72 Stellar Nova: The One

When Zhao Wei finished his fall, his back bounced off the ground, and small droplets of blood escaped his mouth as he groaned in pain.

His mind also felt fuzzy.

Despite the pain he was feeling from Old Man Chu's abrupt and imperceptible attack, a wide smile never left his face as a lot of blood dripped down his chin.

And just before gravity could pull Zhao Wei's body back again to the ground, Old Man Chu's figure seemed to have blinked and teleported to his side before he used his spear like a cudgel, its flexible body bending and striking his abdomen into the cycle of pain and suffering.

Zhao Wei's eyes widened like saucers as his body hurtled through the air like a cannonball before crashing and creating a crater on the ground.

"Despair? Fear? Suffering?" Old Man said with a nonchalant tone.

"An infinite inescapable loop of pain, that I shall grant unto you!"

"You have survived long enough against me, little friend, which is a feat of epic proportions that deserves nothing less but unlimited praise."

TAP!

TAP!

Old Man Chu slowly took one step at a time in a calculated manner. It was as if he was carefreely walking in a park while observing the scenery.

"The young truly surpass the old. In the grand scheme of things, even in this backwater place, you are a one-in-a-million genius that can rarely be found in this vast cosmos."

From the crater where Zhao Wei's body was, a bloodied hand emerged from the hole and clutched the surface.

"Until recently, I didn't have the emotional bandwidth to enjoy anything. Life was too boring and predictable."

"I was just a mundane existence, a frog in a well!" Zhao Wei struggled to support himself until finally, he stood while wobbling a little bit.

As seen by how bloodied and unkempt he was, Zhao Wei truly wasn't in the best of state.

"But is a predictable life worthy of living, tell me old timer?!" A pair of brilliant silver eyes, that radiated a crazy gleam, sharply gazed at Old Man Chu's mysterious form.

"Blood? I don't even remember the last time I bled!"

"You have really got me excited. You are the first interesting expert that I have ever met. You are the real deal, old man!"

Zhao Wei then turned silent as he absent-mindedly looked at the ground, his eyes listless and thoughts undecipherable.

Old Man Chu squinted his eyes, finding Zhao Wei's words full of meaning and bore certain truths of life.

"[Illusory Steps]" Zhao Wei's voice was a low murmur as copies of him began to materialize everywhere.

Each one of these copies looked exactly like Zhao Wei, they were so detailed and almost lifelike. They rounded up to almost a hundred and each clone wielded different energy construct weapons ranging from an axe, a mace, a spear, a sword, a hammer, a scythe and many more.

All of them then attacked at the same time, including Zhao Wei's true body.

Instead of despairing, it was better to use everything within his arsenal until nothing was left.

"Illusion turned solid. You never cease to surprise me, kid."

"But fret not… since all is meaningless before my [Divine Insight]."

[Divine Insight] was a default passive technique brought into existence due to the [Third Eye] or more accurately, Eye of the Asura. It massively increased Old Man Chu's reaction speed and alertness by a thousandfold. From heat signatures, vibration and flow of the winds, earth tremors and pulses, and motion, Old Man combined all of that analytical data to calculate probability and anticipate all that has yet to happen.

[Divine Insight] allowed him to capture everything about his opponent within a certain range. From breathing, creaking of the bones and joints, shifting of the muscle fibres and even down to the microscopic level… the firing of the brain synapses.

To see into the immaterial meant that he also had a passive immunity against illusions and the unreal.

His perception of the temporal flow around him was also significantly slower.

Old Man Chu was a well-rounded warrior, balanced in all forms.

"Illusion Shatter!" Old Man Chu roared as he vertically slashed his spear like a sword, creating a huge crescent light that threatened to cut through everything. From an outside perspective, it looked as if it was also cutting and dividing space like paper when it was just an Illusory feel from its sharpness.

All of Zhao Wei's clones were shattered but his true body was nowhere to be found.

"Huh?" Old Man Chu's Third Eye shone with light as he wondered where the young warrior had escaped off to since it was impossible.

Almost immediately, Zhao Wei soundlessly and swiftly emerged behind Old Man Chu from his shadow.

In his hand was a sharp dagger made from cold steel, piercing forward with the sharpness of the wind.

Zhao Wei was aiming for the heart, Old Man Chu's life engine.

That was the first time Old Man Chu had been caught off guard ever since they began the life-and-death battle.

CHA!

Zhao Wei managed to pierce through Old Man Chu's back and with his x-ray vision, he knew where to stab through his heart but was dumbfounded for a moment by what he witnessed.

Old Man Chu shifted his heart out of his range and contracted his back muscles to limit the dagger's movement!

"Are you from the Shadow Race?" Old Man Chu asked lightly, unbothered by the stab, as he turned quickly and mercilessly kneed Zhao Wei.

The pain immediately broke Zhao Wei's stupor as his thoughts accelerated.

[Overworld Thunder Cry]

A terrifying sound wave emanated from Zhao Wei's mouth and blasted Old Man Chu's head, making him reel back and withdraw his hands from Zhao Wei's body.

But almost immediately, Old Man Chu instinctively thrust his spear at an unimaginable speed.

With blood from his orifices, Old Man Chu looked like a demon as he roared wildly.

[Second Form: Point-blank Extermination]

Zhao Wei's reaction speed was super fast but not faster than the menacing tip of the Inverted Spear.

The spear pierced through his stomach, rapturing his innards to oblivion, and emerged from his back.

Zhao Wei instinctively clutched the smooth, intricate surface of the spear deep inside his body.

Mouthfuls of blood spewed out of his mouth as the maws of death lingered close to his head, waiting for the perfect chance to claim his life.

'Is this how I am going to die? How laughable!' Zhao Wei thought, his thoughts hazy and fleeting, as his consciousness drifted between the realm of the living and the nonliving.

It was then that Old Man Chu removed the spear from Zhao Wei's body, allowing vivid red vigorous blood to flow from the gaping wound on his abdomen.

Zhao Wei was losing so much blood but that wasn't enough to take his life. His vitality blazed with the spark of the stars, making his durability and endurance immensely high.

"Your tenacity is something that I have never seen from someone at your cultivation level or even from the enemies I have slain so far." Old Man Chu swung the spear to the side to whip away the blood before resting it on his shoulder.

"This spear may look ordinary but it is quite special. It was made specifically to bypass most body cultivation techniques. You had an extremely durable and strong body to survive hours of our battle but look at your current state."

Zhao Wei knelt on the ground, his body suddenly felt heavy as if he was being forced to support the heavens like Atlas.

His silver eyes were now pale, the life in them slowly dwindling.

"The universe always tries to correct any sort of imbalances like you, kid. That's how fate is always cruel to exceptional individuals with the potential of overruling its mandate."

"I reckon this is the time that you will start regretting ever meeting me and blaming your unluckiness."

Zhao Wei laughed loudly when he heard those words.

"There you are at it again, you ancient fossils. Is talking nonsense and sh*t your forte?"

"Am I an imbalance? Fate? To hell with fate. I am my own being so why should I care about forces beyond my control? The moment I began this journey I knew deep down within my heart that it wasn't going to be smooth."

"Perpetual torment? I was prepared for it! My soul and body may be burned in Avicii but my ambitions will forever flicker for eternity. I may have been arrogant and prideful thinking that I can take on anything in the universe but I have never regretted my decisions!"

Zhao Wei whipped his bloodied face upwards as he looked at the clear blue sky. He looked at the eternally blazing sun.

With his shattered arms languidly resting on his sides, Zhao Wei weakly murmured.

"The sky is beautiful."

His life was dwindling, his breath turning weak with each passing second, but Zhao Wei never lost that smile of satisfaction on his face.

His silver eyes seemed to be in a trance as he looked at the golden sun, its sizzling heat burning down on his face and drying his blood.

The wind chimed, time ticked, a butterfly flapped their wings, birds sang their songs of agony due to the moment and one man under the heavens achieved enlightenment.

He forced enlightenment upon himself during that moment!

All of a sudden, the temperature of the surrounding area began to steadily rise.

The distant thump of a vigorous heart echoed like a symphonic tune.

With Zhao Wei as the centre, a blinding light spread omnidirectionally as if it were the only light in existence.

Zhao Wei was like a star!

Old Man Chu quickly retreated, his face showing awe at the sudden turn of events.

"A transformation? Good. Haha, I thought your journey had already ended but it seems you are as relentless as ever. You don't want to die without erupting with all of your potential." Old Man Chu released an insane burst of laughter as he observed Zhao Wei.

"This makes things more interesting!" There was supreme confidence in his voice as if he was the master of certainties. His [Third Eye] blinked while the blood of the Asura Lineage boiled deep within his veins.

The space around Zhao Wei distorted, creating a mirage due to the intense heat accumulating inside his body.

Fire born from the stars, fire born from celestial luminance.

The very earth below began to melt as his physical body burned with a super hot stellar fire yet it remained unaffected.

The pebbles below his knees liquefied into red ooze and Zhao Wei slowly but menacingly rose from the ground.

All of his clothes had been rendered nonexistent, leaving his body in its most primal, burning form.

His blazing red long hair, uncontrolled by gravity, levitated upwards.

A small dot akin to a singularity was formed on Zhao Wei's forehead, making him look enigmatic and ancient.

"THE WILL OF THE STARS!"

[Stellar Nova: The One]

In that form, Zhao Wei's eyes no longer held warmth for anything and looked down at all of existence with transcendental pride of a man made divine.

God made man and man made god. A contradictory concept.

With each step that Zhao Wei took, nature gave way to his passage. His movements seemed to sync with the flow of nature.

"This form… He is like the divine incarnation of the sun. Could it be that he is a descendant of the Golden Crow? No, it can't be right." Old Man Chu was extremely surprised as he continued to observe and analyze all the data he could infer from Zhao Wei's transformation.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter since he's still within my realm of calculation." Old Man Chu swirled his spear expertly.

"He will be torn to oblivion if need be." Then, an intent of Heaven and Earth erupted from his body like a pillar that connected the sky

It was at that moment, that Zhao Wei moved so fast that it felt like teleportation and suddenly appeared mere inches away from Old Man Chu's face.

"I feel pity," Zhao Wei said in a bored tone before backhanding Old Man Chu, whose neck did an unnatural rotation at weird angles before snapping.

Then, Zhao Wei held his neck and world-extinguishing star fire began to converge at his hand.

"Prominence Burn!"

Old Man Chu was burnt to nothingness, disintegrated into oblivion!

What a sad twist!

After that, the abyssal golden red flames burning around Zhao Wei's figure also began to gradually die down.

***

[Author's Note]

I tried my best(someone said it was forced乁⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠o⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠ㄏI enjoy the criticism somehow)

I delivered what I could.

Sorry to disappoint those who expected something legendary. I want you to just enjoy and share the ideas you have(I am pulling the plot outta my *ss to make the story more interesting lol)

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Enjoy!

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