Chapter 565 - Old Masters (III)
4 July
Before the old man's shout even faded fully, the kids that were with him leapfrogged the distance between them and Light, falling to their knees and shouting the exact same phrase in the exact same tone.
I wasn't terribly shocked that they recognized her; not only was her current appearance broadly similar to her original one, but I imagine there's some kind of a 'innate' switch that lets the members of the Cult know when they're in the presence of their leaders and whatnot.
However, though they prostrated themselves on the ground in full display of subservience... Light remained silent. Her gaze was kind of bereft of much else but slight surprise; all in all, I'm fairly certain that Wan Lan has a deeper bond to the concept of Demonic Cult than Light has. To her, it was all about her parents--anything beyond that, as I kind of glimpsed in her memories, was kind of a blur...
"How can you recognize me?" she asked after an awkwardly extended silence.
"Even if my eyes were gouged out and my ears ripped and my nose jammed with a pillar of stone, I could have recognized the Great Princess, her darkness of one! Though the rumors swirled, I dared not believe them. But to think you were alive... there may yet be hope for the great Cult!"
Though he probably didn't mean much by it, being burdened didn't seem to sit well with Light. Before she could say whatever she was going to say--and knowing her lack of filter, it was not going to be nice--I interjected.
"While a touching reunion and all, we aren't here for that," I said. "But rather to see whether we can be of help. Don't you have members of the Holy Lands pursuing you?" the man's expression as he looked at me was... well, if looks could kill and all. He probably loathed that some little tit like me interjected in the grand reunion, but did well enough to hold himself back.
"... we don't need any help. Certainly not from someone like you," he said. "Now that the Princess is here, we can tunnel away while you lot buy us some time. Princess, we should--e-eh? P-Princess...? Is, is everything alright?"
Welp, he committed a cardinal sin according to these kids--he was marginally (but not really) mean to me. Even Wan Lan's expression darkened beyond the night as the kids looked ready to commit murder. Knowing it was likely to come to that, I quickly stepped in.
"Just presume I've used some brainwashing art on them," I said. "And behave accordingly. Now, tell me: how many are chasing you?"
"You used--"
"--this is the last time I'll step in," even I grew tired and annoyed as we really didn't have time for this shit. "One more word out of your mouth that isn't an answer to my question, and I'll suddenly enjoy the distant mountains while you enjoy the last few breaths of your life. So, use whatever last few specs of intellect you have in yourself to think really carefully about what your next words are going to be."
He was about to explode onto me when one of the kids behind him suddenly grabbed his shoulder, prompting him to pause. Before he could say anything, that same kid--a late-teen boy from the looks of it--spoke up.
"Apologies, Senior," he said. "Master Bo has grown weary from protecting us and shocked from having met the Princess. Best we could tell," man, this kind is one smooth talker, especially considering he was still holding onto 'Master Bo' who looked so red in the face from anger he would pair quite nicely with that spewing volcano in the distance. "It was two Elder-state Warships, both composed of around a hundred people each."
... hm? Wait a fuck.
What do you mean a hundred people each? Are you telling me there are two hundredpeople currently on your ass?!!
"There were about ten to twenty Elder figures, with the rest being Disciples." right. Well, now I know why it's 20,000 points.
No, wait, scratch that shit--why is it just20,000 points?! Should you add another 0 to that shit, system? We're talking two hundred martial artist with at least ten Elder-level figures, which probably means that even the weakest among them was at the Demigod Realm, and I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one True God Realm cultivator among them.
Though we are plenty strong, this wouldn't be a damn tournament or something, but a fight for our life... and we will never win it. Discarding whether Elders participated at all or not, I'm fairly certain even if their Disciples just swarmed us like a locust horde, we'd still stand no chance.
"... how badly will we be fucked if we use, uh, that?" I turned to Lao Shun and asked. It took him a moment to realize what I meant--the reversal array.
"Considering that they've put together a force of two hundred to hunt--no offense--this," he gestured toward the big ol' Bo and the kids. "It's probably not as simple as 'we must kill the remnants of the Cult'. If I were a gambling sort, I'd wager that, due to the all the happenings recently, they are being extremely careful with their most precious Disciples. That is why they've sent double-digits Elders: form of sanctuary protection under the guise of an external mission."
"..." he stayed silent afterwards. "That still didn't answer my question."
"If we get caught, we'd be no different than them," he said. "Public enemy number one. Because we will have crippled the entirety of the Holy Lands' futures."
"Huh," I said, stroking my chin.
The few times I interacted with the members of the Holy Lands... weren't actually all that awful. I mean, yeah, we were looked down on and talked down to, but that's just sort of par for the course. I mean, that guy staring deathly daggers at me did the same just now.
So, deciding to unilaterally kill two hundred people--most of whom were literal children--did not still well with me. While I can (and I can't believe I'm even thinking this) excuse an occasional 'murder of convenience' for points or rewards and such, this was simply too much.
Besides, it may be the petty bitch inside of me, but I'm far less inclined to help these guys now that I've met them than I was like ten minutes ago.
"We'll get you to the mountains," I said, pulling out the chariot; though the fit would be tight, we'd all be able to get in there. I'll drive them to the mountains and drop them off there while we scurry away. "Afterwards, you'll be on your own."
"... you really think you're somebody?" aah. If only people would take my kindness and shut up. Wouldn't the world be sunshine and rainbows? "You loach swarming the Princess! Even if I incur Her Grace's loathing, I must cull you lest you become a parasite that will doom her!"
Though I didn't inspect him, I did immediately pick up on the fact that he was a Demigod. I'm not quite sure when I stopped being instinctively terrified of that, but it's happened, for sure. Especially because he was on his own.
As such, when darkness and shadows swarmed him and he disappeared, I didn't panic--unlike the kids. I drew out something I hadn't used in a long, long time--Blossoming Blade--and struck whilst trying to imbue the attacks with my infant-level understanding of the Space Dao.
Three strikes shot out in the blossoming arcs of colors, twisting space around it, while the opposite energy settled into the blade, charging the crystals embedded in the handle. The twisting attacks sheathed the darkness and pushed him backwards some forty yards, surprising everyone--even me, to be honest. I knew I'd gotten stronger, but I thought I'd be able to fight him to a draw, at best. Not push him forty yards back with a rather casual stroke.
... yo.
Did I become, like, uber strong or something?
Nah. It's likelier that guy is simply pretty weak, on top of being exhausted from running away for so long.
But sheesh. I sure did feel cool doing it, regardless. Especially considering how the kids looked at me after the fact. As if they needed more zeal... oh boy. Is it better that I don the mantle of the pathetic, weak Master again? No, come what may, I'll try to be the cool and suave sort of a Master, that cleverly avoids all fights that will make him deeply uncool and un-suave.
Hah. What a perfect plan that is for sure never going to backfire...
Chapter 566 - Old Masters (IV)
5 July
The man appeared quite shocked at the fact that I managed to deflect his strike. Not waiting for him to process it, I pressed onward and attacked. I've been trying to figure out Space Dao deeper and deeper ever since breaking through, but it's been sort of like trying to figure out college-level algebra when you only know basic high-school math.
Sort of like seeing that big-ass equation that spans half the paper, with symbols that look like they'd be used to summon C'thulu or some shit, but every once in a while you recognize something--a number, some normal letter and so on--and you go 'Hey! I know that!'.
That was kind of what I felt with Space Dao. For the most part, it was just numbing dullness, but every once in a while I'd make connections that shot a whole bunch of dopamine into my brain for a moment, making me happy with the progress... even if it wasminimal.
I'd understood all the fundamental aspects during the breakthrough itself, which allowed me to utilize the 'idea' of space a bit better.
For example, right now I'm driving forward in the flat line, arm extended as though in a position to pierce, but at about ten feet of distance between me and him, I 'displaced' space in front of me--sort of like creating a mini wormhole but not really--and appeared basically a few inches in front of him, swing already completed.
I barely registered his shocked expression as he struggled to lift the sword and deflect my strike; as it was quite clumsily put together, he was blasted off sideways yet again, with me in pursuit.
There's a law of unpassable equivalence--displacing space costs a lot of Qi. That little action basically consumed a quarter of my entire reserves. There's also a key difference between that and using movement arts which, visually at least, do the exact same thing--movement arts are sequences, and are executed in sort of a 'three-part-process' of sorts: the preamble, which accounts for the gathering of Qi and shuffling it around the meridians in the correct order, the action itself which discharges the gathered Qi to do something, and the aftermath which is, well, the aftermath of that action.
All three parts sequenced together discharge Qi and those traces are visible and readable. If I had tried to jump into the man's shadow using the Imminent Shadow Steps, for instance, he would have noticed it immediately upon me even reaching the 'preamble' stage as I would have had to made a connection to his shadow--and the tether would be Qi.
Circumventing these rules is probably stupid on my part, as evidenced by the fact that using movement that would have cost me like 1% of my Qi if executed through a movement art instead cost twenty-five times more, but this is more of a 'proof of concept' as I try to navigate my understanding of Space Dao.
Having made my way over to him immediately, I changed up my approach; rather than displacing all the space between us and moving next to him, I roughly tried to calculate the trajectory of my sword strike and, mid-swing whilst still some twenty feet from him, I instead tried to precisely displace space between the endpoint of the strike and the man's left shoulder.
Ultimately, I was off... a decent amount. I missed him by about a full foot, but since it was a Qi-charged strike, an array of energy shot forth as my sword 'appeared' both near him and in my hand.
Having likely not expected it, the array just struck him cleanly, digging a massive gash into the right side of his ribs and causing him to sputter a mouthful of blood as he fell to his knees, his neck craning back as his eyes stared at me in abject horror.
I gasped as I felt my entire body 'shudder'--well, shudder might not be the right word; a sense of weakness overwhelmed for a fading moment, the culprit being the fact I'd spent nearly half of my Qi reserves within what was maybe two or three seconds. Though my meridians and dantian were strengthened and I've got that elusive Eternal Core, there still was such a thing as 'too much'. No matter how great of an engine a car has, if you full-throttle it without stop, it will blow out eventually... I'm assuming.
Probably not, though. Just how many goddamned sensors did the modern cars have to make sure something like that didn't happen?
Regardless, I had no sensors like that--as such, having used so much Qi so quickly left me in an extremely vulnerable spot. Luckily, the man seemed to have been so shocked at my attacks for some reason that he didn't move. He didn't even use Qi to patch up that gaping hole that was bleeding quite profusely, pooling blood underneath him.
Luckily, the moment of weakness was literally just that--a moment. I felt my core spin up almost like a cooler in a PC when you boot up a game, with Qi within me churning rapidly as I began to recover it.
The reason why people here didn't do something as stupid as 'displacing space' in order to emulate movement arts was pretty obvious by now, but it didn't matter; it was never supposed to be a mainstay, anyway, and would have always been a more of a 'learning thing' and a trump card should I need it.
With the man not having expected it twice in a row, and seeming quite shocked at the same time, it means that the attack is irregular enough to where it could potentially constitute a trump card.
"You should patch yourself up," I said, putting away the sword; though he attacked me, I really didn't have any intentions of killing him. As we were gonna drop both him and the kids off in the mountains, he'd be the only shield they would have left, and their only chance of getting out of this thing alive. "And voluntarily seal your cultivation until we reach the mountains. If you don't, I'll simply leave you here."
"..." though there was a look of displeasure, it was also... diminished. He listened silently and quickly sealed up the wound before, miraculously, actually sealing his cultivation voluntarily.
I did not expect him to do it, actually, having fully been ready to beat him until he passed out, but hey, maybe he finally woke up to my kindness.
Anyway, we really have no more time to waste, so I spun around and was just about to usher everyone into the chariot when I paused, feeling chills run down my spine.
The kids were looking at me... weirdly. That wasn't the odd bit, truthfully--these days they often looked at me weirdly. What was weird were the looks Long Tao, Lao Shun, and Han Yimu were giving me. Those three were by barometers of 'common sense', and the look in their eyes was telling me... something was off.
"W-what's wrong?" I asked.
"Did you--"
"--nothing, Master," that was Long Tao interrupting Lao Shun. "We should hurry and get into the chariot. If we delay any further, we might not be able to get away."
"... yes. Let us do that."
Though they 'dropped it', I have this sneaking suspicion that it won't remain dropped for too long.
The only question that remained: what did they drop, anyway?
Chapter 567 - Old Masters (V)
6 July
Long Tao was staring intently at his Master, a man who was quite dedicated to pretending to meditate. It was quite inspiring, actually, as even Long Tao himself would not have been able to pretend that hard.
He'd been surprised by the man whose eyebrows were involuntarily twitching while droplets of sweat began to drip down his temples, and he'd been surprised many of times by now. Each time it happened, he was certain he'd be less shocked the next time around, but even that belief had been spurned one too many times before to rely on it.
As such, when he saw the man utilize Dao of Space so proficiently--and so uniquely, more importantly--he was massively shocked, but wasn't as surprised to be that shocked. But it was impossible to remain indifferent to it, try as he may.
Dao of Space was one of the oddities of the countless paths--practically every cultivator simply had to understand it to some degree as they otherwise could not break through into the Void Transformation Realm, and even beyond that, utilizing any notable movement arts needed a deeper understanding of Dao of Space. But there as a hard line, the 'Great Cutoff', past which very few, if any, had ever trodden.
Long Tao himself had never managed to master Dao of Space past a certain point; in fact, he managed to master Dao of Time to a greater degree than the former, despite the fact that 'Time' as a concept was vastly more confounding.
As such, Dao of Space remained in this limbo, where it was easy to grasp, but once a certain comprehension of it was reached, going any further just... stopped being possible for whatever reason.
Seeing Master utilize it so differently than anyone Long Tao had seen before made it clear that there was a path beyond what they could gasp, that the road didn't simply end at a certain point with no other options.
More than that, it was also clear that Master didn't understand why his utilization of it was confounding; the man he was fighting, whatever his name was as Long Tao could not bother remembering, put up about as good of a defense as one could. Even Long Tao would not have been able to do much better without ever having seen anything like it.
Even that, though, was potently dangerous as it was clear Master's mastery of it was still quite low. The sheer quantity of Qi that he expended with every act was borderline self-abusive and definitely not sustainable in a prolonged fight, but on the highest level, if he managed to lower the expenditure...
He was burning up inside over wanting to ask him how he did it, but now was neither the time nor the place. They had to drop of these vermin of the cult and leave, though if it were up to Long Tao, he would have killed them all on the spot.
These were clearly some low-level branch members that had likely never stepped foot past the Gates and couldn't even be considered members of the cult. Even Light would have killed them all the moment they disrespected Master had he not stepped in immediately.
The timeline of the Cult's downfall still wasn't quite clear to him, though; before he ascended, they were active here but their main Gates were in the Upper Realm. They'd occasionally send tertiary inheritors down here as a precaution, but they barely operated here otherwise. By the time of his death, they, too, were hunted into extinction. Their main Gates were demolished, all the main descendants would have been slaughtered, and their 'Demon God' had famously been felled in the 'Battle of Far-Heavens' by one of the Seven, Sword Emperor.
As such, Light's mere existence--let alone her existence now--was confounding. But it was irrelevant, ultimately.
Demonic Cult would always come back as it had done so hundreds of times before throughout the history. Demonic Qi was far too powerful and enticing to be left alone, and old teachings had always prevailed. One way or another, even if Light and Wan Lan do not do it, it would return in due time.
They flew for about an hour before descending.
Master had neatly tucked them halfway up a mountain which was covered in a layer of deep frost and then another, thinner layer of ash. There was no life anywhere within ten miles, as most had likely scattered due to the odd combination of extremely cold temperatures and the ash-infused snowfall.
As the cult members made Oaths one after another to never divulge anything about this, Long Tao's gaze finally caused Master to break away from the group and join him on the edge of a nearby cliff overlooking the forest of naked trees below.
"What?" Master's voice sounded quite annoyed, causing Long Tao to smile faintly.
"Not much," he said. "Just wanted to have one of our legendary conversations."
"Haah," Master sighed, looking up at the sky. "You call them legendary, I call them annoying. What do you want?"
"Not much. Just tell me how you comprehended Dao of Space to such a degree. According to my great-grandfather thrice removed, Dao of Space is--"
"--wait, wait, wait. What the hell is a great-grandfather thrice removed?"
"My family is quite odd, Master."
"It doesn't matter if it's Addams levels of weird, it's not odd, it's impossible."
"Addams? What is that?" Long Tao asked.
"... no one," Master said, sighing yet again. "I comprehended it the same way I imagine everyone else does. Are you truly impressed by me managing to do something that cost me a quarter of my Qi reserves that I could have done using a movement art at almost a thousandth of the cost? Your family's standards had truly degraded, Tao'er."
"..." Long Tao silently rolled his eyes, looking over at the man deeply; it truly did seem as though he didn't understand why his approach was so... defiant. "Just tell me: what did you do? And why did you need so much Qi?"
"What do you mean?" the man looked at him oddly. "I didn't do anything. And the reason it cost so much Qi is because it's an archaic way of doing it. I just... I just thought that, since I'm always going to be lacking in combat experience no matter who I'm up against, I ought to have something I can resort to as the last hurrah of sorts. Something stupid, yes, but also marginally effective and something that they won't expect. When attacking, using movement arts leaves traces, no matter how well hidden; I was simply thinking of, well, bypassing that. Rather than moving myself, I moved space."
"... e-eh?" Long Tao blared almost involuntarily. What... what do you mean you moved 'space'?"What do you mean?" he asked, forcibly calming himself down.
"Uh, I mean... I mean that. What do you mean what do I mean? I just moved space between me and that guy. Displaced it. That's why it needed a stupid amount of Qi. Because it's woefully impractical. No, wait--why are you even asking this? Isn't moving space around basically the most basic aspect of understanding Dao of Space?"
... Long Tao was deeply, deeply speechless. The most basic aspect? It truly was mind-boggling what his Master considered 'simple' versus what he considered 'confounding'. Something a child ought to know sometimes left him baffled, and the other times he would drop a massive breadth of knowledge that would have all the living Emperors bow in acknowledgement were they to hear it.
It was fitting, Long Tao mused, that only a man like that could ever call himself Divine Blade's Master.
Chapter 568 - Old Masters (VI)
New
5 days ago
I was kind of baffled, truth be told. Being accosted so directly by that old monster was unsettling in so many ways, but being accosted specifically because he appeared shocked that I was able to do something was... on another level.
Could it be that even the most basic aspects of science kind of eluded them here? I mean, it had been evident for a while now that their scientific progress had completely stagnated. I attributed it to the existence of magic--when you can just fly 100 miles in about seventeen seconds, why the heck would you bother inventing a steam engine?
Most of the tech back on Earth stemmed from basic necessity and eventually pure desire; if we truly did have magic to be a substitute, would we ever have progressed the way we did?
There was an issue with that theory, though--mortals. Mortals did not have access to that 'magic' that made the life so convenient. Which made me wonder... why didn't theybother trying to progress science?
This world was not young--in fact, it was by some orders of magnitude older than Earth. The length between Long Tao's death and his resurrection--and my arrival here--spans the entire length of what we'd call the 'age of civilization' back on Earth even with the loosest interpretations. And yet, despite that, they seem to understand nothing beyond what they infer through Dao.
It's clear they know of gravity and of electricity and of many of the modern concepts, but they interpret them through a completely different lens. So, why have they never interpreted them differently? Mortals, I mean.
There's the option that the cultivators just never allowed it. The moment they noticed someone developing tech that could even remotely threaten them, they'd squash that shit. I wouldn't actually be surprised in the slightest if this was the case.
Even at the later stages of the Qi Condensation Realm, cultivators are essentially demigods for the mortals. Those in the Foundation Establishment were straight-up gods, for all intents and purposes. But the key aspect was that we were all still mortal. If someone had a machine gun and unloaded the entire thing at me, I don't actually know whether the barrier made out of Qi would block it. And even if it could, for how long?
If not the machine gun, what about a rocket launcher? A missile? Heck, what about a nuke?
... okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I don't think cultivators foresee that happening as, from what I've noticed, they've all been fairly high on their own supply, so one would have to be a complete paranoid mess to even consider a mortal as a source of danger. It could just be the classic relationship between an oppressor and the oppressed.
I never gave much thought about teaching kids the basic science. For starters, my knowledge of it is... eh, it's not good. Most of the knowledge I obtained as a pharmacist doesn't actually matter as it involves processes that are well beyond this world. And the mixing and matching of ingredients with a perfect precision is already an occupation here.
Beyond that, I did create Art of Surviving with some scientific concepts in mind, and the kids have taken it far further than I thought. So, maybe even if my knowledge is fragmented and incomplete, giving it to them might be an inspiration.
"Where did you go, Master?" Long Tao pulled me back to reality. I honestly thought he'd gone away by now.
"... just thinking whether I should teach you all what my grandaunts and uncles taught me."
"Most definitely," he seemed... oddly excited of the prospect.
I stared back at him for a moment before sighing and looking away; even if I were to teach them, it won't happen today. Now that they've all sworn oaths, it was time to leave.
My biggest worry about all this whether offering this much help was enough to even partially complete the quest. I'm not expecting 20,000 points, or even close to it, but maybe the system gives me a few thousands so I can start clawing my way out of this godforsaken debt.
"Alright, it's time we left," I said.
"... you did not say no, Master."
"I didn't. But be patient."
"I always am."
"Hah."
Though the old man tried saying his goodbyes to Light, she was... well, I'm just glad she's not murdered him yet. I just hope she also hasn't put a curse on him that would kill him in a few months, like the certain major of a town that I intend on visiting once we're done with the mountains. If for nothing else just to see how badly I've fucked that place by choosing to kill him.
We boarded the chariot and set off in silence, rapidly moving southward along the mountain range.
"That man will probably betray us," Light suddenly said. Hm? Is she prepping for the inevitable 'but it's a good thing I put a curse on him that will kill him in six hours!'?
"Then he'll die," Dai Xiu said. "Didn't he swear an Oath?"
"His heart was full of hatred," Han Yimu added. "Hate is often more than enough to overcome reason."
"Speaking from personal experience?" Wan Lan asked, prompting the young man to smile nervously before responding.
"Not so much personal as from a friend," he said. "I had a Junior Brother in my former sect who was extremely talented. He largely kept to himself, spending most of the time on the missions outside of the Sect. One day, however, he never showed up. I later learned that he'd tired to assassinate an Elder of the Sect and got killed in retaliation. He'd done it because the Elder killed his family. If he had just waited for a few centuries, I've no doubt he would have gotten stronger than the said Elder and could have pursued vengeance then. But hatred... would not let him."
"Ah. Sort of like if somebody dared hurt Master," Dai Xiu said, and I immediately sensed the conversation shift to a weird place. "I'd lose all reason for certain."
"You can't lose what you already don't have," that was Light taking a jab.
"True," Dai Xiu said. "Like you and height."
"Xiu has readily admitted she does not have reason," Wan Lan added. "I sense a strange disturbance."
"It's admirable," Light added. "A brute is at its happiest when it knows it is a brute."
"Who are you calling a brute, little pipsqueak?" Dai Xiu said. "If anyone's a brute here, it's that mountain of a woman sitting next to you. Did you notice that she actually used Master's precious art meant to hide our appearance and help us survive to make herself shorter?" Eh? She did? "And, despite that, she still looks like a brute."
"Want this brute to flatten you even more, eh?" Wan Lan said as Dai Xiu's cheeks flushed slightly.
"Everyone, please," Xi Zhao looked and sounded quite helpless. "Master is watching..."
"..."
Well, apparently those words were enough for them all to shut up and look away from me, seeming embarrassed.
Wow, little Zhao'er. Years have really chiseled you for you to be able to handle the three of them so well, huh?
Chapter 569 - Unending Fury (I)
4 days ago
How dare he?!!
Mao Bo watched with a dark glare at the fading light of the chariot, his heart full of fire. That man... that man did not deserve to live. He'd somehow managed to enslave the Princess' and utterly brainwash her to the point of no return.
Everything was for the Cult, but that man had no designs for it; he'd taken the Princess in as a plaything, and would torment her without ever helping her rebuild the Grand Design.
The Princess was simply too young and too naive to recognize it. He must have been the first face she'd seen after escaping, and he'd shown her temporary kindness to cheat her into believing him a good person. But it was clear to Mao Bo that the man was not good--he was all but.
Engaging in strange sorceries involving Dao of Space, surrounded with children, riding strange flying artifacts that he'd never seen before... it was clear that the man was one of those old, sniveling monsters who enjoyed sowing chaos and watching the world burn.
"Elder Bo, are you alright?" one of the kids jolted him out of his thoughts. It was all for the Cult. For the future that was promised.
"Yes, I am fine," he said. "Follow this path," he pointed. "Once you've reached halfway up the mountain, there should be an old mine with an exit point on the other side. It will be about a week-long journey."
"W-what... what about you?"
"Though we have made distance, it is not enough," it was; if he simply left with the kids, they could escape rather easily, especially as--quite eerily--that man's flying artifact did not leave any trace behind. As far as the Holy Lands would know, they simply disappeared back on that plain where they first met the man. "I will stay behind and ensure that you are not followed. Flee, now; remember to stay hidden and never forget your Oaths!"
"Elder--"
"Go. There isn't much time!" as he ushered them away, he turned back east and looked at the sky.
He loathed Holy Lands to the point of wanting to burn them all. But he loved the Cult more.
There would always be a Demon God--it was the nature of existence, the unchanging reality that the Cult would always arise even if burned to the ashes. But so long as the Princess lives... another Demon God Seed cannot be born. She would always remain the sole inheritor. As she was... she was simply far too gone, incapable of recognizing the reality of her situation.
It must be rectified.
He'd sacrifice himself--body and soul--to offer the Cult the last of his light. An accord with their sworn enemies, with their exterminators, all for the future. He would endure the greatest sin, even if he would never be forgiven for it. For a new, true Demon God to emerge, the Princess must die.
No matter what tricks that mad had, no matter how far he ran, he would not be able to evade the pursuit of the two warships. He'd teach them the man's signature from the residual Qi in his wounds, and they'd become his blood hounds that would hunt the man to his last breath.
The punishment... he dreaded it to the point he began to shake. Though he'd never seen another break an Oath, he'd heard the stories. They were more than enough to carve terror in his bones. But his love and duty to the Cult suppressed that terror just enough. He'd suffer, and suffer greatly, but the Cult would be victorious.
Everything for the Cult, in the name of the Demon God.
**
It was rather awkwardly silent in the chariot as we rode past the peeking mountain peaks. The kids all tried really hard to cultivate, and I tried just as hard to pretend not to see their faintly embarrassed expressions. It was sort of like that time my dad accidentally walked in on my fourteen-year-old self just... tugging away. We pretended so hard that it never happened, I'm fairly certain the man eventually simply believed he'd imagined it.
Regardless, silence was nice as it allowed me to order my thoughts slightly. I've decided on teaching the kids science!
... except, I haven't a clue where to start.
I mean, I already pushed them into gravity and black holes and some 'basic' astrophysics, which meant that we skipped a whole lot of shit to get there. Not like I could teach them the pre-requisites, anyway; I imagine the best way to start would be to teach them algebra and onward, but, well, I don't know algebra. Never did, really.
So, what? Germ theory? Microbiology? States of matter? Freakin' quantum tunneling?
This really is one of those things that I expected to be somewhat smooth--I mean, teaching some science to the kids, how hard can it be, right? But, hell, it's hard. Incomplete or fragmented or even just outright wrong knowledge will do far more harm than good. Honestly, even with gravity and spacetime and black holes, I'm constantly worrying that I left out something major, or that I forgot something important, and that they'd use what I taught them with confidence, and that it would backfire.
Haah. The woes of a guy who skated by in high-school, barely managed his grades in college, and didn't really keep up with knowledge once he'd gotten older.
It's not a hurry, regardless, so I can just slowly sort it in my brain and write some mini textbooks as the broad guidance.
We traveled almost without a break for the next three days. I'd nearly wept a few times, actually, seeing just how many stones we were burning through... but it had to be done. Going back to traveling on foot as we did back in the day would feel kind of barbaric which, now that I'm looking at my thinning purse, will probably become a reality soon enough...
Regardless, as soon as we landed, everyone jumped out like there were demons chasing them. Unlike me, who'd grown to appreciate the solitude of confined four walls for the better part of the last decade of my life on Earth, the kids were not like that in the slightest. Even Long Tao and Lao Shun and Han Yimu bolted out, with me leaving the last.
As soon as I did, though, I frowned; I'd specifically landed us back on the summit where Shuren 'buried' her fellow sect members, and where Dao tried to 'infect' me best I recall.
What I don't recall is this entire mountain being a ravaged hellhole. There were clear cuts across the landscape, singe marks spanning literal miles on the mountain's side, and no lack of debris and stones scattered about haphazardly. Honestly, if someone told me a mini nuke was detonated here, I'd kind of believe them.
"This Qi," Lao Shun said as I glanced sideways and froze up a bit; it wasn't Lao Shun I noticed but rather the other old monster, Long Tao. His expression... oh boy. Somebody's proverbially fucked for life, I imagine. "It's him, isn't it?"
"It's familiar," Dai Xiu said. "But who him?"
"There really is nothing between your ears," Wan Lan never missed an opportunity, I suppose. "That weirdo that Brother Tao humiliated."
"Oooh! Wait, he did all of this? Why? When?"
"He probably came back with a greater force," Lao Shun said. "Looking for us. And when we weren't here... well, we didn't know him for long, but I think we can collectively agree that he wasn't the one to tolerate his anger."
It took me a moment to figure out why Long Tao was mad--that pup we left behind... looking down the mountain, nothing was spared. There was not a single stalk of grass among the ashen landscape, and I imagine that not that many beasts survived his tantrum.
... well, never say never, I suppose. I truly, really hope that the beast somehow survived, as if it didn't... there's a small chance that old monster might blame himself. Shit, I'd honestly him rather blame me.
Well, let's see, first. Maybe... just maybe, that pup is still here, waiting.
Chapter 570 - Unending Fury (II)
3 days ago
The entire mountain was scorched.
We descended amidst the ashes and soot, passing by burn and dismembered bodies of practically unrecognizable beasts. Per my likely (wildly) inaccurate estimates, it's been at least a few weeks, which gave it just enough time for it all to be slightly covered by a layer of dirt carried on by the wind.
Taking the same winding path down that we took up was... well, it didn't feel the same, that was for certain. Gone was the lushness and the canopy of the trees, and gone were the shrubberies decorating the sides of the 'road', and in their wake was just... nothing. A barren wasteland of death and decay.
It truly did speak volumes of the guy's character that he took out his wounded pride and ego on all of this. A man I'd literally consider ancient in age was no better than a petulant, tantrum-throwing child. I've been blessed enough that I haven't actually come across many cultivators that behaved distinctly like that, with most of them being relatively reasonable--at least on the surface.
Yes, there was still that pride bored deeply into all of them, and there was still the way they all instinctively looked down on us, but this was... this was something else.
Probably an extension of that guy's corrupted nature. but, to be fair, from what I remember he was a nearly thousand years old dude with a Divine tier of 'Arrogant'. Even fucking Long Tao didn't have that. In combination with Demonic Qi ravaging his senses, he may as well truly have lost his mind because a literal child from his perspective nearly killed him, and did so with ease.
My heart kept sinking further and further the closer we got to that nestled cave. It took us about eight or so hours of relatively speedy descent--most of which was spent in silence as kids picked up on the fact that Long Tao was pissed, and brave though they were, they were not that brave--before we'd reached the part where there used to be a wide spread of trees blanketing the flattened part of the mountain, beyond which there was a cave.
Now, there were no trees--but there was a cave, still.
Nonetheless, even without going in, I knew there was no life inside. And if I knew, then everybody else did.
Long Tao headed over toward the entrance, and just as everybody else was about to, I stepped in front of them. It reminded me of that time that old monster offered to take me into that 'secret realm' that we found surrounded by the Holy Lands inside Eternal Spiritwood Grove, and how happy I felt to have rejected him once he came out.
I don't think this one will be that bad, but it was best not to risk it.
"... what's wrong with him?" Lao Shun asked what everyone was thinking.
"There was a Demonic Beast here," I said. "That he and I met when we were first climbing the mountain. It seemed it was somehow bonded to his family, by one of his ancestors. He'd told it that we'd return for it relatively quickly. But, well..."
"Oh." the old alchemist exclaimed softly. "And considering he spared that guy..."
"..."
"Is it wrong that I feel a bit bad for that creepy guy brother Tao beat up?" Dai Xiu suddenly said.
"You feel bad for him? Why?" Rayce asked.
"Knowing Brother Tao," she said. "That creepy guy will wish he was killed on that day."
"That's true," Wan Lan nodded.
"And even after brother Tao was so nice to him," Light said as my eyebrows twitched; didn't he blow half of the guy up? What do you mean nice?
"Indeed," hey, Zhao'er, what do you mean 'indeed'? "That guy cried just because he was a bit hurt." A bit hurt? Hello? Am I the only one losing my mind at the moment?
"Yes! Brother Tao beat me twice as hard and I never complained!" Xiu'er, the apple of my eye, if he ever did beat you twice as hard, you'd be dead!
"Never complained?" Wan Lan said. "Never?"
"... I don't complain," Dai Xiu buzzed. "I simply manage my pain through the words!"
"Ah, that's why you yap so much," man, these girls just don't quit.
"Master, will Senior Brother be fine?" Rayce asked as everyone turned toward me to listen.
"... he will," I said. If he could mentally survive dying and being reborn, this won't destroy him. But... "But, remember everyone, being 'fine' is a spectrum. Long and vast, like an ocean. On one end of that spectrum, we merely feel grief for the loss, a tinge of pain, but it does not consume us. On the other, we are broken, hapless in the face of suffering--but we live on. Every day, we wake up and put a smile on our face, and when the world asks us, 'How are you?', we say, 'We are fine'. Some will consider the latter a form of bravery, but it's not; once in a while, we all need a hand to pull us up. And when that day comes for you, I hope with all my heart you will come to me with it. Alright?"
Though I spoke to the group, I knew that the old guy was listening to me so I curated it a bit for him. As someone with a lot of experience with grief and pain, I was still woefully ill-equipped to comprehend his. He's someone who's lived for god-knows-how-many years and lost god-knows-how-many loved ones. Nonetheless, I know what pain can do and how overwhelming it can be.
"Of course, Master!"
"But you must promise the same to us!"
"Ho ho, do I, Feng'er? I'm afraid it doesn't work that way."
"Nuh-uh, little Feng is right," Dai Xiu said. "If Master is sad, then I'll be twice as sad!"
"Ho ho, that is very, very unhealthy, though..."
"But to think one word can have such different meanings..."
As they pondered on my personal interpretation of 'fine', I saw the silhouette emerge from the cave's maw. His shoulders were a bit sunken and his expression downcast, but most of all... it was his eyes. They were suspiciously bereft of much, as though he'd purged them--which he of course did.
Haaah.
Does the little bastard think I'm a completemoron?
Everyone quieted as Long Tao came over, stopping once he reached me.
"We should go to the island." he said.
"That's where we were already going." I said. "Now, before all else, I need you to promise me something."
"... what?"
"I have a few things I need from that thing's Master," I said. "So, before we decide to lay ruin to the whole thing... can you pretend to be the nice kid everyone assumes you are based on how kindly you look upon the world?"
"... pfft," a few stiffened laughs caused Long Tao's eyebrows to twitch for a moment before replying.
"Very well. I'll be the kindest kid that's ever lived."
"..." oh.
I do not like the sound of that. Not at all.
Chapter 571 - Ashes and Memories (I)
2 days ago
The journey, one which I expected to last a while, began in silence.
We boarded back the chariot amidst the ashes and soot of the mountain, and took off into the sky.
Over the next week, a routine developed.
I'd land the chariot once a day so that the kids could run around a bit and practice their arts. In the meantime, Long Tao would go off someplace and always come back with a new kind of an animal that I'd never seen before--such as a tiger with six horns jutting out of its skull, or a hippo-like thing with sixteen limbs, or even the freakin' rabbit the size of a bull--and he'd expertly cut and prep the animal before conjuring up a feast for us to eat.
His cooking had gotten massively better to the point I can confidently say he's surpassed me. With the added benefit of him using the meat that clearly had traces of Qi in it, propelling our cultivation further, it was no contest.
During those seven days, my mind was largely preoccupied with two things: establishing the 'curriculum' for when I teach the kids basics of science, and the art that I was yet to make for Wan Lan. The latter was more of an 'afterthought', to be fair, after I'd gotten tired of thinking about the goddamn states of matter and atoms and quarks and every other term that I can vaguely recall but can't quite properly fit into the correct context.
As I no longer have to cultivate actively, I found myself with a lot of free time to spare. Sort of like that brief period of about four months when my PC crapped out and I could not afford to fix it.
Man, it was not fun sitting in silence with my thoughts.
Anyway, by the week's end, we'd finally reached the first destination: Spirit Vein City.
We landed on the outskirts, some two to three miles north of it, but even from this far out... I felt it. The dread.
Looking over, there was no city-wide formation that stood there when we last visited. I could see the faltering towers leaning, and recognize the fact that the teleportation array was not functioning. Most of all... I could smell blood and rot even this far out.
My heart tensed and the kids must have noticed it as they stealthily tried to 'clean up' the air around us. I pretended not to notice it, boosting my sight with Qi. However, even at my current level, seeing things good three miles out was... difficult. I could make out the shambled walls and the debris scattered around them, but not much past that.
"Let's go," I announced and they followed. Regardless, we'd changed our appearances since we were last here, so we won't be recognized on the spot.
The closer we got to the city, the more ominous the feeling was; there was a layer of... heaviness that wasn't visible but was presentlooming over it. Sort of like going from the rich part of the city to the 'slums'. The feeling itself changes, not just the space.
It was at about four hundred yards away that we came to a halt as there were dozens of Divine Senses scanning us, most of them coming from within the city or from what remained of their outer walls. I frowned; by now, I'd kind of assimilated into this world on this one thing. The feeling I get when someone uses Divine Sense on me directly is uncomfortable.
"Someone really is looking to die," that was Han Yimu, surprisingly. No, it probably makes sense; it was a taboo here, and I can only imagine how more severe it was in the Upper Realm to so brazenly inspect someone.
"Why don't we just return the favor?" Dai Xiu said.
"Or better yet, return the favor," Xi Zhao said with a small hint of anger in his voice, reaching for his sword.
I'd like to believe that I did a relatively decent job managing their, uh, murderous desires and such. Not the perfect job, far from it, but as good of a one as I could have. They don't go out killing indiscriminately, they don't go out of their way to antagonize other people, and when they do kill, there's at least somejustification for it.
But it was also in moments like these that I realized no matter how hard I try, it's like throwing cups of water into a forest fire. It's not their nature to kill, I defy that, but the world as they understand it demands that of them... and I'm the only one trying to say the opposite.
"No," at least, they still listened to me. "They haven't attacked us, so they must not perceive us as a threat. Let's just see what happened and leave quickly."
They swallowed whatever anger was bubbling and retreated their killing intents. I, on the other hand, could now see well enough the people who used their Divine Sense on us.
... and I have a sneaking suspicion that the kids will get their chance to go on a little bit of a spree soon enough. I mean, I could turn around and walk away right now and avoid it, but the lesson I've come to recognize is that it only buys so much time. If we walked away, quite a few of them would follow us. And we'd have to kill them in order to board the chariot and leave without leaving a trace of ourselves behind.
So, may as well skip the ceremony and forge ahead. The old (new) adage of 'We ain't gonna stir shit up, but we will kill back' or something... it sounds good enough.
We made our way over and, even as we reached the dilapidated walls giving way to the broken-down city beyond them, we were never attacked. There were quite a few eyes on us, both from near and far, but we ignored them.
There weren't 'gates', per se, just a cleaned-up pathway through the spanning ruble of bricks, stones, and scorched wood. The streets were nothing like I remembered them; there were practically no people anywhere, there were no open shops, most of the buildings showed signs of rapid deterioration--which meant there were cultivators throwing shit at each other nearby--and once we crossed the main entryway, we came across the first major one: there was a giant crater the size of a major parking lot where the building for the teleportation array used to stand.
It was about a hundred yards deep, its slanted sides uneven and jagged, and there was a pile-up of bodies at the very bottom of it. We stood briefly on the edge, looking down, before I sensed someone walking up to us.
Glancing over, it was a man who looked to be in his fifties, with a scarred left eye and short, white hair. He was wearing loose, brown robes which kind of expertly hid the layers of armor underneath, and each one of his strides was quite peculiar, meaning he was using a movement art even to just walk. Why? Hell if I know. Practice, maybe?
"Greetings, Fellow Daoist," his voice was--ah, look at this motherfucker, trying to use illusion arts on us. "What brings ye' all here to our little slice of heaven?"
Chapter 572 - Ashes and Memories (II)
New
Yesterday
Luckily, the kids restrained themselves from immediately blowing up. A moment of pride over how much they've grown didn't last long as I turned a wee bit annoyed by the fact that he was still trying to put us under an illusion .
It was pointless as we were effectively (and collectively) immune, at least from most arts that could be found here, but that didn't mean that the feeling itself wasn't uncomfortable. Sort of like having a wet sock and having to walk around with it.
"Well, we were going to use the array," I glanced to the side where it used to stand. "But I suppose it wasn't meant to be. We have come through here a few months back and it was a pristine city; may I bother Fellow Daoist for the story of what happened here?"
His eyes flashed in a strange color as it seemed he recognized his attempts weren't working. Not that he stopped--just intensified them as he began to weave a tale. How true that tale was? No way for me to know.
"It was a bit before of my arrival," he said. "But the mayor of the city had suddenly gone completely mad, from what I was told. He began to kill indiscriminately, and a huge fight broke out between him and some of the wandering cultivators passing through the city. The fight led to most of the destruction that you see, including the array that was destroyed personally by the mayor, prohibiting people from leaving.
"The battle raged on for weeks, until he was eventually exhausted to death. Alas, in the wake of that fight, the entire city was left to ruins. It just so happened that I was passing through at the time and, feeling the pang of grief for the souls trapped in this nightmare, I decided to stay here and help rebuild. Unfortunately, as the array had been destroyed, gathering materials and people has been... difficult. Especially young workers, they are practically non-existent." his eyes glanced stealthily at the kids as he said that.
"Interesting," I said, finally losing it.
"It really was--"
"--no, no, you misunderstand," I interrupted. "It was one thing for you to try the pathetic illusionary arts on us--morons will be morons, I suppose--but for scum like you to covet my kids?" Qi began to unfurl from me subconsciously, stirring a wind that kicked up a small dust storm. "I've seldom seen someone yearning to die so badly."
"... you should calm down, Fellow Daoist," though he backed up a bit and though his eyes flickered with the expression of uncertainty, he must have gotten back the courage as over a hundred shadows began to emerge from the nearby ruins, aiming at us. "Hasty decisions often lead to heavy consequences."
Before blowing my top off and regretting it, I decided to quickly check his status window, praying to the system that he wasn't going to require any points... since I didn't have any give. Luckily, he didn't.
[--Dao Sight used]
[Target: Lin Wen]
[Age: 298]
[Talent: low-Sky]
[Cultivation Realm: Third Rotation of Revolving Core Realm]
[Cultivation Method: Illusionary Song Sutra (low-Heaven)]
[Cultivation Arts: Silent Bewitchment (peak-Earth), Conflicting Heart (low-Earth)...]
[...]
[Traits]
[Coward (Rare) -- an overtly cowardly soul; will always run away rather than fight. Becomes outwardly submissive if overpowered]
[Cruel (Legendary) -- cruelty runs in their veins; if possible, they will always utilize the most cruel action]
[Opportunistic (Epic) -- will always take advantage of a situation if possible, even at the expense of others]
[...]
[Assessing suitability...]
[...]
[A Minor Anomaly Discovered]
[Illusionary Heart-Seed (???) -- target is infested by an Illusionary Heart-Seed. It is a specially prepared nascent seed of the Lightmoon Plum, wrapped and woven in seventy-two layers of arrays. Fully ripened Lightmoon Plum can induce a hallucinogenic state in anyone beneath the Imperial Realm by merely being near it for prolonged periods of time; using its seed as a base allows high-end masters of arrays to create masterful combinations, Illusionary Heart-Seed being one of them. It contains all properties of any other Heart-Poison, with the added layer of it being impossible to detect, either in life or death]
[...]
[Recommendation: the target's vile and unchanging nature is not compatible with the host's path; the system does not recommend recruiting of the target, but it is worth flash-freezing their heart after death and investigating the Illusionary Heart-Seed]
[Final Assessment: a somewhat above-average talent that has exhausted all of its potential, leaving it with little to no room to grow in the future. Was never meant for much more]
... the annoying combo of traits aside, Illusionary Heart-Seed piqued my interest, largely because the system classified it as a Heart-Poison... like Long Tao's little problem. Now, I don't think the source is the same, but it, too, has those annoying '???' next to it, and the fact that it's made of something that can incapacitate anyone below Imperial Realm by just casually breathing it in from nearby is more than enough for me to want to check it out.
Even with the upgraded Harmonized Heart, he was yet to actually defeat the curse; it didn't seem to impede him much in cultivating, to be fair, but that may be just because it's Long Tao, and not because the curse itself is weak. Anyway, it's mostly looking like this dude came into the city in the middle of chaos (if not having caused the chaos himself to begin with) and used his illusionary arts to become its leader.
It was largely hollow, though; there were like two people in the masses at the Void Transformation Realm, with the rest all being below it, and the majority being in the Spirit Manifestation Realm.
"Master, there is a Shaman among them," Rayce suddenly said. Shit. When did he walk up to me?! How is it possible that, after all this time, his stealth is still so good?!
"Oh? Somebody you know?"
"No," he shook his head. "But... I'd like to challenge them, if you don't mind."
"Why would I mind? Just be safe."
"Of course."
"Ah, right," I turned back over toward, uh... what the heck was his name? Holy shit. I read it not ten seconds ago--Lu Wen! Yes, Lu Wen! I'm almost definitely positive that was it! "You've been trying to put us under illusion for a few minutes, now," I said. "It's clearly not working. Wouldn't it be better to stop doing it and conserve Qi for a bit longer?"
"... kill them," I heard him order.
"Tao'er," I said, turning toward the old monster who clearly had zero intentions of joining the fight. I mean, why would he? The kids finally have someone besides themselves to truly practice on. "I want his heart."
"... e-eh?" it wasn't just him that stumbled over themselves, but almost everyone else.
"M-Master... did, did you develop some strange urges?" oi, Xiu'er, what the hell?!
"Don't worry, Master! I will support you no matter what!" Little Feng, that's a wonderful sentiment, but completely wrong!
"If need be, I will rip out my own heart--"
"--Lan'er, another word and, for the next year, I will unilaterally support Xiu'er in all conflicts between you two."
"..."
"There's something called Illusionary Heart-Seed in him, which is the kind of a Heart-Poison--" I barely finished saying 'Heart-Seed' before a figure blurred in front of me, shooting off.
... it looks like there really is some kind of a connection, huh?
Chapter 573 - Ashes and memories (III)
13 hours ago
The prey.
That was what they were.
Lin Wen recognized them the moment he laid his eyes on them. There was a scent about them, the kind that he'd smelled plenty of times before; the weak, the cowardly, the way they shamble on their feet without confidence.
How this entire city was when he arrived.
It was... a miracle. Truly a grand miracle.
He'd come here prepared to beg on his knees for forgiveness, but instead he found a city rife with death looking for someone to stabilize it. And who better than he? A whisper here, a touch there, a song over yonder... it just a few days, he was the king. And they were the prey.
Just like the little group of lambs strolling casually through the gates.
But Lin Wen was no fool; though they smelled like prey, clever ones oft disguised themselves as such. Put on a mantle of the meek, but beneath they were lions and dragons, ready to leave ashes in their wake.
So he approached them, and he taunted them, and he recognized immediately that they weren't pretending. Someone strong... no, someone simply not weak would not have so readily fallen to such an obvious provocation. The strong bear pride in their bones, and see it beneath them to engage in such mortal means.
Though Lin Wen was a bit surprised that they'd managed to resist his illusionary arts, he was fairly certain it was simply because he didn't have enough time. The nature of his arts wasn't to quickly put someone under an illusion, but to persistently create a reality they begin to believe in over the course of days, if not weeks.
And thus, he ordered.
"Kill them," his voice was a hiss, his heart stirring with desire.
After such a long time... he finally had his kingdom, and he could reign without anyone to punish him.
A flurry of arts encroached onwards as his shadows leapt, and he could see it: the sight of them lying gagged and tied up on the ground, begging him. Begging him to let them live, to let them go... just like they all do.
... hm?
A streak of red flashed and a head flew upward, causing him to frown. Though he said 'kill them', that wasn't the actual order, more a way to scare them. They were supposed to subjugate them.
But maybe it was an accident?
A pair of arms soon flew up and another head, and the reality of it finally reached him--those were the heads and limbs of his people.
Before he could fully understand what happened, a teenage boy drew his sword in a singular stroke from a shoddy-seeming scabbard. It was an ordinary strike, yet was not; Lin Wen felt his heart choked up and seize, and felt the blood in his veins freeze.
That single stroke... it was as if the raging gods had descended from the firmament above to punish the sinners. Sword Qi was so overwhelming that it tore through the entire city, leaving behind a hair-wide gash in the ground... but also about fifty or so sliced-up bodies writhing and convulsing on that very ground, soaked in their own blood.
He glanced to his side where his dearest Fairy Zhenya stood, the light of his life, only to witness her body split in half down the middle as blood sprayed out horrifyingly, splashing over him.
It was then that he finally caught wind of the screams--horrible, haunting screams.
His gaze drew over to his most elite guard, those that even the former mayor employed, only to see them obliterated by a few punches from a few young girls...
--his Shaman! That was right! There was a Shaman in this godforsaken place, and even Lin Wen struggled to properly subjugate him! A word or two from that man, and they'll all be groveling!
... but he was dead already, his body wrapped in blinking colors of gold, that young man standing above him with a curious expression.
Run.
The thought emerged in his mind like a bolt of thunder.
He was wrong.
Terribly wrong. More wrong than he had ever been before in his entire life. Those people... they were no prey, no. They were apex predators, donning the skin of sheep and letting the world believe they were meek and broken. The most terrifying sort, the sort that he was desperate to become.
Run.
His feet spun in place and he used every last mote of Qi in him speed away. Alongside his illusionary arts, he was most confident in his movement arts--no, in some ways, he was even more confident in them. After all, they were what saved his life on more than one occasion.
The world around him blurred as he began bounding dozens of yards with each step. Before a few seconds had passed, he'd reached the city's--or whatever was left of one, at least--edge and crossed it, heading for the mountains. He only had to get away and hide, just like he did for decades prior. He still would have been hiding had those infernal things not come and scorched the entire mountain range, leaving it bereft of life.
How was he so damned unfortunate? To have run across apex predators twice in such a short span of time?
It didn't matter.
All he had to do was simply run away and wait it out. Just like those before, these ones would be gone soon enough, too. People like them... this pond was far too small for them.
"Boo~"
"AAH!" a face appeared rather sharply in front of him amidst the blurring trees and boulders, causing him to loose his footing and slip, rolling into and over the dirt repeatedly for a few seconds, just barely managing to stabilize himself and jump back up.
Opposite of him, standing some ten yards away, was a boy--a boy that he recognized. He was in that man's group, blending into the background. When did he come here? Did the man anticipate he'd go this way and sent ahead a child to slow him down?
"... don't a fool, little boy," Lin Wen said. "That man send you ahead to buy him some time. But we can just go our separate ways. You can tell you never saw me come through here, and I can let you live."
"Really?"
"Of course, of course; unlike that man, I'm not a monster. I--h-huh?"
It was all a blur.
One moment, the boy was over there... then the next, he was in front of him. So close that he could make out the individual eyelashes.
Lin Wen felt his knees and legs give out as his entire body began to wobble; falling down, he saw red spatter out in front of him, and saw the boy extending his arm toward him.
Maybe he was trying to help?
No.
The boy was holding something.
Something raw, scarlet, and moving.
As Lin Wen fell further and further back, the sky beginning to overcome his view, he saw what it was.
It was his heart.
And it was still beating.