Immortal Kingdoms

Chapter 248 Vs. High Elders

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"Hold your hand!" 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Just as Leonardo was about to finish off the four, his domain shook with the interference from an incoming strike of superimposed domains belonging to four 6th-tier cultivators. 

The trapped elders immediately broke free and shouted, "Escape!" 

Through the cracks of Leonardo's unstable domain, the trapped elders zigzagged their way to the rear of the formation, each hiding behind the High Elder of their respective sects. Once again, Leonardo's four directions were blocked— only this time the enemies were a little bit troublesome. 

"You guys run pretty fast! It's almost like you've been on edge lately," Leonardo commented lightly, not having expected the four High Elders to arrive so quickly. 

Since he couldn't kill the four 5th-tier cultivators, he wasn't able to deal a harsh blow to these sects or the people behind them, whoever they were. 

"You'd wish you have the ability to run even faster than us in a little bit," smiled one of the four High Elders amiably, his linen clothes barely concealing his puffed muscles, a broad sword resting comfortably in his callous hand. 

It was a sharp contrast between that kind of expression and a body riddled with scars of fierce battles, further accentuated by that massive sword. Sharp sword Qi covered his immediate surroundings like wind blades ready to tear reality open, building up on the edge of his sword for a frightening strike. 

Leonardo only spared this High Elder a glance before his eyes locked onto the other three in chronicle order following clockwise motion. A refined middle-aged man with a flute to his lips, an old man with a sand gourd strapped to his waist, and eventually a middle-aged woman with plumes of ever-shape-shifting crimson smoke all around her body. 

"Do you have the ability to send me running, though?" 

Leonardo smiled faintly as his domain cracked and crumbled bit by bit under the pressure of their combined domains. Even as that happened, Leonardo didn't feel pressured to escape yet— in fact, he was somewhat thrilled to engage in combat after so long. 

He may be smart, deceiving, and a businessman through and through— but is a cultivator too. Once he entered the God Planes, no wits or business mindset would help him brave through the dangers. Only his personal power would help him— why else was Dizmason Eternus so feared despite his bloodline originating from a branch family to the Infernals? 

The answer was quite simple! Power! Undisputable power to destroy all! 

Thus, while the four thought they might impact Leonardo's state of mind by ganging up eight vs. one, they instead stroked his fighting spirit. 

"Since this domain is pretty useless," Leonardo reached a finger, almost tapping at is fragile domain that seemed on the verge of collapse at any moment now. With a poke of his finger, it was as though this was the final nail to the coffin, his domain shattered like glass and retreated into his body. 

Bang! 

Leonardo's body quivered and his hair flapped wildly in the chaotic ambiance of colliding domains. None of the four expected Leonardo to take the initiative to shatter his own domain, catching them off rhythm as their superimposed synchronizations went off-beat for a split second. 

A valuable split second! 

Leonardo didn't waste time as his body slithered through the cracks and toward the High Elder with the great sword on his back, a punch seething through space for a solid, far-from-intimate impact to the High Elder's square forehead. 

Boom! The chaotic ether was compressed into a visible pale blue wave as it rippled off from the epicenter of collision, and the High Elder blasted a few miles away even as his expression of befuddled shock never unregistered from his face. This man was the last to react to the sudden crumbling of Leonardo's domain, and yours truly hadn't missed the opportunity. 

With a steaming fist, Leonardo paused in mid-air while contemplating the sensation of striking yet another who seemed like a body refiner. 

"Refining the body with sword Qi?" Leonardo was a little surprised as he observed the split wound on his knuckles. When that punch landed, a burst of sharp sword Qi erupted from the High Elder's skin, almost cutting bone-deep into Leonardo's fist. 

Leonardo's body had been refined to the extremes of what anyone below the rebirth realm could achieve— even if his rebirthed body was yet to undergo any substantial refinement, it wasn't something anyone can casually inflict harm to. 

Hu! 

The sound of an elegant flute struck at Leonardo from behind, the musical notes combined with crimson plumes of smoke as they took the form of menacing little nails as they sailed through space. As expected, the only person capable of close-range combat was that High Elder with a great sword, while the other three could only opt to suppress Leonardo from a distance. He wasn't very worried though, anything could be dealt with if considered carefully. 

Even as he turned his head to face the new attack, the sky suddenly went dim. Caught aback, Leonardo looked back to spot a massive projection of a black great sword that obscured the sky while descending with the might of a mountain. 

"Now!" 

With that shout, the four domains once again formed a web that incapacitated Leonardo's movement for a moment. 

"Fuck!" 

Bang! 

The great projection struck home as it blasted Leonardo's back heavily, shooting the latter deep into the soil of the uncharted wilderness. The earth and sky rumbled as a wave of earth, dust, and stone washed the trees all around Leonardo within a few miles radius to oblivion. 

Through the curtain of rubble, high in the sky, the figure of the High Elder with a great sword resting on his shoulder and a soft crack in his forehead appeared. "You had that one coming, bastard." 

He was annoyed to have been sneak attacked by a young twig of a cultivator. Even if he was some brat from Memento Mori, that didn't make the process any less humiliating. 

"It's not over yet!" Shouted the middle-aged man with the flute, his notes reaching a screeching climax as the music twisted the chaotic ether into tangible chains that skewered the cloud of rubble on the ground. 

"Indeed," added the woman masked behind the ever-twisting crimson plumes, and with a wave of her hand, the crimson petals congregated into a twisting funnel directly above Leonardo's position of descent, swirling like crazy as the tornado absorbed the chaotic ether, and sharp musical notes within a few miles in preparation to blast it all on top of Leonardo's body. 

"Is he still down there?" Asked the High Elder with the great sword as his eyes rested on the body of the old man with a gourd of sand strapped to the waist. 

"He should be," answered the old man. Looking closer, a fine string of sand leaked from his gourd into the soil below, presumably the entire patch of uncharted wilderness was already under the watchful senses of this old man. 

The four regular elders watched in anticipation as their High Elders easily handled Leonardo who was one second away from doing away with their lives a few moments ago. They felt proud, excited, and somewhat awkward. 

"What a joke!" 

Leonardo's voice echoed from the bottom of the funnel, like a clap of thunder. 

Space and ether twisted, followed by the sound of domains creaking under tremendous pressure. A hint of darkness swelled within the epicenter of sand, musical notes, and crimson plumes. Lightning crackled, its menacing presence growing by the second in hopes of shattering the world, hopes, and delusions of the High Elders. 

A promise of total destruction. 

"Not good!" Yelled the woman who was moments away from completing the crimson funnel— a blast of pure black thunderforce climbed to the sky, piercing the funnel even as it struggled to maintain its shape. A wave of violent ether rippled through the four superimposed domains as though they were paper, revealing a man clad in black armor while holding a three-meter-tall halberd in hand. 

The black armor seemed incomplete as its substance twisted about to cover Leonardo's body in a skin-tight gear, a long black cape, and squiring runes of crimson and white crawling all around his body. 

The High Elder with a great sword took a few steps back, each step sounding with a boom that shook the clouds. As for the other three, they were hurtled a few hundred paces away as they struggled to balance themselves. 

"Too noisy," Leonardo's figure had somehow vanished from the bottom of the hole, creeping behind the refined middle-aged man who held the flute, a cold glint in his pitch-black eyes. So far, Leonardo hadn't used his desolate martial intent, eternal night martial intent, or bloodthirsty martial intent. 

He was fighting with pure thunderforce martial intent and physical might. 

Crackle! Boom! 

The halberd pierced through the middle-aged man's back and protruded right through his chest, charred bits of flesh and blood spattered about even as dark currents of lightning encapsulated his body. 

Horror riddled his face as the following explosion was a result of destructive lightning rushing into his star core, detonating it all together.