Chapter 270: Miscalculation.

Everyone, apart from Lee, blushed beet red – Lieve from shame, and old Teuling and his daughter from anger. Lee knew he kind of overdid it, but it felt so good to say rude stuff. Every time he cursed he had the illusion of Freeda being present – probably his favorite person of all times.Despite the reaction, no one moved. The appearance of another man changed everyone’s expressions again.

’For fuck’s sake! It’s not fair!’ Lee inwardly screamed seeing Giel Van Graaf up close. He had observed the lord of Stonerift operate the rift gate from the distance, but to see him a couple feet away was a completely different matter.

Lee had always been conscious of his average looks, but next to this man, someone who resembled a living sculpture more than a mortal, he felt as though his own face was made of dung. This was the most beautiful man he had ever seen. And by a mile.

One didn’t have to be a sage to understand why women were losing their minds over him. Everything, his perfect nose, strong chin, and dark eyes, seemed perfectly carved by the hand of a god. His bearing was elegant, but at the same time oppressive enough to force Lars Teuling freeze on the spot.

’Let’s go!’ Lee inwardly said, knowing the fun part was about to begin.

"Giel ..." Lars Teuling wanted to say something, but was interrupted.

"Don’t!" Giel Van Graaf said, without sparing a glance at him. From the moment he appeared he kept looking deep in Lieve’s eyes, holding her hand, "I heard everything."

’What a killjoy!’ Lee grew upset.

This was the sole moment he planned the whole scheme for! This was when Giel had to pop off and ridicule the old man into oblivion! Why couldn’t he be like elder Ardent from the Primordial Flame sect? Not showing even the tiniest bit of a sense of humor! This was an embarrassment!

’Right!’ Lee realized, ’The guy might have the looks of a demigod, but he’s a fucking bore! The worst character flaw possible!’

The rest of the present had completely different things in mind.

"Giel! Leave her!" Sanne shouted, "She has been sullied by another man!"

"The punishment for any crime in Hollowreach is death." The handsome bore coolly stated, still staring in Lieve’s eyes.

"But she’ll never love you like I do! Believe me ..." Sanne pleaded, but the only one who reacted was her father.

Lars Teuling suddenly smacked his palms together, and a human-sized rift appeared next to Sanne. They were fifteen feet away from Van Graafs and there was no way to stop them.

"Lieve!" Lee shouted, trusting forward with Soulcleaver.

After months of training, she instinctively let go of Giel’s hand and opened a small rift, not larger than two palms, in front of Lee. The old man was pushing his daughter through his rift, when the deadly sword pierced her back. Before Lars Teuling could respond, Lee retracted the sword and stood there calmly as if nothing happened.

Lieve was blushed from the sudden exertion of the spatial particles, trying to comprehend what she had just done, but the old man roared in anger so hard that the whole inn shook.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Lee didn’t pay Lars Teuling any heed, and complained to Giel Van Graaf, "You can’t let them go otherwise you both will be dead within a month!"

With the lord of Hollowreach present he wasn’t worried about anything now. But letting a powerful spatial elemental lord escape was basically signing their own death verdict. He could understand that they missed each other and all that shit, but they had their whole lives to discuss that!

Turns out, he miscalculated.

The old man didn’t escape, but closed the rift after his daughter’s lifeless body fell in it. He turned towards Lee, his nostrils flaring, and punched.

Neither Lee nor Lieve saw the arrival of the fist, only Giel barely managed to react and opened a small rift right in front of Lee’s nose at the very last moment. The fist flew through it and hit the nearby wall – where the exit to Giel’s rift was.

Lars Teuling didn’t stop, though. Punches rained on both Lee and Lieve, and few heartbeats later the room was completely devastated. The ceiling and the outer wall was gone, and the room was filled with clouds of dust.

The crowd outside had fallen dead silent, and Lee could hear Giel panting. This was his first time witnessing a fight of two spatial cultivators, moreover – these were spatial elemental lords! The upside was that their attacks weren’t as destructive as those of fire or wind cultivators, otherwise half of Stonerift would’ve been destroyed by now.

The accuracy and timing of the two was the scary part. Lars Teuling didn’t rush forward – he kept opening small rifts and punching through them, while Giel Van Graaf defended by opening similar ones to divert the fists through them. Apparently neither possessed skills that could directly damage the other, and had to resolve to inflicting damage the regular way, except through skillfully timed rifts.

"You’ll lose, boy!" Lars said, suddenly calming down. He took a deep breath, and cracked his neck, as if warming up, and then added, "Everything you know was taught you by me! Why did you have to do this? Your children would’ve been my grandchildren! We could’ve been a family!"

Giel’s expression was as tense as before.

It was clear he was calculating the best ways to save Lieve, but he clearly was running out of time. No matter where he would open a rift, Lars would open another in the way. He didn’t even need to open one to somewhere on the surface or a dangerous place far away – if he opened a rift to a spot below the cave ceiling and Lieve went inside, she would fall to death or get crippled in the best case scenario.

"What family, you retard! You, old cocksucker, killed his father!" Lee shouted, stupefying the other three for a moment. It was a random taunt and he intended to use the confusion to cut through the floor, but Lars reaction caught him off-guard.

"So you figured that out as well, huh? What a busybody!" Lars Teuling said, slapping his palms together, "So you’re the cause of all our problems! Let me fix that!"

While he didn’t give a fuck who killed whose father, a spatial elemental lord preparing an unknown skill to deal with him wasn’t something Lee wanted to experience.

Without a second thought, he slashed at the floor, but instead of falling in the hole below he dashed to the side, chaotically changing directions. He wasn’t surprised seeing Lars Teuling opening rifts every half step of his way – clearly the old man was set on killing him first, but that also provided Giel with an opening.

Just like Lars did earlier trying to save his daughter, Giel opened a rift next to Lieve, and rushed in, hugging her tightly. Lars had no chance to react, but from the looks of it, Lee was right – the old man was not in a rush – he was planning to return at some point to deal with them another day.

He let the two escape, remaining alone with the annoying cockroach that kept avoiding both his attacks and rifts in the half-destroyed inn. Lee didn’t blame Giel for leaving him, in fact, he kept cursing himself for his own fatal miscalculation. An old elemental lord was stronger than a young one! That had to be a rule!

The problem was – no matter where Lee escaped to, Lars Teuling accurately predicted his path. The old man’s reaction was obviously on another level compared to a greenhorn like him, but the best Lee could do was swing Soulcleaver around, smashing at anything he could to create clouds of dust that at least partially obstructed the view.

’Wait! That’s not the best I can do!’ Lee suddenly realized, releasing large amounts of both fire and water elemental particles at the same time.