The Tables Turned

When Fen Moji limp body fell to the ground, everyone stood completely still and watched the grizzly spectacle with only one thing on their minds.

How?

The one to break the silence was Mesa chuckling to himself. When a concerned Burning Heaven Clan Hall Elder ran up to Fen Moji to check up on confirmed what Fen Duanhun dreaded, he stared at Mesa with bloodshot eyes, a snarl on his face like a wolf and said in a low growling tone with so much venom in his voice that it could rival snake's. "You bastard. I will kill you!"

Shooting forwards like a comet, throwing all caution to the wind, Fen Duanhun put all his power into this sword. The way he shot forwards, he looked like a comet of purple flames barreling down at Mesa. And his sword cleaving through the air, roaring like a dragon wreathed in flames of purple fire was coming down on Mesa's head.

Mesa for his part, seeing Fen Duanhun coming at him in slow motion, didn't make an attempt to move out of the way or even teleport away. He simply put up his right hand in an effort to catch Fen Duanhun's blade. At the moment of impact, an explosion occurred. For a moment, everyone within the Burning Heaven Clan could feel the quaking of the earth and the rumbling of a crashing thunder. When the dust had subsided, the aftermath shocked everyone there. Because there, right there, was Mesa standing there with Fen Duanhun sword caught in his right hand with nary a nick or scorch on him. Exerting his full might, one could see the veins bulging in Fen Duanhun's face and neck as he attempted push the blade down at Mesa, but Mesa was like an immovable object holding on to Fen Duanhun's sword. Looking into Mesa's face with eyes filled with naught but hate, he failed to notice the change that had occurred to Mesa. His eyes that were sporting the Mangekyo Sharingans had a ring of yellow light glowing around his pupils.

"I've had my fun, but it's time to get serious." Said Mesa in a low whisper tone, but somehow resonating within the minds of everyone present there. Next thing they knew, Mesa shattered Fen Duanhun's sword in grip and finished it up by encasing his left fist in a quake bubble and delivering a punch straight into Fen Duanhun's stomach, who had barely even processed Mesa shattering his sword. Spitting a jet of blood, Fen Duanhun could feel his internal organs being crushed to a pulp, not able to comprehend what just happened. Bent over from the pain, he looked down and saw Mesa's fist buried deep in his gut.

Suddenly, a deafening roar of primal rage sounded out across the Burning Heaven Valley. Looking at its source, Mesa saw Fen Yijue, frothing at the mouth, his eyes burning with insensate rage, the aura of murderous intent he sent out sensed by those who were too weak to stand in its presence shattered their minds. Those Burning Heaven Clan disciples who saw him and whose minds managed to stay intact, were cowering at the sight and convinced that their Grand Clan Master had somehow transcended his mortal human form and turned into a demon of murder and hatred and rage. And this… demon, was barreling towards Mesa who calmly stood his ground.

Having lost his mind to the rage within, the only thing on Fen Yijue's mind was to kill Mesa. What happened next burned itself into the minds of all those present. Gone was Mesa, moving faster than anyone could perceive and followed by a gut wrenching scream of pain. When the source of said scream became apparent, to their horror they saw that it was Grand Clan Master Fen Yijue who had screamed like that on account of Mesa's hand boring through his stomach and out through his back crackling with lightning. When the pain of being gored through the stomach had shook Fen Yijue out of his mad berserker rage, he was quickly losing consciousness. The last thing he saw were Mesa's Mangekyo Sharingans with a ring of yellow light glowing around the pupils and the last thing he heard was the sound hundreds of chirping birds.

Stunned, completely and utterly stunned. Everyone was just stunned at what just happened. Even Fen Ziya whose rage was moments before seething like boiling metal has now evaporated like snow in a desert and all he was left with was sheer disbelieve at what just happened. The whole time, they were the ones that had Mesa backed into a corner and on the cusp of victory if not for that most infuriating speed of his. And now, at the drop of a hat, it was all gone. First when Mesa had, by some fluke, killed Elder Fen Moji, as unrealistic as that should be seeing as how his strength was still being suppressed. But it was quickly becoming apparent that it wasn't a fluke when in quick succession he knocked out Clan Master Fen Duanhun with a single devastating punch to the gut. And now with a hand wreathed in lightning he brought Grand Clan Master Fen Yijue close to death.

"You… y-… y-you fools! What are you doing! Suppress his power right now!" Screamed Fen Ziya at the ones keeping the Heaven's Fire Suppression Formation active, convinced that it had to somehow be their faults even when it didn't make any sense.

"Don't bother with it." Said Mesa calmly as he reached for the collar of purple flames, and contrary to what happened earlier when he touched it, yanked it off causing a Profound Energy blowback to the ones keeping the Heaven's Fire Suppression Formation causing them all to spit out a torrent of blood and pass out. Those who were strong enough managed to barely hold on to consciousness together with everyone else were witness to Mesa no longer holding back and showing off his true strength at level 7 Emperor Profound Realm. And predictably, they did not take this revelation very well.

But off to the side where the real Mesa was standing next to Cang Yue and hypnotized and restrained Fen Juecheng. From beginning to end they have witnessed this fight all the while veiled behind an illusion that obscured them from the outside world. And maintaining a telepathic connection to the Mesa clone fighting the Burning Heaven Clan, the real Mesa knew what he was doing and why he did it. And he told this to Cang Yue who, after the indignation and hell she suffered at the hands of the Burning Heaven Clan and especially Fen Juecheng, was smiling gleefully imagining the despair on their faces once the curtain were pulled and it was revealed that their position of superiority was but a figment of their imagination and that from the very beginning, they were at the mercy of Mesa and being toyed with.

Like a sports commentator giving viewers at home a play-by-play of a game, here Mesa was giving Cang Yue a play-by-play and explaining everything that was happening on the ground, including the Mesa clone's sudden change in behavior. As Mesa was watching the Mesa clone trying to find a way to push himself to become stronger without relying on the overpowered weapons he already had, he saw that the Mind Stone and Power Stone were glowing before had heard a sudden notification from JARVIS

*DING ["Congratulations sir, you have just unlocked the 'Super Perception' skill. This skill makes it that one's speed at which their brains can collect and process information from all their senses is vastly increased."]

'Ah, so that's what happened.' Thought Mesa. 'The Mind Stone gave him, and by extension me, the Super Perception skill while the Power Stone strengthened his body so it could keep up with the speed of it heightened mind.'

"Mesa, look!" Said Cang Yue in an excited tone as she pulled on Mesa's arm and pointed towards the clone Mesa. "Your clone is finally gonna show them your true power."

And like she said, clone Mesa just used the Rasengan against Fen Moji and hit him in the right cheek with it and broke his neck. Soon afterwards, he had taken down Fen Duanhun with a tremor fist to the stomach and Fen Yijue with a Chidori through his gut. And lastly, he stopped pretending he was weakened and showed off his true strength.

"Cang Yue, my love, it's time for us to show ourselves." Said Mesa whilst he also sent a telepathic message to the clone.

Back at the site of the battle. The entire Burning Heaven Clan were frozen in their tracks when the clone Mesa had shown his true power, unable to comprehend what just happened. Of course, there were many that refused to believe it and all it took was one single look from the clone Mesa to make them cower in fright and forcibly accept it. Soon afterwards came the questions of what he is and how he got so strong so quickly, how did he manipulate his own strength level to make himself look weaker and why he did that to begin with if he was so strong that he could defeat them from the very beginning.

In response, clone Mesa simply held out his hand to recall Mjolnir back into his hand. After that, he threw the hammer into the distance as he said. "My job here is at an end. He will answer your questions."

Confused at who this 'he' is and what job the Mesa clone was talking about, they were surprised when they saw that the hammer that the Mesa clone had thrown into the distance was caught by a hand that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. And when the rest of the body holding the hammer was revealed, suffice to say that the Burning Heaven Clan has had enough of all the surprises being thrown their way.

"Now I know what you want to say." Said Mesa as he was revealed with Cang Yue next to him and Fen Juecheng behind him.

"But save yourselves the trouble because I won't be answering any of your questions. Instead, I'll be doing this." Said Mesa as he simply snapped his fingers. With that the Mesa clone suddenly started to turn into strings bit by bit and untangle before it shot up into the sky and came back down in the form of a birdcage. And in their stupor from everything that happened, none of them even tried to escape while the birdcage was being deployed.

"Now that we are done with this, it's time for you to undergo your long awaited punishment." Said Mesa as he signaled to Cang Yue who immediately decked Fen Juecheng with punch to the jaw. Immediately, Fen Ziya roared at Cang Yue for daring to touch their Young Master and flew towards her. It was only when he hit the strings of the birdcage and got lacerated did he, and everyone else, realize the gravity of their current situation.

"As you can see." Said Mesa as he walked up to where Fen Ziya was crying out in pain and clutching the wound on his face. "These 'bars' that make up the birdcage that holds you all prisoner right now are made out of razor sharp, wafer thin and indestructible strings. This is your punishment. As for your Young Master, his punishment is a special one."

As expected, every one of the Burning Heaven Clan attacked the bars of the birdcage in an effort to get out and failing obviously and shouting all kinds of threats and curses and insults at Mesa and Cang Yue who simply ignored them.

"You bitch!" Roared Fen Juecheng as he got up, clutching his painful jaw. The genjutsu he was under had worn off with Cang Yue's punch. "How dare you strike me! I am your husband and you will obey me!"

What he got in return was another punch from Cang Yue, and this time she broke his nose. Rolling around on the ground, screaming in pain and holding his broken bleeding nose, Fen Juecheng was yelling 'bitch' at Cang Yue and promising her that he would beat her senseless for this audacity.

"Shut the fuck up you little pussy ass bitch!" Said Cang Yue as she delivered a kick to his balls and kept on kicking him. And in between kicks she said. "In case your fucking dumbass is too blind to see, I am literally beating the shit out of you like the filthy shit that you are!"

In the meantime, the Burning Heaven Clan members seeing that they couldn't force their way out of the birdcage started launching all kinds of massive flame attacks at Cang Yue. Having foreseen this, Mesa had deployed a bounded field around them that protected them from all outside attacks. And as the cherry on top, he made it so that all of the sound inside this bounded field was amplified greatly. This had the added bonus effect of Cang Yue's punches and kicks and Fen Juecheng's screams of pain reverberating throughout the Burning Heaven Valley.

When Fen Juecheng had managed to get back up, besides being completely enraged, and tried to call upon his own Profound Energy and attack Cang Yue. But immediately he noticed that no matter what he tried he couldn't call upon his Profound Energy.

"Having a little trouble using your powers." Said Cang Yue in mocking rhetorical fashion.

"You!" Said Fen Juecheng angrily as he pointed at Cang Yue. "What have you done to me? Answer me now woman!"

"Gladly. Remember that ring you guys put on my hand to block me from using any of my Profound Energy. Guess where that ring is?" Said Cang Yue with a genuine smile on her face which put a look of fear on Fen Juecheng's face. Looking at his fingers, he saw that same ring on his right ring finger.

"Oh no." Whispered Fen Juecheng to himself.

"Oh yeah." Said Cang Yue as she grabbed Fen Juecheng by his hair pulled his head down and drove her knee straight into his face with full force.