After leaving Ying and Bing's wedding party, Runt sighed as he appeared back in the secret realm. Oh yeah, he had to risk his life for cultivation resources and the opportunity to be recognized by an ancient immortal to receive their inheritance. Geniuses and prodigies fought with everything they had to secure benefits for themselves. Lifelong grudges, avoidable deaths, and merciless slaughter reigned supreme inside this secret realm. As one of the only angels to successfully win the finals in the Grand Tournament, he was eligible to participate despite Runt’s relatively low cultivation.
The task they were given was to simply survive for a month inside the secret realm. The lingering spirits or whatever of the dead immortals would be watching alongside the elders of the Three Great Sects. Runt already met his fair share of ghosts in the second portion of the Grand Tournament. He just hoped one of these lingering spirits was nice enough to send something useful his way. As an orphan and former street rat, it wasn’t in his nature to pass up on handouts unless they screamed suspicious and danger.
Considering all these cultivators that were older than himself fighting with everything on the line, Runt had to assume that the inheritance rewards were pretty damn good. Not that he would go out fighting like a maniac like the rest of them because of it. If the inheritance were really important, Jing or his master would’ve told him to try. The only words he got were Hu Tao telling him to kick ass and have fun.
Runt decided to do the exact opposite and hide out in a cave. He spent the time practicing his ocarina and cultivating while everyone else fought to the death and looked for valuable resources. Since Runt was far below in term of cultivation to most of the people here, he thought it was stupid to go looking around to rob others for their loot. There was also the fact that as a member of Heaven’s Angels, resources were something he never lacked.
So, Runt got to peacefully cultivate and relax for the month-long event. Of course, it wasn’t without some interruptions. From time to time, some cultivators would come within range of his music. Most of the time he’d just subtly influence their minds into completely avoiding his cave and allowing them to go on their way. However, there were always people that didn’t take well to being gently persuaded for their own good.
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The Mad Tyrant felt his blood itch as he walked through the secret realm. As a 7th-stage Core Stage cultivator taught by the Bloody Sword Tyrant, there were few cultivators that could be considered his equal. He cared little for the inheritance rewards. No, the Mad Tyrant just wanted to feed his blade. He wanted to cut, slice, slash, and cleave until he died or his sword drowned from too much blood.
Now imagine the Mad Tyrant’s surprise when he heard music playing inside the secret realm. Gentle, peaceful, serene music that somehow felt like even the nearby area fell under its influence. Animals and beasts gently tolerated one another instead of acting like predators and prey as they should. Even the grass and trees looked like they were doing a small dance by swaying together in unison.
The Mad Tyrant felt something inside of him snap. This wasn’t right. This was completely wrong! There was no peace inside this secret realm. These beasts should be tearing each other apart! The grass and trees should be coated in blood or destroyed! What was going on here?!
‘You should ignore this place of wrongness.’
“Yes, I should... This place isn’t right at all.” The Mad Tyrant spoke to himself.
‘It would be more fun to go north.’
“North. North. North? Isn’t that ice bitch up there? It would be fun coating my blade in her blood.” The Mad Tyrant agreed. He began to walk north.
As he walked away, something inside his body boiled in a furious rage. Disgusting blood-heavy qi exploded from the Mad Tyrant’s body as he looked toward the dark cave. In an instant, his sword was in his hand, and his body was rushing toward the cave. Lost in his fury and rage at nearly being manipulated and controlled, the Mad Tyrant didn’t notice the music shift dramatically.
It was no longer peaceful and now somber in tone. The Mad Tyrant felt as if his body was covered in weights, and it was difficult to move. Then he suddenly sensed two figures attempting to ambush him as he entered the cave! One from above and one from the side.
The Mad Tyrant laughed as he used his qi to counteract the strange technique slowing him down and waved his sword to combat the ambushers. ‘Neck and heart.’ The Mad Tyrant felt his blood talk to him. His senses closely inspected the two from the smallest of twitches of their muscles to the direction of their eyes.
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They were targeting his neck and heart! The Mad Tyrant quickly slashed out with his bloody blade, sending the two flying away. The one above him recovered by kicking off the roof of the cave while the other dug its claws into the ground beneath to slow its speed. ‘Upper body, no specific body part in mind.’
His blade burst with blood qi as he sent a flying slash toward the incoming vermin. The thing shaped in the form of a human was split down the middle by his attack, unable to resist in the slightest. The Mad Tyrant expected to feel a splash of blood coat his face and torso but was confused and disappointed to realize nothing had come. ‘Left lung.’
Without even turning around, the Mad Tyrant blocked the incoming attack aimed directly at his left lung with his blade over his shoulder. He leaned his head back and stared directly into the eyes of the strange creature with a smile on his face. “I’m coming to kill your creator too. Just wait for me.” With a quick turnaround, the Mad Tyrant skillfully dispatched the second creature through superior swordplay and made his way deeper into the cave.
‘Forehead.’ His blood told him.
The Mad Tyrant smirked as he swayed his head to the side. He couldn’t wait until his blade drained this fool’s blood. A mad smile was plastered over the Mad Tyrant’s face as his blood, and internal organs went splattering out of his chest. His walk abruptly stopped as confusion quickly took hold of his very being.
“???” There was a visible hole where the Mad Tyrant’s heart used to be.
Now it was beating uselessly on the ground behind him. The Mad Tyrant tried to mouth some words, but no sound came as a figure revealed itself in front of him. Pink hair, small size, and a look of annoyance. As the Mad Tyrant was about to meet his end, it wasn’t his killer’s age, looks, or cultivation stage that stuck to him. It was that look on his face.
As if the killing of the Mad Tyrant was nothing more than successfully killing a fly. A once-in-a-thousand-years genius like himself is just a bother for this kid, huh? With the last of his strength, the Mad Tyrant roared out with all of his power as he attempted to activate his qi domain. ‘Give up.’ That voice spoke to him again.
‘Oh, it was the kid all along... I was being controlled like a puppet on a string...’ The Mad Tyrant realized the truth as everything turned dark.
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“Couldn’t just go about your way, could you?” Runt sighed.
With that dealt with, Runt created two clones from his master’s technique that clawed their way out from his shadow and dealt with the corpse. Runt found himself with an unexpected windfall after his clones gave him the storage ring of that guy. He was pretty important if he had goodies like this on him. Well, now that he was dead, it would be better if Runt put these valuable resources to good use for himself.
“Little Bro! Come on, it’s time to get our inheritance!” Jue shouted from outside the cave, slightly startling Runt.
“Alright.” Runt projected his voice with qi, so he didn’t have to yell back.
The only two members of Heaven’s Angels made their way out of the blood-soaked secret realm in good health and far richer than when they went inside. Of course, Jue was covered head to toe in blood while Runt had not a spot of dirt on him. This prompted many looks from others who managed to survive. Elders of the Golden Serpent Sect didn’t show looks of approval or disapproval when looking in their direction.
All the survivors were gathered up in front of several giant rock monuments. They were then ordered to go up to whichever monument was called to them. They would know when they were being called.
“Don’t get complacent just because you survived and made it this far. There’s a possibility that none of the ancient immortals saw potential in you.” An elder announced before letting them go off.
“Do you feel anything?” Jue whispered to Runt.
“Not a thing.” Runt lazily looked over at the people shouting their life stories and goals in life to the lingering spirits.
“Should we do that too?” Jue suggested.
“If you want to. I’m not going to beg for whatever this inheritance is.” Runt felt sketchy about this inheritance thing in the first place.
Free martial arts, cultivation techniques, and sometimes even bloodlines just for being favored by a lingering old fossil? Sounds too good to be true. Runt felt that there were conditions to receiving an inheritance, and there was no refusing once you accepted. He was confident enough in his own power and friends. Give him enough time to learn under his master and others from Heaven’s Angels, and he’ll be a top prodigy in the continent in no time.
“Well, if you’re not going to, I'm not either!” Jue happily smiled.
Unfortunately for her, those words were enough to catch the attention of three ancient immortals. Cherry Blossom Empress, Earth-Shattering Fiend, and the Crazy Murderous Wanderer all lit up in response to her words. Three lights shined directly at Jue from three different directions. Runt frowned as he shielded his eyes in annoyance.
“Uh, what should I do?” Jue was caught off guard.
“What are they offering for their stuff?” Runt asked.
Jue reached out with her qi toward the lights and spent several moments staring off into the air. It was only when the scent of cherry blossoms and qi-manifested cherry blossoms exploded from Jue’s body that everyone knew which immortal she chose. Jue turned to Runt with hearts in her eyes. Runt felt an alarming sense of danger.
“Her only condition was that I live life for love and never let anyone stop me.”
Runt cursed Cherry Blossom Empress with all his being as Jue swept him up into a bone-crushing hug. He promised to find a way to exterminate the old fossil if it was the last thing he did. As long as he could survive a love-empowered Jue by then...