100 Troubling Times (1/2)
”Cole… are you seeing what I'm seeing?” An old man asked another equally old-looking man. Both were exuding the subtle pressure of Sages.
”Yeah… it looks like a group of kids from the cultivation academy...”Cole said as he stroked his long white beard. He almost couldn't believe his eyes. He continued ”Moe… to think that the academy has grown bold enough to let their kids run around at a time like this? I think we should send them a message...”
The two old men stood still in the air as they awaited for Jam's group to get a bit closer. As the key moment slowly approached, Moe hurriedly said ”Wait! Isn't that Alexander from the Packer branch?”
Cole took a closer look at Alex and also gave out a surprised gasp. He turned to Moe and said ”I'll send him a message to separate from that group and we'll eliminate those that remain.”
Moe gave him a nod and used a mysterious Dao to make both of them disappear, blending into the environment even more seamlessly than before. Now turned into what looked to be ghosts, no semblance of energy escaped from the Sage duo's bodies, so much so that even Jam's normal eyes couldn't pick up a sign of them through their cultivation. Cole used an illusion technique to cover his divine sense as he sent Alex a message.
”Alex, stand down and move away from that group discreetly. We are in a precarious situation against the Cultivation Academy and can't afford to be associated with them at the moment.” As this message hit Alex, it came from nowhere an with no chance for him to safeguard against the effects of the illusion the message carried with it.
Luckily, Alex knew a thing or two about Illusions, so apart from blanking out for just the slightest second, he didn't suffer any other ill effects. Alas, blacking out for even the slightest second meant that he had stopped moving with his group, thereby granting the Sages a chance to launch a sneak attack.
Alex didn't have time to think as his body moved instinctively. As soon as he caught a whiff of that divine sense, he recognized it to be Elder Mo from his Clan. Elder Moe was famous for his Phantom Dao, which made him a highly skilled assassin. Alex knew of this Elder Moe more than others, so much so that he understood Elder Moe's key quirk; he overused euphemisms.
Hearing that they couldn't afford to be ”associating” with the cultivation academy made him think of the worst possible scenario, so Alex just did his best to summon a barrier anticipating a nasty sneak attack. Unfortunately, even though he had called it correctly, Alex wasn't a match for a Sage's direct attack; a Greater Sage's attack to be specific.
He had used his Foundational Domain's secret ability to keep up the barrier of solid earth against Moe's attack in exchange for direct damage to himself. As a result, Alex's body was wrecked through and through. From the outside, all he showed was a bit of blood through coughing, but internally, everything had been jumbled up. His blood vessels and meridians all but cracked, his Dantian even had some shards break off, and some of his organs had been displaced.
Alex lost consciousness right after receiving that attack and fell down from the skies only to be picked up by the two culprits of the attack. Ironically, the only person they wanted to not harm was the only person harmed. This left Moe in an especially downcast mood as he had made a fool of himself and several fronts right in front of his peer, Cole.
His prized illusions and assassination skills looked to be a joke as a mere Saint Grandmaster not only detected them, he directly blocked them!
The two enemy Sages didn't have the luxury to dilly dally as Danger Noodle and Dai Mingzi's seperpant companion were emitting auras that could threaten even them. Not to mention Jam's even more ridiculous demonic killing intent. He had been left out of the killing game for eight years now, but his Demon Dao remained as strong as ever. Having one of his friends get taken out right in front of him and then get captured reignited that desire to kill Jam hadn't felt in a while.
Still, even though the deaths of the two Sages floating before him was the only sight he currently wanted to see, Jam didn't just go berserk and begin a bloody battle to the death. He very well could have, but instead he took a more mature approach to the situation and investigated why his Innate Eyes had failed him.