Their armored suits were tight fighting and made of quilted dark purple cloth. Each suit of armor carried identical symbols embroidered with black thread, giving a second layer of subtle detail on top of the quilted surface of the armor. With the fight beginning in earnest, they released their power and called up a second suit of armor. A dense purple layer of energy appeared around them, sheathing them from head to toe. This layer of energy was faintly detailed with overlapping scales, and their helmets took the shape of various serpents with the majority having a cobra-like hood, but there were some that seemed dragon-like, and a few even had a lizard or crocodilian look to them. Their hands were just as varied, some had a pair of snake heads, some had long claws, and others just had thin gloves of energy.

These fighters were all from the Purple Mist Sect and they used the Golden Poison Body, a simplified version of the Golden Mantis Body technique. The main difficulty of the Golden Mantis Body was training the body to release Qi from every inch of the skin. Seething Purple Cobras could naturally release a poisonous mist from the pores of their body, so Sage felt it was a perfect fit. The modified version wasn’t quite as powerful, but with their natural poison Qi, the ‘Golden Poison Body’ took on a purple color.

Then the black symbols on their armor suddenly lit up in sequence, following a rapid pattern and mixing with the Qi they were releasing. Purple mist was released from their bodies, spreading over a wide area and immediately causing the lower ranked fighters to falter. The armor of the Purple Mist Sect was Formation Armor, just like Sage’s prior forces. He’d further refined the design to fit the needs of the Purple Mist Sect and it had only two formations. The first was the one used by those of the Inner World: Shifting Swarm Formation. It was purely a method for wearers of the armor to join their power together for attack or defense. Ruanfu had trained those fighters for decades, but the Purple Mist Sect members were all Seething Purple Cobras. They all were far more alike than most cultivators were, so training their group fighting capabilities was far easier. The second formation was the one they were using now, an extremely simple formation created to disperse their poison Qi over a wide area. Instead of a nearly skin-tight layer of poison, they could now cover a wide area with a cloud of poison mist.

While half of the Purple Mist Sect members were poisoning the lower ranked cultivators, the others facing off against the top echelon of the Alliance were starting to use the other formation.

The Sound Sword Sect Master was facing off against one of these trios. He could feel the energy bouncing from one to the next. They moved closer to each other to make the transfer faster and face him as a single unit. One moment the three of them would strike from three different directions with fast jabs. These sudden punches released concentrated bursts of poison, reinforced by different flavors of poison related law energy. Then they would group back together and take turns striking, moving their power from one to the other. Each of these strikes carried the power of all three and each time he was forced to block one it rattled his bones, something a person who used a vibrating sword found hard to accept. The only saving grace was that with so much power moving from one to the next he could sense it in motion and knew which of them would make the next move.

He rapidly shared his findings with the others with a voice transmission, “Trace the flow of power to know which will attack next. When one is attacking, the others are unable to defend.”

This method to combine power was not without flaws and the leaders of the Artful Life Alliance quickly figured them out. The Sound Sword Sect Master attacked viciously every time he felt their energy flowing towards one of the trio, forcing them to defend against him. Such a weakness would definitely be a huge handicap if their numbers were equal. It was just too bad that he was facing off against three at once. Even if two of them couldn’t do anything, all they had to do was hide behind the third member of their trio. Worse yet, in order for the Sound Sword Sect Master to attack these other two he’d have to move faster than then the enemy’s energy did.

Half of the Purple Mist Sect members held off the Alliance’s Nascent Souls while the other half formed a poisonous cloud around the Alliance’s Core Formation Cultivators. At this point, Sage stepped into the battle himself. He was something of a specialist when it came to disrupting his opponents. He was never the most powerful combatant, but he was quite skilled with interruption and preventing an enemy from using their full ability against him. With a deep field of stars in one of his eyes, a dozen silvery rifles appeared around him. They floated in the air, suspended by the invisible force of a Spirit Power technique. By spreading them out to different positions and elevations he opened up many more firing angles.

Sage’s first target was the one that had caused him the most damage in the past. There was a flash of light, the only visual effect that accompanied the blindingly fast crystal projectile that launched itself from his Shard Rifle. The blade-like purple crystals that were launched had immense penetrating power and speed, but even so the Nascent Souls had already shown they were capable of intercepting such attacks. For a Core Formation Cultivator these Shard Rifles were as deadly as firearms were to normal people, but for Nascent Souls they were more like thrown spears or knives. Dangerous, but avoidable.

The staccato clanging of metal clashing with metal at a rapid pace filled a portion of the battlefield. The Sound Sword Sect Master’s vibrating sword clashed with the thick saber blade of one of the Purple Mist Sect members. The saber blade was coated with venom and reinforced with a venom law powered by three people. The Sect Master’s vibrating sword was disrupted just enough by this mass of energy that it was unable to chop clean through the saber. Instead, each clash caused small cracks and fractures to start appearing upon the thick saber.

The fundamental difference between a sword and saber was the difference between one and two edges. When a sword and saber were of equal size, the saber would either be tougher or cut better. With only one edge, the cutting edge could afford to be less steep while still retaining the strength of the sword. A sword had to taper towards both edges, which created a steeper profile. It was also made worse by the fact that in this case the Sound Sword Sect Master’s sword was quite small and light, while the Purple Mist Sect member’s saber was large and thick.

As the master of a Sword Sect, his swordplay was without doubt, exceptional. The blade flashed back and forth, feinting, changing directions and attacking from unusual angles. It also carried that strange vibrational force that if it didn’t outright slash clean through an enemy’s weapon it delivered immense damage with every attack. With a larger and heavier weapon, the Purple Mist Sect member wasn’t able to keep up with the Sound Sword Sect Master’s speed. At least not enough to stay on the offensive. Even with a slower weapon, it was far easier to move a weapon to defend than to attack. Especially when the strength of three people was flowing through into one man.

It was during one of these violent clashing of weapons that the Sound Sword Sect Master suddenly felt a flash of danger. His sword pressed hard against the enemy’s saber and he pushed himself backward, spinning in mid-air to catch an incoming flash of light upon the flat of his blade redirecting it away from himself. Then his twirled and the edge of his sword caught another flash of light, cleaving it into two pieces. He arched his back, avoiding the two stray shards and also dodging the third projectile coming from another direction. He rolled his shoulder and brought the pommel of his sword down upon the fourth projectile and then used his free hand to slap away the fifth, ignoring the burning pain on his palm.

The Sound Sword Sect Master truly showcased his skill, avoiding and deflecting ten of the crystalline projectiles before one of them ripped a hole through his calf and the last buried itself into his thigh. Then he had to face the Purple Mist Sect member’s saber, who used this opportunity to finally go on the offensive.