A Chaotic World

Chapter 96: The Astral Way Inscription

With a loud roar, Lu Tianzi drove his Essence energy to the limit as he charged forward to face his seven opponents.

Howling Wraith Sword!

Being targeted by Lu Tianzi, one of his seven opponents halted in his steps even as the other six continued charging forward.

But with Lu Tianzi's movement technique, his speed and manoeuvrability was still far ahead of these Peak Essence Condensation realm opponents.

He easily glided past them, heading straight for the one who had fallen behind.

However, before Lu Tianzi could even reach him, his opponent had already forcefully broken out of the illusion. He raised his weapon and braced for the attack.

Faced with this opponent who had readied his defensive stance, Lu Tianzi was undeterred as he continued charging forward.

Lu Tianzi channelled his Essence energy into the Torrential Sabre, slashing out without hesitation.

To be precise, he was not channelling his Essence energy into the sabre itself.

He was using the Torrential Blade as a medium to channel his Essence energy to the weapon inscription that he had placed on it.

At this moment, the inscription symbol on the Torrential Sabre suddenly glowed with a brilliant azure light. Along with this light, the sabre started emanating a powerful aura, one that far exceeded that of Lu Tianzi!

Weapon inscriptions were able to strengthen a weapon's offensive capability, and that was not restricted to merely raising its hardiness and durability.

The reason why weapon inscriptions were so highly regarded was because of their ability to amplify the weapon users' energy output, allowing them to bring forth a power that was impossible to achieve without aid of the weapon.

At the same time, certain weapon inscriptions were even able to provide the weapon with an inscription skill. These weapon inscriptions were relatively more complex than others, but were extremely highly regarded for their ability to increase the options available to the weapon users during a fight.

The Astral Way Inscription that Lu Tianzi had placed on the Torrential Sabre was exactly a weapon inscription that provided an inscription skill.

The Astral Way Inscription emphasised on communing with the World Origin Energy in the surroundings. By relying on the synchronisation of energy between the weapon user and the surrounding World Origin Energy, it allowed for a strike that could almost double the energy output of the weapon user, providing a sudden burst of power that could overwhelm any ordinary opponent!

However, to active this inscription skill, the energy expended by the user would naturally be extremely high as well. This was the reason why Lu Tianzi had refrained from using this move until now.

But facing his final opponents, Lu Tianzi no longer cared about such minor matters.

This was the last fight.

What would he be saving his energy for, if not for this?

In order to attain victory in this fight, Lu Tianzi had to find a way to take out a few of his opponents as soon as possible!

The World Origin Energy in the chamber gathered, as though having fallen under the command of the Torrential Sabre.

Sabre light flashed. Everything was being gathered for this one sabre slash.

Bang-!

The opponent's guard was completely blown away, exposing an opening that Lu Tianzi would never let past.

With a quick follow up using the Sword of Ivory Rock, Lu Tianzi managed to eliminate one of the seven. But at the same time, Lu Tianzi had expended a large chunk of his Essence energy by relying on the Astral Way Inscription.

Even so, Lu Tianzi was satisfied with the result.

The Astral Way Inscription relied heavily on the density of World Origin Energy in the surroundings, so Lu Tianzi had not been completely certain if it would work well in this strange world within the Grand Mirror.

Thankfully, the density of World Origin Energy was still decent enough for it to display its prowess.

However, with his remaining energy, he could only manage a maximum of two to three more activations of the Astral Way Inscription before running out of Essence energy.

That was far from enough to defeat the remaining six opponents!

Lu Tianzi glided out of the way as a fireball flew past, conjured by one of his opponents.

With a swipe of his hands, a cloud of powder filled the air.

Bone Numbing Powder!

But his opponents were way too fast to react. Their higher cultivation level also enhanced their reflexes, allowing them to easily dodge the poison by sidestepping to either side of the cloud of powder.

Lu Tianzi was not too affected by that though. Even if they really were hit by it, Lu Tianzi doubted that the Bone Numbing Powder would have much of an effect on these Peak Essence Condensation realm opponents.

What Lu Tianzi was aiming for was the moment that they sidestepped the cloud of powder. The six of them splited up to both sides of the cloud, and this was exactly the opening that Lu Tianzi was looking to exploit!

Howling Wraith Sword!

Lu Tianzi immediately locked onto the opponent who was the fastest to arrive, and the Sword of Ivory Rock struck out mercilessly.

Clang-!

Lu Tianzi's eyes widened in shock.

Even this attack of his was parried?!

At this moment, Lu Tianzi hurriedly turned around to block a mace that had been swung out from behind him. He managed to block in time, but this mace attack contained within it traits of the earth element, greatly increasing its momentum.

Lu Tianzi's haphazardly prepared defence was far from enough to mitigate the power behind the strike!

Bang-!

The thunderous collision sent Lu Tianzi flying through the air, slamming into the walls of the chamber!

Pu-!

Lu Tianzi spat out a mouthful of blood and the pain assaulted his mind. With the injury incurred from that exchange, his chances of winning just dropped even further.

Even so, he dared not shift his attention away for a single moment.

Looking up to see his six opponents rushing towards him, Lu Tianzi could only forcefully suppress the pain in his chest and glide out of the way.

If nothing else, at least his superior movement technique was still sufficient to keep him out of danger for the time being. But even so, if he continued flitting around the chamber in such a manner, it would be just a matter of time before he finally ran out of energy.

Lu Tianzi's thoughts raced as he desperately tried to think of a plan.

He had expended far too much energy in the previous battles. Otherwise, he could continue skirting around the fight, relying on his speed and agility to slowly wear down his opponents.

Unfortunately, that was no longer an option.

At this point, Lu Tianzi could only think of one last resort, and it was one that he did not have much confidence in at all.

Back then, the reason why Lu Tianzi managed to place the Astral Way Inscription on the Torrential Sabre despite its high complexity was because Lu Tianzi had already been looking into this particular inscription for a long time.

With the extensive research, Lu Tianzi had gained a thorough understanding of it, and was thus more confident in his chances of success.

Being an inscription that worked on the principle of communing with the World Origin Energy in the surroundings, the Astral Way Inscription bore traits that were extremely similar to his Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

This was what drew Lu Tianzi's attention the moment he came across it.

Lu Tianzi had hoped that by studying the energy mechanics of the inscription, he would either be able to think of a way to improve the effectiveness of the inscription using his proficiency in the cultivation technique, or vice versa.

While he had not been quite successful with either of that, Lu Tianzi managed to uncover a third possibility during his research.

By drawing upon the concept of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, it might actually be possible to cause the Astral Way Inscription to explode with an unprecedented level of strength.

This was nothing like the normal activation of the inscription symbol.

Instead, it promised a might almost ten times that of the usual output.

But in exchange, it would require a huge amount of energy input that far exceeded the norm as well.

With Lu Tianzi's current strength, just a single use of this move would probably completely drain him of everything he had left!

In other words, if he chose to bet on this move, it would be do or die for him.

On top of that, everything was theoretical, and Lu Tianzi had never tried it before.

Not even once.

In fact, even if it really did work as he theorised, Lu Tianzi was not fully confident of being able to control the vast energy output.

Yet at this moment, gambling on such a risky move was the only way that Lu Tianzi could see himself ever winning this fight.

Because of that, he did not take long to make his decision.

Lu Tianzi quickly retreated to a corner of the chamber, facing his opponents head on as he closed his eyes, driving his Spiritual Essence according to the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

He had two seconds, maybe three, to put into practice what he had envisioned in his mind.

At his level, Lu Tianzi was already able to instantly match the flow of his Spiritual Essence to the World Origin Energy around him. After all, that was the very basis of his Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

But this time, he needed to do even more than that.

From the World Origin Energy around him, Lu Tianzi's perception shifted to the Slaughter Essence energy within his inner world as well.

Using his Slaughter Essence energy as a medium, Lu Tianzi activated the Astral Way Inscription, once again rapidly drawing in the World Origin Energy from within the entire chamber.

Using his Spiritual Essence energy as a medium, Lu Tianzi realigned the gathered World Origin Energy, assigning a certain order to them.

Finally, both of his Essence energies slammed together, forcefully compressing the extremely dense cloud of ordered World Origin Energy into the Astral Way Inscription.

For that one single moment, his Spiritual Essence, his Slaughter Essence, and the World Origin Energy around Lu Tianzi all resonated as one.

At that instant, the storm of energy that had been gathered into the sabre calmed completely and dead silence befell the chamber.

But in the very next moment, the compressed energy within the Torrential Sabre burst out with such force that completely exceeded Lu Tianzi's expectations.

Without hesitation, Lu Tianzi drew a beautiful arc in the air as he slashed out towards his six approaching opponents.

A wave of violent energy exploded out from the Torrential Sabre, forming a crescent that rapidly expanded out from the arc that was formed by Lu Tianzi's sabre light.

The magnitude of this force was not as simple as adding up the three forms of energy within the Torrential Sabre.

Using the Astral Way Inscription as a medium, Lu Tianzi had created a form of resonance among the three different sources of energy. This resulted in a phenomenon that caused the pure magnitude of the combined energy to skyrocket exponentially!

This wave of energy contained within it a domineering aura, and even the World Origin Energy in the air seemed to tremble in subservience as it passed!

There was a thunderous boom as even the air itself was forced back upon contact with this domineering power. It was as though it was an attack from the world itself, wielding absolute authority over every element of nature.

While the Howling Wraith Sword was intricate and profound, much of it was attributed to its emphasis on the illusory aspect of the attack.

On the other hand, even though this slash was much cruder in comparison, it contained nothing but pure violent energy, brute forcing its way towards Lu Tianzi's opponents!

Facing such a gargantuan attack, the six Peak Essence Condensation realm opponents immediately drove their Slaughter Essence to the limit, putting up their strongest guard in a bid to resist.

Bang-!

All six of them felt their guards shattering instantly as the wave of energy directly swept past them, as though they were nothing but pebbles in the way of a rushing river.

In a single strike, all six Peak Essence Condensation realm martial artists were eliminated!

At the same time, Lu Tianzi fell to the ground, no longer able to even stand. That last attack had completely sapped away every last bit of his strength.

But even so, Lu Tianzi had a smile on his fac as he watched the six opponents turn into grey smoke.

It actually succeeded!

Not only did the theorised move work in practice, he was even able to control the direction of the attack, leading it to wipe out every single one of his opponents!

In a way, he was also fortunate that all six of them had gathered together instead of spreading out. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to take them out with a single strike.

Lu Tianzi let out a deep breath in relief.

No matter what, he had finally beaten this god damned seven storey pagoda, clearing the Trial of the Fist!

But the very next moment, Lu Tianzi's expression froze.

The grey smoke in the air did not disperse, instead forming back into a figure that stood before him.

This figure looked just like those one hundred and ninety six opponents that Lu Tianzi had beaten throughout the seven storeys of the pagoda. However, the aura about this person was completely different.

In this person's eyes was a vibrant vitality that Lu Tianzi had seen before in quite a few other people.

Sensing the powerful aura that was being freely emanated from this person, Lu Tianzi subconsciously let out a self deprecating laugh.

Wasn't this Trial of the Fist a little too overbearing?

This person standing before him was an Origin Core realm martial artist!

Just how exactly was he supposed to fight such an opponent in his current state?