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Chapter 294 - Slash
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 07:00:09 +0000 UTCThe downpour showed no mercy, hammering against the four translucent Qi barriers with relentless fury. Each raindrop flared briefly as it struck the shimmering domes before skittering down their curved surfaces. Inside their Qi barriers, the four figures stood untouched by the deluge, but the air between them crackled with tension, the pounding rain a chaotic drumroll to their deadly confrontation.
"Heh… Redhead, finally tired of running?" Ghossy sneered, his voice cutting through the storm. "Or did you realize there's no escape? Beg for forgiveness now, and I might go easy on you!"
Valenia met his glare, unshaken. "So you won't back down, no matter what?"
"Damn right!" Ghossy barked. "No one betrays me and walks away. Grovel, and maybe I'll spare you some pain!"
She shook her head slowly, her gaze like tempered steel. "Then this is your last chance. Walk away… or you all die." Her words sliced through the rain, sharp and final.
Ghossy threw back his head and laughed with a harsh and mocking sound. "Hahahaha! You hear that, boys? She's still got that fire. Too bad it'll be the death of her." His grin twisted into a snarl. "Kill her!"
"Yes, Boss!" Jayden and Lan Chuan lunged forward, their martial skills erupting in a deadly barrage aimed straight at Valenia.
Then, the world became blades.
A terrifying aura exploded from Valenia, a storm of invisible edges shredding through their attacks. The very air screamed as her power unfurled, an unstoppable force carving through everything in its path.
"AARRGH!"
Jayden and Lan Chuan collapsed, their bodies erupting in deep, bloody gashes. Crimson mixed with rainwater, staining the swampy ground beneath them.
Ghossy's smirk vanished. "What? Sword Intent?! You... you've been hiding your strength!" His heart lurched as he watched his lackey writhe in agony. Even from a distance, he felt the relentless slashes gnawing at his Qi barrier, forcing him to pour more energy into reinforcing it.
Desperately, Jayden and Lan Chuan fumbled for healing elixirs, gulping them down between choked screams. But it was too late.
Before Ghossy's horrified eyes, their flesh began to peel away, layer by layer, as if the air itself had turned into a whirlwind of razors. They kept screaming in agony.
Then Ghossy looked at her again, and what he saw froze his blood.
Valenia's huge broadsword was now in her hand, and she was already in the middle of a swinging motion. Behind her, a gigantic glowing avatar identical to her broadsword formed by her immense Sword Intent, mirroring the broadsword's movement, growing bigger each second. The sheer scale of it loomed over the swamp, a radiant specter of death cutting through the rain.
"Ho-how is that pos-possible?" Ghossy felt terrified. His legs were shaking in fear, intimidated by the scene before him. His voice trembled, barely audible over the rain's roar. He couldn't fathom how a woman like her possessed such a dominating Sword Intent. He regretted going after her.
At this point, Jayden and Lan Chuan, who were near Valenia, were no longer alive. Their bodies were in pieces, killed by the sheer intensity of her sharp aura.
"Any last words?" Valenia asked. Her voice was calm, a stark contrast to the chaos she'd unleashed, her eyes locked on Ghossy with cold finality.
Ghossy's body moved before his mind could process the danger. His fingers found the jade talisman at his throat—his ultimate life-saving treasure passed down through generations. As he crushed it between desperate fingers, the world around him shimmered with teleportation energy. His heart pounded, a frantic hope flickering in his chest.
But Valenia's sword had already moved.
The world split.
A horizontal flash of silver light expanded outward in perfect silence. It passed through trees, through rain, through Ghossy's fading afterimage—slicing everything at waist level with impossible precision.
Reeds and cattails stood with perfectly sheared tops. Tree trunks sheared at identical heights. Boulders cracked cleanly, their upper halves thudding to the mud. The rain itself seemed to part for an instant, droplets sliced midair before pattering harmlessly onto the swamp below. The air hung still for a heartbeat, as if stunned by the cut.
The jade talisman's magic failed mid-transport. Ghossy materialized three hundred paces away, his body separating at the waist as he appeared. His legs remained standing briefly before collapsing, while his torso hit the muddy ground with a wet thud. His eyes widened at the sight of his own severed lower half.
Ghossy's mouth opened in a silent scream, his face twisting in disbelief. His body spasmed, his arms flailing as if he could somehow pull himself back together. Blood gushed from the cleanly severed waist, turning the swamp water black. His eyes, wide and frantic, locked onto Valenia's.
She didn't blink. Her gaze was steady, unflinching, watching the man who had courted his own death.
The rain fell on her, the Qi barrier long dismissed. She let the rain soak her hair, her clothes, her skin.
Ghossy's movements grew weaker. His fingers twitched. His breath came in ragged, wet gasps. Still, Valenia didn't look away.
His fingers clawed at the mud as his vision darkened, the last thing he saw being Valenia sheathing her massive broadsword in the distance.
Valenia exhaled, watching the last of the severed trees tumble to the ground. Her chest loosened, the weight of the fight slipping away with the breath. The rain resumed its steady rhythm, undisturbed.
She held onto her broadsword tightly as it supported her body from falling, its sheathed blade sunk deep into the mud. Her body was visibly shaking. Her knuckles whitened around the hilt, the strain of the fight still buzzing through her limbs.
"I warned you, but you didn't listen, stupid," she muttered. Her voice was low, completely lost in the rain. She couldn't even hear her own voice.
Valenia didn't have any good feelings about the three of them, so their deaths didn't bother her in the slightest. She only felt upset that she was forced to kill them just because they wouldn't leave her alone.
She stayed in the rain like that for a few minutes until her body regained some strength. After that, she kept her broadsword in her space ring and observed her surroundings. Her eyes scanned the swamp, taking in the aftermath with a slow, steady breath.
Her full-powered Sword Intent slash actually reached over three kilometers away! It was further than she expected. A few demonic beasts also died from her slash. Enough food supply for a few months.
"Oh right, their space rings!" She suddenly remembered, and her mood immediately lifted. A spark of excitement cut through her fatigue, her lips twitching into a faint smirk. How could she not be happy? Their space rings had many Metal Essence Beads obtained from the temple.
She quickly searched for them in the water near Jayden and Lan Chuan's remains. Most of them had been washed away by the flowing water and the rain. Some time later, following the stream, Valenia found their space rings still attached to their severed fingers. After that, she returned to Ghossy's corpse and took his ring as well.
The three space rings had restrictions preventing her from accessing the contents, but it wasn't a big deal to Valenia. Once she reunited with Leyvi later, all the restrictions would be dismantled easily.
Such irony. She wanted to get away from them, but they just wouldn't leave her alone, leaving behind such precious treasures as goodbye gifts.
With the Metal Essence Beads in her possession, once she consumed them, her metal elemental affinity would increase tremendously, leading to a boost in her combat ability without the Sword Intent.
After all, her goal wasn't just to excel in Sword Intent, but also Sword Qi. If she could utilize both Sword Intent and Sword Qi, she would have more options while fighting. But until now, she still couldn't control her broadsword with only her Qi like the others because her elemental Qi affinity was much lower than average. Her fingers twitched at the thought, a quiet frustration bubbling beneath her calm exterior.
There were multiple factors that affected a cultivator's efficiency in using their Qi, and the spirit root was just one of them. Meridians and body elemental affinity also contributed a lot. Most of the time, cultivators would have a body compatible with their spirit root, but the level of affinity would differ for each person.
Valenia had heard of a few cases where cultivators were born with bodies incompatible with their spirit roots, causing them to have difficulties and suffer while cultivating and using their Qi. The proven solution to this problem was to give them affinity-increasing products. Once the body became compatible with the element, the problems immediately disappeared.
She intended to increase her body's metal elemental affinity as much as possible and later balance her fighting style. That way, she could avoid risky all-out battles like the one before. A faint ache lingered in her muscles, a reminder of how close she'd pushed herself.
When she said she would go all out, she really meant it. Valenia had gone all out against them. And due to that, she didn't think she could use Sword Intent for some time. It materialized from her willpower, and she was mentally exhausted right now. Not only that, since the attack was extremely strong, the force also put a huge strain on her body.
