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Ace City
The battle between the Black Serpent Mafia and Magic Ace Academy was not only confined within the premises of the campus as it slowly spread throughout the city, throwing the entire city into a state of chaos.
Given the unseen circumstances the underworld organization had overlooked, the situation worsened for them. The tides of the battle were slowly going in their favor, making them come up with this contingency plan.
Since the huge isolation formation already sealed the entire city, they better spread the chaos everywhere, making it hard for the faculty members and the police forces of the city to prioritize the safety of the citizens over anything else.
Then the Black Serpent Mafia would take advantage of the chaos to create more openings for themselves.
Fortunately, the academy and military had already prepared something like this and started evacuating the citizens to safe places in an organized manner.
Regardless, the Black Serpent Mafia's damage to the city was already devastating enough. They had taken down a series of buildings and destroyed multiple business establishments, spreading further chaos everywhere.
Due to this, the entire city had become a warzone, making the people of the academy, the police forces, and the military forces unable to focus on the main task that needed to be done.
This had become a real war between organizations, and the forces within Ace City could only trust the top experts to deal with the powerful people that the opposing side had brought.
Of course, some of them also noticed that the barrier sealing the entire city had its core at the center of the city.
They naturally tried to destroy it, but they all realized that it was impossible with their powers as the one in control of it was a Mentalist at the Venerable Realm.
Even if the movements of that person were currently restricted due to maintaining the barrier, there was still no one among them who could force him to move away from the formation core, much less threaten him in any way.
Unless they found someone on the same level of strength, they would not be able to take down the barrier trapping everyone and let their reinforcements from the outside enter the city.
They could also hope that someone from the outside was powerful enough to destroy the barrier by attacking. But given that the barrier sealing off the entire city was meticulously set up by the Black Serpent Mafia, it would be impossible to destroy it with a single.
It would require a lot of time and effort before a crack appears on it, much less destroying it completely.
Given the power that was continuously flowing through the barrier, it would require at least five or more Domain Realm Experts to destroy it.
This was one of the terrors a Venerable Realm Mentalist could have. So long they had enough time to prepare and set up their formation, it would be hard even for a peak Domain Realm Martial Artist to break through their defenses.
Fortunately, it was just a sealing and isolation formation reinforced with a series of defensive arrays. If it was a slaughtering formation meant for destruction, then there would be no hope for this city once it was activated.
Old Ryong, who was resting at the residence of one of his old comrades in war, received the news quite late.
He was trying to recover from the wound that he had suffered from his battle against Jan Mateo. He also learned that Shin had gone missing due to some plot that the underworld organization had done, so he asked his old comrades to help him look out for his recently acquired disciple.
Due to all of these, he was quite late to receive the news. He arrived a little late outside Ace City as there were already a lot of military forces surrounding the entire place, sealing off all the possible retreat routes.
In the distance, Nathan noticed the arrival of the old man, so he walked over to greet this senior. "Elder Ryong."
Old Ryong turned at Nathan before slightly nodding his head. He had been meeting Nathan these last few days since both of them were looking for traces of Shin.
Moreover, Nathan had also learned that Old Ryong was the sword instructor of Shin, which made him less on guard despite the notorious reputation of the old man.
"How is it? Have you learned who are these guys?" asked Old Ryong while casting his gaze at the Ace City, paying close attention to the barrier sealing it.
"That barrier, it is oddly similar to what those 'people' are using during that war," commented the old man as he squinted his eyes.
Nathan was not surprised when he heard that comment as he was aware that Old Ryong was one of those veterans, who fought on the frontlines during the war in the 'General Pass' at the Dark Continent.
Nathan nodded his head and confirmed. "That is what we thought as well, sir. Whoever these people are, there is a high chance that they are related to those 'people'."
Old Ryong was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "There is also a chance that they have progressed that far in researching their techniques."
"Jan Mateo? What is he doing here?"
"D*mn! Quick! Inform the elders! This is an emergency!"
The news about Jan Mateo's reappearance quickly spread in every channel and the Elder Council that was waiting for him to appear immediately acted.
They sent their people while he was being delayed by Nathan and the rest.
They were expecting him to target the Ruins as well since he was showing great interest in anything related to ancient cultivation, which was why they had stationed most of their people in the ruins and tombs within the region.
Who would have thought that he would appear in the Ace City?
Fortunately, Nathan and Old Ryong were in the era and acted accordingly to stop him from destroying the entire city.
...
Jan Mateo ignored everyone else as his eyes remained fixed on Nathan and Old Ryong, who were leading the group of Domain Realm Experts.
He wanted to take care of the current issue that they had and capture one of the core members of the Black Serpent Mafia before leaving.
Even if he had mostly recovered from the injuries that Old Ryong had given him, he was still far from his peak form, which greatly limited his abilities.
He raised his brows a little and looked at what was happening down in the city before turning back to Nathan. "Are you sure you want to stop me, Nathan? A lot of people are dying over there right now. If you don't act right away, then more will lose their lives."
"We can deal with that ourselves. There is no need for you to get involved in our matters and destroy the city," responded Nathan while keeping his Natural Force active.
He was ready to take action any time.
Jan Mateo smirked when he heard that before saying. "Heh! It looks like you are mistaken. I am not here to get involved, but it is because those snakes from the Black Serpent Mafia have taken something from me."
"Black Serpent Mafia?" Nathan raised his brows when he heard those words as he also learned who was behind the recent events.
More importantly, the abduction of Shin.
Coming to realize this, Nathan's face suddenly turned cold as the pressure that he was releasing immediately erupted. "Something taken from you!? Are you not talking about my nephew, don't you?"
Boom!
Even those around Nathan could not help but distance himself away from him due to the suffocating pressure that he was releasing.
Just being near him felt like they were being crushed by an invisible force.
From their perspective, Nathan seemed to have become a giant dragon – towering over everyone and covering the entire sky with its massive wings.
"Hoh~! You indeed become powerful since the last time we have met. But unfortunately, it is not enough to deal with all of us," said Jan Mateo as the people that were accompanying him suddenly stepped forward.
These people were his subordinates who followed him after he found them. They were somewhat of a replacement for the previous people who were working under him before since all those people were killed by his archnemesis.
Regardless, these people belonged to the highest rank Demons of the current time, excluding those old Demonic Practitioners like Old Ryong.
Nathan did not back down as he further released a stronger pressure that spread in every direction.
Jan Mateo was quite in a hurry since he knew that the other old monsters had already locked their attention on him right after he made his appearance.
"It is rare for me to do this, but I can offer you a deal that you will never be able to refuse," started Jan Mateo while looking at Nathan calmly.
The Dragon King was about to attack as he had already enough of Jan Mateo's nonsense. But before he could even make his move, he suddenly heard something ridiculous.
"I know what happened to your brother."
...