Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 434: Experience.

Right after Ember disappeared, chaos ensued.

Rai commanded the Transcendents to create a circle around the estate while the rest of the Beastkin and the trio moved out of the ring.

As the estate was emptied in a matter of seconds, a barrier was cast using the Transcendents’ Spiritual Essence as the medium inside. No one could see anything inside.

"If anyone lets her escape, you won’t be assigned a room for a month!" Rai shouted as he drew back from the barrier as well. The barrier wasn’t professionally made and just needed one of the Transcendents to stop feeding their Spiritual Essence to it for all of it to crumble down.

Rai couldn’t feel any Spiritual traces from the Ozul, but having heard his conversation with Ember, he guessed him to be Transcendent as well.

The rattled woman stood alone facing Ozul inside the barrier.

"Zei Zei! Rai! What is happening? Tell them I didn’t do anything!" she shouted toward one of the Transcendents forming the barrier.

But the ’Zei Zei’ in question shook his head ruefully, "I trust Lord Ember..."

The woman gritted her teeth at that response before she looked back at Ozul who was still calmly observing her. "How did you know?"

"Your emotions. Your body doesn’t show it at all. But you were terribly nervous in Ember’s presence..." Ozul replied calmly.

While others didn’t care, Rai was keenly listening. He was intrigued by how casually Ozul addressed Ember’s name, but what interested him more was this talk about emotions.

The woman glared daggers at him before she jumped toward the weakest part of the barrier.

Only she couldn’t escape her fate nor the barrier as blades of Purity halted her advance.

She swiftly dodged them and continued running. With her speed, she reached the barrier at a moment’s notice. But to her dismay, she received a kick to her abdomen from the very friend she was calling for help.

The kick was so powerful that she shot toward the ground like a falling star. She dragged on the ground, pulling it apart until she stopped on the other side of the barrier.

"Just... let me go! You will all regret this!" she shouted again, wiping off the blood from her lips. Having realized they weren’t going to let her go, she didn’t hide it anymore.

With quivering lips, she shot one resigning look at Rai, knowing she wouldn’t be able to escape in his presence.

"I will at least take you down with me!" she shouted and rushed at Ozul since he was the reason for her impending doom.

He knew he couldn’t risk it, so he summoned all of Purity and willed it to latch onto her. Before she could dodge it, half of her body was covered with it. This move slowed her movement, but she could still move.

Only she didn’t know that she shouldn’t have let the Purity touch her.

With a single thought, the Purity caved in on her body and a sharp spike forced its way into her abdomen, the same place she was kicked before!

"No, you don’t!" she bellowed, stretching her arms to shake off the Purity.

’Useless attempt-’ Ozul paused that thought in the middle as he felt the Purity being forced off of her. There was suddenly a two-inch barrier between the Purity and her skin. Simply pushing with sharp needles didn’t even budge the barrier.

’Is it impossible to fight a Transcendent yet?’ Ozul began to have doubts. If he couldn’t muster up enough force to pierce her body, it was all useless.

’No... maybe some distance will work...’ he had several ideas, but they would have to be tested one at a time.

Just then, there was a shift in the Spiritual Essence behind him! He crouched to dodge a projectile heading straight for his neck.

Only he forgot that the woman was dangerously close to him already. She kicked him and just like her a few seconds ago, he was sent thrashing against the ground until he hit the buildings.

’That was close...’ he thought, a bit relieved. If he had a heart, it would’ve been pounding out of his chest right now. Before the impact, he had protected himself with Purity, otherwise, the force could have imploded his head!

He didn’t have a chance to breathe since the woman charged at him again like a bull. As a seasoned warrior, she knew better than to give her enemy a chance to recover.

This time, he used her own momentum against her and shot the Purity in a straight path.

She had no choice but to break her momentum and jump to the side. If she was hit with so much force, even the shield protecting her skin wouldn’t hold on.

’It’s not unbreakable...’ Ozul realized seeing her dodge the daggers instead of letting the shield absorb the force.

...

In the start, Rai was interested in seeing what Ozul was capable of, but he quickly got bored and instead focused on the people outside the barrier.

When his group of Transcendents had deployed the barrier, although it kept the woman and Ozul inside forcefully, the waves of Spiritual Essence couldn’t be contained. As a crudely made barrier without the use of Runes and deployed solely on raw Spiritual Essence from the Transcendents, it had many drawbacks.

It wasn’t like Phoenix City was devoid of cultivator brawls, but rarely did the authorities have to deal with Transcendents destroying everything.

The City Lord’s Hall sent two Transcendents to look into the issue, and with their abilities, they arrived at a moment’s notice.

Looking at the dome of shield covering Ember’s entire estate, the two Transcendents from the City Lord’s Hall exchanged worried glances.

There had been rumors that the Ember, the previous City Lord, had regained her powers. If the rumors were true, they could quickly get into trouble.

Before they could get close to the barrier, a voice stopped them,

"My my... How may I entertain you, officials from the City Lord’s Hall, I presume?" It was Rai who had stopped them with a cheery smile plastered on his face.

In the past when Ember was absent, he was in charge of everything in the estate. He reassumed that role as naturally as if it were his calling.

The officials frowned; they could feel the dense aura tamed inside the smiling man. Looking down at him, they asked, "And who may you be?’

"Oh, I am but a humble servant of Lord Ember. Enough about me, might I inquire about your business here?" Rai asked with such pleasantness that no one could compare him to the man who had just brought two severed heads into the estate.

"The dome. The Spiritual waves have even reached the City Lord’s Hall. We are here to settle whatever the matter is," one of the officials replied, still hovering in the air.

But the next second, they were forced to look up as Rai appeared behind them both.

Putting his hands on their shoulder, he spoke softly, "I assure you, it’s nothing worth your time. That little rat game won’t even drip out of the dome, so the City Lord has nothing to worry about."

It came as a little surprise to him that they didn’t recognize him, so he had to give them a scare first.

And just as he expected, the two officials slowly nodded their heads as if a slight mistake would cost them their lives. They weren’t wrong; people like Rai never took no for an answer.

Clicking his tongue, he muttered to himself, "Tch! You guys are too agreeable..."

He then disappeared from the air again and was back on the ground in an instant.

The two officials stayed afloat in the sky, screaming in their minds, ’He is a peak Transcendent! Only one step away from Sage!’

Even though there were two of them against one, they knew their chances of winning were zero. Against a peak Transcendent, they could only pray for mercy.

"We... we won’t interfere, but can we stay to make sure the city is not harmed in any way?" one of them mustered up enough courage to ask.

But Rai didn’t have any tolerance at all. "Did you not believe me when I said I would make sure the fight wouldn’t spill out of the dome?" He replied with a hardened tone, slowly raising his aura.

"No no! We believe you!"

"Y-yes, thanks for your hospitality!"

There could be nothing worse if they were to start a fight with a peak Transcendent here. If reinforcements didn’t arrive on time, they could lose their lives!

Their only sane choice was to retreat and quickly report the matter to the City Lord. Only he could handle this situation if he wished to.

After the officials retreated, Rai shifted his focus back to the shield dome and muttered to himself, "Would you look at that..."

Inside, Ozul could be seen impaling the woman with spears made of the Purity.

His own clothes were torn from being thrashed around so much, but he eventually managed to kill her once she had shown all of her cards.

He could’ve finished it even earlier if only he had previous experience with fighting Transcendents. Their complete dominance of the Spiritual Essence made it harder for him to predict their moves.

’I need more experience...’ he knew he had to stop being lazy now.

Although he had the strength, he still struggled against the woman only because he didn’t have enough experience. With each realm in a cultivator’s journey, their attack patterns, their weaknesses, and their strengths changed completely.

And so he had to first learn them before he could exploit them.

Rai confirmed that the woman was dead and so he ordered everyone to drop the barrier.

At once, people outside saw the rubbles and stones where the estate previously stood.

"Well great, no one will get a room now. Not even me..." Rai commented while looking at all the mess.

"Oh well, Lord Ember did say we were moving~ Wonder where she is right now..."