Don't Own anything.
'thought'
"Speech"
"Tvs, Radios, and Text via book or newspaper... when those are around..."
*Thud* *Thud*
I take a deep breath and exhale, eyes cracking open as I rise to my feet.
I walk forwards, making my way through the chamber I find myself in and gently pushing the door open. "Yes?"
A balding man stands on the other side of the door, "Uh... Senior Venom Dragon, do you by any chance know a purple haired cultivator woman?"
"Did you get her name?" I question.
"Purple Mist." The man supplies.
"That does sound familiar- oh. I know her, I met her about ten years ago... is she here?" I question as I step out of the closed door cultivation room, rolling my shoulders with a slight yawn.
"She is." He nods once.
"Alright, I believe I'll go and see her... oh, and can you mention it to the sect master that I am about to break through. I will probably be traveling to the place I broke through last time so I don't poison more land. The last tribulation I had was quite a venomous one."
"I will tell him the next time I see him." The man nods.
"Thank you, Zheng De." I nod once as I turn and begin making my way through the sect. 'I wonder what Purple Mist could want from me...'
I have been a part of the Immortal Farmer Sect for about a year now. They all seem to revere me as some sort of genius that has been blessed by the world itself. I mean, slightly accurate, considering Reincarnation, but I don't really like to be called out on that.
I'm fairly certain that the sect's influence has increased massively.
Once I upgraded a pill furnace, a special perk came into effect.
I can make twice as much of a potion, poison, or other elixir as normal.
So, with the Seven Radiance Wonders fruit... I made two pills, the first, the sect leader consumed, reforming his void core, and the second was sold at the cultivation market that popped up a few months back.
It's a mutually beneficial arrangement for us.
With my advanced pill forge making two pills with each and every set of ingredients, I typically give them one to sell, and keep the other for myself.
they get a pill roughly four times as powerful as normal, I keep a copy. they are able to EASILY profit from my creations even after buying the ingredients to supply me while still giving me half in return.
The pills I kept for myself, I further use as bartering materials for them to gather techniques and the like for me.
I've amassed a fair collection so far.
Fist techniques, saber techniques, spear techniques. Even a few chi arts and books on talisman creation.
Talisman creation... is a thing I've realized I have no talent in.
I'm still able to make some, sure, but it takes a lot of effort. And even if I do make them, they're typically of a poorer quality than those I am able to find on the market.
I realistically only plan to use talismans to draw a basic 'anti-detection' ward. My current ones are good enough to fool most mundane people. Anyone who can see through it is typically a cultivator or some form of superhuman... or like, a secret agent.
With it, I won't really have to worry about people noticing me when I get back to America.
I'd like to get it to a point where I can cause stage one cultivators to not notice me. That'd more or less make me safe from SHIELD when I go back home.
I... wonder if the leftover super soldier serum I stored in the sewers is still there?
Huh.
Yeah I should check that when I get back.
I finally come to the gates of the sect, walking slowly down the stairs, offering a sole nod and a quiet greeting to one of the cultivators standing guard. "Feng."
"Senior." He replies with a small bow, causing me to scratch my temple with a mildly annoyed expression.
Technically, he's right. I'm a third stage and he's second, but damn it. This 'senior' crap shouldn't be showing up until I'm a fifth or sixth stage cultivator at the very least.
"It's really you!" I hear a woman gasp as I turn to face the purple haired cultivator I had saved the life of all those years ago.
"Purple Mist." I greet with a small smile. "How have you been? Did you ever find a replacement for that Azure Serpent?"
"You remember me?!" She gasps, eyes practically sparkling.
"Should I not? It was only ten years ago... and you are among the more memorable cultivators I have met in my life. I just hope that I didn't make any issue for your contribution to your sect." I continue, a small frown appearing on my lips as I watch her swoon slightly... only to realize I have asked her a question.
"Oh. I left the poison mist sect after that." She admits.
"Why? That seems a little bit... rash?" I mutter.
"I want to be your disciple, Venom Dragon!" She declares.
"Pardon?"
"Well, Purple Mist, I believe I'm going to go break through." I begin quietly.
"Already? That's wonderful!"
"I have been preparing quite thoroughly for it since my last tribulation... and I believe that I am finally ready." I mutter, gazing over my body slowly.
I've learned a few techniques over the short time I have been here. Unmastered, yet, I cannot wait longer. I need to be at least a fifth stage by the time Thanos shows his ugly purple mug.
I cannot wait possibly years to prepare myself to enter the fourth stage... especially when I plan to make two hundred and six of my bones golden.
"I'll be leaving the sect for a short time... shouldn't be more than a month. If you go looking for me, bring some pills that improve your poison resiliency." With that, I turn and walk away.
My relationship with my... apprentice... is a bit weird. She is clearly extremely talented, managing to go from her earlier strength all the way into the fourth stage...
She did that in ten years. Then started tracking me down after she had broken through to the fourth stage heard of some 'miraculous new doctor'.
It seems that me saving her has had a truly profound impact on her.
In fact, she assumed that I was some sort of extremely powerful cultivator... probably a result of me splitting that poison in front of her... my bad.
Regardless, when she found out, she wasn't mad or annoyed like someone normally would have, had they found out that you had been 'lying' to them.
In fact, she seemed even more excited, proclaiming that there would be a 'lack of competition'.
Uhhh, yeah, I'm just going to ignore that for the time being.
I glance over my body, letting out a low hum.
My energy is completely and totally full, all that remains would be for me to activate all of my meridians at once.
"Well..." I quietly breathe, glaring up into the sky.
It is time.
Time to start my next tribulation...
I glare up into the sky, energy floods my body as I activate all of my meridians.
I... was correct in choosing this path.
Each of the four supreme Meridians seems to boost my power by around two and a half, with of the eight lesser ones improving my strength by around a tenth of that.
Regardless, those tenths add up.
While a normal cultivator would see a total increase of around ten times their base power from activating all of their meridians at once- and this is merely theoretical, as activating them all triggers a tribulations.
I, on the other hand increase my overall power by twelve.
That alone won't allow me to punch up at any fourth stage cultivators, mind you... especially if you consider that as a third stage, keeping this active is putting quite the strain on me.
A fourth stage has it active at all times. They require zero focus. Zero energy upkeep. And zero effort.
If I were to fight one as I am now, it's likely they'd outlast me quite easily.
Or is it?
Heart, Throat, Mouth, Eyes, Brain, Ears, Skin, Nose, Lungs.
Nine Acupoints instead of the normal five, the most important ones being, frankly, my skin and eyes, offering great durability, my eyes allowing me to have potentially potent illusions as well.
After that? Dantian network.
Origin, Eight Tails, Two Claws, Two Feet, Heart, Two Palms, Eight Necks, Eight Heads, and Eight Horns.
As they complete this network, they may call upon their chi far easier.
For instance, I used my chi to blast a tree moments after breaking through to the second stage... for ten percent of my entire capacity I created a bead of ki and shot it, splintering a bit of a tree. Not enough to fell it, but enough to strip the bark off and cause the flesh within to crumple slightly.
A normal person, after awakening all eight Dantians, Origin to horns- which once more starts the tribulation so it's purely theoretical- would see roughly a one hundred and eighty percent increase in efficiency, thus, they would be able to do the same damage with a little more than three percent of their chi.
In actuality, they'd do more, as their chi capacity would improve, but I digress.
I am not a normal person. My dantian network is what I'd like to say is perfectly suited to my body. It is both a dragon, so I got the boost from ascending the dragon gate, while also having aspects of heart, venom and poison.
I am very synchronized with my dantian path, plus it is much larger thus, one hundred and eighty percent... instead becomes four hundred percent efficiency. I can use five times less chi compared to a normal second stage.
That is probably the only reason I can maintain my meridians right now...
A perfect storm...
And speaking of perfect storm...
Where the fuck is it?
My eyes scan the sky, the earth underfoot dusty and a little dry from the lack of plant life. A result of my last tribulation, my poison seeping into the earth itself and making normal plants die out.
Suddenly I feel it.
I gag, a wheeze leaving my mouth.
"FUCK!" I loudly curse, my vision blurring.
This is not the typical third promotes fourth tribulation.
I... I got the Heart Demon tribulation...
A one in ten thousand chance.
I need to meditate... now.
I gaze around slowly, a war-torn battlefield greeting my vision.
A slow breath leaves my lips, as I walk forwards.
I can hear distant thuds, pounding of feet on earth. My hands clench as I cautiously gaze around.
Of course I get a heart demon. Ugh. This is such a pain.
Will I even be able to defeat it?
Will this be my end?
A heart demon tribulation is an insidious tribulation that targets a cultivator's weakness. It burrows itself deep within their mind, causing a scenario to play out in their mindscape.
A cultivator who isn't all too confident with their skill in bed. They'll get an extremely attractive woman complaining about them in bed.
And it'll happen over and over and over.
Taunting, insulting, jeering.
There's only two paths to overcoming a heart demon tribulation...
You overcome it? Or you don't.
A spy a massive wave of what look like... reptilian gorillas?
Armored reptilian gorillas? With cybernetics and four arms? Some have six? What the fuck?
What is-
Ah...
I'm not... Confident in my fighting skills... Thus, eternal battle.
Fucking wonderful. Either my will breaks from being torn apart, or I come out of this much better than before.
How many are there? Just from a brief overview, I am seeing hundreds.
I lung forwards with a roar as the apes near, some rising up to their hind limbs to match me.
My fist strikes the first in the jaw, its black and yellow leathery skin rippling slightly as its neck snaps
As the tide reaches me, I lash out with swiping kicks and punches.
Clearly this isn't working. And- oh... I don't have any poisons, either. Fuck.
I take a deep breath and exhale, a torrent of wind leaving my lips as I spin in place causing the strange beasts to get shoved away from me, their flailing bodies ragdoll through the air as I leap upwards, rapid kicks flicker through the air, sending a torrent of sharpened bladed waves of wind outwards.
Frankly, it doesn't matter where I kick. There's always a body in the way.
From up here I can see- oh god...
There arethousands. Possibly tens of thousands.
And it isn't just them.
Beams of light seem to streak into the air as I lunge downwards, back into the fray. I duck under the swipe from the clawed hands of one of these gorilla things, grabbing its wrist and swinging it into another.
A third is kicked backwards, crashing into the beasts behind it like a bunch of bowling pins, its chest lightly caved in.
Yes.
Lightly.
Each and every single one of these things...
They seem to have a physiology comparable to that of a peak first stage cultivator.
They can lift upwards of five hundred pounds in a single arm, run at speeds faster than most cars, shrug off small arms fire like with minimal injury... and it appears that I have to exert myself a little to kill them.
I can't just swing my arm and kill them by the dozens.
I weave in between their lines, this swarming mob mentality causing their claws to scrape at my flesh, thankfully my scales allowing me to continue through without injury. My hands like claws, hardened by the Immortal Farmer Sect's earth tilting fist technique, I rip large hunks of flesh and machinery from the beasts. Horns sprout from my forehead as I activate the full extent of my immortal body.
Little star-wars speeder like things dart across the sky as a large flying whale-like creature swoop down towards me, maw open wide, uncaring about the numerous bodies it is crushing as it carves a trench in the earth.
I leap suddenly, landing on its back.
"FUCKING DIE!" I snarl as I rear a fist down and punch down towards the armored plates on the back of its head.
"FFF-" I hiss as the metal noticeably doesn't buckle and tear under my punch, merely denting instead.
Ow. My fucking knuckle!
My fingers dig into the nearest break in the plated metal, finding purchase within the metal sheets, gasps of pain leave my lips as my back is riddled with explosions, the speeders up above seeming to have some form of laser weapon that manages to strike hard enough to get through my immortal body enhanced scales.
I rend the large plate of metal from the back of the large whale creature, using it to block a few more beams, then I hurl it like a frisbee, the metal soaring through the air where it collides with a swooping bike thing, causing a violent explosion in the air as it detonates, sending a stream flaming metal shooting downwards like meteors, impacting tightly packed raging bodies that cover the earth and sending quite a few flying with a shuddering boom.
The large unintelligent brutes claw at the sides of the whale as it slowly slices along the ground, leaping up onto its back as I let out a low snarl.
I punch down into the now bare skin of this large leviathan, grasping something that feels vaguely important then pulling.
A large spinal disk combined with machinery rests in my open fist, purplish blood coating my arm up to my elbow I whirl around hurling it as hard as I can, the disk crashing into the head of one of the encroaching brutes and splattering it with a shower of gore.
I grasp its body, fingers digging into its skin, then hurl it upwards, its rag dolled body slapping into another speeder and causing it to crash into the ground with a shuddering boom.
I get tackled by one of the grunts, shoved off the back of the dead whale and hurled into the mass of bodies below. My clothes tear, I let out a shout as I am forcefully dragged into the mound, sharp nails clawing at my eyes, ripping at my nose and mouth, jaws clamping around my flesh and trying to tear it.
*BOOM*
There's a shuddering explosion as a pulse of energy radiates off my body.
A large snake-like spectral energy seems to coil around me, I rub my eyes with a low hiss, my vision blurry, but with the cacophony of noise... I don't really need eyes, do I?
The coiled energy rapidly uncoils, spiraling outwards with a tremendous force.
I can hear bodies crunch and crumple, the spectral jaws opening wide and biting a tremendous chunk from the side of one of the mindless bodies trying to get me. The creature dies on the spot as I let out a roar, palm striking another.
I grab another and hurl it to the side, using it as a shield to block several blasts of energy.
My head snaps upwards, my vision finally clearing.
One of those whale things is barreling downwards at incredible speed.
I barely dive forwards, leaping over the heads of the swarm, the large horned tendril of energy lashing out behind me and trying to bite into the large flying creature's underside, a shower of sparks seems to scatter through the air, but the attack finds no purchase, the whale being too large for the jaws to successfully wrap around.
This tendril-
Wait... it's... one of the dragon heads which caused me so much issue back during my second to third tribulation...
Wait.
Yamata No Orochi...
Eight heads.
There were seven spectral dragon heads.
A grin crosses my face.
Well. It seems like I've inadvertently created a technique.
A blast of energy spews from the dragon's mouth, punching cleanly through the body of the titanic body, it whirls around snapping its jaws at a passing bike, jostling it just enough to cause it to spiral out of control and crash like the others I've taken down.
I land on the ground with a crouch, my body tensing as I disappear.
I blur through the swarm, body-checking dozens of them as I continue to kick off the ground several times per second.
I zig-zag through the waves of bodies like a human wrecking ball, the draconic head trailing behind me and snapping up any soldier which has the misfortune of getting in its way.
I let out a huffing pant, my body beaten and broken, blood pouring from numerous injuries.
I glare pointedly at five figures.
Ah...
Now I remember why that was so familiar...
A large purple giant of a man, standing at over eight feet looms above me, on his hand in a sole golden gauntlet with six gemstones.
"You... Are weak." He announces.
"And your chin looks like a ball sack." I scoff. "You're not real. a fake. Faux bullshit jolly purple giant who has his fancy bejeweled oven mitt."
"…" he seems genuinely caught off guard.
"Suck my dick!" I flip the mad titan double birds
A hammer zooms across the distance between us, hurled by that bulky fucker on the far left, it reaches my head-
*Snap*
And suddenly...
Darkness...
Then light again.
"Haaaaah." I sigh dramatically as I gaze across a war torn battlefield, rubbing my temples after a moment. I can hear the thuds of numerous feet upon the dusty earth.
"Fucking heart demon." I lowly growl. "Ah well, let's get back to it, I guess time to kill that army for a second time."
I duck past the swipe from a spear, lashing out with a kick that catches a horned woman with blue hair in the chest as she tries to stab me with her glowing trident.
My forearm clashes with the haft of a futuristic spear as I chop downwards towards a man with grey skin, an outfit making him look like one of those evil dudes from the movie 'epic'.
The... uh... Blue Skies one...
Honestly, that's some genuine box office suicide to name their movie that.
'Speaking of animation...' I weave around the jab of the woman, stepping up on her knee and using it as an anchor point to drive my knee into her chin. I then kick off her chest, back flipping over the man who twirls the spear around him. 'I wonder if I should re-live some of past childhood... I mean, I'm totally going to see How to Train your Dragon again in theatres when it comes out in a good forty years or so.'
I reach forwards, grabbing him by the back of the cloak and tugging him back, using him as a shield for dozens of little earth darts. His blue-ish purple blood splattering over my body as I abruptly shove him forwards.
His body splits in half, flying around a nose less grey figure that is stood on a pillar of swirling stone.
With a sudden blur of movement I appear to his left, shooting an acupressure needle from the tip of my finger at him.
It manages to slip through his guard, sinking into his shoulder... then it detonates violently, causing his upper torso to explode as he lets out a small shout.
I turn back to the woman, disappearing and reappearing within her guard, she ditches her trident, lashing out with two quick punches that I narrowly deflect with a raised forearm.
My eyes narrow as a truly monstrous looking figure barrels down on me, a large hammer attached to a chain rocketing towards my open back.
I step to the side and with a gentle swing of my hand, the trajectory of the chained metal is altered, crashing into the woman and rendering her a blue mist as the hammer head carves a trench in the earth. The chain is pulled taut as I leap, barely hopping over the chain as it swings back through the area I was in moments before.
I kick off the air, causing my body to spiral towards the large bulky figure like a missile.
With a shift of my weight in air I avoid a punch that would have probably broken my jaw, my arm coming up and looping around the bulky alien's neck as I slip just over his shoulder.
I tightly grasp the top of his head and chin, then channeling all of the strength I have-
*CRACK*
His head is turned at an awkward angel.
I take a few short breaths as the figure falls, sliding off its back as I pointedly glare forwards at the purple giant who refused to move this entire time.
I let out a quiet huff of laughter as I do an elaborate bow. "Well, call me whooping cough because I just devastated your children~"
How many times have I been here? At this exact place?
Twenty?
Thirty?
I'm getting better, slowly but surely. The first time I made it this far I had a broken arm and lost vision in my right eye.
But now?
I clench and unclench a fist slowly as I glare up at the mad titan himself.
Only... It isn't himself.
It's just an image that my weakness projected. My fear. My anxiety. My insecurities given form.
He slowly rises from the stone throne, his golden gauntleted hands clenching slowly. "I am... Inevitable..."
"Yeah yeah." I scoff. "And I can do this all day."
I leap forwards at high speed, planning to meet the faux titan head on.
He punches downwards, causing the earth to buckle and fold inwards on itself, forcing me to flip back to avoid the earth floor that rapidly rises.
A spectral dragon head forms from my body, lashing out and stinking its fangs into Thanos' ankle.
His leg is torn out from under him as a second bites into his shoulder, but he manages to break free with a swing of his arm and a stomp of his foot.
I myself am not idle, however. Two more head had sprouted from my back, shooting forwards and digging into the earth.
They tug my forwards at high speeds, my feet crashing into the torso of the mad titan hard enough to cause even him to stagger backwards.
His hand grasps around my leg as he whirls around, smashing me into the dirt hard enough to leave a crater.
I let out a small shout as I quickly turn, slamming the heel of my other foot into his thumb, causing his grip to loosen just enough that I can pull myself free.
I flip back, landing on my feet, and look up- only to catch a punch to the jaw that rattles my entire body, sending me flying back at tremendous speed.
As I lay in the dirt, I let out a small 'Tsk', hand coming up to my busted lip as the metallic taste of blood becomes known in my mouth.
"Well. That fucking hurt."
I get to my feet slowly. "But... I managed to hit him this time... hit him with my physical body... not just the seven dragons technique."
I glare up at the purple titan as he slowly walks forwards. "This is progress."
Well, Arthur- or, well Zhongli, I suppose is having a good time right now... and by good, I mean he is getting his ass beat by Thanos DECADES before he becomes a problem for earth!