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Alright, this is where the story's first most important character(besides mc) shows itself, pay attention to every detail about him whenever he is mentioned...it will prove handy and brace you for any of my savage plot twists. don't say 'I didn't warn you :)
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The soldiers were all wearing neatly crafted armors of steel and chains, with helmets that covered their faces and left small holes for their horns to protrude. The reddish skin of the demon kin gleaned off the sky's glow. And it gave a demonic threatening air to them.
The soldiers funneled in front of the three women, their spears and swords in arms, and pointed at me as they approached.
Arslan growled and the soldiers immediately stopped their aggressiveness.
"You'll have to surrender yourself for punishment!" one of the guards said.
"Punishment? For what?"
"For ogling at the princes." One of the guards said hesitantly, Arslan was a pretty big distraction especially when it growled.
"I mean, if she is a princess can't she afford a bathtub and bath within her own home? Palace or whatever her royal behind can afford, are you so destitute that you can't take a bath in your own home?" I replied.
To be honest, I was feeling a little bit peevish, I didn't like this scenario, I'm being blamed because they decided it was a good place to take a naked dip, I'm not going to stand for that, it's not my fault.
The soldiers looked around and San'Dra, the colder of the two girls pointed her finger at me and called, "You!! Dare call us destitute?"
"Am I wrong? Can't you afford a bathtub?" I spoke.
"Foolish man, this pool is beneficial for the princess's skin and can aid her retaining her youth," San'Dra said.
I shrugged, "You could have had some soldiers fill your bath with water from this pool, you're just dirtying good drinkable water with you all bathing in it." I replied further infuriating them.
One of the guards decided it was a good time to jump and try to take my head. His luge was immediate as he burst from the ground, his sword aimed at my face. I tightened my legs around Arslan I didn't need him to act, at least not now.
I slightly rotated myself to the side, and the man's sword dove past my ear without touching me. At the same time, I grabbed the guard's hand, twisted and the man's right arm was dislocated from its socket before he even touched the ground.
Once he was on the floor, Arslan decided the man's chest could be a good comfortable spot for him to place his heavy armored paw on.
"Seems that we're at an impasse, say, I've been nothing but polite, and still I was rewarded with rude brutish attitude, I expect an explanation," I said with a venomous tone.
The sudden change and the disparity of strength that I just showed to these soldiers was a sobering and waking call for them. They had no idea what they were facing and seeing their friend being dispatched so suddenly and so rapidly gave them a grim prospect on their own future.
"Honorable cultivator, you must be here for the Lord Ranking tournament?!" one of the soldiers said.
"Perhaps," I replied.
"The path is to the north, less than a few leagues from here, you'll make it on the back of your fearsome mount in less than an incense time." The soldier replied.
"That's not enough to pardon your rudeness, not nearly enough."
"Here," said Nan'Dra, the more sensible of the girls with the black hair.
An ornament flew up in front of me, it was a hairpin, a beautiful jade hairpin with dozens of inscriptions on it, and a few of them were inscriptions I've never seen before.
"That's a defensive treasure, it can block an attack from a nascent soul-level cultivator," Nan'Dra said.
Her sister looked at her with concern, "Nan'Dra, that's a precious treasure!"
"Not worth our lives…" Nan'Dra replied.
"These…inscriptions, they are different," I said fully ignoring their conversation.
"Yes, they may seem different, they're from this land, we have proficient inscribers in our Demon Land."
"Hmm, do you have an inscription manual? Something regarding the Demonic Language." I asked.
"Yes, but It's only preliminary, nothing too advanced, this is common and you can find it almost anywhere on the demon lands." She said and threw me a manual she pulled from a ring on her fingers.
I took the manual and smiled, "This is reward enough, you're all excused, and next time, try not to be rude to strangers, they might not all be as nice as I am, especially since more than a couple of hundred cultivators have arrived with me to this world. Arslan, let's go north," I said and the lion bounded with a single jump over the whole of the contingence of the soldiers.
I could feel the sighs of relief. It was only natural, if they decided to fight, Arslan alone can make quick work of them, and they'd be doomed to their death without being able to retaliate or escape.
I also gave them a piece of advice, to just back off from this place. Though I'm definitely strong, I'm not the strongest of the group of cultivators, at least in terms of strength and cultivation level, there are some cultivators who are a step away from the Nascent Soul level, and I'm still struggling with Foundation Establishment Cultivation level.
I rode on Arslan's back headed a bit away from the direction the soldiers had told me where the demon city would be at. I didn't have any need to be at the tourney grounds, at least not yet. I needed to venture through this wilderness and see if I could find anything of interest.
Due to the demonic Qi of this demon land, not many spiritual plants could grow here, and the rare few that would have an evil Qi within them, and they'll only be useful for normal cultivators when used to create demonic pills, such as temporary power-up pills. The magic word here is normal cultivator, as I a different breed of cultivators that can use the evil Qi within these herbs to create a rather new and different type of poison pills. But the problem is, finding these herbs.
I searched high and low, and could only find a few random herbs that had spiritual Qi within them throughout the forest. All thanks to the Poison God's Book, it interfered with my vision and highlighted the spiritual herbs in the vicinity.
The herbs I found weren't of great quality or rarity, they were normal herbs, some even were spiritual weed that had been enhanced with evil Qi, and no rare demonic spiritual herbs ever presented themselves to me.
After almost a day of traveling around, I decided against looking any further, if there are any herbs I'm chanced to stumble upon, I would have done so with the aid of the book, but now seeing nothing in sight, I decided it would be best if I try my luck inside the demon city, perhaps there could be a vendor that could sell me herbs.
Arslan raced back to the city and I found myself at its doors by night time. Night came creeping like a shadow creeping upon the land. There were no stars, no moon, and no majestic sense of space, there was nothing but a muffled and dim red hue that covered the skies.
I arrived at the city gate that was lit by torches and demon soldiers that guarded the entrance. The door was locked.
"Who goes there!" one of the demons at the gate shouted.
I lit one of my fingers to show my face, "I'm here for the tourney," I said.
"You're late, and it's late, you'll only be allowed entry once it's morning."
I sighed, then patted Arslan's head, "My pet here doesn't like to sleep under the stars, he gets grouchy, and when he is grouchy, he gets hungry. I think you wouldn't want him hungry," I said.
"Is that a threat?" the man said.
"You can take it however you wish, Arslan, remember that man, he is the one who denied you entry and a warm bed," I said and turned to leave.
The man saw the growling and snarling lion and shuddered, "Hold! I can make an exception, just for you. Raigon, open the gate."
"But, Torak, the rule is to close it at night time."
"To hell with the rule, that's an armored lion if it wants it can bring down the gate with a sneeze, just open it if someone comes asking, you can put the blame on me."
"Your funeral Torak," the man said and the gate swung open.
"Thank you for being comprehensive," I replied and threw a Spirit Strengthening Pill at the man.
The horned man caught it in his hand, took a sniff and his eyes flared with excitement. "Thank you benevolent one." He replied in a bow.
I walked into the city with Arslan in tow, and no one dared stop us, talk to us or even greet us. Anyone with a single brain cell knew well enough that it would be unwise to even stand in the same hundred miles as would a Purple Armored Lion, not to mention the same street.
And I was planning on using Arslan to wicked ends.
Seeing a couple of men who had their wears displayed on the ground and they sat waiting for people to come and procure their goods, I walked with purpose towards them, while Arslan was a couple of paces behind me.
Once I was in front of the merchant, the man struggled to keep his composure, he looked at me with shuddering fright and waited impatiently for me to browse through his wears. Finding nothing of value I shrugged and left him. he slumped down, his hand over his chest heaving strong breaths as if he had just won his life in death and life duel.
The same scene repeated itself a few times over, but most of the vendors at night time had nothing worth selling, as most of their wears of value would have undoubtedly be sold in the morning.
Soon I noticed that the already scarce and rare few vendors decided that their hearts would beat longer and stronger if they didn't suffer the same fate as their rivals, and hefted their wears and left the area.
All but one man, a man that felt rather conspicuously inconspicuous. Which said a lot, the man's whole demeanor was like a normal merchant, he wore casual drabs, nothing too horrid but nothing too fancy. His robes were black, and he had a hood that shaded half of his face only showing a small beard that had some rare few white strands growing in it.
The man didn't seem the least bit fazed by Arslan and didn't even deem me worth lifting his chin up to look in my eyes. He neither invited me to look at what he had to sell nor did he ask me to leave after I took a long while inspecting his wears.
His stuff was rather interesting. A few treasures one might call them, a bell that looked to be stolen from the ages, it was an old brass bell that had a sonorous jingle to it and a red strand that carried it. Its weight was far heavier than it should, and it didn't seem to have any inscriptions or anything special about it. Yet I felt it in me that this small bell was special, but at the same time… something tugged at my mind, this bell, it was not for me. I just felt it, it's like looking at a beautiful woman on the street, so beautiful in fact that you just shrug and keep moving, it's like the both of you live on two different realms. It's not for a fact that you can't woe her, but she is just beautiful, something that you can enjoy looking at, but not own.
I kept looking at other things then saw a feather and a quill, and for some reason, this object called to me. I went to pick it up and the man grabbed my hand, squeezing tightly. Suddenly, I felt that my life was in his hands and he could end me with a thought. It only lasted for a second before the feeling subsided and he said, "Apologies for startling you, this Quill is yours, free of charge." The man said.
I frowned but wasn't going to refuse a free gift, the moment I grabbed the quill and inspected it, I turned to ask the man about its origin, only to find nothing in front of me.
"What the hell?"
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Also, super huge thanks to Manson! this guy, this man, this amazing legend! fregging love you man. Thanks for the amazing patron donation, 100$, it's a huge sum, (Heck that's half my rent I'll be able to actually eat out for a few days now!) thanks a lot man for this donation it would help a lot. Also for everyone, you can still join patron, though I can no longer post there (Thank you webonvel for that...) I can still offer perks and rewards.
Like new characters to be introduced to the story, names, sects monsters even if you can create something I'll work with you guys into implementing it into PGH. Thank you all and like always, Never Hunger, Never Tire, Never Fear!