Chapter 86

  Virtues of a Master (I)

  How's that saying go?

  To come up smelling roses?

  'cause, boy, am I smelling some roses right now.

  While my dear disciples were trapped in town, fighting for their lives, status windows were repeatedly blinking with rewards in my periphery. Most weren't actually all that notable--10 or 20 points for the most part--but there were some that were rather... juicy, it could be said.

  By the end, I'd earned 340 Creation Points altogether, a number that made my head spin a bit (and it spun even further when I saw my new total of 850), 3% progress towards Body Purification, bringing it up to 22%, and a new reward set to drain all my savings in one fell swoop.

  [--your Disciples have fought and killed martial artists well above their realm, raising your recognition as their Master]

  [Bonus Reward: the next Art or a Method that you create will have its limit increased from 100 points to 1000 points]

  So, there it is. My next headache.

  Because... what am I to create? Every other time I created an Art that ballooned past the 100 mark, it was something extraordinary--but it was always so specific it was kind of useless to everyone else. Dai Xiu's cultivation method, Long Tao's cloaking art... only the Heart-Stitching Art had some universal appeal, and Xi Zhao's offensive art could theoretically be taught to other people with Sword Qi, but their limitations were rather evident.

  Now... now I had yet another choice to make: save it for when I need something grand imminently (and knowing this world, it probably won't be long before I do), or spend it immediately on creating something more universal. Something that would allow me to take in those less talented disciples and farm them for Creation Points--aiii, if these kids could see these occasional slip-ups in my thoughts, would my persona of a kind master be so wholly shattered that it would never recover?

  Anyway, it was a conundrum indeed, but not one I could solve right now.

  The haze and the mist surrounding the town suddenly dispersed as Elder Qin appeared by my side.

  Cao Qiu was as silent as a mosquito, Light was eyeballing her as though saying, 'See? You're so dumb!' That young boy seemed confused by the entire ordeal, and Elder Qin... well, he seemed normal, if oddly reserved.

  "Let's go." I followed him as we descended, moving toward the town. Rather than going to the main road, we simply cut across the open plain and entered from the side.

  The sight was... ghastly, to say the least. There were literally hundreds of people lying around, unmoving.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  They were dead.

  I winced, feeling a churn deep within me. This is my first time seeing a dead person since... Yas.

  And there were so, so, so many of them. Young, old, men, women, boys, girls... it didn't matter. Their bodies were limp, eyes mostly closed, though a few were open. Though I always knew that this world was cruel, that it would eventually bare its cruelty front and center, seeing it...

  I bit my lips and endured, walking between the fading lights of lives unfulfilled. It's the nature. It's the way of this world. It's... meant to be.

  I found the three kids sitting near a plaza at the center, chattering about something with excitement that I couldn't muster. They were bloodied from head to toe, even Long Tao (though I'm assuming he faked it to fool Elder Qin), and yet the light in their eyes was one of brilliance.

  "Master!" Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao shot up to their feet as soon as they saw me and rushed over, bowing. "We have succeeded!"

  "Y-yes, good job," I forced a smile. It was then that my eyes finally closed in on the specters cloaked in black and coated in blood; alongside the listless bodies, there were chopped heads and limbs and unnaturally bent spines.

  Jesus.

  These two did all this? I look at them yet again, and all I see are innocent smiles... coated in scarlet. Pride undulated from their entire beings, their chests puffed out.

  "Khm, Xi Zhao, have you found your family?"

  "Ah! I, I forgot..."

  "Go." He sped away, and I looked up toward the sky, unable to look Dai Xiu in her eyes.

  Not yet.

  She would see something that I don't want her to see. I can't fault her. I can't fault any of them.

  ... heh. What did I expect, though? I did send them myself. Oh, how mighty the shield of hypocrisy is, I guess.

  "Your Disciples have won yet another bet, Elder Lu." Elder Qin pulled me back. "Soon, I won't have anything left to gamble."

  "Maybe stop gambling, then?" I shook off the straying thoughts and put on a smile.

  "Ho ho, if only I could," the old man stroked his chin as he examined some of the cloaked figures. "I don't recognize their Qi signature. Then again, my initial assessment of this place was completely off. They must have used an artifact or a secondary array to make it seem as though there were far stronger martial artists in here than I thought." I glanced at Long Tao, who seemed mostly annoyed that he had to put on a show.

  "Has something like this ever happened before?" I asked.

  "Not that I can recall," Elder Qin said, unmasking one of the figures only to reveal... nothing. There wasn't a face there, as though death had thieved it. "This is... odd. Hmm..." he seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before speaking again. "I recall there being a myth about an order called 'Faceless & Deathless' that served Emperor Veil tens of thousands of years ago. Supposedly, they discarded their egos and were granted a faceless and deathless existence."

  "Can't it be some advanced face-altering technique?" I asked.

  "No," he replied simply as though even the very notion of it was absurd. But… why? "We'll take the bodies to the Sect Master. There's seldom another soul as well versed in discerning the secrets of the dead as he is."

  ... yeah. I imagine someone practicing demonic arts had means and ways to figure out what to do with a corpse. Haah, why did my first thought be that he'd eat them to see their memories like that chick in that show? Maybe I don't fit out of this world as much as I thought...

  "Here," I took out a few healing pills from the satchel and handed them to Dai Xiu and Long Tao. "Was it scary?" I asked her, knowing the answer already.

  "A bit," she nodded as she popped the pill. "But Master's teachings guided me perfectly! He he, did I really do well?" She beamed and smiled, and I felt my heart drop yet again; yet, the only thing I could do was smile... and gently pat her head.

  "Really well. Master is proud."

  "Master, I've found them!" Xi Zhao returned just then as Dai Xiu pulled herself back away from my hand, seeming unwilling to be seen that way by the boy. "They're unconscious but alive!"

  "That's good," I said. "That's good."