Heaven And Earth Converge To Fortune

Zhenyun, panting a bit, held his sword toward his opponent, a masked cultivator whose arm was now missing:

"Give up, now" the young swordsman said. "While our cultivations may be the same, in a place where spells are restricted, you won't be able to defeat a sword cultivator. I have to join my companions as fast as possible and I don't have time to lose on you, so fuck off!"

Shen Hui, their breath and posture perfectly stable despite their missing arm and the blood gushing from the wound, tilted their head:

"Why so hasty, young master Liu?" they asked. "Oh, are you afraid that Bai Zisheng is among those accompanying Zhang Baotian? If that's the case, don't worry too much, even the strongest of his companions has not reached the mid stage yet"

"Really? Then why don't you let me go and verify?" Liu Zhenyun asked, feeling his patience dwindle as he prepared to attack again, this time going for the throat.

"Because it would be no use, since your goal is to rescue Liu Jianhong. After all, your master already died, just now" 

Zhenyun, about to attack, froze on the spot:

"What… did you just say"

Shen Hui, scoffing, shrugged innocently:

"Oh well, I didn't particularly like his face, so in exchange for giving out the location of Zhang Baotian, I made Xiao Chen swear to kill him at the chance" they explained. "The threads we just saw were an indication that she accomplished her task. What a reliable woman, truly a phoenix among cultivators, don't you agree, my dear fellow Liu?"

"Y-you're lying, elder Xiao would have never promised such a thing. And if she did, then she wasn't thinking a bit of it"

"Mmm, really? You're probably right, dear genius. Hence why when she made the promise, I left a special technique of her that would force her to accomplish the task if the conditions were fulfilled, just in case. Well, considering the positive return from the strings, it seems that I was right to do such a thing, hm?"

"You're saying master… is dead?"

"Yes, that is indeed what I am seeing. Dead, killed by his own ally, among people who do not care for him, because a malicious cultivator like me decided that they didn't like his face. Is it clearer, or maybe I need to repeat once again for young master Liu?"

Liu Zhenyun, now white as a ghost, wore an empty face, seemingly calm, but his fingers constricted his sword's handle so hard that a thin stream of blood was leaking from his joints:

"I don't believe you" he said.

"Really? Your reaction doesn't seem like that of a person who just heard what they would consider a joke. Ah, you are just in denial! I see, such a human reaction. A relatively amusing one, too. I heard it was one of the five stages of grief, the denial"

They clapped their hands, or rather would have if not for one of them lacking.

"But I didn't kill Liu Jianhong for that, I killed him so I could see a heaven-blessed genius crumble at the realization that in this world where he has the absoluteness of diamond, even his close ones are nothing but glass figures. So go on…"

Moving their finger, Shen Hui commanded a large centipede, who crawled until it was between the two of them and stopped, showing off the object it carried on its back.

It was Liu Jianhong's head.

"Ah…"

Liu Zhenyun, seeing the severed head, began to shake uncontrollably. Trying to get to it, he stumbled, and ended up on his knees. Crawling to reach the head, he took it in his hands.

"M-master?"

Of course, there was no answer. Liu Jianhong was already long dead.

"There, now that you have proof of my honesty, I believe I deserve a more enthusiastic reaction" Shen Hui said. "Don't you agree, young master Liu?"

Zhenyun looked at his master's head. How many times had he…

There wasn't even a way to say it, really, Zhenyun could simply not think of every moment where his master had been here for him. From his early childhood on, it was natural for him to stay with him. In both lives, he had lost his parents young, and back in his previous life, his life had been hell from then on. But this time, he had had someone supporting him all this time, allowing him to remain hopeful, until his talent bloomed.

Despite what everyone said, not even once had he believed that he only had himself to thank for his talent. It didn't matter if it was always there because, from the depth of his heart, Zhenyun was convinced that he could only ever let it bloom, and use it to its full potential thanks to the ones supporting him. 'Talent' was innate, but the journey and happiness of one depended on the people surrounding them.

And now, the one who had supported him all this time was gone, just like that.

"Why?" he asked, tears of blood slowly leaking from his eyes. "Why, just why did you do this?" 

The masked cultivator simply laughed:

"Didn't I already make it clear? I want you to feel miserable, so I can feel the joy of being happier than the one chosen by heaven. Your pain is my happiness, young master Liu, and that alone is enough of a reason"

The second they finished their sentence, their other arm was cleanly severed at the shoulder, and they were sent flying back by a powerful kick, rolling pitifully on the ground:

"So you did all this to make me feel miserable… so you could feel happy?" Liu Zhenyun repeated, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, his face distorted by anger. "Fine, I'll give you what you want, I'll show you just how miserable you made me, just how angry you made me!"

He plunged the blade in their shoulder and twisted it:

"I'll skin you, bleed you dry, tear your muscles apart one by one, grind your bones, and slowly cut your Nascent Soul into splinters while forcing you to stay conscious, and once you are dead, I'll make sure to send your nine generations in the grave with you! Does that sound good to you?"

He brutally took out the blade, ripping apart part of their skin with it.

"Answer me! Does that sound good to you?!"

He cut their stomach, letting their organs burst out.

"Still having a good time?!"

He cut their throat, letting their lungs fill with blood.

"Still finding this amusing, huh? You vile creature! Why! Why me!"

As his face contorted even more, he raised his sword, ready to split the masked cultivator's head in two and destroy their Nascent Soul, but suddenly found himself unable to move.

"Nngh… what is this!? Why can't I move? You… bastard, what did you do!"

Sighing in relief, the masked person calmly got up, using their Nascent Soul regeneration to quickly heal. As this regeneration counted as a spell, they should have normally been sucked into one of the Martial Devouring Mountains and yet, no suction force reached them, leaving them perfectly fine as Zhenyun was immobilized.

"You filthy thing… how are you doing that!" Zhenyun roared in rage. "I'll kill you!"

He tried to free himself but without spells, it was impossible. Shen Hui sighed:

"Phew, it took me longer than expected, but I managed to create a safe zone" they said. "It was a close call, don't you think, young master Liu? A few seconds more, and you might actually have gotten through with your revenge!"

They clapped their hands:

"Oh, allow me to enlighten you about how I can use spells without being 'devoured' by the mountains, to say it like that. You see, a common misconception people get about this place is that you will automatically be sucked in if you use a spell, but that is not the case" they said. "In fact, the chances of a mountain effectively targeting you is only around seventy percent every time you use a spell. It's simply that, as this probably is already high enough, and most people tend to use several spells in a row, it became some kind of truth in the mind of people. After all, who would be brave… well stupid enough to make such a test?"

They laughed and showed off the threads around:

"But see it like this, what if the probability for a spell to get you targeted went from seventy percent to seventy per billion? It took me a while to put it in place, but I managed to put such a thing into place through a formation killer move, 'Heaven And Earth Converge To Fortune'" they said. "Isn't that impressive?"

He binded Zhenyun's mouth too, so he couldn't reply.

"Actually never mind, your answer would probably be something similar to 'I will eradicate your nine generations, no matter what'. Tssk tssk, so generic"

They turned their attention toward the place where Ye Mu was fighting Xiao Chen:

'Hmm, in the current situation, it seems like Xiao Chen will win' they thought. 'Until now, he always managed to find solutions by himself to survive any trouble, but I guess everyone has a limit'

Shen Hui prepared to go there and discreetly weaken Xiao Chen to make them win: after all, they couldn't allow Baotian to die, as his life was necessary for them to advance on the path of their cultivation.

However, they brutally stopped in their tracks as a shining light shone behind them.

"Oh, that's unplanned for"

Zhenyun, taking out several swords out of his storage bag, cut off the threads binding his body, and just like Shen Hui, he wasn't sucked in any of the mountains. However, it wasn't because he had a miraculous probability-manipulating move like Shen Hui.

"Heavenly Deity Defying Heart!"

Rather, he was focusing his Heaven talent on it, successfully resisting the attraction force through the Heavenly Deity Defying Heart only!

"I guess I underestimated just how ridiculous the power of a Heavenly Talent is, the fault is on me" they said. "I suppose negotiation is not an option?"

Zhenyun, rendered mute out of sheer wrath, organized his swords into a formation and unleashed his first killer move on Shen Hui:

Liu Sword Technique, second formation move: Platinum Wave Of Destruction!

A wave of pure destruction aimed at the masked cultivator, destroying everything in its way.