Before Dawn

    The mountain ranges lay extensively, winding and converging. The labyrinthine streams transposed one another and branched out into countless tributaries. The nature on this land was so fertile. The beautiful scenery of thousands of mountains and ten thousand of rivers was second to none. If this shall last for the next ten thousand million years, it would be the good fortune of the future generations to see.

    …But the reality was not that simple. Things existed and ended. When something reaches its peak, it will soon fall.

    On the high mountain range, the gaunt body of the Old Master stood in front of thousands of warriors. Despite his shrunk and tapering eyes, his vision was yet far-sighted. “Ning Er, Ning Fang,” the Old Master said gently to his two major disciples, for whom he had spent his whole life searching. Although it took him more than a thousand years, his effort was not in vain. With his hopeful face, he turned his gentle eyes toward the beautiful faces of his disciples. “You two shall not join this war.”

    …Although the two ladies were the Old Master’s hope, the time was not yet ripe. If mistakes happened, the loss would be unbearable.

    “Master,” the two gorgeous, goddess-like figures stepped forward from the orderly row behind and stopped in front of the old man whom they called Master.

    The Old Master closed his eyes gracefully, his right hand slowly rubbing his white beard from top to bottom. “Despite being women, you both have noble talent unmatched in the last ten thousand years, plus the legendary Holy Elements. These are the blessing to our tribe.” Then, he uttered a plain voice with depression from the heart, “If there were more time for enhancement, I believe that in less than a thousand years, you both might be able to overcome the Demon Lord over there. However, our fate has been sealed. The great loss is no longer avoidable.”

    “We both…” The sweet voice like the clear and sonorous sound of a ringing gold bell paused when the Master raised his hand as a stop sign. Despite having certain words in their throats, the two ladies did not violate the Old Master’s order.

    “Disciples, now take my order,” the Old Master’s voice suddenly turned serious. “Today both of you must leave this battlefield alive. I’ll be giving you a magic item to open the dimensional gate so that you two can flee to a distant land. Until you’re capable enough to break the immense sky, do not come back here.” His last verse trembled with sadness. “Should you not achieve the goal, do not return, and just live a normal, happy life.” Despite the old man’s faint smile, the sorrow that was devouring them three was too heavy to bear.

    …The tears started falling down the cheeks of two beautiful ladies with no restrictions. Their voice became so hoarse that they could not enunciate. Both of them could only nod slightly as they raised their hands to wipe away the tears brimming at the edge of their eyes.

    The Old Master now handed a palm-sized golden mirror to Ning Fang, the older lady of the two, and explained that it was…the Sky Connecting Mirror. When blown onto by the Qi energy, the mirror will do its work. The destination has already been determined by the Old Master. When the war begins, the two shall use the Sky Connecting Mirror to escape. Then, he reiterated his order… that they must not come back until they attain the required capability.

    The two beautiful ladies looked at each other’s faces with disappointment. They did not want to run away but rather fight to the death with the people here, as well as the Master and the other thousand disciples of the same academy. Despite realizing that their current capability was insufficient to approach the Demon Lord, they believed that joining the war and dying honorably with everyone else would be less sorrowful than fleeing to a faraway place and living life shouldering sky-high expectations.

    …Their thoughts were not yet verbalized, but the sound of the Sky Shaking Drum signaled the beginning of the war at that moment.

    The Old Master waved his palm in front of his face twice. The beautiful scenery became distorted. The hot steam erupted from below, shooting up high into the sky. The folded mountains and gorgeous rivers were sucked into hell fire down below before the loud cry of the Demon Lord burst up to the top. The destructive force from below shot up so high that the sky turned blood red.

    “Well… well, you still have some trustworthiness,” the Demon Lord soared up into the air, fearlessly facing a thousand troops of the Old Master’s Dharma Army.

    “To reciprocate the entertainment I have received for you all, I guarantee that every single life here will be equally granted death.” After that speech, his Qi energy spread violently in all directions like mad wild horses and wiped out everything within a 100-li radius. But the opening act of intimidation could not shake any of the strong souls of the warriors at the scene. Only the two ladies, Ning Fang and Ning Er, were jolted away to the back but could still balance without falling down into the fire pit.

    When the spiritual attack was over, the Demon Lord suddenly began his continuous assault. However, the Old Master did not panic since he had secretly trained and prepared himself for this fight over the last hundred years. His numerous troops spread out, besieged the Demon Lord, and projected the Qi energy simultaneously into hundreds of nets that compressed the Demon Lord’s body. Now his aggressive attack power became weakened before it reached the Old Master. Although the Demon Lord’s deadly Qi energy was remarkably siphoned, the Old Master did not dare to drop his guard because he realized the Demon Lord’s wickedness from his experience. When the burning hot Qi air was coming toward the Old Master, both of his clearly white hands—initially hidden in the sleeves—popped out and swirled like a spinning discus, stroking at the arrow-shaped Qi energy released by the Demon Lord, thus causing a loud crash sound. Although he did not become disadvantageous, both of his hands went numb and insensitive. The remaining Qi energy from the crash floated up into the sky and hit the clouds, thus causing rain to pour. The sky became a blaze with flickering lightning, and then the lightning calmed down.

    Although the fight between the two seemed to be a draw, in fact, the warriors transmitted all of their power to the Old Master’s Demon Suppressing Formation. Moreover, the noblest Qi energy of the Old Master could only make defense but not counterattack.

    The Old Master realized that the longer the battle persists, the slimmer their chances of victory. If the power of the Formation became feeble, even defending against the attack would be out of the question. When making defense became impossible, they had to risk offending instead. The group of warriors making the Formation—with their thoughts united—took action in a harmonious manner. Now they changed the formation from a besieging circle into a shape of sharp wedge pointing directly at the Demon Lord, with the Old Master standing in front of them. The warriors became offensive rather than defensive, projecting their energy to support their leader.

    With the support of the new formation, the Old Master combined its flexible energy with his own Qi energy—now spreading all over his body—and threw a vigorous punch directly at the Demon Lord.

    The Demon Lord stared without blinking. Despite knowing the wicked power of the Old Master’s posture, he did not dodge. He sped up with a posture that made his movement look like a shooting star toward the gigantic Qi energy fist in front of him.

    But on the verge of clashing, the Demon Lord’s body was suddenly split into three. …A cunning grin appeared on his face together with a loud noise … “BAM” … When the middle avatar of the Demon Lord got hit by the flexible fist of the Old Master, the punch was not filled with destructive power, but rather a defensive, restraining force. This caused the middle avatar to halt in the air, but the other two were still moving. One flew toward the Old Master, and the other—indifferent toward the Old Master—flew past the Old Master’s body heading for the thousand warriors behind like a wolf leaping at a flock of fat sheep.

    Despite worrying about the probability of his warriors’ death, the Old Master did not have time to ponder due to the urgent situation at hand. He could only concentrate on handling the attacking posture of the Demon Lord heading for him.

    The Demon Lord’s rough and pale palms splice together—forming a sword shape—slashed vertically top-down, as fast as lightning flashing down toward the ground. The Old Master lifted his left arm, bent the elbow into a triangle, and swung it upward to fend off the attack. But when his elbow was touched by the Demon Lord’s released energy, he realized that he used the wrong posture as it was too weak. For a split second, he glanced at the Demon Lord’s avatar that took the flexible punch that was falling apart. Despite being heavy-hearted, luckily the Old Master still had the trump card—not his thousand troops but the most skilled Twelve Warriors. And of course, they have not yet joined the battlefield at the moment.

    As the real self of the Demon Lord headed toward the center of the Wedge-Like Formation, the warriors—with their well-trained minds—did not panic. They used their unique skills to resist him with the utmost force. Although some of them were killed, they did not blink or flee but used strength in numbers to compensate for their weaker skills.

    However, hundreds of weary sheep could not withstand a cruel lion. Wherever the Demon Lord passed by, the warriors’ lives would perish. For only a split second of breath, tens of warriors would be dead.

    The Old Master did not hesitate. He pursued the Demon Lord with a posture as quick as the latter’s and telepathically ordered his troops to spread out and return to the besieging formation, hoping to avoid direct clashes and minimize loss. As the new formation was not yet finished, the Old Master had a glimpse of his last flickering light in the distance. His calm and confident face turned contorted and out of balance. The more he observed the movements of the Demon Lord, the faster his heart beat. The extreme speed could still be accelerated. Despite having blood oozing from the corner of his lips, the Old Master still endured, unwilling to let his two remaining hopes vanish in this war.

    “Ning Fang, Ning Er, go awaaaaay!!!!” His voice filled with the Qi energy resonated throughout the battlefield.

    The two ladies woke up from unconsciousness. Ning Fang who woke up first accidentally dropped the magic mirror from her hand. Ning Er—who woke up after but could better regain consciousness—suddenly soared with body slanted downward. But before she could catch the Sky Connecting Mirror, her beautiful figure was about 10 wahs* away from the previous position.

    Ning Fang who could now regain consciousness prepared to join Ning Er, but a burning hot stream of the Qi energy abruptly reached her and bound her so tightly that she could not move.

    “HA HA HA,” the Demon Lord’s laughter loudly resonated. “You’ve been able to hide the Holy Elements all along, but this time you brought them to the battlefield. I certainly won’t let this precious opportunity slip away.”

    When the Old Master heard it, he choked and spat out his blood. It was not because of internal injury but his previous attempt to burn out his life force and break the Taoist Qi energy limits so that he could catch up with the Demon Lord. The air mass was distorted and sent his body traveling at warp speed that he was now just a few wahs away from the Demon Lord.

    “The Twelve Warlords!!!” The shout resonated, then the strong figures of the Twelve Warlords soared up from the Octagonal Pagoda, the Old Master’s magic item and hidden trump card.

    Without any order, the Twelve Warlords scattered to be in their personal positions—all in equal spacing with the Demon Lord in the middle. Yet, because the fighting posture of the Demon Lord was too nimble for them to besiege, the first setup of battle formation did not succeed. The thirteen fighters ended up soaring closely behind the Demon Lord.

    Although Ning Fang’s trained power was inferior to that of the Old Master’s warlords, her genius and possession of the Holy Element inside the body gave her the ability to stay calm during chaos. She used the posture of Hibernating Turtle, motivating her protective power that it formed a hundred layers of the Qi shield curtain blocking the Demon Lord... She did so with the intent to buy time and wait for help. However, because of the skill differences, despite the strength of the Hibernating Turtle posture, when hit by the deadly force from the Demon Lord, this magic shield was comparable to a thin paper. It could be easily torn apart with a hand piercing through.

    Ning Er—who was down below—was now mobilizing her crystal-clear Qi energy and prepared to help. But Ning Fang loudly shouted at her to activate the Sky Connecting Mirror and escape. Hesitant and stunned for a split second of breath, Ning Er decided to start using the Mirror.

    Although the Demon Lord knew that the other girl with the Holy Element was fleeing, he did not care as one of the Holy Elements was now in his hand.

    Ning Fang—now strangled by a vigorous hand—forced her voice out loud using her Qi energy, telling the younger disciple to run away. Because of their deep spiritual bonds like sisters, neither of them could leave the other behind. Eventually, Ning Er made a stupid move by unconcernedly neglecting the opening dimensional gate.

    The Old Master who came a little late thought the situation could turn sour, so he needed to flip the last card before things got out of hand: “Conjugating the 108 Mountains.” When the Demon Lord could catch Ning Fang, he stopped using the fighting posture and stayed put, thus enabling the Twelve Warlords to besiege him as previously trained to do. The remaining thousand warriors in the background started to encircle as well, transmitting all the Qi energy towards the center of the secret formation.

    The Old Master—standing a few wahs away from the Demon Lord—released all of his energy out until it formed the pole of Qi energy whose light shot upward piercing into the heavens. The formerly old body became filled with lively energy. The wrinkled face became sharp and handsome like a sculpture. The white eyebrows shrunk and turned darker, and the white hair turned bushy black. His entire body became so clearly white that one almost saw the running blood vessels underneath the skin.

    The figure of a Thousand-Hand Buddha appeared behind the rejuvenated Old Master. All the one thousand hands suddenly reached out and suppressed the Demon Lord’s body. The tremendous force—as if it could crush an entire planet all at once—was meant to crush the Demon Lord on his plane, hoping that he would change his posture and let go of Ning Fang to take care of himself.

    “How vicious of you,” a slip of the Demon Lord’s tongue. “This time you are so well-prepared that I had to use my secret trick … Asura of War!!!” Once his words ended, his body began to bloat, two new arms abruptly popped out from his middle back. Besides, the two newly-grown hands now firmly held the magic swords.

    Two swords jointly formed a cross, coated with the powerful Qi energy. The Demon Lord raised them to resist the crushing force of a thousand hands from the Old Master. As the main fight was about to start, the air between the two sides was compressed until it sparked a fiery fire. But there was not any noise heard. Throughout the battlefield, there was merely peace. Then, for a split second of breath, the frightening vibration was suddenly followed by explosions in all directions. The bodies of the warriors nearby were blasted almost immediately. Those positioned further away got injured and wounded at different levels, depending on their distance from the scene. Meanwhile, the Twelve Warlords with noble skills simply spat out one mouthful of black blood. Everyone’s face turned pale, but they could still keep their positions, while their mouths continuously chanted the mantra for the Sealing Magic ritual.

    The Old Master’s eyes opened widely in awe because of the battle in which he had used up all of his Qi energy from the past training, as well as the fact that a substantial portion of his life force could only destroy the tip of the swords and the two newly-grown arms of the Demon Lord. Although the Demon Lord’s body suffered a significant internal injury, he was not seriously injured that he could no longer fight. At this point, the wide gap in fighting power became obvious.

    “N..n..nah… Noooo.”

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    *1 li is equal to 500 meters or 0.5 kilometers

    *1 wah is equal to 2 meters