Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 327

Truths and Lies (XIII)

Ignoring his Master's oddly cryptic words, Long Tao resisted rolling his eyes and casually struck his sword sideways in a stabbing motion; shadows untwined from the void as a figure cloaked in black groaned, holding the gaping wound for a moment before collapsing, dead, and rolling down the set of seats.

He ignored the rest, turning his attention to the pretend-immortal floating in the sky. His daughter had already descended, running like a maddened beast toward Xi Zhao, while he remained afloat, akin to an overseer looking at something well beneath him.

Long Tao naturally had no means of flight--not any time yet--but if the ordinary walls were enough to hold him back, he would have never climbed as far as he did in his past life.

If there were no way to reach someone in the sky?

It was simple: just make way.

He slashed horizontally with the sword at seemingly nothing, taking a step forward--just as it seemed his foot would naturally fall back down as there was nothing there... it stopped. He then slashed once more, stepping up with the other--void vibrated under the weight of his feet, but it never collapsed.

Once again he slashed, all while the world began to teeter at the edge of collapse--there were battles ongoing everywhere, yet he ignored them all, his eyes focused on the man in the sky.

Despite having set up an array that afforded him a chance, that was all it was--a chance. Even with his exhaustive experience, battling so many realms beyond him was... well, not risky, but purely stupid. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it; if he were a smarter person, he would use extensive experience to be invisible to the world until he was able to take it on.

... no, he knew why.

Caution affords a greater floor, but it limits the ceiling; for him to go well beyond his past life, he knew he had to challenge things far greater than himself.

He slashed twice in quick succession, once to tear open another stair in the sky and the second to decapitate a surging shadow that streamed toward him.

Becoming an Emperor would be easy--in fact, making everyone currently with him an Emperor would be child's play. But that wouldn't be enough.

Nowhere near enough.

To go beyond the Gates of Divinity, he had to go beyond himself, and this was the first true test.

He kept slashing for just about half a minute before he was at the eye level of the city lord.

"A neat trick," he said, grinning. "You really are full of surprises. Though, do you truly think coming here was the best idea? If you went to assist the others, they may have lived a little while longer, affording them a greater chance of achieving repentance."

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"Who? Them?" Long Tao smiled faintly. "Was seeing your daughter torn in half once not enough? Perhaps that's why you stayed this far up. Or... could it be that the great city lord is hiding, recovering Qi while posturing? No, no. That wouldn't be it."

"Heh," the man's lips twitched as his smile turned into a sneer. "And your baby self came here because of that? Even if I had sapped my Qi whole, it would not have changed anything, boy. You've simply come to die."

"Perhaps," Long Tao shrugged. "But if I die to someone like you, then I never deserved to live."

"Hoooh. To think my heart would be rattled by a child," the man said, his voice a failed attempt to maintain calm. "Very well. You've done it--you have infuriated me. What now, child? Do you think a combination of my lack of Qi and unsettled mind is enough?"

"You know," Long Tao gently dragged the sword across the air. "Not even my Master calls me a child."

"Hoh? Did I tug at a nerve?"

"No," Long Tao said, smiling. "Just an observation. He'd never called me child or boy from the day we met. Don't you think that's odd?"

"What are you--"

"--forget it." he shrugged, tapping the tip of the blade against the air. "You've recovered enough, don't you think?"

"You... were giving me time? Me?" The voice turned into a growl as Qi stirred, turning into dancing, ashen shadows. Two beautiful daggers appeared within his hands as darkness shuttled out like a storm, covering everything around them in the full blanket. "I hope you maintain that abundant arrogance when I skewer you like the vermin that you are."

His voce echoed from every direction, hidden in the stark layers of the martial art. It was quite impressive, Long Tao mused; there were precisely four layers of discernment, with the first and the third being deceptively obvious.

The truth was that for someone of his caliber, the art was less about hiding and more so about mobility--he could likely transplant himself at will anywhere in the realm. It wasn't quite at the level of a Domain, but as he had once reached Nirvana, he'd likely touched the Dao of Domain in a broader sense.

Long Tao twisted his neck sideways as a thread of darkness shot past him, almost glancing him.

"Hoh? Interesting. Who sent you? Was it the Order? No... they would have just sent a Shadow. Is it an old grudge?" the voice echoed as Long Tao slashed with the sword rapidly a few times, taking a step forward through the air. Just in time, too, as a massive cleaver of shadows streaked past where he just stood, disappearing into darkness as quickly as it emerged from it.

He kept slashing with the sword, tearing open new stairs in the void as the former collapsed, targeted by the shadow daggers while the cleavers kept being thrown at him.

It was a game, still, for the Sage; the man was still largely toying with him, despite the veneer of rage. To wake him up from it...

Long Tao gently slashed his sword back, stepping backward instead of forward, breaking the pattern; however, he slipped, and, in panic, haphazardly slashed the sword down to try and create a stair below him.

Just then, several dozen streaks of shadows capriciously came after him, escorted by laughter, as he executed Shadow Steps to appear about thirty yards to his left, stabbing forward so quickly the sword became a mere blur.

Blood sprayed out violently from the darkness as a yelp came; the metal of the blade was dug into flesh rather briefly before the Sage pulled back and jumped about sixty feet away.

"Y-you! How... how did you...?!!" There was doubt, confusion, and a very minute trace of fear.

Long Tao merely smiled, slashing away the blood from the blade and turning to face the direction the man was in directly.

"It's rather ordinary, actually," he said. "You are simply weak." It was a white lie, one meant to instill some sense of caution into the man; though cautious people were difficult to kill, that was only the difficulty when there wasn't such a major gap in strength.

If the man hesitates even slightly and holds back from fear of retaliation... it would be the difference of heaven and earth for him.

Alas, judging by the surge of Qi warping between the layers of darkness, it was unlikely.

"Weak? Ha ha ha ha ha!!!" All it did was provoke him, but truly this time around. "Very well. I will make you choke on those words, you ignorant subhuman garbage!"