Chapter 622 Obliteration
An invisible spiritual sense suddenly invaded Jonathan’s mind. It was an assault on the spiritual sense. Jonathan fell into a momentary daze after he was hit by the spiritual sense attack.
Due to the lack of feedback from his spiritual sense, the spiritual energy within him stopped working briefly. Standing opposite Jonathan, Colton’s eyes gleamed menacingly.
Upon sensing the power of his magical item had stopped dissipating, Colton immediately kicked off the ground, and his figure turned into a blur as he dashed toward Jonathan. “Dragon Claw!”
Right after Colton growled, a burst of spiritual energy quickly enveloped his outstretched arm, which was aimed at Jonathan’s face, forming a layer of transparent scales. At the same time, his hand was fitted with the phantom shape of frightening, sharp claws.
That was the secret combat skill passed down in the Blackwood family, Phantom Dragon Technique. Lauryn, standing aside, was utterly dumbfounded at that sight.
Phantom Dragon Technique was a skill that could be learned only by a selected few people, even among members of the Blackwood family.
Those qualified to practice the skill were either the current head of the family or the successor of the family selected behind closed doors. The other practitioners of the Phantom Dragon Technique were some cream-of-the-crop disciples of the clan.
Besides, to prevent the leak of the Phantom Dragon Technique to outsiders, that skill had always been passed down to male descendants of the family only, contributing further to the mysteriousness of the technique.
Lauryn’s father was the current generation’s head of the Blackwood family.
As the direct descendant and heir of the family’s head, Lauryn’s elder brother, Zidane Blackwood, was qualified to learn Phantom Dragon Technique according to the rules.
Colton was the son of Lauryn’s eldest paternal uncle. According to the family’s tradition, Colton should not have been allowed to learn Phantom Dragon Technique. After all, Colton and Zidane shared the same lineage and were both the biological grandchildren of the family’s previous head, Lauryn’s grandfather.
If Zidane and Colton both practiced Phantom Dragon Technique, a conflict might arise in the future.
A bloody fight might also happen between them if both of them wanted to claim the position of the head of the family.
Therefore, in Lauryn’s opinion, the emergence of the Phantom Dragon Technique at that moment was not a favorable sign.
Colton’s phantom claw was about to slash at Jonathan, but just as his claw touched Jonathan’s neck, an invisible spirit shield halted Colton’s attack from progressing further.
Colton’s facial expression changed drastically. He looked up at Jonathan and noticed the latter was smiling at him.
“That’s it. You used up your three moves,” Jonathan uttered nonchalantly.
With that, powerful spiritual energy erupted and spread out, with Jonathan as the center. The terrifying wave of energy immediately crashed into Colton.
Pfft!
Colton spewed out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward.
Lauryn hastily moved behind Colton and cushioned his fall by receiving him in her arms.
“Are you all right, Colton?”
With Lauryn’s help, Colton managed to steady himself after staggering a few steps back.
He applied pressure on the meridian at his elixir field and focused on conditioning the chaotic spiritual energy in his body.
“You are indeed very strong, Jonathan,” Colton said to Jonathan through gritted teeth.
No cheating was involved in the process earlier, as Jonathan had not retaliated and Colton had also remained rooted to his spot, showing no inclination to flee and hide.
That prompted Colton to become more aware of the significant difference in capabilities between him and Jonathan.
It was a far-fetched idea for Colton to even think of winning against Jonathan by relying solely on his cultivation level.
A smile spread across Jonathan’s face at that moment.
“You are not bad, too,” Jonathan chirped. “First, you attempted to seal my soul, then you launched a spiritual sense attack and immediately assaulted the vital part of my body. If you were facing another opponent, perhaps even someone in the Artificial God Realm like you, that person would have died here after taking consecutive hits from you.”
Jonathan was not being courteous in saying those words. Instead, that was how he genuinely felt.
Colton’s first move, soul-sealing, was ineffective toward Jonathan. However, the second attack on Jonathan’s spiritual sense was indeed unpredictable.
Still, Jonathan had previously experienced Vladimir’s spiritual sense attack at Summerbank Abyss.
Vladimir’s spiritual sense attack completely sealed Jonathan’s veins and almost ended his life, unlike Colton’s attempt, which merely distracted Jonathan for a few moments.
When comparing Vladimir and Colton’s capabilities, the latter’s technique appeared insignificant.
“It seems like I won’t be able to bring Lauryn away today,” Colton said after wiping the bloodstain off the corner of his mouth.
Jonathan looked at Lauryn.
“If Lauryn wishes to go, I will never stop her. However, if she doesn’t want to leave, you will not be able to take her by force.”
A determined look flashed across Colton’s eyes as he gazed at Jonathan.
I still have a final trick up my sleeve, but I will have to pay a dear price in exchange.
Amidst Colton’s hesitation to unleash his last move, Lauryn suddenly grasped his arm.
He noticed she was gently shaking her head when he turned to look at her.
“Colton, that’s enough. You’ll have to attain Divine Realm before you can even think of defeating Jonathan.”
Frowning, Colton regarded Lauryn with a baffled expression.
“Lauryn, do you realize what you’re doing? A war may break out between the respectable families and Asura’s Office at any time. The Blackwood family is not an unimportant clan. Once the battle begins, over ten thousand lives of the Blackwood family’s descendants will be at stake. How can you stay by Jonathan’s side at such a crucial time?”
“Colton, I know what I’m doing. Believe me, Colton. I truly think what I’m doing is the best way to ensure the survival of the Blackwood family. Even without Asura’s Office’s emergence, there will also be the rise of some other organizations. Regardless of the threat and interference from an external force, war may also suddenly occur among the eight respectable families. This is an inevitable outcome that will happen sooner or later. My decision to join Asura’s Office now is to pave a retreat route for the Blackwood family in the future,” Lauryn replied adamantly.
Despite Lauryn’s casual tone, her words could not be more accurate.
The respectable families might appear to coexist in harmony, but strife had already surfaced among them.
After all, all the respectable families had to protect and prioritize their own benefits.
They were all elite clans in Chanaea. Given the opportunity, they would undoubtedly choose to eliminate all the other families so that they would remain peerless and unchallenged.
Besides, even if members of the respectable families did not plan to monopolize the nation, they would still continuously expand their forces to protect themselves and prevent someone else from harming them.
The competition between the respectable families was no different from an armament race.
No matter one’s initial wish to target another family, once they began to be on their guard, the members of the respectable families would realize the only surefire way to safeguard themselves was to get rid of all their competitors.
Evidently, Colton was also aware of that ongoing situation among the respectable families because he was momentarily stumped after listening to Lauryn.
Initially, there were fifteen respectable families three hundred years ago. Then, the number dwindled and hit a plateau of nine families. After that, only eight families were left. Although all of them were exhausted from dealing with the countless schemes and sabotages, none of them wanted to stop.
Someone had once predicted that the state of respectable families in Chanaea would ultimately have two possible outcomes.
The first would be the formation of a tripartite situation, while the other was the survival of only one family.
Even though no one had verified the validity of that hypothesis, everyone fathomed that the theory was the truth.
However, now, due to the advent of Asura’s Office, Jonathan had brought about the third possibility to the erratic set of circumstances which was the obliteration of all the respectable families.
