PtM Book 17 - Chapter 53: The Final Battle

last chapter of last week. Another to follow.

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Cha Ming use Bloodstorm Rush to flee until he was several dozen kilometers away from Oster. It was only once he was certain that his clear runes were out of range that he dared expand his Clear Rune Field and teleport to Huxian’s side.

“What took you so long?” Huxian asked him.

“Is that how you greet the man who just saved your girlfriend?” Cha Ming teased.

“Who’s my girlfriend?” Huxian mumbled. “Wu and I are just friends. Get that through your thick skull.”

“I’m sure all four of them think the same,” Cha Ming said. “Though I wonder what Xiao Bai will think once we find her again.”

“Hey, take that back!” Huxian snapped. “I’ll fight you!”

“Sure you will,” said Cha Ming. “To answer your question, I was fleeing Oster and company. Apparently, more than a few of them broke through to middle gold rank or equivalent.” He gave a rundown of their battle, and Huxian’s expression turned grave.

“I need to break through,” Huxian said.

“I know,” Cha Ming said. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Well, those primal chaos crystals you’ve been feeding me aren’t cutting it,” Huxian said.

“I am aware,” Cha Ming said. “But don’t worry, I have a plan in mind.” He told Huxian what he was thinking, and both Huxian and Jadefall agreed that the plan was completely insane. “Just hear me out. There are three benefits to the approach I’m suggesting.

“First, we’ll be dealing a heavy blow to the fiends. We’re not under contract right now, so we don’t need to share points with Oster and the rest. Second, we’ll be dealing a heavy blow to the fiends. That’s got to count as a contribution to space-time, right?

“Third, it’s a fact that fiendish fortresses are built with high-quality materials. There should be something there that’s beneficial to your evolution.”

Huxian grimaced. “I don’t know. It’s awful risky. Are you sure you can manage it?”

“Pretty sure,” Cha Ming said. He spread out his Dao projection, and the planar fragments in the nearest hundred kilometers shattered, releasing their stored materials and energies, which then converged on their location.

Cha Ming would not usually be so aggressive in pillaging energy and material fragments, but with Huxian by his side, there was no reason not to. The large-scale collapse of these fragments destabilized space-time and tore apart the planar membrane, but thanks to Huxian’s control over space, no issues cropped up.

This was because Huxian could not only freeze space—his presence alone accelerated the healing of space and the planar membrane. By diverting a portion of his attention, he was naturally able to actively heal over these tears in space, thereby enhancing the stability of the planar membrane.

Streams of planar material converged upon their location. Those farthest away from them ranged from low to mid quality and contained only trace primal chaos energy. The energies closest to them, however, were much higher in quality, and even reached top grade as Cha Ming refined and enhanced them.

Most of these materials were taken into Cha Ming’s inner world. The only thing he did not take in were spatial materials, which were best used by Huxian, and primal chaos crystals, which were ideal for strengthening his bloodline and cultivation.

They flew for almost an hour unimpeded. Any fiends that tried to intercept them were torn apart by the storm of planar fragments, and those that weren’t fell prey to the Clear Sky Brush.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at an inconspicuous location in space; if Cha Ming hadn’t directly absorbed the corresponding demiplane fragment, it would have been impossible for him to know that this location was the entrance to Zenol’s fiendish fortress.

“I’m not strong enough to tear through space in this location,” Cha Ming said to Huxian. “It appears that it’s been fortified.”

“Not a problem,” Huxian said. “Leave it to us.”

Wu left the Clear Sky World and joined Jadefall and Huxian. Their figures merged to execute a combination attack.

An armored fox appeared, with eight tails in total whipping into the void. Space around it constantly broke and healed over in a cycle.

Two of the fox’s tails were glowing. One gave it mastery over heaven, and the other gave it mastery over earth. “Open the door, Zenol,” Huxian said, his voice carrying a thousand kilometers in every direction. “If you don’t, I’m going to huff and puff and blow your house to the ground!”

For a few seconds, there was no answer. It was as though Zenol was completely unbothered by the threat. But then a glowing point appeared, brimming with violent energies.

“Huxian, look out!” Cha Ming shouted.

Too late. A beam of energy shot out through a slit in space at point-blank range. It was impossible for Huxian to dodge at this distance. Cha Ming rushed toward the fox, hoping that the blast wouldn’t kill him. As long as he survived, Cha Ming would sweep him and his friends into the Clear Sky World and run as fast as he could.

But things did not play out the way Cha Ming imagined. Instead of exploding like a fusion transformation would when overpowered, the fox grinned and stepped forward. Space froze, then collapsed, forming tiny mirrors of spatial glass that deflected, refracted, and diffused the beam attack. By the time it reached his armor, there wasn’t enough energy left to melt its metal.

“You asked for this,” Huxian said. He took in a breath, and he blew. Stellar winds picked up and blasted against the stable backdrop of space protecting the fiendish fortress and its pocket realm. Three large fissures appeared in space, then continued to widen until the void could no longer take it, and space shattered, revealing a giant hole in the planar membrane.

Behind that hole was a pocket realm, and inside it was a clearly identifiable fiendish fortress, hanging in the Northern Abyss like all the others.

“Hm, this house is a bit difficult to take down,” Huxian grumbled. “Cha Ming, why don’t you take care of it?”

A second beam had already charged up, but before it could fire, Huxian snorted. Space shattered a second time, and the weapon Zenol was holding was destroyed before it could fire.

Zenol himself was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the customary army of fiends guarding the fortress. The fortress was well hidden, so in Cha Ming’s opinion, it was only natural to send one’s forces out to fight the enemy instead of keeping them behind.

Cha Ming appeared above the fortress, wondering exactly how he should take it down. He could already feel his law projections breaking apart the individual stones and crystals and the fiendish blood binding the stones together.

He briefly thought about using creation qi but decided against it. Techniques would only be a waste of energy. He opted for the easiest solution: brute strength.

“Let’s see how this fiendish fortress handles you,” Cha Ming muttered. “Come forth, Sky-Propping Pillar!” A giant bronze pillar appeared beneath Cha Ming’s feet, and immediately drove downward into the fortress. It was only a replica of the true Sky-Propping Pillar, but it was unimaginably heavy.

The smooth stones making up the fortress shattered, and its structure collapsed. When its floor fell in, tens of thousands of fiends were crushed beneath the collapsing stone.

Cha Ming teleported next to the Sky-Propping Pillar and lifted it. As its soul-bound wielder, it was tens of thousands of times lighter in his hands—otherwise, even he, with his immense strength, would be unable to lift it. He swung it down onto the fortress, and its entire top third exploded.

“You dare!” a voice rumbled from the depths of the fortress. A large fiend with a scorpion body and four arms crawled out from an emergency exit. It was bigger than Cha Ming, but compared to the fortress and the Sky-Propping Pillar, it was tiny. “I’ll have you skinned alive for this, human!”

Cha Ming ignored the fiend’s threats and picked up the Sky-Propping Pillar once again. This time, he used his bloodstorm energy to activate Bloodstorm Crush. Wind, lightning, and blood overlapped as he sent it crashing toward the fiend, this time with more than threefold the devastation.

Zenol was one of the strongest fiends on the Chasewind Plane. Like the two before, he had a powerful soul, and as such, was able to unleash more strength than a normal rank-thirteen fiend. Yet before the might of the Sky-Propping Pillar, this meager strength was insignificant. What power it managed to mobilize against the pillar was immediately crushed, and the unfortunate Zenol could only stare as what remained of the fiendish fortress was reduced to rubble.

Fiendish essence, precious ores, and other precious materials were released during the collapse. In addition, many fiends had perished, and their blood and essence mingled with the material. Cha Ming took them all into the Clear Sky World with his Crumbling Canvas Domain, crushing and concentrating them as he did so, feeding any primal chaos crystals to Huxian after a round of refinement.

The display of power was, quite frankly, shocking. It exceeded the limits of what should be possible inside the Chasewind Plane. In fact, Cha Ming could sense the plane rejecting him, despite the fact that he hadn’t yet reached the middle of law stitching.

This was not lost on Zenol, who wisely chose to retreat at this moment. The fiend burned its essence and soul power to maximize its speed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a match for Huxian. Space closed in around it, forming a coffin of glass shards that tore him apart, body and soul.

“You need to get out of here,” Huxian said to Cha Ming. “I can’t heal space with you here. The Chasewind Plane can’t stand you.”

Cha Ming grimaced. It would be impossible for him to return to the Heartforge Realm via the Chasewind Plane’s teleportation array. “The Patriarch will have a solution, won’t he?”

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t,” Huxian said. “Now quick, get out of there before you cause more damage.”

Cha Ming did not immediately retreat, however. Instead, he forced his twin law projections into the fiendish pocket realm and filled the space with Heartforge Spirit Flames. All planar materials were cleansed of residual fiendish will. The corruption was not fully cleansed, but without fiendish will, it could no longer spread.

Huxian immediately got to work. He first built up a temporary membrane to isolate the Chasewind Plane from the void, then hopped inside to fix any damage Cha Ming had caused. Only after fixing this internal damage did he focus on the membrane itself, laying patch after patch over the gaping holes in the fabric of reality, first healing over the damage he himself had inflicted by tearing up the pocket realm, then proceeding to fix other long-term damage.

It was impossible to repair the planar membrane to its initial condition, but thanks to Cha Ming’s quick work in scraping out fiendish residues, the membrane was in a much better position to heal itself. To compare it to a human body, they’d excised a cancerous tumor, buying precious time for the rest of the planar body to heal.

The result was as one would expect. A surge of demonic energy rushed into Huxian from the Chasewind Plane as a reward for his work. He used this surge of energy to attack the bottleneck in his cultivation.

A loud crack sounded as his demonic body broke through to the next level. Space rippled as a second law asserted itself over reality, further accelerating the planar membrane’s ability to heal itself.

Wu and Jadefall had long since separated themselves from Huxian. Wu was back in the Clear Sky World to recover, but Jadefall’s blood vitality was excellent, and her foundation well polished.

Jadefall took advantage of Huxian’s breakthrough to pass her own bottleneck, and in so doing, reached the middle fusion realm and middle law stitching.

This double breakthrough did not go unnoticed in the void of space. The sudden surge of heaven and earth energy attracted local fiends, whom, without a leader, charged at them like enraged animals.

Baleful Vision and White Mirage arrived alongside Petros Sullivan and Wei Longshen. Oster Fireblight, High Priestess Undine, and Shield Guard Martin arrived as one group. Xing Tianlong, Cao Wenluan, Dark Tooth, and Violet Rose arrived as another.

Autumn’s Call arrived a step later with Soul Eater in tow. The latter looked ill, as black veins had spread across his entire face and body.

“Autumn’s Call, we’re so glad you could make it,” Wei Longshen called out. “How’s Soul Eater enjoying the present I left him?”

“Aren’t you the proud one?” Autumn’s Call said. “But that’s just like you. Scheming instead of fighting it out directly.”

Cha Ming couldn’t help but chuckle at his words.

“What exactly is funny about what I said?”

“I’m just impressed at how shameless you are,” Cha Ming said. “Two middle-law-stitching cultivators tussled with two early-law-stitching cultivators and lost so badly they’re calling foul play.”

“They managed to use clever planning to make up for the disparity in ranks,” Oster said. “As admirable as I find this, you should all come to terms with your situation. Our side has a total of nine middle-law-stitching cultivators, while yours only has two. The rest of you have only reached early law stitching.”

Now that they were no longer in the heat of combat, it was easy to tell that Wu’s breakthrough had been artificial.

“Eight Directions has already used up his fusion transformation. You’re no match for us.”

“Do you think you can stop us from running?” Cha Ming asked.

“I’ll shoot that question right back at you, Clear Sky,” Oster said. “You’re powerful, but are you confident in fleeing if all nine of us join against you?”

In truth, Cha Ming wasn’t completely confident. By fusing with Huxian, he could maximize their chances, but it was impossible to tell what other abilities they hadn’t yet revealed.

“Rank isn’t everything,” Cha Ming said. “But you’re right. Fleeing might have been an option before, but that ship has sailed.”

“Then you know what you need to do,” Oster said. “We’ll settle for half of your points and let you leave with your lives.”

“How about you piss off?” Baleful Vision cut in.

Oster’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

“I said, how about you piss off?” Baleful Vision said. “Wait, I don’t think he heard me. Does Oster have a hearing problem?”

“I think it’s selective listening,” Huxian said. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “HEY, OSTER! HE TOLD YOU TO PISS OFF!”

“Do you think I’m joking?” Oster said. “I made that offer in good faith.”

“They aren’t to blame,” Cao Wenluan said. “They can’t possibly know how cruel the competition on the ochre mountain is, or what we’ve had to sacrifice to get to where we are today.”

“All right, all right,” Cha Ming said, raising his hands. “I think that’s enough joking around. It’s clear that there’s been some sort of miscommunication. Judging by their actions, they think we’re prey.”

“Technically, half of you are prey,” Xing Tianlong said. “Just count yourselves lucky that we’re willing to let you buy your lives with points. I suggest you don’t turn down this opportunity.”

Cha Ming exchanged a look with Huxian, and they both grinned. Their opponents hadn’t been here to witness the fall of Zenol’s fortress. Because if they had, they’d probably be having a very different discussion.

“Since it’s come to this, let’s not bandy words anymore,” Cha Ming said. He stomped, and any remaining planar materials shattered into dust, clearing up the battlefield. “Let’s end this.”