Chapter 23

Over the next few minutes we came up with a plan. Elder Yui would attack the guards at the barrier. Once he started, I’d move to a location where I was in range to absorb death energy. Hopefully they would be too distracted to attack me. If they did attack me I’d draw back to the grove.

While I got into position I made sure that the energy I was collecting wouldn’t go to growing the universe the drake was on. Unfortunately I couldn’t redirect the energy the drake was giving me. It automatically went to the universe the energy was coming from. I was a bit disappointed to realize that limitation.

Right now I needed as much energy as possible going to the new universe. And the drake was giving me a significant amount of energy. A little more than elder Yui and all the dryads combined. Which made me wonder if they were considered the equivalent of a late level nine cultivator. Or if it was because they were a higher life form and produced more life energy.

I then used the energy I was collecting from being near some of the dryads to create a new universe. And then I designated that any energy I absorbed would grow that new universe. The dimensional originator could only store a million energy. It wasn’t impossible for elder Yui to harvest that much energy from our enemies. We hadn’t talked about it but there was also a possibility that elder Yui would be defeated. If that happened his death would give me more than a million energy. And the last thing I wanted would be for his death to be in vain.

At that moment elder Yui attacked and I moved into the middle of the area between the barrier and the grove. Numerous messages appeared in front of me. Mentally I turned them off. I was curious about the energy I was gaining. However, the last thing I wanted was to be distracted and end up dying again.

Elder Yui was decimating the gathered clan Hill soldiers. The combination of having higher strength and reaction speeds meant that it was impossible for normal soldiers to land an attack. Elder Yui would simply make the exact right movement to dodge any incoming attack. Due to his higher strength he could also move faster than any of the soldiers. Although his speed was well within the range of perception. Although if I was as close as the soldiers I knew I would probably lose track of him.

Things changed a bit as stronger soldiers started to react to the attack. At first that just meant that a few attacks started to graze elder Yui. A few times he even had to take the full attack from a weak cultivator in order to dodge a stronger cultivator's attack. Due to his increased toughness those attacks were unable to injure him. That didn’t stop elder Yui from killing his enemies though. As for the death energy I was gathering, I suspected the stronger energies was just increasing the rate I was absorbing energy.

Things ramped up once again when cultivator mages started arriving. The variety of elemental attacks created a dazzling display. Elder Yui didn’t have any magic to counter those attacks. His toughness and speed let him continue to fight though. At this point it was obvious that despite his power it would be impossible for him to kill all the soldiers. I was sure there were more powerful enemies on the way. Even if there weren’t, elder Yui would eventually get tired and make a mistake.

It made me wish that I could join in with my own magic. My body still had the talent to use magic. And I had the memories that told me how to use it. Unfortunately those memories also told me that it would be far too weak to even injure a regular mortal, let alone kill a powerful cultivator. None of my magic could help elder Yui, it would only attract attention to myself.

After what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes, elder Yui retreated. I transported myself back to the garden. Elder Yui flashed back to the edge of the garden. Crossing the hundred feet in around a second. Seven cultivators chased after him. At the same time thousands of vines shot out of the grove. Three of the cultivators managed to slice apart or use elemental magic to destroy the vines attacking them.

However, I could also see four bodies that had been pierced by multiple vines. The three cultivators that had blocked the vines attacking them quickly retreated as vines continued to attack them. Clearly they were at their limit trying to face elder Yui’s wife.

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I looked over to congratulate elder Yui when he started to collapse. A group of vines caught him and gently carried him into the grove. Looking at him I noticed that he was covered in small gashes and burns from elemental magic attacks. Likely if he had continued fighting for much longer he would have died.

As I followed the vine stretcher into the grove I saw Emma hurry forward. The glow of life magic surrounded her hands before wrapping around elder Yui. At the same time elder Yui’s wife stepped forward and green energy joined Emma’s energy.

“Is he going to be alright?” I asked.

Emma nodded. “It will take me some time but I should be able to heal all these wounds.”

That reminded me of all the corpses that were surrounding the garden. It was obvious now that this wasn’t the first time elder Yui had gone out to kill clan Hill’s cultivators. I was a bit surprised that clan Hill hadn’t managed to take him down. Then again he was a rank nine cultivator with the support of a life mage. Even if his power had waned a bit he probably had more battle experience than any other cultivator in the area.

“How much energy did you gain?” Emma asked.

I took a look at my status. With a bit of surprise I realized I hadn’t looked since before I captured the drake. I had just been querying the tutorial to get answers to my questions.

Adam Black

Status: Core shattered.

Total Planar Energy: 3,309,876

Total Planes: 2 (click for detailed list of each)

Total Passive Energy Gain from Planes: 88,401

Equivalent Cultivation Rank on Plane: Adept Cultivator 3

Equivalent Cultivation Rank off Plane: Journeyman 2

I was a bit shocked to see just how much energy I had gained. Close to three million from a few minutes of fighting. At the same time I was a bit disappointed to see that, despite fixing my atrophied muscles, dying hadn’t fixed my shattered core.

My eyes widened when I realized that outside my universe I was as powerful as an early level four cultivator. To reach that point in a mere week was unheard of. Level four was when the benefits of cultivation started to become noticeable. At this rate I’d soon be multiple times stronger and tougher than the average human.

Inside my universe I was the equivalent of an early level seven cultivator. Which was impressive but nearly useless since none of my enemies were in my universe. Although it did present a new possibility. After transporting someone to my universe I wouldn’t necessarily have to wait for someone to help me kill them. If they weren’t too powerful I would be able to fight them myself.

Universe 1

Energy: 364,985

Passive Energy Gain: 88,696

Universe 2

Energy: 2,944,891

Passive Energy Gain: -294

After clicking to see the details of my universe I couldn’t help but grimace a bit as I saw the negative passive energy gain for my second universe. It was because I had turned on the environment in the universe. I also didn’t have anything that produced oxygen in that universe. So one energy was required for every ten thousand energy inside the universe. Still the amount of energy I was gaining from being in the dryad grove far outstripped this.

“It looks like I gained nearly three million energy from that fight.” I finally said answering Emma’s question.

“Is that enough for all of us to fit inside?” Emma asked.

I shook my head. “It’s a good start but I think it’s only around half what we need.” I said.

“Give me a few minutes and we will attack them again.” Elder Yui said from where he was lying.

“Are you sure that’s a smart idea? You came fairly close to being killed this time.” I said.

“During my life I’ve come closer. I’m not going to risk clan Hill coming up with some clever idea in the next few days. Besides, if I die you will have plenty of space for my family.” Elder Yui answered.

Elder Yui’s wife smacked him slightly. “Enough of that talk. We still have a few decades left before either of us die of old age. We have survived far too long for you to be talking about dying in battle now.”

I couldn’t help but smile a bit when I heard her. Clearly despite being a monster she loved her husband. It made me wonder if humans in this world just misunderstood the monsters around them. Just because they looked different and acted different didn’t mean they were evil. Even the brown drake didn’t seem evil to me. The drake had attacked clan Ashton because they were paid to do it. Not simply because they enjoyed slaughtering humans.