Immortal Paladin

[POV: Da Wei]

We dropped off the carriage and took the train. First-class seats, private cabin and all. My companions didn’t seem to appreciate it, though.

Tao Long complained, “We could’ve just flown our way if our qi wasn’t so restricted.”

Nongmin added, “We could’ve skipped this journey if you let us ride on your back.”

Tao Long snorted. “The atmosphere didn’t suit it. What am I? Your personal mount? Now, if it’s an army of demons from a Hell’s Gate and my task requires me to bring someone from one place to another, then fine, maybe I could tolerate it, but your mount? No, it’s humiliating. Moreover, maintaining my dragon form is very expensive.”

Nongmin scoffed. “Says the guy who was being paranoid the first fifteen minutes we got here. I thought you might actually chicken out at the last moment.”

Tao Long sneered. “We’re basically in the belly of a beast. Any second of our existence here raises our chances of getting gobbled up. Nongmin, aren’t you being too talkative right now? It’s annoying. Why don’t you return to your usual stoic act and just shut up.”

They were like two friends arguing over the most mundane reasons, so different from what one might expect of the xianxia genre. Granted, they were in fact close friends as I understood it. Just estranged for a time and only reconnected after Nongmin basically retired and Tao Long took more important duties in my inner circle. As opposed to the two of them, N’wa was very quiet. She sat silently observing the window and examining the cabin.

A staff member pushed a tray into our private cabin and asked. “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Might I offer you anything? A restorative cordial, some fine sweets, or whatever else may please?”

“A newspaper, if you please,” I said, then turned to my companions. “Anyone want something?”

“The most expensive liquor you keep aboard. Nothing less.” Tao Long said, looking bored.

“And tea,” added Nongmin. “I am rather curious.”

N’wa remained quiet, but her eyes now glared at them.

The staff member expertly served our needs, commenting on the newspaper, the liquor, and the tea with a few recommendations. Nongmin said he’d like a cup. Tao Long wanted an entire bottle. The staff billed me, and I paid on the spot with a huge gold coin, telling him to keep the change as a tip. I idly read through the newspaper, frowning at the headline. ‘Council of City-States and Sun Republic Clash in Major Skirmish Over Vast Spirit Stone Mining Reserve.’ I couldn’t focus on my reading, though, given that N’wa was staring at me like I had killed her parents.

“What?” I asked.

She complained, glancing at my companions. “For an Outsider, you sure know how to blend in.”

Tao Long casually remarked. “Blend in? I doubt that. Take it from someone who is a member and the current acting leader of an organization founded on the ideals of fighting off and defending his world from existences we labeled ‘Outsiders’. Anything you know about Outsiders, forget about them, because you know nothing about them. This label is completely meaningless. Put too much faith in the meaning that you think you know, and you’d lose your path quickly. Also, this liquor is shit.”

I remarked. “It’s for mortal consumption, and even if the suppression of this world has great effects on us, I imagine your dragon body would process all of that shit up before you feel its effects.”

Tao Long continued complaining. “Still, I should feel something, right? The suppression compared to the previous age had weakened after all…”

Yeah. In the past, Ren Jingyi would actually return into a goldfish, and Hei Mao might be consumed by his ghost constitution. In Tao Long’s case, he’d turn to either a fish or just completely become human. This world was created with a human-centric vision after all, based on the idea of Earth and its mundane qualities.

“Let me help you with that.” I held out a finger and struck certain points in his body. “Something I learned from a certain Divine Physician.”

Tao Long took a good gulp straight from the bottle. “Fuuuuck… I think my throat burned up a little.”

A scream suddenly erupted outside. Through the window, hooded men could be seen being tossed from the train.

“What?” N’wa remarked in confusion. “H-How?”

She tried to stand up, ready to fight, but Tao Long suddenly held out a dragon spear, pinning her in place. At the same time, two invisible puppets revealed themselves, sticking into the roof and walls with sharp, sword-like appendages pointed at her most vulnerable soft parts.

I remarked. “Now, the ‘other me’ would need to lift a finger at bare minimum to subdue you. Me? I only need a glance.”

Even with my Divine Sense alone, I could sniff out the faintest killing intent or the very thought of wishing me harm. A very small glimpse, like a hundredth of a microsecond with Ophanim, would reveal her tricks to me. And that was how I knew she had secretly sent a report and request for backup from her Slayer Order to ambush this train. Informing Nongmin and Tao Long in advance had practically solved the problem.

Despite being found out, N’wa coolly rebuked. “If you truly think you are who you are, you will not kill me. Powerful beings have a need to be right, ruled by their ego.”

She was cool as a cucumber on the surface, but she was in fact scared for her dear life.

“And how do you know that?” Nongmin challenged. “How many ‘powerful beings,’ as you put it, have you actually stared in the eyes to make such a grand statement? To you, we might appear as powerful beings, but you couldn’t be more wrong. The frog trapped in a well doesn’t know the vastness of the ocean—”

She cut him off arrogantly. “Yet they know the vastness of the sky, and I’ve seen it.”

I could sense her faith was strong, and it was certainly directed at someone.

Tao Long sighed. “You have no idea. With my breath alone, I could destroy an entire country. And if I somehow fail, I could just breathe a second time. Nongmin here has a small contingent of his puppets just on the roof of this train, dealing with your comrades with ease. And Nongmin can summon an entire army of them that would destroy an entire civilization if he called for it—I’ve seen him actually do that. Da Wei here? If you knew half of his feats, you’d be quaking in your boots right now. I saw him drop two continents consecutively on a godly existence who I can’t even compare their pinky finger with.”

Hello from the author’s actual platform, NovelPhoenix: this chapter was copied onto this site without permission.

I faked a cough, feeling nervous. “Enough, Tao Long. It’s embarrassing.”

Tao Long rolled his eyes and continued. “These are the kind of ‘Outsiders’ you are dealing with. The only reason you are alive now is for some fucking reason Da Wei thinks we need you.”

I insisted. “We need her.”

Not right now, of course. The last time I went mano a mano with the Supreme Void, I got folded. The Ascension Games were rigged in ways that the players couldn’t win, so I had to start scheming my own.

I addressed N’wa. “This is what I am going to do. I will make you want to learn about your memories of your past life. If you do, I will proceed to convince you to fight by my side.”

N’wa asked, almost in an angry manner. “And if I don’t play along?”

I answered honestly. “Then you continue playing this life, the next, and then the next. It’s a life, and it is yours. As they say, ignorance is bliss. If you choose to still not fight by my side upon the knowledge I wish to share with you, then fine… I will go so far as to erase your memories, if you wish.”

N’wa said. “So, an illusion of choice. You could’ve just forced this knowledge on me, and I can’t do anything.”

I answered confidently, “No. Your consent is very important. Only through that way can I break your faith through Him.”

There was faith, and then there was fanaticism. I had no idea which case N’wa fell into, but I did have an idea who the “Him” was whom she put her faith into. A good two thousand years had already passed since I sealed the Supreme Void. There was no way the Supreme Void hadn’t done some shifty shit already. According to my sister, the Supreme Void was divided between the physical vessel and the mental self. While the physical vessel could express itself outside the Hollowed World through its sheer existence and power, the mental self was trapped within the Hollowed World, creating the False Earth.

The Void Beasts spawned from the Supreme Void’s physical vessel were a bit easier to deal with, but the mental self was a different story. I couldn’t even keep up with this guy’s schemes back in the Ascension Games. Looking back, I was pretty certain I had missed quite a lot of his schemes, and there might even be ongoing ones that I hadn’t seen. If Void had his way, he could’ve stolen my nephew’s body, maybe my sister’s, or worse, mine.

In the duration of that entire fiasco, the bastard had led me to believe that he was the Lost Supreme or the Game Master. I thought the two titles might even be the same for a time, but looking back, they were definitely unrelated. The guy was a very impressive gaslighter on top of the home-field advantages he stacked up in his favor.

Back then, if it weren’t for the Yellow Emperor being in my corner, I would’ve lost. And now? The Yellow Emperor had become the enemy. Without the Yellow Emperor, I felt considerably less safe while staying here in the False Earth.

The train conductor’s voice rang out clearly through the cabin. “We have arrived at the station. Simpson City. All passengers, please prepare to disembark.”

We reached Simpson City, a burgeoning free city controlled by a free government made of refugees now-turned adventurers.

I leaned closer and whispered to N’wa. “Don’t try pulling the same tricks again. I’ve already implied to your allies that you betrayed them. By now, one of my maids is sending a letter taunting the Slayer Order, addressed to the same place you used for your reports: the old warehouse district, Sublevel Three, under the broken clock tower on East Hollow Road.”

“Wh-what?”

I walked ahead and remarked. “Come on. We’ll do a tour.”

Simpson was not that big of a city, but it was lively. This city had been created in part because of the Tower’s presence. The Tower in question was quite huge. It was so massive that it would cast a shadow over the entire city at a certain hour of the day.

We stopped by a huge statue.

A boy no older than fifteen stood at its base, barking up historical facts about the founder of this city. “Simpson Homer! Adventurer, folk hero, and founder of the Adventurer’s Guild! He single-handedlyfought the greedy capitalists, rallied the refugees, and built this free city with nothing but grit and steel!”

I sighed. “He really let go, huh?”

Tao Long sounded unimpressed, looking at the statue. “Hmph.”

Nongmin remarked. “It seems in character for Ru Qiu, though.”

N’wa asked in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Tao Long teased her. “That statue portrayed as Simpson Homer is in fact the Heavenly Demon, Ru Qiu. If your Slayer Order really has records of that time that painted our lot as the bad guys, then you should have an idea who this guy was.”

A look of shock and fear appeared in N’wa’s eyes. “No way. It’s that demon. I… I… Simpson Homer is an Outsider.”

Tao Long scoffed. “You’d be surprised. He’s actually a native of this world.”

He was clearly enjoying N’wa’s reactions. Tao Long hadn’t even been there when it happened, but he almost had a scholastic level of understanding of what went down during that period of time. It helped that he heard firsthand testimony of the events that led to New Willow’s entry into the Hollowed World in part because of the ’outsider quality’ of the flying city. In fact, I believed he had participated in the documentation of the entire event. There were also the Chronicles, a retelling of my feats.

Nongmin took on a serious tone. “N’wa, if there’s one thing you should understand? This world is not a world at all, but the belly of a beast. And the world as we know it, or, in the literal sense, could describe it, is a cage.”

“Let’s go find our people,” I said.

The actual facility of the research group was hidden somewhere in this city. The same went for the outpost and the orbital elevator by the Tower. It had been an unexpected development, but a lot of the bases and resources we used here in the False Earth had come straight out of Ru Qiu’s pocket. The man had been going back and forth between the Hollowed World and the False Earth so often he’d basically become a one-man logistics network for everyone we had on this side.

Tao Long voiced the question that had clearly been sitting on his tongue. “Why don’t Ru Qiu just fly us out of here?”

I glanced at him.

“Because the Warden would crush us. It makes us easy targets. Even I have a hard time doing it without being detected, but Ru Qiu makes it look easy. His Supremacy Trait is a perfect match-up, honestly. And I’m supposed to be higher realm than the guy. Granted, there’s supernatural suppression, but still… He’s just built for that…”

I remembered the one time Ru Qiu had dragged the Yellow Emperor out of the False Earth inside a pocket timeline. Now that I thought about it, how the hell could the Yellow Emperor even exist in this world while he was off fucking around the Greater Universe and playing Supreme Heart? If I’d had proper safeguards in place, I might have actually stayed here in the False Earth to investigate. But I couldn’t risk it. I had no idea when Void would suddenly decide to kickstart an apocalypse or start an Ascension Game. The sooner we were out of here, the safer this world would be.

“What is the Warden?” N’wa asked.

Tao Long grinned. “Oh, you are gonna love the Warden.”

Nongmin added in a completely deadpan tone. “The Warden is an enemy of all Outsiders, defender of your precious little world.”

I blinked, not entirely sure I’d heard him right. Had Nongmin just used sarcasm? Way to go, buddy. Really getting out of your shell, huh? I guessed confronting those daddy issues of his had contributed positively after all. Well, it only costed me almost my dignity.

It was a cinch looking for the research group, but we ended up finding something even better. There he was, looking dapper in a sharp suit, seated at a private table in a luxurious bar. Crystal glasses caught the low golden light. Soft jazz hummed under the murmur of expensive conversation.

The staff tried to stop us the moment we stepped through the door.

“VIP only,” one of them hissed. “You can’t just walk in here.”

Another practically begged, voice cracking, “Please, just leave. The boss is here tonight. Don’t make trouble.”

Someone frantically called for the bouncer, but no one came. I had a pretty good idea why. Tao Long might’ve already given the poor bastard a solid jab to the jaw on the way in.

I spread my hands and swaggered forward, grinning. “Hey, buddy. Mr. Homer, my man.”

Ru Qiu stared at me with pure disappointment, a glass of bourbon resting in his hand. He sighed. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

I answered in a single breath. “I got my ass handed to me, my daughter laced my tea with some shit, my significant half probably schemed with said daughter to exile me here, and oh… I lost my Supremacy Trait. Rough days ahead, my friend.”

Ru Qiu’s eyes lit up like someone had just handed him the best news of the century. “So… I can beat your ass now?”

Dude.

That was seriously the first thing that crossed your mind?