Chapter XLI: Idiots Never Learn II

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Tortoise 2, 172 ,328 DE

"Aoi is amazed we can't see Tree-chan Master from up here."

With the tops of the trees below us, the Demonic Wildlands looks a sea of leaves stretching to the horizon, but there is not sign of the Great Tree rising above the sea.

"The old tree is surrounded by powerful wards in the Soma, Eidos, and Pneuma. They block anyone, who is not strong and perceptive enough from seeing or sensing it."

"Can Pervert Master see Tree-chan Master."

I shrug. "Not from this far away. If we were closer, I could see through some of the wards, but I'm still too weak."

"Pervert Master is not weak!"

I release a single bark of laughter. "I'm weaker than you can imagine. No one on the Great Plateau can be called strong when compared with what lies outside the plateau. No one but that shitty old man, anyway. But even he's weak compared with what exist in this Realm."

Aoi shivers. "Pervert Master and Tree-chan Master use words Aoi should not understand, but she still understands the meaning."

I tense slightly in surprise. The Great Tree conveys its meaning with its thoughts. Its projection does not actually speak, no matter what it seems like to us. But if Aoi does know words that I use, why would she be perceiving the meanings behind those words? Are my thoughts leaking form my Mind to convey the meanings without me being cognizant of it?

While passing through the Demonic Wildlands, I picked up trace scents of more than fifty Beast hunters, who almost never hunt below the Great Plateau, and ten or twenty other humans, who should not be Beast hunters. Some of the scents were days old, and others were fresher. Riding up the switchback trail, I find all those scents, but much stronger. All those human either ascended or descended this trail in the past half a day.

Even though almost a thousand Beast hunters hunt below the Great Plateau, most of them do so very infrequently. The total number of Beat hunters, who do so on a daily basis, barely exceeds a hundred , and I am familiar with all of their scents. For so many Beast hunters who do not regularly hunt in the Demonic Wildlands to be out, something has to be motivating them. The most likely culprits would be the noble clans money. Because of the threat of Old Man Jones, the old generations of the noble clans do not dare to interfere with my playtime with their idiot offspring, but that does not mean that they will not provide money for their idiot brats to hire unrelated idiots to fuck with me.

I only wonder how many of the idiot offspring will show up. Hopefully, there will be enough of them for me to, at least, warm up my muscles. By becoming a Triune, my strength significantly increased, but I do not know exactly how strong I have become. I should thank the noble retards for giving me some toys to play with. I should thank the noble idiots before I abuse them. They might not be alive when I done this time.

"The welcoming party should be right near the cliff. If you feel like you're in trouble, retreat to the top of this path. I'll keep them away from you, while I give them a lot of pain. If they come after you with Yuan Qi guns, hide behind the steamer bike; it's armored."

"If the coward bitches that tired to have Ao, Aoi wants them for herself. Aoi will hurt them until they beg, then Aoi will hurt them more."

I chuckle coldly. My little chipmunk has grown fangs. I want to see how hard she will bite.

Clearing the top of the cliff, I halt my steamer bike, While I repress a shiver, I cannot stop myself from grinning like an idiot, a malicious idiot.

An arc of close to two hundred our hundred steamer cars cordons off the area around the top of the path. They even cut down all all the trees withing a hundred meters of the head of the path and piled them up in the gaps between the steamer. Close to a thousand people form loose ranks inside the cordon. Only about a hundred come from the Academy of Magic Technology. The rest look like Beast hunters of the less savory kind, the type of Beast hunter that will prey other Beast hunters before Beasts. The noble morons must have spent their entire year's allowance to collect so many.

Most of the Beast hunter have Mana -– Yuan Qi -– guns, most of them being rifles, casually grasped in their hands. I really need to shift my thought patterns about Yuan Qi. If what the Great Tree said is true, and I have no reason to doubt her, Yuan Qi and Mana are clearly different Powers. Yuan Qi is a bastard Power that should not exist. The Dragon Gods and Daos are far more insidious and domineering than I had ever imagined. I need far, far more strength and Power than I ever imagined to deal with them. I think, in the back of my mind, I thought that just Transcending would be enough, but that will just be the beginning of my journey.

A faint trace of the cat prince's scent hangs in the air, but he is not among the mod. Scanning the woods behind the mob, I do not see any signs of him. Where is he lurking?

Turning the bide sideways to the top of the path, I disengage the drive chains and leave the steam engine at pressure, Partially lowering the support stand on just the cliff side, I let the big bike lean slightly away from the mob. With my arms crossed, leaning on one half of the long handle bars, I turn my malicious grin on the noble morons.

"I'm feeling the need for hurting someone. You pole-smokers offering yourselves up as practice dummies for me?" While my voice is not loud, Trinity carries my words to the ears of everyone in the mob.

All the noble morons from the clans look at Miura Ryo. It appears he is the ringleader of this clown collection. I still have no idea why he was part of the rape gang that targeted Aoi; rape gangs are not his style. From the little I have heard about him, his clan's flunkies normally bring him his pussy, willing or not, ready for him to use it and discard it when he is done. Outside of his education, he spends most of his time cultivating alone in his family's compound.

Seen through my evolved awareness, Miura obviously stands in the upper levels of the Foundation Establishment real of Cultivation. However, the amount of Yuan Qi flowing through him looks more like the Qi Condensation realm. He should be one of the rare Body Cultivator, and his Body Cultivation has affected the level of free Yuan Qi within him. Most of if should be bound up within his Body. He is much stronger than I though he was when I fought him.

My understanding of my own strength in relation to the strength of others is lacking. Making accurate judgments about someone's Cultivation realm and strength is so much harder that it is within those damn stories. It would be nice if the real world was so simply black and white.

Miura scoffs, breaking me out of my thoughts. The delay between my words and his seeming drawn out huff make me realize my Mind is speeding far ahead of my Body. As I look at the mob of Cultivators, they all seem to be moving languidly, almost like they are underwater, being slowed by the resistance of the water.

"Your practice dummies? You are truly arrogant Beast. You do not even have a proper human's name, just a nearly unintelligible sound. It is no wonder real humans call you Beast. Practice dummies?" Miura shakes hi head theatrically.

After what seems like a long pause, he continues. "We are here to kill you. Slowly. Painfully."

I laugh. "Aren't you worried about your clans being exterminated?"

Miura scoff, again. "As long as we do not involve the elder generations of our clans, that gaijin freak you live with will not involve himself in the matter. No one of the older generations here has anything to do with any of our clans. They are all hunters or mercenaries that we hired.

"You made a mistake offending me, Beast. You had nothing to with that half slut sitting behind you. You could have just passed by and ignored what was happening. By trying to seduce the Prince of Amber, she offended the dignity of the clans. A piece of commoner half trash needs to know its place in the world. She was suffering the results of her actions.

With her arms still wrapped around my waist, Aoi stiffens and bristles like an angry chipmunk. "Aoi does not care about the smug cat prince. Aoi only cares about Pervert Master Beast. Okama bitch should go away after Aoi beats it up."

Miura's face flushes crimson. "At least, your little slut has found something as low as herself to cling to. It may comfort he soul on the journey of samsara. Perhaps you will reincarnate as a pair of dogs, and she can be a proper bitch for you."

I laugh mockingly. "I never took you for such a chatty bitch. I guess using your Yuan Qi to make yourself an Okama as you raise your cultivation made you chatty like a gossiping bitch in the market."

Miura's crimson flush turns almost purple. That pale, girly-looking skin of his really makes it stand out. I will never understand why all these Cultivators want to make themselves look like bitches. They should just cut off their dicks and balls and be done with it.

"Shoot him in the legs! I want to take him alive and healthy enough to suffer for a long time!"

Lying on the roof of an enclosed steamer care, behind the noble clan morons, a man aims a large calibre Yuan Qi rifle at me. The bullet will too fast to dodge, but that does not mean I cannot dodge his aim.

Grabbing Aoi by the upper arm, I shove her behind my steamer bike. I narrow my eyes, focusing on the mans trigger finger. The instant it tenses, I need to move.

The man's head turns into a splatter of blood, bone fragments, and and pureed brain matter. The heads of the noble idiot snap around, and they stare at the corpse in confusion.

Boom!

After almost three seconds, the report of the gunshot startles most of them. After another second or two, they scramble for cover behind their steamer cars.

"For the Beast!"

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