Awakening the Divine Spark

The following two days, apart from the nightly beast attacks, were mostly eventless.

Ling Xiaotao and Shu Ying quickly became upset at Lee, who out of nowhere became almost mute. He spoke even less than Xiao Lian and the two girls decided that the only logical explanation was that he had fallen for one of them.

Neither cared for Lee in that sense, but for some reason it became an important matter. For two days they argued which one of them had broken the poor guy’s heart, but in the end agreed that it was the result of joint effort.

Lee couldn’t care less and upon return directly went back to his room. While most of the sect was busy transporting the heaps of blazebloom grass to Refining Hall, Lee sat in a meditative position, trying to understand what was he supposed to do with his life.

Victoria had become stronger. Much stronger than he could imagine. Lee didn’t know if it was the matter of her talent, or the so called divine body. Or maybe it was something any elemental master experienced when they began to cultivate according a more advanced technique.

To deal with her he needed a stronger fire power and as he was right now, there were no hopes in ever achieving that. He wasn’t willing to let go of his revenge, though.

Combining the newly found passion for studying the cultivation techniques and the old revenge, provided him with entertaining prospects in life. He had a goal and a challenging process to achieve it, except now the illusions were kind of shattered.

Obviously Victoria was still a mortal and in theory he could find a way to poison her or kill while she was asleep. But after all these years from the bottom of his heart he wished to stab the bitch in the heart while looking in her ugly red eyes.

He even played out the scenario countless times, especially after he and Xiao Lian began to train the one-stab technique. During the time on the Serrakar Plateau he guessed that he needed something stronger, but he never imagined that the gap between them has become this wide.

But then a realization struck him. What if their strength had always been this far apart, but now, after studying thousands of basic techniques, he was finally able to recognize that? And if his comprehension has grown this much, there definitely had to be a solution.

’Turns out all I needed was a moment of peace and quiet!’ Lee thought to himself with a smile.

After the revelation his mood was lifted, but to his great surprise he saw that it was already middle of the night. He had spent most of the day in deep mediation and now realized he was as dirty as when he stepped through the rift.

The stench of sulfur had soaked in both – his clothes and skin, and he had the feeling he’ll need months to wash it off.

Lee didn’t care, though. He got up, and went outside to properly wash up. If he was about to start a new Chapter in his life, it was best to start it nice and clean.

The sect was deep asleep, and trying to not wake up his neighbors, Lee dropped his dirty clothes and began to pour cold water on his head. The soap that was used in this world wasn’t as fancy as in his first couple of lives, but it still felt refreshing to generously soap himself up.

Lee didn’t know what it was that made him open his eyes despite soap getting in them, but when he did, in the pitch black darkness he saw a blurred sword stabbing at his neck.

His first thought was that Victoria has finally come to take his life. But after he, purely on instinct, managed to roll away, crushing in the nearby barrels of water, he realized there was no way she was this weak.

Indeed, there were two guys with drawn weapons, staring at him in confusion, and one of them seemed pissed. At least he sounded so.

"Go! Go! Kill as many as you can!" He gave a command, but didn’t really shout, and following it, Lee heard dozens of footsteps rushing toward the rooms where the outer disciples soundly slept.

"Alarm! Invaders!" He screamed his lungs out, and dodged the madly attacks that followed.

Lee was not the only one who noticed the attack. Similar shouts echoed through the Nethermoon sect, in both inner and outer parts. At some places the fighting was already in full swing, in some, like in Lee’s case, only began.

Unfortunately not only he was outnumbered, he was butt-naked. At the same time it served as a blessing, because he never intended to fight back, but escaped for his life.

The problem was – no matter where he ran or rolled to, he was met with a slash of sword – the attackers were all over the place. Fortunately disciples had woken up, and while some died, many were already fighting back, and with a reasonable success as well.

Even Lee managed to grab a crude, but decent sword from one of the fallen invaders and block a couple of incoming attacks.

"Stop fucking around!" One of the two guys, who had chased Lee for the last twenty breaths, shouted, and his sword lit up in red flames.

Lee’s pupils constructed, realizing there was no way for him to escape an elemental master, but he quickly decided to not give a fuck, since this was the case.

He dived in a larger skirmish of seven people fighting, on the way getting a few cuts on shoulders and back, but at the same time stabbing one of the attackers in the abdomen. The problem was that two more attackers immediately lit up in flames, and killed two of the disciples right after.

"Burn the place down!" One of the attackers shouted, "Let them learn fear!"

’Right! Fear!’ Lee realized that no matter what happened to him, Xiao Lian was probably on his way to Qin Yujian’s place. That is, if he was alive. But if he was, with the passionate attitude he probably won’t stay alive for long.

One of the attackers used a fire skill that caught the nearby building on fire, and finally seeing the scene before them, the disciples felt their hearts grow cold. They were simple outer disciples, some more talented, some less. But there were several people with their weapons covered in flames – the result of this encounter was set in stone.

Few disciples tried to run, but one shout changed the course of the skirmish in an instant, "They’re only elemental warriors! Just kill them!"

Lee recognized Jian Wuji, the prodigy from over a year ago as he charged in the three attackers who stood close to each other. From what Lee knew, the guy wasn’t eighteen yet, and in the relatively weak lighting coming from the building that was on fire, he didn’t look that dangerous.

But that was only the beginning.

Jian Wuji suddenly accelerated, and cleaved the three opponents in halves. In an instant Lee was reminded of the blood demon Emperor Sunwell turned into on the cliff in Elsdon, except this time he could recognize the young elemental master’s moves.

Indeed, during the past year Jian Wuji had ignited his wind spark, and now danced around the small battleground, wounding or killing an attacker with every move. If Valen Sunwell was brutal in his techniques, making the way he fought look terrifying, then Jian Wuji was like an artist, a painter who painted in blood and his brush was the sword.

It was captivating to witness the young man’s growth, but the play was short lived. Lee counted around two dozens attackers whom Jian Wuji killed as flies, and the skirmish was over. Some of the disciples were hurt and few killed, but the place was safe, at least for now.

Everyone could hear fighting in the distance across the whole sect, and were lost at what to do.

"Tianyu!" Jian Wuji shouted.

"Brother!" A few years younger boy walked out from the shadows.

In his right hand he held a sword that was dripping blood, but with his left he held his side. The painful grimace indicated he was hurt, but tried to hold himself straight, as if not showing weakness.

"Tianyu!" Jian Wuji’s countenance softened. He walked over to his brother and inspected the wound. Then he laughed, ruffled Tianyu’s hair, and said, "How in the world did these weaklings injure you? Were you stabbed in your sleep?"

"Sorry, brother!" Tianyu said, lowering his head.

"It’s fine!" Wuji said, "As long as you win the next competition everything will be forgiven!"

Lee watched the interaction with a smile. In was innocent and genuine. Clearly the moment the ruckus started, the older brother rushed over to make sure his younger sibling was alright.

’Right! I also kind of have one idiot to take care of!’ Lee remembered and intended to run away, but saw several shadows rapidly approaching from the side Jian Tianyu came earlier.

"Watch out!" Lee shouted, and the only thing that came to mind was to throw his sword in the directions of the attackers.

Lee knew that as long as Jian Wuji was there, it didn’t matter if he had a weapon or not. If Jian Wuji couldn’t deal with someone, he didn’t even had to try.