The Inviolable Domain

He wasn't anywhere close enough to touch any of them, but when Shui removed his barrier to punch, the force from his fist destroyed all of the spells and weapons in front of him. That force then continued to his enemies and wiped them out before they realized what happened. Their bodies were shattered and pummeled beyond recognition, but none of their corpses stained the ancient white colour of the floor or columns. As soon as they died, their bodies were converted into energy, leaving nothing behind. Shui couldn't even see their clothes or treasures.

Shui also hadn't been able to damage anything else, making it seem like no battle had taken place. Although they were enemies, seeing them die without any vestiges made Shui feel a bit uncomfortable, so he hoped that at least their souls were spared.

With the first obstacle out of the way, Shui took his time to examine the room he was in. The room was white, but there was some out of place furniture that was likely brought by the Darino Gang. At the end of the room he was currently in, there was an open corridor that led to a closed room, and there was a door attached to each wall of the corridor. Based on what the original room would look like, it didn't seem as if this place was meant to be lived in, so Shui guessed that the space wouldn't be very large. To verify his idea, Shui manipulated the wind to search the building. He wasn't able to see it directly, but he was able to feel the general structure as well as the positions of the others in the building. 

He couldn't use earth spells here, so he sealed the entrance with a wall made of his spiritual flame and then went to meet the small group heading towards him from the door at the end of the corridor. Their cultivations weren't much better than the first group, but Shui quickly noticed what gave them the confidence to face him. They were all equipped with strange gadgets, talismans, artifacts, pills and potions. Poison was a common trait among many of them, but there were other attributes such as ability restrictors and barrier breakers. Shui had to admit that getting hit by all of that could be troublesome, so he acted first. 

He created a vortex with wind manipulation to force all of them together, and then froze them by manipulating the water in the air. Feeling slightly merciful, Shui allowed them to stay alive in the giant ice chunk but used 'Seal' to ensure that they couldn't resist. He then pulled them into the room. If he decided to kill them later on, he planned to at least take them out of the domain first.

After that group was taken care of, Shui looked back at the door at the end of the corridor and saw a single armoured figure covered in enhancement items. They appeared to be in the Sky Realm, but from the colour of their energy Shui could tell that it was a false achievement created through pills and forbidden methods. They would likely never progress from this cultivation, but with the tesora-rank armaments and other items they possessed, their might likely wouldn't be any weaker than an ordinary peak Sky Realm expert without artifacts.

Although he might be able to secure a victory with just his energy and soul cultivation, Shui had no intention of taking any chances and summoned Sui in his right hand.

"Before we begin, how did you manage to find this place?"

An almost mechanical voice came from the armoured figure with a silvery-blue trident. Shui had no need to respond to him, but he answered anyway.

"I read the memories of one of your people."

"Impossible! The memories of this place should be heavily restricted in the minds of all who have been here."

"I'm not sure what measures you put in place, but even if I didn't know what was here, finding this place wasn't that hard."

The man's memory hadn't clearly indicated that this was the headquarters of the Darino Gang, but it seemed obvious to Shui since he had also kept fragments of what emotions the man felt when he came here. Shui didn't know if the flaw in how their memory was sealed was intentional or not, but he was glad for it since he probably would have had a hard time finding this place otherwise. 

"It looks like I'll have to do some cleaning after this. In exchange for this information, I'll give you a chance to submit."

"You almost made me laugh. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've had a decent adversary so the most I can offer you is a painless death."

"Hmph."

Despite the words of either side, neither Shui nor the armoured figure, Darino, truly believed that their victory was certain. From Darino's perspective, Shui had managed to subdue everyone else with at most two moves and didn't seem to have shown more than a glimpse of his true power. It was also hard to detect cultivation without spiritual sense so he couldn't get a grasp of Shui's limit. He was the boss of the Darino Gang, but if they had met anywhere else he would have been planning to escape to ensure that he survived. However, he couldn't afford to abandon this space.

Shui knew more about Darino than Darino knew about him, and that was why he knew he couldn't be careless. In a straightforward comparison, Shui was more powerful, but with his resources Darino was like a jack-in-the-box, so Shui had to be wary of his tricks. Even so, a smile appeared on his face as he prepared to use his body cultivation to the fullest extent. He had no idea how much force he could output, but he hoped Darino was able to survive for as long as possible.

Though there was air inside the room, it remained still unless disturbed like everything else, so no external stimuli would signal the start of their battle. While fearing the unknown, Darino made the first move. A simple black sword appeared in his free hand, which he then threw at Shui. Shui knew that this was a trap, so he punched at it before it reached him. The sword exploded with the force of an advanced spell on impact and created a dense smokescreen, but the power was still too weak to damage Shui or the environment.

Using the smokescreen as a cover, Darino charged at Shui with his trident. It was useless since Shui's eyes couldn't be stopped by mere smoke, but he held back his reaction until Darino was in front of him. 

With force that could have shattered a mountain, Shui stomped and assumed a stance before launching his left fist at the trident. When both sides collided, there was a loud noise that shook their bodies but couldn't disturb their surroundings. Darino was surprised that Shui dared to meet his weapon with just his fist, but that surprise drastically increased when he noticed a crack forming on the trident's central prong.

"What?!"

Darino immediately backed away, but the crack travelled up the trident and only stopped near the centre of the shaft.

"You can take a hit, good. Now, how about a strike from my blade?"

From that one clash, Darino became certain a straightforward battle would lead to his defeat, but he didn't despair because he had no intention of making this a fair fight to begin with.