“Brother! Noo…!”
Zhang Xue shouted out while still being stuck in the waiting room, the rest of the juniors were still stuck there and being guarded by some scary sect uncles. She was able to see everything through one of the small windows but she could only watch as her brother was getting tortured.
“Junior sister, you mustn’t!”
Zhang Tai was holding onto the young girl, not wanting her to charge out. He knew the stakes and that this lovely girl would be pulled into this bloody mess, probably losing her life. Liu’s sister trashed about trying to wrestle herself free, but she was held back by her senior brother. He was also dismayed, he and Liu had their differences but it was still in good faith. He never wanted him to die, he was still part of the Zhang family, his death would be avenged.
“This one will be the last one…”
Yang Kai called out to Zhang Liu, the boy was already half dead but he didn’t say even one word. He was barely standing, both his legs a bloody mess his bones broken in many areas and his flesh not looking better either. His eyes were staring daggers into his enemy’s pair, he was defiant to the last breath.
“Those eyes… I don’t like them… just die!”
Yang Kai snorted and produced a larger rock orb that he pointed at the youth’s forehead. He took aim and flung it forward, if this attack went through the boy would die on the spot.
“Screw this!”
Zhang Jin shouted out as he finally jumped forward hoping to make it in time to save his grandson.
“Halt, what do you think you are doing! Grab him, don’t let him interrupt the senior!”
The two cultivators that were in the VIP booth with Zhang Jin roared out. The alerted more of their companions to the elder that was diving towards the battle stage. Just as the two were about to grab him a sudden attack came from the side. There was a giant blazing fist flying towards an unlucky Dark Palm member, this older male not having enough time to react as he got clobbered right in the face.
“Young master, what are you doing?!”
Huo Qiao yelled in shock as his young master delivered the strike to the unsuspecting Dark Palm member. With this he had sealed their faith that was now tied to the other two clans that were here.
“Wait for what? My Huo clan won’t stand for this, call the other elders over here this instant! We will assist the Zhang and Feng Clan in battle!”
“Well spoken, we’ll assist you!”
Feng Liena quickly skipped over and delivered a devastating kick to the second core formation expert. She had a higher cultivation realm than the man and it was also of superior quality, so the man had no way of defending himself. He was sent flying backward and was embedded in the bricks of the structure the people were in.
Pandemonium soon broke out as people started clamoring to get out of this death trap. Dark Palm members started pouring in, alerted by the sudden retaliation and set on delivering their brand of justice to these backwater clans.
Zhang Jin didn’t look back, but he could hear an explosion going off from behind him. He could hear various people screaming still, his eyes were glued to his grandson that was moments away from getting his forehead penetrated by Yang Kai’s attack.
“I…I’m not going to make it…”
His face sunk as he was just too far away. There were more Dark Palm core formation cultivators standing in front of him and even some already moving up from behind. He clenched his fist tightly, his teeth gnashing as he activated a special item that was handed to him by the Zhang Patriarch.
“No, I must make it!”
A bright light surrounded his entire body and people could feel a spike of spiritual energy in the area. The core formation experts could faintly see the old man turning into a blob of light as he flew towards them. They reacted fast as they hurled their cultivation techniques at the enemy, to no avail as they got steamrolled by the old man and tossed aside like ragdolls.
“No good, raise the barrier output!”
Someone shouted out as the force field that was surrounding the ring with Zhang Liu and Yang Kai inside expanded in thickness. Everything was happening in a matter of seconds, but time was running out as the rock orb was already flying for the youth’s head. The light around the man started to slowly fade but he was still charging forward, his fist on a collision course with that barrier.
‘If I can just get through this!’
Zhang Jin forced all of his being into this punch. If he managed to destroy it in one blow, he would still have a chance in saving his grandson that was moments away from getting lobotomized. His fist finally connected with the shield, the dome of energy jolted around cracks formed around it as it resisted the heavy blow. Yet in the end, the barrier still managed to halt the old man’s panicked advance only shattering after it was too late.
“N…NO!”
Zhang Jin’s eyes were bloodshot as he saw the spinning orb just millimeters away from Zhang Liu’s head. He had lost his momentum due to the barrier and needed to kick himself off the ground once more. He wouldn’t be able to make it in time like this.
Zhang Liu was having a hard time keeping himself awake, he had lost a lot of blood and could feel that this was it. He could see flashes of his youth, they were mostly together with his younger sister and mother, their father spending most of his days cultivating to make their family proud. Right at the end he finally saw his master, Zhang Dong. The man was hard to read and he had a quirky personality that sometimes could be seen when his pokerface crumbled.
‘Xue…Mother…Father…Master… I’m sorry…’
The youth looked at the haughty Dark Palm sect master, his gaze defiant till the end. The man was just standing there with that stupid grin on his face, the youth only hoping that his Master would avenge him afterward.
“Hah, nice try… but he dies!”
Yang Kai snickered as his attack was about to end his enemy’s life. Yet, to everyone’s bewilderment something baffling happened next. The moment the rocky orb made contact with the youth’s forehead they saw a strange character appearing on his forehead. This character was the symbol for lightning, its appearance was followed by strong energy fluctuations that were even above the great circle of core formation.
Suddenly Zhang Liu’s whole body found itself getting enveloped in an energy field. The moment the rock orb connected it evaporated into nothingness, this wasn’t the end though. The barrier produced a massive shockwave that blasted outwardly in all directions catching Yang Kai off guard. A massive pillar of light shot up into the sky as it covered the whole football-sized field with itself.
The giant blast of energy was hard to miss, anyone that was currently fighting just stopped as they felt oppressive energy surging into their body.
“W-what is this light…GAHHHh…”
“Noo….”
People shouted out as they felt a strong jolt of electricity running through their bodies. The pillar of light expanded slightly further and then exploded with a loud thunderous blast. The screams came to an abrupt stop, the bright light quickly subsided to reveal most of the people down on the ground.
They were all alive but out cold, the blast that originated from Zhang Liu had taken out most of the people in the area. There was one more surprising fact, as anyone that was from the Zhang, Fend, or Huo clan and was in the vicinity of the blast remained unharmed. Most of the people in the colosseum were now incapacitated, but still some of the stronger core formation warriors remained.
“W-what happened, what was that pillar of light?”
Feng Liena called out while glancing to the center stage where the light beam originated from. She was standing next to her grandma and the two Huo clan members that were previously with her in the VIP booth that didn’t exist anymore due to the fighting. They saw Zhang Jin charge into the ring and soon afterward the blast occurred.
“This spiritual essence belongs to him…”
Feng Liena said while glancing around her, some of the Dark Palm members were coming out and ready for battle.
“Yes… did the Zhang Patriarch place some protective Daoist magic on his disciple… but this scale…”
Feng Maling mumbled to herself while at the same time waving her staff and ready to battle some more.
“Most of them are down but this is not the end, let us grab all of the juniors and escape!”
Huo Qiang nodded while smacking his fists together, the brand new ruby gauntlets that he received from Zhang Dong began glowing red and releasing bright red flames.
“Leave those bastards to us, you go evacuate the kids!”
Huo Qiao sighed from the side but he also nodded, his hands glowing in a similar light as Qiang’s did as he charged into battle alongside his long time young master. A Dark Palm member saw an angry-looking man with mutton chops, he quickly pulled out his communication jade.
“The clans are starting a revolt, send help to the colosseum!”
He poured his spiritual energy into the jade but something was wrong. The moment he did that sparks flew and it just exploded into many tiny pieces. He didn’t have enough time to figure out what was wrong as he had to put up a block to cover his face. This wasn’t the right choice as the moment the man delivered his infernal punch the Dark Palm cultivator could feel his forearms breaking.
The fighting resumed but at a smaller scale as the two Huo clansmen made a path for the Feng ladies. Back in the ring there was a certain large boulder. It was at least three meters tall and two meters thick and it had strange runes surrounding it. Opposite of it was a white-haired youth, he was gently hovering above the ground the lightning symbol still clearly visible on his forehead.
The large rock slowly crumbled into dust revealing an astonished Yang Kai. The man looked slightly disheveled but was mostly fine. He was looking at the youth that was hovering and giving of strong Qi fluctuations that were even above this Dark Palm Master.
“W-what is this, some kind of life-saving treasure from his Master or Clan?”
The man could see that the boy was already out cold, his eyes had rolled up into their eye sockets but he was still alive. The aura radiating was an amalgamation of lightning and holy Dao and it was even keeping the youth’s wounds in check.
“Take this!”
Yang Kai didn’t wait for an explanation and produced a large sand serpent that was at least five meters in length. It quickly flung itself at the floating youth, its rocky fangs going for the kill. To the man’s dismay the moment his technique came in contact with the forcefield, the serpent blew up into a mass off debris.
“You think a weak life-saving technique like this will keep me away!”
Yang Kai roared as he rose up into the sky, he was standing on a huge snakehead that was made from a mix of sand and gravel. This new giant was several times larger than the previous serpent and gave of stronger core formation energy. The huge monster screeched as it opened its huge maw, an orb of energy appearing in front of it. This attack was very similar to the one the Zhang Cultivators used when they went into their staple attack formation. The difference being, that they were using water elements while this technique used the earthly ones.
Zhang Liu was a sitting duck, he was already out cold and unable to move. The life-saving technique would probably give out after some time if this continued, no one could tell how much punishment it could handle. The huge beam of spiritual energy exploded forward, would the boy survive this no one knew.
“Over my dead body you whelp!”
Suddenly someone appeared between the yellowish beam of light. The person was wearing a peculiar looking metallic armor over his body. The man looked quite big at least two meters and a half, the armor was pitch black. The armor looked like some edgy fantasy getup, there were spikes coming out of the shoulder blades and two large horns from the helmet. The torso part was quite pointy and triangular and the eyes glowed in an eerie green hue.
The person in the suit was holding on to a giant mace, the length of it was at least the same as the height of this man. The end was kind of spherical with curved spikes coming out of the ‘head part’. The person inside this armor was Zhang Jin and he instantly swung this weapon against the incoming beam attack. Sparks flew in all directions but he managed to force the attack to the side, the resulting shockwave making the giant sand serpent tremble.
While these two clashed with each other, another scene was taking place in the Zhang Clan base that was Spirit Spring City.
“The hell is going on, SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS!”
The loud shout of an angry Zhang Clan Patriarch was heard throughout the whole city that made everyone in it drop to their knees. No one knew what their lovable Patriarch was angry about, it was very rare to see their leader acting like this so everyone was scared. The man in question was glaring at his two retainers Zhang Ya and Kuo that were face planting in fear on the ground.
“T-the truth of the matter is…”