Primordial Villain With A Slave Harem

But the vault had only been the first test.

More cultivators waited outside the treasury. Those who hadn’t entered the blast zone but had heard the detonations and felt the quake beneath their feet. They turned just in time to see two silhouettes charging through fire and steam.

And then they recognized him.

"That must be him!!"

"Damned guards didn’t manage to catch him!"

"Kill them both! Seal the gates!"

"Don’t let him escape with our treasures, he must be hiding them!"

There were more of them than Quinlan expected, stationed in formation down the temple corridor. Most were elites.

Quinlan flared wind and shot forward like a bullet, shielding Feng with his body.

Arrows of ice streaked toward him.

He twisted, using wind to boost the motion, redirecting momentum.

He blocked what he could, but one bolt clipped his arm, another buried itself in his thigh. A third scraped Feng’s shoulder, and she hissed in pain, clutching at him tighter.

Quinlan gritted his teeth and dropped to the ground in a roll as he shouted, "Earth!"

A pulse of raw elemental qi surged through his body, hardening his skin into stone for a split second. Arrows and blades glanced off him with sparks as they rose to meet him.

He barreled forward like a boulder given life, smashing into the closest cultivator with enough force to crack bone and send him flying into the wall.

Still more came.

Swords. Spears. Whips of water.

Quinlan knew he had to take risks now, so he tossed her upward.

Then called upon fire.

He punched the ground behind him and sent a shockwave of flame roaring backward in a cone, buying space.

Wind. He leapt, caught Feng mid-air, and landed with a flip.

Two spears stabbed toward them.

He roared, "Earth!"

The qi condensed around his arms, bones groaning from the pressure, but they held.

The spears hit him square in the forearms.

They didn’t break the skin.

He landed, staggered.

Blood trickled from his thigh wound. His side throbbed from the earlier lash. His shoulder burned.

But he kept moving, knowing he would either pull through here or never get to see his lovers ever again.

Another breath.

Wind.

He vanished again, reappearing behind a group of guards who were trying to reposition.

He didn’t fight them.

He blurred past, barreling toward the far gates.

"Close them! Close the gates now!" someone bellowed.

But they were too late.

Quinlan dropped into a slide, cradling Feng close, and called upon fire, using the devastating attack the old man had taught him before his betrayal. Flames erupted in a ring around the enemies to break the formation ahead. Guards stumbled back, blinded by light and heat.

Wind. He burst upward from the slide with his legs pushing off the air like a hawk catching a thermal.

Earth. His body absorbed another blow mid-air—a water blade exploding against his shoulder this time around.

Water. He conjured a slick sheen of defensive flow to twist aside another chain.

Then they were at the gate.

Guards rushed after them and were surprised to see that the strange man had stopped running.

He planted his feet.

The Avatar’s core within him pulsed.

Breath.

Wind. Fire. Water. Earth.

He didn’t unleash them all.

He aligned them.

Focused them.

His spine snapped straight. His limbs buzzed.

Then he punched.

Not a flashy blow. Not a wide fire blast. Just one precise, perfect strike.

It caught the gate’s locking mechanism and detonated with a focused pulse of all four elements compressed into a point.

*CRACK!*

Steel screamed. The locks exploded outward, and then the gate swung open. The outside wind hit them like a cold slap.

Freedom at long last.

He ran. Even injured, even dragging Feng and half-stumbling through the forest into the night, he didn’t stop.

Behind them, chaos bloomed.

Screams. Alarms. Combat arts.

But ahead... quiet. The mountain air. The world beyond.

And in Quinlan’s chest, the Avatar Core pulsed weakly with exhaustion. But he also felt something else. A second sensation. A sensation he’d felt a few times since arriving in the world of Zhenwu.

He was ready to break through into the next stage.

...

"That was crazy!" Feng shouted with a rapidly beating heart.

"Haaah... Haaaah... Yeah..." Quinlan replied while wheezing like an elderly chain smoker. He’d been running for a long time now, and combined with his injuries, he was about to fall asleep from pure exhaustion.

"Wait... Are you okay?" Feng’s exhilarated smile vanished instantly when she saw his state. She rushed to his side and held his hand to help him sit.

"I’m fine... But what about you?" Quinlan asked, reaching up to Feng’s shoulder, which was grazed by a bolt as they were running for their lives. Feng would’ve found the gesture incredibly tender and heartwarming, but now, she was entirely focused on his wounds. "It’s just a minor scrape, don’t worry about me!" she decreed, but then her eyes opened wide.

"Wait, while I was searching for tools to help you, I grabbed onto a few random things that looked expensive! They’re in my robe, maybe one of them can help you heal!"

"What a great little opportunist you are..." Quinlan muttered while coughing up blood.

"I’m not little!" Feng scoffed while rummaging through her robe’s pockets. Her fingers found a pill. "Ah! This is it!" But then her confident expression disappeared in an instant. "Uh... I think... Certainly looks like a healing pill to me..."

"That’s just great."

While Feng was busy administering first aid to her injured uncle, big news spread across the lands of Zhenwu!

The prophesied Avatar might’ve appeared according to recent rumors, stealing from the Seastone Clan’s Jiai family!

But that wasn’t all...

The Nation of Wind, Aerynthia, has fallen! Right out of the blue! Sovereign Zephyra, The Unshackled Tempest, was defeated by the prophesied invader here to end the world! Her sovereign shard had been taken!

The final clash between the Avatar and Invader was closer than any denizen of Zhenwu ever dared to think!