“You think you’re something, huh kid?” sounded a supercilious voice. Dragging a rusty sword, a yawning man dressed in tattered clothing sauntered up to Lu Yun.
He was very young and might be more appropriately labeled a young man instead. Perhaps he was actually a teenager. Smudged with dirt and his hair a matted mess, it was impossible to make out his face.
The second he appeared, however, saw everyone scattering away from the premises. Even the yowling boy that the Meteorite King had hung on the city walls cut off mid screech and regarded the man with fear.
“I think I’m something?” Lu Yun shook his head. “Not at all. These two here don’t know what respectable behavior and manners are, so I’m looking for someone to teach them how to be a proper person.”
“How to be a proper person??” The man almost fell backward with raucous laughter. “How are you going to teach them when they’re not people to begin with?”
“Not people?” A sharp glint flashed through Lu Yun’s eyes and he closely regarded the being on the wall and the one cowering in a corner. “Indeed, they’re not people, just idiots.
“Meteor.” He looked at the Meteorite King, who grasped his master’s intentions and sent two palm strikes into the air, slapping the two into dust.
“You really do think you’re something, to kill two before even entering the city.” The man wasn’t too surprised by the action, as he’d seen many overweening dandies like Lu Yun before. Many were those who were even more arrogant, and they all died very gruesome and tormented deaths in the end.
“They weren’t people, so what of their deaths?” Lu Yun was hardly concerned and waved a hand, wanting to recall the premium purple crystal.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to enter Ancient Beast City after killing two citizens?” The raggedy man’s expression took a sudden menacing turn. “Turn over all of your purple crystal or you’ll die here today!”
The Meteorite King stepped in front of Lu Yun and the little fox with a quick shift of his body.
“And you really think the world is your playground with a king by your side!” The man threw his head back with a long peal of laughter. “Kings are just a starting point in the Hongmeng. Here, this kind of trash is less than the ants beneath my feet.”
His patience rapidly dwindling, the man brought out an oddly designed wooden club and swung it at the Meteorite King’s head.
It appeared to be a wooden club, but was likely fashioned from another kind of material since it was uncommonly heavy. The man waved it around like a stalk of straw and exuded a terrifying momentum that shrouded the Meteorite King, Lu Yun, and the little fox.
“This… is influence?” The Meteorite King’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he didn’t panic.
Influence was a mentality that corresponded to one’s understanding of Hongmeng orders, rather than cultivation strength. At a certain level of strength, one could borrow the power of the realm to summon the influence of the Hongmeng.
Just like the grand influence over the world that Lu Yun could deploy in the world of immortals, influence was a kind of layout fully under the control of living beings.
Ordinary kings commanded only forcefields, but when they reached a certain level, they possessed influence as well. The Moon, Scorch, and Starspace King counted among this cohort, and so did the man in tattered clothing in front of them!
The Meteorite King’s hand trembled as Quiet shot out of its sheath. An unusual light flashed across the sky.
The influence shattered and the club splintered!
Blood trickled out of the Meteorite King’s mouth.
The man stared dumbly at the king—or rather, the short sword in his hand.
“Give me that sword, or all of you will die right now.” The man’s eyes were now pale gold and his pupils turned into a horizontal slit, like the eyes of a reptile.
“Give it to him,” Lu Yun said to the Meteorite King, who handed it over without a word.
The man’s eyes widened and he snatched it out of the king’s hands with mounting greed.
“This sword can hack through a king’s influence! Heh heh heh, HA HA HA!!” he brayed with laughter. “Hey, outsiders! Come test my sword!”
Whoosh!
The man raised Quiet high into the air and slashed at the Meteorite King.
Hummmm.
A scintillating light the color of blood flared from the sword and engulfed the man’s body.
“Huh? What’s going on? What is this? …no! NO!!” He shrieked with horror as a massive suction force blasted from the sword. It devoured every inch of flesh, drop of blood, and iota of vitality from his body, leaving his cultivation, cultivation level, and qi completely untouched.
Being a great weapon of the fourth realm and the foremost sword of all the realms, Quiet disdained the tiny bit of power available in the third realm. All it needed was vitality from flesh, blood, and life.
The sword returned to an inert state after an unknown period of time. When it withdrew the bloody light, the tattered man had aged from his youthful appearance to that of a wizened and haggard elder.
“What is that?” he mumbled to the Meteorite King.
“The greatest sword of the four realms,” Lu Yun responded quietly to the man about to die.
“So it’s a treasure of the fourth realm, no wonder, no wonder…” the elder laughed weakly. His body disintegrated inch by inch and blew away in the wind as dust.
Quiet hovered in the air, drifting docilely back into Lu Yun’s hands, who handed it to the Meteorite King.
Struggle apparent on his face, the king vacillated for a while before gingerly accepting the sword. He’d never fathomed that the short sword he’d carried on his body all this time would be able to devour a king in possession of influence!
“The Ancient Beast King… is dead!” came a sudden cry.
“The king is dead!!”
The city boiled over.
“The Ancient Beast King?” Lu Yun goggled and stared incredulously at where the man had stood. He’d never fathomed that the man who looked like a beggar would be the ruler of this city—The Ancient Beast King!
“According to the rules of the Kaleidoscopic Region… is this city ours after we offed the lord?” the little fox asked dubiously as she scratched her head.
“I… think so?” Lu Yun felt a bit out of his depth. He hadn’t anticipated that Quiet would be so unrelenting as to consume such a strong king in one go!
He wasn’t the only one; nearby denizens of the city gaped at them. For the time being, everyone found it too difficult to accept what had just happened.
According to Kaleidoscopic custom, whoever killed a city lord would become the new owner of the city. At the same time, the newcomer would have to accept challenges from others to retain their fresh promotion.
The Ancient Beast King had killed a successive eighteen kings in possession of influence before he finally deterred others from making a move and consolidated his position as lord of Ancient Beast City.
No one would’ve ever imagined that he would lose it all in this most unexpected manner. A sword had eaten him, and his city delivered to Lu Yun and the others on a silver platter!
I would’ve thought the Meteorite King wouldn’t like Quiet that much to begin with, considering it’s the sword that killed him.
