Leading A Cultivation Group

Whiste~, whoooosh whoosh futomp.

As if waiting just for this moment but at the same time not, sect master Yolin and sect master Farno's swans appeared in the distance, first as a dot that the Obsidiafying realm cultivators already around could distinguish belonged to a pair of Obsidiafying realm peak experts but not to whom exactly. Yet, when they got closer, it was sect master Holoriu's face changing for the better, which made things seem suddenly better.

Fwah~, fwah~.

After arriving close enough, both of them came off their swans, and looked at the upper echelons above the port, which was no longer even the remnants of a construction. Sect master Yolin even looked around with wrinkled eyebrows, as if she couldn’t believe that all of his efforts could be given up just like that, without even letting one single spot or little space be left undestroyed.

“Sect master Yolin,” seeing them float closer and closer, sect master Holoriu greeted them while wearing a kind of victorious smile. “You were finally here, did you somehow manage to catch that Ciemnosc, or failed to do so somehow?”

“...” The sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect said words that were rather ambiguous, but his tone was pretty much respectable. But even then, sect master Yolin had her pair of wrinkled eyebrows as she opened her lithe lips to speak coldly and straight up. “I did somehow manage to find that Ciemnosc, but I was stopped by your sect’s grand elder Jing Zhu, and I and sect master Farno were forced to leave.”

“What occurred here? To think that a single person was capable of doing all these incredible things, like for example building ‘large’ outposts to stop any and all enemy advances, a stronghold for safekeeping the future port, and a port that was almost long enough to reach out to the other shore and allow for anyone from both sides to use it indiscriminately and from such section at the most shallow parts of the Little Lake at that.”

“Yet, it got all wasted in the mere passing of a few days. Did something else happen? Because… I can’t even see the so-called glorious stronghold that could even rival a city holding so many inhabitants at the same time. I only see a dead land.” Sect master Yolin finished speaking, and by then, the elders and acting elders of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect were with their heads low and their minds… not at ease.

“There is also the gigantic problem of letting Ciemnosc not only leave, but live with his cultivation intact. We should’ve at least cut a limb or two off his body. But now…” Sect master Farno added, feeling very well inside his head that sect master Yolin, who looked up ahead to sect master Holoriu and at the rubble of the glorious buildings that took so much time and ended up taking too many lives as well, was now to glare at him inside her own mind.

“But now, he will have all the time in the world to cultivate, and in a few years, he might very well be capable of contending against us as a Conflagrate realm cultivator.” Sect master Farno was now the one to finish his words, with everyone around understanding every bit of his words and falling silent. How could nobody notice what kind of precarious thing was to leave loose ends?

“I agree that it is a problem we cannot simply let it be, but sect master Farno didn’t have to make it sound like that,” sect master Holoriu stood straighter up, gazing at the former while starting to give a speech to everyone, who was around.

“Everyone, I assure you that even if Ciemnosc can still somehow rival Conflagrate realm cultivators now, that will be his utmost.” Sect master Holoriu looked at some elders and elder-like position cultivators looking around and at himself with some light understanding flashing into their eyes. “Though his cultivation method might be the first in all of our history, remember how just over a year ago there were people from outside our knowledge coming here.”

“Back then, none of us were capable of even understanding their cultivation realms, nor how deep into the next realm they were. But with Ciemnosc’s understanding, we can understand it and find out the way to reach it.” Sect master Holoriu continued, “As for Jing Zhu managing to step into that fantastical realm? You saw it yourselves, she wasn’t even able to stop us from rushing away to wherever we wanted. She was sick.”

“And as for Ciemnosc? Isn’t he just a kid?” Sect master Holoriu saw the expressions of those around him ease up, he felt really accomplished, except for 2 newcomers who seemed just not content with such. Floating closer and closer to sect master Yolin, he continued. “Though it may not seem like it, and even less now without talking about his appearance, let me remind you that he is only 11 years old still.”

“Hahahaha, that’s right…” - “Mhm! Indeed, how could we care about just a kid?” - “It would be weird if we were really scared off by a mere kid.” - “Just a kid, can’t reach the apex!”

“Exactly!” The sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect exclaimed, his eyes passing over sect master Yolin and sect master Farno’s faces before ignoring them momentarily. And focusing himself on the other elders and such. “For the Conflagrate realm, one’s blood is changed. For the Obsidiafying realm, one’s whole body is starting to change as well. There is nothing nor no one in this world capable of ignoring this marvelous step altogether.”

“Even if he somehow managed to conserve his prowess up to the Conflagrate realm, at most, he would be able to face off those several stages above his own and not a whole realm!” Sect master Holoriu’s words directly made all of their eyes open, light full of hope reaching their eyes and bathing their bodies with new vigor. “And then we catch him. We study his secrets for the better purpose of our world, imagine how we could progress once that is done!”

“That’s right!” - “Sect master is, as always, so wise.” - “Sect master Holoriu is ri-, always right!”

Sect master Holoriu, the Right one, spread his arms sideways a little bit and faced everyone now who was praising him endlessly, ignoring the narrowed eyes of his sect’s grand ancestor. And by the time he finished facing everyone a bit more, he finally turned around to face both sect masters. who was silent up until now.

“...” While sect master Yolin was coldly silent and without any emotion… at least of goodwill in her eyes, and sect master Farno was but silent and noncommittal, sect master Holoriu got even closer to the former and spoke while extending his left arm towards her as if he was extending his own heart out and not just his fleshy left arm.

“Sect master, Yolin, will you be so kind as to hear my next words?” He looked at her without any intention of letting a no spill out, but instead of responding, sect master Yolin lowered her eyebrows and looked back at him still. The form then began, “It’s been a tough few days, our major organizations are in somewhat of a turmoil, and I expect for all of our people to know who we are with and what we are together. But that seems impossible still, somehow.”

“What are you inten-” Sect master Yolin wanted to speak out something, or a few words at least, but sect master Holoriu continued by interrupting her. He looked at her sideways from the left corners of his eyes, and his voice had an ambitious tone, “Sect master Yolin, I have been thinking of a marriag-”

“Our sects’ Helala and Niloi had already been married off to each other within my sect, and setting a new tradition within our sect, it has already been decided that our Eagerburning Flames Sect will be the one holding the pair of lovely… birds. Miss Helala had already accepted, and she has also been rather glad to remain within our sect for as long as it is needed in this new tradition of our sect.”

“Mm, maybe we should make this all a tradition of all the major organizations, or the whole cultivation world for that matter, ahahahah~...” Sect master Farno finished by laughing contently and showing off how smug he felt. And while sect master Holoriu felt ‘betrayed’ by this marriage that seemed to suddenly have happened, and already for that matter, he still laughed and added a few words of his own to the matter at hand. “Hahaha, yes yes. But, sect master Farno, between disciples and sect m-”

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“Additionally, seeing the happiness that her disciple had with one of our sects’ disciples, I have decided to take this time to propose to sect master Yolin, who has accepted and whose wedding will be secretive for both our sects’ sake. But I still hope everyone here can come to visit us at the pre-wedding banquets in order to further cooperate with each other. It’s just a pity that I won’t keep the beauty away from work, haha!”

“...” Sect master Holoriu went silent, while sect master Yolin hid a pair of thankful eyes, and, sect master Farno just had a great facial expression that made him seem as if the toad had already eaten meat.

“...” And feeling his help once again, sect master Yolin’s mind went back to when her neck was taken a bit from, resisting the urge to rub her neck tenderly as if something had happened to it before, and whatever it was, she couldn’t stop thinking about it from time to time.

“Well, this…” Suddenly, sect master Holoriu no longer talked about marriage and changed to a seemingly unimportant matter altogether. “Sect master Yolin, I forgot to ask before but… how exactly were you 2 forced to retreat when you met Jing Zhu?”

“...” Sect master Yolin coldly looked at sect master Holoriu for 3 seconds before she had the will to answer him as if she was saying something notoriously obvious and stupid to an even more idiotic person. “We first found Ciemnosc and were about to have our hands on him, sure. But then your sect’s grand elder Jing Zhu appeared, easily holding us back and only attacking us once the boy was far away.”

“We sustained heavy injuries, despite being the sect masters of our respective major organizations, and that was even as your grand elder no longer bothered with us, no longer chased us down only because of the fact that she seemed more anxious about something else.”

“It was then that we heard fighting far away, and knowing that we were still so close to the boy, we wanted to once again reunite with you if possible or whoever was nearby. Then fight the grand elder and finally catch the boy.” Sect master Yolin said, emphasizing her ‘grand elder’ words over and over again, with sect master Holoriu’s mouth twitching each time.

“We were already able to see not only your sect’s grand elder Jing Zhu fighting a lot of you, now the little of you, from a distance. But just as we wanted to ignore our severe injuries and join in the fray when we were suddenly swept backwards by an impossibly strong blast. Then a stronger and more explosive blast came to be, and we saw you all getting engulfed by it. It was terrifying.” Sect master Yolin spoke at last and finished her little exposition, but her eyes were as if lost in the past from that moment.

“...” - “...” Her words also made the others fall silent. How could they now know how terrifying it was? Not only did they, Obsidiafying realm cultivators fail to protect themselves, they even lost all kinds of capabilities to use Spirit Sense and too much Power Energy. And even when they made use of the latter, their whole bodies hurt and bleeding from the inside, leading to not being able to altogether use the Rychly Transporting Formation Array anymore and taking more time than necessary in order to come all the way over here at the Little Lake.

The Little Lake is like a forbidden fruit for the Obsidiafying realm cultivators and used to be the most recent glory of not only a major organization but the strongest of them through all times. Yet now was, as it could clearly be seen, turned into a mere and pathetic sight of destruction where not even a ship could be seen sailing around. It was all for nothing and naught as everything returned back to how it was a year ago…

“Oh right, you were talking about grand elder Jing Zhu being sick or something? What was that about, and what was that about Jing Zhu having accomplished something that none of y-” Sect master Yolin suddenly mentioned and began to add, words from her mouth as well as salt into their wounds, but while sect master Holoriu was visibly tired from hiding his rage, grand ancestor Xing Kei spoke out at this time; so timely.

“A- au- uh- ah, there’s no need to speak about that.” Grand ancestor continued, “Since it has all been a failure, and the things ‘we’ve’ accomplished here have all been wasted, gone to nothing, then we better turn back and recuperate as soon as possible. Who knows, this might be our chance to peek into the next realm, this experience could be said to have turned into a fortune which might be the most valuable since time immemorial.”

His voice was serene and as if calm, completely unlike what his current appearance of being held up by a few elders and acting elders would indicate, but they also had an undetectable hidden tiredness to the sensitive ears and mind of sect master Yolin. As she also felt grief and, looking around, he didn’t see elder Tin anywhere; while a certain ancestor was directly disposed of by a certain boy.

“Yes, let’s.” Sect master Yolin followed up with grand ancestor Xing Kei’s words, finally waking sect master Holoriu up, who said nothing, turned around, and began to move in the air like the others. Everyone was attracted to sect master Yolin at this time, however, except for Farno, as her voice had turned so soft and even… delicate for just then in those couple of words.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh… whistle~.

While the upper echelons of the Moribund Yearning Cult and of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect began to move on their own, the ones with the highest status among them being too haughty and ‘proud’ to ask for another’s mount. Both sect masters that came alone on their own directly zoomed in the distance with their pair of sibling swans disappearing into the east of the Region.

***

Days passed, and on the ‘true west’ of the Region, west of the already western Little Lake, a fat ‘snake’ was moving around the entire ‘true west’.

Right now, it was the afternoon, and like days before, the convoy following a single vehicle could be seen together and slowly making their way deeper and deeper into the snow of the ‘true west’. As it was already a common thing, the vehicle in question was the commanding vehicle, and the ‘convoy’ was simply less than half a million disciples and believers from the Region’s 4 major organizations.

The former was just Ciemnosc moving at their pace of running forwards, while the latter was tirelessly running at the back of his commanding vehicle, not letting him run and always sending a few hundred of their own back towards the ‘east’ where they would be all set to simply inform their major organizations.

It was noticeably strange that some of those who were lucky enough to step into the Conflagrate realm all of a sudden in one of the breaks disappeared from their sights the next day after breaking through, so hundreds of disciples and believers were sent back in order to ensure that there wouldn’t be mishaps, and some other stuff when they were on their way back to indicate if their path was suddenly cut off or worse - stopped immediately only to be discovered by the next group.

For that matter, Ciemnosc was also wondering why it was happening and who was competing with him in who can kidnap more Conflagrate realm cultivators. He was confused as to why it was happening but also frustrated that someone was stealing his ‘doping’ and nice meals.

When Ciemnosc started letting those at the back feel the hope of getting close to him, to his commanding vehicle with a maximum range distance of about 100 meters, otherwise the ‘trespassers’ were bombarded to death - only one shot per trespasser. He ended up noticing the relentlessness of his pursuers, they thought they had a chance without knowing they were hopeless, but they still tried, and that made them so cute.

Ciemnosc was even planning to see if he could turn them into his slaves instead; he didn’t know how he was knowing and feeling this, but he recognized that they were easily corruptible, and that seemed to make good enough for him to use.

However, the thought changed when after a couple of days of running, taking a break of a few hours Ciemnosc stopped with them to their utter shock and disbelief, sometimes simulating repairing the wheels and sometimes just not even giving a fuck. Suddenly, one of the Spirit Gathering 10th stage cultivators broke through into the Conflagrate realm!

Ciemnosc couldn’t have felt it when the cultivator broke through as the cultivator in question was too far away, and he shouldn’t even if that cultivator was within his Spirit Sense’s range, but he was Ciemnosc and natural laws and usual stuff would of course not work with him whatsoever.

But Ciemnosc was still able to tell when the cultivator entered into the Conflagrate realm, a kind of familiar scent, that of a very nice blood permeated in the air a little bit, with Ciemnosc even seeing ‘it’ in the air and spreading about everywhere as clearly as he could see the bright and dark deep blue sky and the bright and dull snow white.

After a few more days, Ciemnosc was now used to finding like 1 or 2 brand new Conflagrate realm cultivators who had recently broken through and kidnapping them, some even sending themselves into his mouth- no, his 100 meters ‘safe area’ and ‘warning’ area, not getting shot but getting robbed of their freedom as soon as they got close and Ciemnosc did as much as to cordially let the intruder in and take a seat… on his table, in pieces.

But it wasn’t just Spirit Gathering realm ‘geniuses’ getting to break through into the Conflagrate realm. It was also Link Consolidation realm and Phrenic realm cultivators, all, who were seemingly finding what they needed to break through several stages to even into the next realm for those who were at the peak of their respective realm already long before this ‘march’.

They all began finding consolidation on possibly wasting their lives on either an unreachable villain or an overpowered monster by running, recuperating by cultivating, and then running again. By the end of the days that have gone by like this, they were no longer begrudgingly following Ciemnosc like in the first place and even competed to be the fastest ones with Ciemnosc having to accelerate a little bit every next day with there no longer even being that many Link Consolidation realm cultivators after a certain point.

Ciemnosc, the Rearer of Livestock.

However, it wasn’t just them who were capable of breaking through several stages or breaking into the next realm. Ciemnosc had reached the 3rd stage of the Spirit Gathering realm by the time he finished his meals and used a couple more Supreme Powerful Stones.

There was just something about the meat and organs and all other gory stuff that a living being had that a stone wouldn’t. But Ciemnosc still made a lot of use of those Supreme Powerful Stones to get that dark Power Energy filling up and becoming bloated once again.

Now, he was just a Spirit Gathering realm…

…