Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 322

Truths and Lies (VIII)

... wow.

Holy shit.

I mean, I knew they would wipe the floor with whoever they fought, but isn't this a bit exaggerated? They were all still in the Foundation Establishment--no, wait, Light wasn't even there yet--and they did away with people an entire major realm above them so quickly and... easily.

Okay, yes, Xi Zhao did something similar with someone in the Revolving Core realm, but I could always just chalk that up to him being underestimated. Sort of like putting an MMA fighter against some average scrub, but then that scrub just pulling out a freakin' gun and shooting the fighter 'cause the latter didn't bother quickly covering the distance between the two.

Or, well, something like that, at least.

Here, however, that wasn't the case--it felt like they chose the kids' opponents rather shrewdly, trying to poke holes at what they thought the kids' weaknesses were. But... well, it kind of didn't matter? They just steamrolled them, regardless.

Especially Light.

She didn't fight so much as she just toyed around with that poor woman, until the latter literally couldn't even move any longer. Not because of wounds, but because she was exhausted. I imagine the degree of humiliation is approaching kink levels...

"Master," Long Tao shook me out as I looked over at him. "Today might be a long day."

"..." Aaaaaah, shit. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Just that," he smiled. "That it might be a long day."

"I felt it, too," Lao Shun said. "We're being eyed rather perversely. Especially the kids." okay, yes, I'm very much aware of that. But... what the hell are these guys implying?

... I knew what they were implying, and even my extremely well-practiced skill of denial wasn't enough to not see the truth: today was the day we'd fight the Sage. Despite every fiber of my being screaming at me to just take the kids, throw them into the chariot, and run, I... stayed.

Perhaps it was the blind faith in Long Tao, who still seemed quite unbothered by it all, perhaps it was my confidence finally leaving the gutter, and perhaps it was delusion that the 'protag aura' will save us... but, regardless, it looks like I'm choosing to stay.

To subject both the kids as well as myself to a fight we logically have no chance of winning.

He was at a True God Realm. Two whole major realms above what Hua was at when he blew up the entire fucking mountain range.

From Demigod to Sovereign, from Sovereign to Immortal Foundations, and above it... there was the True God Realm. To me, these were merely names--I had no idea what they entailed in the remotest, but what I did know was that no matter how big the 'protag aura' was, it would not cover skipping so many major realms to fight.

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That guy could wipe the floor with us with his pinkie and it would still be an overkill. So, what exactly did Long Tao have planned?

I don't know. And I can't even really ask, as we're still doing the 'pretend-ignorance' play that is oh-so-enjoyable. So, all I have is sitting here, surrounded by people who all want to jump on me and skin me alive, and watching my kids beat the ever living shit out of people that, logically, they should not be able to.

After a brief intermission during which the arenas were fixed, the battles resumed--they were far more compelling, I must admit, as there were far fewer one-sided beatings.

Especially the battle between two supposed geniuses that ranked in the 'Top Fifty Youngsters' of the area. Both were in their early twenties and at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm, and they clearly were in a similar realm of broad talent to Xi Zhao and Dai Xiu, if a bit worse. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

One of them wielded fire, and the other wielded wind--and that was it. There were no swords, no axes, no whips, no fists; they were more akin to what I think of when somebody says 'mage' rather than cultivators.

The fire-wielding one sprayed out plumes of red-tinted flames that rose up to nearly forty feet before converging into a dragon-shaped attack, while the other slammed the ground with an open palm and summoned a literal, visible tornado that swept away the flames.

Before it all dissolved, he conjured several dozen wind cutters, arrays of Qi emboldened by the wind, that sped forth at the speed of a bullet. And yet, despite that, the fire guy managed to actually react.

He summoned a massive wall of fire that seemed to swallow the wind cutters, reshaping them into roaring whips of flames that lashed out as though wrung by hand. The other kept summoning blade-shaped arrays of wind to cut through them, causing flames to fizzle out sideways like sparks.

It was both brilliant as well as beautiful--and perhaps the first time I saw a fight that wasn't… brutal. Most of the kids here sought efficiency, so they did away with a lot of the 'flamboyance', but those two up there kind of understood that public duels were as much competitions as they were entertainment.

And, boy, were they entertaining.

The fight ended after about fifteen minutes with the fire-guy losing, having been caught off guard by a boomerang-like array of wind that sped past him and then rounded just at the edge of the arena, coming around and hitting the back of his knees, immediately flooring him.

The audience erupted in cheers and applause, and even I joined--the applause, not the cheer--kind of hoping that the competition would continue for a while longer so I could see more of this.

"They're both fairly talented," Lao Shun said. "No wonder they are considered Treasured Sons."

"Treasured Sons? What's that?" I mean, I could guess, but why would I? I have my encyclopedia right here.

"Most Sects, and especially Clans, have ultimately finite resources," he said. "Even if they are replenished annually. As such, they can't equally distribute them, especially the rarer pills and treasured herbs; because of that, they hold internal competitions where the select few are proclaimed 'Treasured Sons and Daughters', as in they will be getting more of 'treasured items' than the rest. Sometimes, those extremely talented ones are immediately assigned the same position, too, but I imagine both of them had to compete." yep, sort of as I guessed.

I mean, there are a lot of half-baked concepts here, such as the 'top lists', that just seem like gossip materials, but there are still so many concepts that I'm just not really aware of, at least not on a cultural level.

Hm?

Wait, no, no, no, why the hell are you here?! AND HOW IS NOBODY ELSE REACTING?!

Guys... there's a whole-ass porcelain bowl that had just crawled into my lap!

For the love of God, somebody acknowledge the goddamn crawling porcelain bowl!

... but nobody did. And, by God, neither will I.

Nope.

The moment I acknowledge it, I have a sneaky suspicion I'll learn something that will be too overwhelming for my tiny (very much still mortal) brain. Shoo.

Shoo, porcelain bowl.

Aaaaand now it's a statue of gold.

Of me.

There's a golden statue of me, to scale, just standing right there, in front of us.

And nobody is acknowledging it.

... how?!

No, no, that's inquiry--that's curiosity, Jake! Begone, curiosity! Today, I don't need you!