A Shielding Device

And this sense of fear and danger was actually brought upon him by this slip of a girl. Vice-President Tang could barely process the fact, even as he felt its reality in his bones.

But then he thought about Yao Tang’s identity, and greed slowly began to take over.

She was a prized genius of the Cabinet and the precious disciple of these old fogeys. If he captured her, he would have an even greater bargaining chip in his possession.

Vice-President Tang raised a finger and barked out a command.

“Men of the Green Cloud Pavilion, get a hold of yourselves and listen up! Seize this girl at all costs!”

Once she was in his hands, he could use her to force the Cabinet to back down.

Heck, he might even be able to rescue all of his men along the way.

The people of the Green Cloud Pavilion, or at least, those who hadn’t been knocked out by Yao Tang, immediately took action.

Most of them took up their weapons and rushed at her, while those who wielded spiritual powers stayed back and prepared to attack Yao Tang in their own capacity.

“Now!” Elder Xu suddenly yelled to the people behind him.

Since the enemy had made their move, the Cabinet had no choice but to engage in direct battle. Fortunately, they had brought enough people this time.

There was no way they would lose.

The Green Cloud Pavilion cheated their way into gaining whatever strength they now had. This would be child’s play for the disciples of the Cabinet.

Elder Xu was confident that they would come out as the victor.

To his shock and disappointment, his men were defeated and forced to retreat. It seemed as though they had less than the power they usually harnessed, as though it had been somehow reduced.

“Elder! We can’t seem to use our spiritual powers!”

Liu Feng cried out frantically as he kicked his opponent in the gut.

The fight was turning out to be a difficult one, especially since he was unable to use his full strength. It felt as though a force was restricting him.

He had tried so many times to harness his spiritual strength, but he could only muster up to 20% of his full potential.

This was not good.

Elder Xu’s heart thundered in his chest. He knew then that there was something else afoot.

Going by what he knew of the Green Cloud Pavilion, he wouldn’t be surprised if those hooligans had set up some device that blocked spiritual energy.

He would even go so far as to presume that this was the same tactic they had used to kidnap Elder Chen. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to subdue him, considering his profound strength.

For now, however, the Cabinet’s hands were tied. This was the first time Elder Xu had encountered something like this.

How were they supposed to fight when their spiritual powers were suppressed?

They were at a clear disadvantage.

Elder Xu glanced at his retreating disciples, his brows furrowed. He then took a deep breath and directed his spiritual energy toward the enemy assailants.

Boom!

This time, it was the Green Cloud Pavilion that retreated. Their movements seemed to have slowed down, too, if only a little.

Elder Xu shook his head in disappointment. He didn’t expect that his blow would only cost his enemy a few steps back.

If this had been in any other setting, that single attack would have cost these goons their lives.

It didn’t take long for the Green Cloud Pavilion to regroup. Although they were no longer as sharp nor as nimble as before, they were still able to push forward without suffering the slightest injury.

This was yet another phenomenon.

Vice-President Tang watched it all unfold from where he stood, his lips curling up into a smirk.

‘That’s it, the show is just about to start!’

He was nothing like that blundering fool, Elder Nie. The Cabinet couldn’t dispose of him that easily. Besides, he had a shielding device that blocked most spiritual attacks, just as Elder Xu had suspected.

As soon as he thought of this, the device issued an unusual beeping sound.

Due to Elder Xu’s attack just now, the equipment seemed to be experiencing an energy fluctuation. It had never been this unstable since the first time it was used.

Even so, Vice-President Tang did not care.

He could afford to give up a few inches. The device was still functional, anyway.

They had bought it from a research institute at an exorbitant amount of money, since it was mainly marketed only to those who had obtained the level of master or higher.

This also explained Elder Nie’s inevitable downfall. He only had a low-level device at his disposal, which could only block out a small portion of spiritual attacks.

Another perk of this exclusive shielding device was that it had a marking feature that could recognize its master’s people.

Vice-President Tang had naturally marked his men, thereby making them immune to most spiritual attacks.

Nevertheless, a device was simply that—a man-made instrument that had its limits.

Once its maximum capacity was breached, it would lose its capacity to completely block any succeeding attacks. The most that it could do was weaken the blow.