Chapter 200: Five Elements and Four Winds (Part 2)

Chapter 200: Five Elements and Four Winds (Part 2)

“Woah… the ocean!”

Shanyu stepped off the bus, hiking his bundle higher on his shoulder. His grey, rough-spun clothes, clumsy-looking coat, and the worst hair ever seen made everyone think he was a country bumpkin newly arrived in the city to scrape together a living. Nobody could imagine this bumpkin had nearly brought the entire Special Affairs Division crashing down by himself just a day before.

“Big brother, big brother.” Shanyu walked a few steps and tugged at a nearby worker busy with his own load. “Could you tell me where I can mail a letter? I need to send photos back to Xiaocui!”

Though the Talisman Sect was hidden deep within the endless mountains, the pranksters led by Shanyu often slipped into the towns nearby. Naturally, they knew about photographs and even postcards. Shanyu even had a sort-of girlfriend named Xiaocui in town. But because his origins were murky and he had no steady income, Xiaocui’s father had long since promised her to someone else. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t even come of age; on that frontier town’s outskirts, age was just a number.

Back then, that news crushed Shanyu. Even now, years later, whenever he found something good, he’d remember to save a piece for that Xiaocui from his memories. Only, Xiaocui had long since followed her husband into the city for work.

“Straight ahead, turn left. There’s a post office.”

“Alright! Thanks, big brother!”

Shanyu grinned happily, untying his bundle. He took out the instant photos he’d snapped in the city over the last couple of days. He ran his fingertips over them softly, murmuring to himself, “Xiaocui… I promised I’d show you the ocean.”

But just as he clutched the photos, walking near a pile of steel slabs, the corner of his eye caught sight of someone. The moment their gazes met, both froze. Instantly, Shanyu stuffed the photos back inside his coat, eyes sharp and wary on the man perched atop the steel frame. His feet shifted forward slowly, but his posture screamed alertness and defense.

The idiot sitting on the frame was none other than the advanced member of the Special Cases Division – Qi Siyuan. Seeing Shanyu, his heart skipped a beat too. That single glance told him this total hick definitely wasn’t simple.

“Wait a moment.”

Siyuan’s voice suddenly cut through the air as Shanyu was about to move on. He clumsily scrambled down from the frame, landing behind Shanyu.

“Who are you?” Shanyu didn’t turn around, but his voice turned chilly. “What do you want?”

Siyuan chuckled. “Your name’s Shanyu?”

“Oh?” Shanyu turned, giving Siyuan a slow, appraising look before letting out a scornful laugh. “You’re with those Special Affairs Division clowns from yesterday, aren’t you?”

“Kinda,” Siyuan admitted, gaze locked with his. “You’re coming with me.”

“What, think your pals didn’t get enough of a lesson yesterday?”

Youth naturally carried its own arrogance, and Siyuan usually wouldn’t begrudge that attitude in an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old kid. He’d probably just chuckle and move on. But today was different. Whatever Shanyu’s reasons, his actions and methods had trampled on everything Siyuan stood for, everything he protected.

“I’m curious to see what kind of lesson you’ll actually give me,” Siyuan retorted.

Suddenly, Siyuan seemed transformed. No trace of humility or meekness remained. He even came off as more brashly confident than Shanyu himself.

Shanyu snorted dismissively and jabbed two fingers straight towards Siyuan’s lower back – the angle tricky, speed incredible. Siyuan, however, was prepared. He sidestepped smoothly away from the swift finger thrust. His own palm came up lightning-fast, the back of his hand slamming square into Shanyu’s chest.

The motion looked almost lazy, but the force behind it was immense. The power of the Mountain Goblin was nothing to joke about. Caught off-guard, Shanyu flew backward from that single palm strike. He crashed heavily into a mound of gravel and rubble before skidding to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“Hah! Ha! Ha! Good!” Soon after, Shanyu pushed himself up, rubbing his chest with a few loud laughs of approval, “Never expected that bunch of useless bozos calling themselves the Special Affairs Division actually hides a skilled fighter!”

“Thanks for the compliment,” Siyuan replied coolly, his left hand opening. Flames of Demonic Fire surged up from his palm. “You can still give up peacefully now.”

“You arrogant fool!”

Shanyu just smirked. He glanced around. “Dare to follow me?”

“Why not?”

The moment the words left Siyuan’s mouth, Shanyu bent his legs and exploded upwards. In a flash, he was several hundred yards away. Not to be outdone, Siyuan touched a finger to his forehead. His figure vanished instantly, reappearing impossibly close, right behind Shanyu.

“Not bad,” Shanyu’s voice taunted, echoing strangely fast. “Worry that you’ll be crying for your mommy later.”

“We’ll see what you’ve got,” Siyuan shot back.

The two became shifting blurs, phantoms of incredible speed. Rocks, steel, the churning sea itself – nothing slowed them down. Their constant vanishing and reappearing left trails of confused silence in their wake.

Who knew how long they ran? Only when a small, untouched island appeared far offshore, roughly a hundred miles from the coast, did they finally stop.

It was desolate, wild. Hard rock covered in slippery moss. A few seagulls perched here and there, heads cocked, watching the two strange intruders with curious, beady eyes.

“Don’t you disappoint me,” Shanyu warned, turning around. A brush had appeared in his hand, twirling almost like a living thing. He pointed it deliberately towards Siyuan.

“I was about to say the same to you,” Siyuan countered calmly.

Shanyu threw his head back and laughed. He glanced left and right, then swiftly painted two strokes onto his own palm with the brush. “Talismanic Arts: Inner Vision!”

As the Spellcraft took effect, Shanyu’s eyes became suddenly, unnaturally transparent. Swirling, misty light glowed within them, transforming his eyes into something both strikingly eerie and strangely beautiful.

Siyuan’s sharp focus instantly recognized it as an Arcane Art designed to sharpen the Six Senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and consciousness. While he might not have a spell exactly like that… he had something better. His Heavenly Eye.

Slowly, deliberately, a vertical seam opened on Siyuan’s forehead. A third eye, radiating unnatural power, emerged and widened. The moment it opened, Shanyu’s expression shifted to obvious surprise, though not shock. He flipped his hand over, chuckling quietly to himself. “Well now… interesting. Very interesting.”

Siyuan ignored the mutter. His foot tapped the stony ground lightly. Instantly, chunks of rock – big and small, jagged and round – all hurled themselves into the air around him. Like a hailstorm made of boulders, the avalanche of stone raged violently toward Shanyu.

“Talismanic Arts: Shield!” Shanyu reacted immediately.

His brush flowed again. Golden Runes, ancient and dense, sparked into fiery life around his entire body. They wove together into a seemingly impenetrable barrier. The solid rocks crashed against it like fists pounding a massive drum – dull, thunderous booms echoed. Not one rock managed to crack the glowing wall of power.

Seeing this shield flare up so perfectly formed, Siyuan felt a grudging appreciation despite himself. The kid has real talent. To organize such strong defense instantly… few people could manage that. This wasn’t some beginner.

When Siyuan’s rock barrage finally ended, the entire little island was buried under an incredibly thick, chokingly dense fog of pulverized stone. Visibility dropped to almost nothing beyond five feet.

Yet this near blindness barely hindered either fighter. Both had pushed their sensory capabilities to the absolute limit. They could pick up the minuscule pulse of a sea slug crawling hundreds of feet away, or the solitary bloop of a fish breaking the surface a mile offshore.

But then… Siyuan’s senses shuddered. Warped. While intently searching for Shanyu through the blinding dust cloud, he heard… nothing. Saw… nothing. He couldn’t feel the ground beneath his feet, smell the salt, anything.

Assuming Shanyu was scrambling his senses, he mentally braced. He stretched his mental skill, searching harder. Little did he know, Shanyu experienced the exact same baffling sensory blackout! Shanyu just thought it must be Siyuan’s doing.

This accidental timing created mutual confusion… and simultaneous, grudging admiration. Both mentally gave the other a point, assuming the opponent had pulled off this strategy brilliantly.

Now stripped of their enhanced Six Senses, Siyuan’s tactics shifted entirely to defense. He knelt fast. One hand slammed against the bare rock, fingers carving sharp, glowing symbols for a Formation Array. His other hand instinctively reached into his jacket pocket, fingers closing around his precious Myriad Spirit Cards. No hesitation flickered in his calm gaze.

He wasn’t the cautious novice relying purely on the card’s instruction manual anymore. Summoning was like playing a high-stakes strategy card game now. He had to calculate: the initial monster’s attributes, potential counters his opponent might pull, the synergistic order of monsters called forth based on elemental compatibility. Calling weak monsters back then was usually because their traits clashed, locking away their full potential. Learning the interplay between them was a crucial art.

“Fengsheng Beast!” His voice cut the gritty air.

The Fengsheng Beast was the first yao Siyuan had ever summoned, nearly bleeding him dry of energy back then. Now, he pulled it forth with mere thought, no strain at all. It wasn’t a powerhouse brawler, true. But it had one utterly unique skill… mastered perfectly. One Siyuan bet Shanyu would wildly underestimate.

“Wind!” Siyuan commanded sternly.

With a shrill shriek, the cat-like Fengsheng Beast shot skyward. Leathery wings snapped out, catching the salty air. Its mouth opened impossibly wide. From high above, it unleashed a focused, furious roar, pouring every ounce of its being toward the tiny speck of rock far below.

Raw gale force exploded. Wind tore down from above faster than thought. It ripped across the island, thick with ocean spray. The suffocating dust cloud didn’t stand a chance. Within a mere second… it was scoured away. Clean. Gone. And once more, Shanyu’s figure stood perfectly revealed, features clear against the now-bare rock.

“Nice trick,” both warriors breathed almost simultaneously.

Again, their words accidentally overlapped, creating another misunderstanding. Each thought the other spoke in unhurried, arrogant praise of their own skill.

Yet Shanyu hadn’t been idle during the dust blind panic. Hidden from sight, he had already prepared his counter-assault. Strange symbols glowed intensely on his skin now, coiled with suppressed power. His usual mocking expression was gone, replaced by stone-faced seriousness. This wasn’t a game anymore.

“Talismanic Arts: Sky’s Fury!” Shanyu roared the invocation.

Without warning, without any buildup of waves, a wall of water taller than a three-story building erupted directly before him. Driven solely by arcane command, this raw tsunami rolled its crushing force straight toward Siyuan. Water, usually placid, showed its terrifyingly brutal side. It slammed forward like a mountain breaking, roaring its intention to wipe the tiny island clean.

“Snow Maiden…”

Siyuan’s voice barely carried over the crashing water – a low murmur followed by a sigh of certainty. Instantly… the warm, salt-laden air vanished. Wiped away. In the blink between Shanyu’s command and Siyuan’s sighed name, the ferocious wave froze solid not fifty feet from Siyuan amidst chilling air.

A shimmering shield! Not of light or force. Solid ice. Deep, crystalline blue, radiating intense, biting frost. Wisps of freezing mist curled off its sheer sides.

Within moments… feathers of snow that had just started gently drifting… hardened. Became pebbles of ice. Then… the temperature plunged impossibly further, turning the sky white. A blizzard screamed to life, driven by arctic fury strong enough to shatter rock. Ice crystals hammered the frozen wave shield relentlessly. Yet beyond it, the effect spread rapidly. The churning dark grey sea surface around the entire island… suddenly became a vast, flat expanse of solid white ice. A frozen wasteland birthed in mere breaths.

“Impressive… truly impressive,” Shanyu observed, his face grim, teeth grinding slightly.

His sharp eyes fixed not on Siyuan’s familiar stance anymore, but on the two figures materialized beside him within the swirling snow. One was a tall, statuesque woman robed entirely in ice-white clothes that seemed woven from frost itself, her pale skin nearly blue. The other… a very old, shrunken man with impressively long white hair and a massive white beard braided almost to his waist. He wore unusually styled, blue-trimmed robes that felt distinctly foreign.

“Let me introduce them,” Siyuan said easily with a sideways gesture through the shrieking winds. “This striking lady is the Snow Maiden. And this respected ‘Eldest Master,'” he said slightly wryly, “is Antonidas. Both upstanding foreign guests of ours.” He paused just slightly. “Blizzards… plus Absolute Zero… surprisingly effective.”

“Fine! GOOD! Excellent!” Shanyu snapped, the forced laugh sounding sharp against the icy quiet. He suddenly shoved a forefinger into his mouth. His eyes never left Siyuan. A sharp crack of biting bone. Blood welled, streaming down his hand. He ignored the pain, instead deliberately painting a bizarre, geometric pattern across his own forehead with his bleeding finger.

The moment the bloody Rune was complete… a blindingly brilliant golden light erupted from his skin. Like liquid sun, it pulsed. Thumping. Growing. Expanding outward in rhythmic waves that rolled away like heat shimmer. He resembled a statue of pure, molten gold wrought by a divine craftsperson. Holy. Immense. Implacable.

In stark contrast, Siyuan looked like… the opposite. Thick, oily purple Demonic Fire coiled around his arms and torso, unnaturally thick, licking at the frozen air like toxic smoke. It made him seem less like some righteous hero… and far more like some Great Demon King stepped right out of illustrated cautionary tales.

“Monster!” Shanyu’s metallic voice rang unnaturally loud, shaking loose nearby icicles. “No matter what you are! Today… your spirit shatters here!” The brush in his hand dissolved into liquid gold, solidified instantly. Into a long, wickedly sharp forearm blade glinting coldly despite the golden hue. “True Life Talisman Art: Golden Vajra!”

As the last syllable left his lips, Shanyu’s transformation solidified. His skin turned golden, harder than diamond. Not brass, pewter, or even steel. This was visibly, unmistakably… solid gold from his feet up to his neck. Gold heavier than flesh, yet he didn’t stumble.

Fully metallic limbs. Eyes burning like contained galaxies. Arcane flames shimmering above his brow. Golden Runes covering his entire form. He looked beyond human… like an avatar of some ancient war god descended to judge mortals. His sheer gaze carried unspoken truth: Whatever blocked his path, he would plough through.

He advanced slowly, deliberately. With heavy, assured steps that compressed the frost-hardened rock beneath his solid feet. Calm. Deadly. Purposeful. Then… he touched the mountainous shield of blue ice before him… He didn’t strike it. He walked into it.

Like a white-hot knife slicing into cold butter… the ice might as well have been mist. His body ate straight through the thousand-ton barrier, carving a molten path effortlessly, mist billowing around him. Each step forward melted a deeper glowing channel.

“That’s the Art that wounded Zhengyang, right?” Siyuan’s voice cut through the hiss of melting ice. He actually sounded… amused. His calm smile never wavered as he watched the statue advance. “Seems we found your ultimate showstopper?”

“Before my might… YOU ARE LESS THAN AN ANT!” roared a voice amplified unnaturally through a golden throat.

“Oh, greetings then… Giant,” Siyuan answered mildly. He even inclined his head slightly. “Still… a bit too green though.” Shanyu caught the biting sarcasm immediately.

With an animalistic tearing snarl, the golden giant lunged. One colossal hand shot forward faster than seemed possible for solid gold, intent on seizing Siyuan’s neck like a weed stem. But Siyuan was ready. He did not stay put. Instead, without even appearing to glance at the incoming grip, he executed three perfectly timed backward flips, placing him neatly within the intricate Formation Array he’d sketched moments earlier. He dropped into a low crouch, palms finally slamming flat onto the frost-painted rock within the glowing lines he’d prepared. His head tilted up to meet Shanyu barreling down on him, untouchable within his blazing gold armor.

“Ever heard of… the Wind of Ill Omens?” Siyuan grinned. Teeth showing. “Hee hee.”

His lips started moving rapidly. Words meant to shape reality flowed out softly.

“May the Four Spirits grant me aid.

May their winds blow soft and hidden.

May their power glow like misted dawn…”

“Pathetic!” Shanyu’s mocking laugh boomed, shaking dust from the surrounding ice sculptures. He felt almost insulted as he closed the distance fast, mere feet away now. “CASTING YET MORE USELESS TRICKS WHEN DEATH GRIPS YOUR NECK? HAHAHAHA… PATHETIC!”

Shanyu wasn’t wrong to scoff. This specific chant? The ‘Soft Breeze Incantation’? Truly, it was laughably weak. People learned it around age eight. Country priests used it annually to spring-clean temples before festivals – perfect for sweeping dust bunnies out over thresholds. Its effects? Barely ruffling curtains. Literally harmless. Using it in battle… at this level? Against a walking fortress? Utterly ludicrous. Easy to dismiss.

“… May [their power] glow like polished Jade.”

The final syllable left Siyuan’s lips just as the golden fingers… closed.

Closed… and stopped.

The immense, dense metallic hand halted less than an inch from Siyuan’s exposed throat. Shanyu strained. Pushed. Shoved with his entire godlike weight… yet he couldn’t budge the giant hand forward even a millimeter. It jerked violently, locked unnaturally stiff as if sunk deep into hardening concrete.

Shanyu’s blazing galactic eyes narrowed in sudden, incomprehensible confusion.

Then… came the impossible thing no instruction manual ever mentioned. The gentle, cleaning-room breeze summoned by the incantation… changed. Grotesquely. Visible strands of glowing, toxic green slime thickened within the moving air. Like translucent, sticky gossamer threads drifted on the zephyr. They touched Shanyu’s thrashing golden form…

… and instantly stuck.

Where they landed? The impossibly hard, divine smiting, indestructible gold? It began to visibly… melt. Plumes of thick, foul-smelling black smoke curled upward wherever the slime touched. Deep black pits rapidly appeared, eaten away as if by the most concentrated acid imaginable. The metal skin bubbled violently before collapsing inward, dissolving into a gurgling green-black sludge.

Calmly, calmly, Siyuan reached up. With gentle but undeniable force, he pushed the rigid gold fist still frozen inches from his neck… slowly aside. He pushed at the forearm as if shooing away a buzzing insect. Once the hand was no longer a threat, he met Shanyu’s disbelieving, horrified gaze.

“Listen, young man,” Siyuan spoke, his tone oddly conversational amidst the impossible tableau. He sounded like a teacher explaining the most basic rule to a struggling student. “Spellcraft… holds the power to make ordinary things extraordinary. Trash can become treasure. Its effectiveness isn’t measured by how loud the bang or bright the flash is.” He paused, letting the gentle wind carrying its dissolving payload swirl slightly. “Everything exists in a dance of creation and destruction. Like earthworms… stomp on them all you like; they survive. Pile salt on them? They shrivel like slugs into useless slime.”

Siyuan gestured loosely towards Shanyu’s dissolving armor with his chin. “I just reminded you of that universal principle. Courtesy of… the highly poisonous but usually immobile Deep Swamp Slime Salamander. Green Gall, some call them.”

Siyuan’s grin returned, knowing and sharp. “Combining Green Gall slime glands… hidden within the utterly overlooked, dust-sweeping ‘Soft Breeze Incantation’? That was my custom gift for you, Young Master. They happen to crave impossible amounts of metal.” He shrugged deliberately. “Try breaking free now. If you can, that is?”