Chapter 25 – A Blaze in the Crowd

Qin Yun squinted, the blaze blaring in his eyes. He only had but an instant to react.

He could have easily dodged, but didn’t. For next to him was Yun Jingfei, and a crowd of unsuspecting mortals. Would he not resolve this situation, they would no doubt perish.

Their mortal bodies wouldn’t be able to resist the flame.

The first thing he did was anchor his wife to him.

He wrapped his arm around her thin waist, in the crux of her back, and pulled her close against his chest. She yelped lightly at the sudden tug, then turned to muffled surprise as her face was pressed on his shoulder.

Only then did she notice the flame quickly arriving, a shiver spreading all over her body as she saw the flame that once destroyed her life in this one.

She held on tight to Qin Yun’s clothes and closed her eyes, unable to sustain its sight, but the scent of Qin Yun’s body, as well the warmth of their close proximity soothed her much more than she expected.

She almost forgot the predicament they were in.

Of course, Qin Yun was unaware of all these changes in her. He only noticed the shiver that ran through her as he was too busy dealing with that ball of fire.

The blaze didn’t behave as a flame would. It didn’t dissipate in the atmosphere as it travelled through space. Instead, it retained its shape, an impossibility considering the maelstrom of wind created from its sudden heat.

One only had to look at the mass of Etra contained within to understand this was the product of a practitioner’s magic, either through spellwork, or through a relic.

Either way, the way Qin Yun would deal with it remained the same.

He anchored both feet to the ground, then jerked his hand up just in front of the fireball’s path. A sudden gust of wind appeared from the strike, creating a wall of wind between the back of his hand, and the heat that sought to sear into his flesh.

Of course, this motion wasn’t merely physical, else the Etra contained within this spell wouldn’t be repelled.

Qin Yun had coated his hand in Madra, extracted from the ground itself through his legs. It rushed violently through his body, much faster than a bolt of lightning would.

Usually, this sudden rush would be enough to tear apart a mortal’s body, but Qin Yun’s training had made him sturdy enough to resist the tearing forces.

Unlike Etra, Madra is a wild and untamed form of energy, the pure vitality of the land. The amount martial artists can compel at once is predominantly determined by how much their flesh can endure.

Qin Yun, having spent most of his life accustoming himself to Madra, from a much earlier age than most martial warriors would begin, could compel a staggering amount of it, enough that he could simply coat his entire body with it, and not take any damage from that spell.

Still, he chose against it. Tanking this strike would mean others would get caught up in it.

Instead, he chose a much more drastic option.

He used a special technique he had devised, one that wasn’t the orthodox way one was meant to practice martial arts.

He created two different loops of Madra within his own body, each spinning counter to the other.

They rebelled, seeking to break free from his control. The friction of those flow almost caused his internal organs to be ripped apart as it travelled through the channels every living being possessed.

To counteract that destruction, Qin Yun created a third flow, much more gentle this time, by restricting the path it could flow. This flow was meant to nourish his organs, allowing them to sustain the damage they were incurring.

After all, Madra was the essence of life. Used in moderation, it could heal just about anything, but anything in excess only led to destruction.

Creating three flows was the limit of Qin Yun’s control. Most martial artists could barely manage one, some geniuses sometimes managed two, and three was almost unheard of.

Mostly because there was never any need for more.

Most martial artists spent their entire lives trying to master a single flow. Splitting their attentions would only result in a half-baked attack, dispersing the control and power among many.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But not so when it came to Qin Yun’s technique.

The opposing flows only lasted but a single moment, just long enough that the damage Qin Yun incurred wouldn’t be permanent.

Just before the ball of fire impacted, Qin Yun directed the two flows to the back of his hand.

Like lightning, they raced within his inner channels, taking wildly different paths, yet arrived at the exact same moment.

They collided, their opposite flows ramming into each other.

At the same time, Qin Yun propelled all that energy outwards, through the countless openings found throughout his entire body.

Something akin to a sonic boom occurred.

The world trembled as the sound rang out. Nearby glass windows shattered, projecting shards everywhere. Some of the unlucky ones, too close to take shelter, were left with some minor cuts, but nothing too serious.

The fireball had vanished. Nothing remained.

Most witnesses couldn’t even understand what had happened.

They only saw Qin Yun standing in its path, holding his wife in his arms. He had raised his hand, and moments later, the flame had vanished.

Of course, some of the more observant ones, mostly practitioners, had an entirely different perspective on this.

They saw Qin Yun raise his hand, yes, but they also noticed the flow of Etra within the spell, which kept it whole, began to shatter, its cohesion broken, as if he had erased it from existence.