Chapter 35: Chapter 35 Raul vs Jason finale

Raul’s body spasmed with sparks and blood poured from his many wounds as he struggled to get up.

‘A bad burn on the side, scores of minor cuts, lightning qi invasion, and minor qi deviation. A heavy blow, but he can still fight.’ That was Ellen’s professional assessment, but her blood still froze as she gazed at his mutilated form.

Anger, worry, and guilt all flooded her mind simultaneously as she cursed herself for not stopping the fight sooner.

She’d wanted to intervene when she noticed the seal on the spear behind Raul, but she’d listened to Marina’s request to wait and now Raul was paying the price for it.

She didn’t care about her assignment or training anymore, she was stopping the fight and getting Raul help now!

It couldn’t be helped. Raul in Ellen’s mind was fragile and needed protecting. Even if she knew in her head that he’d stepped onto the path of cultivation and would have to endure countless dangers worse than this, the protective instincts she’d developed over the years weren’t so easily washed away.

Marina was in no position to stop her from calling the fight as her hand was to her chest trying to calm her racing heart.

‘That lunatic!’ Marina felt an invisible guillotine above her.

She’d specifically told Raul not to use attribute manipulation! Manipulation wasn’t as simple as emission. Emission referred to releasing attribute qi and letting it work as nature intended, manipulation changed properties of the qi and could be used like techniques.

Techniques were well tested and safe, designed to cause minimum harm if anything went wrong, particularly at the lower realms of cultivation, but attribute manipulation took away all the safety nets. The dangers of this couldn’t be stressed.

Summer Burst skillfully uses wind with an enhanced propulsion effect while dispelling all harmful aspects of wind, but Raul’s attribute manipulation replication of the technique couldn’t controlling the propulsion nor nullify Wind Attribute’s natural cutting properties, leaving him riddled with wounds of varying severity.

‘Thankfully I didn’t teach him a Qi Cultivation Method, or else he would’ve really cut himself to ribbons.’ Marina praised her past self for making that bold decision, but she could still feel the noose around her neck.

Where Ellen’s blood froze Marina’s boiled. He wouldn’t ignore her instructions again, of that she’d make sure.

Ellen raised her hand to put a stop to the match, but her hand paused part way. Her eyes widened in shock as a heavy wind began to blow around the house.

“This is…” Ellen’s eyes became serious as the primordial wind qi in the air ran wild.

‘Shadow Reach.’ A thin shadow spread from her feet and imperceptible fused with the ground of the entire field. Every shadow within thirty meters were under her authority. With a single thought she could protect everyone here.

Her spiritual sense spread out afterwards and searched everything within a hundred meters, but there was no foreign entity at play. Absolutely nothing was influencing the wind.

‘How is this possible?’ Shock morphed her face as she finally pinpointed a source. The wind qi… seemed to be reacting to Raul’s qi.

Impossible. Simply impossible. Sure, cultivators could use primordial qi like this, but definitely not in the Refining Realm. Hell, even the True Pillar Realm couldn’t.

‘So it wasn’t a fluke.’ Marina watched with incredibly mixed feelings. She’d hoped for this phenomenon to appear for months, now she felt like cursing when it actually did.

Resonance. A phenomenon that occurs when primordial qi favors an individual and aids them. It was entirely different from the ordering of qi that all higher-level cultivators could do.

In resonance, the qi aided willingly. It was worlds different from forcefully accosting it. There were many advantages to this, to the point that those who could achieve it were said to be loved by the world itself.

It appearing now put Marina in a difficult spot. She absolutely needed the data on this phenomenon. Raul’s Dao Weapon and Qi Cultivation Technique couldn’t be properly discerned without accounting for it.

However, Raul’s use of attribute manipulation was dangerous. She wouldn’t even be able to cry about it If he accidentally cut his neck. But if she lets Ellen stop the fight then who knows when he might trigger resonance again.

Her mind weighed the cost and benefits at lightning speed. She didn’t even notice Ellen’s use of spiritual sense as she scrambled to make a decision.

Marina grabbed Ellen’s still half outstretched hand. “It’s not over yet.” She said firmly.

Ellen hesitated and looked at the bloody young man struggling to get up. He looked so hurt and fragile, but the resonating wind told a different story.

there was no anger or pain in it, the wind danced with a mad fervor and joy. Even without seeing his face she could picture it. Slowly, her hand dropped.

Raul’s muscles fought with him ever step of the way, but he managed to get himself up. The entire right side of his body was trembling from the effects of the shock and the smell of burnt flesh was overwhelming. The only reason he hadn’t lost his sword was that the shock forced him to clench it.

His insides felt like a molten mess. The damage from cancelling Winter’s Chill and the lightning qi greatly injured him internally.

Despite this, a grin stretched across his face as he got up. He’d always had an odd feeling of restriction when he used his techniques, like he was fighting in a narrow hallway. But now the walls were gone, he could finally move as he pleased!

All of Marina’s warnings were long lost to him, all he could think about was winning. He stamped his foot down and the wind clad around him as he shot forth. Jason spun his two spears to meet him with gritted teeth,

Jason didn’t understand the source of the strange wind, but he was certain it wasn’t good. He wanted to finish Raul while he was down, but he was busy dealing with his own lightning.

He’d planned to make a seal to trap the lightning when it reached his palm, but Raul disarmed him faster than he intended, and He was forced to disperse the lightning manually as a result.

‘I could’ve fired a second bolt by now if that bastard hadn’t gotten a lucky shot.’ Jason cursed. He’d never know that the authenticity of his disarming was the only reason Raul got caught.

Raul’s current speed was much slower than Summer Burst, but it was continuous. Jason barely retrieved his second spear when Raul came before him.

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Raul’s arm screamed in agony as he swung sword, but his boiling blood made him deaf to it.

Jason quickly blocked the blow, but before he could send one of his own, Raul disappeared.

Raul appeared at Jason’s side next and stabbed forward.

Jason hastily moved his other spear to defend. But before the two weapons even touched, Raul moved again, appearing at Jason’s back.

He slashed viciously three times, causing a thin red line on Jason’s skin at the intersection point.

Jason grunted softly and swung back, but Raul was already gone. Raul continued to dash in and out of Jason’s range under the shocked gazes of Marina and Ellen.

Sometimes he’d move just out of Jason’s range, sometimes he’d block instead of dodging, and sometimes he’d move so far away it’d give Jason time to recover. It was erratic and wild, wasteful and undisciplined, yet also free and beautiful.

It was as if he was in a mad tango with the wind as it encased him. So in tune was their dance that it became impossible to tell who lead or followed.

Marina felt her heart beating madly as she watched. Though she could pick out a hundred flaws in Raul’s current movements, there was something about the unburdened nature of those movements that ignited a longing in her heart.

Cuts continued to pile up on Jason, but they were all insubstantial. Conversely, Jason couldn’t hit Raul at all anymore, but he didn’t need to.

Even though Raul was just riding the wind instead of making it propel him, blades still sliced into him. While some were inconsequential, some went deep. If it continued like this Raul would undoubtably reach his limit before he could break Jason out of his shell.

However, that outcome was only if Jason could keep Scaled Armor active. Raul’s strikes were constantly breaking Jason’s scales and consuming his qi. He’d already used a lot when Raul used Autumn Leaves earlier, and he’d used even more in his trap.

Jason had little qi to work with now, and it was hard to say if Raul would self-destruct before he ran out.

The fight continued and Raul was losing a lot of blood, despite using qi to hamper his bleeding. Yet even so, he did not miss a beat as he attacked relentlessly.

Raul held a maniacal desire to win, and his pain tolerance was already beyond what most Refining Realm Cultivators could hope to achieve. He wouldn’t stop, not until his body physically couldn’t move anymore.

Seeing Raul’s bloody condition not hinder his momentum slowly built pressure on Jason.

He was relatively unhurt, but Raul’s onslaught made him believe that he would run out of qi first. His mental focus built through years of training in the art of sealing broke.

“Just fall already!” Jason swung his spear wide while a lightning snake stretched off it to try and bite the dodging Raul.

Raul’s eyes widened as he saw the snake reaching for him. The snake didn’t have much power in it, but even a little shock would be enough to put Raul down in his current condition.

Raul’s smile widened instead of diminished at the sight of it. Without hesitation he made the surrounding winds collapse in on himself. It was a short burst, just enough to completely change his direction, yet it came with a price.

Several deeper cuts and dozens of smaller ones spattered across his body while his bones creaked and grounded as his momentum forcefully changed from backwards to forwards.

Raul could feel that his body reaching its absolute limits now, but it was worth it.

The sudden change in direction caused the snake to miss completely, and a swift duck was enough to dodge the swinging spear, leaving Jason completely open.

At a regular time, Raul might not have had enough time to complete the circulation for this move, but this wasn’t a regular time. The wind was at his back and his qi galloped through his veins, begging to be used.

A baleful white saturated the edge of Raul’s sword as he swung it at Jason’s chest.

Fear spread across Jason’s face as he poured all his remaining qi into his scales.

Clang!

Raul’s sword scrapped across the scales without leaving a scratch on them.

A look of shock spread across Jason’s face as he felt an impact even smaller than Raul’s usual strikes.

He almost sneered at Raul when his face froze halfway. He shivered uncontrollably as a cold air seeped into his body.

Panic spread across his face as he tried to stop the seeping qi, but it was too late. The deep chill froze his qi circulation. His scales flickered off like a short circuit, then the deep chill turned blinding hot as blood burst out of the deep cut on his chest.

It bears repeating, Marina meticulously chose Four Seasonal Winds after considering all of Raul’s disadvantages, including the weakness of his qi. The Winter Style originally held attacks with a penetrative aspect, and she’d altered it to make it even stronger in that aspect.

Before Jason could even make sense of what happened, he found Raul’s sword pointed at his unprotected throat.

“You lost.” Raul said. With cuts all over and blood pouring out profusely, his usual handsome looks became nightmarish, but the radiant and giddy smile on his face still carried an unbearable charm as he declared his victory.