Duality of Shadows

Ruri also felt the powerful gaze directed at her. However, she had obviously already sensed, through the array, the presence of her master nearby in the stands. She was fighting, and he was watching everything; thus, she could give her best.

At that very moment, the four elders surrounded her and attacked from all directions. Watching closely, Liumi jumped in fear, but Ruri, in turn, just smiled, and her katana lit up; that was the perfect moment she had created.

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CRACK!

A violent shock echoed, surprising everyone in the arena. Suddenly, around the elders, earth runes emerged from the void, forming an earth shield that easily blocked them. Thanks to the earth rune enhanced by the Behemoth, the level of these laws increased hundreds of times, and Ruri took advantage of it through the array.

Everyone felt their throats dry. The air became sharp and suffocating, at the same time, the arena changed color to an intense violet. Everyone saw a sacred lotus of the same color covering the girl; immediately, the eyes of the elders changed completely, becoming empty, their minds were invaded! Then, that fairy made a smooth circular motion with her katana.

Swish!

Four heads fell, followed by blood rising into the air. In the center, a beautiful girl enveloped in a violet lotus made a gentle movement. Soon, the sound of her katana being sheathed echoed like a bloody and divine bell, making everyone’s hearts tremble.

"HOW DARE YOU!" The central elder roared, emanating all his power, the skies darkened in the face of his fury.

"Dare? Come, all of you together; my master is watching, and I don’t want to waste his time." Ruri replied, looking disdainfully at the elder.

Everyone in the arena drew their weapons and stared at her coldly. Was she insane? Most of them were external elders, with few internals. She had already demonstrated being as strong as an internal elder; however, if hundreds attacked her, there was nowhere for her to escape.

The elder gave a sidelong glance at the whale and his group, the only foreigners there. He saw the leader of the blacksmiths and interpreted that she had something to do with it; however, he didn’t care at all.

"Great, great. I’m happy to receive such a good gift. You have some secrets... and then it will be great fun." The elder spoke, taking a step and appearing in the center of the arena.

Ruri just snorted and looked at the stands. "Come, come... or I’ll stay here all day."

The elder laughed, and in the same second, everyone appeared around, surrounding the young human like a swarm. Then, a discreet elder floated above and observed the arena closely. Ruri turned to him, and the central elder did the same with serene eyes. That judge just sighed, authorizing the duel. In response, the central elder bowed; that judge was definitely someone very important and superior to the central elder.

Ruri then laughed. "Now that you’ve come, don’t think about running."

Everyone heard that with strange looks, but they didn’t have time to think. The air quickly changed to something heavy. On the human’s forehead, a mystical rune appeared.

"Go, my pets, devour!"

Alm and Bruno heard and looked at the girl, a bit surprised. They had noticed this before... but... wasn’t she speaking and acting very similarly to them? Hearing that, Alm immediately realized something and became serious.

In the arena, suddenly, two black and gigantic shadows rose, extinguishing all the light from the world.

ROAR!

Whether the central elder or the judge elder, everyone froze, feeling an infinite pressure crushing them.

The judge, stunned, quickly activated his cultivation, and the pressure dissipated, but his internal Qi was agitated to the point of still feeling terror. As for the central elder, he was completely suppressed as his eyes bulged.

High above, two winged, black beings flapped their wings, looking down with disdain. One was strange and serpentine, with a long body and scales blending between green and black. The other being was almost half the size of the first figure, but its entire being exuded an infinite pressure and cultivation.

The suppression clearly came from the smaller one, but the bloodlines of the two seemed to be mixed. And in synchrony, they rose together. It was precisely the draconic formation that Ruri asked the whale to retrieve as a reward in the heavenly realm.

"Wyvern!?" The petrified central elder moved his lips with these words.

Everyone around could only move their eyes. Then, the two wyverns slowly coiled their tails and opened their mouths, causing the entire arena to feel an apocalyptic premonition.

"Dragon’s Breath!!!" Ruri spoke with a smile, and the world collapsed into darkness.

There was no sound or explosions, only death and destruction spread throughout the center of the arena. The entire sect felt a draconic power mixed with dense Yin collapsing upon the lands, alerting the main cultivators.

The judge widened his eyes and pushed all his power to the limit, quickly moving away. Alm and Bruno smiled upon realizing his cultivation; he was a judge at the elementary level of the Body Destruction Realm. However, even he would need to flee. The draconic power could penetrate his defenses, and even if it didn’t kill him, it would certainly cause significant damage that would take time to heal.

Deryu attacked without holding back, while Runula tightened her scales with her tail, trying to control him while using her power to prevent destruction from spreading beyond the area. In a matter of minutes, Runula activated her entire Qi, erasing everything in the arena and huffed, looking angrily at Deryu.

He just lowered his gaze, a bit disheartened, and then Ruri activated the rune again, and he ran inside. Runula sighed and descended, following him, returning to the bestial world in silence.

Thus, everything returned to normal, and sunlight bathed the place as if nothing had happened. The center of the arena was destroyed and black, but nothing leaked to the stands. In the middle, only a smiling girl looked at a point in the stands.

The central elder descended, then stepped onto the arena slowly with his eyes fixed on the human and the only group in the stands. It lasted only a moment as Ruri turned to him.

"I won according to the rules. They can’t do anything but demand another duel, right?" Ruri asked.

The elder listened, and with a sigh, nodded affirmatively. Being young and boundless was normal, but this was a bit too much; he thought. Then the young girl jumped directly into the stands.

The whale sighed as he saw her approaching in the air towards him. Then, he suddenly felt a hand holding his. He turned and saw Liumi with serious and fearful eyes grabbing his hand. Alm and Bruno felt a cold shiver down their spines and looked at Ruri in the air... she already had her katana drawn.

Bruno acted quickly, pulling Liumi behind them and using himself as a shield. But that only worsened the situation; the whole place was covered by a furious and bloodthirsty will. The whale turned to Ruri, who was with red eyes emanating that. Bruno felt her Qi move and entered into despair.

That’s when Alm took control and turned to her, two meters away. "I’m proud... but disappointed on a much higher level... you’ve become an irrational idiot," he spoke slowly, and his words were like a venomous arrow.

Ruri immediately petrified in the air and fell into the stands, looking at them closely, stunned.

"You killed everyone, so what?" Alm spoke dryly. "Did that save yours? Did you save a single person? Did you get stronger or gain more resources? No... you just killed them indifferently... are you happy? Does that massage your ego enough?"

Ruri trembled without a response, and Alm stared at her coldly.

"I..." her lips moved slightly in an attempt to articulate something, but he interrupted her.

"Kid. Do you think others’ lives are like grass, that can be cut and will grow again? If so, they committed no crime. Your people could have been enslaved and reaped mercilessly by them. Now, would they be reborn like grass afterward, would they?"

"No, I..." she tried to respond.

"You know nothing about them, don’t know where your people were being held, and made no effort to find out. I thought I trained someone who values life and wants to save others. But it seems you didn’t think of them and just killed out of anger; you sought nothing beyond that," Alm concluded and turned away.

The whale looked at Corin and Loeus. "Finish the recruitment and keep an eye on this little troublemaker. Then, try to join institutes; any disciple can enter if capable. It will be good training for you. In six months, we will do the test."

And then Alm held Liumi’s hand and walked away. Ruri just watched the whale and the woman leave slowly, still stunned. When they left, her body began to tremble, and her eyes filled with tears.

"Younger sister, just don’t let the blood rush to your head again," Corin spoke, patting her shoulder.

"The divine lord was clearly proud when you were fighting. It was after everything collapsed that you went wrong in the end." Loeus then approached and comforted her as well. "Master Langrum always says: Killing is not allowed just because you can; only if it’s unavoidable and you’re sure that the lost life will bring something."

Ruri nodded to both and wiped her still trembling eyes. She had heard this in different ways from her master before... but she didn’t understand it correctly.

Now she understood. Those old ones deserved to die, but she had to have planned for maximum gains... she had the element of surprise to get everything she wanted while they didn’t know her. But she simply killed all of them out of pure ego, and now she alerted the entire clan of her power. There wouldn’t be another opportunity as good as this for a while, and some of her people would die in this period because of her. After all, there is no way that clan wouldn’t release their frustration against Ruri’s people.

’On top of that... I gave an opportunity for another to approach....’ Ruri thought tensely. ’I can’t cower anymore, I have to move forward.’