As his fingers released the string of the bow, Baotian heard a satisfying crackling sound, followed by a splatter of blood as the guard's body fell down. Before it reached the ground, he created a sword out of blood essence, cleanly severing his head before flying upward with it in hands.
Truth be told, even with his new move, the Golden Owl Bow and the talismans from the Void Hurricane, Baotian was barely on the level of a grand perfection stage cultivator. He won that easily because he perfectly analysed his opponent, behaved so he himself would be underestimated as much as possible, and prepared a way to finish him before he could ever use his full power. A simple matter of cunningness.
'But that, these people don't know it' Baotian thought.
And that was what the next part of his plan would count on!
Rising higher and higher, reaching the clouds, Baotian proudly raised the severed head above his own, and began shouting, using a wind spell to increase the range of his voice:
"My fellow brothers and sisters of the demonic path, hear my words! For centuries and centuries, we, the desperate, heaven-abandonned ones, were ruthlessly suppressed by the hypocrites of the righteous path! Today, in this Void Hurricane, a place where equality was supposed to reign, the devil known as Wu Leihao ruthlessly shattered this notion, uniting the righteous cultivators under him to suppress us!
But here, I offer you hope! Hope that at least once, our demonic path can obtain victory against the vile monsters! As you can see, that head belonged to one of Wu Leihao's guards, at the grand perfection stage! As for me, the one who easily defeated him at the early stage…"
Every demonic, every righteous cultivator present in the Void Hurricane turned toward him, their eyes filled with indescribable emotions, and Baotian revealed himself to the world, declaring war on the youngest genius:
"My name is Zhang Baotian, the successor of Blood Torrent Grandmaster Zhang Ming! The righteous cultivators have already acquired too much of the treasures here, let's fight, and get back what is rightfully ours! Follow me, demonic comrades, let's show them the greatness of our path!"
Without showing any form of hesitation, Baotian used the Shooting Blood Dancing Armor, rushing himself toward the location of Zi Moyan, which Wu Leihao and his guard were watching over. He had staked his own life on whether or not the demonic cultivators would follow him.
'Don't look back, don't look back!'
Yes, right now, since he couldn't back down anyway, he better focus his attention on his goal!
"Stop him!" Wu Leihao shouted.
The cultivators that were pursuing Baotian before, and had momentarily stopped to listen to his speech, escaped their torpor and rushed at him.
"Out of the way!" Baotian exclaimed, using another talisman.
Ironically, it was a wind-type talisman this time. Even then, the effect was immediate: a whirlwind envelopped the armor-clad Baotian, pushing the righteous cultivators away.
"You dare!" Wu Leihao's guard interjected, sending a wind blade in his direction.
Instead of aiming for him directly, it destroyed the projectile that was dragging him forward, forcing Baotian to slow down. Still, the latter persevered, creating a sword out of blood essence and slashing down toward Wu Leihao.
"Tssk, what an amusing trick"
Taking a gauntlet out of his storage bag, Wu Leihao put it on and used his Earth talent. The wind around him split into infinitesimal fragments, but those were immediately reassembled under the influence of the gauntlet, becoming some kind of spiritual wind chainsaw. With one movement of his arm, it went through Baotian's blood sword, shattering it on impact, and then pierced through his armor, inflicting him a significant cut:
"Argh!"
What kind of absurd power was that? It wasn't much weaker than the Golden Owl!
"Hmm? You're still in one piece?" Wu Leihao asked, surprised.
Gritting his teeth even harder, Baotian answered his question with a heavy kick, the strength amplified by his armor. Wu Leihao, who blocked with his other arm, didn't sustain serious damages, but still seemed surprised by the strength of the impact:
"Well, would you look at that" the genius said. "It seems that you do have some interesting moves, as expected of the disciple of the infamous Blood Torrent Grandmaster"
Baotian didn't listen to him, instead looking at a sphere of wind several meters behind him. Even with the interference, he could sense a familiar spiritual pressure coming from the inside, except for the fact it was several times stronger.
'So that was true, she advanced and was trapped in!' Baotian thought.
Immediately, he decided to go all out and pulled out his talismans. He activated one to attack Wu Leihao, trying to force him to step aside, but it was countered by another talisman. Surprised, Baotian looked at Wu Leihao's guard, the one who had used it.
"Why do you seem surprised? We arrived at the same time as you, and stayed longer" Wu Leihao said. "Or maybe you're surprised that I left some of these to my guard? If that's the case, then I'll tell you now: I didn't leave 'some' to him and my other guard, the one you mercilessly slaughtered, but all of them"
Seeing Baotian's expression, he explained:
"Why would I need these? I already have all the strength I need. Even this Composite Wind Gauntlet Blade is only a tool to better use the air affected my Wind Tyranny Royal Physic by reconfiguring it into a blade. I, Wu Leihao of the six geniuses, need no more treasures to fight like you low-level ones, my own power is enough, and that simply because I am fundamentally superior to you"
"Oh, I see" Baotian simply replied. "That will make my job easier"
He kept activating more talismans, using all those he could to attack, forcing Leihao's guard to exhaust his own to block.
'Alright, let's calculate quickly. He, his first guard, Zi Moyan and I arrived at the same time, harvesting most of the treasures. The talismans they found were split between the guard he just killed and this one, while I got those that Zi Moyan and I harvested. After I left, Leihao and his guards spent most of their time guarding Zi Moyan's prison, so they couldn't have gotten much more. By this logic, if they didn't have some kind of absurd luck, I definitely have more than them!'
And indeed, after apparently forcing the guard to exhaust all his talismans, Baotian still had two or three left. Quickly, using the opportunity, he used the last offensive talisman he had, hoping to force Wu Leihao to get out of his way so he could rescue Zi Moyan.
"How disappointing" Wu Leihao said. "I was truly hoping for something better after your recent performances"
With one movement of his arm, he 'fragmented' the air in front of him and, without any resistance, the powerful fire created by the talisman dissipated, leaving Baotian dumbfounded:
"Impossible… an attack at the peak of the Qi Building realm… with just a wave of his hand!" he exclaimed out loud, shocked.
Wu Leihao raised an eyebrow:
"Why do you seem so surprised? Did you truly think that this young master's Earth talent was just splitting wind-related spells? Naive" he said. "Elemental spells, blood projectiles, energy projection spells, all of them work by diffusing spiritual energy in one form or another to apply the move, so by fragmenting the air, you can also fragment the spell and stop it from functioning."
Was he simply explaining because he was a typical cliche villain, who simply loved to brag about his abilities?
No, that was not it. If he was explaining his abilities out loud, it was to show to everybody present that even if Baotian knew his powers, he wouldn't find a way to counter him, simply because there wasn't any.
And he was right. His talent granted him the ultimate defense, his artifact the ultimate close combat weapon, and Baotian was close to sure that the scripture he practiced was one putting forward movement techniques and ranged attacks. Wu Leihao was someone with only strong points, someone whose actual power likely was above that of an average early stage Core Formation.
Lost in thoughts, Baotian missed it when the guard activated another talisman, creating a streak of lightning that was quickly approaching his head:
'Oh shi-' Baotian thought, not fast enough to dodge.
However, the attack never reached him. Instead, a great earth wall had appeared, blocking the attack.
'Uh? Who-'
"Wake up, Zhang Baotian!"
The one who had just said that was also the one who had just used up a talisman, saving him.
"You said it yourself, we of the demonic path must win this battle, at least this one!"
After saying that, he rushed at the guard, despite being only at the mid stage. However, the latter was still pushed back, not because he was weak, but because two other demonic cultivators had joined the first one, ganging up on him in a three against one:
"Stop looking in the vague and go clash with this arrogant young master, successor of Zhang Ming!"
"You're the student of the Blood Torrent Grandmaster! Even if you can't beat him, at least try to free the Core Formation, that alone will be enough to consider this a victory!"
"Go, Zhang Baotian, go! Prove these bastards of the righteous path that we, too, have a blazing and unyielding heart!"
With a strange expression, Baotian looked around. Inside of the Void Hurricane, spells were flying around more violently than ever, a full-blown war had begun between the righteous path and the demonic path. He knew that they didn't do it to help him, or due to a camaraderie spirit. It was simply a mix of rage, interests and arrogance, and that was perfectly fine for him.
"Would you look at that, you actually managed to rally these foolish demons to your cause" Wu Leihao observed, still as calm as ever. "But we both know that for trash like that, who abandoned every form of dignity to walk a few steps further down the path of cultivation, loyalty is but short. How much time do you think you have before they run away and leave you behind?"
"Enough" Baotian replied.
He did not have to win. He just had to reach Zi Moyan's wind barrier, find a way to free her, and escape with her.
"Then come, Zhang Baotian. Come, and fall in despair in front of a true genius"
Baotian, hearing this arrogant declaration, scoffed. This Wu Leihao guy, he seemed to barely be sixty, just a bit more than half his age… no, counting the time spent in Purple Sky Village, that guy was actually less than half in age, and still had higher cultivation.
'Haha, that's really just like these novels back on Earth, except he's the main character and I'm the old, untalented old demon about to die' Baotian thought, amused. 'Well, I might as well play the part all the way'
Grinning, he repaired his blood armor from the cut Wu Leihao had left on it, and recreated a new blood sword:
"Hah, fall in despair in front of a smelly brat like you? Don't make me laugh, Wu Leihao!" he said. "From the moment you entered, you kept pestering us like you had nothing better to do, cursed brat. Yes, from the very beginning… you were, truly…"
He rushed at him, still laughing at his own act:
"Courting death!"
And so, the battle between the demonic prodigy and the righteous genius truly began.