Night of the Broken Gliph

Bak Wun watched from the side in disbelief. He knew that Chor Shing Chit was a capable glipher, but this was beyond his expectations. Chan Shue Gun was a half-stage ten-gliphic gliphist, nearly equivalent to a three-chambered glipher. 

In gliphism, the gap between each state was enormous. It was just like finding a needle in a haystack to find cultivators who were able to fight opponents of a higher stage. Chor Shing Chit might only be a two-chambered glipher, but his current performance was no worse than Chan Shue Gun. 

On the coach, Chui Yim had his eyes stuck on the fight. He never had the chance to witness such a battle, even in his past life, only assassinations. Today’s challenge between him and Chan Ngou Tin might only have been child’s play to the teachers, but it was his first actual fight in both his lives. 

Chan Ngou Tin fought without any tactics and relied on the buff that his Super-strength gliph gave. Chui Yim only won because Chan Ngou Tin never expected him to be able to draw Flame Knife. However, Chor Shing Chit was giving him an actual lesson on how to fight and block a half-stage ten-gliphic gliphist with his techniques, speed and strength. 

Chui Yim’s eyes never left Chor Shing Chit, trying to imprint his movements and steps in his mind. Yet Chor Shing Chit moved at such a speed that even Chui Yim, who had great memory, could only remember ten to twenty percent of his skills. 

Chan Shue Gun was still as calm as ever. He was almost a hundred years old, making it hard for anyone to affect him emotionally, but Chui Yim was an exception. He spent his entire life in gliphism for the Chan Clan, and Chan Ngou Tin, who was like a son to him, was the only person he ever cared about besides the clan. To him, he had already lived long enough, and Chan Shue Gun felt that it was worth it to make the teenager who destroyed Chan Ngou Tin's future go to hell before the end of his life. Chor Shing Chit who was now blocking him from Chui Yim with the black rod, was an irksome presence to him. 

After researching on An Old Tree’s Coiled Roots for years, he already knew the gliph like the back of his hands. Tree root-like gliph strings moved at lightning speed, and Chan Shue Gun was able to control nine tree roots simultaneously, four more than the original gliph. The defence and damage of the gliph was extreme. But it was still unable to break through Chor Shing Chit’s defence. 

Whoosh! 

In the drizzle, the black rod was unnoticeable, but the sound of the rod smashing through the air could be heard.

With one wave, four big tree roots were destroyed at once. Chor Shing Chit waved the rod in one big movement; it was as if he wasn’t waving a rod, but a giant axe or hammer. As he was doing this, Stunning Thunder and Vanguard Soldiers were constantly activated, giving the rod tremendous force and sharpness. The improved An Old Tree’s Coiled Roots had no advantage against the Fallen Star’s Rod. 

Chor Shing Chit might be unable to counterattack and was forced to only defend, but this didn’t make Chan Shue Gun happy. He was more than twice Chor Shing Chit’s age, yet being around the same level wasn’t something he should be pleased about. Moreover, he was clear that him having the upper hand was just an illusion. It was the other way round in reality. 

An Old Tree’s Coiled Roots wasn’t a high-level gliph, but after the upgrade by Chan Shue Gun, it became close. The Prison Walls that he was keeping up was draining vast amounts of his energliph. If he hadn’t cultivated for nearly a hundred years, he would never have been able to keep this up. In contrast, Chor Shing Chit, who was stuck defending in a sorry state, didn't actually use up much of his energliph since he only had to use very little to activate his gliph weapon. Moreover, Chor Shing Chit was only about thirty years old, considered a healthy teenager in gliphism. These days, his daily training and handling of the Fallen Star Rod helped his breath become heavier and steadier bit by bit. 

If the fight went on, Chan Shue Gun, who was older, would first be unable to keep up. Sensing that the battle had developed to such a state, Chan Shue Gun, who was always calm, couldn’t help but feel anxious. This was the first time he moved his eyes away from Chui Yim. He didn’t turn his head, just his eyes.

With his glance, the tree protecting him seemed to move at the same time. 

It might be due to the never-ending drizzle, but many imaginary gliph leaves seemed to have been blown down from the huge tree made of dark green ink, turning into numerous daggers. 

Roar! Kot Chi Shing let out an angry growl as his pair of snake-like arms went towards Old Tung once more. 

In the air, a ball of energy wave was emitted from Old Tung’s left foot once again. It was the Wind Fountain gliph. Old Tung didn’t use the gliph for offensive gliphilities, but instead made use of the air as a force for the Air Walk gliphility, making it look like he was walking in the air. 

With the Snake Scale tattoo in his chamber, Kor Chi Sing’s arms could move in extraordinary ways, making him an excellent middle-range type attacker. But it was a pity that he was up against Old Tung, who specialised in long-range attacks and agile movements. Cultivators were heavily affected by compatibility and counters in battle; it seemed like Old Tung had total control of Kot Chi Sing even though they were both on the same stage. 

Old Tung dodged Kot Chi Sing’s snake-like arms and released leaf blade after leaf blade, leaving more wounds on Kot Chi Sing. Now, Kot Chi Sing was covered in wounds. He’d be defeated soon if this went on. 

Whoosh! Just then, a few noises rang out. 

Old Tung’s face changed drastically as he saw a few leaves flying towards him. What was worse was that he had just activated his Air Walk, and he couldn’t use it again so soon. 

Pop! 

The leaves hit Old Tung. They weren’t very strong, but they nailed him to the ground; he was unable to move or dodge anymore. Kot Chi Sing, who was losing, saw this as his eyes lit up. “Twin Snake Kill!”

Along with his shout, his arms brightly lit up again; even his gliph cover wasn’t able to cover the wave of energliph. Kot Chi Sing reached out his hands again, which tangled together like two pythons, before turning into a whirlpool and shooting towards Old Tung! 

Boom! 

Old Tung, who was stopped by the leaves, couldn’t dodge the attack. A sharp sound of bones cracking was heard as Old Tung immediately vomited black blood. There were small pieces of his organs within the pool of blood. His body flew backwards like a sandbag, and the two-chambered glipher who guarded the Riding Clouds Academy for so long lost his life. 

“Argh!” Kot Chi Sing roared, releasing the anger he had been holding in. But he immediately attacked Chor Shing Chit as he knew that Chan Shue Gun helped him only so they could take on Chor Shing Chit together. 

“Hmph!” Chor Shing Chit hummed, waving his weapon quickly. The increase in his defence symbolised the more energliph and physical strength he consumed. 

Previously, Chor Shing Chit would have won if the fight went on, but the tables were now turned. He was on the losing end! 

“Kid Chui, be careful.” 

Chui Yim turned around on hearing Bak Wun, but he was nowhere to be seen. At the same time, a clear cry belonging to a crane rang across the sky and the entire Southary. It alerted everyone in Southary, making them look up at the night sky simultaneously in search of the source of the cry. 

The next minute, a white figure appeared right behind Kot Chi Sing. 

Pfff! 

The figure’s leg moved like a white whip, and his attack landed on Kot Chi Sing’s vest. It was Kot Chi Sing’s turn to vomit blood, yelling and swinging his snake-like arms towards the white figure. But as if an illusion, the punch went past through the white figure as it vanished. 

When the white figure fully disappeared, a figure appeared a short distance away. And that was Principal Bak Wun, owner of the white figure. 

This made Chan Shue Gun’s eyes widen in shock despite his previous calmness. Another reason why Chor Shing Chit was equally matched with Chan Shue Gun was that despite Chan Shue Gun being a half-stage ten-gliphic gliphist, he was still only a half. Similarly to a glipher, the increase of each state brought a tremendous increase in strength. With the number of gliph strings controlled, the agility and speed of your attacks would skyrocket. 

Chan Shue Gun had a similar strength to Chor Shing Chit, but if he really broke through the nine-chambered state, he would be able to take down Chor Shing Chit with just a few attacks. That was how significant the disparity between each stage was. 

However, what they witnessed now was Bak Wun, a one-chambered glipher injuring a two-chambered glipher seriously, and the latter couldn’t even counterattack. 

Bak Wun stood alone, looking at the corpse near him sorrowfully. 

If only I had made a move earlier…

Old Tung had died too suddenly. It barely took a few moments for Chan Shue Gun to surprise attack Old Tung before Kot Chi Sing murdered him with the Twin Snake Kill. Bak Wun simply couldn’t act in time. 

“After such a long time… I can’t hide it anymore.” Bak Wum sighed to himself. But his murderous intent was written all over his face. “Since that’s the case, let’s just kill!” 

He disappeared suddenly, and the crane’s cry was heard when he reappeared. A kick landed on Kot Chi Sing, making him fly up into the sky. Bak Wun appeared in the air the next second, slamming Kot Chi Sing back to the ground with another kick. 

Pfff…

It was as if he had cloned himself many times over, attacking Kot Chi Sing from every angle. Just like a sandbag, Kot Chi Sing was kicked around in the air as he coughed up blood.

A one-chambered glipher had total control when fighting a two-chambered glipher. Anybody with basic knowledge would be shaken up at this sight.