Kass Shaa'r observed how the two Sage realm cultivators that Wu Guang decided to confront were about to attack and suppressed the urge to launch.
He wasn't truly worried about Wu Guang, considering that if the latter said he will suffice, then probably it would be the truth. Not that he did understand the need to keep his presence hidden anymore, after all, the main target, by Wu Guang's words, a Warrior Lord cultivator was already in range. So why wait and allow this enemy to appear before the weaklings present before attacking him?
Beasts of any kind, Spirit, Saint, Heaven, or even Primordial ones were always keen to enter combat, and he wasn't an exception.
"Humans are truly hard to understand" The lizardman thought before adding another line "And Wu Guang or Bai Qi is even harder to".
Wu Guang, as he called himself on this plane was the first intelligent being Kass Shaa'r had truly interacted with. Even now, he could not understand the reason why he felt that exactly this human youngling was the one, but he did and his instincts proved to be right.
During the first meeting, Wu Guang showed knowledge far over what should be possible for someone so weak and so juvenile. But as trust was met with trust, he also revealed that he was by far not a youngling, no, in fact, he was probably older than any living being on this plane, including the greater spirit beasts Kass Shaa'r had encountered in the Great Mountains.
He also promised to return and did so as soon as he could. Not hiding his changed status, he also dismissed the lizardman's servitude contract, saying that it was simply not needed.
Kass Shaa'r had still decided to follow him and his orders, and so their partnership was born. One that initially consisted just of looking after Chun Hua, a being even more mysterious.
The bloodline had granted Kass Shaa'r an enormous amount of knowledge, and as Wu Guang had told him during their first meeting, this knowledge became so natural that now Kass Shaa'r could not even recall not knowing it once. Still, as he found the human he had decided to follow almost dead, this same knowledge had told him that his enormous strength was just that, strength, and could not be used as the humans did. Resorting on Chun Hua's shallow, but still deeper than his knowledge, in the end, somehow worked out, and from the moment that Wu Guang awoke, Kass Shaa'r was amazed by the latter every day.
He did not despair at his condition, did not despair at the fact that people he called close were enemies, and did not allow him to lose even a moment before acting. Albeit most of the acting was left to Kass Shaa'r, the lizardman could only be grateful for it. His bloodline knowledge was enormous, but as any Spirit or Saint beast, he was simply incapable of good control, had no mind-power, and his actual soul-power was lower than a human of his level. But each time that Wu Guang made him act or just spoke, he also provided a whole bunch of direct or indirect hints and explanations, allowing Kass Shaa'r to learn how to void his disadvantages, or even become closer and closer to the strength of a true cultivator.
And now, Kass Shaa'r was itching to try everything he had learned, like how to counter mind-power attacks, or how to infuse the innate beast nature into his soul power to double the strength of his aura. "So why I can not act already?" Kass Shaa'r inwardly groaned.
________________________________________________________________________
Wu Guang's face was hidden by the hood of the cloak he was wearing, and so no one could see his grin as he caught a wisp of qi transmission between someone on the Sect's wall and the two men in front of him. Not that the identity of that someone was hard to identify, but for now, Wu Guang had to feign ignorance about Xiong Yating's presence.
He was prepared for Teng De's and Rui Qingkai's eventual attack, and so as soon as the qi surrounding them moved slightly, he immediately activated the prepared countermeasures.
***
"Earthen Burial" Teng De muttered under his breath and stomped the ground. "How ironic of you to come here only to be buried" He thought as the qi he infused traveled underground towards the cloaked Wu Guang.
Rui Qingkai had supposed that the man that had been his junior for so many years would use this technique, one of the trump cards that their master had taught them. And however he despised the man for a dozen of incidents from the time they spent as simple disciples, he could only give a mental thumbs-up to how the Martial skill fitted the target and situation. He had to make sure that Wu Guang would not survive, and willingly or not, he was committed to doing it so.
"Great Hills Boulder Entombment" He also called for one of the strongest skills he possessed, one that would call for enormous boulders to rise from the surrounding land, fully encasing and crushing any target.
***
No one of the present, Sage, Soul, and Spirit cultivators alike could understand why the Headmaster and Senior Rui, not only respected but also the strongest cultivators of the island suddenly attacked. And why the latter do so after a promise to not?
All eyes turned to this strange cloaked figure that had interrupted the grieving moment and now was on the receiving end of an attack of enormous strength. Thanks to this fact, no one noticed the worried expression of Lan Yanzhi, or how Yuan Taotu's hands clenched into fists.
***
"Hahahahaha! Impatient to kill me off? Sorry, this will not work" The cloaked figure spoke up and after making some kind of movements under his cloak, from which the sleeves wildly waved around, simply continued to stand still as enormous, at least the size of a bull, boulders flew towards him while the earth below his feet began opening.
*CRASH*
But such words did not prevent the boulders from crashing and forming a pile that somehow resembled a hill, neither it prevents the ground for about twenty feet around him to cave in and revealing an extremely deep hole, one akin to the maw of an enormous beast. One that slowly began consuming this hill of rocks.
With no qi to be sensed initially, one could not be sure that the man or woman below the cloak was dead. Not that anyone doubted it sensing the copious amount of qi behind the attacks.
"Heh, as I said, this will not work" Suddenly the voice sounded again, and just a moment later, the boulders were sent flying wildly. As if rebounded by some extreme force...
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Crash* *Crash*
A thing to be noted though is that neither of the boulders flew towards the hundred or so attendees, either flying to the Sect's direction or towards the two attackers.
"You bastard!" Teng De could not help but exclaim while dodging the incoming boulders, and seeing that the cloaked man remained standing in the spot, with some kind of force preventing him from falling into the hole created by his skill.
Neither he nor Rui Qingkai could understand what happened, but their master did and immediately told them via a qi transmission
"He has a defensive formation on himself!" Not that the lack of emotion of any transmission could hide the surprise that Xiong Yating felt.
"Ahem, now that you have greeted me and everyone has acknowledged that the so great Rui Qingkai's, a man that sacrificed his martial life just to take care of some orphans, promises are worth a fart, I think it's almost time for me to reveal myself to everyone" The tone of the cloaked figure changed, becoming more youthful. And this time it was full of mockery. Still, not a few of the present people felt that the voice was somehow familiar...
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"Continue attacking him, no cultivator can have a permanent formation on himself!" Xiong Yating was alive by the moment that formations were considered the crux of any power, and so even though this knowledge was not considered useful, he never forgot to continue improving his.
"Ehem, if I may say to your esteemed master, yes the one that just contacted you via qi transmission... Don't fucking intrude when someone is trying to make an introduction, or a resurrection in this case" Wu Guang was counting on pissing the old man into not only revealing himself to the people but also making the stupid mistake of attacking him. After all, whatever cultivation this Xiong Yating had reached, in his case the 1st level Warrior lord, he had done this by simply absorbing resources, and so his powers were even less tested than in Kass Shaa'r case. Meaning that the latter could probably get into close quarters, any beast strong point, without even being noticed.
"YOU! EMERGING HILL IMPRISONMENT!" Teng De roared, trying to cover at least some of Wu Guang's words, and used another martial skill.
*CREAK*
The still unclosed hole provoked by his previous technique suddenly began filling up, and then the flat ground began growing from all sides, trying to surround and entomb Wu Guang.
"A tomb again? No thanks" As these words were said, a glowing golden brilliance surrounded the cloak, and slowly began expanding.
Where the golden cocoon met the approaching earth, it simply pushed it back, making Teng De spend more and more qi to simply keep up the skill going. Thought without any avail, as the cocoon, now a decent house size simply continued doing the same, ignoring the amount of strength behind the raised soil.
***
Rui Qingkai understood that Wu Guang was, at will, controlling the formation that surrounded him. How he could do so was a question for later, the important thing was to overpower it quickly. His master and junior could think whatever they wanted, but he knew that the boy would have never appeared here if not for having several trump cards. Ones that probably could be a nasty surprise even to a peak Sage realm. And considering that he had called the master out a few times already, he could even have prepared something for the latter. "Let's just hope that he does not know the master is now a top expert, a real Warrior realm cultivator" As he thought, almost all of his mind and instincts were trying to find a way to deal with the formation...
"Switch to penetrating skills and spells" He shouted to Teng De and began doing so first.
"Rock Spear! Rock Spear! Great Hill Spikes!" He conjured dozens of sharp spears made with his mind-power while using the improved version of the Rock Spikes technique.
***
"I probably should rest for a bit while you two finish destroying the view, and only then reveal myself" Wu Guang said in the most mocking tone possible, and immediately followed them by sitting in a cross-legged position, making a show of meditating in place of paying attention to the dozens over dozens of spears, spikes, boulders, and other projectiles wildly crashing against the formation.
Indeed, it was a formation, one that Wu Guang spent almost two days preparing. And one that required a so enormous amount of qi that it could not probably be used in this plane.
So how it was done? This is a question that Wu Guang would try to never answer. It's not like he considered himself tainted after using one of the sealed and forbidden absorption formations, one that sucked the life, soul, consciousness, and even the natural energies from an alive target, but...
It would be better if no one knew about it.
After all, revealing such a method in this plane could lead to extremely cruel things. While if he revealed it somewhere else, he would be probably considered an evil-sided cultivator, and become enemies with almost all the powers and rogue cultivators that followed the so-called Righteous path. And probably no one would care that what he did to the people was retribution for them willingly killing, and attempting to kill hundreds and thousands of people respectively.
***
"You idiots! Don't tire yourselves, involve the weaklings and the Clans!" Xiong Yating sent another qi transmission, fuming at the, again, discovered idiocy of his two apprentices.
Each of them cultivated for at least 60 years, and they still did not see the great opportunity that they had to involve the people, no matter if they were to be eliminated or not, into this. Not to mention that both continued to spend enormous amounts of qi and mind-power on a barrier that when destroyed, would probably have them drained to the point that even a Soul realm cultivator could kill them.
***
"Righteous cultivators of the Clans and people of the Sect! Listen up, the man hiding below the cloak is a Black Eagle cultivator called Wang Boqin. He is the mastermind of the 'Death Rain' incident, and now is trying to disrupt the funeral of the hero who stopped it. Attack with all your strength. Let's destroy the formation he somehow got, and show that Half-Island will not allow such acts!"
Teng De's speech was good, but regretfully, Wu Guang had never said for how much time he will rest...
"Oh before that" He jumped on his feet, instantly capturing the attention of everyone, and in a simple movement, pulled down the hood that hid his face.
"Wu Guang!"
"It's Wu Guang!"
"He's alive?!"
"Headmaster Teng, what's the meaning of this?!"
"Rui Qingkai, did you not say that you found the traces of his death?!"
A choir of voices exploded, and to the dismay of the headmaster, even part of the elders and disciples that had nothing to do, nor did know of the plan joined this chorus.
"It's an illusion! Don't be deceived" Rui Qingkai attempted to salvage the situation, but regretfully he did not count that Wu Guang had planned for this, deliberately making Lan Yanzhi and Yuan Taotu enter the group of mourners.
"He is the true Wu Guang, the sect is simply trying to kill him off to avoid dealing with the successor status he got"
"Chen Deming, the Wisdom Master said that the Sect conspired with the Eagle Kingdom"
"He was heavily wounded and could not appear, but when he wanted to, he found out that he was supposedly dead"
"Both Chen Deming and Rui Qingkai received orders to find his corpse, and only his corpse"
Even Yuan Taotu broke up his usual silence, beginning to explain everything, not to mention Lan Yanzhi, who hopped from man to man, from woman to woman, and explained.
"LIES! VILE LIES! KILL THAT TWO SLANDERERS THAT WERE BOUGHT BY THE ENEMY!" Teng De found no better option but to feign anger and roar an order, one that probably would be followed if not for...
"Chun Hua, bring the woman out" And as soon she appeared near his 'mourners', Wu Guang shout out
"You can interrogate that woman. Not only I did not die, but I did not leave any will. And don't forget to ask where she was sent off just now"
Neither Teng De nor Rui Qingkai did fear the Clans to suddenly go hostile, with them only having a single, and 1st level, Sage realm cultivator. Still, if they learned everything, they probably would make the weaker members of their group escape and make them pass the truth to others. And when that truth reached the Black Empire...