Book 9: Part 3 – Revelation of Power

Over the next two years, Ace and his group focused on their training whilst Kannal took on an apprentice.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to protect Qimai and her brother forever, he decided to train Qimai so that she'd be able to protect herself.

Thankfully, she was quite the talent herself. Although not quite as talented as Kannal and the other former disciples of the Yin-Yang Pavilion, she still had a high affinity to the law of the wind, and when balanced with the fact that they were in the Celestial Plane where the elemental essence was infinitely denser, it was no wonder why her progress was so impressive.

Still, the thing Kannal was most pleased with was her work ethic and dedication. What she lacked in talent, she more than made up for with perseverance.

Aside from that, Ace and the others focused almost all of their time on their respective training, with the other residents from the town not doing much to disturb them, aside from taking peaks at the Amira, Alissa, Faye, and Yulana, each of whom was a world toppling beauty.

Still, because each of them was a Full God, there weren't many who dared to approach them, and even for those who did, they were pretty much completely ignored. Even the Chief's right hand – Winerith – the town's only other remaining High God, was ignored. Still, because it was the presence of Ace and the others that was keeping the other two local towns from attacking them, Winerith didn't dare to go too far in his actions for fear of driving them away.

It had to be remembered that although High-Gods were seen as the top end of power for forces like these, it was the Full Gods that were seen as the biggest reliance and with the addition of ten new Full Gods in their Firm Nail town's position was fairly stable.

Unfortunately, that stability was due to come to an end eventually. Two years after their arrival, their enemies returned, and this time it wasn't just Red Bridge Town; the High God from the Frozen Tile Town was also with them, and if that wasn't bad enough, there were also two other, particularly sinister looking, High Gods among them, and judging by how they didn't even bother to bring any of their respective Full Gods or Demi-Gods, it was clear that they were their biggest reliance.

One was a tall, middle-aged, blonde man who stood in the skies with his eyes closed arrogantly as though he disdained to look at anyone else present. The other, though – a green and grey-haired old man with beady eyes – stared at Ace's group with greed. But unlike what one would expect, he wasn't looking at Amira or the other women in their group. Instead, his focus appeared to solely be on Qimai and Weslor – the two siblings Kannal had taken under his wing.

Seeing that, Kannal put them to his back and coldly stared back at the beady-eyed old man.

Ace and the others learnt from the trembling Chief that the men who came were a very tyrannical pair of brothers who came from one of the major cities. The middle-aged, blonde-haired man floating arrogantly with his eyes closed was Gurman, and the creepy old man with inky-black, beady eyes was Fuyare.

According to the Chief, Fuyare was an exceedingly powerful expert at the 5-Star Seeker level who focused on the laws of death and apparently had a thing for kidnapping young children to perform experiments on their souls.

Hearing that, Ace and the others were filled with a wave of disgust and disdain. Even more so after hearing that, despite many attempting to put up missions in the various Fate Seeker Castles to claim the head of Fuyare, not only did no Seeker take the mission, but those who dared to put it up in the first place found themselves dead within days.

When asked why, the chief explained that Fuyare's older brother Gurman was actually a seven-star Seeker, making him both highly valued and respected by the Fate Seeker Association.

Before they could say anything else, Fuyare revealed that the reason they were all here today was because the two brothers had recently decided to create their own force, and they would be using the three local towns as their foundations for them to build on in the future and that no one would have to die today on the conditions that, one, Firm Nail town followed suit and submitted to their rule, and two, those two children (Qimai and Weslor) were handed over to him for his personal use.

As unwilling as the Chief was, he didn't dare to hesitate. Without a second thought, he moved to grab the two children and hand them over to his new ruler, but the moment he came near, Kannal's hand moved to his sword as he told him to fuck off as no one would be touching them.

The Chief couldn't believe what he was hearing. He obviously knew that Kannal had grown close to the two children over the last two years, but never in a million years would he have imagined that Kannal would be stupid enough to give his life for them.

Still, that shock quickly turned to embarrassment and rage as he realised that he was being insulted by a mere Demi-God in front of not only his own people but also his new boss, but just as he was about to let his anger get the best of him, he felt the cold gazes of Ace and the others fall on him.

Although he was already a High God and Kannal and his whole group were mere Full Gods, as the most ordinary of High Gods, he knew he was far from a match for so many Full Gods at once; as such, he decisively retreated to the side of his new boss, profusely apologising for his incompetence.

Fuyare snorted and said he would do it himself before charging straight at the children, all but ignoring the group of Full Gods, not even bothering to summon his weapon.

In response, Kannal performed a swift sword draw that those watching could only describe as enchanting.

Fuyare hurriedly scrambled to summon a pair of twin sickles to hastily block the incoming strike, clearly able to sense the incredible power of the strike.

As the two fought, aside from Ace and his group, everyone else – Fuyare's brother, Gurman, included – was left in shock. They knew full well that Fuyare was a 5-Star Fiend and a particularly powerful one at that, so the fact that a mere Full God was able to not only hold his own but even suppress him so thoroughly was beyond shocking.

As for Ace's group, they knew that, due to watching Beirut create a Divine Plane of wind, Kannal had completely fused three profound mysteries and had even begun fusing the fourth – reaching around 50% of said fusion. That, combined with the fact that in these last years, his comprehension of the Concept of Wind had allowed him to raise his [Zephyr's Sword Art] to the peak of the Demi-God level, brought Kannal's level of strength up to the 5-Star Seeker level as well.

Seeing that his brother was going to take some time dealing with his opponent, Gurman ordered his new High Gods underlings to kill Ace and his group.

In response, Killian took action, choosing to face all five of them on his own.

When they saw Killian's might, the eyes of everyone present constricted. They could immediately sense that he was a legendary soul-mutate.

Fuyare, feeling humiliated by Kannal's pushing him to this point, Fuyare stopped holding back. It had to be remembered that the Edict of Death wasn't known for its material attacks but for its spiritual attacks; the only reason he hadn't used any spiritual attacks till now was because he refused to believe a mere Full God could force him to go all out.

Unfortunately, although in terms of material and physical attacks, Kannal was very much at the 5-Star level, his soul was still very much that of a Full God.

Caught off guard by the spiritual attack of his opponent, Kannal felt his soul being rapidly eroded by the death-like energy of his beady-eyed opponent. Thankfully, due to the bandits they had faced during their travels, along with the Fatestones, Kannal had been lucky enough to get his hands on a Full-God soul-protecting artefact.

Unfortunately, a Full-God soul-protecting artefact was far from enough to withstand the attack of such a powerful expert; as such, it was shattered after blocking the first strike, but it was enough.

Fuyare hadn't expected a Full God to be able to survive under his most powerful strike. Taking advantage of Fuyare's momentary lapse in concentration, Kannal used his ultimate technique.

Seeing the precarious situation his brother was facing and feeling that things were getting progressively worse and less predictable, Gurman finally decided to take action, aiming to use the fact that Kannal's focus was elsewhere to strike him down in one go.

Kannal hurriedly stopped his attack mid-swing in order to defend, but he was far from the opponent of a seven-star fiend, as were most of their group. Fortunately, there was still one member of their team who had reached that level.

Before Gurman's strike could land, it was blocked by an immovable, fiery, crimson glaive. Looking up, he saw Ace's cold smirk.

Not daring to underestimate any more of this mystery group, Gurman went all out from the beginning, and though Ace's strength was incredible, even stronger than that of the monstrous three-way soul-mutate, it appeared to still only be that of a 6-Star Seeker, allowing Gurman to steadily suppress Ace.

That was until the manifestation of a giant golden sun appeared to Ace's back. Instantly, Ace's power rose fivefold, instantly putting him on the level of a 7-Star Seeker.

At that point, with everything else being equal, the difference boiled down to a difference in skill, and whether it was in terms of comprehension of the profound mysteries or pure skill with the weapon, Ace was far superior.

It was to the point where Ace completely bullied Gurman, the infamous 7-Star Fate Seeker, but just when he was about to kill him, Gurman begged for his life and told Ace that if he killed him since he was a recognised 7-Star Seeker, the Fate Seeker Association would definitely put a bounty on his head, but if he let him live, he would leave now and forget any of this ever happened.

All the other fights temporarily stopped as they all wanted to know what Ace would decide, as it would inevitably decide the results of the other fights as well. Unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed.

Ace sneered as he looked into Gurman's eyes. Others may not be able to sense it, but he clearly could. With his [Observation], he could clearly sense Gurman's intention. He had no intention of really letting them go; the killing intent, laced with envy and jealousy he tried so hard to hide, was clear as day to Ace.

As a result, Ace attacked, not holding anything back, killing him in one go before taking the man's spatial ring and storing it away for later.

Understanding there was no turning back now, Killian and Kannal hurried to finish their respective opponents, swiftly taking their respective spatial rings.

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