Chapter 78: Violent Qi
The Qi Shen Yu was pouring into the red Qi Sword was filled with a violent energy. Although Shen Yu could control it, Xu Min was not used to this volatile energy. His body felt as though it would explode from the inside as he devoured more and more of the Qi.
With all his power Xu Min managed to cut the energy from being absorbed. Taking the sword with him, he separated himself from the red Qi Sword in Shen Yu's hands. As he escaped, he was still overwhelmed by the energy within his body. Shen Yu did not allow him to catch his breath as he rushed forward, the red Qi Sword in his hands, he continuously slashed at the retreating Xu Min.
While Xu Min was busy with his battle against Shen Yu, Ye Ling was busy battling the many other experts. Although he was at a disadvantage, he was much stronger than the others. He was capable of rushing forward and managed to suppress every other expert, even the good friend of Shen Yu.
Xu Min did not have time to look at Ye Ling. All he could focus on was the expert in front of him, the expert who was managing to attack him with a ferocity the young man had never experienced before.
Gritting his teeth, Xu Min constantly rotated the Qi within his body around through his meridians, ensuring that the volatile energy slowly was refined while he continually dodged the red Qi Sword. Unfortunately, it was not possible for him to fully avoid it. Soon blood started to flow from his body as one cut after another appeared.
"So you can bleed without devouring the energy," Shen Yu said with an ice-cold voice as he continued to attack with the red Qi Sword. His eyes turned red from the energy he was releasing. He resembled a devil, overcome by bloodlust.
"I guess the devouring ability is from your sword then. Just die so that I can get that sword! Such a treasure should not be in the hands of a commoner like you!" Shen Yu spat out every single word filled with enmity.Xu Min, who had been oppressed up until now, finally felt that the volatile energy in his body was ready and refined. The energy was far more potent than what he was used to. How Shen Yu's Qi had become such an aggressive energy, Xu Min had no idea.
"So what if you are stronger than me?" Xu Min snorted as the wounds on his body slowly healed. The extra Qi he had absorbed closed all his wounds. Xu Min raised the sword in his hands as he rushed forward towards Shen Yu once more, slashing at the expert in front of him.
Xu Min did nothing else then move the sword. Nonetheless, as soon as the two swords collided the volatile energy once more entered Xu Min's body. This time, though, he was prepared for it. He instantly rotated the Qi around his body. As the two were standing in a standstill, attacking one another, Xu Min suddenly retreated once more. This time, he did not stop his sword from devouring the Qi. While he greedily absorbed all this red Qi, he swiftly rotated it through his body to refine it.
The pain was so intense that Xu Min wished he could pass out, but he knew once he did, he would never wake up again. He paid all his attention to the person in front of him because his life depended on it.
Taking a stance, thousands of jade-like shards appeared behind him. Moments after, they started to rain down upon the young Shen Yu. The attack did not stop there but continued as Xu Min followed suit slashing and stabbing at Shen Yu. Sometimes successfully wounding the older expert, other times missing him just by a hair's breath.
The fight had suddenly reversed from Shen Yu’s offense and Xu Min’s defense to Xu Min suppressing Shen Yu. The devouring sword was absorbing energy as swiftly as it could. Even though, Shen Yu had a lot more Qi than Xu Min had, he had to be careful with using all of this energy as the devour made him feel feeble. He was incapable of stopping this devouring force.
"Let us see how you will manage this then!" Shen Yu cursed and poured every strand of energy into Xu Min’s sword, forcing Xu Min to absorb more and more energy than he had ever done before. He was now capable of refining this energy, but he could feel his entire body being on fire. The heat and volatile energy started to make his meridians burst, even so, Xu Min did not give up.
All the energy that was within his body made him burst from the inside out. However, Xu Min decided to pour this energy into his sword. Suddenly a humming sound appeared, the sword in his hands started shining with a golden light. The Qi which exited Xu Min's body turned golden and with this sword filled with energy, Xu Min once more launched an offense so overpowering that Shen Yu could do nothing more than grit his teeth to withstand the constant attacks raining down upon him. His energy was constantly being absorbed. Looking at Xu Min, Shen Yu knew he only had to hang on for a short while.
A stream of blood started streaming out from Xu Min's mouth, but Xu Min kept on attacking as though nothing was wrong. The attacks that rained down upon Shen Yu became more and more fierce. The young man was drenched in blood from deep stabs to some shallow cuts. He did not have enough Qi to close them, and, although Xu Min was bleeding, it was hard to say which one of the two was the most wounded.
Xu Min continued his advance. Soon a drop of blood fell from his eye, a stream of blood following behind. It appeared as if he was crying, tears of blood fell from his eyes, showing just how serious stage he was in.
Screaming, Shen Yu stepped forward, the red Qi Sword in his hand, now much dimmer and smaller than it had been before, got ready to attack Xu Min. Their swords clashed time and time again. Every time they connected with one another Xu Min would absorb more and more of the Qi which was rapidly depleting from Shen Yu.
"I cannot lose to someone as weak as you!" Shen Yu screamed out. With everything he had the Qi erupted from his body, creating a shockwave which billowed outwards and managed to cause Xu Min to back away five steps when he was hit. The second eye started dropping tears of blood. Even though blood was falling in a steady stream from his eyes and his mouth, Xu Min was not willing to give up and with the rest of his energy did he jump forward. Both his hands holding the sword, with his last energy poured into the golden sword, he slashed down and hit the young man in front of him.
The sword was blocked by Shen Yu. There was so much power within the golden sword, both the energy it had absorbed and the energy that Xu Min had poured into it. The red sword could no longer stand it, and it collapsed, turning into Qi which was rapidly absorbed by the golden sword in Xu Min's hands. Before it continued, it's downward slash.
The sounds of bones breaking could be heard as the sword embedded itself in the shoulder of Shen Yu. The force behind the sword was simply too much. It kept going downwards until it split Shen Yu's body in two.
On Shen Ye’s face was an expression of both shock and unwillingness. It was clear that he did not believe that Xu Min would kill him. As the facts appeared, he still refused to acknowledge it; his face was filled with disbelief as the final breath of life left him.
Looking at the dead expert, a smile appeared on Xu Min's face. Suddenly everything turned black as he too collapsed on the ground.
While Xu Min had been busy fighting Shen Yu, Ye Ling had been focused on the other experts. All the weaker ones had been killed off easily, but Ye Ling was still battling Shen Yu's best friend, someone who actually made Ye Ling use all his abilities. Although he was strong, he had used an immense amount of energy fighting one against many. However, the moment he saw Xu Min collapse, a roar escaped his throat as it echoed through the entire area. His body grew, and the rest of his energy was utilized to shred the person in front of him into tiny pieces before Ye Ling rushed to Xu Min's side. Worry filled the lion’s eyes as he turned Xu Min to lay on his back.
Seeing the traces of blood on Xu Min’s face, the traces below his eyes and from his lip clearly told a tale of someone fighting far above his ability, but the blood had already stopped flowing.
In his hand was the golden sword and the golden hue around it constantly fluctuated. Ye Ling poured a bit of his own Qi into Xu Min's body to see the state of his body. He was shocked when he saw that every single meridian within had been shattered. He was even more shocked when he felt that the energy that entered Xu Min's body from the sword slowly mended every single wound on his body. The meridians that were being rebuilt were many times stronger than they had been before. Ye Ling noticed that the Qi roaming around within these new meridians was golden in color.
Ye Ling had never before heard of someone having golden Qi; even less about someone who managed to survive after having all their meridians broken.
While Ye Ling sat down by Xu Min's side and patiently awaited his new companion to wake up, outside the Immortal Valley, an uproar had appeared.
The men from the Snow Mountain were filled with anger and hostility as they wished to take their anger out on the faction that had come with Bu Huang. However, they had quickly been stopped by the Guardians.With one threat by these guardians, the Snow Mountain instantly calmed down. Their faces were filled with sour expressions as they kept observing the one screen which kept following Xu Min. Most of the audience was watching this screen to see whether or not it was possible for Xu Min to wake up after such a close battle.
It took three days for Xu Min's body to be fully healed and as he was healed, he woke up from his coma. Ye Ling was still by his side. The many corpses still littered the ground; the lion had done absolutely nothing to remove them, only guarding Xu Min all this time.
As Xu Min awoke, he felt a comfortable feeling all throughout his body. It was as though he had just awoken from a long sleep. He was stunned to find that the Qi within his body was many times purer than it had been before; it was also much more abundant and richer.
He felt that his strength had been raised by leaps and bounds.As he stood up, he punched the ground with some Qi embedded within his arm. He looked at the ground his eyes widened. A large cavity had been created by Xu Min with a single punch; it was clear that he had at least doubled his strength.
"Amazing!" he said stunned before he went to every corpse and took their items alongside their emblems. By now he had a lot of emblems and beast cores alongside many things and treasures. The battle against Shen Yu's men had caused him to gain a lot of things.
"So now you managed to do what we had planned, what do we do now?" Ye Ling asked curiously. Xu Min pondered for a moment before he smiled, "We will keep moving forward. Who knows what we will find. There is still quite some time left before the Immortal Valley Rankings ends!" Xu Min was excited. Together he and Ye Ling left the battlefield and started moving towards the forest once more.