Immortal Paladin

[POV: Da Wei]

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying in the hallway of an abandoned hospital. The fracture that had connected this place to the False Earth was nowhere to be seen. I looked around and found my companions still intact, which was reassuring until I realized we were all completely naked.

“Don’t look!” N’wa screeched, immediately covering herself.

So innocent.

Ru Qiu tried to weave clothing out of quintessence, only to come up empty-handed. “Qi doesn’t seem to exist in this place,” he said, sounding annoyed. ”It feels unwieldy to the touch.”

Tao Long examined himself, then frowned. “I can’t transmute my scales into clothes, either. This isn’t a qi problem.”

I glanced around the decrepit hallway before explaining, “Mana and qi don’t play nice inside the Tower. The last time I was here, it was a really buggy experience for me. Within the Tower, the Laws predate almost everything, much like the rules of the False Earth, except the suppression here is almost nonexistent.”

”So, are we screwed?” asked Tao Long.

”Not really. We’d be fine. Rulers of Laws like me are in our element in this place, so get ready to be carried by me!” I tried to sound optimistic, but the words felt increasingly like a sales pitch I was trying to convince myself to believe.

The Earth-like architecture surrounding us did absolutely nothing to inspire confidence, especially considering what being back here implied.

“Everyone, raid whatever rooms you can find. Look for clothes, anything that will cover you,” I ordered. “Try to find something that doesn’t make us look like we escaped from an asylum while you’re at it.”

Hei Mei immediately grabbed the redhead, dragging N’wa down one hallway in search of something wearable, while Tao Long stayed with Nongmin. Ru Qiu came with me as we searched the nearby rooms.

Through the windows, I could see a civilization outside that looked disturbingly familiar. It resembled Earth, yet everything about it felt subtly wrong, as though I were looking at a copy of a place I knew without understanding what had been changed.

“What’s our strategy, Da Wei?” Ru Qiu asked.

“What do you mean?” I replied, pretending not to understand. In reality, I was already running countless simulations through the Ophanim, sorting through possible futures while we searched the rooms.

“The last time the two of us fought the Supreme Void’s avatar, he walked us down like we were nothing.”

I knew exactly what he meant. He was not talking about the Ascension Games. He was referring to that strange recorded past we had entered around the time of the Hollowed World War, when we had traveled into a different timeline looking for answers. I had been lost back then, chasing a solution to a problem I could barely define, and that entire experience had become one of the strangest and most memorable things I had ever endured.

It had been fun in a twisted sort of way, but it had also been terrible. After Ru Qiu kidnapped the Yellow Emperor’s piece of existence from the False Earth, the Supreme Void had used that fragment to incarnate and proceeded to kick our asses so thoroughly that even remembering it made me wince.

“It’s not that bad,” I argued. “When he kicked our ass back then, he was operating at least at the level of a Ruler of Laws. Even with the suppression of the Hollowed World, he got us beat, since he have more experience than us. We were only Ascended Souls back then. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight. The current circumstances are vastly different.”

Fortunately, we eventually found a room full of clothes. I grabbed a pair of pants and a lab coat while Ru Qiu settled for an undersized shirt and shorts. I looked him over and grinned. “Looking good there, buddy.”

“Fuck you,” he snapped.

“Cover yourself, and have some dignity,” Tao Long said as he passed us.

I looked up and almost laughed. Tao Long was wearing a floral shirt paired with a long, frilly skirt. Apparently, dignity was relative. I buttoned my lab coat and stepped into the hallway, where I immediately stopped when I saw Nongmin. He was wearing a patient’s gown and looking about as dignified as the rest of us.

We regrouped and went searching for Hei Mei and N’wa. We eventually found Hei Mei wearing a garbage bag paired with bunny pajamas. I stared for a moment before deciding that, somehow, it was actually a remarkable piece of improvisation. N’wa had taken things in a completely different direction. She was dressed in a nurse’s outfit, although the skirt was so short that it showed far more skin than any respectable uniform should have. It looked less like something meant for a hospital and more like something intended for a very different kind of establishment.

Ru Qiu looked around at the lot of us and sighed. “We need to find proper and more respectable clothes soon.”

I could not argue with him. No matter how I looked at us, we resembled either a group of hobos or several people who had recently escaped from a mental hospital. We looked suspicious enough that I would have crossed the street to avoid us.

Then N’wa found something else.

“What should I do with this?” she asked, holding out a strange object.

I looked over and immediately recognized the ball gag.

“Leave it,” Ru Qiu said, almost pleadingly.

Tao Long, Hei Mei, and Nongmin gathered around it with genuine curiosity. None of them seemed to have the slightest idea what it was. Tao Long wondered if it might be some sort of neck accessory, while Hei Mei suggested it could be a bracelet. Nongmin considered whether it might serve some other function altogether. The bright red ball certainly stood out, and after enough speculation, they seemed to settle on the possibility that it was simply some kind of ball with a rope attached to it.

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I put a palm over my face. “Please, just leave it.”

N’wa ignored me and slipped the rope around her neck instead. “I think this is more appropriate as a necklace. I think I’m keeping it. It really matches my hair.”

Fuuuuck.

Whatever. I decided it was easier to accept defeat than argue with N’wa about a ball gag necklace.

I cast Cleanse on her, then figured I might as well do the same for everyone else. Whatever strange residue or hospital grime had accumulated on us disappeared immediately. Ru Qiu looked down at himself and sighed with relief.

“Thanks. These clothes were kind of itchy, honestly.”

I looked around at my companions once more. Clean or not, we still looked ridiculous. Somehow, that felt oddly reassuring. At least we were all still alive.

“Before we go anywhere, let me give you a crash course on the Tower,” I said.

When I first came to this place, I had also found myself naked, just like we were now. However, I doubted my experience was an accurate representation of what we were dealing with. I had entered the Tower through a loophole, so whatever rules had applied to me back then might not have been the same ones governing our current situation.

“The first thing you need to know is that our pocket dimensions are sealed here. Don’t expect to reach into your storage, summon some hidden space, or rely on whatever dimensional tricks you normally use. Your powers still work, but they work differently. The Tower places far more emphasis on the Laws contained within your techniques, so the nature of your abilities matters more than usual.”

I raised a finger.

“The second thing is resource management. Cooldowns, energy consumption, recovery time, all of it matters. Don’t charge into a fight assuming you can spam your strongest techniques indefinitely. If this place really works the way I remember, wasting your energy could get you killed.”

I paused before adding the strangest part.

“And then there are Classes and stats.”

If I said being inside the Tower felt like being inside a game, only Ru Qiu would understand what I meant. I wasn’t sure about Nongmin, but judging by his expression, he clearly had no idea what I was talking about whenever I mixed Earth references into our conversations. That was something I would need to discuss with him eventually, especially after everything we had recently learned about his connection to the Yellow Emperor and the Supreme Heart.

“For now, that’s about as much as I can tell you,” I concluded. “We don’t actually know much about the Tower. Most of what I know comes from my previous experience here, and even that experience was abnormal. What we do know is that the Supreme Heart built this place from the Wheel of Reincarnation.”

I deliberately left out one possibility.

The Supreme Void might have influenced this place.

I had no proof, and bringing it up would only make everyone more paranoid without giving us anything useful to work with.

Instead, I opened my system interface.

My Class immediately caught my attention.

[Class: Tower Master]

[Class: Immortal Paladin]

I stared at the two entries for a moment. At least this time, the system interface wasn’t glitching or displaying complete nonsense. The numbers attached to my stats looked believable as well, although I would need to examine them more carefully before I trusted them completely.

Still, our situation seemed to be turning for the better.

The Tower recognized me as its master.

That had to mean something.

I glanced around and found the others staring at their own interfaces. To them, the whole thing probably looked rather impressive. Their Classes also seemed to fit them surprisingly well.

“What do the numbers mean?” N’wa asked. ”What is a Level?”

Above her head floated a simple display.

[Dark Witch]

[Level 99]

Ru Qiu glanced at it and nodded. “Dark Witch, huh? No wonder you felt familiar. The Level indicates how strong you are. Another way of putting it is that it serves as a numerical representation of your cultivation realm. As for your Class, it’s a description of your essence communicated through words.”

Above Ru Qiu’s head appeared another display.

[Heavenly Demon]

[Level 999]

I still didn’t completely understand the deal with epithets, but I remembered that Ru Qiu and N’wa had possessed the same designations during the Ascension Games. The same had been true for me. Their Classes seemed to reflect the essence they had already revealed back then.

N’wa stared at her Level, then glanced around at everyone else’s numbers with an increasingly sullen expression.

Hei Mei was Level 375.

Nongmin was Level 480.

Tao Long was Level 500.

Nongmin and Tao Long were firmly around the Ascended Soul realm, so I imagined Hei Mei was approaching Perfect Immortal. N’wa, meanwhile, seemed to be sitting right at the peak of Spirit Mystery.

Ru Qiu looked at my Level and immediately frowned. “Why is your Level higher than mine?”

I looked up.

[Level 1,200]

I couldn’t help smiling. “You’re really complaining about that after you just beat my ass?”

“That has nothing to do with this.”

“Of course it does.”

“I beat you.”

“You caught me at a disadvantage.”

Ru Qiu narrowed his eyes. “Want another round?”

I immediately looked away. “We should leave the hospital and find some proper clothes. We’ve already sacrificed enough of our dignity today.”

Ru Qiu grumbled something under his breath, but thankfully, he didn’t pursue the matter.

The truth was that I hadn’t been holding back during our spar. His Supremacy Trait had simply made an enormous difference. The only reason my Level was higher than his was likely because my cultivation had reached the Ruler of Laws realm, which was a major realm above his current state. The numbers weren’t necessarily an indication of who would win a fight.

Once we left the hospital, eyes immediately gathered on us. Then those eyes quickly looked away. I couldn’t blame them. We looked like a bunch of hobos rather than celestial immortals from another world.

“I’ll lead the way,” I said. “Ru Qiu and I will handle anything dangerous. Everyone else, follow our lead and don’t wander off.”

Through the Ophanim, I could already see countless possibilities unfolding around us. I used it to observe the surrounding city and rapidly gather information, following several potential routes before settling on one. For once, using these eyes didn’t give me a nosebleed. It was surprisingly pleasant to use the Ophanim without feeling like my brain was being squeezed dry.

One possible route ended with us getting into a fight with a group of homeless people because of a misunderstanding.

I took the opposite route.

The rest of my companions stared wide-eyed at the world around them. Cars moved through the streets, enormous LED billboards illuminated the buildings, and posters covered walls everywhere we looked. Ru Qiu barely reacted. He had already seen enough of Earth’s strange civilization to be familiar with it.

Eventually, I stopped in front of a building.

I sighed.

“Beat everyone you see. Loot the place.”

Tao Long looked at the building, then back at me. “How tough of an opposition are we talking about?”

I kicked the door open.

Several men in suits turned toward us.

[Level 10]

[Level 15]

[Level 12]

[Level 8]

And so on.

Nongmin looked them over with genuine confusion.

“They don’t look very strong.”

The men immediately started cursing.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Get the fuck out of here!”

“Look at these damn hobos!”

“Did you idiots wander out of a mental hospital?”

One of them pointed at us. “You think you can just walk in here?”

I looked back at my companions.

“They’re bad guys. Local gangsters.”

I gestured toward the thugs.

“Let’s beat them up and farm some equipment.”