Before the brown barrier had completely cracked, the Ming clan elder was trying to flee. Although the barrier couldn’t be moved, as the user of talisman, he could move out of the barrier freely. If he could stall Amrit for a few seconds, he could probably get away from here. Even if couldn’t get away from the battlefield, he would just wander through it and stall until the dawn arrived. By doing this he would at least survive.
Since he had already used most of his soul power in the previous sneak attack, he would have to rest for a few days before he would recover all of the soul power. The soul energy was a mysterious type of energy that wasn’t as easy to recover as the qi or the aura of the body path cultivators. This was also the reason most of the soul cultivators didn’t attack often and if they had to attack, they would always go for the kill.
The more time it takes for them the more disadvantageous the situation becomes. As the Ming clan elder was fleeing from the barrier and Amrit, the barrier began to crack, and finally, under the barrage of attacks, it completely broke down to pieces. Amrit looked at the fleeing elder and started chasing him. If the Ming clan elder goes towards other elders, the situation could get complicated. As the Ming clan elder started fleeing at full speed Amrit for the first time outside the illusion array used the second step of nine nether steps.
This move was mainly devised for traveling long distances and could cover a lot of distances in the blink of an eye. For now, the nine nether steps were a shadow attribute technique, and the night was the perfect time to deploy this move as there was darkness covering everywhere. So as long as there was enough qi in the body of the cultivator, they could travel miles in a blink of an eye just like teleporting but through the shadows.
Amrit used the second step of the nine nether steps and felt his vast reserves of qi drained in an instant. He now knew the difference between the first step and the second step. The second step was for the cultivators in the foundation building realm and it was still doubtful if they could utilize this move effectively. As Amrit felt almost all of his qi was spent he felt the shadow of the elder he was searching for.
He willed and instantly appeared behind the Ming clan elder. The elder still with a terrified look on his face was running with all his might when a shadow flashed before him and with the shadow were two ribbons of doom dancing. He hadn’t had a chance to feel the chill before the shadow neared him. The shadow was the black blade Amrit had slashed and the ribbon created a mesmerizing color before slashing at him.
The shadow went swiftly through his neck decapitating him and leaving a smooth mirror-like surface but the aftermath left by the ribbons was grotesque. Except for his head which had a terrified expression, his body was slashed for hundred times by the ribbons creating mincemeat. Even the bones were not left behind. The head lying on the ground was ironically facing towards the direction of Mahesh. As for the body, they painted the ground and the grass, red.
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Amrit looked at the head and towards the lying body of Mahesh and then bowed “I have avenged you senior. Many more will follow for their atrocity.” As if hearing the promise of young Asura, a chilly wind flew past the battlefield. And the soul or whatever remained of the soul of Mahesh was finally put to rest. The deacon covered Mahesh’s eyes and stood up with bloodlust emanating from him.
He searched for opponents and locked onto one of them. He then looked towards Amrit and bowed and went towards the opponent. The deacon knew Amrit didn’t need his protection. As of now, he was even confident that if he were to fall today, he would be avenged by the young master someday. He didn’t know if the clan would survive but he felt that blind confidence in Amrit. As for Amrit after killing the Ming clan elder, he felt a little bit of his killing intent and bloodlust under his control.
He also got time to reflect on his actions. Till now he hadn’t taken this war seriously but now he understood winning the war was different from winning the battle. In the battle, there was a clear winner and loser and there was not much of a loss for the winner. But war was different, even if you win the war, the loss may significantly outweigh the gains. Even if the Rijal clan could win the war today, what’s the point if most of the clan members died? They would lose a lot more than they would gain from this.
Even the inheritance of the powerful was not equal to the lives of their closest ones. As Amrit began to understand these things, there was yet another chain breaking in his heart. He didn’t know what the chains were or what they were binding, he just felt them break. If he could have clearly conveyed the order, then Mahesh would have been able to survive, maybe not till tomorrow, he wouldn’t have died protecting Amrit.
Amrit sighed and looked at the stars above. Even with all the fighting and killing, the stars were still shining as if they didn’t give a damn about anybody. That was a beauty in itself. He then looked at the halberd to check if there was any damage done to it. He checked carefully and didn’t see even a scratch. ‘Looks like the third elder has done a tremendous job’ he thought. He twirled the halberd around and felt his connection was beginning to form with the weapon.
He had had this weapon for a few weeks and this connection was probably due to his mastery of the weapon and the Asura bloodline. This was not anything extraordinary, anyone who had the weapon with themselves for a decade or two would feel the connection provided the weapon was at least of the second grade. As for higher-grade weapons, there were rumors that after a certain grade, the weapons develop spirituality and gain sentience.
There was probably no such weapon in the Emerald kingdom but there certainly were more wonders on the world outside. Amrit looked around him and saw most of the clan members fighting for their lives. The ground was littered with blood and corpses. The number of casualties had increased in a short time.
Although the number of casualties among the cultivators in late stage foundation building realm and higher was practically nil, there were a lot of deaths among the qi sensing cultivators.