"If you don't want to end up like those two meat bags, better mind your own business." Damien said, ignoring his question.
Lightning elemental seeds and metal elemental seeds were very rare in the Rising Sun Continent that it seemed like a myth for one to possess such seeds.
Igor had never seen a lightning elemental user in his life nor had he heard about anyone possessing such seeds. He only knew that the imperial princess possessed the mythical metal seed which itself was too unimaginable for him.
He had only learnt from history that there was once a lightning element cultivator who lived thousands of years ago. But those were only legends and that's how people knew that lightning seeds were not an imaginary concept.
People knew that lightning and metal seeds were superior to the other four elemental seeds which was obviously evident given how mythical and rare they were.
When people of the Rong Empire came to know of Lily possessing the metal elemental seed, they were so proud that their imperial princess's talent at elemental laws couldn't be matched by anyone in the continent. They were looking forward to how powerful she would become once she grew up. But it all changed after Lily's father died and the Ancestor got injured.
Igor was stunned that he came upon a mythical lightning element practitioner. If any empire came to know about such a person, they would do anything to recruit and nurture him.
Who doesn't want a powerful lightning element cultivator under their command?
But remembering how the lightning bolt seemed jet black in color, he wondered if that's the color of lightning ethereal energy. He found it strange that it did not have any properties or color of normal lightning.
'Is he even from our empire?' Igor even started wondering if Damien was coming from the other eminent empires...probably even the Xeton Empire.
Because he knew how pitiful their empire was compared to other empires. There was no way someone so talented like Damien would go unnoticed in their empire. Especially the strange movement skill Damien used completely bewildered him.
Igor tried to discern Damien's face since the hood was only covering till the forehead. But no matter how much he tried he could only see a blurry face. This was the first time he was seeing someone hiding their identity without any mask but using some strange technique to blur their face and change their voice.
He had to admit that Damien's voice sounded a bit intimidating but he berated himself for being frightened by someone weaker than him.
Igor started having second thoughts about continuing this fight since he was afraid of provoking some genius from another empire. Even if a genius from another empire was weaker than him, he would have to still bow down and even bootlick him if needed. His status as an inner disciple of the Imperial Ethereal Court was of no importance before a genius from another empire.
But seeing how Damien even killed two of his junior brothers over just a mere trifle, he thought that even if he let go of this matter, Damien wouldn't probably make things easier for him.
'I have to kill him before anyone finds out.' Killing intent started to flicker in Igor's eyes.
Damien noticed the change in Igor's eyes. He was after all, an expert at detecting killing intent no matter how faint it is.
'This dipshit wants to silence me heh…' Damien could guess the kind of thoughts passing through in Igor's mind.
"Hmph, hiding your face like a coward. Do you not dare to show me your face?" Igor mocked trying to provoke him in order to at least learn his identity. If his identity was of no importance, then Igor would have a peace of mind even after he kills Damien. But he guessed that the chances of Damien being just an unknown rogue cultivator was very slim.
After all, why would someone with Damien's prowess hide themselves from society when they can easily earn riches and fame by joining a prestigious family or sect.
Sweat had already started trickling down Damien's temple. He was only left with 25% of his ethereal energy.
"You will see my face right after I rip out your soul." Damien said slowly in a cutting tone.
"Hahahaha, you surely can boast. Why don't you show me how you are going to do that?" Igor sneered thinking that maybe the person in front of him was retarded to think that he could kill him. He felt that maybe he overthinked too much about Damien's identity and probably Damien was just an idiot born with some talent wandering around on his own.
Damien knew that the only way he could get out of this messy situation is by killing Igor. He wasn't sure if he could kill Igor, but he knew that there was only one choice he could take, to at least have a chance of defeating Igor.
But that choice involved tremendous risks and Damien had no idea the aftermaths he would have to experience.
Igor didn't tarry any longer as he released his aura and used a movement skill and shot right towards Damien at a shocking speed swinging his mace.
Damien saw it coming and was preparing to execute Mirage of Myriad Phantasms, but he felt that his body was being locked down by the ethereal aura of Igor!
Cultivators could lock down or suppress others using their ethereal aura. It wouldn't make much difference if the difference in strength is small. But Igor was nine levels higher than Damien, which was more than enough to suppress Damien.
The mace was closing on Damien's chest but he gritted his teeth and maximized his ethereal energy to use his Mirage of Myriad Phantasms skill.
But even then, Damien barely managed to dodge the blow as the maze grazed his ribs and sent Damien flying away a dozen meters away leaving behind a spring of blood! Damien didn't even get much time to fully pour out his ethereal energy from within to protect his body.
Even though Damien managed to dodge the main attacking force from the mace, he still had to bear the brunt of the ethereal energy carried behind the impact from the graze.
No matter how powerful his ethereal arts were, his body was still that of a low level Nascent Ethereal Realm cultivator.
How could someone at the low levels of the Nascent Ethereal Realm take the blow from someone at the peak of the Nascent Ethereal Realm.
This was the first time Damien actually experienced fighting a human cultivator. It was totally different from what he imagined. He may be unrivaled if he were to fight against normal humans or even ethereal beasts without any ethereal arts but that need not be necessarily the same case against cultivators. One could say he had no experience at all in fighting cultivators.
Damien coughed out blood as pain emanated from his broken left ribs.
'Shit...I fucked up.' Damien blamed himself for being too careless against a stronger enemy. He was so confident of his ethereal arts that he never imagined he would be left in such a pitiful state. He thought that, even if things took a bad turn, he could always escape using his speed and try to shake off Igor even if it was risky enough.
"Ugh.." Damien struggled to stand up by resting his forearm and knee on the ground. He felt slightly dizzy and guessed that Igor must have used some kind of ethereal arts to power his weapon.
Skinny Face laughed from the side, "Hahahaha, what a trash! How exactly were you going to rip out my senior brother's soul? Hahahahah." He laughed like a maniac and felt glad that he didn't run away and trusted Igor to finish Damien on his own. Otherwise, he would have missed out on enjoying Damien being pummeled.
'Humph, I overestimated this clown.' Igor thought that the two lackeys of Skinny Face must have been killed by some underhanded methods. Actually, Igor didn't even go all out since he thought that it would be overkill against someone relatively too weak.
"Any last words?" Igor asked with a mocking expression as he slowly advanced towards Damien swiveling the mace in his hands.
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