"Who is he? Where did he come from?""Look at his robe, he"s an inner disciple."
"So you are one of the inner disciples. How dare you barge into us?"
"Wait. Think. How can a disciple of the inner section just appeared from nowhere? From the thin air."
"Maybe it"s a disguise. An enemy?"
"Enemies can"t enter these premises without the elders and acolytes knowing."
"Must be a disciple then. But how?"
"Let"s check on him first, i don"t think he"s in a good condition. We"ll find out soon."
They slowly approached the place where he was still lying on the ground with blood streaking from the corner of his mouth. When they have neared him enough to see clearly, one of them, a female disciple from the house of water, quickly moved to Jufeng side to a.s.sist him.
"Be careful Su Ming, we still don"t know if it"s a trap or not."
"I know him. He"s one of the inner disciples."
"Are you certain, Su Ming?"
"Yes i am. He was the disciple watching the combat training between Li Qiang and w.a.n.g Lei. He was the one acting weirdly outside the training area."
Su Ming answered as she put a yellow medicinal pill into Jufeng"s mouth and guided it down his throat.
"Okay then. I think we can all relax now."
"So, how did he turn out from thin air?"
"Not now Quan Zhi, he"s seriously injured. We should inform the elders"
Then, all of them started to feel the presence of a vigorous force-field. Slowly, they began to brandish their weapons. They had the urge to run but they knew they couldn"t outrun whatever it was that was approaching them.
"Who is there?"
"Are you a friend or an enemy?"
"Show yourself."
"Really? Show myself? How commanding. Hmm, i like that. Alright, i will show myself."
The force-field cotracted and a transparent image of a mutated human appeared.
"Okay, this is the best i can do. I had to drop the acolyte body i was using. You see, i can"t show the real me even if i want to. Though i doubt you wil like the look anyway. Hehehe."
The audible sound of laughter emanated from the vibrating energy field.
"A friend or enemy? Let me see, since I"m looking forward to killing you, i believe that makes me an enemy? Hahaha. Yes you should also inform your elders but of course, you can"t because you are already inside my force-field. They can"t even see you or hear you no matter what you do. Do you want to know why? The Golden Phantom Seal. Yes, the heavenly level seal. Do you even know how many years it took to make it? You will sympathize with me if you do. But at least, there was joy in its making. Do you want to know why? It was made using the heavenly ghost seeds, golden cores of murdered Jindan cultivators, cores and jellies of the invisible deep sea worms, the core and blood of the mirage hare and some other stuffs you can"t find in your world. What? Why are you all looking as if you"ve seen a Revenant? Oh, ok. I am a Revenant. So what? Are you not humans too? You see, you are humans and i"m a revenant. No big deal. Hehehe."
More sound of laughter from the force-field.
"I was in a good mood all day, not trying to kill any cultivator today i guess. I was only trying to locate the exact position of the Sinnughar core. The core of a primordial beast you can"t even imagine inside your little heads. The core belonged to the mighty Foremost, Kamirhia, the ultimate ruler of the Phantom realm but was stolen by a filthy thief. I was finding it when that foolish boy walked into my force-field, stepped on the seal and disrupted my force-field. What a pity, I should have killed him with my own hands. He"s dead anyway. Back to the business on hand, where was i?"
Quan Zhi was a core disciple of the house of fire, hence he had the opportunity to choose a powerful fire technique from the sect ancestral fire mystical techniques. He had chosen and was learning the Meteor World fire technique. Fire was already violent and angry in nature. This fire technique took violence and anger of fire to the another level especially if completely mastered. Quan Zhi stared intently at the area of the force-field and initiated his most powerful move.
"From heavens above comes the blaze and from the crust below comes the fire. Meteor World."
Immediately, circles of fire enclosed the area of the force-field, from up and down. Hundreds of flaming meteorites battered the force-field endlessly from the inside of the circles for few seconds before being torn apart.
"Are you disappointed? Aww, don"t be, you are just a Presider, an evanesce core cultivator afterall. How can you, in this obviously insane universe, compare to me? Oh, are you wondering how i know? The light of your aura is green gold, which means you are not yet a Jindan. Which means that i don"t need your filthy core. Next person? n.o.body? Okay then, my turn."
But before he could finish his words, everything seemed to freeze in place. The s.p.a.ce around the force-field was contorted.
Shao Cheng was using all his might to hold the s.p.a.cetime in place. Being the number one genius of the Last-Sword sect and a disciple of the house of s.p.a.cetime, he was given the chance to choose the very best technique and he had gone with the Woven Dimensional technique. It was a difficult and time consuming technique to learn. But, it was a very powerful technique.
Shao Cheng had used his most powerful move, the Two Dimensional Steps. With one step, the opponent will enter the frozen s.p.a.ce, another step and the opponent"s soul will be stuck in time becoming a living statue. The soul will forever be in continuum until the body is shattered.
Few seconds after, the s.p.a.ce was shattered and the force-field area returned back to normal.
"How intriguing. You must be a late-stage Presider, an evanesce core, yet you can almost display the strength of an early Jindan, the weakest Jindan by the way. How can you compare to the wonder called myself? But, it was still interesting to see. Maybe i will take your core afterall. You, come to one side and stay. Not that you have any other choice, or do you?"
Shao Cheng moved to the right side and stayed like a statue.
The revenant turned to the others and found himself holding the Sinnughar core. Smile broke over his face and held the core high up.
"At last, i have the core. Now i can go home to a befitting welcome and many rewards. Hahaha."
Li Ling couldn"t hold the move any longer. How could she? She was only an evanesce core cultivator of the house of dreams and illusion. As a genius core disciple, she had taken the Ultimate Mirage technique. Now, she was using her most powerful technique, the Dream Life. But she was using it against a much more powerful opponent. Blood was streaking down the corner of her mouth and her strength was leaving her.
The Dream Life sorrounding started to flunctuate.
"Ahhh. What? An illusion? Incredible. I"ve heard about the power of your kinds, now, i have witnessed it for myself. Truly magnificent. Are you sure we are not related? Is your father a revenant? Or is it your mother? No? Such a pity. We could have been friends, dreamcaster. Ah. That"s me sighing. For me to be remembering you, i will take your core with me. I believe that"s good enough or what do you think? You can come to the side too."
Li Ling was invisibly dragged to Shao Cheng side and remained like a statue too.
Su Ming couldn"t think properly. Why was this happening? Where are the elders? What of the sect"s security? Was she going to die like this? Her parents. Her clan. They"ve all contributed for her to be in this sect. How would they take her death? No, she could not afford to die.
While the revenant was still dealing with Li Ling, Su Ming took out her ancestral heirloom, the Arroros needle. She knew she wasn"t at the level of using it but she couldn"t simply wait to be killed without doing anything. She also removed a seal from her bag, imbued all her Chi energy and her intention into the seal. She put the Arroros needle on the seal, put some of her blood on the needle and seal before launching it in the direction of the revenant.
The moment the revenant turned, it was surprised to see a giant, dangerous looking needle flying towards him because he wasn"t expecting another sudden attack. He could feel the power and intent behind the needle. Definitely, a nascent soul level at the least or an ascendant. This was a formidable opponent. How could a Presider use a nascent soul attack? SEAL! A seal. She must have used a seal.
In an instant, he took out his weapons too. Two transparent saber swords made from the fangs of a primordial dragon-like beast. The force-field grew stronger and was vibrating with a buzzing sound. He sent a wave of invisible attack towards the aprroaching needle.
The giant needle with an immense power that was causing the s.p.a.ce to flunctuate collided with the invisible attack and the sound of the impact was like that of a dragon thunder.
Su Ming was knocked flying to the side but was still inside the Golden Phantom Seal locked area. She could feel her legs paralyzed, hands twisted and was vomitting blood profusely. She knew she had come to the limit of herself and couldn"t take any more attack. The revenant too was knocked few steps back.
The needle had splitted into one thousand needles and formed the Thousand Water Cycle. But the Chi energy had run out of the seal causing the needle to shrink and return back to Su Ming.
But the disruption caused by the needle was enough for the grandelder to discover the location of the disturbance and sent his sword in the direction. Asenys, a luminous sword, was one of the several artifacts created by the first of the Cosmic divines, the three pure ones and was only inferior to a divine weapon. A s.p.a.cetime weapon that it was, it locked the position of the disturbance and immediately appeared inside the golden phantom area. It warped the s.p.a.ce and shattered the seal making the whole area visibly manifested.
The disciples who had been pa.s.sing through the place without noticing anything had to scramble away when they saw the area manifesting out of thin air.
The luminous sword continued towards the revenant causing s.p.a.ce rifts to appear arround.
The revenant expression changed when he saw what was happening.
"A luminous treasure?"
How is this even fair? How many cultivators he had to kill before he could have these pair of sabers? And they are only heavenly treasures.
He quickly used the his teleportation seal. But he wasn"t teleported beyond the sect"s premises.
"Hm, why am i still here?"
"You can escape from this place, revenant. The whole place is under Heavens Gate lock. I believe you never saw that coming. How can you think of leaving after what you"ve done?"
"Phantom Whispers."
Without waiting for more words, the revenant took out his sabers and sent out his attack. Thousands of whispering phantom heads raced towards the grandelder.
The grandelder brandishing his luminous sword launched his own attack.
"s.p.a.ce Walls."
Pillars of emptiness manifested and collided with the phantom heads to produce a wailing screams. The phantom heads dissipated into nothingness and the s.p.a.ce walls disintegrated too.
"Revenant, i don"t have the time to play hide and seek with you."
The grandelder let go of the sword in his right hand. He clasped his right hand over his left hand that had been holding a seal.
"End Time."
The revenant could feel something was wrong. He tried to teleport again but it wasn"t working. He knew his life was in danger so he quickly took out his life saving talisman. He was activating his life saving talisman when the sword had appeared at his front locking him in place but he had managed to activate the talisman.
"I hate this stupid world."
The sword started to rotate and like emptiness pa.s.sed through the revenant. Totally obliterating him but his soul managed to escape into limbo. He would have millions of years for his soul to find a way out before his soul enter reincarnation. He would take the chance. When he comes out, he would do his own "end time" on that stupid human. He only hoped the souls here don"t drive him crazy before escaping.
Meanwhile, at the other side of the premises.
Elder w.a.n.g Xiu was the first to appear in front of them. They didn"t even know if it was teleportation or steps. They only saw him appeared from the thin air. Why was everybody appearing out of the thin air?
She bent down to check on Jufeng who was still lying on the ground. She put one hand on his forehead and the other on his chest and started sending healing energy into him. She moved to attend to Su Ming who was also unconscious. She was doing this, when the other elders started to arrive.
"w.a.n.g Xiu, what happened?"
"What caused the disturbance?"
"I just arrived too and saw this."
They brought all the disciples to the haven and placed both Jufeng and Su Ming on the large mat at the center of the haven.
As they were placing them on the mat, the grandelder suddenly appeared. He was in meditative seclusion when he felt the slightest energy vibration. The energy that was sent out when Jufeng walked into the force-field and was sent out flying. It was so minute that he almost missed it but it"s resonance with his Jumping Spider talisman, a heavenly artifact, made him to detect it. He had left his seclusion to look for the source but couldn"t locate it. He knew something was wrong but couldn"t put his fingers on it but he had waited on top of his mountain with his spiritual sense covering the whole premises. He had hoped for another slightest vibration.
He knew that it couldn"t be a cultivator inside the sect premises that initiated the course of the manifestation of this energy. He had seen this type of energy before. It had to be a Revenant. He had prepared the seals in case of confrontation because revenants were very difficult to deal with. Especially those at the Hegemon level. He could loose his life if he wasn"t careful hence he had prepared more than necessary.
He looked gravely concerned at Jufeng and Su Ming that were being placed on the mat. With one step, he appeared beside them. He quickly checked Jufeng"s condition, took out a pill and pushed it into his mouth before doing the same with Su Ming.
"w.a.n.g Xiu, take the girl into the Seven Spirit pool. Give her the bloodroot pill every hour. She"s lucky to be alive."
Elder w.a.n.g Xiu carried Su Ming to the pool room and placed her inside the pool. She sat beside her holding the medicinal pills she would be administering every hour.
In the haven, the grand elder look at Jufeng and sighed.
"We are fortunate we didn"t loose any cultivator today. We have to be extra vigilant from today onward. Good things there are energies working inside his body to repair the damage already. The damage was serious enough to be a mortal wound, as a Zhuji cultivator, he should have been dead. He"s surely stronger than he looks and the Crust Yellow pill really helped him at that time if not he could have died."
"Crust Yellow pill?"
"Su Ming gave him the yellow pill."
Shao Chen who had found his voice, said slowly.
All the elders turned to look at the other three disciples. They had forgotten about them.
"Well, she really saved his life."
"He will live. Take him to the misty fountain. Keep giving him a drop of the life elixir every hour."
The grandelder glanced at Jufeng again. He was wondering how a Premier, a Zhuji cultivator, could survive a Revenant force-field. It wasn"t something that a Premier should be able to achieve in the first place.
He turned to the other three remaining disciples.
"Did you see what happened?"
"Yes grandelder. We tried our best but he was too strong."
"He said he was looking for the Sinnughar core."
"The Sinnughar core? I see."
"We thought we were going to die."
"We are truly sorry for what you went through. Take these pills and go wash yourselves in the lake of streamlight. I will see you all after that."
"Yes grandelder." The three of them replied at the same time and left the haven.
The grandelder with his hands behind his back and a shake of his head turned to the remaining elders.
"We are truly fortunate."
"What happened grandelder?"
"It was an ascendant level revenant."
"What?"
"How?"
"It was a long story. I should have told you this before now."
Then, grandelder started to narrate the events that took place.