Ch.11 - Night Skirmish

"Sir, Madam, welcome to the phoenix gourmet pavilion, please follow me." The waiter greeted respectfully.

"Which pass do you have?" He asked as they walked.

"A sky pass." Dalin responded.

The waiter nodded, he brought them to the 3rd floor where they got a table for 2 by the window. It was a beautiful sight.

"Here's our menu, please feel free to order anything you like."

Dalin nodded, however, was busy looking into Celestia's eyes.

"I never realized how enchanting you were." Dalin admitted.

She blushed "Please, stop. You're handsome yourself."

Dalin had to admit she was right, he had a handsome face.

Dalin then looked down at the menu and ordered a few things, she also placed her order.

Their drinks arrived first, Dalin took a sip and was delighted. Celestia also enjoyed her drink.

"When I arrived I found you were in a meeting, anything interesting happening?" Dalin asked.

She nodded "A couple of things, there's gonna be a youth tournament between our clans. The clan that wins gets access to the only spirit crystal mine in the area for 25 years."

Dalin was intrigued. "I see, well, I hope your clan wins."

She smiled sweetly "With the fruit you gave us, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Another thing that's happening is my sister is getting married."

Dalin looked at her in surprise. "That's great news, who's the lucky guy?"

"The young lord of the dragon clan, he's a bit like you I guess. Kind, charming, considerate to those close to him but sometimes cold to others."

Dalin nodded.

The waiter came back with their food a moment later.

Dalin ordered some spiritual steak, a salad made from various herbs, etc.

She ordered something similar. They began eating slowly.

After she finished a piece of steak she wiped her mouth with a napkin as did Dalin.

"Is there anything interesting you're doing tonight?" She asked.

Dalin nodded "There's an auction in about 2 hours."

"I'm selling some talismans I made there."

"If you wanted spirit stones you could have asked me…" She said worriedly. Being a talisman master and a runemaster could be a trump card of his, but now he had to give that up just to make some money…

Dalin shook his head not speaking on the matter. He just continued to eat.

After a few more minutes she asked "Can I come with you to the auction?"

Dalin nodded "Sure."

30 minutes passed, and they chatted a bit before they finished eating, paid their bill, and left the pavilion. They were on their way to the auction house when a few of people in black robes appeared like a phantom surrounding them.

Dalin frowned.

"Yin Dalin?" A figure coldly asked.

"Who's that?" Dalin asked with narrowed eyes.

The figure was stunned for a moment "Hehe, trying to play dumb? That wont work. One way or another, someone's paid for your head."

Dalin frowned 'Who could it be?'.

It was then that the grand elder and the palace master of the hidden palace came to mind.

"Was it the hidden palace?" Dalin asked.

The figure was stunned for a brief second but that told Dalin everything.

Dalin sighed.

Meanwhile, while he was talking, Celestia had secretly drawn several true grade tier 3 profound runes.

The figures all took out knives sensing Dalin's aura beginning to circulate. As for Celestia, they ignored her, they couldn't feel any aura from her.

Actually, It's not that she didn't have any aura, It's that she was restraining it right now.

"Enough crap, kill him!" The leader voiced out.

Of the 6 assassins that appeared 5 went towards Dalin while the leader went toward Celestia.

He licked his lips "If you're willing to become my eternal slave I can let you live."

Celestia grunted coldly and snapped her fingers, instantly 12 true tier 3 runes and over 50 tier 2 runes made their appearance.

His eyes narrowed drastically, but it was too late, the runes lit up and fireballs, lightning bolts, icicles, wind blades, and vines all shot towards him!

*BOOM!* The leader was blasted back over a hundred meters through a building and his arms which he used to protect his vitals were blown off.

Meanwhile, a blade made of black flames appeared in Dalin's hand and his sword law seed lit up brilliantly in his heart as a sword howl shot to the sky.

He used the mortal steps technique to cross 10 meters in an instant cutting straight through the neck of one of the assassins and chopping the arm off another before they could react.

"Ahhh! My Arm!"

Dalin snorted coldly.

He swung his blade around meeting the dagger of one of the assassins, the assassin was shocked to find his dagger turning to ash when facing this sword of black flames!

He quickly leaped back, but Dalin stabbed outwards as he did so shooting a needle of black flames out taking the assassin's arm off.

'Their moves are so predictable and their reaction speed is slow. Why would she send such a rag-tag team after me… unless…'

Dalin shook his thoughts aside and once again used the mortal steps technique crossing the distance between him and the assassin and cutting off his other arm before the assassin could react. He immediately changed his grip on his sword to a backhand grip and slashed the assassin's head off.

'4 down, 2 to go.' Dalin thought.

He looked over to an assassin that had a missing arm.

'My bad, 3 down, 3 to go.'

He instantly cut off that assassin's head before turning to the 2 remaining assassins who were terrified.

"Y-Y-Your not normal!" One of them shouted and Dalin merely grinned.

He shot forward with his sword still in a reverse grip and dashed past the assassin bringing the 1st step of the 9 mortal steps to its current limits.

*Shing!*

*Thud*

Dalin and Celestia turned to the last remaining assassin.

He was frightened, he wanted to run but his legs refused to move!

Dalin shot a flame ball out of his finger and it instantly pierced through the assassin's head.

Celestia looked at Dalin in praise.

"You handled that really well, what were you in your past life?" She asked.

"A general for one of if not the most powerful nation in the world. I served 11 years as a soldier before being bumped up to a 1-star general, a few years later I was a 4-star general only having to report to listen to 5-star generals and the government, by the end of world war 3, I was a 5 star general only below the 'king' himself." Dalin responded.

She nodded before flicking flames over to the bodies of the assassins burning them to ashes she also grabbed the spatial rings and flicked them over to Dalin who looked through them. In the end between all 6 of them, he got 1 extreme grade spirit stone, 50 top-grade stones, a few lesser tier 4 talismans, etc.

"Not bad, I can sell the talismans later for more money." Dalin muttered to himself as they walked.

However, they were blocked by people in sets of armor. All of them had white armor with a coiling golden serpent embroidered on the right side of their chest plate.

"What happened here?" Someone with a red coiling serpent and black armor asked. Dalin figured this was the commander.

"Just dealing with some assassins sent after me, is that a problem?" Dalin asked calmly.

The commander looked around and noticed cremated remains on the ground.

'He didn't even leave their bodies intact…'

"It's not a problem, we apologize for not getting here sooner. However, I'm going to have to check if you have a city token."

Dalin nodded he whipped out his sky-grade city token and the commander nodded.

He looked at Celestia, a wisp of greed flashing in his eyes.

"You can go but I need her to stay behind for questioning."

Dalin knew what he was after and clicked his tongue.

"A man who lets his lower body control him isn't a man." Dalin said calmly.

The captain's eyes narrowed while the troops lowered their spears ready to fight.

"Boss, so long as you let us have a taste we'll help you kill him." One of them said.

Many nodded.

The commander didn't hesitate to nod "Kill him, you'll get your turn after I go first."

Dalin was stunned 'Seems this is gonna be quite chaotic…'

Dalin looked inside his body at the Empyrean Flame.

'Ready to make a show bud?' He asked.

The previously calm flame turned into a violet tornado of fire as if saying 'Hell yeah, let's do this.'

Dalin took a breath.

A pillar of black flames shot to the sky instantly incinerating 12 of the guards who were closest to him, they were bronze ranks.

That pillar of flame transformed into a 100-meter-long Chinese-style dragon and emitted a ferocious roar to the sky spewing white flames that exploded like fireworks!

"ROOOOOOAR!"

Dalin decided to let the Empyrean Flame have some free reign here, and sure enough, this is the result!

2 smaller coiling white dragons, one white, and one black surrounded Dalin's right arm, while one violet dragon and one golden dragon surrounded his other arm.

His aura right now was comparable to a pinnacle quasi-warriors!

But his energy was draining at a noticeable rate! 'I can only maintain this for 5 minutes tops…'

Dalin felt boundless strength rushing through him, but he didn't relish in it, instead, he threw a punch out using the 1st fist of the mortal fist technique on top of it.

*BOOOM!*

A large blue fist projection with 2 coiling dragons around it was shot out!

30 soldiers were instantly blasted flying back with heavy internal injuries.

Dalin shot out a palm from his other arm a moment later this time killing 16 and heavily injuring 25 more!

In an instant, the platoon fell into disarray!

"Captain, orders please!"

"Go after the woman instead, avoid him!"

The lieutenant nodded.

Meanwhile, Dalin snorted coldly, sure enough as soon as a few soldiers approached her they were burnt to ashes!

A deafening phoenix cry was heard as a pillar of normal flames shot into the sky and transformed into a phoenix spreading its wings!

"My gods… What have we done…" The lieutenant muttered in horror.

"It's just 2 warriors, activate the 4-point array!"

The soldiers split into groups of 4 and activated a skill that fused their energy temporarily, increasing the quality of their energy.

Of course, it also drained their energy and could only be maintained for a short period of time by 4 people.

Celestia grunted coldly, she was a proud phoenix underneath her kind veil… Yet these people dared try to seize her for their sick pleasure?

Her flames increased in temperature turning blue!

A vortex of blue flames surrounded her burning those who got close to her to ash.

She flicked her finger and an arc of blue flames shot from her finger towards a squad of 4 instantly turning them to ash. Quickly the platoon fell into an absolute disadvantage.

"Where's the general, or better yet the city lord!?!" The captain asked in desperation.

Suddenly a voice was heard from the sky "You started this, Captain Greer, we're not helping you get out of it."

With that, the platoon finally lost hope while Dalin frowned.

'That's not what a good leader does… Their men might make some stupid mistakes but he or she does his damn best to bring them back and punish them themselves…'

'Could it be a plot to make us exhaust more energy before killing us?' Dalin thought.

Dalin shrugged.

Now that he wasn't at a disadvantage anymore since only a couple dozen troops remained he had the Empyrean Flame dial down its energy usage. He only had a quarter of his energy left.

Dalin and Celestia teamed up to finish them off. The surroundings were scorched completely from their flames. Of course, Celestia was holding back, her clone was a quasi-hero realm empyrean.

"Are you happy, Yin Dalin?" The city lord asked appearing in the sky.

Dalin shrugged "They're the ones who insisted on being unreasonable. Are you going to do the same?"

The city lord narrowed his eyes at Dalin. He could sense that Dalin wasn't simple, those flames were definitely a flame element natural treasure, and it was more than one. Furthermore, he had a certain aura of authority, not that of a patriarch or someone who's led a few people but someone who's led an army of thousands if not millions.

"I won't insist on being unreasonable, but I can't just let you get away with this either. You have 3 choices, leave the city, spend a month in prison with your foundation sealed, or you can take one full-powered punch from me, alone. If you survive the punch you're off the hook."

Dalin shrugged "Am I allowed to recover my energy beforehand?"

The city lord nodded.

Dalin pulled out the earth crystal on the spot and began absorbing energy quickly. He also fed some to the Empyrean Flame since it had exhausted some of its energy.

His aura slowly rose and recovered.

Once he was ready, Dalin took a deep breath and looked at the city lord with a grin.

The city lord frowned but descended anyways and landed in front of Dalin before winding his arm back getting ready to put his entire body behind this punch.

*Crack*

*Crack*

His bones crackled as his aura rose and he channeled all his energy into his fist.

Dalin also got into a defensive stance, suddenly flames shot out of his body becoming a towering pillar that could be seen across the entire city!

"I got a question for you old man!" Dalin said over the roaring winds from their 2 colliding auras and the empyrean flame.

"What!"

"If I kill you will your king have any problems with me taking your position!?"

The City Lord was stunned but shook his head "No, assuming you're capable of killing me it represents your capable of killing someone at the quasi champion realm as a quasi gold rank embryo realm! If that's the case so long as you prove you don't intend to usurp the throne he shouldn't have a problem with you being a city lord! Though if you do manage to do that, I think you got bigger problems to worry about! Many clans, sects, etc, wouldn't just sit around if you did that! They would begin to target you! After all, you would be too big of a threat!"

Dalin grinned "I think I have my own army to handle that!"

His aura surged! He decided to stop holding back!

The City Lord was stunned to find he felt death loom over him!

Dalin punched out before the city lord could react! It wasn't just his physical strength and the empyrean flames behind this attack, he had 3 greater grade tier 3 strength talismans on himself right now enhancing his strength, on top of that he also has several runes enhancing the attack!

It could be said this was the most powerful attack he could execute right now!

*BOOOOOOM!*

It sounded like a small nuke detonated as Dalin's fist came into contact with the city lord's arm.

*Crack*

Instantly the City Lord's fist that was meeting his own was broken However he didn't go flying back because thousands of thick vines rose from the ground holding the city lord in place however even they began to crack.

The city lord's arm was obliterated! When it came closer to his face the city lord closed his eyes and instantly sent a transmission to Celestia.

[Give this memory fragment to my wife. Please… Take care of my wife and my soon-to-be-born son.] An orb of light shot out from his head into Celestia's palm.

*BOOOOOOOM!*

The City Lords' entire body was obliterated and pieces were sent flying everywhere.

...

A/N: thank you everyone for over 100 collections! It's day 10, unfortunately, we didn't meet the goal so theirs no 2nd chapter today. As always, reviews, collections, comments, and power stones are appreciated!