Chương 484: Judge, Jury, Executioner (I)

[--assimilating the cumulative knowledge, strength, and experience of all your Disciples] [Host may experience a severe headache, as it is the first time you are undergoing assimilation] [...] [Please note that you will 'not' remember any of the new knowledge you acquire for the duration of the assimilation. You will enter a weakened state upon expiration and will not be able to use the assimilation for the next 180 days. As it is Host's first time, the system will ensure no permanent damage to the Host's body; in the future, however, Host may be required to prepare special ingredients and materials] [...] [Assimilating Disciple Xi Zhao...] [... you have acquired the Sword Qi Resonance Trait, you have acquired the Draw Master Trait, you have acquired the Heavenfold Sword Trait...] [...] [Assimilating Disciple Wan Lan...] [... you have acquired Fiendish Meridians, you have acquired Demonic Vessel Physique, you have acquired Dreadline Bloodline, you have acquired Undying Spirit...] [...] [Assimilating Disciple Dai Xiu...] [Assimilating Disciple Xing Feng...] [...] [Assimilating Disciple Lao Shun...] [... you have acquired Elemental Dantian Physique, you have acquired Nature-Blessed...] [Assimilating Disciple Long Tao...] [--countless anomalies detected. Disciple Long Tao is a Reincarnator; Host will assimilate partial knowledge of Dao Laws, Domains, Concepts, and Nirvana. You have acquired Dao Sword Heart, you have acquired Eternal Sword, you have acquired Eternal Blade, you have acquired Heavenly Severing, you have acquired Blade and Body...] [...] [Though Host's cultivation will externally remain at the Peak of the Revolving Core Realm, Host's Qi reserves will more closely match that of someone at the Eternal Barrier Realm] [...] [Host will be able to endure the state of assimilation for at most 1 hour without any permanent damage. Every minute after increases the risk exponentially]... a severe headache? You call this a severe headache? Goddammit, system! This is the most painful thing I have ever experienced, amped up by about a goddamn hundredfold! It felt like someone was repeatedly cracking my head open and beating the shit out of my brain, all whilst there was somebody inside my brain doing the exact goddamn thing.

I had to use Qi to keep myself from screaming bloody murder and had to almost literally bury my head into the ground to just slightly numb the pain. All the while, knowledge kept being battered into my mind even when there wasn't any room left. Nothing left me either; it was like having a thousand people in a small room, but then needing to stuff a thousand more without any of the existing ones leaving.... except that's physically impossible, yet my current predicament very much is.

Starting with the simple strokes of a sword and the principles behind the Draw Master trait of Xi Zhao, all the way to Long Tao's... truly inexhaustible wealth of knowledge. I knew for a fact that I only 'assimilated' a small amount since none of the knowledge seemed truly 'impossible', merely... outlandish? Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

As it all began to pour in, a clearer picture of everything formed--fighting, conjuring Dao, and manifesting things into reality from seemingly nowhere. The pain slowly began to fade; in its stead, the kind of clarity that felt dangerously close to a drug. As I looked up with my eyes open, the world... had changed. There were colors dancing between the motes of light that I didn't even know existed; in the distance, where they fought, rather than flashes of martial arts, I saw lines that connected them.

I saw through the skin and flesh and bone; I saw how they moved their Qi and how they converted it into an attack. My quickened heartbeat slowed down to a crawl as all anxiety left me; it wasn't so much my own confidence but something oddly alien overcoming me. I stepped off the ledge, but rather than falling down... I walked on air. Step by step. One breath at a time.

** Long Tao stared at the battle in the sky, his expression one of bemusement; that man truly was toying with the monk and had been toying for a while now. He'd considered stepping in but held back; though the kids were beaten black and blue, and two had even died, he remained in the darkness, hidden. One part of it was that he wasn't truly confident in fighting; it was one thing to stealth-attack a greenhorn who'd barely started cultivating, and wholly another to attack an old, shrewd monster.

There was only so much he could do to bridge the gap, and he didn't even have the time to prepare any arrays, unlike when he fought the city lord at Moon Lake. If it truly did appear helpless, he did have a way to get the kids out... but it would cost him dearly. As such, he waited--though it seemed as if he waited for a miracle, in truth, he waited for one man to appear.

It made no sense, realistically; if it was something Long Tao himself could not do, it stood to reason that his awkward Master couldn't do it either. And yet... that man was a bundle of shocks and surprises, each new one magnitudes greater than the last. If there was anyone in the world who could somehow resolve this hell... it was him.

He felt it, a twine of familiar; shuddering, his eyes looked up and over to the north, where he saw a figure emerge from the tall cliff, stepping over the sky as though there was a walkway laid out before him. It was his Master, yet... it was not. The man's Qi was a complete abomination, and there were traces of Dao swimming about him. The nobility he exuded was akin to someone just a step away from immortality, a complete opposite of how the man was like ordinarily.

"Huh? Who are you?" the voice in the sky asked as a massive palm of shadows struck down the little Monk, belting him directly into the ground below, where little Zhao ran off to help him.

"How did you get in here? Hey, are you deaf? I asked you a--""--shut the fuck up." Master's voice was like a crackle of thunder--he'd imbued the Law of Dao within it, and even Long Tao felt his lips turn to stone as pressure descended like a tidal wave.

"I'm sick and fucking tired of old shitheads like you lording over the world and trying to squeeze it dry. Who gave you the right? Both you and that shit-made hag down there, you could have lived out the rest of your miserable lives with some sense of nobility. Instead, look at this. You've sculpted a hell so grave even devils would prostrate."

"You dare--""--did I give you the fucking permission to speak?!" Master shouted, his voice a roar of destruction. At the same time, he extended his right arm and swung it around, open palm facing downward, whereupon a thousand blades emerged from seemingly nowhere and descended. In one fell swoop, every cloaked figure save for the woman and the man in the sky was obliterated into a shower of blood and gore.

"I promise you," he added as a halo of golden light spun up behind him, turning into a wheel of fire that spat out jets of liquid flames, turning the ghastly darkness into the brightest of days.

"Soon enough, you will be begging for death."