Ning ran toward Saburn.

He had a general idea of what he could do to get out of this situation as soon as he could, and it only lay in Saburn’s direction.

The other 6 people were about as strong as Saburn, but they were unified. If things got too dangerous, they would move in to help each other. But Saburn… it was rather unlikely.

Maybe he would get some help if he was an actual ruler of this land, but as the fake ruler, Ning had more chances than not.

Saburn, even through his seething anger, realized that Ning was coming toward him. He looked in the direction of the men that chose to not pursue him and wondered what he was supposed to do.

“Can I kill him or not?” he shouted at the men.

“You must keep him alive for the Emperor,” one of the men said.

“What about hurting him?” he asked.

“Only alive,” the men said.

That was all Saburn needed. Instantly, the wings on his back unfolded, sending out multiple green feathers at Ning, all of which were made up of Wind Essence.

These feathers were razor sharp and tore through the field as they went toward Ning, and would surely kill him if he did nothing.

Ning didn’t stop at all. Instead, he used his sword to create an earthen that was nearly 5 meters thick that stopped most of the feathers. The ones that did manage to pass through were weak enough that he could simply dodge it.

For the ones he couldn’t, he blasted a massive burst of fire that thwarted the rest of them.

Wind covered him as well as he sped up and jumped over the thick earth wall. He crossed it all in a single leap and saw Saburn using another skill.

A massive cyclone formed in front of Ning, threatening to engulf everything in the area.

Ning frowned a little but quickly gained his composure as he pointed toward the incoming cyclone with his sword and used another skill.

A massive blast of water that nearly pushed Ning back erupted out of the sword, hitting the cyclone with a volume that seemed to dwarf it as well.

The cyclone, burdened by the force and weight of the water it now carried, destroyed itself as the remained water was flung into the air to come down as a short burst of heavy rainfall.

Ning created a protective shield over him using the earth to stay out of the water, and when the water had disappeared, he jumped out of the cover and looked at Sabrun in the distance who had managed to remain dry thanks to his wind skill.

However, even if his upper body was dry, the water in the ground still surrounded him and was enough for Ning.

Ning pointed his finger on the ground and Saburn sensed the Essence.

Lightning.

He jumped at the last moment as a thunderous noise shook the ground. Ning’s massive bolt of lightning spread through the ground but touched no one in the end.

Saburn took the opportunity and used the opportunity to send 3 Wind Blades at Ning, none of which were particularly strong, but were strong enough to hurt him badly.

Ning noticed that and quickly created a portal in front of him, through which the blades flew and came out on the other side, right behind Saburn.

Saburn’s wings fluttered once and a gust of wind threw the blades into disarray, which then dissipated into thin air.

Saburn stared down at Ning who seemed to be able to fight him on equal for some reason. Was it because he himself was holding back? Or was it because of the sword that was somehow creating many elements now?

This wasn’t working, but he was simply too angry to give up. He was already angry that he couldn’t kill him, but not even being able to hurt him was not something he wanted to happen.

𝓞𝗏𝑳xt.𝑐𝗈𝕞

At the very least, he wanted to cut off an arm or two.

The green wings on his back widened as it slowly grew to be larger than before. Along with the wing grew a head with two ox horns and a face that looked not so similar to Saburn.

No hands grew, but legs did, which looked like bird legs as well. They held talons at the bottom.

Ning frowned a little when he saw that.

One thing he knew now about Essence Soul was that they were generally in the shape of an animal or insect or plant, the last one being the rarest.

As one grew through the Essence Soul realm, their Soul would drift further and further from having human features and would quickly envelop the features of whatever it was that they started with.

By the True Essence Soul realm, there were few human features left in an Essence soul, and that was what was required.

The lesser the human feature, the more one had the chance to enter the Stellar Harmony realm, where one’s soul and body would become one.

The soul could harness the power of one’s body and the body could harness the power of the soul.

Seeing how close to a bird Saburn’s soul was, if he continued training enough, he could enter the Stellar Harmony realm in the future. This surprised and worried Ning.

He was definitely strong enough that if he wanted to, he could have at least injured Ning, if not killed him.

Now that the Essence Soul was out, he could use more techniques with even more effectiveness.

The amount of Essence he could pour into attacks now would be ridiculous.

At this moment, there was only one thing Ning could do if he wanted to survive. Just one thing.

He needed to improve the power of his attacks as well, and for that, he needed to bring out his Essence Soul as well.

Ning hadn’t done this before, so he was a little worried about how it would go. However, this was no time for caution at all.

So, with a blinding white light, his Essence Soul started forming behind him.