Draw and Retreat

Chapter 17: Draw and Retreat

Five days after Kuafu was beaten down, the tense atmosphere in the camp not only failed to ease, but actually intensified.

Fei Lian visited Taiyi's tent seven or eight times a day, reporting trivial matters – a demon soldier who went astray during cultivation, a scout returning with news of more Witch Race patrols, and the unnerving silence of the birds in the woods to the west of the camp.

Taiyi grew annoyed and, at noon on the fifth day, directly kicked Fei Lian out.

"Go do what you're supposed to be doing," he said, sitting cross-legged on a rug, eyes closed. "If the Witch Race really attacks, reporting it a hundred times won't help."

Fei Lian opened his mouth, then closed it, bowed, and retreated.

The tent was finally quiet.

But Taiyi couldn't focus on his meditation. He opened his eyes and looked at the tent ceiling, the cloth swaying slightly in the wind. His mind was filled with Xuan Ming's gaze from when she left – icy blue, like a frozen lake, yet with undercurrents churning beneath.

That woman was definitely suspicious.

But how suspicious? Did she think he had "changed his temperament," or was she already guessing "possession" or "impersonation"? Taiyi couldn't be sure. Xuan Ming, the Ancestral Witch of Rain, had a mind as delicate as a strand of hair, completely unlike the straightforward brute Di Jiang.

As he was thinking, a commotion suddenly erupted outside the tent.

It wasn't a panicked commotion, but rather... hushed gasps and hurried footsteps. Taiyi frowned and got up, lifting the flap.

The sunlight outside was blinding.

In the open space in the center of the camp, the demon soldiers formed a semicircle, all looking up at the sky. Taiyi followed their gaze –

The sky had torn open.

Not figuratively, it had actually ripped open. Like a giant sheet of blue glass, a gash had been torn right through the middle. The edges of the tear glowed with unstable black light, revealing a bottomless void within. Wind poured in from the rift, making a strange howling sound and whipping the camp's banners.

Then, a figure stepped out of the rift.

Tall and thin, dressed in burlap, with messy hair. He stepped on the void as if it were solid ground, walking downwards step by step. With each step, the surrounding space trembled like ripples on water, spreading outwards in circles.

Di Jiang.

He hadn't brought Kuafu or Xuan Ming, he had come alone.

Taiyi narrowed his eyes. The irritation in his heart vanished, replaced by a... long-lost excitement. Like a hunter spotting a worthy prey, or a chess player meeting an evenly matched opponent.

He pushed aside the demon soldiers blocking his path, walked to the center of the clearing, and looked up at Di Jiang, who was still descending.

"Yo," Taiyi said, his voice lazy, "Isn't this the Ancestral Witch of Space? What, you didn't get enough last time, and you've come to deliver yourself today?"

Di Jiang stopped.

He stopped about thirty zhang above the ground. He looked down at Taiyi, his face expressionless, but his eyes burned with two flames – not flames of anger, but pure battle intent, like a blade polished for millennia, finally ready to be unsheathed.

"Eastern Emperor Taiyi," Di Jiang spoke, his voice still hoarse and unpleasant. "Let's change locations."

"Change to where?"

"Up in the sky," Di Jiang said. "This place is too small; I can't unleash my full power."

Taiyi chuckled. "Alright. As you wish, the guest decides the location."

As the words fell, both moved simultaneously.

Di Jiang's figure flickered, re-entering the spatial rift. Taiyi transformed into a golden rainbow and shot towards the sky, following closely behind. The rift sealed itself rapidly after the two entered, and the sky returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Only the three thousand demon soldiers in the camp were left, looking at each other in bewilderment.

The void.

Not the chaos, but the void outside the Great Wilderness. There was no up or down, no left or right, no light, no sound, only eternal darkness and silence. Occasionally, fragments of space drifted by like shooting stars, leaving faint trails.

Taiyi stabilized himself and looked around. Di Jiang stood opposite him, about a hundred zhang away – distance was meaningless in the void, where there were no reference points.

"Is this big enough?" Taiyi asked.

Di Jiang didn't speak. He simply raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and then slowly clenched his fist.

BOOM--

The surrounding space violently contracted!

Not a squeeze like last time, but a more brutal, direct spatial collapse. Centered on Di Jiang, the space within a thousand zhang radius was like an invisible hand gripping it, collapsing inwards madly. Space fragments collided and ground against each other, emitting ear-piercing shrieks.

Taiyi's expression changed slightly.

This move was far stronger than last time. It seemed Di Jiang had held back when Xuan Ming was present.

He dared not delay. With a thought, the phantom image of the Chaos Bell fully materialized behind him – not the faint shadow from before, but an almost solid, ancient, and heavy bell body. On the bell's surface, three rings of sun patterns shone blindingly, and the dark red edge also began to flow, as if alive.

CLANG--!

The bell's chime exploded in the void.

There was no air, so sound shouldn't have propagated. But the Chaos Bell's chime directly vibrated space itself, sending out golden ripples in all directions. Wherever they passed, the collapsing space was forcefully stopped and held open.

The two forces stalemated in the air.

Di Jiang's collapse, Taiyi's support. Space groaned under the tearing of the two forces, and fine black cracks spread through the void like a shattered mirror.

"Interesting," Di Jiang spoke, a hint of excitement in his voice. "Now this is more like it."

He released his fist, and the collapsing power vanished instantly. But the next second, his figure flickered—

He disappeared.

Not teleportation, but true disappearance. He vanished from his spot, his aura completely hidden.

Taiyi's heart tightened. His divine sense instantly spread out, covering a thousand miles. But the void was empty, with nothing but floating spatial fragments.

To the left!

His intuition suddenly warned him. Without thinking, Taiyi violently shifted to the right by a hundred zhang. Almost simultaneously, the space where he had just stood shattered like glass, and a hand reached out from the crack, its five fingers like hooks, grasping at empty air.

Di Jiang stepped out from the shattered space, his expression unreadable, but a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes: "Your reaction is quite fast."

"Nonsense." Taiyi stabilized himself, his heart still pounding—if he had been caught just then, he would have lost at least a layer of skin. "Playing sneak attack? Aren't you Witch Race known for being straightforward?"

"In the void, there is no light," Di Jiang said, and vanished again.

This time, Taiyi was prepared. The Chaos Bell hovered above his head, its body slowly rotating, emitting circles of invisible waves. These were waves of spacetime law; anything touched by these waves, whether physical or spatial movement, would be perceived by him.

Behind him!

Taiyi spun around abruptly, his right fist clenched, the Chaos True Sun Fire condensing on his fist. He punched out.

His fist struck not Di Jiang, but a suddenly appearing spatial barrier. The barrier, like a mirror, reflected his punch back, shaking Taiyi until his Blood Essence churned, forcing him back three steps.

Di Jiang walked out from behind the barrier, looking at Taiyi with a more serious expression.

"You've changed," he said.

"Here we go again," Taiyi flicked his numb right hand. "Why do you all keep saying that?"

"Not your personality," Di Jiang shook his head. "Your combat style. The old you only knew how to smash with the Chaos Bell and burn with the True Sun Fire. The current you... dodges, deceives, and sets traps."

He paused, adding, "Like a different person."

Taiyi's heart skipped a beat, but he smiled outwardly. "What, are only the Witch Race allowed to improve, and I'm not?"

"You've improved too quickly," Di Jiang said. "Unnaturally fast."

As his voice fell, he stopped wasting words and formed a strange hand seal with both hands in front of his chest. As the seal took shape, the surrounding space began to twist and fold, like a crumpled piece of paper. Taiyi could feel the area he was in being "cut" out of the void, forming an independent Space Prison.

Spatial Severance.

A spatial Divine Ability of the Ancestral Witch level, once formed, would completely isolate the trapped individual, preventing even the laws from being sensed, eventually leading to their death from exhaustion.

Taiyi dared not hold back any longer.

He took a deep breath, and the ball of Chaos True Sun Fire in his Dantian exploded, transforming into billions of fine threads that surged out of his body. The threads intertwined and spun in the air, condensing into a giant flaming palm. The palm was golden-red all over, but its center was pure darkness—a manifestation of the Annihilation Characteristic of the Chaos True Sun Fire pushed to its extreme.

The palm slammed towards the forming Space Prison.

Not a direct slam, but a "press." The palm pressed against the edge of the prison, the darkness in its palm colliding with and eroding the spatial laws, wearing each other down. Sizzling sounds echoed in the void, like cold water poured onto red-hot iron.

Di Jiang's expression changed.

He could feel the spatial prison he had set up being rapidly eroded by that strange flame. Not destroyed, but a more terrifying "erasure"—like erasing pencil marks with an eraser, leaving no trace behind.

"This fire..." Di Jiang narrowed his eyes. "It's wrong."

Taiyi didn't reply. His entire focus was on the flaming palm, controlling that annihilation power to bit by bit devour the Space Prison. Fine sweat beaded on his forehead, and his back was drenched—this move consumed too much energy; at his peak Grand Unity cultivation, he could only sustain it for ten breaths at most.

Ten breaths were enough.

Crack—

A sound like shattering glass. A gap was torn open in the Space Prison. Taiyi seized the opportunity, his figure flickering as he slipped through the opening, and the flaming palm dissipated.

The two faced each other again.

Di Jiang looked at Taiyi for a long time. Then, he suddenly smiled—though the smile was uglier than a cry.

"Eastern Emperor Taiyi," he said, "I take back what I said earlier. You haven't been replaced; you're still you."

Taiyi was stunned.

"Only you could cultivate the True Sun Fire to such a wicked degree," Di Jiang said. "And only you could make the Chaos Bell recognize you as its master to the point of distorting the laws."

He paused, his gaze becoming complex. "But you have indeed changed. The old you, strong as you were, always felt like... something was missing. The current you has gained something."

"Gained what?"

"Scheming," Di Jiang said. "And... fear."

Taiyi's heart leaped.

"What are you afraid of?" Di Jiang pressed. "Afraid of the Witch Race? Afraid of the Calamity? Or afraid of... something else?"

Taiyi didn't answer. He looked at Di Jiang, at this nemesis, and suddenly felt that he might have underestimated this brute all along. Di Jiang was direct, he was reckless, but those eyes sometimes saw more clearly than anyone else's.

"Everyone is afraid," Taiyi finally spoke. "Aren't you afraid?"

"I am," Di Jiang admitted frankly. "I'm afraid the Witch Race will be wiped out, afraid all twelve Ancestral Witches will die, afraid Buzhou Mountain will fall."

He spoke directly, so directly that there was no room for rebuttal.

Silence fell between them again.

There was no wind in the void, but the floating spatial fragments began to move slowly, as if stirred by an invisible hand. In the distance, a massive spatial storm was forming, like a black dragon, rolling and roaring in the darkness.

"That's all for today," Di Jiang suddenly said.

"We're not fighting anymore?" Taiyi raised an eyebrow.

"No more fighting," Di Jiang shook his head. "If we keep going, we won't be able to determine a winner. You can't break my Space Divine Ability, and I can't do anything about your bell."

As he spoke, he turned to leave, then stopped. "Oh, right. Xuan Ming asked me to pass on a message."

"What message?"

"She said to be careful." Di Jiang glanced back at him. "Not to be careful of the Witch Race, but to be careful... of yourself."

With that, he tore open space and stepped through, disappearing.

Taiyi was left alone in the void.

He stood there, looking in the direction Di Jiang had vanished for a long time. Two sentences echoed repeatedly in his mind—

"What are you afraid of?"

"Be careful of yourself."

Wind poured in from the spatial rift, rustling his robes.

Taiyi slowly exhaled and turned, flying towards the Great Wilderness. After flying for a while, the System's prompt suddenly sounded in his mind:

[Detected Host and Eastern Emperor Taiyi identity compatibility increase]
[Current Compatibility: 71%]
[Unlocking new permission: Partial Memory Fragment Unsealing (Can be actively viewed)]

Taiyi froze.

Compatibility? This thing had a numerical value? And 71%... does that mean he was already seven-tenths similar to Eastern Emperor Taiyi in his current role?

He tried to "think" of viewing the memory fragments in his mind.

A scene suddenly flashed before his eyes—

The sun was blazing. At the foot of Buzhou Mountain. He and Di Jiang, both impossibly young, with childish innocence still on their faces. They were wrestling, throwing punches and kicks, kicking up clouds of dust. A dozen young Witch Race youths surrounded them, cheering them on.

As they fought, both grew tired and collapsed on the ground, panting.

"You, you just wait..." the young Di Jiang gasped, "When I master the Space Divine Ability, I'll beat you so hard your teeth will fall out..."

"Hmph!" the young Taiyi retorted, "When I refine the Chaos Bell, I'll smash you with one strike..."

They looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter.

The scene cut off there.

Taiyi stopped in the void, lost in thought.

Was that... Taiyi and Di Jiang as youths? So they really did fight when they were kids, and not just once.

The tension in his heart, which had been taut from the battle, suddenly eased. Along with it, his feelings towards that brute Di Jiang became something indescribable.

It wasn't friendship—what friendship could there be between sworn enemies?

It was... familiarity. Like knowing someone for a long time, having fought many battles, cursed many times, but in the end, still having to continue fighting in this damned Great Wilderness.

He shook his head, clearing his scattered thoughts, and accelerated towards the camp.

Time to go back.

A pile of things were waiting for him.