A tense silence shattered as Ye Chen's eyes flared with burning determination. In one fluid motion, he lunged forward, fists crackling with refined Qi, his body a blur of golden energy. The sudden charge sent shockwaves through the courtyard, and for a heartbeat, time itself seemed to splinter.
Ye Bai's expression remained calm—a mask of serene darkness. In that moment, the power of the Shadow Immortal Codex surged through him like a tidal wave. His body moved with a supernatural grace, every muscle and sinew coalescing into one purpose: to defy the arrogant prodigy charging at him.
"Begone!" Ye Chen roared, his voice echoing over the hushed whispers of the assembled disciples. With a cry, he swung his fist in a wide arc, a burst of Qi colliding with the space where Ye Bai had been but a split second earlier.
CRASH!
A gust of wind, like the roar of an ancient storm, tore through the training ground as Ye Bai sidestepped the ferocious blow. The impact sent ripples across the cobblestones, and shards of energy burst outward. In that instant, Ye Bai countered with the Shadow Phantom Strike—a technique that merged his newfound dark energy with the fluidity of his martial prowess.
"Oh my goodness! Did you see that." Asked someone from the crowd.
",hmmm, I guess he was just lucky, that the strike didn't hit." Said another.
"I think am beginning to fall for Ye Bai." Said one of the female student in the Yard.
His hand, shrouded in an inky aura, sliced through the air. The strike came so fast that Ye Chen barely registered it. With a soft "whoosh," Ye Bai's palm connected with the side of Ye Chen's torso. The force of the impact sent Ye Chen reeling backward, his Qi momentarily disrupted.
"Impossible…" Ye Chen spat, his eyes widening in disbelief as he staggered. But the prodigy was not one to yield easily. Gathering his Qi once more, he steadied himself and surged forward again, determined to regain control of the battle.
The courtyard became a tempest of clashing wills. Each movement was punctuated by rapid bursts of energy. Ye Chen's fists a blur of blue now changed in to golden strikes and Ye Bai's counters a cascade of dark, swirling shadows. Every exchange was accompanied by the sharp, resonant thud of bone meeting bone and the crack of Qi colliding with indomitable will.
"How can this brat be so tough to handle." Ye chang's thought.
Ye Chen advanced with the relentless fury of a tempest, launching a series of rapid strikes. "You're a disgrace, Ye Bai!" he bellowed, each word fueled by years of pent-up scorn and the need to prove his superiority. His fists, imbued with the discipline of countless hours of training, hammered at Ye Bai like a relentless barrage.
But Ye Bai was already dancing on the edge of danger. With each attack that came his way, he parried with a supernatural calm. The dark energy from the Codex coiled around him like a living shadow, absorbing and deflecting the blows that aimed to shatter him. His counterattacks were measured and precise—each movement a calculated response to Ye Chen's furious onslaught.
Ye Bai wasn't doing anything in particular, he was relatively weak. The codex was doing all the work for him, cause the body needs to be alive.
At one point, Ye Chen's assault became almost overwhelming. His fists whirled in a near-perfect storm of speed and precision, and it seemed as if he might finally break through Ye Bai's defenses. But then, as if time had slowed, Ye Bai's eyes locked onto an opening—a brief, imperceptible lapse in his opponent's guard.
"Shadow Eclipse Fist!" Ye Bai roared, his voice a resonant command that echoed across the battleground. Channeling the full force of the Codex's dark power, he unleashed a counterattack that shattered the quiet intensity of the melee. His fist, enshrouded by swirling darkness and crackling with raw energy, sliced through the air and struck Ye Chen's arm with the force of a collapsing star.
A sickening sound of bone fracturing filled the air. Ye Chen's arm bent unnaturally, a spray of crimson marking the spot where Ye Bai's strike had landed. The gathered disciples gasped as the golden aura surrounding Ye Chen flickered—his momentum faltering for the first time in a battle.
"You've underestimated the power of shadows," Ye Bai said softly, stepping back as his opponent crumpled under the blow. His eyes, alight with an eerie black glow, bore into Ye Chen's as if reading his every thought.
But even as the pain seared through his body, Ye Chen's pride refused to let him collapse. With a roar of defiance, he staggered upright. "I... I will not be defeated!" he declared, blood staining his torn sleeve. Summoning the last vestiges of his Qi, Ye Chen surged forward again, his movements now desperate and fierce.
The duel escalated into a display of raw power and honed technique. Every strike carried the weight of their histories—the years of ridicule for Ye Bai and the unyielding arrogance of Ye Chen. Each counter was more ferocious than the last, and the very ground beneath them trembled under the force of their clashing energies.
The elders said nothing about the fighting.
In one heart-stopping moment, Ye Chen leapt high into the air, his body momentarily suspended as he gathered an enormous sphere of radiant Qi in his palms—a move known as the Heaven's Wrath Orb. The orb pulsated with incandescent light, a promise of divine retribution. With a mighty cry, he hurled the orb toward Ye Bai like a comet destined to destroy all in its path.
The orb streaked through the air, its brilliance slicing through the darkness. For a moment, Ye Bai stood motionless, calculating the trajectory of the impending attack. Then, with a fluid motion that defied logic, he invoked his shadow Void Step—a technique that allowed him to vanish from sight and reappear at will.
In the blink of an eye, Ye Bai disappeared from the spot where the orb was headed. The orb collided with the now empty space, exploding into a dazzling array of light and scattering shards of Qi that danced on the wind. The resulting explosion rocked the courtyard, sending disciples stumbling and throwing up clouds of dust everywhere.
When the light faded, Ye Bai emerged from the smoke like a wraith—a dark silhouette against the lingering glow. His eyes, fierce and unyielding, swept over the battlefield. Ye Chen, still recovering from the orb's impact, glared in disbelief. The sheer speed and unpredictability of Ye Bai's movements had rendered his most devastating attack ineffective.
"You... Your tricks are as old as the night," Ye Bai said, his voice low and controlled. "You rely on raw strength and flashy moves, but true power lies in embracing the darkness within."
With those words, Ye Bai launched a rapid flurry of strikes—a cascade of movements that blurred the line between man and shadow. His fists, now conduits of the Codex's ancient might, landed one after another with brutal precision. Each blow struck with a force that shattered bone and splintered Qi, leaving Ye Chen reeling and struggling to mount a defense.
Time and again, Ye Chen attempted to counterattack, but every move was met by Ye Bai's preternatural evasion. The air vibrated with the sound of fists colliding, grunts of exertion, and the crackle of unleashed energy. In one particularly explosive moment, Ye Bai feinted left before spinning right, his palm connecting with Ye Chen's abdomen. The force of the hit sent him crashing to the ground, his body twisting in mid-air as if caught in an inescapable gravitational pull.
"Enough!." Ye Chen bellowed, his voice a mix of pain and fury. As he struggled to rise, he could barely muster the strength to retaliate, his vision dimming with each passing second. Yet, even in his weakened state, his spirit roared in defiance.
The clash continued with unrelenting brutality. Every second felt like an eternity as the two combatants exchanged blow after blow, the boundaries between offense and defense dissolving in a torrent of raw, unbridled energy. Ye Bai's dark aura radiated around him like a living shroud, and it was clear that he was drawing deeper into the forbidden arts with every strike.
For a fleeting moment, as the battle raged on, a strange silence fell between them—a shared, unspoken acknowledgment of the abyss each fighter was teetering on. In that suspended heartbeat, Ye Chen's eyes widened in a mixture of awe and terror as he realized the extent of the power that now flowed through his opponent. The very notion that a cripple from the lowest ranks of the Ye Clan could go all out with him, even with lower cultivation rank and wield such dark, untamed strength was almost too much to fathom.
But there was no time for reflection. With a renewed burst of adrenaline, Ye Chen surged upward, summoning every ounce of his remaining Qi to deliver one final, desperate strike. His body ignited with incandescent energy as he channeled the Heaven's Wrath Orb once more, this time attempting a close-quarters version of the attack. His fist shot forward like a missile, aiming to crush Ye Bai's defenses once and for all.
Ye Bai's eyes narrowed. In a moment of crystalline clarity, he anticipated the incoming blow. Then With a swift, almost imperceptible shift, he sidestepped the attack again, his body twisting gracefully. The momentum of Ye Chen's strike carried him past Ye Bai, leaving a trail of dissipating energy in its wake. Seizing the opportunity, Ye Bai thrust his palm forward with the full weight of his dark power.
"Shadow Oblivion Break!" he roared.
A shockwave of oppressive darkness erupted from his hand, slamming into Ye Chen with the force of a collapsing mountain. The impact was cataclysmic. Ye Chen's body convulsed violently, his Qi violently ripped from him as he was hurled back across the courtyard. Dust and fragments of shattered energy filled the air as he crashed into a stone pillar, the force of the blow leaving him sprawled and motionless on the cold ground.
For several agonizing moments, silence reigned. The onlookers could scarcely believe what they had witnessed—a full display of power that shattered preconceived notions and redefined the limits of mortal cultivation. Even the Ye Clan elders exchanged troubled glances as they observed the carnage before them.
Slowly, Ye Chen began to stir, his face pale and contorted in pain. He struggled to push himself up, blood trickling down his side where the dark energy had torn through his flesh. His eyes, however, burned with an undying spark of determination, even as his body faltered.
Ye Bai stood above him, every inch the embodiment of the dark storm he had unleashed. His breathing was steady; his gaze, unyielding. In the heat of the battle, the ferocity of his newfound power was now indisputable. Yet, even as he surveyed his fallen opponent, a part of him wondered at the price that this power would ultimately demand.
"Is that all you have?" Ye Bai's voice was low, almost taunting, as he took a measured step closer to the battered Ye Chen. "You fought with the arrogance of a master—but you have much to learn."
A chorus of gasps and murmurs rippled through the assembled disciples. The intensity of the battle, the shattering of limbs, and the raw display of forbidden power left no doubt: this was no ordinary skirmish between clan rivals. This was a collision of destinies—a turning point that would forever alter the fate of the Ye Clan.
As Ye Chen's eyes fluttered open, clouded with pain yet burning with resolve, the world around him slowed to a crawl. In that suspended moment, he could feel his Qi ebbing away under the crushing weight of Ye Bai's relentless assault. His body screamed in protest, yet his spirit clung stubbornly to the hope of redemption.
But before Ye Chen could muster another counterattack, Ye Bai's gaze hardened. With one final, decisive motion, he launched himself forward, the darkness swirling around him in a vortex of impending doom. His fist, now an instrument of fate itself, was drawn back to deliver a blow that would seal Ye Chen's fate.
"Its time to end this!" Ye Bai said, his voice echoing with the authority of one who has embraced destiny.
The next instant was a blur of motion—Ye Bai's fist connecting with Ye Chen's chest in a strike so devastating that it sent ripples through the very fabric of the courtyard. A resounding impact, like the tolling of a death knell, reverberated as Ye Chen's body crumpled beneath the onslaught.
The battle reached its apex in a torrent of shattered hope and unleashed might. Dust swirled around the fallen, and the night sky bore silent witness to the fierce clash of light and shadow. In that crucible of violence and defiance, it was clear: Ye Bai had not only defied his tormentors but had rewritten the rules of his destiny with blood and darkness.
As the echoes of the final strike faded into the night, a chilling realization dawned upon every onlooker