novelraw Chapter 454: Life 117, Age 21, Martial Master Peak
Chapter 454: Life 117, Age 21, Martial Master Peak
Chapter 454: Life 117, Age 21, Martial Master Peak
By the time the forest brightened, signaling the start of our second day in the Shattered Blades Realm, Ye Sheng and Bao Ming were already hard at work along the edge of our encampment, expanding and strengthening the dense thicket of brambles that sheltered us. As they were both wood cultivators without access to wood qi, this proved rather challenging. However, by relying on their recently-purchased qi and wu affinities, they were able to infuse their plants with a touch of the realm’s weapon energies.
Shi TieWen, meanwhile, sat in the middle of our camp, stripping loose fibers from the stalks of quickly-grown vines, twisting these fibers into twine, and weaving this twine into a loose net. Under normal circumstances, with proper tools and materials, he was capable of delicate, precise work. Here, using nothing but half-dried vine fibers and his bare hands, the only reason the net held together at all was his blessing.
The quality of the net wasn’t really the point, though. This was training. With every fiber he added, his control over the realm’s energy sharpened.
I hadn’t brought an affinity-testing orb with me—not officially, at least—so I couldn’t verify anything without burning credits. Still, I was certain that these three were all developing affinities for each of the realm’s nine weapons. And, since none of them possessed a talent for any of these weapons, I had to assume that the environment was absolutely stuffed with essence.
This reminded me all too much of the Trials back in the Nine Rivers Sect. The only real difference was that there, we had to defeat enemies to earn essence. Here, we only needed to survive.
In any case, there wasn’t much advice that I could give these three that they didn’t already know. They just needed to practice as much as possible. So, I turned my attention toward helping the Sulan cousins with alchemy.
As with the Nine Rivers Sect’s Trials, we hadn’t been allowed to bring any storage bags into this realm, so carrying around several full-sized pill furnaces simply wasn’t feasible. I had considered using my inner world to get around this limitation, but I couldn’t do that if I wanted people to think I couldn’t access it within this Small World.
Therefore, in the weeks leading up to the realm’s opening, I crafted a new furnace for each of our sect’s alchemists.
Where a normal furnace was a bulky, enclosed box, these were little more than engraved disks the size of a dinner plate. However, the Qi Gathering Formations I carved into these disks both concentrated the realm’s energies and blocked any unwanted currents from contaminating the nascent pills, making the actual alchemy process feel almost identical to using a more traditional furnace.
Using a few of the herbs that we had scavenged from our surroundings, I walked the cousins through the process of concocting a simple Rank 1 attack pill. None of the pills they produced had even a single pattern, but they were still strong enough to injure most Rank 1 beasts, and they would serve as useful distractions when facing Rank 2 beasts.
By late morning, everyone had spent hours working on their craft: Ye Sheng and Bao Ming coaxing brambles into a proper barrier, Shi TieWen weaving his nets, and the Sulan cousins concocting their pills. So, after a simple lunch of berries and mushrooms, I called an end to the profession portion of our day and led everyone out into the forest for a bit of combat training.
Even though this was only our second day in the Shattered Blades Realm, the forest was already choked with demon beasts. We couldn’t walk more than a few hundred meters without running into new targets, with most appearing in packs of five or six.
This allowed us to accrue points at a steady pace, and my Disciples gained a great deal of low-risk combat experience. They grew more comfortable fighting side by side and more practiced at covering each other. Their timing improved, and the hesitation faded.
It did, however, tire them out rather quickly, and after only a couple of hours of constant fighting, they were ready to return to our hideout for some well-deserved rest.
Once again, the moment we chose to head back, the illusion formation that we were trapped in responded. We had barely taken a handful of steps when a Rank 2 demon beast burst from the shadows and hurled itself toward us.
This time, it was a fox.
At only half a meter tall, this demon fox didn’t look particularly threatening, especially not compared to the Rank 2 bear that my Disciples had already defeated. Gaunt and half-starved, the beast looked like it might collapse at the slightest gust of wind.
Energy vision, however, told a different story.
Unlike most of the beasts my Disciples had faced, this fox had not empowered its hide or bones. Its demonic energy was instead concentrated in its muscles and nervous system, coiling through its limbs and spine like lightning. This granted the creature both explosive force and the ability to channel that force properly.
Unfortunately for the fox, though, the rest of its body was just too weak. It couldn’t tap into its full potential without causing self-inflicted damage, and if it pushed too hard for too long, the creature would tear itself apart.
This didn’t make the fight safe, but it did make the fight winnable. So, I stepped back and left the fox to my Disciples, standing far enough away not to draw the beast’s attention, but close enough to intervene if necessary.
The fight was long and bloody, with everyone getting raked by claws and pierced by fangs. After each strike, the fox slipped away before my Disciples could respond. Whenever one of them lunged after it, the fox doubled back and used the opening to savage someone else.
My Disciples weren’t able to land any solid hits, but by working together, they managed to blunt the onslaught, limiting the beast’s attacks to shallow wounds. That was enough. After more than a dozen passes, the fox’s body finally began to fail. Its muscles still held terrifying strength, but the tendons supporting them were snapping under the constant strain.
At this point, any ordinary fox would have escaped into the undergrowth. This one did the opposite. Driven mad by the approaching beast tide, or simply compelled onward by the illusion formation, the fox kept up its attack until its body collapsed.
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Shi TieWen was finally able to snap his net over the fox and bind it in place, bringing the fight to a close.
Just as Ye Sheng moved in to deliver the finishing blow, a group of five Disciples emerged from the surrounding brush. They showed no signs of outward aggression, but each one regarded me with calm, calculating eyes, and once they were one step closer to the fox than I was, they came to a halt and held their ground.
I had a pretty good guess as to what this group was planning, but I wanted to see how things unfolded, so I held back.
Ye Sheng, meanwhile, was so fixated on the fox that he didn’t notice anything amiss.
With a single swing of his guandao, Ye Sheng decapitated the fox, and a pale beam of light shot from its remains—not toward me, but toward the young man standing at the front of these newcomers.
“Excellent,” the young man said, smiling as if nothing could possibly be more natural. “Another 10 points.”
He flicked a dismissive hand toward the fox’s body. “Go. Collect our prize.”
A young woman stepped forward, intent on harvesting the fox’s remains, utterly disregarding the presence of my Disciples. Ye Sheng, Bao Ming, and TieWen stared at her in bewildered silence. The Sulan cousins, in contrast, snapped their weapons into the guard position, training their blades on the newcomers.
“Who are you?” asked Sulan DanQing.
“You dare raise a weapon against me?” asked the young man, his tone full of contempt. He snapped his fingers at his followers. “Go. Kill them.”
As one, the other four youths surged forward.
My Disciples were exhausted and wounded, but they weren’t helpless. They met this charge with the hafts of their weapons and the flats of their blades, targeting joints and ribs instead of necks. In a flurry of controlled violence, the four attackers were disarmed, knocked breathless, and dropped to the forest floor.
“You dare fight back?” the young man shouted, face flushing with rage. “Die!”
He charged.
Sulan DanQing stepped into his path and struck with casual efficiency, slamming him into the ground with a single blow. The Young Master coughed and wheezed, staring up in disbelief.
“You… You… You dare?” he sputtered. “My father is the Third Outer Elder of the Heaven-Reaching Saber Sect! If you touch me, he will kill you! He will execute your entire family!”
Sulan DanQing looked around at his companions in feigned confusion. “Heaven-Reaching Saber Sect? Anyone ever heard of it?”
When no one responded, he turned his attention back to the Young Master on the ground before him. “My father is the Grand Elder of the Su Clan. Do your worst.”
With that, Sulan DanQing turned away and motioned for the others to fall back, dismissing the Young Master from his thoughts.
The young man’s face twisted with fury. “Deacon Xun! What are you waiting for?! Kill them! Now!”
A surge of qi rippled through the forest, and a Peak Martial Master exploded from the tree line, charging straight for Sulan DanQing’s unprotected back.
My Disciples didn’t hesitate. Having already experienced one ambush today, their bodies moved before their minds could fully grasp what was happening.
Ye Sheng slammed his foot into the ground and pulled on his blessing, wrenching a tangle of roots up from the soil and into the Master’s path. When he did this to demon beasts, they always just plowed right through, barely affected. This Master, however, tripped and stumbled to his knees.
The unexpected effectiveness of this maneuver left Ye Sheng stunned, and before he could recover, Sulan YaoQing had already crushed one of her attack pills and hurled it into the man’s chest.
Against a beast with a reinforced hide, this weak pill wouldn’t have been very effective. But against a human in nothing but simple cloth robes?
Guandao energy exploded in a focused line. It cut through the man’s robes and ripped open his chest, sending him reeling backward with a choked cry. The Master was still alive, but Sulan DanQing stepped in to fix that, beheading him with a single stroke.
As the Martial Master crumpled to the forest floor, my five Disciples turned their attention to the Young Master, who was now attempting to scramble away.
“If… If you kill me, the Heaven-Reaching Saber Sect will exterminate you.” His voice no longer had the power it once did, but he remained defiant. “They will kill you all.”
Sulan DanQing snorted and turned to walk away.
The Young Master burst into wild, breathless laughter. “I knew it! You’re all cowards. You’re dead. As soon as we leave this place, you’re dead. Once I tell my father—”
Sulan DanQing’s guandao stabbed through the young man’s chest, cutting off his final words. “Just… Shut up. Will you?”
Exhaling a long, weary sigh, Sulan DanQing stooped down to collect the glowing stone that had appeared next to the Young Master’s corpse. Then, he turned to walk away one final time.
The group from the Heaven-Reaching Saber Sect was our first fight against fellow cultivators, but it wasn’t our last. On that second day alone, my Disciples were forced into three more battles against people who were looking to steal our points.
With each fight, they became harder.
When fighting the cultivators from the Heaven-Reaching Saber Sect, they had been reluctant to kill. They had used the flats of their blades, pulled their strikes, and left their opponents breathing whenever possible. By the end of the fourth fight, that hesitation had vanished.
They had stopped thinking of the other cultivators as “fellow participants” and started thinking of them as no different from the illusory demon beasts.
This didn’t seem healthy, but I couldn’t honestly say if there were any safer options available. We were trapped in a realm that encouraged people to slaughter each other for benefits. And, while the Heroes Domain might not have been so nakedly vicious, the underlying reality wasn’t any different. This was just something my people needed to get used to.
Toward the end of the third day, we finally crossed paths with a group of black-robed cultivators.
“Ahh, here you are,” said a smirking Peak Master. “I thought that you were going to hide from us forever.”
My Disciples glanced at each other, then back at me, as if expecting some kind of explanation. The men in black didn’t give us time to talk, though. They charged.
“It’s time for you to learn what happens to those who disrespect Blackblade Hall!” shouted the Master.
My Disciples didn’t wait for orders. They moved on instinct.
Roots twisted up in the attackers’ path, blades flashed out at odd angles, and attack pills exploded against unreinforced flesh. There was no hesitation, no pulled strikes.
After only a handful of seconds, six black-robed corpses lay scattered across the forest floor.
My Disciples searched the bodies, stripped them of their weapons, and brought me the glowing stone that appeared next to the fallen Master. Then, we returned to hunting.