CHAPTER 72: DISCIPLE CULTIVATION SYSTEM CH72 ABSOLUTE POWER.

It began with a tremor.

The kind that signified an approaching danger.

The ground shook, the building crumbled into dust, and cracks snaked across the asphalt.

An eruption of sand followed, bursting out of the cracks with intense force and showering the surroundings with brown dust.

Art, facing the destruction head-on, didn’t so much as flinch. He merely took out his blade.

No Snowdance—just raw aura, which he used in performing a single slash that blinded the world.

The sand was pushed back, the asphalt erased, and the building cleaved into pieces.

When the world resumed its original color, the destruction from before paled in contrast to the one he had unleashed.

A whole city block had been burnt away, leaving behind mountains of rubble seeping with sand.

Art, bringing down his sword leaking with golden aura, took to the skies in a powerful leap, observing the distance for any trace of his opponent.

He saw something.

A flash of orange that sparkled in the distance.

At first his expression was confusion until the sparks continuously grew closer and closer, till all he could observe was dozens of fireballs aiming to shoot him down.

"So Trish didn’t eliminate her after all."

Allowing gravity to take hold of him, he descended from the skies, avoiding the volume of attacks before landing right at the entrance of the mall.

His ears twitched slightly as he tilted his head.

Right as he did, a spear made of ice flashed past his face, lodging itself deep into the ground behind him.

"A collaboration." He sighed as two more followed.

Like before, he didn’t activate Snowdance. Its footwork was already engraved in his mind; hence, all he did was follow the trajectory of the attack and keep his timing precise.

For the first one, he stepped back, watching as it pierced the ground before him.

The second one, however, he pivoted a leg forward, kicking the tip right as it reached him and altering its path upward.

He then crouched and darted forward.

The ground tremored once more, unleashing eruptions of sand from below.

Wrapping his feet in aura to increase their sensitivity to the vibration of the ground, he tracked the flow of the eruption, arriving before them as he flew past the ground of sand and towards his opponents.

A barrage of flying lances formed above him, raining down with explosive power.

Art wove through them like a dance, and right after he escaped, a shadow eclipsed his form and descended onto him with a heavy slash.

He leaped back and watched in awe as the ground was cleaved in half.

The performer of such a feat was Kai Lotus, a youth with chestnut hair, a divine body, and green eyes as hollow as those of the dead.

Redrawing his blade from the scar on the ground, a stream of sand burst out, aiming to trap Art.

Art moved his sword forward, a powerful gleam in his sapphire eyes as he wrapped aura around his blade and tore through the sand in one clean swing.

As it parted, Kai lunged forward in a powerful surge of speed.

His sword moved like a whip, tracing an arc that was parried away by Art, who followed with a soft counterattack.

Kai, quick on his feet, activated his intent right as Art’s attack was about to hit, attempting to repel it.

Art was no fool. After all, he already knew Kai had intent. Rather, he let go of his sword right as it touched Kai’s repel aura, before shifting into a slow stance and launching a punch at his rib.

"Heh..."

A smile followed—but it wasn’t his. It was Kai’s, who watched as a spear of ice tore through the distance and penetrated Art’s shoulder, launching him back until he crashed into the entrance of the mall.

Art wasn’t the only person who knew about his opponents.

They too had someone who knew about him, and as long as that person could predict his actions, they had the advantage.

"Now!"

Repelling Art’s sword away, Kai shouted and darted forward, Enko following behind with powerful leaps.

The mall was the retirement zone, but since they chose to fight instead of bypass him, they unleashed their attacks rather than enter.

Kai, slashing through the ground, activated his intent, repelling the sand-covered asphalt at Art, who struggled to get up with a spear in his shoulder.

Enko also amplified the speed of her attack with her flames, and they both watched as it crashed into Art and transformed into a large explosion that took half of the mall with it.

A torrent of heat surged out from the explosion, washing past them and tousling the weaker materials about.

Once it subsided, the sight of the mall—with the entrance completely leveled and leaking with molten lava—revealed itself before them.

Debris that had managed to survive rolled to the ground and shattered into fragments of dust, and yet...

"I should have expected this."

Art was still standing.

His clothing was ruined, leaving parts of his toned body bare to witness.

His shoulder, having been pierced, had a hole that was leaking blood, but apart from that, not even the explosion had left a scratch on him.

Ignoring the amazed faces, Art stared at the wound the spear had given him and gently patted it.

"Must have been Valaria." He whispered, then encased his fist in golden aura.

Both Kai and Enko took up a fighting stance to face him. They were both tense, especially Kai, who now understood what Kiara had meant when she said Art was slightly below Grim.

Grim would always defeat Art in a fight, but in terms of sheer destruction, Art had an edge.

Instructor Art might have been a four-star aura user, but his output was equivalent to a five-star—or even higher.

"We need to take him out before he uses intent."

They both took off in a sprint after coming to that conclusion.

Art watched them in amusement and spread out his hand.

A transparent sword made of gold manifested, and he raised it over his head.

"No you don’t."

Kai, exercising more speed than he usually could, appeared behind him, his sword homing for Art’s neck.

Enko came at him from the front, her fist encased in a mini-sun and whipping forward at his jaw.

"Aura burst."

That single statement flipped the battle over.