The Rise of the Unbound Sovereign Sect Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Read chapter 2 of The Rise of the Unbound Sovereign Sect by Magic on NovelPedia.

“The loudest complaint carries the least weight in the jaws of the predator.” Gravity slammed into me like a freight train. The void shattered, replaced by the blinding glare of a midday sun and the rushing green canopy of a forest. I didn't fall gracefully. I screamed like a little girl. I hit high, thick branches, flapped my arms once, and hit a trunk. I was sent spinning out of control as everything around me tore my lab coat to ribbons and battered my ribs. I hit the dirt hard enough to bounce, my lungs emptying in a violent wheeze. I tasted mud and blood. I scrambled frantically, patting my face and my side. My glasses were bent, but the lenses were intact. My acupuncture kit was still tucked in my breast pocket. It felt like I had run full force into a wall, and then tumbled down a metal and very extravagant play structure. Every part of me ached, and it was all I could do just to stay perched on my hands and knees, trying to catch my breath. Before I could even attempt to stand, the underbrush thirty yards away parted. It was a snake, but the scales looked like overlapping plates of rusted iron. It was as thick as a fire hydrant and moved with a metallic, scraping sound against the dirt. Oh, shit. Hitting the ground had stunned me to the new reality that the proverb-spouting grandpa had dropped me into, and my foggy brain started to piece together, in rapid succession, just how bad this scene was for my current self. Without even a moment to consider, I threw myself behind a massive, rotting log and held my breath, curling into a ball. That was an anaconda, or some god-awful abortion from Florida. Either way, I was not the man for the job, and I had no illusions that the grumpy fart was going to give me some immortal cultivation technique in my moment of need. I had studied the old Eastern world most of my life, not because I cared about their culture, but because of something much more selfish. Don’t get me wrong, I wasted nothing from the wonders I learned, and I think the countless innovations that came from their studies are nothing short of amazing for their time, but that is not what drove me. Cultivation. The idea that one could refine the world’s energies into your body to not only become nothing short of a superhero, but to gain mystic abilities no different than Isekai and fantasy novel magic. If that was all, magic and system novels could have pulled me deeper, but the world of cultivation is just so interesting. Pills, arrays, spirit beasts, dragons, phoenixes, the Dao, Zens, heavenly, and demonic. So many different paths, but what made it so great for me is that they are only the foundation. Each stage or realm dives deeper and creates more wondrous and powerful things. There is no limit to what could be possible in a world like this! Or, it would have been if I were the main character in this story! Where were my cheat powers? My system? A blue window? BROKEN MERIDIANS AS A USELESS YOUNG MASTER! Give me any of those tropes! Not my real, sad, and very pathetic body built to handle light breezes, and enough resilience for fast food five times a week without any major health issues. This brings me back to the log I was hiding behind from what looked like a moving metal statue of a snake. My brain kept trying to give me a name for the creature, but it was being drowned out by the reptilian part of my brain that explained how dead I was if I even let out the smallest of farts. Let me tell you, stress is not good for the guts after a violent fall, but I managed to keep my cheeks sealed. I briefly envisioned a braver version of myself jumping out with my needles in hand, pulling some Jackie Chan moves, and poking the ugly beast in the eyes. Thankfully, I was the voice of reason for many of my mad colleagues, and I was not about to descend into a fit of heroics anytime soon. A sound of rustling coming from above on the other side of the clearing made my breath freeze in my throat. I couldn’t handle the snake, and