Sunderfall in its glory was something else.
Tall buildings leaning against one another, in the distance waves upon waves of junk from the upper world fell down creating heaps of scraps and piles of unwanted things—the local vicinity was vacant, devoid of any life except the croaking sound of metal and ash in the air.
That set the atmosphere.
Yuanchen stood out like a sore thumb, cladded in expensive and flashy clothings, the cybernetic arm visible underneath his robe. Everything about him screamed rich, and noble to the observer, but he truly was the furthest thing from being a noble. He was a noble in name only, aside from that? His existence held little to no significant value.
The sun beat down on the metal sheets making the graveyard of metal and alloy and trash to glisten. Beneath all, Yuanchen could feel the massive leylines connecting the regions of Sunderfall together, impure as it may have been it still boasted its own magnificence.
Yuanchen could barely get a grasp of this new profound power to gather Qi, not Neuro-Qi but a source of energy that was long thought to be lost to civilization—how that came to be? Was a mystery to Yuanchen and a secret to keep to Shengyuan.
The indomitable soul of Shengyuan was not happy, the body he was in, despite it being strong could barely cultivate, the implants within the body were watered down so much it was gruesome to fix—but he knew to survive in this world, where there was a feint trace of amalgamation of the heavenly Dao path, he needed to fix the body and the soul.
Subconsciously, he channeled some of his Qi through Yuanchen's body and the latter could feel the aura flow within him.
"So this is what cultivating feels like. I feel unstoppable..." Yuanchen mused still not believing what he currently possessing, his musing was cut short when the ground beneath him shook.
A lone glowing sphere emerged from the pile of trash around him and it began pulsating making the trash gather around it in quantity—before Yuanchen's eyes, the trash piled up and grew in size easily dwarfing 30 meters. The trash took a form of a beast with blades from all ends, dark glowing eyes and a mouth that had layers of sharp teeth. The trash beast roared at Yuanchen sending waves on waves of air pressure.
"Holy hell." Yuanchen exclaimed watching the beast with an astonished eye.
To Shengyuan, the beast was what he needed to test out how much he needed to do in Yuanchen's body.
The palm scripture.
Yuanchen moved on his own, his body settled into a fighting stance—his legs spaced apart evenly and his left hand placed in front of him, with the fingers unfolded in an open palm form. He breathes in, and gathered his Qi, focusing it on the tips of his fingers and the inner palm.
"Wait! You have to run!"
A female voice disturbed the stillness Yuanchen he had attained–he discarded the warning and thrusted his hand. "Palming Lotus." the air cried in pain, and his palm was projected in the air flying at insane speeds creating a wide vacuum of air column that shot past the trash beast dispersing its body in one attack, much to the shock of Lia Ciaxin who had been trailing Yuanchen ever since he left the temple.
Yuanchen watched in astonishment.
Never in a million years had he thought it was remotely possible for him to have that kind of power—in a single blow he had exposed the core of a trash beast without dealing with the regenerative factor it had.
He marveled at his hands and grinned—the person that merged with him back there in the temple was not playing when he told him, he was the order of the universe itself. Yuanchen gazed at the reforming trash beast and prepared himself for launch. In a split second, the surroundings halted their breath, almost as if time took a break from governing reality itself, Yuanchen shot off, gliding through the air with each step—his cybernetic hand charging up with blue Neuro-Qi stored within and he threw a punch pushing out from his knuckles a wave of Qi which opened a path for him.
His hand grabbed the core.
Yuanchen ceremoniously landed on the ground, the massive trash beast crumbling behind him as it no longer had a core to gather upon.
Shengyuan deep within the labyrinth of Yuanchen's mind and soul observed the core, and the unique nature surrounding how it was created by the abundance of Qi which was not the same as the Qi that, this world uses.
^
Yuanchen placed the core within his pockets and turned to look at the woman who had been trailing him.
He raised an eyebrow at her appearance.
She had dusty brown hair, bright blue eyes and freckles along her nose. A set of piercings around her ears and lip, she wore a huge brown buggy jacket, cracked goggles strapped around her neck, black tights and faded blue sneakers.
She was a far cry from the noble daughters he used to see, she reminded him of Gaia.
But he knew one thing, never let appearances deceive you.
"Who are you? And why have you been following me?" Yuanchen asked as he scrutinized the woman.
Lia facepalmed at her stupidity. She had hurriedly jumped into action to warn the man about the trash beast and lost all of her cover in the process, truth be told, she was following him around after she saw him descend from the sky. She wanted to know what the sky people were like, and she saw why her grandmother used to say "They hail from the sky, riding chariots of fire and they reign over everything." The man before him demonstrated power that was on a level she had not yet seen, and she had seen alot.
Lia then remembered the question at hand and blushed a bit. "My name is Lia Ciaxin, as for why I was following you? Well it's because I find you interesting."
Yuanchen raised an eyebrow, him? Interesting?
That was a first he had heard of such and he chuckled. "You are sadly mistaken Lia, I'm not interesting one bit."
Lia kicked the dust from her shoes and perked her lip. "You fell from the sky in a gleaming ball of fire, you singlehandedly took down a trash beast without effort. I do admit the trash beast was weaker than normal ones but still, you made short work of it. How is that not interesting?"
Yuanchen listened to her narrate the events that made him interesting in her eye. He kept a smirk from appearing on his face, he was just that bad ass and it was great.
"Lia was it?" Yuanchen mused, his voice completely overlapped by Shengyuan's.
"Yes?"
"If memory serves me correct, this place is the lower world. Why is it like this? Are the heaven cities doing this much damage?"
Lia's expression soured at the question—the trash from heavenly cities had caused too much trouble for those living in the lower world like her.
"Yes, but this is only the tip of the iceberg..." Her speech abruptly ended as her ears twitched—Lia quickly put on her goggles and the world became clearer, the glasses on the goggles flashed up and showed a digital tab with red circles locking on a group of approaching people riding on vehicles in the distance, she saw the emblem on their clothings and her stomach dropped.
She grabbed Yuanchen by the sleeve and pulled him into the pile of trash shocking the latter at the sudden action. She placed a hand on her lip seeing the look of defiance. "Shhh."
As soon as she said that, sounds of tires grinding against the sands echoed out and footsteps grinder against the trash.
"Is this the place?"
"Pretty much so, this is definitely where it was."
"Odd that a trash beast can just disappear like that. It needs an effort of Cultivators and artillery to even put one down."
"Come on, let's move on."
The heralding audio of the engine of the vehicles coming to life deafened the vicinity, disturbing the silence and the vehicles sped away kicking up a cloud of dust.
Lia peaked out of the trash pile, scouting the area and she heaved a sigh of relief seeing the cost was clear and she turned to Yuanchen. "Come on, let's go before they get back." She whispered as she got out of the cover of the trash.
Yuanchen followed after her. "Who were those people? Why were they looking for the trash beasts?"
His questions fell on deaf ears as the girl walking two steps ahead of him seemed focused on where she was going—Yuanchen clicked his tongue in frustration, and kept quiet.
He simply followed behind her, keeping his steps on the same pace as hers.
^
Lawlessness — Yuanchen observed as he and Lia came into the district of Sunderfall where Lia stayed. Piles of trash, billows of smoke in the distance, the audible sounds of machines grinding metal, thick smoke laid dominant in the air. Dilapidated buildings clung onto one another, some had no windows, others crumbling at the roof, to the outside eye, the buildings were on their last legs almost as if they would rumble with the slightest of winds.
He could feel the eyes of the people around him.
Yuanchen knew he stood out like a sore thumb.
"Sister!"
A soft voice startled Yuanchen and his gaze settled on the young boy about five running toward Lia — his eyes widened when he saw that and the only thought running through his mind was.
She had a brother?