*Boom!*
The body of the man in black flew about a hundred meters and fell down next to Yang Ming. Even though he hid his aura and himself, some blood still got on his face.
"Third Uncle!"
The girl, dressed in black embroidered clothing, went downstairs, checking the breathless body for signs of life.
"Dead... He's dead…"
Tears streamed down her face. She knew she was to blame for his death. If she hadn't persuaded him to go down to the lower realm or shown him the treasure she had found, he wouldn't have died.
"I- I- I killed him."
Instead of blaming the real killer, she blamed herself for her negligence.
"Miss, you need to calm down, don't let your emotions get the better of you!" - shouted the remaining man in black.
Unlike her, he understood that in this situation death was almost impossible to avoid.
"Unless..."
He looked around carefully. The chance that they could escape death was practically nil; the only option left was to sacrifice themselves. With a slight chuckle, the man slowly knelt down on one knee beside the girl who was still crying over his brother's body.
"Miss, you need to leave! I'll try to hold them off as long as possible, go back to the higher realm. Go away!" - he said in a serious voice, now is not the time to regret his brother's death.
"Go? Ahahahaha, do you think she'll be able to leave?" - The man in the scarlet robe laughed resoundingly. - "After you killed two of our comrades, are you going to survive? Ahahahaha, is this a joke? Your bodies and the treasure that belongs to us will stay here today!"
The girl ignored the man's words, she knew that he didn't give a damn about his comrades. Even when they were dying, he didn't raise an eyebrow. And the treasure, needless to say.
"Does it belong to you? We found it! You bastards want to steal it!"
His shameless words enraged the girl: if before she had been sorrowful and panicked, now she wanted more than anything to tear his head off or cut him into a thousand pieces.
On the other hand, Yang Ming, who was quite close to the battlefield, almost laughed at the man's words: he was right to a certain extent. Although the men in black were the first to find the treasure, in the end they could not hold on to it.
But beyond that, Yang Ming received confirmation that perhaps the treasure for which he had come down to the lower realm was now in the hands of the girl. So he was now contemplating how to steal the treasure, he absolutely didn't care about the girl's feelings as well as for the girl herself, only the thought of the treasure was on his mind.
"Although, if they are from the higher realm, perhaps they can obediently give up the treasure," Yang Ming pondered over his next steps.
Now that the numbers were much smaller, it was possible to try to press the authority of the Yang family.
Anyone in the highest realm would not dare to do anything against clans like Yang, Xiao, or Wang. Even though Yang Ming had a bad reputation as a human being, thanks to his family alone there were few who could do anything to him. So now was just the right time to try to use his family influence.
"If they refuse, I'll just kidnap this girl, since I think she should keep the treasure to herself."
Having decided on a course of action, Yang Ming no longer concealed neither his aura nor himself. Slowly he approached the others, shocking everyone present.
The man in the scarlet robe was the first to recover from his shock. At first he wanted to act carefully, because it was easy to run into a hidden expert, but after studying the cultivation level of the young man who arrived, he grinned slightly.
"Who are you? How dare you interfere in our duel?"
Perhaps any practitioner would be nervous in such a situation when a late stage aura was dropped on him, but on Yang Ming it was as if it had no effect at all. How could they have known that even as a child he had been trained to ignore his opponent's aura or the same bloodlust. After these training sessions, Yang Ming seemed to be resistant, at least to some extent, to their effects.
Wiping the blood from his face, which had fallen just recently, the corners of his lips lifted slightly in a smile, at the same time he said calmly:
"Yang Ming. The son of the Yang family. Have you heard of him?"
Looking at Yang Ming's appearance, the three scarlet-clad men's hands began to tremble slightly: black hair, golden eyes, exquisite clothing and splendid facial features, and in confirmation besides his name he called his family Yang.
"Fuck, what do we do now?" - cursed to himself the scarlet-clad man who appeared to be in charge among them.
The silence lasted for a long time as they seemed to consider each other. Yang Ming said nothing more, and both groups were silent as well, just contemplating. Each party silently observed their opponents.
Of course, Yang Ming did not look at the men in black or scarlet, all his attention focused on the girl in the veil.
She seemed to be about eighteen years old. The girl had long black hair, cold brown eyes that only reflected rage and sadness, and a graceful slender figure. Judging by her looks alone, she could be considered one in a million. But Yang Ming had little interest in girls, so he absolutely didn't care about all that beauty.
He just stared into her eyes for a while, while she stared into his as well. For some reason, they seemed familiar to him. It wasn't her body, but precisely those cold brown eyes in which it was easy to sink.
Coughing slightly, Yang Ming stopped looking at her, making a note to himself to later figure out her identity and background. A light of interest flickered in his heart. Yang Ming is the kind of person who won't rest until he gets what he wants.
"Are you the young master of the Yang clan from the higher realm? - The first to break the silence, oddly enough, was a man dressed in scarlet instead of the men in black.
Yang Ming thought that the first person to break the silence would be the girl, begging for him to save them, but he was wrong. She said nothing, just stared at him with her cold brown eyes without taking an inch away.
The man in the scarlet robe did not care what Yang Ming was thinking. He was now in a silent rage, trying to hold himself together. After all, he had almost got his treasure; one could consider it in his hands. But here comes a new adversary - an adversary who is absolutely impossible to resist. He knew that, though it seemed that he was here alone now, it was not that simple: would the Yang Clan have let their young master go alone? It can't be; there must be experts lurking somewhere nearby to protect him.
The sight of the confident Yang Ming plunged the men's hearts into deep sadness and misery, for there seemed to be no way out. The funny thing was that both the man in black and the man in scarlet had experienced the same feeling in the span of a couple of hours. But unlike the man in black, who thought he was going to die, the man felt as if the fish he had caught had been taken by others.
**********
Cultivation levels: Lower realm.
Initial Ascension(1) — Initial stage — Middle stage — Late stage.
Earth Ascension (2) — Initial stage — Middle stage — Late stage.
Heavenly ascension (3) — Initial stage — Middle stage — Late stage.
Mortal ascension(4) — Initial stage — Middle stage — Late stage.