Chapter 536: Changing Estimates
‘Those movements…that chant…clearly they both learned the same aether art, but what type of aether art is it exactly?,’ Zhen Ren Fa mused as she watched the battle between her subordinates and the “Shen” Aether masters unfold.
So far, everything was going as she had anticipated, more or less.
From the moment she had laid on eyes on “Shen Yue” and “Shen Hai”, Zhen Ren Fa had determined what kind of fighters the two of them were and could tell that for all intents and purposes, they were at a disadvantage in regards to her selected fighters of Lei Zhong and Gou Huang.
The two of them managed to land lucky hits early on, sure, but in the long run, they were going to lose this fight.
“Shen Yue” had unusual lunar aether cultivation and could use a variety of strange techniques that made use of her aether to its maximum potential, but she was too balanced.
She wasn’t bad at anyone of the abilities she had shown so far, her defensive technique worked surprisingly well, her evasion was spot-on and the counterattack she had performed was powerful, but none of them were as powerful as they could’ve been.
From what Zhen Ren Fa could see, “Shen Yue’s” movements were correct, but they weren’t polished.
“Shen Yue” could hit the right spot, but not hard enough.
This meant that Lei Zhong, who specialized in momentum assaults based on speed and power thanks to his formula: [Thunder Deity’s Tactics], and practiced certain moves over and over again to the point of madness, would eventually be able to overpower “Shen Yue’s” abilities and land a decisive blow.
Especially now since he was employing a major Ethereal art.
‘While he hasn’t fully mastered the concept of [judgement] that embodies the [Judgement Bolt], but no matter. It’s more than enough to overpower this brackborn peasant,’ Zhen Ren Fa observed, ‘Gou Huang’s [Punishing Mountain Seal] on the other hand…hmmm.’
In a sharp contrast to Lei Zhong’s lightning movement and hair trigger temper, Gou Huang was like a sturdy mountain in both temperament and build, the kind of mountain that wouldn’t even budge even when subjected to the most severe of natural disasters.
Whether this was how he was naturally or a quirk of his formula, [Mountain Demon’s Meditation], Zhen Ren Fa would never know for certain, but she did know that he had an overwhelming advantage over “Shen Hai”.
‘Violent, reckless and hot-headed…tsk! Reminds me of a certain someone back at the house.’
“Shen Hai” seemed to embody the idea of “offense is a defense”, seeing as the man could barely dodge or block against Gou Huang’s obvious counterattack, yet somehow overpower one of his strongest attacks and even leave a dent in Gou Huang’s stone armor, something that not even she could pull off despite being a higher level of cultivation than him.
Regardless, even if “Shen Hai” was someone who specialized in offense and overpowering his opponent’s attacks, Gou Huang’s [Punishing Mountain Seal] was a major Ethereal grade aether art just like Lei Zhong’s [Judgement Bolt].
Unlike Lei Zhong though, Gou Huang had fully mastered his aether art, meaning his execution of it should be at least twice as strong.
There weren’t many ways to overpower such a force.
‘But on the off chance these two do have something up their sleeves, it doesn’t hurt to have some…leverage,’ Zhen Ren Fa thought to herself with a devious smile as she flicked a gaze towards the other presumed “Shen” members.
From what she could sense, they were all Acolytes at most, easy pickings for Ao Tang and Fan Ying.
A part of her felt bad for sending her subordinates to take them hostage, then again, “all is fair in love and war” and what was life but just one big war.
‘And even if someone wanted to come and save you, they’d have to get pass all of the city guards…oh well…is it getting colder out here? And what is that humming sound?’
_____________________________________________
[Okay, so y’all are cool with me being the one to rescue them?]
[Yes…]
[Your core is literally built for it.]
[I’d prefer to be center stage, but I’ll save that for later.]
[Alright, cool.]
One of the advantages of being able to telepathically communicate with one another meant that arguments and debates about tactics and planning could be resolved in a matter of milliseconds, literally at the exact same moments the thoughts form in the first place.
As such, while this conversation sounded as if it took at least several minutes that they couldn’t afford due to the fighting around them, the kaijin had actually communicated all this and more in a matter of a single second.
[What do y’all think? Simply shield it or make them suffer for their sins?]
[Make em bleed!]
[Suffer…]
[If they’re going to ruin my time off, make them pay for it in blood!]
[Right on.]
With a consensus made, Nepherage prepared herself to go and rescue their lord’s cousins from their impending hostage situation, moving to the very edge of their shared hiding spot.
The tiny jade figure-like kaijin began to circulate her aether, preparing to counterattack whatever these two reprobates had planned.
[Okay guys, keep your eyes on me and I’ll be right-]
[Wait a minute,] Spring Brawler interjected, [remember to use your human form when you rescue them.]
[Wait, what? Why?]
[Well…this haughty lady is technically related to our lord, right? Because she is from the “main” clan?]
[Vaguely, yes.]
[I think the term is cousins…twice removed?,] Hurricroak added, [but yeah, she is from the main clan.]
[Right, and since we’re here to help our lord’s grandpa make amends with the main clan, doesn’t that mean we’ll end up going to whatever estate they own and might end up running into her again?]
[Yes, but I think our lord’s cousins already burn any bridges we might’ve had with them with the combination slave rescue/fake name thing,] Razorstella pointed out, [unless we can figure out a way to scramble her memories without Logos and Pathos…]
[Partially that,] Spring Brawler replied, [but I’m also thinking in the event that when Nepherage absolutely bodies that girl’s minions, and then our lord summons Nepherage later on as a “puppet” for whatever reason in front of them, she might try to do some shenanigans with her clan’s elders and try to kill our lord because of “reclaiming honor” or something like that Either way, if she pretends to be human, it can provide the ever-powerful cloak of deniability to our lord, because as far as they know, you’d just be random heroic passerby and not a weirdly powerful puppet that they think they can just steal.]
At the end of this detailed explanation, the other kaijin couldn’t help but stare at their proto-brethren with shock silence.
[What?]
[Nothing,] Hurricroak answered, [that was just…a very thought out answer.]
[Ah, yeah. It’s because I’ve been spending my time reading about something called the “domino effect”. Anyways, I think you need to get going, Nepherage. Blinky and Pinky are about to attack.]
[Shit!]
[Did you just make a-]
[Yes, yes I did.]
_____________________________________________
“Oh shit, looks like they’re about to get serious,” Zhen Xing cursed as he saw Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai circulate their aether in a manner he and the rest of his cousins were very familiar with, but couldn’t achieve…yet.
After a certain mining event back home, the Zhen Clan had managed to acquire an incredibly valuable intermediate World grade aether art scroll, a object of power many factions would outright murder each other over.
Unfortunately, this massive boon also turned out to be a massive headache.
Whether or not it was due to charity or being generous, Patriarch Zhen Shi decided that everyone in his immediate family, namely his sons, their spouses and their children, would be given access to the scroll so that they may learn to master it for themselves.
A feat that turned out to be significantly easier said than done.
Of the seven elders of the Zhen Clan who practiced this art, only three or so could use it properly in battle and those three all happened to be the only Grand Masters in the family.
While amongst the younger generation, only Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue managed to master at least half of this absurdly powerful aether art. Zhen Liu wasn’t included in this running due to technically having his aether puppet do the work for him.
Regardless, the fact that these two were now attempting to employ this half mastered aether art was enough of a reason for Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Zhen Guo and Zhen Feng to figure out some place to hide both themselves and the slave girl they had rescued.
“You got a good hold on her, Xiao Feng?”
“Yeah, no problem,” the portly scion said as he hefted the girl onto his back, “she feels really light…malnutrition if I had to guess.”
“Dark.”
With the girl now safely strapped to Xiao Feng’s back, the Zhen clan scions were just about to get the hell out of dodge, only to have some…unexpected company.
“Alright,” Zhen Guo said to get the group’s attention, “I think I saw an alcove over there. Now, lets get going before-”
<
“Shit.”
