Chapter 151: Fighting the Patriarch
Cao Cao and Ye Ling had reverted back to their original size. They were staring at the many experts that were looking to protect the entrance to the hall to ensure that Xu Min did not flee.
A shiver ran through the entire group of experts. Cao Cao and Ye Ling were seventh-star level, fierce beasts. They were not at the eight-star level like Xu Min, but their strength was not much below an average eight-star Warrior.
Furthermore, beasts had the benefit of a much stronger body and a fierceness that humans did not have. In turn, they were stronger than the average person of the same rank.
Cao Cao and Ye Ling as well knew each other well, allowing them to be able to fight back to back without risking their safety. They could easily fight a handful of seven-star Warriors without any problems.
However, if they did come into trouble, they just had to call out. Xu Min would come rushing to their side and kill any experts that were causing problems. No one here, apart from Li Fang, proved any threat though. Though Li Fang could pose a danger to him, it was not like he could instantly kill him. Running away to help the two beasts would be possible.
"You are going to die today!" A shrill voice sounded through the tense air. No one had started the assault yet, but one person was eager to see it start.
"My brother-in-law Li Fang came from across the sea, and his talents are far better than yours since his strength is only inferior to an immortal!"
"You escaped back then, but how will you escape now? How will you be able to survive this time? You will not! You will die a terrible death, even worse than the one your sister suffered!"
The more the young master spoke, the darker Xu Min's face became. Killing intent started to seep out of his body. He was thoroughly angered; he was filled with hate, anger and a thirst for vengeance.
Deep within him was a flame of hatred. This hatred had brewed and gained strength the last many years. The day his sister died this flame had been born, and it had lived within him ever since.
It had almost caused him to lose to his heart demon, but he had persevered in the face of danger. Now this flame had become part of his strength.
Usually, Xu Min kept it under control, but right now things were different. The more the young master spoke, the more this flame grew in size. Soon the flame became uncontrollable. It filled Xu Min's entire body, making his killing intent soar to the heavens.
"Will you shut up?!" Li Fang's voice suddenly resounded throughout the room. The moment he spoke the smug expression on the young master's face turned into a hurt, scolded child.
"I don't know who you are looking at, even though, this guy in front of you might have been your peer when you were children, but right now you are not in the same league as this young man."
"But brother in law, he has nothing on you! You are an illustrious figure from across the sea. You can defeat any person from the same generation, and you can easily crush anyone below the Immortal rank!"
The young master continued to grovel.. although Though Li Fang was unhappy at the reckless, idiotic act of the young master, his face eased up slightly when he heard the praises that continued to rain down upon him.
"I have never met a person in the same generation as me that I needed to respect," he agreed with a nod of his head. Nevertheless, his eyes, although pleased by the praises, were still very serious as they looked at Xu Min.
"However, I must admit, this has changed now. This young man has had quite some amazing encounters. He also seems to have some aces hidden up his sleeve that can cause problems even for me."
Li Fang sounded as if he was the height of the level of strength that could be reached before becoming an Immortal, and Xu Min could not help but snort in contempt at his vanity.
Although Li Fang had some strengths and his own hidden tricks, Xu Min had many of his tricks as well. He had the sword he had inherited from his teacher; he had the spiritual energy from the elves, the elemental affinities from the fairies, and lastly the Qi from the humans.
"No more talking. Let us see who is the strongest!" Xu Min yelled out. Cao Cao and Ye Ling who had waited for this order instantly threw themselves into the mass of experts.
In the mass of experts surrounding the door some of them were seven-star Warriors. They could handle the pressure from the two beasts. Unfortunately, for the Zhong family, the majority of the experts were six-star Warriors or below.
These warriors were easy to kill for the beast duo. They slaughtered their way through the guards as easily as killing chickens. The expression of the patriarch turned foul as he rushed towards the beasts with the intention of stopping them.
"Your opponent is me," Xu Min sneered as he intercepted the patriarch on his path towards the beasts. The patriarch was an eight-star Warrior. He was able to quickly stop his advance and retreat for a moment once he felt the pressure of Xu Min rushing towards him.
His heart trembled. The killing intent and the momentum that Xu Min carried with him was so intense that even the patriarch felt uncomfortable and suppressed.
Li Fang still had not moved. He sat at the table together with the young master looking at the fight severely, watching Xu Min’s every move.
Xu Min unsheathed the sword on his back and pointed it towards the patriarch with a sinister smile on his lips. Right now he looked exactly like Yanluo, the king of hell, ready to come for a person who needed to die.
As Xu Min unsheathed his sword, a sound of the sword touching the scabbard could be heard by the patriarch. The movement was slow, but even so, Xu Min’s eyes, all the while grinning, never left the patriarch.
Xu Min was not going to use his spiritual energy or his elemental affinity against someone as simple to kill the patriarch.
He was positive that Li Fang would intervene when the patriarch was about to die. Then, once this man appeared to save the day, and when this man appeared, that was when he would use his abilities to their limits, proving that he was the one beneath the Immortal rank with the most power.
He had to be careful though. He was unsure of the strength the people from across the sea had. Nevertheless, he knew they had access to things that no one else had. Thus he dared not underestimate his opponent.
The patriarch had rushed backward when Xu Min unsheathed his sword. He quickly took a stance, summoning a fireorb, but this was only a stance, a copy of the elemental affinity attacks. A simple illusionary fireorb was simply not enough for Xu Min to take seriously.
Xu Min slowly stepped towards the patriarch. Suddenly he lifted his sword and started sprinting, chopping down his sword, and a bloodcurdling scream sounded out as the patriarch lost an arm. The fire orb instantly vanished.
Xu Min had moved with speed so fast that everyone present was shocked.
Li Fang had assumed that although Xu Min was an eight-star Warrior, he would not be able to fully dominate the patriarch since he too was an eight-star Warrior. Now his face turned ugly as he realized that he had underestimated him.
"So you specialize in external energy?" Li Fang rhetorically questioned. He casually stood up from his place and started strolling towards them, but Xu Min ignored him completely, lifted his sword again and brought it down, cutting off another arm of the Zhong patriarch.
"Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!" the patriarch screamed out. He was incapable of saying any coherent words. He was in such intense pain. Blood was spraying from his shoulders where the arms had been cleanly cut off.
"Stop it at once!" Li Fang said with a dangerously low voice. "I was speaking to you, but you ignored me and continued to attack. That is not acceptable! Hold your attacks at once and face me instead!"
Xu Min shot a glance at the expert who was rushing towards him, but he only snorted in contempt and lifted his sword once more.
Xu Min and the patriarch were right next to one another. Even though Li Fang was rushing towards them, he was far too slow to be able to stop Xu Min. Xu Min’s sword came crashing down once more and cleanly separated the patriarch’s head from his neck.
The guards who had been invited to join the Zhong family had also died. Cao Cao and Ye Ling had quickly destroyed them.By now only three people and two beasts stood alive within the hall.
"Cao Cao, Ye Ling, go out and start massacring the Zhong family!" Xu Min ordered, "Leave no one alive!"
The words were spoken with such ferociousness, hate, and coldness that even Li Fang felt a shiver run down his spine. Just what kind of enmity had this Zhong family made with this Xu Min? If he only he had known about this feared enemy, he would never have aligned himself with this weak family. He lamented to himself about his error.
"I told you to stop," he said fuming with anger, "why would you continue when I, a being far above you, tell you to stop?!"
Xu Min looked at Li Fang and grinned. "We are not so different you and I," he said smirking, His appearance looked more sinister than the gates of hell.
"You see, I too came from across the sea," he nonchalantly explained. His words shocked the young man who thought he was better than anyone else.
"But unlike you, I was forced to leave." he continued. "I was sold with my sister as children. We were nothing more than servants to the Zhong family. Yet you, you grew up over there. But I know the truth. The truth is that it was too hard for you, too dangerous. You claim to be invincible below the Immortal rank. However, if I am correct, then you are just mediocre or even below average across the sea for our generation."
Xu Min held nothing back. He noticed how his word caused the young man's face to turn ugly. He guessed that he had been correct with his assumptions and a cold laughter erupted from his throat.
"Why should I listen to someone who is so cowardly that they flee from the other side of the sea just because they think that it is too dangerous? Can you call yourself a cultivator? Because in my book, a person who flees is just a coward!"
Xu Min had previously experienced the heart demon in the blood pagoda; he knew what it was like to face the one seed of fear that had grown to take place in one's heart, and he used it against his opponent to shake his mind.
It seemed to have worked. Li Fang's face went pale; his eyes flashed with anger and his fists tightly clenched together.
But after a moment, he took a deep breath and eased himself again. "You are good," he praised, but his voice contained a smoldering anger that had not been there before.
"To think you even know about heart demons, to realize you can use my weakness against me. You are truly no simple person."
"I assume you went across the sea when you fled this Zhong family? It is the only way for you to have become such a strong expert as you are now. How come I cannot help but wonder why I have never heard about you before? Which sect did you join? Which family were you from?"
Xu Min just shook his head, "There are so many things on this continent that I did not need to leave the continent to find what I was looking for," he stated. He clenched his hands around his sword. Without waiting, he launched straight at Li Fang.