Broken Sword

Huan Chao stomped his foot hard on the ground. The Qi flowing through his body belonged to the second step of Path of the Earth. After all this time, the battle with Huan Manchu had recharged his meridians with energy, and Huan Kong had helped him break through, giving him the last drop he needed.

Huan Wei had a satisfied expression on his face. His father's power was now equal to Huan Kong's. With his Body Tempering tier, Huan Chao had become even more powerful.

The second realm was the Path Realm. It depended on the path one chose. In Bitter Sea Town, adults usually chose Path of the Earth and walked a few steps along it. Because of its location on the continent and its general remoteness from valuable places, people's way was not very clear.

There was no one in Bitter Sea Town who had crossed over to the Life Link Realm. The most powerful person in the town was Huan Shanyuan, the grandson of Huan Fu. He had chosen the Path of the Divines and had reached the fourth step. Even Huan Fu had chosen Path of the Earth. Therefore, Huan Chao was in a strong position in this battle.

"Ghost Fist!" He extended his fist once more. The pillar that Huan Kong had taken out met the blow. But this time it didn't just crack. It broke and fell backwards.

"Stone Palm!" Earth Qi formed again into a stone palm attack. This time, instead of dodging aside, Huan Chao stretched out his hands and grabbed the stone, pushing it aside. Immediately afterwards, he started running towards Huan Kong.

Huan Wei, meanwhile, was trying to get behind him. Realizing that he would be caught in the middle, Huan Kong raised a diagonal pillar from under his own feet and threw himself a little away from them.

"If you were going to run away all day, why did you come after us?" Huan Chao asked in a contemptuous tone. "Are you going to avenge your son by running away?"

Then he turned to his son. "We're leaving, Wei."

They left Huan Kong there and started to run away. The man was stunned to see them running away. Did neither of them have a shred of pride? Were they really leaving in the middle of a battle?

"Where are you going, you idiots!?" He started running after them. "The only place you can go is the Cycle!"

Meanwhile, Huan Kong continued his Stone Palm attacks. Inside Huan Kong was the pain of his son. The slander and execution of his son weighed heavily on his soul. What good is a father if he cannot protect his son? He couldn't let them escape... He just couldn't... He was ready to die for this cause.

He raised another pillar and threw himself in front of them. As soon as he landed, he pulled out another pillar and smashed it, throwing it at them. Huan Wei stepped aside. Huan Chao used his Ghost Fist to smash the stone chunk in mid-air.

Meanwhile, Huan Kong took out a pill from a pouch and swallowed it. His Qi must have been quite low. He had used too much since the battle started. Huan Chao seemed to be in good condition. He only had one technique. It didn't use much of his Qi either.

Huan Wei pointed his curved sword at him. "You think your son is an angel, don't you?" he asked. "Your son deserved much worse. If he hadn't been executed, I would have killed him myself, first by giving him hope and then by taking it away, by making him feel fear."

"Shut up!" As Huan Kong stamped his foot, a pillar rose from beneath Huan Wei and threw the young man into the air. At the same moment, Huan Chao started running towards Huan Kong.

After Huan Wei had risen a few meters, he fell hard to the ground. He ached all over from the impact. He could barely hold his sword in his hand as a pained groan escaped his mouth.

Huan Chao pushed aside another stone palm that flew at him with his hands and kept running. Seeing him approaching, Huan Kong raised himself up with a pillar he had pulled out from under himself. But Huan Chao would not allow it.

He jumped up and grabbed the man by the ankle before he could fully rise. Pulling him down, he lifted him by the collar and slammed him hard against the stone pillar. The pillar shattered. Huan Kong was so angry that he didn't even make a sound. Yet he had certainly broken a few bones.

Huan Kong slammed his hand down and a diagonal pillar appeared, throwing the pot-bellied man away from him. Huan Chao tried to regain his balance, but he failed and tumbled to the ground. By this time Huan Wei was also on his feet.

The young man looked at Huan Kong. The blow he had just received seemed to have been quite effective. "It looks like he didn't Body Tempering," he thought. "In that case, I can kill him too."

He gripped his sword tighter and suddenly charged towards the man. Huan Kong was taking deep breaths. When he saw Huan Wei running towards him, he threw a stone palm at him.

But the young man was not as clumsy as his father. With a quick step he dodged. Huan Kong attacked once more, yet that attack also missed its target. Huan Wei quickly came to his side. He raised the sword held in both hands and swung with all his strength.

As Huan Kong raised his arms to defend himself, a pillar from the ground blocked the sword. Huan Wei could not stop himself and struck the stone pillar with his sword. With the sound of metal shattering, half of the sword flew off and stuck in the tree next to it.

Immediately afterwards, Huan Kong struck the stone pillar, sending Huan Wei flying back with a huge chunk. He swallowed another pill as the young man recovered.

When Huan Kong came to, he gritted his teeth in anger. He wasn't going to lose here. Not to these two losers...

He jumped into the air and stomped both feet hard on the ground. Pillars emerged from the ground and enclosed them in a quadrangle. Huan Kong had blocked their escape route, trapping them in the same area as himself.

Immediately afterwards, he pulled out a pillar and threw himself onto a branch of one of the trees. He stood on the branch and stretched out his hands, sending out stone palms.

Huan Wei immediately went behind one of the trees inside the field. As soon as the large chunk of stone hit it, the tree shook violently. Before the second piece hit, Huan Wei jumped behind another tree. The previous tree had fallen over.

Huan Chao resisted one of the stone palms with more brute strength, but Huan Kong kept consuming pills. Huan Chao countered the successive attacks with his own technique. However, he didn't have pills like Huan Kong. So he couldn't spend his Qi carelessly.

He chose one of the trees and stood behind it. He also leaned his back against it, allowing him to withstand the stone attacks. When Huan Kong couldn't hit him, he started to attack Huan Wei. The young man was also constantly shifting. Because of Stone Palm's size and slowness, Huan Kong could not hit him.

"What happened!?" shouted the man on the tree. "You were talking about running away! Come out of hiding! Come on!"

Huan Wei thought about the situation they were in. Huan Kong was up there and there was nothing he could do at long range. But his father's Ghost Fist technique might work.

He looked towards Huan Chao and without speaking, he balled his hand into a fist and showed it to him. He was pointing at Huan Kong with his eyes. Yet his father gave him such a contemptuous look that he gave up.

It seemed that Huan Chao could not attack at such a long range. On the other hand, if they tried to get close to him, it would be difficult to dodge Huan Kong's attacks.

At that moment, one of the trees that had just fallen down caught Huan Wei's eye. It was quite close to Huan Chao. He could use it if they needed to bring Huan Kong down.

"Hey, Kong!" he shouted. Meanwhile he was pointing at the tree to his father. As Huan Chao looked at the broken tree trunk, the young man continued talking to Huan Kong. "You know, I figured out Huan Hong's plan before he did. I set the fire. I even painted a wooden hairpin silver and made everyone think it was him. Luckily, no one even suspected the spear."

"I'll rip out that tongue of yours!" As Huan Kong's stone palm flew towards the tree, Huan Wei immediately left his place and came to the center. He was completely exposed. He could see that Huan Kong was red with anger.

"Hit me!" he said as he started to run. He was running sideways. Huan Kong attacked him one after another. The battlefield was littered with pieces of stone that he had shaped.

When Huan Wei ran into the trees behind the tree where Huan Kong was standing, Huan Chao also moved. While Huan Kong tended to his son, Huan Chao grabbed the tree trunk with both hands. Then he lifted it and ran and hit the tree where Huan Kong was with all his strength.

Huan Kong, who was taking care of Huan Wei at the time, did not see this. The tree shook violently, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall down.

At the moment he fell to the ground, Huan Chao had raised the tree to crush him. But he reacted quickly and pulled out a pillar from the ground and threw Huan Chao away.

At the same moment, Huan Wei charged at him. He thrust his broken sword into his throat. Huan Kong immediately turned back and knocked him backwards with a pillar too.

When the young man was thrown a few meters and fell to the ground, he had a smile on his face. Then he started laughing in a low voice. "Hahhahhahhahhahah."

His hand was empty. When he lowered his head a little and looked at Huan Kong, he saw the sword stabbed into the man's throat.

Huan Kong's eyes were wide open. As he fell to his knees, he put his hands to his own throat. But before he could do anything, he fell on his face.

When Huan Wei took a deep breath and stood up, Huan Chao had arrived. The Drunkard bent down and picked up Huan Kong's pill pouch. He rummaged through his pockets and put all the money he could find in his own pocket.

Then he and Huan Wei looked eye to eye. Huan Chao pulled the broken sword from Huan Kong's throat and threw it at his son. He caught it in mid-air.

Huan Wei looked at him eagerly for a moment. Perhaps he was expecting another praise. But Huan Chao said nothing. He raised his hand and used Ghost Fist to break the pillar wall. Then he started to walk away.

Huan Wei also started to follow him, his happiness disappearing.