Chapter 333 Chapter 333 – Two for One
"You, why do you get involved in this matter? You specifically said you had nothing to do with the wedding!" He turned to Alaric, his lips quivering.
"If you don't want to take credit for your actions, it must mean those actions are evil – don't do them."
"It still has nothing to do with you, why are you interfering with the inner politics of our city?" He blamed. People of Alaric's strength were normally above the mortal world. They were treasured by the best sects and their budget was higher than they could ever gain by competing in a mortal city housing a few independent cultivators.
"I dislike backstabbing," Alaric shrugged. He did not owe an explanation to the weak, that's how the cultivation world worked.
"It's not backstabbing, I have never been on their side! They are the ones who have done the backstabbing!"
"That's why I did not kill you. I only exposed you for orchestrating all this. Now that you all know the situation, good luck dealing with it."
*Ting*
Everyone was freed from the binding technique, all turning to the wounded man. His condition was far from peak. Alaric has caused tremors in his body, wounding him in different organs.
"If we want to have a future in this city, we must kill Friar!" The matriarch of the Tuestague family shouted.
"Tuestague family, I suggest a temporary truce. Let's put aside our differences and join hands to weaken the Benvolio family by killing Friar," the matriarch of the Fulgencio suggested.
"We accept!"
There was no time for hesitation. The best chance would only last until reinforcements from his family would come to his aid.
"Attack!"
Friar stood alone, a single sixth-stage cultivator against a combined force counting two hundred. About a dozen were in the fifth stage while approximately fifty were in the fourth, leaving over a hundred people in the Foundation Phase.
"BRAZEN!" He shouted. With a swap of his hand, twenty arrows froze in place and dropped to the floor. He did not have time to stand idle; he was swarmed by the melee attackers.
The battle erupted into chaos as the combined forces of the Tuestague and Fulgencio families surged towards Friar. The air crackled with an intense energy, a maelstrom of Qi colliding and intertwining.
From the ranks of the attackers, streams of Fire Qi shot forward, igniting the air with brilliant flashes of orange and red, while bursts of Sound Qi resonated, sending shockwaves that rattled the wooden structures of Blooming Lotus City.
Friar, standing tall amidst the onslaught, remained calm and collected, knowing his concentration would determine his life. His eyes, sharp and focused, betrayed a mind honed by the sixth stage, acutely aware of every movement around him. As a cultivator specializing in Wind Qi and Wood Qi, his techniques were a spectacle of natural forces.
With a swift motion, Friar summoned a gust of Wind Qi, redirecting a volley of incoming arrows back at their senders. The arrows whistled through the air, their flight now erratic and dangerous. The Fulgencio and Tuestague cultivators in the Foundation Phase ducked and dodged, but at least a dozen fell with an arrow plunged into their chests.
Simultaneously, Friar's connection to the Wood Qi allowed him to manipulate the many plants in the city. Vines and flowers decorating the buildings responded to his will, entangling the feet of his attackers, tripping them and disrupting their formations.
The area was filled with the scent of crushed flowers and upturned earth mingled with the pungent smell of burning wood, a testament to the barrage of attacks that met with the vines under his control.
From the ranks of the fifth-stage attackers, it rained hell down upon Friar. A cultivator with Sword Qi unleashed a flurry of ethereal blades, each one shimmering with deadly intent. Friar deflected them with a barrier of swirling wind, his expression unchanging.
Another opponent, a master of Water Qi, attempted to ensnare Friar with tendrils of water. The tendrils moved like serpents, seeking to bind and immobilize him. Friar countered by meeting the water tendrils with real ones, turning the fluid assault into harmless droplets that fell to the ground.
The sounds of battle echoed through Blooming Lotus City, explosions, shouts of exertion, and the groans of the wounded. The city itself seemed to tremble under the force of the combat, its wooden structures creaking and swaying.
Friar, now surrounded, was a whirlwind of destructive power. He leaped high, propelled by a burst of Wind Qi, and then descended like a meteor, a fist charged with Qi slamming into the ground. The impact sent a shockwave rippling outwards, knocking back dozens of assailants and shattering the street.
In the midst of the chaos, the sixth-stage cultivator's mind remained clear and focused, his tactics adapting seamlessly to the evolving battlefield. Each move was calculated, each technique perfectly executed. Men and women fell victim to his assault, weakening the great families greatly. However, it was not one-sided.
Not only the numbers were too great for him to handle alone, but he also was not in a peak state, to begin with. Swords opened wounds all over his body, spears pierced him in multiple places, and some of his bones were fractured by different blunt attacks.
"The Benvolio Family is here!" Someone shouted before a blade sliced him to death.
"Damn!" The matriarch cursed, "The Tuestague Family will hold the Benvolio's forces back, you guys kill him quickly!"
"We accept! Everyone, don't hold anything back!"
At that moment, two people acted in unison, their emotions bursting out of them. None other than the groom and bride sprung forward, each holding a sword in their hands.
"You have destroyed my life!" Jonathan and Tenessa both screamed as they attacked with their best techniques. They both jumped, performing a roll in the air while swinging their swords with the momentum.
A huge sword appeared as an ethereal extension of their two swords, combined. Fire and water ran around it in a complicated loop that resembled the digit 8. Fire Qi from Jonathan and Water Qi from Tenessa.
Friar, battered by the endless attacks he had taken earlier, was on his last legs.
"You can't use such big attacks without backup!" he hissed and sent two quick vines, their tips enhanced with Wind Qi for maximum penetration effect. His goal was to force them back, yet it did not work.
"We can!" They shouted back. The vines collided with their chests, only missing their hearts by a bit thanks to a twist of their bodies.
"Die!" Three people shouted together. The Wind Qi blew inside their bodies, ripping apart their organs from the inside. The sword landed at the same time, and the injured man's defenses crumbled under the pressure.
"AHH!" He screamed in pain as it cleaved through his body, leaving a long gash from his neck to his waist. Fire enveloped his body while the water pressured him downward. It was an exchange of life as one last act of revenge, two for one.
---
"You are going to let them die?" Vivi asked, surprised.
"Yes, it's their family's fault for being stupid, and they are part of their families. If they weren't, they could easily elope," Alaric shrugged.
It was not the same situation as Ken's parents; there were no Supremacy Phase cultivators involved, and the great families of the Blooming Lotus City were only a local force without any influence outside.
"I guess that's true, but I still feel bad for them," Vivienne sighed. She lifted her palm and her Elemental Qi streamed out.
"It's mainly Wood Qi and Light Qi… Are you going to intervene?"
"Indeed, they put up a good show for us, they can count it as payment for the tickets we did not purchase," she smiled. Her beauty was enhanced by her bright expression, prompting the musician to close his mouth and watch silently.
"Life Supplement," she whispered. The Qi seeped into the newlywed couple's bodies, pulling their meat like puzzle pieces back to their right place. Vivi's eyes closed in her concentration, her enhanced mind monitoring the two's conditions at every moment.
The organs, bones, veins, and every other part were stitched together and regenerated. Nobody paid attention to the two of them anymore. Now that Friar was gone but his family was still around, an all-out war was ongoing.
The two families had slightly higher numbers combined, but they were all in bad shape due to their battle against Friar, many heavily injured or dead.
"Haahhh!" The two started breathing again. They were on the verge of death, pulled out of its open maw a split second before it closed on them. Water Qi helped their blood production, and the two sunk into a deep sleep.
"I'm done, they should survive if nobody performs a double tap, let's go." Vivi declared and got up, dusting her robes with her hands. Double tap referred to attacking seemingly dead people to ensure their death.
"Hey, what is going on? I felt the disruption of Qi, why is there a war here?"
Before the three could leave, a feminine voice came from behind them. It was none other than Tiara who could not hold back her curiosity after all.
"Haha, wouldn't you love to know, Ice Princess?" Alaric gloated overtly, "However, since you are so high and mighty that you don't care about mortals, you should go back to your cultivation instead of searching for mortals' gossip." He nodded in self-approval, satisfied.
"Vivi?" Tiara turned to the other woman in the group. While Henry did not lie other than distorting the truth, it was too annoying to get him to talk or decipher his quotes.
"Just local families fighting for money. Let's go."
"Ah."
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