82 The Might of a 7th Layer Xanthian (2/2)

It was odd that he was a saint realm expert and couldn't tell precisely the strength of Hartley, when the youth didn't deliberately hide his aura, it appeared as if he was only a 3rd layer xanthian, Kang knew he had to be stronger than that but didn't ask. Every expert was entitled to their own secrets.

Hartley left Zhi Ruo, Qin Li and Yang Yi at the side of the training field and made his way through the raucous guards, his shadow loomed behind him as strode to meet the smiling and overconfident Goldie.

One day, not too long ago Goldie had been instructed by Kang to go a pick up some important guests, Goldie had suggested that such a job should be given to some of the normal guards, a flash of anger had swept by on the face of the usually immature Kang, he made no further complaints and complied.

After making the three day journey, he had discovered an unimpressive youth and a couple of low level xanthian. He was so angry he couldn't even bring himself to speak, he had resented them ever since that. The disdain he felt as a 6th layer xanthian towards Hartley's group was palpable.

Before Hartley reached the middle of the training field he stopped and turned towards Kang and gave a respectful formal bow cupping both hands and saying ”senior.” Kang smiled and nodded his head. Goldie burned with violent intent, he couldn't wait to wrap his hands around Hartley's neck and teach him a lesson.

What no one in the training field could have or would have predicted, was how short of a battle this was going to be.

The two combatants lined up ten meters apart, the crowd went silent and waited for Kang's signal

Fight! came the command from Kang.

There was an explosion of brilliant green, dust swirled two meters high as Goldie flashed forward using an open palm technique aimed at Hartley's chest, his right hand made several images as he pushed it forward and rotated it in a small circular pattern, everyone in and around the training field was dazzled by the flashy move, it looked as if Goldie's one hand had transformed into six, cacophonous

cheers erupted around the grounds.

Without hardly seeming to move, Hartley letGoldie crash past like a rampaging bull in a bullfight against a skilled matador, before he even realized that he missed his target,

Goldie was already twenty meters pass kicking up a storm of dust as his golden figure wrapped by green aura glinted under the sunlight.

The people watching in the sun-lit surroundings moved their heads following the trajectory of Goldie, but when they looked back again. Hartley was still stood there untouched, black robe fluttering in the dusty wind created by Goldie.

Hartley moved.....There was a loud rumble, the dust swirled like mixing cream into a cup of coffee....The airflow around him wobbled like jelly,the space around the outline of his body groaned as if it was about to implode at any second... The space finally shattered, it felt like every atom in his body was being ripped and torn. He was surrounded bya riot of dark shimmering colors.

Scared out of his mind Hartley engaged his time domain immediately, the pain went away in a flash and he stood there looking around in bewilderment, he was inside a thin dark mesh structure like a tunnel, he could see everyone on the other side of the tunnel frozen in their pose,

Hartley kept a count in his mind of the seconds that had elapsed in his time domain, he had walked around in the tunnel for the first five seconds and found out that the tunnel would curve to his will like his inner world. Anywhere he wanted the tunnel to exist he just had to think about the destination, another five seconds went by and his time domain was still engaged.

It finally dawned on him, This was a space crack, not only that it didn't exert any pressure on his body when he was in his time domain.

Hartley's mind went back to the job at hand, he would explore in greater detail later, he willed the crack to exit behind Goldie. At this point he had his time domain engaged for fourteen seconds and counting.

Everything was quiet in the training field, Goldie had just flashed pass and the youth made his move, the guards stood watching as the youth disappeared and reappeared behind Goldie and delivered a punch with two bright blue flashes, a debris fountain of golden specks flew fifty meters into the sky twinkling like a quiet display of fireworks, if Song Zemin had seen this, he would have definitely been reminded of his mentor's demise.

The naked body of Goldie rose ten meters and was sailing away like a kite. Kang with a shocked face scrambled out of his lawn chair, knocking over his glass of milk and stretched out a hand, the air itself rippled and Goldie's body floated down gently, he placed a robe over the naked body of his disciple and they both disappeared. Leaving a stunned training field as quiet as a broken t.v.