145 - A Position of Strength

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Without bothering to address their stares, Qin Yun rose to his feet and took out a knife. He plunged it into his forearm, being sure to leave a long, bleeding gash. Blood splattered everywhere as the two looked upon Qin Yun in horror, thinking he had gone mad. However, Qin Yun's expression was still calm and serene. He showed no indication of the pain he was surely feeling.

Instead, Qin Yun stared at the wound. Thanks to his amazing vitality, he could see it slowly heal, yet it was much too slow to his liking without the aid of qi. As such, he unleashed the nanomachines he had just acquired and felt them rush through his body before pooling around the wound.

He felt his skin tingle as a golden light sparked around the wound’s edge. There was a slight hint of grey within, just enough so the two outsiders could recognize the source of this power. They couldn’t help but frown as they watched Qin Yun quickly regenerate the wound.

After less than a minute, the wound closed shut, and the nanomachines returned to dormancy, only waiting for the next time they would awaken again.

However, these machines weren't some type of miracle cure. They sapped much of his energy with each activation, leaving him completely famished.

He reached into his box and pulled out a fragrant grilled sandwich made with lamb meat. The sandwich was so moist with juices that they spilled everywhere, and its scent even attracted the jungle's wildlife closer.

Ressa was stunned, while Kerak frowned, as they had never seen such food. Most of their meals consisted of meat, with only the occasional vegetable. Only the main tribe, with its many oases, could keep livestock and farm the land.

As Qin Yun dug into the bread, he could see them both salivate. Kerak didn't bother to hide it, so Qin Yun tossed him one, only for the man to ravage it as if he hadn't eaten in forever. Yet, Ressa was another matter. Her pride didn't allow her to bend the knee to an Avaad, no matter how much she wished to.

Qin Yun walked slowly toward her, then bent down to her level. She was still bound to a nearby tree with a solid rope restricting her movements. Qin Yun could feel her stare dagger at him, but he knew they were aimed at the meal in his hands.

“Want some?” Qin Yun said as he brought another sandwich to her lips.

Yet, instead of taking a bite, she turned to the side, ignoring the food taunting her. But even then, her greed for it was apparent to Qin Yun. Her folding was just a matter of time.

“What do you want from me?” she spat, her tone filled with poison. “And you, Kerak! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You sold your soul to the Avaads! What would your tribe think of you now?”

“They're dead, Ressa," Kerak said with a slight sadness. "They're all dead..."

Ressa’s pupils widened from the shock. She hadn't expected such a revelation. She turned to face Qin Yun as her expression darkened, ready to unleash a barrage of mostly incoherent slurs, yet Qin Yun reacted faster. He jammed the large piece of bread encapsulating thinly sliced meat straight into her mouth, shutting her up.

"I had nothing to do with it," he said calmly. "I can't speak for all mainlanders, but I doubt they'd go this far. They are already too busy trying to repair the fortress before your people launch another assault."

"We believe it was the main tribe," Kerak added. "They're trying to silence all those affiliated with you. I don't know why they would do such a thing, but you've probably seen them yourself. You've made tracks leading to the west to fool them into leaving, haven't you? However, you didn't expect them to stick around. Don't worry, we got rid of them."

“You fool!” she said as she ripped the bread apart with her teeth. “We could have killed them whenever we wished, but now that they are dead, they’ll know where we are! If you two could find the entrance to this place, then surely others will too!”

"They would have found you eventually," Qin Yun replied confidently, prompting Ressa to look at him suspiciously. "You might not be aware, but this plane isn't meant to house people like us. Our presence alone here is enough to disturb the plane's integrity, putting a higher burden upon the one keeping it stable. But you knew that, didn't you?"

Ressa's expression changed swiftly from disbelief to outright fear. It seemed that Qin Yun had hit the nail on the head. He wondered why these people would travel from hideout to hideout, even constructing elaborate tunnels underneath this rock, if they possessed this type of miraculous place.

They only needed to stay within, blocking the entrance, and they could have lived happily in a land much more fertile than this desolate desert. They only did things as they did because they couldn't do otherwise. The one sustaining this place must have warned them of the dangers of their presence.

It wasn't that the one that created this space was weak enough that it couldn't harbour a few hundred more, but that every creature in a world was intrinsically linked to that world. As the administrator of the main world, the Heavenly Dao always remained aware of the location of that link, even if they travelled through space to another realm.

It wouldn't usually bother to seek out a single individual, but with many hundreds going missing, even if they were outsiders, the Heavenly Dao would surely begin asking questions. The only reason it hadn't found this place was simply because of how barren the desert was in Qi. It was a blind spot for it, so it was mostly ignored, but it all changed now that Qin Yun was in the picture.

The Heavenly Dao wouldn't dare not to track him. Indeed, it would soon be aware of where he was. Their time was limited.

He explained all this to the two of them yet omitted the part about himself. There was no reason to further antagonize these people when he needed their help.

“You’re just talking out of your ass!” Ressa spat after swallowing what was put into her mouth. Her expression changed for just a moment as she relished flavours she hadn’t ever known before. Yet, she still had more to say, “How could you even know this?”

“We cultivators study the Heavenly Dao,” he said. “That is where we get our strength, just as you rely on the corruption.”

“The corruption?” she interjected. There was a big frown on her face, but also doubt and confusion.

"You might have another name for it, God or something else, but that's unimportant. The important part is that the farther we go on the path of cultivation, the stronger our understanding of the Heavenly Dao. If it was at its prime, the world wouldn't allow this place to exist outside of its influence. Fortunately, it is too busy fighting off the corruption, but the longer this goes, this place may enter its eyes."

“Get to the point!” she said, becoming agitated.

She tugged on her bounds, yet the ropes were firmly anchored around the tree. Despite her abundant strength, she could do nothing to free herself. She even invoked the power of her grey markings. They began shining, pulsating with strength, yet she had been bound so that none mattered; she couldn't move a single muscle short of uprooting the tree itself. Qin Yun slammed the sandwich further into her mouth to shut her up.

"Once this world cannot accommodate you anymore, will your tribe have any place left to flee?" he asked, yet he wasn't expecting an answer. "You'll probably be hunted all over the desert. There won't be any moment to rest, and all the resources you acquired since the day you were exiled will slowly run out, leaving you without food or water. If you even survive their relentless assault, you'll only die of starvation. Your fate is already set in stone."

Enraged, Ressa didn’t bother to swallow and spit out the food in her mouth, only to glare at Qin Yun. He knew his analysis was correct, and history would flow in these tracks. He realized this when he found the two individuals within the maze underneath this rock. This gave him an idea, yet this Ressa seemed much more stubborn.

“Then we’ll fight to the last!” she barked. “There’s not a single individual in the tribe that would surrender to these traitors. They all have the blood of our tribe on their hands!”

“A commendable attitude," Qin Yun said softly. "However, all that will achieve is your death. You won't even make a difference. From what this man has told me," Qin Yun pointed toward Kerak, "The main tribe alone is over ten times your numbers. If you add all those that support them, it should be over ten times that. You were doomed from the start."

“Stranger, why have you come this far to dissuade us?”

A male voice arose from further away. It spoke the same dialect as Ressa, yet it was much calmer and aged, seemingly filled with wisdom. Qin Yun felt no threat from it, yet his body involuntarily shuddered, almost as if there was something mysterious about him.

“Quite the contrary,” Qin Yun said as he rose to his full height. “I came here so that you would fight.”

"By your own admission, this quest is doomed to fail. Why do you wish to bring harm upon us? And you." the voice said, and for some reason, seemed to be aimed at Kerak. "We welcomed you to this tribe with open arms, and this is how you repay us? By trapping one of our own?"

"I never..." Kerak began, yet his voice faltered. He couldn't help but lower his head in shame. Qin Yun paid him no attention. His gaze was fixed on where the voice originated from, for this was the most significant threat he had encountered since stepping foot on this land.

"I have not come to bring you harm but aid instead," Qin Yun said calmly, not backing down. He knew he couldn't, for these people valued strength above all else.

“Aid? What kind of aid could you, alone, possibly give us?”

“This!” Qin Yun said as he reached for his black box.

Countless resources spilled from it, starting with all types of food. Everything from the most basic types of meat and vegetables to already prepared meals, still smoking hot. Countless different scents and flavours wafted into the air, attracting some of the local fauna, yet they did not dare approach more than a hundred meters as Qin Yun could feel the fear in the air. Not the fear of him, but of the man who had yet to show himself.

The man seemed unreactive to the sight of this mountain of food or to the fact that it had appeared from thin air. He didn't say a single word, neither of approval nor disapproval. Qin Yun couldn't even read the man's emotions from the strength he projected; such was the man's mastery over his own strength.

Then came mineral resources. The desert was known for its sand and stone but lacked most metal. Even with this sub-dimension opened to them, Qin Yun doubted these people had begun to mine the ground, for this simply wasn't in their natures. Even now, Ressa's weapons were still made of bones despite the metallic chain found at the top of the mountain of rock.

“Are you trying to buy our allegiance, young man?” the voice said, growing slowly sterner, yet Qin Yun didn’t falter.

He took a few steps toward it and said, "We have the same enemy. Our goals align, but if this is how you want to think about it, then yes. I want to buy your aid. Consider this a gift to show my good faith. There is also much more to come."

The voice hesitated for a while as if pondering, and when it spoke next, it had slightly mellowed out in its aggressiveness, yet it remained just as sharp.

“Are you not afraid that we may simply capture you and take these resources for ourselves?”

“You may try," Qin Yun replied confidently. "However, be ready to lose more than you expect. Also, I can leave whenever I want. Even if the one sustaining this place was to sever the portal bridging the two planes, it wouldn't be enough to confine me here. I'm not stupid enough to enter an isolated world without a plan."

There was an uneasy silence reigning over the jungle. Even Ressa dared not utter a word, yet her glare spoke a thousand. She seemed to think of Qin Yun as a fool for saying such grandiose words, yet she had no idea that he meant every one of them.

Should the door leading back to the desert be closed, Qin Yun would make another one. After all, he had breached the edge of the main world before. This sub-world couldn't resist his strike.

“Alright, young man. Let’s negotiate,” the aged voice said as he emerged from behind a large tree.

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