by Tony Tran
Sword auras constructed out of essence, blades of wind, shards of ice and a wide variety of other attacks were employed as the saints of the Lunar Sect went on the offensive. Despite being outnumbered two to one, if their task was only to stall for time then the saints of the Lunar Sect were more than capable of doing so,.
Left without means to aid their disciples without possibly risking their own lives, the saints of the two sects were forced to watch as the hundreds of thousands of arrows under Zhang’s control descend.
As the arrows rained downward, the disciples of the Lunar Sect found themselves relatively safe as none of them were hit by any arrows. In the meantime, the disciples of the other two sects were literally pelted.
Try to flee as they might, the area encompassed by Zhang’s attack was too large and the speed of the arrows which were boosted by the power of a saint was too fast. So, besides the powerful, the brave souls who stood their ground and repelled the arrows and the lucky few, all of the people in the Sun Hall Sect and Heavenly Palace sect who tried to flee was ran through by hundreds of arrows and a few mithril tipped ballista bolts mixed in for good measure.
“Although the storm of arrows ended, I'm only getting started.” Zhang said as the Abyssal Cape encompassed him and the area around him in a ball of darkness.
Seeing this pitch-black ball everyone began to trembling with fear.
“Wa-wa-what is that.” A few people cried, regardless if they were Zhang’s targets of not.
As if replying to their questions, the pitch-black ball began to emit a deafening babble of screams, roars, and screeches that echoes all the way to the heavens. Adding to everyone’s terror and disbelief were hundreds if not thousands of gleaming blood red eyes that seemed to gaze into one’s very soul.
“Everyone flee!” A disciple of the Heavenly Palace screamed, but to no avail, because a living nightmare began before anyone could even move.
Beasts, ghouls, ghosts, demons, and horror of all shapes and sizes began to fly out from the darkness and attack everyone but the members of the Lunar Sect.
Bodies and limbs were torn and ripped to shreds as blood began to rain down on the burning forest below. Although thousands of people had died no bodies fell to the ground, this was because they were collected into the Ruler’s Domain much like the bodies of the saints that Zhang had slain.
As disciples of prestigious sects, everyone was in possession of valuable cultivation resources and rare magical treasures, being who he is, Zhang, of course, would not let any of these spoils slip out of his hands.
“Hahaha, it seems we won't be the ones to suffer a loss today but rather it will be you!” Grand Elder Du Zhao laughed as he dropped the lifeless corpse of a lesser saint, whose skull was crushed, into the ground.
“If you think killing some of our disciples means that you'll avoid death then you've sadly mistaken.” A grand elder of the Heavenly Palace sect roared as he led a group of saints toward Grand Elder Du Zhao with bloodshot eyes.
“Twerp! Kill off all of their disciples and help me take the heads of these bastards and let alone ten thousand essence stones, I'll give you twenty thousand essence stones.” Grand Elder Du Zhao said in a merry tune as if he forgot about his interactions with Zhang prior to being ambushed.
“Thirty thousand and you got a deal!” Zhang replied.
“What the?! You accepted my senior brother’s offer of only ten thousand stones but not my offer of twenty thousand?” Du Zhao said with a puzzled face.
“I sort of used up a bit too much of my strength so, if I were to continue helping you guys I might put my life at risk. Ah, my back it hurts...” Zhang said as he pretended that he was suffering from back pain.
“Twenty-five thousand…” Grand Elder Du Zhao said with a sigh.
“Owe my wrist… I think only forty thousand essence stones would suffice now.” Zhang said as he rubbed his left wrist.
“I'll give you fifty essence stone and forgive you for killing our disciples of you kill all of the people from the Lunar Sect!” Grand Elder Huo Yan of the Sun Hall Sect said as he tossed an interspatial ring at Zhang.
“Hmmm, fifty thousand essence stones…” Zhang said as he stored away the ring.
“I'll take this fifty thousand as payment to cancel my deal with him.” Zhang said as he looked at Grand Elder Hua Xiong with a smile.
“I bid you all a good day and it was a pleasure doing business with you all.” Zhang said as he began to fly away now that no one was really trying to attack him any longer after seeing his display of power.
“Little friend before you go I have a few words of advice for you. If he has enough essence stones to simply give you fifty thousand stones without batting an eye, then I'm sure you can get much more if you robbed him.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said with a smile.
“Your right!” Zhang said with twinkling eyes.
“Then the same goes for them!” Grand Elder Huo Yan of the Sun Hall Sect said.
“There isn't anything for him to gain from us.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said with a laugh as he took off the golden colored interspatial he wore on his finger and tossed it to Zhang. Following his example soon all of the saints of the Lunar Sect gave Zhang their interspatial rings.
After storing away, a dozen interspatial rings Zhang was left with a wide grin on his face as he imagined all of the loot he had just acquired, however, what he didn't know was that most of the time when saints from the Lunar Sect went out into the ousted world they would leave most of their belongings within the sect.
“I'll even make things easier for you to decide. Activate the Lunar Singularity Sphere Formation!” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said as he lifted his hand into the air and released a pulse of essence.
Alone this pulse of essence did not amount to much but while no one was paying attention, a few of the other saints of the Lunar Sect had actually repositioned themselves and created a large ring around the saints of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace.
As the saints of the Lunar Sect released pulses of essence and activated their spell formation, a silver colored transparent sphere slowly formed and enveloped them and the saints of the other sect. Within the sphere, all of the saints other than those of the Lunar Sect were being bombarded but thousands upon thousands of pulses of essence that would travel through their bodies and assault their innards.
But they did not sustain too much damage before the saints of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace banded together to create a defensive spell formation that the pulses could not break through.
“Decide quickly we won't be able to hold on for long.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong yellowed toward Zhang.
Chapter 88: Late for Dinner
Noticing the expression on Zhang’s face although they were initially reluctant to all of the saints of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace took off their interspatial rings and tossed them at Zhang before refocusing their efforts on resisting the power of the Lunar Sect’s Lunar Singularity Sphere Formation.
“What should I do…” Zhang mumbled as he hugged an arm full of interspatial rings while be at a loss regarding what he should do.
“I guess since I have to kill one side or the other or risk being labeled as an enemy by both sides, I might as well kill the side that dragged me into this situation even though I didn't want any part of it.” Zhang thought before he came to a conclusion and waved his hand withdrawing hundreds of ballistae bolts that size of spears.
“Kill them! Kill them!” The saints of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace yelled as cold sweat dropped down from their brows.
“No, kill them!” Grand Elder Du Zhao and all of the saints of the Lunar Sect yelled.
Within a heartbeat later the hundreds of =ballista bolts pierced through the air at unbelievable speeds toward the saints of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace sects. Terrified expressions soon crept onto all of their faces as they saw death speeding toward them.
Who were they? They were saints, beings who ascended beyond the realm of normal humans, be
ings who transcended the limitations that bogged down most cultivators. Even the lesser saints were individuals brimming with pride and aloofness, but like everyone else when faced with the prospect of death they too trembled.
“You bastard!” A few of them cried as they saw the ballista bolts flying through the air and toward them. But alas due to the Lunar Singularity Formation set up by the saints of the Lunar Sect there wasn’t anywhere to go, if they left the protective barrier that they erected then they would be bombarded by pulses of essence that would cause them immense damage, but if they didn’t try to escape then they would be impaled by hundreds of ballistae bolts the size of spears.
‘Strengthen the barrier!” Grand Elder Huo Yan of the Sun Hall Sect roared as the ballista bolts closed in. However, what he failed to realize was that everyone single ballista bolt tip was made out of mithril and mithril was one of the very few things in the world that was able to pierce through magical barriers and the like as if they were constructed out of paper.
Whereas ballista bolts tipped with regular metals would have simply bounced off the barrier constructed by saints, the mithril tipped ones passed through undeterred. By then it was too late to react and the saints within the barrier found themselves impaled by hundreds of spear sized ballista bolts.
For something that took only but an instant for Zhang to pull off, seemed like an eternity for the saints of the Lunar Sect. As each waking second passed, their powers were continually sapped by their own spell formation so, while Zhang was dealing with their enemies, a few of the lesser saints fainted due to over exhaustion of their powers and mental fatigue.
Before anyone of them could do a thing, the lesser saints were sent on their merry way to meet Zhang’s father in law, the Yama. As for the few full saints that were present, Zhang purposely avoided their vitals and preserved their lives while inflicting a decent amount of damage upon them.
“Senior… Maybe it’s because of something I ate but my stomach really hurts, so, I’ll be leaving the rest to you. Since it’s getting late and my wives are waiting for me to come home for dinner I will be taking my leave now.” Zhang said with an awkward smile on his face.
Due to being a full saint himself and also thanks to the condition provided to him by the Lunar Sect, everyone had basically become sitting ducks and were all at his mercy but with that being said although he was more than capable of killing every one of the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace’s saints Zhang did not because of a few reasons.
One of which being that he wished to leave the Lunar Sect a bit of face, meaning if he a name nobody killed all of the saints of the Sun Hall Sect and Earthly Palace Sect present then wouldn't the Lunar Sect become a laughing stock? As Zhang is certainly aware of and has experienced firsthand, rumors tend to blow out of proportion, it's one thing if he were exempted from the rumors but if somehow everyone starts claiming that he single handed killed all of those saints without an ounce of help and after the grand elders of the Lunar Sect begged him to help them, then without a doubt even if Grand Elders Hua Xiong and Du Zhao don't get angry surely the other grand elders or perhaps the sect master of the Lunar Sect was.
So, by only killing the small fish while only injuring the big fish and leaving them at the mercy of the saints of the Lunar Sect, Zhang would ensure that he wouldn't be tarnishing or inadvertently shaming the Lunar Sect in the long run. Sometimes good intentions spawn ill feelings.
“Since I didn't really accomplish what you asked of me I will return some of these to you also.” Zhang said as he waved his hand and made a number of interspatial rings shoot through the sky and toward Grand Elder Hua Xiong before flying off in a hurry.
Although he very much wanted to keep all of the spoils that he managed to obtain, Zhang knew there was a time to be greedy and a time not to be. If giving up on some wealth that wasn’t his, to begin with, would help him establish a good and healthy relationship with a prestigious sect such as the Lunar Sect then, by all means, he would not burn such a bridge.
As he watched Zhang fly away Grand Elder Hua Xiong couldn't help but shake his head before shifting his gaze back toward the remaining full saints of the Earthly Palace and Sun Hall Sects who were steadily having their insides liquefied by the Lunar Singularity Formation. As a spell formation, this technique was an extremely powerful one but also a flawed one.
Although the Lunar Singularity formation allowed the saints of the Lunar Sect to suppress a group of saints that doubled their numbers for a short amount of time, they were left utterly defenseless and we're open to attack by those, not in the formation. Meaning this technique could and is a double-edged sword for its users.
Since they were able to suppress a group double their size, after the number of enemies had dwindled drastically the saints of the Lunar Sect were able to shatter the barrier that was erected to stop the pulses of essence they were releasing. Once the barrier was shattered the surviving saints inside the formation were bombarded by thousands of pulses of essence that had bounced back and forth throughout the duration of the spell formation.
“I need to get out of here quick before more problems start popping up.” Zhang said with a sigh as he sped through the air.
“Little friend! Wait!” A voice rang into Zhang’s ear prompting him to look back to see Grand Elder Hua Xiong tailing him.
“Senior I really must be going now.” Zhang said with a wry smile.
“Little friend I have a proposition for you! Seeing as you have now made enemies of the Sun Hall Sect and Earthly Palace Sect due to us I was hoping to invite you to become an elder within the Lunar Sect. I'm sure with your talent the sect master would quickly promote you to be a grand elder. I also promise that since you've practically saved my life no one would dare to bully or berate you.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said with a sincere look on his face.
“Become an elder of a sect that can send out dozens of saints to do its bidding…” Zhang mumbled until a sudden thought popped up in his head.
“If they are all dead they how would I have made enemies out of their sects? I do believe that you wouldn't go around spreading drawings of me.” Zhang said with mixed expressions on his face. A part of him was confused, a part of him was unhappy because he thought that Grand Elder Hua Xiong was possibly secretly threatening him, while another part of him was intrigued to find out the truth.
“You don't know?” Grand Elder Hua Xiong asked and looked at Zhang as if he was looking at someone who was clueless about the world.
“Know what?” Zhang asked.
“Let me explain… Every disciple, every elder and every grand elder of the Lunar Sect, Sun Hall Sect, Earthly Palace Sect and the hundreds of other sects that live north of the Lunar Mountains all bind themselves with a piece of Soul Jade. These soul jades would be kept within their sect headquarters and would alert their sects if they met their demise when going outside.
If it was only that then you would have nothing to worry, but there is a certain inscription pattern that is usually added to the soul stones of saints to transmit the last few moments of their life back to their sect.
“Damn…” Zhang said in a low tone as he realized that two prestigious sects know that he was the one to kill a dozen of their lesser saints and injure a group of their full saints.
“So, for your own safety I recommend that you join our sect. As long as the Sun Hall Sect and Earthly Palace Sect don't go all out and send all of their forces, now with a number of their respective saints gone our Lunar Sect would surely be able to hold our own against them.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said with a hint of excitement in his tone, showing how happy he was about the death of the saints of the other two sects.
“I would love to but I believe that I'm fairly safe even if I don't join because those two sects have other problems to worry about.” Zhang said with a laugh as he concluded that he was perfectly safe as long as the Lunar Sect remained.
Since the other two sects would obviously have to deal with the Lunar Sect who had been
their long time enemy before going after him.
“Take this and come visit me if you ever decide to go sightseeing across the other side of the Lunar Mountains or if you run into any problems. As long as you have that and go to any of the branch sects of the Lunar Sect they’ll help you to their utmost ability.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said as he tossed a blue colored metal badge toward Zhang who plucked it out of the air and deposited it into his interspatial ring.
Moments later Grand Elder Du Zhao could be seen flying through the sky before stopping beside Grand Elder Hua Xiong while Zhang departed.
“Let’s hurry back to the sect, a lot of things will happen because of the events that transpired here. We must return to the sect and inform the sect master.” Grand Elder Hua Xiong said to Grand Elder Du Zhao.
“What about the ingredients for the Pills of Rebirth?” Grand Elder Du Zhao asked.