roadtomastery
patreon
Chapter 264: Setting Hell Aflame
🕑 Added 2023-09-19 17:36:01 +0000 UTCHell looked pretty nice, actually.
As Jack and his trusty crate were spat out of teleportation, his Dao perception caught glimpses of tall, lush trees, and chirping birds, and grass all over. To be fair, I don’t know what I was expecting. Flaming cauldrons?
Almost immediately, however, his attention homed in on the people around him. A steady workforce of cultivators was moving crates from the teleporter to a starship parked just to the side. Jack’s crate, too, was picked up by a man who looked like he was half-bear. He lifted the crate like it weighed nothing.
Jack couldn’t inspect these people, as he didn’t have visual contact, but he hoped they were E-Grade. What kind of immortal did chores?
Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice that two of the crates were warded. Jack’s crate was loaded into the waiting starship, as was Shol’s. When all of them were on, the ramp connecting the starship to the ground slid closed, sealing off the hold, and the starship took off.
Observing the world solely through Dao perception was a dizzying experience. Jack had an idea of his surroundings, but it was like watching through really bad glasses. He could make out no details. Everything was fuzzy and bleeding into each other, while static was everywhere.
Regardless, he focused on the present. They’d gone unnoticed up to now, but they were bound to get discovered eventually. This starship was probably taking them to some population center. It was moving quickly, too, so they were probably flying over wilderness.
If they reached their destination, only bad things could happen. Therefore, this had to be the prime time to escape.
Jack could not contact Shol through the latter’s ward, but he was confident in his deduction. With fast and smooth movements, he pushed all the fish aside and slipped out of his crate. Shol followed only seconds later. “You stink,” he commented.
“Yeah, because your friend put me in a crate of fucking fish.”
“The friend who staked her life and reputation to help us?”
“I’m kidding. I appreciate it. If we get out of here alive, I’m buying her dinner.”
“Oh, she’d love that.”
Shol turned to his crate and placed an open palm on it. Soon after, a Dao ripple passed over the crate walls, and Jack felt his perception shift slightly as the magical warding was dissolved.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“A Dao burst. You can do it, too. Just send a sharp ripple of Dao into the crate.”
“Wouldn’t the people in the starship notice that?”
“They haven’t even noticed us, so don’t worry. They’re probably E-Grades. Their perception is far too coarse for anything not in their immediate surroundings.”
Jack turned and gave this Dao burst thing a shot. His first attempt was slightly too weak, only stirring the warding without dissolving it. He succeeded on the second try.
“Good,” Shol said. “Now, let’s just telep—”
A wave of Dao passed over them like an ocean current. Jack felt it crash and break against his body, part of it reflected back to where it came from—the front part of the starship.
“Shit,” he said, at the same time that the starship ground to a halt and an imposing voice washed over them.
“SHOW YOURSELVES!”
Jack and Shol exchanged a glance. “Do we run?” Jack asked.
Suddenly, however, Shol’s eyes were hard. There was no hint of humor in them; only sadness and expectation. “We cannot be discovered yet,” was all he said. Jack understood. His stomach fell. Dark feelings flooded his brain, but he embraced them and came out stronger.
“I understand,” he replied, setting his jaw.
“Can you handle it?”
“Yes.”
This was it. His reason for coming here. It was starting. And he hated it as much as he knew it was necessary.
A menacing aura spread out of Jack’s body as he prepared for battle. Ripples of Dao shook the starship. The air drummed with power. The Fist descended, hard and resolute.
Jack stepped through space to reappear above the starship. Shol also teleported, though far to the side, indicating that he wouldn’t be involved. Somehow, he also went invisible.
Jack looked down. An endless forest stretched below them. Large trees spread in all directions, some peeking over the canopy and almost completely covered in birds. The starship was a mile into the air, so Jack couldn’t make out the fine details, but he could understand they were above a vast wilderness teeming with life.
But not intelligent life. As far as cultivators went, there were no witnesses.
The door of the starship slid open and two figures darted out, flying to either side of Jack. One was a half-bear, half-human man, tall and imposing, wielding nothing but his bare claws; the other was a man with goat horns and a suspiciously sturdy-looking goatee, wielding a massive, red-bladed halberd.
Jack inspected them.
Bearfolk, Level 133
Faction: Animal Kingdom (B-Grade)
Goatee, Level 128
Faction: Animal Kingdom (B-Grade)
Title: Fourth Ring Conqueror
Their levels were even lower than his—146. He could take them easily. Since there were two of them, they probably thought the same as they inspected him, not knowing he was much stronger than his level would indicate. He had no title displayed—and, even if he had, he remained under the effects of the Disguise Pill.
Of course, they could see he was disguised, but there was no way to change one’s level, so they weren’t worried.
“Your ally was wise to run,” rumbled the bear-man. “Surrender now, and maybe the Warden will torture you less.”
“Or don’t,” added the goatee, wearing an ugly smirk, “so I can enjoy this.”
Jack took them both in coldly. He ignored their words; his attention was turned inwards, towards his own heart, where the real battle was happening.
He did not know these people. They were enemies, but at the end of the day, he was the one who invaded their territory. Maybe they had families; friends, parents, wives, children.
Yet, he was here to murder them.
What was right, and what was wrong? Jack’s moral sensibilities from his time on Earth protested, but he shut them down. He had to save himself, his people, and his planet. To do that, he needed power; and these people were soldiers of the enemy.
This was war.
“What’s wrong, coward? The cat got your tongue?” the goatee man mocked him.
“He’s not surrendering. Let’s capture him,” the bear-man decided. His Dao Domain spread out, a sphere of animalistic brutality. It reminded Jack of the merciless war for survival. The goat man also revealed his domain, and it was red and thick as blood, tasting copper.
The two domains engulfed him, pressuring him from either side. Jack felt his Dao protest, a machine revving up to match the oppression. The Fist refused to be suppressed, for it was unstoppable. He closed his eyes, breathing in the double domain of his enemies.
The bearfolk and goatee both charged him.
And then, Jack’s eyes snapped open. The Fist roared. A cold wind shattered the other two domains, an overwhelming avatar of pure, unadulterated power. The Fist appeared in all its glory, completely dwarfing his opponents as even the animals in the forest below went deathly silent, and the wind itself didn’t dare blow before Jack’s majesty.
Jack clenched his fist. The two attacking cultivators felt slow, their eyes widening in shock as they sensed their domains get completely shattered in the blink of an eye, but it was too late to turn back. The sky lost its color. The world went dark and silent. A purple meteor descended, and before it, these two cultivators were so terribly small.
At the end of the day, they were still immortals. Realizing they could not dodge, they instantly shot out their strongest attacks.
“CORNER DESPAIR!” the bear-man roared, clawing forward.
“LAVISH FAMINE!” screamed the goatee, slashing out a blood-colored streak of Dao.
The three strikes collided. For a moment, they remained locked with each other. But the blood-colored streak broke, shattering like glass, and the bear’s claws cracked as they were pushed back. The fist broke through, having lost half its power but retaining more than enough to crush these people.
A meteor descended, and this time, nothing could stop it. The goatee and bear-man were struck head-on. The force of the impact warped their faces and cracked their bones, sweeping them along as it headed downward. The meteor kept going, grinding the two cultivators into the roof of their starship and launching it downward, sweeping it along on a violent, majestic trajectory towards the forest below.
The meteor crashed into the foliage, easily breaking through. Trees bent and were blown away. Branches flew. The birds hurried to escape, barely dodging the explosion that shook the ground like an earthquake and released a shockwave that upset the entire forest.
Where there once stood a thicket of massive trees, now only a deep crater remained. The starship was completely broken. The two cultivators were mangled beyond recognition and dead beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Level up! You have reached Level 147.
The System notification was unsuitably cheerful. Jack shook his head. He was sad.
“You acted with determination,” Shol said, appearing by his side. “Good job.”
Jack couldn’t bring himself to smile. “We couldn’t leave any evidence behind.”
“That’s exactly correct, though one could call a massive crater evidence. How do you feel?”
“Hollow. But it’s okay. These aren’t the first people I kill, nor will they will be the last. I will do what I have to.”
“Good. Now, let’s go. We’re still not far from civilization, so people might come to investigate.”
Jack nodded. “Lead the way.”
With a wave of his sleeve, a strong breeze blew over the crater and extinguished the flames. Then, Jack willed the free points from his level-up into Physical, as he usually did, and took a brief look at this status screen. From now on, it would change rapidly. He wanted to have an idea of where it started.
Name: Jack Rust
Species: Human, Earth-387
Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (D)
Grade: D
Class: Cosmic Fist (King)
Level: 147
Strength: 855
Dexterity: 805
Constitution: 825
Mental: 120
Will: 190
Dao Skills: Meteor Punch III, Iron Fist Style II, Neutron Star Body II, Brutalizing Aura II, Space Walk II
Daos: Dao Tree of the Fist, Dao Root of Indomitable Will (fused), Dao Root of Life (fused), Dao Root of Power (fused), Dao Root of Weakness (fused)
Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10), Planetary Torchbearer (1), Ninth Ring Conqueror, Planetary Leader (1)
It was impressive. A source of pride. He remembered the times when just five attribute points had made all the difference in the world. How long ago that seemed…but it was only a few short months.
“Take us away, Shol,” he asked tiredly, but the monk only shook his head.
“I can’t teleport us that far. We’ll have to fly. Follow me.”
An orange streak cut through the air, soon followed by a purple one. They flew away faster than sound, until the smoking crater disappeared behind them. As far as the eye could see, there was only forest.
Soon, there would be war.
