Chapter 2 Prologue: A Fight at the Mountain Peak
After a few hundred more rounds of fighting, the two men rested; they breathed heavily but still seemed serene, as if they hadn't been fighting this fierce battle themselves.
"Xuan Qingzi, I'm impressed you're this good now. I guess we'll have to do our best now. This is the best way to fight!" exclaimed Qing Tian with a hearty laugh. He looked very excited, and kept slamming his body with his hands, making purple waves of energy fly out from every strike. Anyone watching would be terrified—even a rock would be obliterated from the impact, much less an ordinary person.
Seeing Qing Tian's abuse of himself, Xuan Qingzi and his young woman, Xiao Xianzi, were alarmed. "He knows Sky Demon's Nine-Round Collision? Has this demon really become this strong?" Not underestimating their enemy, they quickly conjured up a golden light sword.
"Piao Miao Sword, it's your show now." Xuan Qingzi looked at the golden light sword. The sword vibrated, as if it knew its owner was about to head into battle.
Qing Tian slammed his own body nine times in a row. A huge cloud of black shadow appeared behind him. As he kept hitting himself, Qing Tian's body disappeared into the black shadow as he shouted, "Activating Sky Demon's Nine-Round Collision power!"
"Piao Miao Sword's Ninth Move—Thunder-Conquering Sword!" Xuan Qingzi moved the sword to above his head, and the sword grew to more than ten meters, releasing a blast of energy into the sky.
The previously sunny day grew thunderously dark and lightning tore across the sky.
Pow! Thunder sliced apart the sky, becoming one with the sword in Xuan Qingzi's hand. As the lightning disappeared, a ball of pale black light made of thunder and energy appeared above the tip of the sword.
Seeing the ball of light on the sword, even Qing Tian, who had grown larger with the shadow and was surrounded by a purple mist and wearing horns, seemed a little shaken.
He recovered quickly, however, as he shouted, "Sky Demon attack!" and produced a giant beam of purple energy with his hands. The purple beam grew bigger and bigger, until it rapidly shrank into a purple ball, suspended above Qing Tian's hands.
Meanwhile, Xuan Qingzi's Thunder-Conquering Sword had finished its transformation. The ten-meter-long ball of pale black light had collapsed into about a meter across. Xuan Qingzi attacked first, waving the sword in front of him, projecting the ball on the top of the sword forward. All of his strength seemed to fly away with the ball of light; after he finished projecting, he seemed weaker and shaky. The sword also minimized into its original size and looked much dimmer.
Seeing Xuan Qingzi's attack, Qing Tian responded by throwing his own ball of purple light at Xuan Qingzi. He also seemed to lose much of his power, his body growing limp.
When the two balls of light collided, the world didn't end with a burst of energy. Instead, the pale black ball of light was absorbed into the ball of purple light, and the ball expanded, transforming the space around it. A flash of thunder slashed across the sky, followed by more lightning, signaling something sinister.
Xuan Qingzi and Qing Tian were mesmerized by the enormous ball of purple light as their bodies began to fall into it. Just before Xuan Qingzi was about to be swallowed by the purple light, he looked toward the young woman by the pavilion, showing a bleak smile.
"Xuan!" Xiao shouted as she prepared to fly out and join him in the sky. Just then, a black light burst within the purple ball of light. There was a moment of stillness, and then the entire sky lit up. A loud sound broke the serenity, as if Mars had hit Earth, breaking apart the purple ball of light.
All of the mountains and valleys around the fight shook from the explosion. One-fifth of the mountain peaks nearby were slashed away, waterfalls had disappeared, streams had dried up, and all the flowers and leaves on nearby trees were gone. The explosion turned the entire area into a desert.
The only one remaining was the young woman next to the now dilapidated pavilion.
The purple ball of light faded away mid-sky, leaving a bloodied body. Right before the corpse hit the ground, a stream of purple energy left the body's abdomen, changed into a miniature Qing Tian. He smiled gruesomely at the scene before him and flew away.
When the small Qing Tian left, a flash of white light appeared in the murky air and circled the unconscious young woman three times before disappearing as well.