It was but two hits, one per fist, yet almost all the bones in Master Jiankong’s arms and fingers popped out of their sockets. The bones in the forearms sent a long-missed tingliion to the three-armed master - they were cracked.

  This was only for a moment, at most a couple of seds. Master Jiankong filed their arms again, and all the bones popped bato their pces. The cracks on the bones were worrisome, but they were not fatal.

  “It seemed your trick’s still as old as ba the days.” Master Jiankong scoffed, their arms thrusted outwards, each hand making a different hand seal. In a moment’s time, three symbols made of dark smoke appeared ohree palms.

  “Namo Amitabha.” Master Liaoran frow the symbols, sighed and bowed gently with his hands in a prayer pose: “You have truly gone over the line, Master. In but a notion, one could be Buddha, one could also fall as a demon. Why did you choose so?”

  “Simple. Because there’s no way for this dreadful city.” Master Jiankong closed their eyes for a moment, dark marks began crawling through their skin, f another yer of flesh, hide, scales and shells. A bck-skinned Yaksha with three arms, blood red marks all over the muscur body and spiraling horns ing out of both sides of the forehead. “Its mind, its will and its presence is all ing and all dev. The only way out, is for the cycle to run its course.”

  “That may be. But this monk will not stand idly by as ruin es for everyone.” Master Liaoran huffed, Qi exploded from every meridian point of his body. He pulled his robe off his body, threw it on the ground behind him before raising his two hands in a fighting pose: “There are things one do; there are things one ot do; there are things one should do. You have studied the scriptures just as this monk, for longer and ier depth. It is indeed a cruel turn of fate that our uandings and paths diverged so.”

  “Yes. And your path will end.” The three-armed Yaksha lu Master Liaoran. The cws on all three arms sliced through the crete walls on both sides with the same ease as a hot khrough butter. The residual dark energy from the cws and nails chewed through the crete and rebar, and only stopped until seds after initial tacts.

  The Yaksha’s charge was met with a golden palm strike. Then ahen ahen at least ten in a blinding flurry. Each golden palm strike was unleashed from a dista the ter of each palm strike was a red symbol, after which a golden and red palm print was left on the Yaksha’s body.

  Master Jiankong gruhe palm strikes were too fast to effectively dodge uard. They nded on each of the meridian points on the Yaksha’s body and in turn their body. The iy of the Yaksha form began to colpse the moment the first palm nded, and with each subsequent strike it was further weakened and slowed. It was really a shame and a shock, for this form of theirs had withstood many powerful attacks from different sources. Yet right now it was these tame looking palm strikes that were breaking this form.

  More would definitely bee something the Yaksha could not stand. So after a shrunt, the Yaksha pushed the energy into their chest, direg it to the lht arm. At the moment, the shorter and slightly deformed lht arm ushed out of its pd shot at Master Liaoran like a crossbow bolt.

  g head to head with this destructive bullet of a severed arm was a firike. The severed arm stuck out the index and middle fingers forward like a spear, and their fingernails cshed against the simple fiips of flesh and blood from the human master.

  The sound of metal bdes swinging and cutting into each other exploded from the impact. Master Liaoran ushed bad had to take three steps to stabilize himself, while the severed arm was rendered into a broken bag of shredded foul flesh and shattered bone fragments.

  The Yaksha did not hesitate for even one moment before they lu Master Liaoran again after activating the healing power to suppress the effects of the palm prints. If they could help it they would definitely strike at the old monk the moment he ushed back. But using any sort of power while the energy from the palm prints was burning through the very fabric of their being would be tremendously hazardous.

  Master Liaoran huffed again, this time unleashing a fist strike at the Yaksha from a distance. A giant golden fist made of golden light and Qi bsted through the ruined hallway. The Yaksha had no choice but to cross the arms to guard against this ining hit.

  Golden energy demolished and ied almost half the Yaksha shell on Master Jiankong’s entire body. An explosive scream burst from the air behind Master Jiankong the moment the Yaksha form was broken. Traoke arose and dissipated the moment. Their two remaining arms were broken, and their entire chest caved in. Their already ragged clothes were burned and bsted off, leaving only a bony body on the ground.

  Master Jiankong chuckled as they sensed Master Liaoran ing close: “Looks like you’ve out-cultivated me, Liaoran. Maybe - maybe you uand more than I - ” They swallowed, took a hoarse breath before tinuing: “ - and my seeing the void for what it is seems no match for you.”

  “Namo Amitabha.” Master Liaoran uttered a prayer then sighed: “Your form and your tether are broken. If the quest this monk is set out to do is achieved. You won’t have long after that.”

  “Maybe - maybe it’s for the best.” Master Jiankong coughed, uo evehe faster without struggling: “There’s no joy or enlighte anymore. There is only - only to be and watch the rot grow.”

  “The biggest core, the tral pilr, they’re below us aren’t they?” Master Liaoran asked.

  “Yes, and no.” Master Jiankong chuckled, coughing once again: “There are ges made to the inal design. I know that one is below and one above, I don’t know about the others.”

  “Then this monk will find them.” Master Liaoran sighed.

  “And they added a bunaller pilrs to the array. Maybe you do something with them.” Master Jianko out a long exhale: “There’s a lot of ges made because they had to. They’re not - they’re not as smart, or wise though.”

  “Nobody was and nobody has been.”

  “Do whatever you have to do then. ” Master Jiankong ughed, blood spilling out from their mouth and nostrils: “They will try to stop you. And they will py dirty.”

  Shout outs to my patrons:

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  Jonathan

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