Unfathomable Senior Chapter 65 Online
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 65
The tunnel Zhang Dong was peeking out was not the only one, there were many and they all led into this massive cavern. The other tunnels were also probably connected to other places that those demonic beings had taken over. Matt didn't know where they were, but they were probably deep under the city. The cavern was circular with a high ceiling. In the middle was an altar, pedestals with torches around it and a familiar-looking mass of tentacles in the middle.
*I thought that thing back in the forest died... are there more of them around...*
Ltl'thulhu The Corrupted One ( Core Formation Late Stage )
*Ltl?... little? Is that even bigger than mini...*
This monster was certainly stronger than the last one of its type. Zhang Dong looked on as the monster was just a head peeking out of a mass of tentacles, similar to the way the other one looked when it powered up. He took a quick glance at the people that were standing around the altar. They were holding curved daggers in front of some infants that were placed on smaller sacrificial altars in front of the monster. What they were doing was quite clear, he had to save the children and he couldn't let the monster evolve further.
There were eight infants, two on each side of the rectangular altar. The people seemed to be finished with their chanting as they started pointing those daggers at the babies. First Matt bolted out of his hiding place, making enough sound so that everyone would notice his arrival. He wasn't really worried about the cultists, they weren't strong but he had to get those kids to safety first.
The cultists quickly started going through their demonic transformation as they reacted to the threat. While the baddies were focusing their attention on him, he surrounded the children with his spiritual energies forming small barriers around their frames. This was a bit taxing on his mind, but he managed to pull through before the monsters could shishkebab the poor babies.
The monsters were uppon him at that point, trying to devour him whole while their big boss was flailing around in the tentacle mass, mad that it couldn't get its meal. The lackeys weren't really a problem as they got bisected in an instant by his blade. He started cleaving them apart left and right while gathering up the infants from the altars.
Ltl'thulhu wasn't having any of this, the tentacle mass started coming together to form his body. He looked exactly like the monster that he fought back in the forest, but it was a lot bigger. The good thing about its size was that it was taking some time for that body to form, this was time he needed to get the kids out.
The children floated around him in those tiny barrier bubbles while he hopped onto his sword. He couldn't really battle this thing while thinking of the babies, so he decided to fly straight upwards. He shot through the air like an arrow, while holding out his sword that was glowing deep blue. The ceiling had some strange rune-like patterns drawn into the rocks, probably some kind of formation that prevented the demonic aura from seeping out. It only worked one way though, as Matt could feel that the rock wasn't all that thick. He used his Thunder Sword Thrust to lunch a flash of powerful lightning sword energy at the ceiling in front of him.
The people in the city could suddenly hear a rumbling sound, followed by thunder as Zhang Dong busted from beneath the clan estate. Yes, the monster lair was right under the governing clan's main building. But the clan in question didn't seem to be working with the demonic cultists as they were baffled by the situation as well.
The Kin Clan members just witnessed a cultivator bust through their backyard, surrounded by thick spiritual energy. After the man flew out, many winged monsters started clawing their way out of the hole, screeching and roaring in the surroundings. This certainly woke everyone up, the cultivators started fighting with the monsters that they previously came across but could never pint point their location. No one in their right mind would have thought that the demons were hiding right under their estate.
The monsters gnashed their teeth at the human cultivators that attacked them with spears and swords. While the creepy crawlies were distracted with the other cultivators Zhang Dong descended to the side. He looked around, spotting some female cultivators that were running somewhere. He dropped down right next to the group of females, the sight of a big burly cultivator with balls of light hovering around him made the people stop and stare.
"Hey, those demons were trying to eat these babies, bring them out of here, I'll take care of their boss."
The women blinked in surprise while Zhang Dong opened up the barriers surrounding the infants, doing it one by one while handing the crying children to the women. One of the women quickly run-up to a specific baby, grasping it close to her chest.
"It's Bao'er, he disappeared two days ago!"
Guess this one was one of theirs, so the women quickly took the babies away. The surroundings rumbled once more and a strong demonic aura could be felt by everyone. The people started screaming, blood coming out of their ears and eyes. This was clearly an aura attack performed by the huge ugly boss monster that started emerging from the hole in the ground. It was a lot bigger than the one he met in the forest, about three times as tall.
All of the monsters roared as their master was emerging, not affected by the aura. The human cultivators were close to losing their minds, but then they felt a powerful aura enveloping them. This aura pushed the demonic one away, forcing the smaller monsters back as well. The people saw a fearsome cultivator emerging on his sword, his body was covered in lightning, his eyes glowing with a deep blue hue.
"Hey, sh*t head. Your opponent is me."
Matt sent another sword thrust at the ugly looking beast, aiming for the head. The monster covered itself up with its huge palm which blew up sending flesh and black goo flying. The hand regenerated quite fast afterward though, the black blood sizzled against the pavement as it had corrosive properties, it even dissolved one of the smaller demons in the process.
Zhang Dong flew upwards on his sword, throwing his ranged skills at the monsters just poking it while the thing finally burst out fully through the rocky ground. It didn't look like he was doing much damage as the thing had high regenerative properties. This wasn't really his plan though, he just wanted to make it mad so that it would chase him instead of remaining in the city. His plan seemed to work as the monster spread it webbed wings taking off into the air.
The huge size making it blow away its own demon minions along with the weaker human cultivators. Matt flew away while throwing his javelins at the demon, slowly making the demon follow him to a more secluded location. He thought that the Kin Clan members should be able to take care of the weaker demons, they also had a core formation elder among them.
People in the city could see the giant being flying above them, its loud booming roars waking everyone up in the city. They could see that the behemoth was chasing a man on a sword, that was attacking it with some ranged attacks. It looked like the man was fleeing while the beast was chasing him down, it looked bleak for the cultivator.
The two vanished in the distance after a couple of minutes, the sounds of fighting could be heard in the Kin Clan compound as well as in the distance where the flying horror and the cultivator headed to.
*Okay, this should be far enough...*
Matt looked at the Cthulhu looking fiend, it looked quite similar to the mini version. Red glowing eyes, squid face, huge burly arms and frame. He thought to the last time he was battling this thing, that time he just overpowered it after finally mustering up some courage to fight. This time around it wouldn't be that easy, the thing was a lot stronger and a lot bigger. But he had also gotten a lot stronger and he actually knew how to use his techniques.
"I wonder how long you can keep regenerating, didn't last that long the first time we fought"
He grasped the air, forming another spear of light. He charged it up for a longer period before chucking it at the incoming baddie. The spear split into smaller parts and pierced into the tough green skin of the monster, damaging it in the process. Ltl'thulhu roared annoyed at the wounds it was receiving, the holes where the small spears pierced into healed in the spawn of seconds.
"Well, at least your slow and stupid."
Matt thought that he would just tire the thing out with some guerrilla tactics first. Poking till its regenerative abilities run dry, then he would either slice and dice it or match its size with his avatar ability. But as he was charging up another one of his ranged attacks, the beast roared and released a deep red energy blast from within its hideous mouth. The blast of energy headed right for him, in the nick of time he managed to dodge it to the left side, the blast only grazing his arm slightly. This was enough to disintegrate his clothes on his right side, his arm getting a bit charred in the process as he felt a massive amount of pain.
The energy attack flew by, crashing into a forest below creating a giant explosion. Dirt and dust flew up into the air as the only thing remaining afterward was a giant crater. It looked like a meteor had crashed in the middle of the forest. Matt's whole arm twitched, he felt a sharp pain but luckily nothing was broken and the pain quickly subsided thanks to his body refining skill.
*I guess it has more tricks up its sleeve...*
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 66
The creature started blasting him with various ranged attacks, besides the breath attack it also could shoot out its huge pointy claws at him. He managed to parry them thanks to his new gained swordsmanship while counterattacking with some timely placed Thunder God slashes and thrusts. Matt didn't think he would have so much trouble with this thing, but his inexperience in battle showed. He couldn't just rely on his stats anymore, these enemies were close to his level and he had to start taking things seriously which he was trying.
He wasn't keeping his distance anymore, he was like an annoying fly buzzing around the creature's head as he used his small size to his advantage. The demon couldn't really use that huge ranged attack on him if he constantly moved, so he did. He sliced and diced the large body, managing to chop one of those webbed wings clean off. He evaded the large claws that were swung at him, the creature then promptly fell to the ground with a resounding boom.
He examined the detached wing that just turned to black liquid the moment it got removed from the main body. Another wing started growing right back, but the regeneration was getting slower and slower. The angry monster fired of another mouth blast in Matt's direction but missed by a mile, it looked quite pissed of as its face tentacles thrashed about menacingly.
He had been fighting it for an hour now, the thing was quite sturdy but after he learned its move set it was just a matter of dodging the telegraphed attacks while getting one or two of his own hits in. He could test his fighting prowess on this raging monster that was at around his level. He was able to test out his skills on a moving target, upping his fighting experience.
"I guess I could test this new move out on this thing..."
He was mostly focused on his swordsmanship in this battle, it was a lot easier to use his weapon than to rely on his fists. While the monster was down on the ground he also descended and started charging at it. The angry behemoth brought down its giant fist at the annoying cultivator but instead of hitting him, it felt a jolt of electricity running through its whole arm as it hit a lightning afterimage. While the monster was feeling a tingling sensation in its huge arm, Zhang Dong appeared behind it with his sword in hand.
He breathed in while concentrating, his body giving off a golden color. Everything seemed to slow down in the surrounding area as he activated the skill he achieved after upgrading his golden body. This skill let him perceive everything in slow motion while increasing his speed. He used this in tandem with his thunder god slash, slashing out with his sword energy. He didn't just slash once, nor twice he delivered hundreds of these less powerful slashes in a mater of seconds that quickly turned the monster's body into sashimi.
He breathed out, feeling his stamina getting drained due to the multiple usage of skills that was taxing his body. Delivering so many light sword slashes in unison was quite strenuous. He looked on as the giant's body started breaking up into cut-up cubes that turned into black goop. The monster was quite in a bind as it tried reassembling itself back to its original form. Matt was a bit surprised that the creature was still alive as he hoped that this special move would bring the thing down.
"Do I have to disintegrate this thing to molecules or something?"
He performed some hand seals, pointing his hands on the cut-up monster that was slowly reforming its head. He pumped his cultivation into his next attack as a giant dragon head started forming. This dragon construct was huge, its head easily able to gulp up the monster remains as it was ordered to. Matt guided the dragon upwards, while the wiggling mass of tentacles and thick black liquid tried to escape outside. The over-sized lightning dragon could be seen from afar flying towards the heavens only to explode, disintegrating any remains from the Cthulhu lookalike, as the heavenly lightning that it was made off was quite effective.
Ltl'thulhu The Corrupted One Slain( Core Formation Late Stage ), gained 192000 Spirit Points
The clouds parted revealing the stary sky to the denizens of the gloomy city, the multiple moons shone down upon the people as the battle was over. Zhang Dong fell down onto his butt, his forearms propped up on his own knees as he panted. He had slain the monster, he didn't take much damage as the thing was all power and no speed. Still, he was gassed out the Qi regeneration pills weren't tasty at all as he swallowed them whole.
He was slowly getting the hang of this fighting stuff, he grabbed the leftover core that the monster dropped and hopped onto his sword. He didn't know if the people back in the city were able to handle the monsters so he sped back. He didn't need to worry though, as the warriors from the Kin clan managed to clear them up. He also noticed that some monster stragglers were just dissolving. The beasts might have been part of the big boss monsters, it probably was just using them to gather in resources. Though this one had an acquired taste for infants, Matt didn't know how many of them fell to the beast but at least there wouldn't be any more casualties after this. He also wondered if this was really the last time he would see this type of demonic being.
He landed back in the Kin Clan estate, people were a bit apprehensive about his arrival as they saw him leaving with the huge overpowered monster. The clan came out to have a talk with Zhang Dong, that gave them a quick rundown of the things that happened to him after he arrived in town. He also told them that he was here to collect the bounty for the monster he defeated as it was put up by this here clan.
The clan members didn't have a reason to doubt his story as they started examining the hole beneath their estate, finding the ritual cavern and the tunnels heading into various establishments around the city. They all gulped hard after realizing that the whole city would have probably been devoured by those devils if this cultivator didn't show up. They were so grateful that they even doubled his salary which Matt was grateful for. They invited him to stay over for the night, though it was close to dawn at this point.
He took the denizens of the city up on their offer, he was quite hungry as the demons interrupted him when he was trying to get some grub. He was led to a nice looking room where he was offered various spirit foods, some cute ladies were even playing harps and slow dancing on the side to add to the atmosphere. The only awkward thing about this was that he was still in his disguised state and had to come up with some fake name. Being the big-brained individual that he was he gave himself the genius name of...
"Just call me... Lei Yinglo..."
He almost choked on his drink after coming up with that name, trying not to laugh while the people around him tried to please him. After some nightly pleasantries, he was guided to a nice room in which he just for a couple of hours. He left early in the morning, checking if he hadn't forgotten anything. The people were nice enough to see him off, or maybe just being courteous.
He looked at his status and counted the spirit stones that he had gathered until this point, two weeks had passed since he had left. He should be able to get to that last wanted person. He would have about a week to take care of him before returning. He had a hefty amount of points now, but having more wouldn't hurt. He left this disguise on this time around as he swished towards his next destination, it was a couple of days away from this spot. He really wished that he could get a smartphone with music or movies that he could look at during his boring flight. It was fun in the beginning, but now it was boring as hell just looking at the blurry ground below him as he zoomed by.
The Ravager sure sounded like an edgy character, he imagined someone dressed all in black with a strange haircut. Or maybe he would have a long coat and a mask covering his face. Though his body count seemed to be no joke as the notice said that he might have killed thousands of people. The town he was heading was called Frostriver, he wanted to check it out before going to those five dread peeks. Maybe if he was lucky he could get this done in just a couple of days, this tracking skill he had now was quite nifty.
For now, he just churned his cultivation power, the crystal flying sword glowing brighter as he dashed through the clouds. The milky sky marshmallows parted as his sword surfing board pierced through them, leaving a triangle-shaped path behind him. The wildlife below him scattered after taking in his overbearing aura, people craning their necks as they heard the sonic booms.
"Watch out Ravager, Lei Yinglo is coming for you!"
Chapter 67
Back in Spirit Spring City.
It had been about three weeks since Zhang Dong left on his adventure and the tournament was coming to an end. All the foundation establishment elders were set in stone at this point, the Qi condensation participants would be ending their bouts in a couple of days as well.
Zhang Liu had managed to break through his bottleneck of the 9th level and reached the 10th. The combination of his hard to crack skin and lightning combat arts had propelled him to the top in his age range. Xue was able to reach the 9th level due to the overwhelmingly better cultivation art that she possessed now. She wasn't doing as well as her older brother, still getting a lot of drawn-out that ended in draws. She was still holding her ground somewhere at the end of the brackets.
The two were increasing their battle prowess with each day, getting some practical sparring experience during the tournament while concentrating on their insights into the Dao that their master had left them with. The two missed their masters a bit, as they had many questions concerning their Dao path as the scriptures that they received had many hard to understand passages.
"Hey Xue, do you know what this one about the prime meridian means..."
Liu asked while squinting at the copied over manuscript.
"I'm not sure brother... it's challenging to understand..."
The sister replied while looking over the shoulder of her big brother, the two trying to trade pointers with each other during these 3 weeks they were cultivating.
"Maybe it's too soon for us to understand? We'll have to wait till Master returns to ask him about it."
The two wanted their uncle to return from his journey, they wanted to receive some input on their advancements. But also didn't want to bother him too much so they were trying to progress by themselves as much as it was possible.
"Mother has been chosen as one of the seniors to participate in the expedition..."
Liu gave out a sigh as he handed his sister the manuscript with the dao of lightning written down.
"Well, at least there will be someone to knock some sense into you there~"
His sister chuckled into her long sleeve while her brother scoffed at her reply. They both were nervous about the future of their family, their father was already dead. The whole predicament was due to that sect, the two felt a burning rage towards it.Their master told them to abandon that anger otherwise, they would form some inner demons. But even with the new Tranquil mind skill, the male from the group was finding it hard to drop his vengeful feelings.
"Remember what Master said, 'Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. Though I'm not sure what he meant with 'dark side' when he was talking about it."
The girl contemplated on the cryptic meaning of her Master's wise words. The month was coming to the end and their master would be returning, so they focused on their training.
A couple of days earlier.
Zhang Dong was arriving by the city of Frostriver, as he had thought it was covered in snow. It looked like a blanket of white was covering the entire surrounding area, he even saw an abominable snowman as he was flying by some mountain peaks. He used his travel time to slay a couple of demonic beasts, gathering up more points in the process. This didn't slow him down all that much, considering he could kill the weaker beasts with one thrust of his sword.
Time was running out though, he didn't have much of it left so he wanted to catch this demonic cultivator and return back home. First, he needed to gather some intel, so he directly landed in front of the city gates and just asked the guards if they knew something about that Ravager fellow. The men looked at the strong-looking cultivator and told them that he should talk to one of the merchants in the city, as the man would probably know where to find the man.
*Oh? Well, maybe I won't need to search for him that much then.*
He was pleasantly surprised that he had a lead right from the start. Matt was a bit surprised by the authenticity of all the wanted reports he had, all of the leads were panning out. These people sure had a good information network going around, even without any internet. Guess those communication jades came in handy.
*Wonder if I can get something better than a communication jade, they said that they couldn't talk with anyone that went to that secret grounds after they entered it.*
He recalled a couple of pocket dimension dungeon tropes that went around in novels. Some of them had random teleportation traps that send people all over the place if something like that occurred a communication device would come in handy. He would check that out later, but for now, he headed to a large merchant building the emblem on it looked somewhat familiar but he couldn't remember from where.
*Probably seen it in some restaurant in another city.*
Matt was still in his disguise, having the more menacing scarred up face look. He kind of liked playing the role of the grumpy looking cultivator, he found it funny how women quickly grabbed their kids to the side whenever he was walking down the street. It was certainly a good look if you were going with an intimidation approach.
The merchant business building was huge, there were carriages coming in and out of it. He could see some muscular-looking bros unloading and loading merchandise. There were various types of weapons and items scattered around, he could even see someone selling fresh fish in the corner this kind of made his tummy grumble.
*If I don't stop eating so much I'll get fat...*
He shook his head while going in and looking for a clerk that he could ask for directions. As he entered a little bell rung and he was greeted by a nice looking lady, though the woman twitched a bit as she noticed that a fearsome-looking uncle just come in. But she quickly gathered herself, showing a bright smile.
"Welcome to the Red Lotus merchant group, how may I be of service, good sir?"
Matt pulled out a jade slip on which he stored only the part with the Ravager fellow, on it was the description of his last location as well as his appearance. The woman looked through the jade slip, her eyes moving between the storage device and the man in front of her. She was staying silent for some reason so Matt decided to get the conversation on track.
"I'm looking for that man, the guards by the city told me that you people from the merchant group should have some information..."
The woman certainly knew something as she was fidgeting around not sure what to do. After a moment she excused herself saying that she would bring over a manager. Matt waited for a bit while tapping his finger on the bar counter, other people started whispering amongst each other while glancing at him but evading his gaze when he looked back at him.
*They are certainly bad at keeping secrets.*
After five minutes or so the lady worker came back with an older looking gentleman. He was wearing glasses and looked like a strict teacher type. He examined Matt from top to bottom before speaking out in a serious tone.
"Could I know why sir is looking for that man on the wanted list?"
Matt crossed his arms together, trying to look slightly more menacingly before he replied.
"To get the rewards of course, what else?"
He shrugged nonchalantly while grinning, kind of making it look like it wouldn't be a big deal. The two were a bit taken aback by the man's claims and confident act.
"Sir, are you sure, that man is a powerful demonic cultivator... he had killed many men..."
The man replied with concern in his voice.
Zhang Dong raised his eyebrow, he still didn't know if they were protecting the man or just trying to not get strangers into trouble. Guess they didn't trust him, so he decided on a demonstration of his power. He slammed the counter with his hand, making it break apart in the process, his core formation aura filling the whole merchant building. Everyone felt the strong aura around them, but they weren't getting pushed to the ground or bleeding from their orifices as Matt just wanted to show his level of cultivation and not cause the people harm.
"Stop stalling, you dare hide information from this Lei Yinglo!"
He shouted out so everyone could hear him, almost breaking his act after he told the people his name. He stopped releasing his aura letting the people gather their senses as they were still panting. Before the scared manager and the lady could reply, a chubby man waddled out from the side. The man was quite rotund, his cheeks jiggled around as he ran towards the group of people. The man came to a stop in front of him and quickly started bowing.
"Boohoo! Please senior save my daughter, that bastard took my little girl Whaaaaa."
The man dropped down to his knees and started hugging Matt's thigh, crying and sobbing like a little child. He started shaking his leg but the ball of a man was clinging to him like a spider monkey just bawling his hear out. The man was the owner of the merchant group here, he had apparently lost his daughter to the demonic cultivator in question. Lei Yinglo delivered a bonk to the chubby man's head to calm him down, hoping that he could get an explanation.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 68
Matt felt a bit perplexed as he looked at the rotund man that was rubbing his forehead. The manager and the lady tried to help their boss up to his feet, but he was just too heavy for the two of them. They fell on their butts after the woman slipped and lost her grip on her boss' arm. After the people were done with their comedic routine they finally started to talk, recounting the previous day.
"He came at sundown, he somehow managed to remove the cities protective formation. The experts in the city cowered in fright and didn't even dare to come out to face him... damn cowards..."
The man blew his nose and continued speaking in a solemn tone.
"The demonic aura soon filled the whole area, it was truly overbearing. He said that he demanded ten beautiful women as his brides and that he would pick them out himself. He then used some kind of strange purple glowing treasure that looked like a medallion."
The chubby merchant wiped some sweat from his brow, he looked like he was about to cry again.
"He started pointing that thing at the poor girls, t-they got sucked into it, he got my little girl too..."
Matt rubbed his chin while listening to what the man was saying, it looked like the demonic cultivator probably captured the women to perform some kind of ritual. Could also be part of his cultivation method, he knew that some cultivation methods required people to sleep with each other. He didn't like where this was going, would he sacrifice those girls to some demon, or suck their life energy? None of those choices was any good.
"Hmmm..., tell me where he went. There is probably not much time left for those girls."
He didn't want to sugarcoat it as he replied in a serious tone, he would try to save those girls but he didn't want to give these people high expectations. The manager stepped in this time around, telling Matt in what direction the man left.
"Also when that man come here? Did he touch anything? Or do you perhaps have something that belonged to your kidnapped daughter?"
He had his tracking skill by now, maybe he could get a whiff of the man's aura that would point him in the right direction. He might also be able to home in on the aura trail of the girls. He received some kind of hair accessory that was giving off a faint spiritual signal, he could see a purplish energy trail going all around the merchant house which didn't help him out that much. In the mess of trails he could point out an ominous looking one.
It looked like a strand of vape smoke just drifting about and out of the front door. He stepped outside to follow the trail that was mixing with some other random aura trails. If he didn't home in on it in the merchant building he would probably not be able to single it out in this piled up mess.
"Okay, I got his trail, I'll be leaving then."
He jumped up into the air, skillfully removing his flying sword from his spatial ring and wooshing into the distance before the people around him could say anything back to him. Truthfully the merchant and his workers didn't expect much from this man, they thought that he would either flee or die, still the father prayed that his lovely daughter would be rescued.
*The more I stay in this world, the bleaker it gets... demons, monsters that kidnap infants in the night. People that care more about power than the well-being of others, rapists and murderers everywhere... not sure why people like these kind of worlds in those novels, prefer them less chaotic, wonder if I can change the peoples mindset...
He rubbed his glabella with the eyes closed before opening them up and following the smoke trail. He was set on rescuing those women, hoping that he would make it in time before it was too late. He tried to be positive but the surroundings were throwing him curveballs every time. The trail brought him towards a mountain range that looked even more gloomy than the town he was previously in. The wind was whistling and storm clouds were gathering, lightning and thunder filling the surroundings. It looked like these were the so-called dread peaks.
The moment he got close he noticed that the trail was getting thicker and thicker, leading him towards one of the mountain peaks. He arrived at the spot, his sword drawn as he could feel quite a bit of demonic Qi around. But besides some trashy looking demonic beasts there was no one in sight. He focused on the trail, but it turned from one smoke stream to multiple ones and soon just filled the whole surrounding area so much that he had no way of telling where the demonic cultivator went. His sytem map didn't show much either, just pointed out some dots here and there but it could't pierce through the mountain not showing any life signals.
*His demonic qi is filling the whole mountain top, I can't tell where he went from here... is there some kind of secret passage?*
The cultivator was at a high level and he managed to survive for so long even with people on his trail. It was wise to assume that he had some kind of hidden lair or some kind of treasure that hid his presence. Maybe if Matt could find the entrance he could figure something out, but his tracking skill wasn't pointing him to it.
He thought about the hair accessory that he received from the merchant, he pulled it out in the hopes that maybe he could home in on the woman's aura instead. The tracking ability was quite easy to use, he just needed to concentrate on one energy signature and it would show him the trail if that type of aura was in the surroundings. He concentrated, the dark smoke vanished as he focused on the accessory that gave out its own light purple smoke signal.
*Okay, I've locked on to it... let's see if I can find something here...*
He looked around while hovering on his sword, trying to pick up the purple aura. It only took him a couple of flights to finally spot the trail in question. He followed it to an unsuspecting wall, it didn't seem like there was anything there just a part of the mountain, not even a cave. The purple smoke was clearly going into the rocks, telling him that there should be an entrance somewhere.
*Should I just bust through? But won't that alert that guy to my presence...*
He changed his trail vision back to the evil cultivators, dark smoke filling his vision as he looked around. He spotted a certain spot that was a lot darker than the rest, it was a tree stump with a hole in it. After fiddling for a second he actually found a lever in there, after pulling on it he could hear some kind of mechanism getting turned on. The wall started rumbling and suddenly vanished into thin air revealing a corridor behind it.
*Great, more corridors...*
He placed his flying sword back into his storage ring while pulling out his Spirit Infusion Longsword, he also thought that the name for his weapon was a bit too long. He would have to give his weapon a better name like 'Lightbringer' or 'Thunder-fall'. For now, he hid his aura as much as he could and went into the tunnel, inside he was rewarded with some stairs, though they were going upwards into the mountain peak and not down this time around. The peak in question stretched into the mountains for quite some time, so this might have been a long walk.
*What's with all these damn stairs... *
He focused back on the purple trail that continued on, the daughter of that merchant had to be here somewhere he had to hurry up and rescue her along with the rest. Luckily it didn't take him half an hour like last time as he came to a clearing and could even hear some voices in the distance.
He started sneaking towards the noises, there was light coming from that area and the door seemed to be open the demonic cultivator probably wasn't expecting any visitors. Matt tippy-toed his way and slowly peeked out of the door entrance while remaining vigilant. It wouldn't be funny if he got attacked the moment he looked in, so he kept his guard up.
What he saw inside was a strange-looking room. He was on the upper floor and there were handrails in front. When he looked down he could see a circular room, the ten women were there. The females were bound and strung up on what looked like one of those bondage contraptions. It was in the shape of an 'X' with spaces to bind the hands by the wrists and legs by the ankles. There was a large bed right in the middle and there was a woman on it. She had a collar around her neck with a chain attached to the bed, she was trying to yank herself free while a man was disrobing himself.
*I didn't think they called him Ravager due to his pervy tendencies...*
Zhang Dong looked around, the women looked to be fine for now just naked and bare. They all were kind of shapely, guess the demonic cultivator liked the voluptuous types. He was about to pounce on the sexual deviant but then he looked at the woman on the bed, she was really familiar looking...
*Wait... what is she doing here... Was she that fatties daughter? *
Chapter 69
The previous day.
Lan Fei was going through her inventory checking if everything was in place as she was getting ready to head out once more. She arrived in Frostriver a week ago. She was the daughter of the chubby merchant boss but she didn't want to tell him about the fiasco back at Moonlight city as she knew that her dad was very overprotective. If it was up to him, she would probably not be allowed to leave her old home. Fei had to force him to let her travel as one of the caravan leaders in the first place, he didn't need to know what happened.
She sighed to herself as she thought about the incident that happened back in that city, but more about the way she run away from that cultivator. After coming back home and unloading the things that they got, she went to get some info on that Zhang Clan. To her surprise, the man that she had a passionate night with turned out to be quite the warrior. He managed to defeat the invading forces single-handedly driving them back and even slew a late stage core formation cultivator.
The man also became the new clan Patriarch within a month's time. What was a clan Patriarch? He was the leader of at least one city, but Fei knew that after he got settled in the clan would probably regain back their former land. That was a lot of assets and resources, ones she could have a bid for if she just didn't run.
*Darn Fei you blew it. I could be getting my feet massaged while relaxing in one of those springs in that Spiring Spring City.*
She slumped her shoulders while thinking that she let a golden goose escape her clutches, plus the man was quite the looker so there were no downsides. She, of course, didn't know that the Zhang Clan was getting forcefully recruited to go back to that secret ground. She might have been singing a different tune then.
*Well, at least I got away with my head intact, maybe dad wasn't wrong when he told me that it was too dangerous to go out to other cities... but it's so damn boring here... If I stay here he'll just pawn me out to some ugly senior*
She looked around the snowy surroundings and the chimneys that were spewing dark smoke. Due to the cold weather people mostly remained in their homes, there wasn't that much to do around here and Fei being still in her prime wanted to tour the world. She was also planning to nab herself a good hubby, he, of course, had to be loaded.
*Maybe if I visit that man he'll take me in... he was quite fond of me, though he did look quite silly when I was making my moves on him. Kind of cute...*
While thinking about some schemes to get back on good terms with the Zhang Clan Patriarch she heard a rumble. This was the sound of the cities protective barrier breaking, soon an ominous aura filled the whole city. The loud voice of a man could be heard everywhere.
"It's me th' mighty Ravager, ah deman' ten of yer most right purdy wimmen as tribute, they will become mah brides!"
The man flew around an eerie looking flying sword, somehow he could tell where the so-called purdy wimmen where. He pulled out a silver medallion, it had some kind of runes on it and glowed a purple hue. He pointed it at a woman, the female started getting surrounded by a purple light and then got sucked into the metallic trinket.
Soon he found his way up to the merchant building. His demonic aura was making everyone kneel and unable to move, he looked at the trembling Lan Fei with a grin on his face. The man was surprisingly good looking, he had long golden hair and strong facial features that made him look like prince charming.
"Ah yer a fine specimen, yer fit t'be th' prime vessel, ah reckon."
He didn't give the female much time as she got sucked right into his magical treasure like the rest.
Fei landed on her butt in an open field and she could see more women around her. This treasure apparently transported people into a sealed-off space that looked like a grassy field. There was even a large building in there, right in the middle. How did the people in there know that it was a sealed-off space? Well, the women could see that they were standing on a small rocky island that seemed to be floating in the void. They could see the end of the small landmass that was about five kilometers in diameter with the building in the middle and grass filling the rest. After the tenth lady dropped in from thin air, they could hear the kidnapper's voice seemingly coming from the void.
"Don't wo'ry mah buttercups, soon we will be one."
This was the only thing the man said while he flew back to his lair, some of the women just collapsed crying while others checked the building out hoping to find something in there to aid them. The house was quite unkempt, dirty on the inside spiders and roaches everywhere. It was clearly not getting managed by the crazy cultivator, there was nothing in there besides bugs and some skeletons that gave the females a scare. It was quite large with many rooms, if Matt was here he would think that it looked like some kind of student dorm.
After some time passed the man finally appeared amongst the ten scared women. He didn't say much before grabbing one of them and just vanishing into thin air. He returned after half an out or so just to grab another to bring her out. He was undressing the scared females while hoisting them up in his ritual chamber, taking his time as he was having fun.
Fei was left alone after the ninth female got removed from the small pocket dimension. She collapsed on the ground not knowing what to do, why was she so unlucky did someone curse her or something. She wanted to defend herself but the difference in cultivation was just too huge. She was dropped off on that large bed with a collar and chain around her neck, her eyes glaring daggers at the man in front.
"Don't look at me like thet mah li'l vessel, ah reckon. Eff'n thet stoopid Sect didn't git rid of all th' cultivato's aroun' hyar Even ah w'dn't dast t'do this~"
She had a hard time understanding his dialect, but more or less the cultivator said that due to the drop in powerful clan cultivators in the area the evil cultivator could come out of his hiding and do what he pleased.
"Yo' might be wonnerin' why fo' ah brought yo' all hyar mah ladies, Well..."
He started disrobing himself, the only thing remaining on the man was his underwear and a glove on the right hand.
"Ah's in need of yer essence, ah's runnin' outta time yo' see..."
He pulled off his glove letting the women see a darkish looking hand, it had many warts, blisters and boils with puss on it looking quite hideous.
"Yo' will gimme yer life essence so ah may recovah."
Lan Fei was backing off on the bed but was held back by the collar and chain, she yanked on it but to no avail. Ravager started pulling down his underwear, presenting himself bare to the women that went wide-eyed at his 'little brother'. The thing he had between his legs looked like a serpent, but the head was a mix of an alien and a predator. It wiggled around while bearing its teeth at the naked woman in front.
"Don't wo'ry mah dear, its quite th' nice feelin'... fo' me."
All the bondage crosses started to glow with a bizarre light. The women on them started squirming as they felt their spiritual essence getting pulled out of them. The essence was getting guided to the bed in the middle, the vessel would receive it all and then transfer it to the demonic cultivator as she got devoured by him.
While the evil cultivator was focusing on the voluptuous woman in front, she was looking behind him. Fei could see another cultivator slowly approaching from the back, sword in hand. As the cultivator made contact with her eyes he moved his index finger to his lips. The demonic cultivator was not aware of the man behind him as his lower snake was thrashing about slowly pointing towards the bewildered woman.
"Noo... S..stop my father is a rich man, we can give you thousands of spirit stones if you let me go... you don't need to do it..."
She shouted out in a loud while trying to keep Ravager occupied with her, hoping that the man behind him was someone friendly. Her wording was quite natural, she was quite eloquent with words when it counted.
"Hah, whut kin yo' offer me thet ah can not simply take? 'Nuff talkin', time t'feast!"
As the man was ready to pounce on the defenseless woman, he suddenly felt that something was off. He got a bad premonition but was just a bit too slow because as he was about to turn around he felt something hit his neck. Wind pressure could be felt around the room as the cultivator dressed in black swung his sword, making sure to swing with all his might as he decapitated the evil cultivator. The man's head flopped down onto the bed while his body fell down like a puppet with its strings cut, the essence drawing ritual instantly stopped after the man lost his head.
"Well... that was easier than I expected..."
The man said while looking at the dead demonic cultivator on the bed, black blood shooting out of his neck stump while the women in the room looked on at the spectacle. They didn't know how to react, was this man here to save them? or was he just another bud guy, he certainly had the bad guy looks. Fei was about to say something but then the man backed away while muttering something.
"Wait... there was no..."
Before he could say the sentence the snake-like thing that was between Ravager's legs shoot out straight for his face. His sword got knocked to the side but somehow the cultivator evaded while grabbing the serpent-like appendage with both his hands. The women could see how the cultivator in black started pushing and pulling on the elongated thing that spat yellowy-white goop at him. He managed to dodge to the side, but the goo was quite acidic as it burned a big hole in the floor behind the two.
*Aww hell naw...*
Matt thought while Ravager's body contorted in unfeasible ways and stood up without the head attached. The body's knees and elbows were bent in the wrong direction and his hands and feet turned into claws. The whole body started turning to the way the evil cultivator's hand looked like as it attacked the man in black.
Zhang Dong was a bit afraid to let go of this snake thing that was spiting suspicious-looking liquids at him. Instead, he used one of his skills that increased his grip strength. His fingers glowed with a metallic luster the creepy looking thing started swelling due to the pressure. The creature tried to back away but was held in place by Matt's vice-like grip. But this wasn't over as the demon suddenly felt electricity running through its body, lighting up like a Christmas tree, its strange high pitched screams filled the surroundings.
While this was happening the woman on the bed felt something moist graze her thigh. She looked down in horror as it was the demonic cultivator's head. It had vacant eyes but its tongue was out and licking her leg. She screamed while kicking the thing away, the head just rolled a bit before going down from the bed and to the ground going in the direction that the fight was happening.
"Look out, behind you!"
Fei shouted out as the head was somehow making its way towards him as he was electrocuting the body. It somehow jumped up, its mouth opening showing off a huge amount of sharp teeth. Matt turned around to see the horrible looking face coming towards him, he used his movement technique to dodge, grabbing his sword that was by the side going back to his fighting stance.
"weLL NoW, wE hAf aN uNweLcOmE gUeSt."
The demonic cultivator's head spoke while some tendrils burst out from the neck stump and reattached themselves with the main body. Zhang Dong grimaced as they were back to square one again, guess this wouldn't be that easy.
*Why do these people have so many regeneration abilities... damn hax*
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 70
Matt thought that he had taken enough precautions in sneaking behind the unsuspecting demonic cultivator, he did manage to chop his head off but didn't foresee that he would be able to regenerate from that. He glanced around a bit, he didn't want to give the enemy time to recover but he also couldn't really lunch a devastating attack while there were so many innocent people around.
He needed to take the fight somewhere else, best would be outside. The enemy was on guard but momentarily out of commission while regenerating as he wasn't attacking. Matt thought to himself that it was a bit of a drag to have to think about collateral damage, he then placed his force field around Ravager and then started yanking him into the corridor that he came through. The two soon vanished from the main room, the demonic man was thrashing around in his barrier bubble.
The females found themselves alone in the main chamber, naked and bare. Most of them were a crying mess by now as they wiggled around shackled to the crosses. Lan Fei tried removing her chain but it was just too sturdy, she saw that Ravager had dropped his robe on the edge of the bed. She managed to reach it with her foot, yanking it towards herself rummaging through it in the hopes of finding a key. She couldn't find anything in there as the man probably kept all his belongings in a storage ring, it wasn't in here.
Luckily there was a huge boom outside in the mountain range, this made the entire room shake with so much force that the bed in the middle broke apart. The chain was still around her neck but it wasn't attached to the bed as it broke into several pieces. Fei run-up to one of the girls and tried to pry one of the shackles open, she still was a cultivator at the pinnacle of qi condensation so she wasn't weak by any means necessary.
The shackles started rattling a bit as she tried prying them open, but to no avail, this type of metal would be able to hold foundation establishment cultivators in place. She wanted to help the woman out but couldn't, she looked around hoping to find something else otherwise she would need to abandon these people. She spotted something on the side, it was round and metallic. It was the medallion the cultivator used to bring them here, maybe she could use it on the girls the same way he did.
She fiddled with the thing but couldn't make it work, sweat was running down her forehead as she noticed that the booming sounds stopped outside which might have indicated that the two cultivators stopped fighting. She clearly couldn't activate the pocket dimension with her spiritual power level, you at lest needed a core formation cultivation to do that.
She bolted to the side running around the room as she tried to find another exit beside the one that the two men had gone in. Then she heard it, there were footsteps. They echoed through the hallway that the two cultivators disappeared too. The sounds started getting closer and closer, the person took his sweet time as he was just walking towards the place where the women were still struggling in. Fei couldn't really do much besides pulling the chain to her body in the hopes of using it as a weapon, maybe if it was an enemy he would be injured enough for her to make a break for it.
Slowly a silhouette appeared, the steps were a bit heavy with indicated that the person coming had quite the weight to him. Fei peeked out seeing that it wasn't the demonic cultivator but the man that sliced his head off. The man looked kind of annoyed as he was rubbing his cheek that looked kind of red.
Matt had managed to defeat the pervy strange talking cultivator, he found him to be a lot weaker than the Dragon or Cthulhu look-alike, just annoying to fight. He wasn't as sturdy as the two and his regenerative capabilities were a lot more limited than of the squid monster. He was rubbing his cheek furiously only due to the fact that the man's trouser snake had managed to graze him there. It didn't do any damage, but he felt dejected by the fact that he got attacked by a demon donger.
He had promptly turned the evil man into minced meat before blowing him up with half of the mountain. He still had his spatial ring with him, there were quite a bit of spirit stones and demonic cultivation manuscripts in here. He jumped down into the circular room with a thud, the scared women looked at him with fright in their eyes which made Matt drop his head in shame as he had scared them even more.
"No need to fear that man is dead, don't worry I'll get you out in a second."
The man walked over to one of the women and grasped one of the shackles just tearing it apart while making sure to not hurt the ankle that it was around. After a couple of cracking sounds, the first girl was free and down on her knees looking at the scary-looking cultivator in front. Matt thought that maybe this wasn't the best face to use when rescuing fair maidens as he looked like a bandit himself.
"Hey, you stop hiding behind that column and come help me..."
Matt coughed into his hand while he beckoned the hiding Lan Fei over. He was a little mad about the last time they met, but all things considered, he couldn't stay that mad as the woman was really down on her luck. He waved his hand as he took out all the female clothes that the man had in his ring hoping that the females could use those.
Time passed and the females started dressing back up while the cultivator that introduced himself as Lei Yinglo went around the lair. The females gathered together, crying and hugging but also discussing if they could trust this new man. Zhang Dong toured the surroundings, opening some closed doors while looking at his system map that actually helped him find some hidden parts. He started looting the place, grabbing everything he could find he could just identify it later.
The girls looked on curiously as the man started forcing his way into some closed-off rooms that were behind some sturdy walls, giving them a scare, they found it a bit funny that afterward he came back and apologized while rubbing his neck. They were all beautiful women, so they noticed how he was acting quite bashful around them, even blushing slightly while mumbling something about tranquility.
"Senior Yinglo, everyone is dressed h-how will we be going back."
Fei asked with a concerned voice, she didn't know if the cultivator could carry them all on a flying sword. Matt was also finished with his looting spree, this was quite a big haul as the evil cultivator had amassed quite the treasure hoard, there were many spirit stones and crafting materials, though they were mostly of the demon beast kind.
"Hm... I don't think I can carry you all on my flying sword... leaving some of you behind would be a bit..."
The man was pondering while the girls fidgeted as he mentioned leaving some of them behind, they surely didn't want to remain in this godforsaken place anymore. Lan Fei, on the other hand, brought out the medallion and placed it in Lei Yinglo's hand.
"Sir, the demonic cultivator used this to transport us here maybe you could also use it."
Matt looked at the medallion and used his apprisal skill to examine it.
NameDimensional Regalia Grade : Immortal MediumAttribute : NoneDurability :HighCondition :DamagedAdvanced Grade : A+Special traits : This Spatial treasure houses a world of its own, due to its damaged state the area within is limited, can be repaired to increase the size.
His eyes bulged as he saw the grade of the item in front of him. It was the highest-graded item he ever came across. He quickly sent his spiritual sense into the item due to its previous owner's death it didn't offer any resistance whatsoever. He could see the small island floating in the void and the building in the middle. He did a little test and the girls saw the man get sucked into the medallion that promptly dropped onto the ground.
They all looked at each other wondering if the man would be stuck in it but soon he returned, appearing right out of the medallion.
"Okay, think I figured it out. Oh and I left you something to eat, it's on a blanket on the grassy field you can't miss it."
Soon the females found themselves back in the small pocket dimension munching on some strange looking things. It looked like two bread slices stuck together with some filling, it were, of course, some system bought hamburgers and cheeseburgers. Lan Fei was the last one that was in the room, the cultivator gave her a more meaningful look as he contemplated something.
"Is something wrong, Senior?"
The woman became a bit uncomfortable, not knowing what this man was thinking about but he probably wouldn't try doing anything weird at this point. She didn't know that the man in question was wondering if he should reveal his true face, but did he really want to continue this relationship. The woman showed a lot of character, as he overheard the women speaking. He heard that she didn't just try to flee on her own, but actually tried to help the other girls while he and Ravager were duking it out.
She did drop him like a sack of potatoes back in moonlight city the second she heard of his situation, this was kind of understandable all things considered. He wasn't that mad but his pride was still a bit hurt. But would she just do the same thing if she heard that he had to go to that secret ground, where death was very likely? There was probably no future left for the two of them, but at least he wanted to end the whole thing.
He shrugged and leaned over towards the woman, he held out his finger in front of her forehead flicking it.
"Owie..."
Fei backed away rubbing her forehead from the finger poke, not really knowing what it was for but then she saw the man's robes changing white, his hair growing out and his facial features switching around.
"Take that, that was for running away back in Moonlight city."
Chapter 71
"It's you!"
Fei exclaimed in a surprised voice.
"It's me, long time no see?"
Matt replied in a somewhat more relaxed tone.
"We should probably stop meeting like this..."
He scratched his cheek a bit while looking at the smaller female in front of him, he could see the woman's facial expressions cycle through a couple of times. She didn't know how to react in this situation as she did not expect to see this man again. Matt wasn't quite sure what he should say either, his experience with women had gone up lately but not by much. He decided to speak up first, trying to use a neutral tone.
"Well, why don't we leave first, we can talk on the way..."
He pointed to the exit and beckoned the voluptuous female over, he could bring one person onto his flying sword without having any drawbacks.
"Senior Dong... or is it Yinglo?"
Matt turned his head to the side trying not to laugh as his great naming sense came into the limelight.
"Dong is fine you can drop the honorifics..., the other one is just a pseudonym, it wouldn't look too good if the Zhang Clan Patriarch was bumbling about the place. We have enough trouble as it is with that dark palm sect business..."
Matt started talking, kind of blurring the dark palm sect thing out in the open but not like it was that much of a secret. This made the woman perk up as she started asking questions.
"Dark palm sect? Trouble?"
Fei asked a bit curious about the clan situation, from her point of view the clan was on the rise with the new strong Patriarch at its help.
"Ah yes...about that..."
He scratched the back of his neck while pulling up his sword. Pointing to the large thing as he invited the female cultivator onto it. He took the rear position, he was a head taller than the woman so he could see quite well.
"You don't need to be afraid, you won't fall down."
He brought his aura around the female's frame, he kind of naturally moved his hands behind his back as he stood on the sword. Lan Fei intuitively backed up into the man, grasping the hem of his robe even though the flying technique didn't allow any gravity or wind pressure to affect her. His new mind technique really kept his pervy tendencies at bay, as he didn't stare all that much but he still got quite excited due to the woman's close proximity. So he resumed where the two left off so that he could focus on something else.
"Yes, I'm sure you know of that expedition the Dark Palm sect ordered some time ago."
Lan Fei replied with a yes, due to the flying technique the two could hold a conversation even though they were flying above the speed of sound. The woman looked down at the passing by landscape a bit jealous of the core formation experts that could do this so easily.
"Well, those guys came right back and ordered the clans to do it again, ours included... I also have to participate"
Matt said while his voice became quieter in the end.
"Is that so Brother Dong..."
Lan Fei contemplated while Matt sweatdropped at the fact that the female was calling him brother now, guess he told her to drop the honorifics but he didn't realize that it would just switch senior to brother in her mind. This time Fei started talking speaking out in a shyer sounding voice.
"I have to apologize for the way I behaved back in Moonlight city..."
It was kind of a strange situation, the woman slept with him but then run away, the whole lead up to the act was mind-boggling.
"Ah, it's fine... it was a strange night, guess I lost myself to your charms, ha ha..."
The two started awkwardly laughing, the woman might have been a lot more experienced but people in this world conducted themselves differently. Relationships like on earth didn't really happen as people were more materialistic, families traded each other's children just to have better relations.
"Well, I guess this will be a good learning experience for both of us."
The two started chatting during the flight, the woman blushed after thinking things through at the way she acted just going for broke at seducing the man the moment she got the chance. Matt did the same, thinking back to the way he acted like a teenager and allowed himself to get seduced even though he should have been the more mature one. It took him a mind skill to be able to relax and not be stressed out around women, this was kind of cheating but it let him see things more clearly.
"Brother Dong, you have to understand, times are tough ..."
After a while, Lan Fei started unloading onto Matt telling about her troubled times and her thought process. He just started nodding and replying with 'Is that so?', 'Aha' and 'Your right' kind of getting lost while the lady chattered on. He also checked out the girl's stats while he was at it.
Name :Lan FeiAge :24Cultivation :Qi Condensation 12th levelPotential :B-Trust :40%Alignment :Chaotic Good
*40% I'm not sure if that's high or not...guess she trusts me more than the average person?*
While he was thinking the trust level shifted to 41% on the fly, guess the more they spend time together the more it increases. Her potential was quite high as well, probably if she had some sort of good cultivation technique she could be in foundation establishment at this point. Or, it was due to her traveling too much and not focusing on cultivating.
He could see her cultivation techniques, they revolved around the wind element but she didn't have many fighting techniques to speak of. He could actually get into more detail with his upgraded analyzing skill, he had dropped in more points just for this.
Name :Lan FeiPotential :B-Elemental Affinities : Wind B+, Fire C, Earth E, Weapon Affinities :Whip A-, Sword C-, Spear D+, daggers D-
He raised a brow at the weapon affinity, the one with the A- made him imagine Fei in a black latex suit, whipping people around while laughing.
*Oh, boy... I think I made a 'perfect common grade' whip while doing tests...*
The woman continued talking while Zhang Dong thought about some things he could give here before he left.
"And that's when I smacked him in the face and run away from home. Do you believe the audacity of my dad, trying to wed me to that ugly toad of a man, well he had the money... but that face... nothing like you Brother Dong."
She looked up smiling, as she went back to those alluring gestures the man just gave a forced smile, he didn't know one person would be able to talk non stop for this amount of time. From what he gathered, the female was very foolhardy, running away from home and forcefully starting her own caravan business. Her father wasn't all that rich so he couldn't really provide great security, it was a miracle that this woman didn't get sold off to some slave traders a long time ago. Guess her luck ran out recently, or perhaps it was his trouble attracting aura that caused all of this.
"W-well...uh... I think I better change we will be arriving in your town soon..."
He started shifting his appearance back to his pseudonym, his hair getting shorter and face getting more scars. The woman looked at the change in appearance, astonished by the whole process yet again.
"I know what you might be thinking... but yes the previous appearance is the way I really look, I'm just thirty years old..."
The woman just smiled while nodding, this answered one of her questions as she was afraid that this big bro might be a big gramps on the inside just changing his appearance to suit his needs.
The two arrived in the snow city, everyone at the merchant building was surprised to see the rough-looking cultivator back so soon and their young miss was with him. Just as Lan Fei stepped down from the flying sword you could hear something in the distance coming at her. Matt could see a round blur just on a collision course with his female companion. This was, of course, the big round daddy, eyes all red and snot coming out of his nose. He was quickly kicked in the face by his daughter and fell to the side right into a stand with some fish.
"Waaa... how can you do this to your father little Fei, I was so worried... Sob sob..."
Matt looked at the comedic routine as the dotting father tried hugging his child with fish all over him, the girl in question just kicking and punching him away with disgust on her face.
"Stop it dad, you're all stinky..."
The man ended up hugging one of his daughter's ankles while she tried pushing him back with her other leg. While the two were busy he started pulling out all the other girl, they soon appeared outside hugging each other as they realized that they were back in their town. More townspeople gathered, slowly rejoicing as they got reunited with their mothers and daughters.
Everyone cheered as they thanked the scared up cultivator that proclaimed that he slew the evil Ravager and all was well. It had been about three weeks since he left the Zhang Clan, it was time to return. He just needed to drop the dead body of the evil cultivator and pick up the spirit stones he was owed. His alter ego's name was slowly getting known around these areas as he had slain that cultist monster and now defeated a powerful demonic cultivator.
Before heading out though, he handed Fei a spiky whip weapon along with a tome he got cheap from the store telling her that she should probably practice with this as she had potential in it.
"You should probably get your cultivation up and grow stronger, these are troubling times."
The woman nodded looking at the whip, she had never trained with a weapon like this. She didn't know how the senior measured her potential for this, but he was a powerful cultivator she should probably give it a try. She also received a wind cultivation method for the foundation establishment level, he had gotten it from one of the rings the cultivators had. It didn't take many points to upgrade it to a suitable level that she could use it. He still felt kind of bad for the girl for getting in so many weird situations, he would feel more at ease knowing that she got stronger.
The woman looked at the gifts with astonishment, as she read through the manuscript she could tell that this was quite the refined technique.
"Br... Senior Yinglo, this is a bit much... I don't deserve this."
Her hands shook a bit as she tried giving the items back, as she fought against her materialistic nature, these were some costly things and to be honest she wanted to take them.
"Ah, no need, think of it as a present from a friend to another... hope you will do well in the future, no more getting captured."
The man laughed a bit as he hopped onto his sword ready to leave.
"W-wait, will we ever meet again?"
The woman asked while hugging the items she received to her body.
"Well, it wouldn't be safe around me but I guess you know where to find me..."
He flew away, he thought that this was probably not the best time for a relationship he had other things to focus on. He also didn't know if he could trust this woman, though she wasn't a bad person she just had a tendency for chatting and shiny things. He noticed her eyes glistering the moment he brought out the gifts, the way she was trying to resist the temptation was kind of cute though. Maybe if destiny allowed it they could meet in the future but first, he had to survive what the Dark Palm sect had in store for him.
I will probably be taking a longer break, have been releasing a lot for the past two months without stopping. But due to this, the quality suffers plus I don't have time for other things... anyway thanks for sticking around for so long. (･д･)
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 72
After bidding the lady goodbye he headed to where he could pick up his reward, strangely enough, it was the same place that he got the spirit stones for the dragon. It would take some time till he got there though, he had to backtrack all the way there. It was close to the place he faced off against the dragon at the start of his journey. He wondered if the people would try to rob him again when he left the city, as he was 'wearing' a new face again. Though his new pseudonym was gaining recognition due to defeating two evil creatures.
*Took me over three weeks to get this done, guess I'm on track. *
He looked at some other wanted notices, this made him feel like a bounty hunter. He wanted to see if he could grab a fast one alone the way but couldn't really see anything worthwhile. Core formation beings were rare, it was even harder to find ones that you could hunt for money as most people wouldn't even bother putting up a wanted poster. Maybe if someone offended some big shot, or was a demonic cultivator like that Ravager fellow.
*Well, guess my detection range increased a bit, maybe I can find some demonic beasts around here.*
He was becoming quite the monster hunter lately, he also had the white hair to go with it, just needed to get a wolf medallion to place around his neck. He had that one he looted from Ravager, but he was afraid to leave it out in the open. The sects were quite bloodthirsty and everyone was rushing for that immortal ascension thing, they would probably kill his entire bloodline to get something in the immortal grade.
He also took a peek at his cultivation skill, mainly his next upgrade path. He had three choices and after getting his first evolution into the empowered lightning tree he could finally see what those colors did.
Golden Lightning PathThe cultivator's lightning imbued with more heavenly powers with an added holy element, creatures of the demonic nature are highly susceptible to this type of energy. This path doesn't favor offense nor defense boasting an all-around increase in combat prowess. Violet Lightning Path The cultivator's lightning takes a more chaotic nature, harder to control but a lot more destructive than the other two types. This path favors offense increasing the cultivators Qi reserves the most, allowing for prolonged use of techniques. Azure Lightning PathThe cultivator's lightning becomes in tune with the heavens, this is the most stable form and easiest to progress in. Favor's defense over offense increasing the resistance of all construct and defensive type techniques.
He read through the information once more wondering which path he should go for. The first option was quite interesting, it would aid him if he ever faced off against demonic beings like the Cthulhu lookalike. He felt that there would probably more of that kind of monster around in the future, so this could be useful. Matt didn't really have a defined fighting style just yet, though he mostly finished his enemies at close range.
The second one had 'Mage Class' written all over it. He would gain the biggest Qi pool from the three and would be able to spam his skills more. Guess bombarding enemies with overwhelming ranged skills could work, he also had his body refining skill for close-range fighting. The last one looked the least interesting as it favored defense but the increase to his construct type techniques like his avatar form and the lightsword was tempting. Though would this push his constructs to another level, or would they lose out against crafted weapons and other items in the end anyway?
He looked at the golden path, it looked like the most interesting one with the added elemental affinity. Maybe he should get some healing skills to go with it, or some auras like Paladins tend to have in games. He could imagine him and the Zhang Clan fighting in the secret ground together, him using some aura skills to boost everyone's stats, maybe using something to boost stamina and Qi recovery.
*Well... it's always more fun in a group? Guess I'll have to check if aura skills like that even exist around here.*
He checked out the shop to see if there were any paladin or cleric like skills. There were some but there was a small problem, he couldn't use them unless he was cultivating a holy element based cultivation method. This meant that he needed that upgrade before he could even use the cheapest healing skill.
*Well that sucks, can't even test things out ... this upgrade costs quite a bit...*
He looked at the 1 million spirit points next for the upgrade, the previous one only cost 100 thousand points. By this logic, if he wanted to get that golden nascent soul upgrade afterward he would need to spend 10 million points on it, maybe more as this was a full large cultivation level.
*Yikes, think I'd need to kill over 50 core formation enemies in the late stage to get that many points, which wouldn't be that hard if I was some kind of murder hobo... Also not sure if I could find that many around unless I raided some sect.*
Matt thought that this system would be really overpowered if he lost his morals and just started extinguishing lives left and right. This was the perfect system for someone that liked to kill.
*Well, I guess you could also rob some kind of spirit stone mine instead...*
The spirit stones mostly came from mines that were scattered around the continent. The only problem with that was that they always belonged to powerful sects or clans with nascent soul cultivators that were there to protect the assets. This was understandable as spirit stones equaled wealth, it was the most common currency around the continent.
*I might be able to sneak in ... but when they notice the drop in spiritual energy after I absorb the stones, I'd get murdered.*
Matt shook his head as he gave up on trying to rob a spirit stone mine, he could rob some convoys but that would probably involve hurting other people. Someone might get killed or maimed, he also could get chased by some angry sect uncles and he wasn't that desperate quite yet.
*I need to up my cultivation as well, need to at least reach the late stage in both body and mind.*
Matt had tested out spending points on increasing his cultivation with not very good results. He could dump points into it for an easy increase but the more the percentage went up the more he had to spend. It kept stacking doubling each time which made him stop. Due to this, he didn't want to spend his points, only if it was urgent and he needed a quick power-up. He also didn't know how many points he would need to upgrade his clan's cultivation manuscripts to a respectable level.
*It would really be nice if I could go into my crafting abode while flying on my sword, it said that this medallion is damaged, wonder if I can repair it. Well I guess I have some time, I'll just do it at night.*
He parked his sword by a big tree in a clearing then hopped into his crafting space to see if he could do something with this dimensional regalia that looked like a medallion, guesses it belonged to some king once?
He did upgrade some of his equipment before, so he placed the medallion on the big anvil and looked into his crafting screen if something would show up. He saw the item getting scanned by the system before he saw the medallion's status screen.
Damaged Immortal Grade item detected, can't process please upgrade the crafting abode by at least one level.
*Meh... think I need close to 3 million to upgrade the crafting abode... guess I'll pass.*
He grumbled while removing the item from the large anvil.
*Well, it's still usable people can still go in there and bring stuff over... guess I'll get some of the clan members to clean up the building in the middle.*
Matt wasn't quite sure what he could use this closed-off space for yet, he hoped he could use the crafting abode to expand the size or maybe add some upgrades. He hoped for things that would aid in training, like slowing the passage of time in the pocket dimension. Many such artifacts existed in the novels he read.
*Guess that's a bummer, but it still can be used for training...*
He went inside that space with his sword, he could leave the little floating island but there was nothing around besides empty space. The air thinned out the further you flew away from the center as well. The peculiar thing about this place was, that if the ground was damaged it would recover after a short while. So you could train and destroy everything around you, the next day everything would be recovered. That is everything besides that unkept building in the middle, maybe it was brought in by someone and placed there and it wasn't part of the treasure.
He wondered if that secret ground would allow him to bring in more people if he placed them in this medallion. It would be unfortunate if it didn't, and they would somehow die due to this, that place was also made by an immortal so he wouldn't risk lives.
*Well, time to rest for a couple of hours then I'll go get my spirit stones. They should be done with the tournament by the time I'm back. Guess I could use this medallion as a secret training ground for my clan bros, there is enough space to run around and train. The amount of Qi in there is quite high as well. It also replenishes itself naturally for some reason. This Qi is a bit strange, it lacks any kind of elemental affinity, but its quality is slightly higher.*
Matt thought about the future while time was running out, the people back home were close to ending the event, the people selected for the expedition were the most skilled and willing warriors that the Zhang Clan could offer but they still needed some training.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 73
Not much happened while he was picking up his reward, he left the chopped up remains of the demonic cultivator behind, he didn't feel like keeping that pervs body stashed in his storage ring. He also saw the idiot trio that he disrobed the last time he was around, they were acting a lot nicer though. They probably won't be bothering random cultivators for a while.
*Well time to go home..., home huh?*
He wasn't yet sure if he should call that Clan's city his home yet. He had only been in this world for a couple of months, so the feeling of longing wasn't quite there yet. After having some food he flew back to his clan, he hoped that his clan members would procure those crafting materials so that he could start crafting. He could make quite the amount of items as long as he had the materials as the rhythm game took between ten to five minutes. If the blacksmiths of this world saw him making weapons in five minutes they would probably get a heart attack.
*Zhang Kuo should at least be able to get the crafting materials for foundation establishment items, even though I can't earn that much with them they are a lot easier to make. Though also depends on how fast they can sell them*
If he made perfect grade weapons in the hundreds he could make quite a bit of spirit stones, the problem were the logistics. Unless you had a flying sword traveling between the big cities took quite some time. Maybe he could get ol' gramps do act as a courier, but he also wanted to upgrade the old man's cultivation method so he could get stronger.
*Guess I'll do it in the beginning so that our clan people can go between the cities and trade, would probably take them a couple of weeks to a month to do it.*
Thunder could be heard as Zhang Dong churned his cultivation to the max shooting off like a rocket towards Spirit Spring City. He needed to check those skills first, maybe he had enough points for everything and he was just overthinking it. While he was on his way he spotted an immensely huge mountain, on top of it a giant storm was brewing. Lightning bolts could be seen hitting the peak, while the hurricane-like winds were breaking nearby trees and scaring the beasts living in them.
He stopped as he was passing by, thinking that he could use that huge storm to increase his cultivation, he still had time too, so he dived right into that thing. He got bombardier by lightning bolts left and right, even he had a hard time absorbing all of this energy, coughing up blood as the rainwater drenched his whole robe.
While Zhang Dong was getting electrocuted at a snowy mountain peak, the tournament back in Spirit Spring city was coming to an end. Liu and Xue were still fighting it out as this wasn't an elimination event. The younger sister was barely keeping up at the 194 spot hoping to survive among the 10th to 12th Qi condensation clan members. Liu ended up around the 90th spot, his fighting strength being around the 11th level even though he was at the 10th level.
The two hadn't adapted to the lightning arts just yet but if they had more experience, they would probably jump a couple of levels above their peers.
Xue delivered a wind infused kick to one of her senior brothers that barely defended himself with the help of a saber that rattled after the impact. Zhang Dong's two disciples didn't have any weapons with them, they wanted to focus on what their new master was teaching them. They hadn't received any weapon training and their previous water-based techniques didn't really work all that well with the new lightning Qi ones, or they just didn't know how to synergize the two.
"You've gotten quite strong little Xue, but not strong enough!"
She was fighting an 18-year-old at the 11th Qi condensation level, she was barely holding her own. The youth swung his battle saber at her, she was barely able to evade the attack thanks to her nimble movements. The sylph physique added to her evasive repertoire quite a bit. Just after this happened you could hear people cheering from the sides.
"Junior Sister Xue is the best! You can do it!"
"Hey, if you hurt Junior Sister in any way you'll be answering to me! I'll pummel you to death!"
"What a stinky Senior Brother, you should be ashamed of yourself!"
Xue was quite popular among her own generation, probably it had something to do with her being one of those jade-like beauties. You could hear cheering and threatening shouts that were aimed at the opponent that she was fighting. The opponent gulped as he had heard that one of the opponents of this clan sister, was found beaten up and left naked in the streets.
The siblings were cultivating body refining physiques that were transforming their bodies. Liu was getting more manly, his muscles were showing in all the right spots that made him quite popular with the junior and some senior members. Xue, on the other hand, was getting her female attributes enhanced thanks to her Slyph physique, it probably helped that she was wearing more form-fitting robes so that she wouldn't get slowed down by them. She was focusing on her speed and nimble movements.
"Hey, you guys stop this is a serious event!"
Xue shouted at the peanut gallery, with her brows furrowing but that only made the people cheer more.
"Hah, she looked at me, look at that passionate gaze!"
One of the younger males said while another slapped his head from behind and the two got into a fight. In the end, the fight ended in a draw as the senior brother didn't want to get beaten up also he didn't need to get any more points. The top brackets mostly consisted of people at the 12th and 11th level. There were a couple of level 10's at the end, with Xue in tow. She was the only person that made it in while being at the 9th level.
Both of the Patriarch's new disciples generated a lot of buzz, some were envious also wishing that they could get taught by the strongest member of their clan. The two have been rapidly growing at an unprecedented pace, showing everyone that Zhang Dong was quite the teacher with superior cultivation knowledge.
Most of them didn't delude themselves into thinking that their Patriarch would pick them up as disciples. They realized that these two had a lot more talent, being the strongest at their age range even before Zhang Dong came along. But they were hoping that if they got into the best 200 they could get some pointers and rewards from their leader as they knew where all of them were going afterward.
The Clan members were mostly segregated by skill and cultivation levels. Matt was surprised when he previously toured the compound as the younger generation members went to something akin to a high school. They had normal classes that consisted of reading, mathematics, and the sort, combat aimed lessons were also taught. There were even classes on pill forging and crafting.
The people of the clan even wanted him to take a teaching position for the more experienced students but he quickly refused that proposal. There were four classes starting from common followed by mortal, then earth and at the end was heaven class. The last class was reserved for people at the strength level of 10-12th Qi condensation. So depending on talent and resources people of various ages attended.
The fourth week was coming to an end, all the placements were set at this point. The place got busier as every placeholder was ordered to list out their cultivation methods and battle techniques. The Patriarch apparently wanted everyone to get segregated by their cultivation method firstly, then by similar working combat techniques. Most people weren't sure what he was up to, did he want to check out the skills before giving them pointers. That would be extremely hard to do without seeing them preform first, how could he even know what they were good or bad at.
No one really knew what good it would do to look at some random clan skills, but they trusted in their Patriarch's strength at least. The way his disciples were progressing was also a boost to his validity as a teacher.
"How's everything progressing?"
Zhang Jin asked one of the Patriarch's new retainers, Zhang Kuo, he was mostly responsible for the calculating side of business while Zhang Ya was more in human resources, doing odd jobs.
"We are in the process of gathering the manuals that the Patriarch requested, there shouldn't be any problems in procuring them as the Clan members techniques don't vary that much. Also, we have gotten reports that all the missions that the Patriarch selected were carried out."
Zhang Kuo gave a jade slip to Zhang Jin as everything was written down there, the older man looking at the report with a mixed expression.
"Make sure none of this leaves this room, If my grandson wants to stay anonymous he has to have a reason for it."
The old man was a bit surprised by his grandson's battle prowess. That Lesser Calamity Dragon he took out would probably maul the old Patriarch that was in the core formation late stage, that thing had a really tough hide and anyone below the great circle would get trashed. Also, he fought another monster and a strong demonic cultivator that was nothing to scoff at, and the boy just bested them without a setback.
This grandpa would probably be less astonished if he knew that his grandson barely escaped with his life when he was fighting the first monster on that list. Still, the achievements were speaking for themselves, this Patriarch was already stronger than the old one, the problem wasn't him but the rest. The other clan members weren't ready, they didn't make it into the last selection for a reason.
Back at the mountain range Matt was in a hole, pulverized rock all around him while he was twitching while laying on this back. The lightning storm had done him in a bit, but he managed to absorb most of its energies before they dispersed. He felt like an overcharged light bulb as the chaotic energies circulated all over his body making him shoot of tiny sparks.
*Damn, didn't think this blasted storm would shred my clothes down to my boxers.*
His robes had begun regenerating already, but the chaotic energies in his body were making things difficult.
*Guess I should be careful in absorbing so much energy, but that was a nice boost of 10%!*
He dusted himself off the gravel and hopped up onto his sword, guess if he flew high enough people wouldn't see that he was bare-chested. He set off towards the clan, he wasn't planning on stopping to cultivate anymore the month was coming to an end and they only had two left, he had to start training his soldiers.
He had gained over half a million points from killing the three mini-bosses alone, but he also gained another 200k through killing smaller demonic beasts along the way. He got close to 45k spirit stones that would translate to a bit less than ten times of that in points. So he stood at about over a million points now, having spent some to buy the sword arts, the disguise skill and the tracking skill which paid of in the end as he would never be able to find that pervy cultivator otherwise.
Some other people could have probably gained more points by killing more, like those three that he left naked and bruised. That wasn't his style though, it would be nice if he could get a fraction of the points for just beating up people instead. He also didn't run into any spirit stone convoys that he could try to rob, though he would probably be apprehensive about that as well.
While in thought he started noticing some familiar scenery as more water springs appeared on the horizon. The water elements started being abundant and the familiar smell filled his nose.
*Home sweet home, huh?*