THUD

The Third Elder’s head rolled on the floor. Little green let go of the constriction and the two bodies stuck together also fell on the ground.

The Second Elder’s eyes were wide with tears rolling down them. “I… I’m… sorry,” he spoke one last time and breathed his last breath.

He was dead.

Wen Cheng slumped on the floor, his body giving upon him. The right calf was hurting him incredibly along with the other cuts in his body.

Alex rushed over and stopped for a second when he saw the Second Elder’s blank eyes. He felt a tinge of sadness seeing someone he was quite close to in the sect die like this.

To die by the hands of someone he loved, what greater tragedy could there be in this world?

Alex knelt in front of him and put his hands on his eyes. “Rest in peace, Second Elder,” he said and brushed down his eyelids to close his eyes.

Alex then made his way to his master and brought out a pill. Wen Cheng ate the pill and felt the energy in it healing him. In mere moments, all of his wounds had disappeared.

“Thank you,” he said and tried to stand up but…

“Woah!” he felt dizzy and fell back down to the ground.

“Don’t move too quick, master. You’ve lost a lot of blood. The pill I gave you only healed you, but it did nothing for your blood. With your lack of blood, you will have blurred vision and dizziness for a while,” Alex said.

“Urghh!” Wen Cheng grabbed his head. “Don’t you have any pills for giving me blood?”

“Unfortunately not, Master,” Alex said. “I will get one for y—”

“Look out!” Wen Cheng shouted and pushed Alex away. A yellow palm hit Wen Cheng directly on his chest, throwing him into the barrier.

Wen Cheng coughed up blood as he hit the floor and stopped moving.

“No!” Alex shouted and looked back to where the attack had come from. It was the old man.

His eyes were red with fury, his body glowing yellow as he used every bit of Yang energy in his body to bypass Ma Rong’s attacks to send out his own attack towards them.

“I will kill you bastards!” he shouted.

Ma Rong immediately teleported in front of him and struck at him. The old man swung his sword to get rid of Ma Rong and go after Wen Cheng, but he couldn’t.

“Get away from me!” he shouted, but Ma Rong wasn’t going to let go of him. She too was angry at the fact that the Second Elder died.

The Second Elder was one of the best elders in the sect. Perhaps even better than her when it came to handling the sect matters.

When she was unconscious due to the Yang energy in her body, or when she was stuck indoors due to her newly awakened constitution. Or even when she stayed in her room neglecting the sect work due to the pain of probably having lost a disciple.

The Second Elder helped her in all of those situations by taking on the workload all on himself, and now he was dead. The person who killed him was also dead, so the only person she could go after was the old man.

Being the person who started it all, and being the person who wanted to kill her disciple, Ma Rong finally started feeling fury like she had never before.

Just like the old man, she too was angry.

Ma Rong and the old man went into what looked to be the final stage of their battle. Both of them were giving their all to end it as quickly as possible.

Alex ran back to his master and saw him on the floor choking on choking on his own blood. Alex immediately pushed him on his side and used his Qi to help him release all the blood in his lungs and esophagus.

‘Master has already lost so much blood. If he loses some more, he will probably retain some permanent damage,’ Alex thought.

He brought out another pill and slowly pushed it down Wen Cheng’s throat. Alex sent his Qi through Wen Cheng’s veins and checked if the inside was now fine or not.

It took a while, but he fully checked Wen Cheng all over and sighed in relief that he was okay. The blood loss had made him fall unconscious, but he was breathing fine. He would make it out alive and well.

Alex took out his sword and held it in his right arm, he was going to protect Wen Cheng from any attacks that came his way now.

However, it didn’t seem like he would be needing to do that anymore. Ma Rong was continuously getting the upper hand.

For a good chunk of time now, she had been fully expelling Yin from her body to stop the old man, and Alex was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep it up for very long.

The old man was fully flaring his Qi too, but he had the formation to support him. Alex was really worried as he watched the two of them fight.

But it seemed that was the right choice as he saw parts of the old man’s body having ice on it. Ma Rong’s hit was getting in.

“Hang in there a little longer, master,” Alex said. It was unclear which master he was talking about, but it was very much likely to be the both of them.

Ma Rong sent out a ball of frozen water at the old man. With his movements delayed, the old man couldn’t dodge in time and ended up taking the hit on the left shoulder.

Frost built up at the place where he was hit, but he ignored it. A handful of fire gathered in front of him, which he blew on to create a massive spray of flames that attacked Ma Rong.

Ma Rong swung her blade in front of her and immediately the fire was cut in half, but it wasn’t destroyed. She was a little surprised to notice that the fire had Yang energy in it.

The two halves of the fire hit either side of her but did nothing to her. In the chaos, the old man tried to run away, but he couldn’t. Ma Rong’s spiritual sense was on him the whole time.

She immediately teleported next to him and sent two Yin snakes at him. The old man reacted in time and slashed the two Yin snakes, but a third one, hidden behind the two suddenly appeared in front of him and directly bit him on the shoulders.

“AHH!” he shouted as the right half of his body started freezing over. Finally, he was hit with something he couldn’t deflect.

He flared his Yang Qi, but the freezing wouldn’t stop. Ma Rong’s Yin was of a higher grade than his Yang.

His arm, including his fist which was still wrapped around his sword, also froze, making it impossible for him to do anything with his sword.

He tried to move back, but he realized that his back was up against the house rubbles again. He could feel the stiffness in his legs as well. He could no longer move very well either.

“No,” the old man said. “This can’t be it! I can’t die like this!”

“You deserve this death,” Ma Rong shouted and dashed towards the old man. The old man tried to run, but he was unable to.

“NO!” he cried out.

‘No, I can’t die like this. I still have yet to find the treasure,’ he thought.

Suddenly, he heard something crack behind him. The crack was loud and following it, he felt a massive amount of energy passing past him.

It was Yang energy.

Ma Rong’s sword that was coming straight for his heart deviated just slightly enough that it missed his heart and instead stabbed just a few centimeters above it.

Due to how thin Ma Rong’s sword was, he was fine.

The frost in his arms and body started to melt away. The Yin Qi that Ma Rong’s sword had, that would’ve otherwise frozen his heart and killed him, never actually came. He had lived.

His eyes went wide at the thing he had just experienced. He was happy at first, but after he understood what had happened, his eyes changed. It wasn’t just a surprise in his eyes anymore, but rather fear too.

‘No! It’s too early,’ he thought. ‘I am not ready yet. I can’t turn that kid into my clone in just mere 3 days.’

The treasure he had been so looking forward to had matured, and it would only remain that way for 3 more days before getting ruined forever.

He forgot all the pain he was feeling and angrily looked at Ma Rong only to be surprised at what he was seeing.

Ma Rong had no Yin Qi coming out of her. In fact, she had no aura. The old man tried to flare his cultivation base when he realized that he was being suppressed by the Yang energy.

He couldn’t use his cultivation base at the moment. However, he didn’t need to.

He suddenly swung his sword in front of him, cutting off Ma Rong’s right hand which was still holding the sword that was deep inside of him.

Ma Rong was surprised, but she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t even move. The Yang energy was especially suppressing her in more ways than just her cultivation base.

The old man took the opportunity and jumped towards her, sword at the ready, and directly stabbed through her stomach.