Second Elder Inazuma looked at them with a bright smile. “Good, good! The younger generation doesn’t disappoint. Aracha, bring out the good tea for Little Mizu and Little Hikaru.”

He pulled their chairs closer to his, visually promoting their intimacy.

Shimizu Mizutani was pleasantly surprised. It was extremely difficult to get close with the Second Elder. She would know. After many years of trying and failing, this was the first time she received such friendly treatment from him.

Aracha sighed before taking out three larger cups and setting them on the table.

She had no such thing as good tea.

One day, she had gotten fed up with filling his tea cup over and over again, and she had the bright idea of using a larger tea cup to reduce her frequency of refilling it.

Yet, this tea addict did not slow down at all, taking the same amount of time to finish the tea cup that was two and a half times larger than the usual cup while praising her for the better tasting tea.

All that changed was the increased volume of tea she had to brew daily.

She eventually swapped the tea cups back to their original size, but every now and then, he requested the good tea, so she always carried the large cups around with her.

Having gotten through this hump, Kenja finally relaxed his shoulders, sunk into his chair, and looked back at the ongoing fight between the Fourth and Sixth Elder.

The sphere of vines had grown larger, but Ariyoshi Miji’s assault on them had made it less dense.

Closing the distance between him and his target, Ariyoshi Miji was flitting about within the sphere. Occasionally, he would land a punch or a kick on Gao Diao, but each time, Gao Diao would dissolve into a group of leaves and reappear somewhere else within the sphere unscathed.

Kenja examined Gao Diao’s pants.

Without a single speck of dirt, they were untouched and unblemished in every conceivable way.

Kenja could only shake his head with dissatisfaction at Snail. It was a pity to throw away so many middle tier spirit stones on an impulsive and dumb wager.

Then, he looked back at where Elder Kondo should have been lying on the floor and found that he had vanished at some point, but Gao Diao and Ariyoshi Miji were too engrossed with one another to notice.

WHOOSH!

Without warning, hundreds of flying swords surrounded the vines, pointing at Gao Diao and Ariyoshi Miji who had paused their fighting to stare at a large man who stood atop a large great sword.

Kenja stared in astonishment and childish envy. It was ten times grander than his memory of the man soaring into the sun atop a flying sword three years ago.

“You were faking the whole time, Third Brother?”

“You really have been spending too much time with this sneaky weasel!”

Kondo smiled at them triumphantly, appearing as if a victor staring down at the soon-to-be losers.

“It wasn’t all an act. Fourth Brother gave me the idea, so I accepted his kindness. You two can understand, right?”

They both snorted at him.

How could they not understand?

Fourth Elder was the most proficient in combat and adapting on the go while Sixth Elder was an excellent strategist whose contingency plans had their own contingency plans. Because Third Elder was inferior to them in both aspects, he was forced into their rhythm.

If he wished to win without using lethal force, he needed an opportunity to set things up, so he could sweep victory away from them. When Ariyoshi Miji dashed through his legs, the top of his head did brush against Kondo’s pants and caused him to wince in pain, giving him the opportunity that he seeked.

While his appearance on the ground was shameful and humiliating, it was the only way to guarantee they would fall for it. Thankfully, Fifth Elder Kazane was still absent; otherwise, he would not have had the guts to look so foolish.

“Isn’t this too many weapons, Third Brother?” He glanced around at the hundreds of standstill swords.

“Sixth Weasel is right. We know you don’t have so many magic blades. Even if you did, they would be ineffective with you controlling so many at once.”

Kondo’s smile widened at them.

“None of them are magic. Founder’s Rules, remember?”

Their faces went black when they realized the meaning of his words.

At the Nascent Soul stage, mortal metal could not injure them at all. The hundreds of swords surrounding them might as well be flying stalks of hay.

But just because they could not be injured, did not mean their clothes were invincible.

While clothes of a reinforced and magical nature beyond the scope of mortals existed, they were not items worn leisurely. Inside the safety of one’s home, cultivators would don clothes made from the materials of non-cultivators.

Even though these swords could not make them bleed, Ariyoshi Miji and Gao Diao were about to cry tears of blood.

They were doomed.

They really should not have left Kondo alone long enough for him to set up their funeral.

[Twelve Strokes Collage] (Revised x50)

ALOT OF SWOOSH

Swords, swords and more swords flew and dashed and soared and pierced and stabbed and slashed and twirled and swirled and scraped and tore and cut and ripped and severed and rent and poked.

Gao Diao separated from Ariyoshi Miji while condensing his sphere of vines around him, leaving his partner unguarded.

Annoyed, Ariyoshi Miji scolded Gao Diao, “Dirty weasel, don’t desert me. If we cooperate, we can even the odds!”

“I am cooperating with you,” he replied matter-of-fact.

Ariyoshi Miji gnashed his teeth.

Splitting up would force Kondo to divide his attention while reducing the number of blades each of them had to defend against, but Gao Diao retracted his protective vines from Ariyoshi Miji. Even though they were loosely cooperating, he would not make it easy for Ariyoshi Miji.

Two storms filled with flying blades appeared on the battlefield.

Gao Diao’s appearance remained relatively unchanged and relaxed because of his vines and leaf clones deflecting and distracting the swords, but the same could not be said for Ariyoshi Miji.

He was a blur jumping, dashing and dodging in between the edges of the blades. His shirt was already torn to shreds, revealing his small yet robust torso. Surprisingly, his pants only had a couple of tears as he focused entirely on shielding them.

The sect disciples were in awe of the fast pace fight. Many of them had gained benefits or insights from the high-level techniques displayed while increasing their wide-eyed devotion and reverence for these lofty elders.

Even Kenja could not tear his eyes away from their battle, wishing he had several more pairs of eyes with which to watch the fight.

Because Ariyoshi Miji made the mistake of using his fists to destroy the swords into shards of metal, he would not last much longer as the fragments continued attacking him. Kondo estimated thirty more seconds was all he needed to completely strip Ariyoshi Miji of his dignity.

On the other hand, Gao Diao was resolving his attacks by using his vines to drag one sword at a time into the ground, completely removing the threat. If this continued, Kondo would be forced to contend against him alone which would be a huge headache.

He had to end Gao Diao here and now!

Taking out five more steel swords, he placed a paper enchantment on each one before sneaking them into the sword storm surrounding Gao Diao. Then, he suddenly diverted the rest of the swords attacking Gao Diao towards Ariyoshi Miji, overwhelming him in a blur of silver.

BOOBOOBOOOOOOM!!!!!

Multiple fiery explosions and dirt geysers engulfed Gao Diao taking him by surprise. He retracted the vines in a tighter shield to stop the shrapnel from eviscerating his clothes, but Kondo suddenly appeared from the smoke wielding his war hammer.

“Checkmate, Sixth Brother.”

Forced to choose between blocking Kondo’s definite knock-out or the clothes-evaporating explosions, either outcome would end in his defeat.

“Not bad, Third Brother, but you’ve miscalculated.”

With an ominous feeling creeping up his spine, Kondo quickened his fourth and hopefully final swing of his hammer onto Gao Diao.

SLAP SLAP SLAP

The flowers that had been left in Kondo’s mutton chop, from before the match, began to smack his face and pull on his whiskers. Startled by the unexpected assault on his face, that moment’s hesitation allowed Gao Diao to use his vines to wrap around Kondo’s pants.

SSSCLASH!

Flamingo Stride

The metal typhoon drowning Ariyoshi Miji blew apart as a dirt trail blew into and out of the dust cloud where Kondo and Gao Diao were clashing. Shortly afterwards, two more persons jumped out of the dust cloud before settling a distance away from each other.

“Hah! I’ve won, suckers!”

The dust hiding the first person cleared away revealing a nearly-nude short man with no shirt and torn pant legs ripped to his hamstrings. He was dancing around victoriously while waving a pair of pants above his head.

The second person appeared from the dust was Elder Kondo except his face was crimson to the extreme and his pants…had disappeared, revealing a bright yellow fundoshi.

Many disciples pointed in shock while the female disciples covered their eyes out of shame.

“I got your pants, Sixth Brother. It’s over.”

He took a huge gamble not running away from Kondo’s revised Twelve Strokes Collage, but the payoff was huge. He baited Kondo and Gao Diao into a final confrontation and used his Flamingo Stride to swipe the winner’s pants and end the battle in a single instant.

“What are you talking about, Fourth Brother?”

The dust dissipated, and Gao Diao was unveiled, revealing a completely clothed figure holding Kondo’s pants in his hands.

“Wh-what!? What’s the meaning of this?”