CHAPTER 3 - Metal Pipe

Marven yelled at Gabrias as he tried to calm him down, but it was no use. It was almost too late by the time he spotted Neave preparing to lunge at Gabrias. Marven barely stopped Neave from killing Gabrias by grabbing his arm.

“Neave, what the fuck are you doing!”

Neave paused.

“Huh, good question. He was being kind of loud so I just thought I’d put him out of his misery. Oh well. What’s going on old man?”

Marven was bewildered by Neave’s behavior, but the current situation was a bit more urgent.

“I have no idea what’s happening. He suddenly started screaming and thrashing, but if what my spirit senses are telling me is correct then he is in something akin to a spirit trial.”

It was then that Gabrias opened his eyes and looked around in shock.

“Holy heavens I’m alive!” He spluttered as he struggled to breathe. Once he spotted Neave he froze but not even that could get him to stop shaking. Marven waited a bit for him to calm down, and then he asked.

“What happened to you?”

“I… I was stuck in a sp–spirit trial. But it wasn’t a regular spirit trial, it–it felt different. The creature I had encountered in my spirit trial before was still there, but it was deformed, bestial. I barely managed to defeat it and–and I felt its essence wither away.”

“Oh!” Neave exclaimed “That makes sense, it’s probably a side-effect of removing the spirit power. Hold still for a second.” Neave lifted his finger but Gabrias reacted as if he was trying to dodge an arrow “I said stay still, Gabrias. I won’t ask twice.” Gabrias froze up and watched the tendril approach his body with terror.

The tendril seeped into his body, but surprisingly enough, this time it made Gabrias feel better.

“You’ve suffered some damage. A part of the foreign spirit had remained within your spirit. I’m assuming it tried to take your spirit over from the inside. Well, it should be fine now.”

Neave pulled the life force tendril out and started stripping. Marven and Gabrias were both confused by his behavior. As he pulled the ragged, dirty clothes off he revealed the body underneath. He was incredibly muscular. His muscles weren’t particularly large, but they were chiseled and he didn’t have almost any fat anywhere on his body. It looked jarring on what was otherwise a small child.

Neave’s body began morphing and he transformed into the tall young master with long hair.

“Father, do you have any fine cultivator robes my size in that dimension ring of yours?”

Marven nodded and pulled out a set of incredibly expensive-looking clothes. It was a set of incredibly smooth, white robes. They were lined with intricate red string and fit perfectly with Neave’s hair.

“Okay, you all do whatever you want and I’m off to get a couple of things done!”

Before Marven could speak up, Neave had already disappeared through the wall. So he did the only rational thing he could think of.

He followed him.

***

Neave didn’t sleep for even an hour, but he wasn’t planning on going to bed just yet. Those creatures inside had declared war with their stupid strategies. He was salty. It was a completely unfair fight, which to be fair was never a strong suit of the demons, even back in the original loop.

Neave felt angry at himself for doing so poorly. That could be assuaged by building life force up, however. For now, what he wanted to do was go explore a little around the capital.

It was nighttime outside. For cultivators, the night was little more than just the other half of the day. From bronze onward, cultivators slept less than five hours at a time. This didn’t necessarily mean five hours a day or having a regular sleep schedule. While this didn’t strictly apply to the younger generations of sub-bronze cultivators, they sure loved imitating their elders.

The streets of the capital were just as bustling at night as they were during the day.

The building of their new, still unnamed sect was rather small. The space they had for building was also quite small. Sects were hungry for space. Martial artists hated cramped environments and this wasn’t without reason. The courtyard of the Zearthorn sect was around two square kilometers, over twenty times larger than all of the space they had for their new sect. That was still too small for all of the cultivators within the sect.

Practicing forms, running, or working on certain moves all required space. The mere presence of other people was distracting, let alone having them get in your way. A proper sect had to have at least five hundred members to even be called a sect in the first place. A space of less than a tenth of a square kilometer just wasn’t enough.

The plot of land they were granted was walled off from all sides. They were cramped between three other sects, creating a misshapen triangle. This further complicated the utility of their land.

Neave ran out into the streets and walked for a bit. People of all shapes and sizes were walking around the streets of the capital. The first thing Neave did was enter a weapon shop.

It was a very small shop that sold used and predominantly mortal weaponry. Neave honestly didn’t care if they sold metal sticks. The moment he had that idea he asked whether they did in fact sell metal pipes or anything of the sort. He was directed to another vendor that dealt with selling construction materials. And he bought a sturdy metal pipe.

He walked outside and dropped it on the ground. Several people jumped a bit at the loud sound. Neave laughed.

“Whoops, I dropped my metal pipe. Got to be careful!”

Well now, it was time to visit their new neighbors!

Neave walked down the street and approached the entrance to the neighboring sect. Then he phased through it and appeared in their courtyard.

There was nobody around, so he just walked into the halls of their sect. Eventually, he ran across an elder that stopped him and questioned him.

“You there! What the hell are you doing here!? Intruder! There is an intruder in the sect!”

People gathered. All of the cultivators within this sect were wearing pitch-black robes.

“Oh, I apologize esteemed elder.” Neave responded in a perfect, masculine yet youthful voice and bowed hand over fist with spotless etiquette. “My name is Deeze and I am the young master of the sect that had moved in next to yours.”

“What is your sect’s name!?”

Neave’s face contorted as he desperately held himself back.

“I… Apologize, esteemed pfff–” Neave snorted and schooled his expression. “I am sorry, I seemed to have sneezed. How rude of me. Our sect does not yet have a name, as it was founded this very day.”

“What the hell are you looking for inside our sect!? Are you a spy sent by our enemies!?”

“Dear elder, calm yourself. Would a spy be so blatant? No, I am here to challenge the head disciple of your sect to a spar. I would like to familiarize myself with the relative power of the neighboring sects.”

Everyone around him chuckled. Some uneducated country brat had walked into their sect and now he wants to challenge the young mistress to a match? Preposterous.

“What a hick!”

“Get lost you nobody!”

“Yeah, you do not deserve to even glance at the young mistress!”

The elder standing in front of Neave, however, was far more apprehensive.

He couldn’t tell what this young master's cultivation was. So either it was being hidden by a mighty treasure or he was in the possession of a spirit power that could disguise his progress. And both of those options smelled like trouble.

The elder turned to a random senior disciple behind him and whispered into their ear. The disciple looked shocked, but they gathered themselves and ran off to find the young mistress. The elder turned to Neave and nodded.

“Very well, then. You will live to regret your rudeness. The Onyx Scorpion sect is no pushover, child.”

Neave smiled in response.

“Nuts.” And he nodded solemnly.

“What?”

“Oh nothing, I must have sneezed again. I am allergic to weakness, you see.”

Dead silence.

“You dare!” One of the disciples that looked to be a young teenager stepped up. “There is no need to call forth the mistress to deal with a bastard like this! I will handle him personally!”

Nobody even saw what happened. Less than a second later the rushing disciple was on the floor. There was no indication that Neave had even moved, yet he was standing behind the disciple now.

“Can you escort me to where you wish the duel to take place?” Neave asked with a soft smile on his face.

The elder nodded stiffly and walked down the hallway.

***

Around a hundred meters underground, in the deepest parts of the Onyx Scorpion sect, a young woman was sitting on top of a black rock. This structure had been built at the very limits of how deep sects were allowed to dig this far from the center of the capital.

Any more than this and there was a risk of breaking into a cave.

The entire cave was filled to the brim with black rocks scattered around. It felt severely dehydrated. But the air was bursting with qi. The cultivator got off the stone, lifted her sword, and began her dance. Just as she was about to switch from one form to another, the door burst open and one of her juniors ran inside.

“You’ve been summoned by Elder Leeken. There is an impudent young master from a new sect that had challenged you to a duel.”

She lifted an eyebrow at that.

“And the elder agreed to this… Why?”

“I have no idea.”

She sighed.

“Very well.” She put her sword down in frustration and sheathed it at her hip.

Interrupting her training was an unforgivable sin. She would have to make an example out of this brat to make sure no more overzealous young masters dare overstep their boundaries.

***

Neave was escorted to the courtyard. The floor of the courtyard was paved in stone, but it wasn’t that large. That was to be expected given that space was limited around these parts. Neave waited, positioning himself to intentionally show off his ridiculously chiseled muscles.

His shapeshifting seemed to be somewhat limited. He couldn’t just change his form to look more muscular. Perhaps he could, but he intuitively felt like that wouldn’t work. Even this form felt unnatural and like he would have to remain in this form for a while to get used to it and properly use his strength.

Soon enough a beautiful woman with straight black hair walked out from the halls of the sect. She looked austere and a little angry, which Neave found impossibly amusing.

Once she had stepped in front of him, Neave bowed hand over fist and introduced himself.

“Hello, young mistress. My name is Deeze and I challenge you to a duel!”

“Are you embarrassed by your sect, thus not dare present yourself as belonging to it?”

Neave chortled.

“Sorry I sneezed.”

“That was clearly a laugh. Was what I said truly that amusing?”

Neave laughed that time.

“There seems to be something in the air.”

The woman looked positively enraged as she unsheathed her sword.

“My name is Kleowara Onyxia, young mistress and head disciple of the Onyx Scorpion sect! You will not be spared for your insolence!”

Neave pulled the metal pipe out of his dimension ring. Kleowara shook in rage and lifted her sword.

“You… You fool! I will take an arm and both your legs for your insolence!”

She dashed at Neave and appeared before him in a blink. She swung her sword and it met the metal pipe with a clank. The pipe was bent a little from the impact. She was surprised at how weak this cultivator seemed to be, yet she felt that her attack had been parried effortlessly.

Before she could even realize what was happening, he was gone.

And a metal pipe smacked right in the back of her head. The sound of pipe meeting skull echoed through the courtyard, washing all other noise away and leaving behind pure, deathly silence.

Kleowara wasn’t knocked out. She didn’t even receive that much damage. But she was stunned. She couldn’t believe what just happened. Neave just didn’t hesitate and he smacked her head again. He didn’t do it very hard, but it seemed as if he was trying to be annoying rather than actually hurt her.

Kleowara activated her spirit power. A massive ethereal scorpion stinger appeared from her back and stabbed at Neave. Neave disappeared again and the pipe met her skull once more. The crowd was silent. This rude bastard from a freshly created sect was playing around with their mistress.

And while he was obviously making fun of her, it was clear that his skills weren’t a joke.

“You bastard!” Kleowara’s sword lit up with a red glow and she thrust at Neave with the weight of a mountain. Neave disappeared again. This time, golden runes lit up around his body as he swung the metal pipe.

The pipe smacked her head so hard that it didn’t merely bend, it wrapped around Kleowara’s head. She dropped to the ground unconscious.

Neave took her dimension ring, waved at the other disciples, and then disappeared.