Unbeknownst to what was happening in the background, the battle continued. This time it was in the favor of the Triforce alliance and the newly established United Element’s sect. There was even the first casualty from the nascent soul monsters, the man that had lost his snake-like beast was looking down at his chest, or to be exactly what was left off it.
The hole exposed the leftover from his lungs and part of his heart. Even though this wound was massive it wasn’t bleeding all that much as the flesh around it had melted. This was due to the attack that caused this having quite a high temperature. The Dark Palm elder could feel his vision getting hazy, the last thing he was seeing was a large muscular man with red hair smirking at him.
“Heh, was that all?”
Huo Qiang laughed while cracking the bones on his fist that went through his opponent’s chest. The other grand elder that he was fighting with was somewhat to the side and looking distraught. His eyes were bulging and his forehead was sweating due to the sight he was seeing.
“Im…imposible!”
The man with the massive wound in his body started spasming and twitching. Huo Qiang quickly injected his plasma Qi into his opponent’s body and was now ready to see the fireworks.
“Haha, explode!”
Almost on cue the man’s body gave out one last quiver and exploded into many smaller chunks. His nascent divinity was already damaged due to his soul-beast early departure. The cultivators watched as it crumbled soon afterward and evaporated into tiny soul molecules. The man was dead and now it was four against three.
“Nothing is impossible for this Lord Qiang! Now it’s your turn!”
Qiang shouted out, he was aching for a good fight and now after having slain the injured opponent he could finally let loose in a proper one on one. His Ifrit roared out along with its master and started forcing his opponent back, which was a spiky snapping turtle. The fire beast’s claws dug into the hard shell and started to slowly melt the hard exterior thanks to the massive heat.
A bit away from this battle there were two other nascent soul cultivators. They were back to back and they were holding their hands in a strange fashion while glowing. They were inside the eye of a tornado, every second or so a green lightning bolt would randomly shoot out from within the thick winds. The two would frantically protect themselves from both sides, never knowing where the next attack would come from.
“Who is this, I’ve never heard about anyone being able to produce such a lightning storm… and what is that soul-beast!”
The female grand elder shouted out while protecting herself from a stray lightning strike that went for her head. The more they stayed inside the eye of the storm the more lightning strikes came.
“I don’t know junior sister, but we must escape from here, this is a death trap!”
The other person was the man that had bothered Zhang Dong with the large hammer. He was now holding performing some hand seals along with his sect sister as they combined their strength to defend against this onslaught.
“You wish to leave? There is no escape!”
The moment the two tried to move the thickness of the winds increased. The sharp green wind blades were keeping them from diving into the twister and the lightning bolts were slowly whittling away their defenses.
Feng Liena was hovering above in the clouds in a lotus position. Tiny wind spirits were dancing around her as she was concentrating. The wind cyclone was slowly closing itself around the people trapped inside, the longer she kept them inside the easier it would be to finish them off with her final attack. Though in reality, she was prolonging the whole situation quite mad at the opposing cultivators that brought death and destruction here. Though she was mostly angry at the fact that they dared to attack her senior brother.
‘You think you can have an easy death? Think again!’
She narrowed her eyes and pushed more of her Qi into her attack, she was intending to shred the two opposing cultivators with her blender like attack. She was still best at ranged attacks and with her increased cultivation things like this weren’t a problem now.
Yang Guanyu wasn’t looking all that well either. Since the battle started a couple of hours had already passed, he was burning through his reserves and there were no fresh bodies to absorb his dastardly Qi from. He was getting continuously pushed back by this bright glowing opponent that even managed to somehow heal and recover from one of his strongest attacking techniques. He was slowly realizing that this might not have been the brightest plan.
The skinny man looked to the sides as he tried to look to his sect members for aid. When he turned he noticed that one of them was already dead and the other was getting pummeled by one of the new arrivals. He could sense the remaining pair trapped in some kind green Qi cyclone and unable to escape. He was truly alone and would have to get himself out of this situation by himself.
‘Damn useless cretins! This battle is lost, I must flee… the council of ancestors will protect me!’
His eyes started moving left and right as he looked for a way to escape. He still didn’t use his trump card, unwilling to put himself in danger after the backlash. He was more or less certain that his remaining sect members wouldn’t last for long so he needed to act fast.
“Don’t think that this is over!
Guanyu ripped out one of his pinkies and threw it at Zhang Dong. He in response encased himself in a golden barrier while realizing what kind of attack was coming his way. The small digit exploded into a strange cloud of dark green corrosive gas that encased Zhang Dong’s body that was now protected by his barrier bubble. The Dark Palm sect leader then flew back while taking out a talisman from his spatial ring.
He quickly threw it forward and activated it. The talisman glowed in a blue light and transformed into a small teleportation portal that was big enough for one person to pass through.
“The next time we meet, I will crush you and everyone that you know! Remember this you whelp!”
Yang Guanyu snorted and dived towards the opened portal, escape the only thing on his mind.
“God damn, is he going to just run like that?”
Matt was surprised by the sudden turn of events. His opponent just turned around and started escaping, he thought that he would remain here till one of them was dead but the old fart had other plans apparently. He was an old monster that knew when to give up, he was just that type of person and this was what kept him alive for this long.
Matt looked on while grimacing, he was covered by the corrosive fog and couldn’t fire off an attack against his opponent without dropping the barrier, it looked like the old cultivator would escape. The Dark Palm grand elders realized that their leader was abandoning them but they couldn’t follow suit as they were being held back by the two nascent soul cultivators.
Yang Guanyu was moments away from escaping, his hand was already close to touching the portal. Before he could pass through though, a flash of energy blocked his way. The old man pulled his hand that was ready to access the portal back but not before his fingertips got incinerated by the invading energy. The reddish bolts of Qi were aiming at the portal and the moment they connected with it, the portal sizzled out of existence.
“Who dares!”
Guanyu backed away with fear, he could already tell that the attack didn’t come from any of the three cultivators that his group was fighting against. No, the attack came from much further away and the people that were responsible were already rushing over here.
“Why shouldn’t we dare?”
A group of people appeared out of nowhere. Some of them were hiding high up in the sky, some were hidden behind the trees or rocks in the distance. More and more of those cultivators started flying over and they were all at the nascent soul realm.
Matt managed to get out of the poisonous fog and looked around. He had also noticed the sudden arrival of the new cultivators, their allegiance was something that he was worried about. They were just popping out of everywhere and slowly surrounding the area that he and the Dark Palm sect elders were fighting.
“Qiang, Liena!”
Zhang Dong called out while retreating towards his allies, those two had also noticed that there were unwanted nascent soul cultivators coming towards them from all directions.
“Let us retreat towards the city.”
He called out while the two nodded, their fights were interrupted. Elder Wan had a bloodied nose and a burned palm print on his back. His other two allies that were previously fighting finally managed to get out of the lightning twister after Feng Liena retreated with their two sect brothers.
The two enemy parties didn’t get far as before they could regroup they heard a booming voice and at least twenty nascent soul cultivators surrounded them. Their energies encompassed the area and made it difficult for the already tired and injured fighters to escape.
“Halt, you shan’t go any further!”
One of the people called out while flying forward, he was wearing a golden robe with a gate pattern that showed it opening, two serpentine dragons were above the gate. After this man appeared another joined him, this one was wearing a different kind of robe that was red and had various flower patterns sewn into it. Finally, a third man appeared that was holding onto an exquisite looking sword. His robe was pure white and reminiscent of what Zhang Dong liked to wear, on the back it had two Chinese symbols for ‘limitless’ and ‘sword’ put in.
“Dragon Gate Sect?… the Demon Subduing Sect? and the Limitless Sword Society!?”
Yang Guanyu shouted out distraught, his eyes going red and his whole body shaking while his allies slowly moved over to his side. Even though this sect leader had abandoned them just a moment ago, the other elders knew that they stood a better chance if they fought with him.
“Yes, you have seen better days… Dark Palm Sect Patriarch…”
One of the men called out, it was the man in the golden robe. He was a handsome looking older gentleman with a sharp gaze and quite the chiseled chin.
“Why have you come here Xu Qing… and you brought those two over…”
Matt and the others were floating closer to Spirit Spring City now but they couldn’t go any further as the twenty so nascent soul cultivators had surrounded them from all sides and they were looking at five of them now.
“Yes, you do remember brother Cheng Yang from the esteemed Demon Subduing Sect and let us not forget about Lord Zhan Jie from the Limitless Sword Society.”
The two men just nodded while staring at the beaten up Darp Palm sect leader. The three people that had moved forward were all in the late stage of the nascent soul realm, equal in power to him.
“How is this possible, you never crossed the border how did you get here so fast!”
Yang Guanyu shouted while spitting out, both his arms closed into a fist and the one without the finger was bleeding black blood profusely.
The three sect elders looked at each other and smirked, one of them motioned with his chin to the side to one of the people there. This person flew forward and when he was seen by the Dark Palm members they clearly recognized him.
“We had a bit of help from one of your elders, you didn’t think that you are the only ones with spies?”
Zhang Dong and his allies looked at the happenings from the side, apparently one of the border guards from the Dark Palm sect had changed sides and this was how they managed to slip in unnoticed.
‘This doesn’t look good… I’m not sure if those guys will let us be after they clear up those four…’
Matt gulped while moving his spiritual sense into his spatial ring. He had prepared one last surprise, his last-ditch effort he would probably need to use it soon as he didn’t think that these cultivators would just let three new nascent soul elders just establish a new sect without a fight.