Ghost city

Ed had long mastered the devil's cage. This was a spatial technique that could bind people in a certain space, allowing only the user to move around at will. The first thing he did was to divide the cage into different levels. In the first level, only commoners were locked in. the second level held cultivators. He contemplated dividing the cultivators into groups but felt he would not get a good fight by doing so. Leaving the commoners stuck in the dark, he allowed the light of the sun to enter the second level. It would not be much of a fight if those he was fighting could not see him.

Outside the city, Tie Nse and Old Iba looked at the section of the city that suddenly had light. They could see through the dome into that side of the city.

"He is crazy. You are crazy," Old Iba said solemnly.

"He at least knows not to waste this opportunity I gave him. This is a chance for him to fight to his heart's content," Tie Nse said.

"Why did you go out there? You knew that it was necessary he kept his identity a secret, yet you still went out there," old Iba said.

"Seeing how fast the astral roots competition ended, he probably had not fought to his fill. This is me helping him," Tie Nse said casually.

"And if they kill him? He is still only a spirit-picking sapling. Ability to use energy or not, they can kill him easily," 

"He must learn with his life on the line," Ti Nse said and Old Iba sighed, "This boy had done you wrong in a past life," 

Inside the city, Ed stared at the angry cultivators with a calm look in his eyes. He manifested a rope and a sword from the Yhenxia sword and faced them.

"What do you intend to do?" someone from the Jade Phoenix alliance asked.

"This skill is the devil's cage from the falcon sect. He has learnt it to such a degree?" someone commented.

"No one can leave the devil's cage unless the owner of the cage dies. What do you mean by doing this?" the falcon sect elder asked.

Ed did not bother to reply to him. He immediately attacked the nearest person. He swung the leather rope, lashing unto the person's neck and pulling towards him with force.

Crack.

One could hear the person's neck break.

"That rope and sword. It's from the astral roots. It's a divine-level treasure. How could he get that much?" an elder at the door of the soul realisation stage said in horror. Divine-level treasures such as these were hard to counter, especially when they could not use their energy. Ed did not stop moving. He moved to the next person and attacked. By now, it had dawned on them, Ed wanted to kill them all.

"You overestimate yourself," someone sneered and attacked.

Ed countered him easily, blocking his incoming punch with his palm.

Crack! Everyone heard the sound of bones breaking.

"Impossible! Elder brother is at the soul-seeking stage!" someone said in disbelief.

Ed did not stop moving. He swung the rope through the air and it moved without a definite direction.

The rope crackled through the air. As it hit someone, they lost an arm. Panic had started to break out.

"Don't let it touch you!"This was a divine treasure. Usually, it would take long for one to train to handle this rope, but this devil before them seemed to have mastered the rope and the sword with ease. Was this even fair?

"This boy intends that we all die in here," 

"We must not fight him alone," 

"He is just a sapling, but this sapling defies reason," 

"Without our energies, we must fight him together," they all seemed to understand that it was them against Ed and there was no way out of this cage without killing him.

One of the elders looked up at the sky in the direction Tie Nse had gone and asked loudly, "Lord Nse, you do nothing when your disciple acts brazenly, continue to do nothing after we kill him," he declared.

Tie Nse snorted at those words and kept silent. As if it was easy to kill this disciple of his. The heavens tried and fail, you know? Talk more of a little mortal like you.

When the elder did not get a reply, the phoenix jade alliance elder narrowed her eyes at Ed's form.

"After he is dead, the Jade phoenix alliance will come for compensation," she said to no one in particular.

"Disciples, hear me! Attack together. Kill this little brat!" she ordered and the disciples attacked in a formation.

Ed's calm form glanced at them attacking, "Now you get the picture," he said as they reached him.

He spun the rope through the air. He had not coated these weapons with his energy since he started. He had to kill them with pure might alone. He wished to fight till he could not move. He blinked before them, appearing as his fist descended unto their middle. They were fast enough to evade his incoming fist, letting it strike the earth.

Boom.

The earth gave way as a crater formed in its middle. No matter how fast they had escaped, they could not keep standing straight with the earth giving way beneath their feet. Ed ignored those lying inside the crater and attacked those outside it. His body moved swiftly lurching through the air and spinning right on time to deliver a kick to the jade phoenix elder. She blocked with her arm, and immediately regretted it.

At the soul-seeking stage, her bones had hardened beyond the hardness of Xuan Gold. Yet,...

Crack!

"Impossible!" she bellowed as she was flung a meter back.

"You did not use any energy, how?" she asked after landing in a pile of earth. Her green robes were now dirtied with dust.

"Only an arm broke? your physical body is not the same as those in the great spill," Ed commented, "Fine. More power then. Stand still; this next punch of mine will kill you,"