Chapter 80 - Li Lian's Surprise Attack
Xiao Fang was on his way home when he sensed a bright white ball of fire zipping through the air towards him.
'Who would be so bold to attack me in my own sect,' he thought before turning to face it.
He reached out his hand to deflect the attack, but before he could touch it it suddenly blew up. Xiao Fang jump out of the way.
[ Floating Leaf Rushing Tide ]
The flame still caught his arm, but it wasn't strong enough to burn him, only inflicting a minor wound.
The moment Xiao Fang sensed who it was, his expression suddenly changed.
'Dammit, I almost forgot about her.'
She had flames coming out of her hair, eyes, hands and feet, but her whole body burned from her fierce fiery aura. Some in this sect call her the Tyrannical Fire Demon, but to Xiao Fang she was none other than Li Lian.
"Li Lian, you attacked me with my back turned to you, if you wanted to exchange pointers you should've just asked."
Li Lian knew he'd get stronger but she didn't think he'd also get faster .
"You know what you did yesterday, it's only natural that I seek revenge," she tried to justify her sneak attack on him.
"Ha! Seek revenge? With what ability," Xiao Fang intentionally provoked her.
He was curious to see the just how much she improved over the past 2 months.
Without wasting time with words she immediately attacked throwing flaming fists and kicks in his direction, but Xiao Fang effortlessly dodged them then charged towards her.
Hand to hand combat was unwise against an opponent like Xiao Fang, so she needed to make space between them. Luckily, he held back considerably, not even pulling out his sword against her.
"Your attacks are strong, but they lack speed. What good are strong techniques if you can't land them?" He angered her some more.
Just as he finished saying those words, he sensed a powerful attack coming straight towards him with a frightening velocity.
It was the same attack she used on him at the very beginning, but this time it was several times bigger.
He didn't attempt to dodge her attack. Instead, he raised his arms to shield his body and curiously waited to feel the strength behind her new technique.
BOOM~!
The explosion was so great it could be heard from miles away.
Once the smoke cleared, Xiao Fang was seen standing as still as a statue in the defensive stance. For a moment she believed that she had won, but just as she was about to mock him, Xiao Fang finally put his arms down to dust off his dust-covered robes.
"Is that it? You didn't really think you could defeat me with such a mediocre technique. If so then it seems I had nothing to worry about."
He was clearly hurt, but he still decided to tease her anyways. Xiao Fang's words made Li Lian pout for a moment before speaking.
"I almost felt bad for you, but now I'm glad I prepared it."
"Did you prepare something for me? Go ahead and show me. I'll stand right here and accept whatever you have to offer." Xiao Fang said mockingly.
He was surprised and a bit skeptical that she still had something up her sleeve, especially considering how exhausted she looked.
Through her heavy breathing, she smiled innocently then pointed up at the sky.
Because he was blindfolded, he couldn't see the blinding white lights in the sky but now that he was focusing his hearing he could sense what she was pointing at.
"You- have you lost your mind!?"
Xiao Fang took a step back. He was genuinely terrified.
Seeing him take a step back she decided to mock him.
"Oh ho, didn't you say you would receive it standing still? Could it be that you are going back on your words?"
Hundreds of feet in the air, there were several dozens of bright white lights blanketing the sky above them.
"Hahahaha, didn't you call it a mediocre technique. Are you scared now!?"
"Are you trying to destroy the entire sect!?"
"Hmph, if you just apologized then I would've forgiven you, but instead you chose to mock me. You brought this upon yourself."
Despite her words, the malicious smile on her face showed that she had no intentions of holding back from the start.
"You look like you're enjoying this. If you stop now I will consider sparing your ungrateful life."
Despite his words, Xiao Fang was clearly sweating nervously.
He could only use his movement ability a few more times, but there was nearly a hundred 'Exploding Stars' above them.
'I need to stop her,' he thought in panic, then quickly rushed towards her.
However, before he could reach her, he watched her do the impossible.
She jumped high in the air, but using the fire beneath her feet she didn't come back down. Instead she continued to rise.
"You must be kidding me..." Xiao Fang was shocked, amazed, but also terrified.
"Today is the day you finally submit to me, Xiao Fa-" She suddenly felt her heartbeat beat once exceptionally loud, then felt herself falling straight down towards Xiao Fang.
[ Reaper's Grasp ]
Xiao Fang calmly had a hand raised in her direction. Seeing that, she quickly understood he was behind it.
Flying was even more exhausting than her 'Exploding Star' technique. It could even be said to be her strongest technique, so she needed to end things quickly.
She quickly shot down the white balls of flame as she tried to fly against his Reaper's Grasp, but the moment her exploding stars descended past her, she felt Xiao Fang release his hold on her.
'Dammit,' Xiao Fang thought.
He stopped trying to pull her down and just focused on dodging her attacks.
[ Floating Leaf Rushing Tide ]
Successive explosions could be heard, as Li Lian opened and closed her fists. Out of the few that she exploded, most of them at least got a piece of him.
'Dammit I need to go faster. Go faster!' He motivated himself.
Xiao Fang could easily have ran away from Li Lian, but what man runs from his wife?
Xiao Fang had only used his technique 3 times, but was already reaching his limit. Each time he pushed himself further, he would receive a backlash, but he didn't care. He wanted to push his boundaries to master the technique.
On the 5th execution, he felt like his spirit qi had been completely drained. Though he was in the Solid Body and Spirit Core realm, his Body cultivation was 7 stages ahead of his spirit cultivation.
'Dammit!'
Suddenly he felt his spirit qi was completely exhausted, so he started moving with his body cultivation alone.
When Xiao Fang could no longer use his movement technique, Li Lian's eyes widened.
'Now!' She thought as she directed all of her attacks towards Xiao Fang.
BOOM~
BOOM~
BOOM~
Xiao Fang was being knocked around by her exploding stars, but all he could do was try to dodge.
"Faster! I need to go faster!"
Suddenly, Xiao Fang felt his spirit qi returning to him, but at the same time he felt an unbearable burning sensation on his chest, slowly spreading down his body.
He didn't think twice about it, he simply reactivated his technique and went back to dodging her attacks.
[ Floating Leaf Rushing Tide ]
Li Lian was surprised, but what surprised her wasn't the fact that he was moving even faster than before, but she could feel that his qi had significant changed. There was something sinister about it, and it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Because of that she didn't want to return back down to the ground, now more than ever.
Despite how she felt, she knew she couldn't keep herself up for long. She needed to end things quickly.
Despite all that's happened since she started flying, only a few seconds had gone by.
Meanwhile, Xiao Fang was feeling better than ever, he felt like he had unlimited spirit qi at his disposal, it was great. He could always feel this power inside of him, but it felt extremely ominous so he never tried to use it in the past. However, now that he was using it he felt free and unstoppable.
As he was using his movement skill, he started to also use his Reaper's Grasp technique on her as well.
Feeling the familiar pull, she began to panic.
"Xiao Fang... no."
Something didn't feel right. For some reason she was feeling scared, but not from losing, she was scared of his qi.
She tried to fight it, but couldn't keep herself up for long. Finally her flames disappeared and she began to free fall towards him.
At the speed she was going, if she hit the ground she would definitely be severely injured, but she didn't think about herself for even a moment.
Suddenly, only moments before she could hit the ground she gathered the dozen or so 'Exploding Stars' to surround her, and with the extension of her arms they all shot straight down surrounding Xiao Fang.
'Now!' She screamed in her head as she closed her fists.
BOOM!!!
The shockwave from that massive explosion created a massive crater and cushioned Li Lian's fall, but being completely drained of her strength she still fell unconscious upon hitting the ground.
Xiao Fang's body was steaming and his robes were ragged and torn, but he still stood upright as if he was unfazed by it, but in truth his body was in a much worse condition than Li Lian's, it was a surprise he was still standing at all.
Coated in an ominous black aura, he looked down at her with a blank expression. Despite looking at his fiancé in that state, he didn't feel anything. He was neither happy for his victory, nor worried for Li Lian. His indifference to everything almost gave him an air of arrogance as if nothing could be put in his eyes. Almost as if he was a peak immortal looking down at the weaklings in the mortal realm.
Suddenly, as he was staring at Li Lian's unconscious body, he heard a deep rumbling demonic voice echoing in his head.
"Feeeed~"
His dark aura reached out to her body, but the moment it touched her, he stopped.
Xiao Fang raised his head slightly, forcibly retracting the black aura that creepily engulfed his body. Xiao Fang's expressionless face changed to something that could only be described as one thing, disbelief.
'I... I definitely didn't imagine that, did I?' He thought.
No matter what it was it certainly wasn't good, because for a moment he felt like he wasn't looking at his unconscious beloved fiancé, but any old corpse. With that new power, he felt nothing, and that terrified him. He never wanted to feel like that again.
Either way, it was dark out. So he picked her up and carried her home to recover. As he carried her home he continued to ponder about where that power really came from. It was only after he got home that he learned the truth.
.
.
.
While he was home he undressed before slipping into his bed, but when Chun Hua saw him, the first thing she said was something he didn't expect.
"Oh, did you get a new tattoo? It looks good on you."
The moment Xiao Fang looked down was the moment everything made sense to him.
Seeing the black markings on his chest and upper abs, he couldn't help wishing that he was imagining it.
The curse mark was spreading, and it was spreading fast.