Chi Yan didn't spare us a look. He was already moving ahead. I didn't blame him – our goal was within sight. Right above us, blazing at the peak of the mountain, was the True Fire. It resembled an eye for some reason, sparking and dancing ferociously. I was reminded of an amazing fantasy movie trilogy that I had watched a long time ago in my previous world, something that had to do with a ring. Oh, and the Crimson King from the 41st millennium, as well as his Legion of sorcerers and automata who were dust trapped within enchanted armor.
I didn't know how we were going to reach the True Fire before Chi Yan. Well, instead of worrying about it, I might as well quicken my pace and try. I wasn't going to give up so easily.
While walking, I suddenly paused and frowned. "Wait, isn't Chi Yan the name of the Icy Chairman's Cute Little Wife? Isn't Chi Yan the name of a girl?"
"…what are you talking about? Chairman/CEO? What's that supposed to be?" Huang Qian Jin asked, puzzled. "And no, since when was Chi Yan a girl? He has always been a guy. And he mastered the Esoteric Fire Arts. He has nothing to do with ice."
"Oh, okay." I must have made a mistake. The characters for Chi Yan's name were scarlet flame, not pond smoke or pond color. they were homophonic, but they carried completely different meanings. By the way, if you want to read a CEO manhua, I would recommend Icy Chairman's Cute Little Wife. It was translated on the same website, and though it had some clichés, it was still a fun read.
Wait, what the f was I advertising some manhua in a cultivation world? It wasn't as if cultivators had access to the Internet.
"Let's hurry," Huang Qian Jin said, his voice tense. Hui Ying had appeared to convey something to him after my slight distraction. I nodded and hastened my pace. The three of us followed Chi Yan. Behind us, a few more cultivators followed, scattered and faltering. Many of them had given up and turned around, having encountered the immense threat of the magma golems and failing to defeat them. However, a few of them were wise enough to follow in our wake, making use of the opening in the path that we had created by defeating one of them to slip past the formidable spirit beasts.
We paid them no attention. Hui Ying indicated that they didn't pose much of a threat, especially if they didn't have the ability to defeat the magma golems. And we hadn't even included Chi Yan in the equation – he could probably singlehandedly take on all the disparate groups of cultivators in the ruin, with the exception of me and Hui Ying. The both of us might not have his firepower (at least if I didn't resort to using Heaven and Earth Formula), but we had the skills, experience and techniques to make it a close fight at least.
It didn't take us long before we finally reached the mountaintop, or at least close to the peak. The True Fire continued to burn atop the peak above us, but on a crevice right below it. A vast plateau of flat land stretched before us, it was as big as a field but bereft of grass and any signs of life.
Chi Yan pulled himself out of the steep incline and balanced skillfully atop the ground. He hadn't gotten very far when a dark shadow engulfed him. Looking up, he caught sight of the winged wyverns descending upon him.
Their jaws yawned and torrents of flames burst out to bathe the plateau in infernal fire. Chi Yan drew his sword and swung it, cleaving through the flames and causing them to dissipate harmlessly. On either side of him, flames continued to burn, but he appeared unaffected by the heat and extreme temperature.
As a practitioner of the Esoteric Fire Arts, this level of flames were nothing to him.
Hanging back, I observed his weapon. For some reason, he was wielding a gigantic slab of black iron that was almost as long as he was tall. I was reminded of some other character whose given name was also Yan, but he was an alchemist slash receptarier. He was the kind of guy who would break through the heavens and challenge his ex-fiancée three years later after she broke the engagement with him. Maybe Chi Yan had the same background, but I doubted it. Xiao Yan didn't have red hair or a ghostly master (at least none I could see) following him around.
Chi Yan kicked off the ground and launched himself at the flying winged wyverns. Swinging his black sword, he cleaved one of them into two, the massive weapon easily tearing through the armored scales and negating the fierce flames. I recalled the shattered remnants of the magma golem that was Chi Yan's victim. He must have used the same weapon to destroy the huge, sturdy spirit beast. The weapon must have weighed a ton.
However, as powerful as Chi Yan was, he was heavily outnumbered.
"We should help him," I suggested. Not because I was kind or wanted to be a hero, but because I sought to take advantage of the situation to wipe out the winged wyverns. There were too many of them, and Chi Yan was a potent combat asset that we should make use of. If I allowed him to get killed from the sheer number of enemies, then Hui Ying and I would have difficulty eliminating the surviving wyverns. If the three of us worked together, on the other hand, we should be able to wipe them out. Turning toward the other cultivators who were straggling behind, I jerked my thumb at the flock of winged wyverns. "You guys should help out too."
"What? Why should we?" One of them sneered. I smiled coldly and pushed my glasses up my nose.
"To ensure that no accidents occur later."
"Are you threatening us?"
"I'm not sure how you interpreted my words that way, but you're welcome to hang back and do nothing." Either way, they were going to get the True Fire. I wasn't a psychopathic murderer, yeah, but I wasn't nice enough to let them take advantage of me later. Why would I do all the work, only to let them reap the benefits later while I suffered?
Worst case scenario, I would just annihilate them with Heaven and Earth Formula.
Drawing my sword from the spatial pouch, I leaped up and slashed a winged wyvern before it could swoop upon Chi Yan's position. At my side, Hui Ying emerged from the shadows and launched a Shadow Sword Strike that eviscerated a winged wyvern and sent the bleeding creature plummeting to its death over the edge of the mountain.
"I don't need your help," Chi Yan growled, swinging his gigantic black sword in an almost berserk frenzy. Flames erupted from the huge blade, scalding a couple of winged wyverns and forcing them to retreat. He surged forward, cutting one of them apart with a single slash. I fended off the claws of another before hacking its wing off with Shadow Sword Strike. With a kick, I sent the flailing spirit beast falling over the edge.
"You misunderstand us. We're not helping you. You're helping us." I jerked my head toward the fire breathing enemies. "We want to clear the horde of winged wyverns as quickly as possible, so it helps a lot that you're already slaughtering the majority of them."
Chi Yan scowled, but didn't say anything. He sliced the talon of another winged wyvern off and then slammed his flaming palm into its currently exposed underbelly, triggering an explosion that consumed the shrieking spirit beast. Its charred corpse toppled out of the smoke, smoldering.
I dodged the claws of a winged wyvern, used the shadows to avoid a stream of flames from its maw, and then emerged from another shadow to get in close, whirling around to kick it in the chest. While it floundered, I decapitated it with a stroke of my sword.
"Watch out!" Huang Qian Jin shouted from his hiding place. "There's too many of them!"
The dark shadows that consumed us served to punctuate his words. I glanced up and caught sight of almost a hundred winged wyverns swooping down on us.
Hui Ying indicated that I should pull back, but I shook my head. Beside me, the flames of Chi Yan ignited and continued to consume a couple of winged wyverns, taking the shape of lotuses. But they weren't enough – the enemy was far too numerous. That said, if Chi Yan continued to fight, I couldn't leave him alone.
That wasn't the greatest reason, though. I simply wanted to try something out.
Closing my eyes briefly, I brought to the fore of my mind the memory of Hui Ying using the Shadow Sword Storm. The way he adjusted his stance, circulated the flow of his qi and the breathing methods. I tried to replicate all of them again. I had practiced it several times along the way, but I had yet to fully succeed. Even so, I could feel myself come closer with each step.
With the winged wyverns diving on top of me, my life was in danger. It was do or die. Feeling the tension, I exulted in it and unleashed whatever qi I had. The dark shadows that surrounded me finally took the form of shadows. They were rough and strangely shaped, but unmistakably swords. A good try for my eventual first success.
Besides, who cared about the little details? It was more important to have the form and function than have everything look perfect.
Directing them upward, I bombarded the approaching winged wyverns. The shadow swords cut them into ribbons, sending shreds of flesh and rain of blood scattering across the plateau. A significant portion of them were slaughtered in the first few seconds, their numbers decimated.
Chi Yan wasted no time, incinerating the rest of them with three lotus-shaped flames.
"Whoa!"
I was almost blown away by the colossal explosions that he conjured, but the remaining half of the winged wyverns were wiped out in that single conflagration. Apparently Chi Yan didn't want to lose to me, so he didn't hold anything back, also executing his ultimate technique when he saw me using mine.
Despite his aloof façade, he certainly possessed a competitive streak.
Hui Ying watched me, though whether from disapproval or amazement, I couldn't tell. His features were blank as always, hidden underneath a veil of darkness. Instead, it was Huang Qian Jin who spoke up.
"Incredible! Brother Hei, how did you learn the Shadow Sword Storm?! Normally people would take days, if not months to learn it! Yet you managed to grasp it so soon!"
"I already had a solid foundation built from practicing Shadow Strike and Shadow Steps," I explained. As flawed and inefficient Shadow Strike was, it still provided the basis for all the other Black Shadow Sect techniques. As long as I had mastered it, I could easily branch out to the other Black Shadow skills.
"Even so, you learned it far too quickly!"
I scratched my head, but inwardly I sort of understood why. Heaven and Earth Formula probably helped me tremendously. It was a lot like how Zhang Wu Ji learned Qian Kun Reversal in such a short time, probably because of Nine Yang Divine Energy.
"Save your chattering for later," Chi Yan snapped impatiently. He was looking above, where a gigantic shadow had just descended upon us. A gargantuan winged wyvern, far larger than any of its previous brethren, was swooping down, unleashing a torrent of flames that Chi Yan negated with his lotus flames. "The big boss is finally here."
"That's a Fire Drake." I recognized the newcomer. It wasn't simply a bigger winged wyvern, it was a Fire Drake or Huo Jiao. A serpentine spirit beast that was one step away from being a dragon, yet wasn't yet a true dragon. Nonetheless, it possessed power of a magnitude that was incomparable from the winged wyverns.
Already Chi Yan's lotus flames that had destroyed half of the flock of wyverns were dissipating harmlessly before the Fire Drake's fire breath.
With a thunderous bellow, the Fire Drake slammed down upon the plateau, gouging out a crater and sending violent tremors throughout the mountain. Flame erupted from its maw and engulfed the clearing, incinerating cultivators and melting rock instantly.