Dyon trembled in anger as he watched a familiar figure appear in the skies beside an old Asian man…
But… that was nothing compared to his feelings seeing the disparaged girl beside them, “Meiying…” he said softly.
Ri looked at Dyon’s side profile, feeling a dull ache in her heart as she saw his pained expression… it was clear Dyon knew this Meiying.
Meiying, though, didn’t seem to even be able to react to seeing Dyon. It was as though she had lost her soul and her will to go on.
Dyon’s eyes flashed with something imperceptible, ‘there’s a master level array locking her personality and thoughts… only master level? Have the Daiyu fallen so far?…’
“The last successor of our long dead enemy, hm,” the old man laughed lightly as though he couldn’t care less about being discovered… as though he had this all in hand.
“Release my fiancée’s little sister,” Dyon eyes narrowed, his skin reddening and his blood pumping in anger.
The old man seemed stunned by Dyon’s words, “your fiancée’s little sister? I don’t think this child has an older sibling…” he said, looking at Chenglei questioningly.
Chenglei nodded respectfully towards his elder, “Dyon has the favor of the first in line genius of the Sapientia God Clan. Meiying and Madeleine have been close since their youth.”
The crowd suddenly turned their gazes towards Dyon, ‘he wasn’t lying?…’
Some young men wanted to grit their teeth in anger. An Elvin Princess and a first in line genius? Where was the justice? But… this hardly seemed like the time…
“ah, so that’s how it is. You should have told us this earlier, killing such a child is more complicated,” the old man idly chatted with Chenglei. And yet, it was clear by his words that he cared not for the trouble resulting from killing Dyon at all.
Chenglei nodded in apology, “when father first assigned me to kill him, Madeleine had yet to be announced as a first in line genius… it was much simpler then. However, the Sapientia God Clan has never acknowledged such a marriage. It’s more than 95% likely that if they knew we killed him, they’d even thank us.”
A sudden realization hit the crowd… so that’s how it was. Madeleine loved Dyon, but Dyon was only the successor of a dead sect. A God Clan wouldn’t give up their first in line genius for marriage so easily… So, this was why no one knew Madeleine was engaged…
Ri’s frown deepened. She didn’t like the idea of her Dyon being looked down upon like this.
Dyon scanned the old man in front of him, black flames of rage crackling around him, “a mere first stage Celestial Expert while being so old? No… your cultivation was partially crippled… regardless, if you don’t do as I’ve asked. I’ll kill you. So, I suggest you stop speaking so nonchalantly.”
The old man suddenly looked up at Dyon with a piercing gaze. It held no aura and no power, but centuries worth of killing intent flooded Dyon’s senses. Dyon felt as though he was swimming in a sea of blood. Cries of agony and despair were the only things he could hear… his bones groaned and creaked as though they were being ground to dust…
‘Is this an aura?… no, if he used an aura I’d be dead…’
“To be able to see through my cultivation at such a young age… but you’re too naïve boy. Did you think that just because the elders here had higher cultivation than me that they could stop me?!”
The elders voice boomed, his energy sky rocketing and his long white hair fluttering in the wind.
“Centuries before you were even a spawn I had already stepped on the path of dao formation. Even with my dao now shattered, do you believe that just any Celestial Stage expert can beat me? I dare you, say it again.”
Chenglei watched this scene quietly.
He had always been a calm and calculating youth. The one time he lost his cool was because of Dyon… and he was trying his best not to do it again. But, for Dyon to insult his elder like this? He deserved death.
Despite this, Dyon ignored the pain in bones and the grinding of inner organs, lightly patting on Ri’s head, “don’t worry,” he said with a smile.
Chenglei grasped his grandfather’s shoulder, causing the old man to look back, “it’s far beneath you to bother with such an insignificant existence, grandfather. Allow me to make up for my mistakes.”
“ai. Deal with this so-called genius. Show him the reason our Daiyu clan was once unmatched. I’ll make sure these pesky flies and fake Celestial Experts don’t interfere.”
Elder Daiyu looked over at Jade, pulling her in with a wave of his hand and ignoring the rest of the Eostre family.
Dyon’s eyes narrowed at his actions, ‘this means only one thing… they don’t care about the Eostre family, but somehow do care about Jade… which means,’ Dyon turned a gaze towards Meiying, ‘they need Meiying too… why?’
Dyon’s brain worked into overdrive as Chenglei’s grandfather dropped Chenglei gently from the sky. A wave of power suddenly moved everyone back, clearing more than a 300-meter diameter of space.
Suddenly, Dyon thought of something, ‘Meiying specializes in a very special will… the feng shui compass… Jade is either the closest thing the Eostre family has ever had to a True Empath… or maybe she is one… Both of those things involve seeing through and searching for things…’
Dyon’s eyes widened, ‘what are they searching for?’
A voice snapped Dyon out of his thoughts, “I, Daiyu Chenglei, challenge you, Dyon Sacharro, to a life and death battle.”
Dyon snapped his head towards Chenglei and jumped down without hesitation.
Looking in Chenglei’s direction, Dyon suddenly got serious, ‘something about him has changed… last time I saw him he was 16 and had cultivation… but now, he’s 17 and has none. Did he reset himself?’
Dyon thought back to the cultivation cleansing pill he had given to Madeleine… ‘it’s likely that Chenglei cultivated along with the lesser geniuses to maintain a cover. Now he’s tapping into his true potential as a cultivator.’
Chenglei’s face was dead pan, watching as Dyon gently touched down to the ground using only a first level wind will. The problem was… he very clearly remembered Dyon’s wind will being much higher than this, ‘what’s going on?’ he sent a question glance towards his grandfather.
Unfortunately, all he found was a serious expression, “this will be a good experience for you Lei’er. The 25th White Mother has picked a good successor. But, today, he must die.”
Dyon’s eyes flashed with a purple-gold as his formal clothing disappeared.
He stretched, cracking his shirtless torso before bending down to roll up his black sweats.
Dyon casually jumped, flexing his calves and rolling his ankles, landing bare foot in the marbled square.
Everyone’s eyes seemed to sharpen, looking intently at the intricate tattoos on his back… a white wing… and a black wing…
Suddenly, Dyon’s spatial ring flashed, a normal first common level sword appearing in his hand. It was 6 feet long and a plain silver color. And yet… despite its poor level… it cut through the ground as Dyon casually tilted it forward.
“I’ve never once gone all out since I finished training…” Dyon said faintly.
The Elvin geniuses trembled, ‘he’s a swordsman?’
They had no concept of Dyon attacking without the use of his arrays. They had no idea he even trained in anything else! It suddenly dawned on them that in all this time, Dyon had only ever used the weapon’s hell array to attack!
“I hope you don’t disappoint me…”
Suddenly, Ri fell to Dyon’s side as well, but before he could turn a questioning glance toward her, he suddenly noticed Jade had appeared beside Chenglei.
Dyon’s frown deepened. He didn’t want Ri to have to fight, but this situation was completely different from the situation at the Legacy World Opening.
For one, at that time he would have fought no matter what to get revenge for Ava, Venus and Eli. So, the odds didn’t matter to him.
Secondly, although he is now equally as angry with Jade, Baal hadn’t had a former dao formation expert backing him.
Thirdly, those ‘geniuses’ could hardly be counted as such. They only understood maybe 3 wills each, and that was only the best of them. In addition, many hadn’t even been confident in themselves enough to wait until their bodies fully matured to energy cultivate.
However, Chenglei and Jade were different. Jade’s genius was already unquestioned. She climbed to the 5th floor library and had a first quadrant manifestation. Chenglei himself, was an anomaly. The Daiyu clan was one that had at the very least been as powerful as the Celestial Deer Sect at one point… which meant that Chenglei had access to a deep reservoir of legacies.
Although Dyon wasn’t aware that Chenglei lacked the resources to make the best use of those legacies, all he needed to know was that those legacies did exist… and, Chenglei seemed close with his grandfather. How could a former dao formation stage expert not guide Chenglei well?
Chenglei frowned at Jade, “stay out of this.”
Jade pouted, “don’t be like that, hubby. He hurt my feelings, I want to kill him as much as you do.”
Ri felt herself gagging, but this only made Dyon chuckle.
“Little feu glace, have you ever seen a husband and wife pair married so long with the wife still a virgin? People on the outside looking in my start to think there was something wrong with her husband.”
Elder Daiyu’s eyes sharpened at these words, ‘how does he know this? He can sense something so sensitive?… is this the level an innate aurora gives you? It can’t be, although I haven’t seen many with this gift, there have been some, none of whom were this good so young… there’s something special about this child…’
Ri snorted in laughter, “pervert… who’d pay attention to such things but you?”
Noticing the old man’s reaction, Dyon chuckled, “it seems this is a sore spot for the Daiyu clan, oh my.”
Chenglei felt his veins popping. No matter calm he usually was, what man would stand idly by and listen to this?
Jade smiled as though she had not a care in the world, “maybe so…” she said deviously, “I wonder how your supposed fiancées would feel knowing that you forced me to my knees?”
Jade’s eyes somehow read, ‘two can play at that game.’
Dyon’s eyes sharpened, “I supressed my emotions so you wouldn’t be able to read me. It was never more or less than that. Don’t misconstrue my actions or my words in anyway you want to.”
Jade had a playful smile on her face. She had expected Dyon to get flustered and try to explain himself to Ri… but, it seemed they trusted each other more than that.
Worse yet, it seemed her words only further angered Chenglei, “from today onwards, you’re a concubine. Grandfather help me deal with this please.”
Jade feigned being hurt, “this loveless and sexless marriage is something I put my heart and soul into, and you do this to me? A divorced woman is the shame of a family,” fake tears streamed down Jade’s face as her words dripped in sarcasm.
It was clear even she knew they needed her for a purpose and couldn’t afford getting rid of her… Which made Dyon think that maybe had he known this… he wouldn’t have revealed Little Lyla.
‘I can’t predict everything… I thought the Daiyu clan was just using the Sigebryht and Eostre clans to control the elves and most importantly: enter dead kings valley… Little Lyla might be in danger if they decide Jade is too much to handle…’
Dyon grit his teeth, ‘I can’t kill her… if I do, whoever’s left of the Daiyu clan will come after Little Lyla.’
The only silver lining Dyon could see that the array block he placed on Jade was still in place. This meant, although they knew he had the tome, they couldn’t question Jade about it. The tome itself was something Dyon knew was exceedingly important, but it didn’t seem like even the Elves knew exactly what it was. Even to the point they assumed that since the stone tome collapsed, there was nothing more to investigate.
Yet, he was still worried about everything else… Dyon began racking his brain to see if he could have proven things in another way. Maybe he could have just had one of the other Elvin families release their aura instead … it would have had less of an impact since recognizing True Empaths was the main separating factor between a real and a fake, but maybe, just maybe, it would have worked anyway… ‘dammit!’
Dyon suddenly felt a soft hand fit into his, “you can’t think of everything Dyon… Don’t blame yourself…”
Dyon looked down to find Ri smiling up at him… just like always, he lost himself in the purity of her eyes before feeling a flick on his forehead, “focus, pervert.”
Dyon smiled gently at Ri, caressing her cheek, “alright,” he said softly, causing her heart to flutter.
Ri knew Dyon wouldn’t forget about his mistake so easily… but the best she could do was stand by his side… that and direct her anger toward their opponents.
Dyon sent a quick message through wind will to Ri, “you can’t kill her,” having nothing but confidence in Ri’s ability to win.
Ri nodded, pulling out her sword, “maybe if I cut off those big breasts of hers she won’t talk so much anymore…”
Dyon’s rage had reached a whole new level. He had never felt so helpless before, even in the face big sects when all he had was himself, a sword and Little Black.
But now, he had an enemy before him that he wanted nothing more than to kill, and yet he needed to wait. In reality, the best choice here would be to bring out the stone puppets and force them to flee, but that wouldn’t settle the rage in his heart, ‘they have to take a loss,’ he thought resolutely, ‘scaring them away is not enough.’
‘today I’ll show you exactly why the Daiyu clan will always be nothing in the face of the Celestial Deer Sect!’
“Grand Elder Deryth, Sigebryht family head Sinaht, that old man likes bloviating but I’m sure you’ve realized he truly is weakened. Without a solidified dao, he’s lost what it means to be a dao formation expert. In addition, his stamina definitely does not match up to a celestial stage expert, although his strength is definitely much higher than a normal first stage celestial stage expert,” Dyon quickly worked through his master’s memories, giving the elders a detailed explanation on Elder Daiyu’s strength and weaknesses.
Although memories specifically related to Elder Daiyu were locked, Dyon’s master’s memory had plenty of information on what happened when daos were shattered and even how to fix them… although the method to fix something like that was ridiculously out of Dyon’s range of understanding, it may one day become useful… luckily, it was clearly it was out of the range of the Daiyu clan too, or else the old man wouldn’t still be crippled.
“Beating him is impossible for you two. However, stalling him until he’s forced to retreat with these two is. In the mean time, we’ll teach these two a lesson… and afterwards,” Dyon turned a sharp gaze towards the Eostre family head, “I’ll have Little Lyla figure out who was involved and who wasn’t. Then they die.”
Grand Elder Deryth and Sinaht immediately appeared in the air before Elder Daiyu who had an ugly expression on his face, “it seems your master left you quite a few good memories… maybe I should take them before I kill you.”
Dyon turned his gaze toward the elder, “sure, if you think you, or anyone in this universe, has array alchemy that matches up to my master’s, have at it.”
Elder Daiyu frowned at this but he didn’t seem surprised which was well within Dyon’s expectations. He knew there was a reason his master sealed some of her memories… and it seemed there was something in them the Daiyu clan wanted…
Dyon once again faced his opponent.
Chenglei wore a sleek black changpao with loose silver pants to match. His anger still hadn’t alleviated, yet, his face was the picture of serenity.
“A boy from the mortal realm wants to fight me seriously?… I think it’s time I show you that you haven’t been here long enough…”
Dyon couldn’t be bothered to answer. With a last glance at Ri to let her know to be careful, his leg flexed as he readied himself.
Yet, Jade and Ri sprung into action first, Jade’s manifestation blooming as a bright purple moon as her hands spread out. A sinister smile was plastered onto her face, as though she was inviting Ri to come.
However, Dyon couldn’t pay attention to that, he knew Ri had yet to manifest her soul… but her other attributes were so strong that he didn’t feel a need to worry.
BOOM!
Dyon launched himself forward, propelling his movements with his wind will as a dark black spear with an obsidian blade appeared in Chenglei’s hand.
The crowd watched this scene intently. With the elders in a stalemate in the sky, their only real duty was to ensure the Eostre family didn’t flee… although Zaltarish did finally take this opportunity to help Kymil and Darcassan up from their kneeling positions.
Finally… Dyon and Chenglei clashed.
There was no use of wills, no techniques, no extra power, it was only a clash between men.
Dyon’s arms flexed as he stared into Chenglei’s black eyes. He had long since lost the emotion in his features, the only goals and thoughts before were about defeating the man in front of him.
BOOM!
Dyon and Chenglei blew apart, ‘his body is tough,’ they both thought at once.
Chenglei swung his spear out from his body, bracing it against his back and crouching into a stance.
Suddenly, his energy erupted.
BOOM!
Dyon’s eyes narrowed, ‘demonic will…’
But, something more astonishing happened afterwards.
Chenglei’s body grew a size, ripping his changpao at its seams.
Faint black scales covered the entirety of his body as a black and bloody aura permeated from him to the tip of his spear.
“your demonic path is weak…” Chenglei said faintly, launching himself forward.
Dyon shifted to the side, spurring his celestial movement technique to the max, ‘fast! That’s not just demonic will… he has a god level constitution awakened well past 50%!’
Chenglei had no reaction to Dyon’s dodge, swinging his spear in a tight arc towards Dyon.
Tens of arrays appeared below Dyon’s feet, accelerating him forward into Chenglei.
Chenglei snorted, “naïve!”
Spear will erupted from Chenglei’s spear, covering Dyon even within such a close distance.
Dyon’s eyes flashed in surprise.
BOOM!
Tens of defensive arrays shattered as Dyon was blown backwards… the only thing stopping his momentum being the sword he stuck into the ground.
‘he used spear will to make up for the spear’s deficiencies in close quarters… excellent control.’
“first act… first stage demon emperor’s will…” Dyon whispered faintly.
BOOM!
Dyon’s body expanded to 2.5 meters tall, reddening in the act.
The Elvin geniuses shivered, ‘he really had so much to go to?…’
Dyon brandished his sword, looking at Chenglei calmly, ‘this form isn’t enough…’
“first act… first stage demon emperor’s will: perfection…”
Dyon’s body immediately shrunk down to its original size, compacting all of his power. This form wasn’t yet the second stage of the first act of demon emperor’s will, most accurately, it was step 1.5. It was a perfect stage reached once the first stage was completely mastered. Where the first stage allowed for a 2x power up, this perfection stage allowed for 2.5x and a more condensed and better controlled body.
Chenglei’s eyes narrowed, ‘that’s a divine technique… the celestial deer sect shouldn’t have such a strong body type technique…’
However, he didn’t find an opportunity to think any more about it, Dyon had already sprung forward with blinding speed, his sword will raging.
Dyon immediately appeared two meters from Chenglei, swinging downwards with what seemed like a casual stroke.
BOOM!
A massive wave of sword will erupted from his attack.
‘what the hell!’
Chenglei stared at this wide-eyed, this sword will was only of the first level yet it looked more powerful than that of a 7th, what was going on!?
Chenglei had no choice but to receive it, piercing forward with an indomitable will.
Flames erupted from his spear – their reddish orange hue accented by dark colors that were seemingly stemming from a darkness will.
Chenglei’s body increased another size as he grunt, “Black Jade Body: stage 2.”
Chenglei’s changpao ripped apart completely as he flexed… his black scaled becoming more opaque and much more robust.
Suddenly, he pierced forwards, leaping without a single shred of hesitation and shattering the sword will.
Having the most unexpected reaction to seeing his attack thwarted, Dyon laughed, “no wonder why you haven’t had sex yet, your black jade body technique requires the channeling of all the yang you have. You won’t gain control of it again until you reach a much higher level. I don’t know whether to pat you on the back for making such a sacrifice for power or laugh at you and your family for giving up what’s truly important for something as useless as it.”
Chenglei’s jaw steeled, ‘what’s truly important? What nonsense is he talking about… and how did he figure that out?…’
Dyon didn’t let Chenglei have much time to think about it though as his Weapon’s Hall manifestation appeared behind him.
“I think I’ll give you a little taste of what it means to be a weapon’s master…”
Chenglei took a step forward, looking at the black pagoda dripping in a blood red aura…. But, he suddenly felt that his steps were heavy… too heavy.
Looking up in shock, he found swirls of faint black and blinding silvers rotating around him and Dyon. And yet, they seemed to be having no effect on Dyon!
“I wonder how you’ll take an attack you can’t dodge…” Dyon said faintly.
Suddenly, a blinding white light erupted from the pagoda, speeding towards Dyon and hovering before him.
Chenglei grunted as he went to lift another foot… but when it fell, he left such a deep imprint in the ground that he felt as though he was stuck.
He looked up in agitation to find Dyon had left his sword in the ground and raised his hands, the blinding white sword before him multiplying again and again.
The crowd shivered feeling Dyon’s domineering aura. Each sword was not only of the practitioner level, they were melded together with a ridiculous amount of fused wills… wind, demonic, sword, fire, celestial…
Elder Daiyu frowned at this sight, but he knew he couldn’t reach Chenglei in a short time.
BOOM!
Chenglei fell to his knees, deeply imprinting himself into the ground as the gravity seemed to multiply again and again.
Suddenly, Dyon’s eyes flashed with a strong gold color as weapon’s hell arrays began to spin vigorously behind him.
A collective breath seemed to be sucked out of the air, ‘he’s combining the swords from his manifestation to his arrays!’
A sheen of sweat covered Dyon… controlling so many wills at once was not easy, even if he kept them all at the first level.
Chenglei grit his teeth, struggling to stand as tens of arrays melded with swords of wills faced him, spinning furiously in the air.
“I think it’s time you pay a price…” Dyon said faintly.
BOOM!
Spears with sword blades sped forward at a ridiculous pace, piercing towards Chenglei.
“AGGGHHH,” just then, in that same square, Ri had sliced a line into Jade’s cheek… it was so deep that even Jade’s tongue could be seen from her side profile.
“you!” Jade was about to scream more in agitation when she suddenly noticed Chenglei was about to lose, ‘no!’ she thought, ‘don’t you dare!’
Suddenly… just as the whistling of the wind reached unprecedented heights around Chenglei, a deafening roar sounded out.
RROOOAAAARRRRR
Jade’s eyes flashed with an odd light seeing this, ‘since you’re getting serious I might as well too…’
Jade’s manifestation began to slowly change… from a purple moon to a black one.
Ri’s eyes sharpened, taking in Jade’s transformation.
Her skin darkened, turning into a demonic purple color – a staff appearing in her hand as she swallowed a pill to fix the wound Ri left her.
And then…
BOOM!
The spears reached Chenglei, piercing toward him almost endlessly… but all anyone saw was a massive black figure… and it was moving…
Blood boiled as bloodlines were supressed… the only thoughts were of endless inferiority… the only feeling was of endless fear…
Above Chenglei, it curled around in the air menacingly, staring down at Dyon with disdain…
Dyon’s eyes widened, “that’s his manifestation…”
There, covering the already night sky with endless darkness… was a Black Jade Dragon.