FJTTS - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

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 him 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 phony  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!”