Chapter 650 - Storm of the Abyss (XXIII) (Patreon)

Long Tao wasn't particularly interested in either of the battles. He was already very familiar with the kids' capabilities, and short of Light joining the fight, there was no purpose in observing them. The other battle was even more pointless, as it was a fully defense-oriented cultivator standing there and taking up the time of a talented, but ultimately remarkably stupid sword cultivator. If she had the ability to string more than two thoughts together, she'd recognize that she was fighting a literal wall. But walls always have beginnings and ends, and there was no reason for her to bash her skull against it.

No, what he was far more interested in was the stalking shadow, the standing hair at the back of his neck. Eyes of the void were spliced together with the world, and they were watching. Watching him. They were unblinking, unflinching, and patient. They'd been on him ever since he flashed the shard to Master, with the intent of seeing whether there were shadows. And, sure enough, one perked in the darkness, and, like a hellhound, had been upon them ever since.

He'd given it plenty of opportunities to strike. He'd relaxed, closed his eyes, even drifted off to sleep, but the thing would not come out. Even when he was fighting that vile man of flames, it only ever watched. For a moment of doubt, he even believed the thing was not interested in the shard, but the moment was fleeting.

It wanted it. Long Tao could feel it. He couldn't help but crack an inward smile that the Sages were so desperate to get their hands on something that he discarded so long ago that the number would take up half the parchment to write. But, the picture of their dark delight was growing clearer.

There was only one reason an Order that clearly already had at least one Emperor in their midst were in want of Divinity--a Bridge. Among the remaining worlds, there was only one that was strictly sealed off. In those depths, in dark, horrid, turbid winds of silence resided those who had to die, yet could not be killed.

The Old Ones, some called them. The Great Gods, some others. The Devilspawn, some still. They had a thousand names, one for each tribe that heard their sordid whispers. There was only one way there--through a Bridge. And there was only one way to make that bridge: through Divinity.

There wasn't nearly enough Divinity remaining in the shard alone, of course; perhaps if they had the whole sword, they could open the path to the Bridge, but even that was suspect. They were on a hunt, and this was merely one of them.

He also understood why they had been collecting so much Life Qi irrespective of its quality, as the 'Old Ones' feast on it. No, in their current state, a world-filled cup of Life Qi might be the only thing that could even open their eyes. The life... was rather pathetically cyclical, he reckoned. The first few decades after he ascended to the Upper Realm were spent hunting down their remnants. In fact, one of the first achievements which made him famous was banishing one of those creatures.

Most foul, four-legged husk of green quills and scales, with a jutting jaw which hung open and drooled liquid fire as it walked. The creature was like a kindling flame in a squall, barely hanging on, yet it still took him nearly seven days to banish it, with him nearly dying four times.

And over the course of his life before resurrecting, he'd banish precisely nineteen of them in the four more events which sought to bring them back to life. And it was happening again, as it always did.

So, he waited. Invisibly distancing himself from the bickering duo of Shufen and Master, and Lao Shun who was repeatedly sighing, and Light who also seemed to have noticed it. She glanced at him, her twilight eyes like cosmic gems of divination.

He merely smiled, whereupon she shrugged and looked away, as if to say, 'Your problem'. Before long, he was nearly forty feet away, at the far back wall with no exit either to his right of his left, his back up against a stacked, collapsed wall.

Sighing, he slanted against it, hands behind his back, one leg leisurely kicked up over the knee of the other, and it had finally worked--the hidden eyes came out, and their hands pressed coldly against his back, while a steel tip of a dagger coated with venom dug slightly into his neck.

"Take out the shard," it was a voice brimming with compulsions, a thousand-and-one illusion morphed into it. None of them worked, of course, but it made Long Tao mighty curious. This boy... was strange. Exceedingly strange. So strange that he knew he had to bring him to Master, as the latter was the only one who could unveil the cloaked secrets. "If you don't, you'll die."

Long Tao's eyes veered upwards where he noticed that the battle had halted. The Sage had probably been paying attention, and now that they 'had' the shard within their hands, was planning on how to get away.

"Sure," he replied rather lazily, taking it out.

A hand made purely out of smoking shadows withered out of the wall and grabbed it, twirling it around for a moment as if to confirm every last detail of it. Then it pulled back, shadows slamming against the wall and dispersing like smoke, yet the same wall swallowed the shard.

The dagger on his throat retracted, which made him exclaim softly; he fully expected to be stabbed, and yet there was no stabbing.

As if the world had been waiting for it, the prison above collapsed--the pocket dimension which held two near-Imperial level figures shattered like a porcelain bowl, its shards stirring cutting winds that slammed down like rain. Even Long Tao had to use a sheen of Qi to protect himself, to say nothing of others.

An array of light, like a comment, flurried downward and picked up that earth-manipulating figure; at the same time, streaks of lightning came crashing down, though never quite reaching the ground as a phantom figure appeared and intercepted them. Deemed good enough of a distraction, the Sage turned into a streak of lightning and thundered out.

She twisted her neck and looked at Long Tao, her eyes contain a maelstrom. He looked back, meeting her gaze squarely, and smiled, even raising his arm and waving. She frowned, though didn't stop, leaving while plundering Life Qi through a strange vial in her free hand.

All the remaining cloaked figures collapsed on the spot, untouched by seemingly anything, as if their husks were simply drained of energy. The others, including that stupid woman in the center, balked and stared like sheep at the sudden change.

He shuffled away from the wall and back to the group, pretending as if he'd always been there. Light looked at him, quizzically raising her eyebrows, to which he shrugged, causing her to pout and harrumph away.

"... Yuhan'er," a slightly aged and tired voice broke through the silence. "What are you staring off into? Gather anyone who can walk and look for survivors immediately."

"Yes, Master!!"

"In the meantime," the woman appeared in front of Master like a ghost. "I'll escort our most important guests and pour them a cup of phoenix wine to express my deepest gratitude."

Long Tao heard it.

Master's eyes. He heard them flash a coin.

... that man looked ready to rob them blind.