Chapter 541 First Contact
"I lived long enough, seen far too much, and had few people to ever take interest in, and somehow, you, a man from a faraway land, too destitute to ever call it worth even sending a single soldier to conquer, came out. You brought a lot of annoyance to my plans and got me interested in you and your growth," he spoke, his words calm as the sea, but his might and power as equally treacherous.
Soon the Fire lord appeared between me and Madam Zha, or what looks like him.
It wasn't a human, but more like an apparition. It hovered in between us, and the moment he looked at madam zha, she immediately kowtowed in front of him.
"Fire Lord, what brings you here, I was taking care of business here,"
"Never mind me," he said, "I came here after one of my spears died, I find it quite absurd how a fire spear that I spent so many bloodstones on just dies without even releasing his Vengeance Spear, what's more when I arrived I see you, a man not even fully aware of who he is and not even in the Emperor Realm capable of taking him down. It seems that you have obtained many heavenly gifts."
'shit… I'm not confident in Dao when against him.'
"What do you want?" I asked him.
"That's a broad question," he replied.
'Shit, he really is trying to make it a Dao battle.'
"I mean what did you come here for, perhaps to protect her?" I questioned trying to change the discussion, though if I had kept pressing against Madam Zha she'd crumble and lose all her cultivation, but I have to satisfy myself with her losing her purpose and be filled with doubt, that is also pain like no ever for a cultivator.
"I came to see you, little disturbance, you caused me plenty an annoyance, though I permitted most of it," he said.
His words had meaning in them. And the meaning was for me to understand.
"I suppose you knew who he was the moment he stepped into your hall," I said.
No one present here would understand what I meant, no one besides the Fire Lord.
"Yes, I'm no fool, I recognized all of them in fact, after all, I'm very proficient in soul magic right now," he said.
"I suppose you are, since you defeated the Queen, you must have had the ability to see through them, yet you still allowed it?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it's interesting, it's interesting to see ants struggle and wriggle, larva that's stuck under the ground, that could do nothing but wriggle and wriggle, not knowing that the space it's stuck in is not even a fraction of the greater world. Let them struggle, and despair, and have hope, then finally end it all, and show them that they were all dancing on the palm of one's hands."
"You believe yourself to be a god?"
"No," he said.
I frowned, anyone who's this arrogant, will undoubtedly have the curse of grandeur, but he isn't?
"But that doesn't mean I'm not as close to it as possible," he smirked.
'Never mind that he's also a psychopath,'
I sighed, "You treat others as if they're nothing but dirt, I assume you have the strength, knowledge, power, and ability to do so, but that still doesn't make you any close to that," I said.
"I'm well aware, but after all, who can stop me," he said.
'I need to stop this conversation from going back to Dao.'
"Now you found the one who killed your spear, tell me, Fire Lord, what are you going to do?" I asked.
"I'll kill you," he said.
"With just this apparition, do you believe you have the ability to do so?" I asked.
"Right now, perhaps not, but I can still deal heavy damage," he said.
"Then hit me with your best shot," I said confidently, "But if you aren't able to kill me, the next time we meet, you will perish," I said.
"Hahahahaha…"
The fire lord began laughing like a maniac, "Of all those who faced me, since the ruination of the Imperial Family, only you dared threaten me, fine I approve your courage. And before I end you, let me give you an offer," he said.
"Offer?" I questioned.
"Yes, you're mighty, you're strong, and have the heritage of one of my old…friends," he said.
I didn't like where this was going.
"Join me, come under my banner, and I'll rule the vast expanse and make you king, the spears on my side are too…brittle, and I want the Poison God's Heritage under me to further firm my grasp over the Vast Expanse."
"You're not even hiding the fact that you want to enslave me," I said.
"It's a far better option than dying, don't you think," he said.
"I won't disagree with that, if there is hope there is a way,"
The Fire lord smiled.
"However." This instantly removed the smirk of his face.
"Only if you had the ability to kill me," I said as I minimized my size and returned to my original size.
In my hand was my railgun rifle.
I held it with one arm to a specific direction, and pressed the trigger.
The explosive might of the shot was enough to rattle the fabric of space itself and send shockwaves across
The apparition of the fire lord frowned, "What is that supposed to do?" he asked.
"You'll find out in a bit."
"I'm not interested in tricks and trinkets, that tool in your hand looks mighty indeed, probably capable of killing an unaware king-class cultivator, but that's not enough to threaten me," he said.
"I know…" I said ignoring his statement.
"Then this means you refuse subservience and servitude to those better than you, I have no need for such entities, nor am I that bored to put effort into breaking you and making you a slave. So, die," he said as he waved his hand.
I smiled as I saw what happened next. Dozens of fireballs the size of meteorites manifested around me. Each and every one of them had so much qi and power in them that the mere heat was melting the cultivators standing behind Madam Zha's barrier.
Even Madam Zha could do nothing but tremble at the sight in front of her, as she began using her Qi not to help her troops but to protect herself, as she knew, even as she wasn't the target of such a spell, it was going to greatly harm her.
But what made this funny for me, enough to smile, was that I already was in this situation before.
"This brings back memories," I smiled.
The Fire Lord's apparition frowned, "Madman, just die." He said and waved his hand toward me as the dozens of small sun like orbs came at me blocking my path of retreat.
I slapped both hands together, "I've beaten it once! I'LL DO IT AGAIN! Domain Of Delusions, Illusion within Illusion! World Reversal!"
Immediately a massive exploding sphere of black light spread outward from within me, consuming the globes, the apparition of the fire lord, the troops, and even the black tower.
"Be turned!" I said
And immediately all the globes around me froze up and turned to ice.
The apparition was perplexed, "What is this…"
I then rushed toward one of the orbs smiling as I slammed my palm into it, imprinting it with three inscriptions. Fortitude, speed, and replication.
This was the same method I used to defeat the Fire Lord back in the Poison God's memory trial. Though the Fire Lord back then was far, far weaker, this should be a distraction enough.
The ice ball flew toward another, then toward the next each slamming into another as they began bouncing and gaining speed.
The apparition moved its hand up, only for it to have its hand move down.
"Interesting domain? It reverses the senses," he said and immediately lifted his head toward me.
'Oh, I suppose the time between now, and when he was a simple ascendant was enough to give him experience. Thousands of years he lived, and it only took him a second to realize that he only needed to reverse his actions to do what he wanted to do. Frightening. Anyone else would have taken several hours or at least, the very least an hour to understand about my domain, but he understood it instantly.
The ice balls then rushed toward him.
"Burn!" he said.
The last time I called him a fool because I expected him to channel his Qi normally, and then receive backlash as it will flow in reverse, I'm not as arrogant to expect the same to happen this time.
I clapped my hands and shouted, "Release!"
Instantly my domain was released, and with that, the Fire Lord was already casting his Burn, only it was in reverse and I had already removed my domain.
The Fire Lord forcefully stopped his skill from releasing, allowing the ice balls to strike at him.
But only I know that in this exchange, he didn't lose as much as I had hoped.
"Interesting, the apparition said.
"I suppose you're not easy to kill, no wonder you have such a good grasp of cultivation and the world around you… it seems that killing you with just an apparition isn't enough, good, I'll personally come," he said.
"Well, if you want to do that, you better make it quick," I smiled, "You're in danger right now," I said.
The fire lord didn't fully understand, but then his eyes seemed to notice something.
"The stars moved…"
'How the fuck can you even notice something like that? It was only an hour…'
"Ha, now I understand why you fired that shot… interesting, very interesting," he said and suddenly the apparition disappeared.
***
Far away in the vast expanse, on the head of one of the mightiest and biggest ships of the Fire Lord's army, a man was sitting at the front of the ship, in a lotus position, his body was giving an incredible heat as his fire made hair was blowing like an eternal torch in the darkness of space.
The man's lips had a drop of blood on them, and an annoyed grimace.
Many cultivators noticed and realized that something bad was going to happen. How did the Fire Lord even get injured? Was that the aftermath of the fight with the Queen?
Suddenly, the fire lord took a deep breath, an audible one as he opened his eyes and looked forward.
In front of him was nothing but stars, or so anyone would think, but one of the star's lights was different.
"What an absurd weapon…" the Fire Lord said as he held his palm forward.
The thing that people thought was a star was actually moving, only at an incredibly vast speed.
And instantly it crashed into the palm of the fire lord, creating an explosion of force and might that blew up around the ship like a cone of destruction flame, and fire.
Everyone on the ship was terrified, and the rest of the armada all went on high alert. The main ship was attacked and no one saw where the attack came from.
After the flames and the explosions went away, the fire lord's palm was trembling, it was bruised up pretty badly and all he did was smile.
In his hand were the remains of a mushed-up metallic object, he didn't understand what it was.
'If that brat didn't speak, this would have been painful… but to have the accuracy to hit me from so far away…frightening, indeed.'
The fire lord looked at his ships and realized one thing, if Shen Bao had more of those weapons, he could take out the entire armada without even needing to move from his place…
"This is getting more and more interesting," the fire lord smiled as blood dripped from his clenched fist.
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