Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part Two of Two)
CRUNCH!
The golden defensive barrier shattered, and one of the talismans in Master Freespirit’s hand went dark. Thankfully, his companion in the blue robe was ready, and quickly activated the talismans he had to defend against the dark soul. In that manner, Master Freespirit took charge for what lay ahead while his companion defended against what lay behind. After going through nine defensive talismans, they reached the very center of the ruins.
There, they saw a tall white tower with a surface of glazed tiles that resembled white jade. At the top of the tower was a white jewel that emanated soft white light to illuminate the surroundings.
To Master Freespirit’s surprise, the light coming off of the tower prevented any of the souls from getting closer than 300 meters.
“Looks like we’re safe for the moment,” the blue-robed youth said in a weak voice. His injuries, plus the effort of using the defensive talismans, had been quite draining on him.
“We’re not completely safe yet,” Master Freespirit replied. “And we don’t have much time.” He had just noticed that the souls on the other side of the light had started racing off in a specific direction, which seemed to indicate that someone else had entered the ruins. And in all likelihood, that person was... Lin Tianhao!
Not daring to hesitate, Master Freespirit quickly put a few mutant hornets in place, activated a defensive talisman, and then hesitantly entered the white tower.
Once inside, Master Freespirit and the blue-robed youth were surprised to discover that the place was a scripture repository. There was a staircase that circled up the tower, and the walls were covered with a dazzling lineup of ancient records. What was most surprising was that there was no mutagen present at all.
Based on his experiences in forbidden regions, Master Freespirit knew that the good things wouldn’t be on the bottom level of the tower. Quickly activating two more defensive talismans, as well as a flight talisman, he raced up the tower.
After a few breaths of time passed, he and the blue-robed youth were at the top level. To their shock, they found themselves at the entrance of a small-scale palace room. In the middle of it were two statues who were holding something up between them. Gruishly, the statues had arms full of faces. Each face was bizarre, and they had expressions ranging from joy, to grief, to rage.
The object they were holding up was a tattered book. Upon seeing it, the blue-robed youth’s eyes lit up, and it took effort for him not to try to crawl over and grab the book. But in the end, he held back. He knew full well that it was already an expression of extreme humanity and utmost virtue for Master Freespirit to have spared his life. If he got greedy now, it would be an easy thing for Master Freespirit to kill him with a single blow.
Master Freespirit looked at his companion and could tell what he was thinking. “Given the countless novels I’ve read, I can tell you that people who get greedy and betray their friends never have a good end. That’s why I haven’t taken your life. But I want the majority of the stuff here. How about we split everything 70/30?”
“Sure, no problem!” the blue-robed youth said immediately.
The two of them carefully approached the strange statues.
When Master Freespirit finally laid hands on the tattered book, he found that it was incomplete, and the name had long since faded from the cover. The contents were little more than a method of sacrificing yourself to become a spirit automaton. What was more, the chances of failure were high, and would result in instant death.
As the blue-robed young man hung onto Master Freespirit’s neck, he looked at the content as well, then pursed his lips disdainfully.
“Sacrifice yourself to become a spirit automaton? What the hell kind of bullshit technique is that?”
In contrast, the contents of the technique caused Master Freespirit’s eyes to glitter brightly. To him, it wasn’t an incomplete technique to become a spirit automaton, but rather, a way to have an extra life up your sleeve! Master Freespirit was the type of person who was very cautious in everything, and didn’t like taking risks. In the chaotic world he lived in, his measly cultivation base counted for almost nothing. People like him often became whetstones for the children of destiny, and ended up dying miserably.
But with a technique like this, things could be different. If he didn’t reach his goals with his cultivation base, and somehow got killed one day, he could use this technique to become the spirit automaton of a child of destiny. After all, virtually all cultivators considered spirit automatons to be extremely important. Master Freespirit carefully took the treasured book and put it into his robe for later use.
Then, he and his companion worked as quickly as possible to clear out everything else in the room.
In the end, they acquired a few dozen secret magics and over twenty treasured medicinal pills. Most amazing of all was that among the pills they discovered were a total of three foundation establishment pills!
There were also two bags of holding. One of them contained a golden gauntlet that was apparently a magical device. It glittered with colorful light, and could bolster one’s magical techniques and treasures!
Master Freespirit excitedly put the gauntlet on and said, “With this thing, all I need to do is find a remote place to set up my own little sect! I already have the name ready to go. It’ll be the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect!”
The golden gauntlet immediately provided a blessing that made him far stronger than before.
Meanwhile, the blue-robed youth got a single foundation establishment pill and some valuable secret magics. To his excitement, one of the books he found described how to create a magical device that was essentially a pair of mechanical legs.
But then, the blue-robed young man suddenly looked worried. “I just thought of something. How are we going to get out of here? We don’t have enough defensive talismans left. If we try to fight our way out, we’ll get too badly hurt, and then Squad Dragonsong will be able to just pick us off.”
He frowned. But then he reeled in shock as he looked over at Master Freespirit and saw him fishing out a handful of dozens of defensive talismans from his leather armor.
“Th-that... you....” The young man simply couldn’t fathom that someone would bring dozens and dozens of defensive talismans simply for a trip into a forbidden region. How could someone be so afraid of dying... no, wait. How could someone be so cautious?
“These are my last life-saving items. But considering how much we’re going to profit, it’ll be worth it.” With that, Master Freespirit looked up at the jewel that was set into the ceiling.
It was also a treasure of some sort, but it was obviously on the verge of going dark forever, though it might last for a few more years. But if he could somehow make it part of his future sect, then it would be a great way to attract new recruits, as it could stave off mutagen invasions. And he wouldn’t need to worry about people trying to rob him of it, considering that it wouldn’t last much longer anyway.
Master Freespirit took out a bag of holding to put the jewel in, but then his expression flickered. He had just sensed some familiar fluctuations from the mutant hornets outside the tower.
Looking out the nearest window, Master Freespirit saw Lin Tianhao break through the masses of souls and approach the tower, his eyes burning with aggressive killing intent.
It only took a moment for Lin Tianhao to catch sight of Master Freespirit. Although he had assumed this would happen, seeing someone take the treasure that rightfully belonged to him was infuriating.
Suppressing his fury, Lin Tianhao called out, “Master Freespirit! Drop all of my treasure and get out of here. If you do, I’ll let you live.”
Given Master Freespirit’s extensive reading experience, he was now convinced that there was no way Lin Tianhao was any sort of child of destiny. Therefore, his eyes no longer flickered with fear, but rather, killing intent! Eyes narrowing, he activated the flight talisman on his leg and jumped out of the white tower. With the wave of his hand, he summoned the image of a golden vajra warrior behind him. Then, he shoved out his hand with the golden gauntlet on it, creating the projection of a massive golden hand.
Master Freespirit was not the type of person who liked to risk his life. But he knew that if he didn’t kill Lin Tianhao, he would never see a day of peace. Instead of shrinking back in fear, it would be better to give the fight all he had in the hopes of staving off any future misfortune.
Lin Tianhao was more than a little surprised to see the normally timid and fearful Master Freespirit suddenly attacking him. But then his eyes gleamed with disdain. He had just killed Sergeant Zhou, let alone this pitiful Master Freespirit who was only in the eighth level of Qi Condensation.
“You’re bringing about your own destruction!” Snorting coldly, Lin Tianhao tapped into all of the power of his cultivation base. The ghost face with the blood-red hair appeared behind him, and blood energy screamed around him. Even the nearby bright souls backed away from him. With the wave of his hand, he sent a blood-red fist rocketing forward! He was obviously holding nothing back.
But then, Lin Tianhao felt his energy and blood go completely out of control. Cracks spread out on his arm, and he staggered backward, his expression a mixture of ferocity and confusion.
“Back at the basecamp you acted like a complete pushover. How’d you get so strong?” Lin Tianhao coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Before Lin Tianhao could stabilize his position, Master Freespirit landed on the ground. As his eyes flashed with killing intent, the golden vajra warrior behind him roared furiously. At the same time, Master Freespirit launched another palm attack!
Intense rumbling sounds echoed out. Master Freespirit was going all out. Closing the distance, he launched palm strike after palm strike. His current ferocity made him seem like a completely different person than the cautious cultivator he usually was.
The repeated blows stopped all of Lin Tianhao’s previous momentum, and had him staggering backward. His ghost face was even about to fall apart.
“Looking to die?!” Lin Tianhao roared, and his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture. The eyes of the ghost face started glowing bright red, and an immense pressure radiated out. Lin Tianhao opened his mouth, and a mass of blood-colored hair shot out from it which swept forth to rip Master Freespirit to shreds.
But Master Freespirit wasn’t showing any hint that he was ready to back down. He also performed an incantation gesture, which caused blinding golden light to shoot off the gauntlet on his right hand. It turned into a whip which he viciously lashed in Lin Tianhao’s direction. The air rippled and distorted as the whip snapped forth. When the blood-red hair and the golden whip collided, the hair was ripped to pieces. Then the whip continued on and slammed into Lin Tianhao. A bloody furrow opened up on his chest which went all the way down to the bone.
However, things weren’t over yet. Master Freespirit sent the whip spiraling around Lin Tianhao’s neck, where it began to tighten rapidly.
All of a sudden, a sensation of deadly crisis filled Lin Tianhao. “Master Freespirit, I....”
Before Lin Tianhao could say anything further, Master Freespirit slammed a foot down onto his chest. Without showing a scrap of mercy, he yanked on the whip and ripped Lin Tianhao’s head off his shoulders.
Up in the tower, the blue-robed young man watched in complete surprise as Master Freespirit unleashed a vicious streak that seemed completely at odds with the usual garrulous, cowardly behavior. That was when the blue-robed youth noticed that the souls in the area were in a frenzy. Then, four members of Squad Dragonsong burst through to arrive by the tower.
The young man in blue didn’t give them a chance to do anything. Before the Squad Dragonsong members could react, he took out a bag of holding, grabbed the white jewel from the top of the tower, and put it away! When the white light vanished, there was nothing keeping the souls away, and they lunged at the members of Squad Dragonsong. Putting away the bag of holding, the young man in blue threw himself out of the tower.
“Catch me, Master Freespirit!”
Having just finished looting Lin Tianhao's corpse, Master Freespirit looked over and saw the blue-robed youth falling from the top of the tower. The flight talismans on his legs flickered as he shot over and caught him. Then he activated a defensive talisman and raced into the crowd of souls.
The members of Squad Dragonsong didn’t have such a large collection of defensive talismans, so they could only watch as Master Freespirit vanished from the ruins.
Another way to put it was that, after having just witnessed Master Freespirit kill Lin Tianhao, none of these members of Squad Dragonsong were so stupid as to deliver themselves to death by giving chase.
***
A few years later....
In a random corner of the continent of South Phoenix, a new sect had just been established. It was called the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. The sect kept a low profile from the very beginning. Master Freespirit was now in Foundation Establishment, and he was the patriarch of the sect. The new form of address he preferred was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.
As for the young man in the blue robe who had lost his legs, he joined Seven Blood Eyes and eventually became an elder.... [1]
1. Who is the young man in blue? If you want a refresher, you’ll have to go back tochapter 71 .... He appears in the first few paragraphs there. ☜