The Jester of Apocalypse

In the headquarters of the Onyx Scorpion sect, a sweaty elder finished his report to the sect master.

The sect master was utterly befuddled.

He got up off his chair and violently threw it at the wall, shattering it into countless splinters.

“Why!? Why!? Why!? WHY!?” He repeatedly screamed, each new ‘why’ intonated differently. One was angry, another scared, then anxious, stressed, confused, and joyful. The elder started to suspect that the sect master might be losing it. “Why, just why?” 

The sect master had heard the report. He was beyond confused.

As far as he was concerned, this was a ploy by the Emperium sect. This ‘neighboring young master’ was almost definitely an elder in disguise. A true strike and some sort of teleportation spirit power, not to mention skill that far surpassed any young child.

There were two problems, however. If an elder of the Emperium sect had struck his daughter with a true strike, she would be dead. The less initiated members of the sect believed that the choice of weaponry saved her life. In reality, even a dry stick would have turned her head into a fine mist.

And this person also had some form of teleportation spirit power.

If it weren’t for the discrepancy with the true strike, he would be fully confident that this was merely a ploy by Emperium. Now he didn’t know what the hell to believe. Perhaps he should visit this new ‘neighboring sect’ and see for himself…

***

The capital of the Yixine empire was divided into three circles. These three circles reflected the strata of power between sects, but this didn’t mean that higher powers had no interest in the middle and outer layers of the capital.

Merchant groups were particularly interested in keeping an eye out for up-and-coming sects that could rise in power in the future. Crystal Palace was easily among the top three wealthiest and most powerful.

They had several large stores in the capital's outer circle. These stores were designed in the form of towers.

Every single floor higher required stricter qualifications to even step into. There was an open floor at the top of the ridiculously tall towers. Technically, this floor was available to everyone.

Everyone that could get to it, that was.

Crystal Palace were the greatest experts on monster cores and naturally had the most knowledge on spirit powers. The tower's outer walls were a carefully designed sequence of traps, golems, and trials that could not be cheesed with convenient spirit powers.

Even flying to the top of the tower took a lot of work.

On this floor sat a man. He was a relatively refined person. His robes were ornate in glittery crystal, but they weren’t distastefully opulent. He gave off an aura of civility and seemed like good company.

The wind barrier around him prevented the harsh winds from disrupting his tea time. It wasn’t rare per se for him to have visitors. Most individuals on the golden path could make their way to the top of the tower. The problem was that it was neither easy nor safe, so those who chose to visit only did so when they truly required his services.

And even for very extravagant business deals, the tower's top floors were usually enough.

Just as he was about to take another sip of his tea, a familiar individual appeared at the tower's edge. It was a tall young man wearing gaudy golden robes, his shiny green hair tied back into a ponytail. He wore a haughty expression on his face.

Before the young man could settle, the merchant sitting and drinking tea threw the cup at him.

The boy effortlessly moved out of the cup’s way and retorted.

“Kalen, that is highly inappropriate behavior for a man of your status.”

“Oh, suck my ass, Dukean! Hundreds of times, I’ve told you and your father I’m uninterested. When will you give up!?”

“We will give up when we’ve been rejected a thousand times.”

“Alright then, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse…”

“Those all count as one refusal.”

“Why!?”

“Because I said so.”

Kalen groaned. Almost all of the more prominent sects had merchant groups under their wing. These merchant groups could not prosper on the highest level since other large sects refused to do business with them.

Thus, the most influential merchant groups were usually entirely independent. All except one. Emperium had a merchant group that could rival the other largest groups. They managed this by cutting themselves off from other merchants and holding a monopoly on the markets of the settlements under their possession.

The Emperor usually never allowed for something like this due to the harm it would bring the people, but Emperium wasn’t gouging their prices. They operated by overbuying and underselling.

Usually, this would be an awful way to do business, but Emperium wasn’t interested in a thriving merchant group. They merely used it as a tool to increase prosperity within their settlements. Even if they did operate at a loss, a more prosperous settlement meant more taxes.

Yet, they didn’t have very high taxes either. The modus operandi of the Emperium sect was to keep their value in the form of developed settlements and influential people. This seemed like a beautiful way to lord.

It was wonderful to those who failed to realize that Emperium owned almost everything and everyone under their protection. People failed to realize it because Emperium did their best never to abuse this and bring harm to those under their wing.

Everyone with power understood that this was only a perfect arrangement for as long as Emperium didn’t want to or need to use their property. Once the time to step up and claim what’s theirs arrived, nobody could stop them. And sadly, they wouldn’t even have the right to.

This young master was the son of the sect master of the Emperium sect. And he had come to try and buy Kalen off for the umpteenth time.

“Please, if you have just come here to harass me again, leave.”

“I have come here to do business.”

“Rejected. I am not making an exception to the embargo just for a brat.”

“Not even for this?”

Dukean pulled out a small crystal from his dimension ring and threw it at Kalen. Kalen wasn’t impressed. From a glance, he could tell it was only about high C grade in shape and not even bronze rank.

The moment he caught the crystal, he almost crushed it in surprise.

“Where… Where did you get this?”

Dukean grinned.

“I got lucky!”

“Damn fucking right, you got lucky, you brat.”

The core he was holding held a simple power.

Enhanced beauty.

To most people, such a core would seem like the most bland and underwhelming spirit power in existence.

However, such power was beyond precious to those in the higher echelons of society. Monsters weren’t known for their pretty looks. Acquiring such a power was exceptionally rare.

Those who lived at the peak could afford a perfectly optimized set of spirit powers. Being weak wasn’t a problem for those with money.

But only so much could be done when one was ugly. Sure, walking down the path and certain treasures could undoubtedly help. But for someone like Kalen’s daughter, only a miracle could save them.

The anxiety of a parent for the future of their children wasn’t something to be underestimated. It would be a shame to have her accept so much spiritual interference for a power like this, but…

She was doomed to unhappiness otherwise.

“What do you want in return for this core?”

“Nothing in particular. Consider it a gift. Perhaps I might ask a little favor of you in the future.” Dukean smiled.

Kalen frowned.

It was a deal with the devil. So be it.

Kalen sighed and shot Dukean a glare.

“Just get off my tower.”

Dukean laughed, waved at Kalen, and jumped off.

***

Over at the newly created sect premises, Marven arrived and entered through the door. In the ‘main hall’ of the tiny building, Harel sat in a corner while Gabrias nervously paced around the room.

Gabrias jumped a bit upon seeing Marven but confirming that Neave wasn’t there allowed him to calm down.

Marven told him to leave the room, and he approached Harel. She cracked her eyes open a bit and stared directly at him.

He didn’t know exactly how to confront her about this issue. Things have gotten more complicated.

“Harel…”

She sighed. Marven continued.

“Things have… Indeed. Our situation has gotten rather complicated.”

“You tell me…”

She shriveled up a bit and looked down at the ground. Marven continued.

“I do not desire to force you to remain within this sect. It will be…”

Harel pulled out several monster cores from behind her and placed them on the floor before Marven. He winced.

“I could challenge someone at the golden path if I accepted these cores.”

Marven picked up a few, and he had to nod in agreement. He spoke.

“Neave has no desire to hold back on his plans. Some of the things he can do will cause complete chaos.”

Harel frowned and hesitated, but eventually, she spoke.

“Do you… Do you think it’s worth it? Staying with him, that is.”

Marven braced himself.

“I want to tell you to run. To get as far away from here as possible and never come back. Being involved with us will put you in great danger, no doubt. However…” He looked torn but steeled his expression and continued, “I… I am not sure there is such a thing as far away enough to avoid the aftermath of what he is planning. Harel, I have no right to request this of you, but I will do so anyway. Remain with us. Neave needs others to help ground him and keep him from spiraling out of control. He isn’t a villain, I’m certain of that much, but if he becomes one… That would be truly catastrophic. The most I can give you is an empty promise that you might be safest in the eye of the storm that is to come.”

Harel nodded, even though she still looked unsure. Marven had no confidence that what he was doing was the right thing, but he was done being a coward. And it was time for him to repay the debt he owed to Neave. Maybe one day, with the power Neave was offering… He could perhaps start repaying some of the other debts he had as well.

Marven spent a while just talking to Harel and Gabrias. Gabrias wasn’t relaxed yet, but he no longer acted like a knife was constantly at his throat.

Marven sensed something and frowned.

Their courtyard was relatively small, so they were constantly within range of many cultivators. Marven could sense impressive auras coming and going all the time, so he had grown somewhat habituated to it.

That’s why it took him a moment to realize that someone on the third step of the golden path had stepped right into the courtyard.

***

Neave opened his eyes. He was awake. It had been a short time since he passed out, which meant his theory was correct. Time inside of the mysterious realm didn’t translate into time outside.

He made the mistake of eating the flesh of the creepy things. After he took a bite out of one, he blanked out and found himself surrounded. At least he hoped that his self-detonation damaged the monsters and didn’t just leave a crater.

He needed to create a name for that place but was way too lazy. He had more important things on his mind. The first thing Neave did was try entering his spirit realm.

He no longer sensed that hole, but he knew exactly where the location of that anomaly was. Purely by memory, he located the part of his spirit where he could enter the spirit realm. Neave constructed the liquid spirit bridge and appeared again inside his spirit realm.

The same old tiny realm that reflected his time spent in the loop. Neave didn’t hesitate. He began his remodeling, this time with a few fundamental changes. The way he designed the realm initially was alright, but he had a few changes in mind.

He quickly ran out of qi, and waiting around seemed pointless. Neave would renovate his spirit realm until he ran out of qi, eat a few monsters to fill up his qi reserves, and return to renovation.

The first thing he changed now was that he started by creating a massive mountain of steel in the middle. It wasn’t a mountain per se. It would be more accurate to call it a cone. And as far as its size went, it was truly gigantic. Neave didn’t hold back at all. It stretched as far as he could get it to go. The structure itself had a very steep incline.

He was going to pack with spikes, but after thinking about it, he made it slippery instead.

He would ensure that no matter how many or how big the creatures were, his spirit realm would be a place where he could dig his nose while he beat the trials. He created what could only be called an ocean of acid surrounding the mountain. This time he omitted the spikes since they didn’t do much.

The acid would do just fine. He would have to find a place where he could buy stronger acid to learn how to manifest more powerful acid inside his spirit realm.

Once satisfied with his renovation, Neave evolved his spirit powers one by one.

Neave decided to take all of the spirit powers except for stasis, dragon breath, and the super speedy liver.

Stasis because the crystal golem was already enough of a pain in the ass, while the power itself wasn’t beneficial, at least not momentarily. The liver was self-explanatory, and dragon breath was… Well.

Neave noticed a severe problem with his spirit power set. His offensive capabilities were crap. If he didn’t have a proper weapon, he was rather helpless.

This wasn’t necessarily true by any reasonable metric, but Neave had no reason to be reasonable. He decided against taking dragon breath on one basis.

When he took these powers in the first place, he had made a compromise. There were going to be no more compromises.

The immortal arts would rest upon three core principles.

No weaknesses.

No limits.

No compromise.

Dragon breath came with a limit, a weakness, and a compromise. The limit lay in having only so much fuel, which it had to share with ignite. The weakness was that it couldn’t be used at close range. And the compromise lay in the fact that a big-ass annoying dragon got dropped into the spirit trial.

There was no reason to accept these terms. Neave would get offensive spirit powers that would be much more potent than a bit of hot spit, and he would get them while picking his nose on the top of the steel mountain.

But yeah, everything else added up to quite a bit of power. Perhaps he should rename the immortal arts to ‘the cockroach arts’ instead.

He worried that the steel and crystal golem would have to be dispatched manually. He would be outraged if he had to go down there at the end of every spirit trial just to deal with them. Luckily for him, although it took quite a while of waiting, the acid could, with enough waiting, dispatch them as well.

After he was done with his new power acquisition, he tried himself in the caves against a few monsters.

It didn’t even look like a challenge. He didn’t encounter any platinum-rank monsters, so he was crushing everything in his path.

He noticed that his absorb, or rather, integrate spirit power was doing much better at absorbing the beneficial effects of monster flesh. He wasn’t back to growing incredibly quickly from doing it, but he was back to the benefits being noticeable.

The more unusual thing that was happening was the cores. They would still crack and evaporate, but he felt they weren’t just going nowhere.

Neave immediately stopped the hunt to check his spirit. He couldn’t sense anything unusual. This was something he would have to explore later.

For now, he decided to wrap up the hunt and go back to the capital. Neave had collected many monster cores. He would pick through those later. At first glance, none of them were awe-inspiring.

Neave had a relatively simple idea to acquire a few decent cores. He would return to the capital for now and do one thing at a time.

After a while of running back, which was going by significantly faster with ignite and thunder nerves, he made it to the capital. He slowed down and shapeshifted into his young master disguise.

The moment he reached their new sect premises, Neave frowned.

A black-robed cultivator stood in front of their sect building, accompanied by an elderly man.