COMING OF THE MARTIAL GOD - SEASON 2 EPISODE 59

Austin was in no hurry. He ambled along to cherish the verdant scenery around him.

As he passed by a thick emerald-hued bush, a figure in pink flashed past him to swiftly dive and take cover behind the dense foliage.

Behind him, Raymond was close on the heels of Austin as he scrambled to ambush Austin with his gang. About half an hour later, Raymond was watching from afar to see Austin still unhurried and leisurely strolling about. With a diabolical plan cooking in his mind, Raymond flashed a wicked smile.

“Hurry up. Walk faster and go ahead so that you can take that guy by surprise,” Raymond ordered bossily. As soon as he waved his hand, all his men obediently got into two groups and parted their ways to follow two different paths into the forest.

Dozens of men sneaked through the closely packed trees, scurrying at a fast pace, in order to reach the ghat in time. Some moments later, they had finally caught up with Austin and then, overtook him.

Austin heard the leaves rustle around him. His lips curled into a wry smile as he murmured to himself, “Finally! You caught up with me. It’s good that I didn’t have to waste much time in waiting for you.”

This was the part of the ghat where the trees became sparse and the overarching sky was all too visible. On that naked patch, Austin paused as if to rest for a while.

Raymond’s men by then were walking some distance ahead of Austin. They all had a plan, which they were only too eager to put in motion. They started to position themselves strategically at a treacherous ghat lying in wait for Austin.
As minutes ticked by and it clocked to about half an hour, they began to fidget, wondering why they hadn’t seen Austin in a long period of time.

‘Did this guy spot something out of turn and go back?’ Raymond spoke sotto voce. An idea struck him and so he promptly barked an instruction, “one of you go and take a look at what on earth is that guy up to.”

Again, minutes passed by and all waited mouse-like for the dispatched man to get back. On his return, he reported, “Sir, he was resting on an exposed stretch of the forest. He was simply lying there and staring at the sky.”

“Why wait here? Go. Let’s walk back then!”

Raymond ordered again. He was unwilling to waste any more time in waiting, as he was getting impatient to see Austin cruelly tortured.

At his end, Austin retrieved a small cloth bag from his space ring and then, further pulled out an array flag from the bag.

“Well, this is the chance to see how mighty this Four-sided and Eight Trigrams Array is.”

After Fanny’s grandfather had gifted this Four-sided and Eight Trigrams Array to him, Austin had been devoting time to studying it in details.

There was a manual on this that had come as part of the gift by Fanny’s grandfather. Careful as usual, Austin had saved the manual with the array in the bag.

The manual said that one of the array flags was known as the main flag, which was central to deploying the whole thing. It instructed that the main flag should be refined so as to deploy the Four-sided and Eight Trigrams Array along with the rest of the array flags.

Poring over the manual once again to make sure that he did it right, Austin got refining the main flag post-haste.

Austin’s plan was simple, namely to deploy the array against Raymond and his men as well as figure out how mighty the Four-sided and Eight Trigrams Array really was.

Coincidentally, some of Raymond’s men had reached the Earth Realm. This was a golden chance for trying to gauge how powerful the array in his possession was. Austin was trying to check whether the array was really effective in fighting cultivators who were below the medium stage of the Earth Realm as Fanny’s grandfather had told him.

With the array flag out of his space ring, Austin not wasting a second, flung the array flags in one direction, one after another.

The array flags were now supposed to trigger the vital energy of that area and spark off ripples of energy. After that, the flags would be integrated into that area and dissipated.

After all the array flags were cast out by Austin, the only effect was a faint dull boom. The space over the naked stretch land looked a little distorted, and then streaks of evanescent light started interweaving beams with each other. On ground level, the source of the lights, the array flags stood firm and strong.

All array flags had landed in the vicinity of each other and had been successful in creating a prism of wispy colours. As they overlapped and jumbled into each other, they created a complex mesh of lights.

When the last of the lights laced into a complex and obscure trajectory, Austin could feel a sudden increase in the vital energy. It seemed that it was flowing unhindered on the spot he had chosen.

Directly in the sky above, faint lines of light flickered into quietly becoming nigh invisible. If one wouldn’t concentrate hard to spot them, their presence would somewhat become a secret.

Austin’s eyes widened in great surprise as he saw that the array had completely taken shape.

The beam of lights joined at a tip of the main flag clearly outlining the movement trajectory, energy distribution and assault laws of the array on the vacant land. Austin felt confident as he studied these parameters. What brought him further confidence was that he could trigger at will various assaults of the array as long as he wielded the main flag in his hand.

‘This array can even mobilize the vital energy of my surroundings. How wonderful this thing is!’ Austin spoke quietly to himself.

Admiration for the array sparkled in his eyes that were too focused on the array, smitten by its complexity.

“Master, have you successfully deployed the array? Why do I feel that some changes have occurred to the energy circulation over this space?”

At this moment, Violet was hiding inside a thorn bush beside the vacant land, as she had planned to attack their opponents unexpectedly.

“The array has been successfully deployed. Violet, can you also sense the array?”

“Although I can’t sense the array, I can discern some changes. Master, I admit that my power of spiritual sense is not as mighty as yours, but it certainly doesn’t pale in comparison either.

Nine tail demon foxes are inborn with formidable mental power, of which I am one. At present, my mental power is stronger than all the cultivators at the Earth Realm, but only a little weaker than the cultivators at the Mysterious Realm.
It is because illusions are performed by exerting mental power,” Violet replied.

“Raymond, the guy from the Flaming Sun Valley, has come,” Austin suddenly whispered to the fox, to shush her into silence. . . .

And then like a swarm of flies, dozens of cultivators charged towards Austin to trap him. The man in charge looked at Austin with a hint of madness mixed with awe.

“Austin, we meet again.” Gritting his teeth, Raymond greeted Austin. Silence followed his utterance and in that second, Raymond’s face twitched.

Every time he thought about Austin knocking him down unconscious in plain view, right in front of the Lotus Tavern, anger crawled under his skin.

Of course, it happened long ago but the humiliation and hatred were still fresh in Raymond’s mind. They nagged and tortured his soul, questioning his standing.

Ever since Raymond was a little kid, he had gotten everything he ever wanted.

Being the only grandson of a top elder of the Flaming Sun Valley sect, it was only natural that he was spoiled. But now with time, he had grown into a rather selfish and unrestrained adult. Raymond was now so conceited that he believed himself to be the Alpha to the whole mankind.

Backed by his grandfather’s great power, Raymond had never been humiliated like this.

But now, this guy had the gall to disgrace him and on top of that, stand brazenly in front of him.

There was not even a hint of panic shown by Austin. Rather, he stared right back at Raymond and smiled his filthy smug smile at him.

“Ooh? How weird! I remember that I have bashed your nose into minced meat when we met last. Well, how was it possible that now another nose has grown on your face?”

Austin teased Raymond with feigned surprise, ogling at his nose.

Raymond was infuriated by Austin’s mocking theatrical act. Infuriated by Austin’s feigned and teasing manner, Raymond’s anger burst like a volcano.

“Ah!”

Just when Raymond was about to react…

Austin flicked something on his feet and then pretended to have gotten a realization.

“Oho, I’ve got it. Your nose is fake. You have stuck a fake nose on your face! Hehehe. Please, tell me, which master made this nose for you? How skillful he is! The nose seems totally real!”