ALL NOVEL 406. Connected the Dots
"Begin," E'lemer commanded.
As much as Shen would like to progressively see what his new spear could do, his priority was survival, which meant ending things quickly. So, Shen immediately went all-out.
He deployed his True Realm and rushed toward the T'onir. The holin waited with his knees bent and staff held diagonally behind him. Shen reached him, and they used the same attacks against each other. They swung both their weapon and Path at their foe.
Shen used his Material Suppresion to surround T'onir with Stream jets, each drop strengthened by another of his Laws. Simultaneously, T'onir threw pure Death against Shen.
To Shen, it felt like immersing himself in an ocean of Death after dipping his toes in a shallow pond for a few moments. Death was already around him, but T'onir's move added depth and intent to it. Before, Death had been abundant but kind of merely there. Now, it targeted him with the full fury of a mastered Law.
T'onir was materializing his Law, yet there was no visible, physical body to it. Death was just Death. It was there, pushing against Shen. It had no actual substance. Un'Re wasn't slowed down in the slightest.
The holin's staff, however, slowed down considerably. T'onir was pinned down by Shen's manifested Laws.
Despite the visible edge Shen got, T'onir was merely only hindered while Shen was dying. His skin died as he forced himself ahead, and so did his flesh. His body moved forward, and his qi was pushed back into his body as if he was being invaded.
Shen fought against it, pushing hard against the Death Law inside him, but he failed and had no idea why. Although mastered Laws could bypass souls' natural defense, his domain should've made him resistant to even mastered Laws, perhaps immune. Yet, that's not how it was going. His qi delayed the Death, but not by a lot.
He was still moving, though, and his spear touched T'onir's head at the same time T'onir's Death Law reached both Shen's brain and heart.
In all honesty, Shen should've lost. He hadn't been prepared to deal with T'onir's ability. He was sure none of his blocked memories pertained to a skill like that; as far as he had always known, whatever T'onir was doing made no sense.
However, he had one of the best C+ spears in existence—or so people seemed to believe, by how they behaved—and it showed in the simplest way.
Shen let go of his spear and instantly reversed his movement. T'onir's trick was neat, but he was inexperienced or poorly trained, or both. Seeing how Shen had kept advancing, he got scared of the incoming attack and stopped surrounding Shen with his Death Law. Instead, he placed it only between him and Shen.
So, when Shen started moving backward, T'onir's Death—which was materialized and, thus, somewhat bound by Spacetime, even if it had no substance—started consuming him more slowly. It only killed a tenth of his heart and brain before Shen's spear cut through T'onir's C+ armor as if it was made of tofu, turned his brain into juice, and started going toward his heart.
The qi-filled spear, seemingly moving by itself, was one with Shen. He could move it naturally, even if he wasn't touching it. It wasn't as fast as he could make it by also using his arms, but it was still damn fast. The qi helped, and Shen could use it as if it were in his own body. The spear was him.
The spear was him, yet it was unaffected by Death. It wasn't alive. That gave him an edge.
T'onir noticed his mistake and tried to fix it by surrounding Shen with pure Death. It was too late. Shen's vital organs hadn't even died fifteen percent when Shen's spear reached T'onir's heart.
The arena's formations activated, and Spacetime twisted.
Shen's spear found only empty air—empty Life-filled air. He had been teleported outside the ring, and the dome surrounding it blocked his aura and abilities. His Material Suppression was based on his senses, but the dome was currently pitch-black opaque, blocking light and his every sense, physical or not. T'onir was nowhere to be found. The ability automatically stopped working.
"The Outsider wins," E'lemer said, evidently unwillingly.
There were no cheers or boos. Every eye was glued to the spear. Shen didn't get it. He had won with a neat trick that only his Oneness could pull, and it certainly would've saved his life if that duel hadn't been in a controlled environment, but so what?
He valued the spear because it was strong and himself; yet, it was just a fancy tool in the end. Either he was missing something, or these people had all been brainwashed into revering the Oneness enchantment for no reason.
E'lemer glanced at the spear almost as if hurt for a moment, then waved his hand.
Spacetime twisted again.
Shen found himself floating below thunderous, dark gray skies, above a volcano surrounded by molten lava. It wasn't spitting lava into the skies, but it was active, spilling lava sideways. By the distance the lava had reached, that had been going for a while. The lava should've piled up by now, but it hadn't, revealing it was special—if the A+ qi levels in it hadn't been enough to conclude that.
Yes, A+ lava. A lot of it. Just there for the taking.
This place was a treasure trove, the likes of which Shen's mind had trouble calculating the value of.
Shen's spear was nowhere to be seen, though he could feel it galaxies away. It was also merely a few hundred miles away somehow. He took it to mean he was in a spatial bubble or something instead of being separated from it by mere physical distance.
"I'll have to hide you from the Heavens to bind the spear to your soul," an old but energetic voice said beside Shen.
Shen turned to see a shadow much like the one he had found in the Armory. By the guy's words, he was the Grand Elder.
Shen smiled as he connected the dots.
The former Grand Elder had been killed for abusing the sect's "secret police system." Then, the Gardener gave the position to someone from the race that looked perfect for the secret job. Unless Shen was mistaken, the previous Grand Elder should've garnered a whole lot of support for his idea of establishing the Shadow Corps. This was the Gardener's ironic way of making said supporters reap what they sowed. The Shadow Corps had been exploited, and now one of their signature races—Shen was confident of it—ruled over the Gardener Sect, directly under the Gardener's orders—
Shen's mind froze.
Wait a moment. If the Shadow Corps was as faithful to the Gardener as the shadow in the Armory had suggested, and if the Grand Elder was really a part of the Shadow Corps, didn't that mean the Gardener had been involved in the duel business?
That sounded ridiculous at first. As much as a spear crafted by an A-rank mattered, why would an S-rank care about it? But well, if Un'Re was as amazing as everyone seemed to think, just witnessing it in action might actually elevate some crafter's skills, as E'lemer had said. It would be good for the sect and, thus, for the Myriad Worlds. And the Myriad Worlds belonged to the Gardener.
Shen was suddenly even more keen to leave with E'livia as soon as possible. He did not want the Gardener's continued attention on him. Much less if he had messed up by defeating T'onir so quickly and in such an anticlimactic manner. Un'Re had made too brief an appearance.
"If the Gardener wanted you dead for that or for killing him, you would already be dead," the Grand Elder said. "And no, I'm not bound by the same rules as the Shadow Corps because I was removed from it when I was given this position. I can analyze you all I want. To detect and protect the sect from any external influence is my prerogative as Grand Elder. Not that it's that impressive; anyone can read your soul like a book. You don't even try to hide your thought ripples or emotions."
Shen almost didn't hear the part about rules.
The Gardener knew?!
His mind felt incapable of forming coherent thoughts. He couldn't start to guess why the S-rank would allow Shen to live after that. Shen definitely wanted to stay around even less after that.
"I also want to return to my duties," the Grand Elder replied. "Get in the volcano; it'll hide your soul from the Heavens. Externally enforced changes to your soul are forbidden during this tribulation, but I know a workaround. But don't you get all excited! It's the only change made by someone or something else that you'll be allowed, even with the loophole. With or without it, don't try to get your soul healed, or you'll die."
Shen barely managed to stop thinking about the Gardener enough to begin to try to decide whether to doubt the Grand Elder when a Realization threw him into the volcano.
"I don't care if you believe me," the shadow said right before Shen fell into the lava. "Let's just get this over with."
The lava felt like lukewarm water. The Realization kept pushing Shen for long minutes. He was deep underground when it finally stopped. Then, he was pulled back.
"Done," the Grand Elder said as soon as Shen was back in the air. "No, I wasn't fast. Your soul is already hurt, so I made you unconscious, or you might die from the pain. The ritual took a few hours."
Shen had trouble believing the guy. He had been made unconscious without noticing it? Without his thoughts even being interrupted? And the ritual was over without any noticeable change to his soul?
"I told you I'd use a loophole," the Grand Elder replied to Shen's thoughts. "It's too advanced for you to understand, but your soul both changed and didn't. I transformed your essence. And no, your mind cannot understand what that means."
As much as the Grand Elder was answering Shen, this semi-mind-reading business was ridiculously invasive. Shen was starting to get mad at it now that the shock of the guy's earlier words was dissipating.
"I don't care about your feelings, kid," the shadow said. "Try to pull the spear with your mind. It'll work; then, I can get out of here. And you can get to your date. Under the Gardener's orders, I did what I could to keep the little girl away from situations to talk about you, but not risking the Heavens' ire while doing it was tricky. I can't do much more for much longer. By my estimates, you have about half an hour before she meets a childhood friend and shares everything that happened to her. Or my estimates might be wrong, and it's already happening. Your choice whether to waste time growing angry at me and delaying—"
Shen didn't let the Grand Elder finish before pulling his spear with his willpower. Half the qi in his body simply disappeared. At the same time, his spear simply appeared exactly one yard away from him.
The shadow nodded. "Don't teleport it straight into your soul before reaching B-rank, or it'll kill you. A rather pathetic way to go. And I mean B-rank, not mastered Laws. This isn't a matter of Path but of your existence's level. Last test: pull it physically into your soul."
Shen complied, and the spear entered him without trouble. The only caveat was that he needed it to touch his skin. No qi was required to store the spear away.
"Finally," the shadow said impatiently. "Don't make me waste time again. No, wait; you're slow-minded. I'll be clear: I don't want to investigate anything or punish anyone. Above all else, I don't want to destroy Un'Re. You don't want to find out if I can resurrect you just to torture you if you upset me with your death. Do. Not. Die."
Spacetime twisted one more time.
Shen found himself before a portal in Flower City, with E'livia standing on his side.
As soon as she saw Shen, she cupped her hands before herself and bowed low. "Thank you for saving my father."
Shen didn't reply at once. A whole lot of things had happened to him way too quickly. For him, it had been less than a minute since he defeated T'onir, and he had been told a lot by the Grand Elder.
But those things could wait. Probably. He needed to convince E'livia to leave, and the sooner he got that done, the sooner he could meditate on the implications of everything that had happened.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied. "Is this a portal to a bar? I need to buy you that drink, and we need to have that Debate. Then I can ask you for that favor."
He was in a hurry, but he had made promises he needed to keep before asking for anything. Said promises had sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, he hated past-Shen for them.