The Might of a Rank Three Sect

"You arrogant upstart!" one of the elders spat. "So what if you managed a lucky breakthrough? You're still just a boy playing at cultivation!"

Chen Mo slowly cracked his neck from side to side as lightning continued to crackle over his fists. "I'd be careful about underestimating me again, elder," he said in a low, dangerous tone. "You were still having a hard time killing me even when I was at the Core Formation realm"

The elders exchanged nervous glances, the words striking a raw nerve. The memory of their comrade's gruesome death at the hands of the special distortions was still fresh.

'Hmph! Hateful! If it wasn't for the spatial distortions, do you think I'd let you breakthrough.' The patriarch thought silently to himself.

"Don't let him rattle you," another elder growled. "We are veterans of countless battles while he's still wet behind the ears. He may have reached the Golden Core, but we have decades more experience to draw upon!"

The other elders nodded, regaining their composure. The Patriarch watched on stoically, his gaze calculating.

"Enough prattling," Chen Mo said. "This is the part where you realize your techniques are no match for me and futilely beg for mercy before I wipe you from existence. Shall we begin?"

The elders bristled at the taunt, but the Patriarch held up a hand in a silent command. "Attack together and leave no openings. The spatial distortions have already closed no need to worry."

In unison, the elders initiated a series of ancient Mei Clan combination techniques. Blasts of elemental energies, flying blades, crushing force blasts, paralysis seals, and impossibly sharp spiritual lances all converged on Chen Mo in a coordinated onslaught.

Where before Chen Mo would have surely been overwhelmed, he now met the assault with contemptuous ease. Space itself bent to his will, rippling and warping around him in an intricate dance. 

Attacks were shunted harmlessly into spatial vortices, while others found their momentum utterly disrupted. Spiritual lances and flying blades ground to a halt mere inches from his body as he grinned savagely.

The elders gaped in shock as their combined techniques achieved little more than superficial damage to Chen Mo's robes and hair.

"My turn," Chen Mo growled. His open palms swept out, unleashing a shockwave of spatial force that slammed into the elders, staggering them back. Several spatial rifts cracked open beneath their feet, attempting to ensnare them with tendrils of chaotic ripping energy.

The elders leaped and scrambled to avoid the hazardous distortions. Chen Mo didn't let up, following up with a flurry of punches that distorted space in twisted lances that smashed into their defensive barriers. Two elders were blasted off their feet, tumbling violently across the floor until coming to a stop as bloody, barely conscious heaps.

Roaring in anger, the remaining elders pressed the attack, launching more devastating combinations. This time, Chen Mo was forced to remain on the defensive. 

Spatial ripples redirected flames, whips of water, and air blades, but the sheer volume was becoming overwhelming. A glancing blow opened a gash on his arm while an invisible restraining seal almost caught his ankle before he warped it away.

Chen Mo knew he couldn't survive indefinitely against their assaults and therefore couldn't afford to remain purely reactive. If this dragged on, eventually his concentration would falter under the relentless barrage. He needed to create an opening to go on the offensive.

'It'd be a whole lot easier with Rasiel helping me but now that she's busy handling the cultivation data and keeping an eye on the hidden expert, I'm on my own'

With a thought, he manifested a shadowy doppelganger copy of himself that shifted in and out of phase with reality. This illusion perfectly mimicked his motions, leaving the elders confused as to which was the real target. Chen Mo took advantage of their momentary distraction to strike.

'Now that I'm at the Golden Core realm, creating a copy of myself with spiritual energy isn't that hard. And if I wrap it with spatial energy, the elder's spiritual sense won't be able to penetrate it so they won't know which one is real.'

A series of ferocious palm strikes rippled space, each magnifying the already distorting effects into spatially multiplying shockwaves. The elders were battered from all sides by these spatial impacts, their defenses faltering and cracking. 

In one smooth motion, Chen Mo followed up by condensing the space in front of him, focusing it into a pinpoint sphere of immense distortion. With a roar, he released this compressed force in a focused beam of annihilation.

The beam carved through the stones and rubble without resistance, impacting right into the chest of the lead elder. He let out a soul-rending scream as his defenses were overwhelmed instantly. 

The spatial distortion effects ravaged his body, unwriting his form from existence one molecule at a time in an agonizingly slow implosion. His screams echoed for several long seconds before fading into an abrupt, deafening silence. 

All that remained of his existence was a wisp of dissipating spatial energy and a splattering of blood across the floor.

The remaining elders stumbled back in shock and terror, their faces pale. Chen Mo closed in on them ruthlessly, his aura flaring again.

"So, who's next to get obliterated into the void? Perhaps I'll be merciful and imprint your souls into the fabric of spacetime, destined to drift forever."

Chen Mo's taunts and the utter destruction of the elder before them had clearly shaken the remaining elders' confidence. But their combat experience and grit had been honed through countless trials. They quickly regrouped and responded with a barrage that kept Chen Mo on his toes.

The fight raged on in a chaotic whirlwind of spatial devastation and elemental fury. Chen Mo pressed every advantage he could find, but was unable to achieve the decisive breakthrough to score another annihilation. He had proven his superiority beyond doubt, but the remaining elders were simply too skilled to be dispatched with ease.

For now, the scales of battle were evenly matched as both sides traded blow after punishing blow. It seemed only one thing was certain - this would be a fight to the bitter end.

Chen Mo panted heavily, sweat dripping from his brow as he parried another ferocious combination strike from the Mei Clan elders. Although his skills in wielding spatial energies had become far easier to employ after his core transformation, he still lacked the necessary stamina reserves to keep this up indefinitely.

A powerful force blast crashed against his hastily erected spatial barrier, sending hairline fractures lancing across the shimmering distortion. Chen Mo grimaced, feeling the exertion take its toll. Using spatial techniques was a double-edged sword - if he continued drawing upon the chaotic forces, it could destabilize his newly formed golden core and shatter the foundation of his cultivation permanently.

And this was just the elders. The Patriarch still watched from the sidelines; his gaze unreadable. No doubt he had an ace up his sleeve - there was no way the Mei Clan could be run by a simple person. Not to mention the threat of that unknown expert Rasiel had sensed lurking in the shadows. He needed to find a way to decisively end this fight soon.

With a flurry of hand seals and an incoherent chanting, Chen Mo unleashed a scintillating beam of destruction that seared through the elders' defenses with contemptuous ease. Two more were sent tumbling away, screaming in agony as their energy channels ruptured and spilled essence all over the floor.

Only three elders now remained standing, their robes tattered and expressions twisted into masks of anguished defiance. Chen Mo gave them a savage grin as he prepared to press the attack further.