Strong, But Not That Strong

Whoosh, whoosh whoosh

"CIEMNOOOOOSC!!!" From the sky, as Ciemnosc could see Pu Lianter already with the vision of an ordinary person being so close to him, first came the sound of a whooshing pelican going through the air, tired but sharing its owner's feelings as it looked down at Ciemnosc with all the hate in the world. Ciemnosc merely playfully jumped his eyebrows at the pelican, who then somewhat slowed down, prompting Pu Lianter to separate from her pelican as she was too damn impatient to turn this little shit's head into a meat paste!

Getting away from her pelican, the pelican in question still maintained its flight and moved directly towards Ciemnosc, but notoriously slower than even Pu Lianter, who was much slower than itself. On the other hand, Pu Lianter took out a long hammer. ts shaft was long but thin, while the 2 sides of its head were square, its ends were flat; smooth.

“?!” Just as she was getting ready to pulverize Ciemnosc’s head with just this Mortal hammer of hers, as it shone with steel-like powerful dull silver, she suddenly noticed that Ciemnosc’s cultivation had grown and discovered that upon a further quick study that they had crossed through into the Spirit Gathering realm!

“Have you broken through?” Pu Lianter’s body was still rushing forwards at Ciemnosc. Though her speed at flying was notoriously slower than her speed on the ground, just running and directly speeding with her legs doing the work against the ground. While she appeared surprised at first, though, just a second later, she opened her azure-white eyes fully showing madness as she crazily screamed almost in a really high pitch. “So what?! Ahahahaha! Just the 1st stage, Ciemnosc you are still dead to me! Die under me, you little prick!!”

Whoosh~, fwuaop.

Pu Lianter reached up to Ciemnosc, and as Ciemnosc saw her body coming closer and closer, his body nerved to get into action, the sensation from eating a Conflagrate realm cultivator still in his mouth as he looked at the approaching chunk of Power Energy and the delicious meal following it as if coming in pairs.

“DIEE!! WUGAHAHAHAWEEY!” Pu Lianter didn’t even care that her pale-blonde hair looked witch-like, disarranged, and felt like it had been smeared on dirt and many other filthy substances. Fortunately, for Ciemnosc, she came all alone on her own towards himself.

And then… then came the scene that would make, really… the world become all too shockingly shocked, even to death!!

Fwump- … - … - … - … Bwang~!~!~!~! WHOOOSH.

The hammer came at Ciemnosc, the swing was really well made, and Ciemnosc could only think that if this sect’s ancestor wasn’t a complete debauchee, she would probably become one of the cornerstones of the entire sect for 2,000 years to come as she was still too young for an ancestor or even an acting elder.

But as if time had stopped altogether, right there and at the moment that the hammer was skillfully swung from far away all the way up to here by Pu Lianter, its double head, double the weight about to connect with Ciemnosc’s left cheek. Ciemnosc instead made one soundless step backwards and, with his pure physical strength, his 16,000 kg erupted all at once without the use of his dark Power Energy to meet head on the incoming hammerhead.

And so, like the stopping of time, both Ciemnosc and Pu Lianter could look at each other. But it was the latter who had a kind of awful sensation, a feeling of a bad premonition, one that crept from her spine to her arms and then to her shoulders. In specific as she looked at Ciemnosc only to use his arm to ‘block’ her attack futilely, she wondered how could she have erred in the distance and timing of her swing. It was her right shoulder that suddenly felt worse than death.

While her bones were cracking before she could even notice her shoulder tearing apart and flesh already streaking out in bursts from a few different angles, she saw one of her hammer’s heads connect with Ciemnosc’s forearm. And in the next moment, it seemed to have skin instead of metal and to ripple countless times while waves and ripples of what could be space or just air around them went off where metal and actual skin connected; that still slightly pale skin.

Wnem right when she noticed her bones being broken, the breaking about to spread to her ribcage, she was deafened instead by the noise that her hammer, which was being forced backwards in an unstoppable bounce back, was making while the metal of the hammerheads themselves began separating layer by layer.

The sound was consistent, and it wasn’t that loud in truth, it was the proximity that endangered Pu Lianter’s senses. As she was too close to the rippling of a Mortal grade weapon, she was basically sharing the hit of that powerful weapon’s soundwaves drilling into not only her ears but also her pores. And with the Power Energy she employed within, which was her all, for she had no composure whatsoever this whole time, it was even more catastrophic for her.

And then, then came the return of time as if it had always been fine and she was just witnessing the last few moments of her life. But she was still fine even if her ears felt like they were going to be ripped off by mere soundwaves alone, she was still alive!

Yet, as her body flew away, backwards and was seemingly going to give her a break from this impossible situation which she could not believe still. She felt her neck being grabbed, and as she did, Ciemnosc felt his left hand which was more than fine; trembling.

As he had just broken through and had just been finishing the analysis of his body and cultivation, he was trying to really carefully strangle Pu Lianter, trying not to break her bones right away.

And as Ciemnosc held her neck with his left hand, the same arm that he used to block a full out attack from this ancestor at the Conflagrate realm 8th stage, he found it more than easy to control his strength. It wasn’t like the first time where he even broke a few of his top notch quality swords and blades back then, at that sect. He easily felt the gulping down from her throat, and her fear as it shook and nervously reacted to his strong hand gripping her.

Fwu- rustle.

As she was speechless, wordless, and basically gone retard for the moment; Ciemnosc pulled her towards him, his clothes and her clothes meeting each other as Ciemnosc smiled invigoratingly. He looked at her face to face, making her all the more afraid as she looked at his handsome, charming self but now with a clinging to the bizarreness of her current self.

“Did you know that…” Then, without showing any signs, Ciemnosc moved his mouth to her left ear while her right shoulder was all gone, and even part of her right ribs were cracked up. Whispering into her ears, sending his Spirit Sense into her Covert Space bag and making her realize he got a hold of her Identification Token just like that. “Even when I was just at the Link Consolidation realm, before entering into the Phrenic realm… I was already unharmed when I tried cutting my flesh with a Mortal sword?”

“I couldn’t use any Power Energy, but since then, I am even capable of resisting such powerful weapons?” Ciemnosc finished his calm and quiet whispering into her ear, and with the strong will— more or less —that Pu Lianter had, she was enduring all of her pain coming from her gone right shoulder and almost broken right ribs; all she could do was to gulp down and down with his hand even complicating that simple process… all while her pupils shrank and shrank furthermore.

“What do you think I am capable of doing now? Oh, I’ll spare you the details. I can just crush you like this.”

Craack-.

Ciemnosc tightened his grip on her neck. It suddenly made all of Pu Lianter’s lower body go limp. Her azure-white eyes looked at the sky thinking she was now dead, but feeling herself still moving, she looked back down towards Ciemnosc and saw his darkest eyes looking back at her without any expression and lifeless tilting his head to the left.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“... n- no… mn- m… n…” She tried struggling. Just to speak and just to breathe more and more, and that made her already beautiful self seem panicky and pitiful, making it all even more tragic and tempting to witness. But in Ciemnosc’s eyes, he didn’t even need to think of all the previous deaths he’s witnessed; that he himself has caused. In those eyes, Pu Lianter saw her life being devoured away. Everything began to darken then.

Little by little, her eyes began to be covered by some darkness that seemed to surround the middle of her sight. Which were exactly Ciemnosc’s eyes. Those darkest pools that even light and life were afraid to meet, and even more than that, that were consumed even if they just lightly scratched over them by a tiny little bit.

In the end, all that was left for her to see was darkness, and in that darkness, all she saw was not a single expression and only ultimate coldness from Ciemnosc’s eyes. She at the very end of her life, realized that they were of the same ‘color’... of the same nature… as that of those pair of darkest pool-like eyes.

‘... Guess it’s time for a meal.’ Ciemnosc thought, looking at Pu Lianter’s corpse as she finally lost all focus and gleam from her eyes, they became a simple circular azure and white combination of colors in the sclera that was paler than dead. And before taking a look at the pelican that was sorrowfully crying out in the sky while diving towards him, he also thought, ‘Hm, that felt funny. How did I do that?’

Smirking, Ciemnosc looked up at the pelican and was just about to take his whip out and see for himself how long it could grow to be, he was really itching to see his ‘innate abilities’ now that he has improved this much.

…whistle…

But, just when Ciemnosc was motioning his hand in a gesture of using a whip in and of itself, he heard a sound that reminded him… of something.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh, whistle!

‘Rychly Transporting Formation Array?!’ Ciemnosc’s eyes widened in an unbelievable shock! This was just the same thing he experienced back then, as he was being brought into the sect for the first time by the then grand elder Jing Zhu!

However, Ciemnosc was not feeling happy, and there was one single little reason why, and that was: he didn’t believe he was getting saved by someone. Not now, not before in those days of ‘intimate’ deaths, and not in the future for what could wait for him.

Chiiiirp~!

The pelican became scared as well as it looked in the same direction that Ciemnosc suddenly looked at. But then, as soon as its head looked in that direction, it began chirping alarmingly and with gusto as if it couldn’t wait to be backed up by whatever might come to save itself from sure death. It looked down with hatred at Ciemnosc, but Ciemnosc had already stored Pu Lianter’s corpse in his Cover Space bags and even stole Pu Lianter of her own and had also already freed her Covert Space bag of the sect’s machinations.

And then, the next thing the pelican saw was Ciemnosc’s cold eyes simply glaring up at itself before throwing a thin sword towards it. Ciemnosc had moved rather simply. He simply took his Mortal sword from before that almost ruined itself by brainlessly poking his right eye, and then just threw it upwards without any technique, simply using… 16,000 whole kg of strength with his right arm!

And following right after its handle was a whip whose body was made out of a darkest, blackish substance that didn’t seem physical and was instead ethereal but was in truth all too physical. It was still 4 inches thick, but it was noticeably easier to enlarge as it easily went over 20 meters in a jiffy, grabbing the sword’s handle and pushing it forwards.

And in just a moment, it was barely felt by even Ciemnosc. But he could tell that this whip… was like his extension, also containing a strength of 16,000 kg… that could move just as if he was using his arm and even more impossibly flexible!

Phhshk! Chiirp!

With that kind of strength, any Conflagrate realm cultivator, even when employing incredibly, blatantly powerful defensive techniques or skills with their whole Power Energy would turn into meat paste wherever even a rock hit them, let alone a Mortal sword being the one object to target them!

The pelican at least had a moment to execute a very short and breathless tragic chirp, almost all of its torso had a hole, and no organs, bones, or even blood could be seen anywhere, for they had all been exploded to mush and were somewhere falling down the sky unto the ground. It didn’t even have lungs anymore, so it could only chirp for a second before its body limply also began to fall down the sky.

On the other hand, the Mortal sword had gone a further 7 meters upwards after penetrating through the pelican’s body. Stopping only before 40 meters which seemed to already put Ciemnosc at his limit, and only because of his whip that was grabbing onto its handle.

Otherwise, not even Ciemnosc could know in which kind of place would a destructible bombardment end up falling on, if the Mortal sword even lost the strength he used to keep on pushing it upwards and forwards at the same time with his whip and previously thrown with his arm. It was all a simple yet complicated show of his own might on its own.

‘...’ After dealing with the pelican, Ciemnosc quickly took the remains from Pu Lianter’s right shoulder, arm, and some of her ribs and also placed them in his Covert Space bags, in addition to Pu Lianter’s. If he was going to eat her later, might as well not leave any possible clues to any of his ‘hobbies’ in that case - it was not like he was fancy of playing cat and mouse with what could very well be the strongest people in this world!

“Stop right there!!” And sure the hell they were, as Ciemnosc heard the grand ancestor of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, grand ancestor Xing Kei, suddenly shout out, Ciemnosc immediately took to his feet and rushed towards his commanding vehicle while dexterously sending his whip over to the motorbike with it disappearing as soon as the whip touched it.

Now in his Covert Space bags, Ciemnosc felt relief inside his heart as he still had several meters before arriving at his commanding vehicle. He didn’t dare take his Identification Token out to aim at them with his cannons; he dare not underestimate the potential that a Rychly Transporting Formation Array could have.

But it was still too late…

Whistle~~, whoosh whoosh whoosh! Pahk! Whoosh!!

When a whistle came right for him, Ciemnosc had no chance to react at all! He immediately sensed one of those zooming from the distance separate from the large group of people already rushing towards him. Before the whistling sound of that cultivator’s Cloudless Eagle could end, Ciemnosc was already hearing the sound of its wings flapping all air against the ground and even harsher up in the air.

Before he could reach just 1 meter away from his commanding vehicle, Ciemnosc only had the chance to cover his whole body with his dark Power Energy before the incredibly fast-arriving palm slapped his head from the back, hitting part of his right ear and all over his skull, sending a huge piercing amount of pain directly into his senses.

His body flew about, and while his skull didn’t crack in the slightest, the force of that slap which wasn’t even at a full from that cultivator nor even at half of using his Power Energy, Ciemnosc still had the whole right side of his skull bloody and his right shoulder, ribs, and side of his hips become cracked by the remnants of that Power Energy before it was all eaten away by the dark Power Energy protecting his body from the invading Power Energy.

His dark Power Energy moved in a flurry, as if anxious and worried sick for the damage that this foreign, incredibly more powerful enemy Ciemnosc had ever faced almost began to assault his organs and not just his bones. But by the time such Power Energy was consumed away, Ciemnosc had a semi limp leg and a wholly limp right arm.

Without trying to waste any single moment even, Ciemnosc tried standing up, but all he amounted to was slowly push his body up from the large crater he made after rolling and rolling and finally bouncing off the ground before slamming against it in the next 2 seconds.

It all happened rather simply, but Ciemnosc never felt so hurt as the power within him was still present as he crashed, and right when he was feeling having some vigor and energy left, a foot stamped lightly on his back. Yet, that was enough for Ciemnosc to land with his chest back against the hardened dirt again, and it wasn’t without even really that much Power Energy being used by that cultivator once again.

Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy was disorderly, not out of control, but simply because he was just too hurt in about everywhere. His body at the very least, was already starting to really slowly regenerate, with the cultivator stomping against his back not realizing it as his words echoed all around Ciemnosc’s head.

“Hahahaha, you brainless, stupid, stupid kid!” Grand ancestor Xing Kei laughed it off rather maniacally, his foot stomping a little bit harder a few times before starting to send his Power Energy into a nosedive arrow from his left shin to the sole of his foot and right into Ciemnosc’s vertebral column, making him grit his teeth and then release them, dark fangs showing as his mouth cracked open so slightly with dark blood directly coming out of those cracks.

“HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHA HAH HAH!!” The mad Xing Kei yelled his madness out and continued with his eyes gloating over Ciemnosc’s deliciously painful reactions, not noticing anything else. “You will see, oh I will have so much fun with you and only when I’m done with you will th-”

FWUMP! POOWMP!

But suddenly, the grand ancestor stopped talking for no other reason other than the fact that an incredibly fast, faster blurry shadow passed over Ciemnosc’s back and tackled the fuck away Xing Kei’s body.

Tippp~-.

At the same time, a medicinal pill with the utterly utmost powerful medicinal scent of herbs and plants very well processed and refined emanated from its already exciting Ciemnosc from the inside.

Creeeee!

And to top it up, from right above where he was pushing his body up once more after eating that pill right away, a Cloudless Eagle’s cry resonated within his mind and heart. And this time, it was quite a familiar one.

…