Death By One's Own Hands

"No, impossible! That's too much!!" Elder Tin became crazier than someone really crazed. Sect master Holoriu had a face full of grim as he didn't expect Ciemnosc to be this greedy, but also didn't expect for Ciemnosc to state his offer just like this. As for it being a 'request' from himself to the sect? Might as well be that 'just the tip' isn't cheating, for fuck's sake!

“I see, I see…” But Ciemnosc was nowhere to be agitated at being abruptly refused. His manner was that of being at ease and quite relaxed, not even his eyebrows or nose moving about by instinct. And seeing such a relaxed demeanor, sect master Holoriu couldn’t help thinking about it, putting the thought of pressuring Ciemnosc away and added, “But for the land mission’s forces to become annexed to you, that can be done, they just can’t stop defending the surroundings until the port is completed.”

“Until then, you will have to let them remain at the other neighboring riversides of the Little Lake, supply them with weaponry, armory, and repairs, and at least make sure they are well treated when any skirmish comes about at any time. Understood?” The sect master, as if granting a great favor, spoke and looked at Ciemnosc expecting a huge nod of his head.

“Then, if the others cannot be even thought about…how about my forces are resupplied for…about more than a million instead?” Ciemnosc suggested, his voice seemingly trying to be melodious but remaining as sweet and cute as the boy he is.

“...” The sect master became silent. Grand ancestor Xing Kei looked on without commenting a single bit, letting the sect master deal with it. Elder Tin didn’t even show the slightest bit of concern this time around along with the other elders who were instead nodding, some rubbing their beards, ears, and chin, and some simply massaging their baldness. As for the females, they either went akimbo or nodded with crossed arms, pretty neat.

As for ancestor Pu Lianter, she showed concern, not for the troops and the mobilization process though, only that the kid was getting quite the big and large amount of forces under him. And if the kid happened to really be just talented for every single shit, to the point that even his shit would become treasures, then it was the same as giving poison to an addict.

“That can be done, but do you even know the amount of time that would take? How many people would have to get back after being denied the chance of participating in the mission first-handedly? Their feelings and emotions wouldn’t be nice, and they would also have to walk towards the Little Lake on foot, can you take that onto your shoulders as well?”

“You will have to wait here until the numbers are all confirmed,” the sect master continued, noticing a single hint of a frown on Ciemnosc’s eyebrows, “You’ll also have to be in charge of the newly 200,000 sect disciples recruited for the land forces of the land mission.”

“Sect master, I’m more than willing to have these many people join me. There’s also no trouble about me waiting here, I can spend some more time to study even, which would be for the best of the sect.” Ciemnosc elaborated, his tone became a bit more secure as he added, “As for the blueprints being given, they are truthful and not deceiving at all, but they would need at least 2 months in order to learn how to make a single ship, then take a long time to transport it, let alone to build their own port and to do so while being constantly attacked by either of the other major organizations and/or us.”

“Once they find out how to really build one of these, they could take a month and a half even if they have Craftspeople like our sect does in both number and quality, to be able to produce them for real. As for mass production? They could only do it if I’m there supervising and teaching, but why would that ever come to happen?” Ciemnosc smiled, damnably sweet at that in his last spoken ‘innocent’ words.

“...Very well. Anything else? Speak now!” No longer having more patience for this sect disciple, once a promising future within the sect and once a great target for striking at grand elder Jing Zhu’s heart to deter and pin her down on her current predicament, now the thorn of the very same sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect!

This time, from hereon, it was no longer for the sake of opposing the grand elder ‘illegally’ and with offenses. This time it would be he himself targeting the kid if possible if he just wanted to!

“I would like to ask for more Craftspeople as well. Just a few thousand would be enough, the sect has more than 40,000 that can be moved around, and it’s not like the other borders of our organizational territory have big projects to make, right?”

“It would be even worse if there is a breach and all of the Craftspeople are killed or crippled, better yet to send them to the Little Lake ‘great mission’ to help build more and many more things as well, or at least I think so.” Ciemnosc finished his words, not asking for anything else but for manpower to be given to him.

This, in turn, would’ve been a direct decapitation if this was a kingdom, empire, or dynasty, but for there to be a mobilization of almost 1.5 million sect disciples, most of them at the Link Consolidation realm or below, it was then going to be mostly nothing; as there were so many more millions in the strongest sect of just the same level, it wasn’t going to take any heavy burden on the sect to do this.

Also, they still kept the most powerful core disciples and the most quantity of such within the sect, and it wasn’t like rebellions or usurping of the sect’s power had never been faced before. There were as many wars as there are in the ordinary world of mortals, but rarer than the wars that the major organizations had been having over the entire history since their founding.

To give more than a million sect disciples to the kid, even almost letting him have a total of 2 million cultivators under his hands…that wasn’t that big of a deal, one single third portion of their forces even with those 2 million out and the sect could easily overpower them, crushing them and annihilate them all along with whoever they had any kind of relationship with.

It was, after all, nothing new within human nature, within the nature of all living beings, and that be it ‘mortals’, and the so-called ‘divinity of the world’ such as cultivators.

“Hmm, hohoho. I like it, a general that is exactly what we need right now indeed.” Grand ancestor Xing Kei interjected just at this very moment, his hoarse laughter making a contrast to the current situation. “Very good, Ciemnosc. Since this is all that you want and is for the sake of the sect, why would you not be supported by the sect? In about a month, you can depart from here as soon as ‘your’ new people arrive and are selected.”

“...Ah! Thank you, grand ancestor, here are the blueprints. Don’t worry, even if I’m not here, you can still try to massively produce these ships with elder Apegos’s help.” After a bit of glancing at the grand ancestor, Ciemnosc took the last pieces of paper of blueprints out and gave them to the sect master. Elder Tin had ‘glorious’ eyes when such an image was taken by his eyes.

"Your teacher?!" The grand ancestor asked, while in return, Ciemnosc replied somewhat late with a slow nod, "Mhm..."

“Mm, you’ve done well. Enjoy the rest of the banquet, kid.” With those words alone, the sect master stayed silent all this while. The Self-Mutilating Honores Sect upper echelons walked away, not directly from the grand hall but towards a spot at the center of it.

‘Sigh…’ Ciemnosc mentally sighed, for he felt exhausted and really bothered by the stage right now. Even if he didn’t want to fake another image, since he was surrounded by the most powerful, the Obsidiafying realm cultivators of all major organizations. Then he could of course not let himself be taken advantage of anything unless it was necessary.

All he could take from the upper echelons of the sect he is supposedly belonging though were the eyes of ancestor Pu Lianter and elder Tin. They were quite ‘selfishly’ having him in their eyes for a reason or 2…

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…Time passed, and Ciemnosc walked around the grand hall for a while. Not daring to see what would happen if he walked within the center of such, he remained at the borders and sides of it with the other Spirit Gathering realm cultivators.

He was calm and at ease though, despite the fact that he would’ve been pulverized so easily the moment anything went wrong, just one step or just one word was enough for his little and short-lived life to be ended by anyone here from the upper echelons…

Soon, it was close to 12 AM, and the grand all was as moving and cheerful as it was in the very beginning or even before Ciemnosc entered. He, however, no longer found Valeria nor Fu Lan to play with, as if they just literally vanished from the entire place without anything else to add up to.

Though…Ciemnosc seemed to be protected and had several backers, in all of its truth, those who seemed to be willing of letting their whole sects act against whoever however many tried to attack, steal or threaten him were all but unknown to everyone if they would even defend him.

Though they seemed to be there for him and more than willing to honor their words, at the moment that it happened, who knew how they would really react? However, even then, no one wanted to try and probe the seemingly imaginary hornet nest.

“...Is this little master called sir Ciemnosc?” Suddenly, a voice came to Ciemnosc’s ears as he walked around. Looking to his right behind him, Ciemnosc saw a weirdo old man with a large rob covering his whole body with small yellow flowers all around the bright powerful red robe.

“Who is this?” Seeing this old man seemingly finding the reason why they were moving about restlessly over and over again, Ciemnosc felt a headache slowly coming to him. The old man, in return, was not but had a big belly of his own, square-shaped face with some fat, or chubbiness more accurately, dark and gray hair and small rectangle-shaped eyes with semi thick eyebrows.

“My name is Radarf; I am the Eagerburning Flames Sect’s top alchemist, my child.” At the moment his words were heard, with just his name being explained, all surrounding sect disciples and cult believers turned around to watch Radarf as he continued with his words. But, in the same manner, Ciemnosc felt that the not-so-far Eagerburning Flames Sect and the Preferential Light Light Justice Sect - turn their heads the moment this happened.

The sect master of the Eagerburning Flames Sect frowned as soon as he looked to where Ciemnosc was standing with Radarf. While sect master Yolin looked on and started walking there with slow, short steps that made her hips move, normally but somehow seductively all the same.

“How do I know if that’s true?” Ciemnosc asked, his facade all gone, no more playing. He was fucking bored, annoyed, and wanted to eat…

“There is Yolin right there. Why don’t you ask her, eh?” Without any consideration, Radarf the old man claiming to be the best alchemist of the world according to the Eagerburning Flames Sect having the best of the best alchemy in the world, said as he just pointed at sect master Yolin coming towards them with her breasts lightly bouncing despite her naturally wearing a bra.

“...” Ciemnosc frowned at once hearing the old man speak like this, then turned his head before turning his whole body to face the direction where Radarf pointed to. He wasn’t afraid of this Conflagration realm 4th stage old man as much as the power of an Obsidiafying realm cultivator, let alone one at the apex of it. “Sect master Yolin?”

Sect master Yolin looked at Ciemnosc, arriving just 3 steps before him and looking down. She was really beautifully tall. Then, she looked at the old man, Radarf, her eyebrows wrinkling a bit as she nodded her head just downwards slightly. “Yes, indeed. That man is the top alchemist of their sect, possibly the entire world. Why?”

Returning her eyes to Ciemnosc’s eyes which were always so much beyond nature, falling in a daze for a few seconds after speaking her word ‘Why?’, she then recomposed herself and looked at Ciemnosc with calm and no intention to ‘support’ him at this strange event.

“Well, I was looking forward to little master Ciemnosc’s abilities since I have heard that he is so capable of ‘everything he does’.” Radarf looked all around sect master Yolin’s body, his eyes snaking her along with his Spirit Sense that she could obviously feel all across her body. She didn’t have any special clothing like Valeria did and could only rely on her own Spirit Sense to cover her body from his checking, though it was done too late as even a bit of the inside of her lower mouth was violated by his Spirit Sense.

“...” Sect master Yolin was already frowning, not the at ease and peaceful kind, and she even gave Ciemnosc a glare for making her come all the way here just to be violated by an old man’s eyes and Spirit Sense.

“...Ugh, alright old ass. What? Let’s just go on with it. Make sure it doesn’t waste my time.” Ciemnosc shook his head, though it was more like shaking his neck, and his head just wiggled about a little. He took out his Identification Toke, showed it to the old man, and then said without a care for statuses, “See this? You probably don’t recognize it, but some others who were much more powerful than you and in quantity were felled due to this.”

“... ...?!” While the still lewdly gazing old man’s eyes were still traveling around sect master Yolin’s body, he looked at Ciemnosc’s hand with a Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s Identification Token in it without a care, about to return his eyes back to the beautiful woman for him to enjoy, at least with his eyes.

“!!!” But then, when hearing Ciemnosc’s words, he slowly came to remember something, a bout of information that was already known by the major organizations, even if it was more like a rumor and in a sense of not knowing if it was true or false.

Step!

That was when the old man took a step back, apprehensively; and his eyes were shocked to look at the Identification Token of the little boy once more, his slightly white and gray beard tumbled about as he almost fell with his back first against the floor.

“You!!- You wouldn’t dare!” The old man spoke his part, then Ciemnosc smiled. He grinned as he grinned when he first saw the leader of the hooligans back at his sect holding his crotch while peeing and shitting blood nonstop. Quietly, he said, “Oh, I do dare. In fact, I dare so much that you don’t understand how glad I am that you are here.”

“...gulp. We-w- we are at the grand hall, with formations built to protect the central building all around, you can’t do anything even if-” The old man wasn’t old for nothing though, and he began facing off Ciemnosc with some bravery latching onto him from well…somewhere. But, Ciemnosc rudely interjected just then, his voice even quieter.

“Speak if you don’t want me to show you what being bombarded right in the face means. This formation isn’t that much for protecting against pure energy, and I don’t even need to explain that to someone so ‘knowledgeable’ like you.” Ciemnosc raised his right arm a bit more, the entire grand hall growing quiet, and he couldn’t feel any better because of it at these moments.

Well, maybe having a beauty to his left. But that would just complement it very well instead. Looking at sect master Yolin, to his right, Ciemnosc shook his head when he saw her just side glance at him from the lower left corner of her left eye.

The old man became silent, his eyes were wide open and his retinas shrunk, looking at Ciemnosc’s right hand. And only then, he took a good while to even his breath out and regain his composure. It wasn’t until then that he coughed lightly once and uttered out without much sense. “...Ah, hahaha, I see. Ahem!”

“Then, I’ll tell you,” the old man Radarf said before taking a couple of long breaths. His composure of dominance and overbearingness from before returning as he even ogled sect master Yolin’s body twice more with her narrowing her eyes even more…

“I am formally inviting you, little master Ciemnosc, to a duel between alchemists!”

“Woah!” - “Is this going to be the best yearly banquet ever?! An alchemy battle!” - “Duel, not battle, duel.” - ”Bet! Bet! Bet! Bet!” - “The Eagerburning Flames Sect are such bullies!...”

When the words came out of the old man, while the crowd was exhilarated and sect master Yolin looked at Ciemnosc’s right profile face and saw his calm self, yet she expressed concern for her it was more than obvious what a several hundreds of years old alchemy ‘grandmaster’ and a not even longer than a decade old little boy could compete like.

There were just…no grounds to speak of, it was just dumbly stupid. Nobody in their right mind would believe that such a thing would happen unless it was a soapy dog blood opera and nobody could tell wrong from bad.

At this moment, however, to the surprise of many but not that big of a surprise, as it came from a ‘young man’ whose blood was sure to be easily boiling at every turn and trouble in his life…Ciemnosc responded with an eerily soft tone.

“Okay, let’s do it. But, we’ll make a few bets…I like betting, do you?”

“Hoh?” Radarf cocked his head to the right as if looking at Ciemnosc and trying to make sure he wasn’t delusional about being able…to actually…face him off in alchemy? That was just laughable!!

“Well?” Ciemnosc spoke again, gaining attention alright, as the Eagerburning Flames Sect’s sect master finally showed up from the crowd, bashing smoothly away those who didn’t make way for him, with elders and others remaining a bit far behind him.

“What will the betting be about?” The old man, Radarf the top alchemist in the world, asked. Then, Ciemnosc, the little boy who could not possibly know anything, not at least compared to Radarf, smirked.

“You see, I like playing with life a lot…”

His slightly pale lips drew everyone’s attention, his darkest eyes becoming like a pair of darkest pools drawing them in. The spoken word ‘life’ itself seemed to be drawn into his eyes and mouth as he spoke them. And only his eerily soft, quiet voice remained within everyone’s ears and mind, only managing to process it a minute after he spoke them for most cultivators…even some Obsidiafying realm cultivators present.

…