"Hm", Kuang Li looked at the direction of where Zuo Er was.
"So he wants to start now", he said.
Walking towards the formation flag, he reached out to remove it from it's position. Doing so would render the barriers ineffective and allow the forces of the Tao Feng to converge on the mountain.
"Stop! Don't do this!" the disciples begged.
They could not do anything to stop him, unable to even move. Kuang Li paid no attention to their pleas.
Suddenly, he turned away from the flag and stepped back, avoiding a wind needle that was aimed for his head. There was a faint whistling sound that came and passed. Following the first attack, Kuang Li was bombarded with wave of a hundred of them.
He crossed his arms and formed a golden bagua in front of him. The bagua circle acted like an impenetrable wall as the needles bounced off like pebbles.
"Get out here!" he shouted out, "There's no point in hiding, I know who you are!"
He looked around him, through the many trees that surrounded him. There was only one person that used such a technique, Ming Yue!
This girl who he had not seen in his life, never heard of before. Younger than him, weaker than him, yet out of all of his opponents, she gave him fear. Why was it so?
He had cultivated and worked his life to achieve the apex of power. Nothing mattered to him in the pursuit of strength, he was barely bothered from having to lie, to betray, to kill. It did not faze him one bit that he was going to destroy the place he's resided in for years. Not even the fact that what he would do could end in endless amounts of bloodshed.
All he cared for was further improving himself, even if it meant having to act despicable.
Now she was in his way. If Kuang Li did not take care of her now, her existence would leave a stain on his soul.
He looked around carefully, trying to determine where she was.
A twig snapped and he immediately turned towards the right. In almost an instant, his face was met with Ming Yue's foot and his body flew several feet. She immediately pinned him to the ground with her sword pressed tightly onto his neck.
In a environment such as this, Ming Yue had the advantage here!
Kuang Li chuckled before laughing wildly.
"Did you think I would not know what you were trying to do?" he grinned at her with his right cheek purple and swollen.
A tooth or two had been knocked out and his face had streaks of blood. Despite this, he was smiling.
"What?" asked Ming Yue.
She turned around and found the flag removed. Then she looked up and watched as the barriers slowly withered away, turning into motes of light.
Looking back at Kuang Li, she found the flag gripped tightly in his hands.
"It's too late!" he said, "You cannot stop anything."
Ming Yue turned solemn, this situation had gone out of control. Should she escape?
In that moment of thought, she had lowered her guard and Kuang Li took full advantage of it. He threw her off of him and immediately ran. His objective had been completed, there was no reason to stay any longer. With the flag in his hands, he broke it in half and tossed it away.
Ming Yue turned to chase but stopped, fixing the barrier was more important than catching Kuang Li. As unhappy as she was, she could not give in to her own thoughts.
She rushed back to the disciples in charge of protecting this spot, asking if there was a way to fix it. But fixing such a complex formation was not an easy task.
"The formation flag can be replaced easily but we need one of the elders to personally place the flag. A formation such as this requires a specific method of setting up the barriers", one of the disciples explained.
If that was all she needed, then all was not lost. After all, she had sent Xiao Yin to alert the elders. But was there enough time to do such a thing?
As for the elders, the arena was in a very tense atmosphere. Zuo Er stood at the center of it all, smiling proudly.
Something wasn't right and everyone knew it.
"What do you mean?" Senior Qing asked him.
Zuo Er didn't bother answering her and turned back, staring into the sky. It was a nice day, the sun was bright and there weren't many clouds.
Seconds after he faced the sky, the barrier had begun to disintegrate. The transparent dome of energy slowly fell apart, much to the shock of many.
"What's going on here?" someone exclaimed, "What is the meaning of this?"
As the barrier broke apart, a group of figures dropped from the clouds, landing around Zuo Er. Each and every one of them were powerful, their auras was equal to that of an Earth Realm cultivator. Many of them were steps from reaching the Sky Realm. They all looked around before looking back at Zuo Er.
"Hmm, your plan really did work", one of them said.
"Pulling that kid in early really saved us some trouble. Destroying that barrier might have taken days", said another.
Zuo Er smiled and looked at them all.
"Thank you for the compliments Elders", he answered back, his eyes were full of anticipation. This was the moment he was waiting for.
"This...", he said loudly to the many sect leaders, "...is the time where all of you surrender to me."
Upon hearing such words, many of them laughed and chuckled.
Lan Huang was the first to speak.
"Surrender to you? Why would I surrender to someone who I can kill in an instant?" he answered back mockingly, readying his bow.
Others voiced out the same response, why would they have to surrender?
The mocking clamor and insults flew at him. Some laughed at his face, others dared him to attack.
"Even if the barrier was broken, just this group is not enough to scare us", Wang Yuan, the Fisherman, smiled as he pointed out this detail.
"Of course not", Zuo Er replied, "But do any of you know just how large the Tao Feng is? Sure, I have these elders of mine but without that barrier, I have others entering right now. Do you think you can talk so nonchalantly?"
Just that fact was enough to deter many of them. They might all be experts in their own caliber but there was no guarantee that this young man did not have some tricks up his sleeve.
"Then what are your conditions?" Senior Qing asked.
She sat coolly on her seat backed by all of the elders of Clear Spring Mountain.
Zuo Er smiled, "That's simple. Submit and join the Tao Feng. All of your students, techniques, and resources will belong to us. Of course, you're all free to continue maintaining your statuses as sect heads and go on teaching."
"What?!" everyone gasped at the thought.
To give up everything they've done for the sect and join Zuo Er's sect, it was preposterous. All of them had their pride and to submit like this was nothing short of humiliating.
"Forget it, why would we agree to such things?" Fu Men spoke up.
The sect leader of the Eternal Blade Sect was calm and collected as he talked.
The junior sect leader of the Tao Feng was unfazed.
"Fair enough, I suppose I would have to try a more forceful method. This could've gone much more simpler if you had given up but so be it."
Numerous purple informed disciples surrounded the arena, blocking the exits. It was likely that there were many more. The many leaders in the arena had grave expressions on their faces. All of them knew that coming out alive would be a difficult task. Their students grew somewhat fearful, would they be able to come out alive?
"Yes, yes, yes!" he thought excitedly, "Everything is in place. It is perfect, although it was a shame that it must end like this. A few more pawns would make everything else so much easier. But, their resources are much more important."