The Elder was fast approaching, and, despite my best attempts to react differently, I was slightly gripped by panic.
[No, no, no! NO! Not now! Fuck! Stay away!]
I grabbed two Spirit Stones, one in each hand, and redirected their energy into my body. My skin immediately burst into flames, but those weren’t my flames. My body was literally falling apart from the excess energy.
[HAAAAAH!]
My eyes glowed with heat and power like never before, and two beams of concentrated energy shot at the Elder. It was a stupid move, but my mind was not in the condition to strategize.
My eye sockets decayed and turned to dust from the damage, and that happened as they were being regenerated at the same time. I couldn’t heal fast enough, yet I didn’t care! I had to get away at any cost!
“Hmph! Foolish child.”
The Elder extended his hand and blocked my beam. He didn’t even twitch as concentrated destruction licked his skin. Because he wasn’t taking any damage!
I focused my mind and shot a Soul Smite at him, my secret weapon. I felt it strike his Soul. Or, his Sea of Consciousness at least.
The effect was immediate. It was like striking a metal wall with a rotten egg. He frowned.
“Silence!”
I felt as if someone just took a sledgehammer directly to my brain. My Soul cracked and collapsed. As did I.
All energy immediately left my body and I could barely move. My flesh was charred and turning to dust, and I couldn’t even heal anymore. What a joke. Such power was unfair.
“Much better. Now, under the law of the great Brilliant Sword Sect, you are under arrest. You will be questioned for your crimes, and murder of a Core Disciple. While death is all but guaranteed, depending on the severity of your evil deeds, we might decide to grant you a merciful and quick death.”
[Ugh…] I had no energy to even respond. My body felt like jelly, and I couldn’t call forth even a single strand of Qi. A weight hung on my mind and Soul, a weight of a mountain. And I was but an ant.
“We refuse!” Shao Lin suddenly shouted beside me, and I felt the weight lift in an instant.
My body hungrily devoured all Qi it could find, and my flesh burst into flames, this time the healing ones. I didn’t try to attack as that already proved itself to be worthless.
Soon my eyes regenerated and I could see again. I took labored breaths and noticed Shao Lin beside me, holding something in his hand. It was the Elder’s badge! It was what was pushing away the pressure from my mind!
“Take yours out, I can’t hold it for long!” Shao Lin hissed, and I could see beads of sweat form on his forehead.
“Ah? Rats trying to resist arrest with borrowed power? Don’t make me laugh!”
I felt another wave of pressure rise, and immediately activated my badge by pouring my energy into it. Heck, I even gave it a full spirit Stone to sustain it, yet it just barely held.
“Get… ready… to escape.” Shao Lin spoke with difficulty. He then took the large crystal he received from Elder Li and threw it toward the BS Sect Elder.
I barely had time to process what was going on, when the crystal burrowed itself into the ground, and a second later, amid rumbling sounds, a 10-meter stone giant awakened.
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“Haha! A golem?” The Elder laughed. “You guys are so funny!”
[A golem?!] I was stunned. That’s what those cores were?! But wait, then the statues-
“Run!” Shao Lin pulled me by the hand and we began running at full speed.
The Elder didn’t like it.
“Oh, no! No, you don’t! I order you to stop!” I detected another Soul attack was on the way, and felt the Aura of death take me over. If that energy fully formed, I would be dead. My Soul was already damaged as it was, I couldn’t take another strike.
I spat out the Soul of the girl I had just recently killed and used her as a shield. She instantly disintegrated while I only sustained a blow giving me a larger headache, and continued to run.
Seeing his mental attack once more fail, the Elder barked in anger and turned to chase us, ignoring the golem.
But clearly, the golem had other ideas. The crystal core inside it whirled to life, and glyphs formed all across its rocky skin.
It stomped on the ground, and the Elder instantly lost his footing and fell to the ground.
“Ah! Spirit-grade Chaos magic?! Why you little-!”
I couldn’t hear his words anymore as the golem basically teleported, at least that's how it looked to my eyes, and smashed the man into the earth. A second later, a flurry of light shone from the ground and evaporated all the stones in their way. The Elder jumped out, completely fine, and madder than ever.
“Stupid rock! I’ll grind you to dust!”
The three of his swords moved and pierced the golem like a giant shish kebab. They then shone and a second later blew up. The golem was missing a few limbs and larger chunks of his body, yet they quickly reformed and it returned to battle.
By then, we were already far away and I couldn’t see the fight anymore. We could hear it though. It was loud, and the Elder sounded angry. Explosions rang out every other second, together with angry screams and curses.
I heard Shao Lin gasping for breath as he ran, Qi completely drained from his body.
“What… a mess… Huff! That… golem won’t hold… for long… Huff! We… need to … escape.”
[You are right.] I grabbed him again and seconds later we were flying again. It was dangerous and stupid, especially with all the flying beasts, but we had no choice. It was the fastest way to escape.
“How… can you fly?” Shao Lin suddenly asked. “You are just in the Nascent Soul Realm! It’s not fair…”
I simply focused on breathing and flying and didn’t respond. It was not the time.
Sounds of war had long since disappeared and the sun likewise went down, replaced by two moons. Beautiful, large moons. Hiding the secrets of the past. I swore to myself I would reach them one day, to explore, to learn of their history. But first, I had to get home safely.
I slowed down and landed on the ground. I was completely exhausted. Somehow we avoided all beasts of the sky.
“Dude…” Shao Lin looked at me warily. “You got a lot of explaining to do.”
[Hmm…]
“And now the entire Brilliant Sword Sect will be looking for you. Destroyed the Nexus, huh? Isn’t that nice? The name of Gerald Fireborn will become a big deal.”
I looked at him as seriously as I could. [I have no idea what you are talking about.]
I took a Spirit Stone and touched it to my forehead. It was absorbed and disappeared. [Why would my name be important? The guy that ruined their Nexis is dead. I’m just a simple young Cultivator.]
I felt my face twist and change, and judging by my friend’s reaction, the result was drastic.
“What… What the hell?! Your face…”
I placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. [Let’s go.]
I turned south and began walking on foot. The darkness of the forest took us, and soon, with the help of falling snow, any traces of us ever being there were gone.
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The road back to the Myriad Beast Sect was long and hard.
Shao Lin and I were both badly hurt, him physically, and me mentally.
It didn’t help that most of the creatures we met on the way back were high on the food chain and we had to run away from them to avoid getting eaten. Luckily the few weaker creatures we met were just enough for me to kill and absorb their Souls. A few Nascent Soul weaklings. They served well as a bandage and saved me from a pounding headache that seemingly didn’t want to stop.
By the time we reached the Sect, the migraine already diminished to a dull sting.
Elder Li looked at us with suspicion after we came back, especially after he saw my face. A quick explanation settled things, and before he could ask any specific questions, we already fell asleep. Shao Lin was first, and I wasn’t far behind. We did remain awake for nearly three days after all, not to mention we were injured, and the pull of a soft bed, even if it was deep underground and in a dark cavern, was irresistible.
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I woke up sometime later, stretching my limbs as I did so. Having gone to wash, I nearly jumped when looking in the mirror at an unfamiliar face. But then I remembered.
[Ah… Did I really have to make myself so ugly?] It was not completely unsightly, but my face was certainly far from average. In the spur of the moment, and having never done it before, I reshaped my face in a very sloppy, unsymmetrical way.
The ugly creature in the mirror looked nothing like my previous handsome self. But I was not wasting another Spirit Stone to repair the damage. It was just a face. At least I could be sure nobody would recognize me.