Just when the old man was getting a bad feeling, Rex released the old man's rob and grabbed his right leg.
'Nebula Hell's Flame + Frozen Earth Bind + Holy Bind + Water Prison + Wind Suppression,' (Rex)
Rex executed his pre-planned skill combo in the next second.
Before the old man could react, a blue flame engulfed his whole right leg. Just when the cold chilling feeling was still spreading to his whole body, several wet soil tentacles came out of the ground and bind his whole body then froze.
Many golden chains appeared around him at this moment and they too restrained the old man, when the old man wasn't able to keep up with the changes and tried to fly upwards, he suddenly felt the irresistible wind pressure from above that tried to slam him on the ground… normally he was too strong to be slammed on the ground by that pressure alone but because of the current situation, he was forced to his knees.
Wind Suppression is a psychic skill Rex made using Aerokinesis, the only thing it does is used the wind around to tackle someone, it works better when used as a sneak attack, Rex made it to break the balance of the enemy in a fight and caught it off guard. The downside is although it tackles the enemy with huge wind pressure even slightly above the normal pressure Rex can exert when using Aerokinesis but it only lasts for a few seconds
Although it only lasts a few seconds but a few seconds was all Rex needed to further tighten his restraints on the old man.
The old man had lived for a long time, so at this moment instead of getting shocked or thinking about how to counter, he made the quick decision of escaping.
If I can't fly then I will use force to run on the ground and escape…. he thought.
The old man mustered up the strength in his left leg, trying to break the restrictions and to stand up again but then he noticed that both Rex and he were actually imprisoned inside a spherical water bubble and the bubble was rotating at a very speed on top of that it seem to get faster every second… the old man felt that even if he could escape from this bubble with some injuries the time delay while doing it can decide his life and death.
Water Prison is a psychic skill made using Hydrokinesis, it forms a big water bubble around Rex and rotates at high speed like the water is flowing in the river and as they say, flowing water can even cut stones under some conditions and the water bubble was rotating fast enough to cut through normal iron like butter if it's changed into a blade form.
In the end, the old man choose the only option… which was to attack, his whip blades were mainly designed for mid-range battles and the way Rex was straining him made it almost impossible for him to use them so instead of using them he took out a dagger and attacked Rex's chest.
….Sllass..tin…
[- 16 HP]
The dagger wasn't a spirit weapon so even when the old man used both of his hands and applied his strength he could only slightly pierce Rex's skin and enter his flesh without breaking the dagger, if he had used his whole strength in just the strike then the dagger would have broken by now.
The dagger wasn't a spirit weapon so the old man couldn't channel his Qi in the dagger to strengthen it.
'Damn this old man, I froze his whole leg from inside out and the flame is still spreading to his other body parts but his Golden Core stage Qi is able to resist my flame attack to an extent, he won't die like that then…' Rex didn't stop the old man who was still forcing the dagger inside his heart instead Rex took out a black dagger himself.
The old man has used the strategy 'Slow But Steady' he didn't use full force while striking but after the dagger slightly penetrated through Rex's skin he started to increase the force behind it.
'Assassinate' (Rex)
Suddenly, a black smoke cloak appeared around Rex's body and covered him like protective gear, the old man suppressed his shock and still tried to force the dagger in… and his strategy was working, the tip of the dagger had now penetrated through the hardened flesh and almost touched his beating heart.
[- 42 HP]
Rex raised the dagger, a big part of the black cloak separated from him and swirl around the dagger. He felt that the dagger in his hand was trembling as it can break anytime. Rex then slashed the dagger at the old man's throat.
The old man ignored Rex's attack because he could feel his dagger sliding in Rex's heart so as long as he penetrated the heart then he could win and the other reason was that with the current condition of his body he won't be able to dodge it in time.
[Alert! you received a critical hit]
[- 80 HP]
[- 45 HP]
Rex ignored the pain in his heart and used the special assist skill that came with Assassinate… 'Power Strike'. He then struck the old man's throat with the dagger.
Unexpectedly, there was no air cutting sound and surprisingly Rex felt very less resistance when penetrating his throat, while he was at it Rex cut all the nerves and the spinal cord of the old man just to make sure he couldn't turn the tables later on.
The old man fell to the ground while covering the wound on his neck with both of his hands, even when he fell to the ground and was dying he was looked at Rex with a cruel sneer… like he was trying to say 'I will drag you to hell with me'.
But the reality was harsh for him, before his soul left his body he saw that Rex casually took out the dagger penetrated his chest like it was nothing and the wound on his chest disappeared in the next second.
The old man's facial expression changed many times in a second, from cruelty to confusion then despair and unwillingness before the world turned dark to him.
Rex looked at the black dagger in his other hand which was now covered in cracks, although it wasn't a spirit weapon but it had all the abilities of a spirit weapon the only difference being it needed the blood drop to refine instead of soul imprint, Rex made it like that when Zakiya told him that many could use soul imprint of others to harm them or find information on them if the person that made the soul imprint didn't have a soul defense technique or soul defense artifact.
He then took out the storage ring of the old man, Rex found out that the storage ring had a soul imprint on it, it wasn't hard for one to add soul imprint on a spirit tool or a good quality storage ring that reached the spirit tool grade but it was hard when it came to removing it.
Soul imprint helps the owner to determine the location of the thing as long as it is in a certain range.
It becomes a little easy if the previous owner of that tool died but it was still hard and most people could only use brute force to shatter the soul imprint but even for that, the person's strength should be equal or above then the maker of that soul imprint only then will they be able to shatter it in around one week or else it may take months or even years at least one weak to do it.
'Fortunately, I have scan..cough.. read.. yes I obediently read and studied the Basics Of Soul Arrays & Soul Seals for days so it's pretty easy for me to remove the soul imprint' Rex said with a prideful look.
[Yeah, and I was the working on the blueprint of water park while thinking how would Lucia look in the swimming suit… right?]
"…" (Rex)
'Cough… Cough… let's not waste time talking and focus on removing this soul imprint,' Rex observed the soul imprint for few seconds before trying to remove it…
Learning soul arrays or soul seals doesn't require one to be a soul cultivator as long as the person has good soul strength they could learn them, in simple words any person with the profession of Array Master, Inscription Master, Artifact Refiner… etc all met the minimum requirements to learn them.
They can further strengthen their soul by external means if they don't meet the requirement. Being a soul cultivator has nothing to do with learning it but soul cultivators are all born with strong souls so they all met the minimum requirement to learn them from birth.
With his mastery of the basics, it took Rex less than one minute to remove the soul imprint. just when he was about to take a look inside he felt Aiden and others closing in.
Rex put the storage ring in his inventory, removed the ice from the old man's body using Cryokinesis and adjusted his clothes then placed his right foot on the old man's chest.
When Jiang Shuang and others arrived at the scene, they saw Rex looking at the sky while stepping on the corpse of the Sect Master.
"When did the Golden Core stage experts become so weak, even after using two middle-grade spirit weapon he wasn't able to take my two casual hits," Rex shook his head then lazily put the body in the Inventory.
[Why two hits, just say one hit… no, how about he died by just having the thought of fighting you.]
'Ahem! that doesn't sound much real,' Rex said with a straight face.
[…]
Although Rex spoke in a low tone but it was loud enough for everyone to hear it clearly.
He acted like he didn't saw them at all and was talking to himself.
When Jiang Shuang heard it, he wanted to shout and say…. Brother Rex your face is thicker than the mountain wall of Frozen Flame.
Whereas Aiden, Fred, and other beastmans only looked at him in black dismay. After thinking for a moment Fred walked forward and congratulated Rex for victory then asked.
"Senior, we don't seem to needed much in this fight so may I know for what purpose were we brought here?" Fred asked respectfully, right now even a blind man could see that they had no use in the whole fight at all.
"What use can you have in the fight with your current strength? all you can do is act as a foot soldier or cannon fodder. I brought you trainees here to show how we from Frozen Flame fight, we like to win without causalities by crushing the enemy with overwhelming force and strategy," Rex said in a prideful tone.
Jiang Shuang's lips twitched, he wanted to ask…. what sort of strategy did we use just now… Head-On-Strike plan?
Fred was embarrassed, although he was now aware that their strength was not much of use in Frozen Flame but even so hearing this straight on, hit the spot.
"Don't be so down, although you are weak you have potential that's why I brought you here, and actually there was one more reason, I want you to help me with something," Rex said while patting his shoulder to comfort him like he had nothing to do with their depression.
"Really?" Fred's eye shined, having something to do was better than having nothing to do so that they won't be seen as a burden.
"Yeah off course, you see although Combat Bots are good at fight but when it comes to finding the hidden treasures and collect them depending on their vale while checking for the trap at the same time is not their thing so you people need do that work for me," Rex said with an expressionless face.
Everyone "…"
What does your words mean? Just say it directly, you think of us as professional thieves, aren't you?… they thought.
But they still obediently nodded and went to check the treasury of Monster Hunting Sect.
Rex and Jiang Shuang also flew towards the sect, Rex needed to make sure that other forces don't attack trying to take a piece of cake for themselves.
On his way Rex took out the storage ring he got from the old man earlier and checked it, the whole storage ring had a lot of spirit stones, spirit cores, some books related to their sect technique and herbs, except weapons it had all type of resources needed to nurture a small sect… when Rex saw it he felt like the Sect Master was either always ready to escape, always kept the precious things to himself or was planning to quietly escape for a while now.
When Rex was just checking these things, something caught his attention and after taking a closer look he was utterly shocked. What Rex saw was nothing but a statue made of an unknown pure white marble-like material, it was a woman's statue but it was something that made his shocked.
The statue was of a dancing woman, the woman had an alluring figure she was wearing a blouse to cover her plump chest and a short skirt slightly below her waist, she was also wearing a will that covered her lower half face. A net-like see-through cloth was further covering her body, her dress up was similar to the dancers in old Arabian-night tales, what shocked Rex most was that the status was highly detailed… for a second he thought that it was a real woman locked inside the storage ring.