Chapter Fourteen: Worth It.

A teenage boy with medium length blond hair styled into a ponytail with curtain bangs. He has yellow-amber eyes, and a single black stud earring on his left ear. Paired with a blue and black Hanfu robe with gold and pink accents flew through the air with a blade made of crystal-like ice with pink accents. 

While the teenage boy flew through the air, he carried a massive spike roughly up to 9 meters in diameter and 6 meters tall. Which was comical to look at as it dwarfed his own size, so one would just see a flying spike in the air moving at absurd speeds.

This is Yanqing, and currently, he is running away from someone he should not have angered as evident by the massive beast currently behind him. 

A few minutes prior…

"[Aurora], is it me or do you also feel something interesting nearby…" Yanqing spoke with utmost vigor, paired with a light of excitement in his yellow-amber eyes. 

The sword rotated itself in response, before getting into a flat position, ready for take-off. The signal was clear between the both of them, a strong opponent was nearby. 

Seeing the response from his sword, Yanqing hopped on before readying himself for the upcoming conflict. 

Using his [Ice Control] and [Frozen Azure Sword Essence Art] he prepared several blades, preparing for the conflict up ahead. 

The two soon dashed into the air, piercing the clouds above, and causing a noise as the sound barrier was soon broken by the two. 

Dozens of swords began to manifest within the air as they sped off towards the location of their strong adversary. 

…

Sensing a nearby aura approaching it, a massive beast the size of 150 ft calmly reduced its aura in order to prevent further detection from the incoming cultivator. 

The 5th Stage creature had been rolled over by several Core Formation Cultivators before it was finally able to stabilize and hide itself. Just now, it had to extend its magical technique which let out some of its breath… and to its amazement one of the Cultivators sensed it. 

It simply did not want to be messed with, wanting to go back into its deep slumber, and yet these bugs kept pestering it in an attempt to kill it. 

Yet the one approaching only seemed to be a mere bug. A Qi Condensation cultivator only, not even worthy to be its snack.

…

Although Yanqing couldn't specifically feel the aura level of the opponent, it felt like one he could definitely fight with enjoyment! The other fights previously had just been him effortlessly defeating his opponent, but this time this person should be strong!

Plus… if it is a demonic beasts then his funds for more swords and sheaths would increase. He had to create the best sheath afterall. 

Also, where was this opponent? He swore that he felt the aura around here somewhere… but all he sees is a giant mountain with suspicious spikes around it. 

'Hm… maybe those spikes would make great materials for future swords.' He thought to himself. The person in charge of this mountain, if any, wouldn't mind if he cleaned up this mountain a bit… 

Previously Yanqing had been working with less than 30% of his true strength as it was limited by his injuries. Now he's almost back at full strength, just missing his poor swords…

Now that he has [Aurora] by his side, which has a similar setup to the ones the Artisan Commissions had created, and also several other swords made using his [Ice Control] he should be more than halfway back to his peak strength. 

Now… this material shall be his for the taking. No one would mind right?

In a brief flash, Yanqing used [Aurora] as an output tool to generate the majority of the first divine ability to create a massive sword beam that was roughly 10m in length, before he used it to swiftly slash one of the spikes on the mountain. 

*CLANK*

After Yanqing slashed, he saw that his non-material Ice Qi Sword had done no damage to the spike. It also made a deep metallic noise when it slammed into the non-damaged spike… It seems to be quite the precious material. 

As he gazed upon the newfound hard metal, he gulped, with a new glint in his eyes. 'I neeeeeeeed it.'

[Aurora] saw the glint in its master's eyes, and mentally sighed. Though it did seem like quite the adversary if even it couldn't cut through it…

The two soon reached a mental agreement, as they wanted to–cut down this spike. 

In a moment of fervorous desire, he attempted to create a new move. One that would allow him to take this material to make an extremely cool sheath–He condensed the divine ability, which will now be dubbed [Sword Essence] into the maximum point.

As he condensed his [Sword Essence] that came from [Aurora] he adjusted his own altitude to the bottom of the mountain in order to take as much material as he possibly could. Since he didn't want to damage the material and fragment it he wanted to do it in a swift and clean motion. 

His previous sword moves focused on pure destruction, speed, and an AOE attack, but now he had to create a massive attack that focused everything on one point. 

He needed to change the shape of his [Sword Essence] into the sharpest object he could make while condensing it. Since mass and strength applied over a larger object would cause the cutting power to decrease, then why not increase the concentration and lower the size?

If an outsider were to see Yanqing right now, they would see a young blond boy holding a sword 10 meters in height flickering with purple blue aura. The sword's color soon turned more concentrated as the width of the sword became less and less. Yet, the fluctuation of aura increased as the sword turned light blue with a hint of pink. 

The previous 10m length stayed the same, but now it was no longer 3.5m in width. The shape had now dwindled down to 1.5m, showing a shape similar to another sword blast… 

Although Yanqing wanted to compress it even more, his current spiritual energy control wasn't good enough for him to achieve such a feat. But with his current weapon, no, his new move [Frozen Azure], he should be able to cut this spike off. 

Normally any other sword would have broken by now due to the massive energy fluctuation radiating off it, but due to the special properties of Six-Phased Ice and the unique circumstances it was born in, [Aurora] was able to handle it. 

But that was not the end, as a result of its own composition, it was able to conduct ice and spiritual energy far easier than– any other material in this mortal plane!

Yanqing took a step forward as he soon swung from his right side, with his waist and his upper body working in tandem to exert the maximum strength his body could currently produce. 

He took a deep breath, timing it with the moment his muscles reached full capacity!

And this, he took another step. With everything ready, he launched the sword beam.

[Frozen Azure]

The resulting damage instantly caused any organic material located on the mountain to freeze over instantly, causing a deadly wakeup call for any creature living on the mountain. The spike had been cut cleanly. 

As a flash passed through the rest of the mountain, startling the five stage monster below, the flash soon extended far past the mountains as it flew to a place far beyond their current location. 

It was akin to a falling meteor, but it was light blue in color and approaching a certain sect extremely quickly…

Without any further disturbances, Yanqing grabbed the massive spike before turning tail and running as he soon felt the same aura from before… but from below him.

A painful scream surrounded the vicinity. Hearing the scream, Yanqing turned around to see that… A mountain of blood soon spewed from the spike. 

'Oh.'

An excitement soon flashed in Yanqing's eye once more, but since he had to use his limits to bring out that slash… he should probably run. 

'Crap.'

Yanqing and [Aurora] sped through the air like none other, casually piercing the sound barrier itself as a massive boom echoed from their location. 

The mountain, no, a massive spiritual beast which was unidentifiable due to its massive size soon stood up. With piercing red eyes filled with absolute rage–charged at the duo, ignoring any other consequences that would come as a result of doing so. 

It's previously hidden aura spiking up to its limits as it revealed itself to be a peak stage 5 demonic beast. Equivalent to a peak early Core Formation Cultivator, if not more due to its size. 

The previous ants that had tried attacking it caused no damage as their own techniques proved fruitless. Yet, this brat was able to damage it!

If it were a cultivator of the same level it would be acceptable, but nay, it is a mere brat at the Qi Condensation level! Its pride was wounded as it could not fathom such a bug being able to harm its luxurious and wonderful spikes that it had used its magic blood on!

It was going to murder this brat that dared to damage it!

While the demonic beast was chasing them, Yanqing sweated in excitement as he stared at the spike he had taken. If this was truly a stage 5 demonic beast then… wouldn't this be worth a lot? It could let him buy so many more swords and even customize sheaths! 

If he was going to be honest, he wanted to go back and bring a couple more spikes… It would not be the best idea, but he wanted to do it. 

It was a worthy opponent, but he was not a worthy opponent for it. It was unlike when he fought the criminals on Luofu as the two were not aiming to maim or kill him. This beast, far above his level, certainly was as his [Instinct] was blaring like a fire alarm. 

So, he continued to run. 

...

[Frozen Azure]: A move replicating a sword blast that extends far beyond its own reaches. It comes from condensing [Sword Essence] to a high degree, limiting its width while increasing its concentration. One could also decrease its height in favor of higher damage output, but currently Yanqing does not have the capability to.

It's meant as a sword beam to cut through an adversary in a straight line, although this move needs some charging in the lower stages in order to reach its maximum potential. 

It's basically [Excalibur]'s sword blast from fate, but light blue in color instead. Paired with AOE freezing effects to create a field effect in a battle.