The world rumbled and a wave of pressure descended on the battlefield. From the distance a figure flew, leaving a burning trail in the air behind it. It stopped with a boom before Jian Tian, looking beyond furious.

“Jian Tian.” The figure spat out with contempt and growled. “You here looking for trouble?”

Jian Tian appeared unbothered by the sudden appearance of a newcomer. “Well, well, well… If it isn’t the previous Sect master. It seems your Cultivation stagnated since I last saw you.”

He looked down on him and snorted. “Sixth Sky? You are even weaker than I thought. This is going to be too easy.”

The newcomer, an older man with a massive body and bulging muscles laughed in his face. “Haha, me? Weak? I have spent a century consolidating my Cultivation. You’d better apologize for the destruction you caused before I crush your head with my bare hands.”

“Yeah, no. I don’t think so.” Jian Tian answered flatly. “Since you seem stubborn as well, I’ll have to show you the difference between us.”

His swords began to glow as he released his Aura.

“Come then! Let this old one teach you a lesson, Junior!” The man shouted and released his powers as well, filling the air with thick Qi. His body expanded even more and his chest practically merged with his head due to the thickness of his neck muscles. His arms and legs grew to gigantic proportions and his skin turned slick and black, without a single hair on it.

A long muscular tail grew and fangs extended from his mouth. It was like a beast from a nightmare, especially with its two extra eyes on the side of his skull. The skin on the back cracked, and flames sprouted from it, together with long, dangerous-looking spikes.

“Hmph. Weak.” Jian Tian spoke and then launched his swords.

The man responded in kind and jumped forward with a roar, claws and teeth bared.

***

The fight lasted about a minute and once again I didn’t see what happened. I just knew our side lost badly. Again.

The previous Sect master was still capable of flight, but the wound on his chest that seemingly refused to heal was preventing him from fighting any longer. His transformation reverted and he stood there with gritted teeth, looking hatefully at Jian Tian.

“Well?” Jian Tian said. “I thought you were going to teach me a lesson. Senior.”

His words were laced with mockery as he held himself high. Swords continued to circle around him with lightning jumping between them.

“Hmph. You might have beaten me, but you’ll never beat our Sect.” Came the reply. Then, in a split second, the man crushed a small crystal orb.

“Oh?” Jian Tian tilted his head.

An incredible force suddenly exploded from deep inside the Sect and then a voice rumbled.

“WHO DARES BULLY MY SECT?!”

The world rumbled and a wave of pressure descended on the battlefield. From the distance a figure flew, leaving a frosty trail in the air behind it. It stopped with a boom before Jian Tian, looking beyond enraged.

“Another weakling, I see. Why do you guys even bother opposing me?” The leader of the Brilliant Sword Sect said, appearing bored, yet it was clear he had expected it.

“A Junior should know his place!” The newcomer wasted no time, apparently already knowing all that happened. He directly transformed into a massive white gorilla with long hair and a battleaxe in his hand. Even from a distance, I could feel the frosty energy spreading from the weapon, and the water in the air around it began to crystallize, surrounding the man in a dense white cloud.

“Let me show you why they called me the Ice Phantom!” The man roared. Unnatural mist covered the sky, blocking all Spirit Sense, and then his presence disappeared, as did that of Jian Tian.

About a minute later, the giant Yeti fell from the sky and crashed into the ground, freezing the land around the crater.

Shortly thereafter Jian Tian appeared, completely unharmed, though his robes carried some frost, floating in the sky.

“Seventh Sky trying to compete with me? You’d better go back to sleep instead of embarrassing yourself.”

“Curse… you.” The frost man answered. “You might have beaten me but…” He crushed a crystal sphere in his hand and Jian Tian rolled his eyes.

An incredible force suddenly exploded from deep inside the Sect and then a voice rumbled. Again.

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“WHO DARES BULLY MY PEOPLE?!”

Jian Tian sighed. “Another one? Haaaah… Fine, it doesn’t matter how many you send anyway, I’ll beat them all.”

“Hehe, this arrogance will be your doom. My predecessor is a person to be feared!” The frost man chuckled as he slowly crawled towards the barrier. Jian Tian just looked at him with contempt and waited for his next challenger.

A green flying snake streaked through the sky, with wings at least a few dozen meters long, and with poison dripping from its fangs. Wherever the green drops landed, the ground sizzled, so maybe it wasn’t poison, but powerful acid?

“Ssso, a tasssty sssnack for an old ssserpent? How sssweet.” The flying snake said.

“Oh, please. Just come at me already. I’m so sick of you shapeshifters, you disgust me.” Jian Tian spat out.

“Asss you wisssh! Ssstand guard, you sssilly Sssect massster.” The snake said and slithered forward, fangs bared.

It spat out a green cloud at Jian Tian, but his energy exploded and even hammered everyone, me included, into the ground some more despite the distance between us. By the time I recovered and dug myself out I just saw the flying snake, with its wings torn, falling from the sky. It crashed with the force of a meteor and then remained still for a few moments. Then it began to shrink, revealing the shape of a large naked woman.

She was unconscious, and from what I could see, her face was badly wounded and covered in blood.

“Anyone else?!” Jian Tian roared, his voice much angrier than before and I noticed one of his hands carrying a painful-looking burn. The sleeve of that hand was gone, seemingly torn or melted away. He held one of his swords in that hand and the sword was slightly chipped and bloodied.

It seemed that the last fight wasn’t that easy. However he still quickly won.

The silence was deafening as everyone stared, half expecting another challenger to appear. The woman serpent suddenly coughed and moved, looking at Jian Tian in the sky.

There was a quiet sound of a crystal sphere breaking.

“You will pay for this.” She whispered, yet for some reason her voice carried across the battlefield.

An incredible force suddenly exploded from deep inside the Sect and then a voice rumbled.

“WHO DARES BULLY MY DAUGHTER?!”

A giant of a man appeared all of a sudden and I almost wanted to spit out blood.

Seriously?! How many secret experts does this Sect have?!

Jian Tian’s eye twitched and he laughed with an undertone of anger. “Good, good. Finally someone worthy of a fight. Eighth Sky, eh? What are you going to turn into? A bear? A pig? Maybe into a fucking rat?!”

He spat out. “You people disgust me. I’ll make sure to eradicate your filthy way of life after taking over.”

The large old man didn’t respond and instead flew down to where his daughter lay and fed her some pills or elixirs. He also threw a blanket over her and then helped her get back behind the barrier.

After she was safe, he turned back around and flew up, facing Jian Tian.

“Have you no shame? You could have at least held back against a woman.”

“Oh please, spare me the tears!” Jian Tian scoffed. “That was me holding back, considerably. Why do you think she even managed to touch me?” He showed his exposed hand which was already healing, albeit quite slowly.

“Though, I don’t have to hold back against you, do I?” He grinned maliciously.

The man roared and grew even more with his body expanding to the size of ten meters, his skin gaining a gray hue. “It would be an insult if you did.” A hammer appeared in his hands, a massive metal boulder on top of a tree trunk whose roots pierced through the metal and held it in place.

“Dragonclaw Hammer. A naturally formed treasure of a powerful tree growing from the remains of a Dragon. I hope you can allow me to bring out its full power. Don’t die too quickly.”

“Piss off, big head. I’ll show you what real power is.” Jian Tian barked and the Qi around him solidified. An Avatar formed and grew ten hands, each of which grabbed one of his swords. He took the remaining two, and then his body burst to light from the lightning breaking through his skin.

“Stone Quarry Domain!”

“Lightning Domain!”

The sky rumbled and lightning filled the air as the two fighters disappeared.

I already knew I couldn’t see anything so I tried to escape from the shockwaves into the underground, only to suddenly discover that the broken earth beneath my feet became harder than a diamond. It was not natural! Even the small pebbles became as heavy as a mountain and the dust suspended in the air was like a solid piece of stone.

The intent of the Sky Realm Cultivator was felt across the land and as he willed it, the earth moved.

[It’s not fair!] I shouted, finally able to move since those two were focused on each other. The stray energy blasts from their strikes reached all the way to the ground despite them fighting high in the sky, and each of them was enough to obliterate a Spirit Realm Cultivator.

I knew that because it happened more than once, despite the barriers those guys formed around themselves.

Heck, I nearly froze in fear as the ground exploded just meters away from me from one of those stray lightning bolts. The mass of energy inside it was such that I would have been surely torn to atoms if it was a direct strike. Luckily it only tore up the impossibly hard ground, leaving me relatively unscathed, with only burst eardrums and scratches on my skin.

The fight lasted about three minutes, judging by my internal clock, and then the giant crashed through the barrier and destroyed a great chunk of the Inner Sect. He didn’t rise again.

“Hah! Hah!” Jian Tian showed himself while breathing hard, his body bloodied and his robes torn, but he was clearly in a way better shape than his enemy. He straightened his back and combed back his hair with a bloody hand.

“Arrogant bastard.” He tossed a few pills into his mouth and I saw his expression quickly improve. “That’s what you get for challenging me. Hmph.”

Just when I thought the crazy battles were coming to an end, another incredible force suddenly exploded from deep inside the Sect, much stronger than any of the previous ones, even stronger than that of Jian Tian, accompanied by a thunderous voice.

“WHO DARES LOOK DOWN MY PEOPLE?!”

[Oh, god, please! Please, no more! How many more hidden experts are there?!] I groaned, trying to find a safe hole to crawl inside.

A blazing Aura covered the sky and from the horizon as an old man approached. He carried simple white robes and his gray hair moved and flowed despite the lack of wind. Everything went still, only his Qi was the one thing active.

My senses felt like I was looking at the sun, and it hurt. I retracted my gaze and looked purely through my human eyes. The man looked old, older than any of the other Cultivators, yet his body still carried that regal disposition.

He came face to face with Jian Tian, his expression flat, and opened his mouth.

“It’s time for you to leave, child. Or die.”