So Evan Chu immediately stepped before the elder and respectfully declared, "Senior Yang, this guy is the true culprit behind the destruction of my Grimchart City. All my family were pitifully slaughtered by him—you see that resentment cloud? He came here just for that resentment."
If he absorbs that resentment, his strength will reach unimaginable heights. I risked my life to destroy it, but this man's power is just too great—I barely survived, again and again. Senior Yang, please stall him for me so I can go finish off the resentment!"
Evan Chu spoke with calm conviction, leaving no flaw for the Ghost Clan powerhouse to detect. Based on the facts before him, Marcus Yang was convinced Evan was telling the truth, so he immediately replied, "Very well. The vengeance for Grimchart City is mine to settle. Go quickly—I know how terrifying that resentment can be."
At this, the Shade Clan powerhouse’s face went pale with rage. Having the blame dumped on him was even more unjust than Dou E’s legendary grievance. Marcus Yang’s strength was on par with his own—if he got entangled now, seizing the resentment would become even harder.
His hatred for Evan Chu grew ever deeper. Stopping him from getting the resentment was bad enough, but now he’d been saddled with a powerful new enemy for no reason. He couldn’t help but spit out a cold threat:
"Kid, you talk too much. I won’t let you live!" As he spoke, a weapon shaped like a cane appeared in his hand and smashed toward Evan Chu at a speed almost matching teleportation.
Evan Chu naturally wouldn’t let himself get hit, but he also couldn’t show too much strength. He dodged at the last instant, making sure Marcus Yang saw he wasn’t all that powerful—so he wouldn’t suspect him.
After Evan Chu dodged the Shade Clan attack, Marcus Yang instantly swung his staff to meet it. The surrounding space shook violently as staff-shadows and cane-shadows filled the air.
"Senior Yang, I’ll leave this to you. I’m going after the resentment to destroy it!" Evan Chu flashed away in the direction the resentment cloud was fleeing, feeling more exhilarated than after a night with his woman.
The sounds of battle echoed behind him as Evan Chu grinned, "Once I wipe out that resentment, I’ll come back to see how you two did. Maybe I can reap the fisherman’s profit—if the city lord can’t get his Netherghost Violet Orchid, you two old geezers probably have one, and there should be plenty of Netherstones too."
Evan Chu quickly caught up to the fleeing resentment cloud. Against his teleportation speed, it was no contest. Evan blasted the resentment with thunder over and over; after a few strikes, it shrank considerably, but grew denser.
He noticed his thunder was thicker than before—maybe from repeated use. To finish it fast, he ramped up his attacks, mixing in fire to burn it away. Under the combined assault of thunder and flame, the once-unrivaled resentment was utterly destroyed.
With that, his worries were settled, though he felt a bit worn out—probably from all the tension. Checking his body, Evan found many of his thunder crystals had become fully five-colored, meaning they’d fused into true Five-Element Thunder Crystals. Once he mastered Thundershift, his lightning attacks would be several times stronger than any other shift.
He glanced back; the air behind still trembled with the echoes of battle. He knew the two old monsters weren’t done fighting, so he muttered, “Time to see how those two ended up—maybe they’ll give me a real surprise!”
"Don’t celebrate too soon, Linfeng. The two of them have stopped fighting and are heading your way. Looks like they already know you’re the one who destroyed Grimchart City. You’d better run!" Luna warned.
"That fast? How do they know? I just heard them fighting! Was I hearing things?" Evan Chu grumbled, frustrated by how quickly things had changed.
Turns out, while Evan Chu was destroying the resentment, the Shade Clan powerhouse suddenly said to Marcus Yang, "Yang Tian, I don’t want to keep fighting you. If we don’t go kill that kid now and he escapes, you’ll regret it forever."
Marcus Yang and the Shade Clan expert had been fighting for ages, neither able to win. Marcus frowned, "Are you just stalling so you can escape? If you destroyed Grimchart City, I’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth. My wife, children, and descendants were all there—this is a grudge I’ll never forgive."
"I know you’re furious, but you’re blaming the wrong person. The Ghost Clan’s rules are known to all five Netherworld races—no one is allowed to use city-level martial techniques. You think I’d be stupid enough to invite the Ghost Clan’s wrath? The real culprit is that kid who ran off.
I fought him before you arrived—his strength is no less than ours. You’ve been tricked. If I wanted to destroy Grimchart City, why would I wait until now? Besides, the chance of resentment appearing is one in ten thousand. That kid destroyed Grimchart City and accidentally triggered the resentment. Of course I wanted it—it’d be a huge boost to my power."
Now that you’ve blocked me, I’m sure that kid has already destroyed the resentment. The Shade Clan and Ghost Clan don’t mix much, but we’ve both lived thousands of years—you know how things work. Would I really start a war between our races just for my own gain, letting the other three Netherworld races profit? Think about it!" The Shade Clan expert rattled off his logic, and Marcus Yang’s expression kept shifting as he listened.
Finally, Marcus Yang glanced toward Evan Chu’s flight path and roared, "You make sense—I can’t believe I got played by a kid. Looks like he’s not Ghost Clan after all. I won’t rest until he’s dead!"
Rage boiled off him, but the Shade Clan expert added, "That kid is freakishly fast—fastest I’ve ever seen. Even your Ghost King and our Shade King can’t match his speed. Killing him won’t be easy!"
Marcus Yang snapped, "So what’s your plan? We can’t let him go! And since he destroyed your resentment, you won’t let him off either, right?"
"Of course not. The only way to kill him is with our domains. If we both unleash our domains at once, he’ll be trapped—no matter how strong he is, he won’t escape. For now, we have to keep pretending to fight as we close in fast." The Shade Clan expert explained.
"Fine. We’ll fight as we close in. I’ll pin him down, then we use our domains. I admit I misjudged you—after we kill him, I’ll apologize in person!" Marcus Yang growled.
"No problem, no problem! Let’s talk after we kill that kid!" the Shade Clan expert agreed. The two of them shot toward Evan Chu’s direction, trading blows and shaking space as they went—while Evan Chu remained totally clueless. If Luna hadn’t warned him, he’d still be in the dark…