Chapter 124: A Blunt Object

Even from the other side of the mountain, they could hear the start of Father's assault. Just because he wasn't trying to bring the place down didn't mean he was subtle. The rocks shook around them, but didn't fall.

When Paike watched the sect elders fight, he saw flashes of their qi and used them as inspiration for his own edification. He had been hoping to do something similar with Father. However, when he looked, it was only blinding.

The qi was so intense and powerful. Dense and overwhelming, washing everything out to the point that he couldn't even feel his own qi if he looked in Father's direction. That was even more intense than the mountain shaking.

He barely had time to blink before someone flashed out of the tunnel. The streak was moving almost too fast to track, but he recognized it for what it was.

A cultivator of the fourth realm. But not just that. A bona fide demonic cultivator, burning their cultivation at full tilt, likely doing irreparable damage with forbidden techniques to escape Father.

It wasn't the sheer amount of qi, but how they were using it.

Paike didn't want to understand, but he did. There were some very clever things they were doing. Hardening some qi and using it as a lever to move qi with more speed than should have been possible. So clever that he was lucky he hadn't thought to try it. He could see it shredding the cultivator's spirit before his very eyes.

If he had tried it himself, then he would have suffered greatly if this wasn't an outright forbidden technique that got him branded as a demonic cultivator himself.

But how could he use that? Would a smaller leverage ratio be better and more sustainable?

No. No, he had to focus. And he wasn't going to be stealing techniques from the demonic cultivator. They were in a fight right now, and he needed to get his head on straight.

Now he understood why Lin Yue had placed them as she did. Even Taka hadn't been able to react in time to the full speed of the cultivator. Lin Yue managed to get in front of them, and the clash brought them to a halt.

It would take them time to build up that speed again, and during that brief window, the other four acted while Lin Yue kept the cultivator pinned down.

Shengyue sent strands of qi out that wrapped around the cultivator, and Shengbai's field dragged at the demonic cultivator's movements. Taka reached out and hooked an arm around the cultivator's robes and pulled them back toward the entrance of the tunnel. Right to Paike.

Paike hadn't been standing still. He was a bit slower to get started, but that balanced out. His circulating qi flowed into the end of his staff, forming a hammer rotating down with all the force he could wring out of his body and cultivation.

It was an overhead strike with everything he had in it. This cultivator was two realms above him, and burning his life for extra power. Paike hoped that he could knock the cultivator back to Lin Yue and maybe stun them for a second, allowing her to finish them off.

That wasn't what happened.

Maybe the cultivator had already weakened themselves too much with their technique. They definitely hadn't practiced physical cultivation. Something was wrong. They traded everything for speed, and that did something. Because surely his simple technique couldn't have so much power.

But whatever it was that led to this, the results were undeniable. Taka's move had kept the cultivator off balance, and the cousins' techniques had kept them from avoiding it.

The qi hammer his the top of the head and kept going. Paike watched as the spine and neck crumpled first. Even as the head was driven down into the torso, he watched the skull shatter as if in slow motion.

The hammer continued.

The head was just a spreading mass of liquid now as his hammer acted like a sword, but a hand's breadth thick, as it cleaved the body in two.

The hammer still didn't stop. It exited the body that was becoming a cloud of pink mist and bone fragments before slamming into the rock floor.

Stone didn't stop it either. It smashed a crater, and Paike could see how deep it was as he let go of the qi in a panic.

First, he got coated in the gore; his shield was too late, and he was painted head to toe. The cloud of rocks was right behind it. His now-forming shield cracked, but stopped him from losing an eye before it started to dissipate. The rocks peppered his body, the tiles under his skin stopping the worst of the wounds.

Paike stood there, his staff in his hands, one end in a crater, the qi having traveled some ways into the rock, leaving a deep hole with gravel filling most of it, so he couldn't tell how far it had gone.

A blunt object, a rock hurtling through the air, was a fine way to think of himself. Elegance had never been his priority. Others could have the heavens and the stars.

The other four of his team stared at him. Lin Yue had managed to shield all of them from the damage.

The moment was broken as Paike turned and retched.

He had been prepared to kill. That wasn't the problem. Since not long after he could walk, he had known he would have to take a life. That didn't bother him. That the blood was on his clothes didn't really bother him.

No, it was more basic than that. When he had swung, he had been yelling in effort, and now all he could taste was copper. What had been the cultivator had gotten in his mouth. He spat and heaved again.

It was so disgusting that he could barely keep his feet. He spat again as he leaned over.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his back. He turned and found Shengyue offering him a waterskin with a steady expression. He took it and washed his mouth out.

While he rinsed and spat a few times, she watched him. There was no understanding look in her face, but neither was there pity. He was glad for that; he didn't need her pity. He was fine, just grossed out.

The cultivator needed to die. There was no avoiding that, and he wouldn't have done anything different with the information he had then. Even now, the only thing he would have done better was to have had that shield up a fraction of a second faster.

The cultivator. That was all Paike could call them. They were moving so fast that he hadn't got a chance to even make out their genders or anything besides a vague outline. He was too focused on the spiritual world. He was pretty sure they had long black hair, but that was all he could tell. Even then, he wasn't certain.

Shengyue stood next to him still, even as he heard Lin Yue clash with another fleeing cultivator. This one was only Emerald and a young man, but she didn't need any help from him.

Paike handed the water skin back to Shengyue and gave her a grateful nod.

She motioned for him to lean down slightly and then reached up to his handkerchief and carefully wiped the gore from his face. He held still as she worked, even as Taka and Shengbai worked to subdue a second Emerald cultivator coming out of the tunnel.

Apparently, that had been the fastest cultivator that Paike had passed. The others behind them were slower and therefore weaker on average. Still, there were a lot more of them. He could feel them coming up the tunnel en masse.

Still, he patiently waited. Shengyue finally pulled away and smiled. "All better."

"Thank you," he answered. Though he wished he had a change of clothes.

With that, he turned. This time he would be more careful; apparently, the two stages he had achieved yesterday were far more impactful than he could have ever imagined. The cultivator was one thing. There were ways of explaining that away, but the stone underfoot? That was harder to excuse away with anything but raw power.

What would the rest of his tricks do now?

Everything was compounding. His internal circulation, his qi working tricks, his qi factor, his reservoir, his battle trance, and his physical cultivation were all feeding into each other. Each of his other unique modifiers made him some percentage stronger than a cultivator at his stage. But maybe each of them alone would let him fight up a stage or two. All of them together didn’t mean he could fight up five stages. At least it shouldn't.

So before the first real group of cultivators came out of the tunnel, he started his next technique. It was half the inspiration for his rebuke, which had proven so effective. His shield spun and grew in front of him with increasing speed as he poured as much of his power and will into it before letting it go.

His aim was perfect, and the horde of Emerald and Topaz cultivators rushing up the tunnel were knocked over into a heap that was dragged through the tunnel with devastating effect. A turn in the tunnel saved them from being crushed, but many were hurt and flung back.

Several ranged techniques from Taka and Shengbai followed, wreaking further devastation. Paike wanted to see the results, but his attention was pulled away.

"That spinning disk is certainly a powerful attack," Shengyue said curiously. "I'm not sure I would be able to stop it, seeing how far into the rock it buried. Is it possible to sharpen the edges? If it cut, then it would have finished them off without a problem."

"Funny that you should say that," Paike said, looking down at her. "Originally it was supposed to be a stationary shield."

Then he stopped and thought about it for a second.

"But you are right, I guess there is no reason I couldn't sharpen the edges when I want it to cut. That's not a bad idea."