The middle-aged man standing at the front of the group had an imposing presence, but his confidence vanished when Xuefeng appeared before him.
"This bracelet... You are Liu Xuefeng!" the man announced, his sturdy build tensing up.
"To think people can recognize me so quickly," Xuefeng chuckled as he pulled his sleeves to reveal the five shiny stones embedded into his bracelet. "You guys had the chance to kill me when I was weaker. Now it's too late for you."
As soon as Xuefeng confirmed his identity, all the cultivators in the area paled. They seemed to be debating whether they should run or not, but no one wanted to be the first to pull the trigger.
'Be careful about this man,' Ling warned beforehand. 'Not only is he a Fate Holder, but his aura rivals that of Emi. He must have completed his second refining so we can't predict how powerful he is. The woman by his side is also strong.'
Tianshi only confirmed Ling's worries as she pinpointed the two most dangerous individuals. 'I wasn't able to see the future around this man and the blue-haired woman behind him. They must have run away without a fight or they possess an Artifact that blocks my ability. Either way, we shouldn't provoke them.'
'I can sense the Sword Intent from the girl,' Yi reported with interest. 'I will handle her if we were to fight them.'
'It has been a while since we encountered any Fate Holders, so we can play with the two of them, but don't touch any other cultivators with the blessing. We don't want to offend any Constellations just yet,' Xuefeng suggested as stared down his opponent.
The leading man took it as a challenge and frowned, "I wasn't involved in the Heaven Realm's hunt in any way, so if you hold grudges against the cultivators of the God Realm, I'm not one of them. You are also not the target of our ambush, so let's separate peacefully. I'm not interested in your Elemental Bracelet like everyone else."
"Ah, it's not good to lie. We already know you were stationed here for weeks as you waited for us. We also know about your reinforcements," Xuefeng exposed as he gave a signal.
His group momentarily teleported behind their opponents and surrounded them from all sides. If they wanted to run away before, it wasn't an available option anymore.
"Are you going to tell the truth, or should we beat you up first?" Xuefeng asked with a confident smile.
The cornered cultivators gathered together, the initial fear turning into anger. Anyone who managed to ascend into the God Realm was a prideful person, so no one was willing to admit defeat easily. They looked at each other as if to communicate their intentions before attempting to pull the leading man on their side.
"Darius! Are you seriously going to plead with them? We need to fight back!"
"We have a clear number advantage. We can beat them if we work together!"
A blue-haired girl by Darius' side rolled her eyes, pulling out a matching sword. "Shut up, idiots. Didn't you see how this elf just killed eighty people with a snap of her fingers?" she spat out, her expression turning cold. "If you want to die so badly then go ahead, but don't pull others with you."
"You..." the men growled, their faces turning red.
Darius was clearly the strongest among them, so they didn't stand a chance unless he joined them. Unfortunately, the man didn't seem to be interested in cooperating, his eyes narrowing.
"We might have been tasked with killing you, but the mission description didn't include your name. If I knew it was you, I would never accept this job no matter how much reward they offered," he explained, his gaze scanning their surroundings. "I will gladly lead you to the people responsible, so you can deal with them personally."
"People?" Xuefeng repeated suspiciously.
"Yes, there are many skilled individuals in the organization that hired us," Darius confirmed, his posture straightening. "I'm sure you have heard about the self-proclaimed Fate Gods, especially since they vowed to kill you after the King of Heaven's announcement. They were the ones who hired us to deal with a group of thieves who stole their artifact which we now know was false."
Xuefeng raised his eyebrows, not expecting another party involved. "How did you know we would appear in this region?"
Judging how the Elemental Bracelet was present in their group of Realms for who knows how long, its visions couldn't be a secret. The old man knew Xuefeng would eventually look for him and passed them his location.
"We were told to wait in this location until our targets show up. I definitely found it suspicious, but we were paid for each day so I didn't care much," Darius replied, his expression calm. "If you are asking how the Fate Gods knew about you, one of their members has a Fate Ability allowing her to see the future. I'm guessing she was the one who pinpointed this place."
This information threw Xuefeng off even further. 'Is there more than one Fate Spirit with Tianshi's ability?'
'There are thousands of us. Although each ability is unique, some will be similar to the others,' Ming replied. 'If you think about becoming a powerful Constellation, possessing such skill is a must. We should definitely pay those Fate Gods a visit after you secure the two Elemental Stones.'
"So, can you let us go now?" Darius asked impatiently. "I have no intentions of fighting you."
"Didn't you say you will lead me to the people responsible? Who are those Fate Gods and where can I find them?" Xuefeng asked curiously.
"Their gathering place is called the Godly Arena and it's located in the capital, about three days West from here. You can get there sooner if you are using Teleportation Stations located near the Elemental Temples," Darius explained, causing Xuefeng to smile.
'So it was indeed his plan all along. Letting me fight all those Fate Gods only to appear at the last moment to deliver the final blow,' Xuefeng thought while looking at the rest of the cultivators. 'Maybe we were reaching too far thinking he wanted to involve the Constellations.'
'Does that mean we can go all out against them?' Wuying asked as she cracked her knuckles.
'Well, I'm still yet to decide what kind of Gate I would offer as a Constellation, so it doesn't hurt to do some research,' Xuefeng suggested, his lips curving into an evil smirk. 'Let's see what kind of powers besides the limitless lifeforce they can get.'
His words prompted a chain reaction, with all his wives activating their Dragon Bloodline. Darius watched as everyone was covered in shiny scales and frowned as the air around them exploded with an overwhelming aura.
"I already told you everything I know. Do you really want to push this into a brawl?" Darius asked, his own bloodline turning his skin blue. "I'm sure you have sensed that I'm a Fate Holder as well. I might not be able to kill you, but I will take a few of your women with me."
The rest of the cultivators paled, activating all of their defenses in preparation for a battle. "We told you it's pointless to reason with them! You helped him and he is still going to kill us! We have to fight back together!"
"Well, I never said I'm going to let you go," Xuefeng replied in a friendly tone. "I'm going to be honorable though and offer you a deal. Let your girl fight my wife one on one. If she can survive for five minutes, I will spare you."
The blue-haired girl didn't even let Darius speak as she agreed on his behalf, "Fine by me. Choose anyone besides that elf and I will cut them to pieces."
"Your opponent has already been decided," Xuefeng informed as his Water Stone lit up.
The river underneath them seemed to stop and the water floated in the air, circling around them to create a massive Ice Dome to trap everyone inside. The temperature dropped significantly and the whole area was covered in a thick layer of snow.
"Yi, she is all yours."