Chapter 8: War.(1)
Jin Tian and Ren Shi were moving through the forest with blinding speed as they headed back to the base. Ren Shi was shocked at first when he noticed that Jin Tian was actually keeping up with him despite the massive difference in cultivation. Normally, the speed that a seventh phase cultivator could achieve compared to a third phase one was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Now, Jin Tian closed that gap as if it was nothing.
'As expected of the Master.'
Ren Shi was immensely proud to call himself a subordinate of a freakish cultivator like Jin Tian. Although others might call him a fool for working with a cultivator in the third phase, he had no qualms about it as he knew his master's strength.
Several breaths later, the duo got back to the base just in time to see two people arguing. It was one of the men he turned into vampires and another vicious-looking cultivator.
"Wei Shen! Where did you find the gall to talk to me like that?! Even your master Ren Shi would have to watch how he talks to me!"
The vicious-looking cultivator was a massively tall, bald, bearded man with a black eye patch. He wielded a large iron ax that thrummed with the powerful force of the wind, a natural element. This was the King Of Bandits, Quan Chi.
Behind him stood eight hundred scantily armored men, all armed to the teeth with a variety of different weapons.
This was the army of the Bandit Clan.
Beside him stood one hundred men that wore white armor with blue sea motifs on them, which signified the army of the State Of Yun.
Although they were one army, the power that the army from the State Of Yun gave off completely overshadowed those from the Bandit Clan. It wasn't even remotely comparable.
"Quan Chi, your death was already guaranteed the minute you decided to walk into our headquarters. You might as well have just cut off your own head and offered it to us."
The man who just talked was named Wei Shen. He looked like he was in his early twenties, had long black shoulder-length hair, an average looking face, and his vampiric red eyes were especially bright. It was as if the man had just finished consuming a large amount of blood.
"Well said, Wei Shen."
When everyone saw Jin Tian and Ren Shi arrive, reactions were different all across the board. The five subordinates who were there immediately dropped down to their knees, saluting him in unison.
"Master Jin!!"
The opposing side stared at him in shock before most of the bandits started to laugh at him. Quan Chi especially was having a good laugh as tears came out of his eyes.
"Master? A mere third phase welp? Yahahaha! Ren Shi, have you gone mad?!"
Although the six men were boiling in rage at Quan Chi's insults towards their master, they didn't raise a finger nor respond. No, they waited patiently for Jin Tians' orders.
The latter was currently looking around for a certain man who had promised that he would continue kneeling for seven days and seven nights.
"Wei Shen, where is Li Hu?"
A pained expression appeared on Wei Shen's face as he responded, "They..killed him, master. I managed to claim his body, but he was the first one that-"
"Thats enough, Wei Shen. As long as you have his body, it's fine."
Although he felt like he had failed Jin Tian, Wei Shen shut his mouth and didn't pursue the matter any further. Jin Tian finally decided to set his eyes upon Quan Chi and his men who were looking at him as if he was already dead. He didn't show any visible facial expressions, but on the inside, he was enraged.
Turning to the six men behind him, which were the only people who could fight in the entirety of the mercenaries, he said in a cold tone, "Ren Shi, Wei Shen, Zi Yu, Yu Sheng, Tian Wu, Hei Long. Including me, there are only seven of us against an army of over nine hundred men. I trust the servants are hidden?"
Ren Shi responded, "Yes master. But as I've said before, even though they are underground, the energy fluctuations from the battle will most likely kill all of them." Jin Tian sighed a bit, but in the end, there wasn't much he was willing to do in hopes of saving them.
In his mind, that would be a waste of energy.
"Alright. There are seven of us here and we have to split the blood of nine hundred men between us...hm. Let's do it this way, you eat what you kill. Agreed?"
"Yes, Master!"
The senses of a cultivator, especially in the seventh phase were extremely acute so Quan Shi had heard everything that was said. His laughter turned into anger almost immediately. He shouted towards Jin Tian who had his back turned to him saying, "Ignoramus! Do you really think the seven of you can defeat all of us?! Even if you were masters of energy, this battle would almost impossible to win!"
Jin Tian slowly turned around and as Quan Chi saw his eyes, he noticed that they were getting extremely red. It was like some kind of fire was about to come out of them. It was then that Quan Chi's face sunk as he realized what was about to happen.
"MEN! DU-"
ZINNGGGGGG!!
Jin Tian's overbearing solar beams shot out and cut through numerous men like a hot knife through butter. It didn't even seem to stop as it kept going until it reached the back of the army, tearing through every unfortunate meat shield in its path. Quan Chi, being an experienced fighter, had managed to dodge it but when he saw the state of his men, he was incensed.
"How many of them are dead men? Fifty? One hundred? I'm already way ahead of-"
Before Jin Tian could even finish his sentence, his six comrades spread out all across the battlefield and started killing men like unparalleled war gods.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
ARGHHH!
Deafening explosions and blood-curdling screams rang out in the atmosphere, quickly turning the once quiet forest into a war zone.
Quan Chi decided to stop wasting time and shouted with bloodshot eyes, "MEN! ATTACKKK! LEAVE NONE ALIVEEE!"
Quan Chi picked up his ax and his true energy surged, causing a fissure to appear on the ground under him.
"Beast Slaying Ax Art! One Swing Severs Life!"
Images of multiple beasts appeared in the air, dragons, tigers, lions, serpents; all of them a manifestation of Quan Chi's energy arts. He swung his ax in a downwards arc, aiming at Jin Tians head in hopes of crushing him in one stroke.
Seeing the boundless power in this attack, Jin Tian instantly caused his true energy to surge, which spawned a multitude of flames from the domineering heat. Summoning 'The World' beside him, Jin Tian blurred forward towards the attack, leaning to the side as it barely passed his face. The ax had already started to catch ablaze from Jin Tians energy art, but the difference between Quan Chi and him was still large.
The only advantage he had was his absurd amount of true energy which he would use to power his attacks.
As the ax hit the ground, everything behind him was utterly destroyed and the earth started to cave in. Even then, Jin Tian was sure that he could've tanked the attack and recovered, but he wasn't stupid. There was no reason to take unnecessary damage when it could be avoided.
'I haven't yet received the moves of the Sun Titan Art so my only choice is to use vampiric abilities. If I had, this fight could've been over in one move...'
Coming to this conclusion, Jin Tian used the vaporization freezing technique all over his body and reached for Quan Chi's thick neck to transfer the loss of energy over to him. The result would be Quan Chi getting frozen down to his absolute core.
'Cleaving Dragon, Dissecting Tiger!'
Quan Chi, seeing this attack coming, swung his ax once again even from that strange position. It showed that he had been through many battles with it. Even as he did that, he summoned a massive true energy tiger with his other hand and sent it towards Jin Tian, trapping him between two attacks. It looked like Jin Tian was in an extremely precarious position, something that he couldn't escape from.
"Die, weakling!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone