《Chimera Cultivation》 The turning of eras. ¡°Empress, I am glad the Paladin Thread Project has just exited its prototype phase!¡± My head researcher said while kneeling. My hand reached out and grabbed the offered glass jar. The black threads wiggled and shuffled themselves to be closer to my flesh. A small pulse of Qi and the Paladin Threads went into my most secure Soul Storage and gently plopped down next to my family¡¯s portraits and registrars. ¡°How soon can the Threads be reproduced? And how long after that until I can outfit at least a Special Forces Unit with them?¡± I asked, returning my hand to the armrest. ¡°We are working on the mass production incubator tomorrow and in a month, respectively,¡± my researcher explained. I nodded and formed an Empress-Grade Qi Stone into his hand, another one in the opposite for exceeding my scheduling expectations. ¡°Go get something nice for you and your family. You have the rest of the week off.¡± I dismissed him. The man bowed and hurried out of my sight. With the press of a button on my armrest, I brought up my schedule and management screens. I tapped on the holograms, shuffling resources out of the development quarter and into the production quarter. I made a note to my future self to double everyone¡¯s pay, primarily to hide the researchers involved with the Paladin Threads, but also because they have earned it. Next up was today¡¯s war me- The second loudest sound I ever heard, only surpassed by the sound of planets colliding, rippled across my capital and threw me ungraciously into and through a few walls. Qi surged from me, healing the subjects I could see and doubling as a detection measure. Thankfully, I had avoided the unpleasantness of smashing through my subjects and feeling their sinews wrap around me. The warning sirens howled to all the heavens above and hells below, only contested by the shrieking of the Star Spawn invading my capital. ¡°Sying!¡± I snarled. I modulated my Qi as my twelve secondary hearts awoke, my ten arrays of Golden Cores spun up, and the weight of my empire solidified around me as armor and armaments. I jumped through my roof, phasing through the matter, to meet the sickly purple aura of my sole equal. It was only through our complete mastery of all three Domains of Cultivation that each other¡¯s combat radiance didn¡¯t blind us. But she had never had this purple aura before. What has she been researching? Through the metaphysical aura, whose strength was so great that it manifested in the narrow band of light that non-cultivators used to see, I saw Sying¡¯s physical body unchanged from our last battle. Long silver streaked blonde hair fell to her hips, her seven pairs of eyes each tracking a different target with the compound eyes at the center of her face visibly doing nothing, but I knew they could see Qi. Twelve arms each held a Qi Artifact of some sort. Her left hands held a halberd, sword, bow, and Morningstar. Her right hands held a tower shield, book, bowl, orb, and mirror. Sying¡¯s mouth was filled with various teeth from animals and monsters alike. The outermost layer was a fusion between a lamprey''s needles and a Vortex Shark''s serrated edges. Behind them were strong Dragon teeth of various elements, which, unfortunately, still provided a meager version of the iconic breath attacks. Even without Sying using the various lungs and Qi spells that the Dragons used to escalated their weapons from annoyances to disasters. A multicolor glow, primarily silver and red, lay at the back of her throat. It was a vestige of how she was able to command her kin to such lethal efficiency and served as a handy Qi-free backup weapon. Her iridescent silver-pink butterfly wings slowly flapped, not providing any lift but spreading Qi-laced powders of various sorts. Both to strengthen her spawn and to weaken my troops. At least until my second array of Golden Cores pulsed and purged the nearby area, finally, at the very bottom of her current 5-meter height, her human-like legs dissolved into tentacles below her knees, betraying her origins of an alien ocean from the crashed planet. Sying was the inspiration for the Paladin Threads, after all. ¡°Jiang!¡± Sying¡¯s aura pulsed, pushing me halfway to the ground before I stopped myself. ¡°Today your empire, tomorrow humanity.¡± That was my last coherent memory before I found myself outside this house, wheat fields and other mundane crops growing outside. However, further details were irrelevant as I ensured my physical and metaphysical internal organs stayed inside. My pathetic shambling closer to the farmhouse tripped the filmiest of store-bought wards and triggered bells from within the house. Though strangely enough, I could sense no electricity, or far more concerning any Appartum, let alone Machina, anywhere within the premises. ¡°No,¡± I muttered to myself and shook my head. ¡°Maybe the owner is a Technophobe.¡± I shuffled down next to the backdoor and slid down the wall, sitting on the patio. I closed my eyes and breathed in, focusing on my metaphysical lungs, trying to get the history of this place- The footsteps picked up their pace as I vomited, and my physical lungs tried to vacate my body. ¡°Alright, I don¡¯t know who or what you are, but mimicking someone''s death throes is a new low, even for Star¡¯s Spawn.¡± the owner shouted as he kicked open the door with a spear in hand. The man was a prime example of my Vebrition realm-borne men. He was of medium height and had tanned skin from working outside daily, though a lighter shade than the norm from using tractors and other Post-Industrial machines. His brown hair was cut short to keep sweat from sticking around. He had black eyes that were scanning his wheat fields. Deeper in the house and around some corners, I saw well-maintained guns. I didn¡¯t understand why he would pass up guns, the ingenuity of generations, especially a railgun that could harm a Starspawn, for a spear. I couldn¡¯t sense any Qi of the Three Domains from him, so he didn¡¯t have any Spear Spells. Nor would he have relied upon the cheapest store-bought wards if that were the case. Either way, I still couldn¡¯t sense any Appartum or Machina from the spear and guns, respectively. I couldn¡¯t even feel the minute amounts from the door hinges and handle. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t matter that it¡¯s an untrained mortal. My researchers are paid enough to compensate for the lackluster subject.¡± Taking a risk, I removed the Paladin Threads from my Soul Storage. The lilac light show brought the man¡¯s attention to my prone form, causing him to adopt a confused expression at my state and the glass jar. ¡°You are forgiven for not showing me the proper respect.¡± I wheezed through my collapsed physical lung. I removed the jar¡¯s stopper. ¡°Sorry for the unwanted modifications.¡± I held up the jar to the mentally paralyzed man. ¡°I, God Empress of Phyrexian Chimera Empire Olivia Jiabeng-Xun, hereby dub you the First Paladin.¡± The man understood the hint and stuck his hand in the jar, ¡°I, Kenny Dixon, hereby accept this duty bestowed upon me.¡± The Threads flooded Kenny¡¯s hand, wiggling into his pores and entering his bloodstream. In just 3 seconds, Kenny was a shivering mass of Paladin Threads, but he returned to his original form after a 5-second wait, and his human instincts melded with his new ones. The man blinked and opened his mouth to say something irrelevant. Meanwhile, I dissolved into Qi vapors, flowed into his left lung, formed a tiny pinprick of Qi, and poked an equally small hole in his soul. I then rushed in and stitched his soul back the way it was, hiding the fact that he wasn¡¯t a mundane human anymore and the fact that I was still alive inside of him. ¡°As payment for your services as a farmer-¡± I tickled the inner walls of his soul, granting him the basic knowledge needed to jumpstart his Cultivation and granted a few spells. ¡°-And an upfront reward for your service as the First Paladin.¡± I gave him a flash-forged sword, shield, and javelin triad with a breastplate and helmet, all made of copper, which was the essential equipment for my Militiamen, which, unfortunately, was the most I could create from my Qi currently. ¡°All of my stronger gear has been destroyed. I should be healed enough to give you my basic equipment kit in a month. This can be sped up by eating any Monster Cores or really anything with Qi in them.¡± I breathed out, vastly increasing Kenny¡¯s soul durability before slipping away into a healing slumber This was not how Kenny imagined his day would go. This was not how he thought the week would go. -------------------------- 4th day of the Jubilation Month, 13th Millenia, 8th Century, 22nd year of Jiang¡¯s Reign. Day 1 The Collapse of the Empire and The Birth of Sying¡¯s Reign. Two days before Kenny and The Empress¡¯ Meeting. A loud boom shook the world, then another, and another, to the point that everyone knew doomsday for Humanity or Starspawn had come. ¡°Why must it be so loud? They weren¡¯t this loud in their previous clashes!¡± Shouted Kenny as he tumbled out of bed. Kenny stumbled to his security room, trying to balance with a world that wobbled independently of him. The back wall had the main weapon racks of the house. On the racks were guns, primarily rifles for hunting beasts and Qi Monsters. At the center of the gun case was a silver railgun for Starspawn. On the left wall were his security monitors. Thankfully, nothing has tried to invade his land during this chaos. Kenny stumbled down the stairs and poured himself a bowl of cinnamon-flavored cereal. He then took the carton of coconut milk from the fridge and held it above and across from the bowl. He was forced to pour out the milk diagonally in a half-futile attempt to get it to actually land in the bowl. CLANG-BOOM! The world tilted so much that the ground rose and shattered Kenny¡¯s bowl and nose. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Ah!¡± Kenny screamed as he clutched his nose. He pulled himself upright into a chair, unwilling to clean up the mess before he stilled. The air conditioning shut off, the coffee machine, fridge, and freezer went silent, the hum of his security system vanished, but most damning of all¡­ Kenny pulled his legs into the chair and placed his head between his knees. ¡­was that he could even hear these comparatively quiet things in the first place. ------------ Day 1, 1 and a half hours later. After panicking and stress eating for an hour and a half straight, Kenny slapped himself and got to work checking what didn¡¯t work. ¡°First off,¡± Kenny said while pulling his fridge-freezer combo unit out from its space by the countertops. ¡°Do I need to replug you or check the fluids?¡± The cords were all in place, and when Kenny carefully handled the freezing liquid tubes, they were still full. Kenny took a chance and unplugged the unit, then waited 5 minutes and replugged it, to no avail. ¡°Okay, maybe I have been disconnected from the grid?¡± Kenny asked himself as he went to the light switch. Off and On made no difference, the only sources of light were the sun and the cinnamon-scented candles Kenny liked. ¡°Fff,¡± Kenny groaned as he picked up a lit candle and walked down to his basement. It was hard to see, but in the basement were a few different generators, mostly because he couldn¡¯t afford any brand of multi-fuel generator that wouldn¡¯t break in a year. There was also the manual bicycle generator he built himself. Kenny approached the biofuel generator and hooked it to his house¡¯s internal power grid. After double-checking that everything was properly grounded, Kenny checked the fuel tank and saw that it was full. He then turned on the generator. Kenny waited a beat before placing his face on the table and screaming. Kenny wasted the next 30 minutes testing all the other generators and even the manual bike; not a single Volt was generated. ¡°Okay, okay, let¡¯s see if my farm is the only one having these problems,¡± Kenny said while walking outside with his cell phone. Which wouldn¡¯t wake up. ¡°Please, I need you to work.¡± Kenny pleaded. ¡°I don¡¯t want to jog my way into town. If all of you don¡¯t work, my railgun cannot work.¡± Kenny breathed in and shoved his former cell phone into his pocket as he raced towards his security room. Taking a candle from the hallway, Kenny entered his security room and found that even his security grid was down. He cursed to himself as he opened his armory and strapped on a rifle, shotgun, and pistol. Kenny took his railgun off its hanger and checked its internal battery. -The railgun¡¯s status screen was pure black. ¡°FF,¡± Kenny pressed his face against the armory wall and screamed again. Kenny hauled his load of guns to his living room on the first floor and placed the railgun on the dining table. Then he walked outside, gazed over his field, aimed his rifle at a scarecrow, and pulled the trigger. No bang, no bullet traveling three times faster than sound, nothing. Kenny wordlessly screamed as he threw his rifle on the ground. -half an hour of screaming for 15 minutes and the rest of walking later- Kenny walked into town, which was utterly jam-packed with all the other farmers, though there were no cars, helicopters, or other personnel transportation. Everyone that Kenny could see was on foot like him. The next strangest thing was that no building had its lights on, and those lit used candles or sunlight. ¡°Everyone, please remain calm!¡± Shouted the mayor from her podium in the central square. ¡°I will have any volunteer Lightning-Element Cultivators around the various farms in 3 days maximum! They will most definitely fix this issue of ours!¡± Nobody heard Kenny¡¯s hum through the general discontent of those surrounding him. ¡°Three days max to figure out why Metal doesn¡¯t even accept Lightning Qi and implement a fix for all the farms. This girl is foolish.¡± Whispered a woman in a lilac robe next to Kenny. ¡°It¡¯s not just my farm that had the electricity problems then.¡± Kenny whispered, ¡°Is internal combustion working for anyone else, like furnaces or guns?¡± The woman turned her gray eyes towards Kenny. Her light lilac hair was tied into a bun except for two bangs to frame her face, and she inspected him from head to toe. Her eyes lingered on the now useless rifle on his back and pistol on his waist. Her left hand went into her right sleeve and pulled out a miniature spear with a tag around its spearhead. Then, she made sure Kenny¡¯s eyes followed her hand as she placed it into Kenny¡¯s right pocket, opposite the pistol. ¡°Take off the tag once you have space; the spear will regrow to its normal size,¡± the woman said. ¡°As for your question, no. Thankfully, for my great granddaughter¡¯s sake, that does not extend to Fire Element Qi.¡± Her right hand retreated into her left sleeve and withdrew a coupon for the Cultivation General Store. ¡°Go before even the weakest of wards are gone!¡± The woman said before pushing Kenny out of the crowd. Kenny would have stumbled from her shove, but the one positive thing about this morning was that his legs were improving at balancing. Kenny hurried past the unlit buildings until three minutes later and stood outside the CGS. The storefront had marble pillars holding up the birch and limestone roofing. The glass sliding doors were jammed into the open positions, visibly another victim of the anti-electricity phenomenon. A steady stream of customers came out of the store with various candles. Lanterns were sparse, as one unfortunate woman accidentally closed her lantern, and the fire went out. Kenny walked past her and her friends, trying to reignite the lantern. Half the light came from the windows inside the store, and the other half came from persistent Fire Spells, such as hovering Fire Orbs or even a flock of small Firebirds flying to the checkouts and back up the aisles. The staff was visibly frazzled, so Kenny waited for the Firebirds to pass by the Aisle Signs to navigate. It only took a minute of waiting and walking past the aisles until he found the Ward Aisle. ¡­shelves upon shelves were empty; not even dust remained. ¡°Chirp.¡± went the Ward Aisle¡¯ Firebird. Once the Firebird saw Kenny¡¯s attention, it flew down the aisle and hovered in front of the last shelf with merchandise. ¡°Thank you,¡± Kenny said, patting his pockets for a treat. ¡°Ah, sorry. I¡¯m out.¡± The Firebird tilted its head before it nodded and turned around to resume its previous flight pattern. Kenny took the dismissal as it was and backtracked to the ends of the aisle. He joined the steady stream of customers heading to the checkouts. The flow of the crowd pushed Kenny into one of the checkout lanes before he could decide which one to go in by himself. All items chosen to manipulate impulse buying, such as bags of chips and candy, were gone. ¡°We have ones that feel so weak?¡± The cashier said as she flipped through a big book of items. The flame orb above her flickered, so she turned her head upwards and breathed out a small stream of flame. The stream of flame orbited around the flickering Spell, the tip falling into the orb, and was consumed to reset the Spell¡¯s clock. Then, she went back to finding the correct item. ¡°The Guardian Ward is five bucks.¡± The Cashier said after confirming the price. Kenny pushed his lips together. ¡°Oh, this is the single-use plastic of wards.¡± The cashier did not attempt to hide her sad smile. Kenny pulled out his wallet and placed a five-dollar bill in the cashier¡¯s hand. ¡°Thank you for your business.¡± The cashier said. ¡°Hopefully, we¡¯ll get a restock in a week or so.¡± Kenny nodded as he returned his wallet to his pocket and joined the crowd, leaving the store. As his body went with the flow, Kenny turned his attention to the manual, and the cover was nothing flashy; it was just the wardstone¡¯s inscription. Unfortunately for him, the manual writers assumed a .. more extensive knowledge base than Kenny. Kenny only figured out that the ward protected a small building. His house was barely scraping the inside of the area for a mere 100 Perikya worth of energy. Which was ten of the basic Combat Spell, Qi Pulse. ¡°This is more of a scent blocker than actual protection,¡± Kenny muttered, his left hand rubbing his temples and shielding himself from the sun¡¯s glare. ¡°I am saving that coupon for actual protection.¡± A purple wave rippled across the sky and blocked the sun for five seconds. ¡°What was that?¡± Kenny asked himself as the others around him asked similar questions. That¡¯s when the howling started. Kenny¡¯s eyes darted around and spotted ripples in the shadows cast by the structures around him. Patches of unnatural blackness bloomed and erupted into chickens; if chickens¡¯ wings had blades for feathers, their eyes shone like cats, a large pale green talon arcing over their head, tall enough to disembowel a woman even if the chicken ran between her feet. Oh, and they were all an obnoxiously bright shade of red, save for the aforementioned talon. Kenny and the other civilians around him froze briefly before scattering to the four winds. Kenny heard some Cultivators fighting back against these new monsters. Though all the shadows were spawning the monsters, this new breed of Starspawn¡ªfor what else could they be? Above the central square shone a silver light. Small golfball-sized orbs detached themselves from the miniature silver sun, and the smaller orbs launched themselves at the new Star Spawn, each of them smashing through where their targets¡¯ brainstems should be. Thankfully, the Star Spawn hadn¡¯t mutated so far from their lookalikes that their brainstems would be elsewhere. Everyone barely had the time to breathe in before a new set of howling echoed through the town. Kenny glanced at the miniature spear and ripped off the shrinking tag without hesitation. A sliver outline of the full-sized spear blossomed into existence; a second later, the spear resumed its normal size. Kenny suddenly knew how to perform basic jabs and block with the spear as it grew. Kenny saw more silver orbs impact the new Starspawn, killing them instantly. Kenny frowned as the shadows pushed away the corpses only to spew forth more bodies, either the ones that died were instantly revived. In this case, these Starspawn had the potential to learn across infinite lives. Or brand new bodies and minds were being mass-produced on an unbelievable scale within his town. Either way, the bodies were piling up, and someone would need to depose the bodies, or else plagues, natural and unnatural, would blossom like kudzu. ¡°Civilians! To the Central Square! To my subordinates, plan A113!¡± bellowed the silver sun. That was the signal for humans yelling to clash with the howling. Numerous Cultivators streaked across the sky, landing near the hotspots of monsters spawning. The nearest shadow broiled as it tried to spawn more monsters, only for the rapidly forming heads to explode into chunks as a Cultivator landed nearby. The blur that was slicing the monsters was connected to the Cultivator by a thin thread of pure blue Qi. Kenny glanced at the Cultivator as he turned away, only catching sight of a lilac cloak around their shoulder. Kenny sprinted for the central square. About halfway there, he merged with a blob of other civilians watched over by a trio of Cultivators. ¡°Well, whatever that wave was obviously can¡¯t affect everything,¡± the man next to Kenny said to his friend, running behind him. ¡°Otherwise, these weird monsters would be crawling out of our shadows, not just the buildings.¡± ¡°Nor did bioelectricity disappear. Ah, if only Lightning Qi could stay in metals.¡± Kenny said as the safe zone approached. As the civilians reached the area, swords, spears, arrows, and Qi projectiles flowed from the safe zone. Kenny felt his hair stand up as he passed the chalk line, denoting the safe zone; out of the corner of his eye, Kenny saw that the very air rippled above the chalk line as more civilians entered the safe zone. ------------------- An: I wanted to continue, but the characters said no. We have reached a natural ending point! ====== Things the Author wants to introduce in the story but currently can¡¯t think of an organic way to do so: #1: The God Empress of Humanity takes on new names for every territory she claimed back when she was a global conqueror. Thus, she uses one of the many names stylized after it when she is in that region. (I don¡¯t want to butcher more Chinese names than I have to). I have not decided her original name, but Kenny hasn¡¯t earned the right to hear it. #2: Veritbrion is a mixture of primarily British and United States, thus the English names. While guns were invented in an Asia-esque realm I haven¡¯t named yet, Veritbrion is where the Railguns were made. #3: The Asia analog was crushed when Sying¡¯s planet crashed into the Earth analog. Yes, I do mean that literally. Sying and Olivia are the only survivors from those sides of the planets. The other half of Syning¡¯s planet had survived and taken the place of Not!Asia. Unfortunately for humanity, that place is expanding and mutating the environment to the point where humans can¡¯t survive. The capital was in the continental Europe analog. #4: This is not a LitRPG story. It is immersion-breaking that a magic-using kingdom older than a few centuries never makes/discovers the magic equivalent of calories or atoms. ========== Characters that appeared in this chapter list: The God Empress of Humanity: Born sometime in the age of bronze and numerous city-states as humanity pulled itself from its nomadic roots and established long-lived agriculture. She was the greatest hunter in her village until the age of 8 when a local Sect surveyed its lands, where her strange affinity for Qi was discovered. Despite her young age and complete lack of teaching, she mastered the basics of Qi Refining to the point where the three Great Domains were all featured in her Qi. She took over the Sect and the region at age 9, thus forming the core of her empire. ----- Sying, the God Empress of Starspawn: Born in an alien ocean under an alien star, Sying has experienced far greater and stranger things than anyone else. Save for her fellow God Empress. Though the Goddess of many names hasn¡¯t had the pleasure and pain of protecting her world from her sun going supernova. Thus, Sying provided heat and light for the now-rogue planet for millennia until it inevitably crashed into humanity¡¯s cradleworld. Sying seeks to convert humanity¡¯s cradle world into a new home. --- Researchers and other folk of the capital: Dead or wish they were dead. --- Matriarch Serenity ¡°Liliac Lightning¡± Jones: The head of the Lilac Syndicate Sect has made sure that her children, biological and otherwise, want for nothing and is wise enough to gain positions in the rear. She is producing supplies for the war effort and protecting the supply lines in general. While she stays in Seven Jewel-Crop Haven, her commercial-focused Sect has reached all over the Veritbrion Realm. ¡­at least until the very darkness of night and storehouses started to spawn monsters. ---- Young Mistress Alexandra Jones: Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she is adept with Lightning-Element Qi and Artifact usage and is excellent at using her Artifacts at long range. Though she is far enough down the line of succession, she has no hope of attaining anything besides a small branch of the Sect and a stud to match. She plans to form an everlasting warband of her clones and artifacts. But to do so, she needs to turn the theoretical cloning into reality and then figure out how to give them combat ability that isn¡¯t scouting nor message courier service. ---- Kenny Dixon: Our protagonist is way over his head. Before the story starts, his only experience with non-mundanity was the rare Qi Beast that snuck past Serenity¡¯s wards around the town. Then, one of the Syndicates would come and kill it. Chapter 2: The Implications. The following hour passed in a blur as the cultivators desperately suppressed the monsters. ¡°If monsters are spawning from darkness itself, will the moon¡¯s light be enough to prevent them from appearing?¡± This was the question on everyone¡¯s minds, but everyone was too afraid to verbalize it. Kenny looked around and saw that a few cultivators were arming the crowd. ¡°¡­Where are the barrier technicians?! We need..¡± A trio of Cultivators shot by with their arms full of arrows and slingshot stones. The direction they went was filled with the roaring of monsters and flames. Kenny blinked as several cultivators fought back the sudden flames. ¡°Oh, come on! Buildings can still burn down, but we can¡¯t use lanterns?!¡± was the general sentiment of the crowd when they saw the flames. Kenny hummed and watched as a geyser of water erupted from a cultivator that floated on a spear. The geyser pushed the chicken type monsters out into view along with a black and brown canine monster. It was a good thing that the cultivator had aimed their water cannon spell out of city limits and the geyser had pushed the monsters out into the plains around the city. The other cultivators had leapt onto the opportunity and quickly moved the monsters nearby by them into the geyser and another group of cultivators had unleashed their more powerful weapons and spells to kill the monsters now that they didn¡¯t have to worry about the buildings. Kenny lost direct sight of the geyser cultivator as he saw more cultivators surrounding them to serve as protection. ¡°Ugh, we¡¯re going to need a lot more bees and wax generation spells.¡± A woman said next to Kenny as she rubbed her nose. She was the robe-wearing cultivator who had saved him an hour ago. A bang and pop echoed from the geyser as some were forced into steam. ¡°Come on, we have to secure the food supply.¡± The woman said. She didn¡¯t wait for an answer from Kenny as she picked him up and held him against her hip like he was a bag of produce. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He tried to complain about being picked up in this manner, but she didn¡¯t wait for him to understand. She jumped over the wall and sprinted away. The woman was as fast as his former car; as they traveled, they saw these new monsters crawl out of the shadows of the crops and trees. Kenny saw the woman¡¯s bronze sword dart from the sheath on her left hip and slice the few chicken-like monsters that attacked them instead of heading towards the city. The sword was connected to her body with a thin thread of blue Qi as she used her mind to control the sword as it tore through the monsters. ¡°Is there a number requirement for the dog to spawn?¡± She muttered as they didn¡¯t see any dogs around them. She tightened her grip on Kenny to the point where he felt minor pain. She ignored him tapping her hand as she buried her fingers in his chest and side. ¡°If that¡¯s true, then we¡¯ll need to make den busters for the breeds.¡± She muttered. ¡°Assuming that they can reproduce sexually.¡± She leaped over the oak fence that separated Kenny¡¯s property from the wilderness. ¡°Please don¡¯t raise such a concern without telling me your name first!¡± Kenny muttered as she finally set him down on his feet. ¡°I know i¡¯m only five and a half cen-¡± the woman stopped and rubbed her face. ¡°Aand your family probably didn¡¯t even move here until after I was born, judging by the size of your farm.¡± Indeed, there are a few fields of different crops. No more than a single person could manage with the help of machinery. Certainly not the size or development that came with generations upon generations of farmers taming the land. Definitely not more than a few centuries, for there were no mutated crops. Such as wheat, which was entirely edible in all its states, including flour, which granted additional stratification upon being eaten. Or Corn that increased your receptiveness to the Qi around you. Kenny nodded, ¡°I personally got this lot for the ease of protection.¡± The woman nodded, ¡°I did provide incentives for people to come here, nice to see that at least one person bit the bullet to more.¡± She extended her hand, ¡°My name is Alexandra Jones, I¡¯ll be your farm¡¯s guardian until the crisis is over.¡± Kenny shook her hand before they looked at his house. While they were talking Alexandra¡¯s sword had swiped through the air and killed all the monsters that had spilled out of the shadows to attack them. Thankfully there were no signs of any canines from the house¡¯s surroundings. The cream paint melded into the oak wood trim and roofing. Of course the overhanging roof was now a detriment for the shade it had provided. ¡°So do you also dabble in beekeeping?¡± Alexandra asked as they walked into the building. The sword stayed outside and prevented any monsters from entering the house or leaving the farm. Alexandra had pulled out a second sword from her cloak and would have taken her right hand and clasped it in lightning to provide luminance had she not seen the still burning candles. ¡°I was going to start with more conventional livestock like chickens next month.¡± Kenny said. Alexandra hummed. ¡°The best laid plans never come true.¡± Kenny nodded and he rubbed his chin, ¡°Do you have any contact with salt makers or canning agents?¡± She rubbed her chin. ¡°It¡¯s either those or the truly ancient ways of finding an Elemental Qi Beast and harvesting their blood or preferably their Golden Core.¡± Chapter 3: The First Night part 1 Alexandra and Kenny spent the next few hours debating about food management as they prepared the harvestable crops for consumption. They both frowned at the setting sun. The two of them quickly went to the living room and sat on the couch. Alexandra had wrapped an arm around Kenny¡¯s shoulders. On her lap was a small crystal ball that showed the farm outside. Howling echoed across the fields as the sun set and darkness blanketed the landscape as the moon rose. Thousands of the chickens were seen in the fields, hundreds of the canines that snorted fire, and dozens of strange bovines that had four pinkish yellow tendrils that extended from their backs, and there was a massive house sized boar that had a copper colored hide. Kenny bit his tongue to prevent him from yelling at the ball¡¯s surveillance. Alexandra covered her mouth with her left hand. She glanced around to make sure that the candles had enough fuel to burn all night; Alexandra then hovered her sword at the front door and windows. Thankfully for the house¡¯s structural integrity, the horde had moved towards the town, freeing up space for even more monsters to spawn. ¡°Where¡¯s tumbleweeds or kudzu for campfire fuel?¡± Kenny asked. Again, the horde had been drawn to the city and mostly ignored the farmer and his guard. The few stragglers were always the chickens. The number of the chickens had gone up from the daytime, but their strength thankfully had not increased. ¡°Should you go back and defend Seven Jewel-Crop Haven?¡± Kenny asked. Alexandra shook her head, ¡°I don¡¯t have a Golden Core yet so my output will be too low to fight through the entire horde to reach the town.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the penultimate stage of the Body Realm, correct?¡± Kenny asked. She nodded. ¡°It¡¯s right below the Body Temple Stage.¡± Before she could open her mouth to speak, they both heard a loud bang from the town¡¯s direction. Kenny wrapped his arms around her torso as they heard more explosions and reverberating roaring from the star spawn. ¡°I don¡¯t think the other towns will survive this night.¡± He said as he glanced over to the sister town of Eleven Guided Arrows, assuming the walls and hills were not in the way. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°I don¡¯t think we will last the week.¡± Alexandra said, ¡°My clan¡¯s matriarch still needs to rest to recuperate her Qi for this level of combat. Unless we sleep in shifts and save our stronger fighters for the night, then we will lose this war of attrition.¡± Kenny nodded, ¡°Alright, so we need a lot more wax for candles, rely upon old food preserver methods for food, and now we need a lot of new sleep aids.¡± Now that she had determined that the Star Spawn were not going to attack the farm in mass, Alexandra had moved the crystal ball¡¯s view to the town. Instantly the source of the reverberations were apparent, the large boars were using their roars to vibrate the innards of anyone who had gotten too close. Their hides were equally effective at dispersing the weapons and Qi of the cultivatiors around them. The strange bovine had used their tendrils to smack into the physical attacks of the town defenders and knock them off course. One unlucky lightning-slinger man had been grabbed by a set of tendrils and ripped apart as a set of cyan threads emerged from the corpse as it was dragged out by a tendril. The tendril wrapped the Qi Veins around itself as it was sucked into the main body of the bovine. The other three tendrils had clad themselves in lightning bolts when the fourth tendril entered the body of the Starspawn. ¡°We¡¯re definitely fucked.¡± Alexandra said as she tightened her grip on Kenny. ¡°I don¡¯t think these ones will let us be breeding stock,¡± Kenny said as he ignored the pain of her grip. The sound of guitars and drums echoed through the town and visibly shook against the Boars¡¯ dire sounds in a clash of distorted air that occasionally sparked red and black. The rest of the town defense forces focused on the bovines and in particular the one that had already claimed a victim. The Boars charged into the path of the directed attacks and only had cuts on their fur to show the futility of the defense. The canines breathed in deep and spewed out a wall of flames as the chickens began leaping through the fire and then landed on buildings to spread the flames from their own burning bodies. A large glow of light lilac rose from a man who had the appearance of a thirty year old man, his face clean shaven and his hair and eyes was the same as his aura. A massive eruption of energy spilled from his body and annihilated the fire that was consuming the town. The wave didn¡¯t harm anyone or the buildings but vanquished the chickens and canines. Though the effort visibly drained him as he resorted to smaller blasts that hammered away at the boars. ¡°If first son Anthony is on the field, where are the other Branch Leaders?¡± Alexandra asked herself. ¡°My question is whether he can do that again for the fresh spawns?¡± Kenny asked. As if Anthony had heard him, the man breathed in as a small golden dot in his stomach flared into existence as its light shone through all barriers. He looked visibly refreshed by the light of his mastery of his body. He was joined by several others who were fending off the other hordes that had come from different directions. ¡°Ah,¡± Kenny said. ¡°Golden Cores are generators of Oi aren¡¯t they?¡± Alexandra nodded. ¡°We also use them as capacitors.¡± As the next wave of Starspawn reached the city, waves of Qi blossomed from the Branch Leaders. The First Night Part two. Again and again, the Starspawn came only to die and be pushed back into the fields around the town, where the defenders foolishly tried to take over and was crushed back into the town, only for the cycle to repeat itself. This cycle was only broken when the moon came to itself zenith and flared brilliantly. The silver light rays of the moon streaked down onto the Starspawn and interweaved with their flesh. The Boars¡¯ tusks grew shiny as the moonlight rose from their bodies and coated the tusks with pure silver energy. The energy grew from the tusks and temporarily increased the size of the tusks. The tusks shivered as they resonated with the Boars¡¯ dire sounds, and the radius of the defenders puking blood as they were liquidified from the inside out had tripled in size and strength. The moonlight had sprouted more tendrils for the bovine and for the fire-breathing dogs had allowed them to generate a coat of flame. The chickens had a strange shadow effect, like they had a duplicate of themselves just lingering a second behind them. A brief silence had passed before the monsters returned to their dire task and met with Qi, Weapons, and profanity. The defenders had organized themselves into a collection of squads of ten Cultivators, each of whom rotated around so that they could experience combat roughly every half hour. Mundanes were drafted into service as the logistics corps, and a few of them had made more instruments to combat the Boars'' main method of attack. These new instruments had melded with the others to form a beautiful symphony that would have sold out tickets to the Bana Theater in Raoul if they had been heard in better conditions. The orchestra clashed with the crowd of Boars as they vied for dominance of sound in the area. Strong winds laced with Qi blew from the defenders, ensuring the canines couldn¡¯t let loose unless they wanted to burn their allies. Some ambitious defenders had laced their spells with vicious invisible blades that lobbed off some of the canines'' heads and limbs. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The invisible blades shattered against the hide of the Boars after only successfully culling the weakest variants of the enemy. Anthony pulled more of his Qi into an orb above his hands. The orb quivered as he fed more and more Qi into it as it rose above him. It rippled out into an ovaloid that darted over the heads of the defenders and streaked towards the nearest Boar. The Boar tried to vibrate the air around itself to block the attack, but the Qi smashed through the semi-solid air. A loud bang followed from the impact of the Qi as it hit the actual hide of the Boar. The Boar roared in pain as the hide was seared with flames that burned through to the muscles below. Before the Boar could react, another blast of Qi smashed into the wound. This time, the Qi blast had ridges across the surface of itself, making the attack act like a drill instead of a water balloon. The monster made a horrendous sound as its flesh was torn from its bones and gallons of blood spilled on the ground, mixing with the prior blood of both human and star spawn. The remaining Boars saw the corpse of their comrade and roared to the moon above, sending a semi-solid wall at Anthony, preventing him from forming more of the Qi Blasts. Several Cultivators had to dive out of the way of the attack and had to leap upwards to avoid getting trampled by these new starspawn who tried to get into the new opening in the defensive lines. The now airborne cultivators breathed in and exhaled a tidal wave of elemental forces, primarily targeted at the bovines and messed with the air quality reducing the effectiveness of the Baor¡¯s new attack. Meanwhile Anthony converted his aborted attack into an advancing wall of Qi and the two attacks exploded and carved a ditch between the two lines. A trio of Cultivators stood between him and the Boar as a cyan brick wall grew in front of them. The miniature barrier shifted as it was impacted by the Boar¡¯s projectiles and held firm, though the casters did grunt in pain. Behind the wall, several more Cultivators grouped up with Anthony and slowly replicated his Qi Drill Blast. For those without a Golden Core of their own, it took minutes and the efforts of multiple people to form a single attack. Eventually more drill blasts were launched over the defensive walls in front of them, and arced towards the Boars with lethal intent. Several of the Bovines leapt up and sacrificed themselves as ablvative armor as the Boars desperately tried to get out of the way, trampling their lesser kin under hoof. Barks and chirps echoed across the field as the lesser kin tried to dodge their superiors¡¯ hooves and throw themselves into the Qi Blast¡¯s path. With the sacrifice of dozens of their lesser kin, the Boars were able to successfully dodge the Drill Blasts from the defenders. However, before the Boars could retaliate, the sound of a chime rang out and drew all attention to the moonlight that clad the Starspawn. All of the moonlight shattered into thousands of snow like flakes and brought the Star Spawn back to whatever they considered as normal. Thus the defenders were able to push the Star Spawn back out of the town. Again and again, the Starspawn came only to die and be pushed back into the fields around the town, where the defenders foolishly tried to take over and was crushed back into the town, only for the cycle to repeat itself.