Daily life of a cultivation judge

The shadow flame hawk screeched as though it was saying,

"No, I want to stay.."

Lai Lei sighed as if reading its thoughts.

"I know you want to help but if you stay I will be too distracted with your welfare to go fully out, and considering the line-up, I doubt I can afford a moment's distraction, and it also looks like they came fully prepared.

I don't know if it was me specifically they were targeting, or they were targeting anyone from the Order and I happened to be the unlucky one, but regardless of which is which, they came fully prepared to achieve whatever their goals were, knowing fully well what they would be up against.

Our best course of action is to split. Call for reinforcements while I hold them off, who knows the thought that you escaped might end up affecting their mental states which would give me more to exploit. And if I really can't handle it, I will run. I have no intentions of fighting to the bitter end here, if I really can't win, I can always run.." Lai Lei gently said.

The shadow flame hawk let out a low screech almost mournful as it gently touched its head on Lai Lei's forehead.

"Go.." Lai Lei said as he gave it one last pat on the head.

Grey flames blazed and immediately coated the shadow flame hawk's full body. With a crackle, it immediately disappeared from view and flew away.

"Good.." 

The whole exchange had taken just a few seconds, in the meanwhile a chaotic cataclysmic storm was brewing ahead of him.

Lai Lei had detonated five talismans, each containing 80% of Dai Chen's strength as a first-stage palace realm cultivator.

Spiritual qi was swallowed in large amounts, while debris and explosions sounded everywhere.

"Did I curse myself this morning?" Lai Lei wondered with a bitter smile as he took out three more talismans and then decided to add one more.

The last talisman was dark purple and had dark gold runes inscribed on it. Lai Lei had a slightly frightful expression as he held on to it. If given the chance, he would rather not use it because detonating it came with consequences to his body that would end up in his death in the worst-case scenario.

"Hopefully I don't have to use it.." he muttered to himself as he watched the dust cloud clear.

The talismans that had enough power to eviscerate an entire city because of how much destructive power they had, failed to so much as scratch the black-robed group's robes.

A giant black lightning shield had enveloped them like a protective capsule. Everywhere around them had been destroyed, except the place in which they stood on.

Lai Lei wasn't too surprised by the result, since if they dared attack him, surely they had enough confidence in the means they had, especially that dagger that gave him an eerie dangerous sensation.

"It's not quite at the ascendant grade, but it should be close. Just who are these people? Where did they come from? The artifacts, the lineup, it's too high for it to be some no-name group, and how did they even know my route? 

Launching that dagger needed sufficient time and preparation. Clearly, they were sure I'd pass by here for them to be able to launch it in time.

The blocked signal must be there doing too. They must have an artifact on them with void attributes. It's the only thing I can think of that is capable of interfering with the communication talisman.

Luckily the group before me doesn't seem like they have someone capable of controlling the artifact, if there was, I'd be in serious trouble.

Fourteen..let me exhaust the eight some more.."

Lai Lei in quick succession instantly detonated the three talismans and fished out two more from his storage ring, which he detonated immediately after he was done three.

"Looks like it's working.." Lai Lei muttered as he noticed the slightly erratic fluctuations coming from two of the eight black-robed persons who were controlling the dagger and also by the demeanor of their bodies, they seemed to be imploring the remaining seven to act who immediately pulled out their weapons.

Three of them were sword users, one had a green fan made of what looked to be the dried wings of a bird, one was a saber user, one spear user, and one held two saber tooth daggers that released an eerie green-black smoke.

"Of course, they have monarch-grade weapons too.." said Lai Lei when he detected the energy fluctuations being released from their weapons. It was similar to the first black-robed person he had killed.

"I hope twenty minutes will be enough. I can only maintain this for thirty.." muttered Lai Lei as his figure started morphing slightly.

The graceful tyrannical storm of the gentle kirin

A rainbow-colored auspicious light permeated out of the golden scales that had appeared on several parts of his body i.e. his forearms, both sides of the neck, the nose bridge, and the eyebrows.

His eyes had also changed to a pure golden color with an ethereal light fluctuating within them.

A brilliant sword intent was immediately released from his body that cleared the dust storm around and from within it, he charged forth, sword in hand.

The seven black-robed individuals immediately split up in a bid to form an encirclement on Lai Lei.

Three of the sword users charged forward while the fourth remained behind seemingly to guard the eight, who seemed immobilized in the operation of the dagger.

Two of the sword users had mastered sword intent too, which was the materialization of one's sword force to the external surrounding, however, in terms of momentum, theirs lost out to Lai Lei's sword intent which looked to cleanse every impurity by slicing it to dust.

Like an unstoppable force, the moment Lai Lei clashed with the three sword users, he simultaneously deflected the attacks of the two sword users that had mastered sword intent and then borrowed the momentum of the deflection to quickly appear behind the third sword user that had not mastered sword intent.

The third sword user had just detected the danger from their back and was desperately turning his body to deflect it, only to have their arm sliced off with quick precision. The arm sliced off was the one holding the sword.

Lai Lei as if reading the trajectory of the sliced arm immediately kicked it, intercepting an incoming attack from the fan user. The fan in their hands seemed almost lifelike as brown corroded feathers appeared on it. When the fan user waved their fan, and a sandstorm with black smog was produced.

The severed arm that Lai Lei kicked over, which still held onto the sword, immediately parted the sand storm apart with fierce momentum. However, even though the attack seemed parted, the arm started rotting and desiccating, further in the storm, it went.

Immediately after the dual dagger wielder appeared behind Lai Lei aiming for his neck. Lai Lei as if he had eyes at the back of his head plunged his sword backward forcing the dual wielder to dodge to their side, only to be met with an elbow to their jaw as they were dodging.

A cracking sound, likely from a broken mandible immediately sounded from the crash. 

"Good, it seems the masks don't provide defense.." thought Lai Lei as he went on to follow up with a slashing attack that aimed for the dual wielder's neck only to be stopped by the spear user and saber user who had each mastered intent, though it was only in the embryonic form.

A fierce explosion was created that sent the dual wielder flying as the saber and spear user were sent back a few steps. The spear of the spear user vibrated forcefully as blood appeared in between their thumb and their index finger.

Before they could even grip their spear properly, a flash of shining radiant light was reflected on their eyes as they saw a graceful sword aiming for their neck and were too helpless to stop it.

Clang!

A metal against metal clash sounded immediately drawing the spear user out of their trance-like state. The spear user felt their body get flung backward by the interceptor who turned out to be the lone sword user who had not joined the attack.

"You must be the one in charge, I take it. I don't know if you would be willing to tell me where you are from and why seven quasi-palace stage experts laid an ambush for me?"