"I can sense Sword Qi in that attack. Although it is unconventional, it can be considered a form of swordsmanship. I wonder if it is that famous Sword Mage or some hidden expert."
That middle-aged man was far more knowledgeable than the bandit leader, and although he knew that the Sword Mage was at the Apprentice Rank, he didn't discard him. After all, one may never be able to measure some geniuses nor some lucky encounters completely; it was possible to inherit a fearsome skill from an ancient expert thanks to a legacy, so judging someone's attack power and skills just by the rank was something foolish for those who knew about it.
The Revgen Empire was created as the empire for practitioners, so there were a lot of legacies spread across all the empire since its creation.
Some legacies were something that the Larken Clan wouldn't even try to obtain as they had better skills than the ones the dead expert had, but some others could force to make a move all the noble clans and even the Imperial Family. The special realm where Yale went years before was one of those places that could move the interest of all of them.
All the other members of the Larken Clan gulped some saliva after hearing the words of the middle-aged man; they couldn't imagine who had such idea of swordsmanship, but they were happy that those bandits met that end.
The attack appeared just after the bandit leader offended the Larken Clan with his words, so for the members of the Larken Clan, anyone who had launched that attack had done a favor to the Larken Clan.
"Let's go towards there. That attack is strong, but I doubt it would have any effect on their leader."
With his enhanced senses, the middle-aged man could easily see the scenario surrounding Sword City, that capability was one of the main reasons he was usually assigned to travels outside the Imperial City escorting others. That wasn't something difficult to do after reaching the Master Rank, but it was still quite difficult for those at the Veteran Rank.
The whole group advanced together towards Sword City, the middle-aged man was still cautious and didn't want to leave the younger members alone since there was someone with a powerful skill capable of covering a great area. Although the first impression of the one who executed that attack was a good one, he didn't know if that person would be in his side after the bandits were finished.
After all, although offending the Larken Clan was foolish, some crazy people might want to throw their lives to solve some hatred, and the younger ones would be an extremely easy target for the Thunder Ice Sword Rain of Yale if the middle-aged man weren't with them.
The younger generation was considered for those who were under thirty for the people of the noble clans, and with that age, the strongest member they had in the younger generation was just at the 4-star Practitioner with twenty-nine years. Thus, they wouldn't have any chance to survive against a Thunder Ice Sword Rain.
The standards for someone talented in the noble clans were reaching the Novice Rank at thirteen or fourteen, the Apprentice Rank at sixteen or seventeen and the Practitioner Rank at twenty-four or twenty-five.
In fact, most of the talents could advance faster to the Novice Rank, but the clan restricted their resources to make them advance a bit later as the effects of the resources for maturing faster would only increase the maturity for about two years. Those who were impatient or too talented ended like Lar, in a kid's body.
Lar had advanced to the Novice Rank being eleven, but the resources to mature faster had only made her look one year older.
While the Larken Clan neared at a tremendous speed, the bandits were unable to retreat even after hearing the order of their leader because Yale's attack wasn't that easy to avoid. Those at the Practitioner Rank offered some kind of resistance by blocking the swords, but their piercing power was too high, and they ended dying.
"That person who attacked us is really vicious, did he really need to add thunder, rotation speed plus the strength from falling from the sky to attack us? Does that person really want to exterminate all of us?"
The bandit leader was scared at the situation; he knew that the higher-ups in the alliance would punish him for losing so many members in that battle without obtaining any benefit even if he escaped, but he needed to retreat as he feared a full power blow from the same person who cast the attack that killed all the others. After all, a blow towards a single target had more strength that spreading the power to deal with a lot of them.
Yale's thin ice swords were made for piercing more than for slashing, and the thunder was deadly once the sword penetrated the body even a bit.
A few minutes after the attack started, the only member of the bandits who was still alive was the leader; all the other bandits had been thoroughly annihilated by Yale's attack creating a sea of blood. The max number of ice swords endured by someone was five and the one who did it was a 9-star Practitioner who was the second strongest after the bandit leader.
"You wanted a sea of blood, and you already have a sea of blood. You are really serious with your words, even if you have needed to make this sea of blood with those companions of yours."
Ralen was happy seeing the situation completely reversed thanks to Yale, so he mocked a bit his opponent; the hatred of Ralen towards those bandits who endangered all the citizens of Sword City was enormous.
"Our bandit alliance will never forgive Sword City, after having killed every member of my group! The higher-ups will come and will flatten this city! After that, we will kill the Larken Clan and the other big clans who supported it. In the end, this empire will be ours! All of you will just die or turn into our slaves!"
The bandit leader started to run; he had confidence in that Ralen wouldn't be able to stop him from fleeing.
"Just wait I will ensure the worst death for you."
He muttered that for himself after running for a while, but then he fell to the ground.
"What happened? Why am I in the ground? What is this pain?"
The bandit leader was unable to understand his situation, but he was unable to stand up.
"I thought of just killing you, but you seem to have good information about some rebel alliance. As a member of the Larken Clan, I need to capture you and obtain any information you know about this topic. Don't even try to kill yourself, in front of me you can't."
The bandit leader ran into the direction the Larken Clan group was, so he ended being captured by them. However, even if he had rushed towards any other direction, the middle-aged man would have pursued him because catching that man was important for the empire.
"What did you do to me?"
The bandit leader could see that he had injuries in all his limbs, but they were still attached to his body, so he couldn't understand why he couldn't move.
"Too hard to explain it to a muscle-headed like you. You can say that I cut the exact parts to avoid you from moving any limb for your whole life unless someone used healing magic on you."
The middle-aged man took out a piece of paper and pasted into the bandit leader's belly.
"And with this, you won't be able to use your Inner Qi. It is just a cheap method to seal your power, and you can easily remove it with your hand. Of course, if you were able to use your hands."
The middle-aged man didn't have any compassion against someone who belonged to a group who wanted to rebel towards the empire although he knew that such rebellion was doomed to failure.
The middle-aged man knew very well that the power of the five noble clans and the Imperial Family wasn't something to joke, there was no way they could succeed in a rebellion even if the Anpaes Kingdom and the Zuatania Republic joined hands.
Of course, that was only under the guess that all the noble clans were still loyal to the empire; if a traitor was among them, some backstabbing them could cause huge pain to the empire.
It was difficult to believe that a whole noble clan would betray the empire, but the middle-aged man could believe that some factions of the noble clans betrayed it because the control of the other clans towards their members couldn't compare with the Larken Clan.
The middle-aged man carried the bandit leader and continued walking towards Sword City followed by the members of the younger generation of the Larken Clan.
At that moment, Yale still didn't know that the bandit leader had escaped. Executing that skill had a reaction on the Sword Essence comprehended by Yale, and he was immersed in his comprehensions.
"The user reached Origin Level 29."