Emperor-CatVI
The Elders will tell you the stories and lore. Of our ancestors, their deeds, and of the foes of yore. They will praise to you the chariot, and how it flew to the stars. How it stole the sun's light and slew the night’s roar.
The Shamans will tell you the tales of their wisdom. Their wars on schism, and the unlettered world of ours before. Perhaps they will sing you the songs, of what our clans' ancient customs tore. Poems of how our ancestors took what the discs had offered them, the Manna and the mundane, and made it more.
The kings will tell you of the follies, the sins, and the anecdotes of all our ancestors' wrongs. They will curse to you their names, the Ender of Fate and the Ruined Song. How they had dug up the hearts of the discs, euchred its relics, and blasphemed its prophecies, with oracles withdrawn.
But they will only tell you the legends, recount the myths, and sing the allegories washed ashore.
The Elders, the Shamans, and the kings can only retell what the storytellers of their own time had voiced. What they have read in books or heard in the minstrels' songs they adore.
They don't know what really happened. They were never there.
They can't tell you how our ancestors slew the angels from the sky, and sent them back to where they belonged. How they poisoned our minds, and made our people slothful and feeble, with the reforms they had undergone.
But I can.
I can tell you how the Ender of Fate severed destiny's strings, weakened them, and weaved them to our feeble flesh and souls. I can tell you how the Ruined song razed the heavens with her blood-stained melody, and reshaped our hell into utopia, with the deaths she deplored.
Because I was there. I can tell you the truth, with my virtue strong.
Chapter 20
“Ugh…” Tony Dwaine opened his eyes with a groan. His head felt like there were a thousand monkeys doing taps dance recitals, and the shoes were made out of really old plastic.
But as an experienced veteran, it only took a second after waking up for him to realize the danger he was in. But the ill-fated hit he took to the soul made recovering all the more difficult. The surroundings were still cloudy even though he opened his eyes wide. And he could taste the blood and jam in his mouth.
‘Jam?’ He stopped. Then concentrated on the foreign substance in his mouth again.
This slimy texture, the taste, definitely guava jam.
Tony Dwaine, the grand elder of the Shadow Snake Cult, was confused.
But he didn’t let the confusion last. The first order of business was to evaluate his current situation. From the feeling he got from his body, it seemed to be submerged under a watery prison. He tried circulating his mana a few times to no avail. His powers, and most of his senses, were completely sealed.
But he could still talk. Not with his mouth, but spiritually. Whomever had captured him was sure to still be around. And with the movements he was making, it was surely exposed that he had regained consciousness.
“Release… me… You don’t know who you are offending!” Tony Dwaine turned his scream into a spiritual pulse. He started with a threat.
At this point, after getting some valuable time to think, he was pretty certain he had offended some unknown hermit above tier 10 living on the moon. Whatever relation the hermit had with Liu Feng didn’t matter. It was without a doubt a mistake to barge into this place, and he was already deeply regretting in.
But he would bet on the chance that the hermit didn’t want to have a total fallout with the Shadow Snake Cult. After all, they also had beyond tier 10 experts.
The hermit had been living on the moon unknown for so long. No one knew of their existence as far as he was concerned, and as an elder from a sect specializing in assassination, he knew more than most. For a beyond tier 10 expert to be this under the radar, there must be a reason. And it was safe to assume, that it be would be against their interests to have the attention of multiple first-rate organizations on them.
If so, there was still room for negotiation. He could rectify his mistake, ask forgiveness from the senior, and treat it as if this whole thing never happened after paying a suitable compensation. He still had to complete his real mission on moon, he could not fall here!
After all, he was still alive. And he could feel the pulse of his subordinates nearby. The hermit didn’t mean to kill him. Not yet.
It was then that he felt another presence enter the space. It was… very different than anything he had ever felt before.
The darkness surrounding him seem to intensify. But one corner of it, an area filled with mist, thinned. As if his senses were bending to the will of the mighty existence. Blanking out everything else and forcing Tony Dwaine to concentrate only on itself.
Tony felt a shiver travel down his spine. He felt bloodlust, an animalistic gaze from the depths of abyss itself. As if he was but a prey whose only purpose was to be looked down up, to be hunted.
His eyes immediately closed, and he tried to shut off his spiritual sense. But he failed. His body that was submerged underwater started to sweat, and even with blood and jam in his mouth, he started panting.
He felt scared. He wanted to beg for forgiveness. But he couldn’t.
Then suddenly, he felt a slither of razor sharp, deadly, beastlike will connect with his own.
And he got just one word in reply to his earlier threat.
“Meow.”
Tony Dwaine, the grand elder of the Shadow Snake Cult, passed out for the 2nd time that day.
***
“N-No, P-please, mercy…” The black clothed old man who was currently trapped in Zoe’s slime prison was muttering in gibberish his sleep. From the looks of it, he was having a pretty severe nightmare.
After waking up for a minute, he suddenly sent out an incomprehensible mental attack at Snowy, then immediately passed out. This event greatly confused both Zoe and the cat.
The eldritch maiden herself had trapped all 11 intruders in her signature slimy prison globe. Similar to the service Liu Feng had once received. Then she moved all of them underground, into her lava tube where the lake was. With Snowy curiously following behind her.
Arthur was too lazy to go all the way back down there. So, he and the bot were still in the living room, discussing what to do next.
“I think this solves one problem.” Arthur said.
But the bot didn’t understand. It asked, “There is an error in what you said. You meant to say it added more problems, right?”
Arthur scoffed at it. Then replied, “Weren’t we thinking about how to approach Liu Feng? Well now we got the perfect reason. Whatever they were doing on the moon has nothing to do with us. But people they know suddenly attacked us and now we are intervening in whatever business they are conducting. Even if he doesn’t want us to get involved, now he won’t have a choice.”
“Beep, you have a point. I retract my earlier statement. But why would they attack us so suddenly? I am sure Liu Feng didn’t leak anything about us. He has the geas.”
“Who knows! That’s not important now. If we can’t interrogate these people, we can just ask Liu Feng to find out their modus operandi after we contact him.” Arthur said.
The bot beeped for a few seconds, then agreed. “Affirmative. That makes sense.”
A few minutes later, Zoe returned with the cat.
“Meow!” Snowy purred, and went for her bowl. There were still some dried fish left. Zoe patted the cushion beside the kotatsu a few times and sat down.
“So shall we begin?” She asked, magic circle at the ready. Arthur was about to nod, but then suddenly remembered something.
“Wait!” he exclaimed. “Last time Liu Feng called you a Scourgekin. And he was way too prejudiced about it. The hatred was almost fanatical. Are you sure his allies aren’t similar? Judging from how Liu Feng reacted, won’t they just drop all conventionalism and attack first before speaking?”
Zoe thought for a while, then smiled, “That time the dilution process was still incomplete, remember? My intrinsic chaotic nature as a scourge has already been replaced thanks to the last negativity core. They will only think of me as somewhat chaotic, but not to the extent of being a Scourgekin.”
The bot chimed in, “And what if they do. The strongest of these individuals is a moderately high threat level combatant. Zoe is an Extremely Dangerous Planetary Calamity level combatant. They can’t harm her. Not many beings on Terra can.”
Arthur still didn’t want to take the risk, as he had no idea how threat levels were calculated by Xylnareon standards. But Zoe urged him on with a ‘Trust me, I know what I am doing.’ So, all he could do was hesitantly nod.
This time there was no interruption. Zoe used the super boosted wi-fi signal to accurately project her magic into the Minibees in the space-lock.
On the TV screen, Arthur could see the people in all camps tense up. Magic barriers were deployed and a huge group if people from the unorthodox camp flew up before the obelisk to protect it.
Liu Feng’s’ group were the closest to where the Minibee formation was hidden. So, they were also the first to react. Immediately they split into battle formations and casted trapping spells in that general area.
This greatly confused the unorthodox sects. They had assumed the orthodox sects were tired of waiting and decided to bring out the big guns.
But it didn’t take long for both parties to communicate and reach an agreement.
This new intruder was a 3rd, well, 4th party.
Back at the Tullett residence, Arthur observed Zoe’s profile as she did her magic. It seemed like even for her, trying to project mana inside the space-lock was taxing. She grunted once, but then her expression eased up.
“It’s done.” She said.
Arthur turned looked back at the TV screen. And almost spat out what he ate that day.
The same could be said about the people inside the space-lock.
One moment there was a huge mana fluctuation coming from the intruder, definitely beyond tier 10. The next, there was a gigantic bluish green tentacle covered in horrifying plant like thorns, razor sharp vines, and insectoid appendages swaying around like it was caramel dancing. A huge gaping maw split open from the top, like a Bobbit worm’s, but the mouth was eerily human. It had fangs as long as spears, and as jagged as saws.
The onlooker’s eyes opened wide in sheer horror, similar to Arthurs, as they were frozen in their spots for a few seconds.
Then they waited, and Zoe also waited.
Arthur facepalmed.
“Why…. Would you make it a terror tentacle?”
“Umm, hehehe. I didn’t enough control make a human avatar, so I just used an offshoot.” She giggled in embarrassment.
“Sigh.” Arthur looked helpless as he said, “They are definitely going to attack. De-efinitely gonna get attacked now.”
“Should I say something?” Zoe asked.
“Ugh, I don’t know.” Arthur for some reason had lost all enthusiasm. Thinking how to solve the situation.
But contrary to his expectations, right before the mob of supernaturals decided to send a flurry of destruction towards Zoe’s offshoot, a voice cut through the space-lock.
“STAY YOU HANDS!”
It was Arthur’s old acquaintance, Liu Feng the minimalist monk. He rushed in front of the tentacle and immediately created a connection.
“Scourgekin! No, why do you no longer feel like a scourgekin? Wait, that is not important. You are… Zoe?” Liu Feng asked carefully.
Zoe looked at Arthur for affirmation, he gave her the go. So, Zoe coughed a bit to clear her throat despite Arthur’s look of ‘Why though?’ and spoke out via the spiritual connection.
“We meet again, monk. You have some explaining to do.” Her first words were threatening enough.
“Nice job!” Arthur said with a thumbs up, “Never give up the momentum when negotiating.”
Liu Feng on the other side didn’t understand what Zoe meant by that, but for now he could confirm it was indeed her.
Zoe continued, “I overlooked the fact you people were treating this area like a playground. That source has little value to me. However,” She sent him the pictures of Tony Dwaine and his tied-up bunch, “Now I am interested.”
Liu Feng’s face paled. He was well aware of Zoe’s prowess. If she decided to step in now, this whole situation would get exponentially more complicated. Not even linear anymore. As someone who was afraid of simple algebra, he couldn’t even imagine what a vector integral function like Zoe could do the mess.
“W-Wait, there must be a misunderstanding. Let me confirm. I will give you a satisfactory explanation so just… wait.” Saying that, he immediately contacted the unorthodox camp.
Everyone else at that point already realized that the sudden horror of an intruder must have connections with Liu Feng. From the outside, all they could see was Liu Feng’s expression changing into a slideshow of a psychology textbook, and the weird tentacle monster gurgling and swaying like it was actually capable of communication.
This made the unorthodox camp even more nervous. Even Liu Feng’s allies didn’t know what to make of the situation. But the moment Liu Feng publicly demanded Herman Eros Felipe about the situation with the now missing Tony Dwaine, everyone began to theorize what was really going on.
Felipe himself was flabbergasted. A simple capturing mission he offhandedly authorized was now jeopardizing everything.
Not wanting the situation to get even worse, he hurriedly said to Liu Feng, “It’s a misunderstanding! I will explain everything to the senior, there must have been a mix-up in communication.”
He added to his allies, “There is no need to worry. We still have to help the Master of the Seal search for the shard of sin. There is no need to make things further complicated and waste time. I will go clear things up immediately.”
But the Scarlet Vixen, leader of the Scarlet Maiden Sect sneered, “Aww~ Has our little Eros messed up again? How many times does this make? Are you really okay? Should this big sister help you out?”
What she really meant was, ‘Fat chance! You think you can shoot your own foot and act like nothing happened? The fragment is mine!’
Felipe grimaced. But there was nothing he could do. So, he followed Liu Feng, the grand cardinal from Vatican, and the Scarlet Vixen towards the swaying monstrosity.
It was then, that they all sensed another massive change happening.
Chapter 19
Spying was quite easy when the other party couldn’t detect your tiny swarm of bots which were further hidden by layers of Eldritch magic.
It didn’t take long for Arthur and co to get a general idea of what happened from the bits and pieces of conversation they managed to pick up from the three camps. And he was even able to eavesdrop on the full conversation Liu Feng had with his subordinate and sister.
“I think women should be like her.” Zoe said, “Self-reliant and full of entrepreneurship. But I also think the direction of her thinking is a bit weird.”
Arthur nodded. But he also wondered if there was a separate genre of x-hub about supernatural scuffles competing for artifacts of lewdness.
Arthur pondered for a minute, then said, “I think I understand what I have to do. Whatever this forbidden Dao or shard of sin is, that’s what most of these people here want. If we want them to go away, we have to relocate it away from the moon.”
“Umm, there’s also the source. What are we going to do about that?”
“Nothing. Didn’t the shadier camp say they would leave with the source by themselves after confirming there was no forbidden Dao? And even if they don’t leave and fight for it among themselves, it shouldn’t be as bad as an all-out war between the shady camp and the other 2 camps. At that point it won’t have much effect on Whitewood or us. First though, we need to actually understand what this forbidden Dao thing is. And then see if it is hidden within that pink pillar. The problem is…” “How to approach them?” “Yeah. I don’t want to get mixed up with this bunch.” Arthur replied with a sigh.
It was then the bot decided to speak up, “A good sentinel should always strive to use all assets in his civilization. I think this task would be a lot easier if we could co-operate with local forces, rather than trying to be a fictional hero who only tries to hide his identity.”
Arthur had to agree with what the bot said. There was no real logical reason he was averse to approaching these forces. And they even had an acquaintance there.
But,
“I really don’t wanna be friends with people who fight each other over… that thing.”
Zoe and the bot could do nothing but nod.
They were back at square one. But it didn’t take long for Arthur to make a decision, “Be that as it may, our first priority is to confirm the status of the Dao thingy. Let’s contact Liu Feng to get more information, then we’ll decide from there.”
He looked at the bot and asked, “Can you use the Minibees inside the space-lock to communicate with him?”
“Yes. But should be communicate with them like that?” “What do you mean?” “Well, imagine a bonafide eastern priest suddenly being contacted by a swarm of unfamiliar microbots. The scene is too funny to be humanities first contact. Their first reaction might be to secure and contain, rather than negotiate. I assume you would want this information exchange to go smoothly, and not encounter hiccups on the first step?”
“You have a point… Wait, can Zoe do it?” He turned to the eldritch maiden and asked.
“Umm, maybe? I did leave traces of my magic on those Minibees. But I can’t reach them from outside the space-lock.” The bot then chimed in, “Easy fix! You just need a stronger net connection!”
It then started making some digital hacking noises and with a quite beep, it exclaimed, “Done!”
“What did you do?” Arthur asked.
“I hacked into the wi-fi repeater outside the dome and boosted the signal. Now Zoe can use me to login to the Minibee interface and use magic from here.”
“… Is that how it’s supposed to work?”
“Why not?”
Arthur didn’t reply to that. He couldn’t.
It didn’t take long for Zoe to get used to the amplified signal. All she had to do was hold Digibee in her palm and concentrate. Apparently, a virtual interface opened up and now she could accurately fire off magic inside the space-lock.
“For supernaturals on Terra, Xylnareon tech is what black magic is to normal people.” Zoe couldn’t help but exclaim with a sigh. Once again amazed by how unmagical Xylnareon magic was.
“So… should we do it now?” Arthur asked, after a split second of hesitation.
Zoe nodded.
But before she could apply her magic, a sound similar to an intruder alarm rang out through the house, and the bot’s eye turned red.
Zoe seemed to have sensed something and immediately went into battle mode. She said, “Someone just tried to teleport in!”
“Activate Surveillance footage!” The bot said, then a window on the TV opened up showing the scene outside the house.
There were about 10 people outside, wearing a variety of robes and uniforms. With one old man in particular that stood out. He was wearing a pitch-black overcoat, with a black fedora on top. His greying hair had a black haze to it, complementing the stereotypical evil look the piercing red eyes gave him.
At the moment, there was a clear look of confusion on his face, as he and the people behind him were floating right outside the boundary of Arthur’s property. The old man had his hands outstretched towards to house, but for some reason couldn’t reach in.
The bot quickly identified the person, “He was one of the elders in the unorthodox sect camp! A few minutes earlier the Minibees spotted him leaving the space-lock.”
Arthur and Zoe were confused, “Why would he show up here?”
The bot just shrugged.
What they didn’t know was, the would-be intruders were also confused. They were far more muddled then them.
Rewinding back a few minutes.
Inside the space-lock, the unorthodox faction was currently in a stalemate with both themselves and the orthodox camp led by Liu Feng and the Vatican grand cardinal.
The Cult of Eros leader, Hermon Eros Felipe, was quite distressed. If they could get their hands on the fragment, it was almost a guarantee that he would break through tier ten and enter the realm of immortals and gods.
However, those accursed harlots from the Scarlet Maiden Sect refused to bow their heads. At this rate, both sides would call over all their allies for a final showdown with no assurance they’d be able to recoup their loses. The predicted casualties were too much, even for a fragment.
But they couldn’t just give in. Not to mention the orthodox hounds looking on from the side. They had to get rid of at least one of the opposing factions. And before long, the leaders on both sides agreed that the orthodox mutts had to go. Either peacefully or through force.
The problem was the forbidden Dao. The Cult of Eros leader was sure the fragment had nothing to do with any forbidden Dao, this one point he could agree with the Scarlet Vixen. But not those stuck up monks.
So, they decided to, at least for now, peacefully cooperate with the orthodoxy to locate the forbidden Dao. The Master of the Seal also agreed to leave the space-lock immediately if they could confirm the fragment indeed had nothing to do with the forbidden Dao.
So, the unorthodox camp mobilized their forces immediately. It was then that one of his closest friends, a grand elder from the Shadow Snake Cult, gave a suggestion.
“Old friend. It is not wise to put all our eggs in one basket. If we can locate the forbidden Dao, all is good. But what happens if we cannot? We need to have a contingency plan.”
The Cult of Eros leader immediately understood his friend’s intention. He had a lead. “What do you suggest?” Felipe asked.
Tony Dwaine, the elder with piercing red eyes, suggested, “A few days ago there was news of the Master of the Seal contacting some… civilians, in the near town of Whitewood.”
“Ah yes, I have also read that report. He was apparently walking around town in a beggar getup. Nothing new. What of it?”
“Well here is the interesting part. According to my sources, he refuses to talk about what happened there, even with his sister. And ordered a complete ban to his people on approaching the other party. He was even quite fierce about it, a rare thing for someone as mild as he.”
“Do you suspect something?” “… I have done some background checks on the people. Only a boy and a girl live there now. The boy is completely a mortal, while some Sanctioned organizations may have kept tabs on the female in the past, but they could find no supernatural connection other than her fake place of birth. All in all, nothing that can be regarded as important by the Master of the Seal. At least, that’s what it appears on the surface.”
“You think otherwise?”
Tony thought for a bit. But then shook his head and replied, “I cannot give a conclusive answer. But if there is a relationship between them, the Master of the Seal, and the sudden appearance of a forbidden Dao. It could be a chip worth having.”
Felipe was convinced. First, they had to detain those people, and interrogate what Liu Feng’s relationship with them was. Of course, he didn’t think some civilian hostages were enough to make the orthodox camp leave. It wasn’t only Liu Feng there after all.
But they were already grasping at straws here. Any lead that could break the stalemate was worth pursuing. As for the freedom of those civilians?
What a joke. In front of the will of giant sects, mortals might as well be insects.
Thus, Tony Dwaine took a few of his subordinates and left the space-lock. After appearing in reality once again, he used his cult’s secret technique to opened a shadow channel towards Whitewood. He already had a general idea of the coordinates. And as long as there was shadow, the Shadow Snake elder could appear anywhere.
Or that’s what he thought.
In some bizarre series of events, when he neared the Tullett residence via the shadow channel, a huge red neon, glowing police baton flew out from the void and bashed him and his subordinates out of the teleportation like they were random roadkill.
There was a loud soul piercing alarm saying, “Warning! Spy biological detected in your home! Please activate your Anti-biological software license to perma-“
Tony Dwaine, an exalted elder at the top of the power pyramid amongst supernaturals, was too shocked in the soul to make any effective responses. His eyes clouded over and his consciousness fell into turmoil because of the direct hit to his soul.
His subordinates were in an even worse state. And just as he was about to regain his senses, he heard an angry female voice coming from the direction of the Tullett abode.
“Hmph, you’ve got some nerve trying to trespass in my shrine.”
Tony managed to turn his eyes towards the voice, but all he saw was a huge slimy green tentacle rushing towards him like a hundred-ton truck. He had a weird feeling of déjà vu.
“Wai-“
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt pain like he never felt before for the second time that day, and everything was consumed by darkness.
Chapter 18
That cat was in the kitchen, helping itself to a big bowl of dried fish. After Zoe was done with microwaving a few packs of buttered popcorn, it purred and followed her out.
Arthur was already in some cozy homebody pajamas, sitting comfortably under the Kotatsu. The quick shower washed away all the sweat and fatigue, making him feel refreshed.
He asked if Zoe wanted to go for a quick shower too since she was doing yoga but according to her, yoga couldn’t make eldritch horrors sweat.
Arthur shrugged.
Digibee was floating beside them with a laser line coming out of its eye. The TV in the living room was quickly set up for the livestream.
“Commencing steam!” It said.
And the screen switched to a sight outside their house. From the looks of it, it was from the viewpoint of multiple Minibees that flew in a formation.
The screen however wasn’t split into multiple segments for each Minibee, but integrated together into only 2 windows. With one of them taking up the whole TV, and another small window in the bottom left showing the Minibees in a 3rd person pov.
*munch*munch*
“What now?” Arthur asked.
“I’m having them leave the dome. After reaching the space lock, the Minibees will be able to infiltrate the space lock with Zoe’s magic.” The bot replied.
And so, the view in the stream shifted as the small fleet of spybots left Whitewood via some vents, and after a minute or so, reached an empty expanse of the moon.
Suddenly, a small hair thin crack appeared before the Minibees, as all but one of them got into a spearheaded formation.
A bluish green film of light enveloped the formation when they touched the crack in space. The next moment, the Minibees vanished from their spot, as Arthur could see in the smaller window.
The bigger window of the TV screen showed a weird play of light. Like those sci-fi special effects in movies when a ship enters warp-space or hyper-drive.
A moment later, the screen cleared and they were back on the moon.
A pink moon.
Arthur almost spat out the popcorn in his mouth.
“Ok, who the hell was the pervert who designed this space lock?” He mused.
“Umm, I don’t think it’s the space lock. I checked this area out a few days ago. It’s the source.” Zoe corrected him.
“The thing Liu Feng talked about?” “Yeah, that.” Zoe said, pointing at one area of the screen.
“Commencing zoom-in!” The bot suddenly said enthusiastically. It was really enjoying its first mission. “Enhancing! Enhancing!”
The screen zoomed in past the scenery of the space lock. The inside of the lock was actually not similar at all to the outside even if you didn’t count the pinkish hue.
There were a lot of stray wisps of energy floating around.
And everyone and everything had a neon glow to them.
There were a bunch of people standing on the ground and flying in the sky without any sort of protective suits. Those should be the moderately high-level combatants the bot spoke of. Arthur even managed to get a glimpse of his old friend the monk, who was standing at the front of a camp of other monks.
And someone in a frilly full body pajama which suspiciously looked like a ninja suit.
‘Weird.’
The people inside the lock seemed to be split into three big camps. There were a lot of beat-up people too in each group. But they were no longer fighting it seemed.
‘Neat.’ Arthur thought. The less conflicted the situation was, the easier it would be for him to solve this absurd tutorial mission from the loli goddess.
He then cast his gaze onto the ‘source’ Zoe pointed at.
It was a huge obelisk planted into the moon. At its base was a jagged formation of translucent gold crystals with 3 smooth boulders in particular that stood out. The base looked like a separate structure altogether, not directly attached to the main body of the obelisk, but just holding up the body.
The body of the obelisk itself looked very manmade. And it had various runes floating inside of it and along its surface. The top was sharp and pointy like an arrow. But the base of that arrowhead was rounded like a mushroom cap. Finally, there was a glimmering light, like a wisp or sparkle, at the very apex.
It was also pink.
Pure, unquestionable pink.
Arthur thought for a while. Then opened his mouth to say something. But then closed it again. Zoe was blushing, the bot didn’t care about biological common sense, and the cat was just being a cat.
***
“It’s a d*ck.” said Petal for the nth time.
“Liu Petal!” Liu Feng yelled out as he gave the cosplaying kunoichi a smack on the head. Then quickly turned around to apologize to the other elders for her brazen behavior.
He didn’t have to, as he heard a few giggles and snickers here and there. An old man with greying hair even had trouble standing up because of his shaking legs.
Liu Feng sighed. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but wonder if his sister was right. The fragment certainly looked… unorthodox.
And completely useless to their cause.
“This is troublesome,” He said. Then asked one of his subordinates, “What happened to the Cult of Eros?”
“They sent half of their grand elders and even the cult master teleported in a few minutes ago. From what I’ve gathered from acquaintances in their camp, they are completely prepared to duke it out with the Scarlet Maiden Sect. And reinforcement from their allies are steadily making their way in. The situation is same for the Scarlet Maiden Sect.”
“So, they are completely uninterested in the forbidden Dao?” “Not in the Dao itself, it would seem. These two sects are only here for the… fragment. They even grouped up temporarily to beat back the sanctioned organizations when they threated to destroy the fragment. After all, it is completely in their niche.”
“Such a modern way of addressing a holy treasure.” Liu Feng said with a sigh. His subordinate, a man wearing a robe similar to his but with punked blond hair, just scratched his head in embarrassment.
He then continued, “It still hasn’t been confirmed that the forbidden Dao is truly hidden within the fragment. That’s simply the most likely scenario as they both appeared in the same area within a few days of each other. Are we going to support the sanctioned organizations?” “No. For now just observe. I personally don’t want to turn these perverted lunatics into mortal enemies if possible. Until we can absolutely confirm the location of the forbidden Dao, do not engage with either party. However, if the Cult of Eros or Scarlet Maiden Sect try to take away the fragment without giving absolute proof that the forbidden Dao is no hidden within, stop them.” Liu Feng commanded. And the punk blond monk nodded.
“Also, check with the local government for any news of supernatural or unusual events that have happened in this area.” Liu Feng added.
It had just been more than a week since his tragic defeat against the scourgekin. He had definitely not forgotten it. He suspected that she might even have something to do with the forbidden Dao.
Not to mention, according to reports, there was a meteorite that hit the dome right above Arthur and Zoe’s abode.
Too many weird things happening surrounding the same place, the same people. At this point, he refused to believe it was all a coincidence.
But the god forsaken geas on his soul made him unable to consult his allies.
“Sigh.” He shook his head in lament.
A trip originally meant to survey a newly appeared high tier fragment had turned exponentially more complex.
The fragment itself, according to his observation, was the type that dealt with the concept of fertility and promiscuity. It was totally useless for orthodox organizations like theirs. At best it could be refined into pure mana or qi. At worst, they could grind it up and sell it as Viagra powder on the black market.
Even then it might be a loss.
But for unorthodox sects like the Cult of Eros and Scarlet Maiden Sect, sects full of neurotic perverts, nymphomaniacs, succubus wannabees, and budding Casanovas, it was a divine object. If one of them could claim ownership of the fragment, then Liu Feng guessed in the next half a year there would be a few more top-level practitioners appearing in their midst.
Maybe even someone will break through tier 10 to the highest realm.
The people in his camp were all members of organizations that claimed themselves as ‘Orthodox.’ From Taoist and Buddhist sects from the plains of China, to the religious organizations of North America and Europe.
There were even a few sadhus and shamans. However, people from their particular group were rarely interested in happenings on Luna and Mars.
Groups like Cult of Eros and Scarlet Maiden Sect on the other hand, were considered ‘Unorthodox’ by all, even themselves. While intrinsically not evil, it was a fact that the techniques they practiced often ended up leading to directions that would traditionally be considered immoral, if not outright evil.
A little less than half of all evil organizations were unorthodox after all.
Fortunately, while the Cult of Eros and Scarlet Maiden Sect were definitely full of psychos, they usually kept things legal. Immoral yes, but definitively not pure evil or against their members’ wishes.
So, Liu Feng was unwilling to get into direct conflict with them.
The third group of miserable, beaten-up casualties that were present were what they referred to as the Sanctioned Organizations.
Basically, they started off as a gathering of people with different supernatural abilities gathered together for a common purpose. Which then grew to be a proper organization.
Similar to a league of superheroes, or guild of adventurers in fiction; but unlike sects, cults, and families, they didn’t have stricter doctrine. They were run more like companies and were focused on profit to a certain extent.
And another the common point for these organizations, was that they were supported by the unified human government and other major secular organizations.
That’s why when they found out the news about the forbidden Dao, or shard of sin as they tentatively named it, their first reaction was to act as the official force of some government faction to either seize the pink obelisk from the unorthodox sects without any legitimate claim, or destroy it.
As a result, they got ganged up by about 30 tier ten practitioners and now even their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them.
“Bunch of lunatics.” Liu Feng muttered.
The sanctioned, orthodox, and unorthodox organizations had many interrelated interests and no one was each other’s absolute enemies. Only interest mattered.
And Liu Feng, after getting beat up by Zoe, was interested in beating someone else up to vent his frustration.
So, when the fight between the sanctioned and unorthodox organizations started, he immediately supported the legitimacy of the unorthodox sects and inflicted unfair violence upon the sanctioned.
Of course, he was the representative of orthodoxy here and had to maintain a ‘good’ façade.
After the sanctioned were defeated, he stopped the unorthodox sects from killing the defeated party and took custody of the space lock with his now superior, and relatively uninjured camp.
The unorthodox sects agreed to a cease-fire but continued to bring in reinforcements. They even fractured and split into two smaller camps each following the Cult of Eros or Scarlet Maiden Sect.
This was good news since Liu Feng’s group was still superior for now.
As long as he could find the forbidden Dao, he cared not what happened to the pink obelisk. Liu Feng’s goal was not to claim the Dao, but to destroy it.
As he was thinking what his next move would be, Liu Petal called out to him, “Umm, Sect master!”
“What?”
“I was contacted by my sponsors. If they start fighting for the fragment, can I record it and upload it on x-hub? They said it will be a new genre and definitely get millions of ad views! Can I? Please! This is important for my career!”
A vein popped up on the temple of the master of the seal as he squeezed Petal’s cheeks with as much force as possible, “Upload this and career that! All you think about is internet fame and now you even want to start uploading on x-hub! Are you going to join the Scarlet Maiden Sect if it gets you more views? Our parents would rise up from the grave if they heard what you said!”
“Ou ou ow wet go it huwts!”
Chapter 17
"One, two, three, four,"
"Beep"
"Five, six, seven, eight,"
"Beep beep beeeeeeep!"
"Nine, te-"
"Beee-eee-eppp bip bip."
"Would you stop that obnoxious beeping already?" Arthur, being interrupted out of his jumping jack routine, yelled at the divibot which was cheerfully floating nearby.
"What beeping?" Digibee asked in confusion. Its holographic eye going wide open in confusion.
"Your beeping! And in the first place, you aren’t one of those censoring AIs used by shady organizations. If you want to sing the song, just say out the lyrics. Why beep?”, Arthur said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“Biological supremacist!” the bot yelled out at the accusation. “I was singing every word of the lyrics. Do not discriminate just because you are unable to comprehend it.”
“No, I’m pretty sure you were just beeping.” Arthur said skeptically.
“Well, did you take into account the frequency, wavelength, waveshape, amplitude of the so called ‘beeps’? They were all DISTINCT! Each carrying more information than your outdated biological vocal cords will ever be able to transmit.”
‘Is that how it’s supposed to be. Obnoxious beeping is singing now?’ Arthur grimaced, but couldn’t find a way to refute Digibee.
The bot, realizing it had one-up’ed the sentinel, continued to beep its way around the yard with renewed vigor. All Arthur could do was sigh.
“That’s not right Arthur. You need to properly apologize after falsely accusing Digibee like that.” Zoe, who was doing yoga nearby, called out to him. Apparently, the flexible motions of the Indian yoga biyam kept her tentacles in shape.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry.” Arthur reluctantly complied. He then cast another furtive glance at the floating bot and went back to start another repetition of jumping jacks.
It’s been one week since he started adding exercise to his everyday life, and after hours and hours of tireless hardship, encouragement from Zoe, scientific methods and simulations by Digibee, pats from the cat, he had finally reached his peak…. Losing 4 kilograms.
Ok, he actually only lost 3.
But according to professionals (the bot), it was because he gained some muscles too.
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t disappointed at the small progress, but it was what it was. Even though he didn’t really make that much ‘amazing gainz’, he could physically feel how much stronger and ‘efficient’ his body had become. There were some changes still going on below his flab that totally justified his continuous intake of junk food and sugary drinks.
After all, bodily transformation, even the godly kind, needed glucose and fiber.
On other hand, there had been little in the ways of updates regarding godly matters. He did urge Vileplume everyday if there was something to do, to which the loli usually replied vaguely.
Fortunately, just this morning she sent them an instant message stating she had found some clues regarding ‘illegal space teleporting activities’ caused by something on or near Earth. And she’d need Arthur to investigate it.
“Beep?”
“???”
“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!”
“Oh for the love of-“
“Anomaly detected!” Before Arthur could yell out at the bot in frustration for the sudden jarring alarms, the bot’s eyes went into red alert mode and it started projecting a hologram of the area.
Realizing it wasn’t a ‘song’ anymore but something serious, Arthur asked, “What happened?”
“A large number of moderately high threat level combat practitioners just teleported all around the surrounding area. In a radius of 200 kilometers there are currently 58 energy signatures of moderately high threat level individuals, and the number is rising.” The bot reported, showing a real time map of the energy signatures.
“Arthur!” Zoe, stopping her yoga, also added, “I can also sense them. A huge number of Earth’s tier nine and ten personnel have appeared. This is bad.”
“Why?” he asked.
“The last time this many appeared at one point was during world war III.” Zoe answered grimly.
“Oh boy.” He frowned. Not liking what Zoe was indicating.
“They are converging.” The bot continued. “Heading towards… the large source signal right outside this town. The… fragment as the locals call it.”
“Could that be why they are here? Fighting for resources?”
“No! Impossible. Sources are rare but the one outside definitely does not warrant this much attention.”
“They have started fighting!” The bot hurriedly added. But before Arthur could ask more,
“Phew.” it ‘sighed’ out in relief. “Luckily they were smart enough to set up a space lock around the combat zone. The battle should not affect reality.”
Zoe also visibly relaxed. She saw Arthur’s confused look, and explained, “They are fighting in a parallel dimension, so harm would be limited there. This means it isn’t all out war yet.”
But then she added, “It’s still strange though. I checked out the source outside a few days ago. It was one of the rarer, weirder ones. But not really… of use to many organizations. The niche kind. There must be something else going it.”
Arthur nodded, then asked the bot to immediately monitor all information in the area. While the mundane and supernatural were separated at first glance, in reality they were also deeply intertwined. Maybe they could find clues from the local government intranet to shed some light onto the situation.
He, on the other hand directly contacted the loli goddess asking for instructions. As an absolute newbie who had only read about 10 pages of the sentinel instruction manual, he wasn’t about to take independent action without supervision.
Ok, he just needed her to take the fall if he messed up.
“Who is this?! How did you get this number?! If you are non Xylnareon personnel who is just prank calling when the great mighty adult goddess is watching her favouri-“
“Farking answering machine!” Arthur threw his arms up in frustration at how unreliable the crazy loli could be.
But then he got a call back via the divine network.
“Uh, hello? Sorry dude was at work.” The loli sheepishly said.
“Never mind that. There’s a situation on moon.”
“Hmm? Yeah, I see. From the looks of it, it got nothing to do with you lot. Lemme double check, hmm, ya. No, ya. Wait, it’s actually your fault.”
“What?”
“You heard what I said. Let me record this. Wait, this is a chance! This is your first mission. Figure out why you messed up, and solve it. This actually came at a good time. Like a little tutorial mission about Emblematic Dominance! Toodles!”
“Whaaat? Wait do-“
“Beep!”
“Hello?” Arthur spoke a few more time into the network. But there was no reply. He sighed, and looked at the bot and Zoe, knowing they couldn’t hear his conversation with the goddess.
So, he repeated what the loli told him.
But they were left just as confused as he was, not knowing what the goddess meant. Arthur asked the bot if he could sue his boss for not giving information that was already available before starting the mission. But the bot said he could not since god said it was his fault.
‘How unreasonable.’ Arthur could only complain inwardly.
“By the way, can you confirm the status of the battlefield again?” He asked the bot. Unsure of what action to take without more information.
“Beep! It’s kind of hard without any sensors set up inside the space lock. All I can say is no one is using techniques of mass destructions… yet.”
“Well, that isn’t ominous at all.”
Zoe thought for a while, then suggested, “I can try sneaking it. I think I can get in without alerting anyone.” The bot proposed its own idea, “Actually, if Zoe and I use our specialties together we could easily get some sensors in.”
“How?” Arthur asked.
The bot explained, “Well I got Minibees yes?” “Mini-what?”
“Minibees! These!” It floated Infront of Arthur, and he could see that from both sides of its spherical body little hatches opened up. There were some tiny alerts in AI voices coming from somewhere about launching of the fighter squadron alpha and beta, and miniature versions of Digibees started flying out.
“I got sensor drones!” The bot said haughtily. “And they can fly at about 80 kmph. They can also turn invisible.”
And, to Arthur’s amazement, the ‘Minibees’ started to flicker and turn completely invisible before his very eyes. He could still sense they were there for some reason, but his physical senses could not register them.
The bot went on, “Now Zoe. Do your thing.” The Eldritch magic caster nodded, and made some motions with her hand. A few mana circles lit up around the now invisible Minibees. And then even Arthur’s other ‘sense’ could no longer sense the tiny drones.
“Alright!” The bot cheered.
For once, Arthur was seriously impressed by the sapient gizmo globe. He thought it was a useless floating eyeball, when in reality it was a Quasar Fire-class bulk imperial divibot! It got its own fleet!
He gave them both a thumbs up and asked, “Can you livestream what the Minibees see?”
“Uhh, is a single strand of Spaghetti called Spaghetto?”
“Great! I’ll go make popcorn.” Zoe said as she ran off to the kitchen.
“And don’t forget juice!” Arthur reminded her. He then asked Digibee to set up the TV while he quickly changed out of his sweaty gym wear.
To be honest Arthur was a bit panicky when the loli goddess said the sudden influx of combatants on the moon was his fault. Too panicked to come up with any proper course of action other than to ‘confirm the situation’.
It was a blessing that he actually had some competent helpers, no matter how psychotic/bugged they seemed like normally.
His mouth curled up into a smile.
Then he remembered, “By the way, where’s the cat?”