"Are you going to move, or will I need to move you myself?" Kaelen sent a deathly glare to the group as he waited patiently.
The guys looked at him with conflicted expressions. They gritted their teeth while trying to stay upright.
"What is he talking about, moving? I can barely stand," the one in front, who bore most of the brunt, thought to himself.
Just as Kaelen pressured them to move, a golden flash came from behind him.
Kaelen did not move and simply looked over from the corner of his eye. His eyes flickered with a silver light as he entered a state of deep concentration. He watched Jin Kun appear behind him with malicious intent; his right hand shone with a metallic gold light.
"I got you!" Jin Kun exclaimed, thrusting his palm at Kaelen.
Kaelen's eyes followed his hand closely. He slowly turned back and extended his own right hand to block the attack.
There were no fluctuations of elemental Qi or blood energy; it was simply physical strength.
"Demonic Vajra Ape Nine Strike…" He mumbled softly. The skin of his right hand shone with a metallic silver luster; his hand looked like it was made of platinum.
The last six months, he had praticed the Demonic Vajra Ape strikes to perfection. Now, he only needed to increase the toughness of his skin from bronze to silver to gold to diamond.
"Vajra Demon Palm!" He softly worded. Above him, a dozen-foot-wide Buddhist like silver palm appeared and pressed downward at the incoming Jin Kun.
"You think a physical art is going to work against my clan's Golden Iron Hand?" Jin Kun scoffed at the falling great hand. He paid it no more attention and focused his energy on attacking Kaelen.
"Take this! Ahh!" He ruthlessly thrust out his hand, the tip of his fingers emitting a sharp, blinding golden light.
Kaelen indifferently continued to press down. "Sit!" He shouted in a cold, authoritarian manner, then accelerated the fall of the great hand.
"Boom!" Like a meteor had just crashed on the ground, he slapped Jin Kun's attack like a mere fly and violently pressed down on his back with indomitable might. The ground cracked with the pressure of the attack; dozens of tree-branches like cracks stretched out.
"Puagh!" Jin Kun spat out a mouthful of blood as his whole body was crushed ruthlessly on the floor; his eyes went blank as he was completely suppressed underneath the silver palm. The overwhelming pain immediately made him lose consciousness.
The surroundings turned deathly silent; not even the sound of nature rang in the terrible atmosphere.
Watching Jin Kun being suppressed so easily, the leader of the group of four got angry and erupted with a powerful Qi wave.
"Now you've done it, boy!" He screamed. A bright light flashed in his eyes, and hundreds of golden swords of energy began to form around him. Each sword emanated a terrible, trenchant light that seemed to cut through spaces.
"Luminary Golden Sword Art; Myriad Sword Fall!" The young man shouted as he waved his hands fiercely.
Kaelen swiftly turned to face the attack, paying no more attention to the defeated Jin Kun.
He whipped his hands outwards. "Rise, Infinite Suns Flame."
A golden ball of dark solar flames burned on both hands. The initially cold temperature immediately rose by an innumerable amount. The ground beneath him began to melt from the extreme heat of the flames, burning along Jin Kun's clothes.
The surrounding watchers took many steps back to distance themselves from the blazing heat, soon creating a fifty-meter zone in which Kaelen and the leader of the group faced each other.
"Heavens! It feels like the Sun just fell on the earth," someone exclaimed.
"I feel my skin burning, and I'm a hundred steps away," another complained.
"Ohh… So hot." Many girls started to sweat heavily, causing their dresses to stick to their bodies, displaying their seductive shapes.
The surrounding boys looked at the beautiful girls like starving dogs that just saw a bone, almost drooling from the very enticing sight.
Not far away, Thorin and Raizel watched the scene with beaming eyes.
"Wow! What a scene; Kaelen is truly blessing us with entertainment of all types today," Raizel exclaimed.
"Yeah…" Thorin, on the other hand, couldn't look at the scene with a straight face. His cheeks blushed as his nose bled slightly.
Back to the fight, Kaelen controlled the balls of fire and lifted them in the air.
Two balls floated above him and grew until they were both ten meters large. Then, the flames compressed into two huge dark golden spears of fire.
"Ahh!" The group leader waved his hand and sent hundreds of golden swords towards Kaelen.
"Not enough!" Kaelen softly said. With a wave of both hands, the two spears spun horizontally, forming protective helixes.
The hundreds of swords crashed against the helixes, making high-pitched metal collision noises and exploding upon contact.
After blocking the rain of swords above, Kaelen patiently strode forward.
"Step… step…" Only the sound of his steps and the clash of the swords against the spinning spears could be heard.
As he approached, the group leader took a few steps back in fear.
"No, stay away, stay away!!" He trembled and shouted as Kaelen came nearer and nearer to him.
"Too late. Now, you get these hands." Kaelen lifted his right hand up and spread out his fingers into a wide palm. Then, with a swift arc, he slapped the group leader away, sending his body flying high up.
He then walked towards the next ones.
"Wait, stop. We give up, please spare us!" The other four saw him walk towards them and kneeled down to beg. "What a joke, even our leader is like a pig waiting to be slaughtered, why would we attempt anything." They all thought.
Kaelen stopped in his tracks and looked at them with exasperation; why cause trouble just to end up begging for forgiveness? He rolled his eyes as he turned toward Raizel and Thorin.
The other bystanders learned from the five and made way as he walked.
"Ahaha, look at those idiots." Many onlookers took pleasure in their misfortune.
"That arrogant Jin Clan young master really got his mouth worth this time."
"Yeah, let's hope he takes this lesson and stops acting like he owns the place."
"Indeed, this time, he kicked an iron plate; next time, it could be a steel plate. Ahahahah."
The crowd joyfully dispersed, while the other four guys went to carry Jin Kun's naked body and brought him away as they ran with their tails between their legs.
"So, did you enjoy yourselves?" Kaelen swiftly reached Thorin and Raizel. He forced a smile as he said.
"Ahahaha, it was the best." Raizel laughed and replied.
"Let us see what you got there." Thorin only smiled as he asked for the mission slips.
"Tss, here." Kaelen only scoffed and threw the mission slips to him. Noticing something unusual, he commented, "Hey, why is your nose bleeding?"
"Hm? Don't worry about it; I accidentally hit my head." Thorin's face blushed as he brushed it off.
"So, a protection mission and a treasure hunt. Cool." He quickly read the slips and tossed them to Rai, who swiftly read them too.
"The Yun Clan's young master; a genius alchemist. Man, another young master, I hope this one isn't a drag like the other one," Raizel said.
He really didn't feel like protecting an insolent and spoiled brat of a big clan.
"Yeah, well; we shall see." Kaelen didn't want to think about it now. "Let's go get two other missions and head out to the outer gate."
"Alright."
The three walked around for another hour as they looked for three extra missions; the people around them would occasionally stare at the trio, especially Kaelen; after the strength he showed, it seemed he made new admirers.
"Kaelen, you're getting quite popular." Thorin joked.
"Am I?" Kaelen was reading two mission slips: one red and the other an eerie blood color. "Hey, guys, check these ones out; this high difficulty mission is another treasure hunt, while this extreme difficulty mission is actually a hunt," he said.
"Hunt? Hunt what?" The two approached to see the parchments.
"I'm not sure. It says there's a rampant demonic beast that's been causing carnage in the space between the inner and outer layer of the Wester Wilderness. As for what beast exactly, there is no information. It would've been a red mission, but the true strength of the beast is unknown, and there are already many disciples and mercenaries who have tried to find and defeat it, but all have failed; some even lost their lives, so its grade has been increased, and the recommended cultivation is early Intent Materialization," Kaelen explained as he passed the slips to them.
"Well, now we have all the missions to occupy us for the next five months. It's time to join the others," Thorin said as he read the text and passed it to Raizel.
"Ah, no need. Give it back to Kaelen, and let's go; I'm dying to go outside," Raizel waved his hand, refusing to read the description.
"Alright." Thorin tossed the slips back to Kaelen, who placed them inside his ring with the others.
The trio left the mountain and headed towards the entrance gate.
…
Over at the Sect entrance, Tang Hao and Xue Qing were standing by the large gate as they waited.
"Man, those guys sure are taking their time," Tang Hao complained.
"You can't stand not to sit for a few minutes?" Xue Qing softly mocked as she gave him a sidelong glance.
"No, actually. I hope they took missions that don't require too much walking." He replied with no shame on his face.
"Ahhh. Sorry to disappoint, but there's going to be a lot of walking." A loud, youthful voice rang behind them as Kaelen and the others approached.
"Finally, you folks are here. What do you mean there's going to be a lot of walking? You know what, that's fine; we'll just get a few mounts for the expedition." Seeing the arriving boys, Tang Hao's face lit up.
"Sure, I don't mind." Kaelen shrugged his shoulders in indifference.
"Hey." Raizel waved at Xue Qing the moment the two made eye contact.
"Hi." The girl greeted him back with a gorgeous smile, causing him to stare for a moment.
"Alright, guys, we don't have time for your romance. Where's Su Yao?" Tang Hao pointed at the two while reminding them.
Right as his voice dropped, a loud screech rang through the sky as a majestic violet eagle appeared in the sky.
The eagle descended close to the gate, and a fairy-like young girl floated down from its back.
"I'm sorry I'm late, guys." Su Yao floated towards the groups as she apologized.
"No worries! Since everyone is here, let's go- To adventure!" Kaelen smiled and waved his hand, inviting everyone to move.
Thus, the party of six slowly left the sect for their first adventure together.