Battle Against Heaven's Will

Chapter 5: Law of Death?!

Zorai sensed the humming bunny's killing intent and was pulled sharply back into the present moment, gripping the two stone arrows tighter as he steadied his breath. His legs tensed, then he pushed off the ground with all the strength his battered body could give as he lunged forward like a cheetah.

The motion left some light afterimages in the shape of an X across the air as his swing was wild but fast. The kind of attack only possible from someone fueled by desperation and raw instinct after all he has never had full martial arts training to begin with and it was even a miracle for him to have reached this far. His arrows came down toward the mutated bunny like a double cleave, but just before they struck, the bunny's body twisted with super quick reflex as it hopped aside and vanished in a blur.

Zorai's eyes widened in frustration as his blades met only wind, but a grim smile cracked across his bruised lips as he spotted a thick tuft of blood-soaked fur floated through the air and landed near his foot. The bunny had dodged, but not cleanly.

Looking at the bunny which was some feet away from him as its breath was rough. Uneven. Its tiny chest rose and fell like it had run through a battlefield.

Zorai looked at it carefully.

*So even you are starting to feel it now.*

He could see it clearly. The bunny had used

It's Qi to increase it's speed again. Not just qi, but even part of its life force was sacrificed to pull off that dodge after all it was a weak beast even a mortal can kill and despite being a mutated version of it, it wasn't all that tough. The blood around its eyes and the slight shake in its legs confirmed it. Even mutated, it was reaching its limit.

Zorai didn't know the true value of the qi running through his own body. But he believes this was power usually belonging to those in early Foundation Establishment realm, maybe even mid. He did not know how to use it properly. It moved through him on instinct, not technique. But the sheer quality of it enhanced every part of his being even though half of it were dissipating as time passes since he didn't know how to absorb it.

The mutated bunny should have been no match to someone with such immerse inner qit, but it was still standing all thanks to Zorai not having any martial arts skills.

Zorai narrowed his gaze and prepared to strike again as soon as he made up his mind to kill it, something strange happened. This time, the aura that came out of him felt like the anger, the hatred, the deep desire to kill, to wipe out whatever was standing before him. It came not just from his mind, but from his soul making the air around him felt heavy.

The leaves near his feet wilted slightly. Even the weak insects crawling nearby stopped moving.

This aura was more than just bloodlust, it felt like it was a field? A zone. If one was to observe closely they will noticed anything weaker than him inside it's range would feel their breath slow, Their bones would ache. Their life would quietly begin to slip away.

*So this is what it means to release your soul's intent,* Zorai thought as a strange calmness enters his chest.

The rabbit froze as it's hair all stood up in defense as if facing the strongest enemy in it's life as it felt like the intent was about cover it, but then, something even stranger responded to Zorai.

Zorai felt it like a wall pressing against his aura, not a physical wall, something invisible. It was like the world itself was pushing back, trying to not let his intent go far, not out of kindness, but rejection.

Like world hated what Zorai had released as even the heaven's darken a little with thunder rumbling deep within it as if the heavens were wailing. Some cultivators in seclusion couldn't help but lift their heads up and trying to use their hands to deduce the reason for this phenomenal only to be blocked by an invisible aura blocking them from prying into the rivers of destiny.

Not wanting to give up, Zorai kept releasing his intent, making the wall shifted, it transformed into a ghastly, ghoul-like figure and opened a wide mouth and bit down on Zorai's invisible and formless intent.

"Ah!" He clutched his head as pain stabbed into his temples, but even as his knees buckled slightly, the qi inside him moved again. It rushed upward, calming the pain, healing the damage slightly while the formless intent finally covered the bunny which has frozen still for a while, making the bunny's body started to change.

It was aging rapidly as it's fur turned coarse, patches began to gray while its eyes grew bloodshot in fear and madness as it's claws trembled. A fearful look entered its eyes, but was quickly replaced by madness.

Zorai took a step back as two red and green tufts on the bunny's body began to grow. The green one stretched over the bunny's body and extended into its eye sockets. The material hardened like armor. A strange glow covered it.

The red tuft rose and split into three sharp tails like a fox's. The creature's aura turned wild and unnatural.

Dark, ghoulish energy began to pulse from it, thick and heavy as if it was full of death, making Zorai's heart pounded faster.

This... this aura… could it be? Berserk? The legendary berserk state?

In his heart, he already knew the answer.

The current mutated bunny's aura was not just spiritual pressure instead it felt like standing inside a grave filled with madness and dark aura.

But Zorai's intent was still present too as it pressed outward. And something about the two forces meeting created a strange interaction in the air, like two invisible fires burning each other slowly.

Far away, the sky seemed to get even more darker making Zorai stood frozen for a second. Then something clicked inside him.

He remembered. In the beginning, according to ancient myths his mother used to tell him, there was nothing. No light, no shadow, no qi and only the ten thousand beings who contain the laws existed.

Then came Pangu, one of the law that represents absolute strength.

Pangu was the first. The being that killed all the other laws, split the heavens from the earth with his axe and breath. When he died, his body gave form to the universe. His eyes became the sun and moon. His bones, the mountains. His breath, the wind.

His soul?

It became the Great Heavenly Dao after absorbing the other ten thousand laws, the force that governs everything and his killing intent was locked away in a different realm never to be released or no being will survive it.

From that Dao, each galaxy, each plane, each corner of the universe was given a smaller piece of law. These became the Heavenly Daos of worlds. The guiding rules. The limiters. The keepers.

But the Great Heavenly Dao remained above them all.

To become one with the Great Dao was a myth. In smaller worlds like the one Zorai lived in, it was impossible. No one even had the full knowledge to understand the path to the heavenly Dao talk less of the great Dao. All that was known was this, laws were echoes of the Great Dao. And those who could comprehend a law, no matter how small, could crush those who didn't.

So this is the kind of being I'm facing now?

*Something that brushed against the Law of Death… and lived? No this bunny is weak to comprehend such immerse law! Something must be wrong! Maybe this is the reason it mutated?!*

Zorai felt a drop of sweat roll down his cheek.

There's no way out. What do I do in front of death itself?

Even with his power boost, fear returned. It crawled up his spine like cold hands.

He saw the rabbit crouch, its body tensed like a predator facing it's prey and then it kicked.

Its legs smashed against the earth. It moved faster than ever before. The air screamed. Zorai tried to dodge, but it was too fast. The mutated bunny struck him clean in the chest.

Zorai flew backward and crashed into the side of a thick tree, making his spin tremble from the immerse force that hit him, he cough out blood as he rolled to a stop and suddenly felt a chilling sensation coming from his back as he rolled forward and just in time for the bunny's claw to smash into the floor he was a moment ago.

*No! I can't keep being on defense or I will be dead before I know it!*