Lorel's worry intensified. She could clearly see the clouded mind of Ning, the protective fury overriding his sharp focus. It was a mistake waiting to happen.
Chubbs, leaning against a silver tree trunk, wiped blood from his mouth. "The name Suki… it is as famous as even Black-Green Wood. If he had not vanished in the past, he would definitely be among the strongest Pillars we know. His stories are the most common in small cultivation schools." His voice was a low rumble of respect.
Lorel bit her lip, her fists clenched. Defending the honor of someone like that was all that mattered to Ning. No matter what she said now, it wouldn't change his mind.
***
On the battlefield, Ning gathered all his remaining strength as he moved.
*Departing from silence* was a skill that required incredible concentration, beyond anything else. Despite his shaken and clouded mind, it was something Ning had practiced so many thousands of times that in the very moment of movement, he could still himself. He forced the fury down, channeling it into the blade.
Pairing his **Jingdao** and **Shidow** to their maximum, Ning's body moved again.
But Yun didn't wait for him. The amused smile was gone, replaced by cold focus as he unleashed the **Smiling Lethality** once more.
The black chaotic Qi and the white blade of light connected. Again. And again. In different spots, so fast that the onlookers only saw sparks of light bloom in the air like violent fireworks. Even Lorel, with her strong observational skill, could no longer follow the duel. All she could see were the intensified impacts, shockwaves rolling out across the clearing, shaking the silver leaves from the trees.
In Ning's mind, the only goal was to defeat his opponent, no matter the price. His bleeding wounds were slowing him down, but he ignored them, pushing his Wheel of Manipulation to its absolute limit.
At first, the **Silent Departure** was very limited. After all, it was still just an idea given form. But like all Wheels of Destiny, giving a technique a true, resonant *intent* was what shaped the strongest spells. Born from his deepest heart—not from fury, but from the need to perfect a legacy, to answer a flawed smile with flawless silence—Ning finally touched it completely.
It relied on **Jingdao** to reinforce not his body, but the *space* around his movements, causing it to slow and thicken. He used **Shidow** to manipulate his own Qi to move *around* that reinforced space, hence giving the impression he was moving faster than silence itself. It was the epitome of his skill, now on full display.
Yun's expression shifted from focus to slow dawning alarm. In the next clash, he felt two sword strikes land on his side before he could react. *Thwip. Thwip.* Small, precise cuts. The impacts intensified. The white light was now dominating, weaving through his chaotic darkness like a needle through cloth.
Sweat trickled down Yun's temple. It wasn't just about speed anymore. Something had changed within the Silent Departure. He couldn't grasp what.
The **Smiling Lethality** was different. It was a skill that, at its peak, relied on all Five Wheels of Destiny to create a zone of trickery where the 'smile' was the mirror to all attacks that came. But at his level, Yun could not master all the Wheels, let alone bring forth the skill's full, legendary power.
Just as Ning moved forward, driving for what seemed a final blow, Yun decided to give up on swordsmanship. He had no way of winning a contest of blades at this level.
Ning appeared behind him, flipping the blade of light in his hand. A clean arc of dark blood sprayed on the moss.
Yun stood still, holding his throat in utter shock. He hadn't even heard the moment the blade touched him. He only felt the wet heat after Ning had already appeared.
The onlookers observed in stunned horror. Ning had won.
They couldn't believe their eyes. Looking at Ning now, holding the Silent Departure, the blade itself vanished, dissolving into motes of light. Instead, Ning's entire body was sheathed in a dense, rippling white aura.
On the observing side, someone muttered in shock, "He… he became the Silent Departure himself."
Lorel and Chubbs flashed brilliant, relieved smiles. They had no idea what that truly meant, but the outcome was clear. Ning had won.
In her heart, Lorel recognized it. *He grew mid-combat. He reached a whole new level of mastery of his original skill. He didn't learn a new one. He didn't create a new one. He improved what was already there.*
Something seemed to click in her own mind. After all this time, after learning the **Supremacy Swords**, she had completely neglected her original self. The **Unbound Lantern**. This was the skill she had first wielded, the gentle light that had become forgotten in the lure of greater, sharper power. *Maybe I have to return to my roots.*
"Lorel!" Chubbs called out, snapping her from her thoughts.
On the battlefield, Yun's body was shifting. Symbols, reversed and ugly mockeries of the Wheels of Destiny, erupted from the ground around his feet, glowing with a sickly purple-grey light.
"**Zhadao**," Yun pronounced, his voice a guttural rasp.
His skin began to shift and change. It looked like his bones, his very structure, the severed flesh of his neck—all of it was reinforcing, but differently. The tissue tensed, desiccating as if dried in an instant, taking on the texture of an ancient mummy. His eyes darkened, losing all trace of reason, becoming pits of hungry void.
The moment the transformation was over, Yun had grown a few inches taller. His muscles were still lean but looked denser, like corded stone. And his eyes… his eyes were lost.
With a single thought, he condensed a blade of dark Qi—not with Manipulation, but with a twisted, hollow version of **Zhidow, Creation**. He moved.
He lunged towards Ning in a wide, wild swing. Ning, now embodying the Silent Departure, was simply too fast. He evaded the strike with disturbing ease.
However, Yun wasn't done. He swung again, this time without any care for his surroundings. A dense wave of the devouring dark Qi shot out, severing two more cultivators who were standing too close before they could even react to reinforce their bodies. It was as if the blade-Qi was preventing their bodies from remembering how to be whole. Cries of shock spread as the cultivators began a panicked retreat.
But Yun had gone berserk.
In a blink, he vanished and appeared behind another cultivator. His palm shot forward to grasp the man's head. The cultivator was ready, unleashing his **Jingdao** as he went for a straight counter-punch to Yun's chest.
It was like granite meeting mud.
The cultivator's forearm bones snapped on impact with a sickening *crunch*. Yun's hand closed around his face and simply pressed forward, crushing the skull with a wet, final sound. He dropped the body, spit a stream of black foam, and turned his void-like eyes to Lorel.
Her heartbeat hammered against her ribs.
*What is Zhadao?* It looked like Jingdao, but it definitely was not.
Without warning, she summoned the **Supremacy Swords**. But without the speed of Ning, she didn't have time to imbue them with her supreme intent. They were just pink light.
Yun swung once.
The seven swords shattered like glass against his chaotic blade. His sword came down in an attempt to kill them both.
Panicked and alarmed, Lorel turned to her root, her deepest will. The **Unbound Lantern** reappeared, floating in front of her with a blazing, soft pink light. She didn't command it to attack. She let it *be*.
A wave of dense, warm, *clarifying* Qi spread out from the Lantern like a silent, sonic boom.
Only then did Yun slow. He was forced to take two steps back, his mummified skin showing a few new scratches, but that was all. The wave had not pierced his cuirass.
Ning vanished and appeared in front of them. "All of you, retreat! He has done something to his body to get more strength, but at what cost?" Ning's voice was strained. He materialized the Silent Departure blade once more and went into a furious clash with Yun.
The fight on the Spirit Isle intensified into pure chaos. The cultivators tried to flee, but Yun was not content with just Ning. He chased them. Thus, they were all forced to stay and face him together.
All ten or so remaining cultivators, including Lorel and Chubbs, faced Yun in a chaotic, desperate battle.
Like a battle machine, Yun's body took the brunt of their attacks again and again, to no avail. His skin was simply too hard. Another cultivator was sliced into two with ease. "This is not Jingdao!" the dying man cursed. "This is a curse!"
Panic spread on the Island of Spirit.
On the side, Lilia's face was paralyzed with fear. Despite all those who had died already, the island was still closed. She tried to spread her Qi, to find an opening in the tomb's rules, but there was nothing. Yun's assumptions were wrong. Killing someone inside would not force it to open.
That meant they were all destined to die here.
Lorel unleashed the **Unbound Lantern**, sending wave after wave of clarifying pink Qi at Yun. Her attacks were the only ones able to force him back, to make him hesitate. Ning was fast, his movements a blur of white light, but he lacked decisive power. The wounds, the strain of embodying his technique, were getting the best of him. He could evade, he could harry, but he could not break through Yun's cursed reinforcement.
They were holding a monster at bay, and their strength was fading.