13.2. Ruby Demonic Sect

BOOM!!!

Long Tao’s glaive sent cracks and splinters across the cliff face just by grazing it.

Tao grinned madly, but suppressed it as best he could.

Qi swirled around Tao and even as the technique ended, vibrating in excitement.

“So this is the power of Qi…” Tao said, shaking nervously as he brought the glaive’s blade to his face and saw his reflection in it.

Even suppressing his giddy excitement the best he could, Tao’s reflection in the blade showed his mouth twitching up in spite of his best efforts. It was as if nothing else that had got him down could shake his mood right now.

“It’s a difficult feeling to resist, I understand.” The old ghost stroked his beard while nodding and smiling.

“I feel like I could kill that bear in one strike…” Tao began, “Even Foria’s brother doesn’t seem so tough now.” He admitted, moving the glaive and widening his stance, practicing the set of glaive techniques once again, guiding Qi from around him

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” The old ghost put him in check immediately, clearing his throat.

Even with the old man’s discouragement, Tao was unconvinced. He felt like if he put in all his effort, he could crush mountains.

“It’s not always the strongest in each realm who ascends. I was far behind my peers who all failed to ascend.” The old ghost continued to explain.

Suddenly, Tao felt a foreboding feeling as he arced the glaive around, shifting his upper body to counter the weight.

“You mean…” Tao began, his elation pausing.

“That girl’s brother… Is… Just a tad stronger than I was at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm… JUST A BIT!” The old ghost rushed to add.

The glaive paused. The wind stopped.

Only the chirping of birds and choir of insects remained.

“…” Tao felt his mouth twitching, he looked to the sky, his glaive pausing a moment, halfway through one of the movements. It was as if a burning desire had been doused with cold water.

Tao’s face scrunched up, “Is… Is he really that strong?” He asked.

The old ghost nodded. “He’s in the Return To Origin realm of hand to hand combat. But that’s not his specialty. It’s more like a consequence of it. One not even used against that demonic cultivator.”

“I realised after seeing the notes he left that girl.” The old ghost elaborated, “He’s not a physical combatant. He’s a spellcaster and technique master.”

Tao thought about it. He knew about spells. Low versatility but High Power. Though it was hard envisioning the guy who beat a demonic cultivator to death like a gorilla doing delicate spellcraft, he got what it meant, but he hadn’t ever formally heard the term “Technique Master”.

“…A.. Technique Master?” Tao asked, raising his glaive again and trying to settle his breathing.

“Just like Formation Masters, Talisman Masters, Alchemy Masters, Artifact Masters… It’s one of the hundred professions. That Twelve Qi Transformation technique I saw on the desk was definitely of his own creation.”

“So… It’s not that crazy right?” Tao reasoned. If it was a known one of the hundred immortal professions it shouldn’t be anything so extreme.

“Well, Alchemy and Formations are notoriously difficult, but you’ve heard of those people right?”

“Yes?”

“But have you ever heard of someone who’s written a technique or developed their own cultivation method.” The ghost posed inquisitively.

“…” Tao was silent. He swung his spear, splitting the air with a crisp snap. He had heard of famous techniques, but he had never actually heard who created them.

“If Alchemists and Formation masters are one in a thousand… Technique masters are one in a million.”

“…” Tao’s brows creased. He felt like he could do so much, but when he thought logically about it. He didn’t know even a single one of the hundred immortal professions. Let alone anything about alchemy or formations. But he did know techniques. More specifically, he knew how to use them, he was using one right now.

“I don’t get it. Don’t all cultivators use techniques?” Tao asked, swinging his glaive and dragging the Qi around him into it, demonstrating his point.

“The way you twist the Qi, separate it and merge it, loop it around at certain points and purposely let it leak at times. Do you think such an intricate, complex series of actions was discovered by accident?” The old ghost asked pointedly, staring smugly at Tao, letting the question sink in.

Tao didn’t stop the movements of his glaive, letting it trace graceful arcs as he controlled Qi just how the old ghost had taught him. His brows were tightly knit as the gears in his head turned.

“…No…” Tao eventually said.

“Hahaha!” The old ghost laughed boisterously. “I see you’ve stumbled upon the problem!”

“I’ve never thought much about it.” Tao admitted.

“Haha. Don’t worry kid. Few have.” The old ghost cleared his throat before speaking again. “I once tried to study it when my master way back then told me to pick up a profession other than combat. But I gave up.” He shook his head wryly at the memory.

“Turns out. Like politics, those flowery words about heaven and dragons and plum blossoms… They’re all just euphemisms. But instead of concealing intent, they conceal a library’s worth of mathematics and deep theory about how the heavens themselves work.” The old ghost explained after a moment.

“I ended up doing alchemy since I was from a well off family that could afford it.” The old ghost admitted. “I could barely wrap my head around Axiom theory.” He shook his head.

Tao listened in thought, his blade tracing lines as he relaxed, his eyes unfocused.

For a time, Tao was silent, apart from the wind thrashing as his glaive whipped around, going through all the forms.

“What is Axiom Theory?” Tao asked. He found it difficult to believe there was something he couldn’t master if he dedicated himself to it.

“I just told you I don’t know right? Ask the girl’s older brother. Or. I believe the sect master of Clear Mirror sect is also a technique master, ask him.” The old ghost waved his hand, an expression of pompous unconcern.

“…” Tao focused back onto the tip of his glaive’s blade. “I thought you said you barely wrapped your head around it?” He interrogated the old ghost.

The old ghost shrugged. “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Tao rolled his eyes, returning to his Qi control.

The feeling of elation had passed, reality tugging back on him like gravity.

After several minutes of thought though, Tao realised something that made him frown.

“What about realms?” Tao questioned, “I thought understanding heaven was required to reach higher realms?”

“Understanding a Dao or Law is very different to putting precisely how Heaven and Earth works. Like knowing something is pretty but not knowing why. Grasping a dao is similar. You understand what the dao is and call upon it to empower your spells that align with it, but you don’t know why it works like that. Just that it does.”

“…”

“Don’t worry too much. As the son of heaven, you’ll have plenty of opportunities.” The old ghost waved the problem off, seeing Tao’s expression go dark as the gears in his mind turned madly. Like trying to remember something he had never learnt, the glaive becoming wobbly as it was swung.

“Huuu…” Tao exhaled heavily, giving up thought after a while. He smiled lightly. “So I’ll still become stronger than Faust?” He asked, at least confident in his strength and cultivation talent.

“Uhhhh…” The old ghost’s hesitation immediately made Tao’s lip twitch again, he focused on the soft breeze in the forest, taking a deep breath of the fresh air on his skin.

“…Maybe? Probably?” The old ghost stroked his beard, seemingly becoming less certain every second that passed.

“…” Tao closed his eyes and looked up in exasperation. He finished performing the set of glaive techniques, the tip of his spear not hitting the ground, yet making it crack and shatter, sending dust flying around.

A few moments passed in silence.

“Huuu…Thank you, master.” Tao said.

The old ghost paused, then nodded silently, pride on his lips. “It’s fine to be confident, but there’s a difference between confidence and recklessness.”

Tao took a few deep breaths, letting his mind settle. The conversation had brought him back to reality. Breaking through to Qi Refining was a major achievement, but he hadn’t become immortal. His own father, at the peak of Qi Refining, had been ruthlessly torn apart by the wave of a hand.

Tao looked at his own hands. His eyes clouded over for a moment and he wobbled, before his expression hardened and he clenched his hands tightly. He would become powerful… Eventually.

 

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Long Tao spent some time resting, meditating to focus himself while he let his body and dan-tian rest.

The gentle wind and towering, swaying trees among the chorus of birds and insects was a pleasant backdrop to the exercise.

Tao breathed in deeply, then exhaled, opening his eyes.

The old ghost appeared in the air, looking over Tao before nodding. “Well done.” He said simply.

Tao nodded in acknowledgment, then stepped through the plain undergrowth of low grass, retracing his steps.

Half an hour later, Tao came across the small cliff he had been buried under the first time he faced the bear. He paused in front of it, looking from the bottom to the top of the cliff, before gripping his glaive tightly.

Bending his knees, Tao jumped up, clearing the several meter small cliff and landing on top.

The Black Iron bear hadn’t been subtle. It crushed vegetation and left deep imprints in the dirt, tearing through parts of the mammoth pines that got in its way.

Tao followed the path calmly, marching forward with his glaive in his hand.

A bird chirped, its cry echoing around the thick woods. Tao paused, his ears perking up as his eyes became unfocused.

“Dammit! The beast is resisting!” Someone shouted far in the distance.

With his level of body tempering and now with Qi enhancement to further amplify his hearing, Tao strained his ears.

The frustrated kick of a man made a small shockwave.

There was the whine of a bear.

Another man swore under their breath, while another calmly asked, “Reinforce the demonic seed quickly. More Clear Mirror sect disciples could come at any moment.”

Tao’s grip on his glaive tightened and his eyes refocused.

Focusing on his newly improved Qi sense, Tao realised even from this distance, the Qi reeked.

“Demonic cultivators?” Tao asked in a whisper, so quiet he could barely hear himself.

The old ghost appeared again, looked into the distance then nodded.

Tao changed his footsteps. He moved slowly, every step calculated to be quieter than the bird’s orchestra, the insects buzzing or the winds howling.

Step by step.

Tao came into view of the figures.

The Black Iron Bear was clawing at its face, where a glowing red mark sat. One person knelt with their hands against a circular rune beneath the bear and another added more runes to the mark, dipping a thin brush in what looked like a goblet of blood.

Tao looked around, he found the third person, a young man with short white hair leaning against a tree. Unlike the other two men who wore gray robes with red symbols, this person wore a pitch black robe with vibrant red details.

“You two are taking too long. I’m going to find another beast to hunt.” The black robed young man snorted, before turning and leaving.

Tao watched, but didn’t act. He had already been over his head once in the past few days. He wasn’t so stubborn he couldn’t wait a bit.

A minute passed, then two.

After half an hour, the two grey robed men stood up, completing whatever ritual they had been performing.