Capítulo 34: Opening The Path

I never knew mass slaughter is so difficult! Fucking hell, finding people to slaughter is difficult enough, but now, you'd have to escape too? Are you fucking nuts?

In front of me is a 7th stage cultivator, the Bandit King who ruled over Sand mountains… I've slaughtered every one of his henchmen, those puffed-up ignorant mountain kings, well, except this one… The Bandit King himself!

Well, I have a good reason why I am not slaughtering this guy yet… It is not a matter of 'when' really, but more of a 'can'… It looks like I fall a bit short of killing this guy with the Monk's limited strength.

Apparently, the 7th stage is the limit of the Mindless Monk avatar. I've lost one arm already, and the Bandit King still has two. Though he is pretty much banged up, I am still not confident about killing him.

The Bandit King menacingly looks at me. I know that he is just keeping a front, but I cannot blame the guy. I just decimated his thug empire. I wanted to comfort him, maybe ask him 'You good?' or maybe 'Still breathing, eh?'

At this point, I might as well be playing the role of a sarcastic jackass but that's too out of character for Mindless Monk.

"You forgive what you can, when you can. That's all you can do. To forgive does not mean overlooking the offense and pretending it never happened. Forgiveness means releasing our rage and our need to retaliate, no longer dwelling on the offense, the offender, and the suffering, and rising to a higher love."

Quote, and quote, that was by Sue Monk Kidd… I make the Monk utter those words in this situation, another pre-recorded dialogue.

The Bandit King has this hopeful look in his eyes. "Are you offering a truce?"

NO, SON OF A BITCH! COME GET SOME!

"PRIDE, ENVY, GLUTTONY, GREED..."

I spammed my cursed art one after another!

Before I was even able to mutter the curse of Wrath, the Bandit King has already skedaddled by flying on his scimitar… Fuck, that guy was fast… I see his figure quickly reduced to a dot on the horizon… Sigh… Poor guy…

Somehow, I felt pity for him… that he didn't die… Doesn't he want to be released too? Just like his many minions who gave up their lives to me for a greater cause?

"…"

I know it's fucked up, but what's the problem? I got my quintessence though… Hunting cultivators or creatures with a cultivation base is really the right thing to do! Hehehe…

[Quintessence: 112, 509]

I whistled at the long string of numbers. I tried buying old Fu Shi's cultivation base back, but it looks like it is still impossible with the enormous amount of Quintessence I have.

I estimate the number of people on the pilgrimage to be about 10,000 to 15,000. That's plenty enough considering that this is a cultivation world where survival of the fittest is the golden rule. Moreover, with all of the dangers in this world, in my eyes, this amount of common citizenry willing to join the pilgrimage is already a miracle in its own right.

Whatever Lu Gao was criticizing about the Templar guys and the Azuon-Biron slaves must've quite an effect to influence something like this movement. This meant that there must be too much-bottled frustration.

At this point, I imagine a war with the Biron Kingdom to be inevitable. After all, I am literally shifting the status quo in this kingdom reducing what the Biron royalty possess.

Though the power of resurrection is available to my players, I cannot guarantee my victory yet. When it comes to war, the impossibility tends to always happen… and in safe measure, I have to assume this 'impossibility' would work to my disadvantage.

Through my Mind's Eye, I see the Pilgrimage to have arrived already by Butterberry Forest. It has been two months since they arrived near the forest. At this moment, a lot of them are having indecisions.

Setting a camp beside the forest, and idling their time, the people realized that this pilgrimage is more difficult than they thought.

Bi Yuan's overhunting of weaker beasts in the forest has caused other sorts of beast varieties that are invasive in nature to occupy the place. While it helped Bi Yuan on gaining more Exp Points, it scared away the people. I cannot really stop Bi Yuan as she is too motivated to level up with the recent upgrade to the system.

Currently, the Level Cap is at the 3rd stage, the Will Reinforcement Realm, about Level 80!

With the current trouble of Butterberry forest, I have to do something lest I deter more possible players!

So, I can only do this the old-fashioned way… Lurker and Lu Gao are on their own merry way to returning to the Sword Metropolitan. Apparently, the duo still has unfinished business in that place. Nee Chen and Xiang Ya are also out, and it looks like the two are on their way to different sects and not just the Sword Flowing Sect.

That leaves me with Bi Yuan. Giving her an escort mission, I made Bi Yuan direct her attention to bringing pilgrims to me.

Ping!

[Quest: Escort the Pilgrims!

Rewards: Exp Points, Exp Boosts, Fame Points]

"Ky~u?"

Bi Yuan who is in front of me rejected the quest.

What the heck is your problem?

Sigh, I cannot force it on her, I am an ardor fan of freedom after all. You know what, bunny, just go and slay more beasts… You are too much of a battle fanatic! If it is Exp you want, I would've given them to you already you know? The quest literally has an Exp Boost and Exp Points as rewards…

Looks like I can only rely on my system for now…

I start digging into the many spiritual storage in my stash. I grab all of the useless minerals and the not-so-valuable stuff. Sacrificing all of them to the system to reduce cost, I activate my quintessence!

What I need is a giant castle!

Remodeling the very cave I am staying at with my quintessence, I start 'visualizing' the image I desire. I am very tempted on building a western fantasy rpg-like castle, that kind of stuff, but I resisted.

I have to stay to the theme!

To a cultivation world like this, I can only think of one— Gyeongbokgung Palace of South Korea.

I just love the color scheme of the palace, it's so vibrant, and it has this dreamy cultivator essence to it. I might be biased, but that place is the only Asian castle I know, so rue me…

Consuming 60,000 quintessence, I must say this is not so bad given its functions. The hardiness and its fortifications are the least of its pros. The best function of this thing is that it can store my players' souls handily. This means their souls won't decay anymore and can be resurrected in a distant time instead of instantly just like how I used to do.

With this castle, I must also make an update that the respawn of the players can only now happen once a week which would control my players from being too suicidal and also while at it conserve my quintessence. I can do nothing about my players losing a portion of their memories though.

It also has to be accounted for that players will lose Exp points each time they die. This way, I can recycle my quintessence points. Every time my player dies, about 30 percent of quintessence will be returned to me by extracting it from their exp loss.

After admiring my castle for some time, I spend more of my quintessence about 20,000 in order to build a road from the castle to the outside of Butterberry forest. This road and the castle are both safe zones in which my players can easily pass.

This is just perfect.

I can say, this place is becoming quite the beginner village I imagine. I admit that the place is grand contrary to the popular belief that a beginner village should be shabby and plain.

From the rocky slope of the mountains, the dirt, rock, and boulders magically shifted themselves, visible to the naked eye, they transformed into smooth marbled stairs reaching to the foot of the Desolate Mountain.

I walked down with easy steps. My body isn't as frail as it used to be thanks to the few age reversals I've been indulging myself to…

Arriving by the grassy and dirty path that stretched to the Butterberry forest. Using the power of the Mind's Eye, I scrutinized the very change that is happening as per the influence of quintessence.

I see this qi and natural force of the world colliding and building a marvelous path made of smooth marble just like in the stairs. It is like the hands of god working its miracle.

As I continued to walk forward, I observe through my Mind's Eye this repelling force towards hostile figures… I see the many demonic and feral beasts that inhabited the forest for some time fleeing from the road.

Just like that, the path was finished.

Using Telekinesis to fly, I returned to my newly refurbished castle. There is no need for me to greet the pilgrims. I will see them if the time is right.

For now, I need them to discover this path for themselves to produce the intended effects of instilling awe in them. If I, the Game Master, wished to rule over my players, I have to play smart… and act like an NPC that the role I have designated to myself.

Though I didn't show my face, it wouldn't do any harm to me if I do say something myself.

"THE PATH HAS OPENED! ONLY THE ENLIGHTENED SHALL THE PATH PRESENT ITSELF!"

With those short, but dignified words I sent through telepathy, I rest my tired body that I've been overworking for the past month. Now, I wait.

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