Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

Chapter 17: Reflection and Arrival in Floating Cloud

A/N: So, a lot of mixed feelings about the last chapter. I thought I would just take a moment to explain and clarify a few things.

Firstly, the situation was a little cliche, a little forced, and the part with Dusty Sucked. I didn't enjoy writing it but I feel like the change in his mentality was needed. Especially since there would be few opportunities to do so after he reached Floating Cloud, and once there, I want to focus more on him and Qingyue.

What you have to remember is that Shane was just a normal guy before this, in fact, I would even say he was more sheltered than an average person due to his condition. Sure, he had a lot of knowledge and even read about what the world was like but knowing something and experiencing it firsthand, are vastly different.

Some people will say that Shan Long is also part of the new Shane but well he was a bit simple, he also never left the forest and had no profound strength...

A normal person with a working mind would of course be reluctant to kill another unless completely forced by the situation. Killing what equates to a mindless beast cannot be compared to taking the life of another human.

The bandits were also not proving to be too much for him to handle until the situation changed and Dusty was captured. By that point, it was too late and he had allowed himself to fall into their trap. He isn't perfect, and everybody makes mistakes.

Another thing to note was the incense that the bandit leader was holding and how it affected Dusty...

To allay some worries, no Shane won't be turning into a murder hobo, he will still be the upbeat yet somewhat greedy and shameless guy he always was. He will just be more vigilant in the future and not hesitate.

{Also, if you guys aren't aware, Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want to comment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative.}

Enjoy the chap.

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Shane opened his eyes to find himself in a glowing red world. Swirling crimson fog billowed all around, bearing down upon him from all sides, with a subtle yet uncomfortable pressure. The temperature was both freezing cold, boiling hot, and neither at the same time.

He took a step forward and felt a slight resistance against his ankles and a stickiness to his skin. Raising his leg, a coppery scent invaded his nostrils and he was surprised to see a red liquid covering his foot. The fog gradually thinned around him and Shane could now see that he was standing in an endless shallow pool of fresh, warm blood.

His brows furrowed and he thought to himself. 'Am I dead? But why does this place feel familiar to me? I know I died before, but it felt nothing like this.'

Looking upwards, Shane found the cause of at least one of the temperature phenomena in this strange place. In the endless black sky, there were 12 enormous crimson stars shining dimly, asserting their presence with a soul invading chilliness that threatened to consume him if he hadn't swiftly looked away.

Shane just couldn't get the nagging feeling of familiarity out of his head and as he continued to walk forwards it grew stronger. It was a feeling, similar to when you can't remember the name of a film you really liked, it was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't place it.

A flash of crimson in the sky! One of the stars glowed so brightly that the light eclipsed everything else in this domain, completely filling his vision.

Blinking the spots out of his eyes, Shane looked forward in disbelief as the 'star' gently floated down towards the ground, shrinking in size as it did. Just before touching the blood pool, the 'star', now a person-sized crimson cocoon, halted its descent and sent ripples throughout the endless expanse of red liquid.

These ripples reached Shane and an incredibly strong profound sense washed over him. As the sense noticed him, the ripples paused and the whole world became hostile in just a moment.

A huge pressure descended, almost forcing him to his knees as a myriad of ghastly weapons formed from the blood below and turned to point at him. The ice-cold feeling of dread from before returned, stronger by a thousandfold and it shook him to the very core.

Even with cold sweat flowing down his back, Shane felt indignant and summoned his intent, mixing it with the still present anger at the death of Dusty and even stronger rage at himself for letting it happen.

He even placed a palm against the blood pool, desperately using devour to siphon off as much of it as he could. Hoping for it to aid in forming his own killing intent to combat the wave in front of him.

"Hmph! Pathetic" With that incredibly cold and young? sounding voice, Shane's killing intent was shattered and a veritable tsunami of bloody weapons surged towards him, consuming him within seconds.

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*Gasp Huff Huff Huff* Shane awoke, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. He managed to take a few, huge, deep breaths before coughing at the burning pain in his throat and lungs. His eyes felt as if they were sealed shut by something sticky and so he summoned water from his storage to cover himself.

*Hiss* The pain rolled in and his whole body ached and stung. Shane attempted to raise his right hand to his face and found only a dull pain and nothing else happening. Confused, he raised the other hand. This time, he managed to wipe away the gunk and finally opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the coagulated blood coating his hand and then past that, the crowns of a few trees and the bright blue sky far above them. The realization of what happened last night came back to him in one crushing blow that knocked the wind out of him. Tears pooled in his eyes and he sadly whispered her name "Dusty."

A high-pitched chirp followed by a bellow as a gust of hot wind washed over him. Shane froze, as a large wet, and slimy object assaulted the side of his face. He mechanically turned his head to the side, only to see an absolutely beautiful, emerald, draconic head the size of a full-grown man, tongue extended and not a meter away from him.

"Dusty?" He wasn't sure how but Dusty was there and not only was she alive, She was absolutely gigantic. It was also at this time Shane realized that he was not lying on the floor but on her smooth scaled back. [Dusty: Draconian Storm Wyrm: Spirit Profound 3(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)]. "What the fuck!?"

Shane let out a huge breath of relief and pushed that revelation away for later as Dusty chirped and licked him again. Feelings of joy and happiness followed by sorrow and regret passed through the bond. She was much more expressive it seemed. "You're alive! That's great. *Cough* *Cough*"

His attention now drawn to his own battered body, Shane now noticed that there was still a sinister-looking and extremely heavy set of claws formed on his right hand and so with a slight mental effort, he withdrew them into his body and could finally move.

With a little difficulty, Shane managed to sit up and check himself over. He had mostly healed except for a nasty wound below his left ribs. A few dozen weak profound herbs and a couple of profound beast corpses later, it was already closing and he felt much better overall.

He allowed the scar to remain as a reminder to himself to never become complacent and never to hesitate again. This world was unforgiving, he had told himself that before but some part of him was still following Earth's sense of morals, expecting the situation to solve itself.

Shane now fully understood that an Earthlings mindset had no place here. He wouldn't insist on his previous sense of values, not anymore. What if it were Qingyue in that situation next time, his heart clenched at the thought, and killing intent surged behind his eyes.

He couldn't allow that to happen.

Strangely he didn't feel much for the lives of the men he reaped and killing Profound Beasts for weeks on end had already largely desensitized him to blood and gore. Not to mention all those years 'he' spent in the forest. So why did he hesitate?

Searched for an answer Shane realized the ugly truth, it was mostly out of fear. Shan Long was a little slow and arguably even more sheltered than Shane, and so, the majority of his personality right now, was based upon the Shane from Earth.

He was afraid, afraid of the consequences, or just afraid of how he would feel afterward, he wasn't sure.

Thinking about it now, it all seemed so pointless, he had killed them all in the end anyway. He didn't even feel that what he did was wrong. Those men were scum and they simply deserved to die for the simple fact that they harmed his family.

He just regretted that he didn't take it seriously from the start and because of that, Dusty almost lost her life. Shane was incredibly lucky that he only learned a painful lesson rather than losing his own life or keeping some kind of mental trauma due to Dusty.

He decided that in the future, he wouldn't underestimate potential combat situations and would also try to keep a clear head no matter what happened. Shane didn't even realize just when their numbers became so large, but it surely couldn't have happened within a single minute.

He also vowed that from now on, he would swiftly and ruthlessly deal with any similar situations, before they got to a point where those close to him could be harmed.

He wouldn't kill indiscriminately, he just wasn't that type of person, but he wouldn't shy away from it either. As bad as it sounded, Shane now fully realized that to him, the lives of those he cared about were much more important than any others.

He just needed to accept that killing was a natural occurrence here as it wouldn't be the last time someone had nefarious intentions towards him.

Take Qingyue for example, she was already exceptionally beautiful and she would only become more so in the future. There would never be a shortage of arrogant young masters who thought they had the world in the palm of their hand and would do anything to claim her for their own.

If given the chance to act, those disgusting types of people would never play fair and he had to be prepared. 'Being kind to your enemies is the same as being cruel to yourself' Shane let out a bitter laugh at that thought. He had said that to himself not so long ago and only now could he truly understand it.

It was funny how everything went to shit in reality no matter what plans he had before. No, he had learned his lesson this time. Dusty was fine and that was what mattered.

Thinking of Dusty, how did she survive? The only way he could think of was that she had somehow absorbed the vital energy of the bandits as he was slaughtering and devouring them.

He honestly had no idea about that. You could ask him what happened, but who was he supposed to ask? Dusty?

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A few hours of resting and healing later, it was mid-morning and Shane had fully recovered. He could feel that his cultivation had improved once again and so he decided to check his status.

-

<Status>

[Name: Shan Long (Shane)]

[Race: Human/Profound Beast (v. weak >> weak)(NEW!) - slightly stronger senses and reflexes]

[Bloodline: Primordial Shadow Panther (extremely weak) - Greatly enhanced Profound Senses]

[Cultivation]

{Profound Cultivation: True Profound 8 >> Spirit Profound 1(peak) (NEW!)}

{Body Cultivation: True Profound 6 >> True Profound 10(peak) (NEW!)}

[Abilities]

{Profound Arts absorbed - Increase in efficiency of energy absorbed}

[Map/Mini-map (expand or toggle on/off)]

{Minimap Range 30m >> 40m (NEW!)}

-

Shane sighed. His cultivation had increased again but that meant he had to once again get used to his new strength. He wasn't sure how strong he was now compared to normal Spirit Profound experts but he assumed that it wouldn't be a problem for him to go toe to toe with someone at the [5th of Spirit Profound]. That would be especially true if he were equipped with his full gear and elemental manipulation to boot.

Everything else was good, he wasn't especially attached to his humanity, and having better senses and reflexes would always be a plus for him. Thinking of that, Shane looked around and took a deep breath through his nose. Everything did seem more colorful today and he could smell many different scents clearly in the light breeze.

Shane closed his eyes and could also see the very basic profound arts that had been broken down, refined, and added to his body as well as their originals in his mental palace. He could even feel the startings of a pathway within his profound veins that the energy would follow when absorbing it.

None of the arts or techniques were something he could or would use but the understanding he gained from them would be useful as a base for creating his own in the future.

Casually checking the time & date on his minimap, Shane shot to his feet with a fearful yelp! "Shit!" He had been unconscious for 2 days! That meant he only had 10 days before he met with Qingyue's father. He needed to travel the remaining 140km to Floating Cloud City and fast!

Deciding now was the time to stop playing dumb, he turned towards the 25m long elephant in the room and looked her up and down. She was truly a beautiful creature.

Despite being so massive she still somehow gave off a dainty air with all her spines laid back against her body. Her patterned scales reflected the morning sunlight, giving off a gorgeous emerald hue. The cute little stubby horns had now grown into two majestic spiraled cones, supported by a crystalline crown.

"You little brat! Tell me, have you always been able to get big like now?" Dusty gave a little whine and tried to act cute by nudging her head against his body, almost knocking him over in the process.

Newsflash, it was working! "Haaaa, you know what. You are gonna take us the rest of the way and then I will naturally give you the best things later, okay?"

She gave a couple of cute chirps that didn't suit her new size but still made Shane swoon and scratch her horns nonetheless before he started to search around for any of the bandits' weapons and valuables.

He noticed that there were no signs of any corpses, even the two leaders or the other Spirit Profound bandit but it would explain the increase in his and Dusty's cultivation.

An hour later, Shane had picked the entire area clean. He even found their camp a couple of hundred meters away. He was approaching from downwind when a terrible, putrid smell assaulted his nostrils. Grimacing to himself, he had a good idea of what it was

Unfortunately, Shane's guess turned out to be correct and he also found the naked bodies of several men and women tossed into a ditch, clear signs of abuse and torture visible on them. That did make him feel a little nauseous but mostly he felt anger.

Even if he had accepted that this was a dog eat dog world, to see cultivators preying on mortal men and women, still disgusted him to no end. By this point, Shane was already glad that he had exterminated them to the last.

It wasn't like he was a hero, nor did he have a hero's mentality. It was just that preying on the weak for fun and sport, gave him an incredible sense of aversion and loathing.

Quickly collecting himself and covering his mouth and nose with some wind profound energy, Shane manipulated the earth to cover the bodies over. He offered up a silent prayer that their souls would remain whole when reincarnating, and turned to leave...

Heading back to the bandit's camp, Shane combed over it and robbed almost everything away from there too. He also found something interesting in what he assumed to be the leader's tent. It was a familiar bundle of incense and herbs that he suspected was the root cause of his and Dusty's lack of control the night before

Remembering the way Dusty was writhing under the Bandit's boot, made him wince but he forced himself to go over the memories. The way she left his side and attacked without warning, was totally out of character, and how he couldn't recall her back to the tattoo made sense now. The buzzing in his mind and the sudden feelings of bloodlust could also have been attributed to the description offered by Appraisal.

It was a special type of incense that would cause profound beasts to go into a frenzy, either for easier hunting or capture or just to make them rampage. Obviously, it wasn't foolproof but the desperate situation along with his already fluctuating emotions must have left a gap in his mental defenses.

That must have caused the bundle of herbs and incense to strongly stimulate the profound beast blood inside of him, making him unable to think clearly and to give in to his more feral instincts...

*SLAP!* Shane slapped himself. Hard. No, he wasn't going to blame it on anything else. He had a tendency to overthink and over-explain things, but last night was on him and he needed to take that lesson to heart.

After using his profound energy to completely destroy the little bundles, Shane clenched his fists tightly. These people were already prepared for dealing with Dusty first, so that they could strike a mental blow to him, kill him, and take all of his things.

They had done so much for a storage ring and a few hundred purple coins. These thoughts once more strengthened his resolve to become stronger and to not hesitate in the future.

Thankfully, he was heading to the relatively peaceful Floating Cloud City where he was already classed as beyond strong and could quite easily form a good relationship with the strongest cultivator in town. Shane held his chin in thought, for the family-loving old man, there was a surefire way to gain his support.

After looting everything, which only amounted to; a few different coins, food, wine, plain steel swords, 3 weapons of True Profound, and a single Spirit Profound spear, Shane spat on the ground in annoyance. "These bandits were truly too poor, let's go Dusty!"

Dusty slithered over in a flash, all silent like and impressing Shane to no end. He couldn't help but jump for joy at her speed, as he thought, she would allow them to travel much faster now. At least, she would be faster than him at moving along the open road. Grinning to himself, he got ready to leave.

Summoning his armor... which now had pulsing red, crystalline, veins along its surfaces...

The grin on Shane's face fell instantly and he nearly dropped to his knees, he was abso...lutely devastated. Then it hit him... Everything that happened yesterday, the cliche situation with bandits, the harming of someone close to him, the losing control and killing them it was all. just. so. Chunni!

His once beautiful silver armor now looked like it had been inflicted with 'Dark Lord of the Abyssgate' syndrome and he couldn't revert it back no matter how hard he tried. The worst part about it was that he actually thought it was slightly cool!

All he needed now was some sort of tragic backstor "Fuuuuuck!"

"May as well get a goddam eyepatch!" Shane grumbled as he swung up onto Dusty's neck near the head and pointed her in the direction of Floating Cloud. She chirped happily and set off at a blistering speed.

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Just two hours later, Shane was standing around 2km from Floating Cloud City and praising his little snake while changing into a pair of dark pants, shoes, and a set of his black and crimson robes. The robes were extremely uncomfortable so he only wore the outer robe, leaving his chest bare. 'Why even have abs if you don't show em off!'

"Dusty, you are just too damn cute! To think you got us here as fast as a car!" There was only a small problem with Dustybus travel and it was mostly his fault anyway. He at first forgot to cover himself with profound energy and yelled out loud as she continued to speed up. Big mistake!

Immediately, a fly got into his mouth and his already wild hair ended up looking like a bird's nest. Although it only took a little smoothing over with more profound energy before he was ready to go, it was still another lesson learned.

Shane waltzed the last 2km to the city gates with his cute little snake wrapped around his neck and his aura unrestrained. This time one of the guards did piss themselves in fear. The other one, just a late Elementary Profound, managed to greet him and request the entrance fee.

This guard actually called him senior, Senior! Shane's heart fluttered, he enjoyed that very much. Unfortunately, that guard directly passed out when Shane threw a couple of purple coins towards him and so he wandered through the now empty gate to find a nice tea house or restaurant or something.

Although he could tell Dusty didn't blame him in the slightest, Shane definitely felt the need to find the nicest place available so he could treat her like the princess she was.

Another reason was that eating the meat of Profound Beasts is fine and all but it could get a little boring if that's all you ate every day. 'You know what they say, variety is the spice of life!' *Rumble* Shane tapped his stomach and his eyes had a rather strange look to them. 'I never thought I'd actually be craving vegetables.'

Casually walking down the streets dressed as he was and with his aura unrestrained, garnered Shane a lot of attention. He was gaining looks from all manner of people, some were in awe of his cultivation even though most couldn't sense it, some were jealous of his looks and some women even swooned over his wild handsomeness.

At one point he even felt some hostility sent his way from a group of young men but their killing intent was so pathetic it made him laugh. Although the following flashbacks of the day before caused him to involuntarily release his pressure and they all passed out from fear...

Shane may have looked carefree for the most part, but it was mainly just an act. Internally he was vigilant and his senses constantly swept the surroundings.

The minimap may have expanded to 40m but his profound senses could stretch out to over 200m, whether that was a lot or not, Shane had no idea. Only when he reached a nice-looking tea house, did he reel in his profound sense and walk inside.

Only after confirming that nobody in the vicinity could or would pose any threat to him, did Shane allow himself to relax a little and take a seat. He ordered a nice flavored tea set with one of each of the best dishes and held out a miniature wriggling Dusty in front of his face.

"I told you that I would share the good things with you so go on, become a bit bigger and I will feed you some dishes." Dusty reverted to her two-meter form and curled happily around his arm as they both relaxed in silence and waited for the food to come.

To say the waitress was surprised at the emergence of Dusty was an understatement but she still managed to regain her bearing and act professionally, even when Shane told her to put some of the dishes in front of his little snake.

The meal was tasty and the afternoon went by uneventfully, even though Shane had to order twice more before Dusty was satisfied and now she was sleeping soundly within his tattoo.

Finally, he decided it was time to find a place to stay and so he left the teahouse only to hear a commotion happening just down the street. A group of young men had surrounded another and pushed him to the floor. The things they were saying made Shane's lips curl up into a smile

'Well well well, they do say sunshine comes after a rainfall.'

As Shane drew closer, the youths' insults became clearer. "You'll taint the city's number one talent, you should cancel the engagement" "yeah, you're trash that can't be compared to fairy Xia" "Useless trash deserves to stay with trash" "You're a toad lusting after a swan" "Fairy Xia should be with young master Yulong"

For a moment, he enjoyed hearing the toad line, but what the last youth said angered Shane more than he was willing to admit and so he interjected with a fair bit of annoyance in his tone. "What is going on here?"

The leading youth, an early Nascent Profound, wearing dark blue robes and looking like a cliche villain, turned to him in fury. "This is Xiao clan bus S-s-senior! F-forgive me, I had eyes but could not see. N-nothing is happening here, we were just leaving!"

Halfway through his speech, the youth paled with fear as he sensed the pressure given off by Shane's unrestrained cultivation and quickly left while apologizing, although not before sending a threatening glare towards the boy on the floor.

Shane sneered. *Pei* "Just a bunch of 'fear the strong and bully the weak. Trash!"

The boy got up and despite his bleeding lip, cupped his fists at Shane. "Thank you for your kindness senior."

"What's your name kid?" Shane looked at the little guy with a thin smile but inside, he was celebrating! 'What absolute luck! I wanted an in with him and the Xiao clan, but to think he would literally cross paths with me. Is this that fate BS they always talk about?'

"My name is Xiao Che senior but you can just call me little Che, how should I address you?" The boy nervously replied.

"Hmm my name is Shan Long kid, but you can just directly call me brother Long and I'll call you brother Che, how about it?" Shane wrapped his arm around the potential protagonist's shoulders with a grin and started to randomly drag him down the street.

"S-s-senior, that doesn't sound appropriate." Shane waved him off. "Bah! What appropriate, I saw you, I liked you, we must be fated and all that jazz. Now show me to a good inn with a courtyard to rent for a month or two!"

"B-brother Long. Y-you could stay at a courtyard in my clan but we would need to ask my grandfather first" Xiao Che may be kind and innocent but he wasn't a fool. The guy next to him was strong, and his grandfather would absolutely want to meet him.

Shane could see through the kid and was slightly impressed. He thought about it for a second and came to the decision that this was the best-case scenario and quickly agreed. "En, let's go and see grandpa then!"

The two of them chatted as they walked through the town, Xiao Che pointed out a lot of different places to Shane, he was truly a nice kid. Nothing like that absolute madman Yun Che.

When the two young men finally walked up to the Xiao clan, Shane was honestly surprised! It was huge! Like a small city on its own with many different pavilions, courtyards, halls, and manors everywhere! The guards at the gate sneered when they saw Xiao Che approach but paled with fear when Shane pressured them with his cultivation.

Did they not see him here with Xiao Che? Was it more important to mock a cripple than assess the strength of potential guests? Was it just the way the world was geared towards bullying the future protagonist?

He may have gone a little far with the guards, knowing how awful everyone here treated this innocent kid in front of him and made them directly pass out...

Soon after, Xiao Che led Shane into a large, secluded courtyard where a young girl around 15 was wearing green robes and sweeping the floor.

She was both beautiful and cute with rosy lips, a delicate nose, a gentle face, and a pair of clear and transparent eyes. She also had a homely feel to her. As she saw Xiao Che, she dropped the broom and ran right up to him, taking his hands in hers.

"Little Che! What happened to you?" She had an especially sweet voice like honey when talking to Xiao Che and he smiled at her before replying. "I just slipped over in town and then I met Senio-" Shane coughed "B-brother Long who is looking for a place to stay. Is grandfather here?"

Shane, seeing them together like this got a little jealous, and couldn't help but tease. "Brother Che, is this your little wife? Ahhh so caring, if only I had a wife like this."

Both of the two kids went completely red in the face and the girl couldn't help but stammer "n-n-n-n-n" a few times before giving up, turning around, and rushing inside the house.

"B-brother Long, please don't tease her. That is my little aunt Lingxi" Xiao Che, still red up to his ears, said quietly to Shane.

It wasn't long before little Linxi came out holding the arm of an old man with long white hair and a white beard. He looked to be in his 80's or 90's but that didn't fool Shane as his aura was vigorous and strong. His cultivation was at the peak of Spirit Profound. It was Xiao Lie!

"Brother Long this is my Grandfather Xiao Lie"

Shane did a small bow and respectfully said "Grandpa Lie"

Xiao Lie eyed Shane suspiciously for a moment before he stroked his beard and his smile returned. "Oho, to witness such a talented youngster in the Spirit Profound realm is rarely seen around this forgotten end of Blue Wind. What brings you here?"

Shane took a moment to appreciate the old fox before he replied

"Grandpa Lie if the question you are asking is what am I doing in Floating Cloud, the answer is that I have some business with a childhood friend in this town.

If your question also means what am I doing with your grandson or in your clan in general, then the answer is that I simply liked him and his character so I took him as my brother. Call it fate or anything else that is the truth of the matter." The old man's eyebrow rose causing Shane to feel indignant

"I live my life freely and unfettered. I travel where I wish. I train when I wish and I make friends with whomever takes my fancy. It just so happens that fate had put brother Che in my path." 'En, I really sounded like a mysterious expert then.'

"Ok brat! No need to act mysterious with me. You like to be free, I get it. Not like you would need to lie and trick a cripple."

Shane scratched his nose to hide his embarrassment and said. "En, Thank you Grandpa Lie"

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A/N: Hey guys, just to let you know. Webnovel has done something ridiculous, and now, literally, anything that constitutes as a curse word (even the word damn) will be automatically censored. They don't use the **** anymore and your comments will be automatically deleted by the system.

I lose like half of all my comments to this madness, so if you don't want to waste your time, make sure your comments don't have any cussing in them.

Apparently, you are able to see your own comments even if they have curse words in them, but not 'like' them. I can also see them in the author notifications panel sometimes but they won't appear in the comments section for anyone else.

Fuck, Shit, Cock, Bollocks, Bastard... Now I feel better

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