"Ah, the Seven Mountain Peaks, thatâs a great sect, but sadly itâs very far, would Junior Brother Shen Bao like us to accompany you, of course after weâre done with this small venture of ours here.
"Iâm good, thanks for the invitation," I shrugged.
"I find it rather difficult to imagine that a sect such as the Seven Mountain Peak would be interested in someone from the country of Zhou," the first elder Lao Yan spoke with a venomous tone.
"Seems that youâre lacking in imagination then," I replied and showed them the token that the emissary from the Seven Mountain Peaks had given me.
The token glowed in my hands and the writing on it was clear to everyone.
"It seems that brother Shen Bao is once again right, Lao Yan, you should apologize for offending our little friend," the fat man said.
It seems that this person is really not good, heâs trying to create discord between us, itâs obvious that the other cultivatorâs pride wonât let him apologize to a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator and want me to take offense in the fact that he wonât apologize. Then use the sect behind me to come at Lao Yan. So despicable.
I waved my hand, "No worries, I didnât take offense, itâs only natural for one to be on guard. After all none knows when oneâs enemies lie." I replied and manipulated my sword to descend.
My words were obviously not what the fat man expected and seeing the now relaxed look on Lao Yanâs face was enough to understand that the situation was defused.
âThank you for giving this old man face, if you want to venture into this dungeon, Iâll make sure to aid you when I can.â
s
These words unexpectedly came from Lao Yan who antagonized me first. But seeing that I gave him âfaceâ... he is willing to help.
To hell with this damn expression, what the fuck is this Face?! It seems stupid, itâs meaningless, and has no damn basis. Itâs strange and outright mind-bogglingly stupid, how can one come to terms with what action gives and loses face? Who the hell decided that a certain action gives Face and another one loses Face? And how the hell did they agree to it? Wait, I know, THEY AGREED TO GIVE FACE! Fuck!
My inner rant was thankfully unnoticeable on my face, I didnât want Lao Yan to think that I thought little of his help, but Iâm mighty curious of whatâs going on here.
"So whatâs happening here?" I asked.
"Seems that a Demon Gate opened. Itâs a chance opportunity for the younger generation to enter and gain battle experience." Lao Yan said.
"Demon gate? Whatâs that?" I asked.
"It is an unnatural event that occurs every few thousand years, we couldnât pinpoint the exact time, and itâs so random. But the thing is, a gate will soon open here and it will take cultivators to a land of demons. The rules will be explained once the cultivators enter. But be warned Demon Kin is not so nice and is full of deceit. I have a few disciples who will enter and you can go with them, theyâll explain everything in detail. Also, I wouldnât rely on that flying sword, going into the Demon Lands means that all flight is prohibited by the laws of that very world." Lao Yan explained.
"Youâve forgotten about the Lords Ranking, and other gates Lao Yan."
"The Lords Ranking is better suited for cultivators of the Core Formation realm, seeing that Junior Cultivator Shen Bao is still in the Foundation Establishment level, it would be ill-advised to as you to participate, no matter how enticing the rewards maybe." Lao Yan shook his head.
This Demon Land seems interesting enough, I thought to myself.
"Experience comes with battle, but if youâre too worried to make a name of yourself in the Demon Lands you can still venture in the wastelands surrounding the city, youâll perhaps chance upon a fortuitous encounter, though I highly doubt it." The fat man shrugged.
"I would be fine, I suppose," I said as I hinted at X.
"Sadly, the Demon Lands imposes heavy restrictions upon the assistance of puppets, or corpses. Youâll find your puppet more burden than aid in the Demon Lands, donât count on it much, I wish you the best of luck though because the gate is about to manifest..." Lao Yan said as he looked in the distance.
Like a mirage, the ground and air began to wobble and shake as if it was overheating, then a gate of magnitudes impossible to gauge with oneâs simple eyes manifested. It was magnificently large, and was decorated with the heads of man, beast, dragons and demons. It looked like a gate to the pits of hell. The black gate opened, revealing a purplish cyclone that slowly rotated.
Disciples from different sects rushed inside it without regard to prudence or safety, as if they had done this thousand of times before or were sure and certain of this gateâs safety.
"Wu Di," Lao Yan called, and a young man, so handsome that his face would topple kingdoms and would make virgins cry at night if he wouldnât spare them a glance appeared in front of me.
He wore a magnificent white robe that matched with his white hair and had a fan on one hand. He had a strange charm, he looked like a young prince, but if I didnât know better, Iâd say appearances are deceptive.
"Take good care of Shen Bao," the cultivator said.
"I will do," the man nodded and looked at me, "Shen Bao, make sure to stick close, no one would dare offend you if youâre with me." He said in a comforting manner.
"Now letâs see what these Demons have in store for us shall we," he said as he covered a smile on his face with his fan.
The groups began to funnel through the vortex until it was our turn.
It seems that Iâm about to venture into a stranger world than I was in. And for some reason, I was highly anticipating this.
The cyclone sucked us inside it, feeling my vision perturbed, and then swam. Suddenly, the light was no longer distorted and I was able to see right again. Only I was in a land that was far different from where I was. The only thing that was the same was the sky, it was a bleeding red and there seemed to be no sun in the sky but it felt like it was morning.
The worldâs Qi was thick, but it had unnatural evilness to it, yet I didnât feel disturbed by it, unlike the people around me.
Wu Di cringed from the evil Qi premating the place and sat down to meditate alongside many of the cultivators that just entered. I on the other hand was not affected by the natural worldâs Qi no matter how evil or benevolent it could be, I existed separately from the worldâs Qi as I needed nothing but my own poison Qi.
Looking around, I saw what seemed to be a living forest that had sprout and lived for eons within this deserted place.
The gate behind me was still funneling in disciples from various sects that all joined their respective groups. While Wu Diâs sect disciples joined around him in a protective cultivation session.
I further inspected the surrounding; the ground was made of a mix of red sand and dirt. Jagged rocks protruded from all over the place and among them lived some old decrypt weed that should have no business being alive. As it seemed that it was too dry to live but live it did. The weed in this place was stubborn if nothing else as the Qi disallowed them the right to turn to spiritual plants.
As for the forest, the trees within it were so massively great that some of them would undoubtedly contend with small mountains at scraping the skies.
Yet the trees themselves looked evil, as something coming from a fantasy forest, the trees were dark, and had more thorns than black jagged leaves. Their roots protruded through the ground and would give off the feeling that the tree could easily uproot itself to move around, giving nightmares a life of their own.
"The demon lands is within this evil forest. Weâll have to make our way towards it, but brother Shen Bao, Iâd advise if you stay close, and once weâre inside the demon lands Iâll have a group of cultivators stay with you while I undertake the ranking tourney."
"Yeah, I still have no idea whatâs going on here," I said.
"Right, this is a cursed land. It is said that an old and powerful cultivator had been wronged by the race living here and he condemned them to eternal imprisonment. None of the demons here can go beyond the Nascent Soul cultivation level and theyâre unable to leave, however, the cultivator left them a path to salvation, the Lordâs Ranking. If they slay their way to the top and achieve victory over their foes theyâll be able to leave and venture into the outer world."
"I suppose theyâre required to kill human cultivators?" I asked.
s
"Yes."
"Then why is everyone presenting themselves so happily to the butcherâs block?" I asked.
"Though your idiom is somewhat strange I understood your meaning, but no, cultivators from our world are far more powerful than these demons, itâs even rare to find a demon capable of killing a cultivator of the same rank. Weâre actually the butchers in this scenario."
"Seems rather horrid and unfair to me, weâre actually killing prisoners for a cultivator that had probably died a long, long time ago."
Wu Di shrugged, "Itâs the law of this small world, the demons arenât complaining anyway itâs a way for them to escape." Wu Di replied.