Sect master Zhao Ju and the rest of the elders all had confused looks on their faces as they tried to process what Yang Qing was telling them.
From what he said, Yang Qing made it seem like the whole fight was deliberate and they were nothing more than bait meant to draw out their founder, who bit.
While they had come to terms they were a caliber short of Yang Qing despite having a higher number on their side and also having two members who had a higher cultivation base than him, they still held onto the slightest bit of dignity as palace realm experts in the fact that no one had died yet, and they were still hanging on, and now with the boost from the sanguine doppelganger array, they could even hold Yang Qing to a draw.
A draw that would provide their founder with sufficient time she needed to break through to the seventh stage of the palace realm, or even form other means of escape for them.
But Yang Qing's words changed all that. He made it seem like he had been deliberately going easy on them and did just enough to force the hand of their founder.
The reality of that thought was a little too much to swallow.
"The sheer arrogance. I would like to see if you're capable!!" raged Fu Ning as she gnashed her teeth with murderous intent exuded from her body, which she used to mask the fear that was still showing in her trembling pupils.
Of the seven palace stage experts, she was the one who had suffered the worst injuries from Yang Qing which left her as the most resentful of the seven but also the one with the most fear.
Up until a second ago before the transformation brought by the sanguine doppelganger array, she could feel her life slowly whittling away. Given another half an hour she was sure she would be dead.
Even though her skin had already regrown, she could still feel a scalding burning pain coming from it and the strong scent of burned flesh even though there was nothing burning. The sensation and the experience had left a huge impact on her. Even if she managed to survive this, her cultivation journey had essentially been ended by the experience Yang Qing gave her.
She could already tell that harrowing experience had already been deeply embedded into her, and more than likely was well on its way to becoming her internal demon. The only way she could salvage this was kill Yang Qing, or inflict on him as much pain as she received.
Before, she couldn't even think about leaving as much as a scratch, but with the sanguine doppelganger array, maybe there was a chance.
The array served as a link between the elders, the sect master, and the Wisteria tree. Through the link, they shared everything from damage to power to senses. They were essentially the same person in different bodies, with the Wisteria tree serving as the link between them all, and also the regulator.
If one of them got injured, the damage would be shared by the seven of them, and when it came to power, Fu Ning could feel a boost to her strength. She could distinctly feel she had the same power as Guo Mei, who was a second-stage palace realm expert. Though even if she had a power similar to her, it was a pseudo-power, and she could not wield it as well as Guo Mei, since fundamentally, she didn't have the capabilities for it.
The transformation wasn't on her alone, Deng Yaozu and Luo Jingfei who were in the quasi-palace stage could feel their power had already gone beyond what a quasi-palace stage expert should have by over ten times.
Every member linked by the array shared the same cultivation base, which was the second stage of the palace realm. This included the sect master too, who had her realm regressed back to the second stage.
The limit was decided on what the majority of the members could handle which was usually the second stage, while the Wisteria tree would regulate and bear the burden for those who couldn't, which was Deng Yaozu and Luo Jingfei.
Even though it looked like a step down for losing sect master Zhao Ju's third-stage palace realm cultivation base, it was a wholesome boost in their fighting power, as they now had nine second-stage palace realm cultivators, with all their senses, and other aspects linked, while the Wisteria tree assisted in the background.
There was less likelihood of one of them getting singled out and eliminated since the damage would be immediately shared, while the Wisteria tree also assisted in amplifying their regeneration abilities, which not only extended to injuries but also to qi regeneration.
The array was something their founder gave them, and it was perfect in every way except for the fact that it was a blood-fiend art that required a large pool of blood from cultivators who were at the very least in the core formation realm to act as fuel for it. The array only required one material, cultivator blood, also another disadvantage was it would leave the users of the array in a frenzied state, but the members of the Ice Emerald Sect didn't have this worry because of their Wisteria tree, which anchored the array and was able to keep the array going on for long while also helping them maintain their lucidity.
Fu Ning's confidence was in this aspect. It wasn't the first time, they had used it. When she was just at the quasi-palace stage, she and three other elders, of which Guo Mei was one and at the first stage of the palace realm at the time, managed to corner and slaughter a royal family that had a first-stage palace realm cultivator that was at the peak, along with the rest of the members that had a few quasi palace stage experts and over a dozen members in the peak of core formation realm and hundreds in the core formation realm.
While she didn't think they could defeat Yang Qing as they did that family, they could at least beat him in endurance and force him to expend a lot of qi and when he was running empty, they could seize the moment.
Skill-wise they fell short, but when it came to qi capacity, she felt they had the upper hand, with the support from the array and the Wisteria tree.
Her gaze flashed with a more intense murderous gaze as she thought about how she would skin Yang Qing alive, drain his blood to the tree, and maybe even use the technique they were taught, to try and have him refined into a source fruit.
However, her thoughts of revenge were cut short when she felt the air change, followed by the surroundings, and the source of it was her greatest nightmare, Yang Qing.
His appearance had transformed from white flame-like hair to yellow-orange hair while his eyes were black but had a gleaming radiance to them.
Of the three lines below his eyes, the white one was no longer the one glowing, but it was instead the orange one.
"What are you spacing out for!!! Attack!!!" sect master Zhao Ju hurriedly yelled to some of her teammates who were dazed at the skies that had changed into a swirling cosmos forming a helix swirling shape with Yang Qing at the center.
A massive pressure weighed on them, as it seemed like the weight of a whole world was being brought down on them.
Sect master Zhao Ju didn't know what attack Yang Qing was brewing, but from the scale, she knew well enough than to let him complete it. An attack with such an effect already forming would surely require concentration and time, and any interference was likely to halt it in its tracks and maybe even cause a huge backlash to the user.
Whatever the case, she couldn't let Yang Qing be, so she hurriedly called on the other elders as she charged straight to Yang Qing.
"Nice judgment sect master, but you're not the only one who can be sneaky.." said Yang Qing.
His voice seemed different, as it seemed to carry a grandness within it.
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