Another morning, I awoke to a gorgeous green quilt covering me. Jia.
I took with me, inside of the new space within me. I went to thank her, but she had fallen asleep, the machine still running.
Now, it was time to share some of the glory. I went to Mo Yang's chambers, and he was laying on his bed, reading from a stack of books.
Everyday, he grew a little weaker, the aura of death making itself known. I had guessed it long ago, but he was slowly dying, the energy in his body fading everyday. Perhaps he just didn't have the strength to keep on going.
He was not physically ill, so I could not heal him. This scar was on the soul, and for a cultivator, that was deadly. Even rabbits are known to die of heartbreak. I looked at the frail figure, and stood there for a moment.
"Hey, Mo Yang, what are you doing, just lazing about?" I spoke much more casually with him.
He was clearly startled as he fumbled his book to the floor. He looked at me, and spoke just as casually
"Ha, don't you knock, kid? I could've been doing anything here." he grabbed his book off the floor.
"Well, if I hear the sounds of moaning outside I'll make sure not to enter."
He laughed a rough and scratchy laugh. "What do you want? You better not tell me you need more money, I swear."
I suddenly produced piles of cores, valuable beast parts, and held a few souls in my hand.
His mouth dropped, and he looked very confused.
"Where did you steal this?" He was quite doubtful. "The last thing we need is a legitimate excuse for one of the other 3 clans to decimate us."
I put on an exaggeratedly pained expression "steal? I…would never! How could you even think this? You should be ashamed."
"Well, I did have some elders of the Han tribe come to me and tell me you extorted 2,000 stones from one of their young masters." He looked at me disapprovingly.
"He whipped me, it was only a fair compensation. Look, these beast cores are fresh. You know I'm a beast, and beasts go hunting. These things are useless to me, and I have a plan." I stated.
"What plan?" He eyed me curiously.
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With Jia's help, we made posters, and placed them all over the town. These posters were for a tournament hosted by the Mo clan.
A list of all the items was present on the poster. It simply stated a date, a location, a time, and claimed that the winner shall take all. Many onlookers scoffed at the posters, others taking them with glowing eyes.
"Ha, is the Mo clan selling its entire treasury? Have they gone mad? They are certain to lose it all."
"This is curious, do they have a member they think can defeat the cultivators in the west?"
"Arrogant, brash, idiotic. It would be crazy not to go…"
That last one was me trying to hype up the crowd. I saw the commotion, and knew that a large turnout would be likely. If only out of morbid curiosity.
Honestly, I'm surprised Mo Yang agreed to the plan. He was hesitant at first, but he told me that since they were my materials, I could do what I wanted with them.
The tournament was going to be held in the Mo clans courtyard, in a few days time.
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The next days passed idly. My automated breathing technique was still going, but the results were still minimal. Regardless, after consuming that lion-bodied beast in the desert sands, my strength had grown enormously. In my estimates, I was at the high outer-field realm in terms of evolution, but my strength and unique transformations probably put my strength at the domain level.
One day, I would encounter a world with beasts like me.
"This is boring… There is no point in helping this clan. Just sell the materials and go conquer, as a true beast should." said the Lord of stars.
"That's not how things work, dumbass, you gotta build a reputation and plausible image in the world. This way I can act under the radar."
"That's right. If we go around conquering, the people of this world may team up and end us. We need to be tactical at all times." Au-ha agreed.
"You know what, you two have been getting on my nerves. I'm returning to the deepest recess of the mind until something fun happens, I can't stand this mental coitus any longer. See you in hell." The lord stated, and suddenly, I felt that bit of starlight no longer floating in my mind.
"What happened? Is he gone?"
"He has just hidden in your personal unconsciousness, don't worry about it." she claimed. "Finally, we can spend some quality time together. I didn't want to say it, but he has always irritated me."
That seemed pretty obvious already. Regardless, The Lord had grown tired of my attitude. It seems he would be much better suited to have a monster or demon as a host.
"I agree, I'm so lucky to have you, my digital queen."
She chuckled, and that night, was the most passionate of our spiritual fornication. This was now a holy ritual, to have sex inside my mind every night. Wild, wild stuff. I know.
Dreams really do come true
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The day of the tournament came round at last. The turnout was quite good, thousands of cultivators had filled the entire clan. This was how a clan was supposed to be, but there were less than 100 total members of the Mo Clan at this point.
Mo Yang looked about with soft and shining eyes. A gentle man, who could see a phantom of what his clan should be.
I scanned the crowd, and saw Hon Fu. I walked next to him, as he stood alone. When he saw me coming, he casually waved. None of the other young masters of the tribes appeared.
"What's up, Star?" He was pretty friendly all of the sudden. "Haha, don't worry, I'm just here to watch the show."
"Have you been whipping anyone lately?" I questioned.
"No!" he said emphatically. Well… just a little whipping, you know, one or two strikes every hour."
"That's way too much! You're addicted to whipping people!" I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You need some serious help, brother."
"I know…" he weakly responded.
The tournament started. Many people fought, and I saw glimpses of many styles. Summoned phantom limbs, elements of all sorts and colors, qi based techniques of swords and fists, even some bodily transformations.
The Young lords of the clans had not appeared, Hon fu spoke bitterly of his brother, who he said was the true heir. Zhu Gen was certainly afraid of me, and the others would simply not come. To compete in a tournament like this would be harmful to their reputation.
Well, this was going to be easy.
Since every fight was going to end in a victory, I decided to make it interesting somehow. In my head, The Tournament was told in poetry.
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When I went up, there was a guy the size of a lamb. I would use the term little person to describe him, because I'm a good man. He held up two axes that were flickering of sand.
He threw one, then the other. Both were swatted away with simple magnetic pushes, one after another. I front kicked him straight in the chest, or it would've been normally, but this landed on his head, and he flew far, far away, almost dead.
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The second one, the second coming. Another man with axes came running. This time he was big, large, and stout. As he roared and ran, he gave a large shout.
When they landed, the ground cracked ever so slightly apart. I saw an opening, and jabbed at his heart. He clutched his chest and fell. This fight was over as well.
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Third time, not a charm for them. I didn't get why there were so many men. Another big build, shirtless and muscular, this time though, he summoned bits of fires that appeared molecular.
Now, my martial stance came out, and I fought. I rushed in and gave a right hook to his head, which now lacked all thought. He was stunned for a minute, at that moment my tail finished it.
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Three crushing victories in a row, the crowd began to grow. They chattered and talked, and wondered in a collective thought. 'Who is that man', 'Where did he come from?' I have never seen him before.
Coming on the stage was some man once more. He was small, skinny, frail. His young eyes showed the feeling that he could not fail. To my surprise, he turned into a rock-man, and flew a boulder which landed with a (blam!).
Rocks were strong, but metal was stronger. Alloy is metal, combined with chemicals, even longer. The brute force of that lion with a man's head, turned the granite slab into broken lead.
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Finally, I celebrated. A woman appeared - with her clothing very understated. She gave me a wink, and for a moment I could not think. She was upon me! Fist of liquid fire, but unfortunate for her, my skin was as strong as elastic steel wire.
I gave her a hug, and she quickly called out defeat. She knew that one squeeze would turn her into meat.
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The fifth was not worthy of note, he simply stood on the stage, still as a grounded boat. He instantly called defeat, and walked away, without shame. I was impressed by his ability to remain tame.
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The sixth was a unique warrior and innovator who used the tools of cultivators. He shot out a weird kite that summoned strikes of light. He threw out a toy duck that hit like a truck, he had many flying items, treasures, materials, and more.
I had to admit, they all kind of seemed like a chore, one fine kick to the neck and he fell on the floor.
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The last, at last, to my surprise came a girl. She had on a nice dress, and even gave it a twirl. The audience whistled and howled.
I'm not sure what was going on, as no normal protocols were being followed.
She just looked at the audience and continued to please them. She seemed like some kind of a sex demon
I sat and waited, until finally the sky faded, and when night came, a monster she became. A transformation into a beast. Only temporary, only borrowed, it could not compare to the original garden that Eden flowered.
As two beasts, we traded strikes back and forth. Fast and vicious, we were not fighting as humans, but something blasphemous.
She was of flesh, and was thus torn asunder. Amazingly, her wounds healed faster than the strike of lightning before thunder.
Faster than me, I was offended, I pulled out my third eye and blasted down the beast that only pretended.
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I would later publish this, under the name of Mo Star. I called it the "Tournament of Poems" and it gained quite a bit of traction.