A sword made purely of black fire materialized in Ren's hand, his glare fixed on the female hanging in the air. "It's you. You killed my disciple! Good. You've finally stopped hiding behind these losers."
She unwound the cloth, displaying her third eye proudly. "This Saintess will give you a good death for making me come here to look for you."
Ren picked up the dark aura seeping from the eye that was starting to open. He quickly glanced back at his disciples and set up a protective barrier with his own qi just as the sun above began darkening. "I intend to kill you without leaving a trace of your existence... Come on, dark god, bless me with your power to offer these as a sacrifice to you."
Ren frowned as the air grew chilly and the sun completely transformed into a ball of darkness, denying the world of any light.
It looked like an eclipse, but one with terror raining down and skulls flying around the female.
He contemplated opening a black hole in the air and attacking her from there, but his major weakness erased this idea.
Waiting not for what the female was preparing with her dark god, Ren let the sword shift into a spear. One he hurled at her, aiming for her chest.
She cackled sending the skulls to block the attack, feeling full of herself and her dark magic.
Before the two energies clashed, a black hole appeared between them and the spear went through it to emerge behind her. She felt it and hurried to hop out of its way, succeeding by sheer luck but not without the spear grazing her arm.
She cried out in agony holding her wound.
"You dare fight back? Die!"
A wave of the skulls came down at Ren like a tornado, whooshing and hissing. Its intensity sent anything close flying through the air, including the newly built courtyard.
His disciples were saved by the barrier Ren had erected before, assuring him of their safety while he came up with a fighting strategy that would neutralize the enemy.
He opened a black hole beneath him and fell through, evading the vicious attack and disappearing from the scene.
"Huh? Where is he?" The female screamed searching the ground below frantically.
She knew that the Dark god blessing wouldn't last long due to her lower cultivation level and had to make the most of it before time passed.
Suddenly, a hundred fire daggers started appearing from every direction, surrounding her like a bubble.
"This..."
Realizing the imminent danger, she quickly used her dark eye to harness more dark energy while the sun was blocked.
Strands of yin energy started flowing towards the hill, harvested from the souls of those residing in the city.
Ren felt how powerful the yin energy was and if he let her gather enough, she'd destroy the hill with them.
He gritted his teeth and the daggers blazed up fiercely before dashing at the female, aiming everywhere at the same time.
The moment felt as if it was frozen, daggers approaching, yin energy gathering into a ball above her, skulls moving outwards to counter the daggers.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
And then, *boom*. An explosion boomed into the air, echoing through the valleys close by.
Ren lifted his hand, and a shield appeared to keep out the energy from the explosion which he hadn't predicted.
When the tension in the darkened sky died out, he lowered his barrier, only to see his opponent falling, her eyes widened with horror, staring in his direction.
'What has just happened?' He asked himself hoping to find answers within the aftermath of the explosion.
Dust and yin residues were all he could feel in the air as the sun turned bright again, neutralizing the darkness.
He reached out and touched the thread of yin energy. As soon as it came in contact with his hand, it dissolved into his skin without causing any negative effects, almost as if it...belonged there.
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DIVINE REALM
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A little void hole opened in the majestic sky that was painted in gold. It was the size of a ball, but enough to spill strands of yin energy into the realm filled with nothing but yang energy.
A figure immediately appeared mere seconds after the strange occurrence. His long white hair flowed down his back like a wide river with two golden streaks falling on either side of his temples.
His eyes were like two refined emeralds of the highest quality that bore life itself.
Behind him was a divine halo the size of half his back. It glowed golden and had two rings that rotated slowly in opposite directions.
He raised his hand and injected his godly essence into the hole, mending it completely. "You've awakened, brother," he said turning around to face the world he was made to protect.
His eyes grazed over the hundreds of floating islands and rivers flowing down into the depths of the white fog that was spread beneath the dwellings. "Will you come to destroy the worlds again?" A memory flashed in his mind of a layer of thick darkness descending on these very islands. Nothing could escape or counter it, not even the fog made from Yang's energy.
He closed his eyes sighing. "The last cycle has begun. The wheel of fate must be broken to escape it. I wish you luck, brother."
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4th STAR
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Darkness. Void.
Yin. Emptiness.
Ren still couldn't understand what triggered the explosion that had killed the female who was at a stable level of three thousand and one hundred. He hadn't expected the fight to end so quickly but he had planned on killing her from the start.
Riddled with unending questions, Ren decided to retreat in the hope of solving the mystery.
The only place he could think of that was far away enough and quiet enough, was the cave he had lived with Han's family.
He first asked his disciples to move out of the sect that needed more repair all thanks to the attack. But after disaster comes gains, or so Ren's mantra said.
The storage ring on the corpse was full of treasures and gold bars. The pills were of no use to them since they contained too much yin energy.
If they fell into any danger, he'd find them in a heartbeat. That was the only thing that gave him peace as he left the city.
He squatted to feel the ground he had been buried in for seven hundred years.
It was soft, the soil was loose, and the energy was balanced.
He then glanced over at the charred stump of what used to be the willow. It was hollowed at the center, its dry roots sticking out, devoid of any life.
Some trees nearby had also suffered from the battle, but they weren't beyond saving like the demonic willow which had been mercilessly burnt by what felt like a strong blast of qi. Strong enough to make the roots want to flee.
"You died as soon as you awoke, a pitiful ending," he murmured touching the stump. "
There truly wasn't any life left in it.
He inhaled and turned away. Coming here was for more than a walk to clear his head, no. He still hadn't forgotten about the vein running deep in the ground that had been hard to reach months ago.
Now that he had evolved and grown stronger, tapping into it would be as easy as breathing.
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"Do you think Master will be happy that we brought 'them' here?" Liu Ming asked as the three watched the ten-year-old twins chomp the food hungrily. They spilled and slurped, eating like they had not seen food in weeks.
Wu Tao lost himself staring at them, seeing his younger self in their behavior. He had once lived like this, never knowing when the next meal would come from. The only difference was that he had been slightly older than them.
"Why would Master be angry? They have the runes. Should we have turned them away and watched them die before master made the decision?" Liuyue responded angrily. "He has been gone for a month. Who knows when he will come back."
Liu Ming rose from his stool grabbing his bowl of rice along with the extra meat at the shared plate.
Without speaking, he walked over to the table the children occupied and put down the food. "Have some more. You two look so thin I can see your bones."
They looked up at him, slowing down their noisy eating, telling him to go back to his table through their mismatched eyes.
Each had a blue and a brown eye, like two halves of a whole, meant to symbolize codependency.
Liu Ming, whose ability was to feel more than others, quickly understood their mistrust towards strangers and slowly backed away.
"What happened to them?" Wu Tao asked genuinely concerned by their emaciated appearances.
"They won't talk. But what it is, it's not a pleasant experience. Look at the shackle marks on their wrists. They must have been imprisoned by someone."
"Dammit!" Wu Tao cursed smacking the table with the side of his fist.
This startled the twins, who jumped off the stools and cowered against the wall hugging each other, their eyes widening to their full sizes.