Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation
142. Dagger Beats Elements?!

The illusion display above the arena flickered, replacing the scene of Biyu and Li Xue’s match with Elder Di Ti’s image once more.

“A brief and exciting match,” she began, her voice turning grave. “However, let this serve as a cautionary tale. To those of you in the Core Realm—do not imitate what Li Xue just did.”

She paused for emphasis before continuing.

“She expended all of her qi in a single moment. Doing so places extreme strain on the core and carries a very real risk of causing it to burst—crippling your cultivation base, or in severe cases, leading to death. She was lucky. What she suffered was merely qi exhaustion, which is nothing short of a miracle given the recklessness of her actions.”

A hush fell over the crowd as her warning settled in.

“Once more—do not imitate her.”

She let the silence linger before her tone shifted back to light and enthusiastic.

“Now, onto our next match!”

The projection shifted again.

“For our next duel, we have… our sect’s eldest disciple—Liu Hua—versus the newest wielder of the Dao of the Dagger Goddess—Zhu Ren!”

As she spoke, the arena lit up. A bolt of purple lightning cracked down onto the stage, revealing Liu Hua clad in arcs of electricity. A moment later, a small woman stepped onto the platform—surrounded by dozens of floating daggers.

On the elders’ platform, Jin Shu’s eye twitched.

He recognized nearly every blade circling her. They were his!

He hadn’t meant to give her all of them—but one moment of distraction, one poorly timed nod—and somehow she’d walked away with the entire set.

He inhaled slowly, trying to settle his nerves. Whatever. It’s fine. I haven’t even used them in the tournament. They’re basically useless.

He knew he was coping. But it wasn’t like he could just march over and demand them back. And really, they were only training weapons—blunt practice blades he'd crafted for sparring.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the match on the screen.

The qi barriers had just risen when Liu Hua vanished, leaving a trail of purple sparks in her wake as she blitzed across the arena at blinding speed. She crossed the distance between them in the literal blink of an eye.

But just as she arrived—right in front of Zhu Ren, inside the ring of floating daggers—something unexpected happened.

Her ever-present lightning was sucked away from her body, drawn into three seemingly unremarkable daggers circling around Zhu Ren on different sides.

Liu Hua stared at her hands in stunned silence.

Up on the elders' platform, Jin Shu’s eyes widened.

He recognized those daggers—he had crafted them himself. But he’d never given them any kind of lightning absorption ability. In fact, those were three experimental rune daggers that he’d long since written off as failures. The lightning runes etched into them affected both the wielder and their target—making them virtually unusable in combat.

So how had Zhu Ren turned them into makeshift lightning rods?

It seemed Liu Hua had similar questions.

“How did you do that?” she asked, gaze still locked on her now-lightningless hands.

Zhu Ren shrugged. “I’m not really sure. The daggers just… asked me to use them, so I did.”

“Hmm. I see,” Liu Hua said, as if that explanation made perfect sense.

The crowd, on the other hand, was far less convinced.

“The daggers spoke to her? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s just bluffing and doesn’t want to reveal her trick.”

“Can’t blame her. No reason to give away your secrets before the fight’s even started.”

Chen Ai Yun shook her head at their skepticism. “Dao Spirits can commune with weapons governed by their Dao,” she murmured, though she didn’t correct the crowd aloud.

Liu Hua smirked. “Well, just because I can’t use my lightning doesn’t mean I’m powerless, you know?”

“I’m sure,” Zhu Ren replied calmly. “But I’m not done yet.”

The daggers floating around her flickered to life—each glowing with different runic effects. Some burned red, others gleamed blue, white, or silver. Every single one had been crafted by Jin Shu, and now each rune was activated with purpose.

Liu Hua watched them approach, unbothered. Her own body lit up with elemental power: red fire, blue water, and translucent white wind. These were the elements she had mastered and combined to produce her signature lightning.

But then—

Once again, the energy around her was stripped away.

The fire, the water, the wind—all of it—was pulled from her body and drawn into nine different daggers orbiting Zhu Ren.

The crowd gasped in disbelief.

Rubbing at his eyes, Jin Shu could hardly believe what he was seeing. Those knives, he’d built them with his own two hands. And yet, he’d never known they were capable of this.

“How?” he muttered, not expecting an answer.

“It’s not that you can’t use your weapons as well as she can,” Chen Ai Yun said beside him. “She possesses a Dao Spirit aligned with daggers. Through it, she can draw out powers that others—even their creator—could never imagine.”

“Oh. I see,” he said, though in truth he didn’t fully understand. As long as it wasn’t something he’d overlooked in their crafting, he could live with it.

“Now that Liu Hua’s lost access to her elements, things are about to get interesting,” Chen Ai Yun added, her voice laced with amusement as her gaze fixed on the illusionary screen.

Jin Shu wanted to ask what she meant, but his attention was drawn back to the match.

Zhu Ren’s daggers zipped through the air at impossible angles, their glowing trails streaking like deadly streamers. They moved too fast to dodge—at least, that was how it should’ve been.

But Liu Hua wasn’t moving her feet.

She tilted her head, shifted her shoulder, dipped her waist—just enough. Just barely enough. Each dagger passed within a hair’s breadth of her body, yet not a single one struck.

Then, at last, she began to walk.

One slow, deliberate step at a time.

In a straight line.

Zhu Ren’s eyes narrowed. Her daggers struck faster, curved sharper, and twisted through the air like angry hornets. Still, they couldn’t even brush Liu Hua’s robe.

“Nothing can escape my eyes,” Liu Hua said calmly, her focus unshakable as she advanced.

Zhu Ren gritted her teeth. “Try this!”

Her daggers gathered and spun together, forming the shape of a writhing serpent—a dragon made of blades. The construct coiled around Liu Hua like a constrictor, slowing her advance.

But not stopping it.

The only space left unblocked was above—and Liu Hua took it.

She stepped on the backs of the orbiting daggers, bounding higher and higher until she leapt clear over the dragon’s head. The dagger-dragon lunged upward in pursuit, only for Liu Hua to use it as a springboard.

Zhu Ren recalled the daggers to her side, and Liu Hua began to fall—until lightning erupted beneath her feet, arresting her descent.

She hovered in the sky, lightning crackling at her heels, eyes glowing with power.

Zhu Ren immediately sent three daggers arcing through the air—the same lightning-inscribed ones as before. They absorbed the lightning once more, dispersing the aura around Liu Hua.

But this time, Liu Hua didn’t fall.

The wind gathered beneath her instead, whistling and swirling to hold her aloft.

“You’re a tricky one,” Liu Hua said, descending slowly back to the arena floor. “But I’ve found the solution.”

She landed, lightning gone, wind fading.

“This ends now.”

Four orbs of energy spun to life around Liu Hua—one fiery red, one gently flowing blue, one a roaring, near-transparent white, and the last crackling purple.

Zhu Ren narrowed her eyes. “Your elements shouldn’t work against me anymore... right?”

Liu Hua didn’t answer. She only smirked—and then the elemental orbs shot forward in perfect formation, streaking side by side in parallel lines.

Zhu Ren snapped her fingers. Twelve daggers launched to intercept the incoming attack. For a heartbeat, they managed to absorb some of the elemental power.

But then the orbs accelerated—and split.

Two, four, eight, sixteen.

In a blink, hundreds of tiny spheres of elemental energy flooded the arena, each one spinning with dangerous power and blinding speed.

Zhu Ren’s daggers danced wildly, intercepting as many as they could. But there were too many—too fast. No human reaction could block them all.

She leapt left, then right, dodging in a blur—but dozens still struck her. Flames scorched her sleeves. Water soaked her to the bone. Wind slashed at her skin, and lightning left her twitching mid-step.

She crashed hard into the qi barrier, pinned in place as more elemental balls hurtled toward her—unstoppable and merciless.

Then, inches before impact, they froze.

Zhu Ren blinked. The orbs hovered, humming with restrained power.

Across the arena, Liu Hua stood with her arms crossed, that same infuriating smirk on her face.

“I think that’s enough to call it my win, yeah?”

Zhu Ren looked past the trembling spheres at her smug opponent, and let out a breath.

“You win.”

The qi barriers fell.

“Winner, Liu Hua!” came the elder’s voice, booming above the roar of the crowd.