“[Thunder]!”
The word was not in Mandarin, the language of both Modern China and Great Yong and Great Yan, the two empires of the Shattered Star Continent, but of English – another glorified occupant of the modernized world of technology.
The statement was filled with a biting power, and an unwavering resolve.
As a language, English was wonderful in its ability to deliver information with great haste and concision.
When reciting a long codex of text, the English speaker could finish much earlier than that of the Mandarin speaker.
Granted, the emphasis on speed and concision resulted in minimal effort towards keeping an artistic tone, or variation in verbalized meanings.
Hence, whether be it a prolonged conversation or exchange of cursing, it was rather impossible to exceed ten sentences without repeating the same words, akin to an antiquated machine attempting to compete against its modernized generation.
But since all she needed was the invocation of a single concept, why would she care if the language was rather repetitive?
BOOM!
The entire sky split in two at the command, the intensity of the molecules’ vibrations increasing to the extent that the atmosphere almost lost its veil of transparency.
A second sonic wave erupted in the plains, but this time, it originated from the air.
The giant spear released a radial shockwave that expanded from a specific point in the ground – where the spear had stabbed into the earth. As for the young girl’s invocation, the shockwaves erupted from overhead.
There was no escape, for Ming Xia could not merge with the earth even with his seemingly divine ability.
As a result, the Young Master bounced against the ground for several impacts, before the compound interference of the pressurized air hurled him into the air in a fashion not unlike to what An Fei had suffered.
…the poor youth could not even obtain the opportunity to scream in fright, before he had already vanished from view.
“Oh… not worth it… it was absolutely not worth it.”
Below, an enfeebled moan escaped the lips of a certain young girl. An Fei sat on a partially demolished plank of wood from her former carriage, clutching her temples with both hands.
She had never known that she could be this dumb, dumb to the point that she would deliver an explosive ordinance to the enemy’s headquarters then trigger the detonator without having placed enough distance between it and herself.
As a result, the young girl had been fully captured within the epicenter of the massive eruption of thunder.
Furthermore, she wasn’t the primary target of the subsequent shockwaves of pressurized air, and received the full aftereffects of her own attack.
Standing directly below the epicenter of thunder – just how uncomfortable could it be?
It was considered lucky if the pressurized shockwaves and vibrations didn’t split the skull from the rapidly accumulated atmospheric pressure, or if the brain wasn’t cooked alive from the transfer of kinetic and thermal energy from highly active particles.
An Fei had suffered from neither and thus avoided the grand prize, but wasn’t feeling so far off. Her vision was knocked askew by at least ninety degrees, and her hearing completely eradicated for the next few moments.
…the experience was rather miserable, but the young girl still held a sliver of happiness in her heart.
She had succeeded!
At the least, in her memories before the massive and uncounted eruption of sonic shockwaves, a small cyan disk had marked its presence in the sky.
The exact appearance of the disk was unknown as it was obscured from the dust raised from Ming Xia’s golden spear, but An Fei could never mistake it for anything else other than the mysterious diagram she had discovered in the Sanctum.
An illusory disk of flowing light, with the inner circles inscribed with unknown symbols and characters. At the outermost fringes of the disk, were comprehendible characters – of the beloved simplified script that she had come to obsess over as part of her education.
Due to the startled nature of current mental self, her memory could only recover the information that there was a single character inscribed at the outer rings of the circle, instead of the three usual characters.
Nevertheless, the young girl knew all too well what that single character could be.
Thunder!
Since she had asked for it, the world had obliged with her request!
“I… can’t believe that my first success of invoking manifestation would be during a battle… nor that I would be the main victim of such…”
The young girl rolled her eyes to the best of her ability, unable to find any other method to vent her exasperation.
With an inaudible brush of her hands, An Fei shakily arose from her makeshift seat, surveying her surroundings with an absentminded and bewildering gaze.
Invoke Manifestation.
I declare; therefore, it exists.
The concept was simple in theory, at least to An Fei’s understanding of its premises. The young girl had long since pondered regarding the specificities of the <Heavenly Talisman>’s unusual sentence, but it was only today that she had witnessed the gravity of its meaning.
I declare, I acknowledge; therefore, it exists before me.
I do not acknowledge, I refute; therefore, its existence is forbidden.
The concept was outlandish at best, for it attempted to assume the identity of God.
The young girl had the inkling strike her heart that regardless of mortal or immortal, assuming the identity of God was a taboo that could never be crossed.
That was why the Immortals glanced upon mortal cultivators struggling for immortality as though they were ignorant fools. Now that she had grasped the taste of the <Heavenly Talisman>’s might, An Fei held the same belief.
Mortal cultivation was to absorb the world’s essence and assimilate into the world in both body and soul, tethering their lives to the world’s existence.
Once they had accumulated a sufficient quantity of spiritual essence, they could break their shackles and ascend into the Realm as pseudo-Immortal beings.
The failure to assume pure immortality was simply due to the reason that they had assimilated their charismatic natures into the world’s core.
Because of that, though they possessed an everlasting life, they were tethered by mortality; in the end, the world had ascended to the Realm, not the cultivator themselves.
The mortal world was already an immortal object since its creation – why would it, or why should it change?
Hence, they were all fools.
Wielding the power of creation was exhilarating, indeed.
The instant the mysterious sensation had welled in her heart and spread throughout her body, just before the thunderstrike slammed onto the world, the young girl had felt as though she were god.
An Fei had not utilized any of the meagre spiritual essence in her body, nor did she rely on her minimal knowledge of the Divine Script.
With one word, even an immortal object such as the mortal world could only obey to her wishes.
If she asked for gold, it would have to present the purest ingot; if she asked for the world to crumble, all creation of the Shattered Star Continent would reduce into rubble in the next instant.
It was a pity that she had only asked for thunder.
At the least, wasn’t asking for the cruel and unreasonable suppression to be removed a logical request?
The young girl supported her frail body with the sheathed taijijian, limping back towards the dingy carriage of rotting wood that belonged to Wang Qinian.
Passing by the unconscious soldiers dressed in black steel armor with bubbles of foam pooled around their lips, the young girl’s mouth twitched into a light, teasing curve.
…perhaps now was the best time to obtain the resources that had sparked the entire fiasco from the beginning?
However, at the moment that she stared upon the elderly shopkeeper’s utterly ashen and comatose complexion, An Fei felt as though her intelligence needed a serious interrogation regarding its actual capabilities.
The young girl stared at Wang Qinian’s ‘peacefully’ sleeping expression amidst a sea of equally unconscious carriage drivers, ultimately releasing a depressed sigh from her lips.
How was she going to wake the old bag of bones without causing brain damage?
As much as she disliked the ever-persistent saintly countenance and benevolent expression as well as his wheedling and begging for her to call him ‘Master’, the old shopkeeper was the one who possessed a rather complete knowledge regarding the surrounding cities and their geography.
Thus, An Fei had no choice but to restrain herself from cruelly ditching the useless old man – for she didn’t want to get lost for a second time.
However…
It had been so long, why was this Young Master taking forever to fall down?
The inaudible mutter was indeed rather humiliating, to both the speaker and intended recipient.
After all, her method of falling down was equally embarrassing and sorrowful.
