Chapter 209

  The Sight of Silver (III)

  It wasn't even four seconds into me admiring the floating city and wondering how exactly it was floating that a crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning streaked out of one of its many jutting spires. The very next moment followed an array of blindingly bright flames, and the two converged into a weave in the high sky.

  I immediately poured some Qi into my eyes and activated Art of Surviving, allowing me to discern a bit better, though even with that, it mostly still remained a blur.

  Each clash resounded across the entire valley, with thousands of sparks flying off as though someone had taken the world's largest saw to the world's largest metal plate and just went ham on it. Explosions, too, were resoundingly loud, and the two blurs would converge and distance themselves so frequently it looked like they were two stars rotating unto themselves in a slow dance toward the final collision.

  The city remained untouched even as the surrounding mountains began to quake and the trees began to catch fire; each time a stray bundle of Qi was headed toward the city, it would be stopped by an invisible sheen that would light up for a moment at the point of contact.

  "Wow!" Dai Xiu exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly with admiration, some excitement, and a whole lot of yearning.

  Though I couldn't tell what realm exactly the fighters were at, they had to be at least of the Void Transformation stage in order to fly on their own and without artifacts; however, seeing how they also unleashed one impossible attack after another, I suspect they were a bit higher than that.

  The first truly brilliant attack came from the fire-wielding cultivator--flames erupted around their blurry figure as the two once again separated after the clash, guided slowly into the shape of a sword that literally spanned at least four hundred yards or so. It blotted out the sun, though, eerily, it wasn't actually all that bright. Or, if it was, there was something blocking most of it.

  The sword swung downward toward the storm of lightning opposite of it; just before the collision, a roar blew out like a horn, and I watched as a swung fist procured a pure beam of purple lightning that shot directly through the descending sword, shattering it into millions of pieces.

  Fire rained down rapidly, though flaming out before ever touching the ground.

  It didn't stop there, however; six holes were suddenly torn open in the sky, their innards as black as obsidian, as they began to fire an onslaught of crackling bolts of lightning. At the same time, an engulfing inferno appeared in front of the other figure and bent over him like a shield, swallowing everything and summoning blades of fire (though far smaller ones, 'only' twenty yards or so long) repeatedly from all directions that swung toward the lightning cultivator.

  Vortex appeared just behind him, spinning so quickly it seemed to generate light by doing so and fraying all attacks into smoke and ash.

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  "Master!" Dai Xiu said. "I can't wait to fight like that! Aah! Flying in the sky, summoning rain of fire, dominating the world!" Yeah.

  But aren't you a body cultivator?

  "Then you need to change your cultivation method," Xi Zhao said. "Because you won't be summoning anything. Just kicking and punching."

  "Humph, you don't know that! What if I punch fire? And kick lightning?"

  "Then you'd be the first."

  "He he, Junior Brother, you've gotten quite bold. Maybe I should spar a bit more seriously next time?"

  "Okay, you two--enough," I quickly interjected before they, too, broke off into a fight. And, as though somebody else grew tired too, a voice boomed across the entire valley right then, shaking it.

  "Enough." At the same time, violent winds emerged from the seeming nowhere and destroyed all fire and lightning that were illuminating the sky, with two figures quickly being trapped within a cage. I could finally make out that they were both men and that they looked to be about the same age.

  Unfortunately, Creator's Eyes didn't trigger at this distance--as there seemed to be legitimately at least four or five miles between us (at least), and seeing how strong they are, I don't think I'm going to be meeting them any time soon.

  As the world settled down, so did my heart.

  I've witnessed cultivators fight before--but, honestly, here and there I forget that they aren't just like the kids. While they are strong, they aren't yet in the stage of summoning a literal inferno from the sky to rain down upon the world.

  And my only other experience was short-lived as I was more concerned with surviving while escaping the sect rather than admiring how cultivators at those levels fought.

  "That was fun," Long Tao spoke up, seeming surprisingly cheerful. "I'd really like to fight them for a bit... I think it'd be even more fun..."

  "..." Wan Lan's eyes bulged as she stared at him as though she were staring at a monster.

  I get it.

  Oh, I so get it.

  He's quite quiet for the most part, so I tend to forget, but then he says something off the cuff that sounds absolutely insane, yet he says it with such confidence and indifference you'd think he said he was going to the grocery store to buy some eggs.

  "It really would be fun!" Hey, Dai Xiu--he can say that; you can't.

  "And dangerous," I quickly interjected. "Your Senior Brother is already a lost cause of self-assurance and stupidity; I'd sooner be buried alive than let the rest of you fall into the same trap!"

  "... pfft." As the kids stifled their laughter the best they could, I glanced over at Long Tao only to see he was also close to laughing.

  Oh well.

  At least he can take a joke.

  Back to the floating fucking city.

  It was positioned at the bottom of the valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides, though at least two of the spires jutting from it actually stood taller than any of the surrounding mountains.

  It stood suspended about a hundred yards or so off the ground, the best I could tell from this far away, and it was unmoving. There seemed to be bridges coming in and out frequently enough, though from this far away they looked like tiny spider legs, ready to crawl away alongside the city itself.

  And I finally understood why it was called Silvercrest city--the ground it was built on top of wasn't of earthly tone but coated in a sheen of silver. Most of its towering spires shone in the same splendor, too, with the clear landmark being the top of one of the spires that spun out into a set of spiraling circles, at the center of which a silver fire writhed.

  It was as beautiful as it was dreadful--juxtaposed against the green of the surrounding nature, it reminded me of the ever-fond 'concrete jungle' term. Though not made of concrete and clearly not a jungle (honestly, by the standards of modern Earth, it would probably just qualify as a town or, at best, a very small 'hub city'), it evoked the same feeling.

  Like looking at something utterly alien against everything surrounding it… yet also so bizarrely beautiful that it was difficult to put into words.