Chapter 647: ...as the Fallen puff their chests...

<<Dammit! Who cares if these kids are still standing?! There’s more of us, take them down!>>

<<Sir!>>

"Hey, Zhen Yue, Zhen Liu is still out in the arena floor, right?," Zhen Xing asked as the Fallen Clan warriors began to charge at him and Zhen Yue.

"Should be," Zhen Yue confirmed as she entered a fighting stance. "He was still in there alongside the crossdressing princess."

"Think we’ll need to back him up?"

"Probably not, the man’s a one man army after all."

"In that case...LET’S RAMPAGE!"

"RIGHT!"

As Zhen Yue and Zhen Xing circulated their aether in preparations for battle, strange aura shadows began to manifest behind the two of them that the enemy warrior couldn’t help but feel we’re "unnatural" for lack of a better word due to "real" they felt. It probably didn’t help that Zhen Yue’s aura looked a bit like a strange chimeric beast man that radiated the same kind of feeling one gets while being in the middle of an empty moonlit danger zone, while Zhen Xing’s looked like a humanoid fox demon with exploding supernovas for eyes.

Needless to say, the sight of these weirdly realistic demon auras to cause the Fallen Warriors to get a little...nervous.

<<What the fuck is this aura?!>>

<<Something ain’t right with these kids. Something is definitely wrong with these branch clan kids!>>

<<Is that how they’re resisting the blood curse? It can’t be...>>

Regardless of how they felt though, the Fallen Clan had a job to do and they weren’t about to shirk their duties. Well, their leader wasn’t going to let them shirk their duties at least.

<<Who cares if they’re weird, just kill them!>>

<<Sir!>>

"We’d like to see you try!"

As the branch clan engaged with the Fallen Clan, the latter couldn’t help but passively wonder for a brief moment a simple question.

’These two were the only monstrous ones from this branch clan...right?’

Evidently, they didn’t know that there were far more monstrous fighters not too far from them.

Of course, these monstrous fighters were being mistaken as puppets to a fatal degree.

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Note: The following scene occurred around the same time the previous scenes were happening, so this is technically picking up where Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren started staring at each other in confusion over the situation.

All of the conversational bits between Zhen Liu and the kaijin happened at the speed of thought.

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Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren eventually stopped staring at one another to survey the situation around them and figure out their next course of action. Granted, Zhen Liu had already figured his out, he just needed to give go ahead.

’Alright, you guys have your orders. Now, kaijin, scram-’

<<You two are coming with us.>>

’Ah, fuck nuggets.’

<<Make me!,>> Jinju Ren shouted back with her sword already drawn and ready to go.

<<Oh ho! So what they say about the princess is true! She is a little spitfire!>>

Just as Zhen Liu was about to send the kaijin off on their missions, a pair of Fallen Clan warriors that were obviously stronger than the rest of the invaders that showed up, floated down from above like a pair of celestial warriors coming down to exact judgement on the lowly heathens beneath them.

At least that’s the impression Zhen Liu got from these two, thanks in part to his ability to pick up [Desire], and he automatically hated them for it. It didn’t help that one of the warriors descending looked like one of those wandering brawlers, complete with a set of massive prayer beads around their neck, a straw hat that covered the eyes and a pair studded leather glove-bracer things that clearly had blood stains on them, while the other looked like a drunken scholar, who was armed with a giant calligraphy brush. Either way, Zhen Liu personally found this ostentatious display of power to be rather distasteful...then again, he wasn’t one to judge given his past activities.

’Then again, they could just be trying to intimidate us by using the floating thing as an obvious indicator of power...,’ Zhen Liu mused before realizing that the reasons for them to show up like this didn’t really matter, as the ends were presumably the same.

They were here to either capture him and the 38th Imperial Princess, or kill them if they resisted. And from the way these two were presenting themselves, they were hoping it was going to be the latter option.

It didn’t take too long for the brawler and scholar looking warriors to touch ground away from Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren, but it was enough time for the latter two to take on fighting stances and for Zhen Liu’s puppets(kaijin) taking up fighting stances behind them.

At this point they were still radiating the power of being puppets equivalent to Aether Masters, but that could change at the drop of a hat (preferably the brawler’s).

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[Just say the word, maestro. I can lay these two down faster than a toddler for their nap.]

[I...don’t think that was actually intimidating...]

[Meh, it was the best analogy I could think of right now. I’m just excited to actually do some fighting again.]

[That’s...fair...]

[Guys, maybe we should what they want first before we kick their teeth in? I do recall reading somewhere that villainous types like to gloat about their plans...]

’Good observation.’

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Once everyone was settled into fighting positions, the scholar of the duo began to talk.

<<Pardon for my friend’s gruff demeanor. Gao Lin here is a bit...socially awkward.>>

In response to his companion’s words, the aforementioned Gao Lin let out a snort. This action did nothing to dissuade Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren to stand down, if anything, it inspired them to tighten up their stances. An action that caused the scholar to almost smile, albeit, very briefly.

<<Anyways, I should probably introduce myself, my name is Gao ZhiHui. My associate and I are elite warriors of the illustrious Gao Clan, and we are here to...cordially invite you to come with us. Things are getting rather hectic here and our leader has requested that we...secure...young geniuses such as yourself to a safe location. Not to worry, we’ll make sure you’ll be reunited with your families once all of this ugliness is over,>> the scholar known as Gao ZhiHui said with a wide smile that looked incredibly oily <<Besides, the two of us are significantly more effective forms of protection than a gaggle of puppets. Don’t you think?>>

Something about Gao ZhiHui rubbed Zhen Liu the wrong way, and this feeling turned out to be incredibly mutual.

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’What the fuck?’

[I...I feel gross listening to him.]

[I don’t know why but I feel compelled to assume he owns an unmarked van...with manacles installed in the floor.]

[Let me cut out his tongue, let me cut out his tongue!]

[Gross...]

[Milord, just say the world and I’ll encase the man in burning lava...]

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<<Apologies,>> Jinju Ren replied before Zhen Liu had a chance to, <<but we will have to politely refuse your offer as we are fully capable of keeping ourselves safe in these hectic times as you say. Besides, I’d rather not entrust my safety to someone who looks like they drug the wine of prostitutes.>>

’Oh that is significantly more polite than what I was going to call him,’ Zhen Liu remarked to himself as he could visibly see Gao ZhiHui becoming mad at Jinju Ren’s words. From the way he was reacting though, this wasn’t the first time he was insulted in such a manner.

Gao ZhiHui was surprisingly calm as he drew the giant caligraphy brush from his back, his aether starting to infuse with it at the same time.

<<Fine then. If that is your answer, I suppose there’s no need for us to be polite anymore. Gao Lin. [Regalia on]>>

<<[Regalia on]!>>

Following this declaration, the aether around Gao ZhiHui and Gao Lin turned turbulent as they began to condense into types of aether more suitable to the two Grandmasters, before forming into the suits of armor appropriate to them both.

Gao Lin’s aether turned into wisps of smoke that seemed to fuse with his skin and change the texture to be more like sheets of strong metal, while changing the color from a healthy looking tan to an almost sinister looking bronze green. Combined with glowing yellow eyes, the man looked more like a war god statue brought to life than a human.

On the other side, Gao ZhiHui’s aether took on an ink-like appearance before surging forward and replacing the man’s loose, almost sloppy looking outfit of a low class scholar, with a flowing black robe that would look right at home on the body of a master philosopher.

While the two Fallen Grandmasters didn’t look as armored as the other Grandmasters Zhen Liu had seen up until this point, the power radiating off of them made it clear that they were the real deal.

<<Now then, are you going to change your mind or->>

Before Gao ZhiHui could finish his threat, Jinju Ren and Zhen Liu gave their answers in quick order.

<<[Regalia on!]>>

"[MY Driver!]"

The two young warriors’ aether surged with a quality similar to that of Grandmaster’s in an instant.

Correction, their aether surged to be exactly like that of Grandmaster in an instant.

Needless to say, Gao ZhiHui and Gao Lin had rather ugly look on their faces once realized what was going on.

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[So you don’t want us to-]

’Not yet...I think I need to beat some catharsis out of him first.’

[Fair enough.]