On the Qiwu Hall training ground, the formation's halo flowed and turned, sealing the inside off from the outside completely.
Yun Huang stood still at the field's heart, his pale-golden eyes startlingly bright, the mighty pressure of a reincarnated Immortal Emperor as good as solid, pressing the very air around him into a faint stillness.
"Do your utmost." Yun Huang spoke, his voice flat yet carrying the ring of struck metal and stone. "Let This Lord see the measure of you. If you hide your skill again and disgrace the intent of This Lord's invitation..." a cold, sharp glint flashed in his pale-golden eyes, "—do not blame This Lord for showing no mercy."
The pressure descended with a roar, like a mountain ten thousand fathoms tall!
Yun Qing drew a deep breath. Deep in his Double Pupils, battle-intent blazed up like a spark setting the prairie alight! He knew this fight was surely lost, but to stake everything against a reincarnated Immortal Emperor — such an opportunity came but once in a thousand years!
Surely the man wouldn't truly strike to kill... probably.
"Since the Young Lord is so inclined, Yun Qing will of course not fail his hopes." Yun Qing laughed aloud, broad and open, with a touch of unrestrained ease, breaking the training ground's silence.
He gripped the spirit-settling jade pendant at his waist and put a little force into his fingertips — "click" — and the silk cord holding it snapped. He tossed the warm, cloud-patterned pendant to the edge of the field, then reached up and tore loose the jade belt at his waist; the green outer robe slid off, revealing the black battle-garb within.
He flicked the falling green robe away with a careless sweep, its folds fluttering like a butterfly, and it settled neatly beside the pendant — the motion crisp and free, smooth as flowing water.
Stripped of the loose robe, his cuffs bound up, the lines of his forearms clean, his figure stood upright as a lone, sheer peak. The Chaos Dao Embryo circulated now without any concealment, and an ancient, vast, terrible aura spread out.
"In that case, Qing shall presume!" A sharp light flashed in Yun Qing's eyes as he raised a hand and grasped at empty air.
"Silent Abyss."
At his low call, a dark, heavy long spear surfaced in answer and fell into his hand, giving off a pleased, soft hum. Cold light breathed from the spear-tip, the intent of annihilation locking on ahead, standing in even opposition to Yun Huang's blazing divine majesty.
A flicker of approval flashed and vanished in Yun Huang's eyes. "Now that's more like it."
No need for more words.
Yun Qing moved — his black figure became a bolt of lightning tearing through light and shadow, his body charging forward like thunder, his spear striking out like a dragon! The Silent Abyss spear ripped through space, trailing an annihilating track that devoured all things, thrusting straight at Yun Huang. This thrust cast aside every flourish, condensing only the might of chaos-force and the resolve of the annihilation-realm to the utmost!
Facing this earth-shattering thrust, Yun Huang at last stood still no longer. His step shifted slightly; his figure slid half a foot aside like a phantom, letting the sharpest point of the spear-tip past by the barest margin — and at the same moment his fingers pressed together like a blade, golden spirit-light blazing at their tips, jabbing with pinpoint precision at the side of the spear-shaft!
"Ding—!"
Finger and spear clashed, bursting out a piercing, shrill ring! Yun Qing was not driven back outright; his wrist spun sharply, and the Silent Abyss spear shook like a living thing, the chaos-energy coiled about its shaft turning into countless fine threads that tried to bind and corrode that strand of blazing-sun finger-force!
"Interesting." Yun Huang gave a soft snort, his finger-force erupting all at once, bursting like a great sun to forcibly scatter the chaos-threads. But Yun Qing borrowed the force to redirect force; his figure had already wound to the side like a swimming dragon, his spearplay turning abruptly weird and unfathomable, countless spear-shadows sweeping out to blanket the great acupoints across Yun Huang's body, every thrust aimed straight at a crucial node in the flow of his spiritual power!
"Your eyes really are a nuisance." A trace of understanding flashed in Yun Huang's golden eyes. He no longer merely blocked; amid the swaying of his figure, palm and finger, fist and elbow all became the most vicious of weapons, his blazing-sun divine power now hard and matchless, now supple and drawn-out, dissolving Yun Qing's exquisite spear-stances one by one.
The two figures crossed at furious speed across the field, black and gold light colliding and annihilating ceaselessly. The roar of impacts and the crack of bursting air rang without pause. The protective formation churned violently, its light guttering on and off.
Yun Qing had already brought his strength to twelve parts out of ten, his Double Pupils driven to the limit, the Chaos Dao Embryo circulating madly, his spearplay grand and open, cunning and savage. The two realms of "annihilation" and "chaos" joined to show a terrible fighting power far beyond others his age. Even an ordinary elder of the clan, facing him, would likely have long since gone down in defeat.
But his opponent was Yun Huang.
Another clash! Spear met finger, bursting out a sound of clashing metal so shrill it pierced straight to the soul! A visible ring-shaped shockwave spread out with the two of them at its center, slamming hard into the surrounding protective formation and raising ripples across the whole sky!
Yun Qing felt an indescribable force — purest yang, purest hardness, carrying a supreme majesty — surge wildly up the shaft of the Silent Abyss spear! The tiger's mouth of his hand split in an instant, blood staining the shaft red; the bones of his whole right arm groaned under a burden they could not bear. The mighty force poured into his body and raged; amid the churning of his blood a sweetness rose in his throat — a mouthful of blood nearly sprayed out before he forced it back down.
His whole body slid backward beyond his control, his boot-soles plowing two deep furrows several yards long across the black stone ground, harder than star-steel, before he barely steadied himself. The right hand holding the spear trembled faintly; the Silent Abyss spear gave a low hum, as though it too were keening.
The gap! A gap like a chasm across the heavens!
Yun Huang still stood where he was, his figure composed, as though he had merely brushed a speck of dust from his hem. He looked at Yun Qing — flushed of face, his breathing in disorder — his pale-golden eyes without grief or joy, holding only a kind of looking-down-from-above calm.
"Your strength is passable, your realm-concept singular too." He gave his bland verdict. "A pity — too slow, and too direct."
"That is far enough." His aura shifted abruptly; a domain of blazing divine majesty unfurled as good as solid. The temperature within the training ground shot up, the air warping and steaming, crushing down Yun Qing's momentum in an instant.
Yun Huang formed a seal one-handed, and a golden dharma-seal, condensed from pure blazing-sun divine power, surfaced from the void!
"Take one move of mine — the Blazing-Sun Seal!"
The dharma-seal was not large, yet it was like a great sun compressed to the extreme, carrying a supreme will to suppress the eight wastes and burn dry the Nine Nethers as it pressed slowly toward Yun Qing! Wherever the seal passed, space froze and time itself seemed to grow viscous; the terrible suppressing force made Yun Qing like a mosquito sunk deep in amber, his very thoughts all but ground to a halt.
No dodging it!
He couldn't take it head-on! Yun Qing drew a deep breath, and a flash of insight lit his sea of consciousness. He recalled Yun Huang's verdict just now — "too direct"! Chaos was not only headlong destruction!
The Silent Abyss spear stabbed into the ground. Within Yun Qing the Chaos Dao Embryo circulated with all its might, the secret light in his Double Pupils surging; the track of his spiritual power's flow shifted abruptly, no longer chasing the utmost of attack, but drawing forth the Chaos Dao Embryo's essence of encompassing and transforming. The Silent Abyss spear-shaft wound about with a faint grey mist, chaos-runes faintly turning within.
"Chaos Returns to the Void!"
At his low shout, with himself as the center, a small dark force-field that seemed able to devour all things opened in an instant! Like a bottomless quagmire, it tried to guide, disperse, and swallow that mighty blazing-sun divine power!
"Booom————!!!"
Fist-seal and dark force-field slammed violently together!
An explosion fiercer than any before erupted! The whole training ground trembled!
The deadlock held for several breaths.
The dark force-field at last gave out and shattered! The blazing-sun dharma-seal stamped directly onto the spear-shaft that Yun Qing had crossed in guard!
"Pfft—!"
Yun Qing was struck as though by a heavy blow; a mouthful of blood sprayed out, and his whole body was sent flying backward, slamming hard into the formation's wall of light with a muffled thud.
But when he landed, he actually propped himself on his spear and rose onto one knee, not falling. Plainly, though his organs were wounded and his meridians seared with pain, he was far from losing the ability to act.
Yun Huang had held back.
Had the Grand Elder and the others been present, they would have seen that the power of this seal had been deliberately reined in by at least half.
Otherwise, there would have been no chance whatsoever of Yun Qing surviving.
Yun Huang slowly withdrew his stance, the surging divine power around him receding like an ebbing tide. Looking at Yun Qing — wretched in appearance yet with eyes still clear and bright, his battle-intent undissipated like a proud little beast's — he no longer concealed the appreciation in his gaze.
"'He who bears up the heavens, the moon at its falling, the bone of every wish,'" he suddenly intoned, his voice like a jade chime, echoing clearly across the field. "Of our Yun Clan's Twelve Young Masters, you stand at their head — fitting enough."
This verse named precisely the three most dazzling prodigies of the Yun main line's generation, the top three of the Twelve Young Masters: the clan head's concubine-born eldest son, Yun Qing ("bearing up the heavens"); the Grand Elder's grandson, Yun Tianluo ("the falling moon"); and the proud daughter of the Fifth Elder's line, Yun Ruyi ("the bone of every wish"). With these words, Yun Huang acknowledged the strength and standing of his "Yun Clan Eldest Young Master."
Yun Qing propped himself on his spear, slowly straightened, and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips. Meeting Yun Huang's gaze, radiance flowing in his Double Pupils, he answered firmly, his tone fervent and sincere:
"Above the Twelve, above the very heavens, Huang alone grasps the immortal firmament."