46 The Storm
Every person in the Sect directed their eyes towards the patch of sky above the Eternal Rest Mountain. There in the distance, four people stood among the floating clouds. Two middle-aged men wore a dark blue and black robe, one grey-haired old man wore a pure white robe, and a woman in her prime wore a white robe with silver trimmings.
No one could take their eyes off of them for a dozen seconds. After that, the same voice as earlier boomed out "Are you a man or a dog, Bai Shetai? Come out!" from the old man's mouth.
The entire Eternal Rest Mountain shook under the feet of Jack and his men and snapped him out of his daze. He stood up on the cart and stared down at the entire Endless Cycle Sect over the tops of trees while calculating their odds. A few seconds later he jumped down from the corpse cart and shouted "Men, gather up!"
His unit looked like they just woke up from a dream as they focused on him and followed his order on instinct, while still glancing up at the figures in the sky.
When everyone gathered around him, Jack looked at each of their frightened eyes and ended on Shi Furui's. He steeled his resolve by borrowing from the faith he saw in his men and ordered "Furui, take the cart and fill it with our supplies. Don't forget to take my notes and our weapons."
He stopped and looked over his shoulder towards the people in the sky as the voice boomed out once more "People of the Endless Cycle Sect, do not throw your lives away for this traitor. If we have to come and get him you will not be spared from the flames of our wrath."
Jack's brows furrowed as he turned back to his men and said "Take everything that can fit on the cart and go to the courtyard. Don't work on the corpses, but take them in so things look normal if someone comes to check. Put a few guards around the place too."
Kuang Bindun interrupted Jack's orders as he asked "What about you, Tanda?"
Jack lay a fond hand upon Kuang Bindun's shoulder as he said "I have to take care of some final preparations, I'll come to you when everything's ready."
He looked at the now nervous and excited faces of his friends and concluded "This is it, people. We either make it out of here, or we die trying." He looked at his closest friends and added "Breakthrough."
With that, he turned around and sprinted back towards Elder Yu's mansion.
On the way there Jack heard a voice that he hadn't heard for over ten years. "You come down here, Fan Aolan, if you dare." Bai Shetai's voice taunted from the peak of the Eternal Rest Mountain.
Jack cursed and started using Moon Step to run faster. He almost crashed into a dozen trees on his way there, but he managed to reach the Elder's mansion with only a few red welts on his arms from several close brushes with tree branches.
Just as he passed the gateway arch of Elder Yu's mansion, the old man in the sky said "Very well." and the peaceful blue sky that covered the Sect turned into a sea of raging red and orange flames.
Jack slid to a stumbling stop as he saw a mountain-sized claw made out of flames strike out at the Eternal Rest Mountain. He didn't even think about putting up a resistance against something like that as he felt the heat on his face. His only regret was that his men would die in this place without tasting the sweet air of freedom once more.
Just as the flaming claw reached the peak of the Eternal Rest Mountain, a light blue jet of spirit energy pierced right through it and dissipated it. Jack thought he saw a gleaming silver trident flash with a glow of thousands of sigils from the center of the blue light. The next instant dark blue spirit energy in the shape of waves covered half of the sky and pushed out the raging flames to the borders of the Endless Cycle Sect.
Jack breathed out a sigh of relief and turned his head in the direction of the Tranquil Lake Town as a calm voice sounded out in the ears of everyone "Friends from afar, why not come to my estate for a discussion. I am sure that we can solve this issue without resolving to bloodshed."
With a mental push, Jack forced himself from a desire to listen to any idea that voice suggested and, with cold sweat running down his back, continued his sprint.
When he reached the door that held the materials for the graveyard shift, the old man in the sky, Fan Aolan, answered "There is nothing to discuss about this. Either hand over the traitor or face our wrath."
Jack quickly bowed and shouted at the door "Disciple Song Tanda asks for permission to enter."
While he waited for the answer from the spirit puppet, a new voice sounded out from the sky "Do not play your tricks on us, old Cycle. Everyone here knows what you would do if we stepped foot onto that lake."
Jack glanced up and saw a sneer of derision on both of the middle-aged men's faces. In a detached part of his mind, he thought 'No wonder that no one fishes in this damned place.'
Seconds seemed to tick by like hours as the slow spirit puppet opened the door and scanned Jack with its eyes.
"Enough with this rubbish!" Fan Aolan snarled and spread his hands wide. Behind him, a mass of white-hot sabers coalesced from the flaming sea. He joined his hands together and the sabers shot out towards the Eternal Rest Mountain.
Jack saw the entire thing from the corner of his eye, and could do nothing but hope that the Endless Cycle Sect had something that could fight against the sabers.
A massive whirlpool coalesced out of the light blue waves and positioned itself above the Eternal Rest Mountain. It changed the trajectories of the sabers to itself and started sucking them in. The whirlpool shrunk by a few meters with every saber that stabbed into its spinning body.
The spirit puppet ignored the massive collision happening above them and finally moved out of the entrance to the small room.
Jack darted in and grabbed the Star Bag from its pedestal, then looked around the room with slight hesitation. After a second of thought, he gritted his teeth and started to stuff all of the Spirit Capturing knives and Energy Dispersal devices into the bag.
From the outside, he heard the voice of the Sect Master of the Endless Cycle Sect command "Peak Masters, activate the Sect-protecting formation. I cannot hold them for much longer."
A second later a new male's voice sounded out in the air "Sect Master, why do we have to involve ourselves in other people's problems?"
"I agree, why not give Bai Shetai over to them and be done with it?" added a female voice.
"We do not betray those that come to our Sect for help! Even if we did, that option disappeared from us as soon as they brought the dogs of the Slaughtering Sword School with them. Now, do as I command!" The Sect Master's voice sounded strained as he made his final declaration.
Almost instantly, Jack felt the spirit energy in the air rush towards the peak of the mountain, a second later a soft glow illuminated the room from the outside.
He finished looting the entire small room and ran outside, only to see a thick beam of pure white spirit energy shooting out into the sky from the top of the Eternal Rest Mountain. When the beam reached a height of around a klick it bent towards the center of the Sect and merged with five other different colored beams above the Tranquil Lake.
Jack looked at the ground under his feet and saw a minuscule glow coming from underneath him. 'This whole Sect's a spell formation!' Jack exclaimed in his head as he stared at the huge amounts of spirit energy that gathered in the sky. The entire thing made a protective dome over the five mountains and lake.
With a worried expression on his face, Jack looked up at the four people that stood in the air on the other side of the barrier. The two middle-aged men had frowns on their faces, but the old man and the woman looked at the barrier with scorn.
Fan Aolan condensed more white-hot sabers from the flames at his back and smashed them into the protective cover of the Endless Cycle Sect. After a minute of this, the best he could do is create slight ripples on the solid wall of spirit energy.
"Hmpf!" his snort rumbled across the land as he looked down at the peak of the Eternal Rest Mountain and declared "Hide in your turtle shell for a while longer, traitor." He looked towards the Tranquil Lake and added "You have only bought yourself a few more days of life, worms."
The woman next to him opened her mouth and added "It will be too late for regrets when I get a hold of you, Bai Shetai!" as she kept staring down at the mountain peak with murder in her eyes.
With that, the four people turned in the air and flew out of Jack's field of view.
A second later Bai Shetai's voice boomed out in the direction in which the four people left "I did nothing for which I need regrets, you delusional b*tch!"
Jack regulated his fast breathing as he thought 'Few days, I can work with that.' He gave the old mansion a last complicated look and started sprinting towards the town.
