Is That A Wisp?

"The rules have changed. Kill those two, and you'll be able to pass," the man with the armored spikes said as he pointed at Krune and Cultivator.

The people then turned around as the gaze in their eyes subtly changed from that of hesitation to that of determination. Waves of Godly Energy emanated from them as all the cultivators in the area probed their cultivation bases using their Divine Senses. 

Not long after, multiple smiles could be seen on their faces as they soon found out their cultivation bases. 

Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm!

Fourth Stage God Core Realm!

On top of that, to the eyes of the onlookers, Krune and Cultivator didn't seem like anyone strong. It was attributed to the fact that their Spiritual Incarnations were accumulation-based and didn't give any pronounced effect like the others that were activation-based. 

"Hahaha!" Cultivator laughed as he teared up, pointing at the man with the armored spike as he shouted, "This is the first time I'm looking at a clown acting like a villain."

"What the heck did you just call me?" The man with the armored spikes frowned as veins popped all over his forehead.

"What? You think you'd look scary just because you're sitting atop a pile of carcasses?" Cultivator retorted. He then looked at the surrounding crowd and said, "Just act as the peanut gallery as you are and move to the side. I'm stronger than those five weaklings."

There wasn't any change in Cultivator's expression or demeanor. He was still in the same relaxed state as usual. Krune didn't even bother doing anything as he sat cross-legged atop the ring spirit, looking at Cultivator and asked, "Can you handle them all? They are strong."

"Well, I can always try. If the situation turns awry, support me. We can still run away easily from them anytime." Cultivator smiled as he made a leap, gently landing on the ground. He then calmly and confidently walked towards the pile of corpses, looking at the man with the armored spikes and said, "So, shall I just call you a clown? Or do you actually have a name?"

"Curse this bastard. I'm…" 

"On second thought," Cultivator interjected as he drilled his finger into his ear, acting disinterested. "I'll just call you Clown. That's the best name for you. Isn't that right?"

  "Exactly." The lady spirit appeared and landed a kick right on the face of the man with the armored spikes, sending him flying. A shockwave resounded from the clash as she retracted her leg. Though, before she could move, she noticed all the blood in her body was being pulled out, causing her form to become unstable before she collapsed into a pool of Godly Energy. 

Cultivator retracted her as he healed her, summoning her once again to launch another attack. She had just taken a step forward when a lady from the group of five flashed before her and pierced a sword right through the lady spirit's chest. 

Though, she had just done that when she failed to receive the feedback of her sword cutting through something solid. She then noticed her sword had changed shape, morphing the blade into a spherical dumbbell. The reduction in length caused its top to hover a couple of centimeters before the lady spirit.

"Surprise!" The lady spirit smiled as she flashed her pair of knives, severing her head. Though, her opponent's image flickered before she reappeared in her original spot, clutching her neck that had a gaping wound. 

Her flesh squirmed as her laws reconstructed her body. She had just prepared to engage in round two when the air behind her churned as the ambient light in the surroundings turned crimson. A volatile presence erupted, causing even some of the Predominated Vines in the surroundings to be sucked into it.

The vines struggled to escape as all the moisture, energy, and essence that formed their very foundation was sucked right out of them. All the siphoned essence converged into one place, the source being the crimson hue that reverberated throughout the surroundings. 

"Damn you! BASTARD! I'll kill you!" the man with the armored spikes cursed aloud, expressing genuine anger as he exited from the mud walls. The lady spirit's attack had sent him flying into it until he was burrowed a couple of meters deep. 

As he walked out, his face convulsed a bit before recovering to normalcy. It seemed that the strength in the lady spirit's kick was tremendous, dealing enough damage to even cave in his head. A normal cultivator would have lost his life then and there. 

"There he goes." a bulky bearded man, the same one that had retorted the man with the armored spikes before, muttered, intending to support him when he noticed the Predominated Vines in the surroundings become active. One after another, new vines stood up from the ground, gradually getting bigger and scarier. 

Slowly, all of them turned around to face in the direction of the man with the armored spikes. Upon seeing the scene, the bulky, bearded man looked at the others, noticing how they were all on the same page. "I'll deal with him."

He then looked at the lady that finished healing the injury on her neck. "Prepare to teleport us out of this area, Ruana. We'll head straight to the Sub-Realm."

"Don't stop me, Rinrish. I'll kill him. I won't be able to calm down otherwise," the man with the armored spikes said as he began to run through the path, heading straight towards Cultivator. 

"Fine." Rinrish, the bearded man with a bulky frame, sighed. "Just make it quick. In the meantime, I'll try to stall the Predominated Vines from attacking you. Your actions have garnered their attention, Hrook."

"Thank you," the man with the armored spikes, Hrook, said through gritted teeth, despite the fact the nerves on his forehead looked on the verge of bursting.

Rinrish and the last lady in their group of five worked together to stall the Predominated Vines, while the remaining three swooned in on Cultivator, intending to snap his life out of existence. 

"Well, this is pretty imposing of you." Cultivator smiled as he wore a ring on his finger, summoning its ring spirit. This time, the ring spirit wasn't a humanoid or a demon beast in shape but shaped like a flat Morningstar, without any spikes. 

Soon, with an infusion of Godly Energy from him, it began to glow bright yellow, causing the moisture content in the air to drop down all of a sudden. The ground cracked as if it hadn't been watered for many years. 

Even the Predominated Vines that were coming over were slightly affected. Though, they were swiftly able to recover and negate the damage. After all, they weren't the target of the attack. 

"Take this love tap of mine." Cultivator slammed his weapon into Hrook, causing his body to splatter into a sea of blood from the impact. Then again, the force of the impact hadn't even traveled to the rest of his body as he turned into a fluid, swept over the weapon, and spiked towards Cultivator's face. 

Unfortunately for Hrook, before the attack could hit him, a shield flashed into existence before him, cracking a little as it defended against the attack. Moreover, it seemed imbued with a freezing property as the blood spike began to freeze over. 

Then again, this freezing property seemed to have been boosted by the law of ice, making it stronger and harder to eradicate. By this time, another one among the five, a lean man with sharp features, rained down arrows of corrosive fluid with poisonous properties. 

He aimed them all on Cultivator not long after, intending to turn his body into a puddle of unrecognizable goo. 

Another shield appeared above Cultivator, shielding himself from all the poisonous substances. Moreover, this shield actively moved around while changing shapes, defending him on all sides. All of them were ring spirits that Cultivator had summoned. 

In the meantime, Ruana, the lady that had teleported the previous few times to save Hrook, was having a standoff against the lady spirit. Though now, there were actually ten lady spirits. On top of that, all of them were at the Nascent God Realm. 

"How does he have so many equipment spirits at the Nascent God Realm?" Ruana cursed as she flashed in and around the lady spirits, attacking them while slowly whittling down their bodies. The moment she got a chance, she closed in on a lady spirit and slammed her sword...well, more like a dumbbell, on her head. 

But, what she had expected didn't occur as her dumbbell turned into a flat plate. So, at the moment of impact, it was pierced through like a piece of paper. 

Ruana could see the sneer of the lady spirit she had attacked as a pair of knives flashed. All she could do was retreat and clutch her neck once again, coughing out blood as she began to heal herself.

She noticed how her opponent hadn't even used the full power of his Spiritual Incarnation yet, not to mention laying down his Land Incarnation. 'Who the heck is this guy? Just where did he come from?'

'He's not using anything new. All along, Cultivator has only used the abilities that he has shown me before. This isn't even the true extent of his powers. All he's doing is making the equipment spirits fight for him, nothing else.' Krune thought to himself as he observed the fight. He wished to understand more about Cultivator's strength this way. 

Though, it seemed his wishes wouldn't get fulfilled. Krune was still thinking of watching the interesting fight when he felt an intense sense of danger from far away. In the same instant, a voice from Cultivator's pouch resounded in his ear. 

The two of them simultaneously turned their heads to look far away, noticing a certain Predominated Vine get up from the ground. It didn't seem all that different from the others appearance-wise. But when the two of them saw it, Krune and Cultivator made eye contact, confirming that the sense of threat they felt was real.

Without any hesitation, his 102 shields shot forth as Krune activated his Balance Laws, causing them to shine with rainbow light. The moment they did so, they sucked the sea of blood from in and around Cultivator, causing Hrook to look towards him with absolute shock and ask, "What the fuck are the two of you?"