the sheer strength behind each sword strike.
'He must have used a forbidden technique to increase his strength. I just need to outlast him.' Leng Junfeng thought as he gritted his teeth and ignored the increasing numbness crawling up his arms.
Teng Wuba continued his raining strikes even as his clothes were dyed red from his blood. The whites of his eyes started to become tinged with blood, and a devilish light exuded from his pupils. In the next few moments, Teng Wuba noticeably shriveled.
His face became gaunt, making his eyes bulge out, creating a terrifying face. His clothes were like two sizes too big, like clothes on a scarecrow. His hands were muscleless, just skin on bones, and most terrifying of all, Teng Wuba's strength was still rising.
Clang!
Leng Junfeng's breath stilled as Teng Wuba knocked his spear out of his hand. Left with no other choice, Leng Junfeng crossed his arms in front of him as Teng Wuba raised the sword high above his head and brought it down.
Time seemed to stop for Leng Junfeng. Everything slowed to a crawl; he could see the beat of a mosquito's wings. As the sword slowly descended, Leng Junfeng could see Teng Wuba's wide grin turn into a face-splitting grin. His eyes had perfectly merged with his bloody skin, and the only thing marking them as eyes were the devilish light.
Leng Junfeng felt himself slowly fall backward as the blade sunk into his arm's flesh. Just as he was resigned to losing his arms, if not his life, the sword stilled and seemed to have lost all force. The next moment, Teng Wuba collapsed onto Leng Junfeng.
The silence engulfed the whole mountain, with the only sound of Leng Junfeng gasping for air like a drowning man. Moments later, he pushed Teng Wuba's force off of him and glanced at his enemy, a smile eternally frozen on that ghoulish face.
"Junfeng!" Li Qiu'ai was the first to rush up. She took out medical supplies and moved to wrap Leng Junfeng's injuries.
"He won't need it," Fenghua said as she floated down next to Leng Junfeng. "Give me your arm."
Leng Junfeng held his injured arm up for Fenghua. She held his injured arm in her left hand and raised her right hand. A white flame appeared on Fenghua's hand, and she placed it on his injured arm. Leng Junfeng instinctively retracted his arm. Or would have if his arm wasn't frozen in Fenghua's vice-like grip.
"It's a pity. If you lost your arm, I could have refined a rocket fist for you in place of it," Fenghua said.
"Okay?" Leng Junfeng said. 'What is a rocket fist, some kind of fist technique? What does rocket even mean?'
Under the astonished eyes of others, the injury on Leng Junfeng's arm disappeared. Leng Junfeng even threw a few punches, and aside from his skin feeling tight, it was as good as new. "Thank you, Master."
Fenghua jumped up on slapped Leng Junfeng's head. "Call me Teacher."
"Sorry, what about my eye?" Leng Junfeng asked.
Fenghua shook her head. "The structure is too complicated. I don't have the ability to heal it."
"Oh?" Leng Junfeng said, bringing his hand up to his eye. "Is there any way to heal it?"
"Of course," Fenghua said. "But it's likely that the Allfist Realm won't have the materials. You can also go a step farther and refine an eye-shaped artifact. In that case, you can see through the artifact, and it can even shoot out a laser as a surprise attack!"
"Okay?" Leng Junfeng said, questioning why Fenghua was so excited.
Leng Junfeng turned towards the martial artist gathered on the mountain and cupped his fist. "Thank you, friends, for bearing witness to the duel between Teng Wuba and me."
"Haha, Friend Leng is a young hero full of accomplishment. Although Ancestor Teng is worthy of admiration, Teng Wuba is quite a scoundrel." A martial grandmaster with a head full of white hair said.
Leng Junfeng smiled, neither accepting the martial grandmaster's word nor denying them. To him, Teng Shifang was just as bad as Teng Wuba. Only his grudge with Teng Wuba was far more personal.
"Right, although Teng Wuba is a villain practicing evil arts, the Teng Family should be innocent. It's a pity. A formerly strong family lost four grandmasters and a hundred masters. Their foundation has probably already weakened. Tsk, tsk."
Leng Junfeng's smile could no longer be maintained. Wasn't this just telling him to let go of his grudge against the Teng Family? How could he resign just like this? He turned towards Fenghua for help.
"Don't look at me. Aside from life and death, you should take care of your own matters. Well, aside from a few ignorant people who have the gall to attack me." Fenghua transmitted using her spiritual sense.
Seeing Leng Junfeng so disappointed, she couldn't help but add. "It's not like there isn't a way for you to exterminate the Teng Family."
Leng Junfeng's eyes lit up with expectation.
"As long as you're strong enough, who cares what they think? As for when you'll reach that peak...If you're talented, you could be invincible at the peak of the Acupoint Opening Realm, but as long as you also become a soul nourishing grandmaster, who would dare to oppose you? They might even say that Teng Shifang and the Teng Family deserve it."
Hearing this, Leng Junfeng reignited his desire to become strong. After affirming his goals again, Leng Junfeng bid farewell to the martial artists present. The duel had already taken a lot out of him, so he needed to recuperate and assess his gains, which naturally included Teng Wuba's three artifacts.
Back in the imperial faction's base, Leng Junfeng took a whole week to recover. When Leng Junfeng told Wang Meilin that he killed Teng Wuba, tears streamed down her face in relief. A rock that had always been crushing her heart had finally been lifted.
Naturally, neither of them told Teng Jun about Teng Wuba's death. Even Leng Junfeng couldn't bear to do it. Although Teng Jun had the blood of the Teng Family flowing through his veins, he was also Wang Meilin's son. In addition, Wang Meilin changed his surname from Teng to Wang, making him Wang Jun from now on.
With the fall of Teng Wuba and four of the Teng Family's grandmasters, they no longer dared to be as rampant as before. All those grandmasters who attended Teng Shifang's banquet will, at most, assure that the Teng Family line continues and not step in to help them.
Compared to the threat of the imperial faction, the current Li Dynasty was facing a worse threat, the Gu Dynasty. Ever since Gu Dulong had taken the reins, the Gu Dynasty had been making preparations for war. The Gu Dynasty would have already declared war had it not been for the fall season. Now, the Li Dynasty had until next spring to prepare.
With this time of peace, the imperial faction began to build up strength without any interference, and Leng Junfeng quietly took this time to cultivate and absorb all the gains and insights. He could feel that his understanding of the wind-type concept was just a hair's breadth away from being completely mastered.
Leng Junfeng didn't advance to the mid Acupoint Opening Realm, but he could feel his closed acupoints becoming clearer. With his talent, it wasn't impossible to open all his acupoints and become the martial equivalent of the spiritual cultivation's five-colored nascent soul. But currently, he was more worried about Fenghua because she was undergoing her Minor Wind Tribulation.
Unlike martial cultivators, in the Core Formation Realm, a cultivator's spiritual core will undergo three minor tribulations evolving it into a polished core, tempered core, and finally purified core. Fenghua told Leng Junfeng to watch since it would be of use to him. Although he specialized in martial cultivation, he also double cultivated the spiritual way.
Normally, it was impossible to see the spiritual core undergoing minor tribulations, but Fenghua had used a special technique that turned her body near invisible, allowing onlookers to observe her spiritual core.
"Wind tribulation, begin." Fenghua softly spoke.
There were no tribulation clouds, no signs of the tribulation appearing like when Leng Junfeng underwent a heavenly tribulation. Still, that did not mean a minor tribulation was without danger. If she weren't careful, Fenghua could shatter her core, severing her immortal path.
Leng Junfeng's eyes captured green gusts appearing in Fenghua's dantian. The gust seemed as gentle as a breeze, but it easily left a mark atop Fenghua's spiritual core. His heart jumped upon seeing the wound. Luckily, it wasn't deep.
However, his heart continued to jump as more and more white marks appeared on Fenghua's core. If it weren't for the fact that he was afraid of disturbing his teacher and making her fail her tribulation, Leng Junfeng really wanted to ask if she was okay.
As time passed, more and more marks appeared, turning the formerly clear spiritual core into a milky white sphere. Once all the spiritual core was covered in white, smooth, and perfectly sphericle with no imperfections, the tribulation wind receded. Only after undergoing the Minor Fire Tribulation will her spiritual regain its former appearance and become a tempered core.
"Teacher, are you alright?" Leng Junfeng asked.
Fenghua opened her mouth to assure Leng Junfeng she was fine, but she suddenly snapped her head up with eyes of disbelief. A vortex appeared in the sky, just like when Teng Shifang ascended to a higher realm.
She could sense that her strength had broken the boundary of the Allfist Realm, so the Heavenly Dao no longer wanted her to stay and was forcing her to ascend. "What do you mean by that?!"
"Even if my strength can't be contained by this Lower Realm, I'll die when ascending as core formation master!" Fenghua said. Unlike when a nascent soul or soul nourishing grandmaster ascended to a higher realm, a core formation or acupoint opening master ascending wouldn't be protected by the realm. In other words, Fenghua would face the danger of the Vast Void without any aid.
"Fuck you, Heavenly Dao!" Like Tianyi, Fenghua cursed the Heavenly Dao of the Allfist Realm. As if in response, she could feel that she was being forced to leave even faster.
"You can't even allow me to curse you?" Fenghua said with resentment.
"Teacher, what's happening? Are you going to be okay?" Leng Junfeng asked. He had never seen Fenghua so flustered.
Fenghua turned towards Leng Junfeng and said, "I'll definitely be alright. I won't let a mere Heavenly Dao of a lower realm hurt me. Remember, you have to count on yourself after I leave!"
"What about you! Can I see you again?"
"You can, as long as you reach the Huang Immortal Realm!" Fenghua said. Then she smiled. "How about we have a race. Let's see which one of us reached the Huang Realm first!"
"Alright. I'll definitely reach the Huang Immortal Realm and wait for Master!"
Fenghua laughed. "Wait till you become an immortal before calling me that. And it's impossible for me to lose." 'Because my main body is still in the Huang Realm. You've already lost by default!'
After Fenghua disappeared and the vortex closed, Leng Junfeng clenched his fist. 'I'll definitely see you again, Teacher.'
Ten years later, Leng Junfeng stared at the numerous martial artist bidding him farewell. Many things happened, and he had matured as well, but his appearance never changed from the moment Fenghua left.
The Li Dynasty was destroyed after the Gu Dynasty won the war. With the fall of the Li Dynasty, the imperial faction fought against the Gu Dynasty for years. With Leng Junfeng's aid, they won battle after battle, cumulating to the climax where he beheaded all the Gu Dynasty's grandmasters and established himself as the number one expert in the world.
During this time, he also made new friends, such as the third young master of the Fan Clan and his sister. With Leng Junfeng's aid, he successfully became the next patriarch.
After Leng Junfeng reached the peak, he only needed to release a word, and many people were willing to kill the remnant of the Teng Family. Next, he and Li Qiu'ai reestablished the Li Dynasty, absorbing the former Gu Dynasty and becoming the strongest force in the Huang Realm.
Li Qiu'ai chose not to become the Li Dynasty's ruler and instead aided one of the remaining members of the Imperial Family. According to her, she wanted to pursue the immortal path and was not willing to stay in the lower realm.
Leng Junfeng had searched far and wide for medicine to heal Wang Meilin, and efforts bore fruit. At least she had the capacity to cultivate again, but after her past experience, Wang Meilin lost the heart to pursue the martial path and was content to watch Wang Jun grow.
Speaking of Wang Jun, Leng Junfeng had accepted him as his only disciple. The boy, now a youth, was already at the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm and had just entered the Marrow Enhancement Stage. His future was limitless, and ascending was not impossible.
Wang Jun himself felt complicated towards this master of his. In his youth, he hated Leng Junfeng, who he viewed as his father's murderer. But as he grew up and listened to his mother's account, he learned that his father wasn't the noble man he remembered his father as. Now, seeing Leng Junfeng ascend, Wang Jun realized that his father's image had been completely overtaken by Leng Junfeng. 'If only Master was my father instead.'
After one last look, Leng Junfeng disappeared into the vortex and embarked on his next adventure. 'Fenghua, I'll definitely meet you again.'
In a lavish palace, a man in a yellow imperial robe was pacing back and forth with anxiety. Every once in a while, he would glance at the closed doors to the delivery room. When he saw a midwife come out of the door carrying a basin of bloody water, he immediately grabbed her. "How is Consort Wei?"
"Replying to Your Majesty, Her Highness is still in the middle of delivering the child. It will take at least two more hours." The midwife said, carefully watching the emperor's face, afraid of displeasing him and getting executed.
After the emperor released her, the midwife released a sigh of relief and continued her duties. She nearly dropped the basin out of fright when she exited the hall, and thunder sounded.
The emperor frowned. Although being born during thunderstorms wasn't unusual, there have been cases of censors impeaching newly born babies, saying they were bad luck due to being born during storms.
As the two-hour mark neared, thunder constantly sounded, and rain poured down, instantly drenching anyone foolish enough to go out. The hall had grown dark enough that tens of candles had to be lit for any visibility.
Suddenly, light shone through the windows and doors.
"What happened?" The emperor asked. He wasn't one for superstition, but the change was too sudden.
A eunuch immediately ran inside, gasping for breath. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. A phoenix dispersed the storm and flew over the imperial palace. It's a sign of great prosperity."
Before the emperor could process that, the delivery door opened, and a midwife came out, holding an infant wrapped in a red blanket. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. The princess has been safely born."
The emperor's eyes turned slightly dim before they lit up again. "Bring me the princess."
The midwife obeyed and handed the newly born princess over. Once in the emperor's arms, he realized that his daughter's eyes had already opened, a rare occurrence. She didn't bawl or struggle and calmly watched the emperor.
The emperor revealed a smile and used his finger to gently stroke the flower pattern atop the infant's forehead. "Eunuch Li, you said a phoenix dispersed the storm?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Good, then We shall name the seventh princess, Gao Fenghua!" The emperor announced.
Unknown to the emperor, the newly named Gao Fenghua was Juedai Fenghua. While ascending, her body had been destroyed, and her soul had fallen to an even lower realm.
'The spiritual qi in this realm is so thin. It'll take me forever to cultivate to the Foundation Establishment Realm. And this body! Dammit, I could possess it since it was stillborn, but I need to heal its foundation before I can even cultivate it. Damn you, Heavenly Dao!!!'
