I Shall Steal the Heavens 244 Chapter 243: Energy Dark Dragons

"I'll kill you, brat!" he snarled as he threw his hands forward. Reacting to his fuy, his energy dark dragons lunged forward, their jaws snapping viciously at me.

Raising my hand, I stopped the first wave with Snow Aegis, the energy dark dragons colliding with my shield and bouncing off. A few of them snaked and twisted about, curling past my shield to strike at me from around my Snow Aegis, but I deftly used my footwork techniques to evade all of them. An energy dark dragon crashed against the ground where I was staning on, while another tried to bite me in midair, only for me to disappear when its jaws slammed shut.

"You!" Mo Long growled.

"What?" I demanded, annoyed, as I escaped yet another onslaught from the aggressive energy dark dragons, skidding across the ground and disappearing from view again. "Did you think I was just going to stay still and let your energy dark dragons kill me?"

"Yes!"

I couldn't help but plant my face into my palm. Was this guy serious? What was it with all these stupid villains thinking they are entitled to free wins, and not comprehending that their victims would try their best to evade or fight back against their attacks?

"A…amazing…"

Song Ting Yu was standing several paces away, watching the battle unfold before her eyes. I was pretty sure she was more powerful than me, at least in terms of cultivation, and if I hadn't read Spirit Realm wrong, she should be the strongest in our generation, probably even above Lei Yong Chun. Because of the resources her father gave her as the Alliance Chief, or some bullshit. Not that I cared, because I had more important things to worry about, and I didn't give a fuck about all these nonsensical realms and stages in the first place.

What was the point of claiming to have a much higher cultivation realm or stage when you didn't have much combat experience? A veteran soccer player could still outplay an amateur who was faster and stronger than him. It wasn't just the amount of strength or speed the athlete had, it was also the experience and skill that mattered. Otherwise all the thirty-year-old veterans would be replaced by all the stronger and faster young and uprising stars.

Mo Long, unfortunately, was a veteran of many battles, and he was quickly adapting. Swinging his hand forth, he unleashed a fresh wave of energy dark dragons at me, which roared silently as they came at me in an uncoiling swarm.

Spinning away from them, I drew both Azure Lotus Sword and Shadow Fox and cut the first of them down, thinning the vanguard. Then my figure flickered, vanishing away as the rest of the energy black dragons punctured the air where I had been.

"Stop running about, you brat!" Mo Long roared.

"Sure," I said behind him, already slashing. Unfortunately, even if I hadn't uttered a word, Mo Long had already sensed my killing intent and brandished his energy dark dragons to form a wall. Both my swords struck the almost intangible carpet of energy black dragons, cutting them apart into dissipating ribbons of qi.

"Oh!" I marveled, impressed. "So your energy dark dragons can even defend against attacks from behind. I'm wanting your technique more and more!"

Unfortunately, the energy black dragons were pretty fragile. Just a single attack from me was enough to destroy them. I frowned, a little disappointed at their lack of durability, but inwardly reflected that I would have time to modify the energy black dragons later, after I steal them.

But the maneuver was enough for Mo Long to retreat. He placed a good distance between himself and me, his eyes widening.

"How fast! Even though I'm so many levels above you, how…?"

"That's the thing about levels and realms." I shrugged nonchalantly. "So what does it mean if you're a stage above me? Or several levels above me? Does it merely mean you have more qi? Or that your understanding of your martial arts techniques are better and deeper? That you are stronger? Or faster? Or all of them?" Grinning, I shook my head. "After all, just because you have more qi or are physically stronger, doesn't mean you're faster or more nimble, or more agile. That whole difference in level or stages thing is so vague that most wuxia and xianxia writers don't bother to truly understand what the difference in levels mean, and just write it away as 'everything.' But that's pretty lazy, if you ask me."

"I'm not asking you!" Mo Long roared as he slashed at me with his demonic saber. I crossed both my swords and blocked it, but my feet sank into the crumbling ground that was giving way under the tremendous impact.

"Really?" I pitched my voice lower and tried to mimic me. "'Even though I'm so many levels above you, how…?' Is that not a question?"

"Ugh! Just shut up!"

Mo Long increased the force in his swing and sent me flying back. Even though I was slightly faster, he was obviously much stronger than me.

It was a terrible idea to engage him in direct combat.

Jumping away, I escaped from Mo Long's charge and his demonic saber under the cover of my mobile turrets, who fired a suppressive volley of qi beams to slow him down. Even though Mo Long was strong, he still could be wounded by the highly concentrated qi beams. And if he wasn't careful, they might puncture a vital organ and kill him outright.

Unfortunately, he was too seasoned a veteran to be that careless, otherwise I would have won this battle easily.

"!"

I jumped away, flipping myself in midair to avoid another slash from Mo Long's saber, while at the same time evading the dozens of energy dark dragons that were lunging at me ravenously. Their jaws snapped hungrily, and I was forced to divert several of my qi beams into the teeming mass, cutting them down.

"Let's see if you'll be able to last in a battle of attrition!" Mo Long growled, swinging his saber and unleashing a massive blast of black qi that forced me to block it with my Snow Aegis or risk sustaining a severe injury. Behind me, the energy dark dragons darted forward to stab through my back, but I spun around and scythed through them with both my swords.

"…yeah, because you know for sure that you will win if it drags out for too long, right?" I scoffed, highly aware of his superior amount of qi. Unfortunately, he was at least partially right. I had no way of finishing him off easily, or I would have cut him down long ago. As it was, I was being dragged into a long, arduous battle.

Song Ting Yu watched in awe as I jumped back to avoid another assault from the energy black dragons, and then holding my ground by parrying Mo Long's saber with my crossed swords. While I did so, the energy black dragons swerved around to strike my back, but my Snow Aegis hovered down to impose itself between us, saving my life.

Then I attacked, but once again Mo Long conjured a wall of energy dark dragons to protect himself. Even so, he staggered back after I broke through his defense, and swung his saber desperately to knock me away. I parried the blow and rode the momentum to put some distance between us.

"Amazing," she murmured. "Despite the vast differences in cultivation realms and levels, that boy is actually holding his own. How is this possible?!"

"It's not my fault that you guys are so inflexible and obsessed with realm differences to the point that you don't consider all the different possibilities and various counters!" I shouted as I leaped backward to avoid another multiple strike from the energy dark dragons. "Martial arts have always been developed in order for the weak to defend themselves against stronger opponents! Why do you think it was created in the first place? Because the weak realized they couldn't win in a battle of pure strength against someone bigger and stronger! So they developed techniques to allow them to circumvent that difference through skills and techniques!"

Obviously, strength was still necessary, but martial arts was never based on a purely strength system. While I recognized the need to be at least strong and durable enough to withstand my opponents' attacks for self-defense, I also knew that martial arts existed for me to defend against stronger opponents and use their strength against them.

Soft countering the hard, weak against strong. If fighting was as simple as the stronger guy wins, then there was no need for martial arts. Just stupidly punching and slugging it out was enough to be called "martial arts." But no, martial arts had a lot more finesse than that. It allowed us to bridge the gap between strong and weak and use the opponent's strength against them even if they are bigger, scarier and more powerful.

Seemed like a lot of xianxia writers had forgotten that, but more obviously they were usually just armchair martial artists who did not actually practice martial arts themselves, and came up with cultivation levels and BS stuff based on other xianxia stories they read.

"Can't you just shut up for once?!" Mo Long bellowed as he sliced at me with his demonic saber. "Demonic Dragon Devours All!"

Ignoring the cheesy name of his technique, I parried his strike, only for his superior amount of qi to wreak havoc on my body. Blood flew from my arms and body as his vicious technique cut deeply into my skin, and I flinched from the pain before wisely withdrawing.

"Then you guys should stop asking stupid questions," I retorted before retaliating with a volley of qi beams that scored a couple of hits. Mo Long staggered back, cauterized craters appearing on his shoulder and forearm, but he stood strong.

"Cheeky brat," he snarled.

I tried not to roll my eyes – the guy didn't know I was mentally over thirty – and refrained from resorting to such childish insults against a so-called adult. Instead, I focused on the battle, leaping high up to avoid having my feet getting chewed away by a bunch of low-lying energy black dragons. Landing on the ground, I directed a volley of qi beams while cutting apart another horde of energy black dragons with my dual swords at the same time.

Mo Long seized the opportunity to dash at me, swinging his saber wildly and unleashing another of his Demonic Dragon Devours All technique.

Fortunately, my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps had allowed me to see his attack coming, and I scraped my foot back. First, my legs disappeared, and the rest of my body followed, leaving only an afterimage for Mo Long to cleave apart.

"!!!"

Mo Long twisted around for the counterattack, but I had also anticipated that with my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps (God, that was so tedious to type), and aborted the attempt, or I would have lost my head.

At the very least, I would have been sliced through my chest and sustained a horrible injury.

"Just who are you, kid?!" Mo Long snarled, brandishing his saber. His horde of energy dark dragons reared up fearsomely behind him, growling quietly.

"I'm Fei Wu of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect," I replied with a shrug. "You're the one who came to kill me. Don't tell me you don't even know who your target is supposed to be?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Mo Long shrieked as he charged at me again, swinging his demonic saber down.

"Then stop asking stupid questions!" I retorted. No, this wasn't Spirit Realm so I wasn't going to "shout lightly" (what does that even mean?).

We sprang apart after colliding in a shower of sparks, his demonic saber smashing into the impenetrable, crossed blades of my swords. I hacked at him the same moment he cleaved at me, and both of us staggered back as blood spurted out of our respective wounds. The bastards had cut shallowly into my shoulder with the golden blade strung to the black and green metallic pole of his saber, while I had pierced his sides with both my swords.

"Kuh! To think a lowly Qi Fusion Stage practitioner can hurt me!"

"That's not right…Fei Wu's qi doesn't feel like Qi Fusion Stage…I might be mistaken, but isn't he at least Pure Spirit Stage?"

Song Ting Yu perceived my qi differently. I merely shrugged.

"I dunno, how can you tell? You got a qi-measuring machine or something? And how much qi do you need to be in Pure Spirit Stage? Actually, how much qi do you need to be in Qi Fusion Stage in the first place?"

Neither of them could reply. I guess this whole cultivation level thing was "anything goes" and deliberately made vague by writers to have an easy "Character A is stronger than Character B" system that readers enjoyed because it made things a lot simple.

If only real life was just as easy…

"Ugh…!"
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Mo Long couldn't care less. He grinded his feet into the ground and raised his saber parallel to the earth, while accumulating more qi into his body.

"Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula!" He bellowed, using his ultimate cultivation technique to enhance his physical body and boost both his strength and qi.

"Oh…nice. I can't wait to absorb all that qi from you." I was practically rubbing my hands in glee, except that I was holding swords at the moment. This was such a delicious technique, and his qi was so attractive.

"Just die already!" Mo Long roared as he kicked off the ground and lunged at me, his merciless qi washing over me like a destructive tsunami. I could see the black dragon taking shape behind him as a gigantic aura, an intangible existence that represented the power of his technique rather than the more tangible manifestations of his energy dark dragons from earlier.

Nice. I could feel the frosty yin qi interpellated within his fiery yang qi. Absorbing all that qi would definitely improve my own cultivation, and since it was the same type of qi essence as mine, I should be able to easily assimilate all that qi in short order. Maybe a few hours at most, thanks to the fiery yang qi, but the frosty yin qi was definitely right up my alley.

However, Mo Long wasn't going to simply roll over and let me suck his qi dry. First, I would have to defeat and incapacitate him. Only when he was no longer capable of fighting back would I be able to absorb his qi.

Knowing that to confront Mo Long in a frontal, direct fight would be suicide, I agilely evaded, using my footwork technique to weave through his attacks and escape behind him, or to the sides. Mo Long was launching unpredictable attacks, occasionally twisting around to deliver a riposte to behind him in anticipation of me showing up there.

If I hadn't mastered Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I would have been stabbed by him long ago.

Fortunately, it seemed that Mo Long didn't learn the same techniques as me, for he was completely unable to anticipate where I was. He was slashing wildly and inefficiently expending wasteful amounts of qi. Honestly, that sort of flailing about wasn't befitting of an expert veteran like him, but I guessed that he had been brought up with the mentality that cultivation levels equal everything that he thought he would be able to finish me off with a single strike before he used up all his qi. It never occurred to him that he might actually lose in a battle of attrition by carelessly wasting his qi like this. All he needed was one strike, and he would win.

And to be honest, he was correct.

On the other hand, it just meant that all I needed to do was evade him for as long as I could, and he would eventually run out of qi. And here I thought I was the amateur. Fortunately, I had built up quite the experience of fighting against opponents stronger than me. Better yet, Mo Long did not possess the plot armor that protagonists such as Zhu Jiao did.

As long as I maintained my calm, I could defeat him. Eventually.

"I don't believe your cultivation technique is superior to my Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula!" Mo Long shouted. Useless barking from a mad dog, given that he missed me yet again, and I scoffed quietly as I danced away from his saber. Snarling, Mo Long launched another horde of energy dark dragons at me, but a brutal lance of qi beams cut them down before they came within several meters of me.

"Even if Fei Wu has learned Heaven and Earth Formula, there's such a huge disparity between their realms…how is this possible?"

Song Ting Yu was still watching from a distance, her eyes curious. I glanced at her in annoyance.

"Why are you still here? If you're not going to help, get lost. We don't need to listen to your tedious commentary."

"That's right!" Mo Long agreed. "You're an eyesore!"

"What?!" Song Ting Yu sulked. "You men are horrible! Is that the way to speak to a lady?!"

As if in unison, both of us flung our arms out and attacked her. A bunch of dark energy dragons, and a small bombardment of qi beams lanced toward Song Ting Yu, causing her to yelp in shock and quickly retreat.

Jumping on her Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly and running away, Song Ting Yu uncharacteristically shook her hand at us.

"I'll remember this!" she shouted angrily. Then she disappeared from view. I knew she was still hiding somewhere, keeping an eye on the fight, but at least she wasn't here to serve the annoying role of the "crowd" who often watched and made useless commentary. Like the ones in Peerless Martial God, where the crowd existed solely to trash-talk Lin Feng, get their faces slapped when he proved them all wrong, and then praised him to high heaven.

Mo Long, without Song Ting Yu to distract him, could focus on sending his swarm of energy black dragons at me again. I scythed them down with a merciless barrage of qi beams, and then closed in on him with my footwork. Swinging both my swords down, I launched a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike that was blocked by his demonic saber.

"This is…!" Mo Long growled in surprise. "When did you learn Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship?!"

"I have no obligation to tell you."

"You…" Snarling, Mo Long swung his saber at me. I deflected it with Shadow Fox, then thrust Azure Lotus Sword at him. Mo Long managed to spin away to avoid a fatal stab, but the azure blade nicked his ribs and sliced shallowly into his chest. "Gah!"

Ice was expanding rapidly over the cut, and he clawed at it with his free hand, shattering the ice and backing off.

"And this ice technique…it's not just Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula, is it? You improved it somehow!"

Then his eyes widened when realization struck him.

"Is this the result of combining all the various techniques you learned with Heaven and Earth Formula? You truly are a terrifying brat…if we allow you to grow, you'll come to threaten the Martial Arts Alliance in future!"

I rolled my eyes. Already he was assuming that I would be an enemy of the Martial Arts Alliance. Then again, given all the atrocities and crimes they had committed, I was more than happy to become their enemy. Hell, I would be happy to exterminate them one day.

"I'm not the only one capable of combining martial arts techniques." I pointed Azure Lotus Sword at him while he withdrew temporarily to take care of the ice that was spreading all over the injuries he suffered form my blade. "You did very well in merging Solar Celestial Dragon Formula with Dark Carnage Demonic Energy to produce Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula." I cocked my head to the side. "A little unorthodox, but your sect leader Jian Ao recognized your efforts and talents, and saw great use in your skills for assassinations and dirty jobs, so he kept you at his side as a secret killer rather than purge you as the elders in the sect demanded."

Mo Long turned very pale, unconsciously taking a step back. "How do you know all that?!" he spat, his voice shaking.

I smiled. "I'm the Omniscent protagonist. I know things when they are convenient for me to explain the plot and characters to the readers."

"What nonsense are you blabbering about?!"

"Ah, I guess it wouldn't make sense to you." I sighed. "Let's just say I have the ability to break the fourth wall."

Mo Long completely lost it. Deciding not to quibble over my nonsensical rambling, he chose to strike swiftly from the front, his saber flashing downward while his dark energy dragons launched toward me from the sides and behind.

I seemed to be cornered, but I wasn't.

The saber cleaved through my head, only for my figure to disappear as a fuzzy afterimage, grinning one last time at my infuriated opponent before vanishing.

"Those footwork techniques are so annoying!" Mo Long howled in frustration.

"Not for me, they aren't."

"Ugh! Just shut the fuck up!"

Mo Long swung his saber behind him, but I was no longer there. Instead, I came from him at his exposed side, thrusting both my swords. Mo Long cursed and stopped one of the swords by grabbing it, only for my blade to pierce into his palm and exit through the back of his hands. His fingers bled as they tried to grip the keen blade of Shadow Fox, flayed to the bone, but he managed to halt the sword from piercing his heart. As for Azure Lotus Sword, he managed to spin his body away, with the blue blade grazing his chest and slightly freezing the wound.

"I've got you now!" he hollered and swung his saber down. I quickly withdrew my Azure Lotus Sword and parried his saber. The ground beneath me gave way from the tremendous impact produced by his Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula, the black qi just disintegrating everything within its vicinity. The dark energy dragons roared and tried to lance through me, but Snow Aegis was on point, delivering a hail of qi beams at pinpoint accuracy, discouraging them from getting anywhere near me.

Panting, I yanked my Shadow Fox out in a spray of blood. Not wanting to lose his fingers and entire hand, Mo Long wisely let go and staggered back, but he swung his saber again, a massive dark dragon coiling around the green, black and golden blade to lend it massive strength. Too late to rely on my footwork, I crossed both my swords, but was completely blown back.

"Gah!"

Blood burst out of my mouth as I was sent hurtling several meters away, tumbling helplessly in midair before crashing into a tree. Coughing wildly, I struggled to my feet, my head ringing, only for Mo Long to descend upon me.

"I've got you now!" he shouted triumphantly.

I looked up, and smiled.

Mo Long's eyes narrowed, but he was too experienced to underestimate me. He was already launching an all-out attack, not just with his demonic saber, but also unleashing his energy dark dragons from all sides, hoping to entrap me.

Normally, I wouldn't be able to escape. And wounded as I was, I wouldn't be able to withstand a ferocious strike from him, even if I parried his Domination (the name of his demonic saber). Snow Aegis had hurtled forward to block the blow, but Mo Long merely batted it aside, and there were too many energy black dragons for my mobile turrets to eliminate.

But I didn't need them to eliminate them for me.

Crack!

"!!!"

Mo Long froze. Literally. My surroundings turned into ice, the air flash-freezing and the trees getting encased in ice. The energy dark dragons that were poised to attack me were all entombed within frost coffins, immobilized and unable to move. Mo Long himself would have been caught, but his instincts had warned him and he immediately halted himself, rapidly withdrawing to a safe distance. A few meters in front of him, an icy sphere of a radius of ten meters spread about me, freezing everything within the vicinity.

"That's…" Mo Long swallowed as he brushed the frost that had somehow made its way to his arms and body. "Absolute Zero!"

I didn't reply and staggered to my feet. Kicking off the ground, I charged at him with both my swords, my Absolute Zero sphere following me. I couldn't keep up Absolute Zero for too long as it expended too much of my qi.

Therefore I had to finish this battle right here and right now.

"Kuh!"

Mo Long's speed was inferior to mine, and he was unable to escape my dash, instead finding himself trapped within my sphere of ice. His body began freezing over, ice creeping over his limbs and chest, and his hair turning white from snow.

"As if I'll lose to something like this!"

With a roar, Mo Long activated the seventh level of his Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula, destroying the ice around him with black fire and brute force. Blood spurted from my mouth as I was flung back from a vicious slash of his demonic saber. Roaring, Mo Long executed another of his Demonic Dragon Devours All, obliterating a path toward me.

Gritting my teeth, I barely managed to block the attack with Snow Aegis. Apparently Zi Shou De was telling the truth when he said he upgraded it, for it managed to momentarily halt the attack from a Nascent Soul Stage practitioner – even if I didn't care about power levels and cultivation realms, Mo Long was still undoubtedly powerful – before spinning away. Then Mo Long's ruthless saber came crashing down mercilessly on me.

However, it was more than enough.

"?!"

Six qi beams struck him, but Mo Long's reflexes saved him, allowing him to dodge half of them. Even so, three of the beams punctured through his legs and right arm, leaving him recoiling in midair as cauterized wounds erupted.

"Kuh!"

Clenching his teeth so hard they cracked, Mo Long sent another horde of energy dark dragons, only for all of them to freeze within my Absolute Zero technique again. Undeterred, he continued revolving his Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula to brute-force his way through the incapacitating ice and slashed at me.

Stepping to the side, I barely avoided his strike, but the vicious dark flames that shrouded his demonic saber scorched through me, leaving horrendous wounds. I flinched from the agony, but resolutely held my ground. Right after Mo Long's demonic saber flashed down right in front of me, I swung both my swords and cut off his frozen right arm. Despite him activating his Dark Flame Heavenly Dragon Formula, he wasn't completely immune to my Absolute Zero ice, and still suffered slightly from its debilitating effects. Not only that, it seemed that the absolute cold had also slowed him down drastically, or I would never have been able to hack off his sword arm.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Mo Long staggered back, shrieking in pain. This time, blood did not fountain from his stump, the red fluids having frozen immediately the moment they came into contact with the icy air of my Absolute Zero technique. With his severe injury, Mo Long was unable to stop the ice from spreading rapidly over his shoulder and toward his body.

Lowering my Shadow Fox, I stabbed him in the gut, causing him to howl again. Even though he had sustained such fatal injuries, Mo Long was far from done. Snarling defiantly, he swung around with his other hand and smacked my face with a Dark Flame Divine Dragon Palm. Blood flowed from a cut alongside my temple, and my glasses fell off.

However, I didn't falter. Even as my vision blurred and my blood froze over my face, I reversed my Azure Lotus Sword and severed Mo Long's remaining arm, causing him to scream again.

"Whoops…looks like I disarmed you."

"You bastard! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" Mo Long was screeching. I merely gave him a glacial glare that caused his spine to freeze.

"It seems that you don't understand your position."

With both arms gone, Mo Long had no way of fighting back. And with my Shadow Fox in his gut and delivering him such a debilitating injury, there was no way he could resist my technique now.

"You…what are you doing?!"

Too late, Mo Long realized in horror what my true intentions were. I merely smiled frostily.

"I told you, didn't I? That I want your energy dark dragon technique."

Then I proceeded to execute Heaven and Earth Absorption and began the process of sucking dry all of Mo Long's qi.

Chapter end