Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 34

Many kilometers above the first floor in a floating, five-story pagoda, Divine Lord Isacara observed what was going on below. Her perceptions had reached such a level that there was no place hidden from her senses. She’d been watching the training camp put on by Nathaniel Kane. It was exactly what it seemed. His knowledge and skill shouldn’t be possible unless he really had returned from the future. And now, watching the men and women he trained advance on the remaining region bosses was almost too good to be true.

Rarely was the first floor of the towers sent out by Father Wei conquered in less than a month unless the planet had cultivation legacies already. Those conquered so quickly usually possessed someone with enormous talent before Initiation. There were such people out there in the galaxy even if they were extremely rare.

To have someone without extreme talent do the same was even rarer, but not entirely unheard of. Some individuals had a unique mindset or insatiable desire to fight. So like this Nathaniel Kane, they accumulated a large number of points before their genetic modification to turn it into something special.

The first level of the tower was designed for the Body Realm of cultivation. Now that so many from the training camp had reached the Blood Realm, it wasn’t surprising that they’d turn their attention to the region bosses. However, their time at that realm was too short. Not even two weeks had passed in the tower. Normally, such arrogance would get people killed, but she’d heard the advice Nathanial gave to the others. He knew too much.

Looking to the east, she saw four hundred men and women led by Silvester Hitchens and Mitch Travis. The men were exact opposites. Silvester could lead people into battle with the sheer weight of his personality, while Mitch was a team builder. He watched people. Studied them. He didn’t micromanage. There were a few select people he’d introduced to each other and suggested they team up. He didn’t even try to control their overarching plan. He simply threw in suggestions to improve aspects of the other leader’s plans.

Just like with the group to the west that was spread out and looking for monster spawns, this large group in the east had multiple objectives. The region boss, monster spawns, and eastern pillar that would allow them to go home once all four pillars were activated were all in their sights.

Unlike the group heading north, the party that would face the boss wasn’t as obvious. Whoever found it first would get to fight it. That wasn’t exactly the wisest approach, but she applauded their zeal. The region bosses weren’t designed to be defeated by an individual or even a small group. It was supposed to take the combined effort of several teams to take them down.

The eastern boss was a golem in the shape of a spikey shelled turtle. It had the head of a viper and a tail that could toss men around without any effort. The true challenge was breaking its shell. It easily had the most formidable defense out of all the region bosses.

The southern boss was much like the hidden boss Nathanial Kane was going after. It was a Naga King. The difference between this King and the hidden Queen to the naked eye was the size difference. The King’s human-like torso was about the size of a large man at eight feet tall. He had a venomous bite. While the queen was twice that size and large enough to swallow someone whole. Her venom was a magnitude more potent than the King’s because it was reinforced by far more qi.

Isacara sighed to herself. Reason told her to warn Nathanial against fighting the Naga Queen so early with his low cultivation, but he’d defeated the western region boss within days of arriving. The Queen’s venom was not like that of the poison breathing boss, however. The region boss used a poison that caused one to bleed. The Queen’s venom was similar to bullet ant or scorpion sting in that it causes intense pain. Fighting became nearly impossible once bitten.

She had the freedom and authority to warn him—even to stop him. Instead, she chose to trust that he knew what he was doing. For now.

One of the more powerful qi signatures in the tower was approaching her door. The woman was an old acquaintance who had amongst the best reputations among merchants.

Just as the woman arrived, Isacara sent a thread of qi to the entrance and opened the door from where she was standing across the room. She was on the balcony of the top floor of her pagoda. Using her sight to observe wasn’t necessary, but the air here was clear and the temperature was appealing.

When the woman walked in, Isacara spun to greet her. “Guenavera Geylinisse, thank you for coming.”

The woman bowed her head, replying, “Thank you for inviting me, Divine Lord”

“Please, call me Isacara.”

“Yes. And please, call me Goo Gee.”

Nodding, she asked, “You’ve adopted the simplified version of your name among friends?”

The purple-eyed elf’s micro expressions weren’t difficult for Isacara to read. There was a fondness in her gaze.

“I regret that we haven’t had more of these visits,” the Divine Lord admitted. “I have not been very accommodating the last few centuries.”

“You’ve been busy,” Goo Gee countered, giving her a particularly wide grin.

Isacara couldn’t help but match her smile. “So we’re just two old ladies comforting each other.”

“After what we’ve been through?”

They laughed together.

When they’d regained their composure, Goo Gee asked, “How is their progress?”

Isacara waved her over, using the tower interface to bring up five different panels. The top one showed the battle readying to begin against the northern region boss. The one to the left depicted the dozens of groups sweeping the region for monster spawns. The panel to the right showed the group in the east looking for the boss. The bottom panel displayed several groups of giant men doing the same for their region.

The man that had kicked off this unbelievable push to clear the first floor so soon after initiation was fighting in the middle panel. He remained in the back, guarding the rear and flanks of the group he’d dragged along. They were one of the better small groups in the tower, but they were facing Naga Elites. Fighting one at a time was likely their limit, yet here they were facing off with a squad of ten. If it wasn’t for their Force Mage, they would’ve already been overrun. Even as she thought it, several of the humanoid snake soldiers surged past the wall of encircling qi to attack the Zombie Tank from either flank.

A smirk spread across Nathanial’s face before he moved. Despite his genetic modification and strong jawline, he had youthful aspects to his appearance that were a little uncommon even for cultivators. It reminded Isacara how young he was. His dirty blond hair was short, almost a crew cut. Except it was a little longer on top and she’d seen him spike it or mess it up. His eyes were a bright smokey grey with a tint of blue. He seemed out of place. Only his physique was lengthy and powerful. As he leapt forward, he called out, “Right!”

As soon as he said it, the healer Zera fired off a Light Arrow in the Naga’s face. The Spell Goblin’s hand flew forward. A wall of force staggered the same snake-man.

The zombie warrior was already clashing swords with the Naga in front of him. Three of them was too much. His only course of action was to retreat, but then their barehanded guide appeared at his side. It was fast enough that the Naga flanking the man was only just reaction. Then Nathan punched out.

The body cultivator didn’t bother closing in, punching out from nearly ten feet away. The qi ladened fist slammed into the Naga’s gut, bending it in half as it was driven back.

Nathanial’s timing wasn’t an accident. The encircling wall of qi summoned by their force mage battered the Naga from behind.

When the rest of Naga squad was reinforced with another ten soldiers, the smirk fell from Nathan’s face. He called out a new order, “Wolfgang, drop your wall. I’ll knock them down. Be careful as you approach finish them.”

There was a moment of hesitation from the Spell Goblin, but he stopped the flow of qi to his defensive spell.

This time when the body cultivator moved, he was no longer holding back. The Naga facing off with the zombie warrior was struck with fist qi in the midsection before a qi upper cut knocked it unconscious.

He left them with the last Naga on the opposite flank as he surged toward the incoming wall of heavily armored snake men.

She expected him to make use of the short range of his qi fist technique, but instead, he dipped under a spear thrust and threw himself at the closest monster. He flew into its side, as he brought his knee up to meet it. Accompanying the blow was a burst of qi. As strong as the creature’s armor might be, it was the kind of attack that would disrupt internal qi flow.

He pushed off the first Naga and battered one standing a yard away. He was using their close proximity. As humanoid-snakes, they should’ve had the advantage up close, but their superior armor was restricting them, and they were trying to use weapons instead of their hands and fangs.

Bouncing off as much as weaving between them, Nathanial both created the chaos and courted it. The unspoken danger of them using blades was that they were just as likely to wound each other as they were to hit him.

She noticed it right away. When he struck one, he pushed it into another. Those that dared to ignore him and go after his group soon found one of their companions colliding with them even if the body cultivator wasn’t close to them. The first one fell fifteen seconds into the brawl. He was staying low so as to dissuade them from poking their venomous fangs into the fray. As insane as the concept was, he knew what he was doing.

Isacara and Goo Gee’s gazes met but no words passed between them. They turned back to the show.

A minute later, Goo Gee muttered, “I still have trouble believing my eyes.”

“Same,” she agreed. “But Father Wei confirmed it to me personally. Nathanial Kane died and returned from the future to the present.”

Even as they watched the Naga fall one after another, they were still trying to juggle reason and what was rational.

Isacara reminded her friend, “He’s already found the location of the Naga Queen even though its much further away than all of the other region bosses from their gates. He also knows he has to clear the ruins for her to appear. It’s unbelievable, Guenavera, but it’s happening as we speak. If he doesn’t get himself kill facing her too early, we might be witnessing the dawn of something unseen in our galaxy in a very long time.”

“But can he defeat her?” she asked.

She shook her head. “She’s already reached large success of the Blood Realm. No, it should be impossible.”

“Are you going to save him if his death looks inevitable?”

Isacara narrowed her eyes. “I… I don’t know. Father Wei said something.” She proceeded to tell Goo Gee about what he’d said about the path of a body cultivator.

“So you’ll do nothing?”

Her mouth parted but words didn’t come. She was being indecisive, which wasn’t like her at all. She came to a decision. “If it’s obvious he will lose, then yes, I will save him. If it’s indiscernible, I’ll leave it to fate. Just because he can’t win doesn’t mean he won’t be able to escape.”

“Even that’s improbable.”

She nodded her assent.

Just as he asked, the group following Nathanial finished off the Naga. It wouldn’t earn them as much energy as fighting and killing them would, but it would still be worth the effort.

They turned their attention to the upper panel that showed the northern region boss battle that was about to begin.