Even if it was the middle of the night, the arena seemed pretty full.
It was a simple arena, a large square platform surrounded by a rising staircase-like structure where many cultivators sat and waited for the match.
It seems that it was an event that brought many people to watch, who wouldn't enjoy a bloodbath at the middle of the night, especially if the one expected to be killed was an old has been while the one who'll be taking him down is no one but the 'Young Master' of the sect, a person who is promised the seat of the Sect Master himself once he grows older.
I was the villain here, and they're all waiting for a good end to my story and see me becoming a stepping pebble not even a stone since I'm so insignificant to them.
An elder approached the arena as the two of us were standing a few feet apart.
"This is a battle to the death, there will be no interference from anyone outside the arena, this is the last time I'll ask, are you two sure about this?"
"Of course I'm sure," the Young Master said.
The elder looked at me, the question was obviously aimed at me.
"I want to ask something," I said.
"Oh, you're getting cold feet I see, if you beg on your knees, I might consider sparing you," the Young Master admitted.
I didn't deem him worthy of a response as I ignored him and talked to the elder.
"Are you sure that no one will interfere in this fight?" I spoke. There was no fucking way I was going to allow a cliché to happen in this fight.
"No one will interfere," he said."
"Do you swear it?!" I spoke loudly for everyone to hear.
The crowd began muttering among each other, of course, I was sounding more and more like an idiot who was purposefully trying to ruin his life.
"Yes, Yes, I swear upon the honor of the Ancient Sect no one will interfere, the sect master can also be a witness," the elder said.
"Then," I said as I turned to the sect master who was sitting on the main chair.
"I'm sure that it will be difficult, but what in the off chance I come out victorious? Will I be prosecuted?"
"… Ling Cao… do you take my sect for a joke? This is a battle to the death, if either of you comes out alive, the other will not be reprimanded attacked, or harassed as long as I live. It is a trial witnessed by the heavens, so if you're worried that your victory will also bring your doom, I'll bet the honor of the sect that it shan't happen," the sect master said, then added this time in a divines sense message, "That is of course if you survive, you placed yourself in a very dangerous position…I could have found a way to get you out of this mess, why the hell did you have to be so rash, I thought you were a smart kid but you're as rash as your father, and look at what it got him!"
I smiled at the Sect Master, it seems that he wasn't as rotten as I thought and his actions and hands were tied by the sect… never the less I'm relieved that I got some insurance.
"Good, now that the Sect Master had spoken… you may begin!" the elder said and jumped back from the arena.
The Young Master didn't move and looked at me, haughtily, "You can have the first move since you'll be dead after that," he said grinning.
His words riled up the crowd, of course, they would, that is great confidence he has.
"Then, I'll take you up on it," I said and took a step forward, then a second, then a third and I began increasing my speed.
It took less than a fraction of a second for me to reach the sect master and in that moment two consecutive explosions sounded at the same time.
The first explosion was my palm that had touched the chest of the young master and blasted a literal giant hole through his body.
The second was the sect master himself with his hand grabbing the back of another person's head and slamming him right into the concrete of the arena right next to us.
The scene right now was pretty confusing for everyone but I understood immediately.
The young master dropped dead, unbelieving his eyes as his life quickly left his body.
While a soul-wrenching scream echoed from the man who had his face shoved into the arena's floor. It wasn't a scream of physical pain, but emotional.
The sect master stood up and looked at me, "When did you learn that?" he asked.
"Secluded cultivation," I said as I flexed my hand I was feeling a bit of pain from having used seven steps of the modified Ancient Movement Technique.
I looked at the man who was wailing on the ground and the sect master replied to a question I didn't ask.
"His father… he was about to interfere in the fight when he realized that his son was going to lose his life…" he said.
And immediately a cold silence permeated the whole arena.
The chosen son, the person who was going to inherit the sect was killed in a single move, and the danger from that move was enough to have one of the grand elders personally move to save him, but the sect master had to step in in order to keep his promise to me that no one will interfere.
It downed on them like cold buckets of iced water.
They all realized, that my words, the words I spoke earlier were not the words of a crazed man, but they were the words of a person who had already gaged the power of the person in front of him, already realized that he could kill him in one blow, and still forced the hand of the sect master to protect him in case he manages to kill the 'Young Master.'
The person with the numb-looking arm right now was no different than a monster to everyone in the arena and they knew one thing.
Not a single one of them had treated Ling Cao right, not a single one of them had remembered friendship after his hardship, no one ever gave him a helping hand, and in doing so, they made an enemy, and this enemy right now is far, far stronger than any of them.
This enemy right now is dangerous, and if he were to bare his fangs upon their old transgressions, there will be no end to their misery.
Their lives in the sect were bound to turn to the worst all because they antagonized a person they shouldn't have. Regret had nothing to do with them. they were doomed the moment they crossed Ling Cao and today, the day of reckoning had begun.
"YOU BASTARD! YOU DARE KILL MY SON!" the enraged elder had his eyes turning red and all his blood vessels seemed to be about to burst.
"Damn, he's losing his mind! Ling Cao step aside! I can't protect you when he is this frenzied!" the sect master said as the elder shot forward towards me.
I could see it, in the eyes of everyone here besides the sect master, even his daughter wanted the elder to take my life. Because I was a threat.
The elder, in his madness, couldn't even see the sect master as he focused on me, and was repelled by the sect master's powerful palm strike.
It was the same as the palm I just used only it was far more refined, far more subtle, and at the same time far more powerful.
The palm strike shot down the elder but he bounced back up as if nothing had happened to him.
"Yubin! Don't force my hands!" the sect master called
But the elder couldn't even hear or see him as he was seething in adulated rage.
The elder then once again took a step forward and disappeared from sight this time he threw something from his pouch and whatever it was, it shot forward at the sect master.
For only a second something seemed to wrap around the Sect Master and stop him from moving.
The sect master tightened his muscles and burst apart whatever it was stopping him but it was already too late as the elder took that moment and appeared right in front of me.
He grabbed me by the neck and said "DIE!" his hand shot towards my face aiming to blast my skull open.
"That would be my line," I spoke, and immediately the elder's arm that was about to lob my head of shuddered then snapped back.
The elder squealed in pain and I was dropped back to the ground.
Black marks spread rapidly over his arm and were hastily coursing towards his face and then, the rest of his body.
He began shuddering and shaking, as pain rattled his entire body, every bone in his body began shaking and shuddering and then breaking, he suffered a fate far worse than his own son as he was dying and was feeling every bit of it.
All his muscles ruptured, his nervous system went to overload as it caused his massive spasms, and then black blood began pouring from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. It didn't even stop at that due to how powerful the spasms were, his shoulders snapped, his knee caps broke as his legs twisted out of place then he began shuddering as he arched his back forward until his own spine shattered from the force.
Every bone that broke was audibly heard and then finally the man that was so full of rage gave his last breath and then fell dead right next to the body of his own son.
The Sect Master who had kind eyes for me earlier looked at me like I was some sort of a monster.
"What in god's name happened?!"
"Oh…about that…" I said as I rubbed my neck, "I don't like it when people grab me by the neck…"