Lei Zhe was everyone's big brother back at the branch family. He was a being taught by Elder Min back in the day instead of Uncle Xiu, not like Mu and the others. However, he still came to visit the temple every once in a while and help Uncle Xiu teach the kids.
While, on the other hand, Mu was always trying to compete with him in every way possible. May it be in school, in dinner, or even in cultivation even if she loses by a huge mark, she still tried to compete by talent. Cultivation was the only thing that she could not compete against but she can keep up with him by knowledge and understanding. They are always together because Mu was always trying to find a way to top her Big Brother Zhe and thus, they became close as if they were siblings by blood. Until Brother Zhe was admitted to the main branch of the Lei Clan because of his talents, Mu and he haven't seen each other for more than a year.
Now that Mu saw him, she felt happy and more than that, she saw that Brother Zhe was now the top student of the Lei Clan. He was someone she was competing a year ago, Mu was not discouraged but instead, it was the opposite. If her Brother Zhe could become the top student, why couldn't she be too? She always thought that Brother Zhe was superior to her in cultivation just because of their age gap. Brother Zhe was seven years older than her, after all, but at the age of twenty-one, he can almost reach Uncle Xiu who was at the Fourth Step of Earthly Realm.
Therefore, Mu became more excited than usual.
'I can do it!', she thought, if she were to be the top priority in the Lei Clan then she would gain benefits more than anyone. It will be then easy as rolling a snowball and making it bigger. The bigger it is, the more it will take snow!
All she has to do was to create a snowball first! She thought.
Everyone then followed the Patriarchs as they slowly formed into a circle. Ahead of them was a wide soil road. It was unknown what or who made that road since nobody had yet to go around the Sacrifice. It was simply a guess by them but this could be the work of the two Patriarchs.
The circle that they were forming was efficient because the Elders were the ones who are on the outer layer of the circle, then the guardians, and then the youngsters. It is to protect the youngsters from the hazardous battles that they may get into.
The two top students didn't need to be inside the circle, not because they can protect themselves but they have two Powerhouses in front of them. There is no need to worry about them being in danger. If they were put into danger then there is nothing that can be done, everyone will be on the same boat by then.
They have traveled longer than expected on their way in the forest. They only saw the Sacrifice getting bigger and bigger. No beasts or any sorts of trouble stirred throughout their expedition. They thought that they are already near since Patriarch Lei officially started the expedition but it seemed that they are far from the foot of the Sacrifice. However, there is one thing that they don't know, this part of the forest is still unexplored.
The enthusiasm that Mu was feeling earlier was starting to diminish because of this uneventful travel but she didn't expect that what she hoped happened just a few moments after she sighed...
"A Grade 4 Beast!", an Elder shouted to inform everyone, "Two on the northwest a few hundred meters and three on the east more than a kilometer away."
"Five of them?!", Patriarch Lei reacted in a low voice while Patriarch Yun was heavily frowning.
For Beasts, each grade had an immense gap between them. Grade 1 Beasts can be easily defeated by Mortal Realm Cultivators, Grade 2 Beasts for Earthly Realm and Grade 3 for Heavenly Realm. Patriarch Lei could handle two Grade 4 Beasts by himself and probably even Patriarch Yun but it will only put them into a stalemate. The two Patriarchs can stall the four Grade 4 beasts then all of the Elders have to deal with the fifth Grade 4 Beasts as fast as possible with the help of the guardians and maybe even with the youngsters. After dealing with one, the Elders will help one of the Patriarch and break the stalemate then it would be easy for the rest of the beast. That was the plan, however, if they do not act fast then another beast may add up to the enemies and break the stalemate against them.
All of the sudden, the atmosphere rapidly changed, There is no time to lose! It was rather fortunate that two of the Grade 4 Beasts will come earlier so they can gang against them and if possible kill them before the three from the east will arrive.
The ground slightly trembled and far ahead in the direction of the northwest, the trees were one by one being broken down as sand billowed from the ground, creating a pseudo smoke floating.
The two Patriarch nodded to each other, Patriarch Lei told the two top students, "Go inside the circle.", right after he said that the two Patriarch jumped as high as possible.
They didn't wait for the two beasts to arrive at the scene, they hurriedly cast techniques that have long range upon them after they surprisingly stayed mid-air:
Patriarch Lei took out a sword from his spatial ring and swung it. Amassing lightning came out as a form of a blade across meters in a blink of an eye out of Patriarch Lei's sword swing, *BOOM!!* hitting the two beasts that roared pain. Some of their skin was peeled off and was still smoking from the strike, "Fourth Offense: Lightning Sword", Patriarch Lei whispered after that strike. On the other hand, Patriarch Yun took out a book and read a long passage within it, a white light covered the sky in front of him, having a diameter of a hundred meters and suddenly came raining down thousands of white snakes. The white snakes came down not as fast as the lightning Patriarch Lei swung but they are fast enough for the two beasts to unable to dodge it, "Sky Snake's Acrimony: Snake-Raining Sky", this is the first time he ever spoke, Patriarch Yun's voice was hoarse and old.
Like a rain of bullets having contact to the ground, the white snake made the air vibrate and billowed more sand and toppled more trees. The two Grade 4 beast could only roar in pain and frustration, they both angrily looked at the two men floating mid-air as they growled.
Mu gasped at what she saw. The Patriarch's level is far from what she had expected. Their Patriarch basically threw true lightning as strong as nature does without breaking off a sweat. However, even if she can't see these Grade 4 Beasts, she could tell how terrifying are they. The two Patriarchs threw such a destructive attack but it seemed that the beasts were still alive, they could even roar back.
"Tch!", Patriarch Lei clicked his tongue, the other three Grade 4 Beasts are approaching very quickly, they must not hesitate any further!
"Fourth Offense, Empowered: Consecutive Lightning Sword", Patriarch Lei whispered. They now knew how strong these two beasts are. Not every beasts on the same grade are the same, there still some stronger than the others. These two seemed stronger and so, conserving their energy against these two is not the right choice, they had to go rougher. Patriarch Lei swung his sword non-stop and each swing came devastating lightning that blew the beasts along with the trees and the ground, only leaving ashes but after the tenth strike, the beasts were bleeding but still standing.
Patriarch Yun started to read another long passage even before Patriarch Lei swung his first lightning. After the lightning barrages, the beasts did not have a rest and saw the light that covered the sky again for a hundred meters of diameter, "Sky Snake's Fury; Snake-Tornado Sky", instead of raining thousands of snakes, a strong wind came down and along with them a thousand snakes that spun like a true tornado. Unlike the raining snake that will disappear after it reached the ground, the snakes inside the tornado will only vanish after it the white tornado destructively made a path for the two beasts. More skins tore off the two beats as they roared painfully and defenselessly.
The wild wind even took the trees near where the circle was formed that they have witnessed the trues strength of their Patriarchs. The younsters' chest beat loudly and an aspiration created inside their heads, 'I want to be as strong as them...', their eyes brightly reflected the white light covering the sky before the wild wind calmed down, and the tornado and the light vanished, dropping the two beasts weak enough to stand.
"Those beasts still haven't died yet?!", one of the youngsters shouted in fear. They saw that that spell and technique took quite a large amount of energy from their Patriarchs.
"Elders! Changed of plans! Take care of these two beasts and finish them off before they could recover. We two will handle the three and take our time to recover our strength.", as Patriarch Lei said this, Patriarch Yun took out a sword. They planned not to use more of their energy until the Elders finish the two beasts and stall the three Grade 4 Beasts from the east physically.
The guardians were forced to go along with the Elders and helped them finished the two beasts because of their anxiousness building up inside of them.
The two top students took the leadership of the youngsters.
At the same time, the three Grade 4 Beasts arrive and the two Patriarchs handled them off.
The youngsters didn't feel that scared anymore, seeing that the situation was under control. At first, they didn't think much of a Grade 4 Beast since the Patriarchs only just shoo-d the Grade 3 Beasts away but now, they learned how far each grade was from each other.
Mu couldn't take her eyes off the fight between the Patriarchs and the three Grade 4 Beasts, she gulped as she watched. The Patriarch silently and magnificently showed their sword skills but sweats started to form in their foreheads but they did not worry that much since the two beasts from the northwest seemed to be on their last breath. There was no need to worry, until they heard something that made their hearts skipped a few beats.
"T-two Grade 4 Beasts coming from the north a kilometer away! A-and one more from the east, also a kilometer away!", the usually calm Elder who was holding the strange crystal stuttered as he reported.