[MA] 182. Pathetic (Patreon)

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter 

[A/N: I almost delayed today's chapter but ended up finding the energy I needed.

For those wondering, I will be a friend's best man this Sunday. Well, in my country, it's actually a wedding godfather, one of a few. Either way, it killed my routine.

Things will return to normalcy on Tuesday (or Wednesday at the latest, depending on how tiring things get).

Chapters this week: 3/3

Late chapters: 3

Next release: Tuesday/Wednesday ]

Before Shen could even begin to think about the message he had just gotten, the elf spoke.

"From the pain in your face, you just got hit with the mind-reading attempt. And from how your eyes moved, you got the threatening message. Theirs is an empty threat; I can tell your Path is the same, and that will stop the Alliance from killing someone with a Title, even if only a Racial one."

Her words surprised Shen. She could tell his Path was the same? That was beyond his own capabilities. His aura could only feel—

Where was his aura?

Did it have something to do with him being in soul form? Had the cracks in his soul affected his aura? What was going on?

The elf continued, "Not that the Alliance will let you go without being obnoxious about it. Refusing to give up all your secrets will result in you getting slapped with active B-tier monitoring until they can be sure of your identity, which might take forever. Then again, getting such monitoring might be good. Weaklings won't be able to disconnect you from the system to kill you unnoticed. It will make any opportunist think twice before offending whatever force might be behind you. Obviously, your sworn enemies will have already investigated you and planned for any downfall; some pesky monitoring won't stop truly determined foes."

Whoever that woman was, she knew a lot about the Guardian System and the Alliance. If nothing else, that was further evidence of her being an alien and probably a strong one.

Now he only had to decide if he could trust—

"Whatever your pick," she said, interrupting his thoughts, "choose quickly. I can only justify keeping the world in the dark for so long now that the Void Incubator spit you out, and you don't want other people to know you've entered the Void and left alive. Well-known Void Heralds below B-rank live very short lives."

Indeed, she knew a lot. Shen still didn't know if he could trust her, though. Not with his life—the system had said he could get a Bounty issued against him if he refused to open his memories to it. Yet, letting the Alliance read his mind would go against the Immortal Emperor's Decree to keep the Eternal Empire's existence secret.

Well, secret from the Alliance; the Void knew all about it.

As much as Shen had grown, as much as his perspective on the world had changed, and as much as he had somewhat adapted to the modern world, he still saw himself as an Eternal Empire's cultivator. He had refused to take an innocent's life for the Immortal Emperor, but when it came to sacrificing his own life for the Eternal Empire's greater good, honor demanded he complies, and honor was part of his Path.

So even if the elf was lying and Shen ended up dead by not letting the system read his mind, he would not betray his people.

"No mind reading," he said.

| Monitoring Priority: B → B

So, the elf had lied or wasn't all-knowing. She had said his monitoring priority would become B-tier in a way that suggested it would increase. Instead, it had already been B-tier.

=

B-RANK ACTIVE MONITORING ENGAGED

A B-rank Guardian will actively keep track of your actions from now on.

Any deviation from Reality or unlawful contact with the Void might result in a Bounty being issued against you.

=

So, she hadn't been lying about that.

Which was almost unfortunate. People would constantly look over his shoulders from now on. He supposed it was at least fortuitous that he knew about it. He would avoid mentioning the Eternal Empire even in private, just like his plans to destroy the Void.

The system's light surrounding him disappeared, and he was finally put down. The system connection had been nice enough to give him a point of stamina so he could stand on his feet. He was naked, though, and neither his expensive ring nor spear had been returned to him.

Shen really had to stop losing his weapons.

"Buy G-tier white robe," he said.

He didn't pick grey. He had mourned for the people he had killed, but he had also saved Earth. It was time to move on.

| Purchased: Equipment (G) | -90 AP

| Remaining AP: 1,836,622

"Don't even bother putting it on," the elf said as the robe materialized on his hand.

A small glass flask materialized in her hand. Shen had a hard time determining whether it contained anything. He concluded that, yes, it did, but the liquid was so transparent that it could only be seen when she moved the flask.

"I can't train you with this pathetic body of yours," she said as she uncorked the container. "Open your mouth; I'm about to bless you with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I mean it literally."

Shen frowned. Who did that woman think she was to call his Path-perfected body "pathetic?" Worse, did she really think he would ingest something just because she wanted?

He ignored her and started putting his clothes on.

"Ah, yes, the cultural gap between our races," she sighed. "You'll learn in time."

Then, she vanished.

= - = - =

Liya hated many things about human culture. One of the worst was their arrogance. Every single human on Earth seemed to believe they knew better than everyone else, and most made a point of voicing their opinions even when they were too weak to defend them.

It reminded her of the annoying entitled high elves.

She would have to adapt to that annoying culture as much as her charge would have to learn and accept the drow way. However, now wasn't the time to deal with that. Pure Yin-Yang Water was a valuable B- potion created from precious B- materials. Such materials usually had unique quirks, and the Alliance's best alchemists hadn't managed to take some of them away from that potion yet.

The "Pure" in the Pure Yin-Yang Water had multiple layered meanings, one of which was that Shen had to be "pure" of mind to receive its blessing. That purity was also related to the moment he contacted or was contacted by someone holding the liquid or, if he saw it in the wild, from the moment he first saw it. The potion considered even the passage of time as something that dirtied someone and made them unfit for its blessings.

So Liya moved at top speed, yanked his jaw open, and used her domain to push three drops of the liquid straight into his tongue—she didn't even wait for gravity to do its job. Then, she immediately moved away from him.

His body and soul immediately exploded into a globe of pink and silver mist. His white robe was destroyed in the process. A dark point appeared in the middle and slowly started spreading.

Liya calmly put the flask away and watched silently.

Shen's survival depended on him now. One couldn't be prepared for the changes caused by Pure Yin-Yang Water, and no test could tell if the water could be absorbed. His Path was either compatible with it, or it wasn't.

From what Liya understood of humans, they would claim her actions immoral. She should've let him choose whether to risk his life for an opportunity. She could have told him it would be good for him without telling him what it was or would do. In fact, she could even have wasted time with presentations and gaining his trust, considering they could speak and think close to the system's translation speed limit, a little below Mach 100.

However, Feng Shen was hers now.

She would train him the drow way, ignoring any stupid decision or wish that went against the greater good. Only C-ranks had the right to even voice their selfish desires among the drow, and only B-ranks could refuse any order from the Drow Maiden.

Right now, the greater good meant improving his sad excuse for a body into one that could move like a drow; only then would she be able to impart her moves unto him.

The Guardian System could improve stats, but it was bound by rules. Some parts of a species' original DNA had to be respected. That caused many issues, though she only cared about the practical ones that would be solved by the potion.

For humans, as it had been for drow before they reformed the entire species, such issues came in the form of limited health points, stamina, and mana. Probably qi, too. It often also limited how much of their stats they could put into each move due to their G-rank origin. As most naturally weak beings, their existence was tainted by imperfections and deeply ingrained misconceptions, and the Pure Yin-Yang Water would remove them.

If he survived.

Liya had no doubt he would. She had researched a little after learning about his first-class talent, and no first-class had ever died in such an easy process.

Indeed, soon enough, the darkness stopped spreading and turned shining white. The pink mist started shrinking then, turning white too. When only a first-sized ball of white dots remained, it beat like a heart once. It compressed into an infinitesimal point, then expanded into a body and soul.

And what a beautiful body and soul they were.

There were no visible differences in his appearance, but she felt his body and soul in detail using her domain. He was now pure, an empty slate free of limiting imperfections, except for his mind.

Anything that affected one's mind was forbidden in the Alliance. Not that everyone followed the rule, but the drow did. The last thing they needed was an excuse to have their race get obliterated for good.

Anyhow, from now on, whenever he thought of using his full strength, it wouldn't be limited by what he understood of his full strength. It would be the actual full strength his body or soul could deploy. In time, he would relearn his limits.

And limits he had to learn because he was an idiot.

"You're an imbecile," Liya said. "You developed a domain at D-rank. That was beyond stupid. You lost your aura but are too weak to push your domain beyond your body and soul, so you effectively debilitated yourself. You're also too weak to withstand the rebound from using your domain, even if you keep it inside your body and soul. A little more, and your soul would've shattered completely."

The bit about his aura was a lie. She needed him to focus on improving and fighting without an aura before he got it back, which would happen after she gave him a panacea to heal his soul. The issue was that she had seen him fight, and he used his aura as a crutch instead of the absolutely lethal weapon and support ability it was. He had to relearn the basics before properly adding aura to his fighting style.

She could tell he had mastered a Concept related to fighting, but it was likely based on some weapon Law and possibly even a core Concept in his Path. It limited how effective he was when doing almost anything else.

Feng Shen had been looking at his new pure hands when she spoke. After she finished, he looked up at her with eyes filled with anger, awe, and confusion. Mostly anger, though.

"What did you do to me?" he asked briskly, qi filling his body. "How did you do this to me? My Path... How did it not protect me?"

Liya snickered. Fresh True Path Walkers were so arrogant. Only sufficient power could protect one against B-rank power. Soul defense, True Path, domain, nothing made one passively resist B-rank external influence. The same held true for B- items.

Liya didn't answer him; he had yet to do anything to receive the right to ask questions. Instead, she spoke to the system. "As the responsible for this first-class talent, I demand all records from the moment the portal reopened until now be blocked."

No one could know he had become a Void Herald, which was why she had kept Earth in the dark until now. No human had seen Shen go through the portal or leave it. It should be safe enough.

| Feng Shen is under B-tier monitoring

| Checking your authority: Drow Maiden — B-tier

| Records blocked for B-ranks or lower

| OVERRIDE: The B-rank responsible for investigating Feng Shen's connections with the Void will retain full access to his records

As soon as she got the notifications, she released the hold of Darkness over Earth and the moon. Shen had taken a couple days to return. Few had ventured to brave the absolute darkness in the world, and she had barred anyone from entering the vicinity.

The darkness dissipated, revealing hundreds of thousands of people still surrounding the area. Few had walked away, still afraid that the gnolls might be around. That had been smart enough of them.

Liya willed it, and her domain, albeit not visibly deployed, Anihhilated spacetime to instantly bring Marzia, Alicia, and Sai to that place.

Liya turned to the confused Marzia. "Tell them who I am." Then she turned to Shen. "You have five minutes to put your matters in order, then I shall take you to train with me. You have too much to learn, and we don't have enough time if you want to gain some benefits a year from now."

In around one year, Shen and Liya would attend the First-Class Talent Summit. He had no chance against the other D-ranks as he was, especially with his aura temporarily out of the equation.

She had a lot of work to do.

That meant dedicated full-time training. Feng Shen would disappear from the world, and Liya understood that would cause issues for his plans and promises. In drow culture, he was too weak to have the right to even make promises as he had made to those people, but she was feeling charitable and gave him time to at least say his goodbyes.

Of course, she would keep an eye on them. Having Feng Shen lose his friends and hate her wouldn't do. As much as she didn't care about anyone but her charge, drow knew better than to sow unnecessary hatred among themselves.

Not that she would tell him that. His anger for her would help fuel his advance. Drow also knew very well the value of adding strong emotions to training, and the more violent, the better the results. She only had to carefully manage it, so it was temporary and tempered, or it might twist his Path.

It was a risk all drow took and one she was willing to put her charge through.

The humans were all just looking silently at each other. She quickly blew air from her nose. "Four minutes and fifty seconds remaining."

That opened the damn for words between them.

[A/N: The next chapter will probably be the last one of the Rift War mini-arc.

The "Return to Earth" major arc (like the Tutorial was a major arc) will end several chapters after the incoming training montage/explanations dump.

We'll finally get some answers! \o/

The next arc will start when Shen goes to the First-Class Talent Summit.]

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter