CH8: Aftermath

Lui Fang awoke covered in ash and suit, blearily staring at the twin suns high overhead through the dispersing clouds. A crack of thunder nearly stopped her heart when rain began to fall. Wet, soothing rain bathed the land after the harshest lightning tribulation in history had unleashed all nine blows, and she survived. Through Elder Yu's demonic pill, Atom's sacrifice, and a Lui clan treasure, one cultivator survived the most devastating tribulation.

She rolled over on her knees and slowly rose to a shattered land. Veins of rich lightning ore sparkled in the fading light as thunder rang through the new planes. Far to the south, she saw a cruel beast with a hyena's head, furry body, and human hands gripping a scimitar. Like herself, the beast was at the peak of the core realm and pulled a boulder of lightning ore behind her.

The massive furry breasts were a giveaway that the monster was one of many who lived through the continuous poisoned waters from the mountain.

She turned to see a green-skinned brute of an ogre raising a bone club overhead. A red bolt tore through the creature, burning it inside. It dropped its club as its body turned to charcoal. Elder Yu walked up with a pleased smile on his face.

"Success," Elder Yu said.

Lui Fang stared across the planes where utter destruction had evened the ground. Swirling dust clouds spiraled high in the air as the sunlight slowly dimmed. Clumps of dust mixed with the vapor in the air and formed rain. She realized it then as if struck by a tribulation.

"This place will become a lake." Lui Fang said.

"Our sect will simply live on Lui Lake to honor your fallen clan." Elder Yu said.

She doubted her brothers and sisters would forgive their family's deaths.

"That tribulation wasn't normal. It killed everyone."

Tears fell down her cheeks as she realized that none of her family would want to see her. She was alone in the world. Even Atom was gone, and she had just started to like him. A pleasant feeling came to mind when she thought about him. Ultimately, was he the one who helped her survive Horus Zues when there was no hope?

When she thought of him, she pictured a bald man with a long beard being yelled at by children. He found a niche and filled it, but he was dead, used by her to survive the most powerful tribulation she had ever heard of.

"How long until you have enough chi for the breakthrough?" Elder Yu asked.

She looked at the Elder in the form of a 12-year-old boy. "Do none of the people who died matter? What will the core elders say?"

"Nothing because I have vouched for you." She heard whistling before Elder Yu screamed. "Where did this arrow come from."

Lui Fang stared dumbly at an arrow she could barely see sticking out of Elder Yu's shoulder. He grabbed the shaft and pulled, screaming and struggling as blood fell, mixing with the rain washed into the soil. She felt pressure on her lower intestines but ignored it, and a pleasurable feeling rushed through her crotch. 

Maybe she didn't like Elder Yu after all. Seeing her in pain felt good. She had no idea where the arrow came from, but it was frayed and covered in golden blood mixed with black fletching. Three golden rings surrounded the arrow with familiar formation scripts. It didn't feel like anything she had ever sensed, and it pierced the skin of a middle nascent soul realm cultivator. Upon seeing it, she was more impressed than anything. The accomplishment that swept through her at seeing it did something to her.

She thought about the status of being with someone like him and knew she could do better. Soon enough, she would be in the nascent soul realm as well and famous. With this pitiful display, it was clear that Elder Yu's days were numbered. There were no more alchemists to make healing pills, and Elder Yu wasn't that kind of alchemist.

The man pulled on the arrow and sparks shot through the wound, causing the man to give a final scream before he threw the arrow to the side. Red chi that felt like the screams of little girls and the flapping of raven wings assaulted her senses as Elder Yu closed the wound on his shoulder.

She watched the man collect himself. "Perhaps I sought body refining techniques to shore up my weaknesses. I know of one that was hidden in our vaults. If you follow me, we can take what we want before the rain floods this place."

"You wanted the tribulation to destroy the sect."

"No, it was only a happy accident. So many rivals and fools have been plucked like feathers from a rooster. So many busybodies who screeched their righteous values onto me are dead. They don't understand that nothing is forbidden; everything is allowed in cultivation. There are rare techniques in the vault confiscated from demonic sects that fell from immortal realms. We can take them, cultivate our bodies to become treasures, and even bind them to each other's souls. We'll be able to call upon each other at any time." The man smirked.

She blacked out.

…

I pulled the dragon apart like brisket fresh off the grill. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. My soul was too vast and dense for Lui Fang's tribulation to matter. I would need a tribulation at least ten times more powerful to reach the nascent soul realm than hers.

For a while, I settled myself to mess with Lui Fang's brain and see if I could manipulate her actions with hormones alone. When my arrow finally started its descent, I reached out with a hair and nudged it a little. I didn't want Elder Yu to notice. The strike was a little off, but the blow was a good one. I could feel a small wound in Elder Yu's nascent soul. It was slow to heal, and this world seemed to have a hard time dealing with soul wounds.

Vast amounts of soul food passed into my pressure, feeding me even as I condensed further, growing more potent in this graveyard. Really what else was I going to do, pass out through Lui Fang's butthole. Core realm cultivators don't defecate. Until I found a convenient way out, I was stuck in her. Fortunately, my hair was spread through her body.

Elder Yu looked at me smugly as I smiled back at him.

My eyes fell on his body, bristling with souls flowing through his bloodstream from the countless women he slept with and murdered. While I did fill up on brisket, some ribs were in order and surely had a familiar taste. He was a lady killer, and I wanted to pull him apart like the dragon, but first, I needed entry into the vault. Maybe he could also help navigate the place.

I thoroughly planned to steal everything I could and shove it into my soul space. A formation appeared within a hard planetoid of solid chi as I slowly tore it apart with my hair until it resembled a vault. Formations would protect the inside from the corrosive nature of the chi storm raging within my soul space. Storms of heavenly lightning passed through my space while my fragments pulled chi to them, forming their planetoids among the drifting solid masses of chi. My peak foundation chi continued to expand my soul space slowly without an end in sight.

My generation was limited to my cultivation. Unless I managed to get a body without its cultivation, inhabit it, and reach the core realm, my chi would be limited to the foundation realm.

With that in mind, Elder Yu happily led me to the vault, a mass of black stone once deep in one of the mountains. Seals covering the doors smoked from formation overload.

"Look at it. This is obsidian from the immortal plane of hell. That's where my family, the Camio family, rules, and they sometimes gift the lower planes with scrolls, treasures, and ideas. I want you to remember never to bargain with your soul. The moment you do, your path of cultivation ends." Elder Yu looked at me with eyes similar to the ones I once wore.

I shifted Lui Fang's hips and walked toward the vault showing off the bottom of her bare ass through the half-destroyed robe. "Atom the fool taught me a little about formations. I bet I could unlock it in a given time with all the secrets he had spilled. But I know that Elder Yu already knows how to get in. You can break into any vault, right Elder Yu."

The man swallowed like he'd never seen a flirty woman before. I uploaded the memories of my actions into Lui Fang's mind under seduction. There was already a cluster of memories there. She had used her looks to get ahead before this wasn't even a blip, except I was being far less subtle. I kicked the boat out to the water, took my hand off the wheel, and let Lui Fang drive.

"Yes, I can definitely get into this vault. So this is the real Lui Fang, not the mask you showed that fool, Atom. I'm impressed, but I don't think I'm as easy as that fool."

…

Her eyes focused, and the memories played back like a dream, causing her no end of disgust. What was wrong with her? She was never that heavy-handed when she played at seduction. A slip of skin on accident or a slight sultry tone at the right time, but what she had just done was sad and obvious. Then again, maybe she could play it off as a joke.

She wanted to rub her temples through her rain-laden hair. This was turning out to be an utter disaster. Elder Yu ate girls for breakfast and used their bodies as cultivation resources on a daily basis. She had to be careful, or he would turn her into a cultivation resource without batting an eye. The smile on the man's face was anything but kind.

Elder Yu raised his hand to the console and gripped his shoulder.

She needed to distract him before he tried to use her like she used Atom. "What about the Mortal Severing experts?" A pleasant feeling swept through her, like cuddling with the boy she liked. She felt accomplished when she said it.

"They wouldn't dare touch any of this until we're done. You have nothing to fear." Elder Yu used his other hand to activate the seal. "Do you have a body refining technique in mind?"

With her clan dead, she had to survive, especially if her siblings came to murder her or, worse, send her off to be married.

"Something that allows me to extract and store life in my body." She waited for the feel-good feeling, but it didn't come. "What would you recommend?" Lui Fang asked.

"There is the corpse puppet manual, Imperium soul splitting, the sign of kings, All for one and one for all. I found a few cloning techniques, and there was one absorption technique I wanted. It was called the flesh change. It gives the user a transformation into a demonic bird that feasts on human flesh. Metal feathers grow out of the skin, talons with unbreakable grips replace fingers and toes, and the body becomes wrapped in electricity. That is only the first stage of the technique's nine stages. Its only price is the souls of willing women." Elder Yu said.

"I'm assuming we're leaving for another sect after this. And my choice hasn't changed. Is there anything that fits the description?"

"Birds of a feather flock together, and you want the scroll of Ishtar. It has nine stages taken one at a time by absorbing the life of men through sexual acts. Married men, virgins, and fathers count the most. The first stage allows the user to manipulate the chemicals in their saliva into a drug that alters the chemistry of their victims, stores sperm in their body, and burns souls in their soul space to fuel your lifeforce." She shivered at the prospect of gaining such power.

Once again, the normal feel-good feelings she would get from gaining ultimate power didn't come.

…

"What about a technique to strengthen the soul?" I asked.

…

Why did she ask that?

Elder Yu looked on in curiosity but only shrugged. "There is a technique called the War Devil Sutra. It empowers the soul through the blood of those defeated in battle. There are nine stages, and I think the first one grants the user the power to empower their body with the strength of their soul, heal their body from grievous wounds, and grant a demon form. Please don't bother; the amount of blood it takes to reach the first stage is immense, and the victims must be near your cultivation realm or higher.

It was an option but not one she wanted to bother with. She needed a fast way to power and stay Elder Yu's student rather than a lover. The man smirked as a massive door covered in depictions of birds presiding over fields of skulls opened slowly. A single seal remained that wasn't smoking from overloaded formations.

He walked in first, and she followed behind.

…

A great sail depicting a snowbird appeared among flashes of lightning. A ship two miles from bow to stern hovered over the plane, slowly filling with muddy rainwater and the ashes of the fallen. An anchor carved from the skull of a frost dragon slammed into the muddy waters below, icing it over. The region's temperature plummeted as foundation and gathering realm cultivators leaped from the deck and began setting up a base. A command tent slowly formed as core realm soldiers descended, followed by a click from nascent soul realm cultivators.

Some of the Freezing Caladrius sect arrived after the destruction of the Thunder Bird sect. They were a branch of the sect known as the Frost Wolves, and they planned to build their new sect among the ashes of the old rival to their parent sect.

Three mortal severing realm cultivators dropped down. One of them raised his staff, and a single glass shard appeared ripped from the muddy basin. Heavenly Lightning crashed within the shard, and the man, a youth, smiled.

"With this, I will build you a beast worthy of the wolves of the frozen lake." George Whiteman said.

The once ordinary man had been whisked away from his world and lived out his dreams in the Freezing Caladrius sect. The great snowbird had protected him while he was weak and guided him to become strong. It was his turn to use his chosen craft to aid the Frost Wolves and the man he owed his life to.

"Scouts have picked up the release of a vault." A nascent soul cultivator said.

Far Ling, a princess of the sect with dark skin and white hair, smiled warmly at the man who interrupted George's moment of fealty.

"Well, George, it seems we have a target for your beast if you can get it up and running in time." Far Ling said.

"Sir, we have found hidden realms with time dilation inside. One of them has ice storm chi perfect for Beta George."

Far Ling smiled, revealing shiny white teeth with canines that were a little too sharp.