Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 23
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 21034Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Early Stage 42%] (Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Middle Stage 0%] (Silver Body)Techniques :Lightning Qi cultivation art, Silver Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art, Lightning Javelin, Lightning Punching and kicking arts, Basic and Advanced Fighting Techniques.
I implied in the previous chapters that he also got punching and kicking skills along with some combat techniques, but I never put it in the table and just left dots in there. Sorry if you get confused that I put it in now. Might have forgotten to do it earlier... >_>;
A handsome man was standing out in the wilderness, he was looking at a house-sized boulder. He had his fist tightly clenches as he was focusing on the huge rock in front of him. The space around the man started crackling and tiny bolts of electricity started appearing. They were guided to his closed fist filling it with spiritual energy and making it glow in the process. The man pulled his fist back while looking at the big boulder in front of him and then delivered a punch. The hit produced a thunderous sound and as his fist collided with the side of the large rock it exploded into pieces. It now had a huge hole in the middle of it, collapsing right afterward as the man looked and nodded.
Matt was getting used to this cultivator lifestyle a bit, the gaming system made things easy as he spent his day's training in his previously gotten techniques. He had quite a bit of points now, though not enough to buy the better crafting abode just yet. Even less if he wanted to get the entire bundle that cost over twice that plus not like he really needed all of the crafting recipes in the system. His cultivation was increasing at a rapid pace as well, he wondered if his body was just gifted or if the cultivation method was special as he didn't think cultivating would be this fast, he should hit the next stage within two to three weeks like this.
*Okay, I'm getting the hang of it now. Guess it wasn't such a bad idea to stick around here for a while. Guess the next step would be to test things out.*
He mostly used kiting abilities, which in gamer terms were using his range skills to fight the enemies off while being at a safe distance. He didn't want to rely on only those though. He wanted to spend some time getting used to the hand to hand combat skills that he had. He wanted to find himself someone or something to test his skills on. Matt glided up into the air and flew around the forest. But as he flew around he couldn't really see any beasts that were worth his time. So he decided to go deeper into the forest than he usually did in the direction that he previously arrived in it was about half a day's time away. He got really good at zooming around now so it might take even less. Luckily after a while, he found a fitting one, this one had red eyes as the other crazy beasts and looked like a silverback gorilla, but it had sharper teeth, long claws on its hands and a horn coming out of the forehead, plus it had four arms.
*Well, that's one ugly looking unicorn.*
Frenzied Horned Tetra Ape (Foundation Establishment early stage )
*It has that prefix, well... now to approach that without pooping my pants...*
The monster was scary looking, it was drooling and just standing there. It had a big bone in one of its hands, it placed the bone in its mouth, the sharp teeth just crushing the hard bone in one big chomp as it munched on it. Matt gulped as he was watching, but he had decided that he needed to get stronger and this gorilla unicorn looking thing would be a good start. He was slightly paranoid and he knew how these cultivator worlds worked, so he needed to get in some practice for the future to come.
*Okay, I got my healing and spirit energy recovering pills right here, shouldn't be a problem...*
He jumped down from his flying sword and placed it in his storage ring, for now, he wanted to face this creature in close range combat. He started slowly going up to it, the large ape noticed him coming and gave out a huge roar. This making Matt stop in his track as he focused on the monster that began charging at him in an enraged bull charge.
Matt went into a defensive position and took in a good breath of air to relax. He focused on the charging behemoth that was making the ground thump each time in brought it's meaty fists onto it as it pushed itself forward at him. The creature was quite scary looking and twice his size as well as bulky. His mind was telling him to run away at this moment as the gorilla choo choo train was barreling towards him. But he wanted to get used to this, he couldn't avoid all of his problems plus the creature was more visually scary but when it came to its abilities it paled in comparison to his.
He used his movement technique right before the monster was about to deliver an overhead strike, leaving an afterimage that was sparkling with static energy. When the creature smacked his after image it felt electricity run through its body, shocking it and making it stop in its tracks for a brief moment while also delivering moderate damage. Matt had learned that he could use his movement technique in this way, so as he dodged he left afterimages of himself that had residual lightning qi that if they got touched discharged a shock to the assailant.
He appeared behind the Tetra Ape in a blur, giving it a good kick to it's back which sent it flying. The creature flew face-first into a tree that collapsed under the strain and shattered into many splinters. The monster roared in madness as it shook, it got kicked quite hard and it was feeling a sharp pain in its rear. Though as if not caring or just mad it turned back after gathering itself back up, it roared once more and charged yet again.
Matt didn't punt it with all his might, he didn't even infuse his foot with lightning Qi this time around just using his body as he tested out the waters. He danced around with the monkey monster, the creature was easy to dodge and predict as it only came at him with berserk charges and large swings which he could dodge at ease. He finally managed to get used to the intimidating look of the thing and had no problem delivering a nice hard punch to the creature's ugly mug, which just made it tumble backward hitting even more trees.
*Hm, guess I'm getting desensitized to battling a bit...*
He looked at his fist that had blood stuck to it, he grimaced and shook the red liquid off. Then he looked at the creature in front of him that he was kind of bullying at this point.
*Or maybe now, now I'm feeling bad about this whole thing...*
He didn't feel so good about himself as he used the creature as a punching bag, just testing out his skills while the thing looked more haggard with each passing moment, though if things were reversed he was sure that the monster would have torn all his limbs and eaten him like a snack. But as he was contemplating his skewed moral compass something strange started happening, the Ape started convulsing after his last hit, it started exuding strange red energy. After a while, he could see tentacles coming out of its ears and even bursting out of it's back the name above its head also had changed including its cultivation level.
Corrupted Horned Tetra Ape (Foundation Establishment middle stage )
It started looking like a tentacle monster and as if revitalized it let out a different kind of scream than before and charged at Matt again.
Chapter 24
*Corrupted? It went up a level?*
Matt looked at the strange-looking gorilla that had tentacles protruding out of it now. The tentacle monster charged at him once more trying to overwhelm him with it's added speed and power. This, of course, wasn't enough to give Matt a run for his money, the only thing holding him back from beating this thing up once more was the disgusting way that it looked so instead of attacking it he backed away.
*Eww, that thing looks gross...*
"Hey, I'm not an anime girl, you tentacle monster!"
He shouted as he used his movement technique to zap the tentacle mass while he evaded, the creature looked like it took less damage than before. The creature kept up with its charge, destroying the trees and boulders along the way, smashing into anything in its path while Matt tried to keep his cool. Finally, he got fed up with the constant running away and charged up a lightning javelin after dodging and letting the monster attack his after image as it dumbly did all the time. The thrown bolt of lightning smacked the creature in the upper arm shoulder, which was now gone.
The man could see a big gaping hole in the corrupted creature's right shoulder, but along with blood more tentacles started squiggling around from it. The tentacles thrashed as if they were mad and he could see that most of the creature's insides were composed of those tentacles and weird tendrils. This, of course, made him grimace in disgust even more.
"If one won't do the job... then how about ten?"
He didn't give the monster time to recover as he started choking his energy spears at it, putting more holes into its large frame. But each hole was just getting filled up by more and more tentacles and the ugly thing wasn't going down and still tried to charge at the cultivator in white. He was too fast for it but didn't really want to get too close to the thing but his range attacks didn't seem to be working. He kept on hitting it, taking out the legs from range and finally landing a blow on the head that just burst open with more squiggly things.
"Why... won't ... you ... DIE!"
The creature didn't have regular legs now and was just a pile of tentacles attached to the creature's torso, it was a lot slower than before but by some strange rage-filled will it still wiggled its way towards Matt. He at this point started charging up the javelin attack once again, but this time he really focused all of his spiritual energy to pump it up to an enormous spear of light. The huge lightning spear crackled around as he held it above his head, he looked at the disgusting pile of tentacles that was inching slowly in his direction and flung it at the creature.
What followed was a resounding boom, the monster exploded along with the ground that it was slithering on. A huge dust cloud was kicked up and the wind pressure from the explosion was immense, making the large trees in the vicinity shake violently. The creature was finally dead but it also delivered its last blow against its opponent as the massive amount of tentacles flew in all directions and one of them hit Matt straight in the face.
Corrupted Horned Tetra Ape Slain (Foundation Establishment middle stage ) Earned 6000 Spirit points
The slimy appendage slid down his face and to the ground while his eye twitched. After the dust had settled he could see the squirming tentacles all over the place. Something strange started happening afterward though, the squirming appendages started giving out smoke or steam and after a while, they just crumbled into dust. The only thing that was left was the creature's core that was in the spot that the monster was slain. Matt wiped his face with his sleeve and moved over to the spot that the creature's core was and examined it, the core was described as a Tetra Ape core, guess the corruption didn't affect the cores that the monsters dropped, it was even of the lower early-stage level.
Matt looked around the forest that seamed eerier than it usually did, this creature gave him the creeps. It was one of the strange monsters that were always berserk and enraged, he guessed that it was those tentacles that were the cause of the disease but when the host died they just turned to dust leaving the core intact.
*Is it some kind of parasite? Or did something infect it for some reason... You can't detect if the creature is corrupt after you kill it as the tentacle things inside just vanish and the core remains intact. Hm, should I ask the village chief about it? Maybe he'll know something about it*
The man was feeling a bit creeped out, hoping that it wasn't anything that he could get infected with as the tentacle did hit him in the face and all, so the first thing that he did was to find the river and vigorously wash his face in it. He checked his status screen if it would show something clicking his name but nothing out of place came up. He decided to head to his temporary base of operations in the village hoping to get some answers from the village chief.
It was the middle of the day and he was a bit far out but he managed to return before the sun went down. He didn't get in any trouble while returning so he gave out a relieved sigh, he didn't want to fight any more tentacle monsters on the way. Matt didn't have anything to give to the villagers today as he spent most of the day 'sparing' with the ape monster and the trips back and forth took up the rest. He went to his cabin first as he thought about what he should ask the village Chief and after that, he gave him a visit while the sun was going down.
People greeted him as always on the way there, he already knew his way here and the villagers kind of accepted the quirky Senior. He was giving him a lot of resources to sell and bargain with other tribes, even though the bug monsters were a bit of a hassle.
"Greetings, could I have a word with you, Yang Shan?"
The other man nodded and led him to his room, Matt noticed that he looked a bit different today as if he had some things on his mind also there were fewer guards around for some reason. After the got to the room he started explaining about his encounter with the strange monster, of course, he didn't say about how he just spent most of the fight just running away and throwing his attacks at the monster.
"I came across a strange beast today after it took some damage it started changing, its cultivation realm expanded while various tentacle-like appendages started protruding from its hulking form. Of course, it's dead, but the tentacles vanished without a trace afterward, it seems that that's what is causing the beasts to go mad in this forest."
The Chief had a stern look on his face while Matt tried to explain what had happened in a more formal way for a change. The burly man rubbed his chin while looking distressed.
"It can't be ... it has to be the Corrupt one ... it corrupts other creatures to elevate its cultivation, consuming their bodies. But if one of the beasts has already turned, it must be close for it to feed... it's probably going to come out of its hiding place to consume the other monsters."
Matt didn't like where this was going, there was some kind of strange monster out there, probably one with even more strange appendages. Maybe now would be a good time to leave this place? He wasn't that keen on fighting the thing, but as he was thinking about his next move the burly man dropped to his knees and started kowtowing furiously.
"Distinguished, honorable, illustrious and respectable Senior!"
*Aren't you overdoing it with the honorifics dude...*
"Please hear me out, my stupid son has gone missing for a few days, he probably went to the forest to prove himself after offending you, but he hasn't returned with his men, now I fear that the Corrupted One could have something to do with it, please find it in your upright and just heart to aid this old man in finding his stupid son!"
Matt looked at the burly man that was hitting the floor with his forehead, making thumping sounds that just made more people show up and see the Chief prostrating himself in front of him. But instead of stopping the man they did the exact thing as they also knew that his son was missing putting Matt in an awkward position.
"Ugh..."
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 25
The thumping in the house continued as Matt was looking at the people down, there were burly men and women even children prostrating themselves in front of him, probably most of them were the relatives of the silky-pants that was giving him a migraine right now. He scratched the back of his neck and then held out his hand out.
"Ok... Stop, that's enough."
All of the people stopped in their tracks but their heads remained planted to the ground, not daring to move an inch unless the honorable Senior told them too. They were praying that he would help them out, if he didn't the Chief's son was as good as dead and they would probably have to relocate their tribe as well due to the corrupted monsters and the even more dangerous beast that was behind them.
Matt felt a headache coming along as looked at the silent people in the room. He contemplated what he should do for a moment, the moral thing to do would be to help the people out. The smart thing to do would be to just get out of there or wait to see how strong that so-called corrupted one was otherwise he might find himself munched on by some creepy thing. Though Matt was one of the sorts of people that broke under increased social pressure so even though he didn't think it was such a good idea, he decided to help the people out plus this also aligned more with his morals, plus deep down inside he was a big softy. He also was feeling bad for the prostrating people in front of him and he reckoned that he should be able to handle the creatures in the forest as he didn't come across anything too dangerous for the time he has been here.
He gave out a big sigh as he spoke.
"Okay, stand up. In what direction did that silk... uh in what direction did your son go?"
Yang Shan was the first one to raise his head as a glint appeared in his eye, or it might have been a tear. He stood up and bowed once more, the rest of the tribe members did the same while backing away a bit.
"I can't promise you anything though, this forest is gigantic it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
As Matt was talking, the Chief took out some kind of circular medallion with a stag engraved on it and handed it over to the cultivator in white.
"This is?"
"Senior, this is a treasure that was handed down to me by the previous Tribe's head. It has a second part in the form of the ring if you focus your energy into it you can feel in what direction the other part is. It has a limited range though so we can't use it from here."
The chief replied while Matt was looking at the stag medallion.
"I didn't use it as I thought the boy would just be away for a couple of days while hunting, he does these things from time to time... but with the appearance of the corrupted one, I'm afraid that he has a slim chance of coming back."
Matt tried putting his spiritual energy into the magical treasure and as it absorbed it, it started to give out a dinging sound as it glowed slightly. After a few moments, the dinging stopped as the treasure couldn't find its counterpart. He nodded and was lead out of the Chief's house and pointed in the direction that the silky paints and his crew had left. The other problem was that it was getting dark outside, but the other people looked quite concerned and were giving him those puppy dog eyes as they pleaded.
"W-well, I'll be off then."
He said awkwardly as he didn't take the expectations of these people all that well, his shiny Crystalline Sword was tossed out onto the ground, he jumped onto it and as he took his flying stance it took off while the concerned tribe people looked at each other with worry in their eyes. They didn't doubt that this Senior was strong, but they didn't know if he could handle the evil beast in the forest they had to keep the well being of the village in mind so they decided to inform every important person in the village. They had to prepare for the situation of the Senior not coming back, or abandoning the Chief's son and coming back empty-handed. If it came to that they would have to relocate deeper into the mainland while seeking help from the stronger clans that were in the cities.
The Crystalline Sword produced a faint light as it drifted through the air with the muscular cultivator on top, that was scratching his head while flying forward.
*Why does it always have to be started by the young bratty masters, every damn time. Do they have some kind of troublemaker gene in them to cause trouble for others if you interact with them?*
He had been flying for a good hour by now, the sun was down but he still couldn't get anything from this treasure. Matt had no tracking skills besides his map, but it had a limited range of showing living organisms in the vicinity as well. The boy and his entourage had a couple of days head start on him, but they couldn't have gotten that far into the forest and he was a lot faster on his flying sword than people on the ground that could only run. He only had a vague idea where they could have gone, the people of the tribe told him a couple of places that Yang Rong could have gone to.
He was hovering above one of those places right about now, but he couldn't see anything but he found out that he could see a lot more in the dark than he thought he would be able to. Guess the cultivator's body came with various enhancements, plus the moons in the sky were also illuminating the silent night.
Why was it so silent though, Matt stopped in his tracks and tried to listen. He thought he would hear wolves howling in the night or various creepy beasts just crawling around the place. But it was really silent as if they had gone into hiding or escaped in a different direction. This gave of many red flags in his mind when he thought about it.
*Did they run away due to the corrupted one?*
He gulped and resumed with his flying. Going further and further as he flew for a good couple of hours now being close to the spot that he had arrived in where it all started. He grasped the medallion and inserted his Qi into it, it started dinging and dinging just as it always did, but this time around it gave out a louder sound than before. Matt could feel that the magical treasure was somehow guiding it to a certain spot in the forest, this must have been the area that the kid was in and would you know it, it was right dab in the same spot that Matt was spirited away to this place.
He scratched his neck and wondered if it was just a coincidence as he sped up towards that area, he still remembered hitting that tree and kicking that poor rabbit into meat paste by mistake. He just wanted to get there and get the kid and his idiotic posse and would you know it, there were all there but looked haggard and in a bad state, he was still a bit from their position but with his enhanced vision he could see some beasts surrounding the group. The beasts in question had squiggly tentacles protruding from their bodies as the ape that Matt battled previously.
Matt brought out his trusted lightning javelin and was ready to give them air support before they got the hentai girl treatment there, he really didn't want to see burly men getting tentacled if he could do something about it. But before he could come to their rescue the broken tree in the middle of the field that he crushed previously started shaking and with a resounding boom, a creature emerged from within, kicking up a crowd of dust in the process. It was big and ugly and when Matt squinted his eyes to take a closer look his jaw dropped.
"I-is that... Is that god damned Cthulhu!?"
The creature wasn't as big as the great old one from the stories, it was given or take 6 meters tall, but it was the spitting image of peoples favorite monster, it had the octopus-like head whose with a mass of feelers on them, plus the scaly humanoid body, claws on both hands and legs as well as a fitting name...the name made Matt feel like he was getting trolled by someone.
Mini'thulhu The Corrupted One ( Foundation Establishment Great Circle )
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 26
The creature gave out a roar and the other tentacle beasts around it started squiggling as if they were having a dance party. The Tribe members were hugging each other tightly with the silky pants in the middle. The kid's face was filled with tears and snot at this point and he probably had some more liquids filling out his pants as he looked terrible.
Matt got a hold of himself as the creature was looking around, it had wings on it's back just like Cthulhu. It spread its wings and generated a lot of wind that sent the poor tribe people flying, slamming into each other, the ground and trees while the other tentacle monsters got closer. Just as the group of tribe people made peace with the world as they knew that they would be devoured any second now they saw some light in the distance and it was getting here really fast.
The closes tentacle thing next to them exploded into gorry bits as Matt's lightning strike hit it, then more and more of the creatures started exploding from the hits while the people looked on in astonishment in their eyes. The big baddie turned in the direction that the attacks were flying from and gave out a roar, but it was met a light spear to the side as well. It staggered from the hit and a big wound appeared but it started healing at a rapid pace.
Matt appeared in a flash and kept zooming around on his sword while looking down at the creatures below, the Tribe members cheered as they saw who it was. They were glad that the Senior that they were familiar with somehow appeared out of the blue and was attacking the monsters. The group was a band of misfits but they weren't dumb, they saw their chance as they noticed that the creatures stopped paying attention to them and slithered closer to the man standing on the flying sword. So they used this chance and run into the forest from the open field, Matt did clear out a path for them to escape and all.
So they grabbed their sobbing and shocked silkypants master and bolted for their dear life while not looking back at what was happening behind them, they could see some tentacle creatures moving to the clearing where the biggest monster was. For some reason, they didn't seem that interested in them anymore. It was an eerie sight of the tencale wiggling things just converging into one location it was better viewed from up in the sky which Matt could see happening.
The cultivator dressed in white looked as the other people escaped on their own and then looked down at the squiggly spectacle below him. The big baddy was roaring up at him, this for some reason made his flying sword buzz. He had to focus on it so that it wouldn't drop down to the ground, guess the monster was trying to bring him down below but its cultivation wasn't strong enough for that.
*Hm, still in foundation establishment realm, guess I can still handle this one. Was this thing placed as the tutorial boss or something, or was I summoned here knowing that it was hiding below that tree and gathering its forces?"
The monster got angry as it couldn't get the person down to the ground and found itself covering its head with those massive muscular arms. The lightning bolts started raining down on it as Matt was testing out the waters, the creature was taking a lot of damage and all but it was healing quite fast as well. But it didn't look like the thing would be a problem for him at his current level. He didn't feel like jumping down and engaging in fisticuffs with the huge thing, what if it spit some strange goop on him or if he got covered in tentacles?
While he was doing this he kind of ignored the smaller corrupted monsters that were slithering towards the big guy, but if he had some combat experience he might have been able to figure out what was about to happen. Why was the monster infecting the other beasts? What was the purpose of turning them into tangled up tentacle monsters? Also, the Chief mentioned that it used the monsters to elevate its cultivation in some way. But by the time the cogs in Matt's head started turning you could see a massive ball of squiggling tentacles in the open field that was giving of an eerie red light.
What happened next would act as a wake-up call for Matt, as the huge humanoid-shaped, squid faced monster bolted away with huge strides and jumped at that mass of tentacles. The cultivator stopped pelting it with his lightning bolt spam and looked bewildered not sure what the creature was doing, was it trying to hide from him in that? Did it want to shield itself with the tentacles? But no, seconds after the whole area began glowing in a crimson hue, Matt could feel the mass of tentacles giving off bursts of spiritual energy and he could have sworn that he heard a heartbeat-like tune that went along with those bursts of Qi.
What happened next was a low witch shriek that made the man hold his palms to his ears. He could feel a sharp pain in his ears as he lost control of his flying sword and crashed to the ground. He landed a bit away from the mass of tentacles, but the screen kept him back from it. The creepy ball started shrinking and shrinking, it looked like the energy was getting absorbed from it and the tendrils crumpled into dust. Afterward, you could see the monster emerging, its eyes glowing red and it looking a bit taller than before all the injuries that it had sustained also couldn't be seen.
Mini'thulhu The Corrupted One ( Core Formation Early Stage )
It as at this moment that he knew, he fucked up. He probably should have taken out the smaller creatures first before they could gather up to give the ugly looking boss a power-up, he also felt that something was now blocking his flying skill as he couldn't make the sword hover upwards well enough to escape.
This was the first time he came across anything at the same cultivation realm as he was, he wasn't sure what that meant but it wasn't anything good. His first thought was to flee but would he be able, if he fled what would happen to the people that were in the forest not so far away, would this behemoth turn on them instead? He mustered up all his bravery and took a fighting stance, he sure hoped that he could handle this beast as but it looked really intimidating.
The monster-filled the area with its core formation aura which gave Matt goosebumps then charged at him. It was a lot faster than the gorrila monster that he sparred previously and a lot bigger as well. Matt misjudged how fast the creature would get to him and was a bit slow with his dodging. He could see a huge fist getting thrown right at his face, he imagined he would be turned to paste if that thing cleanly hit him. Dodging to the side he could feel the creature's limb just barely passing, the wind pressure throwing him off balance as he fumbled to the side a slight pain hitting his shoulder as the giant fist's knuckle grazed it. This was the first time that he actually felt pain, the previous beasts were below his body strengthening technique so they weren't able to even hurt him even if they gave him a full-powered hit.
He instinctively grasped his shoulder as he felt pain, but this only gave the monster the opportunity to extend one of its wings which landed a direct hit to his chest. He was sent flying into some trees, kicking up a storm of broken bark and splinters. The creature roared again while stretching out its muscular arms in a show of might, taunting its enemy that it just landed a hit on. Matt got off the ground and spit out some leaves from his mouth while his hair looked scuffled. The creature looked like it was feeling good about itself as it managed to bash this cultivator good and thought he wouldn't be a problem. What happened next was a barrage of attacks that the monster unleashed on the human, which the human mostly managed to doge but not precisely. Each time he tried to evade he got scratched, poked and prodded and the damage on his clothes was a testament to that as after a while you could see a big scratch on his chest. Matt panted while he was trying to not die from the enraged monsters continues attacks.
Matt wasn't really looking where he was dodging the monster as the fight had switched locations into the deep forest, the two were kicking up a storm as the huge behemoth just stomped its way through the trees while charging at the cultivator. Being the lucky bastards as they were, the tribe cultivators found themselves escaping in the same direction that the fight was happening. They looked behind them and they saw the hulking monster moving towards them while the Senior that they knew was dodging its attacks, he was dodging right towards them. Matt stopped in his tracks and looked behind, seeing the people right there they had stupid expressions on their faces as they collapsed from the monsters pressure. The beast didn't care about them all that much it was focused on Matt, so it delivered another huge swing in his direction while the people were behind him, if he dodged they would surely turn into pancakes...
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 27
Time looked like it had slowed down for Matt, the giant was slowly coming towards him while the people were right behind where he was standing. They were all weak cultivators a snort from this creature could turn them into gory bits. He had a decision to make, does he prioritize his own well being and move away or does he take the hit and hope that those people will getaway. There was another option though that he was running away for all this time, it was the option to fight back.
Matt was only a regular person, his life was mundane, to say the least before he was thrown into this world. He mostly cruised by his life unnoticed never really interacting with others and just doing enough to pass his days. Never doing more than was required of him and never having any ambitions, he was okay with his video games and slow boring lifestyle. But somewhere deep down inside he knew that he wanted to change, but he never could bring himself always putting it off for another day. Sometimes he wondered how he ended up with this sort of pessimistic outlook on the world but that was soon forgotten as soon as he got a new game or tv show to enjoy. Always looking at others as they led fun lives while he himself gave up on it.
He clenched his fist, anger appearing on his face as his brows furrowed, he wanted to change himself, he needed to change himself not for the people behind him, but for himself. An oppressive aura exploded from within his body as his fist started shimmering and crackling with electricity. He met the giant fist of the monster with his own attack, he just mustered up all his courage and anger into this one hit. His hand looked tiny compared to the corrupted ones, but as the two fists met and collided the one feeling most of the pain was the huge monster instead.
Lots of spiritual energy exploded, the monster could feel its fist hit something hard it expected to squash the little human in front of it but instead it felt immense pain in its upper limb. You could see the huge muscular hand's veins bursting and the muscles convulsing as the lightning fist strike run through it. The beast got pushed back as it roared in pain, its knuckles broken to mush after it got hit by the cultivator's own fist that was infused with lightning Qi.
The man didn't stop at that though, no. He stepped forward acting and as the monster was momentarily stunned by its arm getting mangled in the exchange he delivered a high kick right to the monster's chest. The monster had a humanoid body and it also had various humanoid-like organs so as the lightning infused kick landed on the chest area it could feel the air getting sucked out of it. The ribs or rib-like bones in there broke apart as the beast got sent flying in the opposite direction crushing into many trees as it just flew in an arc.
Matt stood there, panting a bit. He looked at the creature that just flew over a hundred meters away from him and crashed into the bushes and trees. The people behind him opened their eyes in bewilderment, their pants were a lot warmer than before as they might have gotten a bit scared. They saw the white-dressed cultivator from the back, he was holding up his fist, lightning sparks coming from it. The creature was gone but it didn't take long for them to count two and two together.
*You fucking piece of shit!*
He ignored the people behind them and looked at the monster that was in pain, his eyes started glowing as he focused and took his first step forward, it was payback time. The monster stood up after a moment, it had self-healing properties so the damage was slowly regenerating. It couldn't keep it up the whole time as it did train its energy. The red eyes glowed with madness as it looked in the direction of the cultivator that it was fighting with, but he wasn't in that spot it only saw some pesky humans there instead. The creature soon saw a foot instead of in its field of vision as it landed right between the eyes, sending the hulking behemoth backward yet again.
The sound of thunder and thumping soon filled the forest along with a lot of trees getting destroyed as the creature got knocked around the whole place. The previously weak cultivator that was only dodging the attacks started wailing on the large thing, they were of the same cultivation level and all but the cultivation ranks that they had were a lot different. The monster reached its level by doping and absorbing other creatures, while the cultivator had a cultivation technique miles ahead of it.
"You like that you overgrown Squidward!"
Matt landed a palm strike to the creatures back after using his movement technique to dodge its attack, he was hopped up on adrenaline while fighting the thing but he was finally doing something. The creature might have been weaker than him, but it was still in the core formation realm and was regenerating from every hit he inflicted on it. After a while the creature started backing away while protecting itself from the hits, wings spreading apart as it tried to flee.
He could have let it flee at this point, he had won the fight. He still felt rage and was in battle mode at this point, not thinking all that straight and not being able to calm down. He used his range skills to charge up and aimed for the thing's wings which brought the monster down after a couple of hits. The corrupted one screamed out in agony as it glared at the small human in front if it had known that the ant-like existence was that strong it would have run from the start.
The monster gathered up all its energy and started glowing in a crimson hue, its muscles bulged and the tentacles on its face started thrashing about. The cultivator saw that and started charging up his own energy as well, his eyes started glowing with bright blue energy, his whole body looked like it was covered by a sheet of lightning glowing the brightest in the spot where his hands were. The two stared at each other before they ground under their feet trembled and showed cracks. The two collided with each other as they unleashed their strikes, the two started pummeling each other but this time around the cultivator didn't back away.
You could see that the creature wasn't looking too great, its regenerative powers not kicking in anymore as it had drained itself during the fight. Matt didn't look that well either, he had many scratches and bruises on his body but was still in better shape than the giant octopus. A huge arm was severed and flew up into the air as the cultivator held his light sword in one hand, the monster didn't have much time to react as it tried backing away but got one of its lower limbs severed instead then collapsed onto the ground.
It roared in protest as the small human cultivator got closer and closer. Matt saw everything in bullet time, the eerie atmosphere filled the place, you could see the damaged trees everywhere and leaves were slowly falling down. The cultivator brought both his hands together, fist placed over the other as the energy sword expanded in length and girth. He then charged at the beast that was kneeling down on the ground. The monster let out one last roar as it tried to defend itself from the attack, but its large tentacle filled head got severed right at the neck. It flopped next to the large body that went down with it, but this creature wasn't dead yet. The severed head started squiggling around and moving towards the severed neck, wanting to reattach itself.
At this moment the tribe people stood up wondering if the Senior killed the beast or not as they could hear less and less of the sounds of fighting. But then they saw the man in question fly up into the sky, he hovered there while raising both his hands above his head. He started forming what looked to be a spear of lightning, but it was growing in size every second, soon it was wider and longer than the human below it and thundering about.
Matt gave forced as much energy into the javelin attack as he could muster. He looked at the creature that was below him, the head was slowly using its tentacles to attach itself back to the body. He didn't give it enough time though as he chucked the jumbo lightning spear down on it, a resounding boom could be heard right after as the corrupted one exploded along with everything in a 500-meter radius around it, leaving a gaping hole in the ground.
Mini'thulhu The Corrupted One Slain ( Core Formation Early Stage ) Earned 90000 SP
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 28
The cultivator was panting as he looked on at the big hole in the ground, the damage was immense. He could see water slowly filling up the hole as a river was close by to it. He slowly descended to the ground going to the impact zone, he grasped the only thing that remained of the beast which was its core. He looked at the thing that caused him so much trouble and smiled to himself a bit, he did it, he won. He was a bit happy that he managed to fight the beast, but a bit mad at himself for being such a coward for so long. He gave out a chuckle and then placed the tennis ball-sized core into his storage ring, he should be able to get some nice rewards for it or use it to craft some good stuff.
He looked a bit dirty due to having been battling the monster in the forest, his clothes weren't super sturdy or anything, but they had some strange self-regeneration ability to them. So with a bit of time they looked brand new, he himself didn't feel all that great, he didn't think that he fought well. He used up too much energy and relied on his superior cultivation prowess to win while running away for the first half of the battle. But it was his first fight with someone close to his level, he was happy that he actually managed to win but he had a lot of things to work on.
He popped one of the healing pills into his mouth and felt a refreshing sensation wash over him, he kind of forgot that he even had those in the middle of the fight. Matt could feel that the creature's evil Qi was subsiding and the forest would go back to how it was previously, the berserk monsters would also vanish without having its host around. He smirked at the number of points that he received for the fight which was a whooping 90k points, he would be able to get the next level of the crafting abode, or maybe some new kick-ass skill.
At this moment he remembered why he even came to this place in the first place. He looked in the direction the scared Tribe members were and hopped onto his flying sword, slowly drifting towards them while the tension from the fight subsides. His legs felt a bit wobbly at the moment , but he didn't show it the healing pills having refreshed him somehow.
Yang Rong stood up with the help of his buddies and looked in the direction of where the fighting noises were previously coming from, but now it was silent, too silent.
"D-did that man win?"
His cronies looked at him a bit awkwardly when he referred to the Senior that just saved them with 'that man' and not with a more honorable title, but they kind of gave up on their master as they knew his character well. Suddenly they heard a strange sound and in the distance, they could see a faint glow that was moving slowly towards them, at first they thought it was some monster again but after a while, they noticed that it was Zhang Dong slowly hovering towards them on his sword. There was a path of broken down tries that he made by kicking the creature away, so he had a clear path towards them.
"Everyone alive?"
The man asked the group that stood up, clasped their hands and took a bow, well everyone besides the kid they were protecting who just did a half-baked bow. This made the others sweat bullets as they didn't want to anger the person that just slaughtered a huge monster on his own. The cultivator hopped down from his sword and slowly walked over to the silkypants in question, the others already afraid of what was about to happen.
"Hey kid, you should fix that attitude problem, you'll get yourself killed one day if you continue like that."
He flicked the youth's forehead with pointing finger, which with his increased strength left a bruise behind making Yang Rong yelp out.
"Let's go back to the village, your father and family are worried sick about you."
The youth moved his head down as the cultivator mentioned his family that was worried about him, they soon moved back towards the village but it would take them a bit to get there plus it was late at night. They abandoned their temporary camp along the way, they had all of their gear in there. They mentioned this to Matt that decided that they should go see if it's still there, he didn't really want to fly at a slow pace for the entire night plus he felt tired, more psychologically than physically.
Luckily after a couple of hours, they found the old camping site that was mostly intact, didn't take the tribesmen to bring it back in order. It wasn't much but just light tents though. Matt, of course, took up the tent that the kid previously had to himself, so he had to sleep with the rest of his men in the other one. The tension lessened in the morning as they moved on, Matt decided to place all the equipment into his storage ring so that the men could move faster and ordered them to run back to the village with all their might, he wanted to reach it before the day ended.
All of the people were cultivators so they had a lot of stamina, but not that much as they were all in the Qi Condensation stage, ranging from 3 to 6. Surprisingly the beasts didn't attack them anymore, probably the disappearance of the corrupted one and the Qi that was corrupting the animals and making them violent was the cause of that. Also, the beasts weren't that stupid, they could feel the overbearing aura of the cultivator in white so they made sure to stay far away from him.
The tribe people collapsed as they were in the close vicinity of the village, other members came to help them as they spotted the whole group. They were surprised and happy that all of them were still alive and breathing, they sometimes didn't see eye to eye with these silkypants bodyguards. They were of the same tribe though and they still felt a sense of unity.
A huge commotion was then heard as everyone rushed to the town gates, the Chief showed his love to his son by giving him a good punch in the face that broke the kid's nose and sent him flying into a nearby wall. Matt scratched his neck and smiled a little bit as he saw the father 'disciplining' his no good offspring. After Yang Rong went down, he was picked up by some family members and carried away to get some medical help. Yang Shan gave Matt another bow of respect but got waved of too cut that out by the man in question.
"You don't need to do that, you'll get some knee disease if you keep kneeling to me every time we see each other..."
The burly man blushed a bit as he knew that he was overdoing it a bit, but he couldn't give the Senior much for helping his son. They left the town entrance and Matt got a small reward in the form of a feast, then he heard of his manly fighting form as the others started recounting how he had slain the beast. They didn't see him flee from the thing plus they didn't see much besides the one time he exchanged a blow with the monster and sent it flying, so they kind of put in a few good words for him making him look like a lofty battle-hardened cultivator that feared no one. After coughing a couple of times as the tribe members were praising him too much, he drunk and watched as the people danced and had a merry good time before he turned in for the day to wind down, it was about to leave this place but he would remember this place fondly. He remembered to return the camping equipment and the tracking medallion before turning in for the night. He had a lot of points to spend tomorrow.
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 118234Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Early Stage 42%] (Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Middle Stage 0%] (Silver Body)Techniques :Lightning Qi cultivation art, Silver Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art, Lightning Javelin, Lightning Punching and kicking arts, Basic and Advanced Fighting Techniques.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 29
Tapping could be heard as the cultivator sipped on some tea and looked up into what seemed to be empty space, but he could see something there.
* Close to 120k points huh... what should I get... think I'll get the apprentice crafting abode, I'll be able to craft mortal grade weapons, those are mostly used by people in Foundation Establishment realm.*
When it came to weapon grades it went from Common then Mortal then Earth and Heaven, Common grade was used by people from the Qi Condensation realm, while mortal grade was used mostly by people from Foundation Establishment, then you head Earth grade for the core formation experts, then the Heaven graded for the Nescent Soul masters. The latter was a cultivation realm associated with the top experts on this planet, there was a very small amount of those and they were mostly the patriarchs and Grand-masters of their respected sects. Core formation experts mostly occupied the middle standing and were leaders of various top standing clans, but if you wanted to be in the highest position you needed to have at least one Nescent Soul cultivator on your side.
There was a minuscule amount of Nescent Soul cultivators around, but there also was a small amount of Core Formation cultivators around as well. Most people were in the first two stages, forming the core demographic of cultivators. This meant that he would probably have a lot of people to sell his weapons too. He could trade the spirit stones that he earned for points, he wouldn't have to fight beasts anymore. Then he could expand into the Earth grade and even make fitting weapons and gear for himself!
That was the plan so he spent the 28k points for the crafting abode, his points fell to about 90k in a second. He then spent another 10k to get some basic weapon schematics along with crafting materials required to make a couple of swords and spears that he could sell. He was in a good mood so he decided to see how well he would do in the crafting abode. After popping into the closed of dimension he noticed that the room looked a bit bigger than before and the anvil and every tool looked better than it previously did. It was still in the castle-like room but looked better. He selected the classical Jian Sword, it was one of the most popular weapon types around together with the spear.
He got ready and waited for the tune to start, it was a new song this time around as well, hit started hitting and hitting and ended up with a high grade weapon this time. He resumed the bonking, choosing the same weapon once more but this time around he put in a couple of the Qi Condensation creature cores into the mix, he also produced a high grade sword with that but it had a different appearance and patterns than the first one.
He reckoned that the weaker beast cores didn't work that well with the mortal grade weapons and he would need to use up the foundation establishment realm ones to get a similar effect that he got with the common grade weapons. But he didn't have enough of those around to blow he just had a handful and wasn't sure if he should use them up just yet. Though using one to test things wouldn't hurt so this time he selected a Guan Dao Helbard for creation and started bonking those glowing bits on the slab of metal. The metal was higher grade then what he was using on the common weapons and after he was finished he did indeed end up with a perfect grade weapon that gave out a radiant aura. He had used the first core that he got in this world, which came from the monster bunny, maybe this thing would have better penetrating power like the horn rabbits had with this?
He used up all the materials he had bought after creating 6 mortal grade weapons, these things cost a lot to make. He needed about 1k points to have enough resources to produce one, he would need to sell it for at least 100 spirit stones to break even, he wasn't sure for how much weapons went in this world so he would have to visit one of those auction hoses.
There was one more thing that he did while crafting, he was able to engrave a little logo on his weapons so he went for a lightning bolt logo, the bolt of lightning was going through the circle that was crackling with energy. It looked a bit similar to a certain superhero speedster from the previous world he lived in, be he was sure there would be no copyright problems in this world. Branding was an important thing and if he could make high grade and perfect grade weapons he was sure that his logo would be associated with quality. Due to that, he didn't engrave any logos if he made an inferior product below the high grade.
He had still 80 k points to spend, but he wasn't sure about what, he could upgrade his skills but he wasn't sure what he should go for, should he go for more power in general? More defense? He didn't really have any type of defensive skills besides the one used for evading, maybe his body refining technique could be considered a defensive skill?
As he thought about his body remembered his body strengthening technique.
Silver Body :Silver Body is the next advanced form of the Copper Body refining technique, instead of hard psychical training that is mostly attributed to body refining techniques, the cultivator absorbs weapons/treasures that are metallic in nature to refine his body into a treasure in its own. The higher-grade the treasure is the stronger the body gets. Common grade weapons and treasures have no effect on this technique. The technique can be trained up to the Nascent Soul great circle realm.
He took out one of the weapons that he made and held the sword in his hand. He closed his eyes and started concentrating on the weapon, his body started glowing in a silvery hue and the sword started vibrating. It was a slow process taking about 10 minutes, the weapon started dissolving as time past and the metallic substance that it produced seeped into his pores and he could feel his physique getting stronger and stronger as it gave out a silvery sheen.
Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Middle Stage 20%] (Silver Body)
*Oh, 20% eh? So need 4 more high grade weapons to get up a realm...*
He had 4 more of the high graded weapons while the 5th one was a perfect grade, he didn't want to use that one just yet. So after an hour of absorbing the previously created weapons, he found his Silver Body breaking into the Late Stage. He got a bit crafting crazy now and spent another 1k points to make another weapon, getting it up to high grade as well. But after absorbing it this time around his cultivation budged only by 5 %.
*5%... I'd need 19 more of those weapons...That will put me at 60k points sill...*
He spent the rest of the day just crafting and absorbing the high grade weapons, he couldn't get them to be perfect, the only way was adding beast cores to do that. After he absorbed 19 of those high grade weapons like a madman he broke through into the Great circle and his silvery sheen was even more prominent. But after he tried taking in one last hard grade of those weapons he ended up with a 0,5% boost it would take a bit for him to get it past the Great Circle and into the core formation.
Matt ended up at 50k points after he crafted more high grade weapons to sell the next time he was in a city, having 9 high grade ones and 1 perfect grade.
Then he left to appear in a flash to see that he spend the whole day crafting around, he still wanted to see if he could get some handy dandy skills to help him out in the future. He went through the store, Earth grade skills were the ones used by core formation cultivators so he decided to focus on those, trying to go for the higher grade ones and after going through the lists he decided on some.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 30
Lightning Forcefield. (Earth high grade) 17000(11900)The cultivator is able to generate a forcefield around his body to block attacks, he can also create a sturdier field in the desired spot for more protection or widen the area depending on their cultivation.Storm Dragon (Earth high grade ) 18000( 12600)Cultivator summons a dragon made from lightning, it has a mind of its own and will fallow the user's orders, after it dies it discharges all stored energy. Lightning Dao Avatar Transformation (Earth peak grade)30000(21000)The cultivator transforms his body into a Lightning Dao Avatar, the size increase is dependant on the cultivation base. The cultivator gains destructive power without having to sacrifice speed while still having an increased size.
Matt felt the skill info get injected into his brain one more, the pain wasn't as bad as before, maybe his body skill upped his resistances to this. He was left with 4734, it didn't take long to spend the points but it was a hassle go get them. The best way at the moment would be fighting more beasts at his level, but things at that cultivation level were rare plus he got lucky and fought one that had just leveled up and wasn't used to the elevated cultivation.
He had more skills in his arsenal that he needed to test out, but it was also time to leave this village. The problem with the rage monsters was solved so he had fewer monsters to hunt, also he wanted to see the world a bit more as well. He was a bit more confident in himself now, he pulled up his map and looked at his destination that the system was kind of guiding him towards. Spirit Spring City was located in the Azure Dragon Empire, the map didn't really go into much detail as it only showed him the locations and the names without explaining much.
He looked at the map and the Spirit Spring city was quite a bit away from his location, he was at the edge of the empire that had mostly small tribes and villages around. The next big city that was about halfway towards his destination was called Moonlight City. It was quite large just slightly smaller than the other City that he knew off. He decided to make a stop there on his way as he didn't want to just blindly fly all the time and maybe he could sell and but some stuff in there.
He had asked the tribe people about the structure of this empire with the pretext that he was a traveler from another country. They were happy to tell him about the power structures and how the world worked, that they knew of. He learned the Qi Condensation cultivators filled up the majority of the population, most never getting through the 3rd level bottleneck. Everyone hid their cultivation methods and resources so it was hard for regular people to cultivate. That's why Qi cultivators up below the 4th level were called commoners. After a cultivator reached the foundation establishment-level he or she could create their own family clan, passing down their teachings to elevate it. There was no rule to the size of the clan so they came in various shapes and sizes. After that came the Sects, those mostly required someone to be at least of the Foundation Establishment level but near the top of that. The sect scouted disciples to their location to grow and expand their influence not requiring one to be from the same family lineage. Sects were the biggest fishes around in the empire but it wasn't ruled by a sect in particular but had an Emperor instead.
The Emperor belonged to the Long Clan and kept the Sects in check, but no one knew who would come out on top if the two factions fought. The tribe people weren't informed enough about the prominent sects and clans as any one of them was out of their league. There were many new ones being created while old ones were crushed in a constant struggle for power.
*Guess The Azure Dragon emperor would be one of the top cultivators around here then? But those people like to hide their true power so there might be a bigger boss behind him.*
He gathered some info before heading out along with some supplies that he got from the villagers for helping them out with their beast crisis. He could see the silkypants that he saved all bandaged up but mostly from the beating, his father gave him and not from the beasts. His followers looked at him with a gleam in their eyes while smiling, this made Matt feel a bit uncomfortable on the inside. He would rather have some cute girls look at him like that, but instead he had some hairy burly men do that instead which sent a shiver down his spine.
Matt moved in front of the larger brown-skinned man and gave him a smile, he then stretched out his hand going for a handshake which Yang Shan didn't understand at first.
"This is a way how people from where I come from greet or say their farewells."
He said while grasping the burly man's large hand and giving it a firm handshake, the man looked down but then shook it right back looking like he liked this new way of greeting people.
"Cuth... The corrupted one is dead so you shouldn't have any more beast problems. If you have any troubles you can search for me in Spirit Spring City, that's where I'm heading for now, I'll probably be there for a while..." *Or so I hope...*
He shook some more hands as everyone seemed to like this new sign of respect, was a bit more personal than the bowing.
"Well, I'll be heading out then. You guys take care."
A lot of people were gathered to send him off, cheering and clapping at him as he started floating up into the air.
"Well be sure to recount your deeds for generations to come, Senior. Everyone will know the name, Zhang Dong!"
*Well, at least I didn't use the name Long Dong...*
He nodded to the people and wooshed into the air, his cultivation making the crystal-like sword shine in a bright hue as he was propelled forward to his next destination. The scenery changed to a more open one, it wasn't just trees anymore as he could see people tending to their crops on their farmlands. When they looked up the could see the cultivator dressed in a white robe, his long hair fluttering in the wind along with it. He checked his map as he looked for Moonlight city that he was heading first, but also he spotted a certain spot he wanted to make a pitstop before even going there. It looked like a really tall mountain with a high elevation and that meant a better place to cultivate, he was already halfway done by this point even when doing it in this village, so he should be able to bust through to the middle stage in no time and a few days here and there wouldn't be a problem.
Nothing much happened on the way there, but he did not make it there through the day. He stopped and descended in an unpopulated area, there was not much around besides grass some trees and bushes. He kind of prepared for this type of occasion as he wondered where he should sleep when he was on the move. The cultivators from the stories always dug out some caves and then squatted in there during the night or when they were injured but he was used to sleeping on a bed.
He pulled up his screen and clicked the crafting abode icon that transported him to the candle and fire-lit space.
*Who needs to buy another pricy base if I have this already!*
The store had big and small houses, rooms and even pocket dimensions with gardens where he could reside but they all cost a huge amount. He took out a bed from his ring that he nabbed from the tribe and placed it on the ground, this crafting area was quite large and he could even dim the light in the setting, so why couldn't he use it as a sleeping space? So he turned in for the night and dreamed about marshmallow clouds.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 31
The crafting abode didn't collapse upon itself and didn't boot him out or anything so he had a good night's rest. It was super silent in there, no soul to bother him. He stretched while yawning and jumped up to his feet, what this place was missing though was a shower and he didn't think that he could install plumbing. It worked for now though, maybe he could find a lake or a waterfall to wash up later, not like he had anybody odor, though he found that a bit odd because even if he did sweat he didn't end up smelling with sweat, guess it was something about this cultivator body of his.
He appeared out in the open in a flash of light, scaring some of the wildlife in the area. Matt chuckled to himself and while munching on a chicken leg, well it was more of an unidentified bird leg, but he told himself that it was chicken. He stretched a bit, the sun already up as the crafting room didn't have any natural, so there was no rising sun to wake him up. He tossed his flying sword out again and took flight, going towards the mountain peak.
The mountain as huge, it looked a lot smaller on the map but it just went on and on till the clouds, guess everything on this continent was bigger than back on earth. He pushed more spiritual energy into his sword and flew up into the air, ascending upwards while the skill shielded him from the heavy winds and cold air.
As he broke through the soft blanket of clouds he could see the mountain peak. To his surprise it was quite green up here, he didn't see any snow around that he expected from a place at this altitude. He looked at the map and then tried to sense the aura of others around here, but it was nice and peaceful. There were a couple of beasts up here, most of the bird variety but they scattered the moment they felt his overbearing aura as he was scanning them.
There was a layer of clouds just below the tip of the mountain he was standing on, the view was just breathtaking. Matt just took a moment to look around the place, there were vegetation and a little spring in the middle. He slowly walked around while the birds flew about, the place felt peaceful, he couldn't feel any dangers around a perfect spot to spend some time to test his skills and cultivate.
He hopped up to the highest point on the mountain top, which wasn't that wide. He had just enough space to sit down in the lotus position on the almost pointy boulder sticking out of the mountain top. He started concentrating, the wind started picking up as he resumed his cultivation. The Qi in the area was a lot thicker than what it was back in that forest village, so sucking it up was a lot easier this time around. He sucked up the water like Qi into his body, nourishing his meridians and pumping his cultivation up more and more.
The storm clouds soon gathered up above him and the ones that were below the mountain peak looking like a blanket turned dark. The animals around the peak started hiding and running away from the incoming storm. The lightning strikes soon filed the entire peak, you could hear booming sounds of thunder hitting against the human cultivator that remained seated in the lotus position. The electric strikes kept connecting with his body periodically, infusing him with more and more Qi. Due to the storm, the cultivation process was a lot faster than before but it was a lot harder as well, Matt had to focus diligently as to not let the spirit energy run wild in his body and not to overflow. Because if that happened he could suffer a backlash to his cultivation, injure himself or even lose some of his progress.
He remained in that one spot, letting the bolts sculpt his body into a better shape he could feel his core expanding slightly more and more as it took the spiritual power in. He was almost in a trance, this was normal for cultivators as when they got the ball of cultivation rolling it was hard to stop. That as also the reason while most of them remained hidden from others, doing it in seclusion not wanting to be disturbed as a lapse in judgment could be very detrimental to their well being.
He was cultivating at least twice the speed than he was previously, but he didn't stop at just doing that. Matt also had some new skills that he needed to figure out. After he got his fill of absorbing spiritual energy that pushed his cultivation past 50% he decided to take a break. First came the forcefield or barrier technique. He clasped his hands, forming a seal as a semi-transparent coating started appearing around him. It looked like a regular circular barrier around a person but looked a bit more unstable with the lightning energies crackling around it. At this moment some dust got kicked up and as it came up to the barrier and blocked its approach, crackling in response. He could tell that inside he was safe from harm but outside the forcefield would discharge electricity at anything that came in contact with the barrier.
He started playing around with this skill managing to make it bigger and bigger covering about an area of 10 meters before he started having problems in keeping it together. He could also shrink it and focus in front of himself, this made the barrier thicker in that spot and it would probably defend against more damage.
Matt nodded and moved on to the Storm dragon skill, he concentrated while waving his hands around in various patterns. This skill couldn't be formed instantly which would be its weakness. After a moment electricity escaped from his body and shoot above his head, the energy concentrated into one spot and started forming a Dragon, it wasn't the western type of dragon that most people were familiar with, it was the more serpentine looking one from Eastern stories. The creature looked like a construct of blue and white light as it gave out electricity, it roared about and circled around his body as if going into a defensive position.
He could feel some kind of strange mental connection with the creature, he could also see through its eyes as it flew around. He tried giving it some basic orders like 'go over here', 'hit that rock' and 'defend this position'. It followed all the instructions to a tee, but when he ordered it to do the Fortnite dance it, it looked at him with question marks above its head.
*I guess not, heh.*
He could actually ride the thing, so it would be an alternative to his sword if he ever lost it, the Dragon was big enough for him to ride while having space for more people. This way of traveling was a lot more draining on his spiritual energy though, so it would probably not be a good idea to use it as a regular way of traveling.
The last but certainly not the least was the Avatar transformation, he took a good breath in before he released the skill. It didn't have any fancy hand movements to activate, he just had to concentrate but it also had a bit of a charge uptime. He could feel his body giving of spiritual energy, the Qi started coating his whole body and expanding outwardly. Growing and growing, he could feel his point of view getting elevated as the technique turned him into a giant made from lightning, the sparks flew everywhere while he looked at his hands and ground below him. Size-wise he was close to 6 meters tall, but he could pump himself up further but that would drain his energy faster and faster. If he increased his cultivation he reckoned he could sustain a larger form for a longer time.
He threw a few punches, his power certainly increasing with this skill. He tried forming a javelin while in this form, which worked as the one he formed was many times larger than his regular one, he could probably take on people on a higher cultivation level than he was with this skill, but he had to be quick as it was quite draining. He tested it out, managing to keep it up without using any other skills for about 10 minutes before his energy dipped below 50 %, he would probably have a couple of minutes of real fighting time if he decided to go ham on someone.
*Guess I should probably use this more as a finisher than the opener, or to give others a scare.*
He powered down moved back to cultivating, he wanted to his core formation middle stage before moving on, it would boost his reserves quite a bit and being more powerful was always the best way to go. It took him about half a week to finally pump his cultivation to 100%, his lightning core churned with energy, crackling and expanding as he broke through his aura filled the surroundings as a lightning bolt directly hit his body. He stood up and tested his new level with a couple of punches and kicks. He felt a lot stronger than before, he could probably take out the corrupted one with one good placed hit if he fought him once more. Going up a level in cultivation was a lot bigger than going up in levels in games, it was quite the big difference indeed. After testing his skills a bit more at the higher cultivation realm he decided to head to the new town.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 32
Matt traveled through the land, zooming around and taking in the sights. The land was quite beautiful and there were many wondrous beasts and sights to see. He even found himself a waterfall to wash up in, then he tried cultivating under it but the progress was a lot slower as the water made it more difficult to transform Qi to the lightning variant. He thought to himself about his future, he wasn't here for that long and he already almost died due to a wannabe Squidward. The sights were nice and all but spending most of his life as a couch potato while playing games and being as lazy as possible made it hard for him to change the outlook on his life. He was getting better but he still had the tendency to be lazy, though there was not much to do here besides crafting, fighting and cultivating.
*Well, I should be there in a couple of hours if I keep the speed up.*
His flying speed also increased with his cultivation as not only did he have a bigger spiritual energy gas tank, the quality also improved so he spent less while having more. He didn't see other cultivators flying about on their swords, but that was natural as there weren't that many core formation ones around, a foundation establishment person wasn't able to fly much. But see a couple of flying ships, they looked like regular wooden boats and galleons but somehow they were able to move in the air as he did on his sword. Maybe he too could make something like that later one? Did the Dao of crafting include shipbuilding?
He shrugged and flew ahead, he sometimes wished that the cash store would have electronics in them, he could use his old smartphone or an mp3 player, these long trips had interesting things to see, but otherwise, it was quite boring. And would you know it, he got what he wanted as when he was passing by, he spotted a caravan, it looked like one of those merchant caravans that you would expect in fantasy settings. The caravan was stopped by the road, it was getting blocked by some group Matt knew how to hide his aura so that no one below his level could spot him by this point so he peeked down. All the cultivators were still in the Qi Condensation level but they were at a higher level then what the tribe people were ranging mostly from 5 to 12, There also was one person in the foundation establishment-level mixed into the bunch. He was a bit behind the others and was hiding his strength. The leader of the person at the 12th level was from the caravan and as Matt looked at the name above it read Lan Fei, that was a female name right?
He wasn't sure what was going on and couldn't see all that well from way up here so he decided to get a bit closer. He was quite the nosy person it seemed and the boredom was getting to him, as he got closer he noticed that the female cultivator was quite the beauty and how to put it she was quite stacked too boot. This, of course, made him use his heightened senses to zoom in on the lovely peaks, the woman had her cleavage exposed and all. She was wearing what looked like traditional Chinese clothes, just with more revealing parts and sticking to her shapely body quite tightly. He snapped out of it and looked at the group opposite them, they had smirks on their faces as they looked at the woman and the people behind them.
"This is Cheng Clan territory, you need to pay the toll if you want to pass!"
One of the thugs said while smirking at the busty woman who looked angry.
"What's the meaning of this, the Cheng Clan? The only toll is by the city gates, everyone knows that! Plus this area belongs to the Zhang Clan"
Matt perked up at the mention of his so-called clan that he had no idea who was or wasn't a member in, he found himself moving closer and closer as things got even spicier, he was totally not staring at the woman's chest and totally didn't stare as she was talking which made her ample bosom bounce in a lovely way. The Cheng Clan members noticed this too, so they started drooling themselves.
"Hehe, the Zhang Clan has its hands full in Spirit Spring City, they have no power in Moonlight city anymore."
The woman frowned at the people in front of her, if this was true then they wouldn't be able to get out of this without paying. They could not offend the ruling clan of this city if they ever wanted to do business here. But she didn't like the way these upstarts handled things, the moment they got some measure of power they extorting money from people. She gave out a sigh and tried to be professional about it, being the caravan's owner and a merchant herself. The sleazy ways of these people weren't anything new to her.
"How much?"
The men were a bit surprised that the girly didn't complain more but then grinned at her. They looked at each other and then the man in charge stepped forward and while looking at the woman licked his lips.
"100 low grade spirit stones"
The woman opened up her eyes wide and frowned, this was just plain extortion she wouldn't pay more than 10 at the gate and this price was ten times the regular amount.
"Why don't you just rob us, does your clan head even know you are doing this?"
The men chuckled to each other while standing.
"Well, we'll drop the price to 10, if you give us some special service girly~"
The man licked his lips as he moved forward and looked at the woman like a predator. The people behind the woman started complaining but didn't know if they could offend these people, the Cheng Clan might have been an upstart clan but they did have Foundation Establishment elders which they couldn't handle on their own.
"Preposterous, Lady Fei lets just leave, we can just head to another city."
One of the people from the caravan spoke while glaring at the Cheng Clan people, the woman started to think if that would be a good or bad idea, what if they go into the city and they get harassed more, you could never trust those power-hungry upstarts that did whatever they wanted. As she was about to make a decision one of the men in front of them walked out and she could feel pressure pushing her down it was a senior cultivator!
"Why don't you stay, I insist."
The real leader got revealed as the cronies made way for him, the man looked quite old with a wrinkled up face and beady eyes. He was just in the early stage, but this was enough to make the caravan people tremble in their boots. Now they were afraid, they would have no chance of running if this elder jumped in they would have to pay the toll but the problem wasn't that. The Clan people had set their sight on their boss.
"How about your people gather the spirit stones while we have a nice chat over there?"
The old man grinned while poking a bit to the side into the bushes, he turned out to be an old pervert to boot as he also wanted in on that action. The woman showed quite the disgusting face in response while the people on her side took out their weapons, this could turn bloody any second.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Suddenly everyone heard an unfamiliar voice, everyone looked around to the sides but they couldn't see anyone around but suddenly they looked up and there was one peculiar cultivator hovering right above their heads. He was standing straight up, hands behind his back and his feet planted on an expensive-looking flying sword. Everyone gulped as they realized that the man was a core formation expert, just from the way he was nonchalantly flying above them without a worry in his mind. They also could feel his overbearing aura emanating out that confirmed their concerns.
"Ah you see, we were just trying to collect the toll... "
The elder from the Cheng Clan started speaking while looking upwards while sweating bullets, the clan didn't even have one core formation elder in their mids the strongest person being at the great circle of foundation establishment so he could not offend this senior that staring him down.
"Oh, toll? thought the toll was only collected by the city gate? Right?"
"Ah yes, that's right. We must have made a mistake, Senior!
The Cheng Clan members were fast learners and could read the atmosphere. So they quickly gave up on the idea of harassing this caravan and turn tail to run. Matt didn't say much just looked at the people backed away till they were gone, then he looked at the people from the caravan that looked surprised and maybe even shocked a bit.
*A righteous man always has to aid the downtrodden! Even more so if they have...*
He thought while trying not to stare at the woman's cleavage.