The sky above the Divine Celestial Sect was no longer bright and blue; it was like a painting of violet lightning and frost,
With the wind holding its breath.
Zhan Lim's gaze which was burning with purple fury locked onto the Frost paled figure that was standing before him.
The eradication decree that Zhan Lim was holding started to crumple and began slowly vanishing into the air.
"So," Zhan Lim's voice was a low rumble. "It was you. The puppeteer behind this cowardly gathering."
Son Jin laughed with a musical sound that rose above the screams of the dying.
"Your intelligence is as good as your reputation, Celestial Demon. Too bad it wasn't enough to protect your gates. Today, you and all the souls who bear the name Zhan will be erased from the pages of history by my own hands."
Even though Zhan Lim's condition wasn't that great. He never wavered. His mind and heart both wanted the same thing, to protect the sect until the last breath.
He replied,
"We shall see," his aura started flaring with desperation, "which of us reaches the underworld first."
Son Jin gave out a smile of amusement congratulating his courage even if he was inches away from the death's door. This made him more desperate to see Zhan Lim's emotions break into pieces when he sees the sect's people and his own son get killed before Zhan Lim's eyes.
Son Jin didn't waste another breath. He swept his jade sleeves, and the moisture in the air crystallized instantly due to the low temperature.
[Art of the Frozen End: Blizzard's Wrath]!
A white storm erupted, a titanic pillar of ice and snow that stretched towards the clouds like a frozen fortress. It roared downwards, determined to reduce Zhan Lim to powder.
"This is...he has already reached Rift realm." Zhan Lim thought.
Zhan Lim firmed his foot on the ground, He clasped his forearms together, and a geometric pattern of glowing purple light expanded before him.
[Celestial Divine Art: Celestial Shield]!
The blizzard crashed against the translucent shield with the force of a plummeting moon. Ice shards shrieked against the purple energy, but the shield held strong. Zhan Lim seized this opportunity. His body flickered.
[Celestial Divine Art: Void Stealth]!
He vanished from reality for a second entering into the stealth. When he reappeared, he was a already a shadow behind Son Jin, his fingers curved like a predator ready to strike and rip the flesh off.
[Celestial Divine Art : Abyssal Claw of the Celestial Demon]!
Five streaks of dark purple energy tore through Son Jin's back. But there was no splattering of blood but the shattering of glass. The body Zhan Lim slashed suddenly became a thousand pieces of frozen shards of ice.
"An ice clone? ."
Son Jin had already anticipated Zhan Lim's attack as he had already placed the spy in the Celestial Sect for a long time. The spy had already given Son Jin all the information about the techniques Zhan Lim used, giving a huge advantage over the fight with Zhan Lim.
Zhan Lim whirled around, his heart pounding in his chest. Twenty identical figures of Son Jin surrounded him, each wearing the same arrogant, icy smirk. It was the same ice clones that Zhan Lim just slashed. But he was sure out of any of these twenty clones one must be real.
[Dark Void Eyes]!
Zhan Lim's pupils reversed, becoming black holes that sought the truth behind the illusions. He searched the flow of Chi for the pulse of the original.
"Nothing. None of them are real—!", Zhan Lim's mind is confused.
But it was already too late. A cold sensation prickled the back of his neck.
Thwack!
A fist heavy with the force of a glacier crashed into Zhan Lim's side. The blow was so thunderous that he flew, soaring through the air until he crashed into the stone wall of the Ancestral Hall. The wall shattered upon impact.
Zhan Lim rose himself from the rubble, but he suddenly started coughing blood with a hint of cold frost in it. The ice chi had already entered his body. He wiped his blood stained lips with his sleeves.
"No more holding back," he hissed.
"He is going all out it seems. I should end this fast." Son Jin thought.
The atmosphere suddenly shifted, turning slowly violet and the pebbles in the ground started to float.
[Shi Manifestation: The Burning Amethyst]!
Zhan Lim's eyes burst into violet flames. His body was no longer made of flesh and blood; he was a embodiment of dark purple fire, the real form of the Rift Realm user.
"Let's see," Son Jin dared, his own white Chi churning like a hurricane, "if your fading Shi can defeat my eternal frost."
They met in mid-air. Each blow sent shockwaves that toppled neighboring pavilions. They were a blur of purple and white, a destructive dance that etched scars onto the mountain itself. But with each blow, Zhan Lim's movements grew heavier and the pacing slowly decreasing.
Zhan Lim could not hide the illness, it was evident and Son Jin already knew it.
Desperate, he summoned all the remaining energy into his hand.
"Die! [Celestial Storm]—!"
"Would I let that happen?!" Son Jin sneered.
Zhan Lim felt a something was hiding behind him. From his own shadow a figure emerged like a ghost. A man with a terrifying skull mask and a single spot of fresh blood over his eye.
The man whispered "You weren't expecting this were you? kekeke!"
The Shadow Glaze Sect. A sect full of assassins that works on demand.
"When did he? F*ck it all. This was well planned."
A cold dagger was thrust into Zhan Lim's back, piercing his lung and disrupting the flow of his ultimate move.
Gah!
Zhan Lim dropped to his knees, blood oozing from his lips. Son Jin moved forward, his crystal ice sword radiating a killing intent.
"I thought to end you slowly by making you watch the sect fall one by one but it seems anymore time wasted on you will be dangerous. Be thankful, Zhan Lim," Son Jin whispered, his sword raised. "You will die with my family's heirloom, this very sword buried deep in your chest."
"Heh, seems like this is my end. Please Heavens, i just want my child to be safe, don't let him fall into the hands of these monsters." Zhan Lim cried in his mind.
Son Jin swung his sword.
BOOM!
A sudden explosion of purple smoke occurred. When it cleared, Son Jin's blade was locked against another.
But Zhan Lim was nowhere to be seen, Son Jin looked forward in confusion, he saw Zhan Lim was moved fifty paces away in the span of a second. In his place stood a man with jet-black hair and a well-trimmed beard. His eyes blazed not only with anger but with a fury of a true swordsman.
Bain Lim. The younger brother. The Sword Master of the Kaigone Forest.
Bain Lim was one of the Celestial Sects famous swordsman and a genius one at that. The Celestial Sect's martial arts were not fit for the sword, but Bain tuned the Celestial martial arts for the sword and created one of the craziest sword art known as the Celestial Divine Sword art.
He spends most of his time in Kaigone Forest which is near the sect. Practicing in solitary and teaching his disciples. So he was named "The Sword Master of Kaigone forest".
"Son Jin," Bain Lim growled, his hand on his sword tightening. "You've crossed the line. You think you can leave this mountain alive after what you've done to my brother?"
****
While the sect elders and masters fought the invaders in the sky, Shiro was living through the nightmare.
He had managed to lead a group of young disciples into a secure storage room, but his heart was with his father. From the smoke, he saw the sect's elders being overpowered by the sheer number of invaders.
Then, the ground trembled.
A shadow slowly appeared over the courtyard. A seven-foot-tall monster of a man, with muscles bulging like tree roots, strode through the mayhem. He didn't wield a sword. He smashed the skulls of any disciple who couldn't move quickly enough with his bare hands.
"B-Bong Mel..." a senior disciple whispered, his voice shaking with fear.
[The Muscle Grip].
Bong Mel gripped his head and crushed it, blood and brain splattered to the ground.
Then another senior disciple, despite having a leg that was a mess of torn muscle, crawled in front of Shiro. "Run, Young Master! If you stay, you're good as dead! PLEASE RUN!"
Bong Mel suddenly stopped. He gazed down at the shaking Shiro who was trembling from foot to head and let out a slow, wicked smile. He didn't see a child; he saw a bug to be squashed.
Shiro couldn't ask for help from his father as his father was on the opposite side of the training yard which was separated.
For the first time in his life Shiro saw such a monster. In fact, he was looking at his own death.