Chapter 35
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Vast Ocean (Complete)
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Flash—!
The air hadn't even split with a bursting sound before Plum Blossom Yeon's form shot forward.
Before the dust from the ground could rise, her sword tip was already aimed at Zhuge Jiun's throat.
The sword stance, which she'd thought disrupted by anger, had instead forged that fury into something even fiercer and sharper.
'Fuck...!'
Zhuge Jiun's pupils contracted.
In that split second, the sword before her eyes vanished.
No—it was too fast to follow.
There was no time to think.
Instinctively, she twisted her body.
The monstrous senses honed through hundreds of life-and-death struggles, right on the edge of the blade line, moved her.
Slash—!
A sharp sword wind grazed past her ear.
A thin trickle of blood burst from her cheek.
A few strands of hair scattered into the air.
A razor-thin evasion, by the width of a cabbage leaf.
Even a fraction slower, and her head would have come off.
"Dodging? You rat-bitch!"
Plum Blossom Yeon didn't stop.
The moment her first strike missed, her wrist elegantly rotated, twisting the sword path.
Shuu-shuuk—!
A dozen plum blossom petals bloomed in the air.
Mount Hua's ultimate technique: the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Style.
Her fury-infused blade was more savage than beautiful.
Red sword qi laden with killing intent poured toward Zhuge Jiun like a storm.
"Tch, what a temper!"
Zhuge Jiun clicked her tongue and backpedaled.
A head-on clash was impossible.
Fighting a raging Mount Hua expert bare naked with just a borrowed sword offered slim odds.
But she had her ace.
Swish, flash.
Zhuge Jiun's footwork turned eerie.
At a distance where Plum Blossom Yeon's sword seemed just within reach, she slipped away like a ghost, leaving a hazy afterimage.
Flying Immortal Steps.
The pride of the Flying Immortal Sect and Zhuge Jiun's heaven-sent genius footwork technique of unparalleled grace.
She moved lightly and unpredictably, like a butterfly riding the wind or a water strider skimming the surface.
Plum Blossom Yeon's sword sliced through space, but all it left behind was Zhuge Jiun's afterimage.
"Slippery little...!"
Plum Blossom Yeon's eyes blazed red.
Zhuge Jiun's elusive movements pissed her off to no end.
She swung her sword more wildly, compressing the space, but Zhuge Jiun deftly wove through the sword net and slipped away leisurely.
Like dancing, or toying with her.
It was a level above—even two levels—the footwork realm of reading her opponent's breath and slipping through sword path gaps, compared to Plum Blossom Yeon.
Clang!
Two swords clashed in midair with a sharp burst.
Plum Blossom Yeon's fierce assault continued.
Flashy like scattering plum petals, yet the killing intent beneath was as biting as midwinter's gale.
"How long are you gonna keep running?"
Plum Blossom Yeon growled through gritted teeth.
Her sword tip relentlessly targeted Zhuge Jiun's limbs, but each time it cut only air by a hair's breadth.
Zhuge Jiun twisted her body flexibly like a willow branch in the wind, deflecting the strikes.
"Beats me. When are you gonna kill me?"
Zhuge Jiun shot back snidely, retreating once more.
A leisurely—no, arrogant—smile played on her lips.
"Soon. So shut your trap and wait."
Sparks flew from Plum Blossom Yeon's eyes.
Her sword stance accelerated further.
"Doubt it...? Feels like it'll never land."
Zhuge Jiun snorted mockingly for emphasis.
Another red graze appeared where the sword had brushed, but she seemed unbothered.
"Maybe."
Plum Blossom Yeon's voice sank low.
She halted her attack for a moment, staring coldly at Zhuge Jiun's chest.
"Your tits are so flat, can't even slice 'em properly?"
Instantly, Zhuge Jiun's expression froze.
Her smug smile vanished, eyes shaking like in an earthquake.
"What...?!"
"What? Did I lie? Can't stab a sword into a body with no definition front or back."
Plum Blossom Yeon grinned viciously, twisting the knife.
"Even our Yi Yi's probably bigger than that?"
That was the finisher.
Zhuge Jiun's face flushed beet red in an instant.
Plum Blossom Yeon's taunt transcended mere humiliation—it was a mortal blow to her pride.
"You, you... you fucking bitch!"
A beastly roar erupted from Zhuge Jiun's mouth.
Boom—!
No more running.
Zhuge Jiun channeled inner energy into her toes and launched forward.
Yi Yi's sword in her hand surged with savage momentum toward Plum Blossom Yeon.
The moment the evasive butterfly turned into a venom-stinging hornet.
Clang—! Kang!
Swords locked, sparks flying and tearing the darkness.
Zhuge Jiun's strikes were sharp and vicious.
The whooshes slicing air echoed through the mountains.
Plum Blossom Yeon gritted her teeth.
Hated to admit it, but this crazy bitch was damn strong.
Not just footwork.
Even those rage-fueled swings hid the bizarre shifts and killing moves unique to unorthodox schools.
A simple gap in skill.
The clear disparity evident after just a few more exchanges.
But Plum Blossom Yeon didn't back down.
Poisonous resolve gleamed in her eyes.
Sucking dry her junior brother's essence and strutting like that? Unforgivable.
Plus that bitch's provocations, that disgusting attitude.
Crunch!
"Die!"
Zhuge Jiun bellowed, slamming her sword down.
Plum Blossom Yeon angled her blade to block, but the wrist-numbing weight made her arm tingle.
Something felt off.
The force on the sword was heavy, but the lower body's stance wobbled subtly.
Tremble, tremble.
Zhuge Jiun's pale thighs quivered faintly.
It was only natural.
'Fuck...'
Zhuge Jiun swallowed a curse inwardly.
Rage had propelled her charge, but her body's state was shit.
Her leg muscles screamed after shaking her hips atop Yi Yi all night.
'Shaking my ass for over half a day... legs feel like jelly... damn it!'
The great Zhuge Jiun, on the verge of dropping her sword because sex left her legs weak? What greater humiliation?
But she couldn't stop.
Backing off now meant carrying that "cliff chest" insult forever.
Cling!
The two women's gazes clashed in midair.
One with fury and murder, the other with shame and venom.
A single-log bridge battle where neither could yield easily.
A chilling sense that one misstep meant death for both brushed their napes.
Plum Blossom Yeon's eyes flashed.
She caught the instant Zhuge Jiun's leg buckled.
Her plum blossom sword traced a red arc into Zhuge Jiun's side.
"Not a chance!"
Zhuge Jiun shrieked, twisting away.
Clang—! Kaang!
Zhuge Jiun's sword flicked like a snake's tongue, grazing Plum Blossom Yeon's nape.
Chilling killing intent.
Plum Blossom Yeon felt a chill down her spine.
Despite legs giving out and staggering, this bitch's sword grew ever sharper and weirder.
Like dancing, or performing a rite.
Zhuge Jiun swung in a trance.
"Haha! Hahaha! Die! Just die!"
Zhuge Jiun's eyes rolled back.
Those whites-glinting orbs held no reason—pure madness.
Slash.
A long gash across Plum Blossom Yeon's shoulder blade.
Cloth tore, red blood soaking through.
Not fatal, but at this rate, her head really might fly.
Plum Blossom Yeon gritted her teeth.
She tried widening the gap, but Zhuge Jiun's Flying Immortal Steps clung relentlessly.
One step back, two steps in; parry the sword, and footwork flowed around to blind spots.
Zhuge Jiun's sword thrust right to Plum Blossom Yeon's brow.
No escape.
"This ends it, you fucking bitch!"
Victory certain, Zhuge Jiun's lips split to her ears.
For the final blow, she thrust her left hand into her bosom.
Intending to blind with Flying Immortal Sect's secret poison powder, then sever the throat.
Swish.
But her fingertips grasped nothing.
"...Huh?"
Zhuge Jiun's pupils shook.
Bosom?
Her hand groped futilely over smooth, slick bare skin between her own breasts—nothing covering them.
'Ah...'
Only then did she realize.
That she was utterly naked, without a stitch on.
The poison pouch buried in her discarded clothes in the far shed corner.
In that split second.
A massive, fatal gap amid the fierce exchange—absurdly comical.
"...Idiot."
Plum Blossom Yeon seized the opening.
On death's doorstep, her instincts shone.
Too close for a sword swing.
Plum Blossom Yeon clenched her empty left fist tight.
Fueled with inner energy, it rocketed toward a frozen-in-panic Zhuge Jiun's face center.
Thwack—!
"Gaaak!"
A dull thud, and Zhuge Jiun's head snapped back.
A gruesome crunch like her nasal bone shattering.
Stunned by the first facial blow she'd ever taken, Zhuge Jiun's body flopped backward like a ragdoll.