God Of Crafting

"And that place, even the clan's patriarch dares not to enter."

Hearing Chihiro's warning, I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, holding the air in my lungs as I tried my absolute best not to get agitated.

"So this place is THAT dangerous," I stated once I couldn't hold it any longer and breathed out. "And your wife still encouraged us to go there?"

For a moment, a bit of anger flashed in my soul, even if it wasn't my own safety that I was actually concerned about. Yet, after a moment of thought, I sighed out and shook my head before lowering it.

"Actually, scratch and forget that," I stated after lowering my head in a quick, sparse apology. "No one said the path of a cultivator is a safe one. And if we can't bear the risk in a relatively controlled environment, how could we do so when out in the wild of the world?" I voiced a theoretical question… that only me, Claire, and Chihiro could see as an actual, practical one.

Contrary to most of the folks of the clan, who only ever had to go against monsters during their training, the three of us already had quite a bit of experience going against enemy cultivators and operatives. The three of us tasted real combat against an intelligent and crafty opponent ready to use whatever means or advantages they could get their hands on just to bring us down. And when compared to those fights in the past, the risk of whatever it was that awaited on the fourth floor of the cultivation garden…

'It feels kind of inconsequential, doesn't it?' I asked myself, only to shake my head and then turn it as I noticed yet another source of commotion, this time coming from quite a bit away.

Yet, right as I was about to dismiss the topic of the fourth floor and focus on a whole new mess rapidly closing in on me, a single thought popped up in my head.

'What if it's all connected?' I thought, feeling the tingling down at my fingertips. 'What if the reason why the spiritual law and that golden presence feel the same is because in that cultivation garden…' I turned my head to look at the greenery-covered building behind me. 'What if that's where a part of the spiritual deity exists?'

This would explain everything.

Why we were able to cultivate spiritual law. Why the feeling of spiritual law was so damn similar to the feeling of that golden presence. And most of all, why even a patriarch of the clan would fear stepping foot into the place where a law-based entity existed.

'That would answer a lot of questions… but also swarm my head with a metric ton of new ones, wouldn't it?'

Just like I could no longer assume that the spiritual law was the very baseline of the spiritual energy with nothing existing on an even deeper, more fundamental level, who was I to assume what those spiritual-based entities were? Were they gods? Or maybe just consciousnesses existing within the process of the spiritual flux? Or maybe something of an entirely different nature, so disjointed from the limits of my knowledge it was impossible for me to even name it right?

For better or worse, before I could fry my brain thinking about all this stuff, the cloud of dust in the distance now closed in, only to turn into a sprinting cultivator so strong, his spirituality pretty much developed a golden halo all over his body, making him seem like some sort of otherworldly being. And seeing that person, the whole crowd of cultivators that didn't buckle even when Chihiro appeared…

All of those strong men and women instantly raised their weapons and turned around, all in the direction of the now slowing-down man as they presented their steel and saluted the man.

"All hail the clan's young master!"

'Okay, what the hell is going on right now?'

I couldn't recognize the man. In other words, I didn't see him at the feast. And now all those people suddenly turned around to salute him!

"Everyone, thank you for your warm welcome," the young man, handsome as the devil himself, finally killed his momentum and stood mere feet behind the back row of the cultivators' formation, greeting them with a warm smile on his face. "Still, I came as soon as I heard there's trouble brewing here, so…" The man raised his bright, blemish-free face and cast a quick, sweeping look with his perfectly blue eyes while the slight winds carried his long, blond hair all over the place in an extremely cinematic way. "Where are the monsters for me to kill?" he asked, pretty much as soon as his beautiful eyes landed on our small group of three.

For a moment, the young master's eyes lingered on Chihiro's face. He then looked at me, only to quickly move his eyes over to Claire, and…

"Oh! It's you!" he suddenly exclaimed, moving ahead, straight into the several rows of the armed cultivators. Yet, like a certain historical figure in a religious text, his mere presence caused the tides of the cultivators to pull apart, opening a clean path for him to cross. "I've heard a lot of rumors about your beauty and ability, miss, but to witness it firsthand…"

'Okay, that's enough.'

Explore hidden tales at empire

If having those fuckers aim their weapons at Claire was enough to make me angry, seeing this man's perfectly confident smile as he locked his eyes on my woman…

"That's far enough," I stated, taking a step ahead while pulling Claire behind myself, in a silly attempt to break that fucker's line of sight.

Even though he didn't do anything that would warrant my anger…

I could feel it. I could feel how letting him approach Claire would be the worst fucking idea possible!

"Hmm?" Taken aback by my sudden call, the young master stopped right as he reached the second row of the formation. "And who might you be, I wonder?" he asked while beaming at me with a killer-level smile.

"Who I am is not the problematic part," I responded, my protective instincts screaming out in alarm as I once again delved into the familiar feeling at my fingertips.

"That I agree with," the young master nodded his head with an arrogant level of lacking concern, only for his expression to then freeze as he locked his eyes on me. "Who or what gave you the courage to keep touching my woman, however, is the problem."

Wasting no time, the young master picked up his speed, crossed past the last two rows of the formation, and reached out, grabbing Chihiro's arms and pushing him out of his way, only to then stop as he stood right in my face, staring me down with amusement mixed with slighted pride in his eyes.

"Regardless, it is a problem I will immediately rectify!"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Caring not for my, Claire's, or Chihiro's response, this fucker reached out for my arm, likely intending to push me away just like he did Chihiro…

Only for both of us to find out that there simply was no strength behind his arm.

"Huh?" The young master's face twisted in wicked surprise as he strained his arm in yet another attempt to push me aside… but to no avail.

"Are you that used to everyone playing along with your shamelessness that you forgot how it feels to have someone resist you?" I asked, leaning my head over to the side… Only to reach out with my own hand, place it down on the young master's chest, and then gently shove him away.

"Huh?"

The young master didn't fall nor stumble. Yet, he still ended up retreating a few steps, likely due to his own surprise rather than me putting any real strength behind my push.

"Right now, I'm willing to forgive you and spare your life. But look at my woman the way you just did again," dropping all the courtesy, I rid my face of all emotions as I fully invoked my cultivation, daring not to spare the sensation of the golden presence at my fingertips, ready to fully commit to what was quickly clarifying to be a prologue to a tough fight. "Look at Claire with those sleazy eyes of yours again, and I will make sure the blood of your crushed eyeballs will be the last thing you will ever see."

There was no threat, warning, or anger in my voice. After all, I wasn't playing around or simply trying to scare the man away.

Right now, with nothing but my gut feeling guiding me through my choice of words and actions, I was fully committed to turning my words from statements into reality at a moment's notice!

But this young master…

Rather than taking my words seriously, he finally tipped his kindly mask as he revealed a hint of anger, humiliation-born fury, and the wrath of a kid getting their first taste of rejection, all in just a single glint in his beautiful, blue eyes.

"Forgive me?" he asked, only to shake his head… and then laugh out loud, heaving his head to the back as his entire body shook in this bout of livid amusement. "I am the one who is…" he stopped, only to shake his head as he suddenly calmed down and brought his head down, now giving me an openly hostile look. "No, I am the one who was willing to forgive your transgressions on the account of your clear ignorance!" he screamed out, his aura flickering as he drove his cultivation to the point the air around him started to grow denser and denser while dark clouds started to gather above him in a clear, physical display of his spiritual might.

"I'm a merciful one, though," after this momentary display, this young bastard retracted all of his manifested aura, only to rest his hands down on his hips and squint his eyes as he looked down at me. "So, if you don't want to die like the ignorant dog you are, unhand my betrothed right this instant!"

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM