The warm season had arrived in Sunderfall and the trash and waste items from the upper cities had ten folded—each day there was more and more trash being dropped to Sunderfall and more trash beasts were controlling vast territories to a point humans were forced to flee.
A couple of months had passed since the war at the Twin mountains, the war that claimed lives and awakened a long thought to be extinct cultivation skill—The Phoenix transformation, a unique transformation that was sought after by everyone, having the properties of immortality and rebirth added to healing—a skill that perished with time during the hunting days.
In those months—Yuanchen and Lia had grown in strength and as people. Both of them had taken apprenticeship under Serena and their relationship had strengthened to a point, the people of Snow-Peak would tease them they look like a couple.
Yuanchen chuckled to himself as he dodged yet another strike from the simulated fighting partner that shared memories and likeness to him—he parried another strike and counterattacked with his own attack, outwitting the simulation and bringing an end to the mock fight.
Jinx clapped her small hands. You have grown so much, you are better at using Null World and the skills you inherited. She hovered around him, her eyes staring at Yuanchen with astonishment.
When they first started their training, Yuanchen could barely call upon his energy to cultivate—but now? The man was in the levels above an Awakened Saint, to Jinx, he was comparable to the Sect masters who are around the Enlightened realm, a cultivation realm above awakened saint and below immortal realm.
Yuanchen grinned. "I did make a promise to someone that the people that have hurt her are going to pay, that's why I needed to get stronger and quickly." he stretched his limbs a bit. "How are the preparations coming along?"
Jinx snapped her fingers and multiple digital screens appeared in the air. The warship is 98% complete, just need a couple of changes to the weaponry to name a few. The tower that converts nuclear power has been linked to your commands and the sentries have all been finalized, their production close to ending.
Everything was smooth sailing as he wanted them—with the briefing done, Yuanchen allowed the white field to disappear. He did one last stretch and left to go get a bath—in the months he had been to Sunderfall, he learned things that were said to be impossible for him to do, he learned to cultivate and trained to strength his body—he also learned the application of his unique Qi and his engineering mind had grown by leaps and bounds. Before he could create small objects, mimic whatever he studied and recreate it to almost perfection, but with the help of Shengyuan, Jinx and Serena, his development had increased tenfold and the Null World buff shortened the time it took for him to gather materials.
A perfect cheat code.
Yuanchen walked into the house that Serena gave them and raised an eyebrow at how quiet it was—usually, Lia would be sitting down watching something on the TV or praying to the photo of her brother. "Lia?" He called out as he made his way into the house checking the main floor rooms first before he made his way up the stairs—Yuanchen rounded the corner and bumped into something soft and curvaceous and a thud followed.
He looked down and his face flushed red—sitting on the ground with her hair wet and towel slightly lowering to expose her chest was Lia. Yuanchen cleared his throat and looked to the side. "I didn't see you there."
"It's fine." Lia internally smirked at his reaction—at the very least she was appealing to him, but she decided not to tease him about it and got up from the floor. "Serena wanted to talk with you about something, it sounded important from her tone."
Yuanchen nodded and quickly excused himself—he heaved a sigh of relief once he was out of Lia's sight and his hand went to his chest—his heart was thumping like crazy, he thought that it would pop out and burst from how it was moving. He sat on the couch and closed his eyes.
His senses traveled through the connection of Neuro-Qi he had established between him and his sentries.
What they saw was linked with him—and currently the sentries were locked in combat with a trash beast that was dwarfing the trash piles around them—the beast let out another energy attack and the sentry dodged the beam. They rushed the beast, cutting it from all sides but their weapons dealt little to no damage as the cuts were instantaneous closed.
Yuanchen sighed and opened his eyes cutting the link between him and the sentries—he needed to provide them with aid so that they can harvest the ore from the cave within the trash piles.
"Jinx, help them out."
The small fairy-like creature appeared at the behest of her master's call and she knew what he wanted—her eyes glowed and the massive plantation that was within Null World rotated and the nuclear energy produced was converted into hot, ionized material known as plasma and with a pinpoint accuracy—Jinx fired the attack from where she was, sending it to where it was needed.
Elsewhere in Sunderfall, a woman with snow-white hair was on a mission—she had been traveling the lands ever since Gaia had brought her here. Lian'er searched the northern side of Sunderfall heading inward for her brother—but she got nothing, the black market had nothing on him, and that made her begin to doubt that he was even alive. She had on her usual attire, her hoodie hung over her head as she made it through the dark allies of Argyon, the city of lawlessness.
She heard whistles from the men that laid on the street, drunk from whatever activities they were partaking the night before. She ignored them and continued on her way—she was not staying but crossing the town to reach the next town when all of a sudden, all her paths were blocked by several men—the men had lecherous grins on their faces as they sized her up.
"Hey sweetheart, what's a thing like you doing in a place like this? But don't worry, I'll protect you if you become our little toy." One of the men approached her and placed her hand on her shoulder.
Faster than the men could see—the hand that had touched Lian'er was quickly disconnected from the arm and blood sprayed the ground followed by a shriek of pain from the man—Lian'er glared at the rest, her eyes shining with a murderous glint in them. Her bloody sword poked out of her robe and the blood fell on the crumbling stone beneath their feet.
The group of men were immediately struck by fear—they realized that, they had bitten off more than they could ever hope to chew from the aura they felt. They had messed with a cultivator.
Lian'er grinned. "Prepare to die."
The men scattered, running away in fear—Lian'er was not giving them that luxury, as ice walls slid in their paths, closing them within the alley with her. She breathed out and the atmosphere chilled—She danced across the men fluidly and meticulously, each dance brought down a body when she passed.
Her act of savagery left a stain in the alley and left behind mutilated bodies and blood in her wake.