Chapter 51: Chapter 51: The Mouth Of The Abyss
Shen Yuan knew everything was on the line. He had to either go all in or die right there.
So, he used his manipulation skills in order to distract his enemy.
Then he took the moment of Chang Shi’s surprise to his advantage and focused all of his attention on performing the technique he was trying so hard to learn.
’Please work!’
At the moment, he felt time slowing down once more. He could see everything so slowly and clearly that it was almost mesmerising.
’I never knew death looked so beautiful.’ The thought came out of nowhere without him even realising.
But Shen Yuan did not stay distracted for long. He focused himself and looked around.
At that moment, Shen Yuan’s eyes caught two things.
One of them was how Chang Shi was trying to use a movement technique of his own.
He was already out of shock and close the distance between them to kill Shen Yuan, or so the look in his eyes indicated.
’If what I need to perform the technique properly is just qi, then...’ From that idea he recalled the sensation he felt while trying to comprehend Heavy Mountain Slash.
He did not have time for qi at that time, but for some reason he had perfected the technique in one go.
At first he had thought that it was all because of enlightenment.
But now he did not think that.
What if...?
Shen Yuan sucked in a fresh breath of rough air while falling down. He recalled the movements of the technique in his mind.
While doing so, he started to draw the qi from his surroundings into his body.
Instead of storing the qi in his dantian. He used raw, unfiltered qi to directly perform the technique.
"Ugh!" Shen Yuan felt the same pain as he did while tempering his body with Dragon Bone Paste, but this time it was within his meridians. It was like shards of glass were flying through it.
But...
His attempt had worked.
Even though it was only for a second, the technique had worked.
[Ding!]
Shen Yuan’s figure turned into a dark murky blur before disappearing from Chang Shi’s sight.
’What?’ The eyes of the Auburn haired boy went wide. ’How did he do it? ’Did he break through mid-battle?’
For a moment he even forgot to perform his own technique.
By the time Shen Yuan appeared, he was on top of the rock he was hanging from before, looking down at Chang Shi, who was falling down, about to pierce through the thick clouds miles above the sea of endless forest.
"So what if you broke through Shen Yuan? you have nowhere to go!" Chang Shi roared as he brought his fist to the level of his waist. "You can only die here with me."
Shen Yuan tried to wrap one of the broken strings to an extended tree branch on the mountain, but the string snapped from the holder, and it fell apart at the right moment.
Down below Chang Shi was done charging his attack. His figure was practically glowing with Qi, singing brightly above the white clouds.
’I have to make it in time or I might loose my chance.’ Shen Yuan pushed his body to the limit and performed the Silent Reaper’s Step once more.
Yet, Chang Shi was faster. The grin on his face flashed like a neon sign saying, "I WON."
"Die—"
MOOOO!
Just then a soul-shaking roar echoed through the valley and the forest.
The clouds below Chang Shi were pierced by a shadow so big that Shen Yuan only saw a huge mouth as big as the Servant district itself open up and swallowed the boy.
One second it was there, and the next, it was not.
Seeing the massive beast made Shen Yuan almost slip from the rock. He could only recall the big jagged mouth of the beast with an array of sword-like teeth arranged all around the edge of its mouth.
Even though he was distracted. Shen Yuan got a hold of himself in time and jumped towards a jagged rock step on the mountain.
He landed swiftly on the step before taking off again.
Shen Yuan raised his head and looked at the second thing he caught when time felt slow in his vision.
It was an opening.
He was only fortunate enough to be the one who saw the opening since he was facing downwards.
If Chang Shi had seen it, who knows what would have happened?
"I have to reach there fast." Shen Yuan was no longer using qi to perform the footwork.
After performing it twice, he had already got enough understanding of the technique, but his body refused to let him use qi to perform again.
So he used his brute strength to move. But that was enough.
The air burrows against his face as Shen Yuan lands on the branch of a tree extended from the mountain. The tree did not look anything special, but the way it did not crack under his weight showed its hidden strength.
Shen Yuan did not pause to admire it.
He took another deep breath and lunged at another tree high up in the air before him.
He barely managed to make it, and then he clasped his hands around the trunk and used the momentum to lunge forward.
Whoosh!
From one step to another and some climbing later, Shen Yuan was finally hanging on the edge of the entrance of the cave.
With a single jump, he pushed himself into the cave, only to realise how horrible that decision was.
What appeared before him was not some old cave that was formed over time, but it was a gap in the mountain moving downwards.
In the hole in the mountain only led to a narrow space which had another hole in the middle. One just big enough to let a single person fall inside with their face down.
And thus it happened.
Before he realised, Shen Yuan was falling again.
This time... within the mountain.
...
