Book 2: Chapter 37: New Mentality |
“We welcome, Senior Yin Hu!” Zhong Da shouted.
Zhong Da, Wu Xui, and the damnable Warg bowed their heads low as the ancient monster walked into their camp. With him was the normal fare of children, a new ghostly figure that floated, and six fucking dragon hatchlings. Each one hovering around the little boy and girl that were Yin Hu’s disciples. Of which one of them was actually an ancient spirit creature.
One that, if his arithmetic on the matter were correct, had been alive and strong enough to have joined the fight against the First Calamity. Those were tales that surrounded the Blade Storm after all.
He could feel Wu Xui tremble from beside him, whether it was from Yin Hu, Hu Rong, or even the new ghostly figure, he had no clue.
The fainting spells that afflicted her so harshly had started to lessen the longer she had time to recover after every bout. It made it easier to deal with constantly having to see world ending catastrophes arrive one after the other from the being that was faking their human persona. As though any bloodline from this world could ever give birth to someone or something that powerful.
I doubt he is even a Hu at all from any ascended plane. Or are all of Immortals up there that much stronger than all of us?
Maybe that was the actual fact he had tried to ignore.
The First Calamity had been greater than anything this world could offer.
So much so, it took all of the greatest monsters, races, and Spirits just to bring it down low and kill it.
Zhong Da had pretty much given up reaching the mythical level of the Solid Core Realm. If he was lucky, he would break through to the Pinnacle Immortal Realm at the end of his lifespan just to keep going for a bit longer. Anything else was likely beyond him. It was something he had found camaraderie with his love, Wu Xui. Neither one had dreams of greater things beyond a certain level, something they could trust that when it was time to die of old age. They would be together still.
Not one that was haggard, wrinkled, and dying while the other still held to their youthful visage.
That would have been torture for either one of them.
Zhong Da felt solid and powerful hands latch onto his shoulder. His body weakened instinctively. It was the first time he had ever touched the Hu Ancestor, or touched by him. Just the physical strength alone seemed to make his defenses crumbled and core violently shake as it recognized a presence that had sent his Dao running multiple times over.
All Zhong Da hoped was that Yin Hu would not look into his dantian and discover the identity he had shed.
He had committed many an atrocity as Dong ZhenKang, but none were worse than pulling a blade out and flexing his strength before the monster before him on that fateful day. The memory was still fresh in his mind. Hu Shui’s arrival in a fit of wind and chaos. The reaction of his bandits and soldiers to a man dressed in black robes, walking with a superiority that struck a nerve on anyone that saw him.
It had been Hu Jun’s arrival that had saved the entirety of the Silver Mountain Gang and, more importantly, himself.
Yet, that was how fate played its tune.
Had the Hu Ancestor not arrived, would he have found Wu Xui? Would he have had a chance to escape the strangle hold that Zi Zhen had on them now? Would he have advanced so far in his cultivation just being around this group? Even his Dao felt more solidified after every near death experience witnessing the power that was Yin Hu’s vastness.
The hands squeezed, Zhong Da involuntarily trembled, and straightened him up. Looking him directly in the face. “Stand, Junior Zhong Da. I need not a bootlicker and footkisser. I need Junior Zhong Da. Our relationship has not changed.” Death smiled at him as though it could disarm his worries.
He had felt the very fabric of reality rip as though it was nothing.
That shouldn’t be possible. Not even the Immortals of the higher planes could casually do something as ridiculous as that or their world would have been torn asunder. Pillaged and ravaged. Yet, it had done it casually. Nothing but a wave of the hand if he had to bet how it occurred. Something to do with the nervous ghostly old man that seemed preoccupied with a black orb.
A distraction Zhong Da wished he had.
That wasn’t even mentioning the near death everyone had suffered just a second before he ripped the fabric of space.
How luck are mortals and the lowest rungs of cultivation…
It was a thought he would never imagined himself thinking. Yet, here he was. Not even a few months ago, he had nothing but disdain for the weak.
“Yes, Senior Yin!” Zhong Da tried to smile, but even he knew it was weak.
“Good!” Yin Hu laughed heartily, patting Zhong Da’s shoulder and sending waves of violent energies crashing into his core. “I wish for some tea! We rest for a day or two and then leave the forsaken place. The Void Qi bothers me so.”
Void Qi is supposed to poison and kill everything it touches! Not even the First Calamity could casually only be irritated by it!
“Yes, Senior!”
The Hu Ancestor laughed again as he walked by. The gaggle of children and dragon hatchlings rushed away with the Warg behind them. A ball bouncing in between the group much to the mutt’s greatest pleasure.
Zhong Da and Wu Xui stood there for a second before their eyes drifted to the new member of their little party.
“It was you…” Zhong Da said in a low voice. “...wasn’t it?”
The old man deflated. “I-I don’t even know what I did. I wasn’t established into this realm after centuries of stretching my existence here to see it. I only got a whiff recently while doing It’s bidding.”
“How close are you to It?” Wu Xui closed her eyes and slowly pulled her blades out.
She was going to commit murder in broad daylight if she got the chance to relieve all of the stress and anxiety she had been suffering.
Zhong Da began to look for any signs that this idiot was somehow connected to Yin Hu. There should be threads tying them had he been entered into the Hu Clan in any shape or form. The same ones he found on Shui, Jun, and Hu Rong.
“An Elder!” the ghost hissed. “I’m an Elder of great honor! Inner court! Right hand adviser too!”
Does he think we’re stupid? This ugly old man couldn’t lick the Blade Storms foot, much less have the same prestige and power to be on the same level. Not as he is now.
Wu Xui’s teeth audible ground together as she stepped forward. Her blood Dao trembling for action. “You lie.”
“An outer court member! I swear I am!”
His wife gave him a sadistic smile and got closer still–
Zhong Da blinked as he found what he was looking for. A golden tendril that stretched from the old ghost, going past them, and disappearing into the camp behind them. He moved quickly and held the supple, white hands of his wife and gave her a head shake. Her eyes widened for a second before she turned and spat on the ground. Another day and another person, yet no one to punish for all the suffering she had gone through.
It was a bad habit, he knew, but it was Wu Xui’s bad habit and he was fine with it.
Hmm… maybe I should start my own projects to strengthen and change my love for the better like the Hu Ancestor does with his grand-daughters. Wu Xui would do well with some advancement in dealing with stress and stressers.