Category Archives: Originals

[Arc 3] Chapter 99



Chapter 99
Strengthening

Lucas left their house in the Black Night sect and headed out of the sect rapidly. Of course he couldn’t be found here, he had no authority to be here. Though with Chu Shen knowing someone high up, it was unlikely there would be serious consequences.

Chu Shen sat down in a lotus position and started concentrating. Master Ti Wu floated out of the Voids Hand and behind him. His hands lit up with a greenish blue hue before being taken over an inky black Qi. His Spiritual Qi turned into Void Qi with a single thought.

“I am starting now, get ready Chu Shen.” With enough words spoken, Ti Wu shoved his hand towards Chu Shen’s chest. Immediately the Void Qi was sucked up by his meridians and circulated according to the <Void King>  technique.

He started circulating it, increasing his strength. His strength currently was around 62,000 pounds. A normal Martial Practitioner Level 1 had 50,000 pounds of strength. With each level an increase of 5,000 pounds was seen for each practitioner.

Chu Shen, however, was currently having his strength increase tremendously. His previous maximum circulations of the Void King technique was 19 and allowed his body to become like iron. But now Chu Shen was able to circulate the Void Qi more since his cultivation was stronger.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, more and more circulations until Chu Shen reached the 19th circulation. Previously this was his maximum circulation amount. However, Chu Shen was able to push past, breaking through to the third stage of the Void King technique.

The 19th circulation gave him an increase of 1955 pounds. He managed to complete a 20th circulation, increasing his strength to 2,000 pounds. Then he completed the 21st circulation. The 21st circulation was a breaking point to the third stage of the Void King technique.

The increase of strength drastically increased to 3,000 pounds. Not only that, Chu Shen’s skin and muscles started becoming harder, like ropes of steel, granting him great defense.

Once he broke through, he circulated the Void Qi 21, 22, 23, 24, all the way to the 30th circulation before he had to stop. Chu Shen was excited, but knew that to finish the 3rd stage of the Void King technique, he had to complete 40 circulations. He was still someway off.

But what had him excited was the increase of 19,500 pounds from 62,000 pounds of force, to 81,500 pounds or 40.5 tons! Remember, currently a martial practitioner of the same level only had 50,000 pounds, or 25 tons, of force! This was almost double that of a normal martial practitioner of the same level and equal to that of a martial practitioner at the seventh level!

30 was the maximum amount of times he could cycle Qi according to the Void King technique. He could repeat this amount though, until Master Ti Wu told him to stop.

He started circulating his Qi and managed to do so 2 more times before it lost it’s effects. Now his strength was at 120,500 pounds or 60.25 tons! This mean Chu Shen was now 242% stronger physically than any normal Martial Practitioner! He was actually stronger than a level 10 Practitioner! Chu Shen knew exactly what this meant.

With his Null Qi and his immense physical strength and defense, didn’t this mean he was invincible unless he encountered an overwhelming opponent? This must have been what the Five Heavenly Mountains Sect had been afraid of.

Imagine, the nullification of all abilities except to fight someone on their strong points. It would be similar to facing a charging bull while in a dead end alleyway with no way to dodge. Unless you were lucky or had great skill, you would not get away unscathed. The Void sect sure was powerful.

Master Ti Wu, on the other hand, was flabbergasted. ‘Most people need two or three years to breakthrough into the 3rd stage of the Void King technique! Truly, Chu Shen is a cultivation genius, just like I thought. ‘

Master Ti Wu sighed mentally. Suddenly he thought of something and his eyes immediately widened. ‘Wait! If he uses up so much Void Qi training, then doesn’t that mean i’m running out as well!?’

Chu Shen left the Black Night Sect. He found Lucas waiting at a nearby restaurant. It was their agreed upon spot. Then they left for the forest and sparred out there.

Lucas and Chu Shen faced each other. “So Chu Shen, you ready to get beaten?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

Chu Shen smirked back at him. “No, but it seems like you are. Come, show me how strong you are!” Chu Shen dashed at Lucas.

Lucas crouched low, gathering strength. Suddenly he leapt forward like a spring that had been released. He shot towards Chu Shen, almost catching him off guard. But Chu Shen was able to punch Lucas in the shoulder, sending him spinning backwards through several trees.

Lucas stood up amidst the splinters of one of the trees he destroyed. He grinned at Chu Shen. “Hehe. Dragon Iron lives up to its name. It barely tickled.” He charged towards Chu Shen. “Come on then! Let’s go again!”

Lucas and Chu Shen launched flurries of blows against each other. They would throw a punch while blocking the others at a speed so fast their hands were almost invisible to the naked eye.

Then, Lucas managed to land a punch on Chu Shen’s chest. He repeated the tragic accident of Lucas, flying backwards through the forest. However, he stood up with barely a mark on him. He immediately charged back towards Lucas.

It was amazing. Even with Chu Shen’s massive increase of strength, they was still evenly matched with each other. It should have been no surprise though that Lucas kept up with Chu Shen. His body was made of Dragon Iron and Heavy Iron Gold, both of which were very tough.

Chu Shen couldn’t even make a dent in his body, though he could send Lucas flying which was extremely satisfying. Then with Lucas’ electromagnetic powered muscles, he was just as strong as Chu Shen, if not a bit stronger.

The only thing that Chu Shen could do that Lucas couldn’t was pummel him with Qi from afar. So far, that was his only advantage. If Lucas got around to recreating his weapons and stocking up on beast cores than even Chu Shen would be in trouble.

Of course, Lucas would be stuck at this level of strength until he upgraded his beast cores. Otherwise, Chu Shen would advance his cultivation quickly and leave Lucas behind.

Lucas sighed as Chu Shen laid on the ground, exhausted from their fight. Chu Shen looked up at Lucas curiously. “Why are you sighing? You could have won that if you had your beast cores.”

Lucas waved his hand. “No, it’s not that. I had the same thought which is why I’m sighing. I’m going to be real busy working to recreate my equipment.”

Chu Shen nodded. “And I’m going to be busy cultivating and forging to get the money for those weapons you’re making.”

Both of them sighed at the upcoming dreary days.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 98



Chapter 98
Lucas Revived (For Real This Time)

“Alright Lucas, are you ready to start making your body?” Chu Shen asked. They had found the deposit very quickly after they found the nest. Lucas was very adept with the mineral scanner after all. Then they headed home to the fabber.

“Yep, I’m ready. I’m uploading the designs right now.” Lucas said with a smile.

Chu Shen started looking at the designs. It was a very wonderfully crafted design. The outside view was solid metal, extremely durable. Also very expensive. Of course, with the artificial skin it would look like a normal person. Or at least a giant muscular man, completely unlike the teenage Lucas before.

“So Lucas, what is this design like? What did you make exactly?” Chu Shen asked, a bit confused.

“Well, it’s very special. I used Heavy Iron Gold, which is highly magnetic, for the inside. Using electricity I can manipulate the magnetic fields at will, increasing their power by over tenfold.”

“I replaced the usual motors I had inside my last body so that it gives me far greater strength. And even better, the greater the power the greater the increase.”

“Next I used Dragon Iron, which is tremendously strong, for the internal frame and exoskeleton. Of course I also made sure it couldn’t be magnetized otherwise we could have issues. My positronic brain is supposed to go in the chest while the head contains the beast core needed for power.”

“I also modified the [Channeling Inscription] so that it releases Qi in a forcefield like way, similar to the body shield you have. Unfortunately I don’t have a way to contain it so it just wastes Qi. So until I can recreate the power of the soul, I can’t use it too much.”

“Each arm and leg has the space for over three types of beast cores. I also made it to where I can switch cores so in case they have different attributes. There is a burst and channeling inscription that leads to my palm and foot that I can activate for firing Qi.”

Chu Shen nodded before suddenly cocking his head. “Wait, I know you said that you can make inscriptions with the fabber, but how? You need to fluctuate the Qi as you put it down so if you just make the inscription pattern it won’t work.”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah but you forgot that any energy can work. A laser is a form of energy. I changed the laser scanners program so that as the inscription ink is put down, the laser hits the energy with the exact amount needed. That is how I made all the previous inscriptions.”

Chu Shen was stunned. “Well, I truly didn’t think of that. Way to think outside the box Lucas.” He gave him a thumbs up.

Lucas grinned. “Thanks. Now can you go ahead and load up the fabber with the materials? I can’t exactly do that with my body right now.” He shrugged helplessly. “I am still a hologram after all.”

Chu Shen smiled sheepishly and rubbed his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry Lucas, I’ll start right away.” He started lifting materials and putting them into the fabber.

The fabber whirred to life as it started to print out Lucas’ body. It was creepy. First a robot like frame started to come into being. Then skin started to cover it, turning it into a facsimile of a human body. Definitely creepy.

While Chu Shen was both fascinated and disgusted at the creation of Lucas’ new body, Lucas himself was staring at it with intense anticipation. It had been so long since he was able to taste food, feel the sunshine, or just touch something. He couldn’t wait until he could do so once more.

Finally, the process was done. It laid on the floor while Lucas stared at it eagerly. Lucas looked up at Chu Shen. “Hey! Would you mind putting my brain inside my body?”

Chu Shen shook his head. “You have no idea how weird that sounded. Alright, where’s the holo-drone?” The sphere of metal appeared in front of him. Opening it, Chu Shen took out Lucas’ braincase.

Going over to the body on the floor, he hesitated. How was he supposed to open it? The chest suddenly opened up, spreading into eight equal parts like a crab. The inside was very intricate. Inside though was a solid metal part in the left side of the body, opposite where a person’s heart normally was.

The metal part also opened up. It was an armored shell for Lucas’ positronic brain. Chu Shen opened up the braincase and placed the gray orb that was Lucas’ brain into the android body they had made.

The armored shell closed and a second later the chest cavity closed as well. Chu Shen watched Lucas, waiting for him to stand up. But nothing happened. He wasn’t worried, Lucas was probably just testing it out.

However, once five minutes had gone by, he started to worry. “Lucas, you alright?” There was no response. Chu Shen started to panic when he thought of something. You know, he never did put a beast core inside the body, did he?

He quickly withdrew a lightning beast core and went over to the head region. The head opened in a similar fashion to the chest. Placing it inside, the inscriptions pulsed brightly once as the energy from the beast core surged through it. The inscription ink all down his body lit up a bright gold, looking like divine tattoos. Chu Shen recognized it as the channeling inscription Lucas told him about.

The inscription ink faded as the energy calmed down. Lucas suddenly stood up, towering over the five foot 2 inch kid Chu Shen with his now massive height of 6 foot nine inches.

Lucas had turned into a true giant with arms and legs as big as half a tree trunk. Lucas turned to look at Chu Shen and then smirked. Reaching out a hand, he ruffled Chu Shen’s hair.

“How’s the weather down there, short stuff?” Lucas smirked at Chu Shen.

Chu Shen glared back at Lucas. “It’s nice and shady you oak. Real smart of you to forget to put a power source in your own body.”

Lucas shrugged. “Well you’re no better. You forget to remind me. You know, if I didn’t have an internal battery, I may have died.”

“No way. So how’s the body?” Chu Shen asked.

Lucas shrugged. “I have no idea. How about you help me get used to it?”

Master Ti Wu spoke up right as Chu Shen was about to agree. ‘Wait. You need to use the <Void King> technique to increase your strength. I have stored up enough Void Qi to use it in your training.’

Chu Shen shook his head. “Unfortunately I need to train. But it shouldn’t take too long, maybe an hour. After that, we can see about sparring to get you used to that body.”



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 97



Chapter 97
Collecting the Materials

Chu Shen flew in the clouds high above the ground. He held the mineral scanner in his hand. Lucas’ voice came out of the jetpack. “Nope, can’t detect it here either.”

Chu Shen sighed. They had searched for two days now and collected a small amount but they still needed more. It was tiring to search for such a long time with no rest.

“Hey wait, I detected something in the mountain over there. I’m circling back around so be ready.” Lucas informed Chu Shen.

“Alright.” The jetpack banked, turning around. The mountain in question was fairly large, one of the biggest mountains within a hundred miles. After a couple minutes of circling the mountain, Lucas spoke up.

“It’s definitely down there. Let’s get down there.” Suddenly, a loud screech echoed out. SCREEECH! Simultaneously, there was a large shockwave that hit Chu Shen and Lucas, throwing them backwards. The jetpack became destabilized from the blow.

“Hold on, I can’t keep it steady! We’re going down!” Lucas yelled at him. The jetpack started spinning, gently at first before spinning faster and faster. Chu Shen was becoming disoriented.

Chu Shen caught glimpses of the ground. It was closing fast. The jetpack wouldn’t let him slow down in time. He activated his body shield in anticipation of the impact. Waiting until the last minute so that the impact would not be so great, Chu Shen hit the ground, creating a huge crater in the ground.

Getting up, Chu Shen shook his head. “Man, what hit me? That must be some beast.” SCREEECH. Suddenly, a bird swooped down at him, catching him a glancing blow to his shoulder with it’s claws.

Chu Shen was thrown backwards, flying through the air until he hit the mountain, making a crater in the rock. The bird flew back upwards, escaping into the sky. It wheeled back around while Chu Shen was just getting back to his feet.

The portion of his body shield that covered his shoulder had cracks in it. The eagle opened it’s mouth. When it did, it spat out a blade of wind that streaked towards Chu Shen.

The wind blade was almost invisible. There was a faint blur that told where it was. Chu Shen smiled at that. His body shield may not have been good at blocking physical attacks, but energy attacks were perfect.

Chu Shen lifted his arm and blocked the wind blade. When it hit his arm, the wind blade, unexpectedly, was not absorbed by it. The windblade only seemed to have been weakened severely, striking Chu Shen’s body shield. His arm wavered slightly while Chu Shen was bewildered at not being able to absorb the attack.

Recognizing the danger he was in though, Chu Shen immediately started running away from the Screecher Eagle, as the primordial beast was called. The eagle let out a loud SCREECH and flew after Chu Shen.

Multiple wind blades flew towards Chu Shen from the eagles open mouth. Chu Shen started dodging frantically, avoiding the blurry wind blades. But after a couple hits, Chu Shen realized something.

The wind blades was actual wind that was charged with Qi. The Qi accelerated the wind into a deadly blade with the Qi supporting the attack. Chu Shen smiled when he came to this conclusion.

While the Qi charged blades were deadly to others, to him they were merely a nuisance. It removed a worry he had that these blades could ignore his null Qi. It was actually a physical attack! That was why the wind blades had an effect on him, though since he absorbed the Qi that supported, it the damage was decreased by over 70%.

With this, Chu Shen realized he was no longer in any real danger. But with this conclusion, he would only take minor damage and with the influx of Qi from the absorbed attacks, he would be able to handle it with ease. However, this new information on how Qi could be used to manipulate the physical elements like that was concerning.

The eagle continued shooting wind blades. But now, Chu Shen turned around and let the wind blades hit him at will. The eagle SCREEECHED at the fact that it’s attacks were ineffective. The eagle swooped downwards, extending its claws towards Chu Shen.

Chu Shen waited until the last second before jumping into the air and hitting the eagle in the head with his hammer. The eagle was smashed into the ground, creating a large crater. Falling, Chu Shen leapt into the crater and hit the eagle upside the head again.

The blow to the eagles head had left it disoriented. The second blow knocked the eagle out. Chu Shen looked at the unconscious eagle for a moment. Finally, he waved his hand. “Bah, I’m not hunting. So long as it learns not to mess with me, it’s best to let it be.”

Chu Shen leapt out of the crater and into the air. Withdrawing the mineral scanner, he resumed his hunt for the resources he needed. He also took Lucas out since he needed him to operate the scanner. He put Lucas inside the holo-drone since the camouflage system seemed to work well.

“Whoa! What’s with that eagle? It’s wingspan is over ten foot! That’s enormous!”

“Well it was the beast that attacked us, so I had to fight against it for a bit. Luckily it’s a class 5 beast so there was no real threat.”

“Nice! But why is it still alive? We could trade the beast core and corpse for money you know.”

“Yeah but we can earn money through forging. No need to kill if we don’t have to. Now come on, we have to collect that plastic.”

“Fine. Wait! I’m detecting the movement up here! Come on!” Lucas floated through the air as the holo-drone took off up the slope. Chu Shen sighed and ran behind him.

When they reached the top, Chu Shen was shocked. Surprisingly there was a nest! A nest of the Screecher Eagle! Upon seeing it, Chu Shen nodded. Apparently the eagle was only protecting it’s young. Sighing, he turned around.

“Come on Lucas, we still need that plastic. Let’s go.” Chu Shen smiled, feeling glad for not killing the eagle. It would still need to raise it’s young after all. Unknown to him was the much larger, Class 7 Black Hawk that was staring at him from the clouds above.

It’s great sight had caught Chu Shen coming closer to it’s nest and it was prepared to swoop down and kill him instantly. The only reason it didn’t was because it saw Chu Shen spare it’s mate, though it was confused by the flying sphere and human that appeared out of nowhere.

Humans were often greedy, killing without hesitation over a couple gold pieces. As the saying goes, beasts die for food and humans die for money. The Black Hawk had experienced this and killed many greedy humans who had attacked it’s family. But these humans were not so greedy.

The Black Hawk watched the humans climb to the base of the mountain and start digging. After a while they did a weird jig. One of them took out a black box out of the sphere thing and then into a metal object that appeared as well. Then they flew off, just like a bird.

Swooping down to his mate, he picked up here limp body and placed her inside his nest. The Black Hawk stared at the quickly dwindling image of the human. No one could tell what it was thinking.

Meanwhile, The Black Rose Guild Branch Manager just dismissed the life slip servant. Leaning back in his chair, the fat man sighed. He was just going to have to give up the mission.

The forger Lai Den and did not have the money required to raise the missions difficulty. If that was the only issue than he would have helped out to foster closer relations but there was an additional issue. There was no higher squad available to a small branch like him.

It seems as though he would have to give up and hope Lai Den did not get too upset.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 96



Chapter 96
Invincible?

Chu Shen faced the four men while three of them walked forward slowly, leaving the one with the bow at a distance. Bringing out his hammer, the three men brought out their own weapons. Two were armed with swords while another with a spear.

Slowly they circled around Chu Shen. Everyone’s body shields appeared simultaneously, like an invisible signal was given. “Why are you attacking me? I did you no wrong.” Chu Shen asked, while facing the one in front of him.

The man grinned. “Well, I may not have a grudge with you, but someone want’s that knowledge you have. All we are doing is collecting a paycheck. Don’t worry though, we won’t kill you. Come along quietly. There is no shame for a Level 3 Martial Practitioner facing four Level 10 Martial Practitioners to surrender.”

Chu Shen did not reply but merely hefted his hammer in response. The man sighed. “Oh well, I didn’t think it would work anyways. Okay boys, we go with the first formation.”

As soon as the man finished speaking, an arrow streaked towards Chu Shen. Hurriedly bringing up his hammer, Chu Shen knocked the hammer away. But unfortunately, the attack was merely a distraction.

A wall of energy suddenly appeared between the front man and man beside him. Quickly glancing around, Chu Shen realized he was in a triangle shaped cage of energy that came to a dome, closing off all routes of escape.

The man smiled at him sadistically. “Alright then, I would surrender now. You have no chance of escaping.”

“Hey! Aren’t you supposed to capture me too?” A voice called out. Everyone’s heads swiveled towards the source of the voice. Everyone could see Lucas as he stepped out of the forest and faced the captured Chu Shen.

“That’s the mortal servant. Take care of him, alive if you can.” The man who had been speaking to Chu Shen gestured towards the archer. The archer nodded and immediately lifted his bow, launching an arrow towards Lucas.

The arrow hit Lucas, flying right through him. His image distorted and then reappeared five yards away. “Come on now, you missed. Try again~.”

The archer immediately became incensed and started launching arrow after arrow. Five, ten, thirty, forty. Not a single one of his arrows actually touched Lucas.

The archer, who was at first blinded by rage, broke out into cold sweat. He had cooled off by now and realized something was off. This kid was so fast that he couldn’t even see him move. This boy was dangerous.

While the archer started trying to think, Lucas stood there watching him. “Can’t hit me?” Lucas asked. “Well if you can’t, then how about I hit you?” Lucas held up a palm. Suddenly, a beam of silver-blue energy erupted from his palm.

The beam was like several lightning bolts tangled together and shot towards the archer. Face immediately paling at the immense power he could sense, he immediately tried to dodge but unfortunately, the beam was too fast. It was already upon him before he could think.

Circulating his Qi, the archer strengthened his shield as much as possible. Unfortunately, he did not have a melee weapon to help block the attack so he had to take it on with his hands.

The lightning beam struck the archer, launching him backwards. The beam continuing striking the archer. His body shield flared up for a second before dimming and disappearing. The archer immediately screamed as the lightning beam cut through his body without resistance.

His body convulsed, his skin burning from the massive amount of energy coursing through him. A five inch hole was burned through his arm and chest. The archer was dead without a doubt.

“Huh. Guess he was just a bit too weak.” Lucas said, looking a bit disappointed. The three men were stunned by the sudden death of their companion, but they were jolted out of their shock by Lucas’ word.

“Don’t move. If you do then we will kill your friend here.” The man said. To emphasize his point, the barriers surrounding Chu Shen immediately shrunk. “We can crush him with the barrier with a single thought.”

Lucas held up a finger and shook it. “Uh uh uh. You shouldn’t do that.”

The man laughed. “And why wouldn’t I-” Immediately his head burst into a mist of blood as Chu Shen’s hammer passed through the barrier and his body shield like a hot knife through butter.

Of course Chu Shen was never captured. He just wanted to give Lucas a chance to test his toys. “Come on Lucas, let’s get this over with.”

Lucas sighed. “Well, we could give them a fighting chance you know? I still need to test out my toys.”

Chu Shen glared at him. Lucas shrugged. “All right fine.”

The two shocked companions had already started to escape. Lucas raised his hand up before suddenly bringing it down. Immediately three other beams of lightning shot out from right behind the two fleeing companions. They died, writhing in pain from the lightning.

Lucas smiled. “Well, it’s too bad the Beast Core Drones have only one shot but they are very powerful”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yeah. You seem to be invincible so long as they don’t see the holo-drone. Using the other drones to make it seem like you are shooting it from you palm was genius.”

Lucas grinned at the compliment. “Well, we should get on our way. Mind bringing out the jetpack so I can control it?”

Chu Shen shook his head. “Not yet, we need to check their bodies for loot.” He went over and started to check the corpses. They didn’t have a whole lot, they were from a small branch of the Black Rose Guild anyways. As a matter of fact, the only spatial ring was on the leaders body.

Lucas sighed. “They were really too poor. Anways, lets go.”



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 95



Chapter 95
Confrontation

“So when are we going to fly again?” Lucas asked. Currently Chu Shen was carrying his braincase under his arm. The jetpack was still stored inside his spatial ring for some reason.

“Well we still need to get far enough away so they won’t detect us from the city. There are some true powerhouses there and if we are not far enough it could spell disaster. Now shut up, there’s a caravan coming.”

They waited while the large procession of wagons, guards, and merchants passed by. The animals that pulled the wagons looked like horses with scales and horns.

They were Lizard Horses, famed for their stamina and defense though their attack and speed were questionable. These traits made them the best for pulling carriages such as these.

After they passed Lucas started talking again. “So why am I not using the Holo-Drone again? It can fly you know since I don’t feel like being carried.”

“Because, what will people think of a metal flying ball? To most you might be a wondrous artifact, something that others would kill us for. And yes I know it has an invisibility mode and we already proved that I can’t see it.”

“However, we can’t guarantee that the invisibility will hold up against someone with a higher level cultivation. If they see you then, once again, it will spell disaster. Especially since they will be stronger than me.”

“Well, I think with my new toys I should be able to take care of one or two stronger martial artists.”

“This is our lives we are talking about. We can’t take such risks. Until you can prove the trustworthiness of the invisibility cloak, or it is a life and death situation, we cannot take the chance.”

“Humph. With such a sub-standard fabber, I can’t make a better cloaking system. We need to make another fabber but the materials just aren’t available without extensive searching using the mineral scanner.”

“Sorry Lucas, you are going to have to wait. We are already pushing our luck the way it is.”

“Fine.”

Meanwhile, the four man group from the Black Rose Guild followed behind them. They were mounted on Lizard Horses. While Lizard Horses were not fast or agile in combat, it was still true they were one of the best long distance mounts there was for land. All of the real elites used flying mounts.

Slowly they closed in on Chu Shen and Lucas. Soon they reached a distance of about two miles from the city. Chu Shen took out the jetpack and put Lucas in it. “Alright then Lucas, you ready to go?”

“You bet.”

As Chu Shen started to strap it on, he felt a disturbance in the force. Ahem, Qi. Reacting immediately, Chu Shen jumped backwards. An arrow streaked past him, sinking into the ground like a hot knife through butter.

Cold sweat dripped off of his forehead. Luckily he felt the Qi surging towards him otherwise he would have been hit by the arrow. He jumped into the forest nearby. It was a good thing he did too.

Four Lizard Horses reached the spot he jumped off the road within ten seconds him jumping. One of the men on the horses held a bow in his hand. The man was frowning.

“They said he was a Martial Student. No way am I buying that, no student could have sensed my arrow, let alone dodged it.”

One of the other men sighed and scratched his head. “Well, if the arrow had hit his leg like we planned, he wouldn’t have been able to flee. Seems like we need to hunt him down now. What a bother.”

The man was promptly hit upside the head by the first person who spoke. “Oh shut up. We’re getting paid for this, so do your job! Now, let’s go. Let the horses follow from a distance so they don’t get in the way. He shouldn’t have fled too far.”

Suddenly the man frowned. “Hmm. It seems like our prey isn’t that timid. Get ready boys, he scanned us so I know where he is now.” The man rubbed his hands. “Looks like this isn’t going to take as long as you thought eh?” He elbowed the second man who spoke.

“Yeah, it’s better this way otherwise it’s too much of a hassle.”

When the four men rode their horses up, Chu Shen immediately frowned. Pulling out the Holo-Drone, along with four tube-shaped objects, Chu Shen loaded Lucas’ braincase into the drone.

“Alright Lucas, you ready?”

The drone floated up a bit with only a soft blue glow along with the four tubes. “Yep. How do I look?” When he said that, a blue light shot out and seemed to scan all of them. Suddenly they disappeared from his sight.

“Great job. Now are you ready?” Chu Shen asked. Then Lucas appeared in front of him, looking the exact same as he did before he had self-destructed.

Lucas nodded. “Yep, I’m ready.”

“Good now I am going to use my spiritual sense to determine how strong they are before we fight. Be ready because they will immediately be able to find me. Tell me quick, are there any open areas nearby?”

“Yes. There is one without any animals around. But why don’t you want to fight them on the road?”

“Because if we do then some caravans may become involved. There would be too many complications. Of course if we are outclassed by them, running until I can put the jetpack on while you distract them is the best course of action.”

“Okay then, I trust your judgement. Anyways, I can get you to the clearing anytime your ready.”

Excellent. I’m scanning them now. Get ready to guide me to the clearing.” Upon scanning them Chu Shen nodded. “All four of them are Level four Martial Practitioners. Troublesome, but not enough to put us in dire straights.”

“Good.” Lucas disappeared into thin air while Chu Shen ran towards the clearing, small balls of light guiding him to the clearing. Chu Shen could hear other martial artists following him.

Reaching the clearing, Chu Shen ran to the other side before then turning around. Reaching his right hand up his left hands sleeve, Chu Shen seemed to fiddling with something. Right as he finished, they appeared.

The Black Rose Guild.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 94



Chapter 94
Lucas Revives

Chu Shen was quite busy forging for a month. Originally Chu Shen thought that having ten gold was a lot but apparently not. For someone who could forge a Grade 5 weapon in a half hour, it was child’s play to earn such money.

The master smith had been shocked at having a hundred gold and commented how it took half a year to make that amount. The gold Chu Shen earned in this month was over two hundred gold alone. As for the reason, it was simple. Chu Shen was an artificer.

A smith has to buy the materials and then forge the weapon. Afterwards it needs to be inscribed otherwise it can only be considered a trashy weapon and not a true weapon. Because of this a smith has to split the profit 50-50 with the inscriptionist, not to mention the cost for it.

Considering all this, if a weapon sells for 80 silver, which is how much a Low-Tier Grade 5 weapon costs, the smith would be lucky to have made a profit of 30 or even 20 silver. Truly artificing is a noble profession.

Chu Shen forged for five hours everyday. Using these five hours he would sell ten weapons making 800 silver or 8 gold everyday. Using 1 gold to replenish his materials, Chu Shen would be able to forge for the next day.

Chu Shen also spent another two hours using the library that the Four Treasures Shop allowed him authority. Since his tablets authority outweighed his true ability, some of the books were far out of his understanding. His abilities soared as he learned.

But as the saying goes, you learn more walking a thousand miles than reading a thousand books. Chu Shen spent another two hours experimenting and applying the theories that he learned from the library, using another gold to buy materials. But he was able to earn it back from the products he made.

Next he talked with Lucas for an hour, since he said he was bored. Finally Chu Shen used another hour to cultivate. With this, Chu Shen was busy for eleven hours straight. Truly working from tirelessly. With this, Chu Shen earned over 210 gold.

While Chu Shen enjoyed this leisurely lifestyle, others cursed at him for doing so.

The Black Rose Guild had successfully sent a group of four to track down and capture Chu Shen. All of them were peak Martial Practitioners being at level 10. They were one of the elite squads and were considered quite good at such a low level branch of the Black Rose Guild.

Once they arrived, they bought some room at an inn. “Come one, we need to capture that boy right away.” One of the men stood up like he was going to go looking for him right now.

“Sit down you!” One of the other men grabbed him and hauled him back into his chair. “We have eyes on him in the city. Until he leaves we cannot attack him inside the city, otherwise we will be smacking the city lord’s face and our Black Rose Guild would not be able to protect us. Wait until he is outside the city, then we strike.”

The man who was pulled back into his chair huffed. “Fine. It is an accurate assessment but if this takes longer than half a month I am leaving.”

One of the other men who had not spoken yet rolled his eyes. “You always were impatient. How about you use this time to cultivate?”

“Nah, I would rather kill something. I need action.” The impulsive man sighed. “Unfortunately there really is nothing here. I hope that Chu Shen leaves the city soon.”

Meanwhile, Chu Shen exited the Four Treasure Shop’s main business center. He walked out rubbing his spatial ring. “I got all the materials Lucas told me he needed. I can’t wait to find out what he made his body like this time.”

Chu Shen walked into his house at the Black Night Sect. Taking out Lucas from the spatial ring, he placed his braincase on the bed. “So Chu Shen, you came home early. Why?”

He shrugged. “Well I finally gathered all those materials you needed. I think it’s time to make that body you were talking about.”

“Yeah. That will be great. Now bring out the fabber and start loading up the materials according to the schematics.”

Chu Shen did as Lucas said. The materials were only a very small portion of the overall materials that he had bought. Looking curiously, Chu Shen waited for the fabber to finish.

Upon looking at the finished product, he immediately became confused. It was a fairly large box with a circular dent in the top. Looking around for a bit, Chu Shen found that was all that was truly there.

“What is this thing Lucas? I thought you wanted a body?”

Lucas sighed. “Well, in order to make synthetic skin, I need some very specific materials. Unfortunately, you don’t have them since you guys don’t need polyvinyl, polyethylene, and other plastic products.”
“So I made this, a mineral scanner. You should be able to find the unrefined products in the wild and transport them here. With that I will be able to walk around like a person and not some metallic monster.”

Chu Shen nodded. Of course this made sense. In order to make synthetic skin, such plastic materials were needed but plastic was not used by martial artists since only modern factories actually used them

“So what do I need to do?”

“All you need to do is activate this thing and carry it with you when you fly. I will come with you to manage the software and also to activate the jetpack. So don’t fret, it won’t take that long.”

“Besides that, I have a couple other things I need you to make for me. You did agree to it. So go ahead and load it inside the fabber.”

Chu Shen sighed and started working. Grumbling, he muttered under his breath. “I’m not a slave. When you get out, i’m going to repay you back so much for this.”

The next day, Chu Shen departed from the city. Inside the inn, the brash man from the Black Rose Guild was sleeping soundly. All of a sudden, he was rudely shoved out of bed.

Jumping up, the man grabbed his sword from the stand. “Who dares to treat me lik-”

“Give it a rest. Come on we need to move out.” One of the other men stood in front of him, glaring at the man harshly.

“The prey is leaving the city.”



 

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[Vol 4] Chapter 58: Enlightenment



On the battleground where the two parties were currently facing each other, what seemed like a meteorite fell from the skies and caught everyone’s attention. With a loud deafening sound, akin to an explosion, rang out as this seemingly strange activity occurred. From the huge dust storm that swirled around the area of impact, a man with ghostly looking eyes walked out. This was Svecko who had landed and disrupted the current squabbles.

 

“Sir Svecko!” the Minya warriors called out in joy.

 

Svecko ignored their calls and immediately dashed towards Ducarte and his daughter. Without saying a word, Svecko grabbed both Ducarte and his daughter and immediately flew towards the sky again. Everyone’s expression became confused as they had no idea what Svecko’s action meant. Both parties were equally nervous as Svecko’s actions were not entirely clear. On the one hand, the Minya warriors were nervous and secretly hoped Svecko was not abandoning them, and on the side of the warriors were hoping Svecko wasn’t going to interfere. No one knew what the conclusion of the battle between Svecko and Willard. Each side could only hope for the best.

 

After waiting a couple of minutes and realizing Svecko wasn’t coming back, the Gerret warriors found a new source of courage as they quickly mobilized to kill fight the Minya warriors. To add on to their delight, they saw reinforcements in the form of the Marquis city’s primero knight join the battle. Allan’s fame as a knight within Marquis city was second to none. And for him to join the fight meant one thing, he had killed Aswan. Without Ducarte and their military leader, the Minya warriors knew they had lost the battle. At this point, the Minya warriors had lost the will to battle, one by one they each dropped their weapons and proceeded to kneel in submission. In a matter of minutes, the surrendering Minya warriors were all rounded and escorted to a prison camp.

 

The battle that had seemed almost impossible to lose, had been lost. A wild sense of jubilation filled every surviving member of the Gerret household. Who would have thought their suicide battle would have been won today? And in their celebrations, one person’s name rang the loudest. The youth that had had personally intervened to save their lives against ranked spells and had thoroughly held his own even against a saint. From that moment on, a new legend had been born to the people of Marquis city. For generations, people would tell tales of a youth that had fought a saint at the elemental level of power.

 

***************

A couple of hours later, within the Gerret household, a banquet was currently being held. All the Gerret warriors were celebrating their victory with wine and food. Within a private study in the house, stood Jayesh, Sebastian, Allan, Bryant and a couple of higher ranking warriors. This list included both knights that had joined Allan to reinforce the Gerret household and Baya. At this moment, everyone’s gaze was Willard who was currently laying on a bed. “This child

Is currently in a grave situation,” Bryant said as he touched Willard’s forehead.

 

“Is there anything we could do to help him?” Baya asked with a distressed look on his face.

 

“He used up all of his elemental essence during his battle with the snow saint and ended up using his life essence. At this point, it would really be up to him to survive this,” Bryant said.

 

“It is thanks to this child my Gerret family was not completely killed out,” Jayesh sighed as he stared at the Willard. As someone who had almost reached the level of a saint, he knew what dangers Willard was in right now. It was taboo for any warrior to use their life essence to battle because that meant suicide.  

 

Everyone remained silent for a couple of seconds before the silence was broken by Allan. “Esteemed saint, lord Jayesh. We would be taking our leave right now. We have to wait and report the outcome to the lord of the Marquis household.” With that, Allan and the rest of the knights paid their respects and left.

 

Jayesh looked at his son Sebastian and gave a gentle smile. “You did well,” he said.  “You might not have the body of a warrior, but you more than makeup for it with your bravery.” Hearing those words from his father brought a smile to Sebastian’s face, which was immediately overridden by a sense of guilt Sebastian felt for the current situation Willard was in. Jayesh felt a great sense of pride looking at his son and seeing how he managed the situation. Not only did Sebastian not completely cowering in fear, he also chose to fight rather than submit.

 

************

At the Marquis, a quiet maelstrom was slowly brewing. Rumors of the complete decimation of the Minya forces were flying around the mansion. Lyon was seated on a wooden bench behind his quarters and was in deep contemplation. “How is this possible? Even our spy network has confirmed every bit of this information.”  Lyon was currently frustrated at how things had turned out. He had previously refused to head over to the aid of the Gerret family and was heavily criticized by all the knights. Lyon had believed his actions were right, given the strength of the Minya resistance, there was no way the insignificant Gerret family would have survived this disaster. But somehow, the people he held in no regards had not only survived, they had won the battle without the official aid of the Marquis family. Lyon’s frustration mostly stemmed from the fact that Sebastian actually lead their family to victory.

 

“That damn Sebastian must be gloating now,” Lyon said with burning rage. “Those useless Minya dogs couldn’t even win against the Gerret. This was supposed to be my glory, those fools couldn’t even handle that much.”

 

Lyon got up from the bench and walked towards the main hall of the inner mansion. He frowned all through the way there. He sat at the head of the war chamber and patiently waited for the arrival of the knights.

 

It took about an hour for Allan and his company to arrive back at the Marquis household. On arriving the atmosphere was much different than when they had left. At their arrival, all of the knights that had assembled back for a meeting, all got up.

 

Lyon who sat at the head of the table, stood up to address the incoming knights. Before he could utter a single word, a big wave of praises came flooding the room. “Congratulations primero knight! Lord of the sword prevails again!”

 

More praises kept pouring as the other knights joined in congratulating. Within the congratulations, a sense of guilt could be felt from every single one of their praises. They were sworn-knights with the duty of protecting their city, but they had hesitated in doing their duty and instead chose to obey the word of the next city lord. Especially after the victory of the Gerret household, they all had faces covered in guilt and praises of the strong primero knight.

 

“Congratulations primero knight, your battle was successful. This entire city owes you a great deal of debt,” Lyon said with a smile on his face. Although he showed a glowing smile, he was inwardly causing at his terrible luck. Not only had the primero knight undermined his authority, he had also returned successfully. How could he not be angry? His entire actions were nothing short of cowardly.

 

“No need for all these praises. The battle would have been won by the Gerret household with or without our intervention,” Allan said in response to Lyon’s comments.

 

“What do you mean primero knight?” Lyon asked with a startled expression. Not just Lyon, all the other knights were equally as confused. What did the primero knight mean by his statement? Was he trying to say one household, had more power than the combined forces of several households? Everyone had thought it was the efforts of the primero knight that would have won them their victory.

 

“The next generation of the Gerret household is quite commendable,” Allen said taking a slight jab at Lyon. “Especially the youth called Willard,” he said before pausing with a slight look of adoration. With that, Allen kept quiet and silently sat on the table. Following his lead, was Agness and Tadea. The look of frustration on Lyon’s face grew more apparent, but he couldn’t say a word. Allan and the rest of the group spoke about some of the events that had happened but left out some of the important matter like the appearance of the metal saint.

 

*******************

A week had passed since the advent of the Minya uprising. At the Gerret household, Willard was still in a coma. Nana stood by his bed tending to his body. Within a world shrouded in gray clouds, Willard was walking in a straight direction. “What the hell is this place? I’ve been walking for how long now and I still can’t find a trace of any life,” he said in a frustrated manner. “How the hell did I end up here? I can’t even remember anything.”

 

While Nana was tending to his body, tears slowly started falling from her eyes. She leaned on his lifeless body of Willard and started crying. She felt quite miserable seeing Willard in his current state. After the death of her parents, she had always been at the side of her teacher, and after the departure of her teacher, Willard had assumed the position of the most important person in her life. “Please come back. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave Nana” she said with all the grief she held in her heart.

 

Within the strange world, Willard stood in place as a strange sensation gripped his entire body. Slowly Willard heard the words “Please come back.”

 

“Who was that?”

“Why does that voice sound so familiar?” When suddenly something akin to sunlight pierced through that gray world of his, but this sunlight was red and ethereal in feeling.

 

“What is this? Why does it feel so familiar?” When he then heard the words, “Don’t leave Nana!”

 

“Nana!” Willard said with a strange look on his face. Memories of a smiling young girl came to his mind. Suddenly, like an egg cracking, the gray cloudy world broke apart leaving nothing but that red sun. At that moment, a flurry of memories flashed through Willard’s mind. In the real world where Willard’s body laid, his fingers moved. Nana was too engrossed in her sorrow and failed to notice the movement of Willard’s fingers.

 

Within the red world, Willard stared at the red sun with a look of astonishment. “What is this world? Is this due to the red substance I cultivated?” Although Willard had gained a complete understanding of what lead to his current situation, he still had no idea how to leave the red world.

 

Willard sat down and stared at the red sun, and while he stared at the red sun, he felt something familiar about this red energy, he couldn’t quite put his fingers on it, but he knew that there was something peculiar about that energy. For a brief moment, Willard started thinking about all of his experience, both as the god of destruction and the mortal Willard. Like a bolt of lightning, Willard gained a sudden insight. The insight wasn’t a new found knowledge, it was more like a reminder of something he already knew. “That’s right. This red energy has the same feeling as the substance in Gaya’s eternal fountain. But why do I feel like it is still different from Gaya’s eternal fountain?” Willard continued pondering on his current findings.


In a vast world of complete darkness, void of any life, a formless figure in the shape of a woman smiled.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 93



Chapter 93
Impressing Them

The Four Treasure Shop. A prestigious shop made up of masters of various crafts that sells materials for inscriptions, alchemy, and forging. Then there is the section for Martial Artists where all of the finished products made by their craftsmen are sold.

Those who were geniuses in the paths that supported the martial way were highly valued by the shop. The reason for this was naturally profit. By finding and nurturing young geniuses, obviously they would have a loyal crafter later.

Chu Shen was not a stranger to the Four Treasures Shop. As a matter of fact, he bought materials from them when he lived back in the mercenary city. Of course, that was only a branch shop. By coincidence, the main branch was actually located here. It was of course because Wildent was the third largest city.

The master smith and Chu Shen walked into the store. Upon entering a beautiful female attendant immediately approached them, smiling. “Hello honored customer. What may I do for you?”

The master smith took out an iron tablet with writing inscribed on it. “I, Huaga Osna, request for this young man to be tested as an artificer using my authority as an iron level smith of the Four Treasure Shop.”

The attendant was stunned for a second before adopting a serious look on her face. Glancing at Chu Shen for a moment, she then turned to face the master smith Huaga Osna.

“As an iron level smith, being above a copper and bronze members, you may request this. I will take the boy to the artificer exam area. Meanwhile, please remain here until the exam is done.”

Osna bowed his head in acknowledgment. Turning to Chu Shen he patted him on the back. “Good luck boy. Try your best on the exam, hold nothing back. The better your weapon, the better your treatment.”

Chu Shen nodded and followed the attendant. She lead him to the back and knocked on a door. “Come in.” They walked into the room. Facing them was a wrinkly old man behind a desk.

The attendant bowed to the“Iron level smith Huaga Osna has request this boy be tested as an artificer. Please allow him to take the test.” The wrinkled old man looked at Chu Shen and nodded his head.

“For one so young requesting to be tested as an artificer, I wonder how far you will go. Come here young one.” Chu Shen approached the old man. When he did, the old man pulsed Qi through his body.

“Hmm. Your bone does not lie. You are thirteen, very young to be testing as an artificer. If you pass it will show your potential and even if you don’t, to be a Martial Practitioner at such a young age means you are a once in a century genius. Go, take him to the practice arena.”

Bowing, the attendant left and took Chu Shen to another area. Here another attendant took over while the first one left for the shop area. Chu Shen was lead to a forge.

“If you have any materials you need to forge, ask me now. You must pay for any materials after the trial but if you can forge a good sword the Four Treasure Shop will buy it, allowing you to pay us back this way.”

“Thank you. Can you get me the inscription ink for five tries of the [Channelling Inscription], [Hardening Inscription] and a [Burst Inscription] also get me a…..” Chu Shen started to immediately list different metals he need along with the amounts he needed. Finally Chu Shen needed some special wood for the fuel.

The attendant merely listened while Chu Shen listed these materials but inwardly he was shocked that such a young boy was so professional. Normally only experienced smiths could rattle materials off like that.

“Let me go get the materials for you.” The attendant left but within five minutes he was back. He had none of the materials in his hands. While Chu Shen was a bit confused as to where they were, the attendant took the materials out of a spatial ring he wore.

“I will stay here to assess your forging process and to assist you if need be. Please start forging.”

Chu Shen nodded and placed the wood under the forge. Lighting up the wood, he waited until it reached a good temperature. Placing the ores on it, Chu Shen started melting them down. As he waited, Chu Shen took out a crystal. It had a strangely cold aura to it.

The crystal was foggy and gave off a kind of mist around it. Using the hammer that came with the forge, Chu Shen smashed the crystal into dust. Ice formed on the edge of the hammer. Smashing the ice by pounding the hammer on the edge of the table, Chu Shen put the crystal dust into a jade box.

Continuing with the forging now that the materials were starting to soften, he pounded the metal, driving out the impurities. Chu Shen then brought out the crystal dust and poured it into the liquid metal. Mixing the materials together, Chu Shen ensured an even mixture. He had some problems since the materials started to cool from the dust but placing it back into the forge fixed that real quick.

Next, he poured the blended metal into a cast. He had to wait for it to cool but it did not take long because of the crystal dust. Taking it out of the container, Chu Shen sharpened the sword against a grindstone. Normally he didn’t do this but to ensure the highest quality sword it was a must.

Taking out the inscription bottles, Chu Shen started to inscribe. Normally such normal inscriptions would take less than ten minutes. But this was no ordinary inscriptions. Chu Shen had practiced this before but modifying inscriptions still took longer.

After thirty minutes, the sword was done. Unlike the normal silver look steel swords had, it looked like diamonds had been encrusted on the blade. It glittered with crystalline brilliance. It gave off a cold Qi and the edge flashed, making it seem deadly.

The attendant bowed. “That was a masterful performance. It seems you are no ordinary forger. Let us take the sword to the elder. He will be able to evaluate it.”

Soon they stood in front of the elder. The elder held the sword up. Channelling Qi into it and using his spiritual sense to inspect everything in detail. Placing the sword down, the elder looked at Chu Shen in shock.

“Son, may you explain exactly what the sword is and what it’s effects are. I wish to know how the maker would describe such a sword.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Well I used several different materials which I am sure you know from looking at it. But they most significant was using Frost Crystal to give it a slight ice attribute.”

“I gave it three inscriptions. I used a hardening, channelling, and burst inscription. All three are basic inscriptions but I modified the channelling and burst inscriptions.”

“The Frost Crystal has the ability to turn Martial Qi that is channelled through it into frost Qi. Granted the frost Qi is fairly weak. But the longer you channel Qi through the Frost Crystal, the stronger the frost Qi becomes.”

“As you know the burst inscription stores Qi and then unleashes it in one blow. I modified it so that the stored Qi will continuously flow throughout the entire sword using the channeling inscription.”

“Upon martial Qi being channelled into the sword, the frost Qi will then be stored back inside the burst inscription allowing you to utilize a burst of intense frost Qi.”

“The longer it is since you used the burst inscription, the more terrifying the blow. Though it is a one use weapon and needs at least ten minutes to be truly effective.”

The elder nodded at the words Chu Shen said. “Truly a good sword. I see you did not forge a sheath for it though?”

Chu Shen looked at it, then nodded a bit sheepishly. “I kind of forget about that.”

The elder smiled at Chu Shen. “It seems like you still need some experience. In order to preserve the Frost Ore you need to have a sheath. It will also need nourishment of ice attribute treasures in order to keep its attributes.”

“Honestly all that is necessary is to dip the sword into liquid ice, a material readily available that we can line a sheath with. Besides that, I would say the sword is a masterpiece.”

“It can be considered as a Low-Tier Martial Weapon Grade 10. It could even be considered as a Grade 1 Mid-Tier weapon but the nourishing aspect of the sword brings it down slightly.”

The elder then pulled out a steel tablet. Inscribed on it was the characters for Artificer Five Star below that was the number 13 and Chu Shen’s name. Artificers were ranked upon the inscriptions they could place on artifacts and the inscriptions upon the effects they could bring.

A five star inscription was suitable for Mid-Rank artifacts. Chu Shen looked at the tablet before looking back up at the elder. “To be honest, you should have only gotten a Bronze tablet and a four star inscription based on your skills. However, you are young and your future limitless.”

“As a result I deem you worthy of a Steel rank tablet. The tablet is your identification for the Four Treasures Shop. It will give you a thirty percent off all of our merchandise, the ability to use our forges for free, and finally the ability to request and accept missions from us.”

“Be warned that you will need to provide a reward if you do request a mission. As for the downsides. All we request is that you forge one Low-Tier weapon at the 4th grade or better each month along with selling all weapons you forge to us. Don’t worry, we will give you a fair price. We will also provide a salary for you. How does ten gold sound per month?”

Chu Shen was slightly shocked. He had heard from the master smith they treated their crafters well but the treatment was truly great. Ten gold a month for exclusive selling rights and one sword a month? Truly joining a big organization was a good idea.

With this, he should be able to make Lucas as good as new within a month! Chu Shen cupped his hands and bowed to the elder. “Thank you kind sir. I will not forget your magnanimity.”

The elder waved his hand. “No it is my pleasure to accept someone so talented into our Four Treasure Shop. With this, we should soon have a seven or even eight star artificer within ten years. You said it was Huaga Osna that recommended you? Well, tell him he will receive a hundred gold as payment for finding a genius like you.”

Chu Shen thanked them a couple more times before going out into the shop. There the master smith waited anxiously. Upon seeing Chu Shen he rushed up to him. “So how did it go? What kind of weapon did you forge?”

“I forged a Grade 10 Low-Tier Martial Weapon.” Chu Shen said proudly, puffing his chest up a little bit.

The master smith grinned. “Great news, great news. Show me your tablet, quickly!”

Chu Shen brought out the steel tablet. Immediately the master smith was shocked. “They gave you a steel one! I only have an Iron tablet, ranked one below yours. Ugh. If I was as young as you and forged as good as I do now I bet I could have gotten a silver tablet.”

“Ah, to envy youth is a privilege of the old. It is only too bad I did not have your talent. Luckily I discovered you.”

Chu Shen then told the master smith that he would be receiving a hundred gold as payment for recommending Chu Shen to the Four Treasure Shop. Immediately Huaga Osna became overjoyed! His shop earned that much money in half a year. To receive that much now was a great blessing!

Chu Shen then quietly departed for their forge, intending to start making a sheath for the sword and then more swords to earn money for Lucas.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 92



Chapter 92
Forging Again

“Okay, here’s your money. Now remember that you have used up your three chances to hunt here for the month. Don’t come here until next month.” The guard kindly reminded Chu Shen.

Chu Shen, who had small rips and patches of dust on his robe nodded at the guard. “Thanks, see you next month then.” With the courtesies done, Chu Shen left for his house. Once there, he changed into some cleaner clothes

“Alright, now I need to find a local forge. I should be able to rent some time there. Wait, first I need to buy the inscription ink and the materials to forge. I should be able to forge some basic swords, sabres, and a couple shields.”

Chu Shen nodded. Now that he had his plan, he just needed to execute it. Heading out, Chu Shen bought the necessary materials and asked for directions to a nearby forge.

Walking in, Chu Shen found the attendant. “Uh excuse me?”

The attendant looked up at him, blinking in confusion. “Yes? What is it?”

“Well I was wondering, this is a forge right?”

“Yes, it is. We accept custom orders if you wish to do so.”

“No. Actually, I wanted to know if I could borrow your forge so I can make some weapons.”

The attendant blinked rapidly for a second. “I…….. I’m not sure what to do. I think I need to talk to the master smith before I can make this decision. Give me a moment while I find him.”

The attendant walked through a door leading to a closed end of the shop. When the door opened Chu Shen could hear the faint ding of metal hitting metal and the shop noticeably heated up a couple degrees.

After a couple seconds, a huge man stepped into the shop, ducking to avoid hitting the doorway. The man was had his clothes covered in ash, presumably from the forge.

“So, who wants to use my forge!” The man boomed out. Chu Shen raised his hand. The man looked at him for a second before laughing. He laughed so hard that tears came out. Chu Shen only stared it him.

The man wiped a tear away. “Huh. So it’s just a brat. And I thought I might be able to hire a new forger. Go on then, leave. I don’t need an assistant right now.”

“No. I can forge artifacts all by myself. I can forge Low-Tier Martial artifacts fairly proficiently.” Chu Shen stated indignantly.

“Oh? Someone as young as you boasts about forging Low-Tier Martial artifacts? Does that mean you are an artificer?” The man said. As he did became more serious. An artificer was just too rare. If this kid truly was an artificer then he couldn’t offend him.

“Of course I can.” Chu Shen said imperiously. So many people had been arrogant and looked down upon him for so long, Chu Shen was fed up with it. Now it was his turn to be arrogant.

After a second though, Chu Shen seemed to deflate. It made him so mad when others acted arrogant. If he started doing it, didn’t that make him no better than them? Sighing, Chu Shen shrugged. No use thinking too deeply.
The man meanwhile had studied Chu Shen. Reaching out, he grabbed Chu Shen’s hand. They had slight callouses, though they were very faint. The man nodded. Seemed as though this kid did have some experience with wielding a hammer.

“Alright. I hope you can sympathize with me when I tell you that I can’t believe your story without proof. If I believed everyone that said the things you do, I would be considered a fool. So prove yourself.”

“I can give you an hour on an unused forge. If you can make a Low-Tier Martial weapon like you said, I will let you use the forge for free. But if you can’t or you damage my forge, I need you to pay me instead.”

Chu Shen nodded. It was a fair deal. If he had expected the master smith to trust such an unbelievable claim of talent without a shred of proof than all that would have proven was that the master smith was indeed a fool. “Alright, just lead me to the forge. I brought my own materials.”

The master smith nodded. “Alright. The assistant here will help you in the forge so that you aren’t distracted. You, lead this young man to forge nine. If I remember correctly, the blacksmith is taking leave for cultivation.”

The attendant who had followed the master smith back looked around for a second before pointing at himself. The man rolled his eyes. “Yes you, now go help this kid.”

The attendant didn’t say anything, only gesturing for Chu Shen to follow him. Chu Shen followed the attendant. There was a large open hall. Smoke was everywhere though most of it was billowing through the large holes on the ceiling. Obviously they were chimneys for ventilation.

The sounds of forging surrounded Chu Shen, putting him at ease. He had spent a majority of his life forging so these sounds were like a soothing lullaby to him.

Chu Shen was lead to an open room. Inside was the forge and some tools that were laid off to the side. The attendant took up a seat outside the forge while Chu Shen started laying out the materials he needed to forge. He then started mixing together the inscription ink.

Both him and the attendant said nothing about him not helping. Honestly it was Chu Shen’s way of giving face and being tactful. The real reason the attendant was here was to personally witness Chu Shen forging. Otherwise, what if Chu Shen just pretended to forge and brought out a weapon that he had bought previously?

Chu Shen started to forge, placing the metals together. Then using his Qi to manipulate the fire, he assured the even melting of the materials. Pounding out the impurities, Chu Shen repeated the steps several times. Pouring out the purified metal into the cast, Chu Shen waited for it too cool off.

Placing the finished sword on a table, Chu Shen then started the inscription process. The inscription was a simple [Burst Inscription] that stored Qi that the user could unleash all at once. Chu Shen succeeded on his first try, considering it was an inscription that he had used many times. He also used the [Hardening Inscription] to increase the sword’s durability.

As Chu Shen held up the sword to inspect it, the attendant started clapping. “I am impressed. I have seen many blacksmiths as adept as you at forging, but many were already past their prime. It is inspiring to see such talent in one so young.”

Chu Shen nodded in recognition of the praise. “Well I have been forging for a long time so it is no big surprise that I can forge so good.”

“Either way it is an achievement to be proud off. Let us go see the master smith to validate the bet.”

“Yes, let’s go.” Chu Shen found the master smith pounding away on a spear. They waited for a while and soon he put the spear in water and then left it to cool. Turning, the man expressed surprise when he saw Chu Shen.

“What? What is it boy? It’s been barely over a half hour. You can’t be quitting already?” The man cocked his head, obviously questioning Chu Shen.

Chu Shen shook his head in denial. “Quite the opposite. I am already done with the forging. Here, can you inspect this sword I forged?” The attendant held the sword in his hand and gave it the master smith upon Chu Shen’s prompting.

The smith looked at it, inspecting it very closely with his eyes and spiritual sense. Qi surged into it as he inspected the inscriptions. Sighing, the smith placed the sword beside the cooling spear. Turning to Chu Shen he sighed.

“I admit, you are a great forger. Your foundations are very solid. The sword has had all the materials spread evenly throughout the entire sword ensuring there are no weak points along with there being almost no impurities.”

“Not to mention that the inscriptions have no error and match the sword exactly. Truly worthy of an artificer. If I had to rank this sword, I would say it is a Grade 3 Low-Tier Martial Weapon.”

“May I ask though, have you joined any other factions as an artificer?” Chu Shen was startled at the question before shaking his head. “Good. I have joined the Four Materials Shop. For someone with as much potential as you, they will certainly treat you well.”

Chu Shen thought about it for a second. “What kind of benefits would I receive?”

The master smith shook his head. “I don’t know. It depends upon your age, cultivation, and the best quality artifact you can make. But I know for me, I can receive 30% off on all materials along with being able to make requests. All I need to do is forge ten swords that can be turned into High-Tier Martial Weapons. And I am just a blacksmith, without being an artificer.”

Chu Shen realized, wasn’t this exactly what he needed? He needed to practice his classical forging and inscriptions, he also needed to gather the materials needed for Lucas to be reborn. Depending upon the benefits and restrictions, this should be exactly what he needed

“I will join the Four Materials Shop.”

“Okay, come with me. I will take you to join them.”



 

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Chapter 16 – Mana and Succubus



When Guang and Lux returned, they found Hikari already asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, they decided that they would leave her to sleep while the two of them and David takes turn keeping watch.

Initially David had offered to take the first shift, but after getting refused by Lux, he took the opportunity to take a rest. He felt like Lux didn’t seem to trust him yet, but after Hikari’s speech and actions earlier, he was fairly confident that Lux wouldn’t actually do anything while he was asleep.

The last thing he saw before he entered the world of dreams was the wilderness around him, lightened up slightly by their small camp fire.

He woke up from the sound of something walking by his ear. It was only an insect. Having the urge to return to sleep, he looked at his watch. It was still ticking, and it seemed like three hours had already passed.

David looked around and saw that Lux, who was still keeping watch, sitting on a large boulder. He called out, “Lux, was it? Take a rest, its my turn to keep watch now.”

Lux looked back at him. She hesitated a bit, before quietly complying by leaving the boulder, and taking up the space David was on. She leaned back onto the tree and closed her eyes.

David looked at her for a while. Although he tried to analyse her a few days prior, this was a different case. She was a beautiful young woman similar to Helaine. She was the type of woman that can easily bewitch any men with a ease. The overall feeling she gave off was rather mature and slightly mysterious. She was the type of cool beauty you would find people looking up to, but often too scared to approach. Helaine used to be like that too before David had convinced her to brighten up and let herself be more approachable.

As his mind drifted back to Helaine, his worries began once more. Why was the demon there? Why did he grab Helaine away? How did he find out about their relationship? Where are they now? Is she alright? Piles of questions surfaced in his mind.

“David, walk slightly further away from them,” Lucifer’s voice resonated in his head. David had gotten used to this sudden intrusion of his thoughts, Lucifer seemed to do this a lot.

David took several steps away from where the exorcists were sleeping and asked, “What is it?”

“There’s several things. One, I can still feel the general direction that the demon and your girl is in, Two..”

“You can feel them? Which way?” David asked desperately, he had assumed that Lucifer had no idea, but since he could then all the more reason to rush to Helaine’s rescue.

“Two, I wouldn’t recommend you to find her yet. Well although you could probably go there rather quickly using several enhancing spells, your secrets would be exposed to the exorcists. And since they seem to be willing to help, use them. Travel along the road, they are in that direction after all.

And lastly, before you go find Helaine. I just want you to know something.”

“What is it? Spit it out?”

“She’s a succubus.”

“… I’m sorry?”

“Your friend Helaine is a succubus.”

“What? You must lying. There is no way Helly would be involved in this insane mess from the start. There’s no way she’s a succubus.”

“Have I ever lied to you so far?”

David could not think of a rebuttal. Indeed it was as Lucifer has said, he had never been lied to. But was that possible? Helly’s a succubus? The Helly that was head over heels for him? The Helly that means more to him than anything else in the world? The same Helly he was trying to save?

“David, I’m not trying to drive you insane or anything. I need you to know what you’re getting into. If you truly want to, there’s a method of returning back and leaving this place behind.

It’s not too difficult. Trust me and let me take over your body for a while. You have the ability to open a portal to return home, but you lack the necessary skill and focus right now.”

“Telling me that right now. Are you trying to convince me to turn back and return?”

“No, I’m just giving you the option.”

“I’m not returning. At the very least I want to save Helly, then I want some answers from her. But before then, I’m not returning.”

“I guessed that’s what you’d say. So for the time being, close your eyes and try to feel the mana flowing around your body. Let it circulate and not move in an erratic manner. Then slowly manipulate the mana around you to do the same. Since you’re here with exorcists, it’s more or less the only way you can train your magic without exposing yourself.”

David complied and did as Lucifer suggested. His mind was still all over the place. Hearing that Helaine was a succubus. That wasn’t something he could even imagine. Sweet beautiful Helaine. He will rescue her. And only then will he find out the truth directly from her.

He felt the mana moving around his body rather erratically. It moved around without a direction, like a torrent of energy without any purpose. He tried to probe through his entire body for mana, but he only felt it on the outer layer, the closer to the middle of his body, the less mana there seemed to be. He treated it as a normal occurrence and imagined the torrent of mana in his body circulating around his body like blood does.

It wasn’t easy.

Focusing his mana and shaping it to cast spells came rather naturally to him, particularly fire and ice spells. But manipulating raw mana and making it circulate around him body was far more difficult than he imagined. Every time he tried to focus on even a small amount of mana in a specific spot of his body, they just seemed to move away instead of circulating like he wished.

No, this wasn’t the time for it. He should think of a way to get to and save Helaine. No, first he has to find her. Lucifer had said follow the path and that he could sense her general location. Where does the road lead to? How long did he have?

Ugh, but he can’t do anything right now, or was there something he could do? “Lucifer, have you manage to think of where that demon might have taken Helly? There’s limited places around here right?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve even been in this area. I’m still trying to figure out whose territory is it. Even in this world, us Demon Princes of the Seven Sins don’t rule over anything. We hold authority over most of this dimension, while the rest is under the authority of the demon nobles.”

“Demon nobles.”

“The more traditional of the demons. Well, the demon nobles that chose to end the demonic civil war that waged between the original demon nobles and us. They are most well known for having the methods of their summons recorded down in the Ars Goetia.”

“Ars Goetia? As in the Lesser Key of Solomon?”

“The Ars Goetia is the original grimoire, while the Lesser Key of Solomon is merely replica of it. But yes. Those demons as well as their descendants. I’ll continue to ponder about our whereabouts, focus on survival and gaining the exorcists trust. In this land, they may become some of the most valuable allies you can get.

You better stop talking, the exorcist girl stirs. She seems to have started to awaken from her slumber.”

David turned around to look at who Lucifer was talking about. It seemed like Hikari was going to wake up soon with her rubbing her eyes.

Lucifer had told him to not think too much about Helaine. But that wasn’t possible. He was determined to find and save her at all cost. That was the most important thing right now. He wasn’t about to let anything deter him from that.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 91



Chapter 91
Hunting Again

Chu Shen stretched. Sitting in one place for two long was a bit concerning. Counting the days, Chu Shen realized he had been meditating for a whole week. Surprisingly though, he didn’t feel very hungry. After he experienced Master Ti Wu’s ‘training’, he had thought that he would have been starving.

After thinking for a bit, Chu Shen realized the difference. Before, Chu Shen was using up his Qi as a replacement for food but his Qi ran out since he couldn’t replenish it while he was training. But when he meditated, he needed to replenish his Qi, resulting in his him having a surplus of Qi.

Chu Shen sighed. Bringing out Lucas he set his braincase on the bed. “So Lucas, how is the body going?”

“Well it’s nice to know i’m remembered every once in awhile. You didn’t talk to me for THREE WEEKS! Do you have any idea how bored i’ve been? I created over fifty different body designs. FIFTY! I even started working on weaponry designs based off that book on resources you gave me!”

Chu Shen rolled his eyes, though Lucas’ bare bones braincase wouldn’t be able to pick the motion up. “I’m sorry Lucas. I needed to cultivate and I’ve been busy for a while. I was training with Master Ti Wu for two weeks and then I cultivated for a week straight. I didn’t have a lot of downtime to chat.”

“Fine, I guess you were busy with important stuff. More important than me. No hard feelings.”

“Lucaasssss.” Chu Shen whined. “You know i’m just trying this for you. Here’s what I plan to do. I ran out of money buying beast cores to breakthrough fast. So I am going to go hunting for some beasts to earn some money. Once I have enough, I plan to start forging and selling inscripted weapons. I can earn money fast with that, enough to buy the materials for your body.”

Chu Shen looked expectantly at Lucas’ braincase. There was an awkward pause as Lucas digested this. Finally, Lucas replied. “Alright, I agree with your plan. But how about you make me a couple things as well as the body. Consider it an apology.”

Chu Shen pumped his fist in the air. “Alright! So do you want to go back into the spatial ring? Or I can leave you in the house?”

“Any other options? I’m getting really bored in here.”

“No, none that I can think of.”

“Fine. I need to pick which model to go with anyways.” Lucas disappeared inside Chu Shen’s spatial ring. Chu Shen departed for the Chu Sect to find someone to recommend him a good place to hunt.

As it turns out, the Black Night Sect actually had a hunting ground at the edge of the sect where they raised Primordial Beasts. Anyone could enter, but any beast cores or pelts must be sold to the Black Night Sect and the price they were bought at was 10% less than they would go for outside the sect.

Normally this would make it less visited but to the sect disciples this was a blessing. The reason for that was they could trade in contribution points instead of money which could be exchanged for items and training areas.

To the sect this was a bonus since they could reap materials at a lower cost. It also helped train the disciples in combat. To everyone involved it was a win-win. Except those who were from outside the sect. Which was exactly why Chu Shen was mad.

“I can enter but only three times a month! And each time can only be three days at a time!? This is totally awful! But at least they told me the strongest Primordial Beast is a Class 6 beast. With that I should be able to use my spiritual sense.”

Chu Shen grumbled about all the restrictions that were placed on him when he entered. But he supposed they made sense. Only letting people enter 9 days a month restricted people so that they couldn’t over hunt the primordial beasts, even if the ones they chose repopulated quickly.

Chu Shen learned all of this after he asked the guards that managed this forest. The forest was divided into sections, with each one having an array to keep them separated. They would separate the beasts according to Class and they would restrict the cultivation level to also prevent the slaughter of beasts.

Arrays are costly to make and the result was that the highest rank Primordial Beast they could keep was a Class 8 beast. Otherwise the price would be astronomical to keep the array working.

Sending out his Spiritual Sense, Chu Shen started hunting. He was now a Martial Practitioner, the equivalent of a class 5 beast. With the highest class beast being a class 6, Chu Shen didn’t fear being found out since he could still run away from a beast at that power level.

Other cultivators could sense it when they were scanned by spiritual sense. The reason for this is that a person uses their soul to ‘perceive’ the world around them. Other cultivators could sense this using their own soul.

But if the difference in strength was too much, then they could mask their own cultivation. They could also track down those who scanned them with spiritual sense.

Chu Shen hunted for a while. Using his spiritual sense, he scanned a couple hundred meters in front of him. When he did though, Chu Shen heard a loud ROAR echo out from in front of him. All the birds within a mile took flight.

Chu Shen immediately took off running in the opposite direction. Behind him, the Cracking of trees could be heard. As Chu Shen disappeared, a large white ape could be seen running through the forest.

Opening it’s mouth, a beam of white energy shot towards Chu Shen. When that white beam shot out, the surrounding temperature immediately dropped. The very air froze around the beam, ice crystals appearing as the water in the air froze. It even started snowing.

The beam struck Chu Shen. However, the beam only seemed to disappear into the gray energy that coated his body. Seeing this, the apes eyes turned bloodshot.

ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRR

Letting out an ear splitting roar, the ape charged after Chu Shen. It was surprisingly fast for it’s size. Chu Shen was barely able to keep in front of it. The ape kept launching beams of white light at him but Chu Shen was able to block them all with minimum effort.

As a matter of fact, with each strike Chu Shen would have a burst of speed, slightly increasing the distance. Finally the ape let out a Huff that leveled a tree. With that, the ape departed into the forest.

Chu Shen let out a sigh of relief. That was a close one. If the ape had pursued him for another half-hour, he would have run out of Qi. Of course, if the ape kept on firing those ice Qi beams at him, then he would have been fine. The passive absorption of the major meridian helped a lot as well.

It had already pursued him for over three hours during which Chu Shen had to defend against constant attacks while using Comet Travels Through and Stars Dance to their highest level. The expenditure of Qi was boggling.

Chu Shen cursed the ape for making him waste so much time. It was truly unfortunate he encountered the class 6 Arctic Ape. He used a couple Qi replenishing pills to replenish a bit of energy before continuing his hunting.

Meanwhile, the Black Rose Guild had started using its connections to track Chu Shen. It would take a month and a half of travel in order for the Black Rose Guild to receive the bird’s message, gather a team for the mission, and then send them to the branch office located at Wildent.

However, half that time had already passed. Chu Shen didn’t know it, but he was running out of time.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 90



Chapter 90
Breakthrough

Chu Shen sat down in a lotus position. Taking out the ten beast cores he had bought, he prepared to start breaking through. He thought back on what Master Ti Wu had explained why Void constitutions were superior to all others.

In order to explain that, one must understand the cultivation process of those with other types of innate constitutions. For this explanation, Master Ti Wu had used fire constitutions as an example.

Those with a fire constitution only had to absorb fire Qi in order to advance their cultivation. They didn’t need to grow their souls since they could control their Qi without worry about a cultivation deviation, just like Chu Shen.

But it was also true they could only absorb fire Qi.The reason for this was that their body would reject any other kind of Qi. If they tried absorbing other types, it would either cause them tremendous pain.

However, people with these kinds of constitutions were both lucky and unlucky. There was always two edges to a blade. While it was true that they only had to absorb Qi that was related to their element, they also had to have increasingly stronger sources. As their body became stronger, it needed a stronger and more pure source.

For example, those at the mortal realm would easily advance when they cultivate around campfires or a candle-rich environments. However, upon breaking through they would need to find a better source like a hot spring.

Later on they would need to find volcanoes or other sources rich with natural fire Qi. Eventually even places like this would not be sufficient and they would need to find abnormal places with extreme fire. And these abnormal places would be quite dangerous, only the lucky would survive.

However, those with a Void constitution are favored greatly by the heavens. Maybe it was a result of having all of the elements, including their opposites, in one form that resulted in such a heaven-defying ability.

It was all because null Qi has the unique characteristic of being able to absorb and convert all kinds of Qi. Because of this unique feature, it surpasses all other forms of constitution. Whereas others have to search for places with extremes of their elements, those with Void Constitution only have to absorb and convert regular Qi around them.

If others knew about this they would cough up blood in shame. They had pay terrible prices to cultivate but these Void users can just cultivate like normal? No, it would be more accurate to say that all they have to do is absorb energy to cultivate. They don’t even have to go through hardship to grow their soul!

Truly a heaven defying ability. The only reason why Chu Shen wasn’t cultivating like mad was so that he could temper himself with others the same power level as him.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have enough combat experience, unlike those wily foxes who clawed their way to the top. With this Chu Shen was able to feel the dangers of death and improve his battle sense. Otherwise if the two were on even terms or even if Chu Shen only had a slight advantage, he would lose because of being outwitted and outmaneuvered.

Chu Shen started to cultivate. Circulating his Qi, he also reached his soul out to ‘grab’ Qi. Qi flooded into his dantian. Using this Qi he started directing it towards the many minor meridians located at his pores.

In order to advance to the Martial Student stage, one needed to unblock the outer meridians, which was a collection of minor meridians right under the skin.

Each tiny meridian, which numbered in the billions, was a channel that let Chu Shen’s soul out into the world to absorb Qi. It was also how Chu Shen was able to release Qi.

Each successive breakthrough would lead to an increase of Qi that could flow into or out of the body at one time and also how much could be stored inside the meridians. This led to each level increasing the amount of power one could unleash at one time and also how many times one could unleash such a move.

Chu Shen started using his Qi to unblock the meridians, pushing past and expelling the impurities located inside the meridians. It took a long time to go to each cluster of minor meridians and break through it. With one swift swoop, he broke through to level 5. As he broke through, thick stinky black slime was exuded from all of his pores.

Repeating the process he broke to level 6, then level 7. However, Chu Shen sense his stamina fading. He didn’t have enough Qi to continue this breakneck speed. Chu Shen had been conserving as much energy as possible by passively absorbing Qi to slow down the expenditure of Qi.

But the rate of Qi being used far exceeded that of Qi absorbed. He just couldn’t split his attention, or rather soul, to breakthrough and absorb Qi. Sighing, Chu Shen stopped just as he finished breaking through to level 7. He opened his eyes and looked at the beast cores surrounding him.

Chu Shen reached out his hand, covered in gray Qi. Beast cores looked like glowing crystal orbs, emitting soft glows that were different colors based upon their attribute.

Upon Chu Shen’s energy coated hand touching the beast core, the energy moved, covering the beast core in gray energy. When that happened, the gray Qi started pulsing with energy. With each pulse, the gray Qi started getting brighter and the beast core became dimmer.

After a while, the beast core became a dull, see through crystal orb. Chu Shen, who looked a little pale from Qi exhaustion, regained his color. Sighing again, Chu Shen closed his eyes and started the breakthrough process again.

The beast core he just absorbed helped him regain about 70% of his energy, enough to continue breaking through. Continuing, Chu Shen managed to breakthrough to level 8. However, now his Qi reserves were down to 12%.

Each time he broke through he would gain a surge of Qi, but this surge of Qi was miniscule compared to what his capacity was with each breakthrough. Not to mention that the energy needed to break through increased exponentially.

Chu Shen absorbed two beast cores on the same level as the one he had absorbed before. But whereas the first one increased energy by about 50%, the two combined only filled him up by 80%, increasing his Qi reserves to 92%! That was a reduction of 10%!

Using this energy, Chu Shen broke through to level 10. Upon reaching this stage he had his Qi at about 7%! This massive reduction in Qi, even when he had absorbed two beast cores, showed the amount of energy needed to clear his meridians.

Chu Shen absorbed the other five beast cores that he had placed around him. His Qi reserves increased from his 7%, to 51%. He still had to breakthrough to become a Martial Practitioner.

Chu Shen was in no hurry though. His breakthroughs had taken him about two days to complete. What was a couple more hours compared to that? Chu Shen was patient and slowly absorbed Qi from the surrounding area.

The Black Night Sect had a fairly large concentration of energy, making it easier to replenish his energy. With the millions of minor meridians absorbing Qi like a sponge, Chu Shen was able to replenish his Qi by the beginning of the third day.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Shen prepared to propel himself to the Martial Practitioner stage. In order to break through such a stage, he needed to open up a major meridian.

The body had 7 major meridians. The were located in the right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, head, heart, and dantian. Chu Shen sent his Qi forth to the meridian on his left leg, like a seething wave smashing against a dam it hit the meridian.

The meridians impurities however, did not break. Chu Shen did not become discouraged, he could sense it move slightly. Repeatedly bashing into the impurities, Chu Shen worked at the meridian.

He lost track of just how many times he smashed into that meridian. But it eventually broke. When it did, Chu Shen felt a new surge of Qi come into his body. This surge nourished his dantian, causing it to expand slightly. However, it was not as much as he had expected.

At the same time, Chu Shen realized there was an issue with this new channel for Qi. He could sense a great energy just outside his reach and that what he received so far was just a trickle.

It was the same as digging out a channel leading to a lake. Chu Shen already had one channel from the outer meridians connecting the lake, which was his body. But this new channel, even if it was dug, passed by the lake and all he received was what seeped through.

Chu Shen needed to force this channel to connect to his body otherwise he could not use his soul to gather energy from this channel. It would mean that although he had taken the first step into this new realm, he could not be considered a true Martial Practitioner.

Chu Shen started using his soul to drag this channel in the right direction. Unknown to him, a long time passed by as he concentrated whole heartedly on syncing his meridians together.

Eventually though, Chu Shen succeeded. With that, the major meridian successfully linked up with his internal meridians. Immediately a huge surge of Qi came gushing in, just like a river that has become cleared of blockages.

Chu Shen manipulated that energy towards his dantian. When it reached the dantian it filled up to the brim, overflowing with Qi. With a bang, the Dantian suddenly expanded. It became twice as big as it was now. The Qi in his body turned from a big pond to a small lake all at once.

Chu Shen sent his soul along the open pathway. He basked in this open feeling, like he could fly. His soul started to change, becoming…..stronger. It was an adaptation triggered by the opening of his major meridians, even if it was only the first step.

If before his soul was like a hand, dragging and manipulating Qi from the outside, it now became a multi-purpose machine. Chu Shen was able to sense Qi outside his body. He could sense the cultivation level of the people in the cabins around him.

Obviously, this was the spiritual sense that his father spoke of. The reason why cultivators could sense everything around them. Another change that occurred was the major meridian turned into a whirlpool, absorbing energy.

Chu Shen could feel the Qi he could unleash had increased. Trying it out, he formed a simple sphere of Qi in front of him. Frowning, Chu Shen stared at it for a second before coming to a conclusion.

Apparently the major meridians also allowed you to unleash Qi, but there was an issue. The major meridians passively absorbed Qi. He couldn’t stop it, at all. So when he wanted to send out Qi, he had to force his way through, like a boat traveling upstream.

Compared to the minor meridians, it was a major disadvantage. Obviously Chu Shen would not be able to massively increase his output of Qi. But every time he advanced, it strengthened his body, including the meridians.

Because of that, his body and meridians would be able to handle more Qi, letting him unleash more. As a result, he wasn’t too worried about this minor setback. Chu Shen was, however, overjoyed with another aspect of the meridians.

Because of his soul being able to go so far from his body, about 500 meters, Chu Shen could control Qi and create structures from that distance. With that, his range of combat expanded far beyond that he had before. He could send his Qi as projectiles for a thousand meters though he lost fine control if it went beyond 500 meters.

Chu Shen let out a sigh. The breakthrough process was finally over, now he had to clean off all these filthy impurities. Putting his hands on his knees, Chu Shen went to stand up. As he did though, he fell over.

Making a helpless face, Chu Shen just laid there. ‘Seriously! I thought Cultivators didn’t have to worry about their muscles falling asleep!’



 

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[Vol 5] Chapter 3: Compassion



SylviaJust when my consciousness drifted back from the world of dreams, I was grabbed by a frantic-looking Angie as she demanded me to tell her everything I know about her father, “Sylvia, please! Tell me anything you know about my father! Anything at all!”

I was caught totally off guard by Angie’s sudden assault, “An…Angie… please… please calm down… I… I have… no idea… wh… what you’re saying!” Angie was shaking me with so much force that I couldn’t tell left from right anymore.

It was the first time Sheena saw Angie losing herself like this, so she was quite dumbfounded, but after she noticed my plight, she tried to stop Angie in a fluster, “A-Angie!! Stop! Stop this at once! Sylvia can’t talk if you keep shaking her like this!”

However, since Angie was very agitated, Sheena’s words didn’t reach her properly. Even so, she still stopped shaking me and said with a shaky voice, “Sylvia! Please! Anything at all… just tell me anything you know about my father!”

Angie was looking very despondent, I was honestly lost for words. Since Angie gave me the impression of a stern and dutiful older sister type, I never imagined she’d ever show her weak side. Seeing Angie like this, I really wished I could answer her question, but I am more confused than anyone else here.

What was that about her father, who is her father? Why ask me?
“Uh…” I looked at Sheena with an imploring gaze.

“Ah… geez!” Sheena scratched her head as if it was troublesome to deal with us, “Angie, just cool down for a moment. I’ll explain things to Sylvia from the beginning.”

With that, Sheena began to explain about Angie’s circumstances to me, “Um… you see… Angie actually don’t have a father… she grew up hearing heroic tales of her father, she admires him and aspire to be a great warrior like him. However, whenever we tried to pry for his whereabouts, our parents would remain silent. That’s why… we always thought Angie’s father was lost-in-action, but just recently, we heard a really disturbing news.”

“A disturbing news?” I parroted Sheena while tilting my head.

“That’s right,” Sheena continued, “Recently, we’ve heard rumors of a warrior wandering in the dungeon near Swinford Township. All description of the warrior’s conduct and  attitude matched the content the stories we’ve been told, so we believe…”

“…that warrior might actually be Angie’s missing father in question?” Sheena couldn’t finish her sentence since she was half in doubt, but the ignorant me didn’t notice that and finished her sentence for her.

“Sigh… that’s right. To be honest, that’s actually the reason why I didn’t bring Angie with me to Swinford Township,” Sheena lowered her voice so that Angie couldn’t hear it as she whispered in my ears, “As you can see, she lose herself every time when it concerns her father.”

After finally calming down, Angie took a few deep breaths and apologized, “Sorry, I’ve shown you something unsightly. I was under the impression that you’ve met my father when you were at Swinford Town a few days ago, but after thinking about it calmly, you wouldn’t have asked me such a question if you’ve met him. Miss Sylvia, let me ask you again properly, do you know my father?”

“Uh… this is… a little awkward, but…” I clapped my hands together and said apologetically, “I’m sorry! I have no idea why you’re asking this of me. I don’t know who your father is, I know not his name nor his appearance.”

“B-But that can’t be—! Just a moment ago, you were asking me how is my father doing!” Angie was in disbelief. On the other hand, as the only one who knew the full story, Sheena felt a pang of headache. Since she had to be the one to explain everything to both parties.

Sheena really wished she could just leave us to settle this on our own, but she couldn’t really do that either. “Sigh…” Sheena heaved a helpless sigh as she looked at both Angie and I, then she said earnestly, “Angie, Sylvia, the both of you listen to me carefully.”

With those words, Angie and I turned our attention to Sheena. After confirming that she has our full attention, Sheena began to explain about my circumstances to Angie, and told us about what had transpired this morning.

I was shocked beyond words, to think that the original persona had taken over this body, even for a brief moment. It made me shudders at the thought of my future. If the original persona of this body was to reclaim her body, what would happen to me? Will I stay in eternal slumber within her body? Will I get expelled from her body and continue to roam aimlessly in the Spirit Realm?

On the other hand, Angie was openly disappointed. Just when she thought she was finally going to get some solid information about her father, it appears that the person herself was actually in slumber. She too was surprised that I have two personalities in one body, she had mixed feelings about this, but regardless, she still warned me;

“Miss Sylvia, I understand your circumstances now. I apologize for putting you through so many harsh situations while you’re still adapting to this world.

I will be sure to go easier on you until you get used to your new life. But know that you are still the retainer of a Royal Princess. You will constantly be confronted by human’s ugly nature. Your misconducts will reflect badly on Miss Sheena, the opposing factor will use that as an excuse to make things difficult not only for Miss Sheena, but for you as well. At worst case, they might even go as far as forcing you to keep your distance from Miss Sheena.”

“Ah~hhh, yes, yes, that’s enough.” I suddenly raised my voice to stop Angie in her track, “I’ve heard this dozens of times already, I’ll just have to behave myself when I’m in front of the public eyes yes? Just spare me from another one of this lengthy lecture, please.”

The opposing factor that Angie spoke of, was a group of aristocrats who were not very fond of the Hero King. More like, they were afraid of the Hero King’s military power. Not only was the Hero King hiring commoners as soldiers, he even gave them weapons of mass destruction. They were afraid that the Hero King might rise up in a coup d’etat.

Since humans are already used to peace, they’re now shifting their attention from the threat of the demon’s invasion to the military strength of each respective country. In fear that a super power might appear, everyone was undertaking all kinds of underhanded tactics to make sure the power balance remained on a very subtle equilibrium. Such was the nature of human.


Author’s Note:

Phew… I barely finished writing this before my set deadline ._.

But dang, three whole chapters spent in the same room… I should quicken the story progress.



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 89



Chapter 89
Spies

In the outer disciples courtyards, all was silent. Suddenly, a door on the house on the far edge of the courtyard burst open. Chu Shen came out, looking very ragged. His stomach let out a loud growl.

Stumbling, he exited the building. “Food…..I need……foood.” Chu Shen gasped. He quickly ran to the east side of town, leaving the sect for some of the local shops outside. Chu Shen remembered a couple restaurants that he had passed by when he went to the sect.

Slowing himself down, he noticed some very curious glances cast his way. Looking down, he saw that he still had on his clothes covered in dust from his travels. Chu Shen shrugged. He was just hungry. After all, for two weeks he had been fighting the pillar warriors with the only downtime being when he slept.

Calming himself, he stepped inside the restaurant. Looking at his rather poor clothes, he had to prove that he had money before they gave him a table. Chu Shen ate like a beast, ravenously devouring everything.

Finishing with his rather large meal, Chu Shen left for the local shops. Using up the last of his gold, Chu Shen set out for some of the other local stores to start preparing for his breakthrough.

“Get out! You! Get out of my store you filthy beggar!” Chu Shen was sent flying out of the store, landing in a heap on the side of the road. Dusting himself off he glared at the store manager.

“I have the money, you saw that. So why did you throw me out?” Chu Shen asked a little angry now.

The store manager glared back. “Because you dare ask for ten percent off! I should have known from those dusty clothes of yours. Trying to save some money for yourself. Humph! If I had a servant like you, I would have fired you a long time ago.”

“What! But you didn’t even give me chance to explain why I wanted ten percent off! It’s because I have a medallion from the Black Night Sect that gives me ten percent off on the stores they manage.”

The store manager only snorted. “Like I would believe an urchin like you would actually have a medallion like that. Get out of my sights you, you, you…..oh.” The manager, who was at first bellowing out loud suddenly stopped, staring at Chu Shen who had a black medallion glistening in his palm.

The manager looked at it for a second before glancing back at Chu Shen. “I am so sorry sir. If you had just shown that to begin with, none of that would have happened. Here, let me give you a hand. Please come in.”

Many of the people who had stopped to watch this show chuckled at the man’s misfortune. If Chu Shen became displeased and reported this manager’s behavior to the Black Night Sect, then he would undoubtedly be fired.

However, while Chu Shen was escorted in by the nervous manager of the store, he did not notice a couple of more covetous glances that were shot towards him. The manager of the Black Rose Guild highly valued the crafter he had. As a result, he sent out reward posters to many of the surrounding towns.

Wildent, as a very large city, was also included in this area. It only took some time to get here since the distance was very large and they didn’t have jetpacks.

Chu Shen received a new fancy pair of clothes more befitting him from the manager. He also received a twenty percent off the beast cores from the manager. Chu Shen could have bought more with the money he earned but he decided not to punish the manager.

The manager was only kicking out what he thought was a presumptuous customer, though the insults was pretty rude. It wasn’t enough to be vindictive and make him suffer too big a loss.

Chu Shen bought only what he had planned to begin with. Going to a few more stores he bought a couple more stuff including some medicinal pills. He was received a lot more graciously now that he had on some better clothes.

Traveling back to the Black Night Sect, he failed to notice the man that followed him. Once he walked into the sect, the man who was trailing him stopped. Even he did not dare try and enter the sect without permission.

The man quickly departed, heading for the Black Rose Guilds branch located in the city. Soon after, a messenger bird departed from the guild with a scroll attached to its back. The man also left, a couple gold pieces richer.

Chu Shen, however, remained ignorant to the troubles he was in. He headed back to his house, not really paying attention. Just as he put his hand on the door to walk in, a voice called out.

“Hey! Who are you exactly!? This is the residences for the outer sect disciples!” Chu Shen turned around. A kid around his age stood there glaring at Chu Shen. “I know all the outer disciples and you’re not one of them.”

Chu Shen sighed. ‘I have had enough with arrogant people. First the restaurant, then the shop, and now this. Argh!’

He turned to the kid. “I have permission from one of the elders to use this residence.”

The kid looked at him for a second before holding a hand out. Chu Shen looked at it for a second in confusion. “What. What do you want.”

The kid rolled his eyes. “I need to see your guest pass otherwise, how am I supposed to believe you were invited by an elder to stay here.”

Chu Shen nodded in understanding but internally he was screaming at the kid. Why did he have to make things difficult when Chu Shen just wanted to meditate in peace? Come on, give me some peace kid!

Chu Shen brought out the guest pass. The kid looked at it before nodding. “Okay so I guess you can stay in the Black Night Sect. But you still haven’t proven you have permission to stay here.”

Chu Shen then brought out the token given to him by the elder. The kid sighed and finally acquiesced. “Alright, I suppose your story isn’t too far fetched. Go on, I won’t stop you now.”

Suddenly one of the doors to the other houses opened, revealing a young man. “Stop making things difficult for others Cang Ming! You don’t even have any authority here!”

Cang Ming turned around and started arguing with him. “What do you mean I don’t have any authority! I have plenty auth……”

Their voices faded as Chu Shen just ignored them and walked into his cabin, shutting the door firmly behind him. The soundproof array made sure none of their voices reached him.

Chu Shen sighed. He slid down the door and just sat on the floor, resting. But his slump didn’t last long before an eager gleam appeared in his eye.

“Alright, it’s time to make a breakthrough.”



 

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[Arc 3] Chapter 88



Chapter 88
Meeting the Leg Destroyer

Upon entering the sect, Chu Shen was taken to a fairly luxurious house. Inside he met the man who destroyed Lucas’ leg. The man dismissed the guard, who bowed and left for her post.

The man looked at him for a second. “I am sorry for what happened to your…… odd friend. So what can I do to make up for it young one.”

“Well, I just need a place to cultivate in peace for a while. Do you think that would be sufficient?” Chu Shen inquired.

The man laughed. “And here I was worried you would ask for some weapons or something. I am glad I did not meet someone greedy. As for arranging for a place you can cultivate peacefully, I can do that. I am one of the elders of the outer sect. I will have one of the guards show you to the house you asked for.”

The man tossed him a black medallion. “This is a guest medallion. With it, you can enter the sect but you won’t access to any cultivation resources. However, you will receive a ten percent discount on the stores we manage. The will have a sign with the Night character beside their door.”

Chu Shen bowed. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Take it as me thanking you for helping clear an inner demon.” The man called for a guard, who lead Chu Shen out to the nearby forest. At the edge was a series of small cabins.

“These are the cabins for the outer sect disciples. Your cabin is on the edge over there. If any of them bother you, show them the medallion from Lin Qun, the sect elder you met. No problems should arise if you do so.”

Chu Shen cupped his hands and bowed before heading off to his cabin. Closing the door he sighed. Taking out the jetpack, he removed Lucas’ braincase from it and set it down on the bed.

“So Chu Shen, can you take out the fabber? I was in the middle of designing my body with it.”

Chu Shen shook his head. “No. The fabber is one of the secrets we need to protect. If someone discovers it, it could have disastrous consequences. Though I doubt they would know what they have it would still be disastrous.”

A sigh came from the speakers. “Oh well, it can’t be helped. How about you put me inside the spatial ring then? I can still use the fabber in there.”

Chu Shen nodded before stopping. “Wait, I was told life couldn’t exist inside spatial rings, so how can you live there?”

“Because I am a cyborg. There is no air or food inside a spatial ring, but I don’t have to worry about that since I am not an organic.”

“Oh, great. See you later then.” Chu Shen put Lucas’ braincase back inside the spatial ring. Sitting down on the bed he decided to take a nap. Tomorrow would be when he started cultivating. For now, he was still a bit sore from the fall earlier and he couldn’t rest when he was flying.

Closing his eyes, he suddenly heard an old man’s voice. “So brat, you finally came to visit eh?”

He shot up like a rocket. He was back inside the cave studded with forging items but now it also had beast cores, technological gadgets, and a couple open martial art books. Master Ti Wu faced him with a smirk.

Chu Shen looked around in confusion. “Wait. I didn’t want to come here, so why am I here?”

“Because I summoned you of course. I need you to get stronger of course. I can’t have you relaxing now.” Ti Wu beckoned him. “Come, I will take you to face the pillar warriors again.”

Chu Shen backed away. “No need. I already passed right? So I don’t need to do it again.”

Ti Wi made a ‘come forth’ gesture and Chu Shen involuntarily flew through the air towards him. Landing at his feet, Ti Wu let out a cold snort. “Of course you are not finished. I need you to pass another couple pillars in order for you to learn more martial arts.”

“Right now, the number of true martial arts you know can be counted on one hand. You should know that a martial art can boost your striking power by a hundred percent, not just let it go farther. You know two defense techniques, two movement techniques, and one attack technique.”

“But the problem arises from this confounded Voids Hand’s rules. I can’t avoid the rules they have and seven is the limit. You passed six columns so you can only choose six techniques from the library, excluding the cultivation technique I gave you to begin with.”

“So in order to learn some more techniques you need to beat some more column warriors. If you can’t do that you can do some trials. We will also start training you in combat experience by having you fight the column warriors until you die.”

Chu Shen backed up a little bit. “Uh master. I am not sure I completely agree with this plan.”

Ti Wu snorted. “Well whether you agree or not is irrelevant. As your master I am telling you that you will go through this trial. Don’t worry, you might suffer a bit but you won’t die. Now hurry up, we have work to do.”

Chu Shen disappeared with a wave of Master Ti Wu’s hand and reappeared in a cave surrounded by nine jade pillars. Ti Wu, on the other hand, appeared outside the pillars.

One of the jade pillars lit up while Ti Wu rubbed his hand in glee. A shadow with a saber and a leather breastplate appeared in front of Chu Shen while a replica of his metal hammer appeared in his hands. It was the shadow from the seventh pillar!

Chu Shen looked at the shadow. Compared to what he remembered it seemed…..different. Like it was more realistic. There was slight differences that he would not have noticed if it had not been the training Grandmaster Qin made him do. He could see slight tension in the shadows arms like it had muscles and wasn’t made of pure energy.

“By the way, I was able to use those lessons you got from that Qin guy to make these pillar warriors actual bodies. They are no longer shadow and are the exact same as a person. So now you training here will not be detrimental to your combat experience but actually helpful.”

Chu Shen shook his head. He finally got done with that workaholic Grandmaster Qin and now he had to deal with the sadistic Master Ti Wu. He really did associate with the wrong teachers.

Ti Wu grinned at Chu Shen which sent chills down his spine. “Luckily you don’t need to eat for a while since you can survive on Qi instead. So get ready, you are not going to leave here for a while.”



 

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