*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
The loud noise coming from outside woke Luke up from his deep slumber. After he leveled up to an absurd level, he immediately ran towards the mountain and reinforced his shack with a building material named Althurite. Since he only had two to three minutes of use on the Strength Optimizer card, he rushed it and just placed it all around his shack, making it look like it was done by a child.
Though, the strength of Althurite shouldn't be underestimated. Since Luke now has the ability to buy items from Spirit Core realm, Althurite also has the same, if not a stronger defence than a Spirit Core cultivator. Althurite could be found deep underground and is known to be the strongest and hardest to find material in a first-tier kingdom.
"What year is it?" Luke said as he rubbed his eyes and yawned at the same time.
Truth be told, he was worried as hell. Not only is his shack reinforced 'Ghetto style', but there was also even a possibility of a person or a beast coming across his shack. Out of all the things in the mountain, his shack stood out the most since it has a bluish metallic look to it caused by the Althurite. If someone couldn't see his shack from a distance, then they are truly blind.
[Host has been in hibernation for two months. Host's strength has been fully updated, and Host could now use the strength of a Spirit Core cultivator to its fullest.]
"Senior, it's almost breaking!" A young voice exclaimed outside.
"Let's see the food we could eat," After the voice of an old man finished, a loud bang rung out, fully waking up Luke.
The place where his door should've been exploded, and after the dust subsided, a gaping hole could be seen, revealing a couple of students and an old man wearing some kind of Daoist robe. A vein could be seen bulging in Luke's forehead, he was truly enraged. He stood up from his bed and took his gun out from his holster.
The shape, size, and color of the gun seemed to differ from last time. Last time it looked really similar to a Glock from his previous world, but now it looked like the Ravaging Wolf that he fought. It's color scheme changed from a brownish color to black and red color, the same as the wolf.
Its shape looked thousands of times different than last time. Just in front of the trigger guard is a shiny, metallic knife similar to the wolf's fangs, but his knife let out a reddish light. The gun was clad in all black, and some parts were glowing red, if not for the fact that Luke has bonded with the gun, he would've thought it was a different weapon altogether.
The students and the old man outside saw a figure approaching them from inside the mysterious house they found, "Stand back," the old man said.
"Who dares to destroy my house!?"
A shabby-looking man walked out, his eyes were burning red and was fuming. The old man didn't immediately notice the man's features, but he instead looked at what the man was holding since the crimson red light that came out of the object caught his eye.
'A demonic cultivator!'
Cold sweat formed in the old man's forehead and his back.
There are two ways to advance in cultivation, the Devil's path, or the Righteous path. Two of which have the same goal, but one's way is different from the other. The Devil's path consists of sacrificing a life to attain a higher cultivation, the reason it is called the Devil's path is because of the number of lives taken. Once a cultivator walks this path, their thirst for power would never be quenched, as their lives have already been sold to the being they have been contracted with.
Cultivators who have chosen the Devil's path aren't few, but they are rare to come by since they would frequently change their appearance and personality to lure out victims. The Righteous path, on the other hand, does the opposite. Although some of the cultivators that chose this path aren't all good people, the good people are still a majority.
The old man cupped his hands and beckoned the students behind him to do the same. Encountering a demonic cultivator isn't one of their plans, but they still need to be respectful, "S-senior, we come from Brilliant Sword Sect in the neighboring mountain. We apologize for destroying your humble abode."
"Brilliant Sword Sect, huh?" Luke snickered, "Just because your sect has a domineering name doesn't mean you could destroy other people's houses!"
Luke calmed himself down, but he still pointed his gun at the old man, and said with a cold, indifferent voice, "Speak. Why are you guys here? This is the Mountains of Despair, and not just anyone could successfully get in or out without losing a limb or two."
An awkward laugh came from the old man, he didn't reply but instead pointed his finger to a few disciples. The ones he pointed at were three to be exact. One has a severed arm at the same spot where Luke lost his. Another one looked normal on the outside, but his internal organs were about to fail because of a fight with a spirit beast. And the last one has one of his legs and arm bitten off by a beast. There were five students in total, and Luke was sure that the others were either killed or abandoned.
"W-we were just entering the outer parts of the forest when one of the disciples chased a spirit beast. It was my duty to guard the children in this expedition so I followed the disciple to the inner parts." A trace of guilt could be seen in the old man's eyes, "Then, a few disciples followed me to find the missing disciple. It was at that moment when we realized how complex the forest was. In the inner part of the forest we found parts of an array, I am merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but I am an expert Array master. Though, my spiritual Qi isn't enough to break the array.
"We were hungry, we had no food to eat, and we couldn't find the entrance. So when I saw senior's house, I... I destroyed it."
Luke's laugh echoed throughout the land, "Food!? You broke my house just for goddamn food!? Old man, you know you could hunt food in the wilderness, no? Don't tell me you can't even do that?"
The forest has tons of food available for picking, even Luke would take a few fruits here and there to get a taste of the food here. He didn't know if the old man was joking or he was truly serious about having no food to eat. He pointed his gun to the old man's head and let out a laugh, "You can't fool me, old man."
The old man saw the mysterious object gathering Qi at a rapid speed, he hadn't seen such a pure, and abundant Qi getting gathered in one place. The old man kneeled down, he couldn't possibly beat such a powerful spirit tool, "N-no, senior, you don't get it."
After assuring that the mysterious man stopped gathering Qi using the mysterious spirit tool, the old man continued, "You may have been gathering food at the core of the forest which is the mountain. But I assure you, we don't have malicious intent. We have been stuck in this forest for about one and a half months. I may not need food for now, but the disciples urgently need to eat. And since I gathered all of my Qi to... destroy senior's house, I don't have enough energy to hunt and gather food."
"Are you stupid, old man!? You gambled all of your spirit Qi to destroy my shack in hopes to find food!?" At this point, Luke got enough of the old man's BS, "If you hunted food for your disciples and not break my shack, you would've all lived."
"S-senior, I may not be of use for you, but I have knowledge in arrays." the old man hurriedly said. It was evident that the old man was terrified.
"And why do I need an array master?"
"To escape this mountain." A trace of fear could be heard in the old man's voice as he spoke. Although it wasn't clear what the old man was afraid of, but it must be connected to the mountain.