Long Tao passively observed the fight that was a fair bit bloodier than he expected. Even whilst utilizing 'just' twenty percent or thereabout of his strength, the Sage was still far too strong for the kids. The best they could achieve were some surface-level wounds and a battle of attrition, one that they were likely to win, actually.
Time and again, Long Tao was amazed at the endurance the kids displayed, and time and again he was shocked by the realization it likely had everything to do with their Master. Even he, whilst near the man, found himself recovering far quicker midbattle than when away. Surging Spirit Art was one thing, yes, but the Qi recovery rate was the true difference maker.
One of the greatest advantages highest realms had, beyond the quality of arts, was the sheer quantity of Qi, especially before Laws of Dao became involved. But Long Tao was certain that he--and the kids, too--could outlast most everyone in terms of endurance.
And it all, somehow, had to do with the man standing next to him, making expressions that were a comedy unto itself over and over, wincing with each sound of a snapped bone or a torn ligament.
All the same, his eyes inadvertently wandered off to the Sage; though the man was not an Emperor... the scary bit was that the potential was there. There was a severe misunderstanding that plagued most of the world of cultivation, and it had to do with Avatars; realistically, the reason one would make an Avatar in the first place had nothing to do with combat. If anything, that would make them weaker as they had to equally dissever parts of themselves to fuel the Avatar.
It had to do with survival.
Long Tao never had an Avatar as he did not want to permanently get weaker, but a good number of his peers did, and the idea was that they'd hide them in some random corners of the world so that they'd still be able to survive in case their main bodies were killed.
How well it all worked was... debatable, at best, as they all inadvertently recalled back the Avatars to assist during the fights. But it was a fool's errand.
For most, that was.
Sage's Avatar was one of the most refined Long Tao had ever seen. And that was the scary bit of it all; they were guaranteed a victory today, he made sure of that, but every glimpse he caught of the Order further and further convinced him that they had some connections to one--if not more--of the Seven.
He recalled wanting to march over to their headquarters as early as their visit to the Silvercrest City and sighed inwardly at his own hubris.
Though the Order has to be rooted before they go to the Upper Realm, he feared it would be impossible. After all, Avatar's host body was not here--that was why there was no thread binding them, a direct link. It meant that there was a world boundary preventing the soul's vinculum.
Even if that part was a relief as it meant that the Avatar wouldn't relay information about them back to the host body and, thus, the Order itself, it also implied that the Sage behind the body was a supremely dangerous figure. If the man was the leader of the Order, Long Tao would have rested a bit more easily, but his instinct was telling him that was not the case.
He glanced up at the array; the corruption was just about 'done', which meant that the man was about to learn his efforts were in vain. And it was entirely possible that the anger would be turned toward the kids, none of whom could bear the brunt of it.
... no, perhaps that one standing casually and not doing anything would be able to hold it for a little while.
"I'm off, Master."
"... huh? Off to where? Hey, Long Tao--"
He blended into the shadows as the sounds of the battle ceased and colors began to fade. Before a moment passed, it was all dull and gray and unremarkable. Smoke and shadows danced and intermingled, and the vine itself... changed.
The rough, wooden exterior disappeared and revealed the singular, long stem arising in a helix-like curve. The body was thin and fragile-seeming, with the tip adjoined to the array above, pulsating incrementally.
He walked up to it and inspected it from up close; though it was different from other vines that they'd encountered, it was fundamentally the same. With each new one, Long Tao was more and more certain they were not natural; to the best of his knowledge which, admittedly, wasn't exactly world-spanning, there was no family of vines with attributes like this.
While parasitic vines were dime-a-dozen, none were fine-tuned for direct energy consumption; most either cannibalized other flora, or devoured animals that came too close. It was entirely possible that one of them was taken and force-bred to consume life, but that was only the start of it; the sheer differences in how each vine operated, even if they did the same or similar thing, was what gave him a pause and a nudge toward it being manmade.
Fundamentally, the shape itself does not matter; beneath the crude exterior was energy, shaped and curated, which defined the aspects of its behavior. All things under heavens, after all, were built as such, ultimately governed by the same laws. Every person's outward appearance was different, but underlying aspects of the body were universal.
The heart pumped blood.
The stomach processed food.
The bones held up the musculature.
He reached out and grabbed the stem, fondling it for a moment; it was surprisingly rough, as though there were tiny hairs going against his fingers embedded in the vine's surface.
"... huh?" a voice echoed from the back, but it was slow and distorted. He glanced back and saw the Sage staring up at the ceiling. In this world, the body's reality was revealed--it was luminous energy. There was no flesh, no blood, no organs. Everything was merely an illusion condensed out of a small bundle of True Qi residing in the depths. "What is... happening?"
The voice had lost its choir-like cadence, turning out to be quite high-pitched and hiss-suffused.
"No, no, no! What, what have you done?!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!" the bundle of energy exploded, tearing open spacetime around it; Long Tao noticed every kid be blown back like a cannonball but, luckily, none were harmed too much. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!" the voice repeated yet again, the screech so powerful that it distorted the entire world around them.
Long Tao slowly dissolved the quiet and appeared just ten feet to the man's left, startling him.
"Simply what had to be done."