River

As the night came, the airship carrying Pef flew stealthy above the clouds, until the faint contact with the Tang sect boat was re-established. As it were, navigation during the night was deemed dangerous and most ships preferred anchoring to the side,

as to avoid a sand bank or sunken trees or unexpected collisions.

'So, everything is in order, Aspirant?' the glove asked in a curious tone.

'Yes. The Tang sect's boat lacks sonar or radar technology, making them unable to sail safely during night.'

'Of course. Nobody has invented them, yet.' the system replied with a ironic voice.

Pef waited for the air in the zeppelin to cool, and he prepared for an amphibious assault. He locked the position of the ship in his mind.

Then he commenced a dive towards the river, and ejected at merely 50 meters, sinking to the bottom of the river with a tiny splash.

Clock was ticking, as air supply would be limited while he was moving. Thus, he swam faster, until his Spirit bubble made contact with the wooden Tang ship.

A cautious scan indicated a small width between the hull and the rudder, allowing an athletic marine to climb inside the helm room. Which Pef did, while constricting his shield near the skin.

Only his nostrils and fingertips were left outside the watery barrier, making his shape hard to distinguish, especially during dark.

'Any audio intercepts?' Pef thought inside.

Pattern recognition suggests six guards on the shore, and two more on the deck, topside. 20 shallow breathers, likely the crew which is sound asleep.'

Pef moved forward, entering the captain's cabin. The man slept in a hammock, which made the next part easier.

Our hero placed his palm over the man's face, and let the water membrane do its thing.

A minute later, the captain has drowned in his sleep, and Pef was free to rifle his possessions, especially the logs and maps.

Pef began moving towards the passenger cabins when a few sharp scrapes drew his attention.

'Incoming, ceiling, spider!' The glove warned and Pef tried to solve this quietly.

A balloon filled with water parted from his shield and enveloped the spider, attempting to suffocate it as well.

Sadly, this wasn't a mere animal. Its controller began flailing and choking in a nearby room, proving how connected these two beings were.

"Disciple! What's wrong with you? Speak, what is happening...water in his lungs, but no magic was used on him..." a panicked voice muttered in the room.

Pef didn't wait for the Tang woman to become too alert. He stabbed the spider with his sword, just as it began growing. A noise of alert emerged in the room.

But already Pef was moving at speed towards the voice that he heard.

Next second, his sword stabbed through the wooden door, but found no resistance.

He pushed the door open with a cautious hand. The Disciple was struggling to recuperate and was coughing his lungs off, but otherwise the room was empty.

'Window!' the glove deduced while Pef's hand moved to decapitate the Disciple.

'We'll find her later. The crew first.' Pef decided, while he sped up to the maximum speed an Earth rank could attain, and still be under control.

His sword was replaced with two daggers, and Pef mowed down the sleeping crew with short jabs.

Took him only two minutes, until he emerged on deck and serviced the two night guards.

'Store the ship' Pef asked while already jumping over the rail, only the gloved hand remaining in contact.

'Clever. Living beings cannot be stored yet, thus the ship contains only dead bodies.'

'Stop hiding abilities from me, dear glove. When can you store living beings?' Pef demanded while his body ran towards the shore guards.

'Either at Perfect Saint or Perfect Divinity. Not relevant for now.'

'It's very relevant for my planning. Only Legion personnel, or even neutral or hostiles?' Pef muttered as he mowed down the guards. Bodies were stored in the glove to prevent forensics.

"Hah. A water type Spirit rank barrier! Whoever you are, you messed with the wrong people!" A proud voice proclaimed from the distant shore.

Pef swerved at speed and dove in the river.

'Fight or hide. Can she call watchers?' Pef wondered while he swam at speed towards the middle of the river.

'Her tone says yes. However, the fact that she announced herself...'

'Probably bluffing and scared. She'll retreat, towards the nearest safe place.'

'Keep in mind, Aspirant. Even Spirit ranks are dangerous. And she might have Earth rank artifacts.'

Pef nodded while a plan formed in his mind. Well two plans, but one was too simple and thus she would prepare against it.

It was time to become a Disciple.

Pef swam across the Agate at speed, reaching the other shore in a few minutes. Then he sat down to wait, while his mind got going over the few Disciples he had seen or heard.

An hour later, a picture of how a Disciple stood and comported himself emerged.

A bit like an insect, movements slow and precise, eyes never looking around. Probably sharing senses with their spider.

Pef dressed in his Disciple disguise, then glued a small spider to his left wrist. Just its legs.

'How do I look?' he muttered while turning the inside of his water shield reflective.

A different person watched him from the reflection, menacing and mysterious.

'Like a Legion recruit poorly disguised? They will notice discrepancies almost immediately.'

'Possibly so. But my target is that woman, not other Disciples.' Pef concluded as he emerged from the waters.

A kilometer north, there was a trading post, with a dozen stables and other amenities for travelers.

Pef made his way there, moving at a fast pace. He managed to enter and occupy a corner just before the Tang sect woman burst in, her hair in a tangle, clothes wet and ripped and dirty.

She rushed to speak with the station master, while Pef pretended to pet and listen to his captured spider.

A minute later, the woman came over and sat at his table.

"Disciple, I'm need of help. My boat was attacked yesterday..."

"Not my problem." the rude Disciple replied in a cold voice.

"By the pact, you are required to offer assistance to the Tang Sect..." the woman demanded in a meek voice.

"How?" Pef asked after a minute.

"Escort me to the nearest Tang citadel, at Stoneport."

The Disciple waited a few minutes in silence. His spider trembled lightly.

"The goddess accepts." he said in a reverent tone.

"Not the usual type of spider..." the woman commented, now that she felt safer.

Pef ignored her.

"I'm gonna go wash and clean up." she said with a frown.

Pef continued to ignore her.

"So come with me! I'm in danger!" she demanded, looking around scared.

"Your soul is safe." the Disciple spoke softly.

The woman growled and stomped her way outside, only checking to make sure the Disciple followed her.

Soon she entered her rented room and began disrobing and washing herself in a wooden tub, while her weapons and clothes were laid on a wooden cot.

Pef checked her out surreptitiously. A warrior's body, muscled and toned. A few strange tattoos, a hundred scars of various sizes.

"Well, nothing to say?" the woman demanded gesturing at her body.

"How much?" Pef asked callously.

"W-what?" The Spirit ranked woman exclaimed, while her face began to redden.

"You're the one selling?" The Disciple asked back, while his robes rose in a shrug.

"I'm not selling myself, you...your holiness. I was displaying my battle ranks!"

"We shall wait here today. Rest." the Disciple said coldly, his back rested on the wooden wall, and his eyes already closed.

"If that person comes, can the spider transform?" the Tang adept wondered, eyeing the tiny spider with doubt. The spider watched her back, its evil eyes uncaring.

"Rest." the strange Disciple demanded in a stern voice.

The woman grumbled and clenched her teeth. Then she laid on the cot and went to sleep, no doubt exhausted by last night's ordeal.

'Huh? Your silly plan worked, Aspirant.'

'When she wakes, she might not be this distracted.'

'So what will you do?'

'Hmmm. Continue with the disguise, or mix things a little...enhanced interrogation perhaps?'

The glove hesitated. Not the Legion way, but they did need information. And this target was already dead. It remained silent, letting the Aspirant decide for himself. The way he comported himself in the field was also important.

An hour later, the Tang woman woke up abruptly, tied to the cot with a wet cloth over her face.

"Name and rank!" a strange voice demanded.

She tried yelling, only to draw vapors in her lungs and choke in pain.

After a few minutes, the pain became too much. She spilled her name. The cloth was wet again, and questions continued.

"Tang sect bases!" the same voice demanded in a patient tone. She tried lying, but the monster always knew if she did.

Hours passed, with the Tang Inner Elder slowly being interrogated with no room for any lies. The glove made a reliable lie detector, after a few calibration tests. The Tang Elder spilled everything, leaving no doubt of her fate.

By the time evening fell, she finally received her rest. Eternal rest.

'These guys are quite nasty...' Pef mused while digesting what he learned.

'Breeding certain bloodlines is more common than you think, Aspirant.'

'Slave breeding pens, or injecting the babies with spider eggs?'

'I heard of worse things.' the glove said with a flat tone.

'Anyway. Let's go exterminate these sects.' Pef muttered with a cold inner voice.

The glove mused for a while, while its user set course towards Stoneport. Compared to the kind of atrocities the Legion stamped out daily, this was nothing.

Then again, it was a good test for his abilities. Many recruits broke down while first encountering evil.

The Legion needed even bigger monsters.

Two weeks later, the airship arrived at Stoneport.

The city was divided between two sects, the Tang sect and the Volcanic Fire sect, each having adepts or disciples patrolling the streets, exhorting taxes from crafters and merchants and keeping crime away.

Pef had dressed in a peasant's normal brown clothes, with a large straw hat, and wandered the streets, noting down interesting spots.

'So the Tang get to keep half the captives, the women, to breed them, while the Disciples prefer men. I would have expected the reverse.' Pef mused while dodging a cart driver's whip.

'Different gods.' the glove explained laconically.

'What about this Volcanis god? He seems okay.' Pef whispered while observing a pair of Volcanic Fire disciples patrolling the street.

'Energy wise, Volcanis is the strongest god here. His disciples convert heat into fire essence qi. Well, less of that on this continent.' The glove explained, while Pef measured the cultivation of the disciples. Only Core ranks.

'So, they drain volcanoes and such?'

'Yes, Aspirant. To drain stars Volcanis would need to be tier 5."

Pef nodded to himself, now having a better grasp on what divinity ranks were about.

It didn't matter how one obtained energy to fuel his ascension. Only the way people were affected by it.

Draining life or heat, could be used for good or evil. Saving people from volcanoes, or freezing them to death.

As evening fell, Pef began making his way towards the Tang citadel.

Bestiality and breeding pens though, they seemed evil enough in his mind.

The Tang citadel was a renowned place in Stoneport. The locals looked at it with feelings uneasiness or fear, since sometimes screams escaped from beyond the stone walls.

And nobody in their right mind would ever enter willingly.

Still, this night a watery shape slithered its way up the walls, then surveyed the building inside.

'294 hostiles, 21 neutrals.' The glove determined after a few moments.

Pef nodded while he considered his path for the next hours. Only one Spirit rank, eleven Nascent and more than a hundred Core ranks. A much stronger lineup than his garrison in Port Li had. Perhaps ten times stronger.

'Can you display tactical information on my retina?'

'Like this?' the glove asked a bit uncertain. The night became a green background, while the hostiles were lit up with red contours.

'Exactly. Add a star marking for each rank above Core.' Pef demanded as he made his way towards the breeding pen.

Two dozen Tang adepts were drinking and abusing the captured women, in separate stalls.

Pef glided into the pens, his daggers ending the scumbags with swift strikes.

A few minutes later, he emerged from the wooden building, blood flowing over his water shield and on the ground.

'No babies here, though.' Pef observed while he cautiously made his way towards the main barracks.

'We know they trade them to the Disciples of Arachne.'

'Two of the captives had red fire tattoos, like the Volcanis disciples.'

The glove remained silent, as there wasn't more to say. If the user was observant enough, good. If not, then his attempt to reach divinity will be harder.

Staking sleeping Tang disciples in their sleep went almost as easy as imagined.

Only the Nascent ranks posed a problem, as their souls were sensing their surroundings even if asleep. Much like hearing, where a loud noise would be heard and wake a sleeping person, such was the soul sensing.

In the end, Pef decided to smother the Nascent ranks at once, using a finger to guide each water balloon, while his foot crushed the neck of the eleventh Nascent Soul.

The feat drained his energy to half, mostly due to the effort of multitasking so many magic spells at once.

'You need to Practice elemental manipulation more, Aspirant. And without hand gestures.' The glove chided him after measuring his qi energy.

'So find me a teacher!' Pef exclaimed while he resumed his stance, the daggers returning to his hands.

Half an hour later, the Tang barracks was only a slaughterhouse, with over 200 disciples left to bleed out into the night.

As Pef was emerging from the barracks, his new vision showed him a three star and some twenty-one star guards converging on the entrance.

"I can smell the blood inside! Come out and face me!" a loud voice proclaimed while the guards drew swords and bows.

Pef looked up, then jumped, reaching a wooden beam. A bit of silent effort later, and he emerged on the roof, while the rest of the citadel rose up in arms.

He considered the situation for a moment, then smiled. A blowpipe was called out from his glove compartment, and silent coughs filled the night.

'Why waste opportunity and my vantage point?' Pef asked himself while gently peeking over the other side of the roof, picking off another dozen of these Tang assholes.

'The Elder has his shield up!' the glove cautioned him.

Some 30 minutes later however, the Tang elder was the only remaining survivor, his voice yelling for a fair fight.

'It's a water shield, now that you mentioned. Thanks glove, I needed a teacher!' Pef exclaimed in praise, jumping down in front of the Elder.

More water was extracted from the humid air, straightening Pef's shield, and forming a ball of water in front of him.

"Haha, a water mage! You will pay for your transgression now. I am the best water bender on the continent!" the Elder laughed, gesturing to form five balls which then begun spinning at speed.

'Uh, this is gonna hurt!' Pef realized with a shock, as he couldn't take control over the enemy's spells.

'Those spinning water bullets are infused with the owner's qi. You can't simply steal them...' the glove advised the user with a smirk.

Spinning! Pef rapidly flattened his own water ball, and gave it a spin as well.

Bullets impacted the water barrier, and got flung aside by the spin.

"Clever trick, but only from the front. Let's see how you do from the sides!" the Spirit rank Elder exclaimed forming five more water bullets.

Expand the shield and rotate the whole sphere! Pef decided in a split-second.

The water bullets were also flung aside and dispersed even when changing their attack angles.

The Spirit rank stopped to consider the situation, as his own qi reserved were almost depleted.

Generating and moving water was very tiring and consuming.

Pef walked forwards, stopping at some 8 meters distance. His elbow drew back, like preparing to cast a water bullet himself.

Instead, a 10 meters long Sky rank lance emerged in his hand, then pierced the Tang Elder in the neck, nearly decapitating him.

Pef looked up, expecting some divine reward to descend on him, but nothing happened.

'No increase, at all?'

Maybe 1 percent. And that's for your Practice, not the low rank kills.' the glove replied with a flat tone.

Pef drew a long breath in disappointment. A whole citadel massacred and nearly no reward.

On his shoulder blade, an acupuncture point puffed, unsealing another avenue for qi absorption.

'So, about 80 more of these citadels and I get my next rank?'

'There's only two more Tang citadels though'

'Ah. Maybe the Disciples will give more rewards' Pef grumbled as he began looting the citadel.

He took everything, even the buildings and stone blocks of the walls.

In the morning, the city of Stoneport found only a wooden shed with 21 women inside, barely alive.

Around them were arranged 294 wooden sticks, with heads grinning from atop the wooden spikes.

All the bodies were gone.

The Volcanic Fire sect was called at the scene, and gratefully recovered their missing disciples.

The huge Tang citadel, stone walls and all, had mysteriosly disappeared.