“Halt, you may not leave!”
A man with a spear pointed at some people, with him there were many others with similar weapons and clothes. This was the Jade Grass City docks and these men were the guards stationed there. They were following a previously given order of not letting anyone leave the city that a superior from the sect had given them.
They were having slight troubles as there were many people that came for the Dao Festival here. Everyone was going crazy after the two nascent soul uncles started fighting, fleeing the city was the only thing on there mind. The guards were able to keep the numerous people at bay for now, mostly due to the fear of the Dark Palm sect looming over them. Otherwise, the various clan warriors would have charged through these guards that were at most at the foundation level.
This was only to this point though, as a certain group of people charged into the dock area pushing everyone to the side.
“What are you doing, you may not leave, this is what the elders from the Dark Palm sect had decided, are you going against the venerable sect?”
The guard captain with the highest cultivation realm shouted out while seeing a large man with red hair charging forward.
“Venerable? Think you have them confused with some other sect, now move!”
The warning that the guard gave the group didn’t work as they all got tossed to the side like ragdolls. The man with red hair was of course Huo Qiang, behind him were all the people from the triforce alliance. Clans that were to the side, looked shocked at the brazen show of force. Everyone was wondering who these people were, that didn’t fear the powerful sect that was behind these guards.
“Everyone, go to your ships, we will follow Brother Dong’s orders and go towards the Zhang Clan’s Spirit Spring City!”
“Qiao, go with the Zhang Clan, and protect their ship, take care of Senior Jin.”
Huo Qiang knew that the old man was injured, he was still out cold and getting carried by some Zhang members. Zhang Liu on the other hand had awoken from his slumber and was more or less healed thanks to some recovery pills he had previously gotten from his master. The pills had the holy element infused into them, so they worked wonders for external and internal injuries of any kind. He and Feng Nuana were running along with the rest of the people from their camp, the short girl was glancing back and forth from the youth as if she wanted to say something.
“My lord, is it wise to do that? Shouldn’t we return to the clan and alert the Patriarch?”
Huo Qiao asked while everyone was making their way into the docks, the guards that were there not really being able to do anything with the core formation experts around.
“Hah, you saw it all… Senior Brother is the only one that can protect us… we just need to tell that old fart to hide for the moment.”
“Young Master, please stop referring to the Patriarch that way…”
Qiao nodded and saw some reason in this. What good would it do to hide away in their main city, only to wait for the incoming doom? He didn’t think that the Dark Palm sect would let them live, even this nascent soul elder was already ordering that Yang Kai to eradicate all the three clans that were involved in this fiasco. Probably letting themselves be protected by an allied nascent soul master like Zhang Dong was the better option, but he was still only one man.
“Are the communication jades still not working?”
Communications were still out, the jades in themselves had probably been destroyed and they needed new ones. Even the ones that were in their spatial rings were not working anymore. This worked in their favor as the sect that was chasing them wouldn’t know that they left, or that the incident even happened before someone from this city reported it. They had some precious time now, the word about this incident hadn’t reached outside yet.
While everyone was running towards their designated ships a big screech was heard. It sounded like a cry from some kind of bird, everyone that was rushing forward had to grasp their ears. The core formation elders quickly surrounded the juniors with their aura to protect them from harm.
Everyone looked into the distance to the spot that this loud cry originated from. The cultivator’s eyes went wide as they saw that large beast opening its wings. It looked like a huge raven, but this beast was the size of a kaiju a lot bigger than normal creatures that were even in the core formation level. Its size was immense when it flapped those giant wings giant cyclones were created that produced massive windstorms.
“Master is fighting that?”
Zhang Liu and Xue were squatting down on the ground along with the other junior members, taken aback by the sudden appearance of that creature. Was that some kind of nascent soul technique that they didn’t know about?
“Is that a Spirit Soul-Beast?”
The old granny from the Feng clan called out, her eyes squinting as she tried to look in the direction where the action was happening.
“I heard it takes a lot of time to create a Soul-Beast like that, not every nascent soul cultivator is able to do it…”
Most of the people here didn’t really have information about the various techniques a nascent soul master used. They were shrouded in mystery, but this one was more of a staple so it was more widely known. Still, how one produced such a strong beast that rivaled its own master in battle strength was an enigma.
“What’s a Spirit Soul-Beast?”
One of the junior members asked while quivering down on the ground.
“A Soul-Beast is something a nascent soul master is able to create. It’s more than an attack, this beast as its name states possess its own soul. We don’t have much information on this matter, but it is believed that it has something to do with the nascent soul of the cultivator. It can freely move around and has a mind of its own as well.”
The old lady explained while forcing the hurricane-like winds away from the group of youths that she was protecting. She didn’t know all the details but, she was sure of one thing. A cultivator that had a Soul-Beast with him had a massive advantage over one that didn’t have it. Supposedly those beasts could be even stronger than the person that created them and would follow any order without asking any pesky questions. The beast was supposedly created with the help of the cultivator’s nascent soul, so it was a part of them.
While the triforce alliance was concerned about what Zhang Dong was against they saw a blinding light in the distance. Opposite of the giant black bird there was something or someone. The flickering light expanded in scope while looking spherical in nature.
Then something strange happened after the sphere turned gigantic, something burst through it. It looked like a massive clawed hand, following it was a massive roar. The yell sounded like a mix of a monsters growl and the sound of thunder. The Spherical orb of light burst like a balloon after that monstrous claw showed itself, revealing the monster inside.
“W-what is that… it’s… golden?”
“What kind of beast is that… it’s not a dragon, is it?”
What materialized was a beast that the people here weren’t familiar with. The body of this creature was hulking and covered in golden scales. It wasn’t as big as the shadowy raven that was flapping its wings in front of it, but the presence that it had was even above that flying creature.
The golden creature had two large horns sprouting from its head. On its back the people could see huge webbed wings, sharp claws were present on some parts of those wings. Its eyes were smooth and glossy, the whole creature had lizardly features to it. Out of its nostrils lightning bolts were shooting out and the moment it gave out a roar the whole place shook as if the heavens were angry.
This was what Matt would call a Western Dragon. This counterpart of the Dragon species wasn’t serpentine in nature, it had powerful-looking fore and hindlegs that could deliver massive blows to its foes. It also didn’t possess the classical deer-like horns that the eastern dragons had.
Without a warning a colossal explosion of plasma erupted, shooting wildly into the heavens making the cyclones and winds stop. The imposing scaly golden body slowly moved forward. The leathery bat-like wings expanded to the creature’s sides. The creature glared at the large raven in the distance, its long tail thrashing about and causing destruction to the surroundings.
Suddenly the dragon reared up on its hind legs, the muscles bulging as it jumped towards the dark shadowy raven beast. Its savage claws that looked like sword pillars sliced through the air as it flew towards its enemy. The Raven Soul-Beast gave out a high pitched caw while moving its huge wings towards that charging dragon.
When the wings moved forward a burst of spiritual energy erupted and a massive amount of black feathers shot out. The feathers looked like guided missiles that were on a collision course with the golden dragon in front. The beast that looked like it belonged to Zhang Dong didn’t falter, it used those sharp claws to bat at the ranged attack, destroying the mass of feathers in the process.
“Is that… the Patriarch Soul-Beast?”
The Zhang Clan members shouted out after getting the name of this technique from the Feng elder. The beast had some characteristics that their Patriarch had, mostly that it was shooting out lightning bolts whenever it went. It also had that golden regal aura that their leader exuded as well.
Closer to where the two monsters were fighting, Zhang Dong was floating to the side, his robe fluttering in the wind. He moved his hand out with his fingers outstretched while shouting.
“Ruby Eyes Golden Dragon, use dragon claw!”
The golden dragon responded to the order, using it’s massive clawed hands as it swiped at the large raven that evaded to the side. Elder Wu was just floating there looking a lot paler than before while gasping for air.
“Now use, plasma breath!”
The dragon’s toothy maw opened wide and a stream of bright golden plasma shot out, the black Raven barely managed to put up some kind of shadowy shield that broke almost instantly.
“H-how could this be…”
For the first time during this battle, the man had fear in his eyes. He thought that he would surely win after activating this trump card. People that had Soul-Beasts that were at the early stage of the nascent soul were rare, mostly due to the complexity of the technique and the massive strain it put the cultivator on. Somehow this young-looking man had summoned a strong Soul-Beast to combat his. The many years of experience were telling him that that strange-looking flying lizard was a lot stronger than his own.
He could tell from the way the two were clashing, that with each attack his beast took he got weaker. The dragon was abusing the flying monster around, the residual electricity blasts that were coming of it were a constant threat. This technique that the man just used was a strong one, but it was also a double-edged sword. The creature created was strong but it was linked to the cultivator that created it, with a soul bond.
Wu Ming felt each attack that his raven received and he used up a lot of Qi to keep this technique going. He thought he could overwhelm this white-haired man with the addition of his Soul-Beast but the opponent had managed to pull out an even stronger monster instead. The Dark Palm elder started inching away to the side, slowly floating away while his beast got abused by the so-called Ruby Eyes Golden Dragon.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Before he could run though, he had his way blocked by this enemy cultivator.
“You’re looking a bit pale there, having trouble keeping your technique up?”
Matt was curious, this was apparently the same type of technique he was using but it was taking a lot more from this old man than from him. It was probably due to the fact that he had a one in a billion cultivation method, he had truckloads of spiritual energy and he very rarely ran out of it.
Matt cracked his fists together while the two beasts in the back were fighting it out. The dragon was clinging to the large blackbird and biting into its neck, its powerful claws sinking into the other soul-beast spirit flesh as it got maimed.