Chapter 22 - The Lone Butterfly

Shen Lian could not tear his eyes away from the ongoing battle. He was learning so much by watching two of the highly skilled Jianghu drifters fighting against each other.

His spirit was stronger than both of them and it could leave his body.

By experiencing the fight through his spirit rather than relying on his eyes, he could better tell the contrast in each of their strength and weaknesses.

It is only natural that even the strongest of wind and heaviest of downpour would pass.

However, the purity of Ling Chongxiao's martial art skills was evident in his every move. He had the strength of a tiger, leopard, and feral wolves; his power was impenetrable, just as the waterfall that crushes down from the highest of mountains. There was no sign of weakening.

The man in green could not defend for a prolonged period without losing. If he did not strike back in time, he would be caught under Ling Chongxiao's rhythm. When that happens, he would be a butterfly that got caught in spider net – there was no escaping.

Shen Lian was looking intently at the man in green and felt his spiritual sense being pushed to its limit. He felt that the man in green's spirit was escalating quickly as the battle dragged on.

This was a benefit from fighting against sandstorm in the desert, the man in green had refined himself, and his potential could be unleashed when he faced great adversity.

Especially after his near-death experience, it was as though he had gone through a metamorphosis.

An airbag with the size of a mouse started growing on his back; his organs were giving off sounds of vibration, similar to that of thunder.

Shen Lian noticed that the man in green's inner Qi was coursing through his body, and was racing without pause.

The two iron hooks that were on his clavicles were broken off in a loud clang. It looked as though two murderous new moons were sent flying at Ling Chongxiao.

The two iron hooks were spinning at high speed.

Shen Lian focused his psyche. A blight of white light appeared on his Ancestral Cavity between his brows; it was as though he grew an extra eye.

It felt like his spirit was out of his body, yet at the same time, it was not.

His psyche was extending infinitely and the outside world had turned whitish silver. Through his sensing abilities, the iron hooks seemed to be slowing down, and he could see clearly the bloodstain that was left on it. Even though the world was in whitish silver, the color still had different hues to it.

"The drifters of Zhao wore their unadorned bands, the tip of the blade Wu Gou gleamed like the frost and snow; Killing one person in ten steps, and traveling for hundreds of miles without pausing."

The man in green entered into a state that he had never experienced before. His psyche kept peaking, as though it was trying to reach the moon above heaven.

The moon was in solitude and lonely.

One would sit before the flowers in sobriety and would rest underneath the moon in drunkenness.

The man in green acted like a drunken butterfly that was stumbling around, he rose and fell similar to the tidings of waves.

He mastered this movement from his days in the desert. It was an ultimate killing move he had derived from all of his knowledge of martial arts. Regardless of how strong the opponent, he could overpower them with his movement, and there was no escaping from death.

This was known as the "Butterfly in the Storm".

In a battle between experts, the fight does not go on for days and nights. The decisive move usually happens in a matter of seconds.

However, the same could not be said about these two. Ling Chongxiao had unblocked the entry point, and he had "tamed the white tiger". In terms of physical strength or inner Qi, both were enormous beyond comprehension. It would be difficult to put these mystical anomalies into words.

On the other hand, the man in green had unblocked the Governor Vessel and Conception Vessel. There was a whole new world within him, an endless loop that gave him impressive endurance abilities. That, and with his guerrilla fighting style, he could last for a very long time.

However, the man in green knew that he would expose himself if it dragged on. With his psyche exhausted, he might even lose his chance to draw the Deity Vanquishing Sword.

The reason why he was not blinded by optimism was because he was well informed of the difference between his strength and that of Ling Chongxiao.

When the inner Qi coursed through the Governor Vessel and Conception Vessel, the iron hooks that were buried deep in his clavicles got vibrated off, his mind and spirit finally entered an unpredictably astonishing state.

His body was like that of a butterfly; the vitality in him converged to a single point.

He bounced around by taking rhythmic steps; It felt as though he was about to be crushed to bits by Ling Chongxiao's sheer force.

The two iron hooks reached Ling Chongxiao. A white gust of air came out from his mouth, and the iron hooks were bumped off. The collision had broken the hooks into halves.

Shen Lian was shocked; he did not expect human strength to be capable of that.

These two men were not even part of Celestialism. He thought about what he was capable of; he could create a glowing body figure through the convergence of moonlight. If he was able to create physical matter from nothingness, it would mean that he can converge and disperse at will – a true tactic of Celestialism.

It did not matter how powerful the Jianghu dwellers were, they would not be able to deal damage to spirits that had not taken on a physical existence.

Also, he had training from the book of the Mastery of Sense. Well, technically the real Shen Lian did. However, in just two years, he was equipped with a spirit that was stronger than both of Ling Chongxiao's and the man in green's spirit. The book probably had a notable origin.

He knew that if Ling Chongxiao knew how to have an out of body experience, with his age and knowledge he could have obtained supernatural power. Then, he would not have to resort to physical combat with the man in green.

By the time he was through with his thought process, he was no longer amazed by the battle between the two.

However, the status of the on-going battle would not change in accordance with Shen Lian's thoughts.

Ling Chongxiao's palm method was not intriguing; it was the kind that was commonly found in Jianghu – The Triple Waves of Chang Jiang.

Due to his high attainment in martial arts, it was hard to find someone who could rival him. The Triple Waves of Chang Jiang was almost magical by his hands; the first wave had barely passed when the second wave pushed through, one wave was higher than the other and there was no end to it.

Even though there was only a distance of five steps between the two, but the man in green took ten over steps before he was right in front of Ling Chongxiao.

"No matter how far the Western Paradise, there will be a time when thunder is heard."

What more with this little distance between them.

The closer the man in green was, the higher the pressure got.

When he was only a step away, he shook his shoulders – the way a butterfly would before flying off. It was as though he was fighting off the windstorm, and exhausting the last of his psyche.

He extended his right hand and turned it into sword finger. It was extremely sharp.

With his martial art skills, his sword finger would not lose out to a real sword forged from pure iron.

His sword was traceless, like how it was hard to dodge away from the horn of a mountain goat, it was tough to dodge from his sword.

Before Ling Chongxiao could strike with his palm, the man in green had sealed the Lao Gong point located in the middle of his palm.

With that, the man in green sent the sword aura right through Ling Chongxiao's arm. This would break the meridians in his arm and paralyzed him.

However, when Ling Chongxiao was halfway through with his strike, his arm softened. It sn.a.k.e.d through the sword finger and wrapped itself around the man in green's wrist.

The man in green was gambling when he decided to get closer to Ling Chongxiao with the impressive movement of the "Butterfly in the Storm", there was no way he was giving up at this point.

Green light busted out of his eyes, his glare was like a brightly lighted green lamp.

Fresh blood dripped out of his eyes, while the green light shone on Ling Chongxiao.

It was as if a gust of wind came through. All of a sudden, the lively brows of Ling Chongxiao got frozen.

Shen Lian noticed that the man in green was trying to freeze Ling Chongxiao for a short second, at the expense of inflicting severe damage to his own spirit.

The time to end the battle had come, and the man in green would never lose his only shot at victory.

It was as though he prepared himself for it, his struck with his left hand, and went along with the tides of the battle.

The palm method was known as "retrieving chestnut from the fire".

As if the target was in the fire, one had no choice but to strike the opponent at his Achilles' heel with the speed of lightning.

To successfully cultivate this palm method, one must imagine that one's hand was on fire; there must be zero hesitation and one must attack without reserve.