The seven men were unable to catch up as the elder led them in a circle but at the same time he was unable to take them down. But that was fine. Being in home ground meant that reinforcements would come for him. The others? There wouldn't be any. It was unlikely at least and reaching this chaotic place in the wildlands was no easy feat. Even if they had reinforcements, and even if they managed to track them all the way here, it would take a long time. And that's if the 'ifs' happened to be reality.

Elder Seo-Jun was confident in winning this.

The other men weren't idiots. They knew they were in a very bad situation. The leader ordered his men to spread up and try to encircle the elder. It was futile. If one didn't consider the next move of the leader. He used half of his entire spiritual reserve to create a dome-like prison. Made with additional elements of poison and space, it was impossible to get out of it.

And while he had made it extra-large in order to be sure to trap the elder, he was capable of shrinking it. Though it consumed his energy.

Elder Seo-Jun was caught in the trap. But that trap was imperfect. It would continuously consume spiritual energy due to the unstable space elements all around and the shrinking. More than that, it forced the leader to focus on it. Which meant that if the leader was attacked, the cage would disappear.

At the moment, the cage was spherical with a radius of around 200m and was shrinking further and further by a meter every two seconds or so. Seo-Jun didn't think twice before rushing for the leader. His advantage was a freedom to move.

Of course, the leader knew that he would become vulnerable and a target if he used such a technique. That's why he had waited so long to use it. But now, he understood that there was no other option. All of his men rushed to protect him. They managed to arrive before the elder. The distance was so short that it didn't matter whether or not he was a spatial cultivator.

Their speed at such a realm was powerful enough to bridge this kind of gap if it was only a few hundred meters.

Of course, the elder arrived not even a second later.

Every man began to swing their weapons. Swords or axes were falling onto the elder but he didn't panic. Instead, he kept pushing forward without a care. The swords and axes reached him and then, they seemed to phase through his body and he moved forward unhindered.

One of the seven men screamed: "He fused with the space element!"

This was something one could do and had to do to get to the 50th stage of spiritual accumulation. The first stages from one to twenty-nine were about understanding the world. The next stages, from thirty to forty-nine, were about understanding oneself. And the stage from fifty to fifty-nine were about becoming one with the world.

At the 50th stage of spiritual accumulation, a cultivator had to fuse his soul sea with an element through a contract with the heavens. After that point, a cultivator could turn into said-element itself and his understanding of it would deepen to the limit. He would be the element and the element would be him.

Of course, the closer to the five origins, the two glorious and the four beyond it was, the harsher would be the contract. There was a price to pay for such a thing. Especially when it came to the four beyond and their related elements. In which 'space' was a part of.

Elder Seo-Jun had fused with the 'distortion' element, a sub-category of the space element. And it enabled him to become a distortion himself. His body could be in the real space or a different space according to his own will. In this case, he distorted the reality of himself while the weapons were slashing down him. It created a rift in his existence in this space, this reality and as such, the weapons went through as if there was nothing there. It was the highest level of distortion elemental utilization.

Of course, there were risks for the user. Such a technique, executed wrongly, could kill him. After all, he was sending his existence outside of the space he existed. He needed to get the coordinates in space right for him to come back or he would either die or be mutilated. There was a way to counter the coordinate problem with a beacon though. One only needed to send a 'part' of him outside of the real space while keeping some parts in it. The parts in would be used as a beacon.

As he used the technique, it seemed as if the image of his self in the reality flickered as the weapons went through it before it stabilized again.

Of course, his enemies understood it but it was too late to react as he was now facing the leader. He sent his own weapon, the spatial fisher down like a whip at the man. The leader was furious as he saw this happen but what could he do about it? One of his life-saving treasures was activated as a gigantic silver shield appeared in front of him and blocked the hook.

The shield cracked and broke as the hook was repelled and one of the leader's earrings turned to drifting sand. It was a one-time-use treasure that had costed him a leg...And he had to use it today on a seemingly easy mission.

He was even more furious but had no time for that as the elder wasn't finished. The hook was being whipped back forward. Obviously, he wasn't the only one making his move. The six other men were attacking him from behind and the sides with their own weapons.