164 Sect Leader Laws

The waves of elemental giants kept coming one after another, but Xia easily struck them all down. His silver lightning pillars seemed to fall without end, and his cloud didn't shrink at all.

"SO SHAMELESS!" An angry voice echoed from the depths of the Purple Origin Sect. Sect Leader Fang appeared in the skies. He neither floated nor flew, but instead walked across the sky as if it was solid ground. "I've done so much for our people, and this is how you fools repay me?!"

"Humph." Xia snorted. "More like how much you've repressed us and our people." He quickly pointed at the cloud in the sky and shouted. "7th tribulation!" The cloud immediately swirled faster and shrank in size by almost half. A 7-colored lightning bolt nearly 50 meters in circumference flashed towards Fang Chonglin!

Chonglin calmly raised his hand towards the lightning pillar. Purple mana floated from his body and acted upon the seven-colored lightning from all directions. The army of cultivators watched in shock as the 7-colored lightning condensed into a 7-colored pellet smaller than the size of a thumb. Chonglin lazily caught the 7-colored pellet and examined it. "Not bad, but such a crude lightning law probably uses up far too much mana." He grinned. "Now, why don't you go and play with your own toy." He flicked his finger, shooting the pellet towards their group.

"Li! Wan!" Sect Leader Ying yelled.

"On it." They both nodded, seeming to be in agreement for once. A bright white light covered Wan's body, and a dark light covered Li's body. The lights were like cloaks radiating from their bodies. The world seemed to brighten around Wan, as if she was the center of everything good in the universe. The world grew dark and cold around Li, as if she represented the most terrifying depths humanity had to offer. The lights were so blinding on one end and dark on the other that neither woman could be seen anymore. Slowly, the two lights moved together, forming a giant yinyang symbol. Space distorted and twisted around them, as if reality itself seemed to be opposing their attempt at fusion.

'Would this have been the future of Yuki's power if she hadn't undergone a 2nd awakening?' Ed wondered as he watched. The energy being radiated from the two women was far too terrifying. He felt as if he was surrounded by monsters, which was fair since all of the sect leaders could easily be classified as such.

The two balls of opposing light finally fused together completely. The two sisters reappeared in midair, and the dark and white lights vanished completely. The sisters looked ordinary once again except for each of them having one eye glowing black and one eye glowing white. When the lightning pellet finally reached them, they each held up a hand. The lightning pellet exploded, releasing horrid destructive energies. An invisible force radiated from the sisters, and the destructive lightning energy vanished just as quickly as it came, leaving not a trace behind.

The two sisters floated towards Chonglin. It was not flight like most espers used, nor was it some form of air walking like Chonglin seemed to use. Instead, it was as if the world itself could not contain them. Their very existence was on an entirely different level or plane. Space itself seemed to fold itself out of their way as they moved, which appeared as ripples in the sky to observers.

"Humph." Xia snorted as he watched. "As if I couldn't stop my own lightning." The remaining half of the dark cloud in the sky floated down towards him, and he stepped atop it. It lifted him into the air towards Chonglin and the two sisters.

Only Ed, Tai, Dongfeng, and Ying remained behind to command the armies. Ed kept a close eye on Tai's forces, which hid Flair, Tao, Hina, and Haru within it. He needed to know where they were, as he might need to assign them orders later to accomplish his goals.

"Not going to assist them?" Tai smilingly mocked the other two sect leaders while waving his fan towards his face.

"I'll naturally remain here to support the armies." Ying frowned while crossing her arms. "Besides, my top law is best suited to wide-range attacks, and I'm busy maintaining the ancient mountain."

"Is that so?" Tai replied while glancing at Dongfeng.

Dongfeng smiled awkwardly. "It's already three against one up there, and Chonglin and I are old friends. I'd prefer not to get involved unless I have to."

"Coward." Ying scoffed.

"Haha." Dongfeng blushed while scratching the back of his head.

...

In the skies above the battlefield, Xia and the sisters cautiously surrounded Chonglin on each side. Despite their bravado, it seemed they were fairly cautious of the man.

Suddenly, Chonglin coughed several times, causing blood to drip down his lips.

"So, the rumors are true." Xia commented. "To injure you to the point of coughing blood. Who did it?"

"I've no idea what you're talking about." Chonglin grinned. "But you three won't mind if I rest a bit, right? After all, we've all known each other a long time. A purple glow lit up on his body, and it formed the outline of a regal throne. Shockingly, the purple mana then vanished, and in its place was a physical chair. The chair was red and gold in color and seemed to be made of oak.

"Mana condensation." Xia frowned. "Such a disgusting law."

"Perhaps." Chonglin agreed. "But nothing in this world is without flaw." He glanced at the two sisters. "For example, my power doesn't work against them at all. Truthfully, I'd rather fight the other five of you combined instead of just those two. It's a bad match-up for me."

"We're obviously aware of that." Wan snarkily replied.

"That's why we came up first." Li said, though she didn't appear to be happy about it. Unlike Wan, she seemed to view Chonglin as a friend. But sides had been drawn, and with outside manipulation, the war had been inevitable. Even if she didn't get along well with her sister, it was only natural for them to choose the same side for the war.

"A pity." Chonglin sighed while leaning his head against his hand. "You've all been manipulated to such an extent by outsiders and the promise of more power. Such is the folly of men. I never thought the day would come where I would have to destroy all of your sects entirely."

"You think too highly of yourself!" Wan raged, no longer willing to prolong the conversation. She moved so fast that it would be more accurate to describe it as warping. Her fist shot towards him.

A stream of wind seemed to appear from nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, Chonglin and his throne reappeared several dozen meters away. A brief instant later, the light began to bend and twist around him, causing him to vanish entirely. A clone of fire and a clone of water stepped out from the invisible space, followed by several more of each. Then a dark energy radiated from the invisible space and fed into each of the clones. The fire and water clones turned black, and the dangerous energy they radiated increased several folds.

The Chonglin clones charged towards the two sisters. When they got close, it was as if reality wanted to erase them, but they struggled to continue pressing forward. The sisters were forced to fight back in hand-to-hand combat.

Xia's anger increasingly grew as he watched. "DAMNIT CHONGLIN! ARE YOU JUST GOING TO KEEP PLAYING AROUND?!" His voice boomed like thunder as he yelled.

"I'm just killing time since we've got plenty to spare." Chonglin's chuckled.

Spotting the origin of the voice, Xia turned towards an empty space. He pointed forward, and a seven-colored streak of lightning shot from his cloud.

BOOM! A seven-elemental lightning explosion cleared the invisible space, revealing Chonglin. His body was completely covered in a purple crystal-like armor with not even his face being revealed.

"Heh." Chonglin mocked. "You surpass me in the realm of lightning laws by quite a large margin, but I don't mind playing anyways." He rose his fist towards the sky, causing bits of purple mana to radiate up from his body. Storm clouds gathered overhead, casting the world in dark shadows. However, the clouds did not condense together like Xia's had earlier. Instead, they only released ordinary silver lightning towards Xia and the sister.

"Is this a joke?!" Xia mocked as he activated his mana to create a new cloud for himself. Any lightning that neared him was simply absorbed into the cloud, becoming his own.

"It's an investment!" Chonglin replied. "Once you shoot some more lightning at me, I can make a few more seven-lightning pellets for cheap! It's a real bargain for me!"

"AGHHH!!!" Xia roared as he flew the cloud closer, prepared to join the sisters in their close-combat fight against the clones.

...

Ed watched the ongoing sky battles in shock. 'Sect Leader Fang had mentioned he mastered over a dozen laws... And he clearly has a seven-colored mana-core as well. No wonder he led over the other sects... In comparison, the other sect leaders only seem to have mastered one or two laws each.'

"It's not all about the number of laws." Dongfeng interrupted Ed's thoughts, seeming to have guessed some of what he was thinking about. "While it's true that Chonglin controls many laws, most of them are weak and nearly useless by themselves." He pointed towards the water and fire clones fighting in the sky. "The clones represent two different laws. They are not the result of simple mana manipulation, as they are fully independent with their own thoughts and actions. Normally, they are very weak and easy to defeat. However, Chonglin has not only allowed the different clone types to support each other but has also buffed them with a type of dark law. This alone makes him a fearsome cultivator."

"Humph." Ying snorted, interrupting Dongfeng. "All small tricks. The only law that really matters with Chonglin is his damned mana condensation law." She glanced at Ed. "In fact, it's fairly similar to your own abilities."

"Mm." Dongfeng agreed. "His ability to create any nonliving thing from his mana is powerful, but the really terrifying thing is how he uses it to condense and reuse the attacks of others. He can conserve most of his own mana while turning everything around on us."

"Is that why you're not getting involved?" Tai asked.

"I could fight him..." Dongfeng replied before shaking his head. "But there isn't much point. My long-range attacks would be reversed by him, and I'm no match for him in close combat. It'd be a waste of my efforts, like what Xia is doing."

Ying sighed. "We'll simply have to wait for the barrier to break. Once we begin slaughtering his sect members, he won't be able to fight so defensively. He'll be forced to go on the offensive and use up his massive mana reserves. Then we'll finally be able to finish him off."

"I agree." Dongfeng nodded. "But will they really be able to hold him off from attacking our army until then?" He asked with concern visible in his eyes.

"They will." Tai confidently answered. The other two glanced at him, confused as to where the newbie's confidence came from, but they didn't bother commenting on the matter.

"How long do you think the barrier will take to break?" Ed asked as he stared at the mountain crushing down upon the purple barrier.

"That..." Ying hesitated while looking towards the barrier. "They have so many cultivators maintaining it... Even though gravity is doing most of the work for me, I'm still using up quite a bit of mana to maintain it. If it doesn't break within half a day, then I'll have no choice but to retract it to conserve my own mana for the war."

"I see..." Ed nodded. "In that case, everything will be for nothing. Our armies won't be able to invade, and they'll simply continue to turtle within the barrier. At most, they'll send more elemental giants towards us while we try to retreat."

"Well, I think we'll break through right on time." Tai gave Ed a knowing smile. "After all, they are both left behind by ancient powers. Won't they put up similar levels of performance?"

'As if it would work that way...' Ed thought to himself. 'One is being maintained by a single powerful individual and gravity while the other is being maintained by thousands of weaker individuals. There's practically zero chance of the barrier breaking right as she's forced to retract the mountain... But I suppose things will conveniently work out that way on purpose for the sake of the Fire Dragon Sect and Purple Origin Sect's plans.'

Suddenly, a new wave of elemental giants exited the purple barrier. With Xia and the sisters busy fighting in the sky, they would be forced to face it themselves.

"I can't waste any mana on them." Ying frowned while turning to Dongfeng. "You're up."

"Right." He nodded in agreement. Green wind swirled around his body as he slowly walked forward. However, he seemed to speed up with each step he took, and soon, he vanished.

Ed's eyes widened in surprise as he watched Dongfeng shred through the elemental giants. It was as if the man was both slow and fast. He'd briefly appear, his motions completely visible to the naked eye, and then he'd vanish while hundreds of elemental giants were torn to bits and pieces.

"Not good." Ying sighed. "Dongfeng is best suited for one-on-one long-range combat."

Indeed, it seemed Dongfeng was having a hard time keeping up with demand despite his massive speed. The elemental giants being produced far outpaced his speed of slaughter.

"We have no choice but to send in the armies." Tai stepped forward. "We knew it would likely come to this."

"Tch. If your father was here, we wouldn't have this problem." Ying complained. She was unaware of Tai's recent sacrifices for progress, and so he was little better than dead weight in her eyes. If not for the Fire Dragon Sect's armies, she wouldn't even bother giving him a 2nd look. "Fine." She turned towards the waiting armies. "GO!" She yelled. "Show the Purple Origin Sect how real cultivators fight!"