Chapter Eighty-Two: Instant Severance

Blackfeather had barely had time to react before Yunlan began his demonstration. With a gentle flick of his fingers on the staff, a clear and melodious whistle of wind rang out. Two points instantly aligned, and a silvery-white blade of wind shot forward at a speed surpassing all else, slicing through everything ahead.

Blackfeather didn't even dare to blink. Without the aid of his Demon Eyes, he wouldn't have been able to perceive the instant the technique formed.

In the next moment, within a hundred-yard radius, tens of thousands of demons and monsters were severed in half at the waist. The wind blade continued forward, leaving nothing in its wake, until, with a thunderous crash, it struck a distant mountain a thousand yards away, slicing off its upper half, which toppled and slid from the bisected peak, sending birds and beasts scattering in terror.

Not only Blackfeather, but all the mages on the battlefield were left speechless—before their eyes, the monsters suddenly froze, bodies cleaved in two. The chaotic battlefield, once swarming with fiends, was cleansed in a single stroke!

"This... this is the power of a Saint Magus..." Blackfeather stammered, trembling. He gazed for a long time at the distant mountain, cut cleanly in two. "Unbelievable!"

"As expected of Yunlan the Windblade—your reputation is well-deserved!" the others exclaimed.

Only when the gentle resonance on the white crystal staff faded did Yunlan lower his stance. He turned to Blackfeather.

"This is my Windblade. Would you like to learn it?"

"Of course! With such a vast range and instantaneous cutting power, Headmaster Yunlan, does that mean no one can evade this strike?"

Yunlan nodded. "More or less. In my entire life, I have only been defeated once. Among all the opponents I've faced, only one has ever survived this attack..." Recalling the past, his emotions were mixed. "But that's a story for another time."

"Only defeated once in your life?"

Blackfeather, though unaware of the details, could imagine how brilliant and unstoppable Yunlan must have been in his youth.

"Headmaster Yunlan, are you truly going to teach me this technique?" Blackfeather was so excited he nearly leapt into the air.

Yunlan turned away, coughing quietly to himself. He thought, "Alas, with my body's current state, even unleashing a single strike exhausts my magic to its limits... My strength is far from what it once was. Still, it's enough to put on a show for my students now and then."

He cleared his throat. "There are too many people here. Let's go somewhere else. If you wish to learn, follow me."

"Wonderful!"

Grinning from ear to ear, Blackfeather hurried after him. Yunlan took a few steps and then rose upon the wind, soaring into the sky. Blackfeather, somewhat unsteady, managed to stand firm as the wind bore him aloft. Soon, the red clay desert was far beneath his feet.

Yunlan flew a great distance, finally descending in a barren desert where the ground was nearly white.

The rays of dusk slanted across the landscape. Here, far from the molten flows of the Doomsday Volcano, though still a desert, the temperature was not high. As the sun sank, the air grew increasingly chill.

"This desert is called the Bone-Scorching Waste," Yunlan said. "Its surface is white because the bones of ancient-class monsters, dissolved over millennia, became one with the sands. Within the borders of the Red Clay Desert, there are at least a dozen such regions."

"The death of an ancient monster changed the very landscape of a desert?" Blackfeather looked in wonder at the scattered, colossal bones nearby, scarcely able to believe it.

With a sweep of his staff, Yunlan traced the edge of the bone desert, conjuring a hemispherical wind barrier around them. It not only shielded them, but also concealed their presence and kept monsters at bay.

"Now then—show me your full strength. Let me see what your attack power truly is."

Yunlan moved to the edge of the area and gestured for Blackfeather to begin.

Blackfeather hesitated a moment, then deftly unlocked the second seal.

Gripping his Asura-wood staff tightly in his right hand, he clasped his right wrist with his left. A swirl of black wind rose from beneath his feet. Blood-red energy began to boil within him, black and crimson resilience flashing across his skin in an instant.

Since Yunlan was so willing to instruct him, Blackfeather had nothing to hide. He was determined not to waste this opportunity and resolved to give it his all.

With the second seal opened, wild darkness surged around him like a breached dam, enveloping him completely. The phantom of a pair of Demon Eyes manifested above his head.

Yunlan was not as surprised as one might expect; he said calmly, "Too much energy is leaking from your body. If you could focus it on a single point, your attacks would be far more effective."

As he spoke, he shaped the wind in various forms for Blackfeather to observe: barriers, vortices, spears, spirals, blades...

"What you most need now is precise control over your power. Without that, you cannot unleash your strongest strikes."

With a casual wave of his staff, Yunlan conjured a hemispherical barrier of wind ten yards before Blackfeather, the currents swirling rapidly upon its surface.

"Try breaking this barrier."

Blackfeather's expression turned serious.

"Shadowlight Slash!"

This was his most commonly used attack. A black arc fell upon the wind barrier, only to be instantly absorbed by the swirling currents—as if a clay ox had sunk into the sea.

He looked at Yunlan, who signaled for him to try again.

"If Shadowlight Slash can't break the barrier, then try something stronger. This time, use your full power—shatter it if you can!"

Once more, Blackfeather gripped his staff. Waves of power rippled across the ground, stirring the layers of sand and raising dust into the air.

"Dark Storm!"

After gathering power, he unleashed an even more potent attack. Dense darkness surged from his staff, forming a vortex in the air, then crashed toward the wind barrier like a mighty, turbid wave.

"Impressive strength..." Yunlan commented.

Yet, when the dark storm struck the wind barrier, the flowing air currents immediately dispersed the force to both sides. No matter how powerful his attack, it was like trying to sever water with a blade—unable to shake the barrier at all.

Growing anxious, Blackfeather poured more and more magic into the attack, but it was useless. After several attempts, his strength waned, and he stopped.

"Please instruct me, teacher."

"Your techniques are powerful," Yunlan began with approval. "Ordinary barriers would be shattered by them. But against a flowing wind barrier, or a foe with extraordinary defenses, these attacks are ineffective. Do you remember my Windblade?"

"Yes..." Blackfeather replied.

Yunlan raised his staff once more. At its tip, he condensed a flat, spinning vortex of wind, which spun faster and faster, compressing as it whirled. The thinner it became, the sharper it grew, until at last a piercing shriek cut through the air as the wind blade sliced against the very atmosphere itself.