Rise of the Midnight King – Chapter 67

“I suppose its time to enter the tower.” Bao bi muttered to himself.

He had finished stabilizing himself after creating his pill flame and officially reaching the first tier of the second round. After placing the flame in his cells, he felt strangely energized. It usually took some pretty strong drugs to make him feel this good. Not only did his body feel powerful, but he felt like he had excess energy he needed to burn off. Suffice it to say, he wasn’t in the temperament to stick around any longer.

Thus, his next plan was to secure one of those bags of holding. If he combined it with his storage ring, it really did sound like a cheat. He would no longer have limits and could strip the rest of the herbs from the farm he found. Even after concocting pills all day, he hadn’t made that much more space. The herbs farm still had a third of its contents left, and if he could take the rest of it, he felt confident he could win this competition. He disliked stealing the award away from literal children, but he did have his mother to worry about.

Besides, the reason he had remained out here in the first place was to make sure everyone safely made it to the tower. All of the younger kids had arrived, and the only one he hadn’t seen was in the older group, so he was less worried about them. He put away all of the ingredients and packed up before jumping out of his hidden spot and standing before the tower. Its exterior was weathered by time and draped in creeping vines giving it an ancient appearance.

It towered up into the clouds, a size that seemingly defied logic for anyone who didn’t come from a world with skyscrapers. However, most of the buildings of his world rarely looked so ornate or seemingly gave off such pressure. He once again had to compliment the young ones for having the courage to continue on in the face of such a place.

With a deep breath, Bao bi pushed open the heavy doors, their creak echoing off into the darkness. He stepped in, and as soon as he let go, the door slammed shut behind him. What he didn’t notice was a shadow darting through just before the door shut.

Stepping inside, he was immediately caught back at the enormity of the interior space. The outside was large, but the inside was seemingly larger. The ceiling soared high above, disappearing in a dimply lit haze, and the space seemed to stretch out infinitely in all directions. It was like the tower itself was a completely different world. No wonder no one wanted to waste time outside, with so much of the inside to explore.

He continued forward, his footsteps echoing softly on the polish marble floor, which was a stark contrast to the otherwise silent tower. The place was completely illuminated, although he couldn’t guess where the light was coming from. He didn’t try to think about it too much. This certainly felt like a world beyond understanding. He had no choice but to continue on into the murky haze in the distance. He touched his badge once, letting it boost his confidence that once the recalled everyone, he’d be summoned back no matter how loss he became.

“Hahaha… looking what we have here.” Emerging from the mist was a group of three Shadow Destruction disciples.

“You guys again?” Bao bi couldn’t help but mutter, feeling like these guys were everywhere.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the kunai that Jiang Bo had given him earlier. He lifted it up and chucked it at the guy who was in the lead.

“You’re all alone and helpless, little sheep, give us all your geh!” The blade struck directly into his throat.

He was another half step into the second realm, and with Bao bi now being solidly in the second realm, as soon as he infused any object he through with spiritual energy, it took on a strength similar to his strength. These guys hadn’t gotten close enough to be aware of his strength, and were instead going by his appearance. Age still had a strong correlation with strength at such a low level, so why would a kid around fourteen already be in the 2^nd realm?

Furthermore, who would strike so decisively at someone else while they were still approaching and hadn’t even finished speaking yet. That’s just rude! The leader of the Shadow Destruction group, confident with his superior numbers and strength, hadn’t even mounted up a defense before Bao bi attacked. He looked in shock, gurgling a few times as blood dripped out his mouth. Then, he fell to his knees and collapsed to the floor, soon to be dead. Even if the other two wanted to give him a pill to save him, with the knife lodged in his throat, he had no way of consuming it!

Bao bi pulled out the spear, swinging it in and arc before slamming it into the ground. “Who’s next?”

The two other disciples glanced at each other, and then turned and ran. Bao bi was speechless. He was thinking they’d be more like the ones chasing Jiang Bo. Instead, this was the second time someone from that clan approached, threatened, and then fled as soon as things looked difficult.

“Well, they are still just teenagers.” Bao bi muttered to himself.

He seemed to recall that there were countless gangs filled with teens back where he was born in LA. They were much the same way. They would put on a big show of being courageous when they had numbers, but if you pushed back, they’d flee like cowards. Of course, those guys would always threaten you with their leader…

“This isn’t over! Wait until boss hears about this!” A should came from the mist as they fled.

There it was. Bao bi wasn’t too worried. There was a cap on the strength of people in this world, so he wasn’t likely to encounter any people he couldn’t handle. He was more worried about spiritual beasts that might be above his level. That said, the bosses were usually older and wiser. After sending a group of teens running once, they had fetched their boss, and he recognized Bao bi from my work. They spent the whole day together, it was a great time. In the end, Bao bi got him and his friends to agree to work to earn their GEDs. It was the little victories in life that kept him going.

Although it’d be nice if these guys were a bit less obsessed about banging children.

Bao bi couldn’t help sigh when he thought about how the animosity between him and the Shadow Destruction Clan began. Most of those here should be teens though, but even a teen should be smart enough to not throw eyes at a twelve-year-old girl. If a bunch of teenagers wanted to sleep together, Bao bi had no problem with that, as long as it was consensual.

Shaking his head and realizing his thoughts weren’t going anywhere, he walked over to the dead body and turned it over. This guy really was a kid. Maybe, he shouldn’t be so quick to kill anyone who was from the Shadow Destruction clan. They couldn’t help having bad personalities. Look who their caretakers were! Abuse was generational, after all. Someone needed to give them a chance. Bao bi reserved himself that next group of youngsters he saw, he’d show them some tough love and try to reform them.

“Hmm? What’s that?” As he was recovering his kunai and wiping off the blood, Bao bi noticed that the dead boy had a bag hanging from his belt. ”Oh! Score!”

He pulled it off and checked it, and after looking it over he was convinced it was a bag of holding. Inside, there were a few ingredients, likely what his group had found so far. No wonder they were trying to rob Bao bi, they didn’t have anything. Assuming their clan had a similar merit point system to our own, then these guys were desperately behind. Bao bi felt slightly guilty, but he still took the bag. This would save him a lot of trouble.

He took the stuff out of his badge and the storage ring and then started rearranging things. Once he cleared out room in both spaces, he hefted the bag up. It was actually quite heavy, but Bao bi had spent his entire youth training, and his body was incredibly sturdy. Even though he put almost everything in the bag, he was still able to lift it.

He could have put the bag into his storage ring. The one requirement of a storage ring was that you had to be able to lift the item to put something into it. This meant you couldn’t just touch a statue and put it in, or absorb all of the air in an area. Bao bi had already checked with Liao An, who had been absolutely shocked when he considered such uses for a storage ring. Besides taking all the oxygen, he had also suggested sucking up a sea and then creating a tidal wave, as well as using magma. She actually did have higher level rings that could pull in objects that were attached to other things, but it had never occurred to her to use such things as a weapon.

“If storage rings have no weight, then you could theoretically pick up a bolder, and if higher cultivators can fly, they can fly up to space, and then just drop the boulder, and it’d be a meteor that could wipe out an entire region.” Bao bi suggested once. “This is basically breaking the laws of thermodynamics, or newton… or something!”

Liao An was stunned speechless. She didn’t even know how to respond to his words. First off, it involved principals a child like him shouldn’t have understood. Secondly, it was actually a really good idea. Liao An had no clue why she had never thought about it before. It was likely because she was so powerful that she’d never have to resort to such tricks to bring out power beyond her means.

Either way, bao bi decided not to use the storage ring, because fundamentally, he still didn’t trust it not to break. If the bag of holding was sturdier, then he’d carry all the weight unless he had no choice. It was a need cheat, but if the storage ring broke, wouldn’t he lose everything, including the bag? After attacking the bag of holding to his back like a backpack, he pulled the badge off the enemy disciple and tossed it into the storage ring. At that moment, the storage ring only had the four badges from the disciples he’d killed, one underground, two with Jiang Bo, and the one right now.

The badges should be the same as his own, which was to say they stored items, which was probably why they were worth a good amount of merit points. Bao bi couldn’t access the merit badges, but cultivators from the higher realms likely could. It turned out while bags of holding could be tossed into storage rings and badges, the opposite wasn’t possible. Jiang Bo had warned Bao bi about that when he made sure Bao bi took the badges to get credit for his kills. Bao bi felt complicated about getting points for murder, but he already knew this was a harsh world, and ultimately, he needed all the points he could get to save his mother.

Once he was done, he considered heading back and getting the rest of the alchemy ingredients. However, that would take time, and he had a feeling there was things worth more points if he continued on. He wasn’t aiming to climb the tower, but to head down it. No one had ever mentioned the tower had a lower half, but after discovering the alchemy field, he knew there was a stairway heading down, It was blocked off from the side he had been on, but the stairs should be somewhere within this space. Since no one knew about it, there had to be some good stuff down there. With those thoughts, he continued off into the distance.

While he was searching the for stairs, a pair of Shadow Destruction disciples raced forward, stumbling into a clearing. There was already a group of five people in black already waiting there. If one saw the leader, their eyes might widen, as he was already in the third realm. He was every bit as powerful ad Xie Mingyu or Chen Bao, but he wasn’t part of the Xaoi sect.

“He’s the one! Please, my lord. You must kill him?”

“I must?” The third realm was sitting nonchalantly in a chair while two female disciples fanned him. “To be cowed by a mere 2^nd realm, you really are pathetic.”

“He’s stronger than he looks, and he doesn’t hesitate. Mao Wei is dead.”

“Hmph… that guy was cocky. His death means nothing to me.”

In front of the third realmer in the chair, two disciples were groveling. Had Bao bi been there, he would have recognized these two as the disciples who he met underground. They were about to speak more, but then the two others arrived, nearly tripping over each other. Bao bi would also recognize these two, as they were the ones he had just sent on their way after killing their leader.

The man and the two on their knees couldn’t help but look back. These two were much lower realm, and they couldn’t help but shake, as they were from the younger generation. Of course, they had no choice but to cling to the powerful.

“You two…” The third realmer spoke. “You’re my little brother’s followers, correct? Why are you here?”

The two gave him a look of dismay. “My Lord… I’m sorry… he-he’s dead…”

“What?” The third realmer stood up, his eyes growing red with fury. “Say that again? Who killed my brother?”

“Some little Xaoi sect disciple.” One of the boy’s cursed. “Your distinguished brother was being merciful and offering him a chance, and he performed a sneak attack without warning. He didn’t have a chance before he was mercilessly cut down.”

“W-we tried to fight back, but we were no match! We barely got away with our lives!” The second boy declared.

Both of them were covered in numerous wounds. These wounds were not inflicted by Bao bi. In fact, they were self-inflicted. The two realized after running away that they would be treated as cowards and perhaps even killed on the spot if it was exposed that they fled in terror without even attempting to engage the enemy. They didn’t even try to bring his body back. The two decided to attack each other to make it look like that had been in a fight. That said, all of the wounds were superficial, and an expert might have been able to see the lie for what it was, but the third realmer was already exploding with rage, so he didn’t notice such a trick.

“Who would dare?” He roared, his eyes furious.

“It must be him! The one who killed Mao Wei. He was like that for us too. He attacked without warning, and he likes to throw objects. Did he have a powerful spear?” One of the kneeling disciples, the one who had been pierced from behind, spoke up.

He hated Bao bi with a passion, and wanted nothing more than for that kid to die. Bao bi had provided him with so much trauma that his own cultivation had lagged behind. He might have been in their chair in his clansman’s place had he not killed his supporters and given him such trauma. Even if they weren’t the same person, he planned to do whatever he could to pin it all on Bao bi. However, that didn’t seem to be needed.

“Yes! He threw a knife. He also had a spear. I didn’t get a good look at it, but it might have been a spiritual weapon!” The two were quick to agree, pleasing him greatly.

“Someone from the Xaoi sect?” The third realmers expression darkened even more.

They only had about twenty-four hours left in the Midnight realm. If it had been a fellow Shadow Destruction Clan member, he’d be able to reach him and kill him no matter what. However, for it to be someone from an enemy clan, he only had this short time to get his revenge.

“Someone get me this kids name!” he snarled. “I will kill him, or my name isn’t Gong Ning!”

‘It’s Bao bi.” A voice came from the fog, causing all of them to instinctively grab their weapons.

“Show yourself!” Gong Ning shouted, which caused the others much surprise.

They weren’t able to see him, but they were lower realm. For Gong Ning to not be able to see him, he must have had a very powerful expert.

“That’s not important. All you need to know is that you’re not the only one who want Bao bi dead. If you succeed in killing him, my master’s will properly award you.”

Gong Ning’s eyes glittered. “I don’t care, I’d kill him anyway!”

“That’s fine. His friends with Jiang Bo. You might be able to use him to get to Bao bi. He seems to have a soft spot for his friends.”

“Jiang Bo, huh…” Gong Ning spoke, but the mysterious voice didn’t answer back.

“Jiang Bo, isn’t that a prince of the Jiang province? Should my lord risk provoking them yet?” One of the women spoke up.

“The Shadow clan already has eyes set on the Jiang province, but killing off a measly Xaoi sect disciple shouldn’t cause any waves.” Gong Ning waved his hand.

“There is one more!” The kneeling boy spoke up, causing everyone’s eyes to shift to him. “He was traveling with someone from our sect. Even though we’re enemies, she seemed pretty close to him.”

“Who?” Gong Ning’s eyes narrowed.

“What was her name again, right! Qi Liqui!”

As Gong Ning made his plans, a shadow moved off, materializing into a young boy. This job his master tasked him with was all too easy. He wouldn’t even need to lift a finger. Well, if Gong Ning somehow screwed this up, he could still finish it later. After that, he was promised a spot as a legacy disciple. Who cared about fighting for inner disciple when he could become the personal disciple of a master? He couldn’t help but chuckle as he headed off. He was glad he waited for this year to enter the selection.

Meanwhile, as Bao bi walked, he had an uneasy feeling. Every once in a while, he’d crouch and pick up a hand full of dirt. When he opened his hand, the dirt was gone. He continued on like this for some time as a shadow followed from behind.