Attention!!! PLEASE READ: I wrote these 3 chapters starting with this one all day yesterday, all night and morning in one continuous session, but did not release them one by one since they would be best experienced as one continuous sequence to not break immersion. So I recommend you to read further only if you have enough time to read them in one continuous session. I hope you enjoy.
———————
Supreme Master Pavilion was a sect with a little less than 100 000 people, including disciples, retainers, protectors, and elders. The sect actually greatly expanded in the last 50 or 60 years, as it started to broaden its influence and take in more disciples every 10 years, thus also gaining more retainers and protectors as well. If this continued for another 30 or 40 years they might have even reached the level of the Five Great Sects at least in the scale of the lower-level sect members. The top levels also progressed a great deal in this short time period.
It was actually a trend with quite a few small sects that suddenly grew in recent years and started to rival middle and large ones. Some larger sects were also starting to make unusual movements, so the whole continent was tense. At such a sensitive time, a threat appeared and the Supreme Master Pavilion was on high alert and ready.
Unlike Yin Yang Unity Palace the sect was located not on a mountain but in a valley between rocky peaks that created natural walls around it, with artificial five-story-building-high and thick walls connecting them to completely shut off the sect from the outside, and long roofed wooden bridges suspended at high altitudes as the rocky peaks were riddled with caves that connected the artificial walls together with the bridges above. There was only one massive steel gate which now was closed and reinforced with formations. Giant steel bars were placed in holders on the inner side of the gate to seal them off.
Sect protectors were now on full alert on the walls and wooden bridges, ready for the siege. The detection formations already caught signs of a small advance squad of unidentified intruders stopping in the distance, and loud gong sounds were ringing, echoing in the air above the whole sect that looked like a giant fortress city.
It was snowing but not windy, as the white snowflakes were gently falling, and hot breaths were creating white clouds. The sound of the gongs stopped after a while and all people were already in their positions. The previously busy sect now fell into quiet again. There was palpable tension in the air as it was presumed that they were targeted by at least the kingdom’s army and very possibly a large unidentified force so there were nervous breaths all around.
The snow felt unreal as the speed at which it fell was very slow, and thus the snowflakes made almost no sounds when they touched the surfaces. It was as if the snow enveloped this world in a curtain of deathly silence, swallowing all of the sounds.
An eerie feeling started to crawl into the hearts of these sect protectors from seemingly nowhere. The tranquility of the surroundings seemed like a bad omen instead of the usual beautiful feeling it gave off.
Suddenly, the heightened senses of these mostly Qi Condensation and Qi Manifestation realms cultivators detected the sounds of feet softly pressing the freshly fallen snow from the forest. But it was only two pairs of feet, one of which soon stopped. The one that kept approaching was a bit heavier.
Those who held bows raised them high and pulled the bowstrings until the bows were bent into round arches as Spiritual Qi began flowing along the tips of the arrows pointed in one direction. The gazes of thousands of people were now also glued to the place the sounds were coming from.
Soon, they saw a handsome young man in plain black robes walk out to the open area that was cleared out of vegetation for defense. He walked out with a calm gait, his hands behind his back as if on a stroll, and calm indifference on his face.
While they looked at him with confusion, as they expected a large invasion, he approached the line at which the arrows from sect protectors would reach, stopped, and slowly raised his gaze.
His eyes flickered with profound patterns as they appeared and disappeared in a chaotic sequence, and a shudder went through the thousands of people above the gates, walls, and air bridges. Terror was gripping them tightly as they could not comprehend its source. It would be stupid to fear one man, and he also was clearly in Qi Condensation Realm. There was also no visible threat from him, nothing changing in his expression, no killing intent, and even hostility could not be felt from his emotionless face. Neither there was anyone else approaching.
There was just a palpable horrifying feeling spreading in the area, as a strong premonition of a catastrophe was getting more and more vivid. Suddenly, a ripple went off from somewhere in the distance and they saw a large dome of Spiritual Qi starting to cover an enormous territory around them. But they did not have time to react to that, as his hands came down to his sides, and he suddenly launched forward at a normal running speed.
There were no words or any prior notice, and after a few split moments of stunned silence, close to two hundred arrows were launched at him and his surroundings, focusing mainly on the space before him. A worn down and visibly damaged Guandao spear appeared in his right hand and sparks flew into the air as the arrows were blown back and to every direction by Spear Qi right at the radius of three meters from him. There were now sounds of bowstrings, arrows piercing the air, and thin metallic sounds of them being deflected, which were all still quite silent for such an intense movement.
The ones who did not release their arrows before made another volley and then the third group released another one a few moments later in quick succession, but none of them were able to make even a scratch on the young man who ran towards the defense, as they all soon started continuously raining thousands upon thousands of arrows which were completely useless in front of this advancing disaster.
They started using Spiritual Arrow Arts at the highest level they could but it did not make any visible difference apart from releasing a little more sparks when it was deflected and blown into the distance.
Soon the young man reached a thick barrier of Spiritual Qi that was filled with various moving patterns and symbols, but with a wave of his Guandao spear, it opened up immediately, the opening spreading wider and wider. If glimpsed from the distance and from the side, it looked as if an air balloon was sliced at a very fast speed with a sharp razor blade in slow motion.
Under the rain of arrows, the young man reached the foundation of the gates and lightly waved his spear a few times again, as Spear Intent made the foreheads of the people on the walls feel pierced by violent and powerful sharp force.
The thick steel gates were sliced into a dozen big irregular pieces along with the thick steel bars that were on the inner sides as formations floating above them shattered into glittering pieces akin to glowing pieces of glass. All of that was then violently blown into the inside of the sect by the furious spear wind along with a thunderous noise that broke the previously mostly silent surroundings. Those who stood on the arch of the gates were also thrown into the air with screams as the stone arc was blown into bits alongside the gates themselves.
The young man stopped not far into the territory of the sect. Stunned gazes looked at him both from the front as there was a plaza filled with people before buildings started to appear further ahead, and from behind and above as the people on the walls and air bridges turned around to stare at him in shock. Loud gongs began to sound new alarms all around and the dome of the sect’s protective formation was crumbling in the sky above.
The indifferent up to this moment face of the young man showed emotion for the first time as a light smile touched his lips.