It wasn't just a matter of being spiteful: be it Zi Moyan or Zhang Baotian, both of them were perfectly conscious that Wu Leihao's cultivation speed was much higher than theirs. In around three hundred years, while they would still be in the Core Formation realm, he would have likely reached Nascent Soul himself, and nothing would stop him from coming for revenge. In truth, nothing stopped him from asking the whole kingdom to search for them the moment he came out: he was one of the six geniuses, and had influence as the heir of one of the three strongest sects, even the royal family would not hesitate to put some efforts hunting down a few Qi Building.
In comparison, they would have much less motivation doing so if the golden boy was dead, and the demonic path's strong cultivators would be much more inclined to defend the two promising talents that killed him.
The conclusion was really simple: Wu Leihao had to die!
And, realizing it himself, the genius began to fly in the opposite direction, determined to run away. At the same time, seeing how the situation had evolved, the other demonic cultivators' motivation surged drastically, and they began to regain the advantage on the righteous cultivators.
"Don't let him run away!" Zi Moyan, holding the authority as the highest level cultivator, ordered. "Today, this brat of the Divine Storm Sect shall die!"
A few demonic cultivators tried to block the young master's path:
"Don't get in my way, you trash!" the latter said, creating numerous wind blades and throwing them in front of him.
"Argh, you little-"
Wu Leihao didn't wait for his enemy to finish his sentence, using the moment he was occupied to block to decapitate him with the Composite Wind Gauntlet Blade! Waving the latter around him, he forced the other demonic cultivators to to hastily get away from him to avoid being cut down, and quickly used a movement technique to get away from them, the entire thing having lasted less than five seconds.
"Jian Shen, buy me some time!" he shouted.
As Baotian was once again using the Shooting Blood Dancing Armor to try catching up to Wu Leihao, his remaining guard, who had just defeated his previous opponent, destroyed the projectile that was dragging him forward, stopping Baotian.
"Tssk, so your name is Jian Shen, uh?"
The guard didn't reply, instead using a spell to materialize spikes of iron and earth, floating at his sides, causing Baotian to wince.
'Tssk, he's not using a wind scripture like the other two… it might be harder than planned to get past him'
It wasn't surprising, as sects were composed of cultivators from every horizon. But right now, it played against Baotian as he hastily created a blood whip to catch an earth spike that Jian Shen had thrown at him, and redirect it to block an iron spike.
"Senior sister, it will take me some time to defeat him, you must stop Wu Liuhao!" he shouted.
And in the meantime, he had his own powerful opponent to fight.
'Another grand perfection stage, uh?'
He grinned:
'I can manage'
Meanwhile, Wu Leihao kept flying at the highest speed he could. Yet, he couldn't outrun Zi Moyan, who was using her flames to create explosions and propel herself forward at subsonic speed.
"Ah… ah… will you… stop chasing me!"
Abruptly stopping himself, he turned around, trying to decapitate Zi Moyan like his previous opponent. But the latter, using an explosion to change the orientation of his body, dodged the blade with the grace of a dancer, and finished her movement with a kick of her heel, breaking the arm of the young genius, who had foolishly tried to defend himself with it, and sending him flying toward the ground.
"Keugh!" Wu Leihao exclaimed under the pain, using a wind spell to avoid crashing down against the ground.
Holding his arm, he was panting loudly. However, seeing Zi Moyan seemingly exhausted as well, he smiled:
"It seems that you aren't in a much better state than me after just escaping your little wind prison, am I wrong?"
Zi Moyan, smiling, didn't deny:
"Isn't it better that way? Now that the wind barrier has broken, my defensive artifact is unusable for a few days. You have an arm out, but you still have your little miraculous weapon, and we're around as exhausted. So if I defeat you now, nobody can say I'm not the stronger one, right"
Wu Leihao frowned:
"Hah, of course that's something a lowly demon would say while attacking a junior of a lower realm"
"Well, what can I say? You should have waited a good dozen years more before trying to attack us. Wu Leihao, stop being hypocritical, you're the one who was courting death from the beginning!"
"Hah, an opportunist trash like you who only got the chance to enter the Void Hurricane before the other with my help, calling others hypocrites? Even if you're at Core Formation, you're still someone who just advanced, when I have my Earth talent, along with the necessary artifact to use its full potential! You have no chance!"
Saying this, instead of directly attacking her, he began using his Wind Tyranny Royal Physic to rip apart the air around him continuously. Then using the spells of the scripture he cultivated, the Divine Storm Scripture, he increased the power of the air fragments his talent had produced, turning each of them into powerful microscopic wind blades, and then proceeded to fragment these air blades too, and repeat the process continuously.
Finally, using the Composite Wind Gauntlet Blade, he gathered these countless fragments, forming the same kind of air chainsaw he had used against Baotian, but dozens of times more powerful!
Just like Baotian had combined the main spells of his scriptures with the basic spells he had spent so long to master fully and a fitting artifact to create a powerful killer move, Wu Leihao had did the same, except that instead of basic spells, he had used his own Earth talent, resulting in much more powerful move!
"See? That is the pinnacle of a genius' talent. There is no other path in this world: one can only advance until the difference of talent between them and their peers ends up crushing them. That… is the sad truth of the world! There is no solution left, demoness, give up!"
While he was preparing his move, Zi Moyan might have been able to stop him but, instead, she had been preparing her own killer move: dancing around, carrying the wind along with her movement as she inserted fire into it. The flames, red and blue, intertwining in the air stream such as blood flowing in veins, made her killer move look… alive.
Zi Moyan, after taking so many risks, had successfully evolved her scripture, opening a path to new spells along the way!
"Crushed by superior talent? That's a feeling I experience every time I remember that geniuses like you exist, and I'm not one of them. But unlike you, I refuse to let my heart break in front of such an easy answer! I, Zi Moyan of Xuanhe, will be the demon that devours geniuses!"
Hearing her declaration, the young master gritted his teeth. For as long as he remembered, until 'this day', he had always refused to use any form of artifact, even the Wind Composite Gauntlet. Until he saw him: Liu Zhenyun.
.
.
.
A young cultivator, not even twenty years older than himself. Yet, while Wu Leihao had not even reached Qi Building, that monster was already a Core Formation cultivator. At first, Wu Leihao had been shocked, but he had quickly tried to rationalize it: yes, that guy must have been a madman that spent all his time cultivation, he probably had no personality, no social life, and had not spent a single moment training a single spell, focused solely on advancing his realm.
Yes, that was what he had convinced himself of. Until he saw him fight: he saw Liu Zhenyun fight a mid stage Core Formation cultivator while at the early stage himself, and had won!
And when he won, half of the Liu Clan rushed to congratulate him. Everybody loved him, as well!
At this moment, seeing this man advancing faster than anyone else, fight and defeat opponents of higher stages, and still having the time to maintain his reputation to this level, Wu Leihao had understood.
Even though he was more talented than the other, that was it. By working as hard as everyone else, he would reach the Void Ascension realm. Then, a few centuries later, he would ascend, and be able to advance a few more times, and then he would be stuck. In the end, though his limit was much higher than the common of cultivators, to the point they wouldn't be able to see it, in the end, he also had one. He would likely never be able to become an Immortal, and instead would have to watch even greater geniuses such as Liu Zhenyun become immortals instead.
In the end, he had made himself a reason: there was always a greater talent than oneself, and he himself wasn't near the end of the chain. That was when he accepted that his talent alone wouldn't be enough to rise above everyone else.
And so, he had asked his master, the Divine Storm Sect's sect master, and had received the Composite Wind Gauntlet Blade, a new mentality firmly engraved in his mind: if he couldn't elevate himself as an immortal, he would raise as a king beneath them, the highest below immortality! Wu Leihao, the highest talent beneath the clouds!
.
.
.
"Devouring me? Hah, delusional! Mere determination… cannot surpass talent!"
He slashed down with the mighty wind blade and Zi Moyan, achieving the fusion of the red and blue flames in the wind, propelled the blazing whirlwind, which grew bigger and bigger until it reached the size of a building!
"Great Zephyr Guillotine!"
"Blazing Devouring Vortex!"
As the two moves clashed, the gigantic fire whirlwind was cleanly cut to pieces. Wu Leihao smiled: he had won!
At least, that was what he thought, until the flames gathered back, and quickly regrew in size.
"Wh-what!? N-no, that can't be"
The young master, seeing that, decided to directly use his Earth talent, the Wind Tyranny Royal Physic, to directly scatter the air and the spiritual energy in front of him. However, the flames just gathered back, again and again, no matter how many times he tried to scatter the attack.
"Ah… no…"
Wu Leihao, seeing this, felt his mind struggle to understand the situation. Placing the Composite Wind Gauntlet Blade before him in a desperate attempt of defense.
'Is the limit of what my talent can accomplish… so low?'
As it reached the artifact, the flames expanded at contact, ending with a gigantic explosion, that engulfed the surroundings, including Wu Leihao.