Dracia activated the martial skill that was unique to her clan, which gave life to a lens of blue light that hovered just in front of her right eye. This ocular technique improved her vision by leaps and bounds, allowing her to see things as far as two leagues away with pristine clarity. Her cousins and many others quickly followed suit.

Now, let’s see what you look like.

Only one of them was at the Genesis stage, and while he was clearly an incredible prodigy to have reached such a realm of cultivation despite having only barely reached manhood, he alone shouldn’t have been able to harm hundreds of well-trained disciples. Members of the Falling Rain Sect were well-versed in combination arrayments, which made it so that a group of fifty or so disciples in the middle levels of Integration could kill somebody at the Genesis stage with a well-executed strike. Aside from the prodigal youth, the next most powerful members of the group were two girls that appeared a bit younger than him, one with a healthy head of black hair and another with similar features to the young man leading the group. These two were at the eighth and seventh levels of Integration respectively, along with two other girls that were each at the fifth level.

Are they also part of a sect? They all wore a uniform of sorts, a series of piney and lighter greens, with light tunics beneath darker, sleeveless robes. The necklines dipped in a ‘V’ shape, a style that wasn’t particular to any of the sects of the Western Isles as far as Dracia was aware, nor any of the ones local to the continent.

“Two of them are even at the Profound Entry stage?” said Kaya, her voice skeptic. “That one boy is powerful, and the others aren’t bad, but they shouldn’t have been able to avoid capture for so long. What are we even teaching our disciples anymore?” She was referring to the young man at the seventh level of Profound Entry and the little boy at his side that was a level higher, who were running at the front of the group.

Strange. They shouldn’t be able to keep up with the others, yet they don’t seem phased in the least.

“That blond-haired youth though,” said Jaren, intrigued. “He’s only a bit older than Katrin, and he’s already reached the Genesis stage!” This was only one level below his own cultivation—he, a man that had already lived many of the boy’s lifetimes.

It wasn’t long before Dracia signalled a stop and had her clan members hover in the air about a league away from the people that they were pursuing. The individuals in question had been surrounded by thousands of disciples that had likewise halted in the distance, where the sect’s forces were in the midst of preparing a large-scale assault in an attempt to pin the intruders in place.

“Why stop?” asked Jaren, who was rolling his shoulders in angst. “Let’s join the others and finish this quickly.”

Dracia shook her head. “No, for now we’ll wait and see.” If the intruders couldn’t withstand the barrage of the thousands of energy blades that were gradually being prepared, then the Hatten clan could avoid incurring any casualties in this conflict. As things were, even ten Elder Tegans wouldn’t be able to withstand the combined attack of several thousand disciples and elders of the sect. Since this was the case, then what point was there in her clansmen needlessly expending their energies?

It wasn’t long before tens of thousands of pale blue lights had come to life within the stormy darkness, as if a massive host were approaching under the light of azure-flamed torches.

“It seems that we mobilized for nothing,” said Kaya, who did a poor job at hiding the relief in her voice as she glanced back at Katrin, who stood at the ready with the other hard-eyed youths of their clan.

Indeed, as countless blades of energy were simultaneously launched at their enemies from all directions, their targets’ deaths seemed inevitable. All save for the most powerful member of the group would easily lose their lives should they suffer a strike from even one of the swords that were currently flying toward them like a vast sea of shooting stars. Watching so many lights streak through the darkened sky, everyone present seemed to lower their guard.

Thousands of sounds of impact filled the air as an intimidating cloud of dust arose where the group of youths had just been standing, as if a tremendous rockslide were shaking the land.

“It seems that this is the end of their story,” said Jaren, who turned to address the host of Hatten clansmen behind them. “Everyone, prepare to head back to Wilton!”

To think that such a small number of individuals were able to inflict so many casualties on the sect… It was truly a pity that they had been forced to die on this day, as they would surely have become famous individuals once they had reached maturity. Under more agreeable circumstances, it would have been a great boon to the sect’s future if they had been able to recruit these youths into their ranks. Unfortunately, Drasin’s unknown actions during the tower climb had turned the tide of fate in another direction.

“Wait,” yelled Kaya, though everyone above a certain level of cultivation was immediately aware of the source of her astonishment. “They’ve reappeared up ahead!”

Somehow, the group of youths had abruptly appeared a few thousand paces ahead of them. Remarkably, all were unharmed, and they were currently charging toward her and her clansmen.

“Have they lost their minds?” came Katrin’s voice, which was met with skeptic responses from her peers.

Dracia’s niece was right to be surprised. Not only were there nearly a thousand members of the Hatten clan in their ranks, but they were flanked by two thousand more disciples to the west and another eight hundred to the east. Not only that, but there were three hundred members of the inner court up ahead that were surprised to suddenly find themselves faced with the ones that they had been chasing after just moments ago.

Expanding her spiritual sense to its greatest extent, Dracia soon saw the source of the enemy’s reasoning. While there might have been over four thousand sect members in this area of the encirclement, it was far less than the forces that had gathered along the other routes of escape. With over thirty thousand cultivators in the region and many more on the way, over a third of the sect’s manpower had been concentrated in this part of the island alone.

“Stand by for now,” called Dracia, who observed their targets with the eyes of an eagle. “If they break through the group up ahead, then we’ll move in to subdue them.”

Floating about fifty paces above the ground, Dracia and her people watched on as the group of elite disciples up ahead rushed in to engage. The entire host unleashed a concentrated bombardment of the sect’s token attack arrayment before two hundred of them flew forward on their flying swords for a direct confrontation, the others lagging behind as reserves.

“How is this possible?” said Kaya, who looked on in disbelief as the bombardment that was executed by hundreds of people was blocked by a barrier arrayment that the two weaker girls had summoned. Even though the barrier broke into thousands of fragments before disappearing into nonexistence, it had still bought the green-clad youths enough time to skirt around the disciples’ opening attack. No matter the quality of the arrayment that they’d used, just how in the world could two people hold off the attacks of hundreds?

As the two girls in question fell unconscious to the ground—no doubt having overdrawn their dantians after the herculean efforts that they had just exerted—the blond-haired boy appeared before the charging disciples in a flash. Sword raised above his head in a two-handed grip, a vast amount of golden energy suddenly exploded forth from the tip of his blade to create a massive sabre of golden light that saw all of the charging youths attempt to scatter in fear. The giant energy blade was several hundred paces in height and over thirty paces wide, a terrifying amalgamation of energy that shed light on how this small group had been able to wreak so much havoc on the sect’s forces despite having been labelled a lesser threat than the ones that had killed Elder Jameson and Elder Tegan.