A strong wind swept through the training arena, causing the tunics of the young disciples to flutter. A slight smile of anticipation appeared on the faces of the three elders watching the fight. In front of them, more than ten young disciples struck that gigantic, round figure almost simultaneously, which seemed to be even larger than a forest ogre.
Initially, all the young ones wore confident expressions and smiles, believing that their combined attacks would be enough. However, in an instant, the atmosphere changed. Something was clearly wrong, and they felt it deep within themselves as they turned to face the face of that fatso.
Denil's eyes were icy, devoid of any emotion, as if the weapons weighing over a hundred kilograms on his body had caused no discomfort at all. 'Did the fat absorb the impact?' thought one of the disciples innocently.
Suddenly, Denil turned his fists upwards, and a bright blue rune on one side and gray on the other began to glow. In the next instant, the bodies of the young disciples trembled violently. They couldn't understand what was happening, but their instincts screamed for them to retreat immediately.
The elders watched everything closely, noticing that the combined impact of the attacks didn't seem to have affected Denil. Then, they saw the disciples trying to pull their weapons away and move back, but... the weapons refused to budge a single inch. Then, their legs couldn't move anymore.
The eyes of the creature, which initially didn't look remotely human, changed in hue. From the common black, they shifted to a brown similar to mountain earth and forest soil. Right after, he clenched his fists.
The elders felt nothing, but they were stunned to see that rocks, dust, and earth began to float lightly around them. The young disciples, who had their weapons stuck and their bodies paralyzed, began to tremble inexplicably.
Then, the primitive beast seemed to change its expression as if it were confused and extended its swollen right arm forward contemplatively.
The air and space seemed to distort in some way. The elders couldn't understand or comprehend what was happening, but those young disciples could feel the change in their bodies. Then, Denil opened his fist.
WHOOSH!!!!
It seemed as if a massive amount of air had been moved wildly and violently, emitting a sound akin to a bestial roar. All ten young disciples were violently thrown in all directions, some colliding with the distant walls and others crashing forcefully to the ground.
After a few seconds of shock, groans of pain echoed throughout the training arena, snapping the elders out of their stupor. The force of the impact seemed wild and destructive, but strangely, there was no blood or serious injuries.
The elders could clearly see that some of the young ones had broken bones, but it appeared to have occurred due to the shock against the ground, not the direct effect of the movement. All of it was very strange and seemed terrifying only to the young disciples, but those who were observing from a distance had not felt the presence of energy so intensely.
"Was that... a raw Qi explosion?" one of the elders said. Suddenly, the other two had the same realization, looking at Denil in the center of the arena, who seemed to be contemplating something deeply.
"This repugnant fellow set us up. Only a beast core could cause an explosion like that," declared another elder, clenching his fists.
"He must have acquired some cores and detonated them, turning them into energy. That would explain the blue and gray light in his fists. Damn him!" roared another angry elder.
Alm and Bruno were completely immersed in their thoughts, analyzing their own bodies. 'Was that magnetic force?' Alm asked, looking bewildered.
'The cores of the weapons were made from earth iron. Our bloodline instinctively awakened, and we managed to absorb all the power of the earth's laws into the weapons,' Bruno analyzed.
Suddenly, a shout echoed, snapping them out of their reverie. "How dare you deceive us using beast cores? You have no honor, even being his son, you bastard!" shouted an elder rapidly approaching.
Bruno was taken aback. 'Beast cores? Oh, I see...'
'They've misunderstood. Great, we can extort more later. Let me handle this,' Alm said with a sinister tone.
Bruno was about to warn Alm that he couldn't kill, but he was interrupted by Alm's words. "Deceive? The bet was about who would win. Money is part of one's strength, so what's the issue?" Alm mocked the elders without a care for the world.
"Your money and power?" Asked the elder harshly, demonstrating his Qi in the Foundation Establishment, the second realm of cultivation. "Great, as a master, I will teach you that the strength of the fist prevails!"
Alm smiled inwardly as he watched the elder approach. The elder's expression was filled with feigned rage that seemed on the verge of exploding. His eyes sparkled with the eagerness to beat that fat and pathetic young master. Moreover, now he had an additional reason to vent his anger – a good amount of crystals that Denil had bet on that fight. Everything seemed perfect for the elder.
When the elder was just two meters away from Alm, he clenched his fists, preparing to swiftly resolve the situation using his powerful Qi.
However, in the next moment, Denil disappeared from in front of the elder as if he were smoke.
SLAP!!!
The elder's mind went into turmoil, and he didn't have time to process what was happening before he felt his vision spinning wildly to the left. There was no pain. The sensation was as if he were being tossed by an invisible and inexplicable tornado.
The elder crashed to the ground with a thud, creating a cloud of dust, and continued to spin and spin like a leaf caught in the wind, his arms and legs flailing uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the other two elders remained petrified, their eyes wide and mouths hanging open in shock.
However, they weren't in shock because of the attack used by Denil. Instead, they didn't understand how the elder was hit in the first place. Denil's movements were nothing but slow. If anything, Denil was slower than what you would expect from someone in the Third Stage of the Qi Gathering Realm.
'Wow. Truly worthy of being beyond divine,' Alm said with a smile.
Bruno then realized later. "Non-Lethal Strike Technique, Beyond Divine Level. Hahahahah." Then he burst into uncontrollable laughter.