Author's Note: For those interested, there are now five advanced chapters (we're on chapter 33) and a poll about drawing that we will be requesting in the future for this story on my on P-atreon, which you can read and vote for just $5.
I also finished the first volume of my other story, "Welcome to the Alternate Multiverse Chat Group."
So if you can, please go to my profile and check it out.
Remove the spaces and dash: p-atreon/ Krakenian01
X-X-X-X-X-X
Third Person P.O.V
Leaning his back against a tree trunk under the starry sky, his eyes closed, and his expression relaxed, Leek breathed rhythmically, deep in a peaceful sleep.
But suddenly, his eyes opened as if something had violently awakened him, and he saw the figure of a man sitting across from him, looking down at him with a peaceful expression.
"I'm glad to see you woke up so quickly." The man said, shifting his gaze to the dry straw table between them as he used an antique-looking white teapot with blue dragon patterns to pour tea into a pair of cups.
"You, who are you? Where am I?" Leek asked, jumping to his feet and distancing himself a little.
"Just an old man who wants to chat a little, so what do you say? Will you keep me company? Who knows, maybe I can help you get out of here." The man looked up after putting down his cup, reaching out, and pointing to the spot in front of him.
Leek looked around, noticing that he was now on what looked like a mountaintop in some sort of valley filled with more mountains.
It somewhat reminded him of the valley landscapes where Kung Fu masters lived in Chinese movies.
He had no idea where he was exactly or how he had gotten to this place when he was in the Dark Ruins before, so he decided to play along with the old man in front of him, at least for now.
He cautiously approached and sat cross-legged in the indicated spot.
"I'm glad you're cooperating, I was afraid you'd decide to run as soon as you saw me." He said, smiling before placing a cup in front of the Saiyan and beginning to drink from the other.
"Who are you? Where exactly am I? And how do I get back to where I was?" He asked without touching the extended cup, he had no intention of drinking or eating anything offered to him.
What would happen if this guy later said this tea was made from his fluids? He definitely didn't want to go through something like that.
"Straight to the point, huh? Young people today really need to understand that calmness is a virtue to be cultivated alongside power, but I have no problem answering your questions. Who I am doesn't matter, where we are now is in our minds, and the way back is simply to wait a bit." He said before taking another sip of tea.
Leek didn't like this man in the least; he gave him a strange feeling, and his ambiguous answers made everything even more suspicious.
It was like talking to someone trying to sound intelligent to deceive people, like those used-car dealers or the clerks at electronics stores, both of whom try to use grandiloquent words when talking about the capabilities and parts of cars, phones, and computers when trying to sell them.
But before he could answer, his mind focused on something this old man said, he closed his eyes and focused for a few seconds before his brow furrowed, and then he opened his eyes again and looked directly at the old man.
"Drop the mental connection." He said, narrowing his gaze at the man.
It had been a clever trick, but he, who already knew this skill, and had even taught it to Ning'er during their first meeting, was not fooled.
He remembered the man lying in front of the altar in the Dark Ruins, he remembered the sphere with the crack that immobilized him and shot a beam at his forehead, and now he had discovered that it had been this old man's doing, forcibly connecting their minds and maintaining the link even if he tried to sever it.
"Ho, so you realized? That's impressive, I remember when I was youn-"
"Cut the crap, old man, what do you want from me?" Leek interrupted the man with a slightly irritated tone.
The surprise "attack" he had received didn't leave him in a very good mood, and if he was honest, he'd had enough of these ruins, he wanted to get this over with quickly and return to Glory City.
The old man was silent for a moment, staring at Leek carefully before sighing. "Very well, I'll answer your question. Have you ever heard of the 'Sage Emperor'?"
The Saiyan raised an eyebrow at this. "Sage Emperor, you say? I've never heard of anyone with that title. Is it some kind of cultivation rank?"
The old man shook his head a few times before speaking. "The Sage Emperor is the title held by the most dangerous and evil being in existence, a Demonic Beast worshipped as a deity by the other Demonic Beasts"
"Wait a moment." Leek interrupted the man again, raising his hand in front of him. "First of all, let me ask a question, and after hearing it, let me say something else." The Saiyan said, earning a somewhat irritated look from the old man upon being interrupted.
"Do Demonic Beasts worship this guy? Aren't they all like wild animals following their instincts? All the ones I've encountered have seemed, at most, to have the intelligence of a poorly trained animal"
The old man shook his head once more. "The ones you've seen so far may be little more than animals, but the truth is there are even stronger beasts, if we divide them into three ranks, we have the ones you already know, which are little more than beasts guided by their instincts; those who have awakened their spiritual wisdom, strong and intelligent enough to lead hordes of other beasts; and finally, the emperor-class beasts, these are the pinnacle of normal demonic beast evolution, those who reach this level are even capable of taking human form"
Leek listened to this information carefully before nodding. "I see, now, let me summarize a bit what I think you're going to say, this guy worshipped as a god, the Sage Emperor, is super evil and wants to destroy and/or conquer the world and/or humanity or some other similarly evil thing, right?"
For the first time, the old man looked a little surprised, blinking a few times before answering.
"Yes." He nodded a couple of times with an expression that said. "How did you know that?" before regaining his composure. "What he wants is to refine all of space-time, along with all existing realms, including this one"
"And let me guess." Leek held the bridge of his nose as if he were about to get a headache. "Doing that will undoubtedly end the lives of everyone in these realms, right?" He asked, already waiting for the answer.
"Yes." Leek sighed after hearing the same answer twice.
"Isn't this more or less the same thing Mechikabura did in Dragon Ball Heroes?" He muttered in annoyance before looking up at the old man again, already thinking about the reason for this meeting.
"And you want to prevent all this refining thing from happening, right?"
"Yes"
"So that's why you brought me here, you need me to prevent this whole end-of-the-world situation"
"Yes"
Leek was a little irritated by always receiving a simple yes to everything he said, but he decided it wasn't worth getting upset about, so with his next question, he summarized what he thought would be the rest of this conversation.
"You want me to fight this Sage Emperor, defeat him, and prevent him from refining spacetime?"
"No"
"Well, that would be-!" Leek's words stopped mid-expression, and his expression showed surprise before he asked. "Did you just say you don't want me to prevent the Sage Emperor from achieving his goal?"
"That's what I said." The old man replied, nodding. "You wouldn't be able to do it, you're talented and quite peculiar, but that's not enough against the Wise Emperor, it takes much more, if you try, you'll be crushed like an insect before you can become someone capable of posing a threat, I'll be the one to stop him"
"So why did you bring me here? Why are you telling me all this?" The Saiyan was genuinely confused.
If this old man didn't intend to convince him to fight the Sage Emperor in the future, then why the hell was he telling him all this?
Wasn't it the same as telling the population that a giant meteorite would definitely hit the planet, only to then say they would do everything possible to prevent it, but that they were very likely to fail?
What was the point of that? Spreading panic?
"It's a sign of respect." The old man replied, bowing slightly. "My body was destroyed when I tried to go against the Wise Emperor. What I am now is only a fragment of my soul. I need a physical body to walk the world again and prepare for the next confrontation"
Leek didn't like what he was hearing at all; it was as if he felt a tingling sensation running down his spine that grew stronger with each word that came out of the old man's mouth.
His hands moved slowly until his palms were placed on the ground.
"That's why, to defeat the Sage Emperor, to save you all, and prevent the catastrophe." The old man looked up once more, staring Leek straight in the eyes with a deadly serious expression. "Give me your body"
Boom
The instant the old man spoke those words, the ground beneath Leek's palms exploded, causing a huge cloud of black smoke to cover the place.
The fight had begun.
#####
Third Person P.O.V
Advancing faster and faster, Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo ran, once again reaching their maximum speed after finishing off the beasts in their path with a punch and a kick, respectively.
The bony armored lizards were peculiar beasts within the black gold range, slender and bipedal, they wore a type of armor and a spear that they could summon at will.
Both bone-like pieces of equipment were incredibly durable and lightweight, but they weren't a quality they could maintain all the time, so they mostly didn't use them, thus reducing their danger level to gold peak at most.
The problem with these beasts was that they rarely existed in small groups or alone, so once they detected their enemy, they would let out a cry that would alert their companions, thus forcing the spiritualist to face a large group of these beasts.
Therefore, it was fortunate that the Huyan family patriarch and the Ye family elder only encountered two of these beasts, so they decided to go all out in a surprise attack, killing both lizards without letting them summon their armor or scream for help.
Normally, they would have checked to see if these beasts had formed a spirit; after all, these were rare and could be used as gifts or sold for a high price. But on this occasion, they both ignored the corpses and continued running without giving them a second glance.
They both felt a little frustrated, it was true that normally, on an expedition, a group would spend several days in a ruin, either exploring the place or painstakingly searching for treasure, but this wasn't the case for them.
Their mission was to recover and rescue the elder of another family, and now, also one of the people who had come with them, so, they put aside all minor issues and ran at full speed while remaining fused with their demonic spirits.
But it was this very fact that ended up strangely confusing them and almost confirming the theory they had before leaving the Hong Yue family camp: it was very likely that Hong Yue Mu had indeed been controlled by something or someone to go to a specific place in these ruins.
Why else had he advanced so much ground in such a short time? If it had been a normal exploration, he wouldn't have gone so deep in such a short time, in which case, they would have caught up with him a long time ago.
But even with them going at full speed for a considerable amount of time, they were unable to catch him, suggesting that he had probably also entered and run at full speed from the start.
Neither of them liked this thought, so they decided to merge with their demonic spirits to arrive even sooner than they had previously estimated.
And the reasoning for this was simple: Leek was able to sense energies, so if he felt the massive increase in their own, he would surely realize something had happened and would also increase his speed.
That way, if they were lucky, the boy would find them even before they reached Hong Yue Mu.
Even if he didn't, when they reached Elder Mu, they would separate from their spirits and fuse again, repeating this process a couple of times as a signal to Leek to hurry.
It wasn't the most elaborate plan in the world, but it was the simplest and most direct way to "communicate" with the Saiyan to urge him to join them, although deep down, they both hoped the young man would get there first and be waiting for them.
#####
Third Person P.O.V
"Big Bang Attack!" A beam of blue light shot toward the nameless old man, but the man didn't even bother to dodge.
He simply raised his hand, his palm collided with the energy attack, stopping it without much effort until the attack exploded and enveloped his figure in a small puff of smoke. The puff of smoke dissipated an instant later, revealing the old man unharmed.
"There's no point in resisting, I may be only a fragment of the original me, and weakened by the passage of time, but in this realm I can apply at least the power equivalent to a newly promoted Legend rank, along with several of my other abilities, you are unable to defeat me."
"You are not the one who decides what I can or cannot achieve!"
"Cooperate with me to save humanity, you won't disappear, your soul will be absorbed and become part of me"
"Go to hell, you creepy old man!! You'll never take my body!!" Leek shouted as he flew over the place, firing energy blasts at the man, who brushed them aside with one hand as if they were insects.
The older man sighed as if dealing with a small child who couldn't understand reason; in fact, from his perspective, he did, so he decided that perhaps showing his superiority directly instead of just talking about it would have a better effect.
"If this is how you want things to be, then don't blame me for being rude." He said, raising his palm and pointing it at Leek before pushing.
Leek's senses screamed danger, and his arms formed an X in front of him just in time to be hit by an invisible force that pushed him backward until he collided with a mountain.
"Grr!!" Leek's arms felt numb from the impact while his back stung from crashing into solid rock.
The Saiyan now had his back half buried in the side of a mountain that now bore the imprint of a hand with him in the center.
It was as if a superhuman tried to swat a mosquito against a wall, and for some inexplicable reason, the mosquito had withstood the impact.
"Is this enough evidence of the difference between us?" The old man floated in front of Leek, asking calmly.
Leek lowered his arms a little, staring into the old man's eyes, then smiled viciously before speaking.
"Fuck you." Was all the Saiyan said.
The old man's brow furrowed sharply at this, and raising his hand once more, he attacked again.
"!!!" A grunt of pain and exertion escaped Leek's mouth as his body sank further into the side of the mountain.
The impact lasted a couple of seconds before the pressure trying to crush him disappeared.
"Have you had enough?"
He didn't know if it was his imagination or just a product of the slight dizziness he felt, but he thought he heard exasperation in the old man's voice, so he decided to respond properly.
"Is this all you got? Weakling." Leek said in the most contemptuous tone he could muster.
The Saiyan's body sank deeper into the stone, and after another two seconds, the pressure eased, but a second later, another impact struck him, and then another, and another, and another, and another.
Finally, after a few more blows, the mountain was destroyed, and Leek's body flew through the air, unable to find his bearings until he crashed into a clearing.
Leek felt the wind knocked out of him, his right arm screaming in agony, a small waterfall of hot liquid falling down the side of his head, but he ignored it all, using his flight technique to get away from where he'd fallen, narrowly avoiding the same palm strike that had just left a handprint in the clearing where he'd been a blink of an eye ago.
"Huff, huff, huff…" He breathed heavily, his guard up, as the old man, now frowning completely, floated in front of him a few feet away.
"You don't understand the heights of the heavens or the depths of the sea, no matter what you think, desire, the methods you employ, or how proud you are of your talents, there are always heavens beyond the heavens and geniuses beyond geniuses"
"Heh." Leek let out a short laugh, which caught the old man's attention.
"What's so funny?"
"All of you with your stupid sayings, don't you see that it just makes you look like a bunch of pretentious morons? You can't see Mount Tai, blah, blah, blah, you're courting death, blah, blah, blah. Do you want to hear a real threat, old man?"
Leek's hostility collided head-on with the murderous pressure that the old man began to emit upon hearing the mockery directed at him.
"I'll break every fucking bone in your body before I finish you, you old shit! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT THREAT?!" Leek shouted, launching himself at the unnamed man to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
X-X-X-X-X
We're approaching the climax and the end of this arc. I'd say there are about three/ four more chapters left.
And as you can see, Leek is in trouble in this fight, though he doesn't seem too intimidated or discouraged by it. We'll see how he handles the situation in the next chapter.
In other news, my hand still hurts, a lot! I'm getting a rabies vaccine, split into two doses, once a week, and every time I get it, I feel exhausted and numb.
But the docs said that's normal, so I'm more at ease knowing that the doctor said I don't have anything too serious. I hope to be back to 100% soon!
Besides that, I also wanted to ask you for something else: I'd like to commission a drawing for this story, either a new cover or a fan art of a scene.
That's why I wanted to ask you to please join my P-treon, those who join, in addition to being able to read the 5 extra chapters there, will also be able to vote to decide which of these two options will be the drawing.
If we get 19 people with Legend rank to join, and I add a little bit of what I have saved (because the good artists I've seen on X aren't cheap), I think I'll be able to find a good artist to draw something for this story.
So far there are 11 people, so we still need 8 more, so, if possible, please support me, if not, I still appreciate the reviews, comments, and power stones.
Remove the spaces and dash: p-atreon/ Krakenian01