The stronger fist wins (3)

While Shui barged into the martial academy, Lily and Ryan infiltrated the tower where the mayor was imprisoned. It was the same tower where Shui had met Henry before leaving the city, but now it served as the minor treasury and prison for the invaders. With the current commotion there was no elder watching the tower, but former disciples of the Lava Stream Sect along with mercenaries bought by the Valet family were still here. Their cultivations being mid Soul Realm and above meant that the two siblings couldn't attack head-on, but their cloaks were enough to guarantee that they wouldn't be discovered.

However, in the tower there were many rooms that couldn't be accessed without going through a door blocked by a disciple or mercenary, and of course the mayor's cell was one of them. As one of the strongest former disciples, the guard had a cultivation of mid Earth Realm so he wouldn't be an easy opponent. Still, both siblings had a decent chance against him if they used their full power, but if they took too long their battle would alert others. Lily could borrow power from Shui through their oath to make it easier, but she didn't want to burden him unless absolutely necessary.

"Ryan, if I distract him, do you think you can finish him with your new technique?"

"Hmm, it's possible but the risk is rather high."

"That's fine. If it comes to it, I'll borrow young master's power and finish him myself."

"Okay."

The two nodded their heads at each other before Lily dashed towards the guard with her relic. As she was charging with this much aggression, the guard finally noticed her. He flinched at the sight of an intruder coming at him with a silver spear but hastily took out his axe to block.

Lily thrusted with the power of her charge, but the guard was only pushed back a few steps. At first he was shaken by her sudden appearance, but once he felt her attack, he chuckled at how weak it was.

"You must be crazy to come barging in here with that kind of power."

The guard charged with a dense barrier around him and swung his axe at her head. Despite his crushing power, Lily parried the swing and thrusted at one of his barrier's weak points. She wasn't able to break it on one strike, but the barrier cracked. As an expert in the use of vibration, barriers were just targets to her, but even if her skill was astonishing, without enough strength it wouldn't be that effective.

Even so, Lily could stay on equal terms against the guard. Her spear skill had improved tremendously so she wasn't inferior to the guard who was using his favoured weapon. Furthermore, the guard was used to crushing his opponents with overwhelming force, especially against someone with a lower cultivation. He wanted to rely on his barrier while focusing completely on offense, but even though she couldn't destroy his barrier in one hit, if he gave her the chance to strike a couple times the result would be different.

'Tch, I can't believe I'm struggling against someone like this.'

While Lily managed to keep up with the guard and attract his attention, Ryan focused his heart on the sword. After accepting Shui's guidance, his sword skills, which were already high, improved at the same rate as Lily's spear skills so he was only one step away from reaching the level of a sword master.

A sword master didn't necessarily have to have a high cultivation, but due to the stringent requirements to be acknowledged as a sword master the younger and weaker you were when you became one, the more talented you were believed to be. Ryan looked forward to the day when he could call himself a sword master and stand by side of the young master on his epic journey, but for now he concentrated on the task at hand.

'The sword is the ruler of my world. There is nothing my sword can't reach as long my heart can believe it.'

Like he was a whetstone for his blade, Ryan continuously sharpened it in his mind and imagined his sword cutting through the guard.

Meanwhile, the guard's increasing impatience made his swings wider and easier to handle, but Lily didn't try to push him any harder since her role was to distract him. The guard he didn't know this and simply thought that he was being mocked by his smaller opponent so he decided to take a risk. He shifted his grip position and poured his energy into the axe artifact which then grew big enough to match the width of the corridor. The guard then swung it at Lily, tearing up the building in the process. It was a foolish decision from the perspective of a guard, but he prioritised defeating the intruder over keeping the tower safe.

Lily frowned at the wreckage he caused and the fact that more guards would definitely be heading here to investigate, but dodging a straightforward attack was nothing to her. On the bright side, Ryan finished preparing his technique.

"I'm ready."

"Do it!"

"Absolute Slash!"

Despite how long his preparation took, Ryan only swung down his sword without special effects coming from it, but in this case the simplicity only made it more frightening. As if the distance between them was irrelevant, when Ryan swung down his sword both the guard's barrier and body were split into two. After using this technique, Ryan was drenched in sweat but neither of the two siblings brought it up and instead hurried into the prison.

"I still won't tell you-"

"Mayor!"

When Henry detected two presences approaching he thought that the invaders had come back to question him, but he was surprised to find who was there. Since Lily received a brief explanation from Shui about his relationship to Henry, they showed their faces so he quickly recognised Lily and realised why he could hear a commotion from inside his cell.

"Is he back?"

When Lily nodded in response, Henry's emancipated face relaxed with a gentle smile.

"Good."

Lily then released Henry from his prison with the key from the guard, but he could barely take a single step so Ryan helped him up. She was worried that this would make it harder for them to escape but then the mayor offered a solution.

"It's okay, this is my home after all. We can kick out the intruders from here."

"Really?"

After the mayor nodded in response, they carried him towards the wall which he then laid his hands on and closed his eyes. As the mayor sent his spiritual sense inside the tower, it glowed with a faint light that startled the guards who had taken over. They immediately questioned it and considered investigating the cause, but before they could take such a course of action they were flung out of the tower like mere dolls.

Whether they were in the Soul Realm or the Earth Realm not a single one of them could resist this force. Furthermore, the force wasn't considerate either. Sometimes they were smashed into walls and obstacles several times before finally being pushed out of the tower.

As Lily and Ryan sensed the presences being forced out of the tower, both of them gasped in surprise.

"Wow. Could this tower be an artifact of some kind?" Lily asked.

"That's right. This tower is the core of Cyrus and proof that my clan are the descendants of that ancient sect."

"If it's this powerful, why didn't you use it against those elders?"

In response Henry shook his head, "It's main purpose is to protect the city so it's not as effective against enemies inside the city. With this tower even the beast king would be nothing to fear, but they knew about it so they sneaked inside in advance."

"I see."

By the time their conversation ended, the three of them were the only ones left inside the tower. After taking a healing pill Henry felt his strength returning and wanted to help Shui take back the city, but hearing from the two siblings that they were on their way to save someone else he decided to tag along.