Chapter Forty-Six: The Instant Spiral

Shiyu Ling’s Brahman Aspect: Deity Passage was the azure orchid that allowed her to teleport through shadows. The Shadow Orchid enabled her to move her true body with ease, to vanish along with her weapons or companions—a most convenient power… Yet, aside from its dependence on shadowy environments, it bore another glaring weakness.

Her Brahman Aspect lacked any means of direct offense.

The Demon-Breaking Arrow was a useful auxiliary tool, but when a decisive, lethal blow was needed, it fell short. In situations where she could rely only on the Shadow Orchid, she had to devise a comprehensive strategy…

Thus, she developed a technique known as Errant Teleportation.

Its principle was simple.

When using Deity Passage on another, she would deliberately let her power spiral out of control, causing the person meant to be transported whole to emerge incomplete.

Even she, as the one deploying the ability, could not predict which part would be lost.

Perhaps an arm. Perhaps half a leg. Perhaps an entire head… or perhaps most of the body.

This was a gambit that required direct contact with her foe, entrusting everything to chance.

When she used it on the monstrous Beast of Ruined Waters, about half its massive frame vanished.

What outcome would she reap this time? Even she could not foresee what would happen next. Naturally, neither could her opponent; in other words, she now seized the initiative.

With utter confidence, Shiyu Ling stepped forth from the shadows.

The instant she returned to the real world, an unexpected heaviness settled in her hand.

She realized she was gripping a left hand.

A left hand severed cruelly at the forearm.

“—You!”

The moment surprise flashed across her mind, pain exploded from behind—she had been struck. The esper spun and lashed out with a kick, the blow, enhanced by his ability, flinging her several meters away!

·

“Hss…ah!”

The young man gasped in agony.

Which hurt worse, a broken arm or a severed one? Most people could not even imagine, but having suffered both wounds in a single day, the youth could now scream his answer: both were excruciating, both intolerable. Yet factoring in personal choice, he would pick the latter…

Because this time, he had severed his own arm.

“I nearly…hss…was killed by you in one move…”

He gripped his left arm tightly with his right, conjuring a white substance from his palm to barely staunch the relentless bleeding.

“Fortunately, my skill was superior!”

Once he had cut off his own arm, Shiyu Ling’s teleportation no longer affected her enemy. It had merely transmitted a severed limb.

Shiyu Ling propped herself up, wiping the blood from her lips.

She tossed the esper’s left hand aside. “To avoid a fatal wound, you cut off your own arm—my, oh my…am I fighting an assassin trained by some mysterious organization?”

“Not so glamorous. Just a student who wants to give you a beating,” Gongsun Ce sneered, releasing his arm. “Mirror Water Phantom, Demon-Breaking Arrow, Shadow Orchid…what else do you have?”

“Oh, plenty,” she replied slyly. “But how much longer can you keep fighting like this?”

“…”

He was no professional.

He could spot his opponent’s weaknesses, lure them into exposing flaws with clever words. But he could also, in a flash of anger, abandon his strategy and act rashly; he could grow anxious when his own flaws were revealed.

Perhaps a careless foe would overlook this, but to a practitioner of Spiritual Aspects, the youth’s micro-expressions were as obvious as an elephant in a refrigerator.

“Resurrection is a miracle in itself, and to keep fighting after that is beyond belief. If there’s no limitation, it makes no sense… Most would first think of time as a restriction.”

Shiyu Ling no longer tried to close the distance.

“How much time do you have left, Gongsun Ce?”

The effect of the Curse Balance was more than halfway spent.

Less than five minutes remained to settle matters with Shiyu Ling and the dragon.

Qin Qianbai would not take long to dispatch Deity Passage; at most another minute, and she would arrive… But then, the situation would become unpredictable. With the numbers against him, would Shiyu Ling’s sense of superiority grow? Would the Mirror Water Phantom’s effect strengthen?

He was no expert in Impermanence Arts. He could not fathom the depths of this woman’s mind.

Therefore, Gongsun Ce said,

“One minute is all I need to finish you.”

“Such confidence, young man!” Shiyu Ling gestured to the dragon at her feet. “Dim your brilliance, Glazed Dragon.”

At first, he failed to grasp the command’s meaning, charging forward as before.

Only when the dragon’s luster faded at her words, and darkness—belonging to night—shrouded its head, did he finally understand her tactics.

“So that’s your move…!”

Among the pristine narcissus bloomed eerie blue flowers; Shiyu Ling’s laughter echoed from the two-toned sea of blossoms.

“Shadow Orchid—Azure Sea!”

She vanished before the youth’s eyes. Countless rays shot from the narcissus to the orchids, from the orchids toward her foe, weaving a chaos of light with unpredictable trajectories. Certainly, she could not expect a single strike to claim his life, but the youth was forced to find a way to respond.

She mentally issued commands: neither blockable nor avoidable. Thus, unable to locate his enemy, Gongsun Ce could not move an inch from his position, while she could emerge from any flower at will.

This was the end; she had failed this round.

But she could stall for time, until her opponent’s strength waned… This battle, she would win!

“…That’s what you’re thinking, Miss Shiyu.”

The esper showed no sign of panic.

It was indeed unexpected—but…

He had enough time.

“White Wasteland.”

With a downward thrust of his single arm, the gray-haired youth summoned a white substance that spread to cover every dragon scale where flowers had once bloomed.

As he had tried before, the elegant narcissus remained unharmed, but the shadow orchids shattered the instant the white substance overtook them. The pale wasteland continued to spread, blanketing the entire head of the Glazed Dragon!

“There’s no shadow left for you to hide in.”

He had touched the Shadow Orchid before—tangible, with mass and volume.

As long as he destroyed them all, she would have nowhere to flee.

Only one orchid remained atop the dragon’s head, blooming at the center of the white plain, in a small space left deliberately clear.

“Nor is there any illusion left for you to revel in.”

Then, the esper prepared his true attack.

Just as Shiyu Ling’s Spirit Aspect: Manifestation, or Yan Qi’s Brahman Aspect: Genesis, or the last resorts of all the foes he had ever defeated—

The final blow, one that would decide the battle.

With almost all options stripped away, Shiyu Ling could only step forth from the lone blossom.

She saw a wild wind surge at the esper’s side, scattering all attacks aimed at him.

·

The wind came from the esper’s palm.

White substance and colorless nothingness twisted together in a spiral within his hand.

This was not the power of one man, not the same origin—such fusion should have been violently repelled, yet under the esper’s will, they became entwined.

The two forces wove together, advancing in turn.

A mass of material large enough to engulf the dragon’s head compressed into a white spear.

He fixed his psychokinetic power—pushed to its utmost limit—into his grip, threads of force spiraling around the shaft, distorting its shape.

The strength to raise towers in a wasteland, to destroy a city block in an instant—now, under precise control, was confined to the palm of his hand. Like compressing a nuclear bomb into the size of a grenade, the destructive power suited for a vast volume was focused into a slender weapon…

A spiral spear, its forces entwined and inseparable.

“It’s time to wake from your dream, Shiyu Ling!”

The power of annihilation spun in his hand, summoning dazzling radiance and furious winds that devoured all else like a flood. Nothing could approach; the phenomena his existence created formed an invincible bulwark in the real world!

Step by step, he advanced upon his cornered foe.

The spear swelled ever larger as it spun, the tip shrieking as it tore the air, making even the massive dragon’s head tremble. The spiraling force shook the battlefield, cracking the dragon’s scales—impervious even to missiles—sending golden dust swirling in the wind!

With a roar, Gongsun Ce unleashed his final attack.

All his strength poured into this single, ultimate move.

“—Momentary Spiral!”

The spiral lance pierced the sky.

The annihilating force erupted in an instant, lancing straight for Shiyu Ling’s body.

Then, Gongsun Ce charged at his foe.

·

What command should she give now?

If she nullified both of his powers, she would be struck by pure physical force.

With his current strength, even his body alone could shatter a human frame.

And if she nullified only one of his powers, who knew—would that mysterious attack detonate in the air, blasting her to pieces?

If she had enough time to think, she might have found a way out.

But less than a second remained; even before the spiral lance fired, the sheer pressure from its spinning nearly brought her to her knees.

…

In hindsight, her decision-making had failed.

She had not expected this esper, fighting at full force, to wield such terrifying power.

His punches, once three per exchange, now a hundred.

His power’s range now covered the dragon’s entire head.

And this—an ultimate technique even more dreadful than the Manifestation specialized in destruction.

He too had hidden his true strength from her… But that could not be helped.

In a world like this, survival always demanded an extra layer of caution.

“It’s time to wake from your dream, Shiyu Ling!”

She heard his furious roar.

Was it a dream?

Perhaps it was.

Maybe, if she defeated the esper here, she would survive; maybe that Genesis practitioner could not sustain battle for long… But those were lies even she could not believe.

She’d known she’d failed the moment the Glazed Dragon was trapped.

Even if she defeated the esper here, official experts would arrive to clean up. Even if the dragon escaped, Shiyu Ling would find no way out.

All she wanted was to die with dignity.

After such an ugly life, at least she could choose an end less disgraceful.

Better to die as a villain at the hands of a champion, in a battle fought with all one’s might, than to be tortured or carted off to another lab…

And to die at the hands of a man whose spirit matched her own—how much more beautiful that would be.

“I concede.”

She laughed quietly, spreading her arms wide to welcome the death approaching.

And then—

A heavy blow landed, fist meeting flesh, echoing through the high air.