Chapter 61 - Ch 61: End of the Disaster

Sorry for not updating for the last few days. My discord knows the reason already: I was on a trip to a mountainous region and had limited access to internet, because of which I wasn't able to upload. 😅😉

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Wang Feng let out a thunderous roar as he brought Celestial Splitter crashing down.

The Bat, caught off guard, failed to retreat in time. A heartbeat later, the blade struck—cleaving into the creature near its neck. At the moment of contact, the seven radiant hues coiling around the sword flared wildly, becoming even more volatile and chaotic.

The blade tore through flesh and muscle, piercing deep into the Bat's shoulder bone, embedding nearly seven inches into its dense, skeletal frame.

With a shriek of raw agony, the beast instantly released Wang Feng's arm, flailing in distress. Its jaws opened wide, unleashing a violent sonic shockwave. The deafening blast crashed into Wang Feng, disorienting his senses—his vision blurred, and blood surged from his ears, eyes, and mouth.

The force hurled him backward like a falling comet, his body spiraling through the air, Celestial Splitter still lodged in the monster's flesh.

And yet, through the blood and pain, Wang Feng smiled.

The moment the beast unleashed its sonic assault, Wang Feng's mind reeled—the concussive force shattered his concentration. His grip on the seven elemental energies infused into Celestial Splitter faltered, the delicate balance unraveling into chaos.

Bloodied and dazed, his dim golden eyes narrowed in defiance, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. The Bat didn't notice—it was too consumed by the searing pain in its shoulder, too slow to sense the storm brewing within.

As Wang Feng's hand slipped from the hilt, the seven elemental Qi—Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood, Yin, and Yang—lost their containment. Like a wildfire let loose, the energies surged into the creature's body, spiraling uncontrollably.

The Bat instinctively tried to suppress the invading forces—but it was too late.

In the next instant, the stored Qi detonated.

A thunderous explosion tore through the forest, shaking the nearby forestry. The pressure wave howled outward, a violent tempest of force and flame, flattening underbrush and splitting branches with its fury.

Wang Feng's body slammed into a tree dozens of meters away, the bark cracking under the impact. Before he could even slide down, the shockwave reached him—driving him deeper into the trunk, as if the forest itself recoiled from the cataclysm.

"Heh, that's what you—", Wang Feng's words caught in his throat. His eyes widened in disbelief as the thick smoke from the explosion began to dissipate, unveiling the aftermath.

The beast still stood.

His gaze locked onto it, unmoving. A few meters away, Celestial Splitter lay embedded in the ground.

The creature was a grotesque shadow of its former self. The entire left side of its body had been obliterated—flesh, bone, and even one of its wings had been torn away by the blast. Only its left leg remained to support its mangled frame.

Yet it stood.

Its body trembled, blood pouring freely from the wounds. But its eyes—those hateful, crimson orbs—burned with rage, agony, and unyielding bloodlust. It stared directly at Wang Feng, its intent clear.

Wang Feng's breath hitched. He had expected nothing to remain. Not even ashes.

And yet... it lived.

The Bat snarled, the sound guttural and deep. It raised its remaining leg and took a staggering step forward, its movement dragging pain like a chain behind it.

Wang Feng clenched his jaw, then slowly began to rise from where he'd crashed. His limbs ached, his vision blurred—but his resolve only hardened.

Wang Feng extended his hand toward Celestial Splitter, which quivered where it lay embedded in the earth. A moment later, the blade soared through the air and landed squarely in his grip with a resonant clang.

His eyes remained locked on the wounded beast, now limping forward with a terrifying, deliberate resolve.

"You truly live up to your name," Wang Feng said, voice low and steady. "An Ancient Disaster… To withstand the detonation of over sixty percent of my Qi—when even Peak Tier Four beasts would have been reduced to ash—is no small feat."

Whether the creature understood his words or not mattered little. This was no conversation. It was a pronouncement.

"But your tale ends here."

In that instant, a chilling aura erupted from Wang Feng's body. Black tendrils of Yin Qi surged outward—not the refined Yin Qi cultivated in his dantian, but something darker, colder… ancient.

It was the Golden Skeleton's Demonic Qi.

A storm of elemental forces gathered around him. Blue for Water. Brown for Earth. Gold for Metal. And now, Black—Demonic Yin. The Qi wrapped around his blade like serpents, spiraling and twisting until Celestial Splitter gleamed with an eerie brilliance. A layer of frost crept across its edge, whispering of death.

The temperature in the air plummeted. The once-warm forest now felt like the heart of winter. Trees trembled, their leaves curling inward as if trying to escape the weight of the energy pressing down on them.

The beast froze, its bloodshot eyes narrowing.

It could feel the change.

It knew.

Even if it could strike Wang Feng down now… it might not survive what came next.

Its body was mutilated—its left side gone, wing torn away, and internal organs mangled by the rampaging energies left by Wang Feng's earlier assault. The remaining Qi inside it burned like molten iron coursing through its veins.

The Bat let out a hoarse, agonized shriek that shattered the silence.

And then it moved.

Its body tensed with a suicidal resolve, its killing intent surging to an unbearable crescendo.

If it was going to fall, it would fall dragging Wang Feng into the abyss with it.

Wang Feng met the Bat's gaze, a twisted gleam flickering in his bloodied eyes. Despite the pain and exhaustion weighing down his limbs, he grinned—a cold, cruel grin that didn't reach his eyes.

He could see it clearly now—the beast's intent. It knew it wouldn't survive much longer. Its body was half-destroyed, riddled with chaotic Qi, and yet its bloodlust only burned fiercer. It wanted to take him down with it.

Wang Feng chuckled, the sound sharp and mocking, laced with a strange charm that contrasted his usual gravitas.

"You think a failed product like you can take me down~?", his eyes chilled and a sadistic grin appeared on his face, "Know your place, you leech!", With that, his body surged with black Yin Qi, billowing outward like a cloak of shadow. just like the time he used Raging Bull Charge Technique.

In a blink, Wang Feng's figure blurred, vanishing only to reappear silently a few steps behind the beast.

The Bat's crimson eyes widened in sudden shock, its body stiffening like stone.

A faint, glowing line shimmered into existence—sharp and precise—tracing a path down the center of its shadowed head, as if a hidden blade was carving through.

Suddenly, a crisp, echoing snap tore through the air. The beast's body split cleanly in two, from skull to waist, as frost erupted like a burst of icy flame, spreading rapidly over the exposed flesh and bone.

Both halves fell heavily to the forest floor, lifeless and severed, the chilling mist rising around the broken creature like a fading nightmare.

Wang Feng glanced at the severed halves of the beast and let out a sharp snort. He turned his gaze to his trembling hands.

"Guess it's time..." he muttered, a faint smirk playing on his lips. With that, the swirling Demonic Qi began retreating swiftly back into his body, the oppressive aura dissipating as he returned to his normal state.

Suddenly, a fierce, burning pain surged through his entire body. Wang Feng gasped sharply and collapsed onto the ground, clutching his chest.

"What the hell?!" he cursed through gritted teeth, wincing from the searing agony.

Without hesitation, he pulled out a handful of medicinal pills, swallowing them one by one. The pills dissolved instantly, releasing streams of restorative energy that coursed through his veins, easing the torment and knitting his flesh back together.

Reinvigorated, Wang Feng pushed himself up. He stooped down and quickly gathered the two severed parts of the Bat, storing them securely in his inventory.

With a determined glance toward the dense forest ahead, he leapt forward, disappearing swiftly among the trees, eager to leave the bloodied battlefield behind.

.....

Wang Feng sat cross-legged within the hollow of an ancient tree, its interior smoothed and darkened by time. His eyes remained shut, his breathing calm and even, the faint rise and fall of his chest the only movement in the stillness.

It had been several hours since his battle with the Nether Ghost Disaster Bat. After escaping the scene, he had spent precious time searching for a secure place to recover. When he stumbled upon this hollowed sanctuary, nestled deep within the heart of the forest, he wasted no time in placing two protective arrays using his array flags—one for concealment, the other for defense.

Now, with the danger temporarily held at bay, Wang Feng turned inward, circulating his Qi and refining the medicinal pills he had consumed earlier.

'That damned bat did a number on me,' he thought grimly.

Despite having taken multiple potent pills—Blood Recovery Pills, Energy Restoration Pills, a Flesh Rejuvenation Pill, and even a rare Vitality Restoring Pill—he still hadn't returned to his peak condition. Something felt subtly off.

There was a cold emptiness lingering in his core, a slight but undeniable hollowness in his vitality. It wasn't drastic, but it was noticeable… and deeply unsettling.

'It only bit me for two, maybe three seconds… yet I feel like I've lost a fragment of my essence.'

That realization sent a shiver through him. The creature's bite hadn't just drained blood—it had gnawed at something deeper, more fundamental. Vitality theft. Soul erosion. A chilling ability that confirmed what he already feared: the beast hadn't just been dangerous.

Wang Feng opened his eyes slowly. A faint golden sheen passed through them before fading. He clenched his fists, feeling the slight tremble in his bones.

'If it had been a moment longer…'

He didn't finish the thought. He didn't need to.

Wang Feng exhaled softly, the tension in his shoulders easing as he ended his attempts to fully restore his vitality. It was futile for now. Though the damage wasn't fatal, he took solace in one thought: once his Yang Physique was complete, his vitality wouldn't just recover—it would evolve, becoming stronger, purer, and far more resilient.

With his energy stabilized and his body no longer throbbing with raw pain, he gathered his things and stepped out from the shelter of the hollowed tree.

The world outside greeted him with golden serenity. The first light of dawn filtered through the canopy, casting long shadows across the forest floor. Shafts of sunlight danced over the mist-laced leaves, turning the wilderness into a tapestry of gold and green.

He inhaled deeply, then crouched low, pressing his foot into the tree's bark. In one fluid motion, he launched himself upward, bursting through the branches and vanishing into the morning sky like a ray of light.

Today, he moved with greater care.

The battle with the Nether Ghost Disaster Bat had changed something within him. He was no longer charging forward with blind confidence. Every step he took was measured, every breath deliberate, his senses stretched taut like a drawn bowstring. Danger could appear at any moment, from any shadow.

For hours he traveled—leaping between cliffs, weaving through ravines, and sprinting across narrow trails carved into the forest's bones. He sensed beast auras slumbering in the depths. But he didn't provoke them. He didn't need to.

As the sun climbed higher, the oppressive atmosphere of the forest began to shift. The trees thinned, the air grew colder, and the terrain turned steep and jagged. Before him loomed the mountain—monolithic and silent, stretching high into the sky. Its peak was lost among swirling clouds.

The path ahead was no longer forested but rocky and sheer. His clothes fluttered as he climbed the stone steps etched into the mountainside, his Qi quietly pulsing within his dantian.

"Phew... man, who knew climbing a mountain would be this exhausting..." Wang Feng let out a long breath, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

He had finally reached the summit.

Panting slightly, he straightened his posture and turned his gaze forward—and froze.

The moment stretched, and the fatigue that clung to his body seemed to melt away as his eyes widened in awe.

Spread before him was a view so grand it seemed unreal—an endless expanse of nature's finest artistry. From this lofty perch, he could see for what must have been thousands of miles. Patches of dense, emerald forests stretched like oceans of green. Mist-veiled valleys dipped into the earth like hidden sanctuaries. Jagged hills broke the land's rhythm, giving way to tranquil lakes and snaking rivers that glimmered under the sunlight like threads of silver.

A series of waterfalls, like cascading curtains of light, poured from cliffs in the distance, the water catching the sun's rays and throwing up radiant halos. Above it all, the sky stretched into infinity—an endless canvas of soft blues brushed with faint golden clouds, framing the world below in surreal splendor.

Wang Feng stood there silently, the wind brushing past him gently, as if even the heavens were whispering for him to pause.

"...", he said nothing for several minutes, just breathed.

His chest rose and fell slowly, his heart no longer pounding with effort or adrenaline, but with quiet reverence. A sigh finally escaped his lips—soft and almost wistful—as he took in the sheer majesty before him.

He turned his gaze upward, eyes narrowing slightly against the light.

Just a few meters above him, perched at the mountain's absolute peak, stood a lone tree.

It rose from a small patch of weathered stone, surrounded by wisps of hardy grass that clung stubbornly to life despite the unforgiving altitude. The tree itself was slender but dignified, its bark a silvery hue with faint golden veins that shimmered subtly under the dawn's light. Its leaves were a deep jade, tinged with a soft, ethereal glow, swaying gently despite the stillness of the air.

Wang Feng's curiosity stirred.

A tree growing at such heights, with no visible water source, resisting the cold and thin atmosphere… it wasn't ordinary. In fact, nothing about this tree felt mundane.

'I wonder what it is…' he thought, stepping forward slowly.