Immortal Paladin

370Cracks in the Vessel

The void stretched beneath my feet, silent and merciless. The False Earth hovered in the distance, framed by the Sun and Moon like they were chained to it, while the Hollowed World sat behind me, wrapped in a fog only visible from here. It should’ve been beautiful. Instead, it felt like standing between two guillotines, because opposite me was a cheat-tier Martial God who could erase me with a single sloppy mistake. Feng Wei drifted forward, dark hair trailing behind him like smoke. He didn’t bother speaking, so I braced myself and charged.

Our first exchange came like a flash. His fist met mine and a shockwave cracked the void like glass. The force numbed my arm to the bone, but I didn’t let up. I drew quintessence from the Hollow Star and wrapped myself in a replica of the Wandering Adjudicator armor. The plates locked around my body in a silver-blue shimmer just in time for Feng Wei to appear at my flank. His fist caught the armor dead center. Black aura leaked from his knuckles like tar, and the armor shattered as if I had dressed myself in eggshells.

He didn’t gloat. He didn’t even blink. “If quintessence can create, then it can destroy,” he said as he floated back. “Anything you materialize with it exists only to be broken down and devoured. Techniques, however, those carry intent. Those endure.”

His explanation was still ringing in my ears when I crashed into a cluster of brilliant star-like motes floating in a pattern beneath me. My Divine Sense spread, peeling apart the truth: they weren’t stars at all but formations. Three circles, each more malicious than the last with lightning to bind me, fire to reduce me to ash, and a curse that gnawed at the soul.

“I almost forgot about this…” I muttered.

I struck the lightning formation with Thunderous Smite in my right palm, absorbing it in a crackling surge. My left palm burned with Searing Smite as I pulled in the fire formation. The curse struck me like a cold wind, but my resistances held firm. The formations dissolved around me in three clean breaths.

Feng Wei blurred into view again, avoiding the constellation of traps with eerie precision. I didn’t hold back. I threw both smites at once, thunder and flame spiraling together into a roaring shockwave that could vaporize most powerful experts.

He pierced through it with a single fist.

White aura blazed over his arm, brighter than any sun I had ever seen. His strike tore through my limb as if it were water, then drove straight into my chest. Pain erupted through me, but I forced Divine Flesh to activate before my heart was reduced to paste.

“Try harder,” Feng Wei said without a hint of cruelty. “Or you will die.”

I triggered every accumulated reflect damage at once, only to feel nothing respond. The energy was gone and neutralized. I didn’t even understand how.

“What the fuck—”

His fist smashed across my face, and my head almost exploded. The force hurled me like debris straight toward the Sun. I felt its heat before I even got close.

“Shit—”

The Sun stirred.

The star twisted, folding into a towering humanoid shape. Eyes of molten gold opened, and its voice boomed like thunder on metal. “HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT MY REST?”

A hand the size of a mountain slapped me like a fly.

I didn’t burn. I ceased! My body disintegrated faster than thought. The moment the pain arrived, I was already dead. Spell Resonance snapped into motion, dragging Divine Word: Raise through my empty shell and rebuilding me from raw quintessence.

I barely finished resurrecting when Feng Wei appeared in front of me again.

His fist pierced my chest before my vision stabilized.

Darkness took me a second time.

My ring’s emergency resurrection flared and dragged me back into existence. Breathless, soulless, body trembling, I forced my Divine Spark to ignite. Exalted Renewal roared through me like a divine storm. I knew it was stupid. Using a divine skill like this without a soul was suicide. One misfire and I would dissolve permanently.

Feng Wei’s voice cut through the roar. “No. You can’t use this.”

His fist met my chest again.

The Exalted Renewal died instantly, snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane.

I staggered back, coughing blood that dissolved into motes of light. Rage bubbled up from the pit of my gut. “Fuck you,” I snapped, glaring at him with every ounce of anger and exhaustion in me. “I don’t want to see whatever you’re selling anymore.”

I had too many thoughts crowding my head. If I had brought my Heaven Soul with me, maybe I could counter the overwhelming gap between us. But Yuen Fu’s body was hanging by a thread. If I pulled the Heaven Soul out of him now, he might crumble into dust and vanish for good. I couldn’t take that risk.

I reached deeper into Immortal Art: Divine Appointment of the Faithful, drawing faith from the empire, from the outlying sects, and from every believer whose prayers still echoed toward me. The power surged through my meridians, hot and blinding with quintessence.

Feng Wei didn’t wait to attack. He simply spoke, calm like a teacher correcting a stubborn student. “You’re using your Immortal Art inefficiently. That power governs faith, but you’re converting it crudely into quintessence and forcing it through your skills. That is a method, yes… yet you are limiting yourself.”

I barely had time to process his words.

The Sun above stirred again, searching for me with murderous intent. Its blazing hand drew back to swathe me once more. Before it could strike, Feng Wei reached me first. His fist carried both white and black aura, swirling together like yin and yang made tangible. When it landed, my insides twisted. The world folded. I lost breath as my ribs cracked like dry wood.

The blow sent me flying.

I staggered, braced, and suddenly found myself planting my feet on solid ground, not the star-dotted void, but broken stone.

A ruined temple materialized around me.

“Where’s this…?” I muttered, trying to steady myself.

Feng Wei descended quietly, landing on shattered steps as if the devastation beneath him meant nothing.

The temple stretched like the skeleton of a colossal cathedral. Cracked pillars reached to a roof long torn away. Ancient sigils lay carved into the floor, most faded beyond recognition. Incense bowls lay overturned beside broken statues of figures whose faces had eroded into masks of dust. Above us loomed the False Earth, now so close it looked like I could jump and walk across its continents. The Sun hovered just beyond it, turning still as though it could no longer sense our presence. With its anger appeased, it melted back into a calm orb of fire.

Feng Wei folded his hands behind his back. “This is the Temple of the End. The last bastion where the Ancient Souls waged war against the Supreme Beings. Here, we may fight without interruption.”

A training arc, huh? A forced one. “Does time move faster here?” I asked, half hoping for a cheat.

Feng Wei gave me a look that could only be described as offended. “No. This place is simply ruins. A reminder of a history forgotten, and perhaps one that should have never existed. In this space, I stand as a wall you must overcome, if you are the one we have been waiting for.”

My heart felt cold. The way I was now, even with every trick I had, I couldn’t see myself defeating him. And he was only supposed to be Level 9. Something didn’t add up.

“I sense your confusion,” Feng Wei said as he slid into a stance. “At my peak, I stood at the realm of Ruler of Laws. Even if my power regressed, my martial arts did not. Martial artists tend to die over and over yet their skills remain, refined to the roots. So do not worry about your disciple.”

“He has a name,” I snapped. “Yuen Fu. And he’s not the only one I’m worried about.”

“That is exactly why you must sever distraction.” Feng Wei’s aura deepened, sharp enough to cut air. “Right now, only I exist. Only this fight matters. If others can’t keep up with you, that is not your fault. Their fate is simply different. We all play roles in this universe. Mine is to test you.”

I clenched my fists.

This guy was really starting to piss me off.

“My people aren’t so weak they’d crumble so easily.”

It bothered me how strong Feng Wei remained even while suppressed to Level 9.

The only explanation was the realm, Ruler of Laws. I only had vague scraps of knowledge from Ox-Head and Hei Mao. It was a realm where one could exert sovereignty over certain natural truths. An authority. A command. A decree.

A ruler of reality, essentially.

If someone who once held dominion over laws decided to punch me, of course it would hurt.

“Your invulnerability… it isn’t really ‘invulnerability,’ is it?” I asked, trying to keep my breathing calm. “It’s more like… immunity to certain types of damage. How does it work?”

“That’s correct,” Feng Wei didn’t hide it. He pointed at the gaping shrine-like hole in his chest where the imprisoned demons writhed and screamed in silence. “This is also the effect of a law. This hole controlled me, bound me, and kept me alive. My resistance, too, is law-based. Your ‘Ultimate Skills’ also carry fragments of law. They were unrefined and primitive, but present.”

He said it like he knew what Ultimate Skills really were. So I had to ask.

“You ever heard of Lost Legends Online?”

Feng Wei’s aura flared. “Enough bickering.”

He vanished. His fist appeared a breath away from my face.

“Use the power of faith,” he said flatly as his punch descended. “Convert it directly into your Divine Spark. Stop wasting energy turning it into quintessence.”

This time, I was ready.

I drove a row of Manasouls between us like a living curtain. Heavenly Punishment erupted as dozens of golden blades burst upward like a blooming lotus of judgment, stabbing into Feng Wei’s body. As expected, they left no actual wound.

But my plain, unenhanced fist followed immediately, crashing into his cheek.

Blood splattered.

“So that’s it,” I grinned. “Your invulnerability only works if you pre-designate the damage you want to nullify.”

I struck again.

Immortal Art: Godslayer.

My fist drilled into his face, sending him spinning backward. I shot forward with Zealot’s Stride, intent on pressing the advantage. A silver blade of radiance erupted from my hand. It was Holy Sword. I wrapped it with the power of faith, letting Godslayer feed upon that divine force.

However, Feng Wei merely bent one knee, raised his heel, and parried my sword like swatting aside a twig.

His palm tapped my chest.

Gravity multiplied a thousandfold.

My limbs snapped backward, my ribs bent, and my spine creaked as though it wanted to fold in half. I couldn’t breathe. My vision dimmed.

Feng Wei scolded me like a strict instructor correcting sloppy form. “You cannot combine two Immortal Arts simultaneously. They interfere with one another. They divide your focus and weaken your execution. In short, it is inefficient.”

The Hollow Star, the crown of quintessence above me, pulsed in response. A torrent of creation energy poured into my Soulless Body. Because it was an empty vessel, it could be stuffed with far more quintessence than any normal immortal form.

“I am going home,” I hissed through teeth that wanted to crumble, “and you can’t stop me.”

“Home?” Feng Wei repeated, almost pitying. “The Hollowed World is not your home. Your origin is not here. Even now, you suppress the ‘thing’ inside you. That denial will only harm you later. Let go of your attachments. Accept your true nature. Only then is there hope for you.”

“You arrogant… b-bastard…” My body was barely more than a sphere of half-liquefied meat crushed by an invisible weight. But I forced my throat to open. I forced power through my voice.

Divine Speech.

A skill built from Qi Speech, Voice Chat, and the Divine Word system. I still didn’t know its full limits. Theoretically, it should strengthen my Divine Words, make them harder to dispel, and give them weight and permanence.

I needed all of it, and more.

“Exalted Renewal!”

Feng Wei didn’t even blink.

“That won’t be enough,” he ridiculed, almost bored. “Gravity Crush.”

I exploded, literally. My body burst like an overfilled blister of flesh and quintessence. Death claimed me in an instant.

But I had already slotted Divine Word: Raise into Spell Resonance.

So I rose.

Reborn from gore, naked, trembling, the Hollow Star still sat above my head. Cracks spread across my skin the way fractures crawled across an old vase left too long under tension. Through each crevice, my Divine Spark flickered out like leaking sunlight.

Feng Wei observed me in silence, then asked with unsettling calm, “Do they know?”

“Know what?” My voice cracked like my body.

“That your body is collapsing. That true and supreme death is gnawing through you inch by inch. There are people in the Hollowed World who have grown close to you. Your disciple, for example.”

I clenched my teeth. “I need to go back to them. They need me.”

“Do you not see your state?” Feng Wei asked. “If this continues, you will die, not in body, but in essence. You will vanish before you ever fulfill your destiny.”

“Destiny?” I spat blood and quintessence. “Isn’t this ‘destiny’ something you and your lot forced on me? If I die, that simply means it wasn’t my destiny. And don’t lecture me about my body… I know it better than anyone.”

I had hidden the cracks for so long and buried them under layers of quintessence.

This was the result of everything compounding at once from multiple deaths, confrontation with the Supreme Void, Heavenly Temple’s failed attempt to corrupt my faith, and the unbearable pressure of the Hollow Star now pouring endless quintessence into me.

Yes, the Hollow Star could repair me.

But it was also destroying me.

Every moment it fed me more quintessence, the vessel cracked a little more.

“Unless you can magically heal me,” I said, forcing myself upright, “then let me go.”

My Mana Road burned bright as I flooded it with quintessence. Every Manasoul I had accumulated flared into existence around me like orbiting suns.

“With each Manasoul, I can cast multiple Ultimate Skills,” I warned. “With variation after variation, you’ll never see them all coming. Your law of invulnerability won’t protect you forever.”

Feng Wei shook his head with sad certainty. “With the state of your vessel, even the Divine Physician in his prime could not save you. But the prophecy foretold your victory. Destiny was woven upon those words. Destiny holds weight. If you want it badly enough, it will become reality. So do not give up yet.”

“Give up?” I barked a broken laugh. “I never said anything about giving up.”

This bastard either knew nothing, or he was throwing poetic nonsense at me, hoping something stuck. If desire alone shaped destiny, Nongmin wouldn’t have needed to become a tyrant just to ensure I didn’t fall to darkness.

“I’m going home,” I said coldly, “and you are not stopping me.”

I unleashed everything.

Every Manasoul detonated with random variations of Ultimate Skills—Heavenly Punishment in twisting arcs, Holy Sword bursting in spirals, Thunderous Smite woven with Godslayer, Searing Smite folded into Judgment Severance, and countless strange hybrids of divine spells, immortal arts, and martial techniques. I even layered non-ultimate techniques to distort the patterns further and overload his law-based immunity.

Golden blades. Scarlet flames. Abyssal cracks. Thunder. Light. Dark. Everything.

I roared in sheer defiance.

“So just die already!”