Chapter 259

  Darkness (X)

  Long Tao stared at me with a rather strange expression for a few moments before chuckling and leaving.

  ... what the hell?

  Are their expressions not important? Am I reading too much into this shit?

  Honestly, as soon as I saw the second body, something about it tickled my fancy, but I wasn't quite sure what. After a few more, I picked up on the fact that they all had extremely serene expressions, as though they'd walked into death's doors all on their own and were not just happy but relieved to do so.

  Seeing as how Long Tao was relatively dismissive, he probably knew what this place was. Seeing further how he never told me, it means that it likely has something to do with the scope that goes a bit too far over my head.

  ... seeing that, I'm happy to exist in my ignorance.

  We didn't immediately move on, settling in place for the kids to recover the spent Qi. Even though they made it seem rather effortless, Xi Zhao spent over a quarter of his Qi reserves, while Wan Lan and Dai Xiu were at about one-fifth. Light spent two-thirds, but it made sense since she was fighting well above her realistic cultivation realm, which was now at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation.

  Rayce also appeared a bit pale, though he didn't meditate like others and instead immediately drew out a few sheets of paper and started drilling into them with his fingertip. Everyone gave him a bit of room, as they understood the smallest distraction could mess the entire thing up.

  Lao Shun was... re-examining his belief system, I'm fairly certain. Though I prayed inwardly he'd stay away, he approached me about fifteen minutes into our rest, sitting by my side.

  "Tell me the truth," he said. "You lot have come from some Upper Realm, and you've re-entered the Dust, haven't you?" Well, Long Tao has, I suppose.

  "No," I said.

  "Then it doesn't make any sense!!" he exclaimed. "Having one Disciple like them would have already been extraordinary, but you... you have five. And one of them is even a Shaman!"

  "So?"

  "You're a cultivator!! What the hell do you know about Shamanism?!" A fair question, but I didn't really want to answer immediately, as I was enjoying my bit of glee, seeing this reaction.

  It looks like I've been kind of starved of it, as we always had to be low-key. Well, we didn't have to, and if anything, I likely went against their wishes by forcing them to be low-key, but seeing somebody finally acknowledge them and, by extension, me, of course, was... oh, it was quite pleasant. And addicting.

  So addicting, in fact, I feared if I let it fester, I might just keep pursuing it in the future.

  "Probably more than you," I said.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "I sure would hope so, seeing as I know practically nothing!" he sighed in exasperation, leaning back into the tree as his robes crumpled. "I don't know whether it's merely a play, or you truly are ignorant, but... even if other Sects may have far more Disciples than you, I guarantee there are no more than five in this entire world that can match you talent-for-talent. Do you know how incredulous that is? Especially because, for all intents and purposes, you are a nobody."

  "Hey, that's not true."

  "It's not?"

  "No. I was an Elder of a Sect."

  "Really? What Sect? Oh, was it Heavenly Pavilion? Sword Palace?!"

  "Spirit Sword Sect!"

  "... what the hell is that? Did you make it up?" I groaned inwardly as he looked at me with a bit of disgust in his eyes.

  "Haah. I preferred you when you were a pompous, arrogant ass who wouldn't be caught dead casually chatting with someone like me. To think this is your true personality... I don't think I've been this disappointed in something since realizing that I still have to take an occasional shit when I first started cultivating."

  "Oh, you too?" he said. "When I was a boy, I heard stories that cultivators didn't need to sleep, or piss, or shit, or anything--they could just use Qi to immediately cleanse their bodies to perfection. Imagine my surprise when I finally started cultivating and realized... none of that applied to me. Must have spent the first few months absolutely depressed, but couldn't tell anyone why because I was absolutely embarrassed. So, everyone just assumed that was who I am--a glum, surly little lad."

  "Boy, he sounds like a lot of fun."

  "... I never did apologize for the way I spoke to you that day, did I?" he suddenly said, and I'm honestly half-expecting that the guy has been possessed at some point in our journey, because this is not the same person. "Ha ha, don't look at me like that. I did mention that you are quite young, no? Arrogance, you'll learn, will come to serve you as a wonderful shield. You are kind, that much I've noticed, but urchins feed on that like leeches. There will come a day where you'll either have helped every cultivator alive, or you will have become just as bad as I am.

  "And, if I'm being honest, I am far from the worst; a good number of my Seniors would have outright executed you on the spot the moment you took that tone with them. Unless they are being revered, they do not want to hear a peep out of those they deem unworthy, which is most of the world, as it turns out."

  "Sounds like I'm better off never meeting them."

  "Well, if there is one person who can actually say that," he said as his eyes wandered over toward the kids who had dispersed into the nestling roots of individual trees. "Hm? Ah, we have guests yet again," he said as he stood up, with me following quickly.

  The kids, too, quickly converged toward us; a mere few breaths later, shapes began to emerge from between the trees. It wasn't the people, but rather the beasts, all malformed in their own special, unique ways.

  They stalked in a wide circle for a little while before lunging forward.

  However, despite the fact that there were more of them, they were still individually very weak. The 'battle', if it could even be called that, honestly, was over within less than a minute.

  One difference was that their corpses never got swallowed up, which is a detail that I suppose does matter, but why? Well...

  "AAAAWWWAAAAAAAHHHHTTTT!!!" yet another howl rang out, stirring the hanging leaves on the branches, though this one was a lot louder than any before. Or, perhaps, it was closer.

  Was that really it?

  The hint suggested to follow the voice.

  Was this really that voice? I mean, as far as I could tell, it wasn't even just one voice. But there was nothing else.

  "... let's follow it," I said.

  "E-eh?" Lao Shun was the first (and, well, the only one, really...) to show any kind of a reaction.

  "What's the worst that could happen?" I shrugged.

  "We could die."

  "Oh. It's kind of cute that you think death's the worst fate of them all."

  "..."

  The kids snickered--and even Long Tao sneered--but nobody else protested. It was either that they, too, felt they had to go toward the voice for any chance of discovering the truth of this place, or they simply put blind faith into my decisions, and even if I said something horrible like, 'Hey, let's bury ourselves like those corpses and see what happens!' they would have probably done that without protest, too.

  ... Why do I, more and more, feel like a cult leader rather than a Master?!