Cultivation Nerd (xianxia)

As my mind raced a thousand miles a second, I sensed movement behind me. Glancing back, I saw Ye An, her hair disheveled and coughing up water. It appeared she had been below deck and nearly drowned.

Amidst the chaos, I had completely forgotten about her.

Gasping for air, she leaned against the doorframe, her face expressionless despite the ordeal. "My room suddenly flooded as the door burst open. What the hell happened?"

Even as she coughed, her demeanor remained stoic, almost robotic.

"I have no idea," I replied, patting her back firmly to help clear her lungs.

Ye An wasn't someone I particularly liked, which made her the perfect person to use as a meat shield in a pinch. Besides, she seemed capable of handling that. If she died, I'd owe Song Song an apology. But if someone else killed her, it wasn't my responsibility. Her family or the Blazing Sun Sect could handle it.

Her family could hunt down the perpetrator or retaliate against the Blazing Sun Sect for not letting Ye An in immediately after the first aptitude test. It had nothing to do with me.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked, noticing my gaze.

"Just thinking about how mesmerizing you are," I replied without missing a beat, scanning the surroundings for clues.

"You might be a naive fool who spares his enemies. But even in this short time I have known you, I know that what you just said was bullshit," Ye An retorted bluntly.

Well, she would be a mesmerizing meat shield, that was for sure. However, I refrained from saying such things to her face. It seemed like almost drowning to death below deck had affected her much more than she let on, as she had even used banal language.

Before I could ponder further, Ye An's head snapped to the side with such speed that, if mortal, it would have snapped her neck. I followed her gaze, spotting a translucent platform in the distance, hovering just above the water.

Atop those platforms stood all the outer elders and an inner elder. The translucent platform, positioned so close to the sea's surface, created the illusion of them standing on water.

The platform was made of Qi that felt like the inner elder's. He was likely the one who made it.

But I had no time to ponder their presence as the stormy sky crackled above us, even the elders wearing worried expressions. Ye An seemed to sense something, her gaze fixed on the sky as she closed her eyes, possibly shutting off her other senses to extend her Qi perception.

Was she attempting to sense all the way up to the clouds? The distance seemed absurd, nearly impossible to achieve. Yet, Ye An's talent shone through as she abruptly opened her eyes, frozen in place as she stared skyward.

It appeared she had succeeded in her endeavor. While impressive, I might have been more astounded if I hadn't met Song Song before. Song Song's Qi sensitivity bordered on the uncanny; she could almost discern intentions and predict attacks with eerie accuracy. Thankfully, she wasn't an enemy.

"So, what's your take?" I inquired.

"I think we might all be dead," she replied, her expression as impassive as ever. However, a hint of paleness crept into her already jade-like complexion.

Other ships plummeted from the sky with resounding splashes, some already submerged. Despite the darkened clouds, which gave the illusion of nightfall, a cultivator's eyesight let me see clearly, even with the faint sunlight piercing through the clouds.

Finding the person I sought was not difficult; their red hair made them stand out like a sore thumb. He was on one of the ships that had already crashed into the water before ours, and he wore a frown and wide-eyed with shock.

Well, we were probably fucked.

He seemed to be muttering to himself despite no one conversing with him. Unfortunately, I was too far away to discern anything clearly. The chaos around him drowned out my chance of hearing what he was talking about.

If I had known I would meet someone like him, lipreading would have been useful. I should look into it later.

Glancing around, I noticed Song Song was nowhere to be seen. Her lack of crimson-red hair made her harder to spot.

"How sharp is your hearing?" I inquired of Ye An.

Turning towards me, she replied, "As good as one would expect from a Qi Gathering disciple. I have no special techniques to enhance it."

Ye An's stoic demeanor had one convenient aspect; she didn't question why I asked such an odd question at this moment.

Still, her hearing likely surpassed mine. Pointing toward the red-haired individual, I asked, "Can you make out what he's saying?"

For the first time since our encounter, Ye An displayed emotion—a fleeting frown quickly replaced by her usual impassive expression. "The only reason I restrained my anger towards the sect for failing me in the initial exam was the prospect of killing that thieving bastard."

"Alright, I'm not interested in your old flings or romances," I interjected, redirecting her focus. "Can you hear what he's saying or not?"

"No, he's too far," she replied, narrowing her eyes on me. "And that scoundrel is the last person I'd ever be involved with romantically. He stole something from me I had fought so hard to get. Then, he used it to concoct a pill for himself!"

Okay, she was getting worked up, which indicated she harbored no affection for the red-haired individual. Here we were, potentially facing death, and she was preoccupied with getting angry at someone like him.

But I wasn't here to analyze their relationship, which could easily devolve into a clichéd enemies-to-lovers scenario. That was the oldest trick in the book.

"Well, what about the elders?" I nodded towards the group about a hundred feet away. Amidst the rough waves and chaos, their conversation was barely audible.

"At the moment, it's difficult to make out their words. But after I finished expelling the water and the waves calmed for a moment, I caught snippets of them discussing whether this incident was linked to the death of one of their outer elders during the exams," Ye An replied, her gaze shifting from the red-haired individual to mine.

Okay, this was definitely beyond my pay grade.

"So, do you have a plan to tackle this, our little genius strategist?" Ye An mocked.

I didn't mind her jabs; after all, she was only fifteen. It would be embarrassing for a grown man like me to get emotional over something like that.

As I tried to formulate a response to Ye An while pondering our next move, my thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a flash of lightning in the sky.

The bright lightning bolt illuminated the clouds, revealing the shadow of a colossal snake-like creature slithering amidst them. The thunderous rumble grew louder, freezing my mind and body in place. My racing emotions were the only thing shifting.

It felt akin to pulling back the sheets before bed and discovering an anaconda coiled within. No, even that fear was comprehensible to the human mind.

But witnessing a giant serpent-like entity traversing the sky was an entirely different experience. It appeared colossal enough to wrap around and crush skyscrapers with ease.

Just when I thought the terror I was feeling couldn't escalate further, the clouds shifted and parted, revealing a giant snake poking its head out.

It was a massive white snake with four crimson-red eyes, each with slits. Its gaze wandered around as if searching for something, its forked tongue flickering. Its size was so colossal that our ship seemed as small as a candy bar in comparison.

The creature's forked tongue flickered consistently while each pair of eyes seemed to have a mind of its own, scanning the surroundings.

"Humans," the creature said, its growly, slow voice sending a shudder through my body.

This wasn't something meant for human ears. Its mere sound caused large waves to rise and crash onto ships.

"Have you seen what I am looking for?" it asked, its voice now a whisper, though still deafeningly loud enough to rupture a mortal's eardrums.

In front of such an overwhelming creature, my mind went blank. All I could think of were the books I had read, filled with random facts about monstrous beasts.

According to those books, Foundation Establishment monstrous beasts possessed human-like intelligence, while a Core Formation monstrous beast could even speak human language.

Now that it had revealed itself from the clouds, the Qi around the creature made it clear that I stood no chance.

No matter how hard I fought, how cunningly I schemed, or whatever clever way I devised to use my arrays, I was powerless against something like that.

Such strategies only mattered when facing opponents of similar power. It was a harsh realization.

Plans and schemes had been my bread and butter, offering hope against those stronger and more skilled than me. Yet, I had known there was a limit to how far I could push that.

But understanding something intellectually and witnessing it firsthand were vastly different experiences. It was a realization that crawled from my lower abdomen to my chest, finally settling in my heart.

Such sheer power...

This sensation, I struggled to articulate. The closest semblance would be despair.

Back on Earth, regardless of someone's prowess in MMA or boxing, no matter how rigorously one trained or how high one climbed on the political ladder, people remained just that—people.

Even the most skilled fighter, devoted to martial arts, could easily fall victim to a teenager wielding a gun. There was never the fear that someone like Mike Tyson might suddenly invade my home, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Even when facing formidable creatures like bears, lions, tigers, bulls, rhinos, elephants, sharks, silverback gorillas, spiders, snakes, or any other animal, there was always a chance of survival if they sought to harm me.

But here... against a creature of that magnitude... there was no hope.

 

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