A shadow bent at an awkward angle turning into a claw as it tried going for Zhang Dong’s throat. Before it could reach it’s designated spot the man in white rapidly dodged to the side. His whole body was covered in glowing Qi energy, his hair fluttering in the wind while crackling with electricity.
Wu Ming did his utmost best to deliver killing blow after killing blow to this younger cultivator, but to no avail. His opponent was very slippery and even when he was unarmed he managed to deliver several blows while countering.
“I guess that’s how far you can go, huh?”
The battle turned somewhat one-sided. Matt found that his speed, power, and even resilience was above this Dark Palm elder that was already in the middle stage of the nascent soul realm. He wasn’t sure if this old man was a good reference point though. Just as his strength was above him due to having a better base thanks to this system of his, someone else could very well outrank this guy even in the early stage.
He didn’t come out unscathed though, he suffered a couple of slices from that black sword. They were quite shallow though and he reasoned that if he had similar graded equipment that this fight would have been even easier. From this, he started thinking that he should have no problem with cultivators that were in the early stage at all. He could probably fight a couple of them if they were at the middle stage. If one was at the late stage, he wasn’t all that sure the jump in power might be massive depending on the grade of their cultivation method so he needed to take people at that realm on an individual basis.
‘I don’t think there are any people with cultivation methods at the immortal level in the Dark Palm Sect, but there could be manuals like mine in this world.’
After meeting Feng Liena he knew that there had to be people like him in this land before. There might even be some that are living around here just as he is. Sometimes he came across structures that didn’t fit the Xianxia vibes all too well, or certain individuals that stuck out like a sore thumb. Just like this one uncle that looked like a butler of a noble house that was staring at him from afar, probably not realizing that Matt here could actually see him all the way from here.
‘Well, Alfred there doesn’t look that hostile, he is about as strong as this Wu Ming… but can’t really be sure…’
Matt looked to his opponent that was hovering in the air. The man’s lip was cut and he was bleeding, his left shoulder was uncovered and it looked like something had burned it. His eyes were bloodshot and he was staring in Matt’s direction with indignation. He had various emotions going through his mind, but mostly it was fear and anger.
“You will never get away with this, if you kill me the sect elders will hunt you down like a pig!”
‘Oh, here it comes.’
Matt raised his hand, which made the sect elder quiet down in surprise.
“Hold up there, old man. You aren’t seriously going to tell me to spare you now… like what’s the point of telling me that your sect is going to get me?”
Matt wasn’t sure why the cultivators at certain positions liked to throw their faction’s weight around the moment they got in a pinch. If he let the man go, he would only increase his enemy count. He was sure that this guy would quickly report everything that transpired here, if he silenced him now he would even gain some time.
“What? Do you think I’m joking? The sect will eradicate your entire clan, everyone that is related to you will die, if you dare to lay a hand on me!”
Matt squinted at the man that was spouting nonsense, maybe he had punched him too many times and his brain wasn’t working right?
“Yeah… like they weren’t going to do that anyway, I bet you would be at the forefront of that…”
The large golden dragon flapped its large bat-like wings behind where Zhang Dong was hovering. Wu Ming was right in front, his own Soul-Beast was slowly flickering in and out of existence as it had been bullied by the golden dragon. Matt had spent slightly over two years in this world still, he wasn’t really used to taking lives. He had realized by now, that sometimes it was necessary to survive, for him or for the people that he was protecting. He wasn’t fighting for himself anymore, if he went down his whole clan would probably follow suit. Also, this man probably had a large body count behind him, so he wouldn’t be losing any sleep after killing a murder hobo like this.
“Think we have talked long enough…”
The white-haired man proclaimed while closing his eyes, the dragon behind him gave out a loud roar that caused the surrounding scenery to vibrate. Zhang Dong moved his right hand forward, four fingers closed with only the index finger pointing out. The digit was placed right in front of his face, spiritual energy gathered towards the tip as the whole area resonated with the sound of thunder and crackling electricity.
The dragon behind him wasn’t being passive either, his large jaw sprung open and those sharp chompers came out. The Soul-Beast took in a large breath, its chest expanded, and started to glow as it prepared for its own attack.
“You people love clashes like this, don’t you? Will you face me head-on, or will you run like a coward?”
Wu Ming’s whole face contorted, his teeth clenching tightly while blood dripped from his mouth. He couldn’t remember a time where he was disrespected this much, this was something that he could take lying down. He reacted promptly, his black blade in his hand as he started pouring the last ounce of his energy into his weapon. The black Raven behind him screeched out loudly and started to mimic the golden dragon as it gathered large amounts of energy into its beak.
The whole place rumbled, the ground shook and the winds picked up yet again. The people back in Jade Grass City were starting to get worried, they could see two lights in the distance. Some of the people could even make out the appearance of those two Soul-Beasts, the two being huge as they were. The growling and high pitched bird squawks were heard even back here, some people were bleeding from their ears if they didn’t cover them up in time.
The two energies collided with each other. It looked as if a shadow was trying to engulf a golden beam of light in the distance, the two repelling forces struggled for just a moment before one of them won out. The black light bent inwards as it was overtaken by the bright holy lightning energies, what followed suit was a giant explosion that made the whole place shake as if it was struck by an earthquake above eight on the Richter scale.
A dust cloud of massive proportions was formed, hitting the city from the side after the clash of the two nascent soul masters. Buildings shook, glass shattered and people were screaming everywhere. The whole triforce alliance was mostly on their ships now, their mouths agape as they continued to look at the massive explosion in the distance. The only thing on their mind was who the victor of this battle was, but not like they had the luxury of going there to find out.
“Everyone, we must leave now!”
The elder members started shouting out while their spiritual flying ships rumbled into motion. The winds caused them to shake but it wasn’t something that would bring their large flying vessels down. They need to use the massive confusion in the city to get away, luckily the Dark Palm sect base in this city was already hit by the Zhang Clan Patriarch. This allowed the group to slowly rise into the air and fly in the direction of Spirit Spring City as ordered by Zhang Dong.
Out in the distance in the middle of the storm there floated a lone cultivator. His hair was pure white and his body was draped in bolts of lightning that were slowly flickering in and out of existence.
“Hmm…”
Matt looked in the direction of where his enemy was in, not much was left besides a giant chasm that was blasted by him and his golden dragon. The Dark Raven was nowhere to be seen and he also saw a fallen body of the cultivator that he was fighting. The body wasn’t moving at all, blood was also running into the destroyed ground underneath.
“Something is off…”
He closed his eyes and empowered his senses to the extreme. He had perceived something during the clash that he had with this old man, it was as if he gave up halfway and let himself get blasted into smithereens. The man’s end came a bit too easy and he had a suspicion as to why.
“There you are…”
His eyes shot open and crackled with lightning, he blurred from his position and took flight in a certain direction. In the distance there was something flying away, it was Wu Ming but only a part of him. This was something that cultivators called a nascent divinity form. People that had reached the nascent soul level possessed an ability to survive in their soul form even if their fleshy body was destroyed. They were a lot weaker like this and required outside help to fully restore their old battle potential. With the help of some treasures, it was possible but highly unlikely.
“N-no…stay back!”
Wu Ming looked back as he felt the cultivator with white hair going after him. He had given up on the battle in the hopes of getting away and sacrificing his soul-beast. The other man had homed in on his nascent divinity form faster than he had hoped for. If he managed to get to the main sect area he would be safe, so he mustered all of his remaining Qi and flew forward.
“Sorry… but I can’t let you escape old man…”
Matt was a lot faster than Wu Ming even when the Dark Palm elder was at full power. He didn’t have much trouble in catching up to him and with no one to aid this man he was at his mercy.
“W-what do you want, I can give you unimaginable riches! I-if we work together we might be able to take out the sect leader!”
The man started breaking down, he stopped with the threats and tried acting subservient instead. He was even willing to throw his so-called cherished sect under the bus to save his life.
“Sorry, but there is no way I can trust someone like you.”
Matt moved his hand out, Wu Ming’s spirit form trembled and stopped in place as he felt a massive amount of spiritual energy surrounding him. Without letting the old cultivator spout more nonsense he clenched his fist shut, the energy around the soul quickly surged inwards and crushed the disembodied soul into nothingness. A small explosion reverberated after the deed was done, followed by an eerie silence.
Matt looked at his clenched fist, it was clenched firmly and unmoving. He opened up the fist and looked at his palm as if he was trying to check for something. Soon his hand began to tremble, the moment it did his facial expression also flickered with emotion , sweat running down his forehead.
“Heh… still can’t handle it well without that technique…”
He gave out a sigh and clenched his fist back, the trembling subsiding in a matter of moments, and his facial expression went back to a more neutral look. The man looked at the scenery for a moment and then flew back to where the body of the man he just slew was. He didn’t forget about taking the black sword and the man’s spatial ring, now what was left was to move to the next step of his hastily put together plan.