543 Stalling for Time

"My house used to be there, on that mountain, yet it's nothing but fog now. I used to fight against my fellow disciples at the valley down below, yet not a single fighting ground exists there anymore," the old man said with melancholy to his voice.

"I don't blame you though, little girl. The only one I blame is Tian Chengong. We could've stopped you from moving here, but he didn't want to let go of the new location of Tiger sect, all because he found that black stone pretty."

The old man turned to Wen Cheng and spoke, "You see, there is something wrong in your story about the past. You called me a jealous man, a greedy man who wanted all for himself. You said I attacked the sect leader because I wanted his position."

"Truthfully, you would not be wrong. Yes, I did attack Tian Chengong because I wanted his position, but it wasn't because I was drawn to its power. No, I had no other choice at that time since only a Sect leader had enough power to do what I needed to do."

"I had gathered a significant amount of people to come transfer back to this place, but I also didn't want to split the Tiger sect at the time. I insisted Tian Chengong to move the sect back."

"But no," the old man said. "That coward would always use the emperor's orders as a means to persuade the rest to stay where he was. Everyone knew he was just attached to that black stone too much to let go of it. Since it was impossible to move, he didn't want to leave that place."

"That was why I decided to attack him when he returned wounded from the adventure. It was the perfect time for me to get rid of him and take charge of the sect to bring us back here, bring us back to glory, bring us close to the location that helped the Tiger sect reach the height it had back then."

Wen Cheng felt like everything he had known about the past was a lie. It seemed what was written on the records wasn't entirely true and missing a lot of the information.

Only a few high elders from back then had survived and merely 2 of them remained at the current time and were inclosed cultivation for a long time to hopefully extend their life.

The Second Elder was still holding off the third elder, while the rest of them were at standstill. Even Ma Rong wasn't sure what to do right now as whatever the old man was telling her seemed really important.

Tiger sect? In this place? She couldn't wrap her head around it. She had only come to this sect some 30 years ago and by that time the sect had already been established for over 15 years.

Also, the elders of that time mentioned nothing about it.

Wen Cheng was reeling in his shock when he realized something. Something he read in the few remaining records, they mentioned something that he hadn't thought about at the moment.

"The records," he spoke out, his eyes darting everywhere. "The records spoke of the sacred land, the holy land of Tiger sect to be close to the original location. Does that mean…?"

"Hmm? You're close, but a little wrong," the old man said. "While this was the previous location of Tiger sect, this too was a place we had moved to since we couldn't stay in the other place any longer. At least, that's what I read in the records."

"The original place where the Tiger Sect was originated was there," the old man said while pointing behind him.

"The Forbidden Fields?" Alex asked in surprise. He remembered the record he had read in the library. It stated that the sacred land was a place the sect members didn't dare enter.

Wen Cheng, and with his influence, Alex had come to assume that the sacred land was in some ways Holy to them, which was why they wouldn't dare step on it.

However, now that he realized it was the Forbidden Fields, he realized that it wasn't that they wouldn't step in the sacred land, but rather they couldn't. At least, not without losing their cultivation base for the moment and having to fight with dangerous beasts as a mortal.

"Wait," Wen Cheng shouted. "The records mentioned a massive blue landscape where the previous location of Tiger sect was, but… there is no such thing back there."

Alex nodded. If anything, with all the yellow sand, the writer of the record would call it a yellow landscape.

"You stupid idiot, what did I just tell you? We moved from the other place," the old man said. "We came from the north. What do you think you will reach if you went all the way up north?"

Wen Cheng's eyes opened wide as he realized how far the original location of the Tiger sect was located. Up north, over a thousand kilometers away, a location that would take even True realm experts nearly half a day to reach, at the edge of the Crimson Empire, one could see…

"The ocean," Wen Cheng realized. The blue landscape wasn't a large river or a lake as he had previously imagined. It was the ocean.

"What… is there," Wen Cheng asked the old man.

Even through the mask, people could see  him smile as he said, "the Sect's Treasure."

"The… sect treasure?" Wen Cheng was both surprised and confused.

"Yes, the sect treasure. The treasure around which the Tiger sect came into existence. It was at its initial phase at the time and would take years to grow according to the records."

"The time has come. The treasure has grown and is a step away from maturing. Any day now, it will mature. Do you want to know what the treasure is?" the old man asked.

"Yes," Wen Cheng nodded his head without even knowing.

"Then hand over that kid to me. With his body, I can traverse the desert, and find the treas—"

The moment the talking turned back around to being about Alex, Ma Rong attacked the old man. The old man had been consciously waiting for one of them to attack the whole time.

He talked all this time so that he could gather up the Qi he had lost. Using the formation, the amount he would get back would be a lot and could last longer in the fight against Ma Rong.

Ma Rong turned to look at Wen Cheng who was still dumbfounded about the whole thing.

"Wen Cheng, stop daydreaming and go help them," she shouted.

The whole time the old man was stalling for time, the second Elder and the third elder were fighting each other.

The Second elder had been protecting Wen Cheng by putting his own life on the line which the Third Elder refused to take.

Even the old man had noticed this and had been annoyed for a while, but he didn't want to bring attention to their fight.

However, now that Ma Rong was attacking him again, he was starting to feel the pressure once more and needed his daughter to help him out a bit.

"Dammit," he cried out. "Kill that bastard and come help me already, or are you useless just like your mother?"

The Third Elder shuddered and her eyes grew cold. "I'm sorry, father. I will deal with this quickly," she said.

She slammed her feet down and a bunch of rock spikes appeared from the ground around her.

The Second Elder used his flaming sword to cut the stones around him, little green just twisted his body to dodge the spikes, and Wen Cheng jumped back entirely to escape it all.

However, right as he was landing, another few rock spikes appeared beneath him and pierced his right leg's calf. Wen Cheng couldn't keep his balance and fell to the ground. With his already numerous cut, he was having a hard time with the battle.

"Master," Alex shouted and brought out a pill to feed him. He was about to walk towards his master when a wall appeared between him and Wen Cheng.

Alex tried to go around it, but Wen Cheng spoke, "stay back, it's dangerous."

Alex wanted to help, but it was indeed too dangerous. He watched the fight and quickly realized how serious the Third Elder was at the moment. Her attacks were no longer holding back and she was using techniques she hadn't shown before.

Just like her father, she too used a movement technique that gave her a burst of speed. Wen Cheng was barely holding on, especially with one of his feet not holding his weight properly.

The Third Elder launched herself towards Wen Cheng to stab him with the sword, but the Second Elder appeared in front of her once more, hoping to stop her like he had been all this time.

He was gravely mistaken. The brown blade pierced through his chest and came out on the other side.

Alex gasped in shock when he realized that the Second elder had been stabbed through the heart.

A single tear escaped the Third Elder's eyes as she said in a small voice, "I'm sorry."

The Second Elder looked at the sword in shock. He couldn't believe that he was actually stabbed. Was he going to die? Is this how he was going to die?

The loss of blood to his brain was slowly making his vision got darker by the second. He only had a few more breaths left.

'I won't go out like this,' he thought. He did his best to pull up his dangling arm and wrapped it around his wife, hugging her as tight as he could, pushing the sword deeper into him until his body was fully touching her.

He rested his head on her shoulders as tears started streaming down his cheeks as well, and said softly, "I'm sorry too."

He used the last of his breaths to scream. "DO IT NOW!"

Little green immediately rushed forward.

"No!" the Third Elder cried out but she couldn't move her husband's arms from herself in time. Or… maybe she could, but she didn't want to. Maybe she thought she deserved what was coming.

The snake wrapped around the both of them, keeping the Third elder steady in one place, giving Wen Cheng the perfect shot.

Wen Cheng stood on his left leg, held the sword with his 3 fingers on the left hand, and used the best technique he had at the moment.

His Sword Intent.

His sword glowed white around the edges, and he used an explosive speed to dash forward. When he reached right next to the two of them, he slashed his sword on the Third Elder targetting her neck.