NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26 - Bosom of Doom!
Dong ZhenKang couldn't lie to himself. Meeting the Hu girls' ancient ancestor shook his Dao heart in ways he did not know possible. The wind seemed weaker around him. The tornado less fierce and willing to cause great destruction to everything around it. His power mute.
He still felt the effects of his core nearly burning itself into nothingness. Aching and slowly recovering. There were still massive cracks and fissures within it that had yet to fully disappear, but they did get smaller. Allowing him to tap into the array barrier and spiritual energies of the tree. It soothed his wounded pride.
Not that it would make a difference for him.
"Fuck," he whispered to himself. Spitting out of the window he was looking from.
Dong ZhenKang was stuck doing something he despised. Hated with a passion. It was one of the few things he hated even more than the Spider Cult Valley. Worse was that it wasn't that special. Most people of his rank did it without even noticing. Maybe even older mortals.
It was a natural reaction that he was predisposed to considering anyone with even a minuscule amount of power or success in cultivation seemed to do. Tiny little mortal cultivators could not carry this loathsome thing. Young mortals even less so.
Among them, almost anyone that entered the Immortal Realms would find themselves exhibiting its traces more often. Much to his great displeasure.
How many times had he promised himself to never be caught in this situation? How many times had he cursed his first elders and masters? Each one more hated than the last simply because of what they constantly did.
Contemplating life left a horrendous taste in his mouth. To stand her and think. About everything he had experienced so far until this point. What he could have done differently. How he should have tackled certain situations better. Maybe even not kill a person or two.
Dong ZhenKang cursed silently.
There was nothing to gleam while he wasted his time here. He could be doing anything else. Plotting. Planning. Anything but just standing here, thinking.
As though he would be able to find clarity in the scant minutes or even hours he continued to watch some beggar peasant attempt to sell half rotten vegetables. Or another attempt to convince a kid that the branch he carried was worth the food his parents had sent the kid to buy.
Or was he supposed to find ancient wisdom and truths in the whores hawking themselves. Nagging at anyone that seemed slightly better than poor. Cursing the ones that ignored them. If you had enough to buy food, then you were good enough to be a prey to their machinations and plots.
Dong ZhenKang sighed. Feeling much older than he was.
How'd I get to this point?
This was why he hated contemplating with a passion. It reminded him of his past. What he was supposed to have become instead of what he was now. The urge to return and hope his original sect had opened its gates again. He knew better than that though.
None of the righteous sects of old would open their doors. Not a single one had even made an attempt to do so in the sixty years they've been locked away. If they had just let him back in. Made an exception just once for him to return to his rightful place among them.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
An elite among elites.
Just my luck to be caught in the bosom of a voluptuous village widow.
He had been too busy to respond to his sect's command to return. Not understanding the urgency behind the words the elders hand sent through a Qi technique. He thought it was another gathering. New orders. Maybe even a spacial rift or secret realm had opened for them to delve.
Bring back treasures and resources. Maybe even earn some ancient monster's legacy and rise above everyone else.
"Sixty fucking eight years." His voice rumbled. The weak tornado in his core surged stronger showing signs of life and vitality. First time since he encountered the old Hu ancestor.
It had been sixy eight years since he was banging on the closed barriers of his sect's array barriers. How long since he had been forced out of his home. Taken away from his family and future! Robbed from him. Betrayed by the elders that saw him but turned their backs and walked away.
His damaged core surged as the tornado within it started to turn into liquid Qi. Starting his cultivation once more. The raging winds whispered into his ears. Begging for release. To destroy, kill and main. His original cultivation technique had been tainted without guidance, but his ambitions kept him going. Climbing far above everyone else.
Dong ZhenKang could already see the screaming villagers pleading for their lives. Kowtowing in hopes he would spare them. None would escape his ire. He would kill every child, woman, elderly, man, and even the animals that carried them here.
And he would have. His wrathful outbursts were not uncommon.
His eyes drifted back towards the Hu girls' home. The perfect spot for him to spy on them for days on end. Watching as the two practiced. Applied righteous sect katas and even tried to cultivate without guidance. Much like he had. Almost kindred spirits had he not decided to take Hu Jun as his own plaything.
With a force of will he had not exerted on himself for nearly a decade since, he pressed his living liquid core down. Shutting it silent and forcing it into compliance. It was a struggle to stop himself from acting out as he pleased when he pleased. But he did it anyway. His life motto and Dao far more important and more powerful too.
Better silent then dead.
Alone and by himself, he couldn't have possibly done anything but be dead within a few years of that day. There had been abrupt and terrifying rushes of Demonic Cultivators and Demons invading the lands. Entire villages had been turned into cultivation cauldrons. Burned to the last. Entire cities crushed and destroyed by powerful Heavenly Demons that carved their domains within what had been the central lands of the most Righteous Sects to exist.
How many pyramids of heads had he the distaste of witnessing?
Entire forests of impaled bodies on stakes twenty feet high.
Pits of the starving, screaming for death.
Dong ZhenKang had watched silently until he was strong enough to fight back. Carve his own territory and land away from greater evils. Much greater than himself. That had been the day his Silver Mountain Gang was born. A group of weak and ambitious idiots that swore to never let anyone take advantage of them.
Of course, none of them were any good. Stabbing one another in the back for a modicum of wealth and safety promised by bigger, stronger forces. He was all that remained from the originals. The rest died either to friend or foe. The last few to his blade as he tore through them in fury.
Now his Silver Mountain Gang was stronger than ever before. Yes, they would soon enough stab a dagger in his liver. But they weren't strong enough. He had gotten enough time to grow beyond the average and into the next realm of superiority. Only the elites of sects around them could really match him.
There is always a bigger predator. Always.
Spider Cult Valley above him and an even greater dark force above them. Waiting and watching for something.
Dong ZhenKang studied Jun's figure as she pulled Hu Shui out of the courtyard. They carried large, empty tubs with them. He couldn't figure out why. Each one had been acting strange ever since their old man arrived. As though they could act with freedom and without worry.
Their ancestor was hidden under their porch's overhang. He could not see him or what he was doing nor would he try to check. Dong ZhenKang would not have been watching salivating every time he glimpsed Hu Jun for even a second.
Making sure to enjoy the final moments he would get to watch.
He sighed again. Reminiscing about the bosoms of that one voluptuous village widow. The source of all his problems. His greatest weakness. Had he just been able to ignore her and her glances. Maybe just maybe he would have been somewhere else completely.