The Oriole Behind the Mantis (Part 1)
Feng Jie felt it was unfair for others to look down on him and for his mother to be a mere servant, which was why he refused luxuries and preferred to be homeless. He felt the discrimination his fellow disciples showed him was unfair when he put in so much effort, so he pushed himself to study even harder, even mastering refined disciplines. His father gave him the cold shoulder. His brother set him up. To fight back at the unfair treatment, he left so that they couldn’t shackle him. He kept fighting and fighting until he was hailed as Martial Paragon, but the motivation behind each fight was his disdain for the unfairness.
People who claimed Martial Paragon was incredibly suave and different were just complicating the character Feng Jie. From the very beginning, he was just a man who was willing to sacrifice his life for what he wanted, those he loved and his beliefs. Sadly, few people could see past the glory he never asked for.
Feng Jie circled his chambered arm and let it go, compressing the path along the trajectory of his palm strike into a cylindrical blast aimed at the lightning. In response to the purple column that rose up, Wazi amplified the natural lightning to its max, swallowing up the purple qi that tried to challenge it.
“I’m not retreating.”
Even if Feng Jie was in his prime, the only place he’d be stopping the lightning blast would be in his dreams, let alone now. All he had to do was abandon stragglers and run as fast as he could, and there was a fat chance he’d escape the blast radius, but retreat still didn’t cross his mind. There was no noble intent or arrogance. He just didn’t want to be resigned to defeat.
The crumbling purple energy suddenly reformed and undulated, expanding the purple lightning into what could be called a lightning net. Instead of the lightning tearing apart the purple spiral, the purple net denied the lightning any ground. The purple spiral transformed into an active shape similar to flames. As the purple qi burned, the lightning’s power diminished. Epic it may have sounded, it was burning away Feng Jie’s lifetime of training.
Few had ever completely mastered the Confucian mental cultivation discipline “Sage Sovereign Origin” due its complexity and emphasis on character cultivation. Hardly anyone in history mastered the second to last level “An Unbridled Duke Shall Fall When He Sins”. Feng Jie was the only one to ever reach the final level – “This One Sought”.
When it came to discussing the most difficult topic among all the topics for scholars, they’d universally agree “This One Sought” was it. The simplified conclusion to the discussion was, “I’m not retreating.”
“Hahaha, try this!” Feng Jie bound forward before uncorking a palm strike.
Feng Jie tried to devour the lightning the natural lightning with his purple qi, but it wasn’t so easy. A while later, his purple qi gradually lost its bright gloss – figuratively and literally – allowing everyone around to stop covering their eyes.
A golden ray Earth-bound split the clouds, casting the spotlight on the mangled black elder. Although mangled, nobody would mistake the former great guya for some weakling. He overcame the power of heaven – once again. Despite his injuries, he wouldn’t bend his knees. Alas, Wazi wasn’t done.
The last thing Wazi expected was for its ultimate attack that wore itself out for would do zero damage. Some decrepit old man led it by the nose from the moment they met and vanquished its full-power attack on his own.
The incensed dragon descendant went prone, then launched itself at his unconscious opponent. Without his lightning, Wazi could no longer heal itself, and casting its ultimate attack left it with less than half of its gas tank.
To say Feng Jie knocked all of Wazi’s attributes down a notch would be an understatement. Unfortunately, nobody around could command their body properly due to the lightning.
Hong Jiu tried to go to Feng Jie’s aid. Sadly, his legs gave in.
“Trust you to go out on your shield.” A blue and green cross stung Wazi flush on the head, scarring it. The elder who landed adjacent to Feng Jie pointed his blade at Wazi. “Whoever says you’re honest to a fault is a liar. In this situation, only you would hold the line until help arrived.”
Abels and Moyan Luohou raced against time to make it to Feng Jie after they recovered from their tussle with Chichen. Had it not been for the conspicuous lightning and qi deadlock, the duo wouldn’t have located Feng Jie so fast.
Abels set the celebrated elder beside Ming Suwen, believing her side was the most secure place on the battlefield, and expressed to the unconscious elder, “None of the lives you protected will be compromised.” He jumped back to the battlefield and taunted, “I’ve been looking for you.”
Moyan Luohou got into his stance. “Let us see who has the stronger armour between you and Chichen.”
From when they accepted Martial Paragon’s gift to when Wazi’s head rolled across the ground, not much time passed at all.
Trivia
Sage Sovereign Origin – It’s lost in translation, but the technique names are all written in an archaic form of Mandarin to reflect the scholastic association with the discipline. Specifically, it uses the same Chinese as that which is used in the first “The Analects/The Analects of Confucius”. The lines are relatively short because, back then, Mandarin could be written in really condensed forms compared to what you see now. For instance, where two characters are now used to convey things, you could’ve conveyed the same thing with one character. When translated, though, it’s another matter.
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