Rolling leaves and dust clouds billowed as Harun's claws clutched at Jiyan's neck. Spinning leftward, Jiyan raked her sword at Harun's shoulder. But by throwing himself off balance, he dropped toward the ground, avoided the blow by a hair's breadth—caught himself on his hands—and lunged at Jiyan!
Clang!
The metallic sound of Harun's claws clashing with Jiyan's blade rang, and using the blow's momentum, Jiyan flew backward, somersaulting to land on a redwood's branch. Leaving her no time to plan a counterattack, Harun rushed after her, reappearing beside Jiyan at a speed that mirrored teleportation. Predicting the move, Jiyan slashed at her left. Harun deflected the move with an upward sweep of his claws, leaving Jiyan open to a fatal strike.
Without hesitation, he stabbed at her chest with his claw bent into a knife-hand strike. Jiyan's gaze hardened, dark-green flames surged from her form—setting both Harun and the Spirit God Tree ablaze. Ignoring the result, Jiyan leaped down, and the Spirit God Tree at her back burned to ashes.
Sheltered by their boundless Qi reserves, Spirit God Trees were immune to traditional fire, but couldn't resist a second of the Noxious Flames cast by Jiyan. Mukri, Gulseni, and the three youths were speechless.
"Holy Fuck, they're serious," Mukri blurted out, speaking the mind of his fellow spectators. Though Mukri and Gulseni never held back in their bouts against Jiyan, this was due to the horrible strength gap between them. It was similar to a spar between a child martial artist and his instructor. By holding back, the child would learn and accomplish nothing. But if his instructor didn't restrain himself, dreadful consequences awaited. But between Harun and Jiyan, no such gap existed. Once they went all-out, the tiniest mistake could result in death or grave injuries. Why were they going so far?
Jiyan and the five's eyes locked on the flame column, but unlike the other four, Mukri and Gulseni were startled to see a stainless figure emerge from that brazier. All knew that Harun feared no poisons under the heavens. However, heat was heat, and under those tens of thousands of degree celsius, even a Celestial Knight couldn't survive—much less stand unharmed. Emerald light surged from Harun, the fire vanished, and from the ashes of the Spirit God Tree, another one grew anew.
"Middle accomplishment in the Mystery of Life already. And he probably did the same in Death too. The boss is the boss, my past thoughts were laughable," Mukri inwardly sighed. Mystery cultivation was divided into six stages: elementary insight, minor accomplishment, middle accomplishment, profound enlightenment, sublime state and mandate. According to the Truth Scrying Grotto, each Mystery had a slot in the Sea of Consciousness, meaning that theoretically, one could cultivate all Mysteries to Mandate level.
However, reality was often a brutal letdown. A Mandate represented absolute understanding and sovereignty over an element, concept or facet of the omniverse. Celestials and Gods had long realized that even without the Divine Path's suppression, cultivating a minor Mystery such as Fire to Mandate level would take prodigies tens of thousands of years and, the more load the Sea of Consciousness bore, the greater the difficulty became. Who could possibly cultivate all Mysteries to Mandate-level? Going over four would already be a legendary achievement. So when the Truth Scrying Grotto claimed that a secluded expert once achieved Mandate-level in all things in less than 10,000 years, no one took them seriously.
But seeing the ease with which Harun reached middle accomplishment, Mukri couldn't help but feel that some people existed to defeat common sense. To think that he once dreamed of challenging the boss, the audacity.
Harun and Jiyan exchanged a glance, their lips curled into smiles, and to the five spectators' awe, the pair vanished. Sonic booms, metallic clashes, and trails of gray and silver light served as proof that a ferocious battle went on. Realizing that even with her Celestial Knight cultivation, she couldn't follow the two's speed, Gulseni despaired. In those 15 years, thanks to the Spirit God Trees, her cultivation made rapid progress, and she reached the second level of the Celestial Knight Realm.
On celestial standards, such speed deserved a myriad of praises. But seeing dozens of babies reach celestial level within 15 years, and 19 able to compete with first-level Celestial Guards, Gulseni realized the horrible gap between the Divine Path and Harun's poisonous road. Confident in the future, she initially didn't take it too hard. But now feared that in a century, the Birusk clan's five-year-old could beat her black and blue.
…
Wherever they went, Harun's claws left silver light trails, and all they hit instantly turned into powder. Jiyan's sword was the only exception, but likewise, the gray mist now coating her blade reduced all except Harun's claw to dust. By relying on the Mystery of Death, Withering Essence, the Art of the Decaying Flower and the Chained Sword Sutra, they created those two arts, and each picked one to cultivate to the acme.
Both destroyed vitality and eroded matter at an extreme speed. A few miscellaneous applications aside, there were no differences. The System ranked both as 13-star Martial Arts, and neither could claim superiority.
Jiyan soared into the air, Harun pursued, taking the fight to the skies. As the two collided and exchanged dozens of moves, Jiyan fired nine gray sword beams of overbearing destructive forces at Harun. His form blurred into several afterimages, and moving past the sword strikes, Harun closed on her. Dark-purple energies erupted from her form, gathering behind her shoulders to form a pair of disarming feathered wings at her back. Jiyan raised her sword, her massive wings fluttered, Harun's eyelids twitched, and the sword turned into hundreds of searing chains that surrounded Harun—trapping him in an unbreakable net.
Unfazed, Harun raised his right hand. His claws sprang forth, extending like the Monkey King's staff and sneaking past the locks of Jiyan's chains to nail their target. But at that time, Jiyan clenched her left fist.
"Divine Power: Forbidden Zone."
The Empyrean clan's Divine Power kicked in, ripping all colors from everything across a 300 meters radius. Under the Divine Power's pressure, Harun, Mukri, Gulseni, and the three youths now saw the world in shades of gray.
Worse, Harun included, all felt an irresistible force trap, and keep them all pinned where they stood—unable to move even an eyelid. In this zone, all became powerless, and without Jiyan's permission, nothing could enter or exit. But as even Zoran, Gulik and Cildar were starting to believe in Jiyan's victory, amethyst haze surged from Harun's body—shattering Jiyan's achromatic zone!
Her chains dared not get closer, Harun's elongated claws carried on unimpeded, and knowing she couldn't confront them head on, Jiyan rushed back to the ground, landing before a redwood's trunk—a fatal mistake.
The tree's branches shot toward Jiyan, wrapped around her arms and legs, tying her against the trunk. Empowered by her Devil Essence, Jiyan broke free of her bounds. But like a lightning bolt, Harun reappeared before her—his lips flashed a wolfish grin, and before she could escape—Harun sealed the match with an unusual move.
Seizing Jiyan by the waist, Harun pulled her toward his chest and planted his lips on hers—trapping her in a prompt and sultry kiss. Jiyan's eyes widened. All strength left her body, and keeping one hand around her waist, Harun drove her against the tree—letting their tongues coil for a moment before breaking the kiss.
"I...lost," Jiyan said, breathless and slightly shocked. But then, as if prompted by a sudden urge, she grabbed Harun's cheeks, and pulled his lips back onto hers to resume the ardent kiss.
Lost, the five spectators stared slack-jawed, then exchanged confused gazes.
"You can also end a fight like this?"