I kind of expected Xi Zhao to stand there charging an attack for half an hour like it's a filler episode of a shounen anime, but it was over in about second and a half. His fingers clasped tightly the handle of the blade as a pulse of Qi gently erupted around him before coalescing into silence of totality.
And then he drew.
It was soundless and impressively... dull. There were no stirrings of the world, no world-rending winds to tear apart everything, but a singular line crushing through the spacetime--like a singular black hair against white background.
The sage raised his hand to block it, but then the strike stopped midair, as though frozen by some invisible energy; not a moment later, however, just as the tensed muscles in the arm relaxed, the stroke fell.
... and that was when the shit I was expecting to hit the fan actually hit the fan.
The immediate reaction was an explosion that shook the entire hall, followed by a shockwave so violent that it ripped up all the tiles from the ground and sent them flying, and one so visceral that it dissected all the metallic lanterns and pagodas down to fine ash that was blown back in the wind.
All of us had to quickly erect a Qi barrier, and even that was an effort we had to endure as the shockwave rippled out against the back of the hall and inward, still brimming with energy it needed to somehow discharge.
The smoke undulating around the vine collapsed and the entire hall shook as though an epicenter of an earthquake was some forty yards beneath our feet. causing rocks to begin collapsing and kicking up no small amount of dust that covered everything.
It was... uh, well, terrifying in so many ways that I struggled to define them all. Would I even be able to defend against that shit? Probably not. Maybe blink away and escape it if I anticipated it quickly enough?
Judging by Lao Shun's and Han Yimu's hanging jaws, they probably were contemplating the exact same thing as me, though they still needed to learn to keep their cool as well as I do.
"Impressive," the voice broke from the storm of dust, sounding slightly amused more so than anything. A gentle wind swept out suddenly and revealed the figure standing by the vine, still--though everything else in the hall was rendered to ashes, the vine stood all but untouched.
The figure, though, was in a sorry state; he was missing his right arm, the one he used to block the strike, and there was a pulsating gash against his chest that opened up nicely to see the organs underneath. He'd turned to face us, his complexion ashen and weathered, face void of emotions.
Above all else, however, were his eyes; they were jet black, iris, pupil, everything. It was like somebody threw black ink directly into them.
"Even at my age, I pay the price for hubris. The age of change... it truly may be upon us. Like a song, long and sacred. But... be that as it may, I cannot allow you to disrupt our plans, children. In another time, I may have captured you all and made you part of our Order--you certainly match the requirements. But this is a crucial moment for us, and you being here is dangerous. Thus, you must die."
"Prepare, everyone," that was Long Tao who spoke. "It won't be easy."
"... oh? You still believe you stand a chance, child?" Long Tao turned and faced him, throwing a smile.
"You're right that the age of change is upon us," he said. "But harbingers of that change, talented though they may be, still need to be sharpened somehow."
"And you intend to use me as your whetstone?"
"Yes."
"Ha ha ha," the man laughed as the sinister shadows began to slowly coalesce around his body. "Fascinating. I'll leave you for last, child. I will want to see the look in your eyes when all your friends are lying around you dead. Will you dare call me a whetstone then, I wonder?"
"I wonder, too," Long Tao smirked as he pulled back, while the rest of the kids stepped forward, lining up.
Dai Xiu was on the far left, and toward her right lined up Xi Zhao, Light, Xing Feng, Wan Lan, and Rayce, in that order. It has been a while since I've last seen the kids go all out since I missed all their fighting back in the realm, so I was curious as to how they'd do almost as afraid as I was of how badly they'll be hurt.
They broke formation immediately, with Dai Xiu and Wan Lan taking the front, fanning out to flank the man on both sides. At the same time, Light and Rayce drew back, with the latter rapidly tearing apart six parchments. A burst of colors flashed as trailed arrays of light shot toward the kids as well as around them all in a wide circle.
Xing Feng lagged a few steps behind Dai Xiu and Wan Lan but still went ahead directly. It was actually kind of amazing, and when I say amazing I mean horrifyingly insane, that there's a kid that's barely in the Foundation Establishment Realm currently striking someone at the True God Realm... head-on. Xi Zhao got lost somewhere in the shuffle, likely priming for a stealth attack.
Why did I ever agree to this shit?
Dai Xiu and Wan Lan were the first to reach the man, whose right arm was still completely missing. He extended his left one out whereupon a jet-black sword appeared, an aura of dread blasting off the surface of the blade.
He swung rather casually in a frontal cone, causing an array of spear-tipped shadows to eject upward from the ground in concentric circles, each one growing larger than the prior, until they were at around forty feet high and four times as wide.
Both girls tore through the layers of shadows and struck, but he nimbly dodged them, using the dull edge of the handle to swipe at their ribs, blasting them both back. The two recovered midair, grasping at where they were hit but only for a moment. Without hesitation, Qi stirred underneath their feet and they barreled back into the shadows.
The rising arrays of shadows were slowly diffused by concentric attacks from Xing Feng and Rayce, giving a clear view of the man toying with two girls; he dodged all of their strikes and continued using the dull edge of the handle to strike back.
I never could quite understand why cultivators fought this way--he believed himself to be so far above the rest of us that, in my mind, he should have struck to kill from the onset. And yet, he was entertaining them.
Then again, both Dai Xiu and Wan Lan were acting like headless chicken and just swinging about randomly; even if I was a moron, I'd realize they were playing at something. Chances are that the plan was for them to set up Xi Zhao for another strike. Even a 'hastily' prepared one dealt a lot of damage, though the caveat was that the man wasn't expecting it.
If I could see through their little farce, so could he.
"From above?" he craned his neck gently and twisted in place, contracting the sword-wielding arm and spinning sideways while extending the sword up in a singular motion. Oh boy, I better brace for this shit.