Spending time in this world made me understand that when push came to shove, there were only two kinds of people: overthinkers and go-doers. The best example of the latter was Song Song. Sometimes, she acted recklessly, but her instincts compensated for that drawback.
I was definitely an overthinker, but such things mattered little now.
Even though I tried to think of the best way to get the hell away from this situation, the only thing I realized was just how fucked I was. There was no use even pondering about saving Song Song, Yang Cho, or my cousins… I couldn't even save myself. Worrying about whether they survived the crash into the water was useless since I could do nothing about it either.
"I can sense someone special amongst you. Bring them to me," the monstrous beast said in a calm, booming voice. He didn't seem to be intentionally talking so loud; this was just his normal sound level.
As the titanic monstrous beast looked around, people were frozen in fear. Its aura alone was like being splashed with a river of blood. The air grew heavier, and I felt like I was drowning in oxygen, making me lightheaded.
No, this was all just an illusion! He was clearly not even releasing his killing intent. Yet, it felt like my spine was a mush of yogurt, making it hard to stand up straight.
I glanced at the elders, who seemed also nervous. But they were not affected by the Qi as much as I was.
Hopefully, those old fools were not planning something stupid, like running away, because that was not a good idea. The monstrous beast was intimidating, but it seemed calm and had someone he would rather not kill here. Whoever they were looking for, they were probably not looking to kill them... at least not immediately.
However, it was doubtful whether he would spare us after finding who he was looking for.
I took another deep breath, trying to calm myself down. But in that split second, the creature glanced my way momentarily, likely just scanning the surroundings. Yet my body broke out in a cold sweat.
"Fuck," I cursed under my breath.
I could not control this reaction. My body was terrified at its deepest core. It felt natural and instinctual, like pulling away one's hand from flames.
Either way, the decisions were out of my hands now. The elders would be the ones deciding what would happen next.
But my hopes of this ending peacefully came crashing down when two outer elders turned their palms toward the monstrous beast in the sky.
"Blinding, Blazing Sunlight!" the outer elders called out simultaneously. Suddenly, before anyone could react, the world turned white. I quickly covered my eyes, and my eyes stung despite the light not being directed at me.
"Push the ships!" our outer elder said as he landed on the ship. A sudden tug made all of us disciples stumble on the wooden deck, and the boat suddenly picked up speed and shot off like a rocket.
Unlike the leisurely speeds from before, this one was a whole other deal. But I had no time to think about how their strategies were somewhat good if they wanted to escape. While the monstrous beast had higher cultivation, it could not defend against the blinding light.
"All disciples! Go under the deck!" Yelled out the outer elder in an authoritative voice.
Even when I opened my eyes, there were still black spots in my vision. But I still made sure to locate where Yang Cho was and pulled him inside. He was still rubbing his eyes and groaning in pain.
"Deciding to lose the fat at this time was one of the best decisions in my life," he said as I pulled him inside.
Some disciples didn't make it and were blown off the boat. But there was nothing we could do. There was no longer a translucent barrier around the ship to catch them, so they probably focused all their power on speed.
"So, what now?" Ye An asked calmly, as I was still rubbing my eyes due to the dark spots. As I turned toward her, she was not bothering with that and just closed her eyes.
It seemed like she had pushed herself inside despite her injuries.
"Now we just wait here and maybe pray to any gods you might believe in," I said, my vision finally returning to normal.
Hopefully, the snake monstrous beast got the brunt of it, and the light caused enough pain to stop him from being able to sense Qi. Despite what some might assume about anger and cultivation, when it came to sending Qi, only a calm mind could do it best.
Despite my words, I looked around for cracks or crannies on the wooden walls around us. But we were still within the range of the dark clouds, as no sunlight was coming in.
Things were out of my hands now. But if I was going to die, I would at least like to stare at some monstrous beast before doing so.
For those looking from the outside, this sounded nothing like the decision of a scared man.
Was I scared? No... scared would be an understatement. I was terrified.
Just looking at such a colossal monstrous serpent... That thing was not something normal humans were ever supposed to gaze upon. It was like something straight out of legends on Earth or downright horror stories.
There were some crashing sounds in the distance and rumbling thunder, which made my heart skip a beat with each sudden sound. The people around me were not much better.
But my despairing mood was interrupted by light breaking through the ship's nooks and crannies. I approached one of them and examined it, greedily looking around for any signs of the snake.
But as I looked around, there were no signs of the snake. So I kept changing cracks until I found one in the back of the wooden hallways, through which a dim light came through. Putting my eye next to it, I saw something out of a nightmare.
Snakes' swishing and movement in the grass were already eerie enough. But moving like that while flying was a whole other realm of nightmarish.
However, I kept staring despite the chill that went down my spine.
Sometimes, people did not die on their own terms; that was something I could not change, even in a world like this. Perhaps my death would also not be on my terms. But one thing was sure: I would live on my own terms!
"Hey, that's dangerous. Perhaps you should back off," Yang Cho said, and I could hear his worry.
"Don't worry about it," I smiled. "If the ship even gets nicked by the serpent, we will all come crashing down. If that were to happen, I can confidently say that we would all die except for Ye An. Even she would have to try and pull out enough Qi, which would crush her cultivation. Unless, of course, any of you have some protective artifacts. But you wouldn't bother helping with this test if you had that kind of money."
Some seemed unconvinced by my words, perhaps thinking they would still smash into the water even if they fell from such heights. How could water be dangerous against the body of a cultivator?
But at our speeds and heights, we seemed to be above the clouds, which on average should be 20,000 to 30,000 feet if they were the same distance as in my last world. At those heights, landing on water was about the same as landing on concrete.
The snake-like monstrous beast was slowly but surely catching up with the ships, which pulled my attention away from the group. Another blinding light was released as it approached the boat, and the snake screeched, the sound shaking even our ship.
Since I was looking through such a small crack, the light only hit me a little bit. But it was still annoying—not annoying enough to stop me from observing what was happening with my other eye through the crack.
But what came next was something out of a horrible nightmare, as the serpent seemed angry now, but the ship that had shot light was still there. It was ridiculous looking at it since the ship was the size of an M&M compared to the monster.
Then, with that same rage, it blew a dark cloud out of its mouth toward us. Thankfully, we were moving at such speeds that the dark clouds had difficulty catching up. Still, one of the ships was caught by it, and immediately, the wood rotted, and the whole ship melted like it was hit by acid. I could not hear the screams all the way here, but that could not have been a pretty sight.
However, despite the wrathful show of power, the giant serpent stopped in place and looked lost in thought for a second, giving the ships some time to create some distance between them.
Hopefully, my cousins were not in one of the ships crashing down. They were good kids.
But even as we went further away, it was still easy to see him due to the snake's size. As the monstrous beast came to its senses and turned toward us, it was met by another blinding light. But this time, it did not shy away; it simply closed its eyes and continued giving chase.
Since the technique that created the blinding light used Qi, it clouded even my Qi sensing for a second. But the snake seemed to have no such problems and continued chasing us with its serpentine movement.
Once again, the snake grew closer with each passing second. This time, no blinding lights or techniques would work on it. At least the elders were wise enough not to try attacking and wasting Qi. Even I could tell how massive the distance between them was by how they unconsciously released Qi.
As the snake came closer, my heart began beating faster.
How the hell were we going to get out of this?
I tried to think of what the elders were trying to achieve here. It wasn't that hard to figure out what had happened.
Since Song Song had a way to contact her Core Formation master, the Sect should know of the situation or at least have an idea of what was happening.
Land... as long as we could reach land that the Blazing Sun Sect controlled, we should be okay. The monstrous beast had human-like intelligence, and despite its power, I doubted it was careless for it to confront the Blazing Sun Sect directly.
The Sect had its own handful of Core Formation Cultivators. However, when I thought about the intimidating visage of the monstrous beast and the only Core Elder I had met, a nice granny-like woman, the intimidation factor was on two wholly different ends of the spectrum.
But if that wasn't enough, the Nascent Soul Sect Leader would come and handle things. Even more, if the snake was beyond Nascent Soul Realm, which I doubted since it was not catching up with our ships so easily. But even if that was the case, there was still the Blazing Sun Immortal, who was probably alive as no history books mentioned his death.
Despite the situation, I couldn't help but smile. This monstrous beast was in for a rough time, even if he killed us all.
This was such a xianxia cliche: One would beat the student, and then the senior would show up. After that, it was the master, elder, sect leader, and ancestor.
It was the xianxia-equivalent of a shit ton of clowns coming out of a small car.
But such funny thoughts went to the back of my mind as the serpent got scarily close once again. Thankfully, our ship was not at the tail of the others, and another ship seemed about to become a victim of what was about to happen.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
However, as the serpent approached the ship, it seemed familiar. All the ships were similar-looking, with only minor differences. So when everyone got on, I had only memorized one ship. I rubbed my eyes and ensured I would not blink during what would happen next.
At first, the snake seemed to slow down as it approached the ship as if trying to search for something, though its eyes closed. But that was quickly finished, and the creature opened its mouth wide. It was colossal enough to swallow a mountain whole. A ship would not be big enough to get stuck between its teeth.
It was just another massacre… or at least it was supposed to be.
Just as the serpent was about to swallow another ship, a blinding light appeared. But unlike before, this light was not the kind that hurt the eyes. It was something more serene.
Even the Qi around me changed and became bitter-tasting. Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought Qi could have a taste.
But I kept my eyes peeled and tried to see what would happen next despite the light. The light shifted and morphed as a new ghostly figure began taking form.
Yeah, that was not any ordinary ship the snake was attacking. It was the red-haired guy's ship it was attacking.
Also, now there was no use in denying it any longer, and my gut feeling was right. This guy was actually favored by the heavens and lady luck itself. Calling him a protagonist was nothing more than a title. But that was the best way to describe such an existence.
"Little snake," the ghostly figure spoke. I couldn't see it quite well since it had a misty shape around it. "You dare show such measly poison in front of me? Go and repent in some dingy hole, filthy beast."
One second, the ghostly man was speaking, and the next, the serpent was inhumanly screaming as blood gushed out of its body like a rupturing volcano. So much blood gushed out that it turned the sky red, and the giant serpent now had a deep wound from its eye; it ran down its neck and toward its body. The wound was so clear that it looked like it was made with a razor.
The monstrous beast's body wriggled before it plummeted into the sea, creating a splash large enough to reach the clouds. The sea below turned red. But nobody stuck around to find out whether the serpent was still around, as the ships kept the same speed and the translucent ghostly figure disappeared.
After a while, there was nothing but the endless sea, and that was when all the tension left my body, and I fell ass-first onto the wooden floor and breathed out a sigh of relief. I turned toward the others and smiled. They had weird looks and seemed scared.
Oh, right, they hadn't seen what had happened.
"We won," I said. "Some figure appeared and stopped the serpent."
As soon as I said that, the tension seemed to leave their shoulders, too, and I immediately saw the look in their eyes. They seemed ready to ask a whole lot of questions I was too tired to answer, so I added before anyone could utter anything.
"It could have been some secret elder who stopped that. So I can't go spewing what really happened, or the Sect could punish me."
Some saw my words for what they were, a bullshit excuse. But everyone was too happy that they came out of this alive and cared little how that had happened.
I looked at the wooden ceiling as the people around me spoke in relieved hushes. Even Yang Cho was too busy celebrating with our ex-team members. The only person who had the leisure to keep their eyes on me was Ye An.
She nudged closer to me and whispered, "What attacked the serpent?"
Huh? Oh, right. She should have been able to sense what was happening outside.
From her words, it seemed she hadn't sensed the grandpa in a ring. No matter how talented such a Cultivator was, a guy like that could easily hide his presence from a Qi Gathering Cultivator.
"Do you really want to know that badly?" I smiled at her.
Her impassive look was enough of an answer, and she scooted closer.
"You said that your storage ring is blood-bound. So how about you show me some good things, and I will tell you?" I smiled and extended my hand toward her. "C'mon now, no need to be shy."
"I feel like you've been nothing but impervious toward me," she stated calmly.
"Oh, what made you think so?" I asked, a smile on my lips.
"I feel like if the big tab of muscles were to ask you the same question, you would have answered it without a second thought," she stated as if pointing out the unfairness of it all.
I looked at her with a bewildered look and could not believe someone was acting like this. So, just to refresh her memory, I said, "You do remember that you tried your best to kill me not even two days ago, right?"
She shrugged. "There's no need to worry. I hold no grudge against you. Despite what happened, you saved my life."
Well, I do hold a grudge! If she thought I would brush that off and let it go, she was dreaming. Also, did she make trying to kill me all about herself?
But even after what she had done, I wouldn't mind profiting from her. However, her dreams of me giving this information for free were just that... dreams.
Ye An stared at me for a few minutes before standing up and walking away, saying nothing.
These cultivators sometimes treated life and death like nothing. Where two people could be trying to kill each other today, but tomorrow, they would be best friends and sworn brothers. Then, the next day after that, they would stab each other in the back or something.
But I was no such person.
...
After some time, the ship stopped moving at such fast speeds and halted. Even though we were still inside, I could feel the weird sensation of something dropping like an elevator, except a bit faster.
"All disciples, come out!" Called the outer elder.
We followed his words and emerged one by one. Unlike usual, the elder had a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek and looked tired. He looked to his left, and we noticed we were in front of the Sect's walls, specifically close to one of the gates.
"I will let you guys handle it from here," said the elder, before sighing and jumping down the ship.
A couple of dozen inner disciples sprung from atop the wall, and a handful of inner elders were there too. None of the elders who had brought us to safety stuck around, and they went into the Sect to likely make a report. They didn't even bother using the gate; they just jumped over the wall before shooting away and standing on weird artifacts.
Two flew on swords, and the rest were on flying horse-sized leaves.
It felt hard to believe my eyes for the first time in my life. Everything had come and gone by so fast. This was the kind of thing that if it happened to someone on Earth, there was a good chance they would still be in shock and might have to go to therapy for PTSD.
But here, it was just routine. Which was both worrisome and comforting in its own way. At least something like this happened often enough that to some of the inner disciples, it looked like they were going through a routine. So there had to have been some countermeasures against things like this.
However, that was also a point of worry. As winter approached, these things became common enough that they were no longer an uncommon sight. Though I doubt others were attacked by such a caliber of a beast.
"How're you feeling?" Yang Cho asked as he put a hand on my shoulder. On the other hand, he had an apple. He was eating an apple weirdly from the topside down. Which was weird enough to break me out of my gloomy thoughts.
"I would do anything right now to just go to the library and read a book," I sighed.
Those carefree moments felt like an eternity away, even though it had barely been a week.
"You look relieved," someone whispered behind me, almost making me jump in place. I hadn't sensed anyone there.
Turning around, it was Song Song, who had my cousins behind her.
I sighed in relief, "It's good to see that you're also alive."
"I was in the same ship as the inner elder, in the front. I was never really in any danger before all of you guys died. You know, I'm actually super important now," she smiled jokingly.
Though every joke had a hint of truth, and if that outer elder had said that Song Song had a chance at becoming the next Sect Leader, then she was definitely very important to the Sect, even if she never reached that position.
"Well, I came here to exchange your cousins with the sickly bitch," she shrugged, looking toward the place we had come from, and a worried look flashed through her eyes for a split second.
"I have a name," Ye An insisted.
Song Song turned toward the jade-like beauty, stared at her in the eyes, and then turned toward me. "Anyway, an idea crossed my mind while I was on the ship alone with my thoughts."
Did she ignore Ye An?
"So... hypothetically, let's say..." Song Song rubbed her chin as her brows scrunched, and she seemed to be thinking hard. "How bad would you take it if I forced you into the inner sect?"
Huh? Of course, I would take it very badly!
"It's only hypothetical, of course," she added with a solemn nod.
"I would not like it," I said calmly, making sure not to create any stupid misunderstanding.
"Not like it... like in a bad way?" She raised a questioning brow.
"What other way of not liking something is there?"
"Well, I mean..." she looked concentrated. "You could not like it and be mad for a few months. But then I will shower you with gifts and cultivation resources, and you will quickly get over it and forget about such small matters."
Ye An coughed and drew our attention as we turned toward her. She then looked at Song Song, asking, "Do I-"
"No," Song Song replied. "Only he gets to choose... and I'm half a mind to kidnap him."
Holy crap! She actually said her intentions out loud! I knew that whole hypothetical talk was bullshit! She really meant it!
"I'll even throw her in as a concubine," Song Song said, pointing at Ye An with her thumb as if she were talking about cattle.
"That would actually sour the deal," I replied honestly and got my bearings.
This was Song Song, and if there was one thing I could trust her to be to me, it was honest. She wouldn't kidnap me out of nowhere and would actually ask first...
Okay, that actually sounded crazy. Was I moving at the same wavelength as the crazy now?
"Anyway, I can give you whatever you want with my new position," she added. "I will treat you very well. I promise I will even find a way to get you dozens of Earth Grade Techniques. If you accept, I will even give you one right now."
Earth Grade Techniques? That was some wild payment she was offering.
Actually, she was overpaying for my services. There wasn't much I could help her with when she was in the inner Sect. No doubt her master was more trustworthy and had better advice than me.
"Why would you pay so much?" I asked, making sure Speedy was in the backpack before jumping down onto the grassy ground. Song Song and Ye An followed suit.
Nobody approached us, not even the inner disciples, who acted like they couldn't see Song Song. The other outer disciples, including newcomers like my cousins, had to undergo a screening, and they waved at me excitedly before leaving.
That left only Song Song, Ye An, and me alone.
"We work well together," Song Song stared me in the eyes as something dangerous burned before that gaze. "Imagine when you become a Qi Gathering Cultivator? We would be unstoppable within our realm. With you as my right-hand man, I believe we can handle even those core disciples who are over a hundred years old."
A disciple even after that age? Talk about a wall. Now it made sense why she wanted me. But she was overestimating my abilities.
"If you want advice, my doors will always be open as a friend. You saved my life more than once, and I appreciate that. Whether you become a sect leader or not, don't be afraid to come for a talk," I smiled. "But I'm going to have to refuse."
She sighed and scratched her head. "I knew it would be something like this, but I still feel kind of annoyed about it. I need to punch something."
When she said those latter words, her gaze turned toward Ye An, who fiercely met her stare.
"When I regain my cultivation, I will surpass you and kill you," Ye An threatened Song Song, her words ringing like facts.
"Give it your best shot," Song Song smiled. "But make sure you don't miss the first time. Unlike Liu Feng here, I won't spare you. Quite the opposite actually, I will do my best to give you a tortuous and horrible death."
As they continued threatening each other, I walked at a slower pace and let them gain a step or two on me. After they were too absorbed with each other, I stopped walking altogether, and Song Song stopped for a second and glanced at me. She sighed and turned away, walking into the Sect with Ye An.
Despite what Song Song would have liked, I was not from the inner Sect, and we would eventually have to part ways.
She was crazy, but I was thankful she had saved me multiple times. She might have made me join if she had used underhanded tactics and mentioned how she had saved me numerous times.
But this was Song Song, a crazy but honest woman.
I smiled as she walked away, turned toward the others, and waited for my cousins to finish their checkups.
Despite Song Song no longer being around, none of the inner disciples or even outer elders approached me. They didn't even look my way.
Anyway, this harrowing journey was ending, and we were about to return to our daily lives.
While thinking such thoughts, my gaze landed on a certain red-haired young man. He didn't notice my gaze as usual and looked somewhat discombobulated and anxious. This resembled nothing like the confident guy I had met in the forest.
But I was not going to take his behavior at face value.
And just like that, everything I had studied and worked hard to understand how this world and everything within it worked… was flipped on its head!
I, someone trying to understand the cultivation world by using logic, would now have to live close to such a creature of illogicality.
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End of Book 1