When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again-Chapter 11Story - How to Save a Sect in Six Simple Steps (Part 30)

“And you know how things went from there,” Little Spring said.

“So that rat girl attracted trouble, then left when things became too difficult?”

He grimaced. “She didn’t want to leave me behind. I made her go to protect her beast. Besides, after training with her for so long, she’s improved a lot.”

I frowned. “So you’re saying she helped the sect in the end.” I couldn’t believe that sentence had left my mouth.

“Yes! And during our second run through, her mouse worked very hard. It marked twice the number of targets as the other taggers... combined. She was very helpful and didn’t complain.”

I crossed my arms. “We’ll see how long this improvement of hers lasts. Some people change; others go back to being shitty when it’s convenient. Especially when those around them are enabling punks.”

He sighed. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I grinned at the kid. “Still, you took care of that situation perfectly. Requesting backup before things got out of hand was the right call.”

He beamed.

While it was good to rely on oneself, there was only so much we could do alone. That was why most cultivators joined large sects or other organizations.

“Now let’s replenish our energy. I’m drained.”

“Yes, Elder Linlin!” He grinned.

Goddamn it.

***

Just after we finished cultivating, I planned to help out in the first aid tent with the kid. I took a few steps toward it, then stopped when Noxious Fangstrike appeared in front of me along with a huge gust.

Holy shit! He scared the crap out of me.

Considering the wind that hit us like a hurricane, the fucker used an incredible movement technique to surprise us.

Or maybe he wanted to show off how fantastic and powerful he was now.

The first thing I noticed was his massive spiritual energy. While he did an excellent job of making it not pressure us, it was as noticeable as a gravitational pull. He’d get better at hiding that once he was used to his new realm.

The kid smoothed his hair, which had become windswept, then bowed to him in respect. “Welcome back, Senior!”

He nodded to Little Spring.

“Master Lin, I’m finally out of closed-door cultivation.”

::I can see that. It’s good that you’re back.::

He cleared his throat. “I would bow to you, but...”

::No need to explain.::

I scanned him with my divine sense. He’d really done it. Actually, he’d more than done it. He must have had a fuckton of spirit stones and pills saved up because he had condensed three ossicles!

::You did well. As expected of my in-name disciple.::

He grimaced. “The leaders of the Leashed Claws and Harmonious Sound sects are in mid-Immortal Bone Creation. I had to make up for the power difference somehow.”

::You’re over three times as strong as you would have been if you’d faced them without your efforts. What about your earthly law? Did you have time to find one?::

He smiled. “What else could it be? The Earthly Law of Poisonous Fire.”

“It fits you.”

I cleared my throat. There was something that had to be said, and only I, who was once a Pill Monarch and the second-best alchemist in the world, could say it to him and mean it. “Congratulations on your successful tribulation transcendence, Poison Sage Noxious Fangstrike. You worked hard.”

It was every alchemist’s dream to become a Sage. That title meant that there were few above you. It told others that you were an authority on a subject. That you were nearing the top of your field. Someone who couldn’t be taken lightly. It wasn’t merely a ‘step below Monarch’. It was a truly special title, and he’d earned it!

He briefly looked like he might get overwhelmed with emotion. He cleared his throat and nodded. “Thank you, Master.”

I clasped my hands behind my back. “I assume you’re here because things are about to start?”

“Vengeful Siren notified me of the plan earlier. I’ve handled some things you didn’t have time for, but we can go over that later. Right now, we should stop all this nonsense.” He smiled.

I almost jumped. Who was this? How was this guy so at peace? Where was his stress-filled scowl? Where was his asshole attitude? Where did my grumpy in-name disciple go?!

In the skies above the battlefield, an old man with a long white beard and a middle-aged woman appeared with a bang. Their massive energy spread out, causing every single cultivator, Golden Core and below, to kneel and stop their fighting.

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The Nascent Soul cultivators who’d been throwing attacks at each other were still hovering because of their nature, but they backed off from each other and took healing pills.

Everyone had been repressed.

This was the actual power of an Immortal Bone Creation expert.

These two old farts were the leaders of the Leashed Claws and Harmonious Sound sects.

“Enough!” they said in unison, causing the air to pulse.

Resentful Shadow Snake and a woman who I assumed was his pet beast in human form flew over to stand across from the two sect leaders. He stared at them arrogantly.

Noxious glanced up. “It’s time. Feel like joining me up there, after all?”

Fuck no. My natural good instinct told me to stay as far away from those enemy experts as I could. Those assholes could end me without thinking, especially since Little Spring’s space was still unavailable.

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I opened my mouth to say as much when the kid pulled on my sleeve and nodded.

What? Why?!

He pointed up there. “We should go. We might be able to help.”

Damn it.

If I were by myself, I would tell him no, but I knew how this universe worked. The kid’s protagonist's luck might be the very thing that made this shit succeed. And I wasn’t letting him go by himself. We fucking had to go.

Besides, at Immortal Bone Creation, it wouldn’t matter where I was; they could kill easily whether I was next to them or hiding behind this small hill.

I sighed. Well, if I was going to do this, then I was doing it in style! I grinned and clasped my hands behind my back like the master I was… except that I still had a bulge where Xiao Bai was. Whatever. I still appeared majestic, arrogant, and beautiful! Muahahaha!

Little Spring gestured to my hair. I glanced up to find that it had looked windswept.

Goddamn it.

I hurriedly fixed it with spiritual energy and then pointed toward the three powerful pricks.

“Alright. Let’s meet these sect leader assholes.”

Noxious gave me a look like he questioned my sanity.

Hey, I got enough of those looks from the brat. I didn’t need them from my in-name disciple, too!

I crossed my arms. “We’re safer next to you than down here.”

He grimaced. “You’re right. We’ll all go together.”

Noxious wrapped us in his spiritual energy. The world seemed to vanish for a moment. When it reappeared, we floated in mid-air, held up by my disciple’s ability.

Now that we were in front of them, the powerful orthodox masters looked even stronger. The old man wielded a cane used for discipline rather than walking.

The woman appeared younger than she was but had still aged gracefully.

We had arrived beside Resentful Shadow Snake and his beast. The way both he and Noxious stood next to each other showed that they’d come to some kind of understanding and formed a united front.

“Fellow Daoist Dominant Restraint Master and Fairy Peerless Cacophony. I can’t say your presence is welcome here, but my sect’s disciples are glad for the reprieve.” Resentful Shadow Snake said with a grin.

The old man, Dominant Restraint Master, stared at him with narrow black eyes. “Are you the one who took my grandson?!” His voice caused the wind to blow fiercely. “I know he’s not dead. I’ll give you an incense stick's worth of time to produce him, or I’ll start massacring your sect!”

“That’s too long!” Fairy Peerless Cacophony glared at us. “These bastards kidnapped my favorite disciple and the disciples of half my elders!” She pointed to Resentful. “Return them unharmed immediately, or I will kill you where you stand.”

Muahahaha! It worked. It fucking worked! Warriors with high-quality defensive tools were almost always important to the sect's higher-ups.

Noxious pulled out the recording orb I’d left for the puppeteers, so they could get a really good shot of all the ‘treasures’ we collected, just for this moment. He played the video I had them take once we had everyone in place. They were sleeping peacefully inside the massive spiritual tool that I built in secret. It was like a Faraday cage, but for spiritual energy and divine sense. It even had a unique obfuscation enchantment that caused those who touched it with divine sense to ignore the odd blank space in that area.

I’d developed the enchantment a long time ago after I remembered the somebody-else’s-problem field — an old concept from a classic SciFi comedy read back in my past-past life. It made the emptiness feel like a mildly troublesome issue that had nothing to do with the person observing it. Perfect for convincing nosy assholes to mind their own business.

Noxious tapped the orb. “As you can see, they’re safe. For now. However, if you harm us, I won’t give them the first dose of the antidote.”

“You can’t trust a poisoner!” the old man said.

Peerless Cacophony stared at the video of her disciple. He scratched his chest before returning to sleep. “What poison did you use?”

“Something only I know the antidote to. But if they don’t receive that first round of treatments in ten hours, their cultivation base will dissipate. After twenty, their acupoints and meridians will shrivel. They’ll be unable to cultivate for the rest of their lives.”

The two sucked in a breath.

“Awful!”

“Vicious! If you think we’ll bow down—”

“Who asked you to bow? We want to negotiate.”

“Negotiate?” The Harmonious Sound sect leader scoffed.

Dominant Restraint Master gathered an earthly law. “We’ll never surrender to an unorthodox faction. Not even if you kidnapped my whole family.” He looked like he’d already written off his grandson.

Shit!

Why were these young old farts like this? Always believing they were right based on prejudices and hatred?

“Rather than have you surrender, I want to discuss a treaty because we have powerful mutual enemies.” Noxious cooly said as if he weren’t phased that this asshole was poised to kill everyone.

Dominant Restraint Master stopped gathering his law and frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

My in-name disciple gestured to the three peaks that made up the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect. “We were attacked by the demonic cult just two years ago.”

He snorted. “They would have done us a favor if they’d finished the job.”

Peerless Cacophony sent him a look berating him for that extreme statement since it was unfit for an orthodox cultivator. She crossed her arms. “What of it? We obviously had nothing to do with that.”

“During the attack, one of our sect members killed the army’s leader and discovered the hard way that he was the inheriting disciple of a demon sage.”

“Impossible!” she said. “There aren’t enough resources on our small continent to support a demon sage.”

Dominant Restraint Master gestured to the mountains behind us. “If one existed, they would have already demolished your sect in retaliation.”

Resentful Shadow Snake smirked. “Not if they wanted to use us to whittle down your resources so they could attack you while you’re weak and recovering. Because I can guarantee that if you continue with this war, we will fight to the last disciple standing. And I personally will slaughter as many of your people as possible, including your missing disciples. We’ve been going easy on you so far because we want to make this treaty happen.”

When did Resentful Shadow Snake get in on this mission?

Noxious nodded to him.

The two orthodox sect leaders glanced at each other. I knew that expression. They might hate the unorthodox, but their responsibility had always been to kill every demonic cultivator they found. That superseded everything else.

Noxious crossed his arms. “You might think that you can take us both out since we’re new Immortal Bone Creation experts.”

“I’m positive we can,” Peerless Cacophony said.

“You may or may not be right. But if you attempt it, we’ll leave you with lingering injuries. The demon sage will take advantage of those when they inevitably attack you.”

Dominant Restraint Master snorted. “You’re both new and weak. You can’t possibly harm us like that.”

“I’m a poison sage now,” Noxious said with his spine straight and the corners of his lips turned up. “Even when I was in Nascent Soul, I had poisons that could affect you. I had an entire week to concoct something that would take you both out. Don’t test me.”

I was positive that the whole last part was a lie. The ingredients for those kinds of poisons were rare and expensive. Besides, he was busy condensing bones; he had no time to make them. That said, I would help him bluff if that meant ending this shit.

“Only a fool would remain confident when facing a poison sage!” I called out like an encouraging background character.

Little Spring gave me a look as if he couldn’t believe I’d yelled that and directed the two powerhouses’ attention onto myself.

Yeah, me too. My disciple better protect my ass.

Fortunately, Dominant Restraint Master ignored me. “Even if there were a demonic cultivator in our realm, our two sects can handle him and his army together.”

“What if he’s at the peak of Immortal Bone Creation?”

They glanced at each other and hesitated. They definitely knew that they couldn’t take on a demon sage at that level. He would be exponentially stronger than them, even without considering that evil energy tended to be slightly more powerful than spiritual energy.

Fairy Peerless Cacophony glared down her nose at us. “We don’t need a treaty with you to face him. One of the major orthodox clans will help us.”

Noxious smiled tightly. “You could do that. They might help you. But from what I can recall, those clans always defend themselves first. And with all of our sects gone, they’ll have less competition.”

She scowled, unable to deny that. This continent had very limited resources, and cultivators were selfish assholes. Sometimes they went against their own long-term best interests if it meant more for themselves now.

Vengeful Siren must have helped come up with these talking points and given them to Noxious. I knew I could count on that guy.

Fairy Peerless Cacophony sneered. “So you what? Want us to stop fighting each other, despite our bad history, and become allies against the demonic sect? That’s never happened before!”

Resentful Shadow Snake shrugged. “An Immortal Bone Creation Demon Sage has never been seen on this continent either, but there’s one now.”

Dominant Restraint Master frowned. “How can we possibly trust your unorthodox sect? Not only are your methods wildly strange, your reliance on poisons makes you a step away from being just as evil as the demonic cultivators we’ve been fighting all this time!”

The sect elder used his thumb to point behind him. “The bad history was mostly with our previous leader, but he’s already passed away. We have new leadership with a more open mind.”

Noxious scowled. “You can judge us for our use of poisons, but you’d take a pill from any alchemist who’s handled them.”

“You’re not the same! They create poisons to test antidotes on! If they don’t know what goes into it, how can they cure it?”

“That’s exactly why you should form a treaty with us! Who do you think knows all types of toxins and their treatments better? A regular alchemist or a poison master?”

The two sect leaders paused as if they had just realized their thinking had been too shallow this whole time.

Dominant Restraint Master shook his head as if shaking off logic. “Even then!” He slammed his cane down in mid-air, causing a ripple of power to stretch out.

I knew that I couldn’t withstand the ripples, so I grabbed my in-name disciple’s arm before they hit. Little Spring clutched my sleeve. Noxious reached out with a hand and blocked most of the energy. This saved the kid and me from getting flung back a thousand feet.

But that was just what we went through. To the Immortal Bone Creation cultivators, the cane strike was nothing. A small tantrum. They barely even felt it.

Fucking inconsiderate assholes.

When the ripples passed, Noxious glanced down at us. He grimaced like he couldn’t believe how weak his master was.

Yeah, me neither.

Goddamn it! I missed being strong! Once I was back at Immortal Ascension, I’d be the one protecting his ass!