Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

He lost in the effort to kidnap her. He lost when he instigated the Martial World"s authority and attempted to coerce her into his forces, losing a decently talented disciple, Irene, in the process. But compared to the most aggravating instance, the first two losses he took were hardly worth mentioning.

"The Martial Tournament," simply recalling what he had lost in the tournament made Jhan"s blood boil.

"All these years, the balance of power between Atid and I has been the same," Jhan repeated to himself whenever the frustration he felt nearly drove him to insanity. "Our power and prestige have always been the same and as a result, Miami was split between our two Factions."

"However…" Jhan"s ordinarily sinister-looking eyes would redouble in hatred as he continued his train of thought, "With her achievements in the Martial Tournament, everything I"ve built up has crumbled. My underlings? Gone. My reputation? Irrelevant. All I have left is my Cultivation and even that is worth less than s.h.i.t after that b.i.t.c.h has become untouchable."

While Elizabeth"s ident.i.ty as a member of the Keter Faction remained a secret to everyone besides Elizabeth"s close group of confidants, the other ident.i.ty she had been awarded after championing six t.i.tles in the Martial Tournament was just as great of a deterrent against Jhan"s intentions of getting revenge.

"The Celestial Phenomenon which I once thought of as a great boon, my sure-fire way to true immortality, now dangles in my face in mocking temptation," Jhan sneered.

"To continue with my ambition, I"ll have to start over," he would always solemnly promise himself, "But before that, I"ll do whatever I can to mess with that Elizabeth Ultimatia…"

It would be over a month after the Martial Tournament when all the cards fell into line with Jhan"s plans. During the time he was quiet, Atid and Luca would occasionally hear word of his actions. Of course, with Jhan being equally strong as Atid and even sneakier than Luca, only the most benign of his actions would slip into Luca"s network of intelligence gathering.

Jhan would sometimes be spotted in different states within the United States, sometimes he would be in other countries. He had been caught visiting a broker of information. Even his attempt at starting a new life by getting rid of his long red hair and starting a new Faction with a Minor Sect in Africa had been reported.

However, when Jhan finally decided to strike, he did so with the force that quickly reminded everyone of how terrifying he could be.

The first phase of his plan began with a bold a.s.sa.s.sination attempt in broad daylight. Right around noon, when Atid was still within the presumed safety of his dojo, Jhan had struck with the intention to kill. Through methods unknown to the members of Atid"s Dojo, Jhan bypa.s.sed the Defensive Arrays of the dojo and even managed to infiltrate the building at its busiest time of the day.

Had Jhan"s target that day been anyone other than Atid, there might have been untold damage done to the Faction. However, Atid wasn"t Jhan"s rival without reason.

Though he had been severely injured in the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, caught completely unaware until fractions of a second before he had been attacked, Atid pulled through and used the threat of mutual death to get Jhan to leave. The arrays within the Dojo weren"t all defensive in nature, after all.

Yet even after failing to take Atid"s life, Jhan had succeeded in accomplishing his goal. With the world changing and the standard of Cultivation on Earth increasing, Jhan didn"t even have to organize anything extravagant for news of his attack on Atid to spread like wildfire. Even the dozens of now spiritually attuned civilian non-pract.i.tioners around Atid"s dojo could bypa.s.s it"s outdated Mortal Grade Illusion Arrays, to say nothing of any nearby scout for a Sect or Guild.

From the start, Jhan"s goal was just to cause a bit of chaos and prove that with his power he could heavily damage Atid"s Faction. Killing the man would have been nice, but given both men"s understanding of the other"s abilities, Jhan didn"t have high hopes.

Either way, with the news going around, it didn"t take long for the second phase of Jhan"s plan to succeed smoothly. Soon after the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, word of it reached Jane"s ears and given her past with Jhan…

Suffice to say that for a time, everyone at the Beach Resort in j.a.pan understood exactly how she felt. The sheer density of her killing intent after breaking through to the Spirit Realm left many of Elizabeth"s Mage Apprentices feeling a bit colder from hundreds of meters away, and that was with the killing intent spreading without a direct target.

Knock, knock, knock.

Jane could hear Liam"s voice from the hall by her room say, "Are you alright in there?"

At the time, despite her incredibly wrathful state, Jane still had the wherewithal to open the door and talk to Liam calmly.

"I"m… not alright. There"s an issue I need to take care of back home," Jane said.

After breaking through to the Transcendent Foundation Stage, she had been cultivating with Elizabeth"s Supreme Duality Spirit Vein for close to a week and had thus managed to build her reserves up with 15 Spiritual Pillars.

"That f.u.c.ker Jhan," Jane thought. Her eyes narrowed as she reasoned, "He"s only been in the Spirit Realm for a month or two longer than me. Even if his Cultivation Base is greater, I should still be able to give him a good fight and escape if things get too dangerous."

With her mind made up, she went to lock up her room as she addressed Liam, saying, "If anyone asks, tell them I"m visiting the Dojo Master of my Faction." As she spoke, she produced some writing supplies from a talisman and affixed a simple note to her room"s door.

"Oh?" Liam rose a brow at Jane"s response. "You wouldn"t be planning on solving this problem of yours with violence now, would you?"

Unable to gauge Liam"s intention based on the expressionless tone he spoke with, Jane still-facing her door said, "Something like that."

"Cool," Liam smirked, "Then, why don"t you let me tag along and see if I can solve it for you? Ever since Master Yrre left with Ellie, I haven"t been able to get a good fight."

"Sorry kiddo, but this is a personal matter." Jane turned to face Liam. A bit of her unabashed killing intent returned as she coldly said, "If anyone is going to fight that f.u.c.ker, it"s going to be me. He"s had it coming for a long time…"
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As Jane moved to leave, she felt a hand on her shoulder stop her. After looking over her shoulder, she was met with Liam completely ignoring all her nonverbal cues to back off.

"Let me come along anyway," Liam solemnly said. "I won"t get in your way if you don"t want me to. It"s just, this whole situation sounds pretty dangerous if it can get a reaction like that out of you."

"Hmph," Jane snorted.

"Whatever," she shrugged his hand off her shoulder.

With their speed and connections, Jane and Liam would cross half the planet in only a matter of hours. Though, unlike Elizabeth, who could fly incognito by virtue of her s.p.a.ce Shifting Skill, the two had to request flying permits, lest they mistakenly get identified as Vymling invaders by the newly rising Federation Armies, Sects, and Guilds.

…

After reaching Miami, Jane and Liam were warmly received by the disciples of Atid"s Dojo. However, no one could prepare for Jane"s reaction upon catching sight of Atid"s injuries after she had finally been led to his resting room.

Liam, in particular, was left speechless as he felt through his Spiritual Sense that about half the residents on the dojo"s second floor were instantly rendered unconscious. Though, after seeing Atid"s state for himself, he wouldn"t call her reaction uncalled for.

"Sophie," Jane"s frigid voice, though quiet, clearly resounded in the room as she asked, "Which idiot was in charge of reporting Atid"s injuries to me? Since they clearly don"t know the difference between serious injuries and crippling injuries… I wouldn"t mind personally explaining it to them."

"Heh," Atid chuckled. He was undoubtedly happy that Jane cared enough to direct such an unsightly killing intent towards Jhan. Though, before she lost her reasoning, he said, "These are far from crippling injuries, Jane."

a.s.sisted by his True Qi, he managed to easily stand up on his sole left leg to properly greet her as he continued, "I may have lost an eye and a leg, but my Spiritual Sense and dense True Qi more than make up for it."

"Motherf.u.c.ker!" To everyone in the room, Jane"s response bordered on hysteria until they realized Jane had already started attacking.

Jane"s Evergreen Copper Sword met a shadowless crimson dagger.

"Good thing you came to me," Jane venomously spat, "Saves me the trouble of having to search for you, Jhan."

"Whew," Jhan whistled in mock-appreciation as he said, "I must be getting rusty if some snot-nosed brat like you can detect me like this."

Yet, opposed to his commentary, internally he was now extremely wary of Jane. He thought, "Just what has this girl done to raise her Cultivation so quickly?"

He wasn"t an idiot. Just yesterday he managed to succeed in sneak attacking Atid despite being in his domain. But now, Jane had almost instantly discovered him? Clearly, she was dangerously sharp.

"Rusty or not, you"re f.u.c.ked," Jane said.

In the blink of an eye, Jane engulfed Jhan and herself in an icy prison laced with enough Yin and Ice Qi to kill an average Transcendent Foundation Stage Cultivator in seconds. Of course, seconds in a fight at that level might as well have been hours as it would only take fractions of a second for dozens of attacks to be exchanged.

Still, Jhan remained within the icy prison for longer than he needed, in order to properly gauge Jane"s strength. He unleashed a Deathly Aura like that of Elizabeth"s s.p.a.cetime Barrier which ground the Ice and Yin Qi around him to the point of immunity before thrusting his dagger at Jane again.

As a Cultivator of the Extreme Path of Spirituality, Jane, unfortunately, wasn"t equipped to deal with Jhan"s maximum physical strength. Jhan may not have used all of his physical strength during his a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, but during their head-on fight, Jane knew she would be in an uphill battle if they kept locking swords.

It also didn"t help that they were fighting in a small room and with several of her allies around, Jane couldn"t display even half her total strength. With Jhan"s experience, he quickly found a way to exploit this weakness.

His superior Energy Cultivation Base of 20 Spiritual Pillars and impressive Understanding of Death rapidly nullified the source of Jane"s strength, her True Qi.

It would take less than a hundred exchanges for Jhan"s dagger to snake its way through Jane"s declining defense and threaten her jugular.