‘Right, the city! The others!’ One after another thoughts stormed in Leo’s brain, flooding it with loads of information – memories, long forgotten feelings, places and people.
The local defenders did mention something about the thunderhawk cliff being in the east, that’s why he knew he had to go west. But they had flown hundreds of miles, how in the world was he supposed to get back? And wasn’t it supposed to be somewhere far in the ocean? He clearly could see the coastline!
It took a while, but after traversing several hundred yards deep in thought, Leo finally realized he was neither walking nor running. His feet didn’t touch the ground at all! Obviously he hadn’t grown wings, but that could only mean one thing – somehow he had formed his nascent soul!
That was the reason for him feeling so powerful, for the sudden impeccable eyesight and for his brain working with the extraordinary efficiency! And that was the reason why the thunderhawks escaped after noticing him! He had no clue how it could’ve happened or why, but it clearly had something to do with the tribulation the thunderhawk patriarch went through.
Leo glanced back at the cliff where the remains of the former peak rank seven beast lie and once again a deep sadness overcame him. Normally he would’ve simply cursed something about stupid chickens, but for some reason he felt it was improper and disrespectful.
“F*ck it!” Leo decided to not worry about it for now.
Him becoming a Nascent soul stage cultivator only meant one thing – he had to rush back and see whether the situation in the city was salvageable. He knew Musa was strong, but Lily and Mark suddenly going nuts was not good news. After escaping the crazed sect master back then Leo experienced first handed how powerful a Nascent soul stage expert can be … and if they were to attack the other students …
“Alice!” A terrifying thought made him madly rush forward.
He didn’t have a clue how to properly fly or even how to channel Qi at the current stage, but all of that had to wait – he could ask elder Li for some tips after getting back to the academy.
If someone would’ve seen this newly advanced Nascent soul stage cultivator, they would’ve laughed themselves to death. The guy sluggishly flew forward, periodically waving hands and running in the air, and sometimes even falling from the sky. He had nothing from the demeanor or elegance the people at his level normally had, more resembling a circus clown and a bad one at that.
Leo didn’t care about that though. His only thought was that a friend was in danger and he had to get back as soon as possible. With all his might he channeled the lightning Qi in his body, trying to perform the Lightning dash, but unfortunately the technique that had served him for years, suddenly was useless during the flight. It wasn’t hard to guess he needed to invent something new, but the problem was that currently he was in the middle of nowhere with only approximate direction where to go, or rather – fly.
“So I guess this is it …” Musa weakly said, taking the last look at Lily.
At this moment not only she had a third of her head cut off – she was missing her left arm and a huge chunk from the left side of her torso. Despite the enormous blood loss and the pale expression, she was still focused, her thin lips tightly pressed together. Her partner, Mark, had it even worse – his both legs were gone and the right hand was twisted in an unnatural position. Similar to Lily he was fully focused on the man weakly standing between them, but a barely noticeably smile had bloomed on his face a moment ago.
Just now he finally managed to set up the prison formation flags without Musa destroying any of them. This was the last formation he still had in tact and they had to make this one count in order to capture the traitor. Fortunately for them no matter how fast and strong their former teammate was, he had his limits.
Indeed, compared to them Musa was much worse off. While he didn’t miss any body parts, his skin had turned coal black and gave away a disgusting stench. Lily’s Freezing domain was basically of immortal grade and the moment Musa was out of the heart warming pills, it began to affect him again.
Technically he could’ve left and no one would’ve caught him, that is if his former master personally didn’t come looking, but for some reason he just couldn’t leave the city and the other students behind. From very the beginning Musa knew this was the inevitable outcome, because no matter how strong one Nascent soul stage cultivator is, two opponents are twice the opponents. In addition, Lily’s and Mark’s synergy was amazing and left the impression as if they’ve been tailored for each other.
The problem was that this synergy got him trapped in the end. He couldn’t even create a single windblade to destroy any of the flags to not speak about attacking them – he has ran dry. During the night that felt like it lasted forever, Musa tricked the duo into thinking he was at the current state three times, but unfortunately the inevitable happened and they managed to outlast him in the end.
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If it was the clash of attackers like him, Musa was confident he could’ve won one against two. Maybe even easily. The problem was that both Lily and Mark had incredible defensive abilities that complimented each other and he was the party that was interested in taking them down thus he spent over triple the energy the other two had.
Yes, Lily’s freezing domain consumed enormous amounts of Qi, but the moment she realized the fight won’t be over in a couple of exchanges, she began to use it only when she was certain Musa will be caught by it. It did take some time, but in the end his whole physical body was corrupted by her ice Qi, allowing Mark’s annoying goo find it’s way in as well.
Normally the slow earth affinity cultivators could never dream about catching up to wind affinity experts. Unfortunately Musa was not only weakened, he was the one who tried to get close to Mark and as the result his physical body was rendered useless, although it did take a whole night and the biggest half of the next day during which the whole region got completely devastated.
Not only the clothing of the three was torn and they had only few dregs left over, their fight had similarly destroyed the landscape and, what once was a plain jungle, in few decades will turn into hills and lakes. Now though, they were amid chaos surrounded by broken trees, heaps of dirt and even few dead bodies of animals, but it was finally over.
“You can only blame yourself!” Lily hissed, “But it’s not our place to judge – our master …”
She didn’t manage to finish the thought when something resembling a lightning bolt smashed in her abdomen and threw into one of the dirt piles at the side. It took some time for Musa and Mark to process what exactly transpired, but when the dust began to settle they realized that besides the mutilated remains of what was once a proud beauty stood the guy they both expected to be dead.
“Crazy ass bitch!” Leo snorted and kicked Lily’s leg as if verifying if she was really dead, but then glanced towards Musa and Mark who’s eye’s were bigger than saucers and disappeared from the spot.
The next moment a similar lightning struck Mark who, just like his lover, ended up in a pile of dirt with a huge hole on his torso.
“Daaamn … this guy looked creepy as f*ck!” Leo kicked Mark as well even though he was already dead, “How in the world did you manage to slice off his legs so neatly?”
“I … sigh …” Musa was too tired to reply.
He slumped to the ground and sat there supporting his forehead with both hands without saying anything. Only now he realized how tired he was and how much pain he was actually in. Leo, on the other hand, was slightly out of breath, but not enough to stop him from talking.
He came over to Musa, sat next to him and asked, “Damn, man! You look like shit! What exactly happened? What did you do to make the Ice queen finally go completely nuts? How long you guys have been fighting? Initially I was worried I won’t be able to find the way back, but it’s impossible to miss THIS!”
Musa weakly looked back at him and said with another sigh, “We began when you rode the thunderhawk away, so just the night and the day …”
“Oh? Even a day didn’t pass?” Leo happily said, “I guess I’m getting better! Back in the day I used to black out for several days straight …”
“Leo, stop!” Musa interrupted him. He was delighted the guy showed up, although completely confused how it was possible, but every sound currently gave him a splitting headache, “Can you … can you stay silent for a moment?”
Leo was startled, but then realized that since his arrival he had been rumbling non stop. Apparently the adrenaline influx during the mad rush back raised his stress levels way above what his mind was capable of handling.
They sat there for quite a while. Leo took out one of the smaller water barrels from the amulet and both drank from it as if they were dying from thirst. When the first one was empty, he got another one and before the sunset that one was emptied as well. Only then Musa had finally recovered enough, albeit only mentally. Physically he still had no strength to get up.
He stealthily watched Leo nonchalantly chewing on a straw and only complicated thoughts came to his mind. Then he shook his head trying to get rid of them and, after searching his spacial ring for a bit, took out a small tube of paper, containing cut dried leaves.
He stared at the item for a moment and said, “This is the last thing I have from my previous life.”
“From your sect?” Leo asked. He remembered Musa’s story of his sect being destroyed.
“Mhm.” Musa nodded, “The sect members used to smoke these for fun. Of course, there were those who claimed it helped in cultivation as well.”
He lit up the rolled up piece of paper and took a deep inhale, savoring the taste, but Leo’s eyes lit up.
“I know those things!” He recognized the ‘Firegrass’. Maybe if Musa’s body hasn’t been corrupted by Mark’s goo and Lily’s ice and turned coal black, he would’ve finally noticed Musa’s tattoos and guessed where the intuitive familiarity between them came from, but it was not bound to happen. At least not this time, so he said, “I have visited a sect once where the guys also smoked these … although afterwards they humped their own mother, so I don’t think it’s ok …”
“Maybe they smoked some weird stuff …” Musa shrugged, “Anyway. Back then my name was Mumasa, I shortened it after I was sent to the Blood Realm – it’s an immortal realm controlled by the Army of Freedom. A bit later my sect was destroyed and I became a student of one of the immortals supporting the Army. That was what my father and grandfather wanted. And also they wanted me to avenge the sect … That was when I met Lily and Mark. We didn’t become friends, but master groomed all three of us in order to infiltrate the Immortal Alliance …”
Leo guessed Musa had a complicated past, but had no clue it was this messed up. But before he could say anything, Musa continued, “I never really thought about all the politics and the fight between the Immortal Alliance and the Army of Freedom until the beast tides … You know, Leo? You were right! It’s not ok to kill thousands and thousands of regular people no matter what … ‘f*ck them’, remember? It was you who opened my eyes ...”
There was a long moment of silence. Apparently Musa didn’t know how to continue or maybe expected a reply, but Leo was not the best conversation partner.