Divine Script
The palm strike, its presence complete shrouded within the chaotic storm of ghosts, heavily slammed onto Jun Meng Chen's back, causing him to stumble forward, the beige bubble instantly shattered. Lurching while spitting a thin stream of blood, Jun Meng Chen ground his left heel against the ground as he instantly whirled to his back, sweeping his daggers.
Unfortunately, they sliced through nothing but air, the Ghost King's snide laughter ringing in his ears.
"Little junior, your speed is a little too slow, don't you think? Bumbling around with those two toothpicks of yours, when will you ever land a hit?"
Gritting his teeth, Jun Meng Chen spun the daggers into a reverse grip, before channeling divine essence into their structures. With a pitched whine, the Deity Core within Jun Meng Chen trembled as it released even more divine essence, with the inscriptions on the core's surface glowing brilliantly.
With the induction of divine essence, the daggers began to tremble, cyan engravings forming on the blades. Without warning, the daggers shot out from Jun Meng Chen's hands, escaping the range of the black mist.
Stepping backwards, Jun Meng Chen conjured a steel dagger and longsword, firmly grasping them as he crossed the dagger behind his back. Allowing the longsword's tip to drag on the ground, Jun Meng Chen distributed as much of his weight to his right leg, divine essence circulating within his body to enhance his reactions.
Whoosh!
Only the faintest whisper could be heard as the Ghost King's palm shot out from a different angle, this time for Jun Meng Chen's left side. Constricting and layering his perception to only extend to a zhang's radius around him, Jun Meng Chen barely perceived the incoming palm.
Closing his eyes, his left arm shot out, the dagger grasped with a reverse grip. With a solid collision, the aged palm struck the flat of the blade, causing the Ghost King to chuckle once more.
"Defending with such a flimsy blade, aren't you just wasting your dagger…oh?" he spoke, surprise flashing on his face.
No matter the amount of strength he infused into his palm, the dagger refused to give an inch, as if the two of them were simply demonstrating fighting techniques.
Stopping the palm strike with the dagger, Jun Meng Chen instantly stepped to his right, causing the old man to lurch forward from the uncontrollable momentum from his own attack. Inverting his wrist and turning counter-clockwise as he slashed with the longsword, the blade blazing with a dense, teal brilliance as it rushed directly for the Ghost King's exposed chest.
With a quick hiss, the Ghost King leaned back, accelerating his movements with divine essence to barely escape the blade's trajectory. Not minding the large rip in his robes, the old man reversed his movements, taking advantage of his body's torque to explode forth with his right fist aimed at Jun Meng Chen's throat.
Faced with an iron fist striking directly at him, Jun Meng Chen rushed forward towards the Ghost King. Dragging the longsword on the floor to generate a flurry of sparks, he leaned to the right, just barely allowing the fist to graze his left side. His left arm shot out towards the old man, leaving a deep cut in the Ghost King's extended right arm.
As the old man yowled in pain, Jun Meng Chen brought the dagger hurtling downwards towards the old man's chest, and flooded his body with divine essence as he secretly bent his knees slightly.
"As if something like that will work on me!"
Peng!
With a dull smack, the Ghost King slapped the dagger from Jun Meng Chen's grip with his free left arm, sending the steel dagger spiraling onto the ground to be devoured by the increasing swarm of ghosts. Palming his right fist before his chest, the Ghost King howled as divine essence surged within his body.
"Combust!
The old man slightly hunched his shoulders forward, turning the palmed fist a hundred and eighty degrees while still clasped in his palm. The turn completed in an instant, and a golden light exploded from the Ghost King's body, innumerable strings of words in the Divine Script revolving around the old man as they emitted a paralyzing pressure within the area encased by ghosts and the black mist.
In face of this, Jun Meng Chen gritted his teeth at the uncomfortable sensation of rigor mortis settling in his body, before deciding to similarly erupt with divine essence.
"The sun sets, and flowers wilt."
With his gentle whisper, his right arm swung the longsword at an imperceptible speed, indistinct afterimages trailing behind. The longsword cut towards the left at an upward slant, bisecting one of the strings of words revolving around the old man.
Jun Meng Chen rotated his wrist, and the longsword shot towards the floor in a perfectly vertical slash, followed by a horizontal sweep to the left. Stepping forward with his left foot and lowering his body to stabilize his center of mass, Jun Meng Chen unleashed a diagonal, upwards sweep to the right.
Each cut had severed a strand of words, and before the Ghost King could even react, he was already sent careening backwards from Jun Meng Chen's last strike.
Jun Meng Chen dashed towards the stumbling Ghost King, the longsword held in a reverse grip to reduce strain. The instant he had crossed to a distance of three meters away from the old man, Jun Meng Chen stomped heavily on the ground with his left foot.
Reverting his grip, Jun Meng Chen swung the longsword to his left in at a slanted angle, leaving a large gash on the old man's torso. Right before completing his swing, Jun Meng Chen whirled in a clockwise direction before slashing towards the left, marking a diagonal cross of blood on the old man.
Leaning his body back as far as he could without losing balance, Jun Meng Chen raised the longsword level with his shoulder, before springing back with great momentum, the sword cutting before him. As the longsword blazed towards the Ghost King's chest with enraged sparks ricocheting off of the blade, Jun Meng Chen willed his Deity Core to rotate, infusing tremendous amounts of divine essence into the sword.
"[Pierce]!"
Bang!
Following Jun Meng Chen's cry, black chains descended from the skies with a massive roar, wrapping around the steel longsword. The translucent and fragile appearing chains also coiled around the Ghost King's limbs, locking him in place and barring any defense to be fortified.
The chains wrapping around the longsword guided the sword's point to plunge deeply into the center of the Ghost King's chest with a dull thud.
"Oh? The Divine Script, you actually used it. Then, this elder won't hold back!"
With a roar, the Ghost King's body unleashed a powerful pulse of divine essence, effortlessly dislodging the longsword embedded in his chest, hurling Jun Meng Chen away. Watching the black chains vanish after achieving their objective, the old man grunted before sweeping his hands to his sides, and the black mist surrounded the old man before merging with his body.
As the mixture of ghosts, wraiths, and divine essence surged into the Ghost King's body, Jun Meng Chen could see the wounds on the old man vanish, the only trace being the ripped clothing.
"Brat, you're not that bad, managing to injure me like that," snarled the Ghost King, patting the area where he had been impaled by Jun Meng Chen's sword. "Incorporating the Divine Script into a physical technique, rather ingenious of an immortal of the Divine Palace."
"However!" he thundered, his aura imposing and indomitable, the buildings nearby crumbling from the sheer might of his voice. "the thought of even attempting to kill someone in his own domain is atrocious!"
Raising his right hand into the air, the Ghost King displayed a stern expression on his face as he glared at Jun Meng Chen. His voice thundering, the old man spoke while surrounded by a powerful current of divine essence.
"I've changed my mind of processing your immortal construct, you've earned that little respect, brat. Experience the Divine Script for yourself! [Bind. Pierce through, obliterate!]"
As he spoke, the Ghost King savagely slammed his hand down, cutting through the air as the currents of divine essence spilled forth, covering the entire street. With the familiar bang, the black chains exploded from the skies towards Jun Meng Chen.
Rooted to the spot by an unknown, omniscient force, Jun Meng Chen gazed at the chains descending towards him, panic and terror coursing through his veins. The mere fractions of a second felt like eternity, the chains descending at a slow yet unstoppable pace. Jun Meng Chen could sense an intention to restrain and combust the body within the metallic links, an attenuated grey light leaking from within.
He had to do something, either to throw off the oppressive pressure, or to block the incoming chains. If he didn't ward them off or allowed them to successfully bind him, Jun Meng Chen would face enormous trouble. His Deity Core screamed massive volumes of panic, the core's pulses of divine essence fluctuating at an intense and chaotic rate.
In a desperate, almost insane attempt, words spilled from Jun Meng Chen as the chains locked around his arms, an ice-cold sensation sweeping through his body.
"For my resentment, I cry!"
Clink!
Clink!
It was unknown whether those words were taboo in the Immortal Realm, or whether they possessed some intrinsic value over the Divine Script. Jun Meng Chen had merely thrown out those words in a desperate, fleeting hope for the infinitesimal chance that a phenomenon would occur if he treated them like an incantation.
However, the chains that had just sealed Jun Meng Chen jumped off of him as if bouncing off hot lava, scattering in all directions. As the Ghost King and Jun Meng Chen both gaped in astonishment, the chains of the Divine Script outright ignored Jun Meng Chen as they rampantly demolished the Ghost King's Domain from the roots.
"No! My precious domain, how could you!?"
Amidst the Ghost King's cry of anguish, the first spear of the
The Ghost King could only spot a thin spark of light before a spear slammed into the ground before him, catapulting him into the air from the impulse.
"Just how did you break free-argh!"
Just as he regained his balance and furiously shouted at Jun Meng Chen, the spear embedded into the ground trembled, an incisive shockwave knocking the Ghost King to the ground once more. However, the old main discovered with shock and displeasure that not only was he unable to imbue strength into his legs, the channels within his body that he had circulated divine essence throughout had crippled themselves.
"Just when did he strike…!!"
The Ghost King muttered to himself in confusion. Having been distracted by the oddity of the Divine Script's failure on Jun Meng Chen, he had completely ignored the presence of the unassuming gray spear hovering in the sky. Hence, he was befuddled on how Jun Meng Chen had even attacked him with such ferocity and strength in an instant.
Clink.
Suddenly, the sound of chains rubbing each other aroused the Ghost King from his reverie, an infinite terror replacing his confusion. As Jun Meng Chen spectated from the side while panting heavily, he noticed the Ghost King clutching his chest in agony, dry heaving as the old man gazed into the distance with boundless fear and unwillingness.
"AH! No! Stop, stop, stop! Argh!"
The old man's cries resounded throughout the street, the diminished echoes akin to the wailing of ghosts. Unexpectedly, the Ghost King's chest swelled before bursting with a faint pop, as the black chains of the Divine Script rushed from within, encasing and devouring the old man.
With horror sufficing his mind, Jun Meng Chen watched the Ghost King fluctuate between tangible and illusionary until disappearing, not even an immortal's construct remaining. The old man's final words with his light sigh, however, both unnerved and interested Jun Meng Chen.
"…no wonder, no wonder! So it was that spear, tsk, tsk. First was that girl, and now this young fellow as well…"
Watching the black chains vanish after expunging the Ghost King, Jun Meng Chen stood in a daze, unable to believe what had happened. His mouth moved slightly, but no words were formed.
"Girl? A girl who had used the
Suddenly, a person's figure appeared in his mind, and Jun Meng Chen froze in shock. That girl he had met on the unusual disk in a spatial tear! Was it or was it not a dream, then?
Before Jun Meng Chen could give much further though, the entirety of the Ghost King's Domain trembled with a massive groan as the edges of the horizon began to fray, slowly but surely collapsing onto itself.