Immortal Paladin

“Yuen Fu should be starting right now,” I muttered, brushing dust off my sleeve. The air in the maze shifted with faint tension with distant footsteps, clashing qi, and nervous breaths echoing between the high verdant walls. “So, I should pick up the pace…”

Two cultivators stood ahead of me, frozen mid-step, one clutching a sword and the other gripping a spear. Their faces stiffened when they noticed the Martial Alliance martial artist lying beneath my foot, groaning faintly. His name escaped me, but judging by the elaborate badge on his chest, he was someone respectable.

It was the twenty-third cultivator I just took down. In a flicker of light, the cultivator below me vanished as he was eliminated in this competition.

“Oh, would you look at that,” I said, feeling a warm surge bloom in my core. A barrier cracked, and a tidal force of qi washed through my body. I smiled as the pressure settled. “Will Reinforcement Realm, First Star…”

My muddled spiritual roots twisted, separating as yin and yang split cleanly before weaving together again. The shift felt like my entire being realigned, purified, and balanced. Well, mostly balanced. The yin was annoyingly dominant.

The two cultivators in front of me stiffened in terror, then immediately fled, channeling every ounce of their movement techniques. They vanished around a corner so quickly their afterimages struggled to keep up.

It had only been an hour since the Rising Phoenix Tournament began. I had accumulated a stable amount of points, enough to stand comfortably near the top. But points were nothing more than a side effect. What I wanted was spectacle, something that would echo through Phoenix City and beyond. To reach my goals on the national level, I needed to break into Spirit Mystery as fast as possible.

I took a step forward, preparing to chase the runners, but paused when a sudden burst of chaotic energy spiraled in my dantian. Yin surged like a river in flood, drowning out the yang. My breath stuttered.

“Calm down,” I muttered, placing a hand on my abdomen.

I stored the axe and spear away, exhaling slowly. “It’s a good time to test it.”

From my storage ring, I retrieved a bow and several arrows. At Will Reinforcement Realm, one gained the ability to exert their will onto the world. With enough mastery, this extended to qi telekinesis or even void-capturing techniques. I wasn’t there yet, but I could adapt the concept.

“Let’s see… Combine Divine Sense, Divine Speed, and aura…”

The maze stretched around me with walls of dense green vegetation, towering high enough to block sight and Divine Sense beyond their surface. The cultivators who fled had already escaped beyond visual range. However, with the faint extension of will and a bit of intuition, I could still feel their rough positions.

I loosed the first arrow. Then the second. And the third.

Each one curved through the air, guided by tiny nudges of qi telekinesis, slipping through angles and gaps that should not have been possible. Far off, bursts of light flickered as jade bands shattered on impact.

Six out of eleven.

“Not a bad result for the first try.”

I continued, drawing and firing again. The technique was clumsy, the nudge of qi often overcompensating, but I adapted quickly. Each shot taught me more about how far I could twist an arrow’s flight.

shhk!

I ducked instinctively as a sword swept past my head, slicing a few strands of hair. The blade hummed with a cold, refined sharpness.

I looked up.

A blue-haired swordsman stood in front of me, his expression calm and eyes focused. He held a polished sword empowered with a faint spiritual radiance. The air around him rippled subtly. A Spirit Mystery cultivator. Fourth Realm. He was not just any Fourth Realm, but one from the Heavenly Temple.

His swordsmanship was swift, relentless, and aggressive. Each strike blended seamlessly into the next, forming a rhythm meant to overwhelm. His steps were firm yet light, his aura sharp.

I weaved between his attacks with clever footwork, slipping under his blade and bending around his flows. Whenever I found an opening, I shot an arrow, but he parried every one with minimal effort. His blade flicked, twisted, and absorbed the force cleanly.

“A Spirit Mystery ability that softens blows…” I murmured while sidestepping a dangerous upward sweep. “Definitely not just qi. Its origin is spirit.”

He didn’t confirm or deny it. He simply pressed forward, sword dancing like a serpent made of moonlight.

I exhaled, rolling my shoulders. “Your swordsmanship is too straightforward.”

I stashed my bow back into the storage ring and drew a sword of my own. The blade gleamed faintly with a golden aura as I settled into a stance.

“Let’s see how you handle this.”

“Tell me your name,” the blue-haired swordsman demanded, his tone sharp yet steady. His blade pointed at me with a poise that spoke of countless hours of disciplined training.

“Nah,” I replied, feeling particularly uncharitable. “But how old are you?”

His eyes narrowed, not in irritation, but in something closer to curiosity. He parried my sword with fluid precision, stepped lightly to my flank, and unleashed a technique with a crisp shout. “Piercing Heaven!”

A flawless thrust followed his declaration, sharp enough to whistle through the air.

I flicked my blade up in Flash Parry, chaining the motion into Flash Step as I slipped behind him. “Show me your true strength,” I said, drawing my sword upward. “I know you’re lying.”

Divine Smite blossomed along the blade as I slashed upward.

His expression twisted with confusion, surprise, then a sharp focus as he blocked with far more force than before. The clang of metal echoed down the maze corridor. He stared at me, something unreadable settling in his gaze.

“I don’t understand what you are implying,” he replied, steadying his stance. “To attend this competition, one must be under a hundred years old. They used multiple techniques to confirm our age. If this is your best attempt at provoking me, then it’s rather shallow. Show me more of your skills.”

“Brace yourself,” I murmured as a faint red mist seeped from my lips, the manifestation of my aura pushing at the limits of my vessel. “I’ll gladly show you more…”

Aura in this body had been tricky, more volatile, and more prone to tearing me apart if I wasn’t careful. But I had discovered something valuable: while using aura to empower martial skills was difficult, the opposite was surprisingly easy. My Paladin aura skills responded to the touch of martial mastery like oil to flame.

War Aura in my main body boosted myself and allies.

War Aura in this body, fused with my innate aura mastery… turned into something far more terrifying.

I could shrink it, compress it, and twist it. Moreover, condense it into a buff that grew stronger the fewer people it touched. Right now, it touched only me!

My aura ignited in a bloody glow.

“War Smite!”

I brought the sword overhead. The blue-haired swordsman managed to block it barely, but the force launched him backward like a ragdoll, tearing gouges into the grassy wall behind him.

I stepped forward.

“Zealot’s Stride.”

No golden brilliance bloomed beneath my feet this time. Instead, crimson radiance flared like blood igniting in the air. My pulse roared. My muscles tightened. The world slowed around me.

With monstrous speed, I appeared before him. If I swung now, even with the protection spell, he would die.

I raised my sword.

“Divine Smite.”

Gold light wrapped the blade, outlined with a murderous crimson hue. A terrifying blend of holiness and bloodlust. The strike descended, and an axe slammed into my blade with earthshaking force.

The shockwave rippled through the corridor.

Standing before me was the middle-aged man from earlier.

The Boulder Dragon.

“You were about to kill him,” he said, his expression hard. “What is the meaning of this!?”

I hadn’t expected interference. But it made sense, since he called himself an Observer because he saw through everything, including my intent to kill someone who should’ve been protected by a jade band.

“That’s a demon,” I said, pointing at the blue-haired swordsman. “If we don’t deal with him, the Martial Alliance will suffer.”

For a heartbeat, there was silence.

Then the swordsman laughed.

It was not the laugh of a noble disciple.

It was cold, hollow, and threaded with something wrong.

He straightened slowly, brushing dirt from his sleeve. “Interesting. Very interesting,” he said, the smile stretching too wide. “Tell me… what sect are you from? Or rather… what faction is bold enough to send someone like you?”

His eyes glowed faintly.

“I’m with the Holy Empire,” I answered calmly as I vanished with Flash Step.

My sword carved a clean line through the air, but hit nothing.

The demon reappeared several paces away, his movement technique far more refined than before. He sneered, voice deepening.

“Ah… then you must be one of those pesky… Guardians. A new force in the Hollowed World, answering directly to the Holy Emperor.” His grin widened, revealing teeth too sharp to be human. “You’ve been quite the nuisance for us lately.”

The demon lifted a hand.

The sky within the maze, under countless formation layers, darkened.

Boulder Dragon stiffened. “What did you do?”

“It’s a spell called Black Veil,” the demon boasted. “Since no one’s watching us here… I can take all the time I want. I’ll kill both of you slowly.”

His body twisted.

Muscles bulged like bruised stone. Bones cracked. His skin mottled black and red as horns split through his skull. The mild, disciplined Heavenly Temple swordsman was gone, replaced by a hulking figure radiating twisted, oppressive qi.

He tossed aside his original sword and reached into a pocket dimension, retrieving an infernal blade of molten brimstone.

His cultivation flared into the Seventh Realm, but bursting with corruptive strength that exceeded it.

Boulder Dragon stepped forward, axe in hand. “Let me handle this. You—flee—”

“No.”

My reply was blunt as I drew an axe into my offhand.

“I’ll handle this.”

He looked at me as if I were insane.

“This is the perfect opportunity for me to raise my strength,” I continued, “and convince you the Holy Empire means no harm to the Martial Alliance. I didn’t come here to just participate. I came here to win the Martial Alliance.”

“What nonsense are you spouting!?”

“I’m going to save the Martial Alliance.”

For a breath, even the demon paused.

I recalled the two hundred years’ worth of information I’d read from Gu Jie’s notebook of records of looming calamities that would drown the world in chaos. This was only one of them. A scheme by the Heavenly Temple to raise a Hell’s Gate right in the heart of the Alliance.

I didn’t know why. Yi Qiu said the Martial Alliance was already under their control behind the scenes.

So why summon a gate?

A trap for me? Maybe.

But I didn’t believe Gu Jie would purposely push me into one.

Whatever their logic was, I’d uncover it later.

“Save?!” The demon burst into hideous laughter. “YOU? Save the Martial Alliance!? Who do you think you are, the Holy Emperor?”

“Sure.”

My aura shifted from bloody crimson to shimmering silver.

“Zeal Aura.”

Speed surged through me like lightning. I coiled my legs. Qi roared like a storm around me.

“Divine Speed.”

“Flash Step.”

I exploded forward like a silver comet. I had no idea how to combine my skills into a proper martial art. No idea how to make them fit neatly into this world’s system. But I didn’t need to. My path wasn’t theirs. My power wasn’t theirs. I was my own person. I carved my own way.

“—W-WHAT—!?”

The demon’s scream tore through the maze.

Multiple lacerations blossomed across his skin, deep and precise. Blood sprayed in arcs behind him as my afterimages vanished. However, that wasn’t the end. I stared in disbelief as both my black-iron sword and axe shattered in my hands, exploding into a rain of metallic fragments.

“…Huh?”

The demon grinned with fanged satisfaction. “Surprise. How do you like my space distortion?”

So that was it.

That explained why, earlier, he could soften the force of every strike I gave him. This was the true nature of his Spirit Mystery ability. Now, in his full demonic form, muscles bulging, horns crowning his skull, his manipulation of space was outright shredding anything I swung.

He moved with one step. His blade cut toward me, and the air warped, bending like ripples over disturbed water. I had no weapon in my hands, but I didn’t need one. A Supreme Master could fight a Fourth Realm head-on. What if that Supreme Master also had Will Reinforcement cultivation?

“Holy Aura.”

My aura blazed gold.

“Divine Flesh.”

My muscles tightened like divine iron drums.

“Die!” the demon roared as his distortion-warped sword plunged into me.

Space twisted, and my vision vibrated.

The blade dug into my shoulder and then snapped. The demon stared dumbly as his treasured infernal weapon broke against my body.

Before he could react, Boulder Dragon burst forward with a violent leap. His axe chopped down in a furious arc, but the demon sprouted wings, blasting sideways with a gale of scorching wind. Boulder Dragon’s axe crushed stone instead.

But I was already waiting.

My hand lifted, palm glowing.

“Holy Smite.”

The air opened like a golden iris, and dozens of radiant holy arrows erupted, each one searing flesh and shadow alike. The demon screamed as he staggered back, burning.

Boulder Dragon roared, scales forming across his skin as he unleashed a second, more refined swing.

SHLACK!

The demon’s body split in half.

“Don’t let your guard down,” I warned.

I extended two fingers and locked onto the fleeing soul.

“Divine Smite.”

My palm crashed down on the escaping spirit, shattering it like brittle glass.

Silence returned to the maze.

With that, I felt the surge… My cultivation rose to Three Stars of Will Reinforcement. Great. Wonderful. But I couldn’t relax.

Because if Gu Jie’s notebook was right… Hell’s Gate would open here.

Boulder Dragon finally caught his breath, staring at me with a mixture of awe and suspicion.

“You… You’re from the Holy Empire,” he muttered. “You can’t possibly expect me to believe you came here without a motive. What exactly does someone like you hope to achieve in the Martial Alliance?”

“I already told you,” I said simply. “I’m here to save the Martial Alliance.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, maybe even yell at me.

But he didn’t get the chance.

My jade band lit up, bright and blinding.

A teleportation spell?

Why!?

The protection spell was still intact.

Why was I being pulled out?

“…Wait—”

Light consumed everything.

When I blinked again, I was standing in an exquisitely furnished room with polished floors, ornate columns, and faint sandalwood fragrance. Before me sat a bearded gentleman on a massive chair, his expression calm and unreadable.

Beside him stood a tall woman with long, fiery red hair tied in a high ponytail, eyes sharp as blades.

She bowed her head lightly.

“Your Holy Majesty. It is an honor to finally meet you.”

I stiffened.

She straightened and placed a hand over her heart.

“I am Yi Chan, daughter of the late Alliance Master.”

Then she gestured toward the dignified man seated beside her.

“And this is Tan Dong, the current leader of the Martial Alliance.”