"What the hell?!"
Pang Bai Shan managed a shout before I turned the reflected energies upon him. It wasn't just returning his attack, I was directing a merged stream of yin and yang energies toward him.
The white mountain, which was slowly revolving when I desperately tried to stop it earlier, shattered. Even the massive mountain was unable to withstand the amalgamated yin and yang elements, its colossal form breaking apart and falling into translucent shards around me.
As for Pang Bai Shan, he screamed before disappearing in the white and black torrents of energies. His body was annihilated from existence. Even a Yellowed Lands realm cultivator wouldn't be able to withstand the devastating amalgamation of yin and yang energies. I wasn't sure what the principle was, but it was akin to the interaction between matter and antimatter – two opposing existences colliding and producing vast energies.
"What the hell?!" Han Sha growled, spinning around. Qin Lie failed to capitalize on this, also being distracted by my Yin Yang Amalgamation Strike (barehanded version). Honestly, I didn't expect my attack to possess such power. I suspected that it only contained such tremendous energies because I made use of the elements that composed Pang Bai Shan's White Mountain Strike.
If I were to execute Ying Yang Amalgamation Strike without receiving an influx of energies from any opponent, I wouldn't be able to produce such power.
Han Sha clicked his tongue and tried to escape, kicking off the ground and bounding away.
"Do you think you can get away?" Qin Lie shouted, pursuing. Now that I culd spare some of my attention, I glanced at him and saw that he had been slightly wounded. Blood dripped from a gash on his head, and bruises and scrapes lined his arms.
Even though his body had been tempered by lightning and thunder because of his Heavenly Thunder Eradication, his flesh wasn't immune to the deadly razor sharpness of Han Sha's whips. He was still wounded by his opponent's relentless attacks.
Han Sha, too, didn't seem to be all that bothered by Qin Lie's attacks. I could see him smirking.
"Did you really think you can beat a Blackened Skies realm cultivator like me when you're only at Yellowed Lands realm?"
"I won't know unless I try," Qin Lie replied with a grin. Han Sha shook his head and unleashed his twin whips, knocking Qin Lie back. The guy in red attire flipped up and dove away, swatting aside the lethal weapons with his lightning. Even so, the force behind the strikes sent him tumbling backward, blood spurting from his arms.
"I'll at least eliminate you before I go!"
Snarling, Han Sha descended upon the stunned Qin Lie. However, the latter didn't unleash his lightning this time. Instead, he retrieved something from his pockets.
"It's useless!" Han Sha cackled, hurling his whips mercilessly. "No matter what spirit weapons you might have hidden up your sleeves, you still won't be able to…!"
"Even these?��
With a grin, Qin Lie hurled spherical objects at the approaching Han Sha. The hooded figure skidded to a stop, his eyes widening when he saw the projectiles.
"Terminator Profound Bombs?!"
The words were barely out of his mouth when the Terminator Profound Bombs detonated, engulfing his hooded figure in titanic explosions.
"Even if the ingredients used in the Terminator Profound Bombs are a warrior-ranked spirit beast, the resulting bomb is enough to kill a commander-ranked spirit beast," Qin Lie explained. I frowned. I swear, I definitely heard that explanation somewhere before, but it was numbered ranks. Same principle, really.
"Ugh?!"
Han Sha crashed out of the conflagration, his body scorched and his skin blackened. His hood and cloak had been burned away, but it mattered not since his face had been charred beyond recognition. Not that I would have recognized him anyway.
But as grievous as his injuries were, he was still very much alive.
Using Jin to advance forward, I grabbed my dragon sword – which was lying on the ground a few meters away – and charged at the wounded Han Sha.
"You think you can kill me?!"
Snarling, Han Sha flicked his hands and whips appeared out of nowhere, curling toward me.
Unfortunately for him, his movements had been inhibited by the severe injuries he had sustained from the Terminator Profound Bombs. I could see his whips moving a lot slower than before and thus I was able to avoid them. Spinning around, I avoided the first strike, and then I weaved through the second. Gathering qi into my blade, I used my newly learned Yin Yang Amalgamation Strike to stab him in the chest.
"Ugh!"
Han Sha staggered, but he clutched my sword arm with a maniacal grin.
"I've caught you now!"
"Did you forget about me?"
Behind my stabbed opponent, Qin Lie appeared, his fist crackling with lightning. Han Sha's eyes widened and he tried to whirl around, but I kept my sword firmly embedded in his chest even as he frantically let go of my arm. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I smirked.
"I've caught you now."
"No…!"
Han Sha wasn't able to finish his cry before Qin Lie's Lightning Fist obliterated his head. As the number one ranked student withdrew his hand, I pulled my sword out vertically, cutting through flesh and bone and allowing the blade to exist through Han Sha's shoulder. The headless corpse staggered before toppling over.
"Thank you." I bowed. Qin Lie shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. I was only doing my job. Since I'm the boss of this school, it's my duty to protect everyone else."
He then scowled as he surveyed the battered and beleaguered figures of the Blue and Red Factions.
"In fact, I should apologize for being late. If only I had moved out earlier, perhaps Hong Wu and Lan Yu wouldn't have lost their lives."
Apparently, Qin Lie had been away on a mission, and during his return trip back, he saw Hong Wu and Lan Yu's names disappear from the Seven Stars List. He had hurried to return to Seven Stars Academy at top speed, feeling a sense of foreboding.
"Better late than never." I gestured toward Han Sha's headless corpse. "If you hadn't arrived when you did, all of us would have been completely wiped out. These bastards wouldn't have shown us any mercy."
"Yeah!" Liu Yu Feng agreed, supporting a wounded Zhang Ping who was well on his way to being healed after receiving Mu Zi Xing's treatment. "They tried to kill us all!"
"Thank you for saving us…and avenging our bosses!" Zhang Ping bowed his head. "The both of you."
"In any case, you guys should go back and rest for now." Qin Lie was taking charge. "We'll also have to explain this to the headmaster."
"Explain what to me?"
Everyone glanced up in surprise. A flying car dropped down from above and landed in the ruined courtyard. The door swung open and Qi Xing strode out, his expression thunderous. He swept his stern gaze across the corpses and devastation, then turned back to us.
"Well? Start explaining."
*
After Qi Xing's arrival, Su Yan and the other instructors arrived. As they assembled around the nervous students, Qin Lie, Si Nan, Zhang Ping, Liu Yu Feng and I explained everything that had happened so far.
"Damn it…what audacity!" Qi Xing was so furious that his qi erupted from his body, turning into a brightly burning inferno. He glared at Han Sha's corpse. "Dark Shadow Academy…this debt, I'll definitely settle it with you!"
"Do you think Dark Shadow Academy is really behind this?" Su Yan asked, contemplating. "We should investigate this more thoroughly. It is possible that these dissidents were simply making use of Dark Shadow Academy to intimidate the students."
"Or that they were using Dark Shadow University to divert our attention from the real culprit."
Another instructor added, to the nods of the others. Qi Xing curled his lip as he glanced at them moodily.
"You are right. We'll need more concrete evidence. The fact that these traitors are registered under our Seven Stars Academy is a big tick against us. I don't think they are lying and I strongly suspect Dark Shadow Academy is behind this, but…it's easy for them to deny involvement, especially since we have nothing more than the word of these traitors who are officially our students."
"It's also possible that they were lied to. That another party was involved and lied to these students about being able to join Dark Shadow Academy if they completed the mission to kill the majority of the students here." Su Yan paused. "As crafty as Dark Shadow University is, even they wouldn't be so stupid to hire such murderers."
"More likely, they would turn on these traitors and offer them up to the council, washing their hands clean of any involvement." Qi Xing scowled. "Which makes it more difficult to find evidence against them."
"Whoever the culprit is, we will have to take care of the surviving students," another instructor said with a glance at us. "They have suffered quite a lot during our absence."
"Speaking of which…" Another instructor groaned as he buried his face in his palm. "We just came back from a meeting in Central regarding the inter-academy tournament that will take place in three months' time, and we find out that we have lost most of our top students? How are we going to replace them all?"
"We still have three months," Qi Xing replied. "We will figure something out."
"Three months? It's not enough! Of the top ten, only Qin Lie and Shu Cong are left! We need another three students at least, and none of the remaining students will be able to…"
"Enough," Qi Xing interrupted, glancing at the students. "We can discuss about the tournament later. The most important thing now is our students' wellbeing."
He turned to us.
"You have all suffered greatly and did very well to ward off a malicious attack from outsiders when the instructors were not present. I am proud of your tenacity. We have suffered losses, but this will not be enough to keep us down. We will emerge from this tragedy stronger than ever. I promise you this, at least. Whoever launched this attack on our academy…will pay!"
"Yeah!" the students shouted defiantly.
"Now go back and rest. The teachers will clean up the mess here and carry out investigations. We might ask you for more details later, but for now, I need all of you to recover. Then we will intensify our curriculum and train you harder. We will not allow the other schools to capitalize on our misfortune. We will show them the real power of Seven Stars Academy!"
"Yeah!"
"Now, dismissed!"
As the students dispersed, I could hear the teachers gathering to whisper to each other.
"Do you think Zhang Ping and Liu Yu Feng can step in and fill the shoes of Lan Yu and Hong Wu?"
"I don't know."
"Even though the headmaster made that promise, it's still going to be very tough…"
I exhaled wearily. The battle had taken its toll on me and I felt exhausted. However, I also felt fury. Han Sha…his target might have been me, but he had decided to involve the entire Seven Stars academy in his vendetta. I had a feeling that this affair wasn't as simple as his goal to terminate me.
The Dark Shadow Academy might be involved, making use of Han Sha's objective to eliminate the students of Seven Stars Academy along with me. There was no point feeling guilty. Even if Han Sha wasn't here to terminate me, the culprits would still have made a move against Seven Stars Academy. After all, if I was the target, there was no need to target and involve all the other students, such as Hong Wu and Lan Yu. That would greatly increase the chances of failure, especially as it drew the attention from strong experts like Qin Lie and the instructors. No, someone was deliberately targeting the Seven Stars Academy alongside me, and I was just a tangential target. Dark Shadow Academy certainly had a clear motive – removing rivals before the tournament so as to increase their probability of advancement through the tournament. It sounded like what those assassin trainees would do.
There was another possibility, and it was that the culprit had nothing to do with the tournament or any of the other five universities at all. That it was somebody with a grudge against Seven Stars Academy and sought its destruction.
But who would want to destroy Seven Stars Academy?
I had no idea, and thinking about it wouldn't bring any answers. I knew too little about my own academy – not that I would be expected to learn about our old enemies anyway. Even so, the lack of knowledge gnawed at me, making me feel uncomfortable.
Whatever the case, I would deal with it when it comes. Whether it was more demonic cultivators from the Celestial Realm in the future, or enemies bearing a grudge against Seven Stars Academy for whatever reason, I would face them all…and I would defeat them as best as I could.
Or I would at least die trying.