Ray's face was absolutely livid. He couldn't believe the words coming out of the bastard's mouth.
"You... you..."
"Yes, me. What are you going to do? Call your mother? Cry? Oh wait, your mother got eaten along with your brother, so you can't even do that." Elias taunted, his voice dripping with malice.
"You will pay for this, you bastard! I will kill you!"
With a burst of smoke, Ray's body transformed into a cloud of fog and swiftly approached Elias. However, Elias remained still, standing there calmly, waiting for the attack. After a year together, he knew Ray's manifestations all too well.
'Rank 2 fog body,' Elias thought with a neutral expression. 'A very precious manifestation. It allows the user to turn their body into a cloud of fog and become immune to most physical attacks. It is quite a rare manifestation. However...'
As Ray's fog form closed the distance, Elias watched with detached calm, his blue eyes analyzing every wisp of vapor. When Ray reformed just inches from him, a look of fury etched on his face, he aimed a powerful punch at Elias's leg. But Elias sidestepped with ease, grabbing Ray's arm and using his momentum to flip him onto the ground.
Ray's body hit the floor with a heavy thud, and he quickly dissolved into fog again, slipping out of Elias's grasp. Elias didn't chase him; instead, he waited patiently for Ray to reappear.
Ray reformed a few meters away, panting heavily. The transition between states was extremely taxing, and Elias knew it. He could see the strain on Ray's face, the beads of sweat trickling down his brow.
'The biggest weakness is that this manifestation requires a few seconds to change form,' Elias thought, his expression neutral. 'A few seconds where the user is vulnerable to all attacks.'
Despite not really putting a real effort into his physical training, Elias had learned a lot of martial arts and fighting techniques thanks to the trainer Liandor sent.
Ray's face was a mask of shock. He hadn't expected to be countered and sent flying so easily by a mere five-year-old. But what shocked him the most was this child's calmness and... raw strength.
Even if he was countered, it shouldn't have been so easy for Elias to send Ray flying like that. The different between their bodies was too great.
'This bastard is strong... inhumanly strong for his age. Did he awaken by himself and obtain a physical strengthening manifestation? I've heard that some geniuses in the clan can awaken on their own... No, I don't feel an ounce of aether from him,' Ray thought, bewildered.
'That means he didn't awaken. How can a child possess such strength without awakening? This is absurd! I am an adult Rank 2 cultivator with a far superior physique to the average person, and he's not even a cultivator. We shouldn't have such a difference in power! It doesn't make any sense!'
Elias looked at him, as if he knew exactly was Ray was thinking. Obviously, he wouldn't say that the reason he was abnormally strong was because of one of the feature of his rune. "What are you waiting for? Come on, attack me. Or are you afraid?" Elias taunted, his voice dripping with mockery.
"Shut up, you bastard!" Ray shouted, his anger flaring up once again. 'I don't know how he is so strong, but I'll show him the difference between us. I'll beat him until he can't even stand. Then tonight ... I will enjoy his mother.'
Out of nowhere, Ray summoned a long-range manifestation, a cloud of fog shooting out from his palm, heading straight for Elias.
'I have been waiting for this... Rank 2 fog spine. A manifestation that can create spikes made of fog,' Elias thought as he stood there, unmoving.
To Ray's greatest horror, Elias did not dodge. Instead, he simply stood there, a mocking smile on his face.
'Wait, if he doesn't dodge...'
But before Ray could finish his thought, the spike reached Elias, piercing his arm and exiting out his back. 'What the fuck?!' Ray thought, his mind reeling. Ray was impulsive, but even he knew that if he truly harmed Elias, it would mean a lot of trouble... Not only with Liandor but even more so with Yui.
He only wanted to teach Elias a lesson and scare him so he purposely did not aim for vital areas... but this...
What surprised Ray even more was that Elias did not flinch. He didn't even seem to register the pain, his expression remaining unchanged as blood poured from the wound like a crimson waterfall.
'He's not even reacting to the pain! What the hell is wrong with him?!'
With a cold and calculative tone, Elias asked, "Now, what will you do?" His voice was calm and steady. "Will you try to explain to my mother why you attacked her five-year-old kid and pierced his arm with your fog spike? I wonder what would happen to you if your father... or if the whole town learned this," Elias said, his voice laced with malice.
"You..." Ray gritted his teeth, his hands trembling with rage.
"I heard that abusing a child who has yet to awaken their talent is forbidden and punished heavily. Even if you are from the Xiawen, you will be punished and your father will be disappointed. So, what will you do now?" Elias asked again.
In a year, Elias had actually gathered a lot of information about Ray, Liandor and Raymond, and Ray's biggest weakness was … his father. He constantly wanted his father's approval.
Ray looked at him with a dark and hateful expression. He could not believe this child had outsmarted him.
It was true. Child abuse for unawakened children was something extremely serious. It was one of the rare things that the whole clan would not tolerate under any circumstances, and the sentence would always be extremely heavy.
As for the reason, it was because the clan learned from their mistake.
Unlike most clans, the White Smoke clan was extremely young and was founded only a few hundred years ago. At first, they were a small group of people living in the mountains, hunted by beasts. When the founder of the clan awakened, he created a town and gathered the survivors.
He then had several sons who liked to play around.
Rapidly, he had multiple grandchildren. However, those grandchildren were not treated well and were abused. Some even died. In a vengeful rage, one of the most talented grandchildren of the founder gathered and rebelled, almost destroying their grandfather's hard work and legacy.
In a desperate attempt, the founder had to make the difficult choice to kill his grandchildren himself. This led him to lose his sanity as guilt slowly killed him. With a heavy heart, he instituted a rule that no child of the town would be mistreated before disappearing somewhere. Generations later, this rule was still heavily enforced.
Obviously, the story had been changed for propaganda, but Elias could pretty much see through this.
Although, this rule was difficult to enforce since beating for education purpose was extremely common, something this evident would not be tolerated.
'If I kill him, I will be executed for 'treason against the youth'...If I let him go, he will tell everyone, and I will still be punished... I can't even stop him, Fuck!' Ray was in a bind. He had no idea what to do.
"You... did this on purpose! You taunted me so you could blackmail me! You are shameless!"
"Does it matter? You cannot change the past. You cannot even say anything to anyone, including Liandor either way. You are stuck. Anyways... how much are you ready to offer for my silence, father?"