"Impudent! How dare you question this lord's dictum!? You are but a mere artifact spirit trying in vain to mimic intelligence... You want to cooperate with me hmph; Truly a toad lusting after swan meat!"
Draco unclasped his hands from behind him as the expression of anger disappeared from his face, followed by a grin.
"How was it?"
A slow clap sounded in the command bay. Arthur was impressed, "Why haven't you ever tried to be an Actor, clearly you have the acting chops... But damn were you so convincing, I thought you were belittling me... The last 40 days of watching Xianxia dramas and reading unholy texts haven't gone to waste I guess."
Draco chuckled, as he sat down, "Initially I thought you were out of your mind, but then we sent the drones back to sneak on people and overheard their conversations... It's unbelievable that something like this exists in a world we know to be governed by physical laws."
Arthur grinned, "Well, you seem to be happy about it."
"I have to confess something..."
Reclining his chair, after a long pause, Draco continued with a solemn look, "...I had big dreams when I was little, they're now the only quaint memories I have of that time... I always dreamt I would become an all-powerful superhero, conquering the entire world, hailed as its hero and savior..."
"...Of course they were but childish dreams of nonsense; nevertheless, it was the reason I later joined the Central military, back when no one in their right mind believed in them or deemed it possible for a Central authority to reign over Humanity..."
"...I suppose that childish dream loomed in the back of my mind, I entered various campaigns, some against fellow humans... Most of them were so bloody that all info has been sealed, and a gag order was put on it. Then came the campaigns against aliens and alien worlds, it was when I quelled that looming dream..."
"...The world was too big. Humanity was too big. No single man, however numerous his contributions, would ever be proclaimed its savior or hero. Ultimately, it all came down to the futility of a single man against an entire civilization..."
Draco looked at Arthur, "...But if it's like we've seen and heard from these people, a single man going against the world isn't an impossibility. Just the thought has my hands itching."
Arthur walked across the room and sat down on the console, a smirk on his face, "That's pretty deep, funny, and childish; nonetheless, such a thing has always been Man's dream, his romance. I can't help but question myself; Why haven't I ever noticed your delusions of grandeur!?"
Draco chortled and scoffed.
"Don't scoff, I haven't said anything about not lending you a hand did I ?... I've known you and have been in your company for far longer than Central and Its labs. I have no hard-coded loyalty to them, it was always to each of my ship's Captains, which you've taken the mantle of, on all of them. Let's first explore what's down there before we get carried away."
Draco nodded, "Let's descend, we should head down to the huge forest we saw down there, that looks perfect for our initial camp, you can drop me there somewhere and head on to scout the nearby area."
"That'll be a good start."Arthur accorded with a nod.
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As the promethean ship descended upon Earth, clouds billowed, revealing a lush verdant scenery, Misty mountains looming in the horizons, and rivers rippling across. The land seemingly stretched out forever, giving the impression of a disc world more than of a planet.
As they continued to descend, an extremely large city was visible in the far-off distance, it had no towering skyscrapers or spaceports but it looked bustling, vaguely reminiscent of cities from the 20th Century Earth.
The occupants of the spaceship looked at these scenes with intrigue and enthusiasm.
As they descended further, Arthur interrupted the quiet in the Command Bay, "Since we started to descend, there's been an increasing magnitude of electromagnetic waves beaming at us, it also had waves of a strange energy mixed within, it just vanished as the waves bounced within the Command Bay. Also, the photonic signature of the Sun is a bit different from what it was outside the planet... It may be a fake Sun."
"There's something up with the Sun too!? Damn. I just felt something wash over me, like it was trying to ascertain who I was, do you think it's akin to radar?"
"Looked that way, but it was coming from everywhere and not a single point, it almost seemed to be conscious... This world is far too mysterious... We might need a long time to unravel these... I'll turn on stealth mode just in case, though I'm not sure it would help."
As the ship reached the stratosphere, it was nearly invisible, only a vague outline could be seen upon closer inspection. The ship moved like it had a destination.
20 minutes later.
The ship arrived at its destination, nearly a hundred Kilometres above a massively sprawling forest.
As Draco looked at the stream of video and images, he spotted some structures breaking the canopy of the forest. The surrounding area near these structures looked to be cleared. In the cover of the dense canopy, he couldn't see much else.
"Port me a few dozen Kilometres from these ruins, you should go scout around as many areas as possible, also make a detailed 3D map of the area you scout."
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Preparing to go down, Draco was excited as he checked his communicator, tazer, and blaster.
Arthur readied the Beaming system, waiting to activate it.
He smiled at Draco, "Good luck!"
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Bai Xiao was a pitiable man, hearing his identity as sect master of the illustrious Celestial Sage Sect—one wouldn't think so, But that's how Bai Xiao felt.
His Celestial Sage Sect which had an illustrious history, and has made numerous contributions to the mortal and cultivation worlds, was now teetering on the brink of collapse.
The sect was founded nearly a hundred thousand years ago, by Celestial sage Tianyu. He didn't have the highest achievements in cultivation among his peers, but he was wise and sagely, his divinations and words of wisdom were the stuff of legends.
The sect has passed through many eras and sect masters. As the peak prowess of cultivators and sects in the world increased, the Celestial Sage Sect, whose focus was never on attaining the peak of cultivation, was preordained to decline.
In the last ten or so millennia, a series of unfortunate events begot further misfortune. The then sect master was visited by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty for a divination of his empire's fate, the divination greatly displeased the Emperor, whose Tang Dynasty was unrivaled in power across the southern realm; Infuriated and wanting to teach a lesson, he sealed the cultivation of the sect master and stationed people to lord over them.
Though the Tang Dynasty was situated extraordinarily far from the Celestial Sage Sect, due to the sheer power and arrogance of the Tang, no one in the southern domain wanted to get close to or patronize the sect for fear of offending the Tang.
As millennia lapsed, the few people the Tang Emperor stationed here formed a sect, which slowly encroached on the land and resources of the Celestial Sage Sect, accelerating its decline.
In the present day, on the eve of the announcement of the southwestern domain sect competition, the collapse of the Celestial Sage Sect loomed on the horizon, as the aptly named Celestial Tyranny Sect wants to deal a death blow.
2 millennia back, the then sect master made one final divination for the future of the sect and prohibited the sect from cultivating divination arts, he died shortly, leaving few final words.
These words were carved on his tomb. Lord Bai Xiao knelt in front of this tomb. Looking at these words, he sighed. It has been 50 years since the death of the last sect master, and Bai Xiao has been visiting the tomb every day, be it rain or snow, just like his predecessors.
He looked at the words on the tomb, words which have become so familiar to him, he could recite them in his sleep. He read these words just as he did every single day.
"Verily, when thou dost kneel afore my sepulcher, he shall emerge radiant. Stature towering. Shoulders broad. For he shall bear the burden of the faltering heavens. Potent is his frame, for he shall smite thy foes. Gargantuan is his stalk, for he shall sow his seed."
Lord Bai Xiao, on his knees, bowed before the tomb. He bowed again. As he bowed for the final time, a loud hum rang in his ears. Upon lifting his head, he saw a dazzlingly bright light that blinded him for a second. As his vision recovered, he saw a man standing on the destroyed remains of the tomb.
Looking at the man's face, he had a similar expression too, Surprise.
Caught off-guard, Draco was about to say something when he saw the surprise on the old man's face turn into joy and then into tears.
Not waiting for Draco to speak, the old man, who looked frail just a moment ago, pounced on Draco with a might that betrayed his looks.
The situation was too strange, not knowing what or why, the two were now in a fight before Draco reached for his blaster, and his armaments were expertly knocked off him. The old man grappled with him. Draco was trying to lose his grasp with punches, elbow jabs, and kicks, but the old man was unfazed, as he exclaimed "Good Good!"
The old man began to overpower Draco, and just as he was thinking of dodging the seemingly fierce attack that was to come next, the old man's actions left Draco puzzled.
The old man grabbed Draco's suit and attempted to tear it off his body. The durability and strength of these strange garments surprised the old man, nevertheless, he increased the force, ripping the suit off Draco's body.
Whilst still in a daze, Draco was standing confused, but the old man's actions continued, he ripped every single piece of cloth on Draco's body.
The old man's gaze inspected every part of Draco's body before it fixated on his hips. This sight dazed the old man, who didn't know what to think of himself anymore.
As Draco's bottom puckered out of a strange fear, the old man guffawed out loud, laughing.
"Hahaha, What marvelous form, truly a glorious and gargantuan jade stalk. You are The Man. Forgive me, fellow daoist, I'll explain once you calm down, please wear these robes I have at hand."
The man pulled a set of clothes out of thin air and threw them at Draco, who was too fazed to do anything else. He put on clothes that looked like the robes he saw people wear in xianxia dramas, but they were quite tight and looked ready to rip if he flexed a single muscle.
After a deep breath, the old man cupped his fist, "Fellow Daoist, greetings."
'I just landed here, a fragile-looking old man overpowered me, stripped me, and from what I heard, complimented my massive dong and started calling me fellow daoist. What? Why? WTF?'
The old man introduced himself as the sect master of the Celestial Sage Sect, Lord Bai Xiao. He motioned for Draco to follow him and pointed to the epitaph on the tomb. He sat down on a nearby boulder and began to narrate the story of his sect and the timeline of its approach to teetering decline.
Draco couldn't stop the urge to ask, "...So the sect masters came here every day and knelt before the tomb for the last 2000 years!? Didn't he provide a date or at least a timeline?"
"No" Bai Xiao answered nonchalantly.
"No wonder your sect's in decline, what a shitty prophecy..." Realizing he said that aloud, he looked at the old man, whose face turned a bit red from the shame.
"Forget what I said, I'm sorry."
As Draco was going through the mannerisms and dialogues of various xianxia characters, the old man's words surprised him again.
"You've come from a faraway world, haven't you, young one?"
Thinking for a moment, Draco questioned, "Was it my strange clothes that gave it away?"
"No, when the sect master performed his last divination, it was one of the several things he divined, he also revealed to us a few secrets, one of them being that the Sun, Moon, and even the Stars were merely a simulacrum, the real ones being outside of our world."
After some thought, Draco admitted, "That's right, it's true."
"So, soon-to-be fellow daoist, even though you don't have any cultivation right now, it's only a matter of time. Please do us the honor of becoming our sect's young master and leading the sect."
"Are you sure, if I'm with your sect, you will witness too many strange things, are you sure you're up for it?"
"Young one, you surely jest, if even your origin and the simulacrums couldn't stump me, what else would I be afraid of."
'We'll see about that.'
"Since you seem willing, as sect master I hereby grant you the status of my personal disciple and the young master of the glorious Celestial Sage Sect. Now disciple, kowtow to your master."
Draco continued to stare at Lord Bai Xiao.
*Cough* clearing his throat, Bai Xiao nodded solemnly, "Ok, let's do away with such traditions. But your name, Liu Draco, isn't imposing enough, on the occasion of you assuming your new identity in this world, how about changing your name to Long Aotian?"
Draco cringed as he listened to the suggestion.
'I already have an extremely cheaty spaceship as my "Golden Finger," now if I change my name to Long Aotian it would be too cringe even for me.'
"Let's not; Liu Draco is plenty imposing. 'Liu' as in kill, and 'Draco' means dragon in another language that's spoken where I'm from... By the way, are there only Chin- I mean Huaxia people living in this world?"
"Hmm, if it has such a meaning, then it's better than Long Aotian I guess..."
"...Yeah, we do have some records of other races of Humans, nations, and their languages, unfortunately, a realm-shaking calamity befell the world, due to which the vast majority of Humans have died. Due to the sheer number and size of Huaxia, its surviving people repopulated the world..."
"...The current world of ours, now sprawling in size was said to have expanded due to the calamity, it was also after this calamity, that a vast spiritual energy permeated the world... It'll be dark soon, let us discuss these things at a later time, we should head back to the sect."
As Lord Bai Xiao drew a sword, seemingly out of thin air, Draco was talking to Arthur, "You must've seen and heard it all, there's no hurry, scout for as long as you would prefer, I'm leaving with him. If there's an emergency, I'll contact you."
"Understood." The voice replied.
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Even with the added hulking frame of Draco on top, the sword zipped at high speed. Before long, he was brought to a dilapidated two-story house. After advising him to rest and not go out before he came back, his newfound teacher and sect master left in a hurry.
Looking at the dilapidated house, he couldn't help but scrunch, 'I seem to be scammed, if this is the abode of a young master, how shabby will the sect be? Is this even a real sect and not a cult?'
After deciding to wait and see, he entered the dilapidated house.
A clean house, with marble floors greeted him. He checked the various facilities, finding a squatting toilet with toilet paper and running water through metal tubes, he wasn't disgusted as he was expecting. After all, he was mainly used to military barracks and spaceship confines, he wasn't too disappointed.
'Though it shouldn't even be compared to what's shown in the dramas, it's not as bad as it looks from the outside.'
In the corner, a bed was placed inconspicuously. At the center of the room was a raised platform, and a thick comfy mat was laid on the floor, there was a low raised table along with an armrest at the side.
'This is how they cultivate I guess.'
After pacing around the room and checking out the empty floor above, he lay down on the bed and quickly fell asleep.
~~~