A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

He was in the cross-legged position for many days, but his effort at trying to perceive soulforce energy was futile.

Since he couldn't, then he stopped. There would be no sense in cultivating for such a long time. One should take breaks in between during long periods of cultivation.

When he stopped, he decided that in an hour or two hours time, he would resume his cultivation.

So he went out to receive fresh air and to calm his mind by observing the scenery of the new environment he was in.

When he came out, he went into the street and began to walk around. He walked for about twenty minutes before he stopped at an inn where fruit wines and unadulterated alcoholic wines were being sold.

Alex then went in to have a fruit wine. But he demanded for one that had little percentage of alcohol in it. He wanted to feel like a man, to behave like an adult. After he sat relaxedly on a seat, he began to drink the wine he was given.

He gulped down a cup that made him feel intoxicated. But it was only for a second as the intoxication effect generated by the fruit wine vanished.

He became surprised.

Then he realized his body had rapidly eliminated the intoxication effect produced by the alcohol.

He took another cup and downed it. But he felt no intoxication this time as his body had it resistance to the intoxication effect of the alcohol increased. His reactive adaptation ability had come up.

He needed to drink a larger volume of the alcoholic fruit wine before he can feel intoxicated again.

Alex shook his head unhappily.

'What a body. Sigh' Alex said and sighed inwardly.

Just as he would continue complaining about his body, someone came forward from a room and said in a loud tone "Hello customers, we are celebrating an event today. So we want to give out money as we celebrate this event."

Then someone on a seat asked excitedly "What event is that?"

"Our anniversary. We are now sixteen-years old in this wine-selling business" The person that spoke earlier replied.

"Haha. Nice one" Someone sitting at a corner grinned and said.

Then loud applauses rang out from every corner of the inn. Alex also clapped too. Then he continued to drink his wine which felt like he was drinking an ordinary fruit juice.

"You mentioned you would be giving out cash. For what exactly?" Another person asked.

"Since we celebrating our anniversary today, our management have decided to thank you our loyal customers for being with us all through the years. Now, a competition would take place and anyone who wins the competitive event that would initiate soon will win a cash prize of fifty thousand yellow sapphirstones." The man said.

Then after a slight pause, the man shouted "Roll out the barrel." He then turned to face the people on the seat "Please everyone, let's move outside for the competition"

Everyone then stood and left the inn. They arrived outside and saw some people roll over a large barrel from a store pretty far away.

The people rolling the barrel stopped at their front and made the barrel stand.

"Now this is what we will do. Anyone that can drink at least fifteen wine jugs wins. Simple as talking right? So if you are interested, go to that table." The man that announced the competition said and pointed at a large table.

Quickly, several hefty men left the large crowd that had gathered and appeared before the large table that was pointed at.

On this table could be seen so many large jugs of wines. They were being filled by the workers who discharged alcohol into them from a tap fixed into the large, alcohol-containing barrel. There were sixty of these jugs at the moment and were being filled to the brim.

Alex looked at the men and shook his head. This guys wouldn't be able to drink more than six jugs. He thought.

His reason was because the jugs were large. If one poured the content of a jug into a cup, it would fill more than twenty cups. That was a pretty large quantity of wine they were about to consume. But such quantity shouldn't be much of a problem to cultivators.

Why Alex reasoned that the people who wanted to compete for the cash prize wouldn't drink more than six jugs was because with his powerful sense of smell, he could perceive that the materials used in making the wine in the jugs was strong.

When he compared the one he drank earlier to this, this was like a hundred times more stronger. It could simply burn their chests out if they drank too many of it.

He then felt that these men would be hospitalized for months after this event as the heat that would be produced by the alcohol upon drinking a lot could badly affect their throats, vocal cords, stomach and other organs in their bodies.

This should be a wine only expert at the earth adept stage should drink. But these men who were cultivators were at the entry stage. They would be seriously harmed. Then he began to think of what to do to stop them from drinking the wine.

He then decided to participate in the competition.

His reason for this was that when he wins the competition and the cash prize goes to him, he would have yellow sapphirstones in his hand.

It was safer to spend yellow sapphirstones which were low-quality sapphirstones than spend peerless-quality sapphirstones which could put him in serious trouble.

He didn't want to be chased about because he was spending god-tier sapphirstones that had great monetary value.

Alex only had peerless-grade and supreme-grade sapphirstones which he inherited from his parent, friends and from the Azure Beastsman. And he couldn't spend such in his journey or his life would be threatened as he would be tracked by several nefarious cultivators.

So he decided to participate as he needed the low-quality sapphirstones for the two-years journey he was going to embark on.

Just when they would take a jug to drink, Alex shouted stop. Then he came forward to the table where the wine jugs were placed on.

Everyone looked at him and were confused. Who is this kid? Where did he come from? Is he here to make trouble?

Alex looked at them and said arrogantly, although he was faking it. "Hello people, I also want to partake in this competition. I am The Devourer in case you don't know and I have won many of this kind of competitions. So I am here to win the prize money by consuming all these wines."

Hahahaha!

Muhahaha!

Loud, unbridled laughter rang out from the crowd and from the men around the table.

"Who is this young-looking fool? Where is he from? The Devourer? Never heard of such. Haha!" Someone said and grinned, then the intensity of the raucous laughter intensified.

It was like the atmosphere was saturated with a strong laughter-inducing gas.

"Are you done? Are you done laughing you fools? How dare you look down on The Devourer? You know how that title came to be? I have drank a small pool of wine many places in the past. That was why I was nicknamed so. You have never heard of me because I journey across states just to sample all kinds of wine. I have tasted over four hundred and five alcoholic wines in my lifetime. Now, I am in your states to do the same thing. Since there is a competition of wine-drinking here, why don't I participate and show you how glorious and tyrannical 'The Devourer' title is. Let me create a legend here before I leave. Haha" Alex said arrogantly with indifferent eyes and chucked.

But he wasn't sure if his body could handle the large volume of wine he was about to drink. But he had to try anyways as he had a powerful body with an astonishing healing rate. Also, he had millions of peerless-quality recovery pills. So he wasn't worried. He was doing this to protect the men who were totally ignorant of the greatly damaging liquid substance they were about to imbibe.

Once he said that, everyone's eyes widened in awe before it was replaced with an intense glow of mockery.

"Haha! Kid, shut the hell up. You are uttering trash from your trashy mouth. The Devourer? I believe you formed that title yourself. How could someone as young as you drink a small pool of wine? You surely made that up. Please get away from here and go find a way to make money." One of the men surrounding the table said.

Alex shook his head.

He was trying his best to protect these men. But they were giving him a tough time. It seems until one was taught a lesson before the others would back off.

Alex didn't reply to what the man spoke. Instead he said "Do you know what 'The Devourer' title entails? I can discern a strong wine from a weak wine from distances away. With that kind of ability in distinguishing strong wines from weak wines, I can say with hundred percent confidence that the wine before you is a strong wine. Your bodies and their components would crash."

"Haha! What a useless, good-for-nothing kid. When others are busy developing abilities to rule over territories, yours is to know a strong wine from a weak wine from faraway places. Your nose is incredibly powerful but you are too useless to use it for something better." A man grinned and said. Then everyone broke into mockery-filled laughter.

Alex wasn't bothered by what the man said. He had a plan in mind and he would slowly realize it till it became successful.

"Well, this is a strong wine I tell you. You can drink and see for yourself" Alex coldly said.

The man gave a mtcheew.

Then he went forward to take a jug. Now holding the jug in his hand, he opened his mouth and poured the wine in it into his mouth.

Gugugugu!

That was the sound of the wine as the man gulped it down his throat. He drank the entire content of the jug and then smashed the empty jug on the table.

Then he took another and continued to drink.

Many moments later, he emptied a sixth jug.

But in the next instant, the wine in his stomach after accumulation evolved an intense heat.

The man's body reddened from the powerful heat that could incinerate his stomach and fell to the ground with tears in his eyes and blood streaming from his nose.

The blood that oozed from his nose was releasing hot vapor. One could imagine what the heat would have done to the man's innards. They could have been deeply fried or cooked by now.

While on the floor, he began to roll about like he was being possessed by hordes of demons.

He clutched his abdomen and wailed loudly as he scattered apart the sand on the earth with his feet. His eyes were completely red from the agonizing pain he felt and green veins could be seen bulging from the sides of his temple and from his forehead.

Alex shook his head. He wasn't happy with what was happening to the man.

"Well, there goes what you deserve for not listening to me. When you are healed which might take month, you would listen to whatever any person says regardless of age. Even to what a little child says"

The crowd witnessed what was happening to the man and became really sorry for him. His condition now looked pitiful.

The men who were around the table quickly backed away when they saw saw what happened to the man. They became exceedingly glad that they didn't drink the wine.

A man then came out. He was tall and was quite handsome. But at the moment, he looked ferocious because he was angry.

Alex looked at this man that was walking towards him and detected that the man was in the mid-phase earth adept stage.

"Kid, what do you mean by this?" The man asked.

"What do I mean by this? Of course nothing! I want the cash prize for myself. It was just the man's fault that he couldn't take in more than six wine jugs without his body crashing from the effect of consuming lot of alcohol." Alex replied haughtily. Then he continued "Let's have a bet. The fifty thousand yellow sapphirstones is kinda little. Raise it to a hundred thousand."

Exasperated gasps rang out from the crowd.

'What was he about to do now?'

"Why? Why would I want to have a bet with you?" The man asked in a surprised tone.

"Well, I want to create a legend here like I usually do in every place I go to. Then I want to win cash to do stuffs. Haha!" Alex said proudly and grinned.

"You want a bet with me? Fine! So what would you stake with for the bet?" The man asked.

"Nothing. The damage that would be caused by drinking a lot of this strong wine is enough for a stake" Alex replied.

"Haha!" The man laughed. Then he said "Well, for such amount of money, you must drink all the wine jugs. You must empty their entire contents into your mouth. You don't do so, no cash for you, The Devourer."

Alex nodded indifferently.

Then he went to the table radiating pride and confidence. But his heart palpitated slightly from fear.