Chapter 502: The Terrifying Younger Generation

(The fourth arc is ending this week, so one day will have a different post.)

Wan Fei had always wondered who would come out on top, if he actually fought the matriarch of the Dark Crown sect. Her lightning technique was formidable, but required significant time to prepare in its strongest form. He ended up singed and aching, but his Physique had carried him through the day until she lay broken at his feet. It should have been a great victory.

Instead, he stared out from the city and wondered if he had signed the death warrant of his own sect.

Impossible as it seemed, his young allies had actually broken the Brightwind patriarch in his Transcendent Brightwind Visage form. Yet they had failed to kill him, and now one of the most powerful patriarchs on the continent was recovering. If he did survive, he would enact terrible vengeance on everyone who had stood against him, likely down to slaughtering the entire Deepriver sect.

There was nothing Wan Fei could do, not anymore. His own battle had drained his reserves and carried him to one of the undamaged portions of the city, too far away to assist even if he was fresh.

When Zae Clen Ban rose again, he fought alone with terrible ferocity. Only one opposed him: Zae Zin Nim, his own daughter. Once Wan Fei would have been disgusted by her turning her hand against her own flesh and blood, but now he wondered just how poorly the patriarch had failed his own duties as a father.

Seeing the two of them whirling together, exchanging technique after technique, was truly remarkable. The young woman fought with the skill and refinement of a cultivator many years her senior, nearly keeping up with an immortal's skills. Her darkened skin, which had been so strange to him, now seemed to glow with a power unlike anything he had ever seen before, a Physique greater than his own.

In the end, she actually forced her father back: Zae Clen Ban rose into the sky and began to form the Transcendent Brightwind Visage again. Zae Zin Nim didn't give him enough time, bracing her feet on a surviving remnant of the Brightwind ship and flying it up to attack before he could fully prepare.

The two collided, and one great arm exploded, but the patriarch was truly desperate. Draining his own cultivation base, he managed to finish the technique in his other hand. Once more, a terrible palm descended from the heavens, but this time he wasn't trying to destroy a city, only a single young woman.

Zae Zin Nim set her feet, narrowed her eyes, and copied his gestures. When her palms touched and slid apart, they glowed with not wind, but blue fire. She faced the vast cloud form and thrust her own palm skyward, lighting up a great palm of flame.

Immense hands clashed overhead, one blue and one white, and strained against one another. Unlike many qi techniques, these remained intact as both cultivators poured their qi into their palm techniques and tried to overwhelm the other. Wan Fei stared in awe as it became a contest of pure willpower and neither was willing to give way.

Gradually the patriarch's superior strength, and willingness to burn his long term potential, began to overcome. The heavenly palm lowered, grinding down and producing such a rushing wind that it was almost impossible to see Zae Zin Nim. She was using the piece of the ship to anchor herself, but Brightwind corpses were blown over the sides as the palm descended on her.

Just when it seemed like she would be crushed, the blue flames blazed with new strength. As the palm rose again, pushing the white technique back, even the heavenly visage of Zae Clen Ban appeared to be shocked. Inch by inch, he was losing ground.

As the winds dissipated underneath, Zae Zin Nim could be seen below, palm still raised to the heavens... and there were two people at her side. A large man and a slender woman, each gripping her arm. They slumped against her as if they were half-dead, clearly pouring all their strength into the technique, but their combined might pushed the palm upward.

"This is absurd..." Zae Clen Ban spoke with a voice like thunder, yet he sounded uncertain. "You cannot... rely on..."

"I can." Zae Zin Nim said nothing else, only continued her struggle.

Just when it seemed like the blue flames might consume the heavens, the Brightwind patriarch paid a terrible price. Striking into his own dantian, he drew up some of his own immortal blood, permanently reducing his strength and immortality for the sake of a single moment of overwhelming power.

Even the united technique could not stand against that. The heavens thundered down, crushing the blue flames and slamming into the earth.

The impact dissipated the clouds, destroying the great white arm as well. As they faded, it was clear that the Brightwind ship had been utterly crushed, and the young woman with it... a feeble blue flame flickered in the wreckage around her body. Her technique had protected her, but she had almost nothing left, while the clouds overhead still glowed brightly.

Two corpses lay scorched beside her.

"It is finished!" Zae Clen Ban announced triumphantly. "Now you perish along with them!"

Almost all eyes were on him as he drew back his massive hand, but Wan Fei instead looked to the wreckage. He noticed that the two smoking bodies lying beside Zae Zin Nim were wearing Brightwind robes.

Suddenly a dark beast leapt onto the patriarch's arm. It opened a terrible maw that seemed to contain the abyss itself and began to absorb the clouds, draining their light. Wan Fei realized with shock that it was Kai... he had begun weakened, but as he consumed the clouds, his strength seemed to restore itself.

Roaring in alarm, Zae Clen Ban struck out at the monster with his other arm - and froze. The clouds began to dissipate and Wan Fei saw with shock that there were several needles piercing the patriarch's chest. It was the blue-haired woman, slicing through the clouds to strike him with something else. Zen Clae Ban knocked her aside, but his blows were no longer so overwhelming. On his next strike, Kai intercepted him from behind, grabbing his arm and sinking his teeth into his flesh. Omilaena thrust her strange weapon into his chest and forced even more poison into his body.

Without warning the false immortality in his body went wild, burning and trying to take down his true immortality with it. The patriarch's flesh, which should have been inviolable, twisted wildly, barely holding itself together.

Even then the patriarch refused to admit defeat, burning ever more of his own soul to try to fight them. But his power was waning, and more importantly... the three were united again. Zae Zin Nim rose into the air, unsteadily at first, and joined them in the assault. All three attacked with unspoken coordination, fighting together with a level of trust and discipline that left Wan Fei speechless.

In the end one of his arms had been bitten off and he had many more needles studding his body. He hung limply in the sky, staring at the young woman who floated in front of him.

"They weren't with... then how did you?" For the first time he seemed to ignore all the others, just staring at his daughter.

"That was just me," Zae Zin Nim said. "I'm not afraid of you anymore."

Then her palm struck Zae Clen Ban's chest and qi rang out with the sound of the clearest bell. Every survivor in Floodisle City watched as the patriarch of the great Brightwind sect fell to earth.