Cultivation Nerd: Chapter 146 (Patreon)

Chapter 146 - Learning

Song Song's mad cackles made some people shift uncomfortably, but her opponent's sharp gaze didn't change. He was wholly concentrated and looked ready to attack at any moment. Despite laughing like a madwoman, Song Song's gaze was also on her opponent, and she hadn't let her guard down.

Just as he looked like he was going to attack again, with Song Song's fresh blood still at the tip of his spear, dark tendrils of Qi seeped out of her. Her already scary presence combined with her killer intent, the effect was palpable.

Some of the disciples' faces went pale, and others shivered in uncontrollable terror. Song Song's killing intent had grown more potent, and I could feel it in my bones. It was also apparent she had improved, as the colosseum walls shook and the darkened tendrils of Qi seemed to affect the real world. The walls of the Colosseum began showing signs of cracking.

One Core Elder from the Blazing Sun Sect stepped up from where he sat in the upper stands. He waved his hand, and a strange array activated, enveloping the whole arena and stopping the worst of Song Song's killing intent from leaking out. Most people could still feel the after-effects, as some barriers meant to protect the disciples from attacks in the arena weren't made to handle something like this.

Song Song's smile widened to a creepy degree, almost splitting her face in half. Her hand twitched, and blood began dripping from her fingertip.

At first, it was just a few drops, then it became a thin bloodstream. Ultimately, it formed a full-on pool of blood next to Song Song. The blood was bright red, like a crimson ruby. It bubbled up, twisted, and took shape into an exact copy of Song Song, except it was made of blood.

The blood clone stood next to Song Song like a puppet with its strings cut. But then its body twitched in unnatural movements and charged at her opponent.

"Can you attack two people at the same time?" Song Song asked.

"I don't need to attack two people," the guy coolly responded.

He made a stabbing motion with the spear, and once again, space twisted like a mixing bowl. The air popped, and the spear moved in ways that made no sense. It was like someone had grabbed a dark marker and drawn on space itself, and somehow, that was how the spear moved. Even when the lines clashed against each other, the spear didn't clash; it just moved past.

Even though it was hard to tell where the attack was going, it was clear he would not attack the blood clone. That would be a useless endeavor.

I didn't know much about the blood clone, but I doubted a little piercing would dispel it. So it was useless to attack it, and the creature was somewhat immune to the effects of this sure-hit attack since it did nothing to the creature.

Song Song was no longer trying to see where the attack was coming from, as her hawk-like glare concentrated on her opponent.

My heart began beating faster, and the tension in the air was palpable. Song Song no longer seemed to bother with the attack, which was the best decision she could make.

If she couldn't dodge a sure-hit attack, then it was no use worrying about it.

But she was having an easier time than me at not worrying about this. Did she not think of the dangers? What if the attack landed in her throat? Or her eyes—it would pierce straight through her head!

Though the attack was almost instantaneous, it felt like an eternity. The crowd's noise drowned out in the background as I stared at Song Song. Her pale skin, her deep blue eyes, and that psychotic smile...

This world was dangerous, and no destiny protected us. We were the masters of our fates and could die without achieving anything.

Song Song tilted her head to the side, then stepped back, maneuvering against an invisible enemy.

That was when the spear appeared where it would have pierced her forehead if she hadn't moved. The blood from the previous attack still dripped from the spear, and Song Song's confidence soared. Her gaze sharpened, and her eyes were filled with a sense of absolute murder.

How had she done that? How had she dodged an attack that couldn't be sensed and would land on your body?

As I looked at the dark spear, the answer revealed itself. Song Song's element was blood, and her own blood was at the tip of the spear.

Sensing someone else's Qi, especially on a technique like this to predict their attack, was impossible. But she had blood and some Qi in her blood, and blood was her element. When all those factors combined, she could sense the attack.

Now, the question was whether her opponent had sensed that. To use the technique, the guy just had to wipe the blood off his spear or use another weapon.

But the guy's eyes widened, and he seemed surprised. Judging by his usual temperament, he might gather his bearings quite fast. However, Song Song was not going to give him that chance.

Song Song's blood clone, which had been running toward the spear guy all this time, suddenly morphed like jelly and formed into a spiked wheel that rolled toward him at breakneck speeds.

The spiky wheel of blood had almost reached him in a split second. The guy finally came to his senses, and that brief surprise had cost him. He knew it as his face scrunched up like he had bitten a lemon.

His spear withdrew, and he dropped it to the ground as he concentrated as much Qi as he could into the palm of his hands.

Was he going to try defending himself? That wasn't smart since Song Song's wheel had crystallized into dry blood enhanced with Qi. Oh well, it wasn't like he could dodge without going out of bounds and losing the fight, as Song Song wasn't idle while manipulating the blood to attack her opponent.

A translucent barrier formed around the guy as he let go of the Qi he had been gathering in his hands. The translucency of the barrier also had a reflective effect, something barriers didn't usually have.

No, it wasn't a barrier. Arrays took longer to form, and if he was that skilled at them, he would have used them sooner in the fight. Also, I knew how Arrays worked and what they felt like... this was not a barrier.

The only other answer had to be that he was using his element. His element was glass… or something with similar properties. His spear technique seemed very hard to learn, so he had to have synergy with his element.

Was it perhaps that glass was connected to space? After all, elements were not just a raw representation of the element. It could also be taken as a metaphorical representation. An element like Mirror would also be good for learning an abstract technique.

Song Song's bloody wheel slammed into the glass. The guy's eyes were wide like saucers, and he looked a bit scared now.

Baam!

Despite being reinforced with Qi, the glass cracked and shattered almost immediately. The guy opened his mouth as if to say something, but the spiky wheel slammed into him before any words could escape.

The spikes pierced his body like thorns tearing through flesh. His skin ripped open, and blood sprayed in all directions. The sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones echoed through the arena. He cried out in pain, a high-pitched scream that resonated with terror and agony as he tried to push the blood wheel away, but to no avail.

He fell to the ground, the wheel continuing to spin on his defenseless body. The spikes tore through his flesh with brutal efficiency, shredding muscle and sinew. His screams became a haunting wail, rising and falling with the rhythm of the wheel's merciless rotation.

Blood pooled beneath him, turning the arena floor slick and dark. The spikes gouged deep into his body, exposing bone and internal organs. His flesh was ripped to ribbons, the once-intact skin now a mangled mess of torn tissue and gory fragments.

Halfway through the torturous experience, the guy began weeping and crying for help. His voice was raw and broken, a desperate plea for mercy that went unanswered. His body convulsed with each turn of the wheel, muscles twitching in a macabre dance of death.

Foundation Establishment Cultivators were very durable, and his screams continued. Every disciple in the stands stared with hardened eyes, the horror of the scene reflected in their stony expressions.

Song Song slowly walked toward the blood wheel, and only when she reached it did the wheel dissolve. The blood from the wheel formed into two large wings behind her back, and the blood daggers in her hand now had pulsing crimson veins running through them.

This revealed the guy on the ground and the state his body was left in. It was a mangled stature that looked like it had been ravaged by wild beasts. His chest was a gory cavity with bones protruding, one of his eyes had been gouged out, and the flesh on his cheeks was stripped away, leaving raw, bleeding muscle.

"You were almost impressive," Song Song said, swinging her dagger and using her version of the Falling Moon Claw to decapitate the guy. The motion was swift and clean, his head severed from his body in one stroke.

The Elders in charge put down the barrier, and one announced the victor.

"The winner in this battle is Song Song from the Blazing Sun Sect!"

Well, they really didn't need to announce that now.

I thought that the Void Piercing Sect disciples or elders might have intervened or at least been angry that one of their own had been killed. But instead, they stared at the mangled corpse with mostly frowns on their faces.

"How embarrassing, the Void Piercing Sect lost face when one of their own went and died while crying like a dog," Liu Bo next to me said.

That was brutal...

Adding to that context, were the elders too late to come and help him? It could have taken too long to put the protective barrier down for them to enter. But if what my cousin said was true, then they might have just left the guy to die.

It was during these times that I felt like an alien. Was face all these people cared about?

He didn't leave behind a good corpse, either. Was this what his parents were going to see when their son's corpse was brought back? Would they be shamed for their son's last actions?

Song Song withdrew her killing intent and left the fight with a bored look. Her eyes wandered around until she met my gaze, but her cold expression didn't change as she walked out without saying a word.

I hurriedly stood up and turned toward my surprised cousins. "I will go and meet her."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Liu Qian asked. She was the calmest among my cousins when she was close to Song Song, but it seemed like she also had her own apprehensions about her. "Right now, Song Song is drowning in her bloodlust. She hasn't killed in a while…"

"No need to worry, I can handle this," I reassured my cousins before walking toward the exit from the stands.

Below the stands was a surprisingly quiet, dark hallway with many branching paths. The larger main path led to the arena's exit, but I was going elsewhere.

While the place was lively above, it was eerily silent here, resembling a dungeon with flickering lights. The walls were made of cold gray stones that seemed capable of sucking any happiness out of anyone.

Thankfully, Song Song hadn't bothered hiding her presence, and I easily sensed her. I followed one of the many winding pathways that had barely any light. The only sound I heard was that of my own footsteps until I finally reached a door.

The door looked ancient but well-maintained as if it belonged to a noble house. No nametag or anything else was on the door to signify what this room was.

I knocked on the door twice, making my presence clear, before I opened it. The inside of the room was like a whole different world from the outside, with the walls painted a bright white. There was a bed, couch, table, and even a shelf filled with books to the brim in case anyone was bored and decided to read something.

This was a personal waiting room for the fighters. The place was well-lit and radiated comfort.

Song Song was lying down and playing with a ball of blood.

I closed the door as I walked in. Knowing that Song Song had sensed me, there was no use in calling her out.

"How is your shoulder injury?" I asked.

I came here immediately after the fight because I was worried the guy might have poisoned the spear. Perhaps the spear was some kind of cursed artifact that would deal with lethal injuries or curse its victims.

Song Song had no one watching her back against things like that, and she was a bit careless.

"Healed already," she answered.

"Are you sure there was no curse, poison, or anything else?" I asked.

"Yes," she yawned.

She did not give me much confidence that she was actually sure. It just gave me more of the feeling that she didn't care about this.

But before I could continue to pester her more about this, she said, "Last year, I saw the same spear technique used by another Void Piercing Sect disciple and had a handful of countermeasures. It was a boring fight. I had hoped he at least had a couple more techniques that would have pushed me to the edge."

Ah, that made sense. This was a famous technique from the Void Piercing Sect.

She stopped playing with the red blob of blood, and it changed form from a ball into a tendril that entered through her palm, returning the blood to her.

Song Song turned toward me, her deep blue eyes looking me over as she still lay down, and asked, "Did you learn anything from this fight?"

"Something like that," I smirked.

I created a jade spear and took the same position as the guy who had used the weird space technique. In an instant, the bored look washed away from Song Song's face, and her eyes widened. A mad, almost insane smile began making its way onto her face, sending chills down my spine.

Thrusting my spear, the jade in my hand turned into Qi for a split second. Now, it no longer had the rigid functions of a solid construct; it was just pure Qi. I manipulated the Qi to move like a snake, slip past the guard of the imaginary opponent, and the Qi turned back to a jade spear as it stabbed them in the heart.

The room was silent for a couple of seconds as I dismissed the jade spear.

"I can have the jade lose its hard properties for a bit, turn to Qi, and reform again. Guarding against my attacks is useless now," I explained.

"Boo," Song Song booed and hollered at me. "Disappointing, I thought you copied the Void Piercing Sect's signature technique."

"Well, you were the one who got to experience the technique. Why don't you try copying it?" I calmly said, not falling for her fake insults.

Song Song tapped her chin, thinking for a bit before she nodded and got up from the bed. She created a spear of blood, replicated her ex-opponent's form, and looked ready to stab someone.

However, she didn't stab the air and turned toward me. Her crimson-red spear aimed at me, and the intensity in her eyes sent a chill down my spine.

Oh… shit!

"Defend yourself," was all Song Song said.

Without an ounce of hesitation, she hurled her spear forward, and just like mine, her blood spear turned liquid and slipped past my guard.

Despite my fears, Song Song wasn't going all out and could have moved faster. I had enough time to form a coin-sized jade shield to stop the spear from piercing my shoulder. The miniature jade shield cracked, and some minuscule drops landed on her red spear.

Song Song smiled. "That is a really good technique. But I will go a bit faster now."

Her twisted bloody spear withdrew, and she took a step back. The invisible tension was still there. In the next instant, Song Song's arm blurred as she stabbed toward me. I couldn't see her arm movements even with my enhanced vision!

The air crackled, and I felt something pushing against the wind, getting closer.

I should have listened to my cousins!

But despite this, I didn't rely on my eyes. Sensing someone else's Qi to predict their attack was difficult. Someone like Song Song was experienced and skilled enough that she wouldn't leave behind a trail for me to read her next moves.

However, when it came to my own Qi, it was much easier to sense.

I used precise sensing and created a partial jade armor around my stomach as Song Song's spear landed precisely there. She hadn't put much force behind the attack, and the jade didn't even crack.

"Hm? How did you sense that?" Song Song asked.

I pointed at the tip of her spear, where some of the fragments of minuscule translucent broken jade were. It was a mirror of the strategy she had used in the fight.

"Your opponent isn't the only one I learned from," I said.

Song Song chuckled, dismissing her blood spear.

"You know, one day, I'm going to attack you out of nowhere too," I grumbled under my breath, knowing full well she could hear me.

"Sorry, a thousand apologies," Song Song waved off my complaints. "But I was curious how you would react if a surprise attack came toward you in a way you couldn't predict."

"I'm definitely returning the favor in the future," I continued grumbling despite her reasoning.

"You know, if you're so against it, you could ask me to stop doing it," Song Song sighed, looking like a disappointed mother whose child no longer needed to depend on her.

"Can you stop doing it?" I asked immediately.

"No," she answered just as fast.

"What? But you said…"

"I said you could ask; I didn't say I would listen," she huffed.

That was a nice excuse. I was going to borrow it in the future whenever she asked me anything I didn't want to do.

Though Song Song was not as insensitive as she came off, she knew I didn't mind her "attacks".