A groan of pain muffled out from beneath Adam's feet, as the Starforge youth they had overwhelmed lifted his head to stare at Adam. He had relied on his defensive formation to protect him, but Adam's formation mastery had allowed him and the others to break through with ease and overwhelm this youth.
His body was injured and he was not in a fighting state, but his arrogance had not been diminished at all.
"Heh…so you still yet live," the Starforge youth muttered through pained gasps of air. "No matter, now that you've shown yourself, Kadin will finish you off once and for a-"
Bang!
Adam's foot, augmented by some internal formation of his, slammed down with fury, directly onto the Starforge youths head. The youths head instantly cracked open like an egg, spilling blood and brains onto the dirt beneath him.
His gaze never left Kadin, whose eyes narrowed as he watched Adam kill his friend and fellow clan member without hesitation. He could instantly tell that this Adam was different than before…resolved, and much more ruthless.
At the same time, Chase's hands flicked outwards as several small objects shot out of them and into the ground beneath their feet, disappearing from sight.
"Hahahaha, it seems as though I went too easy on you last time, and you were somehow saved from the brink of death by her…but she or anyone else won't save you now," Kadin boomed out as he shot forward towards Adam, his speed shockingly fast.
Adam watched with narrowed eyes as Kadin rapidly approached, while Iris and Chase stood next to him with cold and murderous gazes as well.
"Are you ready for this?" Iris asked Adam, making sure he was up for the task. Kadin had left a massive mental scar in Adam recently, and she was worried he would break down when confronted by his fatal enemy.
"Kadin's father killed my father, and Kadin killed me. It's time for me to return the favor," Adam replied coldly, his voice firm and steady. Iris nodded her head at his words and steadied herself as well, preparing for the dangerous battle to come.
Thanks to Chase's marvelous alchemy skills, all three of them had managed to step into the Middle Heaven Tribulation Realm, greatly increasing their strength once more. However, Kadin was at the Peak of the Heaven Tribulation realm, and was one of the strongest cultivators amongst both sides of the war.
"No matter what happens, we're here for you, even to the death," Chase said to Adam as he patted him on the shoulder. Iris nodded her head as well, while her right hand reached out and squeezed one of Adam's hands, reassuring him further. A small smile of appreciation appeared on Adam's face before fading away, as Kadin had arrived before them.
Boom!
The ground quaked and a small crater formed as Kadin landed violently before the trio. His smug and arrogant gaze stared at Adam and Adam alone, completely ignoring the other two.
"Middle Heaven Tribulation huh? Not bad," Kadin praised, but in an obviously mocking fashion. His gaze shifted down to the dead youth beneath Adam's feet before shifting back to Adam's face.
"I'll admit, you did manage to ruin our plans. We had wanted to finish this battle quickly and further explore this realm, but your actions have ruined that plan," Kadin said, but his tone was relaxed as if he were not worried at all. "No matter though, while my side will take more casualties this way, the result of this battle is already set in stone."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Iris replied coldly, causing Kadin to shift his gaze towards her. A small mocking smile appeared on his face as he eyed her up and down, doing nothing to hide his vulgar thoughts, before his gaze shifted back to Adam.
"Is this why you've decided to act tough all of a sudden?" he asked mockingly. "Don't worry, when this is all done, I'll be sure to take good care of your girlfr-"
Bang!
Adam's fist slammed against Kadin's face before he could react, knocking him backwards like a broken kite. His body slammed onto the earth several times, before he eventually managed to recover his balance. Kadin's slightly surprised gaze stared at Adam, whose entire body was now coated with a profound formation energy.
The formation energy clearly had augmented his speed and power in that fist attack, or Adam would have never been able to land a blow on Kadin. Kadin's thumb wiped the corner of his mouth before he looked at it, surprised to see a slight trace of blood on his thumb.
A murderous smile appeared on Kadin's face as he stared at Adam, as if things had finally gotten interesting. His footsteps started once more as he began to walk towards the trio, while his aura began to climb rapidly.
"I'll be sure to finish the job this time, and that fucking girl won't be around to revive you this time," Kadin growled as his body flashed forward, his speed beyond shocking.
He appeared before Adam in an instant, sword in hand. The sword slashed down with incredible power, intent on killing Adam with a single blow. A profound aura erupted from within Adam's body once more as several points on his body lit up with light, coming from the embedded formation disks within. A powerful screen of energy formed before his body to block the powerful attack.
At the same time, dozens of thick vines pierced up from the ground below, each containing formidable strength and durability. Clearly these were not ordinary vines. The vines snaked up towards the sword and slammed against it.
Each vine was cleaved apart in an instant, but the power of the sword attack diminished with every vine destroyed.
Bang!
Kadin's sword slammed against the barrier before Adam's body, which fractured instantly. However, despite being fractured, it held up against the attack, something that caused slight surprise to appear on Kadin's face, whose eyes widened even more as he felt lethal danger from behind. Several parts of his body lit up as well from imbedded formation runes, as a formation barrier formed behind his neck.
Peng!
A pair of Dao Transformation grade daggers slammed onto a hastily created formation barrier, while Kadin's body flashed to the side to counterattack. His sword cleaved out with great power once more, which Iris narrowly dodged and counterattacked once more.
Peng!
Peng!
Peng!
The two quickly exchanged dozens of attacks in a second, before Iris dashed backwards and returned to where Adam and Chase were standing. Small wounds had appeared on her left cheek and right arm, as even with her profound vision and incredible speed, she was still not able to contest evenly against Kadin.
However, with her cultivation at the Middle Heaven Tribulation realm, just surviving an exchange with someone as powerful as Kadin was beyond impressive.
"Tch, how fucking annoying," Kadin cursed with displeasure as his attack had been thwarted by cultivators with much weaker cultivations than his own. Such a thing was not acceptable, and his pride as a genius had been wounded with this one exchange.
Boom!
His aura exploded out once more and with even more power, revealing that he had yet to be going all out. His murderous gaze locked onto Adam, and then the glowing sources of light from within his robes. Clearly those were the embedded formation disks that he himself was using.
"You may have studied my body and the runes within when you tortured me and opened me up, but you only have half the equation when it comes to using this embedded formation art," Adam said mockingly, as he could tell Kadin had managed to figure out how to use the formation art his father had left behind, but only partially.
The embedded formation art had two parts; the formation runes that needed to be carved into one's bones and dantian, and the formation art itself. Adam's father had already carved the formation runes into his body when he was younger, and with the formation art he had recently obtained, he had started to master the art.
While he was still in the very initial stages of mastery, it was still far beyond Kadin in terms of efficacy and profundity, who only had half of the technique.
"Tch, it seems as though there's more to this art than I thought," Kadin growled angrily. "I had thought our torture of you got all the information out of you, but it seems as though you managed to keep your secrets somehow. I must say I'm impressed, but now that I know there's more to the art, I'll just have to torture you once more to get everything out of you."
"Die!" Iris roared with rage as her body flashed forward with daggers in hand. Vines once again erupted from the ground below towards Kadin, while a powerful formation energy flared out from Adam's body as well. Kadin's murderous smile widened as he flashed forward again, as the final showdown between Adam and Kadin intensified.
