Stranger Danger

Chapter 595: Pyrrhic Victory

“They ran?”

Chu Wangsun blanked out for an instant. He wasn’t expecting his attacker to make a sudden retreat, but then again, it made sense. It was true that he had taken a significant amount of damage, but the attacker had also suffered a worse blow. If they kept this up, then the battle could only end with their death. That was why they chose to retreat.

Chu Wangsun did not give chase. If the attacker had laid down a trap for him, then he was the one who would be in mortal peril.

The injuries he had taken were no joke. First, he had singlehandedly dealt with Pei Qiansui’s self-destruction and the resurrection of the Soul Refining Furnace. As a result, his energy reserves were severely depleted. Later, the mysterious attacker ambushed him, and while the battle only lasted a short time, it had been an extremely dangerous and exhausting affair as well.

Second, his face injury. Now that the man was gone, the Purple Sun Trueflame eating away at his flesh no longer had a source to fuel it. He was able to extinguish it easily as a result. However, it did not change the fact that his face was ruined by the Purple Sun Trueflame, and even with his strength, it would take him a long, long time to uproot the fiery poison within his charred flesh and restore his face.

Third, his Yin God’s injury. Yes, his “Eternal Sorrow” had severely injured the attacker, but he too suffered a rebound because of the attack. This was also what surprised him the most out of everything.

“Eternal Sorrow” was an extremely powerful mental offensive-type Magia. It was the emperor of Chu’s gift to him after he took first place in both the civil and martial examination. It came from the imperial family’s martial vault, and only an imperial descendant was allowed to learn it. It was praised as the greatest Spirit Master-stage mental offensive-type secret art within the martial vault.

But of course, the rating was subjective. Not only that, a good martial art was only good in the hands of a talented warrior. The greatest martial art in the world might look no better than a hoe swing in the hands of a warrior of inferior talent, while a hoe swing might look like the greatest martial art in the world in the hands of a genius warrior.

He was undoubtedly the heaven-favored genius who could make a hoe swing look like the greatest martial art in the world, much less a martial art that was already incredible to begin with. Ever since he mastered “Eternal Sorrow”, countless geniuses had lost or perished to the technique.

He could not deny that “Eternal Sorrow” played a role in him becoming undefeated during his younger days and the fourth named warrior on the Human Champions Ranking today.

The world wept because the sun and moon could never remain in the same sky for too long. Countless geniuses of his age too wept over the fact that he knew “Eternal Sorrow”. One might say that “Eternal Sorrow” was one of his greatest trump cards.

When he used it against his attacker, he was sure it was the right move because a body-tempering warrior honed the body but not the mind. A weak mind was easily the biggest weakness of all body-tempering warriors. That was why he was certain that “Eternal Sorrow” could easily wipe out their mind.

He realized he was wrong when he entered his opponent’s headspace though. The first thing he saw wasn’t his opponent’s Yin God, but a vast, seemingly boundless space where the sky and the earth were nowhere to be seen.

At the center of the unusual world was a throne fashioned from a black lotus, and seated on the throne was a grand, massive figure.

The silhouette had no distinct shape or face. No rules bound them, and its power seemed boundless. It waved its hand and attempted to shatter his sun, moon, and Eternal Sorrow.

He wasn’t going to allow it, of course. The sun and moon changed places, and everything in the world began aging rapidly. He attempted to wipe out his opponent’s Yin God with the power of time.

Two wisps of consciousness clashed, and although his sun and moon successfully dealt his opponent a huge blow, he was in their domain. The grand figure too shattered his Eternal Sorrow and annihilated his wisp of consciousness, triggering a rebound.

The end result was a double injury. He was the minor victor of this clash, but the fact that it was a small victory felt like a defeat.

Why? Because his name was Chu Wangsun.

He had never suffered a defeat since he became a warrior.

To him, fighting a peer to a draw was no different from defeat, not to mention that his opponent’s cultivation level was lower than his. Even if the fight had started with him being severely depleted, even if he had underestimated his opponent, even if his opponent was an extremely rare warrior who cultivated both body and mind, it still did not justify his defeat.

After all, assuming his opponent was on the same cultivation level as him, then he would be the one making a run for it instead of his opponent, right?

So he lost. It was a terrible defeat too.

A flinty glint flickered in his eyes as Chu Wangsun bowed his head. A dark and suffocating pressure surrounded his person.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, Chu Wangsun lifted his head and looked in a certain direction.

A man wearing pink robes was dashing toward him at high speed. It was none other than Xie Taohua.

Xie Taohua was wearing a look of shock and fear on his face as he stared at the ruins around him and felt the terrifying mixture of energies in the air.

It was nothing compared to the shock he felt when he saw Chu Wangsun’s charred face, however.

What on earth?

What happened to Mister Nine? Why did he look like this?

What on earth could push the powerful, terrifying, invincible Chu Wangsun to this extent?

Have I gone blind?

Or was the resurrection of a Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact much greater than I expected?

A while later, Xie Taohua finally managed to push down his shock and ask, “Are... Are you alright, Brother Chu?”

“I’m fine.”

As Chu Wangsun spoke, the charred flesh on his face fell off to reveal smooth, unblemished skin. However, the new skin seemed to be emitting wisps of hot, purple aura. Xie Taohua could still feel it even though he was standing about ten meters away from Chu Wangsun.

Chu Wangsun couldn’t seem to feel it, however. With a single wave of his hand, his tattered, filthy clothes returned to its usual state: clean and unblemished. He looked at Xie Taohua and asked, “Why are you here?”

Instead of countering with one of the many questions brewing inside his head, Xie Taohua answered, “I came to see if I could lend you a hand.”

“There’s no need. I’ve resolved everything,” Chu Wangsun answered.

At what cost? Xie Taohua thought, but of course he wasn’t stupid enough to voice it. “As expected of you, Brother Chu. This one is most impressed.”

Xie Tao hesitated for a moment after paying the compliment. “Can I say something, Brother Chu?”

“Share me your thoughts, Brother Xie!” Chu Wangsun answered.

Xie Taohua obliged with a frown, “I feel like Pei Qiansui wasn’t acting like himself back at the restaurant.”

“What do you mean?” Chu Wangsun asked.

Xie Taohua took a moment to organize his thoughts before answering, “The Pei Qiansui I know isn’t just a cruel man. He is also cunning and capable of great forbearance. Once, he pretended to be his target’s underling for an entire year and never slipped up no matter how much work, pain, and humiliation his target dished out to him without slipping up. Then, when the time was right, he slew his target flawlessly.”

“A man like him would never attack unless he was certain he could kill you. Therefore, I suspect that foul play is involved. Someone may have been behind this incident.”

As he spoke, the strange man Xie Taohua saw on Peach Blossom Mountain suddenly entered his mind.

Could it be him?

“You’re right. Someone did make this happen.” Chu Wangsun nodded.

“Oh? How did you know?” Xie Taohua exclaimed in astonishment.

Chu Wangsun answered honestly, “I just fought them.”

During the mental battle against his mysterious attacker, he had experienced their evil and anomalous Yin God firsthand. He was born with a Saint’s Heart and extremely fair, but even he had come under assault by all sorts of illusions and emotional influences.

Now that Xie Taohua mentioned it, he immediately figured out the ins and outs of the situation.

So, it was all a ploy by the person. The goal was to pit them against each other and reap the rewards in the end.

The coldness in Chu Wangsun’s eyes deepened.

“You fought them?” Xie Taohua’s mind failed to process Chu Wangsun’s words in time before he blurted, “Were they the one who dealt you your injuries, Brother Chu?”

Chu Wangsun did not answer, but the pressure around him grew even more suffocating.