Section Five: The Indomitable Will

He howled in grief and frustration, yet stubbornly refused to shed tears.

All those who pursued the power of the Divine Soul believed in the past of the Divine Soul clan, a history that to others seemed like a myth. They soared freely across the sky, greeting each other with a smile and the phrase “Undying Soul” as they passed, with never a thought of conflict, advancing ceaselessly along the path of spiritual will, striving with all their might toward the mysterious, boundless stars.

He believed in this, even if he did not trust the ways of the Divine Soul Sect. Yet he believed in the dream of the divine will.

Thus, he understood at last why he could not let go of the rope in his hand.

“I, Bu Jingxian, have not even set foot on the threshold of the power of Divine Soul Will. I refuse to die like this, I refuse to die like this!”

His heart screamed in defiance.

“Ah...”

He drove his sword and hand together into the cliff face, heedless of everything; with all his strength, he pressed his feet and body against the rock, keeping himself as close to the stone as possible. He did not want to die, and so he regained his composure. He would not necessarily die—he had nearly fallen to his death once before, when saving Princess Tianlai, but had survived.

Pain and the fierce tumult in his chest forced a cry from his lips. His fall slowed, slower and slower, until at last he stopped. When he looked upward, he could no longer see where his trail of blood along the cliff began.

His left hand was numb, devoid of sensation, but when he tested it, it still moved. Amazingly, his bones had not broken from the force, nor had his muscles been scraped away to expose bare bone.

Bu Jingxian lowered his gaze to the chasm below; its depths were still lost to darkness. But he was not afraid. As long as he had not died in the fall, as long as he was still alive, there remained hope that he might reach the bottom safely.

At the bridgehead, an officer of the Black Wolf Army gazed solemnly into the abyss and saluted. “The undying warriors of the Divine Soul are truly worthy of their name.” On the other side, at the edge of the cliff, Zheng Linran looked into the depths with contempt, thinking to herself, “The people of the Divine Soul Sect are all madmen, ready to throw their lives away for those empty, deceitful tales—even beggars like him are no exception.”

As Zheng Linran’s fine steed tossed its head and looked back, a heavy sadness suddenly appeared on her face, though she struggled desperately to suppress it. Two more fine steeds leaped up the path behind her, halting with shrill cries. Qiyue, having failed to spot Bu Jingxian’s figure, was already uneasy, her limbs trembling as she edged closer to Zheng Linran and asked in a soft voice, “Sect Master, where is Brother Bu?”

“He fell! He fell!” Zheng Linran could no longer contain her grief and burst out, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He destroyed the bridge and perished with the enemy! He left me behind to die with the enemy—he left me behind to die with the enemy!”

Qiyue was thunderstruck, frozen in place, a single thought echoing endlessly in her mind: “Bu Jingxian is dead, Bu Jingxian is dead...”

Qiuye, who had little concern for Bu Jingxian, busied herself observing the enemy’s position across the chasm. She saw the destroyed suspension bridge, noticed that the end of one rope was cut cleanly—unlike the other frayed ropes—and that there were bloodstains on the cliff where it hung, clearly from someone struggling for life before their fall, the stains like those left by a grievous wound. She surmised that Bu Jingxian had clung to the rope, only to have some Black Wolf soldier cut it, severing his last hope.

As she considered this, Qiuye suddenly noticed that the Black Wolf soldiers across the way all wielded spears and heavy blades, yet the marks on the cliff behind the severed rope had been made by a slender, light sword—a detail that aroused her suspicion.

“Qiyue!”

At that moment, Qiuye heard Zheng Linran cry out. Turning around, she was taken aback by what she saw.

“Qiyue—” Zheng Linran called again, her voice weak and her steps involuntarily retreating. Qiyue’s body seemed wracked by uncontrollable tremors; the whites of her eyes stained red, quickly becoming entirely bloodshot, so that the distinction between iris and sclera vanished. The aura of a Sovereign of the Ten Directions radiated wildly from her, swirling about her and making her robes and hair billow and fly.

“Ah—I’ll kill you all!” Qiyue suddenly let out a furious, explosive roar, her expression twisted in savagery—a stark contrast to her usual gentle, smiling demeanor—so much so that Zheng Linran and Qiuye found it hard to accept.

Her internal force gathered, then erupted from her feet in an instant. Using the celestial step technique, she shot out over the cliff like a bolt of lightning. Qiuye had not expected her to employ such a formidable combat skill, but she immediately launched herself in pursuit, reaching out for Qiyue’s shoulder and calling, “Qi—”

But before she could finish the word, Qiyue spun in midair and thrust both palms forward like lightning. Qiuye, caught off guard, hastily gathered her strength to meet the attack; their palms collided, and a burst of golden light exploded as their powerful energies clashed.

Qiuye’s forward momentum was abruptly reversed, sending her hurtling back to crash against the cliff, shattering stone in a radius of several yards. Dust covered her hair and clothes; had it been any other sect member who left her so battered, Qiuye would have been furious. But because it was Qiyue—because she cared for her, and knew she had lost her senses—Qiuye forced herself to suppress her anger.

“Qiyue—calm down!” she called out, once again using the celestial step to speed after Qiyue like an arrow.

Driven by the force of the palm exchange, the frenzied Qiyue soared over the treacherous gorge, only stopping when she was directly above the massed Black Wolf Army. Her long sleeves swept out as she spun thrice in midair, unleashing a devastating Celestial Dustfall Palm toward the ground.

Some of the quicker Black Wolf soldiers had already drawn their bows and fired, but her speed was too great—all their arrows missed. As Qiyue plummeted, her descent accelerated, and by the time the soldiers below raised their weapons to strike, it was already too late.

Within a ten-yard radius, the Black Wolf soldiers’ bodies and faces twisted grotesquely under the surging golden energy; in an instant, all life left them. Eyes bulged, mouths gaped, limbs splayed at unnatural angles—they fell, one atop another, a heap of corpses.

Qiuye, who had reached the cliff, was inwardly shocked by what she saw. She could hardly believe that Qiyue, with her current cultivation, could unleash such overwhelming force with the Celestial Dustfall Palm. Seeing Qiyue, tears streaming down her face, alternately laughing and weeping in wild madness, she was all the more certain that her junior sister had lost all reason—and so she simply stood where she was, watching events unfold.

By this time, Zheng Linran had also leapt over, landing beside Qiuye. Her eyes glittered with gold as she stared at Qiyue for a moment, then gasped in a low voice, “Absolute combat power: twenty-eight thousand three hundred! And still rising rapidly... Elder Qiuye, could it be that my Divine Eye technique is flawed?”

The Divine Eye was a mystical art bestowed upon Zheng Feixian by the Elder North Spirit in years past. Some disciples of the Feixian Sect had also received it. The usually proud and self-assured Zheng Feixian had gladly adopted its original name, and had told her disciples plainly that the ability was a gift from the Elder North Spirit. Its value in battle was immense: before even engaging an opponent, one could gauge their combat prowess, their strengths and weaknesses, making it possible to know both oneself and the enemy, and win countless battles.

An untrained ordinary person’s absolute combat power typically peaked at 800, or, with special talent, as high as 2000. Such individuals, even without martial training, could take on ten or twenty foes in battle—the so-called “ten-man enemy,” a level recognized by all. Most ordinary warriors and those with poor cultivation fell within this range.

With training, those who achieved a combat power of 5000 could stand against a hundred men—the “hundred-man enemy.” Most cultivators’ power ranged between 5000 and 20,000.

Exceeding 20,000 marked the “thousand-man enemy,” renowned experts who could dominate a region.

Surpassing 50,000 meant a “ten-thousand-man enemy”—one whose fame and might inspired awe and terror wherever they went.

Those above 150,000 were peerless masters, legends whose names would echo for generations, even centuries.

These conclusions had been recorded and refined by Elder North Spirit across a lifetime of encounters. After the Divine Eye passed into the Feixian Sect, Zheng Feixian had further verified them by gathering data from across the sect, confirming their accuracy. Combat power measured one’s maximum strength in a short span; while a higher number did not always guarantee victory, those with low power could never endure prolonged battle.

By Zheng Linran’s standards, her physical strength had reached 550, as had her internal force (her refined inner body doubling her internal value to 1100), with a natural divinity of ten, and native spiritual attribute of one. Having cultivated the Sovereign of the Ten Directions to the ninth level, each level added one to her spirit; thus, she possessed a total of six spirit. Her combat power was 3300, and her absolute combat power was 19,800.

For her age, this was already outstanding. The cultivation path of the Ten Directions Sovereign, refined by countless predecessors, ensured that anyone with talent or patience would one day reach this level. Advancing to the “thousand-man enemy” rank was easy; with diligence, becoming a “ten-thousand-man enemy” in her lifetime was almost certain.

Qiyue’s refined body was even more suited to mastering the various skills of the Ten Directions Sovereign—something Zheng Linran had long known. Yet in terms of combat power, she had always surpassed Qiyue. Now, seeing Qiyue’s power leap so far beyond her own, she found it utterly unbelievable.