Chapter 188 - Result
The runes scattered, regathered and formed a miniature star-like orb. the dense surge of cosmic energy, instead of entering Ye Wei’s body, rushed into the orb.
‘Did you just saved my life again?’ Ye Wei thankfully looked at the pond. He felt exhausted and, yet, exalted. His white robe was stained red from blood and soaked with sweat.
The young Runemaster was full of questions. He quietly looked at the fist-sized orb, feeling the runes and energy flow within, ‘what is this? It feels like a stance, is it safe?’ His hand hovered forward, hesitant to touch it.
“Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!”
The orb engulfed the raging cosmic energy, and it grew to the size of a large melon. The runes inside it were twinkling, whizzing and swirling. It took only ten minutes before the white light pillar disappeared and was consumed by the star orb.
The orb was filled with runes, but Ye Wei could not feel any energy disturbance.
“What are you?” Ye Wei took a deep breath. He wrapped the orb with his will-force, attempting to figure out the unknown object’s properties.
“Zoom!”
Upon contact with Ye Wei’s will force, the orb transformed into an elongated shape and began to squirm. After seconds of pulsing, the light orb turned into a human form.
Ye Wei stared at the bright shape. He could see its face was featureless, but its stature and height reminded him of himself.
“Buzz! Buzz!”
The bright shape became more defined; features could be discerned. It’s fuzzy aura simmered. Its eyes slowly opened. It stared right back at Ye Wei, acknowledging his presence.
“This is…” Ye Wei widened his eyes. He was startled by the clone of himself that was standing just inches away.
An unprecedented weird feeling overwhelmed Ye Wei. Not only did the bright figure look the same as himself, he felt that he had grown extra limbs.
Ye Wei wiggled his toes a dozen times. He could see and feel the clone was mirroring his movements. After a few more shrugs and shakes, he learned to control the clone’s movement without moving his own limbs.
‘Right uppercut!’
“Bang!”
The star clone’s right fist immediately flew forth and up. It tore through the air with immense momentum.
Although now a seven-star condensed prime Warrior, Ye Wei was knocked back ten meters by the blazing wind stirred up by the clone’s punch.
“By the sages name!” Ye Wei expressed an air of utter shock on his face; his eyes stared at his star clone, ‘it is as strong as a returned prime Warrior even without the Supernova stance!?’
Ye Wei then made his clone use a few hand seals, but no runes came out. ‘Oh, that’s a shame!’ He was slightly disappointed by his clone, but, overall, he felt positive discovering such a powerful perk that came with the Supreme Falling Star form.
Ye Wei sat himself down and manipulated the star clone to do the same. He saw that the clone technique would have room for improvement once he became stronger.
“Lu Qianying, I don’t know how you survived the last time. But I will personally make sure you don’t live through our next encounter!” With his fist tightly clenched, he felt his newfound strength. This new strength enlivened him to make such a daring proposal that last time he saw Lu Qianying he would have never made.
He felt like a new man, and, in some ways, he was. Now, he was a seven-star condensed prime Warrior who had just absorbed the cosmic energy. He felt confident to be able to defeat Lu Qingying under the third Supernova Evolution’s effect.
In a combat situation, he would be capable of taking on multiple returned prime Warriors with the light clone in play.
‘The light clone will be my hidden aces! If I could find a way to improve it, I will literally be twice as strong as I am!’
“Now let’s get things done!” Ye Wei set his eyes on the clone and blinked. It shrank back to a small ball shape again. The twinkling orb then flew back into Ye Wei’s head.
As Ye Wei broke through to become a seven-star condensed prime Warrior, his will-force detection reach expanded to a fifty-mile radius while boosted by the mystic mount presence in his Sentient.
‘Ha! Cowards!’ He could feel that the Lu’s were close to each other unlike the last time they searched the area. “Strength in numbers indeed!” Ye Wei joked to himself sarcastically.
“Swoosh!”
Ye Wei stomped the ground. He suddenly turned into a flash of light and left the Drakehead area. There was no fear in his mind. He knew he was the hunter not the hunted.
***
“We are going eastward!” Lu Qianying was frustrated. He was struggling to balance speed with safety.
“That little bastard is somewhere around here!” He said viciously. There was nothing he wanted more than to avenge the Lu’s condensed prime Warriors by redeeming himself. This would only be done by capturing Ye Wei.
“You can hide but your family can’t! They are sitting ducks!” Lu Qianying’s cry echoed throughout the woods, “you too, are going to die with them! If you keep hiding, I will make sure our men break every bone in your body and flay every inch of your skin when we have you cornered!”
Since his recovery, Lu Qianying had shifted his anger onto the Ye family because Ye Wei was nowhere to be found. Although he was ordered not to make a move, he consistently started rumors about the Ye’s and supported the Ye’s rivals with weapons and scrolls.
Despite Master Yi’s involvement in defending the Ye’s, a few cultivators from the Ye family were injured and hurt in seemingly random brawls and feuds.
“You know what? I heard the Ye’s ancestral grave is close by. We should have a look over there!” the chubby elder pointed his fingers to the Drakehead’s direction.
At the beginning of the search Lu Qianying was convinced that Ye Wei could still be close to the North Barren Mountain range, but after a long thought, he realized defending the Ye’s land could have been one of Ye Wei’s many reasons for wandering in the bay area to begin with.
The Lu’s men were all on their toes, they knew that the elder was stressed even on the verge of losing his sanity. They were just taking one order at a time. No matter how silly it may seem, they were not willing to argue or discuss strategy with their unreasonable leader.
“Lu Qianying, you are a lucky one aren’t you?” A beckoning voice sounded in the Lu’s ears, “I really thought you died after you were sneezed on by the horse!”
“You little dog!” Lu Qianying’s face flushed flaming red as if someone slapped him. He did not expect to be called out on something he was ashamed of.
None of the Lu’s apart from the family council knew that he was gravely injured by a wild beast. The team of condensed prime Warriors were all shocked.
“So the sighting reports were legitimate!?”
“We are under equipped!”
They all looked at their leader, the chubby elder. Resentment appeared in their eyes. Their respect and fear for their leader turned into doubt and nervousness.
“You bastard! I have been waiting for you!” Lu Qianying’s face contorted. His bloodthirsty smile widened. “Show yourself you mouthy coward!”
Despite the infuriating comments, Lu Qianying did not mind that Ye Wei appeared in the Bay area at all, to him it was almost a gift. He planned to make the illegal act of killing a Seven New Rune member look like an accident and blame it onto the breast and demons if ever questioned.
The cubby elder looked up at the canopy of the woods where Ye Wei’s voice came from. He was boiling up; the idea of a violent revenge put a twisted smile on his face.
Without moving a muscle, a pulsing wave of golden Qi bursted out of Lu Qianying’s body. It swept the leafy ground and rose along the trees.
“Kushuuu!”
The thick trucks swung vigorously, but Ye Wei stood steadily on top of one of the shaking trees as if nothing happened.
Ye Wei coldly glared down at the chubby elder. His face was stoic; he acted as if he hadn’t heard a word. His arms folded behind his back, a sequence of runes leaked out his body. The temperature around him drastically dropped.
The young Runemaster was less than pleased with Lu Qianying’s threatening words, but he was not going to argue or reason with the Lu. Instead, he was going to express his antipathy with action.
“Words won’t save you or your men.” Ye Wei mutter impassively to himself. He was tired of the retaliating Lu’s.
The runes around Ye Wei suddenly disappeared and turned into an invisible shockwave, blasting down onto the ground.
Lu Qianying was not affected by the shockwave, but his men’s faces turned pale. Despite their best efforts, they were struggling to stay on their feet.
“All of you are an embarrassment to the family name!” The elder shouted, dissatisfied. Seconds laters, he could feel the shockwave intensifying. ‘What!? This kid was no stronger than a ten-star condensed prime Warrior just days ago!’
“What happened boy? Did your master give you some pills to take!?” Lu Qianying shouted at Ye Wei and then turned to his men, “don’t be scared! We outnumber him!”
Actually, Lu Qianying did not care about his men living or not. His heart was, clouded by hatred, and he cared little for anything else than eradicating the reason of his humiliation.
“What a surprise! I thought you were going to run like a chicken again!” A golden Qi storm was brewing around Lu Qianying as the runes around him condensed.
The intense golden hue of Lu Qianying’s Qi represented his pride as a returned prime Warrior. His energy was twice as dense as the Qi that flowed in condensed prime Warriors’ meridians.
“Die!” The chubby elder channeled the Qi to his palm. With a quick swipe he shot a pillar of blinding golden runic energy exactly to where Ye Wei stood.