“Conceited punk”, mayor Deg muttered, thinking hard how to manipulate this predicament.
By basing Zax’s battle ability on the average fluctuations of dark attribute and potency of his killing intent, he did not fear him. Also, the lad was practically no one before he heard about him from his second nephew and met him now, therefore, at most, mayor Deg a.s.sessed that he should only be careful from the opponent’s remarkable recovery capability, which indicated that he was a bodily cultivator, that even the joint effort of the two Overlords failed to entirely exterminate.
The real issue was not exposing the existent of the dark attribute’s essences. There were many eyes currently watching the confrontation between the two of them. Mayor Deg was afraid that should the experts behind those eyes will discover that the source of the strife is in his family possession and are three dark attribute’s essences, the likes of which have never been seen before, they might forget the rules of the city…
At this time that mayor Deg contemplated his moves, Zax was counting in his heart. Going down from ten was enough time for the other party to comply, that was his bottom line, and afterwards, he will destroy all formation protected structures in the city and collect all spatial rings, regardless to whom they belong.
‘We can come into agreement’. Mayor Deg’s Sublime Soul Sense voiced in Zax’s sea of consciousness. ‘Gadik will return the Splinters, and the dark attribute’s essences, you will receive a fair price-’
Before he could finish the sentence, mayor Deg’s pupils contracted. Sensing a spike in the fluctuations of dark attribute and that the opponent is ready to make a move, he raised his wrinkled hand, from his spatial ring retrieving a long double edge sword. About to change into countering posture, he realized that the thing he concentrated on was an afterimage and Zax…
POUCHI!
Like a spear head, Zax’s darkened hand punctured mayor Deg’s abdomen, the old man’s dantian in his grip. It was a blow that harnessed all the dark attribute energy he could muster without transforming. Mayor Deg was an Intermediate second level Martial Mortal and though Zax could beat him in an attrition war, to win swiftly and without wasting time he had to rely on the element of surprise and not hold back.
“In-sane!” Mayor Deg stared in fright at the wriest which hand was buried in his stomach.
“Channel a hint of mist energy and I’ll tear apart your dantian!” Zax warned upon reading the expression of mayor Deg and realizing his intentions.
Mayor Deg stiffened, the look on his face turned ugly and blood trickled from the corners of his mouth.
“You are the patriarch of your family; this is your one last opportunity. I want all back! Everything! Otherwise…”
“You can’t. You have no idea with whom you are messing, boy! Ugh!” Mayor Deg growled and moaned painfully when Zax pressed his dantian with a bit of dark attribute energy. Still insisting, mayor Deg said. “Those I a.s.sociate with all have an agreement between us. Should one die by the hand of an outsider, the rest of us will chase the murderer restlessly until they are caught and killed alongside the loved ones, alongside anyone they ever had sentiment toward-” Mayor Deg coughed blood, his words of warning only made Zax tighten his hold on his dantian.
“I don’t care if you have the five powers behind-”
“No! Not the five powers! We may not be as strong, but we are also not as fickle! My acquaintances will surely avenge-” Again, Zax’s dark attribute energy began to a.s.sault the old man’s internals.
WHOOSH!
Zax flew, maintaining his hold on mayor Deg, in a few seconds he made it to the mayor office building.
“Look!”
From the ground, residents of Monivore city felt a gust of rancorous wind blowing. Shifting the gazes up they met a sight that caused all their hearts to sink.
“It’s mayor Deg!”
A woman in a skirt suit alarmingly called, pointing with her finger. She worked in the mayor office building and though mayor Deg rarely showed himself, she instantly recognized him.
“Who is that?!” Another person pointed at Zax. “Do something, mayor Deg is being wounded by that person!” He shouted at the two officers at the entrance to the mayor office building, but the duo was at loss. Is there something they can do against someone who subdued their almighty mayor? They quickly sent word through their communicators, asking for reinforcement.
“Old man, if I won’t find my stuff here, your family’s estate is the next destination and whoever we will find there… I’m curious how many lives you are willing to bear losing before surrendering!” Zax said, prepared to punch.
Mayor Deg powerlessly watched, always readying himself for Zax to lower his guard, always cautious not to stir him further and have his inwards ruined.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
…
The defensive formation of the mayor office building was as tough as the warehouse’s and even more complicated. On each of the one hundred and four floors of the building was an emergency power sources to reignite the formation if anything were to happen to it.
‘No! No! No! No!’ Zax was vexed. He had to search in a hurry a section of the building every time the formation collapsed, yet he never found where his spatial rings were hidden, at the best, there were couple of experts in the building with their own spatial rings. They seemed to notice Zax probing. Some allowed him to examine them, though not the content of their spatial ring, as that was impossible without handing them over. Others were a little bit lest content and raised a mantle to obstruct the Soul Sense.
“Listen to me well”, Zax spoke to those experts with spatial rings, but his voice reached all ears. “If you are in cahoots with Gadik or someone else from the Dewgong family, I suggest you submit yourselves now. The more aggrieved you make me feel, the more pain I’ll inflict!”
Zax warned and turned to mayor Deg. “You were awfully obedient till now. Is it because that you are patiently waiting for someone to come and save, or were you buying time for your family?!” His words were like whip, lashing at mayor Deg’s pride.
“So long as you don’t cross that line, an agreement can still be endorsed”. Mayor Deg said in a small voice. ‘Do you thing rampaging would help you finding their location?’ He sent via Sublime Soul Sense. Certain words could not be said out loud to avoid their hidden spectators from thinking too much.
Zax tacitly ignored mayor Deg. He, too, was aware of the several experts spying on them and the kind of problems that can arouse should they get involved. The most worrisome aura was conveyed from the direction of the Mercenary a.s.sociation’s branch. It was not weaker than mayor Deg’s and to make it worse, if there was an organization that knew better than the five powers what transpired in Demirva Ridge, than it would have been the Mercenary a.s.sociation.
The Dewgong family estate’s had no grand walls around it; only two acres of a lavish garden encompa.s.sing it and not one living soul could be seen outside the estate house.
“By the time you will break it they will arrive”. Mayor Deg duly, indicating the protective formation of the estate.
Zax measured the formation. Mayor Deg was saying the truth. “You’re right”. For the first time he spoke calmly, yet there was great meaning to his tone.
BANG!
He blasted mayor Deg’s internals and pulled out his arm, letting the pale and bleeding old man fall while trying to support his body with mist energy.
“You will pay-” Mayor Deg gathered his strength to get up on his knees and look up after hitting the paved ground. He was willing to trade his life for the dark attribute’s essences, the prestige that his family will gain after those second and third to him would absorbed them will be worth it, as well as his legacy. However, when he spoke those dreadful words and stared at the white menace, he suddenly had a bad premonition. ‘The fluctuations of dark attribute… how can they still grow stronger?!’ He was sure that Zax’s bodily cultivation was higher than his mist cultivation, high enough to catch off guard someone of his caliber, but not enough to acc.u.mulate so much dark attribute, neither by mist nor by body.
What little did mayor Deg know that Zax was actually stimulating the dark attribute worldly energy and that in fact it did not stem from him.
Zax’s physique changed, transformed… Dark t.i.tan Storm!
“W-wait!” Mayor Deg cried hoa.r.s.ely, for the first time weighting the worth of the trouble he permitted his second nephew to invite to the family.
“If this strike will manage to pa.s.s through, blood will be shed”. Zax said as a statement irrefutable even by him. He planned to punch with his full force to break the formation and was not sure if after succeeding he will then be able to draw back the overwhelming dark attribute energy before it reaching the estate.
…
Inside the Dewgong family estate.
The plumped yellow woman sat at the top of a long table, to her left sat a woman around fifty years of age, with brown skin, combed black hair and slanted eyes. Also around the table was a group of forty or so suited men and women, averaging in age from late twenties to probably eighty or older, in case some of them were cultivators.
“Great aunt Zoey”, a man sitting three seats from the plumped yellow woman turned to her in both urgency and respect. “The enemy is in the periphery of the estate’s formation, reports are coming that the patriarch was defeated. The guards in the observation point saying that the patriarch is severely wounded and the enemy flying above him, preparing to attack the formation”.
“Great aunt Zoey, you and the patriarch summoned all of us here because of this person? Who is he? What enmity does he have with our Dewgong family?” A woman six seats from great aunt Zoey asked. She, like the rest of the kin around her, was told to come to the family estate and bring their families with them. Now, outside the second floor’s Conference Room, among the seven floors of the large estate, were nearly a thousand Dewgong direct line family members.
At a seat besides the far edge of the table sat quietly a thirty looking man with short black hair and yellow complexion. The more he listened to everyone narrating the situation or trying to understand it, the more unpleasant his expression became.
Great aunt Zoey had yet responded to anyone. Her gaze, as well as the gaze of the woman by her left, shifted from one another, to the people talking to them and lastly to the thirty looking man at the edge of the table.
Finally…
“You all heard about the reason for the embargo to the Eastern Continent… An independent cultivator tried to cross the sea on his own only to return with the two Overlords at his tail, eventually sending his mutilated body drifting to the central sh.o.r.e, and now no ship dares to leave the its harbor because the two Overlords are squabbling to relieve their anger”. Great aunt Zoey opened and related the matter the in fashion she dimmed right.
Hearing her, everyone immediately settled down and perked their ears.
“A friend of mine told me that his rivaling shipping company set out anyway”, a young man, probably first time at the Conference Room’s table, raised his arm, saying. “But the two Overlords were not paying heed to the cruise ship’s formations. In the end, everyone onboard, without exception, were killed by a stray shot of one of the Overlords and the ship itself came back to sh.o.r.e as wreckages”.
Receiving a look of “I was not asking” from great aunt Zoey, the young man tacked his head between his shoulders and resumed his silence.
“The expert’s body was brought to the city’s morgue. He was a Martial Mortal, according to eye witness report that was done by the family, so a member of the family”, great aunt Zoey barely reached a halt before a few sets of eyes turned to look at Gadik with newfound realization. “WENT TO COLLECT HIS BELONGING”, magnifying her voice with mist energy, all eyes returned to her. “The expert left two high quality spatial rings. One had an amount of Splinters four times greater than the entire family’s earnings in the past decade. The other…” From resonating, great aunt Zoey’s voice steadied and became entranced by the recalling memory. “Had inside three dark attribute’s essences, not like any other I or great uncle have seen before. Great uncle tried to absorbed one but not only it repelled him; it also gave him a feeling that should he attempt twice and force it, he will extremely suffer for it”.
It was enough to mention the amount of splinters to make these prominent members of the family to make them shiver in their seats in disbelief. How could one person carry such a big fortune?
But then great aunt Zoey introduced dark attribute’s essences which even he patriarch could not absorb! A mere dark attribute’s essence frightened the exalted patriarch? Was sort of notion was that?! Only when several of them thought hard did they suddenly remember certain news that reached them through highly cla.s.sified channels…
“Great aunt Zoey!” An elderly woman, around the oldest looking people in the table, barged into the conversation, struggling to contain her amazement.
“Sui Xun!” Great aunt Zoey snapped at the elderly woman and the latter smacked her lips in response. “We suspect but did not confirm. Husband ordered to accept the three dark attribute’s essence as they are, a treasure without a past! Clear?!”
“Yes!” Some responded verbally, others by nodding. Those who made the same a.s.sumption as Sui Xun understood best the risk of calamity and so somberly erased all thoughts related to the dark attribute’s essence, leaving them to the patriarch, great aunt Zoey and the woman sitting next to her to figure how to deal with them.
“Is the person outside also know about them…?” An elderly man that sat next to Sui Xun gathered the resolve to ask.
At the edge of the table the thirty looking man clenched his fists, to stop himself from shaking. “No”, he said before great aunt Zoey took the burden. “He is the expert whose body was ravaged by the two Overlords, the owner of the two spatial rings I took”.