“How can he gather so much energy?” said Jaren, whose eyes were strained as he stared on in disbelief. “Even I would have a difficult time blocking that.”

Evidently the young man was much more powerful than his base cultivation level betrayed him to be. Although many of the inner disciples attempted to create barrier arrayments as soon as they realized that they couldn’t escape from the terrifying martial skill, the majority were disintegrated into dust-like particles as their bodies were torn apart by the deadly, volatile wave of energy. Without missing a beat, the youth followed up by flying directly into the thickest group of surviving youths and initiating a one-sided massacre with ruthless strikes from his high-quality weapon. Just when Dracia thought that she couldn’t be surprised any further, the beautiful girl with the black hair suddenly drew out an arrayment diagram and activated it within the same breath. With a dazzling flash of golden light, over a hundred ethereal arrows shot across the sky and punctured through the bodies of countless disciples that were too stunned to comprehend how they had been killed.

Dracia couldn’t believe how quickly the girl had drawn out and activated the arrayment diagram, which, astonishingly, gave off the pressure of an intermediate arrayment. Even she was only adept at a single arrayment of that quality, and Dracia knew for a fact that she could never draw out and activate such a schematic within a mere handful of moments. Just this display of prowess alone told her that this girl was much more talented than any of the tens of thousands of disciples within the sect, core disciples or otherwise. No, her natural affinity far eclipsed that of anybody in the sect, going so far as to rival those young prodigies from the Western Isles that enabled them to look down on those from the mainland with scorn and contempt.

It’s a pity that we’ll have to take her life.

Watching dozens more of the sect’s talented young cultivators dropping from the sky as lifeless lumps of bloodied flesh, Dracia fixed her jaw and turned to address her clansmen. “We can’t keep watching them kill our people. Prepare to attack!” By now all of her clansmen had fallen silent with solemnity, a reminder that most of them had never been in a life-and-death battle. “Elder Kaya and her branch will focus on defense! Elder Jaren will lead his branch for a head-on confrontation, and those from my branch will aid me in supporting Jaren!”

Though they were scared, the group gave a well-trained response. “Yes Matriarch!”

Even from this distance, Dracia could tell that her husband didn’t like the fact that their clansmen were openly addressing her as the Hatten clan’s leader, though this was simply a reflection of the loyalties of their family members. Such were the repercussions of defaulting on all of his patriarchal duties in recent years, such as the sect’s inner politics, overseeing their clan’s logistics and resource allocation, as well as general daily management. Thanks to his habitual inclination to defer such tasks to Dracia, she had gained the respect of her clansmen—and fellow sect members, at that—and had become a very recognizable presence on the island.

While Kaya’s people began to draw out a collaborative defensive arrayment, those of Dracia and Jaren’s groups quickly set about preparing attack arrayments. It was important to note that the Falling Rain Sect was predominantly an organization for arrayment practitioners, so not many were talented in physical combat. While plenty of people boasted enough strength to intimidate, hardly any had the actual combat experience to make much use of their physiques. This was a weakness that the intruders were taking advantage of, so Dracia had no choice but to mobilize the elders to take up the charge in order to limit the casualties that the younger generations would suffer.

“Jaren, you take care of the strong one. I’ll get rid of the rest.”

Hearing her words within his mind, her cousin responded with a reliable nod. He didn’t spare her too much attention, though, as he was in the midst of drawing out a compound attack arrayment, one only known to the highest-ranking elders within the sect.

Up ahead, the intruders had broken through the vanguard of elite disciples, who were currently in disarray as the youth with gold-blond hair flew around with ruthless abandon, disposing of a new disciple with every passing second. While he continued to fight on without any signs of tiring, the others abruptly changed direction and began to sprint as fast as they could toward the smaller group of eight hundred disciples to the east of the Hatten clan’s forces. This was the most logical course of action available to them, as the eastern group only had ten elders present, and none of them were at the Genesis stage. Just as Dracia was about to initiate the assault, her eyes were met with another source of surprise. The two girls that had fallen unconscious after erecting an unknown barrier arrayment had each been placed inside of a barrel of peculiar water that seemed to be replenishing their depleted energies. These barrels were being ferried around by small clouds of spiritual energy, which were being controlled by none other than the cultivators at the Profound Entry stage.

Sensing dozens of life signals disappear as another flash of golden light scared off the remaining vanguard, Dracia set aside her astonishment at the fact that people at the Profound Entry stage were using spiritual energy—something that shouldn’t have been possible—and drew out the diagram for an attack arrayment. With the schematic of iridescent energy held in reserve, she pulled out a longsword that had sat unused within her spatial bag for the past six years and raised it above her head. Lowering it with purpose, she gave the signal for her clansmen to attack.

Before she charged forward, she sent a curt order to her husband via sound transmission. “You only have one task in this fight. No matter what, you need to make sure that Katrin remains unharmed.”

Like a swarm of hornets that had been stirred from their hive, the hundreds of people behind Dracia followed her and Jaren’s lead by directing their flying swords toward their enemies. While Jaren shot off to engage the strongest of their targets, Dracia and three hundred others made straight for the fleeing group.

Soaring through the rain-ridden air, Dracia activated her attack arrayment and aimed it at the centre of those that she had set her sights on. Nearly two hundred blades of energy—each the height of a tall man—shot forward on silent trajectories, though her attack was blocked by an almost immediate activation of a defensive arrayment.

Impossible!

She had been stopped by the talented girl that had used an intermediate attack arrayment just moments before. Not only had the girl’s energy reserves not been depleted by the devastating attack that she had recently unleashed, but she had somehow managed to stop Dracia’s attack on her own. Witnessing such a thing caused Dracia’s soul to shake for a moment, for she was at the second level of Genesis, while the girl was only at the eighth level of Integration. Normally, even if the girl had been at the peak of her current stage, she would still have next to zero chances of protecting herself against someone at the first level of Genesis, let alone the second. Such was the difference between the two realms, and yet…

Surprised though she was, this was far from the first time that Dracia had been met with an unexpected development during combat. Sidelining her emotions, she drew out a diagram in preparation for another attack when something completely unexpected happened.

Jaren had just activated his arrayment to cover the retreat of the surviving disciples of the group that had just engaged the young genius with the golden eyes, and although it was hastily drawn and thus lacking in strength, the massive beam of blue light that shot out of his outstretched hand was easily powerful enough to kill or injure the youth in question. The young man didn’t even have time to dodge as he was struck head on, his figure disappearing in the flash of blinding light that engulfed him. What shocked Dracia into stillness was the fact that his aura wasn’t disturbed in the least. When the light finally faded away, the boy wasn’t alone where he hovered about eighty paces above the ground.

Who is she?