The Dark Hours grew tighter, with each passing second the night crawled with Jiangshi. A rotten corpse walks through the grassy plain, its jaw fell off, its skin barely hanging in, revealing the grey flesh and each individual muscle strain that gives way to its brittle bones, held over by Death Energy as it seeks the living to feed off.
As it wanders the plain, it finally finds a human. A child, barely 10 years old, yet he is wounded. The Jiangshi walks closer, each one of its limping shed the dead skin clinging into his form one by one.
And once it got close, it leaned over. The child is dead, sometimes ago, yet the Life energy inside of him is still clear. It opens its jaw… or what was left of it and slowly began to draw out the Life energy of the corpse into itself.
And just like that it is gone, the child carcass dries out, becoming like the dry cadaver of the Jiangshi. It stands up, looking for more, and he does find more corpses.
One
Two
Three
Four
Twelve
Twenty-five
And fifty.
A total of fifty corpses of varying condition lay lifelessly on the ground, countless limbs strewn about, each was cleanly cut. The Jiangshi had trouble finding which corpse it would like to consume first.
It saw its kin, feasting on the scene of massacre. It saw a flock of crow descending to pick off the dead, it saw a wild dog similarly wanting to take a bite. Normally all three of them would fight each other for a corpse, yet with so many corpses here, there is no need to fight, there is more than enough for everyone.
.
.
.
.
The fight has been going on for well over 5 minutes now.
With the siblings each takes turn attacking Nanming so that the other could rest. Gu Liang last longer because of the bolus he chooses to concoct while Gu Tian explosive strength is usually enough to staggered Nanming for a few seconds.
Yet no matter what they did, what attack the commit, whatever Technique they execute with varying degree of success. Nanming continues to shrug off each single one of their attempts.
Even when it seemed that Nanming would die, he would just rise back up with body envelopes in steam, rejuvenated completely. He hasn't managed to land a single hit yet due to the siblings skilled evasion, but both Gu Liang and Gu Tian knows that they can hit and bring Nanming to half-death state multiple times and he would recover. All Nanming would take is a single hit and either of them will be incapacitated, and worse, killed.
The situation is bleak. The Siblings have already exhausted all their strength to no avail, Nanming just wouldn't fall.
'Where the hell is Chen?' Gu Liang silently thought as he deflects an attack from Nanming. The bolus he had concoct allows him to harden his skin.
Yet he doesn't have enough stamina left to dodge the next attack, he doesn't have to—
CLANG
Because he knew Gu Tian would come and blocked the attack with her fiery fist instead, yet even her has surrendered to the toll of the battle. She had been weakened, so much so that she could no longer zip across the terrain with her ridiculous speed.
"Retreat Sis…" Gu Liang said as he extends his hands out and shoot a cloud of green smoke into Nanming. It's poison but he isn't experienced enough to make it deadly, best it can do is disorient him for a bit.
Which succeeds and they both retreat far enough that they could react to Nanming often sudden rush.
They both tried to rest with whatever time they had left, Gu Liang is limp and he doesn't have enough strength left to tend to himself. Gu Tian is in a better position since she can still reasonably stand but to move and attack Nanming once more would prove fatal for her.
Nanming finally emerges from the smoke, his sword in hand has been rusted away by Gu Liang poison, but it's proven to be a mistake since rusted blades often leave a lingering fatal wound that if not treated can rot the flesh around the scar.
He walks slowly towards the siblings; Gu Tian moves in front of the limp Gu Liang. Readying a stance as her Aura dimmed weakly around her, no longer the fiery orange spark as whatever ember she can produce died by the wind anyway.
Nanming eyes flows purple as he closes in, slowly, as if knowing that they both have no more strength left to run.
He readied his blade.
"No..." Gu Liang tried to stand up, but he felt half-way through.
Gu Tian readied herself as Nanming with intent full to kill charges in—
SLASH
Blood was splattered, each individual blade of grass is bathed in fresh crimson, glistening under the moonlight.
Gu Liang eyes went dark, hopeless as he saw what he thinks to be Gu Tian being stabbed. Yet she herself too, looked as in shock as he is, it took a bit of time for Gu Liang to finally process the situation.
"Oww"
And that one casual, almost playful voice is what drives his despair away.
Lock of black hair billows out, concealing the form. Gallant stature and steady posture held a spear as he stood on the ground, in between Gu Tian and Nanming is a figure he has grown accustomed to, currently being stabbed yet he seems to care less about it.
Wu Chen has arrived.
"That hurts really bad you know!" He exclaimed as he swings his Spear with such speed that the air whistles around him.
Nanming is forced to release his grip from his sword to dodge the rushing spear as it barely grazes his face.
He dashed back with urgency, locking eyes with the new threat.
"We haven't met each other for days brother, how come this is how you greet me" Wu Chen said with playful tone as his mouth vomits out blood, clutching his stomach where Nanming's blade still pierced.
"Chen! Your stomach is—"
"Nah its fine, barely a scratch"
Chen said as he pulls the sword out, his stomach burst into a fountain of blood as the steel leaves his body, spraying the field with his blood. Gu Tian watched this scene with all the blood practically drained from her face, speechless.
Chen then pushes her form so that she may rest. He smiles as his Aura explodes out into a wind of black.
"You both did a great job managing this far…"
With a gesture, he activates 'Tarnished Gathering' and all the spilled blood came rushing back towards him as his stomach stitched back to normal.
"Thankfully he didn't use Corrosion, I don't think Tarnished Gathering could heal Corrosion at the moment."
'Tarnished Gathering? Is that supposed to be Tarnished River Body Foundation?' Gu Liang wonders as he saw firsthand the working of the infamous Tarnished River Body.
An Inheritance foundation technique of the Wu Clan is said to have the ability to even heal the Martial artist's post-mortem state. Bringing them back to life once, he thought that it was supposed to be a one-time use, yet Wu Chen so casually heals an otherwise fatal wound speaks more than words could ever do about how wondrous the ability it has.
"Be careful you dummy!" Gu Tian said, with teary eyes as she once assumed that Wu Chen might die when she saw the blade piercing through him. In response to that, Chen just smiles and strides towards Nanming, his Aura of black accompanied his approach, blowing everything away into a vortex of black petals.
"Now brother, I am really curious… Just how far can I push you?" he declared, taunting Nanming.
Nanming makes no reaction, but he immediately sprinted towards his sword.
"As if I'd let you!" Chen said as he too, rushed towards the sword, already swinging his spear so that it may hit Nanming the instant he got close.
Naming, sensing the danger changes his path instantly, missing the spear's tip by a hair breadth.
"Reach!"
Yet his chest spurts blood, even when Chen's spear supposedly missed him.
"What?" Gu Tian too is confused, yet Gu Liang wore an expression so outrageously out of the character for him.
Mouth agape as his eyes shot open, he cannot believe what he just saw. Just now, Wu Chen activates…
"Spear Reach!?"
A weapon soul, from a Spear he deemed to be worthless since it comes from a Noble who had never fought before.
"Hahaha!" Chen laughs triumphantly.
"All that Jiangshi killed proved its worth immediately huh?"
Prior to his arrival, the reason why he is so late is because he is busy killing countless Jiangshi repeatedly for the sole reason to awaken the Spear Weapon Soul.
He had heard that a Weapon Soul can be awaken so long that the weapon in question is either old enough or had killed enough.
Frankly, the weapon soul of his spear is pathetic at best, but everything has its use no matter how useless they may be.
And that thinking allows him to score a hit to Nanming who dashed back once more.
"Here I come Brother!" Chen said, it was his turn to fight now. Nanming braced himself as his hand is pierced with Chen spears.
He pushed the spear deeper, hitting Nanming's bone as the blood spilt to the ground and pooling beneath both his and Nanming's feet.
Yet Nanming grabs the handle of Chen spear and then throws it away with Chen in tow. They both tumble into the plain far away from Nanming, and the force is enough to crack some of Chen's bone which he healed instantly thanks to Nanming spilled blood.
Yet the pain remains as he groans and stands up once more, only to be met with the sight of Nanming already having his rusted sword back.
Both are in a stand-off, not wanting to make the first move.
"Wind Spear Retraction!" Chen shouts his technique name, half-baked yet it's enough to propel him as fast as Nanming natural speed.
Nanming is caught off guard, yet he managed to deflect the spear, the force is enough to make him stumble forward though, which Chen immediately capitalizes of by bringing the end of the handle into Nanming's face.
BRUK
As he does so, he twists the spear once more so that the sharp point may strike Nanming. This time, however, Nanming is prepared as he blocked the Spear thrust into the side, the momentum carries Chen body forwards in which Nanming's sword is positioned.
At the last second Chen positioned his head away from direct collision with his well place blade yet his ear was cut off. Blood explodes outwards as he groan yet he cannot afford to worries about that, he sweeps Nanming's leg causing Nanming to fall which was later continued by Chen kicking Nanming falling head, throwing Nanming away as he tumbles, yet Chen himself cannot properly braced his own kick due to poor positioning and ended up slipping into the ground beneath.
Both immediately rise back up, Chen knows he is at a disadvantage, so he thrust his spear back into the ground, utilizing its momentum to jump into the air, perfectly as Nanming silhouette strikes where he is just a second ago, swinging at nothing.
"What are you doing?" Chen mocks Nanming missed attack.
With swift speed, he thrust his spear into Nanming's torso who failed to react due to his previous blunder. This time, Chen timed his technique 'Wind Spear Retraction' to push the Spear points deep enough and—
"Three Great Slash!" Activates another technique as he slashed Nanming torso from the inside, almost snapping him in half.
"Nihahaha~" he laughs playfully. Nanming immediately counters with a slash, yet with such a hurried pace he missed. Chen deliberately didn't move just to mock him.
"Why would you miss?" he said. Nanming stomped his feet into the ground to stabilize himself, his half-slashed torso healed in an instant he did so, and he slashed at Chen who deflects the blade with his spear as his ear regenerated.
"Miss!"
he did it again to Chen's face and missed once more.
"Miss!"
He thrust his sword only to for Chen to playfully dodge while smiling.
"Miss again!"
Nanming's strike grows increasingly inaccurate the more he missed, or it missed because he grew increasingly irritated by Chen.
"Come on~ are you even trying?"
Nanming then, with a half-baked attack, launched a series of attack towards Chen. Chen responds with the same form of attack as he kept himself beyond his range and because he uses spear, his attack is the one who reach Nanming.
"Hahahahaha!" The laughter grew increasingly obnoxious, Nanming's impulsive attack finally caused him to trip from its own bad positioning and he fell. To which Chen instantly responded by piercing his chest with his spear, keeping him in place as he performed something Nanming never expected.
"Great Spirit answers me; Myriad of Chains stall the Great Tempest!"
He chanted a spell.
"Ensnare!"
Which Nanming himself never recite in front of him.
An ear-piercing scream filled the plain as countless chains shoot up from nowhere into Nanming's form before disappearing in an instant, yet Nanming cannot move, not even a muscle as he is completely paralyzed by the spell.
Chen too, was immobilized, his eyes and nose excrete blood from the cost of casting the spell he has no right over to use. Yet he smiles as if he already won.
""Open!""
The Siblings have recovered, both their Aura flickers like a hearth flame as they too, deliver their attacks.
"Enters temple were all beneath, wade smoke and cloud for all to see."
"Here I declare to those I see, those I heed, those I decree!"
""Away all! Away all!""
""Profaned Plain Flowing Wade!""
The siblings move in unison; the bulk of their attack all focused towards Nanming.
The explosion was severe, leaves were burning, trees scorched as even the wind rushed away from the scene, fleeing the attack.
Chen himself was blown away but due to the cost of the spell, his form remains rigid and unmoving as he tumbled awkwardly like a statue.
Both the Siblings were also blown away from the force of their attack, Gu Liang landed on a soft padding of grass and Gu Tian conveniently lands on Chen rigid form, softening her fall while hurting Chen in return. He groans.
Naming is unmoving. Whether from the spell, or the attack, or both. Who cares really? All that matter is that they finally knocked Nanming out cold.
For good.