Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 235 Partial Failure, Partial Success

"Whether or not the method is insane is irrelevant. The point is that if you're successful, you come back from the jaws of death dozens if not hundreds of times more powerful," A wizened old man with l.u.s.terless pupils calmly responded.

Jhan looked one more time and sure enough, all the people that had returned from the expedition indeed possessed bodies both more physically powerful and with more profound Cultivation Bases.

They had unsettling deformities; a missing eye here, a scarred arm there. However, the sacrifices made were more than made up for by the power they had gained.

Jhan's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Are they still even human, though?"

"Humanity is overrated," the old man retorted.

"For immortality, I reject my humanity, Jhan," he resolutely concluded.

"I think I've heard enough," a new and slightly angered voice said.

Immediately, everyone in the room drew their weapons as their hearts pounded. They were supposed to be within the sanctuary of the Sect's Arrays; in the Main Hall, the most heavily defended part of the entire territory, of all places.

's.h.i.t,' Jhan, in particular, felt dread creep up his spine as he thought, 'This isn't a place as outdated as Atid's. These Skullflesh creeps rounded up dozens of Factions to build up this d.a.m.ned Yinship Sect. The Defensive Arrays here should be able to detect even Foundation Collapse Stage Cultivators…'

s.p.a.ce seemed to unravel to reveal a middle-aged man with white-streaked blond hair.

"Kinsterling!" Immediately the room descended into pandemonium.

Windows and walls were blown through as Yinship Sect Disciples began scattering like deer in the face of an apex predator as everyone came to the same conclusion simultaneously.

The man surely heard more than the Sect wanted for only its core members to know. He had confidently come out of hiding before all his enemies and with the terrifying energy they could all detect from his body, he had the capital to be so brazen. If they didn't run now…

"Gah!" Yang-type pikes of deformed s.p.a.ce began impaling Cultivators of the Yinship Sect at a disconcertingly fast rate.

The slowest of the Cultivators present, Base Foundation Transcendent Stage Cultivators and Saint Stage Pract.i.tioners were killed off almost immediately. Yet even as the seconds dragged on and the more powerful Transcendent Foundation Stage and Foundation Collapse Stage Cultivators flew away at hypersonic speeds in every direction, the pikes still effortlessly tracked them down.

Still, there was only so much damage a single person could do. If he continued to attack in all directions from the center of the scattering point, some Cultivators were bound to escape. Thus, as some Cultivators approached the borders of his Spiritual Sense, Kinsterling had to make a choice and decide which direction to pursue and eradicate.

As Jhan considered it, he smirked, 'I'm just a new addition to Yinship Sect. After running in the complete opposite direction of the Sect's patriarch, I should be se—'

Fear, regret, and unwillingness welled up in Jhan's heart as he watched Kinsterling begin flying in his direction. Not the path that the Sect's patriarch had taken, nor that which had the most Yinship Sect Disciples, but the path closest to him; a beeline.

Jhan didn't even know how to react when the local s.p.a.ce began to quake and tear to reveal Opal Devils. Surrounded by hostile aliens, shattered s.p.a.ce, and chased by an overlord that could kill him with little more than a thought, his situation was beyond dire.

"Why are you still chasing me directly?!" Jhan sent a sound transmission as he weaved around the obstacles around him.

The devils that sp.a.w.ned from the tears in s.p.a.ce didn't pose a threat to Jhan, to say nothing of Kinsterling. However, unless either planned on getting caught in the closing void of s.p.a.ce, they had to dodge as they fled and chased one another.

At most, there were five other people within the field of shattered s.p.a.ce that sp.a.w.ned the devils, so it made no sense for Kinsterling to pursue Jhan if his goal was to wipe out as much of the Yinship Sect as possible. Needless to say, Jhan now understood that he was probably the man's target from the very start.

'He probably decided to kill the others after hearing the contents of the secret meeting,' Jhan internally lamented.

He wasn't stupid enough to think there was even the slightest chance of escaping at the rate they were going now. In just a couple of seconds, Kinsterling would be within range to personally kill him with his bare hands.

However, Jhan couldn't just let himself die like that. He cherished his life more than anything. His goal had been to reach immortality. Dying a meaningless death here was not acceptable and he was willing to do anything to avoid it.

Casting one final hateful look at Kinsterling, Jhan vowed, 'If I manage to survive this, I'll do whatever it takes to get revenge. No matter how many years I have to spend in isolation or hiding, I'll return all that you lot have done to me, ten-fold!'

From a couple kilometers away, Kinsterling suddenly paused.

"Strange," he muttered.

'I could have sworn that a fluctuation of Core Qi appeared in Jhan's body before disappearing without a trace,' he thought.

With a chuckle, Kinsterling thought, 'Guess he'd rather commit suicide by entering a portal of shattered s.p.a.ce than die by my hands.'

…

"Qwetzel, what have you done?!" The Yinship Sect's patriarch stood frozen in fear from what he had just seen.

"For the last time, old man… My name is Tristan," Tristan tiredly said.

"What are you talking about? Tristan was the mortal vessel you grew out of. The fertilizer for a Grand Devil like you; like us!"

With a sigh, Tristan put away the jar of Spirit Beast Monster blood that was floating by his side. He sealed away the talisman he had finished creating and faced the patriarch, "Is that what you all thought of me? That I was nothing but a fertilizer for your forsaken technique."

"Stop fooling around Qwetzel. Why must you continue to act like you're a trivial human before me? Why must you kill your brethren?"

"How about we each concede an answer then? You tell me why you keep thinking I'm some Devil or whatever and I'll tell you why I'm killing you all. Fair enough?"

"What kind of question is that?" The patriarch looked genuinely distraught as if what Tristan had asked was common sense.

"Obviously you're a Devil like us. You cultivate our method and possess a Devil's aura. That heathen you call "master" my have battered you around in the Martial Sect and brainwashed you into thinking you are human, but we Devils raised you. We know our kind better than anyone!"

"Hahaha," Tristan smiled derisively as he said, "You and all the other idiots in the Skullflesh Faction are delusional if you think you're Grand Devils. Your ancestors fell into the trap of cultivating the wrong method. You idiots lost your sanity and went about trying to take mine."

"As for raising me?" The temperature precipitously dropped to match the coldness of Tristan's voice as he said, "You only cultivated me because I had talent. The moment I lost to Master, you discarded me like trash."

With a sneer, he continued, "I don't doubt you all would have left me to rot if Master hadn't taken me in and helped restore my cultivation."

"You had started a self-detonating sequence," the patriarch cried, "We would have celebrated your valiant performance for our Devi—"

Tristan had grown tired of the man's lies. With just his breath, he had hypnotized the patriarch.

"You want to act like a Devil? Fine. Die like one and volunteer all the Negative Yin you've cultivated all your life," Tristan commanded.

The patriarch's already l.u.s.terless pupils dulled completely as is eyelids sagged; tired and tame. He followed Tristan's command without question, quickly exhausting what remained of his lifespan to draw out his Cultivation Base into Spiritual Pillars for Tristan to take.

Within the minute, the patriarch had succ.u.mbed to the horrific power he had seen Tristan use on the other Yinship Sect Members around them. With his Cultivation Base reduced to less that of a Mortal Stage Pract.i.tioner, the man was minutes away from death, yet he wasn't spared a somewhat natural death.

Silently, he gored his own throat with his fingers and fell on the gra.s.slands below. Eventually, the lack of blood to his brain killed him before he could bleed out.

A couple of moments pa.s.sed before Kinsterling appeared next to Tristan.

Looking at the cl.u.s.ter of bodies all suffering from self-inflicted wounds, Kinsterling said, "Kid, between you and me, your Soul Arts are kind of scary…"

"Heh," Tristan chuckled, "It wouldn't have been this easy had these idiots not been cultivating the trap directions from our Cultivation Method. In fact, these 'Grand Devils,' as they once liked to call themselves, cultivated themselves into Seraph Slaves. With my techniques, I could have made them do anything."

"Still…" Kinsterling seriously added, "I don't think I've seen such a deceptive attack. I'm guessing you managed to conceal your soul fluctuations with your voice, right?"
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"d.a.m.n," Tristan sighed, "I got ahead of myself thinking I could fool a Core Formation expert like you."

"Well, if you want to conceal your abilities, you shouldn't have volunteered for this mission in the first place," Kinsterling joked.

"Please," Tristan rolled his eyes, "as if I would let anyone else kill my target."

"Lucky you," Kinsterling sighed.

"What? Did you not kill yours? Did that Jhan guy really manage to escape from you?" Tristan asked, rapt with attention.

"No, before I could get to him, he committed suicide by jumping into a region of shattered s.p.a.ce," Kinsterling said.

"Well, he died anyway, so it should be fine," Tristan said before carrying out a sweep with his Spiritual Sense.

He used Neutral True Qi to pull all the treasures off the bodies of the Yinship Sect members he had killed before addressing Kinsterling and saying, "I've finished all my business here. If you or Master's father ever needs something again, you know where to find me."

"Wait," Kinsterling threw a wrapped stack of talismans at Tristan and said, "Take those, too. They were from the people we killed today on my side and I have no need for them."

Knowing that most if not all of the remaining treasures of the Yinship Sect were contained within the talismans, Tristan paused for a moment before he activated the spatial ring on his left index finger and tossed his own stack of talismans back.

As the spiritual revolution on Earth continued to develop, the method to create spatial rings was starting to spread. Practically all Spirit Realm Cultivators possessed at least the lowest quality spatial ring by now.

"I know most of these won't be of use to you personally, but they should be useful to your Sect and family," Tristan said before flickering away at double-digit Mach speeds.

By the time Kinsterling realized what a gift he had been granted, Tristan was hundreds of kilometers away. But, before he could share news of it with his allies, he had a report to deliver.