Chapter 499: Throuple Tactics

Xir Xan Khan had never encountered such an infuriating opponent.

The Coiling Death should have been an overwhelming advantage, enough for him to end this foolish rivalry once and for all. Even though it could only be used once in a lifetime, its usage extended for a long period, so he had more than enough time. And yet his opponent refused to engage with him directly, instead retreating down the side of the mountains of Floodisle City.

It almost seemed like cowardice, yet his movements were too calculated for that. At every opportunity, when Xir Xan Khan extended himself to try for a lethal blow, the barbarian would evade and instead strike at other cultivators. In the beginning there had been various Coiling Island or Brightwind Earth Souls trying to join the battle, but as more and more of them were cut down, the battle became just the two of them in the ruined streets.

A battle that was clearly in his favor, which is why the tactic made so little sense. If anything, the barbarian might have tried to use his allies as shields, not that Xir Xan Khan would have hesitated to strike through them. The two leapt down from an upper level to stand on opposite sides of a wide rooftop.

"What is this nonsense?" Xir Xan Khan finally shouted. "Do you have more allies waiting? Zin Nim is fully engaged with her father, so she will never come to help you. If anything, delaying only means that you will soon be outnumbered by real opponents."

"Admittedly, I'm improvising a bit," the barbarian said with a shrug. "You know what they say, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

That line deserved nothing but a cold snort. "If your battle plan cannot survive, then you needed a better plan."

The barbarian gave him a strange look. "Maybe if your parents paid off your opponents, but not against anyone worth calling an enemy."

"You!" Xir Xan Khan lunged for him, but at that moment the barbarian stepped off the edge of the roof and plummeted down to the next level.

He pursued, sending the Coiling Death lashing out even as he used every ranged technique of the Coiling Island sect. Somehow, all of them were evaded or blocked. His opponent couldn't possibly keep up at close range, so he continued retreating, yet that seemed like a futile battle.

Bestial spikes flew from his opponent, but the Coiling Presence easily deflected them. That spike technique, grotesque as it was, was actually quite effective against ordinary cultivators. But Xir Xan Khan was far beyond ordinary and he had been deflecting storms of arrows since he was ten years old. He would never be touched by any of them, and even if he was taken off guard, he had prepared multiple antidote pills. This strategy was futile.

Yet it was without doubt a strategy, and so Xir Xan Khan could not allow himself to fall victim to it. They were passing underneath the great ship, which was dropping pieces of rubble into the streets... could that be the key?

The paths on which they fought were increasingly narrow, but surely the barbarian wasn't stupid enough to believe that close quarters would grant him the victory. He'd already seen the Coiling Death pierce through buildings with ease, so he knew it could not be contained. No, he was attempting something, and it had to be interrupted, so perhaps the most rational decision was to keep playing to his barbarian instincts.

"Just how did you turn Zin Nim into a whore?"

That actually got the barbarian's attention, and Xir Xan Khan very nearly pierced him with the Coiling Death before he leapt back.

"Strange thing to say." The barbarian was still peering at him, as if he was some sort of puzzling insect. "She's only ever been in one committed relationship with a single man. Have you been that faithful?"

"I have retained my purity for a true dual cultivation relationship!" Xir Xan Khan insisted, pretending to be angry. He had to lure the man out, get past that stupid indifference.

"Really? You'd be the first young master I saw who actually did that. Uh... good for you?"

"Of course you don't care about such things. I can't believe you profaned her with your touch. The very thought of your greasy fingers on..."

"You seem to have given this a lot of thought. I'm not sure that's healthy." With that, the barbarian smashed through the street to drop another level, into one of the most destroyed parts of the city.

Xir Xan Khan fearlessly leapt into the dust and smoke, since it couldn't harm him through the Coiling Presence technique. The barbarian was trying to slip away, maybe even flee, but he wasn't fast enough. At first Xir Xan Khan had thought he had some sort of presence technique of his own, but there had been no sign of it, so it must have been a mere flickering of potential.

Overhead, he could feel the shockwaves of qi as the patriarch and strongest daughter of the Brightwind sect clashed. Impossible as it seemed, Zin Nim was truly determined to fight them and reject the perfect life that would have been handed to her. He couldn't imagine what could possibly lead her to make such a stupid decision.

He caught up to the barbarian again and looked over his hideously over-muscled, hair-ridden form. What could he possibly have to offer? Xir Xan Khan couldn't help but wonder if he had some sort of sexual magnetism that only women could understand, which in turn brought inappropriate thoughts to mind, which only brought back the mockery.

"You're a wretched ape," Xir Xan Khan spat through the smoke. "The phrase 'toad eating swan meat' doesn't come close to conveying how disgusting you are. This city is befouled by your presence. Your entire continent would be better off scoured of life."

"You people have some issues to work out," the barbarian said as he moved further into the smoky ruins.

"Don't you have any pride? What kind of animal has so little self-respect that you just let me insult you, your woman, and your home without blinking?"

"I have enough pride that I don't throw tantrums."

Xir Xan Khan snarled and lunged forward. He knew that it was likely to be a trap of some kind and prepared a genius plan, multiple layers of striking techniques culminating in the Coiling Death.

He didn't need to use a single one. When he burst through to where the barbarian should have been, there was no one there.

Amid these fragmented walls and rubble, with the smoke obscuring the sky, it seemed like he was the only person in the world. The barbarian was presumably hiding within the smoke, skulking like an animal, ready to use his bestial techniques. But he'd failed to realize that Xir Xan Khan had more than enough qi to spare, so he could maintain all his defenses forever. Any projectiles that got close would be immediately knocked down.

Slowly he ventured further, extended his senses for those slippery shrouds. Had the barbarian truly run this time? Or did he only want him to think that before he attempted a desperate attack? No matter when he attacked, or from what angle, his brute force would be useless.

"You think delaying helps you?" Xir Xan Khan called into the grayness. "Zin Nim will lose against her father, there is no doubt of that. If you don't stop me here, I will go back, and even if she had been befouled, I will still push her down and claim her. I will-"

Something moved in the corner of his vision. Finally his provocations had worked. Xir Xan Khan whirled, unleashing his strikes and impaling the barbarian with the Coiling Death.

The dark spike pierced through the form to the ground. Where there had once been a roughly humanoid shape, there was only wafting blue mist.

A needle stabbed through Xir Xan Khan's neck from the side.

Even as blood spurted from his mouth, he whirled, only for his arm to be bound. A feminine form was pressed against his back, one hand driving the needle through his throat and the other gripping his arm. The touch inflamed his entire body, or so it seemed before he realized that poison was spreading through him rapidly.

"Kai isn't here anymore," Omilaena said, "but you need to stop talking about my wife that way."

.

..

.

Fighting hand to hand, Zae Zin Nim was almost able to equal her father, but she could not best him as a cultivator. He possessed not only the Brightwind martial arts, he carried dozens of magic spells and artifacts gathered throughout his long immortal life. Slowly but surely, she was losing.

It would already have been over if not for the injection from her wife: as soon as Zae Zin Nim used it, a sphere of wind lit up around her, neutralizing all of the wind strikes coming from her sides. This wind was clearly born of powers derived from Classes and the Elemental Nations. It should never have stood up to Brightwind qi, and her father was clearly infuriated that it had withstood his attacks so far, but those powers had been enhanced to their full potential.

Using those defenses, she had been able to slay many of the Brightwind cultivators who were trying to support her father with their formations. But when it came to actually striking him, she couldn't pierce his defenses, and he had yet to even use the Transcendent Brightwind Visage. She couldn't beat him.

Which she had accepted before, which was why they had decided on this strategy.

Even so, she was being pressed back, her qi and her stamina both steadily reducing. The plan would fail if they couldn't actually pull it off. If not for her new Blackblood Physique, she would not have been able to keep fighting like this, and even her new body had its limits.

Just when she began to worry, a dark form streaked from the side, breathing a line of pure death across the surface of the jade ship.

Her father drew back and intensified his wind sphere, glaring at the cloud contemptuously. But it had never been intended to strike him, only ward him off and kill some of the remaining cultivators supporting him.

And to signal to her that it was time.

Zae Zin Nim stopped pretending that she intended to fight her father to the death and instead leapt off the side of the ship, sailing through the air with her limbs extended to slow her fall. She had caught a glimpse of Kai behind her, ready to play his role, so presumably Omilaena had already taken action.

Which meant that it was her turn: Zae Zin Nim spotted the Jackal mercenary who had so vexed her wife while he hunted through the city with his puppets. She arrived with her palms striking the nearest puppets, blowing them apart.