The Martial Master - 89 Chang Hui

“Sorry for barging in, but I want to have a little chat!”

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Standing in a pitch black void, a similarly black figure stared onwards in a daze.

“Wen Mian…”

He mumbled out, and as he was doing so his gaze seemed to change. The surroundings rumbled, then in a surreal whoosh, his figure blurred into nothingness.

His vision shifted into a strange greyness, where everything flickered dull chimes. However, this was only for an instant as his vision changed once more into a blinding whiteness.

*PSSST*

The warrior swivelled his body as this white encompassed him, and thus, with a strange chiming bell, a plaza formed from the nothingness.

*THUD*

He settled, and behind him stood a massive portal, trembling occasionally. Nonetheless, as his presence entered this plaza, everyone in it shook.

It was an instinctual, deathly shiver. One of paramount fear, a dread so high that it could pierce the heavens and send them to such a height! The warrior looked on with a strange gaze, hazed in a fogged black.

His inhuman eyes and mouth remained placid, and as everyone caught sight of him, they all froze on the spot.

“What is that..?”

Someone could only mutter as his body got drenched in sweat; his blood froze and his breath ragged. This thing, whatever it was, was something so incapably powerful that whatever level he was on would be but a speck in front of its eyes…

The warrior, Li Wei, took quiet steps as he caught sight of an exit, mumbling.

“Wen Mian…”

Some heard this rumbling scraping voice, and their eyes couldn’t help but widen.

*Step*

Those strenuous footsteps, that occasional flicker of fog that would pulsate out of his body, it shined so clearly in all of their eyes. It was a stabbing sight, one so frightful that each person would have to close their eyes time to time out of sheer terror.

Li Wei, as he emerged before the exit, mumbled once more.

“Wen Mian…”

*PSST*

His figure blurred as he dissipated from view, soaring in the sky like a sword from primordial times. Said sky quaked with thunderous rumbles as he swept past, almost like it was parting for him instead of the other way round…

“What the fuck..?”

Cultivators collapsed with exhaustion all over the place as hysteria shone in their eyes. They felt like they were playing with death within his presence, and it was such a feeling that made everyone lose it.

“Was he sent by the overseer?”

Some muttered as they regained a somewhat civil disposition. Though, whatever the reason, they didn’t dare stick their noses into it. They didn’t want to experience that incapable, unbearable sensation again.

It was a feeling that screamed at them, crying that their strength is nothing! A speck, a single minute thing that can be turned to dust with but a thought…

It was a terrorising feeling, but most knew that it was true…

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*RUMBLE*

High atop one of the mountain peaks of the sect, an elderly man trembled as his eyes spotted a black figure soaring in the sky. He jumped off of the dirt ground encompassed in serenity, and with narrowed eyes, he gaped at that ‘thing’ in the sky.

“What is this?”

An uncanny feeling brewed in the old man’s stomach as he seemed to think of something.

A staff appeared in his wizened hand, and he shook it a couple times with an apprehensive expression. Strange light began to appear from the stick, depicting a blurry scene of a black figure standing above an inconspicuous cultivation chamber.

A river of red was encompassing the sky and a sword was held in its hand!

Though, as the image attempted to form further, it shook with a rebounding spasm!

*GUH!*

The old man staggered backwards as he watched the light puff out of existence. His gaze trembled, and as he stared at the black figure in the sky, panic shone!

He muttered to himself with a quivering gaze.

“Where has this sudden future come from?! It wasn’t like this yesterday!”

Confusion sprung as he attempted to shake the brown stick again, but this time he felt a terrifying power seethe! His eyes widened, and with an instinctual throw, he watched the stick explode mid-air!

*BANG*

His body, getting smashed by the shockwave, tumbled backwards before colliding into a tree. Nonetheless, as this boom resounded, the black figure in the sky paused.

It seemed to turn to his direction, and as the old man caught sight of this with a pale face, he coughed.

“What does it want?!”

He grasped the broken bits of log around him as he shoved himself up. It was obvious that he wasn’t strong, in fact, he wasn’t even at a typical disciples level.

Yet, beneath his unwilling gaze, the figure in the sky hazed itself in a surreal motion and appeared before him. It was instantaneous in the old man’s eyes, causing him to jump with fright.

A sword was hung on its back, and as it gazed at the old man, a quaking presence seethed out of it. It was as if a multitude of swords were prickling on the old man as he gazed at the thing.

He felt unable to speak, so he just sat there with a frozen gait…

Though the silence was soon revoked as the figure spoke with a placid stare.

“Do you know of someone called ‘Wen Mian’?”

His voice rumbled like a sword, for he was Li Wei!

The old man froze as he heard this, where a sudden realisation seemed to strike him! His face began to overload with sweat, but beneath the terrifying unmoving white pupils of Li Wei, he couldn’t stop himself from speaking.

“S-she’s in the 5th Cultivation chamber on the 3rd level of the first peak… ”

Li Wei didn’t say anything as his eyes narrowed with a strange light. He strolled up to the shaking old-man, and with a lean, he spoke with a darker tone.

“I don’t know a lot, but I know that if she gets killed then my master will face punishment. If my master is punished then I’ll be punished as well! So, if she is going to get killed, tell me. Otherwise, I’ll be leaving.”

The old man seemed to shake even more as he heard the strange tone coming of Li Wei. Hesitation plagued his face, but as he noticed the almost childish light in Li Wei’s eyes, he clenched his teeth and replied.

“No, she isn’t going to get killed! She is the esteemed guest of our sect, how on earth would we let her die?”

Li Wei paused as the air seemed to tighten. Though, he nodded as he perked back up and turned around, grumbling to himself.

“I don’t want to make the same mistakes with this new chance… That means not falling for those cruel tricks, heh… He wants me to let her die, and then he would laugh at my face. Just like the last time… But it seems that my Master is worrying about nothing…”

*PSST*

He blurred with a stutter and disappeared from view, leaving that old man. Said man didn’t know what to do for a while, but as a sudden thought entered his head, he leapt up with fright and flew up in the air.

“If Chang Hui gets caught, then… Then… Ah!”

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*POOF*

“What are you doing?!”

Wen Mian, gasping with a pale face, cried out as a blood red beam of light pierced the wall next to her. A laugh resounded soon after, where a crimson haired man smiled with clouded red eyes.

“The overseer really seems to be exaggerated in intelligence by sending you without anyone else worthy of mention! You are still so weak, so young, a virgin with otherworldly Primordial Yin! Yet he expects your life to be like heaven in the real world? Your beauty is a plague, princess! Hehe, don’t try to threaten me either, as that retard that came with you is highly likely to be weak, and even then, where is he?”

He licked his lips as he took a step forward and continued to speak beneath Wen Mian’s shaking gaze.

“Well… Not that it wouldn’t be nice. In fact, threaten me, insult me all you want! Hehe, I like it that way!”

Wen Mian paled as she found herself against a wall. Her mind quaked, and a terrifying realisation rammed through her!

“No… no, no!”

Her eyes went hysterical as her body froze and began to shiver like she was in winter. The man’s smile widened in response to this, eyeing her body like it was a treasure.

*Step*

He took another step, where the distance between the two shortened by just a touch…

*Step*

*…*

*Step* *…THUD*

Wen Mian found the strength to be sapped out of her body as she collapsed onto the ground. Her hand, shaking, went and attempted to grab a white pouch to her side.

‘Y-yes. Master must’ve left something… Please…’

Yet, as the red-haired man caught sight of this, his face turned and he waved his hand.

*SLASH*

A blood-curdling blade of crimson formed in front of him, and at a speed far surpassing Wen Mian’s hand, it swept right past her…

“GAHHH!!”

With a face of distraught realisation, Wen Mian grasped her arm and screamed. Her hand, sliding right off, plopped onto the ground with a twitch, flailing for a while.

*S-SPLATTER*

Exposed bone and a splutter of pressurised blood smothered the wall behind her. Her face got drenched in her own blood, and she shook with the pain of it…

*Step*

The crimson-haired man smirked as he took the last step and leaned close to her, whispering.

“I’m Cheng Hui. Make sure you remember it.”

*GRASP*

He grasped her arm that didn’t have a hand, yanking it out of her quivering grasp. His eyes, clouded, shook with malign pleasure as he let a stream of blood pour out and onto the floor.

Wen Mian’s body shuddered as her eye’s lustre faded and her breathing weakened, whimpering.

“St-stop…”

Though this instigated nothing of the sort, in fact, it caused that grin on Cheng Hui’s face to widen even more…

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“I finally found it. Mhm… It’s strange though. Why is there an air of blood around here?”

Li Wei, landing on a large rock, gazed at a certain cultivation chamber to the left. A broken hole was also next to this, which was a bit odd.

Nonetheless, as Li Wei took a step forward, his eyes quivered and an expression of disgust and revulsion replaced his once placid face.

He, without even a hint of hesitation, grasped the blade on his back and stepped on the ground with an incalculable force. His figure hazed, and in an instant later, he appeared inside of the chamber with eyes blazing.

*Swipe*

Time seemed to pause as, like a silent reaper, Li Wei slashed his blade at a certain person. A thin streak of black congealed, and beneath the frozen world, it sparked forward and slashed through and into the person.

Though Li Wei didn’t stop there as he appeared before the man with crimson eyes, grasping his neck and hurling him backwards. Everything was still halted beneath Li Wei’s gaze, to the point that the man didn’t even change expression as he flew backwards at a shocking velocity.

Just like time had stopped…