Genius Mage in a Cultivation World - Chapter 174: Heart of the Emperor

Yelna didn’t bother to rush towards the man. She simply walked over as if she wanted to ask him out for a coffee somewhere.

“You are seeking death!” The man shouted, slashing his sword at the woman. There was no finesse in his movements, no grace at all. He simply slashed away with his sword as if he wanted to scare the girl off rather than actually hurting her.

“Stop it before you hurt yourself,” Yelna said, taking a step forward, right within the range of the flailing sword of the Star Emperor.

DING!

A single metallic sound later, the weapon of the man landed several meters away, burying itself all the way to half of its height in the ground. Just how deeply it penetrated the ground was a testimony to the strenght of the counter that threw this weapon off the man’s arm.

“I can believe you fell for it,” The Star Emperor commented, using the momentum he got from Yelna’s counter to spin around. Once he showed his back to the girl, he leaned his upper body forward while kicking with his leg backward.

“Is that all?” Yelna asked, catching the man’s leg by its ankle. She moved just half a step away, allowing the attack to pass right by her skin.

“As if!” The man shouted. At first, he attempted to wrestle his leg out. Unwilling to let go of this advantage, Yelna held it in place… Only to realize that she fell into the man’s trap.

Rather than trying to free his leg, the star emperor used Yelna’s hold as a foothold, kicking the rest of his body up and turning around over his leg, sending a powerful kick right towards Yelna’s head.

“As I asked,” Yelna muttered as she let go of the man’s leg, instantly making him start falling to the ground. But rather than just letting him hit the ground, Yelna pushed her fist forward, straight towards the man’s shinbone.

Crack…

“ARGH!” The shout of pain escaped from the man’s mouth when the bone in his leg cracked.

‘Did she hold her attack back?’ Markus thought, keenly observing the fight. Knowing what to expect and what to look out for, he could understand it on a far deeper level than the Star Emperor who was fighting with the girl.

Everything that this pitiful man saw was just a fake appearance created by Yelna. Thanks to her blood and abilities, she could move at a rate that the man likely wasn’t able to even notice. Along with her physical strenght came an even greater advantage, her reaction speed.

Those two elements would normally put a hard limit on how fast one could become. After all, there would be no use of even the greatest speed if one’s mind would be unable to catch up with one’s movements. The opposite was exactly the same. With insane awareness and low mechanical speed, one would be doomed to suffer from hits he would be perfectly aware of but unable to dodge.

Only by mastering both her mechanical strenght and bringing her thought acceleration to its limits, Yelna managed to break free from the realms of speed that most of the humans were forever locked in.

‘I know I should be used to this way of fighting of hers, but it awes me every time I see it,’ Markus thought, feeling how something warm spread through his lower abdomen.

What the Star Emperor took for a first to his guts was actually Yelna covering her mouth as she yawned, swatting away some pesky fly and burying her fists into the man’s guts. What the Emperor saw as a dodge was a leisure stroll to the side.

This fight was never just or fair. Ever since Yelna got the hook on the man, something that allowed her to use her topmost speed, this fight was decided.

“Don’t underestimate me!” The Emperor suddenly shouted, stopping the one-sided pummelling that he was subjected to for the last few moments. His handsome face was nowhere to be seen. It was covered in bruises and cuts all over, giving testimony to how precise Claudia was with each of her strikes.

But this time, the furious words of the man were followed by an actual attack. ‘To be fair, this thing is actually massive,’ Markus thought as he looked at the mana the man gathered in the palm of his hands. It felt like if he took a mountain worth of mana and then condensed it all the way to the size of two gloves that covered his hands.

“Prepare to meet you make… GUH!” The Emperor attempted to taunt Yelna, only to have her fist greet his face again.

“That’s one impressive skill,” Yelna spoke up, proving just how impressed she was with the man’s attempted retaliation. “Sadly, it’s futile if you can’t hit me,” she added, only to shake her shoulders with a bored expression on her face.

“I WILL KILL YOU!” The man shouted, taking a wide swing. Even though he was lying on the ground, which by itself limited the range of his motions, all his injuries also severely weakened his power.

‘What?’ Markus finally dropped his relaxed act. Because the swing missed by a great margin and was already weakened by a huge amount… Was so devastatingly strong that it caused the nearby buildings to collapse.

“YELNA!” Markus shouted. His worry-o-meter exploded through the scales as he dashed towards the rubble that used to be the scene of battle between the two.

“Tsk,” Yelna spit a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood, making her well-being known to the former saint. Her face was bruised all over, and there was even a small cut on her arm – likely caused by a piece of debris flying by. “Layn’s magic hits a lot heavier,” she spouted a taunt before disappearing from where she stood.

‘Aaaand it’s over,” Markus thought, standing in his tracks. He only saw this expression of extreme interest and agitation on his wife’s face twice. Sadly, not even one did that happen while he would pin her down in their bed.

The first time happened during the subjugation of the monster considered to be the demon lord. Even with Yelna’s skills, Layn’s magic, and the attributes of everyone else from the party, they barely managed to beat that monster.

And the other time was when Layn went on a rampage.

In other words, Yelna turned serious. And before Markus could as much as blink, she appeared behind the Star Emperor.

“GUH!” the man released a pained moan, when in the next moment, Yelna’s hand appeared in front of his chest, all covered in blood. And right between her fingers was the man’s heart.

“How…?” he asked with a weakening voice, only to fall down on the ground. He was dead before his head struck the floor.

“Disgusting,” Yelna said in her usual, limited fashion before dropping the heart on the ground. At first, she raised her knee to bash it into the still-beating organ, but ultimately she decided not to be as rash.

‘This guy was too weak to be the main boss of this entire place,’ Yelna thought, looking down at her bloodied hand. Using the last moment of her abilities spiked up, she shook her arm as quickly as she could, forcing all the blood to fall off her hands.

‘It will be better not to provoke whoever this guy was serving,’ Yelna thought, raising her eyes and looking in the distance. ‘I guess we already pissed them off.” A wicked smile appeared on the girl’s lips. “I can’t wait,” she spoke softly, not even realizing that she voiced her thoughts out.

“You really are something else,” Markus muttered weakly before releasing a heavy sigh. “Well, now that we have this sorted out,” he said before turning back to all the people that observed the fight, “come on, guys!” Markus shouted, but rather than directing all his words towards his followers, he moved his head towards the guards on the gate. “I don’t think there is anyone left willing to block our path,” Markus said as he moved towards the corpse of the alleged Star Emperor. “Or does anyone believe to be stronger than this poor guy?” he asked before sending the corpse flying with a single kick.

Yelna didn’t want to desecrate the body to not stir up a fight with powerhouses hidden in the world. On the other hand, Markus preferred to make full use of all the requisites he had on the scene.

At first, the soldiers simply froze in place, not sure how they were supposed to react. Markus could see the looks that the simple soldiers sent to their officers and the looks those officers threw at their commanding officers.

And just like expected, before anyone else could fall prey to Yelna’s wrath, the entire military started to fall apart. One by one, soldiers started to run from their posts, clearly aware of how they would end up if they stayed.

“Good,” Markus said as he finally calmed down and took a step forward. “With this fight, we hereby declare ourselves rulers of this city. Now, you can proceed however you want,” he said with a small smile before taking another step. And then another.

And soon, Markus leads the entire crowd outside the Camp’s gates, leading them into the desert. And then further, all the way into the camp, where they would make for the fine manpower required to power all sorts of development projects!

‘The coming days are sure to be interesting,’ Markus thought, as he looked one last time towards the Camp behind him. And then, he never looked back ever again.