With the combined power of the Law of Aries and the Law of Capricorn, Zoemi managed to get the defeated martial artists back to the village before any one of them regained consciousness.

But unexpectedly, he returned in time for something else too…

*WHAM* *SLAM*

“GHH…!”

Seth got punched in the stomach and smashed into the wall of one of the buildings, having air being forced out of his lungs.

“See? That’s as far as relying on brute strength will get you.”

His opponent, a dark-blond-haired martial artist in a different colored uniform than Seth, snickered, wiping off the blood from the corner of his mouth.

Despite talking big, it looked like he went through a hard time.

“…piece of… **…”

Seth spat out blood too, but instead of normal fluid, his was murky red in color and almost granulated in its consistency – as if diseased.

“You should not have messed with the Great Ram sect~”

The enemy snickered and his green eyes gleamed with cruel excitement.

“…bull… **… You might be Zoey from the… Great Ram sect… but… ptfu…! You never showed the world a seventh star level of Law of Scorpius!”

Seth groaned, forcing himself to stand up, and spat out even more diseased blood to the side before wincing in annoyance.

“Tsk. A clever one, aren’t you? Shame… I was considering leaving you alive if you haven’t figured out my star level so easily…”

The dark-blond-haired green-eyed martial artist called Zoey spoke – but the wide grin on his face was proving his somber words to be false.

“…you were taken in by the Great Ram sect as a gifted student… they gave you so much support despite falling in ranks through the years… and you still had the gull to betray them and join a dark sect?! Where is your honor?!”

Seth, stood up on wobbly legs, gritting his teeth, and roared at the grinning Zoey, clenching his fists in an offense-oriented stance.

“Honor? I lost it when an idiot who dared to call himself my teacher went ahead and selected a mentally unstable girl as the representative of our sect even though she was so much weaker than me! And then he even went ahead and made me her bodyguard so I could have a chance to experience the Academy life with all the best students from other sects!”

The smile disappeared from Zoey’s face, replaced by an ugly grimace of anger, as the dark-blond-haired man took a step forward, raising his trembling fist to express his unbridled rage over the unfairness of the situation.

“…?”

The more Seth learned, the more confused he looked – after the heated declaration from his opponent, he straight up raised his brow and blinked repeatedly looking baffled, to say the least.

“Hold on… you… how old are you…?”

He asked, having increasingly more problems taking as his body was going numb starting with his mouth.

“Twenty-six. And I already achieved fourth star level of the law of Aries – I should be hailed as a prodigy in the sect specializing in that law, and not play second fiddle to some brat!”

At first, Zoey’s answer was to keep things together, but it got more and more unhinged the longer it went.

“You… moron…!”

“Huh? What it is now, you dying weakling?”

Seth scoffed, causing Zoey to tense up and ask back in an ice-cold voice.

“The Heavenly Star Academy that our nation is founding is meant for the best of the best… cream of the crop from every sect… the ones with the brightest future… And it’s meant for youth with outstanding abilities… youths that are below the age of twenty-one. You idiot… your teacher must have really loved you but you… you just threw all that love into the trash because of some useless pride… I’m sorry for speaking about honor to the likes of you… you clearly have no idea what it even is!”

The marital artist of the Raging Bull sect scoffed, swaying on his feet, the poison of the law of Scorpius had spread all around his body, numbing it and blocking his spiritual power from transforming into the star power.

“It’s unfair, that’s what it is – the bratty Spirit Emperor merely didn’t want to acknowledge the strength of anyone older than him and nothing else. But now… it all doesn’t matter. The loony girl and the clansmen will die facing the guardian monster. Morons all believe that a seven-limbed bear is just a rare variant beast that a student needs to slay as a requirement for admission to the Academy. “

Zoey declared and a moment later a mad grin returned, so wide that it seemed to be splitting his face.

“Killing two birds with one stone… I see… You want to use the villagers to further fuel your cultivation… and mask their deaths as the result of the monsters’ rampage… Tough luck… they all got away…”

Seth frowned, faltering on his feet and leaning against the wall of the building behind him – but he managed to show the traitor a triumphant smile.

“Got away? No.”

“…!”

Zoey raised his brow a the bold statement and snickered, causing Seth to grit his teeth.

“Those ingredients that will soon fuel my ascension to power merely ran out of their houses and slogged into the forest~ What, the best of them is on a mere first star level in the law of Capricorn? Pathetic. I will catch them one by one – I allowed you to talk this whole time because I had to be sure that you will not use the law of Pisces to contact anyone from the outside world.”

The traitor of the lawful sect scoffed and chuckled seeing the weakened protector of the lumberjack’s village.

“Pffft…! Underestimating people will get you in trouble… I am not quite done yet…!”

Seth snorted, knowing full well that there was another person proficient with the law of Pisces enough to send a long-range message and call for help – but just to make sure that Zoey will not figure that out, Seth bit his lips and straightened his back resuming the fighting stance.

“You fools of the Raging Bull sect simply don’t know where to give up. It makes a lot of sense that you are allied with those fools I left behind. All idiots.”

Zoey shook his head, rolling his eyes in an amused but also annoyed expression, and clenched his fist.

“Say, wouldn’t it be poetic? Killing you by using your beloved law of Taurus? It would also look more like you got mutilated by a beast than if I let you succumb to poison of the law of Scorpius…”

“You mean… if you will be able to touch me…”

He tilted his head and squinted his eyes at Seth who was barely holding himself up but still didn’t show any sign of yielding.

“Law of Aries, Law of Taurus, Law of Capricorn.”

“!!!”

Although Seth was not able to keep up the mocking expression any longer as Zoey spoke up, activating three laws at once.

“What? Surprised? Did you think that the dark sect members could only use on or at most two laws at once because of the accelerated growth speed? I was a prodigy taken in as a gifted student by the Great Ram sect. I am different from some nobodies!”

*WHOOSH*

Zoey laughed at Seth one last time, before launching himself at him, with his hand raised for a decisive hit.

Just as Seth saw his death approaching, his brain made it seem like the world around him had slowed down.

The defender of the lumberjack village could clearly see the hand of the enemy brimming with star power that was about to end his life…

…Zoey’s eyes gleamed with cruel joy…

…the fist of the black-haired wanderer slamming against Zoey’s chin…

Wait… What…?

*WHAM*

“GHHHHY…?!”

*BOOOOM*𝒪𝒱𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

A split second before Zoey’s attack reached Seth, Zoemi sprung into action with both laws of Aries and Capricorn active and intercepted the enemy at the last possible moment, slamming the dark sect member into the ground causing an explosion of dirt and dust.

“W-wanderer…?!”

Seth gasped in disbelief, staring at the figure of the black-haired man glaring grimly at the convulsing Zoey in the crater of his creation.

“What’s with that reaction? Are telling me that you didn’t know I was listening to this guy’s villain speech and was this cheeky just because? We should hang out more, I like people with that type of personality.”

Zoemi looked over at the shocked martial artist and raised his brows in confusion before smirking and patting his shoulder.

“Huh…?”

*thump*

Seth let out a short gasp and slumped to the ground.

“You okay there?”

Zoemi asked in a worried voice and looked over his shoulder.

“Lady Bridget! Could you check him up?”

“Of course, my boy. Wasn’t that why you catch up to us and brought me over?”

The black-haired man called and an elderly lady with her back bent like a shrimp walked from behind the closes tee at the village outskirts and approached the two supporting herself on a metal-augmented cane.

“You had time to catch up to the escaping villagers and even bring this granny back…? How long… were you watching…?”

Seth who didn’t die nor lose consciousness despite his dramatic fall, groaned, slowly looking up at the easy-going black-haired man.

“Since that guy kicked your derriere and you had that great reveal talk… This sure makes things a bit awkward…”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and answered, rubbing his chin with an awkward expression as he glanced back towards the forest.

“What… do you mean by that…?”

“Sit still, Raging Bull boy, Law of Virgo.”

Seth furrowed his brows and asked, but got shushed by grandma Bridget using a healing star power on him.