Chapter 388: Meeting a Real Cultivator

Chapter 388: Meeting a Real Cultivator

WHOOMP! KA-BOOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion shook the land as a massive stone structure was transported through the Void and superimposed on another one, similar to itself. The following incompatibility of two nearly identical Space-bending artifacts occupying the same physical plane at once resulted in a violent annihilation of both.

The massive stone temple-like stone structure around it immediately collapsed in on itself as its insides were violently turned to rubble, leaving a wide ring of destruction that could be seen from kilometers away.

Yung Lin ran like mad, praying to a thousand gods that his intuition was wrong. He begged and pleaded with the beings unlikely to exist to make it all just a dream, however, the smoke rising above the forest and the familiar shouts of his Junior Brothers told of a dark tale.

As he cleared the last distance and came into the open, his deepest fears came to life. The Portal Nexus, something his sect spent millions of man hours and a decade of wealth to build, was completely ruined.

The destruction was such that no two stones remained in their place, and all the runes, magic formations, wards, and glyphs protecting the place were completely obliterated. They were made to survive a full-out attack from even their Patriarch, and yet, they were gone.

Yung Lin felt his body fill with dread. Whatever destroyed this was powerful enough to completely wipe their sect out of existence with a single hand! He swallowed hard and carefully took a step closer, doing his job as the one responsible for the site to evaluate the damage. But as he examined the place and considered the consequences of such destruction, and the punishment from the sect he would receive, perhaps a swift annihilation wasn't even such a bad thing.

***

What Yung Lin didn't know, was that all the protections they had only worked against outside threats. They had nothing that could block or endure the violent explosion between two Portal Nexuses colliding in the structure's core.

But as the white light of the teleportation faded, Gerald was revealed in the middle of all that destruction, completely unfazed.

For a moment, of course. Immediately after, the dust and smoke rushed at him, resulting in a violent coughing fit.

Cough! Cough!

"Yo, what the fuck!"

Cough!

He quickly used some Wind magic to blow away the dust and get some breathing room. But as his vision cleared, he became aware of his situation, and especially the destruction around him.

"What the hell happened here?!"

He wasn't aware, however, as he was being teleported, he gained a few short seconds of invulnerability as his body materialized in another place. Luckily he ended up in an open space, otherwise, he would have probably merged with a stone structure and would have been annihilated just like the Portal Nexus itself.

"Honestly I don't know what happened," he began. "One moment I was minding my own business, and then there was suddenly this bright light, and bam! I found myself here, choking on dust. Where am I anyway?"

"Ancient Ironbark Timberland, property of the Brilliant Sword sect," Yung Lin answered coldly. "And you lied again!" His expression turned frosty and a pale blue longsword appeared out of nowhere.

"Last chance! Were you the one responsible for the destruction of the Portal Nexus?!"

"The what?" Gerald was confused, but his opponent didn't seem to want to elaborate further. "Look man, it's possible I was partially responsible for this mess, but honestly, it wasn't on purpose!" His words evoked some reaction as the other guy took a deep breath and his body began to lightly shake, probably due to the anger his body was visibly struggling to contain.

"Listen, I'll pay for the damage, alright? I got plenty of money, just name your price." He made the offer not because he felt bad, but because he couldn't read the guy opposite to him. Everyone else he could somewhat examine, however the man himself was an enigma. He had no clue how strong he was or even what heights his Aura reached. He seemed to be well versed in holding it hidden, which made him uncomfortable.

"Pay?" Yung Lin scoffed at the sheer thought of someone personally paying for the entirety of the damage. "Do you even know what you are saying?! How could you possibly have so much money?!"

Not bothering to waste any breath, Gerald emptied half his gold stores, as well as the countless Earth Crystals he had with him, and made a human-sized pile on the floor. "Look, here! That's most of what I have, surely it is enough?"

Young Lin stared at the small mountain of shining gold and crystals as he was momentarily rendered speechless. But then he started to laugh. A mad kind of laugh.

"Hahaha! I'm dead, I'm so fucking dead! HAHAHAHA!" He covered his eyes with one hand as tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"For decades the sect gathered treasures and saved Spirit Stones, and now some retard mortal destroyed it all. And he wants to pay it back with a pile of trash?! HAHAHAHAH! Oh gods in the Void, why do you have to punish me so?!"

Despite the words not being addressed to him, Gerald understood well enough to know that he had fucked up. What might have been valuable in his eyes didn't necessarily transfer to another civilization.

"Uh Listen How about we come to an agreement I got other stuff-"

"SHUT UP!" Yung Lin held his head and his eyes went wide as he was slowly losing his mind. "Listen to him This idiot is still trying to speak He should just fall over and die" he quietly mumbled to himself. "Yes Yes! Maybe if I capture him and slice him up, maybe the Elders will forgive me What have I got to lose?!"

"Listen here" Gerald tried to speak up and try to reason with the man, but then he noticed the latter's sword hand move, and he instinctively lifted his silver hand up to block the incoming strike.

However, the expected recoil of the collision never came, as the pale blue sword went straight through his silver hand, accompanied by a soft white glow.

The metal offered no resistance whatsoever. Even a glowing knife going through soft butter would have slowed down more than the sword did.

In that instant, Gerald realized he had fucked up. He had royally fucked up!

"Stand still, and let me kill you!"