5 vs 1

Although he was the captain of the guards and a whole level above Wang Fan, Sun Jianhong could not compete with the young master before him.

Sun Jianhong had gotten to his level and position through a few lucky encounters and hard work. But compared to Wang Fan, his path had been rough and uncertain.

Meanwhile the Wang Family's techniques and tradition go far back, making Wang Fan's foundation much greater than his.

In other words, Sun Jianhong could not compare to him in technique, background, and equipment.

Only his superior cultivation and experience placed them on equal grounds. But he knew that his chances of victory were slim.

Sun Jianhong would never lose to Wang Fan in a head on fight, but he had brought his henchmen over as well.

If they were to quickly finish off Tian Kai and then gang up on him then things wouldn't go well.

With their connection to Wang Fan, Sun Jianhong was sure that all of his henchmen were at least at the first level of Qi refinement or just before that. None of them would be untrained warriors or rowdy adventurers.

He had heard many good things about Tian Kai, but even he wouldn't be able to defeat so many cultivators. At most he would take out a little more than half of them.

And if Sun Jianhong's predictions were correct, then that would leave at least four henchmen left to assist Wang Fan in battle. For him, a five versus one fight was not possible.

He was going to lose.

Swinging his scimitar down, Sun Jianhong placed all of his power into the strike. The scimitar was a very unique weapon in their city. He was lucky enough to learn scimitar techniques thanks to the old man he had met five years ago.

He didn't know the man's background but the man was powerful. It was also Sun Jianhong's first time seeing such a strange weapon.

He became immediately enamored with it and begged the old man to teach him. Yet in the end he only ever learned one skill in the year he spent learning the path of the scimitar from the man.

Sun Jianhong's grip upon his weapon tightened as Wang Fan brought up his staff and easily blocked the strike. But suddenly Sun Jianhong took one of his hands and placed it on the back of his blade.

And suddenly another slash suddenly found its way toward Wang Fan's body.

Wang Fan quickly flipped the staff in his grip over and once more obstructed the strike.

Looking up with surprise written on his face, Wang Fan found Sun Jianhong was continuing the attack.

Spinning around, his speed and momentum increased as the hand on the back of the blade pushed it forward.

"Malevolent Barrage"

It was an incredibly simple skill. The angle of the scimitar was set in a specific way so that if it failed to cut the opponent, it would be able to spin around and attack again with even more strength than before. Taking all of the momentum of the first attack and adding it to the second one.

He kept his arm on the back of the blade to give it control and if facing the enemy's attack head on he could use the arm as a support to block and push back in order to continue the assault.

Although the concept was simple, it was hellish to practice.

It took months of training just to get the proper form down. And after that Sun Jianhong had to strengthen his wrists, fix his posture, and test it out through combat.

His master said that he had barely passed the threshold to call himself a scimitar user. All he needed to do next was strengthen his foundation and learn through experience.

And right after he was kicked out of his tutelage.

Sun Jianhong never gave up the scimitar despite being told he had no talent for it. And finding information to strengthen his foundation was beyond difficult as no one else in the city used it.

But he didn't mind it. This skill and these techniques have been by his side for five years. And it hadn't failed him yet.

Wang Fan was shocked by how powerful Sun Jianhong actually was. He had always been cautious of this other faction leader, so he avoided fighting against him directly all this time.

But despite Sun Jianhong's surprising strength, Wang Fan only looked surprise.

He did not look pressured nor afraid.

"While you did put up more of a resistance than I thought, this is still all within prediction."

Wang Fan laughed coldly as he brought his arm up and used his wrist to block the next attack.

Sparks flew out as the smile on Wang Fan's face grew.

Sun Jianhong couldn't figure out why Wang Dong smiled like that until he saw a flash of light flicker from the gloves wrapped around his hand and wrist.

Finally he realized his mistake.

Sun Jianhong assumed the gloves were his usual pair that only buff him. But in actuality the glove magical treasures had been imbued with a bonus defensive and offensive ability.

No doubt another gift from Wang Mu.

"Dammit Wang Family how, how thrifty must you be with your money!"

There was no way the materials used to imbue some power into those gloves were cheap. He couldn't imagine why they were willing to spend so much money just to deal with him.

The defensive ability just increased the durability of the glove, it was the offensive ability that caused Sun Jianhong to become nervous.

The light that came from the glove felt like a full blown strike from something beyond a level five cultivator. Maybe a level six?

Whatever it was, it held the power necessary to seriously injure Sun Jianhong. But no matter how good the materials used for the imbuement were, snow leopard leather could not handle sending so much power a far distance.

That meant the strike could only be used from an extremely short range.

Yet the distance of Sun Jianhong from his scimitar was undoubtedly beyond that distance, so what was the point?

The light popped out and didn't aim for Sun Jianhong, instead it turned and truck at the weapon itself!

Sun Jianhong's blade shattered within his grip as the scimitar could not withstand the force of the attack.

And before his mind could wrap around what just happened, Wang Fan brought his staff around and slammed it into the side of Sun Jianhong's temple.

He then pulled it back and thrusted it into his kneecap, causing Sun Jianhong to fall to the ground in pain.

The captain of the guards cried out as he collapsed onto his knees. Looking up only to find the top of Wang Fan's staff aimed straight at his face.

"Well captain, sorry to say but you've lost this battle."

Sun Jianhong grunted in anger as he took the broken hilt of his blade and thrusted the pointed edges toward Wang Fan.

Wang Fan just laughed as his staff quickly disarmed the fallen guard captain and rammed into his shoulder dislocating his arm.

A cocky smirk formed across his face as he brought the staff up ready to lay the finishing blow.

With an expression of reluctance on his face, Sun Jianhong closed his eyes and accepted defeat.

As Wang Fan swung his staff staff down, an unexpected thing occured.

Another staff found its way between Wang Fan and Sun Jianhong.

"I just finished dealing with one Wang Family punk and now I have to bother with another."

The man chuckled this out as he stared at Wang Fan rebelliously.

"Who-"

Before Wang Fan could finish his sentence, two swords and a spear found themselves pointed toward his neck.

"When did you three get here?" Tian Kai was surprised to see who had suddenly appeared.

"You act like we wouldn't notice such a big event happening right outside our doorsteps." Tian Hai stood there together with Lou Lan and Lou Ning with a dangerous look in his eyes.

They had noticed the disturbance a while ago and so all of them charged out to assist with the battle.

Sun Jianhong's prediction was technically correct. In the end, it really did become a five vs one matchup.