Chapter 14: More Than You Can Chew

The pervasive aura of death settled on the courtyard and everyone felt a shiver up their spine as if the grim reaper himself was standing behind them and lining up his scythe for the first and final swing. An ancient sounding and truly demonic voice rang out from Harvy as if evil itself was speaking through him from the underworld.

“The Dark Lord rises on this pathetic mortal plane. You think yourselves powerful with cultivation and martial skills! But, you don’t realise you are but ants in the eyes of true power. ‘He’ comes, and behind his glorious path of ascension shall be great rivers and torrential rains of blood that span the starry sky. ‘He’ will erect mountains of corpses that he shall climb upon to ascend the heavens. And you, Xanzu you pathetic shell of a man, shall be the first to suffer his ire. Hahaha! HAHAHAHA!” Finished speaking his disturbing prophecy, his disgustingly course, wheezing laughter rang out through the courtyard once more.

Before he finished his mad laughter, a grey blur shot through the centre of the arena and smashed into the back of Harvy’s head. Having just been smashed in the head by surprise, the madly laughing Harvy fell flat on his face and passed out.

Everyone was in shock. Even slightly panicked. They’d never in their lives seen something like this. He truly sounded as if he climbed out from the pits of hell to deliver this message ... This prophecy. Xanzu was especially worried. He’d never expected some death curse to be placed on him by the weak pathetic Harvy. He actually spent a great deal of his free time picking on and degrading Harvy when they were younger.

To see him like this now, he didn’t know what to expect, but he was the type to bully the weak and fear the strong, so if there truly was someone as powerful as described he expected nothing good. Before everyone’s thoughts went wild with worrying theories or even before some people managed to wake up from their shock, an embarrassed cough rang out in the arena.

Everyone finally realised there was someone that had appeared and knocked out that madman. Then with a slightly bashful chuckle he began to step forwards to begin speaking.

James was inwardly a little worried as well. He new this scene of madness would not bode well for them if they wanted to save Harvy, but he wasn’t ready to give up on Harvy yet. Especially after he witnessed that devotion bordering on ... Well let’s admit it. It was true cult like zealotry.

“Ahem! Heh-heh. Many apologies everyone. Harvy recently suffered from a slight cultivation deviation and this matter seems to have aggravated it somewhat. There’s nothing to worry about though, we’ve actually been working on something for that and we believe it won’t be a problem to get him back to normal.” After James’ brief moment of quick thinking he decided to just go for broke and admit that Harvy’s a little broken and try and use it to his advantage in the upcoming discussion.

Hao and the Elders were the first to wake up from their thoughts. Realising James had come, Hao breathed out a long breath. He had no idea what was going on with Harvy and he was fairly certain he didn’t want to know. Regardless of that though, the ... Prophecy, of Harvy’s couldn’t possibly be related to his little Jay so it was nothing to worry about for the moment.

Before he got the chance to get control of the situation, the shrieks of his son rang out. “Executioner! Kill that creature this instant! Whatever that is it’s not human, I command you to kill it!”

Following these screams the entire seating area exploded into a raucous scene, as everyone began yelling and discussing what just happened. The executioner was naturally from the sword hall and willingly followed the commands of their golden boy as he walked towards the unconscious body of Harvy.

He raised his gleaming sword over his head with a cruel smile and just as he brought it down, it suddenly disintegrated in his hands. Following the disappearance of his executioner’s sword, an unstoppable force blew the executioner across the arena. In the brief moment, as he was lifting into the air, the explosive sound of an object breaking the sound barrier rang out and then the explosion of the wall on the seating area on the far side of the arena quickly followed up.

Everyone froze. Was this the power of some all mighty expert? Even Elder Jeng didn’t have the power to disintegrate a sword of that quality, let alone then destroy an entire wall with a single blow. Even with his most powerful earth element martial skill and using every scrap of spirit power he had, he doubted he could achieve such a result.

Quiet once again descended until a loud “Phewy!” rang out, as James pulled himself up from the ground. They never had a chance to test this design so even he didn’t realise that it would be so powerful. Everyone watched him as he climbed up with a bright smile on his face, which was quite unusual for James in a situation like this, and he began to pat the dust off himself.

As he did that the eyes of everyone present moved towards a strange long white blunt metal ... staff? Or a cudgel or some kind of ... weapon. It was hard to tell exactly what is was but the smoke coming off of it and the fact James seemed so carefree about the massive explosion just then, would suggest he was the source.

James then turned to the now silent as the desert crowd. In his arms was a long white rod about 4 foot long. At the midpoint of the stick were two obtrusions that come up out of the stick like a fork in the road. They then proceeded out from the handled part of the stick in parallel, leaving a clear space in the middle like a track.

The space between the protrusions looked as if it was drilled out from the end to leave it looking circular. At the handle of the track was a small gap that looked square and fed into the hollowed gap between the two sides of the track. In the handle of the oddly shaped stick was an odd rectangular prism, about the size of a hand, that was glowing with a strange luminescence and looked filled with tiny blue electric snakes.

This was James’ greatest wish and desire become complete. He called it an Arc Cannon, but truth be told it made no arks or any such thing, he just liked the name. This weapon design was conceptualised by him when he was still an apprentice and something he longed and dreamed to build. In truth it would have been more apt to refer to it as an electro-magnetic rail gun. That however sounded less cool than arc cannon.

The ark cannon was a powerful modernised weapon that used a massive current of electricity to magnetically charge two tracks. Inserted between the two tracks is a projectile that acted as both the firing mechanism and the ammunition of the weapon.

This was a weapon that was built to fire large slugs at absurd speeds. It only had two down falls. The first was the absurd knockback of the weapon when firing a slug. The fact that James wasn’t injured by the recoil alone can only be attributed to his using half his spirit energy to hold himself steady.

The other massive draw back of the weapon, was the energy consumption. Even with a material like black-iron that had an abnormal level of efficiency in creating magnetic fields, it still used half a battery charge. The battery in question was something James and Skay had spent the majority of their time last night developing and just charging one had an enormous energy cost for James and was the reason they were so late.

Although they could try and charge it using electricity generated by their makeshift lab, the speed was slower by a depressingly large margin. They had a few theories about that but the leading one was that the nature of the spirit stones themselves was to take in a person’s refined spirit energy and not energy created by the world. Which would explain why the stones aren’t chock full of primal energy most the time.

As James stood there with his arc cannon leaning on his shoulder he couldn’t stop a grin spreading across his face. From the Elders faces they most likely were very interested in this weapon.

Anvil was the first to react as he shot to his feet, his eyes staring at the white stick in James’ hand fanatically. “Young junior. Is this something you’ve created?”

Finally the other Elders reacted as they too eyed the stick. “This weapon is indeed a concept design. It’s called an arc cannon. The reason I came to your public display today is to make a trade. In regards to the life of Harvy Gau. First and foremost he is a necessary subject for our research on cultivation deviation. Without him, it will be difficult to finish developing a cure for the effect of something that is normally so debilitating for cultivators. I’m sure you all realise that if the Gau clan had such a method in the future you would surely become a stronger power in the empire, with many cultivators seeking you out.”

Jeng couldn’t stop himself from being dragged in. He stood up and his one good eye fell on James. “This disciple is a criminal and his crimes are unpardonable. You will need to give the clan more than some methods to alleviate cultivation deviation. That weapon for example could almost be considered enough, if you can teach our forge masters to make it that would be sufficient.”

James didn’t even think before replying. “Not a chance mate. The research on this weapon is leagues beyond the worth of Harvy. You’d never even have seen it had I not decided that Harvy was worth keeping alive. In regards to his unpardonable crime, I can’t help but feel it’s been exaggerated. From all the stories told to me, disciples killing each other over resources or blood feuds are common. Why haven’t you punished all the other members of your clan that have been witnessed killing someone for some reason or another?”

Everyone in the crowd couldn’t help looking at one another. They too knew that death was a common part of how practitioners lived. It was impossible to get ahead in this world without offending someone and when rare resources appeared it’s not unusual for battles to occur even between clan members.

They all came here for a good show though, so a party crasher like James was excellent for making things a bit more exciting. They weren’t about to jump in and assist any side.

Elder Jeng was not happy with James’ rebuttal and it was clearly written on his face. Unfortunately he wasn’t certain what to do, he had a feeling that such a weapon was not something their clan could create without assistance. Even if they tried to reverse engineer the one James now held. On top of that, even if they moved on him now to apprehend him, the power of that stick was enough to make even him apprehensive, so he had no doubt everyone else wouldn’t want to get anywhere near it.

Hao stepped in to mediate the Elders and James’ discussion. He had a feeling James intended to exchange the weapon with the clan but he’d definitely want more for such a thing than just Harvy’s life. Regardless of if he wanted to trade it or not, this weapon gave him the right to bargain with the clan as an equal.

“Little Junior James, I’m certain you and the Elders can come to an agreement later in regards to an exchange for your arc cannon. In the case of Harvy’s life, you are free to take him as a sign of the clan’s good will in this matter.”

Xanzu couldn’t believe he hadn’t gotten his way twice in a row and was on the verge of jumping down to the stage and slapping James to death with a single palm. He turned to his teacher Elder Jeng to plead his case. “Master Jeng, we can’t allow some scum to...”

“Silence boy!” Interrupted Hao. He was already rather displeased with Xanzu and he’d just been even more irked that his own son ran to the Elder of the sword hall to overturn his ruling. He truly was an unfilial son.

Once Hao put an end to this matter and James picked up Harvy to drag him back to the lab holding his nose, the 4 Elders and the Clan Head met together in a secluded study room at the back of the mansion.

As the four elders sat down at a table and waved off the servant who’d just brought down tea, the most excited Elder, Anvil, started the discussion. “I want the boy and the old man to be inducted into the Hall of Forging immediately. They hold a great deal of knowledge that will be invaluable to us as forge masters and building a strong relationship with them now would be better than when they’ve acclimated to our world fully.”

Jeng was a little dissatisfied with how things had gone with the steppers so far. “I disagree with the soft approach. They have been given a great deal of leeway these past few days and we’ve put off bringing them into the clan until they could swear an oath but that’s left us here now. They aren’t part of the clan yet and as such aren’t bound to us, that brat even had the audacity to speak against an Elder in front of the gathered clansmen. We need to be able to control them! We should give them enough resources to reach mid-barrier realm and then have them swear to us or die. We can’t let such a weapon, or anyone that can build such a weapon, leave our Gau Clan. It would be easier to get control of them now than let them gather any more information on our world. They should also be separated from each other!”

Jeng was sure it would be better to get control of the steppers who had strange methods immediately, before they had the chance to get used to this world. From what the boy said, they were already well aware that this world was one were the strong eats the weak.

Many other worlds connected to ascension star had more developed and set social systems that were policed, but even there, as long as it had cultivators the strong had the power and the weak were forfeit of any liberties.

He suspected they were already making plans to leave.

Elder Song had once again jumped ship. Of the Elders, he knew the steppers natures somewhat better than the others and had interacted with them the most out of the Elders. Although he’d rather not admit it, he probably couldn’t manufacture such a weapon, ever. In fact he didn’t even have any ideas on how it actually worked.

However, he had lived his life in the clan and for the clan and now felt that these steppers could very well be a turning point for the Gau Clan and perhaps even allow them to contest for the entire region, or perhaps even the empire one day.

He also knew that the steppers and the boy especially, were a little too astute and he was sure if they forced them to swear an oath they’d still find someway to make things difficult for them, the oath after all isn’t infallible.

“We can’t try and force their hand. I’m certain that boy is aware that we may keep them here and force them to swear an oath but he seems the type to rather die than live in servitude to our clan. We should either kill them all now, or prepare to accept that we can’t control them and may need to develop a new relationship with them.

“Although they won’t belong to our clan we can still set up a relationship to benefit from their impressive crafting technology. In the future they will definitely become powerful enough to assist our clan in it’s growth. If we befriend them now and create that goodwill then even if they one day leave, it will not be before they’ve assisted us and we’ve developed a good relationship with them.”

Elder Grace being the last to speak was looking at Hao who’d yet to sit and was staring out the window with his hands behind his back. She could tell this situation was incredibly troubling for him. “Clan Head. I feel that the boy would never have shared the existence of his weapon without a reason. Perhaps our best course of action now would be to find out exactly what the steppers want. Only then will we know how to respond.”

Hao’s eyes were glassy and his face solemn. As he looked out the window his expression grew softer. Unfortunately he now saw that little Jay would never be held down by his Gau Clan. He shone too brightly to be trapped in this little city out on the edge of the empire.

He’d kept a creepily vigilant eye on James over the past few days and overheard quite a number of the trio’s conversations. Although he’d always managed to miss the Zombies moments of fanatical worship he knew James had a double element. He never mentioned this to the Elders and now that this whole fiasco had begun he knew for the moment he couldn’t. He wanted James to be tied to his clan and by extension, him, for the rest of his life, but he knew it would only create enmity if he tried to force it.

He turned to the Elders. With his face stern he looked them in the eye one by one and then finally spoke. “We’ll do as Grace has suggested. For the moment let’s consider them guest forge masters and treat them as such. If we try to pressure them into the clan, they will feel trapped here and it will only sour our relationship with them. Once we’re certain of their intentions, then we will either let them stay in the clan and join the halls or leave and set out. Either way, we will not be trying to force them into the clan. We can ask for explanations on there research into black-iron in exchange for the meagre knowledge on cultivation we’ve given them.”

Jeng seethed as he sat there thinking furiously. He didn’t want to allow such dangerous people out of the clan. He felt the head was being foolish in his attempt to placate them. “Clan Head we can’t allow them to leave and be snatched up by someone else. If we can’t have them they should be killed!”

Hao shook his head at Jeng’s short sightedness. “I’ve made my decision. We will discuss it with the steppers tonight but I don’t want any actions taken against them regardless of their decision.” The Elders watched Hao leave the secluded room and then made their way out as well.

-The Lab-

Harvy was in pretty bad shape. Oddly, even though he should be dead from his injuries he still managed to draw breath. Skay began applying a number of high-tech first aid disposables the moment they entered the lab. Although they only had the little bit that came through the Gateway with them they didn’t mind using them for Harvy.