Chapter 314 314 – A Duel Between Seventh-Stage Cultivators
After taking a bit of time to consider their options, Tai made his first offer.
"We can do elimination rounds of one-versus-one battles until one side is out of elders."
"We refuse," Tony said in annoyance.
"Remember, after five offers, the challenged side must pick one of the five formats. Continue to your next suggestion please," Arjun, the representative of the Divine Sword Sect, beckoned with his hand.
"Matching pairs to fight, also in one-versus-one format, and the extra elders of our side count as a free win," Tai smirked with another offer that would put the pet users at a disadvantage.
"We refuse. This is not the way righteous sects do things. Others might get suspicious if you insist on being despicable and win in underhanded ways, Elder Tai."
With this remark, Tony informed the rest of the sects of his misgivings about the way they used them to test the strength of the evil sects. However, since everybody played ignorant, the negotiations could only continue normally.
"I'm sorry, I forgot that your sect's power is impaired in normal one-versus-one fights. However, would we be the ones at a disadvantage if you allow your pets to participate? As far as I know, the beasts of your sect do not have an elder positioning," Tai raised a point that almost seemed to make sense.
"Elder Tai, let's put aside these trivial games. The twenty sects have acknowledged the beasts of the Myriad Beasts Sect as integral to their power. No other sect has elevated beast-rearing to this degree. Preventing them from fighting alongside their partners would not reflect their true strength. If the Mysterious Mountain Sect does not believe in their ability to win in a fair fight, we must request you to retreat."
The spectators got tired of Tai's games, and the elder from the Four Seasons Sect scolded the burly man for his behavior.
"I apologize, the Mysterious Mountain Sect is a righteous sect, and we must uphold justice. We suggest fighting two-versus-two battles until no elders remain," Tai took a step back and stopped trying to oppress the Myriad Beasts Sect unfairly.
"We accept. According to the rules, every seventh-stage elder remaining by the end is worth one point for their sect. Eighth-stage elders are worth 3 points, and ninth-stage elders are worth 10 points. Is that right?"
"It is. Please, all seventh-stage elders remain here while the rest should wait on their assigned mountains," Dima, the elder of the Divine Sword Sect, instructed.
The area was cleared quickly, and only twenty-seven elders remained behind from the Myriad Beasts Sect, by their sides appearing twenty-seven different beasts, all at the seventh rank.
On the other side, seventy-four elders waited. The ratio of the seventh-stage elders among the evil sects was higher since they could mainly send those who remained in the shadows, or in other words, the newer elders who did not have to make outside appearances for the sake of gathering high-grade materials for their cultivation.
"Per the mutual agreement, each sect will put forward a two-member team to compete. The teams will engage in combat until incapacitated. Two points are awarded for each team left standing at the end of the round."
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While the drama took place, a certain group of four people sat together in their tent area. Ken and his companions were watching the show from a safe distance on their mountain, ready to fully enjoy the fight of cultivators at the Supremacy Phase.
"Did you guys ever witness a serious fight between two Supremacy Phase cultivators?" Alaric asked his friends while they laid a few snacks on a table in front of them.
"I did see a few exchanges, but I could not watch properly in both times it happened," Ken said while he recalled the time the Serene Lotus Sect's elders protected him before the opening of the secret realm, but he was too focused on his own fight to appreciate the show.
The second time was when his great uncle Fernando defended him from an elder of the Four Seasons Sect, and back then, he also had to run away.
"This monk did not watch such a fight before," Henry added. Unlike his usual stoic and indifferent expression, he seemed interested in watching, or sensing, the fight.
"My grandmother demonstrated her powers sometimes, but she never went out in front of me, so I guess I never really saw the full capabilities of these stages," Tiara shared.
The seventh stage was when a cultivator became free and powerful enough to garner respect even from the top sects. Every practitioner's dream is to reach that level and beyond. Those in the Supremacy Phase were seen as different beings than those under it.
While the team kept their sight on the sky, the two sides had finished their arrangements. A pair from each sect stepped onto the platform, passing through the barrier dome that kept it separate from the rest of the world without the need for teleportation. The rest of the elders had paired up and stood outside.
'Seems like the platform can even contain battles between seventh-stage cultivators,' Ken mused. The place proved to be much more impressive than he originally thought, and the Infinite Wisdom Sect must have inscribed it with higher-ranked runes.
The first pair included a big man with messy black hair alongside a muscular woman with tanned skin and a hawk nose. In front of them waited the partners of the Myriad Beasts Sect – a woman wearing long grey robes and a tall horse with the head of a dragon, also known as the Longma.
"Fight!"
The four weren't on the ground; they were levitating in the sky, walking on air as if it were solid ground. The different quarters of the platform meant nothing to them, and the beasts lurking inside hid in fear in the deepest holes they could find.
The woman, Sofia, leaped on the longma's back, and the beast galloped forward. Their opponents, Rosa and Anil, didn't forget to bring out their weapons. Anil swung his heavy, blunt club forward at an invisible target while Rosa did the same with her greatsword.
Before anybody in the crowd could wonder why they would attack the air, a blast was heard, and the weapons were met with two heavy hooves.
*CLANK!*
The horse was on its back legs, and as it was pushed back from the two heavy blows, its rider pulled the string of her bow from that short distance, sending a swift wave of Qi at her enemies.
"I can hardly tell what's going on," Alaric commented, echoing everyone's thoughts.
The elders seemed to vanish from the places and only appear again during the clashes that forced them to stop moving for a split second. Loud explosions echoed with every exchange, ice broke and melted from the blasts, and trees were torn by the shockwaves.
Rosa had to stop her chase after the longma when another barrage of arrows was shot at her, each one powerful enough to blast through a whole mountain if left unattended. Using the focus on his partner, Anil threw his club like a boomerang, trying to catch Sofia off-guard.
The longma recognized the threat earlier than its master, raising its hoofs again to meet the flying club before it could reach the woman on his back.
"How can a beast resist a weapon attack from the same stage head-on?" Tiara asked. She never studied much about beasts and was busy with her own business most of the time.
"While cultivators cultivate their stages by strengthening different parts of themselves, animals only need to strengthen their bodies, which leads later to a big difference in physical power between the two," Ken explained what he learned from the manuals he earned in the secret realm.
"As for who is more likely to win, that mainly depended on the cultivator's quality among their peers and the power of the beast's bloodline as well as its diet. Beasts benefit a lot from eating beings of a higher stage than them," he finished his explanation.
Back to the battle, Anil used his club to hit the air as he would beat the ground, and shockingly, an "earthquake" started. The air visibly shook, and the longma found itself struggling to stand properly, let alone gallop like it used to.
A rain of arrows materialized in response, and sharp arrows landed from the sky, trying to impale the pair of humans. The longma, knowing it could not move anymore, also opened its maw, and fireballs were shot alongside the arrows.
"They're immobilized, take care of them!" Anil shouted, and his partner cleaved toward the incoming attacks.
Ken could sense the immense Sword Intent; it seemed like the greatsword was created to halve the world. The arrows and the fireballs were all cut in half and dissipated while Rosa continued her charge to close the gap on the archer.
Recognizing the pinch she was in, Sofia charged one of her greatest techniques and shot an arrow into the sky. A great typhoon was generated around the arrow, and revealing the limitless potential of combined attacks, her beast inserted its flames inside.
"Burn in our Firestorm!" Sofia shouted with clear schadenfreude as the attack enveloped the swordswoman.
"Break!" Anil did not wait to react and released his own technique, and a huge rock descended from the sky into the storm, blocking it. The heavy intent made it like a shelter that kept its residents safe from any external threat.
"Go down!"
Using the opening the stone had allowed her, Sofia burst out of the firestorm and attacked. The longma put itself in the way of the attack to defend its rider, and a huge cut was opened across its large stomach.
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A/N:
I thought about it for a long time. In the book's first version, Ken didn't kill Ron in chapter 25 (Ken's first victim).
However, the readers back then pressured me to justify the villain tag, which was supposed to happen in the second volume. Eventually, I surrendered to their demands and changed those chapters before publishing them, which made Ken's killing spree a bit sudden.
Since you're here, it means it never bothered you, maybe you even liked it, but I decided to rewrite the last 5-6 chapters of the first volume, and now it's in the original version in which Ken only injured Ron.
Do not worry; there's no need to reread the novel. There's no practical difference, and the only change is that his first kill was when he beheaded Sol. Other than that, everything is the same, and it didn't affect the plot of the latter volumes.
As always, thanks for your support, and I'm glad you enjoy my creation.
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