Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 58
His progress had slowed down with time, the Qi around the place was also thinning out as he was absorbing it at an increased rate. His cultivation was above 50% but it started stagnating. The good thing was that even without achieving a breakthrough he was getting stronger. Each percentage counted, he was a lot stronger at 50% than he was at 1% of the middle stage. Plus he had managed to get his body cultivation into the middle stage as well.
He wore a golden robe as the patriarch ceremony was uppon him, looking kind of regal as Zhang Ya was fixing him up. He was even wearing a strange ceremonial hat, which made him look like a pope or sect leader. The hat had some strange strings with small beads attached to them that just dangled around. The sleeves were very long and wide, this was certainly not a robe meant for fighting. He looked at himself in the mirror while his attendant was fixing up his clothes, he wanted to crawl into his bed and hide, due to his silly appearance.
"Patriarch, you look stunning. I bet all the prominent clans in the area will send marriage proposals as soon as they see your stunning appearance."
The woman said in an excited fashion.
This didn't help at all, as Matthew didn't really feel like getting married. He also knew how things worked around here, the marriages were mostly political and were meant to bind clans together while the parents were supposed to pop out babies like crazy. Well not like he had much against the baby-making procedure, but he would rather do it with someone who actually liked him. He still remembered that one woman just running away the moment she heard his clan name.
*Well, I'm the Patriarch so they can't force me to marry anyone. If someone tries, I'll force them to marry a goat! That will show them! I'll even bring some spirit grass for the goat as a wedding present.*
He was slightly nervous but quite less as his tranquil mind was in full effect. He just needed to do a couple of those breathing exercises and he was good to go. He had been living in this place for a month now, he had met some of the elders and core members for the clan. But he was quite bad at remembering names, it was even worse to attach those names to faces that kind of blurred together. So most of the time he ended up just nodding while greeting people.
Zhang Ya had explained everything to him, but he went through it once more in his head. First came the ceremony in the main building hall, everyone from the core members would be there. He would get the official title there, he would have to sit down on that big throne and get greeted by everyone which could take a while. After that, he was supposed to go to the mausoleum and pay his respects to his ancestors. A lot of this involved kowtowing and getting kowtowed back, these people sure had a thing for that, he liked handshakes more. Following that, he would have to get on a magical platform that worked like a flying sword. He would have to show himself to the citizens and either say something wise or just wave at them and nod. Then came the strange parade through the city ending it all with some kind of banquet where more people were invited to. The clan would receive gifts from other clans, which was more or less a friendly gesture to keep good relations. He wasn't expecting much as the clan was in decline, so there weren't many other powers trying to get on their good side just yet.
*This is going to be a long day...*
He gave out a sigh and headed out, it was time to get this over with as the day had only started. The whole thing was supposed to take quite a bit, the banquet was taking place at night so till then he would be greeting people while stoically looking at them. Zhang Jin gave a long-winded speech about the Clan's future, that the families should come together to form bonds or something like that. Matt wasn't really listening as he was trying not to fall asleep during it. Afterward, many people came over to pay their respects, some people he remembered some were new. He kind of waved his hand about while nodding, playing the role of a more silent lord but it was mostly due to not knowing what to say.
This took a good chunk of the day, there were many clan members as he kind of underestimated the massive size of his clan. Some looked happy, some looked dejected as the side families kind of forced their way into the whole ceremony proclaiming that if the Patriarch was from a side family as well, they had the right to be there. The raining grand elder had set this all up, these were troubling times so the clan needed unity more than tradition. Some people almost started fighting, but with one good snort they quieted down fast.
After that was done the mausoleum part was next, he was alone kneeling in front of some statues and graves. He just lit some incense sticks here and there while bowing at the 'ancestors'. He felt kind of weird doing this as he had no relation to these people whatsoever, besides the system bestowing him with the body of the so-called Zhang Dong. He had thought a bit about that, was this a game world? Or was this just some parallel world and he now inhabited the real Zhang Dong's body that existed in reality. Maybe the owner of this body died during the battle with the monster that slew his parents. He just got inserted into it, though that would be unlikely as he was the one that picked the name.
He was leaning into the direction of a godly being making this whole world, for some shits and giggles. Probably watching him dance like a puppet while laughing. This was kind of unsettling but he couldn't do much about it.
Next up, was the part he wanted to do the least, his public appearance. He was radiating his senior aura at max while looking down at the people, there was a huge about of them. It looked like a sea of people crammed into a small space, just looking up at him while he focused on his tranquil mind technique and recalled what he wrote down beforehand. Even though he remembered it mostly from movies and games... Thus he started speaking with a slow steady voice.
"This day does not belong to one man, but to all! Let us together rebuild this Clan, this city, that we may share in the days of peace."
"In order to succeed in this endeavor called life, we must come together with one heart, one mind, one love, and one determination"
"Unity is strength, division is weakness only together can we achieve greatness!"
"Individually we are but a drop of water, but together we are an ocean!"
He tried quoting some political propaganda that he remembered from some internet surfing back in the day, but he wasn't sure if it was working as you could hear a pin drop after he was done with his speech. But soon cheers could be heard around the whole city, probably because most of the people in this world had a big individualistic mindset, gaining power for themselves to raise up in society. The whole 'Work together' thing was a bit new. While the people on the bottom pole were eager to share and work together, the people on the top would probably still cling to their resources.
He just waved and flew along the road as the parade started, the platform he was on had a big throne on it. So he looked like some lofty magical king just floating while getting escorted by traditionally dressed clan members. The people looked quite happy to have him there, which made him glad but he just wanted to get out of these uncomfortable clothes also he was really bored.
While he was just sitting there he decided to see how his disciples were doing, he hadn't seen them much in the past week. The last time was just after they returned him his original manuals to the skills he gave them.
Name :Zhang LiuCultivation Base Qi :Qi Condensation 9thCultivation Base Body :Qi Condensation 1st (Profound Physique)Techniques : Tranquil Mind, Rainwater Sutra, Empowered Lightning Qi Cultivation art, Flowing Water art... Dao :Dao of Heavenly Lightning(0,5%)
The kids had started learning his skills, the tranquil mind skill wasn't that hard to learn so afterward they concentrated on the Dao and lightning cultivation art.His Lightning Cultivation art already transformed into the empowered one, he hoped that when he upgraded it again he could teach the kids the improved version with no problems. The Dao bit looked hard to learn though, it wasn't even at 1% but that was the hardest thing to learn as it showed the cultivator the right way. The peculiar thing about his disciples, that after absorbing the lightning Qi, their hair started showing white strands. Guess that was the side effect of this art, silvery hair.
The girl wasn't much behind the boy, She had the Dao understanding a bit higher at 0,7% but had more trouble with the new body tempering technique. You could say she had more talent for Qi related techniques, while the youth for body-related skills. But it just might have been a different mindset.
The last thing on the agenda was the banquet, so they all returned to their main base. He was back at sitting at his throne while people were buzzing about, some other more friendly clans came to pay a visit. They were mostly the weaker ones, just trying to be polite but there were some others gathering some info about the new guy in town. Matt was trying hard not to yawn, which might have given the wrong signals as his face quite stern-looking.
The people were happily chatting between themselves, Zhang Jin was quite fond of the lady cultivators as he seemed to be working his adult charms on them. Zhang Dong sighed as he didn't want to get a new 'uncle'. But the pleasantries came to an end there, because everyone could feel an overbearing aura suddenly fill the whole place. It was an unannounced visit, no one knew how the person got here as the guards didn't notice their arrival. Matt was also surprised as he couldn't feel the person before they released their aura, the aura felt quite strong it was at the level of a core formation expert at the great circle. But it wasn't just one person, there were more.
Six people walked in, filling the room with their oppressive spiritual energy that pushed anyone below the core formation-level down to their knees. The five people behind the strongest person were all at the late stage, Matt had gotten stronger in the past month but he probably wouldn't be able to handle all those experts alone.
"Well, isn't the little Zhang clan going to pay their respects?"
One of the people in the back spoke up. All of them were wearing similar yellow robes, the person in front had the most expensive-looking one on him. The thing that stuck out was a symbol of a black hand embroidered to the back of the robe.
Happy new year!
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 59
The person in the front looked a lot younger than the people in the back, he was also the strongest, probably some kind of genius young master type. The people in the back were all older men, looking to be in their fifties. The lofty young master had long dark hair, a more tanned complexion and some kind of jewel sticking out of his forehead. Might have been some kind of treasure, or maybe part of a cultivation method. The six were of course members of the dark palm sect that ruled this region.
The first one to react was Zhang Jin, he was also the only one that could move beside Zhang Dong in this situation as the former was a bit baffled by the situation. This was actually the first time that Matt was in front of someone that he wasn't a senior too. Jin went in front and made a bow to the younger male offering his greetings in a pleasant voice.
"You honor our small clan with your presence oh honorable Seniors."
Zhang Dong was a bit slow to react, which caught the eye of the sect members. Who started eyeing them down, almost ready to pounce on him for not showing the due respect towards them and their young master. To them, he was just a country bumpkin that was a leader of a small insignificant group of cultivators.
"Ah, excuse my rudeness."
He quickly got off his throne and bowed his head in front of the sect cultivators, this being the first time he actually had to do it. Most of the time he was the strongest person in the area, so he kind of got used to acting nonchalantly around others.
The young master seemed to be a person of few words as he looked dejected to even be here in the first place. He just looked at Zhang Dong for a second and then turned his face to one of the elders behind him. His tone was quite condescending.
"Just give them the orders, don't want to be in this backwater place anymore than I have too."
The elder that was spoken too, took out a jade slip and threw it over to Matt that quickly scanned its contents. He started frowning more and more as he read on what was written in there.
"This..."
"Follow the orders in the jade slip, you know the repercussion if you decide otherwise. Know your place whelp, you might have won against some trash clans, but don't ever forget that the Dark Palm sect is the one that lets you have your petty squabbles in the first place.
The man spat on the ground, as he didn't like how Zhang Dong was slow in giving them face. After the elder gave them the warning, they withdrew their aura, jumped onto their swords and headed out. As their master had stated, none of them wanted to be here in the first place. The clan people started getting off the floor while panting, knowing well that there was probably nothing good in that jade slip. Zhang Jin walked over with a solemn look on his face, he was passed the jade slip his eyes going wide-eyed in the process.
"Does damn bastards! Did we somehow offend them?"
Matt let Zhang Jin keep the jade slip as some other elders started reading through it. Due to the previous expedition ending in failure, there would be another one. The secret ground opened up on set intervals and required a set amount of people to take part in it. Their clan was ordered to supply them with 1 core formation cultivator, 20 foundation establishment cultivators and 200 Qi Condensation cultivators. Also, they specifically ordered the new Patriarch of the clan to take part in it, if not the sect would replace them with another clan.
There was also an explanation about why this specific number of cultivators was required. After going to the secret grounds, the people there found ten large platforms. The whole thing was created by some immortal cultivator, if they completed a trial they would get some cultivation technique of his as a reward. There was also a giant door in that chamber, in the text it stated that if the trial is successfully finished the giant door would open and reveal the treasure inside.
The Dark Palm sect was very much interested in what was behind that giant door, they tried to brute force their way inside but even their nascent soul cultivators couldn't put a dent on that massive door. They decided to bring enough people for the trial, but they didn't want to use their own disciples. They brought in the clans for that, some of them went in for the spoils as the sect did offer rewards. But no one could actually refuse them.
So the first time around, the Zhang Clan went over with 3 of their core formation elders, 60 foundation establishment experts and 600 Qi foundation warriors. These were the best warriors of the clan, as the clan was going to get paid well if they succeeded. The rest was filled by other clans, in the end, no one returned. The secret grounds forcefully expelled everyone that came inside and the entrance to it got sealed off. But it was later revealed that the seal was weakening with the passage of time and that it would open again.
The ever greedy sect cultivators decided to throw more people at the trial, they didn't care about what the clans thought, they could be replaced later. The opening time would be in about three month's time, they were required to bring their forces there or suffer the consequences. If they succeded the sect would offer them some spirit stones and resources also they would let them have whatever was in the trial. Probably because they thought that there wouldn't be much worth in there.
The atmosphere was solemn in the room as everyone got the news, the banquet was ended prematurely while the people in charge went to the main hall to discuss things, Matt went with them of course.
"We have three months... we are done for...the previous Patriarch couldn't best that trial with our strongest forces, how are we supposed to do it now?"
One of the men in the room said while pulling his hair out.
"We could try running..."
"And what? Become bandits? Join another Clan? The moment they find out our roots they would execute us."
"They really want us dead..."
Matt listened to the old men bickering, the trial was strange as it had designated spots and a set amount of people. The composition was strange, the core formation experts seemed like generals of their forces, the formation establishment cultivators like officers and the Qi condensation warriors as soldiers.
*Maybe it's some military game where they compete against each other? But then one of the teams would have won and been alive to tell the tale...*
He tried thinking about novels and how most of those pocket dimension dungeons worked. Mostly there were a lot of traps involved people competing to get some strange herb or treasure in the end. But this one had a treasure outside it, while the people taking the test were inside.
*Sounds like a place to test your forces or something...Maybe people inside have to work together to win... If so ... that might be bad...*
He knew well how things worked around this world, sometimes a sibling would backstab their family to get that magical pill. Working together wasn't really something that was associated with cultivators. Being a murder hobo, popping pills was more the xianxia way.
*I guess if everyone was from one sect it would work out, but if you put in Clans that probably have some grudges with each other and tell them to work together for one goal... I think I need to get more points.*
After becoming the Patriarch he had unlocked the Clan window, he could see how many people were in it and what cultivation levels they were. It kind of looked like sim city, he could see the approval ratings in the city, what cities he had, the crime rate and so on. There was even an achievement tab, that showed him that he could get points for things like getting the approval rating up to a certain point. Building a hospital, building more martial art schools and bringing the strength and knowledge of the citizens up. More or less he got points the better the clan and the city did. Also, he gained passive points each day though at the moment he was gaining a whooping two points a day.
He decided to act a bit more like a leader, slowly filling the room with his aura as she said with a booming voice.
"Organise a city-wide tournament for our clan members, tell them about the new expedition. Qi Condensation juniors and Foundation Establishment cultivators from the clan can participate. We will select the right number from the strongest from them. Do it within a month's time."
"Zhang Kuo, find me a list of any strong beasts or demonic cultivators that have bounties on their heads, best if they are in the core formation stage. Do it as fast as you can."
He needed to train his forces up, which would require quite a bit of points. The fastest way would be slaying monsters or cultivators at the core formation level. He had to get enough points to upgrade the skills for the chosen elite warriors from the tournament. He could hide the fact that the winners would get conscripted, but he would rather have some weaker people that have the guts to fight, than having to force them to come along and then have them abandon others in the middle of battle. The strongest warrior wasn't always the best one for the job.
The people in the room, mostly knew what the Patriarch was going for with the tournament to choose the best warriors. But was a bit surprised that he wanted to hunt some bounties? But they guessed that he wanted the cash rewards to aid the clan, so there wasn't much resistance from them. They discussed some other things, with him there, mostly the logistics of getting the tournament ready.
Zhang Dong returned to his chambers and flopped like a dead fish on his large bed. His face was down in the pillow as he just wanted to go to sleep. But before he could do that he heard knocking on the door. He turned around and stared at the ceiling for a moment before standing up.
"Who is it?"
"We apologize for the intrusion, Master"
It was the two kids, they were looking at him with embers in their eyes. They had apparently heard about the whole dark palm sect expedition. Probably overheard it from their mother or one of the other clan members.
"Please Master, teach us fighting skills we want to participate in the expedition!"
He looked at the two youths, the two looking quite determined.
"There's going to be a tournament if you can get into the best 200 you can participate... But is your mother okay with this?"
"Mother will probably take part in it too... we overheard her talking to grandpa about it, we want to join her and our brothers and sisters of the clan!"
The to were taking it quite seriously, which made Matt a bit hesitant. He didn't want to get these two youths involved that much, they had a bright future ahead of them and quite the high talent. But if they failed the clan would probably be done for anyway.
"Fine... you two continue with your cultivation, but also use this..."
The two were getting the hang of it, but most of Zhang Dong's techniques required high amounts of lightning Qi. The most he could give them is the basic fighting techniques along with the lightning punching and kicking arts. If they could advance with those, they might stand a chance in the tournament. He also wanted to learn a sword art for himself, he didn't have one yet but he would need to get more points for that.
The two left his chambers with a splitting headache again and some manuals to copy from while Matt decided to cultivate for the rest of the night. He expected to get the info on potential targets in the morning, he would head out to gather points, his goal was to get into the late stage of the core formation stage, his progress was slowing down though. He started feeling responsible for these Zhang Clan people, the closer he got to them the harder it was to let go. He might have been an introvert but that didn't mean that he wanted to be alone.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 60
The next day the news was spreading through the city, making the citizens quite unruly. This was understandable because if this expedition ended badly like last time, there would probably be a new attempt on the city. No one thought that there would be anyone rescuing them again if that happened. Some people were thinking about abandoning the clan and city in general, but then they also heard that other clans in the area were in similar situations. No one was really safe from the sect overlords and it was hard to abandon an established life to start anew.
Matt was in his cultivation chamber, trying to raise his power level. But his gains had slowed down the further he progressed. The storm clouds were coming down less, the spiritual energy in the area was thining out. He was thinking about his plan, would it even work? He left and went over to Zhang Jin, he wanted to know if he knew anything about the last expedition.
After the two greeted each other then his grandpa explained everything in detail. The old Patriarch left with two other core formation elders, this happened about three months ago. They didn't have many details on what happened inside as the communication jades didn't work. The spirit tablets started breaking after about a month, so the people inside that dungeon didn't just get wiped out. They remained for quite some time, fighting for their lives. It took another month for everyone's tablets to break, maybe it was some kind of prolonged attack or some kind of maze?
The thing Zhang Dong was sure of was that he needed to get as many points as he could, but he wasn't about to go on a killing spree. That's why he told Kuo to get him that fugitive list. He wanted to hunt some monsters and get spirit stones as rewards to boot, he needed a lot of resources. Did everyone have the best available weapon for their disposition? Could he upgrade their cultivation method? This was a team event, so he needed to arm his men and women to the teeth and he knew that the previous expedition drained the clan's coffers dry.
"I have brought you what you asked for, Patriarch."
Matt nodded and took the jade slip, it had information about various baddies and monsters around the whole empire. He scanned it for core formation enemies, would be nice if he could grab a nascent soul beast, but a monster like that would probably one-shot him.
RavagerDemonic cultivator, last seen near the five dread peaks by the city of Frostriver. Cultivation base in the later core formation stage. He has killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people in pursuit of power. Reward 10,000 low grade Spirit Stones.Lesser Calamity DragonEvil Beast residing in the volcanic areas of the inferno mountain range, regularly seen raiding nearby cities and villages causing havoc on the populace. Cultivation base in the late core formation stage Reward 12,000 low grade Spirit StonesBlood Demon Cult An evil group of renegade cultivators, they act in the shadows and are hard to track. People have reported children getting abducted in the night. Reward 8,000 spirit stones, cultivation base unknown, possibly in core formation, not confirmed.
He mostly looked for opponents in the late stage of core formation, after fighting the fire lord and upgrading his skill he thought that he could take those on. He noted down the cult as well, as the city that they were doing their evil deeds was between the other two places he was going to go. He could head there after taking care of one of the assignments. After he finished up with those, he would decide if he could do more before returning to the clan.
He thought that maybe he could stay here and relax for longer, but now his life was at stake. There was always an option to leave and hide, but he was the Zhang Clan Patriarch. Everyone probably knew him by now, he would probably be a wanted one like that Ravager guy on the run. But there was also an option of a disguising skill, though if he did that the people from this clan would be dead meat. He didn't want to have that on his conscience.
*I really need some sword skills, I can't actually do any fancy attacks with this sword of mine besides swinging it around.*
Matt knew that there were many flashy sword styles, that if mastered let the user unleash powerful attacks. He would like to get a technique with a lot of potential best if he could use it from the get-go and be able to raise its prowess later. He had an eye on one particular sword art, that came under the umbrella of lightning elements so he got a discount. It wasn't an upgradable skill or anything, it was divided into tomes though if he bought the Earth grade one, he would get the previous ones for the lower ones.
The manuals were called Thunder God Sword Scripture and had various sword attacks and stances that went well with his empowered lightning Qi cultivation method. He wanted to grab the lower-level ones, but if he bought them one by one he would just lose points. For now, he decided to spend the rest of his points on Qi recovery pills and healing pills, as well as some detoxification pills against poison attacks. He knew well how those evil cultivators liked to poison everyone, though his golden body had quite the high resistance to poison attacks.
After checking out his map and marking down the first three waypoints, he could see that the closest area was the volcanic one. Also, this one actually pointed out the whereabouts of his target, the other ones were kind of vague. Maybe after he got the points from the dragon he could find some kind of tracking skill. He wasn't sure if he would be such a good detective and find that cult or that evil cultivator. Those guys seemed like the types that were good at hiding.
The plan was simple, go out, slay some baddies, get points, upgrade the cultivation methods of the clan members after they are done with their small tournament arc. Who knew, maybe some kind of protagonist type would appear during the tournament that he could focus his resources on. There probably had to be a reason why that secret ground required lower-level cultivators, so probably everyone was important and he couldn't just power through it with his own strength.
*Guess I'll be off to saving some damsels in distress, maybe that dragon will be hiding a cute princess somewhere.*
Matt thought to himself jokingly while making sure that he had everything he needed in his spatial ring. He took the excessive pills that he got from the previous battles with him, you never know, low grade pills could come in handy as well, he could always sell them later for more spirit stones.
While he was heading out, his grandpa Zhang Jin was waiting. He looked at him with concern in his gaze, fidgeting slightly before speaking out.
"Don... Patriarch, are you sure you want to leave the clan at this moment, what if something happens to you?"
He was informed about what Zhang Dong was doing, he wasn't sure what hunting some criminal and evil beasts would accomplish in the spawn of 3 months. The clan sure could use more spirit stones for weapons and gear, that was true. He was slightly concerned that the new Patriarch could die during his travels, they had no dao protectors to accompany him as he was the strongest member in the clan, they would only slow him down.
"Don't worry gramps, I'll be back. This is kind of how I get stronger... I might even have a breakthrough in these three months. I already said it to Ya and Kuo, but try to gather some crafting resources I might be able to forge some weapons for the winning clan members afterwards."
He replied in a calm voice, that tranquil mind technique working out quite nicely as previously he would have probably been stuttering all over the place.
Zhang Jin raised his hand as if he wanted to say something, but then instead nodded and gave his grandson a pat on the back and some words of reassurance before sending him off.
"Don't worry, I'll protect the clan while you are away."
Zhang Dong smiled slightly while just nodding back, then he jumped onto his flying sword that started glowing as he inserted his spiritual essence into it. With a thunderous sound, he vanished from the spot and you could hear a resounding sonic boom. Some other clan elders and members were also there. They had a myriad of feelings about the whole situation, some thought that this young cultivator would probably abandon them. Some were hopeful that their new Patriarch would deliver another miracle and get them out of this situation. Some were just confused, others were mad or fearful. Everyone dispersed after Zhang Jin told them to move their asses in motion and get to work while squinting.
The Patriarch had a communication jade slip with him this time around, the defensive formation was repaired so he would be able to come back if something went wrong. They had to follow orders, so they got busy with the tournament plans. Zhang Dong didn't mention how exactly the tournament was supposed to function, but he did say that he didn't want people to just get eliminated if they lost a fight. Everyone was supposed to have multiple chances to get their rank up, one fight wasn't enough to decide a good or bad fighter. Also, the fighter's stamina was important, so the combatants had to fight people in succession. Weapons were allowed, but they had to be of the same grade as the opponents.
The clan had a designated sparring area just for that, with build-in formations that kept people from getting killed or fatally injured. The people got to work while Zhang Dong flew through the air, the increase in cultivation making him fly twice as fast as before. If someone went into his patriarch chamber they would notice that the grand bed was missing, Matt sure as hell didn't want to sleep on that straw mattress that he got from that Tribe. The new bed barely fit into the upgraded crafting abode, he really needed to get something he could comfortable spend his time in...
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 61
Two people were walking, one was an older woman holding onto a big basket filled with laundry. Next to her was a young child, it was the woman's daughter. The day was nice and sunny as they made their way to the river to wash their clothes. The previous day the people in the village spotted some beasts fighting in the mountains, but they just hid till the powerful aura's subsided before coming out. This wasn't such a rare occurrence, powerful experts and beasts fought among each other for various reasons. The residents were used to such things, but no one really cared about their little village so they were mostly left unscathed.
The mother and daughter duo arrived at their destination. This world wasn't that advanced, there were some spiritual artifacts that could be used as washing machines but only rich sects and clans could afford such things. Normal people usually did it the hard way, just washing them in the river. It was supposed to be just a day like any other but then suddenly the small child spotted something.
"Mommy, mommy! What's that!"
The child bounced around while pointing at a spot by the river. The mother smiled at her daughter and then looked at where she was pointing at, her eyes going wide at the sight.
"Quickly, go call your father!"
The woman shouted at her daughter while quickly dropping her basket and running to that spot. She jumped into the water, yanking and pulling at what appeared to be a person. She managed to drag the large man out of there but he looked to be in awful condition. She could see that his white robe was all torn up, there were scratches and cuts all over his body. The river water deluded the blood, so you couldn't see how injured the man was.
After the husband arrived they both dragged the man out of the river, ear to the chest wondering if he was even alive. These were simple people, so they didn't know about CPR but after further inspection, they could hear a faint heartbeat. The man was clearly Zhang Dong, his robe wasn't mending itself as it required the users spiritual energy to do that.
The wife and husband quickly discussed the situation, the man looked to be injured but alive, he was clearly a cultivator but they had no idea if he was friendly or not. But these were quite honest and good people, so they both decided to patch him up to their ability. The man was quite heavy and felt like he was made from metal, so with the help of horse and carriage, they managed to get him back to their farmhouse which was nearby.
You could see other farmhouses around, the village entrance was quite near as well. They placed him in one of the rooms and the wife tended to the man's wounds while the husband kept watching, a bit apprehensive about the whole affair. It looked like the cultivator suffered some kind of beast attack, this made them remember yesterday's fight between some strange magical beast. They theorized that he probably got involved in the fight of those monsters and barely escaped with his life.
"We should probably report this to the village elder, we have no idea what this cultivator will do when he wakes up..."
The husband said in a hushed tone while edging his wife to go along with the daughter as he didn't want to leave them alone with the unknown person. The two females headed out but soon spotted some strange people around the village, maybe it was just a group of adventurers passing by?
There were some by the mayor's house, giving them strange smiles as they were passing by.
"Excuse me, is the mayor around? I need to report something..."
The wife said to one of the mayor's attendants that were standing in front of the house, she didn't have to wait for long as the moment she said that the mayor and a strange man walked out of the hose. The mayor was wiping sweat from his brow while the man was grinning.
"Oh? Can I listen to that report too, young missy?"
The man smiled in a mocking way, while the mayor looked at the woman that he knew from the village. She informed them about the strange cultivator they fished out of the village and how they brought him to their house to tend to his wounds. This made the other strange people whisper among themselves before the leader barked out an order to her.
"Interesting, you won't mind if we tag along, right mayor? Think it might be one of my men."
The mayor wanted to refuse but he wasn't really in a position, these people had just barged into this village asking about yesterday's monster attack. He told them what he knew, where the spot was that the fight probably occurred he even lent them a guide as he was afraid that if he didn't he would end up with a dagger in his throat. These people were clearly some band of bandits or renegade cultivators, probably trying to find something in that beast attack.
Having no other way out, the wife and mayor headed to the farmhouse while the unwelcomed guests followed after them. As they arrived, the people that left with the guide returned, but without him. They whispered something into their leader's ear, the man just smiled and nodded while whispering something back.
The group arrived at the farmhouse to the husband's surprise, there were quite a bit of those cultivators around and the mayor was also there. This left the man with furrowed brows, but his wife explained that they were the friends of the cultivator they saved. The leader and two other men walked into the room where the silver-haired man was, he looked like a mummy with all those bandages wrapped around his torso. The strange thing was that the family was also forced into the house along with the mayor, the leader of the so-called cultivator friends started speaking.
"Okay boys, we hit the jackpot. Our brothers found a dead beast, it's worth a fortune this unlucky sap must have been fighting it, just leaves us to finish the deal."
He said while grinning. They were bandits, they were on the move as they came across the fight in the distance. Being the curious bunch they decided to see if the people that battled left something for them to take. They expected at most to get some scraps, maybe a half-chewed up cultivator carcass where they could find a working storage ring. But instead, they found a dead dragon and the cultivator was right here, they just needed to finish him and take all his bearings. There was only one problem, the villagers. They couldn't let them live now if this guy was some prominent figure and someone came looking for him they would be done for.
"Kill him, take all of his treasures... then kill all of the villagers, let no one survive... do it quietly so that they don't run..."
The family and mayor looked on in horror, backing away with the little girl in the back.
"No you can't do this, the Ruling Clan won't let this happen!"
The husband shouted out, while the bandits started pulling out their daggers.
"The Clan? Like that bunch of arrogant bastards would even lift a finger for some useless villagers."
One of the bandits replied while licking his dagger.
"Hey boss, can we have some fun with the girls?"
Another one from the bandits asked this one was quite wide, looking like a pig.
"Girls? Hehe, little bro you sure like them young don't you..."
Everyone looked on in horror as imminent death was approaching, the father tried protecting their family but instead found himself with a dagger stuck in his shoulder. The mayor was getting beaten while the wife and child looked on in horror.
"Hehe, just blame your bad luck."
One of the bandits said while his axe came down at the bandaged up cultivator's head, aiming to chop his neck right through. This didn't go as planned though as the weapon shattered into pieces the moment it collided with the man's neck. The struck spot shone with a golden metallic luster. Before the man could reassess the situation he felt his neck getting grabbed, as the seemingly passed out cultivator awoke.
"You know what, I was willing to let you live... but then you had to open your big mouths, there is a certain place in hell for bastards like you... "
The bandit was lifted up into the air as the white-haired man stood up. He looked at the man that just tried to chop his head off, then he looked at the injured village residents. The bandit in his grasp had a strange expression on his face as he thrashed about, but soon he could feel electricity run through his entire body. The man lit up like a Christmas Tree, death came fast and without much pain due to the overwhelming amount of electric energy. The man's charred remains hit the floor, he looked like a baked skeleton with some meat attached here and there.
"P-please s-senior, appease your anger..."
The bandits knew well that they couldn't handle this guy, he had killed that giant dragon that was still radiating with power. They were just simple Qi Condensation cultivators, with no backing to speak of. The man was slowly walking towards them without replying, so they just bolted for the exit. Running away was the only option, all of them scattered hoping that the mad expert couldn't get them all or wouldn't even bother.
Matt walked out of the farmhouse, he could feel the auras of all the bandits in the small village. The bandits were in close vicinity so he could sense all their unique murderous auras. He gathered Qi into his hand, forming a big spear of light. He threw it up into the air, the javelin went straight up, at the apex of its trajectory, it exploded splitting into many smaller spears. Guided by his senses they homed in on the escaping cultivators, piercing through their bodies as he left none of them alive. He knew that those men were killers and rapists, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth as he looked at the dead people scattered around the vicinity.
The previous day he had gone to the spot where the calamity dragon was supposed to have its lair. It was there like on the wanted list, but the problem was that it was a lot stronger than what he had anticipated. The moment the dragon noticed his presence it attacked. It was in the late stage, but the problem was its body. His attacks kept bouncing off the scales, his sword left flesh wounds while he himself took hits after getting too close. In the end, it ended up with a battle of attrition as he used his avatar form in a last-ditch effort, wrestling with the thing while it sunk its claws into his enlarged body. He managed to snap the dragon's neck in the end, the two fighting it out near a waterfall where he passed out. Afterward, he was carried downstream and ended up by the village where the villagers carried him home and tended to his wounds.
He realized that the Tsai clan patriarch wasn't a good reference point, he had just broken through and his cultivation technique was more or less trash. This dragon was at the pinnacle of that stage, plus it had a hard body that might have been its main cultivation method.
He wasn't as strong as he had thought, mistakes were made. He had also gotten some innocent people involved in this debacle. He went back into the house and handed the injured people inside some healing pills. The villagers were grateful but there was fear in their eyes, they just witnessed a man killing so many people with ease. Matt apologized to the residents, leaving behind some money as thanks before heading out. He flew back to where the dragon remains were, taking it into his storage ring as he could use the body for crafting materials.
*I guess one down and two to go... At least I got some points now.*
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 215432Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Middle Stage 57 %] (Empowered Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Core Formation [Middle Stage 3 %] (Golden Body)Techniques :Empowered Lightning Qi cultivation art, Golden Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art...Dao : Dao of Heavenly Lightning, Dao of Smithing and CraftingOther : Senior Aura, Impartation of Knowledge, Mentor's Eyes, Apprisal
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 62
Matt was on his sword munching on some healing pills while his wounds were regenerating slowly. He didn't like how his first mission went down, he almost died fighting that dragon then some crazy bandits wanted to chop his head off. He even got some innocent people involved, then had to kill. He'd give himself an F+ for handling things, the + just for not being dead in the end. He kind of figured that he shouldn't rush into these kinds of things without gathering some intel first. Though not like there was anyone around that volcanic mountain range to ask questions about. He could also use a detection skill of some sorts, maybe if he pined the location of that dragon before it noticed him, he could have gotten a sneak attack in.
First, he used the new points to get the first three manuscripts of the Thunder God Sword Scripture, to increase his attacking power. Each manuscript taught him one special move, but they also contained the knowledge about sword stances, methods of attacking and defending. The first one was an attacking technique, the sword practitioner would release sword energy and deliver a slicking attack that would cut anything in its way. It also added some lightning laws, and besides slicing and dicing your opponent it would kick up a storm in its wake. It had the name of Thunder God Slash, it also increased in power with every higher-ranked manuscript. There was also a variation of the skill called Thunder God Thrust.
The second one was called Thunder God Domain, it was a defensive move you formed in illusory domain calling up lightning elements and storms. In this domain, you could perceive all incoming attacks and react accordingly. The last one was a charge up attack called Sever the Heavens. It was similar to the first one, but it would deliver an immensely powerful strike and couldn't really be spammed like the Thunder God Slash move.
He decided to try out his new repertoire before moving on, starting with the basic Thunder God Slash. It was more or less a sword light type attack, if he did a slashing attack it would send out an energy blast from his sword, that would cut anything in its path. He tried it out, managing to slice up quite the big boulder with no problem at all. He could also do thrusting attacks with it, this left a big gaping hole in another large boulder that he abused.
The domain technique gathered lightning energy and sword intent around an area of about 10 meters in all directions. He threw a rock up into the air and closed his eyes, waiting for it to fall down. The moment the object got into his domain he could sense it along with its trajectory, slicing it in half without needing to open his eyes. This was quite a handy skill to predict enemy movement.
The last one was a bit harder to pull off. He grasped his sword with both his hands and started pumping his energy into it. The sword blade started expanding upwards, getting longer and wider. He performed a diagonal swipe with the 'charged up' weapon, slicing a smaller mountain peak in the process. He was left drained, sweat running down his forehead as he panted.
*I can't use this one too often...*
After getting the gist of his new sword techniques, he thought about the next destination. The closer one was the city where the cultists were in, but he needed some things before that. He looked for a fitting detection technique, maybe something to mask his aura or looks as well. He recalled that many Xianxia protagonists always had a handy technique to hide how they looked so that they could escape into the crowds whenever getting into trouble. Also if the cultist noticed that they had someone sniffing around town, they would either try to kill that person or lay low if they were too strong.
He looked at the earth graded skills as always, he aimed for something that worked on core formation experts and below as he couldn't really afford heavenly ranked skills and didn't know if he could actually use them. There was one, just named 'Earthly Disguise Art' that was supposed to work on core formation experts and below, masking the user's appearance along with his or her aura. It also helped the users detect people that were using disguising arts of lower and similar grade. Then there was an enhanced version called the 'Heavenly Disguise Art' That was a direct upgrade of this one.
He also wanted to snatch a better aura detection skill, maybe an aura tracking skill. People tended to leek their spiritual energy into the surroundings, it did dissipate after a while. He could maybe home in on this dissipating energy to track the evil cultivators. He felt that these were some quality of life skills, so he decided to drop some points into them as well.
Matt closed his eyes and focused his mind on his surroundings, the enhanced aura detection skill let him home in on the beasts and animals in the surroundings quite a bit more. His range also was increased by multiple kilometers, he dropped down to the ground. He noticed that if he used his new tracking skill a sort of mist appeared. It was a trail that he could choose to home in if he fallowed after it the person or animal in question would be at the end.
He thought that this system was a bit too overpowered, it had way too many functions and was only limited to the number of points he could get. He wondered if after some time there would be some kind of drawback, would the prices suddenly increase? With this thing around, he could probably go into seclusion hunting weak beasts, evil cultivators or search for things he could absorb for points. Guess he couldn't absorb magical treasures for points. Also, he couldn't see anything above the immortal grade in there. He didn't want to abandon the people he was now feeling responsible for though.
With the new skills and techniques, his points dropped by about a hundred thousand. The dragon did give him a lot of points though, so he still had some left. He didn't want to waste them as he had no idea how many he needed to upgrade his clan members cultivation techniques, also there were some treasures with steep prices that he wanted to get to aid them as well.
*It always comes down to points... Well, I still have to go pick up the spirit stone reward think it was issued by the clan around here, what was it again the Huo, or Hou clan?*
Matt was still having trouble with all the oriental names, for now, he headed to the city to get his reward. He also shifted his clothes to a black color and used the new disguise technique to change his appearance. His facial muscles started shifting around, the color of his hair turned to black, he even grew a full beard as he looked like an old kung fu master. He wanted to see if he could pass for someone else in this town, no one needed to know that the Zhang Clan was out hunting monsters. Also, he wanted to get a higher reward for his troubles, would be easier to bicker with people if they didn't know who he was, but could also get him into trouble.
While Zhang Dong was on his way to get his reward, the people back in Spirit Spring City were getting ready with the tournament. Everyone from the clan knew about the second expedition and that they were testing everyone. Some people didn't want to participate, but most felt a deeper bond with the family clan and were going to give it their best because if not, their families would be done for.
The clan was quite large, it had many foundation establishment fighters and even more Qi condensation ones. There were about 20 thousand clan members scattered around, that wasn't really a big number considering that the city had 10 million people in it. From those 20 thousand members, only about 1 thousand were in the foundation establishment level. Most in the early and middle stages, the rest were just Qi condensation juniors.
People below at the 6th and lower levels of Qi condensation weren't even allowed to participate. Zhang Xue barely made the cut, but no one was expecting her to get far, her brother stood a chance as there were a lot of free spots to be taken. Though no one knew that the two people in question were experiencing a colossal change. It had been about two weeks since they picked up the new cultivation method. Their old cultivation art was more or less trash compared to this one. This could be seen by the amount of silvery hair that the two now possessed.
Xue managed to advance into the 8th stage while her brother was close to breaking through the bottleneck of the 9th stage. The two were frantically training with all their might, hoping to be of service to their new master and to their clan which they held dearly in their hearts.
The way the tournament would work was announced, it wasn't a bracket system as they didn't want to get one strongest fighter. The participants would fight multiple bouts in one day if they lost they got zero points if they won they would get two, if the time run out or if it was a draw they would get one point. The ones with the most points would move on to the next day where more fighting would take place. The first couple of days would be the worst, as there were just so many participants.
This wasn't really an event for the masses so everything was closed off, the sound of fighting resounded in the Zhang clan compound. After the first day, the two disciples managed to get some wins while loosing to some more experienced fighters. People were somewhat surprised as the two youths were able to defeat cultivators that were of a higher realm. They seemed to use some new techniques, Xue was adept at kicking while Liu at punching techniques. When their kicks and hands collided with their opponents, sparks flew about while the adversary became momentarily stunned leaving themselves open for attacks. The two kids looked promising as the tournament continued, but it would take some time till it ended.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 63
A youth could be seen slowly breathing while sitting in a lotus position. His eyes were closed, his body was exuding a strange glow while several glowing wisps hovered close to his body. Those looked like tiny soap bubbles, one of them started slowly approaching his dantian. The youth's face showed a frown as the tiny bubble entered his body and the energy from it started circulating throughout his meridians. The force that entered began crackling and sizzling slowly shifting into a tiny stream of electricity. The new form of the bubble was quite rowdy as the young man tried to keep it in check, slowly managing to make it part of his body.
The young man was Zhang Liu, he was practicing his new cultivation method it was a lot harder than his previous one but it was also a lot more powerful. Even though he wasn't able to condense and transform much of the spiritual energy into the lightning type, he could feel his energy reserves increase exponentially.
He stood up and took on a fighting stance, his fists moving forward at a rapid pace as they gleamed with a faint electric aura. His long ebony hair had started turning pure white, he was getting close to having a salt and pepper type of look now. He was still in the 9th stage of Qi condensation, but due to this technique, he felt that his bottleneck was about to be broken.
"Master's cultivation method is so powerful, I can easily contend with others at the same stage as me... I can even beat the ones on the 10th level."
He took a look at his body, it looked somewhat more profound. It wasn't his muscles, but his skin the first part of the profound physique refining art enhanced the skin of the cultivator. It made it a lot more resistant and elastic, he could take a lot more punishment thanks to that but the way you trained it was quite painful. He had to perform strange poses and chants, holding them for hours while concentrating on his fleshy body. This was extremely painful, his body ached all over as his refining technique destroyed and then rebuild his cells to be tougher. But he powered through this all, his defensive capabilities increased and if he mastered this technique he would be rewarded with an impenetrable shell.
The skill had four stages if he passed it the resistance would increase exponentially the first one was the bronze skin stage, then came the iron skin stage followed by the silver skin stage then the golden skin. He had passed the first and second one., this put his body on the level of a 6th Qi condensation fighter, the third would put him at the 9th and the last would be the 12th. There was one skill that came with this refining technique, the cultivator could temporarily raise their defensive and offensive capabilities. Their skin would start shining slightly taking on bronze, iron, silver or golden color depending on the stage the cultivator was in. It was kind of similar to Zhang Dong's technique, but Matt's also worked on his internal organs so this one was weaker.
People were surprised at how much the young master and mistress had progressed in these past three weeks. The fighting tournament was in full swing and both of them were still in it. The brother was doing better as he was older and had more experience as well as a higher cultivation method. But the younger sister wasn't doing bad either, the combination of her speed and fast kicking attacks had brought her into the middle stage of the tournament.
The older brother preferred overpowering his opponents, while the sister took her time in analyzing the fighting patterns and methodically taking people apart. She managed to get many draws due to her evasive tactics, her bother took some loses due to his bravado instead. Their Master would probably have to take a different approach to each student after they advanced further in. Giving the girl a more speed focus technique at the start, was a good first step for the noobie senior.
The two were doing so well that their mother was worried, if they continued like this they would surely be chosen to come along to the expedition. Being a doting parent she would rather have them remain back here if the expedition failed again her kids still had a chance of survival. She also knew that she would probably be one of the foundation establishment elders selected as she was in the upper late stage and there were only ten or so elders in the great circle stages. At least she could protect her children if they went there together and she knew that they wouldn't forgive her if she did something to make them lose.
The new Patriarch seemed to have some kind of plan so she had high hopes for him. They also had a bit of a scare with his magical life telling plaque, it rumbled for a second but didn't break. They contacted him afterward, the patriarch just replied that he got in a bit of trouble but he handled it already.
Back in Zhang Xue's room, she was also cultivating diligently. She edged out her brother when it came to cultivating in spiritual arts, but did worse with her body refining skills. She had already reached the 8th stage and was going for the 9th one, on the other hand, her Sylph Physique was still in the first stage. It was different than what her brother used, it mostly focused on her libs instead of her skin in the first tome. It was aimed at increasing the cultivator's speed and dexterity. In short, each stage gave a boost to the girl's quickness the special skill let the practitioner send wind blades with their kicks. The wind energy synergized well with the lightning one, so her kicks were even more ferocious. The 'side effect' of this was that her long legs started putting on some meat, this made the male youths in the surroundings quite ecstatic.
During the tournament, they were giving her strange looks, as they discovered a new world after getting stepped on by their junior sister. The clan people were more or less loosely related, so this wasn't as strange as some people might think. Though most people scoffed at inter-clan relations, as you mostly wanted to bring in new blood from the outside or marry your daughters off to strong clans to foster better relations with them. But it did happen, where some cousins tied the knot here and there.
So while Zhang Xue was looking at the weirdos in disgust days went by, the tournament continued while more and more people got eliminated. Zhang Dong was now in a city called Spirit Tree City and would you know it, it had a giant tree right in the middle of it. He was just walking out of the ruling clan house with his spirit stones. He had arrived and scared the people a bit after dropping the massive dead dragon out in the open so he could get his cash reward. He tried to sneak in some snorts and grunts to look menacing but the people in there didn't want to give him even one more spirit stone. They did want to buy the dragon though, but he refused as he didn't trust them on getting a good deal for it. He'd rather people back in his base do it instead, they wouldn't lie to him.
*Ah, why do you have to be so stingy...*
*Well, surprisingly I didn't run into any cartoon-like villains stealing candy from a baby this time around, should I just bolt for the next town or get something to eat first... this place looks like it has some interesting grub.*
Matt didn't really have many things to do besides cultivating and getting more points, so this left him quite bored most of the time. He was used to watching movies, playing games in his free time but none of these existed here. The music was also bad, the played those zither things most of the time, it wasn't bad but just made him want to sleep.
*I don't think I'll find anyone rocking out with a guitar around here anytime soon...*
He went to go eat and not much happened afterward so he just left for the next city. But due to his now enhanced aura skills, he noticed that after he left, some cultivators were trailing him. He could feel three people, all in the core formation stage one in the middle stage and two in the early. He wasn't worried that much, so he led them away from the city so that no one could see them before confronting the group.
Of course, it was people from the clan that was stationed there, they came to the conclusion that Zhang Dong probably stole the dragon body from somewhere and just came for the reward. He was, of course, hiding his power level to be at the lower end of the early core stage but he didn't think people would be so dumb to attack him.
"Leave your belongings behind and scram!"
One of the uncles shouted out at him while they all pulled out their weapons, looking like hungry wolves that just saw a succulent piggy.
"Well, aren't you people from the Ho Ho Clan quite fierce?"
Zhang Dong replied in a mocking tone as he wasn't really fearful of the bunch. He actually thought this would be a great time to test out his sword-fighting skills. So he pulled out his glowy sword while beckoning them over like you would in martial movies with your palm.
The three elders just scoffed at him and flew right at him, thinking that this guy was courting death. The moment they got into the cultivator's range, they felt a strange aura surrounding them. They started attacking him from all sides, thrusting and slashing with their weapons. To their surprise, the cultivator was able to parry all of their moves with just his sword hand. He held one hand behind his back while playing around with the attackers, honing his use of his domain skill.
The three flew back, deciding on a group ranged attack. They fired off various colorful magical skills at him, the fluctuations of core formation experts fighting could be felt in the surrounding area which made everyone close scatter. He took those skills head-on, using the first sword move releasing powerful sword slashes that disintegrated the incoming magical attacks. The three men were just realizing that the man in front of them might have actually been the person that killed that dragon himself now. But before they could apologize the man closed in on them, he started pummeling them to submission till they were a twitching mess down on the ground.
After 'clearing' up the misunderstanding, he was richer but quite a lot of spirit stones though those people didn't have much on them. He just gave them a good old thrashing and left them naked in a forest. He made sure to put them down in a triangle, each enemy cultivator was resting his head on another man's posterior. He nodded to himself after looking at his marvelous work, the only thing missing was a camera to snap a picture for later.
*I guess this also is a valid way to get more resources, and they attacked me not the other way around. I can use their flying swords to upgrade my body refining level.*
He thought to himself while rubbing his chin as he thought that robbing from the rich and giving to the 'poor' wasn't such a bad idea.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 64
He arrived at the city that the so-called cult was supposed to be in. His new disguise was of a rugged looking old man, a big scar over his face and short brown hair. He figured out that he could change the length and volume of his hair at will. He could also shift his muscles around on his whole body, but couldn't really change his bone structure. Matt decided to play it safe, not knowing if the cultivators that he robbed would put up any wanted posters of him.
The town looked kind of gloomy, the sun was covered by a thick layer of clouds. Matt noticed that the weather tended to change rapidly depending on the location he was in. Sometimes he would arrive at a tropical area with lots of natural beaches, only to fly for an hour in another direction to arrive in a snowy area. This might have something to do with the nature of spiritual energy around this world. Places tended to be warmer where fire elements gathered.
The city was called Fogmire, which was a peculiar name given that most towns had those xianxia sounding names. This one was just dim, murky and the moment he stepped inside it started to rain. The notice came from this town, so he wanted to go get the details. Fogmire as any other in the area was governed by a clan. The city had about five million people living in it. On earth, this would be a capital city, but here it was just a regular mid-sized town.
His robe was pitch black as he flew close to the city, he descended in the nearby forest while hiding his aura. He didn't want to alert people to his high cultivation, his flying sword being a dead giveaway. It took him about half an hour to walk to the main gate, he paid the toll normally and then asked one of the pedestrians about the clan that governed the place and about the cult.
Fogmire was governed by a side family of the Kin Clan, their leader wasn't all that strong but he still was in the core formation. When he asked about the cultists, the person looked at him with wide eyes then bowed deeply before running away. Guess the people were more scared of that cult than of his new menacing appearance.
*Well, I guess I'll go check out the main clan building, they should have all the info there.*
Your Disciple Zhang Xue has reached another level in the Sylph Physique, 500 spirit points gained.
Those prompts starter popping up here and there, whenever his two disciples gained insight in his skills or advanced he would get rewarded. Guess it was a good decision as he already had earned back the points that he spent on the two rascals. He wondered if he could just make a martial arts school and have everyone swear him in as their master. But then he looked into his disciple tab, he could see a 2/5 counter in the upper right corner. Guess the system wouldn't let him use it like that. Maybe if he cleared some hidden quests, the limit would increase?
Matt had picked up a habit lately, every new place he visited he was drawn to their restaurants. The food in this world was quite tasty, probably due to the added spiritual essence in the plants and animals.
*Work can wait, first it's time to check out the local cuisine!*
He rubbed his palms together as he strolled through the city, trying to find a nice restaurant for himself. It was getting late, the gloomy town was becoming even bleaker as it lit up with the faint light of the street lights. The lights didn't run on electricity, they were simple magical treasures that used up spiritual energy from the surroundings. Matt finally found a place to eat, it looked like a tavern that you would see in those fantasy games. It even had a sign with a beer mug outside, but it seemed kind of quiet.
He pushed open the double doors as he walked in, the people inside slowly turned their faces towards him giving him cold stares. He was hiding his cultivation base, so they wouldn't know of his level. Matt thought that people would be having fun inside as it looked like a saloon, but it was rather quiet inside. The floorboards creaked with each step as he made his way towards the counter where he saw a lone bartender person standing.
He wondered if he walked in at a bad time as the place felt gloomy, even more than on the outside. He wondered if he changes genres as the inside looked like your run of the mill western fantasy establishment, still, the people were wearing robes even though they were on the shorter side. Before he could ask for some food, the man behind the counter spoke up in a hoarse voice.
"Greetings stranger, you shouldn't be out here, all alone... He he he ..."
The man was strange-looking, his eyes vacant and a pale unhealthy complexion. When he was laughing Matt could see the rotten teeth and the accompanying bad smell that came with them. The motion of ordering any kind of food from this place went out of the window after getting a load of those chompers.
These people were kind of strange, he felt multiple gazes of people from behind and the barkeep was acting loony. Zhang Dong had gotten that new skill where he could see people's auras in a more visual form. He decided to turn it on, wondering if this would shed some light on the situation.
*W-what is this...*
He took a step back after seeing a black smoke like aura enveloping the man in front of him. This wasn't any old chimney smoke, this was evil miasma mostly seen on demons. He turned to the side, the people in the establishment were all covered in the thick, eerie aura. The whole place was covered in it, did he just walk in on the main evil base or something. Where those people evil cultivators, or some kind of monsters, the demonic aura was really thick on them.
Matt decided to do a test, he flicked his finger at the man that was still laughing. A little bit of his electric Qi flew out and bonked the man in front on the forehead. The good thing about his Dao of heavenly lightning was the heavenly part. Apparently anything that involved the heavens was the bane of anything that involved demons and demonic energies. The lightning jolt was really weak, it wouldn't really do much to a normal person but when it came in contact with the man he started shaking furiously.
Strange growls escaped from the man as he twitched around, his head was twisting in impossible ways. Soon his head shot up into the ceiling while the body collapsed onto the floor. The head had spider-like legs and had multiple eyes protruding out of its body. It gave out a high pitched scream that seemed to rouse the other monsters in the room. Everyone inside started transforming into nightmare creatures, lots of teeth, claws and even tentacles.
They all pounced at him in unison, biting, clawing and gnashing all their various appendages. The creatures were stopped by a barrier, the moment those creepies touched it they were sent flying backward due to an electrical shock. Matt was inside, really glad that he had bought this skill before the monsters wouldn't be able to get to him now.
*Without my tranquil mind skill, I'd be s*itting bricks right now...*
Besides their gruesome horror appearance, the things were more or less just trash with Qi condensation level strength. They were all quite brainless as all of them continued attacking him while bouncing off the electric shield over and over again. Matt just wanted to obliterate the whole building with the monsters inside, not really keen on touching those ugly looking things. But if he did that, he could harm people outside also there could be some innocents in here as well.
Instead, he formed a couple of smaller lightning dragons, sending them outside his barrier to do the fighting for him. They were the size of larger snakes but packed a punch. They started chomping, pouncing and just charging through the monsters quickly clearing the place up. The small lightning snakes coiled their bodies around some of the humanoid monsters, causing them to sizzle and evaporate as they discharged heavenly lightning into them.
None of the monsters was spared, Matt only came out of his bubble after he didn't feel any demonic auras in the building. He looked at the dead bodies that were quickly turning into black sludge, frowning. He toured the tavern, hoping to find normal people inside but it was barren the most he could find is some gnawed on remains, probably a midnight snack to these monsters.
*Well, this whole thing became rather unsettling... think next time I'll go fishing..."
He went back to the bottom floor and dipped his finger into some of that black sludge. Even though the thing was dead, it still had a faint demonic aura to it. He tried focusing on this type of evil energy, closing his eyes as he let his senses guide him. Then he noticed a certain spot that was radiating this kind of energy. He opened his eyes and hopped behind the bar counter, going into the pantry.
The food looked rotten and there were flies buzzing about. The demonic energy was coming from behind the wall, there might have been a secret passage behind it. He started patting down the walls in the hopes of finding a switch or lever, but to no avail. Guess it wasn't as easy as they made it look in those adventure movies.
He did the only logical thing afterward, punching the wall and uncovering a secret narrow passage behind it. He cleared the rubble and took a step in, the demonic aura was leading inside. The passage quickly turned to narrow circular stairs that were going downwards. This was a textbook example of a horror setting, he expected to find even more of those monsters below. This was probably the moment in which he had to decide if he should continue downward or just report this to the people in the city and have them risk their lives.
Maybe it was just bravado, but the man felt that he should be able to handle himself. Also, if the monsters got alerted to his presence, they might start killing those people that they abducted, that is if they were still alive. He started going down, the stairs went on and on as he walked for a good half an hour before finally arriving at the bottom. There were torches lining up the walls, illuminating the interior faintly.
After descending the stairs he started hearing strange chants in a language that he had never heard of before. The walls were made from old bricks, the corridor started getting wider and wider the further he went in, the strange chanting louder and louder.
He was almost there, he could see green light outside of the tunnel. He slowly moved forward, trying to not let his aura seep out into the surroundings as he peeked out of the tunnel. He saw some cultists kneeling down in front of an altar, some babies in front of them crying their little hearts out. Those were probably the sacrificial offerings, to the thing that was on the altar when Matt saw it his jaw dropped.
*...What is that thing doing here again...*