The inside of the structure was extremely bare-bones. It was just three rooms, the first of which was storage while the one on the other side had a few stone beds. The main room was straight ahead through a set of heavy metal doors that required another crystal rod to open.

Inside was something similar to a command center, just extremely tightly packed and with no computers in sight.

Looking at it up close, a part of the wall was shaped like a curved screen, though it was just gray stone instead of plastic or glass. Still dead though. Not a single drop of Qi ran through that place.

The same went for the various dials and what looked like buttons as well. They were all dormant, at least until Elder Fa placed an egg-shaped metal object into an indentation in the middle of the console.

Almost instantly the room came to life. Lights lit up, and what I thought looked like a screen actually became one, though it was a hologram, and what looked like boring stone buttons and dials also took on a myriad of colors.

“Woah!” Some guy gasped.

“At least that works…” Elder Fa murmured to himself. He then took out a scroll and began pressing various buttons and doing stuff on the big screen. Runic language lit up around the room and I had absolutely no clue what it all meant. A bright dot appeared on the screen and soon it became surrounded by a circle.

The ground began to shake and I took a step outside after hearing exclamations coming from out there. I saw a stone wall slowly rising from the ground and then stopping at about waist height. It must have reached at least chest height when it was first created, but stuff had clearly sunk deeper into the earth since then.

“So, how come they sent you?” A fellow Cultivator asked out of the blue, trying to get some small talk going while things happened around us.

[I don’t know man, maybe they needed another babysitter?] I shrugged.

The guy gave me a weird look that said he was either extremely confused if that was a joke, or he was ready to punch me.

[It’s a joke!] I laughed and lifted my hands defensively. He relaxed as well and laughed. [Honestly, I’m not sure why I’m here either. I was supposed to be under house arrest, but the higher-ups suddenly decided to stuff me in this group.]

“Oh, yeah? What did you do to get that punishment?” He asked, eyes full of curiosity.

[I came home late.] I admitted.

“Ahaha! That’s a classic! You never forget the first one. I was a day late once, after going out on a hunt. The Law Enforcement Hall chewed my ass out and I got a full year of house arrest for it. Hasn’t happened since, and that was over half a century ago.”

[Damn… so I wasn’t the only one?]

“Nah! Everybody sooner or later gets the same punishment. But it's really effective. Hunting outside the Sect is really profitable, so the confinement really stings. But it serves as a good lesson, I guess. Certainly better than some other punishments. Especially the fines, those are a real killer.”

[I guess so...]

I suddenly then felt a weird sensation that made me shiver, and I felt a strong pulse of Qi coming from inside the bunker. It was gone just as quickly as it came, but I knew something was happening, especially after four metal pillars rose into the sky, slightly taller than the structure itself.

All the Qi in the surroundings then suddenly became energized and started flowing into the pillars, the wall, and the bunker. It was some form of self-sustaining machine. At least that was my guess.

I went back inside and saw Elder Li cursing as he rapidly shifted stuff around and I saw a pile of Spirit Stones in a stone basin rapidly losing their power. The array there was draining them of energy at such a rapid pace, that I could hardly believe it.

“Work, damn it! Stupid machine.”

The screen displayed something that looked like a progress bar, and I could see it was at about 5% and rising slowly. Above it said generator ignition in progress. So it was clearly working, if somewhat slow.

I didn’t understand what the Elder was worried about, but then the picture zoomed out and I saw a bunch of dots rapidly approaching. They were making a beeline toward us. While most things were a bright yellow/golden color, those dots were black on a gray background. I figured it would be minutes till they reached the big orb in the middle, something I assumed was the base we were standing in.

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“We’ve got company!” The Elder shouted. And with one final hopeless attempt, he placed his hand on a big red sphere on the console.

Shield unavailable, flashed on the screen and the Elder cursed. Whatever that generator thingy was, it better hurry it up. We were short on time.

“Everybody out!” The Elder ordered and we did as we were told. “Enemy is coming, secure the outpost. We need to keep them out until the generator awakens, which will take about another ten minutes.”

Everybody spread out around the perimeter with the Elder in the middle. The wall had a radius of about twenty meters so we spread out evenly, about two meters apart, and waited while looking in the direction the supposed enemy was coming from.

“How do we know they are the enemy?” One of the guys asked.

“Your badges serve as more than just identification.” Elder Fa said with a grim expression. “Anyone not wearing them will get identified as an enemy by the system. Don’t lose them.”

[I’ll try...] I murmured while leaning on the wall and looking out into the forest not far away. We cleared out some trees and the undergrowth, but apart from that small clearing, everywhere around us was a dense jungle. I used my detection techniques to look out for other people but I couldn’t see anything. Until I could. I saw a fuzzy shape in the distance, and as I came closer, I was able to see they were a group of people running.

“They are here.” Elder Fa said a few seconds later. “Get ready to fight.”

They were actually still a few kilometers away, but they were fast. Even with all the obstacles in their way, they were approaching rapidly.

A group of people burst into the clearing and I immediately recognized them as members of the Brilliant Sword Sect. They didn’t even try to hide their identity, proudly displaying the green colors of their Sect.

“Aha! There is another one, the Elder was right!” One of the newcomers exclaimed.

“Looks like it’s powering up! Destroy it, quickly! Before they raise their shields!” Another one shouted.

The Sword Cultivators shouted and rushed us without a moment of hesitation. There were at least twenty of them, maybe more. I didn’t have time to count them properly, especially since some of them activated some odd illusion techniques, creating clones of themselves out of Qi. They were indistinguishable from the real deal.

“Cover me!”

One of the interlopers remained back, charging up some sort of relic that looked like a lump of metal sharpened on two sides while the rest of them clashed with us.

Our side roared with just as much vigor and jumped over the short wall despite the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, weapons drawn. A few of my Brothers flashed their golden barriers, others took handheld treasures that glowed with power. The guy I talked with before even transformed, turning into a large bear that had glowing red crystals growing in a few places along his head and back.

He roared and spat out a column of flames, forcing the attackers to split to avoid getting fried.

[Oh, an Inferno Bear. Nice!] An advanced form of a Blaze Bear I once fought with my friends. It was interesting seeing it in person, and a few other guys also took the forms of various powerful beasts.

The last few transformed as well, taking the shape of a large wolf and an armadillo-looking creature. The guy grew brown scales along his back and jumped into a roll, using his momentum to crash into the enemy. They all used complete transformation unlike mine which still had the humanoid shape as its base.

I was just about to join the fight when I saw the Elder move like a blur, and a split second later his hand pierced the chest of the Sword Cultivator in the back who was powering up that strange relic.

The guy released a stifled scream and then vomited out blood. The Elder kicked him in the stomach and he flew and smashed into a tree not far away with a broken body and was leaking blood all over.

I saw the Elder use some Qi in that kick, and the sharp winds carried with the swing of his leg were like sharp blades cutting the guy to pieces.

I smiled. Another Soul joined the horde.

The Elder picked up the relic and it disappeared a moment later, into one of his rings, most likely. He was then just about to execute another of the enemy combatants when he swiftly turned around and crossed his hands in front of his body as a barrier of Spirit Qi was forced out of him. An instant later a sword appeared from the thin air and stabbed through his barrier, shattering it, and pierced his stomach. The blade completely ignored his hands and went for the weak spot.

The man groaned.

Based on the position of the attack, I was almost certain it was aimed at the Elder’s Dantian, yet the man shifted sideways at the last second, avoiding a fatal wound.

“Damn it!” I heard Elder Fe curse over the sound of battle and his expression drastically changed.

“Hoh? What do we have here?” We heard a distant rumbling voice. The sword shot back and disappeared into the forest. “Nice dodge, Junior. Let’s see if you can do that again!”

An Elder in a dark green robe showed himself, six swords circling around him, two of which carried fresh blood. He must have just killed someone else.

Elder Fa growled and took a few slow steps back, his hand reaching into his sleeve.

The Sword Elder floated above the ground, his long robe fitting loosely over his large frame. “Give up all resistance and I might even let you live. You can’t win against me.” He grinned and three blades oriented themselves towards our Elder.

The man snorted in response and threw something in his mouth. An instant later he threw his head back and roared and his clothes disappeared as his body rapidly expanded and grew hair, taking on the form of a large bluish-green tiger.

“Hmph! So be it!” The swords shot forward as the Sword Elder willed it, narrowly missing the tiger as it jumped to the side. It released a defiant roar and its Qi flared up. It pounced.

I flinched as the Sword Elder released his Aura and became serious. Even though they flew higher after the first clash, fighting in the sky, the energies involved reminded me of those two wild beasts that fought above the Sect years ago. I could hear distant rumbling and the Qi around us shifted like waves of the sea.

I shifted my attention back to the ground and noticed the rest fighting with their lives on the line while I just stared. Nobody said anything, heck, nobody even looked at me. They all probably thought I was weak. Yeah, well…

I lifted my hands up and a rumbling sound accompanied my movements as the heavy stones from underground were pulled to the surface. I pointed at my enemy with a relaxed, open hand. They looked at me. The stones cracked.

[Dust to Dust.]

And they died.