~~~

Chen Guo does not run or use any sort of movement technique to get closer to Huang Shing. The disciple of the Infinite Mountain Sect merely punches the air in Huang Shing’s direction without launching any sort of projectile.

It is like being hit by a mountain.

Stars explode in Huang Shing’s vision. His body carves a mile-long trench through the forest in the blink of an eye, breaking through countless trees. If not for Huang Shing managing to twist in the air and dig his legs into the ground, he’d have probably kept going. Never in his life has he been struck with so much weight. Compared to Chen Guo, even Brother Hong’s best hits can only be called playful.

That could not have been a casual attack, Huang Shing tells himself. He flares his Qi as his regeneration starts working to mend his body. It might have been more than five years since he last saw him, but Chen Guo could not have possibly grown this much. If he has, everyone has been severely underestimating the Crimson Cloud Tournament.

No, that had to have been a technique of some kind…or something worse.

As Huang Shing contemplates the worst scenario, Chen Guo bursts into view with his fist drawn back. Huang Shing immediately dashes out of the way, his every instinct screaming at him that he cannot be in front of Chen Guo. The instant Chen Guo’s arm finishes its motion, the area in front of him is blown away completely. Huang Shing accelerates his body with Qi and attacks Chen Guo from the side.

[Fourth Dragon Slaying Palm - Blooming Lotus]

His Qi blooms pink like the petals of a lotus as his fist connects directly, unleashing the full force of his attack on Chen Guo.

Someone screams in pain.

It is Huang Shing.

He staggers back, looking at his hand in disbelief.

It is broken.

“Not possible,” he says, instinctively backing away when Chen Guo turns to face him.

This is not an issue of toughness. It is not that Chen Guo’s body had been too durable for him to hurt. It just…

It just felt like he was punching an entire mountain.

Huang Shing sucks in air through his teeth. The slow way in which his hand is healing only confirms his worst suspicions. It isn’t just a technique. Chen Guo can tap into his Dao. At least, Huang Shing hopes he can only tap into it. Otherwise, this fight will be very painful for him.

Still, he smiles.

“I am flattered,” he says, his aura rising around him like green fire. “To think I’d be so young when presented with the chance to topple a whole mountain!”

Chen Guo’s thick eyebrows furrow in his brow.

“There is no need for bravado here,” he says. “No one will think less of you if you’re honest.”

Bravado?

Bravado!

Huang Shing throws his head back and laughs. So stupid. To think he once thought this man was anything like Feng Zhi!

“You really aren’t like him,” Huang Shing says, grinning widely. “If you were, that’d have been meant as a taunt, but you actually mean it, don’t you? You are actually concerned for my pride! That’s so nice I feel guilty for what I did! No wonder I survived last time.”

Mentioning the past makes Chen Guo’s frown grow by a few millimeters. It might not seem like much, but the man is a little like Sister Fan in that the barest shows of emotion imply much.

He must be very angry with him.

“Don’t tell him I said this, but I am a little thankful to that bastard Feng Zhi,” Huang Shing says, lightly bouncing on his feet as he prepares to continue the fight. “I wasn’t doing much in Soaring Cloud City, and I was fine with that. However, he gave me a reason to leave, a motive, a purpose. I encountered pirates, so I fought them. A bear crossed my path, so I killed it. I fought shadows in Night Forest Nation, monsters in the Dead Plains, and a war in the Storm Dragon Empire. No matter what obstacles crossed my path, I overcame them! This is no different!”

“Enough,” Chen Guo says, “I have no time for this.”

He comes at him, and as Huang Shing backs away, he notices that it is not that Chen Guo is moving fast. Rather, the number of steps he has to take to cross the distance between the two is smaller than it should be.

It means that when Chen Guo is directly in front of him and punching, Huang Shing is still fast enough to get out of the way in time. Once again, he is facing Chen Guo’s flank. Once again, his Qi blooms with force. Once again, he strikes.

[Fourth Dragon Slaying Palm - Blooming Lotus]

Three inches.

That is how far Huang Shing’s attack pushes Chen Guo.

It is three inches more than last time.

Chen Guo looks at him, not hurt, but the slight widening of his eyes speaks volumes. He looks down at Huang Shing’s unbroken fist, then at his grinning face, before quickly launching an uppercut that would have taken Huang Shing’s head off had it connected.

“Careful,” Huang Shing says, having jumped back and landed in the branches of the tree. “Those fists of yours are too dangerous.”

“How?”

A simple question, yet there is no mistaking its meaning. Huang Shing’s grin grows.

“You should have let me finish, Young Master,” he says. “I was trying to tell you. Everything that crosses my path, I have overcome. You’re a mountain. No matter how impressive a mountain might be, it’s only an obstacle made to be conquered by man!”

Huang Shing takes a deep breath and tests out his right fist. It is not fully healed, but it will have to do. With both his fists held up, he faces Chen Guo.

“This is no bravado! It is simply my unshakable way of life!”

Chen Guo looks at him in silence for a full second.

“Interesting.”

His Qi rises.

~~~

“Is this it?”

Yi Jiao squints as she kneels down to better look at the object while a vein throbs in Feng Zhi’s forehead. After more than two days, their search for a relic has finally borne fruit.

It is a dagger.

No, calling it dagger makes it sound far more impressive than it actually is. Even calling it a knife is too much.

It is a paper knife.

A paper knife!

The thing is small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. It has a black handle and a dull silver blade only fit to cut paper. Even then, it might have trouble with anything thicker than an eyelash. The “weapon” is not resting on an altar or deep inside some temple. It is just lying on the ground, looking so completely unremarkable that anyone passing by would probably miss it.

In fact, that is what happened to them. They repeatedly walked past this place without noticing the paper knife. Only after several hours of walking in circles–something they only discovered because Feng Zhi burned down a few trees in frustration–did they finally spot the damned thing.

“It does not look that impressive,” Yi Jiao says, poking the handle.

Feng Zhi growls and snatches it, making Yi Jiao cry in surprise.

“This!” Feng Zhi shouts as he raises the paper knife to the skies. “This is supposed to be a relic of the Crimson Cloud?! This is why you made us walk in circles for so long?!”

It is foolish to judge things based solely on their appearance. That is a lesson Feng Zhi received a long time ago, and it is not one he has forgotten about. However, Feng Zhi has seen the other relics obtained by the Eternal Flame Clan. Every single one of them inspires such awe that it is impossible to mistake them for anything resembling ordinary.

Feng Zhi feels no such thing coming from this knife. There is no special aura, no energy within the weapon. It is just a small, dull blade.

And yet, something about it tells him it is a relic.

“How ridiculous,” he says, looking down at the knife. “Feng Zhuo was surely wrong.”

“Was he?” Yi Jiao asks him, using Qi to speak to him. “The Crimson Cloud did find you a relic. In fact, it made it impossible for us to miss it with how many times it made us walk past this place. You can’t deny it.”

“It is taunting me,” Feng Zhi says while thinking of how he is supposed to present this to his father.

“You asked for a relic. You got one,” Yi Jiao points out.

Feng Zhi is about to fire a reply, but he manages to hold back and takes a deep breath.

“You… you are right,” he says, also using Qi to speak. “In that case, it is not a situation where I can order the Crimson Cloud. I can only… influence.”

"Communicate," Yi Jiao says. "That sounds more accurate. You are not ordering. You are asking, and the Crimson Cloud decided to grant your request on its own terms."

Feng Zhi holds up the paper knife between his fingers and looks at Yi Jiao with a dead stare.

"Well, do you like being ordered around?" she counters, blushing a little.

"No, I suppose not," He says, storing the knife in his spatial ring. "Let's go. There is still time until the second stage ends. With any luck, we might convince the Crimson Cloud to lead us to other relics."

He starts walking. Yi Jiao chuckles softly as she follows after him.

"What is it?" He asks, looking at her curiously.

"Nothing much," Yi Jiao says in a way that makes him believe it is absolutely something much. "It's just been some time since I've seen you frustrated like this."

He raises an eyebrow. "And this is something you're happy about?"

"Not like that!" Yi Jiao says, playfully bumping her shoulder against his. "It's just… You have felt so resigned to everything lately that I'm glad you haven't lost your drive."

Ah, so it is this.

"Accepting myself and giving up are not the same thing, though everyone would think so," Feng Zhi says as he keeps walking. "If you do not accept yourself, you become blind to your possibilities."

"We'll all surpass you if you aren't careful."

"Make no mistake, I will reach the summit."

~~~

Pan Qiu is content in the depths.

It wasn't always the case. When he first hid in the lower levels of the Apothecary, he was nervous and jittery for weeks. However, Pan Qiu learned to find comfort in the dark, narrow passages and mysterious doors. The darkness might be full of unknowns, and those unknowns might be dangerous, but what does that matter when the light is equally full of dangers?

At least in the darkness, the dangers will need more time to find him.

Pan Qiu senses two presences on the surface getting closer to his position. One of them is Huang Shing. The other one is an unknown, but it is strong. Extremely strong. A braver, more caring person would jump out of hiding to help Huang Shing, but Pan Qiu feels no such inclination.

The two are moving at very high speeds, and the earth rumbles with their presence. Behemoths like that will never stop to notice ants. So long as he keeps his Qi as low as possible, they will pass him over.

The sun shines down on him.

Pan Qiu blinks. It takes him a moment to understand what he is seeing. He was certain there was a giant tree and several yards of earth separating him from the surface, yet now, he can see the crimson sky above his head.

There is no tree anymore.

Someone ripped out the tree.

"Brother Pan Qiu!" Huang Shing happily while in the middle of the air. "What a surprise! Were you searching for a relic down there?"

"Don't talk to me!" Pan Qiu shouts, jumping out of his hiding hole. With his cover gone, staying there only makes him an easy target. "Damnation! Why did you have to come here?!"

"Oh? There's another one?" the man that Huang Shing is fighting asks. Pan Qiu's heart drops when he sees what he is holding in his hand.

The tree.

He is holding the gigantic tree with only one hand.

Pan Qiu immediately understands the sight before him is not possible. No matter how strong this man might be, the tree is simply too large for him to gain any sort of leverage just from grabbing such a small part of it. The weight of the tree should be so much that the root should break off.

And yet, he lifts it.

And yet, he swings it.

Hundreds of trees are blown away. An entire area of the forest is wiped out in an instant. Huang Shing laughs while Pan Qiu barely manages to jump out of the way in time and starts dashing at his fastest speed.

"What did you do?!" Pan Qiu yells at Huang Shing as he runs away. He looks back, and a high-pitched scream leaves his mouth when he sees the man chasing after them with the gigantic tree in his hand. "Who did you challenge?!"

"He's Chen Guo from the Infinite Mountain Sect!" Huang Shing replies as he easily keeps pace with him.

"Chen?!" Pan Qiu's eyes become as wide as dinner plates. He recognizes the name. How could he not? The Chen clan is one of the strongest within the Infinite Mountain Sect. According to some rumors, it is the Clan from where-

Chen Guo swings the tree once more.

The tree is too big. Chen Guo is too close. There is no outspeeding this swing. Huang Shing and Pan Qiu look at each other, one with anticipation, the other in resignation. Nevertheless, they understand what must be done.

Huang Shing turns around and buries both his legs into the ground with his fists pulled pack.

[Sixth Dragon Slaying Palm - Endless Bloom]

Huang Shing's arms disappear.

A myriad of pink explosions follow. There are so many of them, and they happen so quickly that the sound they make is like one continuous boom. The gigantic tree breaks and shatters as Huang Shing's attacks strike by the thousands. Even so, the sheer mass of the thing is such that large chunks of it still fly towards them.

Pan Qiu strikes next.

[Empyrean Flame]

Blue flames like the feathers of a peacock emerge from his fist, burning the remaining pieces of the tree to cinders. His and Huang Shing's combined attack destroys the entire thing in an instant and rushes at Chen Guo, enveloping him in pink and blue smoke.

Pan Qiu pants and rests his hands on his knees. Huang Shing stands with an eager grin on his face.

"Impressive."

Pan Qiu flinches. He knew that attack had not done enough. Even so, the sight of Chen Guo calmly walking out of the smoke with only his robes damaged is unnerving.

His brown eyes become grey like stone.

"Very impressive."

~~~