Chapter 41: In The Face Of Death
*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.* *"Beat" by Koos, "Jaw Drop" by Curbi and "Trippy" by Snavs are recommended to listen to while reading.*
Qing Fang stared coldly at the monster reciprocating his gaze with a monstrous grin.
In between the two warriors, cultivators fought and died. Huge dragons of flames and water, tornadoes of wind as sharp as a blade and huge purple clouds of poison were intersecting their gazes.
However, the two pairs of eyes did not stray from each other; the sharp glints in their eyes fighting before they had even approached one another.
A huge explosion suddenly surged from behind the boy, casting his shadow for a hundred meters and barely touching Qing Fang's feet.
And with that as the start of the battle, Qing Fang's expression twisted as he mobilised all of his power to run toward the boy. He ran leaning forward with his chest too close to the floor to look normal, his calves swelling as they smashed the floor with power unheard of.
And under the all-encompassing gaze of the boy, Qing Fang suddenly kicked the floor sideways and darted to the left, causing a tsunami of dirt to fall upon the cultivators to his right. He was like a blurred shadow, suddenly disappearing from view and into the battle.
However, the boy knew that gaze that he'd seen in the eyes of Qing Fang. He wasn't running, he was rushing toward him with demonic speed out of his view.
Knowing that, although he couldn't see him, Qing Fang was fast approaching; the boy felt his heart thunderously beat in excitement for the unknown enemy.
With the sounds of the battle continuously sounding in his ears and small drops of mud hitting his face in the aftermath of other attacks, the boy's eyes suddenly darted to the side as he exhaled a swathe of steam.
And with a violent movement that upturned the ground beneath his feet, the boy mobilised a punch to his right with power that broke the sound barrier and caused the ears of his weak middle Stage 1 body to flow with trails of blood.
Although he seemed to punch at nothing but the ashy air, the soft skin on the small fist of the boy directly made contact with a huge fist covered in metallic gauntlets. And like that, a hurricane of air escaped from the point where the two fists met with unimaginable power.
Seeing Qing Fang's cold eyes beneath his helmet as their fists smashed against each other, the boy wanted to mock his efforts, however, he didn't have the time.
The other hand of Qing Fang rushed over in a blur and tightly held the small wrist on the dainty arm of the boy, and squeezed with the power to crush an elephant's leg into a bloody mist.
However, instead of feeling the flesh of the supposed middle Stage 1 crumble into nothing, Qing Fang felt the muscles pulsate and flow like a gush of blood was trying to pry his hand from its grasp. Feeling the wrist of the boy flow with such strength that it seemed as though his hand would be burst away, Qing Fang grimaced.
Then, under the amused gaze of the boy who did nothing but stand still with his arm outstretched, a crushing tide of water came from under Qing Fang's hand that grasped his arm. The water rushed forth, aiming to strip the skin, muscles and even the very bone from the arm.
"Weak."
A single word resounded as everything else seemed to fade into the background.
And with monstrous strength, the boy swiped his arm to the side and ripped it out of Qing Fang's grip. The water that was rushing was crushed into steam, and Qing Fang felt that if he had held onto the arm of that monster, his arm would've been ripped from its socket.
In the same motion, the boy rushed forwards until his face was but an inch away from Qing Fang's. And then, the boy licked his lips murderously as he smashed his forehead into Qing Fang's mouth.
The head of the boy, with its eyes wide open manically, directly smashed through the lower part of Qing Fang's face. His teeth were completely destroyed as the head continued on with an undiminished force and directly smashed his chin and lower jaw apart.
Having smashed apart the jaw of Qing Fang, the boy mobilised his other arm and placed it on the chest of Qing Fang in the blink of an eye. And with force that Qing Fang could only describe as unstoppable, the palm of the boy pushed Qing Fang onto the floor.
With his jaw not broken but completely smashed off, Qing Fang lay on his back at the feet of the boy, his eyes looking up with undeniable disbelief. The skin around his nonexistent mouth was ripped away to reveal his toothless gums as the missing jaw revealed an open wound toward a bloody mess and Qing Fang's throat.
The eyes of Qing Fang flashed as he quickly rolled away only to feel the ground shake with an earth-shattering force, the epicentre being where he was just laid. Looking behind him while sprawled on the floor ten meters from where he'd just been, Qing Fang looked to see the boy staring at him impassively with his right foot embedded into the earth up to his knee.
Seeing the earth that had been pressured to the solidity of a diamond by the battle crushed like paper under the boy's wrath, Qing Fang felt a feeling of impending doom riddle his mind.
And while Qing Fang was dragging his body off of the floor to stand and feeling the wound on his face start to tingle in its healing, the boy effortlessly lifted his foot from the earth and began to walk toward him.
"I thought you were stronger. Did I misjudge you?" The boy calmly walked toward the stumbling Qing Fang who couldn't speak due to the grievous wound on his face. The feet of the boy caused the earth to sink under his power, making the eyes of Qing Fang glaze over with fear.
"Sigh. I guess you can only die like a rat, can't you. Someone who isn't blessed by heaven as you can only struggle in futility before taking your place amidst the bodies of all the other forsaken ones." The young boy spoke with disdain and grandeur as his body seemed to dwarf Qing Fang's.
"A pity. I-" However, the boy was cut off when a devastating pillar of light descended from the sky and directly onto his body, engulfing it in a blinding light that shone with devastating heat that burnt Qing Fang's skin and caused his blood to boil.
Looking up to the sky, Qing Fang saw the Light path Qing Stage 5 that he had seen face the huge snake up above the earth. His eyes contained the light of a weakling gazing up at the powerful as he was saved by the demon in the guise of the boy.
The Qing Stage 5 did not cast Qing Fang even a glance as he looked to another part of the battlefield, seemingly aware that the young boy had been incinerated into dust under the pillar of light.
Qing Fang stood up and backed away from the blazing pillar as he held the glaring wound on his face, feeling a jaw bone start to materialise from the stumps of bone making the previous one.
He stared at the pillar with complicated feelings of worthlessness as he started to back away more hurriedly, trying to get away from whatever monster was in the pillar of light. Even though it was dead, Qing Fang wasn't taking any chances.
However, right as he turned his head from the pillar, a deep and disfigured voice came from deep within it.
"You dare to interrupt me, weakling?!"
The voice boomed like thunder and aimed at the sky, attracting the cold gaze of the Light path Stage 5 as he hovered above the battlefield and dispensed judgment like an angel of some god.
And at once, the pillar receded, torn apart from the inside to reveal a figure that caused Qing Fang to breathe heavily and the Light path Stage 5 to raise an eyebrow.
A short figure with his robes burnt away and his flesh completely destroyed, the hair on his head and the genitals between his legs burnt away to nothingness. A pair of bloodshot demonic eyes stared from the head of flesh burnt black and bleeding dried blood.
And suddenly, with a burst of power that made Qing Fang shield his face in fright, the burnt and disfigured figure broke away from the earth with dreadful power that could fuel nightmares. Bursting into the sky, what seemed to be the young boy instantly tore through the air and smashed into the Light path Stage 5 in the air.
Under the frightened gaze of Qing Fang, the two shot through the sky over the battlefield and exchanged terrifying blows in the air. The demon in human's skin gripped onto the Qing Stage 5 madly, unleashing horrendous blows while they battled in the air and caused sounds like claps of lightning to reverberate for hundreds of kilometres.
Qing Fang just felt his pupils shrink and eyes widen as he turned to flee.
'W-what is that? That terrifying power...' Qing Fang's thoughts swirled as he ran, the face of the boy constantly appearing in the forefront of his mind and causing him to shiver uncontrollably. Qing Fang didn't know who or what that boy was, but he knew that he would've died in a second if it fought seriously and didn't play with him.
Knowing that he was toyed with, however, Qing Fang wasn't humiliated or angry in the least. His thoughts were entirely focused on getting away and living to see another day. It was at this moment that Qing Fang truly felt the terror of the battlefield, the might that it possessed to crush any who step foot on it.
'It is as that demon said...only those blessed by heaven itself can live on to see the ends of the earth.' At this moment, Qing Fang felt incredibly small. He knew he was nothing, he was dispensable, unnoticeable and not even worth a glance.
But why wouldn't heaven bless him too..? It was unfair. Heaven was stated to be impartial, the apathetic governor of the Mortal Realm. So why does it grant favour? An envious glint flashed in Qing Fang's eyes.
'What do they possess that I do not..?' This question raged in his mind as he ran from that place, fully realising how precious his life was at this moment. What a fool he had been to gamble it just for the sake of entertainment, for a fleeting thrill. A feeling.
'If it is feeling that drives me to do things such as these, I will cast it away! This hedonistic lifestyle suits none but the foolish! I mustn't live for my fleeting desires but...for power! In this blissful Universe where power is rightful for the taking, what was I thinking? Gambling it all away!' Qing Fang heavily reprimanded himself, aware of the mistake he had been living with all of his life.
It was only moments like these, moments of overwhelming despair and weakness, that moulded one into someone worthy of power!
He rushed through the many battlefields, his face scaring any youths that laid their eyes upon him. At this moment, Qing Fang had become another embodiment of the horror of the battlefield. His visage of fleeing while clinging to his horrifying wounds filled others' hearts with dread and fear!
As he was running, the claps of thunder from the sky were unceasing, almost as if hanging over his head. They were the claps of heaven, applauding the power of those that caused them! It only fueled the envy of many and the longing of Qing Fang.
Upon the battlefield, he, too, had been moulded under its fires and hammer!
Qing Fang ran. He ran and ran and ran, hoping to nurse his wounds and emerge as a new being, a new cultivator!
However, in those large eyes of his that shone with renewed and stronger resolve, a scene was suddenly reflected. A scene so terrifying that it caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end and almost caused him to fall!
It was a corpse.
Falling from high up in the sky, from the presence of the clouds and from grace itself!
With robes torn to ribbons and flesh falling like red tears of a higher being, the body fell to the earth, regained by earthly shackles and banished from the sky. The long and graceful black hair that was once tied behind the head was ripped apart and unkempt as it flailed and shrouded the face of the corpse, like a veil marking its death.
One of its arms was torn apart, the elbow crushed and only the tendon kept the forearm attached to the arm. Foreboding claw marks were etched deep into the flesh and revealed the pearly white bone that should've been unbreakable in the eyes of those below.
The hand of the arm was crushed into mangled flesh, the fingers unnaturally bending in every direction until they didn't resemble fingers.
Both legs of the corpse were ripped off at the hip, thick and gushing streams of blood trailing behind the body as it fell. The legs themselves were nowhere to be seen, which made any looking at the corpse unsettled, wondering if they were currently held by the demon capable of killing such a powerful cultivator.
However, all of those injuries were ignorable when facing the huge wound on the torso of the corpse. Dozens of grizzly and unclean wounds spiralling with tendrils of flesh and splattering with blood were on the chest of the cultivator, the wounds themselves being huge holes that went all the way through to the other side.
The corpse fell with unparalleled speed worthy of a powerful cultivator. After all, cultivators' bodies would get heavier and heavier with cultivation. There were even rumours that a legendary Stage 9's mass was greater than a planet itself.
Parting the clouds and causing the air to screech and wail, the corpse finally made contact with the ground.
And as all the cultivators stood, their heads gazing at the direction of impact with hollow eyes knowing their death was coming, a huge explosion of dirt came from that direction. The huge explosion encompassed all near it as they died with harrowing screams. All that was left for the others was a cloud of dust spiralling hundreds of meters into the air.
'I k-know that corpse...' Qing Fang thought as an overwhelming feeling of doom crushed him, the aspirations brewing in his mind after his revelation crumbling before his eyes.
Was this the moment of his death?
And just like that, a heavy weight collapsed on top of him, pressing him into the ground. Coughing blood as the force fell unto his body, Qing Fang was pinned face-up to the sky.
And on top of him was the boy.
Staring into the eyes of the boy, however, Qing Fang no more felt fear. He felt hatred. Hatred for this being that looked at him with the remnants of that playful nature on the blistered and burnt flesh seeping with puss and other disgusting liquids.
However, instead of mocking him as Qing Fang anticipated, the boy spoke a mere four words.
"Can you feel it?"
About to question those vague words with the poisonous hatred brewing inside of him, Qing Fang felt something else instead. It was a presence, a feeling of being watched...a gaze.
His eyes drifting from the boy pinning him into the floor, the mud and blood almost drowning him as he sunk within it, they landed to the sky. The sky filled with ash and flame that was hiding the stars and blackness of the abyss up above.
However, a terrifying feeling came!
Something was staring at him! Something up above the clouds and away from this planet! Something unimaginably powerful!
Qing Fang's head shrunk back as tears started to fall from his eyes and trail down his face. Within the liquid mud and blood that directed his entire body brown and red, Qing Fang cried in utter despair as he looked to the sky!
The world started to spin as Qing Fang saw images of the world ending and his flesh being stripped of his body and he hung over an abyss so deep that it fell out of the Mortal Realm! Fires that swallowed planets, poison that turned entire worlds grey, might that turned all under it dead!
"Hhehehhahahahehha... Hahhahahahhehehh!"
Maniacal laughter spread from the boy pinning Qing Fang to the ground as he saw the tears falling from his prey's eyes. It was funny, seeing the weak struggle beneath his power. This is why he came here in the first place, to see the face Qing Fang was displaying right now.
The laughter did not cease as the boy pressed onto Qing Fang's ribcage and caused it to collapse with a sickening crunch that could be heard all around!
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
A dreadful scream came from Qing Fang as his eyes gushing with tears turned bloodshot and stared directly into those of the boy. At this, a smirk came upon the boy's face as he just pressed harder, causing Qing Fang to scream and wail under his grip as tears fell from his eyes desperately.
However, everything ceased when Qing Fang was suddenly smashed with a devastating blow!
He tried to resist, but it was nowhere near enough. Qing Fang's body was smacked beneath the earth and directly into the planet hundreds of meters beneath the earth! His body smashed through rock as his limbs were broken and sprawled and his back was ripped apart and his ribs were crushed into dust!
And when Qing Fang's body had finally stopped crashing through the earth, it was still. All but for a tiny movement within that sludge of flesh and exposed mangled organs that made up his chest.
"Hmmm, a strong young man." The boy said as he saw Qing Fang's chest still moving up and down. Going unnoticed by Qing Fang, the fractured flesh and deeply ruptured muscles of the boy shone under the dim light of the fiery sky.
"I guess I did not misjudge him."
These were the last words of the boy before his body fell down into a flesh sack of blood and gore, with his last thought being, 'What a weak body.'
However, another cultivator on the verge of death suddenly screamed in shock as his eyes went dim before becoming something else.
And in the distance, far away from here, a young woman with a voluptuous body could be seen rushing over with a dreading expression as tears threatened to fall.
*3,206/3,000 words*
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
PSYcho_72
PSYcho_72 Probably the first time we’ve seen Qing Fang cry. Send a prayer over for him!
Thanks for reading and voting.
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