Chapter 233

  Legend of the Masked Children (III)

  Long Tao crouched and planted the final flag; a burst of energy was short and minimal but the last sign that the array's bond had been established.

  Looking up over the overcast eaves of the rundown buildings, his eyes gazed upon the strangely blue sky as his lips curled up into the faintest of smiles. Though he felt bad for lying to his Master--something he pretended wasn't happening--he wasn't lying... completely.

  He really did arrange it all for the kids, but not because of the rewards they would reap by winning the competition. It was also a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, as he only got the idea to do it when he killed that young woman who guarded the vine as well as whoever was on the other end of her, controlling it all.

  Though it seemed like the act ended in a silent whimper, he hadn't lived for countless years for nothing; he'd directly challenged them, and they wouldn't take it lying down.

  They'd retaliate.

  And he could practically feel it today; the Qi was abuzz, as it always was when danger was approaching him, like his personal tool of warning. Today would be less so a competition and more so a battle royale for survival--and the kids... they'd be the centerpieces.

  Though they're all advancing relatively quickly (for this place) in their cultivation, it wasn't quick enough, and it wasn't good enough. Diamonds needed polish, no matter how perfect they seemed dug out of the dirt.

  Confirming once again that he'd finalized the array, he spun around and left, joining the lengthy procession of people trying to enter the colosseum stationed at the far western end of the city. It housed six arenas in its central complex, with a wide cast of seats spinning around it in a full circle.

  Most of these people, he mused silently, were likely to perish today. Some, perhaps, while fighting and trying to overcome their fate; some purely because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time; and some as a direct result of his actions.

  But... he couldn't care.

  Even if he tried, his ability to care for the lives of the ordinary masses had been extinguished from him countless generations ago. His Master, though, was a different thing...

  Haah.

  He sighed rather deeply, extracting himself from the crowd and going back to the heart of the array. He'd made so many uncharacteristic choices, all due to how that would affect that man, choices that, in theory, even slowed down his cultivation speed, something he sacrificed for almost no one even in his past life.

  Then again, 'in theory' held the heavy weights, as his speed hadn't actually slowed down by much, if at all. The bottleneck, as it turned out, was the one he expected--lack of advanced resources and the rather unremarkable body that he inhabited. If anything, his speed of advancing was ever so slightly quicker, and it most definitely had to do with his Master, though he had no means of even figuring out how exactly, let alone any means of proving it.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Reinforcing the array and adding another layer--layer of isolation so that battles would mostly be self-contained, resulting in fewer casualties as long as people ran away quickly enough--he once again joined the circus and headed inside.

  He, too, felt a bit jittery, as he hadn't seriously fought even once since reincarnating. Though the sparring with the children was a bit useful, he held back a lot and realized he needed someone at least in the Void Transformation Realm to actually be a challenge. That largely had to do with just how low quality cultivators in these regions were; even if realm-transcending was a thing about the truly select few, it not only happened extremely rarely, but the transcending of the realms was severely limiting.

  "Ah, Senior Brother, you're finally here." Xi Zhao greeted him and pulled him out of the crowd; it looked like he was the one designated to wait for him. While the rest of the mass streamed toward the round seats, Xi Zhao took him to a floating platform that would take them to the upper decks, the segregated portion where the people of importance could look down upon the world, this time also literally. "Master worried you wouldn't come."

  "Master worries about a lot of things."

  "Hm. He really does. Do... do you think it's a mistake?"

  "Hm?"

  "That we're participating," Xi Zhao said. Long Tao didn't actually know any of the kids all that well because, well, they were kids. Literal children. He had as much in common with them as ants had with lions. While he didn't mind occasionally guiding them in their cultivation, he made it a point to never truly interact with them past the shallow level. "Master worries that we'll draw the attention of the Holy Lands onto us, and that they'll never let us go..."

  "I wouldn't worry," Long Tao shrugged it away. Even if that were the case, it wasn't really a negative; they lacked resources, and there'd be an army of people delivering those resources to them. Why would he complain? "Did you tell the others?"

  "That we will probably need to go all out? Yes, I did," he nodded. "Wan Lan found it suspicious and said that you're planning something weird."

  "Hmm. It's hard to call it planning, though," he chuckled. "It's just something that... is."

  "... whatever it is," he said. "Just keep the Master safe. No matter what."

  "Not you?"

  "Humph," the boy sneered. "If I were to fail so early... then it simply means that's all I amounted to. I wouldn't want to shame my Master's name, anyway."

  ... Long Tao winced yet again, feeling heartburn coming.

  Though the relationships between Disciples and their Masters were as varied as types of fruits, the ones like Xi Zhao, Dai Xiu, Wan Lan, and even Light had with the little old Lu Qi were actually rather rare, if not outright nonexistent. There was respect, yes, but theirs had long since evolved into genuine zealotry.

  "What kind of a sword do you want to become, Xi Zhao?" Long Tao asked.

  "Uhm..." the boy thought for a moment as the platform that had just been floating up--offering them a breathtaking view of the entire colosseum--stopped, leading out to a floating platform made out of precious marble stone. "Unyielding one," he said. "I want to become the kind of sword that will never bend, and that will never break, and that will be able to cut through anything in the world."

  "... admirable." Long Tao left out the depressing bit of it--that there had only ever been two people who approached the pinnacle of that path, though never quite reaching it. There had never been an Unyielding Emperor, be it of the sword or any other sort. At some point, all things yielded, no matter what. "Let today, then, become your first true step upon that path."

  "Yes, Senior Brother! I promise I won't disappoint either you or Master!"