The clouds above churned with lightning, the flashing lights temporary illuminating the darkness that had befallen the region.

Li Bai retracted his spear, feeling completely insignificant before the alarming powers. “W-what in the world is h-happening?” He turned facing Ren Tu, who mirrored the same expression, unable to console him.

Jack too appeared solemn as he stared high up. Amidst his confusion, he suddenly thought of a terrible conjecture. Already feeling the cold beads of sweat dropping against his face, he raised his sword, assuming a defensive stance.

The thunderclouds roared. Golden lightning covered the entire sky, seemingly charging up to unleash the ultimate annihilation. The lands below trembled, and a number of crevices had already appeared.

The terrified Li Bai spat out blood, immediately activating a talisman of speed. He proceeded by grabbing Ren Tu from his robe, who had actually peed himself wet, then both bolted in the direction of the return portal.

Jack followed suit, but in the opposite direction. He travelled at full speed, having no idea where he was heading. It actually didn’t matter where he went, as long as he made it out of this cloud’s range.

Unfortunately for him, he soon realised that the more he travelled, the more chaotic the elements became. Sensing that something was clearly amiss, he stopped, glancing up again.

Directly above him, a black-golden vortex rotated, melting away his previous doubts and replacing them with unprecedented fear. Whatever this phenomenon was, he understood that it was directly targeting him. Shivering, he raised his eyes towards the clouds, clenching his fists. He proceeded by shouting so hard that it left a lingering pain inside his throat. “What are you? What have I done to you?!”

The thunderclouds seemed to recognise his voice, churning with even more ferocity than before.

Perceiving the hostilities, Jack immediately raised a barrier of solidified essence. He patiently waited, but not for too long.

A lightning bolt struck down, cutting through the air and generating a series of ripples. It slammed heavily against his barrier, pulverising it on impact. The remaining energies infiltrated his body, producing electrifying shocks that swarmed all over his skin.

Jack’s face twisted, inundated with immense pain. He struggled to raise his arms, quickly creating another barrier, just in time to meet the upcoming bolt. His defence crumbled again, forcing himself to roar in pain while he burned inside the electrifying hell.

Jack heaved, falling miserably on one knee, swallowing with difficulty the blood that arose from his stomach. It only took two lightning bolts to reduce him to this sorry state. But no matter how astonishing or powerful these bolts were, he couldn’t give up on his life this easily.

He switched essences, now covering his body with strange vines. Golden leaves grew out, producing golden particles that slowly healed his body. But the clouds up there gave Jack no time to recover, unleashing bolt after bolt, each consecutive strike increasing in frequency and power.

Unable to resist any longer, Jack fell down on both hands, his face expressing incredulity, anger and despair. Unexplained feelings of hatred clouded his mind, ones that he couldn’t control. He let out a miserable cry as the golden lightning slowly buried him inside a large crater.

As the attacks kept accumulating, the lands around the crater started shivering, glowing up with a show of golden lights. The winds also intensified, carrying with them horrifying cries of anguish.

While the thunderclouds vented their furies, several eyes watched the phenomenon from afar.

A feeling of uneasiness clouded Dong Li’s heart as he watched the developing storm. In the meantime, those already hugging the portal moved even closer, now standing idle only a couple of metres away from it.

Some cultivators were still missing however, including all cultivators from the Divinities Alliance. In reality, Shui Tao, Tian Jinse and the Grand Elder’s disciple had already grouped up with each other and were working together. However, the strategy that they were using was clearly not having the desired effect.

The trio appeared in a bloody mess as they glanced at the lone cultivator that hunted them now.

“Utterly pathetic, all three of you. You haven’t even touched my body once.” Wang Guo left marks on the ground as he advanced forward. Already thinking about dealing the fatal blow, he noticed black cumulonimbus clouds had appeared over the horizon.

But what really caught his attention was the appearance of another cultivator. He smirked with satisfaction. “Perfect timing... just in time to watch me send your companions to the afterlife.”

He affixed his eyes on the nearby bolder, an expressionless Zheng Zexi standing on it.

Her falcon-like eyes ignored him, instead gazing at the trio in distress. Her body flashed, disappearing from her position and reappearing next to them.

“Return to the arena. You’re no longer needed.” Her voice couldn’t be any colder, but her words still sounded like the sweetest honey to them.

“No way! We can’t just let you face that monster all alone. In honour of the Patriarch I—”

“Enough,” The Grand Elder’s disciple grabbed Shui Tao by his shoulder, shaking her head. “We already did our part, we gotta trust the orders of our young patriarch. If we stay here, we would only be getting in her way.”

Wang Guo observed their little reunion with a frown. He assumed that this pony-tailed bitch had the troublesome essence of teleportation. Not wanting anyone to escape, he switched strategy. “The only place you all will be going is in your f*cking graves.”

His bones would occasionally snap as his body expanded on itself, turning into a ten-metre giant. He then grabbed his sword, which too enlarged until it corresponded to his new size.

Before he could react, Zheng Zexi suddenly appeared before him. She summoned a leather whip, slapping his face multiple times in the span of few breathes. She then teleported away dodging his retaliating attack.

“F*cken bitch!!” He swung his sword randomly like a mad dog. “You dare touch my f*cken face! I’ll torture you to death!”

About to slam his sword, he almost lost his balance when an earthquake appeared from nowhere. A storm of winds suddenly hit the area, undoing Zheng Zexi’s pony-tail, her hair now waving at the wind’s mercy.

Wang Guo paused for a moment, surprised by the strange event.

Zheng Zexi took the opportunity to glance to the side, watching the three fading silhouettes. A faint smile appeared on her face at that very moment.

With her main concern finally cleared, she could now fight without restraining herself.

***

At a particular spot inside the Counterbalance Realm, ice particles slowly precipitated down, turning the entire area into a wintry paradise. The surface reflected back the continental mass above, producing a bizarre yet wonderful effect.

An ice phoenix docilely dropped down, letting out a soft shriek as it hit the glowing ground, disintegrating into tiny fragments that scattered on the slippery ice.

Lady Bai’s vision showed signs of dwindling as she stared straight into the eyes of her opponent. She couldn’t feel anything from them; no feelings of anger, hatred, arrogance or pride. There was just an empty vacuum of darkness, a bottomless abyss. And that scared her. Scared her a lot.

She could feel droplets slanting against her several parts of her body. But they weren’t droplets of sweat, but of blood. She had grossly underestimated her opponent. No, this man couldn’t even be considered her opponent; he was clearly on an entire different level.

She let out a cry of despair, summoning another ice phoenix. She jumped on it without looking back, then sped away.

The expressionless Jack remained immobile, hovering. After a while, he charged after her.

Lady Bai trembled when she noticed this. Fortunately, she was clearly faster than him as she observed his image becoming smaller and smaller until completely disappearing from her sight. However, she could still sense him chasing after her, so she didn’t relax, not even for a moment.

Already flying for several minutes, she noticed the occasional quakes shaking the lands below, growing in intensity and numbers the more she travelled. Behind her, large clouds had appeared, but now they looked like they were slowly dissipating away.

Seeing how everything inside this place was falling apart, she abandoned all wishes to search for treasures, her only goal to return back to the palace as soon as possible.

When her eyes finally recognised a familiar landscape ahead, she let out a sigh of relief. Arriving at the return portal, she jumped down with haste.

The others immediately noticed her arrival. Everyone’s eyes flashed with curiosities, really wanting to know the cause of the explosion, and the reason behind those weird thunderclouds… and why these earthquakes are suddenly spreading across the lands…

In actuality, there wasn’t even the need for her to explain anything, because when they saw her covered in blood, they understood that the situation was much grimmer than they had anticipated.

She struggled to speak. “Leave! Everyone, leave now! This place isn’t safe any longer!”

“Lady Bai! Who! Who did this to you?!” Her companion panicked as he hurried to her aid, wrapping his arms around her. “Tell me who did this to you!”

Lady Bai shook her head. “Please… leave this place. Don’t have much time…”

Her companion was fuming with anger when he heard the sound of footsteps. Behind him, he saw a red-haired cultivator approaching with an ugly expression. Without any warning she kicked him in his stomach, forcing him to drop down on the floor, writhing with pain.

She proceeded by grabbing Lady Bai from her neck. “Where is he? Did he follow you?”

Lady Bai remained silent, neither confirming nor denying. This angered the Cult’s cultivator, slamming Lady Bai’s face on the ground. “You…this is the only safe place we have left! Are you trying to get everyone killed?!”

Lady Bai despaired as she raised her head. “There is… still time… can escape…”

The cult’s cultivator trembled. Her companions were still out there hunting gems, oblivious of the precarious situation. She really wanted to exterminate this woman right on the spot but it wasn’t the ideal time right now.

She instead turned around addressing the others. “Everyone, return back to the arena. I haven’t told you anything earlier not to alarm you, but the situation has changed now. There is a crazed maniac out there killing anyone he encounters. Not even I can stand against him.”

The numerous cultivators had their faces lose colour. A fatso punched the ground, causing a small crater to appear. “That arrogant Empire Bastard!”

The Cult’s disciple sighed. “It’s not him.”

Everyone blinked their eyes. If not him, then who?

About to explain, her eyes suddenly rounded with shock. A solidified arrow had breezed past her face, leaving a small cut on her cheek that leaked a small stream of blood. The arrow pierced straight through one of the Portal’s pillars, generating a deafening bang.

The column shuddered, collapsing under the force of the attack. The dimensional portal immediately lost some stability, turning wavy.

The crowd expressed shock and anger as their eyes moved up along the arrow’s path until locking on the source.

A grey-robed cultivator appeared before them, his face absent of any humanity.