After all, even if his costume was only 0.5% of what constituted a proper costume, 0.5% of the character’s power he was trying to emulate was nothing to sneeze at.
“What are you doing?” the man asked.
That confirmed it for Tang Ze that he really was in some sort of parallel world, because anyone from back on Earth would’ve almost instantly recognized who he was trying to dress up as.
If there ever was a child who wrapped a red towel behind them like a cape and started running around like they were trying to fly, it was easy enough to tell who that child was emulating. That was just how famous that character was.
A character from Western comics who was said to be stronger than a planet! An image that was famous the world over back on Earth.
Costume is 0.7% accurate to character.
Tang Ze knew this instinctively, much like he had with how his talent worked, and he smiled. That was to be expected, all he had was a red cloth which he was wearing like a cape, but even that was enough to get a fraction of a fraction of the character’s power.
And a fraction of a fraction of that power is still immense! Just like how even one percent of a top CEO’s compensation back on Earth was more than many of their employee’s salaries, if you had even around 0.5% of a character that was planetary level, that was still amazing power for a normal person!
Tang Ze bent his knees, and then launched himself into the air, easily climbing for six hundred feet before he slowly began to descend. While doing so, he made sure to clasp onto his ‘cape’ tightly - not wanting it to come loose while he was moving, else he might end up going back to normal as he would no longer be wearing a ‘costume’ - and a fall from that height would certainly kill him then.
He felt strong enough to lift up a mountain - no, a mountain was probably too much, but he was probably strong enough to lift up a building on his own.
The man watched with a shocked expression as Tang Ze touched the ground.
“That reminds me,” Tang Ze said. “I never caught your name.”
“Z-Zhang Long,” the man said.
“So then, shall we go try to rescue her? Who was she anyway? You bride-to-be? Or sister?” Tang Ze asked.
He still wasn’t sure who the ‘good guys’ were here. He had thought it better to choose a side so that he would at least endear himself to someone. In such a situation, it was better to align oneself, from a mere pragmatic perspective, with the weaker side. After all, if Tang Ze helped Zhang Long, he would be greatly indebted to him as the others already looked like they had accomplished what they wanted to do. If he sided with the people who had taken the woman away, what did they really have to gain via his help?
However, that was just from a practical point of view - Tang Ze wasn’t going to help someone in the wrong regardless. He wanted to get the full story from Zhang Long before getting into a fight - and whether or not he would believe Zhang Long depended on how much his story made sense.
Zhang Long, however, still couldn’t come to terms with what he had just seen.
This man could fly - and that was a technique that would place him in the Nascent Soul realm at the very least! Zhang Long could not feel an ounce of Qi from this stranger, which meant that he either could not cultivate at all, or was more than one major realm above him. It looked like the latter was true.
This branch of the Rising Phoenix sect did not have any Nascent Soul cultivators to its name - only two Golden Core ones (the branch head and the sect janitor). Some of the higher-ups in the sect were at the Nascent Soul stage, but none of them were near a backwater like this, they were either in seclusion, on missions, or in the main headquarters of the sect.
Zhang Long himself was at the fifth minor realm of Qi Condensation, which meant that this man was leagues above him.
And that was why he couldn’t believe that such a man had bothered to stop and help him out.
Would a man be bothered by two ants fighting each other?
No, he would not even think twice about such a thing, which is why it was incomprehensible to Zhang Long that this man was offering him his help especially given the fact that they had no ties together. If it were someone from his sect, Zhang Long could maybe entertain the fact that there was a reason for someone to intervene, but as far as Zhang Long knew he had no connections to this stranger.
And even if he was helping him out of boredom - Zhang Long was not naïve enough to think that such help would come without strings attached.
What would he ask of him in return?
Even as he pondered this though, Zhang Long came upon an epiphany: if he wanted to save Jin Zhen, there was no other choice in front of him.
This man could literally ask for Zhang Long’s soul, and Zhang Long would find it hard to say ‘no.’
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
There was also the factor that if he was indeed so strong, Zhang Long needed to be more careful about how he spoke to the man.
He had heard stories of high-end cultivators crippling others for so much as sending a glancing at them in a manner which they did not like, and he did not want to find himself at the receiving end of such a blow.
Tang Ze on the other hand, could not understand why Zhang Long’s demeanor had suddenly changed in the span of a few seconds as Zhang Long answered.
“Lord,” Zhang Long said, bowing deeply. “This one would be eternally grateful for your assistance! However, this one does not have an appropriate treasure or the means to repay the generosity of one such as yourself!”
“I…. don’t remember asking for anything,” Tang Ze said, rather confused.
Now that made Zhang Long even more wary. It would be one thing if this man had asked for his eternal servitude, or a massive amount of cultivation resources, or for Zhang Long to offer up any of his future daughters to be his concubines- but to ask for nothing?
If anything, the unknown was far more frightening than what was known. Because not asking for anything upfront meant that Zhang Long would be in constant fear of what he might eventually ask for.
Tang Ze on the other hand, seemed to realize what it was that was bothering Zhang Long. “Look, Zhang Long, do you know about… or rather, do you believe in reincarnation?”
“Yes, this one does know about it,” Zhang Long said.
Tang Ze looked out into the distant forest, unsure of how to phrase his intentions. “Most people, when they reincarnate, they don’t remember what happened in their past lives, do they? Well, something like this has happened to me. You might be wondering why it is that I want to help you - and the answer is, that I want to live this life, my second life, at the very least, without any regrets. There was a time when something happened in my prior life, something that I should’ve stepped in to prevent, but I didn’t. I don’t want for that to happen in this life either. I want to… be better than I was in my prior lifetime. Someone who I can actually be proud of.” He gave Zhang Long a smile. “You are trying to rescue her, aren’t you? So long as your cause is just, I wish to support it.”
Zhang Long was somewhat even more troubled now. For one to remember one’s memories from a past life - he had heard of some Nascent Soul cultivators who were able to do so, and it was even said that some cultivators of the Eternal Soul realm could influence their future reincarnations and also reincarnate with their memories intact.
That meant that although this man looked to only be in his twenties, he could actually be a five thousand year old monster in terms of experience! Zhang Long had somewhat misinterpreted what Tang Ze was saying - because Tang Ze did not want to frame himself as coming from a separate world, and instead just described it as his ‘previous life.’
After some internal deliberation, Zhang Long realized that he had very little choice, and that if this man did not wish to state his desire upfront, he could not very well force him to.
“Yes, that girl is my childhood friend, Jin Zhen,” Zhang Long said.
“Right, so how strong are those seven people? Who are they, anyway? And why’d they kidnap her - you know what, the longer we stand here the further away they’ll go, hop on, and tell me the story on the way,” Tang Ze said, offering his arms.
“What?”
“I’ll carry you over there - how else can we outrun them? Well, not outrun per se - but you get what I’m saying, right?” Tang Ze said.
Zhang Long did not want to be carried around like an overgrown child, but at the same time, he truly had no alternative.
“Just make sure that my cape is on tightly,” Tang Ze warned as he flew off.
Zhang Long filled him in little by little as they soared. As it was, Tang Ze’s top speed was not that much faster than that of a horse’s, but that was with him carrying Zhang Long, and they could travel in a true straight line without having to stop for obstacles, meaning they’d catch up to those men soon.
Tang Ze told Zhang Long that he came from a distant land and was unfamiliar with the local geography, and so Tang Ze began to fill him in on things, as well as what had happened to put him in this situation in the first place.
The country they were in was called the Raswatian Empire, which, as per Zhang Long, had stood for a little over one hundred thousand years. Most of its land was managed directly by the emperor, though there were portions of land which were managed by sects instead.
Tang Ze belonged to one such sect - the Rising Phoenix sect, which explained the emblem embroidered into his robes that Tang Ze could now see; a phoenix.
There were seven other major sects - the Jasmine Dragon sect, Emerald Floral sect, Golden Sun sect, Diamond Dust sect, Astral Winds sect, Swift Sword sect, and the Silver Moon sect.
The people who had taken Jin Zhen away were rival members of the Diamond Dust sect.
Zhang Long’s village was near this place. This region was very close to the border between the territories controlled by the Diamond Dust Sect and the Rising Phoenix Sect, though the sprawling forest divided the two of them.
“So why did these people decide to mess with you?” Tang Ze asked.
“It’s a game for them!” Zhang Long said. “Some of their disciples come into our territory, burn our crops, steal things, and harass our women!”
Tang Ze frowned. “And your sect elders don’t do anything about it?”
“Ah, no,” Zhang Long said. “Not unless things are really serious - they usually respond with things such as ‘we don’t want to be bothered with such trivial matters’ or the like. If they did something like burn down the whole village, then there would be retaliation, but no one is going to rally to my aide for something like this.”
“That sounds messed up,” Tang Ze said. “You’re one of their members - shouldn’t they be helping you? I mean, even if not out of benevolence, but to keep face?”
Zhang Long’s face fell. “I am only an Initiate, and we are expected to contribute to the sect, not take from it. My other villager friends aren’t strong enough, and to make matters worse, they did this in the middle of one of my sect missions! I was supposed to be gathering herbs to take back, but then right when I was about to be done, they swooped in the moment they saw that I was alone! Mainly because they don’t have the courage to fight fair!”
“Is that what you’re carrying in your bag? The herbs, I mean,” Tang Ze said. Was that why he refused to toss it away even as it was slowing him down?
“Yes,” Zhang Long said. He then paused as he saw a cloud of dust in the distance. “Is that them? Are we finally there?”
“Yes, but hold on,” Tang Ze said. “You’ve told me all of this, but I need to know how strong these people are before I challenge them. They’re riding on what look like normal horses so I’m guessing they are not too strong but it would be helpful to be sure before I engage them.”
“I think two of them are at the Qi Refining realm,” Zhang Long said. “And the rest are at Qi Condensation.”
“….you do realize that means nothing to me, right?” Tang Ze asked.
It was here that there was yet another misunderstanding between the two of them.
Tang Ze was asking Zhang Long for clarification, however, Zhang Long interpreted his words as saying ‘Qi Refining realm cultivators are nothing to me in terms of power,’ which, given he thought that Tang Ze was at Nascent Soul at the very least, he understood.
As such, Zhang Long did not answer Tang Ze’s question, which annoyed him.