Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 332

Truths and Lies (XVIII)

It was strange.

So, so, so strange.

The more Lu Yuhan fought the strange boy, the more horrified he became--not at the prospect of being defeated, but at the realization that the boy's talents... were boundless. In all his years of living, he had never seen anyone quite like him--not even his Master, Sage of Truth, seemed to resonate with the heavens as well as the boy did.

The old wound in him meant that Lu Yuhan rarely ever fought--not that there ever was a reason. His reputation alone was a safeguard against most troublemakers, and the few times he had to intervene, anyone who dared speak up against him had died from a single flick of his finger.

... but the boy did not.

He calmly deflected and parried, or took the strike if he couldn't dodge, but ensuring it had missed all his vitals. But no matter how many of those tiny wounds Lu Yuhan inflicted, the boy... healed them all. As though he had an inexhaustible pile of healing pills on his person. Not just healing pills--Qi replenishing pills, too.

This entire ordeal was strange--those kids and that man... it was as though they came here with the sole purpose of going against him. But that was impossible.

His frowned deepened as, yet again, the shadow-encrusted daggers found themselves deflected; though it wasn't a Domain, this was still his world. His dominion, even if merely an ersatz of a true one. He'd grasped Nirvana once before, and he, however briefly, basked in governing the principles of Silence, and yet the boy... endured.

Nobody else did--even as his Nirvanic Spirit was wounded and as they came in pursuit of him, they could not see through his darkness. They were as blind to it all, Masters of the Order.

But some unknown boy saw through it?

There was no way! It had to be some sort of an artifact!

He dispersed shadows throughout the encroaching darkness yet again but held them; it was beginning to ache, the old scar. Though maintaining the darkness itself wasn't all that difficult, constantly shifting through it and using it to hide the attacks was taxing.

"You're holding back quite a bit," the boy spoke up, a faint smirk on his face as though he weren't taking this fight to heart. "I somehow doubt it's because you're toying with me or because you're affording me a chance of displaying all I know before dying. It begs the question... why?"

The frown deepened yet again; that boy was not normal.

No, none of them were normal. He should have killed them all the day he saw that other boy unleash an attack wholly unfitting somebody as 'weak' as him.

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"Who sent you?" Lu Yuhan asked. He had many enemies--both within and without the Order. After all, he, too, was once a shooting star stomping over everyone else on the way to the summit. "Was it--"

"--I will stop you right there," the boy said. "Nobody sent me. Truth is, whether you'd believe it or not, we didn't come here for you." As long as he talked... it was fine. It allowed Lu Yuhan to restore a bit more Qi and slow down the flare-up. "Though, to think a city lord of some nobody-nowhere lakeside town is one of the Sages..."

"..." Lu Yuhan wasn't surprised that the boy knew--as for how he knew... it was beyond him to know. The Order, especially in the past few centuries, wasn't as reclusive as it used to be--just like he was sent out here, there were other members, Sages even, sent elsewhere, all for proselytizing. Their mission was beyond holy, and the dawn of its recognition was coming.

"Hm? Oh. Looks like your daughter has truly lost her mind."

"...!" Lu Yuhan looked beyond the shadows and saw Yawen conjure up the Infernal Spear; he near broke through to stop her, but a sword came between him and the desire. "You bastard!"

"She wasn't always this way, was she?" the boy asked suddenly, his voice suffused with... pity. "Once a generational talent, bright and curious, she's now become... uncertain. As though suspended between madness and lucidity."

"Y-you...! How do you know?!!"

"I've had the displeasure of enduring the agony of having a Brain-Worm, once," the boy said as Lu Yuhan felt his world slowly collapse. "Hm? Oh. Not even a protest. Looks like I offered you a sense of clarity."

"N-no... no... they, they wouldn't... not to Yawen..."

"Any established order, no matter how holy on the surface," the boy continued. "Is the same. Those in power are corrupted with greed and become unwilling to yield it. Any time they see a seed with the capacity to uproot them, they will either bring it to their side or destroy it. That's why--"

"Enough," Lu Yuhan interrupted, his voice shorn of emotion. "Your tongue is rather venomous, boy. But... even if true... even if Yawen is under the influence of a Brain-Worm, it is all for a cause. If she must die, then she shall die. And if need be, so will I."

"Sheesh," the boy chuckled. "You lot really are a death cult, huh? Well, it doesn't matter. Whatever the truth may be, both of you will perish today."

"Hah. Ha ha ha ha. I wonder, truly, what gives you such confidence? My scar? Do you think just because I refrain from fighting from fear of making it worse, I cannot flatten you all with a single palm of mine?"

"Hmm. Perhaps, a few days ago, you could have...?" the boy seemed to mull over it sincerely, tapping his finger against the handle of the blade. "Ah, yes, that dreaded night. I nearly died back then. Was almost worth it, too, seeing Master lose his mind like that. Ah, I've started calling him Master so naturally. Do I have a Brain-Worm again?"

What is he talking about?!

Something was deeply off--even more so as his eyes wandered down just in time to see the sheer magnitude of the collision. Yawen was hurtled backward like a cannonball, her arms torn off, as her body tore through several of the city's buildings. The platforms began to collapse as the lake below turned crimson with blood, with black splotches floating on its surface.

Hundreds of them.

Everyone was dead or dying.

All to some kids.

All to some backwater bumpkins.

All to some nobodies.

"Very well." He took a deep breath.

It was over.

His ambition in this place was done--the word will get out, and they will come. His desperate bid to locate the Guardian and try and undo the damned scar... his ambition to raise Yawen into a Prime Sage... all his dreams now lay scattered like rued flowers after a storm.

It was all undone.

By these nobodies.

"Let me truly bear witness," he said as the darkness began to converge back into him. "How enduring your boundless arrogance is. My name is Lu Yuhan; my Dao Title is Silent Sage. I have lived and lumbered upon this epoch for 2,838 years, having achieved my Nirvana and acquired Dao in the 1,989th year of my living. I am ranked 53rd of the Sages, having been punished for my sin before I could prove myself. Today, you have woken the anger in me, and I shall use your blood to quench my rage. Bear witness to a True Immortal, you filthy, barbaric scum."