Kalvin led his forces after those of the two sects, making sure to maintain a distance of about a thousand paces just in case some sort of trap had indeed been set up within the clearing in question. Fingering the necklace that sat tucked beneath his electric blue robes, he wondered if he would even have to rely on his Thousand Killing Formation to summon the many enslaved spirits that had been sealed within it. What a comforting feeling, he thought as he gazed at the group up ahead. Even if he were here alone, he could still summon a superior force than that which Tems had nearly bankrupted his sect in order to muster.
It wasn’t long before the entire force had appeared in the air above the clearing, the majority of those present hovering level with the top of the tower. Belren and his hundred compatriots as well as Tems and his people had formed a loose ring around the clearing, blocking off all paths of escape. Kalvin and his mercenaries, on the other hand, covered the airspace above the clearing in an imposing manner.
“I won’t stand on ceremony,” came Tems’s booming voice, which seethed with a petty sort of anger as he floated a hundred paces away from the tower’s top floor. “For the crimes of killing thousands of our disciples, we’ve come here to return the favour. That includes you, too, May.”
Oh?
The first thing that drew his notice was that large quantities of Origin Energy from the surroundings were pouring into the tower as if it were siphoning the very life from the lush forests that stretched on from horizon to horizon. The way that the local energies were behaving…wasn’t this similar to how the Desolate Spirit Tower absorbed energy from the lands surrounding the Falling Rain Sect’s territories? The tower looked as if it had recently been created, but that couldn’t be possible. Aside from the artifact that Tems sect had relied on to rise up in the world, the number of similar treasures in this world was extremely limited. After all, the ancient techniques to directly gather energy from certain environments had long since been lost to time.
“That’s strange,” Julian muttered from his side. “This tower wasn’t here the last time we visited Tallgate. Could it be that they have a relationship with some hidden power?”
“That should be it,” said Kester, who was eyeing the structure with greedy eyes. “Thankfully the Nightshadow Sect is here, so whoever’s behind them should know to behave themselves.”
“Tems,” said Kalvin, empowering his voice so that they were easy for the angry-eyed sect master to hear. “I’ll be taking this tower as well.” While it was a few grades inferior to the Desolate Spirit Tower, it was still a priceless cultivation treasure of which only a few dozen counterparts were known to exist.
Irritatingly, Tems ignored him and instead continued to stare at the young man with sharp, walnut eyes, short hair and sharp features. This youth was casually ignoring his predicament while playing a game of cards with another young man, one whose finger-length hair was the same golden shade as his eyes, the two laughing under their breath as they seemingly traded jokes.
Belren, however, muttered, “This tower as well?”
Interestingly enough, the group of youths seemed indifferent to their presence. The two young men were relaxing in a large tub of hot water on the balcony of the tower’s top floor, while the rest were sitting atop the building’s sloping roof with their legs dangling over the edges as if they had simply ascended to the top of the edifice in order to enjoy the surrounding sights.
So she really did betray them.
May Asten was as alluring as ever as she sat amongst the others on the rooftop, her long legs poking out of the slits in her piney-green vest robes that cut off just above her knees. She observed the force of cultivators with cool yet wary hazel eyes, her long hair shaking lightly in the face of a constant breeze.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Kalvin raised his guard as it dawned upon him that he couldn’t sense her cultivation level, meaning that at the very least she was at the seventh level of Genesis. That shouldn’t have been the case. Hadn’t she been at the fifth level the last time they had met? To make multiple breakthroughs within under a year was unheard of within their realm of cultivation.
On that note, he was surprised to see that some members of their group were far stronger than he had been made aware of. The two with golden hair had both reached the Genesis stage despite the fact that neither appeared to have reached their twenties, the young man boasting a stunning achievement of the fifth level while the girl gave off the aura of a cultivator at the third level. There was also the black-haired girl with lightly tanned skin, who was at the third level of the same stage. Great Elder Dracia, among others, was staring at the young woman with cautious eyes, a subtle sign that this individual had given them a lot of trouble during their previous engagement. If he recalled correctly, this girl was an arrayment practitioner that primarily relied on spiritual arrayments during battle, and she was supposedly someone that could fight above their cultivation level by relying on said techniques.
Wasn’t she supposed to be at the first level? After careful observation and consideration, he judged that every member of the group was about two levels superior in cultivation to the information that he’d been briefed on.
“Ignoring me won’t change your fate,” spat Tems, who began to float towards the balcony in a slow, menacing manner. “Little White! I know you’re here. If you come out and talk to me, there’s a chance I will spare you.”
Unexpectedly, a distant section of sky suddenly became overcast with dark, bulky clouds, a phenomenon that preceded an abrupt bolt of black and white lighting. With a sonorous crack that sent vibrations throughout the air that reached the clearing despite the fair distance between it and the sight of impact, everyone’s attention was drawn in that direction.
“Was that…tribulation lighting?” said Benlay, whose blue eyes gained a habitual glint of curiosity. “I’ve never heard of black lighting, let alone two colours at the same time.”
“Why aren’t the clouds dispersing?” muttered Julian, who moved his gaze slightly to the right of where the bolt had connected the earth and the heavens. “Could it be that another one is coming?”
Sure enough, a second bolt followed the first almost immediately after, though judging by the space between the two sites of impact this tribulation was unrelated to the first. Had two people just broken through to the Genesis stage? Thinking on it, he’d been told that there were ten members in this little group. Not only was the White Rogue unaccounted for, but there should have also been two other girls in the later levels of the Integration stage mixed in with the others.
It must be them that just broke through, Kalvin thought, unbothered by the fact. What were two more people at the first level of Genesis when he could personally summon nearly eight hundred enslaved spirits with similar strengths?
Tems’s patience reached its fickle limit and he abruptly broke a shining slip of paper, the attack talisman bursting into nothingness with an explosion of azure light. A moment later and over a hundred conjured swords of dense, sharpened energies shot toward the unperturbed youths that were still playing cards within the tub of hot water as if they were oblivious to the fact that thousands of talented cultivators had come here with the express purpose of ending their lives.
A great tremor shook the land, Kalvin’s mercenaries along with the forces of the two sects immediately raising their guards in preparation to follow-up with Tems’s attack. Each of the conjured blades had been capable of killing people of Kalvin’s strength in the event that such a person simply stood there and allowed a hit, though the sudden barrage was abruptly extinguished before it came within five paces of the tower.
Recognizing what had happened, Kalvin couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. It seemed that this group was every bit as talented when it came to arrayment diagrams as he’d been told. Not only had the barrier around the tower been invisible to the eye and completely undetectable even to someone like Belren, a master of such techniques and a cultivator near the peak of Genesis, but it hadn’t been disturbed in the least. Comparatively, it was as if someone had just thrown a handful of grass at a thick wall of steel.