"Reap." Kaze whispered, flying above the massacre site.
A vortex of golden light radiated from the area, making the entire mountainside look like a valley of gold. It dazzled everyone present and astounded Crux.
The souls of over a thousand low-grade [cultivators] swirled around him, getting drawn into his Soul Core through cultivation. Unlike before, he felt refreshed and alive as he had never before.
After absorbing the Qi, he let himself drop to the ground, stepping on a tree trunk.
Kaze closed his eyes, pulled his hand back, and waved it decisively. "Death's Blessing."
A massive arc of golden light shot over the earth, waving over the area like a wheatfield in the breeze. It cut through the faction, shooting under the feet of everyone present.
Everything the light touched sparkled, becoming electric momentarily before returning to normal. It left everyone dazed except Crux, who watched it apathetically.
In confusion, Evalyn turned to the divine beast, communicating through a shared communicatory synesthesia link. "What is that?"
"It's Soul Qi." Crux explained, "Soul Qi reinforces the strength of everything it touches. Otherwise, Qi pressure would destroy everything in the upper planes.
While reinforcement is a natural process, Kaze expedited it with a technique.
Now, specific objects of his choosing have reinforcement. It's weak but should survive petty attacks from these equally petty mortals."
Evalyn's eyes widened during the explanation, watching the wave of golden light pass over everything in a three-mile radius. "Isn't this… using too much for weak reinforcement?"
The divine beast shook her head.
"Imagine you have a fire in a valley you must extinguish." She replied, "Kaze rerouted an existing river to flood the valley to handle it.
His technique didn't reinforce everything. He only helped the Soul Qi do what it was already doing."
The blonde looked around in amazement. "So he effortlessly protected this place?"
"Indeed, though I'm surprised he didn't do more." Crux replied, "Since it's a natural process, this much reinforcement only took a handful of weak souls.
He must be letting everyone experience consequences or need the Soul Qi for something."
Evalyn looked at the south side gate pensively. She didn't know what was going through his head. However, they got an answer a moment later.
A spherical arc of golden light encapsulated Immortal Skye, leaving everyone awe-struck.
The golden light had beautiful, intricate patterns weaving through it, making it a captivating tapestry of light that nearly had a physical form. It was breathtaking.
"What am I looking at?" Evalyn asked in a daze.
"I... have no clue." Crux replied in a daze, awe-inspired by the scene, "To my knowledge, no one has recorded an account of a technique like this before. It must exist from a higher plane."
"What plane do you think?" The blonde asked.
After a moment of thought, the divine beast replied hesitantly. "Many techniques create patterns in Elemental Qi.
Cultivators create them to cut something into an X, for example. It's practical, but this…."
"Had tens of thousands of characters and curving lines weaving through it." Evalyn remarked, holding her breath, "Its intricacy is unworldly. Is that right?"
"No, Evalyn." Crux replied in a haze, shaking her head slowly, "I'm not sure what those characters were. Most of it was utterly foreign.
However, I'm certain Kaze wove a high-level cultivation technique into a barrier. I could feel it breathe into me."
The blonde's heart pulsed, staring into the now clear sky in disbelief.
"This…." She said, panning her gaze, "Will this protect us from missiles?"
"I don't know what it is, but I can tell you what it's not." The divine beast replied straightly, "It's not a barrier that prevents attacks like a wall."
…
Kaze walked through a spatial rift to get to an isolated place on the mountain, sat down in the lotus position, and began cultivating at full force.
It created a chilling atmosphere, slightly suffocating.
"And now we wait." He muttered dryly, "It won't be long until the fools try to attack in my absence."
After thirty minutes of cultivating, a new force broke the sound barrier—
—the main Airbreaker Unit.
Unlike before, where he had slowed everyone's minds, they were now facing the main force at full speed.
"Let's see how you do." Kaze whispered, "Hopefully, you learn from the soldiers."
Within the campus, the Immortals and soldiers were on edge. However, the latter was alert and prepared to attack.
As a result, they heard the Airbreaker Unit inbound and reacted immediately.
"Enemy inbound!" Sandra yelled, "Arrows to the sky, soldiers!"
On cue, a hundred soldiers instantly readied the technique.
Crux observed, waiting for them to attack. They were far too slow to compete, so they could only anticipate.
"Three! Two! One!" The brunette yelled, "Fire!"
Confused Immortals watched in confusion as Guided Arrows shot into the sky, seemingly aimed at nothing.
However, a split second later—
Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom… Boom!
—the jets ran into the fire line and got shredded.
"Survivable." Crux smiled strangely, "However, it wasn't enough."
A dozen jets broke away from the main force and tried encircling the area. Now, they were attacking from their left and right.
Unlike before, where they hit the jets with a surprise attack, they'd now need to hit the jet while it dodged the attacks.
With the soldiers desperately setting up their next arrow and the faction members, who couldn't see the planes, they were doomed without aid.
Crux flew into the sky like a cute fairy, wearing her cocktail dress-length green frog hoodie. No matter how many times a person saw her, they still couldn't take her seriously in her human form. However, she never failed to remind people they should.
The divine beast panned her gaze over the sky, capturing the sight of both jets approaching at lightning speed. She waved her hand in a complete wingspan arc without anyone comprehending her movements. "Dark Catalyst."
An eerie phenomenon took place in the air instantly. The Qi in the air warped and flashed with a dark orange light before it turned red and descended into dark purple hues.
It looked like the sky was burning before turning black, hiding everything behind it. From the Immortals' impressions, the world was genuinely burning away.
That flame spread in a chain reaction, blanketing the sky and blocking out the sun and clouds above. It was an eerie scene to behold.
However, the sky wasn't burning, and her attack didn't destroy anything. Everyone realized when the jets shot out of the rapidly spreading darkness, contrasting against clear skies.
However, while the planes were physically undamaged, they were surrounded by a dark purple Qi twisting around them like smoke. And if someone looked closely—
—they'd find that the cockpit was pitch black.
Everything happened in two seconds while the Immortals tried to see, and the soldiers prepared another volley. So by the time people caught sight of the jets, it was already over.
Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom… Boom! Boom, boom, boom… Boom! Boom! Boom!
A dozen explosions coincided, but they weren't due to bombs. All twelve jets had blind pilots, unable to fly, so they flew past Immortal Skye's campus and crashed into the ground.
The Immortals and soldiers turned to the shadow cat but couldn't see her. Her technique genuinely blocked out the light from the sun, cloaking the entire area in legitimate darkness.
However, in the darkness, Crux sensed a fast attack coming from the west and turned to face it.
It happened so fast that those looking into her darkness didn't see the sky above Immortal Skye glimmer with golden characters, making the two dozen projectiles disappear without a trace.
BOOOOM! BOOM! Boom! BOOM! BOOOOM!
Massive flashes of light rocked the distant skies, unaffected by the darkness. Black mushroom clouds of smoke followed, circling the area.
Everyone could hear explosions in Crux's artificial darkness, so they knew that the attack hit targets all around them, in every direction.
...
"Capture Soul Record." Kaze whispered after reinforcing Immortal Skye with Death's Blessing, "Transfigure Soul Barrier."
His Soul Core churned, radiating his body with golden light. The Qi twisted forward, consolidating in a sphere before him.
An intricate storm of enigmatic characters formed on the sphere.
Kaze closed his eyes and summoned a blueprint from memory. "Weave Empyrean Rift."
His spatial cultivation technique weaved into the sphere's pattern, creating a tapestry-like framework for the light circling him.
"Transfigure Spatial Reversal." He whispered, creating a new set of light-like tattoos on the sphere.
After a deep breath, he reached into his pocket and pulled out three silver rings of varying sizes.
"Spatial Link." Kaze whispered, opening his eyes.
A portion of the golden sphere detached, flowing into the rings. It burned intricate patterns into the rings, giving them a beautiful, royal appearance.
He looked to the sky above the Immortal Skye campus with a profound gaze.
"Weave Spirit Qi Imprint." Kaze said, pulling his hand back and waving it forward, "Transfigure Barrier!"
The sphere expanded exponentially, creating a massive light dome over Immortal Skye's campus, decorated by information in the soul record and Kaze's spatial technique.
"I'll be able to reverse attacks at a long distance if they let me know of the danger." Kaze smiled bitterly, "At least now I can."
The emperor walked through a spatial rift to get to an isolated place on the mountain, sat down in the lotus position, and began cultivating at full force.
It created a chilling atmosphere, slightly suffocating.
"And now we wait." He muttered dryly, "It won't be long until the fools try to attack in my absence."
..
Kaze gazed at the artificial darkness with a nostalgic expression. "It never ceases to amaze me that changing the color of Elemental Qi could be so destructive.
With modern equipment, simple blindness can kill your foes. It's profoundly convenient."
His smile disappeared when he felt a force approaching from a distance.
"Those fools," He growled, clenching his hand, activating his spatial ring. The soul barrier above the campus glimmered with golden light, capturing the Qi movements from all objects.
When two dozen ballistic missiles reached a space within, new rifts opened a mile above Immortal Skye—and sent them back into the directions they came from with pinpoint accuracy.
Naturally, the loss of kinetic force prevented any projectile from being reversed completely. However, every base sending the ballistic missiles found itself getting pelted.
Since the missiles were meant to level the mountain, the bases faced full-scale military strikes.
Game over.
Kaze returned to cultivating to regain his strength, waiting for more missile attacks that never came. After a while, he opened his eyes with a strange expression. "Then it's time to face the cultivators. I'm already late."