Cultivation Nerd: Chapter 101 (Patreon)

Chapter 101 - A Bitter Loss

"Governor, from now on you will take command! Protect the soldiers!" I yelled out, hoping he understood my meaning.

After that, I immediately backed off, and the gorilla gave chase.

The monstrous beast was much faster than me. In less than a second, it was already in front of me. Despite my attempt to create some distance, it was useless. He threw a punch, and I crossed my arms, using the Dancing Jade Armour Technique to form a shield of jade in front of me.

But despite all my defenses, his fist crashed through the jade armor and struck my arms. Though some of the momentum of his attack was lost as it broke through the Dancing Jade Armour Technique, I still flew back like a rocket. I smashed into one of the houses, causing it to crumble.

My arms tingled, and my ears rang.

Handling even two more hits like that would be next to impossible. Even though this attack wasn't as powerful as the first, it was still dangerous enough to kill me.

At least the people had evacuated as far away from the battle as possible. Otherwise, there would have been many casualties.

The gorilla-like monstrous beast didn't allow me any time to gather my bearings. I sensed his Qi signature already closing in on me.

I burst through the rubble and tried to run away, but the gorilla was so fast that I couldn't predict where the next attack would come from!

Forget handling two more attacks. One hit to a blind spot in my defenses, and I was a dead man!

I bit the inside of my cheek and spat a glob of blood on the ground. The blood wriggled and formed into a singular letter that meant 'Bind.' The air to my left shifted, signaling the gorilla's attack. There was no time to react, but the monstrous beast froze in place for a split second.

Though he broke free almost instantly, and there was no time to dodge, it was enough to bring up my arms and defend myself.

Baam!

Even though I used the Dancing Jade Armour Technique and jumped back to go with the impact instead of fighting against it, every bone in my body rattled. It felt like he was about to knock my skeleton out of me.

I used the force of his punch to fly as close to the middle of the city as possible.

While mid-air, I couldn't help but think—what a ridiculous difference in power. Without outside factors, no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn't have been able to defend against even one attack.

The contrast in power between a Qi Gathering and a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was overwhelming. There was no chance I could defeat this guy in combat!

Despite the four-armed gorilla giving chase like a mad dog, he still looked around cautiously. That caution was what was stopping him from going all out.

He must have been expecting a sneak attack from a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. That was why he was not going all out like he did in the first attack, using most of his Qi for defense.

I came crashing down on the town's market, smashing through a couple of stalls and finally stopping after colliding with the wall of a restaurant. Spider-web-like cracks spread across the restaurant's wall.

How long would it take for the monstrous beast to notice there was no Foundation Establishment Cultivator? Though their initial sneak attack had failed, they were prepared to fight someone like that.

Even through the snowstorm and the sharp winds, I heard the screams from where I had left the battlefield, followed by another loud crash.

With the wall broken, the Body Tempering Cultivators stood no chance against the army of monstrous beasts.

There was another cloud of dust in the distance and a loud roar. More of the town wall was coming down as I sensed monstrous beasts breaking through, and my heart sank.

The walls were coming down one way or another... I had failed.

But there was no time to dwell on failure. The four-armed gorilla was already too close again.

Once more, I used a Binding array to halt him for a split second and readied myself to defend. The monstrous beast attacked the same way, but this time instead of meeting a rigid shield from the Dancing Jade Armour Technique, my new shield was like rubber, caving inward and hugging his fist.

It wasn't a good strategy against bladed weapons, but blunt damage could be considerably lessened this way. This idea came from anime in my previous life.

Of course, the difference in our power was still too vast, and he broke through the shield. But this time the power was vastly reduced, and even though I smashed through the restaurant, I did a backflip on the way out to lessen the force, my feet dragging on the ground.

I was still in the market and had not flown halfway across town from one punch.

Slowly, I was getting used to the rhythm of this battle.

But it wasn't all due to me. This attack had been weaker overall. The further into town we got, the more cautious the monstrous beast grew and the more his eyes wandered.

In a way, I understood his fear. A Foundation Establishment Cultivator could kill him in one attack if he dropped his defenses. He knew nothing about what stage the Foundation Establishment Cultivator might be at, adding to the perceived risk.

While it seemed that the monstrous beasts were numerous, I doubted they had many Foundation Establishment beasts in their ranks.

Seeing that his last attack did not have much effect on me, the gorilla-like monstrous beast channeled more of his Qi into his fists, causing his defenses to lower.

I was doomed if he kept attacking like that. But despite the fear crawling through my body, I smiled and leaned forward as if I had no intention of turning tail and running again as soon as he showed signs of attacking.

My confident stance made him frown, and his Qi returned to mainly being concentrated on defense.

Observing his actions made me feel like I could read his thoughts. He must have thought there was no rush to kill me since the monstrous beasts were already breaking through the gates. Soon enough, the whole place would be swarmed, and he just had to make sure I wouldn't escape. His main priority was to keep his defenses up in case a Foundation Establishment Cultivator tried to sneak attack him.

But I couldn't continue dwelling on my ability to read him as a large explosion occurred in the distance, visible even through the snowstorm. It came from the frontlines.

There was no need to turn around and take my eyes off the four-armed gorilla to know what had happened. Monstrous beasts were spilling into the city like a tidal wave.

I didn't fault the governor or the rest of the defensive forces for being unable to defend the wall. I had no idea what to do against such a large army. We no longer had any tricks up our sleeves to protect the town from monstrous beasts.

Sensing this, the four-armed gorilla dropped all pretenses of attacking and used all his Qi to coat his body. He had no defensive martial arts and seemed to lack the special abilities some monstrous beasts had. The gorilla still had a tough body, and even without martial arts, handling the attack of a human Cultivator of a similar stage should be no problem.

There was no chance for me to run away now. I could hear the monstrous beasts charging through, destroying houses, shops, and any other building in their way. They were razing the town to the ground.

"Do not despair, human. You did very well considering how outnumbered you were," the gorilla suddenly said.

What was that? Was this guy trying to comfort me? So they were capable of sympathy after all.

The more I learned about these guys, the more sorry I felt for them. They were like humans too, just in different animal-like bodies.

"I would like to apologize to you too. While a little rough around the edges, your strategies were amazing," I said calmly, dropping any facade of panic I might have built. These guys had played it well and hadn't underestimated me. "If we had met under different circumstances, I would have liked to talk with you about our differences, how we see the world, and how we could unite our races. But sadly, I'm too weak to follow my whims and wishes... and I cannot let any of you escape this city alive."

By now, the monstrous beasts had destroyed half the town. I was glad I had decided to evacuate the civilians to the opposite side.

With all the monstrous beasts in the town, I was on the back foot, and the four-armed gorilla was even more cautious than ever. He probably thought the nonexistent Foundation Establishment Cultivator would attack him now or never. So, he was careful not to rush things.

However, there was something in his eyes—a look I couldn't decipher. Was he unsure of something?

"I have lost the battle," I said as a rhino-like monstrous beast ran through the house next to me, looking ready to stomp me to bloody bits. "But in many ways, I expected this."

Still, losing was a bitter feeling.

With but a thought, I sent a specific pulse of Qi that traveled throughout the town and bounced off the crimson writings on the walls. This single pulse activated all the arrays I had prepared beforehand.

Loud explosions rang through the town, but they were not dangerous enough to harm the monstrous beasts—nothing compared to the traps they had faced outside the walls.

I immediately created a spherical barrier around me, stopping air or any other chemical from entering or leaving. Clouds of dark purple smoke began rising all over town as the explosions opened the barrels I had prepared.

The purple clouds settled down at frightening speeds, covering the whole town in a purple mist. The gas was imbued with Qi, dulling my Qi senses and doing the same for everyone else.

My heartbeat increased as I saw the purple mist shifting toward my barrier. This thin sheet of Qi was protecting me from certain death, which was quite nerve-wracking.

Ever since I knew we were fighting against monstrous beasts that vastly outnumbered us, I never believed I could hold these walls, no matter how hard I tried.

My mother always said: hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

A question had been hanging in my head for a while: How would someone defeat a stronger enemy? The answer was to use poison.

What about defeating many enemies that were stronger than me? The answer was to use a lot of poison.

On Earth, there was another name for this strategy. It was called chemical warfare.