Chapter 16: Spirit Silver Grade

As the cultivators went down, the essence energy concentration in the air increased.

Lance took a deep breath as they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase. The essence energy here was nearly at the same level as that of his hill on the island. He was surprised that he had found such a place as his hill was specially build using many expensive natural treasures according to his teacher.

The cultivators around him became subdued after sensing the energy. Gong Yu took the lead as he silently led the group forward with his weapon poised to attack. Lance followed behind him, as he tried to sense the reason for it. They soon reached another cavern but this was much smaller in size than the above one.

A small tree stood in the center, it emitted a peaceful aura. The tree wasn't too large, just about 8 feet tall. The branches were sparce enough that if it stood in the sun, it would provide nearly no shade at all. The vibrant green willow shaped leaves weren't many either. If it was a normal tree, Lance would consider that it was dying but the tree exuded such powerful vitality that he doubted it would die even if all its branches were cut off. A small 3 colored fruit grew on one of its branches, but it seemed to emit nearly the same amount of vitality as the whole tree.

Now that he thought about it, the tree probably didn't rely on sunlight to survive as it was underground. The leaves seemed to glow as they emitted a green light, it made the tree seem magical in the darkness.

"A spirit silver grade treasure!", exclaimed an incredibly excited voice.

But Lance didn't have time to turn around as the cub on his shoulder extended a paw behind his back. Then Lance nearly blacked out as a terrible pain radiated from his chest.

He looked down in shock as he saw a bloody spear tip pointing out from his chest. He screamed miserably and dropped his swords as the tip was ripped out from his back. He fell to his knees as he clutched at the hole in his chest and tried to stop the bleeding.

Cloud jumped off his shoulder as a great roar resounded in the cavern but Lance couldn't even bear to turn around due to the pain. He tried to breathe but the spear seemed to have punctured a lung as he felt something obstructing the airflow and filling his lung. He somehow steadied himself even though his head was blurry from all the pain. His hands slowly picked up one of the discarded swords and he propped himself up on it. He tried to stand up but his legs shook as he collapsed again. He at least managed to turn himself halfway around so that he could look at the scene behind him.

H first saw Gong Yu clutching his spear with shaking hands as he pointed it toward another cultivator. Lance was confused but then he observed that the cultivator at whom Gong Yu pointed his spear was missing his head.

Blood was flowing down from the headless corpse which slowly crumpled to the ground in a heap. A whoosh sounded out as another head went flying. The cultivator didn't even have time to scream before he died, his body crumpled to the ground in the same gruesome manner. He looked around and saw a small heap at a side, he slowly tried to push aside the pain aside focused on the pile. His hands shook as he nearly blacked out again from the sight.

The pile was made of the heads of the cultivators in his group. Each of the cultivator's heads was frozen in an expression of abject terror. Lance slowly focused on a small blood drenched form which was moving towards him.

Cloud shook of the blood as if it was water and settled beneath the tree which was only the place free from blood on this side of the cavern. He looked at Lance and spoke for the first time in reality, "Little kid, don't worry you won't die! That injury evens the battle field between you two, go defeat that early skin stage brat and this 3 colored fruit will be yours."

He then turned his head towards the shivering Gong Yu as he said, "Brat, I will give you the chance to live, you just have to defeat him. As long as you defeat him, I'll let you go."

"Y-you'll kill me regardless of whether I defeat him or not! I won't play your game!" Gong Yu croaked out.

"What makes you think you have a choice!? I will tear your head off if you don't fight!", an enraged roar resounded as the image of a huge tiger formed above Cloud. A majestic presence spread from him even though the large tiger image was blurry.

Gong Yu was thrown back just from the roar, he gazed at the cub as if it was a monster. But soon he got up and gripped his spear as he looked at the bleeding Lance. He silently moved toward him as his gaze turned savage.

But a heavy pressure stooped him from moving, he looked at the tiger and understood Cloud's intention as he patiently waited.

"Get up little kid! Will you die to this useless brat who only knows how to backstab!? If you succumb here, who will avenge your village and your sister?" Lance jerked at the last sentence. His pain gave way to the never ending rage as he propped himself up successfully this time. His chest burned from the movement but he ignored it as he focused on the rage.

A dam seemed to break open as he stopped holding it back, he opened his left hand towards the other sword. The sword shook but didn't move again, his rage immediately multiplied two-fold after seeing this.

"Come!", he bellowed. This time the sword immediately followed and landed in his hand. Black veins extended in his hands as a black gas seemed to flow in them. He turned towards Gong Yu as he slowly started moving forward.

He didn't say anything but his gaze seemed to convey all the things required.

The pressure silently dissipated as the two of them immediately pounced upon each other.