It had been an exciting hour, Lyner had never had such fun before. Having his senses backwards was quite interesting, but it was far from being a handicap. Instead, it was just another one of those scenarios that falls under the shit happens category. But hey, it was damn good training and was a new thrill. He had gained too many injuries to count during the adaptation process, but that was a small consequence. This was exciting!
In a short hour Lyner had already gathered 650 kill points, it wasn't a lot but it was enough of a reward. He had been hounded by a group of rabid dogs that had been given multiple shots of testosterone and greed. Chased was the term others would use, but for him it was nothing more than kiting and positioning.
Lyner now had full control of his backwards directioning, but he had to make a believable show of his vulnerability. It had been a good haul, these scions and elites of the other royal families were filthy rich. His wallet was now 175,000 gold coins thicker, inside there was even a few diamond coins, which were the equivalent of 100,000 gold coins per unit. In total his wealth had jumped up to 678,350 gold coins.
"Fight like a man already you coward! You've been on the run for a full hour. There's more than 500 of us, 2 King pieces and 25 generals. You cannot win!" A youth with cascading blood red hair shouted whilst huffing and puffing like an old dog who had been playing fetch for too long.
Lyner raised- ahem lowered his arms downwards, and flipped the two universal fingers every language understood. "Eat my shorts. Your endurance is so weak, how could you ever possibly hope to pleasure a women?" Lyner smiled smugly, but he quickly learned his lesson when he rammed face first into a tree. Super high class, jumping the wining process right into the dining process.
That was all it took for the powder keg like crowd to erupt. They had been verbally abused by Lyner for a full hour straight. And that bastard even dared to show them the "full moon" during midday. Essentially, Lyner dropped his trunks and flashed the crowd a "full moon." And you know what they say. When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.
Multiple trapping, illusion and killing arrays were activated when Lyner had that dull second like a deer in headlights. Some of the summoners in the crowd brought forth all kinds of contracted beasts. None of them were special or held any kind of overwhelming power, but the number of opponents swelled by another 100. Not that it made much of a difference, Lyner was nearly at his goal where he sent out a clone to set up his own chokepoint. It was there he would reap more wealth, and kill points. Before that though, he had to create a bigger scene and attract many more investors.
Lyner let all the attacks from various Daos and Skills fall upon him with full force. Quickly he became a bloody mess, but it also gave him some time he needed to undo one of the seals suppressing his Mana. Mana in the end was "life" to all natives, but what if the canister- the physical body wasn't able to withstand such overwhelming life? One, it could cause your organs and various functions of the body to shut down. Two, when forcefully released it would create a shocking explosion, the waves of dense Mana would be like the sign of a natural born treasure being unearthed.
That was Lyners goal, he was taking a beating to keep the fish he had on the line, but he was not satisfied enough. Beasts died for food, and humans died in the pursuit of wealth. His body would naturally heal afterwards. So there was no cause for concern, right? What was a little pain in the face of wealth falling right into his lap?
Lyner let the Mana surge and explode out of his body, creating a half sphere like dome of Mana. Then he ignited it, making it self-destruct. The rippling waves uprooted all the trees in the circular area of 50 meters, and shattered all the boulders in that vicinity. Lyner then controlled his Mana to push the waves up into the sky, where he let it congregate into a beam of light 10 meters thick.
Using his Dao of the Void to wipe out any Mana fluctuations, multiple hooks combined with the beam pillar, as Lyner ran, it followed after him in pursuit. Lyner didn't know how many attentive eyes his actions would catch, but he had to play the role of a professional fisherman to the very end.
Another half hour passed by, Lyner was finally starting to feel the strain and his body was beginning to tire. However, the majority of the group behind him was far beyond the point of exhaustion. If it wasn't for the appeal of being trained by a Soul Flame expert. The group would have long given up on their pursuit. Lyner was finally satisfied with his haul, 850 fishes had bitten onto his line. It was high time to reel those fuckers- ahem investors in!
Lyner jumped past the finish line in a mock show of exhaustion, manipulating his aura so it felt like he had weakened by over 35 percent, it was the right time to cash in.
The group began crossing the boundary, some of the "smarter" ones began circling Lyner as the coalition formed circles around circles of human bodies. The innermost circle was the King pieces and Generals.
"Haah… we finally got you now.. bastard." The blood red haired young man said between bated breaths. Breathing in deeply, his lungs were on fire, but at the same time it relieved the stress his body felt. "Aurins, activate the Divine Empowerment Array." the short of breath man ordered.
A beautiful young women with aquamarine coloured hair stepped forward, she wielded a magic staff in her right hand, and a floating sapphire crystalline ball in the other. "Lanark family, activate the Divine Magus Investiture Array!"
Lyner scoffed in ridicule. “Divine Magus? That would have to mean you have stellar control over your Mana. I know that in the capital they’re calling you the reincarnation of the Mana Goddess, but I got tough news for you. You haven't even reached perfection for a tier 1 Mana Body, nor have you made the proper sub formations to isolate the different elements of Mana. Your foundation is chaotic, and if you did try to forcefully reach the peak of your tier 1 Mana Body. You will explode, when it comes to Mana you ain’t worth shit. Allow me to show you the vast difference between what they call a Reincarnate, and a true Mana Monarch!”
While shit talking, because that was also a valid form of tactic. Lyner had fully unlocked the remaining binding formations he created to suppress his Mana Body. The rubble on the ground around him began rising, the grass waved and fawned towards Lyners direction. The branches of all the trees in the nearby vicinity were waving back and forth ominously. The leaves made high pitched whistling noises.
Lyners hair spiked upwards as a surging overall of Mana manifested into an azure blue aura that surrounded his body. Sparks like an open circuit crackled and writhed around his body, from deep within his Mana Core, an azure blue phoenix made out of pure Mana shot out from his body. The Mana Phoenix soared into the sky cawing with pride and arrogance, it circled around Lyner before descending at a steady pace that wasn’t too fast or too slow. “This is what it means to have full control over your Mana, and to have pushed its purity past the point of saturation that it congregates from a gaseous state transforming into liquid”
Lyners aura began to rise once more, wisps of pure unadulterated non-attuned Mana flowed from the Phoenix into Lyners body. “This is what happens when you have reached the Major Sublimation stage with Mana, then combine it with the knowledge of Formations and Arrays. Giving Mana a physical form, and the sentience of a human child. Open up your eyes children, this may be a contest between our royal families and a competition for kill points. But this opportunity doesn’t come everyday, I will only show you what a Mana Combat Technique looks like this one time. Whatever you are able to derive from it is up to your individual luck.”
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Purple currents of thunder shot out of Lyners body, condensing into a 10 meter long Katana made from his Thunder Dao. The pressure of Lyners Mana already had all the individuals present struggling to stand up straight. The Aurin and the Lanark families already had their respective empowering arrays setup, Lyner was being patient and allowing them to gather the power of all the troops into their respective leaders. Afterall while he wasn’t arrogant enough to let it go to his head, many were calling him undefeated in his generation. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to prove it correct, the best way was to purposely let the King pieces take out all of their trump cards. Overpowering their trump cards while showcasing a small aspect of his power was well worth the trade. There were many eyes on this event including those of the Emperor and the Empress.
Lyners overwhelming aura locked down the King pieces in place, while they kept gathering all the energy they could take in. Being unable to move from the spot they were proverbially nailed down into, both King pieces struggled to raise their arms as they activated their own Ancestral Skills of their respective families.
“Supreme Genesis Altar!”
“Dragon Gate Revolution!”
Beams of Elemental Mana energy gathered into a massive ball that the Lanark family youths were pouring in all the Mana from their bodies. The Aurin family's ancestral skill summoned numerous black Dragons that were like staring into the “Void” of space-time itself. The Dragons combined into a nine-headed black Dragon, gobbling up the Supreme Genesis Altar ball of energy. Whether they belonged to the Aurin or the Lanark family or not did not matter anymore. All the individuals drained the Mana in their body and poured it into the combination Ancestral Skill. The Dragons aura rose at a rate that started to make Lyner sweat at the brows, before it passed a hurdle that would make Lyner pull out a trump card it finally stabilized.
The Dragon opened its massive maw as a ball of Mana was combined with the auras of 850 different individuals, it was chaotic but that added to the destructive property of the skill. The blood red haired young man bellowed as he spat out a quarter of his total essence blood, further boosting the skill. But it was quickly running amok and the lack of control was going to dissipate the skill altogether.
The azure blue haired young women stepped forth as she calmed the surges happening inside her emotional state. She forcefully took control of the chaotic Mana as she opened the last set of Mana capillaries hidden inside the deepest reaches of her Mana Core.
“Abyssal Dragon Emperor Breath!” Both King pieces shouted simultaneously, they combined their hands channeling their Mana as it braided over one anothers with practiced ease. It had easily increased the overall power by another two fold at the very least, if not more.
Closing his eyes, Lyner breathed in slowly shutting off all of his connections to the outside world. Entering into the inner parts of where his Foundation was built, Lyners spiritual form became physical as it stood in front of the Soul Flame that had been constantly tempering all the features of his physical body. Reaching both his hands deep inside the billowing tri-coloured flame, Lyners hands touched upon the Optimization Cores “Lightshadow. Nightingale. I need you, my companions. Sorry to be selfish, I know taking the both of you out will remove a lot of the process to recuperate the damage to your cores. I can’t handle this one on my own anymore.” Lyner admitted to himself, in the end the arrogance had still shot up to his head, he had been the peak power of a world that hadn’t even entered into the Cultivation world, and had been given so many benefits right out of the gate in this new life.
Twin spirits, one boy and one girl appeared in front of Lyner. They looked like five year old children, but were anything but that simple. They looked up to Lyner with big smiles jumping into his embrace as they tackled him with a hug. “We fight together to overcome the impossible.” The two spirit twins said in synchronization. “But doing so will anger Big Red.”
Lyner nodded in confirmation as he looked behind the tri-coloured Soul Flame. Behind, were the gates of hell that always appeared when Lyner used the seven gates of Heavenly River Demonic Art. Two pitch black eyes devoid of all emotion stared into the core of his being. “Void Beast Cores.” it declared before the eyes disappeared, demanding the resource it needed to turn its head the other way. There had to be balance and checks put in place when drawing upon power that was not fully his, yet.
"Lyner, please come visit more. Not just when you need more power from us. We feel.. abandoned." Lightshadow, the female twin, had sad eyes as she spoke to Lyner. Nightingale, the male twin had his back turned, but Lyner could see the tremors of Nightingales hands.
"There's no need to be sad Gale. I know that I haven't been good to you both over the years. I have time to make up with you both, now that I can cultivate I will be here more often." Lyner said in a calm tone to appease both weapon spirits.
“Harumph it's all your fault that we have been lonely.” Gale said in a mock showing of anger. “But I will forgive you this one time, you have never lied to us before. If it's our power you need, we will give it to you. But do not forget your promise!”
Lyners eyes opened wide, the Mana around him surged once more. Two columns of condensed Light and Dark Dao manifested on his left and right side. Reaching his hands in, Lyner pulled out the two ornate sheaths of Lightshadow and Nightingale. From his inventory, he used Mana strings to bring out the Sword Fragments for both weapons.
Both of the Sword Fragments combined with the respective sheath, each Fragment was a meter long and 3 quarters of a meter thick. Lyner Lightshadow and Nightingale parallel to each other, with a 2 inch gap between the both Swords.
White and Black Dao wings spread out from his back, a purple halo of Thunder Dao formed above Lyners head. His Mana combined the wings and halo together with Mana strings.
Lyner brought both of his arms to his waist, holding the sheaths of his weapons in a reverse grip. Lyner used the earth as a launchpad, shooting forward with a shocking speed as he combusted the Mana in his body to further increase his acceleration.
Lyner slashed out with both of his Swords, forming Dao Pentagons of the Light and Dark element. Twisting his center of gravity, Lyner gathered all of his lower body's momentum swinging upwards through the middle of the Dao Pentagons. The Thunder Dao from his Dao Seed was absorbed and sucked dry.
Gritting his teeth, Lyner squeezed his Mana Core harder in an attempt to squeeze out more. Then he adjusted his train of thought, and began braiding his spiritual energy in replacement and transferred it to the Dao Pentagons in replacement.
“Tenebrous Blade Squall!”
Lyner screamed internally as he cut through the Dragon Breath, his Sword Aura shooting out in a purple-black-white crescent arc into the heirs of the Lanark and Aurin families combined Ancestral Skill.
A funnel of Sword Qi and Dao pierced upwards through the clouds, encompassing the group as none were spared from Lyners attack. Lyner strained his Soul Space as he was forced to gain control. No lives were taken as they were just innocent, but greedy individuals. And so was Lyner, thus there was no need for a blood feud to be created between any of the parties present.
"Now listen up all of you bastards, I want all of the wealth you have on your being. In the case you refuse to give up your wealth. I will have no choice but to strip you naked, and float you around the Primeval Forest on display for all the other participants. And by the God's, I'll be damned if ANYBODY wants to see your bushy timmy!" Lyner barked aloud, while making the universally accepted money sign with his hand.
After a couple "farming plots" were viciously dug out using a human being, the group got the hint and paid the fuck up. Because that's what smart people do. Otherwise, Lyner was about to be forced to call upon the Spanish Inquisition, who were totally uninvited and a surprising arrival to the party. What douches.
Anyways, with the toll collection going a lot smoother after examples were made. Lyner had acquired 3,250,000 Gold Coins, bringing his total wealth up to 3,928,350 Gold Coins. Life was good.