v5c34: The Pinnacle of Strength

“Now, now, none of that,” Shen Yu chided his foe as he cut through the formation within the mountain. At once, all the wailing stopped as the alarms were destroyed. With one stroke Shen Yu had evened the field for Bi De and his companions. They would need all the help they could get… but this was all he could provide for them for now.

“Ah, but it was worth the attempt, no?” his opponent asked, his smile still fixed firmly upon his face. Gummy lips were pulled back, and Shen Yu’s eyes locked instantly onto that fact. The man was in the Imperial Realm. He could have grown his teeth back if he had wanted to, yet they remained gone. His back was slightly hunched. His body wrinkled and gnarled. He was completely hairless on his head save for his eyebrows.

A strange statement to make with his body. Yet it was a statement all the same.

Shen Yu’s attention was wholly upon the being that stood before him. It was a rare thing to encounter beings of equal power before himself. It was rarer to actually fight them. Before the Demon Commander it had been over three hundred years since he had last faced something that could be described as his peer.

Now, it was the second such foe in a single year—and Shen Yu had not recovered from his last battle. Not fully. If Meiling and Ri Zu hadn’t done their treatments… this battle may have been over before it had even begun. Shen Yu would, for the first time in a long time, have been the underdog again, reduced a full realm due to suppressing the demonic essence within his body. He could have used his full might in small bursts… but nothing like the requirements needed to battle against a cultivator in the Imperial Realm.

Neither of them moved after Shen Yu had destroyed the defensive formation. Both of them were studying each other, their Qi carefully probing. To those of a lower realm, they would simply be staring at each other. Yet the battle had already begun as they parried and riposted tendrils of Qi, seeking weaknesses.

Neither of them could get a true measure of the other. His foe had unveiled the unmistakable might of an Imperial Realm cultivator, but that was all he had revealed. His opponent’s Qi teased and taunted, shadowy and slithering. It defied accurate assessment, which further hinted at his strength and skill to hide from Shen Yu—yet Shen Yu had only done the same, like a swordsman using their thumb on the guard to draw the first inch of their blade. His foe saw the gleaming razor sharp edge, yet the exact dimensions were still hidden.

Against another in the Imperial Realm, every advantage would have to be leveraged.

His foe’s smile widened as their Qi dueled. Then his opponent moved. He raised his hands and made the gesture of respect.

“Shen Yu. The Unconquered Blade. The Champion of the Emperor. It is an honour to make your acquaintance,” the man said with all joviality. “Your cultivation is sublime—a masterfully forged blade.”

“I’m hardly that man’s champion; I just owed him a few favours,” Shen Yu said as he inclined his head slightly at the compliment and respect. “But you have me at a disadvantage… whom might I be crossing blades with today? Shen Yu would have your name, Demonic Expert.”

Shen Yu took a step forward and his enemy’s eyes instantly became sharper… but then Shen Yu took another step, almost lazily. His foe began to do the same, staying on the opposite side of the circle from Shen Yu.

The other man chuckled and inclined his own head at the face Shen Yu had given him. “To any other, I would be the Heavenly Demonic Master… but I would not dare to give such a pretentious title to one of your calibre. I always preferred the name Jingsheng.”

“Quiet Voice? How humble,” Shen Yu said, putting on an air of paternalistic condescension. Inside he was grim. The quiet, shadowy Demonic Cultivators were always a pain to fight. They were less prone to the detrimental kind of insanity their kind possessed. This man was doubly so. They had obviously stumbled into a massive plot here, the kind of thing that had been planned for centuries.

“Indeed, indeed. Truthfully, I must confess I went out of my way to avoid your gaze. Battling the great Shen Yu at this stage was not something I wished to do… yet here you are. Luck truly is strange, no? How did mighty Shen Yu find his way here, to our little operation?”

There was sharp interest in his foe’s eyes. Hungry interest. He was eager to learn how his base had been found, his preparations foiled.

“The demon you sent to infiltrate the Shrouded Mountain Sect insulted my grandson,” Shen Yu said. “My boy slapped him into the next province, but such insults cannot stand, you know?”

Jingsheng’s eyes widened. His jaw dropped.

And a great wheezing laugh bubbled up from his throat. And yet, despite that, there were still no openings.

“Oh! Oh my! The odds, what are the odds?!” his foe cackled. “I thought Lu Ban was a complete failure! I cursed his name! Lu Ban, I forgive all transgressions! I shall bow before your grave, for you have given me a great gift with that luck of yours!”

The laughter abruptly stopped, and the man’s eyes locked onto Shen Yu.

“A wounded foe. Tell me, Shen Yu, how do your wounds from your battle against the Demons fare?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Jingsheng’s Qi flooded the room, malevolent, hungering, ravenous. It pressed down on Shen Yu, a cruel tyrant attempting to stamp out any embers of rebellion.

Shen Yu drew his sword.

He drew his soul.

The Qi was banished. The hunger, the malevolence, the power was cut through as Shen Yu revealed part of himself for an instant.

His own intent truly took form. Sharp enough to cut even concepts.

“Better than you would like,” Shen Yu replied mildly as Jingsheng’s eyes became warier. The grin faltered as Shen Yu’s Qi blazed against his own, rebuking and denying his will.

The Qi thickened in the air as the first clash took place, their Qi battering against each other. Neither gave ground. Neither yielded.

Jingsheng’s mouth twitched up in a smile. “Well, I suppose we should start, no? If the man there is your grandson, then my apprentices attacking the Azure Hills will need support.”

Shen Yu froze. Fury swelled in his breast. For a moment, he thought it some trick—but no, there was only honesty in the other man’s words.

Then, he took a breath, and forced the rage away. Jin would be fine. Jin was his grandson. Jin had his own strength. He had sworn to Shen Yu that he would protect his home.

All he could do right now… is have faith in Jin.