Xue Chang tried to give off a smile but instead a grimace popped out onto his face.
His expression distorted and became grim as the sky above them darkened and boomed with thunder.
The seal was almost completely finished. The "wick" of the candle was burning ever so slightly with Xue Chang's soul. But the speed was lacking.
And the reason why he thought he was moving too slowly wasn't because of what happened to Tian Kai and Tian Hai.
Yong Heng already promised him nothing bad would happen to them. It would only be a matter of time before they broke out.
The reason his expression was so dark was because he could feel an ominous presence within the storm clouds.
Something wanted to stop him, and it was desperate.
Lightning continued to crackle and an electrical feeling pulsed through the air.
Even Tian Hai and Tian Kai could feel the odd tension.
The two of them brought out their weapons and edged slightly closer to Xue Chang.
And just like that, the sky opened up.
A terrifying sight appeared right above the heads of the three friends. A ginormous hand, larger than even their house floated overhead, emanating with unadulterated power.
Xue Chang's eyes dilated at the sight.
Looking down at his palms, the candle which had become physically visible to everyone present, still remained unlit.
"Well, this can't be good." A small chuckle escaped from Tian Hai's mouth and Tian Kai rolled his eyes.
Even in this situation, Xue Chang remained calm.
The arm's fingers opened up wide as it began to slowly descend toward their direction.
"Buy me some time!" Xue Chang commanded his guards to take actions while he placed his focus on the seal.
Tian Kai didn't even make a sound as his spear spun around his body and faced toward the sky.
A defiant will exploded from Tian Kai as he gave a shout.
"Ha!" Like a volcano erupting, Tian Kai released all of the power he contained within his body.
Stomping his feet into the ground, he jumped straight up to intercept the palm.
The two forces clashed together in a brilliant explosion as Tian Kai unleashed every drop of power he contained to keep the palm at bay.
Tian Hai stood at the side with his sword at the ready.
As he stood there he tried to get himself into his best condition, calming his breathing and circulating the elemental energy inside of him.
And as he did this, he noticed something strange.
Taking in a deep breath, he circulated the cultivation technique Xue Chang had made for him.
Once, twice, and three times he repeated the process.
Yet each and every time the results were the same.
"How?" Looking up at his little brother, Tian Hai also felt a change occur in him.
Tian Hai couldn't keep the goofy grin off his face as he felt the change that occurred in Tian Kai.
And at the same time, Tian Kai was also realizing something about himself.
As he faced off against the palm, he realized that his cultivation had gone through a complete transformation.
He was at the peak of level six of Qi refinement! Just one small step away from level seven!
His power had gone through massive changes, it was like a miracle.
Just a few hours ago he felt as if he might never breakthrough past the fifth level. Now he was about to reach the seventh!
"Was it the shadows?" His experience was different from Tian Hai's. Tian Kai had broken free of the unseen chains that held him back. Once he did that, he began a never ending battle against the shadow figures until he escaped.
The more he fought the more powerful he felt, but he didn't think it was actually improving his cultivation to such an extent!
But his celebratory celebration only lasted a minute.
While the palm froze in place for a second, the force of their collision caused more damage to Tian Kai's weapon than he thought.
The body of his spear cracked and splintered as the force of the impact caused the weapon to shatter.
Tian Kai was launched backward as his weapon broke in his hands.
Crashing back into the ground, Tian Kai coughed out some blood. He felt like his ribs had been fractured causing his breathing and movement to be impaired.
At this rate it was up to Tian Hai to act.
He held out the yin line and taking a similar action, he jumped up and used Crescent Slash to fight against the palm.
Like Tian Kai, Tian Hai's cultivation had advance by a huge margin. Both his internal and external cultivation was at the peak of the fourth level. While it has grown by an equally large margin, he knew that his overall power was still below that of Tian Kai.
But he had his own advantage. His sword was made out of a very strange material. It was several times more durable than any weapon he had used before.
As such he held out a little longer than expected. While he didn't slow down the palm as much as his little brother did, he was still able to buy plenty of time before being sent back down into the ground.
Meanwhile Xue Chang put all of his focus into lighting the candle.
As the wick began to glow brighter and brighter with fire, the wax of the candle started to drip and fall.
Seeing Tian Hai act to buy him time, he began to ask Yong Heng, "Do you have any solutions to dealing with that thing?"
"Just a little bit more, the second that candle wick is lit then that hand will disappear."
Xue Chang didn't know if he could fully trust those words but he didn't have a choice.
Making a quick decision, he formed some signs with his hands and used his index finger to pierce the center of his skull.
A stream of life force dripped out of the puncture wound and began to feed itself into the flame.
Xue Chang was trying to use his own life force to agitate the flame into moving quicker. Like feeding a campfire some wood to keep it going.
He thought this would be alright since he had a nearly endless supply of life force, but an unexpected effect occurred.
His consciousness began to loosen and tremble, causing him to slowly lose focus.
His eyes became hazy as he felt his own soul begin to waver and fade. His skin became wrinkled and sagged while his body seemed to be aging rapidly at a frightening pace.
Especially for Xue Chang who hadn't grown one bit in all of this time!
"Xue Chang!" Yong Heng screamed out in panic.
He couldn't stop Xue Chang in time. When he realized what he was planning, he knew how foolish it would be.
Although Xue Chang usually had an infinite amount of life force, breaking the seal would force his usually abundant life energy to condense and hide away. Currently he had the same amount of life force that a child would have.
Doing what he was doing is was akin to suicide!
Their only hope was that he could hold out long enough to light the candle. If not then either the palm would crush all of them, or before even that Xue Chang would die in the process!
"Come on, come on!"
Suddenly a shadow engulfed Xue Chang. Without even looking up, Yong Heng knew what had happened.
The palm had arrived.
As the giant hand fell down upon the group of people, a sudden changed occurred.
Within the blanket of darkness caused by the palm covering the sun, there was a small trace of light.
Almost like a candle being lit.
Sobriety returned to Xue Chang's eyes as a single word escaped from his dried lips, "Done!"
"Haha!" Like a roar of thunder, Yong Heng's voice rang throughout the ruins of the village. Just as the palm from the sky was ready to crush Xue Chang, it stopped in its tracks hearing this cry of laughter.
Almost as if it was scared, it began to retreat back into the crack in the sky like a rabbit who had just seen it's natural predator.
But from above Xue Chang, another crack appeared out of thin air. A dainty and almost women like arm reached out of this one and latched itself onto the palm that was retreating.
"Today, I announce my return!"