Shabby Learning
Within the topmost private room, within the central building in the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect.
From the outside, it was like an incomplete castle, having no structural defenses and even less so towers around to protect it. It obviously didn't need such things. Nobody in their right mind would attempt assaulting some that are the only ones in the entire world at the Obsidiafying Realm, and everyone was afraid of the power that they couldn't see nor comprehend - such as arrays.
There were several buildings attached to one another, with the tallest and widest one in the middle. It had a great gate that seemed to be made of wood, 4 meters high and 10 meters wide. It was for a humanoid and for personnel uses only; its structure went up into the sky like a sharp pike, but even the topmost room above was quite spacious for even several dozen people to move around.
Right now, exactly in that topmost room, the very same most incredible cultivators and people in the world were reunited, naturally having such an important reason for it and not just because they decided to hang out.
“...That hag went to the water?” A male, wearing robes long enough and with obvious words indicating his status, elder of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect with an average appearance said, while others were already walking out in silence, and only he and 2 others remained around in the room.
“Hm. She acted fast, but we can also do the same. It’s been a long way to wrestle so much power from her, the cunning old woman, but we cannot let her stay too much.” A cold but beautiful woman that seemed to be stuck between being young and slightly old spoke out. She had pale-blonde hair color and azure-white eyes. A mesmerizing sight on its own without beauty already.
“...That’s why there should’ve been more ‘sentries’ around! Or else, this wouldn’t even happen! She’s playing hard, and this time it was thanks to Elder Tin that we didn’t end up letting her stay for more time!” The cold woman looked towards a certain man seated right beside the most honorable and luxurious-looking chair in the room, which was 99.99% empty of the times a meeting was held.
Everything around was gray, the walls, ceiling, and even the table and chair, but for cultivators who only spend some time in these sorts of rooms and then went back to either manage their own affairs or back to cultivate, it couldn’t be any less important. When one cultivated, one’s surroundings being beautiful didn’t help. It was the opposite, which was sometimes helpful for that matter.
Nevertheless, the man she spoke to wasn’t just any man, but one that, despite her longer robes than that of an elder which read ‘Ancestor’, she was still inferior to. The man had a fat face, almost bald-short hair with bulging muscles of dark-brown skin. What little he had of hair was black, and his eyes were brown, having bulging muscles and a height that already seemed very, very tall without even standing up.
“Ancestor Pu Lianter, for someone nearing the end of their lifespan, I advise you to focus on at least reaching the 10th stage of the Conflagrate Realm, or you might not live long enough to see ‘that hag’ being finished.” The man said, his voice just normal but with a most natural power within it. He didn’t stand up, but it looked as if he just did. The other 2 went silent right away.
“She might be more than 2,000 years old, nearing her end, but there are still hundreds of yeast left for her; in less than that amount, just over the last 150 years, she gained so many people under her we could barely move around without knowing how many of our men and women were reporting to her. And we could barely take more than half of that power away in just a little over a decade.”
“Elder Tin, you’re way too licentious, even lusting after your own Ancestor of the sect so openly! Even mortals out of the cultivation world know of your doings!” The man said towards the first one to have spoken. And then turned his head towards Pu Lianter to do the same, “Ancestor Pu, though you have taken ‘the same’ path as Grand Elder Jing of not having any partner, you wallow around with anybody you see when your urges don’t allow you to keep that gracefulness of yours.”
“You both better be deciding what you’re doing for the sect, right now!” The man almost stood up but maintained his body seated, then continued with a somber, serious tone. “Because it just so happens that I received a Fast-Alarming message back telling me that there are, in fact, members from the Light Preferential Justice Sect around the Little Lake.”
“Gasp…” - “!” Both Ancestors Pu and Elder Tin reacted, their faces a bit incredulous at the news, just not that incredulous due to obvious previous cases. Elder Tin, who had his lower back against the wall, stood up straight and away from them as he frowned a bit more. “That can’t be. The people of that sect are still weak. Could they be desperate for some reason? Or did they really think they could just ‘get in’ and take the beginning of Little Lake in a quick operation?”
“Mn, that’s right… Even that Yolin moron couldn’t fight one on one against our grand elder last time. What about their people who are mostly our disciples’ fav-” Ancestor Pu Lianter was getting out of hand, a smile of pure venom and cruelty showing up on her face, when the man still sitting down interrupted her. “As someone who isn’t even at the Obsidiafying Realm and is the Ancestor of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, you can’t talk about those who have cultivated to the peak of it!”
“Yes, Sect Master, please forgive me.” Ancestor Pu Lianter bowed and clasped her hand towards him, showing an acquiescing nature for once as the room fell into a bit more of order. Though it didn’t seem much, as it was indeed not much, the leadership of this sect master wasn’t for show and ‘flashy effects’ only.
“Go and begin arranging people to take over the Little Lake’s outposts again. We still have time before those other 2 realize what is going on again.” The sect master’s words astounded the 2 of them, with Ancestor Pu Lianter’s azure white eyes becoming as large as saucers, with Elder Tin asking in a tremblingly vigorous tone. “Does the sect matter mean, gulp…will we give it a go in this generation?”
“Ah, indeed. And, also send Grand Elder Jing towards the east or south, so she can stop them at any time they realize what went off to convince her sooner, I myself will go to either side to help take care of such. Their only way is to cross over our organization’s territory, so stopping them for a couple weeks shouldn’t be a problem. Grand Ancestor will take care of things for me while I’m gone.
“Yes, Sect Master! Haha, thank you, Sect Master, we will- we will get to it immediately!” - “We will get to it, then. Sect Master, thank you for this opportunity. We are truly honored the most.” Elder Tin’s words were followed by Ancestor Pu Lianter’s, who clasped and bowed deeply towards the man still seated before leaving the room in quickened steps - both of them with some urges to celebrate as well.
“...Sigh…” The sect master sighed it all out the moment he saw them go, his body leaning over his chair to look at the entrance then fell straight down on its back. The poor chair could only tremble before settling down due to his great raw bodily strength.
“Why did you not talk of the reason she moved right away, hastening not only hers but also everyone’s steps?” A voice seemed to come from above the sect master’s head but reverberated all across the meeting room, whose door suddenly but slowly closed altogether.
“Sigh, Grand Ancestor, the sect is so divided. Should I have known she was so against it, I would’ve never placed her in that position. Now…I’m afraid that even if you came out and gave all kinds of reasons for it, you wouldn’t be able to convince even her enemies within of making her step down. She and her views have become this…’much’.”
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“It’s true that it is indeed impossible to deny that…a collective group within the largest organization such as our own made it much stronger and solid in regard to the communication and relations with each other, but she shouldn’t have gotten such power, it should’ve been for us! She might not be a weak opponent, and no one can take her down according to the regulations, but she is just one person. We are a sect!”
The 2 of them then fell into silence, a really peaceful one. Their breathing was inaudible but very much still there the ‘Grand Ancestor’ even appeared to have a much more potent ‘mystery’ around himself than the second strongest man in the Sect, the Sect Master himself!
“...About that child,” the Grand Ancestor suddenly spoke, bringing the sect master’s attention right away as the formation, then continued with a dignified, ‘high’ tone. “How good is he? It said in the reports that his cognitive abilities were really interesting, so what about his physical strength? Would you like to test him? He also seems good at swordplay.”
“Ugh, just let him acclimate to the sect for a week or a couple of weeks at most. We don’t want any other ‘bright mind’ popping out of nowhere now. We can send him to some little jobs here and there to visualize and assess him, then we can train him all we want later on. Since she brought such a seed to the sect, then we must really take care of it, no? Heheh.”
“Hahaha-huhuh, what a good seed indeed… Your rat’s informant just relayed some information too. It said that the kid had a much more powerful Spirit Sense than the one given to himself by the Cordial Agreement Array. He has talent ‘everywhere’!” Grand Ancestor said, his last words getting higher as he exclaimed, while the sect master’s eyebrows jumped with tranquility instead.
“Hm, he may be good for missions then. The fun ones. Okay, let’s just send him to missions then, then he can be of use for the rest of the plans for the next couple of days, agh… It has been a bit much too peaceful for the last few years, hehm?” The sect master said before standing up, revealing a 2.38 meters tall body that would make any other tall and bulky fellas cower.
“Hm, a good seedling in the end, indeed.” The Grand Ancestor said before his voice and presence finally left the room, and to which the sect master seemed to notice and then left the room on his own feet, though.
. . .
In the Outer Sect Disciple’s enclave, within a certain room that was conveniently empty and had empty spots all around it, for some reason. With the sky gone dark in the deep blue night.
The buildings around were just like a semi poor motel. It had more than 2 floors though, as it went from the first floor at the ground level with a few steps leading to a platform half a meter tall. The dormitories where outer disciples slept and could safely cultivate had 7 floors each, and with about 500 rooms for each floor on each separate dormitory building, for a total of 1,000 disciples as each room had 2 beds.
Floors all around were of an orange-ish color, while walls, roofs, ceilings, and some floors in certain offices and other buildings that weren’t dormitories with the main color of a dull crimson, while support pillars, doors, windows, and furniture had an obscure brown color.
Right now, Ciemnosc was lying on his bed with his back feeling heavy enough that he ‘couldn’t’ move. His right foot was over the edge of his bed, falling a bit from it. The rest of his body was fully ‘safe’ on his bed though, and he was looking at the ceiling with his pair of eyes, not making any movement. A few large books in volume were below his right foot and in front of the lower end of the bed.
‘I spent more than 2 months to arrive at a city, but I have now been tossed around too many times that distance that I went through on my own in just 15 minutes, and I didn’t even need to do anything to have been brought here.’
‘My whole first organization, my first sect, was decimated, and everyone was killed. Didn’t even think about it, didn’t see it coming…’
‘...It’s so tiring to pretend to be like them haagghh…’ Ciemnosc tossed around a little in his bed. Right now, he tossed his body to lay on his right arm, his head feeling the weight of his change of pose as he became more comfortable. His lips fully relaxed, they protruded out, and he still looked on with his eyes fully open and awake.
‘Aaaahh! Being a child is so tiring and boring! Couldn’t I just have been born as an adult, 16 years old? And in the middle of a room hidden by the whole universe with a thousand beauties there to be with me? It would have been so much better! I could just be playing with them around and doing nothing else, aaah, I want to be an adult already!!’ Ciemnosc threw his one and only tantrum, finally looking like the child that he is, as he once again faced the ceiling.
‘...’ He no longer even felt the need, wants, and ability of even thinking, merely staring at his ceiling. His foot wasn’t even moving around, back and forth, or hitting the bed. He just simply laid there, totally dead-like and looking up with his eyes more than opened fully.
Knock knock knock!
“Hey, newbie! Get this fucking door opened. It’s time for you to pay for your fe-” A voice came from the outside of Ciemnosc’s room, prompting him to shake his head slightly just before the person outside had even knocked and to stand up, making harsh and sounding ‘stomp’ noises on his floor before opening the door, interrupting and startling a fatty outside with a rectangle-shaped body.
“Ehh? BULK-” The fatty couldn’t even cease being startled when he felt his chest sinking in. Ciemnosc had lifted his left foot to plant it on the fatty’s sternum from his solar plexus to almost his collarbone. And because Ciemnosc didn’t want to kill or cripple, he had to take some actual time to slowly let his raw strength create ‘harmless’ inertia to push the fatty…more than a hundred meters away.
Whooooosh~... THUD.
‘What the hell is wrong with those around here. This is already the 11th time, just leave me and let me have some FUCKING time for myself, pieces of feces…’ Ciemnosc sat on his bed, his eyes wide open and his hands having ruffled through his hair, now stagnant. He had his feet on the orange-ish wooden floor now. He looked to his left at the brand new books that ‘someone’ donated to him, and his eyes relaxed, becoming soft, calm…and ultimately cold.
Creak~~ bam!
The door to his room opened, and he walked out, leaving the book and his blades inside while the protective array surrounding his room was turned on with a command from his mind into the Identification Token in the left pocket of his brand new Outer Sect Disciple pants; because Ciemnosc had just barely found out he doesn’t like wearing robes.
Step step step step step.
His footsteps weren’t slow and were even quick. But those inside their rooms, not cultivating, and hence without the help of their protective array blocking most sound from the outside, they could hear a footstep with great impetus while it also contained traces of…what only some could distinguish as ‘killing intent’.
This little bit of sound-hiding method was a little something Ciemnosc had fun ‘creating’, just as he ended up having total manipulation over his whole raw strength. Ciemnosc could easily hide his ‘humanoid-like’ footsteps from any prey. And it was even more so for a person that could only use their ears to hear themselves fap just to show how many ‘important’ things they could do.
As Ciemnosc walked forth, he had already tilted his head to the right. But he didn’t stop walking towards the room of the one who ‘took him in’ warmly and even prepared gifts for him, all so nice and friendly as one would expect a huge sect to be.
Creak~...
“Huh? Oh, it is you, Ciemnosc.” Another person came out from the room of the one that took him in. Ciemnosc looked at this other person, and maintained silence. Ciemnosc’s eyes made this other person gulp twice in a row without him really noticing he even did so before finally speaking out, straightening his back and with a cordial smile on his face.
“...Mm, our mutual ‘friend’ here has been sent to…a certain frontline that might very well become active in no time.” Without having to even ask what, where, and who, Ciemnosc maintained his eyes on the young man before him, but he became a bit glad of knowing he wouldn’t have to see that frustration-inducing face anymore unlike what he thought.
“From now on, we can be talking to each other every now and then, if you know what I mean.” With obvious, but still hidden, meaning in his words, the young man said before lifting his left hand towards Ciemnosc for a handshake but receiving no response from the boy. He then grimaced a momentary smile before saying, “I’m Taldes, and Grand Elder has been sent to a rather harsh and problematic operation at somewhere called the ‘Little Lake’. But she made sure to let me know that I should tell you she will make time to reunite with you in 2 weeks. We are also looking forward to having a way to send you towards the Little Lake. But the place there is too much for a Spiritual Condensation Realm cultivator like you…”
Taldes spoke, and Ciemnosc listened, his eyebrows making a tiny little jump when hearing about the whereabouts of Jing Zhu.
…