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90.74% Black Onyx: Phoenix Resurrection / Chapter 206: Thousand Year Trap

บท 206: Thousand Year Trap

The western stare-off continued and the tension in the air slowly increased. The leaking intent of hostility from the two Cultivators was becoming unbearable. But, to my surprise, I realized it was Jian Tian who was getting nervous.
The arrogant Sect master had finally found his match.
"Time to leave or die?" He spoke, his voice trembling a bit at first, but then it stabilized and his eyes focused. "If you think I wasn't prepared for you, old man, you are sorely mistaken."
A sword appeared beside him.
A blade twice his height and as wide as his body. Purple metal glistened with power, greedily absorbing all the surrounding Qi. At a certain point, it began emitting light, an eerie bright pink that nearly made blood freeze in my veins. Dots of light appeared around it and a galaxy soon began to form.
I wasn't sure if that was just an illusion or if it was all real. My eyes couldn't distinguish between the two, and I dared not use my other senses for fear of them being fried.
"Isn't it nice? My Star Fury?" Jian Tian smiled while looking at the blade. He completely disregarded the old man who was staring daggers at him.
"You are not worthy of a Divine weapon." The man growled.
"Oh? You dare say that? Then how come I'm the one using it?" The Star Fury moved at his command and the stars shifted with it, seemingly locked in space around it. The Avatar of Jian Tian came into being and gripped the blade. It appeared just right in its giant hands while the extra limbs disappeared to reinforce its body.
"Using it is a bold word. If the relic of the ancient past truly accepted you as its master, then why don't you dare touch it?"
Jian Tian's face twisted into an angry snarl and the old man grinned. His words hit the mark.
"A worm pretending to be a Dragon. How laughable. I should teach a Junior like you a lesson."
A shield appeared from thin air and the old man gripped it. A spike grew on one side and the metal merged with his hand. It became like a wide gauntlet, and it too, began glowing with power.
"If you think…" Jian Tian hissed. "That you can win against me just because you are slightly stronger, you are bound to be left disappointed. Today you die, old man!"
"Come at me then! Show me what a stolen weapon can do!" The old man shouted in reply.
"Die!"
***
I don't know what happened after that. I just know I woke up with a splitting headache and painful ringing in my ears. The land around me was devastated. Not a single blade of grass was left standing for as far as the eye could see. The forest was gone, replaced with a barren battlefield. The ground turned to mud beneath my feet, slick with blood, and I struggled to stand as the earth tried to swallow my massive weight.
As I healed, and my sight and hearing improved, I noticed the dome of the Sect in the far distance. The air was quiet and a cold wind blew through the land.
The first days of winter came, and with them the cold and ice.
I exhaled and saw my breath turn white. I did not actually feel the cold since my body was always toasty warm, but the scenery was one of frigid devastation.
I tried to take a step, but as I pulled my foot out of the mud, the other one sank deeper. I tried to form a foothold out of Qi, but then I realized it refused to move.
I tried again, and with greater force, and my Qi finally stirred. I mean, it moved just fine inside my body, but for some reason, it refused to exit, at least at first. I pushed against the resistance, and some energy trickled out, but it was so… unstable.
As soon as it formed, the conjured step crumbled and decayed. That's when I realized the air itself was filled with foreign energy interfering with mine. I opened my Arcane Eyes and was nearly knocked over by what I saw. Around me was a field of chaos. A chaotic mess of energies so dense, I struggled to comprehend. It was as if I was trying to blow a bubble at the bottom of the ocean. My energy was getting crushed from all sides.
I closed my eyes momentarily and stirred my Soul to action. I had expanded greatly since the start of the conflict, and it was expanding and growing still, devouring all that Soul Essence. Well, I used that hunger, that drive it had, to push my Qi, to energize it, to force it to move.
It expanded from my body, yet remained close, and with great effort, I formed a foothold strong enough to not immediately crumble. I took a step, and then another, and soon I was out of the slippery bog trying to suck me deeper.
Every step required tremendous effort and every second my mind wanted to relax, but I couldn't let it. The force with which I was maintaining my conjuration, you would think I was commanding at least 80% of my Qi, and not a mere fraction of a percent.
The space around me was as rigid as a diamond, so there was no hope of me ever flying back, not that I would do it even if I could. Attracting attention seemed like a really bad idea judging by the circumstances.
As I came closer and saw the grand barrier, one thing was abundantly clear. The Star Fury still hung in the sky, held by the pure energy giant. The battle was over and nobody spoke.
I slowly trudged over, not willing to miss anything, even if that meant the end for me. Not like I could escape. The land was completely locked down and with my speed and power, I could never hope to run away. I was walking at a Mortal's pace, the least I could do was stand on my feet and see the war to its conclusion. Because, if it was not already over, the grand finale was just around the corner.
I came closer, as close as I could, and then collapsed, still far away from the safety of the barrier. It somehow survived all the destruction thrown at it, but judging by what I saw, it wasn't going to last much longer.
Tiny dots of light began reforming around the massive sword, and despite Jian Tian looking like he had just gone through a meat grinder, he was the only one left standing.
The Star Fury kept sucking in energy from the air, and I could physically feel the pressure each of those tiny dots of light represented. It would not be a stretch to say that a small nuke would probably feel less threatening than those motes of utter annihilation.
As I looked at them it felt like my throat was getting squeezed by a vice and I suddenly felt the urge to vomit. My entire being felt so ill, I could not describe the agony I was experiencing. The nausea and disorientation were something even my instant regeneration could not counter and it felt way worse than any pain I ever experienced prior, even though it didn't hurt.
If that was how dying felt, oh god, I wanted to be dead, if nothing else just to escape it.
The Star Fury shifted and aimed at the Sect.
But the final attack never came. Instead, the ground inside the Sect split open. Like the gates of hell swinging wide, the mountain just split vertically, and an old man soundlessly rose from its depths.
He had long, white hair, a beard that would reach the ground, if he was not floating, and a pristine white robe that fit loosely over his thin frame. Even from such a distance I could see the frailty of his body.
His expression was grand and without emotion, yet he felt so...
"Haaaah…" Jian Tian loudly sighed and looked at the old man. "So I was tricked. You are still alive, ancestor Li Gama Bawles."
"Surprise." The old man answered in a flat tone. He rose higher and exited the barrier, standing face-to-face with the enemy.
They just stood there, in the sky, yet their mere presence was devastating. I couldn't mobilize even a smidgen of my Qi and was forced to kneel in the mud, my large transformed body unable to move.
"My people told me you had died. We even felt it." Jian Tian finally said, sick of the long silence.
"A small trick for one such as I. How could you have known the difference between one in the Ninth Sky, and someone who had touched the Divine?" The elderly man answered, and there was even a hint of a smile. "You are all too weak, after all."
Jian Tian gritted his teeth and flared his Aura. The Avatar beside him moved. "Even though I am hurt, this much is nothing. When this battle ends, there will only be one victor. Me." The growing lights around the Star Fury intensified. I felt like I was going to die.
The old man waved his hand casually. "Come on now, young one, we both know that is not true." The colossal energy dispersed like smoke in the wind, and I took a deep breath as sweat began to gather on my forehead. "You see, I have long since waited for this moment. Ever since our two Sects were established, yours was a thorn in my side."
He smiled for the first time. "You are aware of how our Cultivation works. Do you know what my first beast was? A turtle. And do you know what their specialty is? It's patience. They grow slowly over hundreds of years, never stopping, and outlasting everything. And let me tell you, if you thought your plans with that army behind your back were something impressive, you should have seen mine."
Jian Tian tensed. "What army?"
Ancestor Li Burst out laughing like he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "That army, of course."
He waved his hand, and the space behind Jian Tian seemingly shattered, revealing lines of hundreds of floating Cultivators.
The old man gave a knowing nod. "Oh, I had long since known about your growing army of Sky Realm Cultivators, and though they are not all that strong, you did well to keep them hidden from the world. It is impressive, I'll give you that. It must have cost you a lot." Ancestor Li grinned.
"So you have known..." Jian Tian said and his expression hardened.
Mind you, I couldn't see or hear all these things, but the extreme Intent those two were putting out there was more than enough to tell exactly what was going on. And it was fascinating.
"But even if they aren't the best… You alone cannot fight us all, even if you had touched upon the Divine. You at most got a glimpse of it."
"Ah, a smart man, though your intelligence does not actually impress me. See, while you are kind of right, you forgot where you stand. While you are right, that I cannot slaughter you all by myself, and while it is true that my people are in a bad shape, this land is still mine."
The old ancestor laughed and spread his arms wide. "Nobody, not even a single Soul except mine, knows of the secrets this mountain holds. I have created this place, do you think I did not foresee an invasion? Haha! That was the first thing I prepared against."
The ground began to rumble and pillars of stones, filled with incredible runes and magic, rose from the ground. Across the ruined battlefield, they rose, hundreds, thousands of them.
"For millennia, they laid dormant, feeding upon the celestial energies of this land. It is now time for the world to see, the largest Formation in existence!"
The pillars lit up, and everything froze in place. The chaotic mess of Qi in the air suddenly shifted, becoming orderly. The air itself began to glow with gentle white light.
"What are you doing?! You'll destroy everything if you attack with that! If we fight you to the death, then we'll both lose!" Jian Tian suddenly shouted, his voice sounding panicked.
"Oh, then it's good that I won't kill a single one of you, isn't it? Well, not directly anyway."
"...What?"
"See, I had been preparing for this for a thousand years." The old ancestor smiled, his expression carrying a clear delight like something heavy had just rolled off his shoulders. "All my people carry a badge that will protect them, leaving them out of my creation's reach. But you… You all will go on a little journey. Not the land, not my people. Just you. You and your filthy lot. You will go on an adventure somewhere far, far away. Far enough away that you will never be coming back."
His smile then turned into a grin, and I could practically feel the wicked gaze, even though it was not turned at me. "You brought your army to my doorstep. What will happen to your home when it will be gone?"
"You-!"
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of your Sect and your women. Your treasures will be of great help to allow me to forge the body of a god. This one is already somewhat used up. And don't worry about the Essence, I won't demand much. After all, I had already gathered plenty."
"You bastard!" Jian Tian exploded in anger and fought against the restrictions imposed on him. "Kill this old man!" He roared.
The mass of warriors moved as one and surrounded their leader, pouring their energy into the massive sword. They alone couldn't do a thing, but focusing their power through a catalyst was something else entirely.
The galaxy of glowing stars reformed around the blade, even stronger than before. The Star Fury painted the sky in a shade of purple light as a power of cataclysmic proportions leaked out of it.
"Prepare to die, old man!" Jian Tian roared and swiped down with his hand. Almost in slow motion, the stars began to move, slowly at first, and then ever faster. Each of them contained enough energy to obliterate an early Sky Realm Cultivator, yet there were thousands of them.
"Heh… I don't think so." Ancestor Li Gama Bawles flicked his hand to the side, and the sky split apart.
The pillars glowed and arrays formed in the air all around us. Behind every enemy Cultivator, a complex matrix of runes came into being and I stared wide-eyed as the falling stars were swallowed without a trace by the rupture in the sky.
"It's time for you all to leave."
The runes glowed and expanded from the middle as a portal formed around every Sword Cultivator present. They tried to scream, they tried to move, but they were locked in place.
Even Jian Tian struggled, and he almost escaped with his superior strength, but then ancestor Li Gama Bawles appeared before him and gave him a backhanded slap. It wasn't even that strong, it's just that it came out of nowhere, and the man lost concentration for a split second because of it, which was enough to be swallowed by the portal behind him.
"Safe travels!" The ancestor smiled and as the portal closed he began to cackle. One by one the Sword Cultivators were sucked into their own portals, never to be seen again. "Let's hope you don't get torn apart by the energies inside, I didn't exactly test the portals for safety. Hahaha!"
The man sure liked to shit talk. But I guess I would be the same if I was preparing a trap for a thousand freaking years!
The old dude was crazy, that much was clear.
I shook my head, well, tried to, but then I realized I was locked in place too.
[Huh?]
I suddenly saw a light shining behind me and then felt a weirdly powerful tug. My eyes expanded wide as saucers as I realized what was happening.
[Wait… Wait, wait, wait! I'm on your side! I have a badge, I have…] My voice trailed off as the pull became stronger and I felt spatial distortions coming from the dark portal behind me. I realized, to my horror, that I must have lost my badge… again!
[Faaaaaaaa-!]
The edges of my perception were swallowed by blackness and the window to the outside world quickly shrunk as I was engulfed by the portal. I couldn't resist at all. The last thing I could do before my body began getting torn apart by the wild energy, was loudly curse.
[Son of a bi-!]
Then everything went black.

บท 207: Abandoned

It was all so confusing and wild.
It all started when I accidentally destroyed the Portal Nexus of the Brilliant Sword Sect. It was an honest mistake, but they were unreasonable in their demands to get my head as payment.
Using that as an excuse, they began poking the bear, I mean the Myriad Beasts Sect, slowly escalating the conflict. The young generation from both sides was used to poke and prod each other until they were ready to throw down for real. Even then, the young ones were used as pawns for the two Sects while the leaders just watched from afar, scheming.
But holy shit, in the end even the Sky Realm Cultivators from both sides were but pawns of the old ancestor. How much of it was real? Was he even close to death, to begin with? He certainly played his part well, pretending to be feeble and leaving the world for centuries so everyone would forget about him.
Still, even though some knew of his existence, they never would have imagined he would use his entire Sect as bait.
What a crazy man. And after luring the overconfident enemy into a trap, he won without having to do any heavy lifting himself. Thousands of powerful Cultivators died. Thousands! And what did he do? He used their death to power his Formation! What a fucking genius lunatic. I had to give him that, he was patient.
But holy fucking shit, why did I have to get swallowed by a portal?! Why were the badges on clothes?! Couldn't they make rings or earrings instead?! Those would be so much harder to lose!
[Faaaaak!]
I roared through gritted teeth as most of my attention was on keeping my body in one piece. I tumbled through a chaotic tunnel, with the feeling like I was falling, getting squished, and torn apart, all at once!
Which way was I supposed to pull/push? My flesh just wanted to tear itself apart no matter how I tried to reinforce it. I had to focus entirely on keeping my cells connected, and even that wasn't enough. My impossibly hard scales cracked and peeled off, while simultaneously cutting into my flesh like sharp daggers as they pushed in.
The opposing forces didn't cancel each other out, they worked in tandem instead! What the fuck was that! The laws of physics didn't make any sense! Down was up, up was down, and my insides wanted to become my outsides.
And the travel didn't seem to have any ending in sight. I just tumbled through the void while trying my best not to get torn apart. Where the fuck did the portal even lead? The ancestor said it was random. Could it be in space?! On the moon even?!
I had to get out before my mind gave out. No matter how strong I was, the place was a prison for those much stronger than me.
I split my attention, searching for a weakness in the structure around me. It was fucking strong, impossibly so, and it was changing constantly. If I wanted to force my way through the shifting energies, it would be like crawling through razor wire, naked, while the wire was electrified and on fire. Oh, and it was spinning with the speed of a blender.
I pushed against the confines of my prison and felt my fingers get shredded. I pulled back and somehow reabsorbed my mangled flesh. The damage was insane, but at least it didn't curse me, or attack the Soul. The old man didn't lie about that at least. It was not an attack. It was just a portal, a dangerous one. Or maybe it was a wormhole, because it sure looked like one.
Anyway, I imagine if I was on the upper spectrum of the Sky Realm the travel might not even have been that bad. But as things stood, I was not made to deal with chaotic spatial distortions.
[Argh!] I focused inward and reverted my gigantic transformation, shrinking my body down into a more manageable, human size. It fucking hurt! I felt like I was going to explode. My stomach was bulging and I couldn't hold it. I blew up and expanded back to full size. I had things to digest, I couldn't transform before that.
While keeping my defenses topped up, I focused on absorbing the Essence. I had to be quick, so the efficiency was discarded. Black smoke began to escape my mouth and I absorbed the Body Essence of everything I ate, at extraordinary speeds. Faster than I had ever done it before. It was going to take a while to fully incorporate into my flesh and bones, but that wasn't the problem. I just had to get the bulk of the material out.
I kept healing as my body tried to decay and the tunnel began constricting. The edges of my body began getting torn to shreds, so I shrunk down again and again, as fast as I could. I pushed the mass into my bones, reinforcing the defenses over and over again. It didn't help much, but it alleviated some of the immediate pain.
[C'mon…]
I tried searching for any weak points in the structure, or any mistakes, but there just weren't any. I just really didn't want to go wherever the portal was taking me, especially since the travel time was so long. Wasn't it supposed to be instant? Or was that just for teleports while wormholes such as the one I was in took longer? Heck if I knew!
After some time I finally digested everything and burped out a big cloud of black soot. All the impurities were expelled. It was inefficient and I lost a lot of Essence that way, but at least it was quick.
Then I shrunk down again. I retracted all my muscle, all the blood and veins, all the sinew. It was all sucked into my bones. My black, obsidian-looking bones. They gained that glassy sheen after all was said and done. I was like a black crystal skeleton.
It felt uncomfortable, but it was the best idea I had. I took a moment to recompose myself and then did what I had to do.
I jumped.
I jumped into the embrace of chaos, into the chaotic energies that held the tunnel open, into pure carnage. My bones cracked, yet I pushed through. My entire body broke apart and turned into a puddle of black paste apart from the ever-expanding crystal on my chest which already took over my entire ribcage, and I kept pushing. I had to go through the barrier one way or another.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I found a pinprick-sized weak spot on the side of the tunnel. I pushed with everything I had, exploding all my Qi at once in a focused Disruption, and pierced through that tiny imperfection.
Instantly everything collapsed. Like an overinflated balloon, it popped.
The tunnel unraveled and the chaotic energies inside it destabilized, splitting itself open and spitting me out. I felt a sudden release as the pressure was gone, and was embraced by open space. My Soul was still bound to my bones, so I recalled every last fragment and began reconstructing my body.
Luckily I had done it so many times before so the process was easy. I just had to make sure I collected everything because I was basically out of energy. No mistakes were allowed, especially since I was getting really tired. All that effort was just too much and I just wanted to fall asleep. Didn't let myself though. Not until I was certain I was safe.
I slowly restored my body with only minor damage sustained, and just as I regenerated my eyes and opened them, I realized I was falling from the sky the entire time, and smashed face-first into the dirt.
After the shock of a crashlanding wore off, I just couldn't be bothered to care anymore.
[Guard me.] I mentally summoned Tiny and mumbled those two words, before finally falling unconscious.
***
I woke up, not feeling exactly refreshed, but still much better than before, and yawned. Crawling out of the crater I noticed Tiny standing just outside it, with a few weird monkey-like creatures with large faces and sharp teeth, dead at the golem's feet.
[Good job, buddy.] I patted him on the back.
The critters didn't seem all that strong, but they would have been annoying to deal with in the state I was in. I was still pretty low on Qi despite the passage of time. Actually, I realized the crater I was sleeping in and its immediate surroundings were already nearly devoid of Qi while I recovered just a fraction of my energy.
[Damn wilderness…]
I moved about a hundred steps away and sat down, absorbing the Base Qi at a rapid pace. I actively pulled it towards me, compressing it hundreds of times. It was a trickle. Compared to the density of Qi that was previously on the battlefield, the air around me might as well be empty. There wouldn't be much difference.
[Oh, god… This place fucking sucks.] I stood up and moved again, having already exhausted all the magical energies in the area. I really didn't look forward to being a wandering Cultivator.
But then I remembered I had prepared for such a situation. I took out a Qi Pill and tossed it into my mouth. Soon it dissolved, filling my body with its stored power.
It wasn't much, not even a tenth of my total, but it was much better than the alternative. I swallowed two more and then focused, spilling out and shaping my Qi. Soon a copy of mine formed, my doppelganger. I believe the name of the technique was Split Faces of the Crescent Moon.
Anyhow, we were at the foot of a small hill, so with a thought and a smidgen of Qi, I forced the ground open and created a shallow cave.
[Guard the cave.] I said to Tiny, and my twin also gave a nod and turned around, standing guard at the entrance.
Walking inside, I reinforced the walls a bit and then sat down in a comfortable spot, raising the earth around me for the best fit. I then closed my eyes and began to meditate. It had been a while since I thoroughly checked my Soul and considering all that happened, I had to make sure everything was in order.
I checked, and to say it was good, would be an understatement. While I slept, my Soul kept growing, absorbing all the other Souls still waiting their turn inside my Sea of Consciousness to be devoured.
Golden Core, Fifth Layer. That was my Cultivation Realm. And I was close to advancing again. How good was that? I grew stronger without even doing anything. Half a century of progress in a single day. Pretty good.
Of course, some of the Souls I had absorbed were pretty strong and survived the shock of death with their consciousness intact. An old man tried to take over and possess my body. How laughable. He was just at the Sixth Level of the Spirit Realm. He was too weak!
Trying to overpower my Soul was a futile effort. Despite being in a higher Realm, the density didn't even compare. His Soul was like styrofoam while mine was tungsten. He could attack all he wanted, I didn't even feel it.
[Alright ladies, settle down. Everybody will get their turn.] I spoke inside my mind. The hundreds of Souls tensed as I got to work. Such a feast was not easy to come by. I had to savor every morsel. And those Souls were oh-so delicious.
The feast came to a sudden stop as I felt my Soul being stuffed to the brim. A moment later I stepped into Golden Core, Sixth Layer.
[Okay… Let's see if I can advance five Minor Realms in one day…]
I refocused and continued my accelerated Cultivation. Seventh Layer, here I come.

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