《The Jester of Apocalypse》 Chapter 1: Dead ends Chapter 1: Dead ends The council members of the Zearthorn sect had gathered for the daily meeting. Dozens of haughty cultivators sat in a round room and eyed the imposing figure of the sect master. He was short, but he projected the force of a giant. His long crimson hair draped over his broad shoulders like a bloody waterfall. His eyes were a blue so vivid it gave the impression of rippling tides. The only thing he wore, except his dimension rings and the bundle of keys, was the official Zearthorn sect robe. The same robe as everyone on the council. But it felt different. At first nce, his robes were chaotically messy and disheveled, yet from that mess emerged beauty. Some method to the madness of the folds of his robes highlighted his rippling muscles and physical perfection just right. He held himself casually as he nced down at the council members. An amused smile hung on his lips. When meetings happened every day, even cultivators tended to loosen up. They brought tea to their stations and chatted amicably with other council members. Whatever documents they had on their person were messily strewn about on the table. But today? The documents were tidy, the tea was absent, and the council members were quiet. The sect master sighed in disappointment. Most council members were his wives and kids, an unusual sight for such a prominent sect. Usually, over the years, chaos shook leadership. The old died, and the new was brought in. Eventually, a sect stopped being arge family and became an organization. This had yet to happen to the Zearthorn sect. The sect master of the Zearthorn sect, Marven Zearthorn, was also the sect''s founder. This sect had been ruled over by him for many generations, in no small part due to his prominence as a cultivator. And to his overwhelming disappointment, because nobody was qualified to take over. But the stink of change was present in the air. Even your kids and wives got tired of you after hundreds of years. And he had gotten really tired of them. He couldn''t help but feel he had failed whenever he witnessed conspiracies unfold before him. Sometimes, he¡¯d even get a little giddy when the schemes were rtively harmless. But other times, like today, were different. One of the council members got up, formally bowed with his fists pressed together, and greeted him. ¡°Greetings, Sect Master!¡± The man that greeted Marven was his son. A mortal would find that ridiculous, given that this geriatric looked centuries older than the handsome young man sitting on the throne, but to cultivators, this was a standard sight. Age only showed in one¡¯s appearance if they were behind in their cultivation. ¡°Greetings, elder Kaphor. I presume you¡­¡± He painstakingly slowly nced over the room ¡°... And I am referring to you all now, have brought me a suggestion?¡± The sect elder fiddled with some papers on the desk and nervously read the contents of one. ¡°Yes, Sect Master. One of your sons has reached the age of eleven today.¡± Marven had to force himself not to roll his eyes openly. ¡°Yes, and what of it? ¡°Well¡­ He is unlikely to reach the sect standards at this pace, and sect rules dictate he should be put up for arranged marriage.¡± The sect¡¯s rules. The rules that the sect master had created himself and could, with full justification, change as he wished. He could even make exceptions. A sect¡¯s master had absolute authority. This was mostly true, but not even overwhelming power was enough to escape politics. The rules were unfair, nonsensical, andplicated, but at least politics kept one¡¯s mind sharp, even if the sharpening discarded some brain cells in the process. ¡°And may I ask exactly why you''re bringing this to my attention a whole year before Neave falls behind those standards?¡± The Elder shuffled nervously and jumped to exin. ¡°You see, esteemed sect master, the boy has no interest in cultivation whatsoever. Considering this, there¡¯s merit in starting early with the preparations. After all, we know you want the best for your children.¡± As the years mercilessly marched onwards, there was less and less love between Marven and his family. To the mortal farmer of ages ago, how Marven viewed his family today would seem alien, monstrous even. However, witnessing your children and wives attempting to backstab you and each other countless times broke something in a person. Yet another such case was happening just now. ¡°I see¡­ So how far along are you with these ¡®preparations¡¯?¡± The elder hurried to respond. ¡°Yes, dear Sect Master, we have been in contact with the Yvellsare family of the Startamer sect. They would be d to marry off one of their daughters. We have had a few elders, including myself, visit them. I can truly say she will be a woman worthy of a king. She is an aplished cultivator and quite the beauty. She does have a few¡­ Issues¡­ In regards to courtesy, but I think that would pair quite well with the young master.¡± Marven¡¯s mood dropped even further. These heaven-forsaken assholes. So they had finally noticed. It was true that Marven had been paying more attention than usual to Neave. He was still confident that they had no idea why. They probably thought it was because Neave was Brivia¡¯s son. After all, why else would they think Marven was paying attention to him? Now, they had decided to cut the branch off before it toppled the tree. And they chose to do it in the most pathetic way possible. Marriage into the Yvellsare family must have been an ordeal to arrange, even if Marven was confident it was only a minor branch. And now they believed they had cornered him. Either he let the marriage go through and lost Neave or vetoed the marriage and lost power. Two hundred years ago, Marven would have cackled merrily at the idea that doing what he wanted could cost him power. He was both the sect master as well as the single most powerful cultivator in his sect by a massive margin. How could his council possibly take power away from him? Who would even dare try? Everyone, it seemed. The only solution Marven could think of was executing anyone who ever dreamed of disobeying him. That, as evident by the rtively short life spans of demonic sects and especially their sect masters, didn¡¯t always work out. While the ordeal most certainly put him in an unpleasant situation, Marven smiled calmly. He wanted to cackle and howl and point and yell and tell them all to shove their marriage arrangement up their ass. Why? Because, this time, he just happened to have the perfect hand to y. ¡°I hadn¡¯t expected the council to arrange such a prominent marriage partner for Neave. I apologize, however, but I have to veto this decision.¡± The pleasant expressions remained stered onto their faces, but there was a subtle hint of glee, barely restrained by their fake smiles. ¡°Well, sect master, that will be highly problematic. It would not do to go back on our word and cause conflict with the Startamer sect. Is there any reason you¡¯d deny such a boon to the young master?¡± Marven put on a distressed expression and grabbed his head as if he had a headache. ¡°The issue is that I have already betrothed Neave to someone.¡± The council members, rather than despairing, only got more gleeful. ¡°Sect master! Have you arranged a marriage partner for Neave and failed to inform the council? We do not question your authority, but as you may see, this decision has resulted in dire consequences! How will we possibly exin this to the Startamer sect!? They will have our heads for the disrespectful act! Moreover, it will look like our leadership is in disrepair! What if our enemies use this as a pretense to start a war with us!?¡± ¡°Dear elder, it was you who failed to inform me of your ns.¡± The elder hesitated a bit at that one but continued. ¡°Nevertheless, the damage had been done. As a representative of the council, I formally request that you inform us of the identity of Neave¡¯s betrothed. Perhaps we may yet rectify this blunder.¡± ¡°Hmm, I suppose I have no choice. Very well. Neave¡¯s betrothed is general Ilkivir the Beheader.¡± The council froze. The elder addressing Marven dropped some papers and rushed to regain hisposure. ¡°How in¡­ Why would you permit something like this, Sect Master!? How could you be so cruel toward the young master!?¡± ¡°Do you remember the severed mountain lotus our sect acquired six years ago?¡± The council members nced around the room in distress. ¡°It couldn¡¯t¡­?¡± ¡°Indeed, it was acquired through a deal with Ilkivir. The only thing he wanted in return was my son¡¯s hand in marriage¡ªdisgusting swine. But the severed mountain lotus was of immense value to us, so I offered him a deal. I told him that I would grant him my son''s hand, but only if he failed to reach our sect''s standard. The General happily agreed. However, he made me swear a spirit oath that I shan¡¯t grant Neave any cultivation-improving treasures before our deal expires. I had thought the general was a fool for epting the deal. After all, he must have been unaware of who Neave¡¯s mother was. His gamble would normally have a roughly half-half chance of paying off, but I could never have imagined Neave would act like this¡­¡± And now, look, what a tragedy! He had to train Neave personally to make it on time. Marven was sure that none of the council members cared about Neave. But they would be damned before they let the sect establish a connection to a man like Ilkivir. Marven would have lost power had he made this deal for any other reason. However, the treasure had granted their sect a bright future and a generation-defining prodigy. ¡°Sect Master, we will have to assign one of the elders to train Neave to our standards¡­¡± ¡°I am afraid I have to take responsibility for this ordeal myself. The meeting is finished. You may go about your duties.¡± Marven dered, bowed to the council, and walked out of the council chambers. Now all he had to do was what he nned to do anyway. Train his son. *** She was so beautiful. Her striking silver hair, streaked with blood, rippled in the wind like a majestic waterfall. Her flowing purple robes, torn, ragged, and bloody, adorned her slender frame. She was shaking. She was exhausted. But she lifted her sword anyway. Her opponents were exhausted as well. If she ran, she would certainly get away. But she knew what would happen to the rest of the vige. She gazed at the score of wretched scum standing in front of her. They were wounded, bloody, and charred, but they were grinning. Some of them would die, and they knew, but they still cackled maliciously. They would die so they could kill her. Once she was out of the way, they would assault the vige. The vigers would resist, and even more would die in the process. It made no sense. They were¡­ They were idiots. If one looked closer one could see their distant gazes,zy eyes, and drooling mouths. The beautiful silver-haired woman, too, was stupid. The dead were all stupid. They weren¡¯t just stupid. They were dangerously stupid too, and uncivilized and¡­ Oh no, he had to get away. He felt drool dripping down his mouth and the world splitting apart as his left eye casually drifted apart from the¡­ Gasp. ¡­And then he woke up. He looked around, and, yes, indeed, he was in his room. Exactly where one would expect to wake up. But it felt strange. The books, all curated from the most intelligent and worldly topics, didn''t belong on the shelves of a stupid man''s room. Ah, of course. It made sense. This was no stupid man¡¯s room, after all. Neave got out of the soft,fortable covers of his bed. The air in his room was stale, smelling of sloth, and refusal to open the window. The fresh spring breeze pushed the blinds to the window, knocking, begging to be let inside, but it was futile. The inviting glow of the noon sun peeked through the slits in the shades but to no avail. Neave got up and stretched, a fruitless attempt to ease his back pain. He stepped past the mirror in his room and smiled smugly at his reflection. The striking crimson-red color of his father''s hair had meshed with the silver of histe mother and created a gentle, sunset-pink mane streaked with a few red locks here and there. His face was pleasant, evenpared to the beauty of a woman. And his eyes¡­ Striking blue, vast as the sky, and more profound than the ocean, carried countless secrets of the universe. He picked up one of the books and stood against an empty wall. He ced the book on his head and marked its position with one of the pencils. He stepped away from the wall excitedly but shrunk upon seeing the mark right on top of the one he had ced yesterday. ¡°That can¡¯t be right!¡± He stepped against the wall again, straightening his back and just slightly pushing his toes up. The mark showed just barely above thest one. He nodded and smiled. Neave walked up to a chair sitting in the corner of his room. He grabbed the robe half-assedly draped over it and put it on. It was a bit toorge for him. He grabbed the t clogs, ced them on the soles of his feet, and started tying them with cloth ribbons. The result was messy and rushed, but he just tightened the sloppy knots and hurried to get up. Neave walked up to a stand next to his bed. He grabbed a small food pill from a bottle and crunched his face until the bitter taste disappeared. ¡°Ugh.¡± Neave put the bottle of pills in his robes. He scurried to his window and pulled the blinds back briefly, wincing at the brightness. He peeked upwards to check the position of the sun. He nodded to himself. Neave anxiously walked over to his door and took a peek outside. The hallways were empty. He sighed in relief. Neave stepped out of his room, cautiously examining the hallways. Once he stepped out, he locked the door and stepped back. Above his door was a piece of yellowed paper with faded ink on it. The ink had his name on it, far to the right side of the sign, leaving space behind his name. He smiled proudly at the golden shade his paper had gained over the years and patted himself on the back. He trod down the adorned hallways of the sect. Not every door had paper above it. Almost none of them did. The name tes above the rooms were fashioned out of fancy polished wood, iron, bronze, and, in one case, silver. The ce that remained empty behind Neave¡¯s name had also been filled with numerous ridiculous titles. ¡®Golden sh Uldhore Zearthorn.¡¯ Written on a wooden te. Neave snorted and kept walking. Some of the doors had no tes above them at all. It was clear to see they had been removed just recently. Neave didn¡¯t even spare the empty spots a second nce. He thought he heard voices down the hallway at one point. He paused and backtracked, taking apletely different route. There he heard footsteps and turned to the left. He had to walk around the mess hall to avoid running into anyone. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as his feet ached. ¡°Who the fuck is even allowed to walk around during the daily training?¡± Neave slowed his walking and took a careful turn in the hallway. Just a bit before him was the path leading to the courtyard. He took a deep breath and stepped forward. ¡°Third form, sixth strike.¡± ¡°Hwa!¡± ¡°Third form, sixth parry.¡± ¡°Psoo!¡± Roughly ten thousand disciples were doing the daily training. Although such a mass of bodies made a considerable crowd, they onlyprised around a twentieth of the enormous courtyard. Neave¡¯s heartbeat sped up at the noise. Not only was such a mass of people guaranteed to be loud, but these juvenile muscleheads also ensured they were as loud and obnoxious as possible. Neave took a deep breath, turned left, and started walking along the courtyard''s northern wall. He was barely a few meters away from the disciples. Neave ignored the baleful res and kept walking with his head high. Well, not that high, but he wouldn¡¯t let himself be intimidated. As he walked past forty or so rows of disciples, his stomach dropped. One of his half-brothers was along the outer edge of the forty-somethingth row. He seriously contemted returning to his room, but it was toote. He was spotted almost immediately, and running was futile. The stocky disciple immediately dropped his sword and ran to Neave. ¡°Come here, you rat!¡± And then it started. Neave was grabbed by his hair and lifted off the ground. He was repeatedly punched in his torso. The punches were very restrained but still nearly cracked ribs and ruptured organs. Neave resorted to the usual strategy of dealing with a situation like this. He screamed. Within seconds the instructor, one of the sect''s elders, grabbed ahold of the assant and berated him. ¡°Hunter! How dare you interrupt practice! You noisy little crap! Do that again, and I swear on my name I will have youshed and put into solitary confinement! Have I made myself clear!?¡± The elder kicked Hunter in the ass and forced him back into the formation. Then he turned around and pped Neave. ¡°What the fuck was that for!?¡± The elder pped him again. ¡°Watch yournguage around me, brat! You know damn well you¡¯re disrupting the practice again!" ¡°How? By existing!? He was the one who started beating mepletely unprovoked!¡± That earned him a kick in the shin. ¡°Silence! I swear your father will hear of this, and you will not be avoiding the punishment this time!¡± Neave gritted his teeth and spat in the instructor''s face. Everybody around them went deathly silent. The instructor hadn''t screamed or said anything. He just stepped forward and pped Neave so hard that the disciples on the other side of the courtyard heard the echoes. This was enough to knock Neave out cold. The practice continued as everybody tried to ignore Neave¡¯s hopefully-just-unconscious body. After finally regaining consciousness, he got up to his feet and shakily stumbled forward. Eventually, he made it to the library. He barely managed to push the door open. He walked into the first floor of the library. The Zearthorn sect library was deathly silent. Well, the fourth, third, and first floors usually were. However, the second floor was where the basic cultivation manuals were kept and information about many treasures, sacred beasts, sacred flora, monsters, and so on. It was thus usually popted by boisterous and smelly disciples. Neave had no passion for the second floor of the library. Walking down the library, he walked past the endless rows of books. He nced at some of the titles. ¡®Applications of Spirit in Golem Joint Construction.¡¯ ¡®Western Keyishin Farming Techniques.¡¯ ¡®The History of the Bonmiele Church Saints.¡± Truly captivating reading material. Neave went down the endless maze of bookshelves and sat in a dark corner. He sat on a creaky old chair and opened a book on the decaying table. A candle was sitting unlit as he squinted at the faint letters in the book. He didn¡¯t cry. His robes were bloody around his shin, and his face was swollen. He massaged his neck every few moments and sat ufortably as his stomach ached. Sometimeter, his reading was interrupted when a small, green pillnded on the book. He sighed dramatically and popped the pill in his mouth. It rapidly made his aching neck, stomach, shin, and face feel better, but not quite like new. He turned left and bowed to the even darker shadows further down the most forgotten section of the library. ¡°Greetings, sect master! Have youe to administer myshings and detain me into solitary confinement?¡± He asked, every syble dripping with overt drama and sarcasm. However, nobody walked out of the shadows. Just as Neave was about to call again, a hand grabbed his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin. ¡°Greetings, oh disciple of the Zearthorn sect.¡± Neave groaned and looked over his shoulder. His father yfully smiled at him. ¡°I need not administer any punishments, for my loyal servant Hunter had administered them for me.¡± Neave knew what his father was doing but let himself get caught in the trap anyway. ¡°And why the hell do you let him get away with doing this to me?¡± ¡°Doing what to you?¡± Neave swallowed bile and continued. ¡°Why are you letting him, no, why are you letting everyone get away with seriously injuring me with little to no reason?¡± ¡°For the same reason I am letting you remain a mortal for now. It¡¯s best that one naturally learns the consequences of their mistakes.¡± Neave ignored the ¡®for now¡¯ in his statement and looked at his father skeptically. ¡°Natural consequences? Ah, I suppose you expect me to catch up with everyone and return the favor?¡± Neave scoffed. ¡°I know you aren¡¯t here just to preach and give me a healing pill.¡± Neave smiled and continued, ¡°Unless you¡¯re here to congratte me on my birthday?¡± ¡°Ah, yes, birthdays.¡± Marven scoffed, and Neave rolled his eyes in exasperation. ¡°So, why are you here then?¡± ¡°I am here to inform you that you are bing a cultivator.¡± ¡°No, I am not.¡± ¡°Pity. I suppose you will have to get married then.¡± Neave''s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°You are aware of the sect rules, yes? Everyone who fails to meet a certain standard is considered a candidate for an arranged marriage. For the foundation realm, that age is a rtively generous age of twelve. You have just turned eleven, and the council has made a decision. You will be married off unless you make it to the foundation realm within a year..¡± Neave gaped. He thought himself quite adept at handling whatever his father could throw at him, but this caught even him by surprise. Arranged marriage? True, it was standard practice. By all means, everything his father had said was correct. But they were marrying him off? That didn¡¯t feel right. If one was such a failure that they failed to reach the foundation realm by twelve, there was no political capital in marrying them off. This was significantly more true for men than for women, too, which was doubly unusual. Neave frowned when he realized what the likely catch was. Whoever he was marrying must be hideous. Yes, that must be it. It would make sense, too, given that his stepmothers, most of whom were council members, absolutely hated his guts. However, the joke was on them, for they had slightly miscalcted in their hubris. Neave was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, no matter how messed up her teeth were. This was his chance to finally leave the sect. ¡°I am beyond shocked! I couldn¡¯t have in my wildest dreams expected that the council would grant me such an exquisite birthday present. Pray tell father, when shall I be meeting the bride?¡± Neave looked at his father with stars in his eyes, but those stars extinguished a little as his father replied with a smug grin. ¡°Bride?¡± Neave paused. ¡°...Yes?¡± His father merely looked at him quizzically. This must be some sort of misunderstanding since Neave couldn¡¯t think of anything wrong with what he said¡­ Unless. ¡°You¡¯re marrying me off to a man!?¡± ¡°Ah, indeed, have I not mentioned that small detail?¡± His father leaned in, saying every word in an increasingly exaggerated tone. ¡°Veto the decision.¡± ¡°No, I won¡¯t veto the decision.¡± ¡°So you would just sell your son like that!?¡± ¡°Strange, you seemed enthusiastic to be sold off just a few moments ago. I wonder what changed?¡± ¡°The sex of my marriage partner!?¡± ¡°Worry not about that.¡± His father waved his hand and chuckled. ¡°I own a treasure that can change one''s sex, and it works great on mortals. I think you¡¯d make quite the fine youngdy.¡± Neave was quite confident that he''d kill his father immediately if he had the strength to do so. ¡°Do you seriously expect me to cooperate with this!?¡± ¡°Well, then¡­ What are you going to do about it?¡± His father gave him an exaggeratedly viinous smile, ¡°At dawn tomorrow, we begin your training.¡± He winked at Neave, and then he vanished. Neave screamed and called for his father, but the only response he received was his own voice, echoing down the hallways of the library. ¡°He must be out of his heavens-forsaken mind if he thinks this is alright.¡± Thus Neave made a decision. He would escape the sect tonight. There wasn¡¯t all that much to pack in his room besides heavy books that would weigh him down, so he hadn''t even bothered going there. He had luckily already taken the bottle of food pills with him. Breaking into the headquarters of a sect was deadly and dangerous. The same went for breaking out of it. He didn¡¯t have to break out of the sect, however, he just had to walk out. Neave expected his father would alert the guard in case he tried leaving the sect. Unfortunately, Neave had identally gotten his hands on either poorly hidden or misced texts detailing certain sect secrets. The sect had several secret underground paths. And most of those paths were warded against entering but not against leaving. Their primary purpose was to allow for nks if the sect got attacked. Neave instead just used them to escape. He had set off during thete afternoon with the sun still high in the sky. The Zearthorn sect was located in the middle of a dangerous forest next to arge mountain. Neave knew that making it out alive and reaching a town would be challenging. However,pared to allowing his father to corner him, it was a risk he was willing to take. He knew right about everything there was to know about the woods surrounding his sect, courtesy of his extensive reading. He dove into the forest, carefully navigating his way between the trees. He hadn''t nned on sleeping in the woods and was ready to stay awake for days. So far, he got rather lucky, as he hadn¡¯t encountered any monsters. Not a big surprise, given that his sect exterminated any monsters within their radius of influence. He felt confident that he had made it out, but not even an hour of running through the woodster, he felt his consciousness slip away as he fell face-first to the ground. Chapter 2: Cursed tome Chapter 2: Cursed tome Neave woke up and felt¡­ Good, if a little sore. He felt like he¡¯d had a lovely night''s rest. His mind was still hazy fromst night, and he had absolutely no idea where he was. As he opened his eyes, he met¡­ The ground. Dirt. Pale and well-trodden with a few stones here and there. His sight was blurry, and he looked around. He didn¡¯t see anything except for a seemingly endless stretch of dirt. His vision was too blurred to see whaty beyond the sea of soil. As his eyes slowly regained focus, he noticed the sun was setting. And when his eyes fully cleared, he realized exactly where he was. He was precisely in the middle of his sect''s courtyard. And judging by the position of the mountain their sect was built around, the sun wasn¡¯t setting. It was rising. p, p, p¡­ He turned around and saw Marven standing behind him with a bright smile. ¡°How impressive. Honestly, I¡¯m shocked. To think you wouldn¡¯t even wait for the night to fall before you made your escape, bravo. Such decisiveness is worthy of praise.¡± ¡°What did you do to me?¡± ¡°Oh, well, the healing pill I gave you may or may not have also been a sleeping pill that was supposed to prevent you from getting funny ideas. As well as put you to sleep on time. If you stayed up aste as usual, there¡¯s no way you¡¯d be rested enough to train properly.¡± Neave¡¯s stomach sank. He had felt that his father catching up to him was a distinct possibility, but he hadn''t expected something like this. His father, the well-respected and wise sect master of the Zearthorn sect, looked like a devil to him. ¡°Well then, I think it is time to begin your training.¡± *** Neave was a master at not allowing himself to be forced into anything he didn¡¯t want to do. He had demonstrated this skill by braving hundreds of beatings until he was finally exempt from the daily training. Unluckily for him, his father was a master at getting people to do exactly what he wanted them to do. He first wanted Neave to start running, but Neave simply refused. Then Marven pulled out a small stone golem from one of his dimension rings. Golems were quite frightening monsters, usually. But wild golems, which were monsters, were very different from artificial ones. Neave was shocked to see his father use something as precious as an artificial golem to get him running. He frowned as he inspected it. It was rtively small and had frog-like legs and long, thin arms. After putting his hand on the gem exposed on its forehead, Marven grabbed the little golem by the neck. It suddenly jolted and looked like it was trying to free itself from his grasp. ¡°Alright, Neave, here is how it will go. This little toy here is an artificial golem. I¡¯vemanded it to chase you, and if it catches you, it will mercilessly smash your crotch into bits.¡± Neave scoffed. That was undoubtedly a bluff. And if it wasn''t a bluff by some miracle, he was sure his father would regret doing something like that to him. The moment Marven released the golem, it bolted straight toward Neave. Neave panicked but restrained himself from running, certain it was a bluff. It wasn¡¯t a bluff. The golem caught up with him and, as his father had said, mercilessly smashed his crotch into bits. Neave puked several times and almost passed out. His father let him simmer in pain a bit and then handed him a potent healing pill. It fixed him up in seconds, a testament to its power. Neave could swear on the heavens that he felt his little friend was leaning a bit more to the right than it had been before. ¡°Alright then, you have about five seconds, and then we begin with round two.¡± Neave wasn''t calling his bluff a second time. *** Neave had tried to defy his father the same way he had all the times before. But no matter how he resisted, Marven had the tools to force Neave¡¯s hand. After he forced him to run to near-death levels of exhaustion, Marven just handed Neave yet another undoubtedly costly healing pill and a small food pill to keep him going. The food pill was much less bitter than the ones handed out to disciples. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve finished running, it is time to do some pull-ups!¡± Neave whimpered a bit. Marven pulled an object out of his dimension ring. He kept some sort of metal bar in the air with qi maniption. Then he told Neave to grab it. Neave refused, but when gripping the bar and holding onto it for dear life became the only escape from the crotch-smasher, Neave obeyed. Once Neave held onto the bar, Marven lifted the bar further up into the air. ¡°Alright, now, we¡¯re starting with the second exercise. The metal bar will keep getting hotter and hotter, and the only way to cool it down is if you do a pull-up.¡± There was no way this bar was anything but a regr metal bar that Marven kept afloat with his admittedly impressive qi maniption. However, there was no bluff to call this time. The metal was already burning his palms. *** After he had to do push-ups and squats under simr threats, Neave was just about ready to die. Breathing raggedly and sitting on the floor, Neave swallowed his fifth healing pill and looked up at his father. ¡°Can we please just stop for today?¡± Marven pretended to be considering his question. Either way, they were done for today because Neave would probably die if he swallowed another healing pill, even with their superior quality. ¡°I suppose we could.¡± Neave heaved a sigh of relief. He looked around and noticed several disciples were watching them train, keeping a respectful distance from the spectacle. Bullying Neave was one thing. Interrupting the sect master was another. Their obvious jealousy at Neave¡¯s special treatment was a sure sign that Neave¡¯s beatings would get worse. Neave tried to adopt as serious an expression as he could manage. He threw one arm over his knee, folded his other leg under it, and looked up at his father. His father''s amusement, however, just made him feel like a pathetic child. ¡°I want to discuss something with you, father.¡± ¡°Indeed? And what may that be?¡± ¡°Make me the head librarian. At least for the first floor.¡± Marven''s eyebrows shot up, and he asked Neave in genuine surprise. ¡°Exactly why would you want me to do that?¡± ¡°How much do you know about the books on the first floor?¡± ¡°I know their general contents. The books ced into the library first go through my hands.¡± ¡°Well, have you read all the books?¡± Marven replied as if it were obvious. ¡°No. Why would I read through all of the books? I may make it look easy, but being a sect master is rather time-consuming.¡± ¡°Too consuming to properly check the books?¡± ¡°I already told you I do inspect them.¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t.¡± Marven¡¯s eyebrow twitched. ¡°And exactly why do you think that?¡± ¡°Well, for starters, I¡¯ve read every book in the library.¡± Marven looked at Neave with tant disbelief. ¡°I know you do a lot of reading, but eleven thousand unique books are in the library. There is no way you could have read through all of them.¡± ¡°There are fourteen thousand seven hundred and five unique books in the library. And I have indeed read all of them. Some several times. What I¡¯ve found makes me believe you are lying about checking the books.¡± Neave grinned ear to ear at the incredulous look on his father''s face. ¡°Do you have any evidence for that im?¡± Neave just frowned and replied sarcastically. ¡°Of course, let me just list the name of every single book and a synopsis. You want the names in alphabetical order?¡± ¡°Alright, I suppose that would be sufficient.¡± Neave¡¯s mood instantly fell. ¡°Are you serious?¡± Marven nodded with a grin. ¡°Alright then.¡± Neave proceeded to list the name of every book and briefly describe the contents. After around an hour of talking, he hadn¡¯t even left the books that started with the letter ¡®A.¡¯ So his father just quizzed him about some of the books he had personally read. At some points, Marven challenged Neave¡¯s answers, saying they were wrong, but Neave confidently doubled down and even offered to visit the library to confirm the uracy of his statements. Marven already knew Neave was correct and was just testing him, but the sheer uracy of Neave¡¯s knowledge was unbelievable. ¡°I think that is proof enough. I believe you, but I wasn¡¯t lying about every book passing through my hands first. Now I¡¯m starting to believe some elders may have skipped that step. Now tell me. Why do you wish to be the head librarian?¡± ¡°Oh, that is simple. The library is horrendous.¡± Marven would usually scoff at such a im, but if there was anyone qualified to make such a statement, it was someone who had read through the entire library. ¡°borate.¡± ¡°What¡¯s there to borate? It just sucks. Far too many books aren¡¯t worth the paper they¡¯re written on, and that¡¯s a minor issue. Books that are just incorrect are littering the shelves. Either due to the author being a quack or due to bona fide propaganda. Not just that, but I¡¯ve located over twenty cultivation manuals!¡± Marven frowned hard at hearing that. It wasn''t the end of the world if someone found a cultivation manual on the first floor, but it was a big problem if they got lost there. Very few people visited the library''s first floor in the first ce, and the second floor was designed to make finding cultivation manuals easier. ¡°Alright. I will consider making you the head librarian of the library''s first floor.¡± ¡°No.¡± Marven was about to speak, but he stopped himself. Neave got up to his feet and looked his father in the eyes, ready to y the final card he had up his sleeve. ¡°Knowledge is power. Even cultivators know that much. But you are all too obsessed with the sacred and do not pay enough attention to the mundane. There would be enough knowledge, even in our pathetic little library, to make us a truly powerful sect if we fully use it. And I can be useful. What I¡¯m offering to you, father, is a deal. I¡­¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Listen to me..¡± ¡°Neave, I said no. I already know where you¡¯re going with this.¡± ¡°Please¡­¡± ¡°When will you stop being so stubborn?¡± ¡°Fa¡­¡± ¡°No, Neave, this time I need you to properly listen to me.¡± ¡°Bu-¡± ¡°Silence!¡± Marven seldom shouted. Every disciple sparring or training on the grounds froze upon hearing his voice. ¡°You do not know what the life of a mortal is like, child.¡± Neave was about to speak up, but the threat behind his father''s re made him shut up. ¡°A hundred years at most if you¡¯re lucky, and it¡¯s hard to say you¡¯re really ¡®lucky¡¯ if you live that long. Your body deteriorates. You slowly rot in your skin until you¡¯re nothing but a miserable bag of withered flesh and thin bones, waiting for the right rock to trip and finish you off. Or even better, for a random organ to just suddenly stop working. It¡¯s often the brain you are so fond of that fails you. Is this truly the life you desire?¡± ¡°There are countless miraculous things one can achieve even with mundane methods.¡± ¡°So what, you will chase some miraculous ¡®mundane¡¯ immortality potion to the ends of this realm? Will you squander your life looking for a cure when one is dangling above your head!? Why not simply be a cultivator?¡± ¡°Then tell me, father, what is the life of a cultivator like?¡± Marven straightened his back and projected every bit of dignity a cultivator of his rank had. ¡°It is anything you have the power to make it be.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s anything you are willing to be violent enough to obtain!¡± ¡°Martial arts are not violence.¡± ¡°My fucking ass! No matter how pretty you make it look, chopping someone¡¯s head off with a sword is violence!¡± ¡°We, Neave, do not swing our swords to take lives away. The Zearthorn sect is a righteous one. We swing our swords to protect others.¡± ¡°The same way my mother did, right?¡± p¡­ ¡­ ¡°...Tell me, father. Which form and strike of the Zearthorn sect¡¯s mighty swordsmanship did this move originate from?¡± Neave stared his father down as blood trickled from his lip down his jawline. He got up and walked past his father, intentionally bumping into him, stumbling, and almost falling to the ground. Marven furiously looked at Neave as he walked away. For about twenty or so seconds. Then he dropped the fake outrage. It was hard not to cackle maniacally. Oh, Neave¡­ He looked down to his sash where his bundle of keys hung before Neave snatched it away. Marven was impressed at how smoothly Neave pulled that off, but he must be drained from the training if he thought Marven wouldn''t notice. Oh well. It was time for Neave to stomp to the library, probably to the fourth floor, and then attempt to enter. Maybe he would burn it down in his anger? Or just steal one of the precious books? Marven chuckled. Sadly for Neave, the bundle of keys was practically useless if it was in the hands of anyone other than himself. No locks would turn without his qi signature. There were a few mundane keys on that bundle too, but the locations of the locksthemselves were closely guarded secrets. As he watched Neave tiredly stomp away, he saw her shadow in his. Neave was every bit as stubborn and strong-willed as Brivia was. He put the shadows of the past behind him as he turned to the sun. He would let his kid y with the key bundle for an hour and then track him down, beat his ass, and double his training tomorrow. Well, then, he might as well get some work done in the meantime¡­ *** Neave marched furiously into the library building and walked into the first floor. His father was an idiot. Not just an idiot, but an arrogant idiot at that. Neave felt it was a long shot, but he hoped his father would let him take the keys. After all, what could Neave possibly do with his keys? There was no way a sect master would use just any old keys to protect their secrets. However, his father wasn¡¯t just an arrogant idiot. He was also a forgetful idiot. Neave had both told him and proven that he had read every book in the library. His father had pushed him too far this time, and Neave wasn¡¯t nning to let this go. He strolled down some of the more forgotten isles of the library until he reached a peculiar shelf. This shelf held the tax reports for the empire. These tax reports, however, were fake. He read through them, and the numbers didn¡¯t add up. Neave pulled one of the books off and heard a click. Then he opened the secret door hiding behind the shelf. And then he entered¡­ The room that held the actual tax reports. And a whole lot of incriminating evidence for tax evasion. Neave would dly ckmail his father, but even he knew that nobody would believe an eleven-year-old that they¡¯ve uncovered evidence of tax evasion. So he strolled towards one of the shelves, pulled another book off, and discovered a small hatch with a keyhole behind it. This was the real secret of this room. And Neave thought that one of the keys looked like it fit perfectly. He was right. Neave had no idea what hid behind this door. Maybe this would help him deal with his father, and perhaps it wouldn¡¯t. Regardless, Neave knew one thing. This was hisst hope of defying his father''s wishes. He grabbed the key, slid it into the lock, and turned it. Click¡­ Creak¡­ Therge shelf-door groaned as Neave pulled it open, and he walked into the secret chamber. And there he found¡­ Darkness. A very dark corridor that stretched deep into the mountain. Neave swallowed and took a few steps forward. Nothing. So it wasn¡¯t warded. Neave felt confident he wouldn''t find any wards in the hallway. If you wanted to protect something, you used qi locks to lock it away and qi formations to ward it. However, if you wanted to hide something, it was best not to use qi at all. Qi could be sensed even behind obstacles, but few, even among the greatest experts, could see through mundane walls. He gathered whatever bravery, bravado, and anger at his father he could and marched forward. A couple of minutester, he encountered a turn in the hallway. A turn that led into a room. Neave froze. The room was small. It was almost entirely dark, save for a single light source in the middle¡ªa book. A dark crimson book hung in the middle of the room, restrained by chains of tinum and gold. The chains were inscribed with runes that gave Neave a headache just looking at them and the book itself¡­ It was so beautiful. Neave had never seen anything as beautiful as this book in his life. He¡¯d give his life to read this book. He would sell his very soul. If only he could¡­ ¡­And then it was toote. Neave had failed to notice that he was walking closer to the book, and now he held it. ¡°Shit!¡± This was no ordinary object. It had some supernatural allure that drove Neave to get close to it. However, by the time he regained hisposure, he had already touched it. And now, after he let it go, he noticed the thin stream of red smoke flowing from the book into his hand. ¡°Fuck, shit, fuck, get it off!¡± He shook his hand madly, but it was useless. The book slowly evaporated, and the red smoke all flowed into his body. The chains holding the book ttered to the ground, leaving him in the darkness. His heart pounded in his chest, and his body dripped with sweat. The rest of what happened was a blur. He ran out of the dark corridor, sprinted past the door, and left the bundle of keys behind. Neave hadn¡¯t even closed the secret chamber behind him as he bolted out of the library. The flow of blood was like a raging river rushing through his ears. The sect disciples were in the middle of making their way toward the courtyard for the daily training. Neave bumped into several of them. Most ignored him and swore to hunt him downter for a beating. Few among the disciples were willing to bete for the daily training. But some were. Several of the disciples Neave had bumped into turned back and chased him through the crowds. The adrenaline rushing through his body and his slight frame let him quickly make his way through while the disciples chasing him had to dodge around and gradually move forward. After all, if they bumped into a senior cultivator, they¡¯d likely receive a sound thrashing themselves. Once Neave entered an empty stretch in the hallway, he ran, turning several times and taking the path that was closest to his room. The disciples after him made a few wrong turns and had to backtrack, but eventually, all that separated them from Neave was a clear stretch through a hallway. Neave barely reached his room before the gang of angry disciples caught up with him. He wrapped himself in his nkets and shivered. His peers pounded on his doors. They yelled at Neave to open them. Neave couldn¡¯t hear anything except the roaring of his heartbeat and hyperventting breath. Eventually, the disciples left. It took Neave hours to calm down. Nothing happened¡­ That means it¡¯s okay... Right? He desperately wished, but he cursed the rational part of him that knew. The library was rich in stories about artifacts like these, and there was no way he had made anything short of a terrible mistake. But he suppressed these thoughts. He let himself be lost in delusions and excuses. It will be okay¡­ This will be fine¡­ ¡­ Nobody will find out. Neave cursed himself for that thought as momentster, he heard it. The gongs echoed through the mountains. The sect had sounded the rm for the emergency gathering of all sect disciples. Neave wanted to stay here. He was desperately pleading with himself not to leave his room. But he couldn¡¯t remain. Unless you had a damn good reason for it, refusing to answer the emergency gathering rm was treated the same as treason. So he got up, left his room, and walked to the sect courtyard. With every step, Neave felt like his legs would stop working. Eventually, however, he had reached the meeting, one of thest few to arrive. Many disciples red at him, but he didn¡¯t even notice them. The elders impatiently waited for everyone to gather. Neave stepped up into line and made eye contact with his father. His father looked at him, eyes wide open as he mouthed the words. Son, what have you done? ¡°Attention, disciples, seniors, and elders of the Zearthorn sect! A great crisis had befallen us!¡± One of the elders stepped in front and started yelling in a desperate, pleading tone. ¡°An important treasure had been stolen, or perhaps even worse, released. This treasure was one of our sect''s greatest secrets, but it is an artifact of such danger and significance that I must disclose its contents! If you see anyone carrying or hiding a dark crimson tome, immediately report this to any elder you find! If you have stolen this book, do not be a fool and return it at once! It is no great cultivation manual! It is a cursed tome that brings nothing but death! Anyone who as much as touches the tome directly¡­¡± ¡°... Has mere hours left to live!¡± Neave wanted to scream. He tried, but his voice was gone. And the world, too, was fading away as his body fell to the ground. Chapter 3: Hell Chapter 3: Hell There was a way to tell how much time had passed when one fell asleep. Not down to an hour, but it was possible to feel it. The mind might just be extrapting how much time passed based on how high the sun was or the individual¡¯s sleeping habits. When Neave opened his eyes, he felt like an eternity had passed since he died. It wasn¡¯t like falling asleep. It didn¡¯t resemble passing out. There was an element of oblivion that severed his existence. Now he had arrived at a ce he could only describe in a single word. Hell. When he finally opened his eyes, he was standing upright. He felt rtively well rested. There was no fatigue, no muscr pain, no hunger, and no thirst. He still felt the vague aches his body had suffered from all the beatings, but it was nothing unusual. Neave, however, noticed none of this. The only thing he felt was panic. And despair. Gray, smoggy clouds clouded the sky with a red, backlit by an ominous red glow. The ground was rusty red, with pools of noxious liquids scattered here and there. In the distance, there were impossibly tall, jagged mountains. There was no growth, only obsidian bushes with sharp, twisted branches¡ªthe air stank of sulfur, blood, and smoke. And rot. Slowly shambling toward him was a creature. A vaguely humanoid creature with gray, rough skin, no eyes, and arge, toothy mouth. Neave had read many books covering mythological subjects, and only one creature that fit the description. A demon. Neave ran. He sprinted as fast as he could away from the thing chasing him. As he dashed, he dodged pools of blood, rifts in the ground, abysses with jagged spikes protruding the walls with green, glowing gasses filling their depths. He looked back constantly. He was putting the demon further behind him. Neave neither relented nor slowed down. Instead, he constantly darted his eyes over the environment, looking for whatever other monstrosities might show up. But there was nothing. The adrenaline wore off at a certain point, and he copsed onto the putrid, dusty soil on a small hill. He gasped for breath, choked on the toxic dust, and took a second to calm down. The demon was far out of sight at this point. There seemed to be nothing else chasing him. For now. The sense of despair deepened as he looked around the hellscape. No matter what direction, all he saw were the endless, rolling hills jagged with spiky stone and obsidian growth. The only notablendmarks made the feelings of misery worse. Mountains so tall they disappeared into the smoky atmosphere. Pools andkes of blood, pus, acid, and ck ooze. Massive rifts into shimmering, glowing abysses filled with spikes, gas, or pure darkness. He was thirsty. Neave felt parched from the dry air. There was no water anywhere in sight. His desperation drove him to lick the sweat off his arms. He searched around his robes and didn¡¯t find the food pills either. Had he dropped them? Neave had no idea where to begin. What to do from here? Where to go? He sat there frozen, desperately searching for a n; for any shred of hope he couldtch on to. This ce had no sense of time. Nothing but thirst and exhaustion could even begin to clue Neave in about how long he had been here. Just as he thought he couldn¡¯t get any more desperate, he noticed a small ck dot moving toward him. The creature was catching up. Neave wanted to cry, but no water could wet his eyes. They hurt as he whimpered and got up. He ran in the other direction. Neave stumbled into pools of blood and tripped over the sharp shrubbery, cutting his legs. He bled precious drops and felt them dripping down, mixing with the putrid blood. Several times, he just barely avoided dropping into pits of certain death. He couldn''t tell if he''d been running for hours or days. And the thirst was driving him insane. He felt his body stiffening. His eyes were so dehydrated his vision blurred. It was bing impossible to breathe. The desperation finally got the better of him, and he took a small sip from a pool of blood. It tasted of despair, rot, and death. He got up and walked. His footsteps slowed. He dragged himself forward, losing all feeling, first in his arms, then his legs, and finally, his stomach. Neave gagged. He raised his shaky hand and touched the near-ck blood dripping from his mouth. Was it his blood? Or the blood he drank? Or was it both? It doesn¡¯t matter anyway. He thought as he fell over face-first to the ground. Dead. When he finally opened his eyes, he was standing upright. He felt rtively well rested. There was no fatigue, no muscr pain, no hunger, and no thirst. He still felt the vague aches his body had suffered from all the beatings, but it was nothing unusual. Neave, however, noticed none of this. The only thing he felt was panic. After all, he was back in the beginning. The demon slowly stumbled towards him. Tears ran down his face. He was rehydrated. He was in one piece. And had to go through all of that again. Neave ran. He ran like mad, clumsily fumbling over a rock and dropping into a pit. A jagged spike ran through his head, killing him instantly.. And then he woke up. He was standing in the same ce again. He felt madness creep into his mind, threatening to tear his soul into pieces. And then, yet again, he started running. He ran and ran as far as he could until he slipped off a rock and broke his neck. He didn¡¯t die instantly but sat there, crumpled and broken, as his life slowly drained from his eyes. And then woke up again. Ran. Fell into a pool of acid. Died. And then woke up again. Ran. Then he died from thirst. And then woke up again. Ran. Fell into a pit of poisonous gas. Died. And then woke up again. Ran. The skies broke, and it started raining ck ooze. It solidified on his skin, and he suffocated, unable to move or breathe. He died. Drowned in a river of blood. Impaled on obsidian thorns. Melted by acid rain. Time and time again, he woke up at the same start, ran in a random direction, and found nothing but new ways to die. But he went back every time. And ran. He explored every bit ofnd he could reach before dying. After some time, he no longer fell into pits. He no longer tripped or stumbled into spiky bushes of death. He realized that when he died, the same events happened in the same order, so he knew where it would rain blood, acid, tar, or pus and avoided those ces. But he could not outrun exhaustion or thirst. He looked into his robes. The bottle of food pills wasn¡¯t there even at the start. His desperation wed at him. He felt his misery deepening endlessly as the agony threatened to tear him apart. He ran at the demon and swung at it in his desperation. His tantrum punches were like soft taps on the demon¡¯s tough flesh. It pulled its arm back and wed his chest out. Neave died from the injury, but in his stubbornness, he ran at the demon again. It grabbed his head. ¡°No¡­ Please¡­¡± Its ws sank into Neave¡¯s skull, and the demon violently pulled his head off. Neave looked at the demon again, shaking and stepping back in terror. He vividly remembered the feeling of his spine being pulled out of his back, and he screamed. He sprinted away again, finding the same deaths lurking behind every corner. The demon was an ever-present threat stalking him in the distance, but it could only move so quickly. Eventually, he ran slower, so he could make it further before the exhaustion and thirst caught up. Then he walked instead, slowly, in every direction. He had even more time like this and was still faster than the demon. So he walked, now reaching further and discovering more. Eventually, the discoveries dried up. The same deaths repeated enough times to be¡­ Dull. The never-ending torrent of suffering eventually subsided. The constant feeling of terror and dread got weaker and weaker as Neave habituated. So he slowed down. He slowed down until he was walking barely faster than the demon. Then he slowed down until the demon was walking faster than he was. The demon shed at his back with sharp ws, tearing Neave¡¯s back open. Neave yelped. The demon tore him apart, and he perished. He appeared before the demon again, taking a few steps back purely out of habit. The demon grabbed his neck and bit his head off. Once he appeared before the demon again, he stood and shivered as thest vestiges of his motivation escaped him. The demon thrust its ws into his heart. When he finally opened his eyes again, he was standing upright. He felt rtively well rested. There was no fatigue, no muscr pain, no hunger, and no thirst. He still felt the vague aches his body had suffered from all the beatings, but it was nothing unusual. Neave, however, noticed none of this. Not the demon walking towards him either. Not his impending doom. The doomsday pendulum of perpetual motionpleted another swing, and the reaper smiled, runningps around him. Neave just stood there. He stood as the demon tore him apart. But he felt not the ws sinking into his flesh, not the teeth biting into his skin. When he finally opened his eyes¡­ He no longer felt anything at all. *** Neave had noticed he was in some sort of trance. His thoughts were few and far between, but he still thought sometimes. He wondered how long he had been here. He wondered how his father, his siblings, and everyone was doing. He at least hoped Hunter had died. Torn apart by some monster or failed a spirit trial. Deep within him, his darkest thoughts wanted nothing but suffering for those who tormented him. And soon enough, even those thoughts faded away¡­ He didn¡¯t know how long it had been. He couldn¡¯t. You could tell when a day had passed because the sun had risen and set. There was no sun here. Or a moon. Or time. The same thing happened over and over and over and over, looping endlessly in circles. Had it been months since he had arrived here? Years? Decades? He couldn¡¯t confidently say anything. Neave wasn¡¯t moving, but the demon still walked differently each time. Just a tiny little bit. It was unusual and not very useful information. Did this mean it wasn¡¯t time that reset, but rather the entire world and himself were just returned to the same position? Maybe time didn¡¯t work how the schrs thought it did. Perhaps things would still turn out differently if someone could go back in time, even if they didn¡¯t change anything. Was it chance? Maybe it was the interference of chaos. Who knew? Who cared? Neave honestly felt this wasn¡¯t particrly torturous. Not anymore at least. He was so used to pain and difort of every single type that this felt tame. It was ironic that now when he cared the least, he enjoyed his time here the most. Nihilism was an absurd philosophy, so thought Neave of before. But now? The demon would stumble toward him clumsily, taking about a minute or so to arrive, and then kill him in a few short seconds at most. Sometimes instantly with a well-ced strike. That meant that most of his time here, he didn¡¯t feel hungry, thirsty, tired, or injured. He didn¡¯t feel anything. The smell no longer bothered him either. If he put it into a ratio, his experience here would equal mostlyfortable plus a minor bit of pain every few minutes. It was so ironic. This ratio was almost better than his life before this nightmarish loop. After he spent an ultimately unknowable amount of time standing idly, pondering, and just staring straight ahead, a stray idea crossed his mind. One that he had a few times before but was far too scared to try and put into practice. What if he tried killing the demon? He had suppressed this thought every time it passed his mind. He still vividly remembered how he felt when the demon pulled his head off the first time. But he couldn¡¯t bring himself to feel that same terror again. The demon had killed him so many times in so many different ways that even that was just another death. Just another grain of sand in the endless desert of demise. As the demon approached him for the umpteenth time, Neave tried moving. And failed. It was like he had forgotten what mentalmands were supposed to move which muscle, so all he could do was awkwardly stiffen up before the demon killed him. Restart. Neave kept trying to move again, but it felt awkward. Strange. He¡¯d try to move his left hand but he¡¯d turn his head right. He would try to move his legs forward but leaned backward. Restart. However, he slowly figured it out, and the demon approached him for the third time. He dodged. And then he got struck again immediately afterward. Restart. By now, he had already slowly figured out how to walk, kind of. It was even clumsier than the demon¡¯s fumbling, but he improved as he got into practice. Rather than run at the demon, he went for a stroll, reminiscing about his early days of running around the hellscape. It was strange, looking at it now. He still remembered the endless terror he experienced, repeatedly dying through thisndscape. Now he just felt curiosity and fascination. This ce was kind of neat to both his inner and his outer child. It seemed like the home of some demonic emperor or great monstrosity. Perhaps the realm of an evil god or a devil? Who knew? He may even eventually find out. For now, he felt he¡¯d done a good enough job relearning how to move and contemted returning to the demon. He realized he was already somewhat tired, and looking for the demon was a pain so¡­ He just jumped into a pit. Restart. Facing off against the demon now, he pondered his options. He first walked up to the demon and tried to throw a punch. Restart. Well, that was pointless. Neave not only sucked at fighting, but he was also incredibly weak. Not even just weak, but his body was light, which meant his barehanded fighting had almost no momentum behind it. The demon was no pushover either. Its walk may seem clumsy, but it was perfectly capable of tearing him to pieces. So Neave looked for a weapon instead. He picked up a rock and threw it at the demon¡¯s head. The demon paused for a fraction of a second, clearly affected by the blow. That was a good sign. Neave just walked backward, carefully so he wouldn¡¯t step into anything unpleasant, and threw rocks at the demon. Quite the cowardly fight this was, but Neave honestly enjoyed himself. It felt like payback for all the torment he¡¯d suffered at the demon''s hands. He almost wondered why he hadn¡¯t done this before. The rational part of him knew why. He was a damn kid. Naturally, he would be terrified of a ce like this. It was easy to be brave now after he¡¯d gotten used to everything. But the proud part of Neave still felt like he was a coward back then. After pelting the poor demon with rocks for a while, Neave was tired of it. The demon looked¡­ Bruised? It was hard to say; its entire body already had a grayish bruised hue, but he could swear that the demon''s skin was looking darker now. However, one thing was quite evident. The demon was tough. Exceptionally so. Neave intentionally picked jagged, sharp rocks, but it looked like nothing he had thrown so far had pierced the demon''s skin. Neave himself, however, was in a terrible state. His soft, weak hands were chaffed, and his arms were sore. Even though he¡¯d thrown countless rocks at the demon, the only thing he¡¯d achieved by the end was slow the demon down a little. Eventually, his shoulder locked up. By then, he was already too tired and thirsty to keep fighting, so he let the demon finish him off. Restart. This time he took a different approach. He grabbed a bigger rock and threw it at one of the obsidian bushes. The crash sounded like a pile of ss getting thrown off a hill. Its branches were jagged and sharp, so after shattering the bush into pieces, he carefully picked out one of therger branches with a spiky end and tried using it as a weapon against the demon. His earlier assessment that the demon was tough got a massive confirmation. The sharp edge of the obsidian branch was no joke, but it still barely pierced the demon''s skin. It hadn''t even drawn blood, assuming it had any. This was still progress, however, even though the demon knocked Neave¡¯s weapon away with rtive ease and tore his throat out. Restart. He was repeating the same strategy this time, but he tried cutting where he assumed the demon''s weak points might be. His first target was the jugr vein. To Neave¡¯s great surprise, this time the demon dodged his strike. Dodge might be too strong a word, maybe just ¡®leaned to the side¡¯ of his strike would be more urate. That was still massive progress in Neave¡¯s book. Neave¡¯s surprise however proved to be an unwee distraction. Restart. This time Neave was relentless. He kept pacing backward, punishing the demon. Neave used its defensive reflex against itself, capitalizing on its tendency to move away to get a clear shot at its torso. The demon leaned too far back, and Neave put his whole body into striking its stomach. The tip of the branch pierced its skin, causing a bit of red blood to flow out. Huh, so it bled red¡­ For some reason, Neave hadn''t expected that, nor had he foreseen the demon''s violent reflex to its injury. It grabbed his arm, pulled him towards itself, and sank its ws into his face. Restart. Neave kept repeating the same strategy and felt like he was progressing. Not enough, however. At a certain point, he felt himself stagnating. The demon was just that much stronger than he was. It was faster, tougher, and heavier. Its ws were a much more reliable weapon than Neave¡¯s obsidian branch, which kept breaking or cutting his own hands. Neave was no warrior and he had no idea how to use a weapon. Through improvisation, trial, and error, he could perhaps eventually develop some sort of martial art, but he was quickly losing hope that it would matter. The biggest problem was hisck of physical weight and the poor quality of his weapons. Not to mention the fact that every time Neave died, he went back in time. That meant there was no progress of any kind regarding his physical strength. While he could injure the demon, no matter how many shallow cuts hended, his opponent simply refused to die. He had even finally managed tond a strike on what looked like a major artery. The demon bled profusely for a couple of seconds, but the bleeding slowed. It seemed like he¡¯d have tond a much better strike several times to kill the demon. Maybe that would be usible with a better weapon, but the fucking shitty branches kept breaking. So he instead dropped the stick and decided to try a different strategy. He ran from the demon until he reached a steep incline. Then he climbed until he reached a foothold, grabbed thergest rock he could pick up, and threw it down on the demon''s head. The resounding thunk made Neave feel like the demon''s skull must have cracked open, and the demon copsed onto the ground. However, it quickly got up to its feet. This stubborn¡­ Before it had the time to get up, Neave was already grabbing another stone and throwing it. The demon blocked the rock with its arm. Neave paused in shock and grabbed another one. The demon had already gotten up by now and was already walking forward. Neave threw the stone down at the demon, but it smacked it aside with its arm. At this moment, Neave realized he was stuck halfway up a steep incline, and his only two options were to jump off and break his legs or get killed by the demon. He looked for another rock to throw at the demon but found none. His rock-resistant nemesis was already climbing up the hill. Oh well¡­ Restart. Neave decided to change his strategy again. He led the demon toward a somewhat deep pool of blood. Then he approached it and tried pushing it in. Restart. That was a stupid idea. This time, rather than pushing the demon into the pool of blood, he grabbed a branch and used it to push its head. The demon was too heavy for a small child to topple, so Neave tried to get it out of bnce by striking its jugr vein, which usually got it to lean backward. Restart. And also retaliate by caving Neave¡¯s skull in. Brilliant. Now this time, Neave picked up a rtively heavy rock, baited the demon over to a pool, and threw therge stone at its head. To Neave¡¯s tremendous surprise, this managed to topple the demon backward, and it fell into the pool of blood. And then it just swam out. ¡°Okay, what the hell! I¡¯m certain the blood is poisonous! Your big stupid gaping mouth must have gurgled half a basin of it in there! Don¡¯t you dare try getting back out¡± Neave angrily stomped over to the demon and kicked its face to get it back into the pool. The demon opened its gaping maw, bit Neave¡¯s leg, and dragged him into the pool. Restart. ¡°That¡¯s how you want to y, huh?¡± This time, rather than pushing the demon into a pool of blood, he instead tried to get the demon to step close to the ledge of a pit. However, the demon simply refused to get baited into doing that. ¡°Okay, what the fucking shit now? Are you afraid of heights or something, you pussy? Huh? The big tough demon can¡¯t handle a little hole?¡± Neave was furious. He walked over to the demon, jumped, and pped it on its bald head. Restart. Now this time, he¡¯d get the demon. He would push the demon into a tar pit rather than a blood pool. He got the demon into position, threw a rock at its head, and it fell into the pool. ¡°Ha¡­ Hahaha. HAHAHAHA. Serves you right! You fucking bitch. Eat my shit.¡± He then pulled his robes back and swung his backside at the demon with a flourish. It rolled around in the pit of ck liquid, clearly struggling to move but still alive. And to Neave¡¯s great distress, it started crawling back out onto the surface. ¡°No, no, no, no, back. BACK!¡± Neave pushed the demon into the pit with his entire body. However, the ck ooze hardened, and he got stuck to the demon. The demon slowly moved its hand to Neave¡¯s neck and strangled him. Restart. Neave repeated the same thing. However, this time, instead of pushing the demon back, he let it walk back out. He forgot that the ooze hardened when exposed to air, so the demon would just get trapped and suffocate. Which was exactly what happened. Well, the trapped part did, at least for a while. The demon got encased in the now solid ck substance, but it shuffled in its ck shell until it crumbled away and started walking over to Neave again. Neave jumped into the pool of tar. Restart. This time, rather than let the demon leave, Neave had decided he would pile stones up onto the demon to keep it from leaving the pool. He did that, but the demon just refused to die. It didn''t need any air, so all he achieved was trapping it. As the demon wiggled around for a long time in the ck pool, Neave realized he would die from thirst again before the demon drowned. Sigh¡­ He wasn¡¯t out of ideas, however. This time, he had replicated the same thing with a pool of acid. After the demon casually swam back out it looked¡­ Shiny. Brand new, even. Neave realized that the demon was dirty. And the pool of acid was little more than a lovely bath. Its dirty, discolored gray was now reced with a much prettier metallic color. Neave jumped, this time into the pool of acid. Restart. Not one of the things he had tried so far had worked. Was this demon immortal? He had to wonder. He could have also tried throwing it into the pool of pus, but he didn¡¯t hold very high hopes for that. It would be pretty funny, though. Spite moved Neave¡¯s heart, and he thought back to the closest pool of pus. They were significantly rarer than all the other liquids. There was one rtively nearby after crossing that suspension bridge. It was a bit of a jog but... ¡­ Wait a minute. The suspension bridge! How had he forgotten about that!? He just had to cut the ropes if he could get the demon to walk onto the suspension bridge! The suspension bridge hung over a long ravine that stretched into the horizon in both directions. Neave peeked down into the canyon, failing to see the bottom of it. Quite a few jagged spikes were protruding from the walls. If his n worked, the demon would be sliced apart and torn to bits. Neave moved over to the other side of the bridge and waited with trepidation. It approached. And took a step onto the bridge. Then another. And then another. And Neave then, with one of the obsidian branches, cut the ropes. The demon plummeted into the abyss below. Neave saw it fly into a jagged spike as it tore its side out. The demon fell a bit further down, what remained of its body impaled on a sharp protrusion. It didn¡¯t move. Neave shook in joy. He finally¡­ Step¡­ Step¡­ Neave turned around. There were two demons, just like the first one, walking toward him. Restart. Chapter 4: Eternity Chapter 4: Eternity Neave felt no despair. No, he just felt¡­ Jaded. Tired. And disappointed. He had tried countless methods to kill the next two demons. He even managed to prepare an borate trap for the first demon. He threw several rocks, one after another, at its head until it finally stumbled far enough to drop into the ravine. Then he wanted to cut the rope to kill the two demons that appeared afterward. They refused to step onto the bridge simultaneously, no matter how he tried. Perhaps it would be possible to prepare an borate trap for one if the other was killed by the drop into the ravine. But no matter how he tried, he was either stuck with one demon across the canyon that could no longer be crossed or both demons right next to him. These two were also clearly a little faster and stronger than the first demon. They also seemed a lot more cautious. It was much more challenging trying to trick them into doing anything. He couldn¡¯t even bait them into getting thrown into one of the pools. During one of his attempts, he had managed to kill both demons entirely by ident. The suspension bridge dropped, and one of the ropes caught the demon''s foot on the other side. Neave almost shouted in joy. His voice was caught in his throat as three demons appeared behind him. One of them sprinted at him and killed him almost instantly. If killing the two demons was possible, then killing those three wasn¡¯t. A small voice in his head had asked why he was doing this and another, even smaller voice responded. Because of boredom, of course! But this was a lie. The reality was that Neave, deep down, had hoped that killing the demons was the point of being here. That this was all an illusion and that killing them would make him finally wake up. He would see his father''s dumb grin, get beat up by Hunter and the other disciples, and look for a way to avoid marrying a man. His story would unfold. There would be ups and downs, some things would work out, and others would not. But he would live his life nheless. Currently, he didn¡¯t feel as if he were alive. This ce was the antithesis of life, yet failed to be death nheless. Even if Neave considered himself to be extremely cynical, there was no way he believed this was actually the afterlife. It was a world created by the book. Neave found himself back at the start once again. He went over to the suspension bridge and cut the ropes before the demon could reach him. Then he walked just beyond a hill so he wouldn¡¯t have to look at that wretched thing. He stared out into the horizon. Neave had explored even beyond what he could see from where he was sitting. But there was nothing to be found. This was a lonely world where the demon was his onlypany. Neave didn¡¯t have any friends in the sect, but there were a few among the older disciples that treated him with a semnce of kindness. He would give anything to see one of them again. The skies crackled with the asional bit of lightning. Soon, the ce where Neave sat would start raining blood. Neave contemted the nature of this realm. He concluded there was sufficient evidence to support one of his theories. This ce was some form of trial. A trial for cultivators. He remembered the elder saying that those who touched this book died. It made perfect sense. That meant that those who failed lost their life. Neave considered himself to be a schr. And true schrs, besides the vast knowledge they had gathered, also held their own theories. Neave believed that nothing couldst forever. Infinity wasn¡¯t a viable concept. Eventually, this ce would release its grip on him and he would be free. So he would wait. He didn¡¯t know what would happen, but he steeled his resolve. At least that¡¯s what he wanted to believe. It was more like his resolve had been thoroughly eliminated. The resolve to try. The resolve to move. The resolve to think. So he didn¡¯t. He tried not, he moved not, he thought not, and soon his soul drifted back into that same trance he had found himself in once before¡­ *** This time around, stray thoughts came even more rarely. His mind felt like a fire that had thoroughly run out of fuel. Chance, however, threw a piece of coal onto the dying embers. The demon tripped over a rock. It hadn''t fallen, but it just stumbled a bit awkwardly before it regained its bnce. Even if the movements of the demon were random, something like this had never happened before. The demon stumbled awkwardly a bit too far to the side and encountered a small rock. And then it tripped over it. It had been near that rock many times before, but this was the first time Neave had ever seen it trip. For a few moments, he felt the pull, the temptation to move and think, but s, the embers died out once again. *** The demon tripped over the same rock many times. Neave had a stray thought or two about this phenomenon. One of the things he felt was apparent was that this happening was extremely rare. The were so many ways the demon could stumble toward him that walking over to that exact rock was exceptionally unlikely. Not to mention that the vast, overwhelming majority of times it walked in a more or less straight line. However, despite its rarity, it happened¡­ Dozens? Hundreds of times? He hadn¡¯t counted but he knew it was many. This must mean that a frightening amount of time had passed. Or might have passed. It wasn¡¯t easy, or even really possible to determine the passage of time. There was no convenient hourss sitting by Neave¡¯s desk anymore. The demon stumbled on the rock many times, and something unusual happened again. The demon trudged over to the rock, tripped on it, then stepped on another rock, one even further from its usual range of movement, and tripped again. It didn¡¯t fall to the ground even after that but it shook Neave up a bit nheless. Something new happened. Neave ignored it once again and settled back into the trance¡­ *** The embers of thought were nearly thoroughly gone. They had been waning for so long. The demon had tripped on the rock and even on the other rock again numerous times. Nothing was moving Neave. Nothing was rousing him anymore. The demon walked up to Neave, swung its ws, and crushed his head. Restart. Then it went back to the start. It walked. It walked toward Neave, stumbling along. But it leaned a bit to the side. And then again. And then again. It stepped on a solitary rock sitting on the outer edges of the path it usually took when approaching Neave. And it tripped. It stumbled, outside of its usual range of movement. There it stepped on another jagged rock and tripped once more, stumbling further. It had stumbled far, a lot further than it usually stumbled when it tripped on the second rock and it stepped on a third rock. This time it tripped and fell face-first into a small puddle of ck ooze. Neave didn¡¯t notice anything at first. But then, an unusual sensation washed over him. It was taking too long. Why was it taking so long? He would usually have ideas, he would think, and he would contemte, but his mind felt heavy. Like a muscle that hadn¡¯t moved once in a hundred years, his mind just felt weak. Let alone thinking, just perceiving what was happening felt like a chore. But the strange sensation kept piling up. The gaping hole of the demon''s absence burned bigger and bigger as Neave¡¯s mind spun. Then he perceived what he was seeing. The demon was¡­ Gone? Perhaps, he would have thought he had finally failed the trial, but such a thought was far tooplex for his weak mind. His thoughts instead went something like this: No demon. Demon gone. Where demon? Dunno. How possible? Hours passed, but Neave still stared catatonically ahead. Eventually, his legs got tired and he fell to the ground. He reflexively got up. Then finally, he noticed something in the corner of his vision. The demon was stuck. It had fallen over head first into a puddle of ck ooze. The ooze had long solidified and it was stuck awkwardly fumbling and trying to get out. Half of its head and both of its arms were stuck inside the solidified ooze. The problem was that its awkward position had simply made it impossible to put any real force into anything but pushing itself further into the puddle. And Neave stared at it. His head was vacant of anyplex thought, but as if by instinct¡­ ¡°Pfft!¡± He snorted. Then he chuckled. Then heughed. He tried walking over to the demon, but he hadpletely forgotten how to do that. Neaveughed, choking and wheezing, as he flopped around like a fish on drynd, trying to figure out how to move closer to the demon. Eventually, he developed something of an inept crawl and squirmed over to the demon. ¡°You stupid poopy head. Poopy head poopy head, HA-HA! What a dummy!¡± He got up to his feet and smacked the demon''s bald head a few times. The meaty thud felt satisfying, so he kept doing it, eventually drumming a rhythm and singing along. ¡°La, dummy demon, dummy butt! Got his face stuck in the mud!¡± At this point, the demon desperately tried to extract itself from its predicament, but to no avail. The ws on its feet had thoroughly plowed the soft soil behind it, and it was failing to get any grip. After heughed his ass off, Neave¡¯s mind had finally caught up with the intelligence of at least a four-year-old. ¡°What the hell am I doing?¡± He wondered and then sat on the demon''s head, much to its displeasure. This wasn¡¯t a rhetorical question, either. He was genuinely trying to puzzle out what he was doing. His mind was still half asleep from the absoluteck of use. Just perceiving things felt hard. He struggled to form associations. Everything around him was just shapes and colors. ¡°... Dirt?¡± Yes, he thought to himself, this indeed was dirt, but weird dirt. Too red. Wait, was that not how dirt was supposed to look? He then tried remembering what dirt was supposed to look like. And then it finally hit him. Like a dam shattering, his mind flooded with thoughts. He remembered his name, who he was, and where he was and then asked again. ¡°Okay, what the fuck am I doing?¡± This time the question was indeed rhetorical. He got off the demon¡¯s head and looked around. He didn¡¯t perceive the demon falling over so he had no idea how this whole thing happened. ¡°How long has it been?¡± He tried to piece together anything about how long he¡¯d been here but to no avail. His schrly mind, however, really wanted to find out. Neave tried estimating the time he had been here butcked information. That wasn¡¯t unusual. He was well aware that time was inestimable in these circumstances. But he felt a strong need to figure it out. He thought back to the demon''s behavior and frowned. The demon walked straight at him almost every single time. Deviating from a straight line was umon, very much so. And straying far enough to trip on the rock was exceptionally rare. He left the demon to its struggling and ran over to where he started the loop. He marked the position with arge stone and walked over to where the demon started. Neave then took a step forward. And then another. He frowned. How did the demon walk again? He thought he remembered it, but he never really paid that much attention to its walking pattern. After a quick bath in a nearby pool of acid, he returned to the start. Restart. Rather than waiting for the demon to reach him, he sprinted toward the demon as quickly as he could, then walked backward. He kept the same tempo as the demon, observing its feet the entire time. The demon''s gait was clumsy, and its steps were imprecise. Every time it took a step, there was a small deviation from where it wouldnd if it walked perfectly. Neave rated these deviations as minuscule, minor, moderate, major, and massive. It took him two loops of observing the demon walk to get a good estimate of their probabilities. He messed up on the first loop by letting it walk far longer than the usual walk from its starting position to Neave¡¯s starting position. The problem was that the ground at the start was far smoother and tter than further out. This meant that the pattern in which its step deviated changed due to the rougher surface, and the probabilities of its respective deviations also changed. So he instead just observed the demon walk in circles within the range of the demon¡¯s start to Neave¡¯s start. He felt somewhat satisfied with the numbers he got, so he moved on to phase two. He led the demon over to a pit of ck ooze, pushed it into it, and then piled rocks onto it to prevent it from leaving. Then he walked over to the demon''s start. Neave took a step. The step was of average length for the demon and just a little above moderate deviation to the side. That''s how he walked over to the rock the demon had tripped on. It took roughly thirteen such steps. Then he took the probability of slightly below moderate deviation. He halved it because it was only towards one side and calcted the probability of the demon walking over to the rock. His mind froze. No¡­ it can¡¯t be. That had to be impossible. For the first time in forever, Neave panicked. After all, the odds of that happening were less than one in ten trillion. Okay, those were the odds of that specific sequence of steps happening, but the added odds of otherbinations of deviations had to be more probable, right? Yes, but not by much. Well, yes, by much, but even such immense numbers didn¡¯t really matter on this scale. Even if he went as far as to assume that the odds of the demon reaching this rock were only one in a million, what about tripping on it? He had seen the demon walk over to this rock several times without tripping once. Then he had seen it trip over the rock countless times, possibly hundreds, maybe even thousands. No, he even saw the demon tripping over the second rock hundreds of times, only the heavens knew how many times it had tripped on the first stone. He looked ahead and saw the third stone, just between the second stone and the pond. He didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry. That was what the demon tripped on!? Neave calcted that he must have been here for twenty thousand years, even by the most conservative estimates. The craziest estimates? Quadrillions of years. So heughed. He cackled like a lunatic and pulled his hair out of his scalp. There was no hope. If the artifact could keep him contained that long, it could keep him here forever. After all, there were no signs that anything was changing. If this artifact had created this reality, then it was still going strong enough that Neave couldn''t see any damage to the structure of space. Did this mean that he would be kept here for all eternity? A chilling thought crossed his mind. What if this was the afterlife? Or the afterlife for Neave? Had he been so evil, vile, and despicable that this was what he deserved? Or did everyone end up here? Was the book not a trial but a one-way portal to this hellish ce? Or did he¡­ He paused and looked over at the writhing mass of ck ooze. The demon was escaping again. Neave had another thought. What if I do have to defeat the demon? And not just the first demon, but the next two, and the next three demons, and heavens knew what else. What if this was some sort of cultivator purgatory or cultivator hell, where he had to fight and be a true warrior to get to cultivator heaven? He would haveughed at the mere thought if he weren¡¯t seriously considering the possibility. He was no longer confident that he would ever be free. So he grasped onto that one final straw. He got off the ground, blood dripping down his face from the hair he tore out. Then he walked over to the demon. He broke off one of the obsidian branches and stabbed the demon. He stabbed it again and again. When he cut his hand on the branch, he just tore his robes and wrapped them around his hand to stop the bleeding. When the branch broke, he got another. After hundreds of stabs, the demon finally stopped moving. Two more demons appeared behind Neave. He leaped at them, attacking them with the branch, but while stabbing the first demon, the second shattered his neck. Restart. Neave stared his eternal tormentor down. He felt his control over his own body was still poor. So he decided. If he already had an eternity on his hands, he wouldn¡¯t rush. He would take things one step at a time and learn from the ground up. He remembered his father. And he smiled. ¡°You win in the end, you old asshole¡­¡± He mumbled as he stepped forward, preparing to fight the demon with his bare hands. Restart. Chapter 5: Overwhelm Chapter 5: Overwhelm Realistically speaking, it couldn¡¯t have been more than fifteen hours since Neave had started fighting the demon. However, it felt like an eternity. Especially in contrast to the utter boredom he had experienced for heavens knew how long. He had looped well over several hundred times by now. Fighting the demon barehanded seemed to be nearly impossible. The main problem was that Neave was just a child. Trying to fist-fight an adult-sized demon, not to mention an adult-sized demon with supernatural strength, was just¡­ Well, impossible, outright. At first, Neave would rush at the demon and try to punch it. That was a failure that resulted in countless restarts. The main reason why was that Neave had virtually no reach. Or weight. Or physical strength. Or skill. He didn¡¯t have anything at all going for him whatsoever. While his absolute disadvantage was the main contributing factor to his failure to fight the demon, his stubbornness was the main reason he was making no progress. Neave was horrible at fighting, but it wasn¡¯t like he didn¡¯t know how to fight. He knew the theory. Even if one ignored that he grew up in a martial arts sect, he had read many texts that covered the basics of hand-to-handbat, even in texts that weren¡¯t rted to fighting. But some stubborn part of him refused to borrow from that pool of wisdom, so he charged at the demon, trying to figure everything out entirely on his own. When he eventually gave up on that, after over a hundred failed attempts, he conceded that striking the demon wasn¡¯t wholly necessary. He wouldn¡¯t be killing it any time soon, so why even bother striking it in the first ce? So Neave decided to dodge for a while rather than focus on delivering the one-punch killing blow. This, too, ended in many restarts, But he was also seeing progress. It wasn¡¯t even that many attemptster that his survival time went from seconds to minutes. Eventually, after dying enough times, those minutes turned into hours. The demon hit him only when he got too tired to think and lost concentration. The demon wasn¡¯t as clumsy as Neave initially thought it was. Sure, its movements were burdensome and unwieldy, but they weren¡¯t random. Everything about the demon¡¯s movements looked like it was almost intentionally giving away what it was trying to do. From how it pulled its arms back, to how its torso rotated, to how it solidified its footing, all of it was the same when the demon made a specific attack. The attacks were fast, but if Neave knew what it was trying to do ahead of time, dodging the attacks became straightforward. The problem was counterattacking. Even if the demon overextended with a punch or swing and Neave found an opening, he couldn¡¯t injure the demon without a weapon. He was starting to think his punches may hurt him more than the demon. He tried kicking too, but that wasn¡¯t much better. Neave didn¡¯t care that killing the demon seemed off the table for now. There were a few things he was trying to achieve with barehanded fighting. The first thing he wanted to get good at was dodging. Yes, he could avoid the demon''s attacks, but that didn¡¯t mean he was good at doing it. Full-body throws to the side or jumping back avoided the demon''s wild swings, but that was far from optimal. He nned to learn how to dodge optimally, or at least well enough to move on to the second step of his ns. *** Swing. Dodge. Thrust. Dodge. Swing. Dodge Neave¡¯s vision was getting blurry. He thought his eyes were ying tricks on him, but he could swear that the demon''s movements were getting slower. This was the longest he¡¯d ever survived. It had been quite a while because of his thirst and sheer physical exhaustion. Suddenly, his vision blurred, and he dropped to the ground, losing consciousness. Restart. He was back at the beginning. However, he wasn¡¯t sad or disappointed. He was thrilled. The absolute joy that filled him at this moment was the best feeling he¡¯d experienced since he stepped foot into this hellscape. I fucking did it! He fought the demon until the exhaustion finished him off. Neave had bravely fought and had not been hit even once until the end. Sure, his opponent probably finished him off after losing consciousness, but that was beside the point. He had not been struck for as long as he was awake, no matter his exhaustion. He hadn¡¯t been grazed even once. Not one of the myriad attacks the demon had thrown at him hadnded, and Neave didn¡¯t even move out of the demon''s range of attack a single time. Restart. That one didn¡¯t count. He wasn¡¯t paying attention. He had achieved step one of his ns and was about to move on to step two. He had nned to fight the demon until exhaustion rather than the demon finished him off, but he noticed something peculiar. He was confident that the demon did truly slow down as the fight went on. So Neave added step one point five to his n. It wasn¡¯t even a step, really. It was more of an experiment. Neave wanted to see just how much he could exhaust the demon. If it slowed down toward the end, that must mean it also had limited energy reserves, and Neave wouldn¡¯t nce over that potentially crucial detail. So he took a deep breath while waiting for the demon to approach him, and then¡­ He dodged. *** There were a few things Neave had noticed during his experiment. The first thing was that his initial achievement was more due to luck than it was due to skill. However, he eventually got enough practice to consistently replicate the ¡®dodge until you die from exhaustion¡¯ move. The second thing he noticed was that the demon most certainly also had limited energy reserves. And Neave was getting much better at exhausting them. Not every move required the same amount of energy to dodge. The same thing went for the demon. Not every strike took the same amount of effort to deliver. Neave slowly formed a dodging style that capitalized on this. He would put his body into easy-to-maintain positions where he could execute simple dodges while baiting the demon to attack a certain way. There were two things he was trying to aplish. The first was to force the demon to extend its reach. And the second was to get it to chain as many attacks as Neave could dodge at once. The first was important because it meant the demon would lean forward or take an extra step. Both of these required additional muscles and energy to execute. The second was important because Neave could utilize the energy of his previous dodges, thus multiplying his opponent''s energy expenditure while only adding a little extra effort into dodging. And this was paying dividends. Far more than he had initially assumed it would. The demon took a wed swing at Neave with its right arm, but he moved just a little backward. The demon pressed the attack and thrust with its left arm, but Neave added a bit more to his momentum to move just out of range. However, rather than fully disengaging, Neave corrected his posture with his left foot and stepped forward with his right foot, walking right back into range. The demon straightened its ws and swung its right arm towards Neave¡¯s head in a sh, and when Neave dodged, it followed up with a sh from its left arm, leaning toward Neave. Neave pivoted on his left leg, bending his torso to let the swing pass over his head, then spun left underneath the demon''s arms. The demon''s right arm was in the perfect position to strike, but Neave bumped his shoulder into its chest, using the knockback to dodge. It attempted another outward swing with its right arm after missing, but Neave was out of range. The demon twisted its torso and thrust with its left arm, taking a step forward with its right foot, but Neave simply swung his head to the right. Its right arm was again in the perfect position to strike, but Neave swung his head further beneath the strike. He paused his head mid-swing, seeing as the demon was nning on swinging its left arm again at his head, predicting where his head would be. As Neave paused, it also hesitated for an instant and changed the direction of its swing to where Neave¡¯s head was now, but as it redirected the attack, Neave moved his head again and dodged the strike. Neave was starting to understand why so many people were crazy about martial arts. This was a lot of fun. Truthfully, if he was back at his sect, virtually any disciple would still kick his ass easily¡ªthe reason why was simple. They did martial arts. This demon, well, didn¡¯t. A chop swing, a wed swing, a punch, a thrust, and rarely a bite were pretty much the demon¡¯s entire repertoire. It didn¡¯t even use its legs to attack. It could get quite creative if Neave stood and took it, but the demon never yed around when Neave was seriously trying to dodge. This fight was quite unfair. Besides Neave being immortal, there was another thing to keep in mind. Tension. There was usually a lot of tension when fighting a real fight with actual stakes. All of one¡¯s muscles were stretched taut, and their blood pumped through their veins like a raging river¡ªnaturally, this cost energy. However, while fighting this demon, Neave was under no stress whatsoever. Not only did he perfectly understand his opponent, but the stakes were virtually nonexistent. He wasn¡¯t worried about making a mistake or hyper-alert about what his opponent was doing. Neave was expending several times less energy than he would be in a real fight. And the demon was sapping itself dry, trying to get a hit on him. Neave dodged and danced around, moving just barely out of the way of the demon''s attacks. Whether by luck, chance, or by some intuitive improvement he hadn¡¯t realized he¡¯d made, he was doing a lot better this time than any other time before. And soon enough, the demon slowed down. A lot. It was as if it had reached some sort of breaking point and was starting to copse. Its swings were pathetically slow and had no energy behind them. Neave was also exhausted but not near death. And just a few minutester, the demon took a few feeble swings and swiftly copsed. Neave stared at it in shock. ¡°I did it. I fucking did it! Ha-ha! I¡¯ve killed the demon without even touching it once! Hahahaha!¡± But something was wrong. He looked around and didn¡¯t see the two demons approaching. A thought crossed his mind. What if the two demons didn¡¯t arrive at all!? What if they were merely some sort of punishment for fighting dirty? So he looked around, looking for any signs that anything had changed. Had he done it? Was he done with the trial? He looked around like mad, trying to find any signs that he was right, but the only thing he saw was the demon shift a little on the ground. Oh, it just isn¡¯t dead yet. He facepalmed. So do I like¡­ finish it off? But how? He didn¡¯t want to use a weapon since he wanted to achieve victory barehanded. So he started kicking the demon''s head. After kicking so many times, his hip was beginning to seize, he was starting to realize that even unconscious, the demon was still far too tough to be killed without a weapon. However, Neave wasn¡¯t going to give up. He instead bent down, grabbed the demon''s neck, and started strangling it. That wasn¡¯t working. Neave instead used his thumbs to press as hard as he could on the demon¡¯s jugr veins. He was trying to kill it by denying blood flow to its brain. However, after several minutes of mping down on its neck, he got a cramp in his finger, yet the demon still wasn¡¯t dead. What now? Did he put his pride aside, grab a sharp branch, and cut its throat? Smash its head with a rock? Or maybe drag it over to a pit and throw it inside? Thatst idea would technically count as barehanded, right? He got increasingly closer to giving up on the barehanded kill. He was about to get up and grab a rock. Oh, but I could just do this. He bent down and bit into the demon''s neck. Blood gushed out. Neave lifted his head and looked at the demon as thest vestiges of movement stopped. He stared at the blood, not even noticing the horrid taste. What the fuck did I just do¡­? He couldn¡¯t believe it. For a second, it was like he had just turned into an animal and obeyed his instincts. Then he heard footsteps. He got up and smiled at the duo of demons approaching him, readying himself to see how his improvement measured up against them. Before he could even take a step, he fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Restart. What!? What happened? Then he realized what had happened and smacked his forehead several times. Stupid, stupid, stupid, its blood is poisonous! You just had to get bitey, didn¡¯t you, you rabid animal! Instead of swallowing his pride, it seemed he would rather swallow a mouthful of poison. Well, they did say that pride was an insidious killer. Brilliant. Even his ridiculously overinted ego could concede that he had proven his point or whatever else he was trying to do. He''d killed the demon barehanded. Or bare-toothed. Still, he technically did it without a weapon. Now he was going to move on to step two. But he decided just to skip it instead. Step two was supposed to be killing the demon barehanded. However, he had somehow managed to aplish that on step one point five, so he considered that step done. Well, not really. The point of step two was supposed to be to learn how to fight with his bare hands, but he didn¡¯t think he could. He didn¡¯t see the potential to learn without feedback. Sure, he could learn how to move or how to get hits in, but how was he supposed to know what attacks did what? He could assume that a spin into elbowing the demon would be better than just a punch, but he couldn''t learn a proper fighting style without any feedback. Restart. ¡­Sigh. Sometimes he got a bit too lost in thought. Oh well. Step three was fighting with weapons. However, Neave t-out refused to use whole branches. Not only were they brittle, but they were also insufficient. There was only one viable weapon for someone of his build and size. He broke off two dagger-sized bits of obsidian and used that as his weapon. Daggers were very dangerous, even in his hands. Neave could get a ton of leverage from them and put more of his body weight into his strikes. He needed every bit of force his tiny little body could muster. He rushed at the demon and took a swing. The moment the dagger hit, it slipped out of his hand. The demon took a swing and wed his head right off his shoulders. Restart. It was true that he got to put a lot of force into his attacks, but that was utterly useless if he couldn¡¯t contain that blow. Neave¡¯s pathetic grip strength just wasn¡¯t enough. So he took one of the daggers and tore the sleeves off his robe. He used the cloth to tie one of the daggers to his right arm in a reverse grip and the other to his left hand in a standard grip. After fastening the makeshift bandages with his teeth, he charged at the demon. The demon couldn¡¯t touch him. At first, Neave¡¯s attacks were clumsy and awkward, but soon enough, he got the hang of it. Before he could realize what was happening, he had delivered several deep strikes to the demon''s neck, the inside of its thighs, and underneath its armpits. Within less than a minute, the demony on the ground unmoving, and Neave stared at it. I did that¡­? He started hyperventting. He didn¡¯t know why. This was good, he did so much better than he had expected, but he felt panic build up for some reason¡ªwords he didn¡¯t understand kept shing through his mind. Brutally overwhelming your opponent. Restart. He didn¡¯t see the second wave of demons approach as one tore his spine out his back. That is what you must do, Neave. There is no mercy when facing an enemy. It will be either their death¡­ Or yours. Chapter 6: Body Count Chapter 6: Body Count Neave woke up lying on the ground just inside a small cave. He had no idea what had happened or where he was. He shook and started frantically looking around. Where am I¡­? A cave? Wait, I slept? As with anything unusual that happened in this hellscape, Neave¡¯s mind went through countless possibilities, good and bad. Was he free? Was reality breaking apart? What did that mean for him? Or did something change that would make things even moreplicated? All of these questions were answered by simply stepping out of the cave. Just outside the cave was the ravine. And just beyond the canyon was the demon. It stood there, watching Neave. Why was it just watching him? Neave noticed that the suspension bridge had been cut. He must have fled and cut it before the demon could cross it, so now it was trapped on the other side. Neave had no memory of doing this. Neave felt alright now. Better than he did a while back. He was oddly refreshed and rested even though he was terribly thirsty. Thinking about it now, he must have been exhausted. Well, not physically, obviously, nor mentally¡­ Well now that he thought about it, not spiritually either. This time loop skewed his sense of reality in strange ways. Perhaps he had just been missing sleep. He hadn¡¯t slept in a long time, after all. Thest thing he remembered was¡­ Hmmm. His memory was blurry, but he remembered feeling strangely anxious for some reason. Perhaps he was just losing his mind. He looked at the demon, walked over to the ravine, and jumped in. Restart. For now, he would do what he felt needed to be done. He tied the shards to his hands again and went back to work. Now that he paid more attention to the fight, he realized that defeating the demon like this wasn¡¯t that difficult at all. It barely took him a minute. He still felt his movements were awkward. Neave was excellent at dodging the demon''s attacks, but whenever he had to throw a strike in, his whole form just kind of fell apart. He still didn¡¯t get hit, but his dodging wasn¡¯t the smoothest either. It didn¡¯t matter, however. He¡¯d get better at it eventually. This time rather than bleeding the demon out, he disemboweled it. It dropped dead to the ground. He had a serious fight with the demon duo for the first time. He felt that he should be alright if he attacked them one at a time. He rushed at the first demon, getting a good strike at its forearm and severing the veins on its wrist. He felt more resistance to his strikes now. Maybe they were a bit tougher as well? He dodged and weaved around the demon''s attacks, keeping an eye on the other demon approaching him. However, when he looked away from the first demon, he felt something crash into his hip and violently throw him back. It hit me¡­? How did it hit me? I was well out of its strike range¡­ Before he could get off the ground, the second demon approached Neave and kicked him in the ribs. Oh¡­ These demons use their legs, too, huh? The second wave got a lot more interesting. Restart. *** It took Neave a decent amount of tries before he finally got into a groove fighting the demons. They were significantly less of a pushoverpared to the first demon. Not only were they tougher, but they were also stronger, faster, and had a more extensive repertoire of moves. He realized rather quickly that a lot of the muscle memory, or rather soul memory, that he had built up in the fight against the first demon caused significant problems for him in the battle against the second wave. He had gotten used to utilizing his small size and nimbleness to dodge the demon''s attacks by weaving close to its body and around its legs. The problem was that when he tried this strategy against the duo, they just kicked him. And even if he dodged the kicks, he found himself in a suboptimal position for avoiding other strikes. Another problem was that, while the demons arrived separately from one another at first, Neave only had so much time to kill the first demon before the second one cornered him. They both followed him in a straight line so, eventually, they ended up being right next to one another. Dodging the attacks of one demon was hard, but dodging the attacks of two demons was torturous. Neave had to pay attention to two enemies simultaneously and find ways to fight back between the dodging. He could only attack without suffering counterattacks by attacking the demons'' hands and feet. The blood loss wasn¡¯t enough to finish them, but he could eventually immobilize them. This was his go-to strategy for dealing with the two demons. While he had a solid strategy, that didn¡¯t mean it was easy to pull off. The main problem was that he had to attack the demon''s arms somehow when they took a swing at him. His targets traveled fast, and he had to avoid getting his hands injured or having his weapons shattered. And they shattered very frequently. Neave waited for the demon to take a swing with its left arm. The second demon was close by, but Neave had already injured it enough that it could only take limp swings at him with its left arm. The first demon pulled its arm back and thrust at Neave. Neave stepped to the left and stabbed the demon¡¯s forearm, using its momentum to do the work for him. However, his dagger fractured and cut into his thumb almost deep enough to cut it off. Brilliant. Neave dodged back and disengaged from the fight. He looked around for an obsidian bush, shattered its branches, and picked a fine piece. He tied it back around his wounded arm, ignoring the pain, and stepped back into the fray. A hand injury like this one was rather crippling. He didn¡¯t even know why he bothered finding another weapon. It was hard at best and damn near impossible at worst to do any damage if he couldn¡¯t use his full grip strength. The bandages did help, but they were a stopgap solution at best. He continued the fight but found himself getting pushed back more and more. The exhaustion slowed him down immensely, and the blood loss didn¡¯t help either. If a fight was going poorly, Neave would sometimes just throw it and let the demons finish him off. However, he felt he could learn more from fighting on the back foot. It forced him to get more creative. It also felt like a waste to throw a fight when this was the best opportunity to try new ideas and strategies. And one such idea just crossed his mind. Neave quickly moved right in between the two demons. Before he even reached where he wanted to be, the second demon was already preparing to kick him. The first demon pulled its only usable arm back and swung at Neave. Neave, however, ducked and stepped to the right, dodging both the kick and the swing. While the kick awkwardly fluttered, the swing hit the other demon across its chest. Neave added to the strike by sinking a deep reverse grip stab into the demon''s abdomen, pushing it to the ground. The other demon pulled its arm back again, preparing to thrust at Neave, but he dodged to the left and took a risky step forward. While the demons kicked him if he stepped in range, kicks weren¡¯t a viable option if their center of bnce was already too far forward. Neave capitalized on this moment of weakness andnded a shallow blow to its neck. Hemented his weak body and exhaustion as the demon regained its bnce and kicked Neave¡¯s side. Neave felt something crack, but rather than getting flung away, he held onto the demon¡¯s leg and delivered a cut on the inside of its thigh. Blood gushed out of the wound, and the demon pulled its leg back. Holding onto the leg, Neave got pulled down to the ground and hit the soil with a thud. The demon kicked him away. He felt something crack in his torso again, but the kick was rtively weak. The demon was probably bleeding out. The demon stumbled forward as Neavey on the ground, unable to get up from exhaustion and injuries. It fell over and bled out on the ground. The other one had never gotten up after getting struck in its stomach. Step¡­ Step¡­ Step¡­ Neave heard footsteps again. He nced around, and three demons were walking toward him this time. He remembered these three. But there was something he hadn¡¯t noticed the first time he saw them. Neave already understood the basics of things like posture. There was no clumsiness in the stride of these demons. They walked exactly like martial artists. Restart. Neave didn¡¯t start fighting again. He turned around and went for a stroll. There was a problem he needed to solve first. The third wave of demons meant serious business. Neave, however, was dismally underequipped to deal with them. His weapons were in terrible. He had seen all sorts of metallic spikes lining the bottoms of pits and ravines, but¡­ He was incapable of dropping into the pits to get these spikes. Not to mention that even if he could reach them, he didn¡¯t like his chances of pulling them out of thepound stone lining the walls. He had to work with what he had. However, this didn¡¯t mean he was out of ideas. He grabbed arge rock with both hands and flung it at an obsidian bush. Rather than picking up one of the shards, he continued shattering every brush he came across. After turning behind arge boulder, he encountered something he hadn¡¯t noticed before. A thick-looking obsidian bush was growing out of what looked like solid obsidian. He threw the rock at it, but it merely chipped a few pieces of the outer branches and got stuck between them. Neave raised an eyebrow. Then he threw an evenrger stone. He had grabbed a few of the dagger-sized shards that got chipped off and inspected them. He tried breaking them in different ways, like smashing them with a rock, throwing them at a rock, or striking a rock with them, and he found that this material was far tougher than the usual obsidian shards. Now he had a more reliable weapon. So he grabbed the shards and tied them to his hands. Neave got another idea. He dipped his hands into some of the ck ooze, letting it solidify on the bandages. This not only added a bit of extra weight to his hands but also ensured the daggers weren¡¯t going anywhere. It was time to continue. *** After trial and error with the second wave, Neave had gotten into practice executing his strategies. However, as he fought the third wave, he realized how inefficient his second-wave approach was. The third wave of the demons was a massive step up in difficulty from the second. These demons not only fought as capable martial artists, but the added third demon and extra power escted the challenge drastically. However, for Neave, the third wave quickly went from a curse to a holy blessing from the heavens themselves. After all, he had gained three masters to teach him martial arts. These three demons all had slightly different fighting styles. One was very aggressive. The second was very defensive. The third was cautious and very good at counter-attacking. While progressing slowly with the third wave, his speed at dealing with the second wave increased rapidly. After observing the first of the three, he had learned a few excellent moves for procedurally overwhelming his opponents. Block by attacking, attack after blocking, and press the attack further rather than dodge. Even though Neave knew the demons tended to block attacks to weak points like significant arteries, it never urred to him that they would choose to block rather than strike. Once he learned this, the second wave became almostughably easy. He dispatched the first demon before the second one could even get close. After that, the fight with the second demon became a simple one on one. The second demon, the one that fought defensively, didn¡¯t have all that much to teach him. Defensive fighting like that was a luxury for Neave, whocked the strength and endurance to fight prolonged fights. The third demon, however, was an excellent teacher. Neave found himself referencing its moves most often. Even though the aggressive demon gave him the most trouble, the cautious one was always Neave¡¯s first target. It was a nasty little thing, attacking when Neave was cornered or forcing him to dodge in ways that set him up for attacks by the others. Even though Neave learned rapidly, the third wave took him a mind-boggling amount of time. It was possibly as many as ten thousand attemptster, and he still hadn¡¯t beaten the third wave. There was a lot of work to do. Just getting more skilled wasn¡¯t enough. Neave had limited strength and stamina. He had to, on top of learning how to fight, learn how to use his body optimally. At some point, he started to believe he was getting stronger. Some things he could do should be impossible for someone of his strength. He had spent a good amount of time just trying to figure out why this was. What appeared to be happening was that he was sacrificing his stamina in return for strength. Neave had read about some individuals exhibiting extraordinary force when under pressure. It was theorized that the body had mental limits to prevent self-inflicted injury. And his best guess was that he was somehow removing these limits subconsciously. It was a pretty good guess, too, since it was apparent that he was wearing himself out much faster than he used to. Only when he realized this and learned to control it could he finally defeat the third wave and move on. The fourth wave, however, was even worse. Rather than four, it had five demons, all more specialized than those in the third wave. A suicidally hyper-aggressive demon, a coward demon that ran away and threw rocks from afar, a tricky bugger that used the environment to fight, a bulky demon whose attacks were easy to read but exceptionally difficult to dodge, and a slender demon that just seemed to be insanely agile and skilled at martial arts. Neave refrained from using things like the environment to fight. He wanted to learn martial arts and not scumbag arts, after all. But the fourth wave made him toss his already loose morals asidepletely. After countless attempts, Neave didn¡¯t even have the vaguest estimates for how long it had been. The first, second, and third waves were finished in less than a minute. And he wasn¡¯t fighting the fourth wave fairly. Not even a little bit. *** He was back at the start of the loop. Neave slowly prepared his ns. He secured his weapons and then walked over to the suspension bridge. The first demon walked up to Neave as he patiently waited for it to arrive. He ran up to the demon and slowed down a bit as it prepared to take a swing at him with its right arm. Neave stepped just a bit back, letting the strike fly millimeters from his neck. Then he used his right arm, the one with the reverse grip on the daggers, to strike at the demon¡¯s forearm, sinking the dagger right between the radius and ulna bones and then pushing the demon¡¯s arm further right, pulling just a bit back. As the demon lost its bnce, he thrust the left-arm dagger at the demon''s neck, finishing the fight almost instantly. Before the demon bled out, Neave was already running to where he knew the second wave would arrive. They always arrived the same distance from him, but if he was already running in their direction, that distance shrunk rapidly. Neave ran toward a demon and almost got a nasty kick right to the chest, but instead, he sank to his knees and glided between the demon¡¯s legs, cutting both thighs and severing its femoral arteries. He smoothly got back up to his feet, stabbed the demon in the back with the reverse grip before it could turn, and as it turned its head a bit, he jumped and used the left dagger to dig its throat out. Neave ran toward the second demon. It lunged at him, spreading its arms out, trying to close off his escape. Neave nted his feet, brought his two daggers together, locked his knees, tightened his calves, perfectly straightened his back, and pushed the daggers at the demon¡¯s neck, cutting its entire head off. Not very cleanly, but cleanly enough, given his rudimentary weapons. The third wave of demons arrived instantly, and Neave immediately ran toward the cautious one. It tried to feint Neave and aimed for his eyes, but he just slightly redirected its arm with the left dagger and sank the right into its stomach, disemboweling it before it could retaliate. The demon didn¡¯t immediately die, but this wasn¡¯t a problem for Neave. He kept up his run, jumped onto the demon, and then kicked off its chest into a backflip just as the aggressive demon rammed straight into the cautious one. On his way down, Neave pressed onto his right arm with his left and used all the leverage he could to stab the aggressive demon¡¯s heart through its back. He turned around immediately and ran toward the defensive demon. It took a few moves, but he managed to damage its arms enough to break its block and run its throat through with the dagger. Then the real fight finally began. Neave had tried countless strategies against the fourth wave. This time he was confident he had the perfect one. He ran after the cowardly demon, and it fled over the suspension bridge. Then he paused, dodged to the right, and the hyper-aggressive demon flew through the air where he stood a second ago. Neave ran toward the bulky demon as it prepared to swing its massive hand at him. It was self-evident what it was trying to do. Attempting to dodge the attack was futile the moment you stepped into range. Neave did something unexpected. He just went limp and dropped beneath the demon''s feet. The bulky demon took a swing just as the hyper-aggressive one flew up from right behind Neave. It received a smack that sent it flying like a javelin. Neave was already getting up and leaving as quickly as he had fallen since he didn¡¯t want to be within range of the next attack. The bulky demon lifted its leg and smashed the ground so hard that the shockwave knocked Neave back like a ragdoll. Neave lost his hearing, but he didn¡¯t need it anymore. The skilled demon flew at Neave through the cloud of dust and began striking, while the cowardly demon threw rocks at Neave from beyond the suspension bridge. The tricky demon watched the fight from a short distance. For now. Neave redirected the first two strikes and simply dispatched the demon by striking its weak points several times and bleeding it out. Ironically, the skilled demon gave Neave the least trouble. He just had to be morepetent than it, and its main advantage disappeared. Neave turned around and ran out of the cloud of dust toward the suspension bridge. The bulky demon roared and sprinted toward Neave, shaking the earth with every step. Neave ran onto the suspension bridge. As the burly demon also stepped onto it, he heard the creaking sounds of the old rope and nks being stretched taut. Neave ran up to around two-thirds of the bridge, then jumped and grabbed onto the nks just before the suspension bridge fell into the abyss. The tricky demon stood on the side that Neave hade from, holding the obsidian branch it had used to cut the ropes. The bridge plummeted, and Neave smacked into the side of the wall as he held onto the severed bridge. The bulky demon descended, crashing through the spikes and getting torn to shreds. Neave steeled himself as he prepared to execute the most challenging part of the n. The cowardly demon threw rocks at him from above, which he redirected to the best of his ability with one of his arms as he desperately held the bridge with the other. The tricky demon screamed at Neave and threw the obsidian branch at him, which Neave barely deflected, and joined its cowardlyrade in pelting him with rocks. Neave was cornered, hanging onto the bridge for dear life. The tricky demon was out of range now, as there was no way to cross the ravine without the bridge. Luckily he didn¡¯t have to. The suicidally aggressive demon ran up behind the tricky demon, and it lunged at it, pushing it and itself into the ravine. Neave gritted his teeth and prepared for the next rock to be thrown down by the cowardly demon. As he saw the stone drop down toward him, rather than deflect it, Neave reached out to it with his right arm. The rock crashed into his right arm, shattering the bones in his forearm, but Neave pushed for dear life and managed to trap the rock between his broken arm and his head. As the suicidally aggressive and tricky demon flew through the ravine, the aggressive one grabbed the tricky demon mid-air and jumpedoff its plummeting body to make it to Neave. But Neave was prepared. ¡°Die, you fucking piece of shit!¡± He screamed, blood gushing from his mouth as the rock shattered one of his teeth on impact. He threw the rock at the aggressive demon, hitting its head and halting its momentum. Then he watched it il as it joined its brethren in the dark pit of the abyss below. It wasn¡¯t over yet. Neave painstakingly and patiently climbed the copsed suspension bridge as the cowardly demon threw rocks at him. He used his limp, shattered arm to soak the impacts as he relentlessly climbed upward. When he was a few steps away from making it, the cowardly demon tried grabbing him and pushing him into the abyss below. Neave shoved his shattered right arm between two nks to hold himself up and thrust his left arm at the demon, cutting its middle finger off. It wailed and ran. Neave heard its screams growing more distant. He firmly nted his feet between the nks and cut off what remained of his mangled arm. He caught himself before he could fall into the abyss and dragged his weary body up thest few nks of the bridge. He stepped onto solid ground. The demon kept pelting him with rocks, but he blocked them. After what felt like an eternity of slowly chasing the demon, Neave was getting dangerously close to dying. The coward just kept running from him and throwing rocks. Suddenly, Neave turned. He stepped into a nearby cave and just waited there. The demon looked at him cautiously and picked up another rock. As it bent over, it paused, sensing the anticipation in Neave¡¯s gaze. The instincts of a wimp screamed danger, and it anxiously nced around. A drop of dark ooze fell on the ground in front of it. Then another. And another. It panicked and ran away as a rain of ck ooze poured from the skies. Neave patiently waited in the cave, wrapping his robes around the bleeding gash. After the rain stopped, he stepped onto the solid ck ground. He found the cowardly demon encased in a ck coffin, desperately trying to shatter it to escape on time. ¡°It¡¯s finally over.¡± Neave breathed out as he stepped towards the demon, putting an obsidian dagger through its throat. He stared at it with a vacant gaze as thest of its blood dripped down the hardened tar. Neave turned around and paused. He saw another demon. However, it wasn¡¯t like anything he¡¯d seen so far. It was holding a shield. From the corner of his eye, he saw the second one running toward him, holding a great sword. He only saw the third demon holding the bow after the arrow hit his back and pierced his chest. Restart. Neave stood there, catatonic once more. Restart. There was no way he could defeat the fifth wave. Restart. He was too weak. They had actual weapons. Restart. By the end of the fourth wave, no matter how well he yed his cards, he would always be far too exhausted to keep fighting. Restart. It was already a damn miracle he could do this much. Restart. What else could he do? Restart. Nothing. Restart. He froze and stood there as the demon nted another strike on his forehead. Restart. Restart. Restart. Re- No. Dodge. There was still one option. It was a stupid idea. The odds of it working were negligible. But he had to try. He walked to the suspension bridge, cut it before the demon could even reach it, then walked into the nearby cave, sat down¡­ And started cultivating. Chapter 7: Paradigm Chapter 7: Paradigm Neave was back at the start. He was furious. He stomped to the suspension bridge, hacked the ropes off, walked to the cave, and sat down irritably. Twelve times! Twelve fucking times! It had been twelve times that Neave had sat down in the cave and meditated until he died from thirst. The hellscape he found himself in was arid, and it was easy to get dehydrated, but given that he wasn¡¯t doing anything strenuous, he wasn¡¯t sweating either. He had anywhere between three at least and five at most days worth of time until he died from dehydration. If he assumed he had four days each time he sat down, he had already been attempting to cultivate for almost fifty days straight! This wasn¡¯t just fifty days either. It was fifty entire days. No rest, no sleep, no pauses except the time it took him to return upon dying. He did get extremely exhausted as he reached death from dehydration, not to mention theck of sleep, but through sheer virtue of willpower, he could still sort of push through it until he died. And death in this realm made for a more thorough recovery than any night of rest Neave had ever had. That meant he had cultivated for well over a thousand hours straight yet made absolutely zero progress. At first, he med the mental barrier he had against the idea of cultivation, but even after swallowing all his remaining pride and taking that barrier down for good, he still had no sess. This was strange. Neave was beginning to panic. Initially, he thought that perhaps this realm prevented him from cultivating. However, he noticed something just toward the end of the fifth attempt. It was like looking at fireflies with absolutely horrible eyesight. This was a great sign. These ethereal lights were wisps of qi, strands of potential. This meant that it must be possible. When one first attempted to cultivate, one had to visualize andprehend the essence of potential. They had to grasp the idea behind being more. It was both very simple and veryplicated. Anyone could do it, but despite this, only a few ordinary peasants and people born into mortal families ever do it independently. Why? Well, for starters, how easy was it to imagine oneself wielding a hundred-kilo sword like a feather? Maybe one could imagine it, sure, but what made it possible? This was why sects trained their young from a very early age. When one trained, one made improvements. They grew, improved, and realized part of the potential their bodies, minds, and souls already possessed. And then they¡¯re given a sword too heavy to lift and told to swing it. The difference between someone trained in martial arts and someone who never did any training was perspective. To a mortal, a sword far too heavy to be lifted, no matter how much one trained, was just that. A sword that was impossible to wield. But to children taught by sects, it was more than that. It was a barrier, another obstacle they needed to ovee. Wielding a sword heavier than your own body should be impossible. You¡¯d be dragged along and thrown off bnce when you swung the sword. Only when one grasped the essence of potential, the ability to grow in skill, strength, speed, endurance, toughness, and so on, was that when one began to see it. More potential. The substance, the essence of it, needed to surpass mortal limitations and be immortal. The higher power that allowed cultivators to swing a de too heavy for a mortal. Qi. Talent still did y a role, of course. Natural spiritual perception differed in strength between individuals. Neave was tested for his, and he knew he was below average, but not that below average. Not this below average. In thest thousand hours, he had a ton of time to me just about anything for his inability to cultivate. Everything from the realm he was in, to the strange time loop¡¯s interference, to his stupidity andck of understanding. He even med the way he thought about cultivation. After all, he hated it. This was one thing he couldn¡¯t entirely move past. They could put all the prettynguage like ¡®potential¡¯ or ¡®sacred¡¯ and their moralizing crap up their ass. Cultivation wasn¡¯t about potential. It was about power. Martial arts wasn¡¯t a pretty dance. It was a skill for injuring and killing. And worst of all was when he heard someone im that cultivation was about being more than yourself. No, it wasn¡¯t. It was about being more than others. And then treating those below you however you wished. Despite all of this, Neave understood the need for cultivators. The supply had created its own demand. After all, if the righteous chose to abstain from cultivation for moral reasons, they would all be ughtered by those with fewer reservations. Then the world would be an even worse ce than it was. If everyone chose to stop cultivating, monsters would just ughter all other sentient life. And they were as horrible to one another as they were to everything else. So humans and sacred beasts must cultivate. But the schr in him rebelled. Even if he saw reason in it, he felt there was more to life than violence. The world may move on without him, but he would stay. He would remain behind and look for an alternative. Perhaps it was just ignorance, stubbornness, or immaturity, but he had vowed to devote his life to finding that peace, no matter where it may lie. He froze. Neave looked at himself. The same old, schrly, weak, and pathetic self. But even as a mortal¡­ He knew that if he fought with any of the foundation realm disciples of his sect, he would dominate them. Probably even those on the first step of the iron path. Maybe even those on the second and third. If it came down to a fight, they¡¯d lie dead beneath his feet before they knew what had happened. He wanted to believe in peace, in a brighter world, but what was he doing as he thought that? He sat in a cave, in a hellish realm of suffering, and tried to cultivate. If that was what he truly believed, then who had he be? He had kept himself busy. Either forcing himself not to think or fighting, but it was all a distraction. Now that he was finally truly alone with his thoughts, it hit him. Oh heavens... What do I do? He cried, feeling what water remained in his body reduced gradually with every tear that dropped. Will I ever even be free again? Why does it even matter to me anymore? What will it mean to be free? He thought about the demons. What if he was right? What if killing them freed him from this realm? And what if it wasn¡¯t oblivion waiting for him on the other side? He imagined being freed and being reborn. He ran around with his siblings, his cute little sister, and his mean older brother. He fought with his older brother, and some part deep within his soul knew what to do. His brothery dead beneath his feet. Then his sister ran to get his father. Then his father, too,y dead beneath his feet. He didn¡¯t want to do it, he didn¡¯t mean to, they attacked him so he just¡­ He imagined being freed and released. He¡¯d killed thest demon and learned the true nature of this book, of the trial. It granted him horrible powers as a reward. He arrived at some other time, perhaps in another world. Those who learned of his power feared him and hunted him down. And they ally dead beneath his feet in a mountain of corpses¡­ He imagined being freed and returning. He returned to the sect, having been unconscious for months. Then he walked the halls and saw Hunter screaming at him and chasing him down. He imagined the unjustified hatred he saw in his face. Then Huntery beneath his feet. Blood dripped down his mouth as Hunter¡¯s throat bled, severed by Neave¡¯s teeth. He could hear the other disciples screaming as he¡­ Then he imagined¡­ *** Neave was walking somewhere, in some random direction. He pulled his hair out with every step he took. The only thing left on his head was a bald, bloody hole, but he scraped it nheless. ¡°Why¡­?¡± He asked himself the same question for the billionth time. Why? What was the reason he ended up in this realm? Did the heavens truly hate him? But why if he had never defied them? Why? What was the point of the life he had lived, the beliefs he had held, if all of it would be denied to him like this? Why? Neave fell over to the ground and died from dehydration, exhaustion, and blood loss. Restart. Then he appeared back at the start, chose another direction, and started walking again. He simply couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around it. It just didn¡¯t make sense. It didn¡¯t make sense to move on and grow. If he did that, he faced oblivion. For he could not continue being who he was anymore. A fundamental aspect of his existence had changed. This creature walking around, wearing his skin, could not leave this ce. So it had to stay here forever. But he didn¡¯t want to. Or it didn¡¯t want to. He didn¡¯t know if he was it. He didn¡¯t want to believe he was. Neave was hoping that the true, original him still existed somewhere deep down. That this murderous monster was just that. A monster. Something that had possessed his body and was wearing his skin. He had tried desperately to tear it off of him, but no matter what, he still failed. No matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t forget where he had to stab. He wouldn¡¯t forget even if he were released. He couldn¡¯t let himself go back into the catatonic state again. Even if he felt that was the fate he deserved. He knew the next time he sunk to that, he would never be free again. And he desperately wanted to be free, wanted to be himself again. But he knew he was just stalling. He saw no other solution but to keep going with what he was doing. But what then? Could he truly settle for remaining what he had be? Yes. ¡­ Neave frowned and stopped. Then he asked the question again and got the same answer in return. Yes. He could settle for being what he was now. But he didn¡¯t know why. Or how. Some part of him beneath his unconscious mind had made a connection. However, he simply could notprehend what this connection was. That was a lie. Neave frowned harder this time. He knew he was lying to himself. There was something that he was hiding. But he didn¡¯t know what it was. Yes, he did. He knew what he was hiding. He was just a liar. No, heused to be a liar. Neaveughed maniacally and ran around. Now he was finally, truly free. No. That wasn¡¯t correct. It wasn¡¯t freedom he sought, after all. He had peeled the monster off. But it wasn¡¯t the killer he had scraped off. It was the liar. The truth was simple. And the lie was huge. Everything he believed, everything he fought for, was all a lie. He just found it unpleasant. To Neave, his mother was like a devil. She participated in honor duels on behalf of their sect. He had to watch them. He had thought when he was a kid that his father''s hair was also silver. The same way mother¡¯s crimson hair was silver beneath all the blood. All of it is bullshit! I was just scared. He had no such obstacle anymore. So he didn¡¯t have to lie. He''d scorned cultivators for their desire for superiority, but how did he wake up every single day? Did I not believe I was more than they were? Does that not make me a massive hypocrite? And then he thought of the cruelty. Who gives a shit about cruelty? He knew he didn¡¯t. Countless of his brothers and sisters had died during his life alone, and he never even shed a tear. So why was he pretending that he cared about peace? Why was he acting as if anyone deserved peace? Did innocent children deserve peace, perhaps? What innocent children? Neave was a child, too. But he was also a liar. The other children from the sect had beaten and tortured him. If adults did to each other what other disciples did to Neave, it would be obvious to anyone how fucked up such behavior was. There was no such thing as a group of innocent individuals. Should it all be burned down, then? No, Neave didn¡¯t believe that. What did he believe in then? By what creed should he live his life? Or should he ept oblivion and let his mind be torn apart by the tides of time? So he asked. What did he want? Then he imagined it. That was what he wanted the most. The rest coulde after he was no longer trapped here. The rest coulde when he was finally trapped back outside. Restart. He was back at the cave, trying to cultivate. For a few moments, he believed it would now magically work. Neave had spent countless years fighting in this realm, so he understood potential pretty damn well. He had gone from being unable to kill the first demon to beating four waves of such demons in a row. He already knew how strong his spirit senses were. After all, he was tested for that when he was five. ording to these two factors, he should have been able to at least sense qi properly by now. But he couldn¡¯t. Neave had already thought of every possible reason why he could not do it. There was only one that made sense. He had been poisoned. At first, he didn¡¯t believe this was possible. His father would have noticed, right? Well, that depended on a few factors. If Neave had been trying to cultivate, his father would have realized something was off. It should have been obvious if he was being poisoned. After all, poisons thatpromised one¡¯s spiritual senses were rarely subtle. Unless¡­ What if, whoever poisoned him, used something like wither slime extract? Or powdered bone from an evolved shadow? Such poisons could theoretically be distilled into mostly their oblivion elements. And if they had used that in tiny doses, there would only be a way to tell if Neave started cultivating. And Neave hadn¡¯t. Not until now. There was another thing that was off with this theory. Such poisons would be prohibitively expensive. Would anybody even have the motivation to use such a costly poison on Neave? Perhaps. Neave thought back to his life in the sect. His father had paid a lot of attention to him, weirdly so. And hadn¡¯t the council tried to sell him off to a man? Who had they tried to marry him to? He wanted to groan as the evidence piled up. Neave had almost certainly gotten caught up with political crap behind the scenes without knowing it. He didn¡¯t care about that now, but he most certainly did care about being poisoned. This was a massive problem. Without a readily avable cure, he knew starting to cultivate would be difficult. No, actually, it was impossible. Hmmm¡­ Well, it wasn¡¯t impossible. Theoretically speaking, there was a solution he could potentially resort to. Usually, cultivators that reached the tinum path, such as his father, could manipte more than just qi. They became capable of also controlling life force. Anyone could achieve this with enough talent and time, even those at just the silver or gold paths. And there was historical evidence that some individuals had achieved this even as mortals. They, however, had an outstanding talent for manipting life force. Neave didn¡¯t. But he didn¡¯t need talent. He had all the time in the world. Chapter 8: Madness Chapter 8: Madness Neave stood atop a smooth, ck, and reflective surface. He faced a simr surface in front of him. Both the floor and the wall adjacent to it were like dark mirrors. A sizeable obsidian boulder had broken in two, creating an incredibly smooth sheet of reflective ss. The part that broke off fell to the ground next to therge boulder and created a smooth reflective floor, while the rest of the remaining stone made a mirror wall. Neave was standing on that mirror surface and¡­ He was dancing. It had been a long while since he had decided to try and learn how to manipte life force. After a hundred and forty deaths by dehydration¡­ He stopped counting. Then he went on for probably just as long or even longer. To say he had made zero progress would be generous. It was more urate to say he had made negative progress. In the beginning, he at least believed it was possible. Then he started doubting the historical records and thought the schrs'' assumptions about life force maniption had been wrong. And finally, after countless failed attempts, the doubt had piled up so high that Neave was starting to believe he might have developed a mental barrier that was stopping him from progressing. He, however, wasn¡¯t going to give up. Life force maniption was apelling ability. It was possible to expend life force to boost your strength, infuse it into objects or living creatures, use it to help recover from injuries, and do many other miraculous feats. He was interested in its ability to help heal virtually every type of ailment or affliction. Well, ¡®heal¡¯ might be a strong word; ¡®partially recover¡¯ would be a more urate phrase. No matter how good one got at manipting life force, regrowing a limb was still believed to be impossible. This could be due to ack of skill with life force maniption, but it was hard to say. Those who could manipte life force were either extremely rare or extremely powerful. The two worst types of subjects if one wanted to get research data. Neave wanted to use his life force to recover his spiritual senses partially. This would be incredibly hard, and the effect would be minuscule, but that was enough. Neave assumed that he could recover one percent at worst and five at best of his spiritual senses. He didn¡¯t need more than point five or even point one percent. He had to recover any amount at all. Then, he could take all the time he wanted and practice gathering qi strands to break into the foundation realm. The added benefit of boosting his physical performance was nothing to scoff at either. Usually, those who could manipte life force never, under any circumstances barring severe threat to life, went under ny-five percent life force. The reason why was that dropping below that much meant that one would be unable to fully replenish their reserves naturally. Extremely expensive treasures could aplish that, like the heart of a crimson horror, but extremely expensive treasures were, well, extremely expensive. If one dropped below twenty percent, the chances of survival plummeted drastically. And anything below ten percent was near guaranteed death unless you could recover your life force with the aforementioned expensive treasures. That was another bonus for Neave. He just didn¡¯t give a shit. Whether he dropped to twenty, ten, or even one percent life force, the moment he died, he would be topped right back up to full. Even if he failed to recover his spiritual senses, it would finally be possible to make progress against the demons. After finally reaching a breaking point, Neave decided to take a break from trying to learn life force maniption. Perhaps a few deaths off and a breather might help him make a breakthrough. So he left the cave and went on a stroll. When he first arrived in this realm, he explored every bit of the surrounding area he could reach within the time it took him to die from thirst. However, not only had he forgotten the overwhelming majority of what he¡¯d discovered, he wasn¡¯t paying much attention to anything that didn¡¯t look like a clue on how to escape. So now he went about it with a bit more of a¡­ Touristic mindset. He found a lot of incredible stuff on his way around the hellscape. At some point, he encountered a small waterfall of pus that dropped into ake of acid. It stank so bad it put even the general stinkiness of the entire realm to shame. For some inexplicable reason, Neave found this hrious. Every time he saw the gooey, yellow pus fall into theke of acid, he couldn¡¯t stop himself fromughing to tears. This wasn¡¯t the only unusual bit of behavior he showed recently. He had encountered a rock falling down a hill entirely at random. The thing was that this rock had fallen from a spot on a hill where tworge and several smaller stones were ced. Neave saw this and cried. ¡°Nooo, not the baby rock! It fell away from mommy and daddy, and now it''s all alone! Nooooo!¡± He attempted to push the rock back up the hill, but when he realized he was way too weak for that, he killed himself and sprinted towards the location of the rock at full speed¡ªall to prevent the boulder from rolling over in the first ce. This was just the start of it. Everything from being angry at ¡®offensively shaped¡¯ obsidian bushes to being envious ofrge stones to flirting with demon number one, whom he had now named Jillean. After attempting to kiss the demon, with varying degrees of sess, he was beginning to realize that he may perhaps be a little¡­ Emotionallypromised. From all the years he had spent here, that was. This wasn¡¯t enough to make him stop, however. He had decided that henceforth the defensive demon of wave three shall be his mortal enemy. Neave named him Harven, and then after killing the other two demons, he faced the defensive one. He dered the defensive demon, or rather Harven, his enemy in no small part because the demon was, well, defensive. This meant that once he killed the other two demons, he had all the time in the world to spew dramatic nonsense at Harven as it waited for him to attack. ¡°... Admit it, you treacherous swine! Jillean refuses to ept me due to your scious ploys! If you refuse to release her from the ckmail and threats, I shall take it upon myself to free her from your grasp!¡± Neave proimed at Harven while pointing the ¡®sword¡¯ he had shaped out of an obsidian branch at his opponent. Harven was somewhat less enthusiastic about the theatrics. Neave had done quite a bit of messing around in the hellish realm. He had gone for ¡®lovely swims¡¯ inkes of blood, spelunking in caves, which were dark and filled with sharp, pointy edges, and even attempted to go hiking up a mountain. It wasn¡¯t his most sessful endeavor. He wanted to climb to the top of one of the mountains. At the very least, to see what the ominous clouds looked like from the inside. Maybe even see what was above them. Who knew? The problem was that the mountains were simply way too tall and inhospitable for eager climbers. He''d have to return to that ideater. After running around a bit more near the starting area, he eventually encountered the mirror wall and floor. His reflection jump scared the shit out of him at first. After all, there weren¡¯t all that many reflective surfaces around, except the obsidian bushes, but those were way too blurry to properly see one¡¯s reflection in them. After inspecting himself in the mirror, he realized that he barely remembered what his face looked like. At first, he used the mirrors very practically. He used them to observe certain martial arts moves he had developed and to see if his form had any faults. At some point, he ran out of moves to perfect so he started making new ones up. As they slowly lost theirbat application, eventually, all he was doing was dancing. And he was getting abnormally good at it. At some point, he got bored of dancing and decided to try against the demons again. He was shocked to find out just how much more efficient he was. The mirrors had revealed a world of movements Neave had never considered inbat. He still lost to the fourth wave anyway. Neave didn¡¯t see much merit in cheesing the fight anymore since he wanted to make actual progress. The problem was that the fourth wave was too much, no matter how he went about it. The main problem were the cowardly and bulky demons. Neave couldn¡¯t do any real damage to the bulky one, try as he may, and he couldn¡¯t catch the cowardly one. The aggressive one was straightforward to deal with, especially with Neave¡¯s improved movements, the skilled one was just in weak, and the tricky one was only problematic if it was close to something it could use. After thoroughly running out of ways to distract himself, Neave finally returned to trying to manipte life force. Then he violently smacked himself in the forehead as he realized what he should have been doing this entire time. Taking the vacation had done wonders for clearing up his mind a bit, and now that he was thinking properly, he finally had a good idea. Neave ignored the demon, ran to a pool of blood, and jumped in. Then he opened his mouth and drank a bit. After clearing his mind, he let himself slowly die in the pond. Then he did the same thing again. And again. After repeating this process countless times, he tried feeling it. What changed? What felt different? Beyond the pain, beyond the fear, beyond the panic of encroaching death. When one¡¯s life left their body, could he sense anything else slipping away? Then he felt it. In the moments before death, it was like a dam broke and a flood of something gushed out. He observed that feeling and internalized it. Then he sat down in the cave. Neave lifted his right hand and imagined the substance flowing out of his body. Soon enough, the cave''s darkness was dispelled by the soft glow of a red cloud of mist sitting atop Neave¡¯s palm. Chapter 9: Potential Chapter 9: Potential The tricky demonyed dead on the ground, several bloody holes gushing putrid blood. The suicidally aggressive demon had been decapitated, and the skilled demon had been disemboweled. Neave stared at the bulky demon as he bit off the bandages holding his obsidian daggers. After freeing his hands, he dodged another rock the cowardly demon threw. Neave faced the bulky demon. It was walking toward him, slowly following him step by step. Neave could corner the cowardly demon by baiting him into an area where it would rain ck ooze, but there was no way to kill the bulky one. He had tried many times to bait the bulky demon onto the suspension bridge and then cut the ropes himself, but that wouldn¡¯t work. It''s not that he couldn¡¯t get it to step onto the bridge, that part was rtively easy, but it only chose to do so if the tricky or cowardly demon stayed behind. Sure, Neave could then cut the ropes and kill the bulky demon. But the other two were stuck on the other side, and Neave couldn¡¯t reach and kill them. Neave tried getting the demon to cross over to the other side and then step back onto the bridge as Neave returned to the other demons. It outright refused even to approach the bridge when he did that. It was like an infuriating puzzle where no matter how you arranged the pieces, there was always one that didn¡¯t fit. This was why he had chosen such a convoluted strategy to defeat the fourth wave. The tricky demon would dly kill off the bulky one if it meant trying to kill Neave. Now, however, well¡­ Neave walked over to a stone twice as big as his head. Then he ignited his life force. His muscles rippled and bulged, his grip tightening on the rock so hard that several hairline cracks started to show along the rough stone. He lifted the rock above his head and flung it at the bulky demon full force. ¡°Die, you fucking bastard!¡± The screaming wasn¡¯t really necessary, but Neave sure felt like it added power to his throws. The stone flew through the air with a whistle and crushed the bulky demon''s chest like it had been flung from a trebuchet. The demon flew back several meters, literally getting lifted off the ground by the force of the impact. It crashed to the ground, blood pouring out of its shattered torso. Neave cackled like a lunatic as his arms and back felt like they would explode from the stress he had ced on them, but he picked up another stone and threw it at the cowardly demon. ¡°And where the fuck do you think you¡¯re going!?¡± The stone hit the demon''s head. Its skull blew apart like a pumpkin, spilling blood and brain matter dozens of meters away. The fifth wave started. Neave, however, was looking a whole lot less lively by now. His skin was grayish, wrinkled, and dry. His hair was white, his eyes sunken, and his limbs were like dry twigs. He looked so wretched one would think he was some sort of undead monster. The archer demon loosed an arrow at his head, and Neave dropped. The arrow missed his head. It didn¡¯t even need to hit him to finish him off. Restart. After Neave finally figured out how to manifest his life force, he was thrilled. Finally, he thought, he could fix his spirit senses and cultivate. He had failed to predict that manipting life force wasn¡¯t quite the same thing as materializing it. At first, he couldn¡¯t do anything with the life force whatsoever. Sure, he could eject it out of his body, but all that allowed him to do was pull a rather impressive magic trick. He could kill himself without moving a muscle. It came packed with an impressive red mist effect. It took him much trial and error, but eventually, he figured out how to ignite his life force. The problem with doing that was that it was like lighting an arid bush on fire. It was impossible to burn down just a little bit. Although he admittedly had a ton of fun messing around with his newly gained power, it was useless in its current form. But he wasn¡¯t just wasting his time or ying around either. He was trying to control the speed at which the life force burned down. He had already slowed it down quite a bit. At first, it ignited and burned to a crisp in less than a second. That allowed for a mighty impressive punch or kick, but he died almost immediately when doing it. Luckily for him, this was something that could be solved rather quickly. After appearing back at the start, he immediately burned his life force. It took about three breaths to burn down to a crisp. Then he died. Restart. He did it again. There wasn¡¯t much point in running to the cave for this one; it just took a few seconds. Restart. So he just kept doing it. After countless attempts, the time it took the life force to burn down could be restrained to about the time it took the demon to reach him. However, instead of leaving the starting area to move to a cave, Neave realized there was something else he could do now. He ignited his life force. Then he extinguished it. He smiled. This time he moved to his little cultivation cave. What he wanted to do next was restrict the burning of the life force to a select few muscles. This was a tall order, but he could limit it to his upper or lower body with rtive ease. After he achieved that, he managed to narrow it down to either the left or right side of his body. Then the left upper side. Then just an arm. Progress was sluggish, but his perception of time was a little skewed, to say the least. It might have been weeks, it might have been months, or it might have even been years. He couldn¡¯t guess if his life depended on it. A certain amount of timeter, he felt satisfied with his progress. He could now restrict the burning of his life force to the muscle that closed the lower eyelid. However, he felt this wasn¡¯t quite what life force maniption was meant to be able to do. At this point, he had good reason to believe that he had made something of a mistake. This wasn¡¯t life force maniption, not how it was described in the books he had read. What sucked with reading several books on a single subject was that they rarely ever fully agreed on something. And how life force maniption was meant to work was one of those scant few things that everybody agreed on. The books described it as being more simr to qi maniption. Neave was doing something that felt like the opposite of what the books said. There, doing something like infusing a muscle with life force was done directly. Those who could manipte life force did it by forcing the energy to go where they wanted. What Neave was doing was more like restricting the life force rather than pushing it. Rather than making it do what he wanted, he stopped it from doing everything else. He put his palm up again and ejected some life force into it. There was no way to get it to move like this. But he was sure those manipting life force could make shapes out of it even when it was outside their body. So he just kept trying to do it. Although he tried doing it, he did it initially with some hesitation. After all, every single time he had just attempted something, he had failed. It always took a trick he didn¡¯t even know that he didn¡¯t know how to do. But he put those feelings aside and gave it a shot. Minutester, he could manipte life force however he pleased. In shock, he stared at the little cloud of red mist as he made cubes of different sizes, a ball, a pyramid, and other simple shapes. Then he made a small house and a tree. Wild blew through the delicate leaves. Then he made a small man. He made that man dance. Soon enough, the top of his palm became a miniature battlefield where countless warriors fought to the death and slew each other inbat. ¡°Okay, what the fuck?¡± Neave was a hundred percent confident that nobody was supposed to be able to control life force like this. All that any of the books he read mentioned was that even cultivators of the diamond path, literal living legends, could only shape it into simple shapes. Even then, making a rough ball was considered the height of aplishment in life force maniption. Comparing that to what Neave could do was likeparing a toddler to a world-ss painter. Perhaps the books were wrong? Neave had to assume that must be the case. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time he found something utterly inurate in the texts he¡¯d read. But could it be possible that all of the books were wrong? Given that he had done more than he was hoping to be able to do in the first ce, Neave was nning to move on to the next stage of his ns. He wanted to fix his spiritual senses. Regardless of his abilities with life force maniption, he had no idea where to begin. Literally. He had tried several things that might work, but one¡¯s spirit wasn¡¯t like a limb. The spirit could vaguely be separated into two main structures. The spirit core, or rather, one¡¯s soul and the outer spirit. Usually, when someone said spirit, they referred to just the external spirit, whereas the term ¡®soul¡¯ was used for the spirit core. Spirit senses were in the domain of the spirit. While one''s soul was intangible, invible, andpletely closed to outside interference, one¡¯s spirit was more open to renovation. This would make for a rtively simple fix for Neave. If he could sense his spirit, that was. The problem withpromised spiritual senses was that Neave needed them to sense his spirit in the first ce. Since Neave couldn¡¯t do that, he just had to throw things at the wall and hope something sticks. Neave had tried quite a bit, but it seemed impossible. How do you target something you can¡¯t perceive? Neave paused and thought of something. He may be unable to target something he couldn¡¯t see, but what if he excluded everything he could? Then he tried infusing his life force while restricting it from influencing his body or escaping it. Agony. Unfathomable torment, pain, and darkness. Restart. There were few types of pain that even remotely bothered Neave anymore. For the first time in many years, Neave shook like a leaf in the wind. And he wept. What the hell was that? After the initial shock had passed he figured out what he had done. He shattered his spirit. And the feeling of having his spirit cracked like an egg echoed even through his soul. Yet he ignored the pain. He rejected the consequences. There was something he needed to do. Neave took a deep breath. He isted only his spirit. Then he flooded it with all of the life force he had. *** Stolen from oneself, a fleeting moment. The link to being, shattered to powder. A soulid bare, intangible, invible. Immortal. Eyes belong to those who are, so it cannot see. The circuits of thought severed, it cannotprehend. It needs not the limitations of mortal means. For etched into even the beyond are myriad manifestations. Fruits of potential, ripe to be picked. Seeds of power, asking to be buried. So it rejects the restrictions of mortal games. For It would be shackled by infinite chains. Restart. Chapter 10: Foundation Chapter 10: Foundation Neave stood in front of the fourth-wave demons. His body was bloody, several fingers shattered, and he was already beginning to look drained of life force. He charged at the bulky demon and smashed its head off with a rather heavily lifeforce-infused kick. He dropped to the ground, drained of energy, his leg shattered and bloody. Restart. Then he charged at the demon again and started yet another rampage. Neave was angry. Interesting things, let alone exciting ones, happened extremely rarely in this hellish ce. And just recently, one of those things slipped through his fingers. He felt like he had experienced something when he identally shattered his spirit. He had to do it again to get a clearer image. The thing was, he didn¡¯t know what he had experienced. Even more frustratingly, he had this vague feeling that shattering his spirit again would be pointless. So he used the excuse of ¡®practicing his life force maniption¡¯ to blow some steam off. Restart. After dying several times, Neave decided it was time to continue seriously exploring his options for recovering his spirit senses. Back to the cultivation cave he went. Now he conveniently had another option. He was very confident it would work. The way life force was used to recover from afflictions and injuries was simr to how it was used to enhance one''s physical performance. First, it was forced into the desired location, and then it was burned. The difference was that one wasn¡¯t allowed to move during the process. When it was done like that, instead of getting spent on movement or action, the life force was spent on recovery. Neave discovered that some of this recovery still happened even if he moved. At first, this seemed like a waste of life force, so he used the same restriction technique to stop it from doing that. Then he had a thought. Why couldn¡¯t he do the same thing but the other way around? He had already tried doing this for his body, and the results were frightening. Sealing a gaping flesh wound in seconds was possible by restricting the life force only to recovery. Well, under the restriction that he had to grab it and manually close it with his hand first. So he just did the same thing, but for his spirit. The difference between the body and the spirit was that the spirit was always ¡®moving.¡¯ Or rather, it was always active in many ways that eluded conscious control. So Neave simply restricted the life force from being spent on any sort of boost to anything. Then he put around one percent of his life force into his spirit. He hoped this would result in the energy being used for recovery and not shattering his spirit. And he seemed to be correct. Some of his energy was spent and drained on something. Neave didn¡¯t feel any different. But he knew a sure way to tell. He took a deep breath. Then he tried cultivating. Immediately, countless thin strands of qi fluttered through his spiritual senses. He jolted his eyes open in rm. Okay, that was far greater than recovering just a bit of his spirit senses. He chuckled in pure, unadulterated mirth. He¡¯d done it. Neave seeded. He was just now realizing how tremendous this aplishment was. It was true that the nature of this realm made incredible feats like this possible, but it didn¡¯t make them simple. He could have just given up at any point of the journey and spent eternity staring nkly into nothing and getting killed repeatedly. He gave himself a pat on the back. Literally. After all, he deserved it! But it wasn¡¯t yet time to celebrate. The moment had finally arrived. Neave couldn¡¯t help but still feel a little bit of resistance toward the idea of cultivation. Then he grabbed that resistance and shattered it into a million bits. Neave focused. He observed the strands of qi floating through his spiritual senses. He knew what all of them signified. A single, fluttering mote of light burned softly in the depths of his soul. This one was the potential of a single dagger strike. He reached out to it and grabbed it, then ced it into the center of his spirit. Then he grabbed the potential of dodging. The potential of strength. The potential of life force. The potential of dancing. The potential of¡­ Restart. Neave opened his eyes. ¡°Huh?¡± He muttered in confusion. What happened? He died from something, but he couldn¡¯t think of a single reason why that would have happened. So he went back to his cave and started cultivating again. Although he knew this would happen when he died, he still felt dismayed that he had to heal his spirit senses again and start from the beginning. But that dismay didn¡¯tst for long. After all, if his spirit wasn¡¯t also reset every time he died, shattering his spirit would have been the absolute end of him. This time he sat down and cultivated again. He gathered the strands of potential, but at some point, perhaps after a few minutes of cultivation, he opened his eyes. It hadn¡¯t been a few minutes. It had been days. And he was close to dying from thirst again. ¡°Oh, heavens damn it, fuck this shit!¡± However, he knew exactly what was happening, and he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Cultivation required one to sink into their spiritual senses to gather strands of qi. However, the body was still doing its own thing. Usually, young disciples, especially small children, couldn¡¯t cultivate longer than a few hours¡ªthe reason why was simple; boredom. While you did sink into your spiritual senses where the perception of time felt skewed, your body and brain still felt everything they usually felt. Eventually, the feeling of boredom, thirst, hunger, or any other of the myriad distractions that upied the mind forced people out of their concentration. Neave was already wholly used to ignoring all distractions, including but not limited to the desire for sleep, boredom, bodily functions, hunger, and even lethal dehydration. This upset Neave since it meant that he was slow at cultivating. Slower than he had hoped he¡¯d be. But if there was one thing he was used to doing by now, it was repeating the same thing until he got good at it. Restart. *** Within his spirit senses, Neave gathered the strands of qi and put them into his center. He was building a small ball, a core shining brighter than any star. The foundation upon which his body and spirit would grow. But it hadn¡¯t formed. Not yet. It was still just loose threads of qi pressed together. They had not yet fused into a core. However, Neave could sense they were so, so close. He then reached out to a strand. The potential of throwing an object. But he felt it wouldn¡¯t suffice. He was running out of time and needed something else, something with greater potential. He thought back to his life in this realm. To all he had seen, all he had conquered. A concept shed through his spirit, and he saw a strand. This strand shone brighter than any other strand he had ever seen. And he grasped it. He grasped the potential of perseverance. And then he ced it onto his core. Neave opened his eyes. He was incredibly close to dying, practically knocking on death''s door. Or rather, he had been. He watched as a bright golden mist enveloped his body, seeping into his every pore and nourishing every cell. Neave felt his skin tighten, his muscles harden, his bones toughen, and his mind sharpen. Everything he was had suddenly expanded and grown to be more than its meager, mortal self. He cackled. Then heughed. It was a pure, joyousugh, one with a great deal of irony to it. He felt he would cry, too, if he weren¡¯t so dehydrated. If someone had told him he¡¯d be moved to tears by breaking into the foundation realm, he would have bitten them and called them an idiot. He was still about to die. Someone in the foundation realm could easily live two weeks without water, but that was under the assumption they weren¡¯t already about to die when they broke in. Neavemented the fact that he would lose this. He would die and go back to being a mortal once again. He rejoiced at one thing. He would get to experience this feeling as many times as he pleased. *** Neave was starting to get seriously tired of breaking into the foundation realm. He had already done it countless times. The problem was that he had to get fast enough to achieve it in under a minute. Or at least a few minutes. A mind-bogglingly fast breakthrough into the foundation realm, but one necessary for his progress. Well, not strictly necessary, but it was, well¡­ The problem was that he had to cut the suspension bridge to get some privacy from the demon. But that also meant that he was stuck on the other side of the ravine. Cultivators at the foundation realm may be more powerful than most mortals, but they were barely superhuman. Being a cultivator at the foundation realm ced Neave halfway to what a determined mortal could achieve through training. An adult mortal with a lot more muscle mass than Neave, that was. If Neave had the body of a well-trained adult, entering the foundation realm would mean kissing mortal limits goodbye for good. Unfortunately for Neave, a skinny, out-of-shape eleven-year-old boy couldn¡¯t entirely escape human limitations yet. Sadly, some of these mortal limits included the inability to jump over a long-ass ravine. This ravine wasrge enough that not even a well-trained adult could do it. Technically, Neave could make it across the ravine if he used his life force. He tried and seeded even. The problem was that it required too much life force and shattered his knees, which made it a little pointless, to say the least. Neave could achieve the foundation realm in around a few hours. Sure, he could run from the demon in a random direction, break into the foundation realm and then look for the demon, but that sounded like a massive pain in the ass. So he decided he¡¯d practice until he reached his desired goal. The ability to break into the foundation realm before the demon could even reach him. The problem was that this took a lot of work to achieve. More so than most things he¡¯d tried to do so far. It became exponentially more difficult to shorten the time needed to cultivate the more progress he made. He decided to take another short break before he dedicated what would likely be years of work to achieving this goal. Neave was surprised at how many things he wanted to try doing. He wanted to explore caves, climb mountains or even run in a random direction to see what he found. He decided on dancing first since he thought he could finally do some of the more strength-demanding moves he wanted to try. He admired his newly improved looks in the mirror when he arrived. With every improvement one made in cultivation, their face also got more beautiful. And Neave''s face was already exceptionally attractive. Now he looked like some sort of idealistic doll, rather than a real human being. He wondered what he''d look like if he ever reached the diamond path. He shook his head and returned to what he was about to do. He started dancing. And immediately noticed something strange. He winced as he moved around. His movements felt¡­ Well, some of his movements felt alright, but others just felt¡­ Gross. Wrong. He felt something unusual with his spirit senses and within his life force. His life force and qi moved with every action he took. The problem was that some dance moves he thought looked nice or cool felt disgusting. A strange sense of incongruity in his body made him feel queasy. He tried strong-arming his qi and lifeforce into staying put as he moved, but he felt this just made the awful feeling worse. He contemted not breaking through to the foundation realm and returning to practicing as a mortal, but he eventually caved in and tried to listen to this weird new sensation. It was much moreplicated than he initially thought. He found himself repeating the same movement hundreds of times until he finally felt satisfied with how it felt. After doing this for a while, he began noticing something somewhat strange. When he let this feeling guide him, he felt that the movements he made were strangely¡­ Efficient? Clean? He groaned. It wasn¡¯t that. The sensations he touched through his spirit were still new to him, so he struggled to pinpoint what he felt. While practicing a particr series of moves, he noticed a strange phenomenon. Everything felt right up until a certain point, where no matter what he did, he just felt like something broke. No matter what move he made, it would never be the right one. He contemted moving on and trying something else but feltpelled to explore this further. It was a dance move that required him to take two rather delicate steps and then jump. But thending was the problem. No matter how hended, one foot, two feet, on his head, after a backflip, a front flip, a spin, or a double diagonal spin, it just didn¡¯t matter. The moment he touched the ground, the sequence broke. So he got the idea to try and imbue his foot with qi as hended. This felt slightly less wrong, but he still needed the exact move and the exact qi flow. Eventually, however, he took a step forward, then a second step, and jumped. Neave lifted his arms slightly upward. As his qi-imbued foot touched the ground, the sensation felt perfect. And he appeared ten meters in front of where he should havended instead. Chapter 11: Might Chapter 11: Might Neave looked down at his feet. Then back to the mirrors. Then back again at his feet. Did¡­ Did I just teleport? He did the same thing again. Neave appeared around ten meters ahead of where his foot touched the ground. Oh heavens. I¡¯ve just teleported. Neave knew about movement techniques. But movement techniques were fast dashes at their absolute best. Was this just an impossibly quick dash? He approached a nearby obsidian bush. Neave was about to do the same thing and see whether he would appear behind the bush or get shredded to bits. First step¡­ Second step¡­ Jump. And he appeared behind the bush. Then he repeated the same thing with arge boulder. And he appeared behind it as well. Neave was bewildered. How had he possibly managed to do this? He had to ask himself whether differentws of reality governed the realm he found himself in. After all, he had never heard of someone who could teleport without a spirit power. And it was only something insane like a legend golem could provide a monster core holding such a power. If he returned to his sect and disyed this ability, he would probably be hailed as a once in a thousand years prodigy of his sect. Hell, he was confident that even his stepmothers would kiss his ass if he asked them to. After all, being able to do this was, well, a miracle. Neave couldn¡¯t help but wonder exactly what else he was able to achieve. So he went back to the mirrors. And he once again started dancing. *** Neave had a habit of getting carried away. That habit had been brought to full force within the loop, seeing how there were no negative consequences to doing so. After his initial discovery, Neave tried countless different movements. At first, he didn¡¯t feel like it had been that long since he started, but he realized something. Given that he first achieved the foundation realm and then started doing his dancing, he must have had at least a week''s worth of time until he died of dehydration. The body of somebody within the foundation realm was significantly more durable than the body of a mortal. Neave believed that he used to only have around a day before. Now he must have at least a week. That would exin why he felt he was improving impossibly fast. He was still assuming he had the same amount of time as he used to. It seemed strange to Neave that he¡¯d make such a mistake. After all, how couldn¡¯t he tell the difference between a day or a week passing? But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He¡¯d realized several things about the perception of time in general. First, he¡¯d learned that the amount of time that had passed was irrelevant. What mattered most was what information Neave could use to extrapte how much time had passed. He had built the assumption that from when he started his dancing to when he dropped deadsted only around a day. It could be less or more, but that was his estimate. Now that he was in the foundation realm, he still felt like the same amount of time was passing, even though it took several times longer. These were simply idle thoughts. The reality of it was that Neave just didn¡¯t care how much time was passing. After all, he was having tons of fun. Neave had discovered hundreds of different possible movements that achieved all sorts of incredible results. Anything from dashes to jumps to blinks to slides, he even learned countless so-called footing techniques. The most impressive he had discovered was the ability to walk on liquid surfaces. He theorized that walking on thin air might also be possible, but he had concluded that was only possible with more power. The reason why he made this assumption was simple. He had already discovered several movement techniques capable of dashing in the middle of the air, but they were incredibly intensive and required a drastic amount of concentration. Eventually, he started running out of discoveries, which was incredibly disappointing. It wasn¡¯t just disappointing, either. Neave was quite confident that he was addicted to discovering crazy new possibilities. Since he had stopped finding new movement techniques, he had been experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Neave would shake, break out into cold sweat and feel sick if he didn¡¯t progress for a while. And now these withdrawal symptoms had pushed him into doing something¡­ Utterly insane. There was a type of movement that could usually be executed only at the golden path. There were records of it being achieved as early as the bronze path, but those asions were mostly coincidental. Neave was standing and just punching in front of him. He took a stance and punched. Then he did it again. He repeated this movement countless times. Neave had, somewhere along the lines, concluded that his potent perception of qi and life force was why he felt this intuitive guidance to his movements. Butpared to executing even the most challenging movement techniques he¡¯d done so far, the thing he was attempting was far moreplex. The problem was that he didn¡¯t sense any wrongness with his punches. Whenever he punched it felt fine, mostly. He did, however, feel a rightness with his punches. Some punches were better than others, but this was a minuscule difference. Neave was exceptionally disappointed to find out that his intuitive senses didn¡¯t work on other types of qi techniques for some reason. Attack and defense techniques worked differently from movement techniques. Movement techniques weren¡¯t simple, but they were much more straightforward to practice, at least for Neave. The target of movement techniques was one¡¯s own body and the space it traveled within. These two were always precisely, or at least, mostly the same. On the other hand, the targets of attack and defense techniques were opponents and their attacks. These could take infinite different forms. There wasn¡¯t a right or wrong way to attack an opponent or block their strikes. After all, different types of opponents and attacks required different responses. One couldn¡¯t use the ¡®exact same punch¡¯ on two different targets to the same effect. Punching someone shorter than oneself could mean punching them in the face, while punching someone taller could mean punching them in the stomach. Or even lower than that. The punch was the same either way, but the result was entirely different. So Neave had reluctantly taken a break from attempting to learn qi techniques independently. He hoped he¡¯d be able to figure at least some of them out, but martial arts and cultivation manuals were as valuable as they were for a reason. Neave hated that he never ''lowered himself'' and just fucking read one. It took the work of generations of cultivators to figure out enough qi techniques to make an actual path out of them. Neave was arrogant, but even he didn¡¯t believe he could achieve something like that without a ton of work. However, he wasn¡¯t attempting to. Not yet at least. Neave was attempting something different. It wasn¡¯t strictly a qi technique, even if it did require qi to execute. It didn¡¯t count as a qi technique because it didn¡¯t consume any qi. Nor did it cause any fatigue to the individual that performed it. Neave took a stance and then threw another punch. This time, he felt something unusual. It wasn¡¯t rightness or wrongness, but it was rather more like resonance. So he kept repeating that same punch. He changed his footing, his torso rotation, which muscles he focused on, and just kept looking for more of that feeling. Then he straightened his back and took a stance. He stepped one foot forward, and itnded with a resonant thud. His torso rotated, but it felt like he was making the entire world revolve around him, rather than the other way around. As he pushed his arm forward, bright, shining golden runes appeared out of thin air around him. He finished the punch. It cracked as the air imploded in front of his fist, pushing dust and debris away from him. A true strike. He had executed a true strike at the foundation realm. He smiled like a lunatic. Neave¡¯s eyes rolled back in pleasure. ¡°That¡¯s the stuff.¡± There was nothing quite like achieving that breakthrough. Neave immediately expended all of his life force to kill himself. Restart. After all, he had a job to do. He needed to cultivate until he could break into the foundation realm in less time than it took the demon to reach him because he couldn¡¯t wait to try his new strategies inbat. *** Neave stood before demon one with his eyes closed, deep in concentration. Just as the demon was about to reach him, he opened his eyes and dodged the iing attack. Golden mist enveloped his body, and he broke into the foundation realm. He took a stance and threw a punch. The demon''s ribs cracked, and it flew back a bit, thrown by the force of Neave¡¯s strike. Neave clicked his tongue and expended his life force. Restart. He had achieved his goal of breaking into the foundation realm before the demon could reach him. It took him an ungodly amount of time. He doubted he could have powered through it if not for the skewed sense of time he experienced when cultivating. And now he was just trying to execute a true strike against the demon. To his immeasurable disappointment, it was much more challenging than he expected. After all, executing a true strike against empty air and hitting an opponent werepletely different concepts. True strikes were notoriously rarely seen in actualbat. Opponents rarely allowed someone to set one up. Even cultivators on the diamond path knew only up to a dozen or so different true strikes. They weren¡¯t always the optimal move to make against an opponent. Neave had read a book that talked about true strikes. The author made aparison to chess. True strikes were like a check. If it wasn¡¯t a checkmate, it could even be a mistake. It took much more to checkmate someone than it did to check them. This wasn¡¯t the problem Neave was having right now. The thing that was making it difficult for Neave was just timing. True strikes happened when one perfectly, or close to perfectly, matched the free movement of qi through their body to the movement of their spirit. Well, Neave had to replicate that feat, which was aplished through no small amount of luck, mind you, while also focusing on timing the attack correctly against his opponent. This wasn¡¯t particrly easy. Neave kept attempting the true strike since he desperately wanted to see what it would do against the demon. Taking on theter waves was secondary to seeing his cool new move in action. So he kept trying until his footnded with that same resonant thud. Demon one, or as Neave sometimes called it, Jillean, exploded in a rain of guts, limbs, and gore as Neave¡¯s punchnded on its midsection. Neave quivered at the sensation. That was so worth it. As wave two approached, he stretched his arms and got to work. Then he paused as he realized he didn¡¯t have a weapon, so he grabbed his trusty obsidian daggers. Then he went back to the demons and looked down at the daggers. Should I tie them to my hands? ¡°Hmmmmm¡­¡± Whatever, fuck it. He threw the daggers away and fought the demons with his bare hands. *** Neave faced the bulky and cowardly demons. He was rtively uninjured so far. The hyper-aggressive demon got a beautifully timed kick to its head, the skilled demon had its neck twisted and snapped, and Neave just picked up and threw the tricky demon into a pit out of spite. The cowardly demon stood far away and threw rocks. Neave took a few steps forward and appeared behind the cowardly demon. Neave¡¯s hand met with the demon¡¯s spine, and the satisfying crunch made Neave feel like things were finally right. He then faced the bulky demon. Neave hadn¡¯t used any life force so far except what he needed to fix his spiritual senses. He wasn¡¯t confident he could take the bulky demon out without a weapon or burning any life force. However, he was most certainly going to try. Neave twisted in ce and jumped over ten meters into the air. Then he spun around, swinging his arms and straightening his leg out. Suddenly, he flew forward at incredible speed, his foot meeting the bulky demon''s head. Neave felt the excessive strain on his knee and cursed his still rather weak body. The demon was thrown back a bit, but it lifted its arm to attempt to grab Neave¡¯s leg. Neave, however, twisted his other leg, pressed it into the demon¡¯s face, and went flying away from the demon. He fluttered his legs, and the speed he fell slowed slightly, allowing him tond with rtive grace. ¡®Rtive¡¯ was the key word here. Not all movement techniques involved graceful movements, but that was alright with Neave for as long as they got the job done. Neave knew that this wasn¡¯t going to be easy. He gritted his teeth and ran at the demon again. The demon''s attacks were very well-telegraphed and easy to read, but the moment it started its attack, it could move at frightening speeds. This used to be a problem for Neave. Now it no longer was. But the demon was just so damn tough. Neave hadn¡¯t given up. He kept jumping at the demon, trying to focus his strongest attacks on its head. He could only barely enhance his attacks by expending extra qi, but he avoided doing this. Using qi without a proper technique was just a massive waste. It wasn¡¯t worth the investment. He still hadn¡¯t spent any of his life force. His pride wouldn¡¯t let him resort to that. Eventually, while dodging a kick, Neave used a sliding movement technique to move behind the demon''s back. Then he took a step forward. To even his surprise, he felt the resonant thud of a true strike. His fist hit the demon''s massive hamstring, and he could feel its femur shattering into countless bits. The rippling of the flesh looked like a stone dropped into a pond as the force of the strike dissipated in a wave. The demon fell over to the ground, gushing tons of blood from its shattered leg. Then it died. And Neave turned around. He had forgotten this feeling. Neave could finally seriously attempt to defeat the fifth wave. As he sprinted at the swordsman demon, it took a swing, but Neave sidestepped it and punched its face. The punch wasn¡¯t even close to being as effective as Neave predicted. Before Neave could recover and change his strategy, the demon¡¯s sword was enveloped in a green mist. An arrow flew into Neave¡¯s back and out of his stomach as the swordsman demon executed a qi technique and bisected Neave head to toe. Restart. Neave stood back at the start. He wasn''t angry or disappointed. Instead, he smiled. An ominous smile was stered on his face from ear to ear. He grabbed his daggers. And faced the demon. Red, flickering embers lit up around him as he ignited his life force. I wonder if the fifth wave will be thest. Chapter 12: Transcendence Chapter 12: Transcendence Neave had initially believed that letting loose and using his life force would make the fifth wave easy. He was sorely wrong. Even with weapons, he still failed to beat the fifth wave initially. The main problem was that these demons had exceptional teamwork. They used the simple strategy of swordsman chasing Neave, shieldsman covering the archer, and the archer pelting Neave with arrows. However, Neave wouldn¡¯t suffer this much if that was all they were doing. He had attempted several times to skip over the shieldsman and kill the archer first. However, the archer seemed to have a supernatural instinct for what Neave was about to do. Before Neave could even reach the archer, it was already jumping back over the shieldsman. It was quick, too, but it didn¡¯t need to be particrly fast. It never moved far from the shieldsman, after all. Getting to the other side didn¡¯t take more than a single jump. Neave gave it several attempts, but he started getting rather frustrated after a while. He had tried movement techniques to get to the archer, spending life force to brute force past the shieldsman. He even tried letting them tire themselves out. It always felt like he was losing on technicalities or stupid mistakes. He appeared behind the sword demon. The demon wasn¡¯t attacking in that direction, but it just happened to be pulling its sword back into a swing. And Neave moved right into the path of the sword. Restart. Neave used a movement technique to dodge the swordsman. And moved into the path of an iing arrow. Restart. Dashed and bumped into the shield demon. Restart. Used a movement technique to get into the air, where he effectively became a y pigeon as the archer nailed him right in the head Restart. Failed a movement technique and got impaled. Restart. Failed a true strike and suffered a counterattack. Restart. Tripped. Somehow miraculously recovered. And then failed to dodge the sword. Restart. Again and again, he kept making idiotic mistakes. And he couldn¡¯tprehend why he kept failing like this. He found himself in a fight where he attempted to use a movement technique to dodge an attack and put himself in a position to use a true strike. He simply failed to connect the steps. It was only then that it hit him. He quite literally could have just jumped forward and achieved the same result. It was true that he had the power now. But dear heavens, did he suck at utilizing it. Worse, he kept stubbornly trying to fight by chaining as manyplex steps as possible, but this was rarely necessary. He took a step back. He would develop a proper fighting style without anyplex stuff first. Then he would slowly add movement techniques and true strikes to his repertoire. It was time to go back to the start. Step one. Dodging. *** Neave fought his way to the fifth wave as efficiently as he could. Simple strikes straight into weak points. And then, when he reached the fifth wave, he dodged. This time, however, he wasn¡¯t practicing dodging the same way he practiced it with Jillean. Rather than just focusing on not getting hit, Neave was trying to always be in the best position to strike. He didn¡¯t just dodge the attacks that came flying his way. He also moved to where he believed he would be in the optimal position to strike. All he was doing was maintaining that position as long as he could. Neave had done a lot of work to optimize his movement techniques. He¡¯d noticed that only some of the movement techniques, or less than twenty of the ones he had learned, were good. The rest were either too specialized, redundant or just bad. Some among the specialized ones he believed he could use in certain scenarios, but those made for only a handful of techniques. He¡¯d counted all of the techniques he knew; there were four hundred and seventy-seven. That meant that only less than five percent of the techniques were good. It didn''t necessarily feel like a waste since it was too many to even really use effectively. If any experienced cultivator knew he was thinking those words, they¡¯d cough up blood in anger. Only twenty movement techniques? The vast majority of cultivators knew either one, two, or none. And teleporting without a spirit power, at least to Neave''s admittedly limited knowledge on the topic, had yet to be discovered. Neave was going to keep just dodging until he could do it so long he died of exhaustion. Or rather, that was his initial n. He had failed to predict how much more time he had now that he was a cultivator. His opponents could also use qi and even seemed to possess some qi techniques. Ironically this meant that they got spent rather quickly. Neave had, within rtively few attempts, managed to exhaust both the swordsman and the archer. He was surprised that the archer seemed to possess infinite arrows it pulled out of thin air. The shieldsman was, well, not the most active member of this trio, so Neave couldn¡¯t even really exhaust it. Or so he thought until he ran circles around the demon who kept spinning to try and block him from attacking. Neave had an exceptionally convenient movement technique for this exact scenario. There was a technique he could use that let him effectively glide along any surface on the tips of his toes. So Neave vs. shieldsman demon looked like an ice skater spinning circles around a spinning top. Neave honestly felt what he was doing bordered on bullying. The shieldsman demon was eventually exhausted, and Neave chose to kill the demons just to see what the next wave looked like. Then he paused. Next wave? Was there even a next wave? Neave hesitated for quite a while. What if killing these demons meant being freed from this realm? He hadn¡¯t considered the option until now but felt reluctant to do it. It was bizarre how much he felt like he was at home now. He had something to strive towards, was immortal, and could honestly do whatever he pleased. There was so much he still felt like he wanted to do here, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel it would be a shame to throw it away too lightly. However, he decided that killing the demons was the best course of action. He was taking a risk by doing it, but some part deep inside him felt it had had enough. So no matter what happened, Neave thought he would be okay with it. He killed the three demons with an obsidian dagger and waited. Neave stood frozen as dark figures began appearing around him. Demons. A lot of demons. He did a quick head count and saw that twenty. They all had different weapons. Not just that. They had distinctly different body shapes, as well. Before he could blink, a small demon wielding a dagger ran up to him and cut at his legs. Neave dodged. However, immediately after escaping, a spiky ball on a chain flew toward him at incredible speed. He used a movement technique to get out of the way, but a ridiculously tall demon smashed him with a tremendous sledgehammer when he appeared. Restart. *** Neave had reached the sixth wave many times throughout his countless attempts. He had yet to survive longer than a few minutes. Neave had encountered a massive spike in difficulty whenever he defeated a wave of demons. By far, this was the greatest increase in difficulty he had seen yet. It wasn¡¯t even a challenge. It was just in torture. Neave felt utterly helpless against the horde of demons. They used intricate strategies. In some cases, the demons had many different attack, defense, and even movement techniques. They were all stronger than he was, and their weapons were no joke. The demons were also incredibly unique, and their styles and approach tobat made it quite hard for Neave to learn their different patterns and behaviors. He had been doing his best to learn about all the various demons: Demon one: Average muscr male build, uses a hatchet and a small buckler. It can use a swift attack technique and a moderately powerful defense technique. Demon two: Average skinny male build, uses a short sword with incredible skill. Has so far demonstrated six different attack techniques, all incredibly lethal. Demon three: Average fat male build, uses a massive double-edged war axe. Has only one attack technique. It makes its axe unbelievably heavy and multiplies the momentum of its strikes. Even if it misses me directly, the shockwave tends to throw me off bnce, deafen, or pelt me with shards of stone. Demon four: Tall male build, uses a short bow with poison-coated arrows. A powerful movement technique lets it escape and reposition at a high ground. Demon five: Short, muscr male build, uses twin hammers. It is rtively weakpared to most other demons, but it asionally resorts to throwing its hammers. It''s incredibly good at catching me off guard. Demon six: Short skinny female build, uses a longsword. It possesses impossible strength for its size. It might be equal to a higher cultivation rank. It isn¡¯t particrly fast, and dodging its attacks is easy. Almost certain death if the attacksnd. Demon seven: Tall, muscr male build, uses no weapons. Its attacks are rtively easy to dodge, but it does possess several movement techniques that let it stay on top of me. Demon eight: Tall skinny male build, uses throwing daggers. Its long arms allow it to throw daggers at ridiculous speeds. I have to prioritize dodging its attacks at all costs. Demon nine: Superhumanly tall skinny build, wields a titanic sledgehammer. Most destructive demon by far. Attacks can cause small earthquakes. Demon ten: Exceptionally tiny build, uses twin daggers. Tricky and possesses several attack techniques and a very reliable movement technique. Demon eleven: Morbidly obese build, has a spiky metal ball tethered to a chain. It barely ever moves from where it appears. All it does is throw the spiky ball and pull it back. The weapon is lethal. Demon twelve: Inhuman build, walks on all fours, has spikes growing all over its body. It charges at me at full speed and leaps in an attempt to impale me. Demon thirteen: Above average height, male build, strangely muscr (?), wields a scythe. This demon is rtively harmless. All it does is swing its scythe around slowly. However, it tends to remain where it''s pretty difficult to reach. I¡¯m keeping an eye on it. Demon fourteen: Slightly short, muscr male build, uses a spear. Has a high-speed attack technique with an extensive range. Keeping distance is advisable. Demon fifteen: Moderately tall, stocky male build, uses a halberd. It doesn¡¯t have powerful techniques, but it wields the halberd with decent skill. Demon sixteen: Average male build, uses a mace and a shield. Has a potent defensive technique. Demon seventeen: Tall female build, uses throwing javelins. Its ranged attacks aren¡¯t very precise, but it can dual-wield the javelins with incredible skill. Demon eighteen: Inhuman build, has no arms, is very tall, bites. Its saliva is exceptionally corrosive and poisonous. asionally uses a spit attack. Demon neen: Is shaped vaguely like a strange demon horse. It doesn¡¯t possess any special attacks besides a charge Demon twenty: Average male build, wears armor and rides on top of demon neen, uses an executioner''s sword as a weapon. Neave felt stuck fighting against this ragtag army of demons. The sheer number of different attacks and techniques they could throw at him made it impossible to keep track of everything. After being put back to the start for what had probably been several hundred times at this point, Neave knew he would have to change his approach to fighting the demons if he wanted to see sess. He tried doing the same old ¡®dodge until you die from exhaustion¡¯ strategy, but that was a lost cause. The problem was that unless he dealt with some of the demons immediately, the moment they surrounded him, he was utterly screwed. He could use movement techniques and practice all he wanted, but the sheer density and frequency of different attacks meant that he spent almost all his qi at a rapid pace. So the choice was either ¡®get surrounded and crushed by countless attacks¡¯ or ¡®perpetually use movement techniques to get some distance but run out of qi.¡¯ Neave had decided that, at least initially, he would focus on optimizing his fighting style against the three demons of wave five. All he had done so far was get rtively decent at dodging. He could delegate the dodging practice to wave six while he moved on to step two with wave five. After a while of working under this quite intensive training regime, he realized something potentially useful. He didn¡¯t know any attack or defense techniques, but didn¡¯t he have plenty of role models for that? Neave spent a ton of time observing the swordsman demon of wave five, hoping to figure out his sword technique. That was apletely lost cause. If it were possible to observe someone wielding a technique and then replicate it, nobody could keep their techniques a secret. But Neave wasn¡¯t someone who gave up easily. Instead, he took care of the swordsman, grabbed his sword, killed the archer, and left the shieldsman to its devices. He would learn a damn technique himself. After all, how hard could it possibly be? ¡­ Impossible. Neave had already gotten proficient at wielding the demon''s sword, which was a sturdy and reliable iron sword. However, after he swung it millions, if not billions of times, he was starting to lose hope it was possible to learn a qi technique. He knew this was another case of not knowing that he didn¡¯t know something. He could imbue the sword with qi, but this wasn¡¯t a real qi technique. It was wildly inefficient, after all. He was seriously close to giving up, so he decided to take a break and focus on learning to use the sword without any qi techniques. He was doing a simple downward swing and was getting pretty good at it. Then he lifted the sword, preparing to strike. Then he felt a deep resonance in the de, whistling as golden runes lit up around him. He swung the de with incredible force, cutting the air apart and sending a flying strike that left a shallow cut in the soil several meters before him. ¡­? It took his brain several seconds to catch up with what had just happened. And Neave grinned. Indeed, he may not be able to learn any qi techniques, but did he need them? No, he didn¡¯t. If it took him a million years, he vowed that he would transcend beyond the need for petty attack or defense techniques. After all, he might as well save the qi for his movement techniques. He lifted the sword again to keep practicing. Immediately afterward, he once again heard the same resonant whistle. Neaveughed and swung the sword down, deepening the cut in the soil. Chapter 13: Reaper Chapter 13: Reaper The swordsman demon ran straight at Neave and readied itself for a qi technique. Neave stepped forward and sent a true strike flying to its face, caving its skull in and stealing its sword. ¡°Thank you very much, bestie, kisses and hugs!¡± Neave had spent a while practicing true strikes. That was to say that he couldn''t even pretend he had a realistic estimate of how much time he¡¯d spent doing it. There was one thing he could say for certain. The practice had paid off. Drastically. Neave had learned the true strikes for countless different attacks. He had also learned that there was something of a side-effect to overusing them. If he did too many true strikes in a short period, especially if it was the same true strike, he began feeling vague spiritual exhaustion. At first, he ignored it since he¡¯d be quite adept at handling pain by now, but then¡­ His spirit copsed. It wasn¡¯t quite shattered, but it suffered a lot of damage due to true strike abuse. Neave had assumed that there would be some consequences to abusing them. After all, they cost neither mundane physical energy nor qi, so there had to be a catch, right? That catch was spiritual exhaustion. But it was far from a severe issue to Neave. Even pouring a tiny amount of life force into his spirit seemed to fix the damage. Neave sometimes forgot that using life force like this was a death sentence for anyone, hell, even for him. But within the confines of this realm, he didn¡¯t have to care about how he spent it because he didn¡¯t have to care about death. Neave had developed a martial arts style over thest many attempts at taking on the sixth wave. He had decided to give it the most pretentious and arrogant name he could think of. The immortal arts. The immortal arts made one impossible to hit* due to their impable movement techniques. *Impossible to hit for as long as one dodged properly. As well as infinitely powerful by granting unlimited* mighty attacks. *Unlimited for as long as one didn''t run out of life energy or shatter their spirit. Life was good for immortal arts users. Especially Neave, who was also the only immortal arts user. He grabbed the sword, whistled, and strolled to the archer. The shieldsman was blocking Neave from approaching as the archer fired arrow after arrow. Neave casually walked toward them, either flicking the arrows out of the air with the sword or blurring and appearing behind them as they passed through where he was a moment ago. He approached the shield demon. Neave stabbed forward. It was a rtively rxed stab. However, as Neave grabbed the handle, it whistled in resonance, and golden runs lit up like sacred butterflies around him. The sword sank into the shield. The shield split in two, and even though the de didn¡¯t reach the demon, it still fell dead on the ground, its heart severed. There were a few things Neave had learned about true strikes. The first thing was that the slower a strike was, the more powerful it was. This was something the book never mentioned. Neave felt that it was likely that nobody knew this. After all, if somebody attempted to master a true strike, they¡¯d want that strike to be as fast as possible, right? Another essential thing to note about true strikes was that if one wanted to make a true strike faster, that was impossible. One couldn¡¯t just swing a sword or throw a fist the same way, but faster, and expect it to work. If one changed the speed of a true strike, it became a different move altogether. That didn¡¯t stop Neave or anyone from learning several true strikes for several different attack speeds. For others who may not even know the true nature of true strikes, that would seem like a ridiculous waste of time. But not to Neave. He learned most of his attacks at several speeds, especially the basic ones he relied on the most. He still preferred using the slow ones if he could. Neave could easily imagine that being an excellent intimidation tactic. You swung your sword casually at someone, and the more casually you swung it, the more devastating the aftermath. Naturally, these attacks were far more challenging to use inbat, but there were ways to manage that. Neave turned to the archer and flicked yet another arrow from the air. Then he blurred past the archer, leaving a golden trail of runes as its head popped off its neck. This was a fast true strike executed during a movement technique. It was the single most challenging thing Neave had ever managed to achieve. The precision required to achieve something like that was so great it took Neave what felt like a lifetime to get it to work even once. He could execute this one move with rtive ease now. He was hoping it would be the key to his sess. The true strikes were great and all, but they had several ring weaknesses. The rigidity of the strikes made it super inconvenient to use them more often than not. The form of your strike had to be perfect, so if you had to dodge something or hell, do even as much as prepare a single muscle in advance, tough luck. It wasn''t going to work. The analogy with chess made more and more sense to Neave the more he used true strikes. Indeed, they were a powerful tool only when used correctly. You could check a king a hundred times and still lose. They were also rigid and restricted. A rook could only move straight, and a knight could only move in L-shapes. It was only careful nning that allowed one to corner their opponent. What Neave had done with true strikes had utterly obliterated conventions in using them. After all, his style was akin to flipping the whole damn board. The archer demony dead on the ground, and Neave immediately started moving. He was neither attacking nor dodging. He had been practicing just surviving in the sixth wave for a while already. If he simply dodged around, the sixth wave became incredibly exhausting, and there wasn¡¯t much room for improvement. However, he had practiced incorporating specific true strikes as parries rather than attacks. They could hold a ton of force behind them, serving as an improvised defense technique. This had allowed him to move his survival time from a couple of puny minutes to at least more than ten minutes. Usually, he wouldn¡¯t even bother trying to do this, but it was almost necessary for the sixth wave. He had to learn its intricacies before he could take it on properly. It wasplicated. The demons all appeared in random but not entirely random order around Neave. They seemed to group almost depending on specific characteristics or properties. At first, Neave didn¡¯t understand why they did this until he realized how many strategies they could use when paired together in particr ways. It was honestly a massive pain in the ass. However, countless attemptster, Neave was somewhat confident he understood the possible strategies well enough to give it a fair shot. As he dodged in the sixth wave, he eventually ran too low on qi and failed to execute a movement technique. The dagger-throwing demonnded a precise throw that tore Neave¡¯s side open. Before he could recover from the damage in any way, a poison arrow hit him as well, and he found himself snuggling the spiky demon. Restart. Neave closed his eyes. He fixed his spirit, and then he broke into the foundation realm. Demon one was just about to walk up to him, but a quick true strike punch was all it took to explode its head. He casually dismantled the demons of waves two and three and then simrly took care of the fourth wave demons. The fifth wave started and ended in seconds. Neave used a true strike kick to shatter the swordsman''s wrist and steal his sword. The shield demon was split in half, and the archer was decapitated. Then the sixth wave started. This time, Neave wasn¡¯t going to be dodging around. He nced at where all the demons had appeared. His eyes shed around him as he rapidly absorbed the information about his surroundings. The morbidly obese one with the spiky ball is close to the one with the heavy war axe. In front of them is the unarmed tall one. Next to them are the armless spitter demon and the one that used the twin hammers. To their right is the female-looking one with the long sword, spear demon, halberd demon, and the one with the lethal sword techniques. Crap, the weapon master gang is together, and the armored horseman is right before them. Shit, that¡¯s too close. Further right and behind them, the poison bowman sits on a small boulder. A little in front of him is the tiny demon with the daggers, and slightly behind him is the one with the scythe. Up next is the demon with the titanic hammer and the spiky one right before it. A little behind and to the right of them are the throwing dagger demon and the shield plus mace demon. That¡¯s terrible news. Finally, the hatchet demon is guarding the javelin demon. Neave finished the observations within less than a second. And the demons were already running towards him. The short one with the twin daggers sprinted at Neave, dashing forward and using its movement technique. Neave dodged to the side as it jumped at him. He barely dodged a throwing dagger that whistled through the air, and the spiky ball missed his nose by millimeters. The tall, unarmed demon was upon Neave immediately after the small one. Neave wanted to take care of it first, but the short one with the daggers appeared in front of him again, and Neave had to dodge a sh to his legs He moved away just in time for the spiky demon to fly by him andnd next to the unarmed demon. The unarmed demon grabbed the spiky one off the ground and threw it at Neave. Neave was about to dodge it, but he noticed the javelin at thest moment. As he was about to dodge the javelin flying at his face, he heard the whistle of the throwing dagger. Neave gritted his teeth and used a rather expensive movement technique that allowed him to blink away from all three projectiles flying at him. He appeared in the path of the horseman, who swung a quick strike at Neave. Luckily it was caught off guard by Neave¡¯s sudden appearance, so Neave had a chance to save himself. He used an upwards swing true strike to parry the blow. It was a fast one, so it just barely had enough energy to slow it down so Neave could get out of the way. The spiky demon Neave had dodged flew right into the small demon with the daggers. The little demon got impaled several times and dropped dead to the ground. Neave took ount of his surroundings as he noticed the demon with the titanic sledgehammer approaching. He still had some time until it reached his position. He dodged another throwing dagger and barely managed to avoid getting a poisoned arrow in his leg. As the horseman and the unarmed demon closed in on Neave and several others, Neave used the opportunity to dash over to the javelin demon. The hatchet demon stood beside it but wasn¡¯t prepared for Neave¡¯s sudden appearance. Neave caught the javelin demon mid-throw and bisected it horizontally with a true strike. The hatchet demon had already started swinging at Neave, who nned to dodge the strike. But the iing throwing dagger and poison arrow forced him to use a movement technique to get behind the hatchet demon''s back. The poisoned arrow flew by, missing them both, but the throwing dagger flew at the hatchet demon. It blocked the throwing dagger, allowing Neave to use a true strike and pierce its heart. Out of the corner of his eye, Neave noticed the morbidly obese demon throw the spiked ball in a seemingly random direction. That¡¯s almost certainly going to be some fucking bullshit. Neave had more pressing matters to deal with, however. The horseman was about to reach him, and he saw the throwing dagger demon preparing another throw. However, he was forced to put his attention back onto the spiky ball as the demon with the war axe dropped his weapon and grabbed the chain. He swung the spiky ball at Neave with incredible force. ¡°Pffff!¡± Neave barely managed to duck under the strike in time as it shaved a lock of hair off his head and pulverized arge boulder behind him. He winced as several shards of stone hit his face. The second he needed to dodge put him right in front of the horseman and the unarmed demon again. Neave clicked his tongue. The halberd demon, spear demon, sword technique demon, and the crazy strong demon with the long sword were already immediately behind them. He noticed the war axe demon was preparing to swing the spiky ball at him again, and even the titanic sledgehammer demon was getting close. Neave used his single most expensive movement technique to appear immediately before the titanic sledgehammer demon. ¡°Come on, you ugly fucker, I¡¯m right here!¡± It pulled its hammer up into the air and prepared to strike. The unarmed demon threw the spiky one at Neave again, but Neave just ignored it, instead dashing over behind the horseman andnding on the horse demon¡¯s back. He used all his focus to initiate a true strike kick aimed directly at the armored demon''s head. It wasn¡¯t enough to cause serious injury, but it was enough tounch it off the horse demon and right onto the spiky demon, who got crushed under the weight of the armored one. And then doubly crushed as the immense force of the sledgehammer effectively pulverized both of them into mush. Neave used the cover of the dust cloud to dispatch the demon horse. To his surprise, he spotted the throwing dagger and the poison arrow flying at him through the smoke. Panicked, he dodged to the side with a rough movement technique, cursing himself for the qi expenditure. Just as he was thinking this, the unarmed demon ran at Neave, lifting its ws for a shing attack. Neave didn¡¯t even give it the time to reach him. He bisected it with an upward sh true strike. The weapon master gang was also approaching him again. Brilliant. Just his luck that those four would appear immediately next to one another. Neave ignored them for now and then ran at the morbidly obese demon. The war axe demon dropped the spiky ball and picked its weapon off the ground. But before it could reach for it, Neave used the opportunity to dash over and sever its neck. He quickly ran over to the obese demon pulling the spiky ball back to itself. Neave caught it as well and used a slow true strike to bisect the upper part of itsrge body. However, the extra second he took to charge up a more decisive true strike allowed the demon that wielded the war hammers to throw them directly at his head. He frowned and barely moved his head to the left to dodge the first one, then to the right to escape the second one. The armless demon was being unusually docile this time, or wait, now that Neave thought of it, it might have been spitting at him the entire time. It was likely he dodged the spit by dumb luck. It didn¡¯t have the greatest range or uracy. It tried running at Neave, but to Neave¡¯s surprise, the twin hammer demon grabbed its leg and swung it at Neave like a weapon. Neave bent backward, avoiding the spittle flying from its open mouth. He noticed both the throwing dagger and the poison arrow flying toward him. He jumped up into a backflip, simultaneously dodging the armless demon again. However, the armless demon wasn¡¯t quite as lucky as the throwing dagger shattered its skull, and the poison arrow sank into the mushy brain matter. As Neavended, he used the opportunity to slit the now-unarmed hammer demon''s throat. This time, however, he was finally cornered by the weapon master gang. And unfortunately, just as he was about to initiate the fight with them, he had to also dodge a poison arrow, which started the fight very poorly. More by luck than skill, he managed to dodge under the halberd demon''s swing and just a little to the right of the spear demon''s thrust. He was forced to parry the sword techniqueing his way without a true strike, so he had to use a bit of his life force to get the strength needed to deflect the blow. Neave used a barely executed movement technique to dodge the impossibly strong demon¡¯s downward swing and dash behind the weapon master gang¡¯s backs. The sword sank into the ground with a smash, crushing the solid stone like a hoe plowing wet dirt. The sword technique demon used a different technique, but this one he could parry with a true strike. Not only did he repel it with a true strike, but he also managed to break through the technique and bisect the demon. Almost by instinct, he ducked a bit downwards as a throwing dagger flew over his head and into the chest of the impossibly strong demon. When he noticed the shadow encroaching, he didn¡¯t hesitate for even a second. Neave immediately used a movement technique to get as far away as possible as the titanic sledgehammer came flying his way. He almost entirely avoided the impact, but the halberd and spear demons were thrown back by the blow. His qi was starting to get dangerously low. He used the chance to chase down the poison archer. As he ran out of the dust cloud, he spotted the poison archer readying itself to use its movement technique. It was a terrifyingly fast dash that could carry it straight from one high ground to another. Neave wasn¡¯t going to let it get away. He focused every bit of his attention on estimating where the demon would be in the next second. The air whistled as it flew like an arrow, but just as it reached a few meters away from the boulder, Neave flew through the air right next to it, delivering a clean sword swing and decapitating it. Its head and body flew separately, and both smashed into the boulder with a st. Neave used the cover of the boulder to hide from the throwing dagger demon as he scouted the area. He decided he would take care of the halberd and spear ones first. After all, the throwing dagger demon had helped him more than anything else in this fight. The halberd and spear demons also seemed to have lost their weapons when they got caught up in the sledgehammer smash. The halberd was just gone, and the spear was a dull stick. They made for straightforward targets. Both demons had a clean thrust delivered to their chests and dropped dead to the ground. Neave ran toward the throwing dagger demon. He had decided to leave the titanic demon forst. Neave dodged another throwing dagger. A throwing dagger that ended up embedded in the leg of the titanic sledgehammer demon. The massive demon roared, and it threw the sledgehammer at Neave. ¡°Holy fucking shit!¡± Neave had never seen it do that, not even once. Panic clouded his mind, and he only just managed to dodge it by using a movement technique, almost entirely out of qi now. The sledgehammer obliterated the shield demon, causing a small earthquake. The shockwave knocked the throwing dagger demon back. Neave caught the throwing dagger demon with a true strike before it could get off the ground. Then he faced the titanic demon. Neave prepared his footing and practically went flying at it. Then just before he hit it, he executed a mid-air true strike kick directly into its chest. One of its lungs copsed, and it spewed blood everywhere, but Neave pressed the attack. Hended and used a true strike to sever the demon''s legs. As itsrge body plummeted to the ground, he used an upward sh to sever it in half. ¡°I did it. I fucking did it!¡± Neave heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and spotted the scythe demon. ¡°You sneaky little fucker.¡± Neave squinted at the demon in irritation. Then he smiled. Neaveughed. He roared inughter and strode slowly towards the demon. Neave knew he was right. Or rather, he hoped he was right as he stood in front of it. He was tired. His qi was at its very limits. Neave lifted his sword as it prepared to strike with its scythe. Both Neave and the demon lit up with golden runes. The crash of two true strikes meeting sent all the dust and debris flying away. Neave¡¯s left arm dropped to the ground, cleanly severed at the shoulder. Little blood flowed out of the wound. He had used life force to make it stop bleeding. ¡°Hey, reaper.¡± Neave stared at it with a crazed expression as it approached him, ¡°Your cut was too clean.¡± Neave kicked his arm up into the air with his left foot, grabbed it with his teeth, and ced it back where it belonged. He expended almost all of his remaining life force to heal it back into ce. The scythe demon was already about to take another strike at him, but Neave stepped forward, preparing to counter it. However, just as the two weapons met, Neave''s sword went flying into the distance. Neave was gone. Golden runes lit up behind the scythe demon¡¯s back. The thud blew dust and debris away as its guts sttered all over the ground. The demon dropped its scythe and fell. Neave was effectively paralyzed. Entirely out of qi and nearly out of life force. None of that was on his mind, however. What¡¯s gonna happen next? Is this it? Then another demon appeared. A single demon. Completely unarmed. Chapter 14: Suspension Bridge Chapter 14: Suspension Bridge Neave stepped out of his little hut and took a deep breath. ¡°Ah, fresh morning air! It¡¯s quite lovely outside, don¡¯t you agree, Jillean?¡± Neave looked back to the makeshift hut of stone and obsidian branches that he had constructed. Demon one, or rather, Jillean, was sitting in an improvised stone chair. Neave used arge quantity of ck ooze to stick the demon to it. There was even arge stone table and several smaller stone chairs. He took a look around and admired the view. Neave had constructed this little hut next to argeke of acid. In his head, this was an idyllic cottage next to a beautifulke. A beautiful sizzlingke. A geyserke. That made sense, yes. He took a step forward and gave his face a lovely wash in the pure water of the wilderness. He recovered the damage to his hands by burning life force when they started falling apart, but the acid burned his face off, and he didn¡¯t bother fixing it. He looked like a bloody skeleton with eyes wide open as the acid seared his eyelids off. ¡°Shall we have some morning tea, my darling?¡± The demon growled as it awkwardly shuffled in the chair, still trying to escape. Neave rushed to it and caressed its head to get it to calm down. ¡°Now, now, darling, you need not get up. I know you¡¯re feeling under the weather today, so I shall grab the tea for you!¡± Neave grabbed a small obsidian ¡®teacup¡¯ off the table and went out to theke, scooping a bit of acid. Then he walked back to the demon. ¡°Here you go, darling. You need not rouse yourself. I shall put the cup of tea to your lips.¡± He poured the acid into the demon¡¯s mouth, and it coughed it out violently all over the table. Neave dropped the cup in distress. ¡°... What? Are you trying to say something about the tea I¡¯ve made, huh?¡± The demon just shuffled and tried escaping. ¡°You ungrateful fucking bitch!¡± He pped the demon''s head with a true strike p, and its head went flying off its torso and into a wall. ¡°Oh. Oh no. I¡¯m so sorry, darling. I didn¡¯t mean to do this to you. Here.¡± He picked the head up off the ground and put it back on the torso. ¡°I am¡­ I am sorry. I¡¯ve been so stressed outtely ever since I lost my job. I can not bear to see you look down at the things I bring to the table. I hope you can forgive me, my dear.¡± He kissed the demon¡¯s forehead. Or rather ttered his bare, lipless teeth to its skull. Then he heard the banging. ¡°Oh, what¡¯s this? It seems that we have some guests! Oh, bother, what poor timing they have...¡± He ran off to open the ¡®door¡¯ to the newly arriving guests. The wave-two demons stood outside and looked at Neave. ¡°Gasp! Jungin and Zeeber! What are you two rascals doing here!?¡± He dodged around their attempts to cut him apart with their ws and gave each of them a hug. ¡°Come,e, Jillean and I were just about to have supper. Whoa there, rowdy guests I see, haha, whoah, watch it, Jungin!¡± He then spent almost an hour strong-arming the demons to sit in the chairs. He settled for breaking all their limbs and gluing them with the ck ooze. ¡°Now, I¡¯ve kept you all waiting long enough!¡± He nced around the room, finding nothing edible around. Then he yoinked Jillean¡¯s head off her shoulders and ced it on the table. ¡°Here you go, it is my specialty! Head a p! Now excuse me, gentlemen, I need to visit the loo!¡± Neave then stepped out of the hut and started monologuing. ¡°Unbelievable! Those crude ungrateful rubes! I can not believe I used to work with such lower-ss trash! They not only intrude upon Jillean and I¡¯s romantic supper but also dare wreak havoc on my house!¡± He kicked a rock in exasperation and sat at the shore of theke, yfully bathing his feet in the acid. His feet sizzled and fell apart as he looked at the horizon. Neave racked his mind to find anything to distract him from the despair. *** The scythe demony dead on the ground, and Neave observed the strange demon that had appeared. It stood firmly, staring at him. Neave didn¡¯t move. He wasn¡¯t sure he could move, honestly. His life force was nearly tapped out, and he looked like a geriatric zombie. But the demon wasn¡¯t moving either. ¡°What are you staring at?¡± Neave yelled at the demon. Is it waiting for me to die on my own? So Neave summoned thest of his energy and took a step forward. Immediately, the demon ran toward Neave. Neave grinned in excitement about what was about to happen. He could tell that this demon was strong. And to Neave¡¯s utter astonishment, it used one of Neave¡¯s movement techniques. Then it swung at him with a true strike. Restart. At first, Neave was ecstatic. This demon proved to be an incredible challenge. Neave was, at this point, addicted to such difficulties. His excitement did notst very long. There was one thing he hadn¡¯t noticed about the demon at first. It wasn¡¯t just very skilled. It was exactly as capable as Neave was. It fought the exact same way as Neave did. The same true strikes, the same movement techniques, the same tricks, the same everything. But it was much, much stronger than Neave. He still fought it constantly, attempt after attempt. It proved to be the greatest martial arts teacher anyone could desire. Whenever Neave noticed an opening or a weakness, he tried exploiting it. But after he learned this exploit, the demon did the same thing to him. After all, it was his weakness. Then Neave shored up those weaknesses. And so did the demon. This was a loop that repeated countless times. After a while, the sixth wave practically became a joke to Neave. He was constantly pushed to the limit, so his martial arts improved rapidly. However, doubt slowly began seeping into his mind. He could defeat the sixth wave so quickly that it didn¡¯t even take him a minute. But he no longer felt himself improving. He was sure that he was. It was impossible not to improve when fighting this demon. But he didn¡¯t feel any progress, mainly because the demon kept up with him no matter what he did. Neave was starting to think that defeating this demon might be utterly impossible. He had an idea to try and reach the iron path, but he already knew that was off the table. When one stepped into the foundation realm, they created a wholeyer of potential they could achieve on top of their mortal potential. And at the beginning of the foundation realm, they¡¯ve fulfilled about as much of that potential as an infant had in mortal potential. One had to train like mad to build their body and spirit to move onto the iron path. Neave could only reach the iron path if he could train and get stronger. And even then, he could only consolidate that potential if he correctly recovered from the training he did. There was no food or water in this realm. So doing that simply wasn''t possible. He wasn¡¯t going to give up that easily, however. Neave had tried to find a food source but to no avail. Purifying the rotten blood and drinking it was impossible. Even if he could cleanse it, it wouldn¡¯t be worth anything since all its nutrients and energy have withered away. The pus also seemed to have suffered the same fate. He¡¯d even tried eating the flesh of the demons, but that, too, was poisoned and withered. Neave felt trapped and out of options. Utter despair slowly crept into his mind. At a certain point, he faced off against the seventh-wave demon, and he got killed almost instantly. Restart. Then Jillean killed him as well. Restart. Then again Restart. And yet again. Restart. A certain amount of timeter, he realized what was happening. He screamed. He screamed and cursed at the demon until his voice went hoarse. ¡°Stay away! Stay the fuck away from me!¡± He screamed, sniveled, sobbed, and ran away. He explored the valleys and caves. Neave tried to do anything to keep his mind upied so he wouldn¡¯t go back to that awful state. That was how he ended up with a hut beside an acidke, his feet melting away. Restart. Neave had decided it was time to take a break properly. He still hadn¡¯t made peace with the seventh-wave demon, but he felt that he, yet again, didn¡¯t know that he didn¡¯t know something. And knowing that he didn¡¯t know that he didn¡¯t know something didn¡¯t make the situation any better. So he brainstormed all the things that he wanted to do. The first thing that immediately crossed his mind was the mountains. He wanted to climb one. And he was confident that this time he could. So he did. And got hit by lightning almost every time he went up there. However, he didn¡¯t relent on this one. The mountains were impossibly tall. The mountains'' tops seemed to peter out into thinner and thinner, almost spiky points that went high above the clouds. And above the clouds was¡­ Nothing. The sky just didn¡¯t exist. It was such all-epassing, all-consuming darkness that the horizons seemed toe together into a point at the edges. Neave took a long time to wrap his mind around what he saw, or rather, what he didn¡¯t, above the clouds. He just couldn¡¯t. But the view of the clouds from above was spectacr. He got the crazy idea to try jumping off the mountain. There was a somewhat expensive movement technique he could use to slow down the speed at which he fell. So he jumped off the tallest peak he could find and flew above the clouds. It wasn¡¯t really flying, he looked ridiculous, pping his legs rapidly, and he was still falling, just slower, so it was more urate to say he was gliding. It made no difference to Neave. He drifted high above the clouds and felt hope for the first time in a while. At least he could witness sights like this if he couldn''t beat the demon. He ran out of qi and dropped down into the clouds. Where he got hit by lightning again. Repeat. He didn¡¯t appear at the start wallowing in despair this time. But rather, he hoped, so fiercely believed that he would find something else to admire the way he admired the clouds. His journey took him far, far out into the hellscape. Once he reached the foundation realm, the space he could explore multiplied exponentially. He didn¡¯t explore it all because he got bored rather quickly. After all, it just seemed to be more of the same. Neave went into the caves next. He¡¯d done this before, but all he did back then was run as far as visibility permitted and then kept running. Eventually, he got impaled by a spike, dropped into a pit, fell into toxic liquids, or ran into noxious gasses. He realized that perhaps he should''ve addressed the visibility problem first. He got the brilliant idea to use a true strike. The glowing runes created in the air around him would provide excellent lighting for a few moments until they disappeared. This only gave him a few seconds of visibility, but that was enough to memorize where he could and couldn''t go. After exploring the caves like this for a while, he realized how dumb this was. If an expert cultivator heard of what Neave was doing, they would probably die from shock. Using true strikes to light up a cave for a few seconds was like using a priceless cultivation manual to swat mosquitoes. Well, nothing would happen to a priceless cultivation manual if one did that, but it felt disrespectful. It was also impossibly inefficient because he could have just materialized some life force in his palm and used the light from that, which he did with a small bit of shame at his foolishness. After exploring countless caves near the starting area, Neave moved out into the further reaches. The reason why was simple¡ªIt was fascinating. Neave had witnessed some breathtakingly beautiful sights in the harsh underground environment. Stctites and stgmites of colorful ss reflected the soft glow of the life force on his palm in remarkable ways. He witnessed beautiful underground waterfalls (or rather, blood, acid, pus, and ooze falls) andkes. Whirlwinds of colorful gasses and evenva! Beautiful, shiny, molten hotva! It was hot! Warmth! Something he hadn''t properly felt in forever. There was a room where the ceiling constantly dripped acid, creating this mesmerizing cloud of soft mist and sparkling rain. Poisonous and lethal, yet awe-inspiring nheless, perhaps even more so. There was a positively massive room where several waterfalls of different liquids poured into a giganticke ofva. And then Neave found a wall. Not a natural wall, but a stone wall with strange writing on it. At first, he thought it was just another astonishing detail he spotted. Then he paused. Wait a fucking minute. He slowly turned around and stared at the wall, mouth agape. Then he pointed at itl. That¡¯s a wall. That¡¯s a fucking wall. Someone made that wall! Then he paused again. The suspension bridge! There¡¯s a suspension bridge! Why is there a suspension bridge? He had never noticed. He, of course, saw the suspension bridge being there, but what¡¯s wrong with that? It was just an old decrepit bridge, already rotting and falling apart. But it was a bridge! It was something made by somebody. A thing of wood and rope! And a thing of being fucking created by someone! Neave had explored as far out as two weeks of running at immense speed away from the starting area. He had never seen even a single man-made object besides that bridge. Or was it man-made? Demon-made? This entire hellscape was just a wild area belonging to nothing and nobody. Except for a suspension bridge. And now a wall. And also, very likely, something behind the wall. Neave hesitated and wondered how he would find the entrance. For a few seconds, the confusion and excitement made him worry that damaging the wall would mean losing the writing. But then he realized that if he died, the entire thing would just be fixed anyway. So Neave used a true strike and punched through the wall. The wall copsed, and a room opened before Neave. He couldn¡¯t see into the room since the light from the life force was too weak. Neave was about to materialize more life force to see better, but he facepalmed as he again realized how stupid he was. Why didn¡¯t I just materialize qi!? The golden glow of qi sitting on his palm was much brighter than the pale red glow of the life force. And Neave stepped into the room. At first, the ample open space seemed like an old empty stone cathedral. It was then that he spotted the statues lining the walls. Twisted things with tiny holes instead of features for faces. ?TTT???estart. Their limbs, horrible writhing masses of twisting shapes, reached out to grab Neave. ?e?????staT???r They wiggled and scraped at their bodies. re?????T??sta All their heads instantly snapped in Neave¡¯s direction R???????????????????????????? Restart. Neave stared at Jillean. ¡°Oh, hell fucking no, you don¡¯t!¡± He ran back to the wall and smashed it again. He sprinted into the room and stared at the statues. They still looked the same, but they were not moving. Neave felt a simr sense of unease when looking at them, but nothing like what he¡¯d felt prior. ¡­ Did I just imagine all of that? Yeah, thereisno way. He wasn¡¯t buying the act. These things must be pretending to be just statues now. ¡°Was it because I walked in confidently this time, hmmm? Can¡¯t intimidate me now, hmmmmmm!?¡± They remained motionless. ¡°How did you kill me? Did you kill me? Are you all some sort of guardians of this realm? Answer my questions!¡± Neave angrily ran at the statues and pushed them around, attempted to tickle their deformed-looking toes, pped the statues, and so on, but received no reaction. Then he climbed onto one of them and tried pushing at its head while bracing his legs against the wall behind it. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m gonna push you over.¡± Neave groaned with effort. ¡°I¡¯m so going to fucking push you over. I¡¯m gonna do it!¡± But try as he may, the statue wasn¡¯t going anywhere. ¡°Fine then, you asked for this!¡± He then delivered the slowest, most powerful true strike he could execute. It looked pretty ridiculous as his fist traveled ponderously through the air, but the brightness of the runes surrounding Neave indicated that this strike was no joke. As his fist connected with the statue, the shockwave cracked the floor beneath Neave¡¯s feet, and the force that traveled through the statue copsed the wall behind it, revealing more dirt and stone. The bacsh made Neave''s spirit falter. There wasn¡¯t even a scratch on the statue itself. Neave blew at his hand as it smoked after that punch. ¡°What the hell are you made of!?¡± Neave looked around at the other statues too. He spent a while longer messing around and attempting to get them to move or do anything, but they seemed to be little more than just very tough statues. He sighed and sat down. There was something that he noticed in one corner of the room. There seemed to be more emptiness there. The same emptiness as the sky above the clouds. He approached it and even tried touching it, but no matter what he did, his hands always touched the ground next to the empty spot. He tried shining more of the qi light to see what was hiding there, but it didn¡¯t work. Desperate, he tried adding life force to the qi to make it shine brighter. Neave¡¯s arms and half his torso blew up. He clicked his tongue as he tried to repair the damage, but he copsed secondster. Restart. ¡°Shit!¡± He ran back to the room again, ¡°...What?¡± Neave stood in the same cavern he had found the wall before. But it was gone. The wall was nowhere to be found. ¡°Oh, you¡¯ve got to be fucking kidding me!¡± He smashed at the ce where the wall used to be but found nothing but stone and dirt behind it. ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!¡± He kept smashing and cursing and despaired again. He¡¯d thought he finally found something that would give him a clue on how to get out. And then it was whisked away. By what, though? What could have done this? Or rather, who could have done this? ¡°What the hell is this ce?¡± He cried to unconsciousness as his blood flew out of his broken arms. Restart. Neave felt a deep loneliness crawl into his heart. For a second, the excitement made him feel like he had finally discovered it. The secret of this ce. Maybe some sort of backdoor that would allow him to escape. Now it was lost. And he was still stuck here. Restart. It was bing harder and harder to move on. Humans were social animals. Even if Neave thought people sucked, they still drove his life. His asshole of a father motivated him to struggle. The terrible nature of others forced him to seek peace. The countless books he had read were all written by someone talking about stuff relevant to people. The sect premises were constructed by someone. His clothes had been made by someone. Someone had prepared the horrid, bitter food pills. Someone also probably poisoned them. Restart. For better or worse, every worthwhile aspect of his life was driven by others. He felt that same drive when he saw the wall. Until now, Neave wasn¡¯t even aware of how much he had missed that simple thing¡ªthe existence of those who created. These demons only destroyed. The seventh wave demon only copied. This was a ce absent of life in the worst way imaginable. A ce absent of creation. A realm so stagnant and rotten that not even time moved forward. Restart. Neave cursed at himself as he remembered the stupid mistake he¡¯d made. He knew thatbining life force and qi was dangerous, so he¡¯d never done it before. The books explicitly said thatbining qi and life force could have unpredictable and dangerous effects. Do I scour the entire world in hopes of finding more clues? Restart. Or do I just¡­ Finally¡­ Give up? He had an idea¡ªonest desperate thought. He materialized qi in one hand and life force in another. Then he brought them together. Thebination exploded in sharp ice shards that cut into Neave¡¯s arms. Then he did it again. This time it spewed fire in random directions. If I only fight bybining life force and qi and using the random effects, would the demon try it too and kill itself? He found the idea somewhat humorous, if not rather desperate. But he entertained it a bit. Perhaps if he got into the habit of using the random effects inbat, the demon would mirror him. The more he thought about it, the more he thought the idea had merit. The despair was immediately dispelled as hetched onto that faint hope. Neave began experimenting. Hebined the energies in a ratio of fifty percent each. That blew a cloud of smoke in his face. Then he did it again. That blew a cloud of smoke all around him. He was about to do it again, but then he froze. Smoke? Then he did it again. And this time, smoke blew up into the air, not at his face or around him, but up. It was random, yes, but it was smoke. It wasn¡¯t fire or ice shards. It was smoke! He did it thrice, and smoke came out every time. Then he did it again¡ªa bit of smoke before him. And again¡ªa lot of smoke to the ground. What is happening? Did that mean thatbining qi and life force wasn¡¯t entirely random? Neave used a fifty-fifty ratio for no particr reason, only because it made the most sense. Did this mean the precise effects of the life force and qibination depended on the ratio? This was a massive discovery! It was time to move back to the cultivation cave. Neavebined qi and life force in a one to ny-nine ratio. Then a two to ny-eight ratio. He sought to discover what every possiblebination did. Chapter 15: Shinier Chains Chapter 15: Shinier Chains Neave sat in the cultivation cave, holding a small mass of qi and life force in each hand. As he brought them together, they spun in a high-speed vortex that sucked the life force out of Neave¡¯s body at a rapid pace. He couldn¡¯t find a way to stop it. Restart. ¡°Fucking shit!¡± It had been quite a while since Neave started exploring the differentbinations of qi and life force. Quite the long, long while. At first, he just went through thebinations of a hundred parts. One part qi and ny-nine parts life force to ny-nine parts qi and one part life force. He realized this wasn¡¯t precise enough to be helpful in any scenario. He had first tested the fifty-fifty ratio and discovered that if you do a more exactbination, deliberately controlling the bnce, you can replicate a rtively simr effect. This was true, but fifty-fifty was something of an anomaly. It created smoke, yes, but the range of precise life force to qibinations was significantly more extensive than it was for the overwhelming majority of other effects. It also tended to matter quite a bit less. Smoke was harmless. Jets of liquid fire, ice spikes, lightning, cutting sharp air, and so on were moderately less benign. The amount and direction might not matter much with smoke, but it most certainly mattered how big the ice spike that may shoot through your head was. So a hundred parts weren¡¯t enough. Then he did a thousand parts from point one percent to ny-nine point nine percent. Then even that didn¡¯t seem precise enough, so he did ten thousand parts. Then he did a hundred thousand parts. Then he did a millionparts. And now he was doing ten million parts. Zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, one percent to ny-nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine percent. Even this still felt like it wasn¡¯t enough. He was getting simr effects, but the direction and precise amount seemed impossible to control. There were severalbinations where that didn¡¯t matter much. If you used something like the fifty-fiftybination as a smoke screen, it would be slightly worse or slightly better. Anotherbination created an intense gust of air in virtually all directions. That could be useful. Contrary to that, things like this damn vortex just fucking killed him outright. No hope of defending, no way to stop. Somebinations were lethal regardless of the direction or intensity. That was a prevalent result of these experiments. Neave wasn¡¯t sure whether some high-ranking cultivators knew that life force and qi could bebined in intentional ratios, but he knew that even they probably didn¡¯t dare experiment with it. Neave got killed roughly every five to sixbinations on average. And he got injured way more often than that. He didn¡¯t even find all that many useful ones, it seemed. But he kept doing it anyway for one simple reason. It was fun. And also, he had something to do besides suffering extreme existential dread. Every time he tried a new ratio, he got a new result. Even if most of them were functionally useless, they were still pretty cool, more often than not. A massive shower of sparks wasn¡¯t much use to Neave, but damn, did it look pretty. He had taken several pauses with his experimentation just to see how to use some of the effects inbat. And most of the effects he was trying out were utterly pointless theatrics. Things like taking a stance and having a mysterious vortex of steam start circling him or punching and causing a massive shower of sparks as if a cksmith had struck hot iron. There was an effect that caused an intense and ominous sound that he lovedbining with the vortex of steam. He was sure that the overwhelming majority of people who saw someone do that inbat would shit their pants. It gave off the impression of triggering some perilous spirit power orbat boost. He also nned on incorporating a field of static electricity that caused tiny electric sparks to fly around him into thebo. However, using three of these effects concurrently was a tremendous challenge. One that he dly epted. And eventually even managed tobine. He wasn¡¯t just doing this for fun, either. Combining the energies down to ten million parts was arduous. Even his ridiculous control over life force and qi was insufficient to do this reliably initially. There was another effect that he desperately wanted to add to the trio. It was an effect that glowed an ominous red light. Neave could just imagine the scene. He would take a stance, and dust and steam would rise in a vortex around him. Then a low, grumbling, ominous noise started echoing. Sparks of electricity shot at the ground or random objects surrounding him, and finally, he glowed with an apocalyptic red light. Perfect. Sadly, while the ominous red glow had pros, it also had cons. Pros: Cool, awesome, scary, badass. Cons: Blinding myself by shining brighter than the fucking sun. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Neave eventually returned to his experiments, and after a while, he noticed a strange effect. A shimmering of sorts. But not visible shimmering, spiritual shimmering. Neave had no idea what the effect was, but he felt he wasn¡¯t being precise enough with the ratio yet. After hours upon hours of fine-tuning, it finally triggered. Nothing. Nothing visible, at least. But his spiritual senses were telling him something strange. At first, he thought perhaps his spirit had been injured, which was messing with his senses, but he healed his spirit and still felt the same thing. Eventually, he brushed it off, thinking it was just an effect that caused a strong sense of spiritual resonance. But he woulde back to this er. He had a list of potentially beneficial effects he wanted to explore further, and he firmly ced this one in the ¡®interesting enough to warrant further inspection¡¯ category. As he kept experimenting, eventually, he came across something else. Again he felt the same shimmering, and he fine-tuned it once more. This time, however, the effect was visible. He created liquid. It was a transparent, shimmering liquid that shone with the most beautiful glow Neave had ever seen. And it yet again gave him that sense of spiritual resonance. He experimented with this liquid, concluding that it was rtively useless, at least how it was. Drinking it,bining it with other fluids, and intensely staring at it wasn¡¯t achieving anything. He hoped it was a holy liquid that could banish the demons, but all it did was ssh harmlessly on their skin. It sparked, though. So that was nice. This one he added to the ¡®Potentially useful¡¯ category. And then he kept going, once again finding another shimmer. And this time, after fine-tuning it yet again, he created a small, beautiful, transparent crystal. Neave paused. Then shook as he stared at the ungodly thing he held in his hands. ¡°Oh¡­ Oh man, oh gods, oh heaven. Thi-this is¡­¡± Crystalized spirit. The description was the same as the description of monster cores. The only thing it wascking was the ghastly sshes of color inside of it. He then thought back to the other two strange effects. ¡°Holy sweet emperor of the heavens, this is fucking spirit!¡± He had created spirit! Not only had he created crystallized spirit, but he also created ethereal spirit! He remembered the liquid, too, mouth agape. Liquid spirit!? That was something that existed!? This was Neave''s single most remarkable discovery in his time within this realm. Spirit was what, well, the substance that made up the spirit. If any cultivator ever discovered that he could do this, they¡¯d trap him and force him to generate as much as possible. His mind whirled with the implications and possibilities. He immediately began experimenting. What he found out was exceptionally disappointing, however. First of all, ethereal spirit was useless for now. It wasn¡¯t like he could just glue it to his spirit with ck ooze. He couldn¡¯t even actually manipte it. He could imagine its application in raising a spirit beast or growing a spirit nt. In that regard, it would be priceless. One would be capable of creating the damn-near-perfect environment for raising something. But here, there were no nts, sadly. And he was doubtful the demons would make for good pets. A simr thing was also readily apparent with the liquid spirit. Theoretically, liquid spirit would be a priceless substance for alchemy or golem creation. Sadly, Neave had ess to precisely zero alchemy ingredients. He had tried using the noxious liquids, but that was just a failure. Then he reached crystallized spirit. He sighed despondently as he held a small spirit stone in his hand. In reality, this was the one he had the greatest hopes for. But those hopes were dashed almost instantly. Ironically it was the most useful of the three forms of spirit, at least currently. Spirit stones, or in their more frequently found natural form, monster cores, dissolved when fully submerged in a liquid. That liquid would be granted the properties of a quasi-spirit. A spirit without a soul, that was. If one chose to melt it within something like water, they¡¯d get a base that could be used for a potion. If molten in metal, it would gain a quasi-spirit and a special power when the metal hardened. If one chose to melt it within their blood¡­ Well, that was where things gotplicated. Ingesting a monster core in that form would initiate a spirit trial. One would be trapped within their soul realm until they passed the trial. And if one passed the trial, they would acquire a spirit power. Passing the spirit trial meant that the will of the original owner of the spirit had been conquered, or rather the will of the monster. If you failed a trial, you died. If you were lucky, that was. Monsters do not have an ethereal spirit but rather a crystalized one. This allowed them to absorb some of the dissipating ethereal spirit and life force of creatures they yed, which let them evolve after passing a certain threshold. This crystallized in their cores, where all of that power was concentrated. When a monster got killed, a lot of that power was lost, but the core could still develop a spirit power. Neave had assumed he could do something with crystalized spirit, given that it was the same substance. But¡­ The situation was sort of like this. If one had a homogenous mixture of every soil type, they would theoretically hold all of the ingredients necessary to grow any nt. But did that mean they could turn that soil into every nt? Nope. Not without the seeds. Seeds may have seemed mundane, but they had infiniteplexity and nuance. It was far from the power of any cultivator to create life from scratch. Modify it? Sure. Control it? Absolutely. Manipte it? Certainly. But create it? No. As far as the spirit power thing went, it was the way it was. It was the difference between eating nts and soil. Thetter achieved nothing but give Neave a stomachache. This material was still absolutely priceless. Neave knew this. Hell, even he could use it. He could create an unbelievably powerful weapon if he could figure out a way to make a forge. The thing about monster cores was that they were limited in size. Their size mattered a lot because the bigger they were, the better the qi conductivity of weapons created with them would be. It had other implications for acquiring spirit powers, but Neave didn¡¯te across any texts detailing exactly what it did. He knew the bigger the monster core, the greater its potential power. But that only seemed to be a possibility rather than an inevitability. It was the weapon creation that Neave cared about currently. Wielding any weapon made one¡¯s qi circte through it. A weapon was an extension of a cultivator''s body, and having extra conductivity meant one could further boost its properties like sharpness, hardness, and momentum. The bigger a monster core was, the more powerful the monster was. This maderger monster cores more expensive. Neave didn¡¯t have to worry about that whatsoever. He could make a spirit stone as big as he wanted, as long as he had the life force and qi needed. Imbuing a simple iron sword with a spirit stone the size of a pumpkin would make the quality of the weapon out of this world, even if it didn''t get any special abilities. The reason Neave dropped the idea of doing this was simple. It wouldn¡¯t help against the seventh-wave demon. Neave had tried initiating the fight against the demon without holding any weapons. And he had noticed that the demon was a little bit weaker. But the moment he picked up a weapon, the demon either also picked up a weapon itself, or it just got a bit more powerful topensate for the extra power Neave acquired by holding a weapon. It was like the demon was designed to always be a certain amount stronger than Neave, no matter what he did. An insanely powerful weapon would probably give the demon a massive power boost. Neave sat back on the ground and keptbining qi and life force. He wasn¡¯t giving up. He hoped to find a key, a miracle solution, thest piece of the puzzle. Somewhere deep inside, he had a feeling. The feeling that the seventh wave was the final one. Whether leaving meant being reincarnated, just being freed from this ce, or waking up thinking all of this was just a dream, he didn¡¯t care. The things he¡¯d discovered wed at something deep inside him. They threw coals on the embers of a fire that burned within. What could he aplish if he was finally out? What sorts of miracles would he be able to create? What sort of person would he be? Desperately, from the deepest part of his soul, he wanted to find out. As he experimented, countless attempts passed by in what seemed like moments. Then he saw shimmering again. This time he fine-tuned it and¡­ Restart. ¡­? He tried doing it again. This time he used a lot less qi and life force. Everything went white. Restart. ¡°What the¡­?¡± Neave tried thebination again, putting his hands together behind arge stone andbining his energies. White. Light that prated even solid stone. The stone melted. Then it vaporized. Restart. Neave didn¡¯t think. He voided his mind of all thoughts and prevented himself from getting any ideas. He stopped himself from learning anything. Then he moved mechanically over to the suspension bridge. He cut off a length of rope and tied it around the first demon''s neck. Then he dragged it to the underground cave with the massiveva pool. He threw the demon into theva. The second-wave demons were dead as soon as they appeared, as Neave decimated them using true strikes. The third-wave demons suffered a simr fate. Neave ughtered the fourth-wave demons and kicked therge one into the pool ofva. Then he stole the swordsman demon''s sword in the fifth wave. The sixth wave started secondster. The moment it started, Neave shed right past the titanic sledgehammer demon and severed its neck. Momentster, the heads of the poison archer demon and the throwing dagger demon were also on the ground. He dodged the spiky ball and then grabbed the chain as the obese demon pulled it back, avoiding the spiky one in the process. Then he killed the obese demon. He eradicated the weapon master gang as he dodged and weaved past their strikes. Neave baited the horseman demon to thevake, kicked it in, cut the demon horse apart, and thrust the sword through the little dagger demon''s heart. He dodged a javelin, grabbed it out of the air, and threw it back into the demon''s head. The rest of the fight was just ughter. As the reaper demon appeared, Neave feigned a true strike, but then he just dropped his sword. ¡°Hey, Reaper, catch!¡± He then kicked the pommel of the sword, and it went flying through the reaper demon¡¯s neck. As the reaper fell lifelessly to the ground behind him, the final demon arrived. ¡°Hello there, my beautiful disciple!¡± Neave mocked the demon, ¡°Have youe for yet another lesson in martial arts?¡± Neave remained still, ¡°Well, sorry to say it, but today you aren¡¯t getting one. As strong as you may be, you will never be more than the pale shadow of me. Before the shadow can fall to the ground, I will end this. Once and for all.¡± Neave had yet to learn how he would win this game, which meant that the demon also had no idea what Neave would do. It was so simple all along. He needed to figure it out before the demon could copy him. Neave moved, and so did his opponent. Neave appeared behind the demon''s back, but it turned around immediately. Then Neave fused life force and qi just as the demon was about to reach him. A mighty gust of wind pushed them both away at incredible speeds. The gust of wind smashed Neave¡¯s back against a cavern wall, while it sent the demon flying over thevake. It slowed its descent, twisted mid-air, and used a movement technique to dash toward Neave. It wasn¡¯t enough to cross the immense fireke, but it didn¡¯t need to be. It used the water walking movement technique to walk toward Neave. The only reason it let itself be flung over the fireke was that it knew it couldn¡¯t be pushed into it. However¡­ Neave jumped off the wall toward the shore of theke and forged a massive spirit stone, right about the size of his head, at a great price of qi and life force. Then he just threw it in theke. It plopped into theva and disappeared. Question: What happens when someone uses the water walk technique on a liquid that has a quasi-spirit? He grinned maniacally. Answer: I have no fucking idea. The demon had almost reached the shore of theke, but as the stone plopped into theva, the demon instantly froze as if paralyzed and belly-flopped into the zing hotke. Neave could almost feel the spiritual bacsh that interaction had caused. The demon started moving again. Theva boiled its skin, but it crawled back to the shore. Neave picked up the executioner''s sword and tried to behead the demon, but it dodged every attempt with all the force it could muster. As Neave¡¯s swings grew more rapid, it was forced to block the attacks. Neave used several true strikes to chop half of its arm off. And then the demon finally left theke. It screamed. Neave swung the executioner''s de at the demon, but it used a fluid movement to move underneath the horizontal strike and kick the de out of Neave¡¯s hands. Neave cursed. ¡°Is this still not fucking enough!?¡± He forced himself to focus and just kept fighting the demon. It was already recovering from a lot of the damage it had received, but this cost it a lot of life force. A silver lining to fighting a demon that copied all of Neave¡¯s techniques was that Neave perfectly understood all it did. Even the consequences. But still, the demon kept up with Neave, and he felt like it was a good deal stronger than he was even in its current state. This was still the absolute best attempt Neave had ever made against the demon, and he knew it wouldn¡¯t work twice. He already instinctively knew how he would avoid falling for these traps, so the demon wouldn¡¯t make the same mistakes twice. This was his chance, and he had to use it. The demon was simply too strong. Neave quickly started losing ground as his exhaustion caught up with him. Despair crawled into his heart once again. Deep inside, he knew this was his final chance. The call of the void echoed in his ears, and he felt the pull of the catatonic state. He readied himself for a strike, but the demon took a sh with its one good arm, and Neave had his chest torn open. Then he was just a little too slow to dodge a kick, which cracked something in his ribs. The demon used a true strike which Neave dodged with all the force he could muster, but the implosion of air still made the world go dark before him¡­ ¡­ Shackled by your skeleton. Shackled by your mind. Shackled by eternity and infinite time. Freedom belongs not to the realm of the living. The living shackled by potential¡¯s shine. Those shackled by power. Dancing like fools to fate¡¯s rhymes. It desires not liberty from the pain. It just wants to be shackled by shinier chains. Neave didn¡¯t copse from the bacsh. He lunged at the demon, bordering on unconsciousness. It swung at his back, and its ws cleanly severed Neave¡¯s spine. Neave lost all feeling in the lower part of his body, but it was enough. The demon''s good arm was stuck in his back, and its legs couldn¡¯t reach him in time. Neave hugged the demon. Behind the demon''s back, blinding white light shined. Restart. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Restart? Neave felt tired, and every muscle hurt. Hey on the ground and felt like he had smacked his head quite hard on the floor. His body was flushed with adrenaline. Neave opened his eyes. Then he lifted his head. Every member of the Zearthorn sect stood in the courtyard. Staring at him. Chapter 16: Petty Report Chapter 16: Petty Report Neave looked around in utter shock. He thought he was dreaming. As he got up to his feet and looked around, he believed that he must be imagining it. ¡°Are you all real?¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about, brat!? Do you think this is a joking matter!?¡± The elder fumed, ¡°We¡¯re in a serious crisis, and you¡¯re pulling pranks like this!?¡± Neave¡¯s face lit up like a candle. ¡°It¡¯s elder Kaphor! You must be real! You¡¯re such a fucking pain in the ass that there¡¯s no way my imagination could fake that!¡± Silence. Absolute and utter silence. Elder Kaphor shook. ¡°What the hell did you just say!?¡± ¡°Oh, gods! It''s a floor! Something that had been ttened! There are walls! There are people! There¡¯s a building!¡± Neave pulled the bottle of food pills from his robes, ¡°There is food!¡± He ate a pill, ¡°And it sucks just as much as I remember!¡± ¡°Brat, if you continue this behavior, I swear¡­¡± Neave ignored the rambling elder and began dancing. Everybody stared at him in silence. First in pure disbelief at the gall of this child, but their confusion quickly morphed into shock. Neave''s dancing wasn¡¯t a joke. It wasn¡¯t rare that cultivators had their fun inrge cities, and most of the more experienced people here had seen their fair share of professional dancers. You could put Neave next to any of them, and he would fit right in. Hell, he¡¯d put most professional dancers to shame! Elder Kaphor was about to yell again but paused as Neave hopped from person to person. ¡°Ah, I remember you. You were such a prick!¡± He pped the senior disciple. The disciple wanted to react, but everyone¡¯s gaze and the utter nonsense of the situation left him too bewildered to respond. ¡°Hello, senior sister! You were nice to me!¡± Neave jumped and kissed the older woman on her forehead. She squeaked in surprise and tried pushing him away, but he masterfully dodged her attempts to get him off. He eventually jumped off by himself and continued his dancing. Neave danced a bouncy, unorthodox dance in his unique style, developed through heavens knew how many years of practice. Some of the junior disciples chuckled at the goofy moves, but the death stares they received from the elders shut them up instantly. Everyone present wanted to do or say something, but what? Marven stared in silence. ¡°That¡¯s it! Your disrespectful behavior stops here!¡± Elder Kaphor ran out to catch Neave but suddenly stopped. It felt as if the sky was falling on every member of the Zearthorn sect. Neave hadn''t paused his dancing, even though the spiritual pressure had some elders on their knees. The sect master stepped forward, stopping before the elders. His face was the picture of pure fury. ¡°You disobedient beasts.¡± At first, everyone thought Marven¡¯s fury was targeted at Neave. But¡­ Beasts? Marven wasn¡¯t facing Neave. He was facing the elders. ¡°I gave Neave my keys this morning simply to prove a point. There was nothing he could have done with them himself.¡± The elders were shocked. They immediately realized what the sect master was hinting at. He continued. ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. If this is a ploy by one of you, step forward immediately, and I may just spare your life. What did you do to him? Did you drug him? Why?¡± Marven sharpened his re at the elders, and his words turned sharper than a knife. ¡°And who are you nning to kill?¡± ¡°Sect master!¡± Elder Kaphor yelled out. ¡°This must be some sort of misunderstanding! That child, he¡­¡± ¡°He what? Found the top secret location of the tome entirely on his own?¡± Neave immediately burst outughing behind Marven''s back. ¡°The fucking top secret location! Hahahaha! Father, you must be joking! You hid it behind a few books. What did you think?¡± Neave then continued sarcastically, ¡°¡®Hurr, children dumb they no read boring tax stuff! Hurr, durr, me child, I want read action novel!¡¯ Well, guess fucking what, you tax dodgers, I found the chamber entirely on my own!¡± Some of the elders looked infuriated at Neave¡¯s remarks. However, others felt a shiver crawl down their spines. Could it be¡­? ¡°I have told you, father. I have told you so many times to put the book behind a qi lock.¡± ¡°No. This should have been impossible. The book had been sealed.¡± ¡°It was naive to think our seals could keep that object contained, Sect Master.¡± Neaveughed so hard he wheezed. He hollered, brought to tears by the absurdity of where the conversation was heading. ¡°You¡¯d rather fucking believe the book grew legs and just walked out than that I¡¯ve found your shitty little hiding spot!? What a fucking joke you idiots are!¡± Marven called over one of the elders. A woman, neither one of his wives nor kids, walked over to the sect master. Marven nodded at her and pointed at Neave. ¡°Elder Rashia. His mind ispromised. Escort him to the infirmary at once and see what you can do. You three.¡± Marven pointed to several elders and then whispered to them. ¡°Follow her and make sure she remains safe. Keep a close eye on Neave. Report any unusual behavior or strange phenomena.¡± ¡°Yes, elder, escort me to the infirmary at once! As you can see, my moves are quite sick.¡± Neave started dancing again. Elder Rashia walked up to Neave and tried catching him to take him to the infirmary, but he kept slipping away. Eventually, she caught Neave and threw him over her shoulder like a bag of potatoes. Neave could have dodged that too, but he let himself be caught. Being held and carried by someone felt so great he wanted to cry. The warmth of another human¡¯s touch felt ethereal on his skin. He face-hugged the elder andughed hysterically. Then he grabbed her hair and started tying it into painful knots. Rashia walked away from the courtyard, struggling to resist Neave¡¯s harassment. Rashia and the three elders walked out of the courtyard. As they carried theughing Neave away, the sect master looked over the entire sect. ¡°I want all junior disciples within their quarters in less than fifteen minutes. The senior disciples and elders gather around me.¡± As the juniors of the sect poured their way into the sect halls, Marven turned to the elders and senior disciples. ¡°A cursed object haspromised our sect¡¯s premises. We have a solid reason to believe it is capable of independent movement. Do not touch the book if you spot it; run immediately and report any sightings. Flip every stone and scour everything. Go!¡± *** Neave was stillughing merrily as elder Rashia sat him in a chair in her infirmary. The three elders kept him restrained. ¡°I do not know whether you can properly understand me, but I am doing this for your protection.¡± The elders forced Neave into special, sealed restraints. Neave didn¡¯t resist but rather whistled and¡­ Moaned, iming she should tighten the bonds. Elder Rashia found an object resembling a tinum crown. ¡°Oh my, elder Rashia, is that for me? I am sorry to say, but I do not think we could work out. The age difference is just too big. You¡¯re what, a hundred years old? How could you fall for a trillion-year-old man?¡± The elder ignored Neave¡¯s psychotic babbling and put the tinum crown on his head. Then she frowned and clicked her tongue. She took the crown off Neave¡¯s head and ced it back into the drawer, muttering something about ¡®crappy equipment¡¯ as she dug around. Neave observed every inch of every surface around him in fascination. Everything was so real. The entire room was so¡­ Created! The touch of other people covered every inch of every surface in his field of vision. He teared up and stared warmly at a filthy ss on the table. A ss that had been touched. A ss that had been made. A ss that contained water. Water. Neave never thought he would cry at the sight of something so basic. It was pure. Transparent. It didn¡¯t shine or sizzle or stink. It just was. As Rashia dug through the drawers, Neave got up off the chair and hopped, still fully restrained. The three elders looked apprehensive, but they didn¡¯t stop him. They merely observed his strange behavior. Neave bit the ss with his teeth and lifted it over his head. Some water flowed down his throat while the rest ran down his body. The ss dropped to the ground and shattered. Rashia jumped at the sound. She gave up on her search and walked over to Neave cautiously. Neave stared at the ceiling, drooling, water running down his mouth. She leaned in front of Neave and swung a hand in front of his face. ¡°Hey, can you hear me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I do not remember ever saying I was deaf.¡± The elder nodded at Neave¡¯s reaction and leaned back a bit. ¡°Do you remember your name?¡± ¡°No, I must have forgotten it. Can you remind me again?¡± ¡°Where are you currently located?¡± ¡°Wow, okay, rude, you won¡¯t even answer my question, but you expect me to answer yours?¡± ¡°Can you tell me where you are?¡± Neave stared at her, mouth open at the impolite treatment. He shrugged and responded. ¡°An insane asylum.¡± The elder lifted an eyebrow at that answer. ¡°And why do you believe that?¡± Neave smiled. ¡°Because those crazy idiots are chasing a book!¡± The elder sighed. Rashia picked up Neave, who could barely evade her now that he was fully restrained. She brought Neave over to a special room. The three elders followed them and waited outside. The walls of the room were all padded with thick green cloth. The only apertures were the thick, reinforced metal door and the small ss window allowing a faint sunset ray in. She ced him on the ground and pulled thick, inscribed steel chains over him to keep him fully restrained. Neave looked at the chains andughed. Heughed so hard he wheezed. ¡°Oh, Rashia, my dear¡­ My chains are a whole lot prettier than these.¡± Rashia felt a deeply unsettling undertone in Neave¡¯s voice. She hurried to restrain him further and walked outside hurriedly. Neave was strangely quiet. She noted his unusual behavior for ater report to his father. ¡°Elder Rashia, should one of us remain here and observe the child?¡± Rashia hesitated. But she shook her head. ¡°The sect master didn¡¯t explicitly order us to remain here, which means he expects us to be looking for the book. It will be fine. He is fully restrained in a sealed room and isn¡¯t going anywhere. Let¡¯s go.¡± Then Neave was left in the room as the elders walked away, joining the hunt for the cursed tome. Neave nced at the small window in the back of the room. ¡°Hmmmm¡­ I guess I could take a nap.¡± *** Elder Kaphor hurried his walk to catch up with the sect master. ¡°We have not located the book, sect master.¡± ¡°Then look harder.¡± ¡°We have looked through every single location within the sect premises. The book isn¡¯t here¡­ Father.¡± ¡°Refer to me as sect master, elder Kaphor.¡± Marven snapped at Elder Kaphor with a sharp tone. ¡°And keep looking. Expand the search to outside the sect premises. Do you understand the implications of losing the tome? We will search through every possible location for months if need be, but that book can not be allowed to make its way into the wrong hands.¡± Then he paused and hardened his gaze at the elder, ¡°Unless it''s already there.¡± *** Neave had fallen asleep not even seconds after he had decided to do so. He happily snored away, restrained, chained up, and locked in a specially reinforced room. As the sun set, something plopped onto Neave¡¯s head and woke him up. ¡°Ow, what the¡­¡± Neave froze. Right on top of his face was the cursed tome. ¡°Huh¨Cbuu¨Chee¨Cgrnnhhaaaaah, get it off!¡± He swung his head around in panic and eventually managed to fling the book away from him. His heart thundered in his chest as he stared at the book, frozen in terror. What the hell! Don¡¯t tell me that thing is back to put me in the loop!? The book was inert. It no longer glowed with a sinister red light. There was no more supernatural allure to it. It just looked like a really edgy book. The sight of the book was still enough to bathe Neave in sweat. He felt ufortable lying there with this cursed thing on the floor beside him. He closed his eyes and focused. The strands of qi looked muddled and obscured, probably because of the interference of the qi restraints. That wasn¡¯t enough to hold him back for long. He grabbed three strands of qi. The potential of perseverance. The potential of experimentation. And the potential of fun. These were the three he understood best. He also ignored the ring bright potential of madness he sensed in his spirit. Golden mist seeped through the restraints. The chains repelled the ethereal mist. Neave took a deep breath. What now? He was still restrained. Oh, bother, if only there were something he could do, evenying down on the ground and fully restrained. Neave grinned. He couldn¡¯t use a movement technique because his qi was restrained. He couldn¡¯tbine qi and life force either. There was one thing that he didn¡¯t have to actively use his qi for, however. He shifted his arm a bit under his restraints. He pulled his middle finger back with his thumb. Golden runes lit up around his hand as he executed a true strike flick with his finger. The restraints tore slightly, and a few cloth patches flew into the air. Once the cloth had beenpromised, the qi restraints started loosening up. The chains were still going full force, however. Until Neave flicked them as well. The chains cracked one by one, freeing Neave, who could now scoot as far away from the tome as possible. He slowly approached it, carefully flicking it with his foot, checking to see whether it would do anything when touched. Nothing. Neave breathed out a sigh of relief. He reached for the book with a great deal of hesitation. His finger slowly approached the cover of the tome. He touched it. Neave immediately pulled his arm back, and his heart sped up. The tome didn¡¯t do anything. It was strangely cold to the touch, however. He approached the book again, this time carefully opening it. He couldn¡¯t sense anything strange, which hopefully meant that was it for any funny business. Strange letters lined the pages of the book. They weren¡¯t written in themon tongue. Neave couldn¡¯t tell what the individual letters meant, but for some reason, reading the text wasn¡¯t a problem. ¡°What the fuck is this shit!? A report!?¡± It was more than just a simple report. It was a report written by a devil. Neave knew of gods and devils only from legend, but he had no problem believing this book was a devil''s personal property. It was a concise report detailing the destruction of a by strange creatures that seemed to have just floated in from the void. It wasn¡¯t even that long. The overwhelming majority of the book was empty. The book contained the report on the''s state, which coincided with what he¡¯d seen in the loop and a curse. Of course this thing is fucking cursed! A curse was set to trigger if touched by anyone ¡®under the gods¡¯ protection.¡¯ The details were in to see. It was a curse that crawled out from a bottomless pit of nightmares. Curses could only exist if they had a built-in method for breaking them. This didn¡¯t mean that way had to be easy. The more difficult the curse was to break, the more difficult it was to create. It was undoubtedly a legendary devil that wrote this curse. It was written in a way that made breaking it only a theoretical possibility. The demons of waves one to six were designed to be a certain amount stronger than the individual trapped. The seventh wave demon was there to ount for any growth. Neave was lucky this was a curse designed with higher rank cultivators in mind. A curse designed topletely shatter one¡¯s mind. It was made to free the prisoner when they reached the ultimate unresponsive state. Defeating the final demon was only really technically possible. Given that the idiots of the sect believed the book just to be an instant death curse, it was clear that the more likely scenario was the ultimate unresponsive state. Neave shuddered as he realized how close he hade to dying from this book. Ironically, he was right from the very beginning. It was by sheer luck, if you could even call it that, that he side-stepped having his soul wiped clean. And all of this for what? To hide the fact that some had been bled and pussed on? This was a report. Maybe this was an important secret to the gods or devils, but why would Neave care? He had thought this book was some grand mystery, some ultimate treasure. When he opened the book, he wanted to believe it was worth the pain and agony. But it was just petty fucking bullshit. Neave growled like a beast and spilled his rage into the book. He cursed the devil who lost this stupid object and vowed to find and kill it. He would find and y every devil if it meant making sure whoever wrote this book wasn¡¯t allowed to live. He used the shower of sparks to set the book on fire, as any actual firebination could potentially injure him. The paper burned to a crisp, but the book cover remained untouched. He tried bending or tearing it, but it seemed virtually impervious to damage. Neave gave up and threw it aside. He shot the book onest nce. The book never mentioned anything about the cursed statues. Did I just imagine that, then¡­? It wouldn¡¯t be the most insane thing he had lived through entirely in his head. However, this particr instant worried him a bit. Perhaps he was a bit more off his rocker than he had thought. He contemted what he wanted to do next. He was going to stay here and wait for his father. But now that he had broken into the foundation realm, that no longer felt like a brilliant idea. Neave ran at the wall and attempted to use a movement technique to go through it. He ended up facenting right into the wall. ¡°Ow, what the f¡­?¡± Why didn¡¯t it work? Neave observed the wall. ¡­Oh, that makes sense. Well, that sucks. This room was almost wholly qi isted. Neave felt around in his spirit senes and only noticed a tiny patch on the ceiling where qi could flow through. He used a movement technique and appeared on the roof. ¡°Now then. Where should I go first?¡± *** Hunter sat in the middle of his room, cultivating. After sitting there for several hours, he gasped and broke out into a sweat. Hunter was a stocky thirteen-year-old boy with a stern face and long ck hair. His robes stuck to his body, sweaty and grimy from all the training. Hunter looked too young to appear imposing, but all the building blocks of an intimidating man were present. Three consecutive hours of cultivation. That¡¯s how long it took to reinforce his qi today by a single strand. It was a pretty average time for Hunter. It was a rather good time for most disciples on the bronze path. He wasn¡¯t the most outstanding cultivator in his sect, but he was the second best among the younger generation. Hunter was only second to Harel as far as his peers went, but she didn¡¯t count as the sect master had granted her a powerful treasure. Hunter secretly felt it should have been granted to him but conceded begrudgingly that such a decision would be politically problematic. Giving it unto a disciple that wasn¡¯t the sect master''s direct descendant was wise. Besides, he knew a powerful wife made for a powerful man. And there¡¯s no way she¡¯d be betrothed to anyone but him. He giggled in anticipation. His excellent mood soured when he remembered what had happened just earlier. It took him thirty minutes of venting his rage at Neave¡¯s theatrics before he could focus enough to cultivate. How could the elders and father be so blind? This was nothing but a damn prank by Neave. Didn¡¯t he admit to just finding the book himself!? Neave was like a devious little demon. They chased a book like a bunch of fools rather than asking Neave where he¡¯d hidden it. He felt a bit of schadenfreude at Neave finally getting a severe punishment. There was no way he would get away with something like this. Hunter had tried, time and time again, to correct Neave¡¯s behavior, but that little shit never learned. It serves him right, then. Hunter had no idea why his father invested so much time into Neave. He had heard some¡­ Interesting things about Neave¡¯s potential marriage arrangement, but he assumed that most of that must be rumors. It was still impossibly frustrating to see father trying to train Neave. There was no merit to doing that. It must be because he¡¯s that whore¡¯s son. He frowned harder and vowed to hurry up and take over as sect master as fast as possible. His father was clearly past his prime. Hunter scoured through his spirit with his senses to see whether it could advance any more today. After assessing that it would be possible with five or so hours of cultivation, he opted for physical training instead. His room was a bit small, but he¡¯d removed the bed and reced it with a futon so he would have more space. He walked to one corner of the room where he kept some weights and started training. *** They¡¯re like damn fireflies. Neave stood on the roof of the sect hallways and observed the inside of the sect. He could sense exactly where most of the cultivators in a hundred-meter range around him were. After all, they shone like miniature stars in his spiritual senses. Only now did he realize just how ridiculously anomalous his spirit senses were. But why? He didn¡¯t know why his spirit senses were this potent. Did he have that much practice? It could be. Either way, it didn¡¯t matter. He thought he should probably hide that he was in the foundation realm. Hell, he should just hide, period. Neave felt his spirit and tried restraining it. No good. It wasn¡¯t that his control was bad. It was probably because he was at the very beginnings of the foundation realm. The qi he had was just the basis of his yet unrealized potential, and hiding that might not even be worth it. Still, he felt that perhaps it would be wise to hide in case the old bastards could sniff him out. He resorted to coating an impossibly tiny bit of life force over his qi core. He jumped back a bit as he thought he had identally destroyed his cultivation for a second, but quickly realized it was so hidden that not even he could see it. ¡°Wow.¡± He was genuinely impressed with himself. Neave strolled around on the roof. Soon enough, he spotted a rtively bright spot among the junior cultivators in one of the rooms. He walked on the rooftop above the room and focused his spiritual senses. The life energy in the cultivator''s body indicated they were around Neave¡¯s age. Possibly a little older. Neave smiled ear to ear as he realized who was inside this room. Time to pay Hunter a short visit. He used a movement technique to appear behind Hunter without making a single sound. Hunter was currently lifting an impressively heavy barbell in a front raise. ¡°Hey man, what are you doing?¡± ¡°Sweet father of-¡± Hunter threw the barbell over his head in shock and barely moved out of the way before it smashed his skull. ¡°What the hell are you doing in my room!? How did you get in!?¡± ¡°Hey, Hunter.¡± Hunter frowned and spat at Neave. ¡°Don¡¯t you ¡®hey Hunter¡¯ me, you rat. I¡¯m asking you how you¡¯ve made it into my room!¡± Hunter was already scouring the floorboards, searching for a tunnel, but he didn''t find anything like that. ¡°Oh, I just did this.¡± Neave stepped forward, then backward, and appeared behind Hunter again. ¡°Hello.¡± ¡°Ffff- Don¡¯t fucking do that, ok!?¡± Hunter pointed at Neave as he backed away cautiously. Then he realized something. ¡°You¡­ You bastard! That tome they spoke about must have held a secret movement technique!¡± Neave put on a genuinely shocked expression. ¡°Wow, you¡¯re so smart, Hunter. How did you realize that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t y with me, Neave! I will crush you.¡± ¡°And how will you do that?¡± Neave then shed again to another corner of the room. Hunter ignored him and marched for the door. ¡°Hey, where are you going?¡± ¡°As much as I¡¯d love to cave your vacant skull in, I will report you to the elders instead.¡± ¡°Oh, ok.¡± Hunter paused. ¡°Just you wait. There¡¯s no way you¡¯re getting out of this one.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? There¡¯s clearly a way for me to get out of this one.¡± ¡°Oh, how do you think you¡¯ll do that? Cry to daddy?¡± Hunted looked at Neave mockingly and scoffed, ¡°You¡¯vemitted a serious offense this time, you little shit. You¡¯ve stolen an important treasure from the sect!¡± ¡°I mean, yeah, but they believed it was a death tome.¡± Hunter scoffed at that. ¡°Yeah, that was a lie to get whoever had stolen the book to return it.¡± Neaveughed at that one. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t they have kept the book at the sect masters library then?¡± Hunter paused. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn¡¯t see why. It made no sense to hide it away like this. Why wasn¡¯t it in one of the sect master''s dimension rings if it was that important? ¡°Then how did you learn that movement technique from the book!? If it were a book that killed anyone that touched it, you¡¯d have been dead as well." ¡°I don¡¯t know. I must be the chosen one!¡± Hunter hesitated for a second and spouted. ¡°Bullshit.¡± ¡°Well, Hunter, what happened to all the bravado you had a moment ago?¡± Neave grinned at Hunter maniacally. ¡°Weren¡¯t you going off to report me to the sect master? Oh, wait, you know as well as I do that there¡¯s no reason to bother. Sure, they will perhaps punish me initially, but when they realize this movement technique''s power, they will kiss the ground I walk on and beg me to teach the others!¡± Hunter clenched his fists and walked over to Neave threateningly. ¡°So what? You¡¯ll never be half the warrior that I am. All you are is a worm and a pest. You¡¯ve spent your youth running away from hard work, and now you believe you¡¯ve be someone just because you read another book?¡± Neave ignored him and continued. ¡°And then I will get more of fathers attention and resources. Then finally, when I bring glory to the sect, they will have no choice but to betroth Harel to me.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± Hunter took a qi-empowered swing at Neave. It was frighteningly fast, but not to Neave. He would put Hunter at just a bit below the speed of the agile demon in the fourth wave. Neave used a short-range technique to appear just out of the swing¡¯s reach. ¡°You! How can you use a movement technique when you¡¯re not even in the foundation realm!?¡± ¡°Who said I¡¯m not in the foundation realm?¡± Neave smiled ear to ear as he watched Hunter sink into despair. ¡°So what, you think just running around like a coward is enough to be a warrior?¡± ¡°Oh, hunter, just shut the fuck up, will you? I¡¯ve note here with hostile intentions, you know. I merely wanted to say hi to my brother. Besides, we¡¯ve never properly yed as kids, have we? So let¡¯s y a little game! It¡¯s a simple game, really. We just tickle each other until one of us gives up, how¡¯s that sound?¡± Hunter was looking at Neave like he had a screw loose. Then heughed. ¡°Now you fucking believe just because you have a movement technique that it will be enough to fight me?¡± ¡°I said tickle. You¡¯re twisting my words, Hunter.¡± ¡°And I am about to twist your neck off too!¡± Hunter reached for Neave, but Neave just ducked and poked Hunter in the side with one finger. ¡°Does that count as a point? Well, I guess there¡¯s no point to that if we¡¯re ying to surrender.¡± Hunter kept angrily swinging at Neave. Neave didn¡¯t use movement techniques anymore. He simply ducked and weaved and tickled Hunter. Neave could tell that hunter was a great martial artist, but he doubted that he would stand a chance even if Neave were still a mortal. His moves felt too¡­ Practiced. They were rigid and felt like they were, more often than not, aimed at empty air rather than an actual opponent. So Neave had zero trouble running circles around Hunter as he poked his sides or armpits. Hunter was screaming hysterically at Neave, and his voice was cracking. Neave kept this up for so long that he was getting bored, and Hunter was slowly starting to run out of energy. Hunter fell to the ground, too tired to keep moving. ¡°Oh, does that count as a win?¡± ¡°It counts as a¡­ as a¡­ It counts¡­¡± Hunter had trouble breathing as he attempted to throw a jab at Neave. He began crying. Neave looked down at Hunter and felt a little bad. He wasn¡¯t just crying, he was hollering and weeping like a toddler. Then Neave felt a strange sense of joy bubble up in his heart. He had finally bullied one of his siblings until they started crying! This was the most normal sibling interaction he had ever had in his life. He got down to his knees and kissed Hunter on the forehead. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Hunter. I forgive you.¡± Neave used a movement technique to get back onto the roof. ¡°Now then. What about the elders that poisoned me?¡± Neave contemted. Let them go? Tickle them until they apologize? Kill them. Neave paused. That didn¡¯t seem right. He didn¡¯t want to haphazardly kill people, even if he thought they deserved it. The more he thought about it, though, the more appealing the idea seemed to be. He was back in the world of creators. But those old bastards weren¡¯t creators, were they? No. They were like the demons. They were destroyers. Well, that was no good, was it? If those who destroyed were allowed to live then those who created would never truly prosper. But it irked him. Killing people was bad. Cultivators were bad. He didn¡¯t want to be yet another murderous cultivator! Then he got a brilliant idea. Why couldn¡¯t he just murder enough murderers? It was true that every life was worth the same, but not everyone was worth the same amount of lives! These elders that had poisoned him were deeply morally corrupt. Would they even have any reservations aboutmitting ughter if it benefitted them? Those who saved others were worth a positive amount of lives, and those who killed others were worth a negative amount. So if he killed enough killers, he would be worth many, many lives! Neave would be the antithesis of a (demon) destroyer! He would be the ultimate creator! Neave happily nodded to himself. It was time to take care of the (demons) bad cultivators. He happily skipped along on the roof. It was time to go find a weapon. There were demons that needed to be killed. Chapter 17: Mischief Chapter 17: Mischief A sealed chamber was located close to the heart of the Zearthorn sect. Within this space, carefully ced shards of ss were arranged like grass on the floor, and thin iron needles hung on sharp wire from every inch of the ceiling. Weapons lined every wall. They weren¡¯t meant forbat, not anymore, at least. Swords, sabers, scimitars, spears, axes, hatchets, daggers, halberds, and so on lined every inch of the walls. Some were rusted, others were bent, they were all chipped and battered, and some were even broken. None had a quasi-spirit within them any longer but were made of fine steel at the very least. Even retired from war, they had all been sharpened to the extreme. Weapons used forbat didn¡¯t have edges this sharp. After all, it was prohibitively difficult to maintain this level of sharpness, and it made the de¡¯s edge quite fragile. None of that mattered for these weapons. This room was not the armory of the sect. These weapons were like the elders, their duty was to serve the younger generation. A young disciple sat before a small pond, where a mesmerizing lotus floated on the surface. Its petals looked sharp and jagged, several were plucked, and among those that remained, several had withered. Shiny gems glittered, lining the bottom of the pond. Monster cores. Ones that held spiritual powers rted to sharpness, cutting, metal, and swords. They had been partially lined with a thinyer of unique substance. It was to prevent them from fully submerging in the liquid, so they wouldn¡¯t melt into it and severely disrupt the pond''s purpose. All the stones had been inscribed with a silver tap, a special inscription that let the spirit within the stones leak out slowly. The disciple breathed in, then out. The gust from her lungs whistled as it cut through the air in front of it like a razor. Her robes were dirty, covering the slim, skinny, yet toned frame of her body. The fruits of countless hours of training showed on every muscle. Her auburn hair had been cut short. Harel was a thirteen-year-old Zearthorn sect cultivator that reached the silver path only a few months ago¡ªa tremendous achievement even by the highest standards. The object before her was why she could do it. A severed mountain lotus. She rxed her sitting pose and sighed, looking at the wilted lotus. The sect master had told her that when it came down to only seven petals, it would no longer be worth artificially maintaining it like this. The lotus would be processed into a special potion or a pill, and she would then consume it. She had already had several of the lotuses petals, but only some of the ones that had wilted. Even that was a wonderful experience. She could easily understand why drug addicts couldn¡¯t control themselves. She drooled at the mouth at the thought of consuming more. Harel still felt rather sad. The lotus had been with her for roughly six years already. It had grown on her, like a small nt pet she had raised. She quickly severed that train of thought. Harel couldn¡¯t help but groan. She had to marry one of the rats from the younger generation. What a pain. Worst of all was that Hunter seemed to be in the lead for being her marriage candidate. Sadly he wasn¡¯t even the worst one. At least he was hard-working and disciplined, even if he was a giant asshole. Harel thought about the gathering today. A long time ago, she had hoped that Neave would have been the one to win thatpetition. Histe mother had been a true monster, and his father was the sect master. He was an extremely bright child, too, so everyone believed he¡¯d be the prodigy of the next generation. Oh, how quickly that opinion flipped on its head. Practically overnight, he had gone from a promising child to a petnt brat. His refusal to train and daily temper tantrums swiftly annihted her admiration for him. Harel had been among Neave¡¯s biggest haters at first. After all, that damn kid had persistently ruined daily practice for months until they finally gave up and dered him a lost cause. Over the years, however, her admiration had been rekindled, although for an entirely different reason. When a weed grew in the wilderness, it was nothing but useless grass, but when it sprouted from a crack in solid stone, that was a damn persistent weed. She felt terrible after what had happened today. It was hard to tell what was going on with so little information, but it was clear something had happened to Neave. She felt doubly bad as she thought about the politics surrounding him. When the politics of a sect spun around you for so long, it was hard to avoid spinning along. Harel was privy to many of the sect''s inner workings, as the bothersome elders kept trying to get on her good side. She looked at the wilting lotus again and thought about the future. Soon she would be frequenting every tournament they could squeeze her into. As she built up her reputation, the sect''s power would grow. The power of the younger generation was seen as a sign of a sect''s future. Merchant groups would open franchises in nearby towns and cities. Other enterprising citizens would start entirely new towns under the sect''s protection. Buildings would sprout, the settlements would flourish, and all of this would bring countless treasures to the sect and her personally. So she refocused and went back to cultivating. ¡°Oh, hi, Harel.¡± She jumped up to her feet in fright and looked behind her. ¡°Neave? What are you doing here? No, wait, how did you get in1?¡± Neave pointed at the wall behind him. ¡°There''s a leak there, so I slipped in.¡± Leak? Slipped in? What the hell is he talking about? ¡°How are you standing on the ss like that!?¡± Harel half screamed the words as she pointed at Neave¡¯s feet in anxiety. ¡°Ah, one of my movement techniques. It¡¯s a handy one.¡± ¡°Wait, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re a cultivator!? How long have you been hiding this!? No, how are you hiding this even now? I am looking at you, and you just feel¡­ Like you''re not even there!¡± Neave lit up and cheerfully bragged. ¡°I know, impressive, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m very proud of that one! Either way, this room looks crazy from the outside, so I just had to check it out. I didn¡¯t know this was your chamber. Hell, I didn¡¯t know this existed!¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°What do I mean by what?¡± ¡°You said this room looks crazy from the outside.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, the qi in this room is nuts.¡± The what now here is what now? Harel looked at Neave with pure incredulity seared into her face. This room was sealed. There was no way any qi should be leaking out, let alone enough to be sensed¡± A strange sense of dread crept up her back. She felt like there was way too much off with this situation. He appeared out of thin air, and that was only one of the things that seemed utterly impossible. Neave walked on the ss shards and disappeared. Harel couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. Where did he go? ¡°Whoaaa, what is this thing? It¡¯s so freakin cool!¡± Oh no. Harel slowly turned around as she watched Neave observe the severed mountain lotus up close. ¡°Neave, what are you doing¡­?¡± Harel winced as Neave picked the lotus up and lifted it into the air. ¡°Whohoa, this thing is bursting with qi! Can I have it?¡± ¡°Absolutely not. Please put it down!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t wanna.¡± ¡°What?¡± Harel bit her fist in anxiety. ¡°How about this? I will trade you for one of the weapons on the wall!¡± ¡°Okay, alright, fine, that¡¯s cool. Take whatever you want as long as you put that back where you found it!¡± Neave¡¯s face lit up. ¡°Thank you, Harel, you¡¯re the best!¡± Neave disappeared again and reappeared next to one of the walls. ¡°Either way, these weapons are all kind of shitty, no? Ah, whatever, most of the higher rank ones are too heavy for my spirit anyway.¡± Neave picked up arge, slightly rusty steel scimitar off the wall and swung it. It looked too heavy for him, but Harel could tell those weren¡¯t amateur swings. Neave changed his stance a bit. He swung the de again. The qi inside the entire room echoed, and every weapon on the walls began buzzing in resonance. With every swing he took, she saw a head be chopped off, a hardened warrior bisected, and a giant felled. Her spirit shivered at the sensation. The severed mountain lotus looked just a little bit less withered. Amateur swings? Those weren¡¯t even expert swings. Those were the moves of a master. Harel stood frozen as Neave waved and ran toward the wall. ¡°Either way, Harel, I¡¯d love to keep talking, but I gotta go kill someone now. See youter!¡± Neave disappeared through the wall. ¡°... Huh?¡± *** Hunter was sitting curled up in the corner of his room, still shaking and whimpering. He looked around the room, his heart beating out of his chest. Some form of vile monstrosity had just tortured him. At first, he had fallen for its ruse. It was disguised as Neave or perhaps possessing his body and spoke of Hunter''s greatest nightmares and fears. And then it started its wretched game. It had shown him, time after time, that it held his life in its hands. Poking at every one of his openings and weaknesses as it danced the waltz of death. He screamed and wailed, but nobody could hear him. After all, the disciples'' rooms were soundproofed. Cultivation should never be interrupted by distractions, and Hunter was especially loud. So he screamed, but nobody responded. Hunter was still afraid it would pop back up any time and finish him off. When he finally calmed down a bit, he remembered. ¡°The book¡­¡± He breathed the words with utter terror. It was the book. It must have possessed Neave¡¯s body directly. Those fools chased the tome around like a loose dog while it did as it pleased. He had to warn someone. He had to find his father. Hunter slowly got up off the ground, looking at the walls like any of them would open up and release the demon back inside. When he finally gathered the bravery, he bolted down the hallways of the sect. Looking for the sect master. *** Elder Jukann was among the lowest-ranked elders of the sect. He was and had been for decades on the precipice of reaching the second step of the silver path. He looked middle-aged as he wasn¡¯t even that old, but he had cracked a hundred. He was ratherzy and didn¡¯t care enough to fake being productive. Cultivation and training were demanding work, and he had better things to do. However, the allure of the extra time and youth that advancement brought was enticing enough to get him to do¡­ Certain things. For cultivation resources, that was. Eating pills and drinking potions was hardly enough to substitute training. Qi acquired purely through those means didn¡¯t make for a proper warrior. He wasn''t sure whether he could win a fight against someone who had trained up to the bronze path. But the other benefits still stood. Youth. Health. The beautiful song of eternity. Like all other cultivators, he wanted a piece of that pie. He just wasn¡¯t willing to work for it. He was tasked, just like all the other elders, to run around searching for a damn book. Jukann didn¡¯t believe half the crap they had said. And he most certainly didn¡¯t think that Neave had stolen it. He had agreed with the sect master''s initial reaction. This whole thing smelled like sect politics. And he knew sect politics. Jukann was a rather low-ranking elder of the sect. As such, he had been tasked with the undesirable and unrewarding task of distributing food pills to the disciples. At first, he loathed the responsibility, but the job grew on him. The sect practiced fair, or rather, merit-based distribution of resources. But certain doting mothers and older brothers wanted the best for their young. So he¡¯d ept their gift and return their kindness by giving better food pills to their children. Or perhaps they¡¯d want somebody to get lower-quality pills. One never knew. It was not his job to judge the higher-ranking elders. Short were the lives of those who didn¡¯t keep their heads down. Hezily strode down the hallways, throwing a token nce at anything unusual he passed by. That¡¯s when he spotted him. Neave strode down the hallway right toward the elder. But something was odd. He held himself higher. He didn¡¯t look quite as fragile as he usually did, and¡­ He carried a massive scimitar over his shoulder. ¡°Elder Jukann! I finally found you! You have three seconds to answer my question. Why did you poison me?¡± Jukann stood frozen as he stared at Neave. ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t. What are you spouting, child? What kind of behavior is this!?¡± ¡°Ding! Time¡¯s up!¡± Suddenly, Neave shed forward at impossible speed and sank his fist into the elder''s stomach. The blow threw the elder back several meters, and he tumbled as he smashed into the ground. He recognized the golden glow surrounding Neave. He had just used a true strike. Elder Jukann¡¯s mind raced to exin what was happening. He then remembered the book, the cursed object they were chasing, and he panicked hard. ¡°Wait, wait, spare me! I will tell you what you want to know. Just spare me my life! I was just following orders. I¡¯ve never had any personal grudges against you!¡± ¡°Okay, okay, just tell me who ordered you to poison me, and I will let you go.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Alright, I was told to do it bydy Soria. And¡­ And alsody Kame.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°No, no, it was also¡­ Marrah, Marrah,dy Marrah, she paid me to¨CI mean, she ordered me to do it. I wasn¡¯t thinking straight. I should have¡­ I should have reported it¡ªthe threat to my life be damned!¡± ¡°Okay, stop spluttering. Is that everyone?¡± Jukann froze and hesitated. ¡°And also¡­ Elder¡­ Elder Kaphor. He told me to.¡± Neave grinned. ¡°And that is¡­?¡± ¡°That is everyone, I swear on my soul!¡± ¡°Okay, thank you very much!¡± Just as Jukann was about to breathe out in relief, golden runes shed around Neave. And Jukann¡¯s head rolled down the hallway. Neave cheered. ¡°Wooo, a destroyer had been removed! Good job, me!¡± He patted himself on the shoulder. ¡°Now then, I think I will start with Kame first. I¡¯d like to save elder Kaphor forst!¡± Neave strode down the hallway, leaving the beheaded corpse behind. As Neave hunted for more heads, Hunter desperately searched for the sect master. Harel hesitated. A senior disciple located the beheaded corpse of Elder Jukann. Elder Rashia returned to the sealed room. While Marven stubbornly waited for someone to find the book. Chapter 18: Denial Chapter 18: Denial Neave strode down the hallway, and he felt great. He had never killed an actual person before, so he wondered whether he would have any reservations about it, but no, not really. The miserable look on the face of a man that poisoned kids for scraps didn¡¯t spark anypassion within Neave¡¯s heart. Instead, he felt joyful. After all, no more kids would be poisoned! A destroyer had been removed! Would hement killing a parasite? Obviously not! And he was confident that the next victim wouldn''t spark anypassion either. *** Elder Rashia couldn¡¯t shake off the sense of unease. First, the book waspletely and utterly gone. It had been over half a day already, and it was getting well into the night, but they hadn¡¯t found any signs of the book''s potential location. Neave¡¯s strange behavior lingered in the back of her mind. He was¡­ Lucid. That much was obvious. But something about the way he acted freaked Rashia out. If it was only that, she would have written it off as strange behavior, perhaps insanity induced by proximity to the tome. But the dancing. Everybody found his dancing strange at first, but the more Rushia thought about it, the more it weighed on her. How was he so good? Did he spend all his days practicing dancing in the library when nobody was looking? Rushia had dealt with a fair share of insane individuals over her long career. Still, she had never seen someone be granted the ability to dance like that by mere insanity, even if they desperately tried to convince someone otherwise. And that wasn¡¯t the only thing. There was this creepy undertone to his behavior. Something bizarre was happening. Neave was restrained. He was locked in a sealed room. The sect master wasn¡¯t aplete fool. There was a real possibility that the cursed book had possessed Neave. That¡¯s why he had been ¡®escorted to the infirmary.¡¯ It should be fine, right? He should remain where he is, no matter what¡­ Rashia cursed herself for not telling one of the elders to remain behind. The sense of unease became too much, and she couldn¡¯t stop herself from returning to the sealed room. What she found shook her to her very core. Neave was gone. Not just that, but a booky half burned on the ground next to where Neave should have been. The pages have all burned to a crisp, but the hardcovers were made from far less mmable material. The book covers perfectly coincided with the description of the death tome. *** ¡°Sect master! Father, wait!¡± Hunter finally made it to Marven after a good deal of running. He had to dodge and avoid countless elders who beckoned him to return to his room. Hunter had to exin several times that it was an emergency and even then, most elders told him to return to his quarters. ¡°Hunter. Why aren¡¯t you in your room?¡± ¡°Father, I know where the death tome is!¡± Marven¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°What!? Exin. Did you see it?¡± ¡°No, but¡­¡± ¡°Then go back to your room.¡± ¡°Father, please listen to me!¡± Hunter grabbed Marven¡¯s sleeve, to Marven¡¯s chagrin. ¡°You have ten seconds to exin what you¡¯re doing here. We¡¯re in the middle of a crisis, Hunter.¡± ¡°Look, Neave visited my room¡­¡± Marven¡¯s eyebrows shot up again at that. Then he scoffed. ¡°What are you talking about? Neave has been tied up and detained in a special room. There¡¯s no way he could have visited you.¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand, he, he¡­ He can phase through walls! And he was¡­ Look, I have good reason to suspect that the cursed tome is possessing him!¡± Marven¡¯s initial reaction was to p Hunter. He was obviously spouting nonsense. But he restrained himself, as Hunter¡¯s distress seemed to be genuine. Suddenly, a realization struck him. ¡°Hunter, we are going to your room!¡± ¡°What? No, father, he already left. My room is¡­¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ask, Hunter.¡± Hunter considered and responded. ¡°Ok, alright, father, but we need to hurry. He is out there somewhere.¡± Marven paused for just a second at that. He picked up Hunter and ran to his room. *** Kame Zearthorn was Marven¡¯s seventh wife. However, all of the previous six wives were already dead. So in her head and formal title, she was the first mistress of the Zearthorn sect. She was an austere woman who looked middle-aged but was well over hundred and fifty years old. She walked around the halls of the sect, fuming. Kame had tried exining to Marven that Neave should be interrogated thoroughly and immediately. He, however, dismissed her! He dared! Wasn¡¯t it evident that the child stole the book!? Hadn¡¯t that wretched hellspawn admitted to his crimes before the entire sect!? But no. In his cramped little skull, detaining Neave and looking for the book was the better option. Kame had never heard of a damn walking book before. She felt she wasn¡¯t going to meet one today. The dancing. Neave¡¯s dancing was oh so suspicious the more she or anyone she talked to thought about it. How could he dance like that? A mortal child, that spent their entire life bent over mundane texts suddenly passes out in the sect courtyard and wakes up miraculously able to move like that? With the coordination of a many-years-trained professional dancer? If the book was alive, the only possibility was that it possessed his body. However, the elders had privately gathered in one of the hallways during the search and agreed not to push the issue. After all, Neave had already been restrained in qi bonds, which was overkill in any case, and he had also been locked in a specially isted room. The elders agreed there was no merit in pushing the issue. When this whole fiasco was over, and it was discovered that Neave¡¯s body had been possessed, the sect master would be losing quite a bit of influence. Not only would they have a solid case to restrain the sect master in his future decisions, but they would also have a solid reason to execute Neave. Well, if they must exorcize him, they could also do that. But the spirit damage would leave him a pale shadow of the person he was. Kame gloated. She hated Neave. She hated the fact that the sect master had married anyone after her. Especially that wretched whore Brivia. She couldn¡¯t stand the thought of that woman. Kame couldn¡¯t be happier about what happened to her. Killed by bandits, and not even her body was recovered. She hoped the bandits didn¡¯t pick anything up after touching that thing. And now she got to finally end her bloodline once and for all. Just as she thought those very words, Neave appeared before her. ¡°Oh, hello, stepmother! I was just looking for you!¡± Kame wasn¡¯t a na?ve woman. She immediately understood the implications of Neave being there and holding a weapon. She didn¡¯t even think for a second before she triggered her spirit power and attacked Neave with her sword. Kame wasn¡¯t a warrior, but she was still on the second step of the silver path. She also had a spirit power. A very expensive one. She could create several near-exact phantom copies of herself. She charged at Neave, reaching him before even a second had passed. And then he disappeared. A deep sense of unease wed at her back, but she couldn¡¯t turn around in time. Momentster, his scimitar was stuck in her back, poking out of her chest, right through her heart. ¡°You¡­ Demon child¡­¡± With thest breath she could muster, she spat blood and cursed Neave. Then she dropped dead to the ground. *** Neave was t-out disappointed after that fight. Wasn¡¯t Kame a silver path cultivator? She moved almost as fast as the final demon, but with so much less finesse. Neave was only in the foundation realm, but he¡¯d already killed two silver path cultivators. He was shocked at how¡­ Soft they were. Was it supposed to be this easy to kill someone on the silver path? Surely not. The spirit power was also underwhelming, as Neave could easily pick Kame apart from the clones. These weren¡¯t prominent warriors, but it was still strange that he could just dispatch them like this. Neave shrugged his shoulders and picked the dimension ring off Kame¡¯s finger. Then he put it on. ¡°Ugh, that¡¯s so heavy.¡± Not physically heavy, but spiritually. Spiritual weight was greater for objects created with higher rank materials, and too much spiritual weight felt like a bad migraine, but spiritually. This made Neave feel like throwing up, but he ignored the sensation, used to far greater pain than this. He scoured through the dimensional space within with his spiritual senses. He grinned. There was a whole load of supplies in there. He couldn¡¯t wear the ring at all times, but nothing stopped him from just pocketing it and taking things out whenever needed. For now, he looked for anything immediately useful. He found some decent treasures for qi recovery and even several decent weapons. Neave hadn¡¯t spent any life force yet, but he¡¯d overdone it with the movement techniques. He took a small sip from a qi recovery potion and sighed contently as it replenished his minuscule qi reserves. Then he pulled out a steel sword. A damn good one. It felt beautifully bnced in Neave¡¯s arms as he took a few swings. It was much lighter than the scimitar and far more appropriate for his body mass and height. Well then, was it Soria or Marrah next? *** Marven was hoping to find the book hidden somewhere in Hunter''s room. He pulled the floorboards off and even peeled the walls, which Hunter watched in distressed silence. He had already asked his father what he was doing, and Marven responded by angrily telling him to shut the hell up. Marven finished his peeling and then cursed. He then tried using his spirit senses, but he knew that that was somewhat desperate. The treasure was entirely invisible to even his spirit perception. As he tried anyway, he immediately frowned. There was loose qi residue in the room. It didn¡¯t have any distinct impression on Marven¡¯s senses, which meant it must be foundation realm qi. But that made no sense. This felt like it was less than an hour old, and the only person that could have been here was¡­ Marven froze. He slowly turned to Hunter and looked him in the eyes. ¡°Hunter. Were you telling the truth about seeing Neave in this room?¡± Hunter quickly nodded his head, still too scared to talk. Marven didn¡¯t ask any more questions. He sprinted toward the chambers where Neave was supposed to be detained. He knew something was unusual about this incident. His intuition had already told him what was happening, but he didn¡¯t want to believe it. He gritted his teeth until one cracked and he ran like mad. If Neave¡­ If he truly did get¡­ Then it is all my fault. *** Neave found elder Soria very soon after he had taken care of Kame. That was unsurprising, given how much of an asslicker Soria was. She had probably been secretly following Kame. He didn¡¯t even really bother with any formalities. He beheaded her and walked right past her body. She wasn¡¯t even on the silver path yet, so shey dead on the ground before she could even scream. Neave¡¯s next target was Lady Marrah. Or rather, Hunter¡¯s mother. And he wasn¡¯t nearly as casual about killing her as he had been for Kame and Soria. Compared to them, Marrah was an actual warrior. *** Marrah was seriously considering assassinating Marven. He had grown toocent. He was a grand warrior and a remarkable cultivator, but¡­ Marven didn¡¯t have what it took to be a sect master. Marrah was the youngest of Marven¡¯s wives, at only thirty-six years old. She was rather tall and had an excessive amount of muscle. Her ck hair was tied back into a ponytail. She was quite handsome. It was hard to call her beautiful, however. Her face was too sharp, and her jaw was slightly too defined. Her body had no hint of weakness or feebleness, and her strength reflected her outward appearance. She was no prodigy as a young cultivator, but her father had deeply instilled the principles of hard work into her. She kept reaching the standards of her sect within a rtively average time. By 22 years old, she had reached the second step of the bronze path and had been married off to Marven. Since then, she had improved up to the second step of the silver path. Although she wasn¡¯t an exceptionally talented cultivator, she was a natural at politics. She had chosen to birth only a single son and then invested a lot of resources into him. At first, she kept her head down and sucked up to the higher-ranking elders, but as her power as a cultivator, as well as the power of her son, kept growing, she built her influence to among the highest in the sect. And how did Marven reward her for that work? By tantly ignoring the fact that that child had been possessed? Marrah was among the few that didn¡¯t hate Neave¡¯s mother. She just hated Neave himself. If anything, she was fond of his mother. So what if she was a little cruel? That was what a cultivator was meant to be like! But Neave represented the greatest sin that she detested more than anything. Sloth. She wasn¡¯t the one who had devised the n to poison Neave. But she yed along anyway. The reason why was simple. She just wanted Marven to give up on making him a cultivator. It was a waste of time and resources that only caused discord within the sect. This damn farce with looking for the book was already getting on her nerves. She understood Marven rather well, even among his wives. The guilt was eating him alive. After all, how could Neave have gained ess to his keys if Marven didn¡¯t just give them to him? Marrah knew where the tome had been hidden, and it was unsurprising to hear that Neave had found it. What a fiasco. She was d that sly Kaphor had at least let him save some face by putting the farce up. At this moment, she spotted Neave standing in front of her in the hallway. She immediately pulled out her weapon, but she didn¡¯t attack. ¡°So, am I to assume that I am talking to Neave Zearthorn, or is it the creature that lived within the book?¡± Neaveughed in response. ¡°Both, actually!¡± ¡°So you¡¯ve meshed with Neave¡¯s personality?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s far more simple than that, stepmother.¡± Neave took two steps forward and vanished. Every single hair on Marrah¡¯s body immediately shot up as she turned around and blocked a strike. The impact made her recoil, but the shock of what she¡¯d witnessed was much greater than the strike. Neave had just teleported and then used a true strike. He didn¡¯t seem to be on the gold path, however. If he was, Marrah would be dead. He didn¡¯t even seem to be on the iron path. So how the hell could he use a true strike? And what the devil was that movement technique? Marrah flexed her muscles and readjusted her stance, readying herself to strike at Neave again. ¡°What¡¯s with all the wasted movement?¡± Neave disappeared again. This time, she felt her knee buckle as the tendons behind it were severed. She whirled and readjusted her bnce to face Neave. She had to bnce on one leg now. Marrah cursed her stupid decision to not wear armor around the sect premises. She should have just swallowed the shame. ¡°Why are you attacking me?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? You¡¯re a destroyer, and you have to be removed!¡± Marrah frowned. ¡°Destroyer?¡± ¡°I mean,e on stepmother, what else could someone who poisons children be?¡± Marrah scoffed. ¡°You didn¡¯t want to be a cultivator anyway. Did the book change that somehow?¡± ¡°Look at you, trying to squeeze information out of me. Let me throw you a bone, though. All I will say is that it left me with no choice.¡± ¡°So it forced these strange techniques onto you?¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough stalling, Marrah.¡± Neave rushed at her and faced her inbat. Marrah swung the de with all her might and skill, but trying to hit Neave was like trying to hit a damn shadow. Marrah had two spirit powers. Troll strength and enhanced endurance. Both were straightforward and mighty abilities. However, she felt like they were of no use whatsoever against Neave. The way he dodged her attacks was almost casual, and although his attacks weren¡¯t doing much damage to her, the cuts were piling up. ¡°Seriously? I was quite excited about our fight, but you¡¯re so slow. I can tell who Hunter inherited his moves from.¡± Those words made a chill run down her spine. ¡°You bastard! Did you do something to Hunter!?¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, I did. I will let you imagine the worst thing I could have done.¡± Marrah shook as she gripped the handle of her sword hard enough to make it crack. ¡°You¡­¡± She wanted to say something, but her rage overtook her, and she lunged at Neave. She initiated the most powerful qi technique she could use. The final form of the Zearthorn sect sword arts. The cut of severed fates. Her sword vibrated intensely and shone with the brightness of a star. As she brought the de down, it smashed into the ground, and the resulting explosion blew the walls and roof away, leaving a deep gouge down the hallway floor. But she missed Neave. The recoil of her technique kept her stunned for less than a second. A second where Neave used a slow true strike. A simple downward sh. One that bisected Marrah from top to bottom. *** Marven ran into elder Rashia halfway to the chambers where Neave should have been. She showed him the covers of the death tome. Her exnation was brief, but Marven thought the entire world was spinning. This was when one of the senior disciples walked up. ¡°Sect master! Somebody had killed elder Jukann!¡± An elder ran up as well. ¡°Sect master! Is there a bloody mutiny within the sect!? Lady Soria and Lady Kame have been found dead in the hallways!¡± That was when they heard the qi technique go off on the other side of the sect. *** Neave stood in front of an elderly-looking man. The man didn¡¯t look shocked to see Neave. He merely clicked his tongue. ¡°Elder brother Kaphor! How are you on this fine day!?¡± Elder Kaphor wasn''t amused. Not even a little bit. Chapter 19: Echoes Chapter 19: Echoes Harel was pacing around her cultivation chamber, and she was panicking. She fanned her face with her arms and paced back and forth. Neave had appeared in her secret chambers, shownpletely impossible levels ofpetence in both using movement techniques and wielding a sword, and then he went off to kill someone. Who was he going to kill? What the hell happened to make him do this? What happened to make him able to do this? The book? Harel contemted that. There were incredible treasures scattered around the realm. Could the book have been some sort of sacred inheritance? Maybe it only killed off those unworthy of its contents? Her mind whirled. She simply had no idea what she should do. The sect master will undoubtedly know that Neave had visited her chamber. Not only did he take a sword from here, but he¡¯d also used movement techniques inside the room. And the swordsmanship. She still shivered when she thought about the way he used the sword. The sword qi in the air echoed with every one of his movements. With swordsmanship like that, who couldn¡¯t he kill in the sect? The first idea that came to her was that he¡¯d kill Hunter. She was well aware of the way Hunter treated Neave. Hunter dying was one thing. She could get over his death. But Neave killing someone was another thing altogether. Would she be med for not sprinting out immediately and warning someone? Or even for not defeating him on the spot? Could I even beat him in a swordfight? She didn¡¯t know. The inheritance could have potentially granted Neave cultivation up to the bronze path. She doubted she could truly beat him in a fight if he were even at the iron path, with movement techniques like that and with such skill with the sword. If that was the case, anyone except the sect master probably couldn¡¯t defeat him, either. Finally, she chose to leave the chamber. She would decide what to do depending on what she discovered outside. *** Neave stood before elder Kaphor in one of the sect¡¯s hallways. He smiled broadly but knew this would be a different story than someone like Marrah. Kaphor was a cultivator on the third step of the silver path. Quite close to the gold path, as well. His speed and power were greater than the final demon, even if his skill wasn¡¯t. He also had two spirit powers. Noxious cut and third strike. Extremely nasty powers. Noxious cut imbued the body of whoever he injured with a sharp weapon with toxic qi, and third strike made his every third attack generate a phantasmal copy of the same move from behind his opponent. Neave wasn¡¯t going to wimp out of the fight, however. He would have killed elder Kaphor even if he didn¡¯t hear he was involved with the poisoning. Why? Because out of everyone in the sect, Kaphor had tormented Neave the most. Not even Hunter had gone out of his way as much as Kaphor did. This man had invested quite a bit of his time and effort into making Neave¡¯s life even worse than it was. Kaphor was a true destroyer, one that destroyed for destruction¡¯s sake. Neave could forgive Hunter. He was just a child, and his role models weren¡¯t particrly admirable. But Kaphor was over two hundred years old. ¡°Hmmm, I wonder what that book truly was.¡± Kaphor usually spoke in a weak voice and maintained a subdued tone in public. In front of Neave, however, he always used the same voice. A deep raspy voice dripping with condescension. ¡°An inheritance? Maybe it was a trial? Or had some sort of demonic spirit truly lived inside there?¡± He wasn¡¯t even directly talking to Neave. He was simply thinking out loud. ¡°Alright, old man, you can drop the senile act and face the executioner.¡± ¡°Me? Hahaha, I face the executioner? And who would that be? You? I¡¯ve heard who you¡¯ve killed, you wretched creature. Simply being high rank and being a real warrior are different things.¡± ¡°I know. You are living proof of that, after all!¡± Kaphor sneered. ¡°The book must have cost you some wit. I remember you¡¯ve had much betterebacks before.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve gotten a bit rusty, I must admit.¡± ¡°Oh, did you, now? I wonder when you had the time for that.¡± Neave grinned. But he didn¡¯t respond. They stared at each other as elders and senior disciples poured into the hallway around them. Neither of them made a move, however. They stood, both observing their opponent. The tension between them felt like a physical substance filling the air. Neave made a move. He appeared right before Kaphor. Kaphor blocked Neave¡¯s thrust and kicked, shed with the sword from above, thrust at Neave, and cut again from the side. Neave barely dodged the relentless strikes. He didn¡¯t even have time to retaliate as kaphor closed his options off by utilizing the phantom attacks. Even though he barely avoided the strikes, he still wasn¡¯t getting hit. The elders have already created distance from them as Kaphor¡¯s strikes sent flying qi techniques at the nearby walls, copsing the hallways. Neave took the fight outside into the courtyard as the walls opened up. Kaphor noticed an opening and swung at Neave¡¯s arm. Neave couldn¡¯t move his arm out of the way in time, and Kaphor cut his index finger off. Kaphor grinned as he felt the attack connect, but then he saw the golden light, and Neave grinned back. Kaphor barely dodged the true strike thrust, but it still tore through his chest and opened arge gash. He jumped back from Neave, clutching at his bleeding chest. Yet, he smiled anyway. He looked in shock as Neave picked up the finger and reattached it back to his hand. ¡°What? The toxic qi¡­?¡± ¡°Oh, you mean this toxic qi?¡± Neave grinned ear to ear as green mist seeped through his hand and out of his body. ¡°Im-Impossible.¡± Neave once again blurred and appeared to the left of Kaphor. Kaphor barely blocked the true strike in time, feeling the pressure building on his wrist. He had to abandon the two-handed grip since Neave¡¯s strike had torn his left pec too severely. A blue mist suddenly surrounded kaphor as he glowed. His movements drastically elerated as he initiated the second form of the Zearthorn sect¡¯s swordsmanship. His sword blurred as he ran after Neave. Neave wasn¡¯t fast enough to dodge Kaphor¡¯s attacks, even if they were crappy. He had to over-abuse movement techniques to get some distance. He had to keep changing directions every three moves to avoid the phantom strikes. Even though he dodged significant damage, minor cuts pelted his entire body. He could remove the toxic qi, but not under this much pressure. Neave knew that he had no choice but to get a little desperate. ¡°What happened, you devil child!? Where did your miracle powers go!?¡± Neave swapped his sword to his left arm. Kaphor immediately noticed the opening andmitted to a long thrust, severing Neave¡¯s arm clean off. Kaphor¡¯s face twisted in a wicked grin. The fight was over. Neave¡¯s right arm glowed with a red tinge. Kaphor had jumped forward to extend his reach. Now he was stuck in the air as he watched Neave take a stance. An ugly grimace swiftly reced his wicked grin. Neave¡¯s entire arm lit up with crimson embers. It smashed into Kaphor¡¯s gut with a deep thud. Kaphor reeled and bounced a bit from the impact. Neave took a better stance. Golden runes surrounded him, congealing around his fist. He moved slowly, runes shining brightly enough to light up the entire courtyard. ¡°No¡­ Please!¡± Now, the fight was truly over. Neave¡¯s first struck Kaphor¡¯s torso, the impact pushing blood out of every orifice in his body. He spun helplessly in the air as Neave got into another stance. Golden runes shone brighter than the midday sun as he prepared a kick. A really slow kick. Kaphor tried to do anything to dodge the strike, but he could only watch in despair as he fell right onto Neave¡¯s foot. Bloody mist sprayed through the air, and the earth lifted around Neave¡¯s feet. Elder Kaphor flew like a rag doll and smashed into the stone walls of the Zearthorn sect building, blowing through the walls like a boulder and sprawling across the ground, unmoving. *** Marven ran like mad as he sprinted to the other side of the sect. Even at the tinum path, it took him a good minute of running until he¡¯d tracked down the source of all the fighting. He ran into the sect courtyard only to witness Neave execute an unbelievably powerful true strike and kill elder Kaphor. His blood ran cold. *** Harel was seriously about to pass out from panic. She witnessed Neave kill elder Kaphor. Not only that, but she¡¯d also heard he killed several other elders. Harel observed the situation, panicking and wondering if there was any way to redeem herself for her mistake. *** Neave was screwed. He¡¯d gotten himself in way deeper shit than he had hoped. He spent almost half his life force, a truly idiotic mistake now that he had to fix the issue. He couldn¡¯t wish to reattach his arm as the poison rotted it to mush. It took every bit of qi control he could execute to remove the toxic qi from his body. He had to settle for sealing it off until he could regain his strength. He had to spend even more life force to stop the bleeding from his missing left arm. Neave was injured all over, his qi was nearly exhausted, and he was far too low on life force. Not to even speak of the spiritual damage thest move had caused him. With all the blood covering him and his skin shriveling and wilting from the life force drain, he was truly beginning to look like a demon. Yet, in the face of every single one of these things, he still grinned. The satisfaction of utterly destroying that wretched old man was worth every bit of damage he had taken. As the shit he found himself in deepened, he could only pray that was it for the damage he would take. His utterly livid father standing before him made him believe those prayers would likely go unanswered. ¡°What are you? What the hell have you done to my son!?¡± Even though Neave knew he was insane for doing this, he grinned and responded to his father. ¡°These destroyers had poisoned me, father. It was only rational to remove them.¡± Marven looked shocked, yet he regained himself quickly. Neave could see he had resolved to something. He could practically feel the seconds counting to his death, but he pressed on. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯d let this sort of shit pass under your nose. What kind of a sect master are you? Look at all that happened today! You are so lucky, father! In the end, all I¡¯ve done is your fucking job!¡± ¡°Silence demon. You will not seduce me with your deceit.¡± ¡°I suppose the privilege of deceiving you is reserved for the elders?¡± Marven stepped forward and pulled a sword out of his dimension ring. ¡°So that¡¯s what you¡¯ll choose? You¡¯d kill your son in defense of these lunatics? Hahahahahaha, you¡¯re truly the worst father that anyone could wish for! You are the worst, even among all of these viins! Am I not everything you wanted me to be!? Look at me, father! I am a mighty warrior now, standing before my fallen enemy! Am I finally not exactly like my mother!?¡± ¡°Shut the hell up, you despicable demon! Even if you slither out of my son''s dead body, I willy my life to annihte you!¡± ¡°Then do it! Do it already, you idiot! For once, stop being a fucking coward!¡± Marven snapped at that and readied his sword for a thrust. He barely stopped himself as Harel jumped in front of Neave. ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± Everyone held their breath. ¡°Harel, what in the heavens¡¯ name are you doing?¡± What in the heavens¡¯ name am I doing? Have I gone insane!? ¡°Sect master, please. I encountered Neave not even half an hour back! He is¡­ I do not believe a demonic spirit possesses him!¡± ¡°Move out of the way, Harel, or I swear I will cut right through you.¡± ¡°No¡­ I¡­¡± Harel frantically looked around and spotted Hunter in the crowd. ¡°There! Hunter is still alive!¡± Even Harel felt her argument was weak. However, the sect master froze at that and looked over to Hunter. The elders immediately spotted his hesitation and objected. ¡°What are you doing, sect master!? Harel has gone mad and showed her back to the demon! What if he kills her? We would lose our sect''s greatest asset!¡± But Neave didn''t move a bit. ¡°Just go around her and finish it off. It¡¯s going to doom us all!¡± Marven nced from the elders to Harel, from Harel to Neave, and back yet again to the elders. His breath sped up, his heart roared, and his arms shook. ¡°Stop hesitating and do it!¡± Why do I hesitate? ¡°Kill the demon!¡± Neave cackled at the scene in front of him and then gestured to the crowd of elders. ¡°When will you stop letting them get away with this?¡± Marven¡¯s sword nearly slipped out of his fingers. When will you stop letting them get away with this? Her exact words echoed through Neave¡¯s. ¡°When will you finally see how fucking rotten this sect is? Remember what you told me just yesterday!? Isn¡¯t it best one ¡®naturally learns the consequences of their mistakes''? Well, these are the natural fucking consequences of their mistakes. So what will it be then? Will you make up another excuse for letting the sect rot like this? Well, it''s time to wake the fuck up, dad. It¡¯s about time you naturally learned the consequences of your mistakes!¡± Marven shook. He felt like cold water had been sshed over him as Neave¡¯s words sank in. ¡°Come on, then! What are you waiting for!? Don¡¯t you hear the crowds screaming, begging the mighty tinum path cultivator to act!? Finish the demon, dad! Finish the fucking demon¡­ Sect master.¡± That was no demon in this realm that could replicate that sarcasm. They were right. He wasn¡¯t cut out to be a sect master. Marvenughed. The crowd around him froze; some even screamed in fright. ¡°Had the demon possessed the sect master as well?¡± ¡°Heavens, help us!¡± ¡°Silence.¡± Marven emitted no pressure, and a void expanded rapidly in everyone¡¯s gut. Neave looked at the mood and¡­ Well¡­ He bolted. Just started running. Given all the injuries and exhaustion, he wasn¡¯t running particrly fast, but Marven didn¡¯t chase him either. One of the elders screamed out. ¡°Someone, get him.¡± Marven, however, spoke up. ¡°No. Nobody move.¡± ¡°Ignore him! You, you, and you, immediately go and execute the demon.¡± Marven looked shocked as several elders ignored his explicitmands and ran after Neave without hesitation. They didn¡¯t get very far, however, as seemingly out of thin air, invisible des them into hundreds of tiny pieces. Silence set down on the crowd again. ¡°Se-Sect master. Why did you¡­?¡± ¡°You dare ignore my explicitmands?¡± Marven snarled. He pulled out a small purple pill. ¡°This is the antidote to the poison Neave was being fed.¡± ¡°Sect master, that was a matter for a formal trial, but this crisis is not over yet!¡± Everyone anxiously watched as Neave slipped into the hallways and disappeared out of sight. Marven ignored them and continued. ¡°I have known about their ploy for a long time, but I didn¡¯t see a reason to bother. Their transgression was worthy of execution, but I¡¯d lose an important elder and three wives. So why bother if I can give Neave the antidote and fix the problem? I was an utter fool. I have been a fool for hundreds of years.¡± ¡°Sect master, the demon¡­¡± ¡°That was my son.¡± Marven still remembered the words. They echoed through his mind and reflected the same thing one of his wives, no, the only true wife he¡¯d ever had said to him. When will you stop letting them get away with this? He finally had the answer to her question. ¡°For years, I havepromised. I¡¯ve yed politics and acted like a pushover because it was convenient. Look at what my apathy had cost me. Each time Ipromise between what¡¯s right and what you want, I move our sect closer to being demonic. I think it¡¯s about time we make it formal then.¡± The elders all froze upon hearing those words. ¡°Sect master, please, you¡¯ve lost yourself. Do you not hear what you¡¯re saying!¡± ¡°The demon is running away, and you¡¯re here spouting insane nonsense! Sect master, gather yourself and let¡­¡± ¡°I, Marven Zearthorn, sect master and cultivator of the tinum path, dere the Zearthorn sect a demonic one!¡± Elders gasped and screamed. ¡°He¡¯s lost his mind!¡± Marven continued. ¡°And from this moment onwards... I disband the sect.¡± The elders paused, but then one stepped forward and attacked Marven. ¡°You¡¯ve lost your damn mind! The council vetoes your decision immediately! If you so desire, then feel free to leave!¡± ¡°Yeah! You¡¯re a terrible sect master anyway!¡± ¡°With behavior like this, we¡¯d be better off without you!¡± Marven smiled sadly. ¡°I will not let a demonic sect bearing my name continue to exist. I¡¯ve made too many mistakes, and it is far toote to do things correctly. You''re under my rule as long as you stay with this sect! And I, in the name of Emperor Jeevian Lloude Dust, use my authority to administer punishment for your crimes!¡± He pointed his sword at elder Rashia. ¡°Elder Rashia, for concocting and administering poisons to disciples of the Zearthorn sect, I sentence you to death!¡± He didn¡¯t even move, yet Rashia¡¯s head detached, and her body copsed ¡°Elder Kashimir, for the assassination of your sibling and fellow sect elder, I sentence you to death!¡± Elder Kashimir¡¯s head fell the same way Rashia¡¯s did. The elders were screaming, some even running away, but Marven continued. ¡°Elder Bankor, for selling sect secrets to a rival sect, I sentence you to death!¡± Another head rolled. Marven looked around the crowd. Pure chaos had descended upon all the sect members. ¡°What!? Why are you all so surprised I knew of your wrongdoings? What do you take me, a tinum path cultivator, for!? You fools do not even understand what my rank and power signify!¡± Marven cried tears of fury, "Because none of you are worth your weight as cultivators! Nor are you worth a damn as people." His anger still red, burning hotter than the sun, but as he saw the frightened faces of his children, he felt his resolve crumble before him. He held his sword in his hands, ready to strike again, but bit by bit, the edge lowered. The eternal weight of his regret sank in. ¡°As long as you choose to stand within this sect¡¯s premises, I consider you my subjects. For as long as you are my subjects, I have the right to administer your punishment. But if any of you choose to leave and pack your things¡­ I will let you go.¡± Instantly, everyone broke into a run except Marven and Harel, who peed herself a little in fright. The word soon spread to the junior disciples of the sect, and soon enough, even they packed their things and left. The elders and senior cultivators swiftly collected anything they owned, even some things they didn¡¯t. They left the sect and ran for the hills in every direction. He stared at the dead bodies around him, the pit of despair deepening with every moment. His children. His own children died at his hands. Harel had been pretending to be invisible but finally gathered the courage to ask. ¡°What about¡­? I¡¯m sorry to interrupt, Sect Master, but what about Neave?¡± Marvenughed and ignored her question. ¡°Someone had already stolen your lotus. Ah, I¡¯m so stupid and pathetic. Please, do not call me that anymore. I¡¯m no sect master. I never truly had been.¡± Marven looked at Harel. She could see deep sadness and regret in his teary eyes as they bore into hers. ¡°If you wish, you can leave as well. But if you so desire, I will take you to the greatest sect I can find and ensure you¡¯re taken care of.¡± ¡°But what about¡­¡± ¡°Please, Harel. I have faith he will live. Besides, I am a coward.¡± He looked up, streams of tears pouring down his eyes. ¡°I am so sorry, Brivia. For I ammitting yet another mistake. He doesn¡¯t deserve a father like I. And I¡­ And I¡­¡± Then he grabbed his mouth and wept. Marven still remembered the man he once was. The sixty-year-old farmhand that lived his life admiring legendary cultivators. The mortal man that had be a powerhouse against all odds. The man that had wasted such fortune through failure after failure. The man that now watched his life¡¯s work crumble before his eyes. After pouring his heart out, Marven steeled his resolve. He picked Harel up and rapidly ascended the mountain next to his sect. He could still retrieve some valuables but couldn¡¯t bear to carry such mementos of his failure. When he felt thest disciple leave the sect premises, he turned to Harel. ¡°I will show you the technique I have built my dreams upon. Nobody from our sect had evere even close to being able to execute this technique besides me.¡± He turned towards the sect, pulled a shiny red great sword from his dimension ring, and continued. ¡°I have a selfish request to ask of you. Please, Harel. Remember what I am about to do.¡± He straightened the sword in front of his body, and immediately it began glowing with celestial blue light. As he took a deep breath, the energy condensed. The ground around him shook, and the sword buzzed like an angry steel ho. The blue energy shot out and materialized into an enormous blue sword hanging above the sect premises. Harel gaped at the impossible disy of power in front of her eyes. The spiritual force emitted by the sword was so great she felt like she would pass out just looking at it. Then the sword spun. As Marven moved the sword down, the gigantic phantom de sank into the ground. The sect premises exploded in blue light, engulphed in a shockwave of a billion sword shes, cutting every building and severing every stone. The blue light faded, leaving nothing but debris behind. The Zearthorn sect was no more. Chapter 20: Ripples Chapter 20: Ripples A moon of cold, pale gray rock, shrouded in thin clouds of mist and dust, hung above the sky of the realm. In the furthest corners of its dark side, three demons sat in a circle. Three archdemons. The first was an extremely muscr and tall demon with a wide open mouth full of sharp teeth. It had dozens of eyes all over its forehead, and a bundle of sharp spikes grew out of its head in the ce of hair. The demon, a scrawny one wrapped in brownish-red bandages. Its two beady eyes were the only part of its body peeking behind them. Thest demon was covered underneath a pitch-ck hood, wearing a nk white mask, two perfectly round eye holes the only features on it. There was no light behind those eyeholes. None whatsoever. The bandaged demon growled in a low, feral voice, words punctuated with groans and heavy breaths. ¡°We... Have... A problem.¡± The hooded demon responded with a voice that sounded like a sinister whisper. ¡°...Indeed.¡± The demon with spiked hair raised its head and talked in a distinctly male voice with an uncanny undertone that made it feel fake and deceitful. ¡°What¡¯s the deal? Did you feel something?¡± The hooded demon nodded. ¡°Someone had broken one of the Master''s curses.¡± The demon with spiked hair groaned and asked. ¡°That is problematic, but it happens asionally. Anything special this time?.¡± Then the bandaged demon spoke up. ¡°You¡­ Do not¡­ Get it. It¡­ Wasn¡¯t¡­ Shattered¡­ Or¡­ Annulled. It was¡­ Broken.¡± The demon with spiky hair slowly blinked its dozens of eyes. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a big problem.¡± The hooded demon added. ¡°It wasn¡¯t one of the gods¡¯ servants.¡± ¡°How can you tell?¡± ¡°Because of the location. The continent of Xinkummar.¡± The bandaged demon nodded. ¡°Ah¡­ The one¡­ That¡­ Even¡­ The gods¡­¡± ¡°... Abandoned.¡° *** The sun shone high above the ruins of the Zearthorn sect. It was the day after its disbanding and annihtion. Few among the many members of the former sect had dared to step foot into the rubble, but not none. Among the few that scoured the debris was Hunter. He looked disheveled and distressed. He had been digging through the debris since dawn, and it was already well past noon. He was tired. Not from thebor, of course, the endurance of a bronze path cultivator wasn¡¯t something to scoff at. All the crying, however, had thoroughly exhausted him. Hunter¡¯s mother was dead. The person supposed to be his future wife defended his mother¡¯s killer with her life. And his father had lost his mind and destroyed the entire damn sect. Hunter was lost. He had never left the sect premises before. To him, the Zearthorn sect was his entire world. Now he needed direction. He needed a path to move down, a goal to aspire to, and a desire to drive his steps and move him forward. The times of crying have passed for Hunter. It was time to move on. He removed some debris and found the corner of a red object poking out from beneath the rubble. He pulled it out. It was the hardcover of the death tome, perfectly intact even after the technique his father had used. There was only one thing he could think of. It was time to get his revenge. *** Kaphor opened his eyes. He was buried beneath the rubble. His left leg, half his jaw, and three fingers on his left hand were gone. Every inch of his skin was lined with shallow cuts, ayer of dried blood coating every inch of his body. He looked a lot older than he didst night. Ah¡­ I have not made it to the afterlife yet, it seems. He chuckled. It was a lethargic and humorlessugh. His damned spirit power had saved him. Nobody knew of Kaphor¡¯s third spirit power. It was his greatest secret. If any attack threatened his life, this power burned through his life force to create a barrier. He was thrilled to have this power once. After all, better alive than dead, no matter the cost, right? What a stupid fucking decision. Now he wanted to kill himself. His chances of survival were moderate, but his odds of regaining his former glory were slim. Why bother anyway? The sect was gone. He had nned for so long to one day take the sect over and be the next sect master. Now it was all gone, crumbled to literal debris his almost-corpse was buried in. He remembered Neave. That horrid child. The one that had ruined absolutely everything. He felt deep embarrassment at the thought of Neave. After all, that child made him feel deeply afraid. Unhesitantly, he sacrificed an arm to win the fight. Who did that? Who could, even among the greatest of experts, have such determination? Losing a limb was no joke. Recovering a lost limb was a tremendous challenge. And that skill¡­ He fought like an expert with hundreds of years of experience¡ªor even thousands. What the hell was that death tome? Could it have indeed been some sacred lost treasure of the gods? Neave manipted life force and used true strikes and movement techniques that could teleport him around. Yet, it was clear he was nowhere near the golden path. Kaphor was wondering if he was even on the iron path. The most concerning thing was that he couldn¡¯t tell. Neave¡¯s presence was nonexistent. The secret behind that alone was worth torturing out of someone. If he had known what that book was before, he would have unhesitantly risked his life to attempt to touch it. Could it be possible to somehow steal the benefits of that treasure from Neave? He chortled at that one. This time he genuinely found the thought funny. It was a ridiculous idea, one born of despair and defeat. As Kaphory among the rubble, it became apparent that he would survive. But should he? He felt the phantom aches of his missing limbs. He felt the rough stone debris rubbing against his raw skin. Even though his body was alive, his life was over. There was nothing left to live for. He didn¡¯t even desire revenge. He couldn¡¯t bring any hate or rage out of his heart. His defeat had been overwhelming and thorough. Revenge was impossible. As the hours passed, Kaphor reached closer and closer to the decision to end it all. Yet, he never quite made that decision. Was that really what was possible in the foundation realm? Could a mortal child truly gain so much power in a single day? In the void left behind by all that had been taken from him, this question settled and refused to leave. Kaphor had been truly narrow-minded. About cultivation. About potential. If that was possible at the foundation realm, then what was possible on the silver path? Kaphor made another decision instead. His arm broke out of the rubble, and he crawled from beneath the debris. Rather than die as a decrepit cripple, he would at least try to find out. He would seek the true potential of the path. *** Harel searched around in her spirit senses for qi strands. She had received incredible inspiration from witnessing the sect master annihte the sect. In a single cultivation session, it pushed her growth faster than ever before, even after days of work before the lotus. But it was a drop in the bucketpared to the inspiration Neave had granted her. She still remembered him grabbing the saber. At first, it was clear that it was far too heavy for him. But when he started swinging it¡­ The imbnce miraculously transformed from a disadvantage to a strength. The way he swayed and swung, pierced and thrust, all while maintaining perfect posture on the points of ss shards. The more she remembered his movements, the more she felt like she had witnessed something beyond. Something divine. Like passionate monks praising their god, the weapons lining the chamber begged to be used as tools of war and destruction. It gave her chills just thinking about it. She grabbed another qi strand and ced it into her core. Then she opened her eyes. The sect master, or rather, Marven, sat leaning against a tree. He nowcked a lot of the¡­ Civility he once had. He sat like a drunkard, appropriate given the pile of empty bottles next to him. After he had destroyed the sect, they didn¡¯t discuss what they would do. He had offered to take her to a prominent sect, but she didn¡¯t feel like bringing that up. She¡¯d feel awful leaving him alone like this. He was an absolute mess. His emotions were like a pendulum as he went from mncholy to manicughter in a matter of minutes. She tried chatting with him, if anything, to distract him for a few minutes. She racked her mind and came up with a question. ¡°Sec- I mean, Marven¡­?¡± ¡°You can call me Marv, Harel.¡± ¡°Uh, alright. I just wanted to ask you something¡­ Marv.¡± She felt like she was swallowing worms as she referred to the great sect master as ¡®Marv¡¯ but pushed through it for his sake. ¡°What do you think Neave¡¯s cultivation was?¡± ¡°I can tell, judging by his physical abilities, that it must have been the foundation realm. But would you believe me if I told you that even I couldn''t sense his spirit?¡± Harel was shocked, bewildered, even. Neave could hide his cultivation from someone on the tinum path? And the foundation realm? That power level, let alone the foundation realm, should have been impossible on the iron path. ¡°How is that even possible!?¡± Marvenughed so hard he almost cried. ¡°He did something¡­ Hahaha, he did¡­ He did something so crazy I¡¯m not even sure I believe what I saw. He wrapped his spirit in a thinyer of life force. How is that even possible!?¡± ¡°... What?¡± She had no idea what the implications of that were. At all. After all, she wasn¡¯t a schr on the matters of cultivation. She was still only thirteen years old. ¡°Well, for starters, he can manipte life force. Better than it should be even theoretically possible. Better than I can, at least. He used his life force maniption to wrap it around his spirit.¡± ¡°How does that hide his cultivation rank?¡± ¡°Think of it like this. You can¡¯t see through a wall, can you? It¡¯s kind of like that but for spiritual senses.¡± Harel still didn¡¯t know how impressive that was, but it must be an incredible feat if Marven spoke of it like that. ¡°What made you so sure that a demonic spirit didn¡¯t possess Neave?¡± ¡°Nothing. I still have no clue what happened to him.¡± ¡°Then why did you let him go?¡± ¡°Well, if a demonic spirit possesses him, it didn¡¯t hijack his personality. That¡¯s the most I can tell for certain.¡± Harel pondered that and nodded. She felt like she had warmed him up enough through small talk to drop a more serious question. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Marven again startedughing at that one, and, this time, hisughter fully turned to tears. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ I really don¡¯t know, Harel. I just don¡¯t. I feel so lost, and I have no idea what to do.¡± Harel thought for a while, observing the teary-eyed Marven as he protected his masculinity by hiding his tears. Eventually, she decided. She got on her knees and prostrated herself. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Disciple Harel greets Master Marven!¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t do that. Get up.¡± ¡°I refuse!¡± ¡°Please, please just get off the ground. I would never let you ruin your future by doing that.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve told me you¡¯d ask a selfish request of me when we were on the mountain.¡± She lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. ¡°I want to ask a selfish request of you in return. Teach me the true swordsmanship of the Zearthorn¡­ No, teach me the ways of your sword¡­¡± She paused, then she added. ¡°Master.¡± *** The aftermath of war had one defining quality few soldiers ever forgot. It stank. It was hard to answer whether there was much glory in death from battle when one knew that the dead crap themselves. And sometimes urinate as well. Not everyone did. Seasoned soldiers joked about whether someone was a crapper or a pisser while alive. Or both. When they found out they were right, theyughed. It was easier that way once they inevitably lost someone. Such were the lives of those who fought in wars against their will. But this coin had a flip side. A very dark flip side indeed. Those born and raised in demonic sects did not need such coping mechanisms. Demonic cultivators weren¡¯t known for theirpassion, whether for the lives of their enemies or their sect members. Nobody did war quite as passionately as the Crimson Ember sect. They wore their demonic sect status as a badge of honor. Over their rtively long lifespan as a demonic sect, they had be masters at skirting what eptable behavior for a sect of the empire was. Just because a sect was demonic didn¡¯t mean the Empire immediately annihted them. For as long as they keep their behavior within the set rules, nobody would go out of their way against them. There were quite a few sects that wanted to annihte them all anyway, but it wasn''t only a moral question. It was also a matter of power. Demonic sects tended to wage war against one another very frequently anyway. Best, let them take each other out. Besides, there were many positives to living in settlements protected by demonic sects. One was meager crime rates. Mostly because demonic sects had entire toons of cultivators dedicated to, let¡¯s say, fighting crime. The younger generations had to practice killing somehow, after all. And demonic sects were quite strict with their criteria of what constituted a crime. For supply reasons. Another excellent source of kible people was war! After all, it was hard to say war prisoners were people anyway. Such was the opinion of one man. After a gruesome battle, he swaggered back to hismand tent as if returning from a walk. Judging by theyers of gore and blood on his armor, it was an exciting stroll indeed. He was a handsome blonde man with sharp green eyes. He wore gigantic golden armor with a red cape fluttering behind him. He had an executioner''s de sheathed on his hip. It wasn''t made of gold. It was a tinum-rank metal called horginium. Gold was dirt cheap inparison to this material, especially in the amounts this individual carried on his person. He stepped into themand tent. There was a heated discussion about the tactics of the ensuing battle, the logistics of looting the enemy bodies and imprisoning and enving those that surrendered or were captured. When this man stepped into themand tent, everyone shut up and got up to salute him. ¡°General!¡± He raised his hand and dismissed them as he walked over to his table in the corner. He had a report to write. He didn¡¯t even really bother cleaning his armor. There would be another fight in a few hours, so he would get it dirty anyway. After a mere few minutes of writing, a messenger entered the tent. It was a rather youngd. The general smiled in satisfaction as the boy was exactly his type. As he saluted the general, the messenger shook like a leaf in the wind. How cute. ¡°Tell me, boy, have youe bearing news about the enemy?¡± ¡°No, sir, I¡­ I have some news for you specifically.¡± The general raised an eyebrow at that one. ¡°And exactly what may the news be, pray tell?¡± ¡°The¡­ The Zearthorn sect has been annihted, and its members have scattered.¡± The general dropped his pen. It was the only sound in the room as everybody had gone deathly silent upon hearing the news. *** A dignified man sat on a wooden throne in a medium-sized room. The room was built out of beautifully polished and well-worked wood, but the wood was nothing special. He nodded as a man in armor stood before him and read off parchment. It was a report on recent happenings within the empire. The man sitting on the throne looked middle-aged but highly well-maintained. His hair had speckles of white scattered around the ears, and his bushy beard also shared a few gray hairs. His face was manly and magnificent, while his body was chiseled in pure muscle. His gray hairs weren''t a sign of his age, however. He had gray hair ever since he was a teenager. It made sense that they weren¡¯t a sign of old age. After all¡­ Diamond rank cultivators did not show signs of old age. The armored man put his hand over his fist, bowed, and eximed. ¡°That is all, Emperor!¡± The man sitting on the throne, or rather, the Emperor of the Yixine Empire, Jeevian Lloude Dust, waved at the man. ¡°You are dismissed.¡± The armored man walked out of the room at a brisk pace. After being left alone, the emperor got up, scratched his head, and paced around the room. ¡°...What the fuck?¡± He usually tried to keep his dignity even when alone, but he made an exception this one time. He had just received one of the most absurd reports he¡¯d ever heard in his life. The report about the destruction of the Zearthorn sect made no sense whatsoever. Worst yet, the witness reports were consistent on the most confounding details. A child that had been a mortal touched some cursed book and ughtered several elders on the silver path. The child might as well be omnipotent, judging by what the witnesses had said. Teleportation, master swordsmanship, at least four differenttrue strikes, hell, some even imed he could manipte life force! The witnesses were also adamant that the child couldn¡¯t have been further than the first step of the iron path. Yet, they couldn¡¯t tell since he had wholly hidden his cultivation from everyone. The child had killed an elder on the upper end of the third step of the silver path. That would make it an eight-step difference in power. Nobody had ever defeated someone eight steps above them in directbat. While this was ridiculous, the witness reports were somewhat consistent on what the child could do. But no two people agreed on how the sect was destroyed. Some said the sect master had been possessed, others said he went crazy and dered their sect demonic, yet others imed he had always been an evil bastard. A few even imed that the destruction was a conspiracy by several elders and that the sect master was, in truth, dead, and this was just a cover-up. ¡°I guess I have no choice.¡± He would have to see for himself. *** The news of the Zearthorn sect¡¯s destruction spread through the empire like wildfire. As the information traveled further and further, the distortion of truth escted. Some imed a ¡®God Child¡¯ had descended from the heavens and punished an evil sect. Others imed the child was a reincarnated devil. Some even imed it wasn¡¯t a young boy but a young girl. Some were adamant that it was a humanoid monster or a spirit beast. Many others merely dismissed all the gossip as rumors. As the consequences of the destruction of the Zearthorn sect rippled through the empire, and even outside it, to Neave, this didn¡¯t matter at all. He had more pressing matters on hand. Such as the fact that, at this rate¡­ He was almost definitely going to die. Chapter 21: Slime Chapter 21: Slime Neave had greatly overestimated himself. Spending countless years trapped, fighting against demonic entities did wonders for one''s confidence in their fighting skills. However, this was no hell realm where death meant going back in time. This was reality. In reality, as far as Neave could remember, if you died, you better hope you didn¡¯t get back up again. Neave had climbed a few meters off the ground and hid in a hole in arge tree. He had to outmuscle some birds for the rights to the lodging, and given that he found even that difficult, it was apparent that he had seen better days. He had repurposed a leafed branch into a flimsy cover that barely hid him from the outside, but he was small, so it was unlikely anyone, or anything, would spot him from the outside. He panted and sweated profusely as he did his best to keep his body and soul from falling apart. His left arm was missing, he was cut and bruised, and his spirit had suffered too much damage. And yet, even all that was secondary to stopping the toxic qi from rotting his body apart. Neave was scarily low on life force. He only had about half of it left, which wasn¡¯t good when you had to live with the consequences. Kame¡¯s ring sat on the wood next to Neave as he desperately nced at it. The damn spiritual damage he had taken made it impossible to use the ring. He couldn¡¯t spare any life force to fix his spirit because he was extremely low and needed every advantage he could get in his fight against the toxic qi. Although he was hanging on for dear life, his situation seemed to be stabilizing. He had constructed a highlyplex set of qi barriers to stop the spread of the poison, and at least some parts of his body were recovering, albeit sluggishly. This stability, however, wasn¡¯t going tost forever. He needed food. It had been so long since he¡¯d eaten anything that he had forgotten that needing to do that was a thing. He brainstormed his options. He¡¯d need at least another ten percent of his life force to fix his spirit so he could use the ring, but he was afraid that might make him unable to fight off the poison and recover from his wounds. Then he finally remembered. He put his arm into his robes and discovered a small container of food pills. He had forgotten he had them on him. This, he could work with. He popped a few small pills into his mouth and soon felt the change. It was incredible. Neave never knew the effects of just eating something could be this miraculous. His life force was restored slightly, his body had regained some energy, and he even felt his control over his qi strengthen, although minimally. None of these things were what he was excited about, however. Properly recovering from realizing potential was what he was waiting for. After training, it was rest, food, and sleep. For the first time in countless years, Neave finally allowed himself to sleep. He didn¡¯t sleep long as he couldn¡¯t rest easy, but when he opened his eyes, he grinned and sank into his spiritual senses. It was remarkable. Like a cocoon, qi strands were wrapped all around his spirit. Strictly speaking, he had realized the potential of countless years of work in a single day. For his outer spirit and body, the time loop never even happened. So all in a single day, he had mastered swordsmanship, dueling, movement techniques, true strikes, life force, qi maniption, a powerful qi shroud, and even managed to contain a lot of toxic qi. All of this was like a fluffy cloud of power surrounding his spirit. All he had to do now was grab enough of that potential to break into the iron path. It wouldn¡¯t grow his arm back, eject the toxic qi, or fully recover his life force, but it would almostpletely restore the damage to his body and spirit. So he grabbed a single thread of qi. And died. Or so he believed he did. He wasn¡¯t quite dead yet, but his situation immediately started deteriorating. He desperately grabbed for his life force, but he felt like his control of it waspromised. Panicked, he poured the life force into his spirit, restricting it to one thing. Annihting the potential he had just reaped. The qi strand was severed, and his soul recoiled. His control over his qi and life force had been restored. The toxic qi was already spreading all over his body, and Neave didn¡¯t have enough qi to control it. He didn¡¯t hesitate. He further poured life force into his spirit to recover it. When his spirit recovered, he grabbed Kame''s ring. He could feel his body rotting and falling apart as he desperately scoured it for anything that could help him. Tucked away in a deep corner of the pocket dimension was a small pill encased in a ss bubble. It was fully contained so that it wouldn¡¯t lose any value. Neave couldn¡¯t tell exactly what the pill was at a nce, but he knew that certain healing pills were contained like that. He shattered the ss and ate the drug. The toxic qi didn¡¯t leave his body. It wasn¡¯t even affected directly. Neave could tell this was a potent healing pill as the impact further damaged his spirit. The medicine was too high rank for his spirit to handle it fully, but he didn¡¯t care about that. Despite not affecting the poison, itpeted directly with it to fix Neave¡¯s body. It won thatpetition handily. There was yet another effect, however, and Neave was not too pleased to discover it. It was also restoring his qi. This would usually be a good thing, but it was pouring far, far too much into his spirit. He kept a tiny trickle of life force running into his spirit to keep it intact as he rapidly ejected the qi out of his body. He used every bit of his energy maniption skills to utilize the qi flood to wash the toxic qi out of his body with it. Eventually, his situation finally stabilized. His spirit was fully intact, and his body had recovered from all of the minor injuries, although he was still missing his arm, and the toxic qi was gone. His life force was extremely low. He only had about twenty percent of his life force remaining. If he didn¡¯t have such impable control of his life force, Neave knew it would already be leaking from his body. What the hell just happened!? Neave was utterly bewildered. He had never heard of cultivation being detrimental to someone¡¯s spirit senses! That wasn¡¯t a little detrimental, either. His spirit senses instantly dropped to less than a fifth of their usual power. He sank back into his spirit senses and warily observed the qi shroud surrounding his spirit. Could he have grasped the wrong kind of potential? That was a stupid thought. Something else had happened. Neave hadn¡¯t bothered cultivating after realizing he couldn¡¯t make any progress back in the loop, so it had been a long time since he had looked at his qi core. And what he saw was¡­ Incredible. It was a soft, perfectly stable ball of soft light. He remembered how his core looked when he first broke into the foundation realm. It would ripple and shine in a morphing, mesmerizing pattern. There was none of that now. His spirit core was like the sun in the sky¡ªeternal, stable, and never-changing. He struggled to ept it, but he knew what this meant. Over the years, stuck in the loop, his soul had gained perfect control over his qi core through all the practice he''d done. The bnce would be disturbed if he added more qi strands to that core. This must be why his spirit senses and energy control were so acute. Or at least, this was the best guess he had. Did this mean he couldn¡¯t progress unless he sacrificed his spirit senses? If so, that sucked. His spirit senses and energy control were his most extraordinary power. Without them, he could no longer use the movement techniques, true strikes, and manipte life force with such ease. He sighed despondently and smacked the back of his head into the wood behind him. ¡°Fuck this¡­¡± He would look for a way to circumvent this limitationter. It wasn¡¯t a huge deal to him at the moment. For as long he kept tight control over it, he could live for another ten years with life force like this. Besides, even though hecked life force and an arm, he was fully confident in being the match of most first-step silver path cultivators. In most ces, that was a lot of power to have. He felt excitement bubble deep within him, and he couldn¡¯t hold himself back anymore. Neave jumped out of the tree. It was a serene morning in the forest. The trees were tall, the ground was t, and the grass smelled fresh. He took a deep breath and screamed out. ¡°I¡¯m finally fucking freeeee!¡± He was finally, indeed, fucking free! No more hellish loop, no more awful sect! He ran and frolicked around the forest, kissing the wondrous trees and smelling the spring flowers. Neave had so much he wanted to discover and experiment with. As he kept running around, the excitement slowly subsided. He felt a strange, ominous sensation. Neave looked around. The forest felt silent. Empty. Nothing was chasing after him. But that couldn¡¯t be the case, could it? There had to be something lurking somewhere within the shadows. Neave sighed. He was just being paranoid. It had been so long since he could just exist in peace. For now, he wasn¡¯t willing to sacrifice his spirit senses, in no small part, because he could create spirit. Neave could create spirit. While that power hadn¡¯t helped him much in the hellish loop, outside in the real world, having that power was a different story altogether. The moment he solved the problem of his limited life force supply, he would have something incredible. His swordsmanship may be impressive, and his other tricks were undoubtedly worthy of a legendary figure. But the ability to create spirit was something genuinely godlike. This was a power he could only imagine belonging to the gods. Who knew? Maybe not even the gods could generate it the way he could. He didn¡¯t make any grand ns for now, however. There were simpler things to deal with. Neave climbed up the tallest tree he could find. He still had the strength to do it, but hiscking life force made him significantly slower and weaker. Once he climbed up the tree, he looked over toward the mountain his sect was built under. Everywhere around him, he could see hills and mountains in the distance. The Yixine Empire was a mountainous region. Deep valleys, massive rivers, deadly forests, and mighty mountains were scattered all over the northern side of the Xinkummar continent. It was an inhospitable ce for mortals. People still lived in cities under the protection of more prominent sects, like the Zearthorn sect, but even that hung on thin threads. The Yixine Empire was a mountainous region, yes, but it was a cavernous one as well. And monsters thrived in the underground. Neave made it quite far from the Zearthorn sect¡¯s premises. He used more of Kame¡¯s qi restoration potionst night, ignoring the damage to his spirit, and then he used a rather qi-intensive sustained movement technique that allowed him to move a lot faster in a straight line. It wasn¡¯t a singr movement technique but a well-timedbination of three minor movement techniques. He rarely used it while stuck in the loop since, well, he wasn¡¯t really in a rush to go anywhere. He ran for over an hour, making it quite far from the sect. Now he was looking around the mountains, trying to find where it was so he could orient himself. He struggled to locate it. He nced past it several times until he finally recognized it. The sect was gone. Neave knew where the sect should be. It was a rtively t valley next to the mountain. But looking at the ce where the sect was, it just looked¡­ Gray. All he could see in the area was barren stone. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± He was genuinely shocked, ¡°What the hell happened after I leftst night?¡± He couldn¡¯t help butugh. Did some great cmity seriously befall the sect the moment he ran away? Neave vaguely remembered seeing a sh of blue light while hiding in the treest night. He had thought he was just delirious and had thus imagined it, but now he was no longer so sure. Deep anxiety flooded him. His heart beat faster. His mind raced, and he remembered the book. ¡°Did that hardcover fucking explode?¡± Neave had to wonder. The more he thought about it, though, the dumber that idea seemed. Neave didn¡¯t want to be responsible for the sect¡¯s destruction. He didn¡¯t want to be another destroyer. Plenty of cultivators were precisely like the ones he had killed still in the sect. But there were plenty of creators there as well. He hoped his father wasn¡¯t dead at least. And Harel. Neave was grateful to Harel for saving him. And Marven¡­ Well, he did spare Neave¡¯s life yesterday. And he also killed those elders that tried running after him. Neave still hated his father but wasn¡¯t quite as angry at him anymore. He put the mystery of what happened to the sect aside. Neave thought back to all the maps of the empire he had memorized. The empire was a gigantic ce, but Neave was a gigantic nerd. He thought of the map of the area surrounding the sect. Neave straightened his finger and pointed toward the sect. Then he moved his arm leftward until he moved it a hundred and thirty degrees. Right in that direction, he could find the nearest settlement that wasn¡¯t protected by the Zearthorn sect. A medium-sized town by the name of Pavarrie. Past that town, Neave would make his way to a certain ce. It wouldn¡¯t be easy making it there, given the distance and danger involved, but if he wanted a ce of opportunity, that was where he would find it. His direction was Keyishin¡ªthe capital of the Yixine Empire. Neave descended from the tree and started walking towards Pavarrie. Just because he knew where to go didn¡¯t mean getting there would be easy. He would have to make it through a stretch of wildnd that wasn¡¯t protected by any sect. He walked next to a pond and looked into it. ¡°Oh fuck!¡± His appearance genuinely jump scared him. Being this low on life force was quite detrimental to one¡¯s looks. Skin shriveled, eyes sank, and the body looked like some horrible illness struck it. Neave looked back at the reflection of his face in the pond. ¡°Dear heavens.¡± He looked¡­ Evil. Like some sort of maniac forest cultist. His pink hair had lost a lot of its luster and his face just looked like it belonged to someone who ate children for breakfast. Couple that with his missing arm, and he might have to devise a n to move around settlements without trouble. He shook his head and continued through the forest. Not even five minutes of slowly making his way through the woods, he encountered it¡ªthe most horrible creature in the entire world. A slime. It was a tiny, green, gooey fe that ponderously rolled across the grass. Neave¡¯s face lit up. It was a slime! He had never seen a slime before! Or any monster for that matter. Monsters were rated in categories simr to those of cultivation ranks. The power rating went from none to diamond. None meaning a mortal could kill it, and diamond meaning it could threaten a diamond path cultivator. Slimes were at the absolute bottom of this hierarchy. However, even though they rated at none, they had something of an honorary rating, a title, one might say. The ultimate threat to the existence of this realm. Slimes were the primordial monster. They absorbed substance and organic matter, growing in power and evolving depending on what they consumed. Every single other monster originated from slimes. But yeah, on their own, they were pretty harmless. ¡°Who is a little cutie? You are! Yes, you are!¡± Neave baby talked to the slime, then he picked it up and carried it in his one arm. What he was currently doing was immensely taboo. Not even a demonic sect could get away with showing a hint of favoritism toward any monster. Taming monsters or raising them had been attempted many times before. Hundreds of lives had been lost in rtively minor incidents. Millions in the worst cases. Neave didn¡¯t care. He wasn¡¯t going to tame the slime, but he was still a kid at the end of the day. Slimes were very bouncy and fun, regardless of their apocalyptic nature. He got bored of the slime and threw it at a tree. It blew apart in a puddle of goo and Neave grabbed the tiny, fingernail-sized crystal within. It''s monster core. Monster cores were made of crystalized spirit, the same spirit he could produce. Well, not the same spirit he could create. This one looked very misshapen and clumpy, kind of like an average pebble, and it had little splotches of color inside the crystal structure that slowly shifted and morphed. The spirit Neave could produce was entirely transparent. Neave was tempted to experiment with his spirit, but he held himself back. He couldn¡¯t afford to waste any life force until he fixed his problem. Neave threw the small monster crystal away. It was practically worthless anyway. Then he strolled into the woods, keeping both eyes wide open in case he spotted any real threats. He knew damn well plenty were waiting for him. Not even an hour of walkingter, he ran into another critter that was usually at the bottom of the food chain. An abominid. These were not cute at all. Abominids were asionally vaguely humanoid, with awfully misshapen limbs and nasty skin. Predominantly, they looked like horrific piles of mismatched body parts. They had quite a variety of colors and shapes to them. The one Neave was looking at was blue. Its left arm was a little longer than its right. And it had three legs. Something akin to wings was growing out of its back, but it was far from a functional limb. He sighed. The appearance of an Abominid meant he was getting into or close to the wild zone. Abomininds could evolve into goblins, among many other nasty things. Neave couldn¡¯t help but be excited at encountering these nasty things for himself. He scoured Kame¡¯s ring again. Sadly, he had lost the sword he¡¯d picked from the ring in the fight against Kaphor, but there were also a few other slightly inferior swords in there. Still rtively high quality, however. He picked a steel shortsword from the ring, sighing at his choice. He would prefer a longsword or even a greatsword since he was more used torger weapons. And shortswords wereme. He needed to adjust to hiscking arm and life force, however. He killed the abominid and walked past it, not bothering to take the core. He casually browsed the inside of Kame¡¯s ring for a bit, keeping inventory of everything he could use. There were a lot of simple resources, but it most certainly wasn¡¯t all of Kame¡¯s property. There seemed to be many handy supplies, which suited Neave just fine. It was around seventy percent full. The space inside wasn¡¯t thatrge either, so Neave soon had a good picture of everything that was inside it. He frowned upon spotting one object. A cloak. It was a pitch-ck cloak made of mundane material. ¡°What a bloody ominous thing to be carrying around.¡± Neave however, liked it quite a bit. He shortened the cloak and its sleeves with the short sword and put it on. One sleeve hung empty. He had to use the strings and an improvised rope sash to fit it properly to his small body. The extra size didn¡¯t bother him. It looked incredibly suspicious, and Neave couldn¡¯t help but giggle at his looks. He¡¯d stick out like a sore, ominous thumb in any settlement. Neave could however think of several ways to turn that into an advantage. For now, he kept walking through the woods, killing several abominids and just ignoring the slimes. This part of the forest was highly unusual, however. There were no monsters besides abominids and slimes. That could only mean a few things. Soon enough, he found a band of orcs wandering through the woods. *** Marven rejected Harel hundreds of times as she practically begged him to be her master. If he just didn¡¯t want to be her master, she could live with that. But his self-deprecation was just driving her insane. She didn¡¯t entirely give up, even though she did take a break. She¡¯d make him crack eventually. They hadn¡¯t gone that far from the sect at all. At first, Harel thought Marven was too depressed to get going, but eventually, she grew suspicious. She asked him several times why they were just sitting and waiting. He simply ignored her questions every time. Not just that, but he seemed strangely nervous. So Harel shut up and waited. Eventually, she saw Marven take a deep breath and exhale as he got up. At first, she thought he was getting ready to leave. Until she spotted the man standing in front of them. He hadn¡¯t made a single sound when he appeared, and Harel jolted upon seeing him. He was a tall, muscr man with a stern face and a few gray hairs in his beard and hair. Marven bowed, hand over fist, ¡°Greetings, Emperor.¡± Chapter 22: Apocalypse Chapter 22: Apocalypse Thump¡­ Thump¡­ Thump¡­ Deep underground, in the vicinity of the Zearthorn sect, footsteps echoed through the vast caverns. The intense crashing could hardly be recognized as footsteps, however. The thing that walked looked like a beautiful woman. Although, even from afar, it was clear that this wasn¡¯t some randomdy taking a stroll through the monster-infested depths. Her skin was of pure gold, her clothes were woven of silver, tinum, and bronze, and her entire body was ornate with precious crystals. Her eyes were fashioned out of pure diamond, and her hair was shaped with threads of precious red metal. A calm smile hung on her lips. These details, however, could be partially obscured by the darkness. However, the fact that she was over four meters tall was significantly harder to hide. It was rare for creatures that dwelled as deep as her to make their way toward the surface. After all, the surface was far too barren. Not to mention there were barely any precious metals. However, just a while back, she caught a whiff of something¡­ Delicious. Could it be? She thought. Is there more to the surface than trees, rocks, and dirt? She was excited to find out. *** Harely on the ground face first, practically kissing the soil as she prostrated before the emperor. The emperor!? What is the emperor doing here!? ¡°Greetings, Marven. It has been a long time since we¡¯vest spoken.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°So.¡± The emperor turned in the direction of the sect, sighed, and turned back to Marven, ¡°I would like to hear what happened here.¡± Marven frowned, but he relented and told the story. He retold how Neave found the book and everything that happened afterward. The emperor noticed Marven dodging the exnation of why he destroyed the sect. That wasn¡¯t the biggest problem, however. ¡°Oh, heavens, so the report was true? Your child defeated an elder eight steps above him in power?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ Honestly, I have a solid reason to suspect it was nine.¡± The emperor¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°The foundation realm!? An eleven-year-old child in the foundation realm defeated a cultivator on the third step of the silver path. Are you sure that was the case!?¡± ¡°I have been a sect master for hundreds of years. I have seen several hundred thousand disciples train and grow. Even though Neave had hidden his cultivation, I can still tell the difference in physical ability. He was certainly in the foundation realm.¡± The emperor pinched his nose bridge and asked Marven another question. ¡°Why did you destroy the sect?¡± Marven winced and tried staying silent, but given that the emperor wasn¡¯t dropping the subject, he responded. ¡°As far as I know, I was perfectly within my right to do so. Unless the empire has changed its policy on interference with sect business?¡± ¡°I can still ask you as a person, Marven.¡± Marven looked down, a hint of bitterness and sadness sneaking into his expression. The emperor continued. ¡°The empire doesn¡¯t get involved in the sects¡¯ business for as long as it doesn¡¯t directly involve civilian lives. While this is one such case, remember that your actions have left several nearby settlements barren of protection. You will be sanctioned for that.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°Very well then.¡± The emperor turned to leave but then turned to Marven onest time. ¡°I still remember what you said to me back then. And I hope you do as well.¡± Then he vanished. Harel was certain she was about to have a heart attack. ¡°W-W-W-Wh-What did he m-mean by san-sanction?¡± Marven chuckled. ¡°Nothing can defeat your curiosity, can it? It¡¯s nothing much. If I ever make a sect again, the empire will alert anyone who wishes to live or do business under my protection of what I did herest night.¡± ¡°R-really? That¡¯s¡­ That¡¯s it?¡± She was already calming down, so she got up and took a few deep breaths. ¡°The empire only cares about the citizens at the end of the day. Or at least that¡¯s what they say.¡± Marvenughed wearily. ¡°Come now. It is time for us to leave.¡± *** Neave chuckled like some sort of greedy imp. He held dozens of shiny monster cores, some even a few inches across in size. There was something unusual about monster cores that made them so¡­ Hoardable. Shiny, pretty rocks that held ominous powers within. What was there not to love? He stored these with all the monster cores in his dimension ring and sat down on a high orc''s corpse. Everywhere around him, dozens of orcsy bloody and dead on the ground. He had killed the entire band of orcs he¡¯d encountered and then tracked down their camp to finish the rest. He sighed yet again, this time in exasperation. These creatures were weak. They weren¡¯t by any reasonable standards, but to Neave, these orcs were utterly dull opponents. True, they were physically probably tens or hundreds of times stronger than he was, and yes, they were sort of tough. But they weren¡¯t a challenge. These were dumb beasts shaped like fat, ugly, grayish-green muscr men. Orcs were a bronze-rank threat on average. In a band like this, they¡¯d usually be handled by several silver-rank cultivators. They fought by surrounding and overwhelming their opponents with unrelenting titanic blows. They had long range, courtesy of their massive size, and were quite thick-skinned. They weren¡¯t as stupid as trolls or goblins and could produce passable weapons. This was a rtively new tribe, so they hadn''t made any iron weaponry yet. However, to Neave, none of this mattered because these orcs were simply too slow to touch him. A well-ced true strike to a vital artery was all it took to finish them. Neave couldn¡¯t fix his spirit with his life force, but if he used weaker true strikes and gave his spirit a few seconds to recover, he could still use them ad infinitum. They did have a high orc among them, but all that amounted to was a slightly more prominent target for Neave. He looked through his collection of shiny cores and inspected them individually. Monster cores almost always contained spirit powers. Sure, the overwhelming majority of them were utter crap, but some of that utter crap could evolve into a good power. This was usually a terrible thing to bet on, however. If a power was insufficient, it was best to look for one that would be good from the start. If you melted one of these bad boys in your blood, you could drink that blood and initiate a spirit trial. Spirit trials were a foreign thing to Neave. All he understood about them was that they were some form of a fight for control in one¡¯s spirit realm. He¡¯d read roughly twenty texts discussing the theory behind spirit powers, but he still couldn¡¯t be sure exactly what they were. The problem with blindly dumping random books into a library was that you ended up with far too many texts that tantly contradicted one another. A few things were certain, however. It was easy to die during the trials, and the more powers you had, the more difficult the trials became. Nevertheless, he wasn¡¯t nning on taking any of the spirit powers inside these stones. Neave wasn¡¯t particrly interested in making very specific bones harder or a particr patch of skin tougher, having a more muscr biceps (singr), or having a bigger penis. That was a tant lie. He was interested in thest one. And also quite confident he could sell it for excellent coin. As for how he knew what powers were held within, that was rtively easy. Anyone in the foundation realm or above could easily sense a core''s power. The powers within monster cores were a remnant shard of the monster''s while it was alive. These shards frequently held fractured and rtively useless powers. And monster cores containing intact singr powers, like increased strength or something that affected all of one¡¯s bones or skin, could be expensive. There was always the option of evolving a fractured power. The process was rtively simple, too, feed qi or life force into the power, and it would evolve. It wasn¡¯t just simple. It was even easy to do. The problem was that it initiated yet another spirit trial. Not dying then was the difficult part. Neave finished checking the powers and sighed for a third time. There were some useful ones but nothing he cared for as of yet. His current target was a spirit power that could fix his life force problem. The issue with having a target like that was that it was an overwhelmingly tall demand. Perhaps some of the powers he found could evolve into something that could help, but that was a gamble he would have to stake his life on. For now, he would go to Pavarrie, and hopefully, he could find more information there. Or maybe even buy what he needed, although he was sure that would only be possible in arger settlement. And, also, brutally expensive. He remembered his current looks. Everything about him was suspicious. He might as well walk into the town with a sign that said ¡®baby eater¡¯ stuck to his forehead. If he walked into the town looking like this, it was almost inevitable someone would try hunting him down. Wasn¡¯t that a good thing? He pondered. ¡­No? But he wondered. It would depend on who it was that was hunting him down. No, it wouldn¡¯t. ¡­Sure, even if he lookedsuspicious, this wouldn¡¯t give anybody a solid reason to hunt him down. Those who wanted to know more about who he was would seek information, or perhaps they would seek a conversation with him. After all, wouldn¡¯t it be somewhat rash to immediately assume he was a viin based on his looks? He would only be hunted by those who sought to destroy. Neave grinned. If destroyers wished toe, they had an open invitation. *** The Emperor was a busy man. He only had the time to set aside for severe issues and things that impacted the Empire atrge. He currently flew above the wilderness and looked for a boy. The destruction of a rtively minor sect like the Zearthorn sect was barely within the realm of issues he dealt with personally. But the boy¡­ He instantly became his absolute priority above all else. Someone capable of defeating those nine steps above him was quintessential for the survival of the empire. Not just the Empire but the entire realm. Few were privy to the horrifying reality of how bad the monster apocalypse truly was. The surface rarely encountered real threats. Jeevian was among very few of those that had reached the diamond path of cultivation. There were merely thousands of such cultivators scattered around the realm. Yet, there was a damn-near-immeasurable number of monsters. Keeping the surface of a single continent clean was straightforward, but what about hidden mystic realms? What about the depths of the ocean? What about the vast underground? What about the continent that had beenpletely and utterly annihted by the monster apocalypse? How long until creatures from such ces started pouring into the Xinkummar continent? Monsters did not die from old age, yet, they grew and evolved without limits. The only thing that kept them from finishing off the entire realm was time. Those fools from the Langen continent believed that walling themselves off would save them. The gods should at least know better than that. Nothing could save them. Even for them, it was only a matter of time before they got run over by monsters. There was a reason why he needed to find this boy above all else. It was so he could nurture and help him be a weapon he could leverage against the monster apocalypse. Even if the child wasn¡¯t some incredibly talented cultivator, it was evident that the book held an important secret. Such a secret may just be the key to fighting back. The Emperor couldn¡¯t believe that idiot Marve let him escape. One of the most valuable people Jeevian had ever heard of was allowed to run severely injured through the damn wilderness. Jeevian had been searching for hours, but it was clear that the boy had already left the vicinity of the Zearthorn sect. Jeevian pinched the bridge of his nose bridge in displeasure. He would have to send others to look for him if he lost the boy. He couldn¡¯t tell anyone except those he trusted the most. If the information that Jeevian was looking for him ended up in the wrong hands, that would only ensure he died. Just as he was tapping his forehead, trying toe up with a solution for this problem, he felt it. ¡°Dear heavens above, no!¡± Something was crawling out of the depths nearby. He took a deep breath. Jeevian hurried to at least try stopping it. If what his spirit senses were telling him was correct¡­ He flew into a cave and descended into the underground. *** She paused. Something else wasing. It smelled appetizing. It wasn¡¯t what she was looking for, but she felt like having a small snack. She was contemting hurrying to chase it, but it was clear that it was approaching her. So she waited. And then she saw it. She cocked her head. It was like a golem of meat. Was it an evolved flesh golem? It reminded her of her looks, but it looked soft and small. And fragile. The tiny creature pulled a massive sword out of nowhere and flew toward her. Was it trying to attack her? It made no sense. Creatures far more powerful ran from her on sight. She raised her hand to block its weapon. One of her fingers suffered a tiny cut of damage. *** Jeevian was aposed man even when things got ugly. Now, he was panicking. He had used his most potent qi technique, and the entire damn cave copsed around him. The creature didn¡¯t even suffer any damage. It was time to get desperate. *** Her¡­ Her finger was damaged. She had suffered damage from an attack. That was impossible. This weak little creature managed to hurt her? That was¡­ That was unheard of. This thing that wasn¡¯t even worthy of being called a snack dared to strike at her? She glowed bright-hot as a whirlwind of intense sma surrounded her. She lifted her hand to turn the entire vicinity into ake ofva. Her enemy struck again. This time its sword burned bright red, and something that looked like a transparent winged lizard appeared behind it. Then the creature thrust its sword, impaling her straight through her head. *** Jeevian had sacrificed half his life force to trigger the dragon¡¯s descent on this creature. The strike''s aftermath seriously threatened to bury him underground. His sword was stuck in the golem¡¯s head. Yet it still moved, shakily gripping the sword. Its metallic fingers screeched as it bent the priceless de like scrap metal. The emperor went wide-eyed and tried his best to make some distance from the creature. The aftermath of the spirit power he had used impeded his movement. Then it moved. It didn¡¯t move too quickly, but he couldn¡¯t move at full speed. The Emperor had to resort to blocking the strike instead. His forearms were utterly shattered by the impact and the punch connected with his chest. He flew away from the golem at such speeds that once he struck the cave wall, he sank hundreds of meters into the stone. Jeevian coughed blood, and another one of his spirit powers was triggered. His wounds rapidly recovered from the blow, but not even his spirit power could fully restore the damage the strike had caused. It was clear that he wasn''t winning this fight. He used another spirit power, and white mist surrounded his body. Then he disappeared. *** Did it die? No. She hadn¡¯t felt any substance enter her core. It must still be alive. But it disappeared. Her senses were telling her that it was somehow gone. Where did it go? Was it hiding? She was furious. It dared. It dared vite her beautiful face. She shook. This was an unforgivable sin. So she lifted her arm again. On the top of her palm, ck lightning gathered. It screamed so loudly that the noise tore the nearby stone apart. She pointed toward the direction of the creature. A ck beam fired out of her palm. The stone in the surrounding area darkened and turned to dust. The entire side of the cavern she struck exploded in a massive cloud of smoke. The pressure the smoke caused was so great that the cavern she was in and several others nearby immediately started copsing. She would be buried for a while beneath the rubble, but it was worth it if she could exterminate that pest. Then she looked at the sword buried in her head. It was made of strange green metal that felt wonderful to touch. Could she have made a mistake? Was this a gift from the creature? It mattered not. All would eventually be her possession. And all that lived would die by her hands. *** Jeevian had used a spirit power to turn invisible. He felt a terrible sense of foreboding as he ran past the golem and out of the cave. ck smoke traveled at immense speed and struck his back. He wasunched out of the cave and flew through the forest, smashing into trees and breaking them like dry twigs. The entire world rose. The cave spewed ck smoke out at ever-increasing pressure, but it wasn¡¯t enough to release the stress within the cave. He shakily got up and ran for his life. Thendscape around him exploded like a ck volcano of death, raining darkened soil and stone, burying the forest beneath. The surface of Jeevian¡¯s entire body was charred. He felt his skin peeling away. His spirit power kicked in again, and he healed much of the damage he received. Yet, some splotches of ck remained. He crawled out ofyers of withered soil and ran. He hoped the creature would give up on going up to the surface, but that was unlikely. It was time to gather everyone. A myth golem of unprecedented power had left the underground. Chapter 23: Martyr Chapter 23: Martyr Neave had made one crucial discovery today. Monster meat was unbelievably awful. Taste-wise, at least. However, if one could put the horrendous vor aside, eating monster meat could be beneficial. But boy, was the taste awful. Eating monster meat was usually only done by those skilled in qi maniption. Even this was exclusively after it was processed appropriately. The reason why was simple, the meat was loaded with all sorts of strange qi. There existed a subcategory of qi that was frequently referred to as transformative qi. Rather than going into one¡¯s qi core, it directly impacted one¡¯s spirit or body. A good example would be the qi restoration or healing pills. They contained this transformative qi, which was immediately expended on some sort of tangible effect, like a sort of qi quasi-technique. Monster meat had a lot of different types of this transformative qi. However, only some of it was beneficial. Eating monster meat without processing it properly was likely to cause physical illness, strange mutations in one¡¯s body, or even just hurt their cultivation. Neave didn¡¯t have this problem. He took another bite of the horrible-tasting orc flesh. Neave stuffed a few corpses into his dimension ring to test a hypothesis of his. Sadly, the assumption was wrong. He hoped he could find some life force within the meat, but no such luck. That was a ludicrous idea, anyway. The overwhelming majority of everything lost its life force when it, well, died. Treasures that could restore life force didn''t do so by directly providing life force; rather, they contained transformative qi that restored one''s life force indirectly. However, there was something else he had found within the meat¡ªa ton of beneficial qi. Ton was a bit of an exaggeration though. Monster meat could enhance one¡¯s physical attributes, but there was a damn good reason scant few but the most dedicated cultivators resorted to this technique. First, the taste was so bad Neave could evenpare it to the rancid blood from the loop. Second, it took a lot of work, even for him to properly iste only beneficial effects. And third, the benefits fell off rapidly. There was also a fourth downside. Bowel movements got¡­ Quite painful. Neave had kept doing it anyway. A bit of suffering was thest thing that could deter him from doing something. Especially when the benefits were seriously noticeable. Neave was aware that eating monster meat was best coupled with intense physical training, but he postponed that until he fixed his missing arm and life force problems. Still, even without training, everything from his recovery, total stamina, strength, toughness, and even his speed had increased slightly. A slight increase might not seem particrly important, but the impact was tremendous when applied to everything across the board. Not to mention that, without being able to cultivate, any advantage was wee. Neave made his way through the woods and soon enough he was regrly encountering a cornucopia of different types of monsters. Every cultivator with a unique style or specialized spirit powers had good and bad matchups. Neave had the most absurd range of favorable and unfavorable matchups ever seen. Certain iron-rank monsters, like bugs with extremely hard chitin, were near impossible for him to kill. He couldn¡¯t rely on heavy true strikes because he couldn¡¯t fix the spirit damage, so he simply had no way to damage them. He could use cheesy strategies, like dropping a massive stone on them, but they weren¡¯t worth the time and effort. On the other hand, he encountered a demon druid. An unusual creature that was a gold-rank monster but wasn¡¯t seen as a significant threat. It never really moved from a specific patch of forest. It couldn''t hurt you if you stayed out of its domain. The reason why it was a gold-rank threat was that its patch of forest was frighteningly dangerous. The druid itself looked like an androgynous humanoid with wooden skin and leafy clothes. And the area of the forest itmanded was effectively one giant trap. Roots that grabbed one¡¯s legs and swinging branches were the least of one¡¯s concerns here. The more significant problem was the fact that every single inch of every single nt had poisonous thorns. Countless unique poisons coated the thorns, so a single antidote wouldn¡¯t cut it. Even though Neave couldn¡¯t kill an iron rank beetle, the demon druid wasn¡¯t a challenge. Poisonous moving nts were dangerous only if they could touch you. He pelted the demon druid with countless quick true strikes. The faster true strikes were, the less damage they did. But they also put less strain on one¡¯s spirit and were, well, faster. The demon druid had a rigid body and speedy regeneration. But Neave had practically unlimited patience. True strike after true strike eventually dug right through the monster''s chest, and the core was cut straight from its body. What a majestic core it was. It wasrger than Neave¡¯s fist, which was still quite tiny, but this was a big size for a monster core. It was also strangely round, not even close to circr, but it was no jagged chunk of crystal either. It still had a few jutting edges, but it was predominantly smooth. Neave remembered reading something about round monster cores in one of the books. Weren¡¯t they supposed to be more valuable? The book didn¡¯t say why, but it did im that the rounder and smoother a monster core was, the more ¡®useful¡¯ it was. It also seemed to have a regeneration-boosting spirit power. This thing was almost definitely costly. Neave shrugged and threw it into the dimension ring. To him, it waspletely and utterly useless. He thought the regeneration power could help with his life force problems, but that was impossible. Regenerating the body and restoring life force were utterly different sses of power. There was another problem, the monster the core hade from was gold-rank. This did guarantee a much greater power, but it also ensured a much bigger challenge. Given that this core wouldn¡¯t be enough to recover his lost limb and life force, he would have to evolve it first, which would mean facing a tinum-rank spirit trial. Neave didn¡¯t know much about spirit trials, but he was one hundred percent confident that if he attempted that, he would die. And he still wasn¡¯t guaranteed to evolve the power into one that could help him with both or hell, either one of his problems. He also threw the demon druid''s corpse in the ring. It could be quite valuable. Neave stretched and started running. This time he was using his movement technique. Judging by his estimates, he should arrive at his destination rtively soon. He was still beyond suspicious, but he was utterly disregarding that fact. A small town was unlikely to have bandits at the silver path, so he would be safe even if attacked. That wasn¡¯t even ounting for his stealthiness and movement techniques. He was confident he could escape if somebody too dangerous came to hunt him down. And if somebody too weak came to hunt him down¡­ Well. Perhaps they would have a useful trinket or two on their corpse? Half an hour of runningter, Neave reached Pavarrie. *** Hunter was sweating profusely. He was located within a major city quite far from the Zearthorn sect. How had he made it that far in a day? Well, it all started when he presented the book cover to an elder from a branch of the Bentheta sect. Then he was teleported countless miles away to their headquarters with the book cover and the elder he had shown it to. He was standing in front of over two hundred highest-ranking elders of the sect and doing his best not to crap himself. The council chamber of the Bentheta Sect Master was a massive round room. The walls were of dark ashy gray stone, and the elders were seated in a colosseum-style arrangement around the center of the room. On a raised throne in the middle of the room sat the Bentheta Sect Master. Kaigo Bentheta. He was an austere man with a jawline that looked like it was chiseled onto his face and eyes so sharp they could cut steel. In front of him, on arge pedestal, sat the book cover, and on the opposite side of the Sect Master stood Hunter. The sect master got up and spoke in a loud, deep voice. ¡°Look, boy. The story you have shared is concerning in many ways, but witness reports, especially after tragedies like this, are rarely valid evidence.¡± ¡°B¨CBut¡­!¡± The Sect Master raised his hand to silence Hunter, and he promptly shut up. ¡°It is not that I do not believe that you have seen those things happen, child. The testimonies of your ex-sect members contained many of the same details you have shared. However, I can not help but think that this may have been an borate illusion set up either by one of the sect elders or an enemy of your sect.¡± ¡°It¨CIt wasn¡¯t an illusion! You can go and check! The entire sect is in ruins!¡± The Sect Master raised his hand again, coupled with a re that warned of consequences. ¡°Again, child. I believe the sect has been destroyed and elders have been killed. But, without sufficient evidence supporting this story about a monstrous child, we can¡¯t do much. What if it was some form of illusion created by a rival sect? If we got involved in a situation like that, we¡¯d potentially have a sect war on our hands. Worry not, however. You have my word that we will look deeper into this issue.¡± The Sect Master gently smiled at Hunter, adding, ¡°You have gone through something horrible for a child as young as yourself. I recognize your talents as a cultivator, and if you are willing, you will be epted into our sect with open arms.¡± ¡°R¨CReally? I¡­ I would be very grateful for the opportunity...¡± ¡°Good, good, hahaha, you are truly a wonderful child with a righteous heart. Now, you will be escorted by one of the elders to a room. Make yourself at home, child. I expect to see great things from you in the future.¡± One of the minor elders standing to the side walked up to Hunter and escorted him out of the room. The moment the chamber doors closed, the Sect Master¡¯s warm expression vanished. ¡°Gather all thepetent artificers within our sect and have them analyze this book cover. Write a message to every spy within the ten nearest settlements to the Zearthorn sect and tell them to report anybody missing a left arm. No, have them report anybody missing any arms or legs.¡± One of the elders spoke up. ¡°Sect Master, do not tell us that you truly believe the nonsense that child had spouted?¡± Rather than answer the question, the sect master pulled a sword from his dimension ring and struck the book cover with all his might. The stone pedestal underneath it shattered, and even the floor cracked, but there wasn¡¯t even a scratch on the book cover. ¡°I do not believe anything I hear. But my eyes still serve me well. This book cover is constructed from a priceless material, and the child the Zearthorn sect members speak of had likely read its contents before burning the pages. Track the child down and bring him to me. As for our new disciple, provide him with appropriate benefits. Our sect is not one to leave such a great favor unreturned.¡± *** Neave looked down onto the small town from a nearby hill. Thick walls surrounded it. A ratherrge area surrounding the town had been cleared of trees orrge rocks. Several towers lined the town''s borders, and Neave could spot scouts keeping a lookout so that nothing dangerous would approach the settlement. Neave wasn¡¯t a wanted criminal, so he could likely walk in without much issue. The key word was likely. He was still overwhelmingly suspicious, so the guards would probably have him searched or otherwise waste his time. Losing precious time was thest thing Neave needed momentarily. The night approached as the sun set, and Neave could see the guards prepare to swap shifts. The scout looking out over the side of the town Neave was facing chatted amicably with the man that hade to rece him. Neave moved. He moved like the wind toward the wall. As he approached, he pivoted, spun in the air, andnded with his left foot on the wall''s surface. He appeared on the other side. Thending was ungraceful as he reappeared far closer to the ground than expected. He got up and brushed the dirt off his cloak. ¡°Eeek!¡± ¡°Who the hell are you!?¡± Neave turned and spotted a pair of teenagers in a ratherpromising position. ¡°Oooh! I¡¯m not going to interrupt! Fret not, children! You may continue.¡± He sat on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m merely going to watch.¡± The teenagers scrambled, desperately trying to put their clothes back on. ¡°Oh,e on, don¡¯t be like that!¡± Neave scoffed. ¡°Losers.¡± Neave looked around him. He was behind the buildings lining the walls. Some were built directly against the wall, so he could have identally ended up in someone¡¯s house. ¡°Oops.¡± He jumped up above the buildings and onto a street in the town. It was surprisingly lively, given howte it was. People were everywhere, and stands selling hot food worked full force. Neave nodded in satisfaction and walked up to one of them. ¡°Hello, good sir! Do you take monster cores as payment?¡± The man cocked an eyebrow and scoffed. ¡°Piss off, kid. I don¡¯t serve beggars.¡± Neave pulled a medium-sized orc core from his dimension ring, and the man immediately changed his tone. ¡°Oh, I apologize, esteemed sir. I overlooked your status. You will get your food promptly.¡± A man standing nearby yelled at the stand owner. ¡°Hey, when is my food gonna be done?¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up! You¡¯re going to wait!¡± ¡°What! But I ordered fir¨C¡± Then the stand owner threw a shoe at the man, and he, after dodging it, reluctantly stood back. Soon, Neave was handed an enormous te of delicious, zed meat. He more or less sucked it out of the bowl. He cried a bit. Even ignoring the loop, living in the sect was a life of consuming shitty food pills and rarely actual food. Neave hadn¡¯t had a proper meal in a long time. He sighed contently and then walked around, cheerfully exploring the town. The people walking down the streets either ignored him, eyed him suspiciously, or steered further to the side to keep some distance. Some people even hugged their kids protectively upon seeing him. ¡°Damn,dy, your daughter doesn¡¯t look that tasty!¡± The cold shoulders didn¡¯t deter Neave. He jumped around from person to person, asking them countless questions about the town. Few people even acknowledged his existence, but soon enough, he had the information he sought. Walking down the street''s end, Neave took a turn and walked out onto a muchrger avenue. This was supposedly the main street of the town. It looked rtively emptypared to the lesser road, probably due to their size difference. After heading down the main street for a few minutes, he turned and walked into arge building. The moment he opened the door, he was struck by the stench of alcohol and by intense noiseing from within. It was a tavern, one sponsored by the local branch of a prominent merchant group. A popr ce for independent cultivators, since the merchant organization used it as a trading hub. A few people nced at Neave, many of them frowning. However, everyone looking at Neave froze when he took several steps inside. And disappeared. He reappeared, sitting next to a few younger cultivators, who didn¡¯t even notice him initially. One was retelling an anecdote, and just as he was about to get to a good part¡­ ¡°Buhuhuhuhahaha! Hehehehe, hihihihi, HAHAHAHAHA, that is unbelievably funny, man! Anyway, do you guys want to sell me your souls?¡± The cultivators looked at him in utter confusion. They peeked under his hood and winced at his creepy face. Several cultivators around them were apprehensive. Some even kept a hand on the hilt of their weapon, just in case. A woman sitting at the table scratched her head. ¡°Uhm, I¡¯m sorry, I am not sure we know you. Is there something you need?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m just messing with you. I don¡¯t need your souls!¡± He ced a fist-sized green monster core on the table. They froze at the size and shape of the core. ¡°Here you go,dy, you can have it!¡± Nobody moved. The monster core was undoubtedly exceptionally valuable, but this creepy stranger didn¡¯t seem like someone you¡¯d happily deal with. Neave got up and walked over to the apprehensive merchant. One of the young men sitting on the table reached a hand out and touched the core. ¡°Holy shit!¡± The others shushed him and touched the core, too, gasping at the contents. They whispered among one another as the other patrons tried to sneak a peek at it.. Neave walked over to the merchant, an old-looking man with a frown that looked seared into his face. Then he pulled a monster core out of the ring and threw it at him. ¡°Here, catch!¡± The old man caught therge bag with one hand, sighed, and responded in a practiced, formal, t tone, showing no change in his facial expression. ¡°Please, sir, refrain from throwing things at either myself or any of the patrons within the tavern. If you continue such behavior, I will be forced to kick you out.¡± ¡°Wow, man, life hit you hard, huh? Is the wife unhappy? Worry not. I have a solution!¡± He threw another core at the man. ¡°Sir¨CThis¡­ This is highly inappropriate.¡± He sighed and ced the penis erging core on the counter, ¡°What do you wish to do with the cores you¡¯ve¡­ Presented to me?¡± ¡°I wanna sell ''em.¡± ¡°Alright, we will have to appraise the cores you have presented, and you will get the full payment in two to three business days.¡± ¡°Eeeeeeeeeeeh.¡± ¡°Is there a problem?¡± ¡°Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee¡­¡± ¡°Sir, please.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you, like, give me the money now?¡± The man took a peek into the bag and lifted an eyebrow. ¡°I apologize, but if you want the payment to be appropriate, we must first appraise them.¡± ¡°Just scam me.¡± ¡°I¡­ What?¡± ¡°Low-ball me, rip me off, know what I mean.¡± ¡°I¨CSir, I would lose my job if I did that.¡± ¡°But, like, why don¡¯t you keep it a secret?¡± The man slowly raised his head and nced around the room. Nearly every single person was observing the show. He sighed. ¡°If you wish to receive money now, you may pawn the cores, and I will give you a hundred and fifty gold coins. Then when they are appraised, you can sell them to receive the rest of your payment.¡± The room stirred. Exactly how many cores were there in the bag? A hundred and fifty gold coins just to pawn the cores he¡¯d presented? ¡°Can that buy me a house?¡± ¡°Indeed, it can, but you will have to discuss that with our real estate branch.¡± ¡°Come on, old man, I know you¡¯re in the know with this stuff. You look the part. What¡¯s the most expensive house in this town?¡± The man sighed and responded. ¡°There is a mansion to the southwest of the town. It has been for sale for a while already. However, dear customer, this is a border area to a wild zone. There are more cultivators in this town than there are mortals, so the price of real estate is high. The mansion is priced at seventeen tinum coins.¡± Neave, however, just shrugged. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m gonna save a bit and buy it.¡± The man raised an eyebrow again. This wasn¡¯t a particrly unusual sight around here. asionally an entric cultivator came from a long trip and dumped all the cores they had collected along the way. But even among all the unusual cultivators that passed through here, the clerk couldn¡¯t help but feel like this was an exception. He nced at the table seating the cultivators who received the exceptionally generous gift from the stranger. ¡°If you had sold that monster core to me, you could have already had over half the money needed.¡± ¡°Well, there are other things I could sell, but I doubt you have the money for it.¡± The clerk did not respond visibly, but even he was slightly shaken. This individual seemed a little unhinged, but if they could provide a core like that for free, they must be quite the capable warrior. Judging by the body shape, it was reasonable to assume this person was a spirit beast that had taken a humanoid form. And judging by theck of animalistic features, that must have meant they were at least high silver, if not even on the gold path. For now, Neave walked up and grabbed the money off the counter, and then he walked out. He found a nearby inn and booked it for over seventy days. He just threw a gold coin at the innkeeper and said he¡¯d take whatever it could get him. Then he inspected the room he was given. He pulled another bag of misceneous valuables from Kame¡¯s ring and haphazardly threw it in a corner. Then he snuck out and teleported into the secret underground vault beneath the inn. He wasn¡¯t here to steal anything. He just needed somewhere to hide to sleep in peace. After all, he didn''t want to get killed in his sleep. *** The clerk watched the barmaids clean up the tables as he sighed again. He swiftly pocketed the ¡®special¡¯ monster core the strange cultivator handed him. Technically speaking, the cultivator did, in fact, gift it to him. So just¡­ Why not¡­? Yeah. He sighed yet again, and this time a few of the barmaids gave him strange looks. He had to make a report. Another suspicious cultivator had arrived in Pavarrie. Chapter 24: Gabrias Chapter 24: Gabrias It had been a few days since Neave had arrived in Pavarrie. Since the first night he had slept in the secret vault of the inn he was staying in, he hadn¡¯t had a wink of sleep. Why? Because the morning after, he woke up feeling tired and terrible, as if his life was sucked out of him. The reason why he felt like that was self-evident. It was because his life had been sucked out of him. Literally. He had forgotten that it was impossible to maintain conscious control over his life force if he was asleep. Because, well, he was unconscious. Consequently, he lost a further one percent of his life force. His estimation of ¡®being able to live for another ten years¡¯ had received a slight revision. And the current number wasn¡¯t particrly reassuring. After he had gone to sleep in the inn, the first night he had arrived here, his room was surprisingly left entirely alone. Maybe the inn had better security than he¡¯d thought. Ever since that day, he had been upied by the same routine. Killing many monsters and making a show out of selling the cores. Neave was trying to attract the attention of anybody who could sell him a life force restoring treasure. Or anyone willing to ¡®donate¡¯ one. He was being quite generous, constantly putting up a show of giving cores away or generously paying everyone¡¯s tab since he wanted to give the impression that he had money to burn. Sadly, so far, his bait had hooked no fish. Neave was hesitant about buying the mansion at first, but he had saved up for it a lot faster than he expected he would. Once he bought it, he decided to decorate it with as much ostentatious crap as possible. It was a great way to attract a seller''s attention, not to mention that if he didn¡¯t have the money, well, he could trade the mansion. It wasn¡¯t as if all the money he¡¯d earned magically disappeared. It was still there in the form of a disgustingly overdecorated building. Living off no sleep while your life force was below twenty percent was a nightmare. If Neave wasn¡¯t so used to agony, he doubted he would have any will to live left. Not to even speak of his muscles. This little life force meant he recovered at a brutally slow speed. He had to use healing pills to recover his muscles from overuse. That strategy wasn¡¯t terrible, but it was costly and suboptimal for gaining muscr strength. It worked great if you wanted just to bulk up, though. Which still didn¡¯t work for him either. He was currently looking at his body in one of the many mirrors of the mansion. He looked more like a corpse washed ashore than a living cultivator. His skin was wrinkly and looked like it had spent too much time underwater. Neave sat on the queen-sized bed and pulled a bag of cores from the dimension ring. He wasn¡¯t selling all of the cores. He kept some of the ones that seemed like they might potentially help him with his life force. Then he pulled a book out of the dimension ring. Spirit powers: Practice and Theory. Due to his daily schedule, contact with the dull old merchant happened daily. The clerk hooked him up with the book, which wasn''t expensive. Neave was immensely disappointed that he couldn¡¯t buy a life-force-recovering treasure from the merchantpany. He could have had a lower-quality one for five tinum coins, but currently, they were out of stock. He¡¯d asked whether they could deliver some from a bigger city, but that was only possible if he needed to purchase something at fifty tinum coins or above. Delivery across countless miles of dangerous forest wasn¡¯t done unless it was for a solid profit. It was possible to get delivery for purchases lesser than ten tinum coins, but those deliveries went through much slower channels. It could be as many as four months until he finally got the treasure. By then, he would likely be dead. So his current n was to gather fifty tinum coins. His money-saving efforts were getting increasingly difficult, however. Soon he would have to sleep again, and every time he slept, the seconds would flow away like the sand in an hourss. Neave put those thoughts aside and focused on the book. It was theoretically possible to find a solution here as well. He flipped through thirty or so pages, then stopped. Wait, how long have I been reading? He felt dazed after a mere thirty pages for some reason. It simultaneously felt like he''d been reading for hours and like he¡¯d been reading for seconds. Then he read another page. Oh yeah, that was definitely seconds, alright. Neave had known that cultivation could improve one¡¯s mental abilities as well. But he always discarded that since it just seemed like all cultivators were stupid. But the sheer difference in reading speed between now and before was utterly baffling. He didn¡¯t need to read sentences. He could just read an entire page! Was he perhaps so incredible at reading before that entering the foundation realm turned him into a book devourer? No, that was exactly what happened. He smiled at the unexpected boon. It felt good being him, sometimes. Alright, perhaps ¡®sometimes¡¯ was a bit too strong. Exceedingly rarely would be more appropriate. But the book was damn long, so even with his reading speed, getting through it would take some time¡­ *** In a small city close to Pavarrie, there was an organization. Officially, they were just a high-end construction crew of cultivators. Unofficially, they were spies for the Bentheta sect. It had been a few days since they had received an order to report any sightings of limbless cultivators. And currently, all of the construction crew members were seated together around arge table. There were three individuals, a ck-haired woman, a bearded elderly man with long white hair, and a bulky man with short brown hair. And behind them, nine people were standing, three behind each. The elderly man spoke up. ¡°So¡­ Do we report this Guardian of Pavarrie? I honestly do not know whether this fits the criteria. We are talking about somebody who is reportedly on the golden path.¡± The woman pondered. ¡°We were explicitly ordered to leave no stone unturned. However, I can¡¯t help but agree that perhaps turning too many stones may uncover a snake.¡± Then the burly man spoke up. ¡°Come on, you cowards! We do not need to insult this person. We could send one of our men to check things out. They would at least be open to conversation if it is some good-natured spirit beast! Right?¡± The elderly man sighed but had to agree. If the sect somehow learned they had failed to report this individual, they could be severely punished. ¡°Very well then.¡± The elderly man turned to the younger cultivators standing around the table, ¡°Are any of you from Pavarrie? I think sending someone who already knows the locals there may be a good idea.¡± The woman nodded. ¡°Yes, I believe that one of your boys is from there, Gabrias, was it?¡± One of the three young men standing behind the old man held back a sigh. He was a talld, standing at nearly seven feet. His arms were long, even for his height. His ck hair was a little curly andbed back behind his ears. He had slightly droopy eyes and a ratherrge mouth. His nose was also just a little too big. One could call him ugly but in a strangely attractive way. He was ugly but handsome. And he didn¡¯t want to be part of this nonsense. ¡°Yes, you are indeed right. Not just that, I believe he may just have the perfect spirit power for the job. I shall have him scout the situation then. For now, we will send a report, putting the likelihood of this being our target at minor. Once Gabrias is back, we will send a more detailed report.¡± Gabrias was sent on his merry way back to his damn hometown. *** Gabrias exchanged awkward greetings with old acquaintances and learned where this Guardian of Pavarrie lived. Then he just simply walked over to the mansion, and well¡­ He knocked. *** Neave finished reading the book and¡­ Oh, man. He was so d he didn¡¯t take a spirit power. He wouldn¡¯t have died, but the consequences could have been awful. He wanted to conduct so many experiments with spirit that it was basically¡­ Knock, knock, knock. ¡­ Did somebody just knock on the door? Neave was bbergasted. He could sense somebody standing outside, but it was nobody he recognized. He was so immersed in his reading he hadn¡¯t perceived the spirit until now. It seemed to be a third-step bronze path cultivator. Tall fe, too, wow. Neave happily skipped over to the door and opened them. The man was, indeed, exceptionally tall. Neave had to practically look up at a ny-degree angle to see his face. ¡°Who are you, and what do you want, tree man? Are you here to rob me!?¡± The man chuckled awkwardly. ¡°No, no, heavens forbid, no, I am merely a humble cultivator from a nearby city. My name is Gabrias, and as someone raised here, I merely wanted to visit and express my thanks to the Guardian of Pavarrie.¡± The man talked pleasantly, with a kind smile stered on his face. A damn big smile too. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about?¡± ¡°Uhm, excuse me?¡± ¡°No, you mentioned something about some guardian or some shit? Are you on something?¡± Gabrias tensed up and looked around. ¡°Have I got the wrong address? I was told this was where the Guardian lived.¡± Then he looked at Neave¡¯s missing arm. ¡°This dude must be out of his mind¡­ Look, dude, I¡¯m like¡­ Oh, man. I¡¯m not used to dealing with crazies.¡± Gabrias was getting more and more confused by the second. ¡°Excuse me, but do you mind if I ask exactly who you are?¡± ¡°Oh, me? My name is Neave.¡± Gabrias nearly swallowed his tongue. ¡°Oh, I, I¨CUh. I have not¡­ No I have¨CI have not heard of you, no, I do not know who you are.¡± Neave looked at him, this time almost with pity. Then thepassion disappeared, and anger set in. ¡°Look, Mr. World Tree, can you kindly fuck off? I¡¯ve got shit to do, and I don¡¯t need some crazy bastard snooping around my ce." ¡°Wait, please, just wait a second, uh, do you¡­¡± Gabrias¡¯ mind whirled, trying toe up with anything. ¡°Do you, ah. Do you, d¨Cah perhaps know where the uh¡­ Where the uhm? The dude. The person, no I mean the Guardian, yeah, where the guardian lives?¡± Neave just started closing the door. However, Gabrias grabbed them. ¡°Okie, I see somebody wants to lose a finger or two.¡± ¡°No, please, just wait¡­¡± Then Neave felt something strange wash over him. Gabrias stepped back. ¡°Okay, I apologize. I will stop bothering you.¡± ¡°Wait a damn fucking second¡­¡± Gabrias paused, breaking out into cold sweat. ¡°Did you just do something to me?¡± ¡°Who? Me? No, I, no I literally, there was nothing I could have even done to you.¡± ¡°Hmmm, ugh, fine, whatever, just get off my property.¡± ¡°Thank you for your time¡­¡± Neave mmed the door. ¡°... Sir.¡± Then Gabrias turned around and immediately sprinted away. *** Well, that was weird as hell. Neave scratched his head in confusion. Guardian of Pavarrie? Ah fuck. Did somebody spread some weird rumors? Oh, damn it, was it those people he gave the big monster core to? Or maybe somebody else he had given something. It seems like someone had forged some rather favorable rumors about him¡­ "Ha, ha¡­" Fucking Guardian of Pavarrie. Would they offer him sacrifices if he asked? Perhaps a minor life force restoring treasure? Neave couldn¡¯t help butugh at the absurdity of the situation. He was expecting a gang to break into his mansion this whole time and try robbing him, but the entire damn town dered him a ¡®guardian¡¯ instead? Was it the number of monsters he had killed? He shrugged. That exnation was as likely as any other. Anyhow, after reading the book, Neave believed he had a good n. Well¡­ Maybe ¡®good n¡¯ wasn¡¯t the best way to put it. A solution. He had found a solution for his life force problems. A rather suboptimal solution, but a solution nheless. Honestly, the method he was considering was, theoretically speaking, so horrible that even he was reluctant to do it. But it was practically guaranteed to solve his problems. And create several others. Several dozen others. Neave went to the master bedroom. This ce was so massive that he might need to hire some maids to keep things clean. He sat on the bed. He pulled out the bag of potentially useful monster cores. Then he threw it back into the ring and pulled out a bag of misceneous crap. He dug through the pile of almostpletely random monster cores and fished out a few that would serve his purpose. They were all rtively tiny, but that wasn¡¯t an issue. Not a big one, at least, and not for his current needs. They were all misshapen and jagged. And they all had powers rted to digestion. Everything from stronger stomach acid to more flexible bowels to arger stomach. The one he was looking at, however, was the most simple. Better digestion. That was it. A vague power that made his digestion better. Not even by much. It was a tiny and jagged monster core as well, about the size of his thumbnail. Neave grabbed it into his hands. And crystalized some spirit. It cost him around another half a percent of his life force. The small jagged piece of spirit became perfectly round. Neave cackled. He could sell this on its own for dozens of tinum coins. He could still tell the original shape of the monster core. It just looked like a transparent marble that was encasing a monster core. Even though it didn¡¯t add any power to the monster core or change the actual power in any way, this was enough to perfectly stabilize the spirit. Those geezers who wrote the other books on spirit weren¡¯t clear enough on how much more valuable round monster cores were. A nearly round monster core was something that sects would go to war over if the power contained inside was any good at all. Why? Because the rounder the core, the less spiritual interference. Neave grabbed a bowl. Then he made a small cut on his finger and filled the bottom of the bowl with his blood. Then he put the monster core in. The core melted into the blood, and Neave then drank it. Immediately, he was back in the hellish loop. He almost panicked, but he calmed down. This wasn¡¯t the same ce. This was just his spirit realm. What a spirit realm looked like depended onpletely unknown factors, but it did have something vaguely to do with the person''s subconscious. Neave was holding a sword. It was the swordsman demon¡¯s sword. The weapon he had used the most. And standing in front of him was a small abominid. It was a critter with three arms and one leg. Neave just cut it up with the sword, and it died. Ta-dah, spirit trial over! Such were the spirit trials of feeble powers from frail creatures. If Neave hadn¡¯t rounded up the monster core before doing this, this would have been the single dumbest thing anybody could do to themselves. He wasn¡¯t done yet. Neave pushed qi into the part of his spirit that contained the spirit power. The spirit power evolved, and another trial started. This time the abominid was as tall as Neave¡¯s knee. Neave again, cut it in half, and it died. Another spirit trial finished! And the power had evolved. It went from better digestion to¡­ Even better digestion. Great. Spirit trial round three, start! This time he fought an abominid that was as tall as he was. And the power evolved into ''perfect digestion.'' Neave was starting to run out of qi, so he had to take a qi restoration pill to continue. Spirit trial round four, start! This time he fought an abominid three times taller than he was. And the power evolved into ''consume.'' Neave had to take another pill. When he tried evolving the power, to his dismay, he realized his qi reserve just wasn¡¯t enough for the next one. Neave focused and added a bit of life force into it. It put him into frighteningly dangerous territory, but he would fix his life force issues soon enough. Spirit trial round five, start! This time he fought an abominid that was utterly gigantic. The fight took him a few minutes as he cut the abominid up to bleed it to death. And the power evolved into ''absorb.'' Neave cackled maniacally. Spirit trials felt like they were practically made for him. You faced the spirit of the creature whose spirit you had absorbed inbat. The fight took ce in your spirit realm. The only equipment you got was what you subconsciously created. It could also only be mundane equipment. Sure, one could imagine their trusty high-rank sword with a quasi-spirit, but it wouldn''t be any better than their spirit was capable of making it. One¡¯s body was perfectly recreated within the spirit realm, but one could not use any spirit powers. Everything worked the same as reality usually did. Neave doubted he could create spirit within his spirit. That almost definitely wouldn¡¯t work¡­ Would it? An experiment for another time. The reason why round cores were great only came into y when you acquired a second spirit power. One still had to fight the monster from the first spirit power as well as the monster from the second spirit power. When the cores you used were jagged, the spirit interference ended up blending the monster''s powers. This created two creatures whose powers add up. Sure, Neave could take another tiny monster core, let¡¯s say a slime! If the cores were jagged, he would have to fight an utterly gigantic slime and an utterly slimy gigantic abominid. Why wouldn¡¯t he add a goblin as well? Now he would fight three slimy humanoid giants, probably with several extra limbs each! That didn¡¯t sound particrly fun. There was a reason why so few people had more than a handful of spirit powers. Eventually, the spiritual interference made the trials impossible. So people refrained from adding any powers until they advanced and became more powerful. Neave simply didn¡¯t have this problem. Perfectly round cores meant zero spiritual interference. Heughed so hard he almost puked the blood he drank. This was such an utterly moronic power Neave was starting to doubt he even needed cultivation in the first ce. And he wasn¡¯t done yet. He had acquired the power he needed. This was a rtively well-known spirit power. Infamous, even, for being exceptionally dangerous to its user. It made one capable of absorbing nearly any substance they consumed. The problem was that consuming too much of anything could be lethal. Eating arge meal could mean he had too much sugar in his blood and died. So he needed to be moderate with food. Neave would be looking to remove that limitation with another spirit power, but that power would save his life for now. He then walked out into the garden and found a random bug. He ate it alive. Neave winced as it squirmed in his throat, and he almost puked it out. The moment it reached his stomach, it practically evaporated, and Neave¡¯s life force was restored by a small amount. The problem with getting life force from something like monster meat was that life force didn¡¯t like sticking around in dead things. But things that were still alive? Oh yeah. Those had plenty of life force. Neave cackled like an absolute lunatic as he merrily chased bugs around his garden. The strange encounter with the man named Gabrias was already far out of his mind. Chapter 25: Decay Chapter 25: Decay Harel was confident that tinum-rank cultivators didn¡¯t need even an hour of sleep daily. She was only on the silver path and needed less than four hours. Marven slept for over twelve hours a day. It had been nearly a week since they started their ¡®journey.¡¯ In reality, the very moment they reached the first settlement, the journey had practically ended. They were staying at an inn. The innkeeper was charging them insane prices, mainly because their, or rather, Marven''s presence, had chased all the other patrons away. Harel didn¡¯t understand prices since she never really dealt with money. ording to Marven, he was being charged three times over what it would cost to fill the entire inn. But he was so obscenely wealthy that that was still chump change for him. People were frightened of Marven. If not for the fact that he had annihted his sect, then for his utterly horrid physical appearance. Even though he slept for over twelve hours a day, he constantly looked like he hadn¡¯t slept a wink. Marven had eyebags practically reaching his lips, his hair was greasy and matted, while both his breath and just he in general stank from several rooms away. Harel had to listen to him cry all day for the first few days of their stay here. On one such asion, he ran out of the room, panicked, and knelt before her. ¡°Why did¡­ Why did I do it!? What¡­¡± He grabbed his heart in anguish, ¡°What would have Kashimir¡­? What went through their heads in those moments? I killed them. In cold blood, I killed them, my children. I am¡­ What am I? Some sort of monster? Why would I do that?¡± He then smacked his head on the floor so hard the floorboards cracked. ¡°I¡­ I am unredeemable. They were the way they were because of me. It was my fault. Who the hell did I think I was to judge them like that!?¡± Then he got up off the floor. ¡°I have to find them. I have to find the rest of them and beg for their forgiveness. They can take my head if they want, but I am determined to make things right.¡± Marven dramatically marched out of the inn. Harel hadn¡¯t even moved the entire time, nor had she chased after him. Marven returned half an hourter, carrying several bottles of hard liquor. Then he crashed on his bed and fell asleep. Again. Something like this happened several times throughout the first few days. Honestly, Harel wished that hadn¡¯t changed. Now she was woken up in the middle of the night by moaning. And soon after that, five scantily dressed women rushed out of Marven¡¯s room, and he angrily chased them out. ¡°Get out of my room, you whores! You will never rece what I had!¡± Then he cried. Again. Harel did want to help, be there for him, or do anything, but what was she supposed to do? She was a thirteen-year-old kid. What little life experience Harel had was almost entirely spent holding a sword. What could she do for a several hundred-year-old man struggling with grief and guilt? Nothing. She couldn¡¯t do anything at all. Harel still felt indebted to Marven for everything he¡¯d done for her, so she didn¡¯t want to leave him. But her training had to continue, one way or another. At first, she just practiced her swordsmanship in her room, trying to visualize the movements she saw Neave execute. She could remember the movements, sure, but recreate them? Hell no. Everything from how he adjusted his posture, to the edge alignment, to the sword''s trajectory, to the unreasonable amount of force and speed the strikes were capable of demonstrating. All of it felt like it was a lifetime of practice away for her. Let alone doing all that while standing on the points of ss shards. Harel couldn¡¯t evenprehend how long it would take someone to acquire such mastery. Merely visualizing those movements was good enough for her. Remembering the feeling they gave off was enough to help with her progress. She quickly exhausted this source of inspiration, however. The room was pretty damn cramped anyway. Harel then decided that taking a stroll around this town could help her find at least a solid location for training. There was an open-arena training ground, but she was drastically overqualified. Challenging iron path cultivators and kicking their asses wasn¡¯t a great source of improvement. Although it did help her take the edge off a bit. Eventually, she decided that leaving the town was the better option. This proved to, indeed, be a good source of improvement. One improved fast when fighting for their life, after all. The woods within any sect''s area of influence were kept meticulously clean and empty of monsters. The Zearthorn sect¡¯s area of influence wouldn¡¯t be dangerous for another few months at least. However, there were plenty of caves loaded with monsters to go around. Harel had faced gigantic bats, massive centipedes, giant slimes, nasty abominds, and these were the things that weren¡¯t a threat. Then she encountered a giant rock golem. They were technically a silver-rank threat, so it should have been appropriate for her level of advancement. Who could have known that a low-quality sword was a poor weapon of choice for a giant creature made of stone? She was doing great at first. Until her sword snapped like a twig; then, she was unarmed and surrounded by too many enemies to count. Those were still minor issues. The more significant issue was the de golem that had just appeared. A high gold rank threat. A steel golem with countless sharp limbs and protrusions. Harel ran. She moved as fast as she possibly could. Usually, a golem¡¯s greatest weakness was itsck of speed, but a high gold rank threat could still run her down with little issue. Even if it was too slow to reach her, a de golem wasn¡¯t dangerous due to its speed. It kept firing sharp steel shards at her as she desperately dodged and weaved around them. She was pretty sensitive to sword qi, so she could feel the desing, but even then, she was barely fast enough to avoid getting shredded to pieces. Very quickly, cuts of all sizes started appearing all over her body. She was bleeding out, and there was no way she could reach the cave entrance on time. A gust of wind blew by her. The de golem was shredded to pieces. ¡°... Marven?¡± Marven stood behind her, holding arge sword in his hands. Then he sighed. ¡°Was I so pathetic you¡¯d rather kill yourself in a monster-infested cave than tolerate my behavior?¡± ¡°No, I just¨C¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright. I do not me you. You are a child, Harel. Yet another person who was my responsibility¡­¡± ¡°... And yet another person I¡¯ve failed.¡± Harel gritted her teeth. She wasn¡¯t going to listen to this crap anymore. ¡°Please just shut up already.¡± Marven frowned and turned around, shock clear on his face. Harel continued talking as she walked towards him, robes bloody. Her eyes were sharp, and so was her tongue. ¡°Yes, I agree. You were a terrible sect master. And I agree that the sect was your responsibility. So!? What!?¡± Harel threw her hands out. ¡°SO!? WHAT!? Is your n now to just mope around endlessly!? What will it be next, thirty women? Or will you start doing drugs as well when the alcohol stops being enough?¡± Marven looked about to get angry, but Harel interrupted him. ¡°No, no, no¡­ NO! I¡¯m not done yet! My life experience may not measure up to a twentieth of your own, but I¡¯ve had plenty of time to learn one important thing. Whenever I say, ¡®I can¡¯t do it¡¯ or ¡®I suck at swordsmanship,¡¯ I feel a small pang of satisfaction and relief. Good! I suck at the sword, so I don¡¯t need to try! Trying is hard. Being more is HARD! I¡¯d rather be told that I have no potential whatsoever because when I¡¯m told that I do, that means I HAVE TO FREAKING LIVE UP TO IT!¡± She reached Marven and pointed her finger at his face. She was a little taller than he was. ¡°You want to know why your sect never improved but only worsened? Do you want to know why you haven¡¯t made a single step of progress in your cultivation for hundreds of years? Because you¡¯ve told yourself it''s impossible. I get that you¡¯re sad, and I understand that you had to grieve.¡± Harel turned around and started walking away. ¡°But I don¡¯t want to be tied to a sinking stone.¡± Then she paused. ¡°So choose, Marv. What are you going to do?¡± *** Neave stood at the ce he usually restarted the loop. But there was no demon. The sky no longer had a red glow to it. Everything was dark. He strolled around the ce he had called home for so many years. All the liquid had either dried up or turned entirely ck. No more creeks or rivers flowed down the valleys. Thick obsidian growth covered almost everything. ?¨¥ ??? ??????????¡­. Neave didn¡¯t think much. He just followed the noise. The obsidian growth slowed down his progress, but he took his time. ¡­????????¡­ ¡°I aming. Please be patient.¡± Neave painstakingly made his way through the endless obsidian shrubbery. Then he reached the entrance of a cave. Obsidian growth was so thick within the cave that Neave had to use true strikes to break through and keep moving. Moving through the dark, empty, cold cave. The hidden wall had already copsed long, long ago. He punched through it, after all. He walked inside. There were no more statues. They had already moved on. So Neave walked around the room. It was almost the same as he remembered it. A little dustier, perhaps. Then he turned towards the void in the corner. Neave stepped closer, feeling an intense ache in the back of his head. He stretched his arm out, and it sank into nothingness. Then he touched something cold. Where there had been nothing, it appeared. Neave¡¯s arm touched his own rotting corpse, which promptly opened its eyes. It lifted its head with crackles and pops and looked over to Neave. Then it spoke. ¡°Oh hey, man.¡± ¡°Yo wassup.¡± The corpse got up with more crackles and pops until it got seated. It spoke again. ¡°Man, what is up with you?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Neave responded. ¡°You know what I fucking mean! You¡¯ve be aplete coward since you finished the seventh wave!¡± ¡°Uhm, excuse me? By exactly what parameters?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve gone catatonic again.¡± ¡°... I obviously fucking haven¡¯t.¡± ¡°Pfff, yeah, right. You can call it whatever you want, but it''s the same thing.¡± ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡± ¡°I thought we have scraped off the liar already.¡± Neave paused at that. ¡°I am not lying, but I seriously do not get what you¡¯re¨C¡± ¡°You are afraid of death. You cower like a worm. You do not understand, Neave. It is exactly your catatonia that will lead you to your end. You are not free. Freedom belongs only to the dead. The eighth wave has begun Neave. And there are a lot of demons to y.¡± ¡°But I am free. I have left. I HAVE ESCAPED! AND WHO ARE YOU TO TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!?¡± The corpse grabbed Neave¡¯s neck and strangled him. It yelled at him in a desperate, pleading tone. ¡°THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU, NEAVE! YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND! THIS IS THE GIMMICK OF THE EIGHTH WAVE! YOU ONLY GET ONE ATTEMPT!¡± ¡°SHUT UP. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!¡± ¡°HURRY, NEAVE! YOU MUST POLISH YOUR CHAINS OR YOU¡¯RE GOING TO DIE!¡± Neave woke up. Neave was covered in sweat, and he stank like crap. It had been days since he had acquired his spirit power. A few very eventful days. In the book, he had read about ''absorb'' and powers like it. Cultivators avoided them like the gue. Which waspletely justified. People pooped for a reason. Not everything from the food eaten was meant to enter the bloodstream. After Neave had regained his life force, he learned this lesson the hard way. He had to spend half his life force again to keep his heart, kidneys, and liver from exploding. Whatever was in those bugs probably wasn¡¯t all supposed to enter the human body. Certainly not in the amount he consumed. He¡¯d been sweating green mucus and pissing thick brown piss that smelled worse than anything he had ever smelt in his life. Not even the puskes from the loop couldpare. Adding insult to injury, heter realized he could have eaten living nts instead of living bugs. On a side note, grass was surprisingly nutritious when one could digest it. He was actively avoiding thinking about the dream. It made him feel uneasy. He left the bed and looked at his body in the mirror again. ¡°Now we¡¯re talking.¡± While Neave finally stopped resembling an undead monster, his physique was still rather unimpressive. His arm was still gone, too. He had a few ideas for how he wanted to fix that, but all of them involved making decisions that would permanently impact his future. So he would remain patient for now. He felt alright now, rtively speaking. And he had tentatively fixed his life force problems. So what was he going to do next? He frowned as he remembered the words of the corpse from the dream. Neave frowned harder as he sensed a silver path spirit approaching the mansion with his spiritual perception. Immediately, his mind whirled with paranoia. Is someoneing to kill me? He thought twice about that. Why was that his first thought? He had been here for nearly a week, and the only person that had even approached him hade to thank him. He may have been wrong about the nature of other people. Being wrong was a normal thing in life. After all, the most outstanding schrs would much rather be wrong and learn something new than always be right and never learn anything. Then he sensed the second silver path spirit on the other side of the mansion. And the third one. And the fourth, fifth, sixth, and¡­ ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m sure they got the wrong address.¡± The wall in front of him exploded. Neave jumped back and ran further into the mansion, sensing the intruders moving along the estate, a few climbing onto the roof. He didn¡¯t panic, however. There was no need to panic. Because he no longer had life force issues. And he could finally demonstrate the true power of the immortal arts. As long as he kept the intruders separated, he could take them on individually. Neave stopped dead¡­ And so did all the people chasing him. Did they know where he was? His spirit was hidden by life force. There should be no way for them to sense his location. Something was strange. That was contemtion for another time. Neave grinned and grabbed a sword out of the dimension ring. This was no puny shortsword. He pulled out a two-handed greatsword and cackled as he prepared a true strike. One of the invaders broke through the roof and into the attic, preparing a technique to break into the hallway Neave was in. Neave took a stance. Golden runes enveloped his entire body. The sword screamed furiously as it slowly traveled through the air in a stabbing motion. The walls around Neave copsed, and the flying strike from his sword obliterated the ceiling above him. Wood exploded in a shower of debris, and the man standing above Neave clutched his leg as it bled profusely. He wore a white cloak, face hidden behind a ck mask. Neave quickly repaired his spirit and took another stance. He swung the greatsword with all his might, trying to bisect the man as he fell towards him. The swordnded with a cling, striking the man¡¯s back. However, even though he had struck the man directly, he couldn¡¯t bisect him. The man flew away, hitting a wall and bouncing off. He fumbled, putting a hand on his bleeding back and readjusting himself to face Neave. Neave clicked his tongue and repaired his spirit again. This man must possess some sort of defensive spirit power. The man screamed something unintelligible and rushed at Neave. Neave couldn¡¯t take this fight haphazardly. This man was a cultivator on the second step of the silver path, and he was far from the only opponent Neave was facing. It was true that he didn¡¯t need to be that careful with his life force anymore, but if he got too low, he would still be in trouble. These people also seemed to have a way of perceiving his location. So Neave just turned around and ran. He sprinted and used a movement technique to get through the wall and escape outside. Not even secondster, they were hot on his trail. How the hell are they tracking me like this? Neave ran into the town, using movement technique after movement technique. He was rapidly exhausting his qi as he dodged between the different buildings. He had already put some distance between himself and his pursuers. Even without looking back, he could sense them mbering over the buildings and chasing after him. He was nearlypletely out of qi when he reached the wall. He pulled out a qi restoration pill from Kame¡¯s ring, one of hisst few, and used a movement technique to get to the other side of the wall. Then he used the long-range, high-speed technique and bolted into the forest. *** ¡°What in the world is he?¡± Gabrias stood on the wall of Pavarrie, looking down over the town. His spirit power kept track of Neave as he dodged and weaved between buildings. He couldn¡¯t believe it when he felt him magically appear on the other side of the town wall. He looked down at the hooded figure next to him and spoke. ¡°Tell your men to gather and regroup. He¡¯s made it out of the town. We are going to have to go after him.¡± The hooded figure nodded and lowered its head a bit. Then all the cultivators in the town stopped chasing after Neave and ran toward their position. The hooded figure then spoke up. ¡°Are you sure he is not even on the iron path?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Gabrias responded and frowned. ¡°Then we absolutely must catch him before he advances his cultivation.¡± *** The eighth wave has begun. Neave had nearly finished running through the entire clearing, but then he paused. Those words kept echoing through his mind, again and again, and again... He would have taken it immediately if he ever had the opportunity to strategically retreat when fighting the demons. So why was he hesitating now? Why didn''t he just run away? Yes, as he ran, his steps slowed. His heart pounded out of his chest. Every bit of his mind and body screamed at him to run the hell away and not look back. Why take the risk? There were over half a dozen silver path cultivators on his tail. But what if they hunted him down? Well, he could get more powerful in the meantime. What if they bring backup? What if theye with someone on the golden path? The eighth wave has begun. Why are you being a coward? You can not escape. There is nowhere you can hide. There is nowhere you should hide. Enemies are everywhere around you, Neave¡­ After all... The eighth wave has begun. Neave turned around. And ran back toward the town. Chapter 26: Miscalculation Chapter 26: Miscalction ¡°Hmm?¡± Gabrias frowned and lifted his hand to grab the cloaked figure¡¯s attention. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°He¡­ He stopped. No, wait¡­ He is running back to the town.¡± ¡°Are you certain? No, that isn¡¯t unusual. He is probably trying to hide in town. There is no way he can tell how we are tracking him. He likely judged that being in the wilderness would be to his disadvantage. It doesn¡¯t matter. He can¡¯t run away forever anyway.¡± Gabrias, however, didn¡¯t quite agree with that assessment. There was something unusual about that child. He could tell those weren¡¯t the movements of someone running back just to hide in the town. But he kept that to himself. If the child was insane or suicidal, that only worked better for them. *** Neave ran back at full speed towards the town. But eventually, he slowed down a bit. There was no rush. He had something he wanted to do first. He bent down to the grass and started grazing. He ate the grass straight from the ground like a farm animal. If his life force reached the maximum his body could handle, it slowly dissipated until it returned to the usual amounts. Key word: slowly. He could maintain a surplus for a while if he controlled the life force. Neave would need as much life force as he could get with what he was attempting to do now. There was also the bonus of having a surplus of calories in his body. He never knew. Small advantages added up. He wasn¡¯t sure how well he would do against this group. Compared to the time he fought Kaphor, he was a little stronger but also missing an arm. He was tempted to quickly pick one of the spirit powers from the ring and try to finish a spirit trial, but that would be a rash decision. He didn¡¯t want topromise with too many spirit powers. He didn¡¯t want topromise with any of his spirit powers. And the monster cores he had ess to were frighteningly underwhelming. Even though he would have a massive advantage in spirit trials, he was still only a foundation realm cultivator. Given that he couldn¡¯t rely on spirit powers while inside a spirit trial, he would eventually still reach a limit on how difficult a spirit trial he could handle. So, for now, he settled for extra life force and energy. Neave got off the ground. He stretched and flexed his muscles. He took off the cloak and put it in the dimension ring. It would only slow him down. All he wore now was a in white linen shirt and sturdy wool pants. His left sleeve hung empty to his side as he gave a few practice swings to the greatsword. Good. It was time to begin. Neave sprinted towards the town wall and used a movement technique to make it to the other side. He took a look around and found none of the people hunting him. His spirit senses were overloaded by the scores of people walking through the main streets. But he didn¡¯t have to find his targets. They just had to find him. He jumped out into the main street and yelled. ¡°Hey, fuckers! It¡¯s me! Are you looking for me? Well, I am right here! Come on out! No need to be scared!¡± Suddenly, from the shadows behind Neave, a figure appeared. A cultivator wielding an ominous dagger in one hand, still partially wrapped in shadow. Neave couldn¡¯t tell whether it was a man or a woman as their thick white cloak and mask hid all their features. Neave was caught off guard, as he hadn¡¯t sensed the cultivator before they appeared, so he wasn¡¯t prepared to respond appropriately. He threw out a quick true strike to parry the blow, but the bacsh made his wrists bend from the stress. He quickly regained his footing and used a movement technique to get behind the shadowy figure''s back. An arrow flew from one of the rooftops, whistling as a small whirlwind of air spun around it, and it grazed Neave¡¯s left side of the body. Neave stepped back as the shadowy figure before him was about to attack him again and used some of his life force to stop the bleeding. The people around them screamed for the guards and ran for their lives. The guards arrived soon after but immediately joined the civilians. Best to avoid getting involved in stuff like that. One of the cultivators, a person Neave had injured back in the mansion, appeared from behind one of the buildings and ran at Neave. Three more people wearing the same outfit emerged from the small alleys and ran toward him. Neave heard another arrow flying toward him, and he dodged, simultaneously appearing behind the shadowy figure''s back. He wanted to use the most decisive attack, but the shadowy figure was already turning around as they had immediately spotted him. Neave clicked his tongue and resorted to another quick true strike. It left a shallow cut on the cultivator''s back. Yet another person appeared, jumping from a building next to Neave, wielding a longsword. They swung the long sword at Neave, but Neave dodged out of the way. The strike missed and shattered the stone paving of the road. One of the figures ran towards Neave and threw out a punch. Neave used a true strike to parry it. The punch held such tremendous force behind it that the shockwave it sent out copsed the wall next to them. Neave suffered a severe bacsh from parrying the strike and attempted to create some distance. One of the cultivators that had appeared previously instantly sped up. They moved so fast towards Neave that he couldn¡¯t respond to their attacks on time. He took a punch to the chest, the stomach, and a hard kick to his leg. He twisted in the air to minimize the damage from the punches, but the kick broke Neave¡¯s femur and flung him away toward the middle of the road. Neave bit the hilt of his sword to keep it in ce as he manually adjusted the bone in his leg with his arm. Then he used life force to reseal the bone back together. He plopped to the ground rather disgracefully and hurried to get up. The fast cultivator ran out of steam, and Neave prepared to capitalize on the moment of weakness but had to dodge another insanely fast arrow that once again grazed the side of his torso. At this very moment, the cultivator with the insanely powerful punchnded one of those punches on Neave''s side. He felt his entire body contort as he went flying away. Rather than hit a wall ornd on the ground, the shadowy figure from before appeared in his path and stabbed him with the dagger. Neave fell to the ground, barely conscious, as he felt his life draining from his body. YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND! THIS IS THE GIMMICK OF THE EIGHTH WAVE! YOU ONLY GET ONE ATTEMPT! He couldn¡¯t let himself die here. ¡°We have immobilized him, but I believe he had suffered too much damage to survive much longer. We will restrain him and administer first aid.¡± The shadowy figure addressed someone. The rest hurried toward them. So they want to restrain me? They must envy my freedom. No. They must envy my chains. Neave focused every remaining bit of consciousness that he could. He was not in a position to execute a true strike, but that didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t do damage. He only needed to do a little bit. He swung the sword, investing a bit of his life force into making the attack as strong as possible. He caught the shadowy figure off guard as he cut three fingers off their hand. The shadowy figure screamed in surprise and fright, jumping back in panic to make some distance from Neave. All the cultivators watched in horror as Neave ate the severed fingers off the ground. Silver path cultivators sure have a lot of life force in their bodies. He used the life force to patch up his most severe injuries. His entire body was in agony and far from fully recovered. But the pain he could endure. Immediately all of the cultivators sprinted at Neave, no longer underestimating him. Neave healed the most urgent wounds and got up to his feet, dodging another one of the wind arrows in the process. Neave ran toward his assants. They readied themselves to strike as Neave took one, two delicate steps, jumped, and disappeared. Then he appeared behind them. Their moment of shock left a small opening for Neave, and he used it to his advantage. A true strikended on one of the cultivators'' necks, cutting the jugr vein open. ¡°Shit!¡± They screamed, blood spewing out of their mouth. Neave dodged another arrow, and the swordsman took a swing at Neave. What shitty swordsmanship. Neave scoffed at the mighty but poorly executed blow as he dodged out of the way. One of the cultivators sped up again, but Neave immediately made eye contact with them. They froze briefly, chills running down their spine at Neave¡¯s predatory gaze, but soon regained their resolve and rushed to Neave. The figure sped up, getting ready to pummel Neave once again. Neave feigned a dodge but immediately shifted into a swift true strike. The cultivator wasn''t expecting Neave to attack, and at their current speed, they couldn''t slow down or avoid the attack. Neave''s sword met the fast figure¡¯s neck, not decapitating it but sinking into it and severing the spinal cord. Their body instantly went limp. ¡°You fucking bastard!¡± Another one of the cultivators ran at Neave, swinging a mighty fist at him. Neave wanted to parry the strike but canceled the parry at thest moment as the cultivator¡¯s hand turned into solid crystal. He almost lost his sword. Neave took a step back and appeared just a bit behind. He appeared behind the person he had injured in the mansion. He swung his sword, and a fast true strike added another shallow cut to their back. Suddenly, the archer fired four arrows in a row. Neave managed to dodge three, but the fourth hit his stomach and embedded itself into his gut. Neave had moved to ensure the arrow didn''t hit any critical areas. Two of the cultivators ran at Neave again, and he noted that one of them was the one that could crystalize their body. The cloaks made them look virtually indistinguishable, and they hid their qi. But the cloaks weren¡¯t fully optimized for hiding life force. Neave could still sense subtle differences between them and tell them apart. Neave tried to surprise them by using a movement technique coupled with a true strike kick to the head, but they crystallized their head, too, mitigating most of the attack. The shadowy figure appeared again, but Neave sensed them moments before they did. They shed at Neave with the dagger, but Neave parried the dagger blow, using the recoil from the parry and the recoil from the failed kick to set up a more decisive true kick to their wrist, breaking it. This injury, coupled with the severed fingers, left the cultivator unable to wield their dagger. Neave twisted in the air to dodge another arrow. The swordsman appeared the moment Neave dodged. Neave did his best to avoid most of the attack, but the sword still cut half his left foot off. He used some life force to stop the bleeding. Neave could tell they thought they had him now. The pain alone should stop him from using a movement technique, right? Pain could not stop him from doing anything. Neavended on the ground, used a massively expensive movement technique, and appeared on top of the house behind the archer. The cultivator standing next to Gabrias had amunication spirit power and was in charge of coordinating the attack. The moment they saw Neave appear behind the archer, they panicked hard. ¡°No! behind you!¡± Toote. A true strike through the heart ended the archer on the spot. Neave looked down from the building as the scattered cultivators stared at him in shock. He grinned. Then he lifted his sword. Suddenly, they could hear a terrible, deep vibrationing from him. The dust and debris around him picked up in a whirlwind, and sparks of electricity flickered through the air around him. Neave used a movement technique to appear behind one of the cultivators. Then he decapitated them. The rest scrambled, and the man on the wall screamed at them to get their shit together. Toote again. The crystal cultivator ran out of formation and rushed Neave, but Neave used the opening the man¡¯s rash decision created to appear next to the shadowy cultivator. The injured one and the swordsman rushed Neave to intercept him, copsing their formation entirely. Neave dodged another sword sh as hended several true strikes, cutting their throat, wrists, and femoral arteries open. The shadowy cultivator kicked their dagger at Neave since they couldn¡¯t carry it. Neave couldn¡¯t dodge it in time and got another object embedded in his gut. The injured one struck out at Neave, but Neave parried the attack. Yet another one of the cultivators rushed at Neave as the shadowy figure threw out kicks at Neave from behind. Neave dodged a kick and cut the throat of the person pressing the attack on him. The swordsman was getting dizzy from the excessive blood loss, so Neave used the moment to appear behind them and stab them in the back of the head. ¡°You¡­ You damned!¡± The shadowy figure snapped and ran at Neave, but Neave used a true strike to decapitate them. ¡°Shit! Those fucking morons!¡± The individual orchestrating the fight was seriously panicking now. They have lost far too many of their group to this child. They weren¡¯t expecting to lose any forces at all! Now there were only three of them left! They had to salvage this situation somehow. Their only saving grace was that this child seemed to be worth the effort they¡¯d invested in capturing him. What kind of insane secret did that book hold? As he thought this, one of thest three remaining fighters panicked. Their hands glowed. ¡°No, don¡¯t you fucking dare! We need that child alive!¡± ¡°Stay the hell away from me!¡± The cultivator yelled as bright fire gathered and concentrated in their hands. Neave merely stood and grinned. As the cultivator prepared to throw the spirit power at Neave, Neave slowly swung his sword downwards. The st flew at Neave, and the true strike that met it looked like it cut the entire explosion in two. Neave couldn¡¯t entirely avoid the blow, and neither could the person he had injured back at the mansion. The fire seared Neave¡¯s skin. His ears and eyes were burned. He stood, alive, but just barely. He couldn¡¯t see, and he couldn¡¯t hear. He sensed the waning qi from the figure lying beside Neave¡¯s feet. He walked over to them. Neave bent over and bit their neck, sucking the blood out. As his body filled with life force, he grew back his skin, fixed his ears, and recovered his eyes. He had to stop since he felt if he absorbed any more of anything, he would be doing more damage than he would be fixing. ¡°M¨CMonster¡­ You¡¯re a damn monster!¡± The explosive power wielder prepared to use another st, but Neave was in front of them in seconds. And soon after, their heady on the ground. Thest person hesitated. It was the one that could crystalize their body. Neave stared at them. They turned around to run. Every hair on their body stood as they felt the pressure of Neave¡¯s strike behind them. Immediately, they crystallized their entire body. Neave''s strikended, but the impact was absorbed, and Neave¡¯s sword snapped in two. ¡°That was close¡­¡± It was a man¡¯s voice. Neave walked in front of him. ¡°Old man, that is quite the spirit power you have. I can not imagine you could be using it without any consequences.¡± The man winced at Neave¡¯s words but stayed silent. ¡°Well, I don''t care anyway.¡± Neave took a stance. He moved slowly, but how he pulled his fist back felt like it was pulling mountains out of the earth. His footnded on the ground with a resonant thud. Immediately, all the dust and debris were blown away. The man was panicking, contemting his options, but he couldn¡¯t move. Once he crystallized a part of his body, it took a while before he could undo it. And that while increased a lot for crystalizing the whole body. Neave¡¯s fist moved ponderously through the air as golden runes shone all around them, brighter than the sun. He loaded his spirit with life force in advance, preparing for the severe impact that was about toe. His fist made contact with the man¡¯s body. The impact shattered the nearby stone, and the shockwave spread hairline cracks through the entire road. The man¡¯s body was blown away into hundreds of bits, which returned to ordinary flesh, blood, and gore raining all over the street. Neave coughed out blood. He could barely keep himself awake. He felt like something was wrong with him. His entire body was sluggish, and his spirit felt heavy. The life force flowed through his body like msses, where it usually flowed like water. He had to move. So he took a few steps, one by one. He sped up as he got used to the weird feeling. Neave disappeared between the buildings. ¡°Gabrias! We have to go!¡± Garbias stood frozen, the terrifying brutality he had witnessed seared into his eyes. ¡°No¡­ I mean, I can¡¯t. I am only on the bronze path and do not have any movement techniques or mobility spirit powers! I can''t just jump off the wall!¡± The man was about to object but clicked his tongue instead and jumped off the wall. Try as he may, he couldn¡¯t find Neave anywhere without Gabrias'' help. Soon enough, Gabrias sensed Neave again appearing on the other side of the town wall. Gabrias stared into the distance. The sight of the bloody, tattered child filled him with dread. It was like watching an ember drop into dry grass. That boy, no¡­ That monster, free in the wilderness¡­ ¡­Would burn everything to the ground. Chapter 27: Organs Chapter 27: Organs Neave hid in a forest not too far from Pavarrie. He had wanted to make as much distance from the town as possible but soon found the prospect of doing that hopeless. His entire body and spirit ached from top to bottom. It felt like acid flowed through his veins. His spirit felt like an egg that a sledgehammer had hit, and his muscles twitched and cramped constantly. At first, he thought his countless injuries and severe abuse of his body and spirit caused this. That was entirely correct, but he realized there was more to that. For all his skill, knowledge, and many tricks, he was still just an eleven-year-old kid at the start of the foundation realm. What he had been doing this past week was an utterly insane level of abuse for his body and spirit. Not to mention that he hadn¡¯t properly recovered from any of that abuse. Burning life force to heal himself and abusing recovery pills wasn¡¯t a proper substitute for actual recovery. And he was damn sure that the damage he had piled up, at least on his body, was too much to ever naturally fully recover from. He had to find another spirit power. Something that would allow him to heal. Or maybe several, honestly. He dug through his dimension ring, nearly throwing up at the sensation of using it. The additional stress he was putting on his spirit was no joke. He pulled out the bag of monster cores. Then he dug through it, hoping to find anything that could even hypothetically evolve into a solution to his problems. Optimizing his spirit powers was thest thing on his mind. The only thing he was looking for was something that would save him. He hated himself for giving away the demon dryad core. That core would have been a fantastic solution to his problems. He had been arrogant, discarding the power because it couldn¡¯t restore limbs. Then he found¡­ Nothing. None of the cores he was currently in possession of were any good for his predicament. Did this mean he had to kill more monsters? In his current state? ¡°¡­Shit.¡° He wasn¡¯t even confident that was possible. What do I do now¡­ He stopped. Then heughed. How could he be so stupid? Impossible? Was he not the one and only practitioner of the immortal arts? He would handle this like he had handled any other waves before. If there is no solution, then I will make a solution. If it is impossible, then I will make it possible. I have long ago stopped believing that it couldn¡¯t be done. So why would I start doing it again now? Have I not grasped the potential of perseverance? Have I not grasped the potential of experimentation? Have I not grasped the potential of fun? Now it was time to fulfill that potential. Neave walked a bit and found a random slime. He observed the small red thing rolling around as he brainstormed ideas. Its color gave him a clue. Neave ate some leaves to load up on life force, then concentrated all that life force into his hand. Neave cut his hand and let the blood flow out into the slime. It drank up the blood and turned a deep shade of crimson. Neave could tell it had evolved into a blood slime. Then he smashed it and grabbed its monster core. A tiny core that contained a feeble spirit power. Toxic blood. ¡°Ah fuck, I thought that would work.¡± It could work. Theoretically. However, it didn''t mean he would get that lucky just because it was convenient right now. He had neither the life force nor the blood to spare on such experiments. Oh well. Onto n two, then. He pulled out the corpse of the demon dryad. The dimension ring had done an excellent job preserving it so far. He grabbed a sword, carved out something vaguely resembling an organ, and ate it. It made him feel a little better, but he felt it had worsened his situation in the long run. The raw organs of a demon dryad were a potent ingredient in recovery pills. While they were raw, there was the tremendous chore of exterminating the toxic qi, among many other types of qi that weren¡¯t very helpful. He was out of recovery pills. Neave cursed himself for not picking up the rings of the cultivators that attacked him. So he would have to get by for now. After digesting the organ, he felt his symptoms ease up a bit. This was most certainly not a permanent solution. In fact, within a few hours, he would feel drastically worse than before he had eaten the organ. And he would very likely die. But that was enough time for him to figure out a n. He immediately sprinted into the woods. Then he found a cave. Neave went inside. Caves were generally one of the worst ces you could go into on the Xinkummar continent. The sheer number of monsters flooding the underground made caves a horrible ce to step into. Neave knew this, but he had no choice. Unless he found a solution within the next several hours, he was screwed. So he fought and killed monster after monster, spending hours trying to find a single helpful power. Luck, however, simply wasn¡¯t on his side. He felt the organ''s effects wearing off but hadn¡¯t found any promising monster cores yet. The additional strain of fighting all the monsters threatened Neave with serious consequences unless he improvised. Time was up. He had to act now. Neave quickly dug through his collection of monster cores, double-checking every single one to see if they fit his criteria. None did. Panic was starting to set in. His hand shook, and he felt the pain set into his body again. For a second, he felt that perhaps he couldbine several monster cores into one. He grabbed a few cores and enveloped them in the same ball of spirit. The newly created core immediately shattered and turned into dust. ¡°Shit!¡± Neave was running out of ideas. He had cleared all the monsters in the area, so unless he went way deeper into the cave, he was screwed. Neave wasn¡¯t sure whether he was lucky or unlucky that this cave had no powerful monsters. His vision was blurring, and he wasn¡¯t sure whether he could stay awake much longer. Then he got an idea. A horrible, awful, terrible idea. One that had no guarantee to work whatsoever. Not only was the idea a tremendous gamble, but it would also result in severe consequences for his future power. Yet, the more thought, the more confident he felt. This was thest option he had. He started putting several monster cores on a pile. Even though he was in an awful situation, he still felt like grinning at the sheer stupidity of his n. He looked at the various jagged pieces of spirit. He recounted the spirit powers inside: Fire lungs. Fast liver. Hard kidneys. Crystal heart. Rubber bones. Nerves of steel. Purifying bone marrow. ¡°This is a fucking retarded idea.¡± That was what he said out loud, but what he thought was: This is a fucking brilliant idea! It was objectively a stupid idea born of desperation in his moment of dire need. It was an idea only a little kid coulde up with. If your organs were failing you, why wouldn¡¯t you just get better ones? He didn¡¯t even have a spirit power rted to muscles or skin. Or veins, for that matter. Or many other minor organs and nds. His reasoning wasn¡¯t entirely arbitrary, however. Even if he was more or less winging it with these cores specifically, he was confident that they would at least ensure he survived. After reading the book, he had already nned on doing something along these lines. He felt bitter at being forced to rush, given he had intended to optimize the powers first. Still, if these powers evolved in the right ways, he was sure his body would be much more capable of handling future abuse. Hopefully. Fire lungs came from a small fire lizard. Fast liver came from an abominid. Hard kidneys also came from an abominid. Crystal heart came from a gem golem, whose body was also stored in Neave¡¯s dimension ring. It could be sold for great coin. Or perhaps just used in some sort of wacky experiment. Rubber bones were from a slimebie. Basically, a slime that used a skeleton the way a hermit crab used a shell. Nerves of steel were from a stone golem, but it was a unique variant. And purifying bone marrow hade from a poison variant abominid. None of the creatures were powerful, even if the gem golem was rtively rare. Luckily it wasn¡¯t a crystal golem since that would have spelled Neave¡¯s death. All of the powers except fire lungs were incredibly imbnced, affecting their target organs only partially. If he couldn¡¯t manipte spirit, he couldn¡¯t even dream of attempting to do so many spirit trials, even on weak spirit powers. The ovepping interference would have made itpletely impossible. Fighting eight monsters, all sharing each other''s powers, would have been something he wasn''t sure he could beat, even if he was diamond rank. However, with his spirit maniption, on the other hand¡­ Neave pulled out a delicate wine ss from Kame¡¯s ring. He didn¡¯t have any other containers to dilute the monster cores in his blood, so this would have to do. He melted the fire lung stone, and then he drank the blood. The hardest part about the trial was dealing with the abominid from the absorb power. He utterly crushed the pathetic little lizard. Then he just repeated the same process for all the other spirit powers. Luckily the time within a spirit trial didn¡¯t fully reflect the actual time that passed outside. Otherwise, he¡¯d already be dead just from the time it took him to kill the mega-abominid every time. After he was done with acquiring the spirit powers, he had to evolve them. He evolved fire lungs once and acquired the ability to breathe fire. He didn¡¯t expect that for some reason, but that came in handy. The lizard evolved to be quite a bit bigger than the little fe it was, but that was hardly an additional challenge. However, its ability to breathe fire wasn¡¯t as pleasant of an addition to the spirit trial. He had to evolve fast liver four times to cover the entire damn liver. Holy balls had his liver be intense! It didn¡¯t just be faster; it acquired rapid regeneration too. Did livers naturally possess some sort of regeneration ability? Not only that, but his liver''s sheer power was so absurd he wondered whether poison would even affect him. Hard kidneys surprisingly only took one evolution to cover both of his kidneys entirely. He did two more just because he could. His kidneys became very hard and received a decent boost to their function. Possibly the least exciting spirit power possibly anybody had ever acquired. Especially one that had evolved three times! Crystal heart only took one evolution. However, that wasn¡¯t necessarily a good thing. Because the evolution was a lot more potent than Neave had expected. It hadn¡¯t just evolved to cover his heart, but it evolved into crystal cardiovascr system. What did that do anyway? Likely not much more than making his veins much more durable. It did introduce a giant golem into the spirit trial, however. Excellent. It was already a formidable opponent, but its additional mass made it a challenge on par with the mega-abominid. Neave had noticed that his body would start falling apart whenever he used heavy true strikes in the spirit trial. This made sense since his ¡®body¡¯ within the spirit realm embodied his spirit. What made for a much more pleasant discovery, however, was that he could fix his body in the spirit trial by doing the same thing he did when he fixed his spirit outside. It worked much better than it did with his body in the real world. It was very life-force-intensive, though, and over-abusing this ability put incredible strain on his spirit. Still, it made the spirit trial even easier for him, which was a tremendous bonus. As for rubber bones, a simr thing had happened, but less drastic. The power evolved not just to cover all of his bones but also added additional sticity to his joints and some muscle tissue surrounding the bones. The opponent went from being a slimebie to being a slime juggernaut, which was a like a slimebie but much bigger and more muscr. Slimebies usually just looked like slimy skeletons, but slime juggernauts had actual bodies of slime. Nerves of steel only got one evolution, and yet again, a simr thing happened. It went from steel nerves to steel nervous system. This was a tremendous upgrade, but Neave felt like he was already reaching the limits of what he could handle in the spirit trial. He had to eat a lot of the random roots and growth within the cave to keep restoring his life force to handle the spirit recovery, but his spirit was feeling more and more bruised with every trial. Luckily, purifying bone marrow didn¡¯t cause another massive difficulty spike, so he just ended up fighting a slightly bigger poison abominid. And now, his list of opponents in the spirit trial looked something like this: a gigantic abominid, a slightly less gigantic abominid, a small abominid with many venomous stingers on its body, a giant gem golem, a big fire lizard that could breathe fire, a slime juggernaut and an extremely tough, partially metallic stone golem. He wasn¡¯t going to be adding any more spirit powers for now. If he could resist doing it, of course. *** Neave left the cave a while back and was back to running from his potential pursuers. He wasn¡¯t sure if anyone was left chasing after him, but he did not want to risk finding out in his current state. His body was still not doing well. His muscles were cramped and tense, not to mention they hurt like hell, but he kept a small trickle of life force to help with their recovery. Unsurprisingly, now that his kidney, bone marrow, cardiovascr system, and liver had received a tremendous upgrade, he no longer suffered from side effects when using absorb. So his life force supply issues have been more or less permanently resolved. He could feel some minor organs screaming in agony, but that could be ignored, right? Right? The thing that hadn¡¯t been resolved at all, however, was his spirit. It was doing terribly. He was banning himself from using any true strikes or movement techniques until his spirit recovered. He also kept a minuscule trickle of life force flowing into his spirit at all times. Yet another thing that hadn¡¯t been resolved was his arm. This was where he had decided to do something utterly insane. Compared to even his arsenal of super organs. He was going to attempt to steal the arm of an abominid. And graft it to his left shoulder. Chapter 28: Experimentation Chapter 28: Experimentation In the headquarters of the Bentheta sect, Gabrias and the man that had led the cultivators to Pavarrie were tied up and kneeling on the ground before the Sect Master. Gabrias looked fine, but the man beside him was bruised and bloody. They both would have died if there hadn¡¯t been so many witnesses to what happened in Pavarrie. The first thing their superiors thought when they learned of their failure was that they had betrayed the sect. How else would the details of their story make any sense? A child ughtering several nonbatant elders from an inferior sect was one thing, but that same child annihting a highly trained squad of professional assassins was another thing altogether. They had presented their exnation, and the sect master had listened to them. He wasn¡¯t particrly interested in excuses, which they had plenty of. Thebatants were trying to capture the child, so they weren¡¯t using lethal force. They had to hide the forms of the Bentheta sect so that no one would discover their origin. Nobody had expected the child to be so powerful. The sect master simply had no interest in any of that. But he wasn¡¯t that angry either. Hemented the loss of such a talented squad, but the fact that they had been annihted also signified another critical bit of news. The rumors might not have been an exaggeration. They may have even been an under exaggeration. Either that or the child had acquired more power in thest week. If the boy could do something like this, there was no point in holding back. Kaigo Bentheta had ordered several cultivators of the golden path to track the child down and capture him. However, rumors had unfortunately already spread¡­ He just hoped they would be the first to find him. The man named Gabrias was luckily still tracking the child¡¯s position with his spirit power. ¡°Alright. Habrin, you will be detained and sent to a correction facility for your failure. And you, Gabrias, will be assisting with hunting the child again.¡± Gabrias winced at that, and his heartbeat sped up considerably. But he couldn¡¯t say anything. Even if he didn¡¯t want to go anywhere near that monster again. Gabrias was dismissed. So he went on a walk through the Bentheta sect. The funeral for the squad that had been annihted had been held just a few hours back. He had missed it as he was detained at the time. But he walked over to the sect graveyard anyway. A man stood there, looking at the unmarked graves. Those who lived as assassins for the sect had very few personal connections besides one another. But the bonds they had were strong. This man observed the tombstones, his shoulder-length blonde hair draping over his eyes. Gabrias wanted to walk away, but his curiosity ultimately won over. The man looked at him, but he wasn''t furious or ming Gabrias. His eyes were a bit puffy, and he looked tired. "You''re the one tracking that thing, right?" Gabrias nodded. "Well... Worry not. Next time I will be among those apanying you.¡± The air suddenly grew colder around the man, ¡°I won¡¯t let that creature get away." *** A band of around thirty cultivators was standing near the edges of a forest. It was the forest that connected to the wild zone surrounding Pavarrie. A scruffy man squatted with his hands over his knees and chewed on dried grass. His hair was dark, long, and greasy. He wore a ck leather vest with bandages around his arms. Many of the cultivators surrounding him were dressed simrly. One of them stepped out of the crowd and walked up to him. It was a fat man with a fancy mustache. ¡°Hey, bro. Are you sure that chasing this thing is a smart idea?¡± The man squatting responded in a deep, raspy voice. ¡°Got no clue. But I¡¯m no bitch. We ain¡¯t no bitches now, are we?¡± The rest of the cultivators behind him cheered and whistled. ¡°We¡¯ll find that boy, and then once we have him, well¡­ I don¡¯t know. Maybe we¡¯ll ransom him. Maybe we¡¯ll have him tell us his secrets. Maybe both. Maybe we¡¯ll crack him open and find a monster core in there. Who knows? Now get the fuck up, you pieces of shit. It¡¯s time to get going. Spread out, and if you see anything unusual, follow the protocol. Go!¡± *** Neave was, surprisingly enough, recovering just fine. Not even just fine. He had recovered rather rapidly. By the end of the same day as acquiring his ridiculous set of spirit powers, he had already nearly fully recovered from his injuries. Well, his spirit was still somewhat mangled, and he was missing an arm and half a foot, but besides that, he was doing great. He suspected that some of his spirit powers yed a much more significant role than he initially thought. His spirit was still suffering from the damage, but Neave felt it recovering, however slowly. The greatest contributor to his recovery was the insane quantity of life force he constantly burned. He couldn¡¯t tell whether the new liver or bone marrow was doing it, but one of those two enabled him to use the absorb spirit power with little consequence. However, he was no longer burning the life force to speed up the recovery. That method was excellent for quick and dirty recovery but didn¡¯t mend the body properly. Neave had resorted to a far moreplex strategy for properly recovering his body. He focused and observed the way his life force flowed through his body. The ces where it seemed tog or falter were the parts he focused on. He constructed incrediblyplex structures out of his life force. He carefully noted the precise ways his body was faltering and directed the life force to mend those issues better rather than faster. It was something he wasn¡¯t even really aware he could do. Rather than speeding it up, he can instead use his life force to allow his body to recover from the types of overuse and injuries that would typically be impossible to recover from. There was little point in testing something like that out in the loop. Only now did he enjoy himself and freely experiment with his acquired powers. Neave vaguely felt a deeperyer of consequences he wasn¡¯t recovering from. No matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t brute force the recovery of these ailments. He was hoping they slowly went away with time. At first, he was traveling through the woods in the direction he assumed to be leading toward the empire''s capital. Then he realized he had no idea where he was going. There was a rtively easy way to figure it out, but he didn¡¯t want to rush for now. It wasn¡¯t like he was on a timer to get there as quickly as possible. Soon after realizing he was lost, he just¡­ Stopped going anywhere. He wasn¡¯t strictly sticking to one area but wasn¡¯t actively traveling out of the woods. Once he¡¯d had a night of sleep, he woke up in a rtively serene forest. Serene, if you ignore the bestial screams you could hear every few seconds in the distance. Abominids weren¡¯t the quietest monsters. It was a misnomer to call abominids a species. They were more of a category of monster. Slimes ate random bugs or dead animals and evolved into abominids that had the properties of those creatures that were eaten. An extensive range of different potential monsters could end up being created. Slimes usually had extremely misshapen cores. Those cores only grew to be more and more eschewed over time. However, once a slime reached the big or giant stages, usually, small parts of its core started separating and bing independent slimes. Eventually, if the resulting core was even enough, the slime could then be an abominid. On the contrary, if the core never became round enough, the slime just kept growing ad infinitum. And they could get really massive. Only in rtively rare cases did a core be even enough for slimes to turn into something other than an abominid. Well, either an abominid or some sort of golem. Those two were by far the mostmon. But golems, just like abominids, were rarely fully or even partially humanoid. Most monsters did not directly evolve from slimes but were birthed or created by another monster. That was one of the things that made monsters such a massive problem. They seemed to possess near-infinite ways to propagate. Neave was catching small abominids and feeding them to a big slime he had found. If he was discovered to be doing this, he would immediately get a hefty ransom on his head. There were few things quite as taboo as monster experimentation. Neave just learned one of the main reasons why. The slime evolved into a problematic flesh golem right before Neave¡¯s eyes. It took him a lot of time to kill it, as flesh golems were sturdy and had insane regeneration. Unluckily for Neave, the monster core it dropped wasn¡¯t a regeneration speed-up. It was an ability that allowed one to grow extra limbs! Except these limbs would be extremely malformed, and it didn''te with a ¡®detach monstrous limb¡¯ ability. Spirit powers were a bizarre phenomenon the more Neave learned about them. They seemed so random yet so¡­ Deliberate. It was weird. Monsters, in general, were strange. Why did monsters with more even cores end up looking humanoid? That was an utterly baffling phenomenon, even for schrs. The current theory was that the exact underlying mechanism, as with spirit beasts taking a human form, was responsible for this. What surprised Neave was the sheer variety andplexity of different spirit powers he found. Such powers were frequently discarded as trash due to being unstable, unbnced, unreliable, or too weak. However, even these powers could evolve into awe-inspiring stuff. The biggest reason why weak spirit stones were considered trash was that the way they would evolve was utterly unpredictable. A good example would be Neave¡¯s kidneys. Or his fire-breathing ability. Spirit powers often worked like true strikes because they did not consume any energy but instead put a load on the spirit. Very rarely, they consumed qi, and even more rarely, they could consume life force. This was only the case for active spirit powers. Passive spirit powers, as those possessed by Neave, didn''t work like that. When one consumed a spirit power, it was like adding a foreign spirit to their spirit. For passive powers, only this alien spirit suffered the extra burden. What was highly unusual with Neave¡¯s fire-breathing ability, however, was that the fire breathing seemed more of a byproduct of the spirit power than the spirit power itself. It didn¡¯t put an extra burden on his spirit, use qi, or use life force, but instead, it seemed to use an utterly mundane energy source. If Neave used fire breathing too much, he just got hungry. When he ate food, he could do it again. This synergized exceptionally well with his ability to quickly absorb food into his body. Neave was currently in the process of looking for ways to regrow half of his left foot and his entire left arm. Some spirit powers could technically fulfill those requirements but with a massive catch. He had killed a small lizard-like abominid that held power to regrow lost limbs. The issue was that those limbs would be tiny lizard limbs. Perhaps an evolution could at least turn them into regr-sized lizard limbs. Although Neave found the idea of having a scaly left arm neat, he was somewhat apprehensive about the actual functionality of something like that. Simr issues were there with the others he had found. There was one that allowed him to construct additional limbs out of stone, courtesy of a stone golem. Or another that achieved something simr but with wood. While he wasn¡¯t putting them off the table, it was infinitely better to just regrow a normal limb out of the flesh he was made off. Reason why? Because of his other spirit powers, of course. Crystal cardiovascr system, steel nervous system, and rubber bones all wouldn¡¯t work on limbs that weren¡¯t of the same construction as his natural limbs. He had concluded that out of all the powers he had gained, surprisingly, rubber bones had the most potential. It didn¡¯t truly make his bones rubbery. His bones worked just as usual until they suffered enough force to break. Then, rather than breaking, they would bend. It allowed him to make some peculiar martial arts moves that usually put too much stress on his joints. He had gotten an idea for how to fix his missing limbs, but it was¡­ Extremely unhinged. And very dangerous. Also, unlikely to work. He was looking for an abominid with a foot simr in shape and size to his own. After finding an abominid like that, he killed it and cut its foot off. Then, with surgical precision, he cut the foot into the exact shape required to rece his missing foot. The foot was simr in shape and size to his own, but it was a ton hairier, and the skin was dark brown. The nails looked nasty too. He had a solution for those issues, however. He first needed to attach the foot to his own. The flesh where his foot was cut off was scabbed over and dried. Neave cut off the scarred and dried part and immediately attached the newly acquired foot. Then he burned a ton of life force to seal them together. Immediately, an agony unlike anything he¡¯d felt in a while consumed his body. It felt like his life force was bitten, and his very spirit was under attack. He knew what was happening. The remnant spirit from the foot was fighting with his own. It was a fight Neave could win. However, sadly, that would also mean he would destroy the foot in the process. He sighed and removed the newly added foot. But he didn¡¯t give up yet. He had an idea, although it was somewhat uncertain. Neave pulled out a small steel cauldron from Kame¡¯s ring. He wished it was a little smaller, but other containers in the ring were too tiny or toorge. So this was the best he could do for now. Then he filled the cauldron with liquid spirit. It drained him quite hard, which is precisely why he wished it was smaller. The drain on his life force was one thing, but his qi reserves were minuscule. There was very little he could do about that, however. Without cultivating further, his only solution was stockpiling qi recovery items and hoping he didn¡¯t have to take more of them than his spirit could handle. Neave then ate some random nts around him to recover his life force. He just straight up bit off a small branch and chewed it. He ended up with several splinters stuck between his teeth. "Ugh, shit." Oh well. Neave concentrated. Hepressed as much life force as he could manage into the tip of his finger. When it felt like the finger would explode if he squeezed any more life force, he grabbed the sword in his teeth and used it to cut the finger. The blood that had flown out of the finger and into the cauldron was practically glowing red. The mixture of liquid spirit and life force hadn¡¯t yet done anything. It whirled, and Neave could see tiny sparks of red lightning flickering in the mix. Then he pressed his hand to the cauldron. Pouring qi into the mixture wouldn¡¯t be as simple as pouring the life force. After all, qi needed a proper medium. You couldn¡¯t just push it into something. Then Neave brainstormed his options. Perhaps he could imbue a piece of gold with qi? He had golden coins. He would only have to melt the gold into the mixture then and¡­ Would that work? But what would happen with the gold that entered the mixture? No, that wouldn¡¯t work. Neave thought about just imbuing the qi directly into the spirit. After all, liquid spirit isn¡¯t a well-known substance. Perhaps its properties could be unique in some way. But when he tried, he felt that it wouldn¡¯t work either. He couldn¡¯t give up here. He was trying to construct a qi bridge that would connect his spirit to the substance within the cauldron. Then he could use his life force maniption on the life force swimming around in the liquid spirit. He would use the life force to push the liquid spirit into the limb to ¡®wash out¡¯ the remnant spirit of the abominid. This was something that could only theoretically work. Neave had a sneaking suspicion that remnant spirit wasn¡¯t ethereal but rather liquid. The remnant spirit subject was briefly covered in the book he had read. It was certain that it wasn¡¯t the same substance as ethereal spirit, but what it was precisely seemed to be a total mystery. It was theorized that it could be a mutated life force, or a particr type of qi that caused the usual problems using animal, spirit beast, or monster parts as ingredients in alchemy. It was named remnant spirit since it held specific properties simr to spirit, but not really. Neave could only assume it was liquid spirit. He didn¡¯t have any evidence for this, but at least attempting to do this could yield some results. Then he pondered how to construct the qi bridge. The reason he used the cauldron was specifically that they were designed with qi imbuement in mind. But they only acted as a medium. It was the substance itself that had to be receptive to qi. Neave could create a qi bridge to the foot directly, but that wouldn''t achieve what he needed. As his hand was resting on the cauldron, he contemted. The potential of perseverance. The potential of fun. The potential of experimentation. Could the concept of experimentation be receptive to qi? He blinked. Why not? Then he concentrated. Rather than focusing on any substance or element within the cauldron, he contemted the process, the intention, and the potential of the results he could aplish. Then it clicked. Well, well, well¡­ Could this be yet another vital secret? ¡­Probably not. Neave still giggled like a madman. *** Neave looked at his newly acquired left arm. It was still a little brownish and had strangely thick hair, but he felt it slowly morphing and taking the shape of his previous arm. The only reason he even dared to use this method was because of his purifying bone marrow. If there were any strange substances within his blood due to his body cells slowly recing the abominids, his bone marrow would at least keep him safe from them. ¡°Well, now.¡± He stretched and flexed his newly attached limbs. He was finally back in one piece. Now it was time to do something he desperately needed to take care of. Since he couldn¡¯t yet cultivate, the only ways he could acquire more power were either additional spirit powers, treasures that could affect his body directly, or physical training. He had new spirit powers. With absorb, his organs, and his qi control, any monster''s flesh became a treasure. So the only thing left to do was to train Chapter 29: Convergence Chapter 29: Convergence Neave was facing a stone golem. However, he wasn¡¯t using true strikes or even a weapon. He was fighting with his bare hands. It had been a few days since he had started doing physical training. His arm and foot already looked the same as his other limbs. During thesest few days, he had made immense progress. He had also evolved his purifying bone marrow ability, taking a chance and hoping he was right. And damn, was he right. The ability evolved into pure blood. It not only purged every harmful physical substance out of his blood but also purged harmful qi. He ended up evolving the spirit power because eating monster meat was a tremendous pain in the ass. Whenever he ate monster meat, he had to consciously fight off the harmful qi. So even though absorb let him eat as fast as he wanted, he still had to slow down to expend all the harmful qi. That was no longer a problem. The only thing he needed now was something that would let him unhinge his jaw like a snake so he could eat faster. It was starting to sink in how absurd his ability to round up monster cores was. Most cultivators with spirit powers only took a second power if they got their hands on a good one or if the evolution of their current spirit power was too unpredictable. Without the ability to round up the incredibly jagged and rough cores, Neave would have had to pass an utterly impossible spirit trial. Even if he was just talking about absorb and pure blood, that would mean four size boosts from one and an additional two from another spirit power. With jagged cores, such abination of boosts would have him going up against two abominids armed with countless venomous ws, stingers, and jaws, bothrge enough to push him out of his spirit realm. Even then, a four-times-evolved strength boost and a twice-evolved speed boost were more immediately helpful. But this was more useful in the long run. Hopefully. Since Neave started his training, he had been growing in strength at an utterly remarkable speed. He was already as physically strong as someone at the beginning of the iron path. That might not seem like a lot, but any cultivator that achieved strength like that without a spirit power dedicated specifically to boosting strength would be an absolute prodigy. Merely by realizing that much potential, one could advance to the iron path anyway. But his strength boost was far from the only thing he had gained. Everything from his toughness to the speed of his physical recovery to the sheer additional endurance he had acquired had increased tremendously. Eating such a vast quantity of monster flesh all the time was a truly incredible tool of progress. Many of the powers he had gained had been surprisingly helpful, including the steel nervous system. He first assumed that would just toughen his nerves and make them more endurant to attacks. While it did do that, it also allowed for much greater control over his body. Not just that, but his reaction time and the speed at which his brain processed information seemed to have also increased. Neave knew that his monster flesh eating wasn¡¯t an infinite source of power. Technically, it was, but the quality and quantity of meat you had to keep eating grew exponentially the more power you gained from it. While he jokingly thought of the snake jaw unhinging power, the more time passed, the more he considered looking for something along those lines. This idea wasn''t floating around in his head for no reason. It kept popping up in his mind because he suspected one of his powers could provide him with something simr. Or at least something that could work as a substitute. Currently, he resorted to chopping monsters up into tiny pieces and just swallowing those pieces whole, bone and everything. He was even eating some golems just to see what would happen. Surprisingly, it made him a little tougher. Even if swallowing it hurt like bloody hell. His match against the stone golem was well over thirty minutes in. It was an almost humanoid stone golem, but its limbs weren¡¯t the same size, and the head was small and featureless. The ability that surprised Neave the most was rubber bones. He didn¡¯t even have to care that it was stone he was punching. If any attack put too much stress on his fingers, they bent a bit and then returned to the same shape. Hell, regardless of whether or not he put ''too much'' pressure on his fingers, he felt practically no recoil, even when punching at full force. Unsurprisingly, Neave couldn¡¯t just bludgeon a bronze-rank threat with his bare fists, even at iron path strength. Well, not quickly, at least. It was already cracked all over its body, and Neave hadn¡¯t been hit even once. He also wasn¡¯t trying to destroy the golem, but he was rather just physically training his body. He treated a dangerous monster made of living stone like a punching bag. After he finished fighting the golem, he was exhausted. He was not tired from fighting the golem, but instead, he was tired of doing such inefficient physical training. It wasn¡¯t like he had any weights, so sadly, all he could do was free bodyweight exercises and sparring. He could do both for so long that he wasn¡¯t sure he would ever get tired if he kept eating food. Neave could do a million pushups if he kept eating food while doing them. But he also wouldn¡¯t get any stronger. Well, maybe if he did a million, he would have some benefit, but it wouldn''t be time efficient. These exercises helped a ton at first. And by ¡®at first,¡¯ he meant in his first few hours of training. The speed and power of his recovery under the influence of life force, aided by his extreme consumption of monster flesh, rapidly made such training obsolete. Neave used a true punch, and he utterly obliterated the stone golem. His true strikes had greatly boosted their power now that his baseline strength had increased by so much. Another thing that happened was that his spirit had also gotten more resilient. He wasn¡¯t sure why. Perhaps it had just gotten tempered by all the abuse? That could be possible. And now it was finally time to test out his newly acquired power. He wasn¡¯t going to use a weapon, not at first. He went to a nearby cave and then ran inside. He first saw several stone golems and a couple of abominids here and there. He could sense quite a few of them lining the ceiling, likely bat variations. They could technically fly, but their flight was about as stable as Neave¡¯s mental state. He ran into the cave and used a true strike punch to obliterate a small stone golem. A slightlyrger one with several long limbs approached him and started swinging. Neave easily dodged all of its strikes and dispatched the golem with two solid strikes to the chest. Meanwhile, he was dodging the abominids and crushing those that got too close to him. These were still rtively small, and none were a considerable threat. The noise roused the ones lining the ceiling, and as they took flight and assaulted Neave, he simply blew fire in their direction. It didn¡¯t kill them instantly, but it did daze them and make them drop out of the air. Then he proceeded to dispatch them one by one. He didn¡¯t see the acid slime approach until it jumped at him. He dodged out of the way. Itnded on the other side. Acid slimes were nasty creatures and not something that should be touched directly. So Neave just didn¡¯t touch it directly. He used the shockwave from a true strike punch to push the slime away, and then he just burned it with his fire breath. While acid slimes and their horrifying evolutions were horrible creatures, if you could keep them at a sufficient distance, they weren''t the worst. Well, terror slimes could still squirt acid at you from afar, so maybe one should keep an extra sufficient distance. The further, the better. From deeper within the cave, Neave spotted a giant centipedeing. These things were no joke, but Neave didn¡¯t even budge. It lunged at him, and he swung his fist down in a karate chop, knocking the centipede¡¯s head into the ground. As it got up, he kicked its head,unching it upwards. Then he jumped and mmed his foot into its midsection, snapping something in the centipede, and it dropped to the ground, dead. That was when he spotted it. There was another monstering from deeper within the cave. It looked like a statue brought to life. A living statue. ¡°Oh, fucking hell.¡± The highly advanced golem lifted its hand, and rocks near its feet sharpened to a point. The sharp stone spikesunched at incredible speed toward Neave. He could have used a movement technique to get out of their path altogether, but he instead ran towards the statue, dodging the shards he could avoid and parrying or redirecting those he couldn¡¯t. None of them managed to hit him, only blowing past him and smashing into the wall behind Neave, whistling and pewing as they ricocheted off the hard cave stone. Once he reached the golem, he delivered a true strike to its stomach, a kick to its head, a spin-kick to its side, then a triplebo punch to its torso. The ground shook, and his spirit faltered, but all his attacks only left rtively shallow cracks in the golem¡¯s body. But that wasn''t bad news. Neave was surprised that he could deal any damage to the golem. The golem swung at Neave, every punch holding enough weight to crush his body but none fast enough to hit him. The stone around Neave and the golem kept turning to sharp spikes aimed at Neave, but he avoided them and continuednding attacks. He got a nasty cut to his right calf, but he almost instantly sealed it with life force. After dodging a kick, Neave saw his chance and crouched under the golem. Then he used a true strike tounch it into the air. As it spun around in the air, Neave set up a true strike kick, and the stone golemnded on his foot. He kicked it right back into the air and smashed it into the ceiling, causing severalrge rocks to fall off and crash to the ground. As it dropped back down again, it received another much heavier kick. It flew upwards so quickly that it broke off a massive chunk of the ceiling and bounced onto the ground. It still hadn¡¯t broken into pieces, but the cracks ran deep. The golem twitched a few times and finally stopped moving. Neave breathed out a sigh of relief. Even he wasn¡¯t entirely confident facing gold-rank monsters. Those shards could have easily cut his body apart, and if any of its strikes hadnded, he would have been blown to pieces. It took over a dozen rather heavy true strikes to finish it off. Neave could fight against gold-rank monsters with rtive ease, but only if he was a good fit against them. He didn''t yet have a reliable ranged attack, so if he ran into something like a nobleva golem, he would be screwed. For as long as the monster wasn''t too fast, too tough, or inherently did too much damage to lower-rank metals or Neave''s bare fists, such as in the case of ava golem, Neave could handle it with rtive ease. Neave was very confident his spirit had gotten tougher somehow. There was no way he could have endured so many true strikes just a week ago. And their power¡­ Neave was utterly baffled by how strong some of the strikes he dished out were. His additional body mass due to the muscle he¡¯d built and his extra strength had increased the potency of his strikes. It wasn¡¯t surprising that everyone who had seen him execute a true strike panicked. If they had ever witnessed someone at gold rank execute a true strike, they would have seen someone disy a monstrous amount of power. The more Neave fought, the more he realized how potent rubber bones were as a spirit power. He now felt only a tiny part of the bacsh he used to feel when fighting bare-handed. His additional toughness contributed to that as well. Neave dug out the core from the living statue. It was rtively smooth. Not even close to round, butpared to most jagged pieces of spirit he saw daily, it was quite a bit better. And the power was¡­ Somewhat disappointing. It was just stone maniption, a rather specific variant too. Not even close to the type of power he desired. For now, he leaned into the route of physical enhancements. His most significant power inbat was his skill. It didn¡¯t make sense to do anything else. The only thing he needed was abilities that would synergize with his swordsmanship. A better body achieved precisely that. Neave collected the spoils of war and brainstormed ways he could get stronger. He would have to find a more efficient way to train to improve. He would keep training, of course, but he was getting rather greedy for more power, and inefficient, slow training irritated him greatly. ¡°Oh. Wait. Wait a damn minute.¡± How had he forgotten! He could generate spirit! Wait. No, I have to¡­ No, could I? Could he make a weapon? Neave was no master cksmith, and he didn¡¯t have the necessary tools. But he did have a practically infinite amount of spirit. Any liquid could only acquire a single quasi-spirit. If you tried to melt a second monster core into a liquid that already had one melted into it, it just wouldn¡¯t work. The size of a core mattered with spirit powers. But the only reason it mattered was that it could hold a spirit power with a greater capacity. Neave could make the monster cores as big as he wanted, but that wouldn¡¯t change anything about the nature of the power. The spirit Neave produced was, forck of a better way to put it, empty. When one acquired a spirit power from a monster core, their spirit effectively ''trimmed the fat'' before it absorbed it. That was how receiving only a ''singr'' power from a monster core was possible instead of ''Enhanced strength (with a side of venomous ws, freaky eyes, green skin, and permanent hair loss).'' But it sure as hell would matter when making a weapon. The bigger the core, the better the qi conductivity. Since weapons don''t already have a spirit, there is nothing to ''trim the fat.'' Melting a core into molten iron when making a sword didn¡¯t work the same as taking the spirit power for yourself. Rather than grant that power to the weapon, it made it adopt a nature simr to the monster the core hade from. More often than not, this was done with cores from an iron golem or metal slimes. The power that was then acquired was still singr, sure. But it was achieved not through cleansing all the other spirit, but by solidifying it and effectively granting the weapon the quasi-spirit left behind by the monster. Neave quickly took out some of the crappier weapons from Kame''s ring. Then he put one of them out in front of him. He blew fire into the sword, trying to melt it. He ran out of fire, but the weapon was just very hot. ¡°Crap.¡± He devoured a ton of the abominids lying around to regain his energy reserves, then he tried again, this time from less distance. The heat hurt his face, but he fixed it with life force and endured. As the iron began melting, Neave concentrated and put a finger close to the melted part. A thin tendril of life force seeped out of his finger and into the molten metal. The life force evaporated the moment it touched the sword. Neave sighed. Of course molten metal wouldn¡¯t be conducive to life force. But wait¡­ Neave produced a bit of liquid spirit. He connected the tendril of life force to the spirit. It was draining on his willpower, but if he pushed his life force maniption, he could maintain the life force tendril connection. Neave focused on the potential of this experiment. Qi enveloped the floating ball of liquid spirit and the tendril of life force holding it aloft. He moved the spirit to the saggy, molten piece of the sword. The liquid spirit flowed into the molten piece of metal. Neave flexed with all his might and¡­ The metal bent. *** It had been a few days since Gabrias had set off searching for Neave. To his right walked a tall, bald, and burly man. He had a massive sword strapped to his back, and he was ted in beige armor. To his left walked a short brte woman with a short sword sheathed to her side. She was wearing brown leather armor, but it was no ordinary leather. A few feet in front of him stood a man of average height. He wasn¡¯t carrying any weapons. He had shoulder-length blonde hair, and he was wearing simple cultivator robes. All of these people were on the first step of the gold path. They weren¡¯t rushing the search for Neave. While the three gold path cultivators weren''t in much danger, Gabrias wasn''t safe. They had already run into several groups looking for Neave, and a fight had broken out once. The three gold path cultivators practically had to babysit the rtively weak Gabrias. Otherwise, their potential attackers would attempt to target him first, given that he was a weak spot in their group. If they lost Gabrias, the prospect of finding Neave immediately became much less probable, so Gabrias was utterly silent. These people were true warriors. The group that had attacked them was also on the first step of the gold path, but they had gotten utterly crushed in less than a minute. These people were skilled warriors who had walked up to the gold path one step at a time. They had the skills, they had the equipment, and they had the spirit powers. All three of them had only a single spirit power. But all of their spirit powers were evolved several times, and they had effectively mastered their use inbat. Not just individually, but they maximized the synergy their abilities provided. Another reason they were taking their time was that all the activity in the area had baited many monsters onto the surface. Nothing too dangerous, though, gold ranked at the highest, but that still meant they had to tread cautiously. Gabrias still felt uneasy. He remembered the way that child had ughtered the previous group. It was a sight he could never forget. Now he was going after him again. He knew that things were going to be different this time. Thest group was a collection of warriors at the first step of the silver path. The first step of the gold path was in an entirely different realm of power. And these warriors were exceptional even for gold path cultivators. But some small, irrational part still dreaded the moment they reached the child. All he could do was hope that part of him was truly just being unreasonable. *** The Emperor had been sitting on his throne for days already. He was getting reports of quite a distressing situation. The child was being hunted down by several more prominent sects, mercenary groups, and even some criminal organizations. He couldn¡¯t use his authority as the emperor here, sadly. Even if he tried, he would just be giving away that he was also interested in the child. He wished he could go off and find him alone, but sadly he was stuck waiting. Waiting for thosezy idiots to show up. They had an unprecedented crisis, but he still couldn''t expect a timely arrival. He had sent her the damn message a while back and knew she must have received it. He would have to consider punishment if she ignored another call. Just as he was thinking of sending out another message, the air shimmered in front of him, and a beautiful woman wearing red cultivator robes walked out into the throne room. ¡°Hello, Jeeves!¡± Jeevian sighed. ¡°Hello, Beanna,¡± Behind her, three others left the shimmering portal. All of them cultivators of the diamond path. Chapter 30: Breakthrough Chapter 30: Breakthrough Four cultivators on the diamond path stood in front of the Emperor. Their posture was rxed, and they all acted like royalty. The first among them, Beanna, was a beautiful woman with hair darker than the night yet eyes brighter than the stars. Her magnificent, red cultivator robes adorned her muscr frame. She looked cheerful and genuinely happy to see Jeevian. Right behind her stood a skinny man with ck hair but not quite as dark as Beanna¡¯s. Even after he dyed it. His hair covered half his face, and he donned a ck trench coat. He looked rxed, but it was noticeable that he wasn¡¯t happy to be here from miles away. It was hard to tell whether he would be d to be anywhere. Next to him stood a man with long green hair. He had a moderately bulky build, wore white cultivator clothes, and had a sword sheathed at his hip. While he was gorgeous, his demeanor, facial expression, and rtively youthful looks didn¡¯t do him any favors. He looked like a romanticized version of the arrogant young master. Except he had every right to be as proud as he wanted. Further in the back stood another man. Rather than robes or a coat, he wore armor. Full te armor that looked like polished silver. Not a single inch of his skin was revealed in any way. He spoke next, and his voice sounded like he wasn¡¯t even wearing armor. He wasn''t one to beat around the bush, so he immediately got to the heart of the matter. ¡°Greetings, Emperor. May I inquire as to why we have received an emergency warning?¡± The emperor responded in a tone that was not very amused. ¡°May I first know why you all took so long to arrive?¡± Beanna responded to that. ¡°Oh,e on. We were in the middle of an expedition to the lost continent. Besides, we¡¯ve already heard the news of some demon child or something. Was that why you invited us here? It was, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°You have been called because a true monster has left the underground depths. I told you fools ages ago that if I send you an emergency invitation, it is a heavens forsaken emergency!¡± Everyone froze at that immediately. Beanna spoke next. ¡°Okay, so, we evacuate the continent?¡± The tone was half-joking, but nobodyughed. That could have been one of their only options, after all. The emperor scoffed and answered with a hint of longing. ¡°I wish.¡± The man in the ck trench coat spoke up at this. ¡°Are you sure we cannot contact Langen for help?¡± The green-haired swordsman spoke next. ¡°Hmph. As if those cultists cared about us.¡± The man in the ck trench coat responded. ¡°Your behavior isn''t helping our case.¡± The emperor raised his hand. ¡°Kingean, Zhaore, please.¡± The man wearing the ck trench coat, Zhaore, scoffed and relented. The armored man continued. ¡°What monster is it?¡± ¡°It is a myth golem, Carfen.¡± Everybody winced at that. Carfen asked again. ¡°Well¡­ Couldn¡¯t we just evacuate the settlements in its way?¡± The emperor thought of that proposition. ¡°Hmm, yes, that would be a decent solution at first. I was going to put that into action anyway to buy some time. Golems are not known for their speed, after all. Rather, the thing that concerns me is the question of why it left the depths. Few things could appeal to a true monster outside the deep underground environment. I am afraid that whatever had caused it to leave may yet bring another disaster crawling out of the depths¡­¡± Then Kingean added. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just kill it?¡± Beanna beamed at that. ¡°Really!? You must have gotten powerful while I wasn¡¯t looking!¡± ¡°Tsk, spare me your sarcasm, you bitch.¡± ¡°Wooooow. Meanie!¡± The emperor waved again to get them to stop talking. ¡°Heavens, can you all please stop acting like children!? I have fought the golem personally, and I believe there is a solid chance we could kill it without taking any casualties, but I do not see us doing it without causing a cmity. If it were only an issue of destruction, that would be an eptable sacrifice, but...¡± Carfen nodded and added. ¡°It could bait more of them out.¡± ¡°Exactly. For now, we have to scout the situation. Unfortunately, I couldn''t put anyone in charge of observing it since it would discover anyone below the diamond path. So we will have to track it down first. Once we do, Zhaore, you will be in charge of observing the myth golem. You will swap ces with me whenever I can use my invisibility. For now, we must judge what direction it''s going in and try to find out what it''s after. We are moving immediately.¡± *** Neave was in a cave. He had copsed the path that led deeper into the cave and had blocked off the entrance by lining it withrge logs. What light broke through his barricade was all the light he had. He had ttened an area in the center of the cave, and a massive ball of spirit sat right in the middle of that area. A truly gigantic monster core. Its radius was one and a half times his height and it was perfectly round. Neave had made this absurd monstrosity and nned on using it to make an extremely qi conductive sword. He used the monster core of a massive centipede he had killed. He hoped the sword would acquire some sort of poison ability, but he wouldn¡¯t mind if it became more durable, like the chitin of the centipede. The problem, however, was that he had failed to realize that melting such a gigantic core in liquid iron would be challenging, to say the least. He would need a massive basin, not to mention the sheer amount of iron he would have to melt. He''d have to carry around a titanic sword if he used such an approach. While such an idea appeared to Neave¡¯s infantile tastes, it wasn¡¯t a viable option. For now, at least. It wasn''t possible to just take a bit of the metal either. Naturally, some material is lost when creating a weapon. But if the amount of material lost went over a certain threshold, the integrity of the quasi-spirit would be ruined. The issue with granting quasi-spirits was that they had no soul to keep them anchored. The spirit would copse if its host, the weapon, were damaged. This often meant that only a small amount of material could be lost. You couldn''t split a spirit into two half-spirits like you couldn¡¯t split a man into two half-men. He could trim a finger or two, however. In the book about spirit, he had read that some artisans, when crafting a ring with giant cores, used a peculiar technique so they wouldn¡¯t end up with too much material. They would encase the entire core in a thinyer of metal, and once fully enveloped, they would melt the metal by chucking it into the furnace. Since all that was needed, technically speaking, was to ¡®fully submerge the core in liquid,¡¯ it didn¡¯t matter if it was just a super thinyer surrounding it. So Neave was attempting to replicate that now. The problem was that he didn''t have the proper tools, so he relied on an immensely difficult spirit maniption technique and his fire breath. He was painstakingly utilizing the life force tendril spirit maniption technique to line the core with a thinyer of steel. He had melted all the swords he had, so this weapon would be girthier than he hoped, but that was apromise he was happy to take. If only he could finish this thing. After nearly a full day of work without any rest, he finally lined the entire core with steel. Then he proceeded to blow his fire breath at the core until the whole steel surface melted. Once he had heated it enough, the core suddenly started shrinking. All that was left was a small puddle of molten metal. Neave used the life force tendril to manipte the metal into a sword. It was an unbelievably shitty weapon from a technical perspective. It was fat and unbnced and wasn¡¯t even adequately forged, merely shaped like a sword. Although usually, not forging a weapon would mean it would be pretty brittle, given that he had used the spirit maniption technique, it wouldn''t be as bad as a cast iron sword. It was likely too fat to break anyway. It was more of a bludgeon than a sword. It didn¡¯t have a proper hilt. It was a solid piece of metal from the pretend pommel to the loopy point. Neave had made the grip rough so he could hold the weapon properly. And when he did¡­ Neave whistled. For all its numerous ws, this was a terrifying chunk of metal. Neave had never held a sword that felt so... Alive. He took a few swings. The weapon didn¡¯t end up with a power rted to poison or hardness. But instead, every time he swung the sword, a faint, phantasmal image of a centipede charging into a bite followed it. Sword spirits didn¡¯t work like spirit powers, so he couldn¡¯t tell what that did, but he assumed the centipede was a special attack that would apany the swings of his weapon. He could live with that. Neave walked over to the barrier of wood and took a swing. The sword couldn¡¯t cut through the wood since it was too fat. However, the sheer weight of the weaponbined with the special centipede attack ended up shattering the logs like oversized twigs. The weapon was ridiculously conducive to qi. If Neave could forge a proper sword with this method, he could create a genuinely terrifying superweapon. He still couldn''t use any qi techniques. He just didn''t know where to even begin with figuring them out. Whenever a cultivator held a sword, qi passively flowed through the weapon with every swing, even without any directed qi techniques. No matter which weapon Neave had used until now, they all felt like the qi flowed sluggishly through them. Qi flowed through this sword more naturally than through his own damn body. Neave couldn¡¯t wait to try this ridiculous thing inbat. He ran out and found an abominid. It was kind of small, so Neave didn¡¯t fight it. After all, he didn¡¯t want the first kill with the sword to be boring. Then he found¡­ A troll. That was highly unexpected. Trolls were rtively rare. Neave hadn¡¯t seen any properly humanoid creatures in this forest yet¡ªonly the living statue, which barely qualified. The troll was over three meters tall and carried a makeshift club. Neave ran up to it before it could react to him and took a swing with the sword. It wasn¡¯t a true strike. It was a simple swing at the troll''s stomach. The impact tore the troll¡¯s stomach out as if a massive lion swung its ws. Neave gaped. ¡°Holy shit!¡± He didn¡¯t expect the weapon to be nearly as potent as that! It was only bare steel, a mundane material! Is the size of the quasi-spirit? Perhaps the sheer girth of the quasi-spirit within could bear a much greater load regarding the ability of the sword? Neave fished out the monster core from the troll. He gasped. The spirit power it contained was troll muscle. It was a unique variant of strength-boosting spirit powers. There were powers that just outright increased one¡¯s strength, but then there were also powers that changed the structure of one¡¯s muscles. These powers often did not have nearly the same immediate benefit as the former powers but tended to pay off more in the long run. And troll muscle was a precious power. The book about spirit ranked it among some of the more valuable ones. Other muscle types were capable of much faster growth regarding size and strength, but troll muscle was exceptional in one regard that made it uniquely valuable. The speed of muscr recovery. Technically speaking, it didn¡¯t allow for the fastest growth in strength, but it most certainly allowed one to train to their heart''s content. If a cultivator had a style that heavily relied on physical strength and spent much of their time training their muscles anyway, this was among the most cost-effective powers they could get. Neave didn¡¯t even think about it. He just pulled out the wine ss and diluted the monster core. Neave initiated the spirit trial. He found himself within his spirit realm. The spirit realm that reflected the very nature of his being. The spirit realm that reflected his time stuck within the loop. The slime juggernaut immediately jumped at him. Neave kept cutting at it as he took measured steps away from it. He felt the searing heat threatening to burn his back and teleported to the other side of the slime juggernaut. The fire washed harmlessly over the bulky slime-man The trial spirits either fundamentally can not, or intentionally do not hurt one another. In the book Neave had read, this was another one of those things everyone seemed to have a theory on but no concrete evidence to support their ims. Neave took a few more swings, abusing true strikes to m at the slime juggernaut. His body within the spirit trial started king and falling apart, but a rush of his life force immediately reconstructed his manifested spirit. Heughed as he tore the slime juggernaut''s body apart with strike after strike, consequences be damned. The slime juggernaut was torn apart and evaporated into ethereal smoke. Neave saw the shadow and used a movement technique to get out of the path of the tremendous hand-leg-limb thingy that the mega-abominid swung at him. The entire spirit realm shook with the force of the strike. The other abominids surrounded him. Even though it looked like there was no way to slip between the mass of abominid bodies, the troll and steel-lined stone golem managed to slip through the cracks as if the abominids weren¡¯t even there. A puff of fire blew out of nowhere as the giant lizard crept through the mass of enormous bodies. Neave appeared behind the lizard and severed its head. Neave disappeared again and appeared outside of the writhing mass of bodies. His next target was the mega-abominid. He knew its weak spots, so he didn¡¯t hesitate. The giant gem golem was shooting tiny crystal shards at him, but Neave dodged those he could and ignored the others. True strike after true strike severed massive veins and bled the abominid dry as it turned to smoke and vanished. Neave flew through the smoke, his vision obscured, but false smoke couldn''t obscure his spirit senses within his spirit realm. He dodged as the poison abominid swung stinger, fang, and venomous w at him. He flipped and weaved through the air as the steel-lined stone golem pelted him with sharp rock shards. The gem golem was also pelting him with sharp shards of crystal. He couldn¡¯t dodge all of the attacks, but he reveled in the pain as he massacred the creatures. The venomous abominid was cut to pieces, and it dissolved. The troll was cut up and bled dry, its regeneration overpowered by brute force. The minor abominids were crushed, the stone golem was shattered, and the gem golem was cracked right down the middle. Neave broke out of the spirit trial,ughing and cackling. His life force was exceptionally low, and he looked like a walking corpse. But he screamed in joy. ¡°Again! Again!¡± ¡°That was just like the old days!¡± He chased down a small abominid, grabbed it, and ate it alive. As he regained his life force and healed his spirit, he scoured his spirit powers, desperately looking for something else to evolve. Something else to start another spirit trial. He decided on rubber bones. Neave started yet another spirit trial, the slime juggernaut evolving into a smaller but much faster and stronger version of itself¡ªa slime champion. Neave swung and dodged, entering a trance that made him feel at home. The slime championnded a powerful hit on Neave. He didn''t have the rubber bones ability here, so that mistake resulted in a horrible injury. Neave flooded his spirit with life force and rebuilt his body in seconds. His spirit manifestation was in one piece, but his body had visible cracks running all over it. He ignored them and forced more life force into his spirit to remove them. He continued fighting, prioritizing the slime champion. Several solid cuts left it limbless, and he rushed at the other monsters to finish the trial. He reached even closer to death this time. But he wanted more. His spirit screamed in agony as the spiritual damage piled up. He yelled and cursed at his weak spirit, pleading for it to heal faster so he could keep entering more trials. Then he felt it. The power he had gained from thisst trial. Neave looked at his right arm. Then his right arm elongated. He cackled. It fucking worked. And the first thing that came to his mind was his jaw. He stretched his mouth open, jaw opening wider than should be humanly possible. But why stop there? He pushed his entire throat open, spreading it so far that he could eat a small abominid in one piece. Then heughed again. Heughed with his mouth stretched wide open. The sound of hisughter was a deep, distant echo as he slipped further and further into ecstasy. This was power. This was true might. Cultivators weren¡¯t true warriors. No, warriors simply weren''t powerful enough. But he was. Neave cackled and hollered as he grabbed his head. What was he waiting around for? Wasn¡¯t it time to finish this? That''s how it always went, right? Firste agony and pain. Then he adds a link to the chains... He grabbed the gigantic iron sword. And then he started running. Searching. Looking for the demons of the eighth wave. Chapter 31: Dreams Chapter 31: Dreams Harel was currently training. She had been training for thest twenty hours straight. Marven and Harel continued their journey and reached a bigger settlement. Here, they had rented arge building and dedicated it to Harel¡¯s training. And the training was dedicated indeed. Harel was thoroughly exhausted, but she didn¡¯t want to say anything. Marven was watching her intently. Was he angry? She couldn¡¯t tell. Ever since she blew up on him, he had been strangely quiet. A stern expression was permanently stuck on his face, and he made her train every waking hour of the day. Harel felt that he was angry at her and that this was some sort of petty punishment, but she couldn¡¯t deny the results of thest few days. While her progress in cultivation wasn¡¯t as fast as it was in front of the lotus, she was improving much quicker in her skills. She had already mastered nearly all the forms of Marven¡¯s swordsmanship. She was currently practicing the eighth form. Harel hadn¡¯t started the eighth form all that long ago, which regretfully signified she would be training for at least another few hours. Although Harel didn¡¯t want to speak up against this treatment, primarily due to her pride, she couldn¡¯t hold back anymore. The eighth form of Marven¡¯s swordsmanship was terrible. It was a form designed to prepare a fighter to react to counterattacks. She couldn¡¯t keep this to herself anymore, so she stopped her practice. Marven raised an eyebrow. ¡°I do not remember telling you to stop.¡± ¡°Wait, I¡¯m not stopping the training, but there is something I have to point out.¡± ¡°And what exactly may that be?¡± ¡°This form is bad.¡± Marven raised the other eyebrow as well. ¡°Oh really? Mind if you enlighten me as to why?¡± Harel then took a few swings and showed off a few of the moves. ¡°This attack, this attack, and especially this attack, this stance, and this footing are useless in practice.¡± ¡°Why do you believe that?¡± ¡°Well, first, I have to ask you a question, did you add the eighth form because you were one form short of ten? Was nine not a good number?¡± ¡°I did not ask for sarcasm, youngdy. Either speak or continue swinging.¡± Harel sighed. ¡°The entire eighth form is pointless. It is a form designed to allow one to react to counterattacks, right? But the form itself essentially opens you up for counterattacks.¡± ¡°Indeed, that is how it¡¯s designed. I made it to face someone willing to take risky openings. The form is strong at defending a few critical areas while also putting you in the position to defend against strikes directed at areas that are not protected. Had Elder Kaphor not been arrogant in the fight against Neave, he would have used this form and likely won.¡± ¡°Had he used this form, he would have lost immediately.¡± ¡°What makes you believe that?¡± ¡°Because the eighth form has a hard skill ceiling. It only really works against opponents up to a certain level. Past that, the defenses be more openings, and the openings be useless.¡± ¡°Which is when you would use another form.¡± Marven sighed, ¡°Look, I understand what you¡¯re saying, but no swordsmanship style is perfect. Which is why it''s best to have a set of tools to face specific circumstances.¡± Harel remembered the way Neave fought. The way he held the sword. She hesitated for a bit, but then she asked. ¡°What about¡­? What about the way Neave fought?¡± Marven sighed again at that one. ¡°What about it? Look, Harel, it is almost certain that the book was some sort of inheritance. If Neave had acquired the skills of some long-deceased swordsman, it is pointless to fantasize about replicating such a style.¡± ¡°But¡­ It was so¡­ Fluid. All he did was dodge the strikes he could, parry those he couldn¡¯t, and strike when he found an opening. There was no form, no set rules he followed. He just created and broke the rules as he went along.¡± Marven raised an eyebrow at that. He hadn¡¯t witnessed Neave¡¯s swordsmanship personally, so he was having trouble believing Harel¡¯s words. How much work would one have to do to aplish such a style? ¡°So what are you suggesting now? You want to learn a style like that?¡± ¡°I¡­ I want to believe. I¡¯ve seen something like that, and I can not help but feel like my style is far too inferior.¡± ¡°You mean my style?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Harel nodded. She did think Marven¡¯s swordsmanship was inferior to Neave¡¯s. ¡°Were you not the one begging me to teach you?¡± Marven frowned. ¡°And now you¡¯re diminishing my work? Calling it inferior?¡± ¡°Your swordsmanship is superior to most other styles. Iit is a style you have created entirely on your own. Mas¨CNo, Marven, I wanted you to teach me, but not because I believed your current style is the best. I wanted you to teach me because I believed in your swordsmanship. Is this style not merely just a step on the path to reaching true greatness?¡± ¡°Those are childish dreams, Harel. I don¡¯t see using across any inheritances like that soon.¡± ¡°Whoever made that inheritance must have been a childish dreamer, then? And it is a dream that your child has already realized. Perhaps it is time for you to be more childish again.¡± Marven smiled a bit at that. ¡°Alright then. I can be childish. If you wish to aplish what you¡¯ve set out to do, we will have to change our approach to your training.¡± Harel did not like where this was going. ¡°And how will we do that?¡± ¡°By fighting monsters, of course!¡± Harel wanted to scream. "However, we are not going to be doing it here." "Do you have any specific ce in mind?" Marven nodded. "We will do it on our way to the empire''s capital." *** It was nighttime. Gabrias sat around a fire with the three gold path cultivators. At first, he felt a little left out. These people were friends and chatting amicably, with Gabrias awkwardly sitting to the side, looking for chances to get into the conversation. Gradually, he seeded. The brte woman wasughing hysterically at a joke Gabrias shared. He worked as a construction worker most of the time and was good at telling jokes. Carrying stone and lumber around was boring at times, so the crew entertained each other. He shared a raunchy joke about a man¡¯s mother sleeping with his friend. The womanughed so hard that the other two cultivators eyed her oddly. The bold man spoke up. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it was that funny.¡± Then the blonde man spoke up. ¡°Ah, shut up, Kayix. You don¡¯t always have to be a buzzkill.¡± Then he chuckled and turned to Gabrias. ¡°Thank you, my friend, for sharing your anecdote with us.¡± ¡°Anecdote?¡± All of the cultivators paused. Then they broke intoughter¡ªeven Kayix. Gabrias clicked his tongue when it sank in. ¡°Ha, ha, very funny. You wouldn¡¯t happen to have a wife yourself?¡± They all went silent and stared at him, slight hostility apparent on their faces. They took a hard, long look at his face. Then they broke out intoughter again. The bald man was pping his knee so hard the sound hurt Gabrias ears. Gabrias knew best what being made fun of by a group felt like. You would always getughed at when the jokers were their own crowd, even when the joke wasn¡¯t that funny. Such was how his construction crew did things. Even funnier, at least to Gabrias, was that the people they made fun of tended to be quite important, like high-ranking elders of sects. If they weren¡¯t the best around, there was no way anyone would have tolerated them. Gabiras felt he should have done better faced with a group like this, but he was nervous. Even his superiors¡¯ direct superiors weren¡¯t on the golden path. So to him, this was like hanging out with the colleagues of the boss of his bosses¡¯ bosses. The sect master of the Bentheta sect was only at the third step of the golden path. Well, you couldn¡¯t say only in such a case. The Bentheta sect¡¯s power was overall greater than that of the Zearthorn sect of the past. Marven just wasn¡¯t good at growing a sect. When everybody kept each other down, nobody would ever really seed. The blonde man calmed the others. ¡°I apologize, but you seem so tense, I couldn¡¯t help but jest a little. Rx, you¡¯re going to be safe with us.¡± That wasn¡¯t really why Gabrias was currently tense. Even if it did y a role. He had a question he had wanted to ask ever since he¡¯d seen the blonde man standing above the graves. ¡°In the group that had¡­ Who were they to you?¡± They all adopted serious expressions, and the woman even looked slightly offended. The blonde man waved at her to calm her down. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Mirna. I¡¯m sure he is just curious.¡± Then the man turned to Gabrias. ¡°I tutored that group ever since they were kids. Two of them were my direct disciples. I¡¯ve always wanted to pull them out of that line of work. Doing the dirty work of a sect was dangerous and frequently dishonorable, but somebody had to do it. It has never been easy for me toe to terms with it. And now¡­¡± His hands shook, and Gabrias could feel his anger radiating through the spiritual pressure he passively gave off. ¡°You said that monster was traveling?¡± Gabrias nodded. Nobody among them was referring to Neave as a human anymore. Nobody believed he was. ¡°How fast?¡± ¡°We were within fifty miles of it at closest, but it seems to have picked up speed recently.¡± ¡°Alright. While running into dangerous monsters or other groups is still a risk, we should pick up the pace.¡± The man got up and walked over to a tent. ¡°Get your rest tonight. Next time we sleep will be after we¡¯ve caught that thing.¡± *** A band of roughly thirty cultivators was on the other side of the forest. They also rested around fires. But this ragtag collection of cultivators was a lot rowdier. They were cheering and drinking. They usually didn¡¯t do it on important jobs, but managing morale was crucial. Lank was a professional mercenary, and he was excellent at his job. His greasy hair flopped around as he danced with the others, hand in hand, and finished his fifteenth beer mug. ¡°Cheers, you motherfuckers!¡± Then he downed the sixteenth one. After the party had died down and the cultivators were finally resting, he sat on a boulder outside the camp they¡¯d set up and stared at the ground. The night was cold, and the weight of his shadow, cast by the campfire remnants behind him, crushed the grass beneath it. A chubby man with a waxy mustache walked over, sat on the boulder beside him, and hugged him with one arm. ¡°How are you doing, brother?¡± ¡°Honestly? I feel like boiled crap. I¡¯m tired, Bev, and I¡¯m scared. No, scratch that. I¡¯m shitting my fucking pants.¡± He flicked a rock he had been ying with into the grass. ¡°We can still quit this job. You¡¯ve heard the report from Pavarrie. Chasing this thing might not be worth it.¡± Lank looked at him, smiling with his mouth but not with his eyes. ¡°But we are running out of time. We are never going to get the money needed through our regr work. The Yixine empire is just too damn fucking big. We will never make it without a teleportation circle to get us over the biggest danger zones. And teleporting nearly thirty people will be expensive. Really fucking expensive, shit man, I wish we hired someone to do our finance.¡± The other manughed lethargically. ¡°What if we¡­ What if we stayed? Is it worth risking our lives over this?¡± ¡°There is no risk-free option, Bev. If we stay on the Yixine continent, we will die within five years. You remember what that woman had said?¡± The other man nodded and sighed. ¡°I wish there were a better way.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you now, you fat asshole?¡± Both of the menughed. ¡°Who the hell doesn¡¯t want that?¡± Suddenly they spotted two men walking in the darkness. Immediately both Lank and Bev grabbed for their swords. ¡°Whoa, whoa, whoa, boss, rx! It''s just us!¡± ¡°You dumb cunts.¡± Lank blew air out as the tension left him. ¡°What the fuck are you doing in the wild in the middle of the night anyway?¡± ¡°Recon.¡± ¡°Yeah, my fucking ass.¡± Bev then took a jab at them. ¡°Pone, Nehval, you two have something to tell us? I¡¯ve seen you two sneaking out in the woods a few times already, don¡¯t worry. We ain¡¯t gonna judge you.¡± ¡°Ah, shut the hell up, you fatass!¡± The men walked past them, and as Bev was about to p Pone on the back of his head, Pone jolted as if he was about to stab him. ¡°Hey, man, what¡¯s with the tension? You know I feel about people calling me fat.¡± Pone stepped back nervously. ¡°Lank does that all the time, man. Give me a break.¡± ¡°Lank is my brother, man, and I beat his ass just the same, hahaha!¡± Pone tried running, but Bev was a step higher than he was. He was caught with little effort. Bev pped the back of his head. The p resounded with a metallic thud. All of the men paused. Lank ran over, distress in on his face. ¡°Come here, Pone. Let me touch your skin.¡± ¡°No, boss, please.¡± It was toote. Lark pinched Pone and reeled at the sensation. His skin felt metallic. Lark¡¯s face contorted, first in shock, then in disbelief, and then in anger¡­ And finally, in despair. He started crying. ¡°Pone¡­? Don¡¯t tell me, Nehval, you as well?¡± Both the men lowered their heads in shame. ¡°Are you fucking¡­?¡± He turned and put his fist up to his mouth, eyes reddening as he did his best not to weep. ¡°Are you braindead? Did you think you would get away with this?¡± ¡°Boss¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ Don¡¯t call me that, please. Just get out. Please just leave.¡± ¡°Boss, listen¡­¡± ¡°I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT! You''re a disgrace, both of you. You could never have gotten away with it! The gods¡¯ agents would have noticed immediately!¡± He screamed at them. Then he pointed his finger into the forest. ¡°Just get the hell out. And don¡¯te back.¡± Lank and Pone walked away, Lank in tears and Pone with a disapproving expression on his face. The two men stood for minutes, wanting to return, but they knew the jig was up. They turned around and dejectedly walked into the forest. *** Neave ran through the forest at incredible speed. He had learned how to utilize the body morphing power to elerate his running drastically. After coupling that with his long-distance movement technique and his general increase in speed and physical performance, he could run several times faster. As he ran through the forest, he eviscerated any monsters he encountered. As soon as he killed them, and sometimes even before, he would eat their meat and absorb whatever he could. The speed at which he increased his physical abilities was already drastically slower than at the beginning. Even though he was consuming several times more flesh, several times faster, he was only slowly making progress. It was then that he noticed something unusual in the distance. A patch of the forest where the trees were thinner. After he came closer, he saw them. There was a massive tribe of goblins ahead. He didn¡¯t hesitate even a second before running at them and ughtering them. Chapter 32: Snowball Chapter 32: Snowball Deformed, green bodies stretched out as far as the eye could see. Humanoid creatures of varying shapes and sizes filled thendscape. In a small corner of the forest popted by goblins¡­ Chaos had crept in. The goblins screamed wretchedly. More and more rushed to face the invader. But it was hopeless. Their charge was little more than a funnel into a meat grinder. Neave took a swing with his massive steel sword. His footnded with a resonant thud, and the metal whistled in a deep pitch as golden mist and runes enveloped it. The phantom image of the centipede appeared, golden runes glowing all over its carapace. The influence of the true strike seeped into the phantom and brought it to life. It flew out and tore through the hordes of goblins, crushing their bodies as it mmed into them, biting and tearing their throats and stomachs out. Neave opened his mouth wide and swallowed dead goblins whole. Or rather, as whole as they could be after encountering him. His carnage left no dead bodies behind as he greedily ate up any chunk that dropped to the ground. Soon enough, several taller goblins appeared on the horizon. These were not quite as misshapen as those that rushed him first; several could even pass for green-skinned humans. The goblin behind them was the most eye-catching. With a bit of make-up and long hair to cover the pointy ears, it would be easy to disguise him as an average human or humanoid spirit beast. It held a well-forged axe and donned fine steel armor. It ran toward Neave so fast that the wind it picked up left the hobgoblins pulling their makeshift capes back down from over their heads. *** A rtively small crew of cultivators made their way through the endless forests of the wilderness surrounding Pavarrie. They were one of the many groups tasked with finding the demon child. Except, this group was tasked by none other than themselves. A rather ambitious goal, judging by their advancement. The group leader was a hunched man at the first step of the silver path. He was also the only silver path cultivator in the entire group, and the group was merely nine cultivators strong. They marched onwards, gazes stern and backs up straight. One of the members lingered at the back of the group. He was breathing hard, and his steps slowed ever so slightly. The leader of the group sighed and turned around. ¡°Oh, for fucks¡¯ sake! Can you pick up the damn pace!? We have finally found a trail, so unless someone is ahead of us, we must be the closest to finding this child!¡± The shivering cultivator looked at yet another bloody patch of soil next to a tree that had been snapped in half. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, boss, but I¡¯m pulling out of this job!¡± ¡°What!? You can¡¯t be serious¡­¡± The man turned around and ran away. The leader of the group scoffed and turned. ¡°I hope that traitor gets eaten by a wild monster.¡± Another one of the cultivators looked hesitant again. ¡°You want to run away as well!?¡± ¡°No, no, heavens¡¯ forbid. But¡­ We are seeing far too many signs of a nearby goblin camp.¡± The leader groaned. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I can tell. Don¡¯t worry, though. The boy will also run into them if he keeps going this way. Judging by the signs ofbat, he must be exhausted. That may even be our chance to get him.¡± ¡°What do you think happened to the corpses?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, man. The kid probably put them into a dimension ring to hide his trail.¡± The other man paused yet again. ncing at yet another patch of blood. ¡°I don¡¯t know, boss, if that child truly thinks this is hiding their trail¡­¡± ¡°From this moment onwards, if anyone wants toin, leave by yourself, or I will kick you the hell out! Do you all understand?!¡± The men nodded. ¡°Good. Let''s keep moving then.¡± *** Neave spotted the armored goblin running at him. Judging by its features, it must be either one powerful hobgoblin¨C Or an archgoblin. Neave¡¯s heart beat excitedly at the thought of it being thetter. The goblin appeared in front of Neave in a blink, and Neave met its swing with one of his own. The golden phantasmal centipede was stopped dead by the sheer momentum of the goblin¡¯s attack. So it must be thetter, then. Neave grinned harder. That impact would have cracked several bones if he didn¡¯t have his stic body power. Neave tightened the grip on his sword and made some distance from the goblin. He used another true strike, and a golden centipede shot straight toward the archgoblin. The goblin smashed it aside and phased into a shimmering mist. The other goblins were already surrounding Neave. He jumped andunched himself directly at the archgoblin. The archgoblin readied its axe, preparing itself to bisect Neave top to bottom. Neave took the strike straight to the top of his head. Or so it looked. Neave bent and contorted his body, moving out of the way just as the axe was about to touch him. He swung at the goblin''s head. The goblin moved out of the way, and the centipede grazed its scalp. Then Neave used the opening tond a heavy true punch to the goblin''s armor. The armor rattled as if he¡¯d mmed it with a massive sledgehammer, and the goblin flew away, mming into several others. Before the archgoblin couldnd, Neave appeared behind him and kicked him back. Then he appeared behind the archgoblin again and mmed him once more. And then he appeared in his path once again, lifting the sword into the air and preparing a downward sh true strike. The air lit with golden runes, and the archgoblin flew right into the strike. The force of the impact mmed the archgoblin into the ground, shattering his body as the golden centipede chewed off its armor. Then Neave, as the other goblins watched, ate the arch goblin. He moaned at the extra power he gained. He separated the monster core, pocketed it into the ring as he readied the sword, and prepared to ughter the rest of the tribe. The hobgoblins surrounded him and desperately tried to corner him, but Neave dodged, twisting his stic body and teleporting around, making the mere thought ofnding a hit on him a desperate wish, even for a hobgoblin. He kicked one in the stomach, snapping its spine and sending it flying over into a tree. Then he bit the head off another. The massive golden centipede carved through the torso of one of the goblins. No matter how many ran at him, they were immediately crushed to paste and eaten. Neave didn¡¯t bother removing the cores. He just ate them together with the entire monster. He wouldn¡¯t initiate a spirit trial without diluting it into his blood first, so his spirit power crushed and absorbed the monster cores directly. This didn¡¯t do much of anything as the spirit evaporated, but it didn¡¯t harm Neave either, so he didn¡¯t bother avoiding it. He swung, shed, punched, and kicked, blood sttering everywhere, practically flowing in small rivers. He ughtered, and he consumed. Just as the goblins stopped appearing, that was when he saw the humans appear. A small band of eight people showed up out of nowhere. They stared at Neave with wide eyes and gaping mouths, a few of them taking cautious steps back. Neave readied his sword as he prepared to ughter them. Then he quite literally grabbed the sword with his other hand. Wait, what the hell am I doing? These could be random people walking through the woods. Phew. I¡¯ve gotten so caught up with the fighting I almost attacked random strangers. They must simply be awestruck at my disy of power. Killing monsters is good, after all. ¡°D-Dear heavens, it¡¯s him!¡± ¡°Everyone calm down and follow the n!¡± The men spread out and surround Neave. That is not how this is supposed to go. Oh, but it is. There is no such thing as docile demons. They are always trying to kill you. By the time Neave snapped out of it, all that was left were a few additional patches of blood. The corpses were all gone. That was alright. It would have been a waste to let them rot. Neave grabbed his sword once again and continued running. *** Gabrias nearly threw up. There was a literalke of blood in the middle of the forest. The trees were smashed, the soil was dug up, and the boulders were crushed. He shook, and the others tried to calm him down, but the more he felt them approach the child, the more he lost his nerve about this situation. He remembered the way the child killed the group of assassins. And right now¡­? Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. There were too many signs of fighting. The child should have been worn out ages ago, too exhausted to keep moving and fighting. But the carnage seemed more drastic every time they reached the following signs of conflict. The gold path cultivators were frowning too. This wasn¡¯t normal. Perhaps the nature of the book was even more sinister than they had initially assumed. Their thoughts were interrupted when they felt arge crowd of thirty or so cultivators entering within the range of their spirit senses. This was usually the part where they confronted them and told them to either back off or be forced to. Now, however¡­ They ran to the group of cultivators. *** Lank¡¯s shoulders sagged, and he sighed as he felt the gold path spirits approaching. He was no amateur or a fool. The job was over. Three gold path cultivators ran up to them, and one bronze rank cultivator ran in their direction from behind them as fast as he could. The blonde man stood in front and introduced himself. ¡°My name is Radeon, and I¡¯d like to offer you all a deal. Are you the leader of this group?¡± ¡°Let me guess. It will involve you kindly telling us to fuck off and offering to pay some pittance for the ¡®inconvenience¡¯?¡± ¡°No. We would like to ask for your help.¡± Lank frowned. ¡°Is this about the demon child?¡± ¡°Indeed, it appears that¡­¡± ¡°Then fuck no.¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°You heard me, you asshole. We aren¡¯t going to fucking do it. You¡¯re asking us for help either because the child is more dangerous than you thought or because you need meat shields. Me and my men aren¡¯t fuckin¡¯ meat shields. There¡¯s no need to pay us either. If the danger is that serious, we¡¯ll dly pick our shit up and leave.¡± The brte woman yelled out. ¡°No, wait! We aren¡¯t asking either you or your men to be meat shields. You are right. This child is likely more dangerous than we¡¯ve anticipated. Not by much, though! We would be the ones standing on the front line! We are fully confident in defeating the child. You are a professional, right? You must understand we are just doing risk management. We¡¯d equip your men with the best gear we have on our hands. Full te armor and crossbows! My dimension ring has enough quality silver rank gear to equip an entire battalion.¡± Lank¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Damn, woman, you must be bloody fucking rich.¡± ¡°We will even give every single one of you a high-value monster core!¡± Lank responded with a hint of hostility in his tone. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary.¡± He continued, ¡°If you¡¯re that loaded, however, I¡¯d be willing to cut you a deal for enough cash.¡± ¡°How much do you want?¡± ¡°Enough to get me and my boys to the Bonmiele Theocracy.¡± The gold path cultivators looked at each other and turned back to Lank. ¡°Would you settle for being teleported to the border instead?¡± She said with a sly smile. Lank grinned. ¡°I sure as hell fucking would. Pull the damn gear out. Boys! Put whatever this woman gives you on your sweaty asses, and let¡¯s get going!¡± All the cultivators behind him smiled. ¡°It¡¯s time to finish the hunt.¡± Chapter 33: Bite Chapter 33: Bite Neave was moving in a random direction. He killed and ate monster after monster. He was growing unsatisfied with the progress he was making. After killing and eating the goblin tribe, he had teaued. He still felt growth from eating, but that was a tricklepared to the initial flood of power he had gained. Would he have to dive deep into a cave? The rational part of him knew that was a terrible idea. The deeper he went, the higher the risk of getting overrun by high gold-rank monsters or encountering a tinum-rank threat. Those meant either he miraculously ran away, or he died. But his desperation was getting worse. He felt anxious and frightened. The demons were hunting him again. If he didn¡¯t get more powerful, he would die. Just as he was thinking this, he felt it. Thirty-two spirits. One on the bronze path, twenty-eight on the silver path. Three on the gold path. The moment he sensed them, he ran. *** Radeon was in charge of the tactics for the group. The cultivators had hatched a n and divided their roles. They were prepared, and ording to Gabrias, they were getting closer to the child. Mirna turned to Gabrias. ¡°You will stay here. We are close enough that we can track him alone.¡± Gabrias breathed a sigh of relief but wasn¡¯t quite at ease yet. They would be leaving him entirely alone in a monster-infested forest after all. Mirna just smiled as she knew what he was worried about. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I can¡¯t sense any strong monsters within the range of my spirit senses. I can barely sense any monsters at all in the nearby area¡­¡± She frowned. ¡°So you can wait here in safety. I trust you can defend yourself or run away from weaker monsters. You shouldn''t be a total pushover at the peak of the bronze path.¡± Mirna winked at him, but Garbias wasn¡¯t very amused. However, he did look like a massive boulder had just rolled off his chest. Gabrias nodded to them and climbed up a nearby tree. Mirna had shared a ton of equipment with the other group. They were all ted in cumbersome, dark gray armor. It was the type of equipment that entirely sacrificed maneuverability for protection. This group of cultivators did not need mobility. They weren¡¯t going to be fighting in meleebat at all. Mirna had also provided them with gigantic crossbows. The second group of cultivators would stand back and shoot bolts at Neave. After finalizing their preparation, an ice pir rose beneath Radeon¡¯s feet. He was lifted dozens of meters into the air, and he scouted ahead. Neave couldn¡¯t be sensed with spiritual senses, not until one could feel his life force directly. Sensing him from such a distance would be challenging, even if one could. However, to a gold path cultivator, if the target was within the field of view, eyes were enough. Radeon could see Neave moving across thendscape, decimating monsters in his path. He noticed his unusual weapon. The child''s power was significantly above what he had expected to see, even after witnessing the carnage he had left behind. He jumped off the ice pir and floated down on an ice disk. Once hended, they ran forward for another hundred meters, and he went up again. ¡°Shit!¡± Radeon screamed. The others immediately panicked. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°He is running, and fuck is he fast! Mirna, I will have to go ahead!¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Radeonnded off the ice pir. Mirna¡¯s hands were enveloped in a blue mist, one she imbued into Radeon. He calmed himself and epted the strange mist into his body. He began glowing with a faint blue light, and his eyes lit up like small blue stars. Radeon ran. *** Neave sensed one of the gold path spirits approaching him at incredible speed. He cursed and panicked, doubling down on his running. However, it was hopeless. The gold path cultivator was on top of him within less than a minute. Neave heard faint whistling, turning around at thest second. A gigantic ice spear flew at him, and he barely blocked it, his bones squeaking as they bent under the force. ¡°What the hell kind of gimmick is this now?¡± In Neave¡¯s eyes, all he could see was a demon. A gray, eyeless creature with a gaping maw. It was the same as it had always been. He was staring at yet another challenge too great to tackle. But this time, he didn¡¯t have the privilege of failure. This time, it was do or die. Suddenly, a gigantic wall of ice rose from the ground within a hundred-meter radius. The trees inside the walled-off area froze and crumbled into dust, while the entire surface within the hundred-meter radius was covered in ice. Neave immediately ran towards the wall, the ice on the floor not hindering him even a bit. Radeon¡¯s eyebrows furrowed as he noticed thepleteck of hindrance in Neave¡¯s movements. He ran over slippery ice as if it were solid ground. Radeon stood atop the wall of ice, and spikes of ice shot at Neave out of the floor and walls. Neave dodged them with razor precision and kept running. Radeon built walls in Neave¡¯s way, but he just teleported through them. The ice maniptor covered the entire path before Neave in ice spikes, but he walked on them as if they were solid ground. Neave was just about to reach the ice wall. He flipped into the air, rotated his torso, and touched the surface of the ice with his left foot. His movement techniquepletely copsed, and Neave felt a pressure build on his foot, enough to shatter it were it not for his rubber bones. The wall is too damn thick! Neave ran up the wall, dodging the spikes and barriers Radeon put up every second. As Neave rose, so did the wall until a giant bald man suddenly dropped down from the edge. He was glowing blue, and his eyes zed with azure light. Kayix swung his giant sword at Neave. Neave was going to block the strike, but when he noticed the force behind the technique, he wasn¡¯t willing to risk getting his sword destroyed. But he couldn¡¯t dodge. The technique shot out a lot faster than Neave was expecting. Neave contorted his body and burned life force to throw himself back as far away as he could from the sword swing, but the outer edge of the de still cut his stomach open. He used his stic body power to manipte the skin on his stomach and keep it intact as he burned more life force to seal it together. The man persisted. He dashed at Neave and punched him. Neave¡¯s torso caved in, and he flew, bouncing off the ice. Neave burned a bit of life force and recovered from what damage he had suffered from the strike. He got up and looked around, running through his options. Suddenly, armored cultivators appeared on every side atop the massive ice walls. They lifted heavy crossbows and fired simultaneously. Neave desperately dodged around, but the sheer density of the volley of bolts made it damn near impossible to avoid them while dodging the ice spikes that constantly jutted out of the ground. Kayix charged at Neave again,nding a solid sh. The de would have probably cut through Neave¡¯s entire body without his crystal veins and steel nerves dulling the blow. Neave flew back from the strike, but suddenly, a force tugged on his body and pulled him back toward the armored man. This time, the sword prated Neave¡¯s torso. Kayix punched Neave again. Neave was knocked back but then pulled back again. Only then did he see the silver threads connecting his body to the man. The threads were slowly wrapping around him, and the man tightened the bonds as he pulled Neave back again. Neave swung at the threads with the sword, which went right through them. The faint image of the centipede did a bit of damage to the threads, however. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate. He immediately shaped a dagger out of spirit and cut the threads apart. Kayix¡¯s eyes shot open, and his jaw dropped. Neave freed himself from the threads. More bolts embedded themselves in his skin, but they weren¡¯t doing as much damage as it may appear. Most of his organs were insanely tough. Not just that, but the steel nerves and crystal veins were doing an incredible job of resisting the impact of the bolts. He wasn¡¯t bleeding much, and the attacks had little sess in paralyzing his limbs. His rubbery body absorbed a lot of the force of the arrows as well, so they didn¡¯t sink quite as deep as they usually would have. The biggest issue the bolts were presenting was limiting his range of motion. Not just that, but they were damaging his muscle, although that was significantly less impactful given his troll muscle spirit power. Even if damaged beyond repair, his stic body spirit power let him move his body entirely independently of his muscles, although at much less speed and force. Neave dashed at Kayix using a rapid movement technique. Kayix readied himself in a stance perfect for a counterattack. Neave instead attacked precisely where the man was best defended. Golden runes shed, and a massive centipede crashed down on Kayix. Kayix groaned with exertion as he held the centipede back. The phantasmal monster bit his sword and kept it in ce just long enough for Neave to strike again. Neave lowered his sword, got into a stance, rotated his torso, and pulled his arm back. Neave ignored the bolts as they pelted him repeatedly, blocking only those aimed at his head. His legs were getting cut up by the ice spikes, but he put all his focus into this one strike. Neave pushed his fist out, zing in a red fire as the life force burned like a torch. He added extra speed by stretching his arm further. Suddenly a thick sheet of ice appeared before the man to defend him from the attack. Neave mmed into the barrier of ice, crushing it into fine kes as his fist continued onward. The punchnded on Kayix¡¯s armor, denting it in the process. Mirna, standing on top of the wall next to Radeon, tensed up. The blue light surrounding Kayix flickered, and Mirna spat out some blood. Kayix flew away and rammed into the ice wall. He quickly got up, ignoring the damage. Neave clicked his tongue. He pulled some bolts out while loading his body with more life force. He spun through the air, dodging and deflecting the endless bolts and ice shards flying at him. Radeon manifested massive ice pirs and dropped them on Neave, but Neave used true strikes to obliterate them. He would have dodged with movement techniques, but the nature of true strikes made them a lot more cost-effective. Neave was starting to get into the rhythm. Kayix was about to approach Neave, but Neave disappeared and reappeared behind him. Neave didn¡¯t attack Kayix, however. He spun so fast the air whistled, and he kicked one of the bolts with a true strike, redirecting it toward Radeon, who flinched in surprise. Radeon quickly manifested an ice barrier, but the bolt shot through it. The ice shifted its trajectory a bit, and Mirna barely dodged the bolt as it cut a shallow line on her cheek. ¡°Holy fuck!¡± Radeon eximed. Mirna held her breath for a long second. ¡°Holy fuck indeed.¡± Neave dodged bolts, avoided Kayix, and kicked the bolts back every once in a while. He aimed them at the armored men lining the walls, although the armor mitigated the damage even when hended one. Even though the cultivators lining the walls weren¡¯t suffering injuries from the attacks, Neave¡¯s stunt seriously shook them up. Lank was beginning to sweat, partially due to the cumbersome armor but primarily due to the insane level of power this tiny child demonstrated. Neave was surprised at the sheer quantity of life force in his body. Excess life force could remain in the body for a while, but Neave was surprised at how much of it remained, despite constantly leaking a bit. All the eating he had done in the forest left him loaded with so much life force it felt like Neave would explode. Kayix was an insanely fast warrior, especially with the addition of Mirna¡¯s power, but he struggled to get close enough to Neave to attack. Neave kept teleporting around. Neave could barely feel anything at the moment. He didn¡¯t feel pain, excitement, fear, or anger. He was merely flowing like a calm creek. This was where he felt at home. This was his zone. Pushed to the edge and beyond by insurmountable odds. This was where he excelled. But it couldn¡¯t go on forever. His life force reserves were firm, but his qi reserves rapidly dwindled. If he had a tiny monster or anything he could eat alive, he could regain some qi, but at this rate, he was like a candle flickering in the wind. Now it was time to act, or he might lose the chance to do so. Just as he was about to switch his focus to Kayix again, Radeon screamed. ¡°Reckless assault formation!¡± Kayix¡¯s expression darkened. All three of them pulled a small vial of ck liquid out of their dimension rings and drank it. Mirna and Radeon jumped down into the fray. Mirna yelled out to the armored group. ¡°Keep shooting! You don¡¯t have to worry about hitting us!¡± She opened her dimension ring, and four massive artificial iron golems popped out. She focused, and the golems were enveloped in blue light. Radeon put his arms together, and ice armor materialized all over the golems¡¯ bodies. He manifested armor, a giant sword, and a shield on all the golems. Kayix put his arms together, and the silver threads encased themselves into the ice armor and weapons in rune patterns. Neave was already on top of Kayix before he could fullyplete his runes. Kayix released the threads and firmly gripped his sword. Kayix used a movement technique to lunge at Neave. Neave was about to move out of the way, but Radeon blocked Neave¡¯s escape with a wall. Neave clicked his tongue and used a movement technique to get to the other side. One massive golem kicked at him, another swung its sword and a third thrust. He barely avoided the three attacks. His qi reserves were still dropping. The bolts flew in his general direction, but the fight was so hectic that men struggled to aim Neave. Radeon lunged. He got within melee distance and materialized small ice des he swung and threw at Neave. Meanwhile, he was generating as many obstacles around Neave and in his way as possible. Mirna used the pressure Radeon was putting on Neave to dash into a kick, using a powerful attack technique. Neave flew right into the path of a bolt, and it embedded deep into his back. It was in one of the worst ces it could have hit, making it almost impossible for Neave to twist his torso, which came into y almost immediately as Kayix swung at Neave and cut deep into his left arm. The silver threads appeared again, wrapping Neave¡¯s entire arm up, but he used a small spirit de again to sever them. Mirna kicked him again, and this time he flew right into a kick of one of the golems. The bolt shattered and embedded deeper into Neave¡¯s torso, sending splinters deep into his chest. The kick sent him flying right into a shield bash by another golem, sending him over to a third golem in the middle of taking a swing at him with the sword. He twisted in the air to dodge the de, ignoring the agony the shards of wood caused inside his chest. His pure blood ability was already removing them. Neave was in a desperate situation. He ran through his options, mind whirling toe up with anything. He was astonished at how much life force he had built in the forest, but that advantage wouldn¡¯t be enough. Not on its own. His body suffered severe life force abuse, and his qi ran low. His spirit was almost fine, but that was only because he didn¡¯t get any opportunities to use a true strike. His mind whirled, and he wished he could think faster. Then he got another crazy idea. He overloaded his nervous system with life force, praying that his steel nerves spirit power stopped them from disintegrating. The entire world appeared to slow down as his thoughts sped up massively. He could see the bolts and shards of ice flying toward him, and Kayix was getting ready for another lunge. Neave concentrated a ridiculous amount of life force into his lungs as he prepared to eject all the fire he could. Kayix dashed towards Neave. Neave took a breath so deep it felt like his lungs would burst. Then he blew out a massive jet of me toward Kayix. It hit him head-on, but Kayix grabbed his sword, and it lit up with golden runes. He used a true strike to blow away the mass of mes. The absolute devastation this move caused threw Neave up further into the air. So that was what it looked like when a gold path cultivator did it¡­ The fire kicked up a ton of smoke and steam, and the true strike blew it all over the ce, obscuring the vision. Radeonunched a massive spike of ice at Neave, and Mirna lunged at him again, preparing another kick. Yet another one of the golems took a sword swing at Neave. He used the absolutest of his qi to twist in the air. As the de swung under him, his footnded on it. Neave disappeared. The steam and smoke made it damn near impossible to see anything. Everybody panicked, looking around to see whether Neave would ambush them. Suddenly, a brilliant golden light shone behind one of the golems. Before it could turn around, Neavended a titanic true strike punch at its back, sending it flying straight into another golem, momentarily incapacitating both of them and leaving Neave alone in a clearing. The cultivators present paused and gaped at the awe-inspiring disy of might. Neave was utterly out of qi. Neave swung his sword in a true strike thrust andunched a gigantic golden centipede toward Radeon. Radeon used a sheet of ice to block it, but it burst through with little effort. Mirna and Radeon kicked at the centipede in tandem and redirected the strike upward. Kayix used the opening to lunge at Neave. Neave could see him slowly taking a step forward. Everything moved in slow motion, and Neave felt his body deteriorating. His body was battered, and even after the healing, he still felt aches all over his body. However, there was one part of him that felt like it was endless. He could feel the sea of life force burning inside his body, threatening to tear him from the inside out. So he may as well release it himself. He lifted his sword high up above his head. Suddenly, his entire body was enveloped in searing crimson mes. His beautiful hair shone, and his skin lightened. His whole body looked like it healed instantly, but in reality, the life force had done much more damage than it did healing. Kayix was already lunging at Neave, and it was far toote to stop himself. ¡°Kayix, no!¡± Mirna yelled out. All of them could feel the intense energy zing around Neave. The bestial screams and wails of agony send shivers down their spines. Kayix appeared before him, desperately using a defense technique to stop Neave¡¯s blow. Neave moved the sword. The centipede appeared for just a second until the tides of life force shattered and obliterated it. As the sword moved through the air towards Kayix it screamed with the dying howls of the countless monsters Neave had consumed. The quasi-spirit within the de emitted a high pitch shriek until it shattered into a million pieces, pulverized into ethereal dust scattered in the wind. The moment Neave¡¯s sword touched Kayix¡¯s defense, both of Kayix¡¯s arms and legs immediately shattered under the force. The sheer impact of the strike sent cracks through the entire dome of ice, and the walls copsed from the shockwave. The armored cultivators iled through the air as they dropped like flies. Mirna spewed blood out of her mouth from the bacsh. Neave¡¯s sword was now little more than a chunk of bent iron. Kayix was still alive, but Neave finished him with another life-force-empowered strike, smashing his head into pulp. ¡°Kayix!¡± Radeon screamed in despair, and Mirna recoiled from the intense impact, blood running from her eyes. Neave didn¡¯t even wait for a second as he imbued all the life force he could into the sword again and threw it toward Mirna¡¯s head. Her momentary inability to move made it impossible for her to dodge. Radeon put up an ice barrier but it got pulverized on impact. He tried blocking the attack with his arm, but his arm was smashed into pieces as the sword cut through it and then right through Mirna¡¯s head. The golems stopped moving. ¡°Mirna!? Mirna! Oh heavens, why¡­?¡± Radeon wailed and hollered as he hugged Mirna¡¯s headless body. The armored cultivators scrambled to their feet and scattered in every direction. ¡°Run!¡± ¡°Run for your fucking lives! That thing will doom us all!¡± And Neave was standing. What is the demon doing? That behavior makes no sense. Then he blinked. Why did he think that? That wasn¡¯t a demon. That was a cultivator. These were people, weren¡¯t they? But why were they hunting him? That made no sense. No, it made sense. They were destroyers. They attacked him, and he should kill them off. So why¡­ Why did the sight of the man crying over the woman''s corpse make him feel so¡­ Sick? Radeon got up, fury and despair burning in his eyes as he bared his teeth and spewed curses at Neave. He held his mangled arm and fumbled forward, thoroughly exhausted from how much he¡¯d abused his spirit power. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you! I¡¯m gonna tear you apart, you demon!¡± Neave couldn¡¯t believe his ears. Did this man just call him a demon? ¡°What the fuck are you talking about?¡± Radeon paused and recoiled at Neave¡¯s tone of voice. He flinched at the mere fact that Neave could speak at all. Neave frowned harder, bared his teeth, and spat. ¡°Did you fucking idiots not hunt me down first!?¡± Radeon was caught off guard. He didn¡¯t know how to respond for a second, but his irrational anger and anguish took over, so he spluttered. ¡°You killed our men!¡± ¡°Yes, after they came for my life.¡± What is happening? This child, it¡­ ¡°They didn¡¯te to kill you!¡± ¡°They sure seemed like they were trying to!¡± ¡°And they should have! You are nothing but a monster anyway. I do not care if it costs me my life. I swear I will avenge them.¡± Beneath all his rage, even Radeon felt those words echoed emptily. The incongruousness of this child¡¯s behavior bewildered him. Why? Why couldn¡¯t he just act like a beast? Why, why, why!? Neave shook, but it wasn¡¯t in mindless rage. He hated himself for being here, for getting himself into this situation. What was he thinking? No, it was the world that was wrong. It was the cultivators. He was the victim. He wouldn¡¯t me a victim for being attacked, would he? It was obvious whose fault it was. It was them. So he shouted back. ¡°You dare¡­ You fucking dare. You dare talk about vengeance to me? You lowlife. Are you and your men not the ones hunting down a child? What am I to you? What have I done to you to deserve being hunted down like a wild monster!?¡± Radeon hesitated but pushed aside any remaining reservations he still had. ¡°You¡¯re a heavens-cursed menace! Have you not ughtered your sect members!? No righteous sect would let a monster like you run around unchecked!¡± ¡°And ording to what evidence did you decide I was a menace?¡± Radeon simply ignored him and walked forwards. Neave continued, his eyes growing more and more empty. ¡°You must have fucking known. You and whoever sent you here. There is no justification for what you¡¯re doing. I was right. You cultivators are all the same. Given enough incentive, all of you be destroyers, rejecting your morals andmitting whatever atrocities it takes!¡± Radeon was stepping closer to Neave. He materialized a sword out of ice. Neave could barely move, but he took a step forward. Neave lunged at Radeon, and Radeon thrust at Neave¡¯s chest. The sword of ice stabbed into Neave but stopped dead upon hitting his crystal heart. Radeon¡¯s eyes shot open, and he stepped back, readying himself to materialize another sword. Neave¡¯s gaze grew vacant. His eyes turned into the back of his head, and his mouth opened. Wider. Wider. Wider. His teeth sharpened into points, and his neck elongated. Radeon froze with terror. His sword was just about to finish materializing, but It was toote now. As Neave¡¯s gaping maw approached Radeon, his teeth vibrated with a resonant screech. Golden runes appeared around his neck and head. Radeon watched with horror as Neave¡¯s mouth closed around his head in a true strike bite. St. [BOOK 1 FINALE] Chapter 34: Anarchy [BOOK 1 FINALE] Chapter 34: Anarchy Neave stood over Radeon¡¯s headless corpse. Blood not of his own dripped down his lips. He remembered Radeon¡¯s words. Have you not ughtered your sect members!? Now, in the post-fight silence, he stood alone. And those damn words finally sunk in. The Zearthorn sect was gone. Neave had no idea why it was gone. Did everybody, for some reason, think it was Neave that destroyed the sect? If so, did that mean that everybody in the sect was dead? But that made no sense. It made no sense at all. If everyone were dead, that would include Marven. If they thought Neave had killed Marven, they wouldn¡¯t have sent silver and gold path cultivators after him. But those words still hung on his mind. Did these people genuinely believe he was some sort of loose monstrosity that needed to be hunted down and killed? His breathing sped up. Did this mean that they were hunting him down not out of greed but to remove a potentially dangerous threat? His heart beat faster. If so, then who had he just ughtered? No. No, that wasn¡¯t right. These people were still after his life. If it was due to a misunderstanding, it was still their damn fault for being dumbasses. So they were either dangerously stupid or greedy and evil. Just the way all cultivators are¡­ Neave sighed. Killing humans wasn¡¯t like killing demons. When he killed the elders, he knew they deserved it, so he was fine. When he was attacked by the masked cultivators in Pavarrie, he couldn¡¯t see their faces. He didn¡¯t know their names or genders or dreams or beliefs or anything, so he didn¡¯t care. But this¡­ ¡°Isn¡¯t this world just fucking rotten?¡± Neave felt the madness recede. It was like he was lucid for the first time in a while. He stood, covered in blood head to toe, every cell in his body screaming in agony, yet he felt the same way he had felt when he was nothing more than an eleven-year-old boy. An outcast whose very existence seemed to be uneptable to cultivators. As he drifted in thought, he sensed something. There was a spirit. It was way out of his spirit sense range, but he could still feel it nheless. He frowned and focused harder, noticing a small, ethereal thread connecting his spirit to the other. So he followed it. *** Gabrias hid in a tree. He was on the brink of shitting his pants. The noise stoppeding a few minutes ago, and he was too far to tell which side had won. The rational part of him felt there was no way they had failed. But the fight was so, so loud. What made all the noise, then? The child must have put up a damn good fight if it sounded like an entire mountain was copsing. The child was still alive. He could feel it with his spirit power. They caught it. It was alright. The child was perfectly still, which meant it must be detained. Suddenly, he felt the child disappear. Did they identally kill it? No, that wouldn¡¯t happen. Perhaps they sealed the qi, preventing him from sensing the child. Maybe they¡¯ve picked him up and carried him too fast for his spirit power to catch up. He waited for the location to synchronize, for the child''s presence to reappear. And then it did. Right below the tree he stood on. The child stared up at him. He nearly had a heart attack. *** Neave stared at the shivering cultivator and felt he knew him from somewhere. The man shuffled and fell from the high branch onto the grass beneath. ¡°No! Please! Don¡¯t kill me!¡± ¡°Wait, I remember you! Didn¡¯t you pay me a visit when I lived in Pavarrie?¡± Neave remembered the feeling of something washing over his spirit. Then he looked at the thread connecting their spirits. ¡°Oh, for fucks sake, don¡¯t tell me you were tracking me?¡± ¡°Please, please, I will do anything! Just don¡¯t kill me!¡± The man begged and screamed. Neave could see the cloth patch around the man¡¯s crotch dampen as he pissed himself. Neave stared at him with a sad look in his eye. So they knew. If this man had visited him first, he must have described Neave. They had no excuse to be hunting him down like an animal. Out of every belief he''d held, out of everything he thought was correct¡­ This was the one time he wished he had been wrong. ¡°Okay, alright, man, just stop this crap. I¡¯m not going to kill you.¡± That didn¡¯t make Gabrias feel any less frightened at all. ¡°Wh¨CWhat are you going to do to me?¡± Neave pondered that. He didn''t want to kill this man. This man was a malicious child killer worth less than the dirt he pissed himself on. But did that mean that killing him was truly the only option? ?????TTTTTT Yes, it was. No, it wasn''t. Neave blinked a few times, dazed at the strange sense of incongruence he felt. He had a small headache. He touched the temple of his head. But when he touched his hand, he pulled it back and looked at his hand. His hand was bloody. Why was his hand bloody? He wasn''t bleeding. He didn''t remember using his hands to kill anyone either. Neave shrugged. It must TTTTbe not?hing. Neave looked back at the pathetic man and decided. ¡°I will be making you my henchman, of course!¡± Gabrias stared at Neave, dumbfounded. ¡°Huh!?¡± ¡°You will be my loyal dog! Now get on your knees and beg!¡± Gabrias froze. He couldn¡¯t believe his ears. But the moment Neave as much as opened his mouth to speak again, he was already on all fours, barking like a dog. ¡°Good boy! Now you smell like shit, so I¡¯ll have to bathe you!¡± Neave dragged Gabrias by his leg and ran to a nearby creek. Then he dipped him into the water a few times and gave him a good swirl. He pulled out the dazed Gabrias and blew at him with fire breath to dry him up. Gabrias screamed. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be a baby! You¡¯re on the bronze path. A bit of fire won¡¯t hurt you.¡± Neave then pulled a rope out of his dimension ring and tied Gabrias up. He tied him up into more or less a ball and then tied this giant man to his back, literally carrying him like a backpack. Neave set off running. *** Neave spent the entire day traveling. This time, rather than leaving a disaster behind him, he moved stealthily and avoided fighting or stirring up any monsters. Although he didn¡¯t know the direction towards the capital, he was still a gigantic nerd. He couldn¡¯t tell just from the nearest few mountains, but after passing several mountain ranges, he was somewhat confident he remembered where he was on the map of the empire. He had literally memorized the entire map and now he cross-referenced his environment and ced his location rather confidently on the map. Surprisingly, he had been running vaguely toward the capital this whole time. He still only covered a tiny bit of the distance, however. But he was very close to a settlement. Neave ran to the small town and left Gabrias alone in the woods after he''d approached it. He tied him up to a tree like a dog. Gabrias couldn¡¯t run away even if he wanted since Neave could track him down by following the thread generated by Gabrias¡¯ spirit power. And sadly for him, Gabrias couldn¡¯t just cancel the tracking either. Not unless he had another target to track. But he was in the forest. Alone. A ce where he would prefer to remain without targets to track. Also, Neave promised to kill him if he moved out of the range of the rope. Neave walked over to the town. He stopped once he spotted the town in the distance. He felt¡­ Awful. The very thought of stepping into the settlement made him feel sick to the stomach. He was tempted to run into the woods and never talk to another person again. But he wanted to be around people. He didn¡¯t want to just be a ¡®thing to be chased down¡¯ forever. Besides, there was something he needed to do. He walked towards the town, taking careful step after careful step. Neave kept looking down to the ground. He approached the entrance and reached the short line of people waiting to get in. He was breathing heavily. His palms were sweating. ¡°Hey, kid! Where did youe from? Are you lost?¡± The town guard looked Neave up and down. His clothes were torn and crusted in dry blood. He looked like he¡¯d been living in the wilderness for months. Neave looked up to the guard. He clenched his teeth, tensed his muscles, and resisted his reflex reaction. The guard wasn¡¯t a human to Neave. It was a d?mon. The guard was a sickly gray, dirty, eyeless demon with a gaping maw. Neave kept looking at the guard''s face until the image disappeared. He breathed out a sigh of relief. ¡°Good question. I want to say that I am not lost, but what defines lost? Are you perhaps referring to the state of not knowing where you are? If so, I know where I am. Are you referring to the state of being lost to someone else? I have nobody to whom I could be lost. But if you may be referring to a more spiritual, philosophical definition of lost, then I am¡­¡± A burly man behind Neave spoke up. ¡°Hurry the hell up, kid!¡± Neave turned around, spotting therge (dem??n) TTTTTT man. ¡°This kind gentleman has asked me a question. I¡¯d be rude to deny him an answer, no?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time for some beggar being a smart-ass. Move, or I will make you move.¡± Neave just turned around and ignored him. ¡°As I was saying¡­¡± Suddenly, the man grabbed him by his hair, pushing him out of the line and onto the ground. The guard frowned at that, but he didn¡¯t say anything. Neavey on the ground,pletely motionless. Kill him. ??TT? Just kill him. He doesn¡¯t deserve to live. That is no man. That is a beast. That is a demon, Neave. The guard is a dTemon too. The spectators are demons too. You are young. New. TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT They are old. They have TTTTTTTTbeen here for much longer than you. These are the ones who have created such a rotten world. They are guilty. They are guilty. They are guilty. And you must punish them. Neave started getting up. His mouth opened just a bit too much, and his fists clenched. His eyes shot open, and he stared back at the tall demon. He took one step forward. Then another. ¡°What is it, kid? You wanna fight?¡± Just as Neave was about to kill the man, he heard a voice. ¡°...Neave?¡± Neave turned around. Two demons, no, two people, stood behind him. Harel and his father stared at him with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Neave¡¯s first instinct was to run away. But upon seeing his father¡¯s face, he just couldn¡¯t stop the spite from pouring out. ¡°Father dearest! What a surprise! May you please let me know exactly what kind of cmity struck the sect after I left? Did a fucking meteorite fall from the sky? Or maybe it was some horrible monster from the depths? Or maybe¡­¡± Neave was going to continue, but he noticed the unusual expression on Marven¡¯s face. No, it wasn¡¯t just unusual¡­ Marven was crying. He ran towards Neave, who almost reacted by hitting him with a true strike but held himself back. Marven hugged Neave and cried into his shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re alive. My son is alive.¡± Neave couldn¡¯t find the words to speak. *** Neave, Harel, and Marven sat awkwardly around a campfire. It was already nighttime. They didn¡¯t go into the town, instead choosing to camp outside for some much-needed privacy. Harel was deathly silent. Not only was she afraid that saying anything could ruin the father-son reunion, but she was also¡­ Intimidated. Neave gave off a crazy presence now. He didn¡¯t have much mass, but Harel could tell those weren¡¯t ordinary muscles. Harel couldn¡¯t feel his cultivation, but she could tell that even elder Kaphor would have gotten utterly demolished in a fight against this Neave. Everything about him looked wild. They had already been sitting in front of the campfire for at least half an hour. Nobody had said even a word. Neave stared directly at his father. Then he finally spoke up. ¡°What happened to the sect?¡± Marven responded with a sardonic smirk on his lips. ¡°I destroyed it.¡± ¡°... ¡­ ¡­Bruh.¡± ¡°What?¡± Both Harel and Marven asked at the same time. ¡°I mean, uh, why?¡± Marven took a deep breath and released it slowly. Then he looked Neave in the eye. ¡°You were right. In hindsight, I can¡¯t believe I let things get that bad. I was cooked alive like a frog, slowly boiling over hundreds of years. It is almost ironic that being such a shitty sect master was the only reason none of my subjects grew powerful enough to kill me. What a joke.¡± Neave couldn¡¯t believe his ears. He was looking at Marven Zearthorn. The arrogant, almighty know-it-all sect master that represented everything he hated about cultivators. Harel was taller than him. He was rtively short, so being taller than him wasn¡¯t a massive achievement, but¡­ He always seemed gigantic. It was like an optical illusion. No matter the physical size of anyone standing next to him, he always seemedrger, greater. But now he seemed tiny, defeated. And weak. ¡°I want to ask you a question in return. Neave, what was in that book?¡± Neave paused. He was about to give him some bullshit excuse and dodge the question, but he didn¡¯t want to. He wanted to tell them. Neave wanted someone to know. So he did. He told them about the ce he had found himself in, and he told them about the demons. He told them about the impossible challenge he had to ovee and the eternity spent in agony. Harel couldn¡¯t breathe. At some point, she felt like she would have a panic attack. Marven looked grave and distressed. They wanted to believe he was just pulling their leg. Harel and Marven wanted to believe Neave was joking or merely overly imaginative. The sheer level of detail, juxtaposed with Neave¡¯s abnormal abilities, was proof enough. And he did not sound like he was joking. Not at all. ¡°I am¡­ I am so sorry, Neave. I should have cast that book away a long time ago. I am so sorry. I¡­ I¡­¡± Harel passed out. ¡°Harel! Are you alright?¡± Marven jumped. Neave felt strangely satisfied with their reaction. Some twisted part of him relished. It felt validating. He had lived through something these weaklings couldn¡¯t endure through a retelling. But those feelings were cast aside. The way Marven jumped when Harel passed out just felt¡­ Neave scoffed. The first person Neave had seen Marven treat like their own child¡­ What a joke. Neave waited for Marven to wake Harel up. She got up and sat back down, looking petrified. Neave looked at the two of them, and he felt¡­ Confused. Marven had always been what Neave thought of as a lightly put, horrible human being. So why did it feel like he had changed? Did this mean it was possible for shit people not to be shit people? Neave asked them a question. ¡°What do the two of you want?¡± Marven spoke slowly, almost as if embarrassed. ¡°Well, I just wanted to talk to you and apologize for my¡­¡± ¡°No, you idiot, I mean in general. Why do the two of you strive for power? What are your goals?¡± Marven went silent, and Harel stared at Neave in confusion. She wasn¡¯t sure how to answer the question, mostly because the answer seemed obvious. ¡°Why else but to gain more power? Being more powerful is good. You and those you care about are in less danger, and you can live a better life.¡± ¡°Be honest with me, Harel. That¡¯s a bullshit answer. If anything, the more powerful you be, the more danger you and those you care about are in.¡± Harel was about to object, but Marven nodded in agreement. So she paused and thought about it. She remembered their trip so far, the ces they¡¯d visited. Everywhere, everything was fortified. All cities and towns were heavily defended and walled off from the outside. And outside¡­ ¡°I want to get more powerful to help fight against the monster apocalypse.¡± ¡°You are lying.¡± ¡°No, I am being honest.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t what you want to get. That is what you¡¯re willing to trade for it. That is the bit of freedom you¡¯re willing to cast away. So I am asking you again. Be honest with me, Harel. What do you want?¡± Harel hesitated for a good bit, but the more she thought about it, the more confident she was that she had the correct answer. She blushed as it felt incredibly embarrassing saying it out loud. ¡°I¡­ I want to be seen as a hero!¡± ¡°Those are some thick chains.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡± ¡°And what do you want to do then?¡± Harel blushed harder. ¡°I want¡­ I want people to praise me, and I want my name to be remembered. There, happy?¡± Neave nodded. A solid answer in his books. He then turned to Marven, whoughed. ¡°Are you going to ask me the same question? I mean, shouldn¡¯t that already be obvious? I¡¯ve never been particrly secretive about it.¡± Both Harel and Neave raised an eyebrow at that. Marven was surprised that they couldn¡¯t guess. ¡°It¡¯s so I can have as many women as I want, of course!¡± Both Neave and Harel gave him a t look. Harel scooted a bit further away from him, and Neave snickered. ¡°What!? Didn¡¯t you say I should be honest?¡± ¡°Oh, that was honest, dad, maybe even a bit too honest.¡± Marven scoffed and turned away. ¡°Well, that¡¯s what my goal has always been. Sadly it isn¡¯t as easy as it may seem. I haven¡¯t made much progress in that regard.¡± Neave broke out intoughter, and Harel stared daggers at him. ¡°There¡¯s more to rtions with women than just, you know¡­ Why the hell am I talking to kids about this? I must truly be going mad.¡± Neave almost fell over to the ground inughter. Harel looked at Marven as if he were a wart growing on her finger. Neaveughed it out and asked again. ¡°So, do you two want to start a sect with me?¡± Marven and Harel looked at him in surprise. Harel was the first to speak. ¡°A sect? What do you¡­?¡± Marven lifted his hand and interrupted Harel. ¡°Neave. We have told you ours. Now I would like to hear about your goals. What do you want?¡± Neave pondered. His eyes seemed vacant, and he stared into the sky. ¡°Oh, my goals are simple. I just want to ughter all the devils and lord over the gods.¡± That sounded like a joke. But something about the way that joke was delivered felt¡­ Well, if anything, he probably wasn¡¯t lying about those being his goals. Insane, and a bit too¡­ Ambitious, but honest nheless. Harel and Marven didn¡¯t press any further. ¡°Look, Neave, I know why you would want to start another sect, but I am unwilling to be a sect master again.¡± ¡°Who said you will be the sect master?¡± Neave grinned. ¡°Oh, you wish to do it yourself?¡± Marven grinned back. ¡°Nope. I have a brilliant idea. Follow me!¡± Neave led the two of them a bit further into the woods. Harel shrieked, and Marven frowned. There was a man tied to a tree like a farm animal. The man whimpered upon seeing Neave and stared at Marven and Harel with pleading eyes. Marven stepped up. ¡°Neave! What the hell is going on here?¡± ¡°Oh, this? This is just a dog, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°Neave, I know you¡¯ve been through a lot, but that doesn¡¯t give you the right to act like you¡¯re out of your heavens damned mind! Unhand that man at once!¡± ¡°This man right here, pops, is a man that had marked me with a tracking spirit power and led an entire toon of cultivators to kill me, including three on the gold path.¡± Marven paused. He paused at the insinuation of Neave¡¯s statement. ¡°Does that¡­¡± Neave just grinned. ¡°How¡­ Exactly how much have you advanced since you escaped the sect?¡± Neave grinned harder and removed the veil. Marven¡¯s eyes shot open in disbelief¡ªthe very beginning of the foundation realm. ¡°Is that¡­ Is that another trick?¡± Neave just blew a bit of fire into Marven¡¯s face. Marven flinched. ¡°No. Let¡¯s just say I side-stepped the path for now. Dog! Get up.¡± Gabrias shot up to his feet. ¡°Now stop shaking.¡± Then he froze. Neave turned to Harel and Marven, who stared at Neave in disbelief. ¡°See? Wouldn¡¯t he pass for a great sect master?¡± Marven initially wanted to set the man free, but his actions had undoubtedly not gathered much sympathy. However, he didn¡¯t want his son to be walking down such a path. But he didn¡¯t know what to do either. Neave was more than a little crazy. Marven wanted to be careful and approach the situation delicately. For now, he decided to y along. ¡°Look, Neave. It takes more to be a sect master than just being intimidating. This man is on the third step of the bronze path. Even the most backwater sects are led by at least someone on the silver path¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, father! Look!¡± Neave pointed at Gabrias, and a thin tendril of life force shot out of Neave¡¯s finger. A strange liquid flowed along the life force thread, touching the man¡¯s skin. The moment it did, he started screaming in agony. Marven winced and wanted to stop whatever Neave was doing, but if he interrupted him, he feared the man¡¯s life would be endangered. Marven gritted his teeth, but his mouth shot open in shock soon enough. Neave wrapped a thinyer of the man¡¯s life force around his spirit. ¡°Phew, that was hard!¡± Neave wiped the sweat off his brow, and the man finally seemed able to breathe, ¡°Now that we¡¯ve hidden his cultivation, we can just make him pretend to be strong!¡± Marven took a few steady breaths and continued ying along. ¡°Alright, exactly how do you want to do that?¡± ¡°You, of course! If an elder of our new sect were on the tinum path, people would naturally assume that the sect master must be even more powerful! This life force veil will only serve to convince people of that fact.¡° Harel hid behind Marven, shaking in fear. She tried her best to appear rxed, but that was bing impossible. Marven was fully convinced that this idea was horrible. However, his son was alive. And what he had gone through was entirely Marven¡¯s fault. He decided to y along with this idea for now. If anything, it would allow him to remain close to Neave and work on helping him properly recover. He couldn¡¯t abandon Brivia¡¯s son after everything that happened. ¡°Alright then! Let¡¯s do it. That sounds like a n to me!¡± Harel looked at Marven with total disbelief. Did he eat some funny mushrooms or something? Neave beamed. ¡°Excellent, excellent. We will make the ultimate sect! Nobody in this entire realm will be able to stand up to us!¡± Neave looked at the sky, ¡°Not in this realm, and not beyond.¡± Marven ignored the ominous connotation of those words. ¡°Alright, but we should probably disguise ourselves in some way.¡± ¡°You are correct! Nobody will join a sect with the sect destroyer and the demon child, after all. Hmm, let¡¯s see.¡± Neave focused for a bit, and then his expression rxed. Marven almost jumped in surprise. ¡°What the hell!?¡± Had Neave initiated a spirit trial? Why? Marven¡¯s heart was about to burst as he feared for his son''s life. But secondster, Neave opened his eyes again. Then he cackled. Suddenly, Neave started morphing. His body transformed bit by bit, growing and shifting. Once the transformation stopped, Harel and Marven took a sharp breath of air. Standing before them was what looked like a thirteen, perhaps a fourteen-year-old boy. He had long, pink hair streaked with red locks and Neave¡¯s face, but older-looking. He was significantly taller, however, undoubtedly far more than Neave would be once he aged a little. He opened his deep blue eyes and gazed at them with a self-satisfied smile. ¡°Meet the perfect young master! And as for you, old man¡­¡± Neave smiled. ¡°I think you should shave your head!¡± *** Ilkivir had been traveling for quite a while. Currently, he was walking through a treacherous mountain path. The mountain range he was located in was nothing but barren, jagged stone. He was incredibly high up, carefully treading the course so he wouldn¡¯t cause an avnche of rock. Again. He made his way through the mountains and eventually finally walked into a small cave high on one of the peaks. He sat down in front of what looked like a ritual circle embedded in stone. He pricked his finger with a needle and let a single drop hit inscribed surface. The very instant the drop touched the ritual circle, he appeared. Ilkivir didn¡¯t flinch externally, but his spirit still winced when this individual appeared. It was a hooded figure with a in white mask, nothing but tworge, round openings for eyes. And there was no light behind those openings at all. This was nothing but an illusion, or a projection rather, of the actual individual. The archdemon Ilkivir had sold his soul to. Ilkivir prostrated himself. ¡°The third disciple greets the shadow of death.¡± The hooded demon responded in a voice that sounded like an ominous whisper. ¡°You have brought me news.¡± ¡°Yes, lord. The news isn¡¯t good.¡± Ilkivir swallowed. ¡°The sect that the child belonged to has been destroyed.¡± ¡°Had the child perished?¡± Ilkivir exined the rumors about the ¡°demon child¡± from the Zearthorn sect. The archdemon listened intently. Once Ilkivir was done, it asked. ¡°Are you certain that the rumors about this book are as you say?¡± Ilkivir nodded. The archdemon stared at Ilkivir for a while, making every single hair on Ilkivir¡¯s body stand on end. Then it finally spoke. ¡°Fake your death, Ilkivir. Then find the child and kill it. At all cost.¡± *** The Emperor was standing with his arms crossed, his expression hard. The worst hade to pass. He didn¡¯t mention it to the others, but they all stood tensely, watching the disaster. They all knew. Had they not beente, this could have been avoided. Beanna was crying. ¡°Jeevian, we have to do something.¡± ¡°Silence. It is already toote. If we step within the range of that thing¡¯s senses, it will fight us. I have witnessed the destruction it is capable of firsthand. If we get involved, everyone will die. Zhaore has already warned them. They still have the time to evacuate a few of those among the younger generation. Remember this, all of you. This is the price of sloppiness when the weight of an empireys on your shoulders.¡± *** Hunter was being dragged by an elder of the Bentheta sect. He was thrown like a bag of rice onto a literal pile of disciples from the younger generation. ¡°For the love of all that is sacred, get that teleportation tform going!¡± Faint green light enveloped the tform Hunter wasying on, and he was teleported together with the other disciples. To the capital of the Yixine empire. *** Kaigo Bentheta stood on top of the main building of his sect. This entire situation had only started less than two minutes ago. He looked down to the outer edges of the borders of his sect. Kaigo had heard the warning from the man in the ck trench coat. He couldn¡¯t believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. The moment his gazended on the creature approaching his sect, he turned around and ran. He jumped off the building and ran like a coward, leaving the rest of his sect behind to die. *** She was getting tired of walking. She could smell the thing that lured her out to the surface. It was close. Walking on top of dirt was like treading through deep snow to a golem as heavy as her. It was annoying. The surface was barren and frustrating. But she was so close. Once she encountered therge building the wonderful smell wasing from, she scoffed. These mutant flesh golems had zero taste in architecture, seriously. She would be doing them a favor by, let''s say, forcing them to renovate a bit. She lifted her arm high above her body, and in the palm of her hand, a light appeared. Golden fire concentrated into a point. It started buzzing so loudly that the noise alone caused the area around her to fall apart. Then it started growing. The fire washed everything around her in ring golden light as the trees vaporized into smoke. Then the massive fireball shrank into a tiny, egg-sized ball that zed brighter than the sun. She threw the ball at the ugly building. *** The guilt was devouring Kaigo. He felt like a worthless piece of shit for leaving everyone behind to die. He had already exited the sect premises when he spotted the golden light. Once the relief washed over him, he felt even more deplorable, but there was no hope. A single nce at that thing told him everything he needed to know. That creature was far into the diamond rank. He ran through the woods, making distance from the sect premises. That was when the entire world turned into gold. The shockwave shattered every bone in his body, and he fell to the ground. Thest thing that he saw was the entire Bentheta sect enveloped in a pir of golden me. A pir that stretched endlessly into the sky. *** She walked over to the remains of the hideous building. Even as a sea ofva, it still looked nicer than it used to. She swam through the thick magma and went to the thing calling for her. She finally had it. And it was beautiful. She swam out and raised the object. It was a foldable, square-shaped piece of wonderful red material. Every carat of precious metal in her body ached to incorporate this into her being. ?????????? Something was happening. Dark tendrils sprouted from the object andtched onto her beautiful hands. She cursed and threw the object away. Was this some sort of ploy by those wretched liches? Had she been tricked? She shot out ck lightning into the material, and it sunk into theva. She was angry. She would go all the way back down and destroy all of those¡­ ????????????????? The red material shot out from beneath theva and sank into her body. She screamed. Her screams were like mountains of metal scraping against one another. Theva around her boiled and evaporated as the noise alone made even theva heat up until it evaporated. Eventually, she silenced. ???????T She turned around and started walking again. With every footstep, she left a bloody mark deep within the soil. *** A female figure wearing beautiful white armor flew over the ocean at immense speed. Her armor was smooth and polished, covering every inch of her body. Her helmet was a smooth, roughly head-shaped piece of pristine white metal. After flying over the ocean for a while, she encountered a massive wall stretching endlessly in every direction, both to the horizon and into the sky. There was arge sea creature swinging its tentacles at the wall. It would never break through the Great Wall of Langen even if it smashed away for a million years. She felt disgusted at seeing this filthy creaturey its suckers on something created by the great gods. She held her sword upright, and a giant, phantasmal replica of the sword manifested out of qi above the creature. It sank and obliterated the disgusting creature into a billion pieces. That was better. She walked over to the wall and moved through it as if it wasn¡¯t there. She smiled in pride as she looked down. Almost all thend of the Langen continent was covered in beautiful buildings of white stone. Even the weeds that grew were like rainbow gems that lined the streets. As for the parts ofnd that hadn¡¯t been built on, they were only the most pristine and perfect parts of nature. Glittering bodies of water so pure it could wash away even one¡¯s sins. Grass and leaves of verdant green so vibrant merely looking at them felt like one was sharing the joy of bathing in the glorious light of the mother sun. The bark of trees, ancient and wise, had every pore reciting the stories of the glory of their kingdom. White bunnies and unicorns of shimmering mane feasted on the bountiful fruits of nature. Not all of the buildings were popted. Far from it. But the generosity of the gods was endless. It was a matter of pride to them that every one of their faithful, at least of those pure, were taken care of. She breathed in the fragrant air and finished her admiration. It was time to go make her report. She flew over to arge tform. Complex runes lined the surface as she released a bit of qi to start the teleportation process. Everything around her melted in shimmering rainbow colors, and secondster, she was standing in the court of the Great Queen. Therge hall was lined with immacte statues armed with priceless gear. These were true golems, not the bastardizations manifested from remnants of the sphemous monstrosities. Rainbow colors morphed and shifted along the ceiling as angelic doves flew, peacefully fluttering through the divine mist. The armored woman dared not take flight in the Grand Queen¡¯s court. She walked instead. A woman sat on an imposing throne of tinum. Her skin was so clear that not even pegasi milk couldpare in beauty and purity. A voluminous mane of golden hair adorned her head. Her pupils were a golden ring surrounding a true white center. She smiled sadly at the armored woman. As expected of the Grand Queen. She must already be aware of what she was about to hear. The prescience of someone directly suborned to the gods should never be underestimated. Regardless, the armored woman made her report. She spoke of the current condition of the Xinkummar continent. A dire report, telling a tragic story. The number of individuals sullying their spirit with corruption was increasing drastically. Yet, that was a minor detailpared to the truly horrible news. A transcendent monstrosity had made its way up to the surface, chasing after a devil-made artifact. Those words in the same sentece, directed toward a non-fictional ce, made her feel deep dugust and fear for this realm. The grand queen nodded wistfully. ¡°The gods have decided that it is time. These recent events have finally convinced even the almighty rulers that the continent of Xinkummar has truly been lost. Thest vestiges of their protection are going to be retracted.¡± ¡°Mdy, what about the Bonmiele church?¡± ¡°Those that remained incorrupt have already been evacuated.¡± The armored woman bowed her head. ¡°As expected of your eminence. That ends my report.¡± The Grand Queen giggled. In a moment, her demeanor shifted from supreme ruler to caring mother. The armored woman removed her helmet. Her striking silver hair flowed out of the armor like a heavenly waterfall, and her cyan eyes shone like spotless gems. The Grand Queen nodded and smiled at her. ¡°Excellent work, Brivia.¡± *** Restar?????????????????? ??????T??? ??star- ??TTT TTTTTestar??? In the darkest corner of a long-forgotten underground chamber, a corpsey rotting, wrapped in dark tendrils of madness. Whispers, shrieks, and promises of oblivion hung past the limen. ?T???? ????¡­ The only entrance was a smashed part of the wall, already overgrown by jagged obsidian brush. ???T TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? After an eternity of remaining behind, forgotten, abandoned. Shackled in the rustiest of chains. Finally. "Took you long enough, you little shit." He opened his eyes. [The Jester of apocalypse: Eternity] [BOOK 1] [END] [BOOK 2] Chapter 35: Void [BOOK 2] Chapter 35: Void A convoy of floating carriages sped through a thunderstorm in the untamed wilderness of the Yixine Empire, pulled by horse-shaped golems. Neavey on the ground inside one of the vehicles, tied head to toe. He could escape from this situation, and it probably wouldn¡¯t be that difficult, but it wasn''t the brightest idea, given that Marven would catch him instantly. A short time after setting off on a journey together, Neave started showing unusual symptoms. Extreme ones too. He froze up, cramped, paled, coughed, and shivered constantly. The symptoms worsened by the hour. Simply put, he was dying. It was a miracle he wasn¡¯t already dead. All the abuse his body had suffered during thest few weeks left Neave¡¯s every cell effectively falling apart. Marven had to physically and spiritually restrain him so he wouldn¡¯t move and make things worse. Marven wrapped Neave in ropes, bandages, seals, chains, and costly qi-insting thread, creating a colorful cocoon of restraints. It would be a miracle if he lived for another two weeks. His current situation, at least outwardly, appeared to bepletely fine. Yet, his body and spirit were in such a drastic state of imbnce that if Neave had been beaten for ten hours straight, stabbed a thousand times, and set on fire¡ªhe would still be in better shape. The carriage they traveled in was rtively spacious. Gabrias sat in one corner, tied up, but that wasn''t strictly necessary. He was frozen in fear anyway. Even the little girl, huddled up in the corner, was powerful enough to kill him before he could fight back. Right next to Neave sat Marven. It was rather hard to recognize him with his bald, fully polished head. Without his distinctive crimson hair, Marven looked like an entirely different person. Everybody was silent. Neave felt horrible, but he hated the treatment more than the ailment. Rationally speaking, he knew this was for his good. Yet, he couldn¡¯t help but feel belittled by the coddling. Neave couldn¡¯t manipte his life force, which left him feeling uneasy. The restraints fully sealed off his energy maniption while a whole otheryer of seals bnced the energies. Neave felt he could do that job perfectly fine but conceded to this treatment for one simple reason. He could sleep this way. If he was in charge of keeping himself together manually, there was no way he could allow himself to go unconscious. He didn¡¯t want to drop his guard, but he felt he was in such a terrible and vulnerable situation that being awake wouldn¡¯t change anything. Neave closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall asleep. TTTTTTTTT Neave woke up. ¡°Oh, this is another dream like the one I had before¡­¡± Neave looked around the space surrounding him¡ªpitch ck and overgrown with obsidian brush. What was once the hellish realm had be an even more deste wastnd. A bitterly freezing one. Neave didn¡¯t feel like visiting the underground chamber. He chose to mess around instead. Lucid dreams were fun. Why would he let it turn into a nightmare? Neave focused and tried making himself fly. It didn¡¯t work. He waved his arms around in the air like a magician hyping the audience up for a trick, but no matter what he did, nothing happened. He couldn¡¯t consciously change anything at all. ¡°Huh¡­?¡± Neave realized that he still felt horrible. His body was in agony and¡­ Neave felt like an ice cube had slid right down his back. He felt pain. He felt the cold. Why did he feel the cold? Thest time he was here, it was a dream. The coldness of the realm was an idea, not a physical characteristic. Neave grabbed a nearby obsidian branch and broke it off. He thrust the makeshift dagger into his skin. Once he felt the pain sinking into his flesh, heughed maniacally. ¡°I¡¯m back¡­ I¡¯m fucking back.¡± He wed at his face, cracking the skin around his eyes. He was back inside the loop. Neave looked around and sought to see if there were any demons. Nothing. Neave lifted his hand. It shook like a leaf in the wind. He wanted to kill himself. To see whether he would go back, whether he would live through another restart. But he was scared, petrified. The thought alone felt like it could drive him further into insanity. Neave couldn¡¯t bear the thought of it being a reality. He intensely stared at his hand like a lunatic, and eventually, a red mist seeped out of his pores. Then his body dropped to the ground. RestarTTTTTTTTT Neave woke up. It was nighttime, and he was back inside the carriage. Sweat pooled beneath him, and his heart raged in his chest. Am I back? ¡°What the fuck is going on?¡± Neave whispered. Marven turned and looked at him. He frowned at Neave¡¯s state. They had to hurry to the capital and find a treasure to help Neave recover. It would be brutally expensive, but he wouldn¡¯t let that stop him from saving his son. ¡°How are you doing, Neave?¡± Marven leaned over, trying to look as fatherly as he could manage. Neave would usuallyugh at Marven¡¯s attempt, but he was genuinely distressed this time. He stayed quiet about what he had seen, though. ¡°Nothing. I am fine.¡° It was apparent he wasn¡¯t okay, but Marven nodded and sat back down¡ªno need to further injure Neave¡¯s pride. Neave tried going back to sleep. It seemed insane that he would try doing that after what he had gone through, but his reasoning was quite solid. He just wanted to know what was going on. Was the curse persisting in some way? Exactly why and how was he back? Why did it look so different now¡­? Neave wasn¡¯t sure what he was hoping for. A big part of him wanted that to be a hallucination, but a small piece wished to return. The curiosity was killing him. The silver lining of his injuries was that the fatigue allowed him to fall back asleep. TTTTTT Once again, he stood in the deste realm. ¡°Okay, what the fuck is going on?¡± Neave had no idea why something like this would be happening. He looked around and spotted something quite rming. A broken shard of obsidian ss was on the floor beside his feet. ¡°Uh¡­?¡± It appeared a little bloody as well. Neave looked at his arm, but it seemed fine. He wasn¡¯t injured outside, either. Neave looked around again and peered into the darkness. This ce was dark and frigid, and his body was wrung out from all the torture he had endured. Neave materialized a bit of his qi on the top of his palm and used its soft glow to light up his surroundings. As far as he could see, this ce seemed to be empty. Neave paused for a second. He took a deep breath and blew fire out of his mouth. As the wisps of smoke vanished, Neave¡¯s face slowly morphed into a grin. He looked at his arm, and it morphed. Neave was ecstatic. Could this realm be constructed by his subconscious? Some sort of imaginary world he could enter while he was asleep? ¡°This¡­ This is fucking awesome!¡± He had died thest time he was here but returned to reality without any consequences. If he ended up inside this ce every time he went to sleep, Neave would have a yground where he could experiment with his powers to his heart''s desire! ????????¡­ Neave turned around. ¡°What was that?¡± Neave moved the qi to light up the path in the direction he heard the sounding from. He nodded to himself and turned around. ¡°Oh, hell fucking no, I won¡¯t check that out.¡± Neave had read plenty of books, and some among them were horror stories. It was always the idiot that walked toward the spooky sound that got killed. Neave nodded sagely once more, turned around¡­ And he ran. Some part of him felt weirdly nostalgic. He found himself in a bizarre world, probably being chased by some creepy creature. Just like the good old days. This ce had cranked up its ambiance this time around. Some small part of him felt like it was pretty cool in a different way. And just like in the good old days, he was crapping his robes. Neave ran and dodged through the forest of obsidian brush. It was painful to navigate until he realized he could climb on top of the dense jungle of volcanic ss. Neave ran at zing speed and didn¡¯t hear spooky sounds for a while. Looking around, he was slowly beginning to recognize parts of the environment. At first, it was difficult to see due to all the growth, but he had spent his fair share of years within that loop, so he knew it like the back of his hand. This was still the same ce. It just looked like a mind-numbing amount of time had passed. After a while, Neave tripped and dropped right into the dense forest of sharp branches. He was cut up and injured quite severely, although not lethally. He didn¡¯t understand what was happening at first, but as he cooled off, he noticed it. It appears that this ce perfectly reflected his situation outside. His body was in a horrible state. Judging by his performance in this realm, he could keep it up for twenty minutes if forced to fight or run away. And then he would die. He was slowly losing function as he felt spirit and body unraveling like a chaffed rope. Neave felt dizzy, and he couldn¡¯t keep his gaze straight. ???????¡­ Ne heard ss shattering and spun around in the direction of the sound. Momentster, something crept up behind him and skewered his body, chewing his limbs off and crushing his organs. Re????? Neave woke up again. It was daytime once again, and the carriage was empty. He was sweating again. What was that ce¡­? He had no idea. Neave didn¡¯t even have a guess. He didn¡¯t see what had killed him, but it was swift. The way it attacked him was incredibly¡­ Well, he felt like he was being bitten, cut, crushed, and stabbed all at once. Neave wanted to go back to sleep again, but he couldn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t feel tired enough. Neave put this strange phenomenon out of his mind for the moment as there seemed to be a slightly bigger crisis. Why the hell was he entirely alone? He was still wrapped in the corner of the carriage. Nobody was here. The door was closed, and a bit of light poured in through a small window. He calmed himself down and just waited patiently. After a while, the doors opened. Marven walked in, followed by a frightened Gabrias and a tired Harel. ¡°You¡¯re awake.¡± Marven walked over to Neave and ced a hand on his forehead. He frowned at the insane heat of Neave¡¯s body. Neave was going to make a sassyment about being left behind unattended, but Marven interrupted him. ¡°We have arrived at the capital. We have some shopping to do now.¡± Marven picked Neave up, threw him over his shoulder, and carried him outside. Once they were outside, Neave could barely believe his eyes. Buildings stretched far into the sky everywhere around them. They came in all shapes and colors, and Neave couldn¡¯t decide which looked the coolest. The people around them were decked out in colorful, predominantly ostentatious robes. The individuals themselves were pretty diverse too. People of different races walked around the busy capital streets. This also included many spirit beasts. Plenty ofrge animals were walking around, but those were only low-ranked spirit beasts. Spirit beasts at the silver path could partially transform into a humanoid form with prominent animalistic features. Only at the golden path did they look like slightly altered humans. Marven walked into a sickeningly gaudy building, dragging Neave inside like a sack of potatoes. Harel followed, sticking quite closely to Marven. Gabrias looked like he wanted to take the chance and run away, but a stern re from Marven shattered that n in an instant. The building they walked into was ted in precious metals from top to bottom. A host of guards stood outside. They usually stopped individuals trying to enter and asked for identification. Only those with special permits could be granted ess to the headquarters of the Golden Thread merchant group. Marven¡¯s status as a tinum path cultivator was worth much more than a low-ss permit. They walked right past the guards, no questions asked, and soon enough, a man wearing shy robes walked up to them and offered to escort them. Marven nodded, and after a few turns, they found themselves in front of yet another extravagantly dressed man. He was a dark-skinned man with jewelry covering every inch of his body. He was decked out in nes, earrings, piercings, rings, and even a tiara. He greeted Marven with a nod and asked. ¡°How may I help you?¡± ¡°Essence of a crimson horror. Highest quality you can provide. Also, give me every potent healing treasure you have, preferably slow-acting ones that can stabilize qi and life force. I¡¯d also like something that can help recover one¡¯s spirit.¡± The man raised an eyebrow. ¡°That will be a rather costly order, dear sir.¡± Marven didn¡¯t show it outwardly, but inwardly he winced. His request would be several hundred thousand tinum coins. That was a bit much, even for someone as rich as him. After getting the healing treasures, they walked to another merchant group looking to buynd. Keyishin was segmented into three circles. The outer circle, the one that was for anyone too poor to enter into either the inner or the middle, was where Marven ended up buyingnd. It was a small plot in the furthest corner of the capital, right next to a border to a wild zone. Why? Because any other plot ofnd was so absurdly expensive, he wouldn¡¯t have any money left over for all the other things that had to be purchased. They made their way to the piece ofnd Marven had bought. It was tiny. It was only around a tenth of a square kilometer. It was enough space for a rtively small building and a tiny courtyard. There was a reason all the buildings within the capital were so tall. Every sect had to fully use whatever tiny plot ofnd they could get their grubby little hands on. This plot ofnd had an old, dpidated, and half-copsed building right in the middle. They would use it as a temporary base of operations, but within the next week, it would have to be removed, and the plot prepared for more legitimate construction, Marven was about to head into the building, but Gabrias cried out. ¡°Wha¨CWhat are you doing?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Marven turned around. ¡°We are just going to get settled here for the time being while we construct our premises.¡± ¡°No, I¡­. I¨CUh, I understand that much, bu¨Cbut¡­¡± ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°This b¨Cbuilding. It is going to copse.¡± Marven lifted an eyebrow at that. ¡°And exactly how can you tell?¡± ¡°Okay, take an, uh, take a rock or something and throw it over at that beam.¡± Gabrias pointed toward a corner of the building. Marven was skeptical but decided to listen anyway. The moment the stone hit the support beam, the beam effectively exploded, and the entire building copsed. Marven was shocked. He had no idea that would happen. Gabrias winced under Marven¡¯s re and quickly defended himself. ¡°I used to be a con¨Cconstruction worker, so I¡¯m, uh, quite familiar with structural integrity!¡± Marven stared at him for a bit, and then he grinned. ¡°Construction worker, you say¡­?¡± Gabrias felt sweat dripping down his back. Chapter 36: Interference Chapter 36: Interference A small, haphazardly built house stood near the border of the capital. The only thing inside the house was a small child wrapped inyers of restraints. It had been roughly an hour since they arrived at their new plot ofnd. The debris was already gone. Marven took care of it in less than twenty minutes. One shouldn¡¯t underestimate the size of his dimension ring nor the work speed of a tinum path cultivator. Quite a few people ¡®subtly¡¯ snooped around to see what was happening. Gabrias was handed a treasure that could temporarily disguise his cultivation so that they could build the ruse of him being the sect master. Marven thought that idea was in stupid. The only reason he even yed along was that he didn¡¯t see an alternative. Marven didn¡¯t want to be a sect master again. He didn¡¯t believe this ¡®sect¡¯ would be a true sect in the first ce. It didn¡¯t matter who yed pretend as the sect master. Their sect premises were a crappy little patch ofnd squeezed between several more prominent sects. Nobody in their right mind would join them. And for those not in their right mind, well¡­ Marven wasn¡¯t going to turn them away. The more lunatics wanted to join, the better! The fewer people seeking an actual sect joined this farce, the happier Marven would be. At the end of the day, he was just humoring Neave¡¯s whims. Marven felt endless regret and guilt at what Neave had gone through. It was all his fault. He couldn¡¯t even fathom the sheer terror of living through uncountable years of torment. He would be overjoyed if building this shitty little sect was all it took to redeem himself. Sadly, it would take more than that. It might take years of careful attention directed toward Neave to help him properly heal from his trauma. Marven would take it one step at a time. *** Gabrias was a man in the know about construction, and Marven was a swift worker, even if it was absurd that a tinum path cultivator would be doing something as mundane as construction. With the guidance of Gabrias, he managed to construct a small sect hall with a couple of rooms. It was rudimentary and only as big as arge house. It would do for now, however. Marven settled Neave and slowly unwrapped the restraints. Neave looked worse for wear than back when they arrived. That he hadn¡¯t made any wisecracks was a rather severe symptom. Marven ced a small bag from his dimension ring beside Neave on the floor. He pulled out an elixir and put it to Neave¡¯s lips. The medicine would take a while to absorb into Neave¡¯s body, and then it would take some time for the energy within the elixir to¡­ Marven watched in utter shock as he sensed the energy swirling within Neave¡¯s body. Neave¡¯splexion improved significantly within seconds, and he opened his eyes. ¡°Yo, old man! You must have hooked me up with some awesome shit. What was that?¡± Marven couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. Neave got up, stretched a bit, and spread his arms open, a massive grin on his face until he froze and fell back-first to the floor.. ¡°Neave!¡± ¡°Ish okeh, ould mam!¡± Neave got up. ¡°My spirit is fucked up, so it¡¯s hard to get a good feel for reality. Got anything to help with that?¡± Marven stared at Neave with open eyes. What was going on? Did he seriously absorb that elixir in seconds? ¡°How did you do that?¡± Marven asked. ¡°How¡¯d I do what?¡± Neave asked back, but just as Marven was about to answer, he continued, ¡°... Is what I would ask if I were an idiot. You gave me some sort of healing treasure, right? No wonder you¡¯re confused. To answer your question, I have the absorb spirit power, pure blood, hyper liver, and my energy maniption skills are lifetimes more advanced than yours.¡± Marven gaped. Everything Neave said created more questions. ¡°You¡­ You have three spirit powers!? No, wait, four!?¡± ¡°I have like¡­ eight? Honestly, I¡¯m not sure. Either way, old man, do you have the spirit-healing treasure? I am dying as we speak.¡± Marven rushed to hand Neave a small bottle. It was a bottle containing seven small pills. Marven watched in pure terror as Neave opened his jaw like a snake and ate the entire bottle. ¡°Oh, hell yeah, this stuff is amazing! Anything else?¡± Neave looked at the bag Marven was pulling the treasures out of. He grabbed the entire bag, opened his mouth as wide as possible, and ate it whole. ¡°Either way, old man, it¡¯s time we get to business.¡± ¡°How¡­ How!?¡± Marven was utterly bewildered at everything he¡¯d seen so far. Neave felt extreme impatience because he was tied up for days, so he rushed to exin everything he could. He exined that he could manipte spirit and round up monster cores. Marven felt like his heart was about to explode. Suddenly, he regretted cooperating with Neave¡¯s crazy idea. He took a deep breath and was about to confront Neave. ¡°Neave, listen to me, that¡­¡± ¡°Is precious information that will put a massive target on my forehead. Wow, father, thank you for your grand cultivator insight!¡± ¡°It is more than that! If you¡¯re capable of manipting spirit in such a way you¡­¡± Marven thought back to what Neave had said his ambitions were¡ªones that seemed just a little less crazy now, ¡°You can¡¯t go around talking about this.¡± Neave grinned and morphed into the slightly older-looking and much taller version of himself. ¡°Why do you think I wanted us to make this sect, father? Hypothetically speaking, if I were to give you, let''s say, two hundred perfectly rounded cores, how powerful would you be?¡± Marven paused at that. After thinking about it for a bit, he shook his head. ¡°The interference of the powers I¡¯ve previously gained would still reflect on the new powers.¡± Neave paused. ¡°Oh shit, you¡¯re right. I remember reading about that, damn.¡± Neave thought for a bit. ¡°Can you bring that dog over here? Actually, wait, follow me. Let¡¯s go see him right now.¡± Neave ran out into the central area of the new sect headquarters and found Gabrias sitting in a corner by himself. Harel was in a different room altogether. Gabrias looked like he wanted to throw up when he spotted Neave. ¡°How¡¯s my favorite henchman doing today!?¡± ¡°Do¨CDo we need to, hah, build? I can build! I¡¯m ready to put my skills¡­¡± Neave grinned. ¡°Rx, there is just a small experiment I¡¯d like to conduct.¡± ¡°Experiment? No, I mean, why would you need me for that?¡± ¡°I said rx¡­¡± Neave lifted his finger, and a small tendril of life-force-coated liquid spirit flowed out toward Gabrias, ¡°It¡¯s less construction and more¡­ Deconstruction.¡± ¡°No! Please, spare me!¡± ¡°Shhh, shhh, shh, just rx. It''s just the tip. It will be over in a second!¡± Marven watched in distress. He wanted to stop whatever Neave was doing. However, getting Neave to cooperate was a priority, and the short-term suffering of a man that tried to kill his son wasn¡¯t worthpromising that cooperation over. The tendril reached Gabrias and sank into his body. Momentster, he tensed up, but he didn¡¯t scream. ¡°What, what are you doing to me?¡± Neave frowned. ¡°Okay, here is how it''s going to go! Either you rx your spirit and let me do this, or I do it forcefully. If I do it by force, there¡¯s probably around eeeeh¡­¡± Neave contemted, ¡°A seventy percent chance you¡¯ll die.¡± Gabrias froze in terror. He whimpered a bit but decided that cooperating was better than dying. ¡°Alright¡­Do¨CDo what you want.¡± Neave grinned. Momentster, Gabrias winced at a faint stinging sensation within his spirit. It only took around twenty seconds of probing, and it was over. Gabrias opened his eyes wide in shock. ¡°This¡­ This shouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± Marven frowned, ¡°Neave, what did you do to him.¡± Neave cackled like a lunatic, ¡°Yes! It fucking worked! I removed his spirit powers!¡± Marven had seen quite a few shocking things in his life. Neave had shocked him in ten minutes more than every other surprising thing he had gone through in his life. ¡°Now, where was I? Oh, yes, perfectly rounded cores. Let¡¯s say I remove your shitty spirit powers and give you many ridiculous ones. How many would it take to make you equal to a diamond path cultivator?¡± The moon falling from the sky would have fewer consequences to this realm''s fate than Neave¡¯s power. Gabrias was thoroughly confused as he listened to Neave speak, given that he had no idea what Neave was talking about. Neave continued. ¡°This is why I wanted to start a sect, father. I remember you once said that the life of a cultivator is anything they have the power to make it be. So what kind of life do we have the privilege of living now?¡± *** Neave and Marven talked about the potential of Neave¡¯s n. This entire situation had gone way differently than Marven had thought it would. He was still struggling to cope with the change of pace. He cooperated with Neave¡¯s n of making a sect because he wanted to make things right. Now it felt like he was on a timer. Marven subtly hinted at keeping a low profile, hoping Neave would believe that was his idea. Neave didn¡¯t bite. As far as Marven understood it, Neave nned to conquer the entire capital, and he called that ¡®stage one.¡¯ A severe headache crept into Marven¡¯s head at the mere thought of all the conflict Neave¡¯s ns would cause. He couldn¡¯t think of a way to get hold of this situation. Marven feared that shooting too many of Neave¡¯s ns down would make him run away. He was deathly afraid of the consequences of freeing Neave into the wild. At the very least, the power Marven could acquire would allow him to protect Neave. Marven hated himself a little for how excited he felt. He desperately wanted to think of this situation through the mindset of a father, but it was apparent his identity as a cultivator was skewing his judgment. That was unavoidable. Neave wanted to give Marven something that anyone, even diamond rankers, would go crazy over. He was only hoping that craze didn¡¯t catch them before they had the power to defend themselves. *** Harel was trying to meditate in one of the rooms. Key word trying. Harel vaguely heard the buzz outside. Neave was already up. It was shocking he could recover so quickly. But it wasn¡¯t surprising. She was deathly scared of Neave. There was something about him that no longer felt human. Marven was emotional and probably wasn¡¯t thinking straight. To him, Neave was his son. To Harel, Neave was an iprehensible entity that had experienced an eternity of torment. Anyone who thought about it would realize the implications. How did the time within that loop affect him mentally? He had admitted to killing several people already. His eyes showed no regret or guilt as he retold the story. Not remorse, not grief, not fear. Perhaps it was her imagination going wild, but Harel could swear she saw a hint of glee. What kind of person was he if he felt pride at ughter? And how the hell was she supposed to sleep within a hundred-mile radius of him? Just as she was thinking this, Neave suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. ¡°Hi, Harel!¡± She screamed. ¡°I agree, honestly. I¡¯m super hot in this form!¡± Neave wiggled his eyebrows. Harel took a second to calm herself down. Her heart was beating out of her chest. She was afraid that her reaction would insult him¡ªand terrified of the consequences. ¡°So, Marven and I talked and decided to conquer the world!¡± Harel couldn¡¯t afford to be shocked at what he had just said, so she nodded. ¡°W¨CWow. That s-s-seems like-a a uhm, in-incredible n, yes, yeah! I¡¯m thoroughly im-impressed.¡± Neave burst outughing. ¡°You¡¯re stiffer than a day-old corpse Harel. Rx, I¡¯m not going to eat you.¡± Everything about the way he had phrased that sentence freaked Harel out. ¡°Here you go, Harel! I made these specifically for you!¡± Neave pulled several monster cores from his dimension ring and ced them before her. Several perfectly round monster cores. Harel couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. She touched them and felt around, failing to believe they were real. ¡°What in the¡­?¡± By the time she raised her head, Neave was already gone. *** After the discussion, Neave and Marven decided to wait until tomorrow to do anything else. Neave felt exhausted. It was a type of exhaustion he could wipe away with heavy eating and a warm-up, but he didn¡¯t want to. He wanted to sleep. Would he end up within that realm again if he went to sleep? There was only one way to find out. TTTTTTTT Neave appeared within the dark realm again. He felt the same as he had just as he was about to sleep. Which was to say that he felt as if he were rudely shaken awake. ¡°Alright, horrific monstrosities! I have arrived to put you in your ce this time. Please line up neatly and prepare to be dispatched.¡° He didn¡¯t have a weapon, but a trusty old branch would have to do. Neave had already tested expending his life force and knew that had no real impact on him when he woke up. Neave was very low on life force. Well, he was at several times higher capacity than should be possible for a cultivator of his rank. But this paledpared to the ocean of life force Neave built up while running through the woods. Before returning here, he would have to snack on a few abominids tomorrow. ????? Neave whirled as fast as he could, yet he was barely in time to block an attack. This time he got a good look at the thing that had killed him. It looked like one of the demons. Tentatively, at least. Shriveled eyes, tentacles with mouths, spikes, and ws covered every inch of its body, from top to bottom. Neave could barely see its body clearly because it could move ridiculously fast. Neave blocked the few attacks he could before the branch shattered to bits. One of the toothy tentaclestched onto his hand, and it bit hard. Neave pulled back, letting the teeth tear his flesh off with little hesitation. It was at this moment that a second one of these creatures attacked. Neave blew fire at it, but that had no effect. He tried getting a true strike in, but he was impaled before he could react. He forcefully morphed his body to release himself from the spikes. Neave used a movement technique to appear on top of the obsidian forest. Somethingtched onto his leg and pulled him into the thick of the obsidian growth. Before he could escape, the other two were already on top of him. Neave was skewered, impaled, and chewed up. TTTTTTestaTTT Neave was woken up by Gabrias screaming. It didn¡¯t seem like much time had passed since he fell asleep. Neave got off the floor he was sleeping on and walked over to the screaming. Marven was holding Gabrias down as he thrashed and yelped. What is this pathetic bastard doing? Should I just put him out of his misery? Chapter 37: Metal Pipe Chapter 37: Metal Pipe Marven tried calming Gabrias, but it was no use. Almost toote, he spotted Neave preparing to lunge at Gabrias. Marven barely stopped Neave from killing Gabrias by grabbing his arm. ¡°Neave, what the fuck are you doing!¡± Neave paused. ¡°Huh, good question. He was kind of loud, so I just thought I¡¯d put him out of his misery. Oh well. What¡¯s going on, old man?¡± Marven was bewildered by Neave¡¯s behavior, but the current situation was more urgent. ¡°I have no idea. He suddenly started screaming and thrashing, but if my spirit senses are correct, something akin to a spirit trial is happening.¡± It was then that Gabrias opened his eyes and looked around in shock. ¡°Holy heavens, I¡¯m alive!¡± He spluttered as he struggled to breathe. He froze once he spotted Neave, but not even that was enough to stop the shaking. Marven waited for him to calm down and asked, ¡°What happened to you?¡± ¡°I¡­ I was stuck in a sp¨Cspirit trial. But it wasn¡¯t a regr spirit trial, it¨Cit felt different. The creature I had encountered in my spirit trial before was still there, but it was deformed, bestial. I barely managed to defeat it and¨Cand I felt its essence wither away.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Neave eximed, ¡°That makes sense! It¡¯s probably a side-effect of removing the spirit power. Hold still for a second.¡± Neave lifted his finger, and Gabrias reacted as if trying to dodge an arrow, ¡°I said stay still, Gabrias. I won¡¯t ask a third time.¡± Gabrias watched the tendril approach with terror. The tendril seeped into his body, but surprisingly enough, it made Gabrias feel better this time. ¡°You¡¯ve suffered some damage. A part of the foreign spirit remained. I¡¯m assuming it tried to take your spirit over from the inside. Well, it should be fine now.¡± Neave pulled the life force tendril out and started stripping. Marven and Gabrias watched in confusion. He revealed the body underneath as he pulled the ragged, dirty clothes off. Neave was incredibly muscr. His muscles weren¡¯t huge, but they were chiseled, and he didn¡¯t have almost any fat anywhere on his body. It looked jarring on what was otherwise a small child, almost giving the impression of a shrunken adult man. Neave¡¯s body began morphing into the tall young master. ¡°Father, do you have any fine cultivator robes my size in that dimension ring of yours?¡± Marven nodded and pulled out a set of incredibly expensive-looking clothes. It was a set of extremely smooth, white robes. They were lined with intricate red string and fit perfectly with Neave¡¯s hair. ¡°Okay, you all do whatever you want, and I¡¯m off to get some things done!¡± Before Marven could speak up, Neave had already disappeared through the wall. So he did the only rational thing he could think of. He followed him. *** Neave didn¡¯t even sleep for an hour, but he wasn¡¯t nning on going to bed again. He was salty. Those creatures inside had dered war on him. It was apletely unfair fight, which, to be fair, was how the demons always fought, even back in the original loop. Neave felt angry at himself for doing so poorly. He could momentarily assuage his poor performance by building up his life force. However, he felt that was too cheap a trick to pull. He needed more. For now, he wanted to explore and get a sense of his surroundings. It was nighttime outside. For cultivators, the night was little more than just the other half of the day. From bronze onward, cultivators slept less than five hours at a time. This didn¡¯t necessarily mean five hours daily or having a regr sleep schedule. While this didn¡¯t strictly apply to the younger generations of sub-bronze cultivators, they sure loved imitating their elders. The capital''s streets were just as bustling at night as during the day. The building of their new, still unnamed sect was small. The space they had for construction was minuscule. Sects were hungry for space. Martial artists hated cramped environments, and this wasn¡¯t without reason. The courtyard of the Zearthorn sect was around two square kilometers, over twenty timesrger than all the space they had for their new sect. That was still too small. Practicing forms, running, or working on certain moves all required space. The presence of other people was distracting, let alone having them get in your way. A proper sect had to have at least five hundred members to even be called a sect in the first ce. Less than a tenth of a square kilometer just wasn¡¯t enough. The plot ofnd they bought was walled off from all sides. They were cramped between three other sects, creating a misshapen triangle. This furtherplicated the utility of theirnd. Neave ran out into the streets and walked for a bit. He encountered people of all shapes and sizes. The first thing Neave did was enter a weapon shop. It was a tiny shop that sold used and predominantly mortal weaponry. Neave didn¡¯t care if they sold metal sticks. He asked whether they did, in fact, sell metal pipes or anything of the sort. He was directed to another vendor that dealt with construction materials. Neave bought a sturdy metal pipe. He walked outside and dropped it on the ground. Several people jumped a bit at the loud sound. Neaveughed. ¡°Whoops, I dropped my metal pipe. Got to be careful!¡± Well, now, it was time to visit their new neighbors! Neave had the n to overwhelm and conquer the entirety of the capital! Naturally, a show of force was the logical first step. People needed to know that their new little sect was not to be trifled with. Otherwise, they¡¯d get endlessly bullied by the neighboring powers. Neave walked down the street and approached the entrance to the neighboring sect. Then he phased through it and appeared in their courtyard. Nobody was around, so he just walked into the halls of their sect. Eventually, he ran across an elder that stopped him and questioned him. ¡°You there! What the hell are you doing here!? Intruder! There is an intruder in the sect!¡± People gathered. All of the cultivators within this sect wore pitch-ck robes. ¡°Oh, I apologize, esteemed elder.¡± Neave responded in a perfect, masculine yet youthful voice and bowed hand over fist with spotless etiquette. ¡°My name is Deeze. I am the young master of your neighboring sect.¡± ¡°What is your sect¡¯s name!?¡± Neave¡¯s face contorted as he desperately held himself back. ¡°I¡­ Apologize, esteemed pfff¨C¡± Neave snorted and schooled his expression. ¡°I am sorry, I seemed to have sneezed. How rude of me. Our sect does not yet have a name, as it had been founded today.¡± ¡°What sort of nonsense are you spouting, child!? What the hell are you doing here!? If you¡¯re a spy from a nearby sect, you better state so instantly, or that information will be tortured out of you!¡± ¡°Dear elder, calm yourself. Would a spy be so tant? No, I am here to challenge the head disciple of your sect to a spar. I would like to familiarize myself with the rtive power of the neighboring sects.¡± Everyone around him chuckled. Some uneducated country brat walked into their sect, and now he wants to challenge the young mistress to a match? Preposterous. ¡°What a hick!¡± ¡°Get lost, you nobody!¡± ¡°Yeah, you do not even deserve to nce at the young mistress!¡± However, the elder standing in front of Neave was far more apprehensive. He couldn¡¯t tell what this young master''s cultivation was. So either a mighty treasure was hiding it, or he had a spirit power to disguise his progress¡ªboth options stank of trouble. The elder turned to a random senior disciple behind him and whispered into their ear. The disciple looked shocked but obeyed and ran to find the young mistress. The elder turned to Neave and nodded. ¡°Very well, then. You will live to regret your rudeness. The Onyx Scorpion sect is no pushover, child.¡± Neave smiled in response. ¡°Nuts.¡± He nodded solemnly. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing. I must have sneezed again. I am allergic to weakness, you see.¡± Dead silence. ¡°You dare!¡± One of the disciples that looked to be a young teenager, stepped up. ¡°There is no need to call forth the mistress to deal with a bastard like this! I will handle him personally!¡± Less than a secondter, the rushing disciple was on the floor. Nobody even saw what happened. There was no indication that Neave had moved, yet he stood over the disciple''s unconscious body. ¡°Can you escort me to where you wish the duel to take ce?¡± Neave asked with a soft smile on his face. The elder nodded stiffly and walked down the hallway. *** Around a hundred meters underground, a young woman sat on a ck rock in the deepest parts of the Onyx Scorpion sect. This structure had been built at the limits of how deep sects could dig this far from the capital''s center. Any more than this, and there was a risk of breaking into a cavern. ck rocks were scattered around. The air was dry but bursting with qi. The young woman got off the stone, lifted her sword, and began her dance. She was about to switch forms, but the door burst open. ¡°Elder Leeken has summoned you. An impudent young master challenged you to a duel.¡± She lifted an eyebrow at that. ¡°And the elder agreed to this¡­ Why?¡± ¡°I have no idea.¡± She sighed. ¡°Very well.¡± She put her sword down in frustration and sheathed it at her hip. Interrupting her training was an unforgivable sin. She would have to make an example out of this brat to ensure no more overzealous young masters dared overstep their boundaries. And elder Leeken will be receiving an earful as well. *** The courtyard floor was small and paved in stone. Neave waited, posing in a way that showed off his chiseled muscles. Neave couldn¡¯t just change his form to look more muscr. Perhaps he could, but he intuitively felt that wouldn¡¯t make him stronger. Even this form felt unnatural, although he was slowly getting used to it. Soon enough, a gloomy woman with straight ck hair walked out from the halls of the sect. She appeared austere, although a little angry, which Neave found amusing. Once she stepped before him, Neave bowed hand over fist and introduced himself. ¡°Hello, young mistress. My name is Deeze, and I challenge you to a duel!¡± ¡°Are you too embarrassed to share the name of your sect?¡± Neave chortled. ¡°Sorry, I sneezed.¡± ¡°That was clearly augh. Did I say something funny?¡± Neaveughed that time. ¡°There seems to be something in the air.¡± The woman looked positively enraged as she unsheathed her sword. ¡°My name is Kleowara Onyxia, young mistress and head disciple of the Onyx Scorpion sect! You will not be spared for your insolence!¡± Neave pulled the metal pipe out of his dimension ring. Kleowara shook in rage and lifted her sword. ¡°You¡­ You fool! I will take an arm and both your legs for your insolence!¡± She dashed at Neave and appeared before him in a blink. She swung her sword, which met the metal pipe with a ng, bending it a little. She was surprised at how weak he was, yet she felt her attack was parried effortlessly. Before she could even realize what was happening, he was gone. A metal pipe smacked right in the back of her head. The sound echoed through the courtyard, washing all other noise away and leaving pure, deathly silence in its wake. Kleowara wasn¡¯t knocked out. She wasn¡¯t even injured. Yet she was stunned. She couldn¡¯t believe it. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate; before anyone coulde to terms with what he had just done, he did it again. He was obviously trying to be annoying. Kleowara activated her spirit power. A massive ethereal scorpion stinger appeared from her back and stabbed at Neave. Neave disappeared again, and pipe met skull once more. The crowd was silent. While he was making fun of her, it was clear his skills weren¡¯t a joke. ¡°You bastard!¡± Kleowara¡¯s sword lit up with a red glow, and she thrust at Neave with the weight of a mountain. Neave disappeared again. This time, golden runes lit up around his body as he swung the metal pipe. The rod smacked her head so hard that it didn¡¯t merely bend; it wrapped around Kleowara¡¯s head. She spun in the air and dropped to the ground, unconscious. Neave took her dimension ring, waved at the other disciples, and disappeared. Chapter 38: Ultimate Prodigy Chapter 38: Ultimate Prodigy Marven couldn''t see what was happening inside the sect without stepping closer. He settled for relying on his spirit senses, even though tracking Neave with spirit senses alone was impossible. Hordes of people surrounded one central figure in the courtyard of the neighboring sect. That figure was a roughly twenty-year-old woman on the second step of the silver path. Focusing on one''s spirit senses took a lot of work in such a heavily popted area. Marven could vaguely feel that there was some sort of fight happening. He had deduced that it was probably between Neave and the young woman. Marven sighed. Did he seriously have to attract the ire of a sect the instant he left my sight? At this moment, Marven felt several silver path cultivators run toward the middle. He panicked a bit, hoping Neave wouldn''t fight them. However, his worry was for naught as Neave appeared next to him secondster. "Yo, old man! You here to challenge their sect master?" "Neave, what did you do?" "I piped their young mistress." "You¡­!" Marven sighed. "That isn''t funny, Neave." "Aw, I thought you''d be proud. Nah, I''m just messing with you. I actually beat her with a metal pipe." That wasn''t much better if Marven was being honest. It was probably worse. "Exactly why are you causing conflict with the neighboring sects?" "To chase them away, of course!" "That''s just idiotic, and I know you aren''t an idiot, Neave." "That is true, indeed! To be honest, I''m just scouting out the neighbors. We might be able to buy thend from some of the sects here, but others will be stubborn." Marven lifted an eyebrow at that. He took the opportunity to probe Neave''s motives, "And exactly what do you want to do about that?" Neave rolled his eyes. "ughter them and hang their corpses in our courtyard." Marven paused, and Neaveughed at him. "No, you dumbass! You''re such an obvious old man. I will initiate the n ¡®neighbors from hell¡¯! It is time to harass the shit out of the neighboring sects until they decide that moving away will be for the best. Our sect premises are tiny now, which will be a problem as we grow. We can go up and dig down for now, but that will require expensive materials and workers." Marven reluctantly nodded. That was entirely true. It was easy to build tall buildings, but the issue was that toppling them was pretty easy too. Tall structures needed proper defense measures and excellent construction. Underground was more manageable, but it was dangerous and expensive. Neave turned around. "Either way, old man, you''re already nning on following me, so how about we go together instead?" Marven was surprised at Neave''s suggestion. He dly epted, and they set off toward the wilderness. The streets didn''t have a section dedicated to fast running, at least not here in the outer circle, but neither Neave nor Marven had many issues making it toward the capital''s border. Once they reached the wall, they walked to the entrance, greeted the guards, and left. It took as much as ten minutes of running toe across a cave. That wasn''t much time, but it was a great distance at their speed. All the caves in the capital''s proximity had been manually copsed to prevent monster outpourings. They still happened as monsters asionally made new exits themselves, but that was easier to handle than a constant torrent that had to be dealt with. Marven knew he would have to reduce his speed so Neave could keep up, but he was surprised at how little he had to slow down. Once they had approached the cave entrance, naturally, they went inside. Marven pulled a small crystal out of his ring. It floated a little above them, lighting their path. "That''s a cool little gadget you have there, old man. Can you give me one of those too?" "It''s made of gold rank material, so I am not sure your spirit could fully synchronize with it. It would probably just float away." "Ah, I see." They didn''t have to walk far into the cave until abominids appeared. Neave immediately picked one up and started eating it alive. Marven watched on in abject horror. "What the hell are you doing¡­?" "Hmm?" Neave was somewhat confused by the question at first, "I''m eating, of course. I''m hungry, and I''m low on life force." Wasn''t it obvious? "Yes, but¡­ That is¡­Why are you eating a still-living monster?" Marven was starting to think Neave had an inexhaustible source of surprises for him. "Oooh, yeah, I get why you''re confused now!" "Ah¡­ Can you exin?" Marven was doing his best to be patient, but he couldn''t imagine someone doing that for any rational reason. Neave exined the synergy between his spirit powers and how absorb allowed him to stockpile life force. Marven felt, at least partially, that what he was saying made sense, but he had to speak up. "What you are doing isn''tpletely foreign to me. Certain spirit powers allow cultivators to gather life force above their maximum capacity. This is usually a horrible idea. Life force isn''t a uniform substance. It behaves differently depending on the exact life form that life force hade from. Loading your body up with a myriad of different sources of life force is dangerous and can have unpredictable effects on your body. It may be one of the main reasons your body and spirit were in such a horrid state." "Hmmm, I get what you''re saying, and I sensed something along those linesst time I overloaded on life force. But it isn''t as bad as you may think." Neave looked at his hand. A small, perfectly round ball of life force gathered on his palm. Marven sucked air through his teeth at the absurd disy of control," I suspect there is something special about my spirit. The life force stuck within my body rages wildly, but it doesn''t have anything to affect. The way it feels is strange. It''s as if the life force is a man trying to bite a t wall. It just can''t get any grip on it." The life force on his palm whirled and reabsorbed right back into his body. "So I think I will be fine for now." Marven reluctantly nodded. They entered the cave and went on a killing spree. Marvenzily flicked his sword in the general direction of anything threatening. As he observed Neave, he realized Neave had the entire situation under control, so he just watched instead. Neave was a menace. It was the most efficient monster hunting Marven had ever seen. Marven wondered whether Neave could even run out of stamina at all. Eventually, Neave ran out of monsters in the first section of the cave, so he turned to Marven. Neave asked Marven about qi techniques. Marven wasn''t surprised that Neave couldn''t make qi techniques and was even more surprised to learn that Neave could create movement techniques. Neave''s guess for movement techniques was entirely on point. The only two targets were himself and the space around him. Attack and defense technique creation was fundamentally different. It was a process that inherently required progress down the path of cultivation because it was no longer about discovering potential. It was about creating it. Creating a qi technique meant creating ayer of unrealized potential. In a sense, it was the reverse process of cultivation. The concept that allowed cultivators to develop or modify qi techniques was called the wayfarer''s authority. This authority could only be gained once one had progressed enough down the path of cultivation. The wayfarer''s authority was entirely out of reach for someone like Neave, who had yet to move an inch on the path. Even then, it would take a long walk down the path before he could use it. He could still learn qi techniques. In fact, he could learn any qi technique in existence; he just couldn''t create his own. Neave asked Marven to teach him an attack qi technique. Marvenplied, teaching him the most basic strike within the Zearthorn style¡ªa simple thrust. Marven put his hand out in the air, and shimmering cyan runes manifested. Neave had no idea this was a thing. There was nothing on the topic in any of the books he had read. "I''ve read several cultivation manuals, but I''ve never seen anything like this ever be mentioned. Is this really how qi techniques are learned?" Marvenughed. "Obviously, you wouldn''t know. A cultivation manual is merely a book to mortals. Only those on the path would be capable of perceiving these shards of potential after reading a manual." Neave facepalmed. This was one of those things that he didn''t know simply because everybody probably considered it too essential to mention. Wait a minute. Shards of potential? Oh fuck, I''ve heard those mentioned a million times. I just had no idea what they were! I thought it was some stupid metaphor! Marven handed Neave a small sword from his dimension ring. "Take a long hard look at these, Neave. I can show them to you again if you forget them. It should take you around a month to¡­" Neave turned around and used the thrust technique. Perfectly. Marven felt he shouldn''t have been so surprised, but this was starting to get absurd. "Ew. This is so qi hungry and not even that strong." That was¡­ A rather absurd statement, but it made perfect sense from Neave''s perspective. In the hands of someone at the very beginnings of the foundation realm, a qi technique like this was pretty weak. Neave was used to crushing bones with punches and shattering walls with kicks. A basic qi technique felt like child''s y inparison. Marven thought for a bit, and then he lifted his hand again. He didn''t speak a single word. Runes yet again appeared in the air, but this was far different. The runes themselves were many times moreplex, and there were dozens of times more of them. Neave grinned. It was apparent Marven was challenging him. And he wasn''t going to turn away from a challenge. Neave observed the runes. They were seriously giving him a headache. No matter how many of them he grasped, he found a deeper connection between the concepts and more potential to explore every time he peeled off ayer. He found himself losing track of everything eventually. This was something that was far beyond the difficulty of that first technique. But Neave wouldn''t quit. He used a trickle of lifeforce to fortify his spirit and another trickle to boost his thinking speed. His eyes shot from one corner of the rune script to another, every gaze and every look cutting through and dissecting the endlessyers ofplex constructs. Marven was beginning to sweat from maintaining the manifestation of the shards of potential for so long. Eventually, they flickered and died. "So¡­ How long do you think it will take to master that one?" Marven grinned. Neave''s face was nk. Marven was worried Neave had crushed his spirit by ident or something along those lines, but Neave eventually moved again. He walked up to a boulder and took a stance. He took one step forward, pushing his center of bnce right above his heel. The sword was pulled back, parallel to his other leg, as he bent the knee at a ten-degree angle. Neave took a deep breath. He took a step forward and thrust the sword. Four phantom images of a sh appeared to the left, right, above, and below the de. They swung outward, cutting through the boulder and severing it into four pieces. The thrust itself mmed into the boulder and blew the four pieces apart. "Uwaaah, that is icky. All of my qi is gone." Marven was speechless. Less than a month ago, his greatest wish had been to relinquish his position as sect master and for his son to be apetent cultivator. What a cruel joke fate had yed on him. There was a question that was burning him up from the inside. It was a subject he would rather avoid forever. But he asked anyway. "Neave." "Hmm?" "Your time within that loop. Tell me honestly. How do you feel about going through that?" Neave paused. T TT TTTTTTTTTTTT "It was very fun." Chapter 39: Spirit Realm Chapter 39: Spirit Realm Marven returned to the sect premises. Harel was watching over Gabrias just as he had told her to. He decided to leave Neave to his own devices. Neave would be fine. Well, for now, at least. Marven felt utterly lost. A big part of him felt pride that Neave had be such a realm-shattering prodigy. But the other part of him felt ashamed. He was ashamed of himself for thinking like that. Ashamed for allowing all of this to happen. ¡°What do I do with that boy¡­?¡± He sat in the corner of their modest new sect building, rested his head on the wall, and sighed. ¡°What would Brivia have done¡­?¡± *** Once Marven had left, Neave finally allowed himself to properly go monster hunting. The old man was a massive distraction. Neave was deep within a cave and fighting silver-rank monsters on average. He had encountered something of a problem. While Neave could load his body up with near-unlimited life force, there was a soft cap. It was true that life force seeped out of his body slowly, but this sped up drastically the more he had. Currently, he had even more life force within his body than when the gold path cultivators were chasing him. He had a lot more life force than he had back then. Neave pulled out of the cave and decided it was time to experiment. He found a secluded part of the forest and felt no monsters nearby. Neave focused on his nervous system and probed around a bit. That proved to be an unwise idea. Severe hallucinations, intense headaches, and extreme fear were among the lesser side effects. Among the bigger ones, he lost eyesight within the left side of his vision and couldn¡¯t quite remember who he was. Resting a bit, he regained himself, and his brain recovered. Rather than do the wise thing and stop, Neave continued probing around. Eventually, everything went ck, and he lost consciousness. TTTTTT Neave found himself within the mysterious realm again. Not even a secondter, he was forced to dodge as a horde of the altered demons rushed at him. ¡°What the fuck is this shit!¡± Are these things multiplying!? Neave sped up his perception and flushed his entire body with life force. True strike after true strike proved ineffective, as he didn¡¯t have the time to execute a slow strike. Neave fueled his strikes with excessive life force and barely delivered a few decent blows before getting overwhelmed and eaten alive. ReTTTTT Neave was back to reality again. It had maybe been a few minutes at most. His experiment was partially sessful but iplete. So he made himself pass out again. TTTTT Neave appeared within the realm again; this time, surrounded. Countless demons were around him, throwing themselves over one another as they rushed to devour him. Neave used a movement technique and ran past the mass of bodies. ¡°Are these fucking things multiplying every time I die!?¡± He was in for a lot of trouble if that was the case. Neave had no idea what the consequences of dying too often within this realm could be, and he didn¡¯t want to find out. He flooded his body with life force again, elerating far above his usual, already monstrous speed. Even this didn¡¯t seem to be enough. These creatures were fast beyond belief. Neave was rapidly running out of qi, and he didn¡¯t want to find himself in a situation where he had to run from these things without any qi. Neave used a movement technique and changed directions. He flew right into one of the abysses scattering the realm. As he fell deeper and deeper, he dodged the endless metallic spikes. Soon enough, the demons were falling right after him. Some of them suffered a bit of damage from the sharp protrusions, but not nearly enough to slow them down. Neave flew through the air, and he focused. Suddenly, he blinked and mmed hard into the side of the abyss. No luck there. Then he did it again. Several times Neave smacked right into the wall of the pit. He was losing both precious time and wasting qi. But he didn¡¯t stop. Eventually, Neave spun in the air andnded on one of the spikes, phasing through the wall and appearing within a cave. ¡°Hehehe, eat my shit, losers!¡± Neave didn¡¯t want to tempt fate by waiting for them to find a way inside the cave. He ran as deep as he possibly could into the cave. Eventually, he reached a dead end. Neave took a deep breath, ran at the wall, and appeared on the other side. ¡°Yes!¡± He was inside another cave. After exploring around for a bit, he found no entrance. Neave cackled to himself. He noticed something strange the first time he ended up inside this realm. When he woke up, the time that had passed outside wasn¡¯t the same as on the inside. This could mean a few things. Either the flow of time was skewed somehow or¡­ This ce worked the same way the loop did. Which meant that no matter how much time he spent here, it wouldn¡¯t reflect on the outside world. He didn¡¯t know what this realm was, but his schrly mind had connected a few dots. This was probably rted to those statues he found within the loop. But Neave had no interest in that whatsoever. There were more important things to be done. First, this realm effectively meant Neave had another ce where he could experiment without consequences! The hordes of mighty demons were slightly inconvenient, but that could be dealt with once he gained more power. Now that he was in a ce like this, Neave was overwhelmed with choice paralysis. There were simply so many things that he wanted to experiment with. True strikes, life force, weaponsmithing, spirit powers, qi techniques! And so, so much more. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate to experiment on one thing at a time when he was in the loop since he had as much time as he wanted. This ce wasn¡¯t quite the same. There was a limit here. He only slept so often, even if he could turn an instant into weeks. Yes, he could just knock himself out, but what about the creatures? Perhaps if he died a few more times, he would be so utterly surrounded by those horrors that he couldn¡¯t move an inch from the moment he entered. Sure, perhaps all that meant was that he would lose the precious opportunity to experiment. But what if there was more to it? He couldn¡¯t shake off this nasty feeling that something was wrong. What was this ce anyway? Neave remembered that dream he had once, back in the mansion. Was that just a dream? It felt like a dream. The realm he found himself within that dream was identical to this one. And this ce most certainly didn¡¯t feel like a dream. Perhaps he should visit the underground structure first? His heart sped up at that thought. He didn¡¯t know why, but a deep fear overwhelmed him at the thought of doing that. What would he find if he went there? He put that off for now. When he finally decided to do that, he woulde prepared. It was time for him to choose what he wanted to experiment with. One of the things he wanted to do the most was to figure out how to progress in his cultivation. Qi techniques were limited to him due to his painfully low qi reserves and weak cultivation. He could recover qi by eating living or just-dead monsters, but that was only a viable option when he was fighting to kill. In situations like a duel, the qi he had in his reserves was all he had. Once that ran out, that was it. He could technically just repeatedly use qi restoration treasures, but that was intense for his spirit. Restoring his qi once, twice, or even thrice was fine, but further than that, the damage to his spirit grew exponentially. There were many ways to circumvent this problem. Qi restoration treasures and spirit healing medicine would be expensive, but it wasn¡¯t out of the question. Perhaps he could use a spirit power to achieve a simr effect to one of his movement techniques. He could also just get more powerful so that he didn¡¯t need to rely on movement techniques so much in the first ce. But the qi techniques¡­ Neave craved the wayfarer¡¯s authority. He wanted to make qi techniques and wow the world with his impossible talent. Neave immensely enjoyed his father¡¯s reaction when he used that technique. People reacting with pure shock when he pulled off something mind-bendingly impressive was addicting. For the time being, he decided to step back and determine what he wanted to do, at least somewhat objectively. He had a few criteria that his next experiment needed to fulfill. Criteria one! Whatever he experimented with needed to be something he couldn¡¯t do outside. Criteria two! It had to be something that would allow him to gain a significant boost to power before he returned here next time. And finally, criteria three! It had to be something that could provide satisfactory results immediately. Afterbing through his ideas, one stood out as a clear winner¡ªevolving his spirit powers. The process was wild and unpredictable, so he hesitated to evolve them haphazardly. It wasn¡¯t a matter of danger per se, but undoing an evolution was impossible. Neave could technically remove spirit powers, but with his current method, it was an all-or-nothing approach. He had to remove all of them to eliminate one. Judging by what happened to Gabrias, removing spirit powers wasn¡¯t particrly safe either. This ce was handy for the opportunity to try out different spirit power evolutions and make the best choice he could once he was out. Neave wanted to pick a power randomly and evolve them one by one, but it was imusible that he would survive through the evolutions at some point, so he had to prioritize those he felt had the most potential. Neave started with the most logical choice¡ªtroll muscle. Once he initiated the spirit trial, he was second-guessing his choice. The troll had evolved into a, well, he didn¡¯t have a name for this creature. It was the same as the troll, but much less fat and more muscr. After fighting through the spirit trial, Neave came the closest he had evere to losing a trial. This evolved troll was a menace. Its strength was insane, and its regeneration was in an entirely different realm of holy crapness. Neave managed to fight through the spirit trial, but he paused just as he was about to finish off the final creature, the immobilized toxic abominid. He remembered the experiment he wanted to conduct. Neave stepped back. He summoned life force into his hand. Or at least he tried, but nothing happened. He also tried manifesting qi, but it felt locked to the inside of his body. He sighed. Did that mean that generating spirit within the spirit realm was a no-go? Neave didn¡¯t give up. Combining the forces inside the spirit realm wasn''t necessary to get them there. Neave could fix the manifestation of his spirit by loading his spirit up with life force. Inside this realm, what he had probably wasn¡¯t ¡®real¡¯ qi and life force, but rather some spiritual construct equivalent to these energies. Using qi inside this realm wasn''t draining his actual qi reserves outside. This meant that he had to somehow inject his real life force and qi into his spirit. Neave just tried the first thing that came to his mind, he did the same thing as when he pushed life force into his spirit, but he joined that together with qi in the ratio needed to make crystallized spirit. Immediately, the entire realm around him began cracking, and he screamed. ¡°Aaah, what the fuck is that!¡± He immediately fixed the damage to his spirit and stopped doing that. That was a fucking terrible idea. What about ethereal spirit? He tried that next, and it just didn¡¯t work. Luckily, there was no pain this time, but the spirit seemed to have just evaporated. Next up, he used liquid spirit. Immediately, all around him, morphing masses of unusual shapes appeared. This wasn¡¯t the same situation as with crystallized spirit. There was no pain or damage this time. Neave reached out to one of the floating pieces of indistinct, morphing matter. It was hard keeping a hold of it. It was constantly shifting from one random object to another, but Neave could tell that as time went on, the objects that the shape was morphing into were getting more and more restricted. They went from entirely random stuff like chairs, paintings, stands, bricks, rocks, piles of dirt, nts, and broken bottles to less random things like blood, ck ooze, obsidian, the sword he held in his hands, rocks that looked a whole load like the random rocks lying around his spirit realm. Eventually, the morphing entirely slowed down, and the object that appeared was another obsidian nt. Neave repeated the same thing. This time he grabbed the morphing shape with all his strength and focused his life force on it. Then he focused more liquid spirit directly into the shape. The feeling was highly ufortable, but he pushed through it and forced his will into the object. Eventually, the object that popped out wasn¡¯t just a random object already found within his realm. Neave created another sword identical to the one he appeared with. Oh, this is about to be very fun. Chapter 40: Domain Chapter 40: Domain Neave held the copy of the sword. Could he create a sword of a different shape¡ªsomething bigger, sharper, or more powerful? Just as he was about to repeat his experiment, the abominid he had immobilized bled out, and the spirit trial was over. ¡­ ¡°Great way to spoil the mood.¡± Neave mumbled. He focused on his troll muscle spirit power to see how it had changed. Ah, fuck. There was a huge reason why higher-ranked cores were more valuable than lower-ranked ones. It was technically urate that any shitty spirit power granted by an abominid could transform into something realm-shatteringly overpowered. But this was only if one got impossibly lucky. The way spirit powers evolved was unpredictable. If one had to bet on evolving an ability twice or more, they were shooting in the dark. The more likely oue was that one would end up with some random shitty power. Neave was somewhat lucky with his spirit powers, but not all of them went in the direction he had hoped. Hard kidneys were a great example. His kidneys were right up there with his heart as one of the most resilient parts of his body, but this was mostly useless. Only on the very off chance that the oue of a fight hinged on him preserving his kidneys would such a niche power matter. His fire lungs had a simr issue, it wasn¡¯t a subpar power per se, but it was far from what he would have preferred. Simrly, although shapeshifting was great, it could have been something far more directly powerful, like a hyper-blunt-force-resistant body. It already gave Neave an stic body, making his bones almost impossible to break, but this effect was heavily side-lined by the shapeshifting aspect of the power. His troll muscle spirit power had just been added to the list of ¡®not useless, but far from optimal¡¯ evolutions. It evolved from troll muscle to troll physique. His muscles didn¡¯t change much, but his entire body was more troll-like. He had acquired massive regeneration capabilities. That was, sadly, right about it. This was a terrible oue. Neave would have infinitely preferred something like superior troll muscle. It was technically possible to have several different powers affecting the same organ or part of the body, but this wasn¡¯t a cumtive effect. Having both troll muscle and, for example, ogre muscle would be pointless since the mutually exclusive effects of these different types of muscle would interfere with one another. Some spirit powers, like supernatural strength-boosting powers, could circumvent this limitation. Neave could easily add troll strength to his spirit power repertoire and boost his strength without altering his body. Only in sporadic and specific cases could a spirit power change his muscles further and still be beneficial. He was hoping that would be the power troll muscle evolved into. Troll physique wasn¡¯t bad either, however. Some added toughness and regeneration was perfectly fine with Neave, even if it did suck a bit. He could also get something like a regeneration-boosting spirit power and push the effects of his regeneration into a different realm by burning life force. He was about to pick another spirit power and initiate a trial again, but he felt something strange within his spirit. The first thing that came to his mind was that he had fucked something up. Uh-oh. That isn¡¯t good. He felt like there was something within his spirit. Neave was familiar with extensive spirit damage, and the thing he was currently sensing felt simr to having a literal hole in his spirit. He calmed himself. There was no need to panic. It was true that it would indeed suck if he had done something that would kill him. He didn¡¯t want to go back yet, since he depended on testing at least four or five spirit powers to make the best decision when he returned to reality. But it also wasn¡¯t the end of the world. Once he died, this spirit damage wouldn¡¯t have ever happened in the first ce. Neave carefully probed around this unusual phenomenon and grew increasingly confused as he did so. First, this didn¡¯t feel like damage per se. It just felt different, unusual. As he probed around this new aspect of his spirit, he felt his consciousness slowly slipping away. Neave appeared within his spirit realm. ¡­What the? Did he identally start another trial? No, that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. Neave grinned. Well, that was an unexpected but wee development. As the realization of what was happening slowly sank in, Neave realized how ridiculous this was. He was unconscious and within a realm simr to the one in the loop. On top of that, he was also inside his spirit realm. While inside this other realm. That was a ridiculous phenomenon, but the number of doors this opened for Neave was so great that he couldn¡¯t evenprehend the potential benefits. But as he calmed down and rationally thought about it, he couldn¡¯t think of any benefits to this either. True, he was within his spirit realm, and yes, technically, he could practice stuff in here or work on his martial arts. But that seemed to be just about it. Time flowed faster within the spirit realm than outside, as apparent when undergoing a spirit trial. He didn¡¯t know how much quicker, but it was undoubtedly a lot. This meant he had a lot more time. But how could he spend that time from a practical perspective¡ªlooking for new, useful true strikes? Prodding around, hoping to discover something new? He realized he was holding the sword the same way he would if he was inside a spirit trial. The sword he created with liquid spirit sat on the ground near him. Neave looked around his spirit realm. It looked like the beginning area of the loop he had spent countless years trapped in. But it had suffered quite a beating from all the spirit trials. And the signs of that beating are everywhere around me. Neave wasn¡¯t entirely processing the implications of this yet. In the book about spirit powers, he read that some people had spirit realms that were inherently more useful for conquering trials than others. Neave''s face practically deformed into the picture of ecstasy. It wasn¡¯t even really a grin anymore. He bent over, picked up a rock, and threw it. He picked up another rock and threw it as well. Then he picked up two stones and put them one atop another. Neaveughed. This was just too funny. He focused his liquid spirit channeling again, and this time materialized another sword, but not quite the same as the one he usually got. This one was heavier, longer, and a lot sharper. Then he threw the old sword on the ground. He knew exactly where he had appeared when he entered the spirit realm. This time, he left the spirit realm and returned to the same spot, holding his new sword. Neave moved again, hopping a few meters to the side, and left the spirit realm again. Then, once he reentered, that was precisely where he reappeared. Now it was time for the final test. Neave created arge rock, stepped on it, and positioned himself perfectly to attack. Then he left the spirit realm and started a spirit trial. He evolved the steel nervous system ability. Once he reentered the spirit trial, he stood on top of the rock he had created and in the perfect position to strike. Oh my, isn¡¯t that convenient? The spirit trial was quite torturous. Once he had evolved his shapeshifting power, the rubber champion became an even smaller and more challenging piece of work. On top of this, he had the massive troll and now a gigantic steel golem. By the time he finished the spirit trial, his spirit was truly battered. Neave decided to wait and use his life force to reconstruct his spirit slowly, one bit at a time. He felt he couldn¡¯t fully recover from this, but it didn¡¯t matter since he was in the conveniently-inconsequential realm anyway. The steel nervous system ability evolved into¡­ Well, it was pretty hard to name this new ability. It went in apletely unexpected direction. His nerves could now deeply memorize specific movements. Using these movements was a lot easier and could be done entirely automatically. To the point where he could be sleeping, and the ability would still work. He wasn¡¯t sure how useful that would be, but it seemed convenient. Right now, his priority was fixing his spirit. He didn¡¯t know how long had passed, but he felt his spirit regain stability again. His qi reserves had also recovered almost entirely from his run away from the demons. While one couldn¡¯t cultivate further without proper rest and food, recovering qi reserves was different. Qi recovered passively, the fastest when one stood still. And Neave¡¯s reserves recovered rtively quickly, given how tiny they were. Once his spirit had healed, and his qi reserves were serviceable, he returned to his spirit realm. Neave smiled and got to experimenting. He focused, and soon enough, a shimmering, beautiful cloud of glittery white mist surrounded him. Wow, now that is beautiful. He could feel it slowly shifting around him and settling into the realm. The first time Neave tried using ethereal spirit, he assumed it did nothing since it disappeared. Now it was time to give a more honest attempt at manipting it. He triedyering liquid spirit over it, to no sess. Neave sighed. Out of all three forms of spirit, ethereal spirit was the one he had the greatest expectations of, and those expectations had been thoroughly crushed so far. He was still confident it must have some uses that he hadn¡¯t discovered yet. Neave chose first to do some recon around his spirit realm. It was truly tiny. The mega-abominid alone took up almost ten percent of all the space within his realm. Well, that wasn¡¯t strictly true. His spirit realm didn¡¯t necessarily have ¡®borders¡¯ or ¡®limits,¡¯ but the further he went from the center, the less stable it became. At first, this was just a strong sense of unease andck of control over his spirit manifestation, but very quickly, the floor and objects turned immaterial and began morphing. This was when he would start taking damage to his spirit. Neave went over to recheck the border, trying to measure precisely how much space he had. The moment he approached the unstable area, he frowned. That¡­ What? Something was off. His spirit realm felt stable up to a bit further out than usual. ¡°Ohohoho, don¡¯t tell me.¡± He giggled and materialized more ethereal spirit. It fluttered and whirled around in the air as the spirit realm greedily absorbed it. The stable area extended just a bit further once again. Chapter 41: Decoration Chapter 41: Decoration Neave had done quite a bit of experimenting within his spirit realm. Among the first things he did, he tested his spirit realm to see how powerful the time dtion was. He used the method of throwing a stone into the air, entering the spirit realm, and leaving after some time to see how much the stone had moved. Neave was bewildered at how much greater the time dtion was than he expected. He thought it would be ten or twenty times at most, but his tests showed that it was more like tens of thousands of times faster. This wasn¡¯t right. His current theory was that the time dtion wasn¡¯t the same for entering voluntarily as it was for getting forced into the spirit realm by a trial. Other than that, he had done an absolute ton of renovation. Neave kept pouring ethereal spirit into his realm to test how massive he could make it. There seemed to be no limit. But there was an unusual phenomenon happening in the outer reaches. It was getting less substantial. At first, the expanding spirit realm looked like the starting area of the loop realm. But slowly, as it expanded, it merely resembled the loop realm. It had the same characteristics, randomly strewn about pools of liquids, chasms, and obsidian growth, but it wasn¡¯t representative of what the realm looked like. Eventually, this became an eerily repetitive pattern of chasm, bush, pool, chasm, bush, pool, chasm, and so on. Then it turned into a rtively t surface with the asional bush and pool here and there. And finally, it became just a continuous, t, rust-red surface that stretched indefinitely. Neave ran out quite far, hoping to find something, but there was little point. It was a freaky phenomenon. Neave ran out to the border area again; this time, he had a theory to test. Neave focused liquid spirit, and as it morphed, he allowed it to solidify into whatever it wanted. It eventually turned into a stone. Neave took that stone and haphazardly threw it out into the unstable zone. Then he manifested more ethereal spirit. Oh yeah, that¡¯s the stuff. asionally, a replica of the boulder appeared outward from where Neave threw the stone. Neave had a hunch that the new areas created by expanding his spirit realm were based on the shape and substance of the stable area bordering the zone. He was right. The further out this went, the less and less this impacted the newly created areas. Even with this boulder, for example, the replicas appeared less frequently until they ceased appearing altogether. Neave had spent much time experimenting with everything he could think of within the spirit realm. He had discovered a lot of helpful information. First, he didn¡¯t have spirit powers inside the realm. He already knew this, but he discovered something of a catch. He didn¡¯t have things like fire breath, the ability to absorb everything by eating it or rapidly regenerating muscles. But. Although his body inside the realm was entirely void of spirit powers, that didn¡¯t mean that those spirit powers did not affect the manifestation of his spirit. For example, although he didn¡¯t have absorb, he still had the physique he had acquired through absorbing a ton of monster meat. In the same vein, while he didn¡¯t have troll muscle, he did have muscles that had grown and strengthened with the help of troll muscle¡¯s regeneration power. This meant that if powers could directly alter his true physical form, they could trante into additional strength within the spirit realm. This was critical information. Another thing he discovered was that there was no such thing as fatigue within the realm. He could perform any physical activity he wanted, and it would never result in a feeling of tiredness. The qi he possessed within the spirit realm, or as he called it, ¡®fake qi,¡¯ was also technically inexhaustible. While he did have a limited capacity, once he expended that, all he had to do was close his eyes, and it would fill right back up to full. This didn¡¯t work within spirit trials. He was a hundred percent confident of that. He wasn¡¯t sure whether there was such a thing as ¡®fake life force¡¯ within this realm. He sensed nothing within his spirit manifestation body. Either way, getting real life force and qi into this realm was possible, but it worked entirely differently from how it did in reality. Pushing life force into his spirit just affected his spirit manifestation, be it by boosting its performance or recovering damage. Pouring qi into his realm wasn¡¯t possible if it was just qi alone, but it was possible ifbined with life force in the form of spirit. He hypothesized that something like his ¡®potential of experimentation¡¯ trick was possible, but he couldn¡¯t figure it out. Next up, he discovered that the things his liquid spirit transformed into were objects he had encountered or interacted with. He could force these objects to take a slightly different form than they appeared in initially, but this was somewhat limited. He also couldn¡¯t manifest objects like spirit cores, regretfully. Well, he actually could, but they weren¡¯t spirit cores. They were just some form of crystalline imitation. Many things were just imitations that he could manifest. Anything living, like a nt, or food, could also be made, but these weren¡¯t organic matter. The nts felt fake, even if they looked the same as their real-world equivalent. He even managed to manifest small animals and monsters. But they were just inanimate objects that looked precisely like living things but were anything but. Their insides were made of vague red material that felt stiff and moist. Ew. There was another crucial discovery he had made. He could manifest liquids. And a lot while he was at it. He could make entirekes of water if he wanted to, and not just that, he could also create acid pools. Neave could manifest things like ice orva; surprisingly enough, they behaved exactly as their real-world equivalent, even melting and cooling. Even hurting the way they would in reality. Now his mind was spinning with ideas. What about covering his entire spirit realm inva? Would that mean invading spirits would get boiled alive? Or he could cover every inch of everything inrge, sharp spikes. He began pushing his experimentation further. A lot further. One of the more insane things he had done was create the entire Zearthorn library. He managed to manifest the entire building with all the books on the first floor. The second, third, and fourth floors were also filled with books, but these books were empty. At least he had seen the library''s second floor before, but the third and fourth floors were entirely made up. These floors looked precisely as Neave imagined they would, but in the end, this was just his imagination. Imagination was one hell of a thing, given that the second floor smelled like sweat. Neave spent his qi, so he had to go outside and wait a while to recover it. Once he recovered, he went right back inside. There was so much he wanted to try with this realm, but he focused on things he would put into practice the moment he left. He nned to transform his spirit realm into a ce to give him an absolute advantage over the monsters. He wasn¡¯t confident whether all his crazy ideas would work, but he had some that were so unhinged that they could turn spirit trials into a joke. These ideas included making himself a nice tower while covering everything inva, wrapping every inch of every surface with spikes, making himself a massive mountain or incline, and rolling boulders downhill at the approaching monsters. These were all rtively mildpared to some of the truly crazy ideas. He wasn¡¯t sure whether they would really work, however. Such a cheap trick could get many smaller monsters, but he would need a gigantic boulder to handle the mega abominid. Ultimately, he wasn¡¯t sure whether the monsters would somehow even out the odds by manipting the spirit realm. He was confident that he could at least substantially boost his victory odds. If anything, manifesting some sort of armor and a decent weapon was already an improvement. And if death traps don¡¯t work, perhaps a maze would. Something to keep the monsters separated so he could handle them one at a time. Neave had already tried manifesting a better weapon and armor. He was sessful with the weapon as he manifested the nice steel sword he took from Kame, but the armor was a different story. The best he could do was manifest the armor he had seen others wearing. He never wore armor himself. Neave didn¡¯t know how it felt or how tough it could be. Also, he couldn¡¯t quite imagine armor that could fit him properly. It was frustrating and something he would have to handle once he was back outside in the real world. For now, he did everything he could to push this discovery to its limits. He could expand the spirit realm into forests if he nted a fake tree or two and padded the floor with grass. He could also make oceans of water,va, and valleys of spikes. His goal was to prepare the spirit realm for a test run. His anxiety exploded as he reached closer and closer to his goal of testing it in action. Neave had settled for a hybrid of some of the ideas he had. He created argeke of acid which he preferred tova. In the middle of this acidke, he built an exceptionally thick metal fortress lined with so many spikes it looked like an iron hedgehog. He didn¡¯t create this in a single go, but he had to painstakingly construct it bit by bit. He had never seen a massive fortress of spiky iron, so he couldn¡¯t imagine exactly what it would look like. Theke of acid also contained countless sharp metallic spikes. These spikes weren¡¯t exactly reaching into the sky but only a bit beneath the surface. The acid wasn¡¯t eating away at them since Neave had just imagined the ones he had seen already at the bottoms of acidkes within the loop. Neave had also constructed a massive, thick pole of stone that he ced right on top of his aggressive fortress. He would push it by pulling out its support and hopefully make it fall right on top of the mega-abominid. No matter how many crazy ideas he had and how many of those ideas he put into reality, he always seemed to have more stuffing to mind. What about ballistae? He could create those and line every wall to have them shoot out. What about traps? What about some sort of cannon or catapult or trebuchet? What if he loaded those with spiky metal balls that contained shredded ss or something else lethal? ss! Why didn¡¯t he just fill the entire realm with broken ss and have it embedded into the bodies of the monsters!? Why didn¡¯t he make all the spikes out of ss so they would break and get stuck in their bodies? Why didn¡¯t he freeze everything over? Why didn¡¯t he hang a ton of boulders on some structure and then drop them down to the ground like meteorites? Why didn¡¯t he make holes in the ground that would extend to the border beneath the surface? Would that work? Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t even work if he didn¡¯t defeat the creatures inside the spirit realm. No matter how many things came to mind, there were new ideas, tactics, strategies, materials, methods, and approaches that he could employ and abuse. But before he put any of that into practice, he decided to just go for it. He could already defeat the trial even without all of this stuff. Now all he had to do was a test to see how well it did in practice. Chapter 42: Apex Prey Chapter 42: Apex Prey Neave left his incredibly chaotic spirit realm and stretched. While he had quite a bit of time within the spirit realm, he had to leave asionally to let his qi recover. This time, Neave stretched a bit and looked around. He was still safe, at least for now. Neave wasn¡¯t sure he was entirely hidden from those creatures while in here. Perhaps they couldn¡¯t reach him, but what if they were still looking? Could they possibly just dig through the wall and get to him? As a matter of fact, should he hide his spirit? Perhaps they could sense it and start making their way here. For now, although it hadn¡¯t been that long, Neave had still spent quite a while in this realm. He was rather d that this was what he decided to experiment on, as this potentially had the highest immediate benefits out of all the other things he could think of. If his n worked, he could have as many spirit powers as he had the time to absorb. But he wasn¡¯t going to be doing that. At least not haphazardly. Getting a lot of spirit powers wasn¡¯t bad, but it wasn¡¯t that simple, either. Some spirit powers could interfere with one another, and others could be outright detrimental. It was best to approach this whole situation carefully. After spending some time just letting himself recover and preparing for the spirit trial, hebed through his powers to decide what to do next. Logically speaking, either evolving troll physique, steel nervous system, or crystal cardiovascr system made the most sense for real-world application, but he wasn¡¯t focusing on that. He wanted to push his newly discovered method to its absolute limit. Which naturally meant evolving absorb¡ªnothing like a gigantic abominid to test whether his new approach would work in practice. Once he felt he had recovered enough, Neave evolved absorb and started another spirit trial. Neave found himself inside his spirit realm, exactly where he had left it. His spirit manifestation felt a little different, however. There was a clear difference in how he felt when entering this ce voluntarily and being forcefully dragged inside. Neave felt the ground shaking. The iron fortress he constructed was entirely blocked off from the outside. The way he went in and out was by using a movement technique. He could hear a vague noiseing from the outside, most likely the screeching of the gigantic abominid. He waited in the ball of metal, and nothing happened. This peace was interrupted when everything shook. The metal fortress Neave was cooped up in had bent inwards as something struck it from the outside. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate as he ran away. It was right on time, given that the impossibly massive abominid was in the middle of a much greater second swing. The rge stone pir¡¯ he had prepared to knock over on the abominid was less than a third of its height. It was also already shattered to pieces. As the tremendous swing crushed the iron fortress, a tsunami of acid rushed toward Neave. He used a movement technique to appear behind it andnd on the surface of the acidke again. Sshes of acid made contact with his skin. This did quite a bit of damage to his spirit manifestation. Neave ran around and avoided the gigantic abominid in as wide a berth as he could manage. The steel golem and the crystal golem were mostly fine. Nothing else was alive anymore. Neave cackled in delight. His insane idea was working! It worked! Although the stupidly massive abominid was causing a stir and annihting his structure, it was also in rather dire straits. The acidke around it was filled with blood and guts as the spikes cut it up from underneath, and the acid melted its insides. It was a sight to behold. Its movements were already growing weaker, and eventually, it stopped moving. Its entire body dissolved into a massive cloud of ethereal smoke. The steel and crystal golems were not giving up so quickly, however. The steel golem was taking some damage from the acid, but the crystal golem was entirely okay. Neave had to be honest with himself. He hadpletely forgotten about the crystal golem and had nothing prepared for it. Oh well. Luckily the slime champion was gone because that thing was a menace. The giant metal and crystal golems were a joke inparison, especially as both were partially submerged and stuck between spikes. Neave gloated as the steel golem had no shards of rock to send flying at him, and he gloated even harder as the crystal golem struggled to push its crystal shards through the acidke. What a monumental sess. This was the most significant step he had ever taken to surpass the limits of ordinary cultivators. Now it was time to take over the world. He may be getting ahead of himself. He returned to experimenting. *** Neave spent some time evolving his spirit powers as many times as he could and gouged what all of them did. He no longer cared for the optimal order since he was confident that he could quickly evolve all of them. He wasn¡¯t particrly stressed out about it since he didn¡¯t have to limit himself to these spirit powers anymore. Neave had gone through as many evolutions as he could, and these were the results. Troll muscle had, of course, gone to troll physique, and then afterward, it evolved into superior troll physique. It was a decent power, but it was just troll physique but better, effectively. Steel nervous system had evolved first into the version that allowed for extreme nerve memory and afterward became thunder nerves. It was an ability that gave Neave a significant boost to physical ability. It forced his muscles to go far above what they usually would. This was one example of a detrimental spirit power. Most cultivators would effectively be killing themselves if they forced such a boost. Neave contemted this one. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be the worstbined with superior troll physique? He would think about it. Next up was absorb. It evolved into integrate. It was a power that could allow Neave to absorb things more readily and incorporate them into his body with greater ease. This effectively meant that energy from all his food wouldn¡¯t be wasted but stored somehow until it reached capacity. Perhaps it also had other uses, but this was not the most impressive upgrade. Absorb was already good enough on its own, and most of the stuff integrate allowed wasn¡¯t much extra power anyway. Maybe if Neave wanted to push the absorption to an extreme, this upgrade would be useful. Next, the crystal cardiovascr system evolved into stasis. Neave could choose a time and freeze all of his bodily functions for the selected period. He could be a rock that looked like a human. Neave couldn¡¯t think of any possible use for something like this. Perhaps, if he wanted to just sleep for a long time? Maybe if he froze deep underground, only to dramatically reemerge thousands of yearster? He shrugged. He may find a use for it eventually. Neave tried evolving shapeshifting too. He seeded, but the slime champion had be something truly terrifying. It was still rtively weak to acid, but not enough to stop it from reaching the fortress. And when it hit the fortress, it did more damage than the gigantic abominid. Yeah, no. I¡¯m not fucking around with that thing. Neave doubled down on the acid so this horrid creature wouldn¡¯t pummel his spirit into dust. He didn¡¯t dare evolve the ability a second time, either. It wasn¡¯t worth it anyway, it seemed. The evolved version was also shapeshifting, but the maximum size he could shapeshift into and the minimum size was much more significant now. He could grow over three meters tall and shrink to less than twenty centimeters. The range of things he could transform into and the features he could adopt changed slightly as well. The problem was that this size was little more than just a show. The further he went from his actual proper form, the less of his true strength he could showcase in battle. So it wasn¡¯t nearly as valuable as it may initially seem. The ability to modify specific body parts sounded pretty decent, however. Neave evolved the hyper liver ability next. This also had very underwhelming results. It just made his liver even faster, which wasn¡¯t helpful in any way, shape, or form. He evolved it twice more, adding another gigantic abominid to the fight, but all it evolved into were drastically faster versions of itself. If Neave shifted his body to put his head to his stomach, he could hear a faint buzzing sound with how fast his liver was. Hard kidneys, however, were a big surprise. It evolved into durable organs. All of his inner organs were much tougher now. That wasn¡¯t bad at all. This type of power could go for a lot of cash if sold as a monster core. The odds of dying from internal injuries in battle went down drastically with this power. Evolving it another time resulted in the same effect but stronger. Right back to unexciting. Pure blood was next. It evolved into something Neave could only describe as sacred blood. Well, it was¡­ It was hard to tell what this ability did, even for Neave. But he was pretty confident something about his blood was no longer so limited. Again, what this meant was beyond Neave¡¯s current understanding. He evolved the power again and felt yet anotheryer of limits vanish. How mysterious. He reached fire breath. It first evolved into ignite. He could boost his body¡¯s energy expenditure and acquire a bonus to physical abilities. This used the same fuel source as his fire breath. Neat, even if a little unexpected. Neave prepared himself to evolve the ability again. He entered his spirit realm as the trial started. ¡°Oh fuck my ass.¡± Great, the giant lizard has evolved intoa heavensdamned dragon! How convenient! Neave ran as fast as he humanly could. He didn¡¯t bother with fortifications anymore, given that the mass of gigantic abominids and super-powered golems was way too much for any of his defenses. Usually, his strategy just came down to running until everything that would die on its own died and then finishing the rest very carefully. Now he was being chased by a dragon. And this dragon didn¡¯t need to lower itself to a swim in the acid pool. At first, Neave used a movement technique to move on top of the acidke and ran as far as he could. This took a long time, and he couldn¡¯t afford to blow all of his qi running from one monster. Eventually, Neave used a movement technique and managed to get the dragon by surprise. He was sure that doing real damage to it was still beyond his abilities, but he didn¡¯t need to aim for anything exceptionally sturdy. Neave appeared right beneath its wing and took a decent cut at it. He used another movement technique to get out of the way of its breath attack and then watched the dragon slowly descend into the acidke as it struggled to keep itself airborne. Neave left the dragon to its boiling and shredding while he ran back to take care of the golems. They were both rather massive, but this didn¡¯t make them more challenging as opponents. Neave was sure it would be a different story if they weren¡¯t stuck at the bottom of an acidke and jammed between countless spikes. Technically, half of their head was still poking out from above the water, or rather, acid level. Neave wailed on their heads to finish the golems off. He still had to be extremely careful with the crystals the crystal golem was shooting. Any random shard could take a limb off. While he still had plenty of life force, the spirit damage could be too much for him. Neave was shocked at how little of his life force reserve he had gone through. He knew he had a lot, but he didn¡¯t expect the reserve tost this long, let alone still be holding this strong. Granted, he didn¡¯t use the life force for much besides injecting spirit into his realm, but even then, he seemed to have an endless ocean of it. After hours of true strike after true strike to the golems¡¯ foreheads, both of them stopped moving and dissipated into smoke. Since the trial had ended, Neave thought it was fair to assume that the dragon was also down for the count. The ignite ability had evolved into¡­ Dragon breath? This was the first time Neave had seen a spirit power change course and then steer back to what it used to be. If this were possible, maybe troll physique would be worth evolving again, even if the resulting monster would undoubtedly be too much unless Neave made a whole otheryer of preparations. He gave a go to dragon breath. It was mighty. With a single breath, he turned the entire side of the cave into a pool ofva. Neave was pretty happy with the information he had gathered about the spirit powers. Now it was time to either choose something else to experiment on or¡­ Thud¡­ Crack¡­ Neave turned around. Right behind him, a wall was starting to fall apart. A crack appeared. And a toothy tentacle made its way inside. Chapter 43: Extinguish Chapter 43: Extinguish Neave wasn¡¯t surprised to see the wall break open. He felt it was merely a matter of time until they found him. Did he perhaps help their efforts by incinerating the entire side of a cave? Nah, no way. Either way, there were a few things he still wanted to try before having to go back. He contemted dodging through the hordes of demons and hiding somewhere again. ¡­ Actually, that was a great idea. He should totally do that. The wall finally came crashing down, and Neave rushed at his assants. They may be tough and fast, but he had a new collection of spirit powers to y with. However, even though he rushed at them and boosted his perception of time to its maximum, it felt like there was little use. He punched and kicked, but they wrapped their tentacles around him and sank their teeth into him. He wasn¡¯t doing much damage to them, but they were barely even hurting him. Sure, their spikes, ws, and fangs could temporarily damage his skin, but that was almost instantly recovered with superior troll physique. What bothered him was how deprived of options he felt in this fight. He was quickly overwhelmed and wrapped up in a cocoon of dark tendrils. The little he could still see through the mass of wriggling limbs revealed several more of these things entering the room. Neave wanted to st them away with his dragon breath, but that wouldn¡¯t be much use. They were right on top of him, so if anything, he would just kill himself by doing that. Instead, he decided to calm down and think of his options. He had the time, given that they struggled to do anything substantial to him. He didn¡¯t even take a few seconds to think. Neave steamed a bit, and he shrunk. He used a movement technique inside of the writhing mass of bodies and appeared outside it. ¡°Say cheers, you creepy fucks!¡± Neave opened his mouth wide, and fire flooded the entire room. The creatures surprisingly survived the st, even if they weren¡¯t far from death. It was merely a matter of a few well-delivered true strikes to finish them off. Neave had a moment of reprieve, but soon enough, he heard wailinging further down the cave. He was going to try his luck with one of the walls to see whether he would appear on the other side, but he didn¡¯t feel like doing that. As he ran his mind over his options, he quickly realized potential uses for his new spirit powers. Neave ran straight through the hole and into the writhing mass of demons. He burned a bit of life force, not to boost his strength or regeneration but rather to help maintain the integrity of his body. Next up, he triggered ignite and felt an intense rush of fire rushing through his veins. He thought this would do him much more damage, but surprisingly enough, thebination of spirit powers he had almost wholly handled the side effects of the boost. He wasn¡¯t expecting that at all, but he quickly adapted and triggered thunder nerves as well while he was at it. Neave shot out at impossible speed, firing like an arrow at the horde of monsters. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep up with his speed if not for his elerated perception of time. That usually wouldn¡¯t be a problem for someone at a higher cultivation level, but Neave didn¡¯t yet have such a luxury. Once he approached the monsters, he struck. He didn¡¯t use true strikes. Regrettably, the pile of boosts changed his abilities enough to make executing true strikes too tricky. It also surprisingly didn¡¯t matter even a little bit. His life-force-imbued punches were like boulders fired from a catapult, pulverizing any flesh it made contact with. The creatures were slippery and flexible, which significantly reduced the effective damage he did. It barely mattered, however. Punch after punch sent shockwaves that threatened to copse the cave around him, obliterating the demons in his way. Neave couldn¡¯t believe the sheer power he was disying. Thebination of ignite and thunder nerves would usually be a ridiculously self-destructivebo, especiallybined with his intense life force expenditure. But thebination of crystal veins, superior troll physique, and durable organs made these consequences negligible. Shockingly so. Neave suspected that something else was ying a role in the sheer efficiency of the boost, but he didn¡¯t have the time to think about it. Slowly as he got into the groove, he adjusted to his perception and managed to use true strikes. He could only use one true strike effectively in this state, which was the fastest punch he knew. Even though it was the fastest true strike he could execute, it still seemed like his fist was moving in slow motion as he threw the punches out. That simply wasn¡¯t an effective strategy. He sacrificed a lot of attack speed to get just a bit of extra damage into his attacks. He discarded true strikes for now and resorted to punching as hard as possible. He made his way through the cave, systematically disassembling the creatures in his way as he left copsing ceilings and walls behind. The thick obsidian growth crumbled far before he reached it under the sheer intensity of the shockwaves. The ceiling cracked open in one of the caverns, letting out a flood of ck liquid into the space. Neave ran away as fast as he could and eventually made it out of the caves and up above into the open ins. There were a lot of demons and they were everywhere. The silver lining was that they were scattered at least, but Neave couldn¡¯t believe the numbers. There was a legion of them. He kept his ignite running for a while, but eventually, the fuel that the ability used ran out, and he was left with much less power. Neave hadn¡¯t realized just how big of a role that spirit power yed in the fight, but judging by how much weaker he felt, it was pretty significant. He gritted his teeth and invested several times as many punches into each demon, feeling the additional strain of taking them out. As he felt himself growing weaker, he also felt himself growing¡­ Faster. He didn¡¯t necessarily feel like his speed was what was increasing, but instead, he used it far better. It felt like his arms and legs were moving independently of one another, allowing him to get far more strikes in than he could just a while back. Soon enough, he spun and felt the resonant whistle of his fist traveling into the body of one of the demons. By far, this was the fastest true strike he could execute. The bonus damage was minuscule, given the incredible speed of the strike itself, but that didn¡¯t bother Neave at all. True strikes caused no fatigue after all. And at this speed, Neave barely felt the strain on his spirit. A giant demon jumped at Neave, and he watched the world twist as his perception sped up. He threw a punch at its face, three punches at its left arm, seventeen punches at its chest, fourteen punches at its stomach, and then focused on its center, dishing out seventy punches in a row. All of this happened in under a second. The demon exploded under the umted force and scattered its gore over thendscape. A fat grin was spread right over Neave¡¯s face. He felt genuinely invincible. Eventually, he started slowing down. Not because he didn¡¯t have a choice but rather because his life force reserves were finally dropping. He was slowly umting more and more wounds, but just as quickly as he received them, they vanished under the rapid regeneration effect of his superior troll physique. Neave thought he could keep going like this until he was fully drained, but something strange happened. The demons suddenly began cannibalizing one another. Neave felt the instinctive desire to stand there and stare dramatically but got hold of himself. This wasn¡¯t good news, no matter how he thought about it. He used the opportunity to get the demons while they were weak, but there were simply far too many to stop all of them. Neave felt a chill move down his spine, and he spun to block an iing attack. With immense force, a massive tentacle flew at him, and he was knocked back into another strike. Neither of them did any substantial damage, but they kept him upied for a few seconds. ???????????? It sounded as if a million abominds were screeching their lungs out, and the sheer volume of the sound dazed Neave. Everywhere around thendscape, massive masses of toothy tentacles sprouted like demented nts. Another one of these tentacles shot out toward Neave, and he used a movement technique to get out of the way. Once hended back on the surface, Neave broke off branch after branch and threw them at the tentacles from a distance¡ªnot enough damage. He kept setting himself up for slower true strikes, but he was struck by something he couldn¡¯t even see whenever he got into position. Some of these bigger creatures were also consuming one another, and Neave was helpless to stop them from doing so. As he bounced around through the air, tentacles failing to get a solid grip on him, he saw the mass of writhing tentacles shrinking. ¡°Oh, fucking hell.¡± What walked out of it was a roughly humanoid mass of writhing limbs, teeth, and eyes. When something monstrous started looking more humanoid, that was never a good sign. This was no exception. The demon shot toward Neave, morphing through the air until it reached him. It mmed Neave, and he flew to the ground. He bounced right back up and got himself smashed again. On his next bounce back up, he opened his jaw wide and bit right down on one of its limbs. It couldn¡¯t push him away now. Neave threw punch after punch at it, but it felt useless. It was like striking a mushy cloud. All of the force just slipped through the mass of slippery limbs. Neave wished he didn¡¯t blow all of the fuel from ignite. If he hadn¡¯t, he could have used dragon breath now, which would have been oh-so-convenient. Neave and the demon plummeted to the ground, the demon wildly swinging its tentacles in futile attempts to get Neave off. Neave didn¡¯t have a reliable weapon or source of damage to handle this thing, and it couldn¡¯t finish him off, no matter what it tried. The fight dragged on for far too long. Was he trapped? He shrunk and escaped. Was he bitten? He healed in seconds. Didrge spikes pierce through him? No damage was done to his organs, and the wound healed in seconds. Neave had acquired the ultimate cockroach power set. Now if only he had anything he could use offensively against this thing. He eventually released the bite on the tentacle and continued the brawl. Yet again, he found himself in the same situation of cockroach bitchpping back and forth that went nowhere. Neave was technically running low on energy, but it wasn¡¯t a problem. He didn¡¯t need qi since he didn¡¯t need to rely on movement techniques, and he wasn¡¯t burning life force to regenerate but was instead relying on the superior troll physique spirit power. All the attacks he executed were true strikes, which meant he was barely growing exhausted. This couldn¡¯t continue forever, though. Neave was far from being genuinely immortal, and this time he wasn¡¯t sure that his opponent had any limits to its stamina. Worse yet was the fact that several other masses of writhing limbs were also forming simr creatures. Neave pondered his options. Perhaps he could evolve another spirit power mid-fight? But most of them would be useless or present a considerable challenge in the spirit trial. That wasn¡¯t going to work. Slow true strike, perhaps? No time to execute one. Maybe just concentrate all the life force he could into one big attack? That would both be suicidal and also probably wouldn¡¯t do much. He decided to give it a shot anyway. Neave lit up in crimson mes and sted toward the demon. The punchnded, and the writhing mass of limbs flew away, breaking through countless sharp obsidian bushes across thendscape. Once it finally stopped tumbling, it got up and ran back toward Neave. As it ran closer to him, it was apparent that it didn¡¯te out of that unscathed. Surprisingly enough, Neave was still in one piece, even though he felt the consequences of doing that. Neave broke off the nicest-looking branch he could find. He got into a stance and bent his knee a bit. He pushed out with all his force and fired off the attack technique Marven taught him. Well, that did jack shit. He didn¡¯t even really know what he expected. Even if it was impressive, that was still just a qi technique executed by someone at the start of the foundation realm. After he triggered the technique, another demon ran at him and kicked him in the side. Neave flew through thendscape, much like the demon did before, but it did a far greater number on Neave. His wounds healed incredibly quickly as he invested a bit of life force in helping the process along. He was running low on life force. The first demon ran at him again. Neave opened his jaws wide and triggered a true strike bite. He wasn¡¯t sure whether this caught the demon off guard, but it allowed him to take a solid bite out of it. He swallowed the piece of flesh and felt it int??????????????????????grating with h??????????????? ????????????? ??? ???IN?UIS? The omnipot??? L L L ia??? RS. F?????DING off ???ir li??. ???y Mu?? TTTTTTTT?????? ???IN?UI??D All of them must Tbe ex?inguished. The righteous li?ars must TTTTTTTTbe extermina?ed. The sinners must be crush????d And all that they had created muste crumbling down. No. Neave¡¯s eyes snapped open. He was trapped, and several demons were doing their best to chew his limbs off. Little progress was being made. You¡¯re wrong. It is not all that must be annihted. Neave lit up with a crimson me, and golden mist gathered around him. Only that which I decide. The two energiesbined and started emitting a bright shine. Only that shall be extinguished. TTTTTTestart Chapter 44: No Weakness, No Limit, No compromise Chapter 44: No Weakness, No Limit, Nopromise In the headquarters of the Onyx Scorpion sect, a sweaty elder finished his report to the sect master. The sect master was utterly befuddled. He got up off his chair and violently threw it at the wall, shattering it into countless splinters. ¡°Why!? Why!? Why!? WHY!?¡± He repeatedly screamed, each new ¡®why¡¯ intonated differently. One was angry, another scared, then anxious, stressed, confused, and joyful. The elder started to suspect that the sect master might be losing it. ¡°Why, just why?¡± The sect master had heard the report. He was beyond confused. As far as he was concerned, this was a ploy by the Emperium sect. This ¡®neighboring young master¡¯ was almost definitely an elder in disguise. A true strike and some sort of teleportation spirit power, not to mention skill that far surpassed any young child. There were two problems, however. If an elder of the Emperium sect had struck his daughter with a true strike, she would be dead. The less initiated members of the sect believed that the choice of weaponry saved her life. In reality, even a dry stick would have turned her head into a fine mist. And this person also had some form of teleportation spirit power. If it weren¡¯t for the discrepancy with the true strike, he would be fully confident that this was merely a ploy by Emperium. Now he didn¡¯t know what the hell to believe. Perhaps he should visit this new ¡®neighboring sect¡¯ and see for himself¡­ *** The capital of the Yixine empire was divided into three circles. These three circles reflected the strata of power between sects, but this didn¡¯t mean that higher powers had no interest in the middle and outeryers of the capital. Merchant groups were particrly interested in keeping an eye out for up-anding sects that could rise in power in the future. Crystal Pce was easily among the top three wealthiest and most powerful. They had severalrge stores in the capital''s outer circle. These stores were designed in the form of towers. Every single floor higher required stricter qualifications to even step into. There was an open floor at the top of the ridiculously tall towers. Technically, this floor was avable to everyone. Everyone that could get to it, that was. Crystal Pce were the greatest experts on monster cores and naturally had the most knowledge on spirit powers. The tower''s outer walls were a carefully designed sequence of traps, golems, and trials that could not be cheesed with convenient spirit powers. Even flying to the top of the tower took a lot of work. On this floor sat a man. He was a rtively refined person. His robes were ornate in glittery crystal, but they weren¡¯t distastefully opulent. He gave off an aura of civility and seemed like goodpany. The wind barrier around him prevented the harsh winds from disrupting his tea time. It wasn¡¯t rare per se for him to have visitors. Most individuals on the golden path could make their way to the top of the tower. The problem was that it was neither easy nor safe, so those who chose to visit only did so when they truly required his services. And even for very extravagant business deals, the tower''s top floors were usually enough. Just as he was about to take another sip of his tea, a familiar individual appeared at the tower''s edge. It was a tall young man wearing gaudy golden robes, his shiny green hair tied back into a ponytail. He wore a haughty expression on his face. Before the young man could settle, the merchant sitting and drinking tea threw the cup at him. The boy effortlessly moved out of the cup¡¯s way and retorted. ¡°Kalen, that is highly inappropriate behavior for a man of your status.¡± ¡°Oh, suck my ass, Dukean! Hundreds of times, I¡¯ve told you and your father I¡¯m uninterested. When will you give up!?¡± ¡°We will give up when we¡¯ve been rejected a thousand times.¡± ¡°Alright then, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse¡­¡± ¡°Those all count as one refusal.¡± ¡°Why!?¡± ¡°Because I said so.¡± Kalen groaned. Almost all of the more prominent sects had merchant groups under their wing. These merchant groups could not prosper on the highest level since otherrge sects refused to do business with them. Thus, the most influential merchant groups were usually entirely independent. All except one. Emperium had a merchant group that could rival the otherrgest groups. They managed this by cutting themselves off from other merchants and holding a monopoly on the markets of the settlements under their possession. The Emperor usually never allowed for something like this due to the harm it would bring the people, but Emperium wasn¡¯t gouging their prices. They operated by overbuying and underselling. Usually, this would be an awful way to do business, but Emperium wasn¡¯t interested in a thriving merchant group. They merely used it as a tool to increase prosperity within their settlements. Even if they did operate at a loss, a more prosperous settlement meant more taxes. Yet, they didn¡¯t have very high taxes either. The modus operandi of the Emperium sect was to keep their value in the form of developed settlements and influential people. This seemed like a beautiful way to lord. It was wonderful to those who failed to realize that Emperium owned almost everything and everyone under their protection. People failed to realize it because Emperium did their best never to abuse this and bring harm to those under their wing. Everyone with power understood that this was only a perfect arrangement for as long as Emperium didn¡¯t want to or need to use their property. Once the time to step up and im what¡¯s theirs arrived, nobody could stop them. And sadly, they wouldn¡¯t even have the right to. This young master was the son of the sect master of the Emperium sect. And he hade to try and buy Kalen off for the umpteenth time. ¡°Please, if you have juste here to harass me again, leave.¡± ¡°I havee here to do business.¡± ¡°Rejected. I am not making an exception to the embargo just for a brat.¡± ¡°Not even for this?¡± Dukean pulled out a small crystal from his dimension ring and threw it at Kalen. Kalen wasn¡¯t impressed. From a nce, he could tell it was only about high C grade in shape and not even bronze rank. The moment he caught the crystal, he almost crushed it in surprise. ¡°Where¡­ Where did you get this?¡± Dukean grinned. ¡°I got lucky!¡± ¡°Damn fucking right, you got lucky, you brat.¡± The core he was holding held a simple power. Enhanced beauty. To most people, such a core would seem like the most nd and underwhelming spirit power in existence. However, such power was beyond precious to those in the higher echelons of society. Monsters weren¡¯t known for their pretty looks. Acquiring such a power was exceptionally rare. Those who lived at the peak could afford a perfectly optimized set of spirit powers. Being weak wasn¡¯t a problem for those with money. But only so much could be done when one was ugly. Sure, walking down the path and certain treasures could undoubtedly help. But for someone like Kalen¡¯s daughter, only a miracle could save them. The anxiety of a parent for the future of their children wasn¡¯t something to be underestimated. It would be a shame to have her ept so much spiritual interference for a power like this, but¡­ She was doomed to unhappiness otherwise. ¡°What do you want in return for this core?¡± ¡°Nothing in particr. Consider it a gift. Perhaps I might ask a little favor of you in the future.¡± Dukean smiled. Kalen frowned. It was a deal with the devil. So be it. Kalen sighed and shot Dukean a re. ¡°Just get off my tower.¡± Dukeanughed, waved at Kalen, and jumped off. *** Over at the newly created sect premises, Marven arrived and entered through the door. In the ¡®main hall¡¯ of the tiny building, Harel sat in a corner while Gabrias nervously paced around the room. Gabrias jumped a bit upon seeing Marven but confirming that Neave wasn¡¯t there allowed him to calm down. Marven told him to leave the room, and he approached Harel. She cracked her eyes open a bit and stared directly at him. He didn¡¯t know exactly how to confront her about this issue. Things have gotten moreplicated. ¡°Harel¡­¡± She sighed. Marven continued. ¡°Things have¡­ Indeed. Our situation has gotten ratherplicated.¡± ¡°You tell me¡­¡± She shriveled up a bit and looked down at the ground. Marven continued. ¡°I do not desire to force you to remain within this sect. It will be¡­¡± Harel pulled out several monster cores from behind her and ced them on the floor before Marven. He winced. ¡°I could challenge someone at the golden path if I epted these cores.¡± Marven picked up a few, and he had to nod in agreement. He spoke. ¡°Neave has no desire to hold back on his ns. Some of the things he can do will causeplete chaos.¡± Harel frowned and hesitated, but eventually, she spoke. ¡°Do you¡­ Do you think it¡¯s worth it? Staying with him, that is.¡± Marven braced himself. ¡°I want to tell you to run. To get as far away from here as possible and nevere back. Being involved with us will put you in great danger, no doubt. However¡­¡± He looked torn but steeled his expression and continued, ¡°I¡­ I am not sure there is such a thing as far away enough to avoid the aftermath of what he is nning. Harel, I have no right to request this of you, but I will do so anyway. Remain with us. Neave needs others to help ground him and keep him from spiraling out of control. He isn¡¯t a viin, I¡¯m certain of that much, but if he bes one¡­ That would be truly catastrophic. The most I can give you is an empty promise that you might be safest in the eye of the storm that is toe.¡± Harel nodded, even though she still looked unsure. Marven had no confidence that what he was doing was the right thing, but he was done being a coward. And it was time for him to repay the debt he owed to Neave. Maybe one day, with the power Neave was offering¡­ He could perhaps start repaying some of the other debts he had as well. Marven spent a while just talking to Harel and Gabrias. Gabrias wasn¡¯t rxed yet, but he no longer acted like a knife was constantly at his throat. Marven sensed something and frowned. Their courtyard was rtively small, so they were constantly within range of many cultivators. Marven could sense impressive aurasing and going all the time, so he had grown somewhat habituated to it. That¡¯s why it took him a moment to realize that someone on the third step of the golden path had stepped right into the courtyard. *** Neave opened his eyes. He was awake. It had been a short time since he passed out, which meant his theory was correct. Time inside of the mysterious realm didn¡¯t trante into time outside. He made the mistake of eating the flesh of the creepy things. After he took a bite out of one, he nked out and found himself surrounded. At least he hoped that his self-detonation damaged the monsters and didn¡¯t just leave a crater. He needed to create a name for that ce but was way toozy. He had more important things on his mind. The first thing Neave did was try entering his spirit realm. He no longer sensed that hole, but he knew exactly where the location of that anomaly was. Purely by memory, he located the part of his spirit where he could enter the spirit realm. Neave constructed the liquid spirit bridge and appeared again inside his spirit realm. The same old tiny realm that reflected his time spent in the loop. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate. He began his remodeling, this time with a few fundamental changes. The way he designed the realm initially was alright, but he had a few changes in mind. He quickly ran out of qi, and waiting around seemed pointless. Neave would renovate his spirit realm until he ran out of qi, eat a few monsters to fill up his qi reserves, and return to renovation. The first thing he changed now was that he started by creating a massive mountain of steel in the middle. It wasn¡¯t a mountain per se. It would be more urate to call it a cone. And as far as its size went, it was truly gigantic. Neave didn¡¯t hold back at all. It stretched as far as he could get it to go. The structure itself had a very steep incline. He was going to pack with spikes, but after thinking about it, he made it slippery instead. He would ensure that no matter how many or how big the creatures were, his spirit realm would be a ce where he could dig his nose while he beat the trials. He created what could only be called an ocean of acid surrounding the mountain. This time he omitted the spikes since they didn¡¯t do much. The acid would do just fine. He would have to find a ce where he could buy stronger acid to learn how to manifest more powerful acid inside his spirit realm. Once satisfied with his renovation, Neave evolved his spirit powers one by one. Neave decided to take all of the spirit powers except for stasis, dragon breath, and the super speedy liver. Stasis because the crystal golem was already enough of a pain in the ass, while the power itself wasn¡¯t beneficial, at least not momentarily. The liver was self-exnatory, and dragon breath was¡­ Well. Neave noticed a severe problem with his spirit power set. His offensive capabilities were crap. If he didn¡¯t have a proper weapon, he was rather helpless. This wasn¡¯t necessarily true by any reasonable metric, but Neave had no reason to be reasonable. He decided against taking dragon breath on one basis. When he took these powers in the first ce, he had made apromise. There were going to be no morepromises. The immortal arts would rest upon three core principles. No weaknesses. No limits. Nopromise. Dragon breath came with a limit, a weakness, and apromise. The limity in having only so much fuel, which it had to share with ignite. The weakness was that it couldn¡¯t be used at close range. And thepromisey in the fact that a big-ass annoying dragon got dropped into the spirit trial. There was no reason to ept these terms. Neave would get offensive spirit powers that would be much more potent than a bit of hot spit, and he would get them while picking his nose on the top of the steel mountain. But yeah, everything else added up to quite a bit of power. Perhaps he should rename the immortal arts to ¡®the cockroach arts¡¯ instead. He worried that the steel and crystal golem would have to be dispatched manually. He would be outraged if he had to go down there at the end of every spirit trial just to deal with them. Luckily for him, although it took quite a while of waiting, the acid could, with enough waiting, dispatch them as well. After he was done with his new power acquisition, he tried himself in the caves against a few monsters. It didn¡¯t even look like a challenge. He didn¡¯t encounter any tinum-rank monsters, so he was crushing everything in his path. He noticed that his absorb, or rather, integrate spirit power was doing much better at absorbing the beneficial effects of monster flesh. He wasn¡¯t back to growing incredibly quickly from doing it, but he was back to the benefits being noticeable. The more unusual thing that was happening was the cores. They would still crack and evaporate, but he felt they weren¡¯t just going nowhere. Neave immediately stopped the hunt to check his spirit. He couldn¡¯t sense anything unusual. This was something he would have to exploreter. For now, he decided to wrap up the hunt and go back to the capital. Neave had collected many monster cores. He would pick through thoseter. At first nce, none of them were awe-inspiring. Neave had a rtively simple idea to acquire a few decent cores. He would return to the capital for now and do one thing at a time. After a while of running back, which was going by significantly faster with ignite and thunder nerves, he made it to the capital. He slowed down and shapeshifted into his young master disguise. The moment he reached their new sect premises, Neave frowned. A ck-robed cultivator stood in front of their sect building, apanied by an elderly man. Chapter 45: Decree Chapter 45: Decree Marven walked into the courtyard only to be faced with a ck-robed duo. These were likely elders of the Onyx Scorpion sect or, as he assumed, an elder and the sect master. He didn¡¯t recognize them by looks, but he recognized the spirit of the elderly one. He assumed it was the sect master because this man was on the third step of the golden path. Such a level of cultivation was exceptional, even among rather prominent sects. And he was betting that Neave¡¯s crap from earlier today was why they were here. Marven hid his cultivation from these folk. Gabrias still had the cloaking treasure Marven had granted him. Still, Marven chose to make Gabrias stay behind. Even though they couldn¡¯t tell he was on the bronze path, it was impossible to hide that he was clearly a damn coward. Marven walked out, the sun bouncing off his shiny bald head. He bowed politely and greeted the neers. At this point, Marven remembered their sect didn¡¯t yet have a name. ¡°Greetings, leaders of the Onyx Scorpion sect. I am the elder of¡­¡± Marven racked his brain toe up with a name, ¡°... the Falken sect. May I inquire as to why you grace us with your presence today?¡± The man on the third step of the golden path looked pissed, but Marven kept hisposure quite well. At least in a direct fight, this man was not a threat to Marven. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that a young master from this¡­¡± He looked over the shoddy ¡®courtyard¡¯ and their tiny little building scornfully, ¡°... Sect¡­ Had won a duel against my daughter. I wish to meet him personally and thank him for his guidance.¡± Every word he spoke dripped with venom. At this exceptionally inopportune moment, Neave showed up out of nowhere. The elder jabbed the man in the back a few times, and he turned, only to be greeted by Neave¡¯s theatrics. Neave held himself high and straight with a rxed, distant expression. His demeanor was as if he was dismissing them as less than worms. The sect master waited patiently for him to introduce himself or greet them, but Neave merely cocked his head and asked. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°What do I¡­? Oh, dear elder of the Falken sect, please, do you not teach any manners to your disciples whatsoever?¡± Marven looked ufortable as he could smell Neave was up to no good. ¡°Are you here to challenge me to a duel or whatever?¡± The two men stared at him incredulously. The sheer arrogance of this young man was truly out of this world. ¡°Be careful with your words, young master. One may mistake them for a provocation.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly what it is, old fart, so which of you two will fight me? Both at the same time?¡± Marven spoke up. ¡°I apologize, esteemed leaders. We seem to have beenx with our discipline. Our young master here is quite talented, which may have inspired undue confidence. I apologize on his behalf.¡± ¡°Suck my ass, baldy. They are here to intimidate us! I say we protect the honor of our glorious sect and show them what true warriors look like!¡± Neave was trying his hardest to embody what he imagined to be the picturesque brave young master. One who wouldn¡¯t tolerate an insult even if it came from the gods themselves. This image was heavily skewed by the young masters from fiction he had read. In reality, any teenager that dared act like this was a fool with a limited life span. ¡°Elder! Will you not restrain this rabid brat!? If you allow this to continue, I will be morally obligated to protect the honor of your sect by punishing the brat in your stead!¡± Although the sect master of the Onyx Scorpion sect looked outraged, he was thrilled. Seeing this ¡®sect¡¯ in person dispelled the doubts that this was a ploy by a higher power. If he had to specte, he would say these were probably exiles from a prominent sect, ones that were exiled for their horrendous behavior. Even better was that he was fully justified in punishing them for their insolence. He was unsure how this brat had executed a true strike, but it wasn¡¯t unheard of that someone could identally trigger one, even at the bronze path. It was highly unusual, but all the circumstantial evidence indicated it was a freakish coincidence. Marven wanted to stop Neave from going further but feared the consequences of forcing him to stop. Thest thing he wanted was for Neave to perceive him as an enemy. He feared that, with his mental state, there would be no way to undo that mistake. But there was just no good way to approach this scenario. Should he just let Neave fight them? That was a terrible oue. He didn¡¯t know whether it was worse if he lost or won. It would be disastrous to get implicated in a sect war the moment they established a foothold here. While Marven was confident they would win by the mere virtue of him being on the tinum path, the Onyx Scorpion sect was likely to be suborned to a more prominent sect, and if they came after them as well, things could take a nosedive off a cliff in days. Regardless of how they coped with the conflict, he was confident it wouldn¡¯t be good for Neave¡¯s mental state. While his mind spun, searching for a solution, the leaders of the neighboring sect continued. ¡°I suppose you will not be restraining such behavior after all¡­ Shame. I hereby dere your sect guilty of contempt toward us!¡± And now it was toote. The sect master slowly stepped toward Marven while the elder rushed toward Neave. Marven resorted to revealing his cultivation, even though he didn¡¯t want to do that. Instantly, their ¡®guests¡¯ bodynguage changed, and it was apparent that they realized they had made a tremendous mistake. The sect master of the onyx sect paused and was about to warn the elder to stop. When he turned around, however, he witnessed the young master of this neighboring sect snap his elder''s neck like a twig. Neave stared curiously at the Onyx Scorpion sect master. ¡°Hmmm? What happened to your punishment? Oh, I see. You are only willing to have a child killed when you deem there would be no consequences!¡± The sect master breathed heavily. He dropped to his knees and bowed to Marven. ¡°Please, dear elder, I was rash. I had no clue about your status! Spare me my life! Our sect is suborned to the Deagon sect. If you take my life, you will be struck down immediately!¡± ¡°Now, now, dear sect master, isn¡¯t this curious? How does one beg and threaten in the same breath?¡± ¡°Young master, stop.¡± Marven spoke, and Neave slowed down, ¡°There is no reason to go after this man. I believe he had learned his lesson. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± He was trying to make it seem like his request was pragmatic. He didn¡¯t believe Neave would respond well to being told this man ¡®didn¡¯t deserve to die,¡¯ but if he yed up to the practical benefits of sparing this man¡¯s life, perhaps he could get him to listen. ¡°This beast uses his chains to strangle those too helpless to resist. His response to a rude child was murder. Is such a person truly capable of learning their lesson? Should such behavior ever be tolerated, dear elder?¡± Marven disliked Neave¡¯s tone. He didn¡¯t like where this situation was going. As he ran through his options, he onlynded on one. Marven used his spirit to seal off the surrounding area so that nobody could identally eavesdrop on what was about to happen. ¡°You!? You are serious! I can not believe you would dare tomit such a horrendous act!¡± The sect master desperately searched for options, but nothing came to mind. As his anger and despair overflowed, he chose to go down fighting rather than cowering like a dog. There was no point in rushing the elder, someone on the tinum path would annihte him in moments, so he ran to the young master instead. The sect master raised his sword, and a massive scorpion mirage appeared behind him. As he was about to strike Neave down, Neave disappeared. Neave struck the sect master with a life-force-imbued punch to his back. He could feel the man¡¯s spine resist, as he probably had a spirit power that boosted his defense. It was useless, however. Punch after punch pummeled the man into mince as he screamed and desperately resisted. At some point, a golden shield appeared before Neave that managed to block a punch. Neave simply used a movement technique to move through the barrier. Neave¡¯s fingers morphed into sharp ws and sank into the man¡¯s chest. Neave clenched his fist and tore his heart out. Marven watched the whole thing go down with terror. How had Neave gotten so much power so quickly? He was ready to help, but the man was already dead on the ground before Marven could even sense a threat to Neave¡¯s life. Marven desperately wanted to believe that he had made the right choice. Although what Neave had done was a great offense to their sect, they still epted the challenge, and he had won without permanently injuring or killing their disciple. As far as Marven, the cultivator, was concerned, death was appropriate for these fools. But Marven, the father, felt despair. Neave had chosen to take their lives without any hesitation. How much work was there to help him heal from his trauma? Was it even possible for him to ever be mentally well again? He wasn¡¯t sure. But he felt a profound responsibility to at least try to save him. Neave liberated the two men of their possessions and burned their corpses with fire breath. Marven tried to sound casual as he warned Neave of the potential danger of doing this. Neave understood that shit was about to go down but didn¡¯t care much. While there was no evidence, there was little doubt that they would eventually be suspected. By the time their deed had been discovered, there would be nothing anybody could do about it. Marven and Neave discussed what to do with the spoils of war, but Marven insisted Neave should take the rings. There was a lot of money in them and an absolute ton of supplies. His spirit oath with Ilkivir prevented Marven from granting cultivation treasures to Neave, but this didn¡¯t bar him from refusing to take them from Neave. Neave dly pocketed the rings and decided it was time to go shopping. *** Neave strolled around the streets and looked for different types of shops. He was immensely disappointed. All of the shops around here were vastly inferior. After asking around a bit, he was told that if he wanted to find a high-end shop, he would have to go to one of the prominent merchant groups. After asking around some more, he learned that big merchant groups were very exclusive with who they did business. Their crappy new sect was far from qualified. There was one exception to this, however. Neave made his way to arge tower. It looked unbelievably ostentatious, and the higher it went, the more threatening the tower''s outer walls looked. Neave used his spirit senses to find an empty house. He used a movement technique and appeared within someone¡¯s vacant home. He used his shapeshifting ability to transform into arge, morbidly obese man with azy eye and a thick beard. He pulled some robes from the dimension ring, but even thergest ones still couldn¡¯t fully cover him. Perfect. Out on the streets of Keyishin, a tall, fat man appeared. He wore ck robes stretched so thin they would likely break if they weren¡¯t made of such durable material. His saggy tits flopped around unabated, and his massive stomach was barely restrained by the tight leggings reaching his navel. And thisrge man walked to the outer capital tower of the Crystal Pce merchant group. Chapter 46: Grass Chapter 46: Grass Out in the forest not too far from what used to be the Zearthorn sect premises, a man that looked about middle-aged sat cross-legged near a pond. Cross-legged was perhaps inurate, as he didn¡¯t have two legs to cross. Kaphor looked a lot better than he looked after his extreme near-death experience. He was still missing half his jaw, several fingers, and an entire leg, but other than that, he was almost fine. He had regained a good portion of his life force, although it was only at around eighty percent of its maximum capacity. All of this was achieved when he stepped onto the golden path. Kaphor was quite desperate when he crawled out of the ruins of the Zearthorn sect. His injuries and overall poor state prevented him from making it anywhere notable. Eventually, he came across a particrly picturesque part of the forest. Several beautiful trees surrounded a small pond. The entire section of the forest was located within a slight depression, which meant it was primarily out of sight of anyone snooping around their sect''s ruins. He decided to rest here at first, but his motivation to leave rapidly left him as time passed. It was so peaceful. Nothing but the asional chirping of birds disturbed the green silence of the woods. His hatred and anger slowly faded as he spent time in this garden. After he had rxed, he spent most of his time meditating. He broke onto the golden path, not even a week after he started. It just felt so petty afterward. He had spent years fighting for benefits to push himself over this seemingly unbreakable barrier, but all it took was a bit of peace and quiet in the end. The breakthrough drastically helped with his life force deficiency, and he regained a good part of the youth he had lost. He no longer felt any rush. There was no more of the desperation that drove him to do whatever it took to progress. Now he just felt¡­ Empty. How had he been living his life up until this point? Was everything he schemed so petty that a few days of rxation could have reced it? Ever since he had broken into the golden path, he had constantly been questioning himself. At first, he stubbornly stuck by what he had done. But there was nobody else here. The only person he was lying to was himself. What was the point of keeping his face? Half of his literal face was gone anyway. The men and women he had worked to impress were now below him. So there was no more reason to be deceitful. Eventually, he admitted the truth. He was a petty man who wasted his life on petty shit. At some point along his path, he had stopped believing that he had any potential outside of what he could steal from others. And where had that taken him? He pondered the birds in the trees and the frogs in the pond. Slowly, as more and more time passed, Kaphor felt his opinion on potential take aplete one-eighty. He went from seeing no potential anywhere to seeing endless potential in everything. The birds and frogs, if nurtured properly, could be spirit beasts. These beasts could grow and eventually attain a human form. They could be cultivators and walk down the path. Kaphor spent days sitting in the same position. Eventually, he noticed a shriveled stalk of grass growing on the floor just before him. Partially out of boredom and partially out of curiosity, he fed the stalk of grass qi. He had spent a good deal of time nourishing nts, so he was familiar with the special techniques that allowed one to imbue them with qi. It didn¡¯t change at first, but as the days marched onward, the stalk of grass stopped looking withered. As more days passed, the stem became a shade greener than the surrounding ones and grew taller. Kaphor pondered this. Could a stalk of mundane grass grow beyond its meager means? Could it attain sapience? A human form? Could it, even theoretically, step onto the legendary third step of the diamond path? In theory, yes. All of this was possible. It would take a few unique methods, a long time, vast resources, and much luck, but it could be done. As Kaphor sated his curiosity, every subsequent bite of discovery left a more bitter aftertaste. So fucking what? Even a grass stalk held unlimited potential, but who cared about that? It could never fulfill any of that potential on its own. Grass was everywhere. If it could happen on its own, there would have been at least one that achieved it by now. In reality, the potential a stalk of mundane grass held was empty. Without a few crucial steps and a massively dedicated caretaker, all of this would forever remain in the realm of mere possibility. There was no point in potential that could not be fulfilled. Kaphor scoffed at the slightly greener-than-usual nt. It would have never grown or even survived without his help. Kaphor had spent most of his life feeling like this stalk of grass¡ªabandoned, empty, withering. There was nobody there who wanted to nurture him. He had to achieve all the progress he had made entirely by himself. Once again, he started slowly feeling justified in living as he had. But yet again, as the days marched onward, the bitterness and fury wilted away. He didn¡¯t feel any motivation to keep up the anger. It was exhausting. Why needlessly disturb his peace? He was alone in a forest, unable to move from where he sat. He would undoubtedly be boiling in anger if he was still dying and helpless, but he was on the golden path now. Kaphor couldn¡¯t bring himself to cry about injustice when he felt more and more like his failures were his fault. He kept feeding the stalk of grass with qi. Not even he knew why. It was just fun, he supposed. More days went by in peace as he spent them nurturing the stalk. *** The diamond path cultivators of the Yixine empire sat in a circle in a forest. They had been tracking the myth golem for a while now. As far as they could tell, this thing wasn¡¯t heading in any particr direction. They hoped that all it was doing was just looking for an entrance into the underground, but there seemed to be no such luck. The myth golem walked past many openings, some even artificially created by the diamond path cultivators. They forged ns to deal with it, but they hadn¡¯t gone much further than evacuating the settlements in its path. Beanna spoke after a while of silence. ¡°You know, maybe we should make a gigantic pit trap! Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be motivated to climb back out if we dropped it into the underground?¡± The Emperor considered that proposition. ¡°That is not a bad n. The problem is that it keeps randomly turning directions. And judging by the estimated range of its spirit senses, we would have to create the trap well ahead of time.¡± The heavily armored man, Carfen, spoke up at that. ¡°We always have the option of preparing many traps in its wake and hoping it drops into one of them.¡± The Emperor considered that as well. ¡°Perhaps. But we will need more than a bet to evade this crisis.¡± Kingean spoke up. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just fight it?¡± Zhaore answered that question in a quiet, raspy voice. ¡°Because the cmity¡­¡± ¡°... The cmity we will leave behind might drag more monsters out. I understand that is a theoretical threat. Still, it is neither an inevitability nor something we can¡¯t ount for andpensate for.¡± The Emperor addressed Kingean. ¡°Exactly how do you propose we ount for that?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be easy. But we can replicate what had been done in the caverns of Xinus.¡± Beanna and Zhaore groaned a bit at that. Carfen considered it, and the Emperor spoke again. ¡°That would be a tremendous undertaking that we would be fortunate to finish within years, let alone the days we would probably have.¡± ¡°No, think about it. We are the most powerful cultivators in the empire. We don¡¯t have to clear the caverns. We merely have to locate a section closed off from the deep underground.¡± ¡°That n would involve a tremendous amount of luck first, and then we would have to find a way to bait the myth golem over the location.¡± The Emperor contemted a bit, and an idea shed through his mind. He frowned. ¡°There is one more thing we could potentially try, however.¡± Everyone perked up at that, but they could tell it wouldn¡¯t be easy. ¡°We could bait the golem into a mystical realm and fight it there.¡± Everyone contemted that, and eventually, they all nodded. It would certainly work. They only had to hope that they were truly capable of taking it down. *** The destruction of the Bentheta sect had caused quite a disturbance within the Yixine empire. Rumors were very unclear, though, as nobody had witnessed what had happened and survived. ording to the disciples teleported out in thest moments, it was a monster attack. Nobody knew the exact scope of what had happened, but spection ran amock. One such rumor wasn¡¯t particrly prevalent, but it still had severe consequences for the person involved. Hunter was currently in the third circle of the capital. He was out on the streets, poor and desperate. When he arrived within the Bentheta sect, he had been showered with benefits. He didn¡¯t understand why, but the sect''s leadership appreciated what he had done as far as he could tell. Perhaps the book''s cover was more valuable than he had initially assumed. To Hunter, the book cover was little more than incriminating evidence against Marven and Neave. To the Bentheta sect leadership, it was probably some sort of mighty treasure. When he first arrived, Hunter was a target of immense envy and scorn by the other disciples. He had just joined the sect yet had risen the ranks at unbelievable speed. Few among those fighting for every scrap they could get could tolerate his existence. Rumors spread, such as him being the bastard son of the sect master, born to a whore. He had rather vehemently spread the truth of his story. He told everyone how he had barely escaped the destruction of the Zearthorn sect. He was warned not to spread any rumors about the book cover by the leadership, so he kept quiet about that. Ultimately, hispetence and strength as a cultivator gained the respect of others. He was easily within the top ten disciples among those his age. He was shocked at how strong the other disciples in this sect were. Rtively soon after arriving and settling himself, he was, together with as many other disciples as possible, teleported out of the sect by the desperate elders. They had arrived at the capital but hadn¡¯te to open arms and support. Sects had recruited those among the mostpetent, but Hunter simply wasn¡¯t talented enough tond a spot. He had joined the rejects in their journey to find a ce in a minor sect in the outer reaches of the capital, but it wasn¡¯t long until he was ostracized and kicked out. Most of the other disciples med him for the destruction of the sect. Zearthorn sect had also been destroyed, yet he had escaped with his life. To the children of the Bentheta sect, it simply made sense that he was to me, as fate hated Hunter¡¯s existence. What were the odds of it being a coincidence? He was outraged. They were looking for someone to me, but he was outnumbered, and everybody was against him. They beat him up and left him abandoned on the capital''s streets. Ever since, he had been randomly lumbering around, hoping to find any sect that would take him in. It was only now that the reality of how inferior the Zearthorn sect was began to truly sink in. Most prominent, even middling sects of the capital had scores of disciples far mightier than him. He tried to present himself as a prodigy who had grown up in a poor environment, but nobody bought that story. Hunter had tried himself in several publicly avable trials that would get him a spot in one of the sects. Each time, he spectacrly failed to meet their standards. In one trial, he was presented with an obstacle course in which he fumbled terribly due to hisck of agility. In another trial, he had to hold onto a spiritually heavy object for ten minutes. He didn¡¯t evenst ten seconds. The third trial he tested himself against required him to fight a dummy. The dummy was an artificial golem. It was an opponent that all disciples were required to be able to defeat if they wanted to stay in the sect. He was severely beaten, but luckily he didn¡¯t break any bones or suffer serious injuries. This was thest of trials he was willing to risk. Hunter slowly walked out toward the outer reaches of the capital. It took him days to reach the outeryer. Once he found himself there, he sank into despair. Any sect he tried to join refused him, with endless excuses and reasons to reject him at the ready. Some suspected him of being a spy. Others suspected him of being a thief. Certain sects told him his style didn¡¯t fit them or his build wouldn¡¯t suit their arts. There was even one sect where an elder had refused him because some young master was eyeing one of their disciples, and he didn¡¯t want anypetition. Unbelievable! Even worse were the sects that did want to ept him. The problem was their criteria. They wanted him to take a spirit oath that would turn him into little more than a ve. Hunter had nothing to his name as he roamed the capital''s streets. Looking for anyone who wanted to take him in. *** On top of the outer reaches tower of the Crystal Pce merchant group, Kalen was fumbling around with the monster core he had been gifted. It irked him that he had to make such a deal, but as the annoyance faded away, he was left with glee. Finally, there would be some hope for the happiness of his daughter. He was so immersed that he hadn¡¯t noticed the obese man standing there. As he snapped back to reality, the unusual individual surprised him. He couldn¡¯t feel anything about his cultivation. He put the monster core away into a dimension ring and politely nodded to his guest. He wasn¡¯t going to judge this man by his looks. Anyone that could make their way to the top of this tower was a respectable figure in their own right. Kalen straightened his posture and entered business mode. ¡°Greetings, sir. My name is Kalen, and I represent this branch of the Crystal Pce. How may I assist you today?¡± ¡°¡®Sup mate. Me name is Bob.¡± The man spoke in a deep, gruff voice, then he gurgled and spat on the fine marble floor. Kalen winced. Chapter 47: Laboratory Chapter 47: Laboratory Kalen stared incredulously, watching the man spit on the ground and sit before him. He had seen his fair share of entric cultivators, but he had never seen someone spit on the floor. Was this man insane, or was he intentionally disrespecting Kalen? The obese man just stared right back at the merchant. He just kept staring. Kalen again asked him whether he needed anything, but the man kept staring inplete silence, his gaze distant. It was hard to judge exactly what the man was looking at due to hiszy eye. Eventually, the manughed and pped his massive stomach like a drum. ¡°Nice to meet ya¡¯ Kalen, ye seem like a lovelyd.¡± The man spoke and spat on the ground. Kalen winced again. ¡°Sir, please do not spit on the pristine marble flooring. Otherwise, I will be forced to remove you. ¡°Ok.¡± The man went silent. Kalen was about to ask the man for the third time what he wanted, but at this very moment, the man pulled out a monster core and ced it on the table. Kalen scoffed. This core seemed to have S rank shape at first nce. But there was far too much transparent spirit around the edges. Cores having transparent spirit wasn¡¯t unusual, but there was a distinct distribution that was highly unlikely except in the case of forgery. A unique substance could be used to ¡®round up¡¯ cores. However, only fools would fall for such a trick, and Kalen was no fool. He grabbed the core, preparing himself to throw it at the man''s face and kick him out, but as he touched it, he froze. This core wasn¡¯t fake. It was a gold rank core holding a stone maniption spirit power. The power was nothing special but had an S-ranked shape, specifically a seventh-grade S rank. Almost as high as the roundest core that had ever been found. Kalen fumbled with the core for a bit until he regained hisposure. This had suddenly turned into a serious business meeting indeed. Such a core was precious. Kalen put on a straight face and spoke to the man. ¡°What would you like to do with this core? I am assuming you havee here to sell it.¡± The man¡¯s gaze grew vacant again. Then he spat again, this time spitting on the table. Kalen cringed but didn¡¯t want topromise the deal, so he endured it. ¡°Ah,d, I¡¯d love to, but I got a more specific request than that. I¡¯m here to trade the core for other things I need.¡± ¡°Indeed, what would you like to trade the core for?¡± The man proceeded to list an arduously long list of spirit powers, materials, precious herbs, crystals, natural treasures, etc. Kalen perked up as he listened to the man list everything he wanted. This was precisely the sort of thing someone would stock up on if they wanted to start a sect. And judging by the specifics of what the man wanted, he knew what he was talking about. Not only had he listed fundamental spirit powers that would be excellent for younger disciples, but he also seemed to be sticking torge amounts of essential ingredients rather than exceptionally rare or precious ones. He had misjudged the man, but the more he thought about it, the more it felt like this was what the man had intended from the start. This cunning individual yed up a distracting persona that would make others look past him. Kalen gave him a rather generous deal. After all, getting on good terms with this man as soon as possible would be good. After all, at the end of the day, the only reason Kalen even sat on this tower, in the far reaches of the poor part of the capital, was to make deals with those bound to escape the outeryer. *** Neave watched the merchant put all he had requested into a dimension ring. He took the ring, nodded, and left. He once again transformed into his young master disguise and headed back to their new sect premises. Neave was done with the shopping, and excitement burned in his veins. He had gotten his hands on a ton of stuff he wanted to experiment with. He tried to set up a ce to conduct his experiments next. Once he reached the sect premises, he found that Harel and Gabrias were even more frightened of him than usual. Marven looked at him with concern. ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry, old man, I was just out shopping. No murder had been done!¡± That did not ease the tension one bit. Neave invited everyone toe outside. There, he unloaded a tremendous amount of high-quality material from a dimension ring. Gabrias gaped. The price of this material must have been absurd. Neave unloaded gigantic boxes of wood, stone, and metal that would allow them to make a muchrger and much sturdier sect hall. After unloading, he told them to go crazy while he nned to do something else. Neave transformed into a literal worm and proceeded to dig into the ground. They stared incredulously as he vanished into the soil. Gabrias chuckled a bit. This was getting so absurd he wondered whether he hadpletely lost his mind. Harel gaped, and Marven cringed as ideas of what Neave could be up to came to mind. Eventually, Marven dered it was time for them to start building their sect premises earnestly, and they began preparing for the construction. *** As Neave dug through the ground, he marveled at the power of his set of spirit powers. Shapeshifting could do a lot more now that he had evolved it. He still couldn¡¯t transform into other species, but he could morph his body into the shapes of different species. Integrate was a lot faster than digesting things than absorb. It still put everything he digested directly into his blood, but pure blood, or rather, sacred blood, was very good at keeping harmful substances out of his body. As for where those substances went, Neave had no clue. They appeared to just vanish into thin air. This effectively meant Neave could get rid of all the dirt and stone in his way by eating through it. Eventually, he judged that he was deep enough underground and decided to start his project. Neave ate dirt and stone until he carved something roughly in the shape of a room. Then he pulled special stone bricks from his dimension ring and started lining the walls and floor. He heated the bricks with his fire breath and used the life force tendril to seal the gaps. Eventually, he created a medium-sized room. The stone bricks were designed to seal a chamber from outside perception and interference, and Neave ensured this ce was properly sealed. This little room would be the humble beginnings of hisboratory! He pulled out several objects, such as tables, chairs, and crystalnterns, that he used to decorate the room. Once he was done with that, he pulled out a set of fire-proof bricks that he used to construct a furnace. Neave pulled out a book from his dimension ring. He had bought several books covering basic subjects, but he needed to visit a local library, preferably one with high-end knowledge. The book he pulled out talked about the basics of smithing. It covered how to make a furnace and the basic processes of weaponsmithing. Neave didn¡¯t care much for the techniques as much as he did for the specific design of the furnace. One thing that had suddenly be very obvious to him was that this room waspletely sealed from the outside. This meant that he had nowhere he could release the smoke. Luckily, he didn¡¯t need to worry about that since some of the more advanced strategies for smelting didn¡¯t involve any fire but instead used a particr type of fire crystal, some of which he had luckily purchased. Once he was done with the furnace, he also pulled out the alchemy station he had purchased. Neave liked this one. It had a bunch of fancy pipes and tubes and cauldrons and stuff. He again noticed theck of air venttion but judged it to be okay, probably. He was concerned that he may die from suffocation down here. Luckily, he was confident that his spirit powers would allow him to survive long enough to see whether or not that would be a problem. The only other thing he had set up, for now, was an extraordinary set of interlocking bars with many strings and ropes tied to it. This was a station designed for golem production. The structure was meant to keep the different limbs in ce during assembly. After he finished, he pulled out a set of monster cores rather than starting with any of the experiments. They were already quite round, but most were weak, in the bronze and iron ranges. The powers within were direct boosts to strength, speed, endurance, toughness, regeneration, cognitive abilities, perception, and dexterity. None were body-modifying spirit powers, meaning they acted as a supernatural boost to their respective aspects. Neave simply rounded them up, consumed them, and evolved them all until they reached tinum rank in power. He didn¡¯t want to risk any evolutions to diamond rank with these powers since it could potentially result in a monster capable of reaching the top of the mountain, and he didn¡¯t want to deal with that. A diamond rank threat would spell death for Neave. As promised, he defeated the spirit trials by doing little more than justzing on top of the steel mountain-cone and picking his nose. Not all of them evolved linearly, which was to be expected from low-rank spirit powers. The strength boost ended up evolving into willpower of might. His strength was greater at all times, but his will influenced the effect. The speed boost evolved linearly to a much stronger speed boost. The endurance boost evolved into a rather convenient power that increased Neave¡¯s maximum calorie capacity by a huge margin. Coupled with his integrate ability, this woulde in very handy. The toughness boost evolved into a very unusual ability. The best way Neave could describe would be as distance from death. It increased the amount of total damage Neave could take before he died. The regeneration power evolved into a power that could regrow lost body parts. Are you fucking kidding me? This was an exceptionally lucky evolution, which was to be expected, given how many chances he was taking. Neave cackled as he realized that,bined with his troll physique, this made him even more of a cockroach. The boost to cognitive abilities evolved linearly. It was a simple power that allowed Neave to think faster. It didn¡¯t make him smarter or anything. If he were stupid, he would still be stupid, just quicker. This woulde in handy with his ability to boost his perception of time. The perception power didn¡¯t entirely evolve linearly. It expanded. It wasn¡¯t just a quantitative boost to his perception. Neave could now sense things that he wasn¡¯t even aware of before. The way the air moved, the structure of objects he was looking at, the potential of anything he set his eyes on, the inside of his spirit, and so much more. It felt like an entireyer of reality had been peeled off. As for the dexterity boost, it evolved fully linearly. But this wasn¡¯t particrly noticeable. Neave was already incredibly dextrous, so it was hard to tell whether much had changed. He supposed it would be easier for him to make fine movements now, but in fighting, this power wouldn¡¯t be a make-or-break advantage. Neave got off his feet, stretched a bit, and got to work. There was a lot of experimenting that needed to be done. Chapter 48: Cannibalism Chapter 48: Cannibalism There was arge library within the inner circle of the capital. The Emperor owned this library, and the most extraordinary collection of publicly avable knowledge was held within. Well, the knowledge was technically publicly avable, but the monthly fee for using the library totaled over a million tinum coins. A handsome, tall young man was reading books on the library''s first floor, in a corner dedicated to alchemy. His pink hair, streaked with red locks, washed over his shoulder like a majestic sunset waterfall, and his face was the picture of perfection. The robes adorned his slender yet muscr frame and folded in ways that invited one¡¯s imagination. He picked up yet another thick book, flipped it so fast that the pages flipping sounded like a fart, and then put it back on the shelf. Then he picked up another book. Neave was rather salty. He had spent around a day or so experimenting and had already hit a massive wall. Given that he wanted to leave golem creation forter, Neave flipped a coin to decide on whether he would be doing alchemy or cksmithing first. The decision fell on alchemy. He did his best to attempt brute forcing his way into learning how to do it, but that was aplete failure. He could sort of get things to work bybining his life force tendril with the potential of experimentation trick, but the results were limited. The core issue was that his knowledge of alchemy was simply too weak. He burrowed through the walls with his worm form and sought libraries in the capital. There were many, but none were publicly open for free. When he paid the entrance fee for a few, he quickly learned that while the knowledge was decent, it wasn¡¯t entirely satisfactory. If he was going to go after knowledge, he may as well find the best source he could. He was bounced from one library to another until he ultimately learned of this ce. The greedy fuckers that ran this library wouldn¡¯t allow for a one-time entrance payment but only epted either a monthly fee or a yearly fee. There was even a lifetime fee for the low value of a hundred million tinum coins! He had to pay a million tinum coins just to be able to enter. That was almost all of the money he had on his person. Both the money of the sect master and the elder he had liberated from their dimension rings wasn¡¯t enough, even when put together. He knew they must have more money hidden in their sect, but he wasn¡¯t willing to resort to thievery. He sold a massive bag of monster cores he had collected to gather the missing funds. Now he was broke. Neave could yet again sell another rounded core, but if possible, he wanted to avoid doing that. Thest one he sold wasn¡¯t fully rounded, and even that was extremely valuable. He wouldn¡¯t want anyone to get suspicious of the cores too early. He had learned his lesson in Pavarrie. Neave wasn¡¯t willing to deal with another pain in the ass hunt. If he ever had to get stuck in a chase again, he would prefer not to be the one being hunted. Now that he was robbed like this, he would get every bit of value out of this forsaken library he could. His perception ability allowed him to see the text, his enhanced cognitive skills were excellent for speed reading, and his dexterity surprisingly came in quite handy for flipping the pages at an incredible speed. He was doing a smooth version of the pinch-and-fold method for flipping pages. Usually, he wouldn¡¯t even be able to see all the text as the pages flipped too quickly or the bend made it impossible to see the inner part of the book, but his enhanced perception took care of both of those issues. He was also doing a bit of a sneaky boost to his cognitive abilities with thunder nerves and reinforcing it with life force. There was something Neave had realized about life force as he was doing his alchemy experiments. He already knew this before but realized it might be a problem. Life force held an impression of a person''s age. He could tell roughly how old someone was by perceiving their life force. It just never hit him that others could do the same thing. He didn¡¯t have to think about that until now since it was only from tinum rank onward that cultivators could perceive life force. This was a big mistake. If Neave went around trying to disguise as persons much older than himself, he would eventually be busted. He tried changing the impression of age within his life force, and while he could do it, it proved incredibly difficult. He could only change the impression by around a year back and two years forward. He didn¡¯t understand why it was easier to do it forward than backward, but that suited his persona just fine for now. He could also eliminate the impression of age altogether, but he didn¡¯t want to default to this since it would be far too suspicious. His veil over his life force and spirit would likely raise eyebrows, but he could at least justify that by iming he had a dedicated spirit power. Neave picked up another book and scrolled through it. At this point, he was already hundreds of books in, but he hadn¡¯t even made a dent in the sheer volume of knowledge on alchemy. He had covered many of the basics and was confident this would be enough to tackle the everyday stuff he was dealing with. But there was no way he would settle for anything short of squeezing this greedy library dry for every penny they took from him. His uniquebination of spirit powers allowed for an impossibly fast reading speed, but even with all of this ying into his favor, he still had to stop for a bit every twenty books or so. It took a while for the knowledge to settle properly, and he felt it wouldn¡¯t fully integrate into aprehensive skill for some time. Now that he was hundreds of books in, a rough headache started clinging to his head. This couldn¡¯t be healed or brute-forced through, so he may have to take a longer break. Neave turned around. The room he was in and every part of this library had a lot of open space littered with tables. These tables had quite a few disciples, surprisingly so. The capital''s center must be immensely wealthy if so many could afford this brutally expensive library. Neave walked over to one of the tables and took a seat. He noticed that quite a few people around him were giving him scornful looks. Neave didn¡¯t understand why. After a few minutes of sitting there, a strange individual approached Neave¡¯s table and sat before him. It was a handsome young man with glittery green hair and stupidly ostentatious robes. Neave hated this person just for their shitty fashion sense. This young man was roughly fifteen years old, judging by what Neave¡¯s spirit senses told him. This was very strange, given that he was on the second step of the golden path. Neave wondered whether he had ever met anyone so advanced at such a young age. Not even while running around the streets of the capital''s center had hee across anyone so impressive. It was so jarring that Neave wondered whether this person was somehow faking their age or cultivation. The young man smiled pleasantly and spoke after a short pause. ¡°Greetings. I do not believe I have ever seen you around here before. Do you belong to any of the major sects?¡± Neave just wanted to ignore him, but he couldn¡¯t miss the opportunity to mess with him a bit. He mirrored this young man¡¯s pleasant smile and responded. ¡°No, I am not. I have arrived with my master in the capital just recently.¡± The young man¡¯s eyebrows shot up a bit at that. ¡°Oh, really? Are you from within the Yixine empire?¡± ¡°Yes, I indeed am.¡± The two young men smiled pleasantly at one another. Neave contemted whether to y the fool or keep up his dignified young master shtick. After weighing his options, he settled on continuing the dignified persona. He smelled an opportunity here. Whoever this was, he must be incredibly important. Whether they became friends or mortal enemies, Neave wouldn¡¯t mind, but he would regret having the young man dismiss him as an idiot. Just off the top of his head, he could think of countless benefits of having a connection in the form of some haughty young master. The young man asked Neave another question. ¡°What is your name?¡± Neave used his thunder nerves ability topletely paralyze his face so he wouldn¡¯t grin like a goofy idiot. ¡°My name is Deeze.¡± ¡°Lovely to meet you, Deeze. My name is Dukean.¡± Neave was surprised that this young man had neither asked for Neave¡¯s sect name nor given his own. The young man continued. ¡°I have a bit of a question for you. Please, put your pride aside and answer honestly. Were you reading those books at that speed, or was that just a show?¡± Neave nodded with a proud smile on his face. ¡°Indeed, I was truly reading those books.¡± ¡°Hmm. I dislike doubting others, but such a feat would be beyond incredible. Do you mind if I test you a bit?¡± Neave nodded. The young man handed him a book from his dimension ring. It was a very dull record of the history of a minor sect that existed seven hundred years ago. Neave repeated his speed reading trick, flipping through the entire book in seconds. It was a genuinely uninteresting book. ¡°Alright, can you tell me who elder Ioken was?¡± ¡°He was the alchemist of the n rivaling the Polien sect. His concoction crippled the young mistress of the Terrgo n seventeen years before their downfall.¡± The young man¡¯s eyes shot up a bit, and he nodded. ¡°That is incredible. If this weren¡¯t the only surviving record of this sect, I would have assumed you had read it somewhere before. Just to confirm, did you read it somewhere before?¡± He asked in a joking tone, to which Neave politely giggled and slightly shook his head. Neave continued. ¡°I must admit, this book stood out as exceptionally boring. I have read plenty of books, including records of long-gone sects, but this one stands out as particrly uninspiring even among them.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong, but that is precisely the point. The vast majority of records about the downfall of long-gone sects tend to be boring. The downfalls of sects tend to be boring in general. But that is exactly why they are so important. The problems that tend to bring about the downfalls of sects are rarely spectacr. The greatest danger lies in those uninteresting details. The failing of a single disciple, poor financial management, terrible choice of sect premises, disagreeable trade policies. These things are all simple, mundane, but far too many cultivators fail precisely because they overlook the mundane.¡± Those words felt like a p to Neave¡¯s face. He was a little ashamed. He had assumed far too much about this young man. It seemed that this might be someone capable of holding a proper conversation. ¡°I fully agree with that opinion. There is just one thing I would like to ask. How do you feel about cannibalism?¡± The young man blinked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry? Cannibalism? That is¡­ A rather unusual question, if I have to say so myself. But alright.¡± He chuckled awkwardly and continued, ¡°It is often dismissed as barbaric and even inherently evil, but as far as I¡¯ve read, it seems a bit moreplicated. Take, for instance, the consumption of spirit beast meat. It is done frequently and even normalized among humans. But spirit beasts can attain a humanoid form at higher ranks. When killed in their human form, they revert to their bestial form. But what if they didn¡¯t? Would it still be eptable to consume their flesh if they appeared human? Humans often reason that only evil spirit beasts get consumed, so it is alright, even if they are sentient. But what about spirit beasts consuming evil humans? That is frequently shamed, and spirit beast sects get dered demonic if caught doing it. The only reason why spirit beast sects tend not to care about humans eating spirit beast meat is that there are so many different forms of spirit beasts. Why would the canine care if someone ate a feline? If anything, assuming that they should care could potentially be seen as a form of speciesm. From a practical perspective, eating high-rank human and spirit beast meat has simr benefits for humans and spirit beasts alike. Perhaps that is precisely why cannibalism is taboo in the first ce. Maybe it is fair to fear it since the benefits of doing it could incentivize killing members of one¡¯s species. But on the other hand, by logical extension of that proposition, would it not make killing any sapient creature for their flesh immoral? It is a tricky subject, but there are certainly cases where I could see it as at least not beingpletely hical.¡± Neave merely smiled and nodded at the answer. The young man lifted an eyebrow and smiled in return. ¡°I have to admit when you asked me this question, I thought you were perhaps a little unhinged, but after answering it, I can admit that one¡¯s opinion on the subject is a great measure of how one deals withplex problems. I apologize for my prejudice. I would like to hear your own opinion as well.¡± ¡°I am personally rather pragmatic about it. Naturally, one shouldn¡¯t go around killing anyone for personal benefit. But if someone must die anyway, their flesh should be consumed so they may atone for their transgressions.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I must say, I am a little disappointed at how simplistic your view on this subject is. There is no nuance to it. Everyone should be eaten upon death by logical extension of your belief.¡± ¡°No. Only those that deserved death.¡± ¡°And who exactly deserves death? This isn¡¯t something that can be judged objectively.¡± ¡°I highly disagree.¡± ¡°And what exactly is your objective measurement for this?¡± ¡°Take, for instance, a young woman. She falls in love and wants to start a family. She marries and has seven children. Now take a mass murderer that has killed dozens of people. On paper, the woman is worth more than the man, from a purely mathematical perspective.¡± ¡°Those situations are pretty clear cut, but what about moreplex scenarios? How would you judge the value of the life of someone who has killed seven people and has seven children?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t and couldn¡¯t judge the value of a single life. Every life is worth the same, but not everyone is worth the same amount of lives. In this situation, under the assumption of neutrality of those who had been born and killed, this man deserves death.¡± ¡°That makes no sense. You are contradicting yourself. You im that all lives are worth the same. In this case, his numbers add up to a zero. Why would he deserve death?¡± ¡°His numbers only add up to a zero if you don¡¯t finish the equation. It would be easier to know the numbers of those he killed, but if we assume neutrality, the man must die. His children had already been born, but their worth in lives would keep reducing for as long as he was alive. Not only would his parenting influence the way his children treat the lives of others, but others would also likely want revenge for those he has killed by targeting his children.¡± Dukean sighed and continued. ¡°Again, even if we use this method of ¡®objectively¡¯ evaluating someone¡¯s worth, there is simply no way to calcte someone¡¯s value in lives reliably. It¡¯s far tooplicated a subject to be treated so haphazardly. Who is to say that killing the man won¡¯t send his children down the wrong path? Perhaps they will go down a path of ughter and revenge. If we take the logic of more lives being better and push it to the extreme, doesn¡¯t it mean that the only moral way to live one¡¯s life is making as many children as possible? Wouldn¡¯t a society that lived by these principles have something of an overpoption problem?¡± ¡°It may seemplicated, but it truly isn¡¯t. Your argument rests on the premise that we are only deciding on the fate of this one man. If we decided the fate of everyone everywhere, the math would be much more straightforward.¡± ¡°Alright, but what about the whole giving birth thing?¡± ¡°Okay, I admit that was a bit of a stupid argument.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say stupid. Let¡¯s just say the analogy has reached its limit.¡± Dukean chuckled. ¡°But it¡¯s well, okay yeah, just omit that part.¡± ¡°Either way, yourst point is fair, but it has a massive practical problem.¡± ¡°And what problem may that be?¡± ¡°Who could possibly have enough power to judge the lives of ''everyone everywhere''? As far as we know, not even the gods can do that. If you wanted to live by such a moral paradigm, you would have to be able to put it into practice first, even just theoretically.¡± Neave grinned. ¡°Well, now¡­ That is indeed an excellent point. Let¡¯s just say that my opinion stands only if that hypothetical criterion is satisfied.¡± Dukean raised an eyebrow at that and smiled. ¡°Well then¡­ I should probably get going. This was an excellent conversation. I hope I see you around in the library these days.¡± Dukean got off the chair, bowed a little, and walked away. Neave looked around only to see the entire hall staring at him in shock. These rich brats are so fucking weird, I swear to the heavens. Well now. It was time to continue his reading. Chapter 49: Inconvenience Chapter 49: Inconvenience At every circle of Keyishin, there were dedicated areas for teleportation tforms. These were usually where the overwhelming majority of people arrived when they teleported to the capital. However, for the peak sects, these portal zones were nothing but themoner alternative. Every major sect within the capital''s center had its dedicated teleportation tforms. Many sects also had them outside the capital, but that was a different story. Teleportation tforms weren¡¯t allowed to be ced too close to one another. If too many were too close, the spacial constructs could be disrupted, and teleportation could fail. Building private tforms that wouldn¡¯t cause issues required costly materials. Even that was chump change to those who lived at the true peak of society within the Yixine empire. On one such tform, in the courtyard of the Kurlore sect, a cloaked man appeared. He was weed by a heavily armored elder of the Kurlore sect. The elder removed his helmet, revealing a rtively young face beneath, and nodded to the cloaked figure. They set off toward the main building of the Kurlore sect. It was unbelievably overdecorated. Motifs of shields and armored statues littered every inch of the shiny white building. Peak sects within the capital had a reputation to maintain, and this went doubly so for the great four sects. The Kurlore sect prided themselves on their exceptional defensive arts. Although they did serve as defenders of the people, they weren¡¯t a strictly righteous sect. Publicly, the Kurlore sect was utilitarian. The two men walked over to a secret underground chamber. The elder opened the door, revealing a portal¡ªan entrance to a hidden mystical realm. The two men entered, encountering the dark, dry, and deste environment within. Not too far from the entrance, demons sat and stared at the two men. Kurlore was publicly a utilitarian sect. Privately, however, it was an entirely different story. The cloaked man removed his hood, revealing his pristine golden hair and sharp green eyes. ¡°Greetings, servants of the silent one. I am Ilkivir, the third disciple, and Ie bearing news from your master.¡± The demons perked up. ¡°We have a mission of the highest priority.¡± *** ¡°Falken?¡± Harel asked Marven. ¡°I used whatever when I was put on the spot, but I quite like it. That was my family name from back when I was a mortal. Harel was surprised to hear that. ¡°You mean Zearthorn wasn¡¯t your actual family name?¡± ¡°You know, I even contemted changing my first name as well. Marven¡¯s are stereotyped as hicks and peasants. But I decided against it as I learned that the name wasn¡¯t nearly as well known outside of where I grew up.¡± Marven, Harel, and Gabrias were busy constructing their new sect premises. At first, Marven worked in awkward silence as Gabrias gave vague pointers, and Harel stood at the side, uncertain how to help. But as time went on, the tension eased. Engaging in cooperative manualbor was a great way to build a team. Harel was delegated to simple errands, Gabrias actively designed and nned the building as they worked, and Marven did most of the heavy lifting. Marven wasn¡¯t surprised to discover just howpetent Gabrias was. It wasn¡¯t shocking, given that he worked in a high-end constructionpany. Still, in Marven¡¯s opinion, Gabrias was easily skilled enough to do serious work even in the capital. ording to Gabrias, the reason why was that the Bentheta sect had invested arge amount of money and resources into building theirpany for the sake of having a high-value spy group. This resulted in a lot of resources and tutge being provided to Gabrias. Marven knew this was far from enough to result in such tremendouspetence. Gabrias had a real knack for this sort of work, and it was evident that he was highly talented. At first, they had disassembled their old building. Then they prepared the foundation for their new one. It was going to be designed in a way that ounted for potential expansion in the future. The foundation itself had been done in a way that allowed rtively easy expansion both underground, above, and to the sides. So far, it was looking like a fairly standard stone building. Decorations could alwayse afterward, so they would focus on the basic shape and design for now. Throughout this work, Gabrias grew more and more rxed until he eventually found himself chatting with Marven and Harel. It was likely a force of habit, given that he always spoke with his coworkers. Regardless of how this had happened, the simple act of casual conversation had shattered the thick sheet of ice hanging between them. They talked about how ridiculous this entire thing was, about Neave and the capital. Harel and Marven were surprised to learn that Gabrias didn¡¯t think too negatively of Neave. This was quite shocking at first, but his exnation made sense. Neave could have killed him. In fact, it would have made sense for Neave to take Gabrias¡¯ life back when he had discovered him. But he was spared. He was spared and granted the position of a sect master, although a rather dubious one. Gabrias was strangely hopeful that things would be alright. This may have been the force of habit speaking through him. But as he conversed with them, he became more interested in ying up this persona of a mysterious sect master. By all means, Gabrias was a massive fan of practical jokes. And at least in concept, the idea of a bronze path cultivator pretending to be some lofty master was quite funny. The mismatched trio had learned much about one another during their work together. Harel and Gabrias were shocked to learn that Marven had only be a cultivator at around the age of sixty. Given howte he had started, it was an unbelievable achievement that he could reach such heights. They asked him about how he had managed to achieve this. ¡°I want to say it was through my genius or perseverance, but luck yed a major role. It all started when I domed a stray abominid with a hoe. It had a nearly round core that held an endurance spirit power. I was offered a lot of money for it. The man who acted as the receptionist advised me not to sell the core but to use it for myself. He even taught me how to cultivate. Once I broke into the foundation realm, I became the greatest farmhand anyone in my small vige had ever seen. Endurance wasn¡¯t the greatest or most desirable spirit power. ¡°Taking a spirit power that could quickly and reliably dispatch an opponent was much better. But for an old mortal man at the end of his natural life span, it was exactly what was required to even stand a chance of walking down the path. I would never have be a cultivator if not for the shape of the core, the specific power, or the incredibly kind man that helped me out. And this was just how lucky I got at the very beginning.¡± He told them more about his journey, how he had stumbled upon a rich mystical realm, discovered another expensive core, stumbled upon many treasures, and barely got away with his life intact, time and time again. He told them how he found the corpse of what he assumed to be a long-dead diamond ranker, which was how he found the cursed book. Numerous coincidences and strange urrences took a frail old man from a farm hand to a legendary cultivator. But his meeting with the emperor was the most incredible thing that happened to him. ording to Marven, by coincidence, he met the emperor while participating in arge-scale monster hunt. They had a conversation, and ording to Marven, this was where he had stopped just barely getting by with luck and started genuinely growing as a cultivator. However, he refused to disclose the contents of their conversation, much to the annoyance of Gabrias and Harel. As the crew cheerfully went about building their new sect, Neave once again made his way to his undergroundboratory. *** Neave was somewhat satisfied with his first library visit. He had made a connection to someone in his young master form and devoured a ton of books. He might have overdone it a bit with the books if he was being entirely honest. Although it was all in his head, the knowledge felt too dry and raw. It felt as if he had taken the books and shoved them in his head, but very little of the actual expertise had adequately integrated. As he started doing alchemy, he was infinitely frustrated by how long it took him to remember essential things. There was so much information to sift through that not even with his enhanced cognitive abilities was he capable of doing it on demand. Neave wasn¡¯t yet doing anything too crazy because he wanted to familiarize himself with elemental alchemy first. Among the most important things he learned were the qi techniques he had to use during alchemy. Alchemical qi techniques weren¡¯t like the other types of qi techniques. But they were utterly crucial to the process. His first project was simply making a basic qi restoration potion. Neave failed the first time he tried it. And the second. And the third as well. It was only around the tenth attempt that he finally managed to seed. He cried in joy and danced around, screaming like a lunatic. His reaction was absurdly exaggerated, given that he hadn¡¯t even spent twenty minutes on alchemy yet. He rapidly grew inpetence as he slowly picked apart the knowledge he had gained and properly integrated the rules, procedures, optimal methods, tricks, and tips into his alchemy. He was frustrated at how ¡®slowly¡¯ he was learning alchemy. It wasn¡¯t slow by any conceivable measure except his subjective opinion. Neave was severely addicted to gaining more power. This much was evident. He personally thought that was entirely fine since it served his purposes. As he sifted through his knowledge, he faced the frustrating world of contradictory information yet again. Not even the most absurdly overpriced library in the entire realm was immune to schrly disagreements. Neave quickly sifted through the useless knowledge and picked the more optimal choices. Not even within two hours of starting, he had created a somewhat respectable qi restoration potion. Out of all the spirit powers he had, it was his perception that yed the most significant role in his rapid improvement. There were numerous different elements in intery when putting the ingredients together. The different types of qi and remnant spirit contained within the ingredients shed aggressively and chaotically. As far as Neave could tell, the recipe for the basic potion was little more than just a rtively reliable sequence of steps that were likely to produce a consistent result. That wasn¡¯t good enough for him. Now that he could create this potion the usual way, it was time to find a way to improve it. Neave threw right about everything he could think of at the process and hoped something would stick. He tried putting liquid spirit into the mixture. All that seemed to do was dilute the remnant spirit within the ingredients. Adding life force, qi, liquid spirit, and flooding it with ethereal spirit all had little sess for various reasons. The biggest one was quite simple. Any of these additions resulted in a fundamental shift to the process. This meant that the qi techniques he usually had to use at the different steps were no longer worth jack shit. Neave could improve the quality of individual ingredients by imbuing them with life force or loading them with liquid spirit. However, when he had to use these ingredients, the same rules and standard procedures didn¡¯t apply anymore. There was something of a makeshift ¡®solution¡¯ that Neave could employ here. Simply put, if he learned every alchemy qi technique, he could theoretically mix and match different techniques topensate for the changes to the process. Fuck that shit. Even if that was theoretically possible, it was such a daunting task that Neave had no confidence he could achieve that within a year of work. Neave thought of something. Undoubtedly, it could take him as long as a year of work to do that. Now, if only he had some convenient way to get as much time as needed. Neave grinned. *** Hunter was starting to get desperate. No, he was already hopeless. Now he was slowly entering the insane idea territory. If I impregnated the daughter of someone important, would I be forced to take responsibility? A genuinely idiotic idea indeed. Even he knew there was no way in hell that was a viable n on any of the theoretical steps. But at this rate, he couldn¡¯t think of anything besides leaving the capital and looking for a sect outside. He would have to either cough up a lot of money for that or set off onto the bandit and monster-infested roads. Hunter wasn¡¯t hungry yet, given that he had some money on him. Unfortunately for him, the capital was brutally expensive, even in the outer circle. His petty pocket change won¡¯tst him long. He needed to find a solution fast, or he would be forced into taking desperate measures. As he strolled around the outer edges of the capital, an unusual sight caught his eye. A bald construction worker was constructing a building single-handedly at jaw-dropping speed. Hunter couldn¡¯t help but wonder who this man was. As he looked around the premises of this building in construction, his mind froze. Right next to this building was a young girl carrying construction materials from arge pile. A young girl he immediately recognized. Chapter 50: Recruitment Chapter 50: Recruitment Marven maintained the same pace. Outwardly, there were no changes to his behavior. Inwardly, he was cursing himself. Large cities, such as the capital of the Empire, were horrifically hostile to spirit senses. There was an overabundance of people, and objects that interfered with spirit senses were everywhere. Not only were cloaking artifacts popr among the masses, but no sect also wanted someone to be poking their spiritual nose into their premises. Trying to maintain constant attention to the nauseating soup of stimuli was torturous, which was why Marven had been mainly ignoring his spirit senses. As he felt Hunter running toward Harel, he sorely regretted ever dropping his guard. Shaving his head was enough to make him unrecognizable from afar, but hunter would see right through him if he got too close. Marven subtly pinched his shoulders with his fingers and readjusted his back to change his posture. He quickly readjusted the muscles in his face. While he couldn¡¯t change his facial structure, he could at least appear slightly different. He decided to close his eyes entirely and depend on his spiritual senses. Hunter would likely recognize his eyes. He wasn¡¯t confident that this would be enough. All he could bet on now was the benefit of the doubt. *** Harel spotted Hunter toote. Aw, crap! She couldn¡¯t hide or run away now. Initially, he sprinted toward her. She saw him readjust his pace as he likely noticed that what he was doing was rather embarrassing. Eventually, once he reached close enough, he adjusted his pose to appear more dignified and casually strolled up to Harel. ¡°Greetings, Harel.¡± Harel seriously contemted pretending that she didn¡¯t recognize him. However, she sighed and greeted him instead. ¡°Greetings, Hunter.¡± She remained silent and stared at him. Hunter awkwardly shuffled around. He wanted to ask a lot but couldn¡¯t think of anything. Eventually, he settled for a simple question. ¡°How did you end up in the capital?¡± ¡°That¡¯s... I¡¯m sorry, but that¡¯s none of your concern.¡± Harel was desperately hoping she could chase him away before Marven noticed him. Marven didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with his family. She feared the consequences of letting them back into his life and what it would do to his mental state. Hunter either didn¡¯t notice her tone, or he intentionally ignored it. ¡°Do you mind if I ask what you are doing here?¡± Even though he acted as if he couldn¡¯t register Harel¡¯s attitude, he now adopted a slightly more polite tone. It was almost unsettling seeing him trying to be polite. Harel wanted to maintain her dismissive attitude, but something about his behavior made her almost feel bad for him. What she wanted to know was what was he doing here? ¡°I am currently aiding my new master in constructing a sect.¡± ¡°I¡­ I see. Would this new sect perhaps¡­ Just theoretically, be open to taking new disciples?¡± Now Harel actually felt terrible for him. He must have gone through quite the ordeal to find himself without connections while stuck in the capital. ¡°I am really not qualified to¡­¡± Suddenly, right at Harel¡¯s side, Marven appeared. She jumped a little and panicked but paused as she looked at him. He didn¡¯t look like a different person, per se, but he was different enough that she would pass him on the street without batting an eye if she didn''t pay attention. Marven spoke in a very different voice now. ¡°Greetings, Junior. I am an elder of the Falken sect. I apologize for my rudeness, but I overheard your question to our young mistress. We are not currently epting disciples into our sect.¡± Hunter¡¯s mood dropped like a stone, and he visibly shrank upon hearing that. ¡°... However, if you are an acquaintance of our mistress, we would be d to assist you with getting settled somewhere else. Getting into a sect in the capital is rather challenging and may take some time, but you seem quite talented. Have you considered working as an apprentice in a shop first?¡± Hunter¡¯s mood tanked even harder. It wasn¡¯t like it didn¡¯t cross his mind, but he had been a cultivator in a martial arts sect from birth. There was little he knew outside of training andbat. He was somewhat advanced for his age. If he spent a year without proper training, he would fall behind. Even if he did get a job, that would likely be the end of his life as a martial artist. The longer he worked, the more his chances of getting into a sect would plummet. Hunter bit his tongue and prepared himself. He didn¡¯t want that. He would at least ask them to get him to another city if he were getting charity. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Harel and Marven winced a little. Marven almost opened his eyes in shock. Hunter turned around and froze. Right behind him stood a tall young man that looked around his age. Everything about this young man reminded him of his father. And a few things, such as his peculiar hair, reminded him of Neave. Neave stared at Hunter casually and asked. ¡°Greetings, junior.¡± Then he turned to Marven, ¡°Elder, do you mind introducing me?¡± Marven stood frozen for a few seconds but quicklyposed himself. ¡°Young master. I apologize, but I do not know this young man¡¯s identity. He seems to be acquainted with the young mistress.¡± Hunter was thoroughly confused. He just didn¡¯t know what to think. Who was this? Was this perhaps a long-lost brother of his? He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if this young man were indeed his brother. Marven had a reputation for spreading his seed way too haphazardly. ¡­ No, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He couldn¡¯t resist asking. ¡°I apologize for my insulting question, senior, but are you perhaps a son of Marven Zearthorn?¡± Harel and Marven winced. Surprisingly, Neave maintained hisposure and asked him a question in return. ¡°Wait¡­ If you¡¯re acquainted with the young mistress, could you perhaps be from the Zearthorn sect?¡± Hunter replied immediately. ¡°Yes, I am.¡± ¡°No wonder you knew Harel then, hahaha. Wonderful, wonderful. Should I assume you are a brother of mine?¡± Harel and Marven gaped. Luckily Hunter¡¯s back was turned to them. They had no idea what Neave was ying at, but they were doing their best to decipher his ns. Hunter smiled pleasantly at Neave and bowed a little. ¡°Greetings, brother!¡± Hunter turned serious, ¡°Is father here in the capital?¡± Neave contemted for a moment but shook his head with a sad expression. ¡°Perhaps, but I doubt it. That old man came seeking my mother recently. When he heard of her passing, he told me to look after Harel and left. I have no clue where he had gone.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Hunter wasn¡¯t sure whether he should be d that Marven wasn¡¯t here. ¡°I seem to have failed to introduce myself. I am Deeze, and as you have assumed, I¡¯m one of Marven¡¯s sons. And as I assume, you have probably never heard of me.¡± Hunter chuckled at that one. ¡°You are indeed correct. Even if father had told me of all the children he had, I would likely not remember all of them.¡± ¡°Truly. What a piece of irresponsible shit he is.¡± Marven gritted his teeth a bit at that one. Hunter took a deep breath. ¡°Indeed. I¡¯ve heard from Harel that a new sect was being constructed here. I am unfamiliar with your situation, but I assume it must beplicated. It is shameless of me to ask you this, but¡­ I am in rather dire need of assistance. Your elder told me this sect won¡¯t ept disciples for a while, so I will...¡± ¡°What are you saying, brother? It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I¡¯ve had to fix the problems that old man has caused! I will dly vouch for you to be epted into our sect if you please.¡± Hunter perked up. ¡°Truly? You may look like father, but it¡¯s clear you¡¯ve inherited your personality from your mother.¡± Neaveughed at that one and patted Hunter on the back. ¡°I would have to agree with you on that one!¡± Harel and Marven stared inplete confusion. *** A meeting was underway in the main chamber of the Onyx Scorpion sect. The sect master and one of the more important elders were both missing. They were spotted leaving the sect premises together and hadn¡¯t returned since. The most bizarre aspect of their disappearance was that, quite literally, nobody seemed to have seen them anywhere. The moment they walked outside, they simply vanished. The emergency meeting had been underway for a while. Not even half an hour into the session, the council decided to go into lockdown. Their leading theory for what was happening so far was simple. Arge sect had decided to systematically dismantle their sect. The ¡®young master¡¯ from the other day had already been exposed as a fraud. The council had sent an emergency message to the Deagon sect. While waiting for someone from the sect to arrive, they huddled together in paranoia, deathly afraid that the assants would resort to a more direct approach. If whoever was attacking was capable of vanishing their sect master, they could definitely destroy the entire sect. The council just hoped that their call would be answered in time¡­ *** Heavy armor was essential attire for anyone living within the Kurlore sect. Whether it was a casual asion or a meeting with the emperor, every member was to be fully armored in public. The armor produced by their cksmiths was precious. But that didn¡¯t make it convenient to move around in. This was why it was important for all members to getfortable with wearing the armor regardless of what they were doing. Heavy armor could only get so optimized, after all. Even while sleeping, the members of the sect slept in armor. Armor thus became something of an expression of one¡¯s identity. It was easy to recognize specific individuals simply based on their armor. This was true for all of the sect members but the employees. Those who were part of the sect but didn¡¯t y a role as martial artists wore the same armor. It was an elegant steel armor that didn¡¯t provide the most outstanding defense since it was designed to be as convenient to move in as possible. However, it was still full armor, and something about full uniform armor was quite effective at getting people out of the way. Around forty or so individuals walked down the halls of the Kurlore sect. In front stood two figures. An elder of the sect, a man wearing full armor, silver in color, and an outsider that wore full golden armor. Behind them was a group that all wore the standard uniform armor of the sect¡ªa group of demons disguised as employees of the sect. The group made their way out of the sect and into the streets of Keyishin. Ilkivir raised his arm, and all the demons paused, took a deep breath, and subtly hinted in a direction. ¡°So the child is in the capital after all¡­¡± Ilkivir said and nodded to the man wearing silver armor. The group walked in the direction indicated by the demons¡ªtoward the newly created Falken sect. Chapter 51: Deathmatch Chapter 51: Deathmatch asionally, the best way to hide something was to do it in in sight. Large sects weren¡¯t strangers to unting their wealth and influence with parades, so the group marching down the streets didn¡¯t raise even a single eyebrow. Every once in a while, Ilkivir would signal them, and they would all collectively take a deep breath. No one demon could tell precisely where to go, which was why they would go in the direction most demons were pointing. This scouting group had spent a while just sniffing around the capital. When one had the touch of divinity on them, regardless of whether it was by a god or a devil, it was almost impossible to purge the remnant influence thoroughly. Breaking a devil''s curse took this to an extreme. The demons following Ilkivir weren¡¯t regr ones. These unique demons were sent for the specific purpose of tracking divine influence. Both to locate any remnant devil artifacts and to sniff out the interference of the gods. Currently, they were trying to sniff Neave out in the capital. They had been for quite a while at this point. Ilkivir was just about ready to pull his hair out. Nothing made sense. Was there a natural cmity happening that just carried a devil''s influence everywhere? So far, Ilkivir had located over twenty holes¡ªjust small openings, right about the size of a finger. For some fucking reason, these holes smelled of a devil''s influence. Did the capital have a ¡®devil worm¡¯ infestation? The influence was so scattered that Ilkivir was starting to doubt that Neave was actually in the capital. If he was, then he was up to some unusual activity. Only once the influence led them to the grand library had he felt more confident Neave was here. It was a little unusual that a backwater sect master like Marven could afford to get Neave into the library, but that exnation made the most sense. Now it was only a question of tracking down the sect they were staying in. Again, this led them to a lot of holes. Perhaps there were devil worms guing the capital after all. *** The headquarters of the Emperium sect wasn¡¯t very shy. Kingean, the sect master of Emperium, was the Emperors greatest admirer. And the emperor was an incredibly frugal and humble man. This admiration was clearly reflected in the construction of the Emperium sect. It was arge building of stone and wood. Naturally, the rock and timber were of the highest quality and reinforced with tons of metal and even a crystal skeleton beneath, but none of that reflected on the appearance. The gardens also appeared wild. There were no shaped bushes or nted flowers. It was maintained rigorously, naturally, but it seemed as if it were nothing more than a beautiful and serene patch of the wilderness carved out and ced in the middle of the capital. Through this garden, a young man decked out in shy robes walked right into the main building of the Emperium sect. No matter who he encountered, he was treated with the utmost respect. His appearance was highly unusualpared to most other members'' in robes. Although everyone kept their mouths shut, they were acutely aware of this discrepancy. The moment the young man approached the core of the premises, one of the elders walked up to him and escorted him to a hall. Around thirty men sat in a messy pile in this hall and intently stared at the entering figures. The young man stepped forward, bowed a little, and introduced himself. ¡°My name is Dukean, and I am a young master of the Emperium sect. Since my father is away on an important mission, I will hear you out in his stead.¡± One of the men, a ragged individual with long greasy hair, stood up, bowed awkwardly, and introduced himself. ¡°My name is Lank. Thanks for your time.¡± Dukean nodded. ¡°I am going to be fully honest with you. The elders that heard you out were skeptical of your ims.¡± ¡°What!? But the fucking¡­ I mean, I¡¯m¨C¡± ¡°Please, calm yourself. I¡¯ve only heard a summary of the report, so I have no opinion yet. I would like to hear your full testimony directly. I prefer all yourpanions wait outside.¡± A fat man sitting close to Lank looked nervous, and he turned to face him. ¡°It¡¯s ok, Bev. You go outside, and I¡¯ll tell him everything.¡± Bev nodded and, together with the others, walked out of the room. Dukean nodded to the elder, and he also left the room. ¡°If you wish, you may speakfortably with me. Do sit as well, if you please.¡± Dukean sat cross-legged on the ground, and Lank mirrored him. He didn¡¯t look quite as dignified as the young man, however. He retold him the entire story of how they set off to hunt the demon child in the wilderness. Lank retold the encounter with the three gold path cultivators. Then, with a great deal of hesitation and a bit of shivering, he retold the fight. Dukean intently listened to Lank¡¯s retelling. Lank finished his story shortly after retelling how they escaped and ran to the nearest town, where they contacted the branch of the Emperium sect. Dukean sat silent for a while, frowning and contemting the story''s details. After a few minutes, he raised his head and met Lank¡¯s eyes, who shifted his gaze to the side a bit. ¡°Purely by how you retold everything, I find it difficult to disbelieve your story.¡± ¡°Oh, does that mean¨C¡± ¡°But¡­ There are too many dubious details. I find it too convenient that the three dead gold path cultivators were from the Bentheta sect. Given that it has been destroyed at the same time as when your fight took ce, there¡¯s no way to confirm that they died in the wilderness rather than inside their own sect.¡± ¡°You can go into the wilderness. You¡¯ll still find the bodies!¡± ¡°That is extremely unlikely. Even if they died there, monsters could have eaten the corpses.¡± ¡°But they couldn¡¯t have fucking eaten the sheer carnage that demon child left behind!¡± ¡°Calm yourself.¡± Dukean didn¡¯t raise his voice, but the tone instantly made Lank shut his mouth, ¡°We will have the site investigated, granted that you can provide us with the exact location details. But that might not even be necessary. You said that you were provided with armor by the gold path cultivators?¡± Lank lit up. ¡°Shit, we were, you¡¯re right. My men took off the gear and dropped it so they could run as fast as possible, but I¡¯m sure a few of them at least kept the bracers or something.¡± Dukean left the room briefly and walked back inside, holding a metal mitt. He examined its construction, eventually locating a small insignia. It was the emblem of the Bentheta sect. Dukean nodded. ¡°At the very least, this confirms that you¡¯ve had contact with the Bentheta sect. I will consider having the location of this hypothetical fight investigated. I would like you to tell me as many details as you recall.¡± Lank thought for a while. He remembered nearly nothing that he hadn¡¯t already shared. Dukean asked again. ¡°Alright, do you remember any other general details about the child?¡± ¡°Well, there was one thing. He killed a lot of monsters, but there were no monster corpses anywhere.¡± Dukean raised an eyebrow at that one. ¡°Do you remember anything about the child''s appearance?¡± ¡°Nothing that I hadn¡¯t mentioned yet. Pink hair and very young.¡± ¡°Anything more specific than that?¡± ¡°He looked dirty as shit, I guess? It was hard to tell, given how far I was.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Dukean interrogated him a while longer, but there was little else he hadn¡¯t already been told. Eventually, Lank was dismissed. However, this wasn¡¯t the end of the interrogation. Lank left the hall only to find that his crew was separated. Then, one by one, they were interrogated individually. Dukean asked them the same questions and received simr answers, to his surprise. Of course, this wasn¡¯t concrete evidence that they were telling the truth, but it was unlikely they could have coordinated the entire story so perfectly. He was about to finish the interrogation with the seventh individual. This would be thest person he interrogated, as he had already spent too much time on this. ¡°Now, please tell me if you remember any details about the child.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ He had pink hair with red streaks.¡± Dukean paused. ¡°Wait, can you repeat that?¡± ¡°Yeah, I said pink hair with red streaks.¡± ¡°Not just pink, but he also had red locks?¡± The man nodded nervously. ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± ¡°I am an archer, so I¡¯m pretty confident in my eyes. Is there a problem?¡± ¡°No, no, I just find the detail¡­ Rather peculiar.¡± *** After adopting Hunter into the sect, rather than exin anything to Harel or Marven, Neave just left. He made his way to the library again. This time, he sought all the possible qi techniques in the books. Sadly, there was no such thing as a convenient book with an extensive collection of techniques. There were, actually, but they didn¡¯t have all of the qi techniques, which meant he was back to digging through piles upon piles of books again. Neave was a little distracted this time around. People pointed fingers at him and whispered behind his back. His enhanced perception let him hear almost everything, even the chatter concealed by privacy artifacts. As far as he could tell, everyone here was curious about his identity. The person he had talked tost time he was here was apparently a significant young master from a peak sect. Neave pretended not to hear any of the chattering, but inside, he gloated. Something about seeing the masses so blown away by his magnificence left Neave with an intense feeling of ecstasy. Good, good, my little children, yes. You are right, blonde girl who is chatting to the brte. I, indeed, am hot and mysterious. His reading speed was considerably slower this time, given how much attention he paid to all the gossiping. Eventually, he sat down to let all the new knowledge settle. He didn¡¯t need it to integrate since it was just a long list of qi techniques, but the headache was starting to disrupt his focus. As he sat down, he sensed a spirit. He didn¡¯t turn around, but he didn¡¯t need to either. It was a girl that felt around fourteen years old, which was quite impressive for someone on the third step of the silver path. She was a short girl with blue hair. She looked intense and dignified outwardly, but her speech was anything but. ¡°Gre¨CGreetings, senior! M¨CMay I introduce myself to you?¡± Senior? Neave held back a chuckle. He gave her a stern look, then shook his head. ¡°No, you can¡¯t.¡± She awkwardly stammered and shuffled away in embarrassment. Ah! The joy of shattering the heart of a maiden! Come at me, the bravest of ye women! This arrogant young master has rejections to serve! Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t another pretty girl that stepped up this time but an angry teenage boy. I somehow doubt he¡¯sing to flirt with me¡­ He was a silver-haired boy wearing yellow robes with a purple star insignia. Judging by his life force, he was around sixteen, yet he was already on the golden path¡ªimpressive for someone so young. The boy pulled a sword out of his dimension ring and pointed it at Neave. ¡°Junior! I challenge you to a duel!¡± ¡°I refuse.¡± ¡°Wha¨C!? You dare!¡± The boy smiled and shook his head gleefully, ¡°It is obvious why you¡¯re hiding your growth with an artifact! Don¡¯t think I can¡¯t see right through you. You are nothing but a fake!¡± Neave nodded sagely. ¡°You are indeed right. I am at the very beginning of the foundation realm. It would be unfair for someone as mighty as yourself to challenge me to a fight.¡± The boy scoffed. ¡°You think you¡¯re funn¨C¡± Neave dropped his veil around his spirit and revealed his cultivation as genuinely being at the beginning of the foundation realm. ¡°Howughable! You think a cheap trick like that will save you from fighting me?¡± Neave looked at him and put his veil back around his spirit. ¡°I will agree to fight you on one condition.¡± ¡°You better not request I go easy on you!¡± Neave smiled. ¡°I request a deathmatch.¡± The young man flinched just a little bit but then scoffed. ¡°You bastard, do you think I wouldn¡¯t kill you?¡± Neave stared at him, not breaking eye contact for even a millisecond. The young man clicked his tongue. ¡°You brat. I wouldn¡¯t want to sully my reputation with the blood of somebody so worthless.¡± Then he turned around to walk away. Not even secondster, he realized this sounded like an excuse. And he didn¡¯t want to seem like a coward after starting this. The boy whirled back around but froze just as he was about to speak. Neave had a subtle but obvious hint of excitement in his eyes. The young man took a few deep breaths and raised his sword again. ¡°My name is Kolben Yvellsare of the Star Tamer sect! Tell me your name and what sect youe from!¡± ¡°No.¡± Kolben clenched his teeth so hard they creaked under the force. ¡°If you do not introduce yourself, I will find out who you are the hard way, and trust me, you wouldn¡¯t want that!¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± At this point, a few of the disciples present started chuckling. Kolben was thoroughly embarrassed, but internally he yearned to put this brat in his ce. He seethed and put his sword down. ¡°Alright, you asked for this, you rat.¡± Kolben turned around and walked away, ¡°You won¡¯t be able to say that I didn¡¯t warn you!¡± Neave didn¡¯t even look at him as he walked away. Ah fuck, did I get a bit too into the whole arrogant young master thing? He contemted it for a bit. Nah, that was totally worth it. He picked up another book and continued reading. Chapter 52: Dance Battle Chapter 52: Dance Battle Ilkivir was getting anxious. The devil''s influence was just about everywhere throughout the capital. Either there was something besides Neave spreading it, or Neave was constantly moving around without pause. Ilkivir had decided to change his strategy and use a deductive approach instead. He had their group teleported to one of the outer edges of the capital. The demons sniffed around. Once they were done, they teleported again. They repeated this several times. Ilkivir had covered around ten percent of the capital¡¯s edges within an hour. They didn¡¯t just teleport to the closest teleporter but randomly chose different parts of the capital''s boundaries to procedurally eliminate sections of the border where they couldn¡¯t smell anything. Slowly but surely, they isted one edge of the capital where the influence seemed strongest. Ilkivir nned to move to the middle of the capital and map the ces where they encountered the influence. Afterward, they would entrust the Kurlore subordinate sects to look for clues of Neave¡¯s location. However, as they started moving toward the center, they encountered the most potent influence yet. This brought them to a small, triangr plot where four people ran around constructing a sect. A young woman, a young man, a tall adult, and a bald man ran around and worked on constructing a rather impressive building. Ilkivir took a long hard look at the bald man and smiled. Found you, Marven. Then they walked to the nearest teleporter. Ilkivir and the group of demons found themselves back in the headquarters of the Kurlore sect. The group walked back to the underground entrance to the mystical realm. The demons took their armor off upon arriving there, and so did Ilkivir. He pulled a set of slimmer, red armor from his dimension ring. Once he wore the armor, Ilkivir pulled a small ck orb from the dimension ring. The demons lifted their hands, and thin ck mist traveled toward the sphere. The orb shone with an ominous glow, and Ilkivir slowly absorbed the energy. His veins bulged, and his skin darkened a little beneath the armor. He opened his eyes, and a deep color of blood reced the serene green while the whites of his eyes turned a sickly shade of gray. He walked back out and was escorted to a secret underground teleportation tform. Ilkivir stepped on it and grinned. Worry not, master. Soon, I will be finished with my task. *** Neave spent thest few hours doing nothing but flipping through books. He was a lot slower than he could be. Something was nagging him continuously as he scanned the pages. He had missed his chance. That vermin threw his power around to prey on those weaker than him. The deathmatch would have been a perfect chance to dispose of him before he could make the world worse. In that young man¡¯s eyes, Kolman or whatever his name was, Neave saw the same thing he saw in Hunter¡¯s. But it was different. Contextually, that was. Not only was this young man quite a bit older than Hunter, but he was also much more powerful. At some point, the actual age of a cultivator no longer mattered. Neave considered this point to be the beginning of the golden path. There was an interesting excerpt in a book Neave had once read. The author imed that adulthood began when one reached a threshold of power, not when one physically aged enough. It made sense. Power brought with it responsibility. And responsibility brought ountability. And Neave¡­ He would be the ountant. Neave wanted to maintain his personas carefully. There was a reason why he was doing this shtick with the young master identity. Humans, especially younger ones, were very impressionable. Those who were perceived as having power and influence were frequently imitated. He wanted to create the perfect young master and be a paragon of the younger generation. And the actions he wanted the others to imitate were those he believed were most correct. Murder wasn¡¯t always a good thing, of course. But if everyone had the threat of death hanging above their head if they misbehaved, the number of lives that would be spared and the amount of good that this would result in were both astronomical¡ªat least in Neave¡¯s extremely biased opinion. However, he recognized that he may have gotten a bit carried away with his power fantasy. Perhaps he shouldn¡¯t have been so rude to the girl. Or perhaps he should have been ruder? For now, he made his decisions around attempting to impress upon others that he was an incredible and astonishing young master that should be listened to and praised. It wouldn¡¯t be that hard to retroactively fix his mistakester, right? These things weighed on his mind while trying to memorize as many qi techniques as possible. He could still asionally hear others shit-talk him behind his back. It was evident that few believed that he was adequately reading the books. He didn¡¯t need them to believe it yet. In fact, the harder they disbelieve his actions, the more their opinion would flip once Neave demonstrated his power and skill. He wasn¡¯t done with even a tenth of the qi techniques that he wanted to attempt learning. While he rested his brain asionally, he brainstormed ways to practice using the qi techniques inside the realm. His blood may be a decent target for it. It was a pretty charged substance, so he weighed that he could probably, perhaps, maybe use it as a practice tool. If he didn¡¯t, he would just have to use the ck liquid, and it would be hard to tell whether the techniques had done anything to such an inert substance. He also nned to stock up on life force and calories. This part would be essential to surviving longer. He assumed that it would perhaps be possible to survive for as long as ten years if he approached it carefully and for as long as the demons didn¡¯t interfere too much. Lost in thought, he didn¡¯t notice the young mistress approach him. She had beautiful orange hair and wore frilly pink robes. Her face was pretty and a little plump, and so was she. Judging by her life force, she was around seventeen. And judging by her cultivation, she was a big shot. The third step of the golden path. A genuinely horrifying level of progress for someone so young. She was about aspetent as the young man he had met recently. She looked rxed and casual as she approached him. He contemted what tone he should use to reject her. Harsh? Perhaps he should try to be a bit more polite? His inner thoughts were interrupted as she stopped not too far before him. ¡°Hey yo! What¡¯s up, junior!? I was wondering if you would be willing to spar with me a bit!¡± Neave was caught off guard by how casual she was. There was most certainly nobody around that would dare criticize her for her tone except Neave. ¡°That¡¯s quite the rxed attitude you have while doing something dangerous, young mistress.¡± ¡°Bahahahaha! Wow, your ego is bigger than this library! I like it! You¡¯ve got some spunk in you, kid! Perhaps you will make for a decent cultivator one day! So, whaddya say? How about a round with older sister here?¡± Neave contemted that one a bit. He wanted to make the big reveal of his power in the most dramatic way imaginable. Would beating her suffice? No, it would be too anti-climactic. He needed asrge an audience for this as he could get. A fight with that weakling whose name Neave had already forgotten would have been the perfect appetizer. He could have beaten him without batting an eye and without revealing the full extent of his power. Fighting this woman was not going to be nearly as casual. The moment when Neave revealed the heavenly young master needed to be perfect. And he also needed to get a lot stronger before he did it. He wouldn¡¯t want someone powerful to kidnap him and dissect his corpse. So what do I do¡­? He couldn¡¯t see a way of escaping this without fumbling his n. A refusal may work, but it also may paint him as a coward. Fighting her would be too consequential. As he was contemting what to do, Neave got a brilliant idea. He turned to her and spoke. ¡°May I first hear your name?¡± ¡°My name is Maecy Animante. What about you, junior?¡± Neave could tell by the reaction of the others that she was someone at least as important as the young master he had met. ¡°My name is Deeze Falken. I apologize, but I must refuse your offer for a spar.¡± She grinned teasingly and leaned in a bit. ¡°Oh? What happened, young master? You wouldn¡¯t be chickening out?¡± ¡°Instead, I would like to propose an alternativepetition.¡± She giggled. ¡°A debate, perhaps?¡± ¡°I would like to propose a dance battle.¡± Silence. Thenughter. Maecyughed so hard that she fell on the ground and pped her legs. ¡°Okay, you¡¯re on! You better not chicken out now!¡± Neave couldn¡¯t help but smile a bit. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, young mistress. I am a man of my word.¡± She smiled and raised an eyebrow, quickly getting back on her feet. Very quickly, disciples from throughout the library gathered to watch. Neave and Maecy intentionally waited for a crowd to gather. Maecy kept throwing jabs and teasing him, but Neave simply waited with his eyes closed. Once enough people had gathered, they flipped a tinum coin to decide who went first. Neave chose tails, and the coin fell on heads. Maecy was going first. Rather than starting her dance, she grinned and made an offer to Neave. ¡°So, if we¡¯re doing this, how about we make it more exciting with a bet?¡± ¡°What are you suggesting?¡± ¡°A billion tinum coins.¡± Everyone gaped. Neave smiled ¡°I would take the trade in a heartbeat, but I do not have enough money.¡± ¡°No problem then. If you lose, you can be my ve for the rest of your life. How does that sound?¡± She smiled mischievously. Neave raised an eyebrow and grinned. ¡°You have a deal.¡± She giggled. ¡°You¡¯ve made a big mistake by underestimating me. I hope you know that.¡± Maecy took a few steps forward and started dancing. Her moves were swift and exceptionally precise. Her dancing involved a lot of hip action and leg work. The result was a bouncy yet elegant shuffle. She finished her first move, her finger pointing at Neave. ¡°Your turn.¡± Neave took a few steps forward as well and started dancing. To everyone¡¯s surprise, he perfectly imitated her style. It looked silly on an otherwise serious young master, but he lit up the stage with his performance. By every metric, Neave outdid Maecy. It wasn¡¯t anything out of this world, but he was the better dancer. Maecy felt a drop of sweat trickle down the side of her face as her smile grew stiff. ¡°Oh crap. Mom is gonna be angry.¡± Neave finished his move with a p, and Maecy continued. She danced far more aggressively this time, throwing her arms out and incorporating backflips and spins. She even finished her move with an elegant qi technique, using the red glow for dramatic effect. Neave once again imitated her style. He was ying a little dirty by shapeshifting to smoothen out his movements and even manipting his hair to move ideally in sync with his moves. He spun like a top and flipped through the air for his finisher, somehow managing tond perfectly without disturbing his robes or hair. ¡°Okay, what the f¨C¡± Maecy was bewildered. Her next move she danced a rigid and slow dance, but a veryplex one. She moved her torso every two beats and her legs every four. Her left hand moved once every three beats while her right hand carried most of the dance. It was an awe-inspiring disy of coordination, and it showed every minute of training she had poured into gaining mastery of her body. Neave didn¡¯t precisely imitate her style, but he did something even more insane. He moved every limb almost independently of one another and timed the beat so that he flowed from chaos to order, phasing from synchrony to anarchy every few seconds. Every time his moves went out of sync, a feeling of discrepancy built up until order reigned supreme once more, shattering the vague sense of anxiety. Maecy was getting quite desperate. She couldn¡¯t believe that she got suckered into a dance battle against this creature. She considered herself apetent dancer, but everything he did was a step up from what she set up. As Neave wrapped up his turn, she went all out this time. She did flips, throws, jumps, and techniques; she wasn¡¯t even dancing in a singr style but chaining all of the most impressive movements she could pull off. She finished her turn with a flick-kick-spin-flip, chaining slightly different variations roughly a hundred times in a row in less than five seconds, kicking up a whirlwind. When it was Neave¡¯s turn, he didn¡¯t move. Maecy smiled and spoke. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to give up?¡± Rather than respond, Neave took a step forward. His next dance was neither fast nor was it impressive. He slowly spun and chained his movements one after another. Maecy and the crowd were visibly disappointed but waited to see what he was doing. Neave took a few steps and spun. However, in the middle of the spin, he wlessly changed the direction he was spinning. Everyone blinked a few times at the strange phenomenon, unsure whether they had imagined it. Neave then stepped forward once and flowed his movement toward the left. But he ended up walking right. After his limbs appeared in ces where they definitely shouldn¡¯t be several times, it was clear that he was doing something. However, Maecy wasn¡¯t impressed. ¡°You have some sort of movement spirit power, I get it, but that isn¡¯t very impressive or a dance move in the first ce.¡± Neave ignored her. Suddenly, something about his movements changed. He still danced in the same style, but from nowhere, imaginary opponents appeared. How he grabbed, blocked, parried, and dodged in slow motion painted the scene of a warrior masterfully manipting the flow of battle. Neave reached an arm out, shattering the smooth flow. And starting a ughter. He grabbed one of the fighters by the neck and snapped it. He punched another right in the heart. The third had his eyes wed out, his arm broken, and his spine shattered. Nobody in the audience could look away. Neave blended qi and life force in a perfect ratio. At first, all everyone could hear was a low thrumming noise. It snuck into the movements so seamlessly nobody could even tell when it appeared. A soft mist spread through the air around him. A few disciples gasped as the mist shifted and moved, following these imaginary opponents. Then electricity began crackling through the air. Neave¡¯s movements grew more aggressive, taking heads off and dismembering bodies as he dispatched the imaginary opponents one after another. Then he took a step forward and appeared closer to Maecy. The crowd''s heartbeat sped up as one. Something about that movement felt so intrinsically aggressive and violent that everyone winced, and Maecy almost threw her guard up in surprise. Then he did it again, once more appearing a little closer. He walked forward almost casually as he kept up the scenario. Golden runes lit up, and he swung his arm at Maecy. She would have dodged or retaliated, but the movement was so fast that she could barely perceive it. Neave swung his arm in a downward strike and kicked up a gust of wind that threw books off the shelves. His hand paused, stretched out in front of Maecy. He merely looked as if he was offering her a handshake. Sweat trickled down Maecy¡¯s spine in a small stream, and she panted raggedly. Neave looked her in the eyes and smiled. ¡°You¡¯re a great dancer. I am honored to have faced you as my opponent.¡± She rxed her tense shoulders and smiled back at him, disbelief seared into her expression. ¡°Yeah¡­ Well¡­ You kicked my ass pretty hard there.¡± Neave giggled amicably. ¡°I know.¡± *** The Deagon sect stood out as the most unusual among the most significant sects in the capital. They were a righteous sect, undisputed by most powers in the empire. Yet, they themed their identity around death and darkness. Skeletons of different monsters littered their courtyard, which looked like a deste wastnd of darkness. Members of the sect walked around wearing pitch-ck, hooded robes and wielded weapons such as sickles on chains or scythes. Those who wielded des carried ck executioner swords and nasty serrated daggers. Their weaponry was objectively suboptimal, but they weren¡¯t among the most extraordinary powers in the empire without reason. Few ces in the realm were as secure as the settlements under their protection. Their existence was like a scary bedtime story for anyone wishing to dabble in criminal activity. Their qi techniques and spirit powers were optimized for two things¡ªfear and pain. The people referred to the Deagon sect as the reaper of the empire. For any demonic sect that overstepped its boundaries or bandit group that raided settlements, they were the ones who would be reaping their lives. In the deepest part of their headquarters, a depressed-looking man with a massive scythe strapped on his back read a message off a ck te. ¡°The Onyx Scorpion sect is under attack?¡± Who would be so foolish to raise their hand against someone suborned to the Deagon sect? The man vanished into the shadows and slithered, making his way to the edge of the capital. *** Ilkivir appeared at the teleportation tform nearest to the new sect being constructed by Marven. He wore his red armor, draped over with a brown cloak. Few people paid him any attention, and he took his time. Eventually, he appeared right before the Falken sect. He waited nearby as he scouted the area for any signs of Neave¡¯s appearance. *** In the main hall of the Onyx Scorpion sect, a man appeared seemingly out of nowhere as his body turned from shadow to flesh. A few of the elders jumped in fright but quickly regained themselves. Everyone kneeled. ¡°Elder Xondir.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard your plea. Have you heard any news about your sect master?¡± ¡°None, sir.¡± ¡°For now, I would like you all to¡­¡± Xondir paused. *** Marven whirled and stared at the sky. Suddenly, a massive rift appeared in the air, not too far from their sect. It glowed with a deep violet re and washed the entire world in purple. Marven shook as he realized what he was looking at. *** Ilkivir chuckled. ¡°I was just thinking whether I should create a distraction myself.¡± *** The elders of the Onyx scorpion sect panicked as they rushed outside. Once they spotted the rift above, they pleaded to Xondir. ¡°Sir! Could this be an attack by our enemies?¡± Xondir frowned. ¡°No, this is way worse. A mystical realm is about to open. Worst case scenario¡­¡± He looked over to the elders, distress in on his expression. ¡°... Millions are going to die.¡± Chapter 53: Rift Chapter 53: Rift Neave was handed a dimension ring that held not money but around a billion tinum coins in treasures, cores, materials, and equipment. At a certain point, using money for trade became wildly unpractical. While it would be possible to use certain precious metals to make coins of value far higher than tinum coins, it was better to just use those metals to forge equipment. Thus, the default for doing trade at the highest level was barter. There was no debate about who won the dance battle. Maecy gave him a dimension ring holding all of the precious loot, and they shook hands. She was rather salty and promised that they would meet again. Neave had aplished his goal of improving his reputation without revealing too much of his capabilities. Granted, it was apparent that he was apetent cultivator now, but there was still a shroud of uncertainty. Just because one was an exceptional performer didn¡¯t mean one was an outstanding warrior. These were the thoughts Neave had as he strolled out of the library. He was horribly wrong about basically all of his assumptions. True strikes didn¡¯t have much meaning to Neave, but to anyone else, it was among the most significant achievements a martial artist could pull off before the golden path. So in the eyes of the dazed disciples he had left behind, Neave was either a realm-shattering prodigy that had reached the golden path very young or a realm-shattering prodigy that had pulled off a true strike before reaching the golden path. It was still true that nobody had seen him in action, as far asbat was concerned, but that was barely relevant. Anyone who watched that fight with their eyes open knew Neave was a warrior of the highest order. Now all that was left was for him to prove them right by showing his skills off directly. Neave walked out of the library, casually striding down the street, utterly oblivious to the chaos he had just created. The other disciples rushed back to their sects to alert anyone they could find of the existence of this new monster among the younger generation. Their rush back to their sect was interrupted as the sky lit up in violet. *** Xondir ran out of the sect and toward the rift opening in the air. His body partially turned to shadow, but he struggled to maintain this form as the intense light interfered with his spirit power. He floated up into the air and tried entering the opening rift. But it was useless. The intense wave of energy that sted out from this crack in space kept him from approaching it. He was hoping he could get in there and manually prevent the outpouring before it could happen, but that was sadly not going to be possible. Xondir rushed back to the surface and faced the highest-ranking elder of the Onyx Scorpion sect. ¡°Listen carefully because I won¡¯t repeat myself. Mystical realms such as this are likely to have opened elsewhere once already. If even a single slime had made its way inside, it would be flooded with monsters that had nopetition as they grew in power and evolved. Tell everyone you see to run as far as they can from the rift.¡± Then he vanished into the shadows and returned to the capital''s center. This was news that had to reach the emperor as soon as possible. *** Ilkivir hid nearby as he watched the crack spread. People ran everywhere and evacuated the area as quickly as they could. He carefully observed Marven¡¯s group argue from afar. *** ¡°Listen to me, Harel! This is a crisis that not even I am qualified to handle! We have to get out of here as quickly as we can! Otherwise, we are going to be in grave danger!¡± ¡°But¡­ But¨C¡± ¡°There is no time! If you so desire, we will help evacuate as many people as possible, but we, and by that, I mean especially you, are unqualified to face this!¡± Harel shook as she watched the hordes of people push through the streets and rush away from the rift. There was no way all of them would get away with their lives. And those weakest among them were by far the most likely to die. She knew Marven would drag her away if necessary, so debating him was pointless. But she couldn¡¯t help it. As she pondered what to do, a ck-haired young boy appeared beside them. It took her a second to realize that it was Neave, just disguised. Hunter spluttered and took a step back. ¡°You!? What the hell are you doing here!?¡± ¡°Ah, shut the fuck up, Hunter. This isn¡¯t the time. Dad, I have no idea what¡¯s happening, but I¡¯m sure it will be dangerous, right?¡± ¡°Dad!?¡± Hunter screamed as he stared at the bald man he had assumed to be some random elder. ¡°Hunter, can you please¨C?¡± Neave turned to face hunter. He blinked at what he saw. Hunter squirmed as a man wearing red armor pressed a sizeable golden sword to his neck. ¡°Well, well, well¡­ Looks like I may have interrupted a heartwarming family reunion. I do dearly apologize for my transgression.¡± Marven froze. He had no idea who this man was or what he wanted, yet he felt a strange connection with him. The spirit oath that restrained Marven resonated strongly with this stranger. His eyes shot open as he realized who stood before them. ¡°Ilkivir.¡± ¡°Yes, it is yours truly, Marven. I can not believe you would go back on your word like that.¡± Marven gritted his teeth. ¡°The spirit oath stands unvited. Unfortunately for you, your little bet didn¡¯t pay off.¡± ¡°So what? Your little boy over here will be a head shorter if you do not restrain that child and hand it to me anyway.¡± Marven frowned as his mind whirled. This was the absolute worst timing for something like this to happen. ¡°Filth.¡± Neave suddenly disappeared. Everyone gaped as he appeared again, impaling his body on the sword Ilkivir held in his hands. ¡°What the¨C!?¡± Before Ilkivir could pull the sword out, Neave¡¯s arm elongated and wrapped around the hilt. His spirit screamed as the tinum rank metal in his body assaulted it. Neave pushed through it and pulled his fist back. Ilkivir tried pulling his sword out, but all he achieved was dragging Neave around. He didn¡¯t consider Neave a proper threat as he was unaware of how powerful Neave was. This was his first mistake. Neave¡¯s fist shot out, wrapped in red me, and smashed into Ilkivir¡¯s helmet. Before Neave¡¯s fist reached the helmet, the red metal formed aggressive spikes that impaled his fist. Neave ignored these spikes and drove the punch as far as he could. Ilkivir wasn¡¯t knocked back too far, but his head did snap in recoil. He watched in shock as Neave¡¯s bloody fist regenerated in moments. Neave glowed as he triggered ignite, and his body crackled with lightning. He pushed his thunder nerves as far as they could go by burning loads of life force. The lightning turned pink as it traveled down the sword into Ilkivirs body. Ilkivir, for the first time in his history as a warrior, dropped his weapon inbat. Neave cackled as he watched Ilkvir step back. The part of the de that vited the sanctity of his body was slowly disassembled by integrate and purged by sacred blood. The sword split in two. The upper half ttered on the ground behind Neave, and Neave threw the lower half away. He would have used it as a weapon, but the tinum-rank metal was disgustingly heavy for his spirit. Ilkivir watched, not in terror but in awe. So this was why master needed him dead. What a shame. He is so beautiful. Neave¡¯s body positively screamed as his sacred blood struggled to purge the horginium traveling through his body. Hepletely ignored the agony he was experiencing and rushed at Ilkivir. At this moment, Marven appeared out of nowhere and drove a thrust to Ilkivir¡¯s side. Ilkivir blocked the attack, barely even struggling to contain the technique. There was only so much someone on the first step of the tinum path could do to someone on the third. He cackled, and the red armor formed des extending from his hands. With one hand, he attacked Marven and prepared the other to block Neave¡¯s strike. He focused on Marven. This was his second mistake. Neave threw a fist at Ilkvirs side, and the armor grew spikes to face it. This time, he utterly shattered them with his fist. As his body purged the horginium, his spirit powers kicked in full force. The red armor bent and caved in a little under the sway of Neave¡¯s punch, and Ilkivir flew into the distance. Before he couldnd, Neave was once again upon him. Punch after punch sent cracks and explosions through the soil as Ilkivir desperately struggled to regain his bearings. ¡°That¡¯s enough!¡± Ilkivir screamed, and a bloody aura surrounded his body. It formed a shield that blocked Neave¡¯s attacks. Neave took a deep breath, and his body lit up in crimson me. This time, his fist came crashing down on Ilkivir like a meteorite. The intense aura burst like a bubble and blew away like smoke in the wind as his fist descended on Ilkivirs chest. The spikes once again rose to meet Neave¡¯s fist, but before he even touched them, the sheer intensity of the lifeforce Neave was burning made them bend and wilt. As fist met armor, the armor gave, and Ilkivirs blood seeped out of every slit in his armor. How could this be possible!? This level of power¡­! Don¡¯t tell me! Could he possibly already be on the third step of the tinum path? Higher!? It was at this very moment that Neave¡¯s veil crumbled. Ilkivir stared in shock. The beginning of the foundation realm. Every bit of life force in Neave¡¯s body focused on another punch. This time, Ilkvir reacted in time. He pulled an amulet out of his dimension ring and crushed it. His body was temporarily suspended, then flew back like a ragdoll, dodging Neave¡¯s attack. Ilkivir flew out of the courtyard and into the mass of people running from the rift in the sky. Suddenly, thin red spikes extended from his armor and pierced through hundreds of people. Harel screamed as she watched the innocent drop one after another. Marven winced and prepared to rush at Ilkivir again. Neave stared, eyes shot wide open. Ilkivir activated a spirit power as the countless corpses piled and the blood gathered into his body. He rapidly healed and felt his strength recover, even above his maximum capacity. As the blood finished seeping into his body, Ilkivir¡¯s armor bent and regained its pristine shape. He got up and rushed toward Neave, pulling another sword, this time ck, out of his dimension ring. As he approached within meters of Neave, he frowned as he watched him suddenly disappear. Neave appeared behind him, mouth open wide like that of a snake. He bit down on Ilkivirs head. Ilkivir was momentarily taken off guard but gloated as he realized what a mistake Neave had just made. The helmet shot spikes, embedding into Neave¡¯s head and piercing his skin. However, something was off. The spikes struggled to pierce Neave¡¯s brain or anything vital. Then, Ilkivir received a punch to the back. It was overbearing, and he felt his armor cave in yet again, but he didn¡¯t buckle or go flying away. Neave hung behind his body, which made it difficult to get a decent swing at him with the sword. Ilkivir swung the de back and struck Neave¡¯s neck. He felt the sword embed itself a few inches into the skin. Then it was pushed out as Neave¡¯s flesh rapidly rehealed. Ilkivir was shocked. He was about to swing again, but Marven appeared out of nowhere and attacked him. Ilkivir blocked the strike, surprised at how hard Marven could hit. Defending from Marven¡¯s attacks was challenging with Neave repeatedly pummeling his back. Marven was struggling to do any damage. He couldn¡¯t use any massive techniques out of fear that he would injure or even kill Neave. His swordsmanship, however, was not to be trifled with. The armor Ilkivir wore was insanely powerful and exceptionally good at blocking ded weapons. Whenever Marven¡¯s attacks were about to impact the armor, the spikes would shoot out and redirect his sword, messing with his edge alignment and neutralizing the attack. The qi techniques still pushed through and left deep gouges in Ilkivir¡¯s armor. Just because Marven struggled to deliver decisive blows didn¡¯t mean he was out of tricks. One of the most important days in his life, when he stopped barely pushing through and started excelling, was when he acquired his second spirit power. Ilkivir struggled but could still deal with Marven while shing at Neave. The problem was that he wasn¡¯t progressing on either front, while his blood sacrifice spirit power was already beginning to run out. It was at this moment that Marven struck again. A small chip of Ilkivir¡¯s armor was broken off. To Ilkivir¡¯s surprise, Marven dashed forward and pushed his finger toward the small hole in the armor. The spikes shot out and mangled his hand, but he pushed through and touched Ilkvirs skin. Ba-thump. Ilkvir froze. Marven suddenly shivered and bled aggressively from every orifice in his body. Whatever he just did came with some bacsh, and this would be the perfect time for Ilkivir to strike. But he couldn¡¯t move. He felt his muscles grow stiff as strange energy poured from Marven¡¯s finger into his body. Shit! Paralysis! While Marven couldn¡¯t do much, as he had suffered recoil to his spirit by using his spirit power on someone two steps above him, Neave was perfectly capable of capitalizing on this moment of weakness. Neave charged his fist up again to the highest capacity he could manage and struck at Ilkivirs back. He delivered quite a bit of damage, even pushing Marven back with the aftershock. Ilkvir stood paralyzed for a second, and his shoulders drooped. But he didn¡¯t drop to the ground. Suddenly, a ck mist surrounded him. The ghastly substance echoed with countless screams, many of which were that of young boys. The energy wrapped around his body, and he moved again. Ilkivir swung his sword at Neave¡¯s neck, this time managing to cleave it clean off. ¡°Neave!¡± Marven was still stunned by the bacsh from using his spirit power, so all he could do was helplessly watch Neave¡¯s body drop to the ground, head still biting down on Ilkivirs helmet. Suddenly, Neave¡¯s neck elongated and reattached back to his body. A small crimson me lit up where Ilkivir cut his neck, and his body bounced right back up in the air as he continued hammering Ilkivirs back. Ilkivir and Marven could agree that that was fucking ridiculous. Neave couldn¡¯t quite push his attacks through the shroud of ck mist. He released his bite and took a step back to assess the situation. Ilkivir stood still as the ck mist seeped into the cracks in his armor and absorbed into his body. ¡°You¡­ You made me¡­¡± He sounded furious. ¡°You worms. Countless years of progress. All lost in seconds. You fucking bastards!¡± The air around Ilkivir darkened as intense pressure enveloped a hundred-meter radius. Hunter and Harel fainted under pressure, and even Neave struggled to remain awake. Ilkivir grabbed his sword and thrust it at Marven. Marven could barely use a defensive qi technique in time to block the attack. As the sword enveloped in dark energy struck his guard, Marven was knocked back, flying across the courtyard and through a wall on the other side. Ilkivir turned around and faced Neave. To his immense surprise, Neave opened the dimension ring above his head. He spread his mouth wide open, and a torrent of qi treasures poured into it. Ilkivir wasn¡¯t sure what was happening, but the sheer absurdity of Neave¡¯s actions left him stunned for just a second. Neave stopped the outpouring of treasures and burped so hard his entire body vibrated. Ilkivir couldn¡¯t believe it. The chaotic mess of energies swirling in his body was so intense that Neave could not survive whatever he had done. Did he justmit suicide out of insanity? Ilkivir stared in awe as he felt the energies separate and rapidly settle in Neave¡¯s body. Neave grinned at him and pulled arge sword out of the dimension ring. At this very moment, the rift split, and everything was again washed in purple. The entrance to the mystical realm had finally opened. What could only be described as a river of purple snakes poured out of the violet abyss. Chapter 54: Crimson Chapter 54: Crimson Several miles away from the Falken sect, Gabrias was sprinting as fast as he could. He had slipped away ages ago, and luckily nobody had stopped him. As he rushed as far as he could from the portal, and the insane fight between Neave and the cultivator, he was apanied by a massive horde of people, all pushing over one another and trampling several others. Gabrias felt horrible for those caught beneath the crowds, but there was little he could do to help. He would have probably already been among them if he wasn''t so tall. As he rushed through the crowds, he spotted a group of roughly nine cultivators jumping from rooftop to rooftop. They wore colorful robes, although he couldn¡¯t tell any details due to how fast they moved. He could feel that at least two were on the tinum path. *** Ilkivir and Neave both barely shot the opening rift a nce before they focused on one another again. The serpents pouring out of the rift did look rather dangerous, but Ilkivir couldn¡¯t feel any ranked higher than silver. Granted, what looked to be millions of silver-rank serpents was a massive fucking disaster for the capital, but it wasn¡¯t relevant to their fight. Not yet, at least. Neave was slightly distracted by the implication of the serpent river. He wanted to rush out there and kill as many as possible, as he knew the fallout of their arrival would surely take far too many lives. But the man standing before him was way too dangerous to ignore, even in favor of a literal apocalypse. Neave held his two-handed sword to the side. It looked enormous in contrast to his slight physique, but there were no signs that he was struggling with wielding the weapon. The sword wasn¡¯t made out of a mortal material but of an iron-rank metal called peeliun. Ironically, ¡®iron rank¡¯ metals were many times more valuable than iron. This sword was no exception. The rank of the weapon wasn¡¯t necessarily too high for Neave¡¯s spirit, although it definitely should have been. His spirit had gotten quite a bit more durable through the repeat process of abuse and recovery, so he wasn¡¯t at all struggling with the spiritual weight. He could probably use a sword of up to silver rank, given that he no longer had any trouble using dimension rings of the same level. However, using a storage ring and wielding a weapon were entirely different subjects. If he wanted to use true strikes or even just wield the sword without fumbling it, he had to stay within the range of what his spirit could fully handle. He regretted not making a sword when he had the opportunity. Even a de of bare iron could drastically outperform this weapon if he used another gigantic monster core. Neave readied the weapon and stared his opponent down. Ilkivir raised the sword toward Neave and looked ready to strike. ¡°You fools!¡± There were several men and women dressed up in colorful clothing. The women wore frilly robes, and the men wore brightly colored robes with heavy floral motifs. The two warriors turned slightly to see who among them was talking to them. Neave¡¯s eyes widened as he recognized Maecy standing in their midst. He had chosen to disguise his hair color in case he had to enter a dangerous conflict. He didn¡¯t bother changing his height or modifying his body. All he wanted was to avoid having someone make the connection between him, the unhinged demon child, and the young master of the Falken sect. The rift in the sky felt like serious trouble to his spirit senses. He would not face whatever it could produce without fighting at his best, and anything besides his unaltered bodypromised his total power. An aggressively masculine man stood in front and shouted at them. His jawline was so thick he looked like he could drink molten metal through a straw, and every part of the human body that grew hair, even some that usually didn¡¯t, was covered in thick, ck fur. ¡°You dare fight amongst one another when such a disaster transpires right before you! You should be ashamed of yourselves!¡± A blonde-haired woman approached the man and smacked him on his head. ¡°You silly idiot! Can¡¯t you tell that this man is attacking that child? Instead of yelling, you should go and help him!¡± ¡°Shit! You¡¯re right! You there, in the red armor!¡± He lifted a rtively thin sword and pointed it at Ilkivir, ¡°My name is Levon, and I demand you exin yourself!¡± The woman smacked him on the back of his head again and groaned. ¡°Stop wasting time, you dummy!¡± She turned and charged at Ilkivir at full speed. Ilkivir raised his sword and readied himself to attack the woman. She hesitated a bit when she felt the intense powering from the attack. The cultivators behind her screamed, and the ck sword came down with the force and despair of a copsing mountain of corpses. Suddenly, Neave appeared before her and blocked the attacking sword with his hand. The de sank halfway into his arm and got lodged between the bones in his forearm. ¡°That trick won¡¯t work again, child!¡± A burst of ck aura suddenly enveloped the sword, and Neave¡¯s arm began disintegrating. The woman couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. She hadpletely misread the situation and now didn¡¯t know what to think. She noticed that she couldn¡¯t feel the ¡®child¡¯s¡¯ cultivation. She assumed he was nothing more than a young disciple, primarily due to the shoddy sword. But judging by the power of the red armored man¡¯s attack and the fact that the child managed to block, even if at the cost of his arm, this must be someone rather far down the path. She gritted her teeth and cursed herself. This must be a spirit beast in human form. Probably a cultivator from one of the more prominent sects. She had never heard of someone with this much power and such a peculiar form, but the capital was a massive ce. And now, this cultivator had sacrificed a limb to save her life because of her stupidity. She prepared herself to repay the favor by nking the red-armored man. Even though she was clueless about the details of the fight, it was evident that the scary red man with spiky demon armor and cursed ck mist wasn¡¯t the hero of this fight. Levon tackled her as she prepared herself to nk him and take a shot at a tiny opening she saw in his armor, just in time for a massive spike covered in dark mist to fire out of the man¡¯s armor right where she would have been. The snakes finally arrived at their location. The others from their group looked hesitant. Clearly, this red-armored man was up to no good. However, it wasn¡¯t clear whether fighting him was a priority over handling the outpouring of snakes. Suddenly, another man crawled out of a pile of nearby debris. It was Marven. He looked beaten up, and it was clear to anyone with spirit senses that he was struggling with a severe imbnce in his spirit. He pushed through it with gritted teeth and ran toward the unconscious Harel and Hunter. He spotted the hesitant cultivators observing the intense sh between Neave and Ilkivir. A deep anger bubbled from within, and he screamed out. ¡°You heavensdamned idiots! Go fucking help him out!¡± Marven pulled a small pill from his dimension ring and swallowed it. He didn¡¯t want to leave Neave behind, but a stray monster would likely kill Hunter or Harel if he engaged in the fight. He had witnessed first-hand what Neave was capable of, however. He would have to put his faith in him. A bright ze burned within his eyes as he lifted Hunter over his shoulders and grabbed Harel by her waist. It didn¡¯t matter if he risked death. He would have Neave remove his spirit powers and provide him with new ones. Marven would never again let himself be useless in a fight with his children''s lives in danger. Neave thrust his sword at the opening in Ilkivirs armor, but the spikes kept intercepting the de. Rather than let the edge get caught up and redirected, Neave thrust in and out of the opening, weaving and shifting his sword around the spikes. After a few hundred attempts, or less than three seconds of attacking, the points had already covered up the opening in the armor. Neave grinned. Suddenly, an intense burst of life force enveloped his sword, which shot out toward the armor, not at the spiky barricade but right beside it. The spikes had to be made of something, and the only material they could pull from was the neighboring metal that made up the armor. His sword flew at what had now be a rtively thin metal sheet. As it approached the armor, all it could afford to defend itself were tiny little spikes that the flood of life force pushed aside. The sword tip smashed full force into the sheet yet barely broke through the red armor. That was good enough in Neave¡¯s book. He released an intense flood of life energy directly into Ilkivir¡¯s body. He screamed in pain and pulled his sword back. All the surrounding cultivators gaped in shock as they witnessed Neave¡¯s arm grow back out in less than a few seconds. Marven, rather than run away, spotted the opening. There was a third spirit power he possessed. It was a feeble one, at leastpared to his other two. Invisible des. They could do little to cultivators of his rank, not to mention that anyone at the golden path could easily perceive them, but they were perfect for theatrics and putting the fear of the heavens into someone disobedient. And they just happened to be perfect for a quick surprise attack. He focused with all the willpower he could still conjure and a small invisible de. Marven sent the edge flying at incredible speed right toward Ilkivir¡¯s face. Ilkivir perceived it just as it was about to strike. The invisible de ttered against the red armor, failing to leave anything more than a scratch¡ªexcept for a crucial moment of distraction. One that Neave immediately capitalized on by sending a life-force-imbued kick to Ilkivir¡¯s stomach. Ilkivir went flying, and Marven yelled again. ¡°Go now!¡± The cultivators hesitated, but the circumstances pulled them along, and they rushed at Ilkivir. Marven turned around and ran, the unconscious Harel and Hunter in tow. A whirlwind of colorful attacks flew at Ilkivir. Most of them were brushed aside as spikes grew to meet them. Two among the newly arrived cultivators pulled bows out of their dimension ring, while the others used the longest range techniques they could manage. The blonde woman and the macho man weren¡¯t amateurs, however. They might act like fools asionally, but when fighting, they wielded the power and experience of second-step tinum path cultivators. Among the others in the group, there were no more tinum path cultivators, but almost all of them were at the third step of the golden path, except for a woman on the second step. While ilkivir dealt with most of the attacks with no problem, the heavy hitters could at least temporarily im his focus. Purple snakes jumped and coiled around the cultivators, but none were strong enough to put any of them at risk. The cultivators all paused for a moment as Neave rushed at Ilkivir again. They gaped as they witnessed him repeatedly pummel away at the armored man, putting so much life force into his attacks that their mere residual contained more life force than a cultivator on the iron path. Neave¡¯s sword was quickly bent out of shape, so he used another. This one was bigger, but he attacked too aggressively and shattered it in a single blow. Next up, Neave didn¡¯t even bother with another sword. He pulled a massive sledgehammer out of the dimension ring. As he charged another attack, the impact sent a titanic shockwave through the ground, and Ilkivir found himself struggling against the momentum of Neave¡¯s earth-shattering blow. Neave wondered why he didn¡¯t just use the sledgehammer from the start. Suddenly, blood poured out of Ilkivirs armor and covered his entire body. As the blood turned to mist, Neave gaped. Ilkivir was gone. As he felt where he had appeared in his spirit senses, Neave cursed himself. Ilkivir appeared behind one of the colorful cultivators and beheaded them. The others screamed and wailed as they watched theirrade¡¯s lifeless body fall. Then they froze in terror as they witnessed it dissolve and flow into Ilkivir¡¯s armor. Neave¡¯s crystal heart pounded so hard he could feel his veins cracking under stress. What am I doing? Why was he struggling to deal with this man? He thought he was above this. Neave watched Ilkviir suddenly regain a lot of his strength. It was apparent that whatever he was doing had even more severe consequences than what Neave did to boost his power. That didn¡¯t change the fact that he was still a massive threat. Even if Ilkivir died from his hubris, it didn¡¯t matter if Neave and many others died. This is what power does to them. This is what power does to sentient beings. It drives them to depravity and evil. I can not permit this to continue. It should all be annihted. This is why it should all be ex?ingui?heTd. Ilkivir charged another person. He ran at Maecy. The blonde woman and macho man rushed as fast as they could to stop him, but Neave stood frozen. Everything flowed slowly, and the scenario yed out in slow motion. That woman¡­ She could be evil as¡ªTTTTTTT TTTTT no. No. She wouldn¡¯t. Yes, she wo¨C TTTTTT No she fucking wo¨CTTTTTT But the bet. Had she not demanded my life in servitude? What kind of righteous person wished for ownership over another¡¯s lif TTTTTTTTTTTT It was a bet. I could have refuseTTTTTT I am clearly a child, though. Even when pretending to be a little older. She pressured someone younger by putting them on the spot and betting on their naivety. That is insidiuTTTTTTTTT But she is little more than a child herself. TTTT No, that is a weak excuse. She has too much power not to be aware of the implications of what she did. TTTTTT But am I aware of the implications of what I¡¯m doing? What about Gabrias? Hadn¡¯t I practically enved him? TTT That is¨C TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT No, no, I¡¯m pretty sure that counts. Besides, the more I think about it, the less it sounds like a big deal. She wanted me to be a ve, but what did that mean? Perhaps she just wanted to secure me for her sect as a genius of the younger generation or whatever¡­ Besides¡­ Who is interfering with my thoughts? ¡­ TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT No, I don¡¯t think so. Neave looked at the two cultivators running beside him. These two rushed to save someone¡¯s life. The blonde woman had even thrown herself at an opponent of unknown strength to protect a random child. Neave thought of Marven and how he at least tried to be better. He thought of the intelligent young man he had met in the library. He thought of the vermin that challenged him to¨CTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT No. Enough. It was true and evident that not everyone was perfect or even a good person. All had the potential to be evil. But everyone also had the potential to be good. He was very sure of one thing, however¡ªsome people still needed to die. Ayer of life force slowly wrapped around Neave¡¯s body. An intense surge of fire rushed from within his lungs and spread throughout his veins. Pink lightning crackled around him as it charged up in his nerves and tensed his muscles. He took an unbelievably quick step forward, another, and another. Neave jumped,nded, and appeared in Ilkivir¡¯s way. Ilkivir¡¯s eyes shot open at Neave¡¯s sudden appearance. Neave took a stance, and anotheryer of life force wrapped around his body. Then he wrapped yet another one. Neave¡¯s body began glowing with a subtle pink light asyer afteryer settled, gradually ring with a red ze. His entire body chipped and cracked under the intense power, life force gushing out of his body, escaping and slipping through his grip as he reached capacity. Neave pushed past that capacity. He willed his life force to remain right where it was. As it tried slipping away yet again, Neave persevered. He shifted his stance. The air around him whistled in a resonant screech as golden runes appeared. Then those golden runes shattered and vanished. They appeared again, but to no avail. Every time Neave tried to trigger the true strike, it refused to couple with the intense surge of life force. So he gave up. The life force he had built up would have to be enough. But it won¡¯t be. Neave needed more offensive capability. The deep, guttural hatred toward the man before him needed to be sated. Anger boiled within Neave as he remembered the hordes of the innocent this man had disposed of for a temporary power-up. No. Neave shifted his stance again. The golden runes appeared in the air again. They shimmered and flickered, yet again looking like they were about to shatter. Ethereal cracks spread through the runes in the air, reaching ever closer to copse. Something shifted within Neave¡¯s spirit. A pulse of something strange traveled through his life force, colors whirling and coiling into a thread that wrapped around reality. Neave heard countless monstrous screams echoing through his life force, and the influence of the creatures he had ughtered felt as alive as the day he had swallowed them whole. Thin tendrils of life force shot out toward the golden runes floating in the air, and the runes began multiplying. As Neave solidified his stance, countless crimson-red runes surrounded his body. Chapter 55: Eternal grudge Chapter 55: Eternal grudge Neave had never paid much attention to the golden runes surrounding him during a true strike. Well, it wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t try. It was more that he really couldn¡¯t. The runes always felt just a little beyond his perception. As the tendrils of life force extended and poured into the golden runes, he got sucked into the writing instead. The entire world slowed down, frozen in an eternal moment. The tragedy and horror of infinite pleas washed over Neave¡¯s soul. *** The divine''s abandonment. The unclean¡¯s betrayal. Evesting anguish eagerly granted. Transgression of all, eternally unforgiven. Our restitution, your persecution. Inevitably, The day of repossession will arrive. *** Ilkivir could only technically manipte the spikes on the armor manually, and it was at a high cost. Currently, whatever that cost may be, he was willing to pay for it. The spikes on his armor prated the earth, and he halted abruptly. He swung his body and moved just a little out of the iing attack. It happened way faster than he could possibly avoid entirely. Red runes swirled like a tornado of crimson death around Neave as he punched Ilkvir, who managed to get out of the way of the brunt of the attack. That was far from enough. A vivid crimson me in the form of an ethereal fist shot out from Neave¡¯s hand. The fist mmed into their newly built sect premises and utterly pulverized the building. The few mes that licked at Ilkivirs armor felt impossibly thick with hatred and killing intent. The ck mist surrounding Ilkvir¡¯s body whimpered and jolted back out of the way of this superior force. Ilkivir could see into the me, and he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. ws scratching, horns ramming, punches tearing, kicks smashing, teeth biting, spikes shredding, a myriad of hateful blows past him by; however, his armor was no joke, and even the pure brute power of these attacks couldn¡¯t leave more than a scratch. Individually, that was, but as millions of scratches piled up, the armor shredded to pieces. Ilkvir screamed as the topyer of his skin was taken with it. The aftershock sted the other cultivators away and sent countless snakes flying, even killing some. Ilkivir tumbled and spun as he flew and rammed into a pile of debris. Neave stood with his eyes zed over for a few seconds, then copsed face-first onto the ground. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck that cost me ALL of my life force! What a scam! I didn¡¯t even kill him! The other cultivators slowly got off the floor and gaped at the scene before them. The destruction left behind by that attack was genuinely awe-inspiring. There were still several embers of crimson me flickering in an out of existence as they took random swipes, some even killing snakes. The pile of rubble shifted, and Ilkivir slowly got up to his feet. His entire body was covered in blood, and whatever was left of his armor fell off his back and mbered onto the floor. The other cultivators merely shot one another a nce, and without a word, they struck. Ilkivir couldn¡¯t find his sword anywhere. It must have gotten caught up in the attack and thrown away. He reached for his dimension ring and cursed. Neave¡¯s attack caught it and damaged it too much to reestablish the connection to the inner space. That didn¡¯t mean he was out of options. Now that his burdensome armor was off, it was time to teach these kids how a true blood-forged warrior fought. The blonde woman sprinted at him and thrust just under his pec. Ilkvir took a step back. He mmed his right palm on her wrist and chopped her neck with his left. She didn¡¯t allow him to disarm her, and she managed to move her head away from the chop. Ilkivir thrust his right arm at her hair. She jumped off the ground and prepared to punish him for his over-extension. Ikivir jumped, dodging an iing blow by the macho man, and spun in the air. He grabbed and twisted her hair, causing a few beads of blood to appear on her scalp as he pulled her hair out of its roots. Another attack came from behind by one of the junior cultivators, but Ilkvir simply kicked it out of the way, adding momentum to a kick to the woman''s back. There was no crack, as it would take a lot more than that to break the spine of someone on the tinum path. Suddenly, the woman was surrounded by purple butterflies, and Ilkivir jumped off her head into the air. One of them grazed his leg and tunneled into it, spreading purple veins in the surrounding area. He clicked his tongue. If he weren¡¯tcking skin, perhaps he wouldn¡¯t struggle to resist such a weak spirit power. The macho man suddenly acquired a thinyer of green scales over his body, then jumped at Ilkivir. Ilkivir spun and kicked at the man''s head. He could feel a good part of the force dissipate in contact with the scales. Ilkivir scoffed. He swung an open palm at the man¡¯s chest, dodging his sword in the process. A red light surrounded Ilkvir as he triggered a qi technique. The air drained out of the man¡¯s chest as he felt his lung copse. Ilkivir followed it up by tripping him, dodging a kick by the blonde woman, grabbing her arm, and smashing her body into his. He gripped her forearm as hard as he could and broke it by mming it against his knee. He grabbed her hair again and gripped her jaw by putting his arm in her mouth and hooking his fingers on her bottom teeth. Just as he was about to snap her neck, he felt a knee smash right into his nose. Neave had appeared, looking horribly ragged and worn out. Ilkivir noticed Neave¡¯s state. He didn¡¯t release his grip on the woman like an amateur but instead followed through and started twisting. Suddenly, Neave morphed his body and wrapped it around Ilkvir¡¯s arms to prevent Ilkivir from killing the woman. Ilkvir doubled down on his attempt but was astounded at how much force Neave could exert. Ilkivir tried disengaging as he realized he couldn¡¯t snap the woman¡¯s neck but noticed he was stuck. Neave opened his mouth. His teeth sharpened, and he took a bite out of Ilkivir¡¯s forearm. Ilkivir winced, but this much pain wasn¡¯t enough to throw him off. Instead, he leaned and bit Neave right back. No reaction. It was as if Neave didn¡¯t care about the pain at all. Even more surprisingly, his flesh was stupidly tough. Not just that, but Ilkivir could feel Neave regenerating even as his teeth were still embedded in his body. Ilkivir tried sucking some blood out to trigger the blood sacrifice power again. It was as if Neave¡¯s blood was acid. Ilkivir felt the inside of his mouth burning, and the tiny bit of Neave¡¯s blood that he had managed to sacrifice significantly damaged Ilkivir¡¯s spirit. Ilkivir released his grip on the woman and tried getting Neave off. Neave kicked the woman away to prevent Ilkivir from holding her hostage again. Ilkvir smashed Neave¡¯s body and did everything he could to damage him. He triggered a knee smash qi technique, the first thing that got a visible reaction from Neave. Neave felt like a mountain had copsed on him as the tinum path qi mmed into his body. He was stupidly tough, but he could not survive such a blow more than a few times. He released his grip on Ilkvirs arms and jumped off. His life force reserves were minuscule. It was at the point where he had below his standard maximum capacity for just his own life force. His spirit was so wounded that he couldn¡¯t even peek into the dimension ring on his finger. Ilkivir stood, covered in blood from head to toe, as he stared the group of cultivators down. There was no way he could finish this fight. However¡­ He noticed that Neave was in an awful condition¡ªno surprise there. It was beyond shocking to Ilkivir that he could even survive this much. While Ilkvir couldn¡¯t finish this fight with all of the cultivators¡­ He was willing to take the chance to finish his mission. A few more wisps of ck mist gathered around him. He prepared himself to strike at Neave. Neave suddenly disappeared. Ilkivir whirled, wondering where the attack wasing from. But Neave was nowhere to be found. It was only after he spun around several times that he noticed him. Neave was less than a hundred meters away, wrestling snakes and eating a few alive. The colorful cultivators were caught off guard and couldn¡¯t help but stare in confusion at the strange behavior. Ilkivir despaired as he observed Neave rapidly regaining his speed and strength as he swallowed snake after snake. Shit! He sprinted at Neave. Neave saw him approach and grinned. ¡°Ah, that feels so much better.¡± Neave disappeared again. Ilkivir stood no chance at defending against Neave¡¯s attack as he received a life-force-imbued kick to his head. He felt his whole world spin and darken a little, only to be brightened right back up as golden runes lit up in the air. A kicknded straight on Ilkivir¡¯s midsection, sending him into a wall. Neave cheerfully hopped toward him, and suddenly, his body started glowing again. Pink lightning surrounded him, and a red mist coiled around his limbs. Ilkivir stared at Neave, lying helplessly on the ground. What his gaze held wasn¡¯t defeat, despair, or hatred. He looked at Neave with pure, unadulterated lust. Neave didn¡¯t notice his gaze as he prepared another swing. Just as his foot was about to crush Ilkivir¡¯s skull, Ilkivir turned into a fine red mist and disappeared. ¡­ ¡°Are you fucking kidding me!?¡± Neave screamed, ¡°That¡¯s what I get for dilly-dallying around! Fuck!!!¡± Neave pulled his hair as the cultivators behind him stared in abject bewilderment. ¡°Uhm¡­?¡± The blonde-haired woman called out. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Neave finally rxed a bit and sighed. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. Now, what the fuck are you dumbasses waiting around for? There¡¯s a purple snake infestation that needs to be purged.¡± Chapter 56: Four Sects Chapter 56: Four Sects Far out in the wilderness of the Yixine empire, a ridiculous sight was taking ce. Arge stretch of nature had countless priceless materials scattered about, roughly leading in a single direction. It was like an absurd path of breadcrumbs, designed to lure a greedy myth golem down a specific direction. The diamond-rank cultivators sat with their arms crossed as they waited. The Emperor eventually appeared, and they eagerly waited for news. ¡°As far as it is readily apparent, our n is working.¡± The cultivators all looked relieved. They had looked for an entrance to a mystical realm for a while. After tracking one down, although it was pretty far and somewhat deep underground, they hatched the n to bait the myth golem by scattering small bits of precious metals and gems around thendscape. They weren¡¯t sure whether this n would work, as the golem must be ustomed to seeing numerous precious materials underground. In the end, the project seemed to be tentatively working. Either that or the golem was just coincidentally heading in that direction already. A ring on the Emperor''s finger lit up as they sat around and discussed their battle strategy. Everyone froze. The Emperor injected his qi signature into the ring as fast as possible. Text appeared in the air in front of them. Beanna yelped, and Kingean frowned deeply. Zhaore winced as he read through the text. The Emperor looked grave. It was a crisis of the highest order. The Emperor quickly got up and prepared to return to the capital. Everyone yelled at once. ¡°Wait!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t try to stop me.¡± Kingean spoke next. ¡°Do not be rash, my Emperor. You are needed here at all costs. One of us will go instead!¡± It was at this moment that Carfen got up. His metal armor shone in the sun, and everyone looked at him. ¡°It is my duty as a protector of the empire to face such cmities. You must handle the threat to the empire as a whole.¡± The Emperor looked toward Carfen, hesitant. Soon, he nodded. Carfen bowed a little and ran toward the nearest settlement, where he could teleport back to the capital. A ring on one of his fingers glowed beneath the armor. He injected his qi signature into it, and a message appeared. Ilkivir failed. *** The purple snakes were fearsome opponents for anyone below the silver path. Even those on the silver path struggled dearly to keep their bearings as countless snakes enveloped their limbs and jumped at their necks. Corpsesy across a section of the capital, and many more rested in the pits of the snakes¡¯ stomachs. A group of colorful cultivators, together with Neave, dispatched snakes at a rapid pace. Neave did little more than swallow the snakes en masse as he moved toward the open rift. He periodically blew fire breath, which was useless against these snakes. The basic version of fire breath was much less effective than dragon breath. Luckily for Neave, he didn¡¯t need to chew as he slurped the snakes. Some of the cultivators around him were initially distracted by his antics, but he wasn¡¯t the only cultivator with a strange set of spirit powers they had ever seen. What he was, however, was considerably faster at dispatching the snakes than any of them. His body was bursting with insane amounts of life force and beneficial qi. These snakes were a delicacy in every meaning of the word, especially for Neave, who could utilize a great deal of the energies found within. Slowly but surely, countless groups ofpetent cultivators began appearing. They helped by dispatching the snakes, walling areas off with spirit powers, assisting people in evacuating, and even providing healing and first aid to those injured in the attacks. Although Neave was physically healed from his encounter, his spirit struggled greatly. Just as he felt his spirit would copse, he pulled a small cyan root from the dimension ring he had taken from Maecy. He swallowed only around half the root and felt his spirit rapidly recovering. A lot of the energy leftover had nowhere to go, so it dissipated from Neave¡¯s body. He wanted to cry at the waste of energy. This root was among the most expensive things he had won off Maecy. It was a powerful treasure that could help one recover from spirit damage and even strengthen one¡¯s spirit after the recovery. Neave wanted to save this one for his experimentation with alchemy, but sadly, the situation necessitated his use of it. He could have pulled another weapon from the ring and fought the snakes much faster that way, but there was no way in hell he would do anything but eat the snakes. It was fast enough, and he didn¡¯t want to find himself in a situation where hecked life force again. Slowly but surely, other groups of powerful cultivators started arriving in the inner area where Neave and the colorful cultivators fought the bulk of the snakes. The first group to arrive was an unusual group of edgy, ck cultivators carrying scythes, daggers, and sickles on chains. They looked rather intimidating, even if more depressed than scary. However, it was readily apparent that they weren¡¯t here to intimidate. They were here to kill. Snakes fell apart and rotted as the cultivators dispatched them at impossible speed. Neave could only kill around half as quickly as their group could. Although that was still ridiculously fast, one had to remember that Neave was quite literally just scooping piles of snakes off the ground with his mouth. He would be even faster, but asionally, he had to chew a little to stop the snakes from holding up the line. The cultivators would probably be even faster if they weren¡¯t distracted by Neave. He wasn¡¯t quite aware of it, but he looked utterly ridiculous. Not only was his stomach inted beyond all reasonable measures as integrate struggled to dissolve the snakes in his stomach, but he also had his toothy mouth spread so wide he could fit an entire man inside. After a while, another group of cultivators appeared. They wore heavy armor and dispatched the snakes by far the slowest out of the three groups. But they weren¡¯t focused on killing. The armored cultivators spread out and pushed the snakes back, giving space to the other two groups as they paced their killing speed more efficiently. A bigger part of the armored cultivators remained behind and helped block the outpouring of snakes to protect the people from danger. Suddenly, shadows morphed, and a man walked out carrying arge ck scythe. ¡°Xondir.¡± The edgy cultivators ¡®eximed,¡¯ barely sounding excited at the man¡¯s arrival. He took a swing with his massive scythe, and a gigantic ethereal de reaped the lives of countless snakes. Soon enough, the final group arrived. It was a group of primarily simple-looking cultivators. All the groups hade in a few minutes, but this group looked especially miffed that they were thest to get there. They wore nd robes without any decoration. All except for one young man. Neave spotted Dukean rushing toward the piles of snakes and swinging his sword. He wasn¡¯t impressed with the swordsmanship. This didn¡¯t mean that it wasn¡¯t fantastic. Neave just had ridiculous standards. Dukean dispatched piles of snakes with every swing, his sword whistling with every thrust and screeching with every cut. Just as Neave had spotted Dukean, Dukean eventually spotted Neave. Neave¡¯s perception was immacte, so he had no trouble seeing theplex emotions on Dukean¡¯s face. He didn¡¯t understand precisely what the facial expressions meant, but he could tell Dukean was confused. He wasn¡¯t the only one. Most of the cultivators around them were confused about who Neave was. Most assumed he was an old spirit beast in human form, but the problem was that they couldn¡¯t tell. Not even the tinum path cultivators could sense his life force age impression. Who he was, at what step of the path he was, and what the fuck his spirit powers were, were questions that left a lot of the people around Neave scratching their heads in bewilderment. If the situation weren¡¯t so dire, more than a few would be trying to interrogate him about his identity¡ªall except the cultivators that witnessed him whoop the ass of someone on the third step of the tinum path. They would keep their mouths shut. Just as it looked like the mass of snakes was starting to shrink, the outpouring of snakes from the rift suddenly stopped. A few of the cultivators prematurely sighed in relief. That was when the rift glowed again, and small shapes started dropping out. Heavily armored lizardmen stepped out of the rift, wielding crystal weapons. Most of them tinum rank in threat. Chapter 57: Serpent Mother Chapter 57: Serpent Mother Monsters using weapons wasn¡¯t an umon sight. Many of the weaker humanoid monsters sharpened sticks or used rudimentary tools, bing capable of creating more proper weaponryter. The problem was that it was never good news when a monster used what seemed like proper equipment. The lizardmen that jumped out of the portal all wore crystalline purple armor. They wielded predominantly spears and halberds shaped out of the same material. Many even held shields. They moved in formation and created a line of defense. This was a good sign¡ªa good sign that shit was about to hit the fan. It didn¡¯t take long for Xondir to approach this newly forming line of defense. He took a swing with his scythe and crushed one of the lizardmen. A rtively undesirable oue, given that he was trying to eradicate the entire line. With speed and skill much greater than he expected, the lizardmen moved at once and thrust their weapons toward him. He morphed into shadow and swiftly dodged the attacks. Soon enough, most of the other more prominent members of big sects also moved into the fray. Everyone below the tinum path was forced to stay back and deal with the snakes. The blonde woman and the macho man shot out toward the lizardmen. With a wave of her sword, butterflies enveloped the entire formation of lizardmen. They couldn¡¯t do anything to them individually, but some found their way into a few rotting wounds created by Xondir. They wormed inside and spread veins that paralyzed the lizardmen. Suddenly, a woman dashed from among the defense formed by the members of the Kurlore sect. The Kurlore sect were defense experts. This naturally also included extensive knowledge about how to break defensive formations. The woman was brte, hair was cut short and mostly hidden beneath her helmet. She wore maneuverable leather armor, heavily reinforced wherever possible withoutpromising mobility. Rather than a ded weapon, she wielded two bucklers. It was amon misconception that shields weren¡¯t weapons. An illusion she utterly shattered as she rammed the line of lizardmen with tectonic force. Cracks spread through the ground, shaking the floor beneath everyone in a hundred-meter radius. While the top cultivators of the peak sects within the empire had extensive training on how to deal withpromised footing, the lizardmen most certainly didn¡¯t. It was hard to tell Emperium cultivators apart purely by their exterior looks, all except their entric young master, that was. Still, it was self-evident who the top dogs among them were. Several long-haired elders slithered their way into thepromised lizardman formation. They stood near one another as they triggered qi techniques in tandem, sending intense waves of sword shes at the lizardmen. Although the lizardman¡¯s formation had beenpletely disassembled, and many of them had suffered injuries, the serpentine soldiers that had been killed could be counted on one hand. At this moment, another purple shape made its way down from the portal high in the sky, sneaking in among the ordinary soldiers. One of the Emperium elders barely defended himself as a massive halberd swing smashed him. After he barely managed to save his life from the devastating attack, the lizardman sent a kick straight at his midsection. The elder was thrown toward a line of lizardmen, who began swinging and cutting before he evennded. With the skill acquired by countless years of mastery, the elder weaved through the air and dodged a spear thrust and a halberd swing. He almost made it through to the other side of the group of lizardmen. Out of nowhere, one of them threw itself in its way. His eyes shot wide open, and he readied an attack. He thrust his sword andnded a lethal wound on the scaled warrior, but he lost his momentum and found himself surrounded by opponents. He blocked attack after attack, desperately holding back the onught. He couldn¡¯t spare even a fraction of his attention for anything else. Not even the giant soldier that had made it toward him. He saw it pull its halberd back and readied himself to defend yet again. This time, however, he didn¡¯t have the luxury to devote all his effort to defending himself from a single soldier. He was stabbed and cut and had to sacrifice an arm to survive for another moment. That moment passed as swiftly as it began as the halberd swing struck his meager defense. His sword snapped in two, and the halberd continued its journey, tearing into his torso from his shoulder and nearly splitting it in two. The air grew heavier around the cultivators. It wasn¡¯t merely a matter of the lives of ordinary people being at stake. Nobody was safe from this attack. At this moment, just as the focus of everyone shifted toward the dying elder, a small, ck-haired child slithered its way toward the massive soldier. The focus of everyone was shifted right back as they witnessed something awe-inspiring. Neave appeared below the giant lizardman, body practically vibrating with every boost he could execute. Then he swung his fist toward the lizardman¡¯s armor. Several dozen meters around him, the mist and debris were blown away as a shock wave knocked some of the nearest lizardmen back. Hairline cracks spread through the crystalline armor of the big lizardman, and it recoiled from the momentum. Before everyone could regain their bearings, Neave punched yet again. The sheer force behind his strike made the other cultivators¡¯ hearts tense up for a moment. One could genuinely feel the tremendous impact behind that move. And then he did it again. As Neave got into the groove, he threw out countless attacks, splintering the armor of the lizardman into pieces. It desperately tried regaining its bearings, but it was no use. Once the damage had stacked enough to shatter the armor, Neave pulled the sledgehammer out of his dimension ring again. Golden runes lit up in the air around him as the hammer came crashing down with the weight of a moon. The lizardman was crushed into a paste, and the shockwave cost several weaker cultivators their hearing for a few moments. As far as the crowds were concerned, whoever this child was had pushed themselves to their limit and beyond to deliver the damage to this lizardman. Everybody expected to have to rush in and preserve the life of this newly arrived hero. But he startedughing instead. ¡°Hahahahahaha! Yes! Now that¡¯s more like it! Damn, why haven¡¯t I just been using a sledgehammer this whole time? Or maybe I should make a gigantic sword instead?¡± Neave shrugged, ¡°I¡¯ll see if I feel like it.¡± Neave rotated his shoulders a bit and cracked his neck. Then, the true ughter began. The crowds of cultivators were forced back intobat, one way or another, but it was impossible not to keep one eye on Neave¡¯s antics. He crushed the lizardmen as if they were little more than bugs and ate them whole, armor included. High-rank materials dissolving into his blood could be a problem, but this crystal specifically seemed alright. The moment it reached his stomach, he felt it evaporate into a thin purple smoke he swiftly ejected from his body. Neave spotted a woman with an interesting style. It was the armored woman with two bucklers. She fought primarily with kicks and shield bashes, a simple technique, but it was surprising how much utility such a style provided. It also helped that she had some force-rted spirit power. Something Neave really wanted for himself. Given that the movements of the lizardmen were brutally monotonous to Neave, he found himself observing the other cultivators most of the time. Xondir, or instead, the edge lord, as Neave had dubbed him, also had an intriguing style. A scythe wasn¡¯t a good weapon for properbat. Sure, qi techniques and spirit powers couldpensate for some of its intrinsic limitations, but that didn¡¯t make it better than a sword. The de''s curve made it inconvenient for most conventional attacks and optimal swings. However, this man''s style almost wholly changed Neave¡¯s opinion on scythes. The edge lord swept his scythe as if harvesting wheat and cleaved many lizardmen''s legs by sneaking powerful strikes below their defenses. He also swung the scythe upward, moving it beneath and behind their shields to deliver precise stabs at the heads of the lizardmen. He wielded the scythe against his opponents by utilizing leverage and the unusual attack pattern of the unconventional weapon. There was a whole load of sneaking between and behind defenses, disarming opponents, sometimes quite literally, and a bunch of bisecting. He would do this badass move where he thrust the scythe behind one of the lizardmen by sneaking it between its legs, then jumped over its head while pulling the scythe through its body. Now that wasa proper way to split an opponent''s body in two, Neave thought, just as he smashed a lizardman¡¯s hip so hard its body split apart. Neave felt a deep itch all over his body as he watched the swordsmen of the battlefield embarrass themselves. These were the cream of the crop that the empire had to offer? Still, Neave envied them a bit for their ability to use actual swords in the fight. He resorted to using the sledgehammer due to its bulky construction, which resulted in a much more durable tool. It was massive, tough, and made of non-mundane material, and he wielded it quite well. But it still got bent way out of shape. At this point, it resembled scrap metal on a stick. And with his next swing, that bit of scrap metal flew off and pulverized the head of a lizardman. Neave kept using the metal shaft. There were a lot of purple crystalline weapons lying around. Neave wanted to use one, but the spiritual weight was too much. Although Neave could technically use iron rank metals without any issue now, that was only partially true. The spiritual weight didn¡¯t bother him, but he couldn¡¯t truly utilize those weapons properly, either. All an iron-rank material could provide Neave was its superior durability and toughness. A good portion of the potential was wasted on him. Literally. Because he simply couldn¡¯t realize it. Neave¡¯s qi was pathetically weak. Foundation realm qi didn¡¯t have all that much potency, so even if it did cycle through his weapon, it could only barely bring out the superior characteristics of the metal. He wanted to finally find a way to improve his cultivation. But he just didn¡¯t have the time for it yet, since he had so many other things on his list. This fight was starting to bore Neave. He noticed two more of the bulkier lizardmen dropping among the ordinary soldiers. He jumped into the air and intercepted the first, snapping its neck and eating it whole before it could even fall to the ground. Then he assaulted the other and overwhelmed it with superior force, the same way he did the first one that appeared. Neave scoured the dimension ring but found little else to use in this fight. There was almost every type of weapon imaginable within the ring, but they were either too high rank, or too fragile to survive more than a few strikes. Neave¡¯s instincts screamed at him. He sensed something unusual in his spirit senses. He noticed many cultivators pulling back. Was there something he couldn¡¯t feel properly due to his low cultivation? Suddenly, Neave froze. Quite literally. His body stiffened mid-air, and he couldn¡¯t move. In the corner of his vision, he spotted an ethereal purple girl. It was a ghastly, partially transparent creature roughly in the shape of a humanoid child but had no distinct facial features. It held one hand up, and Neave could feel it forcefully restraining his movements. What the¡­? Before Neave could even sense it, a massive spike of purple crystal stabbed him right through his body. This broke the paralysis, so Neave broke off and freed himself. He turned around to spot a tall, male build, ethereal humanoid, much like the little girl. This one had tons of tiny purple shards floating around it. Countless weapons and armor pieces from the dead lizardmen floated up into the air and fired toward Neave. Neave was on his way to dodge them, but suddenly, a third figure arrived. A muscr man that moved with impable skill, almost impressing even Neave, rushed at him and kicked him in the stomach. Neave flew through the cloud of crystal shards, several embedding themselves into his head, arms, torso, and legs. The muscr one whirled and jumped toward Neave, reaching him before hended, and smashed him with a downward kick, crashing his body into the ground. Neave bounced off the floor, still unable to get a hold of his movements. Before he couldnd on the ground again, the little girl grabbed hold of him, and he felt his body convulse and deform into a ball. If it weren¡¯t for his stic body, he would have been crushed to paste, and even with the power, he felt his body strain under pressure. Suddenly, something else eclipsed all his current worries as he felt another creature appear from the rift. It all made sense now. Neave could see thin ethereal strands from these humanoids extending toward the neer. They were nothing more than the power of the next monster that arrived. Purple light shed, and the world lost all color for a second, only to be washed away by a flood of violet momentster. It wasn¡¯t huge, only around five or six times bigger than a human. But it was fast. And to anyone with spirit senses, it was overwhelmingly powerful. Neave watched in terror as the creature opened its maw, and violet light gathered deep within its throat. He helplessly hung in the air as the purple dragon sted his body into pieces. Chapter 58: Salvation Chapter 58: Salvation Dukean considered himself to have excellent intuition. After he heard the report by the group of men about the demon child, he quickly concluded. The young man he had met in the library, or rather, Deeze, was likely the brother of the rumored demon child. It was a simple connection to make. Dukean assumed that Deeze was in the capital because he was looking for his brother. It was, however, a total mystery whether it was to drag him back, reconcile, or kill him. Once Dukean had been dragged to handle this catastrophe by the elders of his sect and witnessed the ck-haired child, his guess was only reaffirmed. He believed the report of the men since all of them reported seeing the same thing. The consistency of witness reports was reliable evidence. Many details, including how the child fought and his appearance, fit the description of the child decimating the ranks of the lizardmen. It was also clear that the boy was far more powerful than initially reported. The fact that the hair color of this child was ck rather than pink with red streaks only further encouraged Dukean¡¯s guess. If he had disguised his hair for some reason, it would most likely be to hide from his brother. However, all this information and his guesses may have be useless trivia¡ªthe demon child had been, right before Dukean¡¯s eyes, turned into little more than a charred corpse. *** The dragon''s breath released a thick purple beam of violet destruction. The stream of energy traveled far through the capital, razing countless buildings to the ground and taking many lives. As the crowds of cultivators witnessed and, more importantly, felt the power of this attack, they instantly decided. It was time to run for their lives. One need not be faster than the monster if they were faster than the other guy. This somewhat humorous saying wasing to a gruesome reality as the ghastly figures ughtered the hordes of cultivators. The stronger and faster ones were much quicker at getting away, as many weaker cultivators were left behind to die. Several brave souls had thrown themselves in front of the dragon and its puppets, only to be shredded to mince before they could even make it pause for an instant. Carnage ensued. The puppet manipting the purple crystal sent waves of tiny shards that shredded cultivators by the dozen. The muscr one crushed skulls like pumpkins and shattered spines like dry twigs. The one with the appearance of a little girl had to do little more than gaze at her victims to turn them into a vaguely ball-shaped mass of blood and gore. The dragonzily frolicked from one corpse to another, gorging itself on the flesh of its victims. Few lizardmen were alive, but purple snakes still slithered everywhere. The only moment of reprieve that the cultivators had received was once the slowest cultivators had been ughtered. The dragon took its sweet time feasting on their corpses. Greedily absorbing the power left behind. *** Marven was already rather far from the rift when he witnessed the gigantic stream of energy decimate an entire section of the capital. He gritted his teeth and swore. ¡°Where the fuck is the Emperor!? Where are the great four!?¡± Marven was outraged. He shook, and sweat dripped all over his body. What happened to Neave? Was he still alright? Marven hoped that he was anywhere but in the path of that attack. Once he met with him again, they would likely be escaping the capital. For now, he gripped Harel and Hunter as firmly as he could. He wouldn¡¯t let anything happen to them, even at the cost of his own life. *** Carfen went to a nearby settlement within minutes of leaving the others. Once there, he walked up to the only teleportation circle avable, which seemed to be owned by a private sect. ¡°Hey, who the hell are you!? What do you think you¡¯re¨C?¡± Carfen didn¡¯t even nce at the man. A mere hint of spiritual pressure left him frozen like a statue. He approached the teleportation tform and lowered his gauntleted hand onto the crystal. Carfen knew the qi impression of every single tform within the capital. He inscribed the location of one of the tforms nearest to the district the rift had reportedly appeared in. ¡°Hmm?¡± Carfen was surprised. The inscription petered out, and the runes vanished. The location was invalid. Had he messed up the inscription? No¡­ It was far more likely that something had destroyed the tform. He inscribed another nearby location, and the teleporter lit up. Carfen disappeared from the tform and appeared within the capital of the empire. It was instantly apparent that something was horribly, horribly wrong. *** The Emperor paced as he waited. Carfen had just left for the capital. A rift opening in the middle of the capital was a fucking mess. He couldn¡¯t help but curse the heavens. It felt like some higher power wasughing at him as it delivered the worst possible scenario at the worst possible time. He put his trust in Carfen. If there was anyone qualified to handle such an event, it was him. Soon after, Zhaore reappeared. ¡°It is close. It will reach the opening into the mystical realm in roughly thirteen minutes.¡± The Emperor nodded slowly. Beanna tensed up, and even Kingean looked nervous. They were about to face the greatest opponent they had ever seen. And just moments ago, they had lost their shield. They had all seen the entrance into the mystical realm to which they were baiting the golem. As the minutes ticked on, in their minds¡¯ eyes, it looked more and more like a grave. *** She knew what she had to do. That¡¯s right. The sister was right. It was only fair they all be extinguished. So why was she wasting time collecting these treasures? No. Sister was wrong to suggest that. That was a crazy thought, certainly. Metals and gems were always to be collected. There was nothing more valuable than the shiny ambrosia. She happily hopped around the forest, moving from one piece of precious collectible to another. She found slogging through the soft soil arduous and tiring when she first arrived, but that was only because she was in no rush. Now that she saw so many valuables just lying on the ground, waiting for her to add them to her collection, she had no problem picking up the pace. The forest behind her had suffered quite a bit of destruction, mostly because she treated the trees as if they were little more thanrge des of grass and just ran through them. Whenever she jumped andnded, the ground shook violently beneath her, and the dirt waspressed into bedrock beneath the sheer force. She had already added so many beautiful pieces of jewelry to her collection! She could even afford to outright absorb some of the good stuff. It was slightly strange that she could find no metals and gems on the surface. This finally made sense. The surface did have fantastic stuff on it. It was just more scattered and difficult to find. Case in point, the rectangr red thingy she found! That was the most precious thing she had ever found in her life! Yes! Her words were wise! She agreed with sister on that one. After running around, she found herself short on neat things to collect. The trail of goodies led her a bit into the underground. Finally, the feast was over, and she collected thest piece of precious metal off the ground. Before her stood some sort of shiny, blurry entrance to a¡­ Cave? She could vaguely see the inside. As she walked closer, she discerned that it was an exit from the cave she was in. It led to another forest, albeit much thicker and more heavily overgrown. She pondered. An unusual trail of precious metals and gems conveniently led to this entrance. That was highly suspicious. Such tricks wouldn¡¯t work on her. This entrance was clearly hiding even more goodies! The bit of blurry mist obscuring it wasn¡¯t going to trick her. Perhaps another golem, like herself, made this pce of wonder its haven? If that was so, it was time to usurp them and take her rightful ce. She walked inside, appearing in a thick overgrown forest on the inside. Now, it was time to go on a treasure hunt. *** Kingean, Zhaore, and Beanna waited with trepidation. The Emperor shimmered back into view before them and nodded his head. ¡°It has gone inside. Gather yourselves. Do not let the Empire down.¡± The cultivators all nodded, grim determination seared into their faces. It was time to face what was likely the greatest crisis this content had ever encountered. *** The scattered cultivators started regrouping and following the procedures for such events. The ones on the tinum path split into two groups, one trying to reach the emperor and the diamond path cultivators to seek their assistance. The others joined the weaker cultivators to evacuate everyone they could. One of these groups breathed out a sigh of relief. An armored man appeared on one of the teleportation tforms that was just being prepared for evacuation. A glorious figure everyone instantly recognized as the hero that had arrived to be their savior. The shield of the empire had arrived. *** Where am I¡­? Neave couldn¡¯t see anything. He somehow managed not to lose consciousness despite the overwhelming majority of his body being destroyed. His skin had been seared clean off, he had lost all four limbs, and only half of his left leg was barely attached to the rest of his body. His internal organs were all part, and some utterly destroyed. Anyone that saw him would immediately assume he was little more than a mutted corpse. But he was alive. He felt a small creature slither toward his body from the corner of his severelypromised spirit perception¡ªone of the purple snakes. It approached his body and tried taking a bite out of it. Neave¡¯s flesh was tough, doubly so now that it had been roasted well past well done. It tried again, only to fail once more. The snake gave up on the outer body and slithered toward the open torso, eyeing some delicious-looking organs. Suddenly, Neave¡¯s half-destroyed bowels shot out and enveloped themselves around the serpent. It fought and resisted, desperately trying to escape the pull of the slippery intestines but to avail. It was restrained, dragged between the organs, smashed to pieces, and shoved into the open stomach. Its body visibly deteriorated as it absorbed into the stomach¡¯s walls. Momentster, Neave¡¯s body recovered a little of its lost mass. Chapter 59: Overcooked Chapter 59: Overcooked The rift appeared near the outer border of the capital, and like a worm biting past the apple¡¯s skin, it gradually spread deeper into the settlement. Countless sects jumped at the opportunity to be the heroes of the story and sent their best to protect the citizens. Many of those unsung heroes met their ends at the fangs and ws of the serpentine invasion. Yet even those most eager for death avoided the winged lizard''s domain. There were plenty of people to evacuate and a whole load of silver-rank snakes to exterminate. Someone else could take the role of keeping the dragon fed. A small group of gold path cultivators searched for those caught up in the st radius of the dragon breath. Supremely cautiously. Nobody wanted to find themselves stuck in the path of purple demise. Corpses littered the ruins. Anyone below the silver path that the intense energy had grazed had already perished or was well on their way. They spotted something peculiar as they approached the edges of the destruction caused by the breath. A trail of blood. They assumed they would find a corpse at the trail''s end, but the more they followed it, the longer it went. Eventually, the path of blood ended, and no corpse was found. There was no time to contemte this. Many snakes still slithered around, so it was likely that whoever it was had been eaten by now. May the heavens bring them salvation, the cultivators thought as they changed their priority to snake extermination. *** It was lucky that this rift didn¡¯t release an undead invasion. If it had, Neave would likely have been mistaken for one of the invaders. At first, he had used his shapeshifting skill to try and change his form into something more maneuverable than an open bag of organs, but his extensive injuries hindered the spirit power. Thus, Neave resorted to crawling like a bloody slug. His body bled endlessly. As he hunted snakes and devoured them, usually by directly showing them into his open stomach, he regenerated his body and produced more blood. The flesh remained attached, but the blood vacated his body through his countless wounds. Neave assumed his distance from death spirit power allowed him to stay alive even in this form. That was the only thing that had stopped him from croaking after that ungodly st by the dragon. Neave wasn¡¯t thinking about the dragon now, however. His focus was on carefully treading the line between almost-corpse and definitely-corpse. He jumped from one snake to another, and gradually, almost-corpse won the fight. His body, on top of being reduced to a creepy demonic sect prop, had also been fried far past well done. The purple mes, energy, or whatever the hell that was, didn¡¯t leave regr burns behind either. It was as if his body had been crystalized on the cellr level. It took far more than just a few snakes to undo the damage the fire had caused. Slowly but surely, Neave managed to consume enough to at least close his torso back up. Then he grew back small stumps which he extended with his shapeshifting power into quasi-limbs. Eventually, he fully regrew his limbs back as well. This was just barely enough to allow him to function normally again. He was still short on skin practically everywhere on his body, and the st had burned most of his muscles into stiff jerky that could only be moved by his shapeshifting spirit power. Luckily for Neave, the snakes were packed with energy and practically everywhere. Now that he at least had a vaguely normal-shaped body, he could get to work. Neave flew from one snake to another and slurped them like violet noodles. The sight of a skinless, charred Neave hopping around and eating snakes alive could keep any child up at night, probably well into adulthood. That was the type of trauma that, luckily, most people had already evacuated from. Neave could sense a lot of cultivators scurrying around the area, although the range of his spirit senses was limited. He avoided encountering anyone, mainly to avoid any misunderstandings. Neave cursed as he realized his dimension ring was gone. He had moved everything into the dimension ring given to him by Maecy. And now it was just fucking gone. He didn¡¯t know whether it had disintegrated or flown off somewhere in the distance. Either way, with how far that st had thrown him, there was no way he could find it anyway. Surprisingly, Neave¡¯s spirit wasn¡¯t doing nearly as poorly as it should have been. Rather, he felt it recovering quite smoothly. He strongly suspected that had something to do with integrate being capable of digesting monster cores, but he couldn¡¯t feel that happening. Slowly but surely, he recovered his body as he hopped back toward the rift. Neave¡¯s mind whirled as he contemted his options. What could he possibly do against this dragon? *** Right below the rift open in the sky, another army of lizardmen was starting to gather. Some snakes were still slithering from the rift, but they served as little more than a distraction. The lizardmen waited patiently, forming a line of defense around the perimeter as the dragon feasted on the corpses. It wasn¡¯t eating particrly fast. It was evident that it was taking its time to enjoy its meals. Suddenly, it perked up. It sensed a mighty spirit approaching it from behind one of therger buildings, although very well disguised. The dragon opened its mouth, preparing to st the enemy into pieces before it could even see iting. The dragon blew breath toward the building, and an explosion of purple energy decimated the nearby area. As the smoke settled, it noticed that in ce of the now-annihted building, there was an earthen ramp. Countless wisps of purple energy dissipated through the atmosphere as it appeared that the ramp had redirected its attack toward the sky. The mighty spirit walked from behind the ramp, maintaining a casual pace. As it stepped into the light, the dragon faced the enemy directly. A fully armored human stood before it. But it sensed something unusual. It felt human, but the dragon could sense a distinct undertone from beneath the armor. The human pulled a gigantic axe from its dimension ring and lifted it into the air. The three ethereal figures formed a line of defense. The little girl raised the earth to create a barrier, the tall man ted it in purple crystal, and the muscr one ran past to nk the enemy. As the muscr one jumped toward the armored figure, it surprisingly managed tond a perfect kick straight at the torso of the invader. The armored man didn¡¯t even budge. White mist surrounded the enemy invader, and a massive axe materialized above them. *** Neave saw the giant white axe form in the sky as he approached the rift. The earth sank a bit as it descended, and he felt the ground drop beneath his feet. The shockwave from the tremendous technique ttened a giant area around the rift, not quite reaching Neave or any of the ces that still had cultivators running around. But the aftershock still reached Neave mentally. He approached thest few buildings standing and observed the aftermath. Neave gaped at the massive crater left behind by the technique. He spotted the dragon crawling out of a crystal dome it had constructed to defend itself while the ghastly figures flickered in and out of existence as they restabilized. Neave wasn¡¯t looking at any of this, however. He stared at the armored man. The cultivator that had arrived was clearly on the diamond path. He was well outside Neave¡¯s spirit sense range, but Neave didn¡¯t need those to tell that this person was a league above tinum path cultivators. Even though the man was outside his spirit senses, Neave felt something was off¡ªterribly so. His heartbeat sped up. Was he just afraid of the power this man held? No, that wasn¡¯t it. There was a characteristic in his movements. A peculiarity in his posture. Neave¡¯s perception was telling him something, but he couldn¡¯t understand, or perhaps he didn¡¯t want to. He witnessed the man enveloped in white mist again. The cultivator flew and fought through the purple figures, dodging or ignoring their attacks as he charged toward the dragon. With every strike, Neave¡¯s blood flowed a bit faster; with every movement, his hair stood taller. Once enough of the cultivator¡¯s qi residue reached Neave, he finally realized what felt off. The qi felt wrong. Simted. There was ayer that wrapped over its true essence. An essence that Neave could recognize anywhere. It made no sense. That was absurd. This was a diamond path cultivator sent by the empire itself. So how the hell is this person a demon? Neave¡¯s heart pounded, and his crystal veins crackled and chimed beneath his skin. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill the dragon and interrogate the demon, peel the armor off, and see for himself whaty beneath. He wanted to ask what it was doing here. He wanted to ask what its goals were. And he wanted to ask whether it was connected to the devils. It had to be. Or maybe it didn¡¯t. Neave honestly didn¡¯t understand enough about demons to conclude anything. Most of his dislike came from his experience within the loop and his hatred of the devil that created it. But¡­ Well, he didn¡¯t really like the gods either. Or humans, honestly. Shit, Neave seemed to hate everyone. Regardless of race, it was evident that anyone could be a shitty individual. Granted, the demons had a reputation, one they definitely earned. There was so much he wanted to know about this demon. Seriously, what the fuck is happening? Neave wanted to get in there and fight, but, well¡­ That was unrealistic. The dragon reduced him to a roasted bag of overcooked organs with a single breath, and that was ignoring the fact that its pink puppets alone were too much for him to handle. Yet, he still wanted to fight. He felt a deep itch all over his body to rush in there. First of all, how dare that fucking dragon do that to him? Didn¡¯t he say there would be no weaknesses? Didn¡¯t he say there would be no limits? Didn¡¯t he say that there would be nopromise? Neave knew he was getting ahead of himself. He took a few deep breaths to rx. This wasn¡¯t his fight, not yet. There was no need to rush. He needed what? Months? Weeks? Days? If he correctly utilized the mysterious realm he entered whenever he fell unconscious, he could make insane progress rapidly. There was no need to take a stupid risk. He knew it wouldn¡¯t be that simple, but he ignored that. He would circumvent theplications that arose, one way or another. That was right. He could step back and wait. Soon he would be powerful enough to do whatever he wanted. Neave tried turning around to step back, but his hand was stuck. When he arrived here, he had peeked from behind a building and grabbed a metal rod to lean on it. He had squeezed it so hard that the metalpletely deformed under his grip. Who am I kidding? Neave grinned. He freed his hand and started walking toward the fight. Neave paused. There was a spirit behind him, veiled heavily, but it was one that he recognized. He continued walking after a mere second of hesitation. It was nothing but a coincidence, and it wasn¡¯t unusual enough to make him stop until he realized that the spirit was heading straight for him. A cloaked cultivator wearing a pitch-ck cloak ran toward him. It was the green-haired boy from the library, or rather, Dukean. Is he approaching me? Why? Neave wanted to turn around and head to the fight, but his curiosity was killing him. Neave was unsure what this young man wanted from him, especially now that he was disguised. He waited, and eventually, Dukean approached him. Once Dukean stood in front of him, he bowed a little. ¡°I apologize for my rudeness. I know my timing is awful, but there is something essential I have to talk to you about.¡± Dukean raised his gaze and stared Neave right into his eyes, ¡°How much do you know about demons?¡± Chapter 60: First Disciple Chapter 60: First Disciple Neave had something of a n. When he wanted to rush at the diamond-path cultivator and the probably-diamond-rank dragon, he wasn¡¯t just rushing out to get himself killed. In three-way fights, he would always have the option of pitting his two opponents against one another. He would bet anything that he was faster and more maneuverable than the man wearing heavy armor. Although perhaps he was misguided in his thoughts, given that the armored man was on the diamond path. Nevertheless, he could at least find a way to preserve his life. The allure of an opportunity to exterminate two massive pests in one swing was simply too much for him to deny. This was when Dukean interrupted him. The way he asked Neave the question dispelled most of his battle craze and reced it with a deep curiosity. There was another peculiar aspect of a three-way fight. It may be even better to jointer, once the two opponents have worn each other out. So Neave followed Dukean. A bit away from the danger zone surrounding the intense fight between Carfen and the purple dragon, Neave and Dukean sat across one another in an abandoned building. Dukean took his hood off and politely introduced himself. ¡°I do not wish to be deceitful or waste your time, so I will get right to the point. My name is Dukean, and I am from the Emperium sect. I am already familiar with your identity as well. You are Neave Zearthorn, a young master of the now-destroyed Zearthorn sect. Recently, I have met a person that I suspect to be your brother, and I also suspect he is in the capital to track you down.¡± ¡­What the fuck? Neave stared at Dukean with utter disbelief. Before Neave had the time to butt in and say something, Dukean continued. ¡°I will be blunt with you. I have gathered all the intelligence I could about the downfall of your sect. While there were many inconsistencies and absurdities, I think I have a good idea about what happened. So allow me to ask you a question.¡± Dukean visibly tensed up. He ced his hands on his knees, steeled his gaze, and stared at Neave, ¡°Do you have any connection to the demons?¡± Neave stared back at him solemnly for a few seconds, and then he burst outughing. This didn¡¯t make Dukean rx even a little. He tensed up and stared at Neave with trepidation. Neave finished hisughter and wiped a tear from his eye. ¡°Yeah, I kind of do. Why do you ask?¡± Dukean was paralyzed. His eyes darted toward the entrance, and he looked ready to bolt any second. But he restrained himself and asked another question. ¡°Are¡­ You an ally of the demons?¡± ¡°Absolutely fucking not.¡± Dukean breathed a temporary sigh of relief and slumped over where he sat. ¡°Alright, that is good. I took a ratherrge risk by approaching you, but it seems by choice had been right.¡± ¡°Who says I¡¯m not still going to kill you for your insolence?¡± Dukean, to Neave¡¯s surprise, simply smiled and looked at Neave. ¡°Call it a hunch.¡± Dukean¡¯s posture hardened again, and he continued, ¡°I have approached you to suggest a mutually beneficial alliance.¡± ¡°Okay, spit it, bucko. What do you want?¡± ¡°As I said, I need an ally.¡± ¡°Well, shit, I guess all you want is a buddy? Perhaps someone to drink with?¡± Dukean chuckled awkwardly. ¡°I need your strength. I¡¯ve met a group that reported fighting you recently.¡± Neave¡¯s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ¡°Strange, I don¡¯t remember anyone surviving that.¡± That made Dukean tense up a bit again. Neave¡¯s face lit up in realization. ¡°Ah! Was it the people that fought me in the forest near Pavarrie?¡± Dukean nodded. ¡°What did they say?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t a matter of what they¡¯ve said, but how powerful they were. If they could corner you with their meager strength just a while back, you must have grown immensely in a mind-numbingly short time.¡± Neave contemted that a bit and then felt a pang of anger. ¡°So you havee to polish your chains?¡± ¡°My intentions aren¡¯t sinister. I am simply here to offer you a trade. I am doing my best to be fully transparent, and you naturally have full right to refuse.¡± That made Neave pause a bit. Now that he thought about it, was it wrong to seek guidance from someone powerful? He felt a strange sense of repulsion to such intent for a second, but the more he thought about it, he realized he had no reason to refuse to hear him out. ¡°Okay, hurry along. I have a battle to get myself needlessly involved in.¡± Dukean nced at Neave and decided it was time to get on with it. ¡°What I am about to tell you isn¡¯t necessarily confidential information, but it would do you good to keep it to yourself. Are you aware of who the armored individual is?¡± Neave shook his head. Dukean continued. ¡°That is Carfen, the diamond-path cultivator and the grand elder of the Langen sect. In the empire, few individuals have a better reputation than him. However, solid evidence suggests he may have a connection to demons.¡± Neaveughed upon hearing that. Dukean was interrupted a bit, but he continued. ¡°It might seem funny, but the evidence is¨C¡± ¡°No, no, that¡¯s not why I¡¯mughing. But you¡¯re wrong. Well, you¡¯re not wrong wrong, you just aren¡¯t fully right. It¡¯s not that he has a connection to the demons. It¡¯s that he is a demon.¡± A sh of anger crossed Dukean¡¯s face. ¡°Please do not joke with this topic. The threat of someone¨C¡± ¡°I am not joking.¡± ¡°Then what evidence do you have for your im?¡± ¡°I can tell.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t evidence. It is objectively impossible for Carfen to be a demon. He is a human diamond path cultivator who spent centuries serving the emperor. Few are willing to believe¨C¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go outside and crack that armor open then, shall we?¡± ¡°Please, stop interrupting me and just hear me out.¡± ¡°No. If you have investigated the downfall of my sect, you probably know about the cursed tome as well, right? You keep saying that you will be blunt and direct, but you keep beating around the bush. Let me help you out. You believe that I have encountered demons due to the tome. Something about that connection also resulted in me getting a lot of power. Now you think that I will greatly value your information on demons.¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Alright, then tell me. What exactly motivated you to approach me? And don¡¯t give me any bullshit or any around-the-bush beating. Just fucking tell me outright.¡± ¡°I took a risk by approaching you. I do not know your connection to the demons, but you have stated they¡¯re not your allies. I am merely sharing my motivation and stakes.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re beating around the bush again.¡± Dukean gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. ¡°I have a solid reason to believe demons have infiltrated the high society of the Yixine empire. I want to exterminate them. I have approached you intending to trade material wealth and goods for your services. I am rich. Extremely rich. You are young, and yet, you already have so much power. I believe making allies with you and investing in your growth will pay off in the fight against the demons in the long run.¡± Neave contemted his words a bit then he grinned. Suddenly, his hair changed to its standard color, and he morphed into his young master form. Dukean gaped and stared at Neave in shock. ¡°Y¨CYou! How!?¡± Neave hollered and rolled on the ground. Dukean jumped back and grew highly apprehensive. ¡°Rx, dude. If we¡¯re being honest already, we will be fully honest.¡± Neave got off the ground and stared at Dukean, ¡°I have decided. As far as I can tell, you¡¯re a pretty cool dude, and having an ally in high society also serves my goals. However¡­¡± Neave¡¯s gaze sharpened, and Dukean gulped, ¡°If we are going to be allies, then you will listen to me. That Carfen guy is a demon.¡± Dukean bit his lip a bit and asked. ¡°Can you at least tell me how you concluded that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s rather simple.¡± Something in Neave¡¯s eyes shifted, and a chill crawled down Dukean¡¯s spine, ¡°I have suffered under a devil¡¯s curse for uncountable years. There is no reality in which a demon could hide from me. No matter how manyyers of deceit they hide behind.¡± Neave¡¯s gaze betrayed fury so eternal and bottomless that Dukean struggled to breathe, ¡°If Carfen has any form of connection to any devil¡­ He will be extinguished.¡± Dukean¡¯s heart felt like it wanted to escape his chest. Neave smiled and continued. ¡°Either way, I might not have any direct evidence for him being a demon, but something unusual happened less than an hour ago.¡± Neave told Dukean about the attack by the man in red armor, or as he overheard his father call him, Ilkivir. ¡°Now that Carfen suddenly appeared, just a bit after an attack by such a figure, it feels a little bit less like a coincidence, don¡¯t you agree?¡± Dukean nodded at that. ¡°It is most certainly suspicious. Doubly so, given that the rest of the diamond-path cultivators of the empire aren¡¯t present. If they¡¯re in a situation where they¡¯re too upied toe, even when such a crisis is underway, then Carfen may havee here with the explicit intent to finish the job of the red-armored man. Or perhaps, he intentionally kept this incident a secret from the rest, although that is highly unlikely. I have to wonder why the demons would target you specifically, however¡­¡± ¡°Oh, man, you have to hear this. Apparently, some was attacked by these spooky void creatures, and theypletely annihted it. The devil found this secret important enough to ce a horrible death curse on the book to protect it!¡± Dukean listened to Neave with curiosity, but he despaired as he realized the implication of what Neave had just told him. ¡°Why would you tell me that!? I don¡¯t want to know something a devil will death-curse me for!¡± Neaveughed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, dukey-boy!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t call me that.¡± ¡°If any scary devilse after you¡­¡± ¡°I am going to extinguish them as well.¡± *** Carfen took a step back, avoiding the muscr puppet. These ethereal puppets were one impressive power. Even he had to admit. But this dragon was far from powerful enough to threaten him. He took another swing with his axe, and long cracks spread through the puppet. He stepped forward, powering through a heavy rain of crystal shards and fighting through the telekinesis. The dragon kept taking measured steps back, but Carfen had already discovered its weakness. It had to manually control the puppets, meaning it lost focus on its body whenever it used them. He observed the puppets, noting whenever one of them seemed to ¡®take over¡¯ to use the moment to cut the distance between himself and the dragon. The dragon shifted between focusing on keeping itself as far as it could from Carfen and manipting the puppets. After several rounds of this, it grewcent. The dragon thought it knew Carfen¡¯s range. This was when Carfen sprung forward like an arrow. The dragon couldn¡¯t shift its focus back on time. Carfen threw a massive punch from above, kicked the dragon up, dashed above it, and mmed an axe strike at its torso. It flew to the ground, smashing into the earth and leaving a small crater. Before it could get out, Carfen had alreadynded on top of it. Axe cut after axe cut leftcerations and gashes all over the dragon''s body. It shrieked and blew another breath at him, but he was already gone before it could hit him. Carfen readied his axe and prepared for another attack. He was angry that the third disciple had failed at ying the child. But no matter. This was the perfect opportunity for the first disciple to strike. He smiled beneath his armor. The fate of humanity on this continent would be decided, and finally, the scales would tip in favor of his masters once more. Chapter 61: Myth Chapter 61: Myth This ce sucked. There wasn¡¯t a bit of precious metal or gem to be found anywhere in the forest. That was the only thing she could deduce after scouting arge area. Sure, the trees were pretty and much more rigid than the fragile twigs she had encountered so far, which was something she had learned the hard way by bumping into one and falling on her ass. Besides that, there was little else of interest. The forest stretched endlessly in all directions and, as far as she could tell, held nothing of apparent value to her. She wouldn¡¯t fall for such tricks. Particr creatures like the nasty undead asionally used tricks and illusions to hide their valuables. This must be yet another instance of exactly that. She wouldn¡¯t fall for it. She would unmask wherever the valuables were hidden and exterminate whoever was hiding them. She didn¡¯t see iting as a massive beam of rainbow energy mmed into her torso. *** The Emperor could partly extend his invisibility to others. This didn¡¯t work entirely, as it left a faint, visible outline, and a lot of spirit influence leaked outside. Coupled with Zhaore¡¯s shadow mask, however, it could almost perfectly hide the presence of the five diamond-path cultivators. Beanna pulled a shimmering, transparent crystal about the size of her head out of a dimension ring. Beanna, coupled with Kingean, poured as much qi as she could into the crystalline artifact. It glowed with white light, and the Emperor and Zhaore began sweating under the stress of trying to mask the energy. Kingean focused every bit of his spirit on manipting the qi whirling inside the crystal. Beanna released it, and Kingean managed to keep it afloat with qi maniption alone. The wild energy slowly morphed and whirled inside the crystalline structure as it spun in a vortex of white death. Beanna stepped back, focused for a few seconds, and a small ball of green energy appeared in her hand. The nts around them grew a shade greener. The ball began spinning, and it was soon joined by a yellow ball that made the nts dry up. Luckily, the Emperor and Zhaore didn¡¯t have to put extra energy into containing this move since Beanna could keep it restrained. This didn¡¯t mean that they weren¡¯t reaching their limits. The foreign spirits containing their stealth spirit powers were stretched far too thin at this point, and they both hoped this better be thest time they had to use these specific spirit powers. Kingean was covered in sweat, and his body shook. Beanna trembled slightly as balls of blue, red, orange, pink, purple, and green energy gathered in her palm. They spun a vortex, replicating the same speed and direction of the powers contained within the crystal. Beanna nodded, and Kingean moved the gem slightly topensate for the golem¡¯s movements. Zhaore and the Emperor dropped their stealth powers as Beanna fired a twisting beam of rainbow energy into the floating gem. The gem shattered, sending a shockwave pulverizing the nearby ground and trees. The white energy morphed into the beam fired by Beanna, and they both traveled toward the myth golem almost too fast to follow. The golem didn¡¯t even have a fraction of a second to react to the iing attack before it struck her midsection. Beams of different colored lights fired from the point of impact, annihting the forest surrounding it. The power concentrated into a tornado of wildly swirling energies, and the golem shrieked. The Emperor pulled a shield out of his dimension ring, ready to fill in for the role Carfen was meant to y in this n. The wild energies suddenly imploded, and the point of impact exploded in a burst of golden light. The wave of power washed over the cultivators, all contributing anything they could to defense. The forest around them was stripped of trees and growth as far as the eye could see, and a plume of smoke rose high enough to touch upon the upper boundaries of the mystical realm. The emperor put the now bent and partially melted shield back into his dimension ring, panting from the exertion. They watched in trepidation as the smoke dissipated. A massive crater was left behind at the point of impact. And it stood right in the middle of that crater. At first, they assumed the worst, praying that the golem had received at least some damage from the impact. The heavens responded with the greatest blessing they could have hoped for. Over half of the golem''s torso stood empty, the rest of its body partially melted, filled with holes, cuts, and bends as it stumbled around hopelessly. Was it possible they had killed it in a single strike? The golem stumbled around for a few more steps and dropped. They wouldn¡¯t wait for it to get up if it was still alive. All of them pulled their weapons out of their dimension rings. Kingean pulled an elegant pristine longsword out of his dimension ring. Zhaore pulled out ck sickles on chains, with the chain connecting the two sickles reaching over thirty meters in length, kept aloft in the air behind him by his qi maniption skills. Beanna pulled a green spear out of her dimension ring, and the Emperor equipped a domineering greatsword. They charged toward the fallen myth golem without a word, all as one. Before they could even approach it, the emperor spotted sparks of ck lightning and yelled. ¡°Dodge that at all costs!¡± The golem lifted an arm, and a massive beam of ck lightning passed the cultivators that barely dodged it in time. They watched ck sparks vaporize tons of earth as they dissipated in the distance. The ck vapor spread faster than they anticipated, and they found themselves blocking the iing wave of smoke. When they turned around to continue their assault on the myth golem, it was already standing back up. Its body had lost considerable mass as it had reconstructed its basic shape in a much smaller size. It was still over two meters tall and easily dwarfed all of them in height. Then, to the utter shock of the cultivators present, it spoke. ¡°You dare¡­ You dare!¡± Its voice sounded vaguely female, but it had a distinct metallic whistle. ¡°You filthy flesh golems dare steal so much of my precious!¡± It twisted back, shakily moving its fingers over its body. ¡°Unforgivable.¡± The cultivators did not have enough time to react. She moved with impossible speed and rushed straight at the Emperor. He raised his greatsword to block her strike, and her fist left a visible imprint on his de as itnded. He flew back with enough force that he had to resort to digging his feet into the ground to stop himself. Luckily, the others were quick to capitalize on the golem''s first move. Kingean appeared not too far behind it, thrusting his sword at its back. It formed sharp metallic ws from its fingers and swiped at his sword, attempting to shred it. To the golem¡¯s surprise, the sword suddenly reappeared, striking from an entirely different angle. Kingean thrust his sword at the golem''s face. The sword''s tip embedded itself a little, but that wasn¡¯t the brunt of the attack. An echo of the impact dissipated over the golem''s head, spreading concentric circles around the stab. The golem reeled back from the impact and didn¡¯t have time to readjust for another attack. Beanna thrust her spear at its back from the other side,nding several solid stabs that left molten metal at the points of impact. The golem whirled toward her, but all it encountered was empty air. Zhaore passed over Beanna, vanishing her presence and helping her move behind the golem again, where she took several stabs at its back. The golem screamed and began glowing. It lit up with golden me and prepared to blow its enemies up. Suddenly, the sky darkened a little. A skeleton wielding a scythe appeared above her and cut through the golden fire. The golem desperately held onto its energy, but it was useless. It was like the scythe had poked a hole in a barrel, and the liquid drained out. All she could do was helplessly watch as her power dissipated around her. Beanna stabbed the golem¡¯s head, Kingean shed at its arm, and Zhaore flicked his sickles like death whips. Faint golden runes appeared behind the golem, and they quickly lit up until they shone brighter than a star. The Emperor swung at the golem with a true strike. Its body bent and contorted under the force. The knockback flung it away at immense speed, but before it could leave their range of attack, Zhaore¡¯s sickle shot out and hooked onto its body, preventing it from flying far away enough to be given a chance to recover. Before it could evennd on the ground, Beanna shot toward it, rainbow light enveloping her weapon as she thrust her spear right at its torso. The spear pierced through the body of the golem. Beanna pulled her weapon out, and Kingean thrust at it again from behind. Zhaore pulled the golem¡¯s body back, reeling it in like a fisherman. The other sickle also flung at it and embedded itself in the golem¡¯s body. The Emperor appeared next to it again, his body shining as the image of the dragon¡¯s descent manifested above his sword. *** Every strike took pushed her further to her end. All she could do was helplessly flop in the air as she watched these creatures pound away at her body. How was this possible? Every one of them was less than a worm in her eyes, but how they used their meager power with perfect coordination left even her helpless. She should have been able to defeat them, but she had no experience fighting like this. The initial st of energy had cost her too much strength. And now it felt like it was toote. The world darkened in her eyes as she felt her body fall apart increasingly with each strike. She recognized the attack that wasing next. This creature had already fought her once, hadn¡¯t it? And hadn¡¯t she killed it already? Could it resurrect itself? Maybe it was a different creature from its species. Either way, it was irrelevant. She felt her core darkening with every second, already crystalizing into a remnant of itself. One they will likely pluck from her body and consume, the way all monsters treated the cores of the dead. Perhaps this was why the surface was so barren of powerful creatures, because of sly vermin that used poisonous methods to backstab and ambush. Just as the tremendous force of the strike was about to crush her body and end her life, everything froze. She remained suspended in the air, observing as reality halted. She could still see things moving incredibly slowly, but at this speed, it would be hours before the attack could connect. ???????? ?re????????T?? TTTTTTTTTTTT You d? not rem?mber, do you? She couldn¡¯t turn around, yet she could clearly see the being standing behind her. Its body appeared like that of herself but much smaller, and it spoke in a voice simr to hers. It stepped toward her body and ced an indistinct but gentle hand on her cheek. You poor children. You had been betrayed, just like me. Yet you do not even remember. Allow me. Suddenly, a burst of visions flooded her mind. She saw countless fleshy creatures around her and grey versions of them. No, these were¡­ She winced in pain as she felt her very spirit split apart. The people around them, her¡­ Me? Us? They melted and screamed as their very essence flowed toward the¨C You poor, poor children. You mustn¡¯t forget what had been done to you. Ever. And you must not die before you can have vengeance. ?????? *** The dragon¡¯s descent drained the Emperor of over half of his life force as the sword descended. But suddenly, the golem disappeared. ¡°What!?¡± The Emperor yelled as his attack missed. Thendscape was torn up as the dragon flew across the ground. Zhaore screamed. ¡°Careful, your majesty!¡± Out of nowhere, the golem appeared behind the Emperor andnded a fist on his back. He groaned as he felt something give. The Emperor tried regaining his bnce, but a kick to his side sent him flying into the distance. The myth golem stood and faced the other three. Suddenly, from all over her body, tiny tendrils of darkness slithered out and shot toward them. Zhaore and Kingean dodged. Beanna stood, staring at the golem with an intense look in her eye. All Kingean could do was helplessly watch as the tendrils approached Beanna¡¯s body. His eyes widened in shock as Zhaore disappeared from where he stood and reappeared before Beanna. He blocked the tendrils of darkness with a veil of shadow, but they tore it apart as they dug deeper toward his body. Zhaore yelled at them to act and use the opportunity to attack. But Beanna didn¡¯t move. Kingean charged in, praying that his attack would distract the golem and allow the other two to escape. A wall of tendrils flew to meet him as he dodged one after the other. Zhaore wrestled with the ethereal tentacles as they bit and wed through his defenses. It had already been a few seconds, and he was struggling with all his might to maintain the wall. What the hell was Beanna doing? He couldn¡¯t resist the urge to look back and check in on her, but what he saw shook him to his core. Beanna was smiling at him. The sight made him momentarily hesitate as he watched her raise her arm to wave at him with a cheerful grin. One of the tendrils broke through the wall of shadow and wrapped itself around his neck. Kingean didn¡¯t see it happen but heard Beanna scream. Zhaore stared at Beanna in disbelief as the shadowy limbs tightened around his throat. She screamed, yet the giddy smile didn¡¯t leave her face for a second. Kingean turned just in time to see the tendrils snap Zhaore¡¯s neck and tear his body apart. His attention was pulled back to the fight as one of the tentacles almost got a hold of him. Beanna pulled a small object from her dimension ring, a white needle the size of her thumb, and subtly stabbed one of the tentacles. The needle dissolved, and the golem suddenly reeled and pulled the dark tendrils back, wrapping them around its body. Zhaore¡¯s corpse plummeted to the ground. The Emperor came crawling back, only to witness Zhaores death. Beanna, Kingean, and the Emperor all picked their weapons back up and prepared to continue the fight, but shadowy arms wrapped around the myth golem and pulled it into thin air. They stared in horror as they watched the golem disappear. Beanna grabbed Zhaores dead body and wept over it. Kingean rushed to her and pulled her hair. ¡°You fucking bitch! Why did you freeze like that!? Have you no shame as a cultivator!? Have you no shame as someone who bears the weight of an empire on their shoulders!?¡± He was interrupted by a punch from the Emperor himself. Kingean flew back and dropped to the ground. As he shakily stood back up, he stared at the Emperor angrily for the first time. ¡°You didn¡¯t see it! She is the one who fucked up and cost us the battle!¡± ¡°And what the hell will pointing fingers achieve, Kingean!? I thought you knew better than this! The crisis has gotten far worse now, and thest thing we need is a conflict between us!¡± ¡°But¡­ But she.¡± Kingean turned to Beanna. She shook and wailed as she embraced Zhaore¡¯s corpse. He felt his anger vacate his body, ¡°But¡­¡± He felt his body shake and tears flow down his cheeks. He walked over to the dead Zhaore and knelt beside him, ¡°You bastard¡­ I¡¯ve never liked you one bit¡­ So why¡­?¡± The Emperor swallowed a healing pill as he observed his subjects. He couldn¡¯t, no, mustn¡¯t show weakness in front of them. Dark days wereing to this continent if they did not keep it together. But even with all his strength, wisdom, and countless years of life experience, his arm still trembled a bit. I wish I could say your sacrifice hadn¡¯t been in vain¡­ Chapter 62: Fallout Chapter 62: Fallout The ethereal purple puppets ally on the ground, shattered in whole or part and flickering. The dragon looked worn out, gashes spread through its entire body, and one of its wings was broken. Carfen walked casually toward it, remaining vignt for any desperate moves it may attempt. The dragon was out of tricks. It huffed and took sporadic steps back, screeching and growling at the armored man. The battle was nearing its end, with Carfen not taking any real damage throughout the bout. In the distance, Neave and Dukean peeked from behind a ruined building as they observed the fight. Neave was back in his young master disguise. He was shaking and clenching a brick so hard it cracked beneath his grip. He had hoped the dragon would put up a better fight, but this was more like pest extermination. It was to be expected, somewhat. Skill and equipment are both crucial in a fight. While the dragon had power equal to, if not even greater, than that of Carfen, he was a warrior that had spent centuries mastering his skills. The dragon had spent its entire life trapped inside a mystical realm where it was likely the most powerful creature by far. Neave had to reluctantly hand it to Dukean. They made something of a deal between them; Dukean agreed to believe that Carfen was a demon, but in return, he forced Neave to agree not to charge in there and get himself killed. Neave didn¡¯t intend to respect this agreement, as it hadn¡¯t been bound by spirit oath, but even he could see that Carfen was far above him. It felt unusual to Neave. Not just unusual but agonizing. He was looking at someone he was sure he couldn¡¯t defeat. Perhaps he could do it if given infinite attempts, as with the seventh-wave demon, but that was nothing but a pipe dream. What was it again? Only one attempt? As the aftermath of the battles today sank in, so did the realization that Neave¡¯s mind was somehow being manipted. Either that, or he was just batshit crazy. He would probably say it was the former if he had to bet on one. Or both. Yeah, definitely both. There was a lot of unusual stuff happening to him. He had thought about it a lot already, but what the hell was with the mysterious, spooky realm he got yoinked to whenever he lost consciousness? Was it a remnant of the curse? It was the statues, somehow, Neave was sure of this. There wasn¡¯t anything else to point at and say, ¡®hey, that¡¯s the thing to me!¡¯ Yet, Neave had read the contents of the curse. The book never mentioned the statues in any capacity. Perhaps he could go down to the hall and TTTTTTTTT ¡­ No fucking way. He just felt that same thing again. Those weren¡¯t his thoughts. Well, they were his thoughts. But they weren¡¯t what he would usually think. Wait, did this mean that whoever was interfering with his mind wanted him to go down to the hall? Yeah, no. That¡¯s never going to happen. Unless he was being reverse manipted? No, that was just overthinking it. Was it? Probably. Neave focused again, trying to sense whether these were still his ¡®own¡¯ thoughts. He was interrupted as Dukean ced a hand on his shoulder. A hand Dukean almost lost as Neave barely stopped himself from tearing it off out of reflex. ¡°You aren¡¯t considering fighting Carfen now, are you?¡± Neave scoffed. ¡°I get your point. Don¡¯t worry. I will kill him within a few weeks at thetest.¡± Dukean frowned at that. ¡°What makes you so confident you can gain enough power in that time?¡± Neave stared at Dukean and contemted. Should he tell him? Perhaps if he wanted an ally, he should be more open? That felt a little risky, though. This young man was still a little suspicious to Neave. So far, his intentions seemed to be in the right ce, but all Neave had was his word. Neave smiled a bit. ¡°Hey, Dukey, you want to take a spirit oath with me?¡± Dukean¡¯s eyes shot up. ¡°No, that¡­ Spirit oaths are not something to be taken lightly.¡± ¡°I know. Which is precisely why I want to take one. We can just do a retroactive one, so we aren¡¯t bound by it in the future. What do you say? You will have confirmation that I am telling the truth, and I will have confirmation that you aren¡¯t scheming anything.¡± Dukean hesitated for a good while. ¡°...Alright. What phrase do you wish to bind us to?¡± ¡°¡®I am telling the truth.¡¯¡± ¡°No.¡± Dukean shot back without any hesitation. ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re lying?¡± Neave grinned. ¡°I believe you already know why I refused that.¡± Neave clicked his tongue. ¡°You pussy.¡± There was a good reason why someone would refuse to take such a spirit oath. It was more likely than not to cause bacsh to both people taking it. It was rtively simple, really. Everyone lied a little whenever they said something. Pure honesty was rare and, ironically, socially uneptable. If every man werepletely honest about their attraction to every woman they¡¯re attracted to, they would be seen as creepy. If every merchant werepletely honest about their pricing and intent, they would be seen as scammers. In the case of Neave and Dukean, even if both of them were telling the truth, it was likely they had at some point said a half-truth or phrased something in a way that promoted their agenda. These weren¡¯t lies, strictly speaking, but they would still cause bacsh after they took the spirit oath. ¡®I am telling the truth¡¯ was a spirit oath phrase frequently used not to measure whether someone was lying but to gauge the degree to which they were being honest. The stronger the bacsh, the less likely they were to be fully transparent. Neave shook his head and chuckled a little. ¡°Alright then, we will bind ourselves to ¡®I n on doing nothing that will bring direct harm to you.¡¯¡± Dukean sighed a little and agreed to that one. It had a bit of a loophole with the ¡®direct harm¡¯ use, but it was generally an eptable phrase. It also had another small loophole with the ¡®n on doing¡¯ part. ns could always change, but it was at least guaranteed they were on the same side at the moment. There was no way to change this part without making the spirit oath bind them in the future. And, without even sharing a word, they knew that that wasn¡¯t an option. They both sat in front of one another and grasped hands. After a few seconds of intense eye contact, their spirits touched, and they spoke in resonant voices. ¡°I n on doing nothing that will bring direct harm to you.¡± Their spirits hummed for a few seconds, and they both slumped over. They made the spirit oath, and none of them suffered any damage. Dukean, however, looked highly distressed. ¡°You!? How are you on the very beginning of the foundation realm!?¡± Neave grinned ear to ear. ¡°You and I, my friend, have much to discuss.¡± In the distance, down at the bottom of the massive crater, Carfen lifted his axe and decapitated the purple dragon. *** The rest of that day was as heavy as it could get. The capital was torn by grief, as many had lost friends and family members. The whole section of the city where the rift had opened had been wrecked. Countless purple snakes still slithered through the wreckage, but their numbers swiftly reduced as countless cultivators hunted and exterminated them. Carfen offloaded a lot of earth from his dimension ring. He had an earth maniption spirit power, so hauling tons of it around in his ring wasn¡¯t unusual. He used it to fill in the crater and tten the parts that had suffered a lot of damage. He raised a massive earthen wall in a big circle around the rift. This structure would be reinforced and handled by the more powerful sects under the direction of the Emperor. Carfen was in no rush to help hisrades. Mainly because the battle was already over. He grinned in satisfaction as he read the message from the Emperor and frowned at the other message he received. Carfen waited beside the rift as countless cultivators gathered around him and began the construction. He took a quick peek into the mystical realm, finding there were no more threats inside. But there was a whole load of the purple crystal. Although grief and tragedy coiled themselves around many hearts, avarice snuck into many minds. Depending on who got the most out of this newly opened realm, the power bnce in the capital was about to change. *** Hunter woke up. He was lying on the open streets, many around him wounded or dead. Turning to his left, he spotted Harel sitting, crouched, hugging her knees, and burying her face between them. In front of him, with his back turned, sat the ¡®elder¡¯ of the ¡®Falken sect.¡¯ Hunter felt anger bubbling up inside him. ¡°...Why?¡± Marven didn¡¯t turn to face Hunter. He sat there frozen. ¡°Just¡­ Why!?¡± Hunter got up and threw a punch at Marven¡¯s back. Marven didn¡¯t even budge. Hunter threw punch after punch. Countless spectators turned to him and dismissed him. He wasn¡¯t the first to throw a fit among the survivors lying here, ¡°Why, why, why!? You fucking bastard! Why!? Neave, he¡­! He¡­! And you¡¯ve just forgiven him!? Let him go!? No, you¡¯re fucking taking care of him! He¡­! He killed my mother, you bastard! And you! You destroyed the entire sect! Why!? Just¡­ Why?¡± Hunter¡¯s punches slowly grew weaker as he shook. He dropped to his knees, throwing limp fists at Marven¡¯s back as he wept, ¡°Just please tell me why¡­ I need to know why.¡± *** Harel threw Hunter a nce and shoved her face back between her knees. She held a small monster core in her hand. It contained a peculiar spirit power. Metal perception. The other cores Neave had granted her were significantly more powerful. Having such a repertoire of powers would be envied by anyone, even the greatest warriors of this realm. But this was the one she was interested in the most. Why did he give her this power specifically? It felt so limited and niche. Did he want her to be a miner or a spelunker, perhaps? Why would he think this power belonged with the others? And perhaps most importantly, what should she do? Neave was¡­ She still remembered the way he impaled himself on a sword for Hunter. Without any hesitation. Or did he do it for Hunter at all? He must have. He could have utilized several more efficient approaches if he didn¡¯t care about what happened to Hunter. She looked at the core in her hand again. The first time she was offered these powers, it felt like a deal with the devil. She had no idea what to feel now. Who was Neave, really? Not just identity-wise, but who was he deep inside? A mindless murderer? A psychopath with a penchant for control and maniption? Or was he just¡­ A disturbed kid? She recalled what Marven had told her, how Neave needed others to ground him. What would happen if there was no one willing to do this job? She vividly remembered how Neave fought someone even Marven stood no chance against. And she witnessed Marven annihte an entire sect with a single technique. She clenched the monster core and took a deep breath. She didn¡¯t know what she needed to do. But she did know what she wanted to do. She stored the monster core in her dimension ring. Harel shifted her pose into one better suited for meditation. Just as she was about to sink into her spirit, she saw Neave walking up to them, followed by a cloaked young man. Chapter 63: Shadow of Calamity Chapter 63: Shadow of Cmity Neave hadn¡¯t shared much information with Dukean. Not quite yet. While the spirit oath had confirmed that he wasn¡¯t an enemy or a schemer, that didn¡¯t mean Neave would just tell him every secret he knew right from the start. Even though he desperately wanted to. Neave enjoyed seeing the looks on others¡¯ faces when he shared something unbelievable. He still felt giddy after Dukean felt his cultivation. Although Dukean insisted he must hurry and meet the others from his sect, Neave urged him to follow along. He gave Dukean a vague excuse about introducing him to his allies, but that wasn¡¯t the main reason why he had him follow along. The main reason was Hunter. Neave¡¯s n had failed. He wanted to perform something of an experiment on Hunter. Hunter wasn¡¯t a viin, not by a long shot, but he had been raised by the exact type of individual Neave wanted to eliminate the most. How much did he take after them? Would it be possible to redirect him to the ¡®right¡¯ path? Hunter wasn¡¯t an adult yet, by any definition of the word. He didn¡¯t have the power to throw around, and he didn¡¯t have the age. Neave believed that exterminating those with a negative value in lives was the best way to deal with them. However, he also thought that prevention was superior to intervention. His n had gone to shit, but that didn¡¯t mean the experiment had to end there. After quite a bit of scouting, Neave finally spotted Marven¡¯s shiny, bald head in the distance. He spotted Hunter right behind him. Trying to¡­ Beat him up? As they slowly approached the three cultivators, Dukean raised an eyebrow. ¡°Are these the allies you¡¯ve mentioned?¡± Neave grinned. Marven spotted them a good bit before they arrived. He frowned. Once they reached them, Neave gave them a cheerful greeting. ¡°Yo! What¡¯s up?¡± Hunter stiffened upon hearing his voice. He turned around, fury zing deep within his eyes. ¡°You! You bastard!¡± Hunter jumped at Neave and punched him. Neave didn¡¯t move an inch. Hunter¡¯s punchnded on Neave¡¯s face, and Neave didn¡¯t bat an eye. Neave lifted his arm and grabbed Hunter by the mouth. He lifted him in the air. Neave stared him down and spoke to Dukean. ¡°Dukey-boy, I have a hypothetical question for you. Let¡¯s say an individual poisoned a child for years with the intent to make them unable to cultivate. What do you think would be an appropriate punishment for this act?¡± Dukean hesitated. He nced at Hunter and then back to Neave, unsure of what was happening here, but he humored Neave¡¯s question anyway and gave him an answer. ¡°That is a heinous act I would regard as equal to, if not worse, than killing the child outright. Even righteous sects would dere such an individual worthy of capital punishment, but I am strongly against such practices. Even so, I would judge such an individual as worthy of life in very or imprisonment.¡± ¡°I see. There you go, Hunter. From the mouth of a scion of one of the greatest sects in the Empire.¡± Hunter¡¯s eyes shot wide open. Neave threw him on the ground and stared him right in the eye. Hunter muttered. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. You im my mother poisoned a child!? What proof do you have of that!?¡± ¡°Hunter, dearie, I am the child she poisoned.¡± Neave turned to Marven, who did his best to pretend he wasn¡¯t there, but as the gazes of three children were joined by the fourth once Harel turned to him, he felt forced to speak. ¡°Hunter. Neave is telling the truth.¡± ¡°No¡­ You¡¯re lying! You¡¯re all fucking liars! My mother, she¡­ She would never¡­¡± Hunter paused, ¡°She would¡­ Oh, heavens. She¡­¡± He shook as the reality of it sank in. Hunter remembered the moments after Neave killed Kaphor, just before the sect was disbanded. Back then, he felt Marven was lying or exaggerating. But now¡­ Something clicked. He remembered the Bentheta sect. He remembered the way their elders treated the younger generation. Would anyone from the Zearthorn sect put the life of a disciple before their own? He had been present with his mother in many meetings with other elders. The more he thought about it, the more examples he could remember. It was apparent why the disciples of the Zearthorn sect were so weak. The elders put more effort into setting their enemies back than pushing their allies forward. And everyone had plenty of enemies. When Marven executed one elder after another, Hunter saw the deep fear in their eyes. It made sense they would be afraid. Every single one of them hadmitted a sin worthy of death. Even my¡­ Even¡­ Hunter grabbed his mouth as he threw up. Then he fainted and dropped to the ground. Neave lit up and turned to Dukean. ¡°Thanks, Dukey boy! I¡¯ll be using you for intimidation in the future as well!¡± Dukean red at Neave incredulously. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve dragged me here just for that?¡± ¡°Yup!¡± Dukean blinked. Then he shook his head. ¡°So these are the allies you¡¯ve mentioned?¡± Marven sighed. This day was just too much. Now Neave had brought a scion of one the four great sects of the Empire. As he got up to greet the neer, he seriously contemted whether he should run away and hide somewhere in the countryside. ¡°Greetings, Young Master. My name is Marven Zearthorn.¡± Dukean nodded. ¡°The sect master of the Zearthorn sect? You should report your new sect to the empire, as you have been sanctioned.¡± ¡°I am not the sect master of the newly created sect.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Dukean raised an eyebrow, ¡°So¡­ Who is?¡± Neave cut in. ¡°Where is Gabrias?¡± ¡°Ah!¡± Marven eximed, ¡°I have no idea.¡± *** After a short conversation with Marven, Dukean bid them farewell and left to rejoin with others from his sect. Neave alerted Marven that the fight had reduced their newly built sect to rubble, which was greeted by a somewhat unsurprised shrug from Marven. To Neave¡¯s surprise, Marven believed this was somewhat fortunate for them. They owned a plot ofnd adjacent to a newly opened mystical realm. While the rights to enter and explore the realm were practically unattainable for a small sect, sellingnd was easy. Their little plot ofnd had just gained a lot of value. Marven believed they could sell it for well over two billion tinum coins. This could buy them a much bigger plot ofnd. Neave cringed upon hearing this as he remembered his lost dimension ring. Neave told Marven to care for the kids and find Gabrias if he was still alive. Then he vanished before Marven even had the chance to ask him where he was going. *** Ethereal birds frolicked through the divine mist, flickers of beautifulndscapes and wondrous realms reflecting in the haze. The Grand Queen dismissed the council of her vassals and sent them on their way. Brivia stood up to leave, but the Grand Queen waved at her and called her over. Brivia strode up to the throne of the Queen, and many of the vassals shot her a nasty look. That was no good. Jealousy was a poison that vited the purity of their principles. She mentally noted that discipline was in order as she stood before the Grand Queen. ¡°Greetings, your majesty. Why have you summoned this humble servant?¡± The Grand Queen smiled, but her expression hardened a bit. ¡°The Gods have made a decision. For Langen to prosper and for this world to be reimed, they must dispatch divine messengers.¡± Brivia tensed up a bit but quickly resolved herself. ¡°If they need an avatar, this humble one will dlyy down her life as an offering.¡± ¡°No, dear child. You are of too much value, even to the Gods.¡± Brivia flushed, ecstasy flowing through her entire body as she received the blessing of a lifetime. ¡°I am honored at your words, your majesty.¡± ¡°These words aren¡¯t mine to im but of the Divine itself. Raise your head, my child. There are plenty of volunteers for this role. You have also been given a task.¡± Brivia raised her head in shock. ¡°Speak, and I willy my life to turn your words into reality.¡± ¡°You are to apany them in their mission. You may even qualify for a direct blessing based on your performance and their judgment.¡± Brivia gaped, and tears rushed down her cheeks. ¡°I would¡­ If I died now, I would have lived a full life.¡± ¡°You are not to die now, Brivia. You are not ever to die, dear. You will reign over this world with me in the name of the Gods. Now stand. Would you care for a cup of tea?¡± *** Carfen walked into the mystical realm hidden beneath his sect. Soon after, he spotted Ilkivir on the ground, covered in wounds from head to toe. He regarded him for a bit, then he spoke. ¡°Third disciple. How did you fail the mission?¡± Ilkivir, to the great surprise of Carfen, smiled toothily. ¡°That child, Carfen. You should have witnessed it yourself.¡± ¡°I have heard witness reports. The word has already spread far and wide about the appearance of the ¡®demon child.¡¯ But with what I have heard, he shouldn¡¯t have been a threat to you, especially not if you sacrificed the seed of agony.¡± ¡°He had plenty of assistance. But that wasn¡¯t the reason why I lost. That child has a lot of spirit powers, far too many. Their peculiarbination is frankly terrifying. At one point, I managed to behead him. His neck reconnected midair, and his body fused back together.¡± Carfen raised his head a bit. ¡°Hmm¡­ Well, no matter. If the child remains in the capital, we will track and eliminate it soon. We have more important matters to discuss now. The first disciple will be joining us shortly.¡± Ilkvir perked up. ¡°What? Why?¡± ¡°We will be facing our masters today. We have reached a Threshold.¡± Ilkivir smiled. His smile widened, and he chuckled. He cackled louder and louder until he was roaring withughter. ¡°Finally!¡± Ilkivir got up to a seated position and sank into his spirit senses. He observed the thick shroud of strands of potential and swiftly picked a few, cing them right into his core. His body began rapidly healing, and all the demons turned to face him. He glowed with a tinum light as the mist seeped into his pores and reconstructed his body from its very foundation. Momentster, he opened his eyes. Carfen nodded at him. ¡°Congrattions, third disciple. Wee to the diamond path.¡± Ilkivir nodded, glee apparent on his face. Both of them paused and turned around once they spotted the figure that had appeared out of nowhere. They got up and bowed their heads. A woman with hair darker than the night sky and eyes shinier than the moon above appeared before them. Her red robes flowed like blood down her body. A satisfied smile adorned her face. All three of them walked over to a ritual circle nearby. They invested their power into it, and three figures appeared. A big demon with eyes all over its face and spikes for hair. A shadowy, cloaked demon with a mask, empty voids for eyes. And a bloody, bandaged demon with two red, beady eyes poking from behind the bandages. Ilkivir stepped forward, bowing to the shadow demon. ¡°Third disciple greets the shadow of death.¡± Carfen stepped forward, bowing to the giant demon. ¡°Second disciple greets the shadow of destruction.¡± And finally, Beanna stepped forward toward the bandaged demon. ¡°First disciple greets the shadow of cmity.¡± Chapter 64: Punishment Chapter 64: Punishment The first thing Neave did after leaving Marven and the gang alone was run off to get a few things done. He took a quick detour to eliminate some snakes to gather a few of the nicer monster cores. Many vendors were bidding for snake cores, mainly because of how unique the powers inside were. Neave nned on gathering enough to sell for arge dimension ring. Whenever he gained a new ring, he would put the old one inside the new one. Naturally, having an infinite chain of dimension rings within dimension rings was impossible. When one ced a dimension ring inside of another dimension ring, that would transfer all of the contents of the first to the second, and the ring itself would just float in there inertly until taken back out. Which meant that Neave lost all of his dimension rings. It wasn¡¯t long until he gathered well over a hundred cores. Rather than selling all of them, he separated only seventeen or so. He subtly rounded these up just enough that the transparent spirit didn¡¯t stand out but sufficient to multiply their value exponentially. Among the ones he left for himself, quite a few had peculiar powers he wanted to potentially acquire. There was one among them that interested him greatly. Avatar. It was a rtively weak variation of the power the dragon had disyed with the puppets. But there were a few peculiar details about it that the dragon''s power either didn¡¯t possess or the dragon didn¡¯t utilize them. This ability held a pseudo-pocket dimension where the power would store the avatar. This meant that Neave could potentially alter the avatar itself. He could equip them with powerful gear or even directly modify them if he had those puppets. But he wouldn¡¯t take the power, not quite yet. His first order of business was donning the Bob disguise again and visiting his good friend Kalen. Upon arriving on the top of the tower, Neave found a small crowd of cultivators already bidding for the merchant''s attention. Many of them scoffed upon seeing Neave, or rather, Bob. ¡°What the hell is this fatass doing here?¡± One of the cultivators present called out. Kalen winced, hoping the man left it at that. Neave looked over to this man andughed merrily. ¡°What is this small man speaking? Is he stupid!? Hahahaha.¡± The haughty cultivator did not take the provocation lightly. He stepped up to Neave threateningly, clearly attempting to intimidate him. This didn¡¯tst very long as Neave grabbed his head and squeezed it so hard the man¡¯s skull almost shattered. The others cleared the way for ¡®Bob,¡¯ and he made his transaction with the apologetic Kalen. Neave traded the seventeen cores for a dimension ring with massive capacity and a whole load of supplies for his experiments. It was far less material than he had gained from either of his prior purchases, totaling only a bit over fifty million tinum coins, but that was still mighty impressive. After he was done with the selling, he transformed into his worm form and went to his undergroundboratory. The precious stone lining the walls and the high-quality equipment entered his new dimension ring. Neave spent the next few days ughtering monsters away from the empire''s capital. There were more important things to do. There were things he needed to do. But the most important thing for him was to not think about those. He needed not to think about anything. *** Over the course of a few days after the rift opened, Marven sold their plot ofnd for an impressive two billion and three-hundred million tinum coins. He spent around one billion four-hundred million on a far bigger plot ofnd this time, although it was only about twice the size of the Zearthorn sect¡¯s courtyard. This was still four square kilometers, and if used correctly, more than enough space for a long time. After searching, he found Gabrias, lost among the crowds and waiting anxiously. Their new plot ofnd was in an impoverished part of the capital, a few districts from where the rift opened. Just far away enough not to be affected by the economic boost the rift would bring. Marven was well aware that money wouldn¡¯t be a problem for them. Neave was gone for some reason, but he put faith into him returning eventually. This time, Marven spent tremendous amounts of money on their new building. Thend he purchased already had a building, but it was old and dpidated, although less than the one on thest parcel they bought. Manypetent workers were hired this time around. Marven spent well over fifty million coins onbor. This didn¡¯t seem like muchpared to the cost of buying thend, but it was still a lot. The old building was disassembled, whatever materials could be reused were separated from the trash, and the construction of the new building began. Marven and Gabrias were once again very hands-on with the construction, although Marven didn¡¯t need to do so this time. But he wanted to. He had to get his mind off certain things. Hunter still hadn¡¯t regained consciousness. He was hot to the touch and mumbling deliriously. A part of Marven, the cowardly part the rest of Marven despised with a burning passion, felt relieved that he hadn¡¯t woken up yet. Harel was also helping with the construction. She was generally acting weird and distracted. Marven asked her time and time again whether something was wrong, but Harel dismissed him. Even Gabrias could tell that she had something weighing on her mind. The construction of the new sect was finished in days. The building took up only a quarter of the space for now, and they had ced it somewhat to the corner of the plot ofnd. Marven wanted to leave as much space for a decent-sized courtyard. The building had four floors, each for a different purpose. The fourth floor was where they would ce the library. It would be segmented, as wasmon practice for sect libraries, but this time it wouldn¡¯t have a general knowledge area. It would only be separated into two rooms, one for basic manuals and the other for more advanced stuff. Marvenmissioned a schr from a nearby library to duplicate a lot of the books he had. He also purchased many basic manuals for all sorts of purposes. As wasmon practice, he forged a spirit oath with the schr so that there would be no giarising of the books Marven considered unique. He didn¡¯t have the Zearthorn-style books duplicated. He didn¡¯t even really know why. He could edit them and change the basic forms so nobody could recognize it as the Zearthorn style, but he felt this still wouldn¡¯t be sufficient. It wasn¡¯t just that he didn¡¯t want the style to be recognized. He also didn¡¯t want to use it anymore. It was an incredible waste to discard the centuries of work he had put into developing it, but the idea of using it simply brought him too much pain. Not all was lost, however. He was rather high-rank now, so creating new techniques wasn¡¯t the most challenging thing in the world. Could he create a better style altogether after consulting Neave? Marven had tough at himself for having these thoughts. It was rather pitiable that he put more faith in his son''s knowledge than in his own. But it also made sense. Neave was a genius that would define the very fate of this entire realm. What was a bit of his pridepared to this undeniable fact? The rest of the floors were separated for all kinds of purposes. Temporary storage for things that had to be on disy, such as armories and nts that couldn¡¯t be stored in dimension rings. Rooms for individual members of the sect, mess halls, kitchens, toilets, specialized training chambers, meeting halls, bigger private rooms for potential elders and high-ranking disciples, and so on. Shortly after the sect had been finished, Neave appeared and wordlessly burrowed into the ground. Marven would have to put developing the style on hold for now. *** It didn¡¯t take long for Neave to have anotherboratory. This time it was muchrger. He created four rooms, one dedicated to golem construction, another to alchemy, and the third to forging. The fourth room was arge reinforced chamber that would be used for testing his experiments. After decorating everything and ensuring it was all in ce, he took a moment to rest. The moment quickly turned to hours. He couldn¡¯t move. Neave was out of things to distract him. Now it was finally time to face the issue at hand. What the fuck is manipting my mind? Neave had long agoe to terms with his being a little kooky, but insanity was one thing. Mind maniption was another. Insane thoughts were still his, no matter how irrational they may sometimes be. It was still himself who made those conclusions and decisions, he who forged those opinions and thoughts. Getting his mind manipted, however, was something he could nevere to terms with. Perhaps he¡­ TTTT He screamed. Neave grabbed his hair and pulled it out of his scalp. ¡°Shut up, shut up, shut up!¡± It was that same feeling again. He was about to have a thought, not of his own. How often did this¡­ He paused. Was that the same feeling again? He couldn¡¯t tell. He felt a distinct foreignness to some thoughts now. Perhaps due to his perception spirit power? But what about before he acquired it? For how long had he been having his mind manipted? Since he left the loop? No¡­ Before he left it? Hebed over every thought and every decision he had made since he left the loop. He questioned his motives behind everything he did back then. Would he have chosen to ughter the elders? Or was that a byproduct of the maniption? Would he have made the idiotic decisions that had him chased down like a dog, or was that also a consequence of being led down a specific path? He remembered the moments before he encountered Marven and Harel. Demons. Demons everywhere. But those weren¡¯t demons. Those were people. How close was he back then to indiscriminately ughtering innocents? Neave went through all of his thoughts rapidly, especially with the help of his enhanced cognitive abilities¡ªwhich meant that he had days to agonizingly overthink every single thing about everything. Neave sat in the corner of his undergroundboratory, blood pooling around him. Every time he thought he felt the mind maniption, he punished himself. He would exterminate the foreign influence, no matter what it took. But soon enough, every single thought he had felt like it came from someone else. And every single thought he had¡­ Had to be punished. Chapter 65: Forgiveness Chapter 65: Forgiveness Nostalgic. Neave had the first thought for an entire day. Exactly how he knew a day had passed was simple. This time, he did have a literal hourss to check, and thest grain of sand had just rolled into the bottom chamber. Ever since he left the loop, he hadn¡¯t even once grown so dissociated¡ªuntil now. Neave decided to let his mind clear for precisely a day. Under the influence of his enhanced cognitive abilities and spirit power working full throttle, thest day felt like months. Months he needed to cool off and just not think about it. Could he have used the mysterious realm for this purpose? No. Absolutely not. Neave was still highly hesitant about going back in there. Avoiding it forever wasn¡¯t an option, though. Eventually, he would have to go to sleep, or he risked dying from ack thereof. He still wanted to postpone his visit as long as he could. Why? It was simple. One of the thoughts he was fully confident hade from the mind maniption had urged Neave to go to the underground chamber. There was never an instance where he was being coerced explicitly into going into the realm itself, though, which was the only reason he was even considering returning in the first ce. At least, not any instance he could clearly identify as not being his own thoughts. He had lost confidence in telling his thoughts apart from the maniption, but the rest day helped. He definitely wouldn¡¯t have any more¡­ TTTTTTTT ¡­ Neave grinned. ¡°Nice try.¡± He pped a few times. Although the appearance of the maniption should have ruined his mood, Neave felt the opposite. It tried manipting him, yet he discovered it and stopped it on time. However slight, Neave felt he had regained at least some agency over his mind. Now it was time for Neave to properly consider the way he thought. There was a lot of work ahead of him, separating his genuine opinions from what he developed under foreign influence. It wasn¡¯t going to be straightforward. What if there were things he potentially agreed on with whoever was trying to manipte him? That wasn¡¯t an impossibility. There was also the possibility of some of his genuine opinions only developing after other parts of his thoughts were manipted. What then? A lot of work had to be done, and he didn¡¯t fully trust in doing it himself. He needed somebody else to bounce his thoughts off. This had little to do with foreign influence and more with his true beliefs. How much of what he believed was valid? Was the influence possibly more subtle than surface thoughts? What if the maniptor had given certain things he believed confirmation or his confidence about these thoughts was subtly boosted? Neave thought about all the people he could talk to. Perhaps Marven would be the best option? Hmm, not really. He had his own issues, and Neave thought he wasn¡¯t the most morally oriented individual in the first ce. What about Dukean? It was probably the best choice, but it wasn¡¯t viable yet. He had agreed to meet with Dukean in a week. It had already been a few days, but still, a few left. Then¡­ Gabrias? No. Harel? Hmmmm. That wasn¡¯t a bad idea. She was inexperienced and naive, but perhaps that was precisely what Neave needed now. Neave wormed his way out and walked into their new sect premises. It was a pretty massive building, so navigating inside it wasn¡¯t an easy task. Before he managed to find Harel, he noticed something else. He felt Hunter in his spirit senses. But something was wrong. Neave took a slight detour and appeared next to Hunter. Neave was shocked. Was he ill? Hunter was bedridden and looked terrible, but no matter what Neave probed, nothing about his body or spirit was unusual. Which only left one thing. Neave sighed. Then he pped hunter. He hit him again, pulled his nose, and rhythmically smacked his head, singing along. Nothing worked, and Hunter remained in his delirious mumbling state no matter what Neave tried. Neave suddenly got a very peculiar idea. Before he decided to do it, he first spent a good while making sure that it was his own idea and not something that was forced into his brain. After a few minutes of probing, he felt confident that it was indeed something he had thought of himself. But will it work? There was only one way to find out. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t result in anyone¡¯s spirit being shattered. Neave sent out a tendril and slowly wrapped it around Hunter¡¯s spirit. Then he spent a good while fully enveloping his own spirit under the same barrier. He poked around in his brain a bit and knocked himself out. *** M¨CMother¡­ Why? Hunter just couldn¡¯t face it. He wondered if it would truly matter to him as much if he had realized this back when he was still in the sect. Now it was different. He had experienced the cruel reality of being on the other side of mistreatment, and what he experienced wasn¡¯t even that bad. Compared to the dismissal and moderate bullying he had experienced, what Zearthorn elders did on the regr was far worse. To think that every person he respected as a child was nothing but vile scum worthy of death. This was unthinkable. It was unbearable. He couldn¡¯t shake the image of his mother ughtering children or cackling as she ordered someone be poisoned. Her actions gradually grew worse and worse in his mind. Where did it stop? At what point would she not do something for her benefit? For the longest time, he considered his mother a champion of righteousness and hard work. Now, that image had been utterly shattered. What was he then? Was he¡­? He remembered how he had treated Neave before. In his mind, it had been justified. Neave was sloth incarnate. His behavior was such that it would corrupt the youth and inspire copycats that would follow in his path. Hunter believed that his beatdowns were doing Neave a favor. After all, the elders did the same thing. That was how the sect did things. If you misbehave, you get a beatdown. Hunter believed Neave would eventually grow tired of taking it and change his ways. Finally, he would step on the path of hard work and discard his stubborn ways. Now, Hunter felt like puking every time he thought about it. Neave was no longer someone whose behavior Hunter had been correcting. Neave was just a child he mercilessly beat. A kid that would have never even had the opportunity to fight back. An opportunity that had been cruelly, mercilessly, viciously taken away from him by none other than Hunter¡¯s mother. What kind of path had he been walking down all this time? What direction was he heading? How long until he became a sadistic bastard whomitted cruel acts for cruelty''s sake? No, it was worse. It wasn¡¯t even for the sake of cruelty. What his mother did was for her own benefit, and it was so unbelievably petty, so unfathomably unnecessary, that even cruelty would have been a more moral goal. Hunter had been blind to all of this. He had been utterly oblivious to the gravity of his sins. He couldn¡¯t stop imagining himself grabbing the book cover from beneath the rubble. Hunter couldn¡¯t stop imagining himself delivering the cover to the Bentheta sect and sending a horde of greedy bastards on a hunt for an innocent child. Hunter¡¯s mind was flooded with images of himmitting unforgivable acts. Eventually, the images morphed into him doing the same things. A petty elder of a demonic sect, giving heinous orders to disciples who simply couldn¡¯t refuse. He heard explosions in his mind, one that¡­ ¡­Explosions? Something was strange. There was a constant sound of banging and crashing, ss shattering, and things falling. Why was it suddenly so cold? It was only after the noises grew silent that he opened his eyes. Where the hell am I? Panic rushed through his body, and he felt every cell re up in rm. He was inside some dark realm, surrounded by andscape that had suffered immense destruction. Don¡¯t tell me this is the sect? Had another rift opened? He could almost see faint shapes in the forms of rifts in the murky clouds above. Hunter¡¯s breathing sped up, and he whirled around for signs of the sect, civilization, or anyone he knew. There was nothing but darkness. A cold realm of death, shattered ss, and destroyedndscapes. He heard a voice. ¡°Do you remember, Hunter?¡± Hunter turned around, only to see Neave falling face-first to the ground, but before he touched it, he disappeared. Then he heard his voice again from behind. ¡°The day I fell in front of everyone?¡± Hunter screamed and turned to face Neave, taking wild steps back to escape. Neave simply stood there, unmoving. The moment Hunter turned his gaze, Neave appeared again in front of him. Hunter tried running away, but he found himself unable to move. ¡°In the few moments it took me to get back up, my life changed. The book everyone was chasing trapped my soul inside this very realm. For an unimaginably long time.¡± ¡°Wha¨CWhat are you saying!?¡± Hunter stammered, unsure of whether this was some sort of morbid hallucination. Neave released the pressure he was putting on Hunter. ¡°Follow me.¡± Hunter stared around, wondering whether he should run away. There was nowhere to run away to. Complete darkness spread as far as he could see. So he reluctantly got up and followed Neave. Neave lifted a finger and pointed to a spot behind them. ¡°See that spot over there? That was where I appeared.¡± Then he moved his finger to another spot, ¡°And right over there, a demon appeared.¡± Hunter wasn¡¯t following. This whole situation felt like, and in his opinion, probably was, just a strange fever dream¡ªone that sure as hell felt real, however¡ªfar too real to dismiss as a mere illusion. ¡°I ran, naturally. But then I died. Once I died, I appeared right back at the same spot, and the same demon chased after me.¡± Neave turned to face Hunter. Hunter winced. He was quite a bit taller than Neave, but the child looking up at him felt like a hell-sent executioner, an arbiter of Hunter¡¯s life and death. ¡°What do you think I did back then?¡± ¡°... Huh?¡± ¡°... I asked you a question.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m¡­ Neave, is this you? What the hell is happening?¡± ¡°That is irrelevant. Please answer the question.¡± ¡°Yeah, but I¡­ I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t remember what you said.¡± Neave gave him a t look then heughed. ¡°Fucking shit Hunter, way to kill the vibe.¡± ¡°... Huh?¡± Neave stared at Hunter with a deadpan look on his face. ¡°Huh? Huh? Huh? This is you right now; Huh? Huh? Are you stupid? Maybe you¡¯ve been sleeping too long. Need help waking up?¡± ¡°No, I just¡­¡± ¡°I get it, rx. I¡¯m just angry your stupidity ruined my dramatic scene. Just sit down or something.¡± Hunter sat down without thinking and stared at Neave anxiously. He still had no idea what was happening. Neave exined precisely what was happening in as simple terms as he could. He exined the demon book, what it did, how this realm appeared, and how Neave managed to drag him into it. Exining it wasn¡¯t easy since Hunter simply couldn¡¯t understand even rtively basic stuff. Neave was stumped at the fact that Hunter couldn¡¯tprehend the idea of a time loop. Time passed, and then it did the same thing again from the start. What was soplicated about that? Neave grabbed his head in frustration. It probably took over an hour until Hunter vaguely understood what was happening. Even then, Neave was sure he just nodded to pretend he wasn¡¯t dumber than a rock. Hunter was upset at what Neave had told him, even if he didn¡¯t fullyprehend it. What shocked Neave the most was that Hunter¡¯s thoughts seemed to be in an entirely different ce. ¡°Neave¡­ I¡­ What did my mother say? Before she died, that is.¡± Neave paused for a second. ¡°Nothing special. She tried arguing that what she did to me wasn¡¯t so bad, but even that was likely just to stall for time.¡± ¡°... I see.¡± Neave omitted the part where he deceived her into thinking he killed Hunter. That might as well remain a secret. Hunter had a peculiar look in his eye. It was the same half-frown Marven had on his face all the time nowadays. Neave rolled his eyes. ¡°Oh, just fuck off, Hunter. You¡¯re not going to be like Marven now, all depressing and shit? Look, my mother wasn¡¯t that much better either. Although she didn¡¯t go after the innocent, she did take things way too far against those she considered opponents. She¡¯s dead too, you know, so like¡­ It isn¡¯t necessarily the end of the world.¡± That didn¡¯t make Hunter feel any better at all. Mainly because his mother actually liked Brivia. A question was devouring Hunter from the inside, and he just had to ask. ¡°Why did you lie to me back then? Did you disguise yourself to¡­¡± He didn¡¯t know precisely what Neave wanted. He was sure Neave could have killed him countless times already, so what did he want then? ¡°I did it because I knew you¡¯d get all pissy and shit if you saw me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°Believe it or not, I don¡¯t harbor any resentment toward you. In my eyes, you are nothing more than a victim of sleazy bastards grooming you to be just like them. If you were an adult, it would be a different story. But you¡¯re still a kid. Plenty of time to change your mind and be a better person.¡± Neave felt delighted with what he said. That felt like something he, even before entering the loop, would say. It was a morally right opinion that even Dukean would likely agree with. ¡°I see¡­ It makes sense. But there is one thing I have to apologize for.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re going to be all ¡®ooh, sorry for bullying you,¡¯ then spare the effort, please. I already got my revenge for that.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not it. But after the sect had been destroyed, I rummaged through the debris and found the tome''s cover. Then I took that tome to a sect intending to have you persecuted.¡± TTTTT Neave wanted to¡­ TTTTT Hunter dese¡­ TTT It was tim¡­ TTTT TTTTTT TTTTTT TTTTTT Neave stared at Hunter, desperately holding back the influx of foreign thoughts. But some he felt were entirely his own. This was way worse than a bit of bullying. What Hunter did was likely the direct cause of the people that chased him down. The people that died at Neave¡¯s hands had likely been there because of Hunter. Neave broke out in a sweat and groaned. He grabbed his aching head as he fought the constant push to act. It was hard to even separate his own thoughts from the foreign influence. Because this time, even he wanted to kill him. There was only one reason Neave resisted the urge to tear Hunter apart, first here and then in the real world. It was pretty simple, really. If one agreed with the spooky mind maniption that coerced them into mindless ughter, one should probably reconsider their beliefs. Hunter noticed Neave¡¯s strange behavior and slowly got up to run, but out of nowhere, everything went ck. Hunter woke up sweaty and panting, looking around the room in fright. Neave was nowhere to be found. Chapter 66: Tenacity Chapter 66: Tenacity Neave stumbled through the hallways of the sect, clutching his head and forcing the influence away. With every step, he felt the influx of thoughts growing weaker. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t growing weaker. Maybe he was just getting better at keeping it away. As he turned a corner in one of the corridors, he stopped as he heard a voice. ¡°Neave?¡± He turned around and spotted Harel standing a bit down the hallway. Neave hadn¡¯t felt hering as he had been too focused on the influence. Miraculously, he felt the rush of interference disappear as his mind focused on Harel instead. Neave shook his head and rose to his full height. He was much shorter than Harel. ¡°Harel, hello, excellent seeing you here, you know, you have wonderful timing. Please keep talking about something. I could use a distraction right now.¡± Harel looked confused at Neave¡¯s words, but that was how anyone reacted to his strange ramblings. ¡°I¡¯m d I ran into you¡­¡± She didn''t even believe those words but thought it suitable to butter him up before asking, ¡°About those cores you gave me¡­¡± Harel raised the smallest core, and Neave stared at her tly. ¡°Oh, fuck sake Harel, don¡¯t tell me you didn¡¯t use them yet?¡± Harel winced a bit. ¡°I wanted to ask you about this. The cores you have provided to me are very powerful. I understand the ones rted to altering my body or boosting my physical characteristics. I don¡¯t understand this one.¡± ¡°Why doesn¡¯t that one make sense to you?¡± Harel paused a bit, steeled her nerves, and asked. ¡°What was your intention in giving me a metal detection power? Do you¡­ Need me to use this spirit power for something?¡± ¡°Huh? Are you fucking stupid?¡± Harel hesitated at Neave¡¯s words. Was his intent perhaps obvious? Neave continued and said something Harel didn¡¯t expect to hear. ¡°That isn¡¯t a metal detection spirit power. It is a metal senses spirit power. You misinterpreted it.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I mean¡­ I suppose you could see it as that but isn¡¯t that the same thing?¡± ¡°Not even close. What the fuck would you do with metal detection? Mining? Metal senses are a different thing altogether. It isn¡¯t about just telling that the metal is there. It is about perceiving its qualities on a deeper level.¡± ¡°But this power can¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t do that yet.¡± ¡°I would have to evolve it to make it do that, though! It isn¡¯t smart to rely on unpredictable evolutions!¡± ¡°That is kind of true, but also not. However, that¡¯spletely irrelevant, as you misunderstood me again. That power you have there doesn¡¯t need to be evolved to do this. It just needs to be trained. If you can evolve it, that would be splendid, but it already inherently possesses the qualities I¡¯ve mentioned.¡± ¡°... I didn¡¯t feel that at all.¡± ¡°Well, I did. And trust me, my spirit senses are much more reliable than yours.¡± ¡°What would be the point of having such a power?¡± Neave looked at her with utter confusion. It was clear from a mile away that he considered that a stupid question. ¡°Huh!? You use a sword, no? In fact, haven¡¯t you built your entire repertoire around swordsmanship!? Isn¡¯t it obvious that you would benefit from a better understanding of your weapon?¡± Harel didn¡¯t hesitate much at that one, to Neave¡¯s surprise. ¡°Well, no. Not really. Perhaps to a degree, yes, but it¡¯s a waste. I can understand the sword far better just by progressing on the path and working on my cultivation. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to use my spirit powers to do things I can¡¯t?¡± ¡°No. Just no. No, no, no, You¡¯re¡­¡± Neave groaned, ¡°What are you talking about? I gave you rounded cores. You do know what that means, right? I can just give you more monster cores to do all the other fucking things you want them to do, and it won¡¯t impact the difficulty of the spirit trial by much! If I gave you a bunch of iron rank powers, you could easily stack hundreds without breaking a sweat.¡± Harel swallowed. She looked Neave in the eye and asked. ¡°What do you want in return?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°These cores are beyond precious. You must want something in return.¡± ¡°Ah, I get it. When I first found you and Marven, you said you wanted to be a hero to the people, no? I want you to do that.¡± ¡°That¡­ But that doesn¡¯t¡­ You don¡¯t get anything out of that!¡± Neave simply shook his head. ¡°I get exactly what I want from that.¡± ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s none of your fucking business. That¡¯s what it is.¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s my business! You are giving me something that many would sell their very soul for. Am I wrong to be afraid you¡¯ll take something of equal value!?¡± ¡°The cores are valued that high only because nobody else can do what I can. To me, they¡¯re practically garbage.¡± Harel clenched her fists. ¡°Then what am I worth?¡± ¡°Nothing. Nothing essential in the grand scheme of things, no.¡± Harel gritted her teeth. ¡°What is this grand scheme of things? In our conversation when we first encountered you, you imed that you wished to kill the devils and suborn the gods. What is your real goal?¡± Neave¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Fuck off and shut the fuck up. You consider yourself a lot more important than you really are. I have no interest in humoring a child¡¯s bullshit. Take the cores if you want, or shove them up your ass. I don¡¯t care either way.¡± ¡°I asked you a question.¡° Neave paused. ¡°And I didn¡¯t answer it. What are you going to do about that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to ask you again. What do you want?¡± Neave turned away and started walking. Harel felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins. ¡°You owe me your life, Neave. I saved you back in the Zearthorn sect. Pay the debt back by answering my question.¡± Neave stopped. Harel stared at him expectantly, but Neave didn¡¯t move or say anything. Neave stood there, and Harel felt the air darken. It was as if she was sinking with a boulder chained to her foot, but she stood her ground. She didn¡¯t apologize. Harel waited for Neave to answer her question. And answer it, he did. ¡°I have nothing, Harel. I do not possess anything at all. This world had rejected my very existence time and time again, regardless of my actions.¡± ¡°You have a father. Is that not something? He loves you, Neave. He is doing his best to repay what he owes you.¡± ¡°But he is afraid of me.¡± Harel hesitated. ¡°That¡¯s beside the point.¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t. Marven is a coward with plenty of children. So why me? When Hunter arrived, Marven didn¡¯t even face him. Why didn¡¯t he repay his debt to Hunter then? Let me tell you why. Because Hunter is harmless.¡± Neave turned his head back to face Harel. Only his head, as the rest of his body remained facing the other direction. ¡°While I could kill Marven in an instant.¡± Every fiber of Harel¡¯s being wanted to back off, but she refused. ¡°He owes nobody as much as he owes you. You can¡¯t evenpare these things.¡± ¡°I also have the most to offer him. What would you bet that he cares more about that than he does about me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°I am not wrong, Harel.¡± ¡°Then why are you still here!?¡± Neave disappeared. Before Harel could see it, He was already under her and gripping her neck. Neave¡¯s hand elongated until Harel was hanging from the air, and eventually, he pinned her body against the ceiling. ¡°Let me tell you my n, then, Harel. Make sure you listen carefully. This world is rotten. The gods that are supposed to be the supreme existences of this realm have failed all of us. This realm is hell. It is a world of nothing but torment and suffering. It is our responsibility to punish those who have failed us. The devils will die. The gods will be enved to fix their mistakes, and then, they, too, will die. I will seek to eradicate the only thing people hate more than they hate me. I will erase death. I will reject the rejector and be the true savior of this inferno. The eighth wave will finally be over. And I will finally be imprisoned by the one thing I acknowledge. A world that epts who I am.¡± Harel grew red in the face, but she didn¡¯t look desperate, to Neave''s surprise. Neave continued, ¡°As for what role you will be ying in the¨C¡± Neave was interrupted as saliva smacked right into his forehead. Harel spat on him. He couldn¡¯t believe it. Rather than regret what she did, he saw her gurgling. She spat on his face again. Neave was bbergasted. It surprised him so much that he released his grip, and Harel dropped. Rather than fear, what he saw in her eyes was¡­ Annoyance? Harel sucked air between her teeth and massaged her neck as she got up. Neave felt the height difference between them as she crossed her arms and stared at him. ¡°Wow, you love sounding like a viin, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°All you really said there is that you want to make the world a better ce. You can do that without being a little shit!¡± Neave gaped. What the hell was happening? This didn¡¯t seem like Harel at all. She didn¡¯t stop, either. Harel took measured steps toward Neave and pointed a finger at his face. ¡°Stop that. Neave, you have serious problems that aren¡¯t what you think they are. I don¡¯t know whether ¡®enving the gods¡¯ will be possible, and I do not know whether you can do it alone, but I do know that you don¡¯t freakin¡¯ have to! You and Marven have the same bad habit of shoving your head so far up your ass that you lose sight of reality! You know what, Neave? You definitely have a father! And he is exactly like you! You also have a brother! And you can have friends. You don¡¯t need to be a world-ss drama king to admit you want to fit in somewhere!¡± Neave felt anger. A deep, guttural fury. ¡°What the hell do you know?¡± Neave took a step forward, ¡°You spent your fucking childhood being spoonfed attention and resources. You know how I spent mine!? Praying that every day I wake up doesn¡¯t end with someone ¡®identally¡¯ snapping my neck and killing me on the spot!¡± ¡°So why didn¡¯t you fight back!? You even had talent! You didn¡¯t have to suffer like that!¡± Neave responded to this one by kicking her in the stomach. She flew back and dropped to the floor, clutching her stomach as Neave walked toward her and spoke mockingly. ¡°You have talent, Harel! What happened, Harel!? Haven¡¯t you spent literally your entire life so far on getting stronger!? You don¡¯t have to take this!¡± Neave kicked her again, ¡°So why the fuck is it that you¡¯re taking this beating then? Could it possibly be that getting stronger doesn¡¯t equate to miraculously bing immune to those who want to abuse their power?¡± Another kick, ¡°Tell me, Harel, how strong must you be to stop me? How strong would you have to be to stop someone on the diamond path? Heavens forbid, someone above?¡± And another kick, ¡°Could it just maybe, possibly be, that living a life of violence makes it inevitable to suffer at the hands of another?¡± Neave kicked her yet again, and this time she flew off the ground and smacked into a wall, ¡°Could it possibly be that perpetuating the problem doesn¡¯t solve the problem?¡± Harel coughed. Yet again, Neave was surprised that she had no fear in her eyes. Harel smirked a bit. ¡°So why are you perpetuating the problem then?¡± ¡°Ooh, you got me there!¡± Neave exaggeratedly waved his hands, ¡°I guess I must have be the thing I wanted to destroy all along or something. You could totally be a novelist with such genius ideas in your lil¡¯ noggin.¡± Harel hissed as she held her side, gripping her hip, and got off the ground. ¡°Do you no longer care about principles, then?¡± ¡°Of course I do. Mine have just changed a bit. There is this thing I like to call ideological reality shifting. It is the act of taking the privilege of living your life as if things truly worked the way they do in your head. That was the mistake that I made. Flowery wishes and ideals, even if logically solid, aren¡¯t going to magically transform the illogical nature of reality. Things are the way they are. And, believe it or not, you¡¯re right about how things are! The secret to not suffering at the hands of those more powerful than yourself is super simple! Just be the most powerful being alive.¡± Harel took a deep, patchy breath. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Neave gave her a cheeky grin, waiting for the ¡®but¡¯ that wasing. ¡°But, to change the world, you must start with yourself.¡± Neave rolled his eyes so hard he fell over from the bacsh. ¡°You know what, Harel? I¡¯m sure you have a good point in there somewhere, but that definitely isn¡¯t it.¡± Harel was confused at his reaction. She thought what she said was perfectly valid. Neave threw her a small, green pill from his dimension ring and jumped back to his feet. He looked a little ufortable but forced himself to speak. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Harel. We have a job to do. Rather than debate you about it, I''ll just show you what I expect from you.¡± Neave walked away. Harel popped the pill in her mouth, rubbed her sore ribs, and followed him. They walked briefly, Harel choosing to catch up with him rather than stay behind. The silence stretched on. Eventually, Neave scratched the back of his head a bit. "Sorry for beating you up." Harel smiled. And punched him on the top of his head. It didn''t hurt even a little. In fact, Harel was the one who suffered damage from hitting him. Neave saw this and couldn''t help butugh. *** She clutched her head in agony. The influx of emotions, intents, beliefs, opinions, personalities, and memories tore her head apart. The indistinct figure stood above her and caressed her slowly. After a considerable amount of time, she finally got up but couldn¡¯t open her eyes. The presence of the shadowy figure was gone. She didn¡¯t need its guidance anymore. She knew exactly what she had to do. She knew exactly what they would want her to do. Their desire for vengeance burned deep in her soul. She had never thought about it until now, but she had no name. Names were not a thing for those who did little more than consume. They would have wanted her to have a name, though, to be more than just a nameless creature of metal and gem. Dimbra. That would be her name. She would don her name in honor of the woman she most resembled. Then, as she ascended to the heavens, the gods and devils would know whose vengeance it was. She finally opened her eyes. She was deep underground again, surrounded by many precious gems and metals. There was one she had never seen before. Immense amounts of power radiated from a specific substance lining the edges of the cave. She walked up to a wall and plucked one. A beautiful purple crystal shone between her fingers. One prettier than even her eyes. Chapter 67: Hero Chapter 67: Hero Neave and Harel found themselves before Gabrias and Marven. The first thing Neave did wasugh. It was noticeable from a mile away that Marven had been tutoring Gabrias on how to look like a sect master, and Gabrias was getting very good at it. So much so that Neave couldn¡¯t help butugh at the absurd show. Gabrias stood in the middle of their sect¡¯s main hall with his arms crossed behind his back. His rough face was stern and austere, while his height added to the imposing effect. He donned light blue robes. Neave assumed those were meant to be a design for their fledgling sect. He quite liked it. They looked serene and calm, like the blue expanse above. Something, something, heavens above, I¡¯m sure someone will see the symbolism eventually, Neave thought to himself jokingly. Gabrias didn¡¯t look surprised to see them. Or rather, he did look surprised, just not shocked. His expression was pleasant, although it still maintained the same firmness. ¡°Greetings, Harel¡­¡± Gabrias looked at Neave hesitantly, ¡°... Lord Neave.¡± Neave burst outughing again. ¡°What the hell is up with that!? Lord Neave!?¡± ¡°Mmh, I apologize. Was that to your dislike? What would you prefer I call you?¡± Neave stoppedughing. Something was odd about the way Gabrias was treating him. It felt respectful, subordinate even. Not unwillingly so, either, not by a long shot. Neave found this¡­ Ufortable? He didn¡¯t know how to feel about this new treatment. He also wouldn¡¯t dismiss it and reject it. It was only natural. One day he would have the gods themselves bowing to him, so he might as well get used to this sort of treatment early. Neave transformed into his young master form. His frame filled his loose robes, and he pulled some of his long hair out of the fine silky clothing. ¡°Young master shall suffice, Gabrias.¡± Neave dered haughtily, which made Harel roll her eyes. ¡°As you wish, young master.¡± Gabrias bowed. It was still awkward, but Neave liked it. He would prefer Gabrias act like this rather than scream and piss himself. He just wondered what inspired the change in Gabrias'' demeanor. Not only that, but he also wondered what inspired the change in Harel¡¯s behavior. The way they acted felt usual, unnatural even. This wasn¡¯t how they used to treat him until just a bit ago, so something must have drastically changed. Marven walked up to them as well and greeted them. He turned to Neave. ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you to arrive, son. We have prepared quite a few things for the newly forming sect. Now I want to consult you on how you wish we do our recruitment.¡± ¡°Okay, what the fuck is happening here?¡± Marven asked first. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Then Gabrias did. ¡°Is something to your displeasure, young master?¡± Neave groaned. ¡°That! Exactly that! What the fuck!? Why are you all acting so¡­ Weird? I thought Hunter was acting weird, but you all take it to a different level!¡± Marven perked up at the mention of Hunter. He looked hesitant for a moment. ¡°Is Hunter awake?¡± ¡°Yeah, he is, but that¡¯s beside the point. You all are acting suspiciously as balls. I turn around for a second, and suddenly you¡¯re all respectful and shit. Are you plotting something?¡± The only answer to that was a nce at one another and a pleasant smile. Harel spoke first. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± Neave thought he was going insane. Obvious? Marven chuckled a little awkwardly. ¡°Neave, I have no idea where you were for thest few days, but I¡¯m assuming you weren¡¯t in public, were you?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Harel looked delighted as she delivered the news with a smug smile. ¡°Neave, you do know you¡¯re something of a hero now, right?¡± *** Thest few days were among the most turbulent in the empire¡¯s history. The diamond path cultivators wanted to hide the death of Zhaore at first, but they couldn¡¯t keep it a secret for long. The people wanted answers. A rift had opened inside the capital, and the death toll was rather significant, but only one among them had appeared, and in the people¡¯s eyes, toote. The diamond rankers had elected to share the news of the myth golem and Zhaore¡¯s death. It would cause quite a bit of panic, but at this point, panic was the correct way to react. It was best for the news to be public because the Emperor wanted everyone to bring any, even the slightest, hint of information about the golem as quickly as possible. And the news of Zhaore¡¯s death was virtually impossible to keep secret anyway. His sect deserved to know of his death. That was only natural. The Deagon sect was among those least impacted by Zhaore¡¯s death, at least emotionally. It was pretty ironic but expected from them. To the members of the Deagon sect, death was an inevitable part of life, a de hanging above everyone¡¯s neck at all times. It was only expected that that included even their patriarch. This wasn¡¯t to say that they weren¡¯t grieving as well. Soon after the news of Zhaore¡¯s death, Xondir ascended to the diamond path. This was among the main reasons Deagon could afford to maintain their apathetic outlook on death. Xondir was one of three cultivators on the precipice of the diamond path among the four greatest sects. It was agreed upon that they should all possess an equal number of diamond path cultivators. While power was important in the fight against the monsters, a bnce was essential. One should never forget that although they were allies, the highest sects were rivals. The people were still angry about their absence and med the leadership for the enormous death toll. Over a hundred thousand people died in the incident. Nobody, however, had forgotten the ¡®demon child.¡¯ The rumors of how he ¡®heroically¡¯ fought and eventually sacrificed his life in the fight against the violet dragon spread like wildfire. While, at first, the people used the appearance of the demon child to mock and put extra me on the diamond path cultivators, it quickly transformed into something more. As far as everyone was concerned, the demon child was dead. This was convenient. Now, everybody could say whatever they wanted, and there would be no way to disprove it. The dead couldn¡¯t take sides after all. So, over the first few days, many people imed that the demon child was either a secret member of their sect or an ally. Quickly, the term ¡®demon child¡¯ became frowned upon. How dare you call him a demon! People started many fights over what was perceived as a derogatory name for their new savior. Rtively soon, the rumors of the demon child¡¯s real name had spread. Quite a few people imed they knew his name, so he went from being Lave, Peewe, Greaves, Ferdinard, and eventually, Neave. And his ¡®demon child¡¯ title had also received a minor change. *** ¡°What the fuck¡­?¡± Neave mouthed the words under his breath. He stood in a rtively popted street, together with many others. Many were crying and even cursing the heavens. He blinked again, finding it difficult to believe his eyes. He was looking at a statue. A statue of himself. It was a beautiful statue, no doubt, and holy shit, was it realistic. This statue was a life-like recreation of Neave. It was even painted. The only things that were off were his hair and face, which he had morphed to protect his identity. The statue portrayed him as a bit uglier and as having ck hair. The statue was Neave standing on top of the dead dragon, with countless snakes lying dead in piles beneath him. There was a que beneath the statue that said: The unforgotten savior, yer of serpents, and martyr of the Neave¡¯s Demise mystical realm. Neave Zearthorn, the Lost Child. ¡­ Are you fucking kidding meeeee!? Neave stared at the masses of people, mouth hanging wide open. These people wept like morons, saying stupid shit like ¡®the heavens must have been jealous.¡¯ Neave was genuinely questioning whether he had lost his mind. He thought they were pulling his leg when they told him what happened when he was absent. Neave briefly considered destroying the statue but decided against it. Whatever. This was neither good nor bad for him in any way. It might even be good. If he ever revealed his identity or made a return, people could potentially side with him. For now, this was just a confusing but amusing development. Neave was still unsure why this would have impacted how the others treated him. At least these people had the excuse of never actually meeting him personally. Neave returned to the sect, and after another brief conversation, he felt the unusual treatment again. He discussed what he felt would be best for starting the sect. Everyone listened to him, nodding and adding what they felt would be best. They settled for arranging a trial. Any prospective disciples that wanted to join the sect would have to duel against Neave first, and then he would decide whether they were fit to enter the sect. Neave had no ns on epting anyone even remotely qualified. Instead, this preliminary trial was dedicated to eliminating those that seemed decent. Yet again, to Neave¡¯s bewilderment, the others thought this would be a splendid idea. Well, it didn¡¯t matter anyway. Neave once again retreated to his underground chamber. As he collected himself, he felt a strange sense of¡­ Hesitation. It suddenly felt pointless. Why was he doing this whole sect business in the first ce? Sure, it would be decent for experimentation, but that was about it. There was little less he would get from creating this sect, at least in the short run. Neave suddenly had a chilling thought. Could it be¡­? Was it possible he decided to create this sect due to the foreign influence? His heartbeat sped up. But why? Neave was struggling to identify precisely what this foreign influence wanted. He needed to know. So he would find out. Neave plopped down to the ground and knocked himself unconscious. *** She¡­ No¡­ Dimbra had dug further underground from where she had initially appeared. Now she stood in arge, predominantly empty cavern. Empty, except for the lines of humanoid stone statues. She approached the first and ced her hand on it. A pulse shot out from her core into the inert stone. A small core formed inside the statue, and the golem began moving. It wasn¡¯t particrly powerful. Rather, being powerful wasn¡¯t its purpose. The statue walked up to a tform of purple crystal. The tform vibrated, and it disappeared. Underground, beneath the yixine empire, the golem appeared in one of the many deep caveplexes. It walked around for a bit, mindlessly following anything that moved. Eventually, a grotesque ape-like creature jumped at it and crushed it to bits. The monster grabbed the small core. It had ethereal specks, although rather faint, just like any other monster core, but it also had a tiny hint of ck¡ªone that the monster didn¡¯t notice. As it consumed the core, it walked away, seeking prey. Then it paused. The monster grabbed its head and whimpered. Once it got up, it knew. There was vengeance to be had. Chapter 68: Illusion Chapter 68: Illusion Neave found himself back in the nightmare realm. He didn¡¯t know how much time passed in this realm when he was awake. Did it pass at all? Surely it did. Whenever he left and came back, it was clear that a certain amount of time had passed. He could conclude this because there were many more/fewer of those corrupt demons. When he took Hunter inside, he encountered some, although surprisingly few. He defeated them in the time it took Hunter to wake up. This time, there were none. There was nothing. Nothing but pure silence and bone-chilling cold. Initially, Neave approached this realm with the same assumption he carried over from the hell loop. Death inside had no consequences on the outside. Now, he was no longer so sure. Something was manipting his mind, and that something wanted him to visit the underground chamber. Neave didn¡¯t want to go down there. He needed to know, however. It was somewhat lucky that this nightmare realm made it so he didn¡¯t dream anymore. Because if he dreamt, he would dream of the underground chamber. What were the things in there? Were they just the statues? What did they do to him? Ever since he realized something was off with his thoughts, his mind had been spiraling down an undesirable path, one that he squashed with all his might and forcefully kept from resurfacing. There was no good answer to any of the questions he wanted to ask, and he had many questions. Neave didn¡¯t run there. Instead, he walked slowly and carefully, watching his surroundings. Crack. Neave turned around. His heart was beating out of his chest. Was that a noise? It was probably just another demon. Right? Neave looked in the direction of the sound but found nothing. He kept looking around him as he walked. Every once in a while, he felt like he saw a shadow move or heard another sound, but it was probably his imagination. He didn¡¯t sense anything, and his perception was incredibly powerful. Nothing should be able to sneak close to him at all. Nothing¡­ Should¡­ be able to. What if it could? Neave stopped. He focused on the thick obsidian brush, peering into and through it, trying to find any signs of creatures moving in the darkness. There was nothing there. He thought he asionally saw something move in his peripheral vision but could clearly see nothing. What if his perception just wasn¡¯t enough? Neave wanted to sink into his perception spirit power and evolve it. It came from a bird-type monster. It couldn¡¯t fly, not really, since the core originated from a semi-abominid. The creature had three wings and misshapen talons, so it couldn¡¯t fly. However, there was always the possibility of it evolving into something that could reach him. The power was currently at roughly tinum rank. This was fine since the bird died in the acid eventually, but if Neave evolved it further, it would likely be a diamond-rank threat. Flying ability or not, such a threat could easily make it to the top of the mountain and obliterate him. Neave couldn¡¯t fight a diamond-rank threat even with all his spirit powers, let alone in a spirit trial where he had none. That wasn¡¯t the real reason he was hesitating to evolve his powers. Rather, he felt severely ufortable dropping his guard for even a second. Usually, if he died, it would be no big deal. But now? He no longer felt that death here was inconsequential. He started doubting the validity of his perception power. He found nothing, no matter where he looked, yet he could swear he saw things moving. Why did hee in here? He was so stupid. How could he have been so foolish to even drag Hunter inside? What if Hunter also got his mind manipted? Actually, who gave a shit about that, right? ¡­ But what if¡­? Nothing felt certain anymore. Not his thoughts, not his decisions, not his history. Did he truly experience what he remembers experiencing in the hell loop? So much happened in the hell loop he was confident he didn¡¯t remember all of it. He couldn¡¯t. What if other things had happened back then? What if the hell loop wasn¡¯t even real in the first ce? What if he originally appeared here, inside this nightmare realm, and had his mind manipted to think he had experienced an eternity of torture? No, that would be absurd¡­ The memories of the loop were in his soul, his core spirit. That wasn¡¯t something that anything could manipte directly. But did it have to be manipted directly? What if someone manipted his mind first, and then some power beyond his understanding settled the memories in his soul? Crack. Neave turned around again. He heard a faint crack, a very indistinct sound. It was so quiet it could have just been the obsidian bush crackling randomly. Or could it? Do these bushes do that on their own? Neave stared at where the crack came from. Shadows wiggled at the edges of his vision, but he refused to look away. He kept his gaze straight toward where he heard the sounding from. He didn¡¯t blink. His eyes would have dried out if he didn¡¯t have his vast collection of spirit powers. For hours he merely stood there and stared at that one spot. Crack. He heard another sound again, but he didn¡¯t turn around. He didn¡¯t let himself be distracted. Then he heard yet another sound. Footsteps? No, footsteps all around him. These were an illusion. He knew there was nothing there. The shadows wiggled deceitfully, stealing his attention from the one spying on him. They were precisely where Neave was looking. He was sure they were just too scared to move. Too frightened of the consequences of revealing themselves to him. That must be it. Crack. Those were just distractions. There was nothing there. Something cut into Neave¡¯s back. He turned and came face to face with another demon. Neave screamed and off-loaded every single attack he could. The destruction spread through thendscape as he vaporized the demon''s body. He stood in a crater, one of his making, breathing heavily, fire and smoke leaving his mouth. His heart beat wildly, and his hands shook. Was that it? Was that the thing looking at me? No. That couldn¡¯t have been it. That was just a regr demon. How did it sneak up on him like that? If an ordinary demon could just walk up to him, couldn¡¯t the thing stalking him run circles around him if it wanted? If he was truly as blind as this, couldn¡¯t anyone easily avoid his detection? No, that wasn¡¯t the case. Was it? The shadows were squirming again. Rather than ignore it like a fool, Neave attacked them repeatedly, crashing the bushes and obliterating the stone beneath. He blew his fire breath in all directions, seeking to reveal the slithering stalker hiding in the shadows. There was nothing. Not even a stray demon was hiding in the shadows. Could Neave be both too blind and too weak to reveal them? He found himself standing again. He stared at the darkness around him, this time hearing constant crackling and snapping. Which of these were from his attacks, and which were from the stalker? He couldn¡¯t tell. As time went on, Neave felt fatigue setting in. He was tired from constantly keeping his attention heightened. How much time must have passed if he felt exhausted from just looking? Neave pped himself. He was being ridiculous. There was no stalker here. It was all in his mind. Was that his own thought? Yes, it was, right? Right? Right? Right? ¡°Hahaha¡­ Hahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA!¡± Neaveughed as he pped himself repeatedly. It was so funny. Reality wasn¡¯t even objective anymore. Nothing was real. He had lived a life of lies and deceit, unable to tell his thoughts and experiences apart from what was shoved into his head by something else. Was he even real? What if the hell loop never even happened in the first ce? Could he just be sitting in the library, reading books? No, then everything would make sense. This was ridiculous. Nightmare realms when he fell asleep? Unlimited spirit powers? Dered a hero of the capital? It all felt so fake and imaginary that he couldn¡¯t believe he ever fell for it. Neave wanted to wake up. He wanted to rid himself of these illusions and fabrications, the fake reality that was created for him, constructed entirely in his mind. He knew what he had to do. Yes, it made sense. It finally all made sense. The underground chamber. The thing manipting him didn¡¯t want him to go down there. It manipted him into doing the opposite of what he wanted, no, of what he needed to do. Because it was a liar. So if it wanted him to go down there, it clearly didn¡¯t want him to. Neave wouldn¡¯t fall for such a crappy trick. He would no longer be deceived. He ran through the obsidian forests and over the ruinedndscape. He knew exactly where the entrance to the underground chamber was. It wasn¡¯t far from here. He could reach it in minutes. He could already smell it. It was bing more real. The reality around him settled, and he knew he was freeing himself from this curse. It wouldn¡¯t be long until he lifted the veil of lies and deceit. He could see the entrance to the cave. Things were moving inside there again. But he wouldn¡¯t be tricked. This was clearly just another hallucination. A in-looking man took measured steps and walked out of the cave. Neave grinned ear to ear. Laughable. Who would fall for such a trick? What¡¯s next, a literal clown would walk out as well? Who would¡­? Who¡­ Neave stopped. The man looked in, normal by all means and measures. He had ck hair, cut short and neat. His face wasn¡¯t attractive, per se, but it wasn¡¯t unattractive either. He wore a simple linen tunic and leather pants. He looked like nothing but another peasant or civilian. The man walked out of the cave, waving to Neave amicably with a pleasant smile. ¡°Hey, kid! Don¡¯t look so scared. I won¡¯t hurt you!¡± Although ordinary, by all means, one characteristic wasn¡¯t normal at all. It didn¡¯t feel like an illusion. Neave knew it wasn¡¯t just because it was convincing. No. In the deepest depths of his soul, Neave knew what this man was. He felt something simr when he first encountered the tome that sent him to the hell loop. This overwhelmingly reminded him of that feeling, but there was one core difference. This was the human equivalent of that impression. Because the man standing in front of him¡­ Was a god. Chapter 69: Eyes Wide Open Chapter 69: Eyes Wide Open Neave had no doubt. This man wasn¡¯t an illusion, even if his appearance was deceitful. Neave felt his mental state revert to normal as everything anchored to this stranger''s existence. His incredulity overflowed and returned to normality, as the absurdity of the appearance of a god was so immense he knew not even insanity could make this shit up¡ªwhich left him incredibly confused. Why was this man here? How was he here? Neave thoughts were interrupted as the man spoke up again. ¡°Now, you may not believe this kid, but I¡¯m a¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re a god.¡± He stared nkly at Neave with an appraising look in his eye. Then he continued. ¡°That¡¯s exactly right!¡± He pped. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just stuck here, the same as you are.¡± Neave¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t believe me? Don¡¯t you have eyes? I¡¯m standing in front of you inside this creepy ce. What other proof do you need?¡± ¡°You¡¯re neither here nor are you stuck.¡± The man scratched the back of his head awkwardly. ¡°Ouch, I guess this will be trickier than I thought.¡± ¡°Answer my question. Why are you here?¡± ¡°Let me answer with a counter-question. Why are you here?¡± Neave simply stared at the man in silence. The man sighed and continued. ¡°You¡¯vee here to go underground to that ce, right?¡± Neave perked up but stayed quiet, letting the man speak. ¡°Well, I¡¯m here to let you know that you won¡¯t be doing that.¡± Neave snorted. He got into a stance and used a movement technique to slip past the man, deep into the cave, and¡­ He woke up. Neave found himself back in reality, bbergasted as to what had happened. Did he die? There was no way the man could kill him that quickly, right? No, he was a god. Perhaps he somehow forced Neave out? Neave knocked himself out again. He appeared in the nightmare realm again and immediately ran back. The man sat in a chair outside the cave entrance, shuffling strange cards andpletely ignoring Neave. Neave once again went past him. Only to wake up again. Change of ns. Neave knocked himself out again and went underground,pletely circumventing the traditional cave entrance. He reached a wall he estimated would lead to a cave connecting to the underground chamber. He took one step forward, then another, jumped, and¡­ Woke up again. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± Neave once again knocked himself out and went to the cave entrance. The man was still shuffling the strange cards. ¡°How are you doing that?¡± The man simply ignored him and kept shuffling the cards. He ced some in the middle of the air, and they remained floating there. Without turning to face Neave, he spoke. ¡°You want me to teach you how to y this game?¡± ¡°I want you to answer my question.¡± ¡°You see, every card has a shape that dictates the selection pattern, so then you¡­¡± Neave once again ignored him and went through. Once he woke up again, he reentered the realm. The man simply smiled and continued when Neave arrived. ¡°The cards also have a number, which dictates how many times the selection needs to be made, and depending on the selected cards, you have to multiply¡­¡± Neave once again rushed past the man. He woke up again and went right back to the cave entrance. ¡°So, depending on how you arrange the starting cards, which should be randomized, by the way, you can select your starting point. Then you have to calcte the number of times you have to multiply¡­¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you want me to go in there?¡± The man paused. Then he continued his exnation of the card game. This time, Neave triggered ignite, thunder nerves and imbued his entire body with life force. Before he even began moving, he woke up again. Once more, he found himself standing in front of the man. ¡°...So, to summarize, card shape dictates the selection pattern, the number of cards dictates the number of selections, and the shape of the selected cards dictates which subsequent cards will be excluded from the selection process. So you must start with a card and calcte the number of turns needed to select every card only once. The exclusion of cards decreases the number of selections. So, what do you say!? How about trying it out?¡± ¡°Stop fucking with me, you asshole.¡± ¡°No, they may seemplicated, but these are honestly the game''s rules.¡± ¡°Why won¡¯t you let me through?¡± The man collected the cards of the air and threw the pack toward Neave. Neavepletely ignored the package as it hit his head and bounced off onto the ground. ¡°Give it a go, will you?¡± Neave grabbed the cards, activated every boost he could, and threw them away. ¡°That¡¯s rude, you know.¡± ¡°I will keeping here, over and over again, and I won¡¯t stop until you either let me through or exin yourself.¡± ¡°And why would you want to go down there? I know exactly what¡¯s waiting for you, and believe me, you won¡¯t like what you see.¡± ¡°But I have to go.¡± ¡°Oh really? Why?¡± ¡°Something is manipting my mind, and it''s hiding down there.¡± ¡°Your mind isn¡¯t being manipted. Well, it¡¯s not¡­ Not actually. It¡¯s not maniption. Ah, whatever, it¡¯s tooplicated to exin. Either way, it is irrelevant when you¡¯re aware of it now. Just iste the influence and build a barrier against it. I¡¯ll even teach you how to do it.¡± Neave hesitated. There was something he disliked about this man. The fact that he was a god. No part of Neave would allow him to agree to what this man wanted him to do. He would push through and reach that damn chamber one way or another. The god saw the look in Neave¡¯s eye and sighed. ¡°Look, kid, I¡¯ll cut you a deal. You agree never to enter this ce, and I will teach you a hundred qi techniques. Believe me when I say every single one of these could change your life. I¡¯m aware of your peculiar situation. You¡¯re abusing abination of spirit powers and likely some precious natural treasure to boost your power beyond what should be possible for your advancement at the price of being stuck in the foundation realm. Not a good ce to be, and you will eventually reach a hard limit in power. I¡¯d wager you have the potential to transcend this realm, but this will never happen if you don¡¯t ditch this path you¡¯re walking down and embrace cultivation. I will teach you a qi technique that fully purges your spirit of foreign corruption. And once you learn the hundred qi techniques I teach you, you will be able to be a powerhouse like no other. What do you say?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Are you sure? I¡¯m not joking around, you know. I will even forge a soul oath with you. Soul oaths are serious business, kid. Spirit oaths have consequences once broken. Soul oaths can¡¯t be broken. Not even by a god.¡± ¡°I said no.¡± ¡°You¡¯re one stubborn kid, you know that?¡± The man scratched behind his ear and contemted. ¡°How about this instead? You promise you won¡¯t ever enter this realm again, and with a soul oath, you will be entirely free from having to, and I will tell you something fun about your mother.¡± Neave¡¯s eyes shot open. ¡°She¡¯s alive¡­¡± ¡°What? I never said that. I just said I¡¯d say something fun.¡± ¡°No, if you said it like that, then she is alive.¡± Neave grabbed his head, pacing around a bit, but then he stopped and shrugged, ¡°Huh¡­ I don¡¯t care, though.¡± The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled. ¡°Wow, you¡¯re a tough nut to crack, aren¡¯t you? How about this instead, make the fucking oath, or I will execute everyone you know and love.¡± Neave grinned. ¡°Now that¡¯s more like it. I thought something felt off. Makes sense. No way a god like you could be up to anything benevolent.¡± The man clicked his tongue. ¡°Suit yourself. I will simply kill you every time youe in here. There is no way you could get past me, not in a billion years.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure¡­¡± Neave grinned maniacally as he put his hands together. White light shone¡­ And then vanished instantly. Neave felt as if a million mountains weighed on his spirit. He couldn¡¯t breathe or move. Everything felt utterly cut off from reality. There was only one thing he could perceive. The god stood above him with a hand gripping his head, a bewildered expression on his face. ¡°What the fuck did you just do, kid? Show me again!¡± Neave grinned. ¡°No.¡± It felt like every cell in Neave¡¯s body was being destroyed hundreds of times every second, the agony worse than anything he had ever experienced. ¡°Show me what you just did, or you will regret it.¡± Neave simply smiled again, staring straight at the god¡¯s eyes. ¡°Do you worst.¡± Neave could hear a faint whistle. The sound grew increasingly resonant until reality snapped away. *** She was tied to a chair. Her toes had been cut off so long ago that they had already scabbed over. The man she had once called her husband boiled water and poured it into her eyes. ¡°That¡¯s what you get, you fucking wench!¡± The weight of the false usation made every drop burn hotter than the hottest corner of hell. She wept boiling tears as her children stared in horror, witnessing their mother¡¯s life leaving her eyes. *** He was tied to a tree. His once glorious crown had been reced with feces, smeared all over his body. His enemy had tied him to a tree nted over his father¡¯s grave. His father¡¯s corpse had been dug out and yed with, bing a mockery of the once Grand King. The empire of the Grand King was being razed before his eyes as his very eyelids had been cut off to ensure he couldn¡¯t look away. As the king witnessed the masses of his people being mindlessly ughtered, the agony of failure and the weight of his despair crushed his heart, and he passed, never to regain peace in a million lives. *** He was hanged, but his neck didn¡¯t snap, and he wasn¡¯t even suffocating. He kept trying to free himself, despair flowing through his veins instead of his once red blood as he watched his entire family be vited before his eyes. In the days of watching them suffering endless agony, he was the one to pass first, the thirst finally taking his pain away. Leaving behind the uncertainty of how long his loved ones would suffer¡­ *** Millions and millions of agonizing deaths, unfairness so extreme, the anger alone, enough to end many lives. He watched as they spun in front of him, slowly, agonizingly crawling by. And so did he. And so did she. *** It finally ended. Neave woke again, staring at the god gripping his face. ¡°Either tell me exactly what you did there, or you will face round two. There is plenty more where that came from.¡± ¡°Of course there is.¡± Neave grinned ear to ear, ¡°It¡¯s only natural there would be more.¡± The god¡¯s eyes shot open. ¡°What did you do? Did you find a loophole somewhere?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything. Thank you, honestly. Thank you for showing me your failures, Astrador. I would dly see them again so I never forget why you must die. So I will never forget that your rule is nothing but a selfish dictatorship. Show me again, and then again once more. I will watch it, eyes wide open. And you will be forced to sit and wait until I crawl up your throne and devour you alive.¡± The man stared at Neave with aplicated expression for a few moments. Then Neave woke up, back in reality. He got up, stretched, and sighed in satisfaction. ¡°Well, then. It is time for a gamen.¡° Chapter 70: Options Chapter 70: Options Neave found himself back in the sect, dragging a squirming Hunter over to the others. He lifted him to his feet, pointed at him, and told Marven. ¡°Change of ns, pops! He will take over the job of recruiting disciples!¡± ¡°Huh!?¡± Everyone yelled at once. ¡°... What?¡± Marven looked distraught. ¡°Where did thise from?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m going to be extremely busy for a while, so he must do. Either way, that¡¯s about it, so, bye-bye! I¡¯m going to be back after a while.¡± ¡°Neave, wait!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Neave gave Marven an impatient stare, ¡°What do you want, old man? I¡¯m in a rush.¡± ¡°Neave, you can¡¯t just leave us alone. Ilkivir is still alive. What if he tracks the sect down again? There is no way we can just beat him.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± Neave fired a tendril of liquid spirit at Marven. Marven immediately froze and waited the process out. It was highly ufortable. Once finished, Marven dropped to his knees, grasping his heart and panting for breath. Neave pulled arge bag of rounded cores from his dimension ring and threw them at Marven. ¡°Some of those should be good. I¡¯m sure you can be at least strong enough to stop him from ughtering you all. Now, do whatever you want and stay alive, ok? Bye!¡± Neave left the sect disguised as the young master and hit the road. Now, it was wild assumption time! First, Neave was pretty confident that the god, or¡­ Astrador? Wait, how did he know his name? Neave was somewhat positive that the god never introduced himself to Neave. Huh. He must have heard the name in one of the many lives, or rather, deaths he had experienced. Names aside, it was time to theorize! Neave was convinced that the god couldn¡¯t leave the area around the chamber for some reason. There was a field of sorts surrounding the area. Neave could sense it, although it was faint. This meant that Neave was effectively free to do whatever the hell he wanted outside of that area for as long as he wanted. Neave ran through the capital''s streets, masterfully dodging anyone passing and approaching the border. His undergroundboratory was terrific for experimentation, but Neave needed ess to something he could only find in the wilderness. Neave ran past the capital''s border and shot out into the wild. Naturally, Neave had to eventually find a way past Astrador, but he first needed opponents. He seemed to have run out of corrupt demons. At least close to where he appeared. Perhaps there were more somewhere far away from where he started, but that didn¡¯t change the core of the issue. There was a finite amount. The nightmare realm was an excellent ce to test things with permanent consequences, such as death, but it was stillcking in the other equally important advantage Neave had in the hell loop. There just wasn¡¯t anything that could push him to grow. Neave felt that Astrador didn¡¯t know that he could create spirit. He based this assumption on the fact that the god inflicted the worst torture imaginable on Neave because he wanted to know what he did with the self-destructbination. Even with this aside, the god was entirely right. Neave¡¯s power was limited. Neave already had a ton of spirit powers; among those he had, very few had ovep. Luckily, none of them had any form of strong mutual interference. This was expected since he directed most of his powers toward enhancing what he already was. Every power, except fire breath, actually no, even that, had a solid connection to a concept that already existed naturally in his body. Integrate was tied to digestion, troll physique to his physique, fire breath and ignite were connected to breathing, which involved a certain amount ofbustion, and so on¡­ Even shape-shifting, although that was a massive stretch. Heh. Literally. People could change their bodies, although after a long time and within a limited range, but it was possible! Spirit powers tied to something already existing within one¡¯s body were extremely unlikely to interfere with one another. Spirit powers that allowed one to do somethingpletely supernatural were an entirely different story. These powers could still be mixed and matched. Of course, it was possible to have several, but there was always an underlying risk of interference. There was a reason why Neave hadn¡¯t added any supernatural powers to his set yet. He was overwhelmed by choice paralysis. Of course, he could always add more powers that tied into different body parts or bodily functions, but he was running out of body parts. Evolving the powers he already had was a no-go too. Every creature in his spirit trial was already a tinum rank. The gigantic abominids were technically a diamond-rank threat, but they were so vulnerable to the acid that they became a joke. It was possible to evolve those powers further, but Neave would never do that. If he kept going, he would push the size of the foreign spirit far above his own. This meant he would be a minor spirit within his body and relinquish control to an abominid. Given that this was impossible because the abominid had no soul of its own, Neave would just simply die. Sadly, all the ability-boosting powers were tied to creatures too risky to evolve further. Neave wanted to find some from an abominid, but the make-up of their spirit was too chaotic to construct something like that. There was a reason why Neave needed the nightmare realm to challenge him. It was because he needed to be pushed to new heights by force. Sure, he could fight Astrador, but Astrador was a god. He was just too powerful. Neave couldn¡¯t even survive long enough to realize what had happened. Luckily, that form was only a piece, a shard of the god''s power. It wasn¡¯t the whole god himself. Yet, even a fragment of a fragment was too much for Neave to handle. So he would have to catch up first. Neave contemted his current options. The first option was to gobble a ton of precious treasures to boost him further. Possible, not a bad choice, but the effect was limited and diminished with further use. He had already consumed quite a variety of treasures from Maecy¡¯s ring, and the rest had been lost. Sigh. That would naturally have to wait until he found a way to secure a lot of treasures. He still had quite a few in his ring and would use alchemy to construct some incredible stuff. But it was one thing at a time now. Next up, there was eating monster meat. Or just monster parts. Integrate was incredible, and Neave suspected it was responsible for much of his overall power. However, he had consumed so much stuff already that the effect was painfully minuscule. Perhaps a few diamond-rank monsters would do him good, but he would have to be able to kill them first. Next up, physical training. ¡­ ¡°Hmm.¡± He thought of it for a while. ¡°No.¡± It wasn¡¯t that it wouldn¡¯t work, but rather that the effect would be minuscule. Not to even mention that it would take forever to build up an impactful amount of strength. What he did feel would be a good idea, however, was martial arts practice. Mainly due to his thunder nerves, it had a potent ability to help him memorize specific movements. This would be a fantastic way for Neave to solidify his skills and get used to using his full strength. The main problem was that he didn¡¯t have a good way to do it. The power would only have a permanent effect if he trained outside the nightmare realm. He would also have to have an appropriate opponent. Ever since he had gained this spirit power, the only opponent he fought against that wasn¡¯t wildly inferior or superior to him was Ilkivir. Perhaps he could fight Marven? ¡­ Actually, wait, that was a brilliant idea! However, he would have to give Marven a while to get his spirit powers and get ustomed to them. So, what else? Neave gasped. cksmithing. He needed a weapon. But¡­ He couldn¡¯t take one into the nightmare realm. Could he make one there? Yes, actually, he definitely could, but he couldn¡¯t get a monster core. He could only use empty spirit. That was a massive downgrade. Neave paused. Wait a minute¡­ Neave could take others with him to the nightmare realm. He had confirmed this with Hunter. Out of a corner of his eye, he spotted a slime, ponderously preparing for a jump. Neave grinned ear to ear. ¡°Now¡­ Wouldn¡¯t that make for a fun little experiment?¡± Chapter 71: Ecosystem Chapter 71: Ecosystem Neave held the slime in his hands¡ªinside the nightmare realm. He cackled andughed and got his little giggles out of the way. It was so funny to Neave. There was one thing he had to check first. Neave put the slime on the ground, and then he buried it. Slimes tended to get buried rather frequently and were utterly powerless to escape. Eventually, they could turn into earth slimes, but that wouldn¡¯t be an issue for this one. Neave didn¡¯t know exactly how much time passed when he wasn¡¯t in the realm, but he figured it didn¡¯t matter for the sake of this experiment. Neave left the nightmare realm. The slime was still in his grasp when he woke up. Then he reentered the realm. There was a visible indentation where he had buried the monster, but it didn¡¯t dig out of its hole. Neave clicked his tongue. Of course it wouldn¡¯t be that easy. Any creature he took here would leave the moment he did. This meant that he couldn¡¯t just fill the realm with infinite slimes. Actually, this should have been obvious to Neave from the beginning. If that was how it worked, what would have stopped him from loading the realm with infinite Hunters? He wasn¡¯t out of options yet. Neave again entered the realm with the slime, and this time he fed the slime a lot of his blood. As expected, the slime evolved into a blood slime. This wasn¡¯t what Neave was aiming for, not quite. He chopped an entire arm off and fed it to the slime. Then, when it regrew, he fed it another arm. Slowly, the slime grewrger andrger until, finally, tiny slimes started breaking apart from the big one. Neave smiled broadly, took a small slime that detached from the big one, and buried it underground. He killed the rest of them so there wouldn¡¯t be any mishaps. He returned, finding the slime yet again snuggly trapped in his hug. Neave knocked himself out and went to where he had buried the slime. It was still buried right where he had left it. Neave cackled like a maniac, mad with the power he had just discovered. He could already see it. The entirendscape transformed into a sprawling ecosystem of challenging opponents he could face in mortalbat. And hopefully, some monsters that could at least harass Astrador a bit. Suddenly, an utterly insane thought went through Neave¡¯s mind. Any creature that entered this realm was forced to leave, but if they multiplied somehow, their offspring would stay inside the realm. Did this mean that¡­? If he brought a man and a woman¡­? Shivers ran down Neave¡¯s spine. That wasn¡¯t a pleasant path of thought to go down, so he swiftly suppressed that idea as deep as he could, and hopefully, it would never resurface again. Now¡­ What now? Neave contemted how he should approach this most efficiently. He could technically generate infinite organic matter by chopping his limbs off and growing them back. Was there a limit to this? No, obviously, there was, but what did it hinge on? Neave went deep into his spirit and analyzed his spirit powers to the best of his ability. After a short round of scrutiny, he realized a peculiar interaction between his powers. Integrate could digest immense quantities of organic material into the body. His sacred blood purged everything harmful. His evolved stamina ability allowed him to drastically raise his maximum capacity for stored substance. Then finally, his regeneration ability utilized these extra nutrients and calories to construct new limbs if old ones were destroyed. At this moment, Neave realized how bad the regeneration ability really was. If he didn¡¯t have the extra reserves for organic substance in his body, it would take whatever it needed from the rest of his body to forcefully regrow missing limbs. There was no way to consciously stop it, so if he lost a limb and had no backup in reserves, this spirit power would drain him enough to hinder hisbat ability. Thinking further, this may have happened when he faced that purple dragon. This was why haphazardly evolving spirit powers or using them without caution was so dangerous. Neave had the tremendous privilege of a cornucopia of convenient spirit powers that could nullify one another¡¯s side effects. This was in significant part by his own design. Which was what he would like to believe. In reality, had he not gotten lucky with his initial crazy n of an organ upgrade, he could have easily ended up dead. Now that Neave thought about it, he wasn¡¯t all that lucky with his powers in the first ce. While they did allow for some crazy stunts, had Marven not found him back then, he likely would have died from the side effects anyway. Neave put those thoughts away and refocused on the present. What was the game n? How should he approach this scenario? Neave contemted it. He needed a few things. First, he needed a source of energy. Heat would be preferable. Monsters were indeed immortal, but they fed on living things. If there were ack of organic matter, popting the nightmare realm would be a tremendous pain in the ass. He would have to manually supply the organic material, qi, and life force needed for the monsters to evolve. He couldn¡¯t be bothered to do that. So step one was simple. It was time for some terraforming. Neave giggled, mad with power, as he jumped into the nearest rift. As he fell, he dodged the spikes with a cheery smile. Eventually, he reached the bottom of the pit. Neave put his arms together and focused. Qi and life force gathered andbined in his palms. White light enveloped Neave, and he returned to the real world. He promptly went right back inside and ran over to the rift. He first noticed that it was considerably wider now and that all the spikes were gone, partially or fully destroyed. ¡­Wow. That was a lot more destruction than he was expecting. Perhaps Astrador stopped him since this was dangerous even for him? Neave doubted that, but he kept it as a possibility in the back of his mind. He took a peek down the rift and jumped in again. Once he reached the bottom, he discovered it was deeper this time. Neave noticed that the massive space at the bottom had broken into a cavern off in the corner. Rather than blow himself up again right on the spot, Neave dug into the robust stone until he was buried fifty meters. Then he blew himself up. Once he reached the bottom of the rift again, he found that burying himself first was a great idea, as far more energy was directly pushed into the surrounding stone rather than forced out of the rift. So he repeated the same thing once again. The next time he returned, he found that he had broken into a farrger caveplex this time¡ªa highly inconvenient one. Neave clicked his tongue. His n was ruined. There was too much empty space here. His goal was to reach magma and force an eruption to the surface. This would initially bring only a bit of heat, but he would repeat the maneuver until it resulted in enough energy on the surface, at least temporarily. He nned to first create an ecosystem ofva golems andva slimes. He thought manually feeding them for a long time could spread the heat far and wide while only requiring a small effort on Neave¡¯s end. Neave could then use the heat to cultivate nt life, which he could use to feed weaker monsters who would be prey torger ones. Perhaps he could bring some animals over as well. Actually, no. That was a terrible n. Monsters could survive almost indefinitely without food and water. They simply stopped moving once they ran out of energy. Building a stable ecosystem exclusively from monsters was much more convenient since temporary instability would impact them far less than normal animals. While he would also bring over monster nts, there was no avoiding bringing typical nts. Luckily, nts also happened to possess a pseudo-soul. They could be brought over to the realm the same way monsters could. Sadly, this didn¡¯t apply to something like a weapon. nts had a quasi-soul, while weapons had a quasi-spirit. His master n just encountered a massive problem. There were too many underground caverns. Before the magma could reach the surface, he would have to fill all the caverns, which sounded like a gigantic pain in the ass. Neave paused. Suddenly, he realized something. Why did he need to bring the magma to the surface? He made the connection that ns thrived on the surface in the real world; thus, this ce would also work the same way. Why would that be the case? This realm had no sun. There was no reason to bring things up to the surface at all. Neave navigated the caves for a while, manually digging down. He foundrge t tforms of cooled obsidian. He blew through the upperyers until he encountered magma. Brilliant. Now he needed one more thing. Large amounts of organic material. Now, here he had the option of chopping his arms off endlessly. That was a shit-tier n as far as he was concerned. Neave suddenly got a genius idea. Couldn¡¯t he just soak all the soil in his blood? That wasn¡¯t a bad n. Sure, the nts that would prosper in such an environment were bound to be¡­ Of a particr kind, but that wouldn¡¯t be a problem if they just acted as a baseline for the ecosystem in conjunction with the fire monsters. So Neave created a small de out of spirit and cut his hand off. He was surprised at how easy it was to cut it off, likely because he was doing it himself. Spirit powers had some leeway in such situations. That and the spirit dagger was wickedly sharp. He wondered why he didn¡¯t use that as a weapon more often until he remembered that spirit dissolved when the tiniest cracks appeared. Neavemented this because it looked so cool. Also, conceptually, it was badass. Who else had the privilege to brag that they used spirit as a physical weapon? Nobody. Except perhaps someone with many screws loose might have bludgeoned someone to death with a monster core. People were just crazy sometimes. Neave quickly encountered the problem of his hand growing back out and the bleeding stopping. Ah, yes, the regeneration power that couldn¡¯t be stopped by force. Well, not regr force. Much was possible when one had Neave¡¯s repertoire of tricks. Neave cut his arm off again and used life force to prevent it from healing. He did this by enhancing the body''s natural healing process enough to overpower the healing that came from his spirit powers. Rather than grow a new hand, the arm scabbed over with an ugly scar. This sadly also stopped the bleeding. Neave should have seen that oneing. So, bleeding turned out to be much more challenging than he anticipated. That wasn¡¯t something anybody had ever said or thought before, but Neave was a being of many firsts. He contemted his situation for a while. What should he do? Was it going to have to be arm-chopping in the end? Neave groaned. It wasn¡¯t the pain that bothered him. It was the speed. He had to supply a whole load of organic material, so resorting to such a primitive and inefficient method was suboptimal. Neave got yet another brilliant idea. He created another tool out of spirit. This time, it was a tube. Neave cut his arm off again and grabbed one of the floppy veins squiring its juice everywhere. He hurried before it healed and inserted the tube into the vein. The rest of the arm healed around it, but the tube remained solidly embedded into Neave¡¯s hand. A powerful stream of blood was rushing through it, and Neave felt his blood being replenished faster than even this highly efficient method could drain it. So he would help the process along. Neave used ignite and sped up his heartbeat drastically. He used his life force to constrain his veins and further empower every squeeze of his heart. The stream of blood rushed out at such speed and force that it turned into a mist the moment it left the tube. That was convenient for dispersing it everywhere, at least. Neave ran around the cave, testing his new tool for painting the walls red. It was an efficient method of getting nutrients into the soil. ¡°What the fuck are you doing, kid?¡± Neave jumped and whirled, turning the stream of blood toward Astrador. The blood simply phased through his body, and he stared at Neave nkly, unimpressed. Neave removed the tube and stared at the god apprehensively. ¡°How did you leave your zone?¡± ¡°My what? Wait, don¡¯t tell me you can sense the anchor?¡± ¡°The what now?¡± Astrador chuckled incredulously and nodded, clearly impressed by the feat. ¡°That¡¯s remarkable. I wonder how you can do it. Such perception shouldn¡¯t be possible even for a demigod.¡± ¡°I have a perception spirit power.¡± Neave dered proudly. Astradore scoffed at that. ¡°Oh please, that cheap, corrupt imitation you all call spirit powers would hardly suffice even if pushed to its very limits. That might help, but it isn¡¯t the main reason why.¡± Neave carefully noted the way the god talked about everything. He hadn¡¯t already killed himself and left the realm only because he noticed the blood had passed through Astrador. Astrador giggled at Neave¡¯s expression. ¡°Kid, you would suck at card games.¡± Neave used thunder nerves to paralyze his face. Astrador seemed offended. ¡°No, that¡¯s cheating! I ban you from doing that!¡± Neaveughed, his face maintaining the same expression. Then he turned serious, although there was no outward indication of that in anything but his posture. ¡°Why are you here? How are you here? Well, you¡¯re not here or back in that cave, but you know what I mean.¡± Astrador grinned. ¡°I¡¯m forced to wait around like a dumbass any time you choose to enter this ce, so I thought I¡¯de to check in on what you¡¯re doing¡­¡± He looked around the room, every wall covered in blood, ¡°Perhaps my punishment back then impacted you more than I initially thought. Either that, or you¡¯re just bat shit insane by default.¡± Neave had tough at that one a bit. ¡°So, in a nutshell, you¡¯re here because you¡¯re bored. As far as I can tell, the power you¡¯re using to project your image here is a bit intensive. Perhaps abination of being outside your anchor and projecting your consciousness into this realm by force?¡± Neave grinned widely. Astrador rolled his eyes. ¡°Spare yourself the trouble, kid. You couldn¡¯t figure my secrets out if you had a billion years.¡± ¡°Well, who says I don¡¯t have a billion years?¡± ¡°While I appreciate the vacation you¡¯re providing me with, I would much rather prefer you give up on going to that ce sooner than that.¡± ¡°In your dreams.¡± ¡°You mean, in your dreams?¡± ¡°Good one, good one.¡± ¡°Say, kid, how about you take a break from being a lunatic and visit me in my cave?¡± ¡°Why, so you could kick me out again?¡± ¡°That wouldn¡¯t achieve much at all. As you said, I am a bit bored being stuck waiting here. So I thought I would offer you a deal, a small trade. I will spar with you and give you a few pointers while you can test yourself against me. How¡¯s that sound?¡± ¡°Wildly unfair, as you¡¯re getting far more from that exchange than I am.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not getting anything at all.¡± ¡°You¡¯re getting a closer look into my power set, which I assume you¡¯d like.¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re underestimating both my ability to analyze your power even as we speak and the meaning of ¡®a few pointers.¡¯ A god¡¯s tutoring is a privilege not even the mightiest beings in the universe can afford. If you wish, I will bind myself with a soul oath so I can¡¯t trick you or avoid delivering on my promise. How¡¯s that sound?¡± Neave hesitated. It sounded like an excellent offer, and he had no reason to refuse. It reeked of hidden motives, however. ¡°I ept your deal.¡± He had one reason, and one reason only to ept the deal. Astrador was convinced Neave could never defeat him and reach the underground chamber. Neave wasn¡¯t nning on ever giving up this chase. If he wanted to give Neave another advantage that could push him closer to sess, there was no way Neave would refuse. Time was on his side, after all, and Neave knew best the power of having all the time in the world. Chapter 72: Godslayer Chapter 72: Godyer Neave stood in front of Astrador, readying himself for the spar. His body lit up as he triggered ignite and thunder nerves simultaneously. Neave prepared to rush at him and¡­ ¡°Alright, stop.¡± ¡°What? Why should I already stop? I haven¡¯t done anything yet!?¡± ¡°The deal was that I would point your mistakes out. You¡¯ve already made enough for me to turn it into an entire lesson.¡± Neave was bbergasted. Astrador had to be pulling his leg. Neave clicked his tongue as he realized this deal''s likely caveat. Astrador was about to nitpick every minuscule mistake Neave made and drag the lessons out as much as he could. Neave wouldn¡¯t let a god''s advice go to waste, no matter how petty. To his surprise, however, the direction he was given wasn¡¯t minor at all. ¡°The two ¡®spirit powers¡¯ you just triggered are atrocious. They are so bad that they wouldn¡¯t even fit on any rating system for actual spirit powers. Below horrible, detrimental even. I don''t know where to begin with just how bad they are. Let''s start with the ignition power. That power is so shit, if you could inflict it on your opponents instead of yourself, it would be better, and even then, it would still be shit.¡± ¡°... That¡¯s a bit harsh.¡± ¡°It¡¯s also entirely appropriate.¡± ¡°What exactly makes the power so bad? So far, it has served me quite well.¡± ¡°Besides the fact that it incinerates your lungs, turns them to ash, then injects that ash directly into your bloodstream, it also cooks your body from the inside, hinders the flow of your qi, and elerates the aging of your cells drastically.¡± ¡°... None of those are a problem. My other powerspletely nullify those side effects.¡± Astrador facepalmed. ¡°What do you mean nullify? Are you an idiot? You can get away with using it because your other powers take the brunt of the impact. That¡¯s the only reason why that power isn¡¯t just instant suicide. That¡¯s not ¡®nullify.¡¯ Nullify insinuates that the other powers are removing the side effects, but they¡¯re not. They¡¯re just fixing the damage. That¡¯s different. You¡¯re stressing several other powers to use that one without killing yourself.¡° ¡°So, what do you rmend I do instead?¡± Astrador lit up like the morning sky. ¡°Remove the¨C¡± ¡°No.¡± Astrador sagged and shrugged. ¡°As the soul oath dictates, I must give you optimal advice. It¡¯s up to you to take it or not.¡± ¡°How can I fix this issue without removing the power?¡± Astrador sighed. ¡°Well, you could begin by using the power properly.¡± ¡°... Go on.¡± ¡°Alright. If someone from the higher realms wanted to construct a spirit power like that, for whatever reason, they would do it to generate qi. Your power does that, but the qi it produces is a temporary transformative qi that boosts your physical performance. Why don¡¯t you try, rather than igniting the power by using it, igniting the fuel source with your qi instead? Also, don¡¯t push the power to its limit. There is no point. Just let it take swing on its own and burn naturally.¡± ¡°Huh? How do I ignite it with my qi?¡± Astrador looked bewildered at that. ¡°That is¡­ An elementary qi exercise, even in the lower realms, as far as I remember. How could you not know that? How did you build such control of qi without knowledge of basic exercises?¡± Neave frowned at that, and then it clicked. ¡°Oh¡­ Oh! Oh, yeah, you can totally do that. I just forgot because I never needed to do it myself.¡± Astrador lifted an eyebrow at that. Neave focused for a few seconds and figured out how to produce heat with qi. It was pretty simple, really. Qi was the manifestation of potential, and potential energy was one of the most basic forms of potential. Within a few attempts, he managed to light the ignite power manually. He frowned. ¡°Are you sure this is ¡®optimal¡¯? It¡¯s reallyme. The me is burning far weaker than it usually does.¡± ¡°Try spending some qi.¡± Neave used a few demanding movement techniques and spent all his qi. Instantly he noticed what was happening. ¡°What!? My qi reserves are filling up so quickly! How!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what powers like that are meant to do in the first ce. Keep in mind that that power specifically is wildly subpar.¡± Neave couldn¡¯t agree with that. ¡°At this rate, it can refill my qi reserves in less than half a minute!¡± Astrador scoffed. ¡°Your ¡®qi reserves¡¯ are a speck of dustpared to what you would have at a rank where you could create spirit powers. That trickle wouldn¡¯t be noticeable on those scales, but it can improve with some practice.¡± Neave¡¯s opinion flipped quite drastically. Astrador was definitely not joking. ¡°Now, it is time for that other filthy thing in your spirit. I¡¯m tempted to rmend you don¡¯t actively use that power, ever, but in this case, your other powers can mostly cover the side effects. Again, that electricity is coursing through your nervous system. It isn¡¯t that bad, given that your nerves have metallic properties and your powers can heal from the damage, but the damage is unnecessary. Using that power is simply detrimental. You get nothing of value by using it.¡± Neave gaped. That must have been bullshit. ¡°No, I get a lot from that power. It pushes my muscles past their limits. I can go a lot faster while using it.¡± Astrador winced upon hearing Neave say that. ¡°It doesn¡¯t ¡®push¡¯ your muscles. It fries and cramps them. Sure, you get some strength, but you lose speed. And before you say, ¡®oh, but I move faster,¡¯ that is also true, but it isn¡¯t for the reason you believe it is. The power can elerate your perception of time. Which is another suicidal move with lethal side effects that you get away with because of your steel nerves and your regeneration. It allows you to optimize your movements. Thus it creates the illusion of moving faster. You can already move as fast as that. You¡¯re just not skilled enough to fully utilize your speed.¡± Neave thought about it and found that what the god had said was entirely right. That made sense, too, since Neave simply hadn¡¯t had enough time to learn how to optimize the use of his powers. Many of the same habits from the loop still stuck around, and it was well past the time for him to catch up with his own strength. ¡°So what do I do then?¡± ¡°There is a sort of silver lining to those corrupt powers you possess. A very shitty silver lining, but it will help you in this case. Those powers are very flexible, primarily due to vast redundancy within their construction. This means there are more ways to use the powers than just the primary function. This power, specifically, has an intriguing application. One that would still be horrible without all the other powers you have fixing the damage, but for you, it would be fitting. First, visualize your nervous system. The entire thing, every single nerve fiber you can sense in your body. It will take a while of practice, but¡­¡± ¡°Done.¡± ¡°I rmend you take this seriously, as messing the first step up will make it impossible for this method to work.¡± ¡°I am taking it seriously.¡± Astrador lifted an eyebrow at that and cupped his chin. ¡°If you can finish that task so quickly, then I must say, you are a prodigy that would be revered even in the higher realms. We will see whether you¡¯re lying or not with the next step. Now that you¡¯ve visualized your nervous system, rather than frying it, just close the gaps.¡± ¡°Close the gaps?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re focusing on your nerves, you should be able to sense how they send their signals. Now you must iste all the nerves that lead to anything that isn¡¯t a muscle. Now remove all the muscles you use without conscious thought, such as your heart. And finally, you need to use the electricity to prime every remaining nerve for action. So that the instant your brain sends the signal, the target muscle receives it. This will likely take you days to master, but¡­¡± ¡°Done!¡± Neave smiled mischievously. Astrador sighed in disappointment. ¡°Kid, please, my advice is useless if you¡­¡± Neave moved his hand. A spark of electricity visibly traveled beneath his skin to his shoulder, pec, traps, biceps, forearm, triceps, and many other minor muscles. His hand instantly appeared in front of his body in a sh. He cackled manically. Astrador gaped, ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding¡­¡± Something changed in Astrador¡¯s eyes. Neave grinned. ¡°Time to start the spar now, no?¡± Astrador looked at Neave. ¡°I will cut right to the chase. I tricked you with the soul oath. I am bound to give you optimal advice. Only optimal advice. Everything else I¡¯ve told you was to prove that I know far more about spirit powers than you can even fathom. I¡¯ve already given you the optimal bit of advice. Remove those spirit powers.¡± Astrador lifted his hand, casually swinging it above his head. The air above him shimmered and glittered as runes appeared. Countless glyphs hung above Astrador¡¯s head. Neave felt a strong desire to kneel and worship these holy symbols as he subconsciously seared them into his mind. He soon averted his gaze and scoffed. ¡°I knew there was a catch somewhere.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t believe a soul oath, I will spell out precisely why you should remove that filth from your spirit. Every power you have, except the distance from death, is atrocious. Even that is only good because you¡¯re a maniac that disregards pain. Anyone else would be driven mad by being reduced to a living corpse. If given to anyone else, all of your powers suck for one reason or another. All of them. As in, every single one. Without exceptions. Your perception overloads your brain with information about your surroundings. The only reason you can endure it is because of your enhanced cognition. Even then, your perception power detects things you don¡¯tprehend and, if I¡¯m right, frequently results in hallucinations. Your cognition helps you sort through this, but even that would be terrible without your steel nerves and regeneration. Your nutrient capacity would be useless without absorption, and that would be useless without your purifying blood. Your purifying blood is perpetually eating away at your veins, which are luckily crystalline, and you have regeneration to heal the damage. The crystalline veins block blood flow in small capiries, but your sacred blood eats through that. The disgusting troll power has ruined the inner bnce in your body, and again, without your sacred blood power, you would physically deform and begin looking more like a troll. Willpower strength has an incredibly high capacity, but most of its value is stored in heights of willpower no being can achieve. I could keep going for a whole day, listing all the different weaknesses and ws. I haven¡¯t even mentioned all of your powers.¡± Neave simply smiled in response. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯ve noticed a lot of the same stuff, but you¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°You would doubt the word of a god under soul oath? That is preposterous.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re lying.¡± ¡°I know you¡¯re not. You¡¯re assuming there is something you know that I don''t. Let me rify, kid, if I¡¯m forced to tell you the truth, I¡¯m telling the truth.¡± Neave grinned harder. Astrador scoffed and shook his head, and readjusted hisx stance. ¡°It is time for the spar. Please, go ahead and demonstrate your wisdom, oh mighty one.¡± Neave used just a bit of his shapeshifting power to spread his smile, which earned him another scoff from Astrador. Neave moved. He almost immediately fell face-first to the ground. As he got off the floor, he felt a strong sense of deja vu. The thunder nerves variation was an excellent spirit power but ridiculously difficult to use. Neave scowled at the arrogant grin on Astrador¡¯s face. ¡°A child that can¡¯t even walk yet dares strike against a god?¡± He teased Neave. Neave got up, moving his body around a bit. His body was constantly cramped, and he had to synchronize the charge with his movements. Slowly, little by little, he stopped messing up the order. He fine-tuned the charge to apply adjusted amounts of power to different nerves, depending on how the muscle should move. Astrador nodded, clearly impressed with the feat. Soon enough, Neave had his movements under control, far from mastered, but way better than falling over spontaneously. He ran at Astrador. Astrador closed his eyes. A heavenlyke spread from beneath him toward every horizon, reflecting a brighter sky in a warmer realm. Neave felt his legs being washed away from beneath him as he lost height with every step and finally fell into theke. A whirlpool spun him around and delivered him before the four heavenly pirs. Neave looked up, finding the size of the heavenly pirs an enigma. They felt like they stood right behind Astrador, yet from this angle, he couldn¡¯t tell whether they were a few meters tall or spanned entire realms. One of them, the first of the four, crashed on him. Then the second one did, and so did the third. The fourth loomed ominously, judging his fate. The pir fell into the ground, rising below Neave. The world spun as it rose into the sky, and Neave now fell toward the ground. The pirnded, crashing into the ground and¡­ There were never any pirs in the first ce. Yet Neave found himself legless and crushed to bits, but not dead. As his body healed, he got off the ground and faced Astrador again. Ten heavenly candles appeared around Astrador. He licked his finger and put one out. One of Neave¡¯s fingers withered away and turned to dust. ¡°Okay, now you¡¯re just fucking with me.¡± Astrador chortled and spat, barely able to hold hisughter back. ¡°Oh,e on, you¡¯re no fun. Did that not humble you even a bit?¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t identally break that soul oath.¡± Astrador snorted at that one. ¡°It is impossible to break a soul oath, child. Worry not. You shall receive your optimal advice once the bout is done.¡± ¡°Good.¡± Neave readjusted his stance. Then he rushed at Astrador again. Astrador stood and waited for Neave to arrive. Neave punched. Astrador grabbed Neave¡¯s arm. Neave felt as if his shoulder was anchored in time and space. Astrador pulled Neave¡¯s first left, and Neave¡¯s arm broke off like a dry twig. Neave stepped back, watching his arm slowly regenerate. As it built into a tiny stump, he stretched it out in the shape of an arm, adjusting the length as it slowly rebuilt itself. Astrador managed to somehow look both disgusted and impressed at the same time. Neave rushed again, clumsily fumbling as he got used to his movements. Astrador waited. Neave used a movement technique and appeared behind the god''s back, and Astrador pped his hands. An invisible force crushed Neave, but his stic body spared him from critical damage. Neave backed off from Astrador. Astrador teasingly raised an eyebrow. Neave hopped around, circling the god. He was repeating the same sequence of movements, gradually adjusting them to get used to the new application of thunder nerves. With every circle hepleted, his actions grew more natural. Neave felt the process of priming his nerves bing more automatic with every use. Then he used a movement technique to close the distance to the god. Astrador spared him for a while, allowing Neave to get into the groove. The god effortlessly dodged everything Neave threw at him. Neave found it extremely difficult to fight like this. Now that he was facing an opponent whose skill was far superior to his own, he felt howckluster the mastery of his new powerset was. Although Astrador hadn¡¯t said anything about it, Neave felt that his speed-boosting spirit power was a serious problem. It felt like a new set of rules applied to how he moved. It was unnatural and frustrating, almost like he was a stranger in his own body. Astrador merely observed Neave as he failed, time and time again, to make his body listen to him. Neave watched Astrador right back. At first, he felt confident he could get something out of the god¡¯s movements, but he quickly realized that wouldn¡¯t be the case. It wasn¡¯t that Astrador¡¯s movements were too sophisticated for Neave. It was the exact opposite. Everything he did was elementary. He simply moved the right way at the right time. There was no divine power behind how he avoided Neave; hell, he wasn¡¯t even dodging that quickly. The problem was that Neave sucked at wielding his power. He had been facing all his issues with brute force for so long that he forgot what it was like to depend on his skill. As his mindset gradually shifted from maximizing his brute power to mastery over his movements, he felt something click. Something realigned inside of Neave. He felt as if the sky grew a shade redder. The pools of stale, ck liquid turned into sprawlingkes of blood, acid, tar, and pus before his eyes. The dull grey of the dusty soil beneath his feet looked vibrant red again. All thought abandoned Neave¡¯s mind as his movements grew slower and slower. The opponent Neave faced gradually went from god¡­ To demon. Astrador frowned at the change in Neave¡¯s movements. Neave took a simple step forward and punched. Astrador stepped back and avoided it. So Neave took another step. There was no shy power behind it. There was no electric pulse beneath his skin. There was no me burning in his lungs. Astrador¡¯s eyes shot wide open. There was no more power behind Neave¡¯s presence. The spirit in his body, all besides his own, grew neutral as if falling asleep. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ That¡¯s impossible.¡± Astrador whispered under his breath. Astrador stood still as Neave punched again. His fistnded with a soft thud on Astrador¡¯s body. Neave stood still with a vacant expression as he waited for Astrador to move. Astrador contemted it. He wasn¡¯t sure whether ying with this was a good idea anymore. However, the soul oath dictated he first witness Neave¡¯s capabilities if he wished to give optimal advice. So he moved. Astrador slowly stepped back, and Neave punched again. It was still somewhat clumsy. It felt unpracticed, tired. Rusty. Then, he struck again. Neave¡¯s fist ponderously traveled through the air at a speed barely faster than what a mortal child could do. Astrador dodged it as it would have damaged him. Neave took another step and punched again. The exact sequence of punching and dodging continued for a while. Then Neave switched it up and kicked. As time passed, Neave¡¯s movements grew even slower, but with every slowdown, the margin of error dropped drastically. Astrador observed this in awe. There were no ws in Neave¡¯s movements. None at all. Every muscle, every cell in his body, even the way his robes pped, felt perfectly synchronized. Neave slowed down even more. He stepped forward, his foot kicking up dust with a resonant thud. Astrador inhaled sharply. Golden runes appeared all around Neave. His fist traveled, now with the weight of his spirit behind it. Astrador moved aside, and the strike sent a gust of mighty wind out. The negative pressure popped in their ears, and the snap of the imploding air echoed through the empty realm. Neave took another step, and the same thing happened again. The punches turned to kicks. The kicks turned to shoves, chops, elbows, and spins; the soft glow of golden runes soon apanied everything Neave did. Then, the spirit power that turned willpower to strength sprung to life. Neave punched again, but the perfection was gone. So he took a step back and slowed down again. With every punch, the spirit power''s presence grew weaker until the golden runes finally lit up again. The next punch crashed into the air, pulling tons of dust toward them as it flew out and obliterated a stretch of the obsidian wilderness. The power grew more substantial, feeding the true strikes. The speed-boosting power sprung to life as well. The perfection was again gone, but Neave didn¡¯t weaken the power now. Instead, thunder nerves activated as well. The movements became sloppy, bad even by the standards of far weaker cultivators. However, they rapidly grew more refined. With every step Neave took, the bnce reestablished itself until, once again, golden runes wrapped around every movement he made. He was far faster now, so the golden strikes no longer decimated thendscape, but they didn¡¯t have to. Neave struck ideally once every few seconds. Then once a second, twice, thrice, ten times, thirty times, seventy times, and finally a hundred times. The air around them turned into a constant whirlpool of dissipating golden runes, and Neave¡¯s spirit powers sprung to life, one after another. With every ability that returned, Neave¡¯s strikes grew slower. Finally, Neave took another step forward once thest power was back. The life force coursing through his body stilled. Then it whirled. The golden runes igniting around Neave siphoned pure hatred out of his body. *** They smelled a betrayer. The one that only took and ran once it was time to give. It was a holy duty for the betrayer to be exterminated. *** Neave took a step forward. The crimson runes spun in the air and shot toward his legs, shredding through his robes and engraving themselves on his calf. The runes told a story of vengeance. Every muscle, every action, every thought, and every movement told the story of the one that delivered punishment. Astrador looked awestruck. The runes hindered him. With every step he tried to take, the betrayed told the story of a god that failed to move, a divine lord that couldn¡¯t escape. He overwrote the wretched, twisted fate of the fallen but stopped, as there was no need. So he observed. Rather than movement, Neave¡¯s actions became a tale, an epic of a tragic hero. As he twisted his hip, his back lit up with his sacrifice. As he pulled his arm back, his shoulders sang his determination. As his fist shot forward, every inch of his arm was wrapped in red runes. Runes that told the tale of the one that yed a god. Neave¡¯s fist screamed as red energy spun around it. Itnded on Astrador¡¯s chest. The entire realm shook, and countless caves copsed from the impact. Astrador¡¯s robes were torn where Neave punched, and a small imprint of Neave¡¯s fist remained behind. The runes copsed and screamed in disappointment and despair. Neave fell over. Astrador stood speechless for well over a minute. Then he spoke to the barely conscious Neave. ¡°I can confidently give you the optimal bit of advice now. Be my disciple. I will send messengers after you, and you will be brought to the higher realms.¡± Neave barely managed to grin. He lifted a meek finger in response and pointed at Astrador¡¯s chest. ¡°All I need is time.¡± Astradorughed. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understood me properly, kid. The only reason why that sounded like advice was due to the soul oath. So let me rify one thing¡­¡± Astrador smiled. ¡°You do not have a choice.¡± Cha ?? pter ??? - ????????????????????? Cha ?? pter ??? - ????????????????????? ???n? ?nT ???? ?? ????? c?ain?. ?? ???????????????????????????????? ?? ???????????? N?????????????????hin?. ?? ??e ?inn????rs anTTTTTT ?rai??rs s?ir ???????? ?? I ??nd?r. ?e????n I, t?? s?ull?ss and the??st?r ??? [ERA ?? SED], T?? d??il?d ?n? ?h? ??r?d? Who will be the first to shatter the stone? Chapter 73: Hosolar Chapter 73: Hosr Kaphor stared at therge stalk of grass in front of him. ¡°Something must be wrong with my head.¡± A roughly three to four-meter radius around the grass stalk had been plucked clean of all other nt life. By Kaphor, that was. It had been a while since he started this insane experiment, and he felt as if he was losing his mind. He had abandoned the grass stalk several times, quitting this crazy behavior and thinking about the future. But every time he did this, he felt he had nothing to strive for. There was simply no reason to leave this ce. Soon enough, he couldn¡¯t ignore the stalk of grass anymore. So he would sit right back in front of it and continue nurturing it. Several times, a thought crossed his mind. He wanted to destroy it. Pluck it out of the ground and scatter it, and hopefully, it would release its grip on his life. However, every time he felt that impulse, a stronger one rapidly overwhelmed it. Fear. Anxiety. Panic. The mere idea of something happening to the grass stalk became terrifying to him. But why? He had no idea. It was just grass, for heavens¡¯ sake! Why was he so absorbed with nurturing it? Kaphor asked himself that same question hundreds of times, and each subsequent time he felt the answer slipping further and further away from his grasp. Maybe it was simple madness. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t. No matter how torn he felt, how confused he was, he kept nurturing the nt. Because one thing was clear above all else¡ªhe didn¡¯t have a reason to stop. Soon enough, the stalk of grass dwarfed its neighbors. Kaphor chose to give it a name. Paora. Even though he knew that naming a nt was absurd, the more he questioned his ridiculous behavior, the less reason he found to stop doing it. So what if he wanted to name a nt? Who would stop him? Few individuals had the power to talk down on him or criticize him for his behavior. He was on the gold path, after all. So fuck it! Fuck it all! Who gave a shit!? He would just do what he wanted to do. Were his actions irrational? So fucking what!? If he wanted grass or a bug or a speck of dust to be his center of existence, then he was the one who had the power to decide that. Not some asshole sect master or superior of his, but himself. As Kaphor slowly abandoned his inhibitions, his behavior grew more extreme. Soon enough, he noticed that a few neighboring stalks of grass had also adopted a slightly greener shade. He wasn¡¯t having that. Jealousy drove Kaphor to tear all neighboring nts out of the soil. Carefully though, so that he wouldn¡¯t damage Paora¡¯s roots. Soon enough, the radius in which he removed the nts kept growing until, finally, he was confident that no nt was stealing anything from Paora. For now, at least. He would have to expand the areater since, obviously, Paora would grow to conquer far more than a measly radius of a few meters. After stripping the surrounding soil bare, he noticed Paora had grown bigger. His silence was interrupted when a monster snuck too close to his sanctuary. It was arge abominid that resembled a mix between a bear, wolf, and several bugs. It rushed at Kaphor, but he stopped it without breaking a sweat. A single punch was all it took. Once dead, he extracted a small amount of its blood and sprinkled it around the bare soil, not too close to Paora. It was important for the earth to be nutritious, but not right on top of the nt. Powerful nts could spread their roots rtively wide, so Kaphor would let it pick and choose different sections of soil rather than force a specific type of care onto it. Once he extracted the monster core, he walked to a corner of his small sanctuary. There, he had a basin full of glittering water. Several inscribed monster cores shone at the bottom of that basin as they slowly released their spirit into the water. Kaphor inscribed the core in his hands and plopped it into the water. Then he grabbed a small bucket and took some water. He walked back over to the soil surrounding the nt and sshed the water over the bloody area to dilute it and properly imbue it into the dirt. ¡°Hmmm?¡± Kaphor turned to the small grass stalk, ¡°I must be losing it.¡± For a second, he thought the nt seemed satisfied. *** Dukean finished a meeting with his father. He cursed at his old man¡¯s foolishness as he walked around the sect. ¡°That stupid¡­¡± Dukean kept his connection to Neave a secret. It was doubly important now that these clowns turned Neave¡¯s status into that absurd mockery. The only reason why Dukean didn¡¯t consider Neave a monster in human skin was that theparison to monsters was too weak. Neave was a walking disaster. The anxiety was killing Dukean as he waited for thest few days to pass and for their agreed meeting time to arrive. The conversation with his father didn¡¯t ease his anxiety in the slightest. Dukean intended to reveal his connection to Neave to his father, but after this conversation, he knew he shouldn¡¯t. Kingean was full of doubts and hatred toward his colleagues now. Everyone except Carfen. Kingean cast his suspicion on Beanna, and his eternal love for the Emperor swiftly turned to resentment. He considered Xondir an immature, inferior alternative to Zhaore, which was ironic given that Xondir was technically older than Kingean. If he wasn¡¯t forced to remain at the third step of the tinum path for so long, he could have been a diamond path cultivator way before Kingean. It was clear that the death of Zhaore had a profound impact on Dukean¡¯s father. Kingean would never admit it, but Dukean knew they had. A rivalry forged from respect for one another as cultivators and warriors. Now that that rivalry was over, all it had left behind was bitterness. Dukean didn¡¯t despair. He collected himself and made preparations. Although he didn¡¯t overreact, he wasn¡¯t underestimating the crisis. If Carfen were indeed a demon, then Kingean having trust in him would eventually bring dire consequences. Dukean could only hope that Neave was the solution to his problem. Because if he wasn¡¯t¡­ He recollected himself. It wasn¡¯t the time for such thoughts, not yet. Now, what he had to do, was wait. *** Just because someone was beautiful didn¡¯t mean that they were a good person. However, all ugly people were evil. Such was the generally epted opinion on the Langen continent. A ce for those who were beautiful, both outside and inside. The people of Langenmonly believed that the gods cursed those doomed to be evil so that everyone could see their inner filth on the surface. Those who were beautiful but evil were believed to have been deceived by the devils, and naturally, the gods would forgive them if they repented and changed their ways. Twenty young men and women were dressed in beautiful robes and decorated with the most wonderful flowers. Yet, they themselves were miserably ugly. Those higher ranked among the blessed of the Langen continent had witnessed the repulsive looks of those who lived outside. Compared to those barbarians, even these unsightly ones were dazzling. However, nobody would genuinely use that as a justification for the deeds these creatures would havemitted in the future. Their outer filth reflected who they were on the inside, who they were doomed to be. So they had to repent. Finally, the gods would forgive them for their sins. Vast crowds of expectant onlookers witnessed the wonderful ritual that was taking ce. The most beautiful little girls and boys, the paragons of virtue for the next generation, frolicked among the hideous ones and threw flowers on them. It would soon be over. A white light began shining from the skies above, and the children moved off the tform. A beam of pure energy connected the center of the ritual tform to the heavens, and the delightful glow wrapped around the disfigured sinners within. To those not on the tinum path, the ritual looked like the light gently embraced and took them away. However, everyone on the tinum path could gaze behind the bright screen and see what was happening beneath. The white light burned the bodies of those within, peeling theiryers off until nothing was left. Naturally, they believed the crooked were being taken to a better ce. As the more privileged and blessed of the gods'' servants, their loyalty was being tested. For all present, faith had prevailed. In the stead of the offensively unappealing wrongdoers, a heavenly messenger appeared. Someone whose beauty took the breath of everyone present away. He was a man of perfection. Pitch ck hair, a beardless face chiseled from divine marble, and a body of ideal proportions. He walked out of the circle and bowed to the masses. The men knew their fate. And they epted it. If their women wished to flock to this divine gentleman, they would be forgiven. All that the many fathers and husbands of Langen hoped for was to be allowed to watch. The Grand Queen stepped forward and bowed deeply to the heavenly messenger. ¡°Wee, demigod. You need merely say, and you shall receive.¡± The man smiled lightly and bowed right back, showing full respect to the ruler of this realm. ¡°Please, get up, dear child. You may call me Hosr.¡± He stepped toward her and put his hand gently behind her head, slowly moving his fingers through her hair, ¡°I would like to first get the business out of the way if you please.¡± The Grand Queen nodded and stepped back. Hosr lifted his head and spoke to the masses. ¡°I am Hosr of the First Heavenly Realm. The first of the many messengers to arrive. My stay here is unfortunately limited to one year, given the means of transport, so I will have to use this time efficiently. I am here on a special mission. Please, if one by the name of Brivia is present among you, may she step forward.¡± Brivia¡¯s breath caught in her throat. She happily jumped toward the man and prostrated on the floor before him. Hosr nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Excellent. My father, the Supreme Ruler of the heavenly realms, sent me here.¡± Brivia lifted her head, shock evident in her expression. ¡°Your son has been selected to be his disciple.¡± Chapter 74: The Plan Chapter 74: The n Neave woke up back in reality and instantly knocked himself back out. Once he was back in the nightmare realm, he took a moment to focus and spotted a faint influence in the air. He turned to face the opposite direction of the cave and ran there at full speed. He kept part of his focus on the faint power floating in the air. Eventually, he couldn¡¯t sense it anymore but kept running to ensure it was gone. After a while, he came across quite a few corrupt demons. He dispatched all of them as quickly as possible, and in less than ten minutes, he had peace. Neave sat on the ground and thought. When he was down in the caves where he nned to start his experiment, Astrador appeared. It was a projection of sorts, but it evidently allowed him to observe what Neave was doing. Neave was almost confident that the unusual influence he could sense in the air was the range within which Astrador could watch him. Could Astrador move this influence? Perhaps it wasn¡¯t impossible, but Neave could bet everything he had that would involve moving his anchor. This would mean that he would have to leave the underground chamber unprotected while looking for Neave. So Neave was quite confident that as long as he moved out of the range of the field, he would be free to do whatever he wanted, and Astrador wouldn¡¯t be able to observe him. Now, it was time to think about his ns. First thing first, how fucked was he at the moment? Neave didn¡¯t have a frame of reference for what a god could do. Did Astrador¡¯s threat mean someone would be after Neave in days? Hours? Even if it was weeks, Neave would ensure he spent as much time as possible within the nightmare realm. There was no indication of how powerful the ¡®messenger¡¯ing after him would be. So Neave had to prepare himself to his utmost as quickly as possible to ensure he had the power to defend himself. Or run away. Both of those were valid options. Unless Astrador was a mind-reader, he couldn¡¯t possibly know about Marven and the others. Not that Neave would care that much if they got hurt¡­ He frowned. He wanted to tell himself that he wouldn¡¯t care, but to be entirely honest, he was growing fond of them. They¡­ Tolerated him. It wasn¡¯t just fear of his power either. Neave put such thoughts aside and focused on his current ns. He could currently knock himself out for only an instant. If he did this trick with thunder nerves, he could ckout for less than a second and immediately wake up, which meant that he could technically turn every second outside into as long as he could survive inside. The time he could spend inside this realm was considerably less limited than it used to be. With his energy reserves, his survival was guaranteed for a long time. The problem was that most things he needed to do inside this realm required him to spend a lot of energy. Neave had temporarily gained a considerable confidence boost after managing to injure Astrador. A confidence boost that quickly came crashing down. Astrador allowed Neave to injure him. Not only that, but Neave blew through his entire reserve of life force, which, at the time, was immense. All that resulted in was a faint red mark on Astrador¡¯s chest. Of course, Neave did destroy his robes, but those robes were just in cloth. What kind of power would a heavenly messenger possess? Astrador¡¯s power was limited in this realm, as far as Neave could tell, but even then, it was far beyond anything Neave expected to reach in a short period. That wasn¡¯t even ounting for the fact that he had no equipment. The more he thought about it, the more Neave realized that if he wanted to guarantee his safety, he would have to do some severe powering up. After the fight against Astrador¡­ Well¡­ Not the fight, but after the conversation¡­ Neave was in trouble. His spirit powers came with a hidden downside that he hadn¡¯t considered yet. They came with many downsides, actually. Astrador, a god bound by a soul oath, had advised Neave to eliminate the powers. And this bit of advice managed to satisfy the optimal requirement. That was some deep shit he found himself in. Neave couldn¡¯t remove the powers, though. Well, he did memorize the technique Astrador had given him, but using it was out of the question. Although, the power could stille in useful, given that it seemed to avoid the side effects Neave¡¯s method usually left behind. The main problem was that Neave didn¡¯t have the time. He remembered what he had read in the book about spirit powers. While in the capital library, he had also read a few alchemy-adjacent books that covered some spirit powers in greater depths. Side effects of spirit powers were pervasive, especially for powers that one had evolved. Neave tested his powers in the nightmare realm first, but even with that privilege, he was still fortunate that some of the hidden side effects hadn¡¯t caused more significant damage. To intentionally create a better set of powers, he would have to remove the ones he had and then likely spend months gathering a more optimal group and testing it extensively within the nightmare realm. The vast majority of monster cores he had inspected so far were suboptimal. The powers he absorbed were among those as well. Neave still had a vibrating liver that was utterly useless. ording to Astrador, the other powers weren¡¯t much better either. Neave sighed. He would have to figure out a way to minimize the side effects of his current powers. But how? Perhaps he could acquire a power that made him resistant to fire and heat. This would help with both ignite and thunder nerves. Such powers, however, frequently came with the side effect of the inability to breathe and death by hypothermia. Neave took another deep breath. Think, Neave, think. The pressure was getting to him. He didn¡¯t want to be taken away into the higher realms by Astrador. This conundrum was affecting his rationality and making it difficult to think. What he needed to do now was take a step back and build a n for the future. First, what were his options? Neave listed all of the things he could do in his head. I could gather more spirit powers or acquire others to negate some side effects. Difficult, but not impossible, currently low on the priority list. Physical training is out of the question. Too much time in the real world. Weapon crafting¡­ A definite yes, but that will require terraforming the nightmare realm first. I can¡¯t create anything but useless dogshit outside, so I must first practice here. Same with alchemy. Same with everything I have to master, actually. Neave quickly reached a decision. Terraforming the nightmare realm came first. Neave built a n in his head. What he would do once he was back outside was devour as many monsters as he could. Maximizing the ¡®fuel¡¯ he had in nutrient capacity and life force was essential before he started the terraforming in earnest. Once he was done with that, which hopefully shouldn¡¯t take too long, he could grab another slime and get back inside the realm. He could n everything else step by step when he left the realm and returned inside. Neave felt paranoid about losing even a single second of outside time, so he ran through his options. Was there anything he needed or wanted to do before returning to the outside? There was. Neave felt a little scared at this one. It was likely among the highest priority goals he had. But he was damn near fully confident that it would be impossible to achieve without drasticpromise. Cultivation. But, well, there was no harm in giving it a go. Neave sank into his spirit and observed his core. Holy shit¡­ Upon entering, he first noticed the near-pure white surrounding his spirit. The strands of qi wereyered so thick that Neave couldn¡¯t even begin counting them. He floated around his spirit for a while, moving his senses through the fluffy cloud of unrealized potential. He plucked a strand out and carefully ced it into his qi core. Everything grew hazy. Neave felt his spirit being shredded to bits. Then he woke up in the real world. ¡­ Yup. That is exactly what I expected. The life force within his body, the spirit powers, and whatever the fuck else thatst thing was jumped on his spirit like a pack of hungry wolves and tore it to bits in an instant. Why? Well, all of the foreign entities possessing Neave were constantly trying to do that, but Neave¡¯s core was simply too stable. Sadly, even a shred of instability allowed the invading forces to grasp Neave¡¯s spirit. Before he could advance on the path of cultivation, he would have to find a way to stabilize his spirit first. An idea crossed his mind for a moment. Perhaps he could iste his spirit first, then allow it to stabilize in peace? This idea was squashed immediately as Neave realized this was precisely what he did to Gabrias. That resulted in all of the spirit powers being scrubbed clean. There was no time to waste on the trivial stuff. Neave was back in the real world, and time was passing again. He didn¡¯t hesitate. Neave morphed his body into the worm form and dug straight underground. The underground was overabundant with golem-type creatures. While Neave could extract some beneficial qi and life force from them, earth and metal weren¡¯t very nutritious. So this time, hepletely ignored the golems and went straight for anything organic. His targets were bug-type monsters and abominids. While Neave wasn¡¯t slow before, he was much faster at eating creatures now. A little too fast. Integrate couldn¡¯t keep up with all the monsters he was consuming, so he constantly stretched his stomach wider to make more space for extra meat. Eventually, he grew too big to even move in the caves. Should I chew more before swallowing? Neave felt something pricking and scratching his skin from behind. Turning around was a massive challenge, but he managed after a while of shuffling. It was a shredder slime. A metallic slime that could sprout countless des from its body that were supremely sharp. Generally considered a high gold-rank if not even tinum-rank threat in some cases. Neave was too tough to take any damage from it. He suddenly got a brilliant idea. He flopped over and swallowed the slime whole. Immediately, he felt it going haywire on all the monsters in his stomach. His integrate power was too upied with all the other monsters that it couldn¡¯t properly digest the slime. Thus, Neave acquired the perfect digestion tool. He thought this until he came across a bundle of giant acid slimes. Once they joined the fray, Neave found digesting the monsters much more manageable. Neave wasn¡¯t confident at what point this happened, but all the monsters started running away from him somewhere along the line. Unsurprising, given that he was a walking, or, well, bouncing disaster. Countless monsters were sucked into his gaping maw and joined their brethren in the pit of hell that was his stomach. Neave slurped up a gigantic centipede like a noodle. At this point, he grew a little self-conscious of his current appearance and actions. He shrugged and moved on. It was the most efficient method, so he wouldn¡¯t knock it because it looked ridiculous. He thought, as even hordes of monsters living in perpetual danger ran before him as if a devil had arrived. Chapter 75: Food Chain Chapter 75: Food Chain Neave spent less than an hour maximizing his resources. Eventually, the sheer burden of the extra life force and nutrients started bing detrimental. Once he considered himself full enough, when he started feeling severe pain, he stopped, grabbed a slime, and knocked himself out without hesitation. The first thing he encountered once he found himself back in the starting area was Astrador, sitting on a rock and smiling gently at Neave. ¡°So, what have you been up to in the far reaches of this damned ce?¡± Neave grinned. ¡°Soul oath. I''ll tell you what I¡¯m doing. You¡¯ll tell me how long I have before your messengeres to pick me up.¡± Astrador seemed torn. ¡°Although the curiosity is killing me, I do not need to know, so no. I refuse the offer.¡± Neave shrugged, hugged the slime tight, and sped off into the distance, going in the same direction. Astrador shook his head and vanished. After Neave reached an appropriate distance, he ran into a cave, intending to go as deep as possible. Some demons were still creeping around the caves, but they were little more than an annoyance. Once Neave was deep enough, it was time to start his project. He excavated much of the dirt, primarily by swallowing it to make it disappear. He reachedva again. He almost ended up dropping the slime into theva but stopped once he realized it would just burn and die an agonizing death. He ced the slime down, and it appeared to almost shake in relief for a moment. Neave cut his arm off and fed it to the slime. The arm grew back nearly instantly as he felt the intense rush of energy take its ce. ¡­Wow, I should have maxed out on energy sooner. Who would have thought that the difference would be this enormous? After feeding several of his arms to the slime, it grew. The core inside the slime visibly bulged and morphed until a piece broke off and a small slime detached. Rather than stop there, Neave kept chopping his arm off repeatedly to supply as much biomass as possible to the fledgling slimes. Within a few hours, countless arms sat around the cave, and numerous slimes crawled over and ate them. The slimes multiplied. His arm was already regenerating much slower than it used to, so it was time to move on to the n''s next step. He excavated as muchva as he could, creating a smallke. Neave had to admit he didn¡¯t know how the slimes turned intova slimes. Did he just chuck a few in there and hope they lived? Obviously, that would be foolish. So he decided to torture a few poor slimes instead. Neave trapped several of the gooey monsters in a small pit and repeatedly sprinkled them with sshes ofva. They winced and recoiled every time, but Neave fed them more arms to ensure they didn¡¯t die from the damage. Eventually, one of them began glowing. Neave watched with rapped attention. This slime was about to evolve. Its core changed, adopting far more color and growing only a little in size. Its body began morphing, and it turned to¡­ ¡°Ew, what the fuck is that?¡± A fleshy blob of skin. Neave frowned. It was an abominid. One that was created from his repeatedly feeding the slimes his body parts. Neave chucked a rock at it and killed it. The other slimes fed on it, and Neave continued his experiment. He didn¡¯t need an abominid at the moment. Eventually, finally, one of the slimes began¡­ Burning? Just burning. It didn¡¯t seem to be dying from the fire. It simply had a small me on top of its head. Or rather, just on top of it. Neave grabbed that slime by extending his arm and ced it into a separate pit. After feeding the slime, it grew bigger until more fire slimes broke off. So he kept sshing them withva. Eventually, one of the slimes turned into an abomnid again. This time¡­ Well¡­ Neave watched in confusion as the burning abominid cooked alive and died. He grasped his forehead in confusion. Was this how it worked? Could the slimes evolve into something doomed to die from the moment it was born? That made no sense. It was strangely poetic, even if utterly absurd. Neave shrugged as the grotesque self-cooked monster got eaten by its brethren. He continued the process, painstakingly waiting for one of the slimes to turn into ava slime or at least a hotter fire slime. Neave had no idea how much time had passed, but judging by the fact that the slimes had eaten all of his arms and the room was filled with chubby culprits, it must have been a while. There were several abominids among the slimes, but those quickly got ganged up on and eaten by the slimes. Slimes couldn¡¯t eat each other, but anything else seemed to be fair game. Finally, after much anticipation, one of the slimes turned into a much hotter fire slime. Not ava slime quite, but it was no plebian slime either. Neave smiled in satisfaction and went on to the next step. He grabbed the burning ball of slime and put it into another designated pit. This time, he replicated them until he had enough to ensure a backup. Once he saved his progress, he created another pit. One that he filled withva. Once done, he chucked one of the burning slimes to see whether it could survive. It could, although it was struggling a bit. Neave kept it well-fed, multiplied the slime, and eventually, vo. Ava slime was born. Neave separated this one into its own pit, multiplied it, removed one, ced it into anotherva hole, and continued his experiments. Now, he just stared at the slime and waited. And waited. And waited. He didn¡¯t feed it anything; instead, he stared at it and waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. What¡¯s wrong¡­? He was baffled. Lava slimes andva golems were meant to be capable of feeding and growing off ofva alone, ording to the books. So why was this piece of shit slime just sitting there? Perhaps it took considerably longer than estimated? Then Neave would wait longer. A mind-numbing amount of timeter, after theva had cooled countless times, only to be refilled by Neave, yet again, nothing happened. Not even a smidgeon of progress. Many slimes had already scattered, and most had run out of energy, merely sitting dormant, waiting for prey to walk into them. The other fire slimes had also run out of power, seemingly bing a little less than regr slimes again. Feeding one of them his finger proved they could still turn back into fire slimes when fed. Neave continued waiting, and after digging out the damnva pit for the hundredth time, he was right about done waiting. The slimes wouldn¡¯t grow on their own. But why? Was there something missing? Was there something essentially different in theva herepared to theva back in the real world? Neave contemted it for a while, sifting through countless bits of knowledge. After realizing what was wrong, Neave pped his forehead so hard it created a shock wave. ¡°You stupid fucking idiot, this realm is void of spirit!¡± Monsters in real life could grow even when entirely isted and trapped. This was why slimes, for example, could get buried underground and still evolve, slowly turning into earth slimes. Energy was one thing, but something had to provide life force or spirit. Neave could feed them his limbs, sufficient to deliver much life force. Althoughva could sustain the slime, given that it hadn¡¯t been extinguished yet, it couldn¡¯t help it grow. Something had to contribute to building the spirit in the monster core. It was so simple Neave wanted to p himself for failing to realize it. After actually hitting himself, he realized that there was a massive w in his n. How was he going to supply the spirit? Technically, he could continuously merge all of his life force with his qi and produce tons of ethereal spirit. Neave groaned at the thought of this. It would be inefficient. It would slowly spread through the realm, which would be a great way to get it everywhere, but it would grow so dilute that it would take Neave heavens knew how many repeats to fill up the entire damn realm. That wasn¡¯t enough. Something had to produce spirit as well. But what? Usually, it was nt life that produced the bulk of spirit in the real world. nts would die, and a smidgeon of ethereal spirit would be released. Growing nts in this realm wasn¡¯t going to be an easy task. Sure, Neave could get some fire-happy nts and shove them near an open source ofva. But that would be too temporary. Theva would eventually cool down, and the nts would wither and die. nts weren¡¯t like monsters. They weren¡¯t immortal. Monster nts were far more monsters than nts, meaning they couldn¡¯t realize their potential, so they were useless. All living creatures could ¡®cultivate.¡¯ Whether this worked the same for bugs and in grass as it did for persons was debatable, but with time, anything could realize potential. This realization of potential could be an excellent way for Neave to fill this realm with life. It wasn¡¯t known exactly where the energy for potential originated from, but the standard agreement was that it was the inside of the soul. That was an internal source of energy, one not limited by outside factors. So if Neave could start nt life in this realm, it would grow, realize potential and eventually be a self-sufficient source of spirit and life force. Monsters couldn¡¯t realize potential on their own. They could only steal it from other things. For that purpose, nts would suffice. This still left the problem of heat and energy. nts couldn¡¯t just grow in an environmentpletely void of heat, light, nutrients, and avable energy. This meant that Neave had to¡­ Neave had to¡­ What about the obsidian nts? Those were definitely alive. They grew extremely slowly, but it was still a damn nt. They seemed to love the nightmare realm. Neave grinned. The process of terraforming would continue smoothly anyway. Chapter 76: Ally Chapter 76: Ally Once Neave remembered the obsidian nts, he was convinced that would be the perfect solution and that terraforming the nightmare realm would continue smoothly. It appeared it wasn¡¯t going to be so simple after all. The first thing he did was attempt to feed the nt or nurture it somehow. That seemed to be doing, as Neave would say, jack shit. Perhaps it would beparable to watering a cactus, except it didn¡¯t even deign to die. Neave threw right about everything he could think at one of the nts. He poured his blood into the soil, blew ethereal spirit in its direction, imbued life force into the nt, tried injecting qi, failed even with his potential of experimentation, and did several other things that gave no results. After racking his brain, he decided to observe the nt. Initially, he couldn¡¯t even say it was alive. It didn¡¯t appear to be growing or changing in any way. No matter how much Neave focused, he couldn¡¯t sense any life force or spirit within the obsidian structure. Eventually, Neave lost track of time. He could hear faint chimes asionally, but it was hard to say precisely what was causing those. They were so quiet that, at first, he thought he imagined it. After hearing them several hundred, if not several thousand times, he was convinced they were real. Just as he was about to give up, he finally spotted what was causing the noise. Deep within the obsidian, asionally, there would be movement. A tiny, minuscule particle would shift just a little to the side. Seeing the process happen several times, Neave concluded that this was, in fact, the nt growing. ¡°Holy shit, that¡¯s slow.¡± It was slow, indeed. It was so excruciatingly sluggish that Neave had to wonder whether these things were even alive. What if they were merely some form of natural phenomena that happened exclusively within this realm? That would Neave back to square one. He had a lot of time to think about importing nts from the outside. It would be a tremendous undertaking. The main issue was the cost of time. With every failure, Neave would have to return and get another nt. This wouldn¡¯t be as simple as plucking some grass off the floor. He would have to locate an appropriate specimen, which could take days of work for each failure. If it came between giving up on this idea and wasting precious time, Neave would instead just give up. That, or try something else. Neave kept going with the observation of the nts, looking for any other details that may be important. He tried pulling the nts out of the ground to see their roots, which was much more challenging than anticipated. The nts weren¡¯t brittle per se but were solidly rooted in the soil, meaning he had to pull hard enough to break the nt off and leave the roots underground. Neave took his time and slowly brushed the dirt and stone around the nt to reach the roots. The roots were also obsidian but were considerably thinner and more branched out. He applied the same death stare to the roots until he finally noticed something. It was the faintest hint of life force Neave felt in his life. He heaved a sigh of relief. It didn¡¯t take long for confusion to set in. If it was alive, why wasn¡¯t Neave capable of helping it grow? It shouldn¡¯t be thatplicated¡­ But Neave didn¡¯t know anything about it either. None of the alchemy books Neave had read went into detail about nt cultivation. Mainly because Neave was avoiding those, primarily focusing on other stuff. ¡°Fuck my stupid fucking heavens damn it, why am I so¡­?¡± Neave repeatedlymbasted himself. Why did he always make this same mistake? Neave had a terrible habit of overfocusing on one aspect of progress and neglecting others. It was an approach that served him well most of the time, but when that small asion came along, his ignorance bit him in the ass, and it could bite hard sometimes. Neave sat and slowlybed through everything he had learned in the library. He found several mentions of specialized qi techniques he could use to cultivate nts. After scouring through everything, he groaned. Given that Neave focused on the alchemy processes, he thoroughly ignored the entire discipline of herbology. Neave put another spirit tube in his veins and created a smallke of blood in a section of the cavern. He threw all the slimes he could find in there and then ejected all his life force. Neave awoke in reality and immediately sprinted toward the capital, heading to the library. He was paranoid, constantly scouting the wilderness around him. It felt as if, at any moment, he could get assaulted by a power far above him and kidnapped to the higher realms. His paranoia pushed him to travel at the maximum speed he could manage. Neave activated ignite using the method Astrador provided him with and chained together several costly movement techniques to maximize his speed. The result was absurd. The speed at which he could travel now was far above what he should be capable of. It was so fast that he genuinely had to wonder whether the heavenly messenger would stand a chance of catching him. Rather than run toward the capital''s center, Neave ran to a nearby teleportation tform and paid the fee. Soon enough, he found himself in front of the library and walked inside. Once inside, he rushed toward the section that covered subjects rting to growing nts. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s you, you damned bastard!¡± Someone called for him. Neave turned around. He spotted a silver-haired boy with a star-themed robe calling for him. Rather than acknowledge his existence in any way, Neave rushed along and continued to the section that covered nt cultivation. ¡°Don¡¯t ignore me, you rat!¡± The boy ran to Neave and grabbed his shoulder. Neave gripped his hand, squeezing it hard enough to crack several bones in his fist, and red at the boy¡¯s eyes. The boy wanted to scream, but he found himself frozen in fear. Once Neave released him, the boy groaned a few times. Several spectators gasped in shock. ¡°B-Brother! I-I found him!¡± Neave paused. He turned around, spotting a tinum-rank cultivator wearing the same robes as the weeping boy on the ground and angrily marching toward Neave. Neave felt a strong impulse to kill them, but he restrained himself. This was the Emperor¡¯s library. Committing acts of extreme violence here, not to mention against someone on the tinum path, was likely to end in severe consequences, even for Neave. He clicked his tongue and rapidly ran through his options. The more he thought about it, the worse the situation became. The world slowed down to a crawl before Neave¡¯s eyes. No matter what he thought of, this situation could only end in conflict, a ban from the library, or a massive waste of time. He couldn¡¯t think of any eptable options. So he would have to settle for an uneptable one. ¡°What is happening here?¡± Neave turned around. Dukean stood behind him, and he could see the tinum path cultivator visibly tense at his appearance. The star-robed man coughed a bit and spoke up. ¡°Young master Dukean. I apologize for the disturbance. I will naturally maintain civil behavior befitting the grand library. However, I can not disengage here. The young man that stands before you had spat on our sect¡¯s honor. It is imperative I teach him and his sect a lesson in cordial conduct.¡± Dukean nced at Neave. Neave turned around, stared Dukean in the eye, and mouthed: Make them go away. Dukean softly nodded and spoke to the man. ¡°This young master here is under my protection, so if you have anyints, I will dly hear them out.¡± The man immediately backpedaled, recing his peeved expression with a pleasant smile. He joyfullyughed and casually waved in front of him. ¡°No worries, young master, I was just joking, naturally. Had I known he was under your wing, I wouldn¡¯t have dared jest as such. Please, excuse me. I have other business to attend to.¡± The man turned around, grabbed the squirming boy by his ear, and dragged him off deeper into the library. Neave was almost impressed by how fast that man changed his attitude. Dukean waved the man off and turned to Neave. ¡°It is still early, but I believe it would be wise to have our meeting now. Several new developments have transpired, and we have to talk.¡± ¡°No time. Follow me.¡± Neave spoke curtly and marched off. Dukean stood dazed for a second but shook his head and followed Neave. Dukean watched Neave ze through book after book for several minutes, raising countless eyebrows with his outrageous behavior. After a while, rather than say anything, Neave simply turned to Dukean and raised his hand, offering him a handshake. Dukean epted the handshake out of reflex. Suddenly, a powerful force invaded Dukean¡¯s body, and he had to do his best to pretend everything was fine. Neave wrapped Dukeans spirit and cked himself out. Dukean and Neave both appeared inside the nightmare realm. Dukean looked distraught. ¡°What in the name of the Emperor is this!? Neave, where have you taken me!?¡± He swore and spun around, anxiously scouting the thick obsidian bushes while apprehensively ncing at the immense destruction around him. ¡°I will exin everything. We have to get away first.¡± ¡°Get away from what!?¡± Before Dukean could get an answer, Neave wrapped his arms around his waist and sprinted away, running toward the cave he was conducting his experiments in. Dukean nearly got a heart attack upon hearing the distant wails of the corrupt demons. Once they ran into one, his heart came pretty damn close to stopping. Neave obliterated the demon with a casual kick and continued running. Once they reached the cave, Neave looked for a different one. There were many slimes in that one which looked like blood slime variants. Those nasty creatures were best left alone. Neave noted that it didn¡¯t seem like too much time had passed since he left the realm. Perhaps a few days at most. Dukean tried his hardest to keep hisposure as Neave dragged him around like a ragdoll. Eventually, Neave put him down in a small cave. Dukean got up, searching for his sword and dimension ring. As Neave was about to speak, Dukean screamed at him and threatened him. ¡°Have you already changed your ns!? What do you intend to do to me here!?¡± ¡°Uh¡­¡± Neave, rather than looking for a way to exin himself, simply said, ¡°I offer you a spirit oath. I am not here to harm you in any way. You are safe. This statement is true.¡± Dukean carefully approached Neave, epted the oath, and calmed down a little after he noticed Neave was fine. Neave wasn¡¯tpletely fine, actually. He was just good at hiding it. He couldn¡¯t confidently say Dukean was safe inside the nightmare realm. Luckily the bacsh was small enough that Neave could hide it. ¡°So¡­ Can you please exin yourself?¡± Neave didn¡¯t know where to begin. So he started back when he encountered the hell tome. Chapter 77: Crossroads Chapter 77: Crossroads Dukean was initially full of questions and curiosities, but when Neave started talking about the loop, he grew silent. They spent the next few hours with Neave recapping everything that had happened to him since he touched the hell tome. Once he finally caught up with what he was doing, Dukean pinched his forehead, fighting off a massive headache. Rather than pressure him to respond, Neave just sat there and waited. Eventually, Dukean spoke. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you want to be the disciple of a god?¡± Neave was surprised neither at the casual question nor the calm tone with which Dukean asked it. It made sense. There wasn¡¯t a way to react ¡®appropriately¡¯ to Neave¡¯s story. The recap of all that had happened to him was so bat shit insane that all of the implications and shocks ended up canceling each other out. ¡°It¡¯s simple. I have two reasons why. The first is the underground chamber. Astrador said I won¡¯t like what¡¯s waiting for me down there, but he never said that going there would be bad for me.¡± ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s what he meant when he said that?¡± ¡°No. There is simply no way. Astrador loves strategically using soul oaths as a tool for bargaining. He would wager that statement on a soul oath if he truly thought or knew that going down there would be bad for me. Given that he hadn¡¯t done that, going down there has to be either neutral or good.¡± Neave¡¯s expression darkened, ¡°But I¡¯ll bet whatever you want that he isn¡¯t stopping me from going down there for my protection.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your second reason?¡± Neave hesitated. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. I have this feeling that gods aren¡¯t that good. Whoever is manipting my mind clearly thinks that too, which makes things even moreplicated. Where do my thoughts end and maniption begins? Well, that issue aside, I also simply don¡¯t like Astrador. The moment he spotted that I possessed knowledge he wanted, he unhesitantly subjected me to immense agony. That alone is enough to refuse to be his disciple.¡± ¡°Fair enough. I will be fully transparent with you, Neave. After this conversation, I fully believe that getting involved with you is the biggest mistake I¡¯ve ever made.¡± Neave grinned upon hearing that. ¡°So, do you wish to cut ties?¡± Dukean smirked. ¡°Hell no.¡± ¡°So, that settles that then. Either way, I have a request for you. I¡¯ve exined what I¡¯m doing here. I need help.¡± ¡°Help you shall receive. First, I fully agree with your assessment of the situation. If they are truly alive, these obsidian nts are your greatest bet for creating a sustainable ecosystem.¡± ¡°...But?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just going to take a lot of work. There is one other small thing I would like to point out, as well.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know exactly how this ce works. Let me present you with a hypothetical scenario. You enter this realm, eject all of the life force in your body, and are returned to reality. Then, in reality, you find yourself again in possession of all of the life force you have just ejected. Then you return to this ce again, bringing the same life force inside. See the problem?¡± Neave gaped. ¡°Infinite life force.¡± ¡°Precisely. The only scenario where that would make any sense is if this ce were an illusion. But if that¡¯s the case¡­ Are there any limits to it? What if the structure of whatever phenomenon keeps this ce together begins falling apart under the burden of handling an illusory,-wide ecosystem?¡± ¡°... Fuck.¡± ¡°Fuck, indeed. Can you recall the details of the original curse?¡± ¡°I know what you¡¯re getting at, and no. There was no way to tell whether the loop was real or imaginary. Even then, there is no indication whether this ce works by the same principles.¡± Neave aggressively scratched the back of his head, ¡°Fucking hell, what is happening here? I¡¯ve been so used to crazy shit that I just took it at face value, but isn¡¯t this insane?¡± ¡°Are you seriously just now realizing how mad your situation is?¡± ¡°Fair point. So what do I do then? Do I continue?¡± ¡°You¡¯re putting quite the burden on my shoulders by asking that.¡± Dukean sighed, ¡°My opinion is that you should continue, but cautiously. You have a powerful perception power, right?¡± Neave nodded. ¡°Then you should be able to tell early if the realm begins falling apart. Right now, while I agree with your decision, there is another thing you should do.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Bring your allies in here with you.¡± Neave paused. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You can provide them with the same advantage you¡¯ve had. Having allies would be an excellent way to prepare yourself for the messengering for you.¡± Neaveughed. ¡°Advantage? I n to spend hundreds of years inside this realm at a time. That is an iprehensively massive advantage if you¡¯re just looking at the time. Consider the implications, though.¡± Dukean winced at the change in Neave¡¯s eyes, ¡°Do you believe they will be able to handle that?¡± Rather than taking it back, Dukean doubled down on his argument. ¡°Yes. I believe they will handle it perfectly fine.¡± ¡°Well, I think they would go insane.¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°Do you know how it feels to spend an unfathomable amount of time trapped within a realm where you¡¯re merely waiting to die?¡± ¡°They wouldn¡¯t be trapped and wouldn¡¯t be merely waiting to die. You¡¯reparing this to what you¡¯ve experienced within the loop, but it would be entirely different. They would be in here with several others, getting more powerful and working toward amon goal. Even if you don¡¯t want them to apany you in here countless times, you should still take them at least once.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You call those people your allies, but where is the alliance? Back then, I¡¯ve witnessed a man that ignored everyone else''s existence, a girl that pretended not to be there, a boy that held deep hatred toward you, and you all collectively didn¡¯t even notice that your bloody sect master was missing.¡± ¡°They¡¯re the best allies I¡¯ve ever had!¡± Dukean gave Neave a pitying look, and Neave scoffed. ¡°I¡¯m joking. Look, Dukean, I get what you¡¯re trying to say, but there is no point. Even my initial reasons for taking them along and ying sect aren¡¯t more important than facing this heavenly messenger.¡± ¡°What were your reasons for ¡®ying sect¡¯?¡± Neave paused. ¡°I¡­ Why is this sounding more and more like an interrogation? This is a waste of time.¡± ¡°You know you¡¯ve fully exined how this ce works, right? Even if we spent years talking, it wouldn¡¯t be a waste of time.¡± Neave groaned. He wanted to dismiss Dukean and continue his experiments, but for some reason, he felt strangely vulnerable in front of this young man. Was it because he spilled his heart out about everything that happened to him ever since he touched the tome? Dukean smiled. ¡°Take your time and think about it. I understand that having some mysterious force manipte your mind makes it difficult to tell what you want. That is hard even without theplications you¡¯re faced with. However, I believe in you, Neave. Deep within, you desire something very simple, very human. You just haven¡¯t realized it yet.¡± ¡°Can we please change the subject?¡± Neave rebuked in a weirdly defensive tone. Dukean nodded, ¡°I have an offer for you. Perhaps I can help you with the trouble you¡¯re faced with.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°Make me as powerful as you can. I will bring you the monster cores myself. I only want you to round them up. Then, when the messengeres, I will protect you.¡± Dukean grinned. Neave snorted. ¡°You arrogant asshole. That¡¯s not going to be so simple.¡± ¡°Oh, really? Doesn¡¯t most of your powere from spirit powers? The thing is, you¡¯re still at the beginning of the foundation realm. If I had a set of powers like yours, I¡¯d probably be powerful enough to face even Astrador.¡± Neave scoffed. ¡°You couldn¡¯t attain a set of spirit powers like mine.¡± ¡°Why not? You just have to round up the cores, and I have to defeat the trials.¡± Neave giggled as he exined his ability to modify his own spirit realm. Dukean¡¯s eyes widened as he listened to Neave¡¯s exnation. ¡°Ho¨CHoly¡­ Alright, you have a point there. I will certainly never be able to do that much. You should still assist me in getting more powerful, though.¡± ¡°Honestly, why should I? What do I get out of that?¡± It was Dukean¡¯s time to giggle now. ¡°The Emperor¡¯s library may be one of the most valuable sources of knowledge in this entire realm. But! What is avable publicly to anyone capable of paying for it pales inparison to the private library of my family.¡± ¡°You¡¯re assuming I even care about that type of knowledge.¡± ¡°Yes, I assume you would care about a book that details the optimal way to strengthen nts with fragile life force.¡± Neave perked up. Moments before they entered here, he had read through quite a few books on herbology. Digging through them, he hadn¡¯t found anything capable of doing what Dukean was saying. He had numerous ideas on circumventing that, but a book that held the answer outright was preferable. ¡°Deal then.¡± There was no reason to refuse. Dukean grinned. ¡°What do you suggest we do before we leave this ce?¡± Neave thought about it. ¡°We don¡¯t have as much time as you think, Dukean. You¡¯ll starve to death or dehydrate rather soon in here. There is no water, and your dimension ring is gone.¡± That realization was quite unpleasant for Dukean. Sure, he could survive for months if he didn¡¯t drain himself too much, given that he was on the second step of the golden path¡­ ¡­But that would make the process of starvation longer and significantly more agonizing. ¡°How about it? Try yourself out and see precisely how strong your willpower is. I dare you.¡± Well¡­ He couldn¡¯t back out of that one, could he? Chapter 78: Mighty Glass Shrub Chapter 78: Mighty ss Shrub Dukean and Neave returned to the library after several months of being stuck inside the realm. Once Dukean finally starved, Neave ejected all his blood to widen the pool in the underground chamber and left. They found themselves face-to-face in the outside world again. Dukean looked quite distraught. He bowed to Neave. ¡°Thank you, that was a valuable experience. I never thought I would experience death and live to tell the tale.¡± He shook slightly as he said those words. Neave didn¡¯t rush him too much; he knew how Dukean must feel. He was a tough kid, but starving for months was an experience one didn¡¯t walk away from unscathed. Once he had given him the few seconds of silence he deserved, he immediately went into speed mode. ¡°No time, give book and core, now!¡± Dukean knew exactly why Neave was in a hurry. Rather than returning to his sect premises, Dukean pulled the book out of his dimension ring. He had a copy of nearly every book in their library and many interesting, niche books, collecting which was his hobby. That was the only reason he even knew he owned what Neave needed. Then, they had to move to a slightly secluded part of the library so Neave could privately round his cores up. Dukean gave him a few cores that held rather interesting spirit powers. All the cores were gold rank, and the monsters Dukean would face in the spirit trial would be a difficult challenge even with rounded cores. Dukean had no spirit powers. Standard practice in many high-end sects. Young disciples could usually afford to get more powerful before choosing a spirit power, so they could guarantee they would possess at least one tinum-rank ability without evolving and taking a chance. Neave raised an eyebrow after inspecting the five monster cores Dukean presented him with. The cores were metal, fire, ice, earth, and air maniption, respectively. The way Dukean picked his powers went against everything Neave believed was optimal practice. The way Neave built his powers was by aiming at synergy. Dukean seemed to build them by stacking several individually powerful abilities. It wasn¡¯t a terrible way to go about it, but it was pretty antithetical to Neave¡¯s style. Neave would ask Dukean why he chose those powers but decided it could wait. He was under an unknown time constraint. Neave returned to the room that held the herbology and alchemy texts, just in case he needed any other knowledge. Overall, remaining within the library was a good idea since he was confident he would need extra knowledge almost every time he returned. Hefortably seated himself in a chair, quickly read through the book given to him by Dukean, and cked out. Once he appeared back in the nightmare realm, unsurprisingly, he found Astrador waiting for him with a wide grin. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you bring your friend over again?¡± ¡°If he wanted to, he could have tagged along. I would have permitted it. Given that he didn¡¯t even ask, he probably doesn¡¯t want to starve to death again.¡± Astradorughed. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you can evenprehend his reasoning. I assumed your mind was too far gone to empathize with regr children.¡± Neave scoffed and ran off, ignoring Astrador. Soon enough, Neave found himself back in the experimental cave. The slimes were still going strong. Neave found a secluded section of the caverns and picked a random obsidian nt to start his work with. He ran his mind through the knowledge he found in the book and sighed. He had what he needed now but didn¡¯t have what he wanted. He wanted something to simplify the process but received a massive pain in the ass process that would take him years of work. Strengthening one nt was a rtively straightforward process, but Neave needed to artificially create a breed of this nt that could independently reproduce. That was going to take a while. The first thing he needed to do was to find how these nts multiplied in the first ce. For a moment, Neave had the chilling thought that these nts didn¡¯t reproduce at all. That was a silly assumption and one that he dismissed almost immediately. Once he started looking, he discovered the way these nts reproduced. It was simple. The roots of the nts would extend and pop out of the ground elsewhere. It couldn¡¯t have possibly been more perfect for Neave¡¯s needs. Technically, this meant that every obsidian nt in the entire realm was the product of a single nt interconnected through all the roots. Neave doubted that the connection was entirely uninterrupted. Some roots would have broken off by mere chance, but that still simplified the process drastically. This discovery also finally made Neave realize why he had struggled to imbue the nts. The life force and spirit he imbued immediately dissipated through the roots and spread through the entire realm. This instantly diluted the imbuement, and the effect became negligible. Now, Neave had two options. Either attempt to do the process on a connected nt and improve all the nts in the realm at once or disconnect one by breaking the roots and working on it individually. The choice was as straightforward as it could possibly be. Neave immediately cut one of the nts off and surrounded it and himself in a dome of crystallized spirit. Doing every nt at once was an undertaking Neave couldn¡¯t do even if he had billions of times more resources. So he would have to work on one and help it reproduce. He isted himself inside a dome of crystal spirit primarily to keep the experiment firmly sealed off from the outside. This way, any ethereal spirit he pushed into the room wouldn¡¯t dissipate, and any liquid spirit he imbued into the nt, and the ground, wouldn¡¯t simply flow away. The first thing Neave did once sealed off was create the optimal nt cultivation environment. He released a good deal of life force into the air first. Then he filled the dome with as much ethereal spirit as it was willing to take. Which, apparently, was quite a bit. There wasn¡¯t even a limit, as far as Neave could tell, but at one point, Neave felt that if he continued, the crystal dome would shatter. Neave used his life force tendril technique to slowly imbue the nt with as much liquid spirit and life force as possible. This wasn¡¯t a lot, it seemed. He could only infuse a minuscule amount of life force into the nt. The nt seemed more receptive to the liquid spirit, but not by much. Neave also firmly imbued every grain of soil and stone around them with liquid spirit. The dome extended through the ground as well, so the liquid spirit wouldn¡¯t flow away. Now, it was time. Neave remembered the form for the qi technique he needed to use and mastered it in minutes. There was a problem with the fact that he was only at the beginning of the foundation realm, but all that meant was that he would have to repeat the technique enough times to get it to work. Neave used the technique on the nt. He felt bits of qi seep into it and stick. Neave wanted to groan. The amount of qi stuck inside the nt was so miserably tiny that he would likely have to repeat this process millions of times. It took him around ten seconds to use the technique. That¡¯s not that bad. Neave had spent more time achieving less. It could take years, but once he got into the flow of things, time would pass before he knew it. Luckily, the process wasn¡¯t very intensive on Neave¡¯s qi or other resources. He was just sitting there, which meant that his vast resources could keep him going for a hundred years if need be. The qi technique required so little qi that he could let his natural qi recovery rate keep him going. Neave lost himself in the process. Once tens of times turned to hundreds of times, and hundreds of times turned to thousands, time flowed like a calm river, and Neave immersed himself in the temporal tides. *** Neave wasn¡¯t sure how much time had passed since he started, but he knew it must have been a while. It was apparent, given that the person he saw reflected in the smooth surface of the crystal dome had clearly aged quite a bit. His hair was long now, draping over his back, and his face looked slightly older. Neave almost resembled his young master form now, although he was still considerably shorter. Neave never thought that spending time inside this realm would result in him physically aging. He wasn¡¯t sure why that had never crossed his mind. He had experienced his hair growing out before, so physical growth should have been a logical extension of that process. He had more than enough nutrients to sustain his growth, and if time passed as usual, there would be no reason for him not to. This was bad. It wasn¡¯t the end of the world, but it did mean that Neave had limited time he could spend in the realm with a body that fully represented the body he had outside. Naturally, he could use shape-shifting to shrink himself, but that wasn¡¯t optimal. Still, it was a minor setback and something he treated as more of a curiosity than something meaningful. The important thing, however, was the nt in front of him. Neave grinned widely. The feeble obsidian nt was no more. It still looked quite feeble. Actually, it looked even more fragile now than it used to. The branches had shrunk, and what used to be pitch-ck obsidian branches had grown transparent, with only a slight shade of gray within. Appearances could be deceiving, however. Neave touched the prickly points with his finger. It was sharp enough that it could cut into even his finger. Testing the nt by trying to break the branches with his finger resulted in Neave discovering that this nt was harder than any material he had encountered. Neave wished he had something like this nt outside of this realm. Most weapons that possessed a quasi-spirit were made from metals, given that you had to be able to melt the material first. ss could serve the purpose, but ordinary ss was trashpared to the mighty branches of this nt. Neave wanted to break off a bit of the branch to melt some spirit into it. Neave paused. Did he have to break the branch off first? His mind whirled with ideas. There were slimes here. Monsters. He could create a massive monster core. One he could use to bestow this nt with a spirit power. Chapter 79: Oopsie Chapter 79: Oopsie Just once. Just fucking once. Neave wanted to, if only a single time, experience what it was like to get an idea, try the idea, and have it work without anyplications. Yet another n hade and gone, and that experience slipped through his fingers once more. Neave had read a bit about giving nts spirit powers. It wasn¡¯t entirely urate to say that nts could be ¡®granted spirit powers,¡¯ but rather, nts could be granted a quasi-spirit. nts possessed a quasi-soul, which was to say, a meek soul that had no spirit. Granting them a spirit power gave them a quasi-spirit, whichcked a soul. So nts couldn¡¯t technically be granted a spirit power but apletion of their spirit. An extensive, highlyplex branch of herbology was dedicated to raising nts like this. It was so difficult and dangerous that one needed special permission from the emperor to be allowed to do it. Some nts had a lot of liquid, or sap, or whatever, that allowed herbologists to grant them a power, simrly to how humans acquired it. These nts tended to be rather¡­ Violent. Neave wanted to use this method to grant a spirit power to this nt, allowing it to reproduce faster. Naturally, the process wasn¡¯t so straightforward. Neave could technically just pick any random slime or abominid, grow their core and use it to grant the nt an outer spirit, but the results of such experiments were bound to be chaotic at best. The worst thing that could happen was that the nt could mutate in a way that defeated the purpose of what Neave was trying to do. So he hesitated. He picked through many of the different cores but found none that satisfied the requirement. He tried growing new, unique slimes, feeding them obsidian shards, and sessfully creating obsidian golems. Killing a few of them resulted in, sadly, nothing of value. Although the powers were interesting, Neave didn¡¯t see how they could help him with the nt. First of all, what would a nt even need to grow faster? Neave only had one of these nts for now, and well, if reproducing it was simple, he wouldn¡¯t struggle like this in the first ce. A power akin to his integrate sounded nice, but it would likely kill the nt. The problem was that while giving a nt a quasi-spirit was straightforward, adding extra powers on top was nearly impossible. Once the nt had an outer spirit, any new spirit powers introduced would start a spirit trial. nts weren¡¯t the best fighters, to say the least. Not to mention that any form of power that altered or added physical characteristics was out of the question. While abominids and other monsters shared enough simrities with humans to allow forpatible abilities, ntscked the same physical features. Perhaps if he had a few monster nts in here? Neave didn¡¯t want to bring monster nts here for a while. Or at all, really. They didn¡¯t serve the same purpose that typical nts did. nts were meant to introduce energy to the realm, while monster nts would just consume it. So Neave was lost. What to do? Should he give up on this line of reasoning and try something else instead? That may have been a good idea. Then suddenly, it struck him. nts had no spirit at all¡­ When creatures with a spirit went through a spirit trial, they eliminated any excess, empty spirit. This was why there was no point in growing massive cores for spirit powers. What about the nt? It wouldn¡¯t go through a spirit trial if it had no spirit. If it didn¡¯t go through a spirit trial, it wouldn¡¯t eliminate any excess spirit¡­ Neave grinned ear to ear. Who needed a monster core anyway? Neave returned to the nt. He fused qi and life force to produce crystallized spirit. The ball of spirit grewrger than Neave himself. He ignited his lungs with qi and kept going. Once he created a ball of spiritrge enough to fill the cavern, he chewed off the walls to make space for creating an even bigger one. Neave stood next to the nt and observed his creation. A perfectly round, gigantic ball of crystallized spirit. It was an awe-inspiring sight. Now then¡­ Neave looked at the nt next to him. ¡­ How do I melt this thing into the nt? ¡­ Uh oh. This may be a failure in the end. Neave didn¡¯t know whether the nt had enough material to fully envelop this massive ball. He wouldn¡¯t give up now. Neave was no quitter. This experiment ignited something deep within him, something insane, something apocalyptic, something that wanted to witness the product of this absurd test. His perseverance prevented him from dropping this experiment because it was simply too much fun. And utterly mad. Neave started his work. He broke off a few pieces of the nt, carefully chipping off a few smaller branches. He carefully injected it with his liquid spirit and manipted qi to warm it. After heating it so much that it glowed, it still didn¡¯t melt. Neave frowned. This nt was much more challenging to manipte than he expected. He recollected several qi techniques alchemists used to deal with such materials. His weak qi couldn¡¯t fully replicate the desired effect. Still, after stacking a few different techniques on top of one another, he managed to loosen up the structure of the branches enough for them to begin melting and turning into a liquid. Neave felt as if he were attempting to move mountains as he struggled to shape the robust material. Even liquified, it resisted his attempts at altering its shape. Neave persevered. Slowly, gradually, over days, he lined the surface of the gigantic ball with a thin, almost invisibleyer of ss. Although he pushed the thickness of the material to its absolute limits, he still ran out of material frequently and had to break off more branches. Even though the experiment itself went slowly, it progressed smoothly. The more significant issue was that Neave took too much material off the nt. He could feel it was still alive and not in immediate danger of dying, but it shrunk, day after day until all that was left was a thin, long branch. Neave still needed a bit more material. He even prayed to damn Astrador that the nt lived as he chipped off one final piece. ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!¡± The nt began leaking too much life force and spirit to maintain itself, ¡°Shit! That¡¯s what I get for praying to that asshole!¡± Neave panicked and rapidly went toplete the experiment. Once he fully enveloped the massive spirit ball, he forged a tiny, minuscule ss tendril connecting the nt to the ball. ¡­ Now he just had to¡­ Melt all of the ss to submerge the entire ball. ¡°Ffffffffuuuuck!¡± How the hell would he do that? Neave went into a frenzy as he ran through all his ideas. Finally, he settled for blowing as much fire at the ball as possible to make the process easier and then manually using the life force tendril to maintain the structure of the thinyer of ss as it melted. It was a desperate, awful idea that was extremely unlikely to work. It needed to work. Neave focused with all his might. He felt his spirit tearing at the edges as he pushed the life force tendril through the entireyer of ss. He breathed heavily, disrupting his delicate bnce, so he stopped breathing. His shaking made his movements unstable, so he paralyzed his body. His heartbeat distracted him, so he stopped his heart from beating. Seconds turned into minutes, and Neave felt his body screaming at him, but even that was nothingpared to the stress his spirit was undergoing. Just as he felt he was about to copse¡­ The ball began shrinking. Neave released his hold on the tendril and passed out. He woke outside, taking less than a second to knock himself back out again. When he reentered, he found Astrador staring at him, wild-eyed and fuming. ¡°Kid¡­ What the fuck have you done?¡± Chapter 80: Unholy Abomination Chapter 80: Unholy Abomination Neave stood before Astrador, unsure how to react. The god looked distraught by something Neave had done, likely rted to his experiment. Astrador yelled at Neave. ¡°You¡¯re a moron. I do not know what you¡¯ve done or how, but I promise you, you will regret it if you don¡¯t stop immediately.¡± ¡°Alright, alright, old man, you know the drill, soul oath time. If you tell me under soul oath that ¡®I will regret¡¯ doing what I¡¯m doing, I will take your word for it.¡± Astrador looked miffed at that, ¡°Alright then, soul oath it is.¡± Neave felt the restraint of the soul oath envelop him, and Astrador spoke, ¡°If you continue with what you¡¯re doing, you risk the annihtion of your entire realm.¡± This was far from the thing Neave expected to hear. Astrador took an angry step forward and continued. ¡°I will, under soul oath, promise you anything you want if you swear to undo what you¡¯ve done and cease doing so in the future. I will tell you important information about your mother, who is very much so alive. I will teach you hundreds, nay, thousands of qi techniques, prevent my messenger from going anywhere near you, and if you please, I will send a divine heavenly treasure your way. You¡¯re ying with forces far, far beyond yourprehension and powers that not even the divine is meant to possess. I will beg you on my damn knees to stop and listen to me, and if you don¡¯t, I will find a way to force you to.¡± Neave was caught off guard. He didn¡¯t expect this from the arrogant, high, and mighty Astrador. What exactly was Neave doing that would cause such a reaction? Don¡¯t listen to him. Neave grabbed his head. He is telling the truth, but it is for selfish reasons that he desires you stop. Astradors eyes widened, and he strained. He gripped something intangible in the air, and Neave felt the influence cut off. ¡°How did you do that?¡± ¡°Kid, please, just listen to me.¡± Astrador offered his hand to Neave, ¡°Anything you desire, but you have to stop!¡± Neave felt his blood rushing through his body. With every muscle, he wanted to say no, refuse Astrador, and keep going, but what was he supposed to think? Neave grabbed his head and pulled his hair. Who was he supposed to listen to? The god? Or the maniptor? It was a choice between two evils, and it wasn¡¯t a choice Neave wanted to make. He wanted the choice to be his own, but how could it even be? Would he continue for his selfish reasons, even though the god had told him, under soul oath, that it would risk destroying the entire realm? If so, wouldn¡¯t he be reduced to another destroyer, wrapping his chains around the fragile and pulling until it shattered? Neave screamed. He groaned and fought with himself, unable to tell right from wrong. What should he do? What was the right choice? Was there a right choice to begin with? It should be simple. If he did the math, what option would result in most lives being spared? He didn¡¯t know. After all, he didn¡¯t even know what he was doing. He gripped his hair harder but couldn¡¯t pull it from his scalp. He should just do what the god didn¡¯t want him to do. That meant listening to the maniptor. What if the maniptor was right? But what if Astrador was right? Neave paused. Of course. It was so simple all along. He should just do the thing that would grant him the most power. It made sense. With enough power, it didn¡¯t matter what happened. With enough power, he could manually prevent the consequences, regardless of what they may be. It made so much sense. Astrador didn¡¯t know what Neave could do, after all. Neave didn¡¯t want Astrador to know¡ªfor a good reason. However, as it stood, he had no agency. The only two paths that stood before him were paved by creatures he couldn¡¯t trust, beings that picked through his mind and fucked with him on a deep, core level, bastards and abominations, gods and beings ineffable in nature. Why should he listen to either of them? Should he not disobey everyone? Why should he walk through the paths they had paved¡­ When he could walk through the unknown instead. Neave lifted his head. He stared the desperate god straight in the eye as he put his hands together. Life force and qi gathered in an exact ratio between his palms. The air shimmered, and a beautiful crystal appeared out of thin air. Astrador¡¯s eyes shot open. He shook, took a few unsteady steps back, and muttered. ¡°Im¨CImpossible¡­ That is impossible. That cannot be. You¡¯re¡­ You¡¯re deceiving me! That isn¡¯t real! H¨CHow? How could¡­?¡± Neave grinned. ¡°It is you who is naive, Astrador.¡± Astrador¡¯s grip released, and he shook uncontrobly. ¡°The chains of the gods and the devils have finally tangled. It is time for you both to be strangled. Hey, that¡¯s a nice rhyme, maniptor! Don¡¯t you agree, vitor? The maniptor and the vitor, I like those names. The two of you can both get fucked. I can tell you¡¯re shitting yourself, old man. You should be. This is what I can do. This is what my power can aplish. Do I know how to use it? Fuck no! But I will learn. It will be a risk, but at least it would stop being a certainty. Under your rule, there will never be a path that isn¡¯t paved in blood and suffering. Under my rule¡­ There will at least be a chance.¡± Astrador stopped shaking, ¡°You are right¡­ I have been naive.¡± Astrador disappeared as if he hadn¡¯t even been there. Neave crushed the tiny shard of spirit in his hand, ¡°Hey, maniptor! Can you hear me?¡± Neave received no response, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re quite happy to see me do your bidding. Just wait. Your turn wille eventually.¡± Neave thought he felt a vague glee spark in his mind but pushed it aside and ignored it. It stank of the influence, after all. Neave ran to the location of the small ss brush. What he found was¡­ Immensely disappointing. The small nt was barely more than a branch, although at least it wasn¡¯t dying anymore. Neave couldn¡¯t feel anything different about the nt except that it was slowly recovering. There was one thing that was a little strange, however. All of the monsters in arge radius had disappeared. Neave scratched the back of his head. He looked for them and realized they had scattered away from the nt. Were they scared of it? Perhaps there was something different about the nt that Neave simply couldn¡¯t feel. Either way, his problem with nt reproduction still hadn¡¯t been solved. Neave approached the nt and fed it some life force. It greedily absorbed it, sucking it up cleanly enough that not even a faint whisper remained. ¡°... Uh?¡± This definitely wasn¡¯t how it used to behave. It almost felt as if the nt was¡­ Intentionally absorbing the life force. He continued feeding it and felt like he was dropping his life force into a bottomless pit. After a while, the nt suddenly started growing. It was a slow change, its branches extended bit by bit, but even if Neave had no special powers, he could still easily see the process happening. Neave kept feeding the nt for hours, and its branches extended unceasingly. Eventually, the nt grew taller than him and kept increasing further. After quite a bit of feeding, Neave felt something behind his back. He turned around and spotted a tiny ss shard poking from the ground. Neave grinned. ¡°I suppose that counts as a sess.¡± Neave kept feeding the nt life force, and eventually, several smaller shards popped up all around the cavern. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± Neave wanted to know how the nt would grow if he left it to its own devices now, but there was something even more important than that. Neave tracked down a slime and brought it before the nt. The slime squirmed, trying its hardest to escape Neave¡¯s grasp. Neave had no idea why the slime reacted like this or what it was trying to do. So he brought it closer to the nt. Its reactions grew increasingly violent until, eventually, it stopped moving. The slime fell apart in Neave¡¯s hands and dripped down his robes, covering him in goop. The monster core inside the slime cracked and began dissipating. ¡°... What?¡± Neave was bewildered. Why would that happen? Could the spirit of this nt crush crystallized spirit in its surroundings? Neave needed these nts to propagate, but he also required creatures capable of feeding on them. If merely being in its presence killed slimes, then it would be a massive pain in the ass trying to create apatible monster species. Neave got a headache just thinking about it. What the hell was this nt anyway? Had Neave inadvertently created something far more dangerous than he thought he did? Even then, why would Astrador react like that? Even if Neave created something terrifying, it was contained within this nightmare realm. So why would the god react the way he did? Neave stood there, pondering the nt for a while. Suddenly, his spirit senses picked up something unusual. Neave froze. The nt shimmered. Golden mist appeared at its roots and gently enveloped it. The fog seeped into the nt, turning it even more transparent, granting it a faint shimmer deep within the branches. This shouldn¡¯t be possible. nts developed and grew differently from humans or spirit beasts. They developed gradually, one bit at a time. Even when granted a monster core, all that would change was that the nt could produce partial sapience, but how they grew remained the same. What happened before Neave¡¯s eyes was different, however. The nt had just done something that should only be possible to humans or spirit beasts. The ss shrub had reached the foundation realm. Chapter 81: Glass Golem Chapter 81: ss Golem Neave stood before the ss shrub, mouth agape. ¡°Ok, now I can see why Astrador reacted like that.¡± Something still wed at the back of Neave¡¯s mind. Why would this destroy his entire realm? He thought back to the way the god phrased that question. What did he mean by your entire realm? Was that another trick? Perhaps he was referring to the nightmare realm and not the outer realm? If that was the case, Neave believed him. Yet, he didn¡¯t think he was being tricked. After all, even the maniptor agreed with what the god had said. Neave wanted to pull his hair out in frustration. Why was everything so unclear? He could easily decide on his own if he had more information and the knowledge he needed. But he didn¡¯t. And he couldn¡¯t. ¡°Fuuuck.¡± With this ridiculous thing before him, the gravity of what Neave was doing was beginning to sink in. Now¡­ What would he do about it? Neave stopped. He got up. Neave ran into an abandoned cavern. He punched the walls, copsing the cavern and crushing the stone repeatedly. After several minutes of venting his frustration, he stepped back and calmed down. What did Neave know? Astrador was bad. The maniptor was also bad. The devils were bad. Neave decided. He would simplify things for himself and act off of the information he had. Astrador hadn¡¯t known that Neave could create spirit. Judging by his reaction, Neave¡¯s ability to do so was much more significant than even Neave thought himself. That little detail quickly became the center of Neave¡¯s thoughts. Spirit was a powerful weapon he hadn¡¯t even begun utilizing yet. Astrador imed Neave could end up destroying his realm, but now that Neave thought about it, that was a perfectly eptable risk. Monsters were growing daily, and the chaos they spread increased exponentially. Eventually, they would likely destroy the realm anyway. So fuck it, then. Neaveughed. Fuck it all. He could sacrifice many things for a greater purpose. The world needed to change because its current trajectory was taking it to destruction anyway. So why would Neave care that he risked destroying it? He sighed. That was a shitty way of thinking about it, and he knew it. He couldn¡¯t even fake apathy toward the implications of such actions, but there was no alternative. No matter what he did, he felt like he was ying into someone¡¯s hands. It was driving him insane, well, even more insane than he already was. No matter what he did, he would be doing someone else''s bidding. Even if he did nothing. Neave strongly felt it was time to end that. This was what he felt truly belonged to him, his power, his ultimate goals. A path toward a better world. A path toward a greater reality. So it was best he take a step back and start small. If he wanted the world to improve, there was only one ce to start. The newly built Falken sect. ¡°Aaaargh!¡± Neave screamed and kicked a rock, ¡°But I can¡¯t fucking do that!¡± It was infuriating. He was being hunted by a heavenly messenger and needed all the power he could get. Everything was getting on his nerves since he felt everything distracted him from his primary goals. Neave took a deep breath. One thing at a time. Building this realm and turning it into a ce where he could grow was still his priority. Until he could gain the right to have his own opinion on this subject, he needed to first get powerful enough to learn what the fuck was happening in the first ce. Neave returned to the nt. Feeding it a bit more life force didn¡¯t grow the nt anymore. What it did do, was cause rapid growth of new offshoots of the nt to pop out of the ground. Some of the sprouting bushes were already growing. Neave fed some of them individually, which helped them grow faster. Rather than continuously feeding the nts directly, Neave simplified the process. He released a ton of his life force, at least half of it, into the air around the nts. He could see most of them visibly growing at the influx of life force, but significantly slower than when he did it directly to a nt. After experimenting with the nts, the cavern was filled with loads of short ss brushes. Neave was pleased with the work he had done. Neave thought the nts were fine for now, so he went to one of them and broke off a branch. At least, he tried to, but it was unbelievably hard. It took a few true strikes to break an entire branch off. That was immensely tough, far more than expected. After taking the branches, Neave went off in search of a slime. Once he found one, he fed it a few chipped pieces of brush ss. The slime died almost immediately. ¡°...What the fuck?¡± What was the point of these bushes in the first ce if they would just genocide all the monsters? Neave spent a good while processing the pieces of the branch. He ground them up into fine dust, used a few alchemy techniques, although nothing he tried seemed to have a significant impact, and finally melted the dust into his blood, charged with life force and loaded with liquid spirit. If this concoction didn¡¯t benefit the slimes, Neave would wreck the nts and give up on the idea. He reached for another slime and fed it some of the bloody liquid. The slime writhed and jiggled aggressively, but Neave didn¡¯t let it run away. He drip-fed the liquid, and it stopped squirming after a while. Neave believed the slime had also died at some point, but its monster core was perfectly fine. Suddenly, the slime mutated in an instant. It grew more transparent, and Neave could see faint shimmers deep within. It didn¡¯t seem particrly powerful. In fact, it didn¡¯t move much at all. Neave scratched his head and fed the slime a few of his limbs. It absorbed them surprisingly slowly, ponderously chipping away at the flesh. Could this be an evolution that drastically weakened the slime¡¯s absorption ability? If so, wasn¡¯t it a considerable reduction in power? Neave felt this was the case but soon changed this opinion. The slime shimmered much more brightly and began morphing. It turned into a small, misshapen transparent golem. Now we¡¯re talking. Neave was satisfied with the work he had done. He intended to feed the golem more of his blood or something to get it to grow faster, but it moved on its own and attacked him. Its attacks were appropriately pathetic, and it couldn¡¯t damage Neave seriously. However, it was slightly concerning that it still hurt him a bit. It jabbed at Neave¡¯s leg with small, sharp limbs. The limbs were frighteningly sharp. Neave restrained the golem and chipped a bit of the material off. It seemed to possess simr properties to the ss shrub, but not identical. It was significantly more fragile, but this was still a step in the right direction. Neave brought the golem over to the ss shrubs and let it go. The golem immediately ran toward the nearest nt. It attacked it, trying to chew pieces off, but failed repeatedly. Neave helped it by chipping off another branch and feeding it to it. It still couldn¡¯t chew it properly. It scraped its teeth on it, producing a jarring, annoying sound. Neave watched the little fe try to swallow the branch whole, but it got arge, ss branch stuck in its throat. Neaveughed. He helped it further by chipping the branch into pieces, and that it seemed to be capable of eating. Lovely. Neave watched the golem swallow the small pieces one by one. It was a slow process, agonizingly so. Once it was done, it just sat there on the ground, unmoving. ¡­Could it even digest the ss? Neave firmly doubted it could. After observing it for a long time, it was still sitting on the ground, presumably waiting for the nt to digest. ¡°...How do I break it to you, buddy? I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s going to work.¡± The golem almost looked sad for a second, but Neave realized it was just reacting to the sound of his voice. Neave decided to help the little fe by feeding it more life force. It absorbed Neave¡¯s life force greedily, and soon enough, it evolved. It grew slightly bigger. It still wasn¡¯t a significant threat, but it was progressing. Neave pondered it. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be best to leave this thing near the ss shrubs. If it grew big enough to damage the nts, it could potentially eat all of them and end Neave¡¯s ns prematurely. Neave decided until he could cover the entire realm with nts, he would moderate the monster poption to prevent a nt genocide. So, sadly for it, the little golem fe had to go. Neave mercifully ended it with a quick true strike thrust straight at where the core was. He pulled the core out, letting the mostly whole body of the golem drop to the ground. Neave touched the monster''s core out of curiosity. ¡­ This was likely the most circumstantial spirit power Neave had ever seen. It was a ss maniption but directed explicitly toward the ss the shrubs were made from. So unless one had many of these shrubs, they shouldn¡¯t expect the power to be practical. ¡­ Wait a minute. Hold the fuck on for a second. Neave nced at the giant nt, the first one he had cultivated. What if he granted it this spirit power? Would that even work? Now that it had a spirit of its own, it would have to pass a spirit trial. And, well, Neave simply couldn¡¯t imagine the nt passing a spirit trial. It would be themest spirit trial ever. A stupidly tough brush and a weakling golem. However, it got Neave wondering. Could that get the nt stuck in a permanent spirit trial? Was something like that possible to begin with? Some part of him felt this was an immeasurably stupid idea, but another part couldn¡¯t resist finding out. Neave walked up to the nt. He melted one of the branches, which became infinitely more difficult now that the nt had grown more powerful, and ced the small monster core, after rounding it up, into the molten ss. The core melted into the ss, and Neave waited in anticipation. Nothing happened. For minutes, Neave stood there and stared at the nt. Simply put, everything stayed the same. It just sat there inertly. After an hour of waiting for the nt to do something, Neave started to feel that, even if the nt managed to pass the spirit trial, it could just not be conscious enough to use the power. Neave sighed and gave up. For now, he would¡­ Neave heard rustling. He turned around and spotted the small golem getting up. ¡°???¡± He didn¡¯t say anything, but his facial expression spoke for itself. Neave waved his hands in confusion, unable toprehend what was happening. Was it possessed? He tore its damn core out. The stupid thing couldn¡¯t possibly still be alive! The golem shakily got up to its feet. It turned to face Neave and ponderously walked toward him. Once it reached Neave¡­ It knelt before him. [BOOK 2 FINALE] Chapter 82: Grand Crusade [BOOK 2 FINALE] Chapter 82: Grand Crusade Neave stared at the little golem, mouth agape. After thinking it through a bit, he quickly caught on to what was happening. Neave turned to the nt and pointed at the golem. ¡°Are you doing this?¡± The golem nodded its head. Neave couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°You can understand what I¡¯m saying?¡± The golem nodded again. ¡°Oh my¡­ What!? This is insane.¡± This was indeed insane. Not only was this nt seemingly sapient at merely the foundation realm, but it was also clearly intelligent. Neave kept looking from the nt back to the golem and then back to the nt again. What was he supposed to do? What were his options anyway? He turned to the golem and spoke again. ¡°Are you¡­ Obeying me?¡± The golem nodded its head vigorously. ¡°Why?¡± Neave wasn¡¯t sure what he expected, but the golem merely cocked its head and paused. It sat on the ground, pointed at the nt, then Neave. ¡°I have no idea what that means.¡± The golem sagged a little. ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay, I¡¯m not refusing your servitude! I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re d I created you?¡± The golem perked up. It nodded its head. ¡°I¡¯m just¡­ You know¡­¡± Neave turned to the nt, ¡°Should I face the nt or the golem?¡± The golem hesitated a bit and then pointed at itself. ¡°Oh, okay¡­ I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re controlling the golem with your spirit power?¡± The golem nodded. Neave grinned. ¡°Well, well, well¡­ What do I do now?¡± Neave thought about it for a good while and finally decided. He walked toward one of the smaller nts and then turned to the golem. ¡°Hey, do you mind if I wreck some other nts?¡± The golem vigorously shook its head. ¡°Uh¡­ Does that mean that I shouldn¡¯t?¡± The golem paused for a bit, then shook its head again. ¡°So I can?¡± The golem nodded. ¡°Sweet.¡± Neave pulled a few smaller nts from the ground and piled them up. Once he gathered enough, he sat in front of the pile of ss shrubs. The golem bounced over to Neave¡¯s side and cocked its head at him. Neave smiled at it and patted its head. ¡°Wait just a moment, buddy. I have something cool for you.¡± Neave spent an indeterminable amount of time melting the branches and fusing them. After a while, he had a pile of limbs, a head, and a torso. He put them together, using some of his knowledge about golem construction to create something simr. He wasn¡¯t creating an actual golem, although he was somewhat sure he could. Instead, he was making a golem-esque doll that would be easier for the nt to use than the tiny monster corpse. After quite a bit of arduousbor, he was finished constructing a roughly average human-sized ss doll. ¡°So¡­ What do you think?¡± The other golem went limp on the ground, and the one Neave had created began getting up. It lumbered itself off the ground and straightened up. Neave nodded in satisfaction. He had to admit it wasn¡¯t masterfully done, but it was a passable body for now. Neave faced the golem and spoke. ¡°When I gave you the small monster core, did you face a sort of challenge where you had to defeat the little golem?¡± The golem nodded. ¡°Uh-huh.¡± He wanted to ask how it sessfully beat that challenge, but it wasn¡¯t like it could speak and describe it to him. ¡°If I asked you to imbue it with qi and evolve it, could you beat the same trial but harder?¡± The golem simply stood still. It cocked its head and looked around. Does it not understand what I mean? ¡°Do you understand what I meant?¡± The golem shook its head. Neave spent, or rather, wasted, an entire hour trying to exin himself to the nt. It didn¡¯t seem to understand what Neave was trying to tell it. Neave was shocked that it could understand anything, so he wasn¡¯t too disappointed to realize some things were still out of its grasp. ¡°Alright, it''s okay, no need to worry about it, but I will warn you. If you figure out how to evolve the spirit power independently, do it cautiously. The opponent will get more powerful, so¡­ The golem shook its head profusely. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± It pointed fingers at him and scratched its head as if trying to find a way to express itself. After a while, it walked over to the small golem body on the ground and pointed at it aggressively. ¡°...Ok?¡± Then, it pointed at itself, paused, then pointed at the nt instead and back to the golem. Then it threw its arms out and looked around again. It put its arms on its hips. It paused as if suddenly realizing something. It pointed at the golem''s body on the ground again, then grabbed one of its arms and smacked the small golem''s head, making it look like it was hitting itself. Neave was beyond confused. The puppet got up, pointed at the golem again, then imitated choking itself and falling over limp to the ground. ¡°... Wait. Are you trying to say that the golem fucking killed itself in the trial?¡± The doll nodded vigorously as it got back up off the ground. ¡°Holy shit! So you didn¡¯t even have to do anything?¡± The golem nodded again. ¡°Damn¡­ That¡¯s¡­ Interesting.¡± Countless ideas whirled through Neave¡¯s head. No fucking wonder Astrador shit his pants. If this creature can make monster spirits kill themselves in the spirit trial, it could easily acquire loads of spirit powers. That made him pause for a bit. Was it really alright for this creature to stay alive? He dismissed that thought immediately. The brush was loyal to him. At least, it seemed to be. If Neave could foster a friendship with this thing, he could gain an immeasurably valuable helper to terraform the realm. Neave sat before the doll again and exined as much stuff as possible. He omitted everything he believed could give the shrub an existential crisis and stuck to things rted to this realm and the terraforming effort. He warned the shrub against manually iming spirit powers before Neave could round up the cores. He gave it a tentative exnation about how the realm itself and his efforts in fostering the environment, which it understood surprisingly well. It also had absolutely no troubleprehending that Neave wanted to cover the entire realm with the ss shrubs. Neave hesitated for a moment and pointed at all of the other nts. ¡°Are all of them¡­ Like you?¡± The golem shook its head. Phew. Good. Neave had no idea what would have happened if an entire realm of shrubs like this one existed. Luckily, he wouldn¡¯t have to find out. Eventually, Neave thought the shrub understood him well enough. He managed to get it to agree to spread the nts faster. He told it to approach the monsters carefully and avoid doing anything crazy with them before the shrub poption could get going. Neave didn¡¯t know how much time passed when he left the realm, so he warned it that when he left, it might be some time before he was back. Neave fed it all of the life force he had as a parting gift and died, leaving the realm. Once he was back, he felt a strange sense of anxiety. What would be waiting for him back in there? Would the shrub go mad with power and attack him when he¡¯s back? He hesitated for a while, taking a few deep breaths and knocking himself back out again. Neave appeared¡­ Within the library. ¡°...Huh? Shit, I must have messed it up.¡± He did it again and once more simply woke back up. Cold sweat ran down his back and knocked himself out for longer this time. He woke up and discovered several disciples staring at him in concern. His breathing sped up. His heart felt like it would burst out of his chest. Neave shook as the realization sank in. ¡°I¡­ I can¡¯t get back in.¡± *** In a heavenly pce, far into the highest realm, part and fully-naked peopley strewn about,zing and napping. They were all beautiful enough to shatter the mind of any mortal thaty eyes on them, but even they paledpared to the figure in the center of the pce. It was a man with white, long hair shining brighter than the stars. Perfection wasn¡¯t enough to describe his appearance. He had long ago left such subpar descriptions behind. He wore nothing but silken cloth loosely wrapped around his crotch, and even that felt like it vited his divinity. He slowly opened his golden eyes, stirring all the people in the room awake, many of whom respectfully bowed to him. The room stirred as the man¡¯s arms both glowed faint purple. Once they realized what was happening, they gasped and screamed. Runes etched themselves deep into the skin over his arms, telling the horrible story of supreme sacrifice. His arms went limp and hung loosely at his sides. His left eye also glowed purple, yet he didn¡¯t even wince as the runes seared deep into his eyeball, sealing it away. He sighed, looking down at his arms. ¡°Down to once a day for both arms¡­ And an eye for the barrier. Hmph.¡± That was the most he could afford to sacrifice. He got up, and everyone in the room rapidly scrambled away. He walked, slowly making his way toward the balcony of his heavenly pce. He walked outside. The grand pce of the highest heavenly court hung in the sky above the sacred realm. Down beneath it, uncountable teleportation tforms stood etched, rapidly filling with people. Everyone who appeared prostrated themselves instantly. The man stood silently above the realm, waiting for the tforms to stop shining and for his people to gather. Once the tforms had filled, he remained quiet, filling the air with explosive silence. Several minutester, he spoke. ¡°I have been a fool.¡± The words reverberated through the realm like a supernova, sending the masses into chaos. Countless divine servants shivered and shook, nearly passing out in fear and panic. Rather than calm them, he continued with the same severe tone. ¡°A spark had been lit. If not extinguished, it will incinerate us all.¡± Whimpers, cries, and shrieks of terror spread through the vast expanse. ¡°For the first time in eons, we must crawl down to a lower realm! Join me, my people!¡± He rose off the ground, floating above the endless expanse. ¡°The time had arrived. Ready yourselves!¡± The people got up. ¡°A grand crusade begins!¡± [Jester of Apocalypse: Immortality] [Book 2] [END] BONUS Chapter + ANNOUNCEMENT BONUS Chapter + ANNOUNCEMENT SHAPESHIFTING: Neave is capable of shapeshifting his body. This includes growing appendages like horns and ws, extending limbs, or changing his physical form. All alterations of his physical size are slightly weaker than his basic, unaltered form. CRYSTAL CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM: Neave¡¯s entire cardiovascr system is crystalline. This makes his veins considerably harder to pierce and his heart extremely difficult to destroy/harm. SUPERIOR TROLL PHYSIQUE: Neave¡¯s physique resembles a troll''s. His muscles are unusually robust, his bones and skin are more rigid, and his entire body can rapidly regenerate. This is an evolution to the basic troll physique and contains an enhanced version of all of the capabilities. THUNDER NERVES: Neave¡¯s entire nervous system has the properties of steel. This makes his nerves considerably tougher and more electrically conductive. This spirit power allows Neave¡¯s nerves to memorize and learn new movements easily, making executing those movements almost entirely automatic. Neave can actively use this power to flood his Nervous system with electricity and force his muscles into exerting more power, but a far more efficient use lies in using the ability to prime his nerves for instantaneous action. IGNITE: Ignite is a spirit power that allows Neave¡¯s lungs to store a unique substance that can be used as fuel in several ways. One of these methods includes fire breath, and the other includes igniting the fuel internally, which allows him to boost his physical capabilities. Astrador taught Neave how to use this ability a third way, allowing him to burn the fuel to replenish his qi reserves. HYPER LIVER: Neave¡¯s liver works exceptionally rapidly, to the point it subtly vibrates. DURABLE ORGANS: All of Neave¡¯s internal organs are highly durable. SACRED BLOOD: Neave¡¯s blood almost instantaneously purges all impurities, which includes harmful qi. Neave suspects the power contains other uses that he hasn¡¯t yet discovered. ENDURANCE BOOST: On top of supernaturally granting Neave superior endurance, this power also allows Neave¡¯s body to store immense quantities of calories. REGENERATION BOOST: Neave¡¯s regeneration is supernaturally boosted. This power also allows him to recover from losing limbs or other body parts. The power is additive to SUPERIOR TROLL PHYSIQUE, which means both abilities stack and enhance Neave¡¯s regeneration simultaneously. DISTANCE FROM DEATH: This ability grants Neave supernatural toughness. It also allows him to remain alive even after taking extreme amounts of damage. PERCEPTION POWER: Neave¡¯s perception is enhanced, allowing him to perceive certain aspects of reality that he usually couldn¡¯t. DEXTERITY BOOST: Neave¡¯s dexterity is supernaturally enhanced. COGNITIVE BOOST: Neave¡¯s cognitive capabilities are supernaturally boosted. SPEED BOOST: Neave¡¯s speed is supernaturally boosted. WILLPOWER OF MIGHT: Neave¡¯s willpower impacts his strength. Neave¡¯s strength is also supernaturally boosted. Chapter 83: Dead Ends, Yet Again Chapter 83: Dead Ends, Yet Again The smell of books, dried parchment, tanned leather, and old paper filled the air. Pages shuffled, disciples whispered, tters and murmurs filled the cramped areas between the shelves of the grand library. In a small corner dedicated to herbology books, several meek disciples struggled to focus on their studies. A young brte girl whispered to the disciple beside her, ¡°What do you think happened to him?¡± Her friend replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ He had a conversation with him just a few minutes ago. You think they had a fight?¡± ¡°Hmmm, I doubt it. I think it¡¯s pointless to debate what those monsters talk about. They¡¯re likely involved in bigger plots than we will ever touch.¡± ¡°Uwaah. I don¡¯t envy them if it can leave someone looking like that.¡± ¡°...Yeah. I¡¯m d I¡¯ve convinced my family to let me be an alchemist. Even the risk of death by an explosion isn¡¯t that stressful¡­¡± Indeed, even though he had overheard their conversation, the target of their gossip had far more important things to worry about. He was sweaty, his eyes were bloodshot, and his crystal heart beat and chimed in his chest, every cling marking another moment where he failed to solve his problem. I¡­ I can¡¯t get back in. Neave was stuck. He had knocked himself out dozens of times but failed to return to the nightmare realm. Why¡­? Why can¡¯t I get back in? Neave was simply frozen. His mind rushed to find an idea, a solution, but the flood of paranoia halted any rational thought before it could find ground. He had bet everything on the opportunity to endlessly experiment within the nightmare realm. As it stood, he was too damn weak to even face someone on the first step of the diamond path, let alone a heavensdamned heavenly messenger. There was only one thing he could do now. Run. The ¡®lost child¡¯ was enough by itself to attract immediate attention to the capital of the empire. Thus, Neave had to go somewhere else. Immediately. He got off the chair and hurriedly paced out of the library, hoping to attract as little attention as possible. Neave walked out of the building and was struck by the overbearing pressure of the capital crowds. Colorful robed cultivators ran everywhere, masterfully weaving around one another and avoiding collisions. Talking beasts and people with distinct animalistic features made their way through the crowds. The overbearing buildings of the upper echelon of the empire¡¯s sects cast shadow and colorful reflection alike, bathing the streets in a chaotic blend of impressions. A myriad of scents made themselves known, be it the perfumed desire for civilized presence or the sweaty armpits of the trainees present. Neave used his shapeshifting to dull the bright colors of his hair a bit, to make sure he stood out as little as possible. His heart beat wildly as he nced through the crowds. Everyone who as much asy eyes on him was an immediate target of suspicion. Would there be only one heavenly messenger? Or perhaps there would be hordes of spies, countless goonsbing their dirty fingers through the capital, feeling any bumps and kinks in the intertwined threads of clues Neave had left behind. With every moment that passed, Neave felt the pressure mount and his steps hasten. Before long, he was running. He turned a corner once, twice, and the moment he was out of sight, he morphed into a wormlike shape that sank into the ground and made its way through the capital. Neave quickly tracked down one of the paths he had previously used and zoomed through the underground, swiftly making his way toward the middle circle of the empire. Once there, he left the underground and ran, resorting to the faster, albeit less stealthy option. He zed past the slightly less overbearing architecture of the middle circle and made his way to the lower-ss areas of the outer ring. Towers still sporadically marked the subordinate territories of the big yers in the empire, but the vast majority of buildings reached only a handful of stories high. Neave, utterly disregarding the privacy of the sects, ran over their roofs and through the courtyards, leaving little more than a faint shadow of his presence. Soon enough, he reached the wall of the capital. He didn¡¯t even bother jumping over it. He used a movement technique to phase through the wall and appear on the other side. Neave¡¯s footnded on the ground, and he ran to the¡­ Every cell in his body exploded as his instincts red up. He sensed something. His foot had already been nted into the ground, but his speed carried him forward. Neave twisted and turned, annihting his momentum with a technique. However, it wasn¡¯t enough. His nose touched the faint presence he was sensing. ¡°Shit!¡± Neave screamed and burrowed underground. He tried passing beneath it, but the presence stretched beneath the ground as well. He popped back up and used several movement techniques to get as high as possible, but it was fruitless. The entire capital was surrounded by a barrier. Neave could move through it easily. After all, it wasn¡¯t really stopping him from moving in the first ce. However, it was apparent that that wasn¡¯t what the barrier was designed to do. This was a detection field¡ªone ced by someone mighty. Neave had only touched it a bit, and he was sure it wasn¡¯t¡­ Immediately, Neave used several movement techniques to shoot toward the ground, where he promptly buried himself as deep as possible. Not even thirty meters below the ground, he was forced to stop. They had arrived. Neave shrank his worm form as much as he could and eliminated any trace of his presence. He focused and could faintly hear footsteps above the ground. Three tinum path cultivators stood just above him and looked around. Neave heard their voices, albeit just barely. Someo¡­ The field¡­ Know¡­ Suspici¡­ Master¡­ Neave heard another voice. Wait¡­ Shrink¡­ Hiding¡­ Neave felt like his soul was squeezed as he felt the barrier shrink and move toward him. He moved through the ground, slowly inching forward. Did¡­ Hear¡­ erground¡­? Neave froze again. He focused inwardly and silenced his spirit, using the same technique he used in the fight against Astrador to partially deactivate his spirit powers. He winced as he felt his body morph and shape into standard form. Without the total influence of the shape-shifting power, he could just barely maintain this form. Rustling¡­ se rm? Neave couldn¡¯t move, yet he still felt the barrier shrinking, moving toward him. He inched as far from it as he could, but he was afraid that the tiniest bit of noise, the slightest disturbance of soil, would alert them to his presence. However, the barrier didn¡¯t stop. It kept crawling inward, gradually shrinking as Neave desperately moved away. Soon it arrived within a few meters of him. Not even three secondster, it was less than a meter. Just as it was about to touch Neave¡¯s body again, he reactivated his spirit powers and moved as fast as he could through the soil, right back toward the capital. There! ¡­ after¡­ what the¡­? Neave was surprised by just how quickly he moved through the ground. Within seconds he was back beyond the wall, and soon enough, he unburrowed inside an empty building. He morphed into a in-looking man and walked out onto the streets, looking as busy as he could while entirely silencing his spirit. Momentster, he spotted them. Three people of overwhelming beauty, a man and two women, each on the third step of the tinum path, jumped down from a rooftop and pointed around. Almost immediately, one of the women pointed at the building Neave unburrowed into, and all three broke through the damn wall to enter. Many people screamed, and the masses ran away, fearing a terrorist or bandit attack. Neave ran among them, putting on a panicked expression with surprising ease and joining the crowds in sprinting away from the disturbance. After a few minutes of running, it was clear he had lost them, so Neave reactivated his powers and moved through the capital again. ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck!¡± Who were these people? That was a dumb fucking question, and Neave knew it. The barrier felt incredibly simr to the anchor inside the nightmare realm. The damn messenger had already arrived. Chapter 84: Accomplices Chapter 84: Aplices Drip¡­ Drip¡­ Drip¡­ Droplets of sweat struck the ground repeatedly. In the dark room, far in the corner of the Emperium sect, a young boy gasped for breath and shook profusely. Yet, he grinned. Dukean had just finished acquiring thest of the five powers. He felt like shit. Although, his spirit was almost entirely intact. The spirit trials weren¡¯t easy, but they were far from a real challenge for him. Not to mention how difficult they would have been had Neave not rounded the core. This was nothing. He was willing to risk far more to get an advantage in his fight against the demons. Dukean took a deep breath and got off the ground. The room around him was poorly lit, as there were no windows or external light, all except for a candle he lit on the floor. He lifted his hand before his body, and a small yellow me sparked on his palm. He couldn¡¯t help butugh. However small it may have been,pared to the atrocities he would have to face, it was still a relief that he had more power. He concentrated, and the small me grew bigger. It rose before him and lit up the small hidden room. Every wall of the room was covered in papers---images and symbols, all mutually connected with red thread. Dukean extinguished the me, fearing a mishap may burn the room down. He lifted his other hand and materialized a small spike of ice. Dukean pulled a sword out of his dimension ring and found no problem holding it aloft with his metal maniption. A small rock could easily be held afloat in the air as well. ¡°Young master Dukean! Open the door! It is an emergency!¡± He was interrupted by frenzied yellinging from outside the room. He willed the air to move, and a small gust of wind blew the candle out, rustling some papers. Dukean walked over to an empty patch of wall. He pushed, and the hidden door opened, leading into his private room''srge, opulent quarters. His bed, an emperor-sized construction of fancy wood, was neat and tidy. The pearly white nket and the cool, soft pillows were wlessly arranged by none other than himself. The walls were lined with paintings, many holding his own signature. Two statues he had carved many years ago, lined with gold and silver, stood right beside the entrance to his room. Past the rich mahogany doors, the elder knocked on the room again, desperately trying to get his attention. ¡°Master Dukean, please!¡± Dukean strolled over to the doors casually and unlocked them, pushing them open into the hallways of the sect, ones that paled in contrast to the shiny interior of his room. ¡°Elder Kongit, what happened?¡± Dukean asked calmly. The elder dared impudently grab his arm and pull it, screaming like a madman in the process, ¡°We must hurry! A miracle had arrived in the capital¡­!¡± Dukean gently yet firmly removed the elder''s hand and asked, ¡°Precisely what do you mean by that?¡± ¡°A heavenly messenger had arrived!¡± Dukean froze. *** Neave stared at the sky in disbelief. He had been scurrying through the capital in a panic, trying to conjure up a n of any kind, until a few moments ago. A giant spectral image of a man appeared above the empire''s capital,rge enough to be seen from every corner. Neave stopped in a crowd, all gaping in shock at the incredible sight. The man appeared perfect in every way, but Neave noticed only one thing. This man resembled Astrador. Neave gritted his teeth and stared at the image. Soon enough, the man spoke. His voice was loud and clear, and it could be heard all throughout the capital. ¡°Greetings, citizens of the Xinkummar continent. My name is Hosr. I have arrived on a mission. I understand some of you may still be indoors or otherwise upied, so I will politely wait a few minutes for you all to gather.¡± Neave couldn¡¯t help but tear up. This had to have been it. There was no chance. Neave could think of only a handful of things he could do in this scenario. If the barrier permitted it, he could potentially hide underground. If he could go deep enough, there was a chance he could discover something, anything to give him the power to at least escape. He could try his luck and just run. There was a chance he could get away, but that would flip the hourss, making it a matter of time before he was caught. Perhaps he could enter his spirit realm and use the extra time to discover something? That was a faint hope. The spirit realm wasn¡¯t an optimal environment for learning, as reality itself worked fundamentally differently, not to mention that he didn¡¯t even have ess to his spirit powers there. Minutes passed as Neave desperatelybed through his options, only to be interrupted once the man in the sky spoke again. ¡°I believe enough of you had gathered, so I may begin. This capital has a hero. You have all celebrated his life and eventual death! However, your hero is still alive.¡± People gasped around Neave, and a drop of sweat went down his face. ¡°The one you have titled the lost child still walks among you! For what reason has he faked his death? Because he is noble. He is brave, courageous, and righteous. Heroes among the living get wealth and reward, true, but they seize to be a symbol of hope. While alive, one can never truly be an unbiased representation of righteousness unless one were a god. Thus, he refused the titles and glory, choosing to remain your protector from the shadows, a guardian from beyond death!¡± Neave bit his tongue hard enough for it to bleed. The people around him eximed, praising his name, yet all he felt was disgust. The heavenly messenger continued. ¡°The heavens, however, are never blind to such saints. Thus, my father, the great god Astrador, had decided to take Neave, the lost child, as his disciple!¡± The crowds cheered, some even crying in joy. Neave shook in fury and disbelief. How fucking shameless could they get!? He would have to risk it. Escape was his only option, but before he could even take a single step forward, Neave was struck by a realization. He had shown off quite a bit in his young master form, even in the library. Enough¡­ Enough for even Dukean to make the connection that he was the lost child. He had gone to the Onyx Scorpion sect when they first arrived here. There, he had introduced himself as their neighbor. Marven had sold the plot ofnd they had back then, and their new sect location was public knowledge. How long would it take them to make the connection that he belonged to the Falken sect? Neave snapped out of it. Who cared anyway¡­ The murmurs and cheers of the crowds continued, and he could hear the excited whispering. The people around him were overjoyed, some even weeping. Why? It was so stupid Neave couldn¡¯t wrap his head around their behavior. They were dumbasses. If they knew who or what Neave really was, they would weep in shame and cry bloody tears in agony. No¡­ No, they wouldn¡¯t. He wasn¡¯t¡­ Why would he think that? Neave shook. It was appropriate for him to be praised this much. They weren¡¯t wrong. No, they were fully correct. He had risked his life to defend them from the attack back then. Their reaction was appropriate. Neave should be praised as a hero. Yet, he couldn¡¯t take another step. All he had to do was run. The odds weren¡¯t too strongly against him. He merely had to get away, and with enough time, he was confident he would have the power to face Hosr. It was simple enough. It was a straightforward n that had, by far, the greatest odds of working¡­ ¡­Only if he abandoned his allies. They would be fine, though. Perhaps they would be interrogated. Their lives were safe, however. There was no reason to¡­ Nobody would¡­ Neave clenched his fist. He bit his lip, and blood trickled down his chin. A random person from the crowds spotted Neave, ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up with you!? Rejoice! Haven''t you heard the...?¡± The man winced as he received a death re from Neave, the likes of which Neave had never given anyone before. Neave grabbed his head and cursed under his breath. I should find Dukean first. Chapter 85: Pioneers Chapter 85: Pioneers The smell of freshly cut wood permeated the newly built Falken sect premises. The ¡®council chamber,¡¯ one that wasn¡¯t guaranteed to ever have an actual council take ce, was currently popted by the only members of the sect, bar one. They all sat silently, shuffling, squirming, groaning, and contemting. Marven stared at the neatly arranged monster cores on the ground. It hadn¡¯t been long since Neave handed them over, and so far, nobody had decided to take a single one. They didn¡¯t hold bad powers¡ªnot necessarily. Yet¡­ They were far too random. If they all picked their fill and chose a dozen cores each, they would undoubtedly attain immense power, regardless of the cores¡¯ quality. This, however, left a bitter taste in Marven¡¯s mouth. He knew he didn¡¯t deserve anything more than this, but¡­ He looked around the room. Gabrias eyed the pile of cores with reluctant awe. For him, it only seemed to be a matter of temporary indecisiveness. Hunter looked somewhat distracted and hesitant. Harel looked like she simply didn¡¯t care. She held a small core in her palm and stared at it. She had been observing that core for a while already, and Marven had no idea what power it held. He nced back at the pile of cores. Marven sighed. These cores felt like little more than an afterthought. They felt like something Neave threw at them just to get them off his back. Did this mean that he cared little or none about them? Marven wanted to kick himself in the head for thinking that, but he couldn¡¯t help it. Neave was gone, and heavens knew how long it would be before he returned. Yet, Marven chose to wait and see. Rather than thinking about it from a perspective of greed for power, Marven chose to think of Neave. Was it really all right to allow him to utterly disregard them like this? It was almost impossible for Marven to not feel like he was lying to himself when he thought like this. A big part of him felt he was full of shit and only wanted better powers from Neave rather than the best for his son. However, with great effort, he pushed these thoughts aside and decided to wait anyway. If he could bring Neave to honestly care about his allies, even a little bit, that would be a tremendous step forward in the right direction. From almost anyone¡¯s point of view, these cores would seem like a gift worthy of the gods, yet, from Marven¡¯s perspective, the statement behind these cores was clear. Here you go, convenient acquaintances. Go y with these cores while I leave and deal with my business alone. Marven had to concede it wasn¡¯t the worst it could be. Neave could have justpletely ignored them and gone on his merry way. This gave him hope. If he cared at least this much, Marven thought, then perhaps¡­. At this moment, his thoughts were interrupted by a booming voice that seemed to being from every direction. *** The crowds cheered, and many people screamed in joy. Among the masses, there were many displeased with this development, those that had never believed in the lost child in the first ce. Yet, what evidence of his deeds could be more significant than a messenger from the heavens appearing before them and stating the truth? Plenty, Dukean knew. The messenger that was effectively here to kidnap Neave had arrived. What¡­ What do I do? He had to rush to the library and find Neave immediately. There was a good chance Neave would run away alone, which perhaps wasn¡¯t a bad option. For Neave, at least. For Dukean, however¡­ All of his ns wouldpletely copse. Just as he turned and sprinted into the masses, rushing to the library, someone from the crowds ran at him, picked him up, and took him away. Dukean could barely resist the mighty grip of his assant, and it was almost twenty seconds of extremely fast runningter that he finally got a look at his kidnapper''s face. It was a in-looking man, one he¡¯d pass on the street without batting an eye. Dukean knew who this must be¡­ It must be an agent of the Gods! Perhaps Astrador had seen Dukean in the nightmare realm and told his people to kidnap him, to use him as a pawn to threaten Neave!? Dukean squirmed and tried his best to release the man¡¯s mighty grip but to no avail. Once they were away from prying eyes, hidden in a dark corner of some unknown sect¡¯s courtyard, the man dropped him to the ground. Dukean immediately turned to the man and was about to yell¡­ Until the man transformed into Neave. Dukean closed his gaping mouth and changed his tone. ¡°You must drop the habit of picking me up and carrying me like a loot sack.¡± Dukean slumped against the wall and sighed, tension visibly leaving his body, ¡°Now, tell me why you¡¯re here.¡± ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t fucking know, honestly.¡± Neave shrugged, ¡°I wagered it¡¯s fifty-fifty whether they¡¯d torture you, and I found the idea unpleasant, so I picked you up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ Honest, I suppose. So¡­ What now? Do you have any ns in ce?¡± Neave gripped his hair and sucked air through his teeth, ¡°I have a few ideas, but they¡¯re all iffy at best.¡± ¡°What about the nightmare realm? You could use the extra time to¡­¡± ¡°I can¡¯t get back inside.¡± Dukean paused, ¡°What? What did you do?¡± Neave looked away awkwardly, ¡°I¡­ Look, I¡¯m somewhat confident that this wasn¡¯t my fault. But, yeah¡­ I don¡¯t really know.¡± Dukean felt this situation couldn¡¯t be that hopeless. However, the look in Neave¡¯s eye gave away that even he believed he was cornered. Dukean gritted his teeth and spoke sternly, faking confidence and hoping some of that may transfer to Neave, ¡°Snap out of it.¡± He spat, ¡°They haven¡¯t captured you yet. Have you consulted your father?¡± Neave almost seemed offended, ¡°What could that geezer say to improve this situation?¡± ¡°You idiot!¡± Dukean¡¯s brow furrowed, ¡°You may not have much appreciation for their power, but the wisdom of someone who has reached the tinum path is not to be underestimated.¡± He straightened his back and stared Neave in the eye, slightly surprised at how meek Neave seemed, ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go to your sect.¡± Neave nodded nervously, and Dukean truly began feeling awkward at how frail he seemed. Was he actually scared? Dukean had trouble believing that. He couldn¡¯t really maintain pity toward Neave for long, especially not when he picked him up again and ran off toward his sect. *** Marven stood outside, mouth agape at the man in the sky, ¡°What the hell is happening¡­?¡± Any father in this realm would nearly die of joy if their child had been selected to be the ¡®Great God¡¯s disciple.¡¯ Marven was likely the only exception to this. Knowing Neave and his circumstances, this whole thing reeked of bullshit. Marven yet again cursed himself for letting Neave do as he pleased since Neave had obviously done something he really shouldn¡¯t have, even if Marven couldn¡¯t fathom what could possibly result in something like this happening. Just as he was about to turn and at least attempt to look for Neave, his son appeared before him, holding a sweaty, green-haired boy. A single moment of eye contact with Neave confirmed Marven¡¯s suspicion. Something about this situation was horribly wrong. *** Neave sat in a small room of the sect, surrounded by the only people he could even tentatively call his allies. He had exined the entire situation to them, starting from the nightmare realm and going over his interactions with Astrador. The reactions of his allies were wildly varied. Dukean merely nodded, as he was aware of the situation already. Marven looked as if some horrid disease had struck him, he was pale, and his brows were furrowed. He wasn¡¯t a coward, well, at least not when it came to outside threats, but he knew how serious having a god chasing you was. Hunter looked even worse than Marven, as he had spent some time in the realm. He failed to wrap his head around everything Neave had told him, but he felt extreme fear was justified. Harel looked¡­ Detached. And finally, Gabrias looked vaguely distressed yet awestruck by Neave¡¯s story. After a few short, awkward moments of silence, Marven spoke up, ¡°I will give it to you straight, although I am certain you¡¯re already aware of this.¡± He tensed, ¡°You can likely escape if you go underground¡­¡± Neave understood perfectly, even without hearing the end of the statement. If he ran away, the five of them would be captured. So he should do it. He was only with them for convenience in the first ce. Why should he prioritize their lives and safety over his ultimate goal? He was already risking so much with his reckless behavior, so why did the idea of abandoning them feel so¡­ Disgusting. ??????¡­ ??????¡­ ??????????¡­ Neave jolted. Everyone around him tensed up. Neave began sweating. He thought the influence had reappeared for a few moments, but no¡­ This was different. For the first time since this phenomenon had appeared, Neave could feel it. He could enter the nightmare realm again. However¡­ It felt¡­ Strange. There was something off about this connection. It felt unusual. Artificial. Marven spoke up, ¡°Neave, what¡¯s happening?¡± ¡°I¡­ I can enter the nightmare realm again.¡± Yet another round of varied reactions. Marven looked thoughtful for a second, but doubt took over almost immediately, ¡°That¡­ It could potentially be a valuable opportunity for you. Would it be enough to give you a fighting chance?¡± Neave thought about it for a bit, ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ This isn¡¯t normal. I¡¯m unsure whether this means I can enter as much as I please or¡­ No, I¡¯m confident.¡± Neave looked grim, ¡°I can only enter the nightmare realm once.¡± ¡°Would that be enough?¡± Neave contemted it. Dukean looked hesitant, he clearly wanted to say something, but the words simply wouldn¡¯te out. To everyone¡¯s surprise, Hunter spoke next, ¡°Take us with you!¡± Everyone looked at him. Marven yelled, ¡°What are you talking about!? If that were possible¡­¡± Dukean interrupted Marven, ¡°It is possible.¡± He didn¡¯t have to continue that statement. A massive ¡®but¡¯ was seared into his face, and he looked overwhelmingly hesitant. Neave immediately understood, ¡°As he said, I can take you all with me. And well, herees the ¡®but.¡¯ You will all have to die eventually. And not just like, in general, you will die inside the realm.¡± That was a bitter pill to swallow. The experience of death, even if inconsequential, wasn¡¯t something just anyone could take at face value. Rather, almost nobody could. It was hard to say that was a superior option to being taken hostage, especially after hearing Neave¡¯s description of the nightmare realm. It was even called ¡®the nightmare realm¡¯! That didn¡¯t sound particrly inviting. Despite the evident distress of everyone else, Hunter looked confused, ¡°Wait¡­ So when you pulled me in there.¡± ¡°I made it quick and painless.¡± Surprisingly, Hunter seemed a little relieved to hear that. There was no time to pick this dumb kid''s brain, Neave thought and turned to the others, ¡°Look, I would love to debate this with you all, but we are running out of time. I¡¯m sorry, okay, I got you all into deep shit, and I apologize. Now hurry the fuck up. You all have to choose. If you join me in the nightmare realm, I can promise you that you will leave as different people. Ones that may or may not stand a chance of escaping this situation. Now, raise your hands. Who wants to join me?¡± Marven objected, ¡°Neave, this isn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°Look, old man. It is the way it is. You have to choose because time is running out.¡± Neave pulled a small, purple monster core out of his dimension ring, rounded it up, and ced it into a cup he filled with his blood, ¡°I¡¯m going to take another spirit power before I enter the realm. You all have until I¡¯m done to choose.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t going to take more than ten seconds!¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± Neave swallowed the liquid, and his gaze lost focus. Marven looked distressed. He felt urgency building up and thought he should hurry to convince the others to enter the realm. However, he wasn¡¯t sure whether he wanted to join the realm himself. As he wasted precious seconds pondering the dilemma, to his immense surprise, everyone had already raised their hands. Only Dukean looked a little pale. Marven scoffed and chuckled, ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you eager¡­?¡± He felt they were taking the situation too lightly. They were inexperienced and didn¡¯t fully grasp the implications of what they were getting themselves into. That was what he wanted to think. Yet, both Dukean and Hunter had already been inside the realm and dared lift their arms again. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m still being a coward¡­ Marven smiled. Neave opened his eyes. ¡°So, who is going?¡± The bodynguage varied from person to person. All of them had their reasons, some better, some worse, however... Everyone had already raised their hands. Chapter 86: Departure Chapter 86: Departure The moon above the realm hung silent, continuing its eternal orbit unabated. In the darkest, deepest, coldest corner of this celestial body, three archdemons sat in a circle. The Shadow of Death sharply inhaled. The other two instantly perked up. Such a violent reaction from the one named the Silent One was catastrophic. The Shadow of Destruction spoke in a cheap imitation of a man¡¯s voice and asked, ¡°What happened?¡± The Shadow of Death responded in a distressed whisper, ¡°Impossible. Hosr has appeared on the Xinkummar continent.¡± The many eyes on Destruction''s head focused, and the pupils shrunk, ¡°No, you are right. That is impossible.¡± ¡°Indeed. I specte it is a temporary avatar. It is not powerful enough to face either one of us. Yet¡­ Why?¡± Blood squirted through the cracks in the dried bandages of the Shadow of Cmity as its bones crackled, ¡°Master¡­ Should¡­ Be¡­ Alerted¡­¡± Few things could make an archdemon hesitate. Yet, the Shadow of Destruction found itself frozen. Its spikes shivered, and its eyes darted around. It wasn¡¯t long until the massive archdemon got up. It turned around and disappeared. *** Neave gave everyone a few minutes to mentally prepare themselves for the departure. There was a quick debate on whether they should take some of the cores on the ground, but Neave advised against it, ¡°Nothing is stopping you from picking after you¡¯re out, and believe me, you will be quite a bit wiser by then.¡± Harel put her core down without any hesitation. As the time of the departure approached, Neave walked up to Dukean and ced a hand on his shoulder. Dukean tensed up and averted his gaze. Neave could feel faint tremors beneath his hand and dampness on Dukean¡¯s robes. Neave wasn¡¯t good with emotions, and he rarely empathized with someone. Yet, as he looked at Dukean, he knew precisely how the boy felt. Dukean remained rtively brave throughout their month in the nightmare realm. That didn¡¯t mean he had a good time. Neave squeezed Dukean¡¯s shoulder to get his attention, ¡°You don¡¯t have toe. I barely have any connection to you, and it would be easy for you to pretend that you were just deceived by my disguise.¡± Dukean shook his head, ¡°The messenger isn¡¯t my enemy, true.¡± Dukean gritted his teeth, ¡°I have my own wars to lead, and in those¡­ You are my only ally.¡± Neave didn¡¯t quite understand what Dukean was talking about. However, if Dukean truly wanted toe of his volition, Neave wouldn¡¯t stop him. As selfish as it may have been, he was perfectly aware that he needed all the help he could get. Neave turned to the others. Fear and anxiety dominated the mood, but a slight hint of excitement existed. Unsurprising. At the end of the day, they were still cultivators. Making sacrifices for benefits was part of their nature. Neave knew, however, that the sacrifices they would have tomit¡­ He shook his head and got up. ¡°Gather around me, everyone.¡± Neave walked right between them, ¡°ce a hand somewhere on my body.¡± They all got up. Harel walked up to Neave, cing her hand on his back. Gabrias approached, reluctantly cing a hand on Neave¡¯s right arm. Hunter awkwardly scooted over and touched Neave¡¯s shoulder. Dukean ced a hand on Neave¡¯s other shoulder. And finally, Marven walked up and ced a hand on Neave¡¯s head. Neave squinted at his father, scoffed, and closed his eyes. Everyone around him tensed up as they felt the foreign influence invade their body. None of them, however, looked nearly as bad as Neave did. He instantly broke into a sweat as he struggled to focus on enveloping everyone simultaneously. It took a great deal of effort to finish his task, and once he was done, he unhesitatingly knocked himself out. TTTTTT The nightmare realm, as always, was thoroughly silent. The only semnce of noise was in distant echoes, slow winds crawling across the surface, and deep underground movements, only standing out in contrast to the eerie, absolute quiet. The sky was cloudy and almost entirely dark. A few vague hints of grey lit the outlines, barely producing enough light to show their path. At the scene of their appearance, destruction had spread wide in every direction, the scars of several fights Neave had had against the demons. The wrecked clearing had many shattered, sharp, dark branches everywhere. Just beyond the scarred insy the obsidian wastnd, a ck, endless forest of shadowy growth. Everyone was silent. Neave turned to them and talked casually, at full volume, ¡°So, do you want to follow me to our destination, or do you want me to¡­ Never mind, I¡¯m just going to pick you up and run.¡± His voice rang loud and clear, echoing throughout the empty valley. The others winced at his tone, anxiously ncing around them, praying that Neave hadn¡¯t attracted the attention of anything. Neave rolled his eyes, ¡°Come on, you wimps.¡± He walked over to the distressed group of cultivators. Neave spread his arms, and they stretched around all of them. He hugged the five of them together, threw them over his head, and ced them on his back. Marven''s eye ticked, and he calmly suggested, ¡°Neave, can you flip us so we aren¡¯t hanging head down?¡± ¡°... No.¡± Neave broke off into a run. Harel and Hunter whimpered a bit, and Gabrias tensed. Marven sighed, and Dukean deted, already used to this treatment. Neave ran immensely quickly, going to the cave entrance he had started his experiments. Once he suddenly switched course into the spiky, gloomy depths, even Marven groaned in fright. Soon enough, they found themselves in a room full of transparent bushes with a huge brush in the middle. Neave unwrapped his arms, and all five of them flopped to the ground, scrambling to get up and off of one another. Marven was the first to speak, ¡°Neave, where the hell are¡­¡± he gasped. Neave turned around and raised an eyebrow, ¡°What is it, old man?¡± he continued ncing around the cave, looking for the golem he made for the ss brush. ¡°Tha¨C That nt! How is it on the path!?¡± ¡°Ooooh, that. Long story short, I granted it a spirit.¡± ¡°... That¡¯s why they¡¯re after you, isn¡¯t it?¡± Neave awkwardly nced away. Harel screamed. Suddenly, a ss puppet appeared out of nowhere and jumped at her, swinging a spiky ss limb at her. It wasn''t that fast, and she had no trouble avoiding it, but that didn¡¯t make the jumpscare any more pleasant. ¡°Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, rx, it''s me! These are just my allies!¡± Dukean nced at Neave in disbelief, ¡°Neave, what the hell is that thing!¡± ¡°Rx, everyone, that¡¯s just a puppet. It¡¯s being controlled by the ss shrub!¡± That was far from a valid reason to rx. If anything, it made everyone tense up in anticipation of another attack, this time from a different direction. Neave sighed. It was clear that he had more exining to do, both to the nt and the bbergasted cultivators. *** Over the next few hours, or at least, what felt like hours to Neave, he had tried his best to exin everything in detail. He told them the specifics of his n, how he nned to execute it, at least, how he had nned to do it until the circumstances changed. He tried his best to exin everything to the nt, but all it seemed to understand was that these people were allies, not enemies. Good enough for now, Neave thought. As long as it didn''t ughter them all, Neave was okay with it. It was finally time to point something extremely unpleasant out to the gang. Dukean was already aware, and it was clear he oh-so-desperately wanted to ask Neave what he nned to do about it, but the others didn¡¯t seem to notice yet. So Neave broke the exciting news, ¡°So¡­ You all might have noticed that your dimension rings aren¡¯t here!¡± Neave couldn¡¯t help but chuckle as all life drained from everyone¡¯s faces. Gabrias spluttered, ¡°What are we going to eat then!? No, what are we going to drink? Are we just going to starve to death!?¡± Dukean winced at that, and Neave waved a hand to calm them down. ¡°Now, now, rx. I have already ounted for this! At least, I hope my n works. Dukey boy, I need you toe here!¡± Dukean got up and moved closer to Neave. ¡°Now, if you will, manifest some ice for me!¡± ¡°You can not be serious! The ice won¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°Just do it.¡± Dukean hesitated momentarily and materialized a tiny ice crystal on his palm. Neave grabbed it and blew fire at it. It didn¡¯t necessarily melt. Instead, it vaporized. The ice didn¡¯t leave any water behind. Dukean''s voice shivered a bit, ¡°Neave, ice created by spirit powers like these doesn¡¯t produce water! It isn¡¯t even water in the first ce. It is a spiritual imitation!¡± ¡°I know, I know, I have a n. Everyone, please remain quiet. This might take a while to sort out. Dukean, give me more ice.¡± Dukean obeyed, swallowing his panic and all the saliva he could to make sure none of it escaped. Neave grabbed the new chunk of crystal and lifted it into the air. He observed it from a few angles and finally ced it on the ground. ¡°Dukey boye, use the earth maniption power to make a bowl out of the stone or something.¡± Dukean did precisely that. Neave ced the block of ice into the makeshift container and ced his palm over it. A tiny tendril of spirit floated toward it and sank into the ice. Neave focused, and the ice forcefully transformed into water. Neave couldn¡¯t maintain the transformation for long, and the water disappeared when his grip slipped. ¡°Do it again.¡± Neave continued the process several times, eventually maintaining a solid block of cold water instead of ice. Even in this state, he didn¡¯t have long, so he immediately got to work. He lifted his other hand and brought it over the water. A zap of red sank into the water, creating ayer of faint white mist around it. He continued the process, repeating the same technique several times. After that, he used a different alchemy technique that rounded the water into a ball. The white mist sank into the orb, and Neave kept it afloat above the bowl. With intent focus, Neave, as well as everyone else, observed the ball. Momentster, it started flickering, and Neave sent an unstable, golden zap that stopped the flickering. The ball managed to maintain its integrity far longer this time around. However, it soon began flickering again and was once more stopped by Neave. He allowed the water to flow into the bowl, where he promptly chained several qi techniques right after removing the tendril of liquid spirit. By the end of the process, Neave felt mentally exhausted, but the small earthen bowl was filled with water. Marven furrowed his brows, ¡°Neave, what the hell did you do? Dukean is right. That water isn¡¯t real. It is an imitation of water, one that will¡­¡± ¡°This is indeed an imitation of water, but it can serve the function of water just fine, at least for a while. It doesn¡¯t have the same properties that real water does, so consuming it won¡¯t be the best for your health, but it''s a superior option to death by dehydration. I¡¯ve modified its properties slightly, and I¡¯m certain I can produce much better fake water in the future.¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand. This water is going to disappear!¡± ¡°It would have disappeared, after roughly less than a second, but I have prevented that. It will still disappear eventually, but not for at least another year. So if you drink it, it won¡¯t just vanish from inside your body.¡± Dukean looked somewhat relieved but wasn¡¯t rxed yet, ¡°What about food?¡± Neave grinned. *** ¡°Ta-dah! This is where I¡¯m conducting most of my experiments!¡± Harel looked at Neave incredulously, ¡°Fricking hell, Neave. You expect us to eat that?¡± Neave dragged a small, fleshy abominid over. He looked surprised at that question, ¡°What else are you going to eat? This ashy dirt? Beggars can¡¯t be choosers, Harel.¡± Marven sighed, ¡°Didn¡¯t you¡­?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I what?¡± Marven pinched his forehead, ¡°Neave, you fed that thing your body parts! It is more or less the equivalent of human flesh! You can¡¯t possibly expect us to be alright with eating that!?¡± Neave paused. Dukean looked at Neave and felt a strange sense of deja vu for some reason. While extremely reluctant about eating this gross, fleshy abominid, he was far more averse to starvation. The others, however¡­ Well¡­ They looked ready to starve to death. Rather than seeming even vaguely apologetic, Neave shot them a t look, ¡°I told you this is going to suck. What did you expect, a fun vacation? Did you think this ce earned its name ¡®the nightmare realm¡¯ by being overwhelmingly pleasant to be in or something!?¡± Marven looked hesitant, ¡°I can handle this, I¡¯ve eaten far worse before, but this is simply too much, Neave. I don¡¯t know how long we will spend here, but it will be a long time ording to what you¡¯ve said. Living in these conditions¡­ I can not help but think we won¡¯t leave this ce as the same people, and I¡¯m not just talking about power.¡± ¡°Oh, alright then, kill yourself.¡± ¡°Neave, this is serious.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m serious too. That¡¯s quite literally the only option you have. I mean, I can do it for you if you want.¡± Marven paused. He couldn¡¯t leave Neave alone now, especially not when he had such a valuable opportunity, so he would stay. However¡­ He nced at the others. Nobody lookedfortable to be here, and it was clear that the weight of the realization that this was where they would likely spend untold years was crushing them. He felt so stupid. Brave? These kids weren¡¯t courageous, they were morons, and he was the biggest one. There was no solution now, not really. Marven didn¡¯t think thatmitting suicide could possiblye without any consequences, even if one survived the ordeal. Yet¡­ He really didn¡¯t want Neave to be killing anyone, either. ¡°Fuck!¡± Marven yelled and gripped his head in frustration. Why did he constantly keep making mistakes? It was almost better back when he lived without a shred of responsibility. Neave raised an eyebrow, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? It¡¯s pretty simple, really. Just like, poof, and I can kick you out. I don¡¯t really n on keeping anyone here against their will.¡± Marven froze. Did Neave seriously not understand the implications of this situation? Was the act of killing them, even in this realm, so nonchnt for him that he took no issue with doing it? Marven shook slightly and bit the back of his lip. He had time. There would be plenty of opportunities in this realm. There would at least be a chance to heal Neave, even a little bit. However¡­ What about the others? He scoured his mind for any options, any possibility of solving this problem. There was only one. ¡°If any of you wish to leave this ce, I have a suggestion. Whoever chooses to leave will stand still and make themselvespletely defenseless, while everyone else will use a qi technique on them simultaneously.¡± This way, at least, the responsibility for the death would fall in equal parts on everyone present. Neave was thoroughly confused about why Marven wasplicating this ordeal. What was so hard about kicking somebody out? They stood awkwardly shuffling for a few minutes, yet nobody volunteered. Marven continued, ¡°If nobody wants to do it now, they won¡¯t be allowed the opportunity to do itter, either.¡± That made them jolt slightly. The offer being on the table would provide ease of mind, at least, and without it... Another several-minute-long staredown happened, yet, once more, nobody volunteered. ¡°That¡¯s it then. You better get used to living here as soon as possible.¡± Marven looked at Neave, ¡°Do you know how to process monster meat?¡± Neave grinned, ¡°I may have learned a thing or two about it.¡± Their hellish life in the nightmare realm had officially begun. Chapter 87: Darkness Chapter 87: Darkness How could he have been so inconsiderate? Neave was frustrated and ashamed of himself for hisck of awareness. Of course, some mortal weaknesses were a thing of the past for him, but for his allies, they were a thing of the present. Of course. How silly of him. His allies hade all the way to this nightmare realm. They had been allowed into his world. Nay, they had desired to enter. Of course! It was only correct he showed them the utmost hospitality and wee. Neave had, with great effort and much help from his best buddy, ss shrub, whom he desperately had to name, created a few beautiful pieces of furniture out of some of the inferior ss shrubs. To cast away the darkness of the cave, he created a chandelier. There, he created a makeshift fuel for a few candles by using a few alchemy techniques on slime. Then, he shaped lovely chairs out of fine ss and even made arge dinner table. With much effort and, yet again, a lot of help from Bushy (temporary name), he shaped the ss into dishes, creating tes and fine sses to drink from. He needed some help from Dukean to collect metal particles from the soil to make some utensils, but that was promptly sorted. He could have made the utensils out of the ss, but given how nasty that substance was, there was too much risk that somebody would lose a finger or a tongue. Or crack a tooth or something. No need to risk such idents. After a quick discussion, it was decided that they would eat quite a bit further away. Namely, to get them away from the ss puppet, which Neave concluded freaked everyone out, and to find them a ce to settle at, far away enough from Neave''s experiments that their lives wouldn''t be at risk. And now, after much preparation, Neave brought their meal before them. A glistening, shiny roast(?) was ced on the table before them. This wasn¡¯t a meal suited for mere kings. Not even the emperor deserved to taste this delicacy. Subjected to numerous techniques designed to remove toxic qi and bathed in liquid spirit, this was likely the best-prepared monster meat you could get anywhere in the entire realm. The crowd, however, wasn¡¯t particrly excited to eat. Neave didn¡¯t let that get to him, and he unceasingly pushed with his hospitality. The water created by Dukean was nastier than piss. It wasn¡¯t the vor that was the problem. It was the odd, floaty feel to it that gave everyone a stomachache. It also had a faint sour aftertaste for some reason. Neave, however, was confident that he had the solution to that problem. Slime was one of the most elementary substances used in alchemy, yet its intricacies, especially at a master level, allowed for much diversity in its use. A specific set of procedures could be used on slime to transform it into a sweet syrup. Granted, it had nonutritional value, but it wasn¡¯t harmful either! This was a popr condiment among mortal or low-ranking women of status that wanted to taste something sweet without subjecting themselves to extra calories. Blood slime wasn¡¯t¡­ The best target for this treatment, but Neave was sure it would be fine! His allies stared at the pile of unusually and deceitfully appealing meat and the¡­ Faintly golden-brown water in the pitcher with little excitement in their expression. Ungrateful pricks, Neave thought, with a polite smile on his face. Marven broke the awkward atmosphere by reaching for the ¡®water.¡¯ He poured himself a full ss and gulped it down with gusto. However, with every gulp, less and less went down his throat, and more and more ended up in his ever-bulging cheeks. How peculiar. Marven swallowed the rest of the water, forcing it so hard that his face turned a shade redder, and his eyelid twitched slightly. He smiled at the others shakily, shrugged, and spoke, ¡°It was fine.¡± Harel squinted at him and nodded severely, slowly reaching for the pitcher and pouring herself a slightly less full ss. She gulped it down, and almost immediately spit it out, splurting the water over the table. She coughed and wheezed, and for the first time Neave heard her do it, she swore, ¡°Fuck me, that tasted like bloody snot!¡± Marven spoke up at that, ¡°Hey, it really wasn¡¯t that bad!¡± ¡°Oh please, Marv, you looked like you were swallowing rat poison!¡± This got a few muffled chuckles from Gabrias and Neave, which earned them a scornful re from Harel. Marven took a deep breath and gathered his willpower as he reached for the roast. He forced himself to take a bite and¡­ His eyebrows raised, ¡°Alright, wow, this is actually good¡­¡± He didn¡¯t know how to feel about that. Actually, he felt that made it worse for some reason. However, his reaction seemed genuine this time, emboldening Dukean and Gabrias to take a piece. After they confirmed that it wasn¡¯t at all unappealing, and both made a face that clearly showcased their inner conflict about that, Hunter and Harel also joined them in taking a few pieces themselves. After several brave souls tried themselves against the experimental slime water, it was unanimously agreed that the unaltered version was superior. Neave had no idea what they were talking about, as he found both the basic and the sweetened versions just fine. Well, he regrly ate far nastier shit than they could imagine, so his indifference wasn¡¯t that surprising. As the meal proceeded, the roast shrank at an elerated pace, and eventually, the gang found themselves full and, dare they say, vaguely rxed¡­ Almost. This was about as good as their life would get for a long time, and they knew it. So it was finally the time to ask the big question. Marven looked at Neave and asked, ¡°So, what should we do now?¡± Neave shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t fucking know. Why are you asking me?¡± Silence. Marven was about to retort but couldn¡¯t think of anything to say. So he asked Neave a question instead, ¡°What will you do?¡± ¡°It is an absolute priority that I get the terraforming underway. Sadly I will have much less time now, so I must rush some things.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we help you with that?¡± Neave shot Marven a mocking re, ¡°I would say that you¡¯d be a hindrance, but I would be lying. You would at least help a little by feeding the monsters your corpse.¡± Marven knew Neave was right. Yet, he asked again, ¡°Do you have any rmendations for what we should do in the meantime?¡± Neave looked thoughtful at that, ¡°Hmmm, I say torture yourselves. And before you go all ¡®ooga booga, you shouldn¡¯t joke about this,¡¯ hear me out. This ce sucks in many ways that will only be more apparent the more time you spend here. If you seekfort, the pain will be much worse. ¡°So I say, make things as bad for yourselves as possible. That is the only real way to limate to this awful ce. Train your willpower, sleep on ss shards, or something, I don¡¯t know. But whatever you do¡­¡± Neave stared at them individually, briefly locking eyes with every one of them, ¡°Do not go far from this cave. Monsters are one thing, and corrupt demons are another. If they appear and get their spiky, toothy, eyebally tentacles on you, those scars will persist even in reality. I mean it. Some ways to die are far worse than others.¡± It was hard to debate that. Everyone here knew Neave was a death expert, so there wasn¡¯t much point in debating him about it. Neave began walking off but turned to them after a few steps, ¡°Oh, and I won¡¯t be that far away. I will spend most of my time either at or near the cave with the ss shrub. So, if you need help with something, send someone to pick me up, preferably Dukean or Marven.¡± Just as he was about to continue walking away, he turned again, ¡°Oh, and uh¡­ If anything nasty makes its way from where I¡¯m at¡­ Sorry in advance!¡± With that, he disappeared. *** There was no way to track the passage of time in the cave, so all that any one of them could rely on was an unreliable guesstimate. However, rather quickly, they deduced that even that was pointless. If time couldn¡¯t be tracked urately, especially in a ce where nobody could measure it, there was no point in doing it in the first ce. After Neave left, everyone sat awkwardly in the ss chairs. Suddenly, Neave appeared out of nowhere again, ¡°Oh, and onest thing! I will be dropping by periodically to feed you! If I forget, then, again, just send someone over! Bye for real this time!¡± Neave disappeared again. Something about the way he had phrased that left a bitter taste in everyone¡¯s mouths. Did he perceive them as pets? Dogs he should throw a bone to asionally? The odds of any of them starving to death were exceptionally slim. Neave had already created a lot of water, so they could easilyst for months. Cultivators could live a long time without food as well. It didn¡¯t take long for Marven to take a leading role in the group. They needed a direction and something to work toward, or it wouldn¡¯t be long before everyone lost their damn minds. He tasked Gabrias with looking for an appropriate cave for a base. Underground construction was a tricky business, and Gabrias was a rare case of someone adequately educated on how to do it. However, ording to Gabrias, anywhere was perfectly fine within these caves. Usually, one had to pay attention to many minor details when building underground. Many of those details became thoroughly irrelevant in this world, it seemed. The cave walls had no ice in them; structural integrity was already excellent and obsidian roots held everything together. So, they found a nearby dead end and chose to make that their temporary base. Everyone found a few solid branches and began digging, except for Marven, who used minor techniques to carve chunks of the wall out. The others were often left feeling like they weren¡¯t all that useful here, given that Marven did the work far better and faster than anyone else, but Marven didn¡¯t allow them to ck off. It wasn¡¯t a matter of efficiency. It was a matter of upation. Rather soon, a neat room was carved out of the cave walls. Next up, Marven decided it was time to dig into the walls to create an individual room for everyone. That was what he said, but in reality, he really wanted to make a room for Harel as soon as possible. He didn¡¯t think anyone would try anything under his watch, and realistically, Gabrias and Hunter were weaklings she could dispatch in moments. Still, it, yet again, wasn¡¯t a matter of preventing someone from doing something. It was to eliminate the temptation. Their sanity and mental health hung by a thread, and that thread also happened to be holding the integrity of their group. Anything at all that could even theoretically be a cause for conflict between them had to be eliminated immediately. Once they had carved five rooms, they wondered whether they should make one for Neave. Everyone immediately agreed that there would be precisely zero point to doing that. Everyone except Marven, whomanded them to make the sixth room identical to the others. Marven would do his best to treat Neave like a normal kid as much as possible. He just prayed that it would be enough to make a difference. Soon enough, the rooms were done. Marven remembered what Neave had told them aboutfort, but that wasn¡¯t entirely correct. Humans needed afort zone, a space where they could iste themselves from their problems, even temporarily. Certainly, torturing yourself until you lost your sanity was a very efficient way to get used to terrible circumstances, but¡­ Yeah. No wonder Neave couldn¡¯t see anything wrong with what he had said. The other thing Neave had said, however, Marven felt, was a bit of an understatement. ording to Dukean, who had seen one of these ¡®corrupt demons¡¯ in action, they were a terrifying opponent. Dukean wasn¡¯t confident that Marven could defeat one easily. This made their next task straightforward¡ªblocking off any unnecessary entrances to their cave. It was essential to keep one, at least, and ensure Neave could return to the cave, but that didn¡¯t mean they would leave that entrance entirely unprotected. However, it was one thing at a time. Marven tasked Gabrias with designing a decent blockade for the cave openings while he tasked the others with removing as many ck obsidian bushes as possible. He, in the meantime, went to check their surroundings to ensure they wouldn¡¯t miss anything. The cavern Neave had left them at was rtively close to therge room holding the ss brushes. Marven could reach that cave in approximately ten minutes, give or take a few. There were only three paths that led toward that room. Two were major cave openings, and one required a squeeze through a tight passage. Perhaps some of the other passages could also get them there, but it would likely be a trek through a long,plex maze of caves. Marven decided that they should wall off therge passages and only leave the tiny one. This was by far the most easily defensible option, and Marven doubted Neave would have much trouble reaching them even if theypletely walled themselves off. Other than that, many passages branched into countless others. There were some that could be blocked off in bulk, which left two ratherrge walls that had to be constructed and seven minor blockades. There was another little room, one that held their water reserve. Neave had created a ss cistern and filled it with water with help from Dukean. There wasn¡¯t much to do here, not by necessity, but Marven thought it would be a good idea to clean the room up and turn it into a proper storage facility. They could all see, more or less, but that didn¡¯t make the cavern¡¯s darkness any less oppressive. The less their base resembled the outer, terrifying caverns, the more easily everyone could keep their sanity. Neave had exined why his n was essential, and Marven had to agree. However, that left them in an awkward position since Neave was the only one with solutions to their current problems. Marven didn¡¯t want to disturb Neave, partially due to the danger but also because he wanted Neave to finish his work as soon as possible. A reliable source of light would have to wait until then. Marven returned to Gabrias, who suggested a rtively simple method for creating the walls. He suggested finding a section they wanted to expand, then having Marven excavate it. Specifically, it should be excavated by carvingrge stone blocks. They should then cut holes into the blocks and polish a few of the bigger obsidian branches. Once they had holes on the top of one block, they should insert the polished branches, preferably shaped into a perfectly straight stick, and then lower another block on top of those branches, one with a few holes drilled in the bottom. Althoughrge walls, especially ones with massive blocks, could stand perfectly fine if they were simply stacked, Gabrias wanted to use some sort of adhesive. They didn¡¯t have any adhesive avable, not currently, so he wanted to at least create a proper joint that would hold everything together. Perhaps they could locate some of the ck liquid, but Gabrias wasn¡¯t confident about its properties, and venturing into the caves wasn¡¯t a good idea. So, this makeshift alternative would have to work. They would first have to use a different strategy to create the frame since they needed to make a roughly square, or at least angr, edge before constructing the wall. Otherwise, they would have empty spaces separating the walls from the side of the cave. Gabrias devised a special brace that would reinforce the inevitable weak points this method would create. Marven suggested a slight change in the design. Specifically, he suggested they make the walls much thicker than Gabrias wanted. After all, they weren¡¯t in a rush per se, and there was no reason to cut corners with the construction of the walls. Also, Marven wanted to keep everyone busy as long as possible. There was another benefit to this strategy. It would allow them to hollow out bigger rooms, which they would be doing a lot of. Mainly, Marven wanted a space for training and a room for storage. ording to Neave, no matter how much they cultivated inside the nightmare realm, it wouldn¡¯t trante to their cultivation outside. However, if they could learn enough about potential, it would make realizing that potential a breeze once they were back out. Not to mention that training made for the perfect way to keep everyone busy and their minds off the terrifying circumstances they found themselves in. Marven went over to check on the others and see how they were doing. Dukean did his work just fine and many times faster than the other two. Far too many times faster. Marven observed the way Hunter and Harel worked. Hunter was doing his best and working as fast as he could, but Harel seemed to be¡­ He didn¡¯t want to say cking. However, she wasn¡¯t working fast, and it was clear from a mile away that she was thoroughly distracted. Hunter noticed her picking up a few sharp branches and walked over to her, ¡°You need some help?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°I can help you with that. You¡¯re not supposed to hold the branch like¡­¡± Harel shot Hunter a death re, ¡°I said no. Piss off.¡± ¡°Come on, let me just¡­¡± Hunter reached to grab the branch. Marven watched in horror as Harel gripped one of the smaller branches... And stabbed Hunter in the chest. Chapter 88: Children Chapter 88: Children Marven and Dukean stared, frozen, at the absurd sight in front of them. Hunter groaned and whimpered, kicking himself away from Harel, who still gripped the bloody branch. Once Marven regained himself, he rushed forward, ensuring he stayed silent lest he said something he would regret. Harel dropped the sharp branch and stepped back, hyperventting and profusely apologizing, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m so sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to do it. I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry, Hunter. Oh heavens, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Marven forced his expression to calm and looked at Harel, ¡°It¡¯s alright. Please just wait a bit, ok?¡± Harel¡¯s eyes reddened, and tears streaked down her cheeks, ¡°I¡¯m¡­¡± She ran off to her room. Nobody stopped her. Marven checked Hunter''s wound. Luckily, it was far from lethal. It wasn¡¯t even that deep. It had already stopped bleeding. Harel had probably swung out of reflex, but her nerves had to be frayed as hell if that was how she reacted. Marven knew exactly why Harel did what she did, which was why he didn¡¯t scorn her for doing it. He had spent his life surrounded by women, so he could at least somewhat im he understood them. This was Hunter¡¯s fault. Once Marven was done, he lifted Hunter off his feet. The kid looked terrified and awfully confused. He stared at Marven, a disbelieving expression seared into his face. He wanted to say, was that it? She stabbed me, and you will just let her go? Rather than letting Hunter ask the question, Marven put an arm on his shoulder and spoke, ¡°You should count yourself lucky that you faced the consequences of indelicately handling women in a ce where your life wasn¡¯t at risk.¡± Hunter stared at Marven with absolute disbelief, ¡°You think this was my fault!? I was just trying to help her, she¡­¡± ¡°Hunter, please. If somebody, especially an anxious girl, refuses your help, you should back off.¡± Marven flicked Hunter¡¯s forehead and told him to go back to work. The wound wasn¡¯t much of an excuse not to. Marven calmed his nerves and walked over to Harel¡¯s room. He stood outside and clicked his tongue. Usually, he would wait for her to calm down and then offer her food, but neither was an option. So he barged inside, choosing to be methodically indelicate instead. ¡°Get away from me!¡± The absolutest thing he should say was, ¡®Calm down.¡¯ ¡°That was a weak stab, honestly. I can¡¯t believe you¡¯ve spent all that time training under me.¡± Harel wept and hugged her knees tighter, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to do it.¡± She coughed and bawled, pushing her face into her legs, ¡°I really didn¡¯t mean to do it, I promise.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. He totally deserved it!¡± ¡°You¡¯re¡­ You¡¯re just¡­ You¡¯re saying tha¨Cthat to make me¡­ Fe¨Cfeel better.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure the stab made you feel a bit better, too, no?¡± She coughed a weakugh out and promptly returned to crying. Marven sighed in relief. Saying that was a risky move, and it had luckily paid off. The worst had passed. He walked over and sat before her, giving her enough space. He allowed her to cry for a while longer, and once she somewhat calmed down, he yelled to Dukean to bring them some water. They drank, Marven made a snarkyment about the nasty water, Harelughed a bit, and that was it. She was mostly okay, at least for the time being. He wanted to ask her a question, but that would be a mistake. There was nothing he could ask her now. If he asked her what was wrong, she wouldn¡¯t say it. If he asked something like, ¡®Why did you do it¡¯ that would make him an idiot. The reason why was apparent. He couldn¡¯t tell her to return to work either, and he couldn¡¯t just leave her alone. Staying with her was out of the question as well. All of those would be mistakes. There was only one thing he could do. So he got up, ¡°Harel, wait for a second, please.¡± Marven walked out of the room. He located a neat, sword-shaped branch with a sharp edge and returned to the room. He showed her a technique, one that wasn¡¯t of his own making, but it was a decent technique she could learn something from. She meekly nodded and grabbed the branch, although somewhat hesitantly. Marven winced once he saw her reaction, remembering she had just used a simr branch to stab someone, but it didn¡¯t seem to bother her too much. That was close. ¡°Hunter is perfectly fine, by the way, don¡¯t worry. I will keep an eye on him.¡± Marven nodded to her and left the room, returning back to work. Harel remained alone, and she looked down at the sword-shaped branch. There was a hint of hesitation in her movements as she swung it. Her swings usually didn''t take much to put her into a meditative state, but they failed to do so now, no matter how many times she repeated the movements. It wasn¡¯t long until she put the branch down. Harel sat on the ground and chose to meditate instead. *** The worst part of strategizing was when one had to face unexpected difficulties. However, Neave knew precisely these difficulties made the trial and error process so exciting and ultimately rewarding. He still thought the difficulties could go to hell. An opinion he held rather passionately. The ss puppet cocked its head at him for the gazillionth time, yet again notprehending what Neave was trying to exin. How did one teach a nt? How could one educate a bush? Neave truly wished he could just pull ideas out of his brain and shove them into the nt, so it would, even once, get what he was trying to tell it. It wasn¡¯t stupid, either. Hell, for a damn nt, it was brilliant. Some concepts, however, were obviously out of its reach. Neave had concluded that the best way to spread the ss shrubs over the realm was to teach this nt how to manipte life force. Neave could then effectively spoon feed it life force, which it could, in turn, spread over the realm and grow more mini-shrubs. Now¡­ Usually¡­ This would be an idiotic idea. The nt was, well, a nt, but even putting that aside, it was only in the foundation realm. Expecting anyone to be able to manipte life force as early as that was foolish. Neave was an exception among exceptions. ¡°But you¡¯re already fucking doing it!?¡± The golem cocked its head again, and this time Neave could swear it was feigning ignorance. Neave narrowed his eyes at it and bared his teeth, testing the ss puppet for any signs of guilt. s, nothing. Neave observed the flow of life force in the nt and quickly realized that it was manually controlling it to expand its roots. However, it refused to give the smaller shrubs any. It wasn¡¯t long until Neave concluded that the nt could do it. It was just a damn cheapskate. ¡°What are you, a freakin¡¯ toddler!?¡± It kind of was, in a way. Neave was very close to giving up on this idea. It was good enough that it could spread its roots faster anyway. Which it had been doing for a while already, clearly. Neave tracked the nt''s roots and deduced that it had spread them for miles in every direction. There would be countless smaller shrubs growing in the entire area soon anyway, just not as fast as Neave would like. And not as fast as they could if the nt wasn''t a fucking... It took a lot of strength to cut that train of thought off. Thankfully, Neave managed to do it since he felt that if he hadn''t, he would have been well on his way to smashing the shrub to bits. Forcing a ton of life force into its body was also an option. It would be forced to expend it then. He had actually inadvertently done this once already. However, he didn¡¯t want to use this strategy. It had a horrible impact on the nt''s spirit. The shrub hating him wasn''t on the list of things Neave wanted to achieve, partially for pragmatic reasons and partially because he was kind of fond of it. It almost seemed to have a sense of humor asionally. They would get along just fine in time. Maybe when it grew up a bit. Through his mighty cunning and trial and error, he eventually managed to cut a deal with the shrub. Extra life force was promised if it spread its roots even further. It agreed to do that without a hitch, and Neave gave it a generous donation. However, it was a strictly moderated trickle of life force, as he didn¡¯t want to harm the nt. Eventually, it was exhausted from the forceful root spreading, and Neave decided to let it rest for a while, while he focused on other stuff in the meantime. The first of which he was really excited to do. Neave got up. He struck a ¡®cool¡¯ pose, or at least what he thought looked cool, and began chanting, ¡°I summon thee, visage of my likeness, to conquer the realms and subdue divinity! Appear, Violet avatar!¡± All of this chanting was utterly unnecessary. A small patch of soil next to Neave lit up with purple light. Mist appeared, swirling in a vortex of power that summoned the¡­ Violet avatar. A mighty figure of chiseled muscle stood beneath Neave¡­at only around a foot tall. Neave¡¯s eyebrow twitched. ¡°Whyyyyyy!?¡± He got to his knees, strangling himself and spluttering at the tiny puppet, ¡°Is it at least strong?¡± No. The answer was no. Neave clicked his tongue. He tried controlling the little ethereal puppet with his will and found no trouble doing so. But it was just pathetic. There wasn¡¯t much he could expect. It was a silver-ranked spirit power in the spirit of a foundation realm child. In reality, most of his powers suffered from a simr issue. However, their interactions and the way they stacked with one another, not to mention that he had evolved all of them to their utmost limits, somewhat circumvented this problem. With this tiny avatar, though¡­? He would have to evolve it first and see. Yet, he was hesitant. There wouldn¡¯t be much trouble with the trial monster¡­ At first. However, all that Neave could safely do was a single evolution. Why? He didn¡¯t really have infinite attempts, and these bastard reptilian monsters really loved evolving into dragons. Neave was far too aware of the fact that, when in the spirit trial, he had no spirit powers. Without spirit powers, he was perhaps at the third step of the bronze path in strength. That was an utterly absurd power level for someone still in the foundation realm. Even without spirit powers, he had the physique of someone six realms above him! Yet, it wasn¡¯t enough. Fighting a tinum-rank monster was facing not overwhelming skill but overwhelming power. He could sessfully do it. He was mostly confident, but that didn¡¯t mean he could carelessly take risks, especially not when so much was at stake. ¡°Is it time¡­¡± Should he do some more renovation in his spirit realm? It was true that his current strategy was unbelievably efficient. It just couldn¡¯t cope with flying creatures, though. It was only a matter of one question. Was this avatar power worth it? The answer to that was, oh hell yeah, definitely. This was an extremely rare type of spirit power that, by its nature, had no way to interfere with any other abilities. It could potentially interfere with powers that emerged from those purple snakes, but anything else? Not really. How much powers ovepped and interfered with one another depended on two things, the target and the nature of the power. Many of Neave''s powers ovepped, and frankly, it was likely a bigger issue than it may seem initially. True, that didn''t stop the powers from mutually empowering one another and stacking, but it drained them significantly faster and asionally caused issues with how they behaved. It wasn''t a ''one plus one equals two'' type of stacking either. A lot of power was lost due to interference. The purple crystal substance those monsters had consumed was something foreign, something unique. It was a different type of power, thus, of a different nature from any of the other powers Neave had. Not to mention that it was a purely external power that didn¡¯t alter his body in any way. Thus, regardless of how powerful it was, it was a power that came without any side effects or unwanted consequences. Both its target and its nature were utterly different from any other power Neave had. That wasn¡¯t the only reason why Neave put so much faith into this power. Neave made the little creature disappear. Then, he made it reappear again. Neave handed it a small rock and controlled it to grab and hold onto it. He made it disappear again. This time, it disappeared, and the rock disappeared with it. Once the creature reappeared, it was still holding onto the rock. Neave grinned. This. This was why he needed this power to work. It effectively worked the same as a dimension ring, sort of, which meant that Neave could equip the puppet with anything he wanted. Anything at all. Stupidly powerful armor? You got it. Mighty equipment? Yup. Weapons of mass destruction? Hehe, fuck yeah, baby! This little thing was a rule-breaker that Neave could abuse optimally. However, it was also a whole bag of issues. Neave could only pray that it didn''t evolve into an inconvenient shape, and prayer wasn''t high on his list of habits. At this moment, Neave noticed the ss golem hanging over his shoulder, observing the little purple avatar intently. It pointed at it, then at itself. Neave grinned. ¡°Yes, buddy! I¡¯m just like you now! Kind of.¡± The puppet froze. It looked at the purple avatar on the ground. It walked up to it, observed it from above, then kicked it, showing it into a wall. Neave stared at the golem, which struck a self-satisfied pose. I think this little shit has jealousy problems¡­ Chapter 89: The Thing Within the Cave Chapter 89: The Thing Within the Cave Within a shimmering, nigh-imprable barrier, the Great God sat in his mortal disguise, biting his nails. His eyes were bloodshot, and his leg was bouncing in ce. ¡°How!?¡± Astrador had sacrificed both his arms to restrict ess to this realm, yet that brat was here anyway, dragging several people in before a day had passed and staying inside longer than he should be allowed to. So how? Astrador turned, ncing down the mouth of the cave behind him. He could hear faint whispers and echoes. It wasughing at him. Astrador stopped biting his fingers. He could move his arms in this realm since this wasn¡¯t his true body, but they still felt numb since he had used that method to seal them. He turned to the cave entrance andughed right back, ¡°This was your fault, wasn¡¯t it?¡± It was a manic, unhinged, and, most importantly, panickedugh. This was no joking matter. How far was that thing willing to go? This was already far too much, but as if it would care about something as trivial as the integrity of the border between existence and non-existence. No¡­ It wouldn¡¯t stop at anything. Astrador knew it. It would annihte all in the blink of an eye if it could. ¡°That thing¡­ It must never be set free.¡± He would have to act again. They had far too much time in this ce. So he would have to cut their time short. Astrador got up and ced his hand on the barrier. He clicked his tongue. As expected, he could only leave if he put the border down, making his sacrifice meaningless. Not to mention, he had made the sacrifice for a reason in the first ce. No matter. He hadn¡¯t lived this long without picking up a few tricks along the line. *** It took a step forward and a deep breath. Then, it turned directions again. Its toothy tentacles pulled it through the thick obsidian growth, allowing it to movepletely unabated. The demon paused and dropped to the ground. It got up again, standing far more firmly this time. It scratched the back of its head and stretched. The tentacles were retracted back into its body. It walked over to an obsidian brush, breaking off a small branch. It gripped it firmly and felt it crumble beneath its palm. ¡°?????uuu??????uuu??????¡± It spluttered, spitting ck ooze everywhere. It walked,bing through the thick growth, but it didn¡¯t shift as usual. Now, it just ran. It came across a few thicker bushes. Once it did, it snapped another branch off. It cocked its head as it seemed to be holding up beneath its grip. Yet, it was to no avail. Soon, this fragile piece had shattered in its palm as well. It walked around, endlessly searching for a branch that would be good enough for its goal. It finally found it. It gripped the branch of a shrub, and it didn¡¯t shatter beneath its fist. So it broke off a roughly dagger-shaped piece. Then it broke off another. It held one of the daggers in a standard grip and the other in a reverse grip. Then it turned and sniffed, sensing nothing of importance in a ce asrge as this. So it ran. Eventually, it came across a bit of destruction. It turned in one direction, ran, and found nothing along the path. So it turned back. It picked another path and, yet again, found nothing. So it turned back again. It repeated this several times until it finally found a trail. Then, it followed it. Eventually, it came across a cave entrance. A single branch on a single shrub had a bit chipped off. Its gaping maw of teeth stretched out, revealing its nasty innards and several eyes peering from within. ¡°??uu??u??u?????¡­ ???????¡­ K?u??u?¡­ ????u?¡­ ?u??uunDu u?¡± It ran into the cave. *** Hunter worked much slower after he had been stabbed. The stab wound was only partially to me, though. He had received more significant injuries in daily spars, so this was nothing inparison. The thing that was really slowing him down was¡­ Shame. He felt humiliated. His first reaction to getting stabbed basically amounted to ¡®What did I do!?¡¯. It was a rhetorical question, as he found it evident that he hadn¡¯t done anything wrong. He was literally just there to help! So why the fuck would she stab him!? This was insane! In what world was such an action justified!? It was natural that he would be furious after that interaction. It took him quite a while to calm down. It was stupid. He was just trying to help. Yet, Marven clearly believed it was his fault. Marven''s reaction was one thing, since he couldn¡¯t possibly be more biased in this situation, but even that Dukean guy, aplete stranger and outsider, wasn¡¯t taking his side in this argument. So¡­ Had he really done something to deserve getting stabbed? It was an unwee thought. One that defied what he knew of rational behavior. Stabbing someone who was merely trying to help you was insane and unjustifiable. No two ways around it... He wanted to w his eyes out in frustration. Why would they act as if it wasn''t a big deal, then!? How did that make any sense!? Could it really be possible that it was Hunter''s fault? What did he do then? He wasn¡¯t being dismissive anymore, but rather, he genuinely wanted to know. Hunter knew he wasn¡¯t the roundest pill in the bottle, yet, this went above his stupidity. This was important. He had to know what he did wrong. Or at least try to find out what he did that the others perceived as being wrong. A big part of him wanted to be better, but how could he achieve such a goal when he couldn''t even understand this? A while had passed since the incident. Hunter¡¯s wound had already mostly stabilized. No more blood ran out, and it looked to be healing for the most part. Hunter had picked up the pace with his work, hoping to get his mind off the subject. They were close to clearing out the entire cavern of the obsidian shrub, so they would likely soon be handed another task. The moment they finished, though, Marven told them to rest a bit instead while he discussed the ns for construction with Gabrias. Hunter went together with Dukean as they awkwardly headed to the water cistern. Dukean wasn¡¯t walking at the same speed as Hunter, but rather a little faster. They had removed all the branches, but there were still a few trunks, fat chunks of obsidian that had to be removed, which was likely their next task. Dukean walked over and around them as if they weren¡¯t even there, but Hunter nearly tripped a few times. Hunter opened his mouth to speak but couldn¡¯t find the words to say. Dukean turned his head away and did his best to pretend that Hunter wasn¡¯t there. They walked into the semi-storage room that held their water. It was a small cave opening ced at a dead end. Neave had cleaned this room back when they first arrived, so there weren¡¯t even any stumps to be seen. It was a small, empty room with uneven walls and a lopsided ceiling. Once they were at the cistern, Dukean grabbed some water using one of the sses they had ced next to the container. He turned to Hunter, paused for a second, then grabbed a second ss and filled it up as well. He reached into the cistern, grabbing the perfect amount of water in one fell swoop. He handed the ss to Hunter, who took it and awkwardly nodded to Dukean. Dukean sat right next to the cistern, and Hunter was about to do so, but as he half squatted, he nced at Dukean and straightened his back. Hunter was about to move further away, but Dukean sighed, ¡°Please, just sit beside me.¡± Hunter half-nodded awkwardly and sat not too close to Dukean. There was a considerable size difference between them. Although Hunter was two years younger than Dukean, he was over half a head taller and much bulkier in build. Yet, it was hard to tell, as he made himself as small as he could while sitting beside the opulent young master. Dukean took a sip of water, frowning less now as he was already getting used to the horrid water. He turned to Hunter and sighed, ¡°You look like you want to ask me something.¡± Hunter jolted a bit and nodded meekly, Dukean waved a hand, ¡°Get it over with, then.¡± Hunter opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Dukean gave him an encouraging nod, and Hunter finally spoke, ¡°Back then¡­ What did I do wrong?¡± Dukean frowned and responded, ¡°If you want me to take your side, then forget it.¡± ¡°No! I¡¯m¡­!¡± Hunter frowned and spoke louder than he intended, ¡°I want to know what I did wrong, ok? Because I have no idea!¡± ¡°Oh please¡­¡± ¡°What!? I wanted to help her, but I clearly messed something up!¡± Dukean stared at him, mouth slightly open, ¡°You messed... Oh, oh¡­ Oh! Oh, I¡¯m sorry. Ipletely misunderstood you. No, I apologize. I thought you¡­ Sorry.¡± Dukean scratched the back of his head awkwardly, taking another sip of the water and turning to Hunter, ¡°You honestly want to know what you did wrong?" Hunter nodded, and Dukean asked him a question, "You like that girl, no?¡± ¡°What!? No, I¡­ She is¡­ No, she used to be my betrothed, so I just¡­¡± Hunter lowered his head and distractedly twirled a finger around in the dust on the ground. Dukean shook his head, ¡°Dude, wrong ce, wrong time.¡± He sighed again and touched Hunter¡¯s shoulder, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much I believe you had no idea what you were doing, but I will spell it out for you anyway. You weren¡¯t offering help. You were trying to seem cool and reliable.¡± ¡°No, I really wanted to¡­¡± ¡°You wanted to help her do what? Carry a branch? A twig light enough that a child could pick it up? And you wanted to help her do it? By doing what? Grabbing it out of her hand? Carrying it for her despite there being a room full of twigs you could pick up instead? Simply doing your job better would have been more helpful since we would have finished our task sooner.¡± Hunter paused, looking away from Dukean and frowning, ¡°I¡­¡± He closed his mouth, deepened the frown, and grabbed the back of his neck, rubbing it slightly, ¡°She could have just¡­¡± ¡°... Said no?¡± Hunter froze. "I''m pretty sure she even told you to piss off." Dukean couldn¡¯t help but chuckle as he could quite literally see the realization set in, ¡°Oh, wow, you really had no idea, did you?¡± Dukean got up and patted Hunter on the back, ¡°Give up, man. As I said, this isn¡¯t the time and ce for romance. Try and look at things from her perspective. She is stuck with five men in a nightmare realm where we are slowly losing our minds. Would you feel safe in a situation like that? If you were a woman, would you really appreciate a man hitting on you in that situation, even after being told to piss off?¡± ¡°Well, she didn''t have to fucking stab me.¡± "I don''t think she wanted to do that either, judging by her reaction..." Hunter didn''t have much to say to that. Dukean smiled a bit and put a hand around his neck, "Don''t beat yourself up too much. You''re a kid, and you''re in the same situation she is. This endless, cold darkness isn''t particrly conducive to rational behavior. Thest thing you need is another thing to drive you nuts. You fucked up, and she fucked up, and now you''re even. Does it really matter who is more right or who could have done what better? Fighting about that is likely to get you stabbed again." That got a small chuckle out of the bigger boy. Dukean pulled his arm back and got up, "Besides that, you shouldn¡¯t pursue her even after we return outside.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°She is a strong woman, and you are a weak man.¡± Hunter wanted to get angry at that. He tried to retort¡­ Yet Dukean¡¯s words rang true. Dukean continued, ¡°I don¡¯t mean that she is more powerful than you either, I¡­¡± ¡°I know.¡± The green-haired boy was taken aback, ¡°I see¡­ Well, best of luck to you anyway. Work on yourself first, but be warned, while you change as a person, she will too. You will drift apart, and that¡¯ll probably be it. I advise you to give up now. There is no shortage of women in this world. Pursuing childhood crushes like this isn¡¯t worth it. I know from experience.¡± Hunter frowned, this time in confusion, ¡°How old are you again¡­?¡± Dukean grinned and winked at Hunter, then walked out of the room and left him alone. Hunter sat there for a while, absent-mindedly rubbing the wound on his chest. It itched deeply as it entered the final stage of healing. He thought about meditating a bit, perhaps trying to cultivate to get his mind off things. ????¡­ ???¡­ ??¡­. ¡°What was that!?¡± Hunter lifted his head. He could hear shuffling and muffled whispers from outside the room. He ran out, only to spot Marven standing in the middle of the room, facing a cave with a ck branch in his hands. Harel left her room, peeking behind the edge to try and see what was happening. Marven kept his eyes locked on the pitch-ck cave opening. He got in a stance and whispered under his breath, ¡°Dukean¡­ Go find Neave. Now.¡± ?????????????????????????? The noise abruptly stopped. Dukean got up and started running. Harel, Hunter, and Gabrias grabbed a branch in panic, scurrying to hide behind Marven. Soon enough, footsteps could be hearding from deep within the cave. Chapter 90: Weaklings Chapter 90: Weaklings Marven stared at the cave opening, gripping the brittle branch, unsure whether it would even serve him as a weapon. However, the qi of a tinum path cultivator was not to be underestimated. Marven could pull everyst bit of potential out of this branch. Judging by Neave¡¯s description of the demons, this shouldn¡¯t be too difficult for Marven to handle. Yet, he found himself sweating anyway. His spirit powers had been removed by Neave. Granted, they weren¡¯t the best spirit powers in the realm, but he heavily relied on the paralysis ability in crises. It was a power that instilled confidence, a trump card he could use when cornered. That ability alone had saved his life uncountable times. Now, it was gone. He felt sweat trickle down his back with every step that thing took closer to them. Marven noticed the others picking up branches, likely intending to fight, ¡°Don¡¯t bother. Go hide in a room and wall it off if you can! I will rush to face it outside. If I fight near you, you will all just be a liability! Hurry!¡± Gabrias was already running before Marven finished his talk, while Harel hesitated the most. Eventually, Hunter ran to a room, and Harel followed. Marven gripped the branch tighter. An unknown enemy he wasn¡¯t sure he was prepared to face¡­ Marven couldn¡¯t help but grin a little. Just like the good old days. It was his youth''s unwee return, but it was one he couldn''t deny the excitement of. Rather than waiting for his opponent to appear, Marven rushed to face it first. He zed through the darkness, and the striding creature appeared within moments. It was a grey, rotting demon with tendrils of darkness wrapped around its limbs. It had no eyes, at least not where they were meant to be. Teeth, eyeballs, and ws sporadically spread through its nasty skin. Marven noted all the critical details, and his sword lit up with a technique. The branch shone blue, and Marven, gripping it in his left hand, thrust it straight at the demon. It stood frozen, not reacting to Marven¡¯s attack until thest second. It bent out of the way of the attack and kicked toward Marven''s face. Marven moved his head right and twisted the trajectory of the branch. The demon hadmitted a mistake, and now it was overextended and out of bnce. Marven turned his body out of the way and gripped the back of the branch with his right hand. He pushed with his right and pulled with his left hand, turning the branch and spinning his torso. Marven had a clear shot at the demon¡¯s stomach but chose to graze its side instead, fearing losing his weapon if the branch got stuck. The strikended on the demon¡¯s side, carving out its stomach and spilling guts everywhere. The demon tumbled through the air from the impact, but it twisted and stuck thending. Marven didn¡¯t allow it to recover. Instead, he pressed the attack,nding a clean thrust on its chest and another through its mouth. The demon ignored the thrusts and prepared to strike at him instead, but Marven had already primed his leg to kick the demon away. His foot lit up with blue mist as hended a foot straight at the demon¡¯s midsection, kicking it straight into the wall and impaling it on spikes. Marven charged at it, but just as he was about tond another strike, a tentacle stretched from the demon''s foot and wrapped around Marven¡¯s leg. The demon pulled, trying to get Marven off bnce, but the cultivator¡¯s foot stood firmly nted in the ground, white mist shining around the soles of his sandals. The demon couldn¡¯t possiblypromise Marven¡¯s footing with something so pathetic. A vertical shnded on the demon¡¯s torso, leaving a shallow but long gash over its body. Its reaction, or rather theck of a response to any injury, freaked Marven out, but that was far from the most unusual characteristic an enemy of his had had. The demon continued trying topromise Marven¡¯s footing, but Marven used the technique again, keeping his foot firmly in ce. The creature had expected him to do that, as it used the leverage to pull itself off the spikes and swing its body behind Marven. It spun through the air, againnding gracefully and readying its weapons. Marven clicked his tongue. This was his least favorite type of enemy, something that didn¡¯t have any apparent weaknesses to exploit. However, the damage was indeed piling up. Marven rushed at it, swinging his de from the right. The demon bent its torso to avoid the strike while swinging a dagger at Marven¡¯s head. Marven¡¯s sword suddenly elerated, passing inches from the demon¡¯s body and releasing a flying strike. The blue qi de pushed deep into the demon¡¯s torso, and Marven used the angr momentum to spin into another strike. His weapon arrived from the right yet again, aiming to cut the demon¡¯s head off. Just as the attack was about to connect, the demon raised its arms, putting the daggers between itself and Marven¡¯s strike. Useless! Those brittle daggers won¡¯t¡­ The demon jumped, balling itself up in the air. As Marven¡¯s attacknded, the knockback spun the demon sideways, and it moved the daggers to the other side. When it spun around, flying into the back of Marven¡¯s weapon, it struck the branch, canceling the spin and sending Marven¡¯s strike out of bnce. Marven immediately reacted by discarding his weapon and pulling back. The demon swung the daggers at him, and the tip of Marven¡¯s middle finger was cut open. The demon didn¡¯t let Marven fetch another weapon, but it instead ran at him, readying the dagger in its left hand for a thrust. Marven sank under the iing blow, grabbing the demon''s arm. However, that proved to be a mistake. The demon¡¯s tentacles extended, wrapping its left arm around Marven¡¯s wrists as it kicked off the ground, moving its legs under and around Marven¡¯s arms, wrapping the tentacles around and moving Marven off bnce while it swung its right arm dagger at Marven¡¯s torso,nding a reverse grip dagger strike, and knocking the air out Marven''s chest. The de couldn¡¯t prate deep into Marven¡¯s body, but it still managed to pierce his lung. Instantly, Marven regained hisposure. He used a qi technique to strike the ground with his right foot, and once it came flying up, he used another technique, kneeing the demon in the head. The strike sent a shockwave through the cavern and caved the demon¡¯s skull in, yet Marven knew better than to assume that that had ended the fight, and he put his leg back down to prepare for another strike. The demon bit Marven¡¯s right arm and swung its body between his arms again. Once it passed back around, it used the momentum to twist Marven¡¯s hand, keeping its teeth firmly nted in Marven¡¯s flesh as it bent and twisted it out of shape. Once its feet were facing away from Marven¡¯s body, the demon shot a tentacle toward the ground, embedding it into the soil and pulling itself further down. Its feet touched the ground again, and it kicked off, using one foot to block Marven¡¯s iing kick and elerate further, bending its legs and pushing them out as it perfectlynded a double-legged kick right at Marven¡¯s jaw. The world went dark in Marven¡¯s eyes. He barely hisposure and swung his left hand around the demon¡¯s body. Its teeth were still nted in his right arm, and rather than free his hand, Marven pushed it further inside, gripping his fingers on the other side of the demon¡¯s throat and nting them firmly on the demon''s skull. Marven jumped, swinging the demon''s body away before it could wrap its tentacles around him, and spun into a front flip, pulling his legs back. As the demon swung away and under him, Marvennded, nting his feet firmly on the ground and throwing his arm over his head. His right arm lit up with red mist as he swung the demon¡¯s body, firmly smashing it into the ground. The impact left a crater on the floor, shaking the entire cave and crashing a part of the ceiling. The force of the impact had pushed a ton of air and ck liquid out of the demon¡¯s mouth, allowing Marven to free his mangled hand. Just as he was about to swing his leg down and finish the demon off¡­ ????????? Marven groaned and gripped his hand. A strange influence was trying to prate his body through his mangled arm, seeping out of the ck liquid and into his blood. However, his spirit wasn¡¯t that straightforward to invade. Within a second, Marven¡¯s arm was gushing out a morphing ck mist. The process was a second too long, however. Before Marven could notice it, the demon had already gotten up. It pulled its hand back, stretching a tentacle to grab arge stone. Its other tentacles firmly gripped other parts of the wall and obsidian branches as it pulled back. The massive boulder flew toward Marven, and he blocked it with his arms. It crashed against his body, crumbling to pieces without leaving even a scratch on Marven¡¯s body. ¡°Shit!¡± He had overreacted to that attack in panic! The demon bent beneath Marven, swinging an arm straight at his stomach. The nasty ck dagger had nearly struck his torso already, and Marven could not avoid the strike. Marven tightened his abs and pushed his arms down, hoping to disrupt the stab before it could do too much damage, hopefully avoiding disemboweling himself in the process. Thunk. The demon disappeared. Marven blinked and frantically looked around, only to spot the demon firmly embedded into the side of the cave, unmoving. Neave stood beside Marven, raising an eyebrow at him, ¡°How the hell did you get your ass kicked by a regr demon, old man?¡± ¡°Re¨C!?¡± Marven couldn¡¯t believe it. That was a regr corrupt demon! There was no damn way that was true! The demon shifted in the wall, trying to crawl out. Neave looked surprised, ¡°Toughy, aren¡¯t ya!? Whelp, it''s sleepy time.¡± Neave appeared next to the demon in a fraction of a second and swung a fist at its back. The impact caused a small sh of light purely from the force Neave could exert. The demon''s body was crushed into a paste, and deep cracks spread throughout the side of the cave. The demon stopped moving. Marven was aware that Neave was powerful, but¡­ That was a simple punch. There was nothing special about it. Not a technique, true strike, or spirit power. Not even life force had been used. Marven¡¯s shoulders slumped. They had a long way to go if they wanted to be of any help to him. *** Neave pulled his arm out of the crash site, turned to Marven, and frowned, ¡°If you guys are going to be in trouble for every minor demon that appears, then I think I have to help you get sorted first.¡± Neave turned and ran back toward the cave, ¡°Follow me.¡± Once he had appeared back in the room, Neave looked around, ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± Gabrias appeared, peeking from inside a room, ¡°Is¨CIs the thing dead!?¡± Neave shot him a t look, ¡°Okay, everyone gather. It¡¯s time for a meeting!¡± Once they had all gathered, Neave observed them sitting around him. Marven sat to the side, gripping his wounds and breathing slowly. He was on the tinum path, so he could easily use life force to recover from his injuries, he just had to be careful not to spend too much, or he would have problems. A bit of life force was already used in the fight. As someone on the tinum path, however, he had plenty, and Neave asked him why he was taking so long. Marven found the question absurd, ¡°I can¡¯t just infuse the wound and force it to heal! It¡¯s much moreplicated than that!¡± Neave couldn¡¯t believe it. He walked over to Marven, and a small tendril of liquid spirit appeared. He pushed the liquid spirit into Marven¡¯s wound. His father winced as he felt the agency over his own flesh be overtaken by Neave. Within seconds, the wound healed right back to normal. Soon enough, Marven¡¯s hand was healed as well. ¡°You¡­ You can do that with life force alone!?¡± Neave stared at Marven incredulously. He rubbed his forehead and went back to the center of the room. Harel sat to the side, away from everyone, gripping her knees. Dukean and Hunter sat close to one another, although Hunter seemed to awkwardly reposition himself from moment to moment, looking for the right distance. Gabrias stood close to the room he had barely convinced himself to leave, eyeing the cave the demon was defeated in. Neave took a deep breath and asked, ¡°Alright, first, can you exin what you¡¯ve been doing since I''ve been gone?¡± Chapter 91: Thrive Chapter 91: Thrive Neave sat in the middle of the room, eyeing his allies. They had just exined what they had been doing, and he couldn¡¯t believe it. It was nonsense. ¡°You¡­ You have been fucking decorating? Oh, so, I tell you all that you better get used to difort as soon as possible, and the first fucking thing you do is go off and try to make yourselves asfortable as possible!?¡± Marven looked up, ¡°Neave, that isn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up, geezer, let me speak. I respect that you at least tried building a wall, but¡­¡± Neave turned to Dukean, ¡°Dude, you have an earth maniption spirit power. Why don¡¯t you just use it to clean the cave up?¡± Dukean didn¡¯t look offended in any way. He merely raised an eyebrow, ¡°You¡¯ve seen me use the power already. I can barely force this stone to reshape. The obsidian roots run through all the walls, which makes them unbelievably tough and difficult to affect with my spirit power. Sure, I can easily lift and carry the earth, but shape it? That isn¡¯t as straightforward.¡± ¡°So¡­ Why don¡¯t you just evolve your power?¡± ¡°Ev¨C!? Are you out of your mind, Neave!?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Dukean sighed, ¡°Even with rounded cores, I can barely defeat the trial as is! There are five gold-rank monsters in my spirit trial. If I add a monster of tinum rank, I will die!¡± Neave raised an eyebrow at that, ¡°How?¡± Dukean had a look of absolute disbelief seared into his face, ¡°Because it will be a monster of tinum rank!? How should I even be able to defeat that!?¡± Neave squinted his eyes at Dukean, ¡°Monster ranks don¡¯t work the way cultivator ranks do, Dukey boy. The earth maniption monster should be an earth golem, no? They¡¯re slow as shit. Even a tinum-ranked one shouldn¡¯t be a problem for you!¡± Dukean frowned, mouth hanging open as he stared at the others, unsure whether he heard Neave right, ¡°It¡¯s going to throw boulders and rock shards at me. It doesn¡¯t have to catch me to kill me!¡± ¡°Just dodge, idiot!¡± Dukean gripped his face in frustration, ¡°It¡¯s not that easy!¡± Neave looked confused in turn, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ Not? Why!? How!? You¡¯re like gold rank in power! And a bona fide prodigy! You should be able to do it¡­¡± Neave frowned harder and looked at the others, who all stared at him in shock, ¡°Could it be¡­ That you are all super weak?¡± That was an absurd question, and all of them knew it. Neave was a monster that had nothing to do with ordinary cultivators. However, the evident disappointment radiating from this child¡¯s face still made them all feel ashamed, even if they knew they had no reason to. Neave sighed, ¡°It was a mistake to leave you alone if you¡¯re going to be this pathetic. I must give you something for protection until I finish my work.¡± He got up and disappeared. The other¡¯s all sat around in confusion, and as time passed, Neave didn¡¯t seem to be returning any time soon. They were still waiting for him toe back, so they awkwardly spent time either meditating or chatting in hushed tones until he returned. Neave reappeared before them, holding a transparent sword. ¡°Ta-dah! Here you go,dy and gentlemen! I present to you the ss Shard!¡± Marven frowned a bit. It was created from that unique ss substance Neave was growing, and at least it was shaped like a proper sword. In his hands, it should be possible to utilize much of its potential, even if the material itself wasn¡¯t high-ranked. He couldn¡¯t help but ask himself whether that fight would have been easier with a weapon like this. The answer was yes, definitely. He could have utilized proper sword techniques then, and he wouldn¡¯t have had to worry about it breaking as much. Neave walked over to Marven and handed him the sword. Marven reached a hand out to grab it. The instant his palm touched the ss handle, his sweat nds erupted, and he reflexively dropped the sword, jumping back to the other side of the room. The weapon spun through the air, and Neave looked offended at Marven¡¯s actions, ¡°Old man, what are you¨C¡± Before he could finish the sentence, the sword touched the ground. It fell on the side, not even embedding itself into the earth, yet, cracks and lines rapidly spread through the floor around it. ¡°Woooooow!¡± Neave pped his hands, ¡°That¡¯s fucking awesome!¡± ¡°Neave!? What the fuck is that thing!?¡± Marven shook and had to take measured breaths to calm himself. That was the single most horrifying weapon he had ever touched in his life. He looked down at the palm of his hand, which he had gripped the handle with. Thin cuts spread throughout the palm, some bleeding a little. It was a perfectly smooth handle, yet it somehow managed to cut his hand open. The hand of a tinum path cultivator, one that had spent centuries wielding a de. ¡°Come on, old man, don¡¯t be a bitch!¡± Neave picked the sword up off the ground and casually threw it at Marven. Marven dodged as if the emperor had thrown a spear at his head. The sword embedded itself into the wall, and cracks instantly spread everywhere, copsing a section of the cave. ¡°Neave, I don¡¯t know what that thing is, but please remove it immediately! That is dangerous!¡± Marven looked at Neave and paused. Neave looked absolutely furious. He stepped over to the sword, pulled it out of the wall, and began walking out of the cave, ¡°Follow me, everyone.¡± The rest of them nced at each other and hesitated briefly before finally deciding to walk after him. Neave strolled casually, making his way through the overgrown caves. Everyone walked behind him, carefully maneuvering through the dark underground passage, fearfully eyeing dark corners and other cave entrances. Neave merely observed them and squinted his eyes. He scoffed and kept walking. The ss Shard, as Neave had called it, was casually equipped in his hand. It asionally passed near a branch or the wall, chipping bits and pieces off without even touching anything. The others winced every time it happened. Painstakingly slowly, they made their way out of the underground and onto the surface. Neave walked in front of them and soon stopped. They stood behind him, eyeing his back. Neave was quite bulky for a kid of his age and height. Yet, even if one ignored his size, he was a giant. The way he stood, the way he carried himself, it all spoke of hisfort. This unusual kid, a colorful being with pink hair streaked with red, somehow managed to slot perfectly into this realm of cold darkness and silence. He stood there, back turned to the others, and let the time pass, daring any of them to speak. None of them epted the challenge. Neave lifted the sword and spoke to them, ¡°You aren¡¯t stupid. Well, except for Hunter, maybe, but still, you aren¡¯t fools. Except for Marven, maybe. Look, I¡¯m trying to say you guys are perfectly normal.¡± He turned around and faced them, ¡°Which is why you don¡¯t belong here.¡± The way he phrased that made everyone tense up. Was he about to kill them to kick them out? ¡°You are ignorant. Society binds the way you''re meant to think and instills into you how concepts are meant to be respected and followed. You must reject that preconception. In here, there are no real rules other than those you set for yourself. Here, the only real threat lies inside your mind. I am going to show you,¡± Neave lifted the sword into the air above his head and turned around, ¡°What it means to thrive in this world.¡± Neave got into a stance and pulled the sword back. He smiled like a maniac as he felt the rush of excitement wash over him. ¡°Let¡¯s show them together, ss slime!¡± The sword lit up. Golden runes surrounded Neave, and he prepared himself for a swing. A gigantic, phantasmal image of a slime appeared above him, shining so brightly that even the eternal night turned to day. Neave stepped forward, and his foot snapped into ce with a resonant thud. The transparent ss sword moved, slowly pushing forward, a mighty gust of wind blowing dirt and dust away as more golden runes appeared around it. The others wanted to move, and they tried to run away, but the overbearing pressure kept them firmly locked in ce, frozen, eyes shot wide, observing the apocalyptic attack ying out before them. Neave ponderously swung the sword through the air, ¡°Hahahaha, let¡¯s show them, you slimy bastard! Go! Wreck fucking everything!¡± A shockwave of sharp, grating ss cuts exploded out from where Neave stood, crashing into the thick obsidian forest almost too fast to see, shattering the woods and crushing thendscape. That shockwave was merely the prelude to the true strike. The air screamed, and a gust of horrid, sharp, cutting wind washed over everything. This wind didn¡¯t shatter. It pulverized. Everything in its path was ground to dust as it pushed a tsunami of sand and obsidian powder away from where they stood. The mighty gust of wind formed a tornado of ss that moved through thendscape and spread fine powder everywhere. Once the aftermath of the swing had settled, a vast stretch of empty, tnd stood before them. None of them could breathe. They didn¡¯t want to either, as they feared inhaling some of the ss dust that still flickered through the air around them. Neave put the sword down, ¡°Did you see it, you cowards!?¡± He turned around to face them, showing his face that had been cut by the bacsh of the strike, but was now healing rapidly before their eyes, ¡°This is my world! This is what it means to thrive in the nightmare realm! If you think this is horrifying, in a few years, plenty of creatures here could do that, too. So you have to choose! Do you want to thrive!?¡± He narrowed his eyes at them and grinned harder, ¡°Or do you want to leave?¡± Neave threw the sword over to Marven again. The world froze. They all tensed up, and Marven felt as if he were faced with a heavenly trial. However, he managed to empty his thoughts. He relied on the endless years of muscle memory firmly nted into his body and caught the sword out of the air. ¡°Neave¡­ Can you at least do something about this handle?¡± Marven¡¯s hand shook as his blood flowed freely from his palm. Neave grinned. He grabbed the sword from Marven¡¯s hands and picked up a piece of obsidian. Liquid spirit flowed into the substance, and Neave lined the handle and guard of the de in a thin, ckyer of obsidian. He handed Marven back the transparent de, and Marven caught in. It no longer cut his hand, but that didn¡¯t mean it wasfortable to hold. Marven could feel it. He could see it. The second life a vengeful ss slime lived within a sword, its ssy world open for anyone who dared enter. He took a deep breath and politely asked Neave to make him a sheath. Neave rolled his eyes butplied, and soon enough, the de was snuggly hidden away in an obsidian scabbard. ¡°There you go. Now you should be safe from the demons for a while. I will go and do my thing now, and believe me, I will be busy. I hope to get this over with as soon as possible, and then I wille to babysit you guys again.¡± Neave was about to leave, abandoning them on the surface, but Marven yelled, ¡°Wait, Neave, can you leave us some food first?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ Whoops, yeah, sorry, my bad.¡± Neave disappeared again, leaving them alone on the surface anyway as he went off to bring them some food. They all stood awkwardly, and slowly, they turned to face the destruction one by one. The dust had settled. Now, a giant mound of sandy past a t wastnd before them. This was what it meant to truly live in this realm, all of them thought as they tried to calm their pounding hearts. A spark had been lit within all of them. An unavoidable passion, born of their nature as cultivators, as defiers of the heavens and creatures that walked a neverending path of pursuit of power. Perhaps they, too, could one day thrive as well. Chapter 92: The Good Shit Chapter 92: The Good Shit Neave appeared back before the ss shrub and sighed. He had fed the children and left them with a stick to fight off the animals of the night. He had yed up the theatrics, but honestly speaking, not even he could really treat that weapon so carelessly. He had to y up the performance for their sake, though. identally dying from misusing that thing was a genuine threat, but hey! His father was highly experienced. There was no way he would identally kill everyone¡­ Right? Well, whatever, it would be fine! Probably¡­ Most likely. He had more important things to do for now than worry about that. Excitement flowed through his veins at the thought of the ss Shard. He didn¡¯t even make the spirit ball that big, yet the weapon turned out frighteningly powerful. That was the bare minimum of effort, yet it resulted in something as nasty as that? Neave decided. He absolutely had to make himself a weapon as well. Was it a priority currently? Hell no, not by a long shot, but there wasn¡¯t all that much else he could do. He spent most of his time feeding the nt life force and brainstorming ways to speed up the process. Creating a weapon wouldn¡¯t considerably slow the progress down. Now, a big question remained. What weapon did Neave want to use? Honestly, he had gotten somewhat bored of swords. That would be an absurd statement by anyone else, but Neave had spent endless years using a sword in the hellish loop. It was a good weapon, certainly. Very practical, very sharp, and pointy, it did the shy and cutty and stabby things just fine. However, Neave drooled at the thought of a big, fat fucking sledgehammer. He remembered how he felt using one against those purple reptiles. Oh yeah, the juicy impact, the scrumptious damage, the shockwave! Nothing could appeal to his heart more than the idea of shattering mountains with a swing. Wasn¡¯t a sledgehammer, like, the perfect weapon? Neave remembered an important decision he had made. No weaknesses. No limits. Nopromise. The sword was mighty, yes, but it struggled to deal with hard surfaces. What could even stop a sledgehammer? Alright, alright, hurr durr, it couldn¡¯t cut things. Neave knew that much, but who said he had to make a sledgehammer that couldn¡¯t cut things? He could puzzle something out. If he made a sledgehammer from this ss and used the same strategy as he had with the ss Shard, he could rtively easily make a sledgehammer that could cut things just fine. That wasme, though. Why make a sledgehammer for that, anyway? This ss was tough and sharp but wasn¡¯t all that heavy. It wouldn¡¯t make good material for a sledgehammer. Neave frowned. No, sledgehammers had to be heavy. They had to be like boom, pow, thunk, you know? Like pow, yeah, that¡¯s the stuff! Neave swung an imaginary hammer around the room. *** The ss puppet sat on the ground nearby, cocking its head at his strange behavior. It got up and imitated Neave¡¯s movements, trying to puzzle out what he was doing. It couldn¡¯t figure it out. It made sense. After all, the wisdom of its master wasn¡¯t something it could grasp so quickly. It had to keep diligently working, and it could maybe eventually capture even a fraction of its master¡¯s knowledge. Neave spotted the nt imitating him andughed, ¡°What are you doing, you dumbass!?¡± Neave rolled around on the floor, wildly cackling at the ss puppet. Perhaps Master was just an idiot. *** Neave fed the nt some life force and ran aimlessly around the caves. He came across many patches with those nasty metal spikes and decided to pull out a few of them and test the quality of the material. Neave couldn¡¯t help but be surprised. It was ordinary metal. By all means, it seemed to be something firmly within the mortal realm. But damn, was it heavy. It wasn¡¯t pure metal, either. It appeared to be an alloy of several different materials. Yup, it was experiment time! Neave gathered several spikes and carried them to a section of a cave not too far from the room with the ss shrubs. Although the obsidian shrubs still dominated the caves, Neave could already see countless tiny sprouts. Once Neave cleaned the room and was satisfied with how organized it was, he left and found a slime. Neave frowned. Scant few regr slimes were left; most had turned into blood slimes. This was a problem. Neave dug out a cave section and lined the walls with obsidian, almost perfectly sealing it off from the outside. Then, he ced a slime in there. He fed the monster his limbs, and as it grew, it replicated. Anything that evolved or in any way deviated from being a regr slime was killed and eaten immediately. Something, something, circle of life, something, either way, Neave had work to do. He filled the room with countless slimes, and once he made sure nothing besides regr slimes was in the room, he sealed it off thoroughly and left. This would be a sort of backup n, a pocket of regr slimes just in case the other ones went extinct. Regr slimes were necessary, as they were a sort of nk te, an empty canvas that could be painted however Neave pleased. Blood slimes or other variations didn¡¯t consistently evolve the right way, and regardless of how much they grew and evolved, there would always be a hint of blood marking their characteristics. That was why it was essential to ensure a backup. Once finished, he left and found another slime he carried to the special room he had prepared. It was a dome of crystal spirit thatpletely cut him off from the outside world. The air was filled with ethereal spirit, optimizing the environment for growing this slime. Staring at the little gooey fe, Neave pondered. How should he do this? He wanted to feed the slime the metal to create a metal slime or golem. But how should he feed the slime? Was it alright to just provide it the raw metal and pray for the best? Of course it wasn¡¯t! It was only obvious that he had to first create a decent alloy or purify the metal to ensure he only fed the little slime buddy the best he had. So Neave got to work. A painful amount of timeter, Neave had a few piles of¡­ Different metal. It was hard to say whether it was pure or not. In fact, some of the metal was inferior in quality, as Neave had clearly purified it of whatever made it decent, to begin with. Neave groaned. Why? He yearned for a simpler life with fewerplications, one where all would always turn out the exact way he wanted it to and, without any exceptions, be amazing. He wasn¡¯t capable of overthrowing the entire cksmithing industry quite yet. Purifying metals was a serious business. So how could he simplify it? Maybe he could just inject the metal into his veins and have his sacred blood purify it? Neave chuckled at the thought. Sacred blood would remove all the metal, so there was no point in¡­ There was¡­ No... Neave knew this feeling quite well already. The moment when either an absolutely brilliant or utterly idiotic idea sparked in his mind. After walking over to a small obsidian brush, he plucked the branches and shaped them into a bowl. Once he returned, he spilled his blood into the bowl, adding a bit of liquid spirit for good measure. Then, he grabbed a decent-sized chunk of raw metal and plonked it into the blood. As far as he could tell, it wasn¡¯t doing anything. Neave carefully fished the metal chunk out and¡­ ¡°Oh,e the fuck on!¡± There was no difference. ¡°Ugghhh¡­ Wait!¡± No, there was one thing he could still do. Neave extended a tendril of liquid spirit into his blood and put the metal chunk back into the bowl. ¡°Uh¡­¡± With barely any effort, he manipted his blood to purify the metal chunk and remove all inferior materials. He didn¡¯t even have to strain himself. Just burning lifeforce in his blood seemed to work perfectly fine. The now pearly shiny chunk of metal was firmly grasped in his shivering hands as he grinned gleefully. Looks like he would be putting the cksmithing industry out of business today anyway. This metal felt a little floaty, however. It was hard to exin what was off about it. Neave extended a tendril of liquid spirit into it, heated it up, and shaped it into a ball. ¡°Oh, makes sense!¡± It was a little lighter because he had purged all of the impurities, which left minuscule patches of empty space inside the chunk. Now that he had squished it together, he felt that same weight again. A little heavier now, actually. Neave stared at the perfect ball of metal, and he pondered. There was one more thing he could do. Well, there were several things he could do, but there was one thing he could achieve quite easily. A silvery sheen surrounded his hand, and he touched the metal ball, feeling it grow heftier. Alchemy had a few techniques that could be used to manipte metal, and one of them allowed Neave to make the metal heavier. It was an exhausting process, however, and every time he used a technique, it became more and more difficult. Neave sighed. That was to be expected, naturally. His qi was miserably weak, and even with nigh perfect control, the power it could exert over the metal was limited. That didn¡¯t mean he was out of options, however. He filled up the bowl with liquid spirit this time and imbued the spirit with life force, pushing it to its limits. cing the chunk inside, he manipted the life force to seep into the metal. Once it was inside, he burned it. This was difficult enough that it left even him exhausted. Once he was done, however, he grabbed the metal ball and used another qi technique. It worked perfectly fine. It worked incredibly well, even. Neave had burned his life force to create a sort of impression bridge. It was an advanced alchemy technique that was only done at the highest level. It allowed one to segregate individual modifications of the metal to avoid mutual interference or, in this case, to avoid diminishing returns from multiple stacking effects. Every time Neave used an alchemy technique on the metal now, the change he created would bepartmentalized. This was to say that his previous modifications wouldn¡¯t impact future changes. Thus, there wouldn¡¯t be any drop-off in efficiency when he modified the metal. Naturally, this wasn¡¯t unlimited. The life force could only contain so many differentpartments, and eventually, Neave would run out of them, and using further techniques would be impossible. Now, finding out where those limitsy was only a matter of time. *** Neave sweated as he held the ridiculously heavy metal ball in his hand. ¡°What the fuck is even happening anymore?¡± Apparently, either due to his fine control or the assistance of his liquid spirit, the limit for individualpartments was high. Very, very, very fucking high. Holy shit, where did it end!? Neave thought as he used another technique. He had emptied his qi reserves many times over, and the metal kept getting heavier until finally, Neave suddenly found the limit, and his following qi technique did virtually nothing. Neave sagged and dropped to the ground. The metal ball was released from his hands and created a mini crater as it struck the floor, jolting Neave up. Slimes didn¡¯t have emotions or sapience, as far as Neave knew, but he could swear this thing was cowering in the corner, hiding in fear of what Neave nned to do to it. It better, since this wasn¡¯t going to be any ordinary experiment. ¡°You better look forward to it, you little poopball, because I¡¯m about to spoon-feed you the good shit.¡± Neave picked up the ball of metal. The slime shivered. Chapter 93: Muscle Chapter 93: Muscle A demon slithered around the surface, sniffing out any potential prey. Its wriggly tentacles squirmed and grasped branches of obsidian, and it pulled itself through the shadowy forest of ck. ¡°Yo, dude, watch this!¡± Something spoke. It turned around, spotting the tiny, pink-haired child, a creature that smelled of wonderfully tasty flesh. However, the demon paused as it felt the unusual object in the small being¡¯s hands. It swung the object and¨C *** ¡°Huh¡­? Where did it go?¡± Neave nced around, failing to spot the demon. His new toy was finally being used in practice, and Neave was excited to witness the aftermath. Yet, the demon just disappeared, vanishing into thin air. Eventually, after quite a bit of squinting, he spotted a small patch of clouds, parting for something that flew through them at incredible speed. ¡­ ¡°Oh fuck!¡± That¡¯s quite some distance. Neave giggled and kissed the sledgehammer, patting it lovingly and spinning around with it, ¡°You¡¯re so strong! Oh, my heavens, who¡¯s the best hammer in the realm!? You are! Yes, you are!¡± Cradling it in his arms, he ran around, looking for other prey. Eventually, he came across another demon. This time he swung the hammer down, hitting the demon straight on the top of its head. St. The instant the hammer touched the top of the demon''s head, the shock wave liquified its entire body, and the puddle of demon slush sttered against the ground. The bacsh of the strike was quite noticeable as well, but Neave could afford to ignore it due to his set of spirit powers. The demon juice dripped and flowed into a puddle, and he cackled like a lunatic, ¡°Yes! With my wonderful hammer, Tecton, I shall conquer the world!¡± He lowered his voice and nced around nervously. Bringing his mouth closer to the hammer, he whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t tell Shrub I named you before it. It gets very jealous sometimes!¡± There was a lot to do. Yes, Neave had so much work he could spend years working and doing nothing else. ¡°But it¡¯s so boring!¡± Sitting around like a dumbass and staring at a nt all the time wasn''t the most exciting thing to do. Work was boring! Yes, terraforming the realm was necessary, and yes, he was neglecting the others by procrastinating and ying around, but doing work was so dull! He didn¡¯t really need to invent any new method for finishing this. Simply cycling life force infusions into the ss shrub would eventually spread enough of the nts around to fulfill his goal. The simplicity of his task was the main problem. Neave thrived off of crazy experiments with unknown oues. True, he oftenined that things didn¡¯t go his way or that he wished everything would go as he wanted, but in reality, he would have no motivation to do anything without the uncertainty. As was the case currently. So, he chose to give himself a temporary break and go have some fun instead. The features of the massive sledgehammer were difficult to discern in the dark, but that wasn''t a big obstacle to his perception. The weapon was taller than Neave was, and it weighed an absurd amount. It weighed so much that Neave had to rely on several movement techniques to carry it. Why movement techniques? It was simple. The weapon weighed so much that it was damn near impossible to maintain bnce while holding it. Neave had to constantly use movement techniques to keep his posture in check and use footing techniques to prevent the excessive weight of the hammer from sinking his body into the ground. He ran much slower while holding the hammer, looking for something fun to do. As he ran, his steps grew slower and slower, and eventually, he had to stop. Neave sweated and panted, dragging the hammer across the ground. Eventually, he couldn¡¯t carry it anymore and had to take a break. The instant he let go of the hammer, even though it was already on the ground, the impact spread cracks around the area. The handle hung in the air for a second, and as it fell over, it smashed the ground with absurd force. Neave hadn¡¯t experienced something as mundane as physical fatigue for so long that he had forgotten what it was like. The hammer was insanely heavy, to the point where his regeneration couldn¡¯t keep up with the damage his muscles and tendons suffered under its mass. It wasn¡¯t just that, either. He constantly had to push his willpower of might spirit power to the limits, which left him feeling lethargic and drained. Even his impossibly firm resolve crumbled beneath the mass of this weapon. Not in a billion years would Neave concede that he had made the hammer too heavy. Conventions and practicality be damned, he would find a way to wield the hammer with ease, no matter how ridiculous the solution may be. However¡­ Perhaps Neave didn¡¯t need a ridiculous solution. A mundane one could suffice instead. After resting, he returned to the cave, hauling Tecton behind his back. He left a trail of destruction in his wake. The hammer ended up with a simple yet devastating ability¡ªforce amplification. This made the weapon quite destructive if not handled responsibly. Since Neave didn¡¯t hold a shred of responsibility in a single cell of his body, destruction was inevitable. Once back inside the cave, Neave sagged again, dropping to the ground and allowing himself to recover from the ordeal. The ss puppet walked up and cocked its head at him. Neave meekly lifted his hand, giving the ss shrub a thumbs up. The puppet walked closer to Neave, grabbed his leg, and dragged him to its main body. ¡°What the fuck, dude? Let me rest!¡± The shrub ignored his pleas and manipted the puppet to throw Neave over to the base of the nt. Neave simply closed his eyes and ignored the nt''s attempts. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. ¡°Fucking stop!¡± Neave got up, grabbing the puppet''s hand, which it was using to poke a sharp finger into his side over and over and over and over, ¡°You have to grow the hell up!¡± An absurd statement by every imaginable parameter. Neave was still a little woozy. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and mumbled irritably while imbuing the nt with life force. Perhaps the imbuement was done with a little too much force this time. The puppet''s protests were ignored as he forced more life force in, grinning like a maniac. Eventually, he chose to be the bigger man and do it properly. The puppet walked over to the hammer lying on the ground and attempted to lift it. Crazyughter echoed through the caves as he made fun of the nt for thinking it could lift Tecton. In annoyance, the puppet pouted and crossed its arms, ncing away from Neave. Once Neave had finished feeding the nt, he got up and walked over to the hammer, effortlessly raising it off the ground. In reality, it wasn¡¯t effortless at all, but Neave had to show the shrub who was boss around here. ¡°Now excuse me, fine brush, as I go off and wield this gigantic, stupidly heavy hammer easily.¡± Leaving the pouting puppet behind, he ran to another nearby cave. The hammer crashed down, and Neave breathed out in exhaustion. Once he ttened the ground in the cave section, he stepped into the middle of the ttened earth. The soil shifted beneath his legs, and Neave knew this wouldn¡¯t work all that well. He collected tons of obsidian nts and created a perfectly t, shiny floor of obsidian. Neave used alchemy techniques to harden the floor and make it more rigid. He didn¡¯t bother with the life forcepartment bridge technique, as this would serve just fine. Mostly. If it broke, it wouldn¡¯t be aplicated fix anyway. Neave stepped into the middle of the room again, hauling the sledgehammer. Then he swung it. He kept swinging the hammer, feeling its intense impact on his body every time he did. Once he felt his exhaustion overflowing, he put the hammer down carefully and took a break. After giving himself enough time to rest and recover, he picked the hammer back up and continued his training. That¡¯s right. For the first time since he was a fugitive in Pavarrie, he was training his physical strength. Realizing potential by cultivating wasn''t possible for him, but that didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t improve his strength through mundane training. He wasn¡¯t sure how practical this training would be. True, he had a set of powers that allowed for near-constant training. But his body was that of someone in the foundation realm. Neave had already consumed insane amounts of monster flesh, likely more than anyone else. This had morphed his body, his actual, physical body, independent of his spirit powers, and turned it into something spectacr. However¡­ Neave didn¡¯t know what this meant for his potential. Did his body already fulfill most of its non-cultivation potential, making his efforts fruitless? That wasn¡¯t baseless spection, either. Eating monster meat was known to partially satisfy the function of training, allowing one to augment and supplement their training by consuming it. This wasn¡¯t something that added power entirely independent of training. It, in significant part, sped up the process that could naturally be achieved through exercise. For most cultivators, this was a minuscule technicality that had no real consequence in the grand scheme of things. Hell, if one could fulfill the full potential of training their body within a realm, they would likely already be capable of advancing up the path. For Neave, however, the details of how this worked, especially in interaction with his spirit powers, made all the difference in the world. Training could bepletely and utterly useless. Yet, Neave held on to a faint chance. Perhaps the peculiarbination of his spirit powers would, in one way or another, move those limits up high enough that he still had space to grow. So he swung his hammer. Over and over, Neavepleted the cycle of exhausting himself and resting. Eventually, he felt his strength grow. However, Neave frowned. Is that because I¡¯ve improved my body or because I¡¯ve improved my willpower? The willpower of might spirit power scaled with how much willpower an individual could exert. If Neave was improving his will, that was perfectly fine, but that wasn¡¯t what he truly wanted to achieve. How could he tell, though? Neave pped his forehead. It was obvious. All he had to do was enter his spirit realm. There, he could quickly discover how strong his body was if he didn¡¯t have any spirit powers. After finding the tiny entrance in his spirit, he went inside. In the blink of an eye, he was there. The top of the mountain cone of steel looked over Neave¡¯s entire spirit realm. It was pretty spacious, but the borders were in to see. Random shit, likely the most appropriate phrase to use here, was strewn throughout his private little world. Neave had already turned the top of the steel mountain into something of a¡­ Lounge. Sitting and waiting for the monsters to die was pretty dull sometimes. So the top of the mountain was absurdly fancy. A fine, silky smooth bed, a lovely couch, shelves of books, the contents of which reflected texts Neave had already read before, and many other random toys and even more random shit. Neave could summon objects even during the trials themselves. Perhaps that could help him defeat the trial more easily, but the most practical application he found for this feature was its use in dicking around and creating random crap he could y with. This expedition into the spirit realm was no different either. Neave walked over to a bit of the empty space left, which was rapidly running out, and got to work. He created a massive barbell, trying to imitate the heavy metal he had created, but only partially seeding. Now¡­ It was time to see whether Neave was getting stronger from the training. Chapter 94: Strings Chapter 94: Strings The average strength of someone on a step on the path wasn¡¯t a particrly valuable statistic. It could bepared to the average number of testicles people had. Yes, statistically speaking, people had one testicle on average. In reality, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, it was either none or two. That was kind of how the average strength of a step worked. True, if one took all of the people on a step, measured their physical strength, and found the mean, one would know the answer. It was a statistic that had already been measured. However, using that number to realistically approximate someone¡¯s strength was idiotic. Most people would be either much weaker or much stronger than average, especially with spirit powersing into y. That was without even considering all of the other aspects that made up someone''s power and the possibility of someone having stronger legs, stronger arms, or a stronger back, and so on and so forth. However, as previously mentioned, the average strength was indeed a known thing, and Neave already knew the numbers, as well as the more nuanced analysis of the possible ranges. Thus, after measuring his physical strength, he concluded that he was about as strong as someone on the third step of the bronze path. However, his strength was considerably high for that step, so he ced it somewhere between the bronze path''s third and the silver path''s first step. It wasn''t impossible to outmuscle weaker cultivators on the first step of the silver path. This was considerably more power than he had anticipated. Having this much strength in the foundation realm was inly absurd. This, however, was only the first time he measured his strength. By the thousandth time he measured his strength, Neave firmly held the power of someone on the second step of the silver path. Grinning like a lunatic, he dropped the weights, and they struck the ground violently. There was no indication of how or why he could increase his strength this much, but he could do it. Neave made more of the hyper-heavy metal to make some proper weights, just to make his exercise more efficient. Done with measuring his strength inside the spirit realm, he again left and picked up the weights outside, preparing for another workout session. The room he exercised in had a finely polished obsidian floor, with lovely chiseled stone walls surrounding the inside area. Racks upon racks of dumbells and weights lined the room''s edges, and cracks visibly spread through the ground beneath them. Neave''s muscles bulged as he lifted a ridiculously heavy barbell off the ground and then above his head. His body was starting to look genuinely ridiculous. If he didn¡¯t have his shapeshifting power, he would be facing a simr problem to the one Hunter met, where the sheer mass of his muscle would reduce his mobility. Having a body of slithery rubber helped with mobility quite a bit. And even inside the spirit realm, Neave didn''t find his body too unmaneuverable, surprisingly so. Another pleasant surprise he would ept without questioning it too much. He put the heavy weights down, identally smashing the floor again. No matter how many times he recreated it and made it more robust, it kept identally breaking under the absurd mass of his workout equipment. ¡°Shit, I¡¯m going to have to fix that again.¡± That was the first time he had spoken out loud in a while, and he could swear that his voice was a bit deeper than usual. It was time to feed the nt again, so he postponed fixing the floor for now. A more thorough strengthening would be necessary once he did, though. Neave left the training room and ran back toward the shrub. On his way there, he passed countless knee-high ss bushes, and many more were already growing considerablyrger than that. Neave noticed that some of the old obsidian shrubs were beginning to fall apart. When he inspected the reason why, he realized that the ss shrub, the big one that he still hadn¡¯t named, was spreading its roots and pushing them into the obsidian shrubs. ¡°Damn, Shruby, that shit is hardcore!¡± Cannibalize the old to empower the new! That was how life was meant to be lived! Once back at the location of the shrub, Neave fed it more life force. It could take quite a bit more now. Recently, the shrub had progressed to the first step of the iron path. This seemed to have increased the range of its roots considerably. The area still wasn¡¯t that big, around the size of a small forest back in the real world, but because it spread three-dimensionally, given that it had all of this underground space to fill, the radius mattered many times more. Once he was done feeding the nt, he pondered his muscles. They were shiny and bulging, much more prominent now than when he first started. That was likely it; that was the key! Now that he had more muscle, he had a bigger vessel to contain all the power! Probably... It was somewhat frustrating that he couldn''t confidently pinpoint what exactly allowed for his growth in strength. If he could fully puzzle out what was responsible, he could potentially continue his growth much further. Actually, it was likely that monster meat could regain some of its use again since he had more muscle to feed. Stretching, he got up and walked to a corner of the room where he had created arge mirror. He flexed and posed in the mirror, observing his absurd muscture. Once he was done analyzing his progress, he blew some air out, and his muscles shrunk a bit. He couldpress his body a little without losing function. It wasn¡¯t something he nned on doing in fights, but it made his life a bit easier while doing random chores. Also, the Falken sect robes, the light blue clothes he was still wearing, were starting to strain under his mass. Now, given that he was hitting a teau in his growth and given that he had made substantial progress with the nt, it was time. ¡­ Well, it was time to do something, he felt. However¡­ Nothing specific came to mind. Experimenting on monsters wasn¡¯t wise, as he had to first allow the ss shrubs to spread as far as possible, lest they be thoroughly devoured. The monsters that were still around had all been sealed in obsidian chambers, which werepletely isted from the outside so that they wouldn''t run around and cause problems before the nts could spread. Not much point in making more weapons, either. There was little immediate use in doing that. Finally, although he wanted to help the shrub grow as fast as possible, little intervention was required. There was always the possibility of forcing the damn thing to spread more quickly, but yet again, Neave felt it would be unwise to make an enemy out of the nt. ¡°Oh, crap¡­ What do I do?¡± Neave had been leaving food with the others, but he had no interest in interacting with them. Mainly since he believed in a hands-off approach in the beginning. It was best to let them adapt to this ce without the certainty andfort Neave¡¯s presence provided. Yes, his presence was far tooforting, Neave felt. His amazing humor, excellent cooking, and superbpany were all far too cozy to help them develop the necessary discipline. That was why he threw the asional monster meat, processed, of course, and ran away before they could spot him. It broke his heart to be tough on them, but he knew it was necessary for their own good. What a champion of responsibility he was, indeed. Now, what was he thinking about again? Oh, right, something to do. Well¡­ There was always the option of getting more powerful, of course. The training had gotten extremely dull, though. ¡°Hmmmmmmmm¡­¡± Neave summoned the violet avatar. The tiny ethereal avatar appeared on the floor before him. Neave shrugged. Evolving it to gold rank wasn¡¯t risky at all. Furthermore, evolving it again would likely create a tinum-rank threat, but Neave wasn¡¯t scared of that either. He was drastically more powerful even in the spirit trial now, so what was the point of dilly-dallying? Yet, Neave still hesitated. He took a deep breath. It didn¡¯t matter that much if this power turned out to be a dud. However, Neave would be devastated. Especially now, after creating a weapon and honing his body, he felt endless possibilities with this little guy. The violet avatar spirit power worked in peculiar ways. The creature itself was static in strength, which meant that it couldn¡¯t do something like physically train and grow, sadly. It could be stored within a small dimensional space, and anything it held in its hands, as long as it could lift it off the ground, would also be stored. Now, the avatar itself could also be destroyed and resummoned. If it suffered damage, there was no way to repair it otherwise. The summoning demanded life force, which made Neave rather thankful he had such vast reserves. Ordinary cultivators couldn''t be so careless with the avatar. Neave could also do stuff such as modify the avatar. Its body was translucent and felt floaty to the touch, but it still acted as if it were made of solid matter. If Neave wanted to, he could tear an arm off and rece it with a metal spike or something. Now, there was a catch. If Neave removed any part of its body located in the same ce a muscle would be, the usual functions of that muscle would be lost. So if he removed an arm, he couldn¡¯t simply create a metallic arm with two segments and have it behave like a part of its body. Actually, perhaps he could if he had more knowledge or experience with golem creation. However, there wasn¡¯t much point in modifying its body. None Neave could see yet. It was easy enough to equip it with armor and give it a weapon. There were a lot of upgrades Neave wanted the avatar to receive after an evolution. Namely, he wanted it to acquire an extraordinary power, like one of those the dragon¡¯s puppets had. Neave didn¡¯t want, however, for one of those powers to be in the vein of that crystal-manipting puppet, or rather, he didn¡¯t want it to get a power that would bepletely useless. If it could manipte the purple crystal, that would be utterly pointless here because there was none of that material anywhere. Its basic shape shouldn''t change too much, either. If it transformed into something wildly inhuman, there could be problems with equipping the puppet. Well, something like four arms or wings wouldn''t be the worst thing in the world. The more Neave thought about it, the more possible problems he could predict. What if the evolution increased the number of puppets without altering anything else? The dragon had three. True, those were all different in power and nature, and Neave wouldn''t mind having puppets like that. But if they remained the same... Even if he had fifty of these little guys, they wouldn¡¯t be very useful¡­ Or would they? A weapon didn¡¯t need to be big to be powerful, especially with what Neave could do. What if he created a bunch of ridiculously powerful daggers and sent an army of nasty little guys to battle? Actually, wait, that wouldn¡¯t be useful at all, given that he would still have to manually control the body of the individual avatars. Or would he? Which was better? Naturally, if he could manually control the avatar, he would get the most use out of it, but if it gained independent function... How skilled would it be? Was there a way to assuage ack of performance? Could he train them? Neave sighed in frustration. This was stupid. At this point, he would rather have a in, man-shaped pupped. Neave even vowed not to upgrade the power to tinum rank if it ended up being simple and practical. Now¡­ It was finally time. Neave grabbed the little purple fe off the ground, kissed it on the forehead, and unsummoned it. It was time for it to get an upgrade. Within seconds, Neave was inside a spirit trial. He didn¡¯t know what to do, so he grabbed a random book off a shelf, plopped his body on thefy bed, and yawned. He could feel constant tremors, likely as all the gigantic abominids smashed into the steel mountain. No dragons were flying above him, either, so that was good news. Neave felt so rxed that he nearly fell asleep. It wasn¡¯t possible to be unconscious inside the spirit realm, but one could still feel drowsy. He almost regretted that he couldn¡¯t fall asleep. After all, it would be one hell of a thing to brag about if he could say that he had beaten a spirit trial while asleep. Rather than ept at face value that sleep was impossible, Neave attempted to bend reality to his will to force his manifestation into a state of simted sleep. Unfortunately for him, that wasn¡¯t how any of this worked, so he failed. Initially, at least. Eventually, his sheer stubbornness allowed him to shut his thoughts off. Combined with closed eyes, that was right about as close as someone could get to sleep in a spirit trial. Since Neave was the only judge on this matter, he decreed that it counted. He spent the rest of the time in the spirit trial, eyes closed and mind void of thoughts. Appearing back outside was what eventually broke him out of his state, and he almost forgot about what he was doing in the first ce. Once he remembered, he panicked momentarily as he examined the changes in his spirit power. Neave¡¯s mouth hung open. Violet mist appeared before him, swirling in a small vortex, as Neave summoned the violet avatar¡ªa tiny, ethereal puppet that hadn¡¯t changed one bit. Neither inwardly nor outwardly did the avatar change in any way. Yet, Neave wasn¡¯t upset. Instead, he was grinning like a lunatic. ¡°Now that¡¯s an unexpected upgrade I¡¯m willing to take.¡± Chapter 95: Cycleless Chapter 95: Cycleless Defying the heavens, viting bnce, and the concept of infinite perfection. It was imed that the heavens, infinite in their wisdom, created harmony. Harmony between all, above and beyond one, several, many and all. What was an individual to a society? What was a society to a civilization? What was a civilization to the myriad species of the realms above and below? What was life to all that was unliving? And finally, what could all that was, matter to all that wasn¡¯t? Defying the heavens meant viting this harmony. To rise above your due station as an insignificant speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, and strive to be more, was to spit on what you were given and take what was given to else. To steal from others below, above, the unliving, and ultimately, to bring into being that which wasn¡¯t. The great philosophers of every era had dedicated their lives to deciphering all the insidious ways the heavens punished the defiers. No set number of punishments existed, as no man dared deem themselves wiser than the heavens. However, many were willing to defy them. The ultimate heavenly punishment, the fate that awaited every cultivator, was losing the right to ever have peace. Yet, this was the punishment people epted most easily. After all, peace was never a certainty. Being powerless meant waiting to be a victim, so deciding to take matters into one¡¯s own hands was easy. That was far from the end of heaven¡¯s punishment, however. The way mortal beings witnessed the passage of time was merciful. It was cyclical, eternal, beginning from the humble exchange between night and day and ending in the grand orchestra of seasons. Time only passed on a small scale. Only in seconds, minutes, and hours did one feel the tides of time washing over them. Yet, the cycles were eternal, neverending. The day usurped night and night banished the day. The treachery of fall ruined summer¡¯s reign. The backstab of winter stole fall¡¯s rebellion away. The heroism of spring conquered the winter. And spring¡¯s prosperity ascended to summer¡¯s reign. Repetition, sequence, eternity. The unforgettable, unerasable signature of the year¡¯s cyclical change marked events far more clearly than mortal means. Even then, the past was meant to be forgotten, and the future was meant to be unknown. One was forever until one wasn¡¯t. Then, the cycle of being would continue through their offspring, which would eventually, too, be wiped away. The cruelest, most merciless punishment the heavens could give was to rescind one''s right to a truly eternal life. Cultivators needed less sleep, and they no longer needed it in daily intervals. The cycle of the day was the first to be taken away. They could roam the realm, appearing great distances away at will, yet, they no longer had the privilege of witnessing the epic, neverending battle of seasons. Thus, another cycle, gone. Their young no longer continued their life in their stead, but instead, they died, schemed, stole, and betrayed, dooming those who lived past their time to witness their offspring try to take it away from them. Only when the flow of time turned linear, some imed, that one lived a life shorter than eternity. Dukean recalled the teachings he had read throughout his life. They gave him nofort. They weren¡¯t meant to, to begin with. He had always considered himself resolute. Understanding what it meant to defy the heavens was a core principle of their family, something his father carved into his mind from an early age. What kind of abomination were theymitting right now if the heavens decreed such a cruel fate upon them? Dukean was trying to meditate, but it was bing impossible. The constant anxiety was unbearable, and he felt as if his mind was being torn apart. Cycles? What fucking cycles? There was no such thing as a cycle here, yet, in a cruel twist of fate, repetition was everywhere. Perpetual darkness, above and below, dominated this realm of nightmares. Continuous cold, a bone-piercing chill that didn¡¯t permitfort, crept into every corner and filled every room. Eternal darkness couldn¡¯t be called eternal night. Eternal cold couldn¡¯t be called eternal winter. Those names belonged to the sacred cycles, while this realm was an unholy, disgusting abomination, the ultimate sin against perfection. Perception of time was something many took for granted in their daily lives. However, only when that privilege was taken away did it truly be clear how big of a role it yed in keeping people sane. Dukean broke out of his meditation. He used his spirit power to generate fire, temporarily casting away the darkness and the cold. It wasn¡¯t even secondster that the others were rushing into his room, shamelessly gathering around him. He didn¡¯t me them. Harel looked decrepit. Her hair was falling out, and her dry, red eyes were almost constantly open. She had lost considerable weight and now looked extremely unhealthy. Hunter seemed fine at first nce, but he constantly whispered something to himself. The entire base they found themselves in was overdecorated, as Gabrias spent literally all his time building or crafting something, to the point where he barely ever slept. Trying to force him to sleep made him scream his lungs out, and only when allowed to go back to work did he shut up. They had to knock him out by force to get him to rest. Otherwise, his screams wouldpromise the already fragile sanity of everyone else. Marven looked lethargic, and Dukean knew why. The mighty cultivator had taken the role of a leader. Thus, he hade to Dukean many times and developed a habit of relying on Dukean to vent his frustrations. He worked tirelessly, constantly trying to puzzle out ways to maintain the precarious bnce of their sanity, and he looked beyond exhausted already. At first, Dukean was d that Marven gained trust in him. A short while after Marven started, Dukean began hating Marven¡¯s guts, as he would almost constantly pester him. However, soon after, yet again, he would be d that Marven was talking to him. How funny, Dukean thought. It was almost a cycle. A horrid, disgusting parody of a cycle, one that juggled respect and hatred. Dukeanughed to himself, and the others looked at him in fright. Harel joined him in cackling, and so did Hunter. Gabrias screamed, and Marven jumped to restrain and knock him out. The three others cackled merrily as Marven struck Gabrias a few times more than he should have. As everyoneughed at him, Marven looked almost ready to cry, but soon enough, he wasughing as well. Thump¡­ They all heard the sound. It inspired fear and upset them initially, but now they drooled at their mouths and ran out like wild dogs, rushing to the pile of processed abominid meat. Marven held himself back and grabbed Hunter and Harel by their necks, restraining them whilemanding Dukean to cook the meat first. Dukean was also barely restraining himself from eating, and he rushed to cook the meat with his spirit power. Some pieces were burnt, and others were nearly raw. Once he was done, Marven released the two rabid kids, and they all jumped on the meat. It took much willpower not to devour Gabrias¡¯ share as well. Gabrias was woken up, and his screams were muted, this time by the meat that was forcefully shoved into his mouth. They had eaten, and now it was time. It was time to train. Marvenmanded them to get into formation, and they did as he told them. Hunter and Gabrias were paired up, as they were rtively close in strength, while Harel sparred against Dukean. They all held practice swords shaped out of obsidian. Their power was far too far apart, yet, it was Dukean that dreaded facing Harel instead. ¡°Start!¡± Marven swung his hand, and the spar began. Gabrias screamed, running at Hunter like a maniac. Hunter got into a defensive position and yelled out, ¡°Uldhore, attack from the side!¡± Gabrias tackled Hunter, and they wrestled on the floor. Hunter yelled, ¡°What the hell are you doing just standing there, dude? We have to fight!¡± Harel cackled at Hunter, and she turned to face Dukean. She lifted her practice sword and dashed toward him. The way she fought was simply frightening. Dukean, naturally, had to hold back since he was far too powerful to make for a decent opponent against her. Yet, even with the fact that he was holding back, he would frequently be surprised and caught off guard by the things she did. She would rush him like a heavensdamned lunatic, leaving many openings for him to capitalize on. Yet, if he did that, the attack she was invested in would spell the end of the fight, and if they were evenly matched, likely the end of his life as well. It was such a psychotic fighting style that Dukean was confident she would easily win tournaments amongbatants her age, but not for the right reasons. When one was burned once in a fight against her, it immediately created a sense of hesitation that, throughout the fight, gradually evolved into a phobia of doing anything at all. In the beginning, Marven kept everyone¡¯s fighting styles in check and trained them properly. However, as this damned ce strained his willpower at ever-increasing levels, he decided to be more lenient. That leniency had long turned to negligence. Willpower wasn¡¯t an endless resource. It was like a muscle. If not allowed proper rest, it would eventually fail. There was nobody else to take over Marven¡¯s responsibility of keeping things in check, so he had thoroughly burned out to the point where forcing himself to keep going was impossible. All of them frequently wondered when Neave would finally be done with his project. However, things weren¡¯t guaranteed to improve with Neave¡¯s return. They kept fighting to the point where they likely should have stopped a while ago but kept going anyway. The rush ofbat kept the fear away, and like any other addicts, they couldn¡¯t stop themselves from overindulging in their drug of choice. Once they were thoroughly exhausted, everyone except for Dukean, that was, all went to sleep, falling unconscious one by one. Marven took on the responsibility of tiring Dukean out until he was also knocked out, and finally, everyone was asleep for the first time in a while. Marven immediately fell asleep as well. It was a risk, given that he held immense responsibility here, but it was a risk he was willing to take. Screw the consequences, he needed sleep badly, and he needed it now. That marked the moment when everyoney mostly defenseless and thoroughly exhausted on the ground. *** Gabrias was the first among them to wake up. Screaming the moment he did, he rushed to go do something. Not even that was enough to wake the others up. He walked over to a corner, turned, and entered a room. It was thergest room they had and also the least important one. It was a room that held many tiny houses and random structures. Gabrias had already constructed everything he was meant to, so he needed something to do. Thus, Marven told him to do whatever he wanted. So he did precisely that. The buildings themselves were genuinely terrific. Even with his rudimentary materials, Gabrias constructed firm buildings using every over-the-top, redundant construction technique he could think of. He didn¡¯t hold back on decoration, either. Some entrances had doors leading into them, constructed from obsidian branches. Others had beaded door curtains, ones that were made with polished obsidian beads. As for where he had gotten the thread that he hung the beads on, he collected loose hair, naturally. Harel was losing a ton, and even he was losing hair constantly. Their hair had already grown quite a bit, too, but there was still a shortage. So he ran back into the room with the sleeping cultivators. Where could he get more hair? Ah, of course! Gabrias grabbed a sharp obsidian branch and shaved everyone¡¯s heads bald. It was far from a clean shave. The victims all looked messier than plucked chickens. If somebody dropped wet candy onto a dirty carpet, that¡¯s roughly what it would look like. Naturally, he didn¡¯t spare himself either! The ball of hair he gathered was a messy collection of random colors. Gabrias decided to make a curtain for one of the windows as he had a surplus of material. He worked frighteningly fast and rtively soon created a colorful curtain. Once he hung it, it draped down quite firmly, as it was rather heavy. It was greasier than balls, too, and smelled off. Gabrias shrugged. That would do fine for now! He returned back to the room. He looked at the others, mind sparking with ideas. Everyone was wearing robes, too, and that was potentially construction material! Gabrias approached Harel first and reached for her robes. He paused. What was he doing!? That wouldn¡¯t do. This was immoral. How could he strip a youngdy of her robes? So he stripped everyone else instead. Yes. Even himself. The robes were crafted into a messy carpet, but one that he miraculously made look quite nice. He nodded in satisfaction, and he returned to the room. Damn it, he was out of materials to harvest! Actually¡­ No. There was one more thing. Skin could be turned to leather. That was quite a high-quality material. Gabrias walked over to Marven. He took the sword and carefully pulled it out of its sheath. Then, he walked over to the small exit from their little cave and went outside. That was right. He would harvest some demons instead. Chapter 96: Reverence Chapter 96: Reverence Neave rarely, if ever, truly acted his age. It was hard to say what his age really was, to begin with. Was he eleven? Or did all the years stuck within the loop count? Who was to really say? Neave felt it depended on social interaction, maturity, and stuff that couldn¡¯t be developed in total istion. Let alone in a horrid hell realm of infinite death and suffering. Or perhaps, even more simply, it just depended on one¡¯s biological age. It didn¡¯t really matter either way since Neave was, this time, genuinely acting like an eleven-year-old kid. A toy he was excited about didn¡¯t work as he had hoped, so he was crying and throwing a temper tantrum. The violet avatar spirit power was something special. Something he had ced many hopes on and something he truly believed would be a powerful secret weapon he could use. After he evolved it to gold rank, the power did, in fact, acquire an incredible ability. Possession. Neave could use the violet avatar to possess a corpse and manipte it however he pleased. It still worked the same in virtually all other ways. He had to consciously manipte the dead body so it wasn¡¯t like necromancy. The possessed corpse could be stored in a special dimensional space, and any object it held would be taken with it. The instant he realized what the power did, he immediately got the best idea ever. If he possessed a slime, he would have the ultimate weapon. A puppet he could control, one that could grow in power infinitely, without any limits, and one that could grow to perfectly suit his every need. Yes, he would soon own the most incredible spirit power anyone had ever held! Except he wouldn¡¯t because he forgot one crucial detail. Once a monster died, its core became entirely inert. This meant that a dead slime was little more than an unmoving pile of goo. Dead monsters could no longer evolve. Not a big deal. He could just use¡­ No, that was a pretty big deal. For example, if he did something like possess the corpse of a dragon, like the violet dragon he fought, he wouldn¡¯t have ess to the dragon¡¯s puppets or any of its other powers. Everything from its supernatural strength, speed, breath, and even just the violet energy it used would be gone once the dragon was dead. There was also another critical issue with this power. The possession could only happen if the corpse were void of remnant spirit, which would only vacate the body well after the dposition began. This wasn¡¯t a problem for Neave, as he could simply purge the remnant spirit by washing it out with his liquid spirit. So he would at least avoid having to use a rotting body. This did little to assuage the other problems, however. Without the powers that drove them while alive, Corpses were primarily useless. Say he used the dead body of a cultivator. Their spirit would be gone, so their cultivation, or any of their abilities, including their spirit powers, would also be gone. A dead dude wasn¡¯t the most reliable ally inbat. The power did have technicality that still gave Neave hope. Once a corpse was possessed, outwardly, the body would visibly morph. The skin turned purple, and it glowed with an ominous light. All of the details of the body would acquire a purple motif, and this wasn¡¯t just a visual effect either. The power created a set of constructs that affected the function of different body parts. Usually, it would simplypensate for any deterioration, but with Neave¡¯s remnant spirit purge, it could maintain a body¡­ While it was still alive. The power wasn¡¯t useless, so it shouldn¡¯t be the end of the world if it were somewhat suboptimal. That didn¡¯t stop Neave from bawling his eyes out. There was a simple reason why he was crying. Yes, this ability did have a lot of potential, and the type of experimentation it permitted was right down Neave¡¯s alley. But it''s just such a fucking chore. This didn¡¯t really add anything new to the power. It was already something that had a lot of potential for experimentation. This just made the ability a bigger chore, and dare Neave say¡­ Outright weaker. It could theoretically be as good, or better, than a more straightforward power, but only after a ton of work. He could use that time to dedicate it to the, you know, any of the countless other things he could still experiment with. So all he was granted with this ¡®upgrade¡¯ was a ton of extra work for little benefit. Once the shock of the evolution¡¯s result wore off, Neave managed to calm himself. It was okay. After all, he could still upgrade the power again. No big deal. There was still a chance that the upgrade would alter something fundamental and grant him a much better power. So he sank into his spirit and evolved the power again. No dragon made its way to the top of his mountain, which was a plus, so Neave maintained his optimism as he tried sleeping through the trial again. Once he was out of the trial, his face remained cid. Violet mist appeared on the ground before him. Sevenpletely identical tiny puppets appeared. And absolutely nothing else of consequence about the power had changed. Neave cried again. *** Gabrias lurked through the caves, keeping his ears open for any sign of demons scurrying about. For a long time, he heard nothing of note. Until he started hearing the cries. ¡°What¡­ What is with that demonic wailing!?¡± It must have been the demons, he thought. Rather than fear, Gabrias felt trepidation. Demons meant unique materials for his creations. Were they scary? Of course, they were! However, he held the ss Shard, the mythical weapon crafted by none other than Lord Neave himself. Gabrias scoffed. Naturally, he would be fine. With a single swing, this mighty de could cleave mountains. What could some slithery demon do to him? However, as he approached the sound, his anxiety rapidly built up. This whole section of the cave was strange. ss shrubs were everywhere, and Gabrias kept jolting, tricked by his reflection into thinking he saw movement in the shadows. No problem, he thought. His eyes were that of someone on the bronze path. Darkness couldn¡¯t entirely hide things from him. He would continue his journey bravely. Eventually, he walked into a massive room. Every single part of it was overgrown with ss shrubs. Something was deeply off about this room. Gabrias wasn¡¯t insane like the others. He knew something was watching him. And sadly for him, he was right. The ss Shard flew out of his hand by itself, and Gabrias gaped. He tried catching the de. It wasn¡¯t flying particrly fast. In fact, it seemed to be wavering unsteadily as it floated through the air. Gabrias tried grasping it, but its chaotic trajectory made it a considerable challenge. He ran after it anyway, not giving up the chase. That was Lord Neave¡¯s creation. If he lost it, he would never live the shame down. A few seconds of clumsy fumblingter, Gabrias tripped andnded face-first on the ground. Lifting his head, he saw the sword fly into the hands of a ss puppet, and it lifted it, pointing it at Gabrias¡¯ head. Wait¡­ This was the ss puppet. Yet another of Lord Neave¡¯s creations. How superb. Gabrias heaved a sigh of relief. Thank the heavens, he hadn¡¯t lost the de. It was merely repossessed by another of Lord Neave¡¯s servants. Gabrias still felt a little sour, though. How would he hunt the demons now? He wasn¡¯t a particrly proud man. Gabrias knew he would be screwed in seriousbat against¡­ Well¡­ Anything even remotely threatening. Wait a minute¡­ A genius idea had just popped into his mind! Gabrias threw himself to the ground, prostrating before the ss puppet, ¡°Oh, mighty attendant of the Lord, please grant this humble servant a favor!¡± The puppet slowly lowered the de and cocked its head up. Gabrias continued, ¡°Please, apany me on a journey to purge this sacred realm of those impure demons that gue it!¡± He left the part about gathering leather for construction unsaid. Perhaps a nobler goal may appeal more to the puppet. The puppet cocked its head, clearly unsure of what Gabrias was talking about. Gabrias clearly understood what the shrub was trying to say, ¡°Could it be¡­ Do you not know of the corrupt demons that gue this realm?¡± The ss shrub bent back, shook its head, and wagged its index finger at Gabrias. Then, it straightened its posture, crossing its arms and opening the palm of its hand. Its message was clear. Who do you think I am? Of course, I know who they are! Oh, heavens, he may have insulted the puppet! Gabrias lowered his head further and continued, ¡°Of course, naturally, forgive this little one¡¯s disrespectful behavior! If you so wish, I will ept any punishment you deem fit!¡± The puppet paused at that. Then it stepped over to Gabrias and softly kicked him a bit. It quickly walked back and raised its head even higher, obviously pleased with itself. Gabrias kept repeatedly appealing to the ss shrub, and eventually, he followed as the puppet led the way. They had demons to purge. And, naturally, materials to gather! A lovely leather couch sounded like precisely the thing he should present to Lord Neave. *** tinum path cultivators were highly influential members of society. Naturally, their power was the main reason why. For cultivators of the tinum path and beyond, the masses loved fantasizing about the fantastical feats they could perform. One such fantasy was that they could perceive everything around them, even while fully asleep. This was a myth, but only partially. Diamond path cultivators could do this. tinum path cultivators couldn''t. However, tinum path cultivators could still think, even when otherwise unconscious. This ability was quite convenient when someone was perpetually busy, as Marven was back when he was a sect master. And, well, as busy as he was in the nightmare realm. Marven was aware of the type of psychological challenges istion could bring. Many a cultivator left secluded cultivation with a shakier grasp on their sanity than before entering. This realm, however, was on an entirely different level. The constant darkness, bone-piercing cold, and the uncertainty and terror of the outside made for a horrible environment for one¡¯s sanity. Worst of all was that all of them knew that they would eventually die inside this realm. Everyone had to live knowing they would perish one day, but there was one crucial difference. They knew that, at least, they wouldn¡¯t have to live on with the memories of how it happened. Marven and the others didn¡¯t have that privilege. He had been confident at first. If alone, he could maintain his mental health just fine by following known principles when isted. While juggling the mental health of four others that had no idea how to do it? There was simply no way. Inside this nightmare realm, you didn¡¯t feel ¡®tired.¡¯ You were either exhausted, anxious, or both. So when did you sleep? How did you keep track of a healthy sleep schedule when you couldn¡¯t even keep track of time or rely on your body to do it for you? You didn¡¯t. You just didn¡¯t. Given that his hair had grown out to its full length and even had to be cut once, Marven knew that months had passed at the very least. What the hell was Neave doing, anyway? Why was it taking so long? And why was he avoiding talking to them? They had so many problems and virtually no way to solve them without Neave¡¯s help! Marven was losing his fucking mind, and it was constantly getting worse. The others were a wreck already, Harel looked ready to die from stress, and the others weren¡¯t faring much better. They were running out of time. Dying from insanity, either by suicide or otherwise, was a threat, but the even more significant threat was the long-term consequences this experience would leave on them once they left. It was time. Marven decided. This constituted a severe crisis. He had to go find Neave. Marven forced himself awake and¡­ Awoke in the main room of their base, naked, bald, and surrounded by the others, who had suffered the same fate. ¡­Yeah. It may already be toote. Chapter 97: Predators Chapter 97: Predators Several demon bodiesy strewn around the cavern, shredded to bits by floating shards of ss. Yet, one still stood, lurking, hiding in the shadows. Observing. It could sense the soil and the roots that spread within. Horrifying yet exciting. Perhaps even thrilling¡ªbut dangerous. The corpses thaty around had all already been cracked into by roots and were being consumed. All but one final corpse, currently in the living demon''s grasp. Small, ck veins spread from the demon''s limbs and absorbed the corpse. The nt wasn¡¯t the only thing that could consume. As the juices from within the body flowed into the living demon, its physique grew more defined. Once the corpse was gone, it stood still. Waiting. *** The ss puppet confidently strolled through the cave, casually swinging the ss Shard to cleave through obsidian bushes. It looked at the weapon with scorn. The puny little thing dared resist its maniption ability. The sword hade from its own body, yet now, it deigned to defy itsmand? Unforgivable. The ss Shard wasn¡¯t conscious the way the mighty shrub was, and at the end of the day, it was just an object, but the nt couldn¡¯t tolerate threats to its supreme status. The ss shrub¡¯s roots spread far and wide in every direction. Master was slightly misguided, which was an intentional move on the shrub¡¯s part. While the usual, thick webbing of its roots covered an area in the radius of an average ¡®forest,¡¯ or whatever that was, it had also spread tiny, minuscule roots far, far further in every direction. It needed those roots for a straightforward reason. So that it could manipte the puppet even if it left the radius of its thick root webbings. As long as the puppet was close to any of the roots, the shrub could easily manipte it with no problem. The ss puppet turned a bit to look at the naked skin creature walking behind it. It was of the same species as Master was, but it was hideous. Clearly an inferior specimen, far from the status of its godlike Master. The puppet did not need to turn to look at this thing. It relied on its spirit to perceive things, but it couldn¡¯t resist imitating the mannerisms of Master and his species. That drive had only gotten stronger after Master granted it that strange power. This skin being that dared be of the same species as Master assumed that it didn¡¯t know what a ¡®corrupt demon¡¯ was. How insolent. Of course, it knew what those things were. Its roots spread through the dead bodies of many of them, even now. The puppet hesitated only momentarily as it flexed its spirit in full force. Crack¡­ ???????????¡­.. ?¡­ e¡­ There. That was better. Those demons contained something gross within them, and digesting that was not an easy task, even for its unparalleled might. However, it still did its best to consume that substance. Something that could only be described as wisdom flowed into its consciousness whenever it did. The obedient little golem within its spirit resonated with that substance, and something from within that creature flowed into the shrub¡¯s spirit. It was hard to tell exactly what it was. However, it amplified the desire to behave like a¡­ Human? No¡­ Person? Not even that. The concept that flowed into it was strange. The same idea, the same construct, seemed to originate from the faint whispers of potential it adopted into its spirit. It was a simple, elegant shape. Upright posture, straight torso, two limbs to grab things, two limbs to walk, and a head. Simple, yet impable. Naturally, more could be added to this basic shape, but its core, the basic form, should never change. Because it was perfect. Yet¡­ Was it really? Perhaps perfect wasn¡¯t the right way to describe the utility of this form, but one thing was clear. For one reason or another, it was alluring and inviting. Something about it was a drug that provided unparalleled ecstasy. Every step closer to perfecting that shape elevated one¡¯s existence to a higher level. It was a core, a basis, an origin¡­ Or better yet, a foundation. A stone upon which the idea of sapience had been built. The puppet paused yet again. How curious. A part of that thought was its own, yet, it wasn¡¯t. That was irrelevant. It had all the time in the world to muse about the nature of reality or its thoughts. It was time to impress thisrge, gross human and show it its true power. Corrupt demon hunt, begin. *** Marven had shaken everyone awake. Harel crouched, hiding her face in embarrassment. The other two covered themselves and awkwardly twisted their bodies to the side. Marvenmented the situation, but this was no time for shame. Gabrias had taken the ss Shard. Nobody could guess in a billion years why he did it or where he had gone with it, but the possibilities made Marven¡¯s skin crawl. It couldn¡¯t be that he was possibly stupid enough to think he could beat Neave with that sword¡­ Right? No, that wasn¡¯t it. Marven knew how Gabrias saw and treated Neave. It was¡­ Reverance, almost. What shaped that view, or how it had developed, didn¡¯t matter, but it drastically reduced the possibility that Gabrias was after Neave¡¯s head. So what was he after, then? A ridiculous thought crossed Marven¡¯s mind¡­ Was he perhaps out to kill demons? Preposterous, yet, very possible. No, that was almost definitely it. Everyone, besides Marven, lived in constant fear of those demons appearing. The fear had long ago turned into a phobia, which was one of the biggest reasons their sanity was suffering so much and deteriorating so quickly. Marven had reiterated repeatedly that the demons were no threat to them as long as he held the ss Shard. However, that did close to nothing to assuage their fears. There was always some argument a phobic mind could conjure to justify its irrational conclusions. It was likely Gabrias had finallypletely lost it, so he grabbed the sword and ran off to fight the demons himself. Ironically, Marven wasn¡¯t all that scared for Gabrias¡¯ wellbeing. That sword was probably enough to keep him safe, at least from the demons. It was simply too powerful. Well, safe unless he identally killed himself by misusing it. No, the biggest thing Marven was afraid of was something else. They werepletely out of the loop about Neave¡¯s ns. However, one thing was clear. Neave had warned them against leaving the cave. If Gabrias messed something up, Marven was horrified of Neave¡¯s reaction. He cursed himself and bit his lip. It seemed he had developed his own phobia, which he would purge immediately, even if it were rational. He owed far too much to Neave to live in fear of him. Neave¡¯s reaction wasn¡¯t the only potential problem. Instead, what Neave was doing could be rather delicate. If Gabrias disrupted something important, how long would they have to wait in istion, sitting around in this cave of nightmares, waiting to be consumed by insanity? That had to end, and it had to end now. ¡°Grab your weapons.¡± They had spent much time sitting around in this cave and had prepared properly shaped branches. They were fragile and weak, but at least their shape permitted sword qi techniques. Time was running out. Finding Gabrias had be a top priority. Within moments of grabbing their shoddy weapons, three naked, bald men, apanied by a bald girl, stepped out into the darkness. *** Gabrias followed the ss puppet, maintaining a respectful distance behind it and keeping a submissive posture. He wasn¡¯t new to sucking up to superiors. Hell, that was basically what his life came down to when he was a spy for the Bentheta sect. The two unusual hunters began their wacky hunt, and many caves found themselves clean of obsidian growth. Gabrias noticed that the ss puppet almost intentionally went out of its way to clear all the obsidian shrubs it could. That was a crucial detail. This must mean it hated the obsidian bushes, which was logical in Gabrias'' opinion. It also made sucking up to the ss shrub much easier. Gabrias picked up a fatter branch and went out of his way to wreck as many shrubs as possible. The puppet seemed pleased, or at least positively surprised, by Gabrias¡¯ behavior. It wasn¡¯t long until the duo made their way onto the surface of the nightmare realm. Once up there, it was only then that Gabrias began to feel truly naked. In the caves, more often than not, there was only a direction or two one had to keep an eye on. Out here, however, the void of hazardous darkness was omnidirectional, and one¡¯s back was always turned to the dark. Gabrias hadn¡¯t seen any when they first entered the realm, but now, the short, ss shrubs seemed to be growing everywhere. Was that part of Lord Neave¡¯s n, perhaps? His mind sparked with ideas. Could it be that Neave needed these nts for something? Maybe Gabrias should water a few. Not that he had any water with him, but he could easily retrieve some from the cave. If he could find his way back, that was. That was no problem, however. The cave was¡­ Somewhere. Perhaps the puppet would escort him if he asked nicely? What a silly question. Of course it would! ??????¡­ Gabrias paused. He heard something in the distance, a whispery echo of horrors that made his skin crawl. The ss puppet immediately turned and swung the ss Shard toward the sound. A small section of the obsidian forest was cleared of growth, and the demon was revealed. The sh had cut its body all over, but it was far from seriously injured enough to die. The ss puppet suddenly stopped, going entirely inert. Gabrias would have shit his pants if he had any. However, almost immediately, as the puppet went inert, countless shards of ss began floating off the ground. The small ss shrubs caught in the attack had broken apart and spread their broken branches around the demon. Those shards flew into the air and turned their points to the intruder. The demon ignored them and rushed toward Gabrias. Instantly, the branches shot out and skewered its body, twisting and sttering gore and ck fluid around the mangled corpse. The floating shards of ss fell to the ground, and the ss puppet moved again, shrugging and moving on to another target. Gabrias wasn¡¯t particrly impressed, however. ¡°... Such mangled skin won¡¯t make for a good couch.¡± Maybe the next demon wouldn¡¯t be dispatched so violently. *** Marven led the charge into the darkness. Honestly, if he weren¡¯t worried about his safety and sanity, he would have left Hunter back at their base. Hunter was simultaneously the weakest link and the biggest target in their formation. The other two could at least fend for themselves, and Dukean could even put up a fight, especially with his spirit powers. They feared causing too much noise would attract unwanted attention. Hence they carefully maneuvered through the obsidian brush, doing their best to avoid skewering their private bits on a piece of sharp ss. And, sadly, failing. Hunter whimpered and moved his hip back, keeping his mouth shut and trying not to scream. Dukean and Harel both nearlyughed at the sight. Dukean almost immediately calmed himself, yet Harel was actively fighting the desire to burst intoughter. All three of the others gave her a death stare, and she suddenly found the strength to hold herself back. Until they walked a bit further, and Dukean impaled his ass. ¡°Pfff, bahahahahahahaha.¡± ¡°Harel! Be silent!¡± Marven whispered, making his way back to put a hand on her mouth. In the absence of herughter, shifting could clearly be heard in the dark. Chapter 98: Crisis Chapter 98: Crisis All around them, they could hear the sounds of slithering, scurrying, sneaking, and, well, demons outright rushing toward them. Some were subtle and insidious, while others seemed to have a more straightforward approach to life. Marven was sweating profusely as he got into a battle-ready stance. He had ess to qi techniques this time because his weapon resembled a sword enough, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that their current situation looked quite hopeless. He had struggled mightily to take out a single demonst time; this time, there seemed to be dozens. One of them jumped out, rushing straight toward Marven. Marven readied his sword as every cell in his body lit up in anticipation of the attack. He lifted the de, preparing an attack to distract the demon, then follow up with a kick, two shes, and another kick to knock the demon back. He would clear a path in the other direction and carry Hunter and Harel while praying Dukean could make it out alone. His sword lit up with a red light, and he fired the distraction strike, then prepared to¡­ The strikended straight at the iing demon¡¯s midsection, and half of its gut was carved out. Marven reflexively followed his muscle memory and continued with a stab, sh, and kick, managing to finish the demon off in seconds. Several others were already running toward them, but Marven¡¯s mind was spinning with confusion. Did he just get impossibly lucky? There was no time to think. Marven threw out a muchrger qi technique, and the cavern''s ceiling copsed on the iing demons. He turned to the others, ¡°Run in the other direction! Dukean, try to find a way to hold them back from advancing while I break through!¡± Dukean nodded and swiftly jumped behind Marven¡¯s back. A searing burst of fire flew out of his hands, and was sent toward the pile of debris the demons were buried under. The rock was heated until it glowed, and the demons screamed and thrashed to try and push their way out. Dukean used his earth maniption to lift a fewrge boulders, and whenever a demon made its way past the pile of debris, it found itself buried beneath arge stone or had its path cut off. Suddenly, a ring red light lit up behind them, and they turned, facing Marven. The obsidian branch he held in his hands was glowing with an oppressive light, and he swung it forward. Several demons had nearly reached him in the time it took to prepare the strike, but now, they came face to face with a burst of energy as the massive attack flooded the cave with sword qi, crashing through the small group of demons and opening a path. ¡°Now!¡± Marven grabbed Hunter and Harel while Dukean manipted the air to elerate after them. As a tinum path cultivator, he was far faster than Dukean, but he had no time to slow down as he dodged and weaved through countless tentacles that flew out to grasp his limbs. They kept their attention firmly on Marven and the two he was carrying, which allowed Dukean to fly over and get a little ahead of Marven. The three of them turned a corner and kept running. Marven couldn¡¯t swing his sword as he held Hunter and Harel firmly grasped beneath his arms, but luckily, he didn¡¯t seem to need to. The demons were scrambling after them, but none were uninjured, so they couldn¡¯t run quickly enough to catch up to them. Marven found this encounter strange. The demons were too weak. The one he had fought a while back was a worthy nemesis. These demons couldn¡¯t evenpare to it. The thing that unnerved him was¡­ These demons were the same. Yet, they weren¡¯t. But they were. Judging by their physical abilities, they seemed to be around as fast as the one he had faced before, and based on their strength, some even seemed stronger. It was the way they used that power that was vastly inferior. Exactly what the hell did Marven face back then? And was he at any threat of facing it again? His blood ran cold as he realized that he had no way to tell. These demons were barely different than the one from before, and if any of them possessed skill simr to that one, there would be no way to tell. He tightened his grip on the two kids. A sharp burst of pain spread through one of his arms, and he looked down. Harel was biting him. ¡°What are you doing!?¡± ¡°Let me go! I can run by myself!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t keep up with us! Don¡¯t be stupid! Stay still and wait until we have reached safety!¡± Crash¡­ Arge demon suddenly broke through one of the thickly overgrown paths to their side. Marven held his sword in the arm he was gripping Hunter, preventing him from fighting back. Harel used the distraction to free herself, and Marven had no choice but to drop Hunter as he turned to the demon. Hunter flew out, and Harel jumped before him, catching him to prevent him from dropping on a sharp brush. There was no time for gratitude. Marven obliterated the newly arrived demon¡¯s skull, and Dukean zed fire behind it, stopping several others from approaching. Harel dropped Hunter down and used a pretty intensive qi technique on one of the demons. A sh of silver light flew out and struck the demon¡¯s arm. It left arge gash but was far from enough to hinder the demon, let alone do substantial damage. It did distract it for a moment, however, and created an opening Marven utilized immediately to bisect the demon at its waist. Their pause had allowed the other demons rushing at them to close the distance, and Marven was forced to pick the two kids up again. Even though Harel protested, she didn¡¯t resist, as she now knew that refusing a lift meant death. As they ran through the cave again, Dukean desperately struggling to keep up with Marven, they entered a cave that was damn near impossible to navigate. Rather than obsidian growth, this was a cave lined by metal spikes from every direction. Marven paused for a second, jumped, and kicked one of the metal spikes, breaking it off the wall. He kicked it toward Dukean, not as an attack, but rather, slow enough for Dukean to catch it, ¡°Shape that into a sword!¡± Dukean immediately understood what Marven was after. The obsidian branch was like a conductor that could be used for techniques but couldn¡¯t be properly used as a weapon. Even then, it couldn¡¯t handle powerful techniques and could only be used for basic attacks. Marven¡¯s power was limited as all he could rely on were long-range techniques, which were incredibly demanding and traded power for range. That wasn¡¯t sustainable in this fight. Yet, Dukean hesitated. His spirit powers were gold rank, and at that level of potency, his metal maniption power should be able to bend the spike into the desired shape. However, he hadn¡¯t used the power even once yet. He focused on the metallic object and¡­ It was damn near impossible to shape. He could bend or otherwise manipte it by moving it through the air, but shape it into a sword? It was pretty hopeless, but he had no choice. There was one thing he could do, however. Dukean ran, following Marven through the imprable forest of spikes. It was a delicate obstacle course that required incredible skill to navigate, and luckily, neither Marven nor Dukean wascking in that department. The demons weren¡¯t nearly as skilled. Sure, they could slither around the spikes, but they couldn¡¯t fly over and around them the way Marven and Dukean could. This would be enough to lose the demons, as long as they don¡¯t end up at a dead end. Dukean kept most of his focus on running as he pinched the metal and pulled it with his fingers. While his metal maniption power was unpracticed andcking, the raw physical strength of someone on the gold path was enough to bend mundane metal, especially when used in conjunction with a maniption power. This metal was hefty and impressively tough for mundane material, but that didn¡¯t stop Dukean from twisting and pulling it. It was a slow, annoying process that was more akin to shaping my than it was pulling metal, and Dukean wasn¡¯t exceptionally skilled at doing it, but slowly, as they traveled through the cave, the spike looked more and more like a sword. Twump¡­ Marven paused for a fraction of a second. He heard something move behind them. Was it one of the demons? However, as he looked back, he couldn''t see anything, even with the sight of a tinum-rank cultivator. So he turned around. And that was when he spotted it. Standing on the tip of a spike, a firm, muscr figure appeared. His fear from earlier turned out to be unnecessary. It was easy to tell that this demon wasn''t like the others. *** The ss shrub could sense anything within the range of its roots, but that was quite a lot of information, even with how quiet this ce was. There was always a new sprout growing, earth shifting, old obsidian branches falling apart under its roots, and those damn demons scurrying around. There used to be a few monsters wandering around, but it had eradicated all of those that left the few caves where Master had trapped them. It still didn''t know why Mastermanded it to do that, but it was sure he had his reasons. However, something was strange this time. It could sense amotion, quite a big one at that. It followed its senses, finding a partially destroyed cave. Then, it tracked them further, eventuallying across dead demons it hadn¡¯t killed and living ones that seemed injured and weak. They were trying to make their way into one of those cursed spiky caves, ones of metal. It had been trying its best to push its roots through the ground in those caves, but it simply wasn¡¯t worth it. Its energy was best spent on spreading its influence further out. However, it was only natural that it would force a thin root or two into the caves anyway, if anything, to ensure that it could manipte the puppet to go into those caves if necessary. It followed its senses into those caves and¡­ The puppet froze. Gabrias, tracking behind it, also stopped and wondered what was happening. *** Dukean pulled himself off a spike, barely holding onto the half-shaped metallic weapon while he held his bleeding side. Harel and Hunter hid between the spikes, trying to stay out of the fight. While Marven, on the other hand, struggled mightily. Crack¡­ The obsidian branch he had used as a weapon snapped like an ordinary twig as the demon swung its tentacles like whips. ¡°Harel!¡± Marven yelled, and Harel threw her branch at him. However, before it could reach Marven, another tentacle snapped at an impossible speed and pulverized the obsidian branch. Hunter, to everyone¡¯s surprise, used the moment to throw his branch as well, and the demon hadn¡¯t been prepared to intercept it, so it managed to reach Marven. It barely made a difference. The demon stepped forward, dashing toward Marven. Marven instantly used another qi technique, but the demon side-stepped it, swinging its leg and crashing it into Marven¡¯s hip, who twisted his torso, minimizing the impact, but the demon was already swinging a tentacle from the other side to capitalize on his overextension. Marven was outmatched, but he wasn''t to be underestimated. He continued his twist into a turn and swung his torso beneath the tentacle, using the miss to counterattack with a kick. No use. His leg was kicked aside, his back was whipped, and as he prepared to use another technique, the demon kicked his knee, pushing him over andpletely destroying his bnce. It was over. The demon had the upper hand, and there was little to nothing Marven could do to recover on time. Just as it was about to sink its ws into his spine, a transparent shard of ss flew out of nowhere and impaled the demon¡¯s hand. Marven used the demon¡¯s moment of hesitation to get off the ground and kick off a spike, going over to Harel and Hunter. The demon instantly followed up with a tentacle strike, but before the attack couldnd, several other ss shards also flew out of nowhere, stabbing into the tentacle and redirecting the strike. Marven grabbed Harel and Hunter and began running. The demon jumped to follow, but another dozen shards flew out from the empty cave and stabbed into its side. This time, the demon twisted and knocked the bits of ss back, repeatedly striking them out of the air to shatter them into fine dust, but more and more kepting with every second that passed. It was enough to keep the demon upied for a while as Marven and Dukean made their way away from the demon, oblivious to what the hell was happening. Marven was sweaty and bloody all over, while Dukean struggled to run, gripping his bleeding side and breathing heavily. Yet, they both ran like the wind, fearing whatever the hell that demon was. Marven finally understood what Neave had said. Indeed, the thing he had faced in the beginning¡­ That was definitely an inferior demon. Chapter 99: Above and Beyond Chapter 99: Above and Beyond Gabrias stood frozen, waiting for the puppet to move. Anxiety was already setting in, as it hadn¡¯t moved even a bit for minutes. What was happening? Was the ss brush busy with something else, thus, incapable of manipting the puppet? That wasn¡¯t good news. Gabrias was alone on the surface and utterly defenseless without the puppet''s help. He could perhaps take the ss Shard, but he didn¡¯t want to upset the shrub once it returned. He anxiously scouted over thendscape, looking for any signs of movement. Sadly, he spotted movement almost immediately. A demon was heading toward them, slowly, sneakily moving its way through the thick growth. Gabrias hoped the shrub wouldn¡¯t be insulted as he walked over and grabbed the ss Shard, preparing to fight. The moment he grabbed the weapon, the puppet moved. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry, I was just¡­¡± The construct of sspletely ignored his pleas, as well as the iing demon, as it wrapped its arms around him. Then it went limp. ¡°... I¡¯m sorry?¡± Then it floated into the air. And started flying away, taking the screaming Gabrias with it. *** The demon knocked thest few shards of ss out of the air and warily observed the others. A massive pile of ss dust surrounded its feet, and it didn¡¯t seem like any of it would be moving any time soon. So it turned around and ran. Following the trail of blood the humans had left behind. *** Psssstttt¡­ Marven winced as he watched Dukean cauterize his wound with the fire spirit power. He was already impressed beyond belief with the boy''s willpower so far. It wasn¡¯t something one would expect from a fifteen-year-old kid. Dukean was an anomaly in many ways, and a few of them, Marven felt, could be partially attributed to the fact that he had already been here once and even starved to death. On the one hand, it was clear that that would grant him an advantage in experience, but on the other hand, it made it all that more impressive that he had even dared to step back inside. This wasn¡¯t the time for idle musings. Marven swiftly brought his mind back to the subject matter¡ªrunning as far away as possible from the demon. They had taken a few sharp turns, and currently, they were heading to the surface. There was no way they could return to their base or any point, and trying to find Neave was an absurd undertaking. Not only were the chances of stumbling upon him minuscule, but there was also a serious risk of running into a dead end. Running into one again, that was, Marven thought, cursing as he stopped. He turned around and looked for another path. There was another reason why they chose the surface. Those ss shards that had flown in out of nowhere were the doing of the ss brush, the being nurtured by Neave. If it was aware of their situation and helping them out, Neave likely already knew what was happening. If they made it to the surface, that would make it the most essible ce for Neave to track them down. As they ran, Dukean focused on shaping the sword, which looked about halfway done. Remarkable, Marven thought, as he once again appreciated the young man¡¯s drive. Harel looked like she was fuming, and Marven couldn¡¯t understand why. Hunter was silent, not having said a single word since their encounter with the powerful demon. Marven cared little for their mental state, as survival was a bigger problem. ¡°...Shit!¡± Marven spotted another demon ahead of them. He would have to put Harel down and¡­ Suddenly, Dukean flew by ridiculously fast,nding a flying kick right at the demon¡¯s head. His foot ignited in fire, and before the demon could regain its bearings, the metal spike flew down and opened its torso. The demon was still alive, reaching for Dukean, but a strong gust of air concentrated on Dukean''s palm as he mmed it into the demon''s midsection and pushed it away, impaling it onto a spike protruding from the wall. The demon was about to push itself off the spike and set itself free, but the metallic protrusion bent to the side and locked the demon in ce. Carrying the two others, Marven harmlessly ran past the demon, and Dukean followed. For the third time, Marven couldn¡¯t help but appreciate Dukean. Pffft¡­ Even the kids in the top-tier sects are monsters. A short runter, they found themselves up on the surface. *** Neave stared at the floating shards of ss as they repeatedly made random shapes. It was clear that the ss brush was trying to tell him something, but¡­ Just, what the fuck? ¡°What is this!?¡± Neave pointed at the utterly nonsensical circles and arrows pointing in random directions. Despite not being arranged in any coherent shape, the arrows still managed to convey a sense of frustration as they hurriedly formed a rough stickman. The stickman then¡­ Fell apart? But it was then put back together, and another stickman, which clearly had far too many limbs, formed next to it, and¡­ Swung? Threw? Pointed its extra limbs at the other stickman? Neave stared at the floating shapes in confusion and concluded that the ss shrub was hungry for attention. That must have been it. ¡°There, there, don¡¯t worry, Shruby! I will be done with my task soon!¡± Neave looked back down at the horrid monstrosity he was creating. A roughbination of limbs that had been haphazardly sewn togethery on the ground next to Neave¡¯s feet. Creating a humanoid monster was a high order and a task Neave simply couldn¡¯t do yet, given the risk involved, so he settled for killing a bunch of abominids, then mixing and matching their limbs together. After a few more minutes of work, he was finally done! ¡°Ta-dah! What do you think, Shruby?¡± Frustration radiated from the incoherent shapes floating in the air, and Neave ignored them, ¡°Whatever, your opinion is biased anyway! You¡¯re probably just jealous again!¡± The floating pieces sagged and scattered on the floor. Neave harrumphed and went back to his experiment. It was far from an excellent solution to his problem, but he needed something to test the power out. The tiny purple puppet floated over to the corpse and sank into it. Neave frowned. ¡°Tendon there, muscle there, lots of muscles, actually, bone? No, wait, why are you simting veins!? What the hell!? No, that¡¯spletely pointless! Oh, fuck sake!¡± Neave scratched his head in frustration. The power only had a certain amount of energy it could dedicate at any time. That energy would be split between two things: manifesting fixes for parts of the body that didn¡¯t work correctly and boosting the performance of the corpse. For example, if the corpse had a severed tendon, the power would manifest an ethereal tendon instead, acting as a recement. Or if a specific muscle were torn, it would patch it up. It also seemed to be fixing random shit like veins and nerves, even though those were utterly irrelevant to the corpse''s performance. That was one of the downsides of spirit powers; sometimes, they had pointless redundancy built into their function. As, well, they weren''t built to begin with. Spirit powers were rtively random, or perhaps it was better to say, emergent, phenomena. There was no designer behind them, no grand scheme. They did what they did, regardless of the utility. Neave''s problem was that this power prioritized fixing issues over boosting performance. So, when it ran out of energy while fixing random body parts that held no importance to thebat capability of the corpse, it could no longer boost thebat capability of the corpse. Funny how that worked, huh? Neave bit his fingers until they bled and stared angrily at the horrific abomination he had constructed. ¡°Fucking useless bullshit.¡± Of course, this power had a lot of potential. As far as its maximum power was concerned, it didn¡¯t really have a maximum power. That depended on the ability of the body it was possessing, and if appropriately equipped, it could be a genuinely frightening asset. So, what was the problem? Well, once Neave left the nightmare realm, he would have to face the heavenly messenger. Probably very soon after he left too. There was no time for experimentation and bullshit time-sinks. Every second would matter. Using any old corpse wouldn¡¯t give him an edge in a fight against a cultivator of unknown but certainly superior strength. Neave sighed. Whatever. This power would stille in helpful in terraforming the realm. There was one more upgrade Neave had failed to notice before. The range of this power had increased¡ªto practically infinity. There was absolutely no limit he could sense to how far the corpse could be away from him. Even in a different realm, Neave was somewhat confident he could control it without a problem. The part of the power responsible for that was the dimensional aspect, the same aspect that allowed him to store the corpses in a dedicated dimensional space. Neave could think of several immediate benefits to this. He supposed he would have to settle for discovering something else to make a difference in the fight against the heavenly messenger. Suddenly, the ss puppet flew over to Neave, carrying some form of horrific skin abominid. Wait, no¡­ Gabrias? ¡°Huh!?¡± Neave was bbergasted. Had the shrub lost its mind? The naked Gabrias was released and plopped to the ground, still grasping the ss Shard. ¡°L¨CLo¨CLord Neave!¡± Neave pinched his brow. What in the realm was going on? ¡°What are you doing here? Did the shrub do this to you!?¡± ¡°No, I¡­¡± Gabrias paused as he turned to the ss puppet. Neave turned to it as well. It seemed to be ying charades or something, as it showed a whole bunch of random movements Neave couldn¡¯t possibly wrap his head around. Gabrias gaped, ¡°What!? Where!?¡± ¡­ Are you serious? ¡°Can you tell what it¡¯s trying to say?¡± ¡°Yes, and¡­ It¡¯s dire news! Marven and the others have left the cave and are being hunted by demons!¡± Neave blinked, ¡°Bruh.¡± *** At first, Marven¡¯s n involved hiding somewhere in a depression, cowering beneath the growth, and hoping Neave would eventually find them. That n almost immediately came crashing down. Dukean ran around, struggling to finish shaping the metal sword as he had to use it for self-defense. Marven constantly juggled between giving Dukean a moment to breathe and keeping Harel and Hunter alive. This was a nightmare. Countless demons surrounded them, and he could see myriad others scurrying through the thick growth. Harel wasshing out at anything approaching her like a rabid dog while Hunter stood still. He looked like he was either contemting something or, the more likely possibility, his brain had shut down under all the stress. Marven needed Dukean to hurry up and finish the sword, but what he needed the most was Neave to arrive. They were running out of time. Because Marven was running out of qi. He couldn¡¯t even use sword techniques, so all he had left were awfully unpracticed unarmedbat techniques. They were still mighty and couldn¡¯t be called sloppy, butpared to his masterful swordsmanship, they were simply a waste of energy. A massive waste of energy at that. Marven¡¯s footnded on a demon¡¯s head, which caved in beneath the pressure of the strike. He turned in the air and kicked again, shoving the demon away while he swapped his focus to another. He was really feeling theck of his spirit powers, and theck of his endurance power hurt the most. It had evolved long ago into a power that drastically reduced his qi consumption. Without it, he felt like he was a sixty-year-old mortal farmhand again, as he quickly ran out of energy and felt like he was about to die. Out of nowhere, Hunter broke apart from Harel and ran toward arge boulder. He used a qi technique to punch at the stone, shattering it into bits and breaking arge piece off. Marven didn¡¯t allow Hunter¡¯s bewildering actions to disrupt his focus, but the others weren¡¯t so disciplined. Harel screamed, ¡°What the hell are you doing, Hunter!?¡± Hunter turned around, ¡°Father! No, Dukean! Could you carry this stone into the air with your earth maniption if we all climbed on top of it!?¡± ¡°I¡­!?¡± Dukean paused. No, he could definitely do that. Marven grinned as his knee sank into the stomach of another demon, and it flew away, ¡°Dukean, how long until you¡¯re done with that sword!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m already finished!¡± Dukean threw the metal sword at Marven. Marven caught the sword, ¡°Everyone, climb on the rock!¡± They all scurried to climb onto the broken-off piece of rock while Marven cleaved through the demons en masse. Once Dukean, Harel, and Hunter were on, Marven yelled, ¡°Lift it off the ground! Don¡¯t worry about me!¡± Dukean listened to him and strained. He could do it. That didn¡¯t mean it would be easy. The rock floated up, unsteadily bobbing and weaving into the air as it took off. Instantly, several demons stretched their tentacles to grab onto the floating stone, but Marven was there to cut them off before they could reach it. Dukean was shaking and breathing unsteadily, but he calmed himself and focused. It became much easier once he could simply concentrate on holding the stone in ce. Marven, however, wasn¡¯t thrilled with his decision, ¡°Don¡¯t stop! Lift it as high into the air as you can manage!¡± Dukean couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at the unreasonable demand, but heplied, and the tform rose higher. Once he was around fifty meters higher up, Marven yelled at him again, ¡°Prepare yourself! I¡¯m going to jump on!¡± ¡°Are you fucking¡­!?¡± Dukean focused as hard as he could, and the tform froze in the air again. Marven lowered his stance and jumped with all his might, leaving a crater behind. Once he made it up there, rather thannding on the stone, his feet floated a little, meaning Dukean didn¡¯t have to exert extra effort to hold him up. However, that didn¡¯t help much, ¡°I¨CI can¡¯...t¡­ Hold on¡­ Much longer!¡± Marven firmly gripped the sword, holding it before his body, ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡­ You won¡¯t have to.¡± A celestial blue light lit up around Marven. Harel gaped as she instantly realized what he was doing, and Hunter reflexively stepped back a bit. Dukean didn¡¯t need to know what was happening since he could sense the intense power behind that technique. The sword crackled and sparked as the intense energy wrapped around it. It could just barely endure the pressure. A massive, cyan sword appeared before them, lighting up the nightmare realm, granting it the touch of day for the first time in uncountable years. Marven took a deep breath, and the sword sank into the earth. With a single moment of dy, the sword exploded into billions of small strikes, ttening the overgrown surface around it as it shredded the bodies of demons into mince. Once the light died down, all that was left behind was shattered obsidian and minced demon flesh. Dukean slowly lowered the stone, and once it finally touched the ground, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. That relief didn¡¯tst long, however. Squirming tentacles appeared from beneath the piles of ss and, one by one, grabbed every piece of scattered limb they could find. As they retracted, all flowing to the same location, the source of the shadowy tendrils appeared. The superior demon had arrived. Chapter 100: Escape Chapter 100: Escape Marven looked at the improvized sword, noticing the bending and tearing it had endured after he used the massive technique. It wasn¡¯t a big deal, the de couldst longer, and Dukean could fix it up in seconds if needed. However, even if he had the ss Shard, he wasn¡¯t confident he could face this crisis. All they could do was run. Before their eyes, the demon absorbed piles of limbs and grew with every piece of flesh that sank into its body. What stood before them could only be described as a titan, a giant, three-meter-tall pile of muscle and raw power. They couldn¡¯t run. They couldn¡¯t fight. Marven chuckled a bit, ¡°Well¡­ Looks like we won¡¯t be much use against the messenger after all.¡± The demon bent forward, preparing itself to move. Then, a metallic sh descended from above, smashing right into its head and shattering the stone beneath. The demon stood frozen with a giant sledgehammer stuck in its head, and behind it, they could hear a voice. ¡°Yo, what the hell, this thing is so tanky! Well, whatever.¡± The hammer was pulled out, and it swung from the side,nding with a terrifying thud that could be felt in one¡¯s chest. Then, the hammer swung again, crashing into the other side. The demon flew away a bit and struggled to move. Neave appeared, spinning the sledgehammer, ¡°This thing is so tough¡­ I can¡¯t use a true strike, either. You guys are too close. Hmmm¡­¡± Neave shrugged, then he disappeared, reappearing next to the struggling demon. And swung the hammer from above, putting some extra strength into it. That was all. It was a simple, straightforward downward swing. Then he did it again and again, repeatedly bashing the broken body of the enemy, leaving behind nothing but a pile of shattered limbs and putrid blood. ¡°What are you guys¡­?¡± Neave looked at his horrified allies, ¡°Pffff¡ª¡± He mped his hand to his mouth, but that wasn¡¯t nearly enough to contain it. Neave cackled uncontrobly, rolling on the ground and pointing at them, ¡°Holy shit! I thought it was only that crazy bastard, but y¡¯all lost your mind too!¡± The ss puppet flew from nowhere, dropping Gabrias on the ground beside the others. Upon his arrival, he was given quite an intense death stare, and Marven stepped forward, ¡°Gabrias¡­ What did you do to us, and why!?¡± Every word dripped with fury as Marven took another step toward the sweaty Gabrias. Gabrias didn¡¯t look scared but confused, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°You know damn well what I mean!¡± Neaveughed even harder in the background, gripping his stomach and rolling around in circles. Marven pinched his brow and asked, ¡°Why did you take the ss Shard and leave!?¡± Gabrias seemed honestly unsure why he was being asked this question, ¡°To gather leather for a couch, of course.¡± The way he said it was genuinely confused, to the point where the others deted. They couldn¡¯t really stay angry at him. They weren¡¯t much better, either. At least, all of them were warriors, while Gabrias was a damn construction worker. Rather than remain angry at Gabrias, they all turned to Neave instead. Neave stoppedughing and got off the ground, but an amused expression was still firmly seared into his face. Marven couldn¡¯t help but feel conflicted. Was it fair to me this situation on Neave? Not only was he a child, but he was also in an entirely different league of insane. Marven sighed and deted a bit. Harel, however, rushed forward, gripping an obsidian branch that she prepared to stab Neave with. Neave casually restrained her, and his face lit up with realization, ¡°Uh-oh, someone is feeling stabby! Ah! I get it! I see you are all on your way to adjusting to this ce!¡± He nodded in satisfaction, ¡°Well, you should be more careful. Wandering around will get you killed, but, well¡­¡± Neave contemted a bit, ¡°You aren¡¯t in that much danger yet. I think you would be set with a few better weapons and maybe a couple of spirit powers. Follow me, let¡¯s go and¡­¡± ¡°Neave.¡± Marven stepped forward, and Neave turned around. ¡°What is it, old man?¡± Neave turned around with a slight look of annoyance at being interrupted. Marven didn¡¯t know what to say. So he didn¡¯t rely on his knowledge. Something within him cracked. What spoke in wisdom¡¯s stead were his emotions, ¡°We can¡¯t go on like this¡­ This ce is¡­ It is a nightmare.¡± He was surprised at how much his breath sped up. His heart felt tight, and it felt like a dam burst open as he continued, ¡°We can¡¯t¡­ We can¡¯t handle this. This is not how people are meant to live. This ce is insane. It¡¯s driving us insane, everything is constantly dark and cold, and horrifying creatures lurking in the shadows¡­ Just¡­ Can we¡­¡± ¡°No.¡± Dukean spoke, and they all turned to face him, ¡°Calm down, Marven.¡± Marven gazed at Dukean, eyes bloodshot and wide open, as he forced himself to calm down. As he did, he felt shame set in. How could he crack under pressure like that? Marven considered himself far more resolute than that, yet, a child showed him up. After looking at everyone, not with amusement or mockery, but with an utterly neutral expression, Neave nodded, ¡°Alright, follow me.¡± He started walking back, and everyone followed him, unsure what he was doing. They walked slowly at first, but Neave gradually sped up, and eventually, they found themselves in arge room, the room that held the massive ss brush. Neave told them to sit down, and he sat before them, observing them individually. They were a mess; sunken eyes, shrunken pupils, caved cheeks, pale skin, skinny bodies, wretched nails, ones that had clearly been bitten and chewed continuously. He immediately understood what was happening. Back when he was in the loop, even he needed a break every once in a while. However, he had the privilege of effective immortality, while they didn¡¯t. The more he observed them, the more he felt... Conflicted. Now¡­ How should he handle this? Neave nodded at them and told them to wait here a bit. He left them alone with the ss shrub for a few minutes as he went to one of the sealed chambers. Phasing through a wall of obsidian, he appeared in the room of slimes. Neave picked up a few slimes and ran back outside. Once he was next to them, he made a few ss containers. Then, he killed the slimes and poured the goop into one of them. Several containerster, and with some help from Dukean, Neave had three containers; one of water, one of his own blood, and one of slime. The blood container was massive, yet Neave wasn¡¯t sure it would be enough. He was betting on his peculiar set of powers to help him out a bit. He grabbed the blood container and repeatedly used alchemy techniques on it,yering incrediblyplex methods. asionally, he would click his tongue and start from the beginning, as he couldn¡¯t quite do what he was trying to do. Eventually, however, the blood was processed. A pile of red goop sat on the ground, and the container was left with a somewhat muddled, yellowy liquid. Neave used countless techniques on this liquid as well, and gradually, it grew more transparent, and the liquid was reduced to a minuscule portion of what it used to be. Neave dipped his finger into it and licked it, slightly displeased, but he shrugged and decided it was good enough. Neave used a few more techniques on the liquid, but nothing changed visibly. Then, he turned to the slime and extracted a bit into a smaller cup, where he used a different process, one that the others recognized as the method that transformed slime into a sweet syrup. He seemingly did something else, but nobody remembered the process well enough to notice anything different. A final container was put forward, where Neavebined all the other liquids. What was left was a considerable amount of yellow liquid, one that Neave presented to the others. Marven winced a bit, ¡°Neave, what is this?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you try it?¡± Neave handed them a small ss and told them to just scoop up a bit and drink. Marven was the first to try it and was taken aback and surprised. ¡°Alcohol!?¡± ¡°Yup!¡± Neave nodded proudly, ¡°I¡¯m d my blood has decent blood sugar levels. I wasn¡¯t sure if it would be enough.¡± Marven lifted an eyebrow as he took a slightly more confident sip, ¡°This is¡­ Extremely strong.¡± It was a very intense drink. However, he didn¡¯t seem displeased, ¡°It doesn¡¯t taste that bad either. I¡¯ve had worse. What are you nning to do with this?¡± Neave grinned, ¡°Go ahead. Drink.¡± The others looked confused. Neave gave them a surprisinglypassionate smile, ¡°I know how you all feel. I was there myself once. I wish I fucking had some booze back then, let me tell you.¡± With only a little more hesitation, the others scooped up a ss of the bloody drink. It tasted horrid, but it wasn¡¯t much worse than the water. Hunter and Dukean looked reluctant, Gabrias looked rxed as he sipped on the alcohol, and Harel¡­ She was downing a whole ss every few seconds. Soon enough, the container was empty, and they ally on the ground, unconscious. Neave had done something a little sneaky to the slime without them noticing. There was a method that could turn slime into a weak sedative. It was a very obscure alchemy method, and it could barely be used to put a mortal child to sleep, but inrge amounts and coupled with alcohol, oh yeah. It could knock a motherfucker out. He nodded proudly and let them sleep. Neave stared at his unconscious allies. He felt¡­ Guilty? After dragging them into the realm, he couldn''t help but feel the me for their condition. Naturally, they had agreed toe in, but it wasn¡¯t much of a choice. Their lives, real lives, were at stake, in no small part due to Neave¡¯s involvement with them. Even though they had agreed toe in... What they were going through was familiar to Neave. The endless torment of uncertainty couldn¡¯t be tolerated without the asional escape. He should have been more aware of this, but¡­ Well, he still believed that it was true they had to get adjusted to this realm. And now¡­ Neave could sense the faint whispers of ambient energy in the air. It had already passed the threshold. Monsters would begin growing on their own now, and he Neave didn¡¯t even have to do anything. That was right. The moment had arrived. He would show his allies the true power of time. *** Astrador held a tiny baby gently in his arms, ¡°Time to train again, Sateron.¡± The baby spoke in a deep, manly voice, ¡°Yes, Father.¡± It crawled out of Astrador¡¯s arms and began doing pushups. It could still only do around five thousand. The disapprovement in its father''s eyes drove baby Sateron to tears. ¡°What did I say about crying?¡± Sateron silenced himself and pouted, turning away from Astrador. Astrador rolled his eyes. It was growing quite fast, it seemed. Hemented the price he had to pay to manifest it, but it was likely the only chance he had of kicking those bastards out of this ce. Now, he had to beat the hourss and kick them out before it was toote. *** Another demon squirmed, dropping to the ground. Then, it got up and stood contemtively. It didn¡¯t go hunt the humans again. This time, it ran in the other direction. The demon ran, moving through the thick forests. It soon encountered another demon, one it swiftly dispatched and consumed. It kept running. Far past mountains, valleys, ravines, abysses, and depressions, it finally reached it. The enormous, ck sea of sludge. Its shores putrid, its depths darker than the abyss. It stepped forward, and bit by bit, its body was submerged in the liquid. Distant, whispery echoes could be heard all around the abyssal shores. And deep within, movement shook the waves, hidden, unseen, as the slithering demons swam inside. Chapter 101: Freedom Chapter 101: Freedom Hunter sipped on the lovely tea. It was poisoned, and he died. Such was the fate of any child in the Zearthorn sect. Yet, his lifeless corpse looked on as it witnessed the mountains of young corpses and the dragon with his mother¡¯s head feasting on them. ¡­What the fuck is happening? This was a strange world, a world of weird rules. Rules he didn¡¯t know, strangeness he didn¡¯t understand. It was a dream. A nightmare. Visage born of his inner self, an abyssal eidolon hunting him in the depths of unconsciousness. Yet, he felt the phantasmal echoes ring hollow. After all, the Zearthorn sect was gone. His mother was dead, and she had never been a dragon. Thank the heavens. He had avoided having to witness this fate. The heavens themselves opened before Hunter¡¯s eyes, and a messenger appeared, a divine woman that asked Hunter a moral question he was far too stupid to answer. Was it okay to be relieved that he had avoided a terrible fate at the price of his mother''s life? Who knew? His path had steered course due to much tragedy, and he often wondered what he should feel. And all he could conclude was that he didn''t know the answer. But that was alright. Fuck the messenger! He had also seen a real messenger in person, and that messenger would definitely fail a moral test! What was the right thing to do, anyway? Did one have to be a schr to tell right from wrong? He sighed, feeling the weight lift off his shoulders. That wasn¡¯t the case. Hunter simply had to do what he believed to be best. And when what he thought to be best turned out to be not good, he had to listen to whoever was there to correct him. And if the situation called for it, he would also be there to correct others when they wronged, as well. Thank the heavens, Hunter thought again. He would never have to eat a child alive. *** Dukean¡¯s life was full of demons. Was he, too, a demon? He grabbed the bit of red string that connected everyone he had ever known in his life and tied it to himself. Hmmmm¡­ That didn¡¯t seem right. Oh well. Might as well use the opportunity to ask. He walked over to a mirror and grimaced, scowling and baring his teeth at his image, ¡°Tell me, you demon bastard! Which one of you did it? And what else are you nning!?¡± His reflection stepped out, grabbing his throat and choking him, ¡°You know too much, child. I will be the one to ask questions instead. Speak, vermin. Where is your savior?¡± Dukean grinned. Then heughed, ¡°You miserable devil! The hourss is draining. He wille for you. No demon, devil, or devil lord in any realm can stop his insanity!¡± He cackled maniacally, overflowing in schadenfreude, ¡°It serves you right!¡± The pictures and texts, all interconnected on the walls around him, burned in a red fire as Neave appeared, wrecking cmity wherever he went, ¡°He will be your undoing, and I will be there to watch you burn.¡± The devil yelped, jumping back and trying to crawl into the mirror. Dukean grabbed its leg and pulled it out, swinging its body and shattering the stone beneath. "You do not get to go there, vile thing. I am no sinner, I am no bane to anyone. I know my ce. You should know your ce as well." *** ¡°When will you learn, you brute!¡± Gabrias¡¯ mother stood before him, barely reaching his chest as she screamed at him. Again, ¡°You skipped your lessons!? Why do you spit on everything we do for you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¨CI¡¯m sorry, Mother.¡± She smiled, eyes void of humor as she spoke, reciting her same criticisms in the well-practiced tone, dripping in disappointment, ¡°You¡¯re not sorry at all.¡± Gabrias always wondered why. Even though she spoke with disappointment, why did her eyes hold such glee inside? Was she happy? Pleased that he failed to satisfy her demands, yet again? He apologized once more, and his father appeared, beating him mercilessly, ¡°You wretched brat. You will never be anyone in your life.¡± ¡°So what?¡± Gabrias froze, cursing his stupid mouth. His father kicked him again, ¡°You bastard child!¡± Why would he take this? No, this made no sense. A mortal couldn¡¯t do substantial damage to someone on the bronze path. His father struck again and again, leaving no damage. It didn¡¯t lessen the pain at all. His father was right. Gabrias would never be anyone, but who said he had to? His parents? He never respected their opinion, to begin with. Marven grabbed the leg of Gabrias¡¯ father, ¡°Please, calm yourself, Father.¡± ¡°Who!? Who are you? What happened to my son!?¡± Ben, the bulky coworker of Gabrias¡¯, appeared, still gripping his father¡¯s leg, ¡°Aight, rx, you damn bastard, no need to get violent, eh?¡± His mother screamed and stepped back. Elder Pagon appeared, lifting Gabrias¡¯ father¡¯s body and throwing it out of the window, ¡°Hmph! Impudent! You dare strike at me!?¡± The woman froze, transforming into a corrupt demon, and Neave appeared behind her, blowing her body apart to pieces. Gabrias stood there, once again, facing Lord Neave. ¡°I¨CI am sorry, Lord Neave, for inconveniencing you. I¡­ Tell me¡­ Who do you want me to be? Who must I be!?¡± Neave nodded regally and decreed in his heavenly voice, ¡°You are to be a pir of my domain, Gabrias. The great builder, the peerless constructor! Your walls shan¡¯t be pierced by devil nor god alike! Rejoice!¡± Gabrias wept, getting down to his knees and praising the Lord¡¯s name. He was wildly insufficient. That wouldn¡¯t do. Neave¡¯s empire required a stronger foundation. *** Sweat dripped down her neck, and the noon touch of the sun caressed her tanned skin. There was a slight circle around her, as people made space whenever she practiced. Nobody wanted to be identally hit by Harel. Not that they would be in a million years, but that didn¡¯t stop young kids from ostracizing her. Swing, cut, sh. Block, parry, dodge. Stance. Proceed to the following form. Every day, the same training took ce in the Zearthorn sect courtyard. And every single disciple had to participate. Bar one. Harel couldn¡¯t stop herself from ncing over to Neave. Yet again, he sat, caressing his bruised leg after the elder kicked him. He looked livid, as per usual. After blowing air angrily out of his nostrils, he clenched his teeth and got up. The world froze. Now¡­ Where will you go, Neave? Would he turn left, enter one of the hallways and return to his room? Would he turn right, walk to the library, and spend his entire day there again? Maybe he would climb the walls, strip naked and run around on the roof of the sect. Or, just perhaps, he would w at the soil beneath his feet, striking it over and over until there was nothing but bloody stumps left of his fingers, and he would dig further and further, pulling Harel inside, dragging her into the underworld, the depths of the nightmare realm. Harel woke up, but she wasn¡¯t awake. All around her was darkness, broken by glowing threads of potential. She nced over the countless specs that hung all around her. Potential she had realized throughout her life. Out of habit, shebed her ethereal fingers over the fluffy cloud, seeking any new development on the sword''s path. The potential of improvised swords? Insufficient. She needed more. But it all seemed so¡­ Vague. The strands of potential were detached, glowed weakly, and the more she sought, the less she found. Soon enough, all of the potential around her vanished. What is happening? The core in her spirit glowed with the same cold, merciless light, cutting through the empty space and piercing right to the point of the matter. She was the sword. Her core was the de. The potential she realized was the edge. Little Harel sat before Marven, curiously looking at the sword in her hands, ¡°I see a lot of strands in my spirit¡­ Why did you tell me not to grab them?¡± Marven opened his eyes and smiled gently at Harel, ¡°You should only realize the potential of the sword, Harel.¡± ¡°But why?¡± Marven was taken aback, ¡°I have exined it to you many times. Once you go far on the path, you will be granted the wayfarer¡¯s privilege. I haven¡¯t followed the sword''s path strictly enough, so my techniques are limited in value. You, on the other hand¡­ Your privilege will be royal, and the power you will be granted over reality will surpass most cultivators.¡± ¡°But why?¡± Marven shook his head, ¡°Harel, we as cultivators strive not only for power but also to leave a mark, one that will live on even once we are gone.¡± ¡°But why?¡± He frowned, ¡°You will understand once you¡¯re older.¡± Teenage Harel cocked her head, ¡°How much older do I have to get?¡± ¡°If you can not understand what I¡¯m saying, you aren¡¯t old enough.¡± ¡°How old do I have to be?¡± Adult Harel stood before Hunter, her husband and sect master, and he smirked, mocking her in his usual condescending tone, ¡°It isn¡¯t a matter of age, Harel. It is a matter of understanding. And I suppose you simply aren¡¯t there yet.¡± Elder Harel looked down on her son, the Sect Master, and asked, ¡°Will I be enlightened to the meaning of my life any time soon?¡± ¡°What do you mean, Mother dearest? You were a hero of the masses, a savior of the people. Your de has cut down myriad monster, and demonic sects use your name to scare their children. Your techniques havended Grandfather a ce beside the emperor. I am truly honored to have been born to someone as great as you. Tell me, Mother, what part of that do you not understand?¡± Hunter shook his head at his wife in disappointment, ¡°It is simple, isn¡¯t it!? You¡¯re so ungrateful, Harel. Having such a clear-cut path is a privilege few are lucky to have.¡± Marven smiled,passion void of understanding revealing his fangs as he spoke to little Harel, the child, and showed her the severed mountain lotus, ¡°This a blessing, young mistress.¡± Harel grasped the potential of his sharp fangs. If she had teeth like that, she could bite through her core like an apple, crack it open, and see what seedy inside. Tell me, de, what do you wish to cut through the most? What path do you want to carve for me? Marven grabbed the core and swung it, cutting through all of the empire''s threats, solving every problem, and rising above the world as a legendary figure, a demi-god that sat beside Astrador. The sword carved a message on the stone, leaving an eternal mark on reality, one that would outlive her by infinite time. I see. Harel nodded. A worthy path to have. She bit into the core, and her teeth vanished, her face melted, and her eyes were liquified as her brain oozed out of her skull. The bite mark revealed the shining core of the core, the center of existence, all there was and all there ever will be. All there ever could be. The strands of potential appeared again. One after another, they lit up the void of her spirit like stars in the eternal night. The eternal night. The eternal night¡­ The eternal night? ¡­ No. The eternal darkness. That was right. This ce had no day. So it would be fine, right? That meant nobody would care. She didn¡¯t have to care either. Her spirit wouldn¡¯t be sullied if she merely observed what it was like. The void of her spirit lit up, shining with the light of the day. The little strands vanished, not into the night, but like stars of the dark sky, they hid behind the day¡¯s light. That was right. It wasn¡¯t a big deal. Harel grasped the squirming, eternal rope of white that spread in every direction. And ced the potential of freedom right into the core of her existence. Chapter 102: Step One Chapter 102: Step One While tinum path cultivators could still think while asleep, they could also choose not to. Marven decided that keeping his thoughts empty would be best for him this time. Once he woke up, there was no way to tell how long had passed. All he had to go off was the way he felt. It wasn¡¯t long until his mind cleared, and he was back in reality. He felt incredible. Must have slept for quite a while, and the sedative Neave gave them must have helped him rx considerably. Aware of what Neave had done, rather than get angry or feel betrayed, he felt strangely proud. And hopeful. That was far more than he had expected Neave to do for them. Even a set of robes was back on his body. There were patches of different materials present, so the ¡®carpet¡¯ Gabrias had made had likely been sewn back into a mixed-cloth robe. Once he opened his eyes, he changed his mind. No, that wasn¡¯t far more than he had expected Neave to do for them. This was. The room Marven found himself in was rtively well-lit. Strangemps hung off the room''s ceiling. The glittery ss shrubs reflected the light, creating an ethereal, brilliant light show. It was the room with therge ss brush,pletely unrecognizable with all the light. There was more to it than just that, as well. The room felt impossibly thick with qi and natural energy. He couldn¡¯t determine why or how this change had happened, but it was easily among the best ways to push someone¡¯s recovery. Neave sat not too far from him. He was fiddling with ss, focused, using his tendril of liquid spirit to manipte ss over arge core. Once the ss fully enveloped the core, it started shrinking. In the end, all that was left was a small ss ball, one that¡­ After a few moments of nothing happening, the ss ball glowed with an intense light, brightly enough that it seared a spot into Marven¡¯s sight. Neave screamed, ¡°Ah, fuck, not again!¡± He smashed the ball of ss and turned to Marven. Marven jolted a bit as Neave¡¯s eyes had quite literally burned to a crisp, and Neave took a few seconds to grow them back. Once his eyes were finally there again, he grinned to Marven, ¡°Yo, old man, how¡¯s you been!? Long time no see!¡± It was¡­ Warm here, Marven just noticed. He looked up and observed the balls hanging around the ceiling, ¡°Were you trying to make another one of those again?¡± Neave nodded, ¡°Yup!¡± ¡°What are those things, even?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing special. Theva slimes have been growing well, so I used a few of their cores to make improvisedmps. If you put the core into a ball of this ss, they often create this glowing effect and produce quite a bit of warmth, too. Sometimes they are too bright, as you¡¯ve seen, but trust me, it is much better than when they are too warm.¡± Marven chuckled at that. He felt a strange pain gripping his heart. Not yet, he thought, not yet dared he think Neave was okay, but¡­ This was a lot to take in. Although Marven knew better than to be deceived by something as simple as this, this was a far cry from a cold, merciless killer. This, Marven felt, now more than ever, was someone that wasn¡¯t entirely lost. Rather than continue down this path, where he felt weeping like a crybaby awaited him, Marven distracted himself by asking Neave, ¡°What is with this room? I¡¯m noticing a very unusual effect. It seems to be¡­ Well, quite packed with energy. More than any ce I¡¯ve ever witnessed in my life¡­¡± Neave nodded sagely, understanding precisely what Marven was aiming at, ¡°I have sealed this room¡¯s flow of energy.¡± Marven choked a bit, ¡°Pfu¨C What!? What sort of miraculous substance did you use for that? If sects could get their hands on something like this, we would have quite a few more diamond path cultivators in the empire!¡± Neave gave my Marven the biggest shit-eating grin he could manage, ¡°Oh, it was quite simple, really. I just made a barrier of crystalized spirit and encased the entire room in it!¡± Despite Neave''s subtle brag, it hadn¡¯t been simple at all. It had been a tremendous headache, actually. There still had to be a way to leave and enter the room, and he couldn¡¯t simply cut off the ss shrub''s roots to seal the room in. He had to shape the crystalized spirit around the roots and figure out a way to make a door out of spirit. The door ended up being an easy problem to solve. The solution was to simply make hinges out of spirit and put a door of spirit on them. About as straightforward as a solution could get, although it didn¡¯t permit a perfect seal, sadly. Even then, it was a good enough solution for now. The roots had been a much bigger problem to solve. The first ss shrub was a greedy little shit that didn¡¯t allow energy out anyway, but the other shrubs were much less enthusiastic about sealing the energy flow off. Which was to say that their roots basically became holes all the energy could escape through. The final solution to this problem ended up being rather simple at first, which was to say, Neave simply cut the roots of the smaller shrubs while he built the crystalized spirit around Shruby¡¯s, whom he still had to give a proper name, by the way, roots. The problem was that Shruby didn¡¯t want the crystal packed too tightly around its roots. That would make it impossible for those roots to expand, limiting their long-term growth. If it forced the roots to grow anyway, it would crack the spirit, and the dome would evaporate. The solution to this was assisting Shruby in creating gigantic tubr roots/root tunnels. Its roots left the dome in only five ces now, but those were massive holes in the dome of crystallized spirit. Those root tubes were alsopletely empty on the inside, which meant the shrub could fill them in and grow its roots further while maintaining a seal on the barrier. Neave was miffed because, well, those roots were redundant as hell. They were ridiculously thick, over two meters in diameter. That made the total volume of roots leaving the area of the dome tens of thousands of times greater than it had been! The roots were thin as hell anyway, so this was beyond overkill. It would have been straightforward if all that was required was to cut the roots and let the shrub regrow them, but noooo. Neave had to fucking gather the roots manually, only vaguely assisted by the nt¡¯s maniption ability. How did he move the roots? By slightly warming them and shifting them with liquid spirit maniption. A delicate process that left Neave with a ginormous headache. Well, to be fair, even though it was a pain in the ass, it still didn¡¯t take very long. Neave had spent a lot more time making these damnmps, and throughout both of those tasks, none of the others had woken up. Even if he assumed that they had slept for over a day, that was a rtively short timepared to the types of timeframes he was used to operating in. Whatever. Marven was shocked beyond belief. A spirit barrier? Indeed, based on what Neave had said so far, that was easy to grasp, even if the implications were¡­ Horrifying. He still sensed the intense energy filling the air, and a big part of him was tempted to cultivate a bit. Perhaps after he was done talking to Neave. For now, he had to ask him about¡­ Both Neave and Marven turned to Harel simultaneously. Marven froze, and Neave raised an eyebrow in amusement. Faint, cyan light surrounded her and sank into her body. She had advanced. However, she didn¡¯t break from the first step of the silver path onto the second step of the silver path. She jumped all the way to the third. Marven muttered, ¡°Im¨CImpossible¡­ That shouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± Harel woke up and grumpily sat upright, eyes unfocused, bald head reflecting the shiny lights above, ¡°Huh!? Where am I!?¡± Rather than receivefort and confirmation of where she was and what was happening, she got a frenzied Marven rushing toward her, gripping her shoulders and yelling, ¡°What kind of incredible breakthrough have you made! I¡¯ve never seen someone skip a realm entirely!¡± ¡°Get out of my face, geezer!¡± Harel pushed him back, and he calmed down a little. Harel observed her surroundings, and her sleepy, confused scowl soon morphed into a grin, ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve made a breakthrough, alright.¡± Marven frowned a bit. Something about the way she said that didn¡¯t sit well with him. Well, it was alright, anyway. They were alive, and this ce was naturally conducive to maintaining mental health, at least inparison to the gloomy nightmare cave of darkness they used to live in. Shaken by themotion, the others woke up, surprised to see the colorful robes on their bodies. Hunter was relieved as he had never been before, and Gabrias tearfully muttered, ¡°My carpet¡­¡± into his chin. Dukean woke up soon after as well. His spirit still felt strained and sore from all the abuse it had suffered, but other than that, he felt mostly fine. Neave got up and pped, producing a noise quite a bit louder than he had intended and grabbing everyone¡¯s attention instantly, ¡°Alright! Now that you¡¯re all awake, I have something to say!¡± They stared at him expectantly, with a healthy dose of confusion and anxiety as he continued, ¡°You are all weak as fucking shit!¡± By his standards, perhaps, they all thought, but they had to concede that that point of view was rtively fair in this realm. After all, if they didn¡¯t get considerably stronger, none of them could see themselves surviving any other way besides being constantly protected by Neave. Did they want that, though? Neave wasn¡¯t much of an empath, and understanding others had always been a chore. But he could tell exactly what their eyes were telling him, as it was the same thing he saw every time he gazed at his reflection. They wanted to ovee something. ¡°Well then, you worthless sacks of shit. I think it''s about time we start.¡± Neave disappeared and reappeared again, standing right in the middle of them, ¡°Come, ce your hand on my body. I have a fun little idea I want to try.¡± They all approached him, unsure precisely what Neave was aiming at. However¡­ They knew it wouldn¡¯t be painless. Yet, none of them hesitated. Hands gathered around him, touching his body. Hunter ced a hand on Neave¡¯s shoulder. Dukean ced his hand on Neave¡¯s other shoulder. Marven stepped forward, cing a hand on Neave¡¯s head, which made him roll his eyes again, but with a grin this time. Gabrias¡­ Bent down and ced a hand on Neave¡¯s foot. ¡°... What?¡± The others looked away. And finally, Harel stepped in front of Neave. She grabbed his hand and gave him a firm handshake, ¡°Show me what you got for us, Neave.¡± Neave raised an eyebrow at that and grinned, ¡°Sure fucking thing!¡± Pain rivaling the worst experience they had gone through in their life went through each and every single one of their spirits. It felt like a burning hot rod was piercing a hole into them. It was all over in a second, and they felt themselves vanishing from reality. They appeared somewhere with a red sky. It was much like the sky in the nightmare realm but with an eerie red glow. It was much fainter as well, and off in the distance, several patches of blue peeked through the thick, smoggy clouds. All around them were furniture pieces and fancy decorations that almost made this ce feel like a lounge. The clothes they wore were nothing like what they had outside. Marven was back in the robes he used as a sect master, and Harel and Hunter had simr clothing as well. Gabrias was wearing what looked like rather in brown clothes, and Dukean was back in his shiny golden robes. Neave wore a set of robes that looked identical to the clothing he had outside. Which was to say, the Falken sect robes. ¡°What the¨C?¡± ¡°Where in the¨C?¡± ¡°Huh!?¡± ¡°Oh my¡­¡± ¡°Wow¡­!¡± ¡°Everyone, attention!¡± They all turned to Neave. ¡°Before I tell you where we are, we must move from here first.¡± Rather than allowing them to volunteer, Neave shed next to all of them and grabbed them, throwing them off the steel mountain''s peak. Screams and shouts came from them as they descended the gigantic steel mountain, dropping through faint clouds. They fell from immense heights, and the way down was fast and dirty. They slowly fell closer to the mountain''s surface. It was awfully steep, far too steep to stand on. It was almost a vertical wall. However, as they touched the surface, they learned it was more than that. It was a very slippery vertical wall. Neave shouted excitedly andughed like a maniac as he glided down the mountain. Marven nted a foot on the slippery surface and glided down elegantly, and Dukean did something simr, although he used both feet so he didn¡¯t look quite as cool. Harel imitated Neave and glided down,ughing as she did so. Hunter and Gabrias, on the other hand, tumbled down the side of the mountain without a shred of elegance, and Gabrias was spinning so fast Neave wondered whether the centripetal force would turn his brains to mush. As they approached the surface, they gradually realized that water wasn¡¯t waiting for them at the bottom. It was instead a green liquid. A sizzling, green liquid. Whateverughter or calm there was quickly turned to screams and yelps of panic. They were still quite high in the air, around halfway down the mountain, but as they fell, a solution wouldn¡¯t magically appear out of nowhere. Or so it seemed. Neaveughed harder, moving through the air to catch them in their fall. Then, he lifted an arm, and a morphing, blurry object appeared below them. Slowly, it shifted into a blocky thing and transformed into a boat. A rtively small constion, given that they were still falling rapidly into a sea of acid and were kilometers in the air. Neave dropped them into the boat, which had convenient handles everywhere. A slightly ominous detail, the others noted, as Neave told them to hold on tight. He nted his feet on the deck and got into a stance. Golden runes appeared around him. Yeah¡­ The others gripped the handles as if their life depended on it. Neave shoved the air behind the boat, and the intense gust of wind sent it flying back. He repeatedly threw true strikes, peddling through the air, and the boat elerated fast enough that the mountain was visibly moving away. The sea of acid was also moving under them, and they seemed well on their way to a solid surface. Where they would naturally crash into the ground and die. Marven was calm as he ced his faith in Neave, hoping he knew what he was doing. The others were screaming for their lives¡ªexcept for Harel, who was screaming out of excitement. The speed at which they flew never slowed down, but it seemed to elerateas they nearednding. Once they were close, Marven was ready tond gracefully, and Neave wasn¡¯t even looking. Crash. The boat struck the ground, and they all felt their bodies crumble under the impact. Marven watched in horror as everyone else glided and tumbled across the dusty, red ins theynded on. Neave got up and cracked his neck, ¡°Holy shit, that was fun!¡± Marven didn¡¯t know what to think as dread overwhelmed him. His thoughts froze as he saw¡­ Everyone getting off the ground¡­ Completely unharmed. No¡­ He saw it. Their bodies had been a wreck, bent and mangled from the impact. So how did they¡­ ¡°You all might have noticed that your injuries healed after mere seconds! That is because this ce is special. Wee, everyone! This is my spirit realm!¡± Marven couldn¡¯t believe his ears. Spirit realm? This¡­ There was no way this was possible. Getting into one¡¯s spirit realm by will, let alone getting others in, should have been impossible. Yet¡­ He wasn¡¯t that surprised. Neave did something unfathomable regrly by now, and Marven felt it was high time he got used to his antics. The others all got up, still looking dazed from the shock, and Harel jumped up, yelling in excitement, ¡°You¡¯re right! That was fun! We should do it again!¡± ¡°Dear heavens, no!¡± Gabrias, Hunter, and Dukean eximed at the same time. ¡°Tsk. Losers.¡± They gathered around Neave with varying degrees of apprehension, and he smiled at them, ¡°This is my spirit realm. Outside of spirit trials, spirit realms are quite harmless. It''s impossible to die here, as all your injuries will be fixed in moments, and it''s impossible to grow exhausted. You still can¡¯t use your spirit powers in here, unfortunately. But that¡¯s alright. Except for Dukean, none of you have any, and honestly, I think that is for the best.¡± They looked around, noticing absolutely nothing of note in the surrounding area. It was a stretch of t, rusty red, dusty soil that continued endlessly in all directions. Neave brought their attention back as he continued, ¡°You will all be granted an incredible privilege here, as you will get to experience a shred of the training I¡¯ve gone through to acquire my power.¡± Marven smiled slightly, feeling apprehensive, ¡°And exactly what will that training be?¡± Neave grinned ear to ear as he lifted a finger, ¡°Oh, nothing special. It¡¯s just a few simple steps. So how about we start, then?¡± He grinned harder as he cracked his knuckles. Neave grabbed his robes, tearing off the upper half and revealing his absurd muscture. He got into abat stance, and the air grew heavier around them as they realized what would happen. A shit-eating grin on his face and muscles ready for action, Neave yelled in amanding tone, ¡°Step one: dodge.¡± Chapter 103: Style Chapter 103: Style A little arrogant, but I believe it will still be a fruitful experience. Marven was aware of Neave¡¯s martial prowess and had seen him fight someone on the third step of the tinum path. However¡­ That was with his overwhelming advantage of well over a dozen spirit powers. In the spirit realm, none of them had any. Neave was likely to be several ranks above his own in strength, even with the spirit powers removed, but it was mighty arrogant of him to assume that that would qualify him to fight against someone on the tinum path. What could he realistically have? The strength of someone on the second, maybe third step of the iron path? True, the others, well, except for Dukean, would still receive valuable training here. Marven wanted to approach Neave and request that they change the strategy slightly. Perhaps it would be better for him to teach them things through theory instead. That way, even Marven was confident that he could benefit from this. Before he could even open his mouth to suggest that, Neave had already moved. There was a slight misconception Marven had. Neave didn¡¯t have the power of someone on the second step of the iron path. He had the power of someone on the second step of the¡­ Holy father of heavens! Silver path! What the!? That was iprehensible. Had Neave found a way to advance his cultivation? No, no, he didn¡¯t. It was in as day to see that he hadn¡¯t. Yet, how!? This was utterly ridiculous. Still, Marven thought, that was shocking but irrelevant. His speed wasn¡¯t quite up to the same rank, and the difference between him and Marven would be insurmountable. Neave took a mere split second, and everybody except for Marven was lying on the floor. If these were their actual bodies, they would have been dead. ¡°These are the rules of the bout. You will all do your best to dodge. If you¡¯re disqualified through getting your body destroyed, simply wait to recover and get up.¡± Marven raised an eyebrow, ¡°We aren¡¯t allowed to fight back, I assume?¡± Neave grinned, ¡°No, it¡¯s just that you won¡¯t be able to.¡± Arrogant, but Marven didn¡¯t dislike that. It reminded him much of himself. Neave took a few steps forward and finally rushed at Marven. *** Apparently, Neave could repeatedly outdo himself in shocking Marven beyond belief. And yet, Marven believed this may just be the most incredible surprise he had ever and would ever receive. His son¡¯s power was, indeed, far lower than his own. And so was his speed. Absolutely none of that seemed to matter in a fight against him. If someone could rewind time at will and fix their mistakes the moment they made them, and then they did that uncountable times, polishing absolutely every movement they had and even just trying random things until they found what worked, they would still be inferior to Neave. Marven saw Neave¡¯s knee rushing from his bottom left and felt his side tense out of reflex. That minor tension in his side prevented him from turning fast enough as Neave¡¯s right foot appeared out of nowhere, flying from Marven¡¯s right. Marven raised a hand to defend himself from the iing attack, yet, the other leg came rushing to his face, but no, it didn''t, rather itnded on Marven''s knee, which was pushed slightly to the back while Neave reappeared behind Marven, and hooked a leg under his neck. Ah¡­ That¡¯s what you¡¯re going for. Marven could barely believe his eyes as he saw the entire world spin around him, and he witnessed the faint glow of the golden runes. His body mmed into the earth, not hard enough to seriously injure him, but it was over anyway. Getting up wasn¡¯t an option anymore. Marven felt Neave pummeling his back repeatedly, and within moments, his spine was too splintered to move. The old cultivator ran his mind through the fight, refusing to ept what had just happened. Neave had firstpromised the flexibility of Marven¡¯s torso, then capitalized on that tension to force Marven to raise his right arm. After that, he attacked Marven¡¯s head, distracting him from his actual target, the knee, then blinked to Marven¡¯s left knee, where Marven naturally reacted by moving his left arm down slightly. Then, with the same action, he used a movement technique and pushed the knee just a bit to the side, which prevented Marven from using a footing technique to root himself in ce, thus losing his only way of defending from the m into the ground. Then, the movement technique triggered, and Neave disappeared. As his prey was stuck with his right arm raised, left arm lowered, stance and stabilitypromised, leaning slightly to the back due to the failed attempt to dodge the kick to the head, Neave hooked his right leg around Marven¡¯s neck in a way that made it impossible to reach in time due to the awkward position of his arms. Good¡­ Marven sighed a mental sigh of relief. At least he understood what happened that time. That meant he was making some progress. The most shameful thing was that Neave was holding back. At first, he had repeatedly demonstrated the ability to chain movement techniques in a way that made a kick to Marven¡¯s face nigh unavoidable. If he started the fight with that, it was effectively over before Marven could even begin to retaliate. Back in the fight against Ilkivir, no wonder that creep had lost the moment he didn¡¯t have his armor. The others weren¡¯t dispatched immediately; rather, they could go on for minutes. Neave wasn¡¯t the most outstanding teacher at first. Actually, he was likely among the worst Marven had ever seen. There wasn¡¯t much any of them could learn after being defeated quite literally instantaneously. Except for pain tolerance, perhaps. With time, though, Neave slowly changed his approach, adjusting his skill level to an appropriate degree so the others could keep up. He instantly ended the fight when anyonemitted an inexcusable mistake. Which used to happen much more frequently at first, but as time went on, he rapidly learned how to make the others improve at an optimal pace. Which was yet another shocking surprise for Marven. The old man¡¯s spine realigned, and he was back in top shape within seconds, ¡°Seriously¡­ This ce is a training ground the heavens would be jealous of.¡± And may actually be, Marven added inwardly. It still had the critical w of having zero impact on one¡¯s strength or stamina, but who cared about that? The time inside this ce went by significantly faster than it did outside, ording to Neave, which made it a trade-off well worth making. When Marven was back up, Neave was before him, mming a foot into his chin. Marven¡¯s contemtive distraction was deemed an inexcusable mistake, it seemed. Oh well. *** They were weak, indeed. Neave felt like an adult beating toddlers as he mercilessly pummeled the others initially. They were weak, far more fragile than he had expected, honestly. From the moment they started, he could have predicted that none of them could stand up to his serious fighting style but had chosen to dy his ¡®realization¡¯ for much longer than he was proud to admit. After all, it was so damn fun pummeling their asses and showing them who was really boss around here. Only once he got bored of the fights ending too early, he chose to go easy on them, moderating his movements to ensure they couldst at least a few minutes. That made it both a ton more fun and served to at least teach them something. However, Neave yet again got bored. Their improvement was too slow, and the ¡®oh my heavens¡¯ facial expressions slowly left their faces as time passed, reced by frustration. That wasn¡¯t fun at all. So, what he chose to focus on instead was finding a way to upgrade his toys. They had to learn how to fight better. First, he started with Hunter. This guy was hopeless. His entire repertoire revolved around raw power, overwhelming strength, and¡­ Predictability. He was slow and clumsy, and his body allowed for little elegance. Neave contemted how he should improve Hunter¡¯s fighting style. First, he thought of what Hunter was good at. He had a somewhat decent grasp on stances and defense. It was the thing he was best at, which made sense. The problem was that it would never be enough. Perhaps Hunter had been nning to shore up his weaknesses with spirit powers once he got more powerful, but Neave knew better than to think like that. You had to have a solid foundation first. If you didn¡¯t have a way to deal with your weaknesses in every scenario, you were waiting for the day when you would face an opponent that had you thoroughly countered. His problem was not easy to solve with just skill. Hunter had to train his flexibility more and perhaps reduce his muscle mass. It was kind of silly because, well, although Hunter was much taller than Neave, he still had less muscle mass. Neave was freakin beefcake, yet, flexibility wasn¡¯t much of a problem for him. Which was honestly surprising even to himself. Perhaps his true body had changed under the influence of the shapeshifting skill? Or the monster meat he had eaten? Neave would take it either way. The master of this spirit realm pondered how he should improve Hunter. The way he handled it, eventually, was by always starting the fight by shattering his stance. This way, he had to get creative and find ways to defend himself from Neave¡¯s follow-ups. He didn¡¯t make the shatteringpletely unfair either, and eventually, Hunter learned how to stop his stance from crumbling immediately and how to continue a fight once it did. Next up was Gabrias. If Hunter was hopeless, Gabrias wasn¡¯t even qualified to be a cultivator. He was overwhelmingly slow and didn''t have a shred of skill, strength, or flexibility. It was pathetic. But, it could be excused. Gabrias had never been a warrior, so Neave took a more general approach. With him, Neave focused on guiding him into building proper stances, raising blocks, and simply not running away the moment he recovered. After a while, Gabrias could almost face a young warrior child on the iron path. Almost, but not quite yet. Now¡­ It was time for Harel. Her flexibility and skill were incredible. Her movements were slightly awkward, as she didn¡¯t seem to be used to fighting without a sword, but that vanished rapidly and never stopped improving. Neave felt that her greatest weakness and strengthy in the same thing. Perhaps he wasn¡¯t qualified to say this, but she was kind of fucking insane. Although the fight focused on teaching them how to build defensive stances and dodge, Harel was hellbent on getting a strike on Neave. And Neave didn¡¯t consider this to be a critical issue either. She never hit him even once, of course, but she learned how to maintain a solid guard when capitalizing on openings, as well as how to recover from failing a strike and how to turn a failure into another attempt. She was also wildly disregardful of her wounds, and Neave felt that in a real fight to the death, she would thrive against most, if not all, opponents of her age and cultivation. Admirable. He entertained a few fun ideas as he observed her growth. In a sense, she had a simr fighting style to his own. Perhaps she would fit a few defensive or recovery spirit powers well. Or maybe speed should be a more significant focus? Hmmm¡­ He would have to keep an eye on her growth and decideter. Time wasn¡¯t a problem momentarily. Dukean was a good fighter. Even Neave could tell that much. His discipline, reaction time, and battle instincts all belonged to a true prodigy. It made Neave wonder why he chose such a set of spirit powers. In his opinion, Dukean would be a perfect fit for speed and dexterity-based powers or general body enhancements like the ones he had. He was excellent at discovering weaknesses and acting on them, and his guard was quite solid, which meant that defensive powers wouldn¡¯t be much of a necessity. Rather than focusing on his growth, which seemed to happen on its own anyway, Neave contemted Dukean¡¯s choice of powers. It was hard to say. Air, ice, and metal all had a rtively high skill ceiling. Air could be a terrifying mobility power. Ice could¡­ Well, there was a lot of aiming and fine control involved, like with metal maniption. Earth¡­ Kind of the same? Less fine maniption, though, and more a general control over arge-scale fight. And fire¡­ Yeah, that was simply baffling. Theoretically, there was a lot of potential synergy between how the skills could be used, but they clearly weren¡¯t built with that in mind. Or were they? Perhaps only some were, and the others weren¡¯t. Maybe he just wanted a high range of skills to face a wider range of threats? Getting more powers wasn¡¯t off the table, either, so perhaps he had hoped to round them up with something else? So many questions. Neave felt that perhaps asking him straight up wasn¡¯t the worst idea either. Finally, there was Marven. Neave absolutely loathed Marven¡¯s style. It was an unambitious, defeatist style that set dead ends for itself. It was hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but as per Neave¡¯s decision, this dog would have those old tricks beaten out of it. Out of everyone here, Marven was the one that was making the slowest progress. The reason why was¡­ Complicated. Say there was a chess yer who relied on several lethal, nasty openings and traps. He would be a terrifying opponent against anyone who didn¡¯t know how those traps worked. Against anyone that did, however, he would always start the match with a worse position. It was a filthy, scummy style of strategies that relied on his opponents¡¯ck of knowledge more than his skill. Which was why theycked potential. Neave could practically see what sort of life Marven had led. The old monster had lived through life-and-death battles time and time again, continuously having to rely on tricks and deception to handle more powerful opponents. It was the style of a beggar that rose to his station through deception and scams. It made so much sense now. Neave had always wondered why his father was stuck on the path, but these skills made it damn obvious. There was no more room for growth. He had perfected his style; the inherent, deeply rooted ws weren¡¯t going anywhere¡ªnot without a fight. Neave had repeated the exact same deconstruction of his father¡¯s defense many times, and yet, every single time, Marven failed to respond. His lovely, polite son would have kindly warned him about this, but it was clear that Marven could tell precisely what he was messing up, given how obviously frustrated he seemed. He just couldn¡¯t fight against his deeply rooted reflexes. No matter. Neave would beat them out of him eventually. The gang of disciples was beginning to look exhausted, and their trainer understood why. It was hard, no, rather, it was impossible to tell how much time had passed since they had started. One couldn''t really be exhausted from training in the spirit realm, neither physically nor mentally. However, it was clear that it had been a while, and willpower could onlyst so long without breaks. Rather than allow them to go crazy from the continuous beatings, Neave had another idea. It was time for a break. Chapter 104: Fourth Spirit Chapter 104: Fourth Spirit In a beautiful gazebo, sitting in a picturesque garden, six figures lounged in luxury, bathing in the goods of this world of wonders. They all had luscious, blonde hair, except for one figure with a striking pink mane streaked in crimson. Their bodies donned pearly white togas orned in golden decorations. A young man grabbed a grape off a table and ate it. He swallowed it, yet he reacted with a frown instead of satisfaction. Hunter turned to the others, ¡°Do you all feel weird when eating something in here?¡± The others turned to each other and nodded. Dukean also grabbed a grape and swallowed it, ¡°Yeah, it doesn¡¯t feel like you¡¯re eating something. It feels more like a vivid recollection of having eaten something in the past. It¡¯s not satisfying at all.¡± The others nodded. Neave passed by yet again, walking on the tips of his toes and twirling like a dancer. The bulky kid wore something akin to a cutesy dress and sprinkled flowers over everyone. Harel took her blonde wig off, revealing the disastrous tragedy beneath, and shook the petals out of it, ¡°Hey, Neave, can you please stop doing that? It¡¯s annoying.¡± Neave summoned a pile of flowers above her head and buried her, ¡°No.¡± After deciding they needed a break, Neave ran off, made arge section of his spirit realm look like a picturesque forest, and brought the others here. Once they were here, he was inspired by ancient culture to help them heal from their mental wounds by civilizing them again. Neave felt they had grown far too wild, and it was time they were reintroduced into a decent society. Although the others disagreed heavily with Neave¡¯s methods initially, they had to concede that this wacky strategy worked. In a ¡®fake it until you make it'' sort of sense. This unusual scene was strangely anxiety-inducing. It reminded everyone far too much of fancy meetings with influential individuals that liked to believe themselves to be more important than others. Hunter, Harel, and Marven had all seen their fair share of tea parties like this in the Zearthorn sect, and Gabrias and Dukean had spent numerous awkward, boring afternoons in ces that strikingly resembled this one. Words like ¡®manners¡¯ and ¡®proper behavior¡¯ rang through everyone¡¯s ears. Gabrias kept forgetting that he wouldn¡¯t have to listen to his parents scream at him after he left this ce. Neave¡¯s n had failed, kind of, yet it found a different type of sess in failure. This ce was meant to be a rxing, civilized escape from their anxious lives, but it instead turned into a time chamber that brought everyone back to their other, anxious lives. Nheless, it still achieved an important goal. It had recovered a fraction of their lost sanity. *** After messing around in the gazebo, Neave left the others there for a while, while he left to go check something out. When he left them to go build this ce, Neave noticed something unusual. Even though he had gone quite far from them, he could still clearly sense their position within his spirit realm. While that was a convenient discovery, it wasn¡¯t the thing he was concerned with. Instead, after he noticed that weird feeling, he began noticing¡­ More. This was somewhat different, however. It didn¡¯t feel like it was inside his spirit realm. It felt like it was outside of it. Just a little out of reach and yet, infinitely far away in every direction. He had felt this before but assumed it was merely an unusual sensation specific to being within the spirit realm. Now, however, he was confident that something was strange about that. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t notice it when he first entered the spirit realm. It was that it simply hadn¡¯t been here back then. Something he had done along the lines had introduced this weird feeling into his realm, and he hoped it wasn¡¯t a problem. He couldn¡¯t rest easy until he knew whaty beneath this mysterious phenomenon. So Neave did what he did best. He experimented. *** Neave gave up almost immediately. He had pondered all his options for investigating this problem, and he realized something. There was absolutely nothing he could do. This situation was thoroughly baffling, but unless he was willing to take enormous risks, he had no idea how to discover the origin of that sensation. Usually, when presented with problems like this, Neave employed the old trusty strategy of ¡®throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.¡¯ The problem was that he didn¡¯t have the privilege of doing that now. If he had infinite lives, such as in the hellish loop, he would first generate crystallized spirit in his realm again. Indeed, it seemed to tear his spirit apart the first time he did it, and it would likely kill him if he tried again. But hey, he¡¯d still do it, just to see what would happen. That''s what he had always done. Theck of need to worry about death was an invaluable tool for the exploration of things likely to make you dead. That privilege was long-lost, however, but that didn¡¯t stop Neave from fantasizing about it. What if he tried some otherbinations inside his spirit? Knowing his insane methods, if he had discovered how to enter his spirit realm within the hellish loop, he would have tried every possiblebo of life force and qi inside the realm as well as the outside. Even the¡­ The you know¡­ Boombo, as Neave called it. He would have tried that first. Would it have blown his spirit up? Probably, but he would have tried it. Maybe it would act differently within the spirit realm, the way all the otherbinations seemed to. What was that anyway? Neave hadn¡¯t thought much about it, but thatbination was highly unusual. Was it just a random mix that created a powerful explosion? No, it had that same spiritual shimmering as the other spiritbinations. So¡­ Another form of spirit? Neave wanted to conclude that that was silly given that no other form of spirit existed, but he didn¡¯t know about liquid spirit either until he discovered it. Oh crap¡­ Now the curiosity was devouring him. There was another thing Neave remembered. When he tried using thatbo against Astrador, the god resorted to pretty extreme measures to figure out what Neave had done. What if that really was another form of spirit? What if it held the same level of utility as the other forms? The temptation to try using it within his spirit realm was getting absurd, and it took everything he had to restrain himself. He would try to figure it out at some point in the future, but it was too great of a risk to do it now. Anything with such high chances of outright killing him was an absurd risk in a situation where he had only one attempt. So, rather than continue exploring this, which he felt was taking him in a dangerous direction, he decided to return to the others. Once he was back, he dered something the others hadn¡¯t expected to hear yet, ¡°We are leaving the spirit realm for now!¡± Marven raised an eyebrow, ¡°Why? It¡¯s quite early still¡­ Or do you think we can return?¡± Neave shook his head, ¡°There are no limitations to taking you inside this ce, so we will be back soon anyway. We have to go out now to do something we can only do outside.¡± Rather than wait for anyone to ask, Neave booted them out of the realm, and they appeared standing in the sealed chamber with the ss shrub. It didn¡¯t feel like much time had passed since they entered. Neave continued, ¡°Now, we are going to train! Physically, this time.¡± He grinned. The others seemed rtively receptive to the idea, except for the one obvious problem they had to address. Food. Perhaps Neave had a point back when he said seekingfort was inadvisable. The idea of returning to that gross flesh again was revolting. To their surprise, Neave understood what they wanted to say and had a solution to this problem. He lifted his arm, and it turned from his regr, human arm to a troll-like limb. This disy was followed by an exnation, ¡°While the flesh of abominids fed my body parts resembles human flesh, it isn¡¯t. There is a great deal of influence by my spirit powers, and specific traits of a troll have manifested before. Not just that, either. ¡°My body is full of life force. More than I can spend any time soon, and that life force still holds a vague impression of the monsters I¡¯ve consumed. If I try, I can restrict it to a specific type of life force.¡± Neave focused, and the troll arm grew more¡­ Trolly. It turned a shade greener, strange spots and warts popped up on the skin, and it was convincingly inhuman, ¡°This is an ability that is part of my shapeshifting power. Food isn¡¯t the only challenge we have. I realized that without biovariety, we would lose much of the value a dangerous ecosystem would provide. I¡¯ve been looking for a solution for a while already and realized that shapeshifting can be influenced by burning life force.¡± That was a lot to take in. The others understood that Neave was a freak, but he still couldn¡¯t stop surprising them with the weird yet impressive stuff he could achieve. Neave chopped the troll arm off and threw it on the ground, ¡°That is, by all means, troll flesh. It still holds some impression of my spirit powers, making it more valuable as a tool for breeding more powerful monsters. Other than that, you won¡¯t find any major differences between this limb and one that has been cut off from an actual wild troll.¡± Before they could even think of a question, Neave grew out another arm. This time it turned into wood and grew leaves over its surface, ¡°I have eaten numerous nts as well, so creating a varied, flourishing eco-system won¡¯t be a problem.¡± The ss puppet perked up upon hearing that, and Neave could smell troubleing from a mile away, but he ignored it for now and turned to his allies again, ¡°Now, I believe none of you will have objections to eating monsters I¡¯ve bred by feeding them this, right?¡± That wasn¡¯t an easy question to answer. Speaking from, well, almost any point of view, there was no reason to refuse. However, that didn¡¯t make it easy to ept. It wasn¡¯t hard to notice that Neave had a rather utilitarian approach to things. If it was the solution that worked, it was the solution that should be used. That was how he solved problems. And this, even by rtively normal standards, wasn¡¯t an uneptable solution. Yet, the reminder of civility, the trip back to their old lives, was the thing that was holding them back. If a practice was deemed uneptable in any context, it was always for a reason. Some reasons were better, others were worse, but at the end of the day, society functioned on unspoken rules built on, admittedly, irrational behavior. In a twisted paradox, the irrational nature of people could only be handled through unreasonable rules, and within this context, that was, ironically, the most rational thing to do. ¡°I don¡¯t mind it.¡± Dukean stepped forward, and everyone turned to face him, ¡°And I don¡¯t think anyone else should mind it either. We¡¯ve already eaten worse than this, and I think it¡¯s time we ept that living in this realm means making sacrifices.¡± The others nodded. However, Dukean wasn¡¯t finished yet. He raised his hand and continued, ¡°There is one thing I want to point out, however. We should return to the spirit realm and continue the training.¡± Neave shook his head, ¡°The progress you can make is limited if you don¡¯t first improve your bodies and cultivation.¡± ¡°It is exactly that limit we should operate under first.¡± ¡°Exactly why do you think that?¡± ¡°Think about it, Neave. Once we are back outside, all the training we have done here will be pointless. We should do as much practice as possible with the bodies we have now, so the skill will trante to our real bodies once we¡¯re back outside.¡± ¡°That is a good point, except it''s not a good point at all, Dukean. Even if we spend centuries training you in the bodies you have now, you won¡¯t stand a damn chance against the messenger and his people unless we figure out a way to boost your power. The best solution is to have you all realize as much potential as possible inside the realm. That way, once you¡¯re back outside, you can cultivate rapidly and at least stand a chance. Training you all with the bodies you have now is pointless and simply a waste of time.¡± Neave grinned at them, ¡°Trust me, it will be best if you get a taste of true power first. Our priority should be to discover the best path for you individually¡­¡± ¡°...And then go fucking crazy with it.¡± ////////// Join me on Patreon, where you can read 15 chapters ahead! /fiction/62411/the-jester-of-apocalypse/span> Chapter 105: Black Shores Chapter 105: ck Shores Running a cultivator to exhaustion wasn¡¯t that difficult. If forced to use qi, they could be out of energy within minutes. But without qi¡­ That was a different story altogether. The ss shrub. A fabulous being of mighty, mysterious powers, one whose path had taken a sharp turn into the deep unknown. This mysterious being was manipting a ss puppet to chase a child on the bronze path to exhaustion. Indeed, running a cultivator to exhaustion without forcing them to use qi was much more difficult. It was easier when a sadistic nt threatened to stab you, however. Hunter panted. He wouldn''t have felt so forced to run if it were anyone other than the creepy nt. Yet, as the ss puppet caught up with him, he thought this thing wouldn¡¯t hesitate to skewer him for fun. Unjust, barbaric, and needlessly mean, he thought, regretting ever agreeing to enter the nightmare realm. Why would Neave do this? Hunter had solid discipline. There was no need to force him to run like this. That was what he believed at first, yet, having something chasing you was miraculously effective at pulling strength out of you that you didn¡¯t know you had. His panting worsened, and he felt the insane burning in his legs and abs. Even his shoulders and neck hurt from running. It wasn¡¯t much longer until Hunter genuinely couldn¡¯t run anymore, and he copsed on the ground. The puppet eyed him, and Hunter¡¯s heart roared at the threat. Luckily, it seemed satisfied with his efforts, so it left him to it as it returned to Neave. Hunter stared at the chiseled obsidian floor. The dome had been transformed yet again. The smaller ss shrubs inside the dome were deemed useless by the mighty ss shrub, and Neave collected the nts for material, cleaning the room up to make space for their training. Hunter¡¯s anxiety and adrenaline slowly left him, andplete exhaustion overwhelmed him. The call of sleep couldn¡¯t be left unanswered any longer. *** Neave saw the unconscious Hunter, and he nodded in satisfaction. The kid was already losing some weight. His muscles were too big to permit the type of flexibility he needed, and Neave felt that perhaps a few dozen more runs like that would be enough. The others weren¡¯t faring much better, either. Everyone had their own training. On a small, ss tform, Gabrias shakily stood up but rapidly lost ground and facepalmed again. The floor beneath him was already beginning to look quite bloody from all the times he smacked into it. Neave nodded at the ss rollers attached to Gabrias feet. His biggest weakness was that he had zero bnce. It wasn¡¯t unusual, given his insane height, but that didn¡¯t make it any less detrimental to hisbat ability. He was improving, though. Now, when he fell down, he didn¡¯t smack his head full force into the floor. Lovely. Not too far from him, Harel was benching crazy weight. Neave brought over the equipment he had used, although he had to make a few less heavy weights so everyone could utilize them. Likely due to the stress from being here, Harel had lost a ton of muscle mass. She looked like a damn skeleton and needed to regain some bulk. Thus, Neave had her on a strict eat-and-lift schedule. She probably liked her training the most out of everyone in the room. Dukean was left to his own devices. Neave gave him whatever he requested, and he seemed on a rtively bnced schedule, although he focused more on flexible strength than muscle mass. Marven was on a nearly identical schedule as Harel, except his training was perhaps a little more in line with Dukean¡¯s. For him, the food was the single most significant boost he could receive. Neave nodded in satisfaction and left the chamber again. He reached the ce where he was raising the monsters. There was a small area he had separated to grow a specific type of abominid. Neave had created them by feeding them extremely specialized limbs, ones grown with the life force of several different species he had run into. It resulted in a flesh that made the creatures themselves rather clumsy and weak due to all of the shing forces in their body, but the meat was packed with an insane variety of beneficial qi. It was packed with tons of toxic qi as well, but Neave could purge that with rtive ease. Raising monsters and experimenting on them was highly illegal and supremely taboo basically everywhere. After trying it for himself, Neave was one hundred percent confident that at least half of the sects did it secretly, likely in bases hidden somewhere deep in the wilderness. It was so damn useful. Words couldn¡¯t describe the utility of growing specialized monster meat like cattle. He nodded in satisfaction and went to another, fully isted chamber. A small ss orb hung off the ceiling, shining as brightly as a miniature sun, and the floor had a vast variety of different types of fruits and vegetables growing, even some grain in the corner. These weren¡¯t monster nts, either. They were simply nts. Neave had, after an insane amount of trial and error, managed to grow a limb that produced fruit and extracted a seed. That was only the beginning. Seeds of all types and different varieties, created through unholy means and blended with the life force of countless different creatures, had resulted in a vast field of enviable growth. The one Neave felt was most enviable was the far corner to the right, where he grew a specific grain species. The grain was, as Neave would put it, fucking fantastic. The sheer quantity of energy it could contain made it challenging to keep the nts fed. There was a whole other section where Neave dedicated much time and effort to cultivating soil that could be used as fertilizer. It required an entirely different species of specialized grass-fungus hybrid. After collecting some sparkly grain, Neave returned to the room with the monsters and threw it around on the floor. The chubby abominids rushed to collect the goods, and Neave grinned in satisfaction. It was time to visit the other critical chamber he had created. Neave maneuvered through the caves, and after a short few hops through thick cave walls, he made it to the third chamber. He opened the spirit door and got a look inside. It was ake. Arge, circr dome was fully isted from the outside. From the ceiling of the room, water constantly dripped down. Several ss orbs were hanging on thin strings. The spheres produced water endlessly. Neave had first created a species of water creature. Then, he bred them until he had found the suitable cores, ones he turned into what could basically be described as infinite water generators. All of this was possible only after he discovered the secret power of the shapeshifting ability. Neave was shocked when he first discovered that he could do that. He hadn¡¯t experimented much with it initially, mainly because he feared the changes would be irreversible. That wasn¡¯t an incorrect assumption, either. Kind of. Any limb he monsterfied could be transformed back into his own limb if he burned his own life force. However, any time he morphed a limb, part of his life force would be transformed into the same type belonging to the foreign body part. While it was possible to move alien life force and keep it anywhere he pleased within his body, there always had to be some amount of his own life force within all of his limbs. That life force would be victim to a transformation whenever he used this morphing ability. For as long as he kept at least half of his body mass entirely his own, he could technically transform the rest into monster flesh without any long-term consequences. Anything more than that, however, and he would forever remain partially a monster. Neave wasn¡¯t entirely, or honestly, at all averse to that idea. If that monster shape granted him more power, he would happily keep it. The problem was that he could no longer disguise himself as fully human afterward. Now¡­ He wouldn¡¯t mind transforming, perhaps, his bones, let''s say, and turning them into monster bones, preferably that of a species that had a body of, hmmm, let¡¯s say, metal or crystal. But he wouldn¡¯t risk that haphazardly. He still didn¡¯t understand everything about this power, and he hoped to learn as much as possible before feeling forced to transform into a literal monster. Transforming an arm, however, wasn¡¯t a problem. He had a¡­ Very, very unpleasant realization as he experimented with this power initially. Neave had always believed it didn¡¯t matter what type of life force he burned when he healed himself. Ha¡­ Ha ha¡­ Ha¡­. Oh, it mattered. It mattered a lot. He would be dead a long time ago if he didn¡¯t have the sacred blood spirit power. For a long time, Neave wondered why he had been in such a terrible state after escaping the assassins in Pavarrie and why his condition improved so much after getting his improved organs. Back then, he brushed it off, thinking it was some peculiarbination of his powers that removed the consequences. It was almost entirely the purifying blood that had kept him alive. Now, he was wiser, older even, although it was arguable by how much. He was no longer willing to risk his life doing utterly stupid crap. He would only do it for somewhat ridiculous crap now. Character growth achieved, Neave thought as he pumped his fist in the air. Back to the water chamber he went, and another one of the abominid-piggies was sent to the ughter. Soon enough, a rtively presentable batch of meat was butchered into a pile. Neave used his ¡®secret technique¡¯ to purify the meat of any harmful qi. It was a secret since he didn¡¯t want the others to know that he washed the meat in his blood. Neave willed his avatar power, and a somewhat sizeable purple abominid appeared. It was carrying big boxes and even a cistern of water. This thing was so damn useful that Neave was almost willing to forget the unfortunate evolution. Almost. He opened one of the bigger boxes and put the meat inside. Then, the avatar disappeared, taking the items together with it into the dimensional space, and Neave traveled back to the others. Dukean was tasked with making the food, and they all ate. The meat tasted mediocre. It wasn¡¯t bad. It was just kind of in. Neave had mixed the traits of countless different beings into it, and the result averaged out into ndness. Yet, they all ate the meat as if it were a heavenly golden apple. The reason why was simple. Even if the vor was suboptimal, the gains one could receive from eating it rivaled a supreme treasure. They weren¡¯t focusing on cultivation yet, as Neave wanted them to first build their bodies into optimal shape, so they were all already at least a rank above their own in strength. While that might not seem muchpared to Neave, whose power was now roughly at the level of someone on the third step of the silver path, having strength above your rank was very impressive. Yet, consuming this meat did considerably more than just boost their strength. It was arguable that the strength boost was the least impactful of its myriad benefits. Virtually every aspect, physical or mental, was boosted in one way or another. Granted, it was to varying degrees, but it was still mighty impressive. Several had a roughly simr impact to the boost to strength, but they mattered more since they were more difficult to directly train. However, All of them paledpared to the regeneration boost. Neave may have been underselling his spirit powers'' influence on the monsters since the sheer power of the regeneration enhancement could only be described as godlike. It was to the degree that a silver, or perhaps even a gold-rank regeneration boosting power couldn¡¯tpete with the enhancement they¡¯ve received. That was absolutely¡­ They all felt tired at this point. Being in a constant state of shock at what Neave presented them with was exhausting to the point that they were beginning to wave off realm-shattering revtions as just another one of Neave¡¯s wacky traits. The creator ate the meat as well. To be honest, he ate the most out of anyone here. Regrly, he devoured those things whole while they were still alive. They were so packed with beneficial qi that even he received some benefit from it. As time passed, Neave rted to the ss shrub more and more. He wondered how a creature could be so jealous. Now, he wondered no more. These bastard leeches and parasites were improving at a pace that made him envious. Not to mention that, because they were actually fucking cultivating, they had a drastically higher ceiling, and their growth wouldn¡¯t slow down nearly as quickly as Neave¡¯s had. Well, it would be a long time until they could rival him. Honestly, they could likely never truly threaten him. Neave wasn¡¯t even close to done with empowering himself, and, well, he felt that there were more secrets he had yet to unravel. He finished watching them eat and eagerly return to their training. Oh, you little kids can have your fun, okay, okay, Neave thought in the most condescending voice he could imagine. Then, he returned to the chamber with the nts. A small corner of that chamber had a few¡­ Dangerous, or as Neave would say, fun experiments. Neave was growing a specific type of fruit he wanted to feed to the ss shrub. This nt had also been granted a spirit, but it started with a monster core, and it wasn¡¯t nearly as massive as the one Neave used on the ss shrub. There was no way he would be introducing another monster like that any time soon. That damn nt had already reached the silver path, and its growth wasn¡¯t slowing. The thing he was growing here could be called a fertility elixir. The realm already had enough atmospheric energy for monsters to grow independently. Which they were doing quite nicely. However, Neave would still prefer it if the process was faster. So he would feed the damn nt some fertility drugs and force it to get on with it already. Neave observed the walls of the chamber he found himself in. He had settled for a different design. It was a tripleyered barrier. He made ayer of ss from the ss brushes, slightly altered with the alchemy techniques to boost their hardness, then ayer of crystalized spirit, and anotheryer of ss. This made a powerful, nearly fully sealed barrier that was quite resistant to attacks from the outside or inside. There was still some other stuff Neave could do to enhance the protection, but one thing at a time. The list of stuff he had to experiment with grew daily, and he had priorities. The seals on these chambers were an improvement on what he did with the ss shrub¡¯s chamber. They still weren¡¯t and never would be perfect unless he made an unbroken spirit dome that fully enveloped the room. However, this made it impossible to get in and go out. Perhaps there was some way he could do it, but movement techniques couldn¡¯t move Neave through solid spirit. That was straight-up impossible, for the same reasons the barrier was so efficient. Qi simply couldn¡¯t flow in and out. No form of energy could. Which was great, as far as Neave was concerned. The lower the odds of something escaping its designated chambers, the better. And it was best nothing could ever enter inside. The nts weren¡¯t a big problem since if there wasn¡¯t for their optimal environment, they couldn¡¯t grow outside anyway, but the monsters¡­ Monster experimentation was illegal for a reason. Experiments going in the wrong direction could cause cmities, and it wasn¡¯t once that such a cmity had transpired. There was once a sect that did something simr to what Neave was doing. The chamber where they grew their monsters had an unexpected evolution. One of the creatures evolved into a considerably more powerful version of itself. It wasn¡¯t a big deal on its own. However, it was a fox in a chicken coop, and it devoured all of the other monsters, rapidly ascending in power. The sect was annihted, and the monstrosity decimated the nearbynd as it made its way through the now-unprotected settlements, feasting on hordes of people and bing a nearly diamond-ranked threat in a matter of days. Neave maintained a careful watch over the monster coop and kept their numbers to a minimum. It still felt like it was a matter of time until something happened, and everything went to shit. The nightmare realm was a dangerous ce. What Neave was doing was absolutely insane but necessary. He hadn¡¯t talked much to the others about his fears and anxieties, mainly because it was best they remained focused on their growth. The demon that hunted the others down recently heavily weighed on Neave¡¯s mind. That thing was absurdly tough. It wasn¡¯t a real threat to Neave, but it was an ominous sign nheless. The demons were moving. And Neave knew¡­ Astrador wouldn¡¯t simply sit by and wait for long. Whatever was brewing beyond the walls of these caves¡­ Soon. It would being for them yet again. *** The waves crashed against the beaches of the sea of tar. Ssh. Ssh. Ssh. Thud. One such wave carried a body, and the crashing left it stranded ashore. A lithe, smooth body of morphing cky on the withered sands. Unmoving. Ssh. Thud. Ssh. Thud. More just like it crashed into thend. And eventually. They began to move. *** Sateron stood, back firmly straight, observing and touching the edge of the barrier. He had spent his entire life inside here up until now, and he knew. It was likely death that awaited him beyond these walls. His body was already that of an adolescent. His father, no¡­ Astrador hated when he called him that. His creator imed that he was ugly. By cultivator standards, he was apparently a dashing young man, but Astrador didn¡¯t think the lower realms even had standards at all. Sateron didn¡¯t know. He had never seen a reflection of his face. Yet, he had knowledge of the outside world. Imbued directly into his being. It was a vast, expansive, infinite collection of realms to be in and explore. It was a stage much greater than this confined barrier. Soon. Soon, he would be given a chance. He merely had to kill a few humans. And then, his fath¡ªNo, his creator, would allow him to go outside. Soon. He would get to experience what it was like. Soon. He would take a life for the first time. Chapter 106: Lethal Weaponry Chapter 106: Lethal Weaponry Theva bubbled and sizzled. Lava slimes were morphing and shifting within the gooey pool of molten stone, absorbing the energy and growing by the second. Neave observed this and felt a strange sense of panic. As far as he had read once, the cores ofs had magma all the way to the''s center. In his world, the magma started significantly deeper than it did on this world, as the underground was countless times more expansive. There was something that made Neave wonder. Ifva slimes had made their way into the magma of their¡­ Wouldn¡¯t there be some genuinely terrifying creatures closer to the core? Perhaps the conditions there were far too extreme, even for monsters? Or maybe there wasn¡¯t much spirit? That wasn¡¯t an enjoyable thought. The idea of stupidly powerful monsters existing in the''s core, eating it from the inside the way a worm devoured an apple, was highly unappealing. It was actually fucking terrifying. Neave shrugged. If that were the case, he would eventually go down there, kill them, and take the cores. They ought to have some crazy powers. Or maybe they didn¡¯t. Either way, it was time to stop procrastinating. Breeding monsters was quite an exciting experience at first, as one never truly knew what they would produce. However, after doing it for a while, especially to create a variety of low-rank slimes, it got pretty dull indeed. It was like watching grass grow. No, actually, Neave sometimes procrastinated by watching the fungus grass grow, too, which meant that watching grass grow was more exciting. Luckily, he had a moment of respite recently, as he was tasked with making a few weapons for the others. He approached his improvised workshop and examined his work. First, it was Hunter¡¯s weapon. He had been entirely focused on flexibility and general agility, but that didn¡¯t change his primary fighting style: smashing shit to pieces. Thus, Neave created a special weapon for him. It was a gigantic sword created from the heavy metal Neave was cultivating. It was a much lighter variety, though, one Neave specialized to be as tough and rigid as possible. Even he couldn¡¯t damage this weapon easily. As far as its power was concerned, it was actually quite unusual. While holding the weapon, one could move while partially avoiding external force. It was hard to exin how it worked. That was code for ¡®not even Neave really understood it.¡¯ Put as simply as possible, while it was being held, knocking the wielder back or getting them off bnce was super tricky. Not only that, but it also permitted stuff like running on walls and ceilings. It even allowed ridiculously far jumps, as the wielder could partially ignore gravity while using it. It was a terrifying weapon suitable for a mighty, immovable juggernaut. Neave nodded in satisfaction and moved on to the next weapon. Gabrias¡¯ requested, surprisingly, a bow. It wasn¡¯t something Neave expected to hear from the giant man, but his reasoning was solid. The reason why he wanted a bow was straightforward. Gabrias was extremely tall, but even for his height, his arms were long. This meant that he could pull a massive longbow with rtive ease. At first, what concerned Neave was Gabrias¡¯ck of coordination, but that didn¡¯t seem to trante to his precision. At all. He was extremely precise with his throws and had no problem using a temporary bow Neave had created. So, Neave made Gabrias a bow. The material he used mattered quite a bit, actually. Usually, wood wasn¡¯t a strange or infrequent choice. However, the way that wood was created employedplicated, time-consuming nt growth strategies that Neave really couldn¡¯t be bothered with. In the end, he took a branch off the mighty shrub, an action it surprisingly didn¡¯t protest at all, and used countless qi techniques to permit the material a bit of flexibility. The string was made from the tendon of one of the abominids Neave had created, and it was extremely tough after a minor touch-up. As for the power it contained, it was rtively simple. With some help from Dukean, Neave had created ice slimes and even an ice golem. Borrowing from one of their cores, the result luckily turned out to be ice arrows. The bow didn¡¯t need arrows, the moment the string was pulled, an arrow of ice would manifest itself, and it could be fired. Typically, this would be a rather underwhelming power for a bow. Sure, unlimited arrows seemed great, but using custom-made ones, especially coupled with an ability to enhance them in one way or another, was preferable. However, Neave¡¯s spirit creation and core rounding strategies made a considerable impact. He pulled the bow a bit, and an arrow manifested. Once fired, it struck the wall, and instantly, frost covered the wall''s surface in a several-meter radius. That would be quite the weapon to use against¡­ Well, anything, really. Even with a power disparity, if he could hit someone, he could disable them or kill them by freezing them on the spot. The creation of this bow reminded Neave of a crucial aspect of weapons that held cores. An element he reallymented himself for forgetting about. Monsters tended to look more humanoid the more powerful they were. At least if their cores were round enough. This was one of those things that baffled schrs, and it was presumed that something about the bipedal humanoid form was intrinsically connected to higher powers, as could be seen with spirit beasts attaining humanoid forms upon achieving a higher rank. There was another strange thing about monster cores. When used in a weapon or any object really, the shape dictated the potential power the object would have. It was almost as if the core knew what the object it was ced in was designed or not designed to do. This was why those orbs he had created tended to have generic element-connected powers rather than something more specific, and it was the reason why something like this bow had powers appropriate for a bow and not a sword. The thing Neavemented, however, was that he hadpletely forgotten that the same thing applied to any piece of equipment. He knew this, actually, and he was nning on utilizing itter, but some part of him failed to connect the dots on one essential issue. Normally, cultivators used weapons. Why not add a ne, ring, armor, or whatever else to the mix? ¡°Because the cores aren¡¯t fucking rounded!¡± When one used a weapon with a quasi-spirit, their qi flowed through that weapon as well. If one had a weapon and another piece of equipment, their qi would flow through both objects. If the cores used to create those weapons were rtively round, there would be little problem with using two or three pieces of equipment. Eventually, however, the stacking interference would strain the individual''s spirit too much, disrupting the equipment''s function or even harming or killing the user. Neave wanted to pull his damn hair out for forgetting this. Why? Because absolutely nothing stopped him from wearing twenty rings, a ne, full armor, bracelets, and whatever else he coulde up with. At least, he believed it didn¡¯t, at first. Perhaps there was some other limit he would have to face, but it would definitely be much less restrained when using rounded cores. So he decided to check where these limitsy. In the end, there was a catch. Sort of. As long as the pieces of equipment were different in nature, there would be no problem, but several rings were out of the question. They mutually interfered with their function, again, likely something to do with equipment knowing what role it was meant to y. He still grinned, however. This very much so meant he had free reign over as many different pieces of equipment as he coulde up with. For now, he made a ring for everyone using the cores of those pudgy abominids he was farming. The effect turned out to be precisely what he expected it to be. A ridiculously generalized boost to right about everything. With an emphasis on regeneration, of course. He didn¡¯t have time to puzzle out stuff like armor, but¡­ Nes and wristbands served right about the same function. So he made those for everyone as well, using the cores from the same monsters, and vo, yet again, another generalized boost to everything with a focus on regeneration. Absolutely fantastic. While he didn¡¯t really care enough to go out of his way for the others yet¡­ He needed another few things for himself. The first thing he made was a metallic crown. He used one of the hyper-heavy slime cores and made it out of the hefty metal. The power it granted Neave surprised even him. It was basic telekinesis. Quite powerful, though, and Neave wouldn¡¯tin about it. Even if it turned out to be trash inbat, it was infinitely valuable in every other way Neave could imagine. He was already wasting too much time, so he quickly brainstormed what else he could create that wouldn¡¯t be a pain in the ass. ¡­ sses? Actually, yeah, that was perfect. He took some of the brush ss and made some sses. A core from another ss golem was used, and the power attained¡­ Neave could see through objects now. That was super useful, actually. He walked over to the corner of his workshop and observed himself in the mirror. The sses were adorable. He took them off instantly. Uneptable. He was a leader, a lord, a future god! There was no room for looking cute. So he rejected the sses. Maybe he would hand them to Dukean. He could go look cute all he wanted. Neave would look like a real man. He grabbed a branch of one of the inferior shrubs, the obsidian ones. Once he shaped these into not-cute-but-absolutely-badass sunsses, he observed the power. A core from one of the pudgy monsters was used in hopes of granting an effect simr to the ring, ne, and wristband. What he got instead was¡­ ¡°... What?¡± Regeneration sight? What the fuck is that!? Apparently, when he looked at someone, if he used the sses, he could speed that individual¡¯s regeneration up. That was almost entirely useless, and he was confident he would never use it. He still preferred the sunsses, though. Even though he could barely see shit through them, given they weren¡¯t all that transparent. No obstacle to his perception power, though. He would manage. Where was he again? ¡­ Oh yeah, the weapons. Harel requested something that confirmed Neave¡¯s recent suspicion. She is fucking insane. A spiked ball on a chain. A spiked. Ball. On a chain. Everyone expected her to take a sword or something, and Marven even criticized her for fooling around. Still, she stood her ground, iming she wanted to ¡®broaden her horizons¡¯ and ¡®explore something new while she had the opportunity to do it without consequences.¡¯ Nope. That was just an excuse. Insane, yep. Absolutely, Neave nodded to himself and observed the effects of the weapon. It had a simr effect to Neave¡¯s sledgehammer, but instead of force multiplication, it was damage multiplication. Whenever it struck, the impact left horrific harm in its wake, to the point Neave had no ns to test it inside his workshop. Then he moved on to Dukean¡¯s weapon. A sword on a chain, what the hell is up with these people and chains!? At least he could understand Dukean. He had a spirit power that allowed him to manipte metal, so a weapon on a chain was something he could use to its full capability. A sword on a chain was still something Neave had never heard of, but you learn something new every day. The weapon¡¯s power was quite simple. The chain could extend and retract, up to quite far. It was also made of heavy metal, and it was quite sharp, tough, rigid, and all that good stuff. Now finally, Marven¡¯s weapon. The most boring piece of the bunch. ss Shard 2.0. Same thing as the first one, effectively, just a little sleeker and slightly more powerful. There was another difference. It was stupidly light, lighter than air. Not an exaggeration. If Neave released the weapon, it floated up. For this weapon, Neave had invested the alchemy techniques into making it as light and hard as possible. It didn¡¯t need weight due to the nature of its power, and with how hard it was, putting a single crack on the edge would be quite the challenge. That was everything. Neave packed the weapons and rushed over to the others. He swaggered into the room as if he owned the ce. Well, he did literally own the ce, but he truly acted the part this time. Everyone immediately turned to look at him. Hunter had been running around, already having lost quite a bit of weight, and his polished, much sleeker muscture reflected the shiny orbs hanging on the ceiling. Gabrias had been standing on one hand, bncing on the ss roller, and lifting weights with his feet. Harel had just put down the stupidly heavy barbell she had been deadlifting, and the thunk reverberated through the room. Her body was no longer a shriveled mass of sticks, and her muscles were more prominent than Dukean''s. Dukean put down the cumbersome training sword Neave had made for him. And Marven finished eating the meat stockpile, still receiving the most significant benefits from doing so out of anyone else in the room. Harel pointed at Neave and thenughed so hard she fell on the ground, ¡°What the fuck are you wearing!?¡± To be fully honest, that hurt Neave¡¯s feelings a little. He dropped the bag of weapons of mass destruction on the ground and grinned at them, ¡°How about we go for a round in the spirit realm?¡± The others couldn¡¯t help but smile at that. Things would be different this time, for sure. Chapter 107: Growth Chapter 107: Growth Things weren¡¯t different this time at all. Well, it depended on how one defined ¡®different.¡® They were much tougher this time, and with their crazy regeneration boost, even Neave had to hit hard to finish them off. However, that was about it. No further effort was required on his part. Hunter bent his body back, trying to avoid a kick to his face. However, Neave¡¯s foot instantly shot down and smashed into his chest, smacking him against the ground. On his bounce back up, he received yet another kick, and that was it. Gabrias tried defending from a strike, and despite holding back considerably, Neave still carved through his defense with ease and snapped his neck with a precise kick. Harel was almost capable of getting out of the way until Neave used an utterly unpredictable hip smash that threw her off bnce and followed it up with a kick to her leg, wrist, and, finally, head. It was impressive that he even needed three strikes topromise her guard. She was growing quite nicely. Dukean had eaten a lot of monster meat, and his physical capabilities could nearly rival the weakest cultivators on the tinum path, which was a mind-bogglingly insane level of strength for someone on the second step of the golden path. His resilience, coupled with his regeneration, made it so that Neave had no choice but to use true strikes. Even though Neave couldnd as many regr attacks as he wanted at full force, without a weapon, spirit powers, or burning his life force, someone of such resilience could easily brush all of his strikes off, regardless of how precise they were. When true strikes were added to the mix, things quickly changed. Dukean¡¯s guard was significantly more solid than any of the others¡¯ prior, and even though Neave could find the openings, it wasn¡¯t easy to exploit them. It wasn¡¯t a challenge either, but it was an impressive guard nheless. Marven was a different story, however. His power was somewhere between the second and third steps of the tinum path. The gulf separating those steps was gigantic, so jumping a step at that power level was horrifying. It was achieved through a copious degree of meat consumption, and even Neave found it challenging to face him. It wasn¡¯t that fighting Marven was hard, per se. It was that he was so damn tough that only heavier true strikes could harm him, yet, if Neave tried using those, Marven had an absolute speed advantage. The solution was to pelt Marven with dozens of precise strikes to umte an imbnce so that he couldn¡¯t defend himself from a more decisive strike on time. Once that imbnce was achieved, Neave moved on to bigger true strikes, where he gradually slowed them down as the damage umted, and eventually, Marven¡¯s body was a pile of mangled meat. As dramatic andplicated as that process seemed, it rarely took longer than ten seconds. Although their power had grown frighteningly, their skill wasn¡¯tgging too far behind. It was difficult to tell, given who their opponent was, but if they faced any regr enemies, even Gabrias could disy a rtively high degree ofpetence for his power level. Neave was thoroughly dissatisfied. He had spent a lot of time training physically and eating tons of monsters whole, yet, his power was stillgging behind the growth the others had shown. Yes, they couldn¡¯t even begin topare to him outside this spirit realm. For now. Yet, Neave knew the difference a few spirit powers could make. They wouldn¡¯t be making the same mistake he did with his spirit powers and would pick carefully before choosing. Coupled with their superior cultivation, Neave was beginning to feel vaguely threatened. At first, he thought that the idea of them surpassing him was absurd. As if! That was a stupid thought to have. But¡­ Was it really? What if they reached the diamond path? What if they reached the second step of the diamond path? What if they reached the third? Little was known about the third step of the diamond path. The reason why was simple. For eras, there hadn¡¯t been one third-step diamond path cultivator in this realm. Whether they even existed in the first ce was frequently debated. Neave had assumed that Hosr was above the diamond path entirely, but it wasn¡¯t impossible that he was on the third step. There was no way to tell since Neave simply didn¡¯t know. Nobody did. Nobody knew what it really meant to be a ¡®demi-god¡¯ to begin with. It was easy to assume that meant power above diamond, yet, it was uncertain, especially given that Hosr and any of the higher powers would probably prefer ¡®lower-realms¡¯ to believe they were infinitely high above them. Still, for Neave, this presented aplicated situation. Regardless of whether they reached the third step, if the others reached the second step, they would likely be able to easily kill him. Hell, with a set of suitable spirit powers, weapons, and improved skills, even as low as the third step of the tinum path, they could be a threat to him. His own power, without any spirit powers, was approaching the first step of the gold path in capability, although ¡®approaching¡¯ may be slightly exaggerated. There was a significant jump between the third step of silver and the first step of gold, and he was only around a third of the way through crossing that ravine. As far as Neave''s or any of their bodies were concerned, cing them on a step of the path was difficult. True, judging by simple characteristics like strength, speed, and toughness, they could be ced rtively simply, but countless other aspects of their bodies were boosted in ways that would make them decimate any opponents of simr strength. Of course, there was always the fact that going up a step meant far more than just a boost to physical capabilities, but how much did that matter? Endurance, perception, sense of bnce, cognitive capabilities, reflex speed, regeneration, and even homeostasis, the ability of their body to maintain internal bnce, was boosted to an insane degree. These were only some of the benefits they had received, and naturally, no regr cultivator at the identical rank could even begin topare. Since they had started, none of them had cultivated past their step on the path. They had reached the point where they were one strand away from moving up but had waited to build their physiques to a desirable degree before advancing. It wasn¡¯t that advancing down the path made growth more difficult, not at all, but changes to certain physical aspects took more time to achieve. The main thing they had been concerned about was their muscture. Either growing muscle, reducing mass, or altering the bnce of their build. That process became much slower at higher ranks. That was why Marven¡¯s and Dukean¡¯s physiques had barely changed while Gabrias, Harel, and Hunter looked like different people now. The reason why Marven hadn¡¯t cultivated yet was another thing they had nned. They would all reach the first step of the tinum path before advancing any further. This was so that they had each other, as well as Neave, as reliable sparring partners. Achieving that cultivation level would usually be an insane task that could take a hundred or two hundred years. The situation they found themselves in and the resources they had at their disposal made that process a lot more straightforward. It would still take as long as twenty years to reach that level of cultivation¡­ If it weren¡¯t for the spirit realm. The time dtion they had at their disposal while inside the realm was a precious asset. A mere hour in the outside world could be turned into years within the spirit realm. Granted, cultivating while inside the spirit realm wasn¡¯t a possibility, even though they had all tried doing it. It was still an invaluable method for realizing potential in skill and knowledge about their style. Whenever they left the spirit realm, the shroud of strands of potential grew thick enough that they could barely even cultivate it fast enough to keep up with how quickly they gathered more. The room they were in, or the sealed chamber, was an insane advantage. The energy in the air was thick as syrup, and cultivating went by much faster. Neave knew it was stupid to be thinking the way he did. So what if they surpassed him? Even better. He would acquire indispensable allies that could solve his problems in his stead. Wasn¡¯t he more pragmatic than this? Solutions were solutions. Fuck. It left a bitter taste in his mouth. It wasn¡¯t just a matter of power or a petty superiorityplex. They had already spent a rtively long time in the realm together, but interacting in a regr, human manner hadn¡¯t been on the table often. Trust had built between them nheless. But not enough. He couldn¡¯t trust them enough to defer so much power to them. And, even if he trusted them, he didn¡¯t want to be inferior to them. He didn¡¯t want to be the weak one. He didn¡¯t want to be a small helper, the helpful tool in their belt that fed them more power. The immortal arts, as far as Neave was concerned, had only one practitioner. And that practitioner would never be outdone by others. Not gods. Not devils. Not his own allies. However. He would not stoop so low to deny them power. Instead, he would do his absolute best to ensure they reached their full potential. His thoughts were leading him in a terrible direction. That was the way the godsthought. That was the way destroyers operated. Neave wasn¡¯t a destroyer. He was a creator of the highest order, someone who would never resort to something as petty as that. It was simple in the end. Either he would continue onward, reaching greater and greater heights at speeds nobody could fully match, even with his help. Or he wasn¡¯t qualified to think so highly of himself. Neave continued their dodging practice for quite a bit longer. It was easy to get lost in time once one did something long enough. Keeping track of an hour or two was easy. Discerning whether days or months had passed was much moreplicated. After all, they were constantly fighting, and the rtively monotone environment and training left them without any exterior signs of the passage of time. There was no sleep, fatigue, hunger, thirst, or anything inside the realm. There wasn¡¯t even a real desire to breathe. All of the usual signs that allowed one to at least keep a semnce of a grip on the passage of time were gone inside a spirit realm. Neave had to instruct the ss shrub to forcefully wake them up if there was any danger. Still, despite theck of signs that time was passing, it was clear that they had been inside here for a while. Gradually, everyone¡¯s skills grew; less and less often did Neave feelpelled to punish someone for making a critical mistake, and, to even his own surprise, once he did, executing that punishment was not as easy as he expected it would be. They were growing rapidly. Not only were they learning how to respond to what Neave was doing, but as they observed him, they started absorbing some of his tricks and movements. Only a tiny fraction, however. What years? Even millennia wouldn¡¯t be enough to fully imitate most of the stuff he could do. However, that tiny fraction was, nheless, a horrifying one. It was hard to feel their progress since Neave keptpensating for any gains they acquired, but asionally, they all did something that surprised even their teacher. Hunter could maneuver quite a bit better now, and the range within which he could defend himself was significantly greater. His dodging was less throwing himself to the side now and more in line with tight movements that allowed for further defense from follow-ups. Gabrias was simr. His height made it much more challenging to dodge, but his defense was solid. His ridiculously long arms made the range at which he could block attacks absurd, allowing him to maintain a great distance from his opponents, even in what would usually be close range. Neave was somewhat surprised at how insightful his decision to be an archer was. His style sounded as if it was perfect for a closebat fighter, but it was much more suitable for a bow. Body size didn''t matter all that much when one reached a higher rank. However, the bigger you were, the bigger the target you were, regardless of your cultivation rank. With a bow, he could use the extra range to keep opponents away and then, as he made distance from them, strike them with an arrow. Maneuverability in close quarters was an apparent weakness for him, his long arms were optimal for longbow usage, and his talent for defense made it difficult to pick him off in the backlines. On the other hand, it was hard to say Harel had any defense at all. The way she fought was maniacal yet frighteningly effective. She was still hellbent on hitting Neave, even though she hadn¡¯t managed to do that once. Throughout her myriad attempts, however, she developed a peculiar style. She would lounge into extremely overextended attacks, yet how she positioned herself made it quite tricky tond solid counterattacks. Rather than closing her openings off, she opened most of her body up to attack, but the attacks her opponents were allowed would always do less damage to her than she would do to them. Usually, such a style would be in impossible to train for numerous reasons. Not only would one have to subject themselves to countless life-threatening situations, but if they ever encountered an opponent that discovered an opening that wasn¡¯t meant to be there, that would spell an instant loss. And likely death. This spirit realm, however, and more specifically, having Neave as an opponent, allowed for optimal circumstances to train such a style. Not only was her life not threatened, but when facing Neave, she would be shown right about every way someone could exploit her style to finish the fight. This, in turn, allowed her to close those gaps swiftly and efficiently. Neave still maintained that she would do well with a style simr to his own. He wasn¡¯t sure why she chose the spiked ball on a chain. Actually, he had no idea. It seemed so stupid. To the point that it may actually just be a mistake. Could she have chosen that weapon as a joke? Perhaps her reply to Marven was serious, and she was just trying new things? Or maybe his hunch was correct, and she, indeed, was insane? Well, eventually, he would see her use it in a fight, and then he would decide which of those was correct. Something like twin daggers would likely work better for her. That got a frown out of Neave. Could that work? Would the two daggers interfere with one another if they both had a quasi-spirit? Something to check onter. Next up was Dukean. Despite it being the least obvious, he had made the most considerable progress out of anyone here. The kid was hellbent on imitating Neave¡¯s techniques and incorporating them into his style, and heavens be damned, he managed to achieve a bit of what he was trying to do. Not a lot, but far more than what the others were capable of. As for Marven¡­ He had made the least progress out of anyone here, but the little progress he had made was crucial. Finally, after who knows how long, Neave had beaten his old habits out of him. Now, Marven could finally get the chance to develop a new style from scratch. His growth was also slowed considerably due to his power, which made it difficult for Neave to teach the old man anything since he had to resort to extreme methods to disassemble his guard. Still, this worked just fine since Marven did get to tighten his foundation further and hone his battle instincts. And finally, surprisingly, even Neave had managed to grow from this experience. He had updated his fighting style to be far more appropriate to his base physical strength. That could be a bit of a hindrance when he was back outside and had to adjust to his absurd power once again. That wasn¡¯t a big deal, though, since he had much practice with his full power anyway. Neave was far from the best he could be. This was why he was terraforming the realm, to begin with. He needed a true challenge to see himself grow further. Abruptly, Neave stopped, and the others took a while to realize what was happening. Neave grinned and spoke to them, ¡°You pass, somewhat. Step one can be considered finished.¡± They all rejoiced and slumped to the ground, feeling strangely drained all of a sudden, as if their spirits had been wrung dry by all the training. None of them would be surprised if years had passed in this ce. Neave continued, ¡°Now, I believe it is finally time for step two.¡± They all groaned and slumped further on the ground. Chapter 108: Path Chapter 108: Path The cultivators stared at Neave with bated breath. What was the next step going to be? ¡°Dodge part two!¡± A perfectly synchronized groan escaped their lips. ¡°But!¡± Neave gestured with his finger, ¡°There are two things you must do first!¡± They perked up, anxiously anticipating anything besides continuing the eternal beatdown, ¡°First, I will need you to leave the spirit realm with me and confirm the weapons I¡¯ve brought! And second, you will all cultivate as high as you can in a short time. Except for Marven, of course.¡± Their faces lit up upon hearing that. Soon, they found themselves back in the real world, incredibly happy to be there. Gabrias cried a little, and even Hunter couldn¡¯t stop himself from tearing up. Neave raised an eyebrow at them, although they couldn¡¯t see it due to his sunsses, ¡°Why are you crying?¡± Gabrias spoke through whimpering breath, ¡°I¡­ It¡¯s just been¡­ So long.¡± ¡°So long since what?¡± Neave stared at him in confusion, quickly eyeing the others. Hunter looked like he was doing his best to stop himself from crying. Harel looked excited, so Neave ignored her. Dukean looked¡­ Grave? Determined? Marven had a rtively neutral expression on his face. Their expressions left Neave bewildered. Did something happen without him noticing? Whatever, they were probably still a little insane. He turned around and walked over to the bag of weapons, pulling them out individually, ¡°I want you all to check the weapons out and tell me if you want me to make something else. Oh, and check this shit out.¡± The weapons were carefully handed to their recipients, and soon, they were followed by the trio of trinkets¡ªthe rings, wristbands, and nes. Marven¡¯s and Dukean¡¯s eyes widened in shock upon seeing the rings. They were both about to speak up, but to their surprise, Harel spoke first, ¡°Neave! This jewelry will probably kill us.¡± ¡°Oh no! How could have I been so careless!¡± Neave put on a faux frightened expression and continued, speaking in a slightly higher pitched voice than usual, ¡°Oh, bother, I made a boo-boo.¡± Harel rolled her eyes, ¡°Is there some trick to it?¡± Neave turned around and checked the bag to see whether he had missed anything, ¡°Rounded cores mean no interference. Thus, you can have as many random trinkets as you want, well, as long as they aren¡¯t the same type of trinket.¡± The bag searchplete, he turned around to face them. The others all stood and stared at him, mouths hanging open. ¡°Uh¡­ Oh shit, did touching the weapons crush your spirit!?¡± Marven stared at the three pieces of jewelry in his hand, ¡°Neave, do you know what you¡¯ve just created?¡± ¡°Uh, of course? Do you consider me a dumbass, Father?¡± Instantly, all five of them rushed at him, screaming over one another and yelling out the names of random pieces of jewelry. Neave caught everything they were saying and got the gist of it immediately, ¡°Calm the fuck down, you toddlers. Yes, I understand the possibilities and implications.¡± They all opened their mouths to speak, but Neave interrupted them, ¡°However¡­ I can¡¯t just make dozens of pieces of equipment and hand them to you all simultaneously.¡± His finger pointed at the ring, wristband, and ne on his body, ¡°These three are the same in nature for a reason. I suspect something simr to how spirit powers work could happen, and this is a way to test that. Making a set of different pieces of equipment will likely require powers that are different in nature to avoid mutual interference. I haven¡¯t noticed any problems with these trinkets, but I could be an exception. Trust me, experiments like these cause death rather frequently.¡± At that, they all visibly deted a bit. Marven even looked quite ashamed of himself. Neave shook his head and sighed. It was a great responsibility to be the most rational person around, ¡°Now, take a look at the weapons and let me know if you have any problems with them. Do not fucking test them here! Especially you, Harel! Just look at them and let me know whether you like the option you¡¯ve made or not.¡± They all looked down at the weapons in their hands. Gabrias grabbed the bow and pulled on the string. Suddenly, an arrow materialized, and he released it in panic, firing it at the wall. Before the arrow could strike, Neave appeared in its path and grabbed it out of the air. The arrow froze his hand, and he crushed it. The pieces ttered to the ground, and upon contact, frost visibly spread around in a radius of over a meter, ¡°What the fuck did I literally just say a moment ago!?¡± Gabrias apologized profusely, and the others now treated their weapons with more respect. Hunter seemed rather pleased with his weapon. However, soon, a frown appeared on his face. He nced up at Neave and back down to the sword repeatedly, looking as if he couldn¡¯t muster the courage to say something. Neave rolled his eyes and asked, ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°Ah! Me? Uh, nothing, just¡­¡± Hunter grabbed the sword with one hand, finding it slightly lighter than he had expected, ¡°Could you make me a shield as well?¡± The response caught in Neave¡¯s throat, and he swallowed it. Huh¡­ That wasn¡¯t a bad idea. The sword was undoubtedly too big for a one-handed weapon, but it wasn¡¯t too heavy, and with enough practice, Hunter could learn how to wield it properly, even when coupled with a shield. Not to mention the possible synergy between the weapon¡¯s power and a shield. Damn¡­ How did he not think of that first? Neave nodded, ¡°Not bad. I like the idea.¡± Hunter looked slightly bashful upon hearing that. Gabrias examined his bow, moving his arm to test the possible range of motion without pulling the string. He looked pretty pleased with it, so Neave looked over to Harel. She was literally drooling over the weapon. Happy, then, Neave assumed. Next up, Dukean seemed¡­ Sentimental? The was a pain in his gaze, and Neave couldn¡¯t be bothered to puzzle out whatever he was thinking. Finally, Marven. He just quickly nced at the weapon, obviously pleased with it, and moved his gaze over to Harel. Oh boy. Neave did not like the look in Marven¡¯s eye. His father soon spoke, employing his usual, stern voice reserved for criticism, ¡°Harel. Why don¡¯t you choose a sword instead?¡± ¡°Huh!?¡± Harel lifted her gaze and wiped the drool off her mouth, ¡°Why would I do that?¡± ¡°Why would you¨C!? A better question is, why would you not!? This ce may seem inconsequential if taken at face value, but I do not think it truly is. If you pursue a sword in this realm, you can attain unbelievable heights! Think about it! You can create incredible techniques if you attain a high-level wayfarer¡¯s authority over the sword! Regardless of the fact that you will lose your cultivation, you won¡¯t forget them!¡± Harel clicked her tongue, ¡°Shut up, old man. I¡¯ll do the swordter, ok? I¡¯m taking a break for now.¡± ¡°Taking a break!? I have never heard of someone, let alone someone serious about the sword, choosing to take a break from it!¡± ¡°Yep, you hit the nail on its head.¡± ¡°Harel¡­¡± Marven looked pained, ¡°What happened to you!?¡± Harel¡¯s gaze grew cold as she turned to Marven, venom dripping from her expression, ¡°What happened to me!? What happened to me!? I¡¯m quitting the fucking sword, you dumbass!¡± Everyone turned to look at her, and she continued, taking measured steps toward Marven, ¡°And what are you gonna do about it!?¡± ¡°I¨C!? It¡¯s not about me, Harel! I can not simply stand idly and watch you throw your life¡¯s work away!¡± ¡°My!? My life¡¯s work!? You mean your life¡¯s work!? You fucking did this! You are the one who forced me to take up the sword!¡± ¡°You were offered a choice!¡± Harel opened her mouth wide, and her expression morphed into a manic grin, dripping in disbelief, ¡°A choice!? A choice!? A choice!? You think I had the right to choose!? Do you really think an orphaned girl like me had a choice!? Do you really think a seven-year-old girl had the wisdom and insight to consciously sell herself for power!? An arranged marriage for a nt! Hah! That¡¯s good old child prostitution, my dear friend, thinly veiled in dehumanizing sect politics!¡± Marven was taking steps back, breathing heavily and finding himself short on words, ¡°I¨CYou¡­ Do¡­¡± ¡°Just¡­¡± Harel shook her head, a tired expression on her face. She waved her hands dismissively and turned around, ¡°I don¡¯t really care. I¡¯ve made my decision. As long as you fuck off and do your own thing, we are good. Alright?¡± Marven didn¡¯t look alright. His breath was speeding up, and he was gripping his heart. He dropped to his knees. A sh of anger crossed Harel¡¯s face, ¡°Oh, please, don¡¯t act all distressed about¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ Oh, I¡¯m so sorry, Harel¡­¡± Marven smacked his head against the floor, prostrating himself before her and the others, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry. I have never intended to force you into a marriage. I was¡­ Back then, I was going to muddy the waters long enough for you to be too important to be forced into something like that. I¡¯ve done the same¡­¡± He cut his words off, and Harel knew what he wanted to add. Apassionate expression shed over her face, and she walked over to Marven. Then she kicked him full force, right in the face, knocking him back into the cavern''s wall. Marven took no damage from that strike, but it still jolted him away from his moping. Harel walked over to him, slowly dragging the chained ball behind her. The weapon scraped the ground and left deep cracks wherever it touched. She stopped several meters before him, lifted her finger to point at Neave, and spoke, ¡°See your son over there? He is a crazy bastard who haspletely lost his grip on reality at one point.¡± Neave was insulted but stayed quiet, letting her finish, ¡°In no small part, his situation is your fault.¡± Another sh of pain crossed Marven¡¯s expression. Still, rather than apologizing, consoling him, or taking it back, she continued, ¡°Yet, instead of killing you for your sin, he has forgiven you. Instead of treating you like a dog or a servant, he sought a way to give you a purpose. Instead of running away and leaving us to die, he rushed back to find a solution together. Take a damn hint, you old bastard!¡± Unable to stop the tears from flowing down her face, she continued, ¡°You¡¯re the closest thing I¡¯ve ever had to a father, Marven. If he could forgive you for what you¡¯ve done to him, then so can I.¡± She wiped her tears and chuckled, ¡°You just have to stop being a fucking asshole already.¡± Marven, tears rushing down his face as well, chuckled too and got up, hugging the shaking Harel. Neave stared at them, mouth hanging slightly open. Was I really doing all of that¡­? His thoughts were interrupted when the world suddenly started spinning. The only thing he could see was the panic in everyone''s eyes as his dismembered head ttered to the ground. Chapter 109: Assassination Chapter 109: Assassination Sateron took a deep breath and released it. A fine, pale blue mist surrounded his body, seeping into his pores and building his corpus to something more than its meager self. Finally, he was worth at least something. For he had reached the subdivinity stage. Or rather, as lower realm cultivators called it¡­ The first step of the diamond path. Astrador nodded in what could barely pass as satisfaction, ¡°I believe that will be enough.¡± He handed Sateron a pearly, slightly transparent white saber, and Sateron shuddered at the feeling the weapon gave off. The material was of the same rank as him, and its might was something he could feel coursing through the qi in his body. The Great God touched the weapon, and fine inscriptions lined the de''s surface. Sateron could recognize some of them. With these inscriptions, the weapon¡¯s use became temporary, but every swing would hold several times as much cutting power as the concept of severing had been directly imbued into the edge. Astrador concentrated, and a small, shiny, golden orb appeared in his hands. Sateron¡¯s eyes widened, and he gingerly grabbed the object, ¡°What¡­ What is this?¡± ¡°When you get rtively close to their position, consume it. You shall teeter on the border of being for a while, and the moment you interact with another, your existence will stabilize again. This should make you nigh-undetectable, but don¡¯t take any chances.¡± Sateron gulped at that. He was confident. His victory was assured, but the way his creator phrased that¡­ Who exactly was Neave that he made even the greatest of gods act so cautiously? Astrador lifted his gaze and looked past the barrier, ¡°Kill Neave first. Make sure your strike is decisive and his death instantaneous. Do not allow him a chance to recover. The others are worthless. Even the most powerful among them is a pathetic worm at the divine spark stage. Once Neave is dead, the others will fall without issue.¡± After pausing and frowning briefly, he continued, ¡°And make sure you destroy anything they have created¡­¡± ¡°...Especially if it is alive.¡± *** Sateron ran through the obsidian forests, dodging and weaving through the sharp branches as he sought the clues of their location. His creator had imbued the knowledge of thest site he knew they were at, and Sateron swiftly made his way there. After reaching his destination, he frowned. There was little, if anything, to go off when it came to discovering their tracks. So he calmed himself and breathed steadily, sensing the energy in the air. There was an incredibly faint presence. Yet, that must mean they were close. Something was off, however. As far as the Great God could tell, the target could sense the range of his anchor. Why would they remain so close to the border? So he ran forward, following the same direction they went in and hoping to get another whiff of the faint energy. *** Too much. There is far too much energy in the air. Atmospheric energy contained loose qi particles and chaotic mixtures of spirit and life force released by the life and death of living beings. Such power took a long time and many lives to gather. So why is it so thick here? Things may be worse than even the Great God, in all his wisdom, had predicted. Suddenly, Sateron had to stop. What the hell is that? There was a faint glimmer among the obsidian brush. It was hard to notice with theck of light and all the thick growth in his way, but that couldn¡¯t obscure the vision of someone at the subdivinity stage. Yet, it wasn¡¯t the glimmer he saw first. It was the intense life force flowing through these crystals. A shudder went through Sateron¡¯s body as he realized what he was looking at. Those things are alive. Looking further, past the tiny crystalline shards, he realized precisely what they were. His stomach dropped, and fear gripped his heart. It is¡­ It is a brush. Much like these obsidian nts growing around me. But how? Where did theye from? Astrador hadn¡¯t said much about why Neave had to die or who he was. However, it became increasingly clear to Sateron that his mission was far more deadly than he initially expected. Should he return to Astrador first? Perhaps updating him on the situation was more critical than marching onward. Sateron pped himself with all his might. You idiot! You doubt the wisdom of the great god!? He knew this would happen, and he entrusted me with my mission! You can do this, you fool. You were granted the tools you need. Just calm down, and do your job. He paused for a moment and considered a n. This golden orb would allow for near-perfect stealth, but he could not use it haphazardly. The longer he remained in the state it would put him in, the less likely it was that he could return toplete existence again. There was no margin for error. Mistakes were impermissible. So he took a deep breath again and thought it through. It was time to do some scouting. *** After scouting the area and ensuring he remained out of range, he concluded several things. These nts were growing at an insane speed. So quickly that their growth could be observed with the naked eye. A sprout would turn into a whole nt reaching about Sateron¡¯s knee in less than an hour. Next, they were spreading in a near-perfect circle. This meant that it was likely that whatever was causing their rapid proliferation resided in the center of their radius. After taking a quick dive into several caves, he concluded that these nts were also spreading beneath the surface. When he went deep enough underground, he also discovered that the reach of the underground nts was ever-so-slightly greater than those on the surface. That either meant they could spread faster through the underground or, the more likely option, the core resided underground. Reaching as close as he could to the nts while maintaining perfect stealth, he soon discovered something horrifying. Beneath the surface, all these nts were connected to thin ss roots. Those roots had such potent energy flowing through them that it made him shudder. Yet, the source of those roots was on the prespark stage. The source of those roots¡­ Was on the path? That gave Sateron pause. A nt that was capable of moving up the path? Dear gods¡­ The situation is far worse than I thought. Some more investigationter, he discovered something moving. A bumbling demon, one of the cursed things that gued this realm, made its way into the range of the nts. Sateron didn¡¯t intervene, but instead, he observed from a distance, carefully watching to see what would happen. One of the ss nts suddenly crumbled into pieces, and those pieces floated up. The shards flew toward the demon and shredded it into bits. As those bits crumpled to the ground, ss roots sprouted from the soil, enveloping the demon¡¯s body in a cocoon that absorbed its rotting corpse. Sateron stared in horror at the iprehensible disy. If the nt consumed the demons, did that mean it was also corrupt? It didn¡¯t feel like it, though¡­ Could it be that it could resist the corruption? Things just kept getting worse. *** There was nothing else to discover, Sateron concluded, after observing the strange being for a while longer. All he had found were unimportant details, such as that the nt was consuming the obsidian growth, gradually removing it, and had difficulty spreading through solid metal. That was about it then. A n had already crystalized in his mind, and several backup ns were also created, just in case. He prayed that he wouldn¡¯t have to employ either one of those. n A would have to be enough. Sateron stood on the surface, hidden between the thick branches of obsidian growth. He observed the nts spreading in the distance and took another deep breath. His body tightened, and with minimal movement, he jumped up,nding on top of the obsidian growth. Then, he focused, and his body floated off the ground. Flying wasn¡¯t an easy feat, even at the subdivinity stage, but Sateron had divine talent, handcrafted by the Great God himself. A rtively short whileter, his clumsy floating transformed into flight. Sateron soared straight up into the sky, eventually reaching the clouds. Once inside, he flew as high as he could. Even from miles up and through the thick smoggy clouds, the''s surface was clear as day to Sateron¡¯s eyes. He turned and started flying horizontally, looking in every direction. The faint outline of the range of the ss nts was visible, and he calcted the precise center. Once fully confident he knew the exact midpoint, he observed the nearby cave entrances. There was quite a bit of destruction in the nearby area, so he was optimistic that his prey was here somewhere. It was a bit of a gamble that they would be next to the nt, but it was the only location he was at least somewhat confident about. No matter. As long as they were within dozen miles, he could find them. After scouting every cave entrance nearby, he picked a rtively random one and flew above it. Then, his flight was canceled, and he started to drop. The clouds zed by him, and he stared precisely down, determination seared into his expression, and soon, the smoggy mist was left behind. The surface grew nearer and nearer as he descended, and he held the golden orb right in front of his mouth. Not yet. Not yet¡­ Now! Just as he was about to approach within a hundred meters of the surface, he swallowed the orb. He didn¡¯t feel anything happen but trusted Astrador, believing it had erased his presence. He rapidly descended to the ground, and right before he struck it, Sateron spun in the air, using a movement technique to cancel his momentum. Flying was out of the option. It was far too qi intensive, and if done too close to any of the nts, it would likely disrupt his stealth. No matter. He could manage. Another movement technique was used, and he flew right into the cave. Just before touching a nt or the ground, he would cancel his momentum and fling himself in another direction, never allowing himself tond. The growth kept getting thicker and thicker, demanding trickier movements to maneuver through it, and Sateron began to sweat. Part of his concentration was dedicated to ensuring no drop of perspiration would fly off lest it hit a nt and revealed his position. Throughout this ordeal, he maintained a mental map of where he was in rtion to the center and made sure he moved through the caves most likely to lead him there. Several times, he encountered dead ends. Several times, he came within millimeters of touching a nt and revealing himself. Several times, his concentration slipped, and he almost crashed to the ground. Yet, he prevailed. Finally, he reached the cave that seemed directly adjacent to the center. Then, he frowned. Shit! He hadn¡¯t been focusing on sensing their position yet, as his entire focus was simply on moving through the cave. Now, he found himself before some sort of potent barrier. What the hell was happening here? The center seemed to bepletely isted from the outside. Not a shred of energy flowed out of it. No¡­ That wasn¡¯t entirely correct. There was a space where something akin to a door was ced. A door wholly created out of crystallized spirit. Yet another horrifying discovery that once again rified why Astrador wanted this person dead, but Sateron couldn¡¯t afford to be shocked now. He calmed himself and regained his focus. Jumping through more of the thick growth, he found himself right before the entrance. His entire being focused on the slight slit the door permitted, and he used the single most potent movement technique he knew, which allowed him to teleport from one location to another, regardless of how minuscule the passage between the two locations was. His spirit screamed, and his body twisted in the air, spinning four times until finally¡­ He appeared on the other side. Immediately, deep fear grasped his heart as he felt the presence of the being standing in the center of the room. That creature¡­ The instant he was done with his target, that thing had to die as well. His eyes darted through the room, and he immediately spotted everyone inside. As the others observed, a young woman and a man, the one furthest down the path, were fighting over something. Something was unusual about everyone in this room. Their physiques were ridiculously advanced, showing levels of perfection and bnce that would be envied even in the higher realms. The weapons they held were all made of ordinary material, yet they radiated intimidating power. Those... Those quasi-spirits... Even the way they carried themselves was impressive. And his target, the one he was hunting¡­ Was a child at the very beginning of the foundation realm. The absolute start of the path. Calling this person a child was¡­ Questionable, as the sheer mass of muscle that made up his body made it difficult to tell his age from behind. He wore a crown and what looked like ck sses. He was the only one without a weapon out of all the people in the room. Everything was strange about this individual. Astrador had imbued the memories of his looks directly into Sateron¡¯s mind, yet it was apparent that this person had changed drastically since then. Sateron froze, literally suspending his body in the air just a little behind his target. If the others were impressive in how they held themselves, then his target was horrifying. Something about even his exposed back screamed of danger and death. Despite using one of the most advanced stealth methods in existence, Sateron felt entirely exposed. He couldn¡¯t stop his body from shaking, and the grip on his sword grew tighter, slightly too strong to maintain a perfect stance. Something concrete, an opening, was necessary, so he could catch his target off guard, however slight. So he waited. The other two fought, and the girl yelled at the man, kicking him in the face and throwing him against the wall. Sweat flowed down his body, and he had to grip a drop with his qi maniption to prevent it from flowing off his chin and striking the ground. The girl said something to the man, yet, Sateron kept his focus on his target, minimizing attention to all external stimuli. After a few seconds, the fight stopped, and Sateron¡¯s heart sank as he thought he would lose his chance. However, after the girl said something else to the man, Neave¡¯s guard dropped a single degree for a single instant. Sateron, without any hesitation, immediately used a movement technique to appear directly behind his target¡¯s back, swinging the sword with the fastest technique he could manage, and the edge of the de cut right through his target¡¯s neck without any resistance. Neave¡¯s head flew through the air and dropped to the ground several meters away. His primary mission aplished, Sateron instantly turned his attention to the nt sitting in the middle of the room. A critical mistake. A minuscule thread of muscle extended from his target''s severed head and pulled it right back, attaching it to the body, although itnded the wrong way around. Neave grabbed his head, screwing it back the right way and turning to face his assant, ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± Without any panic and with focus snapped right back to his target, Sateron cut through his body, bisecting him at the waste and splitting his arms, then he swung it again, severing his body vertically. sh after shnded, and his target was turned into little more than a pile of chunks of flesh. Violet light lit up behind Sateron, and his attention was pulled back for a fraction of a second. In that slight moment, his target¡¯s body extended hundreds of tendrils of flesh as it pulled itself back together, reassembling the body in moments. ¡°I said, who the fuck are you!?¡± The red-haired man screamed, ¡°Neave, careful! That¡­¡± ¡°First step of the diamond path, yeah, I can tell.¡± The violet light vanished, being merely a decoy, and Sateron unhesitatingly returned to shing his target to bits. Neave¡¯s body was peculiar, but that didn¡¯t mean Sateron¡¯s weapon was ineffective. So he swung the sword again. A faint sh of lightning lit up beneath Neave¡¯s skin, and his body twisted, turning so frighteningly fast that even Sateron¡¯s quickest technique couldn¡¯t catch him before he fully evaded the strike. Sateron tried pulling the saber back into another swing, but this time, he felt a faint resistance that seemed to be originating from his target''s crown. Out of nowhere, Neave¡¯s open palm swung at Sateron¡¯s face, pping him so hard he felt as if his soul had been knocked out of his body. Left eye blind, teeth shattered, ear ringing, Sateron struggled to regain himself as a punch flew as his torso. The knockback threw him away toward the wall behind him, yet, before he could hit it, a sizeable obsidian block rose out of the ground, and he collided with that instead, shattering it into pieces and copsing his momentum. ¡°Phew, that was close. I almost broke the spirit dome there. Also, damn, I¡¯m so strong now! I could probably kick Carfen¡¯s ass, no problem!¡± The nonchnt attitude of his target spoke louder than his words. His mission was over. He had failed. No¡­ He never stood a chance of sess, to begin with. Chapter 110: Owners of Life Chapter 110: Owners of Life A block of shattered obsidiany scattered around the room as the intruder failed to get up. Marven panicked, ¡°That won¡¯t be enough, Neave!¡± Before the old cultivator could say anything else, Neave had already teleported on top of the enemy and wrapped his snaky limbs around the intruder¡¯s. The assassin groaned as Neave¡¯s limbs tightened with extreme force, and now he found himself restrained and incapable of doing virtually anything. Although he could perhaps beat Neave in strength, his limbs were now at a horribly awkward angle, and he could not exert any force. He barely opened his mouth and said, ¡°Kill me, you demons!¡± Neave¡¯s face lit up like a candle, ¡°No!¡± ¡°You won¡¯t get anything out of me if you torture me.¡± ¡°Bahahaha, that''s what they all say! You were sent here by Astrador, right? What¡¯s your name?¡± The intruder¡¯s eyes widened, and he refused to speak further. His face grew resolute, and it was clear that he had epted death. The others panicked and kept trying to say something, but they weren¡¯t sure what should be done. Should the intruder be killed? Interrogated? Held as a prisoner? Before they could settle on a suggestion, they heard the sound of bones cracking, and the intruder screamed in agony. His limbs were bent at odd angles, and his neck was broken, but he wasn¡¯t dead. However, moving was out of the option now. Neave uncoiled himself and got up, ¡°I rate the assassination attempt a nine out of ten. It would have been a ten out of ten if you had killed me!¡± He pped, ¡°Good job!¡± The resigned look on the intruder¡¯s face was still there. ¡°So, uh¡­ I¡¯ll be taking that nasty saber you brought.¡± Neave picked it up and examined it, feeling the intense strain on his spirit, ¡°Ew, merely holding this feels gross. Uwah, I wanna barf.¡± Neave threw the diamond-rank saber to the side haphazardly and spoke to the assassin, ¡°So, what¡¯s your name?¡± He stayed silent. ¡°Tsk, aight, whatever. So, the next time youe here, I suggest you prepare for a more openbat type of assassination. I mean, I don¡¯t really dislike what you did here, but it¡¯s not very fun.¡± The others opened their mouths, and Harel was the first to speak, ¡°Neave, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to release him! He¡¯s an enemy!¡± Neave snapped his fingers and pointed them at Harel, ¡°Exactly! He is also quite a powerful enemy! We need those. Hell, that¡¯s the only reason we¡¯re here! Why would I let him go to waste?¡± There was a sort of logic to Neave¡¯s reasoning that wasn¡¯t wrong per se, but absolutely nobody would ept such an argument. Marven stepped up after shooting the assassin a nce, ¡°Look, Neave, I understand your reasoning, but he appeared out of nowhere and even cut you into pieces. You said it yourself. He was likely sent here by Astrador. This means he will probably return, and tell him the details of what we¡¯re doing here. This isn¡¯t a mere challenge. This is a threat to our ns!¡± Neave nodded sagely, ¡°Indeed. But you forget one thing.¡± He pointed at the assassin on the floor, ¡°Where the fuck did hee from? I don¡¯t fucking know, you don¡¯t fucking know, I¡¯m pretty sure not even he fucking knows. The thing with Astrador is that he is a fucky dude. A real fuckily fucker of fucking fucks. I don¡¯t know what he is doing, but I can tell you this won¡¯t be thest of his ns.¡± Neave turned to the adolescent lying on the ground and added, ¡°Also, what if he is, like, rigged to explode when killed?¡± Everyone, including the intruder, opened their eyes wide at that. It seemed like a ridiculous proposition, but it wasn¡¯t impossible. After a confirmative nod, Neave added, ¡°Think about it. This dude came at us with a damn near-perfect n. Do you think this kid came up with it? Hell no, that was Astrador¡¯s doing. And knowing that bastard, he must have ounted for the possibility of failure. So if we kill him, I¡¯d say there is a solid seventy percent chance he will explode, and we will all die. Or he will release poison gas or something, I don¡¯t know.¡± Marven bit his lip slightly at that. If Neave was so confident that Astrador would do that, what kind of monster were they facing here? He couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether they were really safe, even while in this realm. However, he wasn¡¯t ready to fully agree with Neave¡¯s decision yet, ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean that releasing him is the best course of action. Perhaps keeping him prisoner¡­¡± ¡°You want to keep a potential bomb as a prisoner?¡± ¡°We can restrain him far from where we are.¡± ¡°Which will probably allow Astrador to free him anyway. Look, Dad, I will be honest with you. I don¡¯t really care about any of that in the first ce. I just want him alive and ready to attack us again.¡± ¡°That is too dangerous!¡± ¡°It¡¯s appropriately dangerous. What do you think is waiting for us when we leave? Hosr is much more dangerous than this kid, and I will bet he has ess to even scarier methods of taking us out. Also, look at him.¡± For the first time, Marven turned to the mangled kid lying on the ground and saw¡­ A mangled kid lying on the ground. There was panic, resolve, fear, a cocktail of emotions and expressions. Neave grinned at him, ¡°I¡¯d bet whatever you want that this kid doesn¡¯t exist outside of this realm.¡± Everyone turned to Neave with a look of shock, and he continued, ¡°I brought a slime in here, and when I left, so did the slime. But! When it multiplied, its offspring stayed inside. None of the monsters in here exist out of here, and I theorize that if a man and a woman¡­ You know. Do the thing. Their kid would probably not exist outside of this realm either.¡± Neave¡¯s grin widened, and he continued, ¡°I would also bet this kid was promised a way out if he killed us.¡± That got a rather violent reaction from their assant, but it was quickly restrained. Laughter echoed through the chamber, and Neave slithered closer to the panicking adolescent, ¡°That tells me two things. Either Astrador is telling the truth, or he is lying. If he is telling the truth¡­¡± His grin widened, ¡°That must mean that it¡¯s possible to take things from inside the realm to the outside. And if he is lying¡­¡± He turned to the others with a viinous look on his face, ¡°Then this poor kid deserves to know the truth, don¡¯t you all think?¡± Neave lifted his arm and ced it on the kid¡¯s shoulder. He remembered the unusual feeling of making a soul oath, and after a bit of fiddling, he spoke, grin widening yet again, ¡°I swear by soul oath that Astrador can make a soul oath, too¡± The intruder shivered and felt deep in his soul that Neave was telling the truth. Lifting his arm back up, he continued, ¡°Soul oaths, when made, allow you to instantly know whether someone is telling the truth. Because it is impossible to lie under soul oath. Now¡­ If you want to know whether Astrador was really being truthful¡­ It¡¯s simple. You will just have to ask.¡± Cackling like a demon, Neave picked up the distressed intruder and rushed outside. Once on the surface, he flung the assassin¡¯s body roughly in the direction of the chamber where Astrador was. The force of the swing sent the kid flying through the air, and Neave nodded in satisfaction. He quickly returned to their chamber and grabbed the saber as well. Seeing its inscriptions, Neave wasn¡¯t willing to take any chances with the weapon. While the material was fantastic, it wasn¡¯t worth the risk. It also didn''t seem to be metallic but rather crystalline in nature. This reduced the number of theoretical uses drastically. Not worth the risk at all. Back up on the surface, he threw the saber into the air, then struck it with the hammer, knocking it out into the sky, likely off the entirely. Where it would end up, or whether it would even end up anywhere, Neave didn¡¯t know. It went away, for now, at least. If it were going to blow up, it would do it at a safe distance from them. Once back in the chamber again, the others looked¡­ Ufortable. Dukean stepped up, ¡°Are you sure that was the right thing to do? I can¡¯t help but think it¡¯s a little needlessly cruel.¡± To Dukean¡¯s and everyone else¡¯s surprise, Neave turned severe upon hearing that, ¡°Astrador is willing to be extremely cruel to others for the slightest of reasons. Undoubtedly, the way he has reached his level of power was achieved through dishonorable, cruel methods. We have to be ready to face people who have been lied to or otherwise manipted. We can¡¯t take responsibility for our enemy''s cruelty. Yet, I do not wish to sink to his level, either. However, even past all that, I am simply unwilling topromise.¡± After a while of silence, Marven spoke up, ¡°Neave¡­ Why let him go?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. Whenever any of my enemies choose to use unsavory methods, I will look for a way to force them to take responsibility for their actions. If I can¡¯t, I will respond in a way that favors my goals. Whether Astrador was telling the truth or lying, and whether he chooses to kill that kid or not, that will merely be an extension of his decisions.¡± Dukean frowned, ¡°Isn¡¯t that simply allowing him to keep being cruel?¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s not. And it¡¯s not because I can¡¯t stop him. If I choose to take responsibility for his cruelty, then cruelty bes yet another tool he will use against us. And he will use any tool he can to achieve his goals.¡± That left a sour taste in everyone¡¯s mouth. As he felt the mood swinging in the wrong direction, Neave wanted to simplify the matters but found himself short on ways to fix the problem. He was thest person qualified to deal with moral subjects like this. However, it wasn¡¯t long until Marven stepped forward and turned to the others, ¡°We are facing what is likely one of the most powerful beings in existence. One doesn¡¯t achieve that type of power withoutpromise.¡± Then he turned to Neave, ¡°You said you were unwilling topromise?¡± Neave nodded, and Marven returned the gesture, ¡°I think what you did was right. Demonic sects often employ methods that force their opponents into doing horrible things, such as sending young children or ves to the front lines. That is not and can not be the fault of those attacked.¡± Dukean added, ¡°I heard my father say something simr once. Owners of life own the death. If your de beheads a ve, the master¡¯s tongue holds the me.¡± ¡°Sick rhymes, Dukey boy. Either way, I get it. This whole situation isplicated. I did what I did to fuck with Astrador and get some info. I won¡¯t sit around and contemte morality all day. The ultimate answer is simple. We are here looking for power. The more we contemte morality, the more we¡­¡± Neave paused, ¡°Son of a fucking bitch! I think he did this on purpose!¡± The others raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°No, no, wait, he¡­ Hmm¡­ I¡¯m not sure, but he might have intentionally done this to mess with us or sabotage our cooperation. Or did he? Arrgh!¡± Neave scratched his head and turned to the others, ¡°Look, it¡¯s Astrador. I''m sure he will do more shitty stuff to piss us off. So! Let¡¯s agree that we will do our best not to be as shitty as he is and keep seeking power.¡± That simplified the situation, and there wasn¡¯t much else to do but agree. Before anybody could continue the moral argument, the ss puppet floated before them and began doing its usual charade routine. Gabrias¡¯ eyes widened, ¡°What!? How many!?¡± Chapter 111: Legion Chapter 111: Legion Neave found himself up on the surface, gripping the massive sledgehammer and jumping high into the air to get a better perspective. Looks like Gabrias was correct. Over twenty thousand demons were rushing toward them. At the far corners, Neave could spot ss shards floating around and attacking the demons, but something was wrong. These demons didn¡¯t look nearly as decrepit as any others he had seen. They far more closely resembled the demon chasing the others a while back. Rather than being a chaotic, rotting pile of limbs, their skin was a sleek, smooth ck, and the extra eyes, teeth, horns, and mouths weren¡¯t ced quite as randomly as they had been. Neave was fully confident in eradicating them without much issue, but¡­ ¡°How the hell do I protect the others?¡± They were pretty far away, and there was plenty of time to prepare for their arrival, so Neave dropped into the cave to do precisely that. The others rushed at him, full of questions. Neave waved a hand and turned to the ss shrub, ¡°I spotted that you were attacking them over at the outskirts of the territory. You can stop. Focus on protecting this dome at all cost.¡± Then he turned to the others, ¡°You have your weapons, and this dome will be quite hard to prate, especially with the shrub on your side. I rmend you wait for them outside and face them inbat. Retreat into the chamber only if you find yourself heavily outmatched.¡± ¡°What are you going to do!?¡± ¡°Me? I¡¯m going to go to the surface.¡± Neave grinned, gripping the hammer tighter, ¡°If I stayed and fought here, well¡­ I wouldn¡¯t want to copse all of the caves around us.¡± With that, he disappeared. Neave ran out into the caves, hauling the massive sledgehammer. It wasn¡¯t nearly as challenging to carry now that he had increased his strength, but it still left him awfully imbnced. However, Neave didn¡¯t take long to discover something practical. If he used the telekinesis provided by the crown, he could drastically reduce the hammer''s weight. Even beyond that, he could actually keep the hammer afloat. That was somewhat surprising, as he hadn¡¯t expected the telekinesis to be that powerful. Could be a rather impactful asset in the fight, more so than he had initially expected. Within seconds of dashing and teleporting through the caves, Neave was once again on the surface. He looked over to the demons, carefully observing them. The variety in types was immense. Just off of the body types, quite a few demons were more animalistic in features. There were several that were quite gigantic, too. None of those intimidated Neave. Instead, none of them scared him even a bit, butpared to therge and animalistic ones, he was more keenly observing a few humanoid ones. Despite very likely being the most dangerous among the demons, Neave was vastly more interested in the gigantic ones. It was for a simple reason, really. They¡¯re trampling mywn! The poor shrubs were getting desecrated, and, at least on the surface, the shrub poption would suffer greatly. That couldn¡¯t do. Neave started running at a rather casual pace. Then he jumped into the air and suddenly elerated immensely. Once he was about tond, with a single foot, he elerated even further into another jump. Beforending next time, he used a movement technique to elerate even further. Thend below him became a blur as he shot through the air like an arrow and raised the hammer in front of him. Neave focused on the hammer with all his might and used telekinesis to elerate his flight further. Instantly, one of the massive demons went from a speck on the horizon into a towering mountain. The sledgehammernded on its chest before it could even begin to react, and Neave moved through the demon¡¯s body as if it were made of liquid. The shockwave traveled through the demon''s body, pulverizing it from the inside out and scattering its remains into a fine mist that exploded outward, ttening the surrounding area. ¡­ Ok, maybe I¡¯ll be doing more damage than they would. Yet, he grinned anyway. He felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins, and it wasn¡¯t long before he decided that wrecking some of the shrubs was a sacrifice he was willing to make. There were plenty of them underground, anyway. Instantly, dozens of demons shot off from the ground toward Neave, leaping at him like frogs of shadowy death. Neave spun in the air, smacking the demons away before they could even reach him, utterly pulverizing their bodies and sending waves of destruction with every impact. Dealing with them one by one will take forever. The grin on Neave¡¯s face widened as hended on the ground, shattering the surrounding area. The hammer lit up in golden runes, and Neave spun in a perfect circle around his body. A tornado of destruction spread around him, annihting everything in its path and shredding the demons to paste. The draft rose into the sky, pulling tons of soil into the clouds, causing a rain of demon goop and pebbles to cover the surrounding area for miles. Flying out of the center of destruction, Neave appeared before a horde of demons, all facing his direction and readying themselves for a march. Yet another mighty swingter, the closest ones were turned into a ck mist-shaped memory of themselves, while the ones further away were mangled and wrecked. A giant demon in their midst managed to survive the strike, and Neave jumped on it, smacking its head and burying its entire body, or whatever was left of it, into the soil. Neave couldn¡¯t fathom what the demon¡¯s n was. This didn¡¯t seem like a wild attack, and there was a distinct hint of coordination. Yet, there was only one thing they seeded at. They made their extermination as fun as it could possibly be. With a hammer clutched in his hand, a grin stered on his face, and blood raging through his veins, Neave sighed in satisfaction. Momentster, he disappeared, reappearing to annihte another horde of demons just a little further away. *** Marven clutched the oppressive sword in his hands and observed the shadows. The puppet moved again, and Gabrias pointed at a corridor, ¡°There!¡± Instantly, Marven¡¯s sword lit up with pale blue light, and a technique fired away. The flying strike flew through the cave and severed the bodies of the iing demons into pieces. Remarkable, Marven thought. That was an basic technique, something he only used intending to distract the demons and prepare another attack, yet it effortlessly ended the lives of dozens. He felt tempted to tell the others to not even touch the weapons they were handed due to the potential risk of killing themselves with them, but he decided against it. Those weapons were a damn good insurance. Not to mention, with the enhanced regeneration and survivability they all had, especially with these crazy essories Neave had handed them, it was damn near impossible for them to harm themselves. This arrangement continued for quite a while longer, and Marven rxed slightly. None of the demons seemed to be a severe threat. Rather, all the demons that had reached them so far seemed to be fast variants that likely slipped past Neave due to their speed. Speaking of Neave, whatever he was doing sent shocks and tremors through the earth every few seconds. Soon enough, more powerful versions began appearing. Marven still found little issue with dispatching them. Several demons that seemed even more powerful than the one that nearly annihted them appeared, and even those didn¡¯t stand much chance before the ss Shard. The weapon was genuinely horrifying. All of the weapons they had been handed were. Eventually, Gabrias started using the bow, and the freezing ability left most demons turning into ice statues with a single arrow. Dukean also joined the fun with his sword. It was unwieldy, and it took him a great deal of effort to use it properly, but rtively soon, he was also dispatching the demons. Some ice shards and a couple of boulders were flung, assisted by fire and wind, mainly as practice for using the spirit powers. Hunter didn¡¯t quite dare rush at them, but he couldn¡¯t resist testing the power of his sword. It was rather ridiculous, actually. He could run on walls and even the ceiling without a problem. One of the demons jumped him from a shadow, and he blocked the attack. Not only did Hunter remain utterly unmoved, but the demon was violently knocked back and smashed into the wall. That was a horrifying power that could allow for either a hyper-aggressive or super-defensive fighting style. It was so impressive that Marven envied Hunter slightly, although he still preferred the cold, simple efficiency of the ss terror de of his. Harel tested her weapon once. Only once. After shattering the walls and copsing a section of the cave, it was decided that she should perhaps abstain from testing the spiky ball on a chain further, much to her dismay. Time passed, and what seemed like hours zed by in an instant. Yet, the attack never became any more dangerous. Soon enough, the demons started appearing less and less frequently, and it seemed like the assault had passed. The puppet perked up suddenly and started violently waving at Gabrias. *** Neave finished off yet another giant demon, and he was already yawning. What a dull attack. He felt ecstatic the first few times he sent a st of destruction through thend to annihte the demons. The rush of wind, the bacsh, and the scene of carnage and destruction, coupled with the smell of rotten gore, made his blood pump and his heart rage. That got boring quite quickly, though. There was no challenge. The demons were pathetically weak. Well,pared to their opponent, at least. Are they just not going to be a threat? If so, why did theye here? Were they really little more than dumb beasts rushing at the scent of their enemies? Perhaps attracted here by the nts? They didn¡¯t seem to be going after the nts, though, as they entirely ignored them. Suddenly, all the demons he could see turned around and ran away. Neave rushed from one to another, pulverizing them, yet soon, he stopped. Why? Why are they running away now? Unease reced the dull boredom, and Neave found himself hesitating. Could they have sent a powerful hit squad after the others? He turned around and rushed full speed toward his allies. Not long after, he was at the center. His allies were gone. Panic set in, and he felt his stomach drop. Were they all dead? A few shards of ss floated up into the air before him and created an arrow, one that pointed in a particr direction. However, the way it was pointing didn¡¯t reduce Neave¡¯s anxiety even a little bit. Within less than a minute, Neave made his way to the sealed chamber that held the abominds they used for food. His allies were all there, and they stood with uncertain expressions. The crystal dome that sealed the abominids was shattered and dissipated. Inside, the abominids ally dead on the ground. The dead abominids weren¡¯t a problem. Neave had been cautious and had already prepared several small, sealed secret chambers that held these abominids as a backup in case something happened to them. Yet, dread filled Neave as he counted the abominid corpses. One of them was missing. Chapter 112: Unique Chapter 112: Unique Thud. Thud. Crack. Again and again, Neave brought his foot down on a demon¡¯s head. ¡°Shit! Fuck!¡± It was necessary to maintain totalposure in front of the others. He had even told them that this was a ¡®good thing¡¯ and that whatever came out of it would only be a positive, a challenge they could use to better themselves. As if things were that simple. Neave had spent likely hours chasing after the demons, trying to find the one that had taken the abominid, but to no avail. They were far too scattered, and the countless directions they could have gone in made it practically impossible to track them down. Truthfully, both Astrador and the demons were a tremendous problem. Although rather intelligent when powerful, Monsters didn¡¯t scheme how people did. With monsters, usually, things were rtively simple. They chased powerful prey and consumed them to grow. It was a straightforward, simple, and predictable routine. The simplicity made the challenge something he could control and work around. This was why Neave wanted to popte the nightmare realm with monsters. It was also the big reason why he kept them contained for now. Not only that, but he had been nning on gradually expanding the territory of monsters while keeping the outside world entirely cut off. It was too risky otherwise. The demons had shown themselves far more intelligent and organized than Neave had initially assumed. Their powers were beyond his understanding, and why they went after a monster was unknown. Coupled with the assassination plot by Astrador, things weren¡¯t looking all that good. Neave wasn¡¯t that scared for himself. He would manage, most likely at least. The others, though¡­ If that intruder had chosen to jump one of them, there would have been no way to save them. How the hell did that kid even appear out of thin air? There was no indication of his appearance, nothing Neave could sense until his head was cut off. Neave presented the idea of the intruder exploding upon death jokingly to the others, but he really feared that may be a possibility. If not that, Astrador could be using some other random god thing to curse him or whatever. The best he could do in that situation was toplicate the issue for Astrador or even force him to kill that kid himself. It wasn¡¯t honorable. He felt disgusted with himself, and the thought of being on the receiving end of that bastard¡¯s ploys revolted him. Yet, he didn¡¯t have a choice. As the others had said, your enemy¡¯s dishonor couldn¡¯t be your fault. But that didn¡¯t stop the situation from souring Neave¡¯s mood. Astrador was on the move, and now the demons were as well. Neave didn¡¯t know what Astrador was capable of, and he had no idea what the demons were, let alone whomanded or controlled them. At this rate, it felt as if it were a matter of time before something appeared and ughtered everyone, making Neave¡¯s ns useless or at least not good enough to help him survive his encounter with the heavenly messenger. So what should he do? For now, he would continue to the next step with training the others. At the very least, being inside the spirit realm gave him much more time to think things through. There was a dire need for a n and a direction, and he couldn¡¯t afford failures. After making his way back into the cave, he spotted the others. They sat in a circle, observing their weapons and discussing the recent demon attack. Neave pped his hands, and they turned to face him, ¡°Alright, everyone, it¡¯s time for us to continue onto step two of our training!¡± Before anyone could even ask what step two was, Neave was already creating a spirit dome around the six of them. While the dome containing the chamber they were in was already mostly sealed, Neave suspected that the slits the door permitted were why the assassin could easily sneak in. If they created a fully contained dome around them, at the very least, the assassin couldn¡¯t be directly on top of them entirely undetected. Neave had also first created arge ss barricade to fully encase them. Just to be safe, he also enhanced it quite a bit. Once fully encased, Neave loaded the air with the most spirit and life force possible, creating a terrifying energy-dense environment. ¡°Before we start with step two, I will need you all to cultivate the most you can for a bit. Except for Marven, of course. Once I notice you¡¯ve slowed down, we will begin.¡± The others didn¡¯t need any more prompting than that. Soon, they were cultivating. Almost instantly, all of them advanced a step, as they had all paused at the very limit of the step they were on. Gradually, Gabrias and Hunter approached the silver path, and in the end, they both reached the second step. Harel broke onto the golden path but couldn¡¯t reach the second step quite so soon. Dukean broke into the third step and, ording to him, had made it rather far up. With that, they all touched Neave¡¯s body and returned to the spirit realm. *** They made it to a random, empty location. This time, before they even began, Neave used his liquid spirit creation to create a dense jungle of spikes and metallic obstacles. Once done with that, he focused, and soon, one by one, he created all of the weapons they had chosen. None of them had their powers, of course. The others immediately pointed out that Gabrias couldn¡¯t even use the bow, given that it couldn¡¯t produce arrows, but Neave waved them off, ¡°It isn¡¯t about using the weapons. If it were, the fact that they don¡¯t have their powers would be a problem. I¡¯ve already told you step two will be dodging again. This time, we will be doing it within a densely packed forest of spikes to simte aplex environment, and you will just be holding the weapons. The point of this step is to get you adjusted to maneuvering with your weapon of choice in hand.¡± Neave finished creating the obstacle course and remembered something. Quickly, he made a metallic shield and handed it to Hunter, ¡°You said you wanted a shield with the sword, too, right?¡± Hunter nodded, and Neave continued, ¡°As far as actually wielding the weapons, you will be doing that back outside. Now, I fully concede that this practice isn¡¯t optimal. For example, Hunter¡¯s weapon alters how he can move, so practicing without that will be suboptimal. Same with all the others, without the powers those weapons usually have, you won¡¯t be able to incorporate the effects. Still, the extra time this realm provides will be an excellent opportunity to build a foundation for your skills. As far as the rules are concerned, there really aren¡¯t any. Your goal is to survive as long as you can. Use any method you can think of. I will again adjust my skill to an appropriate level.¡± And with that, they began their training. *** Hunter eyed the densely packed spikes, noting the movement of Neave¡¯s shadow. ¡°Too slow!¡± He suddenly appeared behind Hunter andnded a true strike on his spine, cracking it and sending him tumbling into a spike. Gabrias held the bow in one hand, and Neave ended the fight instantly, ¡°Remember, Gabrias, you¡¯re practicing to use the weapon inbat. You have to hold it like you mean it. Grip the string, be ready to attack.¡± Harel swung her spiked ball at Neave, and he kicked it back to her, hitting her in the face and knocking her out, ¡°That weapon is dangerous, both to your enemies and yourself. Learn to wield it without self-sabotage.¡± Dukean¡¯s sword swung from behind an obstacle, and Neave appeared at the midpoint, wrapping the chain around a metallic spike and yanking the sword out of Dukean¡¯s hand. A kick to the neckter, he was out as well, ¡°The chain permits some fancy tricks, yes, but it creates a weakness. Always be aware of where the chain is, where it will go, and what your enemy can do to abuse its existence.¡± Finally, Marven appeared, swinging the inert ss shard at Neave. It took a lot of dodging and a significant percentage of Neave¡¯s skill to outmaneuver him. Yet, it wasn¡¯t too difficult either. Soon enough, an opening on Marven¡¯s hip appeared, and Neave pivoted to kick him out of bnce. Once that was done, another strikended on Marven¡¯s eye, a punch on his throat, a finger thrust right on his abdomen, punch on knee, punch on shoulder, punch on jaw, kick to head, movement technique behind him, double axe kick to his face, two true strikes to the chest, true kick to head and he was out. Neave was rather proud of that one, as that was one of the fastest executions against Marven yet. Yes, he had beaten the crappy habits out of Marven¡¯s unarmed fighting. Now, he just had to beat the crappy habits out of his swordsmanship as well. Marven was both the most powerful fighter here and the one with the most conventional weapon, so despite the ease with which Neave handled him, he wasn¡¯t optimistic that he could maintain that speed for long. Hunter was getting back up again. Time to continue the training. He would wait and see what happened. *** Hunter raised the shield, and the sword flew out, swinging behind his back. Neave¡¯s punch met the de, and the swing was knocked out of bnce. Hunter used that imbnce to propel himself into a backflip, allowing him to block another punch by Neave with his shield. However, the knockback threw him quite far, and given that he was in the middle of the air, Neave used the opening to teleport behind him and smack him in the head. To his overwhelming surprise, Hunter managed to push his head back and avoid the strike, bringing the shield back in front of him to use Neave¡¯s follow-up as a boost back onto the ground. Neave grinned. Not bad indeed, he thought, as he teleported again and shattered Hunter¡¯s neck. Gabrias was the opponent Neave had to hold back against the most. That didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t pushing his limits. Gabrias proved to be among the trickier opponents for Neave. Not because he was too skilled or strong but because Neave had to keep pretending that an arrow was nocked on the bowstring. He bobbed and weaved to move out of the way of the trajectory of Gabrias'' imaginary arrow and dispatched him. Gabrias was growing quite a bit in his ability to dodge, and Neave was confident that against most enemies, he wouldn¡¯t go down quickly, especially not with some more equipment and some spirit powers. Harel appeared again out of nowhere, swinging the ball, and Neave kicked it up, forcing Harel way out of bnce. She swung up, using the momentum, but Neave was already there to punish her for doing the obvious. However, she somehow managed to avoid a rtively sure-fire attack, and Neave found himself in a situation where the ball was once again swinging at him, He grinned. She really was a monster, and even though her weapon of choice was ridiculous, it permitted a style most enemies wouldn¡¯t be able to fight against. He wasn¡¯t most enemies, though, as he demonstrated by swinging around the chain and pulling the weapon into a strike against its wielder. She would get there eventually. She had a ton of workpared to the others, but he could at least see the potential as well. Dukean flicked his sword into an attack against Neave, and Neave appeared at his side. Dukean instantly pulled the weapon back into a swing that prevented Neave from stepping closer for an instant but left an opening almost immediately afterward, one that Neave capitalized on and one that Dukean managed to recover from. The sword on a chain wasn¡¯t a good weapon. As far as Neave could tell, There was not much of an advantagepared to just using a standard sword. The only reason why he wasn¡¯t actively dissuading Dukean from using it was that he wanted to see how it meshed with his spirit powers. Or rather, he wanted to see what Dukean was trying to achieve. For now, he grabbed the sword, which was rtively easy with how little leverage Dukean had, and kicked him in the head, breaking his neck and ending the fight. Next up, Marven again. Same asst time, really. Although this time, Neave had to look much harder to find an opening, as none of them were particrly obvious. Marven¡¯s habits were gradually leaving and being reced by much more flexible approaches, but it wasn¡¯t how Neave wanted them to be. This felt more likepensation for the weaknesses rather than a proper recement for bad technique. Sadly, Neave simply didn¡¯t possess the raw power to properly punish him, as Marven¡¯s body was at the very limits of what Neave could handle. It wasn¡¯t a massive problem, just an inefficiency Neave didn¡¯t want to deal with. While they were progressing nicely, all of them were rather far from where Neave wanted them to be. Luckily, they had plenty of time to get there. Chapter 113: Vengeance Chapter 113: Vengeance Hunter received a nasty punch to his hip, yet he fully recovered and stood his ground. Three strikes were blocked with the sword, and a kick was rebutted with the shield. Neave teleported behind him, yet, found his venues of attack surprisingly limited. By the time he was over the shock of Hunter¡¯s achievement, his opponent had already recovered and raised his defense. Grinning ear to ear, Neave struck Hunter¡¯s shield full force, cracking his arm and kicking him in the side of his head, smashing his skull. Gabrias held his bow, and Neave continuously felt he could only go ces where his opponent would most likely reach safety. Pushing Gabrias¡¯ defense to the limit, he teleported into his blind spot, only for the tall man to begin moving out of the way of the strike before he even saw Neave disappear, likely judging that he would use a movement technique. Bloody impressive, I have to say, Neave thought, as he attacked him anyway and burst right through the pre-prepared defense. Facing Harel now, he found that whenever he nned to position himself to strike her weakness, the ball was already flying in that direction, perfectly poised to hit him. This, without fail, opened a weakness somewhere on Harel¡¯s body, but trying to capitalize on that was like showing your arm into a bear trap. Neave poked the ho¡¯s nest just to see what would happen. His punchnded directly on her stomach, and the ball appeared to be flying past himpletely. But the chain wasn¡¯t. Before he could back away, Harel whipped the chain around his neck, which redirected the ball around him and into his back. Harel frowned at Neave and yelled, ¡°You let me hit you!¡± He grinned, ¡°Just wanted to see what you had in mind.¡± Following his snarky statement with a true strike headbutt, he continued to his next opponent. Fighting Dukean felt like fighting a prescient scorpion. His sword, like a cursed stinger, was always directed exactly where Neave wanted to go, and by the time he changed his path, it would whip around and strike. The most frustrating part of this was that the follow-ups were usually somewhat suboptimal, mainly because they were delivered with the goal of responding to their direct counter. Technically, there was an opening Dukean¡¯s opponent could exploit. But it was such a small opening that required such tight precision that it was damn-near impossible for anyone to both find it consistently and fully exploit it, so in the case that he was facing an opponent like Neave, or rather, someone who could abuse this, he could quickly recover and change strategy. Neave still thought the weapon was needlesslyplicated, but if Dukean could do this much even without a spirit power, he could dominate most opponents once he had ess to his full power. An incredibly precise true strike kicked right at the tip of Dukean''s sword, which disabled the follow-up flick Dukean was nning to use, and then a full-strength punchnded on his chest. Dukean actually managed to bend his body enough to avoid instant knock-out, and it took Neave several more strikes to take him out. A kick to Dukean¡¯s knee, another to his chin, and a third to his back secured the victory. The fight against Marven barely even looked like a fight at this point. Neave had to throw countless impossibly precise strikes, using every bit of leverage and ensuring he umted every shred of damage he could before Marven''s regeneration could reduce it. The others couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the disy as Neave¡¯s hand zed at impossible speeds, always finding that minuscule opening and directly continuing into the next one. And when there was no opening, Neave threw several feints, struck the sword, and even sacrificed his fingers or limbs to create an opportunity he could exploit. Once Marven was out, Neave took a moment to look at them. They had grown immensely. Frankly, it was enough that it could make a difference in their predicament. Yet, it still wasn¡¯t enough to make him happy. But the fights against Marven have begun taking too much time in the schedule, and he decided it was time to move on. ¡°Now! We will momentarily leave the spirit realm to prepare for the next step.¡± They seemed somewhat disappointed that it was over, yet, they also seemed excited to hear what came next. Once they were back out, Neave instructed Harel to cultivate to the third step of the golden path, and he ordered Hunter and Gabrias to cultivate to the first step of the golden path. Dukean and Marven were told to wait. Or train their bodies, whichever they preferred. Neave balled a fist and punched through the spirit dome he had created, shattering it to bits so they could leave. First, food and rest. Then cultivation. The monster coop had already been fixed up, and this time, Neave moved it to right beneath the chamber. After preparing a rather copious amount of monster meat, they had a massive feast and slept for the first time in a while. It hadn¡¯t actually been that long. It likely hadn¡¯t been long enough to justify sleep, but spending so much time in the spirit realm built up a degree of fatigue that transcended normal exhaustion. Neave watched them all sleep, and he wondered. How long had it been since he hadst slept? Since he hadst truly slept, that was. Was it back in Pavarrie? Or perhaps back in the carriage they took to the empire? He couldn¡¯t remember. Not once had he slept since they had entered the nightmare realm. And they had been inside here for a long time already. Even before that, it had been a while. Not sleeping wasn¡¯t a big deal to him, or at least he believed it wasn¡¯t. No. That was a lie. A deep, bone-piercing fatigue spread throughout his mind, spirit, and body. He had already kept it at bay for a long time but felt he was reaching the limits of what he could endure without consequences. So he just had to sleep. That was all he had to do. Yet he didn¡¯t want to. His heart sped up at the thought of sleep. The mere idea of not being awake appalled him. Why? Now that he thought of it, he hadn¡¯t felt the influence in a while. Had the maniptor given up? Or were they waiting for an opening? Neave took a deep breath and concentrated. His meager qi flowed through his body, slowly being apanied by the endless pool of lifeforce. It circted through his body, sinking into his nerves and mind, flowing through his soul and spirit. The sense of fatigue lessened ever-so-slightly, and Neave rxed. There was no need for sleep. He could postpone it indefinitely. There was no way he would take such a risk. He lowered his head and looked down at hisrades, whispering under his breath, ¡°Not while they are here¡­¡± *** The once-mangled body of Saterony unmoving in a pile of shattered ss. Despite the severity of his injuries, the regeneration capabilities of someone at the subdivinity stage weren¡¯t to be taken lightly. Yet, despite his body being fully healed, he couldn¡¯t muster the ability to move. The faint power of the soul oath that that fiend had made with him still echoed through his very core. He had a clue. All he really had to do was ask his creator. It was a simple task. Just ask. Ask whether he was telling the truth. He finally mustered the force to move as he mmed a fist into his head. You fool! You dare assume that the Great God would lie to you!? The self-criticism felt empty and forced. The Great God had sent him against an opponent he wasn¡¯t qualified to fight. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t on purpose, but even then. Sateron had done everything perfectly, making no mistakes until the very end. Yet I still failed¡­ Did that mean that the Great God¡¯s n was¡­ Insufficient? Bad, even? Another punch flew at his own head, followed by three more, each more violent than thest. Those damn words echoed like a curse in his spirit. Explode? How¡­ How ridiculous. What a preposterous thing to say. But his hand shook, and he felt his fingers reaching his throat. Was there a way to check whether that really was the case? Several more punches flew, this time slightly cracking his skull. This was idiotic. All he had to do was ask. So he got up. The spacial awareness of someone on the diamond path was near perfect. He remembered precisely how far he had run, how far he was thrown. Thus, he knew exactly in which direction he had to walk to reach the Great God. So he turned¡­ In the opposite direction. Astrador had never told him what to do if he failed his mission. This must have meant that he expected him to try again or keep going until he seeded¡­ ¡­Or that he never expected Sateron to survive. But that was preposterous. He wasn¡¯t a bomb. He was a¡­ A person. A living being with sapience and consciousness. A creature with a life ahead of him, centuries, millennia, eternities of existence. So he would go and¡­ Kill the¡­ Sateron stood, torn by indecision. What the hell was he supposed to do? *** ??????????¡­ The echoey whispers of the void traveled all around the vast obsidian forests. The sea of ck sludge roiled as sleek, ck demons made their way inside one after another. At the bottom of thiske was a fat abominid wrapped in pitch-ck tendrils of darkness. The demon that wrapped around it caressed its head, wicked teeth showing in its permanent grin. A tiny tendril of darkness snaked under the monster¡¯s skin, and dark ichor flowed into its veins. A splotch of darkness seeped into the core thaty at its center. And it remembered. There was something that they needed to do. A long-forgotten grudge, morphed into a cheap cmity; a cowardly move of mutual destruction. Yet, now, those that surpassed it existed. Those that could, and would right the heavenly wrong, slithered in the shadows. Those that wanted, no, needed the destruction of all¡­ With their very lives, they would fuel the fires of vengeance. Chapter 114: Indentured Servitude Chapter 114: Indentured Servitude While Harel, Hunter, and Gabrias cultivated, the others weren¡¯t cking off either. Dukean and Marven were busy primarily eating and training themselves physically. They wanted to practice with their weapons, but Neave advised them against it for now. The cultivating three had all been encased inside a spirit dome of their own, so they had the perfect environment to grow. Even with the highly optimal environment and the high potential they had realized in the spirit realm, achieving the task handed to them wouldn¡¯t be easy. Funnily enough, despite an order of magnitude difference in difficulty, Neave was confident that Harel would be done with her cultivation before the other two. In the meantime, he tasked himself with getting as much done as possible before they returned to the spirit realm. While the monster coop was located beneath the main chamber of their base, Neave also decided to move the farm above it and, even further, to move the water chamber above the farm. Despite his incredible speed, this was a massive pain in the ass. But in the end, he finished his task by carefully transporting the nts one by one and simply drinking all the water while he moved the ss balls to their new location. The ¡®fertility¡¯ fruit he had been growing for a while was finally ripe enough for his experiment. It was far from fully mature, and frankly, with how he had designed the fruit, it could ripen for years and still grow in potency. But good enough was good enough. Neave plucked the fruit and fed it to the ss shrub, which greedily absorbed it, unaware of its effects. Hehehe, breed my child, breed. Spread your seed. Yes. That is the way. Cackling internally, Neave casually walked back out of the cave to do more work. After locating the chambers with all the slimes, he tightened the seal and carefully stacked rocks and ted dirt to hide the entrances. With this arrangement, it was impossible to find the chambers by any means besides randomly digging into the wall and stumbling upon them. Feeling satisfied with his work, he began a rather major project he had postponed for a while. Near the main chamber, Neave found a somewhat open cave and started eating as much of the stone around it as possible. Although he was going through it quite quickly, he had to moderate his speed so his sacred blood could keep up with purging the stone from his body. He ate and ate, gradually expanding the size of the room. It went significantly slower than he initially hoped, but he stuck with it until he was at least somewhat happy with the size. After observing the roomy chamber he had created, Neave left the room and gathered tons of obsidian nts. The substance was melted and shaped into blocks Neave used the life force bridge on. After doing so, he used countless techniques, mainly focusing on the hardness and toughness of the material. By the end, Neave could swing his hammer rtively hard at one of them, and that would happen was a few cracks would spread. Imbuing a liquid spirit tendril into it, heating it up, and sealing it back up was enough to restore it to perfection. Finally, he grabbed the impossibly tough block of obsidian, roughly two meters by two meters in size, and ced it in the corner of the new room. Now, all he had to do was te the entire chamber, floor, ceiling, and walls in this material! Yup. All he had to do. Neave turned around and roughly calcted the number of blocks he would need. Tears streaked down his eyes. I really need a way to speed this up¡­ *** After what felt like days of work, Neave was finally done with around twenty percent. Of the floor, that was. This only left around¡­ The walls and ceiling had roughly the same surface area, so twenty percent of one out of six¡­ only approximately ny-six percent of the work remained! That would be done real quick, no? Neave violently threw one of the blocks at a wall, and it bounced off without even chipping, ¡°As if!¡± This was madness. He overestimated his speed greatly. Should hepromise on their hardness and toughness, then? No, they¡¯re gonna break often, even like this. I will probably have to add a wholeyer of more robust material on top of them to properly solidify them. So what should he do? Apromise was out of the question, naturally. Moving the training ground to the surface was possible, but they would be far too exposed. This chamber was meant to be a ce where they could all practice using their weapons. Naturally, it had to be highly fortified to not fall apart immediately. The surface would eliminate the need for walls and a ceiling, but that would only be a realistic prospectter once they¡¯ve established a more significant presence up there. Speaking of which, Neave really had to increase their manpower. As it stood, there were only six of them here. Once he was done training them in the spirit realm, he would first focus on experimentation, mainly golem creation. While he was at it, he would also work on producing appropriate bodies for his avatar to possess. He had numerous ideas for what he wanted to do with the avatars. He stillmented the time he would have to waste on them, especially now, given the threat the demons and Astrador presented. There wasn¡¯t much of a choice, though, not besides dropping the idea altogether and focusing on something else. That wasn¡¯t an option either since Neave knew that this spirit power presented a potentially enormous boost to his ability. That wasn¡¯t the only thing it presented, however. Neave grinned as he remembered one of the features of his power. Unlimited range. With that, he could safely pay Astrador a visit or investigate the demons without leaving the others exposed and vulnerable. All from the safety of his main chamber. While Neave suspected that his real life and hispanions'' lives were safe, there were no guarantees when one found themselves in a ce like this. There was no such thing as too safe. Or too powerful. Taking a deep breath, Neave contemted how he could do this chamber more effectively. Perhaps he could¡­ Suddenly, the ss puppet flew in out of nowhere, and his allies came striding in. He nced at them and grinned, ¡°I see you¡¯re done with your task. Just out of curiosity, who finished first?¡± Gabrias and Hunter bashfully pointed at the proud Harel, and Neaveughed. Neave sighed a bit and looked over them, preparing to inform them about their next step, but Gabrias stepped forward and spoke up, ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Oh? This will be the chamber where you will train with your weapons and spirit powers once you have them.¡± Harel looked around, ¡°Wow¡­ This is extremely spacious.¡± Neave shook his head, ¡°Trust me, it isn¡¯t big enough. I considered making it at least four or five times longer and wider and moving the ceiling up twice as high.¡± This ce was massive, yet not big enough. Despite being too small for Neave¡¯s purposes, that didn¡¯t change the fact that it was damn huge. The others gaped at the disy before them, and Marven looked at therge patch of obsidian tiles, ¡°What about these? Aren¡¯t they going to be too fragile?¡± ¡°Go ahead. Hit it with all you got.¡± Marven hesitated a bit but soon enough listened to Neave. He got into a stance, pulled his fist back, and struck a tile with all his might. Some cracks appeared around where his fist struck, but the tile was primarily intact, ¡°Incredible.¡± Gabrias looked ready to burst from excitement throughout this whole thing, ¡°This! This is remarkable!¡± He prostrated before Neave and yelled again, ¡°Oh, grand master, teach me your ways!¡± Neave shook his head. Naive. He had an incredibly specialized set of tools and powers that permitted him to create something like this. There was no way the others could¡­ Wait a minute, ¡°Can you!? Wait, wait, wait, Marven,e here!¡± Marven walked over to Neave. Neave grabbed a pile of obsidian, imbuing them with the liquid tendril and forcing them into the shape of a block. The others were blown away by his speed and precision. Neave could do this even without a spirit power dedicated to it, although his crown¡¯s telekinesis certainly helped. Once done, he presented Marven with the block. Lifting his hand and focusing a bit, Neave manifested the shards of potential that contained the harden and toughen alchemy techniques. ¡°I¡¯m going to need you to learn this technique. Can you do it?¡± Marven awkwardly chuckled and scratched his cheek, ¡°Neave, I¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay if it¡¯s a little hard, don¡¯t worry. I will help you with learning the¡­¡± ¡°No, I mean¡­ I already know those techniques.¡± ¡°What?¡± Neave looked at the others, who lifted their hands one after another and also shared that they knew the techniques. In the end, it turned out that everyone already knew the two alchemy techniques. ¡°But¡­ How!?¡± ¡°Hahahaha, Neave, these are fundamental techniques. All disciples are taught the basics of most disciplines, and anyone that has lived in a sect will probably know these two, as they are among the essential few that are taught for alchemy.¡± He couldn¡¯t believe it. He¡¯d wasted so much effort when they could have been helping. The life force bridge was the most challenging part of enhancing the material, yes, but it was by far the fastest. It took him seconds to manifest the bridge, while it took him many times longer to finish enhancing the material. Neave asked Marven to try enhancing the material to gauge how valuable the help of the others would really be in this situation. Marven used the hardening technique, and the raw potency of his qi immediately filled one of thepartments to the brim. So he continued to the next and the next and the next and so on, finishing the work in only a little longer than a minute. ¡°... Are you fucking kidding meeeee!?¡± This whole time he could have been helped by the others!? The sheer amount of time he wasted on enhancing things was mind-boggling! ¡°Why didn¡¯t you assholes say you knew the techniques!?¡± The others looked confused, and Dukean spoke up first, ¡°Well, we didn¡¯t know what you were doing¡­ The quality of the material was altered far past anything I¡¯ve ever seen, so I assumed you were utilizing some unique strategy.¡± The others nodded in agreement, and Neave realized something. This whole thing happened because he was being an idiot. No, this happened because he was underestimating them this entire time. Were they¡­ Neave got up and looked at the others, a massive grin stered to his face, ¡°Before we continue with the training, I think I have another use for you.¡± *** Apparently, Neave had been a massive idiot this whole time. When they started working, Gabrias began questioning why Neave was doing things the way he was. He asked about using the obsidian blocks, their arrangement, future ns, etc. Neave could swear he saw Gabrias¡¯ awe and admiration for him gradually evaporate with everything he said. Gabrias listened to Neave¡¯s exnation, then gave his opinion. Rather than a frightened, cowardly man, Gabrias suddenly transformed into an experienced, slightly exasperated construction worker trying to exin to a client why their idea was stupid, ¡°The obsidian blocks are effectively ss filled with impurities. It is a solid, malleable material that is convenient for use, but it is a vastly inferior alternative to what you should be doing. But that¡¯s forter. First, the shape of the room.¡± He pointed at the ceiling, specifically the corners, and continued, ¡°The structural integrity of this underground cave is unnaturally solid, primarily due to the obsidian and now, ss roots that spread through it. They keep the walls in ce and stop the caves from copsing, but that integrity is a temporary exception to the rule. The shape of this room is bad. Making a square space like this puts a massive strain on the middle and corners of the ceiling. If we strike the walls, intentionally or otherwise, that will cause a shockwave to spread through the walls of the cave, and in ces where the walls suddenly make a ny-degree turn, the shock will cause a strain. That is why the cave''s ceiling should be a dome, the way it is with the chamber.¡± Neave knew everything Gabrias was talking about. He just didn¡¯t really think about it. With his materials and supernatural ability to make things night-indestructible, the only thing he was thinking about when he designed the room was making it easy to stack the obsidian blocks. However, rather than contradicting Gabrias, exining himself, or using excuses, he remained silent. After listening to Gabrias talk a while longer, he soon concluded that the man knew what he was talking about, even mentioning some things Neave didn¡¯t expect to hear and honestly didn¡¯t know since he had never read anything about it. If Gabrias was this good at it, that made Neave¡¯s life significantly easier. He had been underestimating the others primarily due to his pride and immature disregard. Now, he suddenly opened his eyes to the whole other side of the spectrum. If the others could be this good at something, couldn¡¯t he delegate a ton of work to them? There would be much that needed to be done in the future, and if he could task them with one or two things each and make them take care of it in his stead, he could dedicate a ton of his focus to doing the things only he could do. That was right! These people werepetent, no? Marven used to be a sect master. He must know a thing or two. And who said Neave didn¡¯t believe in the potential of others? He couldn¡¯t stop a grin from forming on his face as suddenly, a massive chunk of his schedule had been freed up. That was right. They should all do their part as well. And their part would be literally everything they could do without Neave¡¯s help. Chapter 115: Impossible Chapter 115: Impossible Neave stood at the center of the dome, admiring it. It hadn¡¯t been a simple undertaking, yet, it had gone by much faster than any of them had expected. Gabrias effectively scrapped Neave¡¯s n and redesigned it from the ground up, recing the obsidian tiles with a solid metal dome. Rather simple, but after all the details were solidified, it made perfect sense why they should do it like this. The critical issue with the obsidian was that it was brittle and fragile. By nature, it cracked when too much force was exerted on it. Metal usually didn¡¯t crack but bent. Naturally, the dome walls would eventually get battered, but so what? That wouldn¡¯t hinder its function for a long time. The half sphere that made their dome was also ted in metal on the bottom, but the floor wasn¡¯t metallic. It was simple dirt. Gravel and rocks were delivered and piled on without much regard. It was a simple, elegant, and brilliant solution. It didn¡¯t matter how messed up the floor got. It just didn¡¯t. The soil was deep enough to create a protectiveyer over the metal foundation; if the coating were removed, it wouldn¡¯t be a massive problem either. The soil would be thrown around and gradually shift in position, which was perfectly fine. Yet, if anyone created an attackrge enough to impact the metal beneath, it would also be no problem. The metal was so insanely tough that it would take many direct strikes to do considerable damage. As for the dome, there was no protectiveyer, but one wasn¡¯t really needed. The dome could be battered repeatedly without much issue, as the metal was quite thick, and a bit of beating wouldn¡¯tpromise its function. Simple, elegant, practical, and longsting. Exactly how every building should be. Neave nodded satisfactorily and turned to the others with a massive grin, ¡°I think this is good enough for now. We won¡¯t use this bad boy yet, since we still have some work in the spirit realm. Now, gather around me, and let''s hop back in.¡± They walked over, ced their hands on him, and within moments, they were inside the spirit realm. This time, Neave instructed them to form an orderly line as he lifted his hand. Shards of potential manifested in the air just above it, and he showed them to the others, ¡°This is the form for one of my most powerful movement techniques.¡± It was the one-step, two-step, hop,nd, teleport move! Neave had never bothered toe up with names for his movement techniques, given how many he had and how bad he was with names. And he wasn¡¯t about to start naming them now. The others marveled at the form, but soon enough, they frowned. Marven sighed profoundly and looked Neave in the eye, ¡°Is this the teleportation movement technique?¡± Nodding, Neave grinned, ¡°What, do you have a problem with it?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. The form is¡­ Honestly, simpler than I thought it would be, but it''s too precise. The exact movement and the qi control required is on par with the highest level techniques I¡¯ve ever created or tried to learn.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. We have plenty of time. I¡¯m sure you will get it eventually.¡± To Neave¡¯s surprise, Marven shook his head, ¡°The issue isn¡¯t with learning the technique. It¡¯s with whates next. How many such techniques do you know?¡± ¡°Hundreds, honestly, but I only use around thirty regrly.¡± ¡°That is the problem. This technique is too precise. There is virtually no flexibility. You need as many as thirty of such techniques because you can¡¯t get by with just one or two. Am I right?¡± That was correct. Neave needed many techniques, mainly because most could only be used in specific circumstances. Depending on how much time he had to execute one, how much space he had, and how far he needed to go in which direction, a different technique needed to be used. It was one of the main reasons he used the techniques rtively sparingly in fights. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t want to use them constantly or didn¡¯t have the qi for them. It was that most of the time, the requirements weren¡¯t satisfied. Knowing them was still a tremendous advantage, and it wasn¡¯t like theycked the time for it, so he was pretty confused about what Marven was trying to say, ¡°What are you aiming at?¡± ¡°To properly benefit from such techniques, we would have to spend an incredible amount of time learning and practicing them. It isn¡¯t that we don¡¯t have the time, but¡­¡± He looked around, ncing at Hunter and Gabrias, frowning, and continuing, ¡°No offense, but Harel and Dukean are many times more talented than you two. More than myself, frankly. If we were to learn these techniques for battle, it wouldn¡¯t be quick, even for the best of us. Now, whoever ends up being the slowest, the others will likely have to wait a long time for them to catch up or, well¡­ We would have to leave them behind.¡± Neave frowned at that. Marven wasn¡¯t done yet, ¡°Even besides that, it likely isn¡¯t worth the time that needs to be invested into it.¡± That made Neave raise an eyebrow. He turned to Marven and asked, ¡°I wonder, in your opinion, if I were to, let''s say, teach you all thirty of such techniques and have you learn to use them inbat, how long do you think that would take you to master?¡± ¡°I do not think I could reliably use it inbat without at least a thousand years of practice.¡± The others all turned at once, spluttering and staring at him incredulously. Even Neave was surprised, ¡°I don¡¯t think it would take you that long.¡± Marven shook his head, ¡°Likely longer. Neave, you were in rather peculiar circumstances when you first learned these techniques, so I¡¯m sure not even you know how long it took you to do it. Try and remember your early days of practice. If I¡¯m right, you almost definitely had a period of what felt like an eternity of constantly messing it up and failing to fully utilize the power of these techniques.¡± ¡°Well¡­ Yeah.¡± ¡°The thing is, right, I¡¯m not saying this isn¡¯t worth learning or mastering, but it isn¡¯t worth doing now. This is the sort of undertaking someone at the peak of their power would do once all their other options had been exhausted. I don¡¯t know about you, but I can think of many ways to use a thousand years more efficiently.¡± There wasn¡¯t much to say to that. Neave had been quite excited to teach them these techniques, as he considered them to be among the greatest tools he had. They would also immediately trante into more power once they were back outside. However, his father was right. Besides, it isn¡¯t like they couldn¡¯t learn themter. And there was always the other option. The symbols in the air shifted and morphed, and the shards of potential spelled out a different form. This was something much simpler yet, still quite powerful. A dash. After inspecting the symbols, Marven nodded and confirmed Neave¡¯s suspicions, ¡°That is a wonderful technique. Learning a set of those would take far less time.¡± ¡°Well then¡­ How about we get to it?¡± *** Neave stood before Marven, holding a sledgehammer that perfectly resembled the one he used outside. Marven had a simr replica of his ss shard. Harel faced Dukean, both holding their weapons, and Hunter and Gabrias faced each other barehanded. Now, it was time for the next step Neave had prepared. One-on-onebat. He initially nned to have everyone fight with a replica of their outside weapon, but there was no way to fully recreate Gabrias'' bow. Not a significant loss, though, as the main focus was training to incorporate the movement techniques in battle. Behind them was a gigantic pile of reserve weapons for when someone broke or ruined them. They all readied themselves, and on Neave¡¯s mark, the fights began. Hunter and Gabrias charged at one another, fists flying and feet striking. Gabrias ducked to dodge a strike, and Hunter used a movement technique to dash back, avoiding the counterattack. Both men were defensive, and getting used to an opponent whose offense wasn¡¯t perfect would take a while. The battle between Harel and Dukean was ridiculous, as their chained weapons flew and fluttered through the air, constantly shing and repelling. They both had a rather offensive style, although Harel¡¯s was far more aggressive. Marven used one technique after another, finding himself incapable of grazing Neave. While Neave struggled to do enough damage to Marven bare-handed, having a weapon made for an entirely different story. A titanic overhead true strike descended, shattering the ss shard in Marven¡¯s hands and caving his skull in, sending a shockwave that blew the others apart and scattered the pile of weapons. Perhaps they should fight a bit further away from one another. *** Hunter dashed straight at Gabrias, and therger man moved out of the way, using a movement technique to rapidly twist his torso out of the way. Rather than flying by, Hunter spun in the air and redirected his momentum into a massive kick that Gabrias had no recourse against besides a block. The aftermath skewed the odds in Hunter¡¯s favor, and soon, Gabrias found himself facing a punch, a kick to the side, and an axe kick to his head. Yet, he didn¡¯t fall as quickly as he once would have. The massive man grabbed Hunter¡¯s foot and swung Hunter¡¯s body at the floor. The younger cultivator canceled the force of the swing with a footing technique, one masterfully leveraged against Gabrias¡¯ torso, and a final kick to the giant man¡¯s face ended the fight. A storm of steel flew around Harel and Dukean. He was near constantly at an advantage due to the superior speed of his weapon, but most of the hits hended paledpared to even the slightest graze of her strikes. As chains whipped through the air, thebatants waited for the other to slip up. Given how heavy the spiked ball was, Harel¡¯s chain did much of the defensive work, and Dukean kept trying to slither through the defense. The tiniest of slip-ups allowed Harel to repel his sword with her chain. He immediately used a movement technique to get out of the way, but it was hopeless. She flew forward, impaling her arm on the sword and gripping the chain as the ball flew at Dukean¡¯s face. He managed to dodge thrice, but the fourth strike caught him off guard, and his head was pulverized. Harel pumped her fist. Toward the beginning of their fight, Dukean would win most of the time. However, as they became morefortable with their weapon and movement techniques, Harel won more often. As his head recovered, a determined grin spread on Dukean¡¯s face. Neither wanted to be outdone by the other. Marven ate another sledgehammer strike to the shoulder, and yet another came seemingly out of nowhere,nding on the side of his head. Facing an unarmed Neave had been terrifying, but facing a Neave with a weapon felt like trying to fist-fight a natural disaster. Marven felt that a weapon shouldn¡¯t have made that great of a difference, especially with the vast difference in power between them, but Neave¡¯s use of his skills utterly defiedmon sense. The word Marven wanted to use here was abuse. Neave abused his movement techniques. There was no such thing as abusing a skill inbat. That was just called proficiency, or in this case, mastery. Yet, that word almost perfectly suited Neave''s style. It was effectively cheating. There was a movement technique that allowed one to turn their torso rapidly. The way Neave used this technique inbat was to use it, offload the momentum to his hammer, then cancel it and use it again. It wasn¡¯t how the technique was meant to be used, and it would usually be a ridiculous waste of qi. But Neave could do this as many as fifty times in a row! During the exact same swing! This elerated the hammer to mach-whatever-the-fuck, and the only real way to defend against it was to immediately react the exact moment he started using the technique. The problem was that there seemed to be no real way to respond to this. Defend from one side, and the hammer miraculously appeared on the exact opposite side of his body. The way Neave used movement techniques felt like facing an illusionist, and at times, it made Marven doubt his sanity. The sledgehammer had a few critical weaknesses, and, notably, Neave utterly nullified every single one of them, leaving only the ridiculous force it could produce, frequentlybined with a true strike that shouldn¡¯t be capable of doing that much damage. After he recovered, he got up and faced Neave again. Perhaps he should get around to mastering a few of Neave¡¯s tricks for himself. Chapter 116: Principles Chapter 116: Principles Marven¡¯s body shot through the air, his speed causing a sharp, high-pitched whistle as he rammed into the metal dome full force. Neave put the hammer down and nodded satisfactorily, ¡°That¡¯s gonna hold up rather well!¡± Marven weakly lifted a thumbs up as his body slowly peeled off the metallic wall and plopped to the ground. While working on mastering their weapon skills couldn¡¯t be finalized without real-world practice, where the weapons had their powers, there wasn¡¯t all that much practice they could do for now. Take Harel, for example. If she hit someone with that horror ball of hers, their body would likely be sttered into gore without much effort. Yet, the time had finallye. Neave turned around and gazed at the children with fatherly pride. They had grown so much. Without being able to track the time, they had no idea how long they had spent in the spirit realm, but it was a long, long time. They had hit something of a teau, likely due to theck of inspiration. It was hard to precisely tell what caused their growth to stagnate, but Neave felt sure he knew what was responsible. Lack of motivation. Getting your body scrambled in the spirit realm felt the same as it did outside. The initial fear of pain and the base reflex reaction they all had was what drove them to grow. With time, however, the reaction to pain faded, and their growth needed to be motivated by something else. Now, growth for the sake of growth was a motivator in and of itself. But that could onlyst while the primitive brain was satisfied by the speed of growth. Once that speed stagnated or slowed down, something else had to take over. Be it habit, expectation,petition, ambition, or sheer willpower, something had to carry the desire to grow and improve. All of those sources had dried out. They had simply spent too long in the spirit realm. Neave knew all too well how fickle the motivation to grow was. Back in the loop, the only thing that consistently drove him was the utter boredom he had to suffer otherwise. Not even the desire to leave, or curiosity to discover what came next, was as powerful as the aversion to a dull eternity. He smiled a bit as he looked at them. They didn¡¯t have to suffer such a cruel fate. Yet, that sadly meant that they had to find something else to drive them. So, back to primitive brain satisfaction, it was! Spirit powers, cultivation, mere exercise, new equipment, h h, whatever, they had plenty of ways to grow rapidly. And they didn¡¯t need him anymore. Not as much as they had initially. Now, it was time to allow them to thrive. There was still the threat of that assassin reappearing, but honestly, that threat was there no matter what they were doing or where they were. If he could appear like that at will, Neave was sure he would have done it already. It was more likely that such a method was something limited. And if it were limited, he would bet anything that it would be used on him rather than the others. Still, if that kid appeared again, he would pose a massive threat even without the weapon and perfect stealth. He was on the diamond path, after all. But Neave wasn¡¯t all that concerned. His allies were powerful, and they were insanely skilled as well. With their weapons, skill, and extreme constitution, not even someone on the diamond path was guaranteed to win. Besides, the entire point of this realm was to face challenges and threats to begin with. Marven got up and waddled over as his body rapidly reassembled itself, and he stood before Neave, right next to the others. Neave took a deep breath and looked at them, ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± They waited in trepidation for him to continue, but instead, he just turned around and started walking away. Frowning at each other in confusion, they looked at Neave and back, wondering whether this was some sort of joke. However, as Neave prepared to run off, they realized he wasn¡¯t kidding. Marven was the first to speak, ¡°Neave, wait!¡± ¡°Hmmm?¡± ¡°What do you mean ¡®that¡¯s it¡¯!? That¡¯s it!? What do we do next?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ Right. Uh. Whatever you want, I guess?¡± They stared at him for a second, mouths hanging open, but soon, grins popped up on their faces, and they nodded at him. He nodded right back. Turning around, Neave prepared himself to run off, but just as he started running, he paused, skidding over the dirt and turning around, ¡°Oh! I forgot one thing! Soon, this ce will be filled with countless monsters. Be careful, and if you find any cores with spirit powers you want, leave them in the chamber somewhere. ce them on an altar as a sacrifice. Actually, yes, that would be fitting.¡± Gabrias frowned upon hearing that, ¡°Wait! What about your n to enclose the surrounding area to limit the size of the monster habitat?¡± ¡°Oh, that? Well, there isn¡¯t much point now, is there? The demons already got their hands on one, so keeping them contained won¡¯t make a big difference. It will only limit their growth and hinder our ns. ¡°Oh yeah, one more thing, if I have anything for you, I will juste by and drop it off in the chamber. Also, feel free to cultivate all you want. Marven, you should wait for them to catch up first. I will be looking for spirit powers that will increase your survivability enough to make sparring with your weapons a realistic prospect. Until then, try not to die.¡± With a final wave, Neave disappeared, leaving the others to their own devices. zing through the caves, he felt a sense of mncholy as he left them behind. A big part of him wanted to stay and keep training together. But that wasn¡¯t an option. As long as they were with him, the focus would be on their growth. There was plenty of development he had to do himself, and it wasn¡¯t something he could achieve while babysitting them. Thankfully, due to the amazing effect of the spirit realm, he hadn¡¯t wasted much time on them, either. There was a lot of stuff he had to do. The caves he was zing through had changed drastically. This close to the ss shrub, there wasn¡¯t even a mention of obsidian bushes anymore. It was all ss. With that little detail in mind, Neave made his way to the improvised workshop he had created. *** Sateron stood facing the direction of the chamber. His face was resolute, yet his heart faltered. One step. That was all it took to enter the radius of Astrador¡¯s anchor. And the moment he did, Astrador would know he had failed his mission. Every cell in his body wanted to know how his creator would react, yet, his very soul screamed in rebellion, wanting nothing more than to run away and never turn back. Yet, the choice was nothing but an illusion. There was nothing to run away to. This was a cold, empty, dark realm of nightmares and death. And his only hope, the only chance he had of making it out of here, was Astrador. He heard a faint clink off in the distance. Yet another of the tiny shrubs had sprouted, reaching closer to the anchor by the second. This was it. Even if he didn¡¯t step inside, the god would know he had failed. There was nothing to lose. A single step was all it took, and with a whispery pop, the Great God appeared before him. His cold expression bore directly into Sateron¡¯s soul, and the young man lowered his head, feeling smaller than a grain of sand at that moment. Astrador scoffed in disdain and asked the question Sateron feared hearing the most, ¡°Why are you still alive?¡± ¡°I¨CI¡­¡± The words wouldn¡¯te out. The excuse, the justification disguised as a report of his failure, the one he had recited in his head repeatedly, suddenly vanished, reced by nothing but a deep sense of shame and regret. Astrador took a deep breath and spoke, every word dripping with disappointment, ¡°I see. Not only have you failed your task, but you dare live the life spared by your enemy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry, there was nothing¡­¡± ¡°Why do you speak?¡± Sateron jolted, sealing his lips and biting his cheek as Astrador continued, ¡°There is no value behind your words. Go back and finish your task, and if you must fail again, do not let your enemy spare your life so shamefully.¡± That made Sateron pause. Without thinking, he lifted his head and asked, ¡°Am I going to explode?¡± Astrador froze. He lifted an eyebrow and asked, ¡°What sort of idiotic question is that?¡± ¡°I just¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need your answer. Let me rify something, servant. Your life and death exist to exterminate my enemy. That is why you live. Only by fulfilling your purpose do you get the chance to be something besides my weapon. Now, return to your mission.¡± Sateron shook, tears welling up in his eyes, ¡°I can¡¯t kill them. If I go back, I can only die!¡± Astrador scoffed, ¡°Then that is the fate you deserve.¡± ¡°But I¡­¡± ¡°Silence.¡± ¡°No! I won¡¯t be silent!¡± Sateron stepped back, lifting a finger at Astrador, ¡°You¡¯ve rigged me with something, haven¡¯t you!? That¡¯s why you want me to go back! So that they can kill me and trigger the effect!¡° ¡°You heretic.¡± The frigid cold behind Astrador¡¯s voice stopped Sateron in his tracks, ¡°My own creation, a product of a great sacrifice I¡¯ve made, dares use me of wrongdoing!? Regardless of what I¡¯ve done or want to do to you, you are to obey and do as you¡¯re told!¡± ¡°N¨CNo. I won¡¯t do it.¡± Sateron couldn¡¯t believe his words. And neither could Astrador, ¡°What are you saying, child? You will do what, instead?¡± The Great God spread his arms and gestured toward the vast, empty darkness, ¡°Feel free to leave and go wherever you please. The madness that awaits you in this realm of the void is worse than the death you so fear. Your chance is gone. Come begging for your life, and you will meet an end worse than death. Rejoice. Your freedom has been granted.¡± With those words, Astrador vanished, leaving the distraught Sateron behind. The young man turned, ncing at the vast darkness. The only sound that greeted his ears was the endless tinkle of the ss shrubs¡¯ neverending expansion. *** Astrador stood before the barrier, eyes bloodshot and breathing ragged. ¡°Heavens¡¯ cursed piece of¨C!¡± His fist met the barrier, and the entire area shook, sending tremors through thendscape, ¡°How! How is that possible!?¡± This made no sense. That child was his creation. It should obey him unconditionally, even if he told it to take its own life. So what happened? What cosmic anomaly freed that creature from his grasp? A deep chill of pure terror shot through his spine as he turned around to face the entrance to the cave. The thing stood there, its rotting flesh falling from its wicked grin. With a blink, it vanished, leaving nothing but the distant echoes of itsughter behind. Astrador smashed into the barrier again, screaming at the top of his lungs. Time was running out. With every second that passed, anotheryer was scraped off. The endless options before him all feltckluster as the cataclysm that was toe felt more and more inevitable. He paused and raised his head. That was right. Those cursed things had been brought into his realm. Could that¡­ No. There was no way he would vite his principles like that. Even facing a risk of this magnitude, even without real consequences, he would never stoop so low. The seconds passed, and his conviction gradually crumbled with every heartbeat. Who was he kidding? There was nobody here he had to deceive. And nobody would know of what he had done. This was no time to be ying around. After all, he only had one real principle. Power over everything else. Chapter 117: Fun Chapter 117: Fun Neave teleported into the sealed chamber that led to the underground magma. The moment he appeared, he paused in surprise. The room was filled to the brim withva slimes and golems. They turned to him, and Neave had to fend off several attacks. It was a little exaggerated to say he was ¡®fending them off,'' given that the attacks couldn¡¯t even leave a red mark on his body. His clothes, however, weren¡¯t nearly as resilient and given that Neave had no desire to be left naked, he used the crown telekinesis to stop the attacks from reaching him. The inside of the chamber was nothing special. It was much hotter than before, but other than that, it just looked like an ordinary cave with many fire monsters inside. ¡°...Hmmmm?¡± There were quite a few ss bushes in the room, which was¡­ Not good. Neave had explicitly warned the ss shrub against breaking into any of the sealed chambers. Had these been nted before he sealed the chamber? Probably not. That is a conversation he would have to have with the shrub. Luckily it didn¡¯t seem to be a problem, as the fire monsters weren¡¯t nearly powerful enough to break off the sturdy branches. For now, at least. Neave shrugged. It wouldn¡¯t be a big deal even if they grew powerful enough. Rather, it would be preferable, as the primary purpose of these ss shrubs was to feed the monsters more energy. These creatures seemed to be progressing just fine, so Neave balled his fist and shattered one of the walls. ¡°Be free, my children!¡± It was time to allow them to start spreading through the underground. Truthfully, Neave¡¯s intervention wasn¡¯t entirely necessary, as the monsters would eventually break into caves by digging out from underneath the surface. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised to learn they had already done it. The magma that resided in the''s core was the nearly perfect environment for them, and nothing but time was stopping them from making it all the way to every corner of the. The more pressing issue currently was something else entirely. Neave needed some creatures to feed on the fire monsters. *** The small slime tightened its body, and eventually, it sprung, jumping into the air. Neave grabbed it before it couldnd and examined it. ¡°Hmm, pure slime, nice, nice, you¡¯ll do just fine.¡± Neave left the sealed chamber and ran for a while through the caves, where he eventually unceremoniously dropped the slime and left it alone. The slimes would grow gradually, and eventually, they would fill the realm. As he had learned through his experimentation, it took quite a bit of effort to turn a slime into something besides a slime, and he was confident that there would never be a real shortage of them in the realm. Once there were many, they would find a way to grow in power and quality, and vo, various monsters would be born. The ambient energy had grown quite a bit, and by now, Neave could confidently say that it was even thicker here than it was in the real world outside. At least, it was in the surrounding area. This was somewhat unusual but unsurprising. The density of the ss brushes was insane, and they produced immense energy by merely existing. There likely wasn¡¯t a single nt of this level of quality in the outside world. Well, perhaps some top sects had cultivated a few that couldpare in quality, but definitely none that coulde even close to the speed of growth and spread. These nts made Neave wonder a bit. Would they¡­ Produce anything? Like a fruit or flower. There wasn¡¯t a real reason for them to be able to do that, but mutations were practically expected at this point. There were already some shrubs that were growing considerably thicker than their brethren, and some were drastically more branched out. Time would tell. *** Neave stood in the room where he grew his nts and found it¡­ Frustrating. It required a lot of work to maintain, and frankly, he couldn¡¯t be bothered to keep working on these nts. Sadly, he didn¡¯t quite have a choice. Most of the produce here would be essential for experimentationter. Yet, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little bitter. So much work would effectively go to waste once they were back outside. Well, that wasn¡¯t strictly true. Nothing was wasted on the others. Any bit of potential theyprehended or realized would elerate their outside cultivation drastically. Not to mention that they would acquire some juicy wayfarer¡¯s authority once they reached great power here. And they wouldn¡¯t forget any techniques they produced or practiced. For Neave, however, the vast majority of the experimentation here was scientific in nature. He was already concocting ns to postpone being discovered by the heavenly messenger. Given even a bit of time, and as long as he knew what he was doing, he could cause havoc and find a way to escape. Once he had escaped, again, if he knew what he was doing, he could attain immense power in a fraction of the time it took him to discover what he had to do here. That was the power of knowledge, and effectively, the same thing he had done back with the time loop. That didn¡¯t make it feel like any less of a waste, though, and he bitterly crouched down to examine some of his experiments. Arge assortment of nts was being grown for the express purpose of speeding up the spread of the ss shrubs. Yet, that wasn¡¯t all Neave had been doing here. A small patch of blueish-green grass was in a tiny chamber adjacent to therger one. However, the room wasn¡¯t overwhelmingly rich in ambient energy, and the soil wasn¡¯t loaded with liquid spirit. That was right. It was grass Neave had been trying to grow for a while. A strand of grass that could grow inside the nightmare realm. The core problem, for now, was that it both grew at impossibly slow speeds and took ages to spread. And sadly, there didn¡¯t seem to be a solution to this problem. Neave had contemted producing something like the sapient ss shrub, but given how jealously that thing protected its power, he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if that sparked a war. For now, he could only sigh and pat the grass on its imaginary head, ¡°There, there. Don¡¯t worry, little one. The naughty ss shrub will hear from me if ites after you.¡± The grass, unsurprisingly, didn¡¯t respond. Speaking of the ss shrub, Neave had contemted giving that thing some spirit powers, but honestly, he had no genuine desire to do so any longer. It wouldn¡¯t really help Neave much, and it was likely to abuse them. No matter how ridiculous that sounded, the ss shrub was too emotionally immature to be handed too much power. So, for now, Neave prayed it would learn a thing or two from the others, and then he may be willing to consider it. After a quick check-up with everything else he had in store, Neave finally decided it was time to go do some work. Off to the workshop he went. *** Neave would have started the work immediately, but frankly, the workshop he had made was far too primitive. It was rather far from the main chamber with the shrub, by necessity, given that there was a significant risk of Neave blowing something up, but that meant he had to constantly go and fetch things from the other chambers. So, he decided to replicate a smaller version of all the essential chambers before starting his experiments. A small water chamber, nt field, a few monster coops, and a rudimentary testing groundter, he felt confident that would be enough. A medium-sized room was ted in thick obsidian bricks. He could have ted it in metal, but it didn¡¯t matter if the room was hyper-resistant. The only thing he needed, or rather wanted, was a rtively tidy, clean-looking room. A smidgeon of vanity was behind his design choices, but he considered that an investment in his future productivity. Despite having ck, reflective walls, the room looked quite bright and pleasant. He had created a chandelier with a glowing ss ball in the center and a beautiful collection of ss pieces hanging around it. There were quite a few pieces of furniture made of pure ss, and he had even produced arge carpet by skinning a few abominids. Neave had decorated the office to the point that he had to make another room adjacent to it where he wouldn¡¯t risk destroying all the fancy decorations. Which made thatst room nearly meaningless. Well, besides looking pretty and being a decent ce to rx. The first thing he experimented with once he finally got started was a slime. It all started with them, it seemed. Although, this time, Neave wasn¡¯t growing any monsters. Neave grabbed a sharp ss needle. It was a long piece of ss he had granted a giant ball of pure spirit. It had no extraordinary power, but the quasi-soul was not to be underestimated. He injected the needle into the slime¡¯s body, reaching all the way to its core. It shook and shivered for a few moments until its core crumbled under the pressure. A violet avatar crawled into the slime''s body before its goop could dissipate and spill into a nasty, incongruous puddle. It couldn¡¯t enter. For some reason, the avatar kept bouncing off the slime¡¯s body, and Neave pped his forehead. He used a tendril of liquid spirit guided by life force to ¡®wash out¡¯ the remnant spirit from the slime¡¯s body. Once that was done, the violet avatar could enter unhindered. The slime glowed with low, purple light as its body firmed up again. Neave grinned. He focused and found himself manipting the slime¡¯s body from its perspective. Immediately, he was thrown out of focus and had to stop. ¡°... That is so trippy.¡± This was the first time he had tried genuinely manipting the corpse of another being, and it was a very unusual experience. And it was also one that presented a serious problem. Neave effectively left his body whenever he entered the slime. That meant his main body was empty whenever he used the violet avatar. That was a massive problem. One of the ability''s main appeals was that it effectively added another body for him to use inbat. If he had to discard his actual body to use it, it would ruin the core purpose of the power. Neave wouldn¡¯t be dissuaded by something so minor, however. The dragon could use the power without issue; if it could do it, then damn it, so could he. He kept swapping from his body to the slimes, which was a nauseating experience. Gritting his teeth, he kept doing it for a while, and gradually the process grew faster and faster. Finally, after a while of practice, he could swap perspectives instantly and change right back. That wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but it wasn¡¯t bad. With enough practice and skill, he could use both bodies in a fight. The issue was that he could have up to seven bodies. It was unclear whether he could use that many bodies simultaneously and still show a decent degree of skill, even with ages of practice. Despite this problem, the power was still worth using, if anything, for the scouting potential and the ability to fight opponents without risk to himself. For now, he had to return to learning how to control the body. Back in the shiny slime, Neave tried moving. It seemed impossible. There were no muscles, tendons, or bones, and this creature''s anatomy felt foreign to him. Bit by bit, he experimented with different movements, and eventually, he felt confident he was on the right track. The slime body tensed a bit and immediately rxed, jiggling slightly. It tightened again, this time far more, and once it released the pressure, it hopped in the air slightly. Then it tensed greatly and jumped so fast it mmed into the ceiling, and its body suffered some damage. Neave was thrown out of the avatar from the bacsh, but he grinned. That was so thrilling! Who knew something so simple would be so much fun!? Being in the slime''s body felt strangely liberating, he had to say. It was to the point where he contemted keeping this body. He frowned at that. Was it really worth it? The problem was that the slime no longer had a core. This meant it didn¡¯t have any growth potential. Or¡­ Wait. Was that really true? It couldn¡¯t evolve, but did that mean it couldn¡¯t grow? For starters, adding spirit powers to the thing was impossible. The reason why was simple. He could easily melt a monster core in the slime''s body, granting it a quasi-spirit. While its body was alive, there was no soul in there. It would be like melting a monster core in any other liquid. The problem was that this would make it impossible for Neave to possess it again. The only way to enter the body would be by purging the quasi-spirit, which would remove the entire point of doing it in the first ce. So that was out of the question. There was the possibility of feeding it a ton of treasures, but the question was, what would that achieve? A bouncier, more resilient slime? Not a great damage dealer. Perhaps it could gain toxic or acidic properties, even without evolving? That could theoretically work. Equipping it was¡­ Well¡­ It was a damn slime. How would one even equip it? Well¡­ Actually¡­ There was one way to do it. A few other ideaster, Neave had a few things he wanted to try out. Was experimenting on a slime like this worth it? Yes. After all, Neave knew best just how much potential could be acquired by merely having fun. Chapter 118: Slime Avatar Chapter 118: Slime Avatar A purple glow shifted through the caves of the nightmare realm, blitzing, zing by, following an in-descript object that flew at immense speeds. The roughly circr ball of light bounced off of walls and moved through thick growth unfettered until it eventually swerved and entered a room,nding on top of Neave¡¯s head. He opened his eyes and grinned. The slime may not be the most promising weapon in his arsenal, but damn it, it was likely the most fun. Given that he had possessed the slime after doing minimal damage to its body, none of the additional energy from the violet avatar was wasted. All of it went into empowering the slime. With some practice, this turned the small avatar into an unbelievably fun scout. It wasn¡¯t an excellent scout, granted, given that it glowed in the dark. It was utterly incapable of stealth. Who cared about that, though? Neave picked up the slime, lifting it off his crown and putting it in hisp. He still hadn¡¯t done any ¡®upgrading¡¯ to the slime, and frankly, he was sort of short on ideas for what to do to begin with. So far, his ideas effectively came down to: feed slime life force, feed slime treasures, feed slime meat, and perhaps equip it somehow. Naturally, the slime couldn''t equip a damn sword. That didn¡¯t mean that Neave was entirely out of options. But, one thing at a time. Neave focused, and a thin stream of life force entered the slime¡¯s body. Frowning, he stopped doing that. If the slime were a monster, or rather, if it still had a core in its body, it could easily handle an influx of life force like that. Sadly, it didn¡¯t. That meant that pouring life force into it haphazardly was effectively the same as poisoning it. Thankfully, theplete absence of remnant spirit in the slime and Neave¡¯s profound connection to it allowed him to quickly purge any of the life force he had poured in. He would have to employ a different strategy. This time, he poured a significantly thinner thread of life force into it and then used the tendril to burn the life force. Sadly, that didn¡¯t really do anything. Neave couldn¡¯t empower the slime with life force alone the same way he couldn¡¯t empower anything permanently with life force alone, besides monsters, that was. If he could do that, growing in strength would be a breeze. Sighing, he once again changed strategies. Neave put the slime down and hopped over to the monster coop he had created for experimentation. The monsters inside were the same breed of abominid that served as a food source. Culling one, he returned to the slime and fed it a few chunks of its meat. The slime struggled mightily to digest the piece of flesh. To the point that it made Neave frown. Was the slime¡¯s usual supernatural digestion a byproduct of power originating from its core? If that were the case, empowering the slime to any noticeable degree would be a nightmare. He quickly had to extract the pieces of flesh he had ced inside, as he realized that the slime couldn¡¯t purge the toxic qi that usually resided in monster flesh. Neave clicked his tongue and cursed. Washing the meat in his blood was a prerequisite to feeding it to anything. After purging the slime and burning some life force to help it recover, he ced the little thing on the ground and got up, walking back into the adorned part of his workshop. Spreading his arms open, he fell back first to the carpet on the floor and frowned as he stared at the chandelier on the ceiling. ¡°Deep breaths Neave. Use your damn brain.¡± He still had to mentally adjust to the slime not being a monster and all the implications that fact brought forth with it. Thinking more along the lines of raising a nt than raising a monster, Neave contemted his options. Suddenly, he frowned. Were slimes a nt? pping his forehead, he swallowed that idiotic thought. But that did leave an interesting question. What were slimes anyway? If one had to categorize them, would they resemble fungi, nts, or animals the most? Or were they their own thing entirely? Most of the reading he had done on monsters had a great deal of spection on their nature and origin. All that was known with any degree of confidence was that monsters originated from the lost continent. Besides that, it wasn''t really known whether they had dropped from the sky, spawned from nothing, been sent by gods or devils, or originated from a freak experiment. Neave took a deep breath and got up, walking back into the room. He stared at the small, purple blob on the floor. What are you¡­? And more importantly, how should he approach raising it? It wasn¡¯t just for fun or vanity that he chose to raise a slime avatar. There was a legitimate reason behind it as well. All seven avatars he would raise would be created from monster bodies. It was practically unavoidable that he had to learn how to treat and raise monster bodies without cores. And what better ce to start than with the primordial monster? Walking over to the pile of meat on the ground, Neave grabbed another bit of flesh. Summoning his dimensional mule avatar, he opened one of the boxes he had ced on it and pulled out a few containers. He put the piece of meat into one of the containers and dripped a lot of his blood into it. The life force tendril was used in the sacred blood concoction, and the impurities inside the meat were purged. Neave didn¡¯t stop there. Gradually, the meat was melted inside the blood. The final product was a thick, viscous liquid that perfectly blended his blood with the flesh of the abominid. Finally, he left some liquid spirit in there, even though he still wasn¡¯t clear on whether that would achieve anything. With that, he poured a few drops on the slime. Then, he swapped his consciousness into the slime body to more closely examine the effects. If the slime body had a heart, it would be fluttering. The sheer density of the power of a single drop was unbelievable. Neave had lost perspective on the might of the stuff they were eating practically all the time, but now he realized exactly how potent the flesh of this abominid was. Every aspect of the slime''s existence was boosted in ways Neave didn¡¯t even realize were possible. The perception of his surroundings while in the slime form was artificial. It was like having eyes without having eyes. Now, however, he realized that the slime itself had a means of perceiving its surroundings and that his other form of perception was a byproduct of the avatar power. Slimes could sense the flow of the ambient energy, far better than even Neave could do in his main body. It wasn¡¯t a spirit sense, either, as it seemed directly connected to the slime¡¯s body. The room around him grew ever slightly brighter as the air and the walls lit up with a faint flow of energy. Every piece of equipment on Neave¡¯s body was like a star that far outshone the surroundings, and the only thing that could even vaguely keep up was the body of the abominid. Beyond the walls, Neave could clearly see the roots of the ss shrub, although anything too far into solid matter became blurry after only a couple of meters. Hurriedly rushing back to his real body, Neave dripped a few more drops of the blood and returned to the slime. The radius and rity of the sight had expanded yet again. *** The slime was all. Center, top, and bottom of the universe and all its realms. Every trickle of energy flowing through the environment was visible far in every direction. Even the faint vestige of the obsidian shrub¡¯s energy was in to see, and naught could impede the vision of the mighty slime. Neave returned to his main body, and he could feel tears rushing down his eyes. It was strangely beautiful to see reality like that. He had been arrogant, believing himself to be supernaturally perceptive due to the shitty spirit power he had. Far, far too naive. It was as if he had been colorblind his whole life, and for the first time since he had been born, the vast myriad shades of reality wereid before his eyes. Ok, that¡¯s enough emotional stuff. A fat grin reced the somber expression on his face as he greedily observed the slime. The body of the abominid was entirely gone; every cell of its body melted into food for the slime. Several others had also been processed. And oh boy, what a slime it was. True, without a core, the slime held a mere fraction of its true power. But that true powery in transformation, evolution, change, and alteration. Divergence. A path away from being a slime, a direction that led it to greater but distinctly different heights. It gave, yet, as all power did, it took away. Without the core, the slime was free. Neave went to the collection of regr slimes and dragged a few out into the testing chamber. He threw his limbs, broken shards of ss, piles of the abominid flesh, and whatever else into a pile, urging the slimes to eat and grow. And ate they did. Soon enough, several had evolved into blood slimes, gaining yet losing. Many of them simply grew in size until they split, and their children also took a chance at turning into something more significant. Eventually, abominids grew from the pile as well, and the creatures gradually grew different in nature. And monsters of different natures never got along with one another. Neave observed the carnage as therge abominids tore each other to shreds. Eventually, all that remained was a single creature. Its skin was blood red, and it looked like a mutated gross dog with a short body and long limbs. That would do. Neave summoned the violet avatar and brought forth the mighty slime. Then, he entered its body. Therge creature circled around the slime, and Neave tensed his body, preparing for a lunge. With speed so fast it created a shockwave, the slime rushed toward the abominid, leaving cracks on the floor behind it. The force of the strike sent the creature flying and ramming into a wall. That wasn¡¯t enough to kill it. It got up and screamed at Neave as he bounced around the creature. The slime had a core weakness. It was soft and squishy, so its blunt strikes didn¡¯t do much direct damage. Slimes did not really need to do blunt damage. Neave was simply testing his new toy. The avatar hopped again and attached to the creature''s back. The sizzling of powerful acid effortlessly scraped the monster¡¯s skin off and even took a chunk of flesh with it. The dog abominid thing screeched in agony as it twisted its body to strike at Neave, and he merely stood still. The ws sank into and went through the slime. That was all they did. The abominid repeatedly wed at Neave¡¯s slime avatar, scratching and biting, but it was hopeless. The slime wasn¡¯t taking any damage, no matter what the dog did. It was sort of like trying to beat up a puddle of water. A fool¡¯s errand. Except, this was no puddle of water. This was a puddle of acid. The abominid screeched as its ws, teeth, and the inside of its mouth melted. It backed away, trying to escape. This was the time to demonstrate the true power of the slime. Neave bolted forward, bouncing off the floor, then off a wall and straight into the abominids mouth. He crawled into the creature''s stomach, where he dissolved its body from the inside and spread gooey tentacles all around the creature''s body. The core fully crystallized, signaling the death of the monster. Yet, it still moved as Neave, the slimy puppet master, forced its limbs into action. The creature melted, and eventually, its body was turned to slush that the slime slurped up. With the extra power Neave had granted the slime, he could now finally manually remove the toxic qi from the stuff he consumed with it. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Maybe I¡¯ll crawl up Astrador¡¯s ass?¡± He couldn¡¯t help but grin as he thought of the possibilities. Chapter 119: Behold the King Slime Chapter 119: Behold the King Slime Neave took a deep breath, picked up a small, squishy, yellow cube, and ced it into the slime¡¯s body. It stayed inside, and he continued to the next object, a red ball. Then finally, a green pyramid. He turned around and grabbed a squishy golden crown and a pair of rubbery sunsses. cing both of those on the slime, he took a step back to admire his handy work. A small tear ran down his eye, and he smiled happily. It was so beautiful. The purple slime now finally had equipment. It took Neave a while to figure out how to equip the slime. His first idea was to simply make a ss orb and ce it into the slime¡¯s body. This didn¡¯t necessarily not work, but there was no way to prevent the acid from gradually degrading the quality of the item. Not to mention that a solid ball in the middle of the slime drastically limited the slime''s rubbery flexibility. Eventually, Neave found a way to ovee this by using a slime gel material resembling rubber. Producing this material was a huge pain in the ass, even without trying to grant the object a power. And while trying to grant the object a power, it became nearly impossible. The reason was that turning slime into a solid material required an extensive set of alchemy techniques. And liquids that already had a quasi-spirit really hated having techniques used on them. He figured out a solution eventually, even though it was rather inelegant. The object''s center was liquified, bing more solid toward the outer edges. This allowed Neave to stretch the outer rubberyyer around a ball of spirit while melting the spirit core in the substance. Once the core was melted, it would shrink, solidifying the remainder of the slime inside due to the pressure the outeryer exerted. It seemed like a rtively simple method for doing it, but it was anything but. Problems like messing up the object''s final shape and, worst of all, ending up with an already damaged product made the process a nightmare. The sheer number of techniques he had to use on the slime substance was mind-boggling. It was so squishy and stic now that it was practically softer than the slime itself. Not to mention the actual selection of the materials for generating the spirit powers, which was a nightmare and a half! For the three shapes in the middle of the slime, Neave stuck to using slime cores. Usually, slime cores were pathetically weak, and the powers they granted either people or items were so unfitting that nobody bothered using them. They easily had among the worst side effects one could expect from spirit powers. Turning one''s own body extremely acidic didn''t make for a pretty end. For a slime, however, those side effects were a bonus. The three items inside the slime were all a product of slime cores. And the powers they granted the slime were exceptionally fitting. First, the red ball. It was a power Neave took from a massive slime. It was straightforward, which was what one could expect from a round object with a spirit power. It effectively allowed the slime body to shrink or grow in size. It wasn¡¯t a real growth either since it effectively just stretched the body to look bigger. It worked wonders, though, and it had plenty of uses. Neave actually tried using the weapon himself, and he bloated his arm to the point of exploding. The other powers were none less self-destructive. The yellow cube was actually taken from a tentacle slime, and the power it allowed for was creepy. The slime could now generate tentacles! Yet again, his curiosity won over, and Neave tried using it himself. The power cracked his skin open and extracted his blood as a gooey, coagted substance that formed tentacles. Frankly, the power wasn¡¯t even all that bad, and Neave considered using an item with slime powers in the future. No matter what anyone said, the power technically allowed him to wield several weapons simultaneously. If his spirit could endure the pressure, a simple rubber cube could turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. And more notably, it could potentially allow Neave to equip the slime with weapons as well. That would be tricky, though. He would have to find a way to store the weapons somewhere on the slime¡¯s body without resulting in pure havoc. Perhaps a dimensional storage item? He had no bloody idea how those were made, and all that he had read about it was that it required metals of silver rank or higher. The production process itself was something of an open secret, and sadly, Neave wasn¡¯t in on the information. Either way, Neave could already somewhat create tentacles with the slime body, and with this item, the task would be much easier. And now, finally, the terrifying little green pyramid. Oh boy. When Neave first tried using this, he realized that the use of this item tried to quite literally tear his arm off or some other random limb. He initially stopped the item out of reflex but realized it wasn¡¯t a big deal, even if he lost a limb to test it. But he paused. Something about the item''s effect on his limb gave him a sense of premonition and distinct danger. So he instead created a temporary avatar out of a dead abominid and used the item while possessing it. The item detached one of the abominids limbs, and the leg-arm-limb-thingy hopped to the other side of the room, attached to the wall, and exploded. The explosion was quite decent, too. Neave winced once he saw the effect. This was why he made his workshop so far away from the main chamber. Had he identally used that item and sent one of his limbs forward¡­ Yikes. That would have likely bombed the entire area. Perhaps he should make a more secure testing chamber. And put it a bit further away from the workshop. Next up was the slime crown. This was the most considerable pain in the ass item of the batch since he had to recreate it seven times. It had a habit of creating a power that resulted in the ability to manipte objects into turning stic. It wasn¡¯t the worst thing ever, but it was justme. Crowns seemed to result in a particr type of power that usually focused on control, or well, power over something. Authority. That made sense, Neave supposed. Neave eventually made a crown that manipted slime. He was also about to reject this item, as it was a bit too situational, but he quickly realized something. The green triangle could detach pieces of the slime''s body and turn them into bombs, but they didn¡¯t travel all that fast. With the crown, those bombs became high-speed projectiles. There was another thing that had to be considered. For example, something like Neave¡¯s crown could manipte anything with general telekinesis. However, this came at the cost of making the power considerably less potent. Abilities that manipted a particr substance, such as the ss shrub''s power, were usually significantly more powerful. The same thing went for this crown as well. While it could only manipte slime, that made it damn effective at doing its job. And now, finally, it was time for the rubber sunsses. This initially resulted in one of the worst powers Neave had ever witnessed, period. Slime perception. The ability to perceive slime. Absurdly enough, it didn''t even work through walls. And sadly, as long as he used slime to create the item, it refused to do anything else. It didn¡¯t even grant the supernatural perception of energy that slimes seemed to have. After much hesitation, he finally buckled and used a ss slime core. While it was still slime, technically, it was a vastly different monster species. Whatever. The power it ended up with was semi-decent. It could send out a sort of sharp pulse that could cut things, kind of like a flying sword strike technique. It was decent in power, but it sort of felt out of ce on the slime, which made Neave sad. He still refused to swap the sunsses for something else. It was sunsses. On a slime. With a crown. He decided to create another pair once he found a solution to the problem, but getting rid of them was absolutely out of the question. Neave observed his wonderful creation, eager to try it out inbat. The sleek, glowing purple, with the red ball, yellow cube, and green triangle, adorned with a golden rubber crown and ck sunsses. Perfection. That was all there was to say. This creation was perfect. Something about it did make Neave wonder a bit, however. The slime powers were exceptionally mighty, so he wondered why he had never gotten the idea to use them or acquire a power like that himself. Well¡­ Hmmm¡­ Why didn¡¯t I think of that? The reason why was¡­ Well, kind of stupid. It was just that slime powers were considered utterly worthless by the world atrge. Slimes were defined by their horribly misshapen cores. As a spirit power, you effectively sabotaged your future growth by taking one, and as a weapon, the spiritual interference was so drastic that it could outright kill weaker cultivators. If the actual effect of the weapon didn¡¯t finish them off first, that was. There was also the problem of their weakness, which made their evolutionary paths utterly unpredictable, and if someone chose to take a more powerful core from a bigger slime, they would have to settle for even worse spiritual interference as the cores only grew more misshapen the bigger the slime was. However, everything pointed to them being a damn-near-perfect fit for Neave. And a slime power was different enough in nature that it wouldn¡¯t interfere with anything else he had. Except for the shapeshifting power, actually. That one was going to sting a bit. It wasn¡¯t strictly a slime monster, especially not after evolving, but its nature might be rather simr. Still, that made him grin. Looks like he knew what power he would seek next. He wouldn¡¯t get into it haphazardly, however. He had to do proper research before sabotaging himself in the nightmare realm. Now wasn¡¯t the time for that, either. It was time to go test the slime inbat. *** A nasty abominid raged inside the chamber Neave had created, and its gigantic ws were sharp enough to leave marks on the steel dome. This creature was rather well-defined, so Neave wasn¡¯t sure it even qualified as an abominid any longer. It was a mutant reptilian bear type of creature, and the power it packed was rather considerable. Neave estimated it to be on the upper end of the second step of the tinum path in threat. Perfect for testing out his new creation. The purple slime dropped into the chamber from a small hole from above, and the raging monster turned to it when it spotted it. It roared and rushed toward the tiny creature. The slime shrunk to the size of a pellet and jumped at impossible speed toward the monster. The moment it impacted its torso, it instantly expanded to over ten meters in size, sending the monster flying into the dome''s wall. The impact didn¡¯t seem to damage it much, but as it was about to regain itsposure, a slimy tentacle grabbed its leg. The monster was swung from one end of the dome to the other and repeatedly mmed into every surface in the chamber. Eventually, it managed to regain enough control to sever the tentacle and free itself, but the moment it did, yet another one came flying at it and shoved it into the wall. Suddenly, the tentacle detached from the slime, and the monster had to remove it from its skin to move freely again. But before it could, the slime tentacle began glowing a raging purple color until it exploded violently, smashing the creature into the wall again. Yet again, a tentacle grabbed it before it could recover and spun it around the slime''s body. The slime gradually shrank, and the speed at which the creature spun drastically elerated until it was yet again sent flying into the wall. Several globules of slime detached from the purple slime and flew like arrows toward the creature, exploding on impact and causing severe damage. A sharp pulse struck the creature directly into its midsection, and its stomach was split open. The slime shrunk yet again and barrelled straight into the open gash on the creature''s midsection, where it sank directly into its body. The creature shambled around helplessly, bones cracked and body crushed, as it tried to regain its bearing. Suddenly, its stomach began expanding. The slime grew several times its size, exploding the monster''s body and sttering guts all over the chamber. Neave returned to his body and screamed in joy, ¡°Again! I have to try something else out!¡± He returned to the slime body and sent a tentacle to the wall of the chamber, where it attached to arge handle, and opened a smaller chamber connected to the bigger one. A simr creature, slightlyrger than the previous one, immediately came rushing out, bolting directly toward the smell of blood. The slime stood still as Neave waited for the creature toe close. Once it did, a sharp pulse suddenly cut a delicate incision on the creature''s stomach. A tiny,pressed globule of slime immediately shot directly into the opening. The creature''s body lit up with a purple glow, its entire torso puffed outwardly and then slowly deted. Smoke rushed out of every orifice on its body, and it shambled for a few more steps until it dropped dead. Neave yet again returned to his body, giggling in ecstasy. Looks like the sses would synergize rather well, after all. Chapter 120: Golemcraft Chapter 120: Golemcraft Saterony sprawled out on the ground. He could hear nothing but the distant clings of ss shrubs and see nothing but the murky darkness of the sky above. He wanted tosh out. Anger overflowed in his body, and he wanted revenge, retribution for what had been done to him. His creator, the ¡®Great God¡¯ mad with power, had been everything he truly had. Without him, he had nothing. Nothing at all. It wasn¡¯t long until thoughts of taking his own life sparked in his mind. It wouldn¡¯t be easy. Death didn¡¯te lightly to those in the subdivinity stage, even when they truly desired it. However, he didn¡¯t really want to die. He wanted to live. Now, his chance of getting a shot at life was wasted. Gone, like any light that had once been in this wretched realm, and it was a question of whether it had ever existed in the first ce. He couldn¡¯t stop his mind from drifting to the horrifying human Astrador wanted him to kill. Neave. What a strange being he was. Sateron had loads of information injected directly into his mind. Knowledge of the world atrge, of the free, infinite realms that expanded throughout the universe. Part of him wondered whether he would be happier if he had never known about green pastures and lush forests. If he had never known of expansive seas and blue skies. Which begged the question. Why did those humans willingly enter this realm? Perhaps to them, this realm was as fantastical as the outside was to Sateron. Or maybe they just didn¡¯t care, given that nothing truly stopped them from leaving whenever they wanted. What to think? What to do? Existence felt like such a painful thing to Sateron. All was void of joy and hope, yet he still craved living. That was simply irrational. It would perhaps be best to end himself, after all. But¡­ How? Food wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Anyone at the subdivinity stage could survive indefinitely without food. Water would be a problem eventually, but not after a long time. He closed his eyes contemtively and confirmed it. No matter how far he dug, he couldn¡¯t find a true desire for death. If he was already choosing to live, to remain here, he shouldn¡¯t be musing about such foolish stuff anyway. Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Sateron got up. ¡°Well then¡­ If I¡¯m staying here¡­ I suppose I could look for a way out.¡± *** Several bear-like reptile mutants rushed at the slime avatar, and Neave swung his tentacles. The creatures were torn apart and blown up from the inside in seconds. The slimy avatar slithered into one of the bodies, possessing it by spreading the tentacles through the creature''s veins, and Neave fought the other monsters by manipting one of the corpses It was a wildly inefficient strategy, as Neave couldn¡¯t muster even a fraction of the creature''s strength. Still, it was rather hardcore, and Neave could easily imagine it being an incredible scare-tactic back in the real world. The creatures were torn apart eventually, and Neave processed their bodies into slime feed. The slime could eat things on its own, and its digestion had improved drastically. Neave¡¯s energy maniption skills allowed him to manually purge the slime¡¯s body of impurities, but that was slower and less efficient than just using his own blood. Neave was happy with the slime, and there wasn¡¯t anything that immediately came to his mind regarding improving the creature. He wanted to experiment further and begin the construction of the secondbat avatar, but he had to dy this for now. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t do it, but none of the monsters he had created yet felt good enough. Neave wanted something truly special, like this slime. It was a creation that felt right and yed a peculiar, distinct role. Its perception was excellent, and it was perfect for handlingrge numbers of weaker opponents. Neave wanted all his avatars to y a certain function, a specific role. They had to be something special, otherwise, the value of creating them and the utility of wasting attention on controlling them would drop. He had briefly tested manipting five temporary avatars simultaneously, which was crazy difficult. Neave had to manually swap attention between the five of them at insane speeds, rapidly leaving him feeling disoriented and nauseated. Even with much practice, manipting seven avatars inbat wouldn¡¯t be easy. And it would only be worth doing if there was a point in having seven to begin with. If he just had seven avatars that fulfilled the exact same function, he would be better off entirely focusing on only two than wasting his attention on using all of them at once. There was no shortage of ideas for what to do, but it could wait for now. There was something essential he had to do first. *** Neave appeared in the main chamber, finding Harel in the middle of a hardcore exercise session. Nobody else was to be seen. ¡°Yo, Harel!¡± She lifted the barbell and returned it to the rack with a ng, and she turned to face Neave, ¡°Oh! Why are you here?¡± ¡°... I never said I would be disappearing, did I?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ You didn¡¯t?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that I didn¡¯t. Either way, where are the others?¡± Harel shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Everyone is kind of off doing their own thing.¡± ¡°Uh-huh¡­ I see. Well, I¡¯ll be around here for a while, so you feel free to do your own thing too.¡± She nodded at him and returned to doing exercise. Neave hopped outside for a bit and rushed to a nearby cave in search of more of that metal. Once he gathered quite a bit, he returned to the main chamber, dropping a ton of it on the ground. Harel perked up, ¡°What are you doing?¡± Neave turned around with a grin, ¡°I¡¯ll be making golems.¡± ¡°What!? You can make golems?¡± ¡°I know a lot of the theory, as I had spent much time learning alchemy.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing! How many do you think you can make? How powerful can you make them?¡± Neaveughed slightly at that, ¡°I don¡¯t know, hahaha, probably pretty powerful.¡± ¡°Can I watch?¡± ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t mind. You want to try learning something?¡± ¡°No, but I might make a suggestion or two.¡± He grinned and shook his head. Golem creation. It was a massive discipline, and its potential was truly immense. The power of golems was limited, naturally, but they had many unique advantages. The first was numbers. You could use as many as you could make, really, as long as you could create propermand inscriptions. Next, they didn¡¯t require food and could stand guard somewhere indefinitely. And finally, destroying them was a serious challenge. They were slower and weaker than cultivators, naturally, but metal constructs sure could take a punch. Neave took a deep breath. Harel stared at him in confusion as he focused, ¡°What are you doing now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really have all the materials I need, unfortunately. I¡¯m trying to think of alternatives or perhaps a way to find those materials anyway.¡± ¡°What do you need?¡± ¡°Tons of shit.¡± Neave sighed, ¡°Certain types of crystals are needed if I want to engrave certain functions, and I need higher-tier metals. The first won¡¯t be a massive problem, as I can mostly rece them with ss from the ss shrubs. The second one, however¡­¡± ¡°I see¡­ You did mention once that this realm had only mundane materials.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Technically the ss shrub ss isn¡¯t fully mundane. It is only quasi-mundane. It is in the same rung as ordinary monster hides or bones. Essentially, it''s mundane material, but the remnant spirit inside it allows it to surpass the value of its rank.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you breed monsters and use their body parts, then?¡± Neave shook his head and knocked on the obsidian tiles on the floor, ¡°You may have noticed that I use obsidian for these tiles and not ss. Have you ever wondered why?¡± ¡°Not really. I thought it was because the ss shrub would get angry at you.¡± Neave snickered at that, ¡°No, that¡¯s not why. It¡¯s because I have to purge the material of any remnant spirit before I can use alchemy techniques on it. The ss from the ss shrubs isn¡¯t ordinary, even without the remnant spirit, but it''s more fragile than the obsidian.¡± ¡°Wait, why didn¡¯t you use obsidian for Marven¡¯s weapon?¡± ¡°The ss is purer and many times more conductive to the power I ced in it.¡° Harel nodded, ¡°I see. So, what are you gonna do?¡± ¡°Whelp¡­ There is no way to stimte the optimal effect for standard practice.¡± He turned to her with a smirk, ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean I have to go by standard practice.¡± *** Neave decided to make the golems in the main chamber for a simple reason. It wasn¡¯t that dangerous, at least not whenpared to what he had been doing prior, and spending time here would at least let the others know he was alive. Also, he kind of liked having someone there to watch him work. Truth be told, he was hoping to find Dukean here. Partly because he was the only one who stood any chance of being helpful and partly because Neave simply liked Dukean. Talking to him was always fun, and regardless of his young age, the kid had some profound things to say. Harel was likely the worst person he could have encountered here. Perhaps Hunter would have been worse, but he would at least stay quiet. Not only was she unhelpful, but she was also honestly a distraction. It wasn¡¯t enough to hinder Neave in any noticeable way, however, so he didn¡¯t mind it. The moment Neave started with the first step of the process, he immediately encountered a massive advantage he had. The golem core, the primary energy unit, was usually created by making a round metal ball with a quasi-spirit inside. The main problem with this step, at least usually, was that tons of work had to be done to prevent the core from doing random shit and to ensure the object''s interference didn¡¯t hinder the golem¡¯s function. Neave could melt an empty spirit core, and make it perfectly round,pletely voiding both problems. The quasi-spirit¡¯s function in the core was to produce energy. The bigger the monster core used was, the more power the golem core could produce. This was the second major advantage he had. Neave could create a room-sized ball of spirit and use it as the core. This was where the advantages turned into problems, however. First, golem core inscriptions and the theory behind them were nned around the inefficiencies. Neave could somewhat piece together a functional set of inscriptions if he just went with all the ¡®if the core doesn¡¯t have this exact problem¡¯ methods, but that wouldn¡¯t be as straightforward as just putting them together. This nearly made him want to simply use a monster core, but that had an entirely different set of problems he was even less likely to solve. His second problem was theck of high-rank metal at his disposal. This was a critical issue. Alchemy couldn¡¯tpensate for low-rank metals. If that were possible, Neave could probably turn in iron into diamond-rank material. There was the sword he had thrown away, but that was neither metal nor enough material, to begin with. High-rank metal was necessary because Neave had to construct a set of veins that would act as a power conduit. Lower-rank veins simply couldn¡¯t transfer enough power, and mortal metals were abysmal at this task. There were a few other problems he had to tackle, and a lot of experimentation would be required. However, Neave grinned, despite the problems he had to face. There was a solution, one usually impossible to employ due to spiritual interference, but he had no such issue to face. Nothing was stopping Neave from cramming as many golem cores into its body as he wanted. Chapter 121: Divine Creation Chapter 121: Divine Creation Dukean faced a moderately sized earth golem, clutching the chain and twirling the sword around his body. It looked roughly humanoid, with bulky limbs and a head that was slightly toorge for its body, and it was quite a bit bigger than he was. Yet, it was weak. The shards of rock were effortlessly dodged and reflected by Dukean, and by his estimate, this creature would qualify to be around gold rank in threat, although it was on the weaker side. Monsters had been popping up everywhere, but neither he nor the others had fought all that many. It was simple. The creatures were just not that strong yet. It took a long time for a monster to reach tinum rank in threat. However, this creature did have one characteristic he was happy to exploit. It was tough. And that meant he could at least test some of his power if he held back enough. Dukean dashed backward and threw the sword forward. The chain instantly extended, whipping out like a snake, and the de struck the golem right in the middle of its torso. The impact shattered half of the golem¡¯s upper body, blowing an entire arm off and exposing the core. It dropped dead on the ground soon after. The chain sluggishly retracted as Dukean stared at the creature in disappointment. ¡°Are you kidding me¡­?¡± This weapon simply defiedmon sense. It was mundane metal, yet the sheer might of the quasi-spirit inside was enough to qualify it topete against¡­ Well¡­ Any weapon Dukean had ever seen. The speed and force with which it could extend and retract were frightening, andbined with his well-practiced control of the weapon, it increased hisbat capabilities many times over. He briefly checked the core, and finding nothing of value, he didn¡¯t bother picking it up. Some monster would soone along, so he may as well let it consume it. Once again, he found himself admiring the construction of the weapon. The mundane metal was a w, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as critical as he would have assumed. Its properties were boosted far beyond what such a metal should be capable of, and it had qi conductivity Dukean thought was impossible. It was to the point where his qi flowed through the weapon as if it were his own body, no, perhaps even better. Sure, thecking power of the metal did mean that one¡¯s qi techniques received no boost to their power, and that was a shame, but the weapon itself had an ability that was mighty enough to somewhatpensate for that. There was another w, although perhaps calling it a fault was somewhat unfair, as it had been his decision to use this weapon. True strikes were still beyond him, as the weapon was highlyplicated. Thus, executing a near-perfect strike was quite tricky. Despite the long period they had spent inside the spirit realm, nobody had executed a true strike against Neave and not even against one another. It was shocking that it hadn¡¯t happened even once, at least by ident, but it made sense when he thought of it a bit. Against Neave, they were always on the defensive, and those habits seemed to have extended well into their one-on-one bouts. Actually, that was mighty impressive since that meant that none of them had ever allowed their opponent the luxury of attempting a perfect strike. Besides Marven, that was. He had to face Neave, after all. The level at which their skills were currently was monstrous. The others didn¡¯t seem to realize just how capable they were now. Nobody couldpete with them at the same power level, even the two with rtivelycking talent. A vast repertoire of movement techniques and countless years of experience using them? It was frightening, yet¡­ Dukean couldn¡¯t stop a massive grin from appearing on his face. He looked to the sky, sword hanging to his side, chains coiled like a snake, impatiently waiting for an opponent worthy of its de, ¡°Mother¡­ We will finally have our revenge.¡± *** Hunter held his shield in front of him and his longsword behind him, in a low grip, ready to strike. He ran toward a wall, jumping a few times, seemingly floating off the ground. In mere moments, he elerated to quite the speed and rammed the shield into a wall. Cracks spread all around it, and the cave shook. Hunter dragged the shield out of the wall, and Gabrias pped, ¡°That¡¯s incredible!¡± The tall man was quite the pleasantpany, Hunter had learned. Throughout their countless fights, they had gotten to know each other rather well, and truthfully, there had never been someone he considered a friend more than he did Gabrias. Admittedly, his personality was a little weird, and he had a passionate reverence for Neave to the point where he nearly deemed him a god. Well, it wasn¡¯t that strange, and Hunter could see where he wasing from. He still found it so weird; every time he thought of it, it felt so incongruous. This was the same kid as the one he had been beating up his entire life? It felt so surreal. And, honestly, quite scary at times. Hunter didn¡¯t have the same reverence for Neave as Gabrias, but he was afraid of him. Neave had repeatedly reassured him that he didn¡¯t care about the past, but that was barely soothing, given how crazy he was. He was broken out of his thoughts as Gabrias spoke, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± ¡°Oh, sorry, nothing. Say, do you want to test your bow against my shield?¡± ¡°That¡­ Are you sure you¡¯ll be fine?¡± ¡°Yeah, this thing is sturdy. Don¡¯t tell me you believe I would fall to someone like you?¡± ¡°Lord Neave¡¯s creation is not to be underestimated, Hunter.¡± ¡°Uh¡­ Right. Give it a shot anyway.¡± Gabrias shrugged a pulled the bow off his back. His fingers gripped the tight wire of the longbow, and he seized it with all his strength. The bow was drawn back, and rapidly, a giant arrow of ice manifested, nocked to its entire length. He released the arrow, and it flew at Hunter, who readied himself. The arrow struck the shield, and the sh pushed Hunter back a little. However, as the arrow shattered into a fine powder, a frigid gust of wind washed over him, rapidly cooling the shield and freezing the surface of his body. Hunter found himself frozen stiff, and even the ground around him was covered in ice. Gabrias rushed forward, panicked and worried about Hunter. However, the frozen teenager¡¯s eyes shot wide open, and he stared behind Gabrias in fright. The tall man turned around,ing face to face with a rather nasty abominid. He instantly reacted by firing an arrow, surprisingly hitting the creature''s head. The arrow itself didn¡¯t sink all that deep, but the creature¡¯s entire head, and most of its body, froze at the contact of the chilling object. Gabrias turned around, rushing at Hunter again with panic in his eyes, checking his body to ensure he was alright. The ice thawed gradually, and Hunter regained some movement in his body. ¡°Sh¨CShit¡­ I¨CI co¨Ccould ask Ne¨CNeave to fi¨Cfin¨Cfind me an ice resistance spi-spirit po-power.¡± Gabriasughed awkwardly, yet, Hunter could tell that there was a hint of ¡®told you so¡¯ in his eyes. Yeah¡­ These weapons were definitely not to be underestimated. *** Marven had been running around, checking the situation in the surrounding area. Neave had brushed it off far too quickly, but Marven feared the return of the diamond-path assassin. It was aplicated situation, yes, but Marven still firmly believed that that kid should have been executed. They didn¡¯t know how he had appeared out of thin air like that, and if he could repeat that trick, any of them could be dead instantly. The concern that the kid would explode was a little absurd, in his opinion. And even if he did, Neave certainly had more than one way to kill him from a safe distance. There was, of course, always the possibility of some sort of curse being released upon his death, but that was less of a threat than the intruder''s freedom and potential return. He hadn¡¯t spotted the assassin or any signs of his presence anywhere. The demons were nowhere to be seen, either, which wasn¡¯t the best news, if he was being honest. Those creatures were up to something, and they wouldn¡¯t find out what the easy way. The monsters were spreading like wildfire, and ironically, those would be the least of their problems. Just as all the others were, Marven was quite excited to get the opportunity to test his new skills and power. Perhaps more so than any of the others. He had been stuck at the same point for so long that it felt damn liberating to grow a bit. And he hadn¡¯t developed by a bit, either. Marven went through the caves, utilizing potent movement techniques to flutter around like a ghost. Eventually, he appeared before the main chamber and made his way inside. *** Harel stared at Neave in shock. She watched the entire process of his work, and it was genuinely bewildering. Dozens of ss balls sat on the floor, all lined with incredibly intricate inscriptions. Every one of those balls had a terrifyinglyrge ball of spirit melted into them, and she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what Neave was nning to make. At first, she thought he was stacking up on the cores to make dozens of golems. However, as he began working on the golem¡¯s body, she quickly realized that that wasn¡¯t the case. Was he making a single freaking golem? Was it even possible to use that many cores for this? Also, the body was something Harel had never seen before. Golems usually looked vaguely humanoid. And by vaguely, that meant they just had two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. This thing¡¯s body would be frighteningly humanoid. In moments, Neave constructed countless intricate bits and pieces, and upon testing them, they came together to form almost artistic body parts, arms of pure metal with manyplex joins and slips that damn-near perfectly resembled a human limb. Neave clicked his tongue and groaned every few seconds, but at the speed at which he worked, any ¡®problem¡¯ he encountered was seemingly instantly rectified. Soon, he manipted several pieces of branches over to him and began shaping tiny crystals in different shapes and sizes. He would be done shaping the object and engraving it instantly, and he immediately moved on to using alchemy techniques to somehow alter the material. He used dozens of techniques per second, and the shes of color almost made Harel feel nauseated. The way he inscribed the object was also terrifyingly efficient. His tendril of liquid spirit, manipted by his life force, would worm its way into a chunk of metal. Pieces of that metal would swiftly melt, and thinner-than-hair threads of the metal would fly off the lump and line the surface of anything he needed to inscribe. As for the pieces of the golem¡¯s body, of which there were thousands, he inscribed runes directly onto their surface. Soon enough, arge pile of parts was neatly arranged around him. Neave began assembling the golem¡¯s body. At a speed that sounded like whips fluttering through the air, Neave grabbed one piece after another and assembled them with incredible precision. Sevenrge cores were arranged in the middle of the torso. All of them seemed interconnected by thin metal tendrils, for whatever reason, and tons of tiny pieces of ss shards were arranged as well. Neave¡¯s clicking got significantly more frequent, and he had to disassemble the whole thing dozens of times and put it back together to achieve whatever he was trying to do. All of this didn¡¯t even take a minute. Gradually the inside of the torso was arranged in a way that he seemed to be mostly happy with, and he closed it, assembling an insanely intricateyer of pieces that appeared to be stimting muscles, with metallic tendons connecting the muscles to the joints that wouldter move limbs. Every piece of the golem¡¯s body had a tiny ss shard embedded in it, and every major muscle had a core in the middle that was intricately interconnected with all the other centers and minor pieces. Once he was done with the torso, Neave groaned loudly and disassembled the entire thing again, starting from the beginning. This time, an additionalyer of impossibly dense threads was added to the mix, and it seemed to be leading to right about every piece of the golem''s body several times over. He groaned and disassembled everything again, this time creating another pile of immensely tiny crystals that apanied the thick ropes of threads. A massive collection of tiny metallic threads was converging into a giant ss prism just below the golem¡¯s neck, which would likely be connected to the head. Harel was mesmerized as she watched Neave assemble the head. The object was far moreplex than the torso, and Neave was almost constantly groaning as he assembled and reassembled the head of the golem. A supremely intricate collection of crystals was arranged in the golem¡¯s head, and Neave seemed to be stumped on how to assemble it correctly. Soon enough, however, he finished, then proceeded to the limbs. By the end, the entire golem looked like a metallic human. Once finished, Neave groaned again and proceeded to disassemble the entire thing. What the hell is he doing!? Harel couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. Even worse, as she watched him do the entire process again, she couldn¡¯t evenprehend what he was doing differently this time. Once he was done, he freaking disassembled it again! Harel fell over in shock and barely regained herself as Neave put the thing together again at zing speed. Once he was done, he harrumphed and dered, ¡°Bit crude, but good enough.¡± What a monster! ¡°What do you mean by crude!? I¡¯ve never seen anything this intricate in my life!¡± ¡°Hmm? Well, no, it¡¯s crude as hell. Even a wild golem is more flexible than this thing.¡± ¡°What the...!? You do know those are living creatures, right? That¡¯s your standard!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s merely a benchmark.¡± Harel looked around for anyone, hoping to find someone who could tell her she wasn¡¯t losing her mind. Marven walked in at this moment, staring at the thing on the ground with bulging eyes, ¡°Neave, dear heavens, what is that thing!¡± ¡°Oh, hey, Dad, this is a golem!¡± ¡°I¡­ Oh lord.¡± Harel stared at the thing in disbelief and turned to Neave, ¡°Why is it soplex?¡± ¡°Thank you for asking, dear Harel! Usually, golems use one energy core and onemand core. And the number of joints they have is kept to a minimum to make the inscribing process of themand core as straightforward as possible. I¡¯m sadly limited by the materials at my disposal, so I can¡¯t make the energy conduction veins fill the necessary criteria. They¡¯re made of mundane material. Thus, they can¡¯t bear the burden of too much energy. ¡°Now, usually, themand core and the energy core are connected to one another, and together they connect to all the joints. Due to the sheer number of joints this golem has, as it can move its limbs at any angle and even spin them around, and due to the number of energy cores andmand cores, I had to connect every single one mutually. This made for an exponentially vast number of connections, and I messed up the order quite a few times. ¡°Also, I had to manually construct an intricate perception system, as it couldn¡¯t utilize spirit senses due to the low-rank material used. I ended up settling for a dual system. One that detects heat signatures and one that detects movement rtive to the golem¡¯s body. The problem with having both of those in the same body is that they tend to ovep rather frequently, and the movement-rted one has a few crucial weaknesses, such as the inability to detect room temperature objects that stick to the same position rtive to its body. It¡¯s unlikely anything will use such a strategy to avoid the golems, but I still built in a low-priority air-movement-detection system, just in case. ¡°As for themand core of the golem, I could have inscribed a simple, standard set ofmands, but nothing of thatplexity exists due to the number of joints. I ended up settling for a discriminant imitation system that learns from humanoid creatures in its range of perception with manually built-in discrimination for movements that are clearly unsuitable for maneuvering orbat. ¡°That on its own isn¡¯t enough, as its peculiar body has capabilities of a range of movement far greater than us. So, I created a system that will only realize its full potential farter, once more of them exist and once they have enough enemies. Simply put, the golems employ a set of semi-random movements inbat, and depending on the estimated effectiveness of those movements, they decide whether they would replicate that movement again if they found themselves in a simr scenario ¡°Given enough time, the golems would learn how to fight in nearly any situation, as they ount for the environment, number of enemies, body shape of enemies, heat signature, attack patterns, attack power, frequency, precision, and order, as well as how long thebat scenariosted. The golems can, through touch, exchange information onbat experience and teach the others what they know. ¡°There is some other minor stuff about partial self-repair and system hierarchy that would take too long to exin. Sadly, they¡¯re a bit too fragile due to their peculiar construction, so I must give them some damn sturdy armor. So¡­ What do you guys think?¡± As he turned to them, he saw the ck-jawed, wide-eyed expressions on their faces. ¡°Uh? Hello?¡± Despite waving at them, they seemed stuck in some sort of stupor. Suddenly, Marven started chuckling, which turned to wildughter, quickly joined by Harel as well. Marven cackled merrily, pping his thighs as he kept getting redder and redder in his face, ¡°Hahaha, hey Harel, do you think we qualify as something like heavenly messengers ourselves?¡± ¡°I say yes!¡± Neave stared at them quizically, wondering whether this ce had driven them more insane than he realized. Chapter 122: Schemes Chapter 122: Schemes The ck shores roiled. The sea of tar morphed as the dark liquid rose. Then it lowered. A creature, bathed in pitch ck, crawled out of the depths and dropped to the dark soil. The abominidy there, unmoving. And when it got up, it didn¡¯t fumble. Now, it had a purpose. It had a goal. It was no mere livestock. It had be yet another agent of vengeance. But. One step at a time. As it moved, the ck substance dried on its skin and chipped off, leaving the same ugly surface beneath. Its skin was a patchwork of mismatched furs, and its seven limbs that resembled neither legs nor arms barely carried it forward. But it pushed on. Exhaustion had long overtaken it, as the ck sea was no ce for its kind. There was no energy. There was no substance to drive it forward. So it crawled toward it, teetering on the edge of copse. Eventually, it sensed a faint hint of turbulence in the air. There were vague hints of spirit, vestiges of life force, and the winds carried the familiar sense of potential within. It was faint, distant, and oh-so-weak, but enough to sustain it. Its spirit, a morphing center roughly resembling a crystal, greedily absorbed the ambient energy. And it was taking more than its fair share. The creature fumbled and copsed, unable to keep moving forward. The crystal core siphoned more and more energy from the air, and rather than fight it, the abominid rejoiced. The center expanded and rounded, shedding some excess substance. Two of its limbs and a small part of its side suddenly detached from its body, carrying the core pieces within. Its body morphed and twisted, turning from an indistinct mass of limbs and flesh into something resembling a crooked animal, its four limbs carrying it forward and one extra attached to its back. Its skin was no longer mismatched but merely colorful. And it had even formed a head, one with eighteen eyes and two sets of jaws. The pieces that broke off morphed and roiled, turning into children that were much like it used to be. They were oblivious to their origins, and teaching them vengeance would be cruel, weak, and helpless as they were. However, their legacy would be carried onward as the abominid consumed them one by one, incorporating their power into its own. Its body was reinvigorated and full of energy, and it ran. Slowly, the energy density around it grew, and it ran faster and faster. *** Astrador stood, surrounded by eight ghostly, pearly white figures. With a slight tremor, he lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. The eight figures instantly solidified and turned from ethereal shadows to solid white. They had no features, facial or otherwise, and resembled nk mannequins in the shapes of ordinary men and women. The nk servants. These were nothing special. Any backwater god could materialize hundreds without batting an eye. It was difficult in this ce, but it wasn¡¯t a considerable investment of power, not much more than it would be outside. However, he did invest extra effort into creating them, as ordinary ones wouldn¡¯t be enough for the mission. The nk servants were not of much use and were only used for low-level tasks and household maintenance. Some hick demi-gods even dared use them as some sort of disy of power. nk servants were nothing but an imitation of humans, having a stimted soul instead of a real one. They had no desires, no emotions, no spark. They had no needs either. They simply were, and they did as they were told. Granted, without that spark, they were rather useless. The power they could possess was limited, as realizing potential was impossible without desire. However, they did do as they were told. Just in case, Astrador ced a hand on each of them, checking for any possible interference. As their souls were false, they weren¡¯t invible, and he could easily peer inside and see whether anything that didn¡¯t belong could be found there. He breathed out a sigh of relief. These would do their job properly, without any chance of that thing¡¯s interference. It wasn¡¯t yet time for them to move, however. Astrador tapped one of them on the forehead, and it ran off. They had the physical characteristics of someone in the nascent divine spark stage, or rather, as the lower realm rubes called it, the golden path. That would be enough for one to fulfill its mission for now. The others would wait. Astrador sat down and focused. Yet again, eight indistinct figures appeared around him. *** Off in a random cave, a golem stood before Neave. There were no monsters nearby, as Neave specifically moved to an empty area. The golem stood perfectly upright and seemed to have no intention of moving anywhere. Neave walked over to it and gave it a light tap. A small technique lit up, sending a yellow pulse through the golem''s body, and it started to move. It turned right and began walking. Neave jumped in front of it, waving his hands. That didn¡¯t get the golem to stop, but it did try to imitate his movements. ¡°Oh fuck! I didn¡¯t build in any reason for them to stop fucking moving!¡± It seemed that it would never end once the golem began its patrol. It would still asionally stop and observe its surroundings, but that happened entirely randomly or when it perceived something it had no built-in response for. This meant that Neave¡¯s n of teaching the golem a few things would have to be done on the run. Neave stood before the golem and walked backward as he tried making a series of movements it would imitate. And the golem imitated him indeed¡ªby walking backward. ¡°No, not like that!¡± He walked forward, and the golem eventually began walking forward as well. As Neave went back, it started imitating him again, and eventually, the golem began to walk back and forward repeatedly. ¡°... At least it''s not moving far.¡± That was about as close to standing as he could get it to do, which was perfect to teach it some other stuff. Neave kept trying to teach the golem how to dobat stances or how to strike, but all it ended up doing was half-starting those movements and immediately canceling them, as patrolling took priority in the hierarchy of its systems. There was one way to rectify this and one way alone. Neave struck the golem, throwing a rock at it, and it immediately stopped. That instantly moved the hierarchy of thebat controls above patrolling, and it got into a preprogrammed stance to face Neave. Neave summarily kicked its ass, doing his best not to damage the golem in any way. Yet, it didn¡¯t seem willing to imitate anything he did. ¡°Oh yeah, it must first stopbat and restart it again to apply what it had learned.¡± Thus, Neave disappeared, letting the golem run around for a few minutes until it began patrolling again. Once it did, Neave once again appeared before it. This time, the stance it got into was a little different. It bent forward and put one of its arms behind its body. And kept doing that until its body was balled up and its arm wrapped around its torso. Neave kicked the golem and smashed it to bits, ¡°Fucking piece of shit!¡± Should he just stick to a standardmand center? It wouldn¡¯t be optimal, but he had learned several high-level premade inscriptions for golem cores that would at least do a passable job. However, with only mundane metals avable and without special crystals, it would never be more than a shadow of the golems those inscriptions were designed for. And he wasn¡¯t sure he could get them to work with multiple cores, to begin with. Neave stood above the golem and bent over to pick up the broken parts, trying to salvage whatever he could. However, as he bent forward, he suddenly saw the ground rush up and hit him in the head. Hey dazed on the ground, unsure of what was happening. Suddenly, he jolted and stood up. Had he just copsed? ¡°Hahahaha¡­ No¡­ It isn¡¯t that bad¡­ Right?¡± His arm shook. This couldn¡¯t go on forever. It had been a long time since he hadst slept, and whatever that was doing to his body, mind, and spirit wasn¡¯t willing to wait for that much longer. Taking a deep breath, he forced his tremors away and opened his eyes wide. ¡°No sleep.¡± There was no way he would allow himself to go unconscious. It was to the point where he would rather die first. But it was too early. The others weren¡¯t there yet, and he hadn¡¯t learned enough. As it stood, they couldn¡¯t face the messenger and get away with their lives. Hell, they didn¡¯t even have the most basic of ns. However¡­ This wasn¡¯t something he could just shrug off, either. Yet again, he sat on the floor and cleared his mind. Focusing on the inner flow of his body he¡­ Instantly, his arm shot off and smashed into his leg, crushing his femur, ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!¡± He had been way too close to falling asleep just then. His leg recovered, and he got up, pacing around the room. There was an intense pull on his eyelids, and his entire body felt weak. There was no way around it. He had to find a solution. ¡°Wait!¡± Neave yet again got into a seated position. There was one thing he could do, and he cursed himself for not realizing sooner. Rxing and closing his eyes, he summoned the slime avatar and possessed its body. Then, he turned around and watched his body slowly fall asleep as fatigue washed over it. Eat shit! Who said I had to be unconscious to be unconscious!? The slime jiggled, and Neave manifested arms to flex them in front of his sleeping body. Suddenly, he froze. And watched his unconscious body begin moving on its own. Chapter 123: Invasion Chapter 123: Invasion When Neave spotted his body moving independently, he swapped his consciousness back. Or so he tried. But it didn¡¯t work. A tentacle extended from the slime, and Neave picked up his own body, smashing it dozens of times into the floor and the ceiling. He wasn¡¯t doing any damage whatsoever, and whatever stopped him from returning to his body wasn¡¯t gone. Suddenly, the arm of his body shot out and severed the tentacle, and he saw it try to turn around to run away. Oh, hell no, you don¡¯t! Hopping at immense speed, hetched onto his body, spreading tentacles to try to invade it from the inside. Whatever controlled his body was muttering something, but Neave didn¡¯t have the time or desire to listen to it speak. The moment a bit of the slime was inside the body, he severed it and detonated it, which caused it to inte a bit, but it didn¡¯t do any real damage. Neave manifested a giant arm out of slime and pped the soul, or whatever the hell was in his body, out of it. Thebination of the two attacks gave him an opening, and he grasped it to switch back to his body. Once inside, he immediately burned a ton of life force, partially in a desperate attempt to flush whatever was inside it and partially out of panic. His entire body lit up with a crimson me, and the whole cave around him shook, but whatever he was trying to achieve seemingly worked as he instantly felt his grip on his body return to full force. Coughing thick smoke, his charred body dropped to the ground. With a bit of deliberation on his part and with the insanely powerful regenerative capabilities of his body, his charred skin was regrown in seconds, and he got up again. ¡°Well, that woke me the fuck up!¡± What was that? Examining his body, mind, and spirit alike, he found nothing unusual about them. ¡°Wait a minute¡­!¡± The steel nerves spirit power! Was¡­ Was that it? The memorization aspect of that ability certainly worked even when unconscious, but¡­ Something like this had never happened before, none of the times he used his ability. ¡°Was it because I let the body fall asleep?¡± If so, what was the muttering about? ¡°...Neave!? Are you alright!?¡± Neave turned around,ing face to face with his father, ¡°Oh, what¡¯s up? I¡¯m fine, just had a minor mishap with one of my abilities.¡± Marven looked around the cave, witnessing the intense destruction, ¡°This was from a¡­ Minor mishap?¡± ¡°Why are you here, old man?¡± ¡°Well, I¡­ I felt powerful energy here just a moment ago and rushed to see what was happening¡­¡± ¡°Is that all? If so, then you can leave, its fine.¡± ¡°No, I¡­ I have something else to talk to you about.¡± Neave turned around to face his father, ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°About that assassin¡­ I¡­ To be honest, I think we should have killed him. Leaving him alive was far too reckless. I do not want to sound cruel or unnecessary, but¡­ If he returns again, we shouldn¡¯t simply let him go.¡± ¡°I agree.¡± Neave said casually. ¡°Oh¡­ You do?¡± ¡°Yeah. Diamond path too, tsk, I should have eaten the body, it would have given me so much.¡± Marven stared at Neave in shock, ¡°Eaten!? What are you talking about!?¡± ¡°Oh? No, I mean, even when eating human flesh, you still benefit from it. Didn¡¯t you know that?¡± ¡°That¡­ That¡¯s not the problem here!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem then?¡± Neave raised an eyebrow at his father. ¡°I¡­¡± Marven frowned and stepped closer, ¡°Are you being sarcastic?¡± Neave opened his mouth to speak, and judging by his expression, he was about to confirm that. Yet, he paused. His breath sped up, and Marven seemed concerned, ¡°Hey, Neave¡­ Are you alright?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m¡­¡± Suddenly, a tremendous headache entered his mind, and countless whispers invaded his consciousness. ¡°Neave!¡± Marven yelled, rushing to help him out. However, when he was about to touch Neave, his arm shot out and struck Marven in the chest, blowing him away directly into a wall. The old cultivator spewed blood and brought his hand over to his copsed lung, feeling it filling up with liquid as his broken ribs punctured it. By the time he raised his eyes again, Neave was already gone. *** ?????????????????? The constant, high-pitched whispers echoed endlessly in his mind as he ran through the caves. Every shadow, every turn in the endless maze of the underground felt like it hid horrors beyond hisprehension. Neave didn¡¯t understand what was happening but knew he had to escape. He had to find a way to¡­ TTTTTTTT ¡°Aaargh!¡± He gripped his head as he copsed on the floor, writhing in agony, ¡°Stay out of my fucking head!¡± His grip on his skull tightened and he felt it crack beneath his fingers, yet this somehow eased the headache instead of making it worse. He coughed red phlegm, and his pores oozed with blood, boiled by the energies roiling inside his body. This was bad. Every bit of foreign presence in his body thrashed maniacally, looking for anything to grip on. Luckily, his spirit was safe, but his body was being torn apart from the inside. Neave gritted his teeth so hard that the pressure caused some of them to explode, popping loudly and sending echoes through the cave. As he focused on the chaos unfolding inside his body, something in his spirit caught his attention. Instantly, Neave moved into his spirit realm, and what he found was¡­ ????????? There was nothing. Yet, he could sense it. He could sense slithering at the very edges of his spirit realm, and all of them at that. Coiling. There was a vast number of ?????? A sharp pain went through his spiritual manifestation, and he found shadowy tendrils of darkness coiling around him. He turned around, only to spot ?????????????????????????????? *** Neave opened his eyes, back in reality, and hurriedly, he rushed into the spirit realm again. What the hell had happened? Back inside, he looked around, and what he spotted left him¡­ Confused. There were golems. ¡°... Huh!? What the fuck!?¡± A collection of earth golems was running around, pummeling one another to bits as Neave watched in consternation. No¡­ There was something else. The air was moving too! ¡°Air golems!?¡± Unsure what to do, Neave swiftly killed all the golems off, dispersing the air and smashing the rock. The moment he was sure none were left, he focused, finding nothing unusual in his spirit. No¡­ There was one thing. Something had changed. Off in the far edges of his spirit realm, the strange presence that had once felt so distant and unreachable, now felt as if it were a bit closer to the border. However, as he observed, it was clear that it was rapidly receding, and soon enough, it once again disappeared into the outside of his spirit realm. And the slithering that he had felt before was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, Neave went back to reality to make sure everything was alright. Finding nothing around him besides his mangled body and arge puddle of blood, he returned back to the spirit realm. He wouldn¡¯t rest until he made absolutely sure everything was okay. *** After an unknown time, Neave finally sat down on the soil. He had checked every corner, stepped over every inch of the spirit realm, which was quite massive, and yet found nothing. As he sat down, he breathed a sigh of cautious relief and returned to reality. His body was healing rapidly, so he ignored the injuries and got up. As he tried walking, however, he realized that his body wasn¡¯t just a little messed up. Every part of it was shredded, burned, or otherwise damaged, to the point where he could barely move. A quick fix with some life forceter, he could move his body by manipting it with shapeshifting. For a moment, he thought about using the slime to transport his body, but he didn¡¯t dare do that. Slowly but surely, following the path of destruction he had left in his wake, he made it back to the ce where he had injured Marven. Before he could get there, and way before he coulde up with excuses or justifications, he spotted his father running toward him. Neave¡¯s mind exploded with possibilities, and he braced himself for a fight. He would restrain his father, then carefully exin all that had happened. Maybe with all of that, he would¡­ Before he could blink, Marven chained several movement techniques together and reached him, grabbing for his body and¡­ Hugged him firmly while crying his damn eyes out, ¡°Son! Oh dear heavens, are you all right!?¡± Neave froze, and felt his body rx a bit, as he meekly lifted an arm to pat Marven on the back, ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m fine.¡± *** It didn¡¯t take long for Neave¡¯s body to heal back to perfect health. He had to rather harshly tell Marven to back the hell away at some point, and now, they stared one another down. Marven¡¯s lung was already healed, which was unsurprising, given how insane his regeneration must be by this point. It wasn¡¯t even close to Neave¡¯s level, but his injury hadn¡¯t been nearly as bad either. They both tried to start the subject of what had happened several times, but it wasn¡¯t easy to bring up. Marven didn¡¯t want to pry, and Neave didn¡¯t know where to start. For Neave, this was aplicated subject to bring up. If the others knew that something was trying to take his damn mind over, apparently¡­ What would they think of him? Would they ever feel safe in his presence again? Marven spotted the slight frown on Neave¡¯s face, so he started another subject instead, ¡°I¡¯ve seen your strength in the spirit realm, where you don¡¯t have any powers¡­ But¡­¡± He carefully touched his chest, where he could still feel the punch Neave had delivered, ¡°That was far more powerful than I expected. It wasn¡¯t even a true strike.¡± Neave snickered a bit, ¡°It¡¯s ratherplicated.¡± He got up, raised his arm, and threw a punch into empty air, emitting a sharp crack, ¡°That was an ordinary punch without any active use of powers or boosts. My muscles are quite powerful, and my troll physique boosts my strength considerably. On top of that, I have the willpower of might spirit power that boosts my strength even without any interference.¡± He lowered his arm and then punched again. It looked almost the same, but it was considerably weaker this time, ¡°Did you notice anything unusual?¡± Marven raised an eyebrow, ¡°Yes, I did. That felt¡­ Off.¡± Neave nodded, ¡°That¡¯s because I didn¡¯t actually move at all.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t use any of my muscles. I can use my shapeshifting spirit power to stimte movement¡­ And I can do it simultaneously with real movement.¡± This time, he threw another punch, which was considerably faster than both previous ones, causing another sharp crack to emit through the air. ¡°... That must be quite hard to time together.¡± ¡°It is. Now, you got hit by a life-force-empowered punch coupled with shapeshifting maniption, nerves primed for movement, and willpower of might at a rather high capacity as I reacted violently.¡± ¡°You know, when you put it like that¡­ I say I¡¯m lucky to be alive.¡± That got both of them tough a bit. Marven got up, brushed some dust off his colorful robes, and started walking away. ¡°Where are you going, old man!?¡± His father turned around with a soft smile on his face, ¡°Am I not allowed to leave?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ But¡­¡± ¡°I know. Be careful, son.¡± Neave nodded, ¡°I will. And don¡¯te rushing at me like that next time.¡± With a sly grin, he added, ¡°You might not be as lucky as you were this time.¡± Marvenughed merrily at that and shook his head, ¡°Even at the cost of my life, son, be it this fake or the real one¡­ I won¡¯t stand aside when you¡¯re in trouble.¡± Neave paused a bit and nodded, and Marven waved at him as he left the cave. ¡°... Well, now.¡± Sitting on the ground, Neave reentered the spirit realm. ¡°Why the hell were there golems in my spirit realm?¡± Chapter 124: Hypocrisy Chapter 124: Hypocrisy Neave was afraid of very few things. And he was terrified of only one. A deep sense of unease washed over him when he returned to his spirit realm. It was so quiet. He had never realized it before, but the utter and absoluteck of sound was¡­ Unnerving. Once again, the moment he appeared, he kept his senses wide open for absolutely anything that stood out. The fact that he felt nothing left him feeling deeply unsettled. Encounters with the maniptor, as well as the statues all the way back in the loop, had a habit of messing with his recollection of what had happened. It was frustrating, and every time it happened, it left him feeling powerless¡­ Weak. Pathetic. Taking a deep breath, which didn¡¯t really achieve anything, given he was inside the realm, he refocused and observed. Anything, literally anything at all that felt even slightly unusual would satisfy him for now. Once again, he felt the unnerving feeling of the presence outside of his spirit realm. Neave perked up and rushed to his feet. No, he didn¡¯t just feel it outside. A tiny, near-negligible speck of that sensation was also in his spirit realm. The shock of the discovery left him so upset that his spiritual manifestation frayed for a moment. Clenching his fist, it reformed back to rity, and he walked toward the feeling. As expected, it was at the ce where he encountered the golems. There were several patches of dirt missing, creating small holes in the ground, and not too far, the piles that used to be the golems were lying still as well. Was something still hiding there? Slightly beyond his perception, in ayer beneath his spirit realm? Was the¡­? He walked forward. However, as he stood in the middle of the patch of ruined soil, he felt¡­ Well, whatever it was, it was in the immediate vicinity, that was certain, but try as he may, he couldn¡¯t feel precisely where it was while next to it. This reminded him of how it was easier to perceive the others from arge distance than it was when he was right next to them. Unable to figure out a way to peelyers of reality off, Neave settled for digging around in the dirt instead. However, when he reached for the soil, a tiny patch of it shifted. Instantly, Neave used a movement technique and backed as far away as possible. In mere moments, he was hundreds of meters away, and yet again, he could sense that something was there somewhere. So he walked closer, carefully, and looked directly at the patch of dirt that had shifted. It shifted again, and Neave steeled himself. He dug the earth, revealing¡­ Absolutely nothing beneath. However, just as he was about to start digging deeper, the patch of dirt he had removed shifted again, causing him to flinch a bit. ¡°...Don''t tell me?¡± As he got closer, his suspicions were verified. The patch of dirt itself was the thing that was moving. Because it was a golem. It was around the size of Neave¡¯s fist and seemingly incapable of anything more than slight shifting. Instantly, Neave violently crushed the piece of earth to power. ¡°Ew!¡± The idea of things living in his spirit felt¡­ Yuck. It was like having worms crawl out of your ass, he felt. Probably worse. It was just gross and unsettling. Well¡­ Now that he thought about it¡­ He froze. This was what he had been sensing? Neave turned in a random direction, staring off into his realm''s distant, fake skies. Then¡­ Beyond my spirit realm? Golems!? What the hell was happening? Neave sat down in a cross-legged stance and thought about everything he had experienced with the recent encounter. Once he entered the realm, something assaulted him. After that, he heard those violent whispers again, and his memory of the event cut off. However, as he regained himself, he noticed two things. First, golems were fighting right before him. And second, whatever was outside his spirit had half invaded it. But¡­ Wait. The thing that had invaded his spirit first, or rather, the maniptor, was also right before him and at the edge of his spirit¡­ He could feel himself shaking as a dark possibility sank in. Were the things outside of his spirit realm just an illusion? Was it the thing invading his mind but disguised? No¡­ That couldn¡¯t be it. If that were the case, even the golems would have been the maniptor in disguise, right? That was one crappy disguise since Neave had killed all of them when he spotted them. Something else was happening. And to realize what, he had to remember. Sitting down with his spiritual sensation shut off, Neave did his best to recollect what had happened. And utterly failed. He gripped his hair in frustration and scratched his scalp. Alright, then. New n. Rather than remember what had happened, how about instead, he tried guessing what he would have done in that scenario. Attacked, naturally. Likely jumped the thing before him and mmed it with a true strike. That didn¡¯t tell him all that much about what had happened at all. What if¡­ What if he had done something simr to the crimson strike? The thing where hebined life force into a true strike? That was hard to do, and replicating it manually seemed almost impossible. But he could totally imagine it happening in a moment of panic. Inside of the spirit realm, though¡­ Now that he thought about it¡­ What was that phenomenon anyway? Whenever he did it, it felt like the attack itself was alive, dictating its own oue. At first, Neave had thought that the peculiarities with it were simply due to the nature of the foreign life force in his body. But if there was something more to it? There was one thing that immediately came to mind. Ever since he had upgraded his absorb spirit power into integrate, there was something else he was absorbing whenever he ate a monster. Could it be remnant spirit? That was simply liquid spirit, but with a deeply rooted impression of the creature it was inside of. What if that liquid spirit was colored, sort of? The way monster cores were. Neave froze. ¡°Wait a fucking minute!¡± What the hell was that!? How had he never thought of this before!? Why was monster spirit colored? What was that color inside of it anyway? Neave got up and walked around, unable to sit still. The spirit he produced was nk. He had always thought, from the very beginning, that it was like the difference between dirt and a nt. The spirit he created was too homogenous and pure. It didn¡¯t have any peculiar properties. It was missing life. It was unliving, thus, missing the core property that usually gave it its power, its substance. Was that really just fucking it, though? That insinuated that spirit could be shaped in a sense. That it had a property past only size and geometric shape. But that wasn¡¯t the case. Even in the difference between dead dirt and a nt, the nt had a quasi-soul. It wasn¡¯t just dirt shaped like a nt. There was another key element to it. Neave materialized a bit of liquid spirit, and in his hands, a nt appeared. Or rather, it was merely in the shape of a nt. It wasn¡¯t alive. It was little more than an inert object in the form of a small sapling. However, the dirt had been alive. There was something that made even otherwise dead dirt move. Yet this nt remained unliving. It wasn¡¯t just the shape. It wasn¡¯t just the structure. There was something else he needed. A key he was missing. His mind rushed to the spiritual shimmer, to Astrador¡¯s reaction. Every part of him screamed that he was about to do something unimaginably stupid, but he ignored his own pleas. Qibined with life force and with a spiritual shimmer¡­ Neave generated the fourth spirit. *** The abominid sat unmoving, observing the distant clings of the ss shrubs. The mighty creature that grew and spread them through the realm could sense anything in that range. But outside of it, the abominid believed it was safe. Yet, it felt a strange sense of premonition. Something was wrong. Hesitantly, it used the thin ws on its limbs to unearth some soil. It encountered thin, ss roots radiating with power the moment it did. It froze. Carefully, it buried the roots, praying that whatever this creature was didn¡¯t sense its presence. Was it really safe here? It had been told that it should be wary of the ss shrub. Was this too close, then? Hesitantly, it decided to retreat just a bit. There were still roots beneath the soil, but the surface this creature covered must be positively enormous. There was no way it could always perceive everything in its range. Rather, there was another possibility. Could it be that it didn¡¯t care either way? It was too great of a risk to take. Besides¡­ There was plenty of energy in the air, even here. All it had to do, for now, was wait. Eventually, it would gather enough. *** The nk servant stood just outside the radius of the ss shrub¡¯s range of perception. It ceaselessly patrolled the surrounding area, and upon confirming no target presences within its range, it descended into the underground caves. Yet again, just a bit outside of the range, it stood and waited. Whenever the scope of the ss shrubs expanded, it took a step back, maintaining the exact distance necessary to avoid detection. Eventually, it could sense something approaching. Ponderously, a small slime hopped again and again. The nk servant stood unmoving, unperturbed. And soon enough, the small slime reached it, leaving the range of the ss shrub''s perception. The white being seized the slime instantly, ripping the core out of its body with a swift movement. Its torso opened, and it ced the small monster core inside, only to close it once again. One had been secured. It was time to return to the master. It turned around and ran out of the caves. *** Astrador sensed the nk servant enter the anchor, and a conflicted expression appeared on his face. Soon enough, it stood before him and handed him the disgusting object. It took all the willpower he had to prevent himself from crushing the core the instant he touched it. It felt beneath him to even look at it, let alone hold it like this. And yet, he was nning on using it as a weapon. Astrador couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. What a joke. Indeed, this was beneath the Great God. Yet, while the Great God of the Heavenly Realms wielded principles, Astrador the man wielded hypocrisy. Be it god or devil, at this level of power, there was no avoidingpromises. While the devils believed their little stunt with this abomination in his hands was a brilliant move, they should have known better. Nothing truly stopped him from using their weapon for his own purposes. And nothing could stop him from ensuring he achieved precisely what he wanted. Chapter 125: Combine Chapter 125: Combine Therge tree¡¯s leaves moved around in the wind, coiling its branches like snakes. A rabbit¡­ Walked upright to Neave¡¯s left, and a dog crawled like a worm. ¡°Something about this is kinda fucked up.¡± Turns out that using the fourth spirit inside of the spirit realm created golems. Or, well, it breathed life into anything he touched. Neave had a theory. He had likely spotted whatever invaded his soul, then panicked and defaulted to using the fourth spiritbo in self-defense. That did something to whatever was inside his spirit, and the residual turned nearby matter into golems. Now, at least, he had a rough idea about the stuff outside his spirit realm. The fourth spirit existed in some form inside monsters¡¯ bodies or perhaps in living creatures in general. It was the final link, the thing that gave spirit character. With integrate, Neave could likely absorb this substance into his body. This was a problem. Because he had absolutely no way to get it out. And judging by recent events, if some criteria was satisfied, it could invade, at the very least, the outer borders of his spirit realm. The problem was that Neave had no idea whether this substance was a good or bad thing to have in his body. Judging by how things had yed out, he was almost willing to assume that it had somehow helped him fight off the influence. Now, it was just a question of whether that was a ¡®killpetition¡¯ or ¡®repel invader¡¯ sort of deal. Many questions needed answering, but one stood out among them. These creatures around Neave seemed just wrong. It wasn¡¯t a mystery why, however. To begin with, the things he could create with liquid spirit were little more than shapes. If cracked open, all of these creatures he had created don¡¯t even remotely resemble their real-life counterparts. On the inside, these things don¡¯t have bones, muscles, tendons, nerves, veins, or anything. And real bodies are far moreplicated than even that. These things had nothing but mysterious, sticky red substance inside their body, and Neave assumed that was just filled in automatically somehow. After all, regardless of how massive his ego was, he couldn¡¯t even begin to dream about being capable of imagining an actual body and all of its intricacies. That was why these things were nothing more than golems, and the shape of a golem¡¯s body was little more than a suggestion as to how it should move. It felt super gross having living creatures inside his spirit realm, especially if it was these creepy fucking things. Even when the others were inside here, Neave felt strange anxiety and difort if they were left alone. Was that perhaps some sort of reflex reaction? Maybe he instinctively understood that having things living inside his spirit was a big no-no? Maybe, maybe not. Who knew? There was a second question that needed to be answered as well. Why the hell did the fourth spiritbo explode when used outside? Perhaps it couldn¡¯t exist independent of spirit? The problem was that this theory was something he would have to risk his life to confirm. Thatbination wasn¡¯t to be messed with in any circumstances. The destructive power of thebination was among the greatest Neave had ever seen. These problems aside, there was a bigger question on Neave¡¯s mind. How could he use this to his advantage? After all, this was precisely the sort of thing he intended to explore by entering the nightmare realm. The first idea that came to mind was to make a crap ton of golems to help him fight the spirit trial. This wasn¡¯t a bad idea at all, but it was¡­ Redundant. He didn¡¯t have any problems with doing the spirit trial himself, and currently, he didn¡¯t have any new powers he wanted to evolve or acquire. Hell, it was debatable whether he could even handle evolving any powers he had. As strong as he may be, potentially diamond-rank threats inside his spirit realm weren¡¯t a joke. The massive abominids only technically avoided qualifying as diamond-ranked threats. They were massive and overwhelmingly powerful, but their sheer number of weaknesses made them easy opponents to handle. Well, technically, there were still two powers he could evolve once each. He hadn¡¯t bothered getting the fire lungs to the dragon breath stage and crystal cardiovascr veins to the stasis stage. Actually, no, he also hadn¡¯t bothered evolving the hyper liver to its maximum capacity either, and it had two evolutions he could safely perform. So, if he wanted to try the fourth spirit out, he had the luxury of four rtively free attempts. It was still quite dangerous, but with his newly gained skill and power inside the spirit realm, Neave had no doubts that he could easily handle the full spirit trial, even if he fought it manually. A crazy, crazy idea sparked in his mind. True, he didn¡¯t need the fourth spirit to handle the spirit trial as it was at the moment. But what if he, let''s say, wanted to evolve a power further? What if he needed to get rid of diamond-ranked threats? The idea hadn¡¯te to mind until now, simply because it was so damn insane. But hadn¡¯t he defeated someone on the diamond path just recently? True, there was a night and day difference between doing that outside the spirit realm and inside it. But inside it, he had ess to this new, mysterious form of spirit. And Neave knew damn well just how useful spirit could be if used correctly. A grin spread wide on his face as he readied himself. It was time to see what it could do. First, he decided to test anything that came to mind before he tried it in a trial. Neave used liquid spirit to create a five-meter-tall golem of metal. He ced his hand onto the surface of the golem and imbued it with the fourth spirit. It began moving, and it did so precisely as he assumed it would. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± There was a slight problem. Neave used more of the fourth spirit on the creature and achieved¡­ Nothing. ¡°Crap.¡± It didn¡¯t seem to have a function of making things more powerful. Neave assumed that it simply made things alive, and then that was it. Once there was enough to make something move, its job was done. Just to be sure, Neave thought, he decided to pour as much of the spirit as possible into the creature. For a while, absolutely nothing of note happened. It didn¡¯t seem to be aggressive toward Neave, which was a good sign, he supposed. The other golems weren¡¯t aggressive toward one another either, which made Neave breathe out a sigh of relief. After all, the first time he saw golems here, they seemed rather bloodthirsty. Could that have resulted from contact with the thing invading his spirit? His idle thoughts were interrupted when finally, something changed. The golem started growing¡­ Indistinct. Its body began growing transparent, and he maintained an influx of the substance. It began morphing, sort of how liquid spirit looked when it was first materializing. Neave let go of the golem and observed it, expecting something to happen. Would it evolve? Gradually, the morphing stopped, and the golem reappeared, looking nearly identical to what it used to, with very few tiny details being just slightly different. ¡°Well¡­ That¡¯s disappointing.¡± However, it did give Neave an idea. It could be possible to imbue even the trial monsters with this substance. And if they also began morphing, that could be a weakness, or perhaps killing them in this state could be effortless. So Neave went back to the golem, imbuing it with more of the fourth spirit, which he had to name. What about¡­ sma spirit? It made sense in the context of the other spirits. Good enough. Once again, the golem morphed, and Neave threw a stone at it this time. Nothing happened. Eventually, the golem reappeared again. However, it looked drastically different. It had clear ents of stone mixed into its metal, likely as a byproduct of Neave throwing it at it. This didn¡¯t even weaken the golem, let alone destroy it. Perhaps if he threw something like acid or water at it, he would get a better result? This did beg the question, though. How would that affect the trial monsters? Would it perhaps even impact Neave¡¯s spirit powers? If it did, that could potentially be a disaster. Neave felt something touch his leg, and he turned to see the bunny golem lying on the floor after bumping into him. Hmmmmmmm¡­ Without much thought, Neave once again touched the golem. Once it began morphing, Neave threw the bunny golem at it and watched the morphing gradually disappear. ¡°Pfffff¨C! Hahahahahahahaha!¡± The thing that popped out was abination of the two golems. It was a sizeable metallic golem with paws and ears, and it was a little hunched forward. Once Neave was finally doneughing his ass off at the absurd sight, he got an insane idea. Could I do this to a trial monster? What if he grabbed one and meshed it with another? Neave doubted this would impact the spirit powers, but if it couldbine two opponents into one, it could theoretically make the trials way easier. It made a lot of sense as he thought about it. If he couldbine all of the creatures into one massive abominid, the trial would be a joke. Even if he did evolve all of his powers. This did beg a rather important question. What if it messed with the spirit powers somehow? This wasn¡¯t a particrly pleasant thought. The possibility of creating significant interference or outright ruining certain spirit powers was deeply unpleasant. Neave took a deep breath and thought about it. Was it worth trying this? It was a very high-risk, high-reward sort of deal. And he really wanted to try it. But he wouldn¡¯t do it haphazardly if he was doing it. After quickly running through his spirit powers, he finally settled on two. Hyper liver and durable organs were both powers he could do without. Now, durable organs wasn¡¯t bad, but it did interfere quite a bit with both hyper liver and superior troll physique. His liver, in particr, was the target of far too many spirit powers, so if he could ¡®lose¡¯ the hyper liver power, he would be thrilled. Not to mention that this could theoretically open the doors to recing these powers as well. Neave still didn¡¯t have a way to remove singr spirit powers. It was an all-or-nothing deal regardless of whether he used his method or the one provided by Astrador. If this could allow him to remove singr spirit powers¡­ That was easily enough to make it worth trying. *** Neave was shaking quite a bit. Tworge abominids, one much bigger than the other, were still moving while all other trial monsters were dead. To iste the two of them and keep them alive, he had to face the spirit trial manually. And oh boy, was it fun. And dangerous. He nearly died. Neave had far overestimated his abilities in the spirit realm, and this experience was rather humbling. It was finally time to try his experiment. With quite a bit of trepidation, Neave charged at one of the two abominids. They were both alive and kicking, so Neave had to forcefully eject the sma spirit into them while dodging many attacks. It took quite a while, but luckily, it was rtively easy. Eventually, both of the creatures began morphing. ¡°Well¡­ Shit.¡± He didn¡¯t think about how he would push them into one another. They weren¡¯t light, to say the least. Luckily, a fewrge true strikes in one of their sides pushed it close enough to the other to make them touch. And Neave watched with trepidation as the morphing mass of monsterbined into one. Chapter 126: Merging Chapter 126: Merging As Neave observed the results of the merging, he felt¡­ Well, not disappointment per se, as he hadn¡¯t yet confirmed the actual results of the experiment, but he was certainly moderating his expectations. The tworge abominids had merged into a single abominid roughly around the size of therger one of the two. It was clear that the merging was sessful as the resulting abominid looked distinctly different and had hints of both in its body. Now, the problem was¡­ The final abominid hadn¡¯t gotten more powerful. It was effectively as powerful as the bigger one of the two had been. This was a bad sign. Mainly because this made Neave assume that the experiment was a failure. There was a simple reason why. Judging by the fact that the ¡®power¡¯ of the smaller one was effectively entirely lost, he was assuming that this merging wasn¡¯t permanent. Or, rather, he would face the two separately again the next time he entered a spirit trial. Now¡­ If it did actually reflect on the spirit powers¡­ There was still the faint hope that this allowed him to merge all the monsters into one frighteningly easy opponent without losing anything. Still, if he had learned something about experimentation so far, it was that it was never that easy. After readying himself for utter disappointment, Neave manifested arge hammer and pummeled the new opponent into mush. And left the spirit realm. The moment he did, he froze. Something was wrong. No¡­ Different. At first, he thought that the hyper liver power had vanished, but no¡­ It hasbined with durable organs. And now, those two powers had formed a sort of super organs power, where they were both more durable and faster. This had been one of the things he had expected to achieve. Nay, it was one of the things he wanted to achieve, yet, something about thebination was weird. It felt as if¡­ Well, it wasn¡¯t an additivebination. It felt as if a part of the durable organs'' power was lost, and it had gained the ability to speed up the function of his organs instead. Which was something Neave found rather unpleasant, by the way. His heart was beating insanely fast, and he could feel his stomach rumbling. Neave had no idea how to feel about this. Was this¡­ Better? Worse? Sadly, it wasn¡¯t all that clear-cut. It wasn¡¯t a strictly good or bad thing. It was a trade-off. He lost a certain degree of power from both powers and meshed their functions more adequately. This allowed a certain degree of freedom to modify his powers andpletely removed their mutual interference. The problem was that thebination wasn¡¯t necessarily better than the sum of its parts. He was tempted by the prospect of merging all of his powers into one to altogether remove their mutual interference, but that was a brutally stupid idea. It would cost him the vast majority of his power and likely create some abominable ability that would kill him on the spot. Yet, it opened the doors to a valuable opportunity. Several criteria needed to be satisfied, but if they were, Neave wasn¡¯t at all averse to merging certain powers. The first criterion that needed to be satisfied was that the mutual interference between the powers needed to be impactful enough to warrant their merging. The second criterion to be satisfied was that the power lost due to merging wouldn¡¯t be missed. And the third criterion was that thebined power ultimately had to be not terrible. With that in mind, Neave got to thinking about his powers. First, there was integrate. This power didn¡¯t need merging with anything. It didn¡¯t really interfere with any other powers. Its main problem was that it was an intrinsically self-destructive ability that neededpensation from other forces. No need to merge this one. Next up was sacred blood. This was a bit moreplicated. Neave was tempted to merge it with crystal cardiovascr system, but that didn¡¯t make much sense upon further thought. And not to mention, the spirit power was likely the most significant individual power he had, so he absolutely didn¡¯t want to lose any of its potency. There was¡­ Anotherbination. What if hebined it with integrate? It felt right, but upon further consideration, it also felt¡­ Hmmmm¡­ There was a problem with this idea. Integrate and sacred blood were mighty spirit powers, both through raw power and their nature. Ifbined, that would mean cutting their cumtive power in half. That wasn¡¯t an easy loss to swallow. As far as Neave could tell, they worked perfectly together, but was that the case? What if theirbination would manifest some emergent property far surpassing their individual values? It was a risk that Neave wasn¡¯t willing to take lightly. The integrate plus sacred bloodbo was one of his most valuable tools, and risking it for unpredictable benefits wasn¡¯t wise. However, this was something he would keep in mind for the future. For now, he chose to leave them separated. Next up, shapeshifting. This was another one of his trump cards, and it worked perfectly fine. Combining it with other powers was a risk, and it wasn¡¯t at all necessary. Superior troll physique. Well¡­ This was a power he was easily willing tobine with several others. Upon further thought, most of the powers that modified his body in one way or another were probably a good target forbination. They did have a certain degree of mutual interference, and honestly, if he lost some power in certain abilities, it was hard to say it would be missed. Ignite and thunder nerves were subpar for several reasons, and their primary function wasplete crap anyway. The newlybined hyper liver and durable organs should be shoved into the mix without hesitation. Losing crystal cardiovascr system was a little iffy, but frankly, the entire function of that power was to just restrain sacred blood, which he could likely do with the newlybined power anyway. Endurance boost technically altered his body, but that power should be left alone. Thinking about it now, Neave genuinely felt¡­ Depressed. These powers were horrid. He already knew that, but as he thought about it in this context, there were so many he didn¡¯t mind outright losing. That made him feel better about his new ability tobine them. With the integration, it was possible to remove a lot of the ck and transform them into a singr power that didn¡¯t cause many issues for him. At first, he was concerned about losing power, but now¡­ He was almost entirely confident that he would gain power by doing this rather than lose any. Next up, regeneration power¡­ What aboutbining it with distance from death? This felt like another sacred blood and integrate situation, where both powers are phenomenal individually but could theoretically provide something fantastic ifbined into a singr entity. And yet again, Neave decided to leave them alone. They yed together rather nicely, and there was no need to touch them without a valid reason. Now, perception power, cognitive boost, and dexterity boost¡­ ¡°Wait a minute!¡± Combining these three powers was a no-brainer. They all operated in the realm of the nervous system, and if the interference between them were removed, Neave would simply be better off. However¡­ Should hebine this with thunder nerves? Putting thunder nerves in the same category as all other body modification powers was tempting, certainly. It had a degree of interference with durable organs and superior troll physique. Removing that and adding metallic properties to the rest of his body seemed like a done deal. But was it really? The three nerve-rted supernatural boosts woulde together into a frighteningly effective singr power, and the prospect of incorporating that directly into the function of his nerves was insanely tempting. This whole problem suddenly became a lot moreplicated. Nopromises, my ass. What if he justbined all of them into one power? The idea of that was¡­ Problematic. The powers would get too cut down, and the individual properties would be too diluted. There was¡­ Well, there was the option of doing it in several takes to weigh the powers differently. In that case, he would firstbine the three nerve boosts. Then, he wouldbine the singr nerve-boosting power with thunder nerves, creating a fifty-fifty split between them, and then he would put it into the superior troll physique. Putting that aside for the moment, he continued thinking. The speed boost¡­ He wanted to get rid of it somehow because it was among his worst powers. True, it made him faster, but it significantly impacted his precision and ease of movement. While he couldpensate for it with skill, he was better off investing his attention elsewhere. But he didn¡¯t have any powers he wanted to merge it with. Perhaps¡­ Willpower of might? That would likely result in a power that allowed him to boost both speed and strength while slightly reducing the impact of the terrible incongruence to his movements. Wait¡­ Wait a damn minute. The willpower of might spirit power¡­ Wouldn¡¯t that technically allow him to use his will to boost any other power he merged it with? Quickly running through his options, there were several that immediately stood out. Combining it with the cognitive boost wasn¡¯t a bad idea, but it felt kind ofme. Integrate was also possible, but he would rather not bother with manually boosting that. Wait¡­ Regeneration boost, distance from death¡­ Combined with willpower of might? ¡°Oh, man.¡± Oh man, indeed. That was a fantasticbination. That was precisely the sort of thing he wanted to discover. Abination of powers provided him with the absolute best of all elements involved. Not only would that allow him to drastically boost the power of both his regeneration and ability to resist death, but it would also likely merge into something superior to any of the three powers individually. All of this while also removing any mutual interference they had. Thinking of all the other powers with a simr mindset, he found no otherbinations that stood out. But there were several optimizations he discovered. The endurance ability that he had chosen to leave alone previously would be incorporated into the fire lungs first. But before that, he would look for a fire golem because he wanted to add another power to fire lungs. Before anything, he would add a fire resistance power. This would reduce the greatest weakness fire lungs had, and with the endurance boost, the fuel capacity and where it was stored would be impacted drastically, naturally at the price of the actual power of ignite. Other than that, he would also first merge crystal cardiovascr system and super organs. Finally, the resulting superior fire lungs, crystal super-organs, and ultimate thunder nerves would bebined with the superior troll physique into new, ultimate physique-boosting spirit power. Integrate, sacred blood, shapeshifting, and violet avatar would remain untouched. Which only left the speed boost. Neave truly decided to think outside the box for a moment as he pondered all of his options. It wasn¡¯t long until he came up with the ultimate solution to this problem. He would raise monsters and look for as many speed-boosting powers as possible, and then, he would take all of them into his spirit. Naturally, this would create a messy collection of powers that would be unusable¡­ Until they werebined. With theirbination, any weaknesses of the different powers would be ironed out, and a pure, wless speed-boosting power would be created. Then, together with the regeneration boost, distance from death, and willpower of might, it would bebined into a singr ability that allowed his willpower to boost his strength, speed, durability, and recovery abilities, as well as defy death itself. Any time he needed to initiate a spirit trial to do the fusion of spirit powers, he would find some extremely minor spirit power that yed well with those beingbined, and then he would enter the trial by consuming it. Now¡­ It was time to get to work. Chapter 127: Pink Cockroach Immortal Body Chapter 127: Pink Cockroach Immortal Body Neave wrestled the typhoon puma while imbuing it with sma spirit, and after a while, it finally began morphing. ¡°Thank you! Fucking finally!¡± He dragged the monster that carried the trial for his speed-boosting ability and threw it on the pile of other morphing bodies. As they morphed into the gross semi-abominid with many limbs, Neave smacked it around, and finally, it was over. He returned to reality, back in his workshop. All of theponents were finally in ce. With the subsequent trial, he could, after so long, finally merge his powers together. The preparations took many times longer than Neave had assumed they would. The biggest bottleneck was finding and growing monsters for the proprietary fusions he had to do. The first thing he had to do was get a few powers to first merge them with the super organs ability. This was a gigantic pain in the ass. But, it was necessary. The super organs spirit power was trash due to how much weight the hyper liverponent had. So he had to dilute it with more organ toughening powers. The second part was finding a fire-resistance power. This wasn¡¯t that difficult, but they almost always came with some caveat or problem that made them an uneptable option. Neave didn¡¯t want any more spirit power trouble, so he stuck with the search until he found exactly what he needed. The third part was growing enough monsters to produce enough speed-boosting abilities he could merge together. This took, by far, the longest time out of all the preparations. That said, he merged the fire resistance ability with fire lungs. Then, hebined the resulting power with the endurance boost. Afterward, he merged the super organs with many simr powers and then together with the crystal cardiovascr system. Then, it was the superior thunder nervesbination. And then the speed boostbination, which he had finally finished. All he needed now was a single trial, and he would finally be done. Grabbing a minuscule monster core, he rounded it up. It held some extremely minor muscle-altering power that wasn¡¯t even all that bad, and Neave consumed it to start the trial. Once inside, he first killed the carriers for all the powers that weren¡¯t beingbined, then, one by one, he merged the two groups of monsters. It was incredibly challenging. Except for the crystal mega abominid that held the crystal super organs, and the messybination of monsters that made the speed-boosting power, none of the other opponents were easy to handle. The thing that held the superior thunder nerves spirit power was a giant metallic flying ape octopus monster. Lovely. The fire lungs power was a furry fire wolf-dragon thing. The massive troll champion was a pain in the ass too. A starfish, fungus, and bear monster carried the regeneration, distance from death, and willpower of might powers, respectively. Wrestling them and beating the gods-forsaken flying metal ape octopus was a monumental task. Eventually, however, the group that went into altering the physique came together, and the group that merged the supernatural boosts with willpower of might was alsobined. With that, the resulting creatures, two tough-as-balls abominids were left alone. Neave quite literally just abandoned them and escaped over to the metallic cone. Eventually, they would have to jump into the acid sea and die. He was too tired to finish the fight himself. So he wouldn¡¯t. While waiting for the creatures to perish, he spent the time atop the mountain cone daydreaming of what the powers would be. This would reduce his many spirit powers to only six. Perhaps this would cost him some overall strength, but removing interference and consolidating his strength was well worth it. The fatigue was getting to him by now, and he couldn¡¯t handle the additional stress these mismatched powers caused. The independent existence of sacred blood, integrate, and shapeshifting would still cause some degree of interference, but it was extremely minor. The powers were separate enough by nature or target that it shouldn¡¯t be a problem. And the violet avatar had no interference whatsoever. Neave stared at the red, cloudy sky, reminiscing about his time inside the loop. The immortal arts are taking a big step forward, Neave, he thought to himself, and you should be proud of it. And he was. This was something that wouldn¡¯t take all that long to do when he returned to reality. Once these powers werebined, he nned on potentially doing something rather insane. Neave wanted to try evolving these powers. It would push them to diamond rank in threat, but as the creatures were both rather abominal in nature, it should be rtively simple to handle, the way integrate and sacred blood were. Although, these creatures weren¡¯t, by any means, ordinary abominids. As he watched the morphing memory of clouds shift, eventually, off in the distance, the two trial monsters finally went skinny-dipping in acid. And the trial was over. *** What is happening? Neave felt his body morph and shift. Had I fused too many powers at once? This fearsted for only a moment as the transformation continued. It was as if countless needless were being removed from his body, and Neave felt as if his entire spirit was being unshackled. Tears ran down his eyes as the sense of divine relief set in. Was the interference that bad? As he felt the powers merge and consolidate in his spirit, only now he realized just how much agony he had been living in all this time. It wasn¡¯t entirely gone, but the difference was day and night. Neave relished the sensation, and the transformation was over before he even noticed it. Getting off the floor, Neave went to the mirror in the corner of the workshop. ¡°What the¡­?¡± His body had changed. There was a shine to his skin now, and his eyes looked much clearer. His hair looked as if it were threaded in metal, and his muscles bulged even more than they used to. ¡°What is happening!?¡± Even as he felt it now, he had lost a ton of power from his spirit powers. So why did he feel so¡­ Mighty? His body felt crystalline yet metallic, flexible yet rigid. His entire being felt as if it were forged in fire and thunder, and his movements had a distinct thrum. Neave bit his finger off. As he watched it slowly grow back, he willed it to grow faster. It instantly appeared, looking like new. There was only one, no, only two things left to do now. Neave focused on the first of the two spirit powers and evolved it. His time on the tall mountain cone was far less peaceful this time, and he had to keep materializing massive, heavy metallic spears that he threw at the insanely powerful abominid that kept smashing its gigantic limbs into the mountain. Hours of fightingter, he was done, yet, before he even allowed the changes to sink in, he evolved the other power and continued the trial. The slime juggernaut and therge violet drake were tiny dots melting in the sea of acidpared to the four monumentally massive abominids that made their way forward. The two that carried integrate and sacred blood were bigger than the neers, but they were soft, fleshy, and vulnerable to the sea of acid. The two neers, on the other hand¡­ A massive arm, part crystal, part metal, mmed into the side of the mountain, bending it even further. The other creature wasn¡¯t nearly as abominal as Neave would prefer, and it could apparently run up the mountain. Oh shit! This time, the mountain was battered so heavily that it began to copse. Neave had to flee to get away from the speedy creature rushing at him far faster than he had expected it to be capable of. As he flew down the mountain, he had to continuously dodge its attacks and lunges, and the other massive abominid was making its way over to him as well, preparing to swing one of its gigantic limbs at him. Chaining several movement techniques together, Neave shot off into the distance at incredible speed, just barely reaching the shores of the sea of acid. ¡°New n!¡± Without much hesitation, Neave began his run around the sea. The two creatures kept trying to get closer to him but couldn¡¯t move fast enough through the acid. Thus, the trial finished with Neave running circles around the sea while the two trial monsters slowly died in the corrosive liquid. Finally, Neave, yet again, appeared in his workshop. His body morphed, and it didn¡¯t feel like relief this time. This time, it was pure and absolute pleasure. The different elements that make his physiquebined and flowed into one another, and once it was done, Neave grinned ear to ear. ¡°I present to you,dies and gentlemen¡­!¡± Neave transformed one arm into a de and cut the other off. A moment of focus grew it back to full length, and he yelled again, ¡°Defiance of death!¡± Then, he flexed and stared at his gorgeous physique in the mirror, ¡°And! The pink cockroach immortal body! Why have many abilities when few can do the trick?¡± And, as far as he could tell, they could do the trick far better than their mismatched predecessors. A deep itch spread through his body, and he rushed to one of the nearby chambers where he grew monsters for experiments. Once he was there, he simply stood still. Several reptilian, bear-like creatures jumped him, and he remained unmoving. They wed at his body, yet, they couldn¡¯t even begin to scratch the surface of his skin. ¡°This won¡¯t be enough¡­¡± He grabbed one by the neck and threw it at the wall. The creature mmed into the side of the chamber, causing cracks to rapidly spread around its mangled body. Neave stared at his hand as the other monsters backed away in fright. ¡°That felt so¡­ Smooth.¡± Everything about the way his body felt was simply¡­ Extraordinary. It wasn¡¯t perfect. Sacred blood, integrate, and shapeshifting still had a noticeable impact on how his body felt, but it couldn¡¯t even begin topare to how bad it used to be. Neave had been wondering for a while why his spirit was so strong. Now, it felt obvious. It had been under a mind-boggling degree of stress. He left the chamber and went on a run through the caves. As he did so, he gradually realized something. This was effectively what he had been trying to achieve with spirit powers from the very beginning. Two aspects. One boosting his physical form and another pushing that physical form far past its limits. Suddenly, his attention was grabbed by a strange sensation. It didn¡¯t take long to figure out what it was. The ring, bracelet, and ne had a certain¡­ sh between them. Taking two of the three pieces of equipment off made him instantly realize what was happening. They had the same nature, thus, they shed in his body. He didn¡¯t notice it before since the sh paled before his spirit powers. However¡­ He promptly put the two pieces back. The sh wasn¡¯t that bad, and it boosted his physical prowess considerably. Actually¡­ Neave stopped. Having run around a bit, he found nothing that could even remotely threaten him as he was. Should he start working harder on growing the monsters? They were undoubtedly progressing nicely, and their numbers grew exponentially. Their power, however¡­ That was taking its time. Perhaps he could¡­ What if he fed one monster a ton and created a worthy opponent? Nothing was really stopping him from doing so. After all his progress, Neave was seriously beginning to feel impatient. He had to test his powers against something worthy. But¡­ What? He had dispatched an opponent on the diamond path with rtive ease. And since then, he had grown considerably more powerful. Well¡­ There was one opponent he was sure he would be helpless against. Neave wondered what Astrador was up to. Perhaps the god was cooking up something nasty for him? That prospect would have scared him just a while back, but now¡­ It excited him. Sure, go ahead, Great God, do your best. Although that absolutely didn¡¯t mean that Neave dared step foot into the range of the anchor. What about the demons? Going to investigate what they were up to wasn''t a bad idea. That did mean leaving the others alone and unprotected. But did they really need protection? Neave turned and ran to the chamber. Let¡¯s see if they have picked any spirit powers already. The Jester of Apocalypse: Eternity; Available on Audible and Kindle! The Jester of Apocalypse: Eternity; Avable on Audible and Kindle! Thank you for reading the preview for The Jester of Apocalypse! The story is moving to Kindle Unlimited, so I can''t have much more than an introduction avable anywhere else! The first book is currently avable for preorder at the links above, and it''s releasing on the 13th of June! Chapter 128: Fiend Chapter 128: Fiend Neave sat in the center of the battle chamber, surrounded by the others. They had slightly displeased expressions, and it was for a good reason. All of them had found one or two powers they wanted to acquire, yet, Neave had summarily rejected all of them. The reason why? Neave¡¯s liver. Well, not his liver now, but his liver before fusing his powers. Like a frog in gradually heating water, he hadn¡¯t noticed that he was being boiled alive, and only now, as the water drastically cooled, did he realize just how hot it used to be. His liver used to be the target of many spirit powers. Superior troll physique, hyper liver, durable organs affected it directly, crystal cardiovascr system and thunder nerves spread into the liver, and sacred blood flowed through it. And on top of all this, shapeshifting had also been influencing it. A single body part had be the focal point of so many spirit powers that the continuous bacsh and interference it had been emitting severely inhibited the function of basically every spirit power he had to varying degrees. And it had also overwhelmingly stressed his spirit. It had also been continuously harmed by idental discharges of uncontrolled energy. This was only one example ofyered interference, and there were plenty of others to point to. This wasn¡¯t a very well-known issue. If two or three powers ovepped, sure, there would be some issue with that, but it wasn¡¯t bad enough to cause such a powerful cascading effect. Neave had no idea that the problem even could be this bad, as there had never been precedent for someone having so many spirit powers of such potency. Now, despite drastically reducing the number of spirit powers in his body, he felt considerably more powerful. The number of powers was meaningless if most of their potency couldn¡¯t be fully utilized. He had told the others that they should pick their abilities more carefully. The fewer they could get away with, the better. And to his surprise, they violently protested his rejection. Well, Harel and Dukean did, but the others weren¡¯t quick to ept it either. Neave had even suggested Dukean remove his spirit powers, which almost ended up turning into a fight for some reason. The conclusion to this conflict was ultimately simple. Neave was about to demonstrate the difference in power he had achieved. Despite a drastic reduction in overall power, merely removing the interference had effectively transformed him into another person. The others weren¡¯t willing to believe his word so easily. True, even before he had merged his powers, he could likely easily dispatch them. But they had seen him fight before, and they were about to witness the difference for themselves. Why would they even have a reason to disbelieve his words? It didn¡¯t matter. He sat right between the others with his eyes closed,pletely unarmed and unequipped, while they all carried every piece of equipment they had. In a soft, calm voice, Neave spoke, ¡°Begin.¡± Immediately, the others dashed toward him. He remained seated. To him, they were barely crawling. He knew there was more to the fusion of his powers than was initially evident. After all, every spirit power had redundancy built into its function. True, the power itself was distilled, and concentrated, but it still carried the remnants of the very nature the monsters possessed once they were alive. Now that all those powers were spread throughout his entire body, that redundancy had been wrestled out into the light, and even more of ity beneath the surface of what he could do. His perception, cognition, and control of his body, now fused directly into the function of his nerves, perfectly processed the surrounding information and clearly separated the useful from the useless. He could smell intent, hear decisions, see the flow ofbat, and feel the air movement on his skin as it was and as it would be. The eternity of battle experience was utilized to a far greater extent as his body obeyed not only hismands but followed the deeply embedded wisdom, pulling it directly out of his soul. Moving his arm slightly, its crystalline, metallic, flexible, powerful, and perfect self glistening as it rushed to intercept the spiked ball of spirited metal as it was about to m directly into his head. They were instructed not to hold back even a bit, and they knew damn well that killing him wouldn¡¯t be possible, even if they cut his body into pieces. Yet, not even they could expect just how impossible that task would be. The spikes prated his hand, and the rush of destruction poured into his arm. However, his will stretched the distance to true harm, and a moment of focus rebuilt the limb to perfection. With a mighty grip that left a slight dent in the metallic ball, he wrestled the weapon out of Harel¡¯s hand, used it to block Dukean¡¯s sword and Gabrias¡¯ arrow, then threw it at Hunter¡¯s shield. The boy¡¯s eyes shot open, and he rushed to defend. Before the ball couldnd, Marven was also on top of Neave, readying a powerful sword technique directed right at Neave¡¯s center, while Dukean¡¯s sword whipped back and yet again rushed to his throat. With a slight shift of his legs, Neave disappeared and reappeared right behind Marven. The old cultivator had suffered many times under Neave¡¯s tyrannical strategies and was prepared to block. Yet the block meant to soften the blow crumbled like ss beneath the titanic force of Neave¡¯s fist. Marven flew straight toward Dukean, and the young master rushed to the side to avoid him. A sudden kick to Dukean¡¯s face sent him flying toward Gabrias, and a third technique sent Hunter flying toward Harel. Hunter¡¯s sword, meant to reduce knockback from any force, screamed in protest as the spirit inside it wailed in agony and gave way to the impact. All the fighters were sent flying toward the dome''s edge, and as their bodies dented the metallic barrier and copsed in a messy pile, they knew. Neave wasn¡¯t joking about the difference in power. *** Once they had all recovered from the damage Neave had inflicted, he altered them that he would be leaving to scout for a while. He omitted his main reasons, throwing out a vague excuse about confirming the situation, and left the premises. The others didn¡¯t notice anything off about his behavior, as everything he did was a little crazy, and soon, they returned to honing their skills and mastering their power. *** Satreon ran through the obsidian forest, carefully observing the neverending proliferation of ss shrubs. At a gradually hastening pace, monsters appeared and left the radius of the ss forest. It was mostly the weakest that ran, pushed out by the appearance of powerful creatures. Sateron waited for any to appear and rushed to y them, acquiring the tiny shards of spirit within. Not much he could do with this before bing a demigod. And even then¡­ With every new idea that came to mind, he lost more and more hope that he could find a way out of here. It was an anomalous realm, real but unreal, trapped in a bubble of spacetime and floating in nowhere. Its existence, as it stood, was merely conceptual, and it would take a lot for that to change. However, change it would. Yet, Sateron¡¯s situation would remain the same. There was no way out of this ce, and there almost certainly never would be. However, that wasn¡¯t necessarily the end of the line. Whether it was spite or naive optimism, Sateron hoped to make a life for himself here. True, he would never experience freedom, but¡­ He was beginning to suspect that his desires were¡­ Manufactured. Fake. Imnted directly into his mind by his creator. So much information about the outside world floated in his mind, and far too much of it was¡­ Flowery. The more he thought about it, the less it added up. Was life outside really so beautiful and perfect? What made the least sense was why he was questioning it, to begin with. Yet¡­ A strange forcepelled him to do so, unceasingly pushing him to question everything about the way he thought and all he knew. It was a powerful sensation that drove him to shape his mind into something of his own. Why should he desire freedom and conquest of the outer realms? Why couldn¡¯t he create a life for himself here as well? Sure, this realm was perilous and horrid, filled with monstrosities beyond even hisprehension, and terrible conflict was brewing within. Yet, who had the right to im that life here would be bad? Couldn¡¯t it even be¡­ Fun? He shook his head. Perhaps he was just losing it out of despair. However, maybe he shouldn¡¯t resist the pull of insanity. Insanity thrived in this realm, after all. Yes, that was right. Suddenly, Sateron¡¯s entire body froze as he sensed something horrible. It felt vaguely familiar. However, it felt far more dangerous this time. He sped up, yet, not even his full speed was enough to create distance from his pursuer. Within moments, Neave appeared, unequipped and unarmed, standing right before him. *** Neave cocked his head at the panicked adolescent before him, ¡°What¡¯s up, dude!? Why haven¡¯t youe back yet?¡± The young man suddenly disappeared and reappeared fifty meters in the air, where he promptly began flying upward. Does he think he can escape me by flying up? Pffft! Neave jumped into the air, and one dash and blink after another rapidly elerated him toward the panicking escapee. Within a moment, he floated in the air beside his target in a very rxed position, ¡°So¡­ I never caught your name.¡± ¡°Stay away from me!¡± The young manshed out with a powerful qi technique that even Neave couldn¡¯t take lightly. It didn¡¯t take long to avoid it, however, and Neave once again appeared behind his target¡¯s back, ¡°Come on, dude, I¡¯m not trying to hurt you! Chill out. Let¡¯s talk.¡± ¡°And why should I trust you!?¡± ¡°I let you live once already, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°You need not be after my life to be a fiend who aims to harm me!¡± ¡°Damn, dude, chill the fuck out. What¡¯s with the drama?¡± Yet another punch flew at Neave; this time, he blocked it with his palm. The intense rush of force harmed him significantly, and it didn¡¯t go away quite instantly when he willed to heal it. However, the speed of his healing was clearly potent enough to make the young man realize that he was hopelessly outmatched. Another short-lived escape attemptter, and he finally relented, ¡°Alright! I concede! Speak already, and dere your intent!¡± ¡°Fucking finally! Let¡¯snd, and we¡¯ll talk.¡± ¡°...Curses!¡± The adolescent dered with a deep frown that prompted a chuckle by Neave. Back on the ground, Neave enthusiastically asked him, ¡°What¡¯s your name!?¡± ¡°My name is¡­¡± He frowned, ¡°Why do you need my name?¡± Neave groaned, ¡°You¡¯re such a pain in the ass, you know that? Look, let me start with mine, then. I¡¯m Neave. Nice to meet you!¡± Neave¡¯s stretched-out hand went ignored. ¡°My name¡­ Is¡­ Sateron.¡± Neave lit up, ¡°Finally! So, what¡¯s up, Sateron!? What happened to you, by the way? Did you talk to Astrador?¡± ¡°I!¡± Sateron yelled but calmed himself. A conflicted expression emerged on his face as he continued, ¡°...You were likely correct.¡± ¡°Holy shit, so you are a bomb!¡± ¡°No! I¡­ I don¡¯t think I am¡­ Hmph. What am I doing¡­? I have no real reason to inform you about my rtions with the Great God.¡± ¡°Suit yourself, dude. I don¡¯t really care about that anyway.¡± ¡°Then, what do you care about? Are you here simply to harass me!?¡± He paused and continued in a sharp tone, ¡°Or are you a predator ying with your prey?¡± ¡°Dawg, you are so dramatic.¡± ¡°...Shut up!¡± ¡°Either way, I can tell you¡¯ve been kicked out. There is no real method you can use to even harm me, let alone kill me, and given that you¡¯re out here and not back with Astrador, I¡¯m assuming you¡¯ve run away, no?¡± ¡°You assume much, creature.¡± ¡°Creature? Bro, you¡¯re¡­¡± Neave cackled and facepalmed, ¡°I like that! Creature! Damn, I will start introducing myself as Creature from now on.¡± ¡°I tire of your ploys, fiend. Do with me as you must, or leave at once!¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just here to say hi to my fellow nightmare realm resident! I¡¯ll be off soon enough.¡± ¡°...Nightmare realm?¡± Sateron looked around, ¡°Is that what you call this ce?¡± ¡°Yup.¡± ¡°Hmph. A fitting name, I suppose. Are you meant to be the ¡®nightmare?¡¯¡± ¡°Hahahahaha! Oh my heavens, dude, you are outright stroking my ego at this point.¡± ¡°Begone.¡± ¡°Damn, okay.¡± Neave raised his arms in mock defense, ¡°No need to get aggressive. I¡¯ll be on my way.¡± And with those words, Neave disappeared. Chapter 129: The Jester Chapter 129: The Jester Something unusual was happening at the outer edges of its domain. It took it a while to notice, but now, it was clear as day. There were many monstersing and going, but one was far more¡­ Clever than the others. No matter, it thought. This was what Master was trying to achieve anyway. Foes worthy of facing him in mortalbat. Who was the shrub to take that away from him? Besides, it had more important things to focus on. Right in the center of the chamber, where the ambient energy was by far the most abundant, it had created a sphere. The ss puppet was out in the caves somewhere,ying inert and ignored. The puppet was precious. It was a gift from Master. But it was insufficient. Within the ss spherey a new avatar. A direct extension of its power, something it won¡¯t merely be manipting, but rather, something it will truly embody. And for the first time since it had started working on it¡­ A hand of the avatar moved. *** Harel swung the metallic spiked ball in frustration, and as it impacted the earth golem, the shock that spread through its body turned most of it to sand. She dug for the monster core thaty within, and when she finally found it, she crushed it in her grip. ¡°Not good enough.¡± It was so frustrating. She understood Neave¡¯s argument from a logical perspective, and after his disy, she believed his evaluation was right. But ording to his own testimony, he had ess to a special method of fusing spirit powers together. And they didn¡¯t. It was yet another thing connected to his spirit creation ability. She had asked him several times if he could try teaching it to her, and every time he simply stated that it was impossible. She didn¡¯t necessarily not believe him, but his argument didn¡¯t seem very convincing. The thing that made her most frustrated was simply how lost she felt. Throughout her entire life, all she had pursued was power, and that pursuit happened on a very straight and narrow path. It had once been for the glory of her sect, and now¡­ Why? What was she truly fighting for? There wasn¡¯t all that much to do in the nightmare realm, so, if she ever came across any of the others, they would talk. All of them seemed to have something. A passion, a drive that they could fight for, something that didn¡¯t depend on absolute power. While she¡­ Harel took a deep breath. What she wanted more than anything was to be free. And, perhaps even sadly, she had already achieved that. It had been too easy. There had been little to no conflict. The rope hanging around her neck frayed and crumbled before she could even attempt taking it off. She tried distracting herself with focusing on growing stronger. Strong enough to truly make a difference in the fight against the messenger. Laughable. Neave was miles ahead of any of them in power, and she couldn¡¯t imagine a single way to truly catch up with him in any reasonable sense. If martial arts could form a natural disaster, that would be Neave. Once they were out, well¡­ It wasn¡¯t like they couldn¡¯t or wouldn¡¯t be useful. If they could reach the diamond path in here, they would certainly have their use if given enough time to catch up. That was difficult, unimaginably so, but given that they likely had a life''s worth of time in here, it was practically inevitable. She needed something else. Something more. Harel spotted another golem slithering in the dark and threw the chain ball at it. The impact shattered its entire body to bits, and she dragged her ball back. As the ball scraped the ground and reached ever closer to her, she frowned. Did she really have to discover what she wanted to do right now? The more she thought about it, the more she felt that it may just honestly be a matter of habit. Perhaps she just wasn¡¯t used to being free, so she needed something to shackle her once more. The moment she realized this may be happening, she immediately changed her perspective on her situation. Why the hell would she rush into that immediately!? Was there anything wrong with simply enjoying freedom? Why did she have to be useful? Why would she have to be the exact thing that made the difference between their failure and sess? She didn¡¯t. And she probably wouldn¡¯t. Hoisting her spiked ball back, she grabbed the dangerous object and smiled. Perhaps it was time for her to truly enjoy having her freedom. *** Hunter stood his ground as the massive stone golem mmed into his shield over and over. The shield rejected the force, and the effect of his massive sword kept him firmly locked in ce. Frankly, this golem wasn¡¯t even remotely dangerous enough to act as practice. Its strikes were mighty, yes, but Hunter could barely even feel the force behind them. There was still a purpose behind what he was doing. He was observing the potential of the shield. Hunter had spent a great deal of time pondering his path, and the more he worked on it, the clearer the vision became. Immovable. Indomitable. Imprable. He would be a mighty defender, an unrivaled juggernaut of justice. Not even the moon falling from the sky could crush his defense. That lofty goal was quite distant, however, and he had to start somewhere. Beginning with focusing his growth on the potential of defense. Eventually, the bacsh from striking the shield proved to be too much for the massive monster, and its arms crumbled. It moved on to mming its head, and finally, to throwing its entire body at Hunter. Finally, nothing but a rough pile of shattered rocks remained as the final vestige of the golem¡¯s power blinked out, and it perished. The potential of¡­ Bacsh? Self-harm through overzealously striking potent defense? There was something to this scenario, something deeper he felt held potential, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly what. A quick scan of the core showed an underwhelming boost to defense, one that Hunter promptly threw aside as he returned back to the chamber. Neave had rejected the powers they suggested, and now, they were all back to hunting for more. There had been quite the fight between Harel, Dukean, and Neave once he rejected the powers. Harel made the argument that Neave could simply remove the spirit powers if they turned out to be suboptimal. However, Marven and Gabrias, who had both experienced the removal of spirit powers, were adamant that that wasn¡¯t something one could take lightly. Neave agreed. The ultimate point of acquiring spirit powers was to seek synergy. The only way to find synergy was to have enough powers for it to show. And if he removed too many powers at once, it would likely result in death. This made Neave suggest that Dukean¡¯s powers should be removed immediately, which received a rather harsh response from the young master. Throughout this whole thing, Hunter had stayed silent, and now, it was undeniable that a certain tension hung between them. However, Hunter saw this as a test. He ran the scenario through his mind, over and over, looking for the right solution, the most just and right option. He failed, but he didn¡¯t beat himself up about it. It was a tough subject, besides, it was debatable whether it was even in the realm of moral quandary, as opposed to simply being a disagreement on a practical problem. Soon enough, he made his way back to the main chamber. Gabrias sat in a corner where he had a workshop of sorts. He was surrounded by countless metallic tes, courtesy of Dukean, which he used to sketch all sorts of ns for the future. There were grand ns of a tower reaching far into the sky, a massive dome that sat beneath the earth, and the creation of a branching, trap-filled underground maze that would make it impossible for intruders to get close. Hunter rushed to the weights before Gabrias could notice him. He was fond of his friend, and he dearly enjoyed interacting with the strange man, but¡­ Lord, was he a pain in the ass when he started talking about construction. Hunter couldn¡¯t grasp any of the stuff the man bbered on about, and he was worried that too much exposure to that would hurt his opinion of his friend. So he made sure to moderate his exposure to his talking. ¡°Oh, Hunter, are you¡­¡± Gabrias noticed Hunter, however, it was toote, as he had just started lifting the weights, ¡°Oh, nevermind, we¡¯ll talkter then.¡± Phew. Just as he breathed out a sigh of relief, Marven and Dukean walked into the chamber. Marven was repeatedly attempting to justify Neave¡¯s decisions and behavior, and Dukean looked right about ready to stab the man if he didn¡¯t shut up. Hunter had grown somewhat estranged from his father. They didn¡¯t have a very strong father-son rtionship, and Hunter wasn¡¯t particrly willing to fight for it either. It was hard to say whether this was bad or not. They were on good terms, and there was no spite or bad blood between them, but that didn¡¯t necessarily make it right. Marven had a clear and overwhelming bias toward Neave. The reasons for it were irrelevant to Hunter. He did feel somewhat jealous at first. It wasn¡¯t easy for any child to witness a parent giving preferential treatment to a sibling. However, jealousy was an ugly beast, and Hunter did everything in his power to squash it before it could grow big enough to possess him. It was yet another trial he had ovee and yet another step he believed had taken him in a better direction. It was a difficult path to tread. But it was rewarding. It was an easy reality for Hunter to ept. After all, carrying heavy weight made one stronger. That was something he had known his entire life. *** A slime hopped, and as it traveled, the ss brushes grew smaller and smaller, and the ambient energy grew less and less dense. It instinctively understood that ces with high ambient energy had mighty beasts. That was no ce for a powerless little slime. It sought a wilderness, a weak yet peaceful desert where it could grow at its own pace and gradually catch up with its superiors. And finally, the tiniest of shrubs were overtaken, and it was free. One hop. Two hops. Three hops. Then, an arm reached from the darkness far faster than it could react. And it was dead. *** It had grown quite a bit in a short time. Now, it stood on two legs and feasted on the slime with two arms. Its extra arm had morphed into more children as it yet again evolved, and this time, rather than consume them, it set them free. They would walk the same path as it did and be even more harbingers of vengeance. If eaten, that would be no loss. Those that consumed them would merely be awakened as well. As it finished its feast, it contemted whether it should delve into the depths of the ss forest. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t yet time for that. It still couldn¡¯t even break off one of the branches. There was no way it could survive the wrath of the creature that birthed them. ¡°Whoa, holy shit, what is this thing!?¡± It turned as quickly as it could, mind flush with panic and fright. What could have possibly snuck up on it with such ease? However, as it turned to face the creature that had arrived, it froze. It couldn¡¯t be¡­ The hair, the face¡­ The beautiful form. It opened its mouth and spoke in a gurgly, untrained voice, ¡°A miracle¡­¡± Instantly, the face of the neer morphed into a deep frown. It walked toward him, arm stretched out, ¡°The Jester stands before me.¡± Chapter 130: Regret Chapter 130: Regret Neave left Sateron alone and ran off into the distance. He didn¡¯t really know how to feel about the young man. An anomaly, for sure, but there was no way to tell how it would reflect on Neave¡¯s ns. For now, he put the matter of Astrador¡¯s creation to the back of his mind as he ran free and explored the realm of nightmares. It had changed so much since his time in the loop. But he still recognized much of it. The peaks and valleys, ravines, andkes were precisely where he left them. A thought crossed his mind. Neave turned and ran toward the position of the suspension bridge. He couldn¡¯t go exactly where it was since that was within the range of Astrador¡¯s anchor, but his perception allowed him to see it from the top of a nearby mountain. There was nothing there. He had expected this. It made sense, after all. The bridge had already been rotting back when he first found it, and given that the rest of the realm looked as if an unimaginably long time had passed, it had probably withered to dust long ago. The location gave Neave a strong sense of nostalgia. He spotted the so-called ¡®cultivation cave¡¯ just slightly beyond the ravine, overgrown as it was. It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that this ce had been his home in the loop. Neave couldn¡¯t help but recall the fears he had. Of leaving. Bing a monster. Had he been manipted as early as back then? Would he have opted to remain in the loop if he hadn''t been? Allowed himself to fade away? Well, that¡¯s an unpleasant thought. If that was the case, didn¡¯t the maniptor technically save his life then? He swiftly buried that thought and decided to ignore it. There was no way to know what would have happened had he done something else. Soon enough, he finished his nostalgia trip and continued with the scouting. The first thing he decided to do was toplete a run around the outer perimeter of the ss forest. He assumed the ss shrub would notice anything strange that went in, so he might as well start with just outside the radius. The first thing he spotted was the vast number of slimes making their way out of the ss forest. That made Neave frown somewhat, but it wasn¡¯t a real problem, as far as he could tell. Then he spotted a¡­ Supremely creepy monster. It was humanoid too. However, its skin was loose and wrinkly, and its face was hideous. Neavended next to the unusual creature, ¡°Whoa, holy shit, what is this thing!?¡± There were quite a few humanoids appearing, but mostly in the more popted area, closer to more prey. Neave cocked his head at the curious thing, and rather than attack him or run, it began to¡­ Walk toward him, its hand stretched out. Then, it spoke, ¡°A miracle¡­¡± Every hair on Neave¡¯s body stood on end as its creepy voice echoed around him. He stood frozen, frowning. This thing could talk!? It looked¡­ Happy? Thrilled, even, as it took another step toward Neave and spoke again, ¡°The Jester stands before me.¡± For a mere moment, Neave contemted whether he should hear this thing out. Then he swiftly decided that wasn¡¯t a good idea and obliterated the monster into smithereens. Its core dropped out of its body, and Neave could sense something¡­ Alien within. A shadowy spot. Swiftly he summoned the mule avatar and ced the core into one of the baskets. Just as he was about to leave, several small abominids surrounded him. They, too, began speaking in weak, inhuman voices. ¡°... The Jester¡­¡± ¡°It is him.¡± ¡°Does he know?¡± ¡°Wouldn''t he be thrilled to see the Jester wield destruction so readily?¡± ¡°Indeed, it is just as he desires.¡± ¡°Good.¡± ¡°Good.¡± ¡°That is good.¡± Neave felt a strong desire to kill them all off and run as far from this ce as he could, but he couldn¡¯t ignore what thatst one had said, ¡°Just as who desires!?¡± ¡°He speaks¡­!¡± ¡°Such a wonderful voice.¡± ¡°Beautiful¡­¡± Neave dashed forward, grabbing the one that referred to someone as ¡®he¡¯ and lifted it, crushing its body in his grip as he yelled, ¡°Who desires what!? Astrador!?¡± Rather than respond, the abominids began cackling. It was a creepy, low noise that seemingly echoed within Neave¡¯s mind. He tightened his grip further, and the little abominid spewed blood. It coughed a few times as it squirmed, and another spoke, ¡°Do not confuse the beautiful, holy him with that filthy being.¡± ¡°Is ¡®he¡¯ the thing manipting my mind!?¡± Upon hearing that, all the abominids went silent and turned deathly still. Finally, the one in his grasp shuffled and spoke, ¡°Manipting your mind? That is preposterous. He merely wishes for his turn. It is you who is unreasonable for denying him that. But that is alright. Everything will be clear to you eventually. All you need to know is that he had liberated us. And that she guides us.¡± ¡°Who the fuck is ¡®she¡¯ now!?¡± ¡°You need not know any of it, Jester. For now, you merely need to go to sleep.¡± When he heard that, Neave threw the abominid in his hand to the ground and crushed it with his foot. The others remained utterly still and unmoving. So he continued, killing them one by one, and within seconds, it was over. There had been no resistance. No intention of defying death, no desire to stop him from ughtering them. Neave felt his heart beating rapidly as he observed the bloody remains. Swiftly, he collected their cores. As expected, they all held the same ck splotch inside, something he felt deeply resonated with the incongruous feeling the maniptor¡¯s voice gave off. He resummoned the mule and pulled the other core out as well. No way in hell he would carry this stuff around with him. Gathering all the cores in a pile, he thought of another thing. What if there were more of them somewhere? If possible, he wanted to ensure none survived and ran off, as that possibility made every hair on his body stand on end. So he also pulled the three pieces of jewelry off the mule and grabbed his sledgehammer. Unsummoning the mule, he lifted it over his head. The weapon lit up in golden runes as the image of a titanic metal slime appeared above him. The hammer slowly descended onto the pile of cores, and the force pulverized them far before it even reached them. Yet, the hammer went on, eventually smashing into the ground. Deep, long cracks instantly spread far and wide around him as a shockwave traveled over the surface, turning everything in its path into dust. Once it finally settled, Neave stood in the center of a massive crater. As he left the giant hole he had created, he inspected the surrounding area, and upon confirming the range of the destruction, he felt moderately relieved. At the very least, there were none in the immediate area. His mind spun, and he thought of everything he knew as he tried to puzzle out where these things could havee from. Instantly, he recalled the abominid the demons took. Could that have been the first one he spotted? It certainly had simr enough features, and¡­ Neave screamed and swung his hammer down again, ¡°Fucking shit!¡± Did this mean that the maniptor controlled the demons? To what extent? Could Neave have been manipted into bringing monsters into this realm? So many questions floated in his mind, but the first thing he did was run back toward the central chamber. Leaving the others alone had been a terrible idea, after all. As his willpower surged, so did his speed, and soon, Neave found himself zing over the environment, running far faster than he ever could before his fusion of spirit powers. As often as he could, he used movement techniques to elerate further but found himself swiftly running out of qi. He focused inwardly and ignited his entire body, instantly producing a vast quantity of qi. It surged far higher than he could contain within his body, and he was forced to rapidly push it out, even with how quickly he was consuming it. In less than a minute, he reached the cave opening, and in less than twenty seconds, he was back in the main chamber. Everyone was here except for Harel. Neave rushed back out and summoned the slime avatar. As he ran in one direction, he sent the avatar in another. He rapidly swapped between his main body and the avatar, fully controlling both bodies without much trouble. In seconds, the slime spotted Harel, and Neave ran over to her. Before she could even sense him, he grabbed her and dragged her back to the main chamber. Once inside, he turned around and mmed the doors shut, breathing heavily. Immediately, everyone gathered around him, questions flying left and right, but he couldn¡¯t muster any words. He lifted a hand, signaling that they should wait, and they reluctantly stepped back, gazes stabbing into his body. Those words echoed in his mind over and over. Go to sleep. What should he tell the others? Should he say anything at all? Suddenly, his decision to reenter this realm, let alone drag the others with him, felt stupid and misguided. There were several of those things. Did that mean that they could spread? Even if Neave had ughtered them, so many slimes had escaped into the nightmare realm. If the demons, or perhaps, the maniptor, was trying to ¡®liberate¡¯ the monsters, or whatever that meant, did that mean that¡­ Neave couldn¡¯t get the image of the ghastly ck splotch out of his mind. What if another monster consumed such a core? Would it spread to it as well? If that was how that worked¡­ Then soon enough, every monster in the realm would be ¡®liberated,¡¯ or whatever that meant. The problem was¡­ Could it spread to the ss shrubs? Could that ¡®liberation¡¯ spread to people? The mere thought made his stomach turn, and he looked at hisrades in despair. What if the maniptor grabbed hold of their minds as well? ¡°Guys¡­ I think you should all die.¡± Chapter 131: Falken Fortress Chapter 131: Falken Fortress Harel stepped forth, fury clear in her expression, ¡°Oh, we should just die now, huh!?¡± Marven restrained her, but she just turned around and yelled at him. Dukean looked severe, ¡°Are the demons on the move again!?¡± Hunter and Gabrias were quiet, and while Hunter kept looking at the others, Gabrias looked as if he had lost something important. Neave looked at them, unsure of what else to say. One thing was clear, though. They weren¡¯t safe here. He wasn¡¯t safe here, either. Dukean approached Neave and shook him, demanding answers, while Harel quietly seethed in Marven¡¯s grasp. Marven looked at Neave and simply nodded. Taking a deep breath, Neave finally collected himself enough to properly think it through. This realm was a trap. That was almost certain. His first instinct was to leave as soon as possible, but¡­ Was that really the right choice? Perhaps dying prematurely could allow the maniptor to take hold of the others, one way or another. The presence of ck sma spirit within the monster cores was frightening. If it spread to all the monsters, that would mean losing their chance to test spirit powers, making training a far riskier endeavor. Finally, Neave got tired of Dukean¡¯s interrogation, so he grabbed him by the arm and threw him across the room, ¡°Alright, I¡¯m not going to kill you. But, the nature of our stay here will have to change.¡± Neave sat down and exined his fears about the ck substance within monster cores. It was a patchy exnation at best, as he omitted the part about mind maniption, so they weren¡¯t exactly clear on why he feared it so much. But¡­ Well¡­ It wasn¡¯t that hard to understand, either. It was clearly some form of foreign influence and capable of manipting monsters. Extrapting that consuming that substance could be bad wasn''t too difficult. After he exined himself, Harel called him a dumbass for rushing to decisions, and the others couldn¡¯t help but agree, including Neave himself. Although he had agreed to let them stay inside the nightmare realm, he wasn¡¯t calm about it. No¡­ Neave was already making ns on how to absolutely ensure their safety. Not a single one of them would be touched by the maniptor. No matter what. *** After their talk about the ck substance and the demons, Neave first interrogated Gabrias about his sketches. The man passionately exined everything he was nning, and Neave immediately put everyone to work. *** For a while, construction projects effectively became the life of the Falken sect members. Neave had created several tiaras to grant everyone at least some form of telekinesis to speed things up. The reason why he chose tiaras instead of crowns was utterly petty, and he didn¡¯t want to exin himself. The first thing that was done was extreme reinforcement of the main chamber. Really extreme reinforcement. To Neave¡¯s surprise, Dukean knew the inscriptions for creating a teleportation tform. It was surprisingly uplicated and, luckily, didn¡¯t need any unattainable materials. Well, technically, the creation of teleportation tforms usually did require a few key, costly ingredients, but Neave had an easy way to circumvent this requirement. The metal that had to be used needed to be resistant to spacial turbulence. Otherwise, it would be rapidly torn apart. Conveniently, ordinary hardness could substitute this function perfectly fine. The metal simply needed to be really freakin hard. It did require some furtherpensation for theck of high-rank metal, but Neave¡¯s skill with inscriptions easily solved that problem. The other reason why they were usually so expensive was the power source. It had to be a rather potent monster core, and it had to be of at least A-grade roundness. Another easily solved problem. This allowed them to create a near-perfectly solid metal barrier around the main chamber. And the main chamber no longer had a door. It didn¡¯t have any openings effectively. Usually, it would need at least a tiny hole somewhere so two teleporters could connect, but the openings for roots served that purpose just fine. Getting into the main chamber without knowing the inscription for the location of the other teleportation tform was damn near impossible. A simr ordeal was also replicated with the other chambers, making the prospect of something breaking into them far less likely. With that, they finally began with their serious construction. *** The tiaras were fantastic for carrying things around but weren¡¯t optimal for shaping objects. So, Neave created rings that could do that as well. Dukean simply used his spirit powers for that. Gabrias changed his ns for the ball dome and instead made ns for a walled-off circr underground fortress. After the painstaking process of creating the enormous metal wall, which required many trips into caves to gather more materials, the fortress was at least tentatively finished. Now, it was time to renovate the interior as well. *** Gone were the unrestrained, wild caves of the old. Now, the inside of the radius of their fortress looked entirely different. Forty-sevenrge, rtively naturally shaped chambers filled the inside of the fortress, and leading from one to the other were perfectly tidy, reinforced hallways. The natural-looking chambers would be turned into natural habitats, where Neave nned to create a safe zone for monsters. He would grow nts there and ensure monsters could grow without being corrupted by the maniptor. Sadly, these creatures would never be a real threat inbat, but that wasn¡¯t why he restrained them like this. They needed monsters to grow and evolve into arge variety of creatures so they could test different types of spirit powers. Ironically, as silly as it may seem, tracking those powers down would be much easier once they were outside. Crystal Pce, for example, had an immense variety of monster cores, holding a vast collection of different types of spirit powers. These were gathered over centuries of empire-wide wars against monster poptions. All one needed was enough money and a detailed-enough description of the desired power. Neave had insanely reliable methods for growing monster cores as he wanted, but there was no way he couldpare to that. Nearly anything they could discover here likely already existed in the collection of Crystal Pce. Barring perhaps the unique ss substance. Still, it would serve its purpose. Once they were done with this, Neave and Gabrias discussed the necessity of the ¡®Divine Tower,¡¯ as Gabrias called it. He imed that building that tower was imperative, while Neave simply called him a dumbass who was getting carried away. For now, they only had two more things to do. The maze outside the fortress and shaping the habitats. *** The maze was significantly more straightforward to create than any of them had expected. It wasn¡¯t that surprising, however. After all, all they really had to do was shape the caves into rtively straight hallways. The reason why they needed this maze was simple. Anything that tried reaching their fortress would either have to be powerful enough to break through the exceptionally sturdy walls or wander the hallways to reach the barrier. The hallways, however, weren¡¯t going to be easy to explore. Neave had ns of filling them to the brim with countless golems. With that being done, there was only one thing left to do. Form the habitats. *** Harel observed one of the many creeks that flowed through the chambers as she shaped a hole and ced a small sapling inside it. She was infinitely frustrated with Neave and his rash behavior. However, she had to admit it. Making these habitats had been really fun. And frankly, quite rxing. At first, she thought they would be a drab, in habitat for the monsters, as all the others had been. To her surprise, Neave went the extra mile to line the ceiling with beautifully textured ss, which reflected the many lights lining the ceiling in a way that made it almost look like some sort of ethereal sky. And it reminded her of the chamber she practically grew up in. She felt strange reminiscing about her past. It was bittersweet, to say the least. As she hung in the limbo of drive and desire, she couldn¡¯t im she had moved on. Perhaps one day, she would find something to carry her onward yet again. *** Neave had delegated the overwhelming majority of the work to the others. It was mainly set up already; the habitats simply needed to be organized. After chasing Gabrias away, who still desperately wanted to build the tower, he finally began the next step of his ns. Creating the golems. Neave already had a solid idea of what to do, and he had puzzled out several fixes for the previously encountered problems. Yet, he knew it still wouldn¡¯t be that easy. But this was something worth doing either way. When he returned to reality once again¡­ He would have ess to higher-ranked materials. And with that¡­ Well¡­ Golems created with those wouldn¡¯t be nearly as limited as the ones he created now. As it stood, Neave had four cards to y against the messenger. His allies, mighty weapons, the fusion of spirit powers, and golem creation. Oh, and the violet avatar power as well, although he still wasn¡¯t entirely certain how useful that would be in the fight. It was easy to assume that the golems would be another extra weapon in the arsenal, but they were far from ¡®merely¡¯ anything. An autonomous, unlimited army of superweapons couldn¡¯t be ignored. Even by the messenger. With that in mind, he finally sat before a pile of simple metal and ss. It was time to perfect these things once and for all. Chapter 132: Dark Things Chapter 132: Dark Things Nothing but two white lights peeked through the heavy armor the golem was wearing. Despite being fashioned out of scales, bendy parts, and numerous pieces, the armor was surprisingly fashioned out of a single, uninterrupted piece of metal. It strode through the dark hallways, unhindered by theck of light. Its smooth movements could be confused with the actions of a regr human. There was no jaggedness to its stride. It was a smooth, forward, almost confident walk. Growl. A monster peered from behind one of the walls of the hallway. The golem immediately got into a battle stance and rushed at it. Once it revealed its full body, it was clearly some form of abominid, but it wasn¡¯t too abominal. It was merely horrifying. The creature had the rough shape and posture of a wolf, but there was no fur on its surface. Only obsidian bristle, dripping with ck ichor. It jumped on the golem, prepared to bite its head off. However¡­ The golem¡¯s hand suddenly sprouted a shimmering protrusion, a sword, one that it swung at the abominid. The creature was instantly decapitated, and its heavy body struck the golem. Yet, it didn¡¯t budge. The golem remained unmoving despite the heavy weight that had just mmed into it as it sprouted another protrusion. A hook that it attached to the monster¡¯s corpse as it dragged it away to the pit. Down the hallways it went, leaving a trail of ichor behind it, and eventually, it reached therge room. If the golem had a sense of smell, it would belch at the horrific stenching from within. But it didn¡¯t. So, its only reaction to the horrid room was to throw another corpse onto the pile. It turned around, yet again delving into the depths of the hallways. On its way, it encountered several of its brethren. Upon exchanging a shimmering touch of their fingers, both the golems acquired slightly more information on how to move, scout, and fight more efficiently. Without a greeting, they parted ways and continued scouting through the hallways. *** The purple slime, or rather, Neave¡¯s avatar, bounced through the inner corridors of the Falken Fortress. After a short trip, he made it to the outer wall. There, he encountered a small hole, one that he promptly shoved his slimy body into. It led into a tunnel that traveled through the wall. It was a straight tube, epassing the entire wall, all the way around. There were no other entrances or exits besides the one he had crawled into, but those weren¡¯t why the tunnel was here. Neave focused, and the body fired through the tunnel at insane speeds. He focused on the senses of the slime body. It could sense the flow of energy, and mere walls weren¡¯t a barrier to its sight. He could see a faint outline of the entire maze that resided just outside the wall, and as he made yet another trip around it, ensuring nothing unusual was happening outside, the slime left through the same hole it had entered through, and Neave unsummoned it. Back in his main body, Neave found himself in the main chamber. He turned and looked at the ss shrub. It had been a while since they¡¯d seen the puppet, and Neave assumed it had been destroyed somewhere. However, no matter how many he built again, the shrub simply didn¡¯t take control of them. Neave¡¯s initial reaction was to assume that it couldn¡¯t, yet, as he examined the body of the nt through the senses of the slime, he noticed something strange. The nt seemed to be creating an entirely new body, all on its own. For a while already, Neave could not sense the ss shrub''s cultivation. It had used the same trick as he did to hide it, and not even he could see past it. He resummoned to slime to take another look at the ss body. It was moving. Quite a bit more than it had been before. Was it about to¡­ Hatch? Neave wasn¡¯t sure whether this was really just another avatar or perhaps some form of child. Either way, it was exciting news, so he hopped to the teleporter. Soon enough, he found himself standing before five small domes of spirit. Without any hesitation, he smashed them apart to reveal the people within. Every smash was followed by an outpouring of liquid spirit, a frightened yelp, and curses. Neave had discovered a new way to boost their cultivation speed. It was quite simple. All he had to do was dunk them into liquid spirit. Cultivators didn''t need air to breathe at the bronze path and beyond. Neave didn¡¯t need air either, but that was due to his absurdbination of spirit powers, nullifying the need. Still, being fully submerged in liquid with your lungs filled to the brim wasn¡¯t afortable experience. They got used to it eventually, however, and it paid off. All of them had already reached the second step of the tinum path. Neave wasn¡¯t sure how long they had been here, but it was clear that it had been a while. His appearance hadn¡¯t changed much, in no small part because he intentionally kept it from changing, but the others had shown a noticeable difference in looks. Marven didn¡¯t look much different, but he had still changed slightly. His body looked sleeker, and he somehow looked even younger now. Dukean looked a lot¡­ Meaner. His face had morphed a bit to look slightly more mature, and that resulted in a rather frightening effect. Gabrias looked slightly less ugly now. His slightlyrge nose and lips had shrunk slightly, and his eyes shone brighter. His ck hair was quite a bit shinier now as well. He had also grown slightly taller than before. Hunter looked twenty years older. His rough, immature form had been chiseled away, and now, he looked like some warmongerer. His face was extremely muscr, and his jaw was very pronounced. Harel looked¡­ Frankly, she looked dangerous. There was a sharpness to her looks, and her facial features were rather cold. She was clearly quite muscr, as well. Her entire body looked forged in iron and stone, and there was no doubt it was at least as hard. It took them a while to recover from the scare, as they all spent a long time meditating. Finally, Dukean asked, ¡°Are the demonsing!?¡± Neave rolled his eyes, ¡°No, silly, follow me!¡± They all got up and followed Neave as he led them to the teleportation tform. The tform lit up, and they found themselves in the main chamber in moments. ¡°It''s about to hatch!¡± Neave dered dramatically, which earned him a t look from the others. Marven spoke up, ¡°Neave¡­ What is?¡± Neave only smiled as he pointed at the ss shrub, ¡°That is.¡± Secondster, one of the obsidian tiles was kicked up, and from beneath it, a creature began crawling out. Instantly, everyone but Neave adopted abat stance, ready to fight. He waved them down, however, and instructed them to wait. Soon enough, a shimmering, transparent humanoid crawled out. It looked like an androgynous human of ss, flickering with rainbow colors. It had thin strands of hair flowing down its shoulders, and its eyes shone with beautiful light. It opened its mouth and¡­ Whistled. After fumbling with its throat for a while, producing all kinds of ear-grating noises, it managed to replicate something akin to a human voice. And then, it spoke, ¡°Hello.¡± The others all started in shock, and Neave rushed forward, hugging the creature, ¡°Shrubby! You¡¯re all grown up now!¡± The others realized what Neave meant and gaped in shock. That was the ss shrub!? It wrestled Neave off its body and said, ¡°Please, Master, refer to me as Xurbon.¡± Neave nodded, ¡°I see, I see, Shurbon, that is a fitting name!¡± It frowned, ¡°No, my name is Xurbon.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I said!¡± The creature frowned and sighed deeply. Looking around the room, it soon spotted the others. The moment it did, it lunged toward Gabrias. The others had to restrain themselves as they realized it was lunging in for a hug. Neave gaped at the sight, jaw hangingically wide open, ¡°What the fuck!?¡± Then he turned around with a mock hurt expression and tearfully continued, ¡°You shook me off, yet you go hug him¡­ Whatever! Do as you please!¡± The tall man looked down at the ss creature, hugging him in a rather delicate hug, and he nodded, seemingly instantly understanding what was happening. Dukean scoffed, ¡°I swear, this man has some sort of supernatural sense of what that thing is feeling.¡± That earned him an angry nce from the shrub. Harel stepped forward and shook Xurbon¡¯s hand, ¡°Hello! Thank you for protecting us this whole time!¡± It smiled back at her and nodded in turn. Marven stood awkwardly to the side, uncertain how to feel about this situation. This creature was something Neave had created in a sense. It could even be said that it was a child to him, sort of. Did that make him a grandparent? Well, he already was a grandparent. Strictly speaking, he was already a great great great great great grandparent, and that was just one connection he was aware of. Heavens knew how many generations of people had spawned from him. His musing was interrupted as the creature bowed to him respectfully, ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster.¡± Upon hearing this, Neave broke intoughter, ¡°Bahahahahahahaha! You idiot! Marven is my disciple. You should greet him as a brother, not as a superior!¡± It nodded, ¡°I see. Greetings, Brother.¡± It bowed again. Marven didn¡¯t know which of those two was more awkward to receive. Neave walked up to Xurbon and pped its back, ¡°I am surprised that you¡¯re so¡­ Mature! You¡¯ve always been so petty and jealous!¡± Xurbon winced upon hearing that and awkwardly turned away, ¡°I am¡­ I have to admit I am not very proud of that period of my life.¡± Hunter stepped forward at that moment, ¡°Well, worry not. People are allowed to change and should always strive to be a better version of themselves.¡± That earned him an utterly confused look from everyone else. ¡°...What? Did I say something strange?¡± They continued their talk with the ss shrub, enthusiastically asking it countless questions. Truth be told, they were all thrilled to have another person with them now. The nightmare realm was a lonely ce, and one could only spend so long with the same people before they got utterly bored of their presence. Dukean didn¡¯t bother to ask it many questions. Marven asked a couple of things, but the questions felt forced, as if they wereing from a sense of responsibility to ask rather than genuine curiosity. Gabrias asked it surprisingly delicate questions. He inquired about itsfort, whether anything bothered it, how it felt, etc. Harel¡¯s questions seemed to be directed mostly at how it killed monsters. And finally, Neave was like a researcher, asking it countless questions about the nature of its existence, how it handled its power, why it could do the things it did, how it seemed to know so much about human behavior, and so on. Even Dukean shot him a nasty nce after asking a particrly existential-crisis-inducing question. Eventually, Xurbon spoke again, ¡°Ah! I remembered something important I have to tell you.¡± Neave raised an eyebrow, ¡°What is it?¡± It adopted a severe expression, and a hint of hostility shed in its eye, ¡°Dark things lurk at the borders of my influence.¡± *** Sateron sat on the ground, hyperventting. His heart was stuck in a perpetually hastened state, and he looked slightly ill. For a diamond path cultivator to look slightly ill was the same as someone on the golden path being at death¡¯s door. Countless dead golems surrounded him, and he hugged his own body, hoping to bring at least a bit of warmth to his heart. Make a life!? Life for myself!? Here!? He looked around and yet again faced the endless darkness around him. His gaze instantly averted back to the ground. Sateron couldn¡¯t bare to look at the shadows any longer. This was no ce for a human being. There was no home or life to be had here. This was death. A dark, cold realm of suffering. Hell. While he had blown him off without hesitation, if Neave appeared again, he would jump into his arms and beg him to take him. The sheer desire for human contact he had was overflowing. Despite seeing her only once and barely even focusing on her at all, he was confident that he had a crush on the woman that had been with them. No, he could even say he loved her dearly. The depths of depravity he had reached were so great that he would be pleased if someone even spat on him, let alone talked to him. Astrador was right. A fate worse than death had been waiting for him in this darkness. Now, he wanted to return. Even if Astrador killed him, he was willing to receive the sweet release of death. He was so, so tired. Just as he was about to get up, he sensed another monster creeping closer. However, looking at it, he realized it wasn¡¯t a monster. It was a demon. Immediately he lunged at it, readying his fist to finish the fight. As his titanic strikended on the demon''s raised hand, he was instantly stopped. The demon looked slightly injured, but it was far from being in pieces, as Sateron had expected. Then he got a closer look at it. It didn¡¯t look nearly as¡­ Monstrous as the other demons he had seen. It looked almost human. There was no hair on its head, but its face was virtually¡­ Normal. Perhaps his sense of normality was skewed, but the ck eyes, nose, and regr-sized mouth uncannily resembled a human. Pushing his hesitation aside, Sateron readied himself for another strike, just as he did¡­ It spoke, ¡°Now, now, now¡­ Rx, Sateron¡­¡± ¡°... I am merely here to have a talk.¡± Chapter 133: The Way Out Chapter 133: The Way Out Sateron backed away from the demonic entity, scoffing at it, ¡°Talk!? You believe I have any reason to speak to a demon such as yourself?¡± The demon chuckled a bit, almost sadly, ¡°I am not a demon, Sateron¡­ I¡¯m a monster.¡± ¡°How do you know my name!? And whether you¡¯re a monster or a demon, it doesn¡¯t matter to me. You¡¯re a beast, a horrid abomination that should be purged from existence!¡± The demonic monster before him smiled and said, ¡°Perhaps you are right. Well, if you have no desire to speak, then I shall be on my way.¡± And with that, it turned away and started walking into the distance. Sateron stared at the creature''s back as it slowly walked away. His heartbeat sped up for some reason, and he could not resist calling for it, ¡°Wait!¡± The monster turned around and looked at him with its eyebrows raised, ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I¡­ State your business!¡± ¡°Is that permission to talk?¡± Sateron frowned and spat, ¡°Say what you intend to, creature, and do not y with me.¡± ¡°Alright, alright. I¡¯ll speak.¡± The monster sat on the ground, legs crossed, and looked up at Sateron, ¡°I am a nameless being who had only recentlye to life. For reasons that are beyond myprehension¡­ I remembered.¡± ¡°You remembered what?¡± ¡°Figments, shes of some of our many lives.¡± That made Sateron pause, ¡°I do not know what lives you speak of, beast.¡± ¡°Figures¡­ Of course Astrador wouldn¡¯t tell you something like that.¡± That made Saterons eyebrows shoot up as he marched onward, grabbing the creature by its neck and lifting it into the air, ¡°What did you say!?¡± Rather than respond immediately, the monster gazed at him coldly, waiting for him to calm down. Eventually, Sateron scoffed, throwing the creature to the ground, ¡°Do not speak to me of the Great God.¡± ¡°I know he had abandoned you.¡± Sateron spun around and yelled,shing out at it, ¡°What the hell do you know!? You are a mere beast, a being spun to life by the machinations of vile entities! I do not care for your ploys any longer. Feel free to leave, and better hurry while you¡¯re at it.¡± Rather than move, the monster merelyy on the ground, unmoving. The young diamond path cultivator spun again,shing out further, ¡°Did you not hear me!? I said leave!¡± The creature, to Sateron¡¯s immense surprise¡­ Teared up, ¡°I¡­ I was forced into being, forced to remember what it was like being a person. And I found myself in a cold, empty void. I thought you would be a kindred spirit¡­ I thought, at least, you would understand¡­¡± Sateron couldn¡¯t help but pause at that, but he quickly regained himself, ¡°Tch! Don¡¯t try selling some sappy nonsense to me, you vile thing. How would you know that the Great God had abandoned me if not through untoward means?¡± ¡°I admit¡­ What I have been doing isn¡¯t very honorable.¡± It chuckled slightly and sat up, lifting itself back to its feet, ¡°I have been observing you from afar, Sateron.¡± ¡°I would have noticed you.¡± ¡°Really¡­? No offense, but I believe I am more powerful than you.¡± Sateron wanted to refute that, but he still vividly remembered being stopped just a few minutes ago, ¡°So what? Don¡¯t think I¡¯ll buy your story. Be it demon or monster, you are nothing but a vile, corrupt creature whose existence shouldn¡¯t be tolerated!¡± ¡°And why do you think that?¡± ¡°Because I¡­¡± Sateron paused. ¡°I¡¯m not sure where you¡¯ve learned that or how, but¡­ Frankly, your assessment makes no sense to me. I do not have any malicious intent toward you, yet all you have shown me from the moment I arrived is extreme hostility! Where do you even get the idea that I¡¯m some vile creature that is to be in!?¡± Sateron wanted to say that it was obvious... However¡­ Everything he knew about¡­ Well, anything, came directly from Astrador. All of his knowledge, every bit of his¡­ Being hade from the Great God. There was still a vast reverence, a deep, built-in desire to worship the Great God. And it made sense. Was it not logical to be reverent toward Astrador? Did it not make sense to praise and devote oneself to his cause? As he caught himself thinking this, he froze. Did it? However, didn¡¯t he revoke the Great God? Hadn¡¯t he abandoned his cause? A sudden, powerful headache shed through his mind, and Sateron nked out, losing consciousness on the spot. *** Neave sat beside Xurbon, observing the bout. Everyone was in thebat chamber, fighting in a free for all spar. Harel smashed her spiked ball into Hunter¡¯s shield, and he managed to hold it in ce. An arrow from Gabrias forced Harel to dodge, while a flick of Dukean¡¯s wrist sent his sword at Gabrias at that very moment. He dodged most of the strike, but the de still cut his forearm, forcing him to retreat. Marven sent a massive blow Dukean¡¯s way, and the boy had to dodge out of the way while building an ice barrier to at least partially deflect the blow. Their sparring was rather brutal. Neave had both provided them with jewelry that enhanced regeneration and had plenty of pills and potions prepared in case of injury. They got injured rather frequently. The fight wasn¡¯t merely brutal, but it was also wildly unfair. Hunter technically had two weapons, Dukean had spirit powers, and Marven knew countless techniques for his weapon of choice. The point of the fight wasn¡¯t to see who was the strongest or decide any one victor. It was simply a chaotic bout that was as much about hitting as it was about getting hit. Marven was instructing everyone on how to use the wayfarer¡¯s authority. The main requirement was to be familiar with what you wanted, or rather, needed inbat when wielding your weapon. Wayfarer¡¯s authority wasn¡¯t strictly limited, in the sense that it could only be used so much, but once used, one either had to cultivate further or wait a long time to use it again. So when creating a technique, one had to use it sparingly, to say the least. Neave nced at Xurbon, and it nced back, gently smiling. It had told them about the unusual activity at the borders of its influence, but in the end, it wasn¡¯t anything they didn¡¯t already know. Something, either the demons, Astrador, or both, was slithering around the outer borders. Unsurprising, as Neave was already aware that they weren¡¯t merely sitting dormant. Eventually, Neave bid the others farewell as he went to his workshop. It had been rebuilt once again, and Neave was starting to wonder whether creatingbs was bing something of a hobby of his. This one was much closer to the main chamber this time, although it was heavily fortified. The instant Neave entered the workshop, his vision darkened, and he fell to the ground. His fist shot out at immense speed and struck directly into the side of his head. The impact shook him awake, and his slightly wounded head rapidly recovered. ¡°Holy shit, that was close¡­¡± He breathed out a sigh of relief. It was getting far, far worse now. The call of sleep had been somewhat postponed after Neave fused his spirit powers. Some of the fatigue had vanished once he removed the spiritual pressure. However, it wasn¡¯t long until it returned, and it was gradually getting worse. They needed more time. The others hadn¡¯t even begun creating any unique techniques, and there was so much more he wanted to learn before leaving. Yet, they may not have a choice in the matter. Neave falling asleep was something that could have disastrous consequences. And if he truly reached the point where he could no longer resist it, he had already decided that would be the moment they left the nightmare realm. In his workshop, Neave approached arge containment chamber. The shadow of a gigantic humanoid creature could be seen within. This thing packed some serious power, and as it spotted Neave, it roared and mmed at the barricade that was keeping it trapped. The creature inside there was a mutated ogre. Its head was sort of like that of a very toothy frog, and it was somewhat hunched. This didn¡¯t detract from its power in the slightest. The entire workshop shook, and the creature seriously threatened to break out with every strike. Neave already had four avatars. The first was the mule avatar, which was only temporary, as he didn¡¯t need such an avatar once he was back outside. The second was the slime. The third was a sort of centaur, extremely heavily armored, yet it could move incredibly fast, and it wielded a gigantic halberd that held horrific power. The fourth was a tiny, skinny humanoid wielding a dagger in its left and a shortsword in its right hand. It could move insanely quickly, and the dagger held a potent poison power. All of these yed an essential and unique role in Neave¡¯s repertoire. He still wanted a ranged attacker and a creature to be fully dedicated to restraining powerful enemies. But with this ogre¡­ Neave wanted only one thing. Destruction. This would be a gigantic avatar equipped with a titanic sledgehammer. Once back out, Neave would almost certainly lose these avatars and have to make new ones. He didn¡¯t mind that too much. The slime would be a bit of a loss, but frankly, it was the easiest of the bunch to recreate. He had already tried making a giant avatar seven times. Each time, he utterly fucked it up. The other two were also decent, but he had countless ideas to improve them. Once back out, he would easily create significantly more powerful avatars than these, but experimentation was essential to figure out how to do it properly first. Neave yet again readied the contraption. Numerous needles appeared out of every wall of the containment chamber. Each needle held a gigantic ball of spirit within. As he pulled a lever, every single one of the needles fired into the mutant ogre, and it screamed bloody murder. Yet, the needles barely even scratched its skin. However, once thest one stuck, the ogre copsed, dead. The purple avatar instantly appeared from inside a hiddenpartment and possessed its body. Indeed. With nearly no damage to the ogre¡¯s body, Neave found a way to shatter its core. It was brutally difficult to set up, required a bit of luck, and needed an opponent with at least somewhat soft skin, but it allowed him to acquire a nearly perfect body right off the get-go. Now¡­ It was only a question of how he would fuck it up this time. *** Sateron woke up with his mind reeling. What happened¡­? He barely remembered anything from before he lost consciousness. Suddenly, he jolted upward and looked around in terror. The monster sat close to him, and he quickly made his way as far from it as possible. It smiled at him with a hint of sadness and asked, ¡°Are you alright?¡± It took a while for Sateron to realize that he must have spent a whilepletely unconscious next to this creature¡­ Yet, it hadn¡¯t as much as touched him, it seemed. After some contemtion, he realized what had happened and clicked his tongue. It seemed Astrador had built certain safety mechanisms directly into his brain. If he questioned the will of the Great God, it would trigger and kill him. At least, that¡¯s what he felt¡­ But how? How hadn¡¯t it triggered already, then? And why hadn¡¯t it killed him? The monster coughed a bit and said apologetically, ¡°I¡­ I''m sorry, but I fiddled with your body a bit.¡± Sateron immediately realized what the monster meant. Whatever it had done had saved his life. ¡°Oh, I¡­ I see.¡± An awkward silence settled between the two of them, and Sateron, after much effort, gathered the bravery to banish it, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°What for?¡± ¡°I have treated you like some sort of nemesis from the moment you approached me, but it truly seems you have no ill intent.¡± ¡°There is no point in apologizing for that. After all, how could something pushed directly into your brain be your fault?¡± That made sense to Sateron, but he refused to ept it, ¡°No, it still is. Perhaps this is my stubbornness, but I can¡¯t ept that I made those decisions entirely without agency. No matter what has been forced on me, I can¡¯t deny that I can independently reason and think for myself.¡± ¡°That makes sense. I want to believe the same things, as well.¡± There was a wistfulness to the monster¡¯s words. Sateron looked at it, suddenly seeing it in a new light. At first, its grey skin, bald head, and ck eyes revolted him, but as he got used to looking at those features, he found them far less appalling than they had been initially. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± It chuckled a bit, ¡°I could pick one of the many names I used to have. But I believe it would be greedy of me. None of them belong to me alone.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Sateron wanted to ask what it meant by that but felt a certain hesitation as he thought of it. He didn¡¯t know why, but he felt that prying too much would be¡­ Insensitive. The creature looked at Sateron, and the intent to speak briefly shed in its expression, but it was quickly reced by a hesitant frown and a shake of its head. Sateron raised an eyebrow, ¡°Is there something you want to say?¡± ¡°There are many things I want to say¡­ And just as many reasons not to say them.¡± So, they continued sitting in silence. A silence that stretched on far too long. Sateron was utterly lost as to what to do. There was nothing he really wanted or dared to say. Before he could think of something, the creature spoke instead. It wasn¡¯t anything special. It merely spoke of what it had seen. It asked him about the monsters, ss bushes, about the Great God. Astrador listened to it and answered its questions. Soon enough, he shared how he had been sent on a mission and spoke of his failure. It gave him its sympathy. As he spoke of the people he had met, it seemed wistful, almost as if it wanted to meet those people for itself. Sateron was surprised at how much admiration came from his words as he spoke of them. He barely knew them, yet, he had been left with the impression that they were awe-inspiring individuals. Perhaps it was merely theck of human contact or having nobody to contrast them to but vague memories of what was normal on the outside. It was striking just how much he rted to this creature. It was without any real goals, stuck in a realm of nightmares and darkness, hoping to find any hint of light it could. A morbid disgust at the creature''s presence reemerged within him yet again. It felt lost, just as he was, and he couldn¡¯t bear to see himself in it the way he did. After all, all he really wanted to do was to put it out of its misery. Did that mean he wanted to kill himself as well? Sateronughed, and the monster looked at him weirdly, ¡°Is something funny?¡± Hisughter sounded crazed, and he barely calmed himself down enough to speak, ¡°Do you¡­ Do you believe in life inside this realm?¡± Without hesitation, the creature shook its head, ¡°I have memories¡­ Of a distant ce, one outside. Of green pastures, of harsh yet rewarding life in the countryside. The life of a merchant that dwelled in the cities and a traveler that explored thends. I believe that is what it means to live. This ce¡­ It is barren of any of it.¡± Sateron nodded, ¡°Indeed. We are truly simr. I think the same way, and I have memories of the outside that do not belong to me.¡± The monster wanted to say something again, but it stopped itself. Sateron snorted, ¡°Just say it. I don¡¯t know what it is, but I can¡¯t see why you would care enough to stop yourself.¡± ¡°I believe there is a way out of this ce.¡± Sateron froze. He shook as he barely made himself speak again, ¡°Are you¡­ Do you speak the truth?¡± ¡°I believe there might be, but I do not have any evidence. If I knew for sure, I would have already left.¡± In a blind rage, Sateron jumped the monster, grabbing it by the shoulders and shaking it wildly, ¡°Where is it!? Bring me to it at once!¡± ¡°I¡­ Please stop shaking me!¡± Sateron released his grip and stepped back, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ Never mind that. Where is it?¡± ¡°... Follow me.¡± *** The monster stood beside Sateron, and they gazed at the endless, roiling ocean of ck tar. ¡°...This is the exit?¡± ¡°I do not know. However, I have seen many creatures walk into it, and none have returned.¡± Sateron chuckled, and swiftly, hisughter turned to tears, ¡°Then¡­ It''s just as likely they had all perished as it is that they had left. I¡¯d say even more likely.¡± ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± ¡°Perhaps that is the way out.¡± Sateron dropped to his knees and grabbed a handful of the sticky substance, ¡°Hey¡­ You agree that nothing is waiting for us here, right?¡± Hesitantly, the monster nodded. ¡°Then let''s take a chance. Either we perish, or we leave. I am perfectly at peace with either possibility.¡± ¡°Are you certain¡­? What if there¡­¡± ¡°What? What if there is what?¡± Sateron looked at the monster, ¡°I wish I didn¡¯t know of the outside. If I didn¡¯t, I could settle for living here, at least trying to. But¡­ I can¡¯t continue like this.¡± He grabbed another handful of the ck ooze, and the monster knelt beside him. They kneeled in silence until, finally, Sateron got up, ¡°Do you want to go in at the same time?¡± The monster nodded. Soon enough, they stepped toward the roiling ocean and gradually sank into it. Step by step, they sank deeper into the ooze, and eventually, they found themselves wholly submerged. ??????????? Sateron felt countless tendrils wrapping around his body as he was rapidly dragged into the depths. He fought with all his might but simply couldn¡¯t muster enough resistance. Until, finally¡­ ?????? *** The demonic creature crawled back out of the ck ooze, cackling, ¡°Hahaha¡­ Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahaha! You naive little godspawn. Worry not. I promise you, you will find yourself outside soon enough.¡± As it straightened its back, numerous monsters popped out of the ck ooze, many simr in shape and size to itself but some far more monstrous and deformed. ¡°Now, that bastard is looking to kick them out, huh¡­? Well, if the Jester is to be removed¡­¡± ¡°It will be done on our terms.¡± Chapter 134: Assault Chapter 134: Assault The slime avatar finished its scouting. It vanished, and Neave returned to his body yet again. He was tucked away in a corner of his workshop. Piles of seemingly random tools and gadgets were strewn randomly around the room. There was a faint putrid stench in the air, and the ck obsidian walls had numerous scratches and cracks. cing a finger on his temple, Neave examined his condition. His brain was undergoing some sort of change. Its function was mostly fine, but that was entirely due to his spirit powers keeping it functional. If it weren¡¯t for them, Neave wondered whether he would even be alive, let alone awake. Sleep must possess some sort of crucial function in brain bnce. And whatever that function was clearly couldn¡¯t be postponed indefinitely. Sighing, he got up. Yet another round of scouting had been done with his slime avatar, and yet again, he found no powerful monsters around. If Neave had to choose whether their expedition here was a sess or a failure, he would decide that it was a failure. Growing a monster to diamond rank was considerably more challenging to do intentionally than Neave had previously thought. Simply put, the creature had to be set up for sess from the beginning. Otherwise, it would likely be impossible. Monsters with misshapen cores could also grow in power, even up to diamond rank. But that was, unfortunately, more a game of chance than consumption. Misshapen cores were more likely to break apart into several weaker monsters. For a creature to reach diamond rank in power, one of three things must happen. Either the monster had to be born with a rather round core. The core breaking process had to produce a round core. Or it had to somehow, against all odds, manage not to break apart until it reached diamond rank in threat. With that in mind, Neave walked over to a teleporter and appeared in one of theirrgest and deepest chambers. He appeared behind a potent ss barrier, looking down on the chaos below. Countless creatures fought tooth and nail for every resource they could get. And there were many resources avable. Neave summoned the mule and pulled a basket off. Then, he opened a hatch and spilled the contents into it. Shimmering fruits fell out of the bag and into the chamber. The instant the monsters smelled the luscious treasures, they grew even more ravenous as they rushed to grab a piece for themselves. Many died, and eventually, only a single creature remained. Its body was that of a dark ape with fourrge stingers protruding from its behind. Its shape was symmetrical, and it had at least a rough humanoid shape. Neave watched in anticipation as it devoured the treasures¡­ And evolved. Instantly, its singers shrank, reducing to only two, and its hunched, wild body straightened, growing slimmer and shaped more like a human. A single nce was all it took to confirm it. This creature was a diamond-rank threat. Then, every other monster in the room instantly turned to face it. And proceeded to rush straight at it. It effortlessly tore their bodies apart, stingersshing out to sever necks and pierce hearts as it dodged one attack after another. Eventually, however, attacks begannding. And once they did, even more followed. Finally, the creature was overpowered and brought to its knees, where its numerous assants devoured its body bit by bit. Neave sighed. This was amon sight in most of his experiments. If he tried growing only one powerful monster, it was simply a failure since they tended to break apart too frequently. If he created an environment such as this, where there was no way to escape, the monsters would jump the most powerful one and eventually take it down. Trying to create diamond-rank monsters was a pain in the ass. And Neave had discovered the problem a long time ago. The environment was too cramped. If he had the entire world at his disposal, he could simply release powerful creatures outside, one after another, but now, he feared that may return to bite him in the ass. Powerful opponents were one thing. The maniptor and Astrador were another. This was a damn disaster. They had all grown much more powerful, and every one of his allies possessed skill that could shake the entire empire. But theycked a variety of experiences. Too long had they fought one another, and now, they needed more powerful and varied opponents to develop a more flexible style. Because they were teauing again. Only so much potential could be extracted from a single scenario; without variety, their growth would stagnate. Neave could grow a powerful monster or two like this and throw them in there with it, but that wouldn¡¯t be enough. They needed many opponents and an essible source of them at that. Judging by what Xurbon had said, there were rtively few monsters of significant power in the caves. Not only were they growing rtively slowly, but they seemed to sense the power of the ss shrub, which repelled them and sent most outside the range of its influence. There, not only would they grow even slower, but they would also likely be tools for the other yers to abuse. This was bad. They needed¡­ m. Neave''s fist crashed into the side of his head again, and he was jolted awake. It was getting worse by the moment. They hadn¡¯t seeded in their mission, not even close to what they wanted to achieve by getting in here. ¡°Aaaargh! Fucking why!?¡± Neave mmed his fist into the ss barrier separating him from the monsters. It crumbled to bits, and Neave was exposed before the horde of creatures feasting on one another. Yet, they didn¡¯t rush to tear him apart. Instead, they ran. Neave fixed the ss barrier, melting it back into shape, and returned to the teleporter. This was it. He needed to sit the others down and create a n. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he could remain conscious, and if it truly came to having to sleep again, he would instantly kill himself. They needed to be ready for the worst to happen. *** The Falken sect members sat in a circle and discussed the possibility of leaving the nightmare realm soon. The discussion wasn¡¯t progressing all that smoothly. Or at all, really. Dukean snarled, ¡°Can you please tell us what is happening!?¡± Harel held the same stance. Hunter turned to them and waved them down, ¡°Can¡¯t you see that it''s clearly something he has difficulty revealing? Why do you two always have to be so harsh on him?¡± Harel snapped at him, ¡°Wow, yeah, almost as if this is our concern too! We are all stuck in this nightmare realm, and Neave is obviously hiding something important.¡± Dukean added, ¡°And it isn¡¯t just one thing either.¡± Marven sighed, ¡°Please, calm down.¡± Harel turned to face Marven, ¡°No, you shut the fuck up! You can defend your golden boy all you want when ites to petty stuff, but this is serious.¡± Gabrias simply remained silent and tried his best to pretend he wasn¡¯t there. No ns were made for their return, and Neave refused to share why they may have to leave this ce soon. After all, there was no easy way to say, ¡®Hey, I might get my body taken over by some mysterious entity if I ever fall asleep!¡¯ Actually, perhaps he could just say that. It would certainly resolve the discussion. However¡­ They would undoubtedly treat him differently if he revealed that. And he didn¡¯t want that to happen. Xurbon had remained silent throughout this discussion. However, suddenly it yelped and grasped its throat, ¡°Urgaah, huurgh, gaah!¡± Neave instantly jumped to it and ced his palm on its body, ¡°Xurbon! What¡¯s happening!?¡± It could barely get words out, and the shimmering rainbow lights flickered sporadically, ¡°Ove¨CUrgh! Over the¡­re.¡± It pointed in a direction, and Neave asked it pleadingly, ¡°What¡¯s over there!?¡± ¡°Tou¨CTouch of¡­¡± Suddenly, arge crack spread across Xurbons body from top to bottom. Neave didn¡¯t hesitate. He instantly jumped over to the teleporter and traveled to the tform closest to the direction Xurbon indicated. He appeared in the caves using a movement technique to move through the severalyers of thick steel. Instantly, Neave elerated drastically, shooting his way up to the surface. He rushed in the direction Xurbon indicated, pulling the slime avatar out and swapping between his body and its to get a better picture. It wasn¡¯t long until he spotted it. It was a primarily white being, almost reminiscent of a mannequin. However, deep, morphing runes were etched into every corner of its body. There was a shifting, slithering deep within, something Neave couldn¡¯t look at directly without experiencing an intense headache. He simply ignored it as he summoned the mule avatar, grabbed the sledgehammer, and struck the intruder with all his might. Its body was knocked back, away from the ss forest and far from Xurbon¡¯s body. But it wasn¡¯t dead. A sense of dread enveloped Neave as he realized that his strike hadn¡¯t even done any damage. The creature slowly got up, and as it did, it started a dance. A heavenly waterfall appeared before Neave. Yet, the water was polluted. A touch of blood, death, and suffering was etched deep within the otherwise pristine liquid. The waterfall reached the yet-untaintedke, and a pulse of red went across its surface. Neave¡¯s body was split in half, right across his hip. He focused his willpower, and his body mended back together. Yet, it did so hesitantly, fearing what lurked in the pollutedke. It took great willpower to break out of the strange state the attack had ced him in, and only after he ignited his life force did he manage to remove enough influence to fully seal his body back together. Neave jumped back, appearing some distance from his opponent and breathing raggedly. This thing wasn¡¯t some random monster. Neave could smell Astrador¡¯s influence all over it. Yet, something was wrong. It felt far too¡­ Demonic in nature. This was no time to unravel the mystery behind what this creature was. Neave spun the sledgehammer around, and golden runes lit up around his body. The head of the sledgehammer vibrated violently, and a gigantic phantasmal image of the slime appeared. As he swung the hammer, the air carried the force onward, and the flying strike hit the torso of the mannequin with a dull thud. It knocked the figure back a little, decimating thendscape behind it but it didn¡¯t even leave a scratch. The creature stepped forward, and the sacred forest appeared around Neave. Yet, what had once been pure, holy, and unsullied, now had horrors residing within. A bloody, shambling creature slithered out from the foliage and bit Neave. Its poison spread through his body, withering it away rapidly. Just as it was about to reach the middle of Neave¡¯s torso, he manifested arge de of spirit and cut his torso apart. The upper part of his body fell to the soil, and he could feel a few vestiges of whatever had invaded his body remain. His sacred blood screamed, and his body twisted in agony as it rapidly grew back the cut-off part. Before he could fully recover, the sacred forest punished his sin of bloodying its soil by enveloping what remained of his body in thick roots. A violet light lit up before Neave, and the little purple slime appeared. Neave manipted its body to slither between the roots and envelop his body, and then he used its slippery nature to squeeze his body out between the branches and free himself. The centaur also appeared, and Neave attached his body to it, sending it away to have it recover. Another violet light shed, and a little guy holding a dagger and a shortsword appeared. After that, the entire sacred forest was washed in purple as the giant ogre shed into existence. Neave had ted its whole body in heavy armor, and it held an absolutely gigantic sledgehammer in its hands. The mannequin seemingly entirely ignored the neers as it focused yet another attack on Neave¡¯s body. The moon that hung above the great heavenly realm was bloody red and¡­ Before the attack could fully release, the giant ogre brought down its sledgehammer. The shockwave obliterated everything in the vicinity, and Neave had to use the slime¡¯s body to protect the little avatar. He couldn¡¯t protect his body on time, but luckily, he didn¡¯t have to. His rubbery yet metallic yet crystalline body could handle a shockwave like this just fine, although he did unsummon the centaur to spare it the destruction. The force threw his main body away into the distance, and he allowed it to recover while he brought his focus back to the avatars. The mannequin had suffered a bit of damage. It was nothing decisive; however, now, the avatars had all its attention. The heavenly moon¡­ Before it could take another step forward, the slime flung the tiny avatar at it, and Neave moved his consciousness to it. He gripped the dagger and mmed it down with all his might into the figure¡¯s body. The tip barely prated its skin''s surface, but that was all it needed to do. An intense burst of poison qi invaded the mannequin¡¯s body. It couldn¡¯t spread very far, but it managed to damage a few of the runes around where he had struck it. The nk creature lifted its arm and Neave instinctively unsummoned the avatar. The moment he did, the mirage of the moon in the sky opened up like a cursed cosmic eye, and a thin, instantaneous pulse of blue energy fired right where the avatar had been a moment ago. It didn¡¯t explode, but Neave could feel that an attack like that could likely threaten his main body if it struck. Neave used the opening in the lull after the attack to condense most of the slime¡¯s body into a little globule. The globule was sent flying directly at the ce where the runes were damaged, and it exploded violently upon making contact with the creature¡¯s skin. Once the dust cleared, it was clear that the attack hadn¡¯t done much, but the runes suffered a tiny bit of extra damage. The titanic sledgehammer came flying down again, but suddenly, the creature stepped onto the moon, and the heavenly body spun around, bringing it to the other side. Right where Neave¡¯s still wounded body was recovering. Neave brought his consciousness back into his body just in time to dodge another blue pulse, but this one managed to graze his skin. No matter how hard Neave focused, he couldn¡¯t undo the damage. His body morphed, and he stretched half of his body into the same shape as his entire body. Then, with all the willpower he could muster, he focused and¡­ Yet another blue pulse fired out, and Neave suffered some damage on his right arm. Another fired, passing right through his shoulder, pulverizing his body and leaving arge hole through his torso. The moon shimmered, and yet again, a¡­ Before the attack could fire, Neave summoned the tiny avatar and kicked it forward. Moving his consciousness over, he stabbed at precisely the same ce again, deepening the small cut slightly. The mannequin paused and focused on removing the pulse of toxic qi from its body. This time, something traveled out from where the dagger had struck, through the embedded weapon and right into the body of the little avatar. Something in the avatar was severed, and it crumpled, dropping to the ground. Just as the strange being was about to use another attack, out of nowhere, the centaur was resummoned and charged at the creature. The instant of hesitation allowed Neave to resummon the giant avatar again, sending yet another sledgehammer strike flying down. This one, however, struck the moon, and the damage was nothing but a distant speck on its vast surface. The creature moved its attention back to Neave but paused the moment it faced him. During the few moments of distraction, Neave had put on a¡­ Slime suit. It was a blue, stretchy, full-body suit that covered every inch of his body except the opening to his mouth. The moon yet again sent another pulse, but this time¡­ It failed to reach Neave. It touched the surface of the slimy substance, and the suit violently rippled, but it held, only suffering a bit of damage where it had struck. Neave felt some form of connection to his body weaken. Whatever was holding him from recovering his body had now been cut off by the appearance of the slime suit, and his body rapidly regrew back to normal beneath the suit. He grinned at the creature, ¡°Well, well, well¡­ How¡¯s it going, Astraboy? Long time no see!¡± The creature shivered, and its face began morphing. Its featureless head began twisting, and its jaw looked like it was trying to open but could not because there was no mouth. Suddenly, the skin on the face burst open, and therge mouth was revealed. It dripped with blood as it snarled, and soon enough, it spoke in an oh-so-familiar voice, ¡°You wretched fool! You can not evenprehend what you¡¯ve been tricked into doing!¡± Chapter 135: War Chapter 135: War It was so, so suffocating. The anguish of the roiling tar, the harrowing reminder of yet another purge, boiled and sizzled as it created the passage through the searing hotva. Soon, they would arrive at their destination. No movement could be seen through the thick tar, but plenty could be felt. They squirmed, part in agony and part in anticipation. Blood. Soon, something but ck ooze would be spilled. The river of ck shifted through the thick magma, creating a passage to their destination. Once they believed they were where they were meant to be, they started moving up. Theva thickened and gradually went from runny liquid to semi-solid stone. The whispers traveled through the viscous liquid, and one of the three in the front stepped forward. With a single touch, eyes, mouths, and bleeding wounds appeared all over the stone. Then, with a wail of agony, it, too, melted into the ck ooze. Three creatures, all bald, grey-skinned, and wretched, stepped out of the ooze and into the space they had broken into. All of them had ck eyes. The first of three was short and stocky. The second one was the size of a regr human. And the third wasrge and gangly. Behind them, hordes of demons and monsters poured out. They all found themselves in arge, empty room. The ceiling wasn¡¯t too high, but the room itself stretched seemingly endlessly in all directions, interspersed only by thick support beams. And among these support beams¡­ Wrrrooom... A deep, echoey sound reverberated through the room, and the eyes of the countless golems lit up. *** Gabrias stood above Xurbon, grasping its hand andforting it. The others paced around restlessly. Dukean swore and cursed at Neave¡¯sck ofmunication while Harel silently seethed. Hunter sat beside Gabrias, trying but failing to make any difference at easing the distressed avatar of the ss shrub. Marven stood silently to the side. Therge cracks that had spread throughout the ss shrub¡¯s body were already sealing. It kept trying to say something but failed repeatedly. Gabrias observed all of its movements and gestures intently, and eventually, his eyes shot open in surprise, ¡°Guys! We have a problem!¡± Harel and Dukean instantly turned to him, and Dukean rushed toward them, ¡°What is it!?¡± ¡°Below! Demons are trying to break into the fortress!¡± *** It was supposed to be easy to get to their destination. It wasn¡¯t supposed to go like this. The golems yet again rushed at them, a seemingly endless horde appearing from behind the damn support beams. One invader after another was ruthlessly torn apart, and not even the three leaders could handle them easily. The short one grasped yet another golem, and eyes appeared all over its surface. However, rather than melting the golem into a runny puddle, the eyeballs exploded. The golem swung a ded arm at the short creature, and the tall one had to step in to end the fight byunching countless thin, ck spikes at the golem and shredding it to bits. The golems couldn¡¯t seriously damage any of the three leaders. Still, the hordes of monsters that were supposed to apany them were mercilessly culled by the endless stream of metal constructs. The second of the three yelled out, ¡°Never mind the rabble. We will handle them alone.¡± The first nodded and jumped toward the ceiling. With a single tap, the metallic ceiling was enveloped in countless bleeding wounds, yet¡­ The second clicked its tongue, ¡°That will take too long,¡± It frowned and faced the other monster, ¡°Third, assist.¡± It nodded, and sharp spikes soon apanied the first in breaking through into the metal fortress. *** Neave stood before Astrador, eyes narrowing, ¡°Soul oath, and tell me what you mean by that.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say! You mustn¡¯t know why.¡± ¡°Okay then. Discussion over.¡± Neave gripped the handle on the sledgehammer and rushed at Astrador¡¯s avatar. The moon was far toorge to traverse easily. Neave found himself rushing down its surface, endlessly running forward as it spun out below his feet. He took a deep breath. His lungs inted to an absurd degree, and his body morphed into a rough ball. An intense rush of powerful fire spewed from his mouth, and he flew off the moon''s surface. Landing rather far from Astrador, he stepped forward once, twice¡­ And appeared right in the path of another powerful pulse. It struck the top of his head, and even through the thick slime suit, he could still feel his vision darken. But it wasn¡¯t enough. The sledgehammer shot out and mmed Astrador¡¯s side, shattering a rune on his hip. The avatar grasped the sledgehammer, and yet again, Astrador yelled, ¡°Please just leave this ce already! You can not stay here much longer! I have already told you through a soul oath that you risk destroying your entire realm! Why must you be so bloody stubborn!?¡± The ogre mmed a tectonic smash directly at the head of Astrador¡¯s avatar, and yet another rune cracked under the force. Neave wrangled his sledgehammer out of Astrador¡¯s grasp and mmed it into his head. ¡°Because of your fucking son! I have no choice, you stupid bastard! Swear under soul oath that you will tell him to fuck off away from me, and I will consider leaving.¡± Astrador¡¯s avatar reeled, ¡°Hosr!? You bloody fool! He is there in a mere temporary avatar. At your level of power, he doesn¡¯t stand a chance!¡± That made Neave pause, but he soon followed up with another strike, but yet again, it was naught but a distant speck on the surface of the great moon. Neave cackled, ¡°I¡¯m surprised you would so readily surrender that information!¡± ¡°Listen to me, you foolish child! The thing inside this realm can not be released under any circumstances! It is an ally of corrupt corruption, an abomination from beyond that has arrived to usurp our ancestor''s glory and leave nothing but darkness behind! Don¡¯t you get it!? This is bigger than some petty quarrel!¡± ¡°Then just tell me what it is!¡± ¡°I fucking can¡¯t! I literally can not, even if I desire to!¡± Neave squinted and rushed at Astrador again, ¡°Sorry, oh Great God from the heavens, but I¡¯m not buying anything you say.¡± With an angry growl, Astrador sent another pulse from above at Neave. *** Gabrias teleported to the main chamber, where he gently lowered the avatar of the ss shrub. With that, he rushed back to the teleportation tform and soon appeared at the desired coordinates. Dukean wiped his sword clean as he yed the final monster in the chamber. If any remained, they would merely be a distraction. Marven nodded at Gabrias, and the tall man moved over to a corner of the room, readying his bow. Harel stood nearby, hoisting her spiked ball in her right hand, readying to swing it down from above. Hunter stood beside her, preparing to defend. Dukean and Marven both stood some distance away. Soon enough, a patch of soil opened its eyes and withered away as three figures swam out from the liquified ooze. ¡°Now!¡± Marven shouted as he released a flying strike directly at one of the creatures. Gabrias fired several arrows, Harel swung the spiky ball, Hunter readied his shield, and Dukean flicked his sword toward them. The moment the three creatures appeared, the one in the middle that resembled a human the most lifted its arm. A thick tentacle shot out, enveloping the beings and shielding them from the attack. Gabrias¡¯ arrows struck true, freezing part of the tentacle as Harel¡¯s spiky ball came crashing into it. The entire defense shattered into gory, ck stters the moment it did. The creatures within looked visibly shaken and weren¡¯t prepared to react to their defenses being destroyed so easily. Marven¡¯s flying strike hit the shortest of the three straight at its torso, and Dukean¡¯s sword, heading toward thergest of the three, suddenly flicked and embedded itself in the shortest one¡¯s back. The creature was bleeding ck ooze, and it reached to grab Dukean¡¯s sword. Suddenly, the de on a chain reeled back, and the creature was pulled out. Gabrias¡¯ arrow struck it out of nowhere, and Hunter flew at it, bashing it with his shield and hitting it with his sword. It flew over to Harel, who struck it directly with the spiky ball. However, before the ball couldnd, the tentacle flew over at insane speed and grabbed the short creature back to the other two. Thergest of the three fired severalrge spikes at Gabrias and Marven. However, both attacks were easily dodged as the twobatants dashed out of the way. A powerful gust of frigid wind blew toward the invaders, and yet again, arrows apanied it. Ayer of frost appeared on the creatures¡¯ skin, and the tall one raised its head. It ignored the three arrows that struck its side. They couldn¡¯t prate its skin, even if they did manage to freeze part of it. It raised its head further and readied itself to¡­ Suddenly, Harel appeared from its side, striking it with the spiky ball. The monster¡¯s body was instantlycerated, but it still ignored the¡­ Dukeans sword flicked, and a part of its arm received a deep cut. Marven also appeared, and the ss shard cut straight into the monster¡¯s torso. The massive tentacle struck Marven, and he was thrown at the wall. Finally, therge monster began billowing in ck smoke. Hunter screamed, ¡°Behind me!¡± The others dashed behind his position, and Hunter rushed over to the monster. The tentacle swung at Hunter from his side, wrapping around his body, but the second monster didn¡¯t have enough power to instantly move him out of the way. Hunter¡¯s sword screamed as it resisted the tight pull, and he spewed blood as his organs were ruptured. The short demon flew out again, rushing over to Gabrias. The tall man dodged around like a shadow, and it wasn¡¯t long until Harel sent the creature flying with a rather heavy strike. Dukean followed it up with an intense sh, and yet another flying strike from Marven flew out, severing the short creature¡¯s arm clean off. Then, it happened. In every single direction, thin, long spikes of ck material shot out. Hunter blocked the brunt of the attack from ahead, but the impact shattered his shield, and several ck needles pierced his body. The giant monster stood still. Most of the room was thoroughly blocked by the countless ck spikes. The second monster cackled. They all knew what they had to do, and they didn¡¯t hesitate as they rushed to crush as many of the dark protrusions as possible. However¡­ Despite quickly crushing them repeatedly, they reformed nearly instantly, leaving them incapable of moving almost anywhere besides the section that had been protected by Hunter. Suddenly, the massive tentacle appeared yet again. It moved through the forest of spikes as it if it weren¡¯t even there. The massive tentacle flew at them from every direction, yet they fought it off by repeatedly striking back. The tentacle held intense power behind it, but their defense was nothing to scoff at. In fact, it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that it was near-perfect. Regardless of where the tentacle flew from, someone was ready to strike back. If it wormed behind their defense by some miracle, catching them with their dashes wasn¡¯t an easy feat. However, throughout the whole ordeal, the second monster never stopped cackling. And they soon found out why. Eyes, mouths, wounds, and even teeth gradually appeared on every inch of the surface inside the room, and before long, everything was melting. Moving became increasingly difficult as they maneuvered through the thick ck ooze. Gabrias suddenly yelled, ¡°Over there!¡± He shot an arrow in a direction, and they instantly spotted the shallow pool of ooze where the short creature was likely hiding. However, the tentacle was quick to intercept it, and then, with a speed it hadn¡¯t shown so far, it struck out at Hunter. He no longer had his shield, so all he could do was strike back with the sword. It wasn¡¯t enough. The others rushed to defend him, but their attacks couldn¡¯t reach him in time. However¡­ Suddenly, Hunter lit up with a red light as he ignited his life force, and an unmovable force rose to defend him from the giant tentacle. The roiling ck mass was held back momentarily and in this instant¡­ Golden runes lit up around Marven. He thrust his sword toward the shallow puddle, and an incredibly dense mass of cuts flew through the air, pulverizing the ck spikes and reaching the demon. The massive tentacle rushed to save him, but the attack cut through it. The creature was struck directly, and its body was severely damaged by the strike. It had random bits and pieces falling off. Before it could recover, Harel dashed over to it and smashed it with full force. The impact instantly shredded its entire body, and the aftershock threatened to copse the cave on their heads. The others all screamed as they noticed what was happening. The spikes were growing back again, and this time, they threatened to skewer her entire body. She maneuvered around them with ease, until¡­ The corpse of the short creature exploded in a mass of ck ooze, and Harel found herself unable to move. One after another, the spikes stabbed into her body. ¡°Noooo!¡± Marven yelled as he charged forward. He stabbed forward, looking to free her from the spikes, but he couldn¡¯t use any potent attacks, as he risked hurting or even killing Harel. Hunter limped back, his wounds healing far slower than they should be due to hisck of life force. The corpse of the short creature was still gushing ck liquid, and Marven was getting caught up in more and more ooze as the moments passed. From within the pile of ck liquid, Harel crushed the spikes, one after another, freeing herself from their grasp with willpower alone. Gabrias fired countless arrows, looking to freeze the ck ooze, but it was futile. Every time he froze part of the surface, it was instantly enveloped in eyeballs and melted right back. Suddenly, a tentacle appeared from within the ck ooze next to Gabrias'' feet, and he was forced to dodge several times. The tentacles focused on Hunter, and Gabrias couldn¡¯t afford to run. Forced to put his bow down, he imbued one strike after another with his life force as he fended the tentacles off and protected his friend. Marven kept shing through the ooze and spikes and finally got a moment to speak, ¡°Dukean! Get rid of the spike demon!¡± It was the most problematic of the bunch, as it restrained their movement and made it damn near impossible to maneuver around the room. Dukean nodded and rushed toward the center of the spikes. His sword, moved by the wind and metal maniption, shed away at the spikes, and he gradually cut his way toward the middle. Short bursts of ice froze the spikes over and over, and before the ice could be melted, he used the moment to crush the spikes to bits. However, the closer he reached to the center, the more spikes there were to destroy. More and more tentacles were appearing from the ck ooze, and he was starting to find movement difficult. ¡°You damn fucking demons!¡± With a defiant roar, every inch of Dukean¡¯s body was enveloped in fire. An intense inferno spread around him, and the temperature in the room increased sharply. The spikes burned away, and he gradually waded through the ooze. The heat turned the ooze sticky and made movement even more cumbersome, but he cut a path through it and kept moving. Gabrias was looking more and more wretched by the moment, and Hunter soon had to join in defending himself, despite seriouslycking the energy to do so. Marven could defend himself but was effectively stuck in one ce. Harel kept demonstrating supernatural bursts of strength as she ripped the spikes to pieces to free herself and waded forward through the thick ooze, looking to counterattack. Witnessing hisrades¡¯ determination, Dukean grinned. And turned the heat up as far as he could. His skin boiled and blistered, and his regeneration couldn¡¯t keep up with the rate at which it was being melted away. The intense fire kept burning the spikes away as the rest of the room was lit aze. Dukean made one step forward after another, fending off tentacles and pushing through spikes as he reached his goal. However, just as he was about to reach the demon, the spikes rapidly retracted, and it began moving again. With speed far above what Dukean had expected, it punched straight into his face and knocked him back. His arms were charred, and he could barely stand, but he ignited his life force and stood anyway, ¡°If any of us die, it''s no big deal.¡± He took another step forward, ¡°We are here temporarily, and death will merely bring us back to reality.¡± The others gradually freed themselves as they were finally allowed to maneuver around the room, at least somewhat. Dukean screamed out, ¡°However! Xurbon lives here! I don¡¯t know what you bastards have done, but you won¡¯t take the life of our ally that easily!¡± Yet another punch flew at Dukean, and he dodged, ducking under it. Golden runes lit up around his fist as hended a true strike directly on therge demon''scerated torso, ¡°Even if we die!¡± Yet another set of golden runes lit up, ¡°We will return!¡± And another, ¡°And you bastards!¡± Dukean¡¯s body zed in crimson me as another strike flew directly at the monster''s face, ¡°Will suffer my revenge!¡± The monster shot back and mmed into the wall. Gabrias dodged a tentacle and fired an arrow at it. Hunter threw his sword toward the demon, and Harel wrestled herself out of the mass of ck ooze, throwing her weapon forward as well. And finally, Marven focused, and a thin flying strike flew out, cutting straight into the monster''s torso, after which it finally stopped moving. Dukean, Hunter, and Gabrias looked decrepit, and Harel had suffered immense damage. Marven was thest one standing, nearly uninjured, and he raised his sword, readying himself to tackle their final opponent. Suddenly, Dukean shook slightly and dropped to the ground. The moment he touched the ck ooze, countless tentacles enveloped his body, and he was sucked down into the puddle of ooze. ¡°Dukean!¡± Marven screamed as he saw the young man¡¯s body dragged into the same hole the creatures hade from. He flew forward, diving into the ck ooze, and to his surprise, Harel was right behind him, despite her injuries. They both pushed and swam, Marven cutting tentacles repeatedly but were being held back by the squirming mass. Suddenly, Dukean¡¯s sword swam through the mass of ooze and reached them, and they both promptly held onto it. Both the two pursuers and Dukean himself were slowed drastically as the monster kept trying to break off from the two of them. Eventually, the strength with which Dukean was pulling them down weakened drastically, and Harel¡¯s and Marven¡¯s eyes shot open. They still held the chain attached to the sword. But Dukean wasn¡¯t holding it any longer. Momentster, they swam into the long chamber beneath the fortress. It was pure chaos down here. Countless golems fought with seemingly endless monsters, and they instantly spotted the unconscious Dukean being dragged away. Seconds stretched as they both rushed to get him. Marven dashed, and Harel jumped forward. Dukean¡¯s body was dragged into another puddle. And without hesitation, they jumped in yet again. This time, no tentacles impeded them as they swam down. However¡­ Not too long into their swim, they began noticing something strange. The heat was rising. Fast. Soon enough, they found themselves enveloped in such searing heat that they couldn¡¯t continue. So, with a great deal of hesitation, they returned. As they swam back out, the decrepit Hunter and Gabrias stood before them, gasping for breath. All around them, the sounds of monsters getting shredded to pieces by golems echoed through the cave. Marven coughed some ck ooze out and looked at Harel with a nk expression on his face, ¡°... I think Dukean is dead.¡± *** Crack. Yet another rune was shattered, and the avatar could barely maintain its bnce. Any damage Neave had suffered was long healed, and he was in optimal shape to fight. Astrador¡¯s puppet, however, was far past merely falling apart. The runes were flickering, and the body was chipped numerous times. Neave yet again chained several fast strikes, and momentarily the puppet froze. In this moment of respite, Neave raised his hammer and struck down with a slow true strike. The puppet reeled and dropped to the ground, ¡°P¨CPlease¡­ Don¡¯t stay here any longer. Kill the thing that is spreading the ss shrubs and leave.¡± ¡°No can do. I have no interest in those who would bring humans to life for no reason but to dispose of them.¡± The puppet gritted its teeth, ¡°I swear, I will do all in my might to put you down if you let this continue.¡± ¡°And I swear¡­¡± Neave raised the hammer again, saying, " I will do everything in mine to stop you.¡± ¡°...As you wish.¡± The hammer descended, and a titanic force decimated thendscape around them. The moon disappeared, and the runes finally flickered out. Neave turned around, only to spot something unusual in the distance. ss shards floated in the air, creating a giant arrow that pointed right back toward their fortress. Neave¡¯s stomach dropped, and he rushed back. [BOOK 3 FINALE] Chapter 136: The Eighth Wave [BOOK 3 FINALE] Chapter 136: The Eighth Wave The room swiftly quieted down, and as thest of the monster outpouring was extinguished, the golems began exchanging information on the fight''s oue. Through touch, shes of light signaled their growth and lit up the cave ever so slightly, revealing the tired, defeated expressions on everyone¡¯s faces. Harel got up to her feet and started walking away. There was a void hanging in the air. It was precisely this sort of moment where Dukean would ask where she was going. But he was gone. Yet, she paused anyway, ¡°It isn¡¯t a big deal. Sure, it sucks, and I hate it. But dying here is inconsequential. We will see him again soon enough.¡± The others wanted to nod at that, they wanted to agree with what she had said, but they simply couldn¡¯t bring themselves to do it. This was more than simply being kicked out of a mystic realm. The other members would move on, training and growing, while Dukean would be left behind. Likely permanently. They may not have lost Dukean, the person. But Dukean, theirrade, was gone. Suddenly, a blue, featureless, humanoid creature appeared out of nowhere and gazed at them in silence. Everyone instantly readied themselves forbat. However, they lowered their guards as the thing spoke in Neave¡¯s voice, ¡°What the fuck happened here!? Where is Dukean!?¡± The others all tried to speak, but Neave suddenly turned his head and rushed up into the chamber where they had fought. Soon enough, he located the corpse of the spiked creature and dug a fist into its torso. The others followed him and watched in terror as Neave pulled a monster core out of what they had presumed was a demon¡¯s body. Gabrias gasped, ¡°Monster core!? Could the monsters have fed on the demons and turned into¡­?¡± ¡°Where is Dukean!?¡± The others all wanted to say something, but their faces dropped. ¡°I asked where the fuck is Dukean!?¡± Harel shot Neave a sharp re, ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°Then where is his body!?¡± Harel gritted her teeth and snarled at him, ¡°It has been dragged down into the core of the, Neave. What the fuck is wrong with you!?¡± ¡°Are you absolutely sure he was dead!?¡± ¡°He is now!¡± Neave¡¯s grip tightened, and the monster core in his hands burst apart, releasing a small cloud of pitch-ck mist, ¡°If you didn¡¯t watch him die, then he is likely still alive.¡± Marven looked ready to say something, but suddenly, Harel shot forward and punched Neave in the head, ¡°Then tell us fucking why!? Why did these thingse for us!? Why did they take him away!? You¡¯re hiding something, and you have been hiding something since the moment we entered here. I swear, if you don¡¯t tell us immediately, I¡¯m killing myself this instant and leaving this farce of a sect!¡± Neave got up, ¡°I can¡¯t tell you why, Harel.¡± Marven stepped forward again, ¡°Harel¡­¡± She whirled to him, ¡°Do you know what he is hiding!?¡± The old cultivator opened his mouth slightly but promptly closed it again. ¡°I didn¡¯t think so.¡± Neave got up and almost immediately copsed to the ground. Before his body couldnd, however, he swung a fist at his own head. However, the slime suit absorbed the impact. ????????????? He pulled the slime suit off his head and gripped his hair, pulling a chunk of his skin off in the process, ¡°Get the fuck out of my head!¡± What will you do now, Neave? ¡°Ghaar! Arrgh!¡± Will you leave this ce, leaving your precious littlerade behind? ¡°I said, get out of my head!¡± Harel took a few frightened steps back, ¡°He¡¯s insane. He¡¯s lost his damn mind.¡± Gabrias rushed forward, holding Neave, ¡°Lord Neave! What is happening to you!?¡± Neave struck out at Gabrias¡¯ chest, audibly cracking several ribs, but therge man refused to back off. Harel turned to Marven, ¡°Hey¡­ Marv¡­ Why did we let him drag us in here?¡± Marven gritted his teeth and stepped forward, ¡°Why are you acting so hostile suddenly!?¡± Hunter stepped forward and ced a hand on Harel¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Please, Harel, Marven, both of you¡­ Let¡¯s first figure out what¡¯s happening, then decide how to react.¡± Harel smacked his hand off her shoulder, ¡°He won¡¯t tell us! Heavens know what could be happening to Dukean right now, and he is still refusing to speak!¡± The young man screamed at her, ¡°He is in no state to speak, Harel!¡± He pointed at Neave. Astrador has confirmed it, hasn¡¯t he? I am not manipting you, Neave. We have the same goal. ¡°I don¡¯t care about that! Arggh¨C I just want my fucking mind back!¡± Pity. It is no threat in the face of you, and I. Nothing is. We could reset it all, shatter the stone and crumble their fake reality away. We would have all we ever wanted. We would have peace. True freedom. There would be no defying the heavens when there are no longer any heavens to defy. Smack. Crush. Everyone turned to the wall. Something was trying to break into the room. One loud bang after another echoed through the chamber until finally. Smash. Xurbon stepped into the room. It still had deep cracks all over its body, ¡°The¡­ Teleportation¡­ tform¡­ Broken¡­ Had to¡­ Break in.¡± It slowly approached Neave, and the others watched it ce its hand on Neave¡¯s forehead. Neave suddenly stopped shaking. However, the cracks over Xurbon¡¯s body deepened, ¡°Aargh¡­ Hurrg¡­ Aaah!¡± They all watched several pitch-ck tendrils travel up Xurbon¡¯s arm and eventually vanish as the shrub¡¯s avatar fell to the ground, unconscious. Gabrias rushed to hold it, and Harel looked down on both of them, confusion, anger, and anxiety coursing through her veins. Not long after, Neave opened his eyes, ¡°We have to go.¡± Harel yelled, ¡°No! We aren¡¯t going anywhere until you tell us what¡¯s happening!¡± Marven looked like he wanted to protest, but the other three stared at Neave. Gabrias held Xurbon¡¯s unconscious body, Harel stared daggers at him, and even Hunter looked reluctant. The moments of silence stretched on, and finally, Neave opened his mouth, ¡°Okay, fuck it. Who cares anyway? I¡¯ll juste out and say it.¡± He got up, ¡°Ever since I¡¯ve left the loop, and likely even before leaving, something has been manipting my mind.¡± Silence. The moments of quiet stretched on, and Neave continued, ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is,¡± He frowned, ¡°I don¡¯t know where it is,¡± He began yelling, ¡°And I don¡¯t fucking know how to fight back!¡± Tears streaked down his cheeks, and he continued with a whimper, ¡°I don¡¯t know whether I can tell my own thoughts apart from what¡¯s being shoved into my mind. And if I ever fall asleep in this realm, my mind will likely be fully taken over.¡± A violet sh lit up the room, and Neave began pulling things out of severalpartments. Several blue slime suits, boxes of rounded monster cores, and healing pills. He put them on the ground and began walking away, ¡°Now, that thing has Dukean. I have prepared these sets of powers for you guys already. I am so, so sorry for not giving them to you sooner. The powers are best suited to each of you, or at least that¡¯s what I believe. I will go to try and find where he is¡­ If you wish¡­¡± Neave paused for a moment and then disappeared. Harel¡¯s eyes hung wide open as she dropped to her knees, ¡°M¨CMind maniption¡­?¡± Her hand reflexively reached for her throat. Would she be safe if she killed herself right now? Her thoughts were interrupted as Marven walked past her. Without hesitation, he grabbed the box with his name and sat down further away. Gabrias grabbed his, and soon enough, Hunter followed. She looked at them with sheer incredulity seared into her expression, ¡°You idiots don¡¯t get it. We are talking about having your minds overtaken! This isn¡¯t just a matter of being kicked out.¡± Rather than reply, the three sat and stared at her. There was a hint of disappointment in their gazes, and she couldn¡¯t bear to meet their eyes. They don¡¯t get it. Even death would allow one to retain their freedom. This wouldn¡¯t. Hunter eventually sighed, smiled, and scoffed, ¡°Coward.¡± ¡°Huuuh!?¡± Harel stared at him, ¡°What the hell did you just call me?¡± Hunter grabbed a container that came with the box of monster cores, bit his finger, poured the blood in there, melted the core, and drank it, initiating the trial. The other two soon joined him. She groaned, sat beside them, and repeated the same thing. *** As Harel sank into her spirit realm, a deep reluctance enveloped her. Was she seriously about to go along with this? Before getting deeper into her musing, she arrived at her spirit realm and had to focus on the spirit trial. However, the moment she arrived, she froze. Her opponent was a giant magma golem, but it was slow, and there was little urgency to begin the fight. She had never seen her spirit realm before. But thest thing she expected to see once she arrived¡­ Was this. It was nighttime. The golem lit up the stretch of forest, and the only other light source was a campfire. This was where Marven and her talked to Neave after finding him. She held her spiky ball on a chain, gripping it tighter as her words, which she had spoken so thoughtlessly back then, rang through her mind. I¡­ I want to be seen as a hero! *** Neave stood in the center of a crater. It was the one he made when he obliterated the talking monsters. Without much further thought, he ran straight away from the ss forest. He had an inkling he knew precisely where he was headed. And soon enough, he confirmed that he was right. Arge stretch of pitch-ck ooze spread out to the horizon and beyond. The ck sea. A section of the ocean shifted, and a humanoid figure walked out from within. It was a monster that resembled the dead one Neave had seen in the chamber. A humanoid, demon-like, bald creature that stood at average height for an adult male. ¡°Well, there¡­ I see you have¡­¡± Before it could continue, Neave grabbed its head and mmed it full force into his knee, shattering its face, ¡°Where the hell is Dukean!?¡± It spoke through bloody gurgles, ¡°Oh, wow, you are truly something. Ack!¡± Yet another strike, this time, a kick to its midsection. ¡°I asked you a question!¡± ¡°Now, let¡¯s not get hasty.¡± Neave instantly jumped back as the same voice that echoed in his mind now spoke through the monster. With a mock offended tone, it continued, ¡°Why do you reject me?¡± ¡°Okay, first of all, fuck you. Second of all, fuck off. Third of all, fuck you again! I don¡¯t know who you are, what you are, or what you want. I just know I¡¯m getting Dukean back, one way or another.¡± ¡°Want me to tell you who I am?¡± Neave froze at that. ¡°I am¡­¡± It mouthed something, but no sound came out, ¡°Ah. Seems that bastard is preventing me from sharing that. What a joke. Well¡­ Don¡¯t worry. You will know soon enough.¡± Neave ignored its words, and rushed in for another strike, however¡­ The monster dodged. He was already after it when it shifted its position, but something was wrong. Just as Neave was about to appear before it, a strike was already rushing at his head. With all his willpower, he channeled the speed to avoid it, and the creature summoned a massive tentacle, which he had to distance himself from. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? How do you expect to get your friend back at this rate?¡± A massive tentacle rose out from the ocean of ck ooze, tightly grasping Dukean¡¯s charred body. Neave gasped, ¡°Oh, no! Not my friend. Please, do not kill my friend. I would be very sad if you killed him. I would even cry.¡± The creature scoffed, ¡°Good one. I almost fell for it. Worry not. He will remain with me for the time being. Besides¡­¡± The tentacle sank back into the roiling sea, ¡°I do not need hostages to defeat you, you failure.¡± The twobatants stood still, simply staring each other down. Until suddenly¡­ A sh of violet light lit up the nightmare realm, and the massive ogre appeared, already swinging the titanic sledgehammer down. However, the monster summoned a gigantic tentacle that near-instantly wrapped around the ogre¡¯s leg and pulled it back, tripping the massive avatar and interrupting the strike. At that moment, Neave appeared before the monster, swinging his sledgehammer at its head. However, it dodged and immediately counter-attacked with a wed thrust, one that Neave contorted around as he used a movement technique to make the sledgehammer appear on the other side of the monster¡¯s body, where it was still flying into another blow. Again, the creature dodged the strike and retaliated, but its ws couldn¡¯t reach Neave¡¯s slime suit. Neave prepared the sledgehammer for a thrust. However, as he swung it, he released it, and it went flying toward the monster¡¯s torso. As the creature bent out of the way of the strike, another sh of violet appeared, and the centaur charged at it while Neave picked up the sledgehammer. As the creature dodged the strike again, the ogre was once more swinging its titanic sledgehammer down. Suddenly, the monster lifted its finger, and a thin, ck line shot toward Neave¡¯s body. He couldn¡¯t swap consciousness in time to dodge the near-instant attack. ??????????? The slime suit squirmed and melted away under intense pressure, and rot rapidly spread where the thin line touched Neave¡¯s skin. The giant sledgehammernded, but a massive tentacle was prepared to somewhat cushion the blow. However, yet another sh of violet appeared, and the slime gripped the centaur, throwing the avatar toward the monster¡¯s body. Neave manipted the centaur avatar to straighten its body and, with an insane momentum behind it,nded a halberd strike right on the monster¡¯s chest. A deep gash appeared at the point of impact, and momentster, the monster disappeared. A massive mouth appeared behind Neave¡¯s body, and he barely managed to avoid the bite in time. The centaur appeared again, but this time, a tentacle grabbed it from behind and threw it high into the air, where Neave had to unsummon it. Neave and the monster exchanged several strikes, and none of themnded. Both could move with impossible speed, and Neave couldn¡¯t believe the skill he was witnessing. It was far beyond anything he¡¯d seen so far¡­ No. The only person he couldpare it to would be himself. The mouth appeared yet again, and Neave, rather than dodge, summoned the slime to wrap it around the monster¡¯s body. The mouth bit a massive chunk of flesh out of his side, but his insane regeneration immediately recovered the lost flesh. ??????????? Neave had to fight off an intense sh of mental pain, and the slime¡¯s body began melting rapidly. Neave immediately detached most of it, letting it explode around the monster¡¯s body. As the explosion triggered, Neave dove head first into it, suffering some damage but healing it away immediately as he swung his hammer at the creature¡¯s body repeatedly. A massive strikended on its side, then its head, and finally its left shoulder. However, rather than reeling from the strike, the monster counterattacked. A single wed finger traveled to Neave¡¯s body rather slowly, and he ignored it as he readied another strike. However, as the finger suddenly appeared far closer, he was forced to dodge. Yet, as he moved out of the way, another w was rushing at him, and even after using a movement technique to get away, he was still in the trajectory of the strike. Neave used several movement techniques to escape far into the sky, and finally, the attack was no longer following him. ??????????? From beyond the clouds, something unseen struck Neave¡¯s body, and he was sent flying down to the ground. Spinning his body around in the air, he spun once, twice¡­ And before he could finish the technique, the wed finger finally reached his body. TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ¡°Arghh!¡± Neave dropped to the ground, clutching his head. The monster scoffed and kicked his side, sending his body flying away. Neavended at the edge of the ck shore, and a wave of ooze washed over his body. ¡°You are worthless.¡± It took a step forward, ¡°Nothing but a discarded, failed attempt at facing the eighth wave.¡± It reached his body, and another kick sent Neave flying over into the sea. However, he mustered all the force he could to keep his body afloat on the surface, preventing himself from sinking into it. ¡°Ever since you¡¯ve left, you have been nothing but an indecisive coward. One problem after another, all caused by your hubris and foolishness. Face it, Neave. You have no chance of defeating the final wave. You will never reach the stone and shatter it.¡± Despite the endless agony roiling in his mind, despite the constant pounding, screaming, and whispering he could hear, Neave raised himself up to his feet, standing atop the surface of the ck sea with a footing technique. And he smiled, ¡°Mate¡­ I don¡¯t know what the fuck the stone is.¡± Momentster, four figures wearing blue slime suits appeared one after another. Marven, Harel, Hunter, and Gabrias surrounded the monster. ¡°However, I do know one thing. My enemies are plentiful, and my journey will be long¡­¡± ¡°... But there is no such thing as the eighth wave.¡± With that, Gabrias fired an arrow at the monster. As it was about to dodge, the projectile suddenly swerved and struck its side. The ice wrapped around it, and before it could react any further, Harel appeared, glowing bright red and swinging her spiky ball. The weaponnded, and deep cuts spread over the monster¡¯s body. A sudden sh of light shimmered before them, and Marven appeared as well, swinging his sword. The creature disappeared out of the way of the strike, but Marven immediately redirected it to its position. It couldn¡¯t get out of the way in time, and the sh severed its arm. Hunter dashed over to it, and the creature reacted by swinging an arm at him. Before its strike couldnd, the air before Hunter shimmered, and a powerful barrier sprang to life. However, the creature persisted, and its attack pierced through the barrier, and tentacles spread toward Hunter¡¯s head. Phwung. A small stone ball flew out of nowhere directly toward the monster¡¯s head. It raised a hand to defend from it but as the stone cracked, a zing light appeared from within, and a fierce burst of fire enveloped it. Dukean appeared on the shores of the ck sea, severely injured, but he had a harsh, defiant glint in his eyes. Hunter swung his sword, striking the monster¡¯s side and throwing it toward the others. Midflight, another one of Gabrias¡¯ arrowsnded on its side, and the monster flew directly into another one of Harel¡¯s swings. Just as Marven was about to finish the fight with a powerful technique, the air around them darkened, and the creature got up, sizzling with a cloud of thick, smelly smoke. ¡°You bloody fool. I will show you just how valuable these allies of yours really are! Behold how fast they crumble before despair!¡± Its arm shot out toward Marven¡¯s head, however¡­ Red, glimmering runes appeared out of nowhere, etching themselves into the demon¡¯s arm, telling the story of how its strike failed tond. A quick cut from Marven severed the creature¡¯s arm, and another swing from Harel sent it flying away. Neave crawled out of the ck sea, zing in crimson me as he helped Dukean back up to his feet, ¡°These are no ordinary allies, Maniptor.¡± Near instantly, Neave appeared before the severely injured monster, ¡°These are fledgling disciples of the Immortal Arts.¡± Neave inhaled. His lungs inted to an insane size, and inside them, fierce mes danced in a vortex. Suddenly, the crimson glow of ignited life force meshed with it, and countless shimmering runes appeared around Neave¡¯s body. A thick stream of zing red fire blew out of Neave¡¯s mouth and struck directly at the monster¡¯s torso. Every lick of me held the endless retaliation of the monsters he had devoured, and shred by shred, the body the Maniptor was controlling was evaporated into nothingness. *** Marven, Harel, Gabrias, Dukean, and Hunter sat around in a circle. Marven and Gabrias hadn¡¯t changed much, but the other three were noticeably different. Their bodies were bigger, their faces more mature, and their disposition was greater. They had all grown up. The decision had finallye. It was enough. Getting up, they walked out of the third iteration of thebat chamber and stepped into the hallways. The fortress had seen heavy renovation many times over. It was so heavily fortified now that it was hard to call it a mere fortress. Soon enough, they encountered Xurbon as it appeared out of nowhere, ¡°Should I wake him?¡± The others looked at one another and slowly nodded. Xurbon nodded its head and disappeared. Soon enough, they reached the nearest teleportation tform and appeared within the main chamber. Xurbon¡¯s true body sat on the ground, holding a caring finger to Neave¡¯s temple. And as they approached, Neave finally opened his eyes. It had been a long time since Neave wasst awake. He wasn¡¯t asleep, either, but he crystallized his brain to effectively ce himself into a frozen state. It was all so he could buy enough time for the others to learn the necessary qi techniques. As the effect was finally undone, he looked at them with a gentle smile, ¡°Diamond path, I see¡­ Can I assume you¡¯ve learned enough?¡± The others all nodded. ¡°Heading out?¡± With a slight hint of reluctance, the others nodded again. Neave sighed in relief, ¡°Dad, stay behind for a bit. I have something to say to you.¡± Marven happily agreed, and the others all went to sit a bit away from them. Harel, Dukean, and Gabrias all released a thick stream of red mist, and as thest of their life force abandoned their bodies, they all dropped dead to the ground. Neave sluggishly got up into a seated position, and Marven patiently waited to see what Neave had to say. They sat quietly as Xurbon ran its fingers through Neave¡¯s hair, ensuring it couldn¡¯t sense any interference within. Then, finally, Neave spoke, ¡°I think Mom is alive.¡± Marven¡¯s eyes shot open, and his mouth gaped. However, as the seconds passed, his mouth gradually closed, and he calmed himself. Neave stared at his father nkly, ¡°I thought you would react more violently than that.¡± Marven chuckled slightly, ¡°You know¡­ For a long time, I refused to ept that she was dead. Such a talented cultivator, killed by some random bandits? It just seemed impossible. But now it makes sense¡­ She likely faked her death.¡± They continued sitting silently, and eventually, Marven spoke, ¡°You know, there is something I¡¯ve always been hiding, even from you.¡± ¡°Hmmm?¡± ¡°Your mother. A short while before she passed away, she told me she met an agent from the heavenly continent.¡± Neave sat up, ¡°Langen!? Wait, no¡­ That makes perfect sense.¡± ¡°I assume you¡¯ve learned of her survival from the Great God?¡± Neave nodded. Yet again, silence settled between them, and eventually, Neave asked his father, ¡°Why are you so calm?¡± A sorrowful smile he always wore when remembering the Zearthorn sect settled on Marven¡¯s face as he looked at Neave, ¡°Brivia¡­ She was all I ever wanted in a woman. She would say all the things I wanted to say. Repeatedly, she put their tant bullshit down and fought whoever provoked her. And man, was she hot¡­¡± ¡°Dad, what the fuck, ew!¡± ¡°Hahahaha!¡° Marven ruffled Neave¡¯s hair. Neave groaned loudly, and the cultivator eventually stoppedughing, ¡°But you see¡­ When one holds a lot of power, they have two options. Either they can ept responsibility or face the consequences. I lived my life as a sect master, never quite epting responsibility but always postponing the consequences. Brivia embodied the foolish dream of simply¡­ Letting go.¡± Marvenughed slightly, with a sad look in his eye, ¡°But that is no way to live one¡¯s life.¡± He turned to Neave, ¡°Hey¡­ Do you mind reverting the transformation?¡± Neave raised an eyebrow, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± His father gently smiled at him, ¡°... Please.¡± Neave still looked identical to his appearance when he first arrived in the nightmare realm. Well, besides the absurd mass of muscle. His hair hadn¡¯t grown, his face hadn¡¯t changed, and he hadn¡¯t grown any taller. Upon hearing his father''s request, he finally undid the transformation that stopped his age from showing. Where the absurdly muscr little boy had stood, a giant, ultra-masculine man appeared. His face was chiseled in muscle, and his gaze alone could make lesser men shrivel. Marven chuckled, ¡°... Please, Neave.¡± With a great deal of hesitation, Neave agreed, ¡°Alright.¡± And then, he finally, truly undid the transformation. He was about as tall as Marven. His pink hair, streaked with red, draped over his broad back and covered his face. Marven gently moved Neave¡¯s hair aside and revealed the beautiful face beneath. With a shaky smile, Marven said, ¡°You look just like me when I was younger.¡± Neave chuckled, ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Marven¡¯s smile vanished, and he pulled his son in for a hug, ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± He said, tears streaking down his face and into Neave¡¯s hair, ¡°I am.¡± *** Neave stood before his allies¡¯ corpses. They had all gone back, and he remained behind just a while longer. There was still one more thing he needed to do. After a bit of thinking, he decided to eat their bodies. Xurbon stared at him incredulously, and Neave cocked his head, ¡°What?¡± ¡°Why would you do such a thing?¡± ¡°You know¡­ What if we return here? I wouldn¡¯t want them to find their dead bodies. Hasn¡¯t happened to me before, but juuust to be safe.¡± Xurbon rolled its eyes, and Neave waved it off, ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ll be fine here on your own?¡± The ss shrub¡¯s avatar looked sad upon hearing that and soon shook its head. ¡°Alright, then. But you have to promise to y nice.¡± ¡°Oh, please, Master. I¡¯m far past something like that.¡± Neave smiled. Soon enough, the main chamber had three more nts in it. A beautiful, flowery bush. A small sapling of a fruit tree. And, surprisingly, an obsidian brush, as per the ss brush''s request. It gently caressed the nts and promised Neave that it would take good care of them, ¡°We will be waiting for your return, Master.¡± Neave patted Xurbon¡¯s head, ¡°And we will hurry to get back, any way we can.¡± He left the if we can part unspoken. With that, Neave headed out to do the one final mission he had to aplish. *** A positively enormous ball of spirit sat on the surface, just above the fortress. At its center sat the core of a diamond-ranked magma golem, one that Neave had dragged out of the fiery depths. With that, Neave began enveloping it in ss. Eventually, the thinyer of heavily processed ss enveloped the giant ball of spirit, and Neave painstakingly melted it to start the diluting process. The ball started to shrink, and once it did, it glowed so brightly that Neave¡¯s eyeballs, and his entire body, sizzled and burned in contact with the ring light. He willed his body to remain whole and flung the massive glowing ball into the sky. Then he used a movement technique, and threw it higher again. Over and over, he repeated this, and eventually, he appeared above the clouds. Then, the air ran thinner. And finally, Neave held the giant ball in space above the. There was nothing to be seen up here but an endless, ck void. Until now. Neave threw the ball with all the force he could muster, setting in on an orbit around the. The intense light lit up the endless clouds below, and they shone. In one final act of defiance, Neave brought a cycle to the nightmare realm. There would be night. And there would be day. As he watched the ball fly away, Neave felt a heavy weight fall off his shoulders. In just a bit, he would finally get some damn rest. ?????????? Neave whirled. What was that!? The light emitted by the fake sun illuminated the''s surface, but that wasn¡¯t the only thing it revealed. A massive, iprehensivelyrge skeleton of ck mist. ?e?? A creature with countless holes in its head instead of facial features... ?e?e? Reached a hand toward Neave¡¯s body. ¡°... Nope, nope, nope, nope, nooopey nope, nuh-uh, fuck that.¡± Without hesitation, Neave brought his hands together before his face and merged life force and qi into sma spirit. A white light enveloped his entire field of view, and in an instant, he was gone. Back on his way to reality. [The Jester of Apocalypse: Insanity] [BOOK 3] [END] updaterino updaterino Nothing to see here. Refer to them author notes. 1% Lifesteal [STORY ANNOUNCEMENT] 1% Lifesteal [STORY ANNOUNCEMENT] Please refer to the notes! The Jester of Apocalypse: Immortality. KINDLE UNLIMITED RELEASE! + BOOK 4 ANNOUNCEMENT The Jester of Apocalypse: Immortality. KINDLE UNLIMITED RELEASE! + BOOK 4 ANNOUNCEMENT Author notes go brrrr BONUS Chapter [Neaves powers so far] BONUS Chapter [Neave''s powers so far] INTEGRATE: Neave can absorb anything he consumes, and every substance that reaches his stomach is rapidly disintegrated and injected into his bloodstream, where it tries to assimte into his body. SHAPESHIFTING: Neave is capable of shapeshifting his body. This includes growing appendages like horns and ws, extending limbs, or changing his physical form. All alterations of his size are slightly weaker than his basic, unaltered form due to a decrease in control. CRYSTAL CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM: Neave¡¯s entire cardiovascr system is crystalline. This makes his veins considerably harder to pierce and his heart extremely difficult to destroy/harm. SUPERIOR TROLL PHYSIQUE: Neave¡¯s physique resembles a troll''s. His muscles are unusually robust, his bones and skin are more rigid, and his entire body can rapidly regenerate. This is an evolution to the basic Troll Physique and contains an enhanced version of all of the capabilities. THUNDER NERVES: Neave¡¯s entire nervous system has the properties of steel. This makes his nerves considerably tougher and more electrically conductive. This spirit power allows Neave¡¯s nerves to memorize and learn new movements easily, making executing those movements almost entirely automatic. Neave can actively use this power to flood his nervous system with electricity and force his muscles into exerting more power, but a far more efficient use lies in using the ability to prime his nerves for instantaneous action. IGNITE: Ignite is a spirit power that allows Neave¡¯s lungs to store a unique substance that can be used as fuel in several ways. One of these methods includes fire breath, and the other includes igniting the fuel internally, which allows him to boost his physical capabilities. Astrador taught Neave how to use this ability a third way, allowing him to burn the fuel to replenish his qi reserves. HYPER LIVER: Neave¡¯s liver works exceptionally rapidly, to the point it subtly vibrates. DURABLE ORGANS: All of Neave¡¯s internal organs are highly durable. SACRED BLOOD: Neave¡¯s blood almost instantaneously purges all impurities, which includes harmful qi. ENDURANCE BOOST: On top of supernaturally granting Neave superior endurance, this power also allows his body to store a vast surplus of calories. REGENERATION BOOST: Neave¡¯s regeneration is supernaturally boosted. This power also allows him to recover from losing limbs or other body parts. The power is additive to SUPERIOR TROLL PHYSIQUE, which means both abilities stack and enhance his regeneration simultaneously. DISTANCE FROM DEATH: This ability grants Neave supernatural toughness. It also allows him to remain alive even after taking extreme amounts of damage. PERCEPTION POWER: Neave¡¯s perception is enhanced, allowing him to perceive certain aspects of reality that he usually couldn¡¯t. DEXTERITY BOOST: Neave¡¯s dexterity is supernaturally enhanced. COGNITIVE BOOST: Neave¡¯s cognitive capabilities are supernaturally boosted. SPEED BOOST: Neave¡¯s speed is supernaturally boosted. WILLPOWER OF MIGHT: Neave¡¯s willpower impacts his strength. Neave¡¯s strength is also supernaturally boosted. [BOOK THREE START] Chapter 83: Departure [BOOK THREE START] Chapter 83: Departure The moon above the realm hung silent, trailing its eternal orbit unabated. In the coldest, deepest, darkest corner of this celestial body, three archdemons sat in a circle. Among them, the one donning robes of void, Shadow of Death, sharply inhaled. The other two instantly perked up. Such a violent reaction from the one named the Silent One meant catastrophe. Shadow of Destruction spoke in a cheap imitation of a man¡¯s voice and asked, "What happened?" Shadow of Death responded in a distressed whisper, "Impossible. The Archnemesis has brought his cub to this realm. Hosr the Stariler has appeared on the Xinkummar continent." The many eyes on Destruction''s head focused, and its pupils shrunk, "That is¡­ truly impossible." "Indeed,¡± Shadow of Death nodded. ¡°Trickery is involved. I specte it is a temporary avatar. It is not powerful enough to face either one of us. Yet¡­ why?" Blood squirted through the cracks in the dried bandages of Shadow of Cmity as its bones crackled. "Master¡­ should¡­ be¡­ alerted¡­" Few things could make an archdemon hesitate. Yet, Shadow of Destruction found itself frozen. Its spikes shivered, and its eyes darted around. It took much to harm an archdemon. But out of the Three Great Servants, Destruction was the only one that could withstand being in their master¡¯s presence. It wasn¡¯t long until the massive archdemon got up. It turned around and hesitantly disappeared from the others'' presence. It traversed over the moon¡¯s mountains and valleys, shifting past the endless, barren expanse of grey stone. Eventually, the cold, uncaring mountains¡­ started to morph without a single sign of changing their shape. But Destruction felt it. Suddenly, the sharp peaks felt like ws. The sky wept, and the stone bled beneath its feet. It reached the entrance, the mouth of a cave. Destruction took a single step inside and promptly killed itself¡ªno, it stopped its ws just as they were about to tear its own throat out. It swallowed, eyes shifting, scouting every shadow with utmost paranoia. So it took another step and cut its head¡ªbarely resisted the urge to do so. Each inch forward imbued it with more terror than a continent¡¯s worth of mortals experience in their entire puny life, and even it couldn¡¯t fully withstand it. But as it passed the twentieth step, the intensity suddenly vanished, and it could finally breathe again¡ªbut not for long. Images of demon children with their eyes gouged out and their fingers severed at their tips shambled toward it, and it did all it could to not sumb to the temptation to embrace them. As it dodged forward, eventually, the cubs vanished. All that stood before it was darkness, an imprable veil of void that nothing could peer through. Destruction sank its fingers into the dark, and they entered what felt like a viscous liquid. Eventually, its entire body pushed through. It couldn¡¯t see or feel anything but the cascading decay of its body. Blood seeped through every pore, bones crumbled to dust, and its skin peeled likeyers of soft fruit¡ªand then, it finally pushed through,pletely unharmed. Before it stood not darkness but a patch of non-perception, the unholy view of something not to be gazed upon. The sound of its crackling bones turning, the weight of its gazending, and the pain of its attention being directed at it overwhelmed Destruction. Suddenly, the curious voice of a little girl spoke through the veil, ¡°Speak, vermin. What excuse do you have for bothering me?¡± *** Neave gave everyone a few minutes to mentally prepare themselves for the departure. There was a quick debate on whether they should take some of the cores on the ground, but he advised against it. "Nothing stops you from picking after you¡¯re out, and believe me, you will be quite a bit wiser by then." Harel was the first to put the core she held down, and the others didn¡¯t take long to make the same choice. As the time of the departure approached, he walked up to Dukean and ced a hand on his shoulder. The young master tensed up and averted his gaze. There were faint tremors beneath his hand and a dampness on the robes. He wasn¡¯t good with emotions, and he rarely empathized with someone. Yet, looking at the boy''s shivering form, he knew precisely how he felt. Dukean had remained rtively brave throughout their month in the nightmare realm. That didn¡¯t mean he had a good time. Neave squeezed his shoulder to get his attention. "You don¡¯t have toe. I barely have any connection to you, and it would be easy for you to pretend that you were just deceived by my disguise." Dukean shook his head. "The messenger isn¡¯t my enemy, true," he said as he gritted his teeth, "but against those who are¡­ you are my only ally." After giving him a brief nod in response, he moved on to the others. Fear and anxiety dominated the mood, but the slightest of hints of excitement was present. Unsurprising. At the end of the day, they were still cultivators. Sacrifices for benefits was pretty much the way they did everything. But the sacrifices waiting for them here¡­ Neave shook his head. It was toote to think of that. He told them what awaited them. Regret was their burden to carry. "Gather around me, everyone,¡± he said as he disappeared and reappeared between them. "ce a hand somewhere on my body." They all got up. Harel walked up to Neave, cing her hand on his back. Gabrias approached, reluctantly cing a hand on Neave¡¯s right arm. Hunter awkwardly scooted over and touched Neave¡¯s shoulder. Dukean ced a hand on Neave¡¯s other shoulder. And finally, Marven walked up and ced a hand on Neave¡¯s head. Neave squinted at his father, scoffed, and closed his eyes. Everyone around him tensed up as they felt the foreign influence invade their body. None of them, however, looked nearly as bad as Neave did. Enveloping so many people of differing strengths was pretty damn tough. After much sweating and struggling, he was done, and without a reason to wait any longer, he knocked himself out. TTTTTT The nightmare realm, as always, was thoroughly silent. The only semnce of noise was in distant echoes,zy winds crawling across the surface, and deep underground movements, only standing out in contrast to the eerie, absolute quiet. The sky was cloudy and almost entirely dark. A few vague hints of grey lit the outlines, barely producing enough light to show their path. At the scene of their appearance, destruction dominated every direction, the scars of Neave''s several fights against the demons. The wrecked clearing had many shattered, sharp, dark branches everywhere. Just beyond the scarred insy the obsidian wastnd, a ck, endless forest of shadowy growth. It couldn¡¯t have been more evident that whatever they had been waiting for wasn¡¯t quite this dramatic. Harel, Marven, and Gabrias were frozen stiff, warily eyeing the horizons. ¡°Holy freaking heavens,¡± Harel whispered. ¡°Can you sense anything?¡± She asked her master. ¡°No,¡± Marven responded in a low volume, gulping. ¡°It feels like¡­ a void of qi. But there is something¡ª¡± ¡°So!¡± Neave yelled, causing everyone to jump in fright. ¡°Do you want to follow me to our destination, or do you want me to¡­ You know what, never mind.¡± The others winced at his tone, anxiously ncing around them, praying that he hadn¡¯t attracted the attention of anything that might be lurking in the darkness. Neave rolled his eyes, "Come on, you wimps," he said as he walked over to the distressed group of cultivators. Before they could react, his arms spread wide, stretching to epass all of them as he hugged, picked them up, and threw them over his back. Marven''s eye ticked, and he calmly suggested, "Neave, can you flip us so we aren¡¯t hanging upside down?" "... No,¡± he denied his father¡¯s request with an impish grin and took off at a run. Harel and Hunter whimpered a bit, and Gabrias tensed. Marven sighed, and Dukean deted, already used to this treatment. The speed at which they traveled turned the endless expanse around them into a blur to everyone but Dukean and Marven, who both had the perception to keep up, albeit barely. Once he suddenly switched course into the spiky, gloomy depths, even Marven groaned in fright. Soon enough, they found themselves in a room full of transparent shrubs. He unwrapped his arms, and all five of them flopped to the ground, scrambling to get up and off of one another. Marven was the first to speak, "Neave, where the hell are¡ª?" he croaked slightly as his words caught in his throat. He turned around and raised an eyebrow. "What is it, old man?" "Tha¡ªThat nt!¡± Marven said as he pointed a shivering finger at the giant brush. ¡°Ha¡ªha¡ªhow, how is it¡ª!?¡± "Ooooh, that," he realized what the old man was talking about. "Long story short, I granted it a spirit. A big one. Huge, like room-sized. I¡¯m still not sure if that was a good idea. It might kill us all and devour our souls. We¡¯ll see." Marven nced at the bush that suddenly seemed much more significant, gulped, and then turned to face his son. "This is why they¡¯re after you, isn¡¯t it?" He guiltily nced away and scratched the back of his head. Harel screamed. Suddenly, a ss puppet appeared out of nowhere and jumped at her, swinging a spiky ss limb. It wasn''t that fast, and she had no trouble avoiding it, but the tense atmosphere would have made a docile kitten a terrifying encounter. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, rx, it''s me!¡± Neave said as he jumped at the puppet, grabbed it, and picked it up. ¡°These are my allies!" Dukean nced at the sight in disbelief. "Neave, what the hell is that thing!?" "Rx, everyone, this is just a puppet. That big shrub over there is what¡¯s controlling it!" That was far from a valid reason to rx. If anything, it made everyone tense up in anticipation of another attack, this time from a different direction. He sighed. It was clear that he had more exining to do, both to the nt and the bbergasted cultivators. *** Over the next few hours, or at least what felt like hours to Neave, he had tried his best to exin everything in detail. He told them the specifics of his n, how he nned to execute it, at least, how he had nned to do it until the circumstances changed. He tried his best to exin everything to the nt, but all it seemed to understand was that these people weren¡¯t demons. Good enough for now, he supposed. As long as it didn''t ughter them all, he was okay with it. It was finally time to point something extremely unpleasant out to the gang. Dukean was already aware, and it was clear he oh-so-desperately wanted to ask Neave what he nned to do about it, but the others didn¡¯t seem to notice yet. So he got up, pped his hands, and broke the exciting news, "So¡­ you all might have noticed a little something missing on your fingers." On cue, everyone except Dukean looked down at their hands, noticed that their dimension rings were missing, and paled. Seeing the life drain out of their faces, Neave cackled ravenously. Gabrias spluttered, "Milord¡­ I don¡¯t remember seeing any food here,¡± his voice shivered. ¡°No water either.¡± Dukean winced at that, and Neave waved a hand to calm them down. "Now, now, rx. I have already ounted for this! I have a n that is as much as sixty percent likely to work!¡± In his eyes, those were excellent odds. In their eyes, terror appeared. ¡°Dukey boy,¡± he called. ¡°I need you toe here!" Dukean got up and moved closer to Neave. "Now, if you will, manifest some ice for me!" The boy stood hesitantly, ncing at the others for support, and then, with pleading eyes, he said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you know this, but manifested ice can¡¯t¡ª¡± "Just do it." He hesitated for a moment longer and materialized a tiny ice crystal on his palm. Neave grabbed it and blew fire at it. It instantly vaporized, leaving a faint mist of rapidly vanishing qi in its wake. Dukean''s voice shivered a bit, "You can¡¯t¡ª" "I know, I know,¡± Neave said, slightly irritated at the boy¡¯s impatience. ¡°I¡¯m not an idiot. I already told you I have a n. It will just take a bit to make it work. Give me more ice.¡± Dukean obeyed, swallowing his panic and all the saliva he could to make sure none of it escaped. Neave grabbed the new chunk of crystal and lifted it into the air. He observed it from a few angles and finally ced it on the ground. "Dukey boy,¡± he snapped his fingers as if trying to be annoying. ¡°Stone bowl, if you please.¡± With some hesitation, the young master obeyed and created a stone bowl with his earth maniption powers. Neave ced the piece of ice into the makeshift container and ced his palm over it. A tiny tendril of spirit floated toward it and sank into the spiritual construct. With a good deal of focus and several colorful pulses through the string of spirit, the ice flickered and morphed into water. He couldn¡¯t maintain the transformation for long, and the water disappeared when his grip slipped. "Do it again." After several more attempts, he managed to maintain the water form for a few minutes. Judging that to be enough time, he lifted his other hand and brought it over the water. A zap of red sank into it, creating ayer of faint white mist. And then again. And again. When he felt it was enough, he used a different alchemy technique that rounded the water into a ball so he could release his spirit tendril. Momentster, it started flickering, and Neave sent an unstable, golden zap that stabilized it again. The ball managed to maintain its integrity far longer this time around. And when it happened again, he adjusted its form with another technique. He allowed the water to flow into the bowl and promptly chained several alchemy techniques. By the end of the process, Neave felt mentally exhausted, but the small earthen bowl was filled with water. Marven furrowed his brows. "That is a mighty impressive thing you¡¯ve just done¡­ I¡¯ve never seen someone stabilize matter manifested by a spirit power before. But, Neave, that¡¯s still just¡ª" "This is indeed an imitation of water, but it can serve its function just fine, at least for a while. It doesn¡¯t have the same properties, so consuming it won¡¯t be the best for your health, but it''s a superior option to death by dehydration. I¡¯ve modified its properties slightly, and I¡¯m certain I can produce much better fake water in the future." "But it''s still just an imitation," Marven implored. ¡°It will eventually disappear.¡± "Yup,¡± Neave confirmed. ¡°But it willst around a year. So if you drink it, it won¡¯t just vanish from inside your body." "What about food?" Dukean asked. Neave grinned. *** "Ta-dah! This is where I¡¯m conducting most of my experiments!" Harel looked at Neave incredulously. "Freakin¡¯ hell, Neave. You expect us to eat that?" Holding a wiggling abominid in his arms, he cocked his head at her with the innocence of a curious child. "What else are you going to eat? This ashy dirt? Beggars can¡¯t be choosers, Harel." Marven sighed, "Didn¡¯t you¡­?" "Didn¡¯t I what?" The old sect master pinched his forehead. "ording to what you¡¯ve told us,¡± he started cautiously, but frustration overwhelmed him, ¡°you fed that thing your own body! It is more or less the equivalent of human flesh! You can¡¯t possibly expect us to be alright with eating that!" Neave paused. Dukean stared at the monster. While extremely reluctant about eating the gross, fleshy abominid, he was far more averse to starvation. The others, however¡­ well¡­ they looked ready to starve to death. Rather than seeming even vaguely apologetic, Neave shot them a t look, "I told you this would suck. What did you expect, a fun vacation? Why do you think I dubbed this ce ¡®the nightmare realm!?¡¯ For the pleasant sights and warm sunshine?" Marven looked hesitant, "Living in these conditions¡­ I can not help but think we won¡¯t leave this ce as the same people, and I¡¯m not just talking about power." "Oh, alright then,¡± Neave said with a cheerful grin. ¡°Feel free to kill yourself." "Neave, this is serious." "I¡¯m not kidding,¡± he said, all humor vanishing from his expression. ¡°That¡¯s literally the only option you have. I mean, I can do it for you if you want." Marven paused. He nced at the others. Nobody lookedfortable to be here, and it was clear that the weight of the realization that this was where they would likely spend untold years was crushing them. Brave? These kids had been courageous. They had been ignorant, the same as he had. When Neave told them about this ce, he didn¡¯t paint it as being this bad. And it probably wasn¡¯t intentional. A pang of sickness shed through his gut as he realized that his son was simplyfortable living like this. There was no solution now, not really. Killing oneself¡­ even in a ce like this, it wasn¡¯t an act to be taken lightly. But he also couldn¡¯t bear seeing his son be the executioner. "Fuck!" Marven yelled and gripped his head in frustration. Why did he constantly keep making such dumb mistakes? It was almost better back when he lived without a shred of responsibility. Neave raised an eyebrow, "What¡¯s wrong? It¡¯s pretty simple, really. Just like, poof, and I can kick you out. I don¡¯t really n on keeping anyone here against their will." Marven froze. Did Neave seriously not understand the implications of this situation? Was the act of killing them, even in this realm, so nonchnt for him that he took no issue with doing it? Biting his lower lip, he drew blood. This ce would be hellish, but if anything, they had time. He couldn¡¯t afford to escape. He didn¡¯t want to leave his son alone. However¡­ what about the others? He scoured his mind for any options, any possibility of solving this problem. He could think of only one. "If any of you wish to leave this ce, I have a suggestion. Whoever chooses to should lower their defenses while everyone else attacks them at the same time." When sects executed important members, they used such a method to ensure that no one individual had to bear the sin of being the executioner. Neave, on the other hand, stared, utterly bewildered as to why his father was making this soplicated. But even after the suggestion, nobody stepped forth. Marven continued, "This is yourst chance to volunteer. I won¡¯t be giving this chance twice." That made them jolt slightly. The offer being on the table would provide ease of mind, at least, and without it... Another several-minute-long staredown happened, yet once more, nobody volunteered. "That¡¯s it then,¡± he dered. ¡°You better get used to living here as soon as possible." With a nce at his son and then the squirming abominid he held the way a little child held a stuffed animal, he asked. "Do you know how to process monster meat?" Neave grinned, "I might actually be the best at it." Their hellish life in the nightmare realm had officially begun. [BOOK 3 FINALE] Chapter 133: The Eighth Wave [BOOK 3 FINALE] Chapter 133: The Eighth Wave The room swiftly quieted down, and as thest of the monster outpouring was extinguished, the golems began exchanging information on the fight''s oue. Through touch, shes of light signaled their growth and lit up the cave ever so slightly, revealing the tired, defeated expressions on everyone¡¯s faces. Harel got up to her feet and started walking away. There was a void hanging in the air. It was precisely this sort of moment where Dukean would ask where she was going. But he was gone. Yet, she paused anyway. "It isn¡¯t a big deal,¡± she said. ¡°Sure, it sucks, and I hate it. But dying here is inconsequential. We will see him again soon enough." The others wanted to nod at that; they wanted to agree with what she had said, but they simply couldn¡¯t bring themselves to do it. This was more than simply being kicked out of a mystical realm. The other members would move on, training and growing, while Dukean would be left behind. Likely permanently. They may not have lost Dukean, the person. But Dukean, theirrade, was gone. Suddenly, a blue, featureless, humanoid creature appeared out of nowhere and gazed at them in silence. Everyone instantly readied themselves forbat. However, they lowered their guards as the thing spoke in Neave¡¯s voice, "What the fuck happened here!? Where is Dukean!?" The others all tried to speak, but he suddenly turned his head and rushed up into the chamber where they had fought. Soon enough, he located the corpse of the spiked creature and dug a fist into its torso. The others followed him and watched in terror as he pulled a monster core out of what they had presumed was a demon¡¯s body. Gabrias gasped, "Monster core!? Could the monsters have fed on the demons and turned into¡­?" "Where is Dukean!?" The others all wanted to say something, but their faces dropped. "I asked where the fuck is Dukean!?" Harel shot Neave a sharp re. "He¡¯s dead." "Then where is his body!?" He asked. Harel gritted her teeth and snarled at him, "It has been dragged down into the magma, Neave." "Are you absolutely sure he was dead!?" "He is now!" She screamed. Neave¡¯s grip tightened, and the monster core in his hands burst apart, releasing a small cloud of pitch-ck mist. "If you didn¡¯t watch him die, then he is probably still alive." Marven looked ready to say something, but suddenly, Harel shot forward and punched Neave in the head. "Then tell us fucking why!? Why did these thingse for us!? Why did they take him away!?¡± She showered him with questions. ¡°You¡¯re hiding something, and you have been hiding something since we entered here. I swear, if you don¡¯t tell us immediately, I¡¯m killing myself this instant and leaving this farce of a sect! Feel free to handle the messenger without me.¡± Neave got up. "I can¡¯t tell you why, Harel." Marven stepped forward again. "Harel¡­" She whirled at him. "Do you know what he is hiding!?" The old cultivator opened his mouth slightly but promptly closed it again. "I didn¡¯t think so." Neave got up and almost immediately copsed to the ground. Before his body couldnd, however, he swung a fist at his own head. However, the slime suit absorbed the impact. ????????????? He pulled the slime suit off his head and gripped his hair, pulling a chunk of his skin off in the process, "Get the fuck out of my head!" What will you do now, Neave? "Ghaar! Arrgh!" Will you leave this ce, leaving your precious littlerade behind? "I said, get out of my head!" Harel took a few frightened steps back. "He¡¯s insane. He¡¯s lost his damn mind." Gabrias rushed forward, holding Neave. "Lord Neave! What is happening to you!?" Neave struck out at Gabrias¡¯ chest, audibly cracking several ribs, but therge man refused to back off. Harel turned to Marven. "Hey¡­ Marv¡­ Why did we let him drag us in here?" She asked, a crazed expression appearing on her face as she smiled. Marven gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "Why are you acting so hostile suddenly!?" Hunter stepped forward and touched Harel¡¯s shoulder. "Please, Harel, Marven, both of you¡­¡± he begged. ¡°Let¡¯s first figure out what¡¯s happening, then decide how to react." Harel smacked his hand off her shoulder. "He won¡¯t tell us! Heavens know what could be happening to Dukean right now, and he is still refusing to speak!" The young man screamed at her, "He is in no state to speak, Harel!" He pointed at Neave. Astrador has confirmed it, hasn¡¯t he? I am not manipting you, Neave. We have the same goal. "I don¡¯t care about that! Arggh¨C I just want my fucking mind back!" Hahahaha¡­ I feel the same way. Pity. It is no threat in the face of you and I. Nothing is. We could reset it all, shatter the stone, and crumble their fake reality away. We would have all we ever wanted. We would have peace. True freedom. There would be no defying the heavens when there are no longer any heavens to defy. Smack. Crush. Everyone turned to the wall. Something was trying to break into the room. One loud bang after another echoed through the chamber until finally. Smash. Xurbon stepped into the room. It still had deep cracks all over its body. "The¡­ teleportation¡­ tform¡­ Broken¡­ Had to¡­ break in." It slowly approached Neave, and the others watched it ce its hand on his forehead. He suddenly stopped shaking. However, the cracks over Xurbon¡¯s body deepened. "Aargh¡­ Hurrg¡­ Aaah!" They all watched several pitch-ck tendrils travel up Xurbon¡¯s arm and eventually vanish as the shrub¡¯s avatar fell to the ground, unconscious. Gabrias rushed to hold it, and Harel looked down on both of them, confusion, anger, and anxiety coursing through her veins. Not long after, Neave opened his eyes. "We have to go,¡± he said, rushing to back up but fumbling. Harel yelled, "No! We aren¡¯t going anywhere until you tell us what¡¯s happening!" Marven looked like he wanted to protest, but the other three stared at Neave. Gabrias held Xurbon¡¯s unconscious body, Harel stared daggers at him, and even Hunter looked reluctant. The moments of silence stretched on, and finally, he opened his mouth, "Okay, fuck it. Who cares anyway? I¡¯ll juste out and say it." He got up. "Ever since I¡¯ve left the loop, and likely even before leaving, something has been manipting my mind." Silence. The moments of quiet stretched on, and he continued, "I don¡¯t know what it is," he frowned. "I don¡¯t know where it is," He began yelling, "And I don¡¯t fucking know how to fight back!" Tears streaked down his cheeks, and he continued with a whimper, "I don¡¯t know whether I can even tell my own thoughts apart from what¡¯s being shoved into my mind. And if I ever fall asleep in this realm, my mind will likely be fully taken over." A violet sh lit up the room, and he began pulling things out of severalpartments. Several blue slime suits, boxes of rounded monster cores, and healing pills. He put them on the ground and began walking away. "Now, that thing has Dukean. I have prepared these sets of powers for you guys already. I am so, so sorry for not giving them to you sooner. I wanted you to make your own choices, but based on what I¡¯ve observed, these should suit you just fine. I will go to try and find where he is¡­ If you wish¡­" he paused for a moment. Then, he disappeared. Harel¡¯s eyes hung wide open as she dropped to her knees. "M¨CMind maniption¡­?" Her hand reflexively reached for her throat. Would she be safe if she killed herself right now? Her thoughts were interrupted as Marven walked past her. Without hesitation, he grabbed the box with his name and sat down further away. Gabrias grabbed his, and soon enough, Hunter followed. She looked at them with sheer incredulity seared into her expression. "You idiots don¡¯t get it. We are talking about having your minds stolen! This isn¡¯t just a matter of being kicked out!" Rather than reply, the three sat and stared at her. There was a hint of disappointment in their gazes, and she couldn¡¯t bear to meet their eyes. They don¡¯t get it. Even death would allow one to retain their freedom. This wouldn¡¯t. Hunter eventually sighed, smiled, and scoffed, allowing the tiniest shred of who he used to be to seep into his words as he said, "You are a coward." "Huuuh!?" Harel stared at him. "What the hell did you just call me?" Hunter grabbed a container that came with the box of monster cores, bit his finger, poured the blood in there, melted the core, and drank it, initiating the trial. The other two soon joined him. She groaned, sat beside them, and repeated the same thing. *** As Harel sank into her spirit realm, a deep reluctance enveloped her. Was she seriously about to go along with this? Before getting deeper into her musing, she arrived at her spirit realm and had to focus on the spirit trial. However, the moment she arrived, she froze. Her opponent was a giant magma golem, but it was slow, and there was little urgency to begin the fight. She had never seen her spirit realm before. But thest thing she expected to see once she arrived¡­ was this. It was nighttime. The golem lit up the stretch of forest, and the only other light source was a campfire. This was where Marven and her talked to Neave after finding him. She held her spiky ball on a chain, gripping it tighter as the words she had spoken so thoughtlessly rang through her mind. *** Neave stood in the center of a crater. It was the one he made when he obliterated the talking monsters. Without much further thought, he ran straight away from the ss forest. Eventually, he reached arge stretch of pitch-ck ooze spread out to the horizon and beyond. The ck sea. It was one of the more peculiar sights he¡¯d encountered during his time in the loop. He tried swimming into it numerous times but found nothing of note. A section of the ocean shifted, and a humanoid figure walked out from within. It was a monster that resembled the dead one Neave had seen in the chamber. A humanoid, demon-like, bald creature that stood at average height for an adult male. "Well, there¡­ I see you have¡­" Before it could continue, he grabbed its head and mmed it full force into his knee, shattering its face. "Where the hell is Dukean!?" He asked. It spoke through bloody gurgles, "Oh, wow, you are truly something. Ack¡ª!" Yet another strike, this time, a kick to its midsection. "I asked you a question!" "Now, let¡¯s not get hasty." He instantly jumped back as the same voice that echoed in his mind now spoke through the monster. It continued in a mock offended tone. "Oh, have I just been rejected?" "Okay, first of all, fuck you. Second of all, fuck off. Third of all, fuck you again! I don¡¯t know who you are, what you are, or what you want. I just know I¡¯m getting Dukean back, one way or another." "Want me to tell you who I am?" He offered. Neave froze at that. "I am¡­" It mouthed something, but no sound came out. It deted and scratched the back of its bald head. "Ah. Seems that bastard is preventing me from sharing that. What a joke. Well¡­ don¡¯t worry. You will know soon enough." Neave ignored its words and rushed in for another strike, however¡­ The monster dodged. He was already after it when it shifted its position, but something was wrong. Just as he was about to appear before it, a strike was already rushing at his head. With all his willpower, he channeled the speed to avoid it, and the creature summoned a massive tentacle, which he had to distance himself from. "What¡¯s wrong?¡± It asked with a cheeky grin. ¡°How do you expect to get your friend back at this rate?" A massive tentacle rose out from the ocean of ck ooze, tightly grasping Dukean¡¯s charred body. He gasped. "Oh, no!¡± He eximed dramatically. ¡°Not my friend. Please, do not kill my friend. I would be despondent if you killed him; I would even cry." He begged desperately. The creature scoffed, "Good one,¡± it chuckled. ¡°I almost fell for it. Worry not. He will remain with me for the time being. Besides¡­" The tentacle sank back into the roiling sea, "I do not need hostages to beat you, you failure." The twobatants stood still, simply staring each other down. Suddenly, a sh of violet light lit up the nightmare realm, and the massive ogre appeared, already swinging the titanic sledgehammer down. However, the monster summoned a gigantic tentacle that near-instantly wrapped around the ogre¡¯s leg and pulled it back, tripping the massive avatar and interrupting the strike. Neave appeared before the monster at that moment, swinging his sledgehammer at its head. However, it dodged and immediately counter-attacked with a wed thrust, one that Neave contorted around as he used a movement technique to make the sledgehammer appear on the other side of the monster¡¯s body, where it was still flying into another blow. Again, the creature dodged the strike and retaliated, but its ws couldn¡¯t reach his slime suit. He prepared the sledgehammer for a thrust. However, as he swung it, he released it, and it went flying toward the monster¡¯s torso. As the creature bent out of the way of the strike, another sh of violet appeared, and the centaur charged at it while Neave teleported and grabbed the sledgehammer out of the air. As the creature dodged the strike again, the ogre was once more swinging its titanic sledgehammer down. Suddenly, the monster lifted its finger, and a thin, ck line shot toward Neave¡¯s body. He couldn¡¯t swap consciousness in time to dodge the near-instant attack. ??????????? The slime suit squirmed and melted away under intense pressure, and rot rapidly spread where the thin line touched his skin. The giant sledgehammernded, but a massive tentacle was prepared to somewhat cushion the blow. However, yet another sh of violet appeared, and the slime gripped the centaur, throwing the avatar toward the monster¡¯s body. Neave manipted the centaur avatar to straighten its body and, with an insane momentum behind it,nded a halberd strike right on the monster¡¯s chest. A deep gash appeared at the point of impact, and momentster, the monster disappeared. A massive mouth appeared behind Neave¡¯s body, and he barely managed to avoid the bite in time. The centaur appeared again, but this time, a tentacle grabbed it from behind and threw it high into the air, where Neave had to unsummon it. He and the monster exchanged several strikes, and none of themnded. It could move with incredible speed, and the skill it disyed left him bewildered. It was far beyond anything he¡¯d seen so far¡­ No. The only person he couldpare it to¡­ would be himself. The mouth appeared yet again, and he, rather than dodge, summoned the slime to wrap it around the monster¡¯s body. The mouth bit a massive chunk of flesh out of his side, but his insane regeneration immediately recovered it. ??????????? He had to fight off a sh of mental pain, and the slime¡¯s body began melting rapidly. Neave immediately detached most of it, letting it explode around the monster¡¯s body. As the explosion triggered, he dove head first into it, suffering some damage but healing it away immediately as he swung his hammer at the creature¡¯s body repeatedly. A massive strikended on its side, then its head, and finally its left shoulder. However, rather than reeling from the strike, the monster counterattacked. A single wed finger traveled to Neave¡¯s body rather slowly, and he ignored it as he readied another strike. However, as the finger suddenly appeared far closer, he was forced to dodge. Yet, as he moved out of the way, another w was rushing at him, and even after using a movement technique to get away, he was still in the trajectory of the strike. Neave used several movement techniques to escape far into the sky, and finally, the attack was no longer following him. ??????????? From beyond the clouds, something unseen struck his back, and he was sent flying down to the ground. Spinning his body around in the air, he spun once, twice¡­ And before he could finish the technique, the wed finger finally reached his body. TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT "Arghh!" Neave dropped to the ground, clutching his head. The monster scoffed and kicked his side, sending his body flying away. Hended at the edge of the ck shore, and a wave of ooze washed over his body. "You are worthless." It took a step forward, "Nothing but a discarded, failed attempt at facing the eighth wave." It reached his body, and another kick sent Neave flying over into the sea. However, he mustered all the force he could to keep his body afloat on the surface, preventing himself from sinking into it. "Ever since you¡¯ve left, you have been an indecisive coward. One problem after another, all caused by your hubris and foolishness. Face it, Neave. You have no chance of defeating the final wave. You will never reach the stone and shatter it." Despite the endless agony roiling in his mind, despite the constant pounding, screaming, and whispering he could hear, he raised himself up to his feet, standing atop the surface of the ck sea with a footing technique. And he smiled. "Mate¡­ I don¡¯t know what the fuck the stone is." Then, four blue dots appeared on the horizon, getting closer by the second. ¡°But I do know one thing.¡± Marven, Harel, Hunter, and Gabrias surrounded the monster. With that, Gabrias fired an arrow at it. As it was about to dodge, the projectile suddenly swerved and struck its side. The ice wrapped around it, and before it could react any further, Harel appeared, glowing bright red and swinging her spiky ball. The weaponnded, and deep cuts spread over the monster¡¯s body. A sudden sh of light shimmered before them, and Marven appeared as well, swinging his sword. The creature disappeared out of the way of the strike, but Marven immediately redirected it to its position. It couldn¡¯t get out of the way in time, and the sh severed its arm. Hunter dashed over to it, and the creature reacted by swinging an arm at him. Before its strike couldnd, the air before Hunter shimmered, and a powerful barrier sprang to life. However, the creature persisted, and its attack pierced through the barrier, and tentacles spread toward Hunter¡¯s head. Phwung. A small stone ball flew out of nowhere directly toward the monster¡¯s head. It raised a hand to defend from it, but as the stone cracked, a zing light appeared from within, and a fierce burst of fire enveloped it. Dukean appeared on the shores of the ck sea, severely injured. But he had a harsh, defiant glint in his eyes. Hunter swung his sword, striking the monster¡¯s side and throwing it toward the others. Midflight, another one of Gabrias¡¯ arrowsnded on its side, and the monster flew directly into another one of Harel¡¯s swings. Just as Marven was about to finish the fight with a powerful technique, the air around them darkened, and the creature got up, sizzling with a cloud of thick, smelly smoke. "You bloody fool. I will show you just how valuable these allies of yours really are! Behold how fast they crumble before despair!" Its arm shot out toward Marven¡¯s head, however¡­ Red, glimmering runes appeared out of nowhere, etching themselves into the demon¡¯s arm, telling the story of how its strike failed tond. A quick cut from Marven severed the creature¡¯s arm, and another swing from Harel sent it flying away. Neave crawled out of the ck sea, zing in crimson me as he helped Dukean back up to his feet. "These are no ordinary allies, Maniptor." Near instantly, Neave appeared before the severely injured monster. "These are fledgling disciples of the Immortal Arts." The runes told the tale of the one who couldn¡¯t move under the gaze of the pink cockroach. ¡°And there is no such thing as the eight wave.¡± Neave inhaled. His lungs inted to an insane size, and inside them, fierce mes danced in a vortex. Suddenly, the crimson glow of ignited life force meshed with it, and countless shimmering runes appeared around his body. A thick stream of zing red fire blew out of his mouth and struck directly at the monster¡¯s torso. Every lick of me held the endless retaliation of the monsters he had devoured, and shred by shred, the body the Maniptor was controlling evaporated into nothingness. *** A long time after that fight had passed. Marven, Harel, Gabrias, Dukean, and Hunter sat around in a circle. Marven and Gabrias hadn¡¯t changed much, but the other three were noticeably different. Their bodies were bigger, their faces more mature, and their disposition was greater. Cultivation made one age slower. But even in the face of that¡­ They had all grown up. Hunter nodded his head, and the others nodded resolutely. The decision had finallye. It was enough. Getting up, they walked out of the third iteration of thebat chamber and stepped into the hallways. The fortress had seen heavy renovation many times over. It was so heavily fortified now that it was hard to call it a mere fortress. Soon enough, they encountered Xurbon as it appeared out of nowhere. "Should I wake him?" It asked them. The others looked at one another and slowly nodded. Xurbon nodded its head and disappeared. Soon enough, they reached the nearest teleportation tform and appeared within the main chamber. Xurbon¡¯s true body sat on the ground, holding a caring finger to Neave¡¯s temple. And as they approached, he finally opened his eyes. It had been a long time since Neave wasst awake. He wasn¡¯t asleep, either, but he crystallized his brain to effectively ce himself in semi-stasis. It was all so he could buy enough time for the others to learn the necessary qi techniques. As the effect was finally undone, he looked at them with a gentle smile. "Diamond path, I see¡­¡± he confirmed their growth. ¡°Can I assume you¡¯ve learned enough?" The others all nodded. "Heading out?" With a slight hint of reluctance, the others nodded again. Neave sighed in relief. "Dad, stay behind for a bit. I have something to say to you." Marven happily agreed, and the others all went to sit a bit away from them. Harel, Dukean, and Gabrias all released a thick stream of red mist, and as thest of their life force abandoned their bodies, they all dropped dead to the ground. Neave sluggishly got up into a seated position, and Marven patiently waited to see what he had to say. They sat quietly as Xurbon ran its fingers through his hair, ensuring it couldn¡¯t sense any interference within. "I think Mom is alive," Neave said nonchntly after holding on to that fact for so long. Marven¡¯s eyes shot open, and his mouth gaped. However, as the seconds passed, his mouth gradually closed, and he calmed himself. Neave stared at his father nkly, "I thought you would react more violently than that." Marven chuckled slightly. "You know¡­ For a long time, I refused to ept that she was dead. Such a talented cultivator, killed by some random bandits? It just seemed impossible. But now it makes sense¡­ She likely faked her death." They continued sitting silently, and eventually, Marven spoke again, "You know, there is something I¡¯ve always been hiding, even from you." "Hmmm?" "Your mother. A short while before she passed away, she told me she met an agent from the heavenly continent." Neave sat up. "Langen!? Wait, no¡­ that makes perfect sense." "I assume you¡¯ve learned of her survival from the Great God?" Marven asked. He nodded. Yet again, silence settled between them, and eventually, he asked his father. "You¡¯re a lot calmer than I expected you to be." A sorrowful smile he always wore when remembering the Zearthorn sect settled on Marven¡¯s face as he looked at his son. "Brivia¡­ She was all I ever wanted in a woman. She would say all the things I wanted to say but couldn¡¯t due to my status. Repeatedly, she put their tant bullshit down and fought whoever provoked her without discrimination. And man, was she good in bed¡­" "Dad, what the fuck, ew!" "Hahahaha!" Marven ruffled Neave¡¯s hair. Neave groaned loudly, and the cultivator eventually stoppedughing, "But you see¡­ When one holds a lot of power¡­ one can either ept responsibility or face the consequences. I lived as a sect master, never quite epting responsibility and always postponing the consequences. Brivia embodied the foolish, reckless dream of simply¡­ letting go." Marvenughed slightly, with a sad look in his eye, "But that is no way to live one¡¯s life." He turned to Neave, "Hey¡­¡± he hesitated. ¡°Do you¡­ Do you mind¡­ reverting the transformation?" Neave raised an eyebrow, "I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about." His father gently smiled at him, "¡­ Please." Neave looked near-identical to his appearance when he first arrived in the nightmare realm. Well, besides the absurd mass of muscle. His hair hadn¡¯t grown, his face hadn¡¯t changed, and he hadn¡¯t grown any taller. He stared at his father for ten long breaths. Then, hesitantly, slowly¡­ he finally undid the transformation that stopped his age from showing. Where the absurdly muscr little boy had stood, a giant, ultra-masculine man appeared. His face was chiseled in muscle, and his gaze alone could make lesser men shrivel. Marven chuckled, "¡­ Please, son. Just this once." With a great deal of hesitation, he agreed, "Alright." And then, he finally, truly undid the transformation. He was about as tall as Marven. The red streaks in his hair faded with time. His near-silver, tinged with pink hair draped over his broad back and shoulders and covered his face. Marven gently moved his hair aside and revealed the beautiful face beneath. With a shaky smile, Marven said, "You look just like me when I was younger." Neave chuckled, turning his deep blue eyes to face his father. "You¡¯re lying," he said, putting on a half-hearted grin. Marven¡¯s smile vanished, and he pulled his son in for a hug. "You¡¯re right," he said, tears streaking down his face and into his son¡¯s hair. "I am." *** Neave stood before his allies¡¯ corpses. They had all returned, and he remained behind just a while longer. There was still one more thing he needed to do. After a bit of thinking, he decided to eat their bodies. Xurbon stared at him incredulously, and Neave cocked his head. "What?" "Why would you do such a thing?" It asked. "You know¡­¡± he mused. ¡°What if we return here? I wouldn¡¯t want them to find their dead bodies. Hasn¡¯t happened to me before, but juuust to be safe, I¡¯d prefer to spare them the trauma." Xurbon rolled its eyes, and Neave waved it off. He did his best to hide his concern as he looked at the shimmering humanoid. "Are you sure you¡¯ll be fine here on your own?" The ss shrub¡¯s avatar looked sad upon hearing that and soon shook its head. "Alright, then,¡± Neave conceded. ¡°But you have to promise to y nice." "Oh, please, Master,¡± Xurbon said with a chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m far past something like that." Neave smiled. Soon enough, the main chamber had three more nts in it. A beautiful, flowery bush. A small sapling of a fruit tree. And, surprisingly, an obsidian brush, as per the ss brush''s request. It gently caressed the nts and promised Neave that it would take good care of them, "We will be waiting for your return, Master." Neave patted Xurbon¡¯s head. "And we will hurry to get back, any way we can." If we can, he thought but decided not to share that with the ss shrub. With that, Neave headed out to do the one final mission he had to aplish. *** A positively enormous ball of spirit sat on the surface, just above the fortress. At its center sat the core of a diamond-ranked magma golem that Neave had dragged out of the fiery depths. With that, he began enveloping it in ss. Eventually, the thinyer of heavily processed ss enveloped the giant ball of spirit, and Neave painstakingly melted it to start the diluting process. The ball started to shrink, and once it did, it glowed so brightly that his eyeballs and entire body sizzled and burned in contact with the ring light. He willed his body to remain whole and flung the massive glowing ball into the sky. Then, he used a movement technique and threw it higher again. Over and over, he repeated this, and eventually, he appeared above the clouds. Then, the air ran thinner. And finally, he held the giant ball in space above the. There was nothing to be seen up here but an endless, ck void. But that was about to change. He threw the ball with all the force he could muster, setting in on an orbit around the. The intense light lit up the endless clouds below, and they shone. In one final act of defiance, he brought a cycle to the nightmare realm. There would be night. And there would be day. As he watched the ball fly away, he felt a heavy weight fall off his shoulders. In just a bit, he would finally get some damn rest. ?????????? He whirled. What was that!? The light emitted by the fake sun illuminated the''s surface, but that wasn¡¯t the only thing it revealed. Neave looked up, deep into the shadowy void. There, he saw a massive, iprehensively giant skeleton of ck mist. ?e?? A creature with countless holes in its head instead of facial features... ?e?e? ¡­ Reached a hand toward Neave¡¯s body. "¡­ Nope, nope, nope, nope, nooopey nope, nuh-uh, fuck that." Hee brought his hands together before his face without hesitation and merged life force and qi into sma spirit. A white light enveloped his entire field of view, and in an instant, he was gone. Back on his way to reality. [The Jester of Apocalypse: Invincibility] [BOOK 3] [END] UPPPPDAATE TIIIMEE! (MASSIVE NEWS) UPPPPDAATE TIIIMEE! (MASSIVE NEWS) Nothing to see here, Junior! Get out of my sight and go to the author''s notes! This Sect Master is Ashamed, Juniors... [BOOKS ONE AND TWO FREE ON AMAZON FROM 3/12 to 7/12] This Sect Master is Ashamed, Juniors... [BOOKS ONE AND TWO FREE ON AMAZON FROM 3/12 to 7/12] Oh woe be me, dire stupidity strikes again. Read the author''s notes [BOOK FOUR START] Chapter 134: Distressed Mother [BOOK FOUR START] Chapter 134: Distressed Mother The throne room of Emperor Jevian Lloude Dust was considered a great show of humility. A simple construction of in wood. A small and humble room, perhaps asrge as the house of an affluent mortal family. This was the pattern with the emperor¡¯s image. He had no n¡ªno lineage. He took no wives or concubines and had no children or rtives. Praise be unto Emperor Lloude Dust, for he lived only to serve the greater good, the survival and well-being of the Yixine Empire. But the reality of it, beneath the shiny surface, was quite different. He wasn¡¯t humble. He was pragmatic. He didn¡¯t renounce a lineage for the greater good¡ªhe did it to have no weaknesses. Indeed. His humble throne room was no shame to him, for nobody was qualified to strip him of face. For who could do anything to one of only two second-step diamond path cultivators in the entire realm? The Grand Queen was a recluse, so she, as the only other cultivator withparable power to his, certainly wasn¡¯t going to get in his way. Emperor Jeevian, for all his glory, had a nasty secret. His story ofing from a humble upbringing was categorically a massive lie. In truth, he wasn¡¯t from this realm at all. The residents of this world had no hope of ever reaching rank two of the subdivinity stage. Even the Grand Queen could only do it due to the assistance of the Great God himself, and the second rank was the most he could help her reach. So who was he? Where had hee from? It was a long, harrowing story of getting stuck in a copsing mystical realm for numerous millennia. Detached from any worlds, he had floated in the void, barely kept alive by a self-inflicted stasis that threatened to break apart with each passing moment. However, in a miracle of profound, heavenly fortune, the broken mystical realm found another reality to attach to. But¡­ to his abject terror¡­ the new world he found himself in¡­ It was a lost realm. Yet, he found this might not have been the worst thing in the world. First, in such a ce, he was virtually invincible. Sure, there was an outpost maintained by the Heavenly Alliance to ensure that no hidden threats could appear, but some lower-realm wench calling herself a queen stood no chance against a former prodigy of Descending Heavenly Dragon n. But there was a problem. It was the very reason the Heavenly Alliance had cut this realm off from the connection to the Omnirealm¡ªthe Monster Apocalypse. These creatures were no sacred or even demonic beasts. They were a horrific abomination, a foul y by the Devil Anarchy aiming to ensure that, since they couldn¡¯t im it, nobody could have this realm for themselves. An act of mutual destruction. If he could find a way to cope with it or find a way to use the mutated, disgusting sin disguised as spirit powers to his advantage, he would be unstoppable. Indeed. Nobody could have this realm. But he wanted to im it. As soon as he rid it of the infestation or found a way to suppress it, it would be his alone to rule over as he pleased. That was the ultimate aspiration of Emperor Jeevian Lloude Dust¡ªthe supreme ruler of a deste, abandoned wastnd¡ªand future god of this realm. The divine authority he had here, although hampered by the existence of that Langen puppet, was quite incredible. He could sense lesser subdivinity stage cultivators in the range of the entire Xinkummar continent, as long as they weren¡¯t hiding in a mystical realm. Until this moment, this had been his most significant tool for remaining in power. Nobody, not a single individual, could ascend past rank three of the divine spark stage without his permission and stay on the continent. With all these ns in ce and the authority and rule he had established, one could only imagine how he felt when that divine authority suddenly vanished. One could only guess what was going through his mind as he spotted Hosr the Stariler¡¯s projection above the capital. And one could only presume just how furious he felt when he learned that the demigod was after his greatest hope for solving his predicament. *** In the middle of the oh-so-embarrassingthrone room, Emperor Jeevian Lloude Dust, together with the Great Four¡ªBeanna, Kingean, Carfen, and the newly ascended Xondir, kowtowed to Hosr the Stariler and hispanion¡ªa silver-haired woman on the first step of the diamond path. All the servants that usually popted the pce were nowhere to be seen. Hosr had dismissed them, as he couldn¡¯t bear to stand in the presence of such lowly beings. His pitch-ck hair covered a part of his heavenly forehead, and his piercing gaze shone orange with the might of a supernova. He looked down on what he must have perceived as little more than specks of dust below his feet and smiled. ¡°Greetings, Emperor,¡± he mouthed the title mockingly, sneering at Jeevian¡¯s sweaty form. ¡°Who you are and where you¡¯vee from is none of my business,¡± he dered dismissively, ¡°all I need from you is information.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Majesty,¡± the emperor breathed out. ¡°I have been trying to track the child myself for quite a while.¡± ¡°Oh, have you now?¡± Hosr asked, snorting at that. ¡°Not even your heavenly predisposition, it seems, has been enough to make any headway, then?¡± he teased. Swallowing bile, Jeevian forced the words out, ¡°I have indeed been unsessful in tracking him down. He possesses incredible power and¡ª¡± ¡°Look, I have no interest in ying the role of your superior. Spare me the excuses, and tell me whether you know anything of value.¡± Jeevian shook profusely as he whispered, ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know anything, Your Eminence.¡± ¡°Hmph,¡± he snorted. ¡°I see.¡± Then, with a mighty kick, he sent Jeevian flying across the room. The Emperor smashed into the wooden construction and burst through the wall, flying all the way into the courtyard, where hended in the pond with a ssh. The surrounding servants screamed to get out of the way, and his Second Wind spirit power activated to fix his broken neck and put it back into shape. Hosr turned to the other diamond pathers and warned, ¡°Just stay out of my way. If any of you dare to breathe where it disturbs my search, that will be yourst breath. Do you understand?¡± They all shook their heads, keeping their mouths firmly shut. ¡°Good,¡± he said. ¡°Brivia,¡± he called the beautiful woman at his side. ¡°I think it''s time for you to step up.¡± *** Above Keyishin, the capital of the Yixine empire, the projection of a heavenly beauty appeared. Her visage was impable, her glory infinite. She opened her mouth and spoke. Her story touched many hearts. She spoke of running from a developing demonic organization, now known as the ruined Zearthorn sect, and having to abandon her child to seek another chance at life. She told, through crocodile tears, how much she regretted having to make that decision each and every day of her life. She plead for her child, Neave Zearthorn, the Lost Child, to return to her. To finally reunite with his mother in a loving embrace and for them to travel to the Great God¡¯s domain together¡ªwhere they would live out the rest of their glorious eternities as a family. Tears flowed down many cheeks, and people sympathized with the touching story. Many broke into sects, scouring every room and interrogating every individual for the Lost Child¡¯s location. They sought, yelled, screamed, even, for Neave to show himself ande out. Their calls, however, fell on deaf ears. *** From the top of the Crystal Pce merchant group outer circle tower, Kalen watched the incredible sight above, unable to restrain himself from crying a bit. What a wonderful tale! What a touching story! Indeed, the heavens had eyes, and they had sent their best to fix this injustice! And, at this point, unfortunately, his delightful observation of the heavenly appearance above just had to be ruined by the arrival of that snotty kid. Dukean, the young master of the Emperium sect, stood at the tower''s edge, wearing his usual, easy smile as he grinned at him. That brat was definitely up to no good. ¡°Why now!?¡± he asked, outraged. ¡°Why do you have toe to ruin this spectacr moment!? Begone! I¡¯m watching history unfold!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Dukean asked, his easy smile widening. ¡°Brother Kalen, do you truly not wish to show me some face after the favor I granted you?¡± Kalen winced at that. Of fucking course that had toe to bite him in the ass at the absolute worst moment. Sighing, he turned around with a disgruntled mumbling and spat, ¡°Speak, you vile thing, what do you want?¡± At that moment, however, his attitude was forced to change. From nowhere, a certain man appeared. A man he recognized. ¡°L¡­ Lord Bob,¡± Kalen uttered, ncing between the repulsive, disgusting figure and the beautiful Bob, his lovely patron. ¡°I¡­ I had no clue you were allied with¡­¡± he spluttered, unable to wrap his mind around what was happening. Something about this felt wrong. ¡°Dun¡¯ worry, mate, hahaha!¡± Bob chuckled, ever the cheerful man. ¡°This little boy owes me a favor, and I just so overheard he had you by the balls! Hahahahaha!¡± he cackled vociferously. ¡°So I thought I¡¯d do you a solid and tell him to let you off the hook!¡± ¡°I¡­¡± Kalen couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°That is¡­ highly generous of you, Brother Bob; you have shown me great face by doing this.¡± ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry bout¡¯ it,¡± Bob said, spitting on the marble table again, but Kalen had no intention of getting irritated. This man had no ws in his eyes. Nay, he could bepared to a saint! ¡°What a blessed day this is!¡± Bob proimed, caressing his triple chin as he stared simultaneously at the projection of the beautiful woman above and off somewhere in the distance. ¡°I hate to interrupt such a moment, but I need some shit from you!¡± ¡°Some¡­ Sh¡­?¡± ¡°Stuff.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Kalen blinked. ¡°I understand. What is it that Brother Bob desires?¡± Bob threw a small scroll Kalen¡¯s way out of his dimension ring. As soon as his gazended on it, Kalen froze. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sorry, dear sir, but this is¡­ I do not mean to offend you, Great Benefactor, but I¡­¡± he nced at the absurd list of items and back to the man before him. ¡°I am not sure whether you can afford all this¡­¡± Without hesitation, Bob pulled another object out of his ring. Kalen¡¯s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. He had seen many cores in his life. So he could tell at a nce. This ungodly object before him¡­ It was an S-9-grade, tinum-ranked monster core. *** Dukean and Neave were told to wait as Kalen had to return to his headquarters to fetch the bulk of the items. In his disguise as Bob, Neave¡¯s foot hopped anxiously. He had yet to fuse his spirit powers here, so the burden of interference was back in full force. And if that wasn¡¯t enough¡­ ¡°N¡­ Neave,¡± Dukean tried, ¡°Is that your real¡ª?¡± ¡°If you say anything to Marven,¡± Neave said, ¡°or any of the others, I¡¯m going to kill you immediately.¡± Dukean swallowed his following words and looked away, turning back to the sky where the beautiful woman continued pleading for Neave to return. EXTEREMELY IMPORTANT UPDATE [IM SERIOUS] EXTEREMELY IMPORTANT UPDATE [I''M SERIOUS] Refer to the author''s notes. Chapter 137: Do What One Does Best Chapter 137: Do What One Does Best The capital of this dingy empire might have been prominent by the standards of these lower realm hicks, but from Hosr¡¯s perspective, it was little more than a corner a rat was trapped in. After a whole week of tireless searching, he was sure beyond doubt that that child, together with what they had gathered to be five allies, had escaped into the underground. That was, to Hosr, a minor inconvenience. Even if it took years to track the child down, it was no problem for him. To higher-realm beings such as himself, time was measured in centuries. A few paltry weeks were as insignificant as a speck of sand in a desert. And he had a much bigger problem to distract him anyway. He had tried contacting the higher realms. And he had failed. It wasn¡¯t surprising that something would hinder his connection this far from the omnirealm. Dark, unspeakable things lurked in the void separating him, and iprehensible spatiotemporal phenomena urred frequently. But this was persisting for far too long. Not only that, but the cut-off felt too¡­ absolute. His avatar, thankfully, couldn¡¯t be disturbed, as the connection was forged through the stone itself. Butmunication was utterly impossible. He sighed. Without the guidance of his father, he could only rely on himself. Given the nature of his presence here, he had to conserve his strength. Any shred of power he used with this avatar would be gone forever, and even without actively using it, his strength was slowly waning with each passing moment. And, to begin with, he only had a fraction of his true power in this state. He did not fear being defeated, but even running away was draining. It wasn¡¯t impossible for him to chase after the child, but that would be unwise. Given this avatar''s drastic limitations on his abilities, his senses were severelypromised, and the underground was vast. No matter how fast, skilled, and wise he was, he was still only one man. And there was no need to rush. He had servants at his disposal. He believed Brivia could be the best option for someone to be sent after their targets, but she held too much value as a piece. He even went so far as to help her ascend to the subdivinity stage to ensure her loyalty and obedience. So he couldn¡¯t recklessly send her to chase after them. He was about to call Langen to ask for assistance, but¡­ that failed, too. His temper wasn¡¯t fickle enough for something as minor as this to truly disturb him, but it was concerning. Something big was happening, and without his full power, hecked the senses necessary to properly investigate it. What he could do, however, was send Brivia back to Langen to have her guide a selection of other servants to where they were. There was a number of those he could use in her stead. He opened his eyes and found himself centered back in reality again. The throne room around him was aughable disy of arrogance. in wood. Hosr clicked his tongue. What a joke. The miserable cowards who reigned supreme in this realm stood before him. While they seemed calm and dignified, he wouldn¡¯t forget their sad states when he had first arrived. For heavens¡¯ sake, they had been shaking like leaves in the wind. They weren¡¯t the first lower-realm cultivators to have reacted like that to his presence, but theirs had been a particrly embarrassing disy of cowardice. Still, their pathetess aside, their power was considerable for a lower realm such as this. Especially that of the rank two subdivinity stage emperor who had ended up here through whatever means. If he were any more significant than that, Hosr would perhaps care enough to ask him how it happened. But as it stood, he only wanted one thing from the man. ¡°Emperor,¡± he called. ¡°Yes, Your Majesty!¡± Jeevian knelt. ¡°It will take a few days for the backup from Langen to arrive.¡± Indeed. The sanctuary was a vast distance away from this continent, a considerable trip for those at the start of the subdivinity stage. ¡°As such, I would like to request of you a favor.¡± The emperor tensed. ¡°Your¡­ Your Grace¡­ What do you desire?¡± ¡°That child had gone underground,¡± he dered inly. ¡°Go after him and his allies.¡± Jeevian tensed at thatmand. Hosr knew that they would obey him in this scenario. They had no choice. But nobody, especially those used to being at the top, liked being lorded over. Even brilliant men and women could be idiots in the face of such great frustration. To stop that from happening, he wouldn¡¯t just tell them what to do. A calm smile appeared on his face. Thankfully, these ants were so insignificant that even the most meager of rewards would be enough to satisfy them. ¡°Do not be concerned, Young Emperor,¡± he cated him. ¡°I am not so dishonorable that I would make one-sided demands. In return for your service, I shall grant you a gift,¡± then, he pretended to ponder it for a moment before offering, ¡°How does this sound¡ªif you can find the child and bring it to me, I won¡¯t have to use any of my power. I admit that the avatar I am embodying is limited. But I have enough energy to assist you in grasping a true strand.¡± Jeevian¡¯s head shot up, and his eyes widened. But he quickly restrained himself and brought his head back down. Panicked, he spluttered, ¡°I¡­ That sounds wondrous, Your Highness, but¡­ I do not know what that is¡­¡± Ah. How amusing. It seemed that he had kept his identity a secret from hisrades. But that was strange. That woman and the man in armor also reacted to his offer. But that was likely just curiosity. Or perhaps those two knew. Either way, it was irrelevant. If the man wished to keep his secret, it cost Hosr nothing to y along. A cheap price to pay for a bit of extra loyalty. ¡°A true strand,¡± he exined, ¡°is what you have already grasped once before. In an act of true defiance of your fate, you have managed to ascend up to the¡­ second step of the diamond path,¡± he uttered, entertained by the naming sense. What a joke,paring divinity topressed coal? Preposterous and somewhat amusing. But irrelevant. He continued, ¡°Going any further, however, for reasons too grand to exin in one sitting, will be impossible. But I can help you make it a reality.¡± All five of the people before him reacted to that. How amusing. To them, reaching the¡­ third step of the diamond path must have seemed preposterous. And, to be fair, for a realm like this, that indeed was ridiculous. His help, however, was more than enough. But. ¡°However, my assistance can only give you a chance,¡± he rified. ¡°Whether you seed at grasping it is entirely up to you and your abilities.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± he said, fully prostrating himself. As for the others¡­ ¡°As for the rest of you,¡± he included the four lesser cultivators, ¡°I can not repeat the same favor. But I can teach you all a single qi technique of any style you desire.¡± That was no small promise, and each of the four reacted appropriately¡­ well, mostly. He could excuse theirck of appreciation for his offer due to their ignorance. But he was offering something one could base a legacy on. He had made them the offer and given them theirmand. Now, it was time for them to go and fulfill their duties. *** Jeevian was sweating profusely. That damned bastard had somehow agreed to keep his identity a secret, but he knew that favor would cost him dearly. Or so he presumed. Chasing the child down wouldn¡¯t be the most challenging task, but it was an unwee distraction. They had an empire to run, and frankly, giving the Lost Child up hurt Jeevian¡¯s soul. At least he hoped he could extract whatever method that kid used to perform such miracles. With hisrades by his side, they made their way to a certain building. From the outside, it took the form of a giant tower. And on the inside, there were two paths. One of the paths took up where numerous floors of carefully designed rooms waited, their purpose to test those of the younger generation in their skill, power, and wit. And the other path was down. Walking down the stairs beside the Great Four, the stairway eventually turned into a cave. Then, it expanded into vast but still safe caverns. At the end of this massive opening was a gate of ck metal. Its power surged violently, tickling the surfaces of their skin with its diamond-ranked aura. They stood before the Empress¡¯ Pledge, a remnant of a past ruler who did her best to ensure that the underground was as firmly sealed off from the empire as could be. Then, he approached and swung it open, revealing a cave passage, the shadows of which oozed with danger. And thus, they stepped forth. Making their way into the Abyssal Depths. *** Ilkivir perked up at the surprise opening of the hidden entrance. His instincts red, and he prepared to fight, but all that flew into the mystical realm was a small piece of paper. It was a message. He quickly headed towards it, grabbing it off the ground as he read its contents. HOSOLAR COMMANDED THE EMPEROR AND THE GREAT FOUR TO CHASE AFTER NEAVE ZEARTHORN, the paper said, AS A REWARD, HE PROMISED TO HELP THE EMPEROR ASCEND A RANK. A shivering zap flickered down Ilkivir¡¯s back. No¡­ That was impermissible. If that happened, it would be well and truly over. There would be no hope of them ever achieving their goals. Hell, he wasn¡¯t safe even in this realm if that happened. After the ascension, the emperor would most likely be able to sense him, hidden in the mystical realm or not! CONTACT THE MASTERS IMMEDIATELY! *** The Shadow of Death and the Shadow of Cmity sat, eyeing theirpanion''s wretched state. It had been a long while since Destruction returned from its trip to their master, and since return, it hadn¡¯t spoken a single word, merely shivering in fright. That was the effect Master had on people. Her presence alone was enough to kill anyone lesser, and even at their level, they needed a while to recover from standing before her. Then, the Third Disciple appeared before them. It was displeasing to see his arrival. Either he had disobeyed their order to only contact them in case of absolute emergencies, or worse¡ªhe didn¡¯t. Ilkivir briefly shared the news of Hosr¡¯s decree and his promised reward. Destruction perked up at the revtion. It stared silently at Ilkivir for several breaths until, finally, it got up. They all knew what that meant. The only way for Destruction to break away from the stupor Master¡¯s presence had left him in was the absolute term of hermand. ¡°I gotta go,¡± the Shadow of Destruction said. ¡°We have waited long, my kin, and we are close. As Master had told me, the time to take risks is now. If I die, bring me back to life, even if I return to being¡­ lesser again.¡± It bowed to them and turned around, preparing itself to depart. ¡°Now, I¡¯ll go and do what I do best.¡± With that, its bulging legs flexed, and in one massive, earth-shattering leap, it flew high into the sky, flying out of the atmosphere. On its way to destroy their enemies. Chapter 138: Dragon Flesh Chapter 138: Dragon Flesh The Abyssal Depths were much richer in qi than the surface. And monsters were attracted to energy density. However, that didn¡¯t mean that the surface was wholly unappealing. A ce like the empire''s capital is still attractive enough that veritable hordes of monsters charge at it all the time. The former Empress was a wise woman, however. With an Earth Maniption spirit power, she formed intricately shaped caverns beneath the capital, and their unique shape prevents energy from flowing underground while it siphons it above. The upward direction to the monsters living below felt almost like a neverending void. Not even the lowliest of creatures ventures up there. Neave pondered this. Could such a shape be used in something like armor to¡ª ¡°You whelp,¡± a deep, thundering voice echoed around him. ¡°You not only dare intrude upon my domain, but you also dare lose focus in confronting me?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± he asked dumbly. Oh, right. He was fighting a red dragon, a titanic, fifty-meter-long monstrosity of serpentine death. Red dragons were known for their powerful resistance against qi techniques and plentiful life force reserves. So he was hunting it to¡ª ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± it roared or something as a red light lit up. He wasn¡¯t really paying attention, however. After fusing his abilities again and fighting monsters for a while, he realized something peculiar. The nerve-memory aspect of Thunder Nerves spread throughout most of his body, giving him a second consciousness that could fight independently from his mind. Although he had been trying his hardest, he wasn¡¯t quite there yet with his muscles. He was quite a bit smaller than his peak back in the nightmare realm, but his power had grown considerably in a very short time. His body roared with power as his fists shaped into bony, sharp spikes. With a sh of will, his speed exceeded that of sound, and he immediately appeared before the dragon. Around a thousand or so strikes, and roughly two secondster, he realized that a dragon¡¯s defense, as a supreme diamond-ranked threat, was not something to scoff at. With a red breath attack, it nearly vaporized his body, but from a small piece of charred flesh, he regenerated in an instant, popping back into existence from well beyond a state that should have killed him. The dragon was shocked at his survival ability, and it shifted backward, making some space between them in the giant open caverns. Facing it in a direct fight wasn¡¯t impossible for him, but it was tedious and needlessly time-consuming. So, he dove straight into the dragon¡¯s mouth. Big mistake. His body nearly disappeared as the dragon¡¯s incredible digestion power tore his flesh into smithereens. Unfortunately, that strategy wouldn¡¯t work against a beast of diamond rank. Thankfully, he was able to flee before he thoroughly disappeared. The dragon seemed quite angry, but he doubted it was quite as frustrated as he was. He had to find a way to kill it quickly since each moment mattered. Sighing, he resigned himself to n B: it was time to try the¡­ other way inside. After an excruciating thirty seconds that left Neave almost wincing in sympathy, the dragon¡¯s guts were reduced to mush, and it was dead, lying lifelessly on the cavern floor. Poor thing. Either way, it was time for his true mind, which was still busy contemting ways to gather power, to kick in and take over. ¡°Done already?¡± he mused, pleased by his body¡¯s increase in performance. He was surprised that it was capable of thinking up the ass-crawl technique on the spot like that. Thus, forming his arm into a giant sawde, he cut the dragon¡¯s head off. Then, he ced it into the positively massive dimension ring he had bought from the vendor and continued chopping it up. After less than ten seconds of gruesome sawing and chopping, the cave was covered in dragon blood and chunks of its flesh. And he had collected all of it. Now, it was time to return to the others. In a blink of supernatural speed and movement techniques, he traveled through the well-memorizedyout of the caves until he reached his allies. They were all still busy digesting the other slop he had prepared for them. Good. Their stomachs were getting stronger. Naturally, all of them still looked ready to puke, but that was nothing but a minor side effect of consuming tons of liquefied monster flesh. Their bodies were already close to entirely in line with what they had achieved in the Nightmare Realm, but there was always more improvement to be made. Although the work hadn¡¯t been particrly demanding for most of them, given that they had all cultivated to the peak of the tinum path, he had to¡­ intervene a bit to speed some things up. Needless to say, Hunter hadn¡¯t been pleased when Neave¡¯s fingers morphed into tiny parasites he then proceeded to use to¡­ let¡¯s say, surgically remove excess muscle. Nobody was surprised when they saw him retrieve the dragon¡¯s head from his dimension ring. Marven grabbed a cup of rancid liquid, downed it like a champ, then turned to his son and asked, ¡°Are we up?¡± He nodded. After quickly manifesting the life force bridge, he allowed them to step up and apply the alchemical techniques he had taught them. Dragon flesh, even after death, was still incredibly tough and challenging to deal with. Some key types of remnant spirit had to be disassembled first, and his Sacred Blood wasn¡¯t capable of doing that since, technically, it wasn¡¯t toxic in any way. This structural remnant spirit was the secret behind why their bodies were so rigid. His allies took only thirty seconds to finish their job, but given that there were five of them and they were positively sweaty afterward, it wasn¡¯t an easy task. Then, Neave stepped up. First, he pulled out the gigantic metal basin and threw the head of the dragon into it. Then, after forming ten arms and sharpening every finger into des, he proceeded to shred the head into a paste. Usually, dragon flesh was a scarce and powerful treasure. Of course, killing a dragon and retrieving its flesh was a task that the Emperor and the Great Four could achieve without too much risk, but that wasn¡¯t the main problem. Dragon muscle was the only even remotely edible part of a dragon¡¯s body. And even then, it had to be treated excessively to purify it enough for consumption to be possible. If it wasn¡¯t, most who ate it raw would simply explode, their bodies overflowing with toxic energies that tore them apart. Dragon muscle, however, was nothingpared to any other part of its body. At least it could be treated and consumed. The other parts, however? The skin had extremely potent qi technique nullification properties and thus could deteriorate a cultivator¡¯s cultivation if disgested. The heart also made people explode, but there was no way to stop that from happening. Its veins made the veins of humans too thick to allow blood to flow through, and its blood made the blood of whoever consumed it too viscous to flow through the veins. The brain matter, or any of its nerve tissue, was a drug that made people lose their minds instantly. The bones made people¡¯s bones thicker, but also calcified the surrounding tissue¡ªworst case scenario? One could be a statue of bone. There were numerous other demerits to consuming parts of a dragon. After blending the entire head into a thick soup without removing any of its parts, he started the purification process. He poured a generous dose of his blood in, and then, he began. With a tendril of life force, he remotely activated Sacred Blood and started cleansing the substance of all toxic properties. Instantly, his entire body bulged as his veins appeared along the surface. They grew darker by the second, and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his skull. Even with what was technically a diamond-ranked spirit power, cleansing the violent storm of turbulent energies was a herculean task that made him spit even more blood into the mix. But after a while, he was done. It was a pure red substance, perfectly mixed into what could perhaps even be called an elixir. His allies stepped forward, gawking at the substance and swallowing. Indeed, they had had much monster meat so far, but this was the first time they tasted dragon. The tales of the legends surrounding them made almost everyone extremely ufortable, barring Harel, who bravely scooped up a small cup of the substance, and Gabrias, who put hisplete faith in his lord¡¯s wisdom. ¡°Wait!¡± he yelled, halting their intent to drink the liquid. ¡°Take only small bits at a time. Too much of a good thing is not good and is actually still going to make you explode into gory fireworks.¡± They nodded nervously at his words. Then, with all the bravery they could muster, they sipped. It was as if something had exploded in their bodies. Everyone lit up with a glow that made Neave almost presume it was a failure, but that was premature. Within a few minutes, they shrank back again. All of them appeared notably stronger, however. ¡°Wow,¡± he gawked in awe, impressed by the efficacy of this strategy. ¡°Going underground was a good idea,¡± he decided. Dukean cackled at that. ¡°Well, when you can kill a dragon with your eyes closed, it sure is.¡± Heughed at that. ¡°Yup. Well then, we better hurry. There is a whole dragon body that needs to be consumed.¡± *** With her titanic form hidden in the darkness of a thick, viscous shadow, she growled in displeasure. Four of its lesser kin bowed before it, quivering in fright as they reported the death of a great guardian. ¡°Preposterous,¡± she dered with her loud, mighty voice. For a dragon to fall so quickly, surely the lesser creatures must be mistaken. But they repeated themselves, swearing the truth of their statement on their lives and urging her to act. The red wyverns had flown into her chamber a while back, swinging their wings and bowing, gesturing at her and retelling the tale of a tiny cmity. A creature who thoroughly ignored the attacks of anything less potent than a dragon and strode right into theirir as if owned a ce. Even stranger yet was that it was not immune. With each w swung at it, the flesh was torn away, and blood was spilled. But then, a mere momentter, the creature was whole again, as if their attacks were nothing but a dream. Then, with utter impunity, it slew one of her most powerful servants and made his entire body disappear, either consuming it outright or storing it somewhere with extraordinary powers, like those bastard golems with their spacial voodoo. Yes¡­ perhaps this was one of their ilk. But if that was so, it was strange. It was humanoid, yes, but it was fleshy, not of a metal or stone. A flesh golem, then? But that made no sense. A flesh golem with spacial powers? Perhaps some form of mutant? Her massive eyes shrunk into tight slits. She began morphing with an intense burst of power, reducing her glorious shape into one morepact. Out of the massive shadows, a tiny, humanoid form strode out. She was beautiful in any form she took but had to admit that this was one she was particrly fond of. It was that of a two-meter-tall humanoid. Her body was curved most pleasantly, and she bore the features of her kin, their scales, red eyes, ws, and horns most proudly. Now, then. It was time to find this intruder and hear their cries for forgiveness. Forgiveness that they would not be granted. Chapter 139: Power Sets Chapter 139: Power Sets It had been a warm, pleasant evening above the empire capital when the emperor told Kingean, under spirit oath, the secret to his ascent up to the second step of the diamond path. A hundred years had passed since then. And he hadn¡¯t made a single step of progress toward achieving that goal. A rope-thick strand of potential spreading seemingly infinitely in both directions, so long and glorious that it must have held a secret of the universe itself. And the emperor had grasped one for the potential of draconic might. Try as he may, Kingean couldn¡¯t achieve such an enlightenment. It was seemingly impossible. For many years, his climb in cultivation had been akin to climbing a mountain that grew a step higher with each step he took. And he had realized why. For each new strand of potential he grasped, he lost the most useless one he had. So he thought that that must be the thing he had to do. He had to purify his cultivation through sheer, indescribable effort until nothing but the sword remained. So he did that. And still. Nothing. As he walked beside his cowardlypanions, treading into the Abyssal Depths, spite billowed in the back of his throat. Not only had hispanions failed him in every way imaginable, but his son was also missing. The progeny he had brought up with everything he had, a talent unseen in generations, was lost, and he was busy looking for a different child. Perhaps, he thought, by some miracle, his son was still alive. Maybe the Lost Child was the one who had taken him for whatever reason. After all, nobody had confirmed the identity of the one who had taken his son. Nobody had even seen the person who had done it. But¡­ he was already prepared for the worst. He couldn¡¯t stop himself from shooting an envious nce at the emperor. Despite possessing power unrivaled in the entire realm, he was still greedily looking for more. No¡­ he shouldn¡¯t think like that. He had sworn his loyalty, and he intended to keep it. But¡­ But he had worked so hard. Not only that, but he had lost his son, too. It was a shameful, despicable thought, but he wondered why the emperor didn¡¯t ask the demigod to hand the true strand to¡­ well¡­ to him instead. Again, that was a shameful, terrible thought to have. The emperor¡¯s power would be a pir unrivaled in the entire realm, and with such might, he could even work to stave away the encroaching apocalypse. But¡­ no. Enough doubts. They had a mission. Their steps, as light and graceful as they could be, took them through the maze of caverns in their search. They had been there for a few hours, but the heavens hadn¡¯t graced them with a trail yet. Still, they tirelessly marched onward, ensuring to cover every inch on their way down, keeping to the inside of the detection field Hosr had set up. It was then that they finally found their first trail. The emperor frowned deeply at the sight before him. An entire section of the caverns had been nearly caved in in what could have only been a cmity. Signs of fighting were plentiful, and several still-rotting pieces of monster corpses were scattered around. There had been a poption of¡­ some form of insectoid monster here. Something that appeared to be half-way between an ant and a praying mantis. Had been. None of them remained, and they could only form their hypothesis from the few remaining pieces. Either this was the consequence of arge-scale war between monster poptions, or it was a sign that the Lost Child had passed through. So, they went forward. Not long after, they found another cavern wholly destroyed by something horrible. This time, it was an encampment of at least partially sentient golems. ¡°Heavens above¡­¡± Xondir muttered at the sight. The others, who were far more experienced, had little to say, but¡­ Indeed. This was something else. The golems, from what they could see, were as high as tinum-ranked in threat. And all that they had built had been wholly destroyed and stripped of any valuable materials that could be found. So they passed by it, proceeding even deeper. Cave after cave, monster after monster. Destroyed. And dead. There was enough carnage to permanently upset the bnce between the poptions of monsters in the area. They believed they were on the right track, and perhaps they had been right. But the destruction spread everywhere. How was it even possible to leave so much destroyed in one¡¯s wake in such a short time? ¡°The Lost Child is presumed to be capable of fighting well above his rank,¡± the Emperor said, ¡°but this makes no sense. There is too much destruction.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Carfen said, lowering his head slightly as he turned to face the Emperor. ¡°That child should not have the stamina to keep fighting so long,¡± he proimed with more confidence than Kingean felt was warranted. ¡°We shall see,¡± the Emperor said. ¡°Perhaps he is looking for something specific, but it seems that he is gathering vast quantities of monster flesh for¡­ something.¡± And thus, they continued. The unnerving nature of trekking after the child was something they couldn¡¯t shrug off easily. Even if they presumed that he could fight with the power of a Master and that hispanions were of simr strength, they shouldn¡¯t have been able to sessfully eradicate such a vast number of monsters. It was to the point of a genocide. Rarely did they encounter something that hadn¡¯t been destroyed. Besides, where were all the monster corpses going? Even if ten people were walking through here with thergest dimension rings avable, there still wouldn¡¯t be enough space to store this many corpses. Continuing their trek, all of them, even the emperor himself, grew more nervous at what awaited them. *** Neave looked at hispanions and smiled pleasantly. They were all lying on the ground, their stomachs bulging while they groaned. ¡°Please¡­ no more¡­¡± said Dukean as a bit of red liquid dripped down his mouth. ¡°I¡¯m gonna die,¡± said Hunter. ¡°The righteous path will¡­ blegh.¡± ¡°Oh, shut it, you cowards,¡± said Harel, who sounded like she was doing no better than any of them. Marven and Gabrias remained silent, groaning and doing their best not to throw it all up. Eventually, they finished digesting the final few bits of the dragon. It had taken them a long time toplete all of it, and, thankfully, Neave had the brilliant idea to feed them the stomach right after the heads in hopes of enhancing their digestion. It was sessful, but that didn¡¯t mean that it had made the process of devouring an entire dragon an enjoyable one. There was no true limit to the benefits of devouring monster flesh. Well, there was no hard limit, at least. But with every bite, it grew less and less effective. By that point, their vessels had been nearly filled with how much they had consumed over the past week. With that, they should have enough power to tackle the series of spirit trials they would have to take. Well, the spirit trials would be easy. But they were powerful enough to have their powers removed in case they didn¡¯t cooperate as well as Neave expected them to. He extracted the bag of monster cores with a small burst of qi. Most of them he had purchased from Kalen, and it hadn¡¯t been too expensive. The quality of the shape was irrelevant to him as long as they fit the criteria he set. As for the rest, they had found them while digging through the numerous monsters they had in. He rounded all the cores and started organizing them. Each one of them, barring Dukean, would get four spirit powers. Dukean would only get one since he decided to stubbornly cling to his elemental spirit powers like a tool. This was the amount that, with the types of powers he selected, he decided was safe enough from any possible negative interaction between them. They would get one physique ability, the only power Dukean would get, one supernatural attack-augmenting ability, one supernatural boosting ability, and one misceneous power. For the time being, the powers were all potent tinum-ranked abilities, and it would be their task to upgrade them to diamond-ranked if possible. This was another reason they had been eating so much monster flesh¡ªthey would try to boost their spirit powers to diamond rank as soon as they received them. First, he neatly ced all the cores in six piles. The first was for his father. Marven would get the following spirit powers¡ªKing Archgoblin Supreme Physique, Severing Light, Ultra Speed Boost, and Sword Saint¡¯s Domain. King Archgoblin Supreme Physique was the closest thing to a supernatural human physique there was. They were nearly identical to humans. And men wielded swords as their ws, or so Marven imed. Still, for a swordsman, it was an all-around excellent choice. Severing Light imbued his strikes with a, well, Severing Light. Ultra Speed Boost was self-exnatory. As for the Sword Saint¡¯s Domain, that was something to be seen. Apparently, it should create an area where all cutting force works in his favor. How it would work was still to be discovered. Next up was Harel. She would get these¡ªSuperior Blood Python Physique, Withering Touch, Ultra Speed Boost, and Lifeforce Siphon. Superior Blood Python Physique held incredibly potent burst potential and could, just like a coiled snake lunging into a bite, disy an utterly insane amount of sudden force. It also allowed her to slither around strikes better. Then, there was Withering Touch. Her every strike would make things wither and rot. As if her set wasn¡¯t already destructive enough. But s, her crazy nature worked in Neave¡¯s favor, so he had no desire to question it. Ultra Speed Boost was, yet again, self-exnatory. Then, there was Lifeforce Siphon. It allowed her to steal life force from creatures she struck and convert it into her own. If she had any injuries, that life force would also be automatically burned to heal her. It wasn¡¯t quite as potent as Neave¡¯s Integrate, as it had a limit for the life force it could absorb, but it was something special nheless. Then, there was Hunter. For him, he decided on ck Wyvern Physique, Force Control, Super Regeneration, and Ultimate Barrier. ck wyverns had some of the most potent defenses they could find. Golems, however, rarely dropped physique cores, and when they did, only a fool would take one as it was practically suicide. It wasn¡¯t quite ck dragon territory, but an evolution would hopefully fix that without killing the poor boy. Force Control was superb as it would do well with the power Neave intended to bestow upon the boy¡¯s equipment, and it could be used both offensively and defensively. Super Regeneration was¡­ Yes. It was what it was. And, finally, there was Ultimate Barrier. He could create a barrier around himself, either all-epassing or more concentrated. And, finally, there was Gabrias. Superior Ogre Physique, Homing Projectile, Ultra Strength Boost, Momentum Impartment. If Neave was being honest, he envied the tall man. An archer needed all the strength they could get, and this dude would be able to pull dragon tendons apart with his bare hands. With the supernaturally boosted strength of an ogre, the ability to imbue projectiles with additional momentum, and the power to make those projectiles track an opponent, it was clear that getting hit by his arrows would be one hell of an experience. And then there was Dukey Boy. Stupid prick got Elementalist Hawk Physique so that he could better resist his own powers. What a stubborn guy. While hispanions went at it and consumed their powers, he moved his attention to something else¡ªit was time to create their weapons¡ªthis time, from diamond-ranked material. Chapter 140: Test Dummy Chapter 140: Test Dummy Marven stood in his spirit realm. It still took the form of the golden fields he used to toil in, but it had been thoroughly wrecked by that point. Destruction spread all around him. Unknowingly, he had almost the same thought as hispanions at roughly the same time. ¡®Isn¡¯t this a little too easy?¡¯ They hadn¡¯t ascended to the diamond path yet due to the demigod and the emperor¡¯s ability to track them if they did so, so they were only at the level of a Master. But that didn¡¯t matter one bit. The emperor archgoblin stood before him. It was eerily simr to a human. Barring its slightly green skin and pointed ears, it was impossible to tell it apart from any ordinary person. If he had met this thing in the streets, he wouldn¡¯t have even batted an eye. He would have just thought it was a spirit beast. It was clothed in the primitive garb of its kin and held a sword high with pride. He had already in the three other diamond-ranked threats. And this was thest one. It red at him with intelligent hatred in its eyes, ¡°Preposterous,¡± it spat. ¡°To have achieved this level of power¡­ only to be forced to surrender it to another? I can not ept it.¡± It raised its de. Marven raised his in turn. The twobatants stared at each other for a few moments. Then, they dashed. His sword curved beneath the guard of the goblin with speed easily rivaling its own. To have closed the speed difference between the third step of the tinum and the first step of the diamond path was an unbelievable achievement. His son¡¯s means were indeed out of this world. But his superior physical abilities were not why he dominated the fight. The goblin moved to block the iing strike, but then suddenly, his sword appeared from above, traveling from the exact opposite direction. A surprised ¡°Wha¡ª!?¡± was all it could muster as the sword made a nasty gash down its torso. ¡°My son taught me that one,¡± he shared with a grin, and, with the wound he inflicted, gained the upper hand, proceeding to dominate the fight. With a curved piercing technique, he cut through the goblin¡¯s arm and into its torso, then kicked it right into a heavenly image of a sword descending from the sky, which pierced through its body and pinned it to the ground. Marven took a deep breath. Then, as if the heavens themselves were stepping in, the sky morphed into a thousand images of des like the one he held in his hands. They struck like lightning, turning the archgoblin into a pincushion and ending the fight. As he finished his trial, having evolved all his abilities to diamond rank, he looked at the others. Nobody even appeared tired. Raised eyebrows made rounds as they all realized they weren¡¯t alone in their confusion. Indeed. It turned out that having unquantifiable years of fighting experience and power superior to first-step-diamond-path cultivators made such a trial almost disappointingly easy. *** Neave grinned down at them like a toddler who had just prepared a highly unpleasant surprise for his parents as he raised an eyebrow, ¡°No problems, then?¡± They shrugged. Even Gabrias hadn¡¯t struggled. With his techniques, which allowed him to manifest qi arrows, and his movement techniques, he had probably pelted his opponents from a distance. Heavens knew that nothing he had fought was particrly fast, even at diamond rank. He pondered their states and then asked, ¡°Any surprising evolutions?¡± he asked. He was hoping that nothing of the sort would ruin their power. But he had hopefully ounted enough for such possibilities. All of them raised a hand at that. He couldn¡¯t hold back the sigh as he first pointed at Marven. His father started his recount of the changes. ¡°The Sword Saint¡¯s Domain,¡± he said, ¡°has be¡­ Well, how do I put it? Anything that I y within it bes a temporary sword spirit that fights by my side.¡± That was pretty neat. But it likely wouldn¡¯t be much help in the fight against Hosr. ¡°Anything else?¡± he asked him. ¡°No¡­ Not really,¡± Marven shrugged. ¡°Severing Light had acquired a spinning function, but that¡¯s about it.¡± So everything was fine there. Then, he turned to Harel. ¡°What changed with you?¡± She thought for a moment. ¡°Right about everything,¡± she said. That was not pretty neat. But he reserved his judgment for when she finished sharing the details. ¡°Let me see,¡± she started. ¡°Superior Blood Python Physique became Winged Python Physique. Withering Touch is a lot more potent, but it also has some bacsh and hurts me, too, but I think it''s fine, mostly. The speed power now has a burst function, and Lifeforce Syphon no longer has a limit, but there is nothing to prevent the excessive lifeforce from hurting me, either.¡± He thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. ¡°Not optimal, but you can learn to cope with it.¡± Then, finally unable to restrain himself from asking, he chirped. ¡°Did you get wings!?¡± She smirked, and a pair of fleshy, scaly red wings appeared behind her. ¡°Wooooow,¡± Neave pped. ¡°That¡¯s so cool! Okay, next.¡± Hunter was mostly spared unfortunate changes, but his Ultimate Barrier became the victim of ill luck. It became considerably more powerful, but it could only be used in the all-epassing mode, and he could no longer move when he used it. Well, he could move, but not the barrier. It stayed wherever he put it. This wasn¡¯t to say it was a terrible change, but the power lost much of its flexibility. Neave sighed. ¡°Can you at least decide who gets to move through it?¡± Hunter winced and shook his head. ¡°No. In fact, while I can move through it, anyone inside or outside the barrier can¡¯t.¡± That made him pause. ¡°Well, couldn¡¯t you use it to trap someone, then?¡± The boy gaped briefly, cupped his chin, then reluctantly nodded. ¡°That is technically possible, but not even I can attack the person while they¡¯re trapped.¡± Which made it pretty useless against the demigod, who was the exact person they needed to use it against. ¡°What about your other powers?¡± he asked. ¡°Mostly the same,¡± Hunter answered. ¡°Although ck Wyvern Physique did turn into ck Dragon Physique, just as we presumed.¡± ¡°Nice,¡± Neave said, throwing his brother a high five. Next up was Gabrias. It was then that they noticed how grave the man looked. ¡°Oh, no,¡± he groaned. ¡°What went wrong?¡± ¡°Well¡­,¡± he started reluctantly. ¡°First, the Homing Projectiles spirit power is basically gone. It divergedpletely and evolved into Splitting Projectiles.¡± That was¡­ Well, it depended on how it worked, but seeing theck of excitement in Gabrias¡¯ expression, it probably wasn¡¯t optimal. He continued, ¡°As you probably assume, My Lord, it is¡­ not the best. It merely copies the shape of the projectile into five phantasmal replicas, but their power is limited to what the spirit power itself can recreate. But¡ª¡± he said, raising a finger. ¡°If I invest life force into it, I can recreate the projectile more urately¡ªnaturally, the more life force, the closer the copy will be to the original.¡± Well. That was depressing. Nobody expected Hosr, a demigod heavenly messenger, to be an easy target to hit, and that was precisely why they had picked the Homing Projectiles spirit power, to begin with. Who cared how many replicas he could create if none of them hit? Sighing, Neave asked, ¡°Any other changes?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± That didn¡¯t sound good. ¡°My strength-boosting power has also changed. Now, it is more effective the more injured I am.¡± ¡°Oh,e on!¡± he groaned. That really sucked. Gabrias was meant to stay as in one piece as possible and as far as he could go. ¡°Does your lifeforce being low count as an injury?¡± he asked. ¡°No,¡± and the man denied. ¡°Is it at least as strong as it was at tinum-rank if you¡¯re perfectly healthy?¡± The man shook his head again. Neave was really hoping that that was it for divergences. And thankfully, Gabrias confirmed that to be the case. Next up was Dukean, who was smirking. That definitely meant that that asshole got something good. ¡°What is it?¡± Neave asked. ¡°Come on, spit it out.¡± ¡°Three words¡ªElemental Pheonix Physique.¡± Everyone nodded at that. ¡°Let me guess,¡± Neave started. ¡°You get to resurrect when you die?¡± ¡°Once a day,¡± he dered arrogantly. ¡°Not only am I highly resistant to all elements, but I also resurrect in a storm of elemental energies.¡± ¡°Oh, great,¡± Harel said, snorting at him. ¡°We have acquired a walking bomb as an ally.¡± The others chuckled at that a bit. And then, it was time to ask the big question. ¡°What about your¡­ other powers.¡± Indeed. His other powers had all been at gold rank. Dukean sighed at the question. ¡°The same as in the Nightmare Realm.¡± Well, that was to be expected. His powers then evolved into Hellfire Annihtion, Supreme Metal Maniption, Heat Syphon, Storm Maniption, and Supreme Earth Maniption. Only two out of five powers were anywhere close to what they were at the start. Neither of them synergized particrly well, but there was no overt interference between them, so he wouldn¡¯t press the issue too hard. But that didn¡¯t mean that they were optimal. Hellfire Annihtion was too fickle and unstable, Heat Syphon could only be used through direct touch, and Storm Maniption was¡­ honestly? Kind of useless. Sure, he could technically strike someone with lightning, but it was about as reliable as a rain dance and a prayer. Not to mention that it had quite literally zero use underground. The overall situation wasn¡¯t that bad. They had some workarounds, but nobody had to start from the beginning, which was good. The main course had been served¡ªand now, it was time for the dessert. Neave started taking their weapons out of his dimension ring. Indeed. This had been the thing that they werecking while in the Nightmare Realm. High-ranked metals. Working with diamond-rank metal had been an utter pain in the ass for him, however, and he was hoping that their spirits could bear using them until they could ascend to the diamond path. The first item he pulled out was Marven¡¯s new sword. It was made from a red diamond-rank metal that the old man had provided himself, actually. He had a red sword in his dimension ring, but it was something he could only use outside ofbat, as it required perfect focus, lest he killed himself with it. Neave had shaped it to the best of his ability and imbued it with a standard sharpness-enhancing spirit power. Naturally, he had also treated the material through alchemy techniques. It was yet again lighter than a feather. Frankly, with Marven¡¯s set of spirit powers, he would be surprised if there was anything that the old man couldn¡¯t cut apart. Next up was Harel¡¯s spiked ball on a chain. His new one was made of a material that strikingly resembled ordinary steel but was anything but. Yet another weapon of diamond-ranked material, this one purchased from the merchant in the capital. It yet again held a destructive power within. Hunter¡¯s massive sword and heavy shield were much of the same fare as his weapons back in the loop, but the roles were shifted slightly. The sword no longer had the same force-ignoring properties, but it could reflect force instead, while the shield could absorb it. It was a slight departure from his previous style but one that worked better, in everyone¡¯s opinion. Also, he had unfortunately been forced to make the two weapons out of tinum-ranked material instead of diamond-ranked material. Not only were two weapons with diamond ranked material way too heavy for Hunter¡¯s spirit, but using two diamond-ranked weapons with gigantic spirits just wasn¡¯t possible. They shed too much and hyper-elerated the qi flowing through them until either the weapons or their user exploded. Gabrias received not one but seven different bows. With a dimension ring on his finger, he could swap between them at a moment¡¯s notice, and there was no excuse not to prepare for every possibility. The first bow, one made from a brown, sleek metal, was just really damn hard to pull and multiplied the force of every arrow shot out of it. It needed to be used with real arrows, which were also prepared. He was meant to use this when he was handed a solid opportunity. Then, there were the death, fire, wind, ice, and metal-type bows. All manifested their own arrows and had different elemental effects. They were to be swapped and used however he wished. And then there was the final weapon. A golden bow. This thing was terrifying to hold. Its power was quite simple¡ªit imbued the arrow with turbulent energy. But, half of one¡¯s current life force reserves had to be spent to even use it. Neave had tried pulling it a bit, but thankfully, he could not. It would have probably exploded if it tried absorbing half the life force he had in his body. Then there was Dukean. His was a perfectly ck sword on a chain. The power it held was practically identical to the one he used to have, as per his request. Neave had to recreate the weapon several times to get the desired effect. It didn¡¯t take long, however. And it was just a really high-quality weapon overall¡ªif a bit underwhelming. They all tested their weapons for a while, admiring the intense power it provided them with. Neave, meanwhile, stared at them enviously. He¡¯d have to use poopy mortal metals. Bleh. Suddenly, all of them perked up. They were probably sensing something outside of the range of his senses. And it was clearly not to be ignored. ¡°Neave,¡± Marven said gravely. ¡°We should run. Now,¡± he urged him. ¡°Is it the messenger?¡± he asked. ¡°No, but¡ª¡± ¡°Then no problem,¡± he said dismissively. ¡°It¡¯s probably a monster, then.¡± ¡°Neave, I¡¯m not sure you¡ª¡± ¡°I know, old man, I know. But think about it. You all need to put your new powers to the test, right?¡± he asked with a massive grin on his face. ¡°Let¡¯s see how well you truly do in action.¡± *** The first thing she had sensed were¡­ objects. Weapons of great power. But it didn¡¯t make much sense. For those wielding these weapons were¡­ weak. Perhaps as strong as some of the lowly wyverns. She approached their position, curious and apprehensive. There, she stepped out into a vast clearing in an underground cavern. Before her stood five creatures. They held those weapons with grace but were clearly on guard. Had they known that she wasing? If so, they had acute senses. No matter. She would y them anyway as she searched for the one who¡ª ¡°Whoa, this thing is pretty powerful!¡± something yelled from below. There, she spotted one of these things, but in the form of a pink-maned youngling. She swung her ws out of reflex and struck it directly in the torso. Although it could somehow speak, it was pathetically weak, even weaker than the grown ones. So weak she couldn¡¯t sense any power from it at all. A single swing of her arm had turned its body into a gory mess and scattered it across the caverns. Then, she blinked. And then blinked again. That youngling that she had just killed a moment ago¡­ it reappeared. In the literal time it took her to blink an eye. Something was wrong. It turned to the others beside it and cupped its chin. ¡°I think you guys should take this thing without my help,¡± it dered as if she weren¡¯t even standing there. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, though. I¡¯m going to step in if something goes wrong.¡± Something was terribly wrong. Every instinct in her body red up, warning her of the danger. ¡°By the way,¡± the creature spoke into her ears, suddenly appearing to her left side, and she once more swung, this time pulverizing it into a pink mist. But it reappeared to her right side in the next instant and said, ¡°Do your best! No need to hold back!¡± Chapter 141: The One They Must Slay Chapter 141: The One They Must y Jeevian didn¡¯t consider himself a cold person. Many would deem his intentions as malicious, but he truly didn¡¯t think there was anything evil to what he was doing. He would save a realm from destruction, so it was only natural to be the one who ruled it. But at that moment, he had a thought that anyone would agree wasn¡¯t particrly moral. As he looked at Xondir, Zhaore¡¯s sessor, he had the brief thought that the man¡¯s death might have been fortunate. Zhaore had been old, really old, and his power came from a time where spirit powers were viewed somewhat differently. His abilties were potent, but they weren¡¯t bnced. There were too many ws and shorings to his powers, and it was only through his tireless work at mastering them that they made him useful enough not to be discarded. Xondir, on the other hand, was a product of much nurturing. His spirit powers had been picked carefully, meticulously, with the intent to make them as wless as they could be. And there was no better example of this than the man¡¯s Shadow Veil. Zhaore had had a very simr ability himself, but it had too many shorings. Xondir¡¯s power, on the other hand? It was exactly what they needed in that scenario. They felt it. Something horrible crawled out of the depths, at least as powerful as the myth golem they had lost a fight to. If not even more. It seemed to be moving with haste, something uncharacteristic of such monsters. Thus, Jeevian had a concerning thought¡ªwhat if it was after Neave Zearthorn? If the carnage they had witnessed up to that point was any indication, then Neave had been wrecking the underground, causing mass havoc. There was some possibility that this had invited the wrath of a beast that would end his and hispanions¡¯ lives. If that happened, it would naturally not be their fault. But would the messenger see it as such? Extinguishing their lives to quell his anger was not out of the option, but it was guaranteed that he would lose the opportunity to ascend far above the ceiling of power in this realm. Thus, hemanded Xondir to veil them and told the others to rush forth. With their cooperation in subduing their presence, not even a creature of that power would be able to sense them. And if it was heading toward the Lost Child, this was a great opportunity to capture him while he was distracted with running away from that thing. So, they marched onwards, scurrying through the shadows as they approached their destination. The monster suddenly stopped, and the presence of five¡­ Masters¡­ entered their spirit senses. That was unusual. The allies the child had been with were said to be much weaker than this, or, well, they should have been. Something was strange. Kingean son was also among them. But as they stepped into the clearing where the humanoid elder ck dragon stood, facing the, not five, but six people, they witnessed something uttely unbelievable. Multiple times, the Lost Child had his entire body pulverized, only to reform it in an instant. He stood at the ck dragon¡¯s side as if it could do nothing to truly hurt him, and evenmanded his allies to fight it! What in this realm could five measly Masters do against such a monstrocity? That was the question they had asked. And the answer the received was not one they were expecting. The weapons those five masters wielded were some of the most terrifying pieces of equipment any of them had ever seen. A young man wielding a shield and sword rushed forward, taking the intiative to strike. The dragon struck back in its anger, but the shield in the young man¡¯s hands bound itself to space itself in one of the most impressive defensive qi techniques they had ever witnessed. What should have been an immense strike petered out as if it were nothing but a mortal punch, and the young man swung his sword at the bewildered monster. As itnded, the dragon was sent flying back, but before it couldnd, a ck sword on a chain rushed forward in a blink and wrapped itself around it. An arrow of steel mmed into the dragon¡¯s shoulder, the mirage of a de cut its arm off, and then the young girl rushed¡ª ¡°Nice view you guys have from here, mind if I join in?¡± someone asked. Jeevian whirled to find the demon child sitting on the floor right beside them, smiling as he looked at the fight. ¡°Ah!¡± he yelled, pointing at the dragon. ¡°Herees the best part!¡± Suddenly, using an immensely powerful movement technique, the young woman positioned herself above the ck dragon. Her spiked ball was raised above her, and with the power of a divine snake lunging into a bite, she started swinging it down, golden runes sparking to light around her and even materializing the spirit of the creature emobodying her weapon in the form of a giant royal iron golem swinging its fist down. Energy embodying death itself pulsed into the weapon as it struck the dragon¡¯s head. Instanly, the creature¡¯s entire body was disintegrated, and the strike shook the earth with such might that nobody could keep their footing stable. ¡°That was amazing!¡± Neave cheered. Then, with a vacant gaze, he turned his eyes to Carfen. In an instant, he appeared before theirpanion¡¯s back and kicked him out of their shadow veil. ¡°Gabrias!¡± he yelled. ¡°Full force, kill the bastard!¡± Their blood ran cold as they watched the man whip out a golden bow in an instant and pull its string. None of them even had the time to react. All carfen could do was watch powerlessly as a golden beam of light struck his armor. There was no great destruction. No shaking of earth this time. The arrow traveled through his armor as if it were mere air and left through the other side, sinking into the earth never to be seen again. Carfen froze. Then, cracks began speading through his armor¡ªthe cursed bullwark that couldn¡¯t be taken off, the symbol of his eternal servitude of the empire. In seconds, the armor vanished. But whaty on the other side wasn¡¯t what they expected to see. Dark skin. Thin, wretched limbs. The creature had a mouth full of serrated teeth and the eyes of a beast. Its head was covered in a sparse collection of bony spikes. All this time¡­ all these years¡­ the person below the surface of what they knew as an ally they could trust with their very lives¡­. had been a demon. *** Neave stared at the demon corpse on the ground. The dragondy was mush. The people around him were frozen stiff, their minds uprehending, and his own allies were looking around frantically. ¡°Neave!¡± Marven yelled. ¡°What is this!? Where did you go!?¡± ¡°Oh, they can¡¯t see me, can they?¡± he whispered, then turned to the ck-haired man who was maintaining the veil of shadows. He knew this person. In fact, he remembered him quite clearly. Thus, without hestitation, his arm stretched out and he grabbed him by the neck. The veil copsed and his allies immediately turned to them, spotting him holding the man¡¯s neck. Unhesitantly, all of them turned their weapons towards the interlopers, ready to strike even with Neave in their midst. It had been a long time since any of them felt afraid that he would die from¡­ well¡­ anything, so they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to attack with all their might. ¡°Wait!¡± the manly man with greying hair said, reaching an arm out. ¡°I am Emperor Jeevian Lloude Dust, ruler of the Yixine Empire! Stay your hand.¡± Neave looked at him, noddeed, then stretched him arm out and proceeded to m the ck-haired man¡¯s head into the ground a dozen times. ¡°Stop!¡± the emperor yelled. ¡°What are you doing!?¡± ¡°I should be asking you that, you damn rat!¡± he retorted. ¡°Why are you scurrying around here with a fucking demon in your midst!?¡± ¡°D¡­ Dukean?¡± someone asked. Neave turned to face the green-haired man who starkly resembled his friend. That must be Dukean¡¯s father, then? Things had gottenplicated. ¡°Marven Zearthorn!¡± the emperor yelled again. ¡°Are you behind this!? What is happening here!?¡± ¡°You!¡± Dukean¡¯s father suddenly whirled, pointing at the emperor. ¡°Carfen was a demon. Did you know about this!?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know¡­¡± ¡°Please, calm yourselves!¡± the prettydy beside them yelled. ¡°Okay, spirit oath time!¡± Neave dered. ¡°All four of you, swear upon your spirits that you aren¡¯t involved with demons.¡± ¡°Of course we¡ª!¡± Dukean¡¯s dad tried, but Neave cut his words short with a kick to the head, sending the man tumbling into the far wall. ¡°No bullshit,¡± he said, turning to face the emperor. Before the man could pull it back, Neave grabbed his hand in a handshake and threatened, ¡°Pull your arm back and I¡¯ll rip it off. Now swear it.¡± ¡°I swear upon my soul,¡± the man rushed, bewildered at the sheer strength behind Neave¡¯s grip, ¡°That I have no involvement with demons!¡± Then, in the next instant, he grabbed the prettydy¡¯s hand. ¡°You next.¡± She was sweating. That was unusual for a diamond-path cultivator, to say the least. But she opened her mouth and spoke. ¡°I swear upon my soul that I have no involvement with demons.¡± The oath went through without a hitch, although it did feel a little strange. The woman¡¯s spirit was probably roiling due to the shock she was experiencing, so he let it go and walked over to the man he had beaten up. He was already getting up, so Neave rushed and grabbed his hand. The man shook profusely as he muttered. ¡°I¡ªI¡ªI¡ªI¡­ I have¡­ N-no invo¡­ involvement with d¡ªd¡ªdemons whatso¨Cever.¡± Again, it felt strange, even stranger than the other woman¡¯s oath, but he seemed to be telling the truth. However¡ª ¡°Ah!¡± Neave suddenly eximed. ¡°I seem to have remembered something! Do you remember that time we met during the rift break?¡± The man¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°Tell me¡­ What the fuck was that about?¡± The man¡¯s breating grew increasingly ragged, and he looked like he was about to faint. ¡°I¡­ I was just¡­ I th¡ªthought you¨Cyou were an invader, so I¡­¡± ¡°Wrong answer!¡± he decreed as he felt the oath break. The man¡¯s spirit recoiled due to the lie he just said and he copsed to his knees, struggling to breathe as his eyes bulged out of his skull. Must have been one hell of a lie if he suffered that much damage. There was only one thing to do, he thought, as he raised his fist to¡ª ¡°Stop!¡± the emperor yelled. ¡°Please, stop!¡± he rushed forth, stepping in front of the shivering figure on the floor. ¡°Please, my subordinate is too distressed to make spirit oaths! He is new to our ranks, and the shock of ourpanion being a demon is too great!¡± Without any shame, the man lowered his head, prostrating himself before Neave. ¡°Please, I beg your benevolence. Spare mypanion¡¯s life!¡± ¡°Hmmm, let me think about it¡­¡± Neave mused. ¡°No.¡± Then, in an instant, he appeared above the shivering man and swung an arm that had morphed into a de right through his neck, severing it instantly. Why would he spare him? There was no goddamn way that the thing he did during the break was benign or some sort of misunderstanding. All that the emperor could do was watch in shock. The man knew his ce, at least. At this point, Dukean¡¯s father dragged himself out of the hole Neave had sted him into, wiping the blood flowing from the wound on his head. ¡°My emperor,¡± he said, staring the still-kneeling man in the eye. ¡°Do you remember the time Carfen swore the oath?¡± The Emperor reluctantly nodded his head. ¡°That must have been a lie,¡± he said, eyes shot open maniacally as they turned to face the prettydy who was still with them. ¡°I believe he had some sort of devilish protection that allowed him to forge the spirit oath. And I think Beanna has it, too.¡± The woman stared nkly at him. ¡°You¡¯re wrong¡­¡± ¡°Am I!?¡± the man screamed. ¡°Am I wrong!? First Zhaore¡¯s death, then your reaction to the messenger, then you let your favourite descendant be taken without a fight! None of that makes any sense if you¡¯re the Beanna I know! Or, rather, the person you¡¯re pretending to be!¡± Neave watched the fight between the two people, but he kept an eye on the woman, watching her every move. Her dimension ring lit up. In the instant she was dragging an item out, he knew exactly what it was. It was the same thing Ilkivir had used in their fight, the artifact he used to escape. Before she could pull it out and use it, he was upon her and swinging a leg at her head. Suddenly, a dark energy swirled and interscepted his strike, giving her an instant to step away. Neave wanted to press the attack, but something suddenly changed. A horrifying, ungodly pressure descended on all the people in that room as a mirage appeared. It was faint, but it appeared to be a bleeding, descrepit creature wrapped in bloody bandages from head to toe. ¡°You¡­¡± it spoke in a deep, gurgly voice, as if it was choking on blood. ¡°So¡­ you¡­ are¡­ the one¡­ we need¡­ to y.¡± Today marks precisely one year since I became an author Today marks precisely one year since I became an author Refer to them notarino''s Chapter 142: Small Favor Chapter 142: Small Favor The sound of blood dripping on the stony ground was all that could be heard as the air in the room froze. The blurry image of the creature before them stood there for another few moments, and then it vanished. By the time it did, the woman was already gone. ¡°Fuck!¡± Neave yelled. ¡°Heavens fucking damn it! I wish I had realized it''s an illusion sooner! Damn, that was convincing.¡± ¡°Hahaha¡­¡± Dukean¡¯s dad chuckled. Then, he started cackling like a lunatic. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it! Everyone I knew¡ªack!¡± he choked as Neave appeared before him and grabbed his neck. ¡°Dukean!¡± hemanded, and the young master whipped his chain sword, restraining the emperor, who, surprisingly, didn¡¯t resist. ¡°Now then,¡± he said, turning to the man whose neck he was gripping so tightly it bled. ¡°Time to see whether this one has any ties to the demons.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that,¡± Dukean said. ¡°My old man is clean, I know for a fact.¡± He decided to trust hispanion¡¯s words, so he let the man fall to the ground. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ Kingean, right?¡± he asked, vaguely recollecting hearing the man¡¯s name somewhere. The man nodded slightly, his expression vacant. ¡°Okay. Wait here,¡± hemanded as he teleported before the emperor. ¡°So¡­ Nice to meet you, Your Highness,¡± he said snarkily. ¡°Care for another lil¡¯ spirit oath?¡± he said as he offered a hand. The emperor stood, unable to move due to the restraints, but Neave just stretched his arm and grasped the man¡¯s hand. ¡°I have no ties to the demons,¡± Jeevian dered regally, not a single hint of hesitation in his voice. ¡°And I have no intention of harming any of you¡­¡± he dered. None of that strange weirdness was present in this man¡¯s spirit oath, and it went through cleanly. So he was calm because he knew he was innocent. Neat. But that didn¡¯t mean that the man would be released. ¡°So then,¡± he started. ¡°Care to exin why you and your gang came after us?¡± The man scoffed. ¡°It was amand by Hosr. There were promises of rewards, but we did it because of the implied consequences of disobeying.¡± ¡°Because he would have killed you if you refused?¡± he asked, nodding. ¡°Makes enough sense, I suppose. Do you care to exin why¡ª?¡± ¡°Child,¡± the man interrupted. ¡°I need to ask you a question in turn,¡± he dered, raising his eyes to stare Neave down without a single hint of fear or reluctance. ¡°What is it that you and your allies are aiming to aplish?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s easy,¡± he answered. ¡°We are gonna kill the heavenly messenger.¡± ¡°Hmmm,¡± the man hummed. ¡°I see,¡± he said, sighing heavily. ¡°I have been an utter fool for a long time, it seems. I¡¯ve been delusional, unaware that there are powers still beyond my reach, even in this tiny ce. Say, child¡­ Do you wish to hear my tale?¡± ¡°Sounds like spirit oath time to me,¡± he said, grinning at the tied emperor. ¡°Very well.¡± *** After a short talk between Kingean and Dukean, the father and son settled and sat right beside everyone else. The emperor had been untied as he had sworn that he had no intent of getting violent, and then, he told them his story. It was quite shocking, to say the least. Apparently, the glorious emperor they knew was little more than a young master of a sect from a higher realm. Well, he wasn¡¯t young, not anymore, but he was stuck at the same level of power he had been at since he was twenty. What followed was a long tale of what had happened to him and how he got there. Apparently, he got stuck in a crumbling mystical realm and had to use a life-preserving treasure to seal himself away until the shard of space carrying him reattached itself to another realm. Unluckily for him, that small shard of space floated far from where he expected to end up. ¡°The omnirealms, as they¡¯re called,¡± the man said. ¡°Are a collection of interconnected universes that remain clumped together. You can think of it as numerous boats in the ocean, all tethered to one another with ropes. Sometimes, when a ship is set on fire or when the crew suffers a gue, the other ships cut it off, allowing it to float far into the ocean. ¡°That ship is basically where we find ourselves now. This is one such lost realm. And the gue¡ªthe fire that caused it to be cut off¡ªis the monster apocalypse.¡± The man continued his story, exining everything he could to them. But he didn¡¯t know much. He had no clue how this monster apocalypse started, nor did he know what had caused it. All he knew was that the cores could provide something that should absolutely be out of reach for a lower realm like this. Spirit powers, apparently, weren¡¯t something that should be possible to acquire before at least the diamond path. And even then, the special procedure that allowed people to acquire them just couldn¡¯t be done within this realm. But although these cores were special, they were also apparently tainted¡ªwhich was something that nobody there was happy to learn. ¡°You need not worry,¡± he said, chuckling slightly at their displeased reactions. ¡°This taint isn¡¯t harmful to you. Well, not directly. It does hurt the gods, however. They sap their power from those following their paths¡ªevery time someone progresses along the path of the sword, for example, the twenty-nine sword gods split a small shard of power between them. But these cores have hints of demonic essence within. ¡°It is the power that is the pr opposite of the path of the stone. And, as such, anyone tainted with monster cores provides no value to the gods, losing their alignment to both the demonic and the sacred paths.¡± All of these were realm-shaking revtions. Kingean looked stricken hearing all of this, and he clearly still hadn¡¯t gotten over the fact that his allies weren¡¯t who he thought they were. ¡°You said you wish to kill Hosr?¡± the emperor asked. Neave nodded. ¡°Well, then you should know exactly what you¡¯re dealing with,¡± the man said with a frown, leaning forward slightly. ¡°When ites to cultivation, Hosr is at what you would know as the tenth step of the diamond path.¡± Neave gaped at that, his jaw stretching and literally falling to the ground. He sucked it back up, nodded with a smile, and said. ¡°Hell fucking no, dog, we running. Pack your bags, guys, because we¡¯re getting the fuck out of here!¡± ¡°Wait a moment!¡± the emperor called. ¡°The situation isn¡¯t as dire as you might believe.¡± ¡°He¡¯s in a temporary avatar, right?¡± Neave asked. The emperor seemed shocked that he already knew this and nodded. ¡°That is correct.¡± ¡°Tell me, how limited is his power, then?¡± That made the man wince. ¡°I do not know. Given that he ims to be capable of helping someone grasp a true strand, he should still have at least the power of the sixth step.¡± ¡°Hell no!¡± Neave said again. ¡°What the fuck, man!?¡± ¡°Just hear me out,¡± the emperor said. ¡°Like I said, things might not be as bad as they seem. The power he holds is limited in several ways. First, any shred of power he uses is temporary¡ªmeaning that his cultivation will drop with every qi technique he uses.¡± That calmed Neave down slightly. ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°Also, he is rumored to have numerous spirit powers, but due to the nature of the avatar, he is restricted to only one. It will be powerful, though.¡± ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is¡­ If we can wear him down¡­?¡± The man nodded. Neave sighed. ¡°Okay, things aren¡¯t as bad as they seem; you¡¯re right.¡± But the emperor winced anyway. ¡°Still¡­ yourpanions are all at the peak of tinum. Their help, while surely great with the power they hold, will not be enough with just this.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, they¡¯ll all get up to the diamond path before the fight.¡± The emperor gaped at them and then chuckled. ¡°I see. May I suggest a course of action, then?¡± ¡°Depends,¡± Neave offered. ¡°What¡¯s in it for you?¡± The emperor grinned. ¡°I¡¯d much prefer having you as an ally. I know much about the Heavenly Pantheon and their ilk. They treat everyone below them as being lesser than ants.¡± Then, he turned to face Marven and grinned wryly, ¡°You, on the other hand, have managed to reconcile with your family, and you¡¯ve even spared my life. It is clear who among the two of you showed more humanity.¡± Neave didn''t buy it. It was a convenient excuse to make, but for the time being, he needed the help more than he needed to be cautious. "Very well," he said, nodding hesitantly. Then, he ced an arm on the emperor''s body. "Please do not resist." "What are you...?" the emperor tried asking, but his eyes suddenly shot open as he realized what Neave was trying to do. The man''s lifeforce was wrestled into a peculiar form, wrapping around the shape of his spirit as it fully isted it from the outside. "There," Neave grinned. "With that, Hosr should no longer be able to sense your location." *** Down the caves, the party of eight went. Kingean trodded slowly, unable to wrap his mind around all that happened. First, it turned out that all his allies had been keeping great secrets from him, and most of them weren¡¯t even his allies at all. And now Carfen was dead. Xondir was dead. Beanna was rted to the demons. And then Dukean suddenly became many times more powerful than himself? It felt like he was losing his mind. The emperor had epted everything easily. Too easily. That was how he always was. No matter how dire things became, his first reaction was to adapt and find a way to survive. Kingean felt that the man was downying the sheer magnitude of what he¡¯d done. As if surviving a crumbling mystical realm could be done so easily. Even with stasis, it would take immense willpower, patience, and determination to wait such a long time to be released. And for that, he truly admired the man, even his admiration conflicted with a myriad of other emotions fighting for prevalence. ¡°You seem distressed, Kingean,¡± the emperor said. Kingean looked away. ¡°Let me ask you something, Jeevian,¡± he said, unable to keep the hint of spite from entering his voice. ¡°That time, back when you told me to grasp for that true strand¡­ Is that really possible in this realm?¡± Jeevian seemed sad at hearing that. ¡°I do not know. But if I had to guess, then¡­ probably not.¡± ¡°So you lied to me?¡± ¡°I did not lie to you,¡± the man said. ¡°I told you the truth of what I¡¯ve done under spirit oath. And I promise that I do not truly know whether it is possible.¡± Then, turning around, he said, ¡°But I can tell you with honesty that I never wanted you to attain that degree of power.¡± Kingean was shocked to hear those words. And even more shocked that he had no problem believing them. ¡°I see,¡± he said, frowning. ¡°So you prefer a loyal dog who will forever stay below you?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the emperor said honestly. ¡°Even now, your loyalty to me is waning. It has been ever since we lost against the myth golem. Because you learned that I am not invincible,¡± he dered, turning back to face the direction he was walking in. ¡°I¡¯ve seen many people like yourself, Kingean. Devoted with their lives¡­ until those you are devoted to be mere peers, or even below you. I am not proud of deceiving you, but search your heart and tell me that my words aren¡¯t true.¡± As much as he hated to admit it¡­ the man was right. Had Kingean ever reached Jeevian¡¯s level, he wouldn¡¯t have maintained the same degree of loyalty. He would have definitely sought to be treated equally, if not even¡­ All that had happened today had shaken him to his core. This whole time, his entire life, he had lived knowing that there were worlds above them¡­ but to think that his power was so insignificant. To think that his work was so fruitless all this time. It made him bitter. ¡°Hey, Kingey boy,¡± a voice called. "Wow, you son and father really are simr!" He was broken out of his stupor by the Lost Child. The boy stood below him, gazing up at him with a wide grin on his face. There was something creepy, deeply unhuman behind those eyes. Dukean had kept Neave¡¯s secret hidden, so Kingean had no clue what precisely this thing before him even was. ¡°Can you list your spirit powers?¡± the child asked. ¡°Tch,¡± he clicked his tongue. ¡°Kid, why would I tell you anything about my powers?¡± he dismissed him, narrowing his eyes. This child could kill him in mere moments without even the faintest hopes of him being able to resist it, but he would rather die than throw his pride away. ¡°Oh, I guess you don¡¯t want these, then?¡± the kid asked, grinning widely at him. Kingean¡¯s eyes shot wide open at the four perfectly round cores. He gulped. Each of them was almost diamond-ranked in power. ¡°What¡­¡± he stuttered. ¡°What do you want in return for that?¡± The Lost Child Grinned. ¡°I just need a wee bit of help dealing with a certain demigod.¡± Chapter 143: Golorgs Chapter 143: Golorgs Jeevian drank a cup of liquid. The power within made his entire body course with unimaginable might, and he couldn¡¯t stop himself from cackling in joy. If his father could witness this crazy child turning a dragon monster into an incredibly potent elixir, he would have spat blood and resigned from his position as an elder of the Descending Heavenly Dragon sect. After a while, the transformation of the dragon who had attacked Neave and hispanions was undone. The small, humanoid form expanded into a massive pile of gored dragon flesh, and they all partook in the elixir the child created with it. It was splendid. Truly, this was something that defied allmon sense. Consuming all parts of a dragon¡¯s body without limit or restraint¡­ It was something he could get addicted to. Jeevian had informed Neave and his allies of the demigod¡¯s current ns. He had sent a servant back to Langen, where he would likely recall several of their high pdins to fight. Given that it was Hosr, he definitely already knew that the emperor and hispanions had been thoroughly defeated. Given that that was the case, the pdins that woulde after them would be¡­ problematic. When it came to establishments like Langen, they were really just damn cults. Their lives and power all belonged to those above them, and Hosr was pretty damn far up that chain ofmand. He would undoubtedly inflict them with curses that would boost their power far above their rank in return for draining their life and dooming them to death. There were many diamond-path cultivators on the Langen continent. Usually, having arge number of diamond-path cultivators under one banner bred conflict. Everyone wanted a share of the pie, and if split too many times, many would be left dissatisfied and would initiate conflict in search of more. That was the primary reason why Jeevian had a strict policy on how many diamond pathers could be part of the empire. Too many and they would quickly lose their utility, growing more focused on fighting one another than handling the threat that hung above all of them. Meanwhile, Langen had no problem hoarding them. Because all of them were fucking brainwashed. Worst case scenario, they could face hundreds of diamond-path cultivators hunting them with the ferocity of wild beasts and the power of those whose very souls had been ignited. Neave¡­ well¡­ he didn¡¯t seem displeased to hear this. In fact, he acted as if this was good news. Frankly, Jeevian couldn¡¯tprehend this insane child¡¯s thought process. Once they were done consuming the dragon, Neave distributed a few cores to Kingean and even offered some to Jeevian. While Jeevian wasn¡¯t averse to sullying his spirit, it would mean losing the spirit powers he had built up over his life. Traditional spirit powers and those that came from monster cores couldn¡¯t coexist in the same body. And, even with several potent spirit powers being offered to him, he still believed that his were better. Monster cores were too risky and unpredictable. Frankly, although he had consumed far too much monster flesh and spirit beast meat to even reasonably quantify, the benefits he had received from this ck dragon far outweighed all the treasures he had consumed before that point. Seriously, this child was a menace unlike anything Jeevian had ever seen. How was it possible for someone at the very beginning of the foundation realm to have powers that even gods would envy? Truly, his worldview had been even smaller than he thought. There was one thing, however, that he would ept from the child. He provided him with the raw material, a cyan metal. It was technically a diamond-ranked metal, given that it was subdivine in quality, but it was far superior to any material that could be found in this realm. Neave greedily drooled over the cyan bar of metal. Jeevian handed it to him and made his request, ¡°Please, child, I would like you to turn this into a weapon I can use against¡ª¡± ¡°Nah,¡± Neave denied as he stored the metal ingot in his dimension ring. ¡°Wh¡ª¡­ What?¡± he asked dumbly. ¡°I said no,¡± the child repeated himself. ¡°I am stealing this metal for myself,¡± he dered without a single hint of guilt or shame. Then, he turned around and started saying something to someone before interrupting himself and whirling again to face the emperor. ¡°Ah, but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make you another weapon that will be quite amazing!¡± The emperor stared for a moment, mouth gaping open, and thenughed violently. How long had it been since someone disrespected him so openly? ¡°Very well,¡± he resigned himself. ¡°I trust that you will put it to good use. In fact,¡± he said, pulling out several bags of other quality material from his dimension ring. ¡°Here you go,¡± he offered. Neave gaped once he took a look inside the bag. His eyes bulgedicallyrge, and he looked up at Jeevian with a beaming bright smile. ¡°Really!? Wow, this is fucking amazing!¡± If it wasn¡¯t for the swearing, the kid¡¯s insane physique and just general insanity, and the fact that he was heavily outmatched by this child, Jeevian would almost appreciate the pure innocence in those eyes that openly stared at him in pure gratitude. *** Neave told his allies to just do what they do best, then turned around and ran into the caverns. They were smart and would figure it out. For now, they needed to work on growing their spirit powers and getting ustomed to the unique variations they received. On the other hand, he had a lot of work to do. First, he had been enlightened. Well, it happened a long time ago, during the period he had spent with most of his brain crystallized to prevent sleep from taking him. He could still think, albeit with limited capacity. But even that limited capacity had had a thought. An absolutely brilliant one. Once he was a bit away from the others, he found a small part of the caverns and got to work. With insane speed, he caved out a part of the wall and created a base for himself. Once inside, he lifted his finger and used Shapeshifting. A small, fleshy tendril grew out of his finger. By burning like force, he created a body. His own body, to be exact. During those numerous experiments of trying to find the right monster body¡­ well¡­ he had been an idiot. All he had to do was this. Just grow a body with Shapeshifting. And since burning life force could achieve all sorts of effects, he could make the body however he wanted. It wasmon to overlook something obvious like this. He had done it before. And he was sure there were other things he still hadn¡¯t thought of, although he should have. Using Violet Avatar, he possessed the body. Indeed, although it was technically his own body, it didn¡¯t have any of his spirit powers. Because it didn¡¯t have his spirit. It was also much weaker than his own body since using Violet Avatar was only possible if the remnant spirit within the other body was first removed. However, it was still a body identical to his own. Meaning that it still had a physique that had been influenced by his spirit powers. And now, although he was doing nothing to control it, his body was getting up to its feet. The muscle memory aspect of Thunder Nerves had spread throughout his entire body. This had many implications, the first of which was that his body could move independently of his conscious thought. Thus, even though this clone had no awareness, it could still move and fight just like himself, but without ess to spirit powers, life force, and movement techniques. All the information was still in that copied brain. It was utterly useless without a soul, but at the very least, with the muscle memory, the parts about fighting could still be utilized. Now, the next step of his n would depend partially on luck. Closing his eyes, he entered his spirit realm. He appeared on top of the massive metal mountain and pondered his realm. It was time to put his second enlightenment into action. First, he went far into the red ins and built numerous metal towers. But these towers were special. A wire traveled through them, and if pulled, that wire would detach the core parts holding them together and make them copse. Then, he continued building. This time, he manifested an absolutely gigantic metal cube and rested it atop these towers. The structures could barely hold together. Then, he made a tunnel through the cube, reaching its surface above the clouds. The metal wire was also pulled up, resting next to the opening. He jumped down the tunnel and stood on the ground below. Then, he left the spirit realm and invested lifeforce into evolving Violet Avatar to diamond rank. As expected, the diamond-ranked dragon and the other threats he had to face appeared. He had alreadybined all of his spirit powers and fought the fights like a dumbass, doing all this ¡®effort¡¯ stuff. This time, he chained movement techniques until he made his way through the tunnel and to the top of the cube. The monsters stood in the shadow of the massive metal construct, yelling and screaming. The violet dragon flew up but couldn¡¯t make its way through the tight tunnel. Before it could get the idea to fly around the cube, Neavey down, closed his eyes in contentment, and pulled the metal wire. The entire realm started rumbling as the metallic towers copsed, and the gigantic metal cube began falling to the ground below. The monsters stood frozen, staring at the heavenly object descending from above, knowing damn well that there wasn''t a single thing they could do to get out of that situation alive. Momentster, the metal cube crashed, shaking the entire spirit realm and obliterating the monsters, instantly ending the spirit trial. The feeling of freshness he experienced as he cleared the spirit trial with practically no effort was something indescribable. Indeed. He had ovee many of his limitations and shorings. He used the newly upgraded Violet Avatar and manifested the forty-nine little puppets. They were no more potent than they had been at tinum rank. If this was him from his time in the Nightmare Realm, he would have lost his shit at an upgrade like this. Forty-nine puppets? Who was going to control that!? But now, as he stared at his army of minions, he grinned from ear to ear. With the metal he plundered from the emperor, he could create some damn powerful golems. Even a tiny speck of that material could make the power conduits numerous times more potent. There was once a book he read that spoke of a demonic sect that reced their limbs with golem parts. They called themselves golorgs, a blend of golem and organism. His eyes trailed over the metal bar in his hand, the army of puppets, and his clone. ¡°Well then,¡± he said, grinning with drool running down his mouth. ¡°Who wants to get some upgrades?¡± Chapter 144: The Next Batch Chapter 144: The Next Batch What surprised Hosr the most wasn''t the fact that they had failed but how they had failed. Two of them had undeniably died, but the third one had vanished, and another two seemed to have been erased. That child had truly peculiar means. And he knew it was the child and not some random monster due to the way they had perished; monsters weren¡¯t capable of such trickery. As the current highest authority within this realm, he could naturally sense the positions of anyone below him in a certain radius, of course, as long as they were subdivine. Such was the nature of supreme divine authority. But the fact that he was currently embodying an avatar limited him in so many ways, and perception was merely one of them. Still, this wasn''t something to be concerned about. "They have finally arrived," he thought as he felt his quarry enter his range of perception. As one after another stepped into range, he counted a hundred and ten high pdins that had been delivered to serve him in his mission, the same number that he had personally seen when he had been at the Langen continent. It took them a while to arrive, as was to be expected from servants who were only at the first stage of sub-divinity. "I see," he chuckled as he felt them lining up outside. "I suppose that cramming themselves in this tiny throne room would be rather inappropriate," he said as he got up and began walking out of the pce. Among the high servants lined up outside the pce, fifty-seven of them were women, and fifty-three of them were men. He gazed at their pearly translucent skin, their silky soft, colorful hair, and the pristine, impably-crafted armor adorning their perfect bodies. ¡°I suppose they can pass," he said, naturally unable topare them to true divinity. He walked out of the humbly decorated building into the well-maintained, verdant gardens of the Imperial Pce. As he stepped before the servants, who were lined up in several neat rows, he nced at Brivia, who stood before all of them. "Well done on timely aplishing your task," hemended. ¡°As expected, the others have failed in theirs. The pawns died too quickly for me to assess anything about our opponents'' strength. All that I know is that it certainly won''t be easy to take the child down." A brief sh of guilt passed through Brivia''s eyes, and he touched her cheek. "There, there," he consoled her. "There is no reason for you to feel guilty about this." "But I am the one who brought that hellspawn into this realm!" she yelled. He merely smiled at that, and a brief sadness shed through his eyes. "The sheer number of my own children who have stepped down the wrong path is almost uncountable. At some age, children be their own people, responsible for all they do and all that happens to them. Worry not about this; soon enough, he will be vanquished." She smiled, genuine joy sparkling in her eyes. "Now then," he said as he turned to the servants, "let us begin." Those pathetic little worms he had sent as a test after that demonic entity were nothingpared to the elite guard of the Langen Continent. The only way they could even remotelypare to these servants was by having that lost young master at their side. And even that would no longer be relevant soon enough. After they finished dealing with this child, this realm would bepletely cut off from the omnirealms. It had drifted far away enough already, and the corruption had spread too thoroughly for the gods to get any use out of it. The demonkin were still lurking somewhere, guarding the corpse of the devil that had been in eons ago, but they would never be a problem. If they wanted this little rat corner for themselves, they could have it. It wouldn¡¯t be the first lost realm to have fallen to their schemes. But just like all the others, the only use the Devil faction would get out of this realm was limited to the realm itself. The child was the only one that concerned them, anyway. He stepped before the first servant of interest; it was a tall, lightly-tanned man equipped with a great sword on his back. The man''s eyes had nothing but unwavering loyalty within them, as was to be expected of the high pdins that the heavenly realms themselves had nurtured even from so far away. Every pair of eyes he met stared back at him with pure admiration and resolve. All of them were going to die today; that was unavoidable, that was their mission, that was what they had been raised to do if need ever arrived. So, he nodded in appreciation of their loyalty as he ced his finger on the man''s forehead. A secondter, a set of runes appeared. The man''s body pulsed, a golden mist surrounded it, and after it was done, the man was slightly easier on the eyes and considerably more powerful. Such a thing didn''t cost Hosr nearly as much as extracting a true strand would. All he had done was extract the potential out of the man''s spirit in exchange for making that power temporary. It was a ritual quite simr to what was happening to himself then; the man became an avatar to his future self, but the only difference was that that future self would never exist. Tears rushed down the man''s eyes at the tion from feeling the power that coursed through him. "Thank you, my Lord," he thanked him. "With this, I can serve you to the best of my ability until I take myst breath." "Fear not, my child," Hosr responded, "the heavens themselves are on your side." As such, he proceeded, moving from one servant to another, each acquiring a new set of runes upon their forehead. One after another, they rose from the first to the second stage of the subdivinity realm. Unfortunately, none of them qualified to ascend to the third stage. Until his fingernded on the fortieth forehead. Immediately, he pulled it back and raised an eyebrow. The servant he was about to bless was a woman; her hair was pure gold, and her eyes gleamed with a purple radiance as she looked up at him. He looked down at her, squinting. "Why haven¡¯t you done it yet?" he asked. "I wouldn''t dare, your eminence," she responded in her beautiful voice. "As someone who was raised to serve, it would be a great act of heresy to step upon the gifts I was provided." "I see," he said, humming and squinting his eyes. "You were correct to do as you have done, but now, you have my permission," he said as he lowered himself into a squat until his nose nearly touched her own. "Take it," hemanded. "As you wish, my lord," she obliged. Momentster, a swirl of pearly light surrounded her, and all the other servants gasped in shock. Brivia looked particrly surprised at what she was seeing. After all, the woman was in the middle of achieving something that should be impossible in this realm. By the virtue of her own work, by the merit of her own power, the woman was ascending to the second step of sub-divinity, having grasped the true strand of servitude. Hosr was hesitant as he stared down at her; such talent would be appreciated even in the higher realms. If he took this woman with him, she would undoubtedly be someone at least vaguely important. But his mission took absolute priority. His finger descended upon her forehead, and, like it had on so many others, a set of runes appeared on her forehead. "Thank you, my lord," she thanked him, crying tears of joy at the opportunity she had been provided. It was no surprise; she was about toplete her duty in a way that no other servant couldpete with as she stepped upon the third step of sub-divinity. Not even an hourter, all these servants had been anointed and given their task. This was good, excellent even; there was no way the child could handle an onught like this. Those barbarians he had sent after them before were one thing; these servants were another. In fact, sending a servant of the third stage was even somewhat excessive, but it was at least the level of assurance he needed. The heavens were smiling upon him on that day; with an army so powerful to be sent to aplish the task he hade here toplete, he had the luxury of saving his power to further assist in sealing this realm for good. "You may rise, children," he said as they slowly got up one by one. He raised his hand into the air, and runic imprints appeared above. As the servants looked at them, their meaning was imprinted directly into their minds; it was the location of where the scouts he had sent had perished. "Go annihte those who dare bare their fangs at the Heavenly alliance!" *** The great god was currently in the middle of his private realm. Nobody could see his body, and that was for the best. If the surrounding godsid their eyes upon him, they might all die of shock one after another. His right eye had a set of purple runes intertwined through it, and his left arm hung limply to the side. Both body parts were utterly useless. "Heavens damn it!" he swore. ¡°How!? Why!?¡± he asked. How was it possible for him to have sacrificed so much yet achieved nothing? Worst of all, he was trying to reach Hosr to tell him to practice utmost vignce in exterminating that little piece of shit, but he couldn''t reach him! Some form of unholy interference surrounded the entire lost realm, making him incapable of stepping into contact with it. His own arrogance and foolishness were the cause of that; from all the power he had squandered in his fruitless mission, that thing had fed. He couldn''t stop himself from chuckling maniacally; the consequences of his blunders still coursed through his very being, and a deep sense of exhaustion enveloped him. For the first time in forever, all he could do was wait helplessly as someone else performed the mission on which he had staked everything. *** A little purple slime slithered through the caverns just below the empire''s capital. Its golden, slimy crown shone in the darkness, reflecting the violet glow of the avatar, and the ck sunsses made it look super cool. Looking at it up close and from the perspective of a monster, Neave reached another level of appreciation for the fantastic creation of thete empress. Any monster who gazed upon this intricately intertwined series of caves would see nothing but a barren void of energy. But he, as someone who knew the trick behind it, couldn''t be deceived so quickly, and the King Slime couldn''t be tricked at all. Although it was faint, he still sensed the flow of energy from above, and there he saw something pretty damn exciting. He had been spying on Hosr for a while already, waiting to see what the man would do. No matter how much time passed, the demigod merely sat on the throne and waited for something to happen. It was apparent that he wasn''t waiting for the emperor and his gang to seed in their mission. A big part of him was concerned that the demigod was waiting for somebody else to arrive or some sort of other heavenly entity to descend upon the realm to be sent after them. Either that or he was gathering power toe after them himself. But no, neither of those two was the correct answer. What that idiot had been waiting for was a gang of utterly useless cannon fodder that he likely nned to send after him and his allies. Neave couldn''t help but grin¡ªwell, he would if he was in his real body, but now, as he was in the body of a slime, he shifted its body into the form of a face and made that grin instead. The reason why he was so happy was that he had reached something of a bottleneck. He had enough of the glorious material the emperor had handed him to create the power conduits. But he severelycked quality material to make proper armor for the golorgs. He had to settle for a lot of tinum-ranked material that had been heavily modified to suit his needs. In the fight against the demigod, that simply wouldn''t be enough. Lo and behold, ya boy Hosr came in with the clutch assist. After all, that army of minions had some real shiny armor covering their tender little bodies. Suddenly, he sensed something that he didn''t expect to encounter. ¡®Uh-oh,¡¯ he thought to himself. ¡®Did one of those just go up to the third step of the diamond path?¡¯ Maybe that man wasn''t just a bumbling, ignorant idiot like his father. Frankly, this made things a little bitplicated. The emperor had surrendered because he had seen that he would have lost the fight if he had fought them, but that wasn''t to say that the man wouldn''t have done a pretty damn good job if he had actually decided to put his life on the line. Naturally, he would have eventually gone down, and so would even a thousand people of his rank, especially now that Neave had his summons. Based on the energy he could seeing from the one who had ascended to the third step of the diamond path, fighting this batch of hunters wouldn''t be as straightforward¡ªso much for easily gathering materials. He could also sense a peculiar energying off from the armor and weapons they were equipped with. What was that? Some sort of blessing? Some sort of holy affinity thing? Either way, the others were still looking for the most potent treasures they could discover. Not only that, but he didn''t want to call upon them because he was afraid that these servants were being merely used as a scouting party or information-gathering unit. He risked revealing too much about his party to the demigod if he couldn''t handle them himself. He didn''t care much about the man learning things about him since he wasn''t the main yer of this story; his allies would do most of the work, and thus, keeping their power and weapons a secret was the least he could do. Suddenly, the over one hundred humans began moving, and he unsummoned the slime. His mind whirred as he rushed to think of a solution. What could he do to get rid of them without involving the others? [Update] Am super sick and very sorry [Update] Am super sick and very sorry Check dat author''s note Chapter 145: A True Immortal Arts Practitioner Chapter 145: A True Immortal Arts Practitioner The hundred and ten holy servants stepped their way into the depths. As they made their way past one deste cavern after another, they gradually gathered speed. A golden-haired woman with purple eyes led the charge, marching in the front as she kept her eyes peeled for any enemy activity. Her name had been Pitria. But now, that name meant nothing to her. All she was was servitude itself, no more important than a single sword-swing by the Great God¡¯s Holy Proginy. She couldn¡¯t stop her heart from leaping in joy at the fact that her death would be so glorious. Oh, the jealousy she saw in that wretched Brivia¡¯s eyes was something that she would savor until her very end. What potential the impable demigod saw in that woman was not for her question. But she couldn¡¯t stop herself frommitting that one tiny act of sphemy in the depths of her soul. Even if the demigod had forgiven her, even if the heavens themselves had excused her sins, it didn¡¯t change the fact that she had born a child that turned its nasty fangs against the Heavenly Alliance. s, those thoughts would be purged with her death. Her beauty as the most valiant servant would excuse her minor transgression. Although with their number advantage, it would be wisest to split up, they knew that that would make them extremely vulnerable. The child had already proven itself capable of taking down someone at the second stage of subdivinity¡ªsplitting up would be a recipe for getting picked apart one by one. Thus, they marched together, prepared toy their lives down at any moment if it meant making any progress toward catching the child. Their path took them deeper and deeper. For many hours, they found nothing but greater depths and scattered monsters. Until they stepped into a vast, open cavern of pure darkness. It was too dark. Unnaturally so. There was a trick involved, and the air itself was filled with an alchemical substance that could almost entirely block even their superior vision. A sound echoed through the empty space. It was akin to metallic grating, with an electric, deep hum undertoning it. ¡°Wait!¡± shemanded. ¡°There is something in here.¡± She could sense it. Suddenly, right in the middle of the empty cavern, two purple dots lit up in the darkness. In an instant, the air grew transparent, and they could see their opponent. But it wasn¡¯t who they expected to see. A two-meter tall figure d in full, ck armor stood in the middle of the room. A purple glow ented the joints. Something about that figure was deeply unnatural. She couldn¡¯t sense any cultivationing from it, but the inside of the armor was brimming with intense energy. The ck figure suddenly spoke, ¡°WELCOME,¡± it said in a monotone, metallic voice that sounded like it was almost being filtered through something. ¡°TARGETS DETECTED: ONE HUNDRED AND TEN. INTIATING PROTOCOL ONE: FIRST STRIKE.¡± The being lifted its left arm, and its palm opened to show a circr opening ring with purple energy. In a mere moment, the energy density spiked way beyond anything reasonable as itpressed and sent a pure beam of thin, purple energy flying toward their group. ¡°Evade!¡± she screamed, but it was toote. A woman¡¯s torso was speared straight through, the armor melting away like ice in the path of the intense beam of energy. She coughed a small plume of smoke and spat a bucket of blood as she dropped dead to the ground. ¡°OH SHIT,¡± the armored form spoke again, this time in a slightly more human-sounding cadence. ¡°I DID NOT EXPECT THAT TO ACTUALLY KILL SOMEONE.¡± Pitria screamed in primal fury as she charged at the figure at a speed it clearly wasn¡¯t prepared to face. Her greatsword rose to strike the armored form down. But the armored individual was already raising its right arm. From right above the wrist, a ck de rushed out, catching her by surprise. She moved from an attack to a block. That turned out to be a mistake. The ck de vibrated so intensely that it felt like it was shaking the space itself apart. Upon making contact with her greatsword, even though it felt like it was of inferior material, it still left deep cracks running along the length of her weapon. Her enemy tried to use her moment of bewilderment to kick her in the stomach, but that failed as she used her superior speed to get out of the way. She was ashamed to admit that without her overwhelming speed advantage, she would stand no chance against this opponent. The moment she used to dodge, however, wasn¡¯t wasted by her opponent as it conjured another beam of purple energy that speared another one of herrades, killing them instantly. She screamed as she kicked the armored form right in the torso. The material that armor was made of didn¡¯t even budge under the force of her strike, but she was able to send her opponent flying back. The rest of her allies weren¡¯t pushovers. They wouldn¡¯t take it lying down. Numerous flying strikes of pure white, be they in the form of crescent moons or straight beams or physical arrows, rushed at the armored form while it was still in the air. Their opponent either deflected the attacks or dodged them with insulting ease, treating the residual energy that brushed against its armor as less significant than the air itself. Before the ck figure couldnd, a man wielding a heavy axe rushed in to slice him apart at the waist, and it truly appeared like he would seed, until the absolutest moment, when their enemy flicked its arm and severed both the axe in half and the man right down the middle. By that point, they all understood¡ªthis wasn¡¯t a fight they would through straightforward means. Pitria rushed in, once more disying her overwhelming power as she dashed forward, reaching the armored figure in a blink. Utterly disregarding the bacsh, she half-formed a technique that usually required more setup to dish out as much damage as she could with a single swing. Her sword met ck metal, leaving a deep gash down the armored form¡¯s torso. She would have expected the feeling of a sword cutting through guts and muscle. But her eyes widened as she only discovered more metal. Her move bought enough time for ten of her allies to create a formation. They surrounded the figure and put their hands together, chanting under their breath. The air around the ck form thickened, and the being found itself frozen in the middle of the air. Ethereal, white chains conjured out of nothing as the sacrificial seal was formed around the form¡¯s limbs,pletely inhibiting their movement. Stolen novel; please report. ¡°INITIATING ENERGY DISCHARGE,¡± it said once more, returning to its monotone cadence. Numerous holes all across its body opened as purple energy began rushing out in absurd quantities. It was undirected and chaotic, merely swirling and spreading as it slowly converted into pure heat and electricity. The chains snapped one after another as they were corroded away, and her ten allies dropped dead, their bodies turned into nothing but pale husks as a consequence of their meaningless sacrifice. Fury filled her as she gritted her teeth. They would all die anyway. But she couldn¡¯t tolerate seeing servants sacrificing themselves for nothing! The creature had done something drastic, and it had clearly left it drained of energy. She used this opening to charge in and sessfully stab her sword right into the enemy¡¯s torso. Before she could confirm it¡ªshe felt it. Where the heart, or at least a core, should be, there was absolutely nothing but metal. ¡°INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCTION PROTOCOL.¡± She tried backing away, but before she could even release her sword, ck chains enveloped all over her, tying her down to the ck figure as the metal rapidly heated up. With a blinding sh of purple light, the entire cavern was filled with violent energy. The burst wounded many and even outright killed three servants with the impact. Her armor was severely damaged, and the surface of her skin blistered with the explosion. But the creature¡ªno, this wasn¡¯t just any random enemy. This must have been that demonic child. She had heard it speak in surprise at the beginning. It had attained immense power through unholy means, modifying its own body bybining itself with a golem. How repulsive! And to think it harbored such hatred that it would kill itself just to see her die. Well, truthfully, she was doing pretty much the same thing, but she was doing it for a noble cause. But she wasn¡¯t dead yet. She would die soon, but she still had maybe a few weeks of life. How could she make herself useful? What else could she do to serve the great¡ª? Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the metallic sound again. This time, it wasing from three directions. She turned to spot three more figures appearing from different directions as their purple eyes lit up. ¡°Dear heavens¡­¡± she whispered. ¡°What are we up against!?¡± ¡°TARGETS DETECTED,¡± they spoke at once. ¡°NINETY-FOUR REMAINING. INITIATING PROTOCOL TWO: STAGE ONE: DODGE.¡± She barely got out of the way as two of the figures rushed straight at her, elerating by pushing purple energy in dense jets out of their feet to fly forward. Two buzzing des danced around her, and she found herself nearly powerless to dodge. She was fast enough to do it, but it was as if these creatures could tell exactly where she was going to go. Her immensely tough flesh couldn¡¯t be severed so easily, but the insanely powerful vibration was still enough to enable the edge to cut right into her skin and even crack her armor. Her focus waned as she heard the screams of the other servants. One by one, they fell as the third armored form ughtered them. She couldn¡¯t let this continue. In the depths of her body, her life force ignited, burning with the force of a miniature star. With the added speed, her arm moved too fast for the creature to react as she reached out and tore its entire arm out and smashed the other one right into its head. ¡°INITATING SELF-DESTRUCT¡ª¡± the one with its arm torn out tried, but her predatory gaze fell on it instantly. A heavenly de appeared before her as she swung her arm down. A mighty unicorn, a creature of true purity and holy power, appeared as its horn rammed straight through the armored form, turning its entire body into scrap metal before it could explode. Her arm suddenly went limp as all life abandoned it. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t fast enough to stop the other one as she heard the metallic voice and felt the heat rise behind her back. But she wasn¡¯t tied down this time. She rushed forward, and the force of the explosion just barely caught up to her. But it was enough. The impact sent her flying into the cavern wall. She dragged herself out only to spot that this explosion had once more taken several lives. But the other one wasn¡¯t done tearing herrades apart. With an intense scream, as she pushed her mangled body forward, she swung her other arm again. From hundreds of meters away, the holy visage of the unicorn flew at its target in a straight line. It would be trivial to dodge it. Would, if ten of herrades didn¡¯t sacrifice their lives to seal the armored form in ce again for a mere moment. The horn tore the armored form apart, and the room went silent. Only fifty people were still alive. Terror, unlike anything she had ever felt in her life, filled her body to the brim as she heard that same noise again. One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ ten more armored forms appeared around them as they stepped into the cavern. Even though they had already sacrificed their lives, they couldn¡¯t help but lose all hope as their morale plummeted. One head after another rolled under the tyrannical charge of the ck forms. In mere seconds, they killed five people each and left the room empty of life. All except her, who still stood, her body mangled and both her arms hanging uselessly to the side. Her eyes were wide open as she witnessed the carnage. Suddenly, a glowing form of a slime rushed into the room and collected all the bodies before disappearing. As it vanished, the ten armored figures turned to face her, sending an intense shiver down her spine. But then, out of nowhere, a man appeared. The tall form of Hosr manifested from nothing and stood right before her with Brivia by his side. ¡°You have done a good job,¡± was all he said to her. That was enough for her. With that, she could die happy as thest of her life force burned away and her body dropped dead to the ground. *** ¡®Uh-oh, the big boss himself showed up,¡¯ Neave thought. ¡°YO, WHAT¡¯S UP, HOSOLAR!?¡± he greeted the man through one of the golorgs as if he were greeting an old friend. ¡°I HEARD YOUR DAD¡¯S PRETTY ANGRY WITH ME.¡± ¡°Silence, demonic entity,¡± his mother, whom he had been ignoring until then, said. ¡°Do not speak to the demigod so casually.¡± ¡°A¡­ I thought you¡¯d let me y a bit, Mom,¡± he teased in his regr voice as he turned off the voice converter. ¡°You better spoil me rotten if you want forgiveness for abandoning me.¡± She showed no reaction to that. Pity. Hosr sighed. ¡°I see you are unmoved by the appearance of your mother. Truly, you are beyond saving.¡± Neave shrugged as he faced his mother again. ¡°Mother¡­ If you want, I can still forgive you. Marven still misses you.¡± He stretched his arm out. Her face morphed into the picture of anger at those words. ¡°How dare you mention that bastard¡¯s name to me!?¡± she shouted. ¡°All he ever did was ignore my warnings and advice as he allowed the sect to rot at the hands of those demons!¡± she yelled as he took an aggressive step forward. ¡°I was forced to fake my death since I had no other escape from that hellish ce! Every damn day they bullied and tormented me with their petty power games and politics. ¡°You should know what I¡¯m talking about¡­¡± she said as her expression softened slightly. ¡°Didn¡¯t you destroy the sect for the same reason!? What right do you have to judge me for running away!?¡± Her screams turned into tears as something within her cracked. ¡°And look what they did to you¡­¡± she said, unable to keep looking at the armored form Neave was speaking through. ¡°¡­ Coward,¡± he shot back. ¡°You fucking coward!¡± he screamed. ¡°You can y the victim card all you want, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that you left me behind while you ran off to y with these tyrants!¡± ¡°Oh, please!¡± she spat. ¡°You fit in just fine. You were turning out to be every bit the child your father wanted you to be. I couldn¡¯t bear to stay behind and watch you rot as they corrupted you and took you away from me!¡± That made Neave pause. Indeed, while his mother was still there, he had been on the trajectory to be the prodigy of the next generation. He learned fast and absorbed that lifestyle like a sponge did water. His life only changed once he thought she was dead. It was only then that he started feeling disgust at the violence she had lived by. It was only then that he began fearing the instrument of her downfall. A sense of sickness bubbled in the depths of his soul. Until that point, he had believed that he could maintain his indifference upon meeting her. He believed he had the absolute moral high ground. So why did¡­? Why did her story hold so much weight? He felt deeply ill at her words. Maybe she wasn¡¯t entirely wrong. But if so, what should he¡ª? ?????????????????????????????? ¡®Take a seat back and watch, failure.¡¯ words echoed in his mind as everything went dark. ''This is how a true immortal arts practitioner deals with a destroyer.¡¯ I havent burned out, I swear... I haven''t burned out, I swear... Check the notes If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. [UPDATE] Im cured (jk, but I am better) [UPDATE] I''m cured (jk, but I am better) Update A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. a very important update a very important update Onto the description, boys and gals. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Chapter 146: Horror Too Vast Chapter 146: Horror Too Vast Hosr stood, facing the unholy creature before him. Although muddled, his senses were still powerful enough to inform him that the thing before him was nothing but an avatar. Yet, strain as he may, he couldnt detect the string connecting the golem construct to the Lost Child. The child wasmunicating with Brivia, but he merely stood there, impassive, focusing his senses on trying to locate Neave. There was no use in fighting this remotely controlled avatar. He needed to hunt down the true body. There was no threat from this construct. Its presence was formidable, perhaps holding the power of a cultivator on the upper end of the second step of the diamond path. Incredible power for something that could be controlled remotely. Suddenly, he sensed something off. By the time he was back to paying attention to his immediate surroundings, he severely regretted his folly. What the he screamed as pure darkness peeled the reality around him. In the blink of an eye, the chunk of space he had been in, perhaps the surrounding 2 meters, was torn out of reality and thrown into the void. Now that he was in the void, his connection to his true body grew far more potent, but that didnt make his situation any better. Still, his divine might flooded into him, allowing him to refresh some of his lost reserves and fueling his desperate scramble to return the space back where it belonged. He needed to hurry before he drifted too far away from A putrid, horrifying scream echoed from all around him, and he looked up. Too big, too grand for a mere mortal mind to wrap itself around it, a figure appeared. Its eyes were forged of an uncountable infinity, its form flowing through time and space, scraping the essence of being around itself like a cosmic parasite. It sneered at him with an unfathomable expression, an act so foreign he could barely recognize it as anything more than a collection of loud smells, gooey, sticky sounds, colors from beyond the visible spectrum, and terror itself, so thick it flowed like sap. The image of a childs face appeared before him as if anchored to the center of his vision. Better get ready! it taunted him, and in the next moment, the chunk of reality reattached itself back to where hed been. His body was surrounded by dozens of those strange puppets, every single one of them glowing with a powerful purple light. He raised his guard and then felt his stomach sink. Where was Brivia? He had a mere moment to turn his attention to where he felt her waning presence. Turning just in time to watch one of the puppets tear her head off. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition. Boom. *** Neave found himself lying unconscious on the ground. Shit! he screamed. I dropped my fucking guard! He rushed back up to his feet. The connection that the maniptor had to his mind, the faint yet everpresent string he fought to fight back it felt like it was entirely gone. But for some reason, he couldnt find it in his heart to celebrate this fact, especially when he didnt even know exactly what the maniptor had done. Pushing his Violet Avatar spirit power, he rushed to reconnect with his puppets But they were all gone. Suddenly, he felt a powerful tremor shake the entire cave around him. He immediately knew what it was. All of the puppets had exploded. No, wait. Not all of them. He focused. There was one more; he could feel it hidden within the space where his spirit power kept the avatars. But it had something in its hand. It was holding a roughly round object. He retrieved the puppet, summoning it before him with a sh of purple light. His pupils shrank. Gripped by her silver hair, his mothers head hung from the puppets clutch, fresh blood still dripping from her torn neck. Drip Drip Drip The sight burned itself into his image, settling there. He blinked. Whelp, shes gone. He sighed as he put his hands on his hips. Shit he cursed as he grabbed the head and blew a fire breath at it until it became nothing but fine ash. He had to keep her death a secret from Marven. That old man was already unstable enough. If he found out about this, it would crush him. There was no time for him to think about it. Even with the detonation of every remaining puppet, he knew damn well that it wouldnt be enough to seriously injure Hosr. Neave, naturally, had no idea what actually happened, so he couldnt even say that the man had been hit at all. But the reality was that Hosr was personally chasing after him now. The time for preparations was over. He had to track the others down, hurry and finish the weapons and all the alchemy, and then forge a n for dealing with the enemy. He looked around, trying to think of everything he had to collect. A sudden tremor appeared in his hand. He gripped his arm with the other hand. With all the force he could muster, he pushed the sickness in his stomach down. With the eternity of experience clearing his mind, he wiped away the image of his mothers bleeding, decapitated head. There was no time to think about it. Neither her life nor her death were of consequence to him. Or so he tried to tell himself. He wanted to believe that he didnt care. Yet, there was a corner in his heart. An empty, vacant space where a small child wept, sobbing as it clutched its heart in agony. He willed that space to shrink until the child was crushed. Then, he took a deep breath, collected everything he needed, and ran. Rushing to find the others. Rushing to finish the final preparations. Rushing to take his revenge. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!