Chapter 497: The Highest Hall in Floodisle City

As she hurtled toward the balcony at the top of Floodisle City, Zae Zin Nim reflected that she had spent very little time imagining how it might feel to attack her father.

Oh, she had certainly imagined a confrontation. But all too often, it had been fearing herself being dragged back into the Brightwind hall, or her father showing up with his full power... just iterations of him punishing her like she was a child again. Now she wasn't charging the Brightwind sect itself, but she was putting herself on a path to an inevitable confrontation.

Zae Zin Nim shattered through the outer screens around the balcony, felt the wood splinter harmlessly off her skin, and realized she was fine with it.

She and Omilaena had been riding their fastest flying sword up to that point and let it fly off from under their feet, thundering across the hall. It was stopped by multiple guards, of course, and never had a chance of reaching the patriarch on his throne. All they had needed was for it to take them into the grand hall faster than the defenders could follow them, and now she and Omilaena were standing on one side looking to the front.

At the end of a long golden rug, the patriarch of the Masterful Crown clan sat on a throne that arced over his head like a second crown. Patriarch Yul had not even flinched at the sword's entrance, confident in either his guards or his own abilities. All of the cultivators around him, however, burst forward with shouts and anger.

Most of them were irrelevant, just bodies in her way. Zae Zin Nim cataloged the number of Earth Souls present to support him, with special attention to two: there was a middle-aged man wearing the robes of the Coiling Island sect, and an older woman wearing Brightwind robes. She actually recognized the old woman as one of those who ran her father's harem and Zae Zin Nim had to press her lips together to restrain herself from saying anything.

"After so long searching for you, you deliver yourselves to me?" Patriarch Yul rose to his feet, sending his robes cascading from his seated position to pool around him. "I certainly hope you don't intend to ask for mercy."

"No," Zae Zin Nim said clearly to the entire court. "We are here to kill you."

"That's nearly as foolish!" Patriarch Yul swished his sleeve dismissively and his guards immediately began to light up with crowns over their heads as they projected their presence techniques.

At least a dozen techniques struck Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena, the air itself constricting them. Zae Zin Nim frowned for a moment, then took a step forward as the techniques slid off her new skin. Omilaena struggled more, but she began to glow with her Azure Core and she had the spiritual strength to walk beside her even without injecting herself.

"You are courting death!" one of the cultivators shouted. He waved his hands, forming a great crowned dragon of golden light.

Omilaena was much faster. Her hands flickered and an array of needles flashed out, silent and deadly. Before they could strike, Patriarch Yul summoned one of his immense golden barriers across the center of the hall, blocking all techniques from both sides.

When the wall faded, Zae Zin Nim realized that she had been mistaken: she thought the barrier had stopped all of Omilaena's needles, but judging from the cultivators coughing blood or falling over, at least four had been faster than the barrier. It was easy to forget how fast Omilaena was now, with the great boost to her Power.

"Enough of this!" Patriarch Yul flicked his sleeve again and unleashed a wall of gold that rushed toward them, as if to sweep them off the balcony.

Zae Zin Nim met it with a Coldfire Palm, only about the size of her body. That was enough to shatter the golden wall, and though the flames of her palm dispersed as well, she only slid back a step. The patriarch of the greatest clan in the Southern Rivers actually stumbled back, needing to catch himself on his throne, and all his courtiers stared in shock.

Meanwhile, Zae Zin Nim and her wife took another step forward.

"Zin Nim, there's no need for this." It was the old woman, stepping away from the others and extending her arms to either side. "Your father is wroth, yes, but you are still his most beloved daughter. Come back with me and all can be forgiven. If you don't like the marriage that has been arranged, we can find another-"

"None of you ever listen." Zae Zin Nim stomped her foot, and though she hadn't used a technique, the strength from her Pure Yin Shroud made her foot shatter the marble tile. "I will never go back, and I am already married."

"You may have made some youthful mistakes, and lost your yin gift, but there are yet-"

"Wait." Patriarch Yul cut off the old woman and all the court's murmuring with a wave of his hand. "What is that?"

He was the first to notice: off the side of the balcony, there was a storm cloud visible in the distance. The sky was otherwise perfectly clear, so the cloud was unusual in and of itself, but as the cultivators in the great balcony hall turned to look, many of them shuddered. Somehow the storms were growing far faster than should have been possible, forming a line toward them, and an unearthly growl rumbled across the earth.

"That is my husband," Zae Zin Nim said. "He isn't happy either."

When Kai had suggested taking time to gather speed, she had accepted the plan even though she was uncertain about it. Now, as she saw the full potential of Thunderbird's Wings, she understood. He was a burning light at the front of a storm that followed him, like a great arrow piercing the sky in their direction. Great wings stretched from his back, emitting smoke that made it seem like the clouds themselves were his wings.

There was a brief chance to see him from a distance, then he had built up so much speed that he crossed the city in an instant, shattering through every barrier in the way. The storm came with him, thundering through the great hall and knocking many cultivators off their feet.

Kai himself landed in the center, just ahead of Zae Zin Nim, his claw-like feet smashing craters into the marble. He had partially transformed into his monstrous state, but more than that, he carried within him the terrible "Famished World" aura he had developed. Even before it was unleashed, his presence brought an instant chill to the room.

All of the cultivators with presence techniques instinctively turned on him, trying to immobilize the new threat for their patriarch to strike down. Exactly as she had predicted. They were used to flattening enemies with their presence techniques, or at most having to fight on even terms against a resisting opponent.

When Kai unleashed Famished World, his presence swept over the room, rendering all the gold furnishings into ominous black and white. The effect far exceeded expectations: most of the presence techniques were crushed outright, and crowns over the heads of cultivators either cracked or guttered out. Many of them were already collapsing, bleeding from every orifice, and the others desperately struggled to join in a formation that could resist.

Which was when the slaughter began. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena had been holding back for this moment and now targeted all of the supporting cultivators, killing them with palm strikes or needles. Earth Souls didn't fare much better than weaker cultivators, and only the sheer numbers in the hall prevented them all from being annihilated at once.

Only Patriarch Yul had managed to endure the onslaught, forming a hexagonal prism around himself. Yet it could only barely resist the Famished World, and the patriarch stared in horror as he realized that Kai wasn't similarly bound. He ignored the patriarch, locked down in his defenses, and instead joined them in wiping out the court.

One of the stronger Earth Souls abandoned his own patriarch and dissolved into golden light. Zae Zin Nim saw it was too late to kill him and accepted it, since they knew their attack would soon become public knowledge anyway. Let him to escape and inform others, because it wouldn't change the final outcome. So she watched the streak of light pass...

Kai reached out and grabbed the cultivator around the ankle.

The man's body had transformed into light in a profound higher flight technique, so he should have been untouchable by any ordinary force. But Kai's body burned with the unnatural aura, rendering him more than merely flesh, and his claw tugged a body out of the stream of light.

Once that body was physical again, it was immediately slammed into the marble, and that was the end of that cultivator.

Some of the others began screaming and panicking, trying to run by any means necessary. Most of them were immediately cut down by Omilaena when they left their formations, and some couldn't even survive long enough to escape the radius of Famished World. Only Patriarch Yul understood the severity as he drew a jade slip from within his robes and prepared to teleport.

After losing her husband for so long to such a thing, Zae Zin Nim was not about to let it happen again. She had been waiting for that moment and thrust out a palm. Not in her new techniques, but the piercing strike of the Brightwind sect. It punched through his golden shell and shattered the jade slip, leaving him holding nothing but pieces.

To his credit, Patriarch Yul drew himself up and prepared to battle to the death. Three great crowns lit up over his head, bright enough even to push back the darkness of Kai's aura. But he was facing three opponents with power similar to his, and Famished World so utterly countered his presence techniques, he was left without any of his trump cards.

Kai knocked him from his position first, a spine the size of someone's arm breaking through the throne. The patriarch stumbled to the side and couldn't dodge Zae Zin Nim as she slipped around his dying barriers and struck him in the chest with her palm.

Even though her strike was true, Patriarch Yul summoned his strength and managed to survive. He wasn't so lucky with the syringe piercing his neck from behind. Omilaena stepped back and let the body fall to the ruined marble floor.

And like that, it was done. The Masterful Crown clan, which had once dominated the entire Southern Rivers region, had lost its patriarch. Given all the deaths of its major sect leaders, it would never recover from this.

"Did you want the body?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"Nah, can't derive much from these presence techniques," Omilaena said. "I guess we could loot everyone, though."

"Wait." Kai's voice was a growl, even lower than usual. "Wasn't there a Coiling Island representative?"

Zae Zin Nim looked through the bodies and realized that none of them were wearing the black and white robes of that sect. The man must have left early, or used a far more profound technique than the others. It didn't change their strategy, because they had still eliminated their first major opponent, but it meant that it was only a matter of time.

Thunder rumbled again and Zae Zin Nim realized there was no time at all.

A great ship of green jade emerged over the city of Floodisle City, shading entire districts of it. There were Brightwind cultivators waiting in ranks, but three stood in front of the army:

Xir Xan Khan, her old fiance.

Jackal Thirteen, the mercenary.

And her father.

Chapter 498: Destined Matches, Entangled Strategy

Despite all the times he had used Thunderbird's Wings, Kai had never generated thunderclouds like the original monster did. In fact, he had intentionally turned away from that potential for the essence, focusing instead on the brutal efficiency of speed. And yet ever since he'd begun using Famished World, the monstrous essence in him had seemed more alive than before, raw and hungry.

That essence had taken them straight through the Masterful Crown clan's patriarch, with more success than he'd expected, and to their real opponents.

As the massive floating piece of jade loomed closer, Kai glanced over at Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena. They'd known this was likely to happen, sooner or later, and their plans weren't ruined by it being sooner. Still, they hadn't anticipated quite this many supporting cultivators from the Coiling Island and Brightwind sects, plus they needed to fight in the middle of Floodisle City. Even if the clan had been decapitated, it might still have allies willing to take action.

"You see?" Xir Xan Khan said loudly. "They've already finished Patriarch Yul. Anything less than this would have been insufficient."

"Yes." Zae Clen Ban stepped up to the side of the ship and gazed down at them. "I have never been so simultaneously impressed and disappointed. Do you still insist on this, daughter, even now?"

"It doesn't seem like anything can convince you," Zae Zin Nim called to him, "so why do you think you can convince me?"

Omilaena stepped up to the side of the damaged balcony and called out to the ship in general. "Are you still trying this? Could recapturing her possibly be worth it? At some point you have to acknowledge the sunk cost fallacy."

Zae Clen Ban shook his head. "Her new form, while perverse, does appear to be unusually powerful. We need her in order to master the Blackblood Physique, and we will get what we need... one way or another."

Kai didn't even try to reason with them, since he was certain they were beyond that. Instead, he was looking over all the cultivators and trying to adjust their plan to compensate. The basic idea could still work, but it was going to require breaking up the huge formation, and there was undoubtedly going to be a lot of chaos across the city.

As soon as the talking stopped, the cultivators behind the leaders began to gather their qi, preparing for some sort of formation. Kai was faster, hurling himself toward the air above the massive jade ship.

He crashed into a barrier of wind that tore against him, painful even though it couldn't penetrate the dark armor covering most of his body. Kai was jarred by the impact against a barrier he couldn't break but ignored the impact, instead throwing himself against the wind repeatedly, drawing the attention of the cultivators who used their large formations to target him.

They shouldn't have: Zae Zin Nim had flown to a lower point and thrust out her hand.

Instead of the familiar Coldfire Palm, she used the same technique to manifest the hand of flame with two fingers extended. They struck the wind barrier and began to grind through it, making the wind dissipate in a large region.

The instant the blue flames faded, Kai broke off his distraction. He shot down with one shockwave, then reversed direction and hurled himself through the hole in the barrier. Suddenly he was inside, flying over the vast ship. Cultivators on all sides stared in shock and began to shout or generate qi techniques.

Too late. Manticore Spines shot out from Kai's body like a hail of arrows, carpet-bombing the ship as he flew. Even though many of the cultivators were able to evade or defend, those who were struck still represented a massive percentage of their fighting force dying instantly. Those who endured the poison would just draw more attention, trying to get help from the others, consuming medicinal pills, and otherwise breaking apart the bulk of their forces.

Just as Kai flew free of the enemy, terrible force slammed into him from overhead. He struck the jade ship, cracked straight through it, and smashed down into the city. From the crater where he'd landed, Kai grunted and rubbed his head as he got up. The force had been blunt, so it more stunned than harmed, but it had knocked him down an immense distance in an instant.

This fight would be all about distance and control, so that could work for or against him.

There was no question as to who had struck him: Xir Xan Khan shot down in a blur of purple and reformed opposite him. They had landed in an outer courtyard of some sect, the inhabitants of which were reasonably running and screaming. Kai and Xir Xan Khan ignored them entirely as they faced one another, neither speaking until the screaming stopped.

"You've taken two treasures from me," Xir Xan Khan said. "For that, you deserve death."

"I don't know why you try to justify yourself," Kai said as he limbered his claws. "It all comes down to violence in the end anyway. Pretending otherwise just makes you seem childish."

Xir Xan Khan's eyes blazed and he leapt at him, so Kai leapt in response. He'd planned to unleash several techniques, but before they could collide, something dark lashed from the side. It took all his speed to block it, and the impact still smashed him into the courtyard wall.

When Kai got his feet under him again, he was surprised to see that his arms were bleeding. When he looked at Xir Xan Khan, he saw that a dark serpent-like magic twisted around him, tail darting with lethal intent, purple eyes glowing with something almost like intelligence.

Name: Xir Xan Khan

Total Power: 1735

Cultivation: Sky Soul (1000)

Physique: E-2 (86)

Heavenly Body (+100)

Immortal Body (+300)

Soul Level: 7 (49)

Coiling Presence (+100)

Coiling Death (+100)

His power had substantially increased, making the fight a close one, and worse, Kai guessed that his choice of new ability had not been random...

"This is the Coiling Death," Xir Xan Khan announced as he advanced. "It is one of the four most prestigious arts in the Coiling Island sect, and it can be invoked only once in your lifetime. I chose to use it now in order to kill you."

"I figured." Kai rubbed the injury, coaxing it to heal, and got ready to fight. This was going to be trickier than he thought.

.

..

.

While Kai and Zin Nim fought all the cultivators, Omilaena - for once - didn't draw attention to herself. She did her best to appear nonthreatening, awed by the ship or some idiocy like that. A few cultivators aimed attacks at her and she dodged frantically, as if overwhelmed by the assault.

All the while she continued concentrating poisonous gas in the jar she held in one hand.

Then, once Zin Nim had taken down the shield and Kai had thinned their ranks, Omilaena saw her moment. She took several lunging steps forward to the very edge of the balcony and hurled the jar with all the speed she could muster, arcing it over the top of the ship to the main deck where all the surviving cultivators waited.

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They almost didn't notice until too late, then several cultivators attacked at once. The jar exploded overhead, expelling huge amounts of super-compressed poison gas over the ship. Some cultivators actually perished in the smoke, but most summoned wind shields or retreated.

That was more casualties than she'd predicted, actually: her real goal was the hanging cloud of poison that continued to spread over the surface of the ship. She'd put a lot of chakra into it, so they'd either need to use substantial amounts of wind qi to clear it, or stop using the ship as a combat platform. Either would work just fine for her goals.

Of course, this drew real attention to her. She was prepared for cultivators, but the bodies that leapt at her moved with unnaturally stilted movements. Omilaena didn't even attempt to breathe poison, not when she knew what was coming.

"You've gotten stronger." Jackal Thirteen spoke from her side as he walked onto the grand balcony. His puppets had spread out and some even landed on the roof behind her, blocking off her escape. The old Manticore patriarch, Ahn Xi Feida, and his old mercenary comrades... he'd brought all his puppets this time.

Name: Jackal Thirteen

Total Power: 1491

Cultivation: Sky Soul (910)

Demonic Threads (+112)

Physique Level: D-1 (205)

Immortal Body (+200)

Soul Level: 8 (64)

"So have you," she said after a glance at his soul. Damn them for guzzling their remaining immortality elixir and getting such huge power boosts. She was convinced that it was a dead end, even more so after her latest breakthrough, but that didn't make anything easier now.

"Such a shame that you've mostly strengthened your poison..." Jackal Thirteen said. "The very thing that's useless against my techniques."

"You know, I almost get the sense that you don't actually think it's a shame."

Without warning Omilaena threw herself backward, over the line of puppets along the edge of the balcony. Jackal Thirteen hurled out razor threads at her, which she managed to freeze easily enough, but the puppets launched weapons and several of them grazed her.

Briefly in midair, Omilaena looked and saw Zin Nim in the sky, preparing to face her father. They locked eyes, then Omilaena plummeted into the city beneath the ship.

There she managed to catch herself, but her legs hurt like hell. She could fight with the minor injuries, but this was a bad start. Even though Jackal Thirteen's strength was under hers in absolute terms, he was a terrible matchup for her, so there was the very real chance she could die even if their plan otherwise went off without a hitch.

Puppets began to land all around her and the mercenary descended toward the streets on razor threads.

.

..

.

Zae Zin Nim and her father spun through the air, sleeves flashing as they fought hand to hand. Neither used their qi for anything but reinforcement, just testing one another in pure martial arts. He began with the fundamentals, attacking with palm strikes more focused and deadly than any she had known, but she met him strike for strike.

Soon he advanced, to secret arts that he had never taught her, but Zae Zin Nim showed him all the techniques she had learned in her travels. His qi might be more potent than hers, but her body was reinforced by the Pure Yin Shroud and Blackblood Physique.

She was now trading blows with the man who had once been a terrible god to her.

The plan had never been to try to defeat him so early, but she couldn't stop, not faced with a challenge like this. Zae Zin Nim saw him preparing for a finishing palm strike and pretended to let it slip through, the palm rushing at her face.

That was the moment she first used the Coldfire Corona to save her, and Zae Zin Nim counter-attacked in the same instant that the flames blocked his palm. Her own strike hit him in the chest and rang like a bell, shocking his internal organs and sending blood flying from his mouth.

Yet his hand, already extended, thrust again, smashing through her defenses into her face.

Jade smashed against her back as she was knocked across the ship and into one of the bulkheads. Once the blow would have disabled her, but she was too physically tough for that now. She had survived a direct palm strike from her father... and unfortunately he had survived hers.

Name: Zae Clen Ban

Total Power: 1956

Cultivation: Sky Soul (1000)

Heavenly Cultivation (325)

Physique: D-0 (200)

Immortal Body (+100)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Brightwind Meridian Perfection (250)

As he contemptuously spat out blood, she saw the reason he had been able to resist: he had drank some of the immortal elixir. She had not believed he would do such a thing, not when he always stayed on the orthodox Brightwind sect path. It was a mark of how seriously he took this that he had used it... and something that could well turn all this against them.

"I can see my blood in you," Zae Clen Ban said, "but you are no daughter of mine any longer. I strip you of your family name and cast you out of the sect. Even if you escape, you will wander as no one, with no family name and-"

"No."

The Brightwind patriarch blinked. In his long life, few had ever dared to contradict him. "What?"

"You can't take my name from me," Zae Zin Nim told him as she set her feet. "It disgusts me to be related to you, but after I kill you, the Zae name will be clean again. And mine alone."

Her father's face grew ugly with rage, as she had seen so many times in her childhood. This time, she stood firm as he attacked.

Chapter 499: Throuple Tactics

Xir Xan Khan had never encountered such an infuriating opponent.

The Coiling Death should have been an overwhelming advantage, enough for him to end this foolish rivalry once and for all. Even though it could only be used once in a lifetime, its usage extended for a long period, so he had more than enough time. And yet his opponent refused to engage with him directly, instead retreating down the side of the mountains of Floodisle City.

It almost seemed like cowardice, yet his movements were too calculated for that. At every opportunity, when Xir Xan Khan extended himself to try for a lethal blow, the barbarian would evade and instead strike at other cultivators. In the beginning there had been various Coiling Island or Brightwind Earth Souls trying to join the battle, but as more and more of them were cut down, the battle became just the two of them in the ruined streets.

A battle that was clearly in his favor, which is why the tactic made so little sense. If anything, the barbarian might have tried to use his allies as shields, not that Xir Xan Khan would have hesitated to strike through them. The two leapt down from an upper level to stand on opposite sides of a wide rooftop.

"What is this nonsense?" Xir Xan Khan finally shouted. "Do you have more allies waiting? Zin Nim is fully engaged with her father, so she will never come to help you. If anything, delaying only means that you will soon be outnumbered by real opponents."

"Admittedly, I'm improvising a bit," the barbarian said with a shrug. "You know what they say, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

That line deserved nothing but a cold snort. "If your battle plan cannot survive, then you needed a better plan."

The barbarian gave him a strange look. "Maybe if your parents paid off your opponents, but not against anyone worth calling an enemy."

"You!" Xir Xan Khan lunged for him, but at that moment the barbarian stepped off the edge of the roof and plummeted down to the next level.

He pursued, sending the Coiling Death lashing out even as he used every ranged technique of the Coiling Island sect. Somehow, all of them were evaded or blocked. His opponent couldn't possibly keep up at close range, so he continued retreating, yet that seemed like a futile battle.

Bestial spikes flew from his opponent, but the Coiling Presence easily deflected them. That spike technique, grotesque as it was, was actually quite effective against ordinary cultivators. But Xir Xan Khan was far beyond ordinary and he had been deflecting storms of arrows since he was ten years old. He would never be touched by any of them, and even if he was taken off guard, he had prepared multiple antidote pills. This strategy was futile.

Yet it was without doubt a strategy, and so Xir Xan Khan could not allow himself to fall victim to it. They were passing underneath the great ship, which was dropping pieces of rubble into the streets... could that be the key?

The paths on which they fought were increasingly narrow, but surely the barbarian wasn't stupid enough to believe that close quarters would grant him the victory. He'd already seen the Coiling Death pierce through buildings with ease, so he knew it could not be contained. No, he was attempting something, and it had to be interrupted, so perhaps the most rational decision was to keep playing to his barbarian instincts.

"Just how did you turn Zin Nim into a whore?"

That actually got the barbarian's attention, and Xir Xan Khan very nearly pierced him with the Coiling Death before he leapt back.

"Strange thing to say." The barbarian was still peering at him, as if he was some sort of puzzling insect. "She's only ever been in one committed relationship with a single man. Have you been that faithful?"

"I have retained my purity for a true dual cultivation relationship!" Xir Xan Khan insisted, pretending to be angry. He had to lure the man out, get past that stupid indifference.

"Really? You'd be the first young master I saw who actually did that. Uh... good for you?"

"Of course you don't care about such things. I can't believe you profaned her with your touch. The very thought of your greasy fingers on..."

"You seem to have given this a lot of thought. I'm not sure that's healthy." With that, the barbarian smashed through the street to drop another level, into one of the most destroyed parts of the city.

Xir Xan Khan fearlessly leapt into the dust and smoke, since it couldn't harm him through the Coiling Presence technique. The barbarian was trying to slip away, maybe even flee, but he wasn't fast enough. At first Xir Xan Khan had thought he had some sort of presence technique of his own, but there had been no sign of it, so it must have been a mere flickering of potential.

Overhead, he could feel the shockwaves of qi as the patriarch and strongest daughter of the Brightwind sect clashed. Impossible as it seemed, Zin Nim was truly determined to fight them and reject the perfect life that would have been handed to her. He couldn't imagine what could possibly lead her to make such a stupid decision.

He caught up to the barbarian again and looked over his hideously over-muscled, hair-ridden form. What could he possibly have to offer? Xir Xan Khan couldn't help but wonder if he had some sort of sexual magnetism that only women could understand, which in turn brought inappropriate thoughts to mind, which only brought back the mockery.

"You're a wretched ape," Xir Xan Khan spat through the smoke. "The phrase 'toad eating swan meat' doesn't come close to conveying how disgusting you are. This city is befouled by your presence. Your entire continent would be better off scoured of life."

"You people have some issues to work out," the barbarian said as he moved further into the smoky ruins.

"Don't you have any pride? What kind of animal has so little self-respect that you just let me insult you, your woman, and your home without blinking?"

"I have enough pride that I don't throw tantrums."

Xir Xan Khan snarled and lunged forward. He knew that it was likely to be a trap of some kind and prepared a genius plan, multiple layers of striking techniques culminating in the Coiling Death.

He didn't need to use a single one. When he burst through to where the barbarian should have been, there was no one there.

Amid these fragmented walls and rubble, with the smoke obscuring the sky, it seemed like he was the only person in the world. The barbarian was presumably hiding within the smoke, skulking like an animal, ready to use his bestial techniques. But he'd failed to realize that Xir Xan Khan had more than enough qi to spare, so he could maintain all his defenses forever. Any projectiles that got close would be immediately knocked down.

Slowly he ventured further, extended his senses for those slippery shrouds. Had the barbarian truly run this time? Or did he only want him to think that before he attempted a desperate attack? No matter when he attacked, or from what angle, his brute force would be useless.

"You think delaying helps you?" Xir Xan Khan called into the grayness. "Zin Nim will lose against her father, there is no doubt of that. If you don't stop me here, I will go back, and even if she had been befouled, I will still push her down and claim her. I will-"

Something moved in the corner of his vision. Finally his provocations had worked. Xir Xan Khan whirled, unleashing his strikes and impaling the barbarian with the Coiling Death.

The dark spike pierced through the form to the ground. Where there had once been a roughly humanoid shape, there was only wafting blue mist.

A needle stabbed through Xir Xan Khan's neck from the side.

Even as blood spurted from his mouth, he whirled, only for his arm to be bound. A feminine form was pressed against his back, one hand driving the needle through his throat and the other gripping his arm. The touch inflamed his entire body, or so it seemed before he realized that poison was spreading through him rapidly.

"Kai isn't here anymore," Omilaena said, "but you need to stop talking about my wife that way."

.

..

.

Fighting hand to hand, Zae Zin Nim was almost able to equal her father, but she could not best him as a cultivator. He possessed not only the Brightwind martial arts, he carried dozens of magic spells and artifacts gathered throughout his long immortal life. Slowly but surely, she was losing.

It would already have been over if not for the injection from her wife: as soon as Zae Zin Nim used it, a sphere of wind lit up around her, neutralizing all of the wind strikes coming from her sides. This wind was clearly born of powers derived from Classes and the Elemental Nations. It should never have stood up to Brightwind qi, and her father was clearly infuriated that it had withstood his attacks so far, but those powers had been enhanced to their full potential.

Using those defenses, she had been able to slay many of the Brightwind cultivators who were trying to support her father with their formations. But when it came to actually striking him, she couldn't pierce his defenses, and he had yet to even use the Transcendent Brightwind Visage. She couldn't beat him.

Which she had accepted before, which was why they had decided on this strategy.

Even so, she was being pressed back, her qi and her stamina both steadily reducing. The plan would fail if they couldn't actually pull it off. If not for her new Blackblood Physique, she would not have been able to keep fighting like this, and even her new body had its limits.

Just when she began to worry, a dark form streaked from the side, breathing a line of pure death across the surface of the jade ship.

Her father drew back and intensified his wind sphere, glaring at the cloud contemptuously. But it had never been intended to strike him, only ward him off and kill some of the remaining cultivators supporting him.

And to signal to her that it was time.

Zae Zin Nim stopped pretending that she intended to fight her father to the death and instead leapt off the side of the ship, sailing through the air with her limbs extended to slow her fall. She had caught a glimpse of Kai behind her, ready to play his role, so presumably Omilaena had already taken action.

Which meant that it was her turn: Zae Zin Nim spotted the Jackal mercenary who had so vexed her wife while he hunted through the city with his puppets. She arrived with her palms striking the nearest puppets, blowing them apart.

Chapter 500: Arriving at the Peak

And so it was time for the most dangerous part of the plan: Kai went up not against a young master, not against a leader, not against a demon, but against one of the most powerful people in the world.

In their first encounter, Zae Clen Ban scornfully created a tornado of wind around himself and tried to sweep Kai off the field, clearly more interested in tracking down his daughter. That was exactly what he had to prevent.

Kai pretended to be limited by all the gusts of wind before revealing the true potential of Thunderbird's Wings. He got within an inch of the patriarch's chest, his claws slicing through the tails of his robe, before the defensive sphere of wind rebuffed him and knocked him off to the side. Kai skidded back across the jade ship, grinning.

"You still insist on getting in my way?" Zae Clen Ban rose into the air, power rushing through him. "Fine then, I can exterminate you like the beast you are."

They clashed again, and this time Kai had to take on the full fury of the leader of the Brightwind sect. In melee, Kai found the patriarch to be similar to Zae Zin Nim in his fundamental techniques, except that he attacked with more wind currents. From a distance, however, he was far more likely to use bursts of wind and stay at range. When he combined the two, it was a relentless assault that Kai couldn't quite keep up with.

He dodged aside from a palm strike, slashed at his opponent, and managed to draw a line of blood on his arm. But in the same moment, a tight current of wind drilled into his side, driving him across the jade ship almost to the edge.

Though he managed to stay on his feet, Kai grimaced as he realized that the wind drill had gone deep and the wound wouldn't close immediately. Zae Clen Ban scowled at him, as if irritated that the technique hadn't torn him apart, but he was adjusting to the fact that Kai was tougher than the opponents he usually faced.

If they followed their plan, his wives were hopefully dealing with the other targets. They had reduced and inhibited their opponents' numbers as much as possible at first, he knew Omilaena was targeting Xir Xan Khan, and hopefully Zae Zin Nim could fight Jackal Thirteen. They'd taken out Patriarch Yul first and their opponents were within expectations, so it should work.

Assuming that Kai could hold up the linchpin of the entire plan. If he couldn't fight Zae Clen Ban on his own, everything else would fall apart.

"This is impossible..." The patriarch drew back, pressing his hands together in a familiar focusing gesture. "You're still a child, you have almost no cultivation, your soul is an ugly mess... how can you fight at this level?"

"I'm just getting started," Kai said cockily. If the old man wanted to talk, that was in his best interest.

"Whatever you are, I'm putting an end to it."

Just as Zae Zin Nim had said he would, the Brightwind patriarch touched the band across his chest, which was actually a spatial item. He had numerous tricks prepared and she had said that he would use them unpredictably when he was pressed by an unfamiliar opponent.

So Kai had held back too: at that moment he unleashed the strongest Tyrant's Claw he could. The claw of energy screamed through the air, piercing straight through the defensive sphere of wind, and shattered the object Zae Clen Ban was preparing. He managed to deflect most of the force, but his magical artifact was shattered and another cut tore across his robes.

"You miserable..." Zae Clen Ban's face twisted in a new sort of rage. "That artifact was worth more than your entire garbage continent!"

Massive tornadoes began to spring up around the patriarch, more intense than before, bearing wind that even tore into the jade beneath their feet. Kai had to push himself to the limit, using a half-phase of speed to counter his opponent's intense qi, but he managed to flash between them, hurling Tyrant's Claws in response.

For the first time, Zae Clen Ban needed to spend a significant amount of time dodging. He clearly thought this was beneath him, yet his control never slipped even slightly. The fury just made him colder and more focused as he hurled out more tornadoes and continued gathering his qi.

Then, without warning, the patriarch shot into the air. His hand was already rising, seeming to draw the heavens themselves into his fingers, then he thrust it down. As he moved, the clouds themselves formed into a shining white palm that thundered toward Kai. The very earth seemed frozen by the attack and the palm was half as wide as the ship, so there was nowhere to run.

Instead, Kai exhaled Baleful Breath directly into the palm. Not just once, he kept his mouth open and breathed out an unending stream. When it met the thundering clouds, they actually stopped, and the patriarch let out a cry of pain.

Blood exploded from his lips... yet the cultivator caught it with his free hand and made the blood flow down his arm, reinforcing his technique. Kai's eyes widened in shock as, for the first time, Baleful Breath was actually pushed back.

The impact was cataclysmic, smashing him into the jade floor so hard he burst through into the air below. Kai was bleeding all over and his soul ached as he tumbled. He had actually survived it better than most: fragments of the jade ship were falling over Floodisle City, while every remaining cultivator on board appeared to be dying.

For several seconds it was the most Kai could do to retreat as Zae Clen Ban hurled tornadoes and other qi techniques at him. As he began to heal, Kai desperately checked the man's soul again.

Name: Zae Clen Ban

Total Power: 2055

Cultivation: Sky Soul (1000)

Heavenly Cultivation (325)

Physique: D-0 (200)

Immortal Body (+99)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Brightwind Meridian Perfection (250)

Longevity Burn (+100)

It had been the same throughout their fight... until that moment. Somehow, unique among all the cultivators Kai had fought, Zae Clen Ban had some power locked away just like the Savage Creed. That additional boost explained why the gap between their strength was greater than expected, but knowing that didn't help him.

There was one strange thing: the patriarch's Immortal Body had ticked down. Kai guessed that the false immortality couldn't endure such intense power and was beginning to degrade... yet it wasn't dropping visibly, so that wouldn't dissolve fast enough to save him.

"Die!" Zae Clen Ban wasted no more time talking, just began to form a second palm attack. Kai didn't attempt to take this one head on, he shot skyward and barely managed to dodge. The wind in its wake caught his wings and sent him tumbling through the air.

He'd healed enough to attempt something desperate, though... if his opponent was using such unlocked strength, Kai would need to do the same. He had spent so much time mastering the Savage Heart transformation, gaining control and using it to refine his physical strength, that it went against his instincts. But instead of trying to fight as a human, he indulged in the hunger and fought as a monster.

When he hurled himself at his opponent, for a moment he feared that he had lost all reason. His body moved almost as if not under his control, while his mind observed himself at a distance. And yet when Zae Clen Ban unleashed a razor sharp shockwave of wind, he ducked underneath instead of fighting it head on.

Again he exhaled Baleful Breath, even more intense than before as his monstrous side came to the fore. Zae Clen Ban swept up one sleeve, generating a wall of wind to block him and holding the dark clouds at bay.

The Tyrant's Claw hit him a second later, slashing apart his defenses and also pushing the Baleful Breath into him. The patriarch fell backward with a loud cry of pain and managed to right himself in the air... but one entire arm was covered in an ugly burn.

It took force of will, but Kai managed to look at his own soul:

Savage Form (+50)

He was doing it: drawing on that deeper power without completely losing himself as a mindless beast. His thoughts were alien and savage, urging him to slaughter opponents and drink their blood, but he'd retained his intelligence.

As they clashed again, the real battle was within himself. Kai was still at a slight power disadvantage, so he tried to push it further, increasing his strength more without entirely losing himself. Yet the more he pushed, the wilder and more reckless his movements became. His body was twisting, not under his control at all, seeming to swell and surge of its own will.

Kai leapt from the air, unleashing another Tyrant's Claw that forced his opponent to dodge back. When he landed, Kai was shocked to realize that he was looking down at the patriarch, as if he was at least four feet taller than him. Just what was happening to his body?

The moment of doubt nearly made him lose control and Kai wildly swung back, trying to retain his human mind. He hadn't been imagining the swelling power, he was actually larger than before, his body now an inhuman giant covered in monstrous armor and the Beggar King's Rags, which hung across his spikes like an insane cloak.

It took all his concentration not to fall in either direction and to grasp the thread of perfect balance again. In that time, Zae Clen Ban shot into the air, disappearing into the clouds.

For a moment, Kai was split between thoughts: monstrous anger that his prey had escaped, and human realization.

Light blazed from the clouds overhead, rendering them blinding white. Zae Clen Ban formed as a yet larger giant: not the size of two men, the size of a mountain. His presence thundered out over the city, suffocating many weaker battles, and he raised a massive palm for a strike on the city itself.

Kai leapt and unleashed Famished World.

When he met the cloudy palm, he tore straight through it, consuming the unnatural clouds. He shredded his way up the blinding white arm, only slowing slightly as he reached the elbow, then caught himself, hurling his body toward the center where the patriarch must be hiding.

Too late, the other palm struck him: not directly, with a wall of wind. The force slammed him down, demolishing one of the towers of the city.

He leapt up from the crater snarling. There was a garden filled with magical herbs and shocked cultivators, but he barely had time to notice them. All his attention was focused on the cloud giant looming over the city.

The giant raised a hand, gathering the heavens for another attack. Zae Clen Ban's false immortality began draining at an alarming rate, as much as the rest of the battle combined... feeling Famished World destroy his cloud giant technique must have shocked him. He wanted to end this now, with overwhelming force.

When that palm came down, it would be large enough to flatten the city. Kai realized there was no dodging... and that this wasn't the time for measured human thoughts. He wouldn't get through that palm strike with strategy.

So instead he let go the thread of balance, giving himself over to the monstrous rush completely. He could feel the Savage Form rising, but there was no denying the ultimate truth: he couldn't gain that extra power without losing himself.

As his human thoughts grew fainter, he could feel his body growing larger and larger. One of his claws reached out and grasped a turret that had once been taller than him, but now he just used it as an anchor. When he drew in a breath, he seemed to absorb all the air, all the life, everything around him. Yet it felt like that wasn't enough, as if the world itself couldn't sustain what he was doing.

The shining white palm was beginning to move down, so he released the last of his control. His maw opened and he unleashed annihilation.