Chapter 29 – Cheat Mode, Meet Cheat Item

  The storm howled like a beast unchained, howling across the ground and lifting up any Cultivator unlucky enough to be in its path and too weak to resist it.

  Jun De was tossed into the air, caught in the tempest created by dark spiritual energy. The world around him became a void, save for a few flashes of crimson light that managed to tear its way through the darkness like bleeding wounds.

  Each flicker of light would illuminate the strange, twisting clouds around him and give Jun De a brief glimpse of the cracked, barren land far below as it passed quickly by. Inevitably, his vision would obscure once again, leaving him alone in the darkness.

  “Elder Shen, I’ll never forgive you for making me come here!” Jun De yelled, but the wind ripped the words from his mouth and distorted them beyond legibility.

  Jun De spun uncontrollably, first up, then down, all while his robes whipped violently in the wind. The pressure around him was immense, with the kind of force that could grind bone to dust, and it was all he could do to cycle his Qi through the Heavenly Deflection Art and protect himself.

  Minutes passed, or maybe hours, as time lost all meaning in the chaos. Jun De couldn’t tell if he was falling or still rising, and he could only curse soundlessly into the storm.

  Finally, he felt the storm give a sudden, final heave, and he was hurled toward the ground like a discarded toy.

  The wind roared in his ears as the ground rushed up to meet him, filled with jagged rocks and desolate, black soil.

  “You couldn’t have been more gentle!?” Jun De cursed once more as he clenched his jaw and forced his Qi to surge.

  ‘Luminous Step!’

  Golden light sparked under his feet as his Qi swirled around him. His descent slowed slightly, just enough for him to tilt his body upright as he glided down, almost weightless for a short period of time.

  The soles of Jun De’s boots skimmed across the cracked surface of the ground before he landed fully, sending dust behind him that was carried away by the remaining wind.

  Jun De stood still, his heart thundering in his chest as the golden Qi faded around him.

  He stood still, breathing hard, his heart thundering in his chest. Slowly, the golden glow faded from his feet, and the wind vanished as the storm passed.

  The sky above was still blood-red, and the land around him was as alien and foreboding as always, but he couldn’t see his campsite or his fellow Disciples.

  “Having some landmarks would make this too easy, I guess.” Jun De grumbled as he slowly looked around. There was only silence in response.

  Jun De picked a direction at random since the black clouds overhead were blocking the sun, and even if he could determine east from west, he had no idea where he was anyway.

  He walked for what felt like hours, and the silence pressed down on him like a weight. It wasn’t until the sky began to darken once again that the land slipped downward, with uneven ridges and harsh valleys.

  It was then that Jun De found the bodies.

  They were scattered haphazardly around the ground, wearing torn robes in various colours to mark them as another Sect’s Disciples, although Jun De was unsure which group they belonged to. Their limbs were twisted in unnatural angles, their faces slack, and their skin pale.

  Jun De froze where he was. He had never seen death like this before.

  The Corpse Puppets didn’t really count, not in his mind. They were already empty shells, stripped of life and humanity long before he encountered them. It was easy to imagine they were machines or dolls without seeing them as people.

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  But these bodies belonged to cultivators like him. In another life, they might have shared meals or passed each other on the street.

  Now they were still and lifeless, their bodies robbed of all dignity as they lay on the cold ground.

  Jun De’s stomach twisted as the stench of blood hit him, clinging to the still air like smoke. He raised a sleeve over his nose and mouth while swallowing down the bile that rose in his throat.

  He didn’t know their cultivation levels, and he wasn’t experienced enough to assess their wounds to determine if the fall had killed them or something else, but someone had already stripped them of their storage bags, weapons and valuables.

  They had been thorough, and Jun De looked around for any signs of movement in the landscape, but there was nothing.

  He stood still for a moment longer before exhaling quietly and turning away from the corpses.

  “This is why you should never leave the Sect.” Jun De whispered softly.

  He kept moving, his steps quick until he had left the dead far behind him. As he pressed on, the terrain gradually sloped into a shallow valley ringed by uneven stone outcroppings. The air here was unnaturally still as the valley blocked the wind.

  At the center of the naturally formed basin, Jun De spotted something that made him slow his pace.

  A flagstaff had been half-buried in the cracked ground, its base lodged in a pile of shattered rocks. The flag itself was torn and tattered, hanging limply from the staff in the lack of wind. Its fabric shimmered with blood-red and black hues, and spiritual energy pulsed faintly along its weave.

  Despite its ragged and weathered appearance, its presence was undeniable, and it radiated power with enough strength that Jun De could feel it pressing against his skin like a physical manifestation.

  What made Jun De stop in alarm were the half-dozen bodies that lay around the flag. They all wore the robes and clothing marking them as rogue cultivators, and they were arranged as if they had fallen to the ground in their attempt to reach the flag.

  They appeared unharmed, but their expressions were locked in looks of reverence and agony. Jun De didn’t know what had happened to them, but he assumed it had something to do with the flag they were all trying to reach.

  “Nope. Not interested.” Jun De said, shaking his head. He wasn’t tempted by the artifact at all, not if it was clearly dangerous and had killed all those people.

  He recalled what Lin Yue had told him regarding artifacts and spiritual tools, and he judged by the spiritual energy surrounding the flag that it was likely a Mid-Grade Qi Condensation Artifact, suitable for someone in the fifth or sixth level.

  Just as Jun De was about to turn away from the flag and make his way out of the basin, he felt the golden Qi inside his Dantian stir. It flowed through his meridians like a calm, radiant tide. A golden sheen flickered across his skin, and the harsh spiritual energy that was pressing against him lifted.

  “Huh, Cheat Mode activated?” Jun De whispered, surprised once again by his body’s reaction.

  Step by cautious step, Jun De descended the basin and got closer to the staff and the flag hanging limply from it. The bodies didn’t move, but the flag began to flutter in an unseen wind as he got closer.

  Waves of dark spiritual energy swept over Jun De, but it all parted before him like mist.

  When he reached the base of the flagpole, the flag had expanded enough in the unseen wind that he could make out a symbol on its cloth. It had a twisted, almost warlike character that read ‘Dominion’ stitched in thread that had once been white but had darkened and faded with age.

  Cautiously, Jun De reached out to grasp the staff, and a ripple of resistance ran up his arm. The flag trembled, then stilled.

  He pulled it out of the ground with a slow, steady motion, and the moment it left the earth, the surrounding dark spiritual energy withdrew from the basin.

  Jun De studied it for a moment, trying to control it with his Qi, but the artifact was too far beyond his abilities to use. The oppressive aura it once had was significantly reduced, but there was still a weight to it that spoke of its power.

  “I need to have a higher cultivation.” Jun De observed before placing it into his storage bag and leaving the basin.

  When he crested the edge, the sky darkened, and the blood moon once again rose, shining its crimson light on the ground through the thin cracks in the black clouds above.

  With the moon’s rising came the sound of the Corpse Puppets once again clawing their way to the surface.

  Jun De stopped and began to look for a place to take shelter, or somewhere more defensible, when he felt the flag begin to vibrate slightly in his storage bag.

  Several of the reanimated corpses, these firmly in the fourth and fifth levels of Qi Condensation, began to make their way toward him with speed incomparable to the ones he had seen before.

  But the moment he pulled the flag from his storage bag and let it unfurl, the reaction was immediate.

  The Corpse Puppets froze, then shrank back as though the flag radiated a force that violated their very existence. Jun De wasn’t in control of the artifact, but its presence was enough to drive them back.

  Jun De blinked in surprise, then looked at the flag, which was fluttering slightly in the wind.

  “You’re a Cheat Item! Who needs a golden finger when you have luck on your side.” Jun De whispered in satisfaction. Picking up the flagstaff, he placed it over his shoulder and began to walk through the night as the Corpse Puppets retreated in search of easier prey.