When the Meng Clan Ancestor realized he couldn’t move, his face turned ugly. He was only an Earthly Sovereign, he was no match for a Heavenly Sovereign like Jing Fang. That year, when they had sealed him, he had been present. Even the three Heavenly Sovereign Ancestors could only tie him down long enough for the other Sovereigns to seal him.
That had only succeeded because the Han Clan had managed to tie down the other True Body of Jing Fang. Had they not done this, the Meng Clan would have been annihilated. Seeing this monster stand in front of him and question him now, he could do nothing but cower in fear. As everyone were looking at the turn of events, Jing Fang asked again coldly, “Who is it that is lacking in manners?”
Hearing this, the Meng Clan Ancestor could only lower his head and weakly reply, “It is my Meng Clan.” Hearing this sentence, the whole Arena was stunned. To force the arrogant and haughty Meng clan to lower their heads like this, just who was this young man? Curo however just looked at it coldly. He knew of the bad blood between the two and Curo was surprised that Jing Fang hadn’t killed the man and the Meng Clan Juniors already.
Jing Fang then said, “Today, I will not pursue the matter all those years ago and the destruction of my Jing Clan. However, in the near future, I am going to demand an explanation from you Foreigner.” Hearing the word “Foreigner” from Jing Fang’s mouth, the man’s face paled. If the word got out that the Nine Clans weren’t native to the Realm, every single native cultivator would band against them to either annihilate them or chase them out of the Realm. If that happened, all the years of hard work they had put into trying to subdue this Realm would be for naught.
Jing Fang then released the man and said, “I wish to exactly see how strong the Geniuses of your Meng Clan are. If they manage to defeat my Clan’s Curo, then I will never pursue those two matters from all those years ago.” Hearing this, the Meng Clan’s Ancestor’s face turned cunning, “However, if you lose, then I truly wish to hear what explanation you have for the actions back then.” Hearing this, both Qing Zhao’s and Instructor Sheng’s eyes turned sharp. They had talked with Jing Fang about this and after careful planning and deliberating with the other 5 Ancient Academies, they reached an agreement.
Since the Hidden Dragon Academy was the strongest of the 5 and also the only combat oriented Academy, they will make the first move. Their only purpose was to push the Nine Ancient Clans to take action. Once they took action, the Five Academies would declare war on the Nine Ancient Clans and release the information about the Nine Ancient Clans originating from outside the Realm.
The Meng Clan Ancestor grit his teeth as a Paper Talisman burned up in his sleeve, invisible to others. He had used this chance to brief the Heavenly Sovereigns about Jing Fang’s appearance. It was obvious that accompanying the Geniuses of the Clan would be the Three Heavenly Sovereigns of Meng Clan. However, unknown to the man, this was exactly what the 5 Ancient Academies were aiming for. This whole facade of Juniors exchanging pointers was to force the Meng Clan to make a move. If they took this laying down then the 5 Ancient Academies would just release the information about the last Realm War and the origin of the Nine Ancient Clans and their goal.
Once Curo had brought them the information that the Nine Ancient Clans had not originated from their Realm, a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place by themselves. Then using all of their resources, the other Four Academies had managed to track down the sealing locations of the three other Heavenly Beasts and managed to get them out of there. Then, slowly, they nurtured them back to health and currently, the 5 Ancient Academies were completely confident in being able to wipe out the Nine Ancient Clans.
Their biggest worry however was the next Realm War. If they did not manage to uproot the Nine Clans by that time, then they would most certainly lose this Realm War. Once they did, the inhabitants of the Realm would become slaves. As they were not willing to see that happen, they could only force the Nine Ancient Clan’s hand before that. As the whole Arena waited in complete silence, a giant floating ship appeared in the sky. On the sail, there was a giant “Meng” written with huge bold letters. Seeing this ship, Qing Zhao snorted, “Pfft, show off’s.”
Instructor Sheng heard him clearly and released a wry smile to the statement. Suddenly, three people flew down from the ship and stood up in mid air with arrogant expressions. When Qing Zhao, Jing Fang and Instructor Sheng saw this, their faces grew cold, as a thunderous voice boomed out from the Heavenly Hall, “If you want to fight, then lets fight, however, you pipsqueaks are not strong enough to put on airs here!” As the thunderous roar echoed out, the faces of the three men changed. They could feel that besides Jing Fang, there were two more Peak Heavenly Sovereigns here. If it truly came down to a fight, then their Meng Clan was destined to lose miserable.
Jing Fang himself could tie the three of them down…. If they factored the two other Heavenly Sovereigns into the equation, then they would be hard pressed to even survive.
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The three men then descended and after the Earlty Sovereign of the Meng Clan had briefed them of what Jing Fang had said, their faces turned serious. It was obvious that Jing Fang was trying to force their hand. One of the men’s eyes turned sharp as he gazed towards Qing Zhao. He then said solemnly, “Since the Hidden Dragon Academy is allowing him to do as he pleases, it is obvious that they are in it together….” As he said that, the two others nodded their heads as one added, “It isn’t unlikely for the other four Academies to be in it as well.”
When their discussion reached this far, their faces turned ugly. First the Realm’s Will had escaped their grasp just before they managed to subjugate it, then Jing Fang appeared out of the blue, now this…. One of the men grimly said, “Let’s have Meng Zhi cripple the brat. When he wins, we will have a bit of time to notify the other Clans and prepare for the imminent war.” The other two nodded their heads and one beckoned his hand towards the ship. A young man, no older than 25 jumped down and landed near them, he cupped his hands in greeting and the man said, “No matter what method you have to use, kill him.”
When the young man heard this, his face turned cold and after nodding, descended to the Arena. The young man sized up Curo and Curo nonchalantly sized him up as well. Curo’s face turned serious as he took off his Student Robes and revealed the Asura Fiend Armour. With but a wave of his hand, the black halberd appeared in his hand as well. Curo thought to himself, “This fellow is at the Early Stages of Palace Building. If I wish to win against him, I need to use some tricks of my own.”
Meng Zhi’s face didn’t change one bit as a red longsword appeared in his hand. The Referee looked at the two and raised his hand. The moment his hand fell, the two disappeared form their ends of the Arena. A bang echoed out as a dust cloud was kicked up in the middle of the ring.
When people looked through the dust, they discovered, that the red long sword was push down against the ground by the halberd. The two were in a deadlock as they were glaring into each other’s eyes. When the seniors present saw this, they sucked in a deep breath as they looked at Curo as though he was a monster. To go toe to toe with someone that is a Stage above him and not lose one inch of ground was something truly astonishing. While Meng Zhi’s face showed surprise, Curo’s face was grim. Although, they were evenly matched at this probing attack, Curo had used all his strength in the hit. Neither of them had infused any Qi into the attack and they had been evenly matched.
Curo then flicked his hand and the other end of the halberd charged out in a swinging motion. The youth’s eyes turned serious as he jumped backwards to dodge the sweep. Just when he landed, Curo disappeared from his sight. Meng Zhi suddenly felt a hint of danger from behind him and as he turned around in a hurry, his longsword released a long red light beam that went to meet the danger. However, when he saw that what was attacking him was a nearly corporeal dragon, his pupils dilated.
When the red light beam met the dragon, a “Bang!” sounded out as another cloud of dust was kicked up. However, as Meng Zhi was looking around, he didn’t find any sight of Curo.
Suddenly, he felt an extreme amount of danger from above and as he looked up, his mouth opened slightly in surprise. Curo was charging down with azure blue reptilian eyes staring intently at him. However, what made Meng Zhi feel danger weren’t the eyes or the halberd piercing towards him but the twelve corporeal pitch black dragon’s that were piercing through the sky towards him. As he jumped back to dodge the dragons coming from above, Curo smiled as he flicked a finger and a black corporeal dragon shot out from the dust cloud form before.
As that dragon flanked him from behind, Meng Zhi grit his teeth and produced a shield with his hand. The shield smashed into the ground and created a protective barrier all around him. Seeing this, Curo clicked his tongue and sent the thirteen dragons charging forward towards the protective barrier. As the dragons smashed into the barrier, the barrier trembled and sunk into the ground, creating a crater in it’s wake. Curo landed in front of the barrier and looked at it coldly. When he saw the sorry figure inside the barrier, he said, “I refuse to believe that you can hole up in there forever.”
With that, he raised his halberd and pointed it to the sky, Thirteen dragons appeared in the sky and took on a weird formations as they left the centre area empty. Suddenly, the dragons all pointed their mouths towards the middle and spat out black flames. When these flames combined together, they formed a black ball in the sky. As more flames were absorbed by the ball, the ball rapidly grew in size but a moment later, compressed together. It grew and compressed several times before the energy vibrations emitted from the black ball made even Core Formation Elders feel a hint of danger.
Curo’s eyes then flashed as he said hoarsely, “Divine Wrath of the Thirteen Nether Dragons!” With that, he furiously slashed the GuanDao Halberd downwards to point towards the barrier. The moment the Halberd fell, the ball shook violently as it released a beam of pitch black energy. When the beam hit the barrier, the barrier shook even more violently than before as it was shoved deeper underground by the fierce energy beam. Slowly, cracks started emerging from the barrier and after the first crack had appeared, like a chain reaction, the entire barrier was covered in cracks and a moment later, it was shattered. A moment after the barrier shattered, all of the energy hit Meng Zhi head on. After a few moments, the energy beam slowly shrunk in size and when it was completely gone, Curo fell onto one knee and used the GuanDao Halberd as support.
He took rapid, deep breaths as his body was completely covered in sweat. His face was pale and his body was completely devoid of any Qi fluctuations.
However, the moment he caught his breath, an almost maniacal laughter rang out from deep within the pit, “Good! Good! Good! I can’t remember the last time someone forced me to use my full strength.”