New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1104: Coercion Through Actions

Normally, Tian Kuo wouldn’t have budged to such paltry displays of force, given it took all four of them, just to hold him at bay.

However, something caught his attention that he couldn’t simply dismiss. All four of them had gotten stronger since the moment they stepped on the mountain.

’There is no way they had time to absorb mana, especially in this place deprived of it. And their bodies can’t absorb Qi. How did this happen?’ he wondered, staying stunned for a second.

But he quickly regained his fury.

"Do not dare think you can order me around, boy!" he growled, snapping his fingers.

And with that snap, all four of them felt their strength getting sapped away as if they were balloons that had been popped.

Alex could instantly tell this was a result of a formation inside the walls of the pagoda.

"So this is why you wanted to have us in here. So you could keep our powers at bay," he scoffed.

"Did you think I was stupid enough to meet you on your terms, boy?" Tian Kuo mocked.

But Kary grinned.

This was nothing they hadn’t expected, and they were ready for it.

The second the formation activated, Alex detected where the runes for them were inside the pagoda, and texted directions to Kary instantly.

Receiving these was the reason she grinned, because now she knew what to burn.

In a flick of her wrist, four wisps of fire burst out of her hand, flying off too fast for the celestial fox to react, and targeted specific pillars inside the varying levels of the pagoda, even the ones Tian Kuo had painstakingly hidden from them, and burned away pieces of the tower.

Normally, this wouldn’t do anything to the pagoda, as the formation arrays were not strictly speaking within its walls, but superposed on them through Qi. But Tian Kuo had misjudged something about these youths.

Their control over mana was not something he could anticipate, especially since they hadn’t developed that power long ago.

The wisps of flames had not hit the pagoda itself, but the underlying currents of Qi travelling over it, only burning the wood under it as an after-effect, and immediately, Tian Kuo lost control over their pressures, the four of them slamming into him again.

He staggered backward a step, his face a mask of shock, realizing his blunder.

His rage was about to boil over, as he pushed more of his Qi out of his body, but he quickly changed his stance when he felt a pang of pain in his arm, following a distinctive crack of a breaking bone.

"Sit down, Fox. Your body can’t handle the power you are trying to push through it. Not yet. Did you think changing bodies like you do was a surefire way to perpetuate yourself and your power?" Alex grinned.

He had felt the power the fox held the moment they met on the mountainside. But he had also felt the amount of it that was reigned back by the beast.

There were only two reasons the fox would hide a part of his strength from them the moment they met.

The first was if he thought so far beneath him he didn’t believe they were worth it, which Alex was partial to thinking it had been that reason at first.

But the second reason was why the fox was still holding back most of his strength, even after they started trying to force his hand.

His vessel wasn’t able to handle his full power yet.

Tian Kuo, realizing he couldn’t fight all of them in the state his strength was, clenched his jaw in repressed rage, pulled back his Qi pressure, and looked down at his arm, which was now twisted at an unnatural angle.

*Tsk*

Cory looked at him, the tension around him making his face pale, but felt compelled to help, anyway.

"Do you want me to heal that for you?"

The celestial fox glared at him for even suggesting it and whipped his bent arm toward the ground, another resounding crack happening as it popped back into a normal position.

"I don’t need the likes of your pitiful magic to heal myself, child. I have been healing bodies since millennia before you were born," Tian Kuo seethed.

Cory winced at the snapping bone, imagining the ungodly pain that this would send through his body, were he the one snapping and popping like that.

He defensively raised his hand, pulling back into his chair.

"Just trying to help, sir," he replied, his gaze apologetic.

Tian Kuo huffed at his response, feeling nothing but disdain at the thought that a mortal would touch his body and infuse him with this ’mana’ they were wielding.

"I would never allow you to corrupt the purity of my Qi with your paltry imitation of it. Keep your disgusting energy to yourselves."

Alex cleared his throat, trying to interrupt his tirade.

"Ahem! Are you done throwing a tantrum? Can we continue talking now?"

David smirked at the fox, still dangling the amulet.

"Yeah, I’m not done explaining what I want to do with these," he mocked.

The fox wanted nothing more than to burn these mortals off the face of the world. Erase any trace of them ever existing, so he could erase this memory from his mind forever.

But, reluctantly, he had to admit they had him cornered. At least for now.

Sitting back down, he brought his hands under the table, starting to do symbols with them to restore his formation arrays that the girl had burned down.

But the moment he finished forming one, it shattered like glass at the tip of his fingers, Alex scoffing at him.

"You cannot seriously think I am that blind, old fox... If I was able to spot them on activation, did you think you could reform them without me seeing? I can see the very particles of energy you are using to weave your symbols.

"Even if it isn’t mana, it shares enough similarities for my mana senses to pick them up. Quit trying to delay the inevitable and listen. I swear, all you old fogies always try to keep the upper hand in every situation," he sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Using his mana senses to track the Qi that Tian Kuo was using was straining them, and he couldn’t wait to be out of there and rest.

Grumbling, Tian Kuo rested his hands on the table.

"Fine! I’ll listen. But don’t think you can ask me to commit suicide like it’s nothing, and walk out of here unscathed," he growled through clenched teeth.

David grinned.

"Yeah, whatever. Where was I? Ahh, yes. The ritual."