“...”
Lian’er didn’t seem to have heard Varathen at all, her visage still inclined downward as she kept her gaze fixed on the ground, her bangs hiding her expression, and in this manner seconds passed without a single sound escaping her lips.
But that was only how it
looked outwardly
, because in Lian’er unstable mind dark thoughts were swirling and knotting together, feeding the anger, the hatred, and the destructive impulses consuming her,
especially
toward Tharvonis who had taken HER MIKAEL, so when the Sect Master of Tharvonis DARED to ask her about MIKAEL…
CRAAAK—!
Something—something called the last thread of sanity holding her together—
irreversibly shattered
under Varathen’s normal question!
The atmosphere instantly grew more oppressive and… dark, and the first to feel it was Amelia, who was just beside Lian’er; the archer, while anxious and panicked, was far stabler than Lian’er and consequently still able to think, and because of that, the instant she sensed the dark aura leaking out of Lian’er, her bad feeling and the knot tightening in her stomach intensified, “I thi—”
Amelia tried to speak but—
“You… YOU DARE TO ASK THAT!” roared Lian’er, cutting Amelia short as she suddenly looked up, her bloodshot, crazed-looking eyes meeting the ones of Varathen and those of the surrounding cultivators.
Shivers.
Some weak-willed cultivators shivered, while others instinctively stepped backward at Lian’er’s completely crazed appearance, who at this moment looked like a possessed woman!
Of course… that was the ‘rabble’s’ reaction, and Varathen was obviously unaffected by her outburst; on the contrary, he even gained a slight smirk, further convinced that she
truly knew something.
Unfortunately his smirk didn’t last long, because that faint smirk only further enraged Lian’er, whose outburst intensified as she screamed, “YOU DARE TO SMILE!!!” her anger surging even more violently at… ‘Tharvonis’ insolence?
At that moment, in her unstable mind, Tharvonis and Varathen became superposed upon one another, as if they had fused, and she even saw ‘Tharvonis’ mockingly looking at her, as if to taunt her with the fact that Mikael was now gone!
“THARVONIS AND ALL THE VARNARI SHOULD… DIE FOR MIKAEL!”
A scream that was a twisted mix between laughter and crying tore out from her throat, and with a distorted expression she drew her sword before violently slashing upward toward Varathen in the sky!
Lian’er infused Sword Intent into these slashes and consequently the multiple-meters-long arcs of energy unleashed by her furious swings were completely translucent, yet each one carried an unimaginable sharpness as they shot toward Varathen like furious phantoms of light.
“!!!!”
“What!?”
“She’s crazy!”
“This sharpness… Sword Intent!?”
Nearby cultivators’ eyes bulged in shock as they witnessed the crazed woman—who had merely been asked a simple question—erupt not only into a mad outburst but even dare to attack Varathen himself!
Even more unbelievable was the fact that this mad woman had mastered Sword Intent with her ‘paltry realm’ of the 9th layer of the Spiritual Foundation Realm, putting her firmly in the realm of an ‘heavenly genius’!
‘A pity, this genius has fallen into madness and is now about to die…’ sighed some Elders as they saw this “wasted potential”.
Meanwhile Lian’er’s first flying slashes had reached Varathen who, at first like everyone else, was shocked by her madness, but as they nearly reached him he regained his bearing and coldly snorted, “Insolent!”
A small part of his power manifested, and the slashes which had seemed to carry an unstoppable sharpness suddenly shattered and dissolved like they were nothing, collapsing under the absolute suppression of the strength of his 3rd layer Core Perfection Realm cultivation base.
But that wasn’t all, as his previously contained power didn’t stop there, no, it continued to extend, nearly instantly engulfing the following Sword Intent infused slashes that were flying toward him and then—
His gaze, now far colder and noticeably less friendly than before, landed on Lian’er who, even now, was still attacking him like a crazed madwoman!
And that remained the case even though it was clear to all that her attacks were having
absolutely no effect whatsoever.
“LIAN’ER! Stop!” screamed a shocked Amelia, who hadn’t expected, not even for a
single second
, that she would explode like that and recklessly attack a 3rd layer Core Perfection Realm powerhouse—something that was absolutely suicidal, as with the strength of a Varnari he would only need to lift a finger to crush her like an ant!
And the worst… the worst was that with Lian’er suddenly and abruptly attacking Varathen, it clearly wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to kill her in response to her offense!
And with her unprovoked aggression plain for all to see, even the Wandering Sword Sect would only be able to watch powerlessly from the side, leaving Lian’er all alone to face this powerful Varnari’s wrath.
Slassh, swwiish, vwooom.
Lian’er didn’t seem to have heard a single word of what Amelia said, and even when the latter tried to grab her arm to stop her, she simply ignored her good friend, powering through without the slightest hesitation as she continued to slash, slash, and slash.
“I wanted to peacefully question you, but it seems like you won’t cry until you see the coffin!” uttered an annoyed and even… angry Varathen!
After all, while these Varnari were… unique in some aspects, in others they were
relatively similar
to humans; they were able to feel emotions like humans, and these emotions were even of the same ‘type’, their train of thought also following remarkably similar patterns, consequently—
Consequently, no matter how much of a warrior he was, and no matter how good his previous mood had been, when he was
peacefully
asking a
simple question
to a woman and the latter erupted into madness, insulting both him and his race and then attacking him…
Yeah, he didn’t appreciate it, and he certainly wouldn’t take it lying down, doubly so considering that it was coming from someone weaker than him!
BOOM! Crack!
Varathen’s aura and presence suddenly pressed down with the weight of a mountain on the berserk Lian’er, her movements instantly growing extremely sluggish, as if she were trying to force her way through a layer of incredibly thick liquid while a mountain pressed upon her at the same time.
At that same instant Lian’er wasn’t the only thing affected; a small zone of roughly one metre around her was also caught within the pressure, the ground cracking and shattering in an instant while the air itself began to tremble under the overwhelming suppression.
Of course, this didn’t mean that Varathen could only mindlessly project his aura without any control, no—his control was superb, and that could be seen by how Amelia, who stood within that one-metre zone, wasn’t affected in the
slightest.
The pressure was locked exclusively onto Lian’er, and the terrain around her that was ‘suffering’ was simply the collateral of Varathen not bothering to restrain his aura from affecting the environment.
“Argh…” a pained groan escaped Lian’er as her knees buckled under the pressure and her bones began to crack, but—
It didn’t diminish the madness in her gaze; if anything, it only amplified it, her eyes now burning with even deeper spite as they fixed themselves on Varathen, a stream of insults and profanities spilling from her lips, “That’s it? No wonder Tharvonis died with a Sect Master… this pathetic!”
“The only thing you can do is use your superior cultivation to bully me, or else you would be
nothing
, you piece of trash!”
Not being able to attack using her body, the beauty used her mouth, and while the insults she spat out weren’t the best due to her unstable state of mind, they were more than enough to further enrage the already angered Varathen.
Bulge.
A vein popped onto his forehead as he listened to her insults while his gaze grew colder and colder, ultimately culminating in him letting out a cold laugh, “So if this is how you wish to act… very well.”
His aura further tightened, not spreading outward but
compressing
, becoming heavier and heavier around Lian’er alone, as if the very air surrounding her was solidifying.
Crack.
Her body shook violently, her bones groaning under the unimaginable weight as microfractures formed, each one bringing a surge of extreme pain, but even then she didn’t stop!
If anything her grin widened in a twisted, almost delirious way, blood trickling from the corner of her lips as she spat out more venomous words,
“Hahaha… look at you… Sect Master of the
oh soooo mighty
Eidolon Path Sect, reduced to bullying a Spiritual Foundation Realm junior because she hurt your pride… truly pathetic!” her words weren’t even coherent or make much
sense anymore
but she didn’t care and simply continued.
“Mad, she’s totally insane!”
The nearby cultivators, whether human or Varnari, elders or disciples, watched this spectacle feeling a mix between respect and fear as they witnessed her madness, for even now, with her bones breaking and her body almost brought to her knees by Varathen’s aura and presence, she was still
insulting him!
If this wasn’t
courting death
, then… what was?
Varathen’s eyes narrowed, “So be it,” he murmured, his voice deepening as the aura around him shifted, taking on a… murderous hue. Previously he had been holding himself back, wanting to question her about Tharvonis and the human genius’s whereabouts, but now—
She had angered him to the point he no longer cared to restrain himself; killing intent had already taken root in his heart, and it showed as his next words came out cold as millennial ice, “If your Sect failed to discipline you, then you don’t need to exist anymore!”
Heaven’s Collapse.
Varathen didn’t waste another word, he simply lowered his hand, yet that simple motion caused a yellow-golden palm tens of meters wide to manifest in the sky, descending with a slowness that was almost eerie, as if time itself had thickened around it.
It wasn’t fast by any means—anyone who was paying attention could clearly follow its movement—but the suppressive force it carried was so overwhelming, so absolute, that speed no longer mattered; even if Lian’er hadn’t already been immobilized by his aura, this palm alone would have pinned her in place all the same.
“!!!”
Amelia—the only cultivator still beside Lian’er and inside the palm’s zone of effect, the others having all backed away beforehand—had her eyes widen in shock as she stared at the approaching palm which, in her eyes, carried the power to shatter heaven and earth!
‘I’m not a match,’ her mind instantly sent her this information, and in that moment she knew that if she was hit by this palm, no matter what she did, she was
absolutely dead!
The same instant she had this thought she also noticed that the suppressive power of the palm strike wasn’t aimed at her, otherwisely said, if she stepped aside she could easily move out of its attack range without any trouble.
‘He’s letting me a way out…’ understood Amelia, realizing that killing Lian’er was “justified” for Varathen, but doing the same to another ‘innocent’ Core Disciple
certainly wasn’t
, which was why he acted this way.
‘...’
As she saw the current desperate situation where Lian’er seemed to be in a hopeless state with no possibility of survival, flashes of the Nexoria invasion from years ago appeared in her mind.
Flashes of that horrifying day resurfaced—how she lost her best friend, her family, and… even her entire world!
‘Lose… am I going to lose someone again?’
Tremble.
As this thought appeared in her mind, her hands began to shake without her control as the trauma from years ago resurfaced with full force, and for an instant she was frozen, watching helplessly as the immense palm slowly neared Lian’er, whose expression remained as defiant as ever, but then—
‘NO I AREN’T POWERLESS ANYMORE!’ internally roared the proud archer, and with this declaration the shackle and the trauma left by the Nexoria invasion years ago shattered!
Author Note:
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———
This Realm of Broken Skies really isn't their thing isn’t it?
Things just kept getting worse and worse, first Mikael is now ‘dead’ and then Lian’er becomes somewhat crazy and then gets into a fight with the strongest cultivator present, and Amelia also wants to act…
Let’s hope she inverse the trend and things that are continuously getting worse, became better.
———
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— End of Chapter —