For a moment, I closed my eyes.
Even so, I could still perceive the flow of qi, the currents that violently surged and swirled about Long Ao Tian's charging form. I could also see the qi currents that made up his attack, how the serpentine forms resembled eighteen dragons.
Yet at the same time, I could see what looked like blood vessels that stretched and spread across the forms of these fiery dragons. No, they weren't blood vessels or even qi vessels. They were qi currents. Not all of them were equal. Some were dense, almost like a neutron star or Orimura Ichika. Some were unbelievably thin, so fragile that I felt as if I could break them just by touching them.
Obviously, I wouldn't be able to snap those qi threads with my fingers. I needed a weapon.
First, I had to survive his onslaught. I could feel my skin blister as his fiery qi scorched my flesh. Even though I avoided his first palm strike, the sonic boom that his attack created me buffeted me, sending me spiraling back. Long Ao Tian then whirled about and kicked me. Despite blocking it, I felt blood spurt from my mouth as I was hurled several meters back.
Hitting the ground, I rolled to my feet unsteadily. I coughed and wiped my mouth before dodging another strike from Long Ao Tian.
"Just why won't you die?!" he roared. "You're just a mob character! Fodder for my growth! I'm the Mary Sue protagonist with all the cheats! I'm Long Ao Tian! I have plot armor, cheats and the ability to beat opponents many realms higher than mine! How can someone like you, with inferior cultivation realm and strength, survive against me for so long?!"
Wow. This guy even realized that he was a living, walking meme. I didn't know whether I should praise him for being so self-aware. I might have, if I wasn't so busily trying to stay alive.
"Master! Do you have a weapon?!" I called out to Cheng Long. He blanched.
"Don't call me that!"
Too late, I realized my mistake. Long Ao Tian began laughing hysterically.
"I knew it! So you are related to the Divine Dragon Sect, after all! If you are part of the sect, then all the more reason I must kill you! I must cut all problems at its root, so as to ensure that you won't return in future to haunt me! The only way to survive in the world of cultivation is to be ruthless! And make sure there are no survivors who will want to take revenge on me in future!"
"Holy fuck! You do realize this is the twenty-first century, right? What's with your barbaric way of thinking?!"
I dove to the side as Long Ao Tian sent another blazing dragon in my direction, wincing in pain from the shrapnel that splattered me from the resulting explosion. Rolling away, I avoided a second dragon and had to jump up to escape a third dragon. Skidding to the side, I then spun about, but the fourth dragon grazed me.
"Ugh!"
Blood leaked from my mouth as I crashed to the ground heavily. Long Ao Tian totally outclassed me, which was only natural. He was at the peak of Heaven Realm while I had only just recently broken through to Earth Realm. The difference between our strengths was too vast. Unlike Long Ao Tian, I didn't have plot armor, cheats or the ability to win against vastly superior opponents without any rhyme or reason despite being as dumb as a brick.
Honestly, I was a regular guy. Well, as regular as John Connor could be. All I had was the training that Kai Li Si and Cheng Long gave me.
Speaking of which…
"Magic Carp! I choose you!"
My destined spirit beast partner materialized. He cowered when he saw the two dragons still battling it out above the temple grounds, the golden dragon versus the silver and blue dragon. Yeah, there was no way a little fish like him was going to stand against two titanic dragons.
But that wasn't why I had summoned him.
Long Ao Tian let loose another volley of fiery dragons, his Subduing Dragon Eighteen Palms unleashing more of them in my direction. Instead of evading this time, I tossed Magic Carp to the front. He panicked, but I glared at him.
"Magic Carp, use Devour!"
"Carp?!"
"Oh, come on! I just taught you that move, using the techniques Master taught me!"
"What!?" Cheng Long coughed. "You successfully taught your magic carp Devour already?!"
"You can say that."
"But…but it has only been slightly over a week?!" Cheng Long was ogling at me. I rolled my eyes and waved at him.
"Never mind that, Master! Where's the weapon? Do you have a sword? Anything? Just lend it to me for now!"
"Give me a second! I should have one somewhere!" Cheng Long wiped the blood from his mouth and scrambled toward one of the ruined buildings. He began throwing aside rubble and searching for something inside there.
Most likely that building used to be the sect armory or something. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for Master to find a weapon for me in such a manner. The eighteen fiery dragons from Long Ao Tian's technique were rapidly closing in on me.
"I'm counting on you, Magic Carp!"
"Carp!"
My spirit beast rose high into the air and opened his mouth as wide as possible. To everyone's astonishment, Magic Carp began sucking everything into his maw. The eighteen dragons had a surprised Pikachu look before they were devoured into my magic carp's gullet, the flames extinguished and vanishing within.
"Holy Nine Heavens, you actually successfully taught your spirit beast Devouring the Heavens! Incredible!"
"Now's not the time to be impressed, Master! I think he can only do it once! The sword!"
"Oh, right. Here!"
Cheng Long scrounged around for a sword and tossed a pretty nice-looking one to me. It had dragon motifs on its hilt, as well as a single dragon pattern carved into its shiny blade. Wow, they really went all out with this. I couldn't help but be impressed.
"You…!" Long Ao Tian roared as he executed Subduing Dragon Eighteen Palms again. He glanced at my magic carp before scoffing. "I know that move! But your magic carp can use it only once! Right now, he's struggling to contain the fiery qi from my technique! He'll explode before long!"
"Yeah, well…before that, he'll just regurgitate all of it out. But you should be more worried about yourself for now."
Twirling the sword in my hand, I then charged forward. Squinting, I activated my enhanced qi perception and once again I saw those qi currents…those blood vessel-like networks that were distributed all over the bodies of the eighteen dragons that Long Ao Tian was sending in my direction.
I fearlessly stepped forward and confronted his legendary attack head-on. Taking a deep breath, I swung my sword as swiftly as I could.
The first strike sliced through an incredibly thin qi current that was almost like paper. Dragging my sword along its length, I obliterated the first and closest fiery dragon. It seemed to roar in agony before imploding and vanishing from existence.
"No way?!" Long Ao Tian's jaw dropped.
Swinging the sword with my right hand, I cut through a second fiery dragon. Pushing my glasses up with my left hand before holding the sword with both hands, I smirked.
"Huh, I knew it. It seems like there's nothing I can't kill. I can even cut through and kill your techniques as long as I can perceive its weaknesses."
Long Ao Tian didn't hear me because I was whispering to myself. Obviously I wasn't going to tell him my trick. As expected, he was raving mad.
"What trick are you using?! What demonic sorcery is this?!"
"Nah, I'm just seeing dead dragons."
I sliced a third dragon into nothingness before destroying a fourth. Almost as if I was waltzing about, I jumped, dodged and slashed, cutting apart the remaining dragons with near mechanical efficiency. My head burned with pain as my qi senses were overloaded, but I stoically endured the agony for now. It would be much worse if I get killed by these dragons.
There were only eighteen of them. Five left, after I had destroyed thirteen. Four now, because I just decapitated another, tracing the weak qi current line present in its neck. It roared for a second before its head fell off and the whole thing just vanished.
The last four lunged at me simultaneously from different directions. I dodged them as best as I could rushing forward at one and slaying it before doing a backflip and almost landing on another. Spinning in midair, I lashed out with my sword and stabbed it in a weak point, and it simply ceased to exist. Then I whirled about and cut through the third dragon before finally running my sword through the fourth.
By the time I was done, there was little more than embers slowly drifting about me.
"You bastard! You're just fodder! A mob character! How dare you exceed your role?!"
Screaming in rage, Long Ao Tian charged forward, no longer bothering with his eighteen dragons. He was going to finish me off with pure strength.
"Huff…"
This was bad. I was exhausted from the exertions earlier and my head hurt like a bitch after I had overloaded my qi senses. I could barely stay standing on my feet. A direct confrontation was less than ideal. He would definitely obliterate me in the next exchange if we came down to a physical brawl.
Fortunately, I still had one card left to play.
I snapped my fingers. Long Ao Tian was correct. Magic Carp could only store one technique inside his body – and it wasn't as if the Devouring the Heavens was a universal move. That was to say, my magic carp could only devour certain types of techniques…such as essence flames. He couldn't devour ordinary flames, and he certainly couldn't absorb physical attacks such as punches and palm strikes. Not to mention, his stomach capacity was pretty limited, which meant he could only store one technique at a time.
But that was more than enough.
Magic Carp spewed out the eighteen fiery dragons back at a stunned Long Ao Tian. He wasn't able to react in time, the blazing dragons slamming into him and exploding with tremendous impact. With a strangled cry, he crashed back, his body smoking.
"How does it feel to have your own technique returned to you?" I asked cynically.
"No! This isn't possible! It just isn't! I'm the protagonist! I can't lose to a mob character!"
He forced himself back to his feet and charged at me. Similarly, I struggled to maintain my enhanced qi sense and focus on his weak points. Gritting my teeth, I endured the red-hot agony that filled my mind and thrust my sword forward.
Unfortunately, even though I could see Long Ao Tian's weak points, that didn't necessarily mean I was strong enough to deliver a proper killing blow or fast enough to land a hit.
"It's useless! You're too weak to defeat me!"
Long Ao Tian smacked my sword aside and slammed a palm onto my chest. Blood erupted from my mouth and I crashed several meters away, coughing violently. I rolled to my feet and struggled to get up, clutching my injured chest. The bastard must have broken a few ribs.
Despite wincing from the pain, I grinned.
"You want the Divine Dragon Sect, it's yours."
"Whatever game you're playing, it won't work." Long Ao Tian strolled toward me, his lips curled into a sneer. "You can't defeat me."
"No, I know," I wheezed and glanced away, raising my hands in surrender. Then I smiled. "But he can."
Cheng Long surged forward and punched Long Ao Tian in the face. The xianxia version of the Mary Sue protagonist was blown backward, tumbling over his heels with a broken jaw. I tossed the sword back to my master, and he caught it before executing a single, elegant stroke that swiped Long Ao Tian's head from his shoulders.
At the same time, the golden dragon tore the silver and blue dragon's head off before the both of them disappeared.
The former first disciple of the Divine Dragon Sect stumbled for a moment, the headless body not realizing that it was dead for a few seconds, before tumbling over. I watched as Long Ao Tian's disembodied head rolled toward me before I kicked it away.
Shaking my head, I sighed.
"You shouldn't have gotten too ahead of yourself."