Watching the small but quick ships getting close, surrounding them easily, Ren just laid back, waiting as to what their plans were. Ariana stayed at the front of their boat, standing there calmly, but under the water, her shadowy tentacles were ready to attack, just like a deep-sea monster in some bedtime horror story.
"This is the territory of the God's Blood Sect! If you want to cross, you have to pay the toll!" a deep, masculine voice traveled across from the ship, facing them from the front.
"Oh? Those kinds of bandits?" Ren tilted her head, amused, feeling that the strongest person here was only at the 1st stage of Harmony and the rest were only at the Body Refinement realm.
"God's Blood… and they say our name is a brave pick!" Ariana chuckled, shaking her head, and looking back at Ren. "Master, their feelings are weird. It is… like they try to hold back and control it, but they are ready to blow at any moment!"
"Hmmm…" She tilted her head, taking a deep breath that rattled the ships and the previously calmly flowing river below them. "Their cultivation is a complete mess… a hotch-potch of miscellaneous things; some did not even improve themselves based on their affinities!" Ren clicked her tongue. "Poor bastards!" she shook her head, standing up and walking forward before producing a bottle of pills that at least would help smooth out some of the chaotic energies their leader had. "Is this enough?" Ren shouted back, throwing it over, across hundreds of meters, landing precisely in the hand of a tall, bulky man wearing a bushy, long, black beard.
He was shocked at what was happening, his black eyes blinking with confusion while he scratched his bald, shining head with his fingers, watching the bottle that fell into his hands. Finally, opening it and taking a whiff, he quickly closed it back, pocketing it in panic.
"Prepare to board, boys! They ought to have some good stuff on them! Our God has blessed us with fortune!" came the reply, making Ariana blow her top immediately, only holding back her attack because Ren put her hand on her shoulder, shaking her head.
"I want to know which God they are on about." She said calmly, letting them harpoon their boat, board it, and then tug it with them. Ren, Ariana, and the still sleeping Kyu were tied up in ropes and transported to the main ship's brig.
"When we are finished, Master…." Ariana transferred her voiceover. "Can I sweep them away?"
"Sure!" She chuckled. "But first, I want to see their source of cultivation. If there is any! A mismatched bunch of like these guys are weird; not really common to come by! They should be either dead or destroyed… so I don't get how they are still living! I'm not an Immortal to make out what kind of faith they wield, so I need to see it personally. Endure it until then, okay?"
"If they try to touch me in weird places, I am going to kill them, Master!"
"Okay, okay, no problems there~" Ren laughed, watching her angry face. "Geez… you have become like me…."
"Thank you, Master~" Ariana smiled immediately in response.
…
….
…..
After an hour of travel, they arrived at a small river port built from logs. When they were escorted into a small town, they could see that it had a population in the tens of thousands, with ordinary people living and working together with cultivators. The vegetation was cleared up around the town, and close by, they could see a tall pillar of rock with a three-story pagoda built at its top. The only way up was by flying, only accessible to those who were in the Harmony Realm. The two of them and the sleeping Kyu being carried by Ren were led into a cage, placed in the open. Luckily it was in the shade of the big, natural pillar, guarded by a few 'soldiers.' The rest hurriedly ransacked their boat, searching for valuables, dragging it onto the shore, and tearing it apart.
"I'll go check out what is up there." Ren sent over her voice, forming a clone of herself, leaving it in the cage while she was already gone, appearing at the top of the giant pillar itself. Masking her presence before the people present, she could walk around them nonchalantly as all of their senses failed to pick up on her, simply ignoring her subconsciously, being invisible in a way.
Only a few others were up there; with a quick scan, she could feel only half a dozen other cultivators present. The owner of the most potent aura was still only in the 1st stage of Harmony. Worse, she could tell that everyone ascended into Harmony at the first opportunity they got, not even climbing to the top of the Body Refinement realm. Walking around the small place, seeing the 'training' warriors fighting in hand-to-hand combat was more like a street brawl than an actual match. Those who tried to meditate did it all wrong, randomly drawing and circulating the chaotic energy. It was a wonder they did not blow themselves up.
"Let's check this pagoda out…." She shook her head, walking in, and as soon as she took a few steps, her body immediately came to a stop. She was just watching the bronze statue, facing the door, standing there with open arms, wearing a crazed, laughing expression towards the sky. It froze Ren's body completely because her eyes recognized its features. It was her. Or him, more precisely. In the form of her past life, when she was still Athos, the Mad God. "What. The. Actual. Fuck." She spoke out, blinking her eyes rapidly and the man kneeling before the statue raised his head, looking around, swearing he heard somebody but couldn't see anyone there.
"What happened?" Ariana asked, back in the cage of theirs, seeing Ren's clone suddenly flinch, and her eyebrows started to twitch.
"These bastards are worshiping me!" She ground her teeth together.
"Huh?" Ariana tilted her head before it clicked in her mind. "Oh! That…”
"That's fucked up! Especially because of how bad they are! What the hell do they think this is?! A play or something?! Damn it!" She stomped in place, almost making Ariana laugh out loudly. "At least cultivate properly, for God's sake! For MY sake! Grrrr…! And the statue?! What the hell?! I never acted like this!"
"They've got a statue about you?" Ariana covered her mouth, watching the fit her Master was throwing before her.
"And it looks like a madman!" her clone nodded, crossing her arms.
"Well… you had a title like that…."
"It was not meant to be taken seriously! And it was not me who chose it! Damn it!"
"Ahahahaha!" Ariana finally couldn't hold back, bursting out in a loud laugh, alerting the guards. They just looked on with weird expressions, not really understanding what had gotten into their prisoners.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh! Do you want to hear something even funnier?!" Ren's angry voice came, now as a voice transmission from the pagoda's top floor, which was a small library. "They have 'my' teachings here! What the FUCK?! It says I sacrificed my blood so people could cultivate and be free! To have FUN! People should act as they want, do what they want and how they want! For that, they need power, and it only comes to those who are born with the 'Blood of Madness' and blessed by ME… What nonsense is this?! These idiots have no concept of what even affinities are! No wonder they are so unbalanced; someone with water affinity is learning fire spells because he wants to control flames?! Good luck with having any success in that! Grrrr… this is a parody of what I wanted, and they are taking it as gospel?!" She raved so loudly Ariana almost thought her eardrums were about to burst.
"Well… we can't really blame them, Master…." Ariana replied, trying to reign in her laughter, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "Maybe if you reveal yourself to them, you can whip them into shape!"
"Yeah, no!" She snorted in response, "Fuck that! They are a twisted bunch! Taking my ideas and turning them into some kind of anarchic gospel of God? Do what you want? You just need power and be free?"
"But isn't that true, Master?" She asked back with a somewhat pondering voice.
"It does not mean to be free from ideals, morals, and humanity!" she replied immediately as she switched places with her clone, reappearing back beside Ariana, and it was clear she was not happy. "I hate it most when I say something, and it ends up getting twisted!" She walked forward, grabbing onto their cage's bamboo bars. "Hoy, idiots!" She shouted.
"Hm?" the guards looked straight at her, already angered by her tone. "What is it? Don't even try to beg; you will be thoroughly searched!" They replied with a snort. "And if you are lucky, you may be blessed by one of the Apostles!" they laughed. "Who knows, maybe you are going to awaken to the glory of God, and you can also start cultivating!"
"Master… they think we… have… no cultivation?" Ariana tilted her head, especially surprised as she never pulled back her aura, taking it as they were just too dense to realize her accurate level of strength.
"They don't know, jack shit!" Ren shook her head vigorously. "They are fumbling in the dark, yet some of them somehow have reached Harmony! Even blind roosters can once in a while peck up a seed, it would seem! But I bet they would be unable to get a read on even one of our outer disciple's strengths! Hmph!" She explained, looking at the two with her eyes filled with sparks, not using voice transmission or anything else, saying it loudly, "Only by the fact they saw us coming with the boat and surrendering was enough to make them think we are just three, powerless women!" She grabbed onto the 'bars' and simply tore the cage apart.
The two guards were shocked at what they saw, but before they could react, two strands of electricity jumped over from Ren's finger, zapping them in the middle of their foreheads. They quickly fell, eyes rolled backward, knocked out cold. The sudden breakout of theirs and the fact that Ren floated upwards sent many people around them into panic, rushing away to find some shelter. Those who had any resemblance of cultivation immediately used their spells, aiming at Ren.
"I can't believe it…." Ariana whispered, seeing the laughable 'spells'; back when she had just started out, she could easily deflect something like those. Even Kyu failed to wake up as it was not tasty enough, and she just turned to her other side, sucking on her thumb, sleeping merrily in the ruined remains of their cage.
"Get the fuck out here!" Ren roared, her voice echoing everywhere. The response was a similar roar as all the Harmony staged cultivators rushed forward in a kind of battle frenzy, attacking Ren, aiming to take her down with their numbers. Yet what transpired was Ren smacking them across the face, one by one, only using her palms, reinforced with electricity. She sent them crashing down to the ground, leaving funny-shaped holes wherever they landed. "Clear out their heads!" She said to Ariana, who had already connected her dark tendrils to their shadows, clearing their thoughts and sweeping away their out-of-control rage as they climbed out from their holes. Now looking up at Ren in the sky with a much clearer head, a new feeling started to arise in them. "Fuck this temple!" she turned towards the pillar of rock, raising her hand after everybody was sent to the ground, and with only a wave, from the clear sky, a bolt of lightning came down, completely destroying it, alongside the whole rock formation.
Not just the cultivators but the rest of the people looked on with open eyes and mouths. Nobody saw something like this ever before. The fact that the Apostles could fly was already a miracle to most of them. Calling down lightning? Unheard of. The most frightful times were when others, the followers of the Betraying Gods, appeared, and in their battle, ordinary people were dying just from the shock of their clashes. Yet here was someone who, with a slap, rendered the one true God's Apostles incapable of fighting back and even destroyed their sacred temple. Was it a follower of one of the Betrayers? No, she shouldn't be. They would be dead by now. Everyone had this thought circling in their heads, and as Ariana got a feel for it, she felt that something was off.
"Master, they are thinking something weird!" but Ren was too angry at that moment to listen, floating above them, placing her hands on her waist as she started to shout at them like an angry mother catching their kids, causing trouble.
"You idiots! Cultivation brings freedom, but that does not mean you can do whatever you want without consequences! Look at you! You robbed someone way stronger than you! Now what? I could sweep away this whole shithole with a wave of my hand!"
"But why would someone this strong travel by boat?" the same black-bearded man who captured them asked back, now kneeling on the ground, looking up at her like a kid in detention.
"Why not?!" Ren shouted back at him. Soon a ton of people started reappearing on the streets, gathering around them, all looking up at Ren with the sun behind her, giving her a golden aura. "How do you plan on harmonizing yourself with the world if you don't experience it?! Just because you can fly or teleport does not mean you go everywhere like that! You are going to miss the details! Have you ever heard the saying that 'the devil is in the details'?!"
"No!" Every Harmony level cultivator answered simultaneously, shaking their heads. "Write it down!" some of them quickly whispered to their kneeling 'neighbors.'
"Plus, what is the thing with this 'do what you want if you have power' bullshit?! Cultivation should be fun, but not at somebody else's expense!"
Ariana tried to say something as what she felt coming from them was getting even weirder… but it was too late as Ren started berating them, which went on for hours. When the sun was almost down, the whole town was sitting there, listening to her, going on and on, telling them about things they had never even heard about.
"There! Do you get it a little now?! Huh?!" She asked, panting, and her mouth had already turned parched.
"The Messiah…" the man Ren saw kneeling before her statue murmured, and as he said that, the rest also went down, pressing their heads against the ground, all bowing towards Ren, repeating the exact words, "The Messiah! The Messiah has come!"
"Eh? Huh?" Ren trembled, twitching her eyelids constantly.
"I tried to warn you, Master…." Ariana sighed, standing at the side, holding her forehead, long ago drawing back her tentacles. "They started to worship you… especially with the setting sun at your back… it gave them the impression that you are… well, exactly like what you hear now."
"..." Ren silently looked over at the people, cultivators, all bowing towards her, repeating the same word over and over again, letting it echo out from thousands of mouths. "Fuck."
Watching the small but quick ships getting close, surrounding them easily, Ren just laid back, waiting as to what their plans were. Ariana stayed at the front of their boat, standing there calmly, but under the water, her shadowy tentacles were ready to attack, just like a deep-sea monster in some bedtime horror story.
"This is the territory of the God's Blood Sect! If you want to cross, you have to pay the toll!" a deep, masculine voice traveled across from the ship, facing them from the front.
"Oh? Those kinds of bandits?" Ren tilted her head, amused, feeling that the strongest person here was only at the 1st stage of Harmony and the rest were only at the Body Refinement realm.
"God's Blood… and they say our name is a brave pick!" Ariana chuckled, shaking her head, and looking back at Ren. "Master, their feelings are weird. It is… like they try to hold back and control it, but they are ready to blow at any moment!"
"Hmmm…" She tilted her head, taking a deep breath that rattled the ships and the previously calmly flowing river below them. "Their cultivation is a complete mess… a hotch-potch of miscellaneous things; some did not even improve themselves based on their affinities!" Ren clicked her tongue. "Poor bastards!" she shook her head, standing up and walking forward before producing a bottle of pills that at least would help smooth out some of the chaotic energies their leader had. "Is this enough?" Ren shouted back, throwing it over, across hundreds of meters, landing precisely in the hand of a tall, bulky man wearing a bushy, long, black beard.
He was shocked at what was happening, his black eyes blinking with confusion while he scratched his bald, shining head with his fingers, watching the bottle that fell into his hands. Finally, opening it and taking a whiff, he quickly closed it back, pocketing it in panic.
"Prepare to board, boys! They ought to have some good stuff on them! Our God has blessed us with fortune!" came the reply, making Ariana blow her top immediately, only holding back her attack because Ren put her hand on her shoulder, shaking her head.
"I want to know which God they are on about." She said calmly, letting them harpoon their boat, board it, and then tug it with them. Ren, Ariana, and the still sleeping Kyu were tied up in ropes and transported to the main ship's brig.
"When we are finished, Master…." Ariana transferred her voiceover. "Can I sweep them away?"
"Sure!" She chuckled. "But first, I want to see their source of cultivation. If there is any! A mismatched bunch of like these guys are weird; not really common to come by! They should be either dead or destroyed… so I don't get how they are still living! I'm not an Immortal to make out what kind of faith they wield, so I need to see it personally. Endure it until then, okay?"
"If they try to touch me in weird places, I am going to kill them, Master!"
"Okay, okay, no problems there~" Ren laughed, watching her angry face. "Geez… you have become like me…."
"Thank you, Master~" Ariana smiled immediately in response.
…
….
…..
After an hour of travel, they arrived at a small river port built from logs. When they were escorted into a small town, they could see that it had a population in the tens of thousands, with ordinary people living and working together with cultivators. The vegetation was cleared up around the town, and close by, they could see a tall pillar of rock with a three-story pagoda built at its top. The only way up was by flying, only accessible to those who were in the Harmony Realm. The two of them and the sleeping Kyu being carried by Ren were led into a cage, placed in the open. Luckily it was in the shade of the big, natural pillar, guarded by a few 'soldiers.' The rest hurriedly ransacked their boat, searching for valuables, dragging it onto the shore, and tearing it apart.
"I'll go check out what is up there." Ren sent over her voice, forming a clone of herself, leaving it in the cage while she was already gone, appearing at the top of the giant pillar itself. Masking her presence before the people present, she could walk around them nonchalantly as all of their senses failed to pick up on her, simply ignoring her subconsciously, being invisible in a way.
Only a few others were up there; with a quick scan, she could feel only half a dozen other cultivators present. The owner of the most potent aura was still only in the 1st stage of Harmony. Worse, she could tell that everyone ascended into Harmony at the first opportunity they got, not even climbing to the top of the Body Refinement realm. Walking around the small place, seeing the 'training' warriors fighting in hand-to-hand combat was more like a street brawl than an actual match. Those who tried to meditate did it all wrong, randomly drawing and circulating the chaotic energy. It was a wonder they did not blow themselves up.
"Let's check this pagoda out…." She shook her head, walking in, and as soon as she took a few steps, her body immediately came to a stop. She was just watching the bronze statue, facing the door, standing there with open arms, wearing a crazed, laughing expression towards the sky. It froze Ren's body completely because her eyes recognized its features. It was her. Or him, more precisely. In the form of her past life, when she was still Athos, the Mad God. "What. The. Actual. Fuck." She spoke out, blinking her eyes rapidly and the man kneeling before the statue raised his head, looking around, swearing he heard somebody but couldn't see anyone there.
"What happened?" Ariana asked, back in the cage of theirs, seeing Ren's clone suddenly flinch, and her eyebrows started to twitch.
"These bastards are worshiping me!" She ground her teeth together.
"Huh?" Ariana tilted her head before it clicked in her mind. "Oh! That…”
"That's fucked up! Especially because of how bad they are! What the hell do they think this is?! A play or something?! Damn it!" She stomped in place, almost making Ariana laugh out loudly. "At least cultivate properly, for God's sake! For MY sake! Grrrr…! And the statue?! What the hell?! I never acted like this!"
"They've got a statue about you?" Ariana covered her mouth, watching the fit her Master was throwing before her.
"And it looks like a madman!" her clone nodded, crossing her arms.
"Well… you had a title like that…."
"It was not meant to be taken seriously! And it was not me who chose it! Damn it!"
"Ahahahaha!" Ariana finally couldn't hold back, bursting out in a loud laugh, alerting the guards. They just looked on with weird expressions, not really understanding what had gotten into their prisoners.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh! Do you want to hear something even funnier?!" Ren's angry voice came, now as a voice transmission from the pagoda's top floor, which was a small library. "They have 'my' teachings here! What the FUCK?! It says I sacrificed my blood so people could cultivate and be free! To have FUN! People should act as they want, do what they want and how they want! For that, they need power, and it only comes to those who are born with the 'Blood of Madness' and blessed by ME… What nonsense is this?! These idiots have no concept of what even affinities are! No wonder they are so unbalanced; someone with water affinity is learning fire spells because he wants to control flames?! Good luck with having any success in that! Grrrr… this is a parody of what I wanted, and they are taking it as gospel?!" She raved so loudly Ariana almost thought her eardrums were about to burst.
"Well… we can't really blame them, Master…." Ariana replied, trying to reign in her laughter, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "Maybe if you reveal yourself to them, you can whip them into shape!"
"Yeah, no!" She snorted in response, "Fuck that! They are a twisted bunch! Taking my ideas and turning them into some kind of anarchic gospel of God? Do what you want? You just need power and be free?"
"But isn't that true, Master?" She asked back with a somewhat pondering voice.
"It does not mean to be free from ideals, morals, and humanity!" she replied immediately as she switched places with her clone, reappearing back beside Ariana, and it was clear she was not happy. "I hate it most when I say something, and it ends up getting twisted!" She walked forward, grabbing onto their cage's bamboo bars. "Hoy, idiots!" She shouted.
"Hm?" the guards looked straight at her, already angered by her tone. "What is it? Don't even try to beg; you will be thoroughly searched!" They replied with a snort. "And if you are lucky, you may be blessed by one of the Apostles!" they laughed. "Who knows, maybe you are going to awaken to the glory of God, and you can also start cultivating!"
"Master… they think we… have… no cultivation?" Ariana tilted her head, especially surprised as she never pulled back her aura, taking it as they were just too dense to realize her accurate level of strength.
"They don't know, jack shit!" Ren shook her head vigorously. "They are fumbling in the dark, yet some of them somehow have reached Harmony! Even blind roosters can once in a while peck up a seed, it would seem! But I bet they would be unable to get a read on even one of our outer disciple's strengths! Hmph!" She explained, looking at the two with her eyes filled with sparks, not using voice transmission or anything else, saying it loudly, "Only by the fact they saw us coming with the boat and surrendering was enough to make them think we are just three, powerless women!" She grabbed onto the 'bars' and simply tore the cage apart.
The two guards were shocked at what they saw, but before they could react, two strands of electricity jumped over from Ren's finger, zapping them in the middle of their foreheads. They quickly fell, eyes rolled backward, knocked out cold. The sudden breakout of theirs and the fact that Ren floated upwards sent many people around them into panic, rushing away to find some shelter. Those who had any resemblance of cultivation immediately used their spells, aiming at Ren.
"I can't believe it…." Ariana whispered, seeing the laughable 'spells'; back when she had just started out, she could easily deflect something like those. Even Kyu failed to wake up as it was not tasty enough, and she just turned to her other side, sucking on her thumb, sleeping merrily in the ruined remains of their cage.
"Get the fuck out here!" Ren roared, her voice echoing everywhere. The response was a similar roar as all the Harmony staged cultivators rushed forward in a kind of battle frenzy, attacking Ren, aiming to take her down with their numbers. Yet what transpired was Ren smacking them across the face, one by one, only using her palms, reinforced with electricity. She sent them crashing down to the ground, leaving funny-shaped holes wherever they landed. "Clear out their heads!" She said to Ariana, who had already connected her dark tendrils to their shadows, clearing their thoughts and sweeping away their out-of-control rage as they climbed out from their holes. Now looking up at Ren in the sky with a much clearer head, a new feeling started to arise in them. "Fuck this temple!" she turned towards the pillar of rock, raising her hand after everybody was sent to the ground, and with only a wave, from the clear sky, a bolt of lightning came down, completely destroying it, alongside the whole rock formation.
Not just the cultivators but the rest of the people looked on with open eyes and mouths. Nobody saw something like this ever before. The fact that the Apostles could fly was already a miracle to most of them. Calling down lightning? Unheard of. The most frightful times were when others, the followers of the Betraying Gods, appeared, and in their battle, ordinary people were dying just from the shock of their clashes. Yet here was someone who, with a slap, rendered the one true God's Apostles incapable of fighting back and even destroyed their sacred temple. Was it a follower of one of the Betrayers? No, she shouldn't be. They would be dead by now. Everyone had this thought circling in their heads, and as Ariana got a feel for it, she felt that something was off.
"Master, they are thinking something weird!" but Ren was too angry at that moment to listen, floating above them, placing her hands on her waist as she started to shout at them like an angry mother catching their kids, causing trouble.
"You idiots! Cultivation brings freedom, but that does not mean you can do whatever you want without consequences! Look at you! You robbed someone way stronger than you! Now what? I could sweep away this whole shithole with a wave of my hand!"
"But why would someone this strong travel by boat?" the same black-bearded man who captured them asked back, now kneeling on the ground, looking up at her like a kid in detention.
"Why not?!" Ren shouted back at him. Soon a ton of people started reappearing on the streets, gathering around them, all looking up at Ren with the sun behind her, giving her a golden aura. "How do you plan on harmonizing yourself with the world if you don't experience it?! Just because you can fly or teleport does not mean you go everywhere like that! You are going to miss the details! Have you ever heard the saying that 'the devil is in the details'?!"
"No!" Every Harmony level cultivator answered simultaneously, shaking their heads. "Write it down!" some of them quickly whispered to their kneeling 'neighbors.'
"Plus, what is the thing with this 'do what you want if you have power' bullshit?! Cultivation should be fun, but not at somebody else's expense!"
Ariana tried to say something as what she felt coming from them was getting even weirder… but it was too late as Ren started berating them, which went on for hours. When the sun was almost down, the whole town was sitting there, listening to her, going on and on, telling them about things they had never even heard about.
"There! Do you get it a little now?! Huh?!" She asked, panting, and her mouth had already turned parched.
"The Messiah…" the man Ren saw kneeling before her statue murmured, and as he said that, the rest also went down, pressing their heads against the ground, all bowing towards Ren, repeating the exact words, "The Messiah! The Messiah has come!"
"Eh? Huh?" Ren trembled, twitching her eyelids constantly.
"I tried to warn you, Master…." Ariana sighed, standing at the side, holding her forehead, long ago drawing back her tentacles. "They started to worship you… especially with the setting sun at your back… it gave them the impression that you are… well, exactly like what you hear now."
"..." Ren silently looked over at the people, cultivators, all bowing towards her, repeating the same word over and over again, letting it echo out from thousands of mouths. "Fuck."
