The Banquet

It wasn't something that Ciemnosc could deal with, not now nor soon in the future, it was even more so dangerous when he felt the same but in lower 'levels' than with grand ancestor Xing Kei from the other major organizations. Not as much, but still somewhere there without them trying to hide it even a little bit; as for the Preferential Light Justice Sect, they were more of a 'do what you must or we will'.

Hence, all that Ciemnosc had to and could do was to keep on creating. Keep on enhancing what he already had in his mind and practice; before anything could happen and that unknown did anything they wanted to him.

As a result, Ciemnosc commenced the ‘hidden’ creation of many quirky, especially needed as the core of creation and…new ones, as well. The new ones, which were naturally directly planned in Ciemnosc’s head and no one else, not even on paper, might be quite unique. But they were nowhere near what a Synergized Equatrend Mobilizer could o, like changing the whole world's mobilizations and trading as well as the most obvious daily life within the major sects’ or cult’s territory.

Still, it was something that he didn’t just create to make himself feel better. It was- or rather they were things that Ciemnosc deemed necessary and of vital importance. But whether he would use it anywhere he went to as of from now on or not was another matter altogether.

Naturally, Ciemnosc began to see Enaro more and more, who needed a couple of days after losing and being beaten up to an almost dying-like degree. Enaro was truly a genius, it was just that Ciemnosc himself was a perverted monster, that was all.

After just several weeks, he was able to create 3 Synergized Equatrend Mobilizers out of 12 attempts, and that was his best shot yet. He was still improving as Ciemnosc became much more seen around the mountain-rock building, even not stepping out of it with the towering Mosto always following him down, to which elder Apegos still shook his head to Enaro and didn’t let him in.

While Enaro would always practice the increase of his rate of success for the Synergized Equatrend Mobilizer, there was now the beginning of studies starting from his daily activities since he came back after healing up. But still, every time that he saw Ciemnosc doing things he couldn’t comprehend yet were pretty and rather obviously simple, he got all tense up and would work twice as hard.

Good for him though, elder Apegos began looking at Enaro in a much more lighter and favorable way, maybe especially so since this genius wasn’t a monstrous one like Ciemnosc who was doing already things that he also didn’t comprehend himself and could only tell that Ciemnosc was doing some simple, basic stuff for some ordinary stuff…

When it was close to the end of the 2nd week, Enaro finished his array formation studies, something that even elder Apegos was much slower to do. Though it was just the most ‘formal’ and ‘superficial’ levels of knowledge that one could attain. Still, it was a success in Enaro’s path to becoming a Craftspeople in the vocations of forging and array formations.

On the other hand, Ciemnosc wasn’t just creating perse, but also studying what was - first, already existent, and secondly what he was creating.

In some other words and shortening, Ciemnosc was now even reverse engineering the things that elder Apegos has taught him and the things he himself has been building with that knowledge… As well as his own things, which he had been creating on his own and continues to invent in his head to the knowledge and notice of just himself.

Because…even elder Apegos’s array formation that he was the proudest of, which could even contain the Obsidiafying realm cultivator’s Spirit Sense even if they were to use the Cordial Agreement Array… Had already been breached by this little boy just several weeks shy of being 11 years old. Of course, that was as well, without the old man’s knowledge.

And so, the image of a little boy sneaking in the basement and the small study when Enaro couldn’t hold it anymore and had to take a rest or get out of this seemingly self-imprisonment was birthed. The entire mountain-rock building was all for Ciemnosc to wander around and do as he wished to sneak around and begin destroying the works of what many ancestors of Craftsmanship had built as he reverse engineered them all without a heart nor conscience and even shook his head constantly as he was doing so.

Slowly, the day for the banquet that all of the sect’s territory had been preparing for arrived, and the millions of sect disciples were already prepared to go out and have a ‘city-large’ celebration prior to the end of the year. While in the central building of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, the true banquet and celebration and demonstration of their eagerness for the next year would be held.

. . .

Outer Sect Disciple enclave’s streets outside of its precincts. At about 8 PM, inside of his commanding vehicle armored car, lonely but already wearing a not humble at all tuxedo, that was a lady killed at the very least.

“...” Looking to the right where the enclave was with its gates wide open and yet no one was inside. But there were hundreds and hundreds of people walking on the sidewalks, some on foot towards somewhere and others towards the buses’ stops or directly waiting on a spot on the sidewalks for a car to arrive and bring them away.

Ciemnosc maintained silence, but he was naturally seen by many and recognized by them all, his legends of becoming so powerful out of nowhere and like never before seen were still there despite having spent almost 2 months completely away from the sect’s public news.

Holding onto his wheel, he looked at the front, his face expressionless as if he was just dead, his skin slightly pale still without growing any paler though.

The faces he received weren’t mostly admiration or worship as he had received before from the crowd that watched him kill so many of those above his stage and when he became an inner sect disciple. At best, they were surprised, curious, and intrigued. But most of them were just disdainful, showing refusal and isolationism…but all of them contained one very same expression no matter what…incredibility.

It wasn’t any difficult to know what was on their minds, merely thinking that it was all a show for him to become or actually because of being Valeria’s playtoy that he got a bunch of people, exactly a whole crowd of ten thousand people and even more to ‘cheer’ for him whenever a weak and paid off fellow disciple let themselves be killed.

It sounded so stupid, but…the people that believed in such, which was everyone, are all naturally stupid and helpless to believe whatever their asses make them believe no matter what; sometimes.

Well, there was also the reasoning that it was quite a surprise to see a little kid, or a teenager by the naked eye, driving a huge armored vehicle, it was that factor that drew all boys, girls, men, and women alike to become envious. Especially some girls, who thought: ‘Augh, why didn’t I wait for someone like him to appear to go to the prom with? Sigh sigh sigh…’.

Toc toc toc.

“??” Ciemnosc looked to his right with only his eyeballs moving, the awkwardness becoming obvious as he saw Taldes trying to peek his head towards the window on the right of the armored car’s co-driver’s seat. And before Ciemnosc could open the door with a mechanism and his wheels being integrated with his Power Energy, Taldes’s muffled voice came into his ears.

“Wait, don’t open it! Just the window, slide it down!” - “...” Acquiescing, Ciemnosc lowered just the window then. Whereas Taldes stopped jumping, and a soft ‘ah’ was sighed from outside the window before a rather thick pamphlet wrapped in brown hide was sent right from outside the window below.

Step, step, step, step, step…

Ciemnosc wordlessly stared at the pamphlet on the other seat, about a meter away from the driver’s seat, and heard Taldes’s steps as he sneaked away like nobody was watching him. Though Ciemnosc had to praise him, as he was sure that those footsteps were only heard by him, and that was because Taldes was originally so close to him already.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Crsh crshhh~.

Ciemnosc picked up the wrapped-up pamphlet, it didn’t only seem thick as Ciemnosc could tell it was quite heavy as if some kind of array was worked on it. Thus, with a smirk, Ciemnosc played puzzles with the wrapping for a few minutes, his hands like the monster and nightmare of all erasers-sensitive women out there with their equally sensitive bunnies, oh well.

Moving his hands all over the wrapping, Ciemnosc managed to ‘solve’ them all after almost half an hour, just barely past 20 minutes of playtime. Then, the wrapping unfolded on its own and revealed a simply thick, fat, and quite short pamphlet hidden in there. It had green on its edges and white all in the middle of it.

To Little Ciemnosc:

“I know you are disappointed, boy. I don’t even have much time to even write a few words. And as I write this, I’m taking days to write a few words every time that I expect weeks to fully pass by in order to write this letter to you, so place your whole attention on this.”

“The matter of the Preferential Light Justice Sect sending their elders towards me to kill without a stop. Naturally, is not real as I myself have been fabricating it with the aid of grand ancestor Pesela. We met on the very first night I arrived at the bordering defenses of our sect…”

“Ciemnosc, no matter what it is, do not fear showing it to the world; no matter what it is. As for your blueprints, Ciemnosc, you must never become paranoid. If one wishes to keep their things to themselves, their people to themselves, their ideas to their heads, and the achievements to oneself; one must not depend on simply that of relying on others never finding out about it or getting to study it. There are many ways in which one can protect what they have, depending on others being ignorant is the paranoid’s biggest mistake.”

“Show your blueprints, Ciemnosc, because I…can no longer protect you. You’ve seen I failed, I cannot leave this place for more than one reason now. Show them your worth, there’s nothing wrong with a few, or several, threats of you joining another side. You don’t owe them anything, and they can’t feel that way even if they attempt to drive you - it is in all of nature and they know they may very well lose their strength if they force themselves and you into that situation.”

“Trust your talent, trust your gut; trust your capabilities and trust only yourself, Ciemnosc. You can get…very lonely when you least expect it, I hope that you will be able to deal with it. And while it is true that I don’t know anything about you, I would’ve liked to have known about you, maybe it was just the times that I picked to meet you which were the worst…”

“But even though I cannot aid you, Ciemnosc, let me give you this little bit of knowledge that I came to understand when I least expected it. I want you to also know that even though I can protect you…if you need me, I will be there. Don’t feel attached to the sect, if you even did, I can’t tell now that the sect has changed too much over the last hundred years. For I no longer trust myself within this sect as well, Ciemnosc. I was thinking, if I were to dare build an organization in the future, in the west…will you follow me and help me right this world into a path of truthful cultivation and forms of life?”

Take care, Jing Zhu.

“...” Ciemnosc was frowning, reading through the last bits of what was not confirmed but could very well be the last letter or the last that Ciemnosc ever heard of this grand elder who had almost taken him in into this most powerful sect…filled with dirt all around its walls, streets, and brains.

But what he really frowned upon were the words of grand elder Jing Zhu. Those were some kind of words he hadn’t heard in so long, similar to beauty beauty’s. But somehow, the more a millisecond went by, the more Ciemnosc seemed to understand and even agree with such words as if they were all that could be right in this messy, snarkish world.

“Sigh~...” Feeling so tired of everything in particular, Ciemnosc then threw the pamphlet away, it burned the moment his Steel Array Snakes appeared and encompassed it, turning into ashes and forever-never existing ever again.

Turning the car on, the wheel was steered a bit and he rapidly zoomed in the distance, his destination being the central building from which the banquet started at 9 PM.

Trckrr…

…Arriving before the central building after a dozen minutes, Ciemnosc came out of his armored car. The instant he did, not many noticed him. But as he began walking on his own from the doors of a huge armored car of those new ones but so obviously much bigger and much more ‘tuned’, the attention he attracted was so large it was annoying.

“...Gaaaaasp-!” - “Is that the rumored ‘1 realm below yet still can beat you to death’ Ciemnosc?” - “Well, if he’s that handsome then no wonder she got him such a ‘reputation’, it really wasn’t for nothing.” - “Yeeaaah, now she can bang that while thinking of how ‘powerful’ he is and all that.” - “But, wow, damn! Does she like really young ones? That’s weird…” - “If it’s consens-” - “Oh my goood! So handsome! Hehe, do you think he’ll take a picture with me if I asked him??” - “Sheesh, I would bite that all he wants to be bitten if it wasn’t because I ain’t getting in trouble with the treasures of the sect, uh uh. I value my life before pleasure. Suit yourselves bitches.”

“...” Ciemnosc kept on walking. He took a snack that was a flat, salty piece of bread from his Covert Space bags and put it in his mouth. Biting hard at it as his numb skin slowly relaxed, and his right hand stopped looking so bloodthirsty and no longer continued becoming crooked from its fingers and the very palm’s bones.

Stepping into the central building, he was received by a couple of core disciples who were wearing a rather decent and even semi-elegant uniform of beige color with some pockets at their chests, quite fancy for a cultivator indeed.

They helped Ciemnosc get straight into the largest room in the central building, which was the already-known grand hall by Ciemnosc who had previously gotten there before being sent off to his port mission. At the same time, he was left alone once he got into the elevator. No Valeria nor Fu Lan were around to pick him up, as he also wasn’t expecting the grand elder to have sent someone to receive him or anything.

Crggrrhh~...

Ciemnosc’s left tiny claws, which were not even ⅓ of his pinky’s fingernails all over his 5 fingers came out, the elevator triggering this side of Ciemnosc as he could only let himself loose and scratch a few places here and there while the poor elevator made its way up.

When Ciemnosc was close to arriving at the grand hall’s floor, he stopped scratching around, his heart pounding as if he was a normal teenager on his first time with the pure and innocent girl, getting inside the paradise only to realize the expertly hugging and tightening of the walls made of flesh, and the lack of blood or feeling ‘it’ being broken through.

In any case, instead of thumping harder in jealousy, Ciemnosc took out a spray and sprayed its contents all over the elevator, as a ‘small’ place for his feline-like scratching having become ‘all’ of the elevator. Leaving the elevator’s interiors not perfect but at least mostly hidden from his ‘naughty’ habits, the doors of the elevator opened, and a Ciemnosc accommodating his tuxedo’s neck was visible for all of those inside the grand hall, becoming interested in knowing which exemplary person had now arrived.

“Oooh, my~.” - “He doesn’t look that much.” - “It’s interesting. This is the rumored kid?” - “Oh, the treasure!” - “His cultivation level is too low! I can’t believe it! The sect must be faking it for him somehow…”

“...” Ciemnosc looked at the crowd outside the elevator for a few seconds before cocking his head to the right with a ‘whatever’ smile, shrugged his shoulders, and then walked out of the elevator before it was dragged all the way down once again. Though that was to take some time as the grand hall was almost full, and it was already past 9 PM.

Step, step, step.

As he walked, Ciemnosc kept on feeling glares on his back and sides, and saw so many men and women of all ages looking at him with side eyes and directly, sometimes for long periods of time, for just a second or a few and some others without even taking their eyes away from him, thirsting with all kinds of intensity that made Ciemnosc feel ants crawling all over his back to the middle of his nape.

It was as if they all became overly obsessed with him the moment he was just seen as if he had something to give to everyone in here, something that he was hiding and that should be theirs…

“...” Looking around, talking to nobody even as some winked or gracefully smiled at him, Ciemnosc noticed that everyone in here were mostly…advanced cultivators, with the lowest among them being at the or close to the peak of the Spirit Gathering realm and from all of the 4 major organizations.

The entire grand hall wasn’t decorated nor given an extra something. There was just the addition of the people within it that almost filled it up made the grand hall look a bit more beautiful, and that was all. They were cultivators. After all, beauty wasn’t going to give them a rise in their cultivation nor help them achieve the next realm for some others.

Only certain methods, they thought, should be able of granting them such a one of a kind opportunity, one that the heavens seemed to drop on them and were the only one that this world would ever get. Or so they told themselves.

Step, step…

Ciemnosc walked and, just now. He noticed Valeria and Fu Lan at last looking at each other while leaning over a wall close to a table full of Conflagrate realm Creatures' roasted meat and well-prepared plates for dinner. They had themselves and their past days spent together inside their eyes as they flirtatiously opened their mouths to talk little words but always looked at the other’s eyes while narrowing their own, an utmost delicacy for anyone who saw them be so affectionate in public, including an approaching Ciemnosc with a pair of serene eyes.

…