Master of the System

“Don’t hold back!” Azalea shouted and condensed her spiritual energy in her palm. She gripped her hand into a fist, and an icicle formed in the space underneath her feet. With a jerk of her arm, the icicle descended and impaled a miniature titan below. “It’s almost daytime. We’ll be able to recover soon.”

The inner disciples and Grandpa Vremya were still flying, stuck to the golden frisbee by their heads. They should’ve been able to stick to the frisbee with their backs, but there simply wasn’t enough space. Grandpa Vremya could’ve widened the surface of his foundational pillar, but it would’ve required more spiritual energy. As such, he saved his energy at the cost of the inner disciples’ comforts. They were doing fine though, their necks just a little sore because of the angle they had to tilt their heads to look below. They were raining icicles down from above, impaling the miniature titans.

The miniature titans couldn’t fly, but they still had a method to reach Grandpa Vremya’s group. They were stacking on top of each other like ants, creating a pillar that reached for the sky. There seemed to be an endless number of them, and Grandpa Vremya had to occasionally move the frisbee to avoid accidentally attracting some titans upwards. Every time he shifted his frisbee, the pillar of titans broke down and toppled over, chasing after him.

“Try to freeze their hearts,” Azalea said, remembering what Grandpa Vremya had said. “If we break them, they’ll be worthless.”

As time went on, the inner disciples got better at working together. Their icicles fell like rain and pelted the same titan. Whenever a titan’s heart was exposed, one inner disciple would wash it down with a deluge of water, and another disciple would freeze it, preventing the pulsating organ from growing. The group managed to freeze six titan hearts before the sun rose. When the sunrays touched the titans, they shrieked and bubbled. They melted, their bodies turning into black tar, and they sunk into the ground, disappearing from view. The six hearts encased in ice were left behind along with a pile of flesh and blood that had been torn off the titans.

Grandpa Vremya lowered the golden frisbee, and the inner disciples’ legs touched the ground. He undid his attraction ability, and their heads were released. One disciple almost fell from the lack of support. “Good work,” he said and waved his hand. His foundational pillar unmanifested itself and disappeared into his stomach.

Azalea stared at Grandpa Vremya with an odd expression. The top of her head hurt, and her brain was throbbing. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry that he had slammed her head into his manifested foundational pillar or if she should be impressed he could fly whilst still in the foundation-establishment stage. Even nascent-soul cultivators would have to expend a lot of spiritual energy to fly while carrying someone else, but Grandpa Vremya had easily carried thirty other people and flew them out of danger. Not only that, but he had also held them up for quite a long time. The stiff necks were just an unfortunate side effect.

Grandpa Vremya looked around. The sun had barely risen, and the inner disciples were looking haggard, but a short rest would probably resolve their issues. However, Grandpa Vremya wasn’t one to micromanage people. In fact, he wasn’t even one to manage people at all. “Do whatever you want,” he said to the inner disciples. “Just don’t die.”

The inner disciples rubbed their heads and exchanged glances with one another. Eventually, their gazes landed on Azalea. “Sister Azalea, isn’t this a bit inappropriate?” an inner disciple asked. “My best friend went to a pocket realm last year. According to her, the guides are supposed to clear the area of beasts and monsters that we can’t handle, making it safe for us to explore. Also, the guides are supposed to group us properly to prevent people from being left out.”

Azalea shifted her gaze onto Grandpa Vremya. Unexpectedly, he hadn’t sat his ass on the ground and immediately began cultivation. Instead, he was picking up the flesh and blood that was scattered across the ground. As for the six hearts, he placed them inside his pouch. Since they were gathered as a group, the best way to split them was to turn them into the sect for spirit stones and split the stones. However, he had a use for the hearts. He waved his hand, and a pile of spirit stones appeared in front of the group. “I’m buying the hearts. Split those stones amongst yourselves.”

The inner disciples turned back towards Azalea. To them, it was quite clear Grandpa Vremya had his own agenda, and they weren’t a part of it. “Can you talk some sense into him?” an inner disciple asked. “He ignores everyone who speaks to him except for you.”

Azalea nodded. With how Grandpa Vremya was behaving, there was no way he was going to get the silver chicken feather. She went up to Grandpa Vremya and tapped him on the shoulder. “Shouldn’t you make sure the surroundings are safe?”

“The surroundings were literally eaten earlier,” Grandpa Vremya said and gestured around himself. “What danger do you want me to get rid of?”

Azalea looked around. The man had a point. “Shouldn’t you at least guide us to a place with abundant resources? There’s nothing left around here.”

Grandpa Vremya grunted. It made sense. Shepherds had to bring their sheep to different places to graze. They couldn’t just release the sheep in a barren wasteland and expect them to do things. “Alright,” he said. A golden disc shot out of his belly and expanded above the disciples’ heads. They barely got the chance to brace themselves before being sucked upwards. “Let’s not waste any time.”

Azalea’s expression darkened as she clutched her pounding head; the whistling of the wind thanks to how fast they were traveling didn’t help. The sect’s ships were too large to store in an interspacial accessory, so they had been left outside. No one was worried about them being stolen because the Moon Lotus Sect’s banners were hanging from the masts, and according to recent reports, the only group of bandits brave enough to mess with the Moon Lotus Sect had turned a new leaf and were capturing and turning in other bandits. As for bringing the ships into the pocket realm, that wasn’t possible. The entry portal was too small. It was unfortunate. If their ship was here, they could fly in a much more graceful manner.

“What are you going to do with that, Senior Brother Vremya?”

Azalea turned her head, tangling her hair in the process. An inner disciple was practically clinging to Grandpa Vremya thanks to how crowded the golden disc was. The disciple was staring at Grandpa Vremya’s hands. In them, there was a bottle of titan blood and a brush. Grandpa Vremya dipped the brush into the bottle of blood and passed it to the inner disciple. “Hold this for me.” He took a suit of armor out of his interspacial necklace and pasted it above him on the golden frisbee. Then, he took the bottle of blood back. With a few exaggerated arm motions and a few flicks of his wrist, he painted formation lines on the armor, seemingly unbothered by the air resistance.

“You know rune enchanting?” Azalea asked, her eyes widening. When did Grandpa Vremya learn that? In fact, she had no idea when he learned most of the things he knew. It was as if he had been born with the knowledge because he spent very little time outside of cultivation.

“Rune enchanting?” Grandpa Vremya asked and flipped the armor set over. “Obviously, I know it. How am I supposed to create golems without it?” It was like being surprised at a master farmer knowing how to fertilize soil. Rune enchanting was just a small subset of golem creation. As for what he was doing, he was improving the golems he had made out of regular armor sets. Titan blood had many applications, and improving the quality of materials was one of them. The disciples were given a year to gather whatever they could from the pocket realm, which was more than enough time for Grandpa Vremya to upgrade his golems.