Pathway

In martial arts, he was focusing more on the Shifting Heavens hand technique. It was not an element affiliated technique. It was a technique that relied on the Chi, the inner force inside the body.

In the mystical art, he continued his training, using the Soul Pith technique. His soul was gaining more awareness and getting more connected to the affiliated elements.

In cultivation, he was still at the early stage of Chi refining. But, using the astral primal technique, the quant.i.ty and quality of Chi in his body was alarming.

As the festival dates got nearer, the villages were gripped in the celebration mood. There was happiness in the air. People were, joyfully, preparing the food and drinks to be shared with others. Lunar dumplings made of rice, lunar cakes of millet, lunar grubs of moonbugs and lunar milk from the mountain yaks. These were some of the treaties that were being prepared.

Jufeng was very anxious to see what a major festival would look like. The next day would be the beginning of the lunar festival. The villages headmen, designated village elders and the nascent soul cultivators would be there. In the case of no nascent souls, golden core cultivators would be representing the village. Any villager who could also make the trip, was also welcome.

Jufeng had never seen a major festival before. Hence, he had prepared properly for the next day. He had folded to one side in his room, the new robe from his mother. He tried calming his mind through meditation and after a while, he slept off.

For some time now, he had not dreamt of the gateway with the diamond gates. At the end of things, dreams were still dreams. Nothing to worry about. Or, were they not?

He woke up very early. He cleaned himself and put on his new robe. The day was special. There would be no training on this day. His mother and grandmother were preparing the morning food and the one they would take to the festival, when he arrived there.

"Good morning mother, grandmother."

"Good morning son."

"Good morning, Jufeng. What a beautiful new robe you have on."

Euanthe smiled before pointing to his shoes.

"And lovely shoes too."

"Yes grandma. Mother just got them for me for the festival."

He smiled gleamingly.

"Did she now?"

"That"s the last one, mother."

Reena set the cake on the table and reached for the basket.

They packed the food into the basket and placed the covered mugs of milk inside the basket, beside the food. They checked their prepared items before covering it up with a satisfied look. All set and ready, the three of them left for the lunar plain, along with Aodh.

The plain was at the center of the nine villages. The distance from their village was a little bit over a hundred kilometers. They rode their swords which turned to streaks of lights and in a matter of seconds, they arrived at the lunar plain. Alighting from their swords, they quickly located headman Huan and the section of the Skyspring village cultivators and other present villagers.

As they headed in the direction of headman Huan, they continued exchanging greetings with the people they met from their village and other villages. All the people were happy to be there and to meet other villagers.

Standing beside headman Huan, was the other peak-stage nascent soul cultivator in SkySpring village. Gaius, the terra bane, a terra element cultivator. They exchanged greetings with him too, but the cordial greeting was between him and Reena. Two powerful nascent soul cultivators.

Everybody was in great spirit, this only happened every thousand year. They gave out food and other gifts they had prepared for the festival. They were recieving numerous gifts and food from others too.

Really, it was a happy oca.s.sion.

"Let me introduce you to the dignitaries from the other villages according to the tradition. Please follow me"

Headman Huan directed his words at the two nascent cultivators, Reena and Gaius, as he moved ahead of them.

They followed him and quickly caught up to him as he continued talking to them.

"Lady Reena, this is your first time witnessing this festival, but I believe you"ve heard of it before. Nevertheless, I will reiterate to you about it."

Headman Huan, side glanced at Reena.

"This festival is a way of promoting unity and harmony among the nine villages. At the same time, making them work harder in preparing the future generations. These nine villages were formed by nine siblings of the same ancestral lineage. Skyspring, Redeagle, Rainwater, Windfall, Fountainfox, Icebay, Sunpeak, Wallmount and Yellowcrust. Since they were siblings, they looked for ways to stay united."

He stopped for a second to check the sleeves of his robe before continuing.

"They created the lunar festival. Every thousand year, the nine orbital stars aligned with the moon. It was discovered that, this would cause a reaction at top of the lunar mountain. It creates the floating lunar stones, radiant stones that shone for a thousand years."

He made a gentle swipe down of his hand.

"They were just light stones. But these stones determine the ranking of the nine villages. The first lunary to come back will make his or her village to be the number one ranked village and it goes on like that. Last time, we ranked fourth."

Headman Huan looked sideways with a bright smile.

"The first day of the festival, like today, will be a friendly compet.i.tion among the villages. Before this day, each village will have a series of events to determine the one that will represent it out of the numerous compet.i.tors. The chosen ones are called the lunaries. They must be at the Zhuji stage."

"Each of them will gather here at the lunar plain. At the sound of the gong, they will race to the top of the mountain to collect one lunar stone and return here. But at the top of the mountain, there"s a mist that affects the mind of lower cultivators. The Zhuji stage cultivators can withstand it but they will be slowed down. That"s why we prepare our lunaries properly for our villages" honors."

He halted for a few seconds as he saw some recognizable faces.

"And as part of the tradition, you may be asked for some friendly spars. It"s really good because it will raise your prestige as a nascent soul cultivator and the honor of our village."

"I can manage with that."

Voiced Reena with a nod of her head.

Gaius was following the conversation without any words. His gaze set on the nascent soul cultivators ahead.

First was Fountainfox. The village headman was Chen, a peak-stage golden core cultivator. And with him were two nascent soul cultivators. One was Cato, a late-stage nascent soul cultivator and an air and ice elements affiliate. The other was Zhang, also a late stage nascent soul cultivator and a water element affiliate.

They were introduced to the other village headmen and their nascent soul cultivators or otherwise.

Four of the villages; Fountainfox, Rainwater, Skyspring and Redeagle, had two nascent soul cultivators each.

Another four villages; Windfall, Icebay, Sunpeak and Yellowcrust, each had one nascent soul cultivator and one golden core cultivator.

Wallmount had no nascent soul cultivator but came with two peak stage golden core cultivators.

Pleasantaries were exchanged and they delighted in the consumables.

After a while, it was time for the lunar compet.i.tion to begin. The lunaries were stationed at the starting points with some distance among them. At the sound of the gong, they took-off up the mountain. As the rules went, no teleportation talismans and portal seals were allowed. Only steps movement techniques or talismans were to be used.

Some lunaries used quick steps and light steps techniques, others used mirage steps talismans.

Remus, the lunary from Skyspring was using the lightning steps talisman, making him climbed the mountain at a very fast pace. Others too were at the same level, some were even above him. It took them few minutes with some seconds" interval, but they all reached the top almost the same time.

Once they entered the mist, they lost sight of one another. They all knew what was involved, thus, they"ve prepared adequately beforehand.

Some distance from the base of the mountain, all the delegates from the nine villages were monitoring the situation with the lunaries. The headmen, nascent soul cultivators and golden core cultivators were using their divine and spiritual senses.

They could see clearly what was happening around the mountain and at its top. They monitored the situation to avoid any foul play and to handle any danger that could arose.

They were watching the proceedings when a portal suddenly opened and two legions of twenty four demons led by four daemon kings came through. They were not like the normal demons, they were different. They were taller and bigger than normal demons. Their bodies, covered in atrament, blankets of shimmering blackness, were emitting corrupted dark energies.

"Hahaha. We love celebrations too. Let"s celebrate together. ATTACK!!!."

One of the four daemon lords screamed at the demons.

The demons, brandishing obsidian sabers, started to move in the direction of the delegates with great speed. Their movement with the shimmering blackness was terrifying. Atrament, total blackness attack, was not from this universe.

Shouldn"t be here. Seeing the demons speeding in their directions, the cultivators launched their own attacks. Under unrelenting attack, the demons were destroyed.

Second set of demons, was sent forth. Demon chiefs. Much more powerful than demon warriors. But instead of attacking individually, they formed formations. Each formation of the demons moved in spiraling wave of atramentous, vortex of blackness.

The delegates quickly engaged them in battle trying to stop them before they could gain momentum. It was a terrifying battle. The demons" formations were very difficult to break, they were strange formations.

Euanthe tried to use a teleportation seal to take Jufeng away with her from the place, but she couldn"t activate it. The whole mountain area was locked down.

Aodh who was with Euanthe and Jufeng, tried to involve himself in the battle. Since his daughter was already battling the demons and he knew she couldn"t leave the battlefield. As a nascent soul cultivator, it was a grevious dishonor to abandon her village in battle.

"Father! Please stay with mother and protect Jufeng."

Reena shouted over the noise of the pandemonium.

Reena with her phoenix sword in hand, turned her attention to where Gaius was already engaging one of the demons" formation with headman Huan.

Gaius brandishing his large war hammer, hit the ground and launched a ma.s.sive terra wave towards the spiraling atrament. The atrament was blasted apart, yet, slowly reformed but with less tenacity.

The demons sent a vortex of blackness towards him. He raised his war hammer and pillars of terra force were formed in front of him. The vortex collided with the pillars and with a loud bang, they both dissipated in a blast. He launched another attack, terra beam blast. The blast covered the area of the spiraling blackness.

Immediately Reena arrived beside Gaius, she released her most powerful attack. The fourth stage of the beasts inferno technique, the phoenix stream. An attack of river of liquid fire. The attack complemented the earth beam blast and disintegrated the atrament.

The six demon chiefs were badly injured. Before they could crawl back to where the daemon lords were, they were destroyed by blasts of terra and fire.

Around the area, the demons were suffering the same fate. The four daemon lords, seeing what was going on, quickly formed the Void Cube. An ultimate formation of unknown origin. Ma.s.s of atrament, quickly sorrounded the vast area and was closing in on them.

They launched attacks at the ma.s.s of blackness with all their might but their attacks were rebuffed. They had little or no effect on the atrament.

"Hahaha. Stop trying. No mortal of this world can break this. Not even your deity. We could have continued celebrating together but time is not on our side. Hahahaha."

One of the daemon kings said as he laughed heartily and the other three joined him.

"We must bring this to an end now."

The four daemon lords raised their staves and the obsidian skulls at the top of their staves, shone with intense blackness. The ma.s.sive ma.s.s of atrament had increase in speed and the energy coming from it, was incredibly overwhelming.

There was no way they could survive this. They had given it their all but it seemed their all was lacking. Reena contemplated about their lives. Her regret was bringing her son to the festival, but she couldn"t leave him at home in the first place. Afterall, it was a festival. Well, she would give it everything she got. Last of her breath before she would succ.u.mb to the demons.

She prepared herself to use her true nascent soul. She would manifest her soul"s avatar. It was a huge risk since she was still at nascent soul. Her true nascent soul was still too young and weak. It could backfire on the her. But she was ready to risk it.

As she was preparing to use it, everything stopped. s.p.a.cetime froze in place.

Terra force-field.

A bald, tall and apparently muscled man who was wearing a thick yellow robe, came out through an opening that suddenly formed at the base of the mountain. On closer look, he had thick eye brows and yellow pupils.

"Atrament? In human world? This is truly strange. Energy so powerful, it could manifest in physical form."

He stared at the ma.s.sive ma.s.s of atrament. He shook his head in utter surprise.
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"This shouldn"t be here. It doesn"t belong to this universe, moreso, a human world."

He waved his hand and a ma.s.sive terra wave covered the blackness. He took out a seal, activating it, the seal flew into the terra wave and the atrament dissipated into nothingness. He flipped his hand and one of the demon lords appeared immediately in front of him.

"Daemon lord, and yet, not daemon. There"s atrament energy in you, your soul and body has suffered a corruption. How? Why are you even here in a mortal world with atrament? Energy from the void. Speak up!"

"You can"t even imagine, can you? I will never tell you anything."

"Very well then."

He flicked his hand and with a release of earth bust, the daemon lord exploded. He continued this until he was on the last one.

"We are here for that woman culitivator and that boy coltivator, in particular."

"Why?"

"We only have our instructions. We don"t ask why."

"Mhm, and whatever the reason behind it, surely, it"s of no good."

He walked towards Reena. Standing in front of her, again, he shook his head and released his force-field on the area.

"A demiG.o.d. Your life force is extremely powerful and solid. You should be stronger than this. I don"t know why the daemons were after you and the boy, but if you don"t get stronger, you will simply die. There are extremely powerful ent.i.ties in the void."

"I don"t know much about what ent.i.ty exactly exist in the void, but the atrament was from the void. Energy of total blackness and strong enough to physically manifest. Know this, when you are attacked by the atrament, inside of the body will decompose into black liquid and the soul will be ripped from the body becoming part of atrament. Avoid this at all cost."

He flipped his sleeves and produced two white stones. He gave one to Reena.

"Terra"s breath. It will drive away atrament and other total dark energies for a period of time. When these energies near you, it will warn you by flaring brightly. A gift to you as a demiG.o.d."

He looked around the area, glancing at the faces of everyone. Few villagers were killed, but no nascent soul or golden core cultivators was killed. He shrugged and looked at the boy. There was something about the boy. Something.

Although, he couldn"t say in particular, he knew it was of a good thing. He could see threads of virtues around him. Why were they after him? Surely something in this.

"Who is the boy?"

"He"s my son."

Reena replied mildly, despite slightly trembling inside. They should have been dead by now. But they were saved by this man. Definitely an immortal cultivator. Maybe a G.o.d? There was surely an ancient aura about him.

"Senior, thank you so much for saving us. We are all in your debt."

He waved her words off.

"You are not in my debt. I was around and I did what was necessary."

He took one step and apeared in front of Aodh, Euanthe and Jufeng. He watched Haider for some seconds, then gave him the other stone.

"Terra"s breath. Terra"s light against the black energy and the likes. Take it. A gift to you for your virtues."

"Thank you senior, sir."

Jufeng bowed deeply from waist.

"Hm. What you are all against is extremely dangerous. It"s true nature is unknown, but the energy is very deadly. At the least, ancient as the primordials. Train harder, be stronger. Gain more knowledge. Only by knowing what you are really facing can you truly confront it. Come visit in the future."

"Senior, forgive me for asking. Who are you?"

Asked one of the village headmen respectfully.

"You can call me Primus. For billions of years, this place has been my home. I was here when there was no living soul in this world. When the nine siblings came."

A t.i.tAN LORD!!!

"Thank you lord Primus."

"No need. It was necessary."

Primus sighed and turned to Gaius.

"Impressive terra force. Maybe we can exchange pointers in the future."

With that, he disappeared back into the mountain.

Ten minutes later, the lunaries started to descend the mountain, holding the lunar stones high in their hands.