Chapter 66

  Internal Rot (I)

  Days fluttered by like leaves in the wind.

  Okay, my rather poor attempt at poetry aside, they sure do not fly when you've got almost nothing to do.

  No, seriously, it's gotten so bad that I've started exercising. That's right, EXERCISING. I haven't exercised since I was 17 and the coach booted me off the team 'cause I went out on a date with his daughter.

  And yet, here am I, running around the mountain peak, doing pushups and handstands and crunches and squats, feeling sore all over my body but refusing to use Qi to heal it because I'm unsure whether it'll undo my hard work.

  This body is utter crap; I can attest to that much. Even without having exercised in decades, I was in better shape back on Earth--perhaps the most depressing fact of them all. In Lu Qi's defense, he didn't exercise either, and he drank about twenty times more alcohol than I did, chugging wine like it was water.

  Anyway, my workout sessions would occasionally be interrupted by Light swinging by and asking why I was making a fool of myself yet again, or Xi Zhao asking to be guided on that art that I gave him and me coming up with a whole new excuse as to why I can't help him, or Dai Xiu following me around with a bucket of water and a towel, never even being short of breath.

  Tsk.

  What of my image as a Master? Am I really content just being a produce factory for martial arts for the rest of my life?

  ... oddly, no. Honestly, I thought my first instinct would have been to scream and shout 'Yes', but when I asked myself that question, it turned out... no, I want at least a bit more than this. Isn't it a fantasy, after all? You don't dream of becoming a superhuman of some kind just to hide yourself in some village and write books all the live-long day.

  So, I don't want to either.

  Not like my aspirations are to become the strongest or anything of the sort, but getting to at least strong enough, in that I can pluck a mountain and chuck it at someone I don't like... hey, I can see it.

  Anyway, while I was having a fairly unfruitful few days, that wasn't the case for Hua. The 'mute boy' had busied himself rather much, coming and going from the mountain at least thrice a day. It seemed odd, but I just let him be--a monster like that has plans of his own, after all--until precisely today, and even more precisely now, when I saw him standing at the doorframe, wildly gesturing with his arms.

  I think the gist of it is, Follow me... you old fart.

  Okay, I added the 'old fart' part, but the first portion did seem to be true.

  "You want me to follow you down the mountain?"

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  "!" he nodded, and just as I was about to ask 'Why'... I stopped myself.

  He wouldn't invite me for no reason, and it wasn't like he was going to disclose it directly to me. Thus, I stayed my lips, uprooted my legs, and followed behind him as we descended the mountain.

  The atmosphere within the sect was... heating up, to say the least. Ever since the declaration of war was spread, more and more competitions were being held almost on a daily basis, winners blessed with increased fortunes and cultivation materials.

  The Sect Master truly wasn't holding back--pills responsible for breaking through, increasing mental power, providing a chance at Enlightenment, and then martial arts whose requirements were all lowered by one level...

  It was quite reminiscent of the 'war economy' back on Earth, where every 'industry' seemed to orbit that one defining thing.

  The number of stalls at the public market exploded--there was legitimately no room to even sit, and crowds had to squeeze by each other just to move an inch... and that was precisely where Hua was leading me.

  Hm? Is this really it? Is he just too broke to buy something, so he'll have me buy it? That can't be it, right?

  Anyway, he first led me to the stall of a fairly young woman selling some random knickknacks, none of which seemed particularly impressive. And while Hua was broadly gesturing toward one particular trinket, a skull embedded atop an incense stick, it looked more like he was gesturing toward... the woman.

  Hell. Can't hurt to check, right? So, I did.

  [--Creator's Eyes Used]

  [Target: Shen Jun]

  [Age: 28]

  [Current Realm: Early Foundation Establishment]

  [Cultivation Method: Spirit Sword Harmony (False); Hellfire Mantra, Second Form]

  [Martial Arts...]

  [Talent: Peak-Mortal]

  [...]

  [Traits]

  [Violent (Common) -- prone to outbursts of violence, channeled fully due to the unstable cultivation method]

  [...]

  Huh.

  Would you damn well look at that?

  I side-eyed Hua stealthily while taking out the ten low-grade Spirit Stones to purchase the trinket. The woman thanked us with a smile as he led me further out, stopping by eight stalls in total.

  I only had four uses, but since all four turned out to be the Fire Sun Sect spies, I figured the remaining four were too. Of the eight, only two actually caught my eye--the remaining six were mostly just ordinary disciples at either Qi Condensation or Foundation Realm, but the other two were different.

  Well, one of them was definitely different, and I just assumed the other one was, too.

  The one I managed to check out was a deeply hidden Elder of the Fire Sun Sect at the peak of the Spirit Manifestation Realm.

  Unsurprisingly, they all had the same trait--'Violent', ranging anywhere from 'Common' to 'Epic'. It's a miracle, honestly, that the Fire Sun Sect is somehow still around if you ask me, considering all its members are prone to just going mad.

  Anyway, it wasn't surprising that our sect had spies--I'm pretty sure we had spies in theirs, too—but it was surprising just how... rooted all these people were here. Ordinarily, even grooming one spy of their rank would be considered an achievement, yet there are at least ten, it seems, just on the surface of it, including Elder Zhang.

  After spending about 50 low-grade Spirit Stones pretending to buy random crap just so this here 'mute' can tell me something he could have just used his words for, we left the market and started ascending up the mountain. I had to let him know somehow that I figured it out, but I couldn't really just outright say it.

  ... or could I?

  No, no, I couldn't.

  "Any of those stall owners appear a bit strange to you?" I said, continuing immediately after. "I don't know. I got this strange, fiery sensation from them, if it makes sense. Haah, it could be just my mind making stuff up again, but it reminded me of how I felt when I saw Dai Xiu for the first time. Rather than a 'fiery' sensation, I had a 'prickly' one. And it turned out that she was poisoned! So, maybe there's something to them, too?"

  "..." It's exhausting, honestly, trying to maneuver all these monsters and whatever pointless quirk they've taken upon themselves.

  "With the war approaching, I guess we can't take any chances. I'll have Elder Qin get someone to take another look at them. Let's just hope I'm wrong..."

  You know, maybe being bored isn't the worst thing in the world...