I Shall Steal the Heavens 197 Chapter 196: Fight between Friends

"What did you say?" he thundered. I frowned, taken aback by his sudden fury, which had nothing to do with me standing in his way of "saving" Tang Qi Hong.

"Huh? I said, I believe I found the chink in your armor…"

"There." Pang Feng jabbed a finger in my direction. "You said chink, didn't you?"

"Yes…?"

"Fucking racist!" Pang Feng roared. "How dare you use such a racist word?! Are you alienating your Chinese readers?!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I shot back, completely confused. "What racist word?"

"Chink!" Pang Feng snapped. "Don't pretend you don't know! You know that chink is a derogatory word used to refer to Chinese."

"Uh…you're overthinking it," I replied with a shake of my head. No wonder people were whining about social justice warriors. They took offense at literally everything, even a normal word that was originally not used in such an abusive manner. "Chink just means an opening, or a vulnerability. I'm not using it in any other manner."

"Don't say that word!" Pang Feng bellowed.

"All right, all right." I sighed and shook my head, not wanting to argue too much with him. This was getting ridiculous, and I had more important things to worry about than persuading a social justice warrior about the intracities of language. "Anyway, let's return to the main issue at hand. I believe I found a gap in your armor. Happy?"

Pang Feng merely lunged forward and assaulted me like a wild beast, his rock-hard fists smashing toward me. Using Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I effortlessly evaded him, deftly dancing around his immense bulk and striking out with my sword.

I wasn't randomly slashing at him, though. With Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I was able to see the flow of his qi and how it circulated around his body. Presently, I could see that it was spread unevenly across his body in a protective layer, thickening and hardening wherever I struck him. The qi wasn't consistent or stagnant – it was fluid, ever changing and adapting to minimize waste of qi. There were several soft spots or vulnerabilities, but they disappeared as qi gushed over the areas, leaving new places open for a few seconds before those were too protected as Pang Feng spun around to deal with me or defend against my sword.

Unlike Zhu Jiao or Li Guo Qiang, whose armor-like qi formed a consistent, static layer of unyielding protective qi over their bodies, Pang Feng's qi was surprisingly fluid and transmutable. As I slashed at an area that looked weaker than his other defenses, a place right under his chest, he focused his qi into that spot and my blade bounced off. He countered with an uppercut, but I whirled away and jumped up, spinning in the air before kicking his temple, which seemed weaker than the rest of his body. My foot connected briefly, and Pang Feng actually staggered, shaken from the blow because he was unable to react in time.

I knew it. So there were still weaknesses I could exploit!

However, I didn't have time to capitalize on my momentarily advantage. Despite staggering, Pang Feng's thin layer of qi had still absorbed most of the impact, and he lashed out to grab my foot. I quickly propelled myself away and flipped my body in midair before landing a few meters away. Pang Feng lunged at me, and I stabbed my Azure Lotus Sword into the ground.

"Enhance Armament!" I shouted. Ice spread out from the ground and enveloped the charging Pang Feng, stopping him in his tracks.

For only a few seconds.

With a bellow, Pang Feng smashed his way out of the ice and continued charging at me. Like a wild bull rampaging through a poor china shop, he shattered the surrounding ice and sent it raining down in snow-like crystals. The freezing ice had no effect on Pang Feng's glowing golden armor, which was totally unscathed despite my best efforts.

He threw a punch that would have obliterated my head and chest, but I dodged it, bringing up my leg in reflex to kick him in the solar plexus. However, Pang Feng had anticipated that and hardened his defense. He swung his arm down, forcing me to whirl away to the side, and I jumped over his leg as he swept it out to kick my feet out from under me.

"Hah!"

Pang Feng threw another punch, but I agilely landed on his arm before jumping high into the air as he withdrew it. Spinning wildly, I descended with the intention to kick, and Pang Feng brought up both his arms to defend himself.

But I kicked above and behind his guard, slamming my foot against his collarbone, where I pereceived a single weak spot. Pang Feng grunted in pain and his knees buckled, but he lashed out with his hands to grab me, but I was already spinning away and whipping out my other leg to kick him in his now exposed chest and smacking my foot against another vulnerable area. Pang Feng staggered back from the tremendous blow, heaving.

"You…!" he growled, but I didn't bother listening to him. Grabbing my sword with both hands, I swung it down to unleash a second Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike at pointblank range. My attack was a pretty big move, so Pang Feng had the time to react, bringing up both his arms to defend against the strike.

Kboom!

"Ugh!"

Pang Feng skidded a few meters away, his feet gouging out huge chunks of concrete from the ground. He lowered his trembling arms, blood trailing from more wounds, but immediately hardened his defenses again.

"Huff…"

I adopted an aggressive stance, holding my sword parallel to the ground. Around us, rock and ice shimmered into existence, each of them in their respective territory and clashing ferociously in a vicious elemental battle.

If there was a crowd of specctators around, they probably would be making stupid comments, like they always did in Peerless Martial God. Fortunately, we were in the area where Cloud Sky Mountain was formerly responsible for. Earlier, Wu Tuo and his subordinates had killed every civilian and Nine-Tailed Fox Sect member in the area, so there was no one present to perform the stupid role of commenting about how I shoud be getting my ass kicked by the talented and renowned Pang Feng like how it always happened in Peerless Martial God.

Wu Tuo had evidently tracked me down to this area - I recalled how he, Pang Feng and Pang Yun were chasing me halfway through Tong Xue and my retreat from the Divine Shadow Sect mansion. I realized I must have passed through this area with Tong Xue, Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou by sheer coincidence, and when they detected our qi, Wu Tuo and the Pang siblings immediately moved out to intercept me.

By fortuitous chance, I had chosen to land in the district where Cloud Sky Mountain formerly governed, and they capitalized on the opportunity to surround me. But seeing that I was alone (I was glad that I told Tong Xue to go ahead of me in the opposite direction) with Tang Qi Hong, Wu Tuo had relaxed and let his guard down, leaving immediately. He had left me for Pang Feng to deal with, because we were supposedly friends.

Wu Tuo must have reckoned that Pang Feng would be able to persuade me based on our friendship, or if worst come to worst and we clashed, he believed that Pang Feng – the most talented martial artist of his generation among Cloud Sky Mountain Sect – would definitely be able to defeat me in a battle.

Pang Yun had also chosen to leave because she also, like Wu Tuo, had complete confidence in her brother's martial ability.

Unfortunately, neither of them had been to Wu Ling Academy, and thus they had not actually seen me fight. And obviously they didn't bother to watch recordings of my matches or do their research on me, or they would a bit more worried. Well, you know what they say about the frog and the well, and while Wu Tuo was definitely strong, he was but a big fish in a small pond. The Cloud Sky Mountain wasn't even a major sect.

"Huff…"

Pang Feng took a deep breath, and then he stomped forward with a yell.

"Golden Stone Art: Third Style! Landslide!"

"What are we playing, Pokemon now?" I demanded as I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes.

Pang Feng paid no attention to my jab. He swung both of his arms instead, spinning them around like gears. Chunks of golden light clumped together, manifesting in the shape of sharp, golden rocks, and he unleashed them at me all at once. They were literally creating a landslide, a stream of rolling rocks that gushed violently toward me to bury me under tons of stone.

There was no way in hell I would allow myself to get hit by something that heavy and dangerous.

Plunging my Azure Lotus Sword into the ground once more, I yelled, "Enhance Armament!" and infused my qi into the blade. Azure qi swept from my arms and into my Treasure Spirit Sword before surging outward and encasing the entire space around me in ice. In a second, the rampaging landslide was completely frozen in place.

However, Pang Feng was not polite enough to wait for me to stop his technique. Unlike Wu Tuo and Pang Yun, he had actually fought side by side with me before, and had witnessed my techniques and skills. Thus he wasn't going to make the same mistake of underestimating me. However, he wasn't going to swoop so low and rely on other people's assistance to defeat me.

As a friend, he wanted a fair, one-on-one match.

Crashing through the shattering ice, Pang Feng threw another punch at me, but I stood my ground and deflected his fist with my Azure Lotus Sword while ducking his other fist. Kicking him to push him a step or two back, I used Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps to pinpoint a weak point in his golden armor. Catching sight of what seemed like a huge hole, a swirling maelstrom of qi that was unstable and not yet solidified, I thrust my sword forward just as he blocked my other kick, and stabbed him right in that churning circle of qi.

"Kuh!"

Pang Feng staggered a few steps back as a huge portion of his armor simply disintegrated, revealing his golden skin underneath. A drop of blood trickled from the place where I stabbed him, but fortunately his golden armor had absorbed most of the force or it would have been a much more severe injury.

"What is this technique?" Pang Feng frowned, trying to fight both his fear and anxiety. He had never heard of a sword technique that could have punched through his armor and destroy it so easily. Not even Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship contained such immense power!

I merely smiled and slashed at him again, following the lines of qi that I could see with my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, and opening up a wound in his more vulnerable flesh that was no longer clad in dense spirit armor.

"So incredibly secretive. Not only were you hiding your swordsmanship, you were also hiding such a powerful martial arts technique!"

"Say what?" my jaw dopped. "Since when did I ever hide my swordsmanship? I've always been using swords in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, you know? If you don't believe me, you can ask Tong Xue, hell, even Zhao Shi, Da Ge and Zi Xiao Ji, if you don't believe me."

Pang Feng remained calm, golden light gradually condensing within his eyes, as he continued on, probably because he was reciting from a script rather than actually responding realistically. "But did you truly think that you would be able to beat me just because you've cultivated so many martial arts? Only if you wholeheartedly focus on a single martial art can you truly wield its immense powers! As for you, who dabbles in everything, you will never be able to sense the true essence of a single martial art!"

As he said this, Pang Feng tore off the tattered remains of his golden armor, as well as his shirt. Oh boy…the fujoshi are going to go wild over this scene.

But more than that, I couldn't help but throw my hands up in exasperation.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" I yelled. "Who told you I learn many martial arts!? I only learned two or three at most, but that's about it! And I fuse them all together into a single martial art! I don't dabble in everything! Are you mistaking me for Qin Lie, who can wield about three or more spirit elements at the same time!?"

Pang Feng hesitated a little, and then he looked sheepish.

"Whoops, wrong story!"

"Wrong story, my ass!" I grumbled. "Can we stop talking about Spirit Realm and its absurdities and focus on the present?"

"You're right." Pang Feng nodded. A layer of golden qi that resembled molten metal seemed to flow over his glowing body before solidifying. I couldn't help but blink in surprise as a new golden armor formed over his body.

"You're getting rid of your previous Spirit Armor to don a new one."

"Well, you destroyed the previous one, so I have to replace it." Pang Feng shrugged. "Don't worry, it's not more powerful, otherwise I would have used it from the start." His glowing eyes narrowed. "I know from experience that it's not wise to underestimate you."

"That makes you a hell lot wiser than any enemies," I commented dryly.

Pang Feng didn't reply and he dashed forward to punch me again. Having detected his qi and reading its flow, I knew where his attacks would come, what techniques he would use and how he would move. I evaded him almost effortlessly, despite being highly aware of how devastating receiving just one attack would be. Pang Feng was extremely strong. It was akin to trying to dodge blasts from a BFG9000. Sure, the projectile might be slow enough for me to strafe and dodge, but it was immensely powerful where it would pretty much obliterate me if I take a direct hit.

And there were no healing items I could pick up to restore my health. This wasn't a game, after all. Hence my issue with power levels – people just seem to think reality could be neatly quantified into levels when only games do that.

"Stop moving around and dodging!" Pang Feng complained as his fist grazed the air where my head had been, and I jumped over his kick before delivering one of my own to his gut. He cursed and punched at me again, but I was already whirling away.

"What, and let you hit me?" I scoffed. Pang Feng looked a little embarrassed when he realized how stupid and whiny his demand sounded. "Let's be honest, if you can't even defeat me, what makes you think you'll be able to protect Qi Hong better than I can?"

"You've a point." Pang Feng conceded. At that, a flash of inspiration struck me.

"Why don't you just leave Cloud Sky Mountain and join us? I'm sure if we work together, we'll be able to repel any enemy trying to invade Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. That's why you joined Blood Blades, right? To protect the sect and your sister. And Qi Hong."

There was a momentarily glint of hesitation in Pang Feng's eyes, just as I hoped, but it was gone in a second and he shook his head.

"With ten sects invading the sect? Not a chance. Even if we work together, even with Tong Xue helping us out, there's no way the three of us can fight off the combined power of ten sects. Be more practical and accept reality."

"Even so, Tong Xue chose to side with us and fight to the death for the sect," I persisted. "Why are you derelict in your duty?"

"Because…living on is the most important thing."

"With your help, our chances of surviving will increase," I pointed out. Pang Feng faltered for a little, but rationality overruled honor and friendship, and he shook his head. I realized he was also thinking about his sister as much as Tang Qi Hong. He didn't want to protect just Tang Qi Hong, but his sister Pang Yun as well.

"I'm choosing the path where we have the most chances of survival," he declared. He closed his eyes guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. We all have our beliefs and paths." I shook my head before dodging another of his punches. "We will fight for what we believe is right, like we are doing right now." I smiled. "Just don't hold a grudge if you get defeated."

Pang Feng chuckled. "I could say the same to you!"

"Oh, I won't hold a grudge against you," I assured him. "After all, it's not like you're Qi Fu Ren, and you're bullying me for malicious reasons. Even though I don't agree with you, I still understand where you're coming from and why you've chosen to act the way you did."

"Thank you." Pang Feng momentarily stopped his attack to look at me seriously. "I really appreciate it."

Then he struck, but I had seen his attack coming from far away with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps and dodged it easily.

"But even so, that won't change my mind. I will bring Tang Qi Hong with me, even if she ends up hating me!"

"Then I'll just have to stop you."

His fist met my blade, and ice spread around his knuckles. Pang Feng unleashed a burst of qi to shatter the ice, but I had jumped up using footwork and kicked him in the face, causing him to stagger. Another thrust from my sword at one of those swirling maelstroms of qi that I could perceive with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps was enough to obliterate his second armor and send him staggering back, and I followed up with a kick that almost knocked him off his feet.

"Ugh…"

Pang Feng righted himself before dropping to a knee, breathing heavily. I capitalized on the moment to finish him off, but he suddenly launched an uppercut. If I hadn't detected his abrupt ambush with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, he would have punched a hole through my body.

"Wow…you even managed to avoid that…"

Pang Feng shook his head and forced a bitter smile as I vaulted away and landed a safe distance from him. I shrugged.

"Still want to go at it?"

"…"

Pang Feng closed his eyes for a moment and slowly rose to his feet.

"Sorry, but I'm going to make a selfish request." His eyes wandered away from me and rested on Tang Qi Hong, who was still being guarded by my hovering Snow Aegis. "Let's finish this fight with the next attack. Otherwise our fight is going to attract unwanted attention from the other sects, and they'll come in here and abduct Qi Hong when we've weakened and wounded each other."

He then faced me seriously.

"Let's both use our most powerful attacks and decide this once and for all."

"Fine." I gripped my Azure Lotus Sword and nodded, confronting Pang Feng evenly. I honestly didn't have too much time to waste over this, so I might as well accept his request and get this done and over with. Pang Feng was still a friend, and as such I trusted him not to pull any despicable moves. He might be a bloody hypocrite, but he wasn't scheming enough to backstab me.

Pang Feng dropped to a stance and gathered as much golden rock qi into his fist as possible. The ground beneath his feet crumbled and I could see the stones elegantly rising into the air, drifting along his qi and weaving around him in a beautiful pattern. A few of the stones actually levitated behind him, seeming to form angelic wings. I could see a gargantuan terracotta warrior manifest behind him, its immense figure intangible and shimmering.

"Amazing," I said, impressed. "I'm sorry, but I don't know any fancy tricks like that. All I can do is channel all my qi into my sword."

As I mentined that, my azure sword glowed black as all my qi gushed into it. Pang Feng raised his head, and he probably saw a black, demonic dragon hovering behind me in the same manner as his terracotta warrior.

This was my ultimate attack, Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike.

"Let's do this."

I nodded in agreement, and the both of us charged at each other.

From a distance, it looked as if a golden cloud and a black cloud had collided with each other before exploding fiercely, demolishing the buildings on either side of the street.

*

The smoke and black and white qi slowly faded away.

Both Pang Feng and I stood a few meters away from each other, having rushed past our opponent and not turning around.

"Ugh!"

Blood spurted from my mouth and I dropped to a knee, clutching my chest. Panting heavily, I leaned on my sword and forced myself to remain conscious. Damn, but I had taken quite a bit of damage from that attack.

Pang Feng raised his hand and watched quietly as his golden armor crumbled and faded away. He clenched his fist and turned around. Blood streamed down his face and chest, and he wavered for a moment, but remained standing.

"…"

Tang Qi Hong studied the both of us from a distance, still protected by my Snow Aegis, which had stopped the blasts from the collision of our qi from reaching her. It was clear from her gaze that she was shocked by what she had just witnessed.

"Damn it," I muttered as my vision swam. After all that big talk, and I lost to Pang Feng?

However, Pang Feng did not share the same opinion as me. Even as he remained standing, he set his eyes on me.

"It's your victory," he declared.

"Huh?" I turned around, only to see the last of Pang Feng's armor disappear and he collapsed, the golden glow of his skin vanishing completely. He hit the dirt facedown, unmoving. My injuries forgotten, I forced myself to my feet and rushed to his side, checking to make sure he was all right. "Oi! Hang in there!"

To my immense relief, Pang Feng was still alive. He was breathing shallowly, but he had taken a lot of damage. Well, I just used Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike on him, so obviously he wouldn't come away unscathed.

"Phew…" After I exhaled, I began to apply emergency first aid. First, to staunch the bleeding. Of course, this being reality, there was no magic spirit pill where I could feed him and he would heal in a few minutes. And I didn't know any healing techniques like Teacher Yi Liao or Qing Xin Xia or members from the Green Dragon Sect.

Fortunately, Pang Feng's life was not in any danger. I sent his phone a message, and got up. Since Pang Feng was part of Cloud Sky Mountain, I doubted any of the invading sects would go after him. They should have been informed of his defection from Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and rejoining Cloud Sky Mountain, at least if Wu Tuo had been competent enough.

"Let's go."

Not knowing any medical techniques, I still needed to get Tang Qi Hong treated, so I picked her up and carried her back toward the direction of the sect.

Tang Qi Hong glanced worriedly at Pang Feng, and I smiled reassuringly.

"Pang Feng is fine. He'll be all right. I've applied first aid, and when he wakes up, he'll return to Cloud Sky Mountain. He won't be in any danger."

I had left him a message on his phone, telling him that I would keep Tang Qi Hong safe, and that he should take care of himself and return to Cloud Sky Mountain immediately.

Tang Qi Hong closed her eyes, looking a little relieved. At least she was much better than a certain Tang Si Qi, who only cared whether Qin Lie won and couldn't be bothered about the original Pang Feng's wellbeing, and was only interested in who was the "true victor" instead of, you know, worrying if Pang Feng was still alive, or his condition after falling and creating a huge crater in the earth. Then again, what do you expect from xianxia stories, where the heroines cared nothing about other people except the protagonists, and treated every other side characters as fodder?

A good while later, Pang Feng finally woke up. He reached and felt for the patches and bandages I had put on him, and smiled wryly.

"Even after fighting almost to the death, you still took care of me." He shook his head. "Fei Wu, you really are an idiot. I guess that's why we're friends."

Sitting up, he stared at the sky bitterly and raised his bandaged hands.

"Huh…I guess I lost, huh?" he then caught sight of his phone beside him, and swiping the screen, saw the text message I had left for him. He glanced through it and then shook his head again before staggering to his feet. "Fine, I'll listen to you, since you won."

As he trudged back toward Cloud Sky Mountain, he glanced back at the devastated remains of the street and raised an eyebrow.

"Those techniques that he used…they weren't just ice techniques from Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula or Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. Especially that last sword strike…it was neither Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship nor Nine-Tailed Frost Fox. And his evasion techniques, that was not from either of those…"

Suddenly he recalled something he read from long ago. A lost technique that allowed one to evade flawlessly, and even allowed one to read the opponent's qi and pick out weaknesses and openings.

Touching his chest, his eyes widened.

"Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps…why does Fei Wu know Heaven and Earth Formula?!"

From what Pang Feng remembered, Heaven and Earth Formula was the martial art of the evil, demonic sect, Heaven and Earth Sect. A sect that had struck terror into the Martial Arts Alliance and the civilians of the Great Zhou Empire just years ago, and it took the combined might of the various orthodox sects in the Martial Arts Alliance to bring down the former sect leader, Tian Mo. Tian Mo himself was the Absolute One, a tyrannical demonic martial artist who massacred entire villages and towns just to achieve supremacy.

Even the Imperial Guard had trouble fighting against the Heaven and Earth Sect.

"Why does Fei Wu know a martial art from such a terrifying demonic sect? What is his relationship with the Heaven and Earth Sect?"

Pang Feng felt disturbed as he returned to Great Nature's Heart. The moment he stepped inside, he pushed those uneasy thoughts out of his mind and walked past Wu Tuo, who was currently giving a group of Cloud Sky Mountain sect martial artists orders. The group was gathered around a holographic tactical display, which presented a map of Tushan City. It didn't take a genius to tell that they were busily strategizing an assault on Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.

Pang Yun was among the group, and she stood up when she caught sight of Pang Feng trudging past them.

"Brother!"

"Oh!"

"Pang Feng!"

Wu Tuo and the other martial artists turned to look at him, taking in his sorry state, the bandages and his injuries. Wu Tuo looked extremely astonished.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Pang Feng didn't elaborate. Wu Tuo studied him for a moment, and realized something was missing.

"Where's Tang Qi Hong? What happened? Did you decide to let her go?"

He could hardly conceive that Pang Feng would lose to a "nobody" like me. As I said, they were like frogs in a well, only comparing their martial artists' strength against people within the same sect and not bothering to find out about other sects.

Clearly, Wu Tuo had thought that Pang Feng had decided to let Tang Qi Hong go and respect her decision. Earlier, when Pang Yun returned, she had briefly explained what happened, and how I asked Tang Qi Hong to decide for herself. But that didn't make sense. Pang Feng took too long to return if that was just the case, and it also didn't explain the injuries.

So Wu Tuo probably dismissed it as Pang Feng having a change of heart in the middle of the battle, and forfeiting the match to respect Tang Qi Hong, for some obscure reason. Either way, the thought of Pang Feng losing never crossed his mind.

"I lost," Pang Feng replied in a single quiet sentence. "I lost to Fei Wu."

"What…?" Wu Tuo's jaw dropped. Pang Feng didn't elaborate and moved on, but Wu Tuo stood in his way. "How…?"

"He was stronger than me," Pang Feng answered simply. He didn't share any of his worries or speculation about me being from the Heaven and Earth Sect. He knew the implications of that, and that if the news of me being linked to a demonic sect went out, I would be in trouble. The Martial Arts Alliance had largely ignored me for now because I was deemed insignificant (I wasn't Qin Lie, after all), but if they learned that I had connections to a demonic sect, they would seek to hunt me down, kill me or "bring me to justice" like the hypocrites they were.

As much as we fought earlier, we were still friends, and Pang Feng still held some regard for me.

Shoving past a stunned Wu Tuo, Pang Feng continued on toward the back of the Great Nature's Heart.

"I'm injured and need some time to recover. Please don't disturb me."

Everyone could only watched, astounded, as Pang Feng emotionless walked out of the room without another word.

"This is the first time Pang Feng has lost to someone from his generation," one of the martial artists murmured in disbelief.

"Everyone loses." Wu Tuo had finally snapped out of his stupor and shook his head. "We can only hope he grows from it and not get too down from this minor setback. More importantly, everyone, back to the mission!"

Chapter end