The two fighters moved at the same time. Both intending to end the other in one strike. Neither cultivator holding back in their attacks. Meihu’s fist glowed with a bright blue energy. Ying’s sword split the air as it came slashing downwards to Meihu’s figure. A shockwave from their clash blew away the furniture in the room but neither fighter was blown away.
Ying held a slight advantage over Meihu in terms of physical strength but this did not mean that the battle was over already. Meihu reared back her other fist and struck Ying’s blade. Repeated punches to the sword forced Ying backwards but did not weaken her grip on her sword. The speed of her punches also made it hard for Ying to strike back. But this wasn’t something that made Ying worry.
If you wanted to meet her head on with an aggressive offensive style, she’d meet you blow for blow. She altered her stance and began to use her second style from the Giant Blade Manual. Meihu wasn’t oblivious to the change in Ying’s demeanor. She swiftly halted her rapid punches and carefully watched for the slightest opening in Ying’s stance. Moving With The Blade was not a purely defensive style despite what Meihu might be thinking.
Meihu was in quite for the surprise when Ying brought her sword swinging from the side, seemingly looking like a wild swing. The Pig Mistress of the Outer Court jumped away from the slash and watched as Ying was sent in a fast spin from the weight of her heavy sword. Ying slowly closed in after Meihu while spinning and it stumped her. She never encountered something like this in a fight.
Ying was sent flying in the air after Meihu smashed the ground underneath her. She recovered by landing feet first on the ceiling and spinning downward with her giant blade like a wheel. To combat against this deadly move, her opponent concentrated most of her qi within her fist and jumped upwards with a powerful uppercut. The result of the two moves caused another shockwave to blast outward, this time causing cracks to appear throughout the room.
“Who in the world are you?” Meihu gritted her teeth as she was forced into the ground.
“A member of the Yue Family.” Ying answered with pride.
Ying’s sword knocked Meihu through the floor and both of them began to fall through it. Meihu’s brain raced to see if she could dig up any memories involving a Yue Family. When nothing came up, she could only stare up at Ying in confusion. What the hell is a Yue Family and when did they get someone as talented as this on their side?! A 9th stage Qi Gatherer doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere! Her girls would’ve long investigated someone about to reach the 9th stage and informed her about it. And there was no way anyone in the Outer Court could’ve escaped detection from her faction.
“It pisses me off! I don’t understand where you came from and why you’re even here!!!”
As they were falling, Meihu qi condensed itself into a dark blue aura around her body that enhanced her strength even further. She kicked at the air and jumped into Ying’s space, bringing her fist back to slug her right in her face. Ying smiled as fire engulfed her body and swallowed her and her sword. The massive blade turned into a collective mass of flames and Ying turned into the embodiment of fire. Her hair turned ablaze, the robes she was wearing became a flame dress that clung tightly to her figure, and her eyes burned with a mix between orange and blue flames.
With just a wave of her palm, Meihu was sent blasting off into the kitchen below. She let out an ear-piercing scream before shooting back towards Ying. Ying was already ready for the incoming attack after seeing how her last attack didn’t leave any marks on Meihu. Her greatsword was thrust forward and collided with the Pig Mistress’s fist. The tip of Hao stabbed into her fist slightly but getting past that highly concentrated qi was not easy.
The two sent each other blasting off with their nearly equal strength. Ying flying back into Meihu’s room and Meihu crashing back down into the kitchen.
“Let’s see how you handle this!” Ying rose Hao high above her shoulders and slashed down with a great swing.
A flaming sword slash came flying towards Meihu.
“If I don’t kill you, everything I've worked for would’ve been pointless! All the bonds I made with my girls were erased just like that! I have nothing now! And you are the reason! I will stop at nothing to make sure you are dead.” Meihu’s qi cloak started draining into her fist. She struck out with an uppercut that sent a flying fist made of qi and wind towards Ying.
“It’s not my fault things turned out like this. I wanted to talk things out.” Ying shrugged.
“Shut it!” Meihu couldn’t believe something like that.
An explosion that destroyed even more of the mansion formed when their qi attacks met. Smoke, debris, and flames filled the area. Ying and Meihu stared each other down despite the conditions. They both readied themselves for real start of this fight. And then within the blink of an eye, they both disappeared when the smoke cleared.
“Just die!” Meihu’s fist came barreling towards Ying.
“I’m not going to die just because you want me to! Stupid!” Ying’s sword slashed with a destructive and fiery passion.
An arm went flying after their clash. At the sound of it falling to the ground, an enraged screech rang out. Soon followed by the sounds of someone eating. Ying turned her head to see Meihu pigging out on several spirit items from her storage ring. She could sense that her already admirable qi was exploding into something far greater.
Before she could even react, she felt something impact her face and the sight of the Fearsome Garden’s mansion flying away from her in the distance. Ying soon realized that she was sent flying all the way into the Immortal Forest and that punch really freaking hurt! Meihu soon arrived right in front of her face and gut punched her far into the sky. The grieving leader kicked off the air multiple times to catch up to Ying’s flying body.
“Your body won’t be able to handle this...” Ying’s two front teeth were knocked out as she told this to Meihu.
Meihu was above her ready to slam her fist in Ying’s unprotected belly once more.
“Right now, nothing matters more to me than ending your life.” She knocked Ying downward.
Ying flew like a shooting star from space down onto the earth below. Heaven’s Angels only swordsman crashed with such an impact that it uprooted some of the giant trees around her. As she was getting back up on her feet, she looked up to see her opponent coming down at her like a lightning bolt from the heavens. Hao Gang was held on the right side of her waist as she readied herself to strike at the perfect moment.
“Mountain Cleaving Slash!” She cried out.
A sword strike with enough power to crack Bing’s shield met with Meihu’s remaining fist. Her knuckle split halfway from the blade cutting through it but Ying wasn’t left unharmed. The force from Meihu’s attack combined with gravity and the wind pressure snuffed her flames out momentarily and injured her internal organs. Meihu forced herself to block out the pain as she grabbed Ying’s blade with her hand nearly split in half.
Her feet came swinging towards Ying who released her grip from her sword to avoid the lethal blow that would’ve took her head clean off before responding back with an earth-shattering punch in Meihu’s gut. Meihu was sent flying away as Ying quickly grabbed her sword once again and instantly took after the flying pig. Ying followed after the broken trees and came slashing down when she saw Meihu’s lying figure. A position she didn’t decide to stay in for long as she got back into the fight in no time with little to no damages shown from any of Ying’s attacks.
Meihu leapt towards Ying and kicked out with her leg with enough force to slow down Ying’s momentum from above. Ying’s flames suddenly took on an icy-blue coloring as she fired a beam of flames from her eyes. These blue flames landed straight on Meihu’s chest and almost instantly its power was seen. Ice began forming on her chest underneath the flames.
Ying used Meihu’s slight moment of confusion to maneuver past her kick and brought her sword down on the next available limb in sight. Meihu’s furrowed brows made her missing leg only seem like an inconvenience at most. She ignored the ice and flames coating her body as she did everything in her power to kill Ying. Punch after punch, kick after kick, everything was spent injuring and wounding Ying. Even though she was missing an arm and a leg, it was as if they were only holding her back this entire time.
Somehow her skill was rising as the battle continued, leaving Ying with further and further injuries. This made her realize that the shadow in her Void World wasn’t enough to practice on. Only real life-or-death battles like this could truly raise her martial arts to their true potential. Ying’s mind slowly calmed and focused itself as her battle with Meihu continued. The true strength hidden within her sword style could finally reveal itself. Meihu was burning all of her remaining life force just to kill Ying. Ying didn’t look down on her determination to place everything on this battle. She gave her everything she had.
And with a single thrust through the chest, the battle was finally over. The Fearsome Garden was completely destroyed in a single day without any survivors remaining in the sect. An orange haired girl with a large demonic sword in her hands could be seen lying on her back in the middle of the Immortal Forest with several life-threatening wounds on her body. A dark-skinned young girl with a plain face stood over the girl’s body and crouched down.
“It looks like I won...” She tried to laugh but only coughed blood.
“Well done. I didn’t think Meihu would be such a challenge for you.”
“She was strong... Very strong...”
“Here are your rewards for successfully completing your task.” She was handed a golden ring, a familiar pill, and an orange orb.
“Do you think you could feed that pill to me? I can’t move a single part of my body.”
“Sure.” She dropped the pill in Ying’s mouth and as she chewed it, her wounds began rapidly recovering.
“Thank you.”
“Are you going to tell me what this stuff does?” Ying grabbed the ring and warm orb.
“It’s more fun if I don’t.” Jing smiled.
“Heh. I guess that’s just like you.” Ying chuckled.
“Now all we have to deal with now is Huan Clan.” Jing stood up.
“What about the Wolfeng Gang?” Ying asked.
“They’re already dealt with. For now, you can do whatever you like. This is a great achievement you’ve done for me. You can rest.”
“What about the Fearsome Garden disciples that were out of the sect?” Ying brought up.
“You’ve taken care of their most prominent members. It matters not.”
“I guess I'll go find out what my rewards are. You coming?” Ying asked.
“Don’t forget to check your surroundings before going there. That place is not something that others can know about.” Jing reminded her.
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, that fight took a lot out of me. My body feels perfect but my brain is still catching up.”
“Always be wary.” Jing vanished with a talisman, leaving Ying and Hao all alone.
“Do you think she has ever been in a situation like that before?”
Hao shared his feelings with her.
“I guess it would take someone really strong to force her into a position like that. I don’t even know how truly strong BLEEP is in the first place. She’s been at the 9th stage for so long but everyone already knows that her true strength far surpasses that. I wonder how she’s going to be accounted for at the Grand Tournament... It might be fun to fight her. If that mutt can spar with her, then surely she could ask sometime too. Even Qing sparred with her during her training.” Ying thought to herself.
“I’ll need a strong training partner in preparation for the tournament. Qing had to have been overestimating the training BLEEP put her through. It couldn’t possibly be that tough.” Ying scoffed.
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