Juwaira explained, "Duna came three days after you went into meditation. They were already arguing about who discovered the castle first." She paused and scrutinized the mist as if telling Abdin it was useless. "One of the ward heads from the village was claiming that the castle was his as he knew about its existence since. And then four days later, five riders came. And then the others arrived two days ago. I think they are still deciding on how to share the loot in the castle. They will pounce soon as they are done."

She pointed at some of the footmen that were half-naked. "I don't know where those came from. They aren't cultivators and they are too many to be from that village alone."

There seemed to be three groups attacking them. The few cultivators were obviously from Will of San. Only they could mobilize that many cultivators in this area. The other two groups were on foot and they wore different dresses and pieces of armor. Some of them were hired, jungle men. Either Duna or Will of San, one had hired the jungle men to aid them in conquering the castle.

Abdin inhaled deeply. He knew this would happen from the moment he summoned the castle. He had been ready, they just happened to arrive a bit earlier than he expected. And that might have been caused by many things out of his control.

The opponent had finally decided and was now sending one of the riders to explain their conditions. Abdin spread his spiritual sense to envelope the man.

"Oh you people of this castle," the man hollered. "I am an inner disciple from Will of San. You can call me Barindana."

The man paused as he smiled, giving the people in the castle time to ponder his words. Meanwhile, the others behind him were making faces and thinking he was being unusually kind today.

"I understand you are the first to discover this ancient treasure. But I also saw it and I wanted it. If you surrender without any difficulty, then I shall compensate you."

He paused for a moment as if searching for his bag of holding.

"I have lots of ayrids and coins and various kinds of pol items that can help you in your cultivation. I am long since done with them and no longer need them. Let's do this, I'll give you ten minutes to open the gates and surrender. You'll be on your way with more wealth than you deserve."

He turned away without awaiting their reply and fell back in line with his comrades.

The man was on the sixth step of foundation establishment - six hundred pol years - while the others were on a lower level. Except maybe for the silver-masked man who Abdin couldn't read. But since there was no core formation expert, Abdin felt there was no real problem.

Abdin magnified his voice by pouring some trickle of pol into it. "Barindana from Will of San. Just as you rightly said, I came before you and this 'treasure' is mine. I don't know what they told you to make you gather your comrades and come along, but I will advise you to turn and leave. If you don't, then don't blame me for being merciless."

At first, Barindana's expression didn't change, as though he hadn't fully processed Abdin's words. But a few seconds later, his face darkened. Intense anger and fury clouded his face. How dare he spoke to him - a mighty sixth-level foundation establishment cultivator - like that? And the man insulting him was inconsequential under two hundred pol years. Barindana's plans immediately changed.

"Hack it open and enter. I want the head of that rude imbecile brought to me."

They would have been dead even if they had surrendered. Barindana never meant to give them any of his belongings or to even let them go. If he let them spread the news, then Biyakis and other hidden cultivators would attack and take the castle from him.

He wanted his fellow disciples to enter first and snatch on every useful thing, even if someone would enter after them. How many years had it been since an ancient treasure appeared in Biyakis?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The riders around Barindana laughed gleefully before they approached, whereas Barindana turned to the masked man and began to speak in low tones.

Abdin waited until the soldiers entered a range he was comfortable with, and he clasped his hands, chanting an incantation.

A huge lightning bonfire appeared atop the wall before crashing on top of the soldiers.

Juwaira, whose face was again covered, drew her white kerchief the tiniest bit and blew out. The air turned bright, and then turned into a cyclone and blocked the way to the gates.

Denyanu summoned a lightning ring and threw it out. The others also summoned their various long-range skills.

The volley of attacks approached the oncoming army. Three lightning bolts, two fiery balls, and huge rocks with a cyclone blocking the gates.

But the riders were ready. Ten of them stepped forward and raised their hands towards the volley of attacks. A green glowing wall appeared and shielded all the riders, while the attacks hit the wall.

The protective wall instantly drained the pol in the attacks, banishing them all at once. In turn, its brightness dimmed but it still held. And the riders approached without slowing down.

Abdin clenched his hand and punched the air several times at once. Every he punched, a new lightning bolt would appear and take the shape of his fist before descending on the soldiers. There was no trick or any special mastery in his attacks, but he was fast. Before a bolt would reach its target, another five or six bolts would already be on their way behind it.

In the next few seconds, Abdin had already unleashed fifty bolts upon them. The green wall lost its glow following its contact with the forty-something bolt, and the rest of the bolts were let loose upon them.

Perhaps the ten riders that were controlling the protective wall were too close to the bolts, or using the green wall had drained their pol and weakened them, or maybe Abdin was just lucky. But all ten of them were hit. They didn't die but were all seriously injured. Some of them got their hands burned off, while others were gutted by the lightning, innards and blood were splashed everywhere, and painful screams filled the atmosphere as the injured cried for help and tried to crawl away.

Inside the chaos and smoke, the remaining ten or so men who were not hurt tried to drag their comrades away from the front line, but then they realized the attack wasn't over yet. Some leftover lightning bolts were still approaching. Well, to call them leftover would be a bit of an understatement, as about fifty lightning bolts were still approaching. Each was shaped into a fist and with as high as a hundred pol currents in them.

They were forced to abandon their rescue mission and run for dear life. The aftermath of it was heaps of ashes, while the rest of the entourage scattered. Every thought of bringing Abdin's head vanished from their minds.

Barindana stood with his mouth wide open, as his body shook. He had witnessed everything and was currently gauging the amount of pol used.

Except for a few attacks, the rest were all cast by one person. And each of these attacks contained a hundred pol currents, as though they were carefully measured.

"Core formation expert!"

Those were the only words that escaped his mouth. Core formation experts were the only cultivators that had the pol to do that.

All that arrogance he exuded earlier vanished. He turned quickly to have a word with the silver-masked rider.

On the other side was Juwaira, staring open-mouthed at Abdin. She had since decided that Abdin was a core formation expert, but she never thought he was at the zenith of the core formation stage.

Zenith core experts had ten thousand pol years. They could live for a millennium unless killed. And they possessed a powerful, mysterious energy called Negrinki which allowed them to wield skills on a level incomprehensible to other cultivators.

Abdin had cast lightning bolts containing a hundred pol currents each more than a hundred times in mere seconds. And he was still undrained. It merely seemed like a warm-up for him. He was certainly at the zenith.

He could kill Laluri with this power. And, maybe, it wouldn't be so shameful if she married him.

Abdin didn't meet her gaze. It was still early to declare victory even though he had succeeded in driving the men away.

First, he couldn't leave the castle to finish them off. The power that allowed him the chance to wield skills at a level beyond his real cultivation would stop working if he stayed far from the castle. So even though he frightened the soldiers away, he couldn't chase and kill them and they would eventually relay their experience to Will of San. And their superiors would soon arrive.

He looked inwardly to his core. His soul disc was glowing with some pleasant information.

[You have lost 4 and a half years. You have shown your bravery in defending the castle from its enemy. You are awarded 32 years of pol. Your overall cultivation is now at 159 years. 66 years remain until your demise.]