The following morning, the group of five peered at the armoury with difficult expressions.
Seeing the rest of his group with such gloomy faces, he sighed in exasperation and shook his head. However, Xieren kept quiet as he was conscious of their short comings.
"Enough mopping around, the mission stays as it is. If you give up now, the Qiu family will be destroyed!" Xieren declared and turned to each and everyone in the group.
"Qiu Dong, since you are the weakest here, I want you to be in the reserve, I will take care of the three from the Celestial realm, the rest is bound to be easy..." He spoke again, leaving Qiu Dong dumbstruck.
"Young Lord, I'm not weak!" He replied harshly, having your dignity being trampled upon was never an easy thing to go through.
"Yes you are, our opponents are at the Saint Emperor realm and above. I didn't mean no disrespect but you will die if you go there with that attitude, and I will not let anyone jeopardize the mission even if I have to stop them myself..." Xieren's response was cold as he threatened his own subordinate...
Qiu Dong gulped and looked down in shame.
The rest remained quietly, not knowing how to initiate a conversation.
With the five of them crouching behind the thicket, Xieren went over the plan once again...
"Listen up, once I take out the three celestials, you will be left with five of them. They will still have outnumbered you four while I plant the explosive talismans, this means that you are all on your own... Planting the explosives however, shouldn't take a long time but more than enough for the enemy to defeat you, so please try to hold on till then will you?" He pleaded seriously with a smile.
With everyone nodding in agreement, the group spread out to their own positions in an instant.
•••••
"Brother Ye! Brother Long! I sense a very powerful cultivator coming our way!" A masked cultivator alerted the duo meditating in the room, given to them by the military personnel of the Armoury.
"So they have arrived..." Tang Ye muttered and got up.
"Do you mean the presences we felt since yesterday night?" Tang Long quipped curiously, to which Tang Ye nodded slowly.
"Where is the presence now, Brother Zhou?" Tang Ye asked.
"It's-" Before the man could continue his sentence, the wall facing the outside, collapsed, completely flattening Cai Zhou who shouted in panic.
"Heavens!" Both Ye and Long cursed and jumped back instantly, glaring at the intruder cautiously.
"Who are you?!" Tang Long shouted angrily, he saw the man step on his brother, Cai Zhou, who grunted painfully in agony when the foot crushed his chest.
"Hn! Get your priorities straight, who I am should not be your main concern, it should be whether this man will live or..." Xieren who had masked himself and his voice, proceeded to enhance his foot in Qi and keep applying pressure of the chest of the man he was stepping on.
"AHHH!!" Cai Zhou screamed painfully, his throat getting sore over how loud he had screamed at. He could feel his ribs crack, one by one and break into multiple fragments which then pierced through his inner flesh.
"Brother Cai!" Tang Ye shouted and lunged towards Xieren who booted Cai towards Tang Long that quickly moved to grab the man.
Xieren slanted his head away from the Qi filled strike thrown in his way by Tang Ye, effectively dodging and countered with a whirling kick that propelled Tang Ye backwards.
Xieren then flashed towards Tang Ye and shot his arm forward with his fist clenched, feeling the attack connect, he moved further in and relentlessly released blow after blow, leaving Tang Ye on the ground, kneeling and winded.
Everything happened in a flash, Tang Long was shocked to see Tang Ye get defeated so easily, the man was at the Celestial Sword realm for heaven's sake!
Xieren walked over to Tang Ye that moved back, using his feet and hands to scramble back in fear.
"W-Why are you doing this?!" He shrieked, fear overtook his body as Tang Ye turned around with difficulty and used his feet to send himself away from the mysterious entity.
Tang Ye gasped, he felt the cold surface of the wall on his face and looked up in fear.
"There is no escape" Xieren smiled through his mask and stirred his hand towards the man's neck, holding it with an iron grip, forcing Tang Ye to squirm about violently in midair...
The man whimpered in fear, Tang Ye's face was purple and his eyes bulged at the lack of oxygen going into his body. He scraped Xieren's arm with his nails, trying to get the grip to loosen on his neck but with no success, he gave himself up to fate.
It was not the pain he feared, but the fact that someone of Xieren's capability would destroy his soul from existence and completely killing him off...
Tang Ye's vision blurred, he could only see Xieren's cold eyes staring into his own, darkness took over his eyes as his body slowly went limp...
Xieren dropped the body and destroyed the man's cultivation and later... the soul that tried to escape.
"Well... that was very anticlimactic" He sighed and turned to Tang Long that had soiled himself, much to Xieren's disgust.
"Please don't kill me!" Tang Long begged with tears in his eyes, Cai Zhou breathing hoarsely, almost as if he too wanted to say so...
"Fine..." Xieren shrugged, shocking Tang Long who kneeled and thanked him immensely.
"...But I will cripple you" He finished his sentence and attacked the two men that could only shout in denial over what just took place...
"you... you monster! abhorrent devil!" Tang Long cursed at Xieren, his face was that of a man who had lost everything he ever had...
"I will kill you! You hear me?! I will kill your family and drink their blood Infront of you!" He cried with tears in his eyes, the amount of hatred he showed for Xieren was astounding.
"Humph! I have no time for childish tantrums" Xieren waved his hand and left the room.
"Wait you f*cker! I will kill you! ...what did I ever do to you...?" Tang Long whimpered at the end, knowing he does not have much time...
This was due to the abundance of Qi in the body in someone with no meridians to maintain the balance in the body.
•••••
"Let's see... all the soldiers are gathering at the building, this my chance!" Xieren smirked as he hid himself with a Qi based illusion technique.
He walked out and attacked a clueless soldier, stripping him naked and donning the standard imperial armor to infiltrate, his face was the exact same as the soldier he had knocked out a while back.
"Why am I getting Hitman vibes?" Xieren chuckled and walked over to the Storage room where all weaponry was being kept, including the secret weapons of the Imperial Clan!
Destroying the foundation was the most efficient method to collapse a building, so he stuck four talismans on each pillar holding the structure and casually walked away from it.
"Hey you there! Hurry up and help us take the weapons! The base has been attacked and our esteemed Imperial clan members are dead!" A captain hollered at Xieren who looked frightened and hurriedly ran over to them.
"At once, Sir!" He shouted and walked over to the boxes of equipment, grabbing them one by one and placing them inside.
Xieren smiled menacingly and stuck a few more on the boxes that were labelled "Explosives, Handle with care!".
'Even better!' He laughed inwardly.
"Hey... what did you do with those?!" A soldier of his rank whispered harshly.
"Sorry! It said 'explosives' so I was intrigued by it!" Xieren lied to the man's face, the soldier sighed tiredly and shook his head.
"Geez... just don't get caught by the captain!" He smirked and left, leaving Xieren alone inside, managing the boxes.
'Oh this feels like a field trip!' He hummed a melody while quite literally stuffing all the boxes with explosives...
"All done, Sir!"
Xieren walked back to the group as the captain nodded and sent them away to their battleposts...