"I actually don't know, but my gut feeling told me that somehow, there's a mother and a child connected to all of this," Soft Oracle said.

For a while, the people around Soft Oracle frowned. But then, while the elder decided that this information was worth thinking about, it did not benefit their current situation.

"Let me ask you something more important," Elder Wutian said. "Does your gut feeling tell you that at the end of the day, we will triumph?"

"To be honest, my gut feeling is screaming, and I feel as if I'm going to suffocate from this feeling. But, I believe that this situation is not entirely hopeless. I feel that as long as we fight, we can win."

Upon hearing her words, all the people around her straightened their backs. The man with blue eyes grinned ferociously. The elder looked calm, but people who knew him could tell that he was pleased with her words. For others, her words were like good news that would guarantee their victories. Of course, all of them knew that while Soft Oracle confirmed that they could win, it did not mean that they would be safe. The resistance could win the battle, but they could die in the process. That was why, while they were happy with her words, in their hearts, they tried to rein in their emotions so they would not become too overconfident.

Cangxuan Wutian decided it was enough chit-chat.

"We will talk about your feelings later," he said to Soft Oracle and led the group to the center of the giant circular room.

The elder then ordered the others to take several steps back. Several doors stood before them, each leading to a different room below. Three enemies warranted caution, and it seemed they would need to split their group further if they wanted to kill them. But there was a better method than splitting the group.

Cangxuan Wutian began to cycle his qi. Tongues of flame emerged from his body, as if his body were made from burning firewood. Then, he spread his feet wide, lowered his center of gravity until his stance was perfect, and began clenching his right hand.

As he did so, fire covered his right fist, but as he clenched harder, the fire intensified, making the wind rushing around him. A moment later, instead of fire, a bright orange light enveloped Cangxuan Wutian's right hand. Its glow was blinding and emitted a fearsome presence, as if his fist could tear apart the world. A torrent of wind swirled around his fist and his body.

"Prepared," the elder said to the rest of them.

Upon hearing his order, they all began to cycle their qi. Even Soft Oracle tried to activate her enhancement technique. At first, they thought the elder was trying to destroy the floor so they could descend toward their enemies. But as the elder's fist grew brighter and stronger, his posture sank lower, and a whistling sound began to hum, they realized that this attack's purpose was not merely to create a path for them, but to launch an initial attack that would eliminate every enemy below in one shot.

"C-crazy!" the man with blue eyes and blue hair said. He knew the elder was strong; in the past, he had been on par with even his father. Since he was an old man now, he had thought that meant he had become weaker, but this attack was anything but weak. His qi felt boundless. "How strong is that fist?"

But instead of anyone answering his rhetorical question, Soft Oracle's eyes suddenly opened wide, and she shouted as hard as she could. "Elder! Unleash your attack now!"

The elder brought his fist down. The wind around him raged and the whistle intensified, sounding more and more like a high-pitched scream. His right fist was so blinding that it was hard to believe it was a fire-based attack. Whether Soft Oracle's shout had prompted the attack remained unclear, but the timing was perfect. Even before his fist touched the ground, the torrent of wind he created shattered the floor into a perfect circle. The floor was so smooth that it seemed the hole had always been there. A cloud of red dust descended like a red ghost, hitting the three figures and pushing them down.

Upon seeing them, the elder smiled fearsomely. "With Soft Oracle on our side, your doom is nothing but guaranteed!"

Their eyes widened, as if surprised by this sudden attack. In truth, they were trying to unleash sneak attacks and were flying toward the floor—or rather, roof—to launch their assault when the hole appeared, and the elder suddenly saw them.

One of them was a woman with red hair and blue eyes. She wore an alluring red dress that revealed her shoulders, cleavage, and some of her thighs. Her lips were red as blood, and she emitted white mist, as if her body temperature were unnaturally high. Her eyes were wide for only a split second before they narrowed.

The second figure was a petite woman. Her hair was cut short, and instead of a cultivator robe, she wore clothes similar to a monk's, though black. Her eyes were as black as a pool of ink, she had dark bags under them, and her hands held two short daggers embraced by shadow.

The other was a bald, wrinkly old man with fire wings on his back. He wore no robe, only white pants, and while his body was rather slim, it was full of taut muscles. Of the three, he was the calmest. His eyes did not widen but instead crinkled into a mirthless smile when facing Cangxuan Wutian.

"Long time no see, old fossil," the bald man said.

Cangxuan Wutian's eyes focused, and instead of answering the greeting, he unleashed his terrifying fist attack accompanied by a roaring shout. "Perish, you goddamn fiends!"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

His fist hummed stronger, and then, when it reached a frequency so high that mortals could not hear it, a giant pillar of flame leaped from the elder's fist. Its size was enormous. The circular room they were in had a radius of several dozen meters. The elder stood in the middle of the room, and the floor below him and tens of meters around him turned into fine dust and burned away, leaving the elder standing in the empty air. The fire pillar let out a mighty rumble as it descended, and the elder's face twisted into a raging fiend, as if his calm, wizened face were a mere facade.

The three elders of the Nether Lotus Sect instantly moved, knowing this ferocious attack could kill them. Bewitching Princess turned into white mist and pulled herself back. Graceful Phoenix flapped his fiery wings and desperately flew back. Blood Moon threw one of her daggers to the side, a strand of blackness connecting her to the dagger, and then the dagger pulled Blood Moon aside, desperately trying to dodge this mighty attack.

Cangxuan Wutian roared as he unleashed his attack. Though the three of them tried to dodge, his mighty fire pillar ultimately swallowed them all.

The elder maintained the attack for a few more seconds, trying to burn those three fiends into ash, before finally his attack receded, and he leaped from the gaping hole in the center of the floor. As Elder Wutian breathed heavily, white smoke floated all around him.

"Is it over? Are they dead?" the man with blue hair and blue eyes asked.

"No," the elder shook his head. While his attack had swallowed them, they would not die that easily. After all, the three of them were elders of the Nether Lotus Sect. The most his attack could do was weaken them.

As if the heavens agreed with his assessment, a shadow suddenly moved in his peripheral vision. Its movement was swift; in less than a heartbeat, that pool of darkness arrived right below him. He looked down. A woman emerged from that darkness and extended a dagger wreathed in darkness toward his neck. At the same time, dozens of red fireballs materialized in the room, and from each ball, condensed fire shot not only at him but also at his group. Mist also began to pour from the hole, as if a great wind pushed it from below, trying to envelop the room.

Cangxuan Wutian's eyes darted around him. While the dagger came closer to his neck, the fire attacks closed in on him and his group, and the mist began spreading, the elder cycled his qi so rapidly that in a blink of an eye, the cycle completed, and his power flared. Fire erupted around him, making him look like a demon from hell, and he bellowed.

"Formation one!"

The five people behind him moved instantly.

At this point, the true battle between the resistance and the Nether Lotus Sect inside the red palace finally began.

The elder swiftly moved aside, making the dagger miss by centimeters. Then, he swiftly swung his feet, intending to crush Blood Moon's head. Simultaneously, his whole body emitted brilliant fire, and the condensed fire from the dozens of floating fireballs began to curve, as if space around them bent. Instead of targeting everyone, the brilliant condensed fires came at him. As Blood Moon dove into her shadow, successfully dodging his attack, all the fire struck the elder. He staggered a little, then smiled widely.

"Fool! You think fire can harm me?"

Then, the fire flowed into his body, and the flames that enveloped Cangxuan Wutian burned brighter. He kicked the floor and moved toward Blood Moon. She had retreated to the side of the room where the shadow was most prominent. He slammed his fiery fist into the ground where a patch of shadow, darker than the rest, lay. The floor shattered. The room shook. The impact threw Blood Moon from the shadow, and she spat blood. Seeing this, the elder moved once again, intending to kill his first adversary.

Blood Moon tried to move. The elder held his punch, and then, a word reverberated in his mind. "Left!"

The elder smiled, kicked the ground, and launched himself to the left, fist extended, as if he wanted to punch the air beside Blood Moon. But then, as if Blood Moon herself wanted to die, she suddenly appeared there with eyes wide, and his fiery fist landed right on her face. Bone crunched; cracks followed. But before the elder could unleash another attack, the spreading mist began to form itself into one large crescent shape and shot toward his neck. The elder's smile faltered, and he reluctantly moved aside, missing a chance to kill his enemy, while the mist blade hit the floor and dispersed.

Formation one was a simple yet effective strategy. This formation simply let the elder rampage while the others supported him. Lady Oracle's function was already obvious; there was a healer among their group, a cultivator with several mental techniques, a cultivator who could discern opportunity and give valuable support, as well as another fighter who could function as an attacker or defender.

They had prepared several formations in advance, but by far, formation one was the most promising.

Using this formation, the fight continued. Cangxuan Wutian, using his fire and his tremendous physical body, continued to attack Blood Moon and Graceful Phoenix. Bewitching Princess either transformed into mist or hid somewhere, so he could not attack her, but that was a problem for later. After all, he had two targets to kill.

Lady Oracle continued to whisper directions, making him land more attacks than in his usual fights. His other companions used their talents to help, sending mental attacks that made his opponents slow down, growing vines that covered several holes in the ground and created distractions, and even helped him execute several pincer attacks. For all intents and purposes, they were winning. Yet, the elder felt that something was wrong.

Graceful Phoenix relentlessly attacked the elder and his companions. His attacks ranged from simple fire projectiles to elaborate fire phoenixes that spat torrents of fire. His attacks were strong, and if not for Cangxuan Wutian's fire affinity and techniques, those fires would have fried his companions. Blood Moon, who was the most injured from the rest of his enemy and was his main target also tried to land her attacks on him, yet there was not even a single scratch on him. The mist spread wider and became thicker as time went on, but thanks to his and Graceful Phoenix's fire attacks, the mist struggled to spread.

This fight continued smoothly, too smoothly.

The elder's attacks often landed, grinding the enemy down little by little to their ultimate defeat, yet a growing wrongness still gnawed at his heart.

"Lady Oracle!" he shouted, hoping to gain insight from her.

Truth be told, she too felt the wrongness that the elder felt. Moreover, unlike the elder, who felt uncomfortable from it, Soft Oracle felt it more prominently. The weird feeling she experienced grew stronger each second, as if a knife had stabbed her stomach and the one who stabbed it twisted it to inflict ultimate pain, yet she could not pinpoint its source. Worse, she felt that as this feeling grew, her gut feeling that told her they could win if they endured also grew stronger. It was as if her gut feeling had split in two, and each was blind to the other.

It left her deeply confused.

But then, around a minute later, Cangxuan Wutian suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream. The air trembled; the fire flickered out from his body.

And she realized that something was bound to go from good to bad, and then to worse.

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