Whoever this Nascent Soul cultivator was, he had talent. And he wasn't an idiot. He had attacked with the arrogance of any of the young masters in every Xanxia novel I'd ever read, but that arrogance was tempered by ability and talent. He believed he was better than anyone else, because he was better than most people. At least for the countless number of the people in the world that would never advance to the Nascent Soul Realm.

But his talent didn't mean he couldn't make mistakes, and his arrogance certainly guaranteed that he would become embroiled in situations he would have been better off avoiding. This fight was one of those situations.

If he had waited to attack me anywhere else, he would have managed to kill me without incident. But attacking a Baron in her own territory, within range of a Capital city, protected by contracted Spirits was a huge mistake. A mistake I was perfectly happy to exploit. A mistake that demonstrated just how little he had been tested or challenged as he had advanced between Realms.

He was probably something of a genius. Or had been well protected, sheltered, and coddled by House or Sect. I wasn't sure if he had familial or political connections, but you didn't advance to his Realm without Heaven's own luck or support. I couldn't be sure, but I thought he had to have the backing of a Sect, at least at one point. It was hard to say if that backing still existed, especially since he had immigrated to Delph Island. Those cultivators that reached the Nascent Soul level either served as Elders for Sects or began exploring the world, searching for Heavenly opportunities to advance.

Now that he was trapped, forced to face the fury and might of three Elementals, it made sense for me to switch weapons. I would only face the same eventual fate he would if I continued to fight him in melee range, and the intervention of the Spirits gave me that opening. I exchanged the Tessen for my Bow and began powering [Winter's Bite] immediately.

It would be idiocy to allow myself to get within arm's reach of that man. And unlike him, I didn't have the luxury of hubris he seemed to have developed. I knew exactly what a fair fight with him would mean, and now that the Spirits had acted, there was no reason to fight fairly. Although my ranged attacks were only at the Qi Gathering Realm tier, they were an added distraction to a fight this cultivator could ill afford.

My first shot missed. The next hundred shots missed as well. He made use of his movement technique to escape, moving just out of range each time I released an arrow. His movement was effortless, without cost most of the time, but twice he miscalculated and suffered the consequence as the Elementals the Wind Spirit had released took advantage as his moved to escape my attack only to find himself with the reach of their more powerful blows.

His roar of pain was most satisfying each time, knowing that they had hurt him, only spurred Storm and me to increase our attacks. I had used [Winter's Bite] over a hundred times, enough that with his advanced cultivation he had become familiar with my methodology and attack style, enough that I knew I hoped he wouldn't expect or account for a change in style. If I was going to make any difference, I had to change up the type of attack I released.

At least I hoped that I could make a difference as I began powering up [Tidal Fury]. This would be the first time I used the technique in a fight. The first time I was able. The technique only becoming possible once I had stepped into the Qi Gathering Realm. It required Dharmic control I didn't have until now.

[Winter's Bite] was a single target attack, although there were area affect debuffs I could release that expanded on that limitation. The technique's potency was reliant on the elemental Qi I infused and created each arrow with. Lightning arrows had become my most powerful damaging attack, with ice as a slowing or stunning attack the next most used.

[Tidal Fury] combined water and wind to form an arrow that evoked the destructive power of a wave bolstered by the wind. It was only now available to me because I had mastered the Dharmic control needed to stagger the two elements, releasing each affinity in a successive barrage. The technique required me to fuse the elemental Qi techniques I used when releasing [Winter's Bite] with the Dharmic spell control over the elements of wind and water that I now controlled.

Dharmic control over the two elements that were mine naturally because of my affinities. I didn't have the same affinity with lightning, fog, or ice as I did with wind and water. Those elements had not been mine initially. I was only able to learn to use them because I resonated with water and wind so well. Each of the additional affinities a byproduct of blending and combining my increased control over water and wind.

I had grown powerful by relying on those additional elements, especially lightning and ice, but no matter how powerful I was with each of these elements, I would never be able to access and control those elemental affinities directly, at least until or if I added that element to my mastery.

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Lighting, ice, and fog were created as I combined water and wind together. As I learned to manipulate those two elements, I learned to create the others. A cultivator that had woken a lightning aspect would always have a better affinity and control over that element. Even Storm's connection to lightning was more potent than mine. She was able to release the element directly as part of her nature. That connection and control made a difference in effectiveness and efficiency.

No matter how fast I had gotten at creating lighting or ice aspected Qi, or how much I had trained my meridian channels, spirit roots, and nexus pools to accept lightning, Storm, or cultivators like her had an advantage. They didn't need to waste time combining wind and water, harnessing those elements together to create a third.

[Tidal Fury] was created without the need for me to filter or combine elemental aspects. Wind and water were mine to command. Mine from the moment I had woken and began walking the path of cultivation. The ability to combine them gave me additional tools and affinities, they allowed me a versatility and range of attacks that made my martial abilities more savage. But the root of who I was, the center of my ability as a cultivator, was where the aspects of wind and water would be found.

[Tidal Fury] used the advanced understanding and control of the elements I resonated with, allowing me to make a fundamental shift in how I thought. The difference between what I understood using Qi alone and the adaptive nature of Dharmic created a synergistic exposition that resonated with me serving as the fulcrum.

There was a dimension to this attack that had been lacking before I had managed to reach this realm as a cultivator. Additionally, the Spirit Bow that I had commissioned was well suited to channel my newly attained Dharmic abilities. It began to sing with delight as I powered up that technique, its contentment at finally being used the way it was meant to be used, adding to the potency and lethality of the attack.

If the cultivator had not been constrained, forced to fight the three Elementals that had gained sentience and defend against the tornadoes that the Wind Spirit had formed. If he had been able to deflect, dodge, or shield himself from my attack. My attack would still have been futile. A Qi Gathering Realm cultivator was simply outclassed when facing a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. But his field of movement had been too tightly controlled. His ability to escape or deflect the power of [Tidal Fury] limited by circumstance.

There was no escaping [Tidal Fury] within the small area of movement he had access to. It was as inexorable as the ocean's tide. The lashing of water by wind so thunderous and dynamic that you either escaped its reach or were buried under the annihilating energy storm surge released with nature's fury.

That transcendent moment when the tide crashed against the shore. When waves fueled with the blistering winds that had reached gale force tempest. That moment when you stood before an onslaught so overwhelming that you realized how truly insignificant you were before the might and breadth of nature.

That was the destructive power that [Tidal Fury] unleashed.

The energy and power of the tempest, the gale-force winds that lashed the waves. That destructive power so focused and contained by the arrow I released. The might of nature's reach contained on the head of that arrow. The might of storm and ocean tightly focused, that energy gathered and struck the cultivator with devastating results.

My arrow never penetrated past his armor, never managed to lodge within his skin, or pass through his body. That would have been the result for anyone at the same Qi Gathering Realm that I had reached.

But that wasn't my intent here. I had known even as I released the arrow that he would be able to withstand the power of even something as destructive as this arrow was. Instead, [Tidal Fury] acted as a wedge. A bludgeon of force that pushed the cultivator backward. The concussive power of the arrow exploding on impact blasted the Nascent Soul cultivator into the arms of one of the three Elementals.

Once caught, the other two Elementals responded, merging together. Three became one. A force of nature that had eclipsed the power and might of any tornado that had ever existed. That might and energy localized. None of the destructive energies allowed to escape.

Each Elemental measured as a category five tornado, with wind speeds of over three hundred miles an hour. That destructive force combined as they merged. They buffed each other, condensing that destructive force instead of disrupting any of that calamitous energy.

The wind speeds increased. Not tripling, the power of a tornado with wind speeds of nine-hundred miles per hour would have destroyed the very town and land the Wind Spirit was trying to protect. Even with the Ocean Spirit acting as a guardian, a bulwark of water shielding the town, those kinds of wind speeds would have battered and overwhelmed the Ocean's protection.

But faster than any recorded tornado that had ever existed. Four hundred. Four hundred and fifty. Finally, the Elementals reached speeds of four hundred and sixty, speeds that completely annihilated the cultivator trapped inside. Power and fury that was contained within the body of the newly formed Elemental as it fused together, its only goal to destroy the person who had attacked the land, and by proxy the Baron that had bonded with that land.

The process was not immediate. He was strong enough to withstand even the damage coming at him at those speeds. I saw great bouts of fire being released as he attempted to use a change in temperature to escape. The Elemental tornado simply absorbing that fire, unleashing a rainstorm of fire to be extinguished by the ocean's water.

It took time. Seconds becoming minutes. Those minutes adding up before the Wind Spirit calmed the Elemental it had created, and the cultivator that had lost the battle and his life fell lifeless beneath the ocean's depths.