Chapter 256 — When the Mad Dog Bites Back

The manic howling that had rattled the mountain passes abruptly died.

Liu Tong hung thirty paces away in the cold draft. His bloodied chest expanded, drawing in a long, rattling breath that dragged the freezing air deep into his scorched lungs. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his left hand and dragged a calloused thumb across his torn, swollen cheek, smearing the crimson across his jawline.

The unhinged, wild frenzy in his crimson pupil began to recede—not into peace, but into a frozen, bottomless pool of murderous clarity.

His scattered, thrashing meridians snapped back into strict alignment. The trembling in his arms ceased. The blackened war-axe leveled out, its broad crescent steadying until it pointed directly between Shaurya’s eyes.

"I was careless," Liu Tong muttered, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly vibration that set the loose scree on the cliffs vibrating. "A boy playing tavern tricks with the faces of dead men. I let you rattle my bones."

His right foot shifted back on the empty air, sinking into a grounded, low battle stance.

"No more tricks. No more words."

BOOM!

A shockwave of dark violet and blood-crimson qi detonated from his core, flattening the clouds beneath his soles. Liu Tong’s figure vanished, leaving behind a sonic vacuum that shrieked through the valley.

Shaurya’s black eyes shifted. His left hand smoothly withdrew from his coat pocket.

SHING—

The crisp, high-pitched song of cold steel hummed through the heavens. From the dark scabbard at his hip, the Meteorite Sword cleared its sheath in an arc of clean, celestial silver.

CLAAAAANG!

A deafening metallic collision ripped across the open sky.

The crescent blade of Liu Tong’s war-axe slammed flush against the flat of the Meteorite Sword. Sparks showered down like falling stars, the concussive kinetic blast tearing the mists apart for three miles. Neither weapon gave an inch.

Liu Tong’s jaw tightened, his face inches from Shaurya’s blade. "MOUNTAIN-CLEAVING CRESCENT!"

A jagged wave of violet-crimson energy burst directly from the axe blade, threatening to slice Shaurya’s torso in half at point-blank range.

Shaurya didn’t flinch. He twisted his wrists, angling the Meteorite Sword downward to let the destructive crescent slide harmlessly along the steel, deflecting it toward the empty sky above.

As the blade cleared, Shaurya slipped inside the pocket of Liu Tong’s guard.

A bright, incandescent pink energy ignited across Shaurya’s left fist, condensing into a dense, humming shell that distorted the air.

"Cherry Blossom Impact!"

Shaurya drove a vicious, compact lead hook straight into Liu Tong’s bruised ribs.

THWACK—CRACK!

The concussive pink blast detonated against bone. Two of Liu Tong’s lower ribs snapped inward, the brute coughing out a mist of dark blood as the kinetic force lifted his massive frame into the air.

Before Liu Tong could tumble backward, Shaurya spun on the ball of his lead foot. Pink spiritual energy swirled down his leg, wrapping around his right boot like a coiling dragon.

"Lotus Blossom Execution!"

Shaurya’s spinning heel-kick whistled through the gale, slamming flush against the side of Liu Tong’s neck with the impact of a falling siege hammer.

BOOOOOOM!

Liu Tong was hurled sideways through the air, skipping off three distinct cloud layers before violently driving the butt of his axe into the empty sky, dragging a smoking line of friction across the draft to halt his momentum.

Down on the marble plaza beneath the crystalline canopy, a bizarre, stiff silence fell over the gathered elders.

The awe that had held their breath captive just a heartbeat ago suddenly twisted into pure, dry bewilderment.

Elder Wu’s long white beard twitched. His bushy brows knotted into two steep hills as he stared up at the sky, his mouth slightly agape. He blinked once, twice, then looked down at his own calloused hands before glancing toward the other elders, looking entirely lost.

"Wait..." Elder Wu scratched the side of his weathered jaw, his deep voice carrying a strange, bewildered rasp. "Isn’t that just my... Bizarre Fist and Kick? Since when in the ancestral heavens did those crude strikes have such flamboyant names?"

Beside him, Elder Liya pressed two delicate fingers against her temple, her lips twitching as she struggled to maintain her dignified elder’s poise.

Lin Shu let out a slow, helpless sigh. She crossed her arms within her wide sleeves, shaking her head as a faint, wry smirk pulled at the corner of her lips.

"I would wager ten thousand spirit stones that he fabricated those names on the spot," Lin Shu murmured, her voice laced with dry amusement. "He likely found shouting ordinary maneuvers beneath his Sect Master’s dignity."

Wang Tian rubbed the back of his neck, his fierce scowl faltering for a rare second. Beside him, Luo Chen simply cleared his throat, his gaze drifting away as if pretending he hadn’t heard his sovereign shout out flowers in the middle of a life-and-death clash.

Liu Tong didn’t pause to breathe. Blood dripped steadily from his torn ear, but the battle mania had hardened into pure, relentless lethality.

"VOID-RENDING TYPHOON!" Liu Tong roared.

He spun his war-axe with both hands, converting his entire upper body into a screaming vortex of blood-red and violet arcs. Dozens of crescent blades peeled off from the rotation, hurtling toward Shaurya like a flock of ravenous vultures, cutting off every vector of retreat.

Shaurya advanced straight into the storm.

His boots danced across the sky in a blinding sequence of slips, ducks, and weaves. He leaned his shoulder beneath the first crescent, parried the second with a flick of his Meteorite Sword, and batted the third aside with the flat of his blade. Closing the distance in a single aerial pulse, Shaurya stepped past the edge of the spinning axe, his left elbow coated in swirling pink radiance.

"Starlight Breaker!"

Shaurya drove a brutal downward elbow strike directly onto Liu Tong’s collarbone.

BANG!

The plate armor crumpled into scrap. Liu Tong’s left arm went completely numb, the joint forced downward, but the veteran warrior gritted his teeth through the blinding pain. Without retreating, Liu Tong snapped his heavy iron head forward in a savage, suicidal headbutt.

THUD!

Shaurya leaned his brow back by an inch, catching only the glancing edge of the blow, yet the impact rattled the air between them. Liu Tong lunged with his right knee, violet qi coating the joint like a spearhead.

"CRUSH!"

Shaurya countered with pure boxing instincts—his right forearm dropped to parry the rising knee, while his left hand, blade tucked in reverse grip, drove a devastating pink-clad uppercut into Liu Tong’s solar plexus.

BOOOOOOM!

Liu Tong’s breath exploded from his lungs in a shower of bile and gore. The brute was lifted vertically into the air, his eyes rolling back for a split second as his diaphragm seized.

Shaurya did not pursue.

He floated backward five paces, his boots coming to a smooth halt in the air. The Meteorite Sword twirled cleanly in his right hand before settling into an easy, downward guard.

Slowly, Shaurya raised his free left hand.

From the center of his palm, a breathtaking, incandescent blue flame ignited. It didn’t crackle like normal wood-fire; it burned with absolute, untouchable purity—the sapphire light of his Immortal Fire, the immortal blaze that scorched both flesh and soul.

The sapphire fire coiled along his calloused fingers, bathing his calm face in an ethereal, cold luminescence.

Liu Tong stabilized himself fifty yards away, his chest heaving as he spat out a tooth. He looked at the gentle blue fire flickering on Shaurya’s hand, his brow furrowing into deep, suspicious ridges. "A trick of fire? You think a candle flame will breach my stone marrow?!"

Shaurya’s lips parted into a cold, merciless line.

"Hellfire Overdrive."

SNAP.

Shaurya snapped his thumb and middle finger together.

KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The sapphire spark didn’t travel through the air. The moment the sound resonated, the ambient air directly enveloping Liu Tong ignited into a cataclysmic, volcanic eruption of pure sapphire inferno.

A pillar of incandescent blue fire tore through the heavens, stretching over a thousand feet into the sky. The sheer thermal intensity vaporized the moisture from the surrounding five miles in a fraction of a second. Inside the roaring vortex, the sapphire flames tore through Liu Tong’s violet qi like dry parchment, latching onto his blackened armor and searing deep into his flesh, boiling his blood and charring his muscles to the bone.

"AARRRRRRGHHHHHHH!"

A blood-curdling shriek of genuine, soul-rending agony tore from Liu Tong’s throat. The sound echoed down the mountain range, sending shivers through the disciples watching from beneath the golden dome.

The blue eruption raged for three long, agonizing breaths before collapsing inward, leaving a scorched, hollow vacuum in the sky.

A smoking, charred silhouette fell through the air.

Liu Tong plummeted a hundred feet before his iron axe violently caught the wind, barely arresting his descent.

He hung there, suspended above the abyss.

His armor was completely melted, fused into the raw, blackened meat of his chest and shoulders. Half of his face was charred black, blood pouring freely from his nose, mouth, and ears. His breathing came in shallow, wheezing gasps that smelled of cooked marrow.

Down on the plaza, Wang Tian clenched his fists. "He’s done. Nobody survives that."

"No," Elder Wu murmured, his white brows locking tight as he stared upward. "Look at his eyes."

High in the sky, Liu Tong slowly raised his head.

The single remaining eye was no longer just filled with bloodlust. It was filled with the absolute, terrifying detachment of a man who had already stepped beyond the gates of death.

"...Good," Liu Tong wheezed, a grotesque, charred smile pulling at his scorched lips. "...Very good, boy."

He let go of his axe with his left hand, letting the crippled limb hang limp at his side. With his right hand, he drove his thumb directly into his own sternum, puncturing the charred skin and piercing straight into his dantian.

CRAAAACK!

An ominous, sickening sound echoed through his body.

Liu Tong was forcefully burning his own life essence.

The black strands of his hair rapidly bleached, turning into a stark, brittle white that whipped wildly in the draft. His stone-grey skin tightened against his skull, shriveling as decades of lifespan were forcibly transmuted into raw, forbidden power.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The heavens turned violently red.

The violet spiritual energy vanished, replaced by an ocean of pure, boiling crimson that smelled of fresh copper and rot. The terrifying pressure descending from his body didn’t just rattle the atmosphere—it fractured the sky.

Hairline cracks appeared in the spatial fabric around his boots.

His cultivation, already monstrous, tore through the boundaries of his realm.

Level 8 shattered.

Level 9 broke in half.

BOOM!

A terrifying halo of pure blood-crimson erupted behind his back, locking his aura into the absolute pinnacle:

Spirit Lord Level 10.

The sheer gravity of his presence caused the lower clouds to drop like falling stone.

Shaurya’s black eyes narrowed, his grip tightening around the Meteorite Sword as the pressure wave slammed against his chest, driving him back three paces through the air.

Liu Tong’s white hair lashed across his scorched face. His crimson eye burned with the cold light of an executioner who had traded his tomorrow for this single breath.

He raised his war-axe high above his head with both hands. The crimson energy around the blade expanded, swelling into a mountain-sized guillotine that blotted out the sun.

"Now..." Liu Tong’s voice was no longer human; it was a dual resonance of grinding stone and tearing steel. "...let us see your bones turn to dust!"

The massive axe cleaved downward.

To Be Continued....