Immortal Freeloader 115 (Patreon)

I wasn’t the only one moving toward the walls. Most of the citizens were gathered at the walls and rooftops, anxiously waiting for the fight that was about to happen. Not too far from the main gate, there was a giant stone platform, radiating Qi.

It was not there before. An artifact, just for the duels, I recognized. Aisnam’s cousin was waiting there, with a smug expression on his face, acting like his victory was guaranteed. Admittedly, it was not a bad assumption.

A wrong one, but it couldn’t be helped.

Unfortunately, the presence of the arena made the task of helping Aisnam harder. Not impossible, but harder. Unlike formations, I didn’t have any expertise relating to artifacts, meaning, just like the Qi shield around my own flying boat, I couldn’t manipulate the defenses around it easily.

But, that didn’t mean that I was helpless, particularly since I watched the formation expert fly away the moment he finished. Clearly, a fight between a Qi Gathering and a Foundation Establishment cultivator was beneath him.

The arena, with the Qi shield around it, created an excellent cover for me. I carefully created a formation underneath, one that functioned as a drill, slowly worming its way through the underside of the arena, glad that Aisnam was taking her time walking from the palace slowly, protected by her new guard legion.

My job was made easier by the fact that the arena was designed for Qi Gathering cultivators rather than Foundation Establishment ones — a difference I was able to detect easily thanks to my growing exposure. Just like the formations created by the expert, artifacts designed for the Foundation Establishment cultivators were, for the lack of a better word, denser. As a consequence, they required far more Qi to operate.

Thanks to that difference, not only I was able to create a hole under the arena platform, but also I covered the surface with a formation that blended with the arena, ready to intervene. Then, I waited.

Aisnam appeared at the city gate, walking toward it with a solemn attitude, carrying no weapon, and just wearing her mortal regalia instead, which was limited to a small crown and a fancy robe, enough to denote her identity without creating clutter.

“Hurry up, I already wasted enough time,” her cousin called smugly, using his sword to float.

“You were always impatient, cousin,” Aisnam answered. “Maybe it was why you sold yourself as a dog to be promoted.”

His face twisted even as he landed, grabbing the same sword he had been holding, and then slashed with his full power. He was quick to anger, but also stronger than the itinerant cultivator I had been dealing with. However, while he was stronger in terms of Qi output, his skills with the sword weren’t impressive. Merely Beginner, making the attack strong but clumsy.

The moment he slashed his sword, I did two things. First, I prepared to activate my formation to defend Aisnam in case none of the foundation establishment cultivators intervened. Second, used his distraction to stretch a line of Qi through the formation, carefully infecting his body. However, I didn’t do anything immediately, focusing on defending Aisnam.

I expected Entsa Pavilion disciples to intervene, but to my surprise, they watched the attack, not even bothering to hide their smiles. On the contrary, it was the Kartpa Valley disciples who intervened in panic. One of them punched, demolishing the sword attack easily. Meanwhile, the other floated to the arena.

“Are you stupid, or are you trying to ruin the plan?” he admonished angrily.

“B-but, he insulted —” he started, only for the other disciple to actually slap him. My eyes widened as I watched the show. I didn’t expect that there was such a great difference in status between the two disciples. Maybe my lover was more factual than I realized when she called him a dog. After all, while they were too far away from the others to be heard, the slap was still visible.

Not only he was humiliated, but he was humiliated in front of mortals. I knew enough about the cultivation world to know just how big of an insult it was for them.

“I don’t care. You have just one job. Wait until the official start of the duel, and kill her. It’s the whole reason the sect wasted a spot in the sacred realm for you. Otherwise, a servant like you does not even deserve a Foundation Establishment pill. Understood!”

He nodded as the other disciple flew away on his sword. Then, he turned to the civilians who had just watched his humiliation. “You all will pay,” he growled. He didn’t enhance his voice with Qi, but the formation allowed me to hear it. “Once I’m the king, I’ll kill every single one of you.”

With that, any hint of pity I might feel toward him vanished. He was certainly not the kind of person that needed to be allowed to rule others. While I didn’t think his sect would allow him to kill everyone in the city, I had no idea they wouldn’t care if he executed a few thousand people to appease his anger.

Aisnam didn’t seem to be particularly shocked by what happened, and continued to walk toward the arena in her pace. She didn’t bother goading him for another mistake, as it was clear he wouldn’t make the same mistake.

I used the time to slowly infect his body, and build a small formation inside him. It was a slow, delicate process, requiring minutes even with my skill level. Not to mention, it was only possible due to a combination of my advanced formation knowledge, helped by competency in several gate construction techniques.

The gate construction techniques allowed me to correctly assess the exact nature and the shape of his eight gates that were connected to his dantian. Still, I was lucky that he was merely in the first stage of Foundation Establishment, which meant only his dantian had been transformed, and his gates still maintained their Qi Gathering Realm shape. That way, I was able to create some obstructions over his gates that would go unnoticed until it was too late.

A timely blockage of his Qi was all I needed to give Aisnam an opportunity.

As I modified him, I also examined his dantian, which, unlike the rest of his body, had been transformed. Just like my prisoner, his immortal root had transformed, its tendrils spreading in his dantian, its ability to subdue Qi magnified significantly. It was the biggest difference between a Qi cultivator and a Foundation Establishment one.

However, before I could examine how the structure of the root differed between the two, Aisnam arrived. “I’m ready to make you pay for my brother’s death, cousin,” Aisnam declared, enhancing her voice with her Qi even as she raised her hands, taking the position for Verdant Palm technique, a technique that she had improved significantly.

“A Qi Cultivator, daring to challenge me,” he replied, giving a bitter laugh. “You’re lucky that I’m annoyed, cousin, or I would have spent hours torturing you. It’s your fortune that the time of esteemed outer disciples is too valuable to waste like that,” he replied, looking at them as if he were trying to apologize.

“A dog licking his masters to the end, cousin,” Aisnam said, fueling his anger even further.

“You asked for it,” he said, raising his sword again, but before he could attack, the Kartpa Valley disciple flared his Qi as a warning.

“Wait until the declaration of duel,” he warned before he turned to the disciples of Entsa Pavilion, who looked frustrated. “Would you do the honor and referee, or should I?” he asked.

“Go ahead,” the Entsa Pavilion disciple gestured, showing little interest in an actual duel, thinking that it was a foregone conclusion.

“Start when my dagger touches the ground,” Kartpa Valley disciple declared as he lazily let go of the weapon, treating a Profound Grade dagger as a toy. Aisnam tensed as the dagger fell down, and started gathering her Qi to her palm. It was stretching the rules a bit, but no one cared.

After all, she was a mere Qi Gathering cultivator. They didn’t expect her to do anything. It would take a miracle for her to even resist a Foundation Establishment cultivator, let alone defeat him. Especially since, from their perspective, she was still merely an injured cultivator, at the third stage.

Unfortunately for them, she had a lover very proficient in creating miracles.

Or cheating … but was there any difference between two other than the perspective…