Starlight Life Of The Sage

Public Release: Feb. 28th, 2019 - 3:30 am EST

Cara felt a cold hand touch her back and then a swell of supportive energy. The smell of herbs filled the room and someone put a pill in her mouth. Her energies were running rampant and her body felt like it was going to boil over. She grit her teeth and chewed the pill in her mouth. Only one person could get into this tent, and even in her delirious state, she knew who it was.

"Thank… You." She forced out the words, her breath aflame with rippling mana.

Breaking through while forging her weapon had been too much. She should have abandoned the Weapon Cultivation and focused on her own body. She could always forge another weapon after gathering more materials, but she only had this one body. Tears ran down her face. Her folly was pride, like so many cultivators before her.

Thankfully she had her own cheat here to pick up the broken pieces. With Zara's assistance, alongside the medicinal energies, Cara's body started to piece itself back together. The veins protruding from her skin receded like a low tide. A slow rumbling started to erupt from her core, and a long crack cleaved itself down her soul vessel. She screamed in pain as she succeeded in her breakthrough.

Simultaneously, tendrils of mana connected her and her newly born halberd. Her screams redoubled, but she didn't lose herself again.

A tremendous light flared inside the spacefold tent.

-

"Lord Avalon, don't you think you're being a bit too domineering?!" said the Dixon Head as he stood up with several other elders from the Families. His voice echoed through the Auction House like a bomb alongside his aura. Mana swirled around him and his entourage like a hurricane. He couldn't put up with the City Lord's arrogance any longer. 'Death Detect' warned him that he'd lose one-on-one, but the Dixon Head wasn't alone.

The Four Families decided then and there to fight it out. They couldn't let the pill and the scrolls all fall into the City Lord's hands. They needed to stake their claim there and then, at any cost.

"Ho ho ho! You think you can fight me, Ol' Dixy?" said the City Lord as his own aura flared to life. The floorboards started to rattle and crack. The walls began shaking.

"Shit, Elders stop this place from collapsing!" roared Prince Lars as he jumped down onto the stage. "Gentlemen, this is an Auction House! A place you fight with money, not strength! If you wish to cross blows, please do so OUTSIDE!"

Lars's yelling was immediately met with a powerful gale of raw force. He felt his entire body get run over by what felt like an invisible horse-carriage. He flew straight backwards at a downwards angle, directly through the stage and the walls behind it. Blood erupted from him and his flesh was mangled.

In a small crater just outside of the building, Lars opened his eyes again. To his credit, he didn't scream or make a sound. He looked more like a lump of discarded flesh than a man. His entire right arm was missing from the shoulder down.

"Did you really just throw a spell at a f.u.c.k.i.n.g Prince from the East Empire?" asked the Dixon Head, his eyes wide in shock. "They have that f.u.c.k.i.n.g monster there. Do you really want to be the last City Lord of Tin?"

"You old fool, Dixy. So what if I kill a Prince or two!? That 'monster' of theirs can't beat the current me anymore. I'm sure of it! Now, are you gonna still take this losing fight, or are you gonna get the f.u.c.k out of my way while I take my spoils. I'd hate to kill an old friend like you~"

"You've lost your mind," said the Dixon Head.

"No. You've lost yours. And your head, too!" said the City Lord as he crouched down. His aura flared even higher than before.

All throughout the city everything started to shake. Buildings began to collapse. Screams of 'Earthquake!' and 'Get to cover!' echoed over the rumblings. People scattered to the four winds.

The City Lord laughed once, and then he moved. It wasn't just a normal movement. He literally vanished from the face of the world to all onlookers.

"What?!" said the Dixon Head.

He only had time to cry out a single word before he felt something terrifying. An aura of death surrounded him and he thought back to his 'Death Detect' spell. It was at this point he understood; his 5% odds included him fighting alongside the other family elders. He turned around just in time to see the City Lord's fist in front of his face, its aura so powerful that it resembled the hand of a giant. The Dixon Head felt as if he were a swimmer facing down an oncoming battleship. He knew, at that moment, that he was dead. He closed his eyes and his life passed before him. He accepted his fate…

Only the blow never came. After a few moments, the Dixon Head opened his eyes in confusion, only to see flowing green hair in front of him. A woman was holding the City Lord's fist in the palm of her hand while using her free hand to cover a yawn.

"What?" said the Dixon Head.

"What?" said the City Lord.

"What?" asked Zara as she tilted her head to the side with a smile.

"Don't f.u.c.k with me!" said the City Lord. He roared and his aura redoubled. His body grew physically larger and his muscles expanded. A concentric ring of flooring detonated around his feet, collapsing into the building's foundation. His screams thundered through the room and gravity itself seemed to warp. A tremendous pressure, something Zara recognized as the aura of the Space Dao, erupted.

Zara felt her weight double. Then it tripled. Her grin grew wider. She didn't flinch. The power of gravity continued to grow until she felt her own weight hit nearly 100 times the norm. Finally she turned to look the City Lord in the eyes.

"Are you done?"

'Are you done?' The words thundered in the City Lord's head, cutting at him like the Grim Reaper's scythe. He wanted to scream but found he couldn't open his mouth again. He witnessed it then, the depths of power the woman in front of him truly possessed. He could finally see Mount Tai. From his fist he could feel her overwhelming strength, something he hadn't felt for a long time. Something he hadn't felt since he once watched a Scion from a Northland organization stop a natural disaster.

His aura flared up one last time, but then it deflated like a balloon. He hit his knees and gravity returned to normal.

"Now, if you're done playing around," said Zara with a grin, "I'm going to break all your teeth for disturbing my fun time at the auction."

Zara raised her fist high and then brought it down with careful and measured force. Her knuckles smashed into the side of the City Lord's face at the perfect angle, and a loud CRUNCH echoed in the broken Auction House. Pieces of enamel and blood traveled through the air in the shape of a blooming flower.

Just outside the building, near a mangled (but still living) body, Cara stood with a freshly minted halberd in her hands. She looked down on the cratered Prince and grinned.

"While I like seeing you like this," she said, "I do feel bad that it was my goods that made you end up this way."

Cara pulled a pill from her pockets, something Zara handed her earlier. She shoved it into Prince Lars's mouth and walked away, ignoring the elders wearing the two bird insignia that appeared afterwards, each in awe of the regeneration taking place.

"Hey, continue the damned Auction already!" yelled Cara, her voice directed at the female auctioneer hiding behind the display case which, to the venue's credit, remained untouched by all the carnage that took place. Cara continued, "I want my damn money."