Chapter 9-277: Oh Holy Light, the Stars are Brightly Shining... (2/2)

I wanted to turn back and clear Malaysia and Indonesia, succoring the natives there, but I couldn’t let India make the preparations that were possible with their immense population. I was going to be freaking busy enough just destroying and reversing the Qi-making Formations that were all over the place, as well as destroying their power base.

All this, and I was literally ignoring the dozens of Shroudclouds we were passing as I did what I had to do as brutally and quickly as possible.

I was Mapping them for later attention, however...

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Into my basically endless slaughter came Sama, as cheerfully unsympathetic as always. -Hey, can I interrupt your grinding to shuttle some people here? The Mick has found a whole lot of volunteers to come here and, um, help the Chinese, sure.-

I noted The Mick was Sworn to me, and had not brought that up. -Tomb Clans?- I had to /ask.

-And you would not believe how many mercenaries and alchemists looking to make a lot of money harvesting Cultivator blood,- Sama /confirmed without batting an eye.

I considered that. -Have you, or are you going to, confirm that if they try to preserve any Cultivators for milking that the reward for such profitable behavior is termination with extreme prejudice as a traitor to everyone on the planet?-

-Not yet, but I was intending to if you didn’t,- she /said.

-I can handle it. +43 should do the trick, right?- She could definitely get higher if she was equal Level, but I had the advantage for now.

-I’m in the 30’s, so go right ahead. Given the numbers, I thought a Mass Waterjump might work out better than Teleports, so I had ‘em gather in a park on Lake Erie. They are waiting for you now.-

Master Fred was listening in. I pointed for him to veer towards a Shroudzone nearby. “Take a break, let the girls out to get some practice in. I’m going to be a bit.”

-Understood.- Sleipner veered off, and covered the five kliks to the circling blackness lit up by occasional red hate lightning in a couple minutes. I scribed the Energized Focus to bring myself back here, and Master Fred was already letting the first of them out as I Teleported away, Idiot turning into a flaming Weapon as deep brown hair replaced his blonde hair on the Amazonian physique.

That would be Monica, who was taking over Fire Dragon and related weapon studies. She had a strange look in her eyes as she glanced at me; I just gave her a wave, and spent ki.

Lived-lines connected across the miles. I had driven right by that park with Master Fred, surprise, surprise, so I knew exactly where it was.

I could feel The Mick’s grin when I reached out for the Focus, too.

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There were a bunch of them on the ground in the early morning light. They must not have had experience with dealing with Intimidate checks as high as mine, oddly enough. They’d had some ideas, probably about transforming the Cultivators, hiding them, and smuggling them out somewhere to be milked, and now they were looking at my eyes searing into their souls and realizing that was a horribly, horribly bad idea.

“When the time comes to muster out of China, I am going to be gathering you all together, and I am going to Ask you a Question. It’s going to be about the final fate of any Cultivators that you came across. And if you don’t answer that question truthfully, I will know. If you do not answer that question correctly... I will kill you on the spot. No hesitation, no remorse. You are succoring the enemy of every mortal creature on this planet, as bad as or worse than the undead in their own way.

“I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR YOUR GREED.”

There were almost a thousand people here. The Mick and his new lass had set all of this up, and were looking on with smiling faces. The Tombclanners, not so much.

“Alright, we’re going to be doing this with a Mass Waterjump.” I drew up a map of the world, starting here, going down the St. Lawrence seaway, arcing back up and around Canada through the Arctic ocean, and down to China, where we’d be going up Jiaoxi Brook to near Sandangzhou to hook up with the Chinese defenders there. I glanced at The Mick and Amaretta, who shook Masspacks full of Itemized supplies, especially ammunition for the shooters there.

“To do this right, I’m going to need to shrink you all down and put you on Disks.” I waved my hand, and more than a few of the people here jumped in fright when four dozen Disks coalesced out of nowhere. “Grab your gear, there’s going to be four of you on each Disk.”

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Five Mass Disks, forty Chain Shrink Persons, and 45 ki later, a bunch of people now less than a foot tall were sitting on shimmery jetsilver force Disks as I walked out over the waters of Lake Erie.

All the Disks were touching, everyone was interconnected by extended hands and arms. There was a shiver as all the Disks aligned, then sank towards the water below, which began to churn and bubble. Everyone held their breath as we all plunged in together.

Currents swirled around us, the boundaries of different waters slid by, all part of a whole, yet different in form, temperature, and substance. The edge of all Waters drew near the glow of an Energized Focus in the distance, and with a geyser of foam, bubbles, and waterspray, we all broke through the surface of the river there.

Sama waved from the shore, kicking away the Focus there, while I glided in to her with my army of shrunken warriors.

“Hop on,” I told her, and popped my wings.