Zhang Dong was soaring through the sky in Spirit Spring City’s direction, he didn’t see many people during his journey and he was getting bored. He tried cultivating while flying on his sword, but he found it rather hard to keep it flying forward while absorbing the spiritual energy from the surroundings at the same time. He almost suffered a backlash, so he gave up on the idea of getting his cultivation up while traveling. He slowly got used to this cultivator body, not really needing rest or sleep that much.
He didn’t just do all nighters though, but he still flew fast with a couple of stops here and there. About two days passed like that and it was getting dark outside. He could hear some random beasts roaring in the background every time that happened but they weren’t really a problem for him. Though for your average cultivator it was mostly not a good idea to travel at night without a larger party. He got used to traveling during the night as well, finding the moons in the sky to be quite beautiful as they lighted up the night-sky.
As he was drifting through the night like a white ghost, he noticed something in front of him. He squinted with his eyes and focused at the spiritual fluctuations coming his way. He saw a pair of cultivators running in the direction that he was flying from, though he was quite a bit further away. It was a female and a man, they both had similar looking light blue robes. The man was dragging the woman forward a bit as the two seamed to be fleeing from something or someone.
Matt tried looking behind the two people that were frantically running while holding on to each other. But before he could see anyone behind them an arrow pierced the fleeing man’s shoulder. He did falter though, he tore the end of the arrow that was coming out of his shoulder and threw it to the side and kept on running with the woman next to him. They were slower now, the man started falling behind the woman that was now pulling him along instead.
Zhang Dong flew increased his speed towards them, he could see about 10 people behind the pair and after he got closer he could tell that the woman and man were actually more of a boy and a girl in their middle teen years. His vision was enhanced so he could see how the people that were chasing them had smirks on their faces.
*Why am I constantly running into people in trouble…*
He asked himself while increasing his speed, hoping that he would make it.
Zhang Liu and Xue were members of the unfortunate clan. They were brother and sister, he was 16 and she was 15. They were away from the city, gathering resources in the mountains which wasn’t an odd thing to do for Clan members of their age. They were out of the city while the other clans and cultivators invaded. They couldn’t get back as the defensive formation as already running. They had to look on in horror as their home was getting bombarded by the invading forces. They wanted to help out but they weren’t stupid, they both knew that they were far too weak to help out. They swore in their hearts to take revenge after they escaped. But the two were discovered while they were making their escape and were now getting chased by the forces that were attacking their home city.
Zhang Liu felt a sharp pain in his shoulder where the arrow was stuck in, his little sister was pulling him along while he was trying to keep up. He was in much pain, sweat covering his body while the enemy cultivators were hot on their tracks.
“I’ll hold them off Xue, you run take revenge for our clan!”
He knew that he was a burden by now, maybe if he held the attackers of a bit his little sister could get away.
“No big brother, I won’t leave you to die!”
The little sister didn’t want to let her brother just die here, her hand was tightly clenching his hand as the two were running in the fields. The problem with this was, that the enemies had a good archer and there were no trees or rocks to duck behind. You could heer an arrow whiz through the air followed by a loud scream.
“Oh no, big brother!”
Zhang Liu screamed out in pain as he felt a sharp pain in his calf as the arrow pierced the lower part of his leg, going right through it. He fell face-first onto the hard ground, wincing in pain. He looked at his leg and then to his sister, he knew that he was done for. There was no way that he could escape like this.
“Please, Xue you must save yourself, run and forget about me…”
The fifteen-year-old girl teared up as she went down to her knees, pulling at her brother as she tried supporting him upwards but instead got pushed away by him.
“Run, I’ll stall them.”
He stood up with the help of his good leg while turning his back to his little sister, his eyes were focused and he was ready to fight till the end. He could hear other people coming and soon could see the ten cultivators in matching yellow robes coming out. His sister looked at her brother’s large back, she remembered how once he carried her back home when she fell asleep. She whipped the tears from her eyes and instead of escaping stood next to her big brother, fire in her eyes as well.
“If we have to die, then we will die together big brother!”
Zhang Liu looked at his little sister and shook his head, he knew that she was very headstrong and there was no use arguing when she got like that. There was also no more time as he looked in front to see the cultivators moving to surround them, grins on their faces.
“Well, what do we have here, two Zhang whelps. Thought you could get away?”
One of the men said while grinning.
“Hey the girly on the left isn’t half bad, let’s have some fun with her!”
Another sleazy looking man said while licking his lips while glancing at Zhang Xue.
Lui instinctively moved in front of his sister to cover her, but it was looking bleak he could only glare at the people with his fists outstretched. The sister started backing away while in her combat stance, she had a saber with her. The two were backing away, they didn’t want to be surrounded by their enemies that were moving closer and closer.
“Let’s just kill the guy off, no use keeping him around.”
The sleazy man said while holding out a bow, three other cultivators did the same as they took aim for the youth. They started infusing their spiritual energy into the arrows, their penetrative power and speed would be increased the chances of the boy surviving this were meek. But just before the enemy cultivators could release their arrows a strange sound could be heard, followed by a big explosion that was just a couple of meters away from the band of ruffians.
The ten people backed away in horror as the dirt and rubble headed their way. They covered up while jumping backward, not sure if there was a new enemy or if there was some magical bomb treasure buried in the ground that made it explode. But soon another explosion occurred right behind them, then another one to the left side and the right side. They stopped in one spot as they got boxed in by the blasts, they had no idea what was going on as the explosions were happening too fast and they couldn’t even see where the attack was coming from.
“Hey you, stay where you are, don’t move a muscle.”
They heard a man’s voice coming from above, everyone looked up to see a man standing on a cristal sword. He was holding what looked to be a bolt of lightning fashioned into a spear, they figured that it was probably that man that was attacking them.
“Why are you attacking these people, ten grown men against two kids just doesn’t look right.”
The man asked while looking at the brother and sister duo, that were now hugging each other not sure what to do. Was this man going to save them? But if he hears that they are from a weak clan that is about to get eradicated he won’t probably help.
“Good Senior, those people are from the Zhang Clan, we are from the honorable Tsai Clan. You probably heard what happened to the Zhang Clan it’s already done for, the elders just ordered us to take care of anyone that runs away. Our honorable Patriarch is also taking part in the seizure of their treasures.I’m sure he would have a chat with you if you are willing.”
“Seizure of treasures? Or do you mean cleansing?”
The man asked while moving closer and closer to the people, the Tsai Clan members hoping that the name of their clan would provide backing.
“Well yes hehe, I’m sure you know how things like that work Senior, they were just unlucky.”
The man looked at the ten cultivators that were getting more confident he then looked back at the bleeding youth and the girl that was standing next to him, the two terrified and tense.
“You want to kill all of them… Well, guess I’ll have to introduce myself. My name is…”
He jumped down from his sword onto the ground, he was right between the two Zhang Clan members and the Tsai Clan members.
“Zhang Dong.”
After telling them his name, he pointed his finger at the cultivators standing together and a sphere appeared around them. The Tsai cultivators were shocked after hearing that the man was also from the Zhang clan. They started punching at the barrier but after hitting it once they got shocked by lightning instead.
“Don’t worry I won’t kill you, even though you tried to kill the boy and take advantage of the girl… but your cultivation days are over.”
After saying that, lightning started hitting the people inside the sphere. The people were all Qi Condensation cultivators and even though they were in the top part of it, they were nothing to him. The lightning prison destroyed the peoples cultivation bases leaving them all charred and injured yet still alive.
The two youths looked at the man that took care of the enemy cultivators in surprise.
“Senior U-uncle Dong?”
He almost tripped after getting called an uncle but kept it together. Zhang Dong took out one of the healing pills and handed it to the girl that looked at the pill with astonishment as she could tell that it was quite potent.
“I guess you can call me that… Those guys won’t bother you anymore, give that pill to your brother after removing the arrows. Could you tell me about what is happening in Spirit Spring City.”
The two felt relieved, they didn’t know if this uncle that they didn’t know could turn the tide but he was a powerful cultivator, this they could tell. They told him about the defensive formation and how they were being attacked by other clans, the enemies apparently had at least 3 core formation experts in their mids, maybe more. The two couldn’t really tell as they were focused on escaping.
“Okay… you two should probably stay here…”
He said while hopping back onto his sword, he was deep in thought but seemed to make up his mind after which he shot like an arrow towards the Zhang Clan headquarters with a solemn look on his face.