Step by Step Ascend to Immortality

Chapter 49: Chapter 014 Fighting

In front of the giant stone inscribed with the character "scattered," Mr. Wen Ruo took a deep breath.

"Excellent character!" Mr. Wen Ruo exclaimed with delight.

While praising, Mr. Wen Ruo reached for a vermilion brush, its body glowing with a faint red light, and its bristles shimmering in red, purple, and blue hues. It was far superior in appearance to Yan Chuan's brush.

"Mr. Wen Ruo, are you planning to write the character for 'combat'?" Yu Xi's eyes lit up with interest.

"'Combat'?" Young Master Yang also showed curiosity.

Mr. Wen Ruo smiled slightly. "The brush reveals the writer's prowess. The person who wrote this character must have extraordinary skill. I'm curious to see it myself!"

"Then please, Mr. Wen Ruo, start writing!" Yu Xi urged, her curiosity piqued as she had only heard of the 'combat' character but had never seen it.

"Certainly!" Mr. Wen Ruo nodded.

With his right hand grasping the brush and his left hand making a small gesture, a circular ink stone appeared in his palm, filled with red ink. Dipping the brush into the ink, Mr. Wen Ruo began to write on the giant stone, directly over Yan Chuan's character "scattered."

"Combat?"

Yu Xi's eyes widened, as if she didn't want to miss any of the action.

Young Master Yang watched with equal interest.

As Mr. Wen Ruo made the first stroke, a burst of crimson smoke erupted from the brush, clashing with the gray aura that surrounded the area.

"Whoosh!"

A gentle breeze picked up, and amid the clash of red and gray, faint sounds of wind and thunder began to emerge.

"Stop them!" The soldiers' expressions changed, and they shouted angrily.

This character had been written by the prince, and no one was allowed to tamper with it. Despite the strength of these uninvited guests, they couldn't desecrate the prince's writing.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

...

Five high-ranking generals immediately raised their long spears and advanced toward the intruders.

The spears aimed directly at them!

"Gahaha, are there still people who fear nothing?" The dwarf Ding Wugu sneered coldly.

"Step aside!"

Ding Wugu stomped his foot, sending a shower of rubble toward the five generals.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

The stones collided with the spears, creating a metallic clang, and the immense force pushed the generals back.

"Bang!" One stone hit a general's chest.

The stone's force created a large dent in the general's armor.

"Whoosh!"

The general was thrown backward, tumbling several times before coming to a stop.

Struggling to get up, he saw his chest armor shattered, but inside, a black inner armor had protected him from the stone's impact.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, the general glared coldly at Ding Wugu.

"Brothers, the prince has treated us well, providing us with meat and even the skin of a demon snake for armor. Now someone is defiling the prince's writing. Can we just back down?" The general shouted.

"No!" The three thousand soldiers roared in unison.

"Kill them!" The general used the momentum to shout.

"Roar!" The three thousand soldiers echoed the call.

Long arrows rained down once again, aimed directly at Ding Wugu.

The long spears were raised, targeting Ding Wugu.

"Hmph!" Ding Wugu's face darkened.

A small black sphere appeared in his hand. Ding Wugu hurled it to the ground.

"Boom!"

The sphere exploded, enveloping Ding Wugu in a mass of black smoke. The smoke expanded, forming a wall that blocked over two thousand arrows. Unlike the previous time, when Qinglong had dealt with arrows effortlessly, this time the arrows fell to the ground.

"A bunch of ants!" Ding Wugu scoffed.

Within the black smoke, Ding Wugu waved his hand.

"Whoosh!"

It was as if a storm had swept through, knocking the three thousand soldiers to the ground.

"Gahaha, you ants are fortunate to witness my Feng Shui techniques!" Ding Wugu said with a sinister grin.

It seemed that humiliating these mortals gave Ding Wugu a twisted sense of satisfaction, perhaps due to a long history of being looked down upon.

"Form the battle array and fight again!" The young generals commanded.

"Roar!" The soldiers responded immediately, raising their spears to fight once more.

Ding Wugu savored his superior position alone.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wen Ruo continued his work.

Each stroke he made on the character "scattered" was met with a swirling clash of red and gray smoke, and the surrounding area was filled with the rumbling sounds of their collision.

"Mr. Wen Ruo is writing the character 'gather'?" Young Master Yang frowned.

"'scattered' and 'gather' are opposites, stacked and clashing?" Yu Xi, the Holy Maiden, observed intently.

"In a 'combat' character, the dominant side suppresses the other until it is completely vanquished!" Yu Xi added.

The character "gather" was still incomplete.

"Kacha, kacha, kacha..."

The giant stone began to crack under the strain of the two characters battling each other.

As the character "gather" was being written, the intensity of the red smoke grew stronger.

The stone was enveloped in red and gray smoke, with everyone caught in the thickening fog, while only Ding Wugu remained outside, battling the silver-armored soldiers with ease.

With the final stroke, Mr. Wen Ruo's expression became extremely serious as he completed the last stroke of the character "gather."

"Boom!"

The red smoke surged again, and the characters "scattered" and "gather" overlapped, flickering between red and gray, emitting a powerful aura.

The stone bearing the characters became increasingly cracked.

Mr. Wen Ruo watched intently, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Not just Mr. Wen Ruo, but everyone shrouded in the smoke stared at the two characters.

"Scatter?" "Gather?" The battle between the characters—who would win? Who would dominate the other?

Outside,

The black smoke surrounding Ding Wugu swirled violently as he waved his hand, causing the soldiers around him to falter. Yet, the arrows continued to bother him.

"Hmph, a bunch of ants. Today, you will learn what true immortal techniques are!" Ding Wugu said coldly.

Pointing at the front line of the young generals, five streams of black smoke shot out.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

...

The five young generals' faces turned black as they became enshrouded in darkness and felt as though they were heavily poisoned.

"Hahaha, fighting me? Seeking death! Witness my Feng Shui grand formation! Die!" Ding Wugu laughed sinisterly.

With another wave of his hand, nearly a hundred streams of black smoke swept toward the silver-armored soldiers.

The smoke was dense and deadly. At this moment, it was even fiercer than before, aimed directly at the foremost hundred soldiers.

"Die!" Ding Wugu sneered.

At that moment, from the forest shrouded in white mist not far away, an angry grunt echoed.

"Hmph, who dares to harm my men?"

Yan Chuan's roar resonated.

"Boom!"

A fierce whirlwind suddenly erupted from the forest, and an endless white mist surged out, quickly enveloping the entire camp.

Within the camp, the white mist thickened instantly, scattering the hundreds of black mists that Ding Wugu had unleashed. The mist was so dense that one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face and rapidly diluted the black mist around Ding Wugu.

"What?" Ding Wugu's expression changed.

In the next moment, Ding Wugu realized everything around him had changed. He saw a vast sea of blood, with the sky and earth bathed in crimson.

In the blood sea, countless vengeful spirits writhed.

"Uuu!"

"Ah!"

"Gargle, gargle!"

...

The vengeful spirits surrounded Ding Wugu, lunging and snapping at him.

"An illusion? A phantom array?" Ding Wugu's face turned pale.

"Break it!" Ding Wugu cried out in alarm, forming a hand sign with his fingers.

However, his efforts were futile.

"How is this possible?" Ding Wugu exclaimed.

"A geomancer of the Essence realm? Hmph!" From the forest, Yan Chuan's voice echoed once more!

In the illusion, Ding Wugu saw more and more vengeful spirits attacking him.

"Argh!"

"Creak!"

The spirits were fierce, biting chunks of flesh from Ding Wugu. Despite knowing it was an illusion, Ding Wugu was still in a panic.

"No!" Ding Wugu screamed.

Elsewhere.

The words "scatter" and "gather" clashed.

"Boom!"

The conflict between the words generated such force that the boulder they were inscribed on finally gave way and exploded.

After the explosion, the two words remained briefly before abruptly canceling each other out and vanishing.

"A tie?" Saintess Yuxi said in surprise.

She was astonished that someone's calligraphy could rival Mr. Wenruo's. Was it that young man's writing?

"It's a pity the stone was too poor; the duel wasn't fully resolved!" Young Master Yang also expressed regret.

Only Mr. Wenruo showed a faint trace of bitterness.

It wasn't about the stone; ultimately, the words had canceled each other out. Yuxi's 'tie' was accurate, but Mr. Wenruo knew it was not a true tie. He had used a piece of red jade for his calligraphy, while the other had used the poorest black ink. Even if it ended in a tie, it was still a loss for him.

"Such a powerful character!" Mr. Wenruo admired the word 'scatter'.

"No!" Ding Wugu's pained roar suddenly came from afar.

"Hmm?" The group quickly noticed something was wrong. White mist everywhere?

White mist?

"Is it a formation? A feng shui array?" Yuxi mused.

"Scatter!" Yuxi's subordinate, Qinglong, shouted decisively.

"Boom!"

Qinglong's entire body seemed to generate a tempest, and the raging wind blew in all directions.

The strong gusts of wind blew away the surrounding white mist.

The array of mist was broken by Qinglong.

With the array gone, the scene was revealed.

In the distance, numerous injured soldiers lay on the ground, and not far off, Ding Wugu was restrained by two figures.

One was dressed in the attire of an eunuch, using a feather duster to choke Ding Wugu, while the other, a silver-armored general, held a spear with its tip poised at Ding Wugu's throat.

A single movement from the general, and the spear would impale Ding Wugu through the throat.

The onlookers were stunned.

Ding Wugu, a master of the Essence realm, was held in check by two mere cultivators of the Strength realm.

And they had him completely restrained.

A Strength realm cultivator restraining an Essence realm master?

With the array broken, the surroundings also cleared, and Ding Wugu saw everything clearly. With the spear tip chilling against his throat, even with his power, Ding Wugu could only watch helplessly.

The matter of life and death was now in the hands of his captors.

"Just Strength realm?" Qinglong said in disbelief.

"Everyone, may I ask why you've harmed my subordinates, disrupted my array, and damaged my stone tablet?" From the direction of the bamboo forest came Yan Chuan's voice.

Yan Chuan stepped out from the edge of the bamboo forest, his brows furrowed as he looked at the unexpected visitors with a grave expression.