Chapter 265: Punish The Saints
The growl pierced through the thin air and came loud and clear to everyone's ears. Hundreds of thousands of disciples, including the disciples who had received punishments at Mountain, and the inner disciples and outer disciples from the thirty-three peaks, felt the sound ringing in their ears at the same time.
“Who is that? Who made that horrible sound?”
“It's coming from the foot of the mountain. But why is it still so loud after traveling all this way? Is it a human sound?”
At that moment, the faces of many outer disciples turned ghastly pale. In their mind, the person who could roar that loudly must be someone out of legend.
The disciples from the thirty-three peaks were shocked into silence, and one could imagine how terrified the disciples around the arena were.
But the sound grew ever louder, this time it reached critical mass. The force of it knocked many disciples and even some masters down to the ground.
Only a few people could withstand it, like Rocher, Wing, and a few personal disciples. But their faces were all pale. Obviously, it cost them much life vitality to resist the horrible sound wave.
In fact, the sound wave was actually a form of highly condensed energy. Ninety-nine percent of the sound wave condensed into a bright yellow ripple, rushing directly into the arena and breaking the purple light into pieces.
At the same time, Johanson, who hid in the black shadow, stumbled and fell out from his hiding place. He was near the bright yellow ripple, and it was a devastating attack. Right now, his face was as pale as a piece of white paper. After he fell, he spat a mouthful of blood.
The sound wave was well aimed. It came precisely to its target without missing an inch. It suddenly disappeared after it smashed the purple light in front of Zen.
Zen was also affected by the force emitted from the sound wave, but not that seriously.
'Obviously, the shout is meant to stop the contest. But who did that? That thing is incredibly strong...' Zen thought. Shocked as Zen was, he felt fortunate that the sound wave wasn't aimed at him. If the sound wave just came at him, he would have been shredded by it.
In a short while, a middle-aged man appeared out of thin air, at first transparent, then very real, floating in the air. It was the leader of the Cloud Sect—Kenneth.
He was followed by Elder Xu.
“It is probably the leader who roared that way.”
“It's incredible. The roaring of the leader just saved Zen! But why did the leader help him?”
“Is this the real strength of the leader? It's stunning. If he hadn't gathered the sound and focused it that way, everyone would have died from it!”
At this time, the referees and the several elders all pressed their hands together and bowed to Kenneth, “Your grace!”
Zen raised his head and looked at Kenneth. He stood there silently, myriad feelings beginning to stir in him.
'The supreme level of the martial arts is indeed powerful beyond imagining. But when can I reach the level of the leader?' Zen wondered.
Kenneth glanced at Zen casually and then he said seriously, “Viana, Zara, you old mongrels, come on out here!”
The disciples were all confused now.
Viana and Zara? Was he referring to Saint Viana and Saint Zara, two of the ten great saints in the Cloud Sect?
Did the leader roar just because of them? Most of the disciples couldn't understand why the battle had anything to do with the two saints from the Cloud Sect.
Though the disciples of the Cloud Sect couldn't figure out what was happening, some Hall Chiefs and the elders had already had a clue.
The purple light released by Johanson just now was not really from him.
It was undeniable that Johanson was a talent and rare to be seen in this century. With his family's help, he also had very good chances at a good career.
But as a beginner of the Illuminating Soul Ream, how could he possibly release such mighty power?
In fact, at the moment the purple light appeared, several elders already saw that it was actually from Saint Zara.
The elders were worldly-wise and they all chose to keep silent to keep drama at a minimum. Although it violated the rules of the competition to cheat, Johanson was the personal disciple of Saint Zara, while Zen, he was only a talented warrior of humble birth. Who would take the risk to speak for a nobody?
But they were wrong. They had held their positions for a long time—maybe too long. Those saints and elders had already forgotten the original reason why the Cloud Sect was established.
As the holy place for martial arts in the Eastern Region, the Cloud Sect was not a place the saints and elders stood to profit or provided for their retirement. The purpose of the Cloud Sect was to look for talented disciples across the entire Eastern Region and send them to the Cloud Hall.
That was also the reason why Kenneth seldom handled the affairs in the Cloud Sect. But he had to be present in the All Peaks Competition that took place every three years. Because he needed to inspect the talents of the Cloud Sect and send the most brilliant stars to the Cloud Hall.
Zen, in his perception, was the most eye-catching pearl that he had met since he became the leader.
He even had the hunch that if Zen was sent to the Cloud Hall where galaxy of talents from all regions gathered, his talent would eclipse everyone.
Since the moment Kenneth noticed Zen's talent, he had kept watching every round that Zen joined with great interest. He had paid more attention to Zen than to those personal disciples who also displayed extraordinary talent.
One of the reasons was that Zen came from a humble family.
Kenneth himself was also from a humble background. He knew many of those personal disciples had all kinds of resources available when they started. While Zen's family had not much at all. He couldn't afford the best teachers, the fancy equipment. The only way he could have achieved as much as he did was through great talent.
However, the pearl that Kenneth treasured was under fatal attack from the saints of the Cloud Sect in full view of the public.
It not only disgraced him, as he was the leader, more importantly, it had actually crossed the line.
The faces of Saint Viana and Saint Zara went ghastly pale. They stumbled towards Kenneth, their calm, sage-like manner abandoned.
Seconds before, Saint Zara's fatal attack almost succeeded, and a smug smile already found its way to Saint Viana's face. In Saint Viana's eyes, Zen was a locust, a bug to be squashed, regardless of its skill at hopping around.
No matter how much strength Zen hid inside himself, there was no way he could live through a fatal attack from Saint Zara.
But just they were about to cheer, a roaring smashed the purple light from Saint Zara into pieces.
The moment they heard the roaring, their hearts trembled vehemently.
They realized that they were wrong, and they had made a big mistake.
Yes, it was true that no one would take Zen's side, not the elders, saints or Hall Chiefs. They had no reason to act against Saint Zara and Saint Viana in order to speak up for Zen. Moreover, they barely knew Zen, so it wouldn't do them any good to help him.
But they both forgot Kenneth.
Probably because Kenneth hadn't been around for a long time and he kept his hands out of the Cloud Sect's affairs.
That gave Saint Zara and Saint Viana the false impression that they could control everything in the Cloud Sect.
And their misunderstanding led to their bold plan of killing Zen at the All Peaks Competition.
“Your...Your grace...”
They cringed and bowed down to Kenneth.
“I don't know what gave you the nerve to do this. Did you suddenly become as stupid as dogs? Or you have already forgotten my existence? How dare you try to kill a contestant at the All Peaks Competition?” Kenneth scolded harshly.
“Oh, my goodness!”
It was not until they heard Kenneth's words that the disciples of the Cloud Sect realized what had happened.
It turned out that the purple light did not actually come from Johanson, but from Saint Zara and Saint Viana.
The ten great saints were all at the supreme level of the Illuminating Soul Realm, and the purple light was, of course, not something that Zen could resist.
But what exactly had Zen done that offended these two saints?
It seemed this was no longer important. The issue at hand was that Kenneth was extremely angry.
Those two saints were too shameless. They dared to attack a young disciple in the arena. The other disciples were all indignant about this. But the atmosphere was tense around the arena, and the nervous tension had stretched across a board. No one dared discuss it.
The disciples from the thirty-three peaks were pretty mad to know this.
Now the masters from the thirty-three peaks brought the top disciples to attend the All Peaks competition. The rest hundreds of thousands of disciples already watched the scenes through the Picture Slab. All the disciples, including the outer disciples and inner disciples, bristled with rage and their eyes flamed with anger.
“What's going on here? Why would saints kill someone at the All Peaks Competition?”
“It is said that the Cloud Sect has the strictest rules. I'm afraid that those rules are only applied to disciples like us. But the saints can do what they want!”
“Punish them, the way you would punish a disciple! They can't get off scot free, even if they are saints! They should be killed! Killed! Killed!”
The disciples of the thirty-three peaks were all filled with immense chagrin. But as the venue for the competition was far from the thirty-three peaks, no one possessed the ability to shout that far like Kenneth did.
“Your grace, please let me explain. It is true that I did interfere in the battle. But I lost my head. It was Saint Viana. He egged me on...” Saint Zara was not a cruel man in his bone. He did hesitate before he took action. And it was Saint Viana who pushed him to make up his mind.
“Zara, don't slander me. Johanson is your disciple. And you released the purple light to attack Zen. Why do you lay all this on me?” Saint Viana had no choice but try to keep himself clean from this matter. But as he spoke, he noticed the murderous look in Kenneth's eyes He suddenly realized that Kenneth was about to kill them!
They tried to assassinate a disciple in the fight during the All Peaks Competition, under the watchful eyes of all the disciples of the Cloud Sect. If no one got punished for this, the reputation of the Cloud Sect would be greatly harmed.
But what was the price for breaking the rules? The answer was obvious.
Thinking of this, Saint Viana suddenly flew into the air. He zoomed off into the distance.
Compared to Saint Zara, who tended to slowly consider everything from every angle, Saint Viana was a decisive and ruthless man. He knew that the only way he'd be able to stay was to face death. He figured if he could escape, maybe he'd stay alive.
Seeing Saint Viana fly away, Kenneth sneered. Then he raised his strong arm and suddenly thrust it into the air, aiming straight at the flying saint.