Chapter 136: Giant Puppets
Yves was a negligible sacrifice for the Pei Clan.
Zen had only managed to kill Yves, whose skills in the martial arts were considered to be the worst among these people from the noble clans. The fact that he was conceited enough to say he would kill anyone who crossed his path was absurd!
Laughter rang endlessly until the long-haired woman finally said, “Leon, kill the boy. Don't let me down. He killed Yves, so evidently, there's something strange about him. Just pay attention.”
Yves had been at the sixth grade of nature level, but Leon was at the eighth, which meant that the latter had more power.
Zen had killed Yves, who wasn't powerful enough. It incurred less contempt and wariness from the members of the noble clans. They thought that Zen only managed to kill one of their kin because he had been lucky.
But Leon Ye... Leon Ye was a lot stronger.
They told themselves that Zen was only half a step into the nature level. His good luck could not make up for the strength gap between him and Leon. According to the nobles, he was bound to be killed.
However, there were several of them sneaking interested glances at him. They were confused as to how this masked boy could kill Yves.
At the order from the long-haired woman, Leon rushed to Zen languidly.
Leon was different from Yves - the latter an unqualified assassin who talked too much.
On the contrary, Leon Ye was quiet and serious. He didn't underestimate any of his opponents. The masked boy might only be half a step into the nature level, but Leon would treat him as he would be a real enemy. He would not give the boy a chance to fight back.
“Sure...” Zen grew exasperated. None of the people listened to him. They just belittled and ignored him no matter what he did - whether he threatened, begged for mercy, or said anything else.
The only way to make them believe was to kill them. Only then would they understand that he wasn't to be trifled with and that they could not intimidate him.
Leon approached Zen strangely, keeping his intense eyes locked on his. The life vitality in his hands quickly morphed into two long green swords. Just about a dozen of feet away from Zen, Leon's movements turned peculiar. It confused everyone present as to why he was circling behind Zen, when his swords were about to stab the boy in the chest.
When Zen turned around, Leon leaped over him. His swords were brandished around his opponent, caging Zen and giving him no chance to escape.
“Death in All Directions!”
The motions of Leon's green swords seemed disorganized but he had successfully sealed all ways for Zen to retreat.
Leon, a man who never took things lightly, conjectured that Zen was doomed to die today. No one so far had survived Death in All Directions.
But as Leon swooped down on Zen with his pair of swords, he felt a sudden trickle of fear as he looked into his rival's eyes.
In the past, he had only seen dread, despair, or utter helplessness in his opponents' gaze...
This young man was different. His eyes twinkled with something akin to indifference and apathy, as if he didn't have a care about life and death. They lacked fear and seared him with a sense of calmness, and it led Leon to wrongly believe that the masked boy would not move an inch to fight him back, rather, he would die an unsung, cornered hero.
'Don't think foolishly! Just kill the guy. He is surrounded by Death in All Directions. He will die, no matter how he acts now!' In his heart, Leon managed to persuade himself of this.
However, as he got close to Zen, the latter smiled at him faintly. A sharp, yellow thorn took shape between his eyebrows and dashed out.
“Spiritual Thorn!”
Leon felt sharp pain shoot through him, unbearably bitter.
In severe pain, Leon couldn't concentrate on the fight for too long. The two green swords created out of his life vitality vanished into thin air.
Before Leon could figure out what had happened, a flying broken blade pierced into his forehead and gashed down through the rest of his body.
Warriors only got one chance to win a battle, so how could Zen let go of it? He killed Leon timely.
Dong!
Leon, a victim to the flying broken blade, fell to the ground lifelessly, an inanimate body torn into sharp edges.
“Goodness, it can't be true! Leon has been killed!”
“The kid is a menace!”
A few of them had been paying attention and noticed that Leon used Death in All Directions to attack Zen. He had been inexplicably suspended for a while, and the next thing they saw, the masked boy's flying broken blade had slashed right through him.
It was all so strange!
Leon was a well-known master, while Zen's flying blade was nothing special in front of him.
Why didn't Leon avoid it? Why did he wait foolishly for the broken blade to kill him?
Instantly, some of them realized that Zen was not to be trifled with. He was no easy rival.
So what if he was only half a step into the nature level? That had to be misleading. The Pei Clan had already sacrificed two of their members at the steep price of their own ignorance.
The long-haired woman frowned even as her eyes blazed. “We, the Pei Clan, will not send anyone else to fight. Who will come forward to kill him?”
“I volunteer. I have rarely seen such a tenacious young man. Let me give it a try!” The man who spoke was old and holding a dragon-shaped cane in his hand. He welted his cane on the ground several times and life vitality gushed out, igniting with a fierce flame.
The old man was at the level of the Illuminating Soul Realm.
Taking note of the eagerness in the man's words, the long-haired woman smiled ominously. “Mr. Huang,” she said. “It is deplorable to ask you, a master of the Illuminating Soul Realm, to fight this weak young man who's only half a step into the nature level!”
“It's nothing! I, Wilson Huang, never discriminate against anyone. This masked man's abilities are indeed strange. He slaughtered two members of the Pei Clan in a row like they were just lambs, which means that either he is quite powerful or just very lucky. I'll have to teach him a lesson personally!” Wilson tightened his grip on his cane, ready to fight Zen.
Zen ran his gaze on the figure of the old man and his cane, cautious now that he knew he was a master of the Illuminating Soul Realm. The elder was obviously leagues ahead of Zen.
He was aware that last time, Hugh had been narrowly killed by his Heavenly Ogre Fist. That was only because he had made a foolish mistake, giving Zen a chance to secure his victory.
If a master of the Illuminating Soul Realm played his cards right, Zen would have no chance against him.
Confronted with a master, Zen had no choice but to flee.
But before he could begin to make his escape, a tremor reverberated in the fairy palace.
The expression on the long-haired woman's face turned to stone. “Mr. Huang, give us a minute. There is something far more important to deal with.”
Wilson, who had suddenly grown cautious as he ambled over to Zen, nodded in reply. “All right, as you say. Seems there's something more urgent.” He lifted his chin at Zen. “As for your life, boy, it will be a piece of cake for me to kill you so long as you're in the fairy palace!”
The force of the tremors became stronger and stronger, as if an earthquake had hit them.
Soon after, a lightning leopard climbed over the huge square at the gates of the fairy palace, dashing quickly in their direction.
The speed of the lightning leopard was as quick as that of lightning. It was the fastest beast in the Eastern Region.
Many people admired the beast's awe-inspiring speed and were keen on paying a hefty price to keep it as a pet or spirit animal in their homes.
The lightning leopard must belong to one of the noble clans, but why was the ground quivering? With his gaze locked on the arch of the fairy palace, Zen grew wary.
The leopard sprinted through the arch, and soon, two giants were seen with maces in their hands, hastening after it.
The giants were like puppets without any vitality of their own.
In the Eastern Region, there were many creative and skilled craftsmen who could make sturdy puppets.
But no one could make such lifelike puppets who looked akin to real people. Not to mention, the two puppets were like sky-high mountains, about hundreds of meters in height. The ground vibrated heavily as they scampered forward.
Every time the ground shook, Zen and the other people were propelled up into the air. They fell to the ground intermittently as the puppets made their way.
Fortunately, everyone present here, including Zen, belonged to higher levels. They could have been killed by the mere tremors if they were ordinary people.
Compared to the two giant puppets, the running lightning leopard looked like a small ant slithering forward.
Peng!
One of the giant puppets hurled the mace in his hand toward the lightning leopard.
The lightning leopard was on the ball. As the huge mace was tossed forward for a hit, the leopard dashed forward like a flash of lighting and evaded the terrible thrash of the weapon.
Complementing the stature of the giant puppets, the maces were as huge as half mountains.
What would it be like to get struck by half a mountain?
With the mace acting as the center of a wheel, suddenly a shaky ripple of the tremor, almost visible to the naked eye, pulsed on the ground.
It was as horrible as the tsunami as it spread across the square.
“Goodness! My lightning leopard! If it gets caught in the shock wave, it would be killed! We wouldn't be able to get through the inner arch of the fairy palace!” A man cried out, apparently worried about the lightning leopard he had raised.