All my Qi was redirected to my eyes and a beam of energy blasted from the glowing white orbs. I didn’t hesitate and went for the legs.

“AAARGH!”

A golden barrier formed around the squealing person, but it was too late. Nothing was faster than light. Especially when that light was empowered with the purest form of Golden Qi. It cut through flesh and bone as if it wasn’t even there. Whatever armor that person wore offered no protection against my attack.

The hastily constructed barrier was just slightly better and managed to stop the Sun Ray for a full three seconds! But then it was pierced and collapsed from the interference my energy produced.

Unfortunately, the barrier was layered and another was already constructed, stronger than the first one. And I could already see a third one forming behind that. Annoying, but I had more than enough energy to win this battle of attrition.

“You’ll pay for that!” The distorted voice shouted, not that I cared. I already stood up and was slowly walking forward. It was easier to just drain my opponent's energy and then capture it than to fight it. So much easier.

I noticed one of the gloved hands move and something glinted in my eye. An instant later I felt something pierce my neck. It was a tiny needle. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was made out of silver and most likely poisoned. I flashed some extreme flames between my fingers and evaporated the metal. No poison could beat the regeneration of a mythical beast.

“How?!” I heard the roar. While looking at the needle I stopped blasting the barrier, so it recovered. I internally sighed and continued the assault.

“Stop! I order you to stop!”

The voice changed in pitch and I could detect some desperation behind it. At the same time, something tickled my Soul, but it was so weak I didn’t even pay any attention to it.

“Stop! Stoooooop! I order you!”

I wasn’t listening. I continued firing the beam, and a barrier broke. The other behind it felt even weaker and began to crack.

“Why won't you listen?! You are just at the First Layer!”

[So what? Are you looking down on me?!] My enemies always seemed to underestimate my abilities. That was a big mistake!

I rushed forward and formed the Soul Cuirass around me. I then delivered a devastating blow straight through the gut and hammered the spy into the ground. I heard it gasp for breath and cough a moment later.

[Ready to talk?]

In response I got a mouthful of blood spat in my face. It was blocked by the Cuirass, but the message was clear.

“Fuck you.”

[Roger that.] I said flatly. And then delivered a kick to the stomach, sending it ragdolling across the arena.

But that’s when the door to the arena was blown open and Tiny standing there, got instantly destroyed by the blast.

It was bad. I would have to repair him again. What a pain! It was about time to get him some upgrades. A stronger body at least, because this was getting ridiculous.

“Leave her alone, you monster!” A person roared from the dust cloud around the door. It was definitely a man. Also, did he say...

[Her?]

I shifted my weight and sped up to the side as the guy shot some kind of spell at me. I then landed near the bleeding sack of potatoes and lifted it up.

[This is a woman? Seriously? But where are the… you know…] I vaguely gestured at the chest area. It was flat. Way too flat. Even I had a bigger chest than this scrawny excuse for a human.

“I said… Leave her alone!” The guy, similarly dressed in black attire, unsheathed his sword and roared, and I could feel his rage as he approached at the speed of a race car.

[Sure, my bad. Here!] I casually tossed the woman at him, but then immediately ran behind her, keeping her as a shield.

Predictably, the guy came to a stop and awkwardly caught her. And then I showed my grinning face from behind her and delivered a solid blow to his jaw. The shocked expression in his eyes was great, especially after realizing he had been played.

[C’mon man, that's a classic! How could you fall for that?] I taunted him. A dick move, sure, but it was great for riling him up. And an emotional opponent was a predictable opponent.

“You-!”

I could feel his rage growing. His once-contained Aura began to leak out and I felt the peak of Golden Core Realm pressing down on me. But it was weird. Why did it feel so weak? Some might even call it puny.

My eyes flashed white with heat and another Sun Ray shot out. That one was aimed at him, and though he didn’t doge with the woman in his hand, an Avatar in the shape of a large bat formed around him and blocked my attack.

[Batman?!] I gasped in mock surprise. [Wow, I didn’t expect that.]

“Curse you…”

The man was clearly conflicted. On one hand, he clearly wanted to beat me up, if not outright kill me, and on the other hand, his teammate was losing a lot of blood and was in bad shape. His eyes momentarily shifted toward the exit.

I sped across the arena and placed myself between them and the door. I wasn’t letting those two spies escape. But wait, what were they doing in the home of Elder Li? And how did they manage to sneak inside?! They probably came just as he left!

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I cracked my knuckles and prepared for a difficult fight. That guy clearly wasn’t a pushover, but neither was I. Too bad I couldn’t use the golems that were all around us, or this would have been just a minor incident.

[Heh, doesn’t matter. You are not getting past me, not alive at least. Spies like you should just find a corner to die in and spare me the trouble.]

“You wretched creature, the traitorous spy is you! How could a human possibly go from a mere Mortal to Golden Core Realm in less than a year?! You clearly hid your Cultivation to sneak into the Sect. Your master was already taken into questioning, and will not be able to protect you!”

After giving the hate-fueled speech, the man placed his companion on the floor and imbued her body with some sort of protection magic. She was visibly slipping in and out of consciousness and couldn’t fend for herself. It was just him and me.

[So Elder Li was taken? Thanks, now I at least know what questions to ask after I break your bones!]

Living Fortress. Elemental Avatar. Soul Cuirass. Century in a Blink.

I used all these techniques at once to create an impenetrable defense and slow down time for my speedy reactions.

We both began walking towards each other, each of our steps made in a split-second and with enough force to shatter normal stone. The arena was protected, yet even then you could feel the tremors.

He lifted his sword and began gathering energy for an attack while my eyes glowed with power, ready to burst.

“Scatter Storm Beam!”

A blue light burst from his sword, with vague illusions of wind and rain behind him, and at the same time, my eyes released a concentrated beam of flames and light. We didn’t waste time exchanging blows and went straight for the ultimate attack.

The two clashed, and I was immediately forced to the losing side. The energies swirled and reacted, creating a chaotic, destructive environment that, despite its immense power, failed to leave a mark on the arena.

My Golden Meridians struggled with all that Qi as they were being pushed to the limit, but they didn’t break. They weren’t even damaged. Total immunity to heat also meant immunity to the self-ignition problems of magic. No matter how hot my body became, it would not break. If there was a limit to it, I was not aware of it.

The guy and I both roared as we pushed our energies to the peak and held it there. He was slowly gaining ground, but he was slowing down. Meanwhile, I held the peak power even after his started to wane. My Soul Cuirass began to crack as his fancy Storm Beam touched it, yet I just continued to endure. A few seconds later he still failed to pierce through and his attack began to weaken.

I changed nothing and just focused on holding. Gradually we came to a standstill and I even began pushing back.

“Impossible! How can you have so much energy?!” He roared as his attack finally collapsed and his right hand was instantly cut off by my beam.

[This? This is nothing. I could go for twice as long and still not be anywhere close to done.] I laughed. Then my eyes flashed again and both his legs were pierced, burning through his bones and preventing him from running away.

“Aaaaaaargh! You- You lunatic! Do you even know who I am?!”

I rolled my eyes at the typical evil villain line. [That’s what I have been trying to learn this whole time! Hopefully, now you will be more willing to talk, Mr. Agent of the secret Midnight Order. If that’s even your real name.]

“Of course, it’s not!” The guy barked.

[You know what? Forget it, I don’t feel like questioning you.] I said. I could already feel this guy would be a pain in the ass to interrogate. And besides, I got a better way to extract information. My greatest interrogation technique, the (not so) well-known, Memory Harvest!

“So you have finally come to your senses…” Mr. Agent said. He was desperately trying to stop the bleeding with what little energy he had left.

[Yep. I’m just going to kill you and extract your memories later. It’s going to be much easier.]

It was interesting watching the blood drain off Mr. Agent’s face when he realized I was serious. Especially so after energy began to slowly gather behind my pupils for dramatic effect.

“Wait! Stop!” He pulled out some sort of badge from his pocket with his remaining good hand and showed it to me. I just lifted an eyebrow. It was probably something important, but I had no clue what it was. And to my delight, he realized it too, with horror on his face.

“It belongs to Master!” He quickly said.

[I still don’t know who that is… Unless you tell me everything quickly, I will have no choice but to end your miserable life.]

Mr. Agent just gritted his teeth and furrowed his brows, but otherwise didn’t say anything.

[Suit yourself…]

I aimed straight between his eyes as he sat on the ground and prepared to fire when a feeling of doom suddenly washed over me and I nearly lost my footing and had to take a few steps back. I shook my head and the sudden feeling was gone.

[An illusion? A mental attack?] I murmured, trying to make sense of things.

“Hah! You can’t kill me! I win!”

I squinted my eyes at the celebrating Mr. Agent and flashed the Sun Ray for a second.

“AHAAAARG!”

His other hand fell down, cut off just above the elbow. I then aimed at his head again and tried to blast him in the face. Same thing happened. A feeling of immediate doom washed over me, disrupting any magic I had prepared. Very annoying.

“You- You-!” Mr. Agent stuttered. He was missing two hands and had his legs disabled. It seemed I could hurt him, but I couldn’t outright kill him. That was a bit of a problem.

[What an interesting challenge. I accept!]

“You are crazy! When Master gets here he’ll tear you to pieces! You are just digging your own grave!”

I ignored his rambling while I searched my mind for a solution.

I created a small Fireball and held it in my hand as I looked at him. I threw it. It hit but didn’t do any damage. The power was too low. I made a massive Fireball and tried to throw it again. It exploded in my face, accompanied by the feeling of doom.

[Interesting, very interesting.] The flames didn’t do anything to my body, but my clothes were completely different. They were blasted apart, and only thin threads still held it together. I probably looked quite wild. But I confirmed something…

I took a knee to Mr. Agent’s chest and pushed him down with my weight.

[Let’s see how protective that doom generator is when dealing with chaos.] I began compressing a swirling sphere of Chaos magic between my hand, and as I was not aiming for that guy, I felt nothing. Pumping it full of Golden Qi, I soon created a dangerous, basketball-sized, unstable sphere of magic.

[Last chance. Speak.]

“You are crazy! If you kill me, you will die as well! Your Soul will shatter!”

[Yeah… I don’t think so.]

I looked down on my prisoner and with a single thought of violence, the feeling returned, and I lost control over magic. But, by then it was already too late. The sphere of chaos expanded in the blink of an eye, destabilized, and exploded.

“STOP!”

Or, it should have… For some reason everything seemed to suddenly freeze, energy included, and then unravel in a way nothing destructive came to pass.

I recognized the voice and turned towards the rubble at the entrance to the arena. It was Elder Li.

[Master!] I quickly jumped on my feet and cupped my hands. [I found spies desecrating your home.]

Elder Li slowly walked closer, but for some reason, he didn’t seem too happy. In fact, by his expression, you would think the event was giving him a headache. But he certainly appeared angry.

“Disciple… Are they... still alive?”

[Err… For now, yes.] I was slightly confused, but then I realized he probably just wanted to question them himself. I took a step back to give him space.

Elder Li visibly exhaled a deep breath and relaxed. “Good, that is good. Come, you two have met before, but just so we can officially introduce you… Master Yo Shi.”

Indeed, behind Elder Li, Elder Yo Shi stepped into the arena after glancing at the broken Tiny beside the door. Poor guy just couldn’t get a break.

I cupped my fists and greeted the man. [Greetings, Elder Yo Shi.]

I then received a slap on the back of my head from Elder Li. “Bow you fool, that’s Master Yo Shi for you. Sect Master Yo Shi!”