[Level 5 Scenario]

  [Objective: Master the World Severing Sword Art]

  [Reward: Technique Mastery, Spirit Repair Progress]

  [Cut Through the Gate]

  [Anti-Light Scepter Detected; Additional Information Authorized]

  [The World Severing Sword Art is a sword technique designed to form as the foundation of a higher level technique. As you are an inheritor of the Anti-Light Legacy, you have unlimited time to master the technique. Eat, rest, and prepare for the challenges ahead.]

  The room was identical to the last, except at the far face of it, there was a simple door way instead of an expanse dropping away to the void. Inside of the door — the gate — was a smooth pillar of white stone.

  When I approached it, it seemed to move away from me. The closer I got, the more distorted it became. Like a desert mirage, it disappeared as I stepped closer, and when it did, the door behind it was gone. There was only a solid wall.

  When I stepped back, it reappeared. I could come no closer than the maximum reach of a sword swing.

  Before opening the sword manual, I swung my sword at the pillar. The way reality warped around it gave me a headache; for the brief instance when my sword passed over it, the wall behind it reappeared.

  “It’s warping space.” I said aloud, turning to where Feng Wen always stood by my side. I sucked in a breath. I was alone here.

  With determination, I turned to the pedestal that had contained the training manuscript. It wasn’t there. I frowned. I had the Anti-Light core the scenario projected, but no manuscript to teach me the World Severing Sword Art.

  After a moment, I reached into my robe and retrieved the Anti-Light Manual that had guided me through the void walk. The pages that were previous blank now contained the instructions to the World Severing Sword Art.

  It looked like the legacy was going to fill in the pages one at a time. After a moment, I held the book above my head and flipped through the remaining pages.

  I had dozens of scenarios to go at this rate. I set the book down and crossed the room to the pillar.

  Every recorded technique within was fascinating — but they did nothing to directly elevate my own power or cultivation. I drew my sword, cultivating the technique I had been taught from young — the technique that I had been told was the Feng Sword Art, but that the System described as the Grim Tempest’s technique — and swung with all the power I could muster. Using my own technique with an Anti-Light core was inefficient — it burned through far more power than it should have.

  But my blade sung when it cut the air, displaced the air in the room, and raised a gale that sent my robes flapping.

  It didn’t do anything more.

  My blade passed through the space where the pillar should have been and did nothing.

  I tried twice more before surrendering my fate to the room. The only way to cut this would be with the art they prescribed.

  Without wasting any more time, I sat down and began to study.

  As with any cultivation technique, I had to master both the physical forms through repetition, and the metaphysical alignment of my qi through my meridians as I used them. I refilled my Dantian as I studied. I continued refilling it as I drilled the blades form.

  When I was ready, I circulated the technique and swung at the pillar.

  The technique broke after only half a second.

  I adjusted my form and tried again, and again, and again.

  When I ran out of qi, I continued practicing the forms.

  The first time I succeeded, I stumbled.

  Qi manifestation was supposed to remain entirely interior until the Fourth Realm — until then, any qi that left your body would remain entirely outside of your control.

  In spite of that, the first time I successfully used the sword form, my sword turned completely black as qi radiated from my palm and covered the weapon. I flinched backwards in surprise, causing the technique to break — the power in my arm bucked, and the sword fell to the ground, where it embedded itself in the floor to the hilt. I pulled it free from the ground without resistance.

  In spite of cultivating an external technique beyond my realm, my core was barely depleted. The core was costly, yes — a fifth of the accumulation that took me hours to refill — but no where near as costly as it should have been. I raised the blade with newfound enthusiasm and continued practicing.

  It took another eighteen tries to successfully activate the technique again. I swung toward the pillar. As the edge of my blade neared it, the image of the sealed wall that appeared when I approached the pillar and the open doorway seemed to near each other, coming closer as the pitch black edge of my blade crossed them. My blade carved half way through the pillar without noise or resistance.

  Then the room shook. My technique was aborted half way through. Space warped, the pillar once again dancing farther away from me.

  I turned back, preparing to face a threat — someone mining through the wall, or a collapsing ceiling from an earthquake — but that didn’t happen.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Instead, the room rearranged itself. A wall of pillars emerged from the floor as the room physically stretched wider. A perfectly replica of the room I was in began to emerge from the floor — complete with a pedestal for the technique manual of the Anti-Light arts and a pillar covering warped space. From the side, I could see space warping around the pillar. A book dropped from the ceiling and landed on the pedestal.

  Then a warrior fell into the center of the room with a grunt. I scanned her quickly. She was armed and armored, wielding a short short and a motley mix of ramshackle armor. It was unlikely her armor did much more than constrain her movement if she was in a high realm — which meant she was likely a low realm cultivator.

  I could sense the way the qi in the air shifted around her, perceiving it through the changes of qi I absorbed in my spiritual senses. Her impact on the qi was weak, muted, and strange. But something about it told me she was stronger than the impression of her qi let on.

  I raised my sword as she shot to her feet.

  She scanned the room like a wild, pinned animal. Her hair was greasy and tied back.

  “You — ” She said, raising her shield between us.

  I held my sword out, but otherwise didn’t move. I suspected she wouldn’t be able to cross the prison-like wall between us.

  Her eyes didn’t leave me, scanning me as a threat as I had scanned her.

  “You don’t look like a ghost.” She said. “You’re real.”

  “You look the part of a graverobber.” I replied. “That’s illegal back in my home, you know. You weren’t invited to challenge this legacy.”

  “Legacy? Graverobber? What are you talking about?” She lowered her shield slightly, revealing the frown on her face. “This is a dungeon. And you — you’re — you can talk? You’re not a monster?”

  “Of course not.” I said. “But you look all the part of a bandit.”

  She frowned, looked around again, and ultimately lowered her sword. Her shield stayed up.

  I sheathed my own sword.

  “I am known by Feng Sai, prince of the Feng Empire and Second Young Master of the Iron Mountain. Tell me, bandit, where are we?”

  “I’m not a bandit!” She said. “I am Poppy Vascara, Seventeeth Daughter of the House of Steel. And you’re no Noble! Where the hell is the Feng Empire? Are you messing with me? Or… are you part of the scenario?”

  “I was afraid of that.” I said, eyeing Poppy up and down again. I sighed. “We control the north-eastern coasts and desert of the Bloodstone Continent. Have you heard of that, at least?”

  Poppy shook her head no. She held the shield between us.

  “You said that I’m not a ghost. Did you see a ghost that looked like me?”

  I only know of one cultivator ghost, and he owed me more answers.

  “Very much like you. It slaughtered a dozen good men. Is that a friend of yours?”

  “Afraid not. Last time I saw him, he was in far too poor a shape to be slaughtering anyone.”

  I walked toward the edge of the room between us slowly. Poppy took a step back for every step forward I took. I sighed regretfully as I neared the wall between us; as I suspected, space warped as I closed in on the open bars, reality distorting until a featureless stone wall remained between us instead.

  I took a few steps back and sat down.

  Poppy remained guarded.

  “How many scenario rooms has your group of graverobbers managed to clear already?” I asked.

  Surely there would be enough remaining to recover my damaged core.

  “Clear? You mean survive? None.” Poppy said, a frown on her face. “Are you messing with me? No one has left a scenario alive.”

  “That’s odd.” I said. “These are rather easy. Even a cultivator less blessed by the heavens should have been able to make it through eventually.”

  I placed a hand on my chin. With the power afforded by the cultivation base the scenario’s maintained in their illusions, clearing every scenario so far shouldn’t have been much of a struggle.

  “The scepter could be warping the challenges to make them easier for me… but I find that unlikely. A cultivator that old likely doesn’t look kindly on those who take easy paths… No, anyone with a basic knowledge of cultivation should have been able to master the Void Walk eventually.”

  Poppy was scanning the room now. She still held her shield aloft, but no longer held it between us.

  “I have to get out of here. Back to Thane and Anna.”

  “Are they the ones you’re graverobbing with?” I asked, curious. “It’s not just the three of you, is it? He made it sound like you would be dangerous.”

  “No! And no, it’s not just the three of us. The entire Bleeding Crown is here.”

  “Bleeding Crown?” I sounded out the name. “They sound like a demonic sect. Rogue cultivators?”

  “I have no idea what a cultivator is or what you’re going on about!” Poppy said. “If you are going to attack me, do it now and get this over with!”

  “You jest.” I said. “No one is coming to attack you. Did you not read the Scenario text?”

  Poppy made a noise of disgruntlement and turned. Her eyes glazed over in an odd way, moving left to right as if she was reading text. Then she looked back up at me.

  “World Cutting Sword Art… this scenario is really just for learning?” Poppy scoffed. Then frowned. “Maybe they have been lying about the difficulty of the scenarios. If this rewards [Skills] or even unlocks a [Class…] no, that’s ridiculous.”

  My eyes widened in alarm.

  “You… have [Skills] too?” I asked.

  Poppy looked at me inquisitively.

  “Everyone has [Skills.] Most people develop at least one by the time they’re a teenager. I — “ Poppy jumped as the center of the room opened. With a sound of shifting and grinding stone, a pedestal slowly emerged from the center of both rooms. A complete and fine meal was situated at the top, along with a large jug of water.

  Poppy had already turned around, holding the shield between herself and the new object. She paced around it, staring it down.

  “What is this?” She shouted across the room as she repositioned so that her should would protect her both from me, and the steaming hot plate of food in the room.

  “It’s dinner.” I said. I stretched out my sore muscles before standing, taking the plate and jug to the floor and digging in.

  Poppy waited almost an hour before caving and eating her own plate. She finally set her shield down, but kept it in range. It was a jagged, broken thing of splintered wood. It looked like it had seen better days.

  I recovered, refilling my core before standing and drilling again.

  Poppy looked between me and down at the food before stuffing her fast as fast as she could. Then she turned back to the pedestal, grabbing the book off of it and flipping through it.

  “It’s blank?” She asked as she crossed the room toward me. She paused a fair distance away.

  I grunted as I swung the sword again.

  “Try looking past the first few pages.”

  Poppy continued flipping until she found the World Severing Sword Art.

  I watched her read through it repeatedly out of the corner of my eye, mentally applauding her dedication to taking in the technique. So many cultivators learned the bare minimum details before going off to practice. It was the second largest cause of injuries in the Iron Mountain sect when I was growing up.

  The first cause was the duels.

  The third highest cause of injuries were those inflicted by me. In the duels.

  “Feng… what is this book even saying? What’s a dantian?”

  “You… aren’t a cultivator?” I asked. “A dantian is a… it is the physical accumulation of a cultivator’s base. After they’ve opened and cleansed and aligned their meridians, after they’ve prepared and infused their body, they change qi from liquid to solid. You… do not have cultivators?”

  Poppy shook her head.

  “I do not know which insane martial order you’re from, but there are no warrior classes that use anything like that. Do you live here? In the Expanse?”

  I shook my head no. I was starting to come to terms with reality. Not only was I not on my home continent — I wasn’t even on my home world.

  “Let us trade information, bandit. You tell me everything about this expanse — tell me more about these [Skills] and this world, and I will help you complete the Scenario. Deal?”