A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

Jennifer didn't reply. She just waited for Gerald to come out.

Boom!

The gate that had crashed into the roof of Gerald's residence was sent flying when a fist was sent at it. Then Gerald flew out of the hole made in his roof by the gate.

Floating in the air with an hideous face. He asked vexedly "Jennifer, are you out of your senses?"

"No. I am not. I know who you are. You are hiding behind another face. This is not your real face" Jennifer said.

Gerald became shocked beyond what any word would describe but he kept his expression of shock from creeping to his face.

"What do you mean by this Jennifer? What face are you talking about?" Gerald asked.

"Shut up. You know what am talking about." Jennifer said.

Swoosh! Swoosh!....

Many instructors started appearing. They had flew out of their residences to this place. They had come to check out what caused the two loud booming sounds they heard.

Then they saw Jennifer with her fist tightly clenched. They could perceive that she was very angry.

They didn't say anything. They just looked on to understand what was happening before their eyes.

When Jennifer teleported away from the room, Alex became shocked. He didn't know Jennifer would just teleport away without notice.

He began to think of what to do. But he was glad that she would be able to handle Gerald as he had given her some treasures to augment her battle capacity.

Then he quickly thought up something in his head and this was that if Gerald was being beaten by Jennifer, he could leave there and come for him.

He felt the man wanted him and not what Jennifer had. He strongly believed that the man had noticed some peculiarities about him and mistook it for some treasure.

"I have to go hide. I have to make Jake go hide too" Alex said. Then he dashed to the room he shared with Jake.

........

"Jennifer, would you stop all these rubbish you are spitting from your mouth. What's your problem?" He asked.

"My problem? You want to know my problem? I would tell you. I can't live under the same sky as you. That's my problem" Jennifer replied.

Gasps rang out among the instructors. Since they could now deduce where this was going to. They flew towards Jennifer to stop her from doing what she wanted to do. They didn't know what got into her as she had been acting strangely ever since she came back. But they too could detect that something fishy was going on.

"Jennifer, stop all these nonsense rantings. I implore you" Jane said in a begging tone.

"Jane, there is more to this. Alright, I would spill it out for everyone of you to hear. This man you call your principal is the killer of my mother. He is after a key my mom passed to me which would open the door of a vault containing a sage-level expert's wealth. From all that I have seen, I can say he is the one controlling Micah. He must have sent his damned henchman to tell me to bet with the key during the competition. Out of my greed for what Micah offered and my belief in the student I would bet upon, I agreed. But unfortunately I lost. Then his henchman came to me again that there would be another competition and that I should bet. Out of my desperation to win back one of the piece of the key, I agreed without paying attention to the conditions he set. When I realized what trap I have fallen into, I journeyed far and wide to get that one person that would help me win the treasure I have lost. The heavens took pity on me as they made me come across Alex. I forced him here and enrolled him just so I would have that chance at winning back my treasure. Since then, Micah set up boys to break the boy's determination and body. But Alex was a genius. Everything they threw at him was conquered by him using his strength. I don't know what this man and Micah discussed that they made me leave the academy on some mission to protect some people who tried very hard to kill me. Luckily, I was able to escape from them and come back here. Only to be told that I have resigned and went to another continent to join a new academy for better cultivation resources. I believe this bastard planned it all. He is a schemer and a liar" Jennifer said looking at Gerald.

Although she mentioned the sage-level expert's accumulations. It wasn't really important to her again as just the treasures Alex had given were ten thousand times better than the ones she would get from the acquisition of the sage-level adept collections. So she felt.

Since they were now very close like they were an older sister and a younger brother, she could be shameless with him. She could ask him for cultivation resources which she believed would always be of peerless-quality. Just anything she could get in that sage-rank cultivator inheritance would be like pieces of filth to the one Alex would give her. She recently thought all these which made her give up on the inheritance.

Besides, in all that she said, she left out so many things about Alex. Of course, she couldn't say anything about those to everybody here.

Jennifer looked at the instructors who were gaping at the moment. They were speechless as great, unconcealed shock radiated from their eyes.

After a while, they looked around. They couldn't find Micah in their midst. He didn't come to see what was happening.

Then they looked at the principal who was looking at Jennifer with a sinister gaze.

One of them asked "Sir, is this true? Please refute it"

Gerald then looked at the instructor that spoke and shouted "So you believe her cock and bull story?"

Before he could say anything else. Jennifer interrupted, saying "Why are you trying your best to maintain your already-exposed secret identity? Just give up. For your information, I know you have always worked here as an instructor ever since my mom was still alive. When she died, as her friend but after what you wanted, you made me come here to enroll for cultivation studies. Then furthering your level in this institution, you became a principal. But am surprised you didn't try to kill me all those years for the key I inherited from my mom. I guess it's because you were afraid of Uncle Jerry. Remember him? That old, white-haired man that you promised you would take good care of me and look out for my safety? I know you were terrified of him and so you couldn't touch me till I grew up to this stage. Then because of your thirst for the expert's wealth, you couldn't let me go when my set graduated from the academy. You retained me, employing me as an instructor with the promise of fat remunerations and better cultivation materials."

Haha!

Gerald laughed. He looked at Jennifer with a sinister light emitting from his eyes.

"What secret identity have you exposed? I can perceive no sense in all that you have said. Or can you guys?" He said and asked the instructors hovering in the air when he turned his head to look at them.

They looked at Gerald. All that Jennifer had said seemed to make sense. But they still couldn't believe he was what Jennifer claimed him to be.

"Well Jennifer, your assumptions seem right. But how exactly did you know he was the one when it could be anybody else far away from this location? How did you know he is hiding behind another face?" An instructor asked.

"Y'all don't need to worry about that. Just believe me that this man is a killer. It's possible the bastard has schemed against us." Jennifer said confidently.

Haha!

Gerald laughed.

Hahahahahahahaha!

He continued to laugh but in a way that it seemed he had lost his senses. In way that felt he had gone insane.

The instructors looked at him and wondered why he was laughing like a maniac.

After a while, Gerald stopped laughing. Then he brought his palms together and began to applaud Jennifer.

"You should be an investigator-cultivator. Very good event analysis you carried out there." He said with a smile.

Then wisps of a purple energy began to discharge from his face. As the energy came out, the man's face slowly changed as it wriggled like worms.

Then when the energy left totally, everyone could see his face. That was the face of the man that killed Nadja which Jennifer recognized well to be the face of her mom's male friend.

The instructors gasped in shock. Then they quickly armed themselves. But then, their brows furrowed tightly when they felt the waves of power emanating from the man's body.

That was the power that can only be emitted by a sage general-stage cultivator.

Their eyes shone with alternating expressions of surprise and fear.

"So this man had been concealing his cultivation stage from us?"

That was the question that shot through their minds at the speed of lightning. Worry shone in their eyes. How were they going to defend themselves against him if he started attacking.

Jennifer too was surprised. "So this man was not in the grand saint emperor realm. He was only hiding his cultivation level from us."

The worry and fright that shone in the eyes of others didn't emit from hers. With her powerful, augmented skeleton to give her sage general-stage expert damaging power, and possession of defensive and weaponized treasures that could protect against and discharge greatly devastating attacks, she wasn't horrified by Gerald's hidden, shocking power at all .

At the moment, some things were now making sense to her. She had always wondered why the principal had such a slow cultivation speed.

Many thousand years ago when she was at the saint stage, he was at the saint emperor stage. And now that she was in the saint emperor stage, he was in the grand saint emperor stage.

She thought maybe he was having problems with his cultivation. Maybe he had a congenital illness that was affecting his cultivation speed.

But when Gerald exposed his true cultivation level, everything became lucid to her. But there was a question she wanted to ask and needed answer to.

"Gerald, you are in the sage general stage. Why are you bent on acquiring the wealth of a cultivator two ranks lower than you?" Jennifer asked.

Gerald smiled.

"Well, I wasn't after the collection of the expert. I was after something in the vault. Your mom didn't tell you this. Maybe she was keeping it as a surprise for you. But your naive mom told me" He replied.

Jennifer looked at him with wrinkled brows.

"My mom told you that? How did she know?" She asked.

"Well, she knew through a mental message recorded into the key. It told her about the things contained in the vault." Gerald replied.

As soon as he said that, he shot up to the sky at a tremendous speed.

Huh?

Everyone here except Jennifer were shocked by Gerald's action. A moment after Gerald shot up to the sky, Jennifer followed him. She began to chase him. She couldn't allow him to escape.

Jennifer had always wanted to eliminate her mom's killer as she had promised her mother many years back. So she couldn't let him slip out of her fingertips.

After a long moment of hot chase, Gerald suddenly stopped. Then he turned to face Jennifer. A wicked smile could be seen in his face.

Jennifer wondered why he abruptly stopped. Just when she decided to move forward to attack him.

She suddenly heard a whistling sound. And from the way it sounded, it seemed something was cutting through the air towards her at a great speed.

She quickly produced the Great Titan sword Alex gave her and turned around, swinging the sword hardly against the thing shooting towards her.

CLANK!!

A deafening metallic sound rang out. The instant the ear-splitting sound surfaced, a wave of energy erupted, knocking Jennifer backward by a feet. She was able to withstand the destructive energy wave.

The sword in her hand didn't vibrate. It perfectly absorbed all the shock generated upon collision with the object that shot towards her at an extreme speed.

When she gained her balance, she looked at what that object was as it dropped to the ground. It was a large arrow with a huge arrowhead. But it had been slashed into halves.

She looked in the direction the arrow came from and saw a masked woman float up from the ground to her level in the air. She was wielding a bow and three arrows with a glowing, blue arrowhead could be seen nocked to it.

Although she was masked, Jennifer could recognize her. She was able to identify the lady through her eyes that shone with unbridled evil.

"It's you bastard again!" Jennifer yelled.

"Yes. It's me again. This time, your puny, miserable life would be snuffed out." the woman said confidently. Then she fired the three nocked arrows at Jennifer.

Ziu! Ziu! Ziu!

The arrows shot toward Jennifer, piercing through the air at a great speed.

The arrows having a voidstone inserted into a socket in them, enabled them to absorb expandforce energy from the realmverse.

Expandforce energy was an energy that caused object to grow to a tremendous size. Their sizes depends on the amount of energy absorbed. They could grow from the size of a needle to the size of a planet and more.

Once the energy permeated the arrows, they rapidly grew large to a size that they were bigger than mountains.

Jennifer's eyes widened. She quickly produced the Overlord X black armor Alex gave her and wore it. Then with a thought, aquaforce energy discharged from the armor and condensed into a large, thick, protective screen of energy.

Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!

The mountain-sized arrows smashed into the screen of energy. But it didn't shatter. It only rippled violently.

Since the shield was formed from aquaforce energy; water elemental energy, it absorbed the impact without generating shocks.

Even the wave of energy released from the impact upon collision couldn't harm Jennifer. But she was sent flying for dozens of feet.

When she regained her balance, she willed the arrays in some of the voidstones plugged into the sockets of the sword to start operating.

She didn't activate all as she wasn't sure she would be able to withstand the power that would erupt from them, even with the armor she was wearing.

Then the sword began to emit brilliant, colorful light as the energy arrays in the voidstones produced energy. Then they were transferred to the sword, which she discharged at her opponent by slashing out at her.

These energies shot off as massive clouds towards Lady Poisonheart at great speeds. Then infused with her comprehension of the battle-method she studied, the enormous masses of energies that erupted from the sword condensed and shaped into many large swords.

As they shot through the air towards Lady Poisonheart, she quickly fired many arrows at the incoming swords which rapidly grew to terrifying sizes.

Boom!! Boom!!.....

Many explosive sounds rang out with waves of destructive energies instantly accompanying them when the massive energy swords clashed into the gigantic arrows.

But formed from pure energy, carrying Jennifer's battle-method comprehension which was at the sage general stage and possessing special attributes, the swords pierced through the arrows towards the woman. They seemed unstoppable.

"What?!!"

Lady Poisonheart shouted in horror. Then she quickly fired the hundreds of arrows in her quiver at the swords.

Casting their shadows over the land and hiding the sky because of their great numbers and shocking sizes, the enormous arrows rammed into the swords at high speeds.

Bang! Bang! Bang!....

Colossal, tsunami-like waves of violent energies surfaced and moved ragingly into the distance in all directions.

Lady Poisonheart, Jennifer and Gerald where he floated in the sky observing the fight were damagingly knocked into the distance by the huge, berserk energy waves.

They fell to the ground from the sky landing with a heavy bang sound. Both Lady Poisonheart and Gerald coughed out blood when the shock generated from the impact transmitted to their bodies. Only Jennifer was alright as the armor she wore protected her. But still, she felt slightly dizzy.

Jennifer then deployed her sense to search for Lady Poisonheart. A few moment after she did, she saw Gerald take off into the air at a great speed.

She saw him fly away. And when she looked in the direction he was going, it was in the direction of the academy.

"Alex"

Her face twisted. Then she shot into the air after him. But before she could move further, Lady Poisonheart appeared far in front of her with a wicked smile.

She had removed her mask and blood could be seen streaming down the sides of her lips.

"Going somewhere?" She asked.