It was too fast. One second, Mukri's words were still ringing in their ears, the next, an oppressive fire consumed the sect. A sneak attack from Mukri battered Gulseni, sending her hurtling toward the golden flames. By the time the masked monk's hand dropped on her neck, Gulseni had still not processed the scene. Her trained body, however, moved on its own, whirling leftward to evade Harun's knife-hand chop and counter with a sweeping kick.
Harun's right hand met thin air. But before Gulseni's kick crashed into his face, as if it'd seen the move coming, his left palm slammed into her ankle—seizing her leg. A sliding sound followed and, casting her heel aside, Gulseni wormed her leg out of Harun's grip.
It was like soap gliding on a wet surface. Regardless of Harun's grip strength, he couldn't hold on to Gulseni's leg. Somersaulting nine meters, Gulseni stopped to face Harun, who was impressed by the lack of damage on her body.
Mukri couldn't believe his eyes. In his previous strike, he held nothing back and rammed into Gulseni with his full strength. That blow was enough to decide a life and death match between peak-stage Celestial Guards, but didn't even leave a dent on Gulseni's unprepared body.
Although her cultivation stood at the first-level of the Celestial Knight Realm, such natural defenses made no sense.
"On top of the beauty benefits, the Mantra of Divine Conformity must give its cultivators a damage-absorbing and slippery skin. That, or she cultivated a secret art with those benefits," Harun reasoned. Keeping everything in the shadows, the Vermilion Brides never engaged in public fights, and as most didn't have the heart to oppress them, no one knew all the benefits of their cultivation method. Pulling out a sandalwood mala from his cosmic pouch, Harun joined his hands in a prayer sign and bowed toward Gulseni.
Her eyes browsed the scene, analyzing all the dangers. "Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Yin and Yang. The Elemental Fusion Bridge follows this precise order, meaning that this Emissary Bull's strength is about mid-stage Celestial Guard level. Judging from the last move, his Devil Essence pushes him to the peak. They can handle him effortlessly," Gulseni sent her subordinates several mental messages, and shifted her attention back to Harun.
"He's the real problem. At the very least, he's no weaker than a Celestial Knight. Those ruinous golden flames mirror the Solar Desolation of the Golden Crow clan, but the attire and behavior is that of the Liberation Temple of the Slaughter Syndicate. Odd. But while you can fake attire, Divine Powers represent lineages. The World-Devouring Serpents aside, no clan can pose as another." In a flash, Gulseni considered all the possibilities.
Formed by the worst criminals in the 33 Heavens' history, the Slaughter Syndicate specialized in bounty hunting and assassination. Each of their divisions followed a specific code that rejoined the Myriad Slaughter creed. The Liberation Temple's monks believed that all lived in perpetual sufferings, and that the destruction of the body and soul was the only way to free this world's lives from the Cycle of Torments—as they called it. Of course, this was nothing more than cult charade.
At the end of the day, all were homicidal psychopaths looking for a justification to their senseless murders. The 12 Ladies and 800 disciples of the Vermilion Brides Sect surrounded Mukri. Of the 12, 3 reached the peak of the Celestial Guard Realm, while the 6 others stood between the 6th and 8th level. This wasn't a battle that Mukri could win, and he knew it very well. Under heavy pressure, Mukri glanced at the masked Harun, but couldn't guess his thoughts, "Oh well, let's just follow the plan."
Meanwhile, Harun stepped forward. The world didn't have many celestial-level plaguebringers, to say nothing of one with the Golden Crow clan's Divine Power. Mukri couldn't connect those dots because he didn't know much about Harun. But Dilnaz could, so in this fight, just to be safe, Harun didn't plan to use his poisonous arts. At the same time, he could test the full extent of his other abilities.
"Moon Conjuring Incantation." Silver-blue essence poured out, soaring toward the sky in mesmerizing arcs of shimmering blue fog. The sun's rays retreated, the day sky darkened, night took over—throwing the Vermilion Brides Sect into total darkness. But as they trembled under this uncanny display of magical powers, a radiant silver-blue moon formed amidst the gloomy sky, grasping the brides' attention.
Faced with that dreamlike scenery, some couldn't help but wonder if this...wasn't the perfect day to die. But before delirium took hold, Gulseni's voice thundered in their minds, "Don't let his trick distract you. This move shifted the balance of yin and yang, which is beneficial to us all."
Gulseni didn't doubt that the Masked Assassin gained maximum benefits from this scenery change. But so what? Unless their cultivation stood leagues above them, men couldn't defeat the Vermilion Brides. Neither side made unnecessary remarks, and the battle began.
"Yang Sealing Chains!" In tandem, the Vermilion Brides aimed their open hands at Mukri, while Gulseni did the same toward Harun. Dark-blue chains surged from their palms, wrapping around their two targets. Unprepared for this array of chains, Mukri turned hooves and rushed toward the sect's main gate—but realized that his vigor shrank at breakneck speed. By the time the chain net stood before him, he no longer had the strength to bat an eyelid—much less flee!
"What the…" were Mukri's last words before the chains wrapped around him, bundling him in a prison of dark-blue locks. Meanwhile, Gulseni's chains closed in on Harun but, unlike Mukri, the fake monk had no trouble avoiding them. Hands still joined in a prayer sign, Harun bent back to let three chains fly past him, whirled leftward, ducked, dropped and backflipped, all to evade the chains.
Gulseni and the Vermilion Brides' eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Was I wrong? Is he not a man? No, how could I get someone's gender wrong?" The sect mistress wondered, and her sisters thought the same. Unlike what their look suggested, Yang Sealing Chains were a domain-type ability that restrained the vigor of all males. Only women could cultivate that ability, and as the invisible domain made the opponent powerless, the chains trapped and put them at the mercy of the brides.
Unfortunately, the domain only worked on those with more yang than yin, which made it useless against Harun and his Decaying Flower. Harun's speed shot up and, leaving afterimages in his wake, he wormed his way through the chains—reappearing before Gulseni.
"So fast…" she thought. Aiming his right fist at Gulseni's chest, Harun punched. Unafraid, she summoned a scarlet dagger and leaned forward, attempting to glide past Harun's strike, then stab his neck. Harun's punch stopped mid air, Gulseni collided with an afterimage but, hidden in its back, the real Harun poked at her eyes—piercing them with four fingers.
Blood poured forth, but before Harun's fingers moved past the cranial cavity and reached her brain, Gulseni pushed her Heavenly Qi to the limit, forced herself off Harun's fingers, and while recoiling with a shrill scream, hacked at Harun's neck.
Her blow didn't graze him.
"Aaargh...hahaha...for a man, you don't seem to have much compassion for the female gender. How ruthless..." Gulseni replaced her screams with a gentle laugh, and raised her shut, bleeding eyes to face Harun. Such a tragic look on such a riveting woman would have stirred many hearts. But Harun's didn't experience the tiniest ripple.
"On the battlefield, age, gender, past, affiliation; none of those hold weight. Ally or enemy? That's all I need to know. By choosing to become a Sect Master in this time and age, you abandoned all right to mercy," Harun said. The situation was simple; Harun was lucky.
Had Gulseni and the Vermilion Brides flown by his land and spotted its value, the whole sect would have dropped on his village, and slaughtered all he couldn't protect. In his 166 years of life, Harun had seen such scenes too often, and had long since abandoned any self-destructive sense of mercy.
But hearing Harun's words, as if struck by waves of electricity, Gulseni forgot her pain, and trembled mid-air. When was the last time a man remained clear-headed in her presence and aimed to destroy her at all costs? Her lips curled into an erratic grin, and she threw her head back.
"Beautifully said. I almost wish I could pull off your mask and engrave obedience in your eyes. What a pity that you're too strong for us to hold back. Girls…" Still bent-back, Gulseni clutched at her arms—still trembling from excitement—and as her dripping blood fell, she said:
"Blast him." As if from the start, they'd been waiting for those words, the Vermilion Brides placed one hand against their chests, and slapped their cosmic pouches with the other. Like a coordinated military force, each summoned their natal treasures and all the artifacts they could simultaneously control with their divine senses.
Daggers, wires, chakrams and swords appeared in the hundreds, all aiming at Harun. Gulseni matched her subordinates, summoning a silver mirror and two daggers that hovered beside her.
A finger snap followed, and nearly 2,000 artifacts shot toward Harun at the speed of flaming meteors. Holding nothing back, the Vermilion Brides pushed their divine senses and cultivation to the limit, making their treasures' speed and strength reach the acme. The artifact bombing could take down a third-level Celestial Knight in one breath. Granted, she couldn't sense his cultivation, Gulseni believed that Harun's battle-power didn't go over that threshold.
But while the Vermilion Brides saw victory within reach, Harun's hands formed a prayer sign, golden light flashed in his left eye, and all artifacts gunning for his life came to a standstill—then tumbled down. Confused, the blinking brides didn't see a threadsnake sneak into their rank, and expand to become a 200 meters tall World-Devouring Serpent.
By the time they awoke to the serpent's crushing presence, its claws had snapped Mukri's chains, and in a joint assault, serpent and bull swept through the Vermilion Brides, sending them flying against sect buildings--all with critical wounds.
Harun's skin took a golden hue. The strength of his Mythical Idol Incarnation fully erupted and, as Gulseni sought countermeasures, Harun's fist crashed into her chest, ignoring her slippery physique's defenses to crush all her bones in one blast!
BANG!
Gulseni's body cratered, forming a 100 meters wide hole around her.
"Mid-level...Celestial Knight." At last, Gulseni appraised Harun's true strength and spurted blood. But as her consciousness waned, and her sect members collapsed under the beasts' joint attacks—Harun dropped to Gulseni's side and stared into her red eyes.
The surroundings changed. Bewitched by Harun's gaze, Gulseni appeared in a world of eternal spring, with singing birds and vast prairies. In that land, matriarchy reigned supreme, all men kneeled in complete submission, and the breath of peace permeated the world.
Sitting crossed-legged, Harun placed one hand on her forehead, filling her wounded eyes with radiant light.
"Are you willing to follow me onto the road of enlightenment?" Harun asked, and in that instant, it was as if he'd turned into Gulseni's raison d'être, as if his every word and deed represented the absolute truth: sacred and inviolable.
"I...am," Gulseni couldn't reject the call, welcoming attachment to Harun's Karmic Tree. By the time she realized what she'd done, it was too late. Standing up, Harun found and subdued the 12 Ladies, attaching them all to his Karmic Tree. Henceforth, their destiny belonged to him.