Chapter 321: Three Breaths

Chapter 321: Three Breaths

“Chen Qisheng, you bastard, you’re still alive?”

The response from Ma Wangye plunged the communication into a brief, deathly silence.

It was easy to imagine that Chen Qisheng’s silence at this moment was deafening.

“Thanks to Ma Wangye’s blessing, I’m dying soon. But I suppose you’re not far behind, are you?”

Chen Qisheng’s reply carried an unprecedented solemnity, his voice a grim chuckle. “Enough talk. When we meet below, we’ll have all the time in the world to settle this.”

“Old Li!”

He suddenly addressed Li Jun, his tone grave. “I ask you this—do you believe me?”

Li Jun’s gaze locked onto the towering, menacing figure before him, his voice sharp and resolute. “Speak!”

“From this moment on, three breaths hence, when thunder strikes, we shall part life and death!”

Li Jun had no time to ponder the meaning. Before Chen Qisheng’s words faded, the wasteland’s summer tiger, Huang ShiXia Hu, suddenly stomped down hard, his form accelerating as he tore through the howling wind and snow, charging forward!

First breath.

The ferocious Yellow Heaven Fist shattered Li Jun’s defensive stance. Huang ShiXia Hu seized the opening, his knee slamming into Li Jun’s abdomen.

“Fuck!”

Ma Wangye let out an odd cry, swiftly summoning the armor plates around his torso to silently stack at the point where his opponent’s knee would land.

Bang!

Even with the effect of “cutting through tendons and meridians,” Li Jun couldn’t suppress a pained groan. Within him, the Su Meng inner energy surged through his bloodstream at breakneck speed, extracting more vitality from his flesh and blood to hasten his recovery and sustain his life.

Huang ShiXia Hu’s grin grew wilder. As Li Jun’s figure flew backward, the torrent of Yellow Heaven inner force surged to his fists, unleashing a barrage of punches like a storm of rain.

Li Jun poured all his strength into shielding his vital points, barely managing to breathe amid the relentless assault.

A searing pain hammered his bones, yet it stirred no cowardice or fear—only a trickle of ferocity, accumulating like a tide in his heart.

The cold wind howled, the snow raged.

Time seemed stretched by invisible hands, each second dragging on endlessly.

“Second breath.” Ma Wangye’s voice was weak, almost ethereal.

The extensive damage to his armor had destabilized his core, threatening to plunge him into malfunction.

Bang!

Li Jun was struck again, his overlapping arms trembling, his form now a picture of utter exhaustion.

“This game has gone on long enough.”

Huang ShiXia Hu sneered at Li Jun’s pallid face and dull eyes. “Looks like you’re just a failed experiment of the Martial Sequence’s genes.”

“Enough talk. It’s time to end this.”

Li Jun’s lips parted, revealing a flash of blood-red teeth, a plume of white-hot breath escaping his mouth.

“Defeated cur, still dare—”

Before Huang ShiXia Hu’s mocking words could land, a sudden change erupted!

The dragon-tiger energy he’d exhaled surged back into Li Jun’s nose and mouth with startling speed. His withered, shrunken form swelled again, this time expanding beyond any previous surge—towering even over Huang ShiXia Hu.

His feet planted wide, his curved spine arched like a drawn bow at full moon, unleashed in an instant!

The remaining strength within Li Jun erupted. In this desperate moment, he chose to strike first!

A cornered beast’s fight, a death-defying resolve.

Huang ShiXia Hu’s expression hardened—he hadn’t expected Li Jun to still have strength. Yet shock gave way to no intention of dodging.

To him, it was merely a dying man’s final radiance.

“Stronger by a fraction, stronger for eternity. How many times must I teach you this lesson before you understand?!”

A summer tiger bristling with malice roared in the snow, his hair standing on end, his demeanor wild as he met Li Jun’s charge with a thunderous punch!

Fist against fist, bone against bone.

No evasion, no retreat.

Two colossal figures clashed, their unleashed force cracking the station’s hard ground, their savage aura boiling skyward!

Thud!

In a sound as dull as death, Li Jun and Huang ShiXia Hu’s fists struck each other’s chests, sending them flying.

Perhaps coincidence, but more like fate, eager to witness how much bloodier this battle would grow.

Li Jun and Huang ShiXia Hu both fell beside their weapons.

The tiger-headed spear sank into winter snow, the embroidered spring blade cleaving the cold wind.

The warrior’s arm reached for the spear, his left fist smashing his chest as he roared skyward.

“Yellow Heaven!” The two words tore through gold and stone, their majesty unparalleled!

The right hand gripped the blade’s hilt, wrist trembling as the embroidered spring blade unleashed its song.

“Old Li, time’s up!”

Three breaths had passed. The ink-armor’s core emitted its final mechanical tone, its lone eye flaring red once more!

“Then let us part life and death!”

Li Jun’s face was grim. He stepped forward, dragging his blade in a wild sprint, leaping as Huang ShiXia Hu neared, cleaving downward with both hands.

The long-silent battle hymn suddenly exploded!

Amidst rousing drumbeats and solemn zither notes, the suona horn soared beyond reach, piercing the heavens!

“Yellow Heaven endures!”

Huang ShiXia Hu’s aura was unyielding. His long spear danced like a ferocious dragon, hurtling forth!

Boom!

As blade and spear were about to meet, a thunderous roar split the black clouds!

The raging wind and snow stilled. A blinding light, like divine punishment, tore through the lingering clouds, striking down from the sky to illuminate the blood-soaked, corpse-littered path.

Crack!

The embroidered spring blade, guided by lightning, fell with unstoppable force, severing Huang ShiXia Hu’s spear mid-shaft!

The residual blade light drags the lightning onward, plummeting from his shoulder, its momentum like a charging army, until it bursts forth from his abdomen.

In this moment, the so-called Yellow Emperor’s physical form is as fragile as paper-mâché.

Pfft!

The shattered remains are hurled into the air, only to be pierced by the swiftly following Spring Embroidery Blade.

Li Jun, his body crackling with electric arcs, now holds the ruined form of the World-Shattered Summer Tiger upon his blade’s tip, as though lifting a tattered banner of flesh and blood.

The latter’s head lolls backward, its lifeless pupils staring blankly at the heavens above.

There, where clouds once piled layer upon layer to veil the stars and moon, a colossal vortex now churns.

In this cloudless void, a star from the Seven Mansions of the Black Tortoise slowly draws its radiance inward, retreating into darkness once more.

Clang!

The long blade twists, rending the remaining flesh entirely.

[Acquired 200 mastery points]

[Remaining mastery points: 324]

A line of black text dissolves before his eyes, fading like wind and snow.

Beside the Black Unicorn carriage, Chen Qisheng gazes at the clouds slowly closing overhead and lets out a cold laugh.

“The Yellow Emperor reigns above—can he rival the Patriarch of the Dao above?”

Before him, Fan Wujiu stands amidst a scatter of incomplete corpses, still clutching a blood-dripping head.

There is another chapter, slightly delayed.