A death match was completely unnecessary just to take another disciple's house. Death matches were indeed permitted, but they weren't usually taken so lightly like this!
Khan's voice was so loud, how could Yusef possibly miss it? The fat young man immediately stormed out from his palace, quickly looked around, then turned towards Khan and glared viciously.
Khan grinned and stuck his arm up, waving as if he was happily greeting a friend.
"Ah…" Khan blinked and stared as Yusef roared out in rage and charged towards him. He drew a sword in his rage, clearly intending to slash down at Khan on the spot!
"Junior disciple, stop right there!" An aged voice boomed out through the surroundings and stopped Yusef in his tracks. Even Fu Bian's expression changed slightly as she looked up in shock.
In the air above the crowd, an old man with a withered white beard was standing on a sword with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Peak Qi River Realm!" Fu Bian exclaimed seriously. Her gorgeous eyes narrowed, the dark spheres focussing in on the old man. The old man stopped for a moment as he noticed Fu Bian's gaze and turned towards her in surprise. Now ignoring the heavily sweating fatty who was frozen in place, he quickly flew down, stepped off his sword and landed in front of Fu Bian.
"Miss Fu, to think I would run into you in the outer sect once again." The old man smiled amicably.
"Elder Gon, greetings." She clasped her hands respectfully.
"No need to be so polite Miss Fu, your status is no lower than my own now."
"As the head elder of this outer sect zone, it's only natural that I pay my respects as a disciple, elder."
"Ohoho, you're a loyal disciple as ever Miss Fu." The old man smiled brightly. "Unlike this little brat, who only ever causes me trouble." He turned towards Khan and glared.
"Oh, old man Gon, how's it going?" Khan smiled and nodded. Everyone who heard him speak so casually to the elder held their breath and waited tensely. This was an outer sect head elder, how could he be so causal when speaking with him?!
"Don't give me that brat, every time I encounter you, it's always something tedious. A death match? Seriously? And seeing you with Miss Fu and her sister…I'm sure you've stirred trouble there too, I don't even want to know about it."
"Pahaha! Old man, you're as stuck up as ever! Learn to lighten up a bit, enjoy life a little." Khan laughed, showing no respect or fear towards this powerful senior.
Everyone was speechless. Not at Khan's behaviour, but rather at Elder Gon's response. He seemed to be rather accepting of Khan's rude way of speaking…as if they were well acquainted. Fu Bian gave Khan a weird look, but he ignored it and turned to Yusef.
Elder Gon was the person who ended up interfering after realising that Khan, an unknown disciple to him at the time, had been taken and tortured by a disciplinary elder for a full month without any permission from the sect. The disciplinary faction had some degree of liberty in how they carried out justice, but kidnapping and torturing disciples over a personal grudge was certainly not within their privileges.
Still, even though Elder Gon would always uphold the sect's rules and values no matter what, he was somewhat regretful that he arrived before Khan could suffer some more. Apparently, a single month of unspeakable torture from a powerful elder wasn't enough to change his attitude in the least.
Perhaps a normal disciple would be traumatised and scared straight, but upon being released, Khan wouldn't shut up about his compensation. When refused compensation, he repeated his crime immediately.
"I can't stop you from making this challenge, but I-"
"Ah, I knew that you'd understand old man!" Khan laughed and interrupted the elder, making his eye twitch slightly. "You can officiate the match, right?"
"…" The elder glared at Khan for a moment, before sighing and turning to Yusef. He saw the anger in the fatty's chubby, swollen eyes, and realised that perhaps, the grudge between them really did warrant a death match.
"Disciple Yusef, do you accept or decline Disciple Khan's challenge?" The old man finally said reluctantly.
"Accept!" He spat out through gritted teeth.
"Great!" Khan happily exclaimed.
The reason he wanted a death match was simple. According to the sect rules, the winner of a death match would win all of the loser's possessions. Greed filled Khan's eyes and he almost started salivating as he thought about all of this fatty's treasures.
Such undisguised greed wasn't something that cultivators would often show. Even if they did feel this way, they would hide it and bury the feeling deep down. But Khan…
"Hahaha! Fatty oh fatty, I'm going to finish robbing you properly this time!" Khan laughed loudly as the crowd followed him towards the outer sect battle arena. This arena that was located in the centre of the luxury housing area would see action multiple times each week, but death matches were extremely rare.
Everyone heard Khan laughing, and his motives became known to all. He wanted to kill his fellow disciple not because of hatred, but because he wanted to get rich!
"Life and death battles between disciples are supposed to be a last resort to resolve an irreconcilable grudge." Elder Gon stared at Khan as they walked.
"But elder, I really do hate him." Khan turned to him and said seriously.
The elder and the three girls were surprised. From the look in his eyes, he wasn't lying. So then…
"That fatty's hoarding more treasure than me, I can't stand it, I hate him to death! I want his treasure, that money, those resources, his palace, everything he has! This hatred can't be resolved unless I kill him and take everything for myself! So you see, we really do have a deep rooted grudge. Sigh, unfortunately, there is no other way."
His words and his tone really didn't match up. He sounded serious and spoke as if he was making a reasonable point. He even got a bit emotional near to the end.
"You sure can act!" Fu Bian snorted and shook her head.
"What acting? I'm dead serious." Khan glanced at her, then narrowed his eyes and stared at Yusef, who had stormed ahead. Fu Bian paused. She suddenly felt confused…just what was this guy thinking?
How could he say such things with a straight face?
"For someone with the legendary 5-Star Samsara Soul to be like this…" Elder Gon looked at Khan deeply and sighed.
The matter of the 'Samsara Soul' was something that concerned everyone in the Samsara Sect.
All disciples of the Samsara Sect were reincarnators who retained the memories from their past life. This was a rare event and was only possible if they achieved a level of comprehension in their past life as a mortal that would have resulted in the development of a ranked soul in this world. It was only because of the sheer scale of the Samsara Sect and their ability to gather all such reincarnations from the entire star system that their sect was so large, filled with so many members. Otherwise, you would struggle to find one or two such reincarnators amongst a trillion humans in this world.
But, there was a difference between the sect members. They all possessed a soul attribute, giving them a soul known as the 'Samsara Soul', ranked from 1-Star through to 5-Star. Khan possessed the highest 5-Star soul, which meant that in his past life as a mortal, he had gained enough enlightenment into himself and the surrounding world that he would be able to ascend to the Rank 5 Soul Realm in this world.
This was basically a guarantee, that is, given that he was able to cultivate his body fast enough. Basically, possessing a 5-Star Samsara Soul meant that he wouldn't encounter much difficulty in regards to his soul cultivation all the way up to the Rank 5 Soul Realm.
The 5-Star Samsara Soul was extremely rare, but he was still treated no differently compared to the other disciples by the sect; this was the sect's way of training their disciples properly. One wouldn't gain preferential treatment based on one's soul attribute, but on their merit and actual achievement.
The group continued walking, but Fu Bian froze. She found herself unable to move, simply staring at Khan as he continued on.
"5-Star…Samsara Soul? He is? That guy? Seriously? What? How?"
"Sister, what's wrong?"
Fu Bian quickly caught up with the group, but she hung back to speak with her younger sister, out of earshot to everyone else.
As the arena came into view, Khan stopped caring about everything around him. Before, he was joking around, but now the fight would begin shortly. As he thought about how he was going to kill that fatty, his killing intent gradually spread out.
It was only possible to possess killing intent like this if you had killed before. Not many young disciples were like Khan, with such a thick killing intent. He'd clearly killed multiple people before today.
He actually hadn't killed anyone in this world, not yet at least. The last time he killed was in prison on earth…but he certainly did kill his fair share of people on earth, and each of them were killed in a gruesome and savage manor too.
Most of all though, it was his dying act on earth that really added a unique quality to Khan's killing intent. Back when he was dying in that prison, he actually dared to rip a blade out from his own stomach, worsening his own injuries and accelerating his demise, just so that he could take one more person down with him. He did so with a smile on his face and satisfaction in his heart, a scene that left the surrounding prisoners with nightmares for years to come.
Because of this, Khan's killing intent possessed a unique terror.
Khan leapt up onto the stage, now unable to hear the crowd, or the people he was with. Yusef took his position, still feeling enraged, then turned back to Khan with the intention of ridiculing him for making this mistake.
However, he froze. For a moment, Khan's expression and aura made him feel shocked. He even trembled slightly and his heart skipped a beat.
"Remember, from the moment the battle begins, a formation will cover the arena and will not be withdrawn until one side has been slain. The use of poisons and forbidden pills is not allowed and will result in immediate loss and disciplinary action. Are you both ready to begin?"
Elder Gon appeared above the arena and spoke emotionlessly.
"Ready!" Khan yelled out. His voice seemed slightly different, as did his entire demeanour. He was now fully engrossed with the task at hand, the only thought on his mind was to kill.
"Ready…" Yusef's agreement was less certain by comparison.
'Damnit, he's using some tricks to try to intimidate me!' Yusef thought to himself and grit his teeth. 'I'll use my strongest spell along with my spirit weapon right from the beginning! Right, Khan is just like a wild beast, he can't use any spirit weapons and I'm sure that he hasn't learned any Blood Energy Spells yet!
"Begin!"
The crowd all cheered in excitement as the two figures shot towards one another at the same time. This arena was larger than a normal mortal martial arts arena, it was made from a special reinforced stone that measured 50 feet in diameter, forming a large circular stage elevated a few feet from the floor. There was also an illusory barrier covering the arena like a dome, this was the formation that Elder Gon mentioned, it was a barrier that prevented either of them from leaving.
From the sidelines, Hui clenched her fists and stared forwards nervously.
At first, Fu Bian and Fu Rian assumed that this girl would secretly be hoping for Khan's defeat. Sure, she acted all nice around him, but she was a slave, and he was a trash human being.
"Master, please win, I know you can do it…" Hui muttered as she leaned forwards, completely oblivious to the Fu sisters' bewildered glances.
For a slave to care about their master so much wasn't common in the first place. But for this slave, Khan's slave, to actually care so deeply about him…?
BANG!
Everyone stared forwards intently as the first collision occurred. Khan fought with his bare fist, punching forwards into Yusef's blade without holding back in the least. Yusef's sword was covered with a golden light and cut into Khan's fist…but only by one or two millimetres. A red line appeared across his fist, but after that, Yusef stumbled backwards by three steps.
Yusef was completely shocked. Others might not have seen it, but he clearly felt a shockwave force his body backwards just now!
'He knows a Blood Energy Spell?!' Yusef screamed internally. His mind was shaken, he started off with a spell of his own, but it was a spell that gathered momentum with each strike until the ninth strike dealt the fatal blow!
But Khan interrupted the first strike!
Khan also stumbled backwards, but he grinned evilly and licked his lips. He immediately saw through Yusef's plan.
Yusef's plan was simple - he would start by stopping Khan's first attack with his own attack. After he stopped Khan's attack, he could easily kill this arrogant frog in a well and show him the true immensity of the young geniuses that scattered the heavens and earth!
Unfortunately, Yusef's plan was immediately dismantled.