Huang Shi tried his best to calm his nerves, the golden flames and the crimson lightning serving as a respite for his senses as he tried to analyze his chances of victory.
First off... this guy is just a hair's breadth away from the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm, while currently, I'm just at the 3rd level—and this includes the strange boost my Primordial Sunfyre Halo gave to my cultivation.
Huang Shi shifted his attention slightly to the glowing golden halo behind him before shifting his focus back to his target; he knew that he couldn't afford to be distracted at the moment.
Seeing that Huang Shi was too dazed to speak, Huang Bai let out a low, predatory hiss. A smile filled with pure malice stretched across his face as his entire body began to crackle with an oily, dark lightning that seemed to swallow the light around him.
WHOOSH!
The speed was incomprehensible. A mere spark of black flickered in Huang Shi's periphery before a fist wreathed in chaotic bolts materialized before him. The punch slammed into his chest with the force of a battering ram, the impact so intense his chest visibly caved in. Blood sprayed from his mouth as his internal organs shuddered from the shockwave, launching him backward like a projectile.
CRASH!
He skipped across the terrain, a massive wake of dust and debris erupting behind him. Ancient trees were snapped like dry twigs as his body tore through them, finally coming to a halt in a crater of shattered wood and upturned earth. Huang Shi's vision swam, a constellation of white stars dancing before his eyes as the agonizing heat of the black lightning began to melt his insides.
Shit... this is bad...
WHOOSH!
He barely had a second to breathe before the air above him screamed. A massive vertical blade of crackling dark energy appeared directly over his head, descending with enough power to split a mountain. It wasn't a weapon, but Huang Bai's leg, encased in a concentrated sheath of lightning as he performed a lethal axe kick.
[Azure Dragon Thunderform Body – Dark Lightning Axe]
As the black lightning threatened to paralyze him, Huang Shi's instincts screamed. Overcharging his nerves with crimson lightning, he threw himself into a desperate roll. The "axe" whistled past his ear, missing by a hair's breadth, before slamming into the crater. The ground detonated, sending a shockwave of jagged stone and dark energy erupting outward.
Huang Bai was relentless. Before Huang Shi could even find his footing amidst the falling debris, the elder appeared in his blind spot. A follow-up kick, reinforced by the momentum of the previous strike, buried itself deep into Huang Shi's ribcage.
CRACK!
The sickening sound of multiple ribs snapping echoed through the clearing. Huang Shi was catapulted into the sky, his body a ragdoll as he smashed through a dozen more trees in the distance, each impact further tenderizing his flesh.
BOOM!
As he finally tumbled to the dirt, his body broken and his spiritual energy flickering like a dying candle, a single, terrifying thought surfaced through the pain.
I'm gonna fucking die...
Huang Shi started to lose confidence. His injuries, combined with the fact that he wasn't very experienced in life-and-death battles with humans, had started to make him feel like victory was impossible.
Is this it..?
All of a sudden, memories erupted inside of his head—memories that were now both his own and those of his past. He saw his previous life, doing nothing but chasing women; he saw the life of the previous "him," doing the exact same thing but in a much dumber way. He realized that if he died here today, that was exactly how the world would remember him.
As the thought gripped his heart, faces suddenly flashed through his mind. First, he saw his grandfather, who had revealed the truth of his birth and the depth of his mother's sacrifice so that he might live.
He saw his stepmother, who had nurtured him since childhood and now loved him as a man; he imagined how devastated she would be to learn he had died here, in the middle of nowhere, without ever saying goodbye.
Finally, he saw Bai Xinyue, staring at him with those cold, regal eyes—looking at him as if he were nothing more than an ant—and yet he knew that beneath that icy exterior was a heart that had begun to change, a heart that had started to care for him.
Alright, you bitch-ass world... you want to fucking kill me? Then you better try harder, because there is no fucking way I am dying in this hellhole.
BOOM!
Another punch caught Huang Shi straight in the face. His bones creaked under the pressure as he was sent flying yet again. Black lightning ran rampant through his body before he smashed into the ground with a sickening thud.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, a maniacal laugh resounded in the distance as Huang Bai spoke.
"What a fucking disappointment. I thought you would at least put up a fight after killing my subordinates like they were nothing. Can you only fight people who are weaker than you?"
Huang Shi spat out a mouthful of blood. His expression hardened into ice, his golden eyes locking onto his target with a murderous light.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you think looks alone can kill people? If they did, I would have died a million times over from the gazes of the people I've tortured!"
Huang Bai spoke with a menacing smile, his voice dripping with cruelty.
"Kid, you are so damn unlucky to have been targeted by me. Do you know why? Unlike those other old fossils in the Disciplinary Hall, I don't subscribe to the belief of a swift and painless death. I want my enemies to suffer. I want them to feel despair. I want to see the light of hope shine in their eyes before they sink into darkness as I take their lives away inch by inch."
Huang Bai licked his lips as dark lightning bolts once again erupted from his body. Suddenly, a strange, perverted gleam shone in his eyes.
"But not only that—I know that once I taste your despair, I will have gathered enough spiritual energy to breakthrough the Nascent Profound Realm and go straight into the True Profound Realm. Then, I will also become a Grand Elder!"