Chapter 15

On a small hill outside the Soaring Flame Sect, a young robust man was lying down watching the infinite stars above. Under the dim illumination of the moonlight, his fiery red hair could be seen. He held a small egg in his hands while holding it up to the sky. A single minor crack ran through the egg’s shell, but other than that, it was mostly intact.

“It’s almost been a year and a half and you still haven’t hatched, little one.”

Li Jie let out a deep long sigh. Not much had changed since he entered the sect. He reached the 9th level of the Nascent Realm with help from the sect and a generous 15th birthday gift of a few dozen Forging Realm monster cores from Lily, or rather from her clan. After his quasi-Dao Awakening, Li Jie came to realize the incredible power and profoundness of the martial skills that his ancestor had bestowed upon him, so he gave up all other skills to practice master those. He spent the rest of his time searching for various ways to cure his mother. But even with the full-time assistance of his grandmaster and master, they were unable to make any progress.

Tomorrow would be his 16th birthday, yet Li Jie felt no joy in his heart. To him, it was only a reminder of the fate that would await his mother if he could not change it.

An abnormally loud swish of the wind reached his ears and soon afterwards two young adults appeared on the top the hill next to Li Jie.

“You really like this spot don’t you little Jie?”

“Well, I did like it... before you got here.”

The one who had first spoken was a beautiful female cultivator with an elegant orange ponytail. She wore the robes of an outer court disciple that failed to hide her well-toned body.

She simply smiled and stuck at her tongue at Li Jie, who smiled back at her.

‘If that had been the Lily from the past, she would have beat me until I fell unconscious. I like her better this way, it really shows off her cuteness. Well I still don’t like how she calls me little Jie just because I’m younger...’

A slight cough interrupted their moment as both of their eyes turned toward the other person present. A tall, lean cultivator with long silver bangs, he exuded tempered grace yet at the same time, a subtle fierceness dominated those around him. A commoner would mistake this man for being a part of the imperial family, which often happened whenever he left the sect.

“Could you two stop your flirting? Anyway I managed to get master to hand over a fine bottle of wine for your birthday tomorrow, Li Jie.” He said, pulling out some wine and cups from his spatial ring, “Why don’t we share it now?”

Zhu Hao’s delicate voice bore little resemblance to the impulsive boy who entered the sect a year and a half ago. That being said, he was no pushover--in fact, those who knew him would say he had a savage side to him that was rarely seen.

Li Jie and Lily just laughed at him since this scene was all too common for them. They gratefully accepted the wine along with the cups. The three best friends spent the entire night merrily drinking and gossiping about the sects current events. Li Jie truly enjoyed these moments, since they were the only time he could take his mind off the problems plaguing him.

-----

The next day, Li Jie sat meditating inside of a cultivator tower, contemplating the problem that had arisen in his cultivation. Although he couldn’t absorb the world’s qi anymore, he liked the quiet environment that the tower had so he often meditated here.

‘I had originally thought that being able to consume monster cores was a blessing since it was so easy to cultivate... but for some reason the number of cores required to advance is growing exponentially larger!’

He rubbed his spatial ring that had once held thousands of monster cores, but now was completely devoid of any of them. A few years ago he never could have imagined the wealth that a single monster core would bring, but in just a year and a half, he had already consumed nearly 10,000 Nascent cores along with many Flowering and Forging ones as well.

With a frown, he recalled the words that his master had told him a week ago: “Li Jie, quite frankly we cannot sustain your cultivation anymore. The elders are already mad at me for giving so many cores to you that could have been used in alchemy or for making weapons. You’re going to have to search for another way to continue.”

He continued thinking of a solution when suddenly a massive burst of energy echoed throughout the entire sect. Many of the cultivators who were deep in meditation stumbled out of their rooms, coughing up blood due to the backlash of being yanked out of their meditation. Angry, the disciples stormed outside to see who dared to cause problems in the sect. Numerous disciples from other towers also exited the building to see what was going on. However, they were met with an unexpected sight.

A young man who couldn’t have been older than 18 hovered dozens of meters above the sect with his arms crossed. He wore a splendid black robe embroidered with lavish gold designs that seemed alive; any upper class cultivator could immediately tell that his robe was not something obtainable within the entire empire, if not the entire continent. His long raven black hair was like a hungry abyss, swallowing the light around him.

He opened his mouth and once again an explosive burst of energy rang forth, “Where is the boy who awakened his Dao? He should have red hair and blue eyes.”

Although none of the cultivators present understood what “Dao” meant, they only knew of one person who matched that description. Many of those near Li Jie immediately turned their heads to look at him. Noticing their looks, the raven haired man immediately materialized a qi rope that shot towards Li Jie with the intention to bind him.

Suddenly, a surge of qi crashed into the rope, forcibly disbanding it. Out of nowhere, Zhu Que and the scarred elder appeared, along with a group of a dozen or so core elders. Zhu Que stepped forward and gave a quick bow, “My name is Zhu Que, Patriarch of this humble Soaring Flame Sect. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”

The young man sneered with contempt, obviously angry that someone had dared to block his attack, but still gave an answer, “Tai Huang.”

He gestured at Li Jie and commanded, “Hand over that boy and I’ll let you all live. A generous offer, no?”

“I’m sorry, but I cannot simply hand over a disciple of the sect,” Replied Zhu Que with a deep frown, “I’ll have you ask to you leave immediately.”

Horrified expressions appeared on the core elders’ faces. Clearly Tai Huang was abnormal. His robes were so magnificent that one would find it hard to believe that it was created by a man. He could fly despite being no older than 18 which meant he was already at the Forging Realm. But not even the core elders with their cultivations of the Refining Realm could detect the young man’s cultivation.

The worse possible scenario ran through their minds: Tai Huang is probably at the Immortal Realm, yet he’s so young. Any force capable of raising such a monster must be so mighty that they could crush the entire sect with but a single thought. And their Patriarch had openly defied Tai Huang’s order!

Tai Huang grew visibly angry and pointed a single finger at Zhu Que.

“Fine, I’ll just kill you all and then take the boy. It’s already stupid enough that I was forced to go on this pointless mission just because the Grand Seer felt something weird coming from that boy. But now you pathetic insects want to resist me as well?”

Pure black energy gathered onto his fingertip. A large crowd had gathered by now and every single one of them felt crippled by fear, as if that black energy was an abyss that swallowed everything and they would be next. The scarred elder quickly yelled, “Elders! Evacuate the students now!”

Regaining their senses, the elders began lifting large amounts of disciples with their qi and sending them away from the area. However it was far too late for many.

Tai Huang simply laughed at the sight below him and said, “Void Extermination: Convergence 10%.”

The deadly black energy instantly condensed into a single point and from it a single thin ray of black light shot out at blinding speed toward Zhu Que.

“Move Little Bird!” Zhu Que heard as he felt himself being pulled backwards. He saw his master take his former place, trying to stop the beam of qi that would undoubtedly annihilate all the disciples present if it hit.

“Soaring Dragon Burning Sky!”

A domineering dragon’s roar filled the sky as a dragon made of blazing white flames emerged from the elder’s hands to meet the black beam. The sky lit up brightly, temporarily blinding anyone under the Refining Realm just from the illumination.

The two earth-shaking martial skills met in the sky, sending out an enormous explosion of wild profound energy into the surroundings. Hundreds of disciples died instantly on the spot, their bodies vaporized into dust.

But after a second of clashing in the air, the black beam won and pierced through the flame dragon. It, however, was noticeably lighter and slower after emerging from the dragon. The elder coated his arms in white flames and received the attack by blocking. It caused another burst of energy that killed a few dozen more cultivators.

Nothing could be heard but the moans of the wounded. The spectators were all far too shocked to move or even scream in terror. Only the elders of the Refining Realm maintained their composure and continued to move disciples away before the next attack started.

Tai Huang raised an eyebrow at the elder, “Immortal Realm? And at the peak of it as well. I never expected that this backwater country would actually have someone like you. Too bad you’ll have to die here today. I shall kill you first and then your entire sect.”

The elder roared back at Tai Huang, “I dare you to try, brat! I swear upon my name as Bai Qiang that this sect shall never fall until I am long dead!”

His bravado brought hope back to the sect. With a peak level Immortal Realm cultivator, they believed they were invincible no matter who the enemy was. Bai Qiang, however, knew better. Soaring Dragon Burning Sky was his absolute strongest attack, yet it was unable to stop Tai Huang’s attack completely. This would be a difficult fight to win... or so he thought.

“Hah, you mongrel. You don’t know true power when you see it. Allow me to demonstrate just how worthless you are!”

Tai Huang circulated his cultivation and emitted it for Bai Qiang to see.

Immediately Bai Qiang’s face turned ghostly pale, “Y-y-you’re at the Exalted Realm? How is that possible? Just who are you?”

“Allow me to reintroduce myself,” Tai Huang said while doing a fake, insincere bow in the air, “I am Tai Huang, 3rd son of the main branch of the Tai Clan. 8th level of the Exalted Realm. 18 years of age, at your service. And you, you are about to die!”

He lifted his hand once more, this time using his entire palm.

“Void Vortex!”

Space itself abruptly began twisting in a spiral with Bai Qiang’s body as the origin. Nothing but horror showed on his face as he felt himself being wrung like a towel from the inside and sucked into the center of the vortex.

He knew that this was the end, Tai Huang was simply a monster. With deep sadness in his eyes, he looked over to his disciple for the last time and muttered, “I’m sorry Little Bird... I wasn’t able to protect the sect...”

With that, Bai Qiang’s entire body twisted in a spiral into a single point and completely disappeared from existence, consumed by the void.

Li Jie, who had been protected by Zhu Que the entire time, felt anger, despair, frustration, all sorts of feelings. Grandpa had died for him and now the entire sect would perish as well. He regretted not becoming stronger so that something like this could never happen.

Tai Huang turned his attention to Li Jie and the rest of the sect.

“Trying to evacuate the disciples huh? It won’t make a difference, I’ll just wipe this entire city out. And you, the boy with the red hair, I was told to bring you back alive, but I think I’ll just kill you instead.”

He gave a savage smile and lifted his finger for the last time. Black qi began gathering around him, many times denser than before.

“Void Extermination: Convergence 100%!”