Advanced Cultivation Civilization

ACC Chapter 35 Pointless Endeavor

The harshest places to a race of humans were those at the edges of being extreme. Like the deserts and polar ice caps. Being in the former was the same as being boiled alive, while the latter was too cold for a warm-blooded being.

Even before a time when the star's spiritual energy could be beamed down, such places had been hostile to even the most accomplished of cultivators even if you discounted those of the Demon race that called such places, home.

And when the weather mutated the spiritual energy, merging with it, the danger levels rose to the point where even a cultivator might find themselves stumped, not to mention the true inhabitants of the place, who have to hide within their homes or places of shelter, to wait for the weather anomalies to pass.

As I gazed out into the storm of sand that was buffeting my green spiritual ward, I could make out some small critters that had been caught in it... Well, only pieces.

Behind me, within my divine sensory range, The Wall was simply living up to its name. The sand storm was only impacting a blue shield formed from multiple arrays inscribed upon the walls. The energy consumption alone had to be staggering, but how could the people who had constructed this care? After all, even this giant city was simply too small to even make a dent in their riches. This land had the most rich spiritual stone mines in the entire world after all.

After that bit of gawking, I moved on, blasting through the sandstorm with such speed that any being at, or below the Core Formation would only catch a blur. Yet, I wasn't travelling incognito at all. I was flaring my aura and power.

My earlier ponderings had been eating at me. And for that, I wanted to at least get some punching bag. Maybe then, I could have myself a battle of the ages. It had been rare in the past for Nascent Souls to go all out on the planet, because of the destruction they would cause.

Because of a birth of a nascent Soul, a cultivator's attuned spiritual energy could linger in a place more than necessary, bringing about risk of contaminating those of lower realms. It wouldn't matter if it happened to Demons, but we couldn't afford to make our planet unliveable for those Humans in the lower realms.

But now, the planet was strong enough to erase such traces in under a few days.

As I travelled at my fastest, with the sand pelting my ward creating a defeaning sound that would have burst the brains of an ordinary mortal, I kept my eye out for the Demons I was sure, would attack.

There were monsters at the Nascent Soul stage that didn't like being under anyone, or simply didn't like being under the Demon Empire, which apparently to them, was changing the ancient methods.

What were the ancient methods? Those entailed finding a place with concentrated spiritual energy and marking it as your territory, fighting those that challenged you. But now, such actions didn't exist in the Demon Empire, which had started to become civilised.

A sound, like something had just burst out of the sea of sand, entered my ears even through all that noise of the raging amalgam of sand and wind.

A titanic shadow, fell down from above, compressing the very air between us to the point that it pressured me to a minor extent. With but a thought, I vanished, appearing a few meters away in the air, my gaze falling upon a giant pincer crashing into the sand below with such force that even the storm was pushed asunder, creating a calm spot.

My lips curved upwards as I stared right into those purple eyes obscured by the raging sand. It was a scorpion species, one that was at the very peak of Core Formation.

Very few human cultivators would arrogantly challenge those at a higher stage. But for demons, that was the norm.

Through my hands, green spiritual energy flowed, making it out of my pores to a microscopic cluster of cells, sheared from my symbiote, in my palm.

With that influx of energy, they started splitting in an instant, and within a few seconds, a staff of wood rested within my hands, with the symbiote too, encasing my body in glowing green armor.

(Human! Do you only know how to dodge?)

An aggressive voice crashed into my divine sense. The reason for the question was simply because of the fact that as I had been making preparations within those few seconds, the demon had been attacking.

I didn't even dignify that with an explanation, instead twirling the staff within my hands before striking down from above, upon which it elongated and by the time it was blocked by the pair of massive black pincers, its size and weight hadn't lost out.

With a snap, it was severed, but with that distraction, I had gotten close to one of the purple eyes stabbing out with my smaller staff.

Metallic sounds rang out as my attack only made contact with the carapace, pushing the massive beast some few meters back.

A crimson flower grew upon the end of my wooden staff and bloomed, explosively releasing a wooden dart with concentrated dose of my spiritual energy.

Something dark blurred, accurately striking the tip of the dart, creating an explosion of purple and green energies, which I hurriedly evaded.

The scorpion had finally used its stinger, which was surrounded by dense poison attributed spiritual energy, though in its own unique blend. Just like how my inner core wasn't just composed of normal wood attuned spiritual energy, but also my own unique understandings.

What did I want from this battle? The question arose within my mind even as my clash with the scorpion ramped up to the point that many attacks were exchanged in a span of a single second, creating a bubble free of the sand storm with only us two inside it.

Stimulation. That was the answer to my question. I wanted to see whether I could truly become thirsty for its blood.

I swapped places with a large piece of wood from my broken staff, with it being annihilated by a black sharp stinger, which caused the wood to become corroded to the point that it was turned into a liquid purple ball, which was hurled at me.

Through my arm, I pushed out my spiritual energy, which manifested as large piece of wood that continuously grew from my hand, clashing with the glob of poison in a reaction that annihilated both.

Through my divine sense, the scorpion dug into the sand, vanishing only to reappear below me, with its massive maw aiming to swallow me within itself.

With a shout to rile myself up, green energy bubbled from my entire body like fleshy growths, turning me into a giant made of green bark that trampled onto the massive beast, sending it back into the sand while also dislodging a few pieces from its carapace.

My giant, formed from wood, crashed into the sand, with the scorpion having swarm away after falling within. Basically, the sand was its ocean.

With me embedded within the giant's chest, I willed a massive staff into its hands, one which it twirled around, producing powerful gusts of wind that pushed the sandstorm away.

Now that there was some respite, I took a glance at the raging energy below, that scattered because of our clash.

My green energy was causing trees to grow at a visible rate, the purple, was corroding even the sand itself, having already created pits with a depth that was staggering.

Of course, even now, the poison attuned spiritual energy was dissipating faster than its wood attributed counterpart because of the fundamental difference in our realms.

Within a blink of an eye, I shifted positions, appearing right above a sand dune. I could sense it. No matter how it tried to hide, it couldn't  escape me. Its soul aura was akin to a bonfire in the middle of a dark void.

The massive staff within my giant construct's hands plunged down with the force of an asteroid, growing a sharp protrusion at its end, concentrated with my attuned spiritual energy, causing it to emit a vibrant emerald light within the sandstorm.

A chittering sound, one entirely of pain, assaulted my divine sense. Then I felt the life slip out of the beast.

This had been a pointless endeavor. I had wanted to be attacked by something that could draw out my survival instincts. I had thought that maybe, at the very edge of life and death, I could have been able to dig out my true feelings.

This scorpion had been a disappointment.

The green giant I was controlling through my thoughts dug out the complete carcass of the scorpion, proceeding to drag it towards the factory.

What was it really going to take? What sort of trigger would make me feel the compulsive desire to get something, or to at least put in my entire effort?