[MA] 433. Picking Sides (Patreon)

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The dojo had only seven rooms, one of which was the largest. It was in a cozy-ish area adjacent to a convenience store and a weapon store. The other side of the street was full of old but not too dilapidated apartment buildings.

Reversing Time for the Axioms of Light wasn't easy or cheap. Qi left Shen's body like crazy, but he had nigh infinite amounts of energy. He instantaneously and automatically absorbed as much as he used. If, and only if, he was forced to use more than fifty percent of his "surface" to push qi out at peak speed, it would leave less than half of him to absorb more, leading him to incur a loss. Even so, his qi reserves were vast enough to last him for a few weeks of unceasing qi usage at maximum output.

He saw the world move backward for a few minutes. Then, it was no surprise that things "broke" just before the corpses would "return to

life." Light froze and blinked. The image couldn't be further rewinded. The Spacetime continuum had been shattered in that place, and it was a rush job with no finesse. Regardless, it was enough to hinder someone as unskilled in matters of Time and as weak as him. Only a cultivator with a Law of Space or Time in their Path could go past that barrier. Or a Seeker, which couldn't be found in the Overlord Realm.

At least, that's how it would be in the Alliance.

One of the differences between the Alliance and the Shaft was the artifacts. The Alliance focused heavily on personal power, and the System made certain conveniences unnecessary. Resources were also focused on the war against the Void, decreasing how much was available for less vital matters. Lastly, every peak force was so old and powerful that it had every personnel it needed. It was better to keep abilities and strength focused on people than risk weaklings getting independent from the strong people. The Alliance prioritized its warriors above all else—it had to, as artifacts were almost useless against the Void.

Things were different in the Shaft. A peak force in any Realm could be simply destroyed without forewarning. Many organizations in the Overlord Realm were old for a mortal, but none had been around for over two hundred thousand years. The status quo's structure was perpetuated, but not the actors in place. Things were so fluid and complex that people would rather have ways of doing a little of everything than depend on others. It was safer that way. Lastly,

everyone would also rather spend time improving themselves than lend their expertise to low-level murder and arson investigations.

All that to say, Shen could get an artifact to mend Spacetime. Theoretically, at least. They were always in high demand but low supply. Shattering the Spacetime continuum was much easier than fixing it, and everyone who dabbled in matters best left private—almost everyone in Cylek—preferred such artifacts to be left out of the market.

Shen turned to the lead investigator and asked, "How much for a Spacetime Mender?"

The human shook his head. "This is gang business. CIPD won't get involved."

Shen frowned at that. CIPD never said no to getting paid to assist in an investigation that ended up screwing a gang. They were happy to lend their services. The extra income was always welcome.

He asked, "So, your guys are picking sides?" The man shrugged. "What's your name, Officer?"

The man chuckled. "That won't work on me, kid. I'm from the First."

The most well-connected people in the CIPD were from the First Precinct. Everything high-level happened there. That's why that guy had been so unbothered by being obnoxious to Shen's requests.

It also showed that the incoming gang war would include big fish. Shen's rival had to have at least a Demi-Dominator for CIPD to not want to get in their way. That was highly annoying.

The good news was that since the Demi-Dominator wasn't attacking yet, they were testing him. Shen could get rid of the arson with little consequence. Probably. But the arson also served as a warning for him not to get any ideas about expanding.

Ideas that he would ignore and, thus, start the war.

The issue here was ensuring the timing was just right. He had been in Cylek for four months. Three of his Laws were halfway through mastery. He needed another four or five months to get the other Laws there, and then another year to push everything the last stretch of the way—if he kept playing safe. So, he had to find and kill the murderer in half a year and control the tensions for the other year.

That wouldn't do. If the CIPD was moving now, they expected things to get out of control soon. He couldn't control the timing as he wanted. Likely, someone would keep pushing him if he kept things slowly. They had to know he was progressing and didn't want to give him an easy life.

In other words, Shen had to stop playing safe and just master all his Laws already.

Or, of course, he could just let E'livia protect him and give up on the gang plans. Which he wouldn't. This was also about proving to himself

that he could do it without the Heavens pushing him around. That he wasn't as undeserving of everything he had been given.

He also wanted to found a sect-gang and expand for the resources. Everything pointed out that the Seeker Realm was dangerous. He wanted to have as many valuable artifacts and resources as possible when he broke through. Many cultivators did the same, which was one of the reasons why the Shaft's Realms were more unstable than the Alliance.

Shen decided he would keep it safe until he half-mastered his Laws. Then, he would master them one after the other fast, without taking the time to stabilize his cultivation. It would be risky for his personality, but hopefully, the time invested in mastering his Laws to 99.5% would prevent him from going crazy from the Axioms' influence when he mastered everything.

He told the officer, "I'm not paying for corpse disposal," and went to the convenience store. It had hidden recording cameras. Outsiders often forgot how things worked in Cylek; if he got lucky, whoever had done that might be from out of town and have missed that.

Shen didn't collect any fees for "protection" from businesses in his "territory," as small as it was—merely the range of a few streets from any of his buildings—but the owners knew who ruled the streets there. The clerk quickly took Shen to the primary storage crystal and gave him free access to it.

He got both lucky and unlucky. The murderer did forget about the cameras. However, the humanoid—likely male—used ninja-like clothes to hide his identity. The cameras could even record a cultivator's Path, but not when enchantments blocked it, which the culprit's clothes had.

Shen had almost given up on it when the murderer was captured making a stupid mistake. He used his qi to move the corpses—which he took from a spatial ring—around. The camera recorded the qi's Path.

He was a dual cultivator of Fire and Water, two Laws for each Axiom. In the past months, Shen had taken some time to learn and memorize how most Laws looked and felt, so he recognized them. The Laws of Fire were Heat and Brightness. The Laws of Water were Formlessness and Stream—like Shen's.

The culprit left on foot rather than flying away. Shen thanked the clerk and followed the guy's direction. He kept his domain deployed, uncaring of whether it would offend anyone, and tried to find a softness in Spacetime. If the guy teleported away, Shen might find something.

No luck there. The guy wasn't a complete moron.

Still, Shen entered every building on the way with a "CCTV" and followed the culprit through their recordings. Eventually, he just looked straight at a camera, waved, and flew away, once more revealing his Path.

Shen frowned. The guy had known he was being recorded, so revealing his Path had been a challenge.

After that, he returned to the burnt dojo. CIPD was already gone, and the dojo members were there.

There were twelve humanoids. Two were wood elves, seven were humans, and three were bull beastmen, built as pure muscle. Humans were the most common race in the Shaft, something no one had any explanation for.

They wore red and golden martial robes, the color of the dojo, which Shen never cared to remember the name of. Half were Conceptualizers, and the other half were weak Overlords.

None of the twelve bowed when Shen approached. They just stared fiercely at him.

Shen asked, "Who was supposed to be on guard duty last night?" He knew the answer, but this was a chance for the idiot who missed his watch to confess and die with a little more honor.

Unsurprisingly, no one said anything.

These people weren't loyal, and that was natural. He had done nothing to deserve their loyalty, after all. To make matters worse, they only stayed in the dojo after he defeated and exiled their previous leader because his presence meant a measure of safety. Now, evidently, remaining on his side was more likely to be dangerous than safe.

He argued, "You may not like me, but I'm your only chance for retribution. They burned your home. Which is not my fault. Someone should be keeping watch here. If I had been alerted sooner, I would've

arrived in time to stop the arson. You have a traitor among your ranks. If you'd rather protect him than seek vengeance, I can only assume you're all equally treacherous."

The youngest Conceptualizer, a human, looked surprised. No one else did. Even that boy quickly glanced at his colleagues, then returned to staring at Shen.

Shen sighed. "This is my fault. I was too nice after conquering every place I did. You think I'm soft." He shook his head. "You're wrong."

He didn't waste more time with words. He beheaded them with a single twist of his domain. He also shattered the Overlords' Paths, ensuring they would die. It was accomplished by penetrating their sounds and, more or less, breaking everything inside.

Shen had wanted to slowly build up a gang with people who respected rather than feared him. That was no longer possible. War was upon him, and traitors were dealt with quickly, even in times of peace. People who protected a traitor were useless to him.

Death was so natural in Cylek that none of the few passersby batted an eyelid at his actions. Shen turned to one of them and yelled, "Let it be known that I no longer claim this place as mine."

Acknowledging that meant a complete defeat, but sending new people to protect a burnt place would be wasteful and only serve to stroke his ego. He had lost the first battle. It sucked, but it was mostly alright. He had to focus on the bigger picture.

He took to the skies and flew to the nearest place he owned, a vehicle workshop. At least, that was the front. The place was his golden goose, buying and reselling stolen goods. Losing it would be a heavy blow to his whole operation.

He would use it as his base, organize his troops, and get ready for what was coming.

Shen had to find the murderer-slash-arson, but in truth, he was more worried about the future war. In fact, the arson could even be used as a grinding stone as he structured his gang. It would reveal weaknesses and allow him to assess his people faster.

And when the war came...

Shen would show them everything the Alliance had taught him about leading men in a war.

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