NOVEL NEXT 75: Betrayed (V)
Wang Yang chewed on his food pill, clenching his sword until his knuckles turned white.
They had just cleared the fifth wave—16,000 demons. It took the army of cultivators a little over an hour and a half to decimate them. And in doing so, their first casualty had arrived.
"Wei, you were a great warrior, a precious brother to us. We will make sure that your name is forever remembered and your family is looked after." Pei buried the middle-aged man with grey sideburns in a shallow grave, the warrior's sword serving as the tombstone. "May we share a drink in heaven when this is all over."
"May we share a drink in heaven when this is all over!" The roar of the remaining cultivators shook the earth; the red sky wavered, giving way to a flash of brilliant blue.
"Let's keep an eye on the west for any ambush."
"No need to worry about that—Bai has laid a formation there."
"That man works fast."
"I am sure his mother would be proud of him."
Wang Yang saw two older men chatting near him. They wiped the purple blood off their bodies as a third person joined them—a young woman, the only one among the cultivators. Because of her stern face and deep voice, Wang Yang had mistaken her for a guy at first.
"You old men sure know how to bring the mood down." She hit their backs with a growl.
"Remembering such things is how we old folks find the strength to carry on. You'll understand when you age up, Lui. Isn't that right, Cho?" The old man with stubble brushed the headband on his head. The white headband had the word 'Immortal' etched into it with red thread—a gift from his daughter before he left for the battlefield.
"I am sure she already knows about that, Cong." The second old man, Cho, showed a wrinkled smile and pointed at the talisman hung on Lui's sword. "Didn't you get that from that good-looking young man you've had your eyes on?"
"Knock it off, old man!" Lui, furious, kicked the old men away and stormed off.
The cultivators around them laughed, their eyes and hands reaching for the trinkets, headbands, and rings that reminded them of home—the reason they had come out to this desolate, blood-soaked hell.
Wang Yang started to feel a sting in his heart. He had felt it during all the trials. When Muchen said that these trials were created from real events, he had understated the fact. This didn't feel like a hollow copy. Every person inside these trials felt real, because they were.
The emaciated kids from Iron Mountain, the coughing residents of Xingqiu city, and these warriors beside him—what Wang Yang faced wasn't illusions, but actual humans preserved in memory.
"What is our youngest thinking so deeply about?" Pei poked Wang Yang from the side.
"Nothing!" Wang Yang jumped like a cat, not having noticed Pei's presence at all.
"You still can't lie, huh?" Pei shook his head. "If something is troubling you, just say it. I'll help you out."
Wang Yang looked down; something had indeed troubled him since the trial started. So he planned to confront it head-on.
"Can I join the frontline?"
Hearing the question, the easygoing smile on Pei's face vanished. With sharp eyes, he looked at Wang Yang, monitoring even the slightest movements.
"Do you really want to?"
Pei's question had halted all sound in the area. Wang Yang felt the pressure, not just from Pei but from every cultivator around him. Their eyes bore down on him, scrutinizing and watching his every move.
However, he didn't want to back down. To achieve his goal and to grow, he had to step forward.
From the encounter with the qi beast during the sect trial to his clash with Kai, Wang Yang had experienced explosive growth when his life was in danger.
Muchen had told him during training about how different people experienced growth.
I am no genius; I can't grow by staying still. I can't master moves just by looking at them once; I don't have that talent. I wasn't born with anything special; even my spiritual root needs three times the effort of normal. And I can't stay in the back and use my smarts to plan things. I am... an average person with a little luck. So I can only risk my body for growth. He finally understood the formula for his growth.
"Yes, I want to fight." He wanted to test that theory in this situation where his body felt stronger than ever.
"Sure." However, Pei smiled, his previous pressure vanishing like smoke.
"The leader can't maintain that tough act for long before his family, huh?"
"I mean, that is his brother."
Wang Yang looked between the cultivators and Pei, who showed an embarrassed smile. However, Pei soon patted his shoulder with a gentle expression.
"It is good that you are finally showing spirit. I only wish father could have seen it," Pei said and turned to the east, eyes narrowing on the bellowing black cloud. "It is time to walk your talk, youngest."
Wang Yang gripped his sword as the cultivators took their formation. The sixth wave arrived with double the demons from the last one. But this time he stood at the front with Pei, not in the back peering over shoulders.
As the charging army came closer, their combined stomps shook the earth. Low rumbles traveled through Wang Yang's body, shaking him as the stench of rotting meat clawed at his lungs. Facing the enormous wave that drowned all sound and reason, he leaped forward with a war cry.
A reckless charge—but Wang Yang felt the strength in his arms. His legs didn't shake, not even with a little tremble. The first demon, a brute lion, swiped its gleaming claws.
However, instead of moving back, Wang Yang let earth qi flow through his body, meeting the claws head-on. The impact reverberated through his bones, but he swiped the sword, covered with metal qi, leaving a foot-deep gash in the demon's chest.
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I cut through its ribs. If I just thrust with fire now... Wang Yang widened his stance and dropped low to duck under the demon's desperate swing.
With a push from his left leg, he shot forward. His sword's edge blazed crimson. A single thrust charred the matted fur of the lion. The sword's tip punctured its two hearts.
Wang Yang slid his sword in a wide arc, separating the demon's torso in two. But he didn't relax. Right above him were three demons, all reaching to rip his throat.
"Storm Steps, second step: Tempest."
Air howled as the chaotic wind blew the demons back, their bodies slamming against the earth, rattling their brains. Wang Yang moved to the nearest one, his sword at the ready.
Wang Yang lunged at the nearest—a white-furred gorilla—and his flaming blade severed its neck in one clean stroke. He shifted, feeding fire qi into the earth to harden his stance, taking the lash of a lizard's tail without faltering. Then metal qi devoured the previous flow, sharpening his edge as he cut the scaled beast in two.
It's hard, but I can control it. Wang Yang gritted his teeth and spun his body under the increased weight of his sword; water qi helped him balance the momentum.
In a swift circular slash, he beheaded the horse demon. But before he could regain his footing, ten demons rushed forward, their long tongues already tasting his flesh and blood.
Wang Yang braced himself to use the wood qi, but lightning fell.
A thousand demons disintegrated in the flash as bright as the sun.
"Hahaha, now that's what I'm talking about!" Pei emerged from the flashes of pure white lightning.
He landed in the middle of the demon forces—32,000 strong. The bolts leaking from his body sent the demons reeling in fear.
"Come on, you bastards, we can't have the young masters show us up!" Lui led the charge with a grin, swinging her three-sectioned staff to smash demons' heads like ripe melons. Her acrobatic movements confused and mesmerized everyone around.
"HA!"
The cultivator army dove into the fray like a wedge, separating the demon horde in two. Wang Yang and the rest fought off the western side as Pei handled the eastern half alone. Streaks of lightning filled the battlefield as charred flesh and burnt blood soaked into the earth.
Hours blurred as waves came one after the other now. Wang Yang's strong arms now felt sore, but he didn't stop. His chain of attacks continued. The elemental cycles he had read about in the book took form before his very eyes. He hadn't mastered it yet, but he could do three cycles back-to-back without problem.
The more I do it, the easier it feels. Is it because I have more strength or abundant qi? No, is it because of this form I've assumed? The one who shared their memory? If I can understand what makes this easier, I can copy it in reality, too. Questions piled up, but Wang Yang couldn't linger on them.
From the tenth wave onward, the casualties mounted. Each clash brought half a million demons, and the cultivator line thinned. They fought with teeth clenched, unable to bury their brothers, stepping over corpses just to cut another foe down.
"Keep fighting, warriors!" Pei shouted. "We must keep the demons engaged so the family heads can seal the Disasters. Move forward—our mother, Goddess Nuwa, is watching over us! If we let one of these vermin reach our homeland, I would be ashamed to show my face to our ancestors!"
Wang Yang looked above; the crimson sky from before started to crack. A wave of blue spread from the north, raining down golden sparks on the cultivators.
Wang Yang felt his energy recover, his wounds healing. Even the soreness in his muscles vanished, and on top of that, his strength increased again.
The cultivators cheered, plunging themselves deeper into the demon army with renewed fervor.
A suicidal charge. The entire thing had been a suicidal charge. However, Wang Yang stayed at the tip of that charge.
The never-ending waves of demons continued. One million, two million, four million... It had reached a point where Wang Yang didn't bother to check the number.
With more deaths among the cultivators and the ever-increasing demons, the army faltered. Now, only a handful remained when the 19th wave ended.
"This blows... I was looking forward to that wedding wine..." Lui fell to the ground, her body full of holes and swords. "I'm going ahead of you, old coots. If you die... I'll beat you all to... death..."
"This kid didn't know manners until the end." Cho gritted his teeth.
"What place do manners have in a world where the old can't even protect their young ones?" Cong turned to Wang Yang.
Instead of taking the moment to rest, Pei and he went around the battlefield to bury the fallen cultivators. Black soil clung to his nails, his breath uneven, but Wang Yang didn't stop. He found the swords these people had used and marked their graves amidst the mountain of corpses.
"You should take a rest, youngest," Pei said.
"I'm not tired," Wang Yang said, digging the coarse dirt.
"Hmm..." Pei looked at him and smiled, looking back at the tired old duo. "I've been thinking about it since earlier, but you are very different from the usual brats that join this trial."
"Huh?" Wang Yang's head snapped toward Pei.
"What? Surprised that I know?" he smiled. "Since you don't know, it must be your first time on Qingliu Mountains."
"W-Wait... So you aren't just memories?" Wang Yang stood up. Pei and the two old men looked his way with teasing smiles.
He had felt that the people he met in the trials were too lifelike; he had chalked it up to the memory having too much detail. But this opened a whole new door.
"It is as you think... a wisp of our soul is copied and safeguarded in Qingliu Mountains. We were the first to use it because we wanted to make sure that our martial lineage didn't end with our deaths." Pei smiled, patting Wang Yang. "And we succeeded—now we have the chance to watch over the descendants we laid our lives down for."
"But I have to say, I have been rather disappointed by the kids that have come in the past century," Pei lamented.
"Young Master, it's not that the descendants have gotten weaker, but that generation was out of the ordinary," Cho came over.
"True, they had it all—overwhelming power, courage, and strategy, all different routes to conquer the trials." Pei nodded. "In the end, that kid Li Muchen showcased a strategy unparalleled in history and almost reached the 60th wave. It was a shame that he couldn't end the 59th wave in time, but that was the limit of the strategy route."
"You know my Master?" Wang Yang asked, his ears standing at attention.
"That runt's your master? Looks like he struck gold in return for his bad draw in talent," Pei laughed.
"What do you..."
"What I mean is simple—if Li Muchen had gotten higher cultivation talent, we all could have rested in peace." Pei interrupted Wang Yang. "But now that I have seen you, I can rest easy."
"Young master, you are confusing the young boy," Cong chuckled.
"Oh!" Pei looked at the confused expression on Wang Yang's face and coughed.
"I forgot that you know nothing about Qingliu Mountains. The fact that I have chosen to show my true form to you means only one thing: I acknowledge you."
"Acknowledge me?" Wang Yang pointed to himself. Had he done anything worthy of that?
"Yes, after seeing over a million disciples over several millennia, you are the only one that came closest to my younger brother, Shan Dian, whose memory you are in right now," Pei said.
[The leader of the Immortal Army's last battalion, Shan Pei, and the nameless martyrs have acknowledged you. +1,000,000 Trial points]
Wang Yang's eyes almost popped out at the number of points. He looked at the points and Pei in succession.
"The points you have now should be enough for you to enter the Library of Sacred Knowledge. When you enter, look for the Shan Dian Martial Manual. The Storm Steps you use are a cheap copy of my family's secret art, so it wouldn't be hard for you to switch in the middle," Pei smirked.
"Is it really okay to give something like that to me?" Wang Yang felt overwhelmed. He respected Pei a lot, even though he had never met the real person. And to get the secret art of such a person came with too much pressure.
"I am not giving this to you out of pity or just because I feel like it." Pei patted Wang Yang's shoulder with his hardened palm. "I am giving it to you because I know you can unleash its true potential, just like my brother did when he faced this army as the last survivor. You are his descendant, and it shows."
"Your brother... who was he?"
"You ask who my brother was? You'll find no answer here, boy. Not yet."
Pei faced to the east and extended his hand. With a flash of lightning, his great sword spun and stuck to his palm. He swung the blade, arcs of thunder splitting the earth.
"If you live to see the 30th wave, the heavens themselves will show you whose blood flows in your veins."
Wang Yang clenched his sword and faced the 20th wave. However, he was still far from his goal.