15 - Leveling up

Sorry about the late update, I am still figuring out the schedule to manage the fanfic and this story. and In my defense, its still Monday.

*****

Lijen was back in his virtual space. His eyes widened in surprise as he gazed upon the brilliance of a celestial symphony. A Nebula of Primeval essence and cosmic energy, heralding the birth of a new era. The forces danced, protecting as they twisted. They swirled and twirled, creating a cacophony of chaotic beauty.

Lijen couldn't believe that he even gazed upon such beauty, such a miracle. But here he was, in once an empty space where the void ruled. He saw his core hidden, cradled by the swirling cloud of nebula. He was an incomparable ant before the massive forces of worlds, a speck of dust compared to the star.

This was his core.

This was his path.

This was his fate.

He could only accept and follow.

[ Isn't it beautiful? ]

"It is," I could only answer. There was no question that this wasn't a beauty that would make the world stand still. Mortal possessions were incomparable to such brilliance. I still couldn't understand why we fought so much for a piece of earth that was nothing but cosmic dust. Why bother when you could witness such beauty?

[ A monkey only knows of the forest it inhabits ] 

[ Human could only see what was before them, not what was after, not to the future ]

"We are such insignificant creatures," I remarked.

[ They are ] the system agreed.

"It is good that I am a dragon now," I declared.

[ Why? ]

"Because I can be better, I can let my humanity go," I replied.

[ But you will work hard to achieve your goal ] the System stated.

"I want to see the stars. I want to know how it feels to sleep in zero gravity," I expressed.

[ Not the words I was expecting, but acceptable ]

"I don't care for the world, nor myself. I will try to survive, I will get stronger. If I were to die, I will die without regrets," I resolved.

[ Good mindset, but life is not so fun ] the voice cautioned.

"I will make it fun," I declared.

[ Okay kiddo, then forge your path ]

[ Make this boring place a bit more fun ] 

"I shall. Now, let's begin the ignition."

The Nebula swirled and churned, reaching its tendrils into the void, attracting more energy from the worlds above and below. The cloud twirled, the core spun, and the heat increased. The acceleration disk flattened as its tendrils reached the core. The core grew larger and brighter, its gravity pulling at it even more tightly.

The star was moving towards its final stage, the ignition, absorbing a massive amount of celestial energy from all around. The stars in the night sky glowed brighter, showering their celestial aura. The flow of Qi around the world changed. The swirling mountain, the Great Demonic Forest, and the creatures that lived within witnessed the cosmic symphony.

Auroras brightened up the night sky in their celestial song, a song sung for only those it favored. The forces of the worlds witnessed something beyond their understanding, the stuff of legends. But what could they do? Nothing, as cosmic forces blocked their movements, protecting their only child.

The creatures looked to the sky, their eyes gleaming with joy, a peace in the haunting demonic forest. They were creatures of nature, hunting and killing were their instincts, but at this moment, they felt peace, a peace that was never found in the Great Demon Forest.

The Verdant Serpent looked up to the high heavens, his gaze traversed the earth and landed on a sleeping black dragon. Lijen was sleeping, but his body was covered in celestial forces in an orb. His scales breathed them. The lights on his scales moved, creating constellations of unknown origins, creating a mystic language that spoke of mysteries of the cosmos.

He smiled a mysterious smile of one who landed on a fate-turning opportunity. Now that the destinies have shifted, it was his turn to play the part.

So, he commanded the forces of the earth to kill those unwanted. The mountain claimed a tranquil peace that was not known in weeks. He would not let anything disturb the little dragon. He commanded Roaster to return, not that he would have let the chicken die. The little dragon would need his daily meal to grow, after all.

He then laid, breathing in the remnant energies. If he was so lucky, he might just break through to Soul Integration. His scales relaxed and tightened, Qi flowing between them. His scales cracked and mended, strengthening themselves.

...

Roaster kept his eyes on the impaled Rat-Moles. There were two more Rank 2 Rat-Moles lying beside him. His troop of chickens was halved, and his feathers were covered in blood, his and his enemies. The fight had attracted too many, and in his Qi-depleted state, he could only fight for so long.

But the Serpent had killed them all with a single command. He didn't know why, but the serpent wanted him to stay alive, and he was grateful for that. He gathered his remaining chickens and limped back the way they came. He also tore the cores of the beasts out, which would help him level up.

The beasts didn't exactly have a limit of talent but the limit of their bloodline, which could be broken given enough resources and opportunities. He ate the rank 2 cores and some rank 1 cores, and divided the rest to the chickens. The chickens ate the core immediately as they were not exactly made to carry these and followed their leader, limping.

Roaster returned back and met the eyes of the Verdant Serpent. He bowed his head and joined the other chickens. The chickens looked at Roaster worriedly and brushed their feathers on him to soothe. Roaster moved to the back and sat alone, starting his cultivation.

The Verdant Serpent looked at the broken chickens and felt that they were not up to standards and blew his healing breath. It was a sub-skill of his bloodline that accelerated growth of the nature around him, but it could also heal those that were lower than him. Roaster gave a cry of gratitude before he started his recovery.

...

"Are you really sure about this, Sis?" Jailiang asked his sister using sign language. The duo was hiding away from the monster they had found a few minutes ago. They were keeping their presence low so as not to alert the monster of their presence and make good for an ambush attack to gain an advantage.

His sister, Baiyun, looked up and saw the shadowy figure resting on a massive web which spread across many canopies. They had only noticed the presence of the monster due to the shadow it cast due to the full moon. The monster was a black spider with long legs, which was now feasting on its hunt. The crunchy sound rang in the backdrop as the duo communicated with their sign language.

This massive black spider with long legs was a poison crawler. As per its name, it contains deadly poison which will kill you in a matter of minutes if you were mortal. Even cultivators had to stay away from it due to the poison's paralyzing effect, and death arrives after hours. A slow agonizing death.

Its style of attack was to ambush its prey in absolute silence and inject it with neurotoxin which paralyzes its prey without killing it, and the spider then packs its prey in web, where they would be eaten later on, just like the 10 bags that were hanging on its web.

"Yes," Baiyun answered as she brought a kunai tied to a talisman from her pocket ring, a spatial ring. "I will attack it with the explosive talisman and burn the webs. You use the distraction to kill it," she signed before she jumped to another branch.

Baiyun looked at her brother and gave the signal before throwing the explosive kunai at the poison crawler. The kunai sliced through the air, and Baiyun performed hand signs, igniting the explosive talisman. The talisman lit up in flame before it exploded in a beautiful firework, spreading the fire across. The fire spread as it easily burned through the web, creating this snapping sound.

Jailiang used the distraction to jump above the canopy to attack the confused Spider, but to his surprise, the spider was nowhere to be found. The fire had extinguished the spider web, but the spider was nowhere. Jailiang looked around, scanned the surrounding canopies, searching for the spider.

"Sis, look out," Jailiang shouted in panic.

Baiyun didn't think much before she jumped to the next branch at Xiao Jai's panicked cry, which saved herself from getting skewered. The spider's long legs tore through the thick branch she was standing on. Baiyun did an acrobatic stunt as she continued to hop to another tree before she turned back to see her assailant.

The long-legged spider looked unharmed as it turned its head from her to Jailiang. The spider then spat its web at him, ready to catch its unguarded prey. Jailiang drew his sword and slashed the web and retreated.

Baiyun, using the spider's distraction, threw another exploding kunai. But the spider moved, avoiding the kunai before it even closed. Its movement was so silent that it gave chills to Baiyun. Baiyun also retreated back and met with her brother.

"What's the plan now?" Jailiang asked as he kept an eye on the spider.

"We kill it," Baiyun gave a simple answer.

The giant spider hissed, which echoed off the massive trunks. More hissing echoed from the distance that it became noisy all around. Baiyun and Jailiang immediately became alert as the noise became too much.

"What is it doing?" Jailiang asked his sister.

Baiyun replied, "I think she is summoning her children."

"She?" Jailiang leaned back and saw what his sister was looking at, a hundred thousand small spiders crawling up the tree. "Are you still planning on killing the spider?"

"Let's do the northern bird," Baiyun said before she jumped to another branch.

"Okay," Jailiang muttered before retreating into the shadows.

Baiyun pulled two similar daggers from her pocket ring, but with different colors. One of the daggers had a red blade while the other had a green. Baiyun activated her illusory steps as the spider spawns airdropped on her.

Baiyun kept moving using her illusory steps, slicing through the spider spawns as she covered the distance between her and the poison crawler. She sliced the final spawn that stood before her before throwing a smoke bomb, vanishing from sight.

Hiding in the shadows, Baiyun pulled one of her exploding kunai and threw it at the poison crawler, but she made it explode when it was half a distance and threw the second one through the smoke cover. The blade hit next to the crawler and exploded in a deafening boom.

The crawler took the full brunt of the explosion and swaggered disoriented. Baiyun knew her chance to cause further harm was here and took her chance. She jumped with her daggers in a reverse grip.

The spider stopped its swagger the minute she was in the air and sprayed poison in her direction before crawling away silently. Baiyun, who was in mid-air, was fully open, and the poison was about to land on her, but a wind blew, pushing the venom away.

Baiyun landed on the branch, stabbed the spider spawn, and looked to the shadows. She quickly scanned the area to find the poison crawler who crawled away. The spider was too silent.

"The spider knew the attack was coming," Jailiang stated as he walked out of the shadow.

Baiyun nodded; she had felt that the spider had moved way too fast to avoid her explosive attacks. Only the two-fold explosion got through. As Baiyun contemplated, a slight lint came from her periphery. She turned, but there was nothing.

Baiyun squinted her eyes in suspicion and pulled her red dagger and pushed a bit of her Qi into it. The red blade lit up, producing flames around its blade. Baiyun waved the blade around and finally found how the spider knew their attack was coming.

A tiny spider web, almost invisible. The string immediately burned away, but the evidence was found. She moved the blade around her, and there were hundreds of these tiny invisible webs.

"No wonder it saw through our attacks, the strings inform it," Jailiang stated with amazement.

"I got a plan, attack the poison crawler," Baiyun said as she brought her green dagger and infused Qi into it.

The green dagger glowed before it started to release a green smoke. Jailiang moved away from the green smoke.

"Get ready," Jailiang stated before he rushed out, slicing through the spider spawns as he did.

He was the distraction, and the Crawler appeared when Jailiang stopped to slice a group of spider spawns. The crawler attacked Jailiang with its web and poison, but Jailiang was elusive enough to avoid it and fast enough to stop the spider from retreating back.

Baiyun started her work as she circled around the spider with her dagger releasing green mist. She jumped from branch to branch while keeping away from the Crawler's sight. The green smoke quickly covered the spider in the orb. It was a good thing the wind was stale this night.

Jailiang saw that it was his time and jumped down, surrounding himself in his robe as he felt through the green smoke. The spider spawns that tried to attack the green mist quickly fell off dead.

"Now!," Baiyun shouted, using her red dagger to ignite the green smoke.