Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

Blue veins bulged on his forehead and neck, throbbing like a mass of writhing earthworms.

His mouth was agape as if it would tear, his jaw nearly dislocated. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to scream, but no sound escaped his lips.

His vocal cords seemed to be blocked. All that came from his throat was a wheezing ”Hhh... hhh...” like a chicken with its windpipe slit.

And right before his eyes, the last Iron Arrow remained lodged there.

His eyes were fixed on the out-of-reach shaft, the last glimmer of light in his pupils slowly dying out.

”Fuck—!”

Beside him, Yu An had no time to be amazed, no time to think, not even enough time to wipe the blood spattering his face.

He exploded off his feet.

Dry branches and rotten leaves burst outward, revealing the hard, frozen black earth beneath and a deep gouge torn by the tip of his foot.

This time, he didn’t just use every ounce of his strength; he held his breath, suppressed his organs, and forcefully surged his Blood Qi to its absolute limit, pushing himself to the fastest speed he had ever achieved in his life.

RUMBLE... RUMBLE...

He had just dashed a little over a hundred feet when a rumbling thunderclap sounded behind him.

The sound was muffled yet violent and incredibly fast, as if some colossal beast was rapidly closing in.

”Damn it... what the hell is that monster...”

Yu An’s pupils quaked, and he gritted his teeth so hard they nearly shattered.

He couldn’t imagine what was happening behind him, but instinct screamed at him to look back.

But he didn’t dare. He just ran for his life, wind whipping at his feet as his figure weaved frantically between the shadows of the trees.

He didn’t dare run in a straight line or maintain a steady pace.

Every so often, he would burst into a momentary sprint.

This burst of acceleration was identical to the technique Yu Shi had used in the ring.

When the frequency and magnitude were controlled, it had little effect on the body.

But if done too frequently or with too much force, it would cause damage.

At this moment, in pursuit of ultimate speed, the veins on Yu An’s neck bulged, his face turned the color of pig’s liver, his eyes were webbed with broken blood vessels, and blood sprayed from his nostrils...

He really couldn’t go any faster!

Not one bit!

However, the thunderous sound behind him grew closer and louder, as if exploding right behind his head.

His heart was about to hammer through his chest, his breathing was a chaotic mess, and every gasp carried the coppery-sweet taste of blood foam.

Closer!

Closer still!

He could clearly feel it right behind him, the distance shrinking with terrifying speed.

He could even imagine a silver Bullet already nocked, aimed at the back of his head.

The pressure of death was clearer than it had ever been.

He couldn’t accept that he would die like this, without even seeing what his opponent looked like...

Suddenly, the thunder vanished.

All movement behind him fell into a dead silence.

’What’s happening?’

’Did he give up? No! Did he disappear?’

Yu An couldn’t take it anymore. He had to look back.

Just one glance.

He just wanted to see with his own eyes what kind of monster could manifest such a tangible sense of death. Had it really disappeared?

The dead silence continued.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

In the end, Yu An couldn’t hold back.

He whipped his head around.

The space behind him was utterly silent, yet his gaze met a face that was mere inches away.

It was the face of a youth, fair-skinned and unremarkable.

His dark eyes stared calmly at Yu An, his pupils devoid of any emotion.

There was no killing intent, no joy or anger, not even scrutiny.

It was like he was looking at a cold corpse.

HISS—

Yu An’s heart skipped a beat.

”Th-you... what the fuck are you, man or ghost!?”

The youth said nothing.

He just kicked off the ground, launching himself into the air.

He moved with such speed and ferocity that he was like a bolt of Divine Thunder tearing through the air.

He bent his right leg, his knee slamming into Yu An’s chest with the mountain-shattering force of Divine Thunder.

BANG—!

A dull impact exploded outward.

Yu An’s chest visibly caved in, accompanied by a chorus of cracking ribs.

His body went limp like a rag doll struck by a sledgehammer, his feet leaving the ground as he flew backward. Blood foam spewed from his mouth, tracing a scarlet arc through the air.

It wasn’t over.

He was still flying backward through the air, his body arched, not yet beginning to fall.

The youth had already pushed off the ground again.

He leaped like he was flying, as if he were Thunder Stepping.

He moved so fast it seemed he hadn’t touched the ground at all, simply using the momentum from the knee strike to maneuver in mid-air and appear directly above Yu An’s trajectory.

He twisted at the waist, generating Power from his core.

His spine moved like a dragon as the Power traveled link by link to his right leg.

His right leg carved a full-moon arc through the air, chopping down like a battle-ax.

It struck Yu An squarely in the throat.

CRACK—!

The sound of shattering bone echoed all around—crisp and sharp, like a thick icicle snapping in the dead of winter.

Under the force of that ax-kick, Yu An’s entire neck bent at an impossible angle.

A section of his cervical spine jutted out from the skin of his nape, the ghastly white, broken bone still clinging to spinal cord and shredded flesh.

His mouth was wide open, frozen in a terrified scream that could no longer produce a sound.

His eyes were wide, his pupils still fixed in the shape they had taken the moment he met that fair-skinned face.

And his entire body, like a meteorite struck down by the power of heavenly thunder, plummeted from the sky.

THUD—!

His body slammed violently onto the ground.

The dry branches and rotten leaves in that spot burst outward.

The hard, tough black earth, frozen for an entire winter, shattered inch by inch.

Cracks spiderwebbed out from the point where his neck was broken, extending several feet in every direction.

The shockwave continued to expand, sweeping up more leaves and branches and forming a perfect circle over ten feet away.

The black earth beneath Yu An’s body had caved in, creating a crater that, from a distance, truly looked as if it had been made by a small meteorite.