《Solitary Sovereign》50. Side Story: A Day in Sungon City 2
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A knife grazed the black cat as it went under a food stall and through the legs of the shopkeeper. Climbing up the walls, it once again went to the roofs.
Not even having the time to retrieve his knife, Daoist Ren followed after the headache. He had underestimated this cat.
He didn't feel like catching it now. He felt like killing it. The damn cat had been leading him across the city for the past hour. It slipped away as soon as he drew near.
And whenever he tried to use some lethal technique, it always leaped into crowded places where Daoist Ren couldn't release his attacks.
At this point, he was trying everything to get it. He wasn't willing to lose to an animal. He was going to catch it no matter what. This wasn't even about the task anymore. This was now a personal matter.
He threw two condensed balls of fire when he jumped between the gaps of two houses. The balls of fire were dodged expertly, the only mark their presence left was some scorched fur.
The cat turned its head back to look at Daoist Ren and then continued its run once again.
This cat was something special. The look in its eyes, the cool disdain leaking from it was exceptional.
Saturday Evening:
The group split at a cross road as they all went their own ways for the night. Daoist Rapper put his hands into his robes as he hummed a funky tone.
He had almost reached his residence when he suddenly stopped and turned around. His steps moved towards the bar he was going to go to tomorrow.
He had suddenly remembered that he didn't really have much at home. So starting his drinking plan right now was better than staying at home. If he started now, he would still have time to get rid of the Hangover before he started the job on Monday too.
With this thought, he soon reached the bar.
"Oh! Rapper Daoist, Welcome!"
This was the bar he had been frequenting since he came to the city. He didn't like to change the places he visited because it always took some time for them to get used to him.
"Alone today? Well, I've got just the thing for you. However it's a product in development, are you up for it?"
The barkeep was aware of the tendencies of Rapper Daoist. He instantly understood what he meant when Rapper Daoist took off his sunglasses and nodded once.
It meant that he was very interested.
The barkeep took out a bottle and continued,
"You see, this one is actually supposed to be a new product for our customers with higher cultivation. It's very strong.
I don't know exactly how strong it is since I haven't tried it yet. You should try a little and find out."
Picking the cocktail created using the new drink. Rapper Daoist gulped it down slowly. However, no matter how much he waited, it had no special effects.
Its efficacy was not better than the other normal drinks. Since it wasn't as good as it was promised, the barkeep poured some more of the drink for Rapper Daoist and shelved the rest. He would have to ask the creator about it later.
4 hours later,
"My mood good
Soo good
I drank till I could.
The drinks were good
Very good
Super good
The barkeep is good
The bar is good.
.................Good
.................Good
.........................."
"Rapper Daoist, I think it's about the time you went home. You've rhymed good with good fifteen times at this point. If you don't go home right now, I'll be worried for your safety."
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Rapper Daoist also had his fill and was in a good mood. Paying his tab, he took off in the dark night on his wobbly steps.
After some time, he reached a deserted area of the city. However, he couldn't understand anything happening around him.
His body swayed so much that it looked like he would fall down any second. He was about ten times more drunk than when he exited the establishment.
It was as if something with very efficacy had just started showing its effects. That was exactly what had happened. Rapper Daoist was so drunk that he climbed to the roof of a building and started reaching towards the moon.
A thought took room in his head, it was that he lived on the moon. It normally wouldn't make sense to him but at this point it just made so much sense that he couldn't help and wait for the moon to pull him up.
Irritated by the slow response of the moon. He took a small run-up and leaped upwards to reach the moon. He would go on his own if they didn't pull him up.
Rapper Daoist.... Was not successful.
Instead of flying to the moon. He fell back to the earth like a bag of rocks. He was so drunk that he didn't even realise that he could use his cultivation strength to stop his fall.
To him, he was on his way to the moon. The loud thud when he fell to the ground was the sign of his arrival.
Now that he had reached the moon, he was satisfied. Before the tendrils of sleepiness took away his consciousness, the only thing he remembered feeling was that his bed was harder than usual.
Sunday:
The sun had just started to set.
Inside the orphanage,
Uncle stood in front of the excited kids as the fireball in his hands split into four parts and started revolving around him.
He was proud of the fact that his magic show proved to be massively successful. He could tell by the looks of the adults and the older kids that he was miles ahead of his competition.
Afterall, the kids who were looking at things for the first time were easy to impress. The adults and the older kids, not so much. Since he had even impressed the adults, he was sure that he had done a good job.
"Kids, this is going to be the final trick of the show. After this, we have to go inside to eat dinner."
As soon as he announced, the small kids looked bummed out. Uncle continued in a loud voice as he looked at them.
"However, this is going to be the best trick of the whole show. It's going to be grand. I'm sure you have never seen something this epic before!
So open your eyes and pay attention to the final part of the show!!!"
'I'm glad I practiced those flashy techniques back then. They finally got to see some use today.'
This trick was going to be a little serious. It required him to use all of the power of his cultivation level. However, the effects were great too. He was sure that it would impress the kids.
'I'm glad that I worked hard from the morning. It's finally close to completion. The sunset backdrop makes it even better.'
Scholar almost had tears in his eyes. After drawing a lot of portraits, he had finally started. Spending all his time since then, his masterpiece had finally started taking its shape. He was sure that once it was completed, it was going to be his best work ever.
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He took a deep breath and exhaled as his expression once again turned serious.
'I can't lose focus right now. A good work can only be called exceptional after it has been finished.'
With his conviction, scholar started working on his masterpiece again.
Daoist Ren was at his wit's end. The sun had started to set but other than watching the swaying tail attached to the cat's ass, he had accomplished nothing.
Even the stamina of the cat seemed to be no worse than him. At this rate, he would have to go back empty handed and report this mission a failure.
He couldn't let that happen no matter what. There was no way he was going to accept his loss against an animal and return shamefully.
He suddenly noticed something and his face broke into a grin.
'Let's see how you escape now.'
They were in a more deserted part of the city and the sun had started to set. He couldn't see anyone in this area.
Right from the start, the reason he wasn't able to exert his full force to catch the cat was because he was conscious of the residents. Since there was nobody around them, he could finally let loose and it was a liberating feeling.
With the increase in Daoist Ren's speed as well as the techniques he used to disrupt the cat's movement, he was finally catching up.
With all his moves, he was finally upon the beast. They were moving with such speed that they would seem like a blur to all who watched them.
Moving with such a high speed, Ren and the cat had no time to rein in their speeds as they suddenly heard a loud ensemble of voices from the front.
Right in front of the leaping cat, a pillar of fire extended from the ground. The cat had no hope to dodge it in the air, it could just widen its eyes in shock and close them soon after as it entered the fire pillar.
Right behind the cat, Daoist Ren finally discovered the reason for the noise.
In a wide and green garden, about 40 children gathered along with some adults as they watched a man in front of them as they cheered loudly.
This man was the source of the fire pillar. Surprisingly, it was someone who Daoist Ren knew very well. It was Uncle.
'Oh Shit!!! The talisman!!'
Feeling the fluctuations in Qi in the area, Daoist Ren pulled his sight back from uncle and concentrated on the cat. The stubborn animal that had never dropped the talisman no matter what he attacked it with had now decided to abandon it.
With an expert movement it had barely moved out of the way of the pillar of fire. However, it was too late to stop the incomplete talisman from setting off.
Not having the time to care about the cat. Daoist Ren moved his Qi to contain the explosion. He had to stop it, or there would be unimaginable consequences.
'Shit!! This is clearly higher than the 5th level. I can't stop it completely.'
Uncle moved all his Qi and spinned with his hands stretched out. While he spinned, his hands started burning up and the size of the fire grew each time he completed a spin.
He stopped spinning but the two balls still kept growing in size and rotating around him in a spiral pattern.
Suddenly, he stretched out his hands and caught all the fire. With more of his Qi poured in, the fire increased ten times. Uncle pushed all of this fire above him, the trick was yet to end. He was going to completely empty his Qi reserves for this one.
He had just created the fire pillar when he felt something weird. With blinding speed, a cat suddenly jumped towards the fire.
Right behind the cat was a man who had his left hand outstretched as he tried to grab onto the tail of the cat. Surprisingly, this man was Daoist Ren.
'What are these fluctuations? Oh no!! This will harm the kids.'
Not having the time to care about Daoist Ren, uncle tried to mobilise his Qi to contain the explosion. However, he had already expended all of it in executing the technique. He could only provide minimal help.
On one of the walls of the city. A young man sat with a canvas in front of him. The scholarly young man had a look of immense concentration on his face.
The canvas in front of him contained the landscape. However, the one depicted on his canvas was much more beautiful than the one in front. This depiction looked even more real than reality.
Scholar was wrapping his paintings up. He was completely satisfied by how it had turned out, now he just had to put finishing touches and call it a day.
"BOOM!!"
Suddenly, an abrupt noise sounded across the region. Right after the boom, a crisp crack rang out in Scholar's hand. He broke the brush into two.
On the perfect canvas in front of him was just a single part that now had a black spot that stood out like when Rapper Daoist visited a bath house.
Looking at the unexpected fireworks in the sky that had just darkened, behind him that had led to this. A single tear that carried all his frustrations escaped Scholar's eyes.
Sighing, he thought.
'Guess, I'll just have to put in a black cat to cover it up.'
Daoist Ren looked at the grand fireworks in the sky as he caught his breath. Around him were the kids that were excited beyond words, they had never expected the final trick to be so grand.
However, even the magician himself was surprised by the results. Uncle also stared wide eyed at the fireworks which were much better than the small blast his technique was going to achieve.
He walked towards Daoist Ren and asked him,
"How did you stop it? I thought we wouldn't have enough time to redirect it completely."
"Me? I only did what I could. It wasn't me that finally pushed the explosion into the sky. If I'm right, something shot out from right there.."
Daoist Ren pointed towards an area with thorny bushes grown by the children of the orphanage. They walked towards it to check the identity of the thing that had saved the day and prevented the disaster.
As they approached the bushes, they could hear faint 'Zeeeee, Zeeee.' sounds from the bushes.
"I saw something black shoot up and redirect the remaining explosion. We should be careful. It might be a beast.", Daoist Ren whispered to Uncle.
Uncle nodded and they sneaked up on the bushes from two different sides carefully.
It was a beast alright. It was just a different kind of beast than they had expected. It was a beast who liked to drink and rhyme.
"Ehhhhhhh! What the fuck is this guy doing over here???", Daoist Ren shouted out in surprise.
"He reeks of alcohol. Didn't he say he was planning to drink all day?"
"I don't know what's going on anymore. The talisman has already been expended, this can be called a success in a way. Let's go home."
"Talisman? Mission? Why are you here anyway?", Uncle asked surprised.
"It's a long story..."
Saying goodbye to the kids, Daoist Ren and Uncle exited from the orphanage with Rapper Daoist on the back of Uncle.
Ren's mission could be called a success and Uncle had also succeeded in leaving the kids with the best experience they ever had since their birth.
When they reached a crossroad. They suddenly saw a depressed young man. It was Scholar. Even his greeting lacked any spirit.
He just followed behind them in a defeated manner as he said in a tired voice.
"Today absolutely sucked. You guys won't believe what I had to go through."
"Same.", Ren and Uncle replied as all of them walked back to the livelier parts of the city
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