Author review; I found that the system thing was a bit too overbearing in this since I had a different narative use for it then quests and mission. The main character is very casual and doesn't really care about much except power, his cool manuals, and now also the creation of his sect.
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On the sea, where a grand storm raged, and tides were wrathfull.
In the sky 10 humans were flying. 9 were on one side, while 1 was standing against them.
The one that was going against nine was our protagenist Jie Shu, an old man coughing up blood due to internal injuries.
Opposite of him were his 'Disciples', who had all betrayed him while he was breaking through to a new realm never recorded by any before him.
Jie Shu's eyes were filled with hatred and a few traces of insanity "Ahahah! Aaahhhhhahahahah! Are you SuRE- you, YOU want to do this?! AAHAHHAH" More than a little insane honestly.
Instead of answering, all nine of them released their personal avatars and rushed forwards to attack.
One had a demon of blood as their personal avatar with his face. Another had a sword with his family crest. Another had a sexy lady with her face.
With each attack shadows of different things appeared and worked together with the personal avatars to attack.
The giant 70m blood demon worked together with a savage sword to slash 13 times in one second, releasing slashed that flyed towards Jie Shu.
The moving block of metal mixed with a fist, to make a metal fist to rush towards Jie Shu and punch him.
The charming woman that was 50m from head to toe mixed with a to make a beautiful tiger and lunged towards Jie Shu too to claw his eyes out, while he was of a normal size.
While all nine did their best to attack him, Jie Shu used his own 'Shadow' of a sword to parry, deflect, and redirect all the attacks with a crazed smile "Kahahah! ISn'T This fUN?"
He kept deflecting the buddhist palms and the spear pokes of necrotic poison, with less and less enthousiasm "This is boring! Let's mix it up a little. Kahahahak!"
As such, he manifested his own personal avatar after saying "Do you know why no one has seen my avatar and lived to tell the tale? Because I've never needed to use it since I became oh so famous."
Darkness forcefully manifested, and formed a dog, then an ape, then a dragon, then a man, then mountain, quicker and quicker. Until it became a book that dropped into his hand. On it, it said 'Record of oblivion', with a name plate below it stating 'Jie Shu'.
All around 9 leaves seemed to manifest from light, which guided itself onto the book, creating a nine-leaved flower on the back of the book.
If you looked at the other personal avatars closely, they all had incomplete flowers somewhere on them, from 5-8 petals.
The book in Jie Shu's hand changed and morphed into a brass knuckle.
He punched, as the shadow of a sun appeared, then was consumed by the black brass knuckle. His punch caused an intense impact, which took 6 of the disciples to block with slight difficulty.
His avatar then changed to gloves with added-on claws, which absorbed a lion's shadow.
He deflected, and attacked many times. Slowly losing, even when outnumbered 1:9 and with internal injuries.
But Jie Shu wouldn't allow this, his story wasn't done yet "Die! DIe! DIE! DIE! I WiLL NEveR LET TRaTORS LIKE YOU, YOU, YOU!" As his insanity intensify, his avatar turned back into a book.
A new petal, thinner than the ones manifested before. The new petal soared towards the book, it landed inbetween two petals, and forced itself in. Squishing the other petals into a thinner state.
A resounding 'Bang' echoed all over the sea.
The book turned back into pure darkness and formed into a sword. Without a shadow created to feed the blade, he slashed.
Air thunder rumbled, the clouds parted, and the sea fleed. All nine disciples were launched hundreds of kilometers away, they weren't fataly injured but a few, the ones the old man disliked the most, coughed up blood.
"Impossible!" The man with the blood demon avatar claimed "How have you obtained a 10th petal! Even many before stopped at the 8th!" He wasn't shocked by his attack, as it was common when one to unleash power like that when you first use your new cultivation base.
The woman with a sexy woman avatar clicked her toung, she activated an artifact "I wanted to kill you with only the nine of us, but you leave me no choice."
From over the horizen hundreds of avatars with 1-4, and the rare 5-8 petals rushed forwards, closing in.
The old man seeing this, seemed to calm down, as his avatar became a book once more.
He opened it, letting the pages pass by, he stopped on a particular one "The eastern dragon consumed by greed, Tan Lan? No. The old monarch of the Great Yan, Lui Qin? No. The eastern dragon of plague, Fang Huang? Yes." His finger passed by many named, pressing on each one, seeing the pictures and details. Until his pressed twice on one.
The book started to unwind into black strings, these strings seemed endless as they gathered, and formed a giant 190m long eastern, entirely black, dragon "You FILTH! SHould BEgrate Ful to see the form of one who TRUELY truelytruely, deserved power."
The black dragon roared, as dark green mist released passively from it's maw. It started to fly around, without purpose, like a puppet without strings.
"Kill, them. KIllll ThEm allll!" The old man yelled without looking at the pure black copy of a once feared natural disaster. The great dragon, suddenly turned, and persued the many avatars in the distance.
With the army of some of the strongest cultivators in the world, the 9 disciples gained some confidence, as they prepared their attacks against the beast.
Though almost every one of the experts decided to avoid it with fear appearant, as that was the dragon which brought an entire province to its knees with only it's presence. The dragon of plagues, it automatically breathed out plague and poison.
It dissapeared centuries ago, after leaving behind a giant roar and raging tides of poison mist. Though it was completely black, without proper eyes or white teeth, it was recognized still.
But they had underestimated the dragon, as none of them had ever fought it. It opened it's maw and green mist burst forth as if endless.
The miasma unleased covered all, and many dropped from the sky with dark green veins all over their bodies. though one rushed through it and gave the plague dragon a good smack, destroying it.
The dragon of plagues could be said to have only 3 petals if compared to humanoid cultivation, it's only danger was it's miasma. And after being copied by the record of oblivion it weakened further, though the old man choose it to rid the stage of kings of small fries.
The black matter returned to his hands as a book, and he looked through it once more "I'll want an 8th petal... this one then." He choose one without much thought, as his avatar transformed once more.
This time a bird about 140m long and with a 210m long wing span, it's black body sparked with electricity "Killllll Zem alll!" The old man shouted, as he flew forwards with the shadow of a blade within his grasp.
Within less than a second, his blade was already at the throat of the cultivator who killed the dragon of plagues, he was dismembered, and then beheaded. Within less than 1/10th of a second.
Another cultivator thought that the bird was also going to be killed easily, but her attack did nothing, and she was killed with a single strike. The difference between realms in raw power was evident.
Time passed quickly, as the sun and moon switched places 8 times.
On the 3rd moon the true elite of the continent of Shen, or the divine continent, appeared.
On the 6th sun the old man had lost his left hand, though he was right handed, and it was slowly regenerating already.
On the 7th moon the old man lost his right leg.
On the last sun will the naration return.
The old man had wounds all over, and the sea was filled with the corpses of many a cultivator.
"We will give you a quick death if you give us your treasures." One of the new elites said to the old man with both legs lost and only one working arm, probably having lost most of his internal organs.
The old man, who had mellowed out "Treasures? What do you think I am? A hoarder?! I threw anything I couldn't use away the moment I got it." He looked at everyone around him with disdain, why waste time hoarding when he could just use his things? Did they forget he wasn't a part of any sect, without any place to store them?
The old man though, was already close to fading into the abyss called death. He started to think of what to do 'Should I use that? No no, that won't work right now. Since my death is certain, let's just make sure none of them learn the secret to gaining the 9th petal.'
The old man didn't want his body disected to learn his secrets, or be turned into undead puppet.
He, without urgency took out his avatar once more, instead of transforming it into a beast, person, or weapon, it instead went into his veins.
The black power started to corrode his body, slowly but surely. But the power that was flowing through his body was magnificent.
He looked at the strongest cultivator here, one with 8 petals. he smiled and said "You think I'll die that easily? You are mistaken." He launched himself at him with his fist seemingly ready for a clobbering.
The man was going to block the old man, but was unexpectedly hugged. But the corroding energy just entered his body too, quickly starting to turn his and the old man's body to nothing but dust.
Nothing remained, no treasure, no bodies. The only proof the old man had died, was that the remaining characters within the sky were still alive to tell the tale.
The old man, the Bane of All, the Grand Scourge, Jie Shu, had died.
Time passed even faster than before, and 200 years passed.
In the center of the continent, where the strongest of the rightious gathered, and the 9 disciples "There is another continent." These words were announced to the world.
-Written in the 25th of december, 2022.