As he spoke a woman appeared. She had long snowy white hair, thick and with a healthy sheen, along with piercing blue eyes. Her face was sharp and beautiful, though her gaze was deadly, boring into Wu Chang with her killing intent. She wore a many layered sky blue dress over a set of fighting clothes, along with a grey waist sash and hair tie, her outfit colors to the opposite of the golden eyed man. She stared directly at Wu Chang and spoke with conviction, “Hello. My name is Tiankong Ruanfu. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

The white haired woman was Ruanfu, now fully grown and releasing her full strength as she took a step towards Wu Chang. A wave of cold suddenly spread outwards from her and the swirling winds started to chill, the moisture in the air forming into snowflakes. Baozhai ran over to the golden eyed man, “Boss! What about the rest?”

She didn’t seem worried about Wu Chang anymore, instead pointing at the army that was now reforming their lines and reforming their defensive formations. The Strongfist Brothers were back together and the youngest brother’s abdomen was covered in bandages. They were yelling out orders and the remaining air cavalry were slowly wheeling around in the sky over them. The golden eyed man merely smiled and raised his voice so the others could hear, “Help your Sister and Brothers. The array is blocking vision from inside, just go all out and take care of those Strongfist Brothers. I’ll handle the rest of them.”

As they spoke, Wu Chang was suddenly struck by the overwhelming aura that washed over him. He felt the chill in the air, the air that was his. He was supposed to hold dominion over the air around them and it was being undermined by the cold. The snow had already threaded itself through his winds and his confidence was shaken. Advancing after the fifth rank was about understanding the laws of the world. The rules of nature, its myriad transformations and transmutations. With that understanding, you could take control of the elements of the world and set them to your bidding. In the fifth rank, the control was somewhat superficial. Wu Chang was already spending great amounts of energy to control the air, yet this woman had already disrupted his control and he could barely feel any energy coming from her at all. Her mere aura was enough to interrupt his power and that could only mean… could she be?

“Nascent Soul?”

He didn’t have much time to contemplate. Ruanfu walked steadily toward him. She wasn’t moving quickly, but Wu Chang felt increasingly pressured. To test his hypothesis, he waved his hand and sent a torrent of wind towards the white haired woman. She crossed her arms and braced against the impact. The violent wind lost its bite when it reached her, causing her clothing to billow and making her slide back a few feet, but no wounds appeared. Snow whirled around her, having defused Wu Chang’s attack to merely a push. The grim look on her face did not leave. She steadied herself and started to walk forward again, as if she was giving Wu Chang the opportunity to accept his impending doom.

A quick and clean death would be a merciful death.

Ruanfu wouldn’t give him such a nice thing.

The fan on Wu Chang’s back stopped spinning and he grabbed hold of it again. The area of control not seeming to work on Ruanfu he needed his weapon in hand to maximize his power. He lifted his feet from the ground and floated backwards, his legs didn’t move and he seemed to float backwards on a cloud of air, retreating rapidly from the woman’s advance. She sneered at him and gave chase, increasing her pace from a slow walk to a measured jog, her speed of advance now matching that of his retreat. Wu Chang waved his fan towards the ground and he was shot into the air like a swallow pulling itself out of a dive, darting towards the sky. The woman performed the same maneuver as both Jiyao and Baozhai, leaping into the air and kicking off non-existent steps, running up a set of stairs that only she could stand on.

As she moved the snowflakes drifting around her increased in number and density, creating a tunnel of glimmering white crystals, shimmering in the sunlight. They swirled and spun around her, making it look like she was striding through an icy tundra and kicking up clouds of snow in her wake. Wu Chang continued to flee, ascending thousands of feet into the air, approaching the dark blue barrier and swinging his fan with a deliberate slowness. To the naked eye, nothing at all was going on, but to a cultivator’s Spiritual Sense, they would feel huge amounts of energy expanding into the sky around Wu Chang, coaxing it towards him. The energy of the world was drawn to the space in front of his fan, condensing and focusing into that small space. He finished his slow and measured swipe, and still nothing happened. The vast amount of power still pooling and gathering, he finally let out a loud yell and the Qi he had released into the air returned to his rainbow hued fan blade. He gave it a second swipe, in the opposite direction from the first and swung with all his might.

Where it had been invisible before, there was now a blindingly brilliant reaction. A bright light blinded everyone present and then there was a massive bang. The dark blue barrier rippled, shaking like a tuning fork from the aftermath of the attack that had struck it. It looked weakened, but the barrier still remained. Wu Chang cursed at his failure to break out, he wouldn’t have hesitated to abandon even his City Lord position at this point. A Nascent Soul Cultivator was after his life, survival was all that mattered. He spun around and repeated a similar gesture as before, but with much faster speed, swinging his fan twice and releasing a brilliantly glowing ball of light towards Ruanfu. The woman kicked the air and dodged the trajectory of the ball, but it detonated in mid-air with another thunderous bang, sending Ruanfu off course like she’d been struck with a huge tennis racket. Yet again, she seemed unharmed, recovering her footing and continuing toward Wu Chang. The desperate Leader of the Jade Horde didn’t give up, repeating his bombardment.

Down below the golden eyed man, Sage, watched the battle with interest. The sudden flash of light and loud boom were surprising, but also interesting. That fellow must have stumbled onto something related to compression increasing pressure and figured out some way to make the air combustible. The guy was making mid-air piston chambers and throwing the explosions at Ruanfu.

I haven’t found anything with such violent combustion in this world, it would be nice to figure out how he’s doing it. Oh well, he’s probably not unique.

Not for an instant did he consider sparing Wu Chang. There was no way he could deny Ruanfu her revenge, nor would he want to. He’d considered King a close friend and he was gone because of that bastard. Sage brought his attention back to the rest of the battlefield, the five youngsters had done some quick patching up and were readying themselves just as the Jade Horde and the Strongfist Brothers were.

They were of course the five of King’s children that had chosen to stay with him. He’d been tutoring them all over the last twelve years, which for them had actually been a few hundred. He’d already reached level 58, and the rate of time in his Inner World was already 80 times faster than in the outside world. The five each reached maturity at tier 4, given their mothers were weaker than King. After decades of training and after using various treasures grown in the Inner World they were all able to break through and reach tier 5. Sage glanced upwards at Ruanfu. Given her more exotic background, she’d taken much longer to reach her full maturity and when she did she’d already broken through into tier 6. A level 60 versus a level 61 was almost a foregone conclusion. The strong fought those in higher stages all the time, but defeating someone at a higher rank was extremely difficult.

Sage glanced over to the five ‘youngsters’ and smiled, “Those three were happy to betray us, don’t go easy on them.”

As he finished his sentence, he activated the seal on his forehead. He no longer feared the repercussions and it was much more powerful in the proper position. With a flicker his human body was gone and a massive snake took its place. His scales rippled with color, immediately turning snow white to complement the blizzard that was raging above them. The Jade Horde were treated to the terrifying size of his body. About three feet wide and over a hundred feet in length, he lifted his head and upper body to raise his head three stories into the air. His neck flattened and a nine foot wide hood was unfurled, already showing a brilliant violet color on its inner side in stark contrast to the white of his other scales. Each eye had a row of three overlapping circular black pupils, while the iris was merely an extremely thin red outline.

A golden glow began to emit from his eyes and his central pupils began to vibrate, slowly oscillating up and down. At the same time, the violet colored hood changed colors, turning into a psychedelic rainbow of scintillating motion. Swirling and rocking, drawing attention while also confusing and bewildering. His gaze fixed upon the ordered battle line of the Jade Horde and almost immediately many of them froze in place.