The old mans axe was heading towards the attendants chest when suddenly a primitive runic patterned tattoo lit of magically on the attendants arms extending down to their chest and back.
The blood within the hall began to rise and form a blood mist which quickly headed towards the attendant.
The runic patterns began to greedily absorb the blood mist and strengthen the body of the attendant and increase his strength the more he absorbed until he was beginning to reach his limit.
The old lady watching this could not help but sigh. 'Indeed martial arts and mystical arts can be used together. The fools all over the continent were very wrong… if my guess is correct the nature of the arts is what is required, blood martial arts work with blood totem arts. Gu arts would work best without an elemental attribute or a poison based martial art while beast totems are more free and depend on the animal used in the ceremony.'
Throughout the continent mystical arts have long been seen as heretical, this has long let to the misconception that they are incompatible with martial arts and would lease to serious problems should they both mutually coexist.
Of course in the home of the eastern forests where they primarily use mystical arts they have no way to learn legitimate martial arts so they never tried to mix both of them together.
The old ladies eyes flashed with enlightenment upon realising the truth, although her time was nearing an end there were few things in the world that interested her now but having seen the gamble pay off she was momentarily intrigued.
The attendant began to gain more of an advantage by dodging the old mans axes but could not deal a critical blow.
The old man grew more angry and more violent with his attacks, the two quickly became tied in their duel until the old mans axe finally landed on the position of the attendants heart cutting deeply into the chest.
The old man turned his head towards the old woman while swinging the other axe towards the attendants neck.
Sure that he had won the fight he did not pay much attention to the already dead opponent who just needed to be beheaded as his main opponent would come next... He did not notice that the attendants eyes were still firm although his breathe was weak and that he had not hit the attendants heart at all….
The attendant was born with his heart on the other side of his body so his heart was a great decoy for someone who is used to blood martial arts.
Those who take in and use others blood have high vitality so can last longer in battle and not die from most wounds so long as they can replenish the blood and close the wounds…. Most enemies would target the heart or head for a fatal strike against a blood martial artist.
The attendant was indeed the old mans fated enemy!
Urging the final reserves of of his strength and mystical power he thrust his arm into the chest of the old man, as the mystical power reached its limit the attendant blew up his body along with the old man leaving behind a blood mist formed from both bodies exploding and barely recognisable corpses.
"Sigh what a shame, if he had more time to train he would have been one of the leading figures on the continent." The old lady shook her head sighing with regret. "But… thank you for your sacrifice."
"You are all finally here." She looked up at the fifty plus people and among the crowd were many familiar faces. "Tell me was it fun to come all this way? Was your effort rewarded?"
"Don't listen to her, this witch is evil do not listen to her spouting nonsense." A youthful and slender looking woman spoke.
"I see… so 'he' must of sent you here himself. What do you want?" The old lady looked amused but a little regretful.
"You dare speak of his highness the emperor! Hurry and hand over the blood Buddha art to be locked away by the royal family and we might let you die with a full corpse." The young lady spoke
"Hey hey hey… don't you get tired of playing the young girl when you are older than me. Though I guess you have already passed that realm before your 60s and become a dog for the royal family. Then again I'm not surprised considering the rumours about your past." The old lady flexed her body slightly as if she were getting ready for a fight. "1. The blood Buddha art is destroyed so you get nothing. 2. The precious frost fairy serving the royal family is nothing but a thief who killed the final successor of the Divine ice sect during their escape during the sects fall. This is based on information collected over the years within the blood sects information channels."
"You bitch I will kill you!" The frost fairy began to walk towards the old lady in anger but was stopped by the crowd.
"Careful something is wrong, she seems too confident." Spoke one of the frost fairy's aides.
The old lady scanned the crowd. "I thought it was just a rumour but it seems to be true from your reaction… so much for the untainted goddess in peoples eyes. Finally 3. Your emperor is believed to be the martial alliances puppet emperor but in fact he has been playing you all for fools this whole time. He has long been corrupted by the blood sect arts and blood sect has been working with him for more than 40 years now. Of course only blood sect elders of highest rank have access to this information."
While the frost fairy did not show much shock from the announcements as if she already knew, everyone else had a look of disbelief and confusion.
First telling everyone who came here that had lost so many of their loyal followers in this war their true purpose and goal was hidden from them… not only the fact that the item they were seeking was an evil martial arts manual but that what they were seeking had long been destroyed.
Not only would the martial alliance and royal family lose face but the anger of those who had lost loved ones in this war would be pointed towards them.
Second was the truth behind long suppressed rumours about the frost fairy and her true origins. In public she is known as someone who survived the purge of the divine ice sect and a direct line of inheritance thus inheriting their secret manual which led to her fast rise in power in the past along with her talent to reach the realm she was now.
The reality however proves that during the destruction of the sect there must have been an escapee.
That escapee would be the final successor of the sect master who would carry the sects hopes of revival.
The question from there… what happened to the successor during the escaping and how did an unknown person come to possess the inheritance afterwards?
Many have speculated or come up with their own views but very few investigated it because after the frost fairy made connections with the royal family as a backer any discussions or rumours were quickly silenced.
The third and final piece of information only served to fuel the flame between the martial alliance and the royal faction… not only pointing towards the emperor as a conspirator of evil and chaos, supporting immoral people to do wicked deeds but also made everyone question past wars or assignments made by the martial alliance and the royal faction.
Successfully breaking the link between the two factions and a loss trust would either result in a war between the two or a weakening of their power for some time.
With this time perhaps the eastern clans she raised could have a chance to take back their home which had been stolen from them.
Now she could finally rest.