Chương 62: Long Tao's Fun Adventure (I)

Desolate Cliffs truly lived up to their name, Long Tao mused ever so briefly. Jagged rock arose in conjoined spires, jutting out against the flats beneath it. It was a rather sharp and brutal change of terrain, one without any prior indications. Which meant that it likely wasn't wholly natural. Long Tao himself had a hand in creating some of the world's most famous vistas back in the day, as every cultivator dreamed of carving the world in ways even nature itself could not. Pride of the beast, as it went.

He closed his eyes for a moment and stretched out his Divine Sense, latching onto the faint, familiar trace further to the south, inside the cliffs. For the past six months, he delved deep into his memories trying to figure out whether he knew any tombs or hidden realms located in this place, and he actually knew precisely seven--six of which were some ways off from the Spirit Sword Sect, and one of which was practically at its doorstep.

After all, it took him less than a week to reach here, and though he did rush a bit, it wasn't by much. He slowly headed in the direction, taking in the sights--not that there was much to take in. A stretch of flat with an occasional tree or a natural protrusion too small to be called a hill, not a village in sight. The completely inhospitable terrain with no nearby sources of water meant that not only were there no people here, there weren't even any animals sans an occasional bird hawking from the sky.

He began to hum lowly as he crossed the few hundred yards of distance, coming upon the tall cliff directly, less than ten feet between them. The rock appeared aged and weathered, dry and full of cracks, but he wasn't really looking at its surface--but rather the bounding array beneath it. It was quite... complex. Seventeen laws intersected with the classical 'Six-Circle Formation', resulting in a complex array that very few could understand. Even he frowned, realizing... it would take some time.

A few days, at least. From his memories, however, this shouldn't have been the case--rather, nothing about the surrounding space matched his memories. This place should have been a natural jungle of tall, purple-leafed oaks, and at its heart should have been a swamp that held a chipped piece of a Dragon Bone. Whatever happened here in the past ten thousand years actually changed his outlook toward this area ever so slightly. In his musing, he silently rolled his eyes and glanced back; they were still hiding.

Well, hiding was a strong word--they were using basic Qi cloaking and some finely colored cloaks to blend in with the rocks, but they were so bad at it he wanted to cry. They'd been following him ever since he left the sect--per his choice, as he stopped using the cloaking art when he spotted them--and though he could have shaken them with ease, he was actually quite curious as to who they were and why they were following him.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The simplest of answers is that they are members of the Fire Sun Sect, and they are here to kill him. But why were they still hiding? There wasn't a soul anywhere beside them for miles on end, and he still wore the garments of the Outer Disciple, the most basic one at that.

He limited his realm to the Second Stage (mostly to just scare off animals and insects and not be annoyed by them), and all of them were at least at the Sixth Stage, with two of them even being at the Foundation Establishment Realm. He considered waltzing over and just exposing them but stopped; maybe they had no intention of attacking him? Maybe they were just curious why he came here? Whatever the reason, it was actually bothersome as he couldn't start deciphering the array with them around.

It was the sort of formation that required his full focus, as one mistake could trigger one of its undoubtedly deadly traps, and heaven-defiant though he was in many ways, he was not that heaven-defiant. So, he decided to camp for the night and wait. Maybe they were so cowardly they felt compelled to attack during the night? It turned out that was precisely it. As soon as midnight arrived, he saw them take the cloaks off and stop hiding.

There were seven of them in total--four kids in their late teens, two in their twenties to thirties, and one old stooge that was at the mid-Foundation Establishment. He'd praise them for using a lion to hunt down a rabbit if he wasn't beyond embarrassed on their behalf.

"Who are you?" Long Tao asked, figuring they'd be rather chatty--and he was quickly proven right.

"Little lamb, you should come with us," the eldest of them said.

"Our Sect Master would like to ask you a few questions."

"... and if I don't?"

"I don't recommend that. The only reason you're still alive is because we're benevolent." He'd forgotten, briefly, the reality of this world; spending time with his strange Master had ever so slightly dulled his skepticism. But a week on the outside and he was reminded that the world was as cruel as it was vast.

"Why the hell did you even follow me?" Long Tao asked, quite curious.

"I'm clearly just an Outer Disciple, and even if you wanted to rob me, it's not like I have anything on me. So what? Are you so desperate for merit that you'll claim, 'Hey, guys, look, we caught a really, really important Disciple!'?"

"I don't like your tone," the eldest said yet again, his voice turning cold.

"Zhue, go and teach the brat a lesson."

"Yes, Master!" At least they sent out the weakest of the bunch, Long Tao mused, as he watched the kid take his sweet time crossing the distance. Long Tao himself remained unmoved, far more concerned with how long it will take him to decipher the array than the heap of nameless thugs in front of him. As the boy crossed the last few feet of distance, fingers curled into a fist, Long Tao snapped himself back to reality and gently poured a touch of Qi into the satchel hanging around his waist.

A silver flash of light swooped upward in a beautiful arc, drawing a fading crimson trail in its wake at the same time that a head flew upward, eyes still full of derision, lips curled up into a sneer. Both the head and the body fell down at the same time, as though in cahoots, the thudding sound like a crash of the mountains. It took the six others a moment for their minds to catch up to reality, but by the time they did, Long Tao was already in front of them.

He executed three rapid slashes in succession, each arced ever so differently, and four more heads flew from the necks--all from the kids at the Qi Condensation Realm. Without stopping, Long Tao poured slightly more Qi into his feet as he turned into a fading phantom, tendrils of milky-white smoke rippling sideways from his silhouette. He himself appeared behind the weaker remaining one, stabbing in a singular motion and easily piercing through the man's heart, killing him on the spot.

Though the Foundation Establishment Realm meant the severing of the mortal, it was only so in thought; bodies were still very much made of flesh and bones and were as easy to kill as the mortals if aimed correctly.

"That only leaves you," Long Tao mumbled, his lips craning up into a smile.

"A-a-a, A DEVIL!!!" Was he? Hardly. He'd met a devil before--and the creature was far kinder and more forgiving than he ever was.