Chapter 91 - Elder Zhus Truth (2/2)

There was no doubt about it, Elder Zhu's divine sense didn't lie, the young man's cultivation base only gave off traces of the fourth step.

But then Elder Zhu's face fell.

”Cultivation Release!” Fen Wudao slammed his open palm onto his belly right below the navel, where the dantian was located.

A formidable blast of energy spread out rapidly, a strong and intimidating divine sense immediately filling the small garden. Shin Sumi was overtaken by Fen Wudao's hidden strength in seconds. Even Elder Zhu had to take half a step backwards.

The strength of Fen Wudao's true cultivation base erupted fully. It wasn't as strong as Elder Zhu's but it came too close to it for Shin Sumi to tell the difference.

”Eighth step?!” Elder Zhu roared in disbelief. Things were turning out for the worst for him. Despite the difference of a single step, Elder Zhu was old and had had a bit of decline in strength recently, and Fen Wudao was a peerless genius unrivaled amongst his peers. Besides, Elder Zhu walked the path of alchemy and medicine, not barbaric fighting like him. Could he really beat him if he wanted to?!

”Don't agitate yourself like that, Elder Zhu, or you'll die from a heart attack. I am not going to face you” Fen Wudao said as he leapt from the roof to the garden, standing against a wooden pillar and crossing his arms. ”My Junior Sister will be taking out the trash today. I will simply level the playing field.”

”What?!”

”WHAT?!!”

Both Elder Zhu and Shin Sumi couldn't believe their ears. Did Fen Wudao just said he would leave the fight to Shin Sumi, after his big revelation and everything?

”Ah ah ahahah AHAHAHAHAHAHA” Elder Zhu broke up into laughter. It was the sad condemned laugh of a dying old man. Whatever he did after that point only had one possible ending.

Elder Zhu had just been sentenced to death, one way or the other. And yet, as the biggest affront that could have been done to him, Fen Wudao had decided to let the weak Shin Sumi battle him.

Him, an Elder of the mighty Dark Sky Starry Sect, transformed into a training dummy for his last battle?

Shin Sumi also understood at the same time. Fen Wudao wanted to train her by making her go against a much stronger enemy. Whether she managed to overpower Elder Zhu was almost irrelevant. The two of them combined, they were certain to beat him.

If Shin Sumi didn't manage to kill Elder Zhu, Fen Wudao would then join and finish the job. If Elder Zhu proved too strong from the get go, Fen Wudao had ways to make sure Shin Sumi was unharmed. And if by any chance Elder Zhu managed to overpower Fen Wudao as well, the other simply had to call Patriarch Sen for help.

All the possible outcomes ended with Elder Zhu losing to a bunch of kids.

”You kids have ambition and cunning. It seems like Fen Wudao was hiding even more secrets than me. He wants to see how much progress you've made, Disciple Shin, I have to say I'm quite interested as well. Show us the full extent of your power!”

Roaring, Elder Zhu punched downwards with his white glow covered fist. As the ground transported an incredible shockwave, Shin Sumi felt the small earthquake growing more and more intense.

At the speed of thoughts, Shin Sumi told herself ”Big Brother Fen showed himself before the fight escalated. That must have been in order to inform me that I was covered. So now is the perfect opportunity to go all out.”

As the ground vibrated strongly, Shin Sumi was ready to finally enter the fight properly. Despite being weaker than Elder Zhu by almost a full Realm, she had two advantages.

Somebody had her back, and she had not only two but three Pavilion's teachings accompanying her.

Jumping in the air to avoid the moving ground, she spun onto herself and threw her sword straight at Elder Zhu. The shockwave passed below her feet, some spirit plants being unrooted in the process.

When she touched the ground, Elder Zhu had just managed to fend off the Void Sword. Not wasting any moment, Shin Sumi accelerated towards him.

”So far he has shown only ranged techniques. Maybe close combat is the way to go.”

Shin Sumi managed to reduce the distance between them in half when Elder Zhu showed his teeth in a vicious smile. Pushing his hands against one another, he concentrated the Shinsoo in his body into his foot. A large formation sprang up below him, intricate symbols carving the soil with light.

”Tortoise Fortress!”

Turning the fresh soil into hardened earth, Elder Zhu conjured a massive wall between Shin Sumi and him. A fat tortoise was engraved on the wall, its lazy eyes seemingly looking at Shin Sumi as if to say ”I'm impregnable”.

Shin Sumi didn't let the tortoise or its wall bother her. Without stopping her momentum for a second, she amassed Shinsoo into her right fist.

”Shinsoo Fist of Thunder!”

Her fist crackled with tiny purple lightning bolts, sending a massive amount of energy from her fist to the wall in a single point of contact.

BOOM

The wall took the impact right on its center, sending the carving of the tortoise to the other world. Cracks spread out like a spider web along the entire surface, which had sunk into the wall by a few centimeters.

Shin Sumi was certain the wall had been obliterated, but she didn't have time to wonder why Elder Zhu had deployed a simple wall in the first place, as the old man's voice spoke from the other side.

”Blind Hedgehog Spikes.”

Shin Sumi's fist was still going through the wall when Elder Zhu's technique attacked from the other side. Fast light bursts pierced the wall in multiple places, blindly aiming at Shin Sumi.

One such white light spike briefly illuminated her face, missing her eyes by a hair's breadth. Another hit her side, tearing her dress and taking a piece of her flesh with it.

”Urgh!” Shin Sumi clenched her teeth. She ignored the pain, her Shinsoo automatically stopping the loss of blood.

Thankfully it was only a flesh wound, having avoided her organs, but now she was furious. ”I can also attack blindly from the other side of the wall!”

Using her divine sense and opening her hand in front of her, Shin Sumi called out to her sword via their mental link. With her other hand, she grabbed Sky Deception from her bag of holding, using the black blade to shield herself from any other light rays that would pierce the wall.

Ever since it was called the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, Shin Sumi had used her primary sword in a most peculiar way, something she had never managed to do with Sky Deception. The Void Sword responded to her immediately. She had thrown it at Elder Zhu earlier and now she was calling it back.

Due to the intrinsic nature of the Void Sword, the blade was invisible but more importantly, the sword didn't leave any trace of divine sense.

Without feeling it coming and without having seen Shin Sumi call to it, the blade sliced Elder Zhu's arm, leaving a deep wound and earning a low cry from the pained old man.

Not stopping there, the Void Sword clashed against the remnants of the Tortoise Fortress, finishing the job Shin Sumi's Shinsoo Fist of Thunder had started.

Pieces of the wall fell down, turning back into the soil that had given it life earlier. Elder Zhu was holding his arm now rendered almost useless, the cut having severed many of his muscles in one fell swoop. As the Tortoise Fortress crumbled down, a red dressed girl appeared from behind it, holding a dark blade in one hand and a single handle in the other.

At this point in the fight, Fen Wudao was pleasantly surprised by Shin Sumi's ability to fight. He had not been present for the final fight of the Cross Branch Arena, but even then he would not have been satisfied. Bai Fulong was the disciple fighting in the Cross Branch Arena, but what he and the other Ghosts were interested in was Shin Sumi's true nature.

Now that she was free to fight using her pure instincts and not worrying about her apparent character, Shin Sumi was like a demon, brandishing two swords and unleashing techniques after techniques. Only Fen Wudao's concentration didn't waver for a single instant.

As he looked at the duel between her and Elder Zhu, he was holding onto his own sword, ready to enter the fray at any time. It looked like Shin Sumi now had the upper hand, but Elder Zhu was still an old practitioner at the peak of the Liquid Realm with maybe five times the amount of Shinsoo Shin Sumi possessed.

Shin Sumi's two swords crossed one another, producing two Cleaving Meteors at the same time, striking Elder Zhu from above.

Still holding his arm, the old man from the Affairs Pavilion didn't flinch. Barely looking at Shin Sumi's head-on assault, he opened his mouth and spat out a tiny globe.