Dance of Embers (3)

I stopped holding back and started hitting. Black fire kept coming out, so for a moment I was even horrified—what kind of crap did they want to stuff me with in the local alchemy pavilion? But even that wasn't enough. The field of the protective amulet, although covered with cracks, was confidently taking my blows. But what if...

I tried to capture the black flame with my power. It was going badly—too angry, wild power. At some point, it seemed to me that everything was working out, but something small was missing. What if?

Black flame flowed into the Dance of Embers technique. Wild pain pierced my body, I screamed. Ho immediately took advantage of the moment and sent a fireball at me, but the black aura simply absorbed it. And in the next moment, I once again felt an incomparable feeling. The feeling of a breakthrough. It was as if it became easier for me to breathe. Controlling both techniques simultaneously became incredibly easy, only the fuel for my super weapon ran out. Never mind. There's still a lot of black fire around and now, I can control it. A sharp lunge and a crack appears on the big guy's family amulet.

"This is impossible! Impossible!" he shouted, and the sand was heating up more and more, in places even melting into glass. Control over the fire wall technique completely disappeared, and the flame was just spreading around at a frenzied speed, wasting the power invested in it.

Black fire, obeying my will, enveloped me like armor, the scarlet veins on my body darkened, becoming crimson. From the outside, I now looked like some kind of demon, but the main thing is that the combined technique allowed me to break through Ho's protective amulet.

I hit quickly, brutally, remembering all the pain points on the human body. Kai's memory guided me, making the strikes technical and the movements honed. Ho tried to defend himself, tried to apply some technique, but at the last moment they all failed. Ho wasn't used to pain. He's afraid of it. What a pleasant surprise for me. And a deadly one for him.

At some point, it all ended. There was no more raging flame around, there was no mighty cultivator Ho. Just a beaten guy who couldn't even hold back tears. I extinguished the Pure Flame technique and sighed with relief. It was hard. Very. And even the body cleansed of impurities didn't help.

"Did I win?" I shouted, looking at the elders' stand.

"The duel was to the death! You're both still alive! What victory are you talking about?" Mo Shan answered me. I looked at the whimpering guy. Damn you, why am I hesitating? He would never have spared me! Am I weak? Weak? Or maybe on the contrary, I'm stronger than these crooked parodies of righteous Taoists?

"Let's wait a couple of hours, they'll get tired, change their minds," I sighed and turned to walk away. At that moment, I felt a movement of force behind my back. An attempt to activate the Dance failed—I simply had no Qi, not a drop! Rolling forward on bare instincts, I heard an explosion. Only there was no pain. There was only a painful groan and the deathly silence of the spectators.

"Technical victory for Kai Shen!" the old man barked a second later. Here's a new lesson for you, Kai. Don't leave living enemies behind your back. Never.

Casting a last glance at Ho's body, I headed towards the opened exit. My guards were already waiting for me there. The crowd whistled after me, curses poured from everywhere. Suddenly I felt a colossal pressure of force. I abruptly couldn't breathe, and the people in the stands suddenly fell silent. Turning around, I saw that the sect leader Kao Shen was literally floating above the stadium. Levitation technique? Or just enormous power allowing to ignore the laws of nature.

"Brothers. Sisters. Members of the great Phoenix sect. In honor of such an ambiguous duel, I want to announce. I expel disciple Kai Shen from the Phoenix sect! And so that no one has the desire to vent their grievances—as the head of the Shen clan, I will send him into exile to the Fort of Eternal Ice!" he solemnly declared. Wait, I might be mistaken, but I think those two mentioned a different name.

The silence held for a few more moments, and then I was deafened by a barrage of voices. People were rejoicing. And in my head, only two questions were spinning. What's so terrible about this ice grotto, and why do all these people hate me so sincerely?

And it seems I'll learn the answer to the first question very soon.