Master of the System

Three hundred inner disciples and ten core disciples of the Moon Lotus Sect were gathered in a region of a dark forest. It was nighttime; as such, none of the disciples were willing to explore. Azalea was standing at the head of her group of thirty companions. “This pocket realm is known as the Empty Night Secret Grounds,” she said. “During the day, everything is normal, but at night, strange monsters come out. They’re attracted to spiritual energy, so don’t ever show off your abilities during the night. Also, there’s a peculiarity. When night falls, it’s no longer possible to recover one’s spiritual energy.” She glanced at Grandpa Vremya. It was hard to see, but the sun was showing hints of rising. “That also means you can’t cultivate at night.”

Grandpa Vremya blinked. “Why didn’t you tell me about that before signing us up?”

Ruby cut into the conversation before Azalea could respond. “Why are you acting like an inner disciple? You should’ve been briefed before entering the pocket realm!” She glared at Azalea. “Between the two of you, who is the real core disciple?”

“Now, now,” Michelle said. “How each core disciple decides to run their group is up to them. Don’t butt into conversations you’re not a part of.”

Ruby’s gaze traveled up and down Michelle’s body. “And who are you?” Thanks to the lighting and the similarities between the disciples of the Moon Lotus Sect, Ruby really had no idea who she was talking to. It wasn’t as if she had heard everyone in the sect speak before. “I think you should take your own advice.”

A bright light appeared, causing Ruby and Michelle to shield their eyes. In fact, every disciple was shielding their eyes from the sudden light—everyone except for Grandpa Vremya. He was holding a ball of glowing light in his hand.

“What are you doing?” Azalea asked, her eyes widening. Hadn’t she just warned him about using spiritual energy at night!? “You’ll attract the monsters!”

“We’re here to gather things that we can use and sell for spirit stones, no?” Grandpa Vremya asked and raised an eyebrow. “Since these monsters are unique to this pocket realm, if we capture a few, there’ll be someone out there willing to buy them.”

“But the elders warned us about the monsters,” a core disciple said. “They’re not something we can deal with. If they were, they wouldn’t have told us not to use our spiritual energy at night.”

Grandpa Vremya snorted. “Since when do the elders know better than me?”

The core disciple was stunned. What kind of response was that? She had heard the only male disciple in the Moon Lotus Sect was arrogant, but she didn’t expect him to be so arrogant to the point of stupidity. “Fine,” she said and held up her hand. “We’ll see just how strong these monsters are. It’s almost day, so even if they’re too difficult to kill, we’ll only have to survive for half an hour before they leave.” A light shone from her palm, and shortly after, eight more lights appeared.

The inner disciples looked at the core disciples with dismay. It was fine for the core disciples to ignore the rules, but wouldn’t the inner disciples be the ones to suffer when the monsters actually came? Couldn’t their seniors have more consideration for them? The inner disciple that had been pestering Azalea before entering the portal took a step back, trying to position herself in the center of the group. She had heard the middle of a pack was the safest spot to be in a herd of gazelle being chased by lions.

There was a crunching sound, and a figure appeared from behind some trees. It didn’t have a solid shape; it was a black blob with tentacles and teeth. It traveled by rolling forward like a demonic tumbleweed, its tentacles touching and wrapping around everything in reach. Trees were pulled down and shoved into the fleshy blob by its tentacles, and there were crunching sounds as the logs were shredded into bits by the blob’s teeth. The inner disciples recoiled in disgust, and one of them fired a beam of blue light at it. The light shone on the blob’s skin, and a small patch of the blob froze over. A moment later, fleshy teeth wriggled around the patch of ice and crunched it into bits.

Grandpa Vremya frowned. Wasn’t this a titan? He wasn’t aware they could be this small. He summoned his Frostwind Amor Golem, but before it could do anything, Michelle stepped forward while drawing her sword. She swung her arm, and the miniature titan froze. Moments later, it shattered into thousands of crystalline pieces. Michelle frowned. That strike had taken up five percent of her spiritual energy, but the thing hadn’t even died. In the middle of the frozen shards, there was a pulsing stone, and fleshy bits were growing out of it. Michelle stepped forward and stabbed the pulsing stone, the thing she suspected was the creature’s heart. It stopped pulsing, and the fleshy bits that were growing out of it fell to the ground.

“I don’t think anyone would buy something like this,” Ruby said, her nose wrinkled. She inspected the frozen pieces of the creature that was still on the ground, but since they were covered by ice, it was hard to investigate the creature’s attributes.

Michelle glanced at the heart that was impaled on the end of her sword. It was crusty and wet at the same time like a massive booger. She brought it close to her face and sniffed it. Then, she poked it with her finger. She rubbed the slimy substance between her index finger and her thumb. When she spread her fingers apart, the substance spread into a strand that drooped down. Michelle glanced at Grandpa Vremya. “Would you buy something like this?”

“I would’ve if you didn’t break it,” Grandpa Vremya said. There was no doubt about it; these creatures were miniature titans. Their cores were extremely useful, and even in the higher dimension, there were many gods incapable of even purchasing a titan core.

A few more crunching sounds rang out. “There’s another one,” a core disciple said and drew her sword. She stepped forward to confront the blob but froze upon hearing a wave of crashing sounds. The surrounding trees toppled over, their trunks slamming into the ground like repeated strikes of thunder.

“We’re surrounded!” an inner disciple shouted.

Michelle frowned. It had taken five percent of her spiritual energy to deal with one blob. Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue, but her spiritual energy wasn’t recovering. She glanced at Grandpa Vremya. “Do you have any ideas?”

Grandpa Vremya raised an eyebrow. “Why are you asking me?”

“It was your brilliant idea that drew them here in the first place,” Michelle said. “Don’t people like you usually have plans?”

Grandpa Vremya looked around at the inner disciples. He had no idea who was in his original group of thirty. “Those of you who were with me, gather up.”

Azalea took the lead and rushed towards Grandpa Vremya’s side. As soon as the rest of the inner disciples gathered, a large golden frisbee appeared over them. Without warning, they were sucked upwards, and their heads crashed into the surface of the frisbee. Grandpa Vremya ignored their pained cries and commanded his foundational pillars to fly up and away. It should’ve been an awe-inspiring sight, but instead of him commanding a flying mount, it was more like he was being abducted by aliens. Only the top of Grandpa Vremya’s head was making contact with the golden frisbee, and when it whizzed forward, the rest of his body went limp like a noodle, moving back with the wind. The foundational pillar was like a golden jellyfish flying through the sky with thirty-one frightened tentacles hanging off of it.

Michelle, Ruby, and the rest of the core and inner disciples stared at the sight with blank expressions. Had they just been left behind to die? Luckily, the blobs were attracted by the golden frisbee and changed their course. The Moon Lotus Sect disciples still had to kill a few blobs to break the encirclement, but it was much better than dealing with all of them at once. Once they were free, Michelle shook her head. She wasn’t sure if the inner disciples following Grandpa Vremya were lucky or unlucky.