Chapter 643: Selfish Repercussions
[Wait, ringmaster, why did you you have to use your head to crack open that barrier?]
‘Like I said, Spring Brawler, I got caught up in the moment. On a side note, thank the gods I might be indestructible because that shit stung.’
[No, but I mean like… we’re standing right here. You could’ve easily asked one of us to crack open that barrier, hells, you could’ve asked two of us to do it.]
‘That…is a very good point…huh.’
[Wait…a book I once read said that children were a product of their environment and pick up behaviors from parents and peers,] Hurricroak interjected, [do we get our recklessness from you?]
‘I-why are you reading child rearing books?’
[Archanidame and the spirits were swapping notes, I got bored.]
‘Huh…’
[That explains a…wait…,] Nepherage was about to observe before suddenly stopping.
[Wait a minute…why do I sense something…off?]
‘It’s always something bad when you guys say you sense something…what we dealing with?’
[It feels like…I am getting the same aura as those three guys that Razorstella had to deal with last night?]
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*CRACK*
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“Did…did that kid break the fucking internal spatial barrier?!”
{How did he do that?!}
When the Wisdom Elder made the announcement about the seventh arena being locked down, not a lot of people noticed at first. Around the time the announcement was made, many of the other matches were reaching their climax, and as dramatic as watching an imposter getting forcibly disqualified was, seeing the branch clan scions use incredibly strange aether arts to defeat their opponents was significantly more interesting. Well, most of them won anyways.
The match between Zhen Hai and Alvis de Howlite had ended in a draw, since both sides ended up passing out and hitting the ground at the same time. Therefore, the winner of this particular slot was going to be based on who would rouse from unconsciousness first.
At this point in the competition, several of the matches were already winding down as the winner and loser were determined, so the audience, naturally, began to see if anything else was happening at this time to keep their interest.
Luckily(?) for them, they had something incredibly interesting to watch: the removal of the 38th Imperial Princess from the tournament.
Well, the failed removal of the 38th Imperial Princess.
Initially, when they had all seen the spatial barrier go up, that was simply going to be the end of this whole affair.
The [Myriad Marble Garden] was a famous aether treasure of the Zhen Clan that had a sterling reputation as not just the ultimate training tool, but the ultimate detainment tool as well.
Depending on the power of the wielder, the [Myriad Marble Garden] is able to produce spatial barriers that can resist the attacks equal to about one ring above the user’s cultivation. In other words, if a peak Aether Grandmaster wields this treasure, then they’d be able to detain an first ring Aether Lord with ease.
Now with such a condition in mind, one would assume that the Zhen Clan matriarch or her son, who were an Aether Emperor and Aether King, respectively, would wield the [Myraid Marble Garden] in order to barriers strong enough to contain warriors of either of those grades, but that would’ve been overkill and might’ve sent the wrong message.
Instead, the Wisdom Elder, Zhen Lung, who was a four ring Aether Grandmaster, was given the task of maintaining and administering the competition. This meant that the [Myriad Marble Garden] could contain a peak Aether Grandmaster at most at the moment, but that wasn’t a massive issue given that the only suitable targets for the treasure for the time being were the young warriors fighting it out in the arena right now and absolutely none of them could overpower the marble space by themselves.
While the young warriors participating in the tournament had showcased a variety of abilities and had proven themselves to be quite powerful for their generation, absolutely none of them exhibited any power greater than that of a peak Aether Master at most.
With a wave of his hand, Zhen Lung could have easily isolated all of the participants in this tournament in their own personal spatial bubble that wouldn’t break no matter how hard those young warriors struggled.
It was under this mindset though, that practically everyone was shocked to the point of their jaws dropping when they all saw firsthand how Zhen Liu, the Fourth Young Master of the Zhen Clan, straight up used his own head as a means to forcefully break the spatial barrier that was isolating both him and the 38th Imperial Princess. At least…that’s one would be lead to believe.
Amongst this crowd of gawking bystanders and shocked notables from the Zhen Clan, there were a number of individuals that had a very different reason for their shock.
If one were to take a closer look at these particular individuals, one would notice three important details.
First, that a number of these individuals just so happen to be former participants in the Zhen Clan competition, having decided to keep watching on how it all unfolded despite having already been eliminated.
Second, they weren’t looking at the arena where Zhen Liu had decided to use his head like a sledgehammer. In fact, if one were to follow their lines of sight, they would notice that all of these people were looking directly at the [Myriad Marble Garden] and the Wisdom Elder.
Lastly and most importantly though, as these particular individuals allowed their emotions to run loose and out of their control, one would be able to see that underneath their clothes were strange looking tattoos that belonged to a certain clan from a long, long time ago…
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*CRACK!*
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*BZZT!*
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The moment Zhen Liu slammed his head into the spatial wall and broke it, it caused some rather painful feedback to transmit from the marble directly back to the [Myriad Marble Garden] and the man wielding it, Zhen Lung. However, something weird happen as soon as this damage was inflicted.
As the aether treasure understandably shook due to the backlash, a strange small object that looked bit like a tick made of ruby, suddenly popped off of the [Myriad Marble Garden] and almost fell to the ground.
Noticing the small object, Zhen Lung attempted to grab it but got shocked in the process. He would’ve dropped it right then and there, but he managed to quickly grab it using his aether to stop it midair.
The man had no idea what this thing was, but the moment he brought to eye level, his eyes went wide open as he realized what it was that had just fallen off of the aether treasure.
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Meanwhile at the exact same time…
‘What in the nine hells was that?!’
‘I don’t know, but it just dislodged our parasite! We can no longer manipulate the [Myriad Marble Garden]!’
‘FUCK!’
Five years.
It had taken five years for them to come up with and solidify their ultimate plan for revenge.
It took one year for them to establish themselves in the city of their most hated rivals, under false names and identities despite how wrong it felt.
A second year to learn the ins and outs of the Zhen Clan, to find the people willing to sell out their clansmen if it meant they got something in return. Or, perhaps, were willing to do so out of revenge.
A third year to learn the secrets of the [Myriad Marble Garden], how to use it and how they could make use of its abilities as the lynchpin to their plans.
A fourth year to train up infiltrators, some would be sent to participate in the farce of a contest the Zhen Clan hosted every year, while the rest would be sent off to perform a more necessary agenda.
And lastly, a fifth and final year was needed to work out any kinks and come up with several contingency plans in the case that their original plan failed, which they had hoped would never happen. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t expect that one of the kinks was going to be some demon child prodigy from the middle of nowhere on a shitty dirtball continent, who could apparently hit harder than a peak Aether Grandmaster!
What the hell was the Zhen Clan exile feeding his descendants?!
‘Shit, shit, shit, shit, shiiiit! What do we do, what do we do?’
‘Plan B? C?’
‘Both of those were reliant on us controlling the [Myriad Marble] Garden, which we can’t do right now!’
‘Then what are we supposed to-‘
‘Enough! If we can’t make use of the [Demon Tick], then we have to just do it without it. Just get into position and prime the explosives. I want this celebration to be loud!’
‘Sir yes sir!’
…
…
‘There is absolutely no way for that kid to have noticed the tick though, so how did he manage to destroy just that piece of the treasure?’
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