Arianne suddenly backed a few steps after she felt an impending crisis that would befall onto her. Instantly after she did that, a flaming spear descended from the sky. This very spear would have impaled her body if she didn't move from that spot.
And then, a handsome middle-aged man in fiery crimson robe descended and stood proudly on top of the spear with only his one foot. He had a thin mustache and beard with his long hair tied in a high bun. All his hair was in the color of deep red.
The red-haired middle-aged man turned his head to the kneeling Gu Fenglin and tossed a healing pill to her. The pitiful Second Young Mistress just realized that her face was literally burning. She hastily ate the pill and let the medicinal essence heal her burning face.
The red-haired middle-aged man then turned his attention to Arianne and asked. "The lady over there, do you have enmity to our Gu clan? Or did this girl have provoked you by any means?"
The middle-aged man didn't cover his cultivation level even a little bit. His pressure-filled the city and shook the nearby civilian's heart. Its pressure wasn't any bit less than that of Arianne's aura.
Facing such a cultivator expert from Lastarte Continent, the Mage Tower Master didn't budge an inch. She could topple him with a few mega spells. Though, she needed some time to conjure such high-complexity spell.
"Hmmm? Are you this girl guardian or something?" Arianne asked.
"I am her parent." Gu Ming nodded his head.
"Then you are a failure." Arianne snipped her finger and pointed at him.
Although it was a very rude thing to say, Gu Ming couldn't retaliate her word. It was true he failed to educate this child.
"What? You can't talk back because you think what I said is true? Ohh ..., it's good that you realized that. Hey, before it's getting late, why don't you teach some basic common sense and etiquette to your daughter! I say ... before it's too late."
"Lady, it's not your place to talk about what's happening in my household. Or, do you have any relationship with my family? No, right? Then you should stop taking care of other people's problems," the middle-aged man said with a calm tone, but then a blazing hot aura exuded from his being, heating the air around him. He then spoke in sparking anger, "but you have exuded your high cultivation level in my city. And even hurt my daughter at that. That is the same as you questioning my authority here."
"Ohhhh ..., so what will you gonna do about it? It's not like I care about this city of yours anyway. And besides, it was that daughter of yours who first ordered this dude over here to attack me." Arianne mocked him raising one of her long thin brows, pointing the petrified Uncle Ji with her thumb.
"Your cultivation is clearly that of equal to mine or above. To lay your hand on him, who clearly is below your level, and even to my daughter who hasn't yet cultivated. Do you not feel ashamed? "
Arianne smiled behind her mask, of course, the only thing that change was the shape of her eyes. "I attack those who attacked me. And I haven't yet attacked this dude, he just, stood there, not moving ..., for some reason he is afraid of me even when I didn't do anything to him yet, it's strange don't you think so? And as for your daughter, I don't like her tone when she talks. Ahh, how I really wanted to rip that mouth of hers."
"You ...," Gu Ming narrowed his eyes in a piercing glare, "then I apologize for my daughter because her behavior inconveniences you. However, I still wanted to ask, why you let out your cultivation and pressurized all of my innocent citizens? Look around you, even now all of them still stood there blankly terrorized by your pressure."
"Hmm ..., even if you ask me ..., I don't know. Isn't revealing mighty aura a privilege of those with power? I just use my privilege, what's wrong with that?" she said as a matter of fact.
"Still, this is my city ..., and who do you think you are to act this arrogantly inside this city of mine?"
Arianne shrugged her shoulder. "If you want to make me listen then why don't we have a bout? I only listen to those whose skills above mine."
Gu Ming rendered speechless for a moment, it was not wrong at all. Those with the strength needed not to explain. If they wanted, they would certainly have it. There was no need for reasoning and logic. The winner would get it all, and the winner was mostly those with strength.
But this was Xianjing City, a city built from the remnant of Gu Clan from the Zhongyang Region. Even if the city was built around four or five hundred years ago, Gu Clan was an ancient clan with three thousand years of legacy. And to think that he would suffer such humiliation on his own city, on his own territory!
Gu Ming was incensed, there was no need for further debate. The woman in the mask over there clearly provoked him to fight.
"Then, fight it is!" he shouted before jumped from his spear.
The red spear hovered in the air and he caught it with the two of his hand. He walked in the air with a special movement technique. It let him walk in the air by making a fiery explosion on every step. Instantly, he was in front of Arianne, still not yet stepping on the land of course. He stabbed the sharp blade of his spear and the metal part of the spear became golden-colored, just like a heated metal.
Destructive Flame Spear Art: Sixth Move - Golden Point
Gu Ming smirked in victory watching how unguarded this woman was, he thought that this attack of his would be connected. Even if it couldn't kill her as it is, he would make her defensive artifact activated at least. But the thing was, she didn't have any of those defensive talismans or artifact that could save her life.
Still, Arianne didn't stand there dumbfoundedly waiting for the spear to stab her face. Before Gu Ming even move from that spot, she already prepared some of her spells. She chanted in her mind, or in the magician vocabulary its called voiceless chant. The only thing she needed to do was to activate the spell.
"Barrier, Explosion, Flame Chain!"
Right before the sharp tip of the hot flame spear stabbed her forehead, a thin barrier composed from six thin magic circle of Red Fire element stopped the spear and the impending momentum behind it. A shockwave generated from the impact, the wind-generated from it was both hot and humid. It managed to blow Gu Ming in the air back a few steps.
Gu Ming knew that this attack didn't work. But before he could retreat from her, a magic circle with different rune from the barrier condensed in front of Arianne. Then, the magic circle exploded with an orange flame. Finally blew him away. Because he was in mid-air, the explosion becomes more effective and it sent him back twenty-or-so meters.
But Arianne's combo didn't end with just that. When he almost landed on the ground, another red magic circle condensed in the ground in front of Arianne. It then sent a chain made of fire that tied Gu Ming and pulled him back to her.
Gu Ming that just went into a dangerous roller coaster experience sobered up and realized the state he was in. He resisted the chain pulling force by using a horse stance and pushing his body in the opposite direction, but it was really hard. And when he finally looked ahead, Arianne already prepared something with her right hand stretched forward. A mysterious red geometric circle condensed just like the three spells from before, but it was bigger and much more complicated.
Gu Ming learned from the previous experience that that red circle was no good. Even though he did not know what the heck was this technique, but his rich experience told him to not go near it. And when he looked like he was unharmed, the truth was he lose two of the seven protective talismans just from that one explosion!
He must avoid those circles no matter what. Gu Ming then realized that he couldn't manipulate the qi inside his body when he tied up in the chain of fire. As if that qi were burned because of the heat conducted from the chain.
Gu Ming took out an instant teleportation talisman from his storage ring and tore it immediately. He vanished from the chain clutches and reappeared twenty meters behind Arianne. He leaped brandishing his spear from her blind spot.
Destructive Flame Spear Art: Fourth Move - Red Zone
A crimson fire that burnt everything. It burnt the dried leaf on the road, grass, wildflower, and also small insects. With Gu Ming as its center, it spread destruction to the nature around him. But this move just only the beginning.
The move from before actually was an area of effect technique that spread his fire qi to raise the temperature and burnt every small critter on the vicinity. With the destruction of that critters and plants, it would generate a special type of qi, called Destruction Qi. It was more chaotic and dangerous than the original fire qi. And now he was ready to use all of the accumulated Destruction Qi.
Destructive Flame Spear Art: Second Move - Crescent Fall
The sharp tip of the red spear collected the massive Destruction Qi that he just generated with the Red Zone. It shone with dangerous red light and he swung the red spear in a half-moon trajectory. The target was Arianne's backhead.
The sharp blade connected and torn her hood.
'Finally' Gu Ming thought.
But it only lasted for about a millisecond. Because the attack was just too strange. He didn't feel any flesh tore or bone crushed sensation from that attack. As if he just swung his spear on a cloth that just thrown in the air.
"It's surprising ...," a melodious voice sounded on his left.
It freaked out of Gu Ming that a goosebump rose on his scalp. He instantly leaped to the front and not bothering to take a look back. Now there was only fear for her. Not only she managed to avoid a sure-hit-kill attack from him, but she also did that without him noticing.
Arianne was with her hand pointed forward, still with her red magic circle in an active state. The red hair with a fiery luster not inferior to that of Gu Ming finally shown in full display. Her perfect body covered in black armor and the long leg wrapped in black stocking could be enjoyed by the male observer.
She then asked, "your last move ..., you burnt the mana from small insects and plants to generate chaos mana before you collected them and unleash it with that attack, right?"
"..." Gu Ming widened his eyes because she just spurted out his clan secret move just like that. Though some of it used a different vocabulary he didn't understand, the principle was the exact same.
Arianne got the answer even though he didn't speak a word, "it's surprising to think that a barbaric people like you can think such unique method. Hmmm ..., but still, not enough."
She then readied her spell and chanted, "Flame Cage of Razeegna."
A red magic circle materialized below his feet. It then turned into eleven chains of fire that bounded him. And after that, there was another golden-heated metal that turns into a cage of blazing fire. It was hurt like hell to Gu Ming who was encaged with this.
After all, it was a prison made of metal that reached its melting point. Even if he was a fire element cultivator, he couldn't resist the hellish heat of this cage.
"It is indeed your defeat. O ye, failure of a father ..." stated Arianne looked down on him.
"Grttt ..." Gu Ming gritted his teeth, but in the end, he couldn't think of anything to let go from this cage.
This was the first time for him to meet this kind of opponent. She used something like Battle Technique but without moving or circulating her qi.
It was something that should be impossible to do. A Battle Technique was developed to enhance the strength behind the attack with one fist or weapons. Sometimes the attack was added with the five-element qi or even yin-yang qi. There was a thousand variety of Battle Techniques in this continent.
She didn't move her body yet there was a thin layer of protective shield, a sudden explosion, and a chain?!?!
Please be mind, that Battle Technique was something that enhances the strength of a physical attack. So there must be a physical attack first before the Battle Technique filled that attack with the qi of various Element or Way.
But she didn't attack him in the first place! She didn't punch, kick, or do anything to harm him. The only thing she did was speak a few words just like that. There was this strange geometric pattern filled circle floating around her before that crazy mystical thing happened.
This was too mindblowing for Gu Ming.
The exchange was too short, and he only released about three of his moves, but it was his most treasured trump card. All of his opponents from the same stage always ended up dead when he used the move from Destructive Fire Spear Art.
Yes, he could not use the most lethal move of this art, the First Move. But that move was both dangerous to the user and to the opponent. He wouldn't use that move if it was not for an emergency or he was in a life-and-death battle.
But the lady with prominent red-hair didn't intend to kill him in the first place. Her attack, although it was hurtful, it didn't contain any killing intent. She also used this chain and tried to talk with him. As if she just wanted to constrain him.
'I guess ..., it's my loss.' he thought while sighing inside his mind. Finally able to accept the bitter reality.
"P-please mistress, please l-let go of my father... I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I-I'll do anything for you, mistress ... please!" Gu Fenglin who was finally able to move her body and saw what state her father was, prostrated in front of Arianne.
"Ohhh!" Arianne exclaimed seeing the arrogant girl subdued easily just like that. Still, the strange gleam on her eyes smelt dangerous.