Chapter 123: Guest Reception (2)

The Flame Metal Sect erupted into chaos as a Core Formation Stage cultivator suddenly appeared. This should have been cause for celebration, given their desperate need for high-level cultivators… but alas, they had gotten off the wrong foot.

-Hahaha! So you were alive, bastard! I’m truly grateful! Thank you! Thank you for being alive! Kuhahaha! I trust you haven’t forgotten the past? Well then, now you can die.

Of course, Fang Lunyi was not alone in his hostility.

-Come out at once!

-How dare a criminal show their face here? You’ve got some nerve!

-Are you ignoring the Flame Metal Sect? You should bow your head and apologize this very instant!

-Do not force our hand.

The Foundation Building elders stormed forward in a commotion.

Of course, the hostilities could have turned into a celebration depending on the outcome, but given how events unfolded…

-Come hither, you Immortal Realm rabble!

Ssss-

-?

-!!

-G-good heavens!

-Co-Core Formation Stage…?!”

-Impossible! I clearly remember his realm ten years ago…

-Aargh!

-Koff!

The moment Karlstein partially released his Spiritual Power, the color drained from their faces.The Qi Refining cultivators even suffered internal injuries simply from his deliberate emission of spiritual pressure.

Perhaps this was why the Flame Metal cultivators fell silent. They realized something had gone terribly wrong.

Yet only one among them could not accept this reality.

-That’s impossible! This must be some kind of sorcery!! Die!!

Fang Lunyi, desperately suppressing his shock, ended up leaping forward. He pulled out three talismans and hurled them immediately.

The talismans emitted light, transforming into snakes with terrifying fangs, but…

“Ahh, talisman techniques?”

Quickly losing interest, Karlstein rummaged through his robes.

“I wonder how effective this will be.”

Swish-

Karlstein scattered hundreds of talismans into the air with a casual wave of his hand.

-!!

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-

Like popcorn, the talismans exploded in a continuous chain reaction, engulfing Fang Lunyi’s entire body. They were merely low-grade Incendiary Talismans, but there were hundreds of them.

“Arghhhhhh!”

Ignoring Fang Lunyi’s screams, Karlstein surveyed the scene, having to suppress a laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

“Well now, you’re all pretty quick to catch on, huh? Cunning too. Are all cultivators like this?”

The Flame Metal cultivators had come for him in high spirits, yet now they made themselves inconspicuous. They would not intervene until the crazed Fang Lunyi tested the waters for them.

“Aren’t you in the same sect as this guy?”

Now everyone was wide-eyed and speechless.

“But I still gotta set an example.”

As Karlstein moved to act, the cultivators panicked.

“I ask that you s-stop!”

“You musn’t! Elder Fang is Grandmaster Fang’s—!”

“Surely he wouldn’t…!”

“You can’t do that!”

Yeah no, I can.

Sliiice-

A clean cutting sound brought down silence.

Thud.

Fang Lunyi’s severed head hit the ground.

A small dagger carefully flew back into Karlstein’s robes amidst the smoke. He shook the blood off the blade.

“Th-this can’t be…”

“How will you take responsibility…?”

“Oh, oh…”

“He was the sole direct descendant of a Nascent Soul Grandmaster…!”

“What in the world…”

“Unbelievable.”

Everyone was thrown into confusion.

“Huh? What’s wrong with these guys? Old man, is Core Formation really superior? Or is it a lesser realm than I thought?”

How could they ignore the Core Formation Stage enemy right in front of them and worry about something else?

[…You deal with it. It seems the boy you just slaughtered was no ordinary person.]

“Fang Lunyi was the direct descendant of Great Grandmaster Fang Yan, sir.”

“Lunyi’s Great Ancestor… Let’s see… the Nascent Soul Stage that comes after Core Formation? But why are you suddenly speaking so formally?”

“There are… many eyes on us. And that’s not the important thing here…”

The Flame Metal Sect cultivators murmured in confusion.

Karlstein still could not understand. The Nascent Soul Stage might be above Core Formation Stage, but…

They’re distracted in my presence? I sure am being underestimated.

Karlstein nodded to himself.

Yeah, that’s not what you people should be worried about. Why don’t you pay a little more attention to me?

As he decided to take serious action, various Dharma Tools began to fly out of his robes.

“W-what the?”

“What in the heavens…?”

“I mean, how…?”

There were dozens of them. But possessing dozens of Dharma Tools was somewhat understandable.

Whoosh-

Using multiple Dharma Tools simultaneously, however, was a different story altogether.

“Arghhhh!”

“My, my eyes!”

“Ghaagh!”

“Koff!”

A massacre ensued. Numerous heads went flying in an instant.

Everyone froze as blood sprayed like a shower of splattering tomatoes.

“Ahh. To start with, I made examples of those who yammered about killing me or whatnot.”

Fear began to creep into the wide-open eyes of the cultivators present.

“He’s in-insane.”

“How could he do this to us inside our own sect…?”

“Ohh…”

One of them eagerly begged for forgiveness.

“Se-senior! We were wrong! Please forgive—“

“Elder Sun!”

But he could not finish his sentence.

Splat-

Elder Sun’s head exploded before he could.

They all stared at Karlstein, astonished by his actions that were akin to those of a madman.

“Huh?”

Karlstein, on the other hand, wore an expression of indignance, much to the dismay of the Flame Metal Sect elders.

Is he truly insane? What in blazes is he indignant about?

“Mm? Oh, it wasn’t me. I didn’t do that, you know?”

Then who…?

Suddenly…

BOOOM-

“Argh!”

“Koff!”

“Ugh, my body!”

The Foundation Building elders floating in the air were suddenly crushed by an invisible force, falling like autumn leaves.

“How much shame do you fools intend to bring to the Flame Metal Sect?!”

An old man, sporting gray hair braided into two ponytails, slowly descended from high above.

“Woah… That hairstyle sure is… brave.”

Twin tails, of all things?

“Senior Master Shen!”

“Gah. Please forgive us…”

“Urgh.”

Ssss-

A faint mist began to form around them, dimming their vision.

“Hmm.”

Senior Master Shen was one of the few Mid-Stage Core Formation cultivators supporting the Flame Metal Sect.

The elderly man stroked his beard, surveying the surroundings. His eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing six corpses of his sect’s disciples.

Finally, Shen’s piercing gaze fell upon Karlstein.

“It appears you have no mercy, Fellow Cultivator.”

His eyes were tinged with anger, yet Karlstein remained at ease despite receiving such a fierce look.

“Should I take that tone too?”

[This psycho still has not come to his senses…]

Karlstein cleared his throat before speaking.

“Ahem-hem. Fellow Cultivator Shen, do you think I should have forgiven the insolence of those fools?”

Karlstein squared his shoulders, smiling serenely.

“Haha. If so, I would be disappointed.”

“This happened because these children did not know of your skill. You would have received a welcoming instead had you revealed your realm from the beginning.”

“What’s done is done. Late as it is, I wouldn’t mind having a constructive dialogue starting now.”

“While that does sound tempting….”

After a subtly tense battle of nerves, Shen seemed to have made up his mind.

“I will personally see if you have the skill to mess with our sect in our own territory!”

“Haha. For all your lofty talk, you’re quite fiery!”

Before Karlstein could finish speaking, the Flame Metal Sect cultivator made the first move.

“Fire-Metal Restraint Formation!”

Following the old man’s cry, the faint mist in the surrounding thickened into a red haze that seemed to contain fire.

Before Karlstein could analyze the mist, Shen commenced his attack with a sharp grunt.

CLANG!

Golden spikes shot up from the ground, aiming for Karlstein’s heart.

CLANG!

Although Karlstein blocked the spikes using his Spiritual Power like telekinesis…

CLANG- CLANG- CLANG-

The number of golden spikes increased as time passed.

“Whew….”

[You have not properly acquired any techniques besides your cultivation method and puppet techniques, after all.]

“That’s true.”

Despite Karlstein’s relaxed voice, the situation was rapidly deteriorating.

CLANG- CLANG- CLANG- SWISH-

He dodged frantically, but one spike grazed his earlobe.

[Careful. He seems skilled for a lesser realm cultivator.]

“Yeah. I didn’t expect him to throw the first punch so quickly.”

Metal spikes attacked suddenly in the red mist, which was so hot it was hard to breathe. It seemed to be some kind of formation technique.

“Don’t formations usually take some time?”

[Of course they do.]

In other words, Shen had prepared for this attack even before intervening in the situation.

The old man’s voice echoed through the mist.

“I hope that meager skill is not all you have after tarnishing the Flame Metal Sect’s reputation?”

A hint of anger seeped through his mocking tone. Clearly, he had been riled up.

“Hahaha. We’ll see.”

The enemy’s Spiritual Power was far below Karlstein’s. But faced with a fully prepared formation attack, even pouring several times more Spiritual Power into defense was not enough to block it effectively.

It’s stronger than I expected.

Unlike Karlstein, who simply emitted Spiritual Power and used it like telekinesis, the opponent’s Spiritual Power was achieving several times the effect through cultivation techniques.

CLANG- CLANG- CLANG-

But even so…

“I’m glad there’s so much to learn.”

“What’s that? You should not have the leisure for nonsense right now.”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Karlstein suddenly emitted Spiritual Power, creating multiple layers of a low-level defensive technique, buying time to catch his breath.

Soon after, Shen’s surprised voice was heard.

“What ridiculous Spiritual Power…. How can this be!”

His surprise quickly faded, though.

“Even so, you are simply spewing out Spiritual Power and using it like a child. All you can do is hold out for a moment!”

CLANG- CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Golden spikes filled the surroundings in an instant, attacking relentlessly!

[Brat… stop playing around. If you are not careful, Yihong and Yuyu might get caught up in this.]

“Haha, alright.”

Moments later, Karlstein’s hair began to defy gravity, rising upward. He exhaled deeply, and began unleashing his Spiritual Power without limit. He had only released 20% of it until now.

An enormous amount of Spiritual Power, 17 times that of a cultivator at the same realm, mercilessly filled the surroundings.

“Wh-what is this…!”

Shen’s voice was clearly more surprised than before.

“Hmm. I guess about 10 times is enough to break through without cultivation techniques.”

PZT- PZZT-

The formation screamed as it reached its limit.

“Doesn’t this mean techniques alone can produce 10 times the power of Spiritual Power?”

[Formations are particularly powerful in that aspect, so do not expect too much.]

That’s still something.

Karlstein, previously on the defensive, broke into a broad smile and began unleashing bursts of Spiritual Power at random.

[Why are you not taking out those bizarre Dharma Tools of yours?]

“Mhm, I still have some leeway, so I’ll try with just Spiritual Power for now.”

[Ugh….]

PZZZT- KABOOM-

As the Puppet Demonic Warlord sighed, the formation shattered completely. Chilling Spiritual Power swirled around Karlstein, grinding everything in the vicinity.

And the moment Karlstein clenched his fist…

POP-

With a sound like a balloon bursting, his flying adversary dropped miserably to the ground.

Thud-

“Ahh…. This world sure has a lot of use.”

The other Flame Metal cultivators, who had retreated far when Shen appeared, trembled in fear.

“Anyone wanna be next?”

No one dared to challenge Karlstein, who stood at the center of the tremendous storm of Spiritual Power.