Wind whipped up the bottom of a jet black robe, the blood red piping along the hem of it swirling back and forth in the wind like the motion of a cobra. The ruby eyes of the lithe man showed a level of ruthless cunning that was enough to strike fear into the heart’s of most who looked into them. They showed the vicious force of will that this man carried within and it was dark enough to send a quiver up the spine.

Across the windswept plateau, a man with golden eyes and a jade green robe was already in a combat stance. His right arm was wrapped in a black vine with purple thorns that were shaped like large hooked claws. Behind him there was a group of eight wearing black robes that were slit up the sides and belted around the waist. Their limbs and head were covered by a suit of dark purple padded armor, of a quilted style, the thick layers covering them from head to toe with the black robe merely draped over the top. Only their eyes were barely visible and they stared at the man facing off against the nine of them.

“Surrender, Chu Shuai. Turn over the Diamond Cloud Raindrop that you owe to the Dream Dealer.”

Chu Shuai’s lip lifted on one side and he started to lift both hands, palms up, from his sides, like he was starting to conduct a symphony. As he moved, a swirl of red flame appeared behind him, slowly spinning in a vertical disc shape. Then his hands stopped, and he looked down at his slightly curled fingers with awe, “You’ll be the perfect test for my new strength.”

The man looked up from his hands and as he did his outline seemed to shimmer, blurring to either side. The blurriness seemed to bounce to the left and right, expanding wider and wider only to suddenly stop. The blurriness was gone, but the silhouette of Chu Shuai still took up just as much space as it wasn’t just one of him, but nine of him standing shoulder to shoulder. Law energy rippled through the air as the glowing disc did the same thing as its owner, rippling into nine discs that seemed like they were overlapping like a shield wall.

The nine Chu Shuai’s looked across to the golden eyed man and his eight subordinates. Then they started to spread out, walking towards the sides. The golden eyed man looked to either side at his subordinates and nodded. The two lines of people got wider and wider as they approached, facing off against the person directly opposite them. Neither side wanted to be surrounded so they could only spread the line further apart. The red discs behind the many Shuai’s got brighter and then a thick purple aura seeped out of the bodies of the people across from them.

In almost perfect unison the two parties took off at the same time, propelling themselves rapidly towards each other and clashing with their now determined counterparts. Shuai twisted sideways and the red discs swung around to face the front, spinning like a huge saw blade towards the opponent facing off against them. An armored forearm was lifted upwards, and the purple aura surrounding it clashed directly against the incoming disc. The spinning red let out a grating metal on metal sound before suddenly coming to a stop. The solid red circle disappeared and was replaced by a single red line. It was spinning so fast and glowing so brightly that it looked like a solid object, but the end of it was now wrapped around the forearm of the person opposite Shuai. Shuai twisted his waist, and the fiery red line which seemed to be attached to the small of Shuai’s back was pulled taut and tugged at the person in purple. They were pulled a step forward, but their stance was still strong and after the single step they’re feet dug into the solid stone as they resisted the pull.

After the initial pull, the person in purple was not only able to resist, but started to pull back. Once their feet were set, they started to slowly drag Shuai closer. Not liking the fact that the purple armored people were stronger, Shuai reacted. Three more fiery red lines flew out from his back and shot towards the other three limbs of the purple armored person. Two of them were quickly dodged, but the third wrapped around one of their legs. Then the two that missed seemed to gain a mind of their own and they curled around in mid-air, twisting and turning like snakes to return to the purple armored person’s limbs and coiling around one each. Being entangled like this on every limb, the purple armored person looked down and then over to the Shuai. They pulled on each of the fiery lines until they were taut then suddenly spread their arms wide, pulling hard with both arms to send Shuai flying towards them where they were met with a headbutt.

Or at least it looked like a headbutt. At the last second, the viper-shaped head of the purple aura around their body shifted. The mouth of the viper opened and exposed the face area of the person underneath. The mask on the lower half of their face tore open and revealed a serpentine lower jaw. This scaled mouth was already opened wide from the motion of breaking off the mask, but then suddenly their chin suddenly widened, the protrusions of bone showing that it split apart in the center. The lower jaw spread and swung backwards so the upper row of teeth had nothing stopping them from slamming against Shuai. Two large fangs flipped forward and then plunged into the man’s shoulder like a pair of daggers, injecting a dose of venom into the man’s body for just an instant before Shuai pulled away. Bleeding heavily, the four fiery red lines uncoiled from the purple armored person and swung through the air like tentacles to bat away the strikes that followed. Shuai bought some room to breathe and took a pill, consuming it to heal the injury and try to suppress the venom coursing through his body.

At the same time, this defensive action finally showed off what Shuai was using. The red lines of fire were actually Qi that had been formed into the links of a chain. The fire natured Qi and fast movements had hidden the shape but now that it was moving slowly to ward off attacks the chains could be seen clearly moving.

Except, this was only one of the nine battles that was going on at this moment. In one of the others, Shuai was being pushed back as the purple armored person was using the viper shaped aura over their hands to rapidly strike at each of the chains that swept towards them. The purple aura around their body was continuously shrinking, but the Shuai was being pushed back. The two of them seemed to be competing in a battle of Qi attrition. In another battle, the opposite was true, the purple armored person was rapidly dodging and evading a dozen different fiery red chains that were flailing around rapidly like a thresher. It formed an unending tide of attacks that came from every angle, giving the purple armored person so much pressure that they were struck multiple times every second, slowly cracking and crumbling the purple aura that covered them. Each of the fights were proceeding at a different pace and with different results, but they were incomparable to the main confrontation.

In the center of the plateau the most volatile battle was raging, causing enough disruption that the other battles were pushed away to keep from suffering an injury from their own allies.