Chapter 29: En route to the capital
Jian couldn't quite wrap his head around what he had just seen. This man was 450 years old ?!
This seemed so surreal, and yet he knew it was possible. He had heard that any beings could actually live forever with the right means, and the man seemed to be an important member of the Knight Order, someone like that was sure to have the means to live for so long. However he didn't quite get the race and tier parts.
[ User.....I really hope you won't have any need for this knowledge in the near future, because you clearly aren't ready. Anyway this is actually something I know, so I will tell you. There exists different types of demons and also differents types of angels. While Sephiroth are half Angels Half anything else except demons, Seraphs are Half Angels half Angels, usually Half normal Angels and Half normal demons. However from what I get with this guy, while his angel side is normal, his demon side ressemble an incubus. Incubi are known to be lustful AND lazy while succubi are lustful and prideful. Well this is just bonus information, just stay away from this person. A 450 years old Seraph here in this world could only be bad news. As for the tiers, as you know they are used to measure the ranks of soul heritages. That is because soul heritages aren't linked to Qi contrarily to martial spirits and unique techniques. There exists more energies than just Qi in the vastness in the universe. And this man uses other energies, being a beginner when it comes to Qi. If my memory serves me well, Tier 6 should mean.....Run away as fast as possible unless you are capable of destroying entire nations on your own. ]
Jian immediately stopped staring at the clearly overpowered angel-demon creature, his heart a breath away from stopping due to the stress.
'He is that powerful ?! Dammit I'm surrounded by powerhouses and I'm still in the Qi Core realm. System, as soon possible, I'm going hunting and training. Maybe find myself some good equipment too. The materials from the Kirionis belongs to us and I'll be getting my part, so i'll just sell those parts to a merchant to get some money and then buy some equipments....That...Or....Can you calculate how much my share of materials would be worth in LP ?'
[ It would amount to a little over 10 000 LP so enough for two precise rolls. ]
Jian smirked devilly. He knew exactly what he would be doing then. One roll will be for the equipment, while another would go to fighting styles, as he saw that category and it greatly interested him.
The differents parts would only be given once Wei Feng had finished deciding everyone's share, though his and Li Kuo had already been decided due to the fact that they literally almost got killed by the Asura, which occupied it enough for it not to go after the others. He would need to tell Li Kuo to sell the parts and get equipment too.
It actually happened sooner than he thought it would. The captain wanted his men to move sooner than they were supposed to. As such Wei Feng came out with everyone's share earlier. After they each got their parts, which was funny since Li Kuo had just woke up and hadn't registered what had been given to him, merely accepting it while slowly blinking with his half opened eyes, they all began to pack their stuffs and got ready to depart.
However they weren't ready yet. Apparently for some reasons the captain was waiting for someone to show up. And now that Jian thought about it, he didn't see Berum anywhere. It seemed like the creature had disappeared.
The captain sighed in relief after everyone waited right at the entrance of the village for over an hour. They all looked at the forest as the trees began to violently shake. Out of the forest came out a...Thing.
It looked like some sort of lizard but it had a human body. Rather it looked human and lizard-like at the same time. It still had the hinged feet of a lizard and it's body was covered in scales, but not everywhere. It's torso wasn't covered in scaled, same for it's face and some other areas. It had a rather human looking face, if you looked past the slitted eyes and the serpentine tongue. That and it's ears were extremely long and pointy.
"Finally ! I nearly died out of boredom while waiting you damn lizard !" The captain complained as the lizard man bowed it's head and joined the captain. Then the captain gave the order to continue the mission, and everyone began to march towards the capital.
No one really dared to ask anything regarding the creature. Especially since the creature itself looked extremely shy and dodged the gaze of everyone.
It was talking to the captain but no one could hear. However Jian discovered that he could read their lips with his All-Seeing Buddha Eyes, though it was quite difficult at first.
" Anything to report from the higher-ups ?" The captain asked. Jian now began to think that the lizard was actually a member of the Knights Order. Now that he thought about it, he remembered hearing a soldier talking about a fallen knight order named the Basilisk order, which was basically an order composed of strange creatures that had decided to defend humanity against all the other intelligents races. They were an order that specialized in hunting creatures of other intelligent races. However it was abandoned after an operation went wrong and no one knew what had happened to it. Jian could only think that the lizard came from that order, since normally the Knights Orders only accepted humans. Well he didn't know much about other species, since nearly no other intelligent species lived on the continent, but he knew that they existed in other places of the world. Maybe the order was actually still active but was now running secretly. Seemed like a rather valid possibility.
At least that was what Jian was thinking as he spied on the two out of boredom. That was until he caught the lizard talking about something that got his interest.
" You heard about the Thousand Year Tree Contest ? " It asked. The captain frowned and nodded.
"Yeah, heard it was supposed to be starting in a year or so. Apparently there is a huge prize too, something about a demonic egg. And now that we have the mean to actually contract demons, it would be good to get it. But we can't intervene in such matters and the institute will most likely announce it's invention to the whole world. So basically, this contest is useless to us. But maybe I'll come to watch. It's usually quite good. Same rules as previous years ?"
"Indeed. Three tasks to complete as fast as possible. Firstly fight to survive after being dropped on the top of the thousand year tree. I heard that this part is quite amusing to watch since the participants have to fight on the branches. Secondly get down the tree and enter the caves that lead to it's roots, while dodging the traps and beat the other participants since you get bonus points for beating participants. Thirdly find the cups full of sap at the end of those caves and bring back as much of these cups as possible. I also heard it's against the rules to actually attack someone who holds one of those cups, and the participants can only get one cup after the other. So basically as soon as they enter the cave they need to beat each other, to make sure no one reaches the cups." The lizard said, it's tongue vibrating as he appeared to be excited.
" What are you getting excited for ? It's in a year." The captain said, looking at the road in front of him and sighing.
" Well yes. But the preparations are already being made, and as you know the emperor of the Wukong Empire always said he wanted to see the process of collecting the sap to put in the cups, as it's a very spectacular thing to behold since the tree fights back. Well guess what ? He is here to witness it this time. " The lizard said, getting a gasp from the captain who almost tripped in the proccess.
"Damn.....This could actually....Are you thinking the same thing as me ?" He asked, looking at his serpentine colleague who nodded.
" Ugh. We may need to stay a bit to make sure nothing goes bad. That guy is strong, but there are many groups on the continent who wants his head, and they are more than capable of taking it if he is in such an unguarded city. And I didn't hear anything about a huge amount of soldiers moving from the empire, so he must've brought only a few with him...If he brought any at all."
It was at this point Jian tuned them out. He already had what he needed. The Thousand Year Tree Contest was definitely something he had to try. This could be a good opportunity. But for that, he needed....Training, once again. And so he had a year to become stronger than ever. A year to surpass himself. He would get some equipment once he arrived to the capital, since he didn't want to pull on the lottery whilst the group was marching as they could be attacked at anytime. He would then go back to the sect with Li Kuo once this one had finished his business. And they would train like they shouldn't have trained until much later. He didn't care at all about the war, he had no attachment to the sect. But it was a good opportunity to get stronger.
For it was the ultimate goal, to become stronger, so he could one day live freely.