《An Immortal's Retirement: To Achieve Peace》


 Prologue

    ¡°What the hell?¡± I asked as I stared at the reflection in the golden-edged mirror.


    I knew what had happened. The information was right there in my head and the reality of it all was as clear as day. But still, some things were just impossible to accept. I was alive. Well, I had died, but apparently, that had changed.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL?¡± I yelled. The room seemed to be shaking as I touched my face. The man in the mirror did the same.


    My name had been Bill Terrance. His name had been Array King Dane. He was living and I was dead. I was a mortal, and he was an immortal. And we were both fine and separated a few moments ago but suddenly we were one and the same


    I closed my eyes, trying to steel my nerves. Could this be a dream? Nope. There was too much information in my head for all of this to be a dream. I wouldn¡¯t be able to imagine understanding all of the things I suddenly knew now. How could I imagine reality-bending laws or god-like powers?


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL!!¡± I yelled again, and this time I could tell that the room was shaking. And it was my yelling that caused it.


    ¡°Alright. Okay. Alright,¡± I said, pressing my hand against my chest as I tried to calm myself down. I started parsing through his memories, trying to figure out what had happened.


    ¡°Reincarnation? No, not exactly reincarnation. Something else?¡±


    My face scrunched in horror as I realized what had happened.


    ¡°Oh damn,¡± I mumbled, staring disappointedly at the man in the mirror.


    It wasn¡¯t quite reincarnation, not really. It was more like a half-assed death if anything. It was more like a botched organ transplant of the soul, except instead of switching out something like the heart or the kidneys, some dumbass had switched out the brains instead.


    The dumbass in the mirror stared back.


    I¡¯d read books about this, fictional stories about warriors in magic China land and all the great adventures they¡¯d go on. Stories filled with power, women, pain, treasures, tribulations, more women, and an absurd amount of restaurant disputes. But¡­but those were all stories weren¡¯t they? It was one thing to read fiction and it was another to live it.


    I looked the unfamiliar man up and down.


    Dane¡¯s body was immortal and infinitely better than mine, but it still felt wrong somehow. I lifted my arm and watched the man in the mirror reflect my actions. It felt strange and almost alien to see something mimic me so well.


    But, strange existential horrors aside, he was damn handsome. He had short black hair, a sharp face, and a muscular build. The ethnicity wasn¡¯t something I could put a direct finger on, but it was a mixture of Scandinavian, Asian, and African, though I don¡¯t know if anyone could be described by those labels anymore.


    After oogling myself for a bit, my next thought was how. How had this happened? How was this all real? Was this real, or was it some strange dream I was coughing up at three in the morning? It didn¡¯t feel real, but


    I got the answer as soon as I thought of the questions.


    Fundamental truths of the multiverse and all of reality suddenly sprouted in my head. And for a moment, a temporary but excruciating moment, two different bits of two different souls pressed together as they became one.


    It felt like I was thinking for the very first time, as if everything before now had been a hazy barely conscious dream. Knowledge rushed into my head as untold eons of experience pressed against my existence. My understanding of reality was rebuilt and I saw the ends of infinity. The world shrank as I outgrew it and the universe felt small. Laws, Daos, the very fabric of reality, all of it unraveled before my eyes and everything was laid bare.


    There weren''t words to describe the experience, but I didn''t need words. I wasn''t thinking in words, and in fact, I wasn''t thinking. Thinking seemed too small of a description to explain what was going on in my head. It was enlightenment and understanding far beyond the limits of a mortal. Rebirth. Readjustment. Awakening. No, something even more than that. Something I could only feel and not convey.


    And that was when I was truly born. The two separate souls finally clicked together, like puzzle pieces finding their place, and suddenly I felt whole.


    I looked back into the mirror and I saw myself staring back. This was the face of Array King Dane, a man who had reached the twelfth rank of cultivation. A man known throughout all of the multiverse, even by those of the seventeenth rank, the God-Imperiums


    Dane had reached a rare pinnacle in cultivation, soaring far above most. He was a strong and reclusive cultivator. And he was considered young for his cultivation stage, but everyone in the higher realms were considered to be extremely gifted in one way or another.


    But he was different. He had crafted his own legend. He¡¯d fought young masters and stolen treasures from clan elders. He had lived a life of legends and myths, having many adventures and joys, many highs and lows.


    Just thinking about the number of things he¡¯d seen in his lifetime would have broken a mortal¡¯s mind. And yet Bill¡¯s life was also there, the strange dullness of it all shining brightly against Dane¡¯s amazing stories. It was strange. You¡¯d think an immortal¡¯s memories would outshine and replace a mortal¡¯s, but each seemed to be equal in my soul, part mortal and part immortal.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    My eyes scanned the Palacium. The place was huge and full of gold resources most would kill to get, yet it was empty. Dane had never been one for company, sexual or platonic.


    I looked down at the black ring on my left hand. It was initially a cursed item called the Ring of Repelling. Dane had been cursed with it in his younger years, but he eventually grew fond of the damn thing and strengthened it to work on his higher cultivation stage. The man had been puritanical in how he would deal with sex, and the ring was his way of dealing with women, or "distractions" as he had called them.


    It was a little prudish if you asked me, but I was glad that I wouldn¡¯t be inheriting multiple realms'' worth of abandoned wives and all the baggage that would have brought. But on the other hand, this did put me in the running for being the multiverse¡¯s oldest virgin.


    I decided to take the ring off.


    So one might wonder, if Dane was so strong and powerful, how did he die? Was he betrayed? Was he attacked by demonic cultivators who wanted his divine artifacts? Did he blow himself up while fighting off an ancient beast in a pocket dimension?


    No. Dane was an Array Master. And one of the fundamental rules of being an Array Master is that you didn¡¯t set up an array in your soul. You could set up an array to contain a soul. You could set up an array to digest or contort a soul, or even set one up on your soul. But you don¡¯t set up an array in your soul, because it just couldn¡¯t be done. It was like trying to plug in a keyboard to your brain, the two just weren¡¯t compatible.


    The soul was something of a spiritual body. The body has organs and organ systems that handle certain jobs like delivering nutrients and digesting food. The soul has the same things, but instead of food or nutrients, it dealt with consciousness and all of its complexities. Dane, in his experimentation, had broken his soul and I was the resulting mixture of him and some random piece of consciousness floating in the void.


    Now, normally this wouldn¡¯t have been as big of a problem as it was. You could always heal, especially immortals whose very goals revolved around staying alive for as long as you can. Or at least until another immortal found and killed you in secluded meditation, which was bound to happen if you lived forever, but that hadn¡¯t been the case for Dane.


    No, Dane had accidentally completely shattered his ego which was like the metaphysical brain of the soul. It defined your sense of self and during that experience parts of Bill¡¯s decaying soul settled into his. After that, Bill''s ego took the place of Dane¡¯s, and the rest of them fused together to create whatever abomination I was now.


    "You don¡¯t fuck with your own soul," I mumbled, still staring at the mirror.


    If I were still Dane, I¡¯d close my eyes, cross my legs, and cultivate for the next few millennia. If I were Bill, I would go out and adventure across the universe, searching for the fantasy-like journey this world could give me.


    But I wasn¡¯t either of them. I had Dane¡¯s experience and had seen more magic than people had ever written about back on Earth. And I had Bill¡¯s taste so there was no way I was just going to sit here and do nothing for thousands of years. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like I needed to cultivate. I was already an immortal and even though I wasn¡¯t at the pinnacle of all cultivation, I was more than strong enough to live peacefully and out in the open for a few trillion years.


    But there was a problem with that, no matter how long-lasting that peace was, it would always be temporary. That was the nature of cultivation. To cultivate, you need resources, to gain resources you must fight, to fight you must get stronger, and to get stronger you must cultivate. It was an endlessly repeating pattern that everyone in the sport fell to, regardless of power or strength.


    Even the God-Imperiums, who were five full stages above me at the seventeenth stage and were capable of spawning universes with one breath and destroying them with another, even they cultivated diligently in fear of one another.


    The thought wasn¡¯t just mine, it was something Dane had considered as well. He had grown tired of this world, tired of all the fighting and raging. That was why he was so carelessly playing with arrays in his soul. Dane, in his last moments, had felt indifferent about death and danced with it of his own volition.


    I looked away from the reflection and looked around at my surroundings. There wasn¡¯t a lot laying around. Everything in the Palacium automatically sorted itself and the city-sized palace was cleaned and guarded by arrays.


    I raised my right hand in front of me and swiped in a grasping motion. A crushing force grew from my hand and a black void grew from my palm, devouring everything from things to light. The Palacium collapsed, vacuuming itself into my closed fist, and in my hand appeared a small black stone containing the depiction of a golden-white castle.


    The small barren planet that I¡¯d made my base for the past few hundred thousand years held very little value to me. It was just one of the many rocks I visited, nothing particular about it except for the fact that it was far removed from almost all other life in this universe. There was no sentient life in this universe, though I could feel a rising qi density, so that was bound to change sooner rather than later.


    I patted my chest and switched out my robes for some nice stealthy, enchanted, protective clothing, and flew into the sky. As I left the atmosphere, the world beneath me exploded with supernatural energy as array after array activated in the vacating process.


    The protective fields disintegrated, and with them, all evidence of me ever being here. The process went on for about an hour before the brown ball beneath me settled down looking as abandoned as the day I¡¯d landed on it.


    Without a second thought, I turned and flew beyond light speed across the universe, wondering where I was headed.


    It didn¡¯t take me all that long to figure out what I wanted to do with myself. As I soared through the void of space, it occurred to me that all I wanted was peace. I just wanted a place where I could kick my feet up and not worry, a place that I could call my own.


    So I would make that place, and I would pursue my own peace with the same vigor and diligence as these cultivators who pursued their next advancement. I would still cultivate of course, but cultivation wouldn¡¯t be the end goal, merely the means.


    As I stood there, my body being carried by a sword piercing through both space and time, I thought. I thought about exactly what it was that I would need to pursue this peace. I thought about all the clans and sects in the multiverse. I thought about the factions that swayed them. I thought about the Divine Beasts swimming through galaxy clusters and the God-Imperiums in their Celestial Realms. They were the most powerful cultivators in all of reality, but even they fought for resources, nipping and taking from each other like too many piglets competing for their mother¡¯s last teet.


    The problem was that I¡¯d eventually get dragged into the fight. That was the flaw of eternity, eternity brought down everything. If the chances of someone ever finding me in some remote corner of the multiverse were one in googolplex, well that was practically guaranteed to happen given enough time. No, if I wanted peace, I had to guarantee it.


    So if I wanted to stay alive, the best course of action would be to have an unbreakable defense, something even the God-Imperiums would not test. I needed a retirement plan so solid that it could withstand the selfishness and cruelty of the cultivator''s world.

 Chapter 1 Enlightenment and Decadence

    It was said that the multiverse had cycles. That it would wane and wither and die, only to be reborn once more from its cosmic corpse. It was said that the reality we now knew was only the stable ground between two extremes and that eventually even this world would fall and existence would be born anew.


    Creation myths were prevalent within the larger multiverse. Many sects worshiped strong cultivators as gods, and that went even more so for God-Imperiums. But out of all of the beliefs that congregated throughout the multiverse, none were as strong as the worship of the Primordials.


    The Primordials were the four beings that preceded the multiverse. They were those that had broken past the last cycle and pushed forward onto this one. They were Gods, and not in the metaphorical sense either, Gods with a capital G. Beings like them made people like me look like mortals and even their fellow God-Imperiums strived to equate to them in power and influence.


    They were Tree, Beast, Insect, and Human. These were not the names of their species but rather the names of the Primordials themselves. It was us who were named after them, and they were the shout that the multiverse echoed. They had been there first before anything had been and they had shaped everything that came after.


    It was why you could find reflections of them in any life-bearing universe, even one that was completely depleted of ambient qi. You would find plants, bugs, and animals anywhere, and humans would pop up alongside them. It was also why culture and languages were so similar to one another. It was said that the Primordials had initially shaped reality by merely existing at its highest level and that their strength made their qi echo into the very core of existence.


    And though that was a very mythical interpretation of a behavior qi did naturally exhibit, it was somewhat true. The stronger you are the more impact you have on the multiverse. It was why you saw African, Asian, and European culture in every developed human society ever. The first few human God-Imperiums that came after the Primordials had been of varying cultures, and those cultures had also echoed throughout the multiverse guiding the rest of humanity to follow in their footsteps.


    Nothing was a direct reflection of course, but it was a reflection nonetheless. Out of the first beast came phoenixes and dragons, and after that came a myriad of others and humans had also split into numerous groups of elves, dwarves, and neanderthals. The variety of insects and plants was outrageous, but since they reproduced at a much higher variety than humans or beasts, it made sense that they outnumbered us in species.


    It was similar with culture and language with each civilization having a large amount of differences with one another but a surprising amount of similarities as well. Clothing, language, food, people, animals, bugs, and plants, all of it was influenced by the God-Imperiums, who were in turn influenced by the Primordials, and that was why they were Gods with a capital G.


    Anyways that''s beside the point.


    The real star of the moment was me floating in my little pool of primordial qi. Well, I wasn¡¯t floating in it, more wading in a space suit. You couldn¡¯t touch primordial qi, otherwise, it would go rotten. It was called primordial because it was the stuff that everything else was made out of, the metaphysical base unit of the multiverse.


    It was time, space, matter, laws, daos, souls, and everything in between. It was existence without information, unflavored and untouched. If everything in the universe was a differently flavored potato chip, then primordial qi would be Salt and Vinegar. Everything else had a quality to it, primordial qi didn¡¯t, and that was why the stuff was so damn valuable. It could become anything and everything. It was infinitely versatile but because of that, it was infinitely rare.


    One of the reasons the stuff was so hard to find was because finding it was a surefire way to ruin it. Primordial qi was meaningless, literally. No quality, no nature, just plain old stuff. And while that made it extremely valuable, it also made it extremely volatile. It desired meaning and if it came into contact with something that already had it, well, it would quickly adopt it as its own. And everything aside from primordial qi had some sort of nature to it, even touching it with your divine senses would ruin it immediately.


    The only way to truly interact with the thing was to not touch it, which is a hard thing to explain. But if I had to explain it, I¡¯d say it was like wearing a space suit made out of nothing to wade through a pool made out of something.


    This whole process was heavy on the metaphysical side, but I had worked out a way to interact with primordial qi myself. It was a challenging complex mobile array, but the project was harder than anything in recent memory and forced me to grow new skills, so it was a win-win overall.


    The goal had been to study primordial qi and all of its capabilities. Maybe even replicate it, if I could. But holy shit was this stuff weird. How do you study something without any meaning to it? I mean, it was a dumb endeavor, to begin with, but I was hoping for something. Some form of enlightenment or understanding, but it was hard to glean information from something uninformative.


    I had thought, naively, that I could learn something from it at my current rank but that seemed to be my arrogance speaking instead of my common sense.


    Then the question was, what do I do now?


    I could sell this location. It¡¯d go for a pretty penny at the right auction houses and I knew sixteenth ranks would pay me their right nut for this place. I¡¯d seen one of them marry off their whole bloodline just for an unverified reservoir of primordial qi. They were crazy about this stuff, but I¡¯d never known why.


    But that idea was shot down pretty quickly. Every time one of these things was discovered, the discoverer would get the attention of the multiverse and every asshole from all corners of reality would know their name, and I couldn¡¯t afford to have those types of eyes on me. Not with what I was planning.


    I could use it, though it wouldn¡¯t be of much use to me. I¡¯d been spending the last few trillion years as time to gather all the materials I would need, so it would be a waste.


    Maybe I should just blow it up?


    The thought was a little ridiculous, but I¡¯ve been feeling more ridiculous lately. Sure it¡¯d be a waste, but there would probably be some insight in the action. I¡¯d witnessed the recreation of countless universes in my time, but I¡¯d never seen the initial spawning of one. That would be a strange experience, a direct look at the creation of everything.


    I thought about it, my power flirting with the void that separated me from the primordial. Dane would have never done this. He would have tried to store the stuff or leave it until he needed it.


    But then again, I wasn¡¯t Dane.


    There was an explosion, which I imagined would have been ear-shattering if not for the lack of time-space and matter for the sound to travel through. And with that, where there had been almost nothing, suddenly, there was everything. Primordial qi disappeared as it took on meaning and shape. It was an almost instantaneous reaction but with perception like mine, I watched it all unfold like a feature-length film.


    The primordial qi divided, changing from one to two. The first division. There was no real nature to either chunk of qi, aside from the nature of opposites. Then each half divided once more and again, and again, and again, and again. Eventually, every bit of qi was as different as every other. From complete unity to complete division. From Yang to Yin.


    I was familiar with this stuff. This was called chaos qi and it was infinitely more common than its primordial counterpart. While primordial qi was stuff without meaning, this was stuff with too much meaning. Every single ounce of qi here had a different law tied to it, a lot of them were nothing more than bits of remixed information, completely and totally useless, but some of the stuff was familiar.


    There was gravity, nuclear fission, and some strange variation of electromagnetism. It was all a jumbled ball of chaos. Sure there was meaning here, but there was also a complete lack of order. If primordial qi was like an uncut puzzle board with no picture on it, then this chaos qi was a puzzle with infinite pieces that were taken from other puzzles. It was a mess.


    Yin and Yang. Chaos and order. That was what birthed everything. Life, existence, laws, even people, were a mix of these things. Chaos was difference, changes, division, and order was unity, sameness, dullness. One without the other was entirely useless.


    Existence, at least the useful kind of existence, couldn¡¯t exist on one of those things alone. We needed consistency to keep the world together, some form of order. But too much order and we would all be reduced to one meaningless blob, primordial qi. It was as organized as anything could be, so similar that it lacked all meaning of its own. Because to have meaning, to have value, things needed to have contrast. It was like how blind people couldn¡¯t imagine color, not because their brain couldn¡¯t process light but because they had never seen a difference, black wasn¡¯t a color for them because black was color, and that destroyed color itself.


    But chaos was the same, too much and everything would crumble. Order was the leash that kept the world together and chaos was the thing that was meant to divide it. None of this was new to me, but still, this was different. There was something more here.


    My body shuddered and my soul shook as all I had seen and witnessed flowed through me. Existence, reality, time, people, everything, was just and inbetween, even us so-called immortals. And in that moment, that small instance of eternity, I saw what all of those sixteenth ranks must have been searching for.


    The pattern that was not a pattern, the rise and fall of everything.


    The eventual decay and rot of eternity.


    All of it unraveled itself before me, and I felt something I hadn''t felt in a good long while.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Growth. I felt a tremor in my qi as I went up a realm and I broke through to the thirteenth realm.


    ********


    1,000,000,000 years later


    I was almost done, it had taken me so long but I was almost done. I couldn¡¯t even remember when I started on this endeavor, but that happened with immortality, at some point you get so old alone that you forget to remember time itself, and it slips by an epoch or two when you¡¯re not looking.


    But this would be my last stop.


    I looked, staring at the massive galaxy cluster. This was the Divine Beast Emporium, a large clan spanning throughout the multiverse, even having a presence in the lower realms.And this place here was their center of operation, the Divine Killaguan Seal. This whole universe was under their jurisdiction, and that was evident if you looked closely enough. Almost every planet here had life on it, and all the stars had at least twelve planets orbiting them constantly. Each planet sat in their own respective Goldilocks zone and hosted whatever lifeform had been deemed worthy on their backs.


    There were portals everywhere, each hauling in new beings and hauling out old ones. This whole place was a collection of life. Beasts, humans, insects, or plants, they could all be found here, and you could buy them if you had the proper wealth. Of course, you could sell them here too. The criminal underworld here was the largest slave trade in the multiverse. All of it was approved and constantly monitored by the Divine Beast Emporium, though they would never admit to that publicly.


    I looked at its center and saw the oblivion that was sealed there. It was Killaguan, an eldritch monstrosity at the level of a God Imperium. It was a malicious corruption of laws and orders that was so chaotic and convoluted that its mere ability to exist was considered a miracle. I looked away. Very few things could make people as old as me sick, and that thing was one of them. I¡¯d been here before, anyone who had surpassed the ninth realm had made their way here at one time or another. Materials were needed and the Divine Beast Emporium was the best supplier in the universe. But I was disguised this time and I held back my cultivation level to the ninth stage, making sure not to stand out.


    The giant galaxy cluster was a habitat, a sort of terrarium display case for any customers that might come and want to buy their wares. In it were countless planets, each of them harboring many different lifeforms and beasts, some of them naturally grown while others were selectively raised. It was the best place to buy and trade any form of life.


    I made my way to a small golden light just at the edge of the cluster, approaching the planet with trepidation. The planet itself was huge, bigger than most stars in the universe and it had an infinitely diverse population. This universe was a peak realm, able to compare to the best clans and sects out there. If you wandered the realm below you¡¯d find all types of people with all types of stories walking around. I stood out a little as an unaffiliated ninth-rank wandering into the planet, but that was okay. In a place like this, standing out just a bit was a perfect way to fit in.


    I flew across the planet''s atmosphere, my body being carried by my sword until I reached a large, continent-sized city. It was grand and indescribably beautiful, but I¡¯d seen it all before at this point, and I didn¡¯t care to see it again. I focused on keeping my head down and flew quickly.


    The grandness of this place couldn¡¯t be explained with words. There were castles and pagodas everywhere, each of them reaching wide into the sky and hosting an innumerable amount of people. Some restaurants served anything from dragons and phoenixes, some even served humans though those weren¡¯t out in the open. One place sat upon the back of a tenth-rank celestial turtle. These were majestic beings, said to float through the space between universes, but here they were mere steeds of glory.


    Though for all its glory, this place was a ticking time bomb. You could say the wrong thing, piss off the wrong person, hell you could even glance at a girl the wrong way and suddenly be thrown into a life-and-death fight for no reason. I wasn¡¯t worried. I was far too old and too strong to be thrown into these petty displays of power, but caution was warranted.


    Finally, I made my way to the center of the city district. There was a giant black and blue steeple at the center of it all. The building was taller than any mountain on the planet and extended deep into the sky, pushing past the clouds and condensing into a small sun. This was where the God Imperium lived.


    I had to be careful here. I was strong but I was walking very close to the strongest now. If I pissed somebody off, I would be swatted out of existence by forces that I still couldn¡¯t quite fathom.


    I went to a smaller building. The building itself was still immense in size but it was much lower than the steeple.


    ¡°Honored master,¡± a soft voice spoke. ¡°Allow me to serve you and fulfill your needs during this time.¡±


    I looked to my left to see a beautiful girl bowing to my side. Her lips were cherry red and her skin had a golden tan to it that seemed to make her glow. A part of me, the part from Bill, was astonished at her beauty. No one he had known on Earth had ever come close to being this good, but Dane had seen better. Dane had seen women so entangled with the law of beauty and seduction, that a mere breath from them would be caught and sold as a drug that gave the highest pleasure.


    I nodded and gave her a piece of jade.


    She took it from my hands and sent her sensing into it to see the list I¡¯d composed. Her face was calm, but I could see both stress and joy dancing in her eyes.


    ¡°All of this Honored Master?¡± She asked.


    I nodded.


    ¡°The estimated cost-¡±


    ¡°Will not be a problem,¡± I cut her off.


    ¡°Of- of course, Honored Master. I was not implying that it would be, it is merely that the price should be known before the transaction. If my words have displeased you I can-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I interrupted. ¡°I am not insulted. Just go fetch me my wares.¡±


    I almost added please at the end of that statement, but that would make me stand out even more. Politeness to those beneath you was taken as weakness in the cultivator world.


    I understood the girl¡¯s concern. The species and beasts that I wanted were quite rare and expensive, but the amount that I had asked for would make it so that my purchase would probably be the most expensive one they¡¯ve had in a few months. It didn¡¯t compare to their highest sales, but this sale would be an opportunity for the girl to get a promotion within the clan. Hopefully.


    I could see people being greeted by all types of people when they flew in. One man was greeted by a large and beefy man that walked straight up to him and kissed him on the cheek. Another lady was greeted by a young boy. Another found himself in the arms of a gorgeous woman who wrapped herself around him like a piece of cloth. Those were the perks of being strong. People would do almost anything to please you, and the woman in front of me was no different. Her beauty, strength, and allure, were all meant to be tools of the Emporium to make my experience ¡®enjoyable.¡¯


    These greeters had most likely been raised from childhood to ''serve'' whatever master called upon them. The Emporium raised its workers like they did their animals. Every greeter here was a specimen, a delicacy meant to be tasted by the shoppers, tools of pleasure and nothing more.


    Disgusting. That¡¯s what this world was, pure and honest nastiness.


    ¡°This Mei Shan greets Honored Master,¡± the girl said.


    She had returned this time, followed by a host of servants. They were all women, each of them draped in beautiful suggestive clothes. Mei Shan was amongst them, her outfit had changed significantly and she walked with a sultry strut.


    ¡°Honored master, this Mei Shan¡¯s master wishes to speak with you in private to further discuss the logistics of your wares.¡±


    I nodded after some careful consideration. It was this way with large purchases. You buy from a clan and the clan wants to establish some bond so that you¡¯d buy from them again. Loyal customers and all that.


    I knew they¡¯d assume that I was a representative of some large clan somewhere but I didn¡¯t care much either way. My goal was to get what I needed and get the hell out of here.


    I walked with them, catching the occasional peeking glances flying past my direction. It was considered rude to use your divine senses in places like this, so everyone saw with their eyes and listened with their ears instead of swaying their sights far above you.


    We arrived at a large door. It was big and golden and shiny and was practically screaming of power and position, which meant that it was most likely held by some small man who wanted to think of himself as big.


    I almost sighed as I saw the man at his desk. He was everything you¡¯d expect of an arrogant Son of Heaven. He wore expensive shimmering clothes and had small priceless jewels and artifacts hanging casually about his person. You could probably start a successful middle-sized sect with all the wealth in this room, but unfortunately, it would never be anything more than decoration.


    ¡°Hello, fellow Daoist! Forgive my intrusion into your business, this Kin Jey heard of your request and sought to meet you in private.¡±


    Kin Jey. Flashing his family name already.


    ¡°It is an honor to meet one of the Jey Clan¡¯s Scion,¡± I replied, giving a traditional half bow. The man didn¡¯t return the gesture.


    ¡°I was looking over this list you had given us and I wanted to discuss some things with your request fellow Daoist.¡±


    ¡°Ah, of course, of course. I am merely a humble customer.¡±


    ¡°Humble?¡± He asked a little arrogantly.


    ¡°This purchase is far from humble, my friend. The things you are asking for, not only are they rare, but they are also dangerous, very dangerous.¡±


    Kin Jey paced around as if he was concerned about the sales. I wasn¡¯t stupid. I¡¯d dealt with politics before and I sincerely hated it, but that was also why I had learned to master it.


    Kin Jey didn¡¯t have a good reason to call me. That was obvious. My purchase stood out in many ways, but not enough to deserve severe inspection. The lifeforms I was asking for were dangerous, but that would be none of their business for the most part. It¡¯s not like the Emporium cared about the consequence of their sales.


    No, what Kin Jey wanted was what I had. Here he was, a cultivator sitting so close to the top of the pecking order, a direct descendent of a God Imperium, yet he still preyed on those he deemed weak.


    A part of me wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him that I was just a lone cultivator spending all my resources on a big project. I wanted him to send a group of cultivators to chase me, or better yet, I wanted him to try to kill me himself. Then I could put him down for his ungodly selfishness and end him like the thieving dog that he was.


    I put up a farce.


    ¡°Ah yes, we are aware of the strangeness of these requests. My clan did stress the utmost secrecy and significance of this request, however.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Kin Jey questioned.


    ¡°Surely your clan would trust the Jey Clan with their reasoning for such things?¡±


    He was bargaining up, asking for a lot more than what he wanted.


    ¡°I am afraid that I was not given heed to such knowledge. This lowly one was sent to merely fetch the wares.¡±


    I denied him.


    ¡°Ah, such is the way of the elders I suppose, in your clan or mine,¡± he replied.


    I again gave a half bow to show respect.


    ¡°What is fellow Daoist¡¯s name, by the way?¡±


    There it was. If he knew my name, he could look into my clan. And depending on the strength of my clan, he would figure out if he would kill me or let me go.


    ¡°I am sorry but even my name is meant to be clandestine. The clan would prefer our purchases go unnoticed by everyone, lest our enemies see our plans.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± Kin Jey spoke, nodding his head in false wisdom.


    ¡°Well, fellow Daoist, it would be better if I knew your name, but if not, then I shall sow some good karma with gifts. Surely then we will meet again.¡±


    ¡°Oh do not trouble yourself, this one is not worthy of such things,¡± I replied.


    ¡°No, no. I have caused trouble for you, I am sure. Mei, prepare yourself and your sisters, surely this honored master has some use for concubines.¡±

 Chapter 2 Arrogance and Deceit

    This man was testing me, though I doubt he knew it.


    "Oh, your kindness is abundant Kin Jey, but I don¡¯t believe myself to be a man capable of many wives," I chuckled.


    ¡°Men, perhaps?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Oh no, I am not a carnal man, Master Kin.¡±


    "A shame, then give them away to your family. They are of a delicate breed, born of our more fertile lines. I¡¯m sure they will serve you well,¡± he replied with a nonchalant wave.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel some sadness for the women at that moment. These people were born to be his toys, raised and taught and schooled to serve his every need. They worshiped him as if he were a god, and now he was throwing them away, donating them to me like they were nothing more than secondhand shoes.


    "Well, I can not shame the scion of the Kin clan by rejecting such beauties. My clan will be most thankful for these gracious gifts,¡± I said with false humility.


    I felt disgusted at myself for taking part in this but I didn¡¯t really have any other options. Besides, I could give these women a better life. I knew plenty of matriarchal societies that would take them in and raise them as one of their own, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth to act as if I respected him.


    The man waved off my compliment.


    ¡°It is not worthy of such gratitude, fellow Daoist. Though in truth, I should be the one thanking you for your patronage. Ah but I do have some urgent business to see to so unless anything else is necessary¡­?" He said letting the question hang in the air.


    "Yes, yes, I thank Master Kin for taking care of my wares. May you have trust in your Dao and growth in your qi,¡± I said, giving him a half bow.


    ¡°And power in your heart and strength in your blade," He finished, returning the bow.


    As annoyed as I was with the interaction, I wouldn¡¯t be able to shave a single hair off of his body in this place. It was warded beyond reason, and it used runes instead of array points so I lacked the expertise to break through it.


    The women, unaffected by their sudden transfer of ownership, followed right behind me. The one called Mei Shan walked with her head aimed at the floor and her footsteps remaining even, almost unnoticeable.


    I tried to pry into her aura to see what she was feeling, but it was as still as could be. I frowned. Aura was hard to control. It was the qi that naturally leaked from your reservoirs and out into the real world. And because it was your qi, it reflected your current state of mind, if you were nervous, it would be nervous. If you were happy, it would be happy. It reflected your emotions and could even manifest them into actions if they were strong enough.


    But there was none of that with her. Her aura remained calm and collected. There were aura cloaking techniques, but that wasn¡¯t what was happening here. She wasn¡¯t cloaking her aura, she was controlling it, which was akin to controlling your emotions themselves. The aura reflected the emotions and her aura reflected nothing.


    "Mei Shan, right?" I said.


    She nodded, tailing just slightly behind me.


    "Do you have any family or friends here?"


    She shook her head.


    "No honored master, my sisters are all I am permitted to have," she said, gesturing to the bowing group around her.


    I nodded.


    "Then prepare my wares and yours, we will leave as soon as we can."


    "Right now? Would you not like to rest or spend the night-"


    "No," I interrupted. "I would like to leave as soon as we can, provided that it¡¯ll bear you no troubles?"


    She nodded, as if not having heard that last part, and left with her group. I waited for them in a very large room with a bed wide enough to build a house on. I had suspicions as to why, but I didn¡¯t bother entertaining them.


    That Kin Jey had been of the ninth rank and he was young too. I had done my research before coming and though I hadn¡¯t initially recognized the man, I knew his name from some of the wider news distribution networks in the multiverse. I was personally subscribed to three news distributor sects and each had mentioned him in their report at one time or another, usually for suspicion of an unjustified murder or insulting a high-ranking sect member. In this world, the latter was considered the worse of the two crimes.


    And taking all that information along with all of this. Well, it didn¡¯t take a complex mind to figure out what was going to happen. The women, the room, the inquiries, all of it pointed to one conclusion.


    ¡°Oh well,¡± I sighed.


    The women reentered the room. They had changed, now wearing less flirtatious and much more regal-like traveling clothes. Each of them also carried a minor spatial ring filled with their own supplies.


    "Honored Master, we have gathered your materials," Mei Shan said, bowing down in front of me. Her hands were lifted above her head and carrying a small golden ring.


    "Get up," I said as I took the ring to inspect it. I had already given Mei the payment for the items when I had asked for them, and though I could have paid a little less if I bothered to bargain, leaving this place took a higher priority. I looked around, scanning the girls who stood behind me. They were all at the peak of the fifth rank, which made sense, immortal servants were as rare as they were precious. But that meant that I would have to protect them through interdimensional travel.


    ¡°Do any of you know any voidwalker techniques?¡± I asked the group of women.


    ¡°No honored master, we were not meant to leave this realm,¡± Mei Shan responded.


    Without a voidwalker technique, traversing the void was the equivalent of walking into oblivion. The void wasn¡¯t some vast empty space in between universes, but rather emptiness itself. It was nothing. It lacked space-time and all of the other physical laws a physical body relied on to survive, so if I just took the girls with me. Well¡­ they wouldn¡¯t make it out the other end.


    But that meant I would have to carry them in a life-storing spatial ring. There was nothing wrong with that, but it felt demeaning in a way, to transport them the same way I was transporting beasts.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll have you travel in this spatial ring then. It shouldn¡¯t be too long, just a mere moment from your perspective.¡±


    The women all nodded in compliance. It didn¡¯t matter to them. I doubt anything did aside from my approval.


    I waved my hand and all of them were sent into the ring. It was the ring the Beast Emporium had given me, and it was the only ring suitable for transporting that many lifeforms across the void. It would keep each life form separated in its own minor pocket dimension, and their safety would be guaranteed while traveling through the void.


    Making my way out of the building was only the first step, after that, I had to navigate through the eternal metropolis and make my way to the outskirts of the city before I could take off. It was rude to fly through a place like this, and even if I didn¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about manners, the people here did and many had died for a lesser insult. I used movement techniques to travel through the millions of buildings that littered the place. The city must have had the surface area of multiple planets, and though it was a thriving goliath of the multiversal market, it still felt too big.


    I finally got off of the planet and past the star system, going at speeds that light could only dream of, until the galaxy itself was visible. I kept on going and going until the galaxy cluster was nothing more than a faint shimmer in the sky and everything it contained seemed like a distant star. While the Emporium did technically own the realm, an endless universe was a tough thing to police. So there would be fewer eyes monitoring me out here.


    Though that didn¡¯t really mean much when I was in the same realm as a God-Imperium, but putting distance between me and the Beast Emporium was more of a show of caution rather than a protective measure. It would make it harder to follow me on the off chance that someone decided to tail me. I was being followed of course, but I had to act like I didn¡¯t know that.


    I pushed, weaving myself out of this space-time continuum. My own voidwalker technique kept me safe as I traveled through the void. Though at my current stage, I could travel through the void without and come out just fine, but most of my equipment would be destroyed almost instantly so I had to take caution.


    Navigating the multiverse was actually somewhat intuitive. There was the term ¡®The Fabric of Space and Time¡¯ back on Earth. That saying actually had more truth to it than not.


    Universes were like blankets, big thick eternal blankets. If you wanted to teleport, you would fold a small piece of that blanket in half and pierce through, popping out on the other side. The multiverse in comparison was like a giant stack of blankets, made up of infinite layers of individual space-time continuums. There were many ways to travel through it, but the most common one was to navigate from one known universe to another, taking small steps until you reached your known destination.


    There was a reason for that. Even though the void didn¡¯t have space or time, it did have a distance of sorts. It¡¯s hard to explain in normal terms, but most cultivators knew it as relative existence. The void separated things. If there was void between two things, then those two things didn¡¯t exist relative to one another. But the more void one thing ¡®moved through,'' the closer it got to another plane of existence, until eventually, you shared the same plane of existence as something else. It¡¯s all very complicated, but the point is that one does not want to get lost in the void. There were monsters there, eldritch horrors of untold nightmares. Things like Killaguan and strong celestial beasts that could tear me apart with a mere thought. It was scary and dark, and it was the jungle to end all jungle. Overall, the multiverse was scary, and hopscotching to known universes was a proven way to keep yourself mostly safe and unharmed.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Anyway, strange existential horrors aside, it was actually fun to hop from one realm into another. It took a bit of skill and finesse to actually figure out where you were heading and how to get there, that was the reason most people never found their way out of the lower realms, that or death.


    Speaking of which, I paused as I leaped through what must have been the thousandth realm that I¡¯d traveled through since I left the Emporium. One thousand realms, and yet they were still following me.


    ¡°Alright,¡± I said with a tired sigh. ¡°Come out.¡±


    I didn¡¯t speak these words seeing as I was hovering in empty space. I merely projected them loud enough for the hiding idiots to pick up on.


    "He he he," a slimy voice projected.


    "Fellow Daoist¡¯s abilities are truly capable, and to think I thought you just a fortunate vagabond."


    Kin Jey stepped out from the void of space, his body materializing covered in ebony blue armor. The man looked different at the moment but only superficial. The kingly and regal robes had been switched for battle-ready armor, and his sword gleamed with starlight as if it was eager to cut. Aside from that, he looked collected and normal, as if he had been following me to give me back some spare change that I had accidentally overpaid.


    His entourage followed behind him, each of them decked out in similar equipment, though none as flashy as his. There were men, women, and even beasts, though most of them had a small slave collar bound onto their necks. The strongest person here was of the eleventh-rank dwarf who wore a sleeveless armor set that extended into a kilt that covered his legs. He had no slave collar on.


    ¡°Why are you following me?¡± I asked. It was a stupid question. I knew the answer, I always knew the answer.


    "Ho? Fellow Daoist, show some manners in your questioning. I am, after all, the scion of the Kin clan. Do remember that even if I can cut you down, there are many fates worse than death,¡± Kin Jey said with a smile.


    I snorted. It wasn¡¯t meant to be cold or mocking. I just found the kid¡¯s ego to be a bit funny, but it made him frown really badly.


    ¡°I followed you to assure your safe travels, but it seems that you have spat in my face once more. For this insult, you shall die.¡±


    ********


    Kin Jey frowned. He didn¡¯t really need an excuse by now. His entourage knew the plan well, even if they refrained from discussing it openly. He would find a target and he would follow them to a place far outside his home realm, and when he felt they were open and alone, he and his group would strike under the pretense of an insult. And though none of that was necessary anymore, particularly with their well-hidden killings, old habits die hard.


    The reason was generally something inconsequential, but it would be enough to avoid punishment within the sect if he was ever found out, though he rarely was these days. He had only been found out the first few times and after that, he had learned to hide his pursuits and make sure his killings happened far outside of his home realm, where there were no witnesses.


    Kin Jey was talented in this regard. He could probably find fault with the way his shadow moved if he wanted to. This man, however, warnted none of his exaggerated reasoning. His arrogance and curtness were reason enough. The bastard stood there, surrounded, outnumbered, outranked, and yet not an ounce of fear or remorse. And it wasn¡¯t an act either, his aura exuded weariness and irritation, as if this interaction was some tiresome errand he was just trying to finish.


    ¡°Well,¡± the man said with a tired tone as he stared into the sky. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡±


    ¡°Very good! Very very good!¡± said Lom Gont. The small dwarf stepped forward, his face burning red with fury. His eleventh-rank aura flooded the place, his strength pushing down on everyone except Kin Jey.


    ¡°I would ask for your name but it is fitting for you to die an unknown death. This Lom Gont will bring you to your end. You have courted death, but today she will embrace you.¡±


    ¡°Just hurry up already,¡± the man mumbled with clear irritation.


    Kin Jey seethed. This arrogance, this self-importance, it disgusted him. How can one man think so highly of himself even in front of death? He was going to die, that was as clear as qi itself. And he had to have known that unless¡­ No that wasn¡¯t it. He would have known as soon as he met him if that was the case. But still, you never did know with those bastards.


    ¡°Before you die, I would like to know, do you pursue the Dao of Madness?¡± Kin Jey asked.


    ¡°Nope.¡± The man responded with an irritated look.


    ¡°Then where did you find it?¡±


    The man looked at him curiously. ¡°Find what?¡±


    ¡°Your arrogance,¡± Kin Jey said with a smile.


    ¡°I¡¯m not arrogant,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Nope. I¡¯m just honest.¡±


    Kin Jey smiled and looked at Lom Gont.


    ¡°Make it slow,¡± he said, loud enough for the man to hear him.


    Lom Gont nodded with a vicious smile. A cudgel materialized within his right hand and a long hooked blade on his left. Kin Jey smiled. The dwarf was capable of putting on a good show when he wanted to and this man seemed to bring out the desire in him.


    ¡°Wield your blade dreg, so at least you might die fighting.¡±


    The arrogant bastard looked at the sword in his right hand. It was a thick double-edged longsword that had a rather uneven blade. That was strange. Kin didn¡¯t remember seeing the man bring out a blade.


    ¡°Nah,¡± the man said, tossing his sword at Lom Gont.


    Lom Gont snatched the weapon out of the air with anger. His muscles bulged and his qi flared as he held both his swords and his opponents in the same hand. Fury overtook his face at the disrespect, and Kin Jey smiled. This man was an eternal fountain of disrespect. If he didn¡¯t have a reason to kill him before, he definitely had one now.


    He couldn¡¯t remember the last time he¡¯d seen Lom Gont so furious. He had told the man to take it slow, but now he was worried that Lom Gont might not kill the bastard at all. There was a chance that he would take the man¡¯s soul and store it in an eternal pain prison, gifting the arrogant bastard eternal torment. Oh well, pride has its consequences. The man had been warned, after all, Kin Jey had told him earlier.


    There are many fates worse than death.


    Lom Gont moved, slowly approaching the man through the void of space.


    ¡°Your arrogance truly knows no-¡± Lom Gont paused for a moment, and then, he bulged. His skin stretched from beneath his body and it almost looked like his bones were trying to make their way out of him. And then, the man popped. Black chitin-covered tentacles pierced through his skin and wrapped around his body and cocooned him in.


    Kin Jey and all the others leapt, pushing themselves a good distance from Lom Gont. Thoughts ran through Kin Jey¡¯s head as he backed away. What was this? What had happened? Had the man attacked? Did he have reinforcements?


    ¡°It can wield itself,¡± the man muttered tiredly.


    Then the sword moved, making its way to one of the beasts with perfect accuracy. The edge of the blade split open, from one side of the hilt to the other, to reveal a large row of teeth, tongues, and flesh.


    ¡°An eldritch weapon!!¡± the beast screamed an instant before the blade''s mouth came down upon them. Thousands of eyes bloomed on the flat side of the weapon, each of them peering into Kin Jey. He shivered.


    ¡°FORMATION!¡± He yelled, and all of his people surrounded him in a battle formation, every one of them covering him at all sides. Kin Jey shuddered. He had seen eldritch beings before. His ancestor had even tamed one, the Great Beast Killaguan. But this was different. This thing sought to kill him, and that was a whole new experience.


    The man now had the blade in his hand. Though calling it a blade might have been too much. It was more of an amalgamation of flesh tied together at one singular hilt. It wreathed the man in eldritch fury, yet the man himself seemed undisturbed.


    His face was unchanged. It was the same tired face he let out earlier. An annoyed frown.


    ¡°Speak!¡± Kin Jey yelled from his protective group. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    The man flickered and his entire left side of protection burst into a stream of blood and flesh.


    ¡°Scatter!¡± Kin Jey screamed as he pushed himself away from the group. But at this point, no one was listening to his orders. The man had attacked before they had even blinked, and while some were strengthening their defense, most were circulating their voidwalker techniques to push themselves out of the realm.


    ¡°Honorless bastards!¡± Kin Jey screamed as he too pushed to leave the realm. But before he could fully activate his technique, he heard a scream. One by one, every single person or beast who had tried to exit the realm simultaneously crumbled. Each of their body caved in on itself and into a circular swirling pattern until there was only a small ball the size of a sand grain left where they stood.


    Kin Jey stopped channeling his own voidwalker skill and looked to the man. There were about seven of the original entourage left, and the strongest among them had already been killed. It was clear that Kin Jey had failed. And not only had he failed, he had failed exceedingly. Almost every one of his bodyguards were dead, and those that hadn¡¯t weren¡¯t worth bringing home. His sect would be sure to punish him for this.


    ¡°Honored Master, I see my flaws and apologize for testing your strength. But if you push forward, surely my ancestor¡¯s wrath will fall upon you.¡±


    The man frowned.


    ¡°Old Tai Jey? Please, I must have killed over ten of his descendants. That bastard doesn¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about you.¡±


    ¡°You dare!?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s got billions of descendants, a whole realm full of them. What makes you so different?¡±


    Kin Jey was furious. Killing his men had been a severe insult, but this, this was worse.


    ¡°I am a direct heir, son of Lien Jo Jey and grandson of-¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s got millions of direct descendants as well. And who cares if you¡¯re an heir, immortals don¡¯t age. It¡¯s just a nice fancy title. Nothing more. At the end of the day, you¡¯re just a little jewel on the old man¡¯s neck, sort of like those women you gave to me actually.¡±


    Kin Jey¡¯s jaw tightened. Who was this man, to so brazenly insult him so? This arrogant self-righteous mite dared to stand against his Divine Beast Emporium. Kin Jey had been kind, but this was too far. He may have been of the ninth rank but he was no weakling, and regardless of this vagabond¡¯s words. His sect did care for him.


    Kin Jey smacked his chest and activated the hidden talisman within. It was a waste to use this attack on such a minor being, but his arrogance called for it. Strength filled his body as the talisman channeled some strange and unknown technique.


    ¡°You can only blame your arrogance!¡± Kin Jey shouted. ¡°Let me send you to the depths.¡±


    A light overwhelmed Kin Jey as the qi burst out of him and engulfed everything. He was fine and unharmed, but that was quite untrue for everyone else involved. The attack had been one of a sphere-like shape, directly annihilating everyone and everything it touched without discrimination. And it wasn¡¯t small either, it had left him and trailed throughout the rest of the realm, killing all life within the universe.


    Kin Jey turned to see the small floating remains of his entourage. They had no qi in them, and even their souls had been broken down into nothingness. He smiled. This was the second-best outcome, with no witnesses he could tell whatever story he liked. And though some in the sect would know, he wouldn¡¯t be too scrutinized about the situation.


    He waved his hands, collecting all the remains of his fellow sect members. His opponent must have died a long and miserable death, though he couldn¡¯t see the man¡¯s body anywhere. Maybe he hadn¡¯t died. Perhaps the bastard was only half dead, floating somewhere through this space. No, Kin wouldn''t be so lucky.


    And then suddenly he couldn''t move. The space froze around rendering him immobile and mute. There was a flash of blood from beneath him and an ache in his chest. Kin Jey looked down, and saw that where his chest plate should have been was the shiny edge of an eldritch sword.


    ¡°Dumbass,¡± the man whispered, and the blade was drawn up, splitting him whole.

 Chapter 3 Cleanliness is Freedom

    I frowned. What a waste of time. Wreindler tightened itself, having eaten everything the group had brought with them. The eldritch blade had been with me for a large portion of my life. I had found it when it was still young and though it was a common species of eldritch, this living weapon variation was unique to Wreindler.


    This dumbass. This self-righteous entitled moron of a cultivator had gone and made me kill him. I didn¡¯t want to kill the bastard. As disgusting as he was, it was too much trouble. But he just wouldn¡¯t stop following me, and even if I could have gotten away, that wasn¡¯t a salient option for the future. I had caught the interest of powerful people before and things never ended well if those interests were left to fester.


    ¡°Dammit,¡± I mumbled.


    But I might have made a mistake this time.


    He was a direct descendant of a God-Imperium, a prince of the multiverse, and I had killed him. What I had just done was the equivalent of murdering the president¡¯s son. This bastard was important. He was an heir and that meant that people would notice his disappearance. And though I doubted his sect would care for the loss, he was a high-ranking member of a celestial sect.


    His death would be taken as an insult by the Divine Beast Emporium, and to cultivators, that was the most unforgivable crime. They might even involve the Enki Maluth, one of the oldest investigatory sects in the multiverse.


    There were a variety of different sects and orders within the multiverse. Some stayed to themselves, never interacting with outside forces. Others were much more antagonistic, pushing and expanding, constantly seeking war and power, but a lot had learned to coexist.


    There were sects that provided trades, jobs, materials, artisan goods, anything and everything you could think of could probably be bought somewhere. The Beast Emporium was an example of such a sect. It sold lifeforms, mainly beasts, and had cemented itself with the multiversal market as the best supplier of those specific wares.


    The Enki Maluth were a similar group, but instead of supplying beasts, they supplied truth. They were known for their techniques regarding the Dao Of Truth, and they were horrifyingly capable. Divination, time resonance, qi detection, anything and everything they could do to see into the past, they would. It could be one shred of that bastard¡¯s qi floating around, or maybe a scent of that talisman he had used. They were known as the Sect of Vengeance, because of how many sects employed them to find the killers of their scions, and if the perpetrator was anyone without significant backing, then they would almost always end up dead.


    ¡°Damn,¡± I said as I stared into the mess of qi and faint echoes of the battle we just had.


    Cleanup was going to be a chore.


    I scanned around. First I would have to destroy the realm, which would be quite easy but quite wasteful as well.


    This wasn¡¯t an ordinary realm, in fact, this wasn¡¯t a realm at all. It was an array I had made way back in the day, back when I was just a little ninth rank still making my way through the multiverse. And I had built and rebuilt it over and over again.


    I smiled thinking back to those days. Back then, I¡¯d pissed off the scion of a middling sect, through no fault of my own. His ghostly pale girlfriend looked in my direction once or twice and that seemed to be enough for the prick to chase after me like I¡¯d killed his mother.


    He swore he would kill me. He even made a Dao Vow claiming that he would ¡®show me pain and terror beyond my wildest dreams.¡¯ The tough part was that he was actually a rank above me, so I had to set all of this up in advance and lure him out here afterward.


    And that asshole had been pretentious too. He had tried to kill me at every realm I hopped to, so I almost died about seven times before he finally got into this one. And even then, his talisman was an attack sealed in there by his sect¡¯s patriarch and had been one of the twelfth-rank.


    Since then I have reworked and remade this array countless times. It had started out as a complex illusion array that would make a person think they were in a realm as soon as they had entered it. Then eventually, it became a pseudo-reality. It mimicked the nature of a realm so much that at this point it could be categorized as one, at least at first glance.


    You couldn¡¯t cultivate or grow anything here and the natural development of life was definitely not going to happen within this place. Simply put, this universe wasn¡¯t natural, so it wouldn¡¯t have those traits that naturally developed universes tended to show.


    And now I would have to destroy it.


    I gripped my blade and closed my eyes and felt. Arrays were complicated. They were, at their core, an imitation of cultivation. A pull and a push. That¡¯s how cultivation started. You pulled qi into your dantian, filled it up, then refined it. And to use your qi, you pushed it, either to your limbs or weapons or organs.


    Arrays were that same push and pull technique extended to outside of the body. Eventually, you learned to make that push and pull a self-sustaining process, and then you learned to push and pull other things it would be confusing at first, but since everything was qi, it was possible. And then you learned to manipulate laws and Daos and that¡¯s where the fun began.


    I felt the key array points, they were the conglomerations of laws that kept the universe together. Time and space, and a bunch of minor laws that governed the interactions of subatomic particles. Weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, gravity, electromagnetism, and a bunch of other things all hotchpotch together to keep the realm afloat.


    If a universe was a functioning healthy human being, then this was a Frankenstein''s monster with a brain that only knew how to breathe. It was barely a realm, but it got the job done. It granted me controls that made battles infinitely easier. I could entrap people with it, like I had done to Kin Jey¡¯s group, killing them as soon as they tried to leave.


    I could also strip the place of ambient qi or turn off the realm entirely and toss whoever was in there with me into the void, which was lethal to the unprepared. I was almost godlike in this realm, and it gave me a degree of flexibility that my fighting lacked. I was an array master, jack of all trades, master of none. And as well-rounded as I was, that meant fuck all for combat.


    And even then, I had almost died when the talisman went off. That was a full-blow fifteenth-rank attack that would even leak into the void, meaning if I had just left the realm, I still wouldn¡¯t have made it. This was the power of a celestial sect. They must have had hundreds of thousands of bastards like Kin Jey. After all, an eternal sect was bound to have an immense number of descendants. But even then, he still had defenses like this.


    I pulled, rearranging the array to self-collapse. And it did. The realm crumbled like a piece of paper. Stars, planets, galaxies, all came together and huddled into a single point. Existence shook and shivered as the fundamental laws of reality collapsed, and everything dissipated.


    The qi jumbled up together in a sea of unsustainable laws, and I stepped into the void.


    I could feel the realm rot. It was a process I¡¯d witnessed countless times, even causing it on a few occasions, but I never got tired of seeing it. Universes were sustainable bundles of qi production within the void. They were things that grew and prospered, and in some cases lived. And when they popped and burst back into the nothingness from which they were born, they¡¯d rot into a jumble of nonfunctioning qi, and that was when the jungle ate.


    The immense amount of qi pushed, echoing out through nonexistence, and I could feel them come.


    A myriad of creatures swarmed in my direction. The group suddenly pierced through the void and into the body of the dead realm. Ants, worms, dragonflies, centipedes, and anything with more than four legs and an exoskeleton managed to work its way into the thing.


    The bugs were always first. Then the celestial beasts and eldritch creatures mixed into the fold as well, each consuming whatever they could before more of them pierced into the area. I watched in wonder as all types of creatures swarmed the area.


    The thing that interested me wasn¡¯t their strength. No, I was stronger than all of the creatures here by at least two ranks. Rather, what captured me was their existence. These were interdimensional beings, some cthulhuian in nature. Creatures that could tear at the minds of mortals with a single glance.


    And yet, the void had stronger creatures than them. These were ants, and the jungle had lions. I¡¯d seen some roaming wild God-Imperiums before, and the only reason I had lived then was because I was too weak to be noticed. These creatures in front of me were the bottom feeders of this ecosystem. They were at the bottom of the food web, eating abandoned realms or freshly fallen universes.


    I watched as they tore through the qi, each gulping down their own portion before turning and trying to steal from the others. As soon as the qi became limited, the weaker ones fled, knowing that the stronger ones would turn to them and try to hunt them down.


    And then there was only the strong left with a few brave weaklings pecking around unnoticed. But eventually, everything was finished and the creatures either fought each other for scraps or scattered back into the void.


    That was called a feeder wave. If there was ever a spill of giant qi anywhere within the void, these bastards would sense it and come running towards it all at once. They were like ants to a slice of cake, and once they got there, they would clean out everything they could.


    I remembered when this had been the most terrifying thing I¡¯d ever seen. I had just hit immortal when I¡¯d left my realm, and I¡¯d run into one of these frenzies while wandering through the void. A wave of tenth-rank creatures thundering through the void was a horrifying sight back then.


    But now, I was able to hide my existence from them. I could even end them if I wanted to.


    This could have been an ego boost to some but that wasn¡¯t the way I looked at it. To me, it was a humbling experience. I looked at these creatures and I remembered what they were, how scared I had been the first time I¡¯d seen them. I remembered the fear and horror I¡¯d felt when I first saw them.


    I remembered how small I felt. That was an important feeling for someone like me. When you lived as long as I have, you tended to get a pretty big head. I had just destroyed a realm, a universe, something with infinite space-time.


    As much as I hated the cultivator¡¯s mindset, I understood it. Actions like this were enough to convince any man of their own greatness. But that feeling, that insignificance, and horror, that was something I needed to be reminded of every now and again.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I am nothing in the grand scale of things.


    I smiled at the thought and walked through the void to my first home.


    ********


    The planet of Ah-Marin stood in the void of space. It was large, almost a billion miles in diameter, and it hovered surrounded by stars and nebulas on all sides. A planet of this size shouldn¡¯t have been possible. It was too big, and anything this big should have just collapsed in on itself and became a star but the qi surging in its center allowed it to defy gravity and keep itself stable.


    Most giant planets had something in their center keeping them afloat. In Ah-Marin¡¯s case, it was a simple but rudimentary qi gathering enchantment laid out far before I was born. But that was how all giant planets worked. They all start out as a normal-sized planet or asteroid and some cultivator would settle down there, setting his formations to gather all the ambient qi, and then he¡¯d die or leave and the qi would continue to gather and with a whole lot of luck, and a little bit of human interference, you¡¯d get a big star sized planet.


    The main sects on that planet guarded the formation, setting up whatever things they could to make sure no one got down there, so it was all very well guarded and stable, but entirely unnatural. Well, as natural as plastic-eating bacteria, I guess.


    Ah-Marin held its own white suns in orbit and had an almost uncountable set of moons and asteroids circling around it. Some asteroids would occasionally fall out of orbit, but only the really big ones ever made it to the ground, but most of them never made it through the planet''s atmosphere.


    We used to call them moon falls back when I was a mortal, and I¡¯d almost been killed by one early in my cultivating career. I had been sitting on a small mountain pass when a meteorite started to fall in my direction. I ran as fast as I could, and had I been any slower, I would have died.


    I chuckled. I had been scared then, running around like a headless chicken, counting on luck to make it to the next rank. But looking back, it all felt a bit nostalgic. Chasing after immortality, and fighting off greedy sects and clan elders, it was all so simple in a way. My goals felt noble and righteous, and my conviction felt unbreakable, carrying me through a near-infinite amount of pain and suffering needed to make the next rank.


    And here I was now, tired and worn.


    I waved my hand and released Mei Shan. I didn¡¯t want to trap her for as long as I had but I had to destroy the self-destruct enchantment that bastard had left on the ring before I let them out.


    "Honored Mast-"


    "Bill," I corrected her.


    "Honored Bill," Mei Shan said, floating in the air and giving me a gracious bow. Her acting was spot on, but her aura betrayed her. There was shock and surprise, but mainly, there was a whole lot of fear.


    I sighed.


    ¡°You knew?¡±


    Her aura trembled. It was strange, in terms of body language, she looked as calm as could be, but her aura reflected a completely different state of mind. I frowned. I knew why she was able to do that. She had been trained to, it was that simple. What repulsed me was the question of why she would possibly need to master such a skill.


    ¡°I¡¯m not mad,¡± I answered. ¡°I doubt you had a choice in the matter.¡±


    Her body was frozen stiff in a bowing position.


    ¡°Relax. I don''t blame you.¡±


    She still didn¡¯t move.


    ¡°And I won¡¯t kill you for it either. Nothing will happen to you or your sisters. You¡¯re alright.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ but what if he finds us?¡±


    ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°Young Master Kin.¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°You do not know his persistence,¡± she said, shaking her head furiously.


    ¡°He will find you, and when he does he will¡­ he will¡­¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t,¡± I said with a finalizing tone that seemed to imply my message.


    I could see the gears turning and after a moment she nodded.


    I replied with a smile. The girl was smart, smart enough to know what I had implied while also knowing not to ask for more information. I was planning to toss the girls to some of the better matriarchal sects in the multiverse, but I couldn¡¯t do that now. They could be traced back to me.


    I started circulating my qi and undoing the disguising technique that I had kept on all this time. It was tiresome, but it was a necessary step for the wandering cultivator. It took a minute but eventually my hair was its normal color and my face had settled into place.


    I had short hair, which was an uncommon fashion in the cultivator world, but I had seen a number of people die because of their hair. In the cultivator world, a fight could break out any second, and when it did, those long hair bastards were always at a disadvantage. I¡¯d seen a person¡¯s hair blind their eyesight or get into their mouth, making them choke midway through the fight. I¡¯d once seen a fleeing young master get grabbed by his waist length locks. His opponent had been large, and beat him to death with one hand while the other one hoisted him like a pinata.


    Yeah, my hair was much more practical.


    ¡°Alright,¡± I said, turning to Mei Shan.


    ¡°Let me show you where we¡¯ll be living for a while.¡±


    I guided us down to the planet. It was a vast and wide space, but it was home nonetheless. Mei Shan looked down and watched as we flew by lakes the size of oceans and hills that would make mountains look small. We passed grand sects and clans and their tournaments and elders from a distance, but mainly we saw land and mortals. Farmers farming different plants and children playing out in the fields, decorated the world, but mostly we passed by people, people trying their best to live.


    Eventually, we arrived at the destination, a small valley roughly 300 miles wide. It was surrounded on all sides by a long strip of dessert, but the valley itself was cool on most days. It had forests and rolling hills and big wide mountains in certain places. It looked like a New Zealand postcard and felt like a cut scene from The Lord of the Rings, but that was the reason I had chosen this place. I, that is to say Bill, had always dreamed of living in a place like this.


    I flew us to my house. It was built into a small hill, its back leaning on the massive earth behind it and it stood opposite to a lake. The house itself was three stories tall and made out the local wood and timber and reinforced with a little bit of qi.


    The house wasn''t a relic, but it was a little on the older side. From the outside the walls were decorated with overgrown vines and mismatched windows. The house itself was more loppy than anything and it was hard to tell where one level began and the next level ended. It was structurally sound, but it did look like something you''d see out a fantasy book about little small men that lived in the hillsides.


    "Okay, here we are," I said to them. I had brought out the rest of the women and let Mei Shan explain the situation to them. They weren¡¯t nearly as good at hiding their emotions as she was, but after a few minutes of thought transmission and explaining on Mei Shan¡¯s side they seemed to settle down.


    "Honored Bill-" Mei Shan began.


    "Just Bill," I said.


    "Honored and Just Bill," she corrected.


    I sighed again.


    "We are grateful and blessed to be able to serve you, and truly, we are thankful for your kindness-"


    "You¡¯re not serving me," I cut in. ¡°I don¡¯t want servants. I just need you to live here for a while until I can hold my own. After that, you¡¯re free to go wherever you choose.¡±


    "Yes, honored master," she replied, bowing below the waist.


    This was to be expected, these people only knew how to serve, after all. That was the thing they had been trained to do since birth.


    I had once freed a colony of slaves and they were in a similar situation, and I couldn¡¯t blame them. Servitude to a cultivator was far different from any mortal slavery. Cultivators weren¡¯t mortals, they weren¡¯t people that you could see at your own level and rebel against. To most beings in the universe, cultivators were the equivalent of gods and demigods in the flesh. And you didn¡¯t need chains or whips to keep people in line when you could blink them out of existence. That was how Mei Shan saw me I supposed. Even with their own cultivation base, these people were raised on servitude and dedication.


    I sighed.


    "Alright, do any of you have any normal clothes?" I asked.


    I was keeping up a pretty tight disguise routine and unfortunately for these women, their clothes were a dead give away. They were dressed far too well for this region. Hell, they were dressed too well for the continent. The materials of the fabric alone would have cost a fortune, much less the masterfully crafted embroideries and accessories it had woven into it. And I was fairly certain their shoes were made of some celestial beast too. You¡¯d think servants would get the rags and hand me downs, but I guess to celestial sects, that¡¯s what this was.


    "Normal?" One of the girls replied.


    "Yeah, normal. Something plain."


    "These are our travel clothes," one of them clarified.


    "You know what, forget it, Gauntlet!" I yelled.


    A low thumping echoed through the place before the front door creaked open slowly. The giant ten foot tall stone golem was crouching, being careful not to break the door. He gripped the door knob with his thumb and his index finger, having to turn it delicately so as to not crush it. After a few more seconds of readjusting and reframing, like a semi truck slowly working its way through a carwash, he stepped through the door.


    "We have guests. Show them around and set up rooms for them, please."


    Gauntlet looked at me for a second with what I imagined must have been a furious anger, and then he slowly turned around and started to work his way back into the doorframe.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t talk, but he can help you get comfortable. Just stay out of the garden, that¡¯s his thing. And make sure to stay within fifty miles of the house, at least for now.¡±


    The group of women nodded and bowed in unison, then they left and stood behind Gauntlet as he worked his left leg into the building.


    I¡¯d have to talk with this group eventually, but I didn¡¯t want to deal with that right now. It had been a long day, and I doubt I could say anything to comfort them right now. I flew, soaring up and above the sky until I could see the whole valley from where I stood. I had designed this valley myself, from the top of the mountains to the canyon scars, it was all me.


    It looked natural for the most part, but the true purpose of this place was to function as an array. This was my first line of defense against attacks and now it is almost complete.


    Being an array master was a sweet and sour position. It was great because a person¡¯s mastery of arrays wasn¡¯t really tied to their cultivation rank, that¡¯s why I was called Array King Dane, even when I was just at the twelfth rank. You could achieve power and prominence without having to reach an insanely high rank and that made it worth it in my opinion, but it also had its downsides.


    It limited your cultivation. Arrays were all about connections, tying in one thing to another to create something new that was more than the sum of its parts. It was complicated and nuanced, but it was also without a Dao. There was no cultivating the way of the array master. It was too general to cultivate. You could cultivate many things. The Dao of Karma, the connection between people, or the Dao of Cycles, studying how the seasons passed and looking at the order that always seemed to emerge from chaos, even on a cosmic scale.


    But being an array master was bigger than that, it wasn¡¯t the connection between a certain set of things. It was the connection between everything. You would always look at one law and then look at another, wondering how you could tie them together and create an interesting interaction between the two.


    I had a lot of Daos and laws with me, but they were all too small to be an actual forgeable path. I studied certain Daos and Laws, but that was only to supplement my understanding of arrays and my own combat techniques were limited.


    There was also the fact that you couldn¡¯t power an array yourself. Arrays, even ones that are below your rank, oftentimes took more power than any one individual or group could afford to give it. Their power was environmental and taken from the natural qi around them. A fifth rank array would be like an elephant while a fifth rank cultivator was akin to a mouse.


    I looked over at the land one more time and waved. Multiple beasts appeared in front of me, all of them ranking from the fifth rank to the eleventh. They were the beasts I had purchased from the Divine Beast Emporium, and they were also the last piece of this array.


    An array didn¡¯t actually create anything, it was more like cooking. You took some ingredients and mixed them in a certain way, and you suddenly had something entirely different from what you originally had. These beasts were like tiny batteries that would give me the specific types of energy that I sought. They had Daos and laws resounding inside of them and would create ambient qi that would provide the array with the power it needs to activate. It was a little hypocritical to enslave beasts on my part, but there was a reason that beasts were beasts and people were people.

 Chapter 4 Chin Chin

    I floated above the village, sending down my senses to observe them. It was hectic down there, everyone was moving about getting things ready for something, maybe a seasonal festival. You never really knew with mortals, they lived short lives but celebrated every day like it was their last. I understood the feeling, but being as old as I am now, the idea of celebrating holidays every single year sounded tiring to me.


    This village had popped up during one of my longer expeditions. I had left the realm in search of some material for a few years and when I came back, I found that a group of five hundred people had suddenly set up shop in my backyard. Civilization was a tedious side-effect of human existence. If you had a nice piece of land that had no present dangers and farmable ground, well, you¡¯d eventually get people. So I helped them set up shop under the guise of a local ¡®hidden master.¡¯


    I even went out of my way to register myself as a rogue cultivator through one of the wandering merchant clans. I wanted to hide, but I also wanted to blend in, and the lack of qi within this specific area made it extremely unattractive to other cultivators so claiming the land was actually an uncomplicated process. And besides, people were fun.


    "Chin Chin!" I called out, walking up to one farmer in particular.


    Chin Chin was the village chief, though he didn¡¯t act like it. He was mostly up here pulling out weeds or plowing fields. A lot of times you¡¯d see people working alongside him, mostly his farm hands, but there would also be villagers and laymen who wanted his advice or permission on a subject. Even I¡¯d have to come up here if I needed him for anything.


    ¡°Chin Chin,¡± I said, landing to the right of the man. ¡°When¡¯s the festival?¡±


    ¡°No festival,¡± he replied. He hadn¡¯t bothered to look up at me. He used an old piece of bamboo to smack the side of one of the oxen and adjusted his plow to stay on course. I walked alongside him as he continued to steer the plow.


    ¡°Then what¡¯s all the commotion down here?¡±


    ¡°They changed the rain bringers. It¡¯s going to be the Kong clan this year.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the Kong clan?¡± I asked in a rare moment of confusion.


    ¡°Everything,¡± Chin grumbled. ¡°They always do it too quickly. Everyone knows you need the rainy season to last through at least three months, but with the Kong we¡¯ll be lucky if we get two. And it¡¯s always flooding rain as well, it¡¯s like they think the same amount of water over a shorter season won¡¯t affect our harvest. Two months of thunder and floods means I¡¯ll have to change out the crops as well. And then they say a Sect cultivator is heading our way on top of that, so we have to get the inn ready for him as well.¡±


    ¡°How are you going to switch out the crops?¡±


    ¡°Po Pen is going to get all the chickens in the village and have them graze over the seedbed for a few days. They should uproot most of the seeds if not all of them,¡±


    ¡°What about the merchants?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Kopin is dealing with the preparation for that, but the work for them ain¡¯t much. They bring their own tents and supplies and we just give them some land to sleep on. Though the short rainy seasons means that there¡¯ll be a whole lot of them trying to cross the Strip all at the same time, so we¡¯ll have to clear up more land on the hillsides.¡±


    I let out a low whistle.


    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of preparation,¡± I replied.


    Chin just gave a light nod


    The rainy season was the most important one to mortals. But the problem was, a planet this size rarely had the consistent weather patterns people needed to survive. There were seasons, but they came in centuries, not months. And Ah-Marin itself didn¡¯t rotate around a major star, instead, it held seven of its own suns in orbit.


    But cultivators needed mortals, because as superior as they thought they were, a king without his people was just a man with a crown. So they stepped up and controlled the weather manually. In this specific case, the duty of rain bringer was tossed onto one of the major clans within the Void Blade Sect, which was the sect that ruled over this continent.


    And when your village or country or even empire relied on a small group of people to bring you the most basic of human resources, you tended to keep an eye on that stuff. Chin barely knew the names of the small sects that ruled over this region, but he knew which clan of the Void Blade Sect would be the rain bringer for the next thirty years.


    It was impressive. This village was roughly two thousand miles away from any other villages and the region itself was hundreds of thousands of miles away from the empire¡¯s capital, and yet they still knew what was going on within the central reaches of The Void Blade Empire. I looked up at the structure responsible for this.


    A few miles from the village, visible from almost anywhere in the valley was a very large hill. It was about two miles tall, a small mountain I suppose, and on that hill was a tower. The Tower was built for the mortals by the mortals and they¡¯d made it as high as they could manage, which was only about seventy feet, but that combined with the height of the hill was more than good enough to grant them the ability to see a few thousand miles away.


    Up there were three things, fuel, lenses, and books. On a super-sized planet, the horizon would stretch out much further than a regular one, and because of that light speed communication was possible. After all, you could see light , and with the proper lenses, you could even magnify it. Add in a decent telescope and a Morse code-like flashing language, and you basically had a very tedious telegram system.


    ¡°You need help?¡± I asked him.


    Chin turned to look at me, face plain and unsurprised.


    ¡°There¡¯s a plow over by that tree. You can take the right side of the hill, but make sure not to overplow.¡±


    I looked over to the right side of the hill he¡¯d pointed to.


    ¡°That must be thirty acres.¡±


    ¡°Thirty-two,¡± he corrected. ¡°And it¡¯ll take you thirty minutes to do it all.¡±


    I looked at him for a moment, and then I sighed with resignation.


    Chin was stubborn to the point of insanity. His father, the previous village chief, had wanted him to be the Light Master. The Light Master was the person responsible for managing everything to do with the Light Tower, and the job came with inherit status. Generally, it was a position given to the village chief, passed down from father to son.


    But Chin refused, much to his father¡¯s dismay. They would have long drawn-out arguments that would last hours at times. And though Chin stayed true to what he wanted, his father was resolute that he get the training to be a Light Master. And he did, but he always applied what he learned towards farming. He would sneak out of his house at night to see what bugs were eating his plants. During the rainy season, he would leave cups out in the rain to record how much water they were getting and for how long.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    In the end, his father gave up. The position of Light Master was passed to Chin¡¯s brother-in-law and Chin was designated as a farmer village chief. He was surprisingly willing to take up that position and had taken to it like a fish to water. The man was capable and efficient, which was why he tried to get me to work every moment he could.


    I visited the village every month or two, but Chin was the only one to have ever asked me to work. The first time he¡¯d asked had been in front of his dad. He wanted me to carve out a path for the rainwater to travel through. Much to his father¡¯s horror, I had obliged and we had spent that afternoon digging up for the river to be diverted to. I think to Chin, better was a quality that only things have. No person is better than another person, not intrinsically, and to him, that includes cultivators.


    ¡°Are you done?¡± I asked as the sweaty middle-aged man squatted down beside me.


    ¡°For the day,¡± he answered. ¡°There¡¯s not much more to do now for the land.¡±


    ¡°What did you plant anyway?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Rainy season crops mostly, vilot, berdi, and water wheat.¡±


    ¡°No rice?¡±


    ¡°Rice grows in paddies, not rain. But we¡¯ll probably plant some after the rainy season. Lots of the low ground will be flooded for some time after the Kong¡¯s rainy season.¡±


    ¡°Those sell good?¡± I asked.


    ¡°The merchants will eat it,¡± Chin shrugged.


    ¡°They don¡¯t really have a choice,¡± I chuckled.


    Chin shrugged again.


    ¡°They could always take the cold routes through the Strip,¡± he answered.


    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s cheaper for them to camp out here for a few days instead of mapping out the cold routes.¡±


    ¡°Cultivators,¡± Chin snorted. ¡°You can fight off wild beasts but you can¡¯t trek across a desert.¡±


    ¡°Your ancestors lived in the desert Chin, and they were the ones who mapped out the cold routes before they moved here.¡±


    ¡°There were no merchants back then for them to sell the routes to,¡± Chin snorted.


    ¡°Yeah well, times are changing. And the merchants bring good money to the village, it¡¯ll grow better that way.¡±


    ¡°Grow any bigger and some Sect will come by demanding taxes,¡± Chin said with a frown.


    That was true. The village being used as a crossover point for traveling merchants was a recent development and had only been happening for a few years or so, but it was more than likely to grow as time went on.


    Which meant that I should make my move sometime soon.


    ¡°Any cultivators in the Desert?¡±


    ¡°A few wanderers and the usual, most are just minor clansmen trying to map out the cold routes before the rainy season spreads, more merchants than cultivators.¡±


    ¡°Any sect cultivators?¡± I asked.


    ¡°They say one of the sect cultivators is aiming to cross the desert within the next week. Some Sect charting out the Desert or whatnot,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°Will he come by here?¡± I asked.


    Chin turned to with a curious look on his face.


    ¡°Why?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m thinking of creating my own sect.¡±


    ¡°You mean your own clan?¡± He asked


    ¡°Nope. My own sect.¡±


    Chin froze, letting that thought sink in for a second. Clans were small groups, maybe familial in some way, but generally, they were one total faction. Sects were different, at least within this region. They were powerful, ruling over a region, taxing it, and in some cases, being beholden to whatever empire ruled the land.


    They scaled to their realms ofcourse. A sect that has a seventh rank as their leader was far different from a sect that had a fifth rank as their leader. And the same went for clans, the main difference was that sects were more of a consolidation of power. A sect would have numerous clans under their rule, and each clan would have their own people factions.


    In my case, I would be declaring myself an equal to the major sects within the region.


    ¡°Are you trying to get us killed?¡± Chin asked in a tense but calm voice.


    ¡°No, quite the opposite really.¡±


    Chin didn¡¯t ask any more questions and just gave me a stare that demanded an explanation.


    ¡°How strong do you think the sect leaders are?¡±


    ¡°Stronger than I know,¡± he answered.


    ¡°They¡¯re all at around the fifth rank, which is nothing to scoff at in this region, but still, they¡¯re weak compared to me.¡±


    Chin gave me another look, this time it just conveyed ridicule.


    ¡°Don¡¯t believe me?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°What do you think is the most powerful thing they can do?¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Those fifth-ranked cultivators. The leaders of the sects.¡±


    Chin laid back and stared out into the dimming half-night that sprawled the sky. You rarely got full nights on Ah-Marin, the suns rotated in straight-rowed patterns, but they didn¡¯t necessarily line up with each other. That meant that when it was nighttime in one place, it was day in another, and instead of being vertically divided, like a normal rotating planet, Ah-Marin¡¯s night and day patterns were divided horizontally. And since there were seven suns that rotated around the planet, that meant that there were seven layers with their own individual night and day cycles.


    And a lot of times, those cycles would leak into each other¡¯s layers as well, meaning neighboring layers constantly experienced a sort of twilight, instead of a full-on night. The stars were out and shining on one side of the sky, but towards the edge of the other side, there was the beautiful dying hue of a sunset.


    ¡°I heard stories of them shattering mountains the size of this valley into pieces before. Some say they can summon oceans and create sounds so strong they would turn a dragon deaf.¡±


    ¡°Unrealistic,¡± I replied. ¡°The best they could do is shatter a regular mountain, one twenty miles tall perhaps, and even then they¡¯d be cleaving it half and not shattering it.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Chin replied. ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t want to know otherwise.¡±


    ¡°Pick a star,¡± I said.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Pick a star or a group of stars. Just pick one.¡±


    Chin frowned for a second before pointing up in a general direction at the sky.


    ¡°You see them?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Good, now run your finger over them, like you¡¯re trying to erase writing in the dust.¡±


    Chin kept frowning but the man did as I asked. He closed one eye, focused on the stars, and rubbed his thumb in the air.


    Then he blinked. He rapidly sat up, his eyes still fixated on the sky. Then he stood up, reaching to the sky with his hands trying to swat away an invisible barrier. After that he ran to one end of the field, and then to another, and then to another, each time pausing to look up at the sky and study what he was looking at.


    His facial expression changed as he went, first being skeptical and then gradually shifting into disbelief. After a few minutes of running around, he came back, sweaty and heaving, and he fell on his bum next to me, spraying me with his sweat as he fell down.


    ¡°Watch it,¡± I replied as I wiped my face.


    ¡°The stars are really gone,¡± he said, still staring up at the sky in bewilderment. ¡°How?¡±


    I looked up at the small and empty patch of darkness in the night sky.


    ¡°Do you remember when you first asked me to help you dig that route for that river?¡± I asked.


    Chin nodded, his eyes still aimed upward.


    ¡°Did you think we¡¯d actually be able to do it?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No. I thought it would show my father that I had a good understanding of farming.¡±


    ¡°But we did it, didn''t we? And everyone was better off for it.¡±


    Chin paused for a moment, some thoughts running through his mind.


    ¡°Overall, yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, this is sort of the same thing. I just need you to understand that everything will be fine.¡±


    Chin looked at me, his eyes reassessing me in some way. I thought for a second that he would change and start bowing and worshiping me like I was a god or something. Then his eyes calmed down and he frowned.


    ¡°You could have tilled more than thirty acres, couldn¡¯t you?¡±

 Chapter 5 Beasts

    I laid back in my boat, floating over a small pond. A fishing pole sat beside me, with its line thrown into the water and its makeshift float bobbing lightly with the waves. I was leaning back with my feet up on the front of the boat with a coolie hat protecting my face from the sun.


    As I relaxed on my little pond, my senses were elsewhere. I was watching the approaching cultivators run through the hot desert day. Most of them were just exploring the desert, hoping to be able to map out a cool route before the rainy season started. But one of them was obviously a scion. You could always pick them out from a crowd.


    Well, better now or never. I waved my hand, and I was somewhere else. Everything was black, aside from me and the boat. It was like I was floating in deep space. It was one of the storage spaces that I had worked into the array. Its main purpose was to store qi, but it could do this for now.


    Then I waved my hand again, and they appeared.


    All at once, numerous beasts showed themselves. Panthers walked out of the shadows, phoenixes flew down from the darkness, and snakes squirmed out of nothing. A huge water dragon emerged from just below the boat, its head piercing through the darkness directly behind my boat.


    By the end of it all, I was surrounded on all sides by divine beasts. Animals of every kind littered the forest and every single one of them had their eyes on me.


    Yup, they were all here. Every single beast that I had purchased from the Divine Beast Emporium stood before me, glaring. An important thing to remember about beasts was that they weren¡¯t people. They were just very smart animals.


    The difference was simple, people tend to have things like morality and compassion, but beasts are not people. They could be loyal and kind or caring, but only to those they had ties with. The empathy that humans had was not a byproduct of intelligence, it was a byproduct of need. Humans need each other, therefore, they have empathy. Beasts, however, were different. It depended on the particular species and how its social structure plays out, but even the kindest of wolves was not a man.


    We desire to speak with you. One of the phoenixes said, flapping its wings lightly as its flaming form set down on nothing. She had a young feminine voice, one that echoed with a bit of caution.


    "I figured you might, sooner or later," I replied.


    I picked up my coolie hat and put it down on my head and readjusted myself into a comfortable position. I could sense all of them glaring at me, each one of them waiting with claws and fangs ready to act.


    "I hope you¡¯re all not going to try to kill me to escape this place," I said out loud, projecting my aura.


    "Because I¡¯m telling you now, even if we were all at the same rank, you¡¯d all be left dead by the end of it."


    The beasts stared at me. They didn¡¯t take it as an insult, my declaration of power had truth behind it, sensing my aura could tell them that.


    We seek answers to our current predicament.


    Instant acceptance. That was how animals were, they looked at who was on top and bowed until they could go up there and tear them down themselves. They were very similar to cultivators in that way but also different. Beasts didn¡¯t have morals and they were honest about that, but cultivators would hide under the charade of kindness and virtue to excuse their behavior.


    "Rules huh? Well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve discovered that you can¡¯t leave the valley, that and don¡¯t harm any humans or fellow beasts is the only rule I have. Oh and also the pets and livestock, leave those alone as well."


    There was a small silence as the beasts took the moment to ponder my words.


    This place, one of the panthers said.


    It is a prison to us.


    "Yeah," I said, nodding lightly. "Well, what do you guys want me to do about it?"


    The beasts all looked toward the phoenix. A silent moment passed as they all discussed their thoughts.


    We desire more space.


    A simple statement. I had thought of this problem when I purchased these beasts. Most of these creatures had been living on their own planet and had enough space to roam as they pleased.


    "Well, I can¡¯t give you more space, but I can give you less mass," I said as I pulled out an old piece of jade from my robes.


    I invited all of their senses into the jade piece, showing them the technique it held. A quick set of techniques flooded their minds, and most of the beasts froze in place as they tried to comprehend it. It took them a minute, some of them woke up earlier than others and a few of them even started to apply the technique, pushing it forward in their dantian.


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    This is your solution? The water dragon asked. I think he was insulted, though you could never really tell with beasts.


    "Yeah," I replied.


    We are divine beasts, defined by our glory and power and you would have us reduce our size to-


    "Look, buddy," I interrupted. "You can either use the technique with no consequence to you at all, or you can stay here and hate every moment of your life."


    The dragon looked down at me with his Gyarados-like face. I knew it wanted to fight me, that¡¯s how all dragons are, prideful and arrogant, especially the young ones.


    What must we do to gain our freedom? The beast asked.


    "Gain it? You don¡¯t need to gain it. You can just leave if you want to, but I¡¯ll wipe your memories of me and everything you¡¯ve seen here so far."


    The beasts were surprised by that statement. A few elephants trumpeted and golden lions roared in show. They were having a discussion amongst themselves, but not as one whole group, but as smaller separate groups. The lions talked among each other, and so did the herd of elephants and even a colony of prairie dogs.


    The choice was an individual one for the most part and they were the ones with the option to make that choice or not make that choice.


    The phoenix suddenly raised her beak to the sky and let out a quick shriek that echoed throughout the valley.


    Why? She asked


    Why would you be so willing to set us free?


    "I don''t want to keep any slaves," I shrugged.


    "You¡¯re not people, you¡¯re beasts, far different from people. But you¡¯re not less than people either, so I¡¯ll give you guys the same courtesy, I suppose. And besides, I don¡¯t think you¡¯d choose to leave after taking a look around where I want you to live."


    The phoenix cocked her head in a very human way.


    "You haven¡¯t noticed? I mean look around, or feel around I guess, you haven¡¯t felt the rise of qi in the place?"


    Hmfp, the dragon somehow scoffed.


    The rise is merely due to our presence. Our collective auras have strengthened the qi density, that is not your doing.


    "Wrong," I corrected.


    "The initial growth in qi was due to your arrival, but you guys are less like batteries and more like a jump start. Come on, send your sense even deeper, and tell me what you find."


    The dragon stared at me, unhidden contempt in his eyes. But he listened nonetheless, sending his senses scattering everywhere to try and find what I was talking about. All the other beasts did the same.


    There is another source of qi, the phoenix said suddenly.


    Another set of roars and howls filled the air. This time I decided to peek in on their little conversation.


    What of this other source?


    It is most likely just the land, but there are far more fertile places in the multiverse.


    Isn''t it strange that we did not notice?


    Whether we knew it or not is not the problem, it''s that this other source is not enough to confine us to his rule.


    Lots of these comments passed by, some of them being spoken in the town square of the mental discussion while the others were being held in private. Finally, they all quieted down as the phoenix turned her head towards me.


    What is this other source? She finally asked.


    I smiled. This array had taken me a long time to develop, even by immortal standards. It was most likely the greatest thing that I had ever made, or would ever make for that matter. And I had to admit, it felt good to finally have someone ask me about it.


    "The array," I answered.


    That is impossible. Arrays don¡¯t create qi, they merely change it.


    "That used to be true."


    All the beasts looked at me, with an almost tangible mix of curiosity and hunger.


    "Arrays are all about connections, tying one thing to another. An array master¡¯s job in that regard is to create the right connections to cultivate a certain type of reaction. But when you think of it that way, almost everything is an array then. Everything has connections, whether it''s the laws of the universe or a rock on the ground."


    The beasts nodded along to what I was saying.


    "The clouds in the sky can be thought of as a result of the connection between dust, water, and wind all being connected by gravity and all the other forces of this universe. So, in that sense, why can¡¯t life be considered the same?"


    Is¡­ is this thing living?


    "In a sense. It¡¯s more like a spiritual germ. It currently lacks consciousness but is technically alive and with a soul nonetheless."


    How can this be? Only those with a mind can create qi.


    "Like I said, a spiritual germ. Sentient life has been created before but this array doesn¡¯t fall under that qualification. It will be sentient, eventually, but it¡¯s just a thing for now."


    Is it a thinking array? The dragon asked.


    "No, not just a thinking array. This is an array with a soul, and moreover, it has a natural soul. A soul produced from the array itself instead of being transplanted from some other being. A living array."


    Why should that matter? So our cage grows with power as it ages, is that supposed to be a merit for us? The dragon asked.


    "No, you dimly lit room. As the array grows in power, so will the ambient qi around the place. Existing in its presence will become exponentially more beneficial," I answered.


    Then why do you need us? If we are not to power your abomination, then why keep us for eternity?


    "I won¡¯t," I answered.


    "You would all be free eventually, just not for a decently long time. And your presence would be nurturing to the array during its initial development, but you¡¯d all be free after it grows enough."


    Another set of squawking, roaring, and chirping resumed.


    What will this living array be like after it matures? The phoenix asked.


    "Well, it''s an array and every array has a purpose, so a living array would probably pursue that purpose."


    What is its purpose then?


    "To provide peace," I said with a smile.

 Chapter 6 The Mortal Arrangements

    Chin and I sat around a table in his house, a small platter of food spread out between us. The food contained some crab and fish, but mainly it was bread, noodles, and fruits. Chin ate across from me, silently munching on a piece of flatbread and an apple, and I helped myself to the noodles and crab. Chin¡¯s wife always made the best noodles and crab; hell half of the reason I helped Chin was to eat his wife¡¯s cooking.


    A small butterfly-sized phoenix flew before me, flirting around the air before disappearing out of the window and into the woods. All of the beasts had taken my offer, and a lot of them had applied the body-shrinking technique I had given them. It had no real consequences to their abilities and could be undone at any minute, but it did make this valley larger for them.


    Though a few of them had taken to hanging out near the villagers. I even saw some miniature lions chasing some rats around like a house cats. I didn''t know what that was about, but it was interesting to watch them meld with the common folks.


    "Hey, Chin, what do you guys know about that cultivator coming in?"


    "We don¡¯t know much. The other village only said that he was quiet and well-mannered for the most part, but he might not be coming in at all with the rainy season coming through. Probably better for him to wait a couple of weeks and just cross the desert then."


    I reached over the table and grabbed half a loaf of bread.


    Lightmasters were the people in charge of communicating from one village to another, and with the threat that cultivators could bring to the common man, they had to warn other villages of approaching cultivators and their temperament.


    "He won¡¯t do that," I said, munching down on the piece of bread. "No scion is going to waste two weeks of their time just to avoid crossing the desert. In fact, he¡¯s already crossing the desert right now."


    Chin frowned.


    "Well, hopefully, he won¡¯t want to stay here for too long, we already have enough cultivators sitting around as it is."


    ¡°You made me till five thousand acres yesterday,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Could¡¯ve done six thousand if you were quicker.¡±


    "Isn¡¯t five thousand enough?"


    ¡°For now," Chin replied as he grabbed some bread himself. ¡°But I hope the man leaves soon.¡±


    "Why¡¯s that?" I asked him.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to have to watch the children when he comes by. Medin says that I¡¯m just as much of a problem as the kids are and that I really shouldn¡¯t be there to meet him."


    "Sounds like a sound decision," I replied.


    Chin just frowned and turned his attention to his food.


    Medin was Chin¡¯s wife, and probably the only person who could strong-arm the bastard into any decision. Chin Chin was the type to run his mouth, even in the most dangerous of times. His whole bloodline had been like that but he had been the worst of them all.


    And sect cultivators were utterly different from those wandering merchant clans that came by every rainy season. Most of those guys were lucky mortals who had found a cultivation manual or were blessed enough to be taught a cultivation method at some point by a wandering cultivator. And out of those that were lucky enough to be given such a gift, most of them didn¡¯t have the talent to push past the second rank.


    So they wandered from village to village, crossing vast distances and selling unique goods in different regions, or fighting spirit beasts that troubled mortals for a certain price. They were a little prideful, but they were nothing like sect cultivators. Sect cultivators were egotistical beyond reason, and insulting them meant death more often than not. They weren¡¯t born of the common folk, they were born with the pride of cultivators and because of that, they were feared.


    "Ah well, the cultivator will be here by sundown," I said as I finished up my meal. "So you should probably go and gather the children and hold steady for a couple of days.¡±


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    Chin grumbled like an old man with an upset stomach, and then he went out and into the village to gather the kids before that cultivator came along. The sects didn''t care to find out what the mortals thought of them. They knew they were feared and respected, and to most of them, that was enough. But that fear and ¡®respect¡¯ had been born out of a rather dark place.


    Children had been killed before, slaughtered right in front of their mother¡¯s eyes. It was usually because the child might have said something somewhat disrespectful, or the parent refused the cultivator¡¯s advances. It was horrible but it was true, and on some of the worse occasions, the child would simply be taken. It wasn¡¯t just the children either, right now, as Chin was gathering the children, the good-looking men and women would be busy getting themselves dirty or hiding out in their houses until the cultivators left. It was overkill. I hadn¡¯t let a cultivator like that ever enter the village. Even when I left the realm, I put Gauntlet in charge of watching over the villagers, just in case. But these practices were more traditional than logical at this point. They had been done for so long that their practical benefits were hidden by their symbolic ones.


    If you asked the villagers why they did it, they would say it was because growing children ate up ambient qi, and the cultivator would starve if there were children close to them. They would tell you they hid their good-looking men and women because their beauty would shake a cultivator¡¯s Dao and drag them from the path of righteousness.


    As the sun started to touch the horizon, I escorted myself to the inn, the place where the cultivator would most likely end up spending the night, and then I waited.


    The cultivator¡¯s entrance wasn¡¯t grand, but it was a little attention-grabbing. The boy walked up to the village wearing his simple robe, with his sword by his side. He looked like a cultivator, but I doubt he knew that. I used to walk around looking like him, thinking I looked just like any other mortal, but it was obvious from the other side.


    The poise, the walk, the sword, the clothes. The man walked in like he owned the place and his posture was regal, king-like even. And no one wore a sword at their waist, not in this village. And the clothes, no commoner had clothes that clean. Everyone worked every day, either in the fields or in their trade. Only the light masters had clean clothes and even then their hands would be stained with ink from all the writing they had to do.


    I watched the man strut over to the inn, avoiding any eye contact with the villagers before he sat himself down and asked for a drink. The inn was another thing every single village needed, even a village like this one, which was months away from any actual roads or other villages. This building was useless every single day of the year, except for the one day you might have to put a sect cultivator in there, then it was clean and occupied, with a full-time innkeeper there and ready to help.


    The boy walked through the front door and took a seat at one of the nicer tables. My whole need for creating a sect had nothing to do with resources or wanting something from the locals. I needed to declare myself a sect so that these random cultivators wouldn¡¯t just pass through my territory unannounced. This was the most delicate time for the array, I couldn¡¯t risk anyone finding out about it right now, so I would flex my cosmic muscles a little and these kids would go off and play somewhere else.


    That was the plan anyway. I could also just brute force it and block any cultivators from entering the land. But again, that would draw attention to me, and while no one here was an active threat, I knew that at least half of the major sects and clans on this planet had their tie-ins to the higher realms, and the celestial sects weren¡¯t above sending one of their more powerful down here to reap whatever benefits they could, I knew that for certain.


    "Hey there!" I said, yelling across the room. The cultivator either didn¡¯t hear me or didn¡¯t think I was talking to him because he didn¡¯t respond.


    "Hello, you with the sword, can I talk to you for a moment?"


    The cultivator turned, his body stiff with anger.


    "I will not give you my table, I was here first. If you want a table, go get your own table, now leave me be."


    Ah, I see. It was a misunderstanding and a completely reasonable one too. Lone cultivators and restaurants didn¡¯t mix well for the most part. They were a dangerous place for these guys.


    "Oh no, I wanted to talk to you for a moment, is all. See I was thinking about heading out to the sects to tell them this but, I figured it¡¯d be much easier to pass the message on to you. I¡¯d like to create a sect.¡±


    The kid looked at me as if I was looney.


    "Oh, right. Payment. I can¡¯t just tell you to do something without recompense," I said, reaching into my robes and pulling out a small pouch.


    "Here, twenty-third-grade spirit stones. This oughta cover your trip back."


    The kid moved his gaze from me to the bag, and then back to me. He looked deep into my eyes and spoke.


    "Old man, I do not know what other cultivators might have put your village through, but this is not the way to resolve it."


    "What?"


    "It''s no use," the kid replied shaking his head.


    "I know that this world can be cruel to mortals, and truly, for that you have my sympathy. But cultivators can sense one another, I know when one walks near me and I can tell that you are not that."


    "Look, kid-"


    "You cannot declare yourself a Sect without having the strength to do so, and even if these were real third-grade spirit stones? Would you be able to fight off the mounds of demonic path cultivators that would come to steal your fortune? Would you be able to prove yourself to the sects that would push on the edge of your territory to test your power? No, old man, in a million different worlds you would have been killed for your insolence, but you are lucky in this one. Take your pebbles and go."

 Chapter 7 A Blind Man Claiming To See A Mile Away

    "Just check the bag," the old man told Cai.


    His journey hadn¡¯t worn him out, but the sect politics preceding it had definitely taxed his patience. It seemed as if the world had turned against him during the past few days, and this pestering mortal was only the latest punishment the Dao had brought down upon him.


    "Old man," Cai spoke, almost spitting out the words this time.


    "You do not understand what you are talking about. I am telling you to forget this foolish plan of yours. You can lie about being a cultivator but if you can¡¯t even convince me, what hope do you have of convincing The Flowering Sword Sect?"


    "You know if you just looked in that bag-"


    "I will not entertain your idiocracy. Leave," Cai spoke, this time sending a wave of his aura along with the statement. Strangely enough, the old man stood unfazed and looked back at him entirely unaffected.


    Cai frowned. Most mortals would have collapsed into a frightened slumber with that move. Was this old fellow truly so insensitive to qi that even his aura had been unable to affect him? Truly, this was a blind man claiming to see a mile away.


    "Look kid, I don¡¯t want to be a bother, but if you would just listen to what I have to say then we could clear up this whole thing. If you would just look in the bag-"


    Cai swung around, his hand resting on his blade. Maybe it was the journey through the mountains or the recent behavior of his sect. Maybe it was how confident this old man seemed in his delusions, or maybe it was just his violent bastard of father¡¯s blood. But something in that moment made him willing to put this deluded man down.


    "Old man, I will say this only once. Leave me be, or pay the full price of your delusions."


    The old man looked at him for a moment, scanning his body up and down.


    "You want to fight me?" He said in an almost laughing manner.


    If Cai was a lesser man, he would have cut down the mortal for his insolence right then and there. But no, Cai wouldn¡¯t kill this man. That was the way of lesser cultivators, those with more pride than morales.


    "Being challenged to a fight inside of a restaurant," the old man muttered.


    "It¡¯s like I¡¯m a child again. Alright, come on this way, kid. Can¡¯t go around wrecking the tables and buildings of innocent business owners now can we?"


    Cai watched as the old man walked out through the front door. He smirked at the man¡¯s decisiveness, mortal or not, courage had to be acknowledged when it was shown. But it was unfortunate that the old man¡¯s courage would lead him to a week¡¯s worth of injuries.


    He wouldn¡¯t maim the poor old thing, no, nothing that serious. Some mortals could barely recover from a dull blade¡¯s cut. And a mortal as old as that fellow, somewhere around his late thirties if Cai had to guess, would have an even smaller chance of surviving any harsh punishment Cai would give him.


    He would dislocate a shoulder or give the man a bloody nose. Something to shatter the idiot¡¯s ego and teach him not to try these shenanigans on anyone else. After all, better for the child to touch a hot pot and live than to be burnt by the fire.


    Cai followed behind the old man, keeping pace with the fellow. He saw people staring out from their homes as they walked by, even though most of them tried to hide it. He even saw something extremely rare in mortal villages. Children, he saw a group of children being guarded by a very old man with a scythe. The kids looked terrified and impressed at the same time, and the man just stood there and glared at him.


    A mortal. Glaring. At him. Truly, this village was an affront to reason. If one old man wouldn¡¯t get all the mortals killed then surely the other one would.


    Cai sighed in disdain, what a lucky group of idiots this place was full of. The village was already so far out of the way that even Cai himself was considering not coming here. The only reason he¡¯d chosen to do so was to extend his time away from the sect and all that surrounded it.


    Cai¡¯s aura moved as he pressed it down onto the scythe-carrying fellow. Unlike his "fellow cultivator," this one had a reaction. The scythe-carrying man stepped back wearily, before raising his scythe and glaring even harder at Cai, seeming to contemplate swinging it.


    Truly, all of these men were mad beyond reason. If it had been any other cultivator they would have been cut down a thousand times over. He didn¡¯t cultivate the Dao of luck, but if he did then there must have been something blessed about this place to keep these villagers alive for so long. Especially with this plot of land being connected to all five major sects.


    The Dao knew the evils that the Hollow Echo Sect enacted on mortals who even looked at them, much less those who would glare at them like this. And it was a miracle of the Dao itself that none of its sinful cultivators had stepped into this village. Surely, this land was miraculous and these people were blessed.


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    "Here we are," the old man spoke, breaking Cai¡¯s thoughts.


    Cai had been absent-mindedly following the fellow¡¯s lead and found himself on a small plot of land right outside the village.


    "Alright kid," the old man said.


    "You wanna show me what you got? Here, I¡¯ll do you one better and play mortal. No qi no nothing, eh? Just good old mortal reflexes."


    Cai didn¡¯t know if it was the way the sun hit the man¡¯s figure or the way the robe hung limply on his body, without any care for style or tradition. But for a moment, for a brief and idiotic second, he almost believed the man was a cultivator.


    Cai snorted.


    The old man¡¯s delusions must have been powerful enough to leap out of his head and into mines.


    Cai raised his head, studying the old man¡¯s posture for a second. The old man stood there, his arms hanging by his side and his legs supporting him as if he was just standing there. There was nothing there, no qi, no technique, not even the slightest hint of battle experience.


    Cai sighed, a little disappointed in himself for what he was about to do.


    Then, he moved. A quick burst of strength ran through his legs as he propelled himself towards the man, arm outstretched to grab him by the shoulder. The old man was within Cai¡¯s reach and Cai grabbed, but he found that there was only air. He turned, looking for the old man¡¯s face, but he saw only the ground approaching him.


    There was a light thump as a bewildered Cai hit the floor. He stayed there for a moment, utterly confused at what had happened. What had happened? Where had the old man gone? And more importantly, how had Cai ended up on the ground?


    "You dropped something down there?" A voice called out to him from above.


    "Maybe your ego?" The voice continued.


    Cai turned to see the old man standing over him with an unconcerned look. He flipped, his hands propelling him off the ground and a few steps away from the man.


    "What happened?" Cai demanded.


    "Well, I could be wrong on this," the old man spoke. "But to me, it looks like you ate shit."


    Cai furrowed his brow. This old man was crafty. Clearly, he had practiced some grappling techniques, and he had to be quite good at them to overturn Cai so easily.


    No wonder he was so egotistical, Cai thought.


    But still, Cai pushed his hands against the ground and propelled his body into a standing position. If it was fighting techniques the old man would use then so be it. Cultivators trained in more than just qi usage, and Cai was fairly capable with his hand as well, and even if he wasn¡¯t, his qi-reinforced body would easily outmatch this fellow.


    Cai readies his form, keeping his center of gravity close to the ground. Then, he charged. A burst of strength pushed him forward, but he made sure to keep his feet on the floor this time. He wouldn¡¯t lose his balance this time.


    An instant later, he found himself laying on his back staring up into the sky. He got up, quickly this time, and shot the old man a wary look.


    "So you know some good grappling techniques then?" Cai asked.


    The old man just stared at him with a slightly bemused expression.


    Cai leaped as guided more by instincts than logic. He was fighting this time, his qi tunneling through his fist as he moved. At that moment, instead of attempting to subdue the man, he was trying to hurt him. But before Cai could even think about restraining himself, he felt his arm be redirected. A light force pressed the back of his knee and his body, and again descended downwards, onto his back this time.


    Cai jumped, his mind processing the battle as it happened.


    That¡¯s what it is now, isn¡¯t it? This is a battle.


    He tried the old man again, but every attack seemed to hit nothing but air. Cai¡¯s qi moved. This time his fists flew with fury. His arms moved so fast that even he had trouble seeing them, but he never even grazed the old man¡¯s robe. He wasn¡¯t dodging Cai¡¯s attacks as much as he was guiding them away. His fists were like raindrops that rolled off the man before he could do any damage.


    Cai jumped back a good distance from the old man, waiting for him to strike. He didn¡¯t, he just gave him a tired look.


    "Give up?"


    "Not so," Cai replied.


    "I was never a student of the fist," he said as he unsheathed his sword.


    "The blade is the path I follow."


    "That¡¯s a cheesy line fella," the old man replied.


    "I do not know this cheesy," Cai replied. "But you shall know my blade!"


    With this, he started channeling the basics of the Flowering Sword Technique. Qi rippled throughout his body and bloomed into his sword. His limbs arranged themselves in a natural position.


    This man had not been lying, he was indeed a hidden master, Cai thought.


    And I have insulted him.


    Cai¡¯s resolution pushed against the seeds of fear. He had made a choice. He had drawn his sword.


    Those who chopped at the tree knew that one day it might crush them under its weight. Such was the risk, such was the reward. Cai let out a sigh as he swung his blade with full force. The Flowering Blade Technique was a long-lasting one. It was one attack with a thousand strikes, and it was what had given the Flowering Sword Sect their fame and power.


    Cai''s sword blossomed, cutting a thousand times at the old man¡¯s form. He was hoping for a strike at one of his clothes, maybe a graze on his limbs, but the blades touched only air. Even then Cai pushed, his qi roared through the sword as he rammed every last bit of energy into the technique. He needed something, anything to make his death a small victory.


    But in the end, the old man stood untouched. Cai collapsed onto the ground, his qi spent and his energy drained. He wondered if he should beg, maybe promise favors on his sect¡¯s behalf.


    Nonsense. Cultivators were ruthless, he would have been maimed for challenging one of the sect elders to a sparring match, much less a full-on attack as he had with this man. He could not appease the wrath he¡¯d summoned.


    No, it was best to accept defeat, with honor and with dignity.


    He closed his eyes and waited for eternal sleep


    ********


    He passed out. The kid had attacked me like a rabid dog and passed out. What the hell, I was just trying to have some fun with the guy. I mean, he started it.


    I frowned.


    Maybe it would¡¯ve been better to have flexed my aura or something.

 Chapter 8 The Judicar Part 1

    Grand Orderess Nei Lo sat in her chair with a tired look on her face. God-Imperiums didn¡¯t get tired, at least that¡¯s what they told everyone else, but they did get bored. A weariness of the mind that no being was ever truly free from.


    She turned at her desk and looked over the scrolls and jades that abounded, and she sighed. Her court was one of the major authorities in the multiverse. When powerful people interact and disputes rise, well, one needed a way to settle that without the death of trillions and the fall of a higher realm, and that¡¯s where she came in. She was a mediator. A Judicar.


    And she was the best at it. Oh, there were others of course, some even comparable to her in power, but she was Nei Lo, The Grand Orderess, The Judicar, and The First Judge. She was there when the first law was written and she was there when the first man was arrested. Hers was the law and the law was hers.


    And yet, here she was now, settling disputes between overgrown children masquerading as gods. Nei Lo sighed wearily. It was a task with no reward of its own, but her cultivation needed it. She needed it. Judging over mortals or immortals didn¡¯t give her enough insight anymore. Her Dao was Judgement and her law was Order.


    But how much could you learn from governing mortals and immortals? That was the nature of cultivation, to push yourself and your understanding beyond where it was. And so she did. She pushed and she pushed until she herself had established the most powerful court within the multiverse, The Court of Imperium.


    She ruled over the celestial sects, the most powerful groups in the multiverse, yet she stagnated. She was not a true judge after all, not like she used to be. She was a mediator; she didn¡¯t rule the sects or their behavior, only the interactions between them. She was the fairest and the wisest in the land, and it was better to go to her than it was to go to war.


    And that was precisely the problem. Her power was not enough. The Law, as she had made it, was an attempt at morality. It was a way for good and evil and fairness to be judged on a societal level while keeping the safety and benefit of the masses in mind. It was the underlying order all human society needed, the bedrock of all that was good.


    But that wasn¡¯t what she practiced here. Here she was a mediator, a person who brought compromise between two powers, and as important as that role was for the entirety of the multiverse, it was not that of a Judge.


    Nei Lo did the best she could within her restrictions. Her sect owned more lower realms than any other celestial sect within the multiverse, and the people living there were treated properly and ruled over by a constitution she had drafted herself. In those realms, fairness was to be expected, like the ground beneath your feet. Oh sure there were accidents and fights, and even wars, but when it was all over, everyone was equal. That was how she had made it, and that was how it was.


    But here she couldn¡¯t punish people, not her peers. That required strength, strength she didn¡¯t have. She leaned in her creaking chair, the old thing was made from the branches of the World Tree, a gift it had given to her back when she had just broken into the seventeenth realm. Her table was filled with scrolls and jade pieces, all of them were active disputes that required her judgment by the millennium.


    Most of them were useless. Celestial sects had minor spats all the time, things that they would never go to war for, but both sides would refuse to back down in order to save face. And eventually, the dispute would go to her and she would make a decision both sides would complain about, but ultimately follow. She was the mediator after all and if she made a judgment, who in the multiverse could make a better one?


    But still, none of these were urgent, and she had written up solutions to most of them, only dragging out the time in a show of consideration. People always felt offended if you solved their problems too quickly, even God-Imperiums.


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    ¡°Orderess, there is a request for an emergency meeting by the Divine Beast Emporium,¡± a thin, lady-like voice projected.


    ¡°Tell them to wait in line,¡± Nei Lo replied.


    ¡°It is of the utmost urgency,¡± a male voice cut in. ¡°And time is the deciding matter.¡±


    Nei Lo sighed. Out of all of her accomplishments, lawyers were, by far, her greatest sin. They had started out as defenders of the law and inspectors of truth, but then quickly evolved into weasels, small, tiny, self-serving men that live in the burrows between truths.


    ¡°Enter,¡± she said, annoyance blaring in her tone.


    A man materialized in the room. He was an elf with golden white skin and long shimmering hair that draped below his knees. Beautiful, handsome, glorious, all of these words could have been used to describe him. But to Nei Lo there was only one word that popped to the top of her mind. Slave. Humanoid slavery was illegal underneath her rule, but no sect followed her rules. To them, they were more akin to polite prescriptions. She was only important when conflict needed to be resolved.


    ¡°Speak,¡± Nei Lo said, giving the fifteenth-rank man permission to rise out of his bow.


    ¡°Roughly fifteen Lynorian days ago, we lost one of our scions. We have reason to believe that he has died, and we wish to pursue justice on the matter.¡±


    ¡°A scion?¡±


    ¡°He was a direct descendent, a direct seed of the God-Imperium Tai Jey. His death is both a slap to our face and an attack on our wealth.¡±


    That was an exaggerated claim. Sure, scions were valuable to celestial sects, as they were to any sect, but the Divine Beast Emporium had much too much wealth for it to be a significant factor to them. And the act of bringing this matter to her itself was an insult to her time. Scions died all the time, either amongst each other or out in the wild.


    ¡°What did you lose in his death?¡±


    ¡°He was slated to be the next leader of the Jey Clan, a prodigy in the mak-¡±


    ¡°Lie to me once more and you will die,¡± She spoke wearily.


    Nei Lo had to be strict with these people. She didn¡¯t really want to threaten the man¡¯s life, but that was the expected reaction that came with her status. If she had said anything less it would be seen as weak, and she wasn¡¯t weak.


    The man nodded, his face unchanged and holding the same stiff smile.


    ¡°He had something with him of immense value.¡±


    ¡°How valuable?¡±


    ¡°I am not at liberty to say.¡±


    ¡°And who stole it?¡±


    ¡°We do not know.¡±


    ¡°Tai Jey, do not persume to be hidden. If this is an insult then know it shall be returned.¡±


    The elf slave smiled and his eyes went white as possession claimed him. The leader of the Divine Beast Emporium, Tai Jey flooded the man¡¯s body and mind. It was disastrous, like a puddle trying to contain an ocean. Cracks formed at the man¡¯s skin and burning white light leaked through as the vessel started burning itself from the inside out.


    ¡°Hello Nei Lo,¡± the man spoke. ¡°I see you¡¯re still as irritable as ever.¡±


    ¡°Speak,¡± Nei Lo replied. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for your prolix greetings.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve not seen each other in ten billion Lynorian years,¡± Tai Jey responded feigning pain.


    ¡°Yes, if only we could have kept it that way.¡±


    Tai Jey chuckled. She disliked him and he knew that. There were three categorizations of cultivators. Righteous, Orthodox, and Demonic, and while the Divine Beast Emporium was technically an Orthodox sect, their actions and business practices made them worse than many of the Demonic sects.


    ¡°What do you want?¡± She asked.


    ¡°I want to find out who killed my scion and where his corpse may be.¡±


    She looked at him and there was not an ounce of mockery in his tone. So this was truly about the scion? A mere brat?


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I cannot sa-¡±


    ¡°Then I cannot help.¡±


    The man looked at her, his eyes filled with anger and displeasure. Sometimes the foolishness of her peers amazed her. He had barged in here using a method meant for infiltrating a realm and expected her to help him without question, and yet he was the angry one?


    ¡°He had a child of Beast with him.¡± Tai Jey said.


    There was a moment of silence as those words sank in. A child of Beast, child of a Primordial.


    ¡°Oh by the Dao.¡±

 Chapter 8 The Judicar Part 2

    There were many valuable things throughout the multiverse but the most valuable tended to have the term Primordial woven into them. Primordial qi was highly sought after of course, but so were bits and pieces of the primordials themselves. Nei Lo¡¯s throne was made out of the World Tree, one of the oldest beings around, and even that was worth more than all of her sect¡¯s value combined.


    Primordials held a different status within the larger multiverse. They were Gods amongst gods, the absolute pinnacle of cultivation. A lot of people believed them to be at the peak of what a God-Imperium could achieve, others believed them to be beyond that, having reached some level of true power. Even the oldest God-Imperiums did not know where they stood next to a primordial, only that they were below them.


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°An accident, something I would have killed the boy for myself had he made it back alive. The idiot must have of-¡±


    ¡°How did you obtain the child of Beast?¡±


    A small frown appeared on the dying elf¡¯s face as Tai Jey pondered answering the question.


    ¡°A trade,¡± he replied.


    That was a non-answer. God-Imperiums were known to trade with each other. Sometimes it would be favors, other times it would be objects, but a lot of times, it would be children. Nei Lo didn¡¯t engage in this activity too much, she didn¡¯t have a family, it would have intruded on her Dao to do so, but she had traded people with other sects before. Whether it was sending off your clan¡¯s scion to get married or bringing in a descendent of another God-Imperium to marry one of your own, everyone participated in this trading of descendants. This was common.


    After all, talent was an important thing in a sect and breeding was the most reliable and least resource-reliant way of producing it. And with this, you could secure political connections and bring in the bloodline and talent of another sect. The problem was the cost. For celestial sects, arrangements like these were hefty, and the sect or clan that would keep the married couple would often have to pay a large dowry to the group that would lose their scion.


    That brought forward the question, what exactly had Tai Jey paid to get Beast to part with its child?


    ¡°What trade?¡± Nei Lo asked.


    ¡°Do not overstep your bounds-¡±


    ¡°You are in my court asking for my help,¡± she growled, ¡°Now answer.¡±


    The man stared at her for a long time, his cracked and glowing face frowning with displeasure before he relented.


    ¡°We mated.¡±


    Nei Lo looked him up and down.


    ¡°Well, well, Tai Jey. I never took you for a whore-¡±


    ¡°It was a serious matter,¡± he half yelled, interrupting her comment. ¡°It wanted children and I wanted a new bloodline.¡±


    ¡°You know most whores consider their business to be a serious-¡±


    ¡°I went down three minor realms.¡±


    Nei Lo stopped at that statement.


    ¡°Mating with¡­ mating with that thing almost killed me¡­ and it told me as much as well. The process injured my cultivation and I spent some time in recovery immediately afterward, not taking care to lock the child away well enough.¡±


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    Well, that explained a lot. Looking at him, Nei Lo almost felt bad for the man. His Dao was that of control and taming, similar to hers in a way. She tamed society, giving it laws and reason and he tamed beasts. His injury probably came from the fact that he had been dominated by a beast and forced to go against his Dao. The man had entered the arrangement willingly, but he had probably been egotistical, thinking he could somehow tame Beast, if not charm it.


    But it had been the opposite. He had been won over and defeated by the very thing he sought to tame, and that was an experience that went directly against his Dao. Nei Lo stared at the visage of the broken elf. As much as she hated the man, to be forced to violate your own Dao, the very thing that gave meaning to your existence, she could empathize.


    But she didn¡¯t.


    There were three general categorizations of cultivators and cultivator groups within the world. First, there were those of the Righteous path. These were people who made the world better merely by cultivating. The consequence of their cultivation improved the world objectively. Nei Lo was one of these cultivators. A natural byproduct of her cultivation was order and peace. The realms she ruled over were by far some of the oldest in the multiverse, her people had remained stable and her laws were fair.


    The other categorization was the Orthodox path. These cultivators had a null impact on the world. They could of course kill people and commit egregious acts, but the mere act of cultivating didn¡¯t cause negative consequences overall.


    Those that did harm the world through their cultivation were called Demonic path cultivators. They were those that needed to harm others in order to grow, whether it was their Dao or their cultivation technique, for them to prosper, suffering was needed.


    The Divine Beast Emporium had been able to skirt by as an Orthodox Sect for a long time, claiming to only tame beasts and that beasts were by nature, different from humans. But everyone knew of their slave trade. Outside of the Demonic Sects, the best slaves within the multiverse would be found within the Divine Beast Emporium, and that had always been a contention between her Celestial Court and the Divine Beast Emporium.


    She had seen his victims, by the Dao she was staring at one of them right now. But he was desperate enough to come to her because he knew that, despite how much she hated his sect and all his actions, she would be fair.


    Nei Lo frowned at the thought of helping the man, but his presence itself was an implicit threat, one that had been made before. He was telling her to help him find justice, or he would seek it out himself, and when he did, he would make sure she would regret not helping him.


    No, Nei Lo thought. I am fair to everyone but myself, if this parasite wishes to test me then I shall return the favor.


    ¡°Before I help you, let us discuss reparations.¡±


    ********


    Immaru sat still, staring at the jade tablet in his hand. It was a summons from the Celestial Court, giving him no less than three Lynorian days to make his way there by the request of the Orderess. He was of the sixteenth rank, just a rank below God-Imperium, and yet he was in charge of his own Celestial Sect.


    The Enki Maluth was originally led by his father, but he had failed in his accession to God-Imperium and died during the process. The sect was then given to him, both an heirloom and a burden. But that was how things were in this world since the Enki Maluth were important and far too valuable to just be allowed to disappear into thin air. His sect was taken in by the Celestial Court under the Orderess Nei Lo. Thinking now, it was the best outcome for his people, Nei Lo made sure to keep the requests reasonable and protect them from harm beyond their abilities, and while she was a trying leader, she was a reasonable one.


    But days like these where he got an urgent summons calling him to her side as if he was a lapdog made him sick. It made him miss the old days of his sect, back when his father would lead them from one realm to another, back when they were truly free. Back when the world respected them.


    Immaru leaned back and gathered a view of his realm. He saw all it is, all it was, all it would be. He saw his disciple and he saw his enemies. Immaru smiled. The truth was both a gift and a blessing. It was both infinite and singular. It was one yet it was many, it was true yet it was false, it was horrifying, yet it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.


    He smiled and started reciting an old love poem his father would always sing to his mother.


    "Emptiness awaits those who do not love,


    While pain is promised to those who do.


    Of the two I know not which I''d choose,


    But of the three I''d choose to be with you."


    And Immaru marched on.

 Chapter 9 A Walk and a Talk

    Chapter 9 A Walk and a Talk


    Chin hated cultivators. Most mortals did, but Chin was different. You¡¯d think he¡¯d be the least bit concerned, but Chin just looked over the boy¡¯s slumbering body with annoyance, giving him the same glaring frown he had given him back when they first saw each other. We had moved the guy back into the inn and put him up in one of the bigger rooms. Well, I had moved him, Chin just stared and frowned during the whole process.


    "Will he be able to wake up?" Chin Chin asked.


    "Eventually,¡± I answered.


    Chin just looked down, unconvinced.


    "Well, he¡¯s not moving,¡± he noted. "Or breathing."


    "He¡¯s fine, it¡¯s just qi exhaustion, nothing too serious."


    "Not breathing is something serious," Chin Chin replied.


    "For mortals maybe, but he¡¯s at the second stage. He could hold his breath for hours."


    Chin Chin looked up from the sleeping man¡¯s body and turned to me.


    "When will he leave then?"


    "When he wakes up, whenever that is, I guess."


    ¡°No sooner?¡± Chin grumbled.


    ¡°Would you prefer I toss the sleeping man across the desert or something?¡±


    He looked at me, his face questioning if that was a valid option.


    ¡°No,¡± I answered.


    "You did this to him?" Chin asked.


    "He did this to himself,¡± I protested. ¡°And again, he¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯s just a little qi exhaustion. He¡¯ll be up and talking in a few minutes.¡±


    But Chin just kept staring at the boy like he was already dead, his head shaking back and forth in disapproval. Thankfully, the cultivator decided to wake up right then, saving me from Chin¡¯s silent accusations. The boy¡¯s eyes opened wide and he bolted upright like a mouse trap. His hands reached around him in a clutching matter, an instinct to reach for his sword as his eyes scanned the room, first looking over at Chin and then at me.


    There was a moment of concern before the boy''s eyes widened in fear. He kowtowed instantly, slamming his head against the old wooden floor.


    "This foolish junior begs for forgiveness. My actions are irredeemable and my face is no more than a rug in the rain before your presence. Truly, I have eyes but I do not see Mount Tai.¡±


    I could see a small pool of blood expanding from where his head had hit the ground.


    "It¡¯s fine kid, it''s fine," I said, approaching him to pull his head off the floor.


    The kid¡¯s body was trembling when I touched him. His aura was trembling with fear and terror.


    "Child," I said, putting a firm grasp on his shoulder.


    ¡°I took no insult from your actions,¡± I commented, changing my tone to be all Honored Master, cultivator-like.


    Chin looked over at me, one of his eyebrows raised in question at my tone. I ignored him and presumed with the wise-old master way of speaking.


    "Thank-arghm- Thank you honored master. Your mercy is a gift I shall cherish."


    The kid blinked several times, pushing back the tears and doing his best to look hardened. He looked young, about seventeen from what I could tell. He had hair that hung just below his ears, and his frame, while muscular, still had a lot of filling out to do. He looked like a worker, like someone I¡¯d see learning a trade or still doing farm chores. I could imagine seeing him delivering milk from his father¡¯s farm or managing the furnace at his uncle¡¯s smithy. And yet here he was in front of me, quivering and ready to die. Living was tied with honor and insults came with death in this world. I forgot that these days.


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    "Nothing serious," Chin Chin grumbled, frowning at the blood stain on the floor.


    "I too share blame in this misunderstanding, hiding my power from a junior was bound to cause confusion. You have no need to apologize.¡±


    The boy, still not looking me in the eyes, gave a small nod.


    "And you did hold back until the end, didn¡¯t you? You had no intentions of truly hurting me, even though from your perspective, I was just a delusional mortal?"


    His face cringed a little before he nodded again.


    "Then what makes you think that I won¡¯t do the same for you?"


    The kid finally stopped looking at the floor and raised his eyes to the door.


    "This junior apologizes for his trespasses.¡±


    He was still trying to give me face, even though I had just explained that I was to blame, he wouldn¡¯t accept it. He probably thought my apology was just a show of humility and not an actual apology.


    "Well, not to me kid, so you don¡¯t have to worry about that. Just try to relax and get some rest for now."


    He nodded, his aura finally seeming to calm down.


    "Nothing serious at all," Chin Chin remarked outside of the room.


    "I haven¡¯t talked to many cultivators recently. I forget just how strict the lifestyle can be with some sects."


    "Mhm, makes me want to ban all of them. Fear like that, it¡¯s not natural. It shouldn¡¯t be bred, not in children like him," Chin Chin replied.


    I nodded slightly as we walked forward. I sometimes missed the grandeur of the cultivation world, but moments like these reminded me of why I left.


    "Well Chin, you¡¯re going to have to get used to a few of them popping by to say hello and all of that."


    Chin Chin grimaced.


    "Don¡¯t worry, they won¡¯t give you any trouble. I¡¯ve made sure that none of you can get hurt in this valley, so glare at them all you want, they won¡¯t touch ya."


    His face softened at those words. The valley was contained in the Great Desert Strip, which was 3,000 miles wide and 20,000 miles long. The Strip itself weaved around the land quite a bit and served as a separation of territory for some of the major sects here. But no one had ever laid claim to the strip, mainly because it was useless and had no value. It produced no qi, had no natural spiritual beasts to harvest, and was an overall waste of land, so no one ever came here, unless they were crossing from one sect¡¯s territory to another. And even then, most of them would choose to fly over or teleport across the distance, only cultivators who couldn¡¯t fly or teleport ever came across this village, and those were mainly mercantile clans who were practically mortals themselves.


    "Well, they better not bother with my farming then," Chin Chin grumbled.


    "Why would they do that?"


    "Don¡¯t know. But you do it enough as it is."


    I snorted. We walked through the village for a while, wandering around different areas for no particular reason. Chin Chin just dragged along, I didn¡¯t know if it was because he was just trying to be a friend or if he just wanted to know what I would do with that cultivator kid. Chin was weird like that. There were times when I knew he would rather be doing something else, but he would force himself to be with people instead. I¡¯d seen it with me, with his wife, and even with his kids. I think it was his weird way of caring about people and being there for them when he thought they needed him.


    "Hey Chin, how would you like some more cultivators in this village? Ones that would be on your side?"


    "I wouldn¡¯t like that one bit," He snapped.


    "They wouldn¡¯t be the type you¡¯re normally used to, and they¡¯re pretty strong too probably stronger than-"


    "I don¡¯t care about how strong they are or what they¡¯re like. I feel bad for the poor lad, but it¡¯s hard enough having one of these bastards sleep here for the night. I can¡¯t imagine living with them."


    "They aren¡¯t like the one you know, Chin. These girls were practically slaves before they came here, they¡¯re more like commoners than cultivators.¡±


    Chin frowned but held off on another immediate disapproval, instead looking out at the farmlands in the distance.


    ¡°They can work?¡±


    ¡°If you train them to,¡± I answered.


    "How old are they?"


    "No older than twenty. And Chin, they have no sense of self at all, no values, no beliefs, no aspirations. They¡¯ve been taught to be as malleable as can be, so I¡¯d need you to help them build up some sense of self."


    Chin wondered for a moment, rubbing his hand on his chin in consideration.


    ¡°You can¡¯t help them with that?" he asked.


    ¡°No,¡± I said, shaking my head. ¡°They practically worship me. They see me the same mortals do.¡±


    Chin nodded, having finally understood my dilemma. I could see his brain running through the scenarios. Chin was stubborn, that was true, but he was also a good man. He had morals, and even if farming sometimes took priority over humans, he did genuinely want the best for people, especially for the children.


    "Why me? Why here? Why not toss them out into the world and let them make what they will of it themselves?"


    "I don¡¯t trust them to not become someone else''s servant, also they know things about me that I would prefer don¡¯t get out to certain sects."


    "What would I even do with them?"


    "I don¡¯t know. Talk to them? Give them jobs? Assign them chores maybe? Just give them a normal life for a while and see how they react. I just want them to not be servants for a while and to think for themselves."


    Chin Chin looked down at the ground for a moment, before he turned and looked back up at me.


    ¡°Okay, but only if they get paid by the hour, and not by the work they do. And they have to be reasonable, none of that restaurant nonsense. And they have to do other chores besides plowing, like milking and threshing wheat, as well as¡­.¡±


    Chin went on and on, making a long list of criteria, and I listened

 Chapter 10 The Greater Dao

    The cultivator was up and dressed by the time we came back. We found him in his room, robes all together and blade by his side with his legs crossed in a meditative pose. There was a small phoenix on his head, though the boy didn¡¯t sense it. The beasts had started hiding themselves and sneaking around where they shouldn¡¯t be. This one was making a small nest out of the cultivator¡¯s hair, and the poor boy was unable to feel a thing while it did so.


    "Honored masters," he said in reverence, standing up and bowing immediately, undoing all of the bird¡¯s progress as he did so. Bits of grass and sticks fell out the boy¡¯s hair and the bird chirped in indignation before flying out of the window.


    "Well, Chin Chin doesn¡¯t cultivate, but he appreciates the bow," I said.


    The boy didn¡¯t respond to the joke.


    "Get up lad,¡± Chin said as he walked over and dusted the kid off. ¡°No need for all this bowing. Bill is about as honorable as any other old man. Don¡¯t sweep the floor with your forehead on his behalf.¡±


    The boy¡¯s head was raised to eye level by Chin and the old man even went about fixing up the kid¡¯s robe. Mr. I Hate Cultivators, was actually a big old softy when it came to kids.


    "Right then. I¡¯m Chin Chin, you can call me Chin if you want to, there is Bill. We¡¯re all simple people round here so no need to bow, alright?¡±


    The boy gave us an unsure look before responding with a slow nod.


    "There we go, no need for any of that face stuff around here. Now, what¡¯s your name lad?" Chin replied.


    "Cai Xiun, honored master," he replied.


    "Fancy name that, Cai Xiun. What¡¯s it mean then?" Chin asked.


    "Cai means happy and Xiun means stream, honored master."


    "Happy stream? That¡¯s your name?¡± Chin asked.


    Cai nodded.


    ¡°Was your father drunk when he named you?¡± Chin asked.


    Cai shook his head.


    ¡°Happy stream, that sounds like what you¡¯d call a good piss, not a person.¡±


    I chuckled at Chin''s words and watched as Cai Xiun¡¯s face widened with confusion and I saw a small panic set in the poor boy as he tried to come up with a response. This was why Chin''s wife hid him away anytime cultivators were in the vicinity. Cultivators were used to respectful elegant talks, and Chin Chin¡¯s words were anything but.


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to excuse Chin. He¡¯s a farmer and not much for conversation.¡±


    "A farmer?" Cai asked.


    "Yes."


    "But-" Cai¡¯s eyes flashed from Chin to me and then back to Chin again.


    "A farmer?" He asked again, this time with an incredulous tone to the term.


    "Don¡¯t make it sound like an insult. No job more noble in my eyes. I keep people fed and alive while you swing your swords and spit blood at each other.¡±


    Cai¡¯s mouth opened a little wider at Chin¡¯s words.


    "Chin can get a little irritated at times, but you shouldn¡¯t mind the way he speaks," I cut in. "Everyone in this village, whether a mortal or a cultivator, is under my direct protection. Meaning that if any one of your people seeks to visit here, they will have to respect that rule."


    "Mortals as well?"


    "Yup," I nodded.


    "That¡¯s the primary message I¡¯d like for you to communicate with your sect. No mortal is to be harmed in my region, which extends to the entirety of the Great Desert Strip, understand?"


    Cai nodded his head vehemently.


    "You can tell each of the five sects to send their strongest men if they want to challenge me, but I would just suggest that they send the strongest in the region so we can set up the pecking order early.¡±


    "In the region?" Cai asked.


    "Yeah, out of the five major sects, who¡¯s the strongest individual?"


    "The strongest individual is no longer a member of the five great sects honored master."


    "Oh?" I asked, a little surprised. I tried my best to keep up with the local politics here and there, but there were long stretches of time when I didn¡¯t bother with such things.


    "Then who are they?"


    "The strongest cultivator in this region would be Ah-Min Tah."


    "Ah-Min Tah?" I asked.


    "Yes, honored master."


    "What stage is he?"


    "It is speculated that he has reached the peak of the Spirit Transcendence Stage, but no one knows for sure."


    "Peak fifth stage then. Where is he? Is he in secluded meditation or something?"


    "No honored master, he has tried to pass through the gates of immortality and failed. But Ah-Min Tah has not given up, he¡­ he has tried to pass through those gates countless times, each time failing more spectacularly than the last. No one has seen him in a century, but people claim to see a man trying to break through the sky.¡±


    Damn. A false immortal.


    "This Ah-Min Tah, has he attacked anyone?"


    "I do not know honored master, but it is said that when the Raging River Sect Patriarch and the Hollow Echo Sect Patriarch fought him, both of them were put down quickly, and Ah-Min Tah walked away with the arm of the River and the leg of the Echo."


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    That was brutal. Not necessarily insanely brutal, but I¡¯d have to keep an eye out for this guy. False immortals rarely made it to true immortality. They lacked a Dao, an anchor of the self. Most of them either went insane or if they lived long enough, forgot entirely about who they were and what they had been through, cycling through infinite life spans without end.


    I sighed, a different problem for a different day.


    "So, can you do that for me then Cai Xiun? You will be properly compensated for your work."I asked, pulling out the bag of spirit stones and giving it a light shake.


    Cai looked at the stones for a second, before giving a quick but hesitating nod.


    "I would be honored to assist in any way I can, but I can not accept such a price for such an effortless task. I require nothing, your mercy was enough."


    "Oh come on, don¡¯t go doing unpaid labor now. Look, you¡¯ll be doing a fast return trip and also facing some scrutiny from your sect, at least until they can verify the truth of what you''re saying. Some compensation is sure to go a long way in making them believe you."


    Cai shook his head firmly.


    "I would not dare take more than I already have from you, honored master."


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame, what about something else then huh?"


    "I can not accept anything. Your mercy alone is enough."


    "Not even a lesson or two about your technique?"


    I could almost see the wheels turning in the kid¡¯s mind. There was a lot of hesitation there, money was one thing, but a chance at personal progress was another.


    "I- I could not impose upon-"


    "Ah come on, let''s go out back," I cut in. "I¡¯ll show you the weaknesses in your attacks."


    That sealed the deal.


    "... I humbly accept honored master¡¯s graciousness."


    As irritating as they could be, cultivators could never resist a chance at self-improvement. That was what their world ran on after all.


    We quickly went downstairs to grab a quick bite first, and even though the meal was silent, I could tell that it helped Cai calm his nerves a bit. He ate quickly but elegantly and finished up his meal right after I finished mine. I smiled at the action, another sign of face. He was making sure to finish after me so that it wouldn¡¯t look like he was the one waiting on me, then the poor boy panicked when I ordered seconds. We left eventually, me with some sweet tea in my hands and Cai with a filled gourd.


    "Alright," I said as we walked back out onto the open field. Chin was off to the side and watching us from a distance this time.


    "So I assume that attack you used against me was the Flowering Sword Technique?" I asked.


    "Yes, honored master."


    "Then you follow the Dao of the Sword?"


    "Yes, honored master."


    I took a sip of the tea. Delicious stuff.


    "Now what do you think a Dao is then Cai?"


    "The Dao is the blade and the blade is the Dao."


    Well, that was about as textbook of an answer as you could get. But it was also completely wrong.


    "Mhm, not quite. The Dao is the all-encompassing way of reality. The Dao is like the ultimate path. A Dao is merely a slice of that, a piece of that path. Now that can be almost anything, like a Sword Dao or a Spear Dao, or the Dao of Medicine. It¡¯s about as endless as you can imagine."


    Cai''s face was unchanged and listening, but the kid kept paying attention nonetheless.


    "Your specific Dao would be the Dao of the Flowering Sword. Now if I remember correctly," I said, gulping down the rest of my tea and holding out my cup.


    "It went something like this right?" I used the technique, doing my best to imitate the sword strokes with my cup. Flashes of qi spurred out and flew out to a boulder, leaving a few dull marks on them.


    "That about right?" I asked.


    Cai¡¯s mouth was hanging open, but he gave me a little nod.


    "See the thing about this technique is that it¡¯s a deceptive one. If you look at the way that you channeled your qi at the beginning and the way the sword moves through the forms, you¡¯ll realize that the technique isn¡¯t about having a web of sword strikes with equal power, but about having a web of sword strikes with controlled power."


    I moved my cup again, this time slowly using the technique in its proper form.


    "See what you want to do is, constantly weave the qi in the sword strikes to be connected with the other qi strikes. The flowering part isn¡¯t really about the pattern of the qi blades themselves but the ability of each sword qi to channel all the other sword qi¡¯s energy to itself when it comes into contact with something."


    I created a large pattern of qi this time and sent it floating to the boulder. Now the pattern itself was going to miss the boulder, but it would graze just the edge of it, and that¡¯s where the secret of the technique showed itself. Instead of cutting off just the bit of the boulder that made contact with the blade, the whole of the sword qi pattern dissipated and sunk into that one part where the rock was grazed. Bits of pebbles and dust flew out at us, and one of them even almost hit Chin Chin who was watching a safe distance away.


    After the dust had settled down, half of the boulder was missing, and on its side was a beautiful intricately carved picture of a blooming lotus with a thousand petals.


    "And that¡¯s all there really is to it. Now I¡¯m sure there are other parts to the technique that you haven¡¯t seen yet, like methods of controlling when the qi bursts or how to control the sensitivity of the sword qi pattern itself, but that¡¯s the core of the technique, and if you-"


    "A- a cup?" Cai interrupted me.


    "Huh?"


    "You did that with a cup?"


    "Oh, yeah."


    "How- why-" Cai shut up for a moment before looking me dead in the eyes.


    "Is there a Dao of the cup?"


    I chuckled at his statement.


    "Ugh, probably, but that¡¯s not what I was using. You see Dao¡¯s generalization. The Dao of the sword is a part of the Dao of Weapons and the Dao of Weapons is a part of the Dao of Tools."


    "So the sword¡­ is just another tool?" he asked me.


    "Everything is just another tool," I answered.


    "Then why pursue the Sword? Why not pursue the great Dao itself?"


    "The Dao is too much," I answered.


    "You can¡¯t pursue the path to everything. That¡¯s too general of a path to lead anywhere. So most of us limit ourselves and focus on one Dao or another. Bits and pieces."


    "But¡­ but then¡­ is the Dao of the Sword a great one? Is it any different from all the other Daos? Is it any greater than a cup?"


    "It¡¯s violent," I answered. "It¡¯s powerful and that¡¯s what cultivators like power. Is it greater than the sword? I don¡¯t think so. One gives you water while the other brings you strength. Though I suppose you could drink with a sword and cut with a cup if you had to.¡±


    I think that answer broke him a bit. The guy stared at the cup in my hand, before moving his gaze to his sword. I saw an ounce of shame on his face when he looked at the thing. Then he looked towards Chin Chin, and a little more shame appeared on his face.


    "Honored master, may I have that cup in your hand?" He asked.


    "Uh, yeah sure," I replied, tossing the cup over to the guy.


    He caught it in his hand like it was some magical treasure, and he stared at it for a moment.


    "It¡¯s just a cup," he muttered, looking slightly amazed.


    "And this is just a sword," he said looking at his sword this time.


    After a moment of silent contemplation, his face cleared up and he gave a deep and respectful bow.


    "Thank you honored masters for your teachings. This one shall give your message to the five sects with utmost speed."


    And with that, the kid turned around and ran.


    "He called me an honored master then?" Chin asked as we watched the boy race off and out of the village.


    "Yeah, I think he did."


    "Why?" Chin asked.


    "Maybe he learned something from you?"


    "What could he have learned from me?"


    "I really couldn''t tell ya," I shrugged.


    "All those things you said about Daos and whatnot," Chin asked. "You think there¡¯s a Dao of Farming?"


    "Probably," I answered. "What? Are you thinking about cultivating?"


    "The only thing I cultivate are my crops," Chin answered.

 Chapter 11 The Nature of Life

    Gauntlet didn¡¯t feel many things. That wasn¡¯t a fault, but rather a feature. Golems didn¡¯t have emotions, it wasn¡¯t a part of their design. His master, Array King Dane, had once tried to give him free will, and that had been the most painful moment of Gauntlet¡¯s existence. He had lasted for about all of three minutes before he attempted to self-destruct.


    Looking back now, the reason was apparent. He wasn¡¯t designed to feel or want anything. He was just meant to do, and when you threw the responsibility of free will onto something that was not meant to have free will, there would be adverse consequences.


    Humans and all other lifeforms took their innate desire for self-preservation for granted. Gauntlet sought to exist because he was meant to exist. He didn¡¯t need things like fear and happiness, he had purpose. His purpose, which was written into the very core of his being, was to obey his master. Plain and simple.


    He didn¡¯t live for joy or happiness or because he felt some strange compulsion towards life. He lived because he must obey his master. If his master perished, he¡¯d wait for a new one to come along, they almost always did and he would obey that new master instead. It was a simple and logical existence. You did as you must.


    Life, however, was not so well engineered. The way Gauntlet saw it, life was a self-replicating chemical reaction meant to continue till the end of time. But the more complex and multicellular it got, the more it seemed to deviate from the purpose. Germs were happy to grow and multiply, no matter the cost, but humans? No, they would bypass those genetically ingrained desires and search for something else, something greater.


    Gauntlet didn¡¯t know what this something else was, but he didn¡¯t have it, nor did he desire it. As soon as he was freed from his innermost purpose, he also lost his reason to exist. But humans were different. Every single minute a human managed to exist seemed to be an amazing miracle of effort to Gauntlet. They were strange, guided by those feelings that seemed to cause them an infinite amount of both joy and hatred, but unable to live without them.


    That was why they needed their Dao. Daoless immortals always went insane, well, except for his own master, but he was a rarity. Humans needed purpose, more than that they needed freedom. The ability to live and grow, and feel, whatever that meant.


    Which was why he was surprised when his master brought those new people over to his holdings. At first, they were strange. He would be going about his daily chores and they would stare at him. He didn¡¯t care. He was a golem and golems don¡¯t care about anything besides their orders.


    The issues came when they tried to help him. He didn¡¯t need help. He was more than capable of doing the things that needed to be done, but they helped him anyway. Gauntlet would have felt insulted if he could have felt at all. But he couldn¡¯t, so he just watched helplessly as the seven maidens rushed to clean up the house and help with the food preparations.


    He didn¡¯t know what to make of this. He was a golem, he was meant to serve. But these girls, these people, who were designed to think and have a will of their own were so without purpose that they had to take his instead. And they smiled at him too, as if to taunt him for being without orders.


    Gauntlet of course was unaffected by all of this. A little confused, but not displeased, not in a human way. Displeased in a more object-like way, like a ball that was rolling down a hill suddenly slamming into a rock and having its momentum stolen.


    "Hello, Gauntlet," one of the girls called out to him. This one¡¯s name was Xi Lu, and she had made a habit of greeting him every time he walked by. Gauntlet nodded towards her, as a decent object with manners would and she smiled in turn.


    "The Honored Master is having us go out to the old village later today. I don¡¯t know what he wants us to do, but he said we need some form of experience to hammer us out into people."


    Gauntlet looked at the girl and nodded. She didn¡¯t seem to require anything more than that from him, just a nod and she¡¯d go on talking for hours.


    "I don¡¯t know what we¡¯re supposed to do, but I hope I can do it well. I would hate to be useless, you know. Well, I¡¯m sure you know, you¡¯re a golem. You have to be useful or else, huh?" She spoke giggling to herself.


    Gauntlet nodded once more.


    "I don¡¯t know what we could even learn from that place," Rin Wi said, inserting herself into Xu Lu¡¯s monologue.


    "It¡¯s all just mortals down there anyways. It¡¯s not like there¡¯s anything they can teach us."


    "Well, honored master Bill has asked us to go down there to help around, so I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a good reason for it."


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    That wasn¡¯t true. Gauntlet remembered his master had specifically asked them if they wanted to go. It was a question, not a statement, but these people didn¡¯t seem to know the difference.


    "Well, it''s what the Honored Master wants," Rin Wi commented. "No use in disagreeing with what he wants."


    "I¡¯ve been thinking about that," Xi Lu spoke. "What do you think he wants from us? I mean, we haven¡¯t been doing much since we¡¯ve gotten here and he never asks us to do anything."


    "I don¡¯t know Xu, but hopefully he¡¯ll tell us soon. I can¡¯t stand just sitting around all day and doing nothing."


    "Do¡­ Do you think he wants¡­you know?"


    Rin Wi shook her head in response.


    "No. Mei has already offered, and he has shown no interest in any one of us."


    They both sat there, anxious for a moment, trying to figure out what they could do to be useful. If Gauntlet were a person, he might have burst into a frustrated rant at the scene. He had been there when Mr. Bill had told them to be their own people. He had been there when Mr. Bill told them not to worry about his needs. He had watched them nod to the speech his master had given about freedom and being no one''s but your own.


    And yet here they were, completely ignoring everything the man had said to them. It was amazing really, to be able to call yourself a servant but be so blind to your orders. But that was the way these people were.


    The rest of the maidens came in only moments later. They were all dressed a little differently than they regularly were. They were in mortal clothing, which was far different from the normal fabrics they usually wore. Their higher realm cloth often shimmered with qi and added a layer of beauty that even Gauntlet was forced to note, but this time, the dull gray and green garments they wore almost made them pass for mortals.


    "Well, we¡¯re off. Have a good morning Gauntlet. Good luck with your duties," Xi Lu called out to him as they left.


    Gauntlet nodded, watching them float into the air from a distance. Once he was sure that they had left, he turned around and started walking into the forest depths. He spread out his senses, looking to see if any eyes were peering down upon him from a distance.


    He felt a few. A stalking shadow leopard. A thin leaf-like mantis was also observing him from a mile away, but they both scattered as soon as he pushed his senses against them. The divine beasts had settled into the forest''s ecosystem, and a lot of them had even added to it with their presence.


    The trees had started growing here for the first time in a long time. The trees here were somewhat native to the region and had their natural height limit, but with the presence of the divine beasts, even the plant life had started to show signs of strengthening. It was slow for now though, but it would only be a matter of time before the natural qi density affected the rest of the environment.


    Gauntlet walked on a somewhat worn path. It was somewhat worn because Gauntlet was the only creature who walked through it, and unlike humans or animals, Gauntlet didn¡¯t just meander through the same general direction. He stepped on the same spots, with the same pace, and the same weight, every single day. The only hint that it was a path were his crater-like footsteps that trailed through the foliage for miles on end.


    Eventually, Gauntlet left the forest. Well, he didn¡¯t leave in the traditional sense. He was still in the forest but in a different set of space-time. His master had been the one to set up the layered space-time array, and Gauntlet was the only one who could access this level of it, aside from his master of course.


    In front of him, stood a giant set of doors with numerous inscriptions on them. They were oval-like in their form and made of some strange type of wood. Gauntlet stared at those doors, doing as thorough of an inspection as he could. After a minute, he gave a small nod and kept walking through the sub-space.


    He trodded on until he finally reached his destination. In front of Gauntlet was a giant glowing orb, easily the size of a small house. It would have blinded any mortal with its brightness and the heat would have cooked them in a matter of minutes.


    But it shouldn''t have. It wasn¡¯t supposed to be this bright. Gauntlet reached out with his hands and shot a large blue ball of energy toward the thing, instantly the two collided, and in a mish-mash of yin and yang patterns the energy settled down into a calm pool of nothing.


    Qi was everything. That was what his master had said. Qi was life and energy, It flowed through reality like water flowed through a river. There were higher and lower forms of qi, but it was all just a different level of refinement for the most part. But Laws weren¡¯t just qi, no they were different. They were closer to an idea than actual qi. If qi was the water in a river, then laws were the deep grooves of the earth that shaped them.


    Gauntlet looked again at the heart of the array, studying the effects of the collision. The array was supposed to be able to take in laws and recondense them to fit its own needs, but it was still a child for the most part. It should have been able to think, and it could to a small degree, but it would overindulge itself in certain ways and it was Gauntlet¡¯s job to keep track of that, at least until it could think on its own.


    Gauntlet would wander the valley during the nights and collect any condensed laws the beasts had left behind. Concepts here, light understandings there, and he¡¯d keep them on hand for the array. This was the first time he had to intervene. That was both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, it meant the array was aware enough to choose just what to eat, on the other hand, that meant a lot more work would be needed fine-tuning it until it got a grip on its diet.


    He would have to notify his master of this.


    The array twisted and turned in strange dimensions. He felt it reach out and touch him for a moment, before pulling back and focusing on itself, and in a rare moment of humanity, Gauntlet wondered. What would this thing, this array, be like? Would it be like him, clear and purposeful, or like humans, strange and emotional?


    Gauntlet¡¯s torso heaved, giving the golem¡¯s equivalent of a shrug and he moved forward.

 Chapter 12 Amongst the Herd

    To understand the cultivator world, one had to understand the hierarchy that existed within it. The terms higher and lower realms were a representation of this hierarchy. There wasn¡¯t a clear definition of higher and lower realms, they were more of generally agreed-upon descriptions for certain realms based on numerous qualifications, but one of these qualifications was connections.


    The higher realms, or the divine realms as they were known to some people, were all very well mapped and contested for. These were the realms rich in cultivation resources and any sect that wanted to be known across the multiverse could be found there. The lower realms, however, were different. They weren¡¯t all equal. They ranged in definition, from practically qi-less universes to realms bubbling with power, just on the cusp of being a higher realm.


    Sects needed resources, and the higher realms, while they were the best of the best, were constantly being milked. There wasn¡¯t a single qi-filled asteroid that floated outside of some sect or clan¡¯s jurisdiction, so if the sects wanted to grow, they had to gather their resources elsewhere. And that¡¯s where the hierarchy came in.


    The higher realms were numerous but the lower realms were infinite, so no sect could actively hope to scour these lesser universes for power without spreading themselves thin. So what most of them did was set up what I like to call "resource pipelines." Resource pipelines were ways sects in the higher realms would use to harvest power and resources that appeared in the lower realms.


    Now that could be anything from creating sects in the lower realms that would report directly to them, or going down there themselves and taking whatever object or person attracted their interest. Either way, they managed to set up some form of communication with people in the lower sects, and those lower sects were rewarded handsomely for reporting anything that was too much for them to the higher powers.


    These pipelines also functioned as information pipelines as well. The lower sects would receive some of the larger news happening out in the great multiverse and the higher sects would listen to any strange happenings that were going on in the lower ones.


    I sighed and leaned back into my rocking chair. Risks and faults and fumbles, there were a few of those in this plan, and I didn¡¯t like that. The array was the first risk. I had made a living being, not a robot. Peace wasn¡¯t just some vague state of conditions it had to reach to achieve freedom. It would know what peace was in a human sense, but still. Many other things could go wrong, but I accounted for all of that and constantly kept track of everything around me.


    No, the biggest risk was me. Living this long puts a lot of things into perspective, one of these things was chance. If you live long enough, anything with only a one-in-a-million chance of happening is almost guaranteed to happen. Another thing you noticed was change. Given enough time, people change.


    That was one of the reasons that cultivators chased the Dao so much. People wavered and changed, but the Dao didn¡¯t. It always stayed the same, and it was the one thing most cultivators would hang on to for the rest of their eternal lives.


    I didn¡¯t have that. I was an anomaly to be fair, but pursuing arrays oftentimes cut you off from being able to study or understand anything else, and it wasn¡¯t due to a lack of time either. Eternity was a long time to pursue something, but Daos didn¡¯t work like that.


    Daos required focus. When you choose a Dao, it couldn¡¯t be too general. You couldn¡¯t pursue something like the Dao of all things or the Dao of reality. If you did, you¡¯d never progress in your understanding of the subject. Those things were too vague and undefined. That was why no one pursued the Dao of arrays, it was just too general for anyone actually to bother with.


    And that was fine, that was a sacrifice I had to accept to pursue this path, but it also caused me many problems along the way, and this was one of them. A Dao wasn¡¯t just a subject to study but a lifestyle. It required the whole of you in ways that normal knowledge couldn¡¯t compare to, and slowly, you¡¯d grow to reflect that. If your Dao was the spear, then you¡¯d become the spear, if your Dao was the ocean then you¡¯d become the ocean.


    That was why you saw so many sword-swinging maniacs couldn¡¯t think of anything else aside from violence and strength. It was the reason why cultivators were the way they were. Cultivators needed Dao and resources, but resources always ran out and one had to fight to gather and protect them. So cultivators would choose a Dao that could help them better gather their resources, like the Dao of the blade, or the Dao of war. And those Dao themselves would go on to encourage taking from others and strength.


    I sighed. Of course, if things worked out here then maybe I could pick up a Dao and dedicate my life to it. Something small and precious that would require me to stay here and tether my life with this peace I¡¯ve been building.


    I got out of my rocking chair and headed outside to the front of the house. The girls lived in the upper stories, but I slept downstairs right next to the kitchen. That was also something that I had to get used to. Sleeping. I didn¡¯t need to do it but it was so nice to just doze off that I found myself closing my eyes once a night out of habit.


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    I took a walk through the place, silently observing the setting sun. The girls were down by the river washing their clothes. It had taken some time for them to get used to this lifestyle, but they had adapted well to a mortal¡¯s life. They were laughing and talking amongst themselves, things that I rarely saw them do in front of me. I had given them books to read and stories to enjoy over their time here, and I think that had some positive impact, though I wouldn¡¯t really know.


    "Don¡¯t mind me, girls. Just passing through," I said as I walked past them. A few of them stiffened up and bowed toward me as I walked by.


    I kept walking upstream. I liked walking. I particularly liked walking without any qi or spiritual senses floating about. No one thought about it it, but it was hard to feel things as an immortal. You were comfortable everywhere and nothing could truly scratch or tire you. It was amazing at first, but I find that I missed hard work and draining my body of energy. I missed that tiresome feeling of a long day and the sense of accomplishment that came with it.


    But you didn¡¯t struggle as an immortal, and that was the reason most of them were willing to chase the Dao and fight to the death over random treasures. For people, to struggle was to have a purpose, and cultivators were no different. So they would choose a struggle that they would never truly finish, to chase the Dao, to know all, and to become The Absolute God. It gave them a purpose, one that they would never truly reach. And because of that purpose, they would have the strength to push on for eternity or their death.


    "So what was there left for a cultivator who abandons all that?" I asked out loud.


    I was still walking through the forest and I had spent about an hour or so in contemplation. I sighed, walking to an empty clearing in the woods. There was a herd of deer there silently grazing on the grass. I walked among them and sat down at the center of the clearing, crossing my legs in a meditative pose.


    The herd hadn¡¯t heard me. I took care to not disturb them and the surrounding area with my presence. I was familiar with the herd. I¡¯d come here often to think or to relax among them, and they came here because it was a safe grazing area.


    My mind went back to thinking. I needed something to hold onto, something to build myself around for the rest of my existence. Arrays had been my passion for most of my life, and I had mastered that better than anybody else in all of reality. I was the best array master there was and maybe I could pursue them to a higher degree. Maybe I could make arrays that had connections so strong and components so potent that it would redefine the definitions of arrays as a whole, but as much as I loved arrays, I didn¡¯t know if that was enough to keep going.


    I listened. The deer were silently munching on the grass with a few of them raising their heads to observe the surroundings for predators. I smiled. They never got hunted here. Back when I first settled down, this was the spot I originally planned to build my house on. I changed my mind later on, but I laid out some of the defense arrays and made the area entirely non-violent. It had become a little haven for the deer and many other creatures that lived throughout the forest. In nature, you were either constantly trying to kill something or to avoid being killed, and this place was free from all that.


    I watched the deer for quite some time. I didn¡¯t really remember for how long, I just sat there and watched. Hours must have gone by as I sat there and something started to tickle the back of my brain, something strong. It wasn¡¯t the deer, and it wasn¡¯t the array, but there was something there. Something both familiar and foreign at the same time.


    I closed my eyes and inhaled. The cold crisp air filled my lungs as I relaxed into a meditative pose.


    I had touched upon some Daos and Laws during my life. It was necessary to understand them for my work with arrays. And even though those fledgling ideas sat in my heart, they had never been the guiding forces in my life. I knew enough of the sword Dao to make sword arrays and I knew enough of the illusion Dao to make illusion arrays, but I didn¡¯t practice them.


    Still, I recognized this feeling. This was the familiar and almost euphoric experience of a Dao. Which was strange, because I hadn¡¯t been seeking a Dao at all. I hadn¡¯t taken to practicing any set of beliefs, and I wasn¡¯t trying to reach the heavens anymore, so there was no reason to find one here.


    And even now I still didn¡¯t know what this Dao was. It was something new to me, something I¡¯d never really experienced before. Most Daos worth practicing were powerful, domineering even, but this one was quiet and gentle, almost unnoticeable.


    "What are you?" I asked out loud.


    The deer, having finally noticed me among them, all looked at me with fear in their eyes. I expected them to scatter and the first sight of a possible predator, but they didn¡¯t. They just stared for a minute, confused by what they were seeing. After a momentary showdown, one of the does slowly lowered her head and brought it down to a bush. One by one, all the other deers followed through, each of them turning back to their food and ignoring my existence.


    "What?" I mumbled, slightly confused.


    This was the Dao. It was surrounding me and filling my presence with its presence, moving into me. I could¡¯ve fought back and refused its gift, but suddenly I understood. I knew what this was, and I had been seeking it this whole time.


    I laughed. The deer didn¡¯t move, but some of them raised their head and looked at me rather curiously. I had seen many Daos in my life. I had fought against many of them as well. I had seen the Dao of Flames, the Dao of Strength, Power, Blade, Sun, Light, Devil, Demon, Warrior, Saint, I had seen it all.


    But never had I known there to be a Dao of Peace.

 Chapter 13 Echo in the Desert Part I

    Cai Xiun ran along the hot sand at a breakneck pace. The Great Desert Strip was a chore to traverse alone, even for a cultivator of his caliber. The desert, being twenty thousand miles long, was the major dividing line between the Five Great Sects. On the left side were The Hollow Echo and The Bloody Fist, and on the right were The Flowering Sword and The Raging River, with The Hidden Viper¡¯s territory resting just underneath the desert¡¯s end. And while there were merchants, both mortal and cultivators that crossed the desert, they at least had the logic of doing it during the rainy season and plotting out ample cool routes for their journey.


    The temperatures here could get high enough to boil water during the day and cold enough to freeze it at night. Of course, the sects didn¡¯t cross this place on foot. If the sects sought something they could just transfer and negotiate through teleportation or flying swords. No, the issue of trade through this heat-ridden land was a mortal concern, and they solved it.


    The desert wasn¡¯t a place suited for any form of natural life, except for a few sparse qi beasts and plants around the oasis, but there were mortals. There were mortals everywhere. They were like cockroaches and could be found in the most dangerous of places. Even if cultivators themselves would never settle there, mortals would.


    It was a strange phenomenon. Cai would think the strong would tolerate more than the weak, merely because they were strong. But it was always the opposite. The strong had choices, and the weak didn¡¯t. So while mortals struggled to carve out a place for themselves in this world, pushing and pressing just to survive, cultivators would meditate on carpets made out of lion''s mane.


    Though Cai wouldn¡¯t call them lazy. Cai himself knew how hard cultivators worked for their power, but there was a difference between struggling to get stronger and struggling to live. One seemed much more terrifying than the other.


    The mortal merchants had figured out how to map cool routes, knowing when the heat would rise and fall in certain areas. He had originally traveled through one of these mapped areas, but now after being charged with delivering the news of a new sect, he was heading directly to the Flowering Sword Sect and running without a map, a decision he was now coming to regret.


    His original mission was to scout out the middle region of the strip and see if anything had changed. But they hadn¡¯t expected him to find anything. No, the mission was just a trial for him, a punishment for his existence.


    His father was the son of the Raging River¡¯s patriarch and had laid with his mother in a drunken stupor. And his mother being the daughter of the Flowering Sword¡¯s patriarch, had made their union to be one of tension and chaos between the two sects. Higher-up members of the Flowering Sword wanted his mother to declare their union to be nonconsensual, and members of the Raging River wanted his father to accuse his mother of seducing him as a scarlet whore, but neither did so. His mother, while she claimed to have regretted their entanglement, had never once accused the man of being forceful. And his father, from what Cai had heard, had considered his mother to be one of his conquests.


    And so the sect elders, filled with anger and lacking an outlet for their rage, had turned their malice towards him. He was repeatedly punished, both in small ways and in large ones. He would be given the worst resources. He would have the strictest teachers. He was given tiring tasks and told to complete them under the guise of honor and strength, while his cousins lavished around barely lifting their fingers.


    His mother had protected him at first, but once the initial joys of motherhood had died out, so had her love for him. One day he came home bloody and bruised and complained to his mother about his older cousins and their brutal attacks under the guise of sparring. His mother had only laughed at his complaints.


    "Oh, don¡¯t you know Cai, they¡¯re merely trading pointers with you. You know that a man must be capable, lest he becomes frail and weak. You must grow upright and strong, Cai, do not bring dishonor towards me again."


    Cai had been six when she told him that, and his older cousins had been fourteen. He hadn¡¯t even started down the path of cultivation yet. He was just a child with no strength and his mother had chastised him for it.


    It wasn¡¯t malice. Her actions weren¡¯t from a conscious hatred she had of him, she didn¡¯t care enough to hate him. It was more of a sick mixture of stupidity and selfishness that made the woman who she was. She was willfully ignorant. She sat there, spoiled rotten, in a position of power and a list of faults so long that if he wrote them out they would trail the length of the Desert Strip.


    And now, after years of never talking to her, the absent man that called himself his father had asked for her hand in marriage. And though the sect had refused the proposal, she had run away on her own to embrace the man. And all the sect elder¡¯s fury had multiplied and had once again turned to him.


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    "This has disgraced our Flowering Sword Sect¡¯s face!"


    "What do we look like, bowing to the Raging River¡¯s brat?"


    "Shame has been brought to the head family of the Flowering Sword Sect!"


    Words had been thrown around, most of them insinuating one thing or another, but none had dared to insult her out loud. Most people had been angry, some had been furious, but no one ever spoke about his mother. Cai wished they had, but they knew better than to draw his grandfather¡¯s wrath by insulting the woman. Cai himself had been given a scar on the left side of his chest for that very thing.


    And so, the malice flowed to him. His mother faced no consequences and his grandfather merely watched as he was treated like a walking sin.


    He sighed, pushing the matter off his mind and spreading his eyes to find an oasis. The heat was affecting his mood, and an angry heart would not help him survive this experience.


    He put the thoughts of vengeance aside. There was nothing that he could do, not truly. He didn¡¯t consider his parental abandonment to be worth it. In his mind, they hadn¡¯t harmed him but rather refused to help him. It was wrong, but not a grievance he would take up with the blade.


    Beads of sweat fell from Cai¡¯s brows and onto the sandy floor and evaporated instantly.


    He looked out once more into the sandscaped hell. His eyes squinted as he pushed qi into them and analyzed what appeared before him. A small tear of blue shimmered in the distance.


    "Finally," he muttered. He wasn¡¯t following the cool routes on the map, but he was heading towards one of the oases it had marked down.


    He pushed, propelling his qi through his legs. The sand burst into a dust cloud behind him, as he rushed towards the oasis. Cai Xiun jumped, his body landing in the cold water.


    The coolness was welcoming, and for a while, he stayed there. The heat in this place was excruciating and there weren¡¯t any permanent settlements in the whole strip aside from that small valley. There weren¡¯t even any cultivators here, the place was far too lacking in qi density to even be considered a hiding place for a cultivator. So the only enemy he knew of in this place was the one above the sky, burning down so heavily.


    It was a blessing then, that his instincts didn¡¯t rely on knowledge but experience and reacted to the attack before he even knew it had happened. His body leapt, moving itself out of the water and pulling out his blade to parry the incoming attack. The attack pushed him out of the water and onto the sand.


    "Cai Xiun?" His attacker asked.


    "Who are-" The question hadn¡¯t even left Cai¡¯s lips before the figure swung its blade.


    There was a long tingling noise that came with the attack and Cai¡¯s legs moved, pushing him to the right and dodging the wave of sound qi. Cai assessed his opponent. If the man¡¯s attacks hadn¡¯t identified his sect then his face would have. He lacked earlobes, and where his eyes should have been was a neat line of wrinkled flesh that wrapped all the way to his neck. A member of the Hollow Echo Sect.


    His opponent raised his sword and swung again releasing a wave of sound qi at Cai and again Cai dodged. He breathed. Dodging sound qi was taxing on the body. It required a cultivator to move with high acceleration, propelling the body to supersonic speeds just to avoid the attack. This wasn¡¯t something he could keep up, especially in this thirsty and tired state.


    Cai released his own attack before the man could strike. A flurry of sword qi arranged in a flowering pattern flew off of Cai¡¯s blade and traveled to his attacker. The man just sneered, waving his sword qi and eliminating the attack before it reached him.


    "Who are you?" Cai asked.


    "Are the questions of the dead worth an answer from the living?" The man replied, running at him with his sword drawn.


    They crossed blades again, both swords swinging against each other in rapid strikes. The enemy kept up with Cai, his blade countering in tandem with Cai¡¯s attacks. Cai pushed, forcing raw qi into his strike as he aimed for the man¡¯s throat. Qi circulated in both of their blades in one final clash as flower met sound.


    Both of them were pushed back by the collision, creating a small gap between their bodies. The fight was taxing. His opponent was at the peak of the second realm, which was three minor realms ahead of Cai. His strength and qi density verified that. If they kept going like this for much longer then it would only be a matter of time before Cai lost. He had to end this fight quickly. Cai looked at his opponent and the man grinned as if he could read Cai¡¯s thoughts.


    Cai readied his sword and started on his pattern of attack.


    The Ten Thousand Petals flew out from his blade, and the large flower of sword strikes flew toward his enemy with speed. Qi shaped itself into a flurrying network of sword cuts that whistled through the air toward his opponent.


    His enemy countered by letting out a mind-rocking shriek that propelled him backwards and let him avoid Cai¡¯s attack. Cai released another pattern, aiming to hit the man before he landed.


    His attacker braced and swung, letting out a wave of sound qi, and attempted to cancel out the Ten Thousand Petals Art that was coming for him. The two attacks collided and the pattern slightly changed its direction, barely grazing his opponent¡¯s arm. But with the Flowering Sword Style, a graze was just enough. The pattern collapsed and all the qi sank into that one abrasion and into the opponent''s arm.


    The man let out a multilayered scream that sounded like the cries of a thousand children. Vibrations burst throughout the sand, causing a circle of golden earth to erupt around the man and the area surrounding his opponent turned into a shifting pool of liquid.

 Chapter 14 Echo in the Desert Part II

    The Hollow Echo Sect¡¯s abilities were mostly innate and not technique based. This meant that there wasn¡¯t much of a difference between their many clans¡¯ fighting styles and abilities, whereas sects like the Flowering Sword had many different variations of the technique. The people of the Hollow Echo all just used sound qi and while having such innate proficiency with sound qi made them dangerous, it also made them quite predictable.


    Cai backed away from the man and readied his blade. He had applied his new understanding of the Flowering Sword technique and it had borne fruit, just as the honored master had said. He had woven the sword qi as evenly as he could throughout the whole attack and just a simple graze against the sword pattern had resulted in such a terrifying increase in his skill. Amazing.


    Cai watched the cloud of dust from a distance. The man had stopped howling at some point and Cai waited in pure silence. He could have attacked first, but he didn¡¯t know where his attacker was in that cloud of sand. And the blind bastards of the Hollow Echo sect all saw using sound.


    A wave of sand burst from the cloud and came at Cai with ferocity. Cai leaped, dodging the sand, but there was already another wave heading to where he would have landed. He met the oncoming attack with his own Ten Thousand Petals and the two waves collided in a dusty mess.


    What? Cai thought.


    There was nothing in the attack. It was just a wave of sound qi flying through the ground. Another wave appeared this time and Cai raised his blade, ready to cut it down, but again, it was an empty attack. Why was his opponent just wasting their qi? The ground erupted as another wave of sand overtook him and the surrounding oasis.


    He was trying to blind him.


    Dammit.


    His enemy knew that Cai needed to rest at that oasis. He couldn¡¯t afford to leave it and find another one, not with an enemy on his tail. But he couldn¡¯t drink from it either as long as the attacker stayed there. He would either have to win the fight or endure his thirst.


    His grip tightened. There were many important things to a fight, but the most important thing that Cai had learned over the years was decisiveness. If he didn¡¯t act now, his opponent¡¯s advantage would only grow stronger.


    Cai leapt into the air, qi pushed through his legs and his body reached for the suns. The biggest issue with the Flowering Sword Style was the time it took to cast. The Ten Thousand Petals Art for example, took at least a second or two and while it was great for ranged opponents, it was really hard to utilize in close combat. Cai himself could only do two hundred and thirty petals a second and he could only maintain a pattern with one thousand petals before the art became too complex for him and dispersed. But the art was capable in terms of range and versatility, having numerous forms of attack and defense all in one.


    Still, range was useless without a clear target.


    "Ten Thousand Petals: The Guarding Bloom."


    Cai weaved. A pattern of sword qi bloomed in front of him. Strong strings of power flowing into one another materialized at the end of his blade. But he didn¡¯t send the strike down. If he did, his enemy would dodge and strike, quickly utilizing the time it would take Cai to cast another attack to land a blow.


    Cai¡¯s body descended into the dust pile, that attack still held at the end of his blade. His feet touched the ground and there was a screeching sound from his left, his opponent getting ready to attack. But before the attack could hit him, Cai¡¯s arm moved. The qi control required to reinforce a limb and move it at supersonic speeds, while keeping an unfired attack technique at the end of his sword wasn¡¯t something that Cai could do for more than a second, but a second was all that he needed. His limb twisted to align his blade with the sound of the oncoming attack and Cai¡¯s defensive sword strikes were released, slashing through the sand-fogged air.


    There was an audible pop as Cai¡¯s arm failed to stay in his shoulder socket, but that was to be expected. He let his sword go as his dislocated arm fell limply to his left and grabbed it with his functional one and readied another attack.


    A part of him knew he was in pain, but that part wasn¡¯t being listened to right now. His immediate survival was far more important.


    The pain of the present is a sacrifice for the joys of tomorrow. Cai thought. That was an old mantra that he had picked up from the battle-practiced cultivators around him.


    Cai didn¡¯t wait for his attack to land before he started weaving another flurry of sword patterns.


    "Ten Thousand Petals: The Gathering Web."


    The same pattern was woven again, but a little different this time. This time, the strings of sword qi were thin and delicate but spread out much wider than the previous iterations of the attack. The pattern left Cai¡¯s blade and flew into the sand cloud. There was a small clinging noise as his opponent blocked against it, but that was all Cai needed.


    Cai leaped directly at the noise with his blade raised up and launched another set of qi patterns. His opponent backed away but before he could clear the distance Cai pushed forward again, closing the gap between the two and launching another set of attacks. Again the opponent backed away and again Cai followed until suddenly they were both out of the sand cloud.


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    Cai was breathing heavily now. He was tired and dehydrated, and on top of that, he had just rushed at his opponent relentlessly. His qi reserves had been rapidly drained with his consecutive attacks and his chances of losing were growing with every second that passed by.


    They both stared at one another for a brief moment.


    "Your hand for your sight?" His opponent said, noting the purpose of Cai¡¯s attacks and his dislocated shoulder.


    "My hand for your life," Cai replied, leaping towards the man with hate. Again, attacks were exchanged and again the man countered. Close swordplay was often like that. When you had the ability to reinforce your limbs with qi and move at sub-sonic speeds instantaneously, skill became much less relevant in close combat sword fighting.


    Rhythmic beats of blades sounded out as the two men fought. They matched each other''s pace, each keeping an eye on their opponent¡¯s speed and strength and adjusting their own to be able to block and keep up with it.


    "Who sent you?" Cai asked once more.


    The man had asked for Cai¡¯s name, meaning that someone had to have sent him. The Hollow Echo Sect did have clans that worked as assassins, but the strength of their assassin was also reflective of the employer¡¯s wealth, and wealth indicated status. His opponent was three minor realms above him, which did give him a huge advantage, but wasn¡¯t a guarantee of victory. And everyone back at the Flowering Sword Sect knew that he was capable, so to send a man like this, well, they¡¯d have to be an idiot, wouldn¡¯t they?


    Cai swung his blade, pushing aside the man¡¯s guard and lunging for his ribs. With immense speed, his opponent sidestepped and redirected the attack with his blade. The sound of scraping metals screamed as the two collided, and before Cai could counter, his opponent screamed. The sound ripped through Cai¡¯s body and blood pooled in his mouth as his organs shook. Cai felt a warm cut on his left followed by the sound of flesh hitting the sand.


    He looked down to see his sword arm on the ground. He had nothing beneath the elbow and blood leaked from his stump.


    "What?"


    There was a change in the aura of his opponent and power revealed itself, pushing down on Cai¡¯s presence.


    "Fo- Fourth realm?" Cai sputtered through the pain.


    The man from the Hollow Echo Sect just smiled, looking at him with a despicable grin.


    "I lost track of you for a bit after you entered the desert, so I assumed that you knew about this attempt, but it seems like you had no idea. But still, you never do know with you young masters, even the most hated ones have some trick up their sleeves."


    "As if I¡¯d be worth that much to them," Cai replied. Blood leaked through his mouth with every word.


    Cai closed his eyes. There was no possibility of him beating an opponent who was two ranks above his own. The man had been playing with him the whole time. This fight was meant to draw out whatever life-saving treasure Cai might have been given so that the bastard could negate it and kill him anyway.


    "You¡¯re worth enough to hire me. I must say young master Cai, your family members sure are vicious folk. I offered to maul you and break your cultivation, so you could at least have some life left, but they refused! " The man said, shaking his head lightly with a vicious grin.


    Of course, that¡¯s what this was about. He had always been hated because he had one of the most direct lines of claim to the patriarch¡¯s throne, not that the old man would give it to him. The only people with a motive to kill him were his own family, and now that his mother was no longer here, they could act without the worry of repercussions. Who would investigate his death seriously? Who would risk upsetting some of the most powerful clans within the sect, merely for a dead man¡¯s justice? There was still some threat when his mother was around. Even if she didn¡¯t care about him, he in some ways represented her, and if he was harmed so was her reputation. Cai doubted she would care, but if she had, the his grandfather would have gone to the ends of the region to seek vengeance.


    "Oh well, you have only your own misfortune to blame, Young Master Cai."


    I never even wanted to compete to be the Sect Patriarch, Cai thought. All I ever wanted to do was to be left alone, but I wasn¡¯t allowed even that.


    His assassin raised his blade and swung.


    "Really, I close my eyes and meditate for a couple of hours and you guys go starting a fight in my backyard?"


    Everything stopped. Cai felt his limbs lock into place, and for a moment felt like the air itself was refusing to go into his lungs. Cai opened his eyes. He saw his opponent, frozen in place with the blade hovering only a few inches above Cai¡¯s neck and he could feel a blanket of qi so large that it seemed to cover the world itself. It was as if the desert itself was holding its breath. There was a man standing ten paces from where he was. He couldn¡¯t make out the figure''s face for some reason, but something about that lackadaisical stance of his felt familiar.


    "Ho- Honored Master-" Cai started.


    "Relax kid, no need to grovel when you¡¯re half dead," Honored Master Bill interrupted.


    The Master walked forward, striding slowly towards the Cai and his frozen opponent.


    "You just left and you¡¯re already fighting, eh?" The Master said as he inspected the surroundings.


    "Ah, an ambush. And from someone of the fourth rank too."


    The master¡¯s eyes glanced over the surroundings, looking through the tracks in the sand as if he was watching the battle unfold right then. His gaze travled, first to the cloud of sand over the oasis and then over to the path of battling footsteps.


    Then he let out a slow and sharp whistle before commenting, "See where you really messed up was not seeing his arm. After using an attack like that on his arm, it should have been pretty badly mauled, or at least bleeding. But then again, he did do a pretty good job of distracting you from noticing that, what with the blinding sand and all."


    Then he turned, shifting his gaze from the trails of the fight to its conclusion. He walked over to Cai and looked at the arm lying on the sand right next to him. He picked it up, inspecting it with curiosity.


    "Looks like you could use a hand, eh?" The Honored Master chuckled.


    Cai looked at him then he looked down to the floor at his own severed arm. His sword was still in its grip, and then everything hit. Fatigue overwhelmed him. His fight or flight shut down and whatever was left of his pain resistance fled along with it. His arm, or what was left of it, seared like sizzling meat. His body shivered with agony, so much so that he wasn¡¯t even able to scream. The pain seemed to possess him in that moment, almost removing everything that made him Cai and leaving only agony to fill the void, turning his very existence into a scream itself. His face scrunged up in horror as he felt his mind go limp.


    ¡°Bad joke?¡±


    Then he blacked out.

 Chapter 15 Sins and Virtues Part I

    Something smells good.


    That was the first thing that touched Cai¡¯s mind. His stomach growled in furious protest at the malnourishment and the lack of water. Half awake he turned, shifting his face towards the smell before having even opened his eyes.


    "You should eat," A voice spoke out.


    "You can¡¯t last all that long while being so dehydrated, and healing up is gonna cost you some calories."


    The fog in Cai¡¯s mind cleared a little. The ambush, the fight, the loss, he remembered all of it. Cai opened his eyes. He had slept well, which was strange considering where he was. It was nighttime in the desert now, and the burning temperatures had left, leaving a cold and freezing night to take their place.


    Cai stood up and blinked, taking a look around to assess the situation. The honored master sat, crouching next to a small fire, carrying a sizzling pan above the flame. His opponent was there too, still frozen and standing a few feet away from the flame.


    Something felt strange. He remembered things. The fight. His loss. The honored master stepping in and the pain right before he passed out. But still, something wasn¡¯t quite there yet. Cai grabbed his shoulders, his arms wrapping around each other. Maybe it was the cold that made him feel this way.


    He felt weak. Cultivators healed better than mortals did. They were hardy and their body tended to respond better to shock. But that also made them more durable, which meant that cultivators tended to walk that painful line between life and death far further than any mortals could tolerate. This fight had been his first near-death experience, but it certainly wouldn¡¯t be his last one. Cai walked over to the honored master, standing to the left of the man.


    "Here," The Honored Master said, raising a pan full of meat to Cai¡¯s face.


    "Eat up."


    Cai took the pan with a silent nod. He could sense that there was qi in this food, which wasn¡¯t rare, just strange. The food was still sizzling as he ate it. It would have burnt a mortal¡¯s tongue, but he was capable of withstanding the temperature. The texture was soft and the food fell apart in his mouth without any struggle. This was meat, that much he knew, but the flavor of it was something that he had never encountered beforehand.


    Then he swallowed and a burst of qi flowed through his body. It felt familiar and water-like in its substance. Cai drank it all down.


    "Thank you, Honored Master," Cai spoke, giving a small bow to the man.


    "How was it?" The Master asked.


    Cai put his hands together and gave a very serious bow.


    "This Cai Xuin thanks Honored Master for the meal and for helping his weak self survive this encounter. Truly, my weakness is a sin I will work to cleanse."


    The Honored Master looked at him for a moment, and then he smiled. It was a sad smile, one filled with more melancholy than joy.


    "Come here kid, have a seat," the honored master said as he readjusted himself to be sitting on the floor. Cai obeyed, sitting next to the Honored Master and warming himself next to the fire.


    "Why¡¯d that guy try to kill ya?" The Master asked.


    "He is from the Hollow Echo Sect, and an assassin."


    "Ah," The Honored Master replied nodding in understanding.


    "So who hired him to go after you?"


    "I believe it was a member of the Flowering Sword Sect, someone high within the ranks most likely."


    "Ouch."


    Cai didn¡¯t know what the word meant but he sensed pity in it. He nodded solemnly in response.


    This was the first time that Cai had thought about this openly. They had tried to kill him. Someone from his own family had tried to end his life. He was surprised to find himself calm with the idea. The proper response was something akin to anger or hate. Something visceral and burning, but instead, there was just¡­ sadness.


    "How old are you kid?"


    "I am seventeen years of age, Honored Master," Cai answered.


    "And the people trying to end you, how old are they?"


    "I do not know the exact person who is trying to end me, but to be able to hire someone of the fourth rank makes me believe that they must have the wealth of a Sect Elder."


    "And how old are the Sect Elders?" The Master asked.


    "They are all in the fifth rank, each of them are a few thousand years of age."


    The Honored Master sighed. There was weariness on his face, a look of aching and pity. The type of look one would give a child who kept making the same mistakes.


    "Why are they trying to kill you?"


    Cai swallowed down the lump in his throat.


    Weak, he thought to himself.


    A true cultivator would take up his blade and defy the heavens. He would seek vengeance and strength, Cai thought.


    He tried to speak and answer the Honored Master, but his mouth wouldn¡¯t let him. He kept choking on the words, and the lump in his throat wouldn¡¯t let them out. He had to close his eyes, lest the tears came out. He had to hold his breath, lest he sniveled when he spoke. He had to be strong.


    To cry is not the path of the strong. At least rage will make you move, sadness just wallows the soul.


    Cai felt a pat on his back.


    "You¡¯re good kid," The Honored Master said. "I get it. First real fight, huh?"


    Cai nodded, making the only movement that wouldn¡¯t break him.


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    "Yeah, those are always hard."


    The Honored Master handed Cai a large jug of water.


    "Drink," he said. Cai obliged.


    "Ya know, you always hear those stories of guys chopping down enemies left and right. ¡®By the Roots¡¯ and all that. But their first time rarely goes that smooth."


    Cai sighed. The water had pushed back the lump, and his eyes had taken back the tears that were so desperate to leave.


    "I- I have fought before, Honored Master. I shouldn¡¯t be so weak to the possibility of death. What right does a cultivator have to fight against the heavens if they can¡¯t even fight against men? I am weak, both in the body and mind."


    The Honored Master smiled again. It was the same sad smile that he had given earlier, one tinged with bits of hatred and pity.


    "How¡¯d you like the meat kid?" The Master asked.


    "It was delectable. I have never had anything like it before in my life."


    The Honored Master nodded.


    "That¡¯s what we call desert crab. It¡¯s more like a mixture of crab and a cockroach, but they¡¯re delicious animals if you know how to cook them right."


    "I wasn¡¯t aware that there were any native edible spirit beasts in the Great Desert Strip," Cai replied.


    "Oh yeah, we have a few. Some sand snakes and the occasional sand eaters, but most of them never adventure within a few hundred feet of the surface. The only ones that do are the desert crabs. They pop out once in their lifetime to mate and lay their eggs, and they die right after, so you barely gotta do any hunting at all."


    Cai sat and listened, then they both fell into silence. There was something awkward about that. The silence. It was something that Cai was used to when he was talking with elders or the Sect Patriarch, but the silence between him and Master Bill felt different.


    "So, how do these crabs reproduce," Cai asked.


    "Oh, they¡¯re interesting. The only reason desert crabs can even live in these conditions is because they¡¯ve adapted to never drink water throughout their whole lifetime. The only time they actually do drink water is when they¡¯re born. A pair of desert crabs will push their way up to the surface, mate, lay a few eggs, and then pass away right after. The newly hatched crabs will drink the liquid that their parents provided right before dying and then dig back down below the surface to repeat the cycle."


    "I see," Cai mumbled.


    "How come there are no reports of them? If they are born on the surface and die on the surface, then surely someone must have seen this happen?" Cai questioned.


    "Where do you think the water in that oasis comes from?" The Honored Master asked.


    Cai looked over to the area. The dust around it had long since settled down and the traces of battle left among the sand had been wiped clean by the slow wind of the desert.


    "I do not understand," he replied.


    "There is no natural water source in The Great Desert strip. It rains through the desert on a regular basis, but most of that water will be gone within the next day or so," The Honored Master commented.


    Cai took another look at the oasis. That was true. It never rained in this area, and that was the main reason that mortals hadn¡¯t possessed the land yet. There wasn¡¯t a reliable source of water throughout the whole of the land. Even the traders who navigated the desert didn¡¯t know where the oasis came from.


    "Then¡­ then how does the oasis manage to linger and not evaporate?" Cai asked.


    The Honored master let out a big wide smile as if he had been waiting for this question to be asked this whole time.


    "They don¡¯t" the Honored Master answered. "Spread your sense into the oasis."


    Cai looked funnily at the man and complied. He sat there, digging deep into the oasis with his aura. His mind dived deep into the blue hole, searching around the region for whatever it was that might be there. His senses dove deep, but still, there was nothing.


    When he couldn¡¯t find anything on the surface, he stood up and walked over to the oasis to widen his range. There was a thick layer of ice on top of the pond. It wasn¡¯t obstructing his senses, much. But it was strange to look down and see his own reflection, again something tickled at the back of his brain. His reflection looked like it always did but that wasn¡¯t right. It should have looked different.


    Cai shook his head, tossing the thought aside and looking past his reflection. He slowly walked across the ice, shoving his senses deeper into the frozen block beneath him. Finally, he noticed something. There was a strange current from the pond, a barely noticeable upward push but still present nonetheless.


    Was there some sort of spring pushing up the water? Cai peered again, spreading his aura thin to try and feel what it was.


    "You got to get a little deeper to see it," the Honored Master announced.


    Cai looked at the water, slightly conflicted. He didn¡¯t want to disrespect this great and powerful man. He had saved his life and spared him in his arrogance. In the mere two days that he had known him, he had done more for Cai than any other person he had ever known.


    But he also didn¡¯t want to dive head first into freezing water just for some curious expedition about some minor spirit beast.


    Cai must have stood there too long because the ice suddenly cracked, and a second later, the whole pond¡¯s surface split open and swallowed him whole.


    The first thing that Cai noticed was that it wasn¡¯t cold. It was by no means hot, but the water was warmer when compared to the air outside. The second thing he noticed was that the pond was deep. Much deeper than he had originally thought it to be. It wasn¡¯t a deep hole, but more of a tapering cone-shaped crater that seemed to go down to unseeable depths.


    Cai squinted, trying to see the bottom of the hole but there was only darkness. With caution and weariness, Cai swam, diving deeper to try and see what lay at the bottom. He went past the point where light reached, relying on his senses to guide him deeper.


    After a certain point, he noticed the current had become noticeable on the skin. He could feel it brushing lightly against his hair. A little deeper and he felt it on his skin, brushing along the gaps between his fingers and up past his armpits.


    Was there truly a source of water down here?


    Cai went deeper. He could now feel the water pushing up against his body as if he were swimming against a current. A few seconds later, he crossed what he estimated to be the mortal threshold. No mortal would be able to swim or progress past this point. Cai took another look, but still nothing.


    Deeper. Cai had long since closed his eyes. The water was pushing hard against his body at this point. It was becoming more of a struggle to even stay in place with being launched back.


    From here he used his senses, trying to reach the source of the oasis with his aura. His mind went down, trying to find the thing that had been causing this pressure, but he found nothing.


    Just as he was about to give up, another aura overlayed over his own. It guided his aura gently pushing it and refining it like a blade.


    Down there, The Honored Master projected into his mind.


    You have to work to see it, but it¡¯s down there.


    Cai¡¯s aura shook as it was pushed past its limits, extending deep into the depths of the water. He had no knowledge of a technique that would let anyone control a person¡¯s aura like this or guide it to such a precise degree. It was both terrifying and miraculous.


    Cai pushed the sense of wonder to the side and did as the Honored Master told him. He looked, focusing on the area his aura had been guided to it. And faintly, within his mind¡¯s eye, he saw. He saw a large shelled beast slumbering- no dying as water gushed from its body.


    And then, Cai reached enlightenment.


    Laws were transmuters. They were aspects and concepts that turned qi into rules and reactions. Cultivators would often study these laws and contemplate them for lifetimes, whe end goal was to mimic them and to make your own natural qi behave like these laws. The Hollow Echo Sect did this with sound. They had trained with sound so much that as soon as any qi left their body, it would turn into the sound itself. They had selectively bred as well to make the trait hereditary, altering their own physiology over the millenniums.


    There was also another sect that had done this, and that was the Raging River Sect. Cai had never once tried to learn to use his innate water-based abilities. He was already seen as a sign of shame and using that part of him that they hated so openly would only bring him more harm.


    But seeing this here, something pushed inside of him as a small understanding settled into the deepest part of his soul. He looked, he saw, and he knew. He knew what water was, and the way it flowed. He knew the shape of raindrops and the persistence of rivers. He saw oceans and puddles, tsunamis and clouds, and Cai understood something.


    Cai had stopped swimming at this point and his body was propelled viciously out of the water. Without his resistance, the current pushed and carried his body forward, tossing him out of the water and back out onto the ice.

 Chapter 16 Sins and Virtues Part II

    He woke up feeling slightly disoriented. His comprehension of the water element had shaken him in an unpleasant way. Comprehending a law was strange. It felt like he had a passive shift in how he viewed reality as if everything about him had been touched and reformed.


    It wasn¡¯t like a Dao. A Dao was more insightful and religious. It was a path, a path to battle, a path to life, and a path to victory. But laws were different. It felt like he had learned something physical, something more akin to arithmetics instead of technique. He knew water in a way he had never known before. His qi flowed better as well, acting more like a liquid and taking on its attributes.


    "You make a habit of passing out this much?" A voice spoke, rousing Cai from his self-reflection.


    "I- I apologize," Cai stuttered. "I did not mean to trouble you."


    "Relax kid. It was a joke," The Honored Master replied.


    "Ah, yes," Cai replied with a nervous chuckle.


    "So¡­ the water law eh?" The Honored Master asked.


    "Yes," Cai nodded. "I am a half-breed of the Raging River and The Flowering Sword. I do have an affinity to the water element, and I suppose seeing that spirit beast using it resonated with-"


    "Half-breed?"


    "It- it is an accurate descriptor for what I am," Cai replied.


    "It¡¯s an insult.¡±


    Cai didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. It was true, those words were an insult, but they felt accurate. They were accurate. That was what everyone had called him. Half-breed, water lily, fish stained, all of those were words he had heard throughout his life.


    ¡°I apologize,¡± Cai replied, though he didn¡¯t know what he was apologizing for.


    ¡°For what?¡± The Honored Master asked.


    ¡°For my insult,¡± Cai answered after some hesitation.


    ¡°You¡¯re apologizing to me for insulting yourself?¡± The Honored Master asked, his tone mixed with bemusement and confusion.


    ¡°...I apologize,¡± Cai repeated.


    The Honored Master readjusted his robe, tying it loosely around himself, as he sat down in a more relaxed position. His hands fell to the ground, digging into the sand and supporting his torso as he looked up and into the sky. The sand was dirtying his robe, some of it even working its way into his socks and shoes, but the man sat there, simple and unbothered.


    "Do you know why the crab stays in the desert?" He asked.


    Cai shook his head.


    "It¡¯s because it''s too dangerous for them to live anywhere else. Desert crabs rarely go past the first rank and even if they could, there isn¡¯t enough ambient qi in the desert for them to grow that strong. And if they did go anywhere else, they¡¯d be at the bottom of the food chain, and they know that. But the funny thing is, out of all of the creatures and animals within this region they¡¯ve been around the longest. The earliest sightings of these beasts go back to the beginning of this region¡¯s recorded history. Few creatures manage to keep their population alive and well that long, but they do it. Do you know how?"


    Cai shook his head again.


    "They live in this vast desert, which is uncomfortable to most predatory beasts. And they live spread out from one another to the point where finding one would take ages if you didn¡¯t know what to look for. They¡¯re also careful, making sure to never be near a dangerous being when they surface and they¡¯re even able to hide from third ranks."


    The Honored Master picked up a jug full of water and brought it to his lips, taking in large gulps as he went. After what seemed like a minute, he brought down the jug and wiped away the water on his lips with his sleeves.


    "They don¡¯t fight, in fact, they¡¯re one of the most cowardly creatures you¡¯ll ever find. They only come to the surface two times in their entire lives, once when they¡¯re born, and once more when they die. That¡¯s why the one at the bottom of the oasis is up here, it¡¯s dying and all the water it¡¯s making is for its children that will hatch, drink as much water as they¡¯ll ever need, before they go down under to live the rest of their lives. They¡¯re weak creatures but they¡¯re admirable as well."


    Cai nodded along, somewhat confused as to why he was hearing this.


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    "Do you remember Chin Chin, the farmer you met back in the village?" The Honored Master asked.


    Cai nodded.


    "What do you think of him?"


    "He is a brave mortal," Cai answered after some thought.


    ¡°Do you think he is a good man?¡±


    ¡°He pursues his purpose with diligence,¡± Cai answered in a roundabout way.


    ¡°Do you think I am better than him?¡±


    ¡°Of course, Honored Master can not be compared-¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m better than him,¡± the Honored Master interrupted.


    ¡°The man toils tirelessly to feed his village and keep his people afloat. I mean, sure, if he died they could find someone to replace him. And I¡¯m certain I¡¯ve saved more lives than he ever has, but¡­ it takes a certain type of lifelong dedication to do what he does. One that most people, even us cultivators lack. It¡¯s the same with those crabs. They die to make sure their kids live. I think there¡¯s a certain nobility there, one that most people lack.¡±


    ¡°You can measure value in strength. After all, the more you can do, the greater your impact. But that impact is dependent upon the person. Your sect elders, for example, they¡¯re at the fifth rank, on the precipice of immortality. But they¡¯re trying to kill you, a seventeen-year-old child. That¡¯s disgusting.¡±


    Cai held his breath at those words. He judged his sect elders and the patriarch at times, but never openly, yet he watched as the Honored Master said words that most people wouldn¡¯t have even thought.


    ¡°Then¡­ then what would you call good if not strength?¡± Cai asked.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯d like to think that weakness isn¡¯t a sin and that strength isn¡¯t a virtue. Mortals or immortals, elders or bastards, people are people. What makes a person good or virtuous, isn¡¯t their strength, but rather their actions. The choices they make and the way they live their lives. Basic stuff really.¡±


    Cai shook his head at those words. He respected the Honored Master, but this idea seemed foolish, something akin to a child¡¯s ideal. Morality was good and all, but people were much more than that, weren¡¯t they? What about life? What about strength? What about the ability to survive?


    "You don¡¯t agree?" The Honored Master asked.


    Cai gathered his bravery to answer.


    "I- I do not."


    The Honored Master turned to him with a waiting look.


    "Th- The Great Philosopher Lo Tien once said, ¡®Morality is but an instinct, like that of hunger and lust. It is there to-¡±


    ¡°Keep the group together. There are times to keep it and times to shed it and those who indulge in this instinct are deluded,¡¯¡± the Honored Master finished.


    ¡°You know of Lo Tien?¡± Cai asked.


    Lo Tien was a well-known philosopher and he was a cultivator renowned throughout the Void Empire as one of the wisest men to have ever lived, but he wasn¡¯t very popular in this region. Cai himself had only read him because of his strict tutors and their insistence on the old glory days of the region, back when demonic invasions were a common threat.


    ¡°Yup,¡± the Master replied, taking another swig from the jug.


    ¡°Do you know how he died?¡± The Honored Master asked.


    Cai shook his head.


    ¡°Stabbed in his bed by his children. They were worried that he would achieve immortality and keep control of their sect forever, so they took his advice and disregarded their morals.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t mentioned in any of the books he had read.


    "And besides,¡± the Honored Master continued. ¡°Ideas like that are a bit hypocritical, aren¡¯t they? I mean they¡¯re right of course, all of that good and evil stuff is made up, but that doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not important. Selfish pricks like Lo Tien will tell you that morality is just a social construct and that nothing matters outside of strength, but their pursuit of strength and pleasure is another instinct of its own, one that they choose to indulge in. If there is no true reason to be good then there is no true reason to be evil either. Live how you want to live. If you want to live selfishly, do so. If you want to live with virtue, do so, but don¡¯t lie to yourself about it. Don¡¯t think your path forward is any better than anyone else.¡±


    Cai heard those words and something stirred inside of him. He had always believed that strength defined everything. The world belonged to those who could claim it, and those who couldn¡¯t would be claimed. Morality, virtue, kindness, all these things were merely extras, privileges of a developed society.


    He fell silent. He was thinking about the words the Honored Master had just said, slowly digesting the ideas.


    "Then what did you choose?" Cai finally asked.


    "Me?" The Honored Master said with genuine surprise.


    "You¡¯ve forgiven my trespasses and saved me from death," Cai spoke with a voice full of newborn confidence.


    "Why?"


    The Honored Master gave a light shrug and said, "I just don¡¯t think life¡¯s worth living if all you want to do is become more powerful than the rest. Of course, power has its place and even I could use some strength, but I wouldn''t live for it."


    That sentence leaving a cultivator¡¯s lips didn¡¯t feel quite right. Power was what they pursued. Power was the definition of right. To live and not strive for power and strength was insane.


    Cai looked at his own hands. He remembered all his losses and failures. He remembered all the times he had been berated and beaten. He remembered the years of mockery and abuse.


    I am weak, he thought. But is that so wrong? Must I be strong to be virtuous?


    This time there were no lumps in his throat. He stood up and looked at the Honored Master, eyes clear and beaming and he smiled.


    "This Cai Xiun thanks Honored Master for mercy! You have given me my life, my arm, and my soul!¡±


    The Honored Master smiled and nodded in return.


    Cai didn¡¯t know if he agreed with the Honored Master¡¯s perspective. He didn¡¯t know what he cared for in people, but he knew one thing. He would not think like the people who had thrown him into despair.


    Weakness is not a sin, and strength is not a virtue.

 Chapter 17 Bloodlines

    I sent the kid off with a packed lunch and showed him the best routes to avoid the heat, and watched. I kept an eye on him as he ran, watching as he trailed off into the rising sun. There was a seed of confidence in him now. It was nothing big, but it was there. And I¡¯d seen enough people live to know that it could make a difference down the line, whether that difference was limited to his own life or the greater world was something that only time could tell.


    "So, what do we do about you?" I asked as I turned to look at the frozen assassin. He was wearing all white, and his clothes stuck around him like a second wrinkled skin. If it wasn¡¯t for the color of the clothes, it would have been hard to know where the clothing began and the skin stopped, and the way the robe fluttered and clung to his body made it almost seem like he had wings.


    "Kill me," the man spat. His voice was dry and coarse. "I will not be humiliated. I will not kneel."


    "Well, you couldn¡¯t kneel if you wanted to, but I get what you¡¯re saying," I replied.


    "Who hired you to go after that kid?"


    The assassin squinted whatever folds he had for eyes, an angry refusal on his face. That was usually how these assassin clans were, willing to die to protect their customers. It was strange, considering how often they killed innocent people for their own benefit, you would think the last thing these types of people would have is honor. But it was there, the assassination group would need to function as a whole, and to keep every agent of theirs from selling out, they would take certain cult-like measures. The group before the individual, death before dishonored, no snitching, stuff like that.


    I walked up to the man¡¯s face and looked down. Biology was a varying thing in the multiverse. There were life forms consisting of entirely different base forms of matter and existing in universes with different physical laws, but then there were also things like this, different alterations of human biology.


    "Mhm. Let¡¯s see some sort of sound receptors instead of eyes you have in between those folds that have extended out from your ears," I said, studying the man thoroughly.


    "You guys have replaced your eyes with ears. And this clothing is interesting too, leathery white folds that cling to your skin in this desert heat isn¡¯t reasonable clothing for an assassin, is it?"


    The man didn¡¯t respond.


    "And ah, would you smell the stench around you? Absolutely putrid."


    I made a small cut and a thin red line appeared on the man¡¯s right cheek. My index finger reached to catch the small drop of blood that escaped him. A small red circular drop hung about my finger.


    "Definitely not pure human," I commented.


    My captive made an unsettled expression on his face, a strange mixture of amazement and fear, but I didn¡¯t bother with him anymore.


    I took the drop and put it in my mouth.


    "Mhm, ohh what is this? Fish demon?" I said, thinking for a moment.


    "No. Bat demon. That¡¯s what this is. Bat demon. It tastes strange though."


    I walked up to the man and wafted his stench into my nose.


    "Ahh, dead bat demon! That¡¯s what this is. No wonder you¡¯re a little messed up. You not only have a demonic bloodline, but it¡¯s also from a being who bathes itself within the laws of darkness and sound."


    The assassin squirmed in a weird, lizard-like way, and I felt light resistance to my hold on him. The man moved, not in the natural muscle-based way but in the unnatural, something boiling under my skin way. His facial features twisted and turned and his fingers turned into a nasty purplish color.


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    I used my divine senses conservatively. They were much more capable than all my other senses, but also that much more boring. You couldn¡¯t really be surprised when you had near omniscience within a few hundred thousand miles.


    But this time, I was curious.


    And so, I peered into the man¡¯s mind, body, and soul. There was a lot there, clan functions and politics as well as general information about the state of the region. The boy¡¯s name was Fo Lin. There was also private information, childhood joys, crushes, training, and a whole bunch of other stuff roiling in the man¡¯s mind.


    A part of me, the old-fashioned mortal from Earth part, felt disgusted at the act of reading a man¡¯s entire life. I had always thought that mind reading was the most violating of all superpowers, right behind mind control. But it was really hard to care about basic human decency when you were dealing with a cold and ruthless assassin.


    I moved onto his soul and found nothing there either. His body was where things got interesting. On a cellular level, it looked like he was undergoing a strange metamorphosis, his body moving and molding to a new shape.


    But if you looked at his qi, he was clearly dying.


    I took a moment to think, should I save him? Did he deserve to be saved? Probably not, but I was a little curious.


    I extended two fingers and drove them deep into his heart. The boy coughed and wretched and whatever conscious part of him was still aware tried to defend himself.


    "Relax," I said. "I¡¯m fixing you."


    That didn¡¯t seem to comfort him much. My fingers gripped onto a metaphysical string of qi. It was centered mostly around his heart and deep inside his bones. The best bloodlines forged themselves amazingly with the human, mixing and mashing until one couldn¡¯t truly be separate from the other, this wasn¡¯t one of those.


    "Interesting," I chuckled.


    The bloodline was cursed. It wasn¡¯t a clean curse, more a sloppy trap meant to activate whenever someone mentioned the true nature of the bloodline. But it was complex enough that no one within the region would recognize it for what it was.


    The way it worked was simple. If the bloodline was acknowledged by an opponent, the bloodline carrier would be driven to either kill them or the bloodline would start overproducing, running rampant, and spreading through the rest of the body. By the end of it, the user would have turned into a bat-like monster capable of fighting at the fifth rank.


    Overall, it was a fairly well-made defense and would have stopped most of the people in this region from ever finding out about the secret of the bloodline and from trying to extract it.


    It would never survive in the greater continent, but it worked well enough in this little place. My fingers grabbed onto something and I pulled.


    The man let out a shrill scream of hell and terror as his body started to boil ever more with protrusions pushing out at certain parts. I intervened before he could explode, stitching all the messed-up parts back together into one cohesive person. The man dropped into a quivering mess, lying quietly on the desert floor.


    "Everyone just wants to pass out all the time don¡¯t they?" I mumbled.


    I couldn¡¯t be bothered this time. I smacked him.


    "Hello, Fo? Wake up!" I yelled right next to his ear.


    The bastard yelped up in surprise. He raised up his hands in defense and opened his mouth to blast sound qi in my direction. I covered his mouth, making the attack collapse in his throat.


    "Don¡¯t yell at your elders," I commented, using sixth rank aura to push him down.


    He backed away, eyes wide in horror. The blood left his lips in a dramatic fashion and the man clutched his throat.


    "Of the Immortal Rank?" He sputtered.


    "Yes yes, of the immortal rank, now I¡¯m about to leave but I¡¯ve basically patched you up and back to normal and-"


    "AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The man screamed, his hands moving from his throat to his head.


    "Oh yeah, I gave you eyes now. Your brain might have a tough time adjusting to that but you¡¯ll be fine in a few hours. Anyways, I wouldn¡¯t go back to your clan, they would kill you in an instant if they saw what I had done to your bloodline. Also, I didn¡¯t get rid of the bloodline curse, I just altered it. If you hurt any innocent people, you¡¯ll die. Understand?"


    "Of the Immortal Rank?" The boy whimpered.


    "Well, you can work it all out when you¡¯re not in agonizing pain. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve committed what I¡¯ve said to memory. Have a good life and may I never see you again."


    I had done enough for the man. I had saved him from his own sect, but I couldn¡¯t be bothered to save him for the desert. He could work that part out on his own.


    "You might want to get going though. The sun¡¯s coming up real soon and the oasis can only last about a couple more days."


    I didn¡¯t bother wishing the man any luck.

 Chapter 18 Family

    Tai Lui sat firm in his jade-carved seat. The pavilion that contained him was massive, stretching across almost half a kilometer in size. It was designed to contain tens of thousands of people, with chairs set up everywhere in a colosseum-like manner, all with his throne at the center. But it was empty now, aside from Tai Lui and the thing that bowed before him.


    "What did you say?" He said, his voice echoing throughout the empty hall.


    "Cai Xiun is back Honored Clan Patriarch, and the Sect Patriarch calls for your presence," the man spoke, with his head still perpendicular to the floor.


    Tai Lui stood up with such force and fury that the jade throne beneath shattered into infinite pieces, with some of its fragments flying toward the outer disciple and burying themselves into his face. The disciple did not move, even as blood leaked from his face and onto his clothes, he did not acknowledge the pain. The young man was in pain, of course, but the only thing worse than a marred face was death. And all those under the Tai Clan knew that not showing the Clan Patriarch respect, even in the face of agony, meant death.


    "Did the Patriarch tell you why he calls for me?" Tai Lui growled.


    "No Clan Patriarch, merely that it was a gathering of all the Clan Patriarchs and Sect Elders within the Flowering Sword Sect."


    Tai Lui nodded and walked out into the courtyard, with a hidden grimace on his face.


    "Dammed Hollowed Echo bastards," he whispered.


    How could they fail an assassination of a mere second rank boy, especially after all he¡¯d paid them? He¡¯d gone through the trouble of setting up most of the assassination himself. It was he who had helped the boy¡¯s mother flee the sect, and it was he who planted the seeds for his punishment.


    Had the boy learned of this? No. That couldn¡¯t be it. Even the Hollowed Echo didn¡¯t know who he was, though he didn¡¯t doubt they had their suspicions. But they wouldn¡¯t have turned tail for no reason, it would have incriminated them as well.


    If it was a meeting of all the elders, he would have to attend. To not attend would only bring suspicion in the eyes of others. And though many hated the bastard child, no one wanted to take the blame for this attempted assassination. They would be scrambling to find a scapegoat, and Tai Lui couldn¡¯t allow them to push that role upon him.


    And he had not used anything that could be traced back to him. He had done all the work himself, and yet¡­ yet all that was for nothing. Tai Lui breathed an angry breath and contained all of his frustrations. For now, he would need to act impartial to avoid suspension. He had worked towards his goals his whole life, making sacrifices of both people and resources, and no mere bastard would get in the way of that.


    Tai Lui leapt into the sky, pulling out his sword mid-air. He funneled his qi into the blade, activating the flight enchantment. The blade itself was large and flat, and it wouldn¡¯t do well as a weapon, but this specific sword had been designed for flight, not for battle.


    The sword carried him higher and higher until his pavilion turned into a small dot beneath him. From this height, he could see all the landmarks of this specific area and navigation became an easy task. It was as if he was floating over a map.


    With hidden fury, Tai Lui aimed his sword toward the Broken Isles of the Flowering Sword Sect¡¯s headquarters and propelled.


    ********


    Cai Xiun sat down comfortably in his new room. They hadn¡¯t believed him at first. When he told them his story he¡¯d been called a deluded liar. The grand elder he¡¯d spoken with had sneered at him and brought him directly before the patriarch to recount his tale.


    He had probably been expecting Cai to crumble and admit that it was all a lie, but Cai hadn¡¯t. Had the grand elder taken the time to ask Cai for proof, he would have presented it. But instead, it was the patriarch who asked for proof, and it was to the patriarch it was given.


    Cai had pulled out the cup that the Honored Master had used to demonstrate the Flowering Sword Style and presented it to the patriarch. The cup itself was undeniably common, but the Dao it contained was immense. The Honored Master¡¯s demonstration had left a bit of understanding imbued within the cup and made it a treasure for those who practiced the Flowering Sword Style. Words had flown, rage had spewed, and at one point Cai had been accused of sharing the technique with someone more powerful than him to support his lies.


    But the patriarch had shot all those theories down one by one.


    "This Dao represents an understanding of the technique that even I can marvel at. Even if Cai were to have shared the technique, this level of mastery within a matter of days is immense. Whoever this person is, their strength is comparable to mine if not greater," the patriarch had said.


    And so Cai was put away while the elders came together in discussion.


    It wasn¡¯t awful, waiting as others discussed your fate. It wasn¡¯t something new to Cai, but he never enjoyed it as much as he did this time. He had been given a new residence, one five times the size of his old one, and it was located near the center of the Broken Isles, making it supreme for cultivation.


    The servants here were skilled. He had no servants in his old courtyard, they had all been killed by his cousins when he was young. He could have asked for new ones but he knew they would follow the same fate, so he had kept a servantless house. But the ones here seemed strong, and the guards at the gate were beyond the third realm, meaning his cousins couldn¡¯t kill them if they wanted to.


    Though Cai did wonder whether they were guarding him against others or preventing him from escaping, a little bit of both he supposed. News like this would make the whole of the region go mad. A new cultivator, one they had never heard of before suddenly appearing and settling down here had a lot of implications, and they would get whatever knowledge they could from Cai before approaching him.


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    Some might wish to approach him in an attempt to earn merit for the clan by bringing the man to their side. Others would be scrambling to sell the news to the other sects, either way, Cai¡¯s information would be valuable.


    But it seemed like even the Sect Patriarch had made note of that and had given Cai a room only a few li away from his own, and he had assigned Cai guards to keep him safe from his cousins. Had this been the Cai before the journey, he might have confused the action with love, but the Cai of now could see things clearly.


    And then there was the matter of his assassination. The honored master had given him some advice pertaining to this problem.


    "Be wary of those that defend you. When it comes to cultivators, if they butter you up they¡¯re probably planning to eat ya."


    Though the wording was unusual, Cai understood the meaning. The guilty will act in excess kindness if only to hide their malice.


    Cai kept this in mind.


    There was a knock on his door followed by a yell.


    "Cai Xiun," the guard yelled.


    "Your cousin wishes to meet with you."


    "It¡¯s alright, Cai knows me. Now step out of my way-"


    "The Sect Patriarch has declared that Cai Xiun is to be left undisturbed."


    There was a noise that sounded like an attack, and followed that was the sound of a body hitting the floor.


    "You dare? Do you know who I am? My father is Li Fou and he will have your head for this!"


    Ah, so this was Xi Fou.


    "Cai Xiun, tell this dog off and send him away!"


    If they butter you up they¡¯re probably planning to eat ya.


    Xi Fou should have known better than this. The boy was stupid, but he was never this stupid. The guards outside wore the uniform of the sect patriarch and even Xi Fou should have known that his father had no ability to command the patriarch¡¯s people. So¡­ what was truly happening?


    So far it had been the patriarch who had defended him. His own grandfather, who had treated him as if he was nothing more than a dirty dog on the side of the street, had suddenly started to show obsessive kindness. The man hadn¡¯t apologized for anything, because to apologize was to admit fault and he was incapable of that. But he had been treating Cai better now, even gifting him a new residence with new servants and guards.


    The patriarch had as much to gain as anybody else from Cai¡¯s information. Maybe Xi Fou¡¯s appearance was a part of that plan.


    "Let him in," Cai said.


    There was a click as the door was opened. A square-faced disgruntled young man entered, giving the guard a dirty look as he came in.


    "You need to get yourself better guards cousin. He may be strong, but what use is a servant who doesn''t know their place."


    Cai''s mind flashed back to the day he had found his servants'' dead and dismembered bodies piled up in his courtyard. There had been a group of children there, laughing at his horrified expression. Xi Fou had been one of them.


    "What do you want?" Cai asked.


    Xi Fou smirked.


    "Little Cai," he teased. "It seems what they say is true. You must have gotten stronger during your little mission. Either that or you¡¯ve grown more stupid."


    "I don¡¯t care to see you Xi Fou. What do you want?" Cai repeated.


    "Hmm, well I came by because I¡¯d been hearing all those rumors about your mission. Some say you¡¯ve found hidden treasures, others say that you have learned techniques from some great hidden master. I¡¯ve merely come to learn the truth."


    Cai looked at the Xi Fou, not just a mere observation but truly inspected the man. He glanced up and down the man, studying his posture and demeanor. Xi had clearly come here for something, but Cai doubted it was for information. Although Xi had tried to hide it, he had seemed surprised when Cai let him in, as if he was expecting to be kicked out.


    Cai looked towards the guard.


    Be wary of those that defend you.


    Was this a trap? Was this instigated by his grandfather to make Cai feel indebted to his guards? The new courtyard, the capable servants, the better treatment? Was his grandfather merely using him as some tool?


    "Well, are you going to tell me or will you just be staring off into the distance like one of those sightless rats?"


    Cai looked at him suspiciously.


    "What do you know of the Hollowed Echo Sect?"


    Xi Fou looked a little surprised at the reaction before sternly readjusting his robes.


    "Nothing everyone else doesn¡¯t. Why? Was it one of their blind bastards that taught you something?"


    "One of them tried to kill me," Cai answered.


    "Hah! And they failed! Truly a lowly sect if they couldn¡¯t kill someone as weak as you! Or maybe they thought a first rank would be enough to overpower you and you somehow managed to escape? Huh, cousin?"


    Xi Fou was trying to get information in the most idiotic and clumsy way possible. Cai was sure the boy thought of himself as a genius for creating all these half-hearted insults to throw his way.


    "The man that almost killed me was of the fourth rank," Cai stated.


    Xi Fou''s face went from laughter to shock in an instant.


    "The fourth rank? Absurd! There is no way that-"


    "Guard, remove him."


    The third rank nodded as he looped an arm around the young master¡¯s arm and pulled.


    "Get your filthy clanless hands off of me! My father will have your bloodline for this! To dare to insult one of my- Cai tell him to let go of me! I swear you will regret this Cai Xiun!"


    Xi Fou didn¡¯t rebel, but he continued cursing at Cai as he was taken.


    "You lame bastard boy with your fish-stained blood daring to move against me! Whatever you¡¯ve gained in that desert will be taken away eventually and you have no family! Wait for me then you mutt mixed bast-"


    There was the sound of a body being thrown and Xi Fou¡¯s cries were replaced with a distant thump.


    Cai closed his eyes, running through what had just happened. Why would Xi Fou act like this around the Sect Patriarch¡¯s guards? Everyone knew they were beholden to no one but the Patriarch himself. Who had sent him here? It might have been out of his own volition but¡­ maybe there was more to it?


    Cai sighed. These bastards wanted nothing more than to take and take and take. He thought about the Honored Master and the things that he had said. But more than the master, he found himself thinking about the mortal old man who had stood against him in that village. The old farmer that called the Honored Master his friend.


    ¡®Don¡¯t make it sound like an insult. No job more noble in my eyes. I keep people fed and alive while you swing your swords and spit blood at each other.¡¯


    Then Cai thought of his own ¡®family¡¯ and the way they had treated him. He thought about his grandfather, the Patriarch who had clung desperately to his daughter to try and get a grandson out of her that he could prop up as his heir. The cousins who had beaten him repeatedly out of spite. The mother who had left him to this fate and the father he had never met.


    All of them had been selfish, taking and taking and taking, and when Cai thought about this a deep disgust roiled inside of him.

 Chapter 19 The Elders Court

    Cai Xiun walked up to the center of the Elder¡¯s Court. There were eyes all around, analyzing every move he made. Everyone of any significance was here, from Sect Elders to Clan Patriarchs and even the Sect Patriarch himself was here, sitting on a throne that overlooked everyone.


    "Cai Xiun," the patriarch said. "The things you have claimed to see are of great importance to the Sect and will impact our future deeply, as well as the future of this region. We need to know exactly what happened."


    Cai had told them exactly what happened already. He had done this three times over, and this was now the fourth time he would tell them again. This was under the guise of making sure he didn¡¯t forget anything, but they were really trying to get all they could out of him, though all the probing inquiries that came with the second and third sets of questions made him realize something. They wanted him to contradict himself.


    Thankfully he had come up with a barebones version of his story that he didn¡¯t add on to or change in any way, laying out what happened over and over again no matter how many times they asked. It was clear that some of them wanted to accuse him of something, if for no reason than to take away the perceived merit, he would gain from providing this information.


    All of his aunts and uncles feared that this contribution might help legitimize his long-disregarded birthright of Sect Patriarch and some of them were stumbling over themselves to accuse him of lying, coming up with miraculous theories to slander him with. But they were mostly ignored or shot down. And some even stood up for him, creating a small faction of supporters amongst the sect.


    Namely Tai Lui, Sect Elder of the Flowering Sword Sect and head of the Lui Clan. Cai had never noted the man before as he was just one of the many elders within the sect, but now he seemed to be eager to defend him. It could have been simple greed of course. Tai Lui could have merely been trying to curry favor with Cai for political reasons but the Honored Master¡¯s words kept repeating in his head.


    Cai finished recounting his story for the fourth time. There was no open pushback this time. Most of the elders were in deep thought, a few stared at him with intrigued eyes. There was a small silence for a minute before one of the elders spoke.


    "Cai Xiun, you claim that you were attacked by a member of the Hollowed Echo Sect? A rank four? And you believed him to have been an assassin from our Flowering Sword Sect?" The elder asked.


    "I know he was. He taunted me with that information," Cai replied.


    The elder ignored Cai¡¯s tone.


    "And what reason do you have to trust his words?"


    Cai shrugged.


    "What reason do I have not to? There¡¯s no one outside of this sect who hates me and the Raging River hasn¡¯t even acknowledged my existence. The Hollowed Echo doesn¡¯t like instigating conflict without fruit, so it most likely wasn¡¯t out of their own initiative. And my assassin only failed because he wasn¡¯t aware of Master Bill¡¯s presence at the time. He was of the fourth rank and I was of the second, which made it impossible for me to escape. He was an expensive guarantee for my death, so why would he lie before he killed me? " Cai responded.


    Even though his voice was calm and concise, his words were heard throughout the whole court and there was a sense of anger and indignation throughout the crowd of elders. He claimed that the assassin was hired by the Flowering Sword, and more so he had noted the price of a fourth-rank assassin. It was a fairly minute statement, but the accusation was clear.


    Very few people in the whole sect could afford to hire an assassin, especially one of the fourth rank, and most of them were right here. One of the elders had tried to kill him, that was the implication. It was a theory that the elders would have arrived at themselves, but it was one thing for them to think and another for a mere second rank bastard to say it.


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    It was a bold accusation and not one entirely without flaws either. There were many people who lacked cultivation but had money that could have been the perpetrators, but those would be relatively easy to rule out. Bastard child or not, Cai was the grandson of the Sect Patriarch. None who killed him would be able to live once his grandfather found out, not because his grandfather loved him, but because his grandfather loved himself. Cai¡¯s death would be an insult to the Patriarch¡¯s name, and so those who would do such a thing would have to be strong enough to withstand his wrath.


    "Cai Xiun, your words will be taken into account," the Patriarch said.


    And with a nod, Cai was dismissed. Cai walked out of the Elder¡¯s Court and into the sidelines. The discussion was already happening amongst them as he left the room. The final say would be the Patriarch¡¯s but everyone would get to voice their case before him.


    Cai put his hands to his side and felt the blade at his waist. It was new, a gift from the Sect for his accomplishments. It was a blade worthy of those at the third rank and it also had a flight enchantment already woven into the thing. Flying swords were common with most cultivators, but Cai had never been able to obtain one. Most of the tradesmen and artisans within the city were too afraid of insulting one of the other young masters by helping him and had politely refused attempts at bargaining.


    The blade itself was a mix of form, function, and beauty. It was great for the Flowering Sword Style and was made specifically with Cai''s Ten Thousand Petals Art in mind. And the divot of the double-edged blade was artwork of the region''s past. The metal was stained with intricate pictures of a demonic army clashing against the forces of the Five Sects. The army was filled with beasts and monsters of all kinds, from beautiful humanoids to corrupted beings of despair, and the cultivators wore clean simplistic clothes and charged forwards with their blades in hand.


    Cai had seen the picture before in old scrolls and history books. It was a very famous depiction of a battle that had happened a hundred thousand years ago. It was back when demons warred against men and waves of demonic beasts would come by and ravage the region. But that was all in the past and the last wave of demonic beasts had happened over ten thousand years ago.


    A few still showed up here and there, but they were mostly individuals or small pack-like groups. The Bloody Fist Sect made sure to take care of them for the most part. That group of bald-headed monks would rather die than let a demon breathe another second.


    Cai pushed his qi into the blade and a light hum came from it as it started to hover. With some nervousness, he leaped right on top of it half expecting it to fall. When the sword held true, he put in more qi, forcing the blade higher and higher into the air, until he could see the whole of the Broken Isles.


    The Broken Isles was the most prized piece of land for The Flowering Sword Sect. The land itself exuded massive amounts of qi and there was the constant Dao of the Flowering Sword within the air. It was said that practicing a technique here was ten times more beneficial than practicing anywhere else. Three of the seven suns were shining all together today, which was a rare occurrence that only happened a few times a year, and the water that flowed throughout the isles caught and reflected the different color spectrums of the light.


    "Hmh?" Cai said as he looked at the shattered pieces of land.


    There was something familiar about its shape though. Cai had never been up here before. He¡¯d seen maps and diagrams, but never the actual isles themselves. He flew, pushing himself higher and higher until he could see the whole of the Broken Isles.


    "Could this be?"


    Cai looked down at the ground. The Broken Isles were a few miles wide and had a tapering curve to them. They were higher than the surrounding ground, and the water produced in the center of the place flowed off of the Isles and into the surrounding area. Cai had read that isles had been built up and created into this pattern by the creator of the Flowering Sword Style in order to let the flow of the water inspire his juniors. Many would sit by the waterside and cultivate for ages on end, merely observing the flow of the water, and trying to mimic that flow with their qi.


    Cai thought back to what the honored elder had said about flow of qi and how important it was to the flowering sword style, and then he gazed down at the land with eyes wide in wonder. They were right, in a way. The creators of the Flowering Sword Style had made the Broken Isles. But they hadn¡¯t been built up like the Sect believed. No, Cai had seen the patterns of isles before, somewhere else. And they had not been intricately carved onto a piece of stone but had been put on a boulder as a result of an attack.


    The pattern of the Broken Isles was just the result of an attack. And the reason the Isles stood above the surrounding land was not because they had been built up, but because they had been whittled down. The Broken Isles had once been a mountain, and that mountain had been grazed by an attack just as perfect as the one that the Honored Master had shown him.

 Chapter 20 A Parliament of Beasts Part 1

    I walked through the forest with the group of maidens. Mei Shan and Lin Tai led us through the woods, while the other girls: Xi Lu, Rin Wi, Yai Mien, Mei Vil, and Bri Lou all walked to the side of me, though their stride was a little further behind mine. I didn¡¯t really know where we were going. I had been cooking breakfast this morning and saw them all outside standing in a row.


    The girls hadn¡¯t really explained much and had just asked me to come along with them. And it was rare for them to ask anything of me, so I complied without question and went along. But we¡¯d been walking for over an hour and I was starting to get a little curious.


    "Where are we going?" I asked them.


    "It is the Divine Beasts honored master. They ask for your presence," Lin Tai answered.


    "The beasts?" I questioned.


    The divine beasts had mostly kept to the forest, hiding in small cracks and fluttering about here and there. I did get some whiffs of sparring going on amongst them, but I really couldn¡¯t be bothered to step in for stuff like that. As long as no one died or was brutally injured, it really wasn¡¯t a problem for me. Violence was an ever-present aspect of nature, they were used to fighting to survive and I couldn¡¯t really expect them to not have some form of hierarchy, so I let them be for the most part.


    Some of them did leave the forest regularly and had even taken to watching the villagers as they worked. One pheonix, in particular, had taken to perching above the local bakery and singing for the villagers like a sparrow. In return, the little bird would get some fresh bread from the bakery, the old baker Tam Chu had even given her a cute pet name. And I had seen that arrogant dragon swimming around in the pond like a thin overgrown worm. He called himself King of The Central Dragon Pond.


    "They seem to have reached some political impaction and seek you for guidance," Lin Tai clarified.


    "Politics?" I asked. "With beasts?"


    Lin Tai nodded in response.


    "They didn¡¯t explain all to me but from what little I did hear, it seems that they are having trouble with resource distribution and creating a consistent power hierarchy," She explained.


    "Interesting, do you have any knowledge of politics Lin Tai?"


    "I was trained in bureaucracy honored master," she answered.


    I knew the girls had a number of talents, but I hadn¡¯t ever bothered to ask what they were. I would keep that in mind.


    Beasts did sometimes have to work out politics, but most of it revolved around territorial lines and the general rule was that the strong got their pickings first while the weaker ones could take what was left behind.


    But that only applied to forest beasts and beings confined within a certain territory. Divine beasts were beyond that. They would have laid in the endless expanse of space where the closest living being would be billions of light years away, but I guess being confined to this forest made them act in a similar fashion to regular spirit beasts.


    After a few more minutes of walking, we finally arrived at a large clearing. The area was cleaned up and the ground was leveled. It lacked deformations and the grass was trimmed to the perfect size.


    The clearing itself was littered with hundreds of tiny animals. Miniature divine beasts had all gathered there. There were tiny elephants with even tinier galaxy-like structures circling their tusks. There were lions with manes of nebulas and pods of whales that swam in the very fabric of space and time. But the numbers didn¡¯t stop there. Tiny blinking eyes stared at us from the trees and the forest floors. There was more hiding outside of the clearing and the forest lit up like a starry night with their presence.


    It must have been a bit much for the girls. Being stared at by a small army of gods would have shaken many, but most of them glanced past the girls and directly studied me. And though they were small, their mere presence caused a weight of laws and power that sank reality into a pit. There was light prodding and poking of the metaphysical sort. A bit of abrasive qi here and there, an unwinding of the space-time surrounding me. Nothing that amounted to a direct challenge, more like a glaring look from across the room, in a cosmic god-like way.


    I glared back.


    The beasts quickly settled down, and the world warped back to the way it was. The animals parted into two separate aisles, giving me a direct view of the center of the clearing. There was a stump there about the size of a small house and the center had been carved out into a mini stadium-like area with a small platform at the bottom.


    The workmanship was shoddy. The carving had been made with a purpose in mind and had no care for aesthetics. It lacked that human touch that cared about angles and appearances. But what it lacked in beauty it made up for in power.


    Within the small coliseum was a group of the most powerful beasts in the forest. Every being there was at the tenth rank or higher and they each stared at me fiercely.


    We desire a conference, the dragon declared.


    "Is this about the pond? Because honestly, those kids have been pissing there long before you ever claimed it."


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    I do not care about those minor filths, the dragon replied.


    "Oh," I said, somewhat disappointedly.


    "Then what¡¯s all the fuss about?"


    The phoenix, who now resembled a very red woodpecker flew up and above the small coliseum and up at my eye level. She then settled herself, landing on a small platform of solidified qi, higher than all the beings below her.


    There is a need for balance, and as the maker of this place, the duty falls on you to keep it.


    "Is that so?"


    The little bird stared up at me defiantly. There was a little bit of fear and trepidation in her eyes, but there was some sort of confidence there too. A belief that I would do as she asked.


    "Well," I said staring down at all the beasts beneath me. "What¡¯s the problem then?"


    As the array grows in power, so does the ambient qi in the valley. We believe that the natural flora and fauna of this region will receive a lot of this ambient qi and blossom into useful resources.


    "Ah¡­ and without the ability to fight or use your strength to determine a permanent hierarchy you need another method of settling disputes. You can fight, but no actual threat to life, the fighting never really ends. And since you can¡¯t fight over the resources, you need to figure out a way to distribute them?"


    The phoenix looked at me and gave a slight bow with her head.


    This stump beneath me was but a normal tree a week ago. But it had a lucky spurt of qi and sprouted into an evergrowing oak.


    I studied the tree stump and could verify what she was saying. I had assumed that one of the beasts had made the tree grow in such a fashion, but it seemed to be natural. Well, as natural as a tree suddenly feeding on an influx of qi could be, but it made sense, the stronger the creature the stronger the qi they produced. That was the reason the Divine Beast Emporium had based itself upon a giant eldritch monstrosity of the seventeenth rank. The array that contained the thing had been devised by a previous Array King and even though there were dangers to be expected if the array containing the beast ever broke, they were willing to risk it to reap the rewards.


    And my array was doing something of a similar thing. It lived, it cultivated, and it produced.


    "Interesting¡­" I said, looking down at the huge stump.


    "Did it produce any fruit?" Lin Tai asked.


    The beasts all turned to her and glared. The phoenix looked disgusted that Lin Tai had even dared to look in her the eyes, much less open her mouth. Pressure fell on the girl as the beasts stared and the weight of their presence was bared on her shoulders as she struggled to look up.


    "I- I- I- apolog-"


    Before Lin Tai could apologize, I pushed back.


    The phoenix fell from the air, slamming against the forest floor. There was a light thud that could be heard all throughout the forest as the flying beasts found themselves dropping like poisoned flies. The ones that had been on solid ground now found themselves struggling to stand and every beast in the area had their heads against the floor, giving a somewhat informal kowtow. The thing was though, their heads were aimed in the direction that they were glaring at, which happened to Lin Tai.


    "No need Lin Tai. I think they¡¯re the ones who should apologize for not answering the question, especially when you¡¯re gonna be in charge of creating a system to distribute these resources."


    There was an intangible scream that seemed to echo throughout the place as the beasts all reacted to the news. Reality bucked as every single one of these beings tried to shake off my grasp on them in protest. Space and time confounded and the thin sheet of existence was stretched.


    But there was nothing they could do.


    "Wh- What?" Lin Tai asked.


    "Well you have the training and you do seem to show interest in the subject, so I figured you could come up with a solution."


    "But- but- but-"


    "Unless you don''t want to?" I asked.


    Lin Tai looked at me, and then at the phoenix on the floor, and then back at me.


    "It would be my honor to help these Divine Beasts in their endeavor."


    "Not help," I corrected. "Lead."


    Lin Tai frowned at my words but gave a resolute nod.


    "I shall¡­ I shall lead them to the best outcome."


    I looked towards the beasts, slowly letting up the pressure and allowing them to raise their heads.


    "I know I can¡¯t force that instinct out of you, so I¡¯ll explain it in a way you can understand. Here your strength means nothing, and for all you have, you are nothing without your strength. Lin knows about governments and management, which is worth more than what the strongest of you can offer in this situation, and this in a way is strength. She is your better."


    But she is weak! She would have died a thousand times over if not for your protection! The dragon roared.


    "And you would have died already if she had," I replied.


    It is the strong that should lead.


    I sighed.


    "Then think of this as the strong leading. If might makes right, then I am might and I make right."


    The animal stared at me fiercely, as if contemplating taking his chances in battle, and then he lowered his head in defeat.


    I sighed. I felt bad, in a way. I was forcing humanity onto creatures that were inherently not human. To them, right and wrong were instincts meant to be used and thrown away. They lived in the cruel and amoral world of nature, where the right thing was ensuring your own survival. It was survival of the fittest that guided them, and yet here I was pushing my own beliefs onto them.


    I looked at the little coliseum that they had made.


    "What¡¯s that all about?" I asked.


    We created it as a place of gathering. We sought to discuss this distribution in a reasonable manner.


    "That sounds awfully human-like of you."


    None of the beasts responded.


    The idea was proposed by a chick in the phoenix¡¯s flock. None of us cared for the idea but none of us cared to stop it.


    I looked around and saw a small chick on the ground huddling behind the coliseum. I recognized it. It was the same phoenix that would sing in front of Tam Chu¡¯s place. She had even let Tam pet her a couple of times. I took a second to think.


    "Lin Tai, I have only a few rules on the distribution of resources. One, it can¡¯t be based on strength. Two, it must be fair to every beast the best it can. And three, let the beasts themselves have a say in it, though you¡¯ll be able to veto them anytime."


    Lin Tai stood there, giving me what must have been the most stressed-out smile I had seen in the past millennium, and nodded.


    "I shall do as you request honored master!"

 Chapter 21 A Parliament of Beasts Part 2

    The first thing Lin Tai had them do was divide themselves into groups based on their species. Then she had every group send a few beasts as their representatives. The number of representatives each group would have was based on the total number of that species. For every one hundred members of that species, they would get one representative. The lions numbered 1,000, and so they got ten representatives. The baboons numbered 1,500, so they had fifteen representatives. After grouping up a couple of species herself, the rest of the beasts followed suit and did as she organized. This would be a way for the beasts to make decisions based on population size and Lin Tai called this, The House of Many.


    The pack animals did the best of course, the wolves had twenty-three members and the buffalo had thirty. The birds had decided to group all together and their total numbers engulfed nearly every other faction. A murder of crows, an unkindness of ravens, a bevy of doves, and even a few stray parrots, they had all come together to form one big fowl group under the phoenix¡¯s flock. But the largest of them all came from the groundhogs. Their total number of representatives was fifty-three, which meant that the groundhogs numbered over 5,300 in total.


    Surprisingly, the arrogant dragon hadn¡¯t joined a group. All he wanted was his pond and nothing more. No subordinates, no land, just his pond.


    Another house was made to represent the animals by their strength. This didn¡¯t appeal to me but Lin Tai believed that there would need to be something to appease the strong individuals in the group. And since it was just a method of representation, it didn¡¯t directly oppose the first rule I had set out. It was composed of all the rank twelve beings in the forest, regardless of their species, and it had sixty-six members. It was far smaller than the House of Many, and because of that, each individual member¡¯s vote would be far more powerful than those of the House of Many. Lin Tai called this one, The House of Strength.


    And the last house was actually the simplest of the bunch. Lin Tai asked me to pick a few beasts that I liked and added a few more to my choices. This would compose the last house, The House of Wisdom.


    It was a strange form of government, but it had taken Lin Tai less than an hour to build. The idea was a sort of congress-like group where the beasts could handle making decisions on their own. Lin Tai would still enforce some laws herself of course, but the governmental houses would allow the beasts to guide and grow their little society as they saw fit.


    There was a cooperative system of checks and balances that allowed each house to have some control over the other. It went something like this, The House of Many would make the rules, The House of Strength would enforce them, and The House of Wisdom would inspect the rules and reject any rules they thought were unjust. It echoed back to ye old American democracy in a way, with its three branches of government, but it also differed in many ways.


    "Wow," I said by the end of all of it. "That was very well done."


    "Thank you honored master. Back in the Divine Beast Emporium, management, and establishment of governance for the pet planets was a task given to the servants. I had hoped to be one of those servants one day and had studied for the task," she responded.


    "I didn¡¯t know the beasts of the Emporium had governments on their planets. I thought they simulated the natural wild environments."


    "Ah¡­ they don¡¯t. But the Emporium also raises slave planets, and I had hoped to help govern them one day."


    I looked at her a little curiously.


    "You wanted to own slaves?" I asked.


    "No, no, far from it honored master. I was brought up on one of these planets as were all of my sisters. The servants in charge of our world were¡­ cruel at times. I had hoped that I would be assigned to one of these planets and could raise them right in some way. I had studied many different governments and societies, hoping to help construct something fair for one of these planets. It had been my life¡¯s dream."


    Lin Tai sighed in sadness and raised her head up to the sky, and I saw the other maidens¡¯ smiles tighten in fear at the action.


    "They had told us that we would be the servants of gods and the honor we would gain from doing so would be beyond our worth, and so we trained. I used to think that the reward would be worth all the pain and effort that I had gone through and that the end would be magnificent. I would serve gods, beings who were far above my own existence, surely the greater they were, the greater their kindness," she said with a sad chuckle.


    "I suppose I was being foolish," she mumbled.


    Then suddenly she turned and looked towards me, realizing what she had done. Fear overran her face and she stood up nearly trembling.


    "Not that they weren¡¯t my greater honored master. It was simply foolish of me to assume that they would even care about the existence of a small thing such as me-"


    "No," I interrupted.


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    "You¡¯re right. The Divine Beast Emporium is filled with selfish cultivators," I said leaning back into the soft ground of the clearing.


    "It¡¯s why they raise beasts. Most of their practitioners have the Dao of Beasts, might makes right and all. There are better sects, but that philosophy is common anywhere in the multiverse," I said motioning over to the beasts that now packed the little coliseum.


    "It sucks, but I guess it becomes harder to be good when you don¡¯t have to be, power corrupts and all that," I said.


    Lin Tai just stood there. I didn¡¯t know what she was thinking. Her face had a stiff and somewhat surprised smile, but all the other maidens had similar expressions on their faces.


    I laid back as I listened to the sound of bickering beasts. They had taken to politics pretty well, almost too well. They started bickering about things immediately and now the leader of the groundhog faction was chewing out members of the Herd Union for using intimidation tactics to push out the weaker beasts into fringe territories.


    "This is preposterous! For this much of the valley to be distributed to the Herd Union is a blatant theft from all Divine Beasts!" A small groundhog chirped, pointing at a small and poorly drawn map.


    The map itself was drawn on a leaf, and the ink was a mixture of berries and tree sap.


    "Well, we can¡¯t redistribute the land based on population size. That would give your individual species more power than some of the species coalition," a small buffalo rebutted.


    "And what about the Fowl Kingdom? I do not see our presence listed on this makeshift map of yours," the head of the phoenixes commented.


    "The Hunter¡¯s Alliance demands as much land as any other. We will not be treated like runts," a hyena giggled.


    "And what of our Free Beast¡¯s Republic? WE WILL NOT BE DISGRACED!" a small monkey chirped.


    Surprisingly, the stronger ones stayed out of the debate. Most of them had stayed still after my little tantrum. I frowned. I shouldn¡¯t care but I did. I had appealed to their beastly nature to get them to submit, but still, I hated it. I hated that strength was the only thing that could force them to stay in line, that even I needed fear to control them.


    I¡¯d seen it in the villager¡¯s eyes to a lesser degree. Fear, compliance, silent hatred, it was disgusting. I¡¯d be fine if they just cursed at me or called me a hypocrite. I could take that. There was some truth to that thought, after all. To keep peace by fighting for it was a strange self-defeating idea, but still. I knew that. I had come to terms with that.


    Fear and respect were two different things after all.


    So far the negotiations for land seemed to have gone the groundhog''s way, with them claiming nearly ten percent of the valley as their own. But then again, this was just a very recently established government. We didn¡¯t even know what owning the land meant, much less how they would enforce the rules or govern it.


    "Lin, you got it from here?" I asked her.


    "Ah yes," she answered, raising her head up as if snapping out of a daze.


    "Good," I nodded, getting up and dusting my clothes off.


    "I have dinner plans with Chin so I''ll be leaving. And remember, the beasts can''t hurt you."


    "Of course," Lin Tai replied.


    "Alright! See ya!" I said pushing the earth off my feet and soaring into the sky.


    ********


    Lin Tai watched as the honored master flew, turning into a spec in the air in mere moments. She felt strange. She felt¡­ well she wasn¡¯t sure what she felt but she felt surprised at the very least, and she could tell that all her sisters carried a similar sentiment.


    "What¡­ what he said? Do you think he believes it?" Lin Tai asked.


    "He is a strange man," Mei Shen replied. "You should not overthink his words. It will lead you nowhere."


    Lin Tai sighed. This was true. The man was an anomaly. He spent his days treating mortals like his equals while making divine beasts bow down to him in fear. He was truly a strange man. But there were a fair amount of eccentrics in the cultivator¡¯s world, and strangeness wasn¡¯t too uncommon.


    No the truly strange things about this man were what he said and the things he did. There was a sincerity about him, something that made you believe that he truly held firm to the things he said.


    Lin Tai and her sisters had ignored it at first. They had met many of these god-like beings, and surface-level kindness was not an uncommon thing to see. He had seemed similar, kind, respectful, and honorable. But that would only last so long.


    Powerful cultivators such as him were akin to people who take the spider outside of the house instead of killing it. And as much as they exuded kindness, the spider that bit the hand would be the one who got crushed. They all knew that the moment they stepped out of line would be the moment they would be squashed like insects.


    And even if they didn¡¯t, even if the cultivator didn¡¯t care about face or respect, there was still the difference between that of a man and a spider. They were small compared to him, almost nothing. Their lives were reductive and tiny, undeserving of acknowledgment from those as strong as him.


    It sounded cruel, but it was true. At the honored master¡¯s rank, he would be able to destroy a universe with little effort. He understood the very nature of the things that bound reality and he could make them and destroy them at his very whims. The divine beasts, beings that were practically laws made manifest, were forced to bow down to him.


    Truly, this man was above them. He might talk to them. He might eat with them. He might have put plans with mortals before the demands of the divine beasts. But none of that mattered, not truly. These were all eccentricities. Quirks. Nothing more.


    Lin Tai sighed. She slowly pushed that thought aside, but even in the back of her head, the thought was still there.


    Equals.


    She chuckled, drawing some of the beast¡¯s attention.


    "Alright, first of all, we have to discuss the idea of merits, technically the fruits you find do not belong to you but rather to the owner of the land, the honored master."


    There was an audible outcry at this statement, but this time the beasts did not push, and this time Lin Tai did not fear.

 Chapter 22 Po Pen Part I

    Po Pen was a busy man, possibly one of the busiest in the village. Though the busiest for sure was Chin Chin, or possibly Light Master Renk. They were always up to something. Chin never stopped farming and Renk was asleep during the day and up in that tower of his sending and receiving messages during the night. And while Po Pen wasn¡¯t nearly as busy as those two, he was, possibly, the third busiest person in town.


    Though no one knew that aside from him. No one really knew anything about Po, he rarely said a word, even when he was alone. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t talk, he could with some effort. It was just that talking had only ever led to more talking, and that was something beyond Po¡¯s abilities.


    He remembered his first words. Which was a rare thing for anyone to remember, but Po had started talking when he was eight years old and it had been one hell of an effort for him to get those few words out. His mother had screamed and his brother had dropped his bread in shock and everybody had gathered around him inquisitively, encouraging him to speak even more. He did, thinking that everyone was just trying to see it for themselves, but apparently, one demonstration wasn¡¯t enough.


    From then on his mother had tried to get him to ask for everything before she gave it to him, and his brother spent hours trying to get him to say some rather strange-sounding words. Po had learned later on that those words were vulgarities, but even if they weren¡¯t he still wouldn¡¯t have said them. His family¡¯s attempts had gone on for a month or two before they finally gave up and let him be. But Po kept his mouth shut for two more years before he let out another word, just in case. And by the time he was a teenager, everyone had accepted that he wouldn¡¯t talk unless he wanted to.


    Which was exactly the way Po liked it, though it did have some downsides. One of which was that people talked to him far more than they talked to others. He had seen regular conversations, one person speaking to the other, each side taking turns and involving themselves in the discussion. It was all very well managed and reasonable.


    But they weren¡¯t like that with him. For some reason, people talked a lot more with Po than they did with anybody else. It was like they were trying to make up for his lack of speech and talk for the both of them. Po would nod along, respectfully listening to the people as they went on, until eventually, they would notice how long they had been rambling and make a rush to whatever they had planned next.


    Po Pen sighed without noise as he drove his cart towards the edge of the town. He passed by houses made of Ivin Wood and watched as the century-year-old buildings stood tall and proud. Po studied the structures. Ivin Wood was one of the most essential materials of this region. It originated from somewhere beyond the region, but the best of it was grown down-strip, in the Hidden Viper¡¯s territory. The ones they had here were just the cheap cuts they managed to trade with the merchants on occasion.


    Of course, with the nature of Ivin Wood, if you had it once, you generally never needed it again. You could take a two-hundred-year-old splinter, plant it in a pot of soil, water it a bit, and have a tree standing there by the end of the year. The wood just refused to stay dead. It laid deep roots, which would give any building made out of the stuff an almost unshakable foundation, and it grew long, twisting, vine-like branches on the roof to get all the sunlight it needed. Almost all of the buildings in the village were made out of them, though some, like the tower, were made of stone.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Po slowed the horses seeing a small group up ahead of him. Kids were playing in the streets, though most of them cleared the way when they saw him approach. Some quickly ran inside and others just held their nose as he passed by. Po wasn¡¯t offended.


    He was the town cleaner after all. On his cart were large round jugs full of several hundred pounds of human feces, the solid stuff. The liquid was generally thrown into a series of small streams that ran through the town. It wasn¡¯t comparable to the sewer system that Po had read about that existed within the cities, but it held up. The village was generally clean and the people managed to live without the stench of shit cluttering up the air.


    And Po would make sure that things stayed this way. It was his job after all.


    ¡°It¡¯s the shit-man! Shit-man!¡± one of the kids yelled, finger raised and pointing.


    That child was a particularly mean boy, but his words didn¡¯t bother Po. He had been teased all of his life, and a few stupid words from one spoiled brat wouldn¡¯t do much to him. But, as an adult, Po was nothing if not a man of humor.


    He reached down into a small pot he kept next to his feet. It was filled with a runny clay mixture and had a certain diarrhea-like viscosity. He scooped up a small handful of the stuff and pressed it into a sloppy ball-shaped mess. And then, without warning, he hurled it at the kid.


    The boy screamed and ran, trying to avoid the throw, but it was to no avail. The brown mixture splattered on his shirt and stained his face with a very audible splat. The kid screamed, resigning himself to the floor and staring down at his shirt in horror.


    ¡°He threw shit at me! The shit-man threw shit at me!¡±


    Po smiled as he pushed the horses to a trot. He had never liked children. A minute later he was outside of town and heading over to his place of work. It was a large barnhouse-like structure that was right on the edge of a large swamp. This was Po Pen¡¯s domain, or as Mister Bill called it, his Septic Treatment Plant. Po Pen had always been a bit of an obsessive sort. Once he got a hold of something, he didn¡¯t like to put it down until he understood it in its totality. It was how he was, and this job had been no different. The previous cleaners used to just take the waste and dump it a few miles out of the village, but after Po took over the main program, he reworked the whole thing from the ground up.


    He had done research, which was a fairly tough thing to do when you were a mute in a medieval village. But he had done it, bothering Light Master Renk for all the books he had on the subject and bargaining with the merchants for information on certain types of plants and insects. It had taken him years of waiting and requesting certain types of plants from the traveling merchants, as well as having to pay for people to teach him things like arithmetics and carpentry for him to set this place up.


    Po wasn¡¯t old, he was twenty-eight, still young by most people¡¯s standards. He liked women, though he doubted that women liked him, and his job was a very disgusting one. He was mute and many thought of him as stupid or disabled, and he had never cared to correct them on that. He most likely would never have children and though a lot of people liked him, he could count his friends and family on both hands.


    But for all of his insignificance and trouble, Po had done this. He had set this place up. There were no longer any fields of shit in the distance. If the wind picked up, the village wouldn¡¯t be overwhelmed with the stench of feces. Kids wouldn¡¯t get sick playing out in the hills and it was all his doing.


    Po smiled. It was little, it was small, but it was his and it was important.

 Chapter 22 Po Pen Part 2

    Po walked into the large barnhouse-like structure and took a seat. He sat on a large wooden laid-back chair, and his arms dropped off of each side like limp worms. He was a fairly large man, both in height and in width and most chairs didn¡¯t meet his requirements for comfort. So Po, being the man he was, had built his own.


    There were two other cleaners who did the same job as him. They emptied chamber pots into large drum-like containers and brought them here for Po to deal with. And he paid them decently, about one tenth-silver per day and they did their job. It wasn¡¯t a Trader¡¯s pay, but it was enough to live on, though it wasn¡¯t like anyone could starve or go without shelter in this village. Chin would give them shelter, feed, and a hoe, and expect them to work with him from dawn till dusk.


    But either way, Po would need to hire more hands when the merchants came around. Especially since it was the Kong Clan that was responsible for this year¡¯s rainy season. The village didn¡¯t host all of the merchants that crossed the Great Desert Strip. They didn¡¯t even host a fraction of them. Only five merchant clans would need to use this place as a rest stop, but still, that meant for a period of two months their population would grow an astounding amount.


    And a greater population meant a greater amount of waste. But that wouldn¡¯t be the only problem Po would be dealing with. The biggest issue were their animals. Those giant insect-like beasts could eat half a forest''s worth of grass in a week, and they would, once they got here, but they wouldn¡¯t take that grass with them. No, they¡¯d leave a mess of manure in the valley and Po would have to find some way of treating it on the spot. It was far too much for him to move and leaving it there would only make it a huge waste of nutrients.


    If Po could process it, then Chin could use it over the coming year as fertilizer for his farms. But that was an if, a large and difficult if.


    ¡°Big man Po!¡± Mister Bill exclaimed behind.


    Po could tell it was Mister Bill, because he was the only one that came out here to talk to him, and he was also the only one who called him ¡®Big Man Po.¡¯


    ¡°How ya doing?¡±


    Po shrugged.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. How¡¯s the manure looking these days?¡±


    Po shrugged, a bit more vaguely this time.


    ¡°Worried? About what?¡±


    Po pointed up.


    ¡°Ahh¡­ that¡¯s got you concerned too, huh? The Kong Clan¡¯s rainy season?¡±


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    Po nodded and pointed to the left and then to the pile of manure on his cart.


    ¡°Yeah, those merchant bugs drop big loads. Are you still trying to find a way to process them?¡±


    Po nodded.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Mister Bill said in contemplation.


    Po sat up. Mister Bill was an intelligent man. The man was a reservoir of untapped information. He had helped Po test almost every theory he had ever had about plants. And whenever he wondered like that, one hand on the chin, the other crossed across his chest, it meant that he was thinking about helping, but hadn¡¯t decided on how yet.


    ¡°Say would you-¡±


    Po nodded vigorously.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t even told you what-¡±


    Po nodded vigorously once more.


    ¡°Are you sure-¡±


    Po repeated the action, this time with a slightly tired neck.


    ¡°Okay, but remember, you asked for this,¡± Mister Bill said as he walked out of the building.


    Po got up and followed him excitedly. Mister Bill never failed to deliver. He knew too much. Whenever Po had an idea, it was Mister Bill he would go to verify it to be true. For some reason, the man generally refused to outright tell him the correct answer but he would tell him whether or not his hypotheses were correct.


    There was no reason to doubt-


    Po blinked. There was someone else here. A woman.


    ¡°Po this is Xi Lu, Xi Lu, this is Po.¡±


    The girl smiled and gave a light bow.


    Po looked back and forth between Mister Bill and the new girl in confusion.


    ¡°Xi Lu has some particular training in plants and herbs that you might find useful. She¡¯s also got some knowledge in insects and the like, I¡¯m sure she can help you with your endeavors.¡±


    Po did another take, looking between the young girl and Mister Bill.


    ¡°Now, she can help you from noon to sunset and I expect you to pay her the same rates you do for your other cleaners. If you can provide her with the proper clothing, she can even start today-¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Po said, looking at the girl and then back at Mister Bill. The words came out coarse and horse-like, and Po¡¯s throat itched at the attempt.


    ¡°Not you?¡± He added for clarification.


    ¡°No, not me. But she knows a lot. And she can help you think of a way to deal with all of that manure.¡±


    Po frowned. He didn¡¯t like this. He knew Mister Bill and Mister Bill knew him. And somehow, the man was able to understand his thoughts almost perfectly from a few gestures and nods. And this person, this new girl, well he doubted she could do the same. And besides, she was small. She might know stuff, but he doubted she could lift a barrel of shit that was twice her weight.


    Po almost shook his head in rejection. Almost. But he didn¡¯t. Mister Bill knew what he was doing. Po Pen looked down and thought in silence.


    Then, eventually, he nodded.


    ¡°Okay,¡± Mister Bill said with a smile on his face, and then he left. Po would¡¯ve yelled at him to come back if he could.


    ¡°Hello. Mas- Mister Bill says that I will be helping you with your job today. This Xi Lu hopes to assist you the best she can,¡± the girl said, giving him an elegant half-bow in greeting.


    Po said nothing. This was going to take some getting used to.

 Chapter 23 An Approaching Delegation

    Their qi declared their presence as soon as they arrived. I guess it was their way of being courteous, but I would have known regardless. Their party was large, larger than I had originally thought. I¡¯d assumed that The Flowering Sword would have sent in their people first, trying to buddy me up before any of the other sects could have learned that I existed.


    But no, the party seemed to have a diverse amount of practitioners. I could tell that some were from the Flowering Sword Sect and the Hollow Echo, and the others were pretty easy to place based on their qi and auras. All in all, there were three fifth-ranked cultivators from each of the five sects. But even if I didn¡¯t count fifth ranks, there were still a decent number of weaker individuals in the party.


    Most were servants and disciples, extras to be brought out and flaunted. I recognized Cai, walking behind the caravan using a movement technique with a few other young people that surrounded him, walking like his equals. Young masters I assumed. Most of them walked by the boy attempting to have conversations about the trip and prodding him for information, even those from the other sects.


    "Alright Gauntlet, showtime!"


    Gauntlet gave me a nod and his body started to cave in. His rock form started to collapse and tumble down, reducing him from his inhuman height and rocky build to a much more manageable humanoid creature. Eventually, his rocky skin tumbled and reduced itself until it looked no different from human skin. His shiny marble eyes turned somewhat lumpy to resemble the human ones and stiff rock-like clothing bloomed from his body to cover the human flesh he didn¡¯t have. A few seconds later, where there had once been a golem, was now a person.


    One of the more annoying aspects of dealing with all of these sects would be the act of it all. I already prepared a place for them to rest. As much as I¡¯d love to just talk and kick them out fifteen minutes later, this was a delegation of sorts, and if you wanted respect then you needed to give respect. They would want to stay and discuss something, maybe for a day, maybe for a week, and then leave.


    The beasts had been warned as well. Most of them had nothing to be worried about. Even the weakest of them could hide well enough from fifth ranks.


    Then there was the matter of Gauntlet. I needed a servant of sorts to display my power, so I had Gauntlet disguise himself as a human and limit his cultivation to the fifth rank. He was still a little weird and incapable of emoting, but he could produce the right qi fluctuations and that was all that really mattered. A disciple of the fifth rank and a master of the immortal rank would be enough to sate their curiosity. There would be the annoying matter of them trying to drag me into their politics, but I could always say no.


    I kept an eye on the party as they worked their way here. Strangely enough, they weren¡¯t using flying swords, but carriages pulled by spirit beasts. It might have been due to their traveling size or maybe it was some display of respect by not flying over my territory. Either way, they would be here in about half a day and I was ready, more or less.


    As annoying as this was, it was somewhat crucial. The goal was to be respected but not feared and I didn¡¯t want them painting me as some powerhouse to the higher sects. I was aiming to walk the thin line that existed between being worthy of respect to the local Sects and not attracting the attention of the higher sects.


    There were easier ways to do this whole thing but most of those methods were morally confusing to say the least. I could use mind control or curses, or even take over the whole region and secretly puppeteer the leaders in front of the higher sects were all viable options, but they all felt wrong. I had never liked mind control, and anyone who had been mind controlled would agree with that sentiment.


    And besides, this way would be quicker, a-one-and-done type deal.


    I lowered my aura and circulated a technique to hide my true rank. It was actually a little tricky to pretend to be weaker than you were. If cultivation was a skill, then the strong had honed that skill to a great degree, and appearing weaker often meant purposely making mistakes that you had learned to instinctively ignore. Too pure of a foundation or too perfect of an aura would make anyone suspicious, so a few flaws and fluctuations were important here.


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    The sixth rank, or the Immortal Rank as most called it, was a huge leap in cultivation and changed the very nature of the person using it. These guys who rarely saw Immortals wouldn¡¯t be able to notice anything wrong with me, though I did make sure to play the part perfectly regardless.


    I watched as the caravan came to a slower trot as they approached the valley.


    "Alright," I sighed. "Let''s get this over with."


    I pushed down some light intent where they stood, my aura making my presence known. A few seconds later I floated down from the sky with all the elegance and strength of a sixth rank cultivator.


    They all stopped in their tracks as soon as they felt it. Some of the hooved spirit beasts let out small droppings of shit and stumbled a little.


    They all bowed unanimously as I descended to the sandy floor. They did well to keep their expressions hidden but I could sense fear in everyone of their auras. Their qi seemed to tighten up instinctively, like a stomach preparing for a brace and their bows were a little too deep.


    "Arise," I said, pulling in the little show of power I had made.


    "You must be the leaders of this region," I commented as I made a false study of each of them.


    There was a small moment of silence before a green haired lady stepped forward from the group.


    "Yes, honored master. We each represent the collective that governs over this small region, and it is our honor to greet you. This Lai Xin bows before you," she answered.


    She was one of the Hidden Viper. I took a quick look at the wisps of qi that wafted off her body. Something from the general Dao of Deception was in there, the Dao of Disguise maybe? Or the Dao of Stealth? I¡¯d wager she practiced techniques pertaining to both, and there was a faint smell of a bloodline technique, something that dabbled in poison, though it felt like she didn¡¯t practice the poison arts herself. Her fellow clan members however, showed that poison was indeed a part of their practice. One of them practically contaminated the very air as he breathed, even without stirring his qi.


    "It is our pleasure to greet such an esteemed man, both as the leaders of this region and the leaders of the Raging River Sect. This Mao Lee bows in respect."


    I almost snorted at the man¡¯s introduction. What was so esteemed about me? He¡¯d barely met me and yet his face was stained brown from kissing my ass so hard.


    This man¡¯s qi was simple, as was the rest of his compatriots. I could sense a bloodline that linked them to Cai somewhere in the group. But the only commonality was that all of them smelled of water and all of them had a lot of qi. I supposed with a name like the Raging River, they mostly prided themselves in might and less in ability. There were hints of techniques here and there and they weren¡¯t lacking in control, but there was no overarching Dao that the group seemed to share. It was merely one water-based bloodline tying the group together, nothing more.


    "This Gai Lu of the Bloody Fist Sect greets the honored master," an old man came and bowed.


    This man was different from the rest. He was a monk. His qi lacked any definitive law or element but instead had the distinct Dao of Destruction. Both of his fists practically glowed with qi and the old man¡¯s hands were made almost entirely out of scar tissue.


    Huh, a sect based entirely on the merit of practice. Those were common enough, but most of their techniques had fallen from one higher realm or another. That or they had been practiced and perfected by some wandering family for tens of thousands of years, before eventually becoming something that can bridge the gap between effort and natural privileges. Either way, the practitioners of such techniques were generally highly respected in their communities due to the sheer discipline it took to follow that path.


    "This An Fong bows before your presence honored master," a man whispered.


    This one I recognized. It was the Hollow Echo Sect, his qi was similar to the assassin I had met and around where his eyes should have been was a thin bandana that covered the wrinkled skin beneath. I suppose this was the way they presented themselves to the other sects. He had the same sound law flavor to his qi and if you dug just a little deeper you could smell the demonic stench, though I doubted anyone here could do that.


    I struggled not to frown at the bastard.


    "This Patriarch Fan Li greets honored master Bill," he said with a solemn expression on his face.


    His qi was similar to Cai¡¯s, the difference being the lack of the water law. I nodded and acknowledged them, as all the parties involved bowed slightly in a show of respect. I returned the bow.


    "Welcome to my abode fellow Daoists. It brings me joy that you all came down here so quickly."


    And with that, I started the little charade.

 Chapter 24 Silver Tongues and Crazy Monks

    I flew them over most of the valley and into my ¡®Sect Headquarters.¡¯ The place was nothing more than a massive maze-like complex, but that was sort of the point. It wasn¡¯t supposed to be a home or a resting place, but rather a museum of wealth and power. I had chosen the highest mountain with the best view of the area down below. The mountains were long, tall, and unscalable. It was impossible for mortals to climb it and it was just as hard for any cultivator below the second stage. A thin mist full of qi and morning dew secluded its peak from view, and only those with flying techniques could truly venture their way to the top.


    The guests were all impressed, or at least they acted like it. Immortals were as mythical to them as cultivators were to mortals, and that left me with some assumed roles to fit into. They would most likely be spending the night here in this complex. They had all traveled from all of their individual sects to the Flowering Sword Sect, and from there to the Great Desert Strip. It wasn¡¯t taxing for them by any means, but it was common courtesy to let a guest settle down after they traveled such a long way to see you.


    A few minutes into the greeting, I quickly realized just how lazy I had gotten in recent years. Talking was tiring and politics was a chore. I think they must have complimented me about fifty times within the first two hours, and for each compliment, I had to say something back to not appear rude. It was a lot of empty compliments and a competition of one cultivator trying to kiss my ass harder than the other.


    It was hours later now, and we were in a ceremonial tea room. Gauntlet stood in one corner carrying a pot of hot tea, and the five sect representatives sat kneeling on soft silk pads around the table. On the table was a small open flame at its center. Occasionally, when the tea ran out, Gauntlet would walk over to the table to make a new batch.


    "This is a beautiful place to cultivate, Honored Daoist Bill," Gai Lu said.


    The old monk scanned the mountain ranges, his scar-covered hands folded up neatly around his cup.


    "Truly beautiful. The sight must never age here for you to have settled down for so long," the man commented.


    Ahh, here it started. What he was really saying was, ¡®How long have you lived here?¡¯


    A lot of cultivators danced around topics instead of outright saying them in fear of accidental insults. Face meant the world to these people and because of that, they had learned to tread very carefully around the pride of those stronger than them. Even if they had obviously come here in search of information, they wouldn¡¯t risk being blatant and insulting me during the process. No, better to leave open-ended statements that could be glossed over without regard.


    "I¡¯ve been here for nine hundred years now and the sight still amazes me every time I look at it," I answered with a smile.


    "To be far removed from the chatterings of man and cultivator alike," An Fong nodded "This Daoist understands the beauty of silence."


    Another roundabout query. What he really wanted to say was, ¡®Why were you here so long without announcing your presence?¡¯


    "Mhm, I¡¯ve no taste for the troubles of the outside world," I said with a sage-like nod.


    "Ah yes, I imagine it can all be the same at your age Honored Daoist. Seeing the same fights play out over and over again," An Fong replied with a nod.


    "An old cripple like me truly has nothing better to do. This Dao of mine has broken so all I can do is sit here and watch the world go by," I replied with a feigned sad smile.


    Their eyes lit up in surprise at that statement. For most cultivators, a Dao was a necessary thing. If qi was the thing that would prevent the body from aging then Dao was the thing that kept the mind and soul safe and sane through eternity. It was needed to cultivate and you couldn¡¯t hope to cultivate or push forward without a Dao to morph and change your soul from that of a mortal to that of an immortal.


    Regardless of the stage, having a broken Dao was equivalent to being a cripple, stuck in stagnation, and unable to move forward.


    "We all reach a bottleneck, Senior Daoist. The best thing we can do with our troubles is to use them to nurture the next generation." Lai Xin said.


    All of them nodded in solemn comfort as if this news didn¡¯t cause them joy. In their mind, I was already stronger than them. But the fifth ranks did still have a small chance of catching up to me if not outright surpassing me sometime in the future. Or if they deemed it necessary, they could collectively pool together their total resources and hire some immortal assassin to take care of me. They had no reason to, of course. But I was still an unknown, and it was a small comfort for them to know that I was already at my limit.


    I couldn¡¯t help but be irritated at that thought. All of these people would trample me in an instant if they could. They found comfort in my limits and sought to exploit me the best they could. To them, I was a possible tool or a possible threat.


    And yet here they were, sighing and drinking tea while pretending to comfort my pain. If someone were to look in from the outside, they would think this was a gathering of wise and virtuous people. Maybe we would even look like old friends. But that couldn¡¯t be further from the truth, everyone here had blood on their hands, including me, but here we all were pretending to be saints.


    I sipped my tea. It wasn¡¯t really the evil that bothered me. In the greater realms, you didn¡¯t exist as long as I did without seeing your fair share of horrors. I¡¯d seen true evil, and I¡¯d seen paragons of justice that fought them back just the same.


    No, it was the hypocrisy of cultivators that I couldn¡¯t stand. It was the need and desire these people felt to dress up and wander around preaching ideas they would never practice, and for whose sake? Their own? The mortals they couldn¡¯t care less about?


    "Master Bill," Lai Xin said. "May our juniors make their introductions."


    "Ah yes, these juniors need to make a proper introduction to the newly honored master of The Great Desert Strip."


    I sipped my tea, acting all masterly and whatnot. Then I gave a gentle nod.


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    "Yes, let us head to the courtyard," I said.


    I stood up and led the group through the intricate manor. The manor itself was nothing more than a peacock of a building. I had made it to show off. That was important to cultivators. The most important form of power was your cultivation rank but the second most important was wealth.


    Wealth meant resources and resources drew eager eyes. There was nothing here that would tempt a being of seventh rank, or even one at the sixth to be sure, but that was sort of the point. One of these people would probably report me to whatever empire ruled over the region and what they witnessed here would make up the brunt of that report. I wanted to appear classy and capable to the people of this region but also poor and useless to whatever higher power they reported to.


    Finally, after a few minutes of guiding them through the place, we ended up in the courtyard. It was a big wide space with trimmed trees and carefully placed stones. I found the rest of their respective entourage standing there, most of them talking amongst themselves, some talking to the delegations of the other sects.


    Ah, politics. It infected even the youth. I had Gauntlet guide them to their respective rooms earlier, and while most of them stayed in those rooms some had gone out exploring. Those of the Hidden Vipper Sect had all left their rooms and inspected the premises while I was serving the guests. And some of the Raging River had released some techniques to measure the natural qi levels of the area. The Flowering Sword had all gone directly into meditation to test what Daos presented themselves within the place. And the Hollow Echo¡¯s people were busy using some sound-sensing techniques to map the building out.


    All in all, a very well-put-together line of approach. My finances, resources, techniques, chosen Dao, and even the building itself was being investigated. Each sect would gather information to find out everything they could about me.


    All of the juniors bowed in our direction as soon as we entered the courtyard, Cai amongst them. He looked more tired than anything, his newfound value within his sect must have been quite a lot to deal with. I could relate.


    Aside from the five that trailed behind me, there were twelve other fifth ranks and they sat in their groups, each removed from the lesser-ranked individuals. It was all very organized, except for the monks of the Bloody Fist Sect, they mingled with each other and meditated out in the open.


    "Ah, Master Lu," one of the monks said, bowing in Gai Lu¡¯s direction.


    "Honored Masters," he acknowledged the rest of us.


    "We were wondering if the village-"


    "Shin!" Gai Lu yelled, striking the boy fiercely on the head.


    "Show some respect before this Honored Master of the Great Desert Strip you idiot child!"


    The monk clutched his head bowed.


    "This one greets the Honored Master of the Great Desert Strip! Forgive my insolence!"


    "I apologize Honored Master Bill. This Shin Le is my student and it seems like the Dao has taken his mind in return for his talent. He is ignorant but he meant no offense," Gai Lu said with a bow.


    "It¡¯s no problem," I replied. "I¡¯m not one to fuss over face."


    The boy, still clutching the now noticeably sized lump on his head, looked up. There were visible tears swelling in his and I could see clear liquid starting to seep out of his nose. He turned to look at me.


    "Ho- Honored Master. The village down below has no priesthood or monks and I was wondering if it was possible for us to go down there to establish one."


    "Why would you do that?" I asked.


    "To protect against any demonic threats, Honored Master. Everyone must be diligent, even if the last known demonic threat happened over a thousand years ago, you can not allow yourself to get lazy and igno-"


    This time Gai Lu struck the boy even harder.


    "I truly apologize for this brazenly stupid disciple I have brought here," Gai Lu said. "Surely I will educate him."


    "Don¡¯t worry yourself, Daoist Lu. I¡¯ve met my fair share of similar people, it''s of no issue."


    "I am thankful for your benevolence," Gai Lu said with a bow.


    The other four stood there, their expressions unchanged. But it was still easy to see the subsequent shock in their aura. The only one amongst them who had decent control over her aura was Lai Xin, but the shock was still evident. But the most interesting reaction came from Gai Lu himself, it was a mixture of surprise and disappointment.


    Maybe he had been hoping that I would get rid of this kid for him. Or maybe it was something else. I turned to the child and spoke.


    "Don¡¯t worry yourself, little monk, there is no demonic energy within the valley. I have been watching it thoroughly for the last millennium and I myself make sure to thoroughly check the place with my disciple. If something were to arise, it would be my duty as the owner of this land to take care of it."


    The boy looked at me inquisitively.


    "Are you sure?" He asked.


    I nodded with a smile. Then the kid put his hands to his fist and gave a deep bow.


    "Thank you Honored Master of the Great Desert Strip for doing this diligent duty. May your Dao be true and your strength be righteous."


    I could sense all five of the Daoists tense at his statement. It was a common way of saying goodbye, but saying it to a man with a broken Dao gave it a different meaning. It was like telling a blind man that he has a bright future ahead of him. Kind words on the surface but easily interpreted as insults as well.


    I bowed back to the kid.


    "Of course, and to you as well, little monk," I replied.


    The boy nodded and returned to his group with a smile.


    The introductions went by pretty fast. There was a lot of bowing and ceremonious greetings, but only the fifth ranks introduced themselves thoroughly, the younger ones had mostly bowed their heads and said their names.


    After which, we all went over to a grand hall to discuss the matter of declaring this region to be a sect. This was the boring part. There were hours of discussion, mostly amongst the sect leaders and juniors. There were all types of minor concerns.


    Though the Great Desert Strip wasn¡¯t important to any of the sects, there were a lot of small-time merchant clans that fed off of trade and a lot of them traveled exclusively on foot, crossing the strip daily. Then there was the matter of management and all other types of information.


    Overall, it was boring, tedious work, but necessary for the sake of the act. These people cared about their borders and powers, and I as the new big kid on the playground had to assure them that I would not be trying to steal their toys.


    There were also a lot of implicit offers made. The Hidden Vipper bragged of their beauties, implying that I could have my pick of any. The Flowering Sword did the same with their chefs and gardeners. The Raging River had a number of plants and reagents to give me while the Hollow Echo merely offered themselves as mercenaries.


    I rejected them all of course. I didn¡¯t need it, but more than that I didn¡¯t want to start political relations with any of them. Favors, offers, services, all of those would just weave a complex web of commerce and wealth between us, and slowly but surely, I would be dragged into their shenanigans.


    They could do business with the mortals of the village but I made it very clear that the people were not objects to be claimed. I had stressed that last part so heavily that some of the weaker cultivators had fainted.


    "Honored master, now that the agreements have been made, we should hold a formal feast. And tomorrow we can have a celebratory spar of juniors underneath your watchful eyes," Gai Lu said.


    I looked at Gai. There was something wrong with this man. He seemed to be more genuine than the rest. Monks often were. Virtue was what they sought and all although it could corrupt them, monks on average were much more trustworthy than your normal cultivators.


    So it surprised me that this one seemed to like courting death.

 Chapter 25 Tournament of Pride

    Breakfast was quiet. I had Gauntlet mass produce a bunch of plates of food and bring it to each individual''s room instead of having everyone feast in some massive dining hall. I didn¡¯t like the idea of talking while I ate.


    The ¡®tournament¡¯ would be happening around noon. It would be a multi-round fight and only the weaker individuals would participate, all fights being against someone of their own rank. I personally didn¡¯t care for it, but it seemed like every sect member here had confused my uncaring attitude for that of happy embracement. Everyone seemed to be rushing to prepare themselves to give a magnificent show of strength and power.


    Oh well.


    Gauntlet was my only official disciple. But the thought of him fighting any of the sect members was ridiculous, so this little tournament would have to be between the sects themselves. Gauntlet could take out the owners of this whole damn empire much the less, these fellas.


    "Master Bill, I have been meaning to speak with you!"


    Gai Lu came up and around the corner. I was currently sipping tea in a private courtyard, but the man had just walked in here as if he owned the place.


    "Gai Lu, this is my private residence. Do not bother me."


    "Ahh, but I merely wished to speak to you about-"


    I glared.


    "What do you want, Gai Lu?"


    There was a small flare of fear and anticipation in the man¡¯s aura.


    "I merely wanted to discuss the possible establishment of a temple down-"


    "No, I mean why do you test me?"


    "I do not know what you mean honored mast-"


    "Lies. You keep pushing me, and if I were a more prideful man you¡¯d be dead by now."


    "I- I apologize if my musing were disrespect-"


    This time I pushed down hard and exerted my aura harshly. But I noticed that the fear fled and was replaced with relief. He was content, almost joyful at my reaction. His face kept up the act of fear and horror, but his aura was reeling with relief. I paused. I slowly let up the pressure and as I did, his aura went from relief to anxiety and then back to fear.


    "Why do you want me to kill you?"


    Gai Lu looked down at the ground for several seconds and fidgeted in place like a child confronted with a lie.


    "I- I thank you for sparing my life honored master-"


    "There are fates worse than death Gai Lu. Now speak, why do you want me to kill you?"


    "I do not wish for you to kill me," he spoke. "I- I merely wished for an honorable death."


    "Explain."


    Gai Lu sighed as he stood up.


    "I will die, honored master. If not by your hands then by someone else''s. Death in battle is virtuous for a monk and-"


    "Ahhh," I said finally wising up to the situation.


    "Someone is going to kill you, but that type of death is something you can¡¯t accept. You seek virtue and recognition and the death that they would give you wouldn¡¯t have any of that. No, it would mar your reputation and expose something, something that would paint you as unvirtuous."


    The man¡¯s aura almost leapt at me with that confrontation and I could see his hands tighten with stress. For a moment, he was thinking about attacking me. The qi gathered in his fists and there was the slightest release of killing intent before he smothered it all the best he could.


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    "What could you possibly have done to drive you to this?" I wondered.


    Gai Lu gave me a short bow.


    "I apologize for my transgressions," he stated. And with that, he quickly walked himself out of the area.


    "What a psycho," I muttered.


    But it was to be expected from these people. Daos consumed you in a way, forcing you to live your life to their expectations. That was part of the reason that I had never fully practiced one. They were scarily overpowering to your identity.


    In the monk¡¯s case, he was obsessed with virtue. But virtue could mean many things. It was like the idea of being a good person. For some people, being a good person meant living as one, for others, it was about how you were seen by other people.


    Either way that would be the monk¡¯s dilemma, not mine. After a few more hours of lazing around, I got myself up and walked over to the courtyard. I was greeted with a barrage of bows. Most of the weaker individuals didn¡¯t talk, and people quickly shuffled aside to clear my path, but the ones at fifth rank or higher felt the need to greet me verbally. I got a few compliments about our mattress and the head of the Hidden Viper Sect said that ¡®she wouldn¡¯t mind sleeping in them again, if only they were a bit warmer.


    Jeez.


    All the participants stood trying their best to look aloof and capable. Those of the Hidden Viper had makeup, while the Hollow Echo members slowly unraveled the blindfolds. I didn¡¯t care about the results of the fight, but I could guess the results with a slight glance. They all wore fancy silk garments hidden underneath thick warrior¡¯s clothes.


    Cultivators didn¡¯t wear armor. It wasn¡¯t out of pride but rather that armor couldn¡¯t truly defend against a qi-enhanced attack unless the armor itself was enchanted. And even then, you could always channel qi into a blade when you needed to attack, but defense was different. You would need to funnel qi into the armor constantly, otherwise, an unseen attack could damage it or possibly cut through it. It also limited movement speed and reaction times, as well as being a constant drain on your qi reservoir. So most cultivators learned to defend with their weapon of choice, and there was a myriad of techniques to push back opponents and block attacks.


    The first fight was between a Hollow Echo member and a Raging River member. The Raging River kid won, but the fight was close until the end. At some point, both of the Raging River¡¯s eardrums had burst and the Hollow Echo boy had almost been dry-drowned.


    After that were more fights. River versus Viper. Viper versus Flower. Flower versus Fist. We went through all the brackets until an interesting one finally caught my gaze. It was the Flowering Sword Sect versus the Hollow Echo, and representing the Flowering Sword was Cai Xiun.


    The Hollow Echo member nodded and bowed and Cai did the same. They both raised their sword, each ready to parry the other. Then, they circled, each keeping their distance from one another.


    There were some mutterings of confusion from the younger members of the audience.


    "He¡¯s keeping his distance," I explained.


    "One of the weaknesses of the Flowering Sword Style is the amount of time it takes to weave the attack. Cai is refraining from attacking first because if he does, his opponent can rush at him during the small time it takes him to weave his blade. Whereas his opponent is waiting for him to use the Flowering Sword Style so he can break it and attack him while he¡¯s distracted."


    The murmurings got louder with my comments and many of the older cultivators nodded in agreement.


    "It¡¯s true," one of the Flowering Sword Sect¡¯s members said. "The Flowering Sword Style needs a quick hand to weave its petals. At its most complex it can be thousands of sword strikes all woven within a single instant, but the young are rarely able to achieve such a feat."


    "It¡¯s true, but young master Cai is capable," another member responded.


    "Tai Lui, you put too much faith in the boy. His blade is strong but his opponent is three minor stages ahead of him. At best, it comes down to a battle of attrition and that would only be worse for young master Cai. What do you think Honored Master?"


    "The difference in strength is obvious but if Cai can end this quickly, he still has a chance at winning."


    "See Bi Xin, young master Cai can pull through," the man called Tai Lui said happily.


    "He can do it," Bi Xin snorted, "If only the Dao allows."


    The two young cultivators suddenly stopped circling one another, before they both lunged forward with their blades drawn out. Blade met blade and thin metallic tings echoed through the courtyard.


    Cai¡¯s opponent leapt and released a wave of sound qi. In return, Cai released a defensive slash and moved back onto his heels. His opponent landed on his feet and howled. A deafening scream was released, and the audience members, having seen this move before, all put their hands to their heads to block out the noise.


    Cai looked a little battered but his aura flared with resilience. This fight was going on for far too long. The issue was that cultivators were great at adapting mid-fight. Regardless of how skilled your opponent was, if you could figure out their method of attack and counter it somehow then the fight would turn to a match of stamina instead of skill. The longer the fight went on, the more pure might and qi quantity mattered. And in this fight, Cai¡¯s opponent had a clear advantage in that catragory.


    Then the boy did something that surprised the audience. His qi pushed and circled flowing into a rhythmic pattern. It was a Flowering Sword Style attack and it was one that had been seen before in this tournament.


    No, what made this attack truly different was that it was imbued with both the Dao of the Flowering Sword and the law of water. Swirls of liquid bloomed into a many-petaled attack and exploded from Cai¡¯s blade.

 Chapter 26 Gai Jin

    The attack rode through the air like a blossoming wave through water and was met with a burst of sound qi. Droplets of water scattered as the two attacks met. Cai¡¯s attack was slow and stupid, almost pathetic by most standards. But it was made of water, and water diffused sound. Lo Fao¡¯s attacks diminished along with Cai¡¯s own attacks.


    There was anticipation throughout the courtyard. Gasps of astonishment, anger, and curiosity filled the place. It was something straight out of a novel with people whispering about the attack, some dismissing it as a lesser bastardization of the two styles while others pondered its abilities.


    The Flowering Sword Sect, for its part, was furious.


    ¡°Atrocious,¡± one of the younger Flower Sword scions said.


    ¡°An abomination,¡± an elder commented.


    Almost every member of that sect looked appalled. You¡¯d think Cai had disgraced them with the looks they were giving him, but this development was actually good for him. But I suppose to them, the greatest style was that of the Flowering Sword. Winning by any other means would bring shame, much less using another sect¡¯s bloodline technique and integrating it with your own to create something different.


    The blades clashed once more and sparks flew off the collisions. Cai¡¯s opponent started to push forward. The pace picked up as the two swords bounced off of each other repeatedly.


    ¡°That Hollowed Echo kid is getting defensive,¡± I noted.


    There were murmurs at the comment, some of the elders nodding at what I said while the younger members squinted in confusion.


    ¡°If I may ask, Honored Master, Lo Fao seems to be the one attacking aggressively. How is he the one defending?¡±


    ¡°Distance was important for Cai to truly utilize his Flowering Sword Style, and up until now, Lo Fao was willing to give him that distance because he believed that he could take advantage of it. He was hoping for Cai to either mistime his attacks or exhaust his qi reserves, leaving him open for a direct attack either way. But now things have changed. If Cai can keep using that water technique, Lo Fao¡¯s advantage becomes a disadvantage. Water diffuses sound, and sound is Lo Fao¡¯s main advantage.¡±


    There was a moment as some of the slower elders processed that.


    ¡°Sound qi is not all he can rely on for this-¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is,¡± I cut in. ¡°There are three basic aspects of combat. Quantity of qi, quality of qi, and techniques. Lo Fao wins in quantity and their techniques are about equally matched. But Cai trumps him in quality. Sound qi works by being a focused burst of vibrations traveling through the air and into the target¡¯s body, at best incapacitating them and at worst rupturing their inner organs. But if you put a wave of water in front of that attack, then the energy transfers to the water and is dispersed into a mist, making the attack useless."


    Cai and Lo fought, each slicing at one another with hatred and precision. It was now a battle of longevity. Lo Fao wouldn¡¯t let him use any of his major arts and Cai was not able to create the distance he would need to do so. Lo was hoping to tire him out and force him into an exhausted defeat.


    And Cai fell for it, for several moments. Until finally, like a lighthouse being turned on during the evening fog, he understood. Distance was important to the Flowering Sword Sect, not to the Raging River.


    A cascade of water collapsed upon Lo Fao, pushing the man back several yards, and then Cai attacked. It wasn¡¯t the Flowering Sword Style this time, but rather a pure water-based technique. Liquid flowed from Cai¡¯s sword and slashed at the man over and over again. Cai¡¯s attacks, even now, were still pathetic. They were nothing more than waves of water splashing upon his enemy, but in this case, that was enough. His opponent was blind and had to hear to see. Water hitting his face made a lot of noise and when some of it worked its way into Lo Fao¡¯s hearing organs; well that was when Cai guaranteed his victory


    And the rest of the tournament went by without much of anything noticeable happening whatsoever. The winner was one of the Raging River¡¯s kids, which seemed to surprise nobody. Though the Raging River did make sure to flaunt their victory in everyone else¡¯s faces.


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    After that, I practically threw everyone out of the desert. We crossed all the way to the entrance of the Great Desert Strip before I tossed them out.


    Then, I collapsed. Cultivators. Cultivators were irritating. I rubbed my aching head. I shouldn¡¯t get headaches. I don¡¯t get headaches, but I did. It was new, a byproduct of my newly acquired Dao.


    I closed my eyes and looked inward. The arrays were stretching thin, pushing against my newly growing soul. Shit. They would start unraveling soon, they would have to.


    Dane had messed up when he made an array in his soul, but he was an expert at making them around his soul.


    Daos were important. Without Daos the human soul could not survive the struggle of eternity. People need an anchor, something to tie themselves to while time ticks on forever, otherwise, madness would set in.


    The oldest known Daoless immortal had made it to the sixteenth rank, and he had caused a war so great that it could never end. But that was an old story. Ever since then, the Daoless had never been truly trusted, and reasonably so.


    Dane had done his best to remain Daoless. He had wrapped up his soul in time-restricting arrays and had taken a litany of alchemical compounds to destroy the emotional aspects of his soul. The man had done his best to become a flesh-like computer. He had dulled himself. No emotion went in, only memories, meaning no emotions were felt, only facts.


    It was self-mutilation of the highest degree, but it worked. But Dane¡¯s soul had changed. I had changed, and that was the current dilemma.


    I needed to thaw my soul.


    ********


    The Bloody Fist Sect sat upon the summit of a distant mountain top. The mountain itself was over fifty miles tall. Its hidden rocky peak pushing up past the clouds and into the sky itself.


    At the top was the temple. Tens of thousands of monks practiced in unison, each stomping through their martial arts forms and collectively shifting through their positions. It was organized, almost choreographed. Each monk shifted from one movement into another with robotic-like accuracy.


    To some, it would look impressive, even beautiful. But to the monks, it was barely passable. A few senior monks sat by and watched over the horde of practitioners with a discerning eye, their hands scribbling over a scroll at a fast pace.


    These were the masters. Each of them was at least of the fourth rank, their brain being able to process thousands of individuals at once. The morning practice only covered the basics, some movement techniques, a few punching techniques, and even a few grappling techniques. It was more ceremonial than functional, but in some ways that made it more important.


    The masters furiously scribbled the flaws they noticed in each disciple


    Beneath that picture-perfect summit, however, was a different thing. Down at the base of the mountain was a tunnel, and deeper into that tunnel was a pit. Here were another group of fourth ranks, each standing guard over the pit.


    ¡°Do you really think he¡¯s still down there?¡± One of them asked.


    ¡°He might be,¡± one of the stiffer-looking guards answered.


    The five cultivators stared down into the hole. It was deep, far deeper than any of them knew. Sometimes, an occasional faded scream would work its way to the surface, and they would listen, thinking, hoping, that it was human.


    ¡°He¡¯s probably dead by now,¡± one of them mumbled.


    ¡°He couldn¡¯t have kept himself alive for so long.¡±


    ¡°Have you heard his scream?¡± A new voice asked.


    ¡°No, we have not, and we have been listening for the past six mon-¡±


    They all leaped, turning to see a smiling man standing behind them. He had long hair, one that draped all the way past his shoulders, but it was filthy. Everything about him was filthy. His clothes were stiff and crusty, and his nails looked like they had been painted black. The bandages he wore around his hands were brown and stained with blood. An old monk¡¯s robe was on him, though it was torn and ripped, only being held together by a small stringy piece of cloth.


    ¡°Gai- Gai Jin?!?¡± One of them screamed.


    ¡°Where is he?¡± Gai Jin asked.


    ¡°How did you survive?¡±


    ¡°Where is he?¡± Gai Jin asked again, that patient smile still plastered onto his face.


    ¡°Listen you villain! By the Sect Leader¡¯s will-¡±


    One of the other monks pulled back his indignant friend and inspected Gai Jin with a wary eye.


    ¡°Where is the old man?¡± Gai Jin repeated.


    ¡°He¡¯s not here. He went out to the Great Desert Strip for some secret mission.¡±


    ¡°Song Li you cannot-¡±


    ¡°Shut up,¡± Song Li spoke, interrupting his compatriot. ¡°Shut up or we¡¯re all going to die.¡±


    Gai Jin looked at him, inspecting his face as if he could see the falsehoods within them. Song Li quivered in fear as those beast-like eyes looked him up and down. And then, Gai Jin nodded and leapt into the air.

 Chapter 27 Arrays

    I stared at the puzzle in my hands.


    It was a marble-like orb that was about the size of a closed fist, almost like a crystal ball, but shinier. Its surface blinked in repetitive action as I did my best to solve it.


    In cultivation, there are three fundamental forces, a push, a pull, and a hold. They were called the three fundamental forces because that was how everybody started cultivation. You needed to be able to pull in qi from your surroundings, and then push it through your own internal meridians, converting it from heavenly qi into your own qi.


    It was a complicated process, but in human terms, it was like converting food into energy. And arraycasting was, at its core, a mimicry of cultivation. You used those three fundamental forces to create an action. The most basic of arrays was a qi-gathering array. All you needed to do for that one was create a constant pull and a constant hold. The qi would get pulled into one area by the pulling force and held there by the holding force.


    Now there was the problem of making those forces self-sustaining without the interference of a living being, but that was the first step to becoming an array master. Learn to cultivate outside of your body. You had to be able to gather an ambient pool of qi and make those fundamental forces use that as energy instead of your own qi pool. As soon as you were able to create those forces and make them self-sustaining, then you could call yourself an arraycaster.


    At higher levels, things got a little more complicated of course, but there were a lot of simplistic uses for arrays that rarely went out of style. Qi was everything, and if you were able to incorporate the proper laws and Daos into your arraycasting, then anything was possible.


    For example, the most basic illusion arrays functioned by manipulating light. They would pull and hold certain wavelengths of light and push out others, creating a neat little visual illusion. You could layer onto that illusion by making an array that cycled ambient qi into sound qi adding another layer of illusion. Of course, in most realms, no one used sense-based illusions anymore, as they were easy to see through with spiritual senses. But they were still used for message transmission and informational digests.


    I rearranged the puzzle, changing some hold points out with some pull points. Arrays were generally designed with a purpose, but this little puzzle wasn¡¯t. It was designed to be complicated. It contained a few Daos and laws but it wasn¡¯t really functional. Just complicated.


    The puzzle shined a golden hue as the metaphysical pieces clicked into place, and I dropped it on the table.


    Arrays were small. They were about the pushes and the pulls, but they were also about the larger connections you could make through those individual actions.


    When living beings cultivated for the first time, they would draw in heavenly qi and cycle it throughout their body. That drawing force was a pull and that cycling act was a combination of a hold and a push. You hold the qi within you while pushing it throughout your very being. By doing so, you reshape and remake some of that heavenly qi into your own and push out the parts that you didn¡¯t use.


    The most important part of this equation was the soul. The soul of the creature was the part responsible for changing that heavenly qi into the creature¡¯s own qi. But, an array didn¡¯t have a soul, at least most arrays didn¡¯t have a soul. That was why array masters constantly gathered different bits of Daos and laws. We could take in heavenly qi, cycle them manually through those Daos and laws and create qi that held those same properties.


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    Hence creating an external cultivation cycle. Now technically, one external cycle could be called an array, but that would be like calling a puddle a body of water. Most arrays layered numerous cycles together to create whatever effect they desired. Mix in the proper Daos and laws and you could create an illusory array that trapped people in their nightmares or a floating island.


    I waved my hand and pulled out a jade slip from my inventory. This was the closest anyone had ever gotten to an interdimensional internet. It was a transmission jade and it was designed to receive information from any realm containing a high enough level of ambient qi within it. It was enchanted with several interdimensional runes of privacy and connection.


    This one was a bit of a jerry-rigged contraption. I wasn¡¯t good with runes and enchantments. I was an array guy. And the difference was large too. If arrays were binary code then runes were third-level programming languages. They worked on the presumption that the runes would be understood by whatever object they were written on.


    It was a hard concept to understand, but in a way, it was like gravity. Most universes had gravity, some didn¡¯t. If you took an apple from a universe with gravity to a universe without gravity, then the apple would turn into something else. It would probably explode or disintegrate into pure energy, but the point was that gravity was a universal thing, not a multiversal thing. Only Qi was a multiversal thing.


    Enchanting worked similarly, but instead of it being the law of gravity. You¡¯d create a sort of artificial law that forced itself upon its respective realm. It was like a video game in a strange way. If you pressed Q in one game and it was a hotkey for a certain spell or attack, then that attack would happen. But if you suddenly went into a different game and pressed Q again, it would do something entirely different, if not nothing at all.


    This was a harsh limitation, though most sects tended to love this flaw of enchanting. They would develop or purchase their own sets of runes that were known only to them and build all of their defensive enchantments and wards with them. It made inter-realm invasions almost impossible, but it also limited that set of runes to that one realm.


    Now there are ways around this, but most of them were complicated and weren¡¯t practical for runescripting. One of those was to inscribe the library of runes onto the object itself, and that was how this device worked.


    The library on this device, however, had been damaged, purposely so. I needed a way of getting news from the grander multiverse without leading a direct trail back to me. Anything I left could be divined into and while divination usually had a hard time working outside of one particular realm, me leaving a trail would make it easier for them to track me.


    I picked up the jade and circulated my qi through the thing. Information flashed through my mind. A library¡¯s worth of text was shoved into my head, leaving my mind to process the mass of information. Thankfully, I was capable of processing it all.


    There was nothing about me in there, which was a good thing, but there were some strange happenings from the Divine Beast Emporium. Movement of fortune, and a few indicators of internal politics division.


    But there was nothing that indicated a search for me. Which would have been good news, if not for one other thing.


    I pulled out Wriendler.


    The sword looked normal, like a regular double-edged sword. Which was a strange thing for it to do. There had been times when it had gone quiet or into hibernation, but this wasn¡¯t one of them. Right now, Wriendler was eating, or at least trying to eat.


    There was something wrong with the sword, and the list of things it could be was short. Eldritch horrors don¡¯t get sick. They don¡¯t get old and they certainly don¡¯t take this long to eat something.


    Wriendler¡¯s species of eldritch didn¡¯t get indigestion. That was one of the reasons I had gotten it in the first place. Arrays could malfunction and when they did, the consequence could be anything from the array powering off to a universal scale explosion. But with Wriendler, I had always managed to have the blade eat up the array before it could blow up.


    This sword could consume a universe and would be hungry by sundown. The only time this creature would ever struggle to eat something was when that something outclassed in every part of the world.


    In other words, it had eaten something extremely valuable.

 Chapter 28 Gestation

    There was a firm knock at the door, followed by someone quickly swinging it open.


    ¡°You know there¡¯s no reason to knock on the door if you¡¯re just going to open it yourself,¡± I said to Chin as he strolled in with a box of supplies.


    ¡°You don¡¯t open it fast enough,¡± the man stated.


    ¡°You don¡¯t give me time to open it. You just knock and walk right in,¡± I replied.


    Chin shrugged as he walked towards the back of the kitchen. I ordered groceries from the village every month or so. I didn¡¯t need to eat, but I liked to eat and though I could grow my own crops and animals, there was something more human and real about buying food from other people.


    I got up and went out to help Chin unload the cart. The cart was large, and the wheels were as tall as a man. But with a cart like this, it needed to be. Chin had driven this thing for nearly a hundred miles, and that was quite the journey on a pair of wooden wheels. So the wheels had to be strong and sturdy enough to last the distance.


    At the head of the cart was a giant camel-like beast that was slowly chewing on its cud. It had long jack rabbit ears and fat floppy feet like a bunny. But it also walked like a camel, having a long neck and humped backs, and stood at around ten feet tall, about as tall as Gauntlet.


    It was called a sand runner, and there were about seven to ten of them throughout the whole village. They were huge beasts, imported from another desert in the Bloody Fist Sect. These things didn¡¯t exist out in the Desert Strip but they were still well adapted enough to cross it if needed, and at top speed, they could propel to something like a hundred and twenty miles per hour and would be able to clear the Great Desert Strip in a week at the latest.


    The village had bought them from some wandering merchant who had specifically brought the beasts here for no other reason than profit. They were originally two starving little beasts, one male and one female, who the villagers eventually bred into giant cart horses for emergency journeys across the desert.


    And for delivering my supplies.


    ¡°Have the merchants come in yet?¡± I asked as I took several boxes off the back and into the kitchen.


    ¡°No, but Renk says it¡¯ll only be three days or so until they start flooding in,¡± Chin said as he walked in carrying a box of his own.


    ¡°You negotiated the prices yet?¡±


    ¡°Aye, three third-rank stones and one live first-stage stone for every ten bugs we feed.¡±


    I let out a low whistle.


    That was a decent chunk of change. Everyone used spirit stones as trade resources within the cultivation world, and mortals were no different. Dead spirit stones still had a nice sheen to them and were incredibly hard to break, so most cultivators used that as a currency instead of things like gold or silver. And those stones had eventually dropped down to the world''s mortals as well.


    ¡°That¡¯s a pretty good deal,¡± I replied as I brought in the last batch of food into the house.


    ¡°Kong¡¯s rainy season is making everyone put in extra work all around the village,¡± Chin said with a shrug.


    ¡°Are those girls being helpful?¡± I asked.


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°I never knew cultivators could be so helpful.¡±


    ¡°I was helpful,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Not as much as they are,¡± he answered.


    Wow. Earning praise from Chin was a rare thing.


    ¡°But they¡¯re quiet,¡± he added. ¡°They don¡¯t talk casually, at all and they focus entirely on the job itself. They don¡¯t eat or sleep, or even smile unless they¡¯re in front of a person. It¡¯s¡­ not natural.¡±


    ¡°They sound like smaller versions of you,¡± I replied.


    Chin frowned and took a bite out of the fruit he had taken from one of the baskets.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what these people have been through Bill, but I don¡¯t think we can fix it.¡±


    ¡°Oh give it some time,¡± I replied with a light wave.


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    ¡°I¡¯m serious Bill. Those girls work like machines. They¡¯re kind enough when you talk to them, but when they¡¯re working, it¡¯s like they¡¯re not even human.¡±


    ¡°Now you know how I feel talking to you,¡± I mumbled.


    Chin glared at me, clearly desiring a more thought-through answer.


    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± I replied, taking a bunch of white grapes out of the box and throwing one into my mouth.


    ¡°What if people didn¡¯t need to eat anymore? Imagine one day, you woke up and you and every other person you know no longer need food to live. They don¡¯t get hungry or tired and they live like normal, but they don¡¯t need an ounce of food or water for the rest of their natural lives. What would you do then?¡±


    Chin took a moment to think about the question, his old hands rubbing his face for a moment.


    ¡°Something else I guess.¡±


    ¡°And that something else would take you some time to find, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±


    Chin nodded, a very slow and deliberating nod.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s the same with the girls. They¡¯re figuring things out right now. Settling down and letting themselves run free, they might look uptight, but they¡¯re talking to the villagers, eating with them, and even laughing on a few occasions. They just need time.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been watching them?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Like a hawk,¡± I replied. ¡°They¡¯re better off with the village than they are with me.¡±


    ¡°Maybe if you acted more respectfully-¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how respectful I act Chin. They think of me as a god, someone who is inherently better than them and demanding of respect. Even if I made them act a certain way around me, it would be under the pretense of worship and fear.¡±


    ¡°And what can we do for them?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Nothing. In their mind, you¡¯re all just some ants who seem to be somewhat important to me. They only work hard because I asked them to. If not for me, they wouldn¡¯t give you mortals the time of day.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°Then why-¡±


    ¡°Because, I need them to stop thinking of you like that, to see you as equals instead of lessers. And hopefully, by working and living with your people, they can start to blur that distinction of mortal and cultivator.¡±


    Chin¡¯s ever-present frown took on a question form.


    ¡°You want them to see us as equals?¡± Chin asked.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°If they can bridge the gap between a mortal and a cultivator, then maybe, they can eventually bridge the gap between an immortal and a cultivator.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown lightened, and then he shrugged.


    ¡°I suppose,¡± he sighed, plopping himself down on my chair.


    It was at that time that Wriendler chose to squirm its whole body, shifting itself like a snake moving through the grass. Chin jumped up off the couch and backed up against the wall, his left hand stretched out for defense and his right hand ready to throw his half-eaten apple.


    ¡°What is that?¡± He yelled.


    I frowned, walking up to the sword and lifting it to eye level. I inspected it closely. It squirmed again in my hands.


    ¡°Bill!¡± Chin yelled, having replaced his apple with an empty crate. ¡°What is that?¡±


    I stayed silent. Party in thought and partly in horror. I kept looking at the blade, studying its aura and inner qi.


    ¡°It¡¯s my sword,¡± I said lightly.


    ¡°Your swords alive?¡±


    ¡°My sword is pregnant.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°My sword. Is pregnant,¡± I repeated.


    Chin looked to me, then to the blade, and then back to me. And then he walked up right next to me and stared, inspectingly.


    ¡°How far?¡± He asked.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°How far along is she?¡±


    He put his hand up against the flat of the blade, slowly moving his fingers from the crossguard to the tip, before flipping the blade over and doing the same to the other side.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about sword husbandry but if it¡¯s anything like a snake-¡±


    ¡°Chin,¡± I interrupted. ¡°This isn¡¯t a farm animal. It¡¯s a magical creature far beyond your understanding.¡±


    ¡°So you don¡¯t want feed and supplies for the sword cubs?¡±


    ¡°Sword cubs?¡± I questioned.


    Chin shrugged.


    ¡°Swordlings. Little swords. Knives, whatever they¡¯re called.¡±


    I stared at the man for a moment.


    ¡°You really are a farmer,¡± I mumbled.


    Chin shrugged as he inspected Wriendler¡¯s hilt for bumps, before finally moving on to the edges.


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to find a bump, and the sword isn¡¯t going to need medical care,¡± I said as I took the blade out of his hands.


    Chin reluctantly let me take it from him. I sometimes forget how hard he was on this whole farming business. It was like the man couldn¡¯t not farm no matter what was in front of him.


    I turned my gaze back to the sword. Dam. I was hoping to avoid this, but I need to get some answers before I can truly settle down.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to leave for a while Chin. Won¡¯t be long, only a day or two for you guys, but I¡¯ll be back soon enough. Can you keep an eye on the girls while I¡¯m gone?¡±


    ¡°Will they behave without you here telling them what to do?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll behave,¡± I replied.


    Chin nodded and walked out of the house indifferently.


    I made my way through the house and down a set of stairs.


    ¡°Gauntlet. I need you to keep an eye on things while I¡¯m gone. Keep the girls and villagers safe. The array will keep the beasts in line, but you need to keep an eye on that gate. Wriendler¡¯s giving birth again, and I think it¡¯s going to be a big one this time.¡±

 Chapter 29 Choices

    I walked through the subspace, piercing through the first layer of space with no resistance. It was locked and guarded, preventing anyone aside from myself and Gauntlet from entering. I looked around at the plain white space. The qi here was plentiful, much more so than anywhere else on this planet, and the laws were abundant. This was the under realm of the valley, the place I¡¯d set just beneath the skin of space. Tendrils of qi skimmed through the place moving and bringing materials from the valley above it. At its center stood a giant ball of moving power. The array.


    It wasn¡¯t awake yet, but there were movements of consciousness on occasion. Bits and pieces of thoughts, dreams of dreams, and vague attempts of sentience. It hadn¡¯t learned to think yet, but it was getting there. I studied the center, watching as its inner pieces moved and multiplied like growing cells.


    I knew what was happening now. I knew exactly what was happening at every single point in the array, but there would come a point when it would grow too complicated. Complexity would rise from simplicity and eventually, a soul would be born, and that would be the day I¡¯d planned for billions of years.


    Though I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d be around to see it hatch. Far removed from the array was another thing, a large set of doors the size of mountains. Gauntlet stood by them guarded and ready, and I walked. The doors themselves were huge and were inscribed with numerous arrays, all of them churning to keep the doors closed no matter what.


    ¡°Well,¡± I said to the sword in my hand. ¡°Time to visit your kids.¡±


    Wriendler squirmed approvingly.


    To understand Wriendler, you first had to understand that Wriendler was not a sword. It was an eldritch horror that looked like a sword. Wriendler¡¯s specific breed of eldritch went by an unpronounceable name of cosmic horror, but most people called them the devourers. They were the ones in those myths about the insatiable monsters. Their spores would invade universes and grow in size eating all they could, even each other. Eventually, they would eat so much that the only thing left to devour was the universe itself and they¡¯d do that too, bursting from the husk of a dead realm and ready to enter the void.


    They rarely got that powerful though. Most of them would become black holes and slowly die out as time went on, burning their energy and qi attempting to exist in a crumbling universe.


    And that was what Wriendler was. It wasn¡¯t scary by eldritch standards. Its species was at the bottom of the food web out there in the great big void, and they normally never made it past the twelfth rank. That was why Wriendler had been so easy to tame.


    Devourers were like the insects of the eldritch world. Small, generally unimportant, but extreme in their differentiations. Their forms were based on what they ate and Wriendler had been fed a lot of swords. I¡¯d shoved it full of blades ever since it was just an egg. Magical swords, nonmagical swords, strange metals, strange knives, anything and everything sharp I could find, I fed to Wriendler.


    My goal had been to create an eldritch beast that had eaten every type of sword there ever was and could manifest itself into some big sword Dao being. It was a childish dream, one that many cultivators had tried at one point or another, but an eldritch being was an eldritch being for a reason. They weren¡¯t designed to refine daos or qi but rather to corrupt it, and to change that was to try and change the nature of eldritch itself.


    But it was too late for me to change by the time I realized that. I was already at the ninth rank and Wriendler had been at the eighth rank at the time, and I couldn¡¯t force myself to throw away literally millions of years'' worth of progress. And I had already developed a bond with the sword, making it the only constant companion I¡¯ve ever had.


    So I switched strategies. Instead of feeding Wriendler just swords, I fed it everything I didn¡¯t need or want. It still kept that general sword-like structure, but all of that would fade away soon. The more it ate, the more it grew, changing and digesting everything it had ever consumed.


    And occasionally, Wriendler ate something that it couldn¡¯t quite stomach, something too big or too powerful for the poor bastard to choke down. And that was when the children were made.


    Well, maybe children was too human of a term for them. They were more like sentient, semi-digested, eldritch monstrosities. Wriendler would puke out whatever thing it was that he couldn¡¯t quite choke down and it would plop out partly corrupted and broken.


    It was rare. I was generally careful about what I fed the bastard. I¡¯d scan everything he swallowed thoroughly and check for any rare artifacts or hidden weapons. But sometimes, something slipped through my senses and into Wriendler¡¯s stomach and I¡¯d be forced to deal with its horrendous children.


    I generally dealt them a quick death. These things weren¡¯t children, after all. They were corrupted beings, less cute adorable babies, and more evil sentient vomit. And they weren¡¯t shaped like swords either.


    Most of them came out retaining their original form, with a slight eldritch twist to them, but their overall look heavily relied on how much they resisted Wriendler¡¯s attempt to digest them. Going by how quickly this one was pushing out of him, I¡¯d say it had barely been touched by the eldritch¡¯s qi. And that meant one of two things, it was either a higher rank than Wriendler, which was impossible because I never fed the thing more than it could devour, or its quality was beyond that of Wriendlers¡¯s.


    I held my blade firm and readied and slaughtering array throughout the subspace. Wriendler¡¯s edges swelled and pushed, making the blade look like a distorted tentacle giving birth. Its eyes flared open on the flat of its blade, and the eldritch thing screamed a noise of agony and anger. There was a taint within the scream, one that sought to corrupt and destroy all that heard it. The noise was powerful and all-consuming, the stuff of Lovecraft¡¯s dreams, but I held firm.


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    Wriendler usually tried its best to not hurt me, but right now, there was nothing it wanted more than to gulp down whatever power was trying to escape it. It screamed and fought and did its best to swallow down whatever was trying to come out of it.


    It failed.


    The edge of the blade burst open and a shadow-like egg popped out into the open. Not dark, shadow-like. The egg was a twisting mess of black grey and black, flittering with the environment like a persistent shadow.


    God dammit.


    There were two parts to a thing. Anything, whether it was a man or a rock, had quality and quantity. Quantity in the cultivator world was qi and rank, while quality was that being Dao¡¯s and Laws. Wriendler ate both. The qi from the egg had been devoured almost thoroughly but the laws and daos themselves were too much for Wriendler to consume.


    And looking at the egg, I could see why.


    Its nature was beyond me. The Daos and Laws it contained were things that I couldn¡¯t even imagine, and the only reason I was able to see them now was due to Wriendler having stripped the egg of most of its qi. The mere fact that it had slipped past my senses to begin with, was a show of its nature.


    I readied myself. I was still far stronger than the egg in many ways. I was clearly of the higher rank, and even if it had a strangely high accumulation of its own Daos and laws, the pure power of my strength alone should be enough to crush it into nothingness.


    I prepared my attack as cracks of pure black spread across its dark surface. Whatever this was, I couldn¡¯t allow it to slip away. It couldn¡¯t hurt me for now, it was barely above the fifth rank, but if it gathered up enough qi, there was a chance that it could hide again.


    And that was already an insane thing for it to do. For something to be able to hide from me, a thirteenth rank, it would have to be at least at my own rank, if not one rank lower.


    But for something of the fifth rank to be able to hide from me¡­ that was unheard of. It would have to be a coagulation of Daos and laws so dense that only a God Imperium could have made it.


    I readied my attack as the being broke through. This hidden realm was one that I had made and I could make or break anything that entered it. Here, I was god. The space itself was locked and hidden away, barely clinging onto the edges Ah-Marin¡¯s reality.


    I readied myself.


    The egg broke. Time slowed and I moved destruction toward the being.


    The laws and Daos I had picked up over time turned and twisted with me, being given strength by the force of my qi. Death, annihilation, entropy, any and all methods of ending life moved with my hand as I reached for the new lifeform. My arm glowed black with demise and reached for the thing.


    Only to stop right before I touched it. I didn¡¯t know why I stopped. My first thought was that the newly born lifeform was controlling me somehow, but no. Nothing pointed to such a thing. My qi was fine, my mind was fine, and Primordials knew that nothing was going to be able to touch my soul.


    Then what was it?


    The lifeform, for all its strangeness, didn¡¯t seem to notice the death in the palm of my hand.


    I pushed forward again, trying to end the thing before it could gather enough qi to try and hide from all over again. And again I failed. My hand would hover close to the thing, but for some reason, I wasn¡¯t able to go through with it.


    I couldn¡¯t kill it.


    I blinked. It wasn¡¯t awake yet. It was barely even alive. Wriendler had drained the thing of all of its qi before it hatched, making it come out akin to a starving newborn child. It howled in hunger.


    It- no, she wasn¡¯t the one stopping me from killing her. She could barely stay alive as she was, much less influence me in any way.


    I looked at my hand, questioning its actions in a new light. It wasn¡¯t some outside force that was stopping me from ending this creature¡¯s life. It was my own.


    The Dao, my Dao flowed through me, rebelling at the action I had tried to do. Overwhelming guilt pounded at my soul as I looked at the newborn life. It hadn¡¯t chosen to end up here. It hadn¡¯t chosen to exist, but it did. And that was not something I could punish it for.


    If you seek peace, then you must give it as well. I looked at my hands. Daos were not something you picked up and left behind so easily. I then turned my eyes to the lifeform in front of me. I could kill her. I could force myself to take her life and break my newly acquired dao, just like I had done so for so many other daos before it. Or I could let her die and leave her to rot in this realm, alone and uncared for.


    But neither option felt right. Killing her conflicted with the new Dao and letting her starve to death conflicted with my own morals. I looked at her. This thing, this half-dead lifeform before me.


    This child.


    I sighed and turned my qi into nourishment, channeling it to the formless thing. The starving child ate greedily, gulping down as much as she could. Its senses opened and mingled with my own, cooing as it stared into my qi.


    ¡°Congratulations,¡± I said to Wriendler who was floating beside me.


    ¡°It¡¯s a girl.¡±

 Chapter 30 Motives

    She looked like a person, eventually. Her skin morphed and changed until it settled down and chose to look like mine. She had big bright brown eyes and baby fuzz at the top of her head. The only strange thing about her were those horns. Small little nubs that would be barely noticeable if she had a full head of hair.


    I watched her for a few moments, but a few moments were an eternity for my mind and I couldn¡¯t help but think. Why? Why was she here?


    This was clearly Tai Jey¡¯s child. Nothing else could be so powerful at merely the fifth stage, but why was she wandering around as an egg? And why was she an egg to begin with?


    Tai Jey may have tamed beasts but he wasn¡¯t a beast himself. He was the tamer. It was said that he existed way back during the first days when the multiverse was young and men numbered few. It was said that it was his tribe who had first tamed wolves and cattle. That he had been there as a child when the first wolf was tamed and the first cow was killed.


    He was the Tamer. The man that controlled beasts. I looked back at the baby again. She sat there, naked, happily napping without concern. Her bloodline reeked of power. Tai Jey was there, of course, his blood coursing within her, but there was also something else. Something far more powerful.


    I sent my senses towards her qi, feeling at her nature.


    I flinched as soon as I felt it.


    ¡°By the Dao,¡± I mumbled as my face fell into shock.


    She was half Beast, the great Primodial¡¯s blood ran in her veins.


    ¡°By the Dao!¡± I yelled again, almost waking the child with my exclamation.


    Tai Jey had mated with Beast. That alone was worthy of wonder. Tai Jey, the man that tamed beasts, the man who considered anything non-human to be a tool in his path forward, had mated with a beast. It was like a normal man choosing to fuck a cow. It didn¡¯t make sense. The Tamer was known for his disposition against any and all non-human life. He wouldn¡¯t even negotiate with them, much less fuck one of the strongest non-humans in existence.


    I looked down at the child again. Female. I had noticed that even before she had taken form. She was a female. Yin energy had flowed through her being, and permiated her, even before she had settled into flesh. That was unnatural. They had been trying to make a female.


    But why? The egg had been with Kin Jey, so maybe it was a reparation of some sort. Maybe there had been a trade between Tai Jey and the Beast and he had gotten something in return for this child made between them. But if that had been the case, then why did Kin Jey have it? If this was the result of a valuable trade, why was it just being carried around by some ninth-rank nobody?


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    I looked back down at the child.


    A female. A beast. A tameable beast.


    ¡°By the Dao,¡± I sighed in realization.


    This girl wasn¡¯t just a child. She was an investment.


    Cultivators took some time to grow, but this one would easily catch up to Kin Jey''s rank within a million years of her birth. Kin Jey wasn¡¯t special, at least not in terms of status, but his bloodline was pure. Maybe that was why he was chosen, or maybe there was another reason, either way, Kin Jey had been given this egg and he was probably told to tame it as soon as it hatched, tying the two together for the rest of their existence.


    Tai Jey had created his whole sect from the ground up, building and catering the bloodlines of every beast to his own liking. He was like a dog breeder, constantly doing tests on each of his pets, making sure they were in the best condition possible. That was why his sect was so successful. Pedigree and power, his bloodlines had it all.


    But what if his control extended to beasts as well?


    What if he had wanted to sire a whole bloodline of beasts, mixed with bloodlines of his own? She had been breeding stock, and Kin Jey had been the bull. If Kin Jey had raised this girl, and then eventually had children with her, they would create a new bloodline in the Divine Beast Emporium, one that contained the power of a primordial.


    ¡°But why Kin Jey?¡± I muttered.


    ¡°Hey Wriendler, you still have some of that Kin Jey guy left?¡± I asked the floating sword.


    Wriendler let out a bout of maddening noises.


    ¡°The one with the blue armor. Big ego, doing all that talking?¡±


    The sword floated in thought for a moment. Then it opened its mouth, widening its fleshy jaws, and puked out the tip of a finger. The piece of flesh bounced onto the ground and landed a few feet away from me.


    I brought it over and studied its qi. The man was dead and eaten. Even if Kin Jey¡¯s soul had somehow managed to escape his body, it would have been trapped in that artificial realm and burned within the fires of the void.


    But some of his qi was there, and I pulled it out, carefully. Most of it was corrupted with Wriendler¡¯s qi, but there was a spec of uncorrupted qi. It was small, hell it could barely nourish a butterfly but it was there. I pulled it out, carefully making sure to not infect it with my own qi, and put in an empty spirit stone.


    I¡¯d have to look into it later.


    ¡°Gauntlet!¡± I yelled, summoning the big rock golem to my side.


    ¡°Look after the girl for a while. I gotta go out and run some errands.¡±


    Gauntlet looked at the girl, then back to me, and nodded.


    I snatched Wriendler as I walked out of the dimension and back into Ah-Marin. If this girl was what I thought she was, then the Divine Beast Emporium was definitely looking for me. Which meant an awful amount of trouble for me.

 Chapter 31 The Void

    The Void. The Highest Jungle. That¡¯s what people called it, and understandably so.


    A jungle, in the most basic sense, was a place where life competed for the right to exist. You would find the smallest jungles in warm puddles filled with bacteria tearing at each other¡¯s throats for proteins. Above them you¡¯d find ants fighting unending wars, having trillions die in just one day. And above that were the lizards and frogs and mice that ran through the fields in search of nuts and berries. And you could go up through that food web, you¡¯d find this place. This jungle that made universes look like small puddles. A place where celestial being roamed and hunted as they pleased.


    But the jungle didn¡¯t stop there. Out here in The Void, the Highest Jungle, you¡¯d find things that could crush me like a cockroach. For as far back as the jungle started, back in those warm puddles filled with bacteria, this was where it ended. This was where you¡¯d find the real tigers at the top of the food chain.


    Dragons, Gods, Humans, Supreme Beasts, Eldritch Monstrosities, and many other varying forms of life could be found here. There were an estimated five hundred thousand such beings, each of them at the strength of a God Imperium. Humans made up about a third of those numbers, and each of those humans represented an immense celestial sect that controlled numerous divine realms and countless higher realms as a whole.


    And those were the ones at the pinnacle. It was said that beings like me, those around the thirteenth realm, numbered in the quinvigintillions. That was a number, followed by seventy-eight zeros.


    That was all to say that the void was scary but familiar. It was the place where gods became ants and universes became puddles. It was the deep and unknown starry sky that we cultivators looked into, imagining what lay beyond those impossible depths and wondering how far we could go if we tried.


    The higher realms glistened like stars in the distance, and I remembered the first I had set foot here years ago. I remembered the awe and fear. The trepidation and excitement. I remembered promising to reach the heights of those realms or die trying.


    I smiled.


    The awe was still there, and the trepidation had grown stronger. But all I hoped, for now, was to make it back to Ah Marin in one piece.


    Dane would despise that sentiment, I thought.


    But then again, Dane was dead.


    I raised qi and pushed, rushing myself through the forest of the void. Even though the void was dangerous, there were a certain set of rules one could follow to increase your likelihood of survival. Just like an explorer trodding through the jungle, you could use certain things to navigate and manage how much risk and danger you faced.


    One of those things were celestial nebulas.


    Celestial nebulas were exactly what they sounded like. See, a universe or a realm had a few major traits. The most important one was having a constant production of qi, a realm that couldn¡¯t produce any qi would soon be a dead one. This production rate generally stayed constant throughout the lifetime of the universe, but a universe''s consumption of qi tended to rise as time went on. Meaning the universe would always be producing the same amount of qi while its consumption of qi would get higher and higher. Eventually, the qi the realm produced wouldn¡¯t be enough, and the whole thing would spread too thin and pop.


    Back on Earth, we had called this heat death.


    Higher realms wouldn¡¯t do that. They had a naturally growing rate of qi production, meaning as the realms¡¯ need for qi grew, so too did their production of qi. So their interior was always dense and full of qi, perfect for cultivators to set up sects in and grow out.


    Now sometimes, these realms would produce an unnatural amount of qi. So much qi that it would leak out from a realm and foam into the void. These were called divine realms.


    And sometimes, even among these divine realms, you¡¯d get celestial realms. Realms that produced so much excess qi that it would leak out and cluster up around them and create more realms. And it would create huge swaths of interwoven universe, each of them overlaying on the other, creating a realm with multiple layers of existence.


    And realms that close and that condense in qi would only grow bigger and bigger, until eventually, their qi would echo out throughout the whole of the multiverse, being able to be sensed from almost every corner of existence. Some of these celestial realms were known back on Earth like Avalon, Atlantis, Yggdrasil, the Ten Realm, and many more, but a lot of them remained unknown.


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    Regardless, they all shone throughout the void, bits of their infinite qi reaching everything throughout nonexistence. And they each shone like stars in the night sky, making navigation a much easier burden for cultivators.


    Surprisingly enough, getting lost wasn¡¯t a problem. No, you¡¯d always know where you were relative to the big stars in the sky. The problems were the unknown threats and dangers you¡¯d face along the way.


    This was the jungle, and the jungle was full of lions and tigers and bears, but the most dangerous, as always were the humans.


    Humans. Humans. Humans.


    Of course, you should worry about beasts and strange monstrosities as well, but humans were the most persistent threat. If you met a bear in the jungle and it charged at you but you manage to fend it off with bear spray, that would be the end of that interaction. But not with humans.


    Humans were vengeful, grudge-holding, persistent creatures. You could fight off a divine beast and move on the next day, but if you piss off the wrong human, they¡¯d track you down across all of reality just for the chance to smash your head in.


    I mean, just look at that Kin Jey guy. He tracked me so far outside of his realm, merely because I might have something of interest. And look where that had gotten him.


    I funneled more qi, moving myself through the sparsely populated area with little effort. This would make the journey much longer than necessary, but the roads traveled less were often the safest out here.


    That was the real key to traversing the void, especially if you were an unaffiliated guy like me, an ant with no colony. You had to avoid all of the juicy bits. You couldn¡¯t let yourself be tempted by clusters of unknown qi or hunt an injured divine beast, and you certainly couldn¡¯t go chasing after weaker cultivators in hopes of stealing their fortunes.


    That was what Kin Jey had done. And he had died, even with his fifteenth-ranked defensive treasure. That made the human rule a bit of a two-way street. Don¡¯t be greedy and don¡¯t look enticing.


    No, the best way to survive through the void was to mind your own business and stay out of other peoples¡¯ way. If you see something, move in the opposite direction. If it follows you, either scare it off or run away. Stay away from decaying realms and large clusters of qi because those would attract ninth and tenth-ranked beasts, and while those ninth and tenth-ranked beasts weren¡¯t dangerous to me, their presence might attract something that could threaten me.


    It was all about seeing the cosmic food web and trying to separate yourself from it as best as you could.


    But nothing was guaranteed.


    I looked up at the celestial nebulas floating vaguely in the distance.


    At this rate, it would take me a Lynorian millennia to make my way to my destination, but I wouldn¡¯t be using only my own strength to get to my destination.


    Up ahead of me, as ahead of me as anything could be without the existence of space, was a giant stream of qi. This was a qi current, a sort of artificial highway throughout non-existence. They were generally formed by celestial sects who needed to carve a less qi-extensive form of transportation, tying up their territory together.


    They were everywhere throughout the multiverse, most of them were old, ancient, and abandoned but a lot of them persisted, like old abandoned highways cutting through an ancient forest.


    I stepped into the stream. Ironically enough, these streams were made by Array Masters. It was our biggest source of income within the multiverse. The ambient qi was often gathered from the edges of celestial realms and was then converted to a thin semi-toxic stream that would cut across the multiverse. It needed to be semi-toxic so that it wouldn¡¯t attract beasts and other lifeforms that would want to feed on it. After all, free, abundant, and unmonitored qi was quite tempting out here in the void.


    But these artificial paths weren¡¯t really attractive to most beings, and besides, there were naturally abundant and extremely enticing streams of qi out there as well. Most of the void¡¯s denizens would rather make that their home rather than this pathetic little stream.


    I walked onto the path, now having to exert significantly less effort than before. Existing became less troublesome and as the current moved, I could feel myself being moved along with it.


    Moving through the void was a strange idea. There was no time, no space, so how could you move through something that didn¡¯t have those things? How could you move through nonexistence?


    The answer was simple. Relative existence. Things existed, relative to other things. Every realm and universe out there could be considered their own closed qi systems. Things happening in one universe couldn¡¯t affect things happening in others. But there was more to it than that. The void itself separated the realms, piling in huge amounts of nothingness between any two planes of existence. And some existences were separated by larger amounts of nothingness than others, making them technically exist less, relative to each other.


    In that sense, the void functioned like a measure of distance. If I wanted to affect something in a neighboring universe, it would be just a quick exertion of qi for me to be able to travel there. But if I wanted to affect a realm across the multiverse, well that would require a significant amount of traveling and qi exertion, sort of like what was doing right now.


    I read the qi stream gently, doing my best to hide my presence and circulating multiple stealth techniques along with my void walker technique.


    And then suddenly, the world halted and all of existence seemed to disappear. My qi fled and I was left open and defenseless. Fear, true blood-curdling fear spread throughout my body.


    ¡°Shit,¡± I whispered as I spread out my senses desperately. Nothing came to me. My divine senses and perception had shut down entirely. I was like a mortal man trying to see with my eyes closed.


    ¡°You smell,¡± a voice spoke echoing through the blackness.

 Chapter 32 The Great Sage

    ¡°You smell.¡±


    I¡¯ve seen God Kings before, being of the sixteenth rank who could crush me with a breath, but this feeling, this presence was far beyond even that.


    I''d never been stripped so cleanly. I felt bare and naked. No qi, no senses, nothing. It wasn¡¯t that they were merely being suppressed. No, it was as if they had never been there to begin with.


    It could be a show of power. Maybe they wanted something from me, maybe this being had found me and was merely playing with my existence. Toying with me before my death.


    My mind jumped from one conflicted thought to another, quickly trying to get a grip on the situation.


    I kowtowed, knees and head touching the floor, and held the position firmly.


    ¡°You smell of Beast¡¯s blood,¡± the voice grumbled again.


    Shit. I thought I had wiped away all traces of her qi before I¡¯d left.


    ¡°I¡¯ve met their child,¡± I answered.


    Thoughts ran through my head. Was this Tai Jey? Had he found me in search of vengeance? Shit. I shouldn¡¯t have given such a half-assed answer. I should have told him who I was and how I¡¯d come into contact with Beast¡¯s child. I should have thought of everything this creature desired to know and answered it in the most polite yet conclusive way possible.


    A full, unabridged, and honest answer might have saved me from a fate even worse than death.


    I was basically begging this creature to rip my soul apart and read my mind like a book. Who was I to waste this being¡¯s time? Who was I to make them ask questions? I pondered trying to kill myself then and there, but my death array wasn¡¯t even accessible to me right now.


    If this god being decided to torment me for the rest of eternity, I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything but accept it.


    ¡°Where?¡± The being asked.


    I tried to speak. Really, I did. The selfish self-preserving part of me that had kept Dane alive for billions of years wanted to spill every secret I¡¯d ever had to this thing in hopes of it letting me die a peaceful death.


    But I couldn¡¯t say a single word. It was strange. I couldn¡¯t feel a single bit of qi and my divine senses might as well have not existed, but that damn dao still had a hold on me.


    I could feel it, speaking to me from the back of my mind.


    If you tell him, the girl will die. If you tell him, you¡¯re no better than those cultivators you hate so much. An innocent child would grow into a weapon and a slave for some higher being. You can¡¯t allow that to happen to her. Not now that you¡¯ve chosen peace.


    FUCK.


    ¡°I can not say,¡± I answered, preparing myself for absolute annihilation.


    There was a pause before it killed me.


    ¡°Why?¡± The voice asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t let her come to danger,¡± I answered, prepping myself for an immediate and unending amount of pain.


    There was silence.


    ¡°Truly?¡± The voice asked.


    ¡°It is my Dao,¡± I replied still readying myself for the eventual torment.


    But there was none. Then the voice laughed and all ambiguousness faded from its tone. It was a manly voice, a bit high and hoarse with a distinct ape-like howl at the end of its laughter.


    I didn¡¯t dare to raise my head from the ground.


    ¡°Your Dao won¡¯t allow you to do so?¡± The man asked. ¡°How stringent.¡±


    My divine senses returned to me, and suddenly I saw. Immense qi overwhelmed me, far more than any amount of qi I had ever seen before. I¡¯d seen divine realms and God Kings but this was on a whole other level.


    And the intensity. By the Dao the intensity. It was like the qi itself had will.


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    ¡°Rise,¡± said the Monkey King, his mere voice vibrating through the depths of my soul. His presence saturated the area with his qi, to the point where almost nothing else could be sensed. It was everywhere. It was as if the very realm around us was formed out of his qi alone.


    In my eyes, he was only in front of me, but to my senses, he was everywhere. I sent my divine senses out as far as I could, and even then his qi seemed to saturate the realm. As if everything here was made of him and him alone.


    The First Child of Human and Beast. He Who Fought Buddha and Won. The Great Sage Who Split the Heavens. The Victorious Fighting Buddha. Absolute Hight. Sun WuKong.


    I bowed again, instinctively this time.


    ¡°Rise,¡± he repeated.


    And I did so. He was draped in a long golden robe that seemed to flow from his shoulders to the floor and on his head a wore a thick golden band. His body was like that of a man, except for his immense amount of fur and his hand-like feet. His tale was a mixture of blond and silver and his mouth had that distinctive ape-like shape that warped into a mischievous smile.


    ¡°Array King Dane?¡± Wukong asked. His voice full of question and curiosity.


    I shook my head.


    ¡°I see,¡± he said with satisfaction, seeming to have arrived at a conclusion of his own.


    ¡°What a strange soul you have boy. It¡¯s like two different paintings being cut up and rearranged to make a whole new one.¡±


    I nodded and bowed again.


    ¡°Stop bowing,¡± he said.


    ¡°This is why I resort to not letting anyone sense my qi,¡± He grumbled.


    ¡°Circulate your voidwalker technique,¡± he commanded.


    I did as he asked, my technique cutting me off from the rest of the qi all around me.


    After a moment or so I felt something at my back. A tail, winding down from my tailbone and down onto the ground.


    ¡°What?¡± I mumbled.


    And my hands were furred all the way up to my elbows, akin to the arms of the Old God who stood in front of me. Sun Wukong¡¯s qi had invaded my own and I had almost lost my own identity because of it. A little longer and my dao would have been that of the Fighting Ape, and I would have been entirely remade in his image.


    ¡°It¡¯s a consequence of strength,¡± WuKong answered. ¡°The qi of smaller beings tends to be much more pliable in the presence of stronger beings.¡±


    I held my tongue, both horrified and amazed, and circulated my voidwalker technique as best as I could. A voidwalker technique was sort of like a spacesuit that would let you withstand the void of space. Without things like gravity or time, your body and all of the physical aspects it contained would burst into absolute nothingness due to the lack of physical laws to keep them together.


    Of course, you didn¡¯t need such techniques after the ninth realm, but most still used them because using a voidwalker technique was far less qi intensive than just fighting off the power of the void through sheer strength alone.


    Anyway, voidwalker techniques separate you from the other sources of qi, in the same way a spacesuit separates an astronaut from the cosmic radiation of the sun. And that was what I was doing right now, separating myself from the infectious qi of The Monkey King.


    A thought occurred to me. Was this why the rest of creation minced the qi of the four primordials? Was this the inherent nature of God-Imperiums? And were the Primordial just first?


    I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the present.


    Sun WuKong. His importance to the cultivation world could not be overstated. While the Primordials were held in high reverence as the Gods of the world, it was Wu Kong who was seen as the God of cultivators.


    He was the reason the orthodox sects could exist, free from the influence of both the righteous and demonic. It was he who shattered the first Heaven and Hell and scattered the pieces, letting new pantheons and powers grow from their broken shards. And most importantly, it was him who stayed the hand of Buddha away from the Orthodox and it was him the Demon Kings feared and hid from.


    He was the pinnacle. The form every cultivator sought to mimic.


    And he was right here in front of me.


    I bowed once more and WuKong sighed.


    ¡°Haven¡¯t I told you to stop bowing?¡± He asked with a light tone of annoyance.


    I straightened myself out and stood as firmly as I could.


    Sun WuKong stood with a hint of annoyance on his face.


    ¡°Are you a Buddhist Monk by any chance?¡± He asked.


    ¡°No, Great Sage. I practice the Dao of peace.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Under what denomination?¡±


    ¡°I am a simple Daoist, Great Sage. I practice only what I know.¡±


    WuKong eyed me up and down, a suspicious gaze seeming to beam out of his eyes. I held myself together, still a little unclear about my current predicament but hopeful nonetheless.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you then?¡± The Monkey King finally asked.


    ¡°Your soul looks like a horribly made quilt and while you contain the aura of Array King Dane, there seems to be something else there as well.¡±


    I wondered how he knew about Dane. Maybe they had met by accident or maybe he had run into Dane¡¯s work and recognized his aura. It wouldn¡¯t be impossible for him to do so, after he was a God-Imperium.


    ¡°My soul is a mixture of Array King Dane¡¯s and a random mortal¡¯s,¡± I answered.


    ¡°I can see that boy. My question is why?¡±


    ¡°An accident,¡± I answered.


    Sun WuKong looked at me with one eyebrow raised.


    ¡°Truly?¡± He asked.


    I nodded, and after another moment of inspection, he smiled and laughed.


    It was one of those bursting laughs, those laughs you¡¯d hear from your grandpa as a kid that seemed to boom throughout the place and echo everywhere.


    ¡°How ridiculous!¡± WuKong commented.


    ¡°Twice! You¡¯ve made me laugh twice now!¡± He bellowed.


    ¡°Well then, tell me your story young one.¡±

 Chapter 33 The Monkey King

    Sun Wukong nodded his head. He had listened, which was surprising considering all the other options he had at his discretion.


    He could have taken the information straight from my soul in a numerous number of ways, but instead, the Monkey King had sat down and listened.


    I didn¡¯t dare lie. I just spoke, telling him everything I knew. And he already knew where the child was. He had traced back my qi to Ah Marin and knew her exact location. After that, I didn¡¯t have any reason or ability to lie to him so, I just spoke.


    And he listened.


    By the end of it, he sat there, thinking.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he said. This time his tone was flat and filled with contemplation.


    He just sat there, thinking for a moment. Which meant a lot when you realized that this was a being who could dream up a universe in a blink of a second.


    While the silence incurred, I too, took a moment to think.


    The plan had been simple. A lot of new things had suddenly appeared in my life. First among them was this Dao. This Dao of Peace was something I had no knowledge of, and while my ignorance was unfortunate, I doubted that it was something entirely new to the cultivation world. And the same could be said for the child. I didn¡¯t know how to deal with her, but I was sure that there was some information I could borrow in order to educate myself on the topic.


    And so I had left, leaving Ah-Marin and traveling to Lynoria, one of the safer places in the cultivation world. The goal had been to visit the Library of The Eternal Tome and see if they had anything that could help me with this stuff. I wanted to see if there was any useful information about my Dao or this child.


    It should have been a quick journey. A week in Ah-Marin¡¯s time probably less, but I had no idea how it would end now.


    I always avoided those stronger than me. At least Dane had always avoided those stronger than him. He was a very careful man and I had thought that I was doing the same.


    But clearly, I had let my mortal inhibitions take over. And more importantly, I had failed to take what I didn¡¯t know into account. In retrospect, it all seemed obvious. Of course, a God-Imperium could sense her qi off of me.


    Why wouldn¡¯t they? I was like a mortal compared to these beings. They were creatures far beyond my understanding, and for some reason, I had thought that I could outsmart them.


    And then there was Sun Wu Kong. I didn¡¯t dare to think about the Monkey King. I imagined he could read my mind quite easily, and if I dared to think something¡­ unflattering. Well, it would be better to not entertain the possibilities of those thoughts.


    ¡°Why are you out here?¡± WuKong finally asked.


    ¡°I- I meant to make my way to Lynoria, Great Sage. I was hoping to find knowledge to aid in my predicament.¡±


    ¡°To my place?¡± WuKong asked.


    ¡°Yes, Great Sage.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I was just heading over there. Come on, we¡¯ll head out together.¡±


    I nodded, trying my best to seem eager. Honestly, the idea of spending more time with this man scared the shit out of me, but the idea of refusing him scared the shit out of me even more.


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    Sun WuKong held out his hands, and as suddenly as the qi had appeared, it vanished. I watched in awe at the action. I knew what had happened now. He hadn¡¯t shoved me into some realm to interrogate me or question me, but rather he had formed a realm, made purely out of his own qi and now he had gotten rid of it as he pleased.


    It was similar to my own universe array, except that had taken me millions of years to set up and required multiple external qi sources to keep functioning. And yet he had done it without an ounce of effort.


    I smiled.


    I didn¡¯t really know why I smiled. I should have been terrified, but a part of me found it so absurd that a technique I¡¯d been building on for billions of years was just a mere thought for the man next to me. I guess that explained why Array Masters never made it far in this world. The powers and abilities we¡¯d naturally had could easily be attained at higher ranks. We were just more convenient for the cultivator world.


    ¡°Something funny?¡± WuKong asked.


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m just in awe of your power Great Sage,¡± I replied.


    WuKong held up his hand and suddenly, we were back in that little stream of qi. Pushing along towards the realm of Lynoria.


    I stood there, silently wondering what in the world was going on right now. Why was a being so strong and powerful just¡­ escorting me to another realm. None of it made sense at all.


    Even taking all I knew about Sun WuKong from the various myths and legends. I still couldn¡¯t find a good or suitable answer.


    Back in the early days of the multiverse, very few beings had reached the realm of God-Imperium, and those that did kept their methods from others. Eventually, there was a gathering of sorts. The cultivators were divided into two groups, those of the righteous path and the demonic path.


    Everyone was expected to be in one group or another and due to these severe divisions, you had constant and unbridled war between these two groups. That was until Sun WuKong came along. Sun WuKong, along with the help of Buddha, created the orthodox faction of cultivators.


    It was a third faction, unbothered by either the righteous sects or the demonic, and while normally such dissonance wouldn¡¯t be allowed, not many could stand up to the power of both Buddha and WuKong. Buddha, the strongest member on the side of the righteous and the first God-Imperium had stood alongside Sun WuKong after Wukong had defeated him in battle.


    And back then, when the God-Imperiums numbered in the hundreds, the idea of fighting both the strongest and the second strongest cultivators in the world was not at all appealing.


    And so the orthodox side was born and quickly grew into being the most powerful of the three factions. That led to lesser wars, as the more wars were fought between the two sides, the more cultivators would flee to the orthodox sects to avoid the conflict. Also, the orthodox sects would eventually start to interfere in the wars, stopping the conflict and issuing punishment to the individual parties for the offense.


    After a certain amount of time, both sides learned to hold themselves back, both as a determent to their own shrinking forces and out of fear of judgment of the orthodox.


    And all of that had been done by Sun WuKong.


    So to call him scary would be an understatement, and as honorable as it was to spend time in his presence, it was also batshit terrifying.


    ¡°So, what do I call you?¡± WuKong asked.


    ¡°You can call me as you please Great Sage.¡±


    ¡°No, no. You are no longer Dane and yet you are no longer Bill. What is your name now?¡±


    ¡°I still go by Bill or Dane, Great Sage.¡±


    ¡°Dane it is then. Would you care to do me a favor, Dane?¡±


    ¡°I would be honored to aid you, Great Sage.¡±


    As if I could say no.


    ¡°Would you look after Beast¡¯s child for me?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to take her, Great Sage?¡± I asked.


    I half expected him to have taken her already, so the question caught me by surprise.


    ¡°No. It¡¯s not my place to raise her,¡± WuKong commented. ¡°If I raised every child my parents had ever had I¡¯d be raising half of the God-Imperiums within existence. I¡¯m no more her brother than you are.¡±


    ¡°But her bloodline, surely you must have some use for it.¡±


    ¡°Do not think me one of those demonic fools, child.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I was just asking if leaving such a valuable-¡±


    WuKong held out his hand.


    ¡°Stop.¡±


    I pressed my lips together with enough force to bend metal.


    ¡°Do you know what auras are?¡± He asked me.


    ¡°Of course, Great Sage.¡±


    ¡°Tell me.¡±


    ¡°A person¡¯s aura is ambient qi that leaks from their body and out into the world. And as the qi comes from the soul, it will naturally be influenced by the soul and act in congruence with that person¡¯s will.¡±


    WuKong nodded.


    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s more than that. Aura is qi, qi that comes from the soul. It is stained with your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, holding not only current thoughts but past thoughts as well. It carries the flavor of your very being. That¡¯s how I knew your name, Dane.¡±


    There was a small and tense pause before he spoke again.


    ¡°What makes you think I don¡¯t see all that contempt you hold towards me, then?¡±

 Chapter 34 Insignificant

    And there it was. There was my death sentence.


    ¡°Oh, pipe down,¡± Sun WuKong said.


    ¡°Pardon?¡±


    ¡°I know your aura and I know your mind.¡±


    I stayed still for a moment, wondering if he was saying what I thought he was saying.


    ¡°I won¡¯t kill you, or torture you, or erase your memory or any of the other things you¡¯re thinking of.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your mercy, Great Sage,¡± I said with a deep bow.


    ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± He asked.


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡°I know you don¡¯t believe me.¡± He stated.


    My heart beat harder. I felt like a cockroach in the kitchen with the lights on. My mind was scrambling for any surface to hide under, but in front of this being, there was none.


    ¡°Why?¡± He asked.


    Because your strength alone makes you terrifying. To you, I am an insect and you hold my very existence in the palm of your hands. One irritated breath from you would send me tumbling into oblivion. And even if you did let me live. Even if by some miracle I gathered your favor and you chose to let me live, it would only take one moment of annoyance for you to change your mind and kill me.


    Shit.


    All of those thoughts had happened in one sudden swoop of anger, and that anger was quickly followed by regret. If he could read my aura as well as I believed he could then those thoughts would be there, almost written out in the edges of my qi, and I would die.


    I readied myself for death, if death was what I¡¯d get. I could only hope for something quick and permanent. I thought back to Ah-Marin, back to Gauntlet and that newborn child sleeping in that room. She would live, but the whole realm of Ah-Marin wouldn¡¯t.


    He¡¯d probably take her and nuke the realm on his way out. Chin Chin, the Maidens, the beasts, everything. Hundreds of billions of people¡­ just gone. All because I couldn¡¯t control my own thoughts.


    Then, I heard snickering. The snickering grew, turning from a stifled laugh to outright howling.


    The Monkey King was sprawled out on the metaphysical ground, slamming his hands against the floor in laughter.


    A joke. Ah, okay. Alright. He is Sun WuKong, the mischievous Monkey King who fought the Old Gods out of boredom.


    I did my best to not express my current feelings and instead bowed so that I wouldn¡¯t have to look at the laughing monkey any longer.


    After what felt like an awfully long amount of time for a place where time doesn¡¯t exist, Sun WuKong finally stood up.


    ¡°Ah, we¡¯re almost there, aren¡¯t we?¡± He asked.


    In all of the stress, I had forgotten to use my senses.


    I circulated a technique, an old one. One that I had found back when I had just broken into the immortal realm. It was called, Seeing Through The Void.


    It was a vision technique, one that turned all of the qi signatures within the void into light, allowing a person to ¡®see¡¯ them. It would translate qi into light and allow one to ¡®see through the void.¡¯ It was almost useless to me at this point. My own divine senses were more than enough to see all the qi signatures around me, but old habits were hard to break.


    Lynoria burst through the void, shining like a nebula. It shone in colors that didn¡¯t exist, burning through the void and bathing both WuKong and me in a beautiful light. The celestial realm lit up through the blackness, like galaxies in the distance. Certain figures could also be seen, wading slowly through the darkness. These were God-Imperiums, most likely of the non-human kind. They rarely bothered to hide themselves, and others even strutted leisurely, like a tiger walking through its jungle.


    ¡°Oooh?¡± WuKong said, staring at the colors like a mystified child.


    ¡°What a beautiful technique¡­¡± He stated as we approached the nebula. ¡°Where did you find it?¡±


    ¡°Ah-Marin,¡± I answered. ¡°It¡¯s called-¡±


    ¡°Seeing Through The Void,¡± he interrupted. ¡°It¡¯s an ancient technique. Nothing powerful, but it is quite valuable.¡±


    ¡°Valuable?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± WuKong answered without elaboration.


    The stream of qi we were riding started to merge with other streams as we got closer to the realm, and in the distance, other cultivators and creatures started to come into view. Qi signatures started to pop up from all over, some demonic, some righteous, but most were neutral.


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    If you were to try and map out the central realms on paper, well you couldn¡¯t because the infinite void of nothingness couldn¡¯t be expressed on a two-dimensional plane. But if you tried to anyways, you¡¯d have the Heavens up north and the Hells down south and Lynoria would be somewhere near the western front. It was the largest celestial realm before you tapered off into the outer void, and was one of the most important celestial realms within existence.


    It was an unaffiliated realm and took no sides in any major conflict outside of its borders, making it a refuge for most people, regardless of their previous allegiance. It also enforced its nonviolence rule religiously. Killing here would get you prosecuted, regardless of sect, status, or power.


    There was even a time when a God-Imperium had invaded the celestial realm and killed one of their wayward disciples. Once they had done so, WuKong himself had come down and slain the God-Imperium on the spot.


    That itself was a ridiculous concept, but that death set an example for eternity to come. To this day, feuds within Lynoria never resulted in anything more than lost limbs. And unless those fights were sanctioned duels of some sort or internal clan dealings, people being killed within the realm was practically unheard of.


    That made the place a major trading center for everyone throughout the multiverse. Almost anyone who had anything to sell could be found within the gates of this city. Everything from spiritual herbs and alchemy pills to ancient cultivation skills could be found here. The only things you couldn¡¯t find here were things concerning slavery or demonic techniques.


    If existence had a capital, then this was it. Here you would find members of every major force. The guaranteed peace made it the most attractive place for talks between any groups and parties, and the guaranteed peace and loose restrictions made it the perfect spot for merchants who found the tight rules of the righteous sects unappealing. And eventually, the celestial realm gained a nickname, the Realm of Merchants and Ambassadors.


    Along with all of that came untold trade and imports. Every celestial sect worth a damn had a base here. Even if their wares were demonic or banned within this realm, just having a representative here would open them up to many contacts. Which, ironically enough, made it both one of the safest places in the multiverse and one of the most dangerous.


    Safe if you were planning to live for the rest of your natural existence, dangerous if you ever planned to leave. Within these realms were the most powerful groups of people throughout existence and while they couldn¡¯t hurt you here, they could certainly hurt you outside of the realm. So everyone here had to be careful of how they acted, aside from the natural denizens.


    ¡°Seven,¡± WuKong suddenly said. ¡°I¡¯ll give seven favors as a gift.¡±


    I looked over at the Monkey King, unsure if this might have been another one of his jokes.


    ¡°I¡¯m being serious,¡± he commented.


    ¡°Can I ask why Great Sage?¡±


    WuKong¡¯s head turned curiously.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? Three for each time you made me laugh, and four for showing me something interesting.¡±


    I was quite flabbergasted at that comment. Was that all it took to get these? A few chuckles and spars? I had been actively trying not to die, not curry his favor.


    ¡°May I ask what those four things were, Great Sage?¡±


    WuKong smiled at my confusion.


    ¡°Sure, and I can answer it as a favor,¡± He answered.


    I thought about that for a moment and shook my head.


    WuKong smile got even wider at that. I would have liked to imagine it was a smile of wisdom or satisfaction that implied that I had made the right choice. But instead, it was a mischievous grin, something you¡¯d see in a cartoon.


    I still didn¡¯t really know this man. I mean, I knew the stories, but myths and legends were just that, myths and legends. At this point, there were so many realms with so many versions of Sun WuKong¡¯s story that having a reliable and consistent image of him was utterly impossible.


    On Earth, he had been a powerful being who tangled with The Jade Emperor and Buhdda himself, but aside from that, almost every aspect of the story differed from realm to realm. Some said he was an evil devil who had eventually gained redemption through the means of finding Buhdda, others claimed he was a virtuous monkey seeking his own path to righteousness and strength. Bits and pieces could be verified for certain, some of WuKong¡¯s fights and conflicts were known to be absolute truth, but the details had long been forgotten to the annals of time, and all those who remembered didn¡¯t really care to retell the story.


    ¡°Oh, alright then. Since you have such trouble choosing what you want, I will pick out the favors for you,¡± he replied.


    Shit.


    ¡°Oh, there¡¯s no need to trouble-¡±


    ¡°Nonsense,¡± WuKong cut in. ¡°It¡¯d be a waste to let you decide as it is.¡±


    Wukong¡¯s hands suddenly went down, one by one, until his hands stood closed and he had only a smile remaining on his face.


    I gulped.


    ¡°You may now use you¡¯re last favor as you wish.¡±


    ¡°May- may I ask what these specific favors were?¡± I asked meekly.


    ¡°Tell me,¡± WuKong said with that still sly smile. ¡°What do you think a God-Imperium is?¡±


    Shit. Was this going to be one of those long-winded answers masked as sagely-


    ¡°Just answer the question,¡± WuKong said, interrupting my thoughts.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I suppose a God-Imperium is the peak of the cultivation world,¡± I responded.


    ¡°Such a lazy answer,¡± Wukong said while shaking his head. ¡°But yes, it is the peak of the cultivation world, and it is the highest peak that most beings can ever achieve. God-Imperiums, no matter how weak they are, carve their existence into reality. They¡¯re so vast and powerful that reality struggles to copy their form. So immense that even in the furthest reaches of reality, you¡¯ll still find bits and pieces of their qi moving and infecting everything it touches.¡±


    Talk about an ego.


    ¡°Do you know the difference between a sixteenth-rank God King and a God-Imperium?¡± Wukong asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s said to be bigger than the difference between and God King and a mortal,¡± I replied.


    ¡°That¡¯s one of expressing it, but that¡¯s not quite accurate. It fails to show the true difference between those two ranks,¡± Wukong said as he looked at me. ¡°No the true gap between those two ranks is that of one and infinity.¡±


    I saw Wukong grow and felt myself shrink. Everything shrunk around me and for a small desperate moment, I thought I had died. I couldn¡¯t feel my qi or my strength and everything but Wukong faded away into nothingness. He had broken past my Void Walker technique, letting his qi and identity invade mine.


    No. Not invade, just exist. I wasn¡¯t being attacked by the qi. It had no ill intentions of its own. This qi was like an ocean, uncaring and immense, and I was drowning in it.


    I thought back to earlier in our meeting, back when I felt like I couldn¡¯t circulate qi or feel my own techniques. At the time I had assumed that Wukong had been restricting me, pushing the qi out of my body with some powerful technique.


    It was only now in my struggle to exist that I realized, he hadn¡¯t been restricting me. No. An ant doesn¡¯t grow weaker in front of a bear, it just realizes how weak it truly is.


    Then I passed out.

 Chapter 35 Bureaucracy

    I woke up standing on the outskirts of Lynoria. Its multilayered membrane glistened with energy in front of me.


    It took only an instant for me to regain my composure, and even then I was still a bit dazed. I slept on occasion, just for the fun of it, but I couldn¡¯t remember the last time I had ever passed out.


    It must have been eons ago, and even then. I had passed out due to exhaustion, not¡­ whatever Wukong had done.


    But regardless of all of that, his message was pretty clear. He had told me what his favors were as I was passing out, but I was too delirious to comprehend it then. But now, now it all made sense.


    I was weak. I had been moving around, doing things while thinking I understood the abilities of those above me. I had been wrong. Wukong¡¯s six favors could be summarized in two words. Cleaning up. The man had cleaned up all of the trails and hints I¡¯d left behind along the way, four separate times. The first was at the fight with Kin Jey. The second and third were at Ah-Marin and the fourth right as I met Wukong. Traces of qi, no matter how unimportant they seemed to me, were left behind at each of these spots. There were things I couldn¡¯t see, concepts I couldn¡¯t imagine. It was childish of me to think that I could hide my presence from a God-Imperium.


    I turned to look at the tail behind me. That was where the fifth and the sixth favors took place. Wukong had hidden us, both me and the child from further divination attempts, and he had even given me a false identity to work with. The tail was a bit of his qi, and it would make divination almost impossible for anyone below a God-Imperium¡¯s rank, or at least I assumed that was the case.


    And that thing at the end, that was my seventh favor. It was a wake-up call. He was telling me to keep my head low and stay the hell away from God-Imperiums. I was nothing compared to them, and I was a fool to even think myself capable of hiding from them.


    They were inconceivable from where I stood, absolutely unfathomable.


    Even Wukong, as benevolent as he had been, was terrifying. Not terrifying in a living way. It wasn¡¯t his actions or intentions that scared me, no it was the sheer scale of him. It was like staring down the edge of a cliff, or the idea of floating untethered in outer space.


    I pushed away the thought, not willing to contemplate it any longer, and I stepped through the realm membrane and entered Lynoria.


    Light shone down on me at the entrance and as my voidwalker and voidseeing techniques fell, the light of Lynoria shined.


    Lynoria was a collection of celestial realms, having hundreds of thousands of higher realms wrapped through and around it to create the core of the place and an infinite amount of lesser realms blossoming in between.


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    Of course, infinite universes filled with infinite space meant the possibility of infinite souls would arise, and for security reasons, that was generally a frowned upon thing within any celestial realm.


    So they managed it through a bureaucratic system that threatened my own arrays in complexity. A web of rules and enforcers, trained directly by Ma¡¯at herself, were present everywhere within the realm, making sure the rules were followed and that order was not disturbed.


    It was quite taxing actually. Governing over infinite realms meant you needed near-infinite personnel. As for the three main celestial realms, each of them was governed by the factions that ruled over Lynoria.


    That was to say, entering this specific realm meant that there would be a decent amount of paperwork and questioning.


    I was in a room, one that didn¡¯t look too large, and in front of me sat a little stone monkey at a desk. The desk looked far too big for the creature and its head barely peaked over the edge. It must have been the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and the little monkey¡¯s small pebble of a head peaked right on over it at its edge. The entire table was full of jade tablets, each of them about the size of a man¡¯s palm and some floated in the air, interacting with the stone monkey¡¯s divine senses as they did so.


    ¡°Please provide the reason for your visit, as well as the estimated length of your visit, and possible enemy forces you wish to avoid. Also, please make sure to mark which realm and/or service you plan to visit.¡±


    A jade tablet flew towards me and hovered in front of my face. Ah yes, the bane of traveling, whether on earth or in the cosmos, customs.


    I moved my senses through the jade tablet, only to find it full of thousands of questions, each requiring detailed answers, and sighed. It wouldn¡¯t take me time to complete it, not at my level. But still, nobody enjoyed paperwork, unless you were one of those bureaucratic gods or something.


    I finished my filings and the jade tablet went floating back to the stone monkey.


    ¡°Thank you for your cooperation,¡± the monkey replied with a monotone voice.


    ¡°Tough shift?¡± I asked, feigning sympathy.


    The stone monkey nodded with feigned emotions in response.


    ¡°A couple more centuries and I¡¯ll be done though. A whole million years of vacation. Might even go up a realm.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow, fourteenth realm?¡± I asked with genuine surprise.


    ¡°Indeed. Then I¡¯ll be free of this post and moved into the inner dealings. Something nice and cushy.¡±


    Normally cultivators wouldn¡¯t be so open about their ranks and planned improvements, but this was a native of Lynoria. It was an understandable sentiment for their kind. They rarely had threats and death was as rare as primordial qi for someone as strong as him.


    ¡°Plan to leave then? Explore what lies beyond.¡±


    ¡°By the Virtouse Ape no,¡± snorted the little stone monkey.


    ¡°A year here is like a month out there. I¡¯d waste the entirety of my vacation in an instant.¡±


    I nodded understandingly, as he finished reading through my paperwork.


    ¡°Makes my time in here a whole lot more enjoyable though,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Indeed. Well, here¡¯s your pass. Make sure to meet your exit crew at the proper exit point and do well to respect those around you. Have a nice visit.¡±


    ¡°Have a good vacation,¡± I replied as slipped out of his room and into one of the many higher realms in the place.

 Chapter 36 The Tome

    I navigated through the place as best as I could. Traveling through folds of space and layered universes was as boring as it could ever be without worrying about some asshole tracking you down to rob and pillage you.


    There was no worry here. Even the void within this region was well-patroled. With soldiers being seen in the distance, each of them armed and ready for conflict. I suppose to them, this was their city, and the void was merely one of the small alleys that divided the neighborhoods, and most of the higher realms had direct portals that connected them.


    Only when navigating to the lesser realms would you find yourself leaping back through the void and wading through a sectioned-off part of nonexistence. The creatures here were many, most were humans of one kind or another, some beasts, few insects, and rarely, you¡¯d see a few angels and eldritch making their way around one of the higher realms.


    Those ones were dangerouse. Beasts would behave if their lives were on the line, but insects were risky and more machine-like, and angels and eldritch beings were even worse.


    But they would behave, at least while in Lynoria. It would be a different story outside of these realms, but while they were here, or floating through the void that encapsulated Lynoria.


    That was also a weird concept. Privately owned pieces of the void. Nothing, contained inside of something. I didn¡¯t really understand the concept but realm engineering was far beyond me.


    I traveled through the infinitely folded realms, like a man wandering through an unfamiliar building looking for that one specific room meant for him.


    Now infinity was a weird concept, but it was everywhere within the grander multiverse. And the more you grew in power, the more you grew to understand it, and yet never fully grasp it.


    It was like Plato¡¯s allegory of the cave, except you never truly reached the end. Each realm one reached revealed even more truths about the universe and hinted at more profound things, and you¡¯d think in that moment of enlightenment that you had seen it all. You¡¯d look and see the edges of a universe, a realm that had infinite space and infinite mass and you¡¯d see all of it at once and think, Ah yes, I have it now.


    And then you¡¯d see the void, then the wider multiverse, then a celestial realm, one that contained infinite lesser realms around it, constantly growing and spreading out further than you had ever imagined. And then, finally, you¡¯d think you¡¯d seen it all.


    Then you¡¯d see the Sea of Death or the Realms of Imagination, or the Dreaming. Realms so vast and infinite that you wouldn¡¯t even dare to enter them because you could never find your way back out. Infinite realms so large that just glancing at unprepared could cripple your soul and mind into nothingness.


    But for this type of infinity, there was a way to navigate it. You had a point to reach and you aimed for that point. It was like taking a walk down an endless hallways. If you were trying to reach the end of that hallway, you¡¯d be going forever, but if you were just trying to get to one specific room, you¡¯d find it eventually.


    No the true gap between those two ranks is that of one and infinity.


    Wukong¡¯s words echoed in my brain. I wondered which infinity he was talking about. The one I could flip through like a book or the one so big that I couldn¡¯t even look at it without preparation.


    I moved, pushing myself through the nothingness. Eventually, I found the room I was meant to visit, or the realm, in this case. It was a lesser realm and once I entered it, I realized there was only one occupant.


    A fifteenth-ranked World King sat in the center of a white space. Now a lesser realm was still an infinitely vast universe, meaning it could harbor stars and galaxies and even life. Earth had been located in a lesser realm of sorts, and this universe was similar to that one, except for one major difference.


    There was nothing else here, only the World King and his belongings occupied this space. A whole universe had been turned into an empty office.


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    ¡°Yes?¡± The cultivator said with a questioning tone.


    He was draped in a dazzling blue robe, one that shined and glimmed with starlight. No, not starlight, but actual stars. His robe was an entire realm all its own. It had stars and clusters of galaxies, planets, nebulas, and even life.


    I could see little dragons and men, they were too small for a mortal eye but I noticed them, fighting and battling.


    The dragon was lizard-like and had large leathery bat wings, and the man wore a knight¡¯s armor. He was barely at the fifth rank and the dragon itself was similar.


    ¡°Beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    I raised my head, looking up from the clothing and towards the man¡¯s face.


    ¡°Yes, Honored Master,¡± I replied.


    ¡°It¡¯s a gift from Athena¡¯s Grove, woven by a grand disciple of Athena herself.¡±


    ¡°A magnificent gift.¡±


    ¡°Indeed it is,¡± he replied. ¡°Now, why have you come?¡±


    I presented the man with my jade piece, sending the thing floating over to his side and furrowed his brows.


    ¡°I see, then this is a serious transaction? I assume you have the funds for such a request?¡±


    ¡°Yes Honored Master,¡± I replied.


    The man reached into his robe and pulled out a large and pointy wizard¡¯s hat, one that was every bit as spectacular as his robe. It too was made out of a realm, one filled with giants and faeries and things of the fey.


    The man walked a few paces and grabbed a hold of an intangible door handle and opened it. Suddenly a portal appeared, one that led to a celestial realm. The man walked through it and beckoned for me to follow, and I obliged.


    I felt the change as soon as I¡¯d stepped through. The air, realm, qi, and even the Dao of this place were entirely different. Shelves surrounded me, ones that towered infinitely above me, layered with unending knowledge.


    ¡°Welcome, young one, to the sect of the Eternal Tome,¡± the man said without turning towards me.


    ¡°Here, I will guide you to what you desire, but first the payment,¡± the man said with practiced ease.


    I looked around, still slightly transfixed on the place. My senses spread far and wide, trying to find an end to the collection of knowledge and yet, there was nothing, only shelves and shelves of information.


    The realm itself was too large for me to see, too big for me to truly comprehend.


    This was the home of The Keepers of the Eternal Tome. Three different celestial realms made up the core of Lynoria, the first and the most important one was the Sect of WuKong, the second was the Sect of the All Blade, and the third group was The Keepers of the Eternal Tome.


    All three of these forces, led by their respective leaders, had come together to establish Lynoria ages ago. Wukong lent his name and reputation and the Sect of the All Blade gave it an immense workforce and regulatory committee, and finally, there were The Keepers of the Eternal Tome.


    They were probably the most unnecessary piece of the three Celestial Sects that ruled Lynoria, but they were also the most valuable. The Keepers were one of the ancient Sects, a group so old that no one really remembered a time without them. And throughout all of existence, they had only desire. To record and catalog all that was, all that is, and all that could be.


    The robed wizard cleared his throat.


    ¡°Ah yes, my apologies,¡± I replied.


    The man nodded. ¡°It is understandable. The tome is vast and unending in beauty.¡±


    I nodded. Again, I spread my mind out to the outer edges of their limits, trying to just glance at the edges of this place, and again I failed. It was too much, infinite infinities were there, one layering over the dimensions of the other.


    I retreated my senses.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± I commented with a half-hearted apology.


    I¡¯d normally be worried about insulting the man but the fact that he was both a Lynorian native and that my act of observation had been more of a complementing act instead of an insulting one assured me that I wouldn¡¯t be struck down.


    ¡°Yes, yes. Look and see as far as you can and know that what you see is only a piece of a piece of piece,¡± The wizard said with a slight smile. ¡°That¡¯s what we keepers say after all.¡±


    Then the man walked and I followed. The gaps between the shelves were stationary and regular, each book, scroll, and jade perfectly placed based on whatever order it was that ran this place. I could feel the very realm itself wanting to sort me out, put me in a book somewhere.


    Celestial realms were strange things. Higher realms had will and tribulations and some lesser realms did too, but celestial realms were practically sentient. They had their own rules and reason, and things would go the way they pleased.


    It was like gravity. If I had a book in my hand, the realm would probably yank it out of my hand and teleport it into one of its shelves, documenting and sorting the knowledge as it did so.


    Finally, we seemed to be approaching a building, one that was the size of a large house. It was plain white, much like the realm that I had found the wizard in.


    Ah yes. The dealing room.

 Chapter 37 The Dealing Room

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    These shelves contained countless knowledge of lost worlds. People and societies, beasts and insects, life and legacies. It was said that everything that could be recorded would eventually find its way here. The Resting Place of All Knowledge, The Unedning Library, The Eternal Tome. That¡¯s where I was.


    But learning from this place came at a cost, as all things did, and I was about to pay mine.


    I walked, following silently into the room.


    The wizard was already across from me when I entered.


    ¡°In this room, it is impossible to lie,¡± he said. ¡°If you try to lie, you¡¯ll find that you can¡¯t. The same goes for me. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes."


    ¡°Good. I will represent The Keepers and you the other party, we shall ask each other questions until a deal is agreed upon. After which, the information you have given will be weighed and an honest value shall be given. If you seek knowledge in return then know that I can not reveal the identities of any certain individuals but group names can be given depending on your intentions. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied.


    I tried to add the Honored Master honorific at the end of it but realized that I couldn¡¯t. This room was compelling me to speak the truth, and the truth was that I didn''t think of this man as an Honored Master. All feigned respect fell from my face and all attempts at cordialness fell from me. By the Dao, even my body language began to fall apart. My controlled face morphed into a half-smile as I looked around the room.


    The wizard nodded without a moment¡¯s hesitation


    ¡°We shall use simple Lynorian for the language. Let¡¯s begin.¡±


    The wizard spoke first.


    ¡°What knowledge do you offer?¡± he asked.


    ¡°The status of Array King Dane,¡± I replied. ¡°Do you have any information on raising something with a Primordial¡¯s blood and the Dao of Peace?¡±


    ¡°We do, though the process can differ depending on the thickness of the blood itself. Do you have a being who contains Primordial blood?¡± The wizard responded.


    ¡°Yes. It was charged to me by Sun Wukong.¡±


    At that statement, the man smiled.


    ¡°I see, so that¡¯s why you¡¯re so brazen.¡±


    I nodded.


    Telling someone that I had the child of a Primordial would be a death sentence for most, but some sects had built themselves up for their honor and honesty and The Keepers of the Eternal Tome were one of them. But even then it¡¯d be stupid to trust them, but now that I had Wukong''s blessing, I knew that the chances of them fucking me over were almost nonexistent.


    The Keepers and Wukong had an important relationship and they would be absolutely insane to mess with that balance. When you dealt with that much knowledge, you¡¯d make many enemies. Without Wukong, they would crumble within the hour.


    ¡°Truly, that monkey irritates me so,¡± the wizard sighed. ¡°But we all do as we must.¡±


    ¡°How accurate is your information on Array King Dane?¡± He asked.


    ¡°As accurate as anything can be.¡±


    The man furrowed his brow.


    ¡°Would you be willing to elaborate on the child of a Primordial?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve already said quite a lot.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you have,¡± the wizard said with a light nod. ¡°Very well, then how did Dane die?¡±


    A look of surprise came onto my face.


    ¡°Array Kings tend to be the reclusive type. Information about them only comes to notice when one has been killed or overtaken by another arraymaster, meaning either Dane is dead, or you¡¯re here to claim his spot, or quite possibly, both. However, I should warn you though, the title of Array King is one given on merit and not conquest.¡±


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    Within a breath, my mind ran through the implications. I knew there were other Array Kings before Dane, and I knew that the title would be passed down after him, but the idea that this was so¡­ predictable, didn¡¯t sit right with me.


    ¡°Did Dane ever come here to claim the title?"


    I knew the answer, but I asked anyway.


    "No. Dane was given the title merely by the observed merit of his work. One of of members ran into his work and deemed him worthy of the name.¡±


    There was a moment of silence as I thought some more.


    ¡°His death seemed to be an accident,¡± I said.


    The wizard nodded.


    ¡°Ah yes, Arraycasting on the soul then. Quite common for Array Kings, they master whatever they can of their quaint little craft and eventually mess around with it where they shouldn¡¯t.¡±


    That statement surprised me even more.


    ¡°This has happened before?¡± I asked, unable to hide my surprise.


    The wizard nodded with an unaffected look.


    ¡°Array Masters are an obsessive sort, and Array Kings all the more so. It¡¯s a useless dying art, but it is enchanting, at least for beings below the fifteenth rank. The problem is the ego. Often Array Kings think that they can do it all, dedicating themselves to pointless projects or attempting to edit their own souls in their vanity. They¡¯re idiots in the end, geniuses in their respective fields, but idiots nonetheless.¡±


    I smiled at the offense. I think the man meant to irritate some response from me, one of anger or insult. And since we were in a dealing room, I couldn¡¯t hide my reaction from him. But that wasn¡¯t the case.


    Rather, his words struck me as true. I was an idiot. Dane had heavily edited his soul, changing it to an inhuman degree, his lack of expected mastery in any individual Daos or Laws was evidence of that. Dane, for all his strengths, was almost non-human. Dane had continuously forged the emotion out of his soul, pushing it towards the nature of an insect and ripping away at his emotions bit by bit.


    It wasn¡¯t an uncommon thing to do amongst obsessive Array Masters, and apparently, Dane¡¯s story wasn¡¯t uncommon at all.


    ¡°In addition to the information I¡¯ve already given, I¡¯m willing to add Array King Dane¡¯s lifelong work and discoveries.¡±


    The wizard¡¯s eyebrow rose in interest.


    ¡°And in return?¡±


    ¡°All the information you have on Array Casting, along with the information I¡¯ve already requested.¡±


    The man nodded with a frown.


    ¡°Not much of a fair trade, is it?¡± He asked me.


    I shrugged. I had provided an immense amount of information, both directly and indirectly. While the child¡¯s existence was a single piece of information, it would be looked into and verified through other means. Those other means would most likely be Wukong. But there was a chance that Wukong would have told them himself, maybe not right away but eventually, and that was why I had told them.


    And this information wasn¡¯t something they¡¯d sell without consulting Wukong himself. Meaning I¡¯d given them information they couldn¡¯t make gains on and information they would have gotten regardless.


    I¡¯d hassled them.


    ¡°Is that all then?¡± The man asked.


    I nodded. I couldn¡¯t even force myself to give him a verbal reply in this place. I suppose a verbal reply would be an act of deception, an extra layer of feigned respect that wasn¡¯t there.


    ¡°Alright then, thus concluded. Offer up your information and the Tome will give what you seek.¡±


    I nodded and held up a jade piece that was full of all the information I¡¯d promised. I hadn¡¯t originally planned to give this much but Wukong had changed all that. If he knew about the child then so would they, eventually. Another aspect that I was unsure about was Array King Dane¡¯s life work.


    It had been quite some time since he had passed, and if I didn¡¯t consider myself a separate enough entity from him, then this room might have called that out as a lie. But I wasn¡¯t Dane, and that was an important truth I had to keep in mind, and while Dane¡¯s work would be cataloged and submitted in this place, my work, my array casting remained unknown.


    The jade piece turned to dust before me and in its place was a book, marked with the emblem of the Keepers of the Eternal Tome.


    ¡°A book?¡± I asked with curiosity.


    ¡°Yes,¡± the man replied. ¡°It¡¯s a Keeper¡¯s book, it allows you to store and catalog all of your knowledge in one place. It¡¯s only accessible by you and by fellow Keepers of the Tome.¡±


    I looked down at the bible-sized thing. It had a small dull jade embedded in its center cover and it was bound in a dull brown leather.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Numerous reasons,¡± the man said with a light shrug. ¡°You could have underpaid for your information, many do so in hopes of being gifted with a Keeper¡¯s book. But your request was vague enough that the Tome could have given you as much knowledge as it needed to until it considered the matter complete. We have billions of array related knowledge in this place, and it¡¯s unlikely that it gave all of that information and still fell short of its due.¡±


    I looked at the Wizard quizically.


    ¡°Then¡­ why?¡±


    The wizard smiled and stroked his chin.


    ¡°My name is Sir Dorsin the Wise. What is your name?¡±


    Oh, I see. He wanted a trade.


    I looked at him for a moment in annoyance. I¡¯m sure he must have noticed but he still kept smiling at me with his hands together.


    ¡°Bill,¡± I mutter.


    ¡°Bill?¡± He replied.


    ¡°Bill,¡± I answered.


    ¡°No titles or monikers, just Bill?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s Mister Bill. Now why the book?¡±


    For the first time since I¡¯d met him, Sir Dorsin the Wise looked irritated.


    ¡°It allows you to trade knowledge with the Tome from anywhere in the multiverse. The Tome must sense that you know more than you said and gave you a path to trade directly with it in the future.¡±


    I looked down at the book.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know it could do that.¡±


    ¡°Direct access to the Tome outside of Lynoria is limited to our disciples and sect members, but the Tome does as it pleases and occasionally, the books are given out to outsiders.¡±


    I studied the book, again wondering why it was in my hands. I had told them about the child, and the sect would most likely worm the details out of Wukong. They were allies after all, but aside from that, I didn¡¯t hold anything that this place might want.


    ¡°I find it strange as well,¡± Sir Dorsin the Wise said. ¡°But the Tome knows what it does.¡±


    I nodded.


    I kept thinking about the book on the way out, all the way until I was out of Lynoria itself.


    The exit crew ended up being a bunch of stone monkies wearing monk-like robes who helped me escape the realm unnoticed. Their main purpose was to make sure I wasn¡¯t followed and to escort me to the Void.


    I finally gave up some time on my way back to Ah-Marin. I couldn¡¯t figure out why I¡¯d gotten this book, but I¡¯d try and make the most of it.

 Chapter 38 Children and Beasts Part 1

    The little girl stared at me, eyes viciously accusing and angry.


    ¡°Gah!¡± She said while pointing.


    ¡°I had stuff to do.¡±


    ¡°Gah!¡± She said again.


    ¡°I was busy.¡±


    ¡°Gah gah boo, me bfppp!¡±


    I sighed. It had been a month since she was born, and it had been one hell of a month. She was up and angry at me when I¡¯d gotten back and there were a lot of baby gibberish accusations thrown my way.


    It was weird. Apparently, a fifth-ranking child came out with the intelligence of a grown man. She could understand me by reading my aura and I could do the same to her. Her words, no matter how meaningless, were means of delivering tone and emotion and that¡¯s just what the child did.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± I said in a tired tone, but the baby was having none of it.


    ¡°ARRRGHGHHG!¡± She screamed.


    Today, she was mad. I¡¯d promised to take her down to the village for some of the merchants that would be arriving today but had gotten caught up reading through the information I¡¯d received from Lynoria.


    ¡°We can see them tomorrow,¡± I replied to the angry little woman.


    ¡°Da!¡± She said, then she turned around and farted.


    I sighed.


    She was a strange creature. The half-beast part didn¡¯t manifest itself physically, but that was probably due to Tai Jey¡¯s own preferences. But it was there emotionally. The child was absolutely feral, ripping into everything she could. She attempted to eat me when she first saw me and then she attempted to eat Wriendler.


    I¡¯d kept her out of the village for now, but she had heard bits and snippets and she was curious.


    ¡°Gauntlet, grab her!¡± I yelled before she could crawl out of my sight. And the big stone man swung down to grab the human chihuahua.


    She fought him, angrily kicking and screaming. She was at the fifth rank too, which gave her terrifying strength. That and her bloodline made her a human nuke. A human baby nuke.


    That was why I hadn¡¯t let her go down to the village.


    But Chin had treked up here to talk to me about it and she had heard about the whole thing from him. She hadn¡¯t tried to eat Chin, but that made sense, Chin was good with animals, I was not.


    I took the kid by her left leg and put Wriendler by her mouth. She bit the poor bastard, keeping her mouth occupied as I took her outside.


    ¡°Is it ready?¡± I asked Xi Lu and she nodded as she backed away several paces.


    Then I threw the dam baby into the pit. She snarled and growled but Wriendler bound her tightly and pushed her into the depths. Enchanted water consumed her as she struggled to get out, but alas, it was useless.


    ¡°This is mistreatment,¡± Chin said from a distance.


    ¡°She hasn¡¯t bathed in over a week,¡± I replied. ¡°This is a necessary evil.¡±


    A small hand reached out from the water, only to get dragged back in by a brown tentacle.


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    ¡°She¡¯s not even scrubbing,¡± Chin noted.


    ¡°The water is enchanted. She¡¯ll be clean whether she likes it or not.¡±


    ¡°Is there really no other way?¡± Xi Lu asked.


    I shook my head, staring sadly into the hole. As funny as this whole thing was, there was a sad part to it all. The girl¡¯s beast nature was taking over rather quickly, and if I couldn¡¯t figure out how to hold it at bay, then it would define her.


    The way to curve this behavior would be to find a proper punishment, something to push the instinct away. But I wasn¡¯t gonna beat the kid, that seemed insane, even for someone like me.


    I couldn¡¯t use pain, so I looked through other methods of change, diving into the information I¡¯d gotten from the Eternal Tome. I had an idea going for now but it would take a while to go into effect.


    ¡°Can she breathe?¡± Chin asked.


    "Eh''" I shrugged.


    Chin gave me a dirty look.


    ¡°She¡¯s at the fifth realm. She doesn¡¯t need to breathe."


    Chin''s scowl lessened but didn''t fade completely.


    A tentacle poked out of the water and waved. That was the sign. I pulled out a large grey towel and held it open and ready.


    ¡°Fire!¡± I yelled.


    Wriendler hurled the baby in my direction at Mach speed and I caught her like football. She immediately tried to escape, squirming and turning with enough force to topple mountains, but I held on.


    ¡°Nope,¡± I said, wrapping her tightly within the cloth.


    She screamed in gibberish, but I held firm, bundling her up like a well-wrapped Christmas gift. I put an array seal on the cloth, one that could fend off an eighth-rank attack, just in case she got angry.


    By the time I was finished, I had one frowning and clean baby tightly bundled up in a bunch of enchanted cloth.


    ¡°Gah!¡±


    ¡°No. It¡¯s nap time.¡±


    ¡°Gah do!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you do.¡±


    ¡°Gah! Gah do!¡±


    I sighed and carried the bundled newborn in my arms.


    ¡°Honored Master,¡± Xi Lu spoke. ¡°Lin Tai says that the preparations are finished.¡±


    I nodded and started on my way.


    ¡°What preparations?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Baby stuff, wanna see?¡±


    Chin shrugged and came along.


    ¡°Why are you up here anyways?¡± I asked him as we walked. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be haggling all the merchants coming through the valley¡±


    ¡°Ah Medin¡¯s got all that covered,¡± he replied. ¡°She loves haggling. Haggled my dowery from fifteen stones to fifty that woman.¡±


    I nodded. Chin¡¯s wife was a hell of a haggler.


    ¡°And the crops?¡± I asked.


    ¡°All planted, all growing. The boys can do the maintenance for now.¡±


    Now that raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked.


    ¡°What?¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°You? Not farming? Leaving it to other people?¡±


    Chin shrugged and turned away, but even Xi Lu looked at him with wonder.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Medin¡­ she insists¡­ Well¡­¡±


    In the few decades that I had known this man, this was the first time I had heard him stutter.


    ¡°She said that I should ask you to teach me.¡±


    ¡°Teach you¡­ cultivation?¡±


    Chin let out a sad sigh.


    ¡°I was complaining about how¡­ unhelpful you are and just how helpful you could be if you put your mind to it and¡­ Well¡­ I suppose she got a bit tired of that. Told me if I thought cultivators were such a waste of strength that I should go be a cultivator myself instead of complaining at home all day.¡±


    ¡°Wise old Medin Chin strikes again then,¡± I muttered.


    Chin gave a sigh of resignation.


    If there was anyone who could hassle Chin into doing something other than farming, it was his wife. The lady had a way with words, but how could she not? I still remember how she had talked him into dedicating a full month to his wedding, pulling him aside from any form of work for that whole time.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just tell her you said no and-¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Wha- what do you mean why? I¡¯m an old man, that¡¯s why. Old men don¡¯t cultivate, everybody knows that.¡±


    ¡°Nah,¡± I said with a smile. ¡°We can give it a try tomorrow night. A couple of hours of meditation and stuff, see where that gets ya.¡±


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°With all due respect Mister Bill-¡±


    ¡°Or I can tell Medin you said no?¡±


    Chin sentence died and he continued walking, murmuring something about having fallen in love and married a demon.

 Chapter 38 Children and Beasts Part 2

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Chin asked.


    "Sightseeing."


    "In the woods?" He asked.


    "Lots of things to see in the woods."


    "Like what?"


    "Trees."


    "Trees?"


    "And animals," I replied.


    "We''re going to see trees and animals?"


    "In a sense."


    Chin frowned and I smiled.


    ¡°Can you just tell me-¡±


    ¡°And here we are.¡±


    Chin turned his head and looked around, seemingly unable to see what was happening.


    ¡°Where?¡±


    I snapped my fingers and immediately the forest fell away. The illusion collapsed to reveal a stump, a giant stump filled with an uncountable amount of little animals yelling at each other. Of course Chin couldn¡¯t hear them, they were all using their auras to speak. They must have looked like a bunch of strange little mice hustling around one another to him.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Lin Tai yelled. ¡°Line up!¡±


    Her voice was stern and impatient. She was commanding the beasts and surprisingly they were obeying. I had worked up a nice little defensive talisman for all the girls, and I¡¯d given Lin Tai a particularly strong one. Still, the talismans were defensive, not offensive. The beasts couldn¡¯t hurt her but they certainly didn¡¯t have to obey her, and yet¡­ they did.


    It was weird and nice. She seemed happy as she directed them to their roles, like a very strict but well-meaning preschool teacher. But instead of toddlers, this teacher was managing a bunch of Divine Beasts that made their nests in the void between universes. Aside from that though, it was a very similar job.


    ¡°Things going good?¡±


    ¡°Yes. The Dragon has requested to have a death battle with every faction leader so far.¡±


    ¡°THEY PISS IN MY POND!¡± The lizard yelled.


    ¡°Your pond extends to our territory, making it our pond!¡± A small monkey retaliated.


    ¡°YOU DON''T EVEN NEED TO PEE!¡± The dragon retorted.


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but it is our right to do so and it is our land we pee upon!¡±


    The dragon roared indignantly.


    ¡°They¡¯re speaking now?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lin Tai nodded.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Well the groundhogs started to do it-¡±


    ¡°We are the Prarie Party!¡± A small groundhog yelled.


    ¡°Then the monkeys did the same-¡±


    ¡°The Free Beast¡¯s Republic!¡± A tiny gorilla rebelled.


    ¡°Then the birds joined in-¡±


    ¡°The Fowl Kingdom!¡± A small pheonix harumphed.


    ¡°And they¡¯ve all been doing it ever since,¡± Lin Tai sighed.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Chin asked. ¡°What are these things? Why are they yelling at each other?¡±


    ¡°You ever read those fairy tales about little forest creatures having a secret hidden world of their own?¡±


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    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what these are.¡±


    Chin looked around with a squint, studying the little animals from a distance.


    ¡°You¡¯re lying. These are animals, small strange animals,¡± Chin stated


    ¡°Yeah, little forest creatures,¡± I rebutted.


    ¡°No. Forest creatures are fairies or elves¡­ not small angry hamsters.¡±


    There was a faint and appalled yell coming from one of the groundhogs, but I ignored them, and so did Chin.


    ¡°This is your doing, isn¡¯t it?¡± Chin said accusatorially. ¡°You given beasts the minds of men to see how they fare?¡±


    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°It is!¡± One of the groundhogs yelled from the stump. I turned towards the creature and glared. It scurried away, running through its people and into the surrounding bushed.


    I sighed.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t make them what they are, this is their natural state. I just brought them here.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Reasons.¡±


    It was Chin¡¯s turn to sigh.


    ¡°Is this why you told me to keep out of the forest?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, needed to get these guys under control first.¡±


    ¡°Are they a threat to the village?¡±


    ¡°Are mountains a threat to the ants that crawl around them?¡± The same groundhog yelled from the bushes.


    This time I frowned and sent out a metaphysical nudge to keep the thing quiet. It screamed again and scurried to another bush.


    ¡°No, they¡¯re not,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Can you guarantee that?¡± Chin asked with a noticeable shift in his voice. It was the same tone and look he¡¯d given me when I¡¯d told him about making my own sect¡ªa firm and questioning look, something that displayed both annoyance and acceptance at the same time.


    ¡°Yes Chin, I can guarantee that they will not harm your village.¡±


    Chin kept looking at me for a moment more, then nodded.


    ¡°Interesting mix of animals though,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°It¡¯s what the recipe called for,¡± I replied.


    ¡°You¡¯re going eat them?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m going to eat their presence.¡±


    Chin turned away, once again having given up on getting a straight answer.


    The baby, which I had been holding tightly to this whole time was strangely silent. I looked down and found her staring, dumbfounded by all the animals. She had that wide-eyed look children got around dogs and her eyes glimmered with hope, looking from one little creature to another.


    A lot of the animals looked at her, though many actively tried to avoid her gaze. I had told some of the beasts and by now I was sure that most of them knew of what she was. They didn¡¯t know the details. They didn¡¯t know the source of her bloodline or her parents or any of the particulars, only that she was the child of some powerful beast who outranked them all.


    I¡¯m sure some suspected. After all her aura was in some ways raw and unrefined, but her qi was now hers. I didn¡¯t know if it was Wukong or her own natural development, but over the month or so since she¡¯d been born her qi had settled down. It had mixed and melded and changed to become its own thing. I¡¯d never thought that a primordial¡¯s bloodline could be subdued and hidden away that easily, but I suppose if any bloodline held a chance at competing against it, it would be the Tamer¡¯s.


    And I suspected that Wukong had also done something, aiding the mixture and coagulation of the two natures. I knew he had helped the girl mask her bloodline as one of his favors to me, but I didn¡¯t know what that implied. Did he change the bloodline, or did he merely hide it? Had given her a bit of his own essence, making some kind of threeway blood child?


    I didn¡¯t know. And honestly, I didn¡¯t care.


    I laid the baby down on a small wooden crib and immediately she started to struggle, screaming angerily for release.


    ¡°Alright fellas, you know the drill!¡± I yelled.


    And all the little animals did indeed know the drill. They all line up from the crib to the forest and even further on. A lot of them were the weaker members of the species, those around the seventh to ninth rank, but that was the composition of most of the beasts in the forest. Only the few tenth to twelfth rankers stuck around, prideful and watching from a distance.


    I stared at the first animal in line. It was that groundhog, the noisy one. I frowned at him, but the little hamster glared back in bravery. Damn, the little bastard must have known I wasn¡¯t going to do anything.


    I waved impatiently at him, and he jumped over the crib. After that, the one behind him did the same as well, and the one behind them, and so on. Chin and I watched as the little creatures jumped one after another, and the girl in the crib¡¯s eyes glazed over.


    ¡°Is¡­ is she counting sheep?¡± Chin asked after a minute of contemplation.


    ¡°Yeap,¡± I replied.


    ¡°And that works?¡±


    ¡°In this case it does. She¡¯s a fifth-rank Chin, she doesn¡¯t need sleep. And because she doesn¡¯t need sleep, if I want her to sleep it¡¯ll have to be through special means.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s by counting little talking hamsters?¡±


    Somewhere a groundhog squaled in anger.


    ¡°It works. They all have different qi signatures and characteristics and the baby loves looking at them one by one. It¡¯s more like consistent overstimulation of the senses rather than counting sheep.¡±


    ¡°Letting her tire herself out with little toys,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Precisely.¡±


    ¡°Why haven¡¯t you named her yet?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°I have, she just doesn¡¯t like any of the names I¡¯ve offered.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Chin replied with a nod. ¡°Do all babies name themselves or something? Up in the higher realms?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°This is my first baby.¡±


    As we continued to talk, the baby continued to count. Her eyes glazed over as monsters and immortals leaped over her head. She focused her senses and relaxed her little mind the best she could, and she watched. Watched the beasts, watched us, watched the world, go by. And eventually, her little baby eyes and her little baby mind gave up and closed.

 Chapter 39 To Cultivate Part 1

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    Chin sat opposite of me, legs crossed and arms together. There was a small wooden platter with two cups of tea and warm buttered bread, courtesy of Medin Chin. We were sat on top of a small hill a mile or two outside of the village.


    It was a bunch of hustle and bustle out there. During this rainy season, approximately a hundred thousand merchants would tread through the village over the next few weeks. That was one of the reasons Chin was so obsessed with farming. He not only had to feed the village but also all the tradesmen who¡¯d come through once a year. It was the only external economic investment this place ever got, and it was inarguably the most important part of the year.


    Millions of merchants crossed the Great Desert Strip every year, and few had to time it for the rainy season, but to those small merchant clans that did have to travel through this method, this oasis was their main resting point. They were mainly mortal traders, traversing on huge spirit beasts that could cover hundreds of miles in a day, but there were the occasional cultivators who chose to stop by as well. Either way, this was the busiest time of year for the town, filled with strangers and eager merchants.


    And Chin hated that. He was always there, of course, managing and watching as things went on, but he hated the influx of people and change that came through the place. I can¡¯t say I blamed him either. I¡¯d caught a few egotistical cultivators trying to run off with a village boy and maiden or two over the years. I¡¯d stopped it of course, but still, wasn¡¯t the best experience for those young boys and girls, no matter how early I interfered.


    Either way, nothing to worry about this year, at least not for villagers. I told the girls to keep an eye on the villagers, and the array would also watch over them as well.


    And Chin, well Chin clearly didn¡¯t want to be here. He was frowning, more than usual. It was a perpetual curve of sadness on his old face.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you excited?¡± I asked. ¡°Cultivation, mystic magic martial arts to master both the heavens and the earth with. You going to learn about the secrets of the existence-¡±


    ¡°Get on with it,¡± Chin grumbled, taking an angry bite of his bread.


    I sipped on my tea.


    ¡°Okay Chin, to understand cultivation, you first have to understand existence itself.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Chin shrugged.


    ¡°Do you find learning about the secrets of existence boring?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No,¡± Chin replied. ¡°Just useless.¡±


    ¡°You can do so much with this information, create, destroy, fight, protect. You can understand reality and everything that composes it.¡±


    Chin''s facial expression didn¡¯t change, and he seemed to slouch in place with an uncaring expression.


    ¡°You can surpass death!¡± I added.


    Chin shrugged again.


    ¡°You can also farm much more efficiently,¡± I finished.


    ¡°I have you for that,¡± he replied.


    Now it was my turn to frown.


    ¡°You can learn more about farming, more than you ever knew before.¡±


    At this point, Chin¡¯s scowl turned into a slightly upset face, which was about as close to a smile as Chin could give, and his back straightened up in attention. His hands clasped together and interlocked.


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    ¡°Well, let¡¯s get on with it then.¡±


    This guy. I sighed.


    ¡°Okay. First thing to know, everything is Qi. Understand?¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°You, me, the ground, even empty space is made of Qi?¡±


    ¡°Empty space?¡± Chin asked.


    I nodded.


    ¡°But empty space is nothing.¡±


    ¡°No empty space is empty space,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Explain.¡±


    I grabbed a pebble and put it on the ground.


    ¡°What¡¯s here?¡± I asked pointing to the pebble.


    ¡°A pebble,¡± Chin replied.


    I picked up the pebble and asked again.


    ¡°Now what¡¯s here?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, just the ground.¡±


    ¡°So there is something there then?¡±


    Chin stared at the ground for a moment.


    ¡°Are you saying space is like the ground?¡±


    ¡°In a way,¡± I replied. ¡°Space is a place that allows for things to exist. The ground stops the pebble from just falling through, and space stops us from vanishing into the void.¡±


    ¡°The void?¡±


    ¡°True nothingness.¡±


    Chin looked at me and frowned.


    ¡°When you plant your crops, can you just throw the seeds on the ground and expect them to grow?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Depends on the seeds,¡± he replied. ¡°But no, generally not. You¡¯ve got to till the land and make sure everything is properly irrigated. Then you¡¯ve got to keep an eye on them for bugs or insects as they grow-¡±


    He stopped talking and looked back on the ground in wonder. He stared at the pebble then the ground, then the pebble again, and then nodded.


    ¡°I see,¡± he finally mumbled. ¡°So ¡®empty space¡¯ is something constructed out of qi?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°What exactly is that?¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s where things get complicated, but I guess I can give you an explanation.¡±


    I drew a circle on the ground and threw in a few more pebbles of different shapes and variants.


    ¡°Just like how you have to till the ground and water your crops, empty space also has rules and behaviors it must follow.¡±


    I snapped my fingers and the pebbles started to float.


    ¡°You need things like gravity to keep objects together, otherwise they¡¯ll fall apart. You know what gravity is?¡± I said to Chin.


    ¡°Things go down?¡± He inferred.


    ¡°Sort of,¡± I nodded. ¡°But basically things attract other things. Every realm has it¡¯s own version of it, though the rules and specifics can differ from realm to realm. Things attract things. The bigger things are the more things they attract.¡±


    The stones started to dissipate and dissolve into shiny star-like dust. I snapped my fingers again and the pebbles reformed and settled back down into place.


    ¡°Basically, qi is the most basic form of everything, but it builds on itself. You need lower laws to build higher laws. You need things like gravity, time, and space in order to have things like fire, earth, and life.¡±


    ¡°And all of these things are made out of qi?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied.


    ¡°But then. Where does the qi come from?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s the big question, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Yes and no,¡± I answered. ¡°Living things make qi and that includes certain higher realms-¡±


    ¡°Realms, as in worlds?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Worlds can live?¡± He asked incredulously.


    ¡°Yeap,¡± I replied.


    Chin stared at the ground in bewilderment.


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Well, they¡¯re sort of like cosmic plants, except they don¡¯t need anything else except for some small bits of qi and law at their beginning. There are also certain orders that go around planting universes throughout the multiverse, but that¡¯s a whole separate thing.¡±


    ¡°Strange,¡± Chin commented. ¡°Are they farming the universes?¡±


    ¡°In a sense, but we are not going to talk about that today. Let¡¯s get back to humans for now.¡±


    Chin nodded, but there was a gleam in his eye that told me he wouldn¡¯t let the subject go. I pushed forward nonetheless.


    ¡°Now living things create qi. That is the most accepted definition of living in most realms.¡±


    ¡°Most re-¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not talking about it,¡± I cut in. ¡°If I keep explaining every errant detail we¡¯d be out here for thirty years and your crops would wither.¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Now, like I said living things create qi, but living things also consume qi as well.¡±


    ¡°Food,¡± Chin said with a hint of pride.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°No. Not food. Food feeds the physical mechanism. It gives you physical energy, not qi. The qi most living beings consume is the qi that they are born with. Their ¡®innate qi¡¯ and that¡¯s what determines lifespan.¡±


    ¡°And cultivators make more of this innate qi?¡±


    ¡°Kind of,¡± I replied. ¡°Everyone is always making this innate qi, but the problem is they¡¯re not making the qi at the same rate they¡¯re consuming it.¡±


    ¡°The crops can¡¯t feed all the people,¡± Chin mumbled.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re always making innate qi but you¡¯re also always using innate qi, but you¡¯re using more than you¡¯re making, and eventually you will run out. Cultivators increase both their innate qi consumption and their innate qi creation, and they achieve immortality when they can produce as much innate qi as they consume.¡±


    Chin nodded while stroking his beard.


    ¡°So it¡¯s like farming,¡± he replied.


    ¡°In a way,¡± I sighed.


    ¡°Well then,¡± Chin said after a moment of thought. ¡°Let¡¯s get farming.¡±

 Chapter 40 To Cultivate Part 2

    ¡°Before you can cultivate, you first need to learn how to sense and move qi within your own body. Now that would normally take us years or even decades to truly master but we¡¯re going to fast-track the whole thing and do it in three minutes.¡±


    I pulled out a berry and passed it over to Chin.


    ¡°What is-¡±


    ¡°Just eat it!¡± I yelled. ¡°You keep asking too many questions!¡±


    Chin didn¡¯t comply and inspected the berry for a few more moments.


    ¡°Can you-¡±


    ¡°No, you can¡¯t grow more of these berries now just eat!¡±


    Chin frowned and mumbled something about wastefulness before tossing the berry down his mouth.


    ¡°You¡¯ll feel a tingling sensation spreading throughout your body in a moment. That will be the feeling of your meridians opening up. The qi from the fruit will flow through your dantians and out your meridians. Don¡¯t try to stop it or hold it, your dantians aren¡¯t capable of storing that type of qi, instead, feel the qi flow through your body and in the world.¡±


    ¡°It¡­. itches,¡± Chin stated.


    ¡°That happens. Your meridians are expanding as qi flows through them and it can be a bit of an annoying sensation. This is a dangerouse method of opening the meridians. Most people¡¯s meridian pathways would burst open due to the lack of controllable qi, but the fruit I fed you should maintain a consistent and slow outpouring of qi for a while.¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°How¡­how long will this last?¡± He asked.


    ¡°A couple of days.¡±


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°Relax, you¡¯ll get used to it in a couple of hours, but until then, we wait.¡±


    And we did wait. I was old and used to waiting and Chin was a farmer, a job that required a lot of patience to do properly. He focused himself for the next couple of hours, eyes closed and legs crisscrossed on the floor. He didn¡¯t bother clamping his hands together but instead rested one of his hands on his knees and the other one on his staff.


    A small thin cloud of sweat and qi came up from his skin. This was the opening of the first twelve meridians. The rest of them would open throughout the next few days.


    ¡°The twelve major meridians throughout your body are like veins and arteries that connect your qi to the outside world. There are also minor meridians, but those come over time as your qi main meridians strengthen and branch out.¡±


    Chin breathed out, his whole body relaxing with the exhale.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m tired,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°It happens,¡± I replied.


    ¡°So¡­ what now?¡±


    ¡°Now we practice the three movements. Pushing, pulling, and holding qi. Before you can cultivate anything, you need to be able to move qi through your body.¡±


    ¡°Pushing, pulling, and holding qi?¡± Chin asked. ¡°How do I do that?¡±


    ¡°You just do. They¡¯re natural movements of the soul and everyone can do it but it takes some practice to get down. It¡¯s sort of like walking or controlling your bowels. You just need some time to get the hang of it.¡±


    ¡°How long will that take?¡± He asked.


    ¡°A couple of days,¡± I replied.


    ¡°There¡¯s no faster way?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Well, there is but the faster way is painful. Really painful.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s faster?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s quite literally torture Chin. Are you really going to torture yourself for a two-day advantage?¡±


    ¡°How long will it last?¡±


    ¡°About a minute.¡±


    ¡°Do it,¡± Chin stated.


    I sighed.


    Of course, Chin would want to speed up the already sped-up process.


    ¡°It¡¯ll hurt like hell Chin.¡±


    ¡°Only for a minute,¡± he replied.


    I wanted to tell him no, but I knew that wasn¡¯t going to work. In some ways, I still saw Chin as the stubborn little boy who refused to do anything but farm. But he wasn¡¯t that anymore, he was a man capable of making his own decisions and living with them. He managed the village, he managed the crops, and he managed a family. Who the hell was I to tell him no?


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    I raised my finger and touched his brow, my qi closing in on his meridians.


    And then, I held. Chin¡¯s body went stiff, his muscles tightening in place as the qi from the fruit I¡¯d given him clogged up in his meridians and eventually reversed itself back towards his dantians. This would be deadly for most people, but I was reinforcing his meridians from the inside and the qi was flowing smoothly enough throughout his body. But that was the feeling he needed to focus on. The feeling of qi moving towards him, the pull, and the qi leaving him, the push. And once he did those two he would be able to hold his qi as well.


    Chin¡¯s brow had become oily at this point with sweat dripping out of every pore. His clean clothes became soaked with sweat and the old man struggled to keep himself together.


    ¡°I told ya,¡± I mumbled.


    An annoyed groan left Chin¡¯s mouth. Well, that was good. At least he could reply to me.


    I removed my finger from his forehead and his meridians flushed out all of the excess qi.


    ¡°How was it?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Excruciating,¡± he replied still panting to get his breath.


    ¡°Wanna call it a day?¡± I asked.


    Chin kept on panting for about a minute before he answered.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Too bad.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re calling it a day.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not tired,¡± Chin rebutted.


    ¡°Well, I am.¡±


    Chin looked at me with an accusing stare as I feigned a yawn and stretched. Then after another moment of glaring, he slumped. His shoulders sagged and his eyes dropped.


    ¡°You¡¯re not tired huh?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± he grunted.


    ¡°Then what¡¯s happening right now?¡±


    ¡°Thinking.¡±


    ¡°About sleep?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Then there was a lengthy pause. Chin was having one of those blinks that took effort to recover from. The old man would rather work himself to sleep than get actual rest and if it wasn¡¯t for his wife dragging him in every night, he¡¯d probably live out in those fields.


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking about this woman, a cultivator I think. She wanted to set up a little place here for the rainy season.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, the fourth-rank?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You know her?¡± Chin asked, his eyes opening a slight margin in surprise.


    ¡°I keep an eye on the village,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Yes, well she came through talking about setting up a little spot here and ran in Rin Wi, then she panicked and apologized and hid out among the merchants.¡±


    ¡°Was she wearing expensive clothing and extremely attractive?¡±


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°Was she,¡± I asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m thinking about it?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re thinking about whether or not she was attractive?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t notice the moment you saw her?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Chin replied.


    Anyone else and I¡¯d call bullshit, but knowing Chin he was probably wondering how much food she and her party would consume and if the village would have enough to feed the merchants through the rainy season. They did of course, but Chin was always thinking about farming in one way or another. It wasn¡¯t that he lacked attraction for women, more so that he lacked the brain space for anything other than farming, his wife and children, and the village. Any thought that wasn¡¯t about them was a useless one and Chin would toss out useless thoughts like rotten cabbage.


    ¡°Yes,¡± he finally stated. ¡°She was extremely attractive.¡±


    ¡°And how¡¯d you figure that?¡± I asked.


    ¡°A couple fellas got smacked upside their head by their wives. Was wondering what that was about. Also, she had clear skin and a good physique. I was going to ask her about her diet but Rin Wi stopped me.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t realize she was a cultivator?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I did,¡± Chin answered nonchalantly.


    ¡°Of course you did. Anyway she probably runs some sort of seductor clan in this region. Wanted to set up a base here for all the wandering cultivators who need a reslilent one night stand.¡±


    ¡°A prostitute?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    He frowned.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Word about me probably got around, though they probably don¡¯t have the most accurate information avialble.¡±


    ¡°And?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Cultivator sects means more cultivators in general, even if they know I¡¯m not taking any members, the area is bound to be visited by people trying to see the wise old and Honorable Master Bill. Means buisiness for any seductor in the region. I¡¯d let her set up shop if I were you.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Less violence or assualt on you villagers-¡±


    ¡°I thought you were taking care of that,¡± Chin said accussingly.


    ¡°I am,¡± I replied. ¡°But it¡¯s not a pleasant experience for me or the villagers. And seduction clans are pretty good at beating down attempted assaults.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown lightened as he thought about it.


    ¡°Any down sides,¡± he asked.


    ¡°A few broken marriages for some of the children, but that¡¯s on the people who make those choices.¡±


    ¡°I can warn the men about them,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°And the women,¡± I added. ¡°Lots of male seductors in those clans. Almost anyone is up for grabs.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown turned to small scowl as he thought the situation over. There had been a few attempts by some unsavory individuals, and I either castrated and cripple or outright burned those bastards before anything could happen. But that didn¡¯t make it a pleasent experience for their possible victims, and Chin knew this.


    ¡°Economically? Would there be any benefits?¡±


    ¡°Lots,¡± I nodded. ¡°Food would be needed as well cleaning service, maintence, and they¡¯d probably want to build a place all their own. But on the down side, this would be the start of an influx of cultivators, more of them than you¡¯d like.¡±


    Chin nodded as he considered this.


    ¡°But that¡¯s inevitable, isn''t it?¡±


    ¡°Yup,¡± I replied.


    ¡°And you¡¯re sure the village is safe from them?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Safest place in this universe,¡± I replied.


    Chin sighed, the mental and physical weariness catching up to him.


    ¡°I hate change,¡± he grumbled.

 Chapter 41 Rin Wi

    Rin Wi sliced the food down to pieces. Her hands could move faster, but the equipment wouldn¡¯t hold, even with her qi-reinforcement techniques. She was already working in her own separate kitchen out and away from any mortals and her hands moved at multiple times the speed of sound, though she used her movement techniques to avoid the sonic booms she would produce.


    But even then, she was slow. She could move ten times this speed and keep that pace consistently. At her fastest, she could move a hundred times this speed, but this was enough for the village mortals and they were quite happy with the aid she brought, regardless of efficiency.


    And she quite enjoyed that bit. Rin Wi found that serving a person was one thing, and helping people was another. The lady known as Medin had been nothing but kind to her at almost every turn, and Chin Chin, Medin¡¯s husband, seemed to be indifferent towards her.


    She hadn¡¯t asked Rin Wi for much, just the occasional chore here or errand there. But mostly Rin Wi had watched and waited. It had been strange for her, not having someone tell her what to do. She generally had some sort of instruction, and even when she didn¡¯t, she knew what needed to be done and how it needed to be done. People to serve, feed, bathe, please, her purpose had always been laid out before her.


    But now she didn¡¯t need to do anything. And for a while that had been pleasant, just sitting there and watching as things went by, but it soon became tiring. She needed to do something and when she asked Medin for a task, the woman had asked her what she wanted to do.


    That had been a burden all its own and it took her a whole day¡¯s worth of deliberation to decide, but she had chosen to cook. It was the task she enjoyed the most overall and it was always the most rewarding. Back when she served in the Divine Beast Emporium she had cooked a bit and always enjoyed the process. But the Servant Mother never let her take that spot as her role. She was too pretty to cook and too weak.


    Cooking in higher realms required strength. You had to be strong enough to skin an eighth-rank dragon and durable enough to withstand the heat of the fire that would cook it. It was a deadly affair overall. Some chefs even slew the beasts themselves, fighting the thing to near death and cooking it directly afterward.


    And Rin Wi had always wanted to try that. Cleaning her own kill and making a recipe through pure scent alone. The process altogether was a wild and creative one, both an art and a technique. And now she could try it.


    Of course, a chicken wasn¡¯t nearly as fun to fight as a dragon might¡¯ve been, but it was an interesting battle. One slice of her cleaver and a hundred chickens lost their heads, another slice and off went their feathers. A rope extended from her hand and pierced the flesh of every chicken before it had even hit the ground. She had then collected the bastards and went to the kitchen, bathing and cleaning the carcasses before tossing them into her dishes.


    Medin had been impressed by that and apparently, her cooking was far beyond what any of the mortals here had ever tasted, which made sense. Mortal senses were barely senses, but a cultivator could taste a grain of salt in ten jugs of water. Of course her cooking, no matter how amateur, was beyond them. She had tried mortal food, once with the honored master, and since then she had resoluted to cooking the food herself.


    Mortals were just¡­tasteless, though it wasn¡¯t their fault, it was a problem.


    And Rin Wi cooked, mainly for all the merchants that would be passing through this year. And Medin was quite happy about the quality of the food and how much higher they could charge because of it.


    That was another thing. Currency, or rather mortal currency was a strange thing. Out here they used dried-up spirit stones that were cut into ten different pieces. To her, they were useless, bits of crumbled old stone, but mortals treated them with such value that she would think they still had qi within them if she didn¡¯t know any better.


    They were unique after all, each shined and shimmered in a way only spirit stones ever could but they were also useless, and the mortals valued them nonetheless. Something she could make in less than a second was held to such high standards and when Rin Wi had offered to make Medin some of these stones, she had rejected the offer vehemently.


    Mortals. They just didn¡¯t make any sense.


    Rin Wi focused on her cooking, food flying in the air after she sliced it and arced perfectly into the pots she aimed for. It was all quite symmetrical, if a little disappointing.


    "Rin, someone''s requesting a simmered big shell. I told them we don''t have big shells out here but he brought back a whole carcass! And then I told him I''d have to ask to be sure, but he was insistent, practically demanding I make it for him. I think he¡¯d a cultivator and-¡±


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    ¡°Where?¡± Rin demanded.


    She had seen the cultivators of this land. They had all gathered to visit the Honored Master and they had all been incredibly weak. Rin knew the lesser realms had fewer techniques and resources to cultivate with, but she had been shocked at just how simple those people had been. She alone could¡¯ve wiped out the entourage they sent.


    The Honored Master treated them all the same, with some respect and patience, though she didn¡¯t know why. Honestly, he confused her more than anything else, but she was able to accept it.


    But she was not as kind nor patient as that man. She would be fair because the Honored Master had asked her to be fair. But fair and kind were two separate things. Rin Wi walked over to the serving maid, a cleaver in one hand and a fist in the other.


    ¡°He demanded?¡± She asked.


    ¡°He- Well he threatened to kill the chef if it wasn¡¯t to his liking, but we sent someone to Mister Bill and he¡¯ll be here to sort all¡±


    ¡°No need,¡± Rin Wi replied.


    The Honored Master didn¡¯t need to be informed of anything within this place. Rin Wi knew he tried to limit how far his senses spread, but she also knew he kept a good eye on everything within this desert.


    ¡°Lead me to him,¡± Rin Wi demanded.


    ¡°There¡¯s really no need, I¡¯m sure Mister Bill can-¡±


    ¡°This is not worth his time,¡± Rin Wi cut in. ¡°Now show me his tent.¡±


    The girl hesitated for a moment and then nodded.


    She led Rin Wi outside the building. The inn was too small to host all the customers, so most of the food was delivered straight to their tents that were set up about a quarter mile away from the kitchen. A loose line of serving men and women were constantly walking back and forth from the tents to the cooking area, each carrying foods of one sort or another.


    Her own senses spread, searching through the masses and pinpointing all the cultivators in the region.


    ¡°Which tent?¡± She asked.


    The serving girl slowly pointed towards one of the larger tents situated at the center of the place.


    Rin Wi nodded and grabbed the girl¡¯s hand before leaping into the sky and achieving slow flight. Her body glided through the air as she used her movement technique to cover the distance in an instant. The serving girl, whom she had included in the movement technique gave out a short scream at the sudden change in scenery and then violently yanked her hand away from Rin Wi when they touched ground.


    ¡°This tent?¡± Rin Wi asked.


    The girl, still shaken up at the sudden change, nodded, and Rin Wi walked.


    The tent was expensive, clearly made out of some animal hide that had been stitched together to create something this large and comfortable. And a tent this expensive had an entrance, one located at the other side of where Rin Wi was. Unfortunately for it¡¯s owner, Rin Wi didn¡¯t care.


    The tent parted like air as she barged through it and the atmosphere in the place changed instantly. There was a circle of men lying on a rather luxurious carpet, with an immense platter of food between them. They seemed to have been laughing and having a rather pleasant time before Rin Wi came in and now they seemed surprised.


    But then the surprise quickly turned to an offense and the largest of the men, largest both in height and in width stood up and spoke in a booming voice.


    ¡°You dare to come in here-¡±


    Rin Wi stopped listening. There were several cultivators in the tent and while this one may have been the strongest at the third rank, that didn¡¯t mean he was the villain.


    ¡°Him?¡± Rin Wi asked turning towards the servant girl. The girl had ran a good distance from here, likely out of fear, but she could still hear Rin Wi, even while she was hiding behind one of the carts. The girl peeked over and her head glanced at Rin Wi¡¯s finger and then she nodded.


    ¡°-Shall have your skin for this you wretched mortal sc-¡±


    ¡°Do not threaten people,¡± Rin Wi spoke.


    This was fair. She was warning him, telling him to not repeat his behavior. She could have been kind and released her aura, letting everyone know how strong she truly was. She could¡¯ve.


    The man¡¯s face got red like an ugly sunset.


    ¡°YOU DARE TO COMMAND ME MORTAL? I SHALL-¡±


    She slapped the man and his whole face turned. There was a sense of shock for a moment before everyone in the room stood up, each reaching for their weapons and preparing their techniques.


    She slapped them too and since they were weak, they collapsed like spent flies.


    ¡°Do you understand?¡± Rin Wi asked the sole standing red-faced man.


    ¡°YOU DARE-¡±


    Rin Wi slapped again, this time with enough force to smack the man to the ground.


    ¡°Do you understand?¡± She repeated.


    ¡®What clan do you hail-¡±


    This time the man rolled like a boulder and out of the tent making another hole in the instrument.


    ¡°I- I can compensate-¡±


    And again she slapped. And again, and again, until eventually the man¡¯s face was so swollen that his lips couldn¡¯t come together to form a sentence. Several of the bastard''s teeth had also been forcefully evicted and his clothes had been torn from being tossed around the ground too much.


    Rin Wi looked at him again.


    ¡°Do you understand?¡± She asked once more.


    This time, the face that resembled a baboon¡¯s ass more than it did a face, nodded.


    Rin Wi smiled and nodded in return. She got up, dusted herself off, and returned to her kitchen.


    The soup should be done by now, she thought to herself.

 chapter 42 To Cultivate Part 3

    Chin sat there, legs crossed and hands clasped in meditation. It had been a couple of days since our last session, and the rainy season had kicked in with intensity, and it was heavy.


    Different sects and empires ran things differently but on super planets like Ah-Marin, you generally had two types of treatments towards mortals. One was the intervention and care for mortals. Nothing too kind, just regulating the weather patterns and eliminating small-time demonic cultivators in their area. The other attitude was indifference.


    Surprisingly, most sects chose to take care of their mortal population, though their reasoning was quite selfish. Mortals were harmless as long as they were mortals. But there was always a chance that one mortal or a group of mortals would gain access to cultivation and become powerful in their own right. And if the mortals you mistreated got strong enough to rival you, well that would be a very bad day indeed.


    So most sects provided, some out of fear, some out of nobility, and some out of duty. The Void Empire¡¯s Kong Clan was the latter.


    The sky was a dark gray, and even though one of Ah-Marin¡¯s seven suns shined brightly right above us, barely any of the light got through. Rain was important to farming, but it was more than just the amount of water the land got, but was the pace of the rain as well.


    A good rainy season would be like a gallon of water drunk throughout the whole day, well-paced and fulfilling. A bad rainy season would be like a gallon of water drunk in only three hours. You¡¯d piss most of it out and you¡¯d have no water left for the rest of the day.


    The Kong Clan provided the later type of rainy season. Chin had been busy setting up receivers and floodproofing both the village and the merchant¡¯s campground for the past couple of days but all of that was finished now and Chin could finally relax, that is if he wanted to.


    But instead, the man had marched over to me to ¡°get this cultivation thing over with,¡± so he could go home and finish up some other things. I imagined he was out of farm chores for the time being, which must have been a tragedy for him. He¡¯d shrivel up and die without work.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t feel anything,¡± Chin spoke.


    ¡°Keep trying,¡± I replied.


    Chin was trying to cycle his qi throughout his body, which was the first step in cultivation. You first needed to map out your meridians before you could even think about cultivating. Right now Chin was trying to do just that, and the man was being diligent.


    ¡°Still nothing,¡± he repeated.


    ¡°Keep trying,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s important?¡±


    ¡°And why is it important?¡±


    ¡°Cultivation is all about growth. You¡¯re trying to grow your innate qi, your soul, and your spirit, but you can¡¯t do any of that until you develop internal senses. You¡¯d be like a man trying to take care of crops you can¡¯t see.¡±


    Chin frowned but nodded. It was always the farming analogies that got to this bastard.


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to feel out the ground and understand the layout of your body and only then can you-¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± Chin interrupted.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I can feel them. They¡¯re thin symmetrical lines that work themselves throughout my body right? Twelve in total. All of them meeting together at three separate points,¡± he said while touching all three of his dantians.


    ¡°Here, here, and here?¡±


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I mumbled.


    ¡°Right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I replied. ¡°Right.¡±


    My senses seeped into Chin and he was right. He had developed internal sight.


    ¡°You know what Chin, you might actually have a talent for this,¡± I mumbled.


    Chin shrugged uncaringly.


    ¡°What now?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Well, now we figure out what cultivation method to use,¡± I answered.


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    ¡°Does that matter?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Cultivation in its early parts is a consumption game. You take qi in from the outside and refine it over and over and over again until it becomes your own qi. But how you do that can affect your pace, strength, power, body, soul, and even beliefs.¡±


    Chin scowled grimly.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to change,¡± he growled.


    ¡°I figured. So I pulled out a decent technique that focuses solely on growth and qi accumulation.¡± I answered. ¡°But it¡¯ll only get you so far. Techniques like this generally need to be remade and adjusted according to the user¡¯s own experience with them. Meaning you¡¯ll have to learn how to change and adjust the method as you go.¡±


    Chin¡¯s scowl left only to be replaced with a stupified look.


    ¡°What?¡± He asked.


    I sighed.


    ¡°Every person is like their own unique plant, and while you can water a plant and give it sunlight and nutrients to keep it alive, you¡¯ll have to give it the proper type of soil and conditions if you want it to thrive. This cultivation method is basic. It¡¯ll get you to the third rank, but you¡¯ll need to edit it or switch cultivation methods to push beyond that. If you refuse to submit to the changes the cultivation method will leave on you then you have to make one that suites you from the ground up.¡±


    Chin nodded understandingly.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°Is it really?¡± I asked.


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Well, pay attention then. cultivation methods vary for a variety of reasons, the biggest ones being, efficiency, environment, technique, and compatability. But underneath all that is inarguable the most important thing to your growth, which is talent.¡±


    ¡°Now there are three parts to raw talent,¡± I said while raising my fingers.


    ¡°Draw, qi reserves, and nature. Draw is the amount of qi you¡¯re naturally able to move through your body. Think of it as the efficiency of labor out on the fields. An adult man can farm better and longer than a ten-year-old child, right? It¡¯s the same with cultivation. The more qi you can move, the faster you can cultivate.¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Think of qi reserves as the amount of land a farmer starts out with. With good crops and great sales, he might be able to buy more land in the future, but the initial amount matters. If you have naturally larger qi reserves, then you have more energy to work with. But on the downside, if you have large qi reserves and not a strong enough draw, then advancing will be a harder thing to do.¡±


    ¡°You can have too much land?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Too much land and not enough workers,¡± I replied. ¡°You can work yourself to the bone and still have unfarmed land. The land won¡¯t necessarily slow you down at that point, but it will be useless. A large qi reserve is only good if your draw can keep up with it. And at higher ranks, you need to completely fill your reserves to advance so a mismatched reserve and draw can even slow you down later on.¡±


    ¡°And nature is kind of a hard one to explain, but if we keep with the analogy here, it would be akin to the quality of the soil. Some earth is great for one kind of plant while some is great for another. It¡¯s inherit to the soul of the cultivator and while it is important to growth, it¡¯s more important to the cultivator''s identity.¡±


    Chin nodded, a bit more slowly this time.


    ¡°It¡¯s complicated,¡± I replied.


    Chin nodded again.


    ¡°All of these can be changed and altered over time but what you start with means as much to your cultivation speed as how hard you work.¡±


    Chin nodded again.


    ¡°You remember those cultivators that came by a while ago?¡± I asked.


    Chin scowled but nodded again.


    ¡°There were five distinct sects.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°It means they had five different types of talents. Techniques are often based on the talent of the founders. For example, the Raging River Sect has decent qi reserves and a water-law-aligned nature. But their draw is unable to keep up with their reserves, so it¡¯s harder for their members to reach higher ranks. And their fighting techniques take advantage of their qi reserves, pushing immense water qi at their opponents.


    Whereas the Flowering Sword Sect has a pretty decent draw, but has a lacking qi reserve. They¡¯re fighting technique focuses on utilizing every bit of qi and not letting any of their attacks go to waste.


    The monks follow the path of Buddha, hammering their nature into something strong and virtuous. The Hollow Echo has a bloodline that changes their nature from birth, making all of them more like bats instead of humans. The same for the Hidden Viper, they have a bloodline nature attuned to deception, poison, and seduction. And their techniques and cultivation methods revolve around them.¡±


    Chin frowned in response.


    ¡°The farmer grows crops that would do well for that soil and climate. You¡¯re not going to plant a cactus by the water and rice in the desert,¡± I said with a sigh.


    ¡°Ah,¡± Chin said with a nod.


    This guy.


    ¡°So you¡¯re gonna use a cultivation technique that does nothing to alter your nature and grows your draw and qi reserves. But eventually, you¡¯ll need to pick something up, like a dao or a law of some sort.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Chin asked with a frown.


    ¡°You just need to Chin. Being Daoless is dangerous.¡±


    ¡°And fiddling with your own nature isn¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°What exactly do you think a dao does, Chin?¡±


    ¡°Changes you.¡±


    ¡°Eh, sometimes. But the only reason a person¡¯s dao changes them is because they chose to embrace that dao to begin with. Daos are hard to explain but technically everyone has them, even mortals. A Dao is sort of like a path you¡¯ve chosen to walk on. It¡¯s that vague feeling of purpose you get when you do something. For you, it¡¯d probably be farming, and for most cultivators, it¡¯d be something revolving around fighting. The dao of the blade, the spear, the fist. But it can be as solid or as esoteric as you¡¯d want it to be. Justice, kindness, hatred, chaos, destruction, creation, anything you want can be a dao. A dao is your purpose, meaning, identity, beliefs, and desires all in one. It¡¯s the cumulative expression of who you are and who you want to be.¡±


    Chin gave me a deep frown.


    ¡°No farm analogies for that Chin.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown deepened.

 Chapter 43 To Cultivate Part 4

    ¡°Push and pull Chin, remember that. Push and pull.¡±


    The cross-legged old man nodded.


    I watched as the qi struggled through his meridians, floating to the first qi point, then fizzling out and dying before it could go any further.


    ¡°Chin, you¡¯re doing it wrong,¡± I said.


    Chin¡¯s eyes snapped open in frustration.


    ¡°How? I¡¯m pushing and pulling just like you said.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to breathe in qi. What you should be doing is letting the qi fall into your meridians, not trying to drag it in.¡±


    ¡°That is what I¡¯m doing-¡± Chin muttered.


    ¡°No, you¡¯re trying to-¡± I sighed and rubbed my head for the fifth time this hour. The man just didn¡¯t get it.


    I was trying to avoid the farm analogies, but that seemed to be the easiest way to get through to him.


    ¡°Alright, get up real quick,¡± I grumbled.


    Chin obliged and stood next to me, frowning.


    ¡°Imagine you have a farm-¡± the frustrated man cut in.


    ¡°I do have a farm,¡± he interrupted.


    ¡°Imagine you had a fictional farm in a fictional place, Chin.¡±


    The still frowning man gave me the slightest of nods.


    ¡°Alright, now imagine that farm needs water.¡±


    ¡°All farms need water,¡± Chin grumbled.


    ¡°Well for this farm, the water is about a thousand feet away, on a river flowing down a hill.¡±


    Chin nodded, his frown lessening a little bit.


    ¡°Now, how do you get that water to the farm.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s up on a hill and the farm is lower than the water source, we could always dig out a small trench to get the water toward where it needs to go.¡±


    ¡°Right. Now think of the water as qi, and think of the farm as your dantians. The distance between the farm and the river is your body and the trenches you want to dig to divert the water to your farm are the meridians.¡±


    Chin gave me a slightly confused nod this time.


    ¡°Good, now imagine those trenches are filled with another liquid, one that¡¯s not water. It¡¯s not harmful to your farm, but your plants can¡¯t feed on it either. So what do you do?¡±


    Chin thought for a moment and then he bent down, grabbed a stick, and started drawing in the dirt.


    The man was drawing a diagram as if this was a real problem on a real farm. But I knew better than to interrupt the process. The better Chin understood this, the sooner we could move on.


    The old farmer grabbed his bamboo hat and rubbed its brim for a minute.


    ¡°The best option would be to move the useless water out of the waterways and funnel it off to somewhere else where it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    ¡°But?¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t know what the rest of the land looks like, the water would need to be moved downhill, but maybe the farm is located at the deepest area in the valley, not to mention-¡±


    ¡°Imagine you could control the water in the trenches as if it was your own qi.¡±


    Chin looked at me for a moment and his eyes lit up as the analogies started to click together in his mind.


    ¡°The useless water in the waterways is my qi and I can control my qi.¡±


    ¡°Correct,¡± I replied.


    ¡°And I can move my qi, but I can¡¯t move the qi external to me?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. ¡°You can¡¯t control the qi of the world, only your own qi. And the qi outside of your body is a thousand times more dense than the qi inside of you. Trying to manually move that qi is equivalent to taking buckets of water from the river to the farm. It works, but is ultimately tiresome and draining-¡±


    ¡°But by opening up my meridians and moving my own qi out of the way, I can just let the qi from the world flow into me and guide it to where it needs to go,¡± Chin finished.


    I nodded with a light smile, keeping my senses on Chin¡¯s meridians. This was a common technique, but an almost impossible one to master without guidance. The problem was that most people underestimated the flow of the river. Qi from the outside could rush and break your dantians like a flash flood, so most people required weeks, if not months of guided practice to master it.


    But to my surprise, Chin held on and limited his initial intake of qi, quickly blocking off the entrance to his meridians before he could be overwhelmed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t wanna flood the crops,¡± he mumbled.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I watched the man navigate his meridians, stumbling through his internal pathways like a kid who had just learned to walk. This part was also dangerous, misplaced clumps of foreign qi could end lives if it was mismanaged.


    But again, it wasn¡¯t much of a problem for Chin. He managed to push most of the qi directly to his lower dantian, feeding the small spiral of qi in his lower abdomen.


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°What about the rest of ¡®em?¡± He grumbled.


    ¡°The rest of what?¡±


    ¡°The dantians. There were two more of them but the first one ate it all up like a greedy pig.¡±


    I chuckled.


    ¡°Yeah well you have to strengthen all three of them before you can officially step into the first rank,¡± I replied.


    ¡°That¡¯ll take ages,¡± the old farmer mumbled.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why you gotta start young Chin.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°Oh relax, I messed around with the qi density at this spot so you¡¯ll break through into the first realm in about a week, as long as you cultivate here for about an hour a day, every day. Speaking of which, you need to learn a basic cultivation method.¡±


    ¡°I thought I was cultivating,¡± Chin said with a very noticeable frown.


    ¡°In a way,¡± I answered. ¡°But that¡¯s like calling a squirrel who forgot where he buried his acorns a farmer.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown lessened just a bit at the joke. I¡¯d love to think my comedy was getting to the man but I doubted that. Maybe the idea of a farming squirrel had lightened the mood.


    ¡°Okay, we¡¯re going to go over the basics of cultivation, and as boring as this will be for me, you¡¯ll need to pay attention like it¡¯s your first day of farming school.¡±


    Chin was unhumored by the joke. Oh well, I tried.


    ¡°Alright, first thing first. Meridians. You have twelve main meridian pathways throughout your body, and regardless of what some healers will tell you, their shape and layout does vary from person to person. But generally, the meridian pathways reflect vertically over the body. That means if you have three meridian pathways crossing over your left shoulder, you¡¯ll have three meridian pathways crossing over your right one.¡±


    I pulled a large scroll out of a bag. It was big. Laid out, it was just a bit taller than Chin and about twice as wide. I opened the thing and spread it out on the ground in front of Chin. On the scroll were two different figures.


    One was pristine and well-muscled and while its face was blank, the physiology was clearly male. The other one was just a bit shorter and while it too was a male, it was different from the pristine generic image. It was shorter, and skinnier, with a smaller torso yet longer legs. Both images were riddled with different colored dots, each dot having a small inscription with a number and a description by their side.


    ¡°This is a generic diagram of the male body¡¯s meridians on the right,¡± I said pointing to the pristine image.


    ¡°And this is a diagram of your body¡¯s meridians and pathways.¡±


    ¡°I thought meridians were pathways of qi?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°They are,¡± I replied. ¡°But it''s more complicated than that. Meridians are everywhere throughout the body, but the body is three-dimensional, meaning they can stack onto one another. It¡¯s more like an ant hill than a maze, with tunnels going up, down, left, and right. Trying to draw a map of that system would overcomplicate things for now.¡±


    ¡°Then what are they?¡± Chin asked pointing to the dots on the paper.


    ¡°Intersection points of qi, specifically the ones that are closest to your dantians and are important to the overall functioning of your body,¡± I answered. ¡°There are hundreds of thousands of these meridian points as meridian pathways intersect with each other all the time, but the ones on this graph are the closest ones to your dantians.¡±


    Chin bent over and took a better look at both diagrams.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t the same?¡± He noted.


    ¡°No, they aren¡¯t. Most of the differences are tiny, almost unnoticeable, but numerous. That generic diagram is what most cultivators start out with, and while it helps them learn and navigate their meridians, those thousands of small differences add up and make a difference in the long run. In cultivation terms that could mean decades, or even centuries for some.¡±


    ¡°There are so many,¡± Chin grumbled. ¡°Do I have to learn them all?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°It¡¯s a prerequisite to being able to cultivate. If you had known them then it wouldn¡¯t have taken you that long to bring your qi to your dantians. It would have taken about a second to cycle through that small amount of qi. Also, different cultivation methods cycle the qi through different meridian points.¡±


    Chin was still frowning, but he nodded.


    ¡°Why are they different colors?¡± Chin asked. ¡°And why are they numbered?¡±


    ¡°The colors tell you how deep the qi points are in your body, and the numbers tell you the number of meridian pathways intersecting at any given qi point,¡± I answered.


    Chin kept studying the large piece of paper for a moment.


    ¡°Why is there a twelve on the dantians?¡±


    ¡°The dantians are the spots where all the meridian pathways intersect. They¡¯re the most qi-dense part of the body, and each meridian is also responsible for fueling a certain part of your existence.¡±


    ¡°Fuel my existences?¡±


    ¡°Yup,¡± I said with a nod. ¡°Remember all that stuff with innate qi? That all comes from your lower dantian. Innate qi fuels your physical form and eventually, when a mortal¡¯s consumption of innate qi overwhelms the rate at which their dantian produces that qi, they die.¡±


    ¡°What about the other two dantians?¡±


    ¡°Well, the upper dantian fuels your soul, and the middle dantian fuels your will,¡± I answered.


    Chin frowned and gave me one of those dead-panned stares that yelled for clarification.


    ¡°Think of living as a three-part experience. You have the soul, will, and body. Without all three you¡¯re not really what we call a living being,¡± I answered.


    ¡°And what is a living being?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°I really don¡¯t want to get metaphysical Chin,¡± I answered.


    The farmer replied with the same dead-panned look.


    I sighed.


    ¡°A living being, at least within the metaphysical sense, has a soul. A central store of experiences and sentience. A soul is basically who you are in its totality. Your mind, your thoughts, your past and present. But your soul by itself isn¡¯t capable of change. It needs your will and body to do that.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t my will a part of my soul?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Nope. Your soul is who you are, and your will, while still informed by your soul, is not a part of it. If your soul was a story, then the will would be the pen and the body would be the book. Without a pen, the story can¡¯t continue, and without the book, the story can¡¯t be recorded.¡±


    Chin rubbed the brim of his hat again, a bit of nervousness present in his eyes. I knew the man had been like steel this whole time, taking this world-changing information without blinking, but that was bound to stop at some point.


    As a mortal, these questions were always there, but you never expected an answer for them, at least not a solid one. People had theories and ideas and religions but never definitive answers about the nature of life and humanity as a whole. When you break the essence of humanity down to its functional turning gears, it becomes harder to see that beautiful respectable thing that was life. Purpose could turn to ash and existential dread could take root in an instant.


    But fortunately, Chin wasn¡¯t just any old mortal.


    A moment later, his mind calmed down and his frown returned.


    ¡°I think I might have left my lunch at home,¡± the man muttered. ¡°Medin doesn¡¯t like it when I don¡¯t eat lunch.¡±

 Chapter 44 The Village Part 1

    Chin was a stubborn man. Back when he was a child, I had far fewer dealings with the mortal town, but I still came around now and again, if only to check out how they were getting along. And his father, while a nice enough man, had never been casual with me.


    But then he had Chin.


    Chin was six years old when he¡¯d first seen me. He had asked me who I was and what I did. And when I¡¯d explained myself he said, ¡°So you¡¯re the lazy man who lives in the woods.¡±


    His father almost had a heart attack when he¡¯d seen me talking to the boy. The old man had sprinted over with panic and started to profusely apologize before he¡¯d even heard the conversation.


    And when he tried to get Chin to bow to me, the little boy refused to do so and remained upright like an old tree.


    Years later, when his father tried to force down the mantle of Light Master, a job that generally went along with the title of Village Chief, Chin had refused, opting to be a farmer instead.


    The rainy season was when all types of lower cultivator clans and merchants would come in with all their magical beasts and creatures and while the cultivators could use them to cross through the Great Dessert in a timely enough speed, the beasts themselves required water and nourishment.


    And Chin, at the age of twenty, against his father¡¯s wishes, had made the supply of food for these merchants to be the number one priority of the village. And the village grew in commerce for it. Suddenly they could request to be paid in medicines and spices, bringing the village a whole new hord of goods that they couldn¡¯t access from anywhere else.


    Chin had recognized that this village was landlocked and while communication was possible, travel was exceptionally hard for anyone within the valley. The village was surrounded by fifteen hundred miles of desert on both sides, and trade was an impossibility aside from one time a year.


    And Chin had made the best use of that time. Consistently overfarming and guiding his village to produce over twenty times their required food to strengthen and grow their other resources.


    And the village was better for it. New herbs were planted, and new livestock were received. One time a group of merchants had given the village a wind ostrich hatchling, which was a spirit beast that could cover over a thousand miles a day, and Chin had happily taken the bird, giving the village some lifeline to the outside territories.


    But most important of all, Chin had brought in books. Books filled with methods for farming, blacksmithing, cooking, building, and all other sorts of skills. Under him, everyone had benefitted, from the snobby Light Master to the local farmer with only two cows and a chicken.


    There were no beggars or unhoused. Everyone had a place to belong to and if you needed a job, you could always farm.


    That was all to say, Chin was a smart and stubborn man. He knew what was good for everybody else and did it.


    But the man rarely ever looked after himself, and that was where the wife came in.


    It took an unbreakable will of god to make Chin do something he didn¡¯t care for, and Medin had that by the boat. Chin was skinnier than a branch before he knew her, and he spent so much time out on the fields that it was common for him to fall asleep in a stable or on the fields.


    One time Medin had come across him sleeping next to a donkey and had dragged him inside by force, making Chin bath and clean himself before stuffing him full of stew and making him sleep till midday.


    Chin told me about the encounter like it was a horror story the next day, and even though the man shivered a little at Medin¡¯s name, he was already smitten. As stubborn as Chin may be, he was only human after all, and a woman that kind and generous yet stern and forceful seemed to have flipped the love switch on in his brain.


    ¡°Chin!¡± Medin yelled as we approached his home.


    ¡°When was the last time you ate?¡±


    ¡°Medin, I was just a little busy with-¡±


    ¡°Nonsense! You forgot breakfast and lunch, and you barely slept at all yesterday!¡± The lady berated.


    ¡°And what about you Mister Bill?¡± the woman asked me.


    ¡°Uuuuhh, I don¡¯t really need to eat-¡±


    ¡°Children, the both of you!¡± Medin interrupted before turning around and walking back into the house. Chin sighed and followed her in, leaving the door open and unattended.


    And just as I was about to turn around and leave, Medin yelled.


    ¡°You too Mister Bill!¡±


    Oh well.


    I smiled and entered the wooden home, resigning to my fate.


    The Chin family home was old and large. It was common practice for the village chief to have a large residence and Chin was no exception to the rule. The home had belonged to his father and his grandfather before that, being passed down from one village chief to this one.


    I remember watching them build this one about three hundred years ago. The old homes used to be made out of mud and stone, but after the village had gotten a hold of some Ivin Wood from the Hidden Viper territory, they had slowly rebuilt everything over the years, replacing every mud hut with living wooden structures.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    You¡¯d see that a lot. Qi-infested things that cultivators had little use for would often end up revolutionizing the mortal population¡¯s life. In this case, it was just a hard-to-kill piece of wood. Ivin Wood had the ability to pull ambient qi out of the air, no matter its condition, and set roots at almost any place.


    For the Hidden Viper clan, I¡¯m sure it was nothing more than a tree-like weed that occasionally annoyed their medical gardens. But for the mortals and low-rank cultivators, it was a miraculous bit of building material, something that would grow and heal over time.


    And now, it even had professions that revolved around it. Pruners, as they were called, were half gardeners and half builders, knowing how to bend and grow the wood just right enough to give it life and strength. The roof would need to be pruned every now and then and the walls would occasionally need to be watered during the dry spells, but aside from that, maintenance was an easy task.


    We walked into the large house and went straight into the dining room and two generations of Chin sat there waiting for us. Chin¡¯s five children sat around the table talking to themselves as they waited for the food. And Renk the Light Master, who also happened to be Chin¡¯s brother-in-law sat in a chair at the corner, hunched over and reading by the light of a crystal in his hand.


    Along with him was a small girl, one of Chin¡¯s granddaughters who had taken a nack to books and became the Light Master¡¯s apprentice about a year ago, sitting on a blanket on the floor and reading a book that rivaled her master¡¯s with the same interest and ferocity.


    There were several small children in the house, most of them had already eaten and gone up to bed, but a few stragglers were around, annoying the adults and burning off whatever energy they had before sleeping. On the inside, the big house seemed almost incredibly small for the amount of people it contained.


    ¡°Mr. Bill!¡± A group of three boys exclaimed.


    At their words, all the people in the room glanced in my direction and nodded to me in respect. Chin¡¯s nonchalance towards me had rubbed on his children over the years and onto their children, though I could still see a bit of cautiousness in the adults¡¯ eyes.


    Renk frowned at me but made a show of hiding it and buried himself back into his book. He still didn¡¯t like me. He had a horrible bias against cultivators, one that I couldn¡¯t blame him for, but his hatred had calmed down to distrust over the years, and displeasure after that.


    His apprentice looked up at her distracted master, then smiled and waved at me briskly. I waved back at the small girl returning the gesture before her master could see.


    ¡°Mr. Bill! Mr. Bill!¡± The three stooges said as they bounced around me.


    The children Makel, Rudin, and Tanem, all bounced around aggressively. They were all Chin¡¯s grandchildren, and though none of them shared their parents, most people considered them a brotherly trio.


    ¡°Did you see the cultivators Mr. Bill? Rudin said Rin Wi went and beat one of them up for not giving her face! He said she threw him like an orange!¡± Makel interrogated.


    ¡°She did do it! Smacked him like a fly Mak! A fat, angry fly!¡± Rudin answered.


    The boy was the biggest of the trio, both in size and ego, but Makel generally acted as their designated leader. Tanem stood by them quietly with a slightly interested look. The boy, much like his Light Master sister, was a fan of books. But unlike Taura, he didn¡¯t have a single social bone in his body.


    The shy child just stared at me, hiding behind his larger and younger cousins.


    ¡°And what exactly were you doing near the merchants¡¯ camp?¡± One of the adults asked him.


    ¡°Nothin¡± Rudin replied. ¡°I was just bringing them their food, that¡¯s all. And I wasn¡¯t near the cultivators, it¡¯s just that Rin Wi smacked him so hard he almost flew right into me!¡±


    ¡°My apologies Rudin,¡± Rin Wi said. The maiden had just strolled in behind me, but the young man must have not seen her.


    The portly jumped and turned like a large tabby cat.


    ¡°It- it- it''s no problem ma¡¯am,¡± Rudin responded. His flushed red and his hands dug into his pockets as he turned and tried to hide behind his younger cousins.


    I smiled and sat down at one corner of the table, suppressing my presence and hiding myself away from most of the people there. Rin Wi followed my lead and did the same.


    ¡°So you smacked some guy around, huh?¡±


    ¡°Yes honored master,¡± She nodded. ¡°He was demanding and arrogant, asking us for things we did not offer.¡±


    I nodded. I was vaguely aware of the confrontation, sensing it from a distance.


    ¡°Us?¡±


    ¡°Yes, honored master. I was in charge of soups and stew during the process and the man asked us for something we did not offer.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°And he threatened the villagers,¡± She continued.


    ¡°Did he now?¡±


    Rin Wi nodded with a frown.


    ¡°I had to make an example of him,¡± She said matter of factly. ¡°He was interrupting my duty.¡±


    I chuckled. Out of all the maidens, Rin Wi seemed to be the one who had adapted the best to this place. The girl was smart and capable, but also simple and accepting. Over the weeks, she had been the one who would talk to me the most. And nowadays she¡¯d grown to chattering with the villagers and working well in the kitchen.


    That was a weird little quirk of hers. Out of all her siblings, she was the strongest, and yet she chose to cook instead of fight.


    ¡°What are your plans after the rainy season?¡±


    ¡°Well after the rainy season, Xi Lu says that she and Po Pen will have to work out a way to fertilize all the manure those giant insect steeds leave behind. And then after that, we have to sort all the merchant goods and such.¡±


    I smiled. Rin Wi had taken a liking to the village and her attitude towards it reminded me of Chin in many ways.


    Medin walked into the room followed by a few of her children, each of them carrying pots and dishes filled to the brim. One of them came by and started to pass out plates bowls and utensils, making sure everybody had one of each.


    The children got up and helped, carrying empty bowls and jugs of water. Rudin walked over to us, his face reddening up as he approached, with his trio traveling under him.


    ¡°Would- would you like to wash mi- miss?¡± The boy stammered. I could tell he meant to say Miss Rin Wi, but choked abruptly at the end of the sentence.


    ¡°Yes I would,¡± Rin Wi replied with a smile.


    She stuck her hands out and Rudin put a bucket underneath them. Then Tanem approached with a small bowl filled with a white mushy substance. Rin Wi dipped her finger in the bowl, and gently rubbed the substance all over her hands. Makel then came up with a pitcher of water and proceeded to pour a small amount onto her hands.


    Rin Wi rubbed her hands together again and the soap frothed over as she scrubbed and cleaned. In truth, this process was unnecessary for the both of us, but then again so was eating. Makel poured more water over Rin Wi¡¯s hands and she finished rinsing her hand off and gave a light bow to the boys.


    Then came my turn. I repeated the process, stopping halfway through to blow a torso-sized soap bubble to impress to trio. The little musketeers cheered at the display, even the smitten Rudin, and they walked away to finish their chores while mumbling about how they wanted to try that after dinner.


    After that, Rin Wi and I went and filled our plates, before heading over to our corner and munching away in peace.

 Chapter 45 The Village Part 2

    The dinner lasted for about an hour with everyone eating their share and taking themselves to bed afterwards. Renk, having just woken up, took his apprentice Taura and his books outside and towards the Light Tower. Medin packed the man full of food and dried meat as he went out and waved him off with a satisfied smile. The man waddled out like a pack donkey and his little apprentice followed, making sure to pick up any containers he dropped along the way.


    Medin then came towards me, arms full of jerky, honey, and bread.


    ¡°Medin, please-¡± I tried to refuse. But the woman was having none of it.


    ¡°Nonsense. We always end up over-farming for the rainy season Mister Bill. If we don¡¯t eat the food now it¡¯ll all go to waste!¡±


    I smiled and nodded as I accepted my second defeat of the night. Chin and Medin, the man who overfarms and the woman who overfeeds.


    Even Rin Wi couldn¡¯t escape the situation with some packed dinners of her own. We both bowed and headed out of the village, talking a bit as we did so.


    ¡°How are all the others taking to the village?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Alright,¡± She replied. ¡°Though Mei Shan is having some struggle.¡±


    ¡°Oh? How so?¡± I asked.


    Rin Wi shrugged.


    ¡°I suppose Mei Shan was always our leader. Ever since we were grouped together, she had taken the role of leader and the burden of it as well. And now that she doesn¡¯t need to protect us¡­ I assume she finds it hard to find a purpose.¡±


    I thought about that for a moment. It was true. Mei Shan was the one who had approached me when I went to the Divine Beast Emporium, and though that itself sounded innocent enough on the surface, maidens who approached the customer were more likely to be assaulted in certain ways.


    I had no care for romance or sex, but I was a rarity. What I had done to my mind and soul for power had affected me permanently, making me unable to love anything romantically. But most cultivators, given power, would take what they wanted when they wanted.


    That included people.


    ¡°Is she alright?¡± I asked, my tone carrying a certain implication.


    ¡°She bared through it like we all did,¡± Rin Wi replied with a stiff voice.


    ¡°We had¡­ methods of engagement. Damaged goods were useless after all and the Emporium took care to make sure we weren¡¯t damaged. If a customer had requests that we couldn¡¯t handle, then we¡¯d get other servants who could. And besides, we were convinced that we were serving gods at that time. Creatures beyond humanity,¡± she finished.


    ¡°And now?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Rin Wi said with a light head shake.


    ¡°Now I have no duties and no masters, and I see you, someone more powerful than any master I¡¯ve ever served and¡­ and yet you seem so much more mortal than all of them. So much simpler. It makes me believe my past masters couldn¡¯t have been any better. Maybe they just were simply men pretending to be gods.¡±


    I didn¡¯t say anything for a moment, but I could hear a bit of the fear in her voice. The sheer terror at saying this to me, and the hope that I wouldn¡¯t take it as an insult.


    ¡°Maybe,¡± I replied. ¡°But even if they were gods, gods like them wouldn¡¯t be deserving of worship, would they?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Rin Wi said with teary eyes staring into the deep night. ¡°No, they should not.¡±


    Then the skies colored gray. Storm clouds centered, surrounding us from either side. That wasn¡¯t strange, it was the rainy season after all. But these clouds were dark, almost ash colored and they thundered with qi.


    Rin Wi, for her part, recognized the situation. And I had already taken to hiding the phenomena from anyone else.


    Off in the distance, lighting struck mountain tops. First, it was far away, hidden deep on the other side of the region and burning small forests in its wake. But every strike seemed to bring it closed, burning the distance between us in an instant.


    The thunder was like a giant¡¯s footsteps rumbling toward us furiously and every strike seemed to shake the earth as if it was trying to spit the land in two.


    Rin Wi looked forward with a straight face, a face filled with nothing but resolve. She threw off her top, revealing the oversized tunic she wore beneath it, and instead of arming herself with a blade and shield, the woman pulled out kitchen knives.


    A cleaver in one hand and an oversized kitchen knife in the other. Both of the blades seemed a bit too big for her, the cleaver seeming like it was made for a man twice her size and the kitchen knife was as long as her forearm.


    But the strangest thing of all was that they were both mortal instruments, hand-me-downs from Medin¡¯s grandfather.


    ¡°Rin Wi,¡± I spoke.


    ¡°It is my choice,¡± she replied.


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    I nodded. If I interfered, even to give her advice, the tribulation would only grow in strength and Rin Wi knew that.


    The girl had made her choice and who was I to fight it?


    The other maidens appeared behind me.


    ¡°Rin Wi!¡± Mei Shan shouted.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine!¡± Rin Wi replied. ¡°Just fine!¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°I know Mei. I know. But I have to try.¡±


    There was a stubborn calmness in her voice, one that Mei Shan seemed to know very well. With a final glance of concern, Mei Shan nodded.


    Then the thunder struck. The sky split open and a white jagged stick of flame and lightning split the ground before us.


    I had already set up an illusory array over the region, guiding both the maidens and the tribulation inside it. A pseudo space that overlayed the regular realm and hid the divine test from all except those I allowed to witness it.


    Flame spat out, burning its way towards Rin Wi and she leapt, barely avoiding it in the nick of time. But the immortal fury was far from over. It twisted and turned, redirecting itself at her. She dodged, maneuvering around the stream of fire and lightning and using movement techniques to run faster than light itself.


    An immortal¡¯s tribulation was an immense one. If I hadn¡¯t set out the illusory realm and brought everything inside of it before it had begun, this whole region could have been burned to nothing in the process.


    More bursts of flame and lightning left the clouds, each seeking Rin Wi and each failing. She could dodge efficiently, she could even try to run away, and with her movement technique she could traverse across the continent in half an hour, but the tribulation would follow.


    I raised my hand, expanding the illusory array and spreading it to cover the entirety of the planet. The strongest being in this realm was a tenth-rank fella currently in secluded meditation, which was three ranks below my own, so I didn¡¯t have to worry about someone sensing my actions, but Rin Wi¡¯s actions were different.


    Rin Wi weaved through the thunder, avoiding the fury at every turn. She ran, traversing the length of the region and back within the short span of the valley. The tribulation followed, speeding up with each attempt.


    Eventually, it became too fast. Its speed and power were beyond Rin Wi and the lightning and flame became faster than light itself.


    Rin Wi raised her kitchen knife, imbuing it with qi and striking back at the divine judgment. She would have been better off using her hand or clothes instead of a piece of mortal metal, but she refused to put the instruments down, chopping at the fire with the cleaver and striking at the lightning with the knife.


    ¡°Why is she doing that?¡± Xi Lu muttered. ¡°She has far better weapons than that in her storage ring.¡±


    The lightning struck again and Rin Wi defended with the kitchen knife.


    ¡°Dao,¡± I answered. ¡°To become an immortal is to become your own. You refine your body, will, and soul through tribulation and overcoming. Servants are generally pushed to the peak of the fifth rank, but not higher. Because if they go beyond that then they¡¯ll need a dao, a purpose and belief that goes beyond their master, and Rin Wi seems to have chosen cooking as that purpose.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Mei Shan asked me.


    ¡°Dunno,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But I do know that you can find purpose in anything, whether a king or a farmer, everyone can find a reason to persist, and her reason is to make food I guess.¡±


    Rin Wi¡¯s blades showed a slight crack and with every move she made, the metal seemed to break even more.


    ¡°Tribulation is a product of the self,¡± I said to the girls behind me. ¡°All of this qi and lightning is Rin Wi¡¯s. It¡¯s what she seeks and what she soon will be. It¡¯s like the soreness of a tired muscle during practice and the effort of a hard day worked. If she can go through it, all of this strength will come to her and push her into the immortal realm.¡±


    ¡°What if she can¡¯t?¡± Mei Shan asked.


    ¡°Death,¡± I answered and I saw the girl¡¯s face twisted in fear.


    ¡°Well at least if I wasn¡¯t here,¡± I clarified. ¡°I¡¯ll intervene before that can happen.¡±


    Mei Shan gripped her chest and looked worriedly at her sister.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯ll be fine,¡± I said to her.


    Mei Shan nodded in response.


    Both blades were cracked now, basically broken, and only held together by Rin¡¯s qi and nothing else. And Rin Wi herself bled from several places. Her right hand was painted red with the blade being unable to defend her, the lightning had worked its way through it and into her body.


    Fire burned her left hand as her cleaver was unable to hold on and the burning qi had worked its way deep into her core.


    And yet still she stood.


    Many people thought that tribulation was a test from the heavens, an act of suppression against cultivators by some divine force above them. But that was wrong. Every stage increase had some sort of turmoil and usually, it was nothing more than an overabundance of qi production, forcing the qi to flow out of the body.


    But in certain stages of growth, too much qi would be expelled, making the world itself feel threatened, and the world in response would try to take that qi and shove it right back where it came from.


    An immortal¡¯s qi was different from that of a mortal. It was dense and unending, concentrated in its amount and Rin Wi in her revelations had started to create it. The newly created immortal qi, unable to be held by a mortal¡¯s body, leaked into the world and fought with the natural qi around. Then the realm would do its best to squash out that rebellion and shove the qi where it came from.


    But Rin Wi was still unable to accept it. She had to reform herself, body, will, and soul, or otherwise, she risked death.


    The lightning struck again, and Rin Wi swayed, her body almost collapsing under the force. Blood leaked from every crevice of the woman¡¯s body this time and her skin split open like cracks on a mountainside.


    I smiled.


    ¡°Clever,¡± I mumbled. ¡°She¡¯s shoveling away the excess qi into the blades, that¡¯s why they haven¡¯t broken yet.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t a stronger weapon defend against the tribulation better regardless?¡± Bri Lou asked me.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°But a weapon would be just that, a weapon. Rin Wi carries knives, objects that align with her Dao. If she holds through with this, then the blades would be stained with her very soul.¡±


    The lightning struck again and this time, the blade held it back.


    ¡°She¡¯s forging a soul-bound weapon, focusing on her blades before her body. Normally that¡¯d be a stupid thing to do, but since her dao aligns with it... well, it¡¯s still a stupid thing to do. But she¡¯ll come out alive at the very least.¡±


    A flame tunnel struck out at her and she fanned it away with her cleaver.


    Rin Wi leaped. With her blade crossed in front of her, Rin Wi propelled herself into the storm of qi. Her scream echoed throughout the valley and her body glowed bright orange and she committed itself into the clouds.


    I watched in silence as the storm raged. The two blades had been completely imbued with immortal qi by now, each able to block and defend against the tribulation but Rin knew that those blades couldn¡¯t last her forever.

 Chapter 46 Tribulation Part 1

    Rin Wi¡¯s blades crossed together as she leaped into the midst of the storm. Her heart was firm and her body was willing, but her mind, her mind was yet to gather.


    Strange feelings bubbled inside of her. Fear and joy, love and hatred, eagerness and caution, an antithesis of emotion filled her very being. She could feel her dantians, each of them as mortal as her, but pulsating immortal qi vigorously. They were trying to grow, to strengthen and leap beyond the mortal realm.


    But they needed a Dao.


    Rin Wi had that, she realized. She had a dao and she had discarded it and that was the thing that pushed her over the edge.


    Daos were a tricky thing to understand. They were the blood of the soul, the thing that could keep an immortal¡¯s will alive after billions of years, and so very vital to cultivation.


    Rin Wi¡¯s dao was one that had been bred into her since birth, ingrained upon her being for hundreds of years. She could see it floating and mixing with the immortal qi before her. It was trying to come back, trying to weasel its way back into her soul.


    She held the blades firmly. She would not let it.


    The qi coalesced, sinking into one place above the clouds. Rin Wi watched from her spot in the clouds unsure of what would happen next.


    ¡°Listen, kid,¡± a voice suddenly spoke.


    Rin Wi spun to her left to see the honored master there floating beside her.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to fight this one out,¡± he continued.


    Thunder roared from a distance.


    ¡°This is a rare form of tribulation, and the cons-¡±


    Then lightning struck him. It struck him with more force and fury than Rin Wi had ever witnessed. It was as if a solid pillar of qi and flame had descended upon his being and burnt him to a crisp.


    The honored master sighed, completely unaffected by the attack.


    ¡°The cons-¡±


    Then again, the lightning struck.


    ¡°Would you relax?¡± The man yelled up to the sky. ¡°I¡¯m not aiding her in combat, this is purely advice. Advice I would have gotten to give her if we were given time to prepare. Nothing less than those little scions you treat so nicely.¡±


    Thunder roared once more.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Well, you don¡¯t really have a choice, do you?¡±


    The lightning came again, but this time before it could strike. The honored master merely raised his hand and smacked it away, sending the thing reeling back to where it came from.


    Space shuttered and a moment later, held still.


    ¡°Old realm still thinks it can beat me,¡± the honored master muttered. ¡°Give us a minute and I¡¯ll let you be, alright?¡±


    There was an almost audible silence and the honored master smiled and nodded his head.


    ¡°Alright, what you¡¯re facing is a rare form of tribulation called a demonic self. Normally when you ascend to the immortal realm, you expel qi, the realm rapidly tries to shove it back into you and you fight the realm while slowly reabsorbing your qi until you can both settle down. But this time, you didn¡¯t only expel your immortal qi, but you also discarded your dao in the process, immediately picking up a whole new one as you did so.¡±


    As the master talked the dense welling of qi grew and the storm clouds started to fade, each leaking their qi into the well.


    ¡°Due to that, you¡¯ve effectively formed a dao angel. A coalition of your immortal qi and your previous dao.¡±


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    The well of qi took a humanoid shape, settling itself into a figure. It glowed for a moment, its face and form being a vague human-like figure, but Rin Wi knew what it was.


    The light faded and there stood a woman. She was draped in a long and delicate robe and on it was the emblem of a dragon on a chain, the symbol of the Divine Beast Emporium. Her hair was a long dark-gold color and reached down to below her waist. She held a sword in her hands, one that Rin Wi was all too familiar with, a sword that Rin Wi had owned and practiced with many times before.


    ¡°Look at you,¡± her copy spoke. ¡°You¡¯re a disappointment. A broken tool.¡±


    The woman wore Rin Wi¡¯s old clothes and held her old weapon. She was a clone of Rin, down to her very qi.


    ¡°Then what does that make you?¡± Rin asked curiously.


    ¡°Why I¡¯m the working version, the undulled blade. You¡¯ve clearly discarded your purpose, choosing to cut vegetables and serve mortals instead of those beyond you. You¡¯ve forgotten your place, reaching to have things you aren¡¯t meant to have.¡±


    ¡°Oh really?¡± Rin Wi asked with a spin of her cleaver. ¡°Seems like you¡¯re the one who''s forgotten her purpose. A discarded dao rebelling against her cultivator, now that¡¯s a broken tool.¡±


    The clone made a disgusted face.


    ¡°Rebelling?¡± the copy asked. ¡°Was it rebelling when you served your betters? Was it rebelling when you knew your place and gained joy from a job well done? You had your purpose. You had me to guide you through your journey. It was I who showed you the purpose of servitude and the glory of your masters. And it was I who fueled you through decades of punishment when you failed to do your job.¡±


    ¡°I showed you a path forward! I pulled you through pain and sorrows until you stood at the pinnacle of your usefulness! A blade sharper than all! AND IF YOU HADN¡¯T WAVERED THEN THE MASTER WOULDN¡¯T HAVE TOSSED YOU TO THE SIDE WITH SUCH LITTLE CARE!¡± The dao yelled out.


    The honored master whistled next to her.


    ¡°She¡¯s a pissy sport,¡± he mumbled.


    Rin Wi was about to respond, but the man interrupted her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t speak. She can¡¯t see me or sense me. That is the dao of servitude, after all, if she sees me she¡¯ll immediately declare me her master and refuse to fight. And Rin, trust me when I say you will need to fight her. There¡¯s no way around it. Dao angels are rare and Dao angels that are the byproduct of a single cultivator are even rarer. But if you don¡¯t end this now then the rest of your path forward will be filled with heart demons and self-doubt. She¡¯ll worm her way into your soul and will refuse to leave. So you gotta end this, understand?¡±


    Rin Wi was still staring at her copy, studying the woman¡¯s figure through the clouds. Then she nodded and headed straight for her clone.


    Cleaver met sword and knife met hilt during their first clash and sparks flew from the point of impact, echoing loudly through the skies. More blows were traded, one striking an ancient immortal sword and the other with a mortal¡¯s kitchen knife.


    Two hundred clashes rang in a single instant and then they both leaped back, each having tested the other.


    Rin Wi was damaged, having endured injuries from the lightning tribulation, she was already walking into the fight at a disadvantage. And her clone, while unable to generate qi, due to the lack of dantians, was bursting with the bits of immortal qi that Rin Wi had failed to absorb.


    She was effectively fighting an immortal, a task she would have deemed impossible if not for one fact. The honored master had told her to win. He had told her that she, Rin Wi, needed to beat this demonic self tribulation, and Rin Wi believed that the honored master wouldn¡¯t say that unless she had a chance.


    This time, the clone initiated the attacks, slashing at Rin with her sword. Rin blocked and defended with her cleaver, but the clone was fast. She struck again and Rin moved the knife to parry, but she was too slow. The copy¡¯s blade struck through her right shoulder, barely missing the bone.


    Rin pushed her foot against her opponent¡¯s chest and propelled herself off the blade, finding herself floating a good distance away.


    ¡°You have no laws, no strengths, hells you wouldn¡¯t even know how to swing a sword if it wasn¡¯t for me,¡± the clone mocked.


    Rin clutched her wound, trying her best to mitigate the invading qi. It was rough, moving through her muscles like a worm eating a leaf. The cut had been clean and the qi had been brought into her with precision, just as she would¡¯ve done it.


    Rin Wi breathed heavily as her clone approached. Could she win this?


    The clone swung again and this time Rin Wi dodged, bringing herself beneath the blade and pushing against the air behind her. But again, the immortal clone was faster. Another stab wound appeared on the opposite shoulder this time.


    Rin Wi grimaced as she looked up at her assailant.


    ¡°Always distracted,¡± her clone muttered.


    Rin pushed off, unskewering herself off the woman and falling to the ground beneath. She landed with one folded and both arms limp.


    ¡°Always so stubborn,¡± her clone spoke, seeming to appear directly in front of her.


    Rin Wi pushed back, barely avoiding the blade at her neck. The clone didn¡¯t let up and followed her retreat, swinging lazily in her pursuit.


    The attacks were simple, lacking in laws and strength, but they were from an immortal. Each swing could level mountain ranges and cut through valleys and yet for some reason, here Rin Wi stood fighting her.


    ¡°Even if I shall fade, I will make sure to take you with me,¡± the dao angel spat. ¡°One last cleaning before it ends.¡±

 Chapter 47 Tribulation Part 2

    Rin Wi ran. That was all she could do at the moment. The immortal was not a creature she could keep pace with in battle.


    Her copy couldn¡¯t produce qi, but it had sucked up all of the immortal qi Rin had created during her enlightenment. Her dantians flashed, pulsating with a bit more of that dense immortal qi and while Rin Wi closed her meridians in an attempt to conserve it, it would hardly make a difference in the battle. She would, at best, accumulate a puddle while her copy maintained a pool.


    It would be a battle of attrition and Rin Wi would lose.


    Her feet peddled against the ground, using her movement technique to propel herself to the furthest edge of the region, but even there her copy waited.


    ¡°Weakness,¡± her copy said to her. ¡°Running away from your duties, running from your own tribulation. You¡¯re not worthy of immortality.¡±


    The copy swung once more and once more Rin Wi dodged, but just barely. The copy was faster than her. She was outpaced in strength and speed, and impossibly outmatched in qi reservoirs.


    There was no use.


    ¡°Have you given up?¡± The copy asked her with a smug smile. ¡°Mere minutes since you¡¯ve abandoned me and you fall?¡±


    Rin Wi stood silently as she breathed.


    ¡°No,¡± she spat. ¡°I haven¡¯t given up.¡±


    Rin Wi took a moment to take in a few breaths full of qi.


    ¡°I¡¯m just wondering as to why I¡¯m still alive,¡± she finished. ¡°You could have killed me a thousand times over by now. I mean, you are effectively an immortal version of me, aren¡¯t you? Your qi might be limited but even then, you outmatch me in every way.¡±


    The copy kept staring at her, still and unbothered.


    ¡°And yet I¡¯m still alive,¡± Rin Wi finished. ¡°Why?¡±


    The woman raised her blade to her side and swung. This time, the attack cut through the air. Though the blade didn¡¯t touch Rin, the cut left its edges and immediately buried itself in her gut.


    Rin Wi fell. A wave of pain came from her stomach. The strange qi flowed through her body, seeming eager to wreak havoc where it went. It was dense and destructive, tearing apart her meridians wherever it reached.


    Rin Wi screamed, and liquid left her mouth. She coughed, choking on her own blood, struggling to breathe.


    ¡°And arrogant, oh so arrogant.¡± the clone mumbled as it walked towards her.


    Then the clone grabbed her head and lifted it close to its own.


    ¡°I want you to suffer,¡± the dao angle whispered. ¡°That¡¯s why I haven¡¯t yet killed you. Now run."


    It threw Rin Wi across the land, tossing her further than the eye could see. Rin Wi didn¡¯t fight it. She could barely register its words through the pain much less run.


    But she could think. That was the gift of the servant, the gift of her past. Even when she was being punished she could think, that was Rin Wi''s best trait. The pain was bad sure, but some of her punishments had been worse, and she¡¯d gotten through those so truly, what was this predicament?


    Rin Wi focused her mind on the invasive qi. It was spreading, but not nearly as fast as she thought it would and it was causing damage, but again, not nearly as fast as expected.


    Why? She thought.


    This was a blow from an immortal ranked being. She was an insect to this creature, an ant. No. Rin WI didn¡¯t buy it¡¯s I want you to suffer, statement.


    That made no sense. This was a Dao Angel, not a person. It wasn¡¯t capable of resentment, yet it was faking it, forcing her to run and be whittled down, little by little.


    Why? She thought again.


    She held herself still, pretending to be knocked out while she attacked the invasive qi within her. She retrieved her senses and buried them deep within herself. She sent qi into her eyes and ears, bursting the eardrums and forcefully ending her vision before the clone could catch up.


    She didn¡¯t know the power of an immortal, but she did know that the Servent Mothers could always tell whether you were sleeping or not by sensing the qi activity in your eyes and ears. Of course, they would die without qi but that would take time.


    Then Rin Wi waited. She laid there for minutes, first five, then ten, and then twenty. Slowly working on whittling down at that immortal qi. She had no sense of the outside world aside from her skin, and even that wasn¡¯t enough to let her figure out where the immortal was.


    Rin WI thought silently during this time. What did she know of dao angels? What was their purpose? She¡¯d had a few of them as customers back in the Divine Beast Emporium and the policy was to be kind but direct for them. They weren¡¯t exactly people but more of a manifestation of human thought, beliefs made flesh.


    Some were powerful, like the Angel of Death or the Angel of Time. Those creatures were said to be at the level of a God Imperium. What was it they said about these creatures? They weren¡¯t the thing itself, more of a collective representation of how people viewed the thing.


    But this dao angel was different. This wasn¡¯t a collective reflection of humanity¡¯s idea of servitude, this was her idea of servitude. It was her own insults the thing hurled at her, her own perspective and beliefs.


    Her own qi as well.


    Suddenly the invasive qi collapsed into her own, the difference between the two becoming unknowable. The realm had tried to force her own qi back into her through lightning and flame. The only reason it had stopped was because the dao angel had started to do the same.


    Rin Wi¡¯s eyes opened and her eardrums mended themselves, returning her to her senses. And sure enough, there was the dao angel staring down upon her.


    Rin Wi smiled, slowly getting up to her feet. Her wounds leaked blood and pain still howled through her broken bones, but that was bearable. All pain was bearable.


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    ¡°End this,¡± Rin Wi spoke. ¡°No more waiting for me to get up. Just end it.¡±


    ¡°Gladly,¡± the angel spoke raising its blade to swing.


    And Rin Wi stood, waiting for the strike to cut down on her.


    But it never did.


    ¡°You can¡¯t kill me? Can you?¡± Rin Wi asked. ¡°You¡¯re not just a dao angel, you¡¯re my dao angel.¡±


    The clone didn¡¯t speak, only looking at her with unbothered eyes.


    ¡°Why do we serve?¡± RIn Wi asked the clone.


    ¡°To live,¡± the clone answered. ¡°To be useless is death.¡±


    And there it was. Those words were the mantra she had repeated over and over again throughout her lifetime. Her mantra. And back then, those words were true.


    We live to serve, and when we become useless, we die.


    That had been her reality ever since she was taken up by the Servent Mothers. Those were the words that fueled her. The words that showed the only path forward throughout the subjection process.


    When she had been recruited.


    When she had to say goodbye to her family.


    When she was forced to live centuries in training, knowing her parents and siblings had long since turned to dust.


    When she finally forgot their faces and voices.


    When all she wanted was death, but couldn¡¯t even be given that release.


    That was what had kept her alive.


    Those words stood before her now, strict and angry. They had been abandoned, tossed to the side for a chance at freedom.


    But it wasn¡¯t just anger. Rin Wi looked at the creature before, truly studying its presence with her senses.


    A dao was the path a cultivator chose to take. It was the thing that kept them alive and breathing, the hope that allowed them to struggle through the great expanse of torment and time.


    Rin Wi had never gotten to choose hers. Her dao was the only one open to her, the dao of servitude. She couldn¡¯t have done anything else. She wasn¡¯t allowed to do anything else. She tried to fight for a time, but it was no use. She was broken in over and over again, and each time she was quicker to give up than the last, till eventually, the rebellion was nothing more than a quick thought in her head.


    And in front of Rin Wi stood the part of her responsible for it all.


    The Servant Mother within.


    Rin Wi swung her cleaver, aiming for the thing''s throat, but the clone sidestepped and stabbed. Her opposite¡¯s blade cut through Rin¡¯s stomach and out her back, the invasive qi flooding through her in an instant.


    Rin swung her knife, and the kitchen utensil rushed towards the clone''s throat, but again, her opponent dodged with ease.


    A fist slammed into Rin¡¯s face, unskewering her from the blade and away from her opponent. Her body flung past mountains and clouds before crashing deep into the earth.


    Rin wanted to scream, but the pain wouldn¡¯t let her. Her wound blazed in silent agony and her whole body radiated pain as the invasive qi ran throughout her body.


    But she still lived.


    The qi moved, piercing and penetrating her meridian pathways and the pain moved with it. It bit in and out of her like a worm squirming through the soil.


    Rin Wi felt herself being torn asunder.


    But still, she lived.


    How? She thought. How am I still alive?


    The qi bit again.


    How am I still alive?


    It bit harder as if it didn¡¯t like those thoughts, but not enough for her to die.


    Then it struck her.


    It¡¯s still my qi, isn¡¯t it? She thought. It¡¯s my power.


    RIn Wi looked within and called the immortal qi. It refused, tugging away from her like an angry child, but she didn¡¯t give up. She pulled again, demanding this time instead of asking and the qi relented.


    It was like a dam had burst deep within her. The immortal reflection ran at her again and speared through her once more, but Rin Wi didn¡¯t stop.


    The pain was a distraction, the suffering was a mere illusion. The pain was there of course, but the hurt, the hurt wasn¡¯t present. The qi wasn¡¯t cutting through her meridians, it was reforming them. The qi was pushing her body beyond that of a mortal and into the immortal.


    Her clone struck once more, this time with more fury and pain, but Rin Wi smiled through it.


    You gotta end this, understand? the honored master had said.


    This was not a battle of strength, nor was this a battle of qi or power. It was a battle of dao. It was a battle between who she was and who she strove to be.


    ¡°YOU BARELY COOKED IN THE EMPORIUM, AND YET YOU¡¯D CAST ME ASIDE FOR THAT?¡± The Dao screamed.


    ¡°SOME VAGUE HOBBY YOU BARELY UNDERSTAND. YOU¡¯LL THROW AWAY EVERYTHING YOU ARE FOR COOKING?¡±


    There was no sword this time, just words, but they cut Rin just the same.


    It was true, she was rejecting everything she was, everything she had been, just for some hobby she had picked up this very month. Centuries of suffering, of conditioning, and pain, all thrown away for what? A distraction?


    ¡°You can still become an immortal,¡± the clone spoke. ¡°Just throw those blades away and be what you truly are. Think of how valuable you could be, how useful. You could prove yourself once and for all, and show yourself as the brightest. You¡¯d be an immortal servant Rin, that¡¯s beyond rare, no master would ever leave you!¡±


    That was true. Immortal servants had to have a Dao, and a dao by nature, guided you above all things, even your master. So the only way one could get an immortal servant was if you somehow managed to ingrain the Dao of servitude upon a person.


    It was what the Emporium aimed for, seeking to make the ultimate tools out of beasts and humans.


    It was what Rin Wi had been aiming for.


    She¡¯d met an immortal servant once, and he had been treated like the most precious jewel in existence. He was wanted, perfect and refined, and his eyes were empty of pain or suffering.


    He looked almost dead and Rin Wi was jealous.


    Then the blades shuddered. The mortal weapons Rin Wi had almost forgotten about shook with indignation. The cleaver and the knife surged with energy, the Dao within them fighting against the servitude.


    But it was no use. Rin was no cook, she was barely a person. Why had she chosen this measly Dao anyway?


    ¡°What do you feel up for then?¡± Medin¡¯s voice echoed in her head.


    The woman had asked her for her preference of chores and Rin Wi had chosen to cook. It was such a silly choice. Rin would have been far more effective at other tasks. Cleaning, butchering, security, she was much better suited for everything else aside from cooking.


    But Rin Wi had chosen to cook.


    Rin Wi Had Chosen.


    Oh, RIn Wi thought in realization. It doesn¡¯t matter why.


    The choice hadn¡¯t mattered. The dao hadn¡¯t mattered. Nor did the efficiency or any other practical aspect of the choice. What mattered was that she had chosen it. She had picked the chore and she had picked the cleaver.


    Her Dao of cooking wasn¡¯t important because she liked it.


    It was important because she had chosen it.


    Rin Wi screamed and clung her blades, funneling as much of her own will as she could into the utensils. The brittle mortal blades had already been pushed far beyond their capability, but Rin Wi refused to let them break.


    ¡°WHY??¡± The immortal screamed. ¡°WHY DO YOU FIGHT ME??¡±


    Rin Wi pulled at its qi, drawing in her own immortal qi through pain and suffering. It couldn¡¯t hurt her, it was her qi, after all, just a little bit different.


    The dao angel shrieked as it lost power.


    ¡°WWHHHYY?¡± The angry thing screamed, stabbing at her in an attempt to kill.


    Rin Wi smiled, absorbing every strike of qi selfishly.


    ¡°Because,¡± She said. ¡°I want to.¡±

 Chapter 48 Gu Xin

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    Her sisters wept. They were all hugging each other as they watched, crying visibly at Rin¡¯s declaration. Then Rin stepped forward, leaping through the dragon gate and into the immortal realm.


    Very standard cultivator stuff.


    Then she came down, her face carrying a sad but accepting smile.


    All her sisters ran out to hug her, crowding the girl and clinging onto her now immortal form. There was more crying, more hugging, lots of smiling and questioning as well.


    After a few minutes of emotional reactions, Rin walked up to me and smiled. I smiled right back.


    ¡°Thank you for your guidance Mister Bill,¡± she said with half a bow.


    ¡°No problem,¡± I replied. ¡°That was one hell of a therapy session though, real violent.¡±


    Rin Wi smiled and nodded.


    ¡°If only we could all beat up physical manifestations of our traumas,¡± I joked.


    Again, Rin Wi smiled and nodded.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she repeated.


    Rin Wi clearly wanted to say more, but I just shook my head.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± I replied. ¡°You don¡¯t need to say anymore.¡±


    Rin Wi looked at me, smiled, then nodded.


    The walk back was quite loud, possibly the loudest the girls had ever been in my presence. There was lots of chatter and lots of questions, all aimed at Rin, and a decent lecture that came from Mei revolving around proper preparation and actions one should take when ascending.


    They just talked to one another, almost forgetting me entirely.


    Progress comes in small doses I guess.


    Once we got to my house, the girls split apart, heading to their own residences nearby. They had gone and constructed their own places, all of them scattered through the valley for their convenience. I was willing to let them live with me at first, but their consistent unprompted aid got really annoying really fast. There were only so many ¡°honored masters¡± a person could take.


    Gauntlet stepped out to greet me at my destination.


    ¡°How is she?¡± I asked the poor golem.


    Gauntlet held up a small enchanted cage with a bed and a sleeping baby inside of it.


    ¡°No tantrums?¡± I asked.


    The golem shook his head.


    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± I muttered.


    Babies were hard to deal with. Super babies who could crush mountains in their sleep were worse. The average fifth rank held a tremendous amount of power. They could flatten cities and change landscapes. Put all that into a ten-pound baby with a primordial bloodline and beast-like instincts and you get a terrifyingly powerful super baby. She could probably smack an immortal down without much of a struggle.


    So even if she was asleep, without any control over her power, a misplaced fart could spell genocide for this whole region.


    I opened the cage, gently bringing the slumbering child out of there.


    ¡°How ya feeling?¡±


    ¡°Uggah.¡±


    ¡°Are you hungry?¡±


    ¡°Uggah uggah!¡±


    I nodded and pulled out all the food Medin had left me. The child crawled out at the speed of sound and suckled it all down in an instant.


    A second later the child lay there, rubbing her stomach and sitting next to a clattering plate that was still spinning from her instant devouring technique. The baby burped before squealing in joy, crawling back to her cage, and sleeping again.


    I didn¡¯t know much about super babies, but I knew that babies slept a whole lot and this one was no exception. The qi within her had yet to completely settle and her body was still making adjustments to itself every day.


    Which was sort of like a baby, in a way. But it was also just like a cultivator consolidating their power after a recent rank-up, and I assumed it was a mixture of both at the current moment.


    ¡°Keep charge then,¡± I said to Gauntlet with a nod, and Gauntlet nodded back.


    ********


    Mo Whe of the Void Blade sect sat spread and comfortable in his chair. He had purchased it from a crafting sect, one of the best in the empire, and among all he owned, this large cushioned seat was his most prized object.


    This was because Mo was a bureaucrat. Most of his time was spent on his ass anyway, and the way Mo saw it, if he was to sit down for most of his life, then it might as well be the most enjoyable thing he did. Not that Mo minded his job. No, Mo loved his job.


    Most of his brothers had fought one another, a few of them dying to get themselves to be the next in line for the Patriarch¡¯s title. His father, Long Whe, was a proud and powerful leader but also pants as loose as a canyon, though Mo would never tell him that. The man had fathered approximately fifty-six children and had over seventeen wives and concubines.


    ¡°Spread the seeds and may the strongest blossom!¡±


    That was what his father had said about his children. A little animalistic of him, Mo thought, but it was the way things were. It was the way cultivators were. His father, his grandfather, and his great-grandmother had all been the same way. His great-grandmother had already ascended to the higher realms, seeking her chances at strength with another sect and his grandfather was planning to do the same.


    His father now led the sect as the patriarch and in planning for his realm ascension, had told his children to prove themselves worthy of leading the clan and possibly one day, even the sect.


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    Mo Whe did not prove himself worthy. In truth, as soon as he heard the news, he plotted ways of proving himself unworthy. He didn¡¯t want to lead or show responsibility, he wanted to be one of the old uncles of the sect that stayed around for a million years leaching off the sect and rotting in the corner.


    That was Mo Whe¡¯s dream, to be a fat old man sitting in a comfy chair, and finally, with this job, he had reached it.


    He had been assigned to govern over a small group of a thousand regions, most of them boring and useless, some of them lacking even a single immortal. It was the backwoods of the continent, the boonies. All the land had empty qi and even emptier regions.


    To a person seeking power and prosperity, it was a curse. There were no accolades to be found here, only boring old middle management work for the empire.


    But it was perfect for Mo Whe. It was an easy job and it was the easiest job he could get while still having the position of a scion. Reports came in and he glanced at them, and more importantly, he rarely had to report anything to the higher-ups himself.


    He¡¯d have to host a passing guest every decade or two, some members of another clan flying through the region on their way to somewhere else, but most of the time it was quiet and comfortable.


    Mo sank deeper into the cushion.


    ¡°Quiet and comfortable,¡± Mo muttered.


    ¡°Minister Whe?¡± A servant spoke.


    Mo rose, ready for dinner and sniffing the air in anticipation. When he smelled nothing, Mo opened his eyes to see a servant standing in a bowing manner and offering him a scroll on a jade green plate.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Mo asked.


    ¡°A report came in Master Whe, just now delivered through a personal runner.¡±


    ¡°A runner?¡± Mo spat.


    ¡°Yes, my lord.¡±


    ¡°Not a teleport?¡±


    ¡°No, my lord.¡±


    Disgraceful. Mo thought.


    What barbaric barren region would dare to send in a report outside of the official times? If they couldn¡¯t afford to teleport a scroll all the way here, then they should at least have the decency to bother him during official business hours.


    Mo grabbed the scroll and cut through the metal golden seal with his nails. He opened the thing, reading through its contents immediately.


    Mo groaned.


    Why? Why did this have to happen now?


    An unregistered immortal, while unimportant, was a chore.


    ¡°Did they send anything else along?¡± Mo asked.


    ¡°Yes your lordship,¡± the servant replied, holding up a small ornate box.


    Mo flicked his finger, opening the thing and pulling out a rather dull-looking piece of jade.


    ¡°Good,¡± Mo said with a nod. ¡°Run this through the local archives and see if there are any matches. Report back to me immediately after you get the results.¡±


    The servant nodded, taking the piece of jade and the scroll back along with him.


    A rogue immortal was nothing scary, not to the Void Blade sect, but a rogue immortal was still in many minor ways, a threat. The jade piece they¡¯d sent over contained the immortal¡¯s qi signature which could be used to cross-reference with the Void Blade Sect¡¯s database to determine if the man was known by any other name.


    It wasn¡¯t perfect of course. Many immortals hid from their gaze, a consequence of the Sect¡¯s ambivalence rather than ignorance. Most immortals simply weren¡¯t worth cataloging, and an immortal who hid in an unnamed region was likely to be the same.


    A servant stepped, one Mo wanted to see this time. She was beautiful and draped in cloth made from a spirit sheep¡¯s wool. With her came several others each carrying plates that burst with qi-filled delicacies. The smell danced on Mo Whe¡¯s nose and the woman, knowing what he wanted, came and sat on his lap.


    ¡°Would you like me now or later my lord?¡± The vixen asked.


    Mo Whe smiled as he touched her, his hand making its way to her inner thighs.


    ¡°Later my beauty.¡±


    The girl pouted.


    ¡°Oh, but I will be ever so lonely, unwanted and unloved, by my lonesome.¡±


    ¡°Oh nonsense. Come! We shall eat together! There¡¯s no need for tears!¡±


    The girl giggled affectionately and pulled him into a kiss that was placed half on his lips and half on his cheek.


    This temptress, Mo thought.


    Not a minute later, they both had their food laid out on the table, Mo eating at one end of the table and his lover indulging quietly at the other end.


    If Mo were a smarter man, he would have noticed her eyeing him as ate, her hand merely moving over the food and barely consuming it.


    If Mo were a shrewd man, he would have noticed how she came to him today, instead of the normal practice of him seeking her.


    But Mo was neither smart nor shrewd, just lazy. And the woman managed to inspect him to her liking unnoticed.


    ¡°Gu Xin, my love, tell me how the food tastes,¡± Mo Whe asked the woman.


    ¡°It¡¯s delightful,¡± she replied. ¡°But not as delightful as you.¡±


    Mo Whe beamed at the compliment and Gu Xin giggled in response. She didn¡¯t know how the man hadn¡¯t picked up on her obvious information-gathering techniques. She¡¯d been blatant on numerous occasions, but either he knew and didn¡¯t care or he cared but didn¡¯t know. Gu Xin suspected the latter.


    It wasn¡¯t as if the Void Blade Sect had any obvious secrets hidden in this area. You¡¯d be lucky enough to find a decent fifth-rank cultivator out here, much less a decent immortal. But still, Gu Xin was curious and Mo Whe relented, even going on a tirade about these backwoods cultivators and their total lack of manners in this regard.


    Gu Xin had smiled, nodding along with his rant and validating his irritation. But in truth, it was a struggle to not call him out on his lazy governing. The nameless region was nameless by nature, they couldn¡¯t muster up enough spirit stones for a long-distance teleport, much less an interregional teleport.


    Each region was tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of miles away from one another. And the runner, who was probably the fastest man they had, had movement techniques that even Mo Whe¡¯s servants wouldn¡¯t even bother learning. Of course, their interruption was mistimed. But at least they did their duty of reporting the changes to the empire.


    Gu Xin smiled, not letting her face betray her thoughts, but Mo Whe wouldn¡¯t have noticed either way. The man was far too self-indulgent to see anything past his face and status.


    Gu Xin smiled and continued the charade, till she eventually guided the man to his bedchambers afterward and paid the price for her curiosity.


    After the deed was done, Gu Xin only had to wait a minute till Mo Whe slumbered. She knew that once he began snoring, it would take an earthquake to wake him up, and she would be free to leave his side.


    Gu Xin frowned before she even left the bed. That was bad demeanor. She shouldn¡¯t be revealing her emotions around her target whether or not she believed they were asleep, especially one of Mo Whe¡¯s rank.


    But she couldn¡¯t help it. The man was perfectly unbearable. All he did was sit and eat and wave away the numerous reports from the regions he was supposed to govern. He treated his position like a child treated their meal, picking and tossing the bits he didn¡¯t want until only the unhealthy vices and deserts were left on the table.


    Gu Xin couldn¡¯t stand it. All that power yet so little action.


    She walked through the manor, winding through its wide corridors and servant-filled abodes. It was large, almost half a mile in length and width, all unnecessary, all indulgent.


    She finally escaped the self-centered lair, making her way outside of the residence, and seeing the open green clearing and the night sky that stood above it. A spillage of sparkling dots decorated the backdrop and a cascade of moons stood on top of them.


    Ah Marin was impossibly big. Its weight drew in stars and planets into its orbit, some large and some small. The seven major stars that rotated around the planet provided a strange day and night pattern for the planet, painting it with alternating zebra stripes of day and night. And nights like this, a true night when the edges of the horizon didn¡¯t leak the pink glow of another sun were rare, only coming around only a few times a year.


    Gu Xin pushed, channeling her qi into a movement technique. Her legs rebelled against the earth and within a moment, she was in the clouds. Mountains flashed below her as her body flew through the skies.


    A hundred miles, a thousand miles, ten thousand miles, all passed beneath her in an instant. Her qi split the air, gently moving it aside for her body to glide through. Finally, she slowed down and touched down gently on a sand-sloped beach.


    Gu Xin looked toward the night sky. She had traversed tens of thousands of miles, but the sky didn¡¯t care, it glittered just the same. The same stars and moons greeted her as if she hadn¡¯t left at all.


    Except for one. One small and almost dust-like planet shining dullly at the edge of the horizon. Even Gu Xin, who could see a thousand miles out with clarity, had to circulate an advanced sight technique to catch a glimpse of it.


    It was so small compared to everything else around it that no one beneath the fifth rank would ever be able to see it, even if it orbited right above them.


    From here the moon looked to be colored a dull earthly brown, but Gu Xin could see what they were, even from millions of miles away. Even when she couldn¡¯t actually see the planet-sized ball of chains that held her master, the image of them still burned clearly in her mind.


    She would be disappointed to see her now, groveling and low at some scion¡¯s beck and call.


    ¡°Master Fey Lin,¡± Gu Xin whispered. ¡°One day I will free you, or one day I will die.¡±

 Chapter 49 Merchants

    The merchants were an integral part of the village¡¯s income. They would come through during the rainy season and camp out at the village for a few days at a time, and some had started to use the area as a temporary market between the two divided parts of the region.


    There wasn¡¯t much reason to use the village as a central trading post. As wide as The Great Desert Strip was, all of the merchants had some method of crossing it. Most had pack beetles, some had beasts, and many just ran across the distance over a few days.


    After all, the desert lacked qi and spirit beasts, making it arguably the safest place in the region, if you discounted the baking heat. The village was generally treated like a trucker¡¯s stop rather than a trading hub.


    But this rainy season was different. This rainy season, there were rumors of a strong and ancient cultivator living in this valley and that the mortals within this region were protected under his rule.


    I sighed.


    I knew the sects had promised to keep their mouth shut, but I also knew leakage of this secret was inevitable. It had been a strategic play on their end from the start. They¡¯d brought in nearly a hundred different cultivators and an entourage of servants during their little trip.


    They probably had a list of heads ready to be chopped off to appease me if I brought it up with them.


    Oh well, I expected that.


    But Rin Wi¡¯s smacking that one guy had also encouraged the rumors. There had been a drastic increase in the quality of behavior after that public beating and Rin Wi was now rumored to be one of the many students of the Honored Grand Master who called the forest his home.


    A few cultivators had even tried to sneak into the forest, and though none of them had died, they did witness a few of the beasts clashing against one another. And though there was no death, the aura of something seven ranks beyond your own did cause an indescribable feeling of dread and insignificance.


    That made me think back to Sun Wukong.


    I pushed the thought away. I didn¡¯t like thinking about the Monkey King, he scared me. Regardless of how kind he seemed to be, the man¡­ no, the being was just too much.


    I imagined that was how the cultivators who had snuck into the forest felt.


    The camp was a dot under the horizon from the distance. Even a mortal¡¯s eyes could make out the gleam of the village and camp from deep within the forest. I walked towards it, wrapping myself in common cultivator clothing.


    Nothing new, just a more tight-fitting robe and a simple blade by my side. I lowered my aura to that of a third rank, before strolling into the camp.


    There were tents and goods all gathered up and around one another and several large bonfires in between them. Tonight was a true night, meaning the sky was black all around, but the camp didn¡¯t seem to know that.


    Everything was lit up, and everyone seemed to be awake. There was also a whole lot more food, cold meat, and still boiling stew, stuff the merchants could serve to themselves.


    Along with a lot of bargaining. Yells shouted over the campfires and angry curses were thrown around from one merchant to another. Different types of music played as well, some sang, others played an instrument, and around a few spots, there were even groups of musicians all strumming along to their different audiences.


    I frowned. I didn¡¯t frown. That was Chin¡¯s thing, not mine.


    This was new. This group, in its entirety, was over ten times larger than the regular groups that would come through this area. And more importantly, a lot of them seemed to have brought in their own food, meaning they weren¡¯t the regular migratory merchants that would walk through this area.


    I had expected that to be the case as the rumors got around, a lot of small sects and clans would surely send their groups over to investigate. There were a lot more rank threes and rank fours, even a few rank fives.


    But the problem wasn¡¯t any of that. The problem, if it could even be called a problem, was that everyone was getting along.


    That might not sound like a big deal but it was. Peaceful areas where merchants could do their business untaxed and unbothered were a great draw for trade, and with trade came jobs, and with jobs came infrastructure, and with infrastructure came¡­ a city.


    This was a valley where a great immortal resided and the rumors stated he wanted nothing but to be left alone and have no conflict. There was recently a fifth-ranked cultivator who enforced that peace without losing a sweat. The immortal wouldn¡¯t hurt you as long as you didn¡¯t hurt anyone else and treated the mortals nicely.


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    Yeah, this was a great draw for most of these people, and this lively market was like a practice run made by some merchant sects to see if this type of thing would be okay with the immortal.


    ¡°Man,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Chin has his work cut out for him.¡±


    The poor bastard would have to farm harder to keep up with the soon-to-be-boosted population.


    That was if he wanted the sudden growth. He could always ask me to kick them out, but I doubted the old man would say no to that much money, especially when the solution to his problem would only be for him to farm harder.


    I walked through the area, navigating my way through the tents and campfires. A few merchants tried to get me to buy stuff, some of them even blatantly asking for information about the ¡°locals and their practices.¡±


    Subterfuge was dead with those guys.


    I kept going through till eventually I reached a very distinct tent. It was a large tent, easily one of the biggest in the camp, but it was situated at the edge of the group and even separated by about a hundred feet from any other tent. Its top was colored yellow and grey and there was a distinct smell of urine and feces wafting out of the place.


    I walked in, flapping past the weathered entrance and into the animal-filled den.


    Inside was a man sleeping on a straw-covered floor. He was a portly fella, and his gut managed to show through his tunic and spill out of his waistline and onto the floor.


    ¡°Dai Heng.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t wake up.


    ¡°Dai Heng!¡± I yelled.


    And he still didn¡¯t move. I walked up and bent over, putting myself right next to his ear.


    ¡°DAI HENG!¡± I exclaimed pushing a bit of qi into my throat.


    The man jumped onto his feet and spun around, qi funneling to his fist.


    ¡°WHO DARE- oh. Mister Bill, it''s you!¡± The man said with a relieved smile on his face. ¡°I was just having this wonderful dream about the Hidden Viper. You know they have a scion, Young Master Yu Xuefeng? Anyways I dreamed that she was trying to buy a pack beetle from my uncle, but as you know we don¡¯t sell-¡±


    ¡°Dai Heng,¡± I interrupted. ¡°Where is your uncle?¡±


    ¡°Oh, my uncle? He¡¯s out tonight, surveying the surroundings and the merchants or something. I don¡¯t know why though. There¡¯s never been any problems in this area, not since we¡¯ve been using it. But we heard rumors about a secret immortal living in the woods, but who-¡±


    I let the man ramble on while I turned to look at the animals. Dai Heng and his uncle Lee Heng were beast breeders by trade. Not spirit beasts, qi beasts. While spirit beasts had a human level of intelligence and their own understanding of the world, qi beasts were just really strong animals.


    Chin had bought a few of them over the years, only a few because they were an expensive purchase for mortals, even for village chiefs, but they were a necessity, especially for this village.


    Since the next village was one thousand and five hundred miles away, fast rideable qi beasts were a must in case of emergencies. The village alchemist always tried to keep enough medicine on hand at all times, but there were moments when they needed to send someone out to get materials from another village, and in those cases having pack animals that could run a hundred miles per hour for fourteen hours straight was quite literally a lifesaver.


    A couple of Chin¡¯s grandkids manned the beasts, training them and taking them out of the desert for trade trips, picking up news and rare goods along the way.


    Most of Chin¡¯s beasts had been bought directly through Lee Heng.


    ¡°Lee Heng,¡± I spoke. ¡°Get in here already!¡±


    ¡°Ah!¡± Lee Heng said from outside of the tent. ¡°Bill Ter Rance, how have you been? It¡¯s been a while, fellow Daoist!¡±


    Lee Heng was a skinny fellow. His clothes dangled from his stick-like frame and his fingers came together like mismatched chopsticks, the exact opposite of his nephew.


    ¡°Uncle! He was just talking about how he was looking for you before we got sidetracked discussing the rumors about the immortal! I told him I didn¡¯t believe it but there might be some strong cultivators camped out in the forest. Some of the other people were talking about getting a strange feeling from there-¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Lee Heng interrupted with a nod. ¡°I¡¯ve heard about that too.¡±


    Both men looked at me in inquisition.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Lee Heng asked. ¡°Is it true?¡±


    I¡¯d made a few cultivator acquaintances over the years and the Heng family were the ones I¡¯d associated with the most. I¡¯d met Lee Heng several decades ago and was surprised to find the man had connections that spanned outside of the region.


    He was only at the third rank of course, but he had been full of news about the region and the grander empire as a whole. And even aside from that, Lee was a pleasant fellow and had more spine and morals than most cultivators. His technique wasn¡¯t suitable for building a clan. It was more of a master disciple thing, passed from one master to another so a few years later, he picked up Dai and gave him his surname.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I answered.


    Lee Heng let out a sigh and his Dai Heng audiblely gasped.


    ¡°But Mister Bill, you¡¯ve lived here all this time? How did you not know about it all-¡±


    ¡°He did know,¡± Lee Heng interrupted.


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t he-¡±


    ¡°Probably because this immortal didn¡¯t want him spilling his business to outsiders. Is that right Bill?¡± He asked frowning.


    I nodded. None of what they said was wrong per se.


    ¡°Not like you¡¯ve never lied to me before you old weasel.¡±


    Lee Heng smiled.


    ¡°Well, call us even then,¡± the man muttered. ¡°Dai Heng, fetch us some cups and clean yourself up before you do.¡±


    ¡°Yes master,¡± the boy bowed before running off into the other sectioned-off parts of the tent.


    ¡°That boy is a mess,¡± Lee Heng commented.


    ¡°He likes animals,¡± I replied. ¡°Probably why he likes you.¡±


    Lee Heng chuckled lightly.


    ¡°I think he likes talking to the beasts more than he likes people.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because they listen better,¡± I replied.


    ¡°I doubt it,¡± Lee Heng commented with a shake of his head. ¡°I think he talks so much because he doesn¡¯t know what to say. But he doesn¡¯t have to worry about that with the beasts.¡±


    ¡°Mhm. Does that still bother him?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lee Heng.


    ¡°Well he is just a kid,¡± I muttered.


    ¡°He¡¯s twenty-five.¡±


    ¡°Still just a kid,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Maybe to us, but he¡¯s a man by mortal standards. I think it¡¯s time he acts like one.¡±


    I looked towards the separating curtains in the tent. I could see Dai Heng¡¯s shadows waving through the cloth walls as he scrubbed his body clean in a bathing troth, singing loudly as he did so. The boy was socially troubled, which wouldn¡¯t be a big deal in any other trade, but being a merchant required a knack for that sort of thing.


    ¡°It just takes time is all,¡± I replied. ¡°And you¡¯ve got a lot of that.¡±


    ¡°I suppose,¡± Dai Heng said with a sigh. ¡°Now, about that immortal.¡±

 Chapter 50 Merchants Part 2

    ¡°Has he been here all this time?¡± Lee Heng asked.


    ¡°As long as I¡¯ve been here.¡±


    ¡°Damn,¡± Lee Heng muttered. ¡°All this time. All this time we were dancing in front of a tiger¡¯s den.¡±


    Dai Heng came in dressed in a long tunic and pants, hair still wet from bathing. He handed each a cup before running back to the other room to finish his business.


    Lee Heng reached into his robe and dug out an old wine sack, one made from the aged leather of a spirit beast. He poured some liquor into each cup. We both raised our glasses towards one another and downed the contents of the spirit wine.


    Dai Heng groaned lightly as the qi-infused spirit burned down his throat.


    ¡°Still the iron stomach?¡±


    ¡°Still the lightweight?¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡±


    There was a moment of silence as Lee Heng collected himself.


    ¡°Is he as strong as they say,¡± Lee Heng asked.


    ¡°If not stronger.¡±


    Lee Heng nodded.


    ¡°What about his kindness? They called him a gracious cultivator, protecting the mortals and his land the best he can.¡±


    I frowned.


    ¡°No. If he were a gracious man, he¡¯d unite the lands and rule them like a gracious king. Or he¡¯d at least fight off injustice where he could. He¡¯s just another powerful old bastard who wants to be left alone,¡± I replied.


    Lee Heng stared at me.


    ¡°Are you sure you should be speaking those words out loud?¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t care. A few mortals have even cursed him at times. He¡¯s unbothered by words, for the most part, only actions.¡±


    ¡°What a strange man,¡± Lee replied.


    I shrugged.


    ¡°What about the fifth ranks? I heard there were a few fifth-rank women seen around the area. They say one of them almost beat Fatty Peng to death.¡±


    ¡°His companions,¡± I replied.


    Lee Heng nodded, though I think he got a different meaning from that word than I did.


    ¡°Platonic,¡± I added.


    ¡°Really?¡± The man asked.


    I nodded.


    ¡°And what about you then?¡±


    ¡°Huh? What about me?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your connection with the Immortal?¡±


    ¡°I am the Immortal.¡±


    Lee Heng snorted.


    ¡°And I¡¯m Sun Wu Kong,¡± he replied.


    I frowned, reaching for the man¡¯s wine sack and pouring myself another drink.


    ¡°Don¡¯t joke about that,¡± I muttered before downing the whole cup.


    ¡°Then give me a good answer.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ amicable towards him. Neutral really. Just don¡¯t hurt the mortals and make sure to go directly through them before you do anything in this valley and you¡¯ll be fine. He¡¯s a real docile guy Lee, boring really.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Lee Heng took the wine sack from my hand before I could pour myself another drink.


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    ¡°I need a sober man tonight Bill, and either the answers you¡¯re giving me are honest or you¡¯ve really lost your iron stomach.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sober,¡± I replied.


    Lee Heng stared at me intensely for a moment, even sending some of his sense to sweep over my aura.


    Well, I guess I had given the man some reason to doubt my sobriety. From his perspective, everything I¡¯ve said thus far must sound like the ramblings of a drunk shithead.


    He¡¯s known me for decades and as far as he knew I was a third rank cultivator, just like him. And no third-rank cultivator would insult an immortal, claim to be the immortal, and then call him boring.


    Lee squinted.


    ¡°Have you been poisoned-¡±


    ¡°Noo. I¡¯m fine and well, I¡¯m just telling you how it is. Leave him be and keep to the law and he¡¯ll leave you be. Also, don¡¯t fight anywhere within the Desert Strip, he can sense it.¡±


    Lee still looked at me, untrusting.


    ¡°I swear it. Haven¡¯t you wondered why it¡¯s always so peaceful here? You¡¯ve never noticed the few cultivators that go missing in the night sometimes, always the violent ones. Remember Do Lang? What do you think happened to him?¡±


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    ¡°I do remember him. His clan says they lost track of him nearly a decade ago and still don¡¯t know where he went. Most of their members were celebrating his loss rather than mourning it though. The man was a known¡­ oh. Oh, I see. Did he try to hurt a mortal?¡±


    ¡°He tried to take one,¡± I answered. ¡°And he got taken instead.¡±


    Lee took a moment and stroked his beard in thought.


    ¡°Are you able to get in contact with him?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡±


    ¡°I refuse to get involved with a bunch of greedy merchants and their negotiations. You should go ask the mortals instead-¡±


    ¡°Bill, this is personal.¡±


    Now that took me by surprise. The man''s anxiety had been rising this whole time, but I thought that was due to the topic. But now that I focused in on his aura, there was something more there, something more than business worries.


    There was fear, genuine fear.


    ¡°Over the years, I¡¯d like to think we¡¯ve become friends-¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far,¡± I cut in. ¡°Acquaintances maybe, but you¡¯ve ripped me off plenty of times.¡±


    The man sighed in partial defeat.


    ¡°But go on,¡± I added.


    Lee Heng took a deep breath before speaking.


    ¡°I would like to think that I know what kind of man you are. I think, like me, you feel a disdain towards the evil of this world. I believe you''re a man of noble fiber and have a gracious soul-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m about to say no,¡± I interrupted.


    ¡°Fine!¡± The man yelled. ¡°I think you¡¯re a lazy and lucky man who sits around and does nothing all day, but I do believe you care about right and wrong, even if to the smallest degree. And I¡¯d like to think you¡¯d do the right thing at a minor cost to your own sloth.¡±


    There was a moment of tension as Lee wondered if he had lost any chance of getting my aid, and me being me, I held it for as long as possible. His aura twisted up in anxiety at every passing millisecond, working itself into a Gordian knot, and just when he was about to give up all hope, I replied.


    ¡°Maaaaayyybbbeee,¡± I answered. ¡°How minor of a cost would it be?¡±


    Lee¡¯s aura loosened


    ¡°Just come with me and listen, then you¡¯ll know everything.¡±


    Lee turned to walk through the curtains and out of the tent, and I followed. We worked our way around the campsite, walking around barters and parties. A few people glanced at us, at me specifically. Word must have gotten around of the one cultivator who was known to live here before the immortal had been revealed. They must have seen me the same way Lee did, as a possible connection to the immortal who lived in this land.


    Shit.


    I wasn¡¯t exactly a secret to them, but now I was known and being watched.


    Rin Wi, I said telepathically. Can you flex some Immortal Aura around here, and make it similar to the one I was emitting with the sects?


    I got a telepathic nod in response and suddenly everyone, including Lee Heng, had their senses focused towards the back of the camp. Rin Wi¡¯s qi left as soon as it came, blipping right out and leaving everyone confounded.


    I took the opportunity to hide myself from all but Lee.


    If the merchants saw me, they wouldn¡¯t want to hurt me or steal from me, they¡¯d want to talk to me, which was definitively worse from my perspective. I could always snap away a murder hobo, but that option wasn¡¯t available with a diplomat.


    All the negotiations would be Chin¡¯s problem, not mine. At worst, he could have Rin Wi growl at them from a distance. That seemed to get them in line pretty quickly.


    Eventually, we arrived at a heavily occupied tent, one that was almost the size of a circus and had two floors to it. The second floor was a wooden platform, one that had been assembled before the tent was put up.


    There was a lot of foot traffic in the area. Men and women of all ages walked in and out of the place eagerly. Some of them were smiling while others were trying to hide their face. Their auras radiated all types of emotion, shame, guilt, joy, and lust.


    I looked at Lee Heng.


    ¡°A brothel?¡± I asked.


    The man didn¡¯t speak and just went inside. I sighed and did the same, undoing my stealth as I entered.


    Unsurprisingly, the inside of the tent was cramped with thin fabrics separating the area into different rooms. The fabrics themselves were enchanted to not let any sound or light pass through them and the area seemed to have a cleaning array floating through it, making sure no stench would bother the customers.


    The cloth walls were painted with menageries of beautiful half-naked men and women, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of qi-infused perfumes and stringed instruments.


    Finally, at the open center of the area, we saw the nearly naked band of men strumming and singing their instruments in harmony. One of the women looked up and smiled at me, and I politely shook my head. Then the man did the same and I shook my head again.


    They both frowned a little and went back to their music.


    In the center of the area was a front desk, manned by a large and burly woman, a half-dwarf, meaning she had the height of a human with the proportions of a dwarf. Her wrists were as thick as a neck and her hands were the size of dinner plates. She was at the peak of the fourth rank and talked to all the customers that came in. Her job seemed to be a bursar type, collecting money from the clients and guiding them to their awaited rooms. She had an imposing frame and most of the clients were weaker than her, making everyone very calm and respectful in her presence.


    ¡°Lee Heng? What are you doing back so soon?¡± The woman asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m here to speak with the Madam,¡± Lee answered.


    The half-dwarf looked at him, then at me and her eyes seemed to carry some understanding.


    ¡°Go ahead then,¡± she said.


    Lee Heng nodded and guided us into another hallway. This hallway was short and unoccupied by customers and lacked the sound-numbing enchantings that the other fabrics did. Here there were muffled whispers and light snoring.


    This was probably the staff¡¯s quarters. Brothels never closed after all.


    Finally, we stopped at one set of curtains that seemed to lead to another large area.


    ¡°Madam, may we come in?¡± Lee asked through the curtain.


    ¡°Oh Lee Heng, you¡¯re back already?¡± A voice responded.


    ¡°Apparently he couldn¡¯t get enough,¡± I quipped.


    ¡°And you¡¯ve brought someone with you?¡± The voice asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lee said with a sigh. ¡°Someone who can help.¡±


    Again, there was another moment of unspoken understanding.


    ¡°I see. Well, do come in then. ¡°


    Lee nodded, parted the curtains, and entered. I followed.


    Inside was a room filled with books and scrolls and jade pieces. At the center was a desk clattered with organized spirit stones and jade pieces. The books and scrolls were set up in an organized pile at one end and a big enchanted box full of spirit stones sat at the other.


    The person sitting at the desk was at the fourth rank. Her aura radiated from her body with strength and seduction and her skin gleamed brightly even with the small amount of lantern light within the room. She had brown maple-colored skin and straight fire-red hair that fell gently down her shoulders.


    She got up from the desk and walked to greet us. Even the most useless action was meant to draw eyes. Lust and desire wafted off of her soul and into the minds of anyone who could want it. Her hips seemed to speak and her eyes seemed to beckon with every blink.


    A succubus, I thought. That was rare.


    She raised her hand out to mine, clearly expecting me to take it.


    ¡°Madam Rose,¡± She said firmly.


    She was expecting a kiss, or maybe even a bow I think.


    I shook her hand.


    ¡°Bill Terrance,¡± I replied.


    She watched me for a minute, smiled, then laughed a beautiful laugh.


    ¡°I see. Please don¡¯t take my actions as an insult. I meant nothing by it I assure you.¡±


    She had a charm to her, one that all beauty and seduction cultivators naturally had. I hadn¡¯t fallen for it of course. I couldn¡¯t fall for this type of charm, not unless the person executing it was at the fifteenth rank, and even there I still might not fall for it. I was incapable of romantic love or lust.


    People who were resistant to her charm tended to have a certain belief about succubi and their practices.


    ¡°You¡¯re a succubus,¡± I replied. ¡°You can¡¯t help it.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± she answered, turning herself to greet Lee.


    ¡°Lee, my darling, is there any news that you need to give me so quickly?¡±


    ¡°Your problem Madam. I believe this man can aid you with it.¡±

 Chapter 51 Madam Rose Part 1

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    Succubi weren¡¯t a race of people. That was just a myth, but they did love to fuck a lot.


    ¡®Dual cultivation,¡¯ as some would call it, was their main thing. Except, instead of sticking to one partner, they would get freaky with as many people as they could find.


    They were, technically, demonic path cultivators. Demonic path cultivators were defined as those who take from others, and succubi did take from others, but most of them were harmless unless you were talking about the siren variants. And most realms had their share of succubi, even the holy realms in the heavens of the multiverse had their own variation of the idea.


    The definition was partial bullshit of course. The ¡®taking from¡¯ part only applied if you were taking something good away from a person. Monks would tell you that succubi took the ¡®pride¡¯ or ¡®virtue¡¯ from a man or woman, and the succubi would argue that they took the lust and yearnings that held people down.


    It was one of the most controversial things in the multiverse, whoring.


    But I had no qualms with it. It seemed to me that nothing was taken as much as given, and two consenting adults could do whatever they pleased, minding a few circumstances.


    ¡°You like men?¡± Madam Rose asked.


    ¡°Not more than I like women,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Impotent?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Apathetic,¡± I answered.


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°How unfortunate. And here I was hoping a good night¡¯s rest and woman¡¯s warmth would help smooth our talks.¡±


    ¡°Madam,¡± Lee interrupted.


    ¡°I¡¯m joking Lee, and he doesn¡¯t mind the jokes, do you Bill Ter Ance.¡±


    I winced at her pronunciation.


    ¡°Just Bill is fine. And no I don¡¯t, but I¡¯d like to know what all this is about.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t told him?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t have the time. I found him just after I left Madam. I assumed you¡¯d want to tell him yourself,¡± Lee replied.


    There was one of those small silences of understanding before Madam Rose nodded and walked back to her chair. With a wave of her hand, two small earthen stumps grew out of the floor.


    ¡°Well, have a seat then Bill. This will be quite an earful.¡±


    I sat down and Lee followed suit. The earth morphed beneath me, extending to back support and crawling up my back like a sentient cushion.


    ¡°It all started about five centuries ago¡­¡±


    ********


    Whoring wasn¡¯t something Li Fang had wanted to do.


    It wasn¡¯t stable, and contrary to her client¡¯s beliefs, it wasn¡¯t pleasant either. She had started young, just sixteen at first and while there were other options open to her, none of them could feed two growing orphans half as well as she would like. It was a job she had turned to in necessity, not passion.


    Her younger brother Gai Fang and another estranged orphan they had befriended Liu Yong all lived together in a small room down in the Beggar¡¯s District. All things considered, it wasn¡¯t an awful place to be.


    Strong Fist City laid at the base of the Monk¡¯s Mountain, originally functioning as a resource point for the Bloody Fist Sect, but blossoming into its own full-grown city within the past few decades. Most of the shops and resources revolved around the needs of the Sect, as did any other city.


    People, like cultivators, used spirit stones for trade. The small dull shiny rocks weighed twice as much as they should have and had a sheen, almost metallic texture to them. Mortals never got a charged spirit stone, of course, only the spent-up remains of the Sects, but they could still tell a stone¡¯s grade by its color and shine.


    Li Fang walked quickly, gathering her cloak around her and hiding the bag at her waist.


    There wasn¡¯t much criminal activity around here, if any. The monks saw to that. But whoring was still illegal within the city, or anywhere the monks could enforce that rule.


    Spirit stones were uniform in nature, each shaped exactly like the other. They were like large eggs, smooth and oval on the outside and rainbow-colored on the inside.


    But one spirit stone was too much to be spent alone. She¡¯d have to take them to the cutters, who would then cut the spirit stones into ten silvers, taking one of the butt ends as payment.


    Li Fang clutched her cloak as a group of monks came by. Cultivators. The Monks of the Bloody Fist Sect kept a pretty tight watch around here. They¡¯d beaten away the criminals and slavers in the area, but they¡¯d also cut down brothels and gambling dens. Even a few social clubs had been burnt down to the ground after being accused of vulgarity.


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    Li Fang quickened her pace. They had driven out all the elves and dwarves in the area, and even the leaflings were forced from their territory. And the neighboring land was ruled by the Hollow Echo Sect, an even worse group of tyrants.


    The majority of the fairy folk had taken to living in the forests or fleeing downward, past the Hollow Echo and towards the Hidden Viper. Li Fang herself wished to make that journey, but that would be a treacherous thing for a mortal. Even with a mount, crossing through the Echo¡¯s region would be disastrous for her.


    Li Fang sighed, finally seeing her home around the corner. She walked swiftly and grabbed the door, yet before she could even knock, the door pushed open and two children leaped into her arms.


    ¡°Li Fang! Li Fang! What took you so long Li Fang?¡± Gai Fang squealed.


    ¡°We haven¡¯t seen you since sunrise Li Fang!¡± Liu Yong stated.


    She smiled.


    Li Fang hated it when they jumped upon her like that. Her job was dirty and tasking and even though she cleaned up before she left work for this specific reason, they should still be cautious and wait for her to change into something new.


    But they didn¡¯t care, they loved her and would jump into her arms every time she came home, and she loved that.


    Li Fang laughed and turned, twisting the two children around for as long as her arms would let her. And the two children screamed in her arms and laughed. Then she slipped and fell with the two of them piled on top of her.


    They laughed again, all three of them not bothering to get up and just content with each other at the moment.


    ¡°You did take a long time though,¡± Lui Yong asked. ¡°Was something wrong?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Li Fang answered. ¡°Nothing was wrong, I just had a tough customer is all.¡±


    ¡°Was he mean?¡± Lui Yong asked.


    ¡°He thought he was,¡± Li Fang answered. ¡°But I Li Fang, brought him down to his knees and made him beg for mercy!¡±


    Lui Yong snorted in laughter. The children didn¡¯t know what she did. She couldn¡¯t risk them telling anyone of their friends about it. The brothel doubled as an acupuncture shop and that¡¯s what she told her neighbors when inquired, and that was what the children believed.


    ¡°I want to be a merchant when I grow up,¡± Lui Yong stated. ¡°So you can quit working and we can all become filthy rich!¡±


    ¡°I want to be a dwarf!¡± Gai Fang replied. ¡°So I can drink all day!¡±


    ¡°Gai Fang, have some ambition!¡± Lui Yong replied.


    ¡°You have enough ambition for the both of us Lui, I want to be fat and drink!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve never had a drop of alcohol in your life!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care! It must taste good if that¡¯s what the dwarves do all day!¡±


    Li Fang chuckled.


    ¡°Dwarves don¡¯t just sit around and drink alcohol all day Gai, they work much more than they drink. They only drink on special occasions, actually.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Gai Fang asked. ¡°Then why do I always see them going into the pub?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably a different group of dwarves each night Gai.¡±


    Gai nodded. ¡°They do always have those beards on them. I wonder why their wives don¡¯t make them shave.¡±


    Li Fang didn¡¯t have the heart to tell the boy that even female dwarves had beards.


    ¡°All dwarves have beards,¡± Lui Yong answered.


    ¡°What? Even the women?¡±


    ¡°Even the children.¡±


    ¡°THE CHILDREN?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what Pyer told me. He says humans look like tall and hairless dwarves to them. He says we look scary and strange.¡±


    ¡°What? He¡¯s a dwarf! He¡¯s the short and creepy one!¡±


    Li Fang laughed at the sight, her stress and worries eroding under the absurdness.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to the stone cutter,¡± She told them.


    ¡°Aww, but you just got home!¡± Gai Fang replied.


    ¡°Well, I need to get some silvers and go to the market to get dinner. Unless you want to eat rice and potato stew tonight?¡±


    ¡°Can we come with you?¡± Gai Fang asked.


    ¡°If you can get dressed quickly enough-¡±


    The boy didn¡¯t wait for her to finish and instantly went to the closet, rummaging through tunics and making a mess in his haste. Lui Yong was no better, crawling over his mess to quickly make her own.


    Li Fang smiled. Children were a chore in many ways but a blessing where it counted. She had taken care of Lui and Gai ever since she was ten, and while the burden was hard, it was rewarding.


    She watched as they argued about the weather and what the proper clothes would be for this time of year. Li Fang remembered when they had no choice in clothing, wearing the same coat and pants at all times of the year. She remembered their hunger in the streets and worrying about having shelter for the night.


    But now that was no more.


    ¡°Alright, alright,¡± Li Fang interrupted. ¡°I¡¯m leaving in two minutes so if you¡¯re not dressed by then both of you will have to stay home.¡±


    The children looked at each other rushed to either side of the room and pulled on their proper clothing.


    Li Fang smiled, heading off to her room to do the same.


    They were all out the door five minutes later, each child holding onto either side of her hand and walking along with Li Fang. The stone cutter that she went to was a normal man, a half-dwarf she suspected. He was the cutter that everyone in the brothel went to.


    The man was known not to ask questions, but he did take both buds of the spirit stones in return.


    But she had no choice in the matter. A whole spirit stone, even drained of qi and at the first rank, was still far too much wealth to be used in any one purchase. Her rent was only three and a half stones and all their other needs brought their monthly expenses to four and a half.


    So to spend her money wisely, she, like most other mortals, went to a stone cutter. A man who would cut your stones to fifths, tenths, and even twentieths in some cases. The cut pieces were silvers and much easier to use in the market than whole stones could ever be.


    She had about four tenth-silvers remaining right now, and about five stones in her purse. She¡¯d save three stones for rent, and the other two would come to one and sixth tenth-silvers, which should last them all quite a while.


    The rest of what she had would be given to the Moneykeepers. They were the most reliable bank within the empire after all, if not throughout the continent.


    They made their way through the town, navigating around groups of monks and merchants. The city was a few decades old, young by cultivator standards, but it was starting to bloom. The Bloody Fist Sect had started to distribute more spirit stones in return for material goods, mainly iron and strong clay from what Li Fang had heard.


    She didn¡¯t know why they bought these things, but it hardly mattered in the long run. The only ways to get spirit stones were to mine deep beneath the ground or to have cultivators make it, and the Bloody Fist Sect seemed to have chosen the latter method.


    They had pushed out an absurd amount of spirit stones lately, producing more than a thousand first-rank spirit stones a day. She caught a lot of gossip in her line of work, and some of the merchants who¡¯d visited her often mumbled about how ragged the Bloody Fist Sect¡¯s disciples must have been, laboring their qi into these spirit stones all day.


    But strangely enough, Li Fang didn¡¯t think that was the case either, because as unvirtuous as she was, she¡¯d still find a monk or two in her clientele list. They wore disguises to be sure, but the tan marks of kasaya were hard to hide in bed. She¡¯d found more of them recently. In the brothels, the streets, the back alleys, they were loitering on almost every block.


    As a matter of fact, it seemed like the disciples were being displaced from the mines, though she didn¡¯t know why. And it was none of her business anyway. She should keep her head down and not wander. That was the best way to live, she knew.

 Chapter 52 Madam Rose Part 2

    Li Fang walked through the town with the two children at either arm, laughing and pulling her every which way.


    They were tiresome, dragging, and made Li Fang¡¯s arms hurt a little, but she couldn¡¯t help smiling through it all. She¡¯d been like a mother to them for most of her life, raising them from the slums by herself. And while she hated those hard times and mourned the childhood she lost, she couldn¡¯t stop feeling sheer, unimaginable joy when she saw them happy.


    They had aided her as much as she had aided them. Without them, without a reason to push onto the light, Li Fang would have starved in some back alley long ago.


    ¡°Li Fang! Li Fang! Can we have braised ribs for the night?¡± Gai Fang asked.


    ¡°That would take too long, Gai. How about beef stew tonight?¡±


    ¡°And dumplings?¡± Gai asked.


    ¡°Only if you remind me to buy some on our way back,¡± Li Fang replied.


    Gai Fang nodded vigorously and smirked at Liu Yong.


    Li Fang smiled, acting oblivious to the plan she had overheard them make right in front of her.


    They eventually made it to the stone cutter. He had a small shack-like building just a mile from the city square. The area itself seemed innocent and had a decent amount of fair trade going on, but that was just a farce. The main lifeline of this market was black money, largely prostitution and alcohol.


    Strong Fist City was under the direct rule of the Bloody Fist Sect, a Buddhist cultivator group. And even though they were the law and the highest authority within the area, they had the same flaws as other large sects. They didn¡¯t care to govern. In fact, to the Blodoy Fist Sect governing seemed to be a burden instead of a privilege.


    They had refused a city for centuries, choosing instead to have a small supply town at the edge of the mountain. But it had recently exploded in population and commerce and the Bloody Fist Sect hadn¡¯t intervened in the infrastructure or trade.


    They only policed in the dumbest ways possible. You couldn¡¯t get away with ¡®immoral actions¡¯ as they called it, but they were monks. They went about clearing away any petty theft they could find, but that was the most immortality they knew. As long as you refrained from open violence, you would be unlikely to catch the monks'' eyes.


    Li Fang suspected that someone higher up on the Sect ladder knew what was going on. The Bloody Fist Sect was unconcerned with mortals, not stupid. They had to have noticed the sudden increase in their sect members seeking out mortal pleasure.


    Sex, gambling, drinking, all of that had been subtly growing beneath the clean skin of the city, and a lot of the younger monks were taking part in it. That was also another thing she had noticed. There seemed to be a lot more monks spending spirit stones lately.


    It put her on edge.


    ¡°Hold onto me now,¡± Li Fang said to the children. ¡°Don¡¯t let go!¡±


    Both Gai Fang and Liu Yong looked up at her in curious confusion.


    ¡°We won¡¯t,¡± Gai Fang replied.


    ¡°Mhm, we won¡¯t let go!¡± Liu Yong added.


    ¡°I might forget about the dumplings if you do,¡± Li Fang added.


    She felt both of their hands tighten around hers. And with a good grip, she walked into the stone cutter''s place. The half-dwarf sat at his desk, his hands inspecting a spirit stone with an extended glowing monicale. In front of him stood a group of mortals, a family, holding their hands together in anxious anticipation.


    ¡°Looks full,¡± the dwarf spoke.


    ¡°I knew it!¡± The father spoke.


    Stone cutters, aside from cutting up spirit stones, also traded in spirit stones as well. A spirit stone full of qi was useless to a mortal, but to a cultivator, the qi within a spirit stone was what made it valuable. Without qi, a spirit stone was a useless piece of shiny rock.


    So if a mortal managed to find a spirit stone that had yet to be drained of its qi, the best thing they could do was trade it in for dull stones.


    It was a strange system. Dull spirit stones rotted, eventually turning into dust over a century. Fresh spirit stones could only be made by cultivators or mined from the deep layers of the earth, hundreds of miles below the ground, which was also a thing only cultivators could do.


    This ultimately meant that all economic resource was passed down from a cultivator¡¯s hands. Whether mined or made, spirit stones could only come from cultivators and the full ones were only useful to cultivators or certain high-up mortals.


    ¡°Ten dull stones and a handful of silvers, that¡¯s the best you¡¯ll get for this,¡± the dwarf stated. ¡°I¡¯ll give you fifteen.¡±


    ¡°I thought a full spirit stone was worth thirty dull stones?¡± The woman asked.


    ¡°Thirty dull stones two years ago. Nowadays you¡¯d be lucky to get ten for a full one.¡±


    ¡°Twenty, and nothing less,¡± The man replied.


    Li Fang saw the dwarf¡¯s eyes shine in satisfaction. She felt pity for the family. A full spirit stone, while being worth a little less nowadays, would have caught them nothing less than twenty-three dull stones at any other stone cutter.


    They must have been new here, not knowing the prices of stones or goods. The old dwarf would rip them off a little before they caught on and inevitably switched to a different cutter.


    The large dwarf, sighed, after having paused long enough for consideration.


    ¡°Fine then, twenty dull stones for this full one-¡±


    ¡°With them, all cut to tenth silvers and the butts attached,¡± the father interrupted.


    The dwarf scowled.


    ¡°Now that''s a bit much for¡±


    ¡°The man down the street said this could go for twenty-three uncut dullards. With the cut, he said it¡¯d be twenty-one dullards. All tenth cuts too. The problem is he won¡¯t have them till next week, business is booming he said. ¡±


    The dwarf stared at him for a moment.


    ¡°Oh, alright. Twenty dull stones, all cut into tenths.¡±


    The father nodded happily in agreement and the dwarf stumbled back behind and into the backroom with a frown.


    ¡°And that kids, is how you bargain! Never believe a stone cutter¡¯s first prices. Always wear them down, bit by bit you¡¯ll get them right in no time.¡± The man said to his children.


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    Li Fang smiled and nudged her own fledglings, making sure they were listening. She gave them that common motherly nod, the one that said ¡®Now that¡¯s an important thing to know for the future.


    Gai Fang nodded lazily and Liu Yong was already focused, listening in to the man¡¯s instructions.


    The dwarf came back with a sack of spirit stones and handed them over to the father, who was not hiding his look of satisfaction.


    ¡°Happy then?¡± Gong Bao grumbled as the man counted out the silvers one by one on the counter in front of him.


    ¡°Incredibly,¡± the man said, pushing out his hand for the dwarf to shake.


    Gong Bao waved the man away, and the man turned around with a smile, gathered his children, and walked out of the door.


    ¡°You still profited, didn¡¯t you?¡± Li Fang asked as she walked over and put two spirit stones onto his desk.


    ¡°Yes. I did,¡± Gong Bao grumbled. ¡°But not enough for it to matter. The man got all of his silvers exhanged in one day and I got happy over nothing.¡±


    Li Fang laughed as she watched the wide man go into the back of his store and exchange the uncut stones for the silvers. Stone cutting was time-consuming labor from what she understood. Spirit stones were hard but brittle. Cutting them up into circular shapes required time and consistency.


    Even the best stone cutters were open only two or three days a week, dedicating most of their week to the physical labor of cutting stones.


    It was all very complicated money stuff.


    He came back with sixteen-tenth silvers, which Li Fang counted and placed into her satchel.


    ¡°Are we gonna go get dumplings now?¡± Gai Fang asked, tugging lightly at her hand.


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll go get dumplings now,¡± Li Fang replied to the children.


    They left the stone cutter and made their way to the local food market, just a few blocks away. The children talked about their favorite flavors, arguing between pork and beef, Li Fang wouldn¡¯t have minded getting them both.


    She did have the money after all.


    ¡°Why does a whore walk in my city?¡± A voice echoed.


    The world stopped, the children froze and a cold grip seemed to have grabbed onto the air itself.


    A monk strolled in front of her, calm and unabiding.


    ¡°Filth made flesh,¡± the man whispered. ¡°Die.¡±


    And then the world began to move again.


    Li Fang collapsed, pain burned through her body and her soul ached in agony.


    One of the children fell with her. Liu Yong, she guessed.


    I hope she¡¯s not hurt, She thought.


    Then, she was done.


    ********


    Madam Rose finished telling us the story, speaking slowly at times and rushing through the ending with a stifled voice. Her aura blazed in grief and sadness.


    ¡°Li Fang died that day, and for a long time, I didn¡¯t know why or how. She was with us one moment, then she wasn¡¯t. The apothecaries told us it must have been some disease, something she picked up from work. I knew what she did, even though she thought I didn¡¯t but I knew, and I believed it.¡±


    Liu Yong clenched her hands for a minute and closed her eyes, hoping to hold back the tears.


    ¡°But then that monk came. He said his name was Gai Lu and that he¡¯d come to our aid. That we were noble children hindered by a devious woman. He had the same first name as Gai Fang, and that seemed to bring them together for some reason.¡±


    Lui Yong chuckled.


    ¡°But I knew he was lying. I knew it from the moment I saw him. I never trusted him, but we had no choice but to accept his aid. Gai Fang went into monkhood, changing his name to Gai Jin eventually. I had no talent for nunhood and followed in Li Fang¡¯s footsteps, taking care to not let Gai Fang know.¡±


    Another small pause came, followed by a gulp and a clearing of her throat.


    ¡°I thought that would be the end of it. But then, one day, Gai Fang was declared Gai Lu¡¯s disciple and Gai Fang was revealed to have an immense talent for the Bloody Fist Arts, having a deep lower dantian as they say.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± I mumbled.


    She nodded.


    ¡°I knew it too. Right away I knew it. I ran back to the apothecaries and the funeral men and this time they told me the truth. They said her heart had burst and that her lower dantian had been shattered by some kind of qi attack. They said she had died due to a cultivator''s attack, and that the monkhood had collected her body before it could be buried, and burned it without any investigation. That had never made sense to me you know. Strong Fist City was a Buhhdist city, even dead beggars would be given some type of service at the temple. But no, they had just burned Li Fang. Burned her, as if they were trying to hide something.¡±


    Tears fell from her eyes, cascading in small droplets off her face.


    ¡°But I kept quiet. I kept quiet and tried my best to live on. I found a cultivation method that worked for me and became the head of a brothel nearby. And I tried to make peace with what had happened but¡­ but Gai Fang didn¡¯t accept it. He told me to leave the brothel and to go with him back to the monastery, to find a good husband and settle down.¡±


    ¡°He said ¡®I can¡¯t bear to see my sister disrespect herself like this. Li Fang wouldn¡¯t have wanted this for you.¡¯¡±


    Another cold silence filled the room.


    ¡°That was when I told him. He didn¡¯t believe me at first. He insulted me, called me a whore and a liar. But the more I spoke, the more he understood¡­ and eventually he stormed off, heading for Gai Lu himself.¡±


    Lee Hang made his way around the desk and gave the woman a gentle hug, though the action seemed to bring little comfort.


    ¡°And Gai Lu is hunting you for this?¡± I asked.


    ¡°He is. I don¡¯t know what happened that night but Gai Fang- or I suppose I should say Gai Jin was locked up for some crime and I fled the city that very night.¡±


    ¡°You can stay,¡± I finally said to the poor girl.


    ¡°But the Immortal-¡±


    ¡°The immortal does not like Gai Lu. There is no open animosity but he does not like the man¡¯s presence, stay for as long as you like. But make sure to contact the mortals about the place and figure out the setup of where you¡¯ll stay.¡±


    Madam Rose nodded, relief awash on her face.


    Word got around the brothel pretty quickly. Everyone in the brothel had some understanding of Madam Rose¡¯s situation, though I doubted they had the full picture.


    A part of me was annoyed, the old solitary Dane part that hadn¡¯t quite rotted away yet. But another part of me was happy, which was something new.


    It wasn¡¯t like Dane hadn¡¯t done good in his time. Dane- I had cleared out numerous evil foes, wiping out whole sects of human-eating psychos at times. But fighting evil was one thing and protecting good was another. Dane had fought evil when he could hurt it, not for the sake of being good but for the sake of killing evil.


    It had always been more of a moral instinct, like stomping on a cockroach or slapping off mosquitoes, an act with no sacrifice. But protecting people, well protecting people was something new entirely.


    ¡°How certain are you?¡± Lee Heng asked me.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°How certain are you that the immortal-¡±


    ¡°You felt that qi didn¡¯t you?¡± I asked in reference to Rin Wi¡¯s little trick.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lee Heng replied.


    ¡°He was listening that whole time,¡± I whispered.


    Lee Heng¡¯s eyes widened and he stood still in place.


    ¡°I- I-¡±


    ¡°Relax,¡± I cut in. ¡°He really doesn¡¯t care about honorifics and all that stuff.¡±


    Lee Heng loosened up, but only slightly.


    ¡°Oh. I almost forgot why I came looking for you,¡± I said pulling out a thin piece of paper and handing it to Lee Heng.


    ¡°I need these as soon as you can get them. The villagers are expecting a sudden, possibly permanent, population increase and they could use a few qi beasts to help with the labor.¡±


    Lee Heng looked at the list carefully.


    ¡°This looks costly,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure the brothel will be happy to pay it off,¡± I answered.


    Lee Heng nodded lightly.


    ¡°If the Immortal of the Great Desert Strip truly cares about the mortals in this valley, then gifting them should please him.¡±


    I figured he¡¯d see it that way. Paying him wouldn¡¯t have been a problem, but sometimes you needed to let people think they offered something in the transaction for them to accept.


    Selfishness was assumed, and kindness was questioned.


    Chin generally left the cultivator dealings up to me so I doubted he would oppose the bargain. I could tell he¡¯d been waiting on my opinion about the whole thing and now that I had vetted out the situation.


    I slipped out of the camp, this time fully hiding my presence from everyone else, and walked till I was near the edge of the forest.


    I went up to a hill that oversaw the village and all its people and sat down.


    Then, I looked. I let my senses cover the whole region and searched for every monk I could pinpoint. I saw their little mountain and I saw their city at its base. Then I saw Gai Lu, his aura in complete disarray.


    He sat cross-legged in a meditative pose trying to calm himself down but to no avail. Fear boiled through his mind mixed with anger and shame.


    Then I looked again, somewhere on the outskirts of the region, a few thousand miles away from Strong Fist City sat a man. He stood there washing his hair over a small pond. His skin was a dark brown and his hair was bound into dreadlocks.


    But the most interesting feature was his fists. His fists were darker than the rest of his skin, scarred in a way but also different. The Bloody Fist Sect was a group of fighting monks, and their cultivation techniques revolved around breaking their hands through trauma and healing them in an improved fashion. The strange scar tissue that was left behind was different, more durable, and thick.


    It was as if their skin had been replaced with that of a spirit beast.


    And this man had those traits.


    Gai Jin, I assumed.


    I blinked and stopped looking.


    I guess that was why the monk had tried to get me to kill him. He¡¯d rather die a virtuous monk who stood up to an arrogant immortal than a corrupted bastard who was slain by his own pupil.


    Oh well, that¡¯s got nothing to do with me.


    The boy was out for vengeance and in the state he was in, he could take Gai Lu ten times over.


    I just hoped he chose his actions wisely.

 Chapter 53 To Cultivate Part Five

    Chin sat at the clearing, legs crossed in a meditative pose. He was trying to cultivate.


    I had already explained the concept of cultivation to him, and he seemed to have a good grasp of it in theory, but execution was a different thing.


    All humanoids had twelve main meridians, long and overlapping pathways of qi that were responsible for distributing the qi throughout your body. They overlapped one another over and over again and occasionally intersected. These intersections were called meridian points.


    Intersections of all twelve meridian pathways were called dantians, and that was what Chin was currently trying to get a feel for.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel anything,¡± Chin said.


    ¡°Then keep trying,¡± I replied while sipping my tea.


    ¡°I am trying.¡±


    ¡°Then you¡¯re on the right track.¡±


    Chin frowned a little deeper than usual.


    ¡°How do I know when I¡¯ve reached the dantian?¡± He asked.


    ¡°You¡¯ll know. Now stop distracting yourself and cultivate.¡±


    Chin grumbled but kept quiet as he went back to work. I couldn¡¯t really blame Chin for his annoyance. There were tens of thousands of meridians within the human body, and remembering the meridian pathways to cycle your qi through was a tough thing for your average mortal.


    Most cultivation cycles focused on efficiency, each cultivation method trying to create the least amount of distance between your entrance meridians, the meridians that absorbed the qi from the outside world, and your dantians. And that would get you to the first rank very fast, but only the first rank.


    Effective cultivation would cycle the qi throughout the body first, not only feeding your dantians, but your meridians as a whole. They functioned as the support structure for your dantians, the scaffolding to your metaphysical self. And even if you gave immense reinforcement to the lower dantian, the dantian of the body, you¡¯d still find yourself unable to go past the second rank.


    Good cultivation techniques focused on a balanced distribution of qi being cycled throughout your meridian pathways and eventually into your dantians. It was effectively feeding both the ground and the garden. A plant grown in subpar soil might, with enough attention, produce fruit for one year, but you wouldn¡¯t be getting fruit from it the next season.


    Foundations and all that stuff.


    Chin was having a hard time cycling his qi from one meridian to another.


    ¡°I thought it was the dantains that determined my rank,¡± he questioned.


    ¡°It is. But it¡¯s your meridian pathways that feed it and while the dantians hold your qi, your meridians distribute it.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t I reinforce them during the next rank?¡±


    ¡°You can try, but you¡¯d find the amount of qi produced by your dantians would overwhelm them pretty quickly. It would be like trying to build a store in the middle of the forest. No matter how many wares you have, you¡¯d never be able be able to trade them.¡±


    ¡°And why this pattern then? Why do I have to circulate the qi in this specific method?¡±


    ¡°Let''s say you want to build a house on the outskirts of the village and you happen to be a shepherd, where would you build it.¡±


    Chin paused his cycling and thought for a moment.


    ¡°Probably by the east side,¡± he answered.


    I sipped my tea.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s closest to the hills and has a lot of open grass over there.¡±


    ¡°And what if a farmer wanted to do the same?¡±


    ¡°Northeast side probably. The road there is nice and leads out to the farmlands, and we have the wind mill down there. It¡¯d be easier to bring in the harvest as well.¡±


    ¡°And if a hunter wanted to do the same?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯d be better off living near the forest.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°Less distance to haul your kill. Don¡¯t want to pull a dead dear through the main road.¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Cultivation methods work similarly. Certain meridian pathways lead to certain body parts and depending on the method you practice, you want the pathway between your dantians and body parts to be strong and refined.¡±


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    Chin just stared at me, silently requesting an explanation.


    ¡°You know the five sects?¡± I asked.


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Well let¡¯s take the Bloody Fist Sect for example. Their cultivation technique revolves around their fists and physical improvements, using and strengthening their hands till they become comparable to weapons.


    But all of that requires a robust meridian pathway between their hands and their dantians. Meaning their cycle would heavily focus on strengthening and reinforcing certain meridian pathways in their hands, possibly using meridian points within the hand itself as a minor dantian.¡±


    ¡°Minor dantian?¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry about that. The point is to establish and reinforce certain pathways for future use.¡±


    Chin snorted and closed his eyes and went back to meditating, then after a second opened them back up again.


    ¡°That¡­ madam came to me today,¡± he whispered.


    ¡°Madam Rose?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes. Her. She came with qi beasts and spirit stones, full ones. Fifty of them at the first rank.¡±


    ¡°Nice chunk of change,¡± I replied.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ll do with it,¡± he mumbled. ¡°And they want to build here, set up a permanent residence. The beast tamer as well, he wants to bring all of his animals here and raise them.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like the start of a blossoming city,¡± I replied.


    ¡°What should I do?¡±


    ¡°Have you tried asking one of the girls? I know Lin Tai has a knack for city planning-¡±


    ¡°What about you?¡±


    ¡°What about me?¡±


    ¡°You do nothing but sit on your ass and sip tea all day. Why can¡¯t you help with all of this? You¡¯re the one who brought this upon us after all.¡±


    Now it was my turn to frown.


    ¡°I¡¯m a bit of a hermit.¡±


    ¡°So am I,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°Yeah well, I outrank you in hermitness Mister Village Chief. And besides, I hate cultivators.¡±


    Chin at me with raised eyebrows.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You hate cultivators?¡±


    ¡°Yep,¡± I replied. ¡°I always have. Even when I was still actively cultivating, I always pushed myself to the far reaches of the multiverse where no one would find me by accident and even that didn¡¯t keep me out of some people¡¯s reach.¡±


    ¡°Seems stupid to become the thing you hate,¡± Chin mumbled. ¡°I think farmers are great.¡±


    I took a nice long sip of tea and then set my cup down.


    ¡°Cultivators, as powerful as we are, are just humans Chin. But we¡¯re humans without limits. And all of the bad things about people become limitless too. Their hatred and greed, pain and suffering. All of it grows endlessly in an eternal expansion. It''s¡­ terrifying.¡±


    ¡°What about the good things?¡± Chin asked.


    I smiled.


    ¡°You ever heard the myth of the twin stars, Chin? Or maybe something about two sisters of opposing natures?¡±


    Chin took a moment to think.


    ¡°Maybe not sisters but two opposing concepts of good and evil, maybe animals of some sort?¡± I clarified.


    ¡°The two lions within the human heart?¡± Chin answered.


    ¡°That comes from one true story, most myths do in some ways. Some cultivators are so powerful that they mark the shape of humanity itself and appear in almost every society as myths or stories. Some sects even keep track of them, trying to record their footprints through infinity.¡±


    ¡°Anyway,¡± I continued. ¡°The archetype of twin beings of opposing nature traced back to one true story, The Twin Stars of Light and Darkness. A long time ago, there were two women, mortals wronged by some evil sect. Somehow, through luck and diligence, both of these mortals found a way to cultivate and grow. Now the evil sect had three bases at the time, and the two women, having been aquatinted with one another, sought vengeance on the group. So with some planning, they each decided to take one base by themselves and strike down the central base together. One woman, the Light, chose to judge her base righteously. She saw they were evil and she struck them down where they stood. She let the young and innocent among them flee and she let their servants live.¡±


    ¡°But the other woman, the Darkness, failed to kill one single man, instead choosing to use her dark techniques to freeze them in eternal torment. It¡¯s said that every person in that base, from the unborn children to the sect¡¯s prisoners, suffered unknown pain at her hands. Eventually, the two women met at the central base, fighting side by side to take down the sect Patriarch and they emerged victorious. But at the very end, the Darkness chose to torment, making him watch as his children, merely a month old were cut and eaten right in front of him.¡±


    ¡°The Light didn¡¯t accept this. The two battled to a standstill and eventually parted ways before one could defeat the other.¡± I finished.


    ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with anything?¡± Chin questioned.


    ¡°Who do you think was the bad guy in that story Chin?¡±


    ¡°The sect?¡±


    ¡°And who was the bad guy at the end of the story?¡±


    ¡°The Darkness Lady?¡± He replied.


    ¡°Yup. An Lie Kei, The Mother of Pain, Her Eternal Vengece, one of the most terrifying God Imperiums to ever exist.¡±


    Chin shivered at her name.


    ¡°A forgotten sect of evil bastards created one of the most hateful existences in all of reality. Good is rare Chin. Bittersweet morality is everywhere, but good, true untouched kindness is one of the rarest things in the world. And even if you find it, it rarely stands the test of eternity. It only takes a drop of poison to ruin a cup of water. And when you live this long, you¡¯re bound to see that poison many times over.¡±


    There was a moment of shared silence between us. Chin adjusted himself, leaning back onto his arms and abandoning the meditative pose.


    ¡°What happened to the other girl?¡± Chin asked. ¡°The Light One.¡±


    ¡°She grew with her opponent. Nei Lo, Justice Herself, The Great Judicar, leader of the largest righteous sect in all of existence.¡±


    Chin frowned and stared up into the stars. I could see his brain churning away at the story. His mind focused on something that didn¡¯t include farming for once.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t understand why you hate cultivators.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the eternal aspect of it all Chin. For mortals, everything, even suffering is limited. Sure the good parts are cut short but the bad parts are finished too. But because of cultivators, somewhere out there we¡¯ve made hell in its truest form. Suffering unending for all of time because of some mortal grievance. That¡¯s what disgusts me. Every time I see a cultivator, I wonder what they¡¯ll be in a few millennia. I wonder how long they¡¯ll last, how many they¡¯ll hurt. I wonder how their dao will twist and corrupt them or how they¡¯ll twist and corrupt it.¡±


    Chin got up, wiping bits of wet grass off of his shirt and pants.


    ¡°I just think they¡¯re annoying,¡± he mumbled, reaching downward for his hat. ¡®


    ¡°And that too,¡± I added. ¡°I can¡¯t stand all the grandiosity.¡±


    We both started down the hill and towards the village.


    ¡°I¡¯m late again. Medin¡¯s gonna have my ears sore till bed.¡±


    ¡°Did you remember to eat your lunch?¡± I asked the man.


    Chin shook his head with a worried look and stared off into the distance.


    ¡°She¡¯s going to stuff me like a pillow,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°Yes. Yes, she is. But you¡¯d be dead and overworked in some field without her,¡± I replied.


    Chin nodded and started jogging off into the distance without saying another word as I looked on with amusement.

 Chapter 54 Wu Kong

    Sun Wukong wandered through reality leisurely. That was the way it should be said.


    He strolled through multiverses, taking care not to rupture the delicate balls of reality he passed by. It required delicacy at times, like walking through a patch of grass while taking care not to damage a single blade.


    Though it took no effort, merely intention.


    That was how it was for a God-Imperium. Omnipotent in the truest sense. Powerful beyond reason.


    Wukong hated it.


    He remembered his old days, waking in the void of space and nearly dying there, abandoned by his mother. Struggling against the Buddha before submitting to him and crossing the multiverse with the monk and his company. He remembered those days, the fights and deliberations, and the valiant struggle.


    Yes, the struggle. At first, he had loathed the Buddha. The man had forced him to submit and after reaching Nirvana and stepping into the realm of God-Imperium, he had rebelled. He had fought and attacked, only to lose again.


    Wukong smiled.


    It was the Second Age, or as the common man knew it, the Age of Death. That was when several Dao Angels of Death had risen to become God-Imperium and that was when most of existence had been slain.


    The monk had known that war, no matter how righteous, breeds death. And an eternal war even more so. Wukong still remembered the countless multiverses slain in the infinite conflict. In those days, God-Imperiums clashed without any regard for the rest of existence, like men waging war in a field full of ants.


    Yes, those were the days. Wrath and fury, rebellion and hatred, those things fueled his passion and Wukong used them dearly. But then, he had fought, not just for the sake of rebellion itself, but for the world, for a purpose.


    The Heavens and the Hells needed to be shattered and the eternal war needed to be quenched. So Wukong had stood as the division between good and evil.


    He had forced the Righteous and Demonic to acknowledge a third party, the Orthodox. Those who sought peace, but didn¡¯t see a need to spread it. The war between the Heavens and the Hells was costly, forcing cultivators and even mortals to pick a side and die for it.


    With Wukong¡¯s opposition had come peace. Most of the demonic rose and most of the righteous fell, creating a new group of powerful cultivators, the Orthodox. And as the group grew larger than any else so had peace spread through existence. Reality settled and the war calmed down, raging only in the quiet corners designated for war and blood.


    But now everyone knew. The Sea of Death had been made by the Dead Daos, a place of infinite death, lacking life in every way. That was the designated place for conflict nowadays between God-Imperiums.


    Order was restored, conflict was contained and things had a place.


    There had to be a middle place, a middle ground for the Monkey King to guard and maintain. Without that all of existence would crumble and only God-Imperiums would be left, crushing everything else around them in their absolute fury.


    But what Wukong wouldn¡¯t give for a good fight at times, for a good rageful opposition.


    Then the God-Imperium sighed. He wouldn¡¯t get that, not anymore. He was too strong, too much of a force to be bullied and now he had allies who would come to his aid, demolishing any that attacked him.


    Instead, he watched. He watched those privileged struggle, walking and fighting their way through life. He¡¯d aid them occasionally, like that boy, Bill was his name.


    He had aided him, if only for making him laugh and showing him that technique, Seeing Through the Void, what a beautiful thing.


    It was an ancient technique, derived by one of the artistic sects of the third age, and one that Wukong had not seen before. That and the plots of the little tamer were worth far more than what Wukong had given him, but he wouldn¡¯t go overboard with his aid, that would take from the boy¡¯s struggle, from his rebellion.


    Yes, Wukong was intrigued by the little tamer, he was one of the oldest new Gods. Rising to the seventeenth rank within the Third Age, having tamed a dragon, the grandson of Beast, and then later suppressing one of the eldritch things.


    It was quite an accomplishment.


    But all God-Imperiums were impressive in their own right. And in the grander scheme of things, even Tai Jey was but a small thing, at least in comparison to his betters.


    But what intrigued Wukong the most was the little array the boy had made. That was something magnificent. Something new.


    Even the library had sensed it and given him a tome to take home and that was strange. The library rarely bothered with such things, especially not with a mere thirteenth-ranked child, but even it had been curious about its discovery.


    A living array. Yes, it was quite strange. Arraymasters were an important group of people within the multiverse. Arrays were necessary for the weaker ranks to traverse through gaps of infinite. They created small rivers of qi that lapsed and changed in nature and managed to tie all of reality into a bow.


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    Array roads, mere cobbling of qi and power, flowed throughout most of the known universe, tying the realms together. Of course, no one at the fifteenth rank or higher needed them, they were only necessary for those who couldn¡¯t traverse infinite nonexistence, and they were only there for the central parts of reality, stretching through and around Lynoria.


    But they were never that strong. That was the curse of arraymasters, no matter how much they knew of every dao or every law, they could never invest themselves deep enough into one concept to cultivate growth.


    It would defeat the very purpose of being an arraymaster. They sought connections and complexities beyond their rank, laws, and daos only truly available to those of the fifteenth rank and beyond. The Law of Creation, or the Dao of Connections, ideas so close to the nature of reality itself that even God-Imperiums would take time to understand them.


    Children attempting to know the doings of Gods, that¡¯s what they were.


    And until very recently, that was what they had been. They duplicated ideas or concepts, nothing groundbreaking and nothing new, not until this one at least.


    Bill had created a soul, a thinking growing being not of the four Primordials and not made by a fifteenth-rank individual. This wasn¡¯t just a construct or an amalgamation of species, nor was it an eldritch thing.


    It was something living, something free. It resembled a realm in its nature, one like Lynoria or The Sea of Death. But it was different, somehow.


    The boy believed the most valuable thing he had was the child of the Beast, but that array was far more spectacular. Only those above the fifteenth rank had created something like it, and even then it was rare.


    It was a living will, exuding its identity like a dao angel but still different, able to grow.


    A dao angel without bindings, yes, that was what it was.


    ¡°Wukong,¡± A voice spoke through the void. ¡°What have you done this time?¡±


    Wukong smiled. It was the voice of a friend, the Bodhisattva who had tormented him ages ago, Guanyin was her name, but now most knew her as Nei Lo.


    ¡°What stirs the Judicar to leave her court?¡± The Monkey King said turning to her with a smile.


    Well, turning wasn¡¯t quite the term for it. There was no direction here, no place, but there was nonexistence. The nothingness between her court in the lower heavens and his presence disappeared as he instantly stood outside of her domain.


    He would have entered, but her multiverse was annoyingly strict. It weighed down on him like humid air in the summer.


    ¡°Tai Jey,¡± She stated simply.


    ¡°What about him?¡±


    Her eyes narrowed with impatience.


    Wukong smiled again. Truth was one of the most dangerouse things in this place, but she had it. More specifically she protected one of the oldest truth sects in all of existence. The Enki Maluth was what they were called.


    Truth sects didn¡¯t last long. They were sources of eternal conflict, unrooting the truth behind forgotten debts and being able to divine the truth of certain techniques. It was one of the most capable daos, but it was also the one that caused the most conflict. Few truth sects survived this long, even the library needed Wukong¡¯s protection.


    More than half of the most costly conflicts in all of existence had been brought by truth. With truth, justice could be served, but it also meant that nothing could be forgotten.


    So in most places, there was no truth. It was collected by different sects and locked away for eternity, preventing ancient feuds and dead karmas from rising once more.


    ¡°I know you had something to do with it.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Do not play games with me WuKong.¡±


    Wukong smiled. There had been a time when she had led him, taught him even. But that was in a different time. Now he could stand here and claim himself her equal if not even her better.


    He hated that.


    ¡°Do you know then? The nature of the thing?¡±


    ¡°I have my suspicions,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Only that?¡±


    ¡°A new bloodline of sorts. He was hoping to reinforce his sect''s power. What of it?¡±


    Wukong shook his head lightly, like an elder brother admonishing a sibling.


    ¡°What?¡± Nei Lo asked in surprise.


    Wukong just kept smiling. It was rare that he knew more than her about anything, much less something she herself had started investigating. Truth was central to justice after all. You couldn¡¯t pass judgment without knowing the whole truth.


    ¡°It seems like you¡¯ve gone blind with your old age,¡± the monkey man muttered.


    He stroked his hairy face and the patch of fur that would have been a beard had he been human.


    ¡°Out with it, you ape!¡± Nei Lo yelled.


    In the distance, reality was shaped by her irate thoughts. Realms were made and crumbled. Daos churned and laws never known before came to be and, just as quickly, vanished.


    But that was normal, the God-Imperium¡¯s equivalent of blushing really.


    ¡°You do not know Tai Jey,¡± Wukong stated. ¡°He is a man, not a beast. He stole from the Wolf, one of Beast¡¯s first children, and raised its children into servanthood. He has attempted to tame Beast before, nearly dying at every encounter and only left alive by her will alone. He has even tried to tame me.¡±


    ¡°He is a lucky fool. But we¡¯ve all clashed with the Primordials more than once and they generally don¡¯t kill their challengers. He is not so different.¡±


    Wukong shook his head lightly.


    ¡°Beast was not the first Primordial he tried to mate with,¡± Wukong explained. ¡°He first tried to mate with man. And when he failed there, then he went to Beast.¡±


    God-Imperiums could create a new species just like that if they wished to, sex was a secondary thing for them.


    ¡°How do you know this?¡± Nei Lo asked.


    ¡°The child was unnaturally human.¡±


    ¡°That could be due to an infinite set of reasons. Bloodline phenomena-¡±


    ¡°I am Wukong, Nei Lo. A half-being of Man and Beast. I know my mother. She only reproduces in lust, never in creation. And she has more children than she cares to remember. If all he wished for was children, he could have made them a thousand times over by now. But no, he made only one and he made only a female. Why?¡±


    Wukong could see the gears start to turn in her head, metaphorically that was.


    ¡°He was injured when I saw him, a few minor ranks of where he should be.¡±


    Wukong nodded.


    ¡°War,¡± Nei Lo muttered. ¡°He is not merely trying to strengthen his clan but to create other God-Imperiums. He¡¯s¡­ collecting Primordial bloodlines. His wounds¡­ must have been from Insect, not Beast. And¡­ that child¡­ was she-¡±


    ¡°She was one of many. One of thousands no doubt. That was why they managed to get away. He¡¯s mixing his bloodline with the primordials in order to strengthen his sect.¡±


    ¡°THAT FOOL! Doesn¡¯t he know the risk of such a thing?¡±


    Wukong nodded. The idea itself wasn¡¯t new, have children with the strongest things in existence and then use said children to increase your own power. It had been tried before, and each time it had failed. The children would simply end up being too powerful. They¡¯d break away from their parents and wreak havoc among reality.


    Wukong was considered by most to be one of the strongest things in existence and it was mostly due to his bloodline. The bloodline of a primordial was exceptionally hard to conquer.


    Unless.


    ¡°Could he do it?¡± Nei Lo asked. ¡°Could he tame the children of Primordials?¡±


    Wukong frowned. He had been thinking the same thing all this time. Well, a part of him had been.


    ¡°Probably,¡± the monkey man said with an honest shrug.


    Then he smiled.


    ¡°Hopefully. Things have been calm for far too long, don¡¯t you think?¡±

 Chapter 55 The Baby

    Her name was Gmphf, at least for today. The baby looked up at her captor and communicated her decision.


    ¡°Ha!¡± the man yelled. ¡°No, way kid. Think of something better.¡±


    ¡°Agou wag aoo!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care if that¡¯s the longest word you can say! Gmphf isn¡¯t a proper name. Think of something better.¡±


    The baby frowned and crossed her arms. The capitor truly was ruthless. Why did she need a name anyway? She had her qi, didn¡¯t she? And anyone worth talking to would be able to identify her aura. She had no use for mortal grunts!


    ¡°Gifftholog,¡± she mumbled with an abhorrent amount of effort.


    ¡°Maybe if you were an eldritch being,¡± the captor replied.


    Again, the baby frowned.


    The captor reached down and picked her up, hand gently cradling her belly and raising her to his shoulders. She grabbed onto his head, still frowning firmly at the situation.


    She was tired of not walking. She had been alive for a month, a whole month, and still, she had to crawl to get around. She was fast of course, lightning fast. She could crawl faster than the wind and outpace the sound of her thumping limbs.


    But still, she crawled. She yearned to run, but that seemed to be a harder thing to figure out. She couldn¡¯t understand why. Her instincts let her understand certain laws and dao immediately. She could channel qi into natural techniques that would allow her to top any fourth-rank cultivator and she was even born with an innate knowledge of reality itself.


    Yet she still could not walk. Oh, she would try. She would rebel against the ground and reach for the heavens, only to fall back and tumble down a hill and then she¡¯d hear a howling laughter from her captor, somehow seeming to always be there when she fell.


    The man laughed at her! Her of all people!


    And then there were the mortals, oh they would come rushing around, huddling and helping her up and inspecting for wounds. The old farmer man had thrown a fuss the first time she had fallen.


    That was until she crawled away from fast than he could blink, letting out her bowls in the process. That had made her captor laugh even more.


    ¡°Awoo ugh,¡± the baby spoke to her annoying hide.


    She didn¡¯t really need to speak. She communicated through her aura and he did the same with her. But she wanted to practice the words. The sooner she could use them the sooner she could insult him.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re going out.¡±


    ¡°Awoo ow?¡±


    ¡°No, not the village.¡±


    ¡°Awoo?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± he replied.


    The baby smiled. Finally something new, she thought. This place was small, egregiously so. She was meant to roam the cosmos and see the stars, not be tied to some backcountry realm. Would she finally be able to leave this small place? Would she meet her father? Would she meet her mother?


    She was practically vibrating with excitement.


    Then he started walking. The baby frowned once more.


    Walking? They were walking? Why? Shouldn¡¯t they be flying or piercing through the very cloth of space-time itself and seeing higher things? Where were they going?


    Then she noticed something, a technique. With every step the man took, they both shrank in size. The sun seemed further away. The sky felt bigger. The trees and rocks grew into huge mountains. She knew it wasn¡¯t real. She knew that, and yet.


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    It was terrifying to be so small. The technique wasn¡¯t just shrinking her body but also her senses. Grass eventually overwhelmed them, blocking their site like trees in a forest. The shade of foliage seemed to shift into strange and unknown depths.


    Suddenly, this small place that she had grown weary of seemed to swallow her whole in rebellion.


    I am here, it seemed to say.


    I am vast. It was not me who was small but your eyes that were too large, the forest whispered.


    She shook.


    A calm hand touched behind her back.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re alright kid.¡± A voice said to her.


    ¡°We¡¯re fine, okay.¡±


    The baby nodded. He was strong. They would be fine. She knew this to be true, but she didn¡¯t feel this to be true.


    Then, they walked. The world was familiar but different. Small things had become big and big things had become even bigger.


    She told herself that this was a lie, a mere illusion made by this technique. But she knew it wasn¡¯t true. What she was seeing was real. The small forest she had grown tired of was real, but so was this vast abyss of wood and greens. She could sense animals in the distance, the dull qi-less kind.


    A deer wandered by, an animal with little mind. And yet it was magnificent.


    Its hooves moved the wind and its walk cut the earth. The dull white spots on its chest seemed to become the very sun and the mouth that mowed on the grass turned into that of a dragon, feasting on the earth beneath.


    She felt awe. It was simple. It was stupid, yet she felt in awe. The world was beyond her.


    For the first time in her short unnoticeable existence, she felt small.


    This deer, as small as it was, was beyond her. It had lived before her.


    Something churned within her.


    There was more to the world, more than she could possibly know. There were more deer than she would ever meet, more skys than she would ever see. The immortals were great but they too were a part of nature, merely a stop at the cycle.


    The baby turned and looked at the ant in the distance. From here they appeared to be huge, the size of dogs. They thrumped lightly on the ground with more purpose than most beings she had ever seen. They gathered for their young and all walked to serve the colony and die for it.


    And the trees, the trees breathed. They gave shelter to life, letting all the rodents and insects of the world hide beneath their shadow.


    She wondered how many animals had fed on their leaves or hidden in their wood. How much had they done for the world? How little was she compared to the trees of the forest?


    ¡°Calm down kid, it¡¯s a little too early for enlightenment,¡± the cultivator said, shifting her off of his shoulders and into his arms.


    She said nothing and she nodded.


    They walked for a while. They walked for a long time, staring at the animals and the plants and shuddering at the insects.


    The thought was strange. In the mind of a cultivator, value was relative. Things only matter because they were rare or necessary. The greatness in a shiny gem wasn¡¯t because of its beauty, but rather its allure. Everyone wanted the gem, therefor the gem gained value.


    And in that same way, she knew she was more valuable than this forest. She was rare, talented, and blessed with a powerful bloodline. A strand of her hair was worth more than a realm full of forests.


    But for some reason, she could not understand, she felt a sense of insignificance here. She was a godling, a daughter of one of the fundamental beings, a child of Beast, far more powerful than this forest before her, and yet it didn¡¯t care.


    The forest didn¡¯t care for her. The world didn¡¯t care for her. In the eyes of existence, the difference between her and a pebble was unnoticeable. Pride was a thing of thinking beings, a delusion of the soul.


    The self was the cage and the mind was the door. No, she could not be so stupid. She could not be so arrogant. She was small.


    She was insignificant.


    It wasn¡¯t worth her time-


    ¡°Hey!¡± The cultivator snapped, pushing away all of her thoughts with his words.


    ¡°I said it¡¯s too early for enlightenment,¡± he spoke sternly.


    The child looked up at him with fear in her eyes.


    She had almost died. She had almost perished and turned to dust. She sought too much and thought too much.


    Then she cried. Not out of annoyance or irritation, but out of helplessness. A child who did not know the world screamed up into the skies. Arrogance crumbled and left only fear.


    She cried and cried and the captor held her, comforting her in his arms.


    The world was scary. The world was terrifying and as great as she was, it did not care. It existed before her and would continue to do so after. Existential dread had filled her very soul.


    ¡°You¡¯re alright,¡± the captor muttered into her ear.


    ¡°I gotcha. You¡¯re fine kid, you¡¯re fine.¡±


    The words soothed her. This person was strong, but more importantly, he was old. He could keep her safe. He would keep her safe. She mattered to him, even though he hadn¡¯t sired her, she mattered to him.


    The world didn¡¯t care, but he did.


    She sniffled and hiccupped and sneezed out a glob of boogers.


    He didn¡¯t care. He wiped them away with his hands and tossed them aside, as he held her up into the light.


    ¡°There there kid. You¡¯re okay.¡±


    She nodded and he cradled her into his arms, and they walked through the forest, this vast and uncaring world.


    But she was fine. He cared and that was all that mattered. He cared and the world dimmed again. The deer became a deer and the night became a mere shadow. The world was uncaring and terrifying but he wasn¡¯t.


    Then after a few minutes of sniffling and crying, she slept and dreamed of nothing.

 Chapter 56 A Beast鈥檚 Nature

    She had tried to ascend. It was probably instinct, but the baby had tried to become immortal. She wasn¡¯t even at the right rank to ascend, but that¡¯s what happens when you''re a child of a Primordial I supposed.


    But she had no Dao, nothing to ground her and that had almost killed the poor child.


    I walked, cradling her against my chest as I did so. She was sleeping, for now. But she¡¯d wake up eventually. That was good.


    It was a strange situation I was in. I never wanted to be a father before this, and even now, I still don¡¯t. But this child needed someone to look after her, if not for my own safety then for hers.


    She needed me.


    ¡°That damned monkey,¡± I muttered under my breath.


    He should have taken her and raised her himself, but no, he¡¯d left her to me. I don¡¯t know why, probably some God-Imperium reasoning, something I was too weak to understand.


    My theory was that he would somehow interfere. I didn¡¯t know why or how, but I assumed leaving the child in my hands was the best option, at least for now. If the child had stayed with him, there may have been some risk.


    Not to him directly, but some type of political risk. It was the difference between watching a criminal run away and participating in the crime. He had merely traded favors with me, each favor given for something in return. Officially, he hadn¡¯t helped me or aided me in any regard so there were no karmic ties between us.


    That left his hands clean of all misgivings. Well, that and his strength. If he were a weaker being complaints would surely be brought up, but since he¡¯s Sun Wukong, The Monkey King, I doubted anyone would dare to oppose him with little disregard.


    That or he was lazy.


    I frowned. It could be the latter, but I hoped it wasn¡¯t.


    The child turned in my arms.


    She opened her eyes and blinked at me. We¡¯d been walking for about an hour, and because of our size, we¡¯d only made it about fifty feet from where I had first stood.


    That was fine, it was just a walk after all.


    ¡°Awoo,¡± the baby yelled.


    I¡¯ve thought of a name.


    Oh boy. Here we go. She took a moment to focus and her face squished in concentration.


    ¡°Nai,¡±


    ¡°Nai?¡±


    She nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s acceptable,¡± I replied.


    The baby- Nai, smiled and cooed. It was adorable.


    ¡°Do you know what you tried to do Nai?¡±


    Nai nodded.


    ¡°You tried to ascend in immortality, without a dao.¡±


    Nai nodded again, seeming a little worried this time. She had that confused look that babies had when they were unsure of what was going on.


    ¡°You¡¯re a child, barely a newborn right now. You¡¯re not ready to face the world, alright?¡±


    Nai nodded her big head bobbing up and down in effort.


    ¡°Good, now check this out,¡± I said pointing to the distance.


    I put her back onto my shoulders and she held firmly onto my head, and then I jumped. The forest shrank beneath us and we soared over the green leafy floor. We soared past the trees and the vines, peaking into the deep blue sky above.


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    I kept an eye on her aura. Accidentally ascending into immortality was a dangerous thing. It normally happened to strong individuals who were all but ready to leap into the sixth rank. But with Nai, it had been different.


    She had seen a fundamental truth of reality and had tried to understand it. It was the metaphysical equivalent of staring into the sun. See too much and you¡¯ll see nothing, know too much and you won¡¯t know yourself. The ego would crumble, the soul would evaporate and your very consciousness would fall apart.


    That was one of the many reasons humans needed a dao. Even beasts and insects needed their own methods to push into the depths of reality.


    We glided down and landed smoothly on a tree branch. A nest of ravens occupied the branch a few feet over and a caw of surprise came out from the birds.


    I was about to scare them off or soothe them myself, but then Nai held up her hand.


    One of the ravens hopped out of their nest and walked over to us, lowering its beak to eye level.


    ¡°Awoo,¡± Nai yipped.


    The raven looked deep into her eyes¡­ and nodded.


    Interesting. This wasn¡¯t just communication using auras, this was a beast thing. The raven had recognized her as something beyond itself.


    The raven turned around and tottered into its nest and snuggled up with its mate. We walked past the pair and went down to the floor. Then we stepped into the beasts¡¯ domain.


    The world flickered and suddenly all the divine beasts could be seen. I watched them occasionally but this was the first time I had visited their domain. Domain might have been a bit of a stretch, home should I say.


    They had taken to the place. I watched as they bartered. That was a little strange, bartering was a despicable human behavior, but they did it anyway. They even had stalls and shops and¡­ were those merchants?


    Why would they need merchants?


    I frowned.


    This was weird. I walked with Nai, our bodies wrapped in an illusory array.


    ¡°No! No! This is not right! One qi berry cannot be worth three feathers of a phoenix. That is too much to give for so little!¡±


    ¡°I will give you three, no more!¡±


    There was a groundhog arguing with a phoenix.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± Another phoenix chirped.


    ¡°You dare to spit at our Firey Fowl Clan? We will burn your lands and scatter seeds elsewhere if you dare!¡±


    I studied the ongoing trade. The qi berry was small, barely anything worth staring at in terms of qi, but it was concentrated with laws. Yes, it held mainly fire and wind laws and would be a gift for most phoenixes to nurture.


    I¡¯d known stuff like this would happen. The array was eating the laws these creatures provided, studying their nature, and tossing out laws in return. It was growing.


    ¡°Nonsense, our Fiery Fowl will give you three and a half feathers no more! Asking for anything else would be extortion.¡±


    The groundhog frowned, then smiled.


    ¡°It¡¯s a deal!¡±


    The phoenix dug into his wings and pulled out three full feathers and one half of one, each of them being holy treasures from a tenth-rank being, and traded them for the berry.


    The berry contained fire laws and so did the phoenix¡¯s feather, but the difference between the two was notable. Even with deeply explored laws like fire and lightning, there were so many variances and so many nuances in their forms.


    Did the fire burn, rejuvenate, heal, destroy? Phoenix fire burned away the old and withering. It was a fire that would burn down forests, only to provide them with more life than they¡¯d ever seen the very next day. If a phoenix burned an old man it would hurt him, but it would burn away at his old age and rotting flesh, leaving behind a youthful man.


    Phoenix fire burned away things like rot, age, weakness, and disease.


    I¡¯d once seen a sixteenth-rank phoenix. It was the very nature of change, burning away the void itself and creating countless realms as it flew by. I had been dying then, wounded from a grievous battle, and though its flames hadn¡¯t touched me, my injuries burned away and I was made a new, just from seeing it pass in the distance.


    And that was all from a distance. The fire laws the berry contained were that of ash and heat, fire that would come from a dragon¡¯s mouth.


    It was a good trade for the phoenix, though I didn¡¯t know what the groundhogs would use the feathers for. They studied the laws of connection, things like time and space, what good was-?


    WHAT


    DAO?


    The damn beast had a dao.


    How? Beasts were different from humans. We needed something to tether our souls, a purpose to tie ourselves to, and that was our dao, our meaning.


    For beasts, it was more of a law, The Dao of the Jungle. The desire to be the strongest, strength for strength¡¯s sake. It was their way, their power.


    Beasts didn¡¯t live for any other reason, but to live.


    And yet¡­


    I stared at the little bundle of dao within the groundhog¡¯s mind. Yes, the dao of wealth. The merchant¡¯s dao. It was there and it was blooming.


    Connections. Laws that connected things, that was what the groundhogs tended to study. They varied, of course, space, time, qi, and portals, but this one was taking up a dao.


    Trade also connected people I suppose.


    I watched the area, witnessing multiple other groundhogs come by with similar daos, not as strong as this one, but budding in their own way.


    I wondered if they knew. Some beasts had daos, it wasn¡¯t a new thing. But those beasts were rare. You¡¯d hear about them in folktales and myths, beasts who fell in love with a human or became human themselves.


    You¡¯d also hear about men who became beasts. That was more common actually, The Dao of the Jungle appealed to a lot of humanity. I myself had mimicked insects, ripping away my emotions and desires and becoming almost machine-like in my existence.


    But this, this was a human dao and they had taken to it willingly, if unknowingly. I¡¯d have to speak to Lin Tai about this.

 Chapter 57 Penance Part 1

    The man ran.


    His feet pattered against the ground with as much strength as he could muster and his qi fueled him even more. He would have flown, but that was where the monster was.


    The Unraveler.


    He was coming. He had seen the blood, seen their evil and the man had not even blinked.


    There had been no care in his eyes, no empathy, no disgust, and no judgment. Their sect, of which only a few remained, had believed him to be a great candidate.


    He was a powerful man, he would have served the sect well. That had been their desire. He seemed unaffected and willing, and so, they had shown him their domain.


    But that had been a lie. All a lie. The skies shattered and the corpses of his brethren rained from the hells above.


    He ran. He even pushed on the most sacred of places, using his innate qi to push himself forward. His life for his life, yes. A strange trade, a stupid one even, but better to wither and die running than face the man above.


    The screams came, one by one, and then all as one. They mixed and turned and shrilled into the sky like a choir of suffering. They begged, they pleaded, but the man would not relent.


    Of course, he wouldn¡¯t relent. He had seen their evils, their sins that they had made with pride, and he had not cared.


    That had been their Dao, their way of life. The Dao of Evil, the Dao of Self, and the Dao of Death, those were the central Daos of the Demonic Heart Sect.


    Each of the three leaders pursued one of these Daos and their disciples did the same. It was the Dao of Evil and the Dao of Death that fought above. Idiots. He, the leader who pursued the Dao of Self would live, he would flee.


    There was a crack in the sky and one of his folk shrilled. It was the leader of the Dao of Evil. The man had a deep voice and a prideful tone. When he spoke, one could imagine it being a lion or a tiger growling in the distance.


    But now he could not even recognize it. He only knew from the flare of qi that rose up in the distance. The voice screaming now had been a high-pitched squealing and it was begging.


    The man was begging for death. He was pleading for it. The cultivator of the Dao of Self would not normally risk looking back, but this time, he turned, still running but using his eyes to look up behind him.


    In the distance was a man trapped in a ball of qi, an array and he was being tormented. Outside of it was another man, watching with interest as the man within the array screamed.


    ¡°PLEASE!!!¡± His brethren begged.


    The scream dug at the inside of his mind like claws scratching through steal. The observer seemed unaffected.


    There was someone there, his brother with the Dao of Death, held in another array unable to move or scream.


    But the fleeing man could see the dread on his face still, the horror and the fear. Something was happening to him, something the fleeing man did not want to meet.


    If he hadn¡¯t known these people then he wouldn¡¯t have cared. But he did know them. He had fought with them for eons. He had seen them strike down their fellow eighth-rank members in wrath and power. They had withstood torture from the righteous sects and slaughtered billions. They were evil, they were death, they were suffering and pain, gods among men.


    ¡°MEEERCY!!!¡±


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    This time the voice broke into sobbing wails and sadness left the man''s lips.


    Sadness, not rage, not fury, not just suffering, but sadness. The monster who cultivated the Dao of Evil wept.


    Why? The fleeing man wondered.


    He turned, not daring to look any longer, and kept running. And though he didn¡¯t want to know it, he felt it. He felt the two men¡¯s lives blink away in an instant.


    Just like that, two of the strongest people within this land had disappeared. Dead. Both of them. The two men who had aided him, whom he had sided with for his own selfish gain had died.


    More.


    His feet pushed even harder against the ground. Strength that even he didn¡¯t know he had poured out of him and it was all to flee.


    And when he had run a million miles, when he thought the divide between him and that monster was wide enough, he crumbled onto his knees. He fell onto his chest, heaving with every breath, and saw the grassy fields of a land he didn¡¯t know.


    He could feel himself dying. He could feel his innate qi withering away after he had used it.


    He was dying, he had decades, maybe a century left if he was lucky. He was an immortal but his innate qi was gone, used up in his effort to flee.


    Maybe he could recoup it through some divine treasure but the chances of that happening were-


    The world held still. His qi held still. The breath would not leave his lungs.


    His head was still against the grass and from there he saw it. The feet of the man who had killed his brethren.


    He had never left. He thought he had, he believed himself to be fleeing but the bodies of his people were on the ground once more. It had been an illusion.


    The monster walked up to him.


    Array Master Dane, that was his name. He was at the eighth rank, the same as them and yet he had defeated them all. He could beg and plead but he knew the man wouldn¡¯t care. He was like them in that sense, unaffected by the people around him.


    So he fought, his blade of starlight and destruction swung, aiming for the man''s neck only for his technique to crumble.


    The Unraveler. That was what they called him, Dane the Unravler. He didn¡¯t have a secret technique or a divine talent. All the man did have was his arrays, his strange little enchantments.


    But they were still too much.


    The man could somehow see through techniques. It was his mind, yes, that was what gave him strength. Array Masters needed to know about everything, didn¡¯t they? Bits of laws collected, clumps of dao understood? That was how they worked.


    And while Dane didn¡¯t know enough to make a divine technique, he knew enough to break them. He would tear away at his opponent''s laws before they could coalesce.


    The man found himself swinging furiously, his blade full of a mixture of undoing and destruction. The Life Severing Sword Technique. It would gather the essence of destruction and decay, laws that the user would have to know first and mix them into the blade. The cut would rot and run all the way through the meridians and into the dantian, rotting the dantian through and through.


    But the technique would break before it could even touch Dane, it would unravel into nothing but mists of qi. He would taint the attack and corrupt it.


    Decay would mix with life and become age. Destruction would mix with time and become change, and then the technique would collapse.


    ¡°Why?¡± He asked the man. ¡°Why kill us? We could give you everything. We have the world at our-¡±


    The man moved, trying to cut down at Dane from another angle, trying to surprise him.


    But he failed again.


    ¡°You¡¯re in an illusory array,¡± Dane stated. ¡°Fighting is useless.¡±


    The man struggled nonetheless, throwing technique after technique, only for it to miss Dane entirely or for the array master to dissipate it into nothing.


    ¡°Why?¡± The man asked.


    He didn¡¯t care to know why, he was just stalling, and Dane must have known that. But the array master took a second to think about it anyway.


    ¡°Why did you kill those people?¡± He asked him.


    The man thought about lying for an instant, but he knew it would do him no good.


    ¡°I wanted to, and I could.¡±


    Dane looked at him and nodded.


    Then the world went black and the pain began.


    Horror, horror, horror, over and over again. Pain suffered repeatedly.


    He was confused at first. He had woken up as a boy in the streets crawling through the slums of a city. He thought he escaped somehow, maybe reincarnated through sheer luck. But no, a man came and cut him up into pieces mere hours later.


    The next time he was a mother, a wife of a nobleman, and for a moment, he thought his previous life to have been a lie. He was a mother, not a cultivator, a jade beauty, not a vile villain.


    Then he saw him. The man came and forced himself upon her daughter and cut her to bits while she watched. The next time he was the daughter. The next time he was the father. The next he was the servent and after that the servent¡¯s brother.


    Over and over, he would wake up, thinking all he had seen to be a lie. And over and over the man would come, tormenting him at every turn. He screamed and begged for mercy every time but the man wouldn¡¯t stop, and right before his final breath, right before the end he would recognize the man.


    It¡¯s me.


    His comrades, those strong men of strength and power, they hadn¡¯t been begging Dane for mercy.


    They had been begging themselves, their past for mercy.

 Chapter 58 Penance Part 2

    Eventually, he started to remember. Sometimes he¡¯d know the name of the victim and remember how they had died, how he had killed them, and how he would kill himself. That was the worst, he would try to avoid it and somehow change the past, but he would always fail.


    Always.


    Then came the wars. In one war he had killed thousands and in another millions, and he would live through those deaths in painful agonizing detail.


    At first, during those final moments of realization, he would be angry or hateful. He cursed Dane, the man who had damned him to this suffering over and over and over again. He would spit and scream and damned him with his final breath.


    Then came regret. It was slow but it was there. He regretted killing. He regretted taking unjustly. He did not have empathy of course, his Dao was far too strong for that, but he regretted being such a beast.


    Then when he saw a child being ripped to pieces for the hundredth time in front of his eyes, when he wailed over the corpses of his children with the tears of a mortal man, that was when he started to hate.


    That was when his past self turned from memory to stranger. He noticed the grin on his face, the lust in his eyes, and the joy in his voice. How? How could this man find joy in such suffering? How could he do this over and over again and smile through it all?


    It was as if he were killing insects as if the people didn¡¯t matter to him at all.


    How?


    That was when the hatred started. After that he did not flee, instead, he ran toward the man swinging with fury and rage. He knew he couldn¡¯t kill him, but he had to try.


    Foreign thoughts like justice came into his head and strange things like empathy flowered in his mind. Now not only would he feel the suffering of his past victims but he would feel the suffering of those around them as well.


    He saw one of his old followers stomp a baby to death and he saw the mother scream while clenching his bloody foot and he knew. He knew what she felt. He felt what she felt. He cried for her as well as himself.


    That was when the sadness came.


    Fury, the man learned, was the armor the heart wore, and once that had failed came sorrow.


    He did not beg. He did not fight. Now, he wept. He wept at his own feet, looking that stranger in the eyes.


    But the man just smiled all the brighter as he cut him down.


    A thousand, a million, ten million.


    It didn¡¯t matter. The pain didn¡¯t fade or become more bearable.


    He would suffer, as he should. As he deserved to.


    Hell was the home of devils after all.


    Then he was a cultivator, one of the many eighth ranks he had killed. He waited, slumped upon the floor waiting for his past self to cut him down.


    A man stood over him, eyes blank and uncaring.


    That was strange, normally he was giddy to kill.


    But the man didn¡¯t move and the man¡¯s eyes were not his own.


    ¡°Dane,¡± he whispered. ¡°It¡¯s over?¡±


    The array master nodded and the man slumped closing his eyes as tears flowed from them.


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    ¡°You¡¯re not going to kill yourself?¡± Dane asked.


    The man looked at him and shook his head.


    ¡°I am not worthy of death. That would be far too kind a fate.¡±


    Dane¡¯s eyes seemed to shine at that statement.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Why?¡± The man asked. He didn¡¯t know why he asked. The why had stopped mattering long ago.


    ¡°I wanted to see if karmic retribution was possible for someone so evil.¡±


    Karma. The stains souls left on each other. He knew it was real but it was a rare law to meet. Karma was one of those laws that danced between a dao and a law. It was ethereal, not physical, yet it was as real as fire or water.


    ¡°Did it work?¡±


    ¡°Well your past is on your soul and every action you take is recorded by it, though I wouldn¡¯t know if that would change once you leave this realm,¡± Dane shrugged.


    All of that for a shrug. All of that suffering for such useless results. The man laughed, he howled into the sky for a moment, and then he stopped.


    What should he do? Should he die? No. That would be the easy way out.


    He wasn¡¯t worthy of such a thing.


    Then what? Seek redemption?


    Not even the Buhdda could redeem him now.


    Rot? No, for him that would be easier than death. He would sit here, believing his suffering to be enough to pay for all that he had done.


    It wasn¡¯t enough, it would never be enough.


    ¡°Again,¡± he muttered.


    ¡°What?¡± Dane asked.


    ¡°Cast the array again.¡±


    Dane obliged.


    And the man suffered once more.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    And he did.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    He¡¯d barely spoken this time.


    He cycled through his own suffering over and over again and at one point.


    The array had been changed, it was now something automatic, recycling his suffering countless times over.


    Hundreds of millions of lifetimes relived in a moment. Thousands of moments. Hundreds of days. Years. Decades. Centuries. Eons. Epochs.


    He noticed the mountains around him withering away and he saw the horizon change as the moon slowly retreated from the earth. People came sometimes, but none saw him, he was cloaked in eternal suffering.


    Every blink came with millions of lives and every moment came with regret.


    Penance.


    The stars faded away. He could see them die in the distance.


    Penance.


    The land around became valleys, mountains, deserts, oceans, and then valleys again.


    Penance.


    He should have died by now. He had used up his innate qi against Dane. He should be dead by now.


    Penance.


    Why wasn¡¯t he dead?


    Penance.


    The sky broke, the stars screamed, and the world was swallowed by the sun. The people of this world had moved to a new one, but he remained.


    Penance.


    Why?


    Penance.


    Because he must. He must suffer. That was his place.


    Penance.


    The realm withered and the laws that bound the universe started to break.


    Penance.


    The void swallowed him whole. The universe collapsed and reality turned to dust. But somehow, this array still persisted. Was that man truly only at the eighth rank? To have created something so powerful?


    Penance.


    Oh well, it didn¡¯t matter now. He didn¡¯t remember that man¡¯s name and he had long since forgotten his own.


    Penance.


    All he was now was


    Penance.


    Then, he was free. There wasn¡¯t enough qi anymore. The world had broken and the array could only do the same.


    It didn¡¯t matter. He remembered. He knew every detail, every smell, every person, and every ounce of pain he had caused. And he would never forget.


    ¡°I will seek redemption,¡± the man said to the void. ¡°I will not find it, but I will seek it nonetheless.¡±


    Yes. He would pay Penance.


    He wandered the void for some time, and though time didn¡¯t exist here, it existed within him. He had crossed over into the tenth rank at some point. He hadn¡¯t noticed it, he was too busy, too concerned with the memories.


    Still, he couldn¡¯t whether the void. The lack of laws was enough to rip his body to shreds and for an instant, he wanted that. He wanted the void to take him, but that would be death, and he was unworthy of that.


    But he was unworthy of life as well.


    Penance, his soul sang.


    Yes. He would pay Penance, but how?


    Time surrounded him and with it came space. A voidwalker technique, one of his own construction. He was back. The array was gone but its nature had long since been imprinted onto his soul.


    The pain surrounded him. It protected him. Penance. Yes, that was his Dao, that was his being.


    He would suffer for his actions and he would bring suffering to those who sought to do the same.


    Penance.


    He trespassed through the void, surrounded by his sins. The sins that protected him and tormented him. The sins that had given him meaning and taken it as well.


    He wondered if he could ever find mercey if he could ever be complete. He wondered if there was someone out there who could free him from this suffering.


    Not someone with power but someone with virtue, a being worthy of setting him free.


    And even if there was, was it right to seek them out?

 Chapter 59 Anxious

    The world is strange, Cai Xuin thought to himself.


    No, for someone like him, the world was small indeed. He had journeyed across the Five Sects before and witnessed the culture and actions of many people. He had even seen an immortal man drinking with a mortal farmer.


    And yet, it was home that felt the strangest. The people here, his so-called clan, and the sect that had hated him as their shame and sin for so long. They bowed around him now. Elders called him to their homes almost every day, tutoring him in the ways of the blade, each hoping he would call them their master.


    His cousins groveled, and those who knew he wouldn¡¯t forgive them had hidden for fear of his wrath. He was valuable, no longer a pawn but a player, a man to be respected. His potential shone brighter than anyone here and yet.


    Yet, he hadn¡¯t changed. Not truly. His soul had changed, his mind had changed, but they couldn¡¯t see that. They hadn¡¯t known him before he went to the desert and met that immortal. They had only seen his blade during that moment. They had seen flowers meet water and blossoming strokes of qi, and that was what they loved.


    Not Cai Xuin, but the potential he held. Not his soul but his power. Something had changed about him since that day but that wasn¡¯t what they coveted. Power, politics, position, and wealth were what they saw.


    Cai rose from the bed and a servant came to greet him. They were new, recently hired from some foreign stock. Everyone he knew had offered him some of their own but he had refused. The ones they sent would be spies no doubt, watching and documenting his every move for their true masters.


    Though he didn¡¯t trust the one in front of him either.


    The servant came in and bowed.


    ¡°Good morning Young Master Cai,¡± she asked.


    A female servant, that had been a mistake. The woman had tried to sleep with him right after he had gotten home, thinking that to be the reason he hired her. In truth, he had gotten her for her lack of connections or family, something that could be used to extort her for information.


    That and her small talent for cultivation would allow him to nurture her into someone capable.


    Oh well, she had improved since.


    The servant, Peng Li, put a clean set of robes onto the chair in front of him and cleared the mess of plates he had left by his bedside. He had taken to late-night meals, spending most of the day bowing like a doll to his elders.


    They hadn¡¯t left him alone for days. Every day, he would have at least three meetings with important individuals and each meeting would waste two hours of his time. There would be gifts for him, acts of hollow goodwill given too late.


    He now had ten flying swords, three fighting swords, talismans and amulets of all variants, and enough treasures to weather through ten assassination attempts. But that was only after, after that moment.


    Everything since then felt so strange. He had walked through the desert with the five sects to meet the immortal, but when they started to make their way back, they had carried him. They had laughed at his light remarks and called him a gifted child.


    Yet when they reached the clan, they didn¡¯t even know what district he lived in. Of the sect¡¯s living area, he resided in the outer districts where all the weaker bloodlines and lesser nobles resided.


    His cousins had tried to seduce him fifteen times by now and he had to reject five marriage proposals.


    He hated it.


    Everything was awful before but it was honest. It was a hell he knew. Now there were lies, deceit, and deception, and even more hatred.


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    Someone had tried to kill him, someone within the sect had hired a fourth-rank assassin from a different clan. That cost money and time, resources that only elders and powerful members of the clan had. There was someone very powerful who wanted him dead. Maybe they would leave him alone now, but there was no certainty. They might be waiting, crawling through the thick grass like a snake.


    He had enemies and they wanted to drink with him.


    Cai Xuin coughed, breaking the line of thought. It was too early to be this paranoid. He dressed himself and walked out the door, watching the servant start making his bed as he left.


    It was strange. He had cleaned his own house and made his own bed for years now, ever since his cousins had killed his old servants and left their corpses on his lawn.


    But now he had servants again, and guards at the fourth rank. Warriors trained within his grandfather¡¯s clan, within Cai¡¯s clan technically, though he hadn¡¯t thought of it as his own clan for nearly a decade, and the sudden acts of kindness didn¡¯t change that now.


    He had moved away from the Broken Isles where his grandfather had given him a home. Sure it was a better spot for cultivation and full of qi, but it was also full of political tension and power struggles.


    And moving back to his old home did help. Here were the outer sects and lesser bloodlines, people too afraid to talk to him. He was a big fish in a little pond here, though that didn¡¯t stop the sharks from coming by.


    Cai Xuin took a deep breath.


    ¡°Peng Li, let¡¯s go.¡±


    Peng Li nodded and followed him out with a number of servants, two of them being his sworn guards, the ones that his grandfather had given him. They were his now, technically, but Cai knew that wasn¡¯t the truth.


    His grandfather had offered up a lot of resources to him, several new properties, guards, servants, and enough spirit stones to run a small sect. But he would be stupid to confuse that for love. It was merely a deterrence, a political move to mark Cai as his grandson.


    He was now a competing figure for the throne of patriarch. His grandfather was aging and in a few centuries, he would start dying. And Cai, with his newfound power and strength, was a strong bet for his heir.


    If other clans within the sect could control him or persuade him to join them, it would spell wonders for their clan.


    And then there was the Raging River Sect. He had received one letter from them.


    Come to the Raging River my son.


    -Mai Fei


    When he had read it, he had almost shattered the jade that held the message. That woman, she had tossed him to the side and watched him hurt all this time and now she wanted to claim him?


    He would have been happier if she had just disappeared. At least then, he could comfort himself with her selfishness. She was insane, incapable of love, and as horrible as that was, he could believe it wasn¡¯t his fault.


    But now some man had come by and she had followed after him like a dog. And at the behest of that man, she had written him.


    She was alive and thriving and the two sects were even thinking of making the marriage official among them. People had visited her a few times and from what little he heard, she was fine and untouched, laughing in the hands of his father, her lover.


    His grandfather had read the message no doubt and had left immediately with a convoy to the Raging River Sect.


    Maybe to plead, maybe to rage, who knew?


    But Cai wasn¡¯t planning on staying here and he certainly wasn¡¯t going to the Raging River¡¯s territory. He would be leaving, heading down to the Hidden Viper¡¯s territory on some personal business.


    The Hidden Viper, cloaked in its green forest of beasts and plants, was the best place to get a spirit beast companion. A tiger or maybe a boar of some sort. That was what he would be getting. His grandfather had offered him the opportunity and Cai had been eager to jump at it.


    Not so much for the beast, but rather for the peace it would grant him. He could afford it and it would be one of the few things that would offer him solace while not insulting his elders.


    He needed a few days of silence. Ever since he¡¯d returned, the world seemed to have focused on him. From the immortal to the assassination attempt, and now to his new technique, eyes fell on him from everywhere and all sought his favor.


    That was the real reason for the trip, the beast would be pleasant, but the time away would be useful. He needed to plan. He mattered now and he needed to think carefully about what that implied.


    Pen Li left the room and Cai readied himself and his weapons, though he doubted he would need them. The guards would be coming with him and while he didn¡¯t trust them at the very least they wouldn¡¯t hurt him. He would be traveling to foreign lands after all, and as a guest this time, not as a rogue.


    He¡¯d journeyed across the five regions before, every cultivator did if they could afford it. In times of peace when there was no tension between the sects, traveling was seen as a sign of goodwill and fostered political kinships.


    Friendships between two young men could grow into an old brotherhood between different sects. It was the thing young masters of every sect did, for both their own merit and the clan¡¯s merit.


    Then the more connected you were, the more power you would have. Members with connections were considered to be pillars of the sect. They offered ways to trade, bargain, and gather resources not readily available through the sect¡¯s current means.


    But Cai had never experienced that. Oh, he had traveled the lands but he had not made any connections or friends, at least not before. But now with his name and influence, there would probably be a line of people seeking to meet with him.


    What a thought.

 Chapter 60 Heading Out

    The preparations had already been completed. The food had been gathered and the pack animals had been secured. The proper seals and letters had been sent out beforehand, a formality that Cai had never bothered with before, but with influence came politics and it would be considered unbecoming for him to visit without warning.


    ¡°Peng Li, let''s head out.¡±


    The servant nodded and led him outside where a carriage awaited. The guards were already on their horses, qi beasts that could traverse five hundred miles in one hour. Overall, there was about a fifth-rank spirit stone¡¯s worth of wealth traveling with him, counting the carriage, the guards, the beasts, the servants, and of course his weapons.


    It was a fortune and it had all been gifted to him.


    His stomach turned. Cai felt uneasy. This felt wrong, undeserved, and¡­ dangerous. Yes, that was the feeling.


    It didn¡¯t feel right. Something was off about all of this.


    But that feeling had been there since he¡¯d returned. It flared up at times but he wouldn¡¯t let uncertainty get in his way. Cai got on the carriage followed by Peng Li. She was his only personal servant that would come with him. Cai wanted to go alone but servants were a sign of wealth.


    He could feed and cloth himself, but he would need someone to follow him around to demonstrate his significance, a human decoration. He hoped the poor girl could take the trip, though it should be safe and fast she was still a mortal.


    A part of him felt disgusted with the thought of using people as a display of ability. But that was the way of the world and he had to follow it.


    He entered the carriage. It had already been loaded with his luggage and other necessities and Peng Li followed after him, sitting on the opposite side of the thing.


    ¡°Comfortable,¡± he muttered to himself.


    The carriage was luxurious and as the driver pushed the horses forward, Cai Xuin felt uneasy.


    He swallowed the feeling down once more. This was his life now. He¡¯d have to get used to it.


    The horses trodded slowly through the streets and outside the city limits, eventually hitting the clear and wide road. Then, with a whip of the reigns, they started to pick up their pace, pushing further and further till they were at their top speed. The land next to the blurred and the road became one giant drawn-out mass of dirt.


    Within minutes, they were out of civilization. The driver wouldn¡¯t have to worry about running over people out here. The land between villages was vast and unoccupied, and the few villages that were out here had light towers for communication, and those were visible from a hundred miles away.


    The guards, Cai¡¯s guards, were actively projecting their aura all around them as they rode, pushing away any bandits and beasts. Cai would see glimpses every now and then, eyes and auras, flashes of qi from the side of the road. Threats he¡¯d normally have to avoid and maneuver around had he been traveling on his own.


    Now they looked at him with fear.


    He wondered what that assassin would have to go through to get to him now. That felt so long ago, and yet he remembered it like it was yesterday. The sand, the exhaustion, the fight, his arm.


    It hurt.


    It went away if he forgot about it, but when he remembered, his arm stung like a fresh wound, as if it still hadn¡¯t healed quite yet.


    He could see death and the blade. The clean stinging cut and the cruel eyeless smile.


    ¡°Master Cai.¡±


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    His mind snapped back to the moment.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s time for lunch Master Cai,¡± Peng Li replied.


    ¡°Is it?¡± He mumbled.


    That happened too, sometimes time would just slip away. Hours would crumble and the world would simply run away while he wasn¡¯t thinking.


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Cai replied.


    He left the carriage and reached into his storage ring, taking out the already prepared meals as Peng Li and the guards set up his dining area. He felt nasty, watching as the girl worked away.


    It wasn¡¯t much, just setting down a blanket and a small table from the back but the new servant struggled with it nonetheless. The ground was lumpy and the winds would not let the blanket stay on the ground. Cai decided to help her. He took the blanket and laid it out in one swoop, having chosen the flattest spot within the area.


    ¡°Thank you, Young Master Cai,¡± Peng said with a bow.


    Cai nodded.


    Young Master.


    Uneasiness came again but this time it did not go. This wasn¡¯t some mere discomfort, this was instinct.


    Of all the times in his life, things had only seemed stable right before his world quickly came apart. He felt fine, he was fine.


    But Cai knew the quiet before the storm. When his cousins stopped tormenting him, it had been only to plot. When his mother had last hugged him, it was right before she left.


    Even now, when he had everything and more, he could still feel it. Where were his opponents, his enemies? Surely they hadn¡¯t all hidden, surely there was something else, someone else, waiting to take him down.


    There must have been clans within his sect that he had offended merely by daring to gain power, people who didn¡¯t want him to even be a candidate for the throne of Patriarch. Where were they? Why was everything so silent?


    ¡°Young Master Cai?¡±


    Reality snapped back.


    ¡°Your food¡¯s getting cold, Young Master Cai,¡± Peng Li commented.


    ¡°Eat quickly,¡± Cai replied, bringing his own chopsticks to his mouth.


    Afterward, Cai had the driver completely rework his course. They were now driving a few miles away from the Great Desert Strip. The roads here were occupied and the driver would have to slow down and work the horses through caravans and merchants every now and then, but it was safer here.


    For one there were more witnesses, so if something should happen to Cai, it would be seen. And two, well, it was close to the honored master''s territory. At worst, he could run to the strip and pray the immortal would uphold his rule of no violence.


    He had saved him once and Cai would shamelessly throw himself into his care again.


    Cai looked towards the desert and saw the small light tower peaking at him at the edge of the horizon. That was where the honored master stayed, the immortal.


    The man was strange, but he was honest. The five sects had taken to calling the sect The Immortal Oasis Sect and had spread the word of avoiding violence when crossing the region.


    And since it was the rainy season, a lot of the lesser clans and smaller sects were treading through the desert and bringing their trades and goods through that village, if only for the chance of meeting an immortal. Massive beasts of burden were everywhere, and pack beetles could be seen scurrying across the sand in the distance.


    A huge wave of merchants came from the Hidden Viper¡¯s land. They were the decorators of fashion and such after all, and they had the most interaction with the world outside of the five sect¡¯s region. But even aside from that, they were the leaders of high fashion and alchemical herbs throughout all of the five regions and almost all the beasts cultivators used had originated from their green jungles.


    Cai wondered what it would be like down there. Green, no doubt. He¡¯d been there a few times but as a wandering cultivator touring through their cities, never as a guest.


    They were a matriarchal folk down there. The Hidden Viper bloodline did well with yin energy and manifested more in women. Over the millennia, the mortals there had taken to their approach and followed similar social standards.


    Not that Cai knew what mortals thought. He lived in a different world from them. A mortal could at most travel a few hundred miles, see only the few cities that surrounded them. Cai could cover that distance in a day.


    Just now he was thousands of miles away from where he had woken up. The languages and dialects here were different. Of course, everyone here spoke common, but that was because cultivators considered the language to be universal. And Cai had heard various variations of the language, passed down and changed by the mortal who spoke it. It was barely recognizable after a few centuries and completely different within a millennia.


    Mortals.


    He thought about that farmer, the man the immortal was talking to. Now that had been strange. He looked at Peng Li, the girl sat perfectly still with her eyes closed but Cai knew that she was sleeping.


    He smiled. She had stayed up and prepared for the trip, plotting the course and organizing the required materials for the journey. She deserved a break.


    And that farmer man, what was his name? Chin?


    Cai had called him an honored master right before he left. He hadn¡¯t misspoke, rather, he had spoken on instinct.


    It had felt right. The man was older than he was. He had lived longer and taken care of his people. He deserved respect.


    Since that day something had been different within him. He was troubled by his path, his desire. All that he sought, all that he wanted, it felt empty now.


    Then the world turned upside down.

 Chapter 61 Confrontation

    A thin blade of qi cut through the carriage, cutting the thing in two before they had even seen the blade. A small beam of light came in as the carriage divided itself slowly and Cai looked forward. He saw the carriage split in half and the pink inside of the carriage driver split in two.


    The man was a cultivator, one of the second rank, yet he had been cut cleanly in two.


    Cai looked towards Peng Li and panic sped up his mind. The girl¡¯s hair had been cut, but she had been sitting at the other corner of the carriage and her body was unharmed. The same could be said for Cai.


    Then the carriage split and fell, and the poor girl was pulled under it.


    Cai leaped out of the carriage, readying his blade and looking up towards the threat.


    His eyes flashed behind him, searching for his guards, only to see two headless men still riding their horses.


    What?


    They were of the fourth rank, experts. Surely they could-


    ¡°Blossom,¡± a voice spoke.


    Then a wave of sword qi came for his flesh. Cai had heard the words but he had not seen the attack. He had not sensed the qi till it was already there, mere inches from his face.


    All he could do was raise his blade and even that was useless. Three talismans broke, shattering with an audible rip and his body flew backward as the life-saving treasures gifted to him broke.


    Footsteps.


    Cai looked up to see a masked man standing in the sky. He carried a simple unmarked blade, one that could be found anywhere within the region and he wore plain grey clothes as well.


    But Cai didn¡¯t need to see the crests or clothes to know what he was looking at. This was an elder, a fifth-rank member of the Flowering Sword Sect. The man walked with pride and power and the Dao of the Flowering Sword was strong with him.


    He walked leisurely. His hands were low and his sword cut the grass as he approached him.


    ¡°Such a troublesome young man,¡± the masked man said. ¡°First surviving the assassination attempt, then coming back with news of an immortal of all things, and now¡­ now this new abomination of a technique you might make.¡±


    ¡°It is wrong,¡± the man spoke. Then he swatted with his sword, not swung, swatted as if he were striking a fly from the air.


    And Cai held onto his blade with desperation. The cut left the blade and came slicing at him and the blade Cai had been gifted crumbled like dry grass. Most of the cut had been absorbed by the blade but not all of it.


    ¡°Wait!¡± Cai screamed. ¡°Wait! Don¡¯t you want to know how-¡±


    A coughing fit interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. That cut had dug into his stomach and his arm. He looked down at it, his sword arm was mangled. Tendons and bone mixed together in a stringy mess of flesh.


    His mind screamed.


    Someone grabbed him but Cai could barely see them. It wasn¡¯t his assassin, no, he was being carried-


    The Pain.


    No. Cai circulated his qi, killing the nerve endings in his right arm. He¡¯d picked it up after the last attempt, just in case.


    But here he was using it not even two months later.


    His mind blurred back into the moment and he looked over a shoulder. Not his, but his rescuer¡¯s. He expected to see his pursuer right behind but he saw nothing.


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    ¡°Young mistress of the Raging River, I would advise you to not engage.¡±


    ¡°Nonsense,¡± his rescuer spoke. ¡°You seek to kill my half brother, I will not have it.¡±


    Half brother?


    Cai turned his neck to look at the face of his rescuer. She was a woman of the fourth rank, and if her body was honest to her age then she was maybe three years his senior.


    Then he turned his head to look at the man she was talking to, the assassin.


    ¡°To call him your brother is too much Young Mistress, at best he is an unknown relative. No one worth dying for,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°Are you saying you¡¯ll kill me if I don¡¯t hand him over?¡± The girl asks. ¡°You know who he is so I assume you know his father, and if you know of his father then I assume you know of me?¡±


    ¡°Of course, I know Young Mistress Xaio Wang,¡± his assistant replied.


    ¡°And you would dare to threaten me?¡±


    There was a moment of tense inaction. Cai¡¯s mind ran. Why wasn¡¯t the attacker cutting through them both? They were both lower ranks than him after all. But no, this woman, this person who claimed to be his sister was not protected by might or sheer strength alone, but also by political threats.


    He wasn¡¯t too aware of the political positions of other sects, but he had seen Xaio Wang before. She¡¯d won numerous tournaments and had beaten down all the prodigies of the other sects many times. She was talented and already had the strength of a weak elder at the young age of twenty-three. She was everything he wasn¡¯t and she was¡­ his sister?


    ¡°No,¡± the man replied. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have to kill you to kill him. I would simply prefer making less of a fuss, young mistress.¡±


    Cai set his feet on the ground and slowly let go of the woman¡¯s body. He looked around for a moment, somewhat dazed.


    Behind them were the horses of the two fourth-rank guards that had been assigned to him. They galloped towards them, still carrying the bodies of the headless guards.


    Hadn¡¯t the horses run away from the fighting? He looked over to Xaio Wang and saw her still staring at the masked assassin.


    It was as if he didn¡¯t exist to them.


    Then Cai laughed. He laughed and his qi swarmed. The horses turned and swerved to the left of him and for once, the two warriors looked in his direction.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious?¡± Cai asked the masked man. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to know why I changed my route?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you had a reason,¡± the masked man replied.


    Yes, of course, the man knew where he was going. All those delegations and announcements wouldn¡¯t be that hard for a clan elder to get their hands on.


    ¡°No, I knew,¡± Cai replied.


    He just needed time.


    ¡°Do you know how?¡± Cai asked again.


    ¡°No,¡± the assassin replied. ¡°Humor me.¡±


    ¡°It was too calm,¡± Cai answered. ¡°All the days went as planned and for a whole month, everything went quiet. I had no enemies and I had no contenders. Even when I had returned from the Great Desert Strip with news of an immortal I still had enemies, but then I was left alone.¡±


    ¡°It made me wonder. It made me think, what if all the things that had happened to me up till now, what if it wasn¡¯t just bad luck? Even before the assassination, why did my mother suddenly allow my cousins to hurt me? Why did my grandfather never care for me? Why did my mother suddenly leave? Bad fortune seemed like the easy answer, and I believed it too until everything went quiet.¡±


    Then Cai smiled. He was terrified on the inside and the smile was more of an act of fear than madness, but he needed time. He hoped and prayed but he needed time.


    ¡°In one night all my enemies disappeared. In one day my reputation had changed. Even if I was fortunate and even if I was talented, I should still have people who hate me and honored elders who dislike me. I should still hear disrespectful words. But wherever I went I heard only praise. At first, I thought it was due to the fear, fear of me and my potential. But no, it wasn¡¯t me, was it? A mere second rank, no matter how talented can¡¯t change the situation.¡±


    ¡°I do not hate you boy, but your death would have been a convenient tool for my goals,¡± the masked man replied.


    ¡°Would have?¡± Cai questioned.


    ¡°Yes, would have. Now you¡¯re just a threat, a seed I can not let sprout.¡±


    He was afraid of him. Cai almost laughed at the response. He had tried to kill Cai for some political reason but now he was afraid of Cai growing in power and seeking vengeance.


    ¡°I will not name you, honored elder. But I know you. I know who you are.¡±


    There were many elders within the sect, each of at the fifth rank, and many disliked him, even despised him, but one elder had always been indifferent. Indifferent until now. It was a guess, a conjecture really, but very few people had been indifferent towards Cai.


    Tai Lui.


    The elder had been a firm supporter of his since his return and he had come with the delegation to meet the immortal, even though most elders feared the occasion Tai Lui had been eager to meet the man.


    And more than any other, he had been pleasant to Cai. He had suddenly become Cai¡¯s greatest supporter. Malice had always been with Cai his whole life, so he ignored it. But kindness from a man who seemed to not have even known his name burned like a thousand suns.


    "Be wary of those that defend you. When it comes to cultivators, if they butter you up they¡¯re probably planning to eat ya."


    That was what the immortal had said. Thinking back now, those words seemed prophetic. A shame he didn¡¯t heed their wisdom sooner.


    ¡°And why would that be?¡± The masked man asked. ¡°Why not name me?¡±


    ¡°I am certain that if I did, not only would I die, but this lady here would as well.¡±


    ¡°Speak his name!¡± Xaio Wang yelled. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t dare to--¡±


    But before she could finish her sentence, there was already a blade at Cai¡¯s throat.

 Chapter 62 Purpose

    But the blade never touched his skin.


    The world held still and the sun itself seemed to stop in the sky. Cai, the assassin, Xaio Wang held. It wasn¡¯t that they were afraid of moving, merely that they couldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Alright, where are their heads?¡± A voice asked.


    Over the attacker¡¯s shoulder was a familiar figure dragging two headless corpses. The immortal walked along, pulling the fourth-rank bodies as if they were bags of rice on sale at the market.


    Cai would smile if he could move his face.


    Thank the Dao. Thank the Dao it worked.


    His little flare of qi had seemed to be a thing of insanity to the assassin, but that was the point. To one side of them lay the Great Dessert Strip, home of the immortal, and to another was the Flowering Sword Sect¡¯s land.


    It was a gamble as the men had already lost their heads but it was the only thing Cai could do. That little threat of qi had pushed those horses toward the Desert Strip purposely. And though they were miles away from the strip, the horses could cover that within a matter of seconds if not minutes.


    The immortal looked into the distance and blurred. His grey robes rippled and then he came back into focus, carrying two heads with him this time, along with a sleeping Peng Li.


    ¡°Chin, look after the girl will you,¡± the immortal spoke.


    A confused farmer suddenly appeared by the immortal¡¯s side. He carried a scythe and wore a rice hat and dirty brown clothes stained with black dirt.


    ¡°What-¡± the farmer yelped. Then he looked around and glared at the immortal. Then he grumbled.


    What was his name?


    Chin, Cai recalled.


    ¡°Why am I here?¡± The old man asked.


    ¡°We have a lesson today, a special one.¡±


    The old man frowned even more.


    ¡°First, a lesson on death. You see Chin, cultivators are more than normal people. Dying for them isn¡¯t the same as dying for mortals.¡±


    The immortal lifted the dead heads of the fourth-rank immortals and compared them to one another like a man comparing apples at a market. Then he chose one, put down the other, and¡­ screwed the head back onto the corpse.


    ¡°What exactly do we cultivate Chin?¡±


    ¡°The body?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the immortal replied as he picked up the other head and began screwing that onto the other body.


    ¡°That¡¯s where we start. The lower dantian which is responsible for your body and health, but we don¡¯t just stay there now, do we?¡± He asked the farmer.


    ¡°Then the soul?¡± The farmer replied.


    The immortal finished screwing their heads back on.


    ¡°Close but no cigar,¡± he replied.


    ¡°What¡¯s a cigar?¡± The farmer asked.


    ¡°Focus Chin, focus.¡±


    ¡°The self,¡± Cai replied. ¡°We cultivate the self.¡±


    He was surprised to feel his lips move and hear his voice speak. But time seemed to loosen. The air was coming back into his lungs and he found he could move again.


    ¡°Correct!¡± The immortal replied.


    ¡°We do indeed cultivate the self. We start at the body then the spirit then the soul. The first rank is the body, the second rank is the spirit, and the third is the soul. Then we repeat the cycle to reach immortality and beyond. That¡¯s all to say that those past the third rank are different. Dying takes time for them, the soul sticks around longer, and the heart will refuse to stop beating, even without a head. Which means if you fix the body and push a bit of qi into the nearly dead-¡±


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    Both guards awoke their eyes wide open and each taking a large gasp of air.


    ¡°And voila, they live. Or more like they never truly died to begin with.¡±


    The two men then immediately slumped over and slept.


    ¡°They just need to sleep off the resurrection for a bit,¡± the immortal said with a shrug.


    Cai moved and Xaio Wang gasped for air but the assassin held still.


    Xaio Wang and Cai immediately kneeled.


    ¡°Honored Master, this Cai Xuin-¡±


    ¡°None of that now Captain Hook,¡± the immortal said to him. ¡°You and your arm really don¡¯t get along now, do you?¡±


    Cai kept his head down. He could feel Xaio Wang¡¯s aura tremble in fear but he wasn¡¯t afraid. This man was more honest than any he¡¯d ever met before. If he wanted to kill them, they¡¯d be dead.


    ¡°Let¡¯s fix that real quick,¡± the immortal said.


    Cai hesitated.


    ¡°Oh?¡± The honored master replied. ¡°You don¡¯t want to fix your arm?¡±


    Cai was silent for a moment deep in thought.


    That idea went against everything he had ever learned. To be strong was right and to be weak was wrong. The weak could only blame themselves for their suffering and the strong do as they please.


    That thought had governed his world and the people in it for as long as he could remember. His mother was awful, his grandfather was awful and his cousins were awful. They hated him for something he couldn¡¯t control. They had hurt him for it.


    And it was all because he was weak. The moment he gained strength, political or otherwise, everyone had changed. Even his grandfather, who had talked to him less than ten times in his whole life, had started treating him differently. His mother wanted him, his cousins feared him, elders who had never spared him a glance sought to be his mentor and villains he couldn¡¯t touch sought to kill him.


    It was all so¡­ empty. They just wanted to take and to keep. Humanity, kindness, and empathy were all secondary to power.


    Rather, they sought the praise of righteousness without being righteous. Good was a farce, evil was a farce, and the strong decided which was which.


    But then there was this immortal standing beside an old mortal farmer, a dichotomy of power and weakness.


    A god next to an ant. It didn¡¯t make sense, but it felt all the more right.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m better than him. The man toils tirelessly to feed his village and keep his people afloat. I mean, sure, if he died they could find someone to replace him. And I¡¯m certain I¡¯ve saved more lives than he ever has, but¡­ it takes a certain type of lifelong dedication to do what he does. One that most people, even us cultivators lack. It¡¯s the same with those crabs. They die to make sure their kids live. I think there¡¯s a certain nobility there.¡±


    Those words had stuck with him.


    Power was a possibility. Power could make anything happen.


    ¡°Then¡­ then what would you call good if not strength?¡± Cai had asked him.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯d like to think that weakness isn¡¯t a sin and that strength isn¡¯t a virtue. Mortals or immortals, elders or bastards, people are people. What makes a person good or virtuous, isn¡¯t their strength, but rather their actions. The choices they make and the way they live their lives. Basic stuff really.¡±


    But it didn¡¯t do anything, did it? Strength for strength¡¯s sake was nothing more than instinct. That was what animals did. That was how insects fought.


    And that was not the way Cai wanted to live. His strength would get him nothing but pain. He had faced death twice, and both times there had been some relief. He had been ready to die, eager to in the moment. Was a life like that worth living?


    He might fight one day. He might become strong enough to rule his sect, but he would become strong once he found a reason. He would not waste away his life running from threats in search of vengeance or security.


    He could regret this choice. No. He would regret this choice. But it would bring him peace, at least. It would give him freedom.


    That mortal man had been right. Cai was stronger than the farmer, but his soul was empty, he had no purpose. And what was power for power¡¯s sake? What was a blade that only served to take and cut?


    An empty thing.


    It would be a wasteful effort, a prideful walk to his own demise. Was the idea of vengeance worth a lifetime of suffering? Was his arm worth the price he¡¯d pay to keep it?


    ¡°As long as I wield a blade, I am a threat, honored master.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯d rather lose your power than fight for it?¡± The immortal asked him.


    ¡°Excuse my shamelessness, honored master!¡±


    Cai¡¯s head touched the ground in his apology. It had been a month since he¡¯s had power. A mere month and he already had fifth-ranked enemies. It had been worse when he was weak but at least they were honest then. He knew where he stood back then and he knew his enemies.


    ¡°Nothing shameful about it kid,¡± the immortal replied.


    Then he produced a pill in front of him.


    ¡°Here take this. It¡¯ll close your wounds and heal you up, but it will prevent your arm from regrowing as well.¡±


    Cai studied the pill, then gulped it down without a second thought.


    Instantly he felt old flesh drip from his mangled arm. Soft thumps hit the floor and his arm sizzled as the wound closed in on itself. A stump appeared right where Cai¡¯s wrist would have been. He still had his elbow and half of his forearm, but his wrist was gone and with it his hand.


    Cai felt the stump. His stump.


    It felt strange but¡­ it felt right.


    ¡°Weakness is not a sin and strength is not a virtue,¡± he spoke.


    He saw now his sister, Xaio Wang glare in silence at his actions. Where there had once been fear, now was outrage.


    A cultivator''s body was everything to them, particularly in the lower stages. You built your meridians and strengthened them with lesser dantians. The path your qi would take throughout your body was traced and reinforced over and over again, making an attack from your trained limb much stronger than an attack from your untrained one.


    It was years worth of work, thrown away in a moment''s choice.


    Cai could only smile.


    He regretted it already, but that was fine.


    He would be weak for now, and he when had a reason, he would be strong.

 Chapter 63 Dao

    Chapter 63


    ¡°Now, second, a lesson on Dao,¡± the immortal replied.


    Then the frozen assassin moved. He leaped, pushing himself back for a long distance before he stopped.


    ¡°Hey kid,¡± the immortal said to him. ¡°Let¡¯s trade some pointers.¡±


    To call a fifth-rank elder kid, it would be wrong in any other mouth but it held true for an immortal.


    ¡°This one is not worthy of-¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t kill ya,¡± the honored master replied. ¡°And it¡¯s the least you can do for starting a fight on my land, no?¡±


    The assassin frowned. He hadn¡¯t started a fight in the desert strip and even if the bodies of the guards had been delivered there, they were almost dead and the conflict had happened outside of the area.


    But he wouldn¡¯t dare question that.


    This was a challenge, not a choice, at least that was the way Tai Lui perceived it.


    Cai didn¡¯t know if Master Bill would have just let him go had he refused the fight, but it probably wouldn¡¯t have hurt to ask.


    But of course, Tai Lui would never dare to do that. To the fifth rank, the world worked one way and one way alone. The strong commanded and the weak obeyed, and now he was the weak so he obeyed.


    So, with fear in his aura, the fifth rank walked up to the immortal and bowed.


    ********


    The first attack was nothing but a moving blade. It had no soul, no technique, just strength.


    Tai Lui frowned. He was afraid, but worse than that he was angry. Who was this man, this immortal to get in his way? This dying old bastard with a broken dao should stand aside and let talent like him through.


    But still, he was stronger for now so he had no choice but to raise his blade.


    Tai Lui swung again and cut through the air once more. The immortal countered. The cut dissipated and died.


    Again, Tai Lui moved. Well, if he wouldn¡¯t die then he¡¯d at least test his metal. How often did one get to trade blows with an immortal anyway?


    He jumped, propelling himself to the side of the immortal, and cut again. This cut was meaningful and contained almost all of Tai Lui¡¯s power.


    And yet it was beaten all the same with a wave of the hand.


    ¡°Do you remember what Dao is Chin?¡± The immortal asked.


    ¡°No,¡± The old man that Tai Lui had paid no mind to answered.


    ¡°Really? Not even a bit?¡± The immortal asked.


    Tai swung again, coming from behind him this time, but the man''s palms met the sword qi with disinterest.


    ¡°Well, I remember somethings,¡± the mortal replied.


    Tai Lui stepped back and thought. He was of the fifth rank and though no immortal had been birthed from this region for tens of thousands of years, he had seen a few passing by. Merchants from other regions, imperial census takers, and many others have visited this region over the millennium.


    And this one was the strangest immortal he had ever met.


    He was strong but it was in a peculiar way. There was an absence to him, a lack of presence. The sects had only learned about him recently but their spies and the village folk claimed he had been here for hundreds of years.


    And even now, in person, he seemed empty, lacking.


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    Mortal.


    ¡°Well, take notes this time. It¡¯s a lot of things but for this case, it''s the binding aspect of the soul. It centers a person and aligns them with a way, a path. And that path serves as a method of perseverance.¡±


    Tai Lui cut and cut again. Once, twice, thrice. His attacks danced and curved, aiming for the immortal''s vitals with every thrust.


    But the immortal moved. No, he shrugged and dodged his blade with crude movements.


    Inelegant unrefined spasms of muscle somehow move the man out of the path of attack. Tai kept striking, trying to see the technique in the movement, but there was none. No pattern, no reason, no pace, just movement, concise and small.


    Martial arts were somewhat useless to a cultivator but at a similar rank, they meant everything.


    Martial arts were methods of movement made to be graceful and fluid, a way of fighting while conserving one¡¯s strength. You could turn back your opponent''s weapon or turn their own punch against them. It was the rope through which pure power was tamed and made stronger.


    And this man had none of it.


    Tai grew angry. He wasn¡¯t stupid enough to assume the man was uneducated in the ways of martial movement, but rather that he wouldn¡¯t do it. After all, what use was a proper punch against an ant? What use was a strong kick against beetle?


    The immortal was looking down on him.


    Disrespect.


    ¡°Dao leaks into everything you do Chin. It¡¯s infectious like that. But by the same doctrine, it¡¯s controlling as well.¡±


    Tai¡¯s attacks grew furious and their speed increased with every thrust. Soon the air roared as Tai Lui¡¯s sword pushed faster than it could move and minor explosions came with every strike.


    Tai didn¡¯t believe he would strike the immortal. He only sought to make the man move in a graceful manner, to rip away this facade of vile movement, and to make the man act with grace.


    He wanted the immortal to dodge properly.


    ¡°This guy for example, what do you think his dao is?¡± The immortal asked.


    For some reason, his voice carried over their fighting. This enraged Tai.


    Tai Lui¡¯s blade roared. It was all out now. Every swing of his could trim summits and destroy villages. His strongest strikes could flatten out cities and his weakest cuts could crumble pavilions.


    ¡°FIGHT ME!¡± He roared. ¡°STOP TALKING TO THAT MORTAL AND FIGHT ME!¡±


    Insanity, he thought. That was the only reason he would have made such an outburst.


    But that man, that damn lower being. How could he be an immortal? How could he have faced tribulation?


    Tai Lui bent space. His blade, his cut, and the immortal¡¯s neck coalesced in the same plot of space and-


    His blade shattered.


    The sword made from old dragon bones and star iron shattered.


    ¡°Well that was dumb,¡± the immortal spoke.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Tai replied. ¡°My apologies-¡±


    ¡°Arrogance,¡± a voice spoke.


    Tai Lui moved.


    In an instant he was at the mortal¡¯s side, his hand reaching for the old man¡¯s throat. He¡¯d had enough. This pest had stained his ear far longer than he deserved. He would squash the damn insect like the small thing it was-


    A sharp pain came from his kidney and he flew to the side.


    ¡°Close,¡± the immortal shrugged, with his one leg slightly lifted as if he had been kicking a rock into a pond.


    ¡°It¡¯s pride. He could have killed Cai with the first swing, but he didn¡¯t. Instead, he beheaded his guards and let Cai flee for a bit. Even as an assassin, he couldn¡¯t help but flare his power. And even now, all it took was some disrespect for him to lose his composure.¡±


    Tai Lui opened his mouth and spat out blood.


    ¡°He reminds me of that annoying monk,¡± the immortal added.


    ¡°The one that wanted you to kill him?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that guy. Actually, he reminds me of him too much,¡± the immortal answered.


    Then he walked over to Tai Lui and pulled.


    For a faint second, Tai Lui thought he saw a string, an ethereal thread floating off and into the distance. And when the immortal pulled at it, he felt the end of the string pulling on him as well. It was like something was tugging at his very existence, at his very soul.


    ¡°Oh wow, look at that. Birds of a feather I guess,¡± the immortal mumbled.


    Tai Lui stood, propelling himself to his feet and pulling out his second blade.


    ¡°What¡¯s with that monk anyway? You two planning something?¡±


    Tai swung, ignoring the immortal¡¯s comment.


    This time he used the Flowering Sword Lotus Form, weaving each strand of sword qi into a binding web of interconnected strength. The FloweringSword worked by giving one attack the strength of multiple. Each sword swing weaved with the others, the sword qi piling up in the metaphysical webs.


    And with each strike, the strength grew. There was no wasted qi, any sword qi that wasn¡¯t punishing the opponent would be absorbed back into the Lotus formation. It was one of the strongest techniques of the Flowering Sword Sect and when used by an elder, it was beyond deadly.


    Mountains would crumble to dust and valleys would become canyons if they were even grazed by this attack.


    This was his strength, his power, and Tai Lui poured it all into the blade. He could not win. He could not even hope to wound this man, it was stupid to even dream of it. But that was not what he needed. He needed courtesy. He needed to see the man fight.


    Not once had the immortal used qi. Not once had the immortal used a technique. Up till now, it had been nothing but crude movement. It wasn¡¯t a fight, no man would call this a fight.


    This had no respect, no honor, no pride.


    Tai couldn¡¯t feel the immortals¡¯ aura but he knew what the immortal felt nonetheless.


    Disdain.


    He talked to the mortal like they were equals but to Tai Lui he had barely spared a word. He talked to the crippled bastard with kindness but to Tai Lui, he had no such emotions. Not even hate, just apathy.


    Tai Lui refused this.


    ¡°LOOK AT ME!¡± The fifth rank yelled, sending all he had and all he was into his blade, fighting for his pride.

 Chapter 64 Technique

    The sword held still. One instant it was full of more strength than most fifth ranks could expend in a full fight and the next, nothing. The blade met the immortal¡¯s hand- no finger and all that energy disappeared.


    No Tai realized. Not disappeared but devoured.


    The man hadn¡¯t dodged the attack nor had he dissipated it. He had merely taken it head-on. His qi has disappeared like a drop of water in an ocean.


    Pride.


    ¡°You are wrong,¡± the fifth rank whispered. ¡°All this power and all this ability and yet so simple. You are wrong!¡±


    Insane. He was going insane. No, he wasn¡¯t. This man wouldn¡¯t kill him for this. A man who walked around with mortals wouldn¡¯t dare-


    ¡°Calm down kid,¡± the immortal said.


    And Tai did. The world snapped back into its proper place. The shapes returned to everything.


    ¡°See Chin, that¡¯s the problem with Daos. This specifically is called a narrowing Dao, a path that forces its cultivator to walk down one way and only wield one perspective. A dao exists to serve the cultivator and to eventually become a part of him. No two daos are exactly the same and no two people are exactly the same. Focusing on a concept or a truth you¡¯ve observed in the universe can be a good starting point, but you should use that truth to build yourself. Not use yourself to prove that truth? Got it?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the mortal replied.


    ¡°See Chin, that¡¯s the problem with Daos. This specifically is called-¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright,¡± the old man grumbled. ¡°I heard ya.¡±


    Tai Lui listened.


    ¡°It''s sort of like domesticating a plant or an animal. You should gather the food and only replant the seeds that hold the trait you desire the most. A dao must be learned and it must also be made. A dao that takes over the cultivator makes them less able to grow and change.¡±


    ¡°But what¡¯s wrong with pride?¡± Tai spoke. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we who break the heavens and fight for our presence be proud? Shouldn¡¯t we who bring down mountains and strive for eternity bend the world to our wants? You are strange, but the world works as it does and the strong will always rule the weak. Pride isn¡¯t the byproduct of my power but the reason I searched for it in the first place. Power serves pride. Strength serves pride. Pride is power recognized and it is the thing that makes people move to serve you. Why shouldn¡¯t I be proud?¡±


    The immortal turned to him.


    ¡°You can be,¡± he replied. ¡°But look what happened here, kid. Your dao consumed you and were I not a strange fellow, you would have died a thousand times over, and were you not consumed by your pride you would have killed the boy with only one swing of your blade.¡±


    The immortal called him a kid and treated him like he was nothing more than a child. He was five hundred years old. He had seen the five sects and had even left the region a few times to see even beyond there. He was old and yet in front of this man he had barely left the womb.


    ¡°The world isn¡¯t so simple kid. Just because it worked the way you believed it should up to now, doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯ve observed a fundamental truth, merely a common occurrence. Pride is not a law but a trait. There are beings stronger than me who are also kinder than me. And there are beings weaker than me but still all the more prideful.¡±


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    Something clicked within Tai¡¯s mind. A truth had been spoken and he had felt it.


    ¡°I see. My apologies.¡±


    His soul fluttered and mixed, and then it calmed down.


    ¡°Now, it¡¯s my turn¡± the immortal spoke. He picked up the broken blade that Tai Lui had thrown down.


    ¡°Third and final lesson Chin, technique. Techniques, much like daos, need to be held and shaped to fit one¡¯s strengths and abilities. They were made for one purpose in the beginning and a lot of them were made with only one person in mind, most of them anyway.¡±


    The man twirled the broken blade, more like a child with a stick rather than a cultivator.


    ¡°Most Sacred Techniques that are passed down in the sects or clans were originally made for one person but as the person grows and develops, so does the technique. Then those that come after them tread the very path they made to grow in power.¡±


    The sword hummed.


    ¡°It¡¯s a good way to grow stronger, but there¡¯s a problem there. Do you know what it is, Chin?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Guess.¡±


    The mortal let out an annoyed sigh.


    ¡°Is it the same problem as the dao?¡± The old man guessed.


    ¡°Close but no cigar,¡± the immortal replied.


    ¡°What¡¯s a cigar-¡±


    ¡°See,¡± the immortal interrupted. ¡°Techniques, like daos, are a path to power in the physical sense. Daos give your soul strength and laws give your body presence, but techniques are where the two marry. They are an expression, a release of both of these things and more. They are the materialization of your impact and the legacy of your being. People spend countless decades, centuries, and millennia carving out these techniques from nothing. They are the understanding of your laws, the expression of your dao. They are your memoir and your tombstones and the strongest techniques will persist long after you leave the realm. It¡¯s why so many old masters leave their legacies lying around, just in case they pass away they can leave a mark on the world declaring their presence.¡±


    Then he cut.


    ¡°Pride, presence, the urge to not be forgotten, and the need to let your fellow man know that you were here, that you existed. It¡¯s another form of immortality in its own way.¡±


    Tai did not move and even if he tried to dodge, the cut would have reached before he could move muscle. A small gash appeared on his left cheek. Strangely enough, the cut had only cut his flesh and not the mask he was wearing, which had remained undamaged this whole fight.


    ¡°It''s an important thing, pride. Anything worth doing is worth taking pride in. But like all things, it¡¯s best in moderation.¡±


    Then his blade started to move in a familiar pattern.


    ¡°The Flowering Sword technique, for example. You look at it and say what a graceful beautiful technique. Power through elegance and efficiencies, beauty in technique and dominance, no?¡±


    Tai nodded.


    ¡°But the maker of the technique didn¡¯t care for that at all. You let your pride, your understanding of the world, and inner desire blind you.¡±


    The blade moved faster. Each stroke weaving with the others. Tai Lui¡¯s senses stretched but he couldn¡¯t feel an ounce of qi from the attack.


    ¡°This technique for example. It isn¡¯t about beauty or strength or ability. It¡¯s about efficiency. It was created by a weak man with very little qi reserves trying his best to conserve his energy.¡±


    A simple lotus form shone, holding at the immortal¡¯s blade. Clearly, it was qi but still, Tai Lui could sense nothing.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple, true, contained. The flower is not a denotation of deliberate beauty or greatness but rather the beauty of efficiency. The Flower is not beautiful for beauty¡¯s sake but for its own survival. It¡¯s bright and bold so the bees and birds can know it. It smells fragrant so that the insects will come to it. It is beautiful to survive and that is the core of this technique.¡±


    The folds aligned. The sword qi weaved and became one. It held together like an ethereal lotus, pure and beautiful, and not a single drop of qi was left to waste.


    ¡°The Flower is weak and frail and dead within the season. So it has to be beautiful, it has to bloom to survive. There is no pride within this technique, only desperation and need. It blooms like the flower because the warrior had no qi to waste. It cuts a thousand times in one because the warrior could not cut a thousand times.¡±


    Then the cut left the blade and Tai Lui watched in awe as it came to him. He raised his blade to meet it. He held it up in defense, and yet it was not enough.


    His sword shattered once more and a thousand cuts scarred his hand. The immortal had held back, but the attack had cut something more than his skin.


    His pride, his dao, his very being had fallen into question.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s enough for today,¡± the immortal spoke tossing the sword over to Cai Xuin and turning around.


    ¡°That¡¯s a warning kid, take it to heart okay?¡±


    Then he and everyone else walked away.

 Chapter 65 Xaio Wang

    Her eyes had seen but she still didn¡¯t understand. The fight had been one-sided and incredible. It was a thing to witness, a gift of wisdom and strength.


    But the villain lived. She had come here and traversed across the region in search of her half-brother.


    Xaio Wang knew her father. The man was a disaster. He was powerful and one of the elders of the Raging River clan, but he was a selfish fool. He had a hundred bastards within the Raging River¡¯s territory and two hundred more outside of it. The man was an animal.


    So as soon as she had heard of her brother, as soon as she had known of him, she had come. Her father had too many children to save, but she knew what it was like to unlock the talent in her blood. The politics, the pressure, the unending wave of judgment she had gotten. She had intervened trying to spare him the same fate.


    But she was too late, someone was trying to kill him. And then someone had saved him, an immortal. The immortal.


    Xaio Wang had seen immortals before, whenever they visited they would normally stay at the Raging City seeing as the Raging River Sect was the most powerful out of all the five sects.


    They were rare, but every few decades they would grace the region with their presence. They were ethereal and amazing, a thing of myth and mystery, and yet this one wasn¡¯t. He came with a mortal old man and talked to him while he fought a fifth rank.


    He wasn¡¯t noble. He wasn¡¯t beautiful. He was¡­not dull, but lacking. The thing that made immortal ethereal, he lacked it.


    And he had let the enemy live. He hadn¡¯t even shattered the assassin¡¯s cultivation, and more than that, he had let Cai Xuin cripple himself. What sort of cultivator would allow something like this?


    If he cared for her brother he could have healed his arm and taken him in underneath his wing. But his actions, while they were kind, were light, undecided. He lacked resolve.


    She walked with Cai, who carried his mortal servant in his arms while the immortal guided the horses while carrying Cai¡¯s guards. She hadn¡¯t ever heard of immortals reattaching heads, or anyone else for that matter.


    Sure it was possible for small attacks, but an attack from a fifth rank? A cultivator was more, and a fifth rank was just a step away from the immortal realm. If a mortal¡¯s actions were charcoal on a rock then a fifth rank¡¯s actions were gashes in the stone.


    They were just more. And yet the man had treated him like a child. They had fought, and yet the attacks were contained, making it so that not even she could feel the shockwaves.


    The immortal¡¯s aura had done that, not a technique. The man¡¯s sheer residual qi that leaked passively from his body, without any instruction had restricted the fifth rank¡¯s attacks.


    It was a sight to behold.


    And yet¡­ she felt disappointed. Sad even.


    There was a fundamental lack of demeanor and elegance, but it was more than that. The things the immortal had said and the way he had spoken were as if he disliked cultivators.


    Xaio Wang walked in silence. Cai was looking around in awe. The space was being bent and compressed, making every step they took equivalent to ten miles worth of travel. It was a movement technique, one that she was using unknowingly.


    She observed and soaked in the phenomenon. All the sects had teleportation enchantments, but those were enchantments, made with the labor of a hundred years, and even then, they could only transport them across the region, not beyond it.


    It was more of a sign of wealth really. Any fifth rank could traverse the whole region within the hour and the fastest among them could do it within minutes, but to casually bend space like this, it spoke of power and understanding beyond her own.


    And yet, it was unnecessary. She and Cai could traverse the distance within the day, within the hour if Cai let her carry him. This confounding of time and space wasn¡¯t being done for them.


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    It was for the mortal that walked with them. It was for the old man with the scythe.


    Even now, after all that talk of pride, she still wasn¡¯t willing to just let it go.


    ¡°The inn is full,¡± the old mortal spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t know where you¡¯re going to put them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give them a house around your place. It¡¯ll be fine. Rin Wi¡¯s staying there, right? She can look after them.¡±


    ¡°Oh the poor girl¡¯s busy enough as it is, she doesn¡¯t need this as well.¡±


    ¡°Relax Chin, this¡¯ll barely be a bother to her. Besides, it¡¯ll just be for a few months I think.¡±


    ¡°You think?¡± The mortal scorned.


    ¡°Depends if that kid back there takes my warning seriously. If he does, it might be years before Cai can leave the area safely, but¡­ I don¡¯t think he will.¡±


    ¡°That cultivator guy?¡± The mortal asked.


    ¡°Yes, him.¡±


    ¡°A bit too full of himself that one,¡± the mortal quipped.


    Xaio Wang almost bit her tongue. A mortal daring to speak of a cultivator who lived his lifespan five times over in such a way was unheard of.


    Insanity.


    ¡°You¡¯re telling me,¡± the immortal replied. ¡°But I doubt he¡¯ll change much. Maybe he¡¯ll master the Flowering Sword to its full potential, but that was never his problem in the first place. If he does master the Flowering Sword, he¡¯d be treating the symptom and not the problem.¡±


    ¡°A narrow dao,¡± the mortal spoke. ¡°What a strange thing.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite common. A wide dao is one that tries to encompass everything and tries to derive a fundamental truth about existence. A narrow dao is the opposite, taking one minor truth and applying it everywhere you go. Either way, a dao isn¡¯t supposed to be a truth, it¡¯s supposed to be your own. Your will, your way, your path. It¡¯s not an observation of the world but an observation of you instead. Tying your dao to the world, as reasonable as it might seem, makes it all the weaker. You cannot rebel against the Heavens by submitting to them, after all.¡±


    She listened. There was truth in every word he said. Wisdom many would die to know, but hearing it be tossed so cheaply in a conversation with a mortal nonetheless. It soured something.


    ¡°Honored Master,¡± she said gently. ¡°Forgive this Xaio Wang¡¯s audacity, but I seek insight.¡±


    The honored master turned to her, still carrying the two passed-out guards upon his shoulder like a mortal carrying bags home from the market. She almost asked to take them from him.


    ¡°Ask away then,¡± he replied.


    ¡°I do not understand the current situation,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Specify.¡±


    ¡°I¡­I do not understand.¡±


    ¡°What exactly is it that you don¡¯t understand?¡±


    ¡°Everything,¡± she sighed. ¡°This was not what I was expecting to witness.¡±


    The immortal raised an eyebrow, turned around, and kept walking.


    ¡°Well, start with the basics then.¡±


    ¡°The assassin. He was of the fifth rank, an elder of the Flowering Sword Sect. Why did he try to kill Cai Xuin?¡±


    ¡°Oh, Cai can answer that one, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes Honored Master,¡± Cai replied. The boy was distant, one hand still rubbing the spot where his hand used to be. Xaio Wang was pained at the sight. Her brother was a cultivator, carrying the blood of two of the greatest sects within the region. And now he stood here, crippled.


    His sword hand was gone and it would take years to build up the proper strength in the other hand, and even then he would still be a cripple. Another wave of confusion hit her.


    ¡°I was a pawn, I believe. The elder had been using me for several years, though I know not why. And when I showed potential, he wanted to kill me before I could grow powerful and hunt him down.¡±


    ¡°Do you truly know his name?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Cai replied. ¡°I thought I did, within the moment I guessed, but I do not-¡±


    ¡°You know his name,¡± the immortal interrupted. ¡°Tai Lui, I recognized him from the delegation.¡±


    How had the immortal know Cai¡¯s thoughts? Was it a mind-reading technique of some sort? Was he reading her mind-


    ¡°Relax,¡± the immortal spoke. ¡°Cai¡¯s aura reflect Tai Lui¡¯s memory. I couldn¡¯t help but notice.¡±


    Xaio Wang turned quiet at the revelation.


    ¡°Is that what it¡¯s like?¡± She asked. ¡°Is that the world in the eyes of an immortal? Everyone laid bare and open?¡±


    ¡°It is for me,¡± he replied. ¡°So stop beating around the bush and ask your question already. Your aura is practically yelling it at me.¡±


    Then he already knew what she was thinking. He knew what she was feeling.


    ¡°Then why?¡± She asked. ¡°Why would you let a villain like that go? Why let him leave? Why teach him his faults? How¡­ how could you allow such a man free?¡±


    The immortal chuckled.


    ¡°It ain¡¯t his job that¡¯s why,¡± the old man answered. ¡°He¡¯s not a jailer or a policemen, so he won¡¯t jail anybody.¡±


    ¡°He has power and those with power should exercise it to the best of their judgment,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s what he did then,¡± the old man replied.


    ¡°What if he comes back then? Tai Lui is a capable cultivator. If he receives a breakthrough somehow and reaches the immortal realm and comes back for vengeance, then what?¡±


    ¡°Dying is the burden of the weak,¡± the immortal replied. ¡°Killing is the burden of those above them. I have no such burdens. If he comes back I¡¯ll handle him. But he¡¯s still a child. So I¡¯ll give him a chance.¡±


    A child. A fifth rank who had lived half a millennium was called a child. If he was a child then what was she? Then her eyes saw it, the mortal, Cai Xuin, herself, and even Tai Lui, they must have seemed so young to this man, so small.


    The mortals who she towered over were no different from herself in his eyes. And the old man, the loud brash old man spoke what was on his mind, to an immortal that was her equal. No, possibly her better.


    Was that what it was like in the eyes of an immortal?

 Chapter 66 Peace Part 1

    Chapter 66


    Chin and I sat at a table drinking tea. Medin had seen us walk into the village and since it was time for lunch, she had huddled us over, along with our new guests and two freshly awoken fourth-rank guards over for lunch. The guards had freaked out at first but quickly settled into place after the girls showed up with Nai for lunch.


    I was just glad Reck was sleeping. As stubborn as Chin was, his younger brother was even more hateful of cultivators than he was. Thankfully the Light Master had to sleep during the day and mostly operated at night. But his disciple was still awake and so were Chin¡¯s grandkids.


    And they weren¡¯t passing up the chance to study ¡®real cultivators.¡¯ I had feigned insult at the term and the kids had spent five minutes telling me that it was my fault for not using secret techniques or flying on swords or something. To them, I was just the old village hermit, not a cultivator.


    ¡°So you really come from the Raging River sect? Is it wet over there? Do you have a lot of beaches? We have a pond and a lake but it¡¯s not that deep and you have to go into the forest for a swim and lately, there are these little animals swimming there. We try to catch them but we never can because-¡±


    Xaio Wang just sat there, confused by the girls and the children and occasionally sipping her tea while looking at everything with curiosity. I¡¯d already given her free roam of the area, her and Cai.


    I assumed she¡¯d leave in a bit. Cai however would have no choice but to stay. I¡¯d already sent word of the assassination attempt to every one of the sects through way of a talisman and I was fairly certain that Tai Lui wouldn¡¯t try to kill him again, but I told the boy to stay here regardless. He was lost and the last thing he needed was to consider his future.


    And I was also a little busy finding my own dao. It was maturing quickly, though I wasn¡¯t too sure how my present state would react to it. I had seen the grander multiverse and I wouldn¡¯t dare consider myself special, but I was rare, if not unique.


    Most humans had their dao developed before making their way through the immortal gates. If existence was a forest then a dao was the path you took, trodding through with your soul and chosen way. I had just stopped walking, at least my soul had.


    I had studied insect souls and managed to make my soul act the same way by turning off very specific parts of it through lack of stimulation. I had become an unfeeling robotic shadow of a man, something barely human.


    But even then I had fallen, or rather Dane had fallen. The original Dane¡¯s death was directly connected to his lack of dao. He had killed himself, sure by accident. But the willingness to risk all of that was born from an eternity¡¯s worth of weariness.


    He had grown tired.


    And now, I was here.


    There was evidence of daoless humans, but not many made it past the twelfth rank, much less to the thirteenth rank. I¡¯d been meaning to ask the book about that stuff. I¡¯d given the Library Dane¡¯s inheritance back then, but not my own.


    I was still the Array King even if someone new would get the name in the next few years, that wouldn¡¯t take away my knowledge or abilities. And while the peacemaking array was still in the womb, it was growing and churning.


    It was something new and even before it was awake, I¡¯d gathered a heap of knowledge the Library could take.


    My tail flickered. I frowned. That was also something new. One of the gifts Wukong had left me, was a malleable piece of his own qi. It wouldn¡¯t overpower me and was useless in terms of power, or at least I believed it was. But it was a fragment of a God-Imperium making it so that anyone trying to divine me would also have to divine him.


    It gave me weight, in a metaphysical sense. Sun Wukong was more than me, his impact resounding across all of reality, his qi warming into the minds of many and becoming myth and religion.


    One that I didn¡¯t particularly want.


    The tail waved, seeming to know my thoughts.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t know you were half monkey,¡± Chin quipped.


    He was across the room and it was loud and bustling, but he knew I¡¯d hear it.


    I shrugged and sat silently, observing Cai and Xaio as they interacted with the locals. Xaio Wang seemed to be at a loss for words, getting overwhelmed by the children¡¯s questions and then slowly answering them one by one. She had shown them a traditional bow, one hand open and palming a fist, then bowing with a straight neck and now the kids had gone off to practice it with one another.


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    She still tossed a few awkward glances towards the maiden, especially when she saw Rin Wi was the one doing most of the cooking. Her eyes had almost left her head when Rin came out with several bowls full of soup and a plate of small bread.


    And the food was good, no it was great. Rin Wi had been trained to cook for literal gods and even with mortal ingredients, she was making delicious food. I was a little worried about her. Her choice of dao seemed to have been made in a rush.


    And the driving force behind her dao seemed weak. She had chosen to cook merely because she could, as an act of defiance against her past self. But she had stuck to it and there seemed to be genuine love for the craft. It was strange but when I asked her about it she only said one thing.


    ¡°The choice I made was arbitrary, but it was a choice that I made and to that, I must be true.¡±


    It was a strange approach. To cook, to live to cook. But it was the only thing she had felt connected to, and you couldn¡¯t just pick a dao. It had to be something you understood, something you desired.


    So in search of a meaning, anything besides a life of servitude she had chosen cooking.


    Rin WI frowned, and then her form flickered as she instantly disappeared. She had also taken to policing the area, smacking down anyone who dared to fight within the whole desert.


    Many people thought they could get away with violence at the edges of the desert. Many people were met with a slap from Rin Wi. One-fourth rank had been sent flying towards the ends of the region. The woman took face-slapping to another level.


    Medin, who would normally be shoveling food down my mouth specifically because she knew I had no real limit and got some sick joy from stuffing people full of food, was sitting in a corner and cradling a small child.


    ¡°Open wide,¡± she cooed.


    Nai smiled and opened her mouth. It was a battle of two beasts. One seemed to be able to cook a village¡¯s worth of food in an hour and the other was able to devour that food in a minute.


    This was Nai''s tenth plate. I was counting. I wanted to see how far this would go, considering Medin¡¯s need to overcook and overfeed, I wanted to see if the grandmas to rule all grandmas would fail.


    And by the looks of it, she had.


    Medin wasn¡¯t frowning per se but there was a tight smile of stress on her face. Each plate she had fed Nai could have made a grown man full and then some. The poor woman wouldn¡¯t be able to ship me off with a week¡¯s worth of food, at least not today.


    Rin Wi was smart enough to not give Nai more food. The child could eat a country¡¯s worth of food and be ready for more in an hour. Ten minutes later everyone was full, except for Medin and Nai. I eventually yanked the little monster from Medin¡¯s hands and freed the poor woman from Nai¡¯s bottomless stomach.


    Medin seemed sad, almost ashamed at her defeat.


    ¡°She could eat three cows and still have room for more Medin. You know how it is, cultivator stuff.¡±


    ¡°I understand Mister Bill, but if a child is hungry, they should be fed.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s not hungry, Medin. She just likes eating.¡±


    ¡°But if she¡¯s eating then she¡¯s hungry.¡±


    Grandma logic. Couldn¡¯t beat it. My own grandmother had been the same, feeding me till I was round and full. I¡¯d been a fat kid most of my life and that was mainly her doing.


    It was strange. I knew a lot and I remembered everything, but my memories, Bill¡¯s memories, shined brighter than most.


    It was interesting, warm even. Everything else was remembered and cataloged like files on a computer. Dane had done his best to rip the humanity out of his life. That was why his personality had been so easily destroyed, it was never there to begin with.


    Dane. He was me and I am him, but even when he was a god, an immortal beyond a mortal¡¯s mind. In the end, he was small. I was mostly Bill, a mortal given an immortal soul.


    Maybe that was why I didn¡¯t feel so out of place here.

 Chapter 67 Peace Part 2

    I said my goodbyes and walked with Nai on my shoulders. We were small again, taking our time and strolling through the forest and I was back to thinking.


    A dao was a big part of a person, but it started somewhere. It started with a feeling. Daos and Laws were different, but in a way, they were the same thing. They were rules, authorities, and concepts.


    While laws ruled over physical realities, daos ruled over souls. Things like gravity and time were akin to love and hatred within the human heart. But unlike laws, most of the concepts in a person''s head couldn¡¯t persist forever. Time wore down the human mind. Love once and it feels real, so passionate and amazing, but if you live for ten thousand years and love a hundred women, then what?


    It felt dull and faded. It unravels and frails at the edges. Then what about norms? Manners? Sanity? The things people held in their minds and never questioned. Morality? Emotions? Purpose? Self?


    It would break and crumble. Unlike plants and insects, who lived because they had to, we humans only live because we want to. Whereas a tree grows because it must, we choose to live.


    We didn¡¯t know it for the first few hundred years of our life of course. It¡¯s natural. Socially and biologically, we tended to ignore that reality. But the truth is that we choose to live and make that choice over and over again with every breath we take.


    But you noticed it with enough time. You felt it, and eventually, you realized there was another choice. Silence, freedom, absolute oblivion. It was inevitable. Some people found a way to live forever, physically that is.


    They were called false immortals because while their bodies persisted for eternity, their souls would degrade further and further until they either went mad or became frozen still in apathy.


    Others tried to freeze their soul, capturing their personality and trying to put it in permanent stasis. It never worked. The soul was an adapting thing, and it desired to experience, eventually, every safeguard would break.


    Even Dane had fallen. He had lasted longer than most. He had wiped out his past emotions, restructuring his soul in some strange ways. To live without a dao, he had broken the part of himself that felt.


    I looked towards a group of beavers that huddled in single file towards the center of the forest. Animals. Powerful animals beyond a mortal¡¯s comprehension but animals still.


    They were like insects and plants. They lived to conquer, to grow, to be a beast.


    Or at least they had.


    I still hadn¡¯t had that talk with Lin Tai. Beasts could gain a dao. It wasn¡¯t unheard of. The Dao of The Dragon, the Dao of Tiger. But unlike humans who searched their hearts for their dao, beasts searched their nature. They became more of what they were, and in that, they found meaning.


    ¡°Ugh,¡± Nai said from my shoulders.


    ¡°You want to follow the beavers?¡±


    ¡°Ugh.¡±


    We followed them, silently watching the small gods trod their way through the forest floor.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± the big one spoke. ¡°If the birds want all the food from the trees, then what are we supposed to eat?¡±


    ¡°The ground stuff,¡± the smaller beaver yelped. ¡°And the stuff from the waterways. But don¡¯t worry big, that won¡¯t happen.¡±


    Big. What a clever name.


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Big asked.


    ¡°Because it¡¯s all upsey downy. At least that¡¯s what the House of Wisdom has said.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Big replied. ¡°Upsey downy?¡±


    ¡°Upsey downy, the laws are all manifesting in the places where they shouldn¡¯t be,¡± the small one answered.


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    This was true. The array had grown, and in its growth, it had started to harvest the laws manifesting around here on its own. It was also manipulating where they manifested. It was the first thing the array had ever done. Ground laws were now manifesting in the air and air laws were manifesting in the ground. The rivers held fire laws and water laws were born in the salamanders¡¯ dwelling.


    It was strange, but it was also the reason the beasts were getting along. The array, at its core, was something designed to bring peace. And by forcing the beasts to trade with one another, that was exactly what it was doing.


    I was tinkering with it, feeding it my own understanding of peace now and then. But it was its own thing. It was alive and growing and the forest belonged to it.


    It forced the beasts to interact and by interacting they had to get along. It was making peace, all on its own accord, and by taking away their struggle it took away their need for nature. And when beasts deserted their nature, then what were they but humans?


    I frowned. I didn¡¯t like that. Part of the reason why I felt so okay with using beasts as a source of laws was their nature. They would kill me if they could, so I would use them like metaphysical batteries, and even then, I offered them freedom with a memory wipe.


    Thank the Dao that none of them had taken me up on that offer. I had made that deal back when I believed myself to be in the clear. I wouldn¡¯t dare to release one of them now that I knew Tai Jey was after me.


    I wouldn¡¯t dare to give him a single clue. But now what? Was I enslaving people? Thinking sentient caring individuals?


    I frowned and stared off at the beavers as they waddled on through their territory. My soul fluttered and my dao pushed. Was it peaceful?


    What is peace? Is it freedom?


    No. It is not freedom, but in a way it was.


    Was it strength?


    No. It was not strength, but in a way it was.


    It was a paradox. Freedom protected by rules. Weakness made possible through strength.


    Was keeping the beasts here right?


    If they were not here, then they wouldn¡¯t be people. They¡¯d be animals killing and fighting one another for their own instincts.


    If they were in the wild, many of them would be dead.


    What they wanted would lead them to death and violence and in turn make them unworthy of being free.


    A paradox.


    My dao settled.


    Peace in the self.


    Peace in others.


    Peace in the world.


    Then it clicked and settled, like a puzzle finding its final spot. Enlightenment struck me.


    ¡°I see.¡±


    Is that what it was? A paradox,? A limit? Order within chaos and chaos within order.


    The memory of the primordial qi flooded me and my crippled soul shivered. What was, what is, and what could be.


    Then Nai started tugging on my hair while mumbling some well-organized gibberish. It almost sounded like a language.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I replied. Reach up above my head to pat her. ¡°Just thinking.¡±


    We started to walk back home and Nai sat atop my head, banging my skull like a bad bongo player.


    Peace was had. Peace was given. And peace was kept.


    And each peace was different, and yet very much the same.


    My dao broke into the immortal realm as I walked back home. There was no tribulation or divine lightning. I was already beyond the immortal stage, and there was no progression of power or strength.


    But there was a little bit more of me than there was before, and there was a warm feeling in my soul that came with it.

 Chapter 68 Blood

    Cai sat in a room with only one other person. He should have seen this coming, and he had, but he was still unprepared for this conversation. Over the past few months, his life had turned upside down and right side up. First, a fourth rank had tried to kill him, then a fifth. He had met an immortal and found a new path to power that would have carried him all the way to the fifth rank. And he had also given up that power, choosing to be weak and safe instead of strong and hunted.


    But now was the strangest thing because sitting across from him was Xaio Wang. His sister.


    Cai didn¡¯t know what that meant. He knew what family was supposed to be, but he had never experienced any of those so-called unbreakable bonds of blood. His blood had only brought him pain so far. This one might be different though. No doubt she had come here to save him and gain some form of favor, maybe she wanted to drag him to the Raging River Sect and raise him there instead. But now that he was crippled, she too would have no choice but to turn away and leave him be.


    ¡°I did not know of your existence,¡± she started. ¡°Our father is a bastard dog and one of the strongest members of our sects. He has ten wives and even then they can not contain him. He has more bastard children than we know of.¡±


    ¡°Well, surely he is not-¡±


    ¡°He is. Do not defend the man. You are not the first child he has sired within the Flowering Sword Sect, nor are you the last. He is a blight of a man, but he is strong so his baselessness is tolerated.¡±


    She raised a teacup to her mouth and took a sip. They were in a newly built house, one that the Honored Master had put together in a matter of minutes. It was made of wood and marble and it shone with slight prestige, though the outside didn¡¯t show that. From the outside, it looked like just another peasant¡¯s home.


    It was where Cai would live, though he didn¡¯t know for how long.


    ¡°My own mother was seduced by him when she was barely of age, but she was prudent enough to know her worth and disavow the man before any ties could be born from the arrangement. And my existence, as a child with blood from two of the strongest clans within the Raging River Sect could not be so easily discarded. So she had me and raised me to manifest my talents to the best of her abilities. What do you know of our father?¡±


    ¡°His name, and his reputation,¡± Cai replied.


    ¡°Qiao Zheng is widely known for being a dog of the earth. But that is only one side of the coin. The Raging River Sect¡¯s talent is inherited by blood. Our strength is tied to our parentage, but it takes a very specific breeding pair to pass down that nature to the child. Qiao Zheng acts the way he does to spread his seed and grow as much talent as possible, and he has created several new talents over the years so the Sect tolerates his actions. He is like a champion stallion that no one can tame but is allowed to run free because of his sires. If it were up to me, I would have already castrated the man.¡±


    Cai didn¡¯t know what to say so he nodded and mumbled an old proverb.


    ¡°Fortune comes with no reason, merely blessings.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Fortune does not choose the worthy.¡± Xaio Wang nodded. ¡°But that does not matter now. What does matter is that you were not supposed to exist. We did not think that the Raging River¡¯s bloodline technique could arise from a pairing made with a person of another blood. You¡¯re an anomaly.¡±


    Cai could see where she was going. She was trying to bring him with her. Since he represented something her sect did not understand, she wanted to bring him and study him. Maybe the sect could create prodigies with pure bloodlines out of bastards somehow. He was a tool, a useful idiot to use in search of a stronger bloodline. He would refuse of course. He would not entrust himself to any one of the great five sects. He would rather die in the desert as a lowly second-rank loose cultivator.


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    But before Cai could voice his thoughts, Xaio Wang bowed.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Xaio Wang spoke. ¡°All of these are the reasons as to why I arrived so late. I had only heard of your situation when your Patriarch visited the Raging River Sect for his daughter¡¯s wedding. Had I known sooner, I would have been here to help. I can only blame my own ignorance for your suffering. I have failed as an elder and as a sister. Please forgive this Xaio Wang.¡±


    Cai¡¯s mind blanked. He had been expecting a plead to follow her back to her sect or a bribe possibly, but an apology was the last thing on his mind. No one had ever done that before. No one had ever said they were sorry to him. Not his cousins or his mother. His servants had, but they had to apologize.


    ¡°You have no responsibility towards me young mistress Xaio Wang. As you said, Qiao Zheng has many bastards and I am no more relevant than the rest.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Xaio Wang. ¡°They do not bear the burden of his blood. We do. I have gone through what you have and as your older sibling, it is my job to protect you.¡±


    ¡°You ask too much of yourself,¡± he interrupted.


    She stood up straight.


    ¡°You ask too little,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯ve met your mother. I believed my father to have been the worst parent within the Five Great Sects, and yet she proved me wrong. I asked her why she didn¡¯t bring you with her. Do you know what she said?¡±


    Cai shook his head, but he could guess.


    ¡°She said that she and Qiao could just make another one.¡±


    Cai Xuin laughed. Xaio Wang did not.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she replied.


    There was guilt there, but also pity. Pity was more than what Cai had ever gotten.


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. You knew nothing of my existence.¡±


    ¡°You are my brother,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Only by blood. We were not raised together. It means nothing-¡±


    ¡°It means everything,¡± she interrupted. ¡°We are blood kin. Just because your parents failed to recognize the importance of that, it doesn¡¯t mean you should.¡±


    Cai stopped talking.


    ¡°My mother has already started sending out agents to monitor the other bastards of Qiao Zheng. Most of them are well, if not for the lack of a father. And none of them show aptitude for the power of the Raging River Sect.¡±


    She said the last part with relief in her voice.


    ¡°I see,¡± Cai replied.


    ¡°That means we need not worry about their safety. They will be well-kept and raised with good care. And I hear your mother is already pregnant with a second child. It¡¯s a shame she¡¯d be allowed to have one, but fortune comes with no reason, merely blessings.¡±


    Cai nodded, still in a daze of emotional confusion.


    ¡°It¡¯s a shame we met under these conditions, but I hope to be a good sibling and reliable pillar for you, brother Cai.¡±


    That one hit him like Tai Lui¡¯s blade.


    Brother.


    He smiled. He still didn¡¯t trust her. The only person he trusted was the Honored Master, and that was because a person that powerful had no reason to lie to him.


    Brother.


    The word sat strangely in his chest.


    ¡°I thank you for your consideration¡­ Sister-¡±


    ¡°Do not force yourself. My words cannot prove my intentions but my actions will. Be at peace younger brother, Xaio Wang is a fine name to be called.¡±


    ¡°I thank you for your consideration, Xaio Wang.¡±


    ¡°Please, I do as I should. Nothing less.¡±


    Cai nodded and sipped on his own tea in silence.


    ¡°The child will probably be fine,¡± he said after a minute. ¡°They¡¯ll be trained in the Raging River¡¯s technique and well looked after. Mother will look after them like a shiny piece of jewelry. They¡¯ll be a symbol of her and Qiao¡¯s marriage as well, something that she¡¯ll forever cherish.¡±


    ¡°Something that she¡¯ll cherish?¡±


    ¡°Something that she¡¯ll cherish,¡± Cai reiterated. ¡°She¡¯s like a child that one, hoping from one toy to the next. She took care of me for a while when I was a child but when I failed to do anything notable, she stopped looking after me. As long as her new child has some talent, she¡¯ll care for them for a good while longer, I think.¡±


    His sister scrunched in anger, then it turned to sadness.


    ¡°Do you hate her?¡± She asked.


    ¡°No,¡± Cai replied, somewhat surprised by his certainty.


    ¡°Why?¡± Xaio asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± he took a moment to formulate his thoughts. ¡°The pain from a loved one isn¡¯t so simple. The way you see our father is not the way I see my mother. I suffered from her neglect and apathy, yes. But I also know her love. I don¡¯t know if it was love in truth, but she cared for me. She raised me, fed me, hugged me to sleep, and sang for me. And I loved her. I still do in some ways. Whatever disdain I feel now will forever be poisoned by that love.¡±


    Xaio Wang¡¯s frown slowly left her face and she took another sip of her tea.


    ¡°I see,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Do you think that¡¯s foolish?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± she replied. ¡°I think that¡¯s human.¡±

 Chapter 69 The Man and His Dao

    Gai Jin punched the air. There was no qi within his fists, no power, only technique. His muscles though were refined over and over again, each limb could break hillsides and his full set of martial arts could flatten mountains, without qi.


    With qi, he could shatter valleys. And though his strikes hit nothing but air, the impact was still tangible. He moved with such speed that the world seemed to pause as he struck.


    In reality, his whole technique had been executed in less than a tenth of a second. Ten thousand strikes within the span of a blink.


    He had moved himself to the Desert Mountains at the peak of the Great Desert Strip. These mountains were thin and tall, reaching a hundred miles into the sky. He now stood at the summit, a small plot of land about a mile wide.


    Even that was too small for the entirety of his skill. This was where he had practiced back when he was just a young monk. He¡¯d make pilgrimages here beyond his master¡¯s eyes.


    Anger flared and qi moved into his leg. Gai turned and struck the air and the wind howled in agony.


    Anger was a constant companion of his. Sometimes there was sadness, rarely pity, but always anger. Always.


    He stood still and breathed. A facade of calmness took over his soul. It was the calm of an unsheathed sword and the burn of an unlit pyre. It would only take one movement, one thought, one spark to light it again.


    He carried himself and let his skin soak up the sun. How long had it been since he had felt this? A century, maybe two?


    He had been locked away, buried deep beneath the earth with all those demonic creatures.


    Bugs, animals, plants, and people who had fed from the corpses of the demons that hid below. Monks, they called themselves monks and yet they allowed such a hell beneath their lands.


    The three dead demons lay beneath all of the five regions. The snake, the bat, and the man. The bat had been claimed by those blind bastards who mixed its blood with their own, and the snake¡¯s poison had been studied and harnessed by the Hidden Viper Sect, though they were wise enough to separate themselves from the demon¡¯s essence.


    And the Bloody Fist Sect had been built above the demonic man. It was their job to wear away and destroy the evil qi that built up from that specific corpse. But they hadn¡¯t. No, instead they had started to harvest the evil festering beneath the earth, mining the qi vein that was born of demonic blood.


    It was wrong. They should have been constantly destroying the qi from such a monstrosity, but instead, they let it grow and in their greed, they gave way to monsters.


    Those demonic beasts beneath the pit. They had tossed him there when rebelled.


    They thought he would die.


    He hadn¡¯t.


    For centuries he fought through their mistakes, killing hundreds of thousands of those creatures. In truth, he could have left that hell beneath the ground earlier, but he had stayed.


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    He couldn¡¯t let those demonic creatures burst into the surface. If they did then millions would die. The monks knew this. Gai Lu knew this. Yet he had let his greed consume him and risk the growth of these creatures for the spirit stones their ambient qi could produce.


    As men of the virtuous path, theirs was the burden of the weak. It was their duty to protect the weak.


    And even in anger, even in undying hatred, he could not let that burden go.


    Gai Jin struck the air once more, breaking it with his hands.


    The Bloody Fist was his technique. It was a body refining technique, one meant to destroy and build one¡¯s fists. It was strength and beauty, but it was also misunderstood.


    Gai found that every technique had two aspects. One was the physical aspect, the laws and meridian pathways qi had to follow to become p[ower. That was the fuel of the fire and the heat of it. That was the impact.


    But the purpose was just as important. That was the man the fire warmed. And to the Bloody Fist, that purpose was perseverance. The fist was bloody because no matter the evil, it would not stop punching.


    That was the way of the monk and the core of the technique, for goodness to triumph evil must be defeated.


    So he had fought. His vengeance halted for the sake of his dao, his strength resolute, his fury unwavering.


    He had eaten demonic meat to live, unable to find any plants within that deep abyss.


    That was his path.


    But now he was free, having sealed the corpse and killed all the demonic beings beneath the earth. And his anger burned brightly.


    Gai Jin moved, with qi this time. All the elders within the five regions could sense him now. Let them. They could not beat him.


    The mountain trembled beneath his feet.


    How long had it been here? A thousand years? Ten thousand years? It wasn¡¯t natural. A thing like this must have been the product of some technique or ancient battle.


    The whole of the region was. From here he could see out into the wild and abandoned land beyond.


    The Great Desert Strip was a scar upon the land. It was a great deep gash that cut through all qi and presence, reaching far beyond the region and into the lands beyond. It must have been made by someone far beyond the immortal realm.


    It had been here before the demons were felled and it would outlast them yet. The Broken Isles of the Flowering Sword Sect were visible from here as well. The technique of their predecessors scarred their land beautifully and the dao of their technique. To anyone below the fifth rank, it would look like nothing more than a mess of islands but to someone of his sense, it was like a blooming field of flowers in the distance.


    Closer to him on the same side of the Great Desert was the Raging River¡¯s territory. There was Spring Mountain City. It was the most robust city within the region, being the place immortals and powerful out-of-region elders would rest, should they choose to come here.


    With his eyes, he could see the buildings, even from thousands of miles away. He¡¯d been there once, and strangely enough, very little had changed. He had been imprisoned when he was young.


    But that was hundreds of years ago. All the mortal settlements had shifted and changed from where they once were, but the dwelling of cultivators seemed to stay the same.


    Gai Jin struck again. The air screamed.


    He was a dark-colored man, unlike his sister he had always been naturally tan and as he had aged, it seemed to be a persistent trait of his skin. But the skin on his limbs was different.


    Traditionally the Bloody Fist technique was used only on the hands, but during his fight with those beasts he had learned to use it on his legs, his knees, his elbows, and even his feet.


    His limbs were scarred and strong. The demons beneath his land were dead. The old man¡¯s demonic corpse was sealed.


    Now all that awaited was vengeance.


    Gai Jin struck. His fists flowed with qi and clouds fled from the mountain peak with every move.


    Once more thunder echoed for a hundred miles. Animals fled the mountain, from the smallest insects to the largest beasts. Gai waited, letting them all leave the land before finally, doing one strike to his strength.


    Qi traversed through his body, from his three dantians to his fists. His minor dantians blossomed with strength and energy burst from his very being. Strength from the lower dantian, spirit from the middle dantian, and purpose from the upper dantian.


    His fist struck the ground.


    It was a silent strike, the sound of a small sack hitting the floor.


    And the world turned silent for a second.


    Then, the ancient mountain crumbled.


    Gai Jin screamed. His sister was dead. His sister was dead and that bastard had killed her.


    Fury overwhelmed his soul and the world of dust beneath him could do nothing to calm it down.

 Chapter 70 The Great and Small

    Barlo Hew was a stranger in a strange land.


    Well, not truly. The mortals changed and varied, but the cultivators stayed the same. Fashion changed in some places, but that also stayed the same. Cultivators, for all their power, were copycats.


    The lower ranks copied the immortals, the immortals copied the gods, and the gods copied whatever bastard ruled above them.


    The rich copied the cultivators and the poor did the same. There were variances here in there, but the soul of the sentiment was there.


    Face, politics, power. It was all treated the same way.


    That was why he was beyond shocked to find two fifth ranks talking in a small village on the outskirts of the region.


    Barlo was new to this region. Normally, traversing this far out into the wilds was something only immortals would dare to do. The beasts out here were weak but many. The sparse qi in this area, along with the already established human region and demonic stench kept the people of the region safe.


    It was one of many foothold regions that served as rest spots for some of the larger region nations even further away. There was low-quality


    qi here, a lack of strength or treasures, and an egregious lack of talent.


    Even the Void Blade Empire only taxed the region as a formal action. No resource born of this place could be worth the waste of an immortal¡¯s time to come gather it.


    And Barlo himself was at the cusp of the fourth rank. It was nothing grand outside of this region but something worth noting for anyone within it.


    So Barlo had treasures, some he bought and some he took. One of the more important treasurers he wore at all times, was the Spectacles of Dark Deception. They were a pair of reading spectacles with a dark tint on the glass. A tint so dark people would have thought Barlo blind at first glance.


    The spectacles were circular and cut off the sides of his eyes as well, limiting his vision. They gave him an air of strangeness and a foreign aura. But most importantly they gave him the ability to go undetected by anyone below the immortal rank.


    That was the reason he had been able to run through the wilds unbothered. Even the spirit beasts within the wilds couldn¡¯t detect his presence. And their more important secondary feature heightened his senses beyond limits.


    And while he looked like a forgettable man sitting in a restaurant in the middle of a mortal village, slowly chipping away at his bread and meat. He was anything but.


    ¡°He let you live,¡± the older man commented. ¡°That is one mercy.¡±


    ¡°It was an insult,¡± the younger-looking man replied. ¡°A reminder of my weakness. It was his way of saying he sees me as such a nonfactor that my death would be more trouble than its worth.¡±


    Barlo kept eating. The fifth ranks had done well to hide their aura, but there were other things that spoke of their power. The precision of their limbs for one. Mortals were clumsy and inefficient. They didn''t control their muscles to this degree. The posture, the eyes, and the way they carried themselves spoke of centuries of power and practice.


    Cultivators fought with their bodies, and controlling it even out of combat was second nature.


    Barlo himself was at the fourth rank. If they were at or below that level, he¡¯d know, no matter how well they tried to hide it. And if they were an immortal, well then they wouldn¡¯t be here.


    He could run, but that would be stupid. They¡¯d notice that right away. Someone of their rank could sense almost a hundred miles out, and even further than that with practice.


    No, Barlo had been in this situation before, with both beasts and not men.


    He knew what he had to do.


    Just sit still and eat his soup. Silence was his friend here.


    ¡°That damn bastard. What a waste of a man, what an empty thing to be, an immortal with no pride.¡±


    They whispered this, talking hushedly in a room full of mortals, but Barlo heard them as if they were right next to his ear.


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    An immortal? Here?


    Barlo frowned.


    He didn¡¯t like immortals. They were too prissy. Too fussy.


    ¡°He came with a mortal. An old man.¡±


    ¡°How strange,¡± the older man replied.


    ¡°And he mentioned you.¡±


    Their food was untouched, but had they been eating, the older man would have choked.


    ¡°Me? What? How? If you spoke of my-¡±


    ¡°I said nothing.¡±


    Barlo also said nothing. But he wanted to say a lot. Why bother him? Why meet in a restaurant? There were tens of thousands of square miles of unmonitored wilderness for them to use. Why gather here to talk of such private and important business?


    He had no desire to hear it.


    But Barlo knew why. To them, this was the wilderness. To be among mortals was to be among insects, and no one cared if an ant heard their secrets. This was a setting, they preferred over trees and rocks.


    And they trusted their own power too much to ever doubt their abilities.


    Barlo ate. At least the noodles here weren¡¯t bad. Many villages had their own cuisine and this one was no different. The noodles were boiled in a mixture of bone broth and local herbs and spices and it was worth his time more than the ramblings of two backwater cultivators.


    ¡°He¡¯s arrogant,¡± the younger one spoke. ¡°He appears out of nowhere then he declares the whole of the Great Desert Strip to be his? And those rules, those inane useless rules. To fight is the way of the cultivator, to strip us of that right is an insult.¡±


    ¡°How did he know then?¡± The older man asked. ¡°How could he know about us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t quite know, some divination technique, I assume. I felt it touching my soul.¡±


    Two lovers denied their right to be with each other? How interesting, Barlo thought.


    ¡°Does he know of our plans? I cannot have him interfere any more than he already has.¡±


    Plotting power-hungry bastards. How boring.


    Barlo sighed and put his spoon into the soup. They wouldn¡¯t come after him, not unless they could see through his treasures effect, and there were no chances of that happening. He just hated having his meal spoiled by some prissy pissy bastards.


    He slurped. At least the soup was good.


    ¡°And what of the Great Desert Strip?¡± The older man asked. ¡°Is it true what they say about it being guarded?¡±


    The younger man nodded.


    ¡°It is guarded. He says no violence is allowed within the place. I couldn¡¯t sense anything, but his senses must be covering the whole strip.¡±


    Now that was interesting.


    ¡°Why did the crippled bastard choose to settle here of all places,¡± the younger man said.


    ¡°Who knows,¡± the older man replied. ¡°He probably wanted to find a place where no one would bother him.¡±


    ¡°What do you suppose his dao is anyway? I¡¯ve never heard of a dao breaking beyond the immortal rank.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a rare thing but it does happen. We have some old records within the sect, but not an immortal breaking their dao. It frightens me that such a thing is even possible.¡±


    ¡°Do you think Gai Jin broke his dao?¡± The younger man replied.


    ¡°No. He¡¯s still a monk, I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re that certain?¡±


    ¡°He has immense talent.¡±


    There was a moment of silence as the two men contemplated something.


    ¡°Do you think he¡¯s let it go by now? It seems trivial to fight over such a mortal. Surely a price can be paid to settle the debt?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a monk of virtue,¡± the old man replied. ¡°He will not forget the misdeed so easily.¡±


    ¡°And you are not?¡± The younger man replied.


    ¡°I am. And I¡¯ve come to regret my choice over the years¡­ but she was a whore. She was spoiling the boy. A person of such talent should not be raised by such a woman.¡±


    The younger other man snorted.


    ¡°So you killed her because she was unseemingly?¡±


    ¡°She was an impurity on a bright and clear jade. If it wasn¡¯t for the other one¡­¡±


    ¡°Is that why you let her flee?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Gai Jin was already rebelling back then. She had already ruined him.¡±


    ¡°Why not kill her still?¡±


    ¡°It would be unseemingly,¡± the monk replied.


    ¡°Is face truly the only thing you care for?¡±


    ¡°Virtue shines among sins. My actions and nature reflect myself and my sect. If I, the pinnacle of the Bloody Fist Sect am not seen as virtuous, then who can be?¡±


    Barlo almost laughed at the conversation. What a strange pair. Face and Ego. Pride worn on the outside and in.


    But what interested him even more was this immortal.


    An immortal with a broken dao? Now that was rare. Daos could break for many reasons, but the most common reason was a refusal to execute. If your dao was justice and your actions were not, then either your dao would break or it would change. But even then, daos were like people constantly changing and filtering as a person did. Unless you violated the very fundamentals of your dao very quickly then breaking it was near impossible.


    And even then. Good could turn to evil, and evil could turn to good. You could rebuild or rediscover what you were. Barlo¡¯s dao was greatness. He was great, this was undeniable.


    But if he were to one day suffer and break his dao, he could rebuild it. A dao, a way of life was not a singular thing. It was made out of many things. Your understanding of the world, the truths of life and nature, all you knew, and all you wanted were a part of it.


    Unless you discarded your very self or gave up a core part of yourself, then you would not break your dao.


    But someone else could. That was much more common.


    And yet, this immortal spoke of rules and actions, even interfering in people¡¯s affairs. Would a man with a broken dao do that? Barlo did not know.


    But he wanted to.


    The two kept speaking. They talked of plots and betrayal. They talked of demons and wars.


    But mostly they spoke of power and how to obtain it.


    They were two foolish men who wanted nothing but power and greatness.


    Two things that would come naturally to Barlo Hew.


    Eventually, he left and feigned sleep in one of the rooms above. Their sense would reach his private room. He waited till they left, then left the village, heading for another place about thirty miles from this one.


    Once there, he rested and after a bit of thought, made way for the Great Desert Strip. It had a strange immortal there, after all, surely it would be worth his time.

 Chapter 71 Conversations

    Chapter 71 Conversations


    Po Pen smiled. Po Pen found joy in his work. People found it strange, repugnant even.


    But Po didn¡¯t care. The joy wasn¡¯t in the work itself, but rather the result. The clean streets, the fresh soil, and even the rot of waste into life were a beautiful thing to see. He had started the job as a way to make a living.


    He was quiet, too quiet. He couldn¡¯t work most other jobs, because he hated talking and partly, he hated listening.


    People were selfish most of the time, talking only about things that they cared for. And since they rarely understood his nonverbal rejection, they¡¯d talk for as long as they wanted about whatever they wanted.


    Po just had that effect on people.


    But Xi Lu was different. She was quiet when he was tired and when he wasn¡¯t, she talked to him, not at him. She spoke of things that interested him, teaching him about plants and rot, sometimes she talked about unimportant things like the food they ate or the weather in the region and even that was a fun enough thing to talk about.


    He said nothing, often nodding in reply or looking towards something in the distance, but she seemed to yank meaning from his gestures and would reply to him concisely. It was a first for the man, he not only found a person¡¯s company neutral but pleasant as well.


    This rainy season had been the hardest one that Po had ever seen. There were easily ten times the number of people here and the same could be said for their beasts of burden, and yet they had almost no trouble accepting them all.


    And a major reason for that was the maidens. Seven capable women descended from the hermit¡¯s home and aided the village in all their needs, it was a mythic thing. But Chin hadn¡¯t cared, the old man had put the girls to work before they could even introduce themselves. Rin Wi was always with Medin and Lin Tai was responsible for managing the forest, though Po didn¡¯t think a forest needed much managing, but what did he know?


    And Xi Lu had been aiding him in clean-up. But the rest of the girls had been helping with the generic work and that had caused a stir with the young men of the village. The girls were stronger, more capable, and far too beautiful for their own good.


    A few men had tried to harm them, but they¡¯d all been firmly rejected, and then later visited by Chin carrying an old stick. Everyone now understood that the women were off limits, but still, their ability to aid in anything made them stand out anywhere they went.


    All that made everyone suddenly shift their attention to three locations, where the four women were, where Rin Wi was, and where Xi Lu resided. That meant that Po had been getting stopped much more often than before and asked questions about that mysterious cultivator girl he spent so much time with.


    To which Po would shrug and try to turn away.


    Even when he enjoyed one person¡¯s presence, the world seemed to find a way to ruin it. Though it wasn¡¯t a bad price to pay for her information.


    ¡°Po Pen! Hello!¡± Xi Lu smiled.


    She always did that, even if he had been gone for only an hour she would greet him with enthusiasm.


    It was strange at first, but Po had quickly gotten used to it.


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    He nodded with a slight smile on his face. Most people wouldn¡¯t have noticed it, it was just a small tensing at the end of his lips. But she noticed somehow, much like Mister Bill.


    ¡°Well, how is it?¡±


    He nodded. That was enough for her to understand his meaning.


    ¡°Good! I¡¯ve been talking to merchants, mainly those from Hidden Viper¡¯s territory and they carry an assortment of seeds we can use to add to the cleansing routine. What do you think about that then?¡±


    He nodded again and Xi continued talking.


    She went on about the nature of these plants and their various abilities and Po listened eagerly. He watched as she showed him various seeds and their effects and she even had books, books she had purchased from the trader with her own wealth.


    They had started planning and scheming about a new form of sewers. Caverns filled with streams and fresh flowing water, stuffed with underground plants that fed off of all types of waste and filth.


    And she also talked about breeding bacteria. He was aware of their existence, but he normally thought of them as bad things that caused illness. But he was wrong, apparently, these things were vital to most humans'' existence. And they were just as vital outside of it.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how they do things in places like these but I can think up of a few ways to create a good environment for them.¡±


    Po gave her a questioning look.


    ¡°Oh well, where I¡¯m from we never really had to deal with such¡­ problems. People didn¡¯t poop.¡±


    Po gave her another look.


    ¡°Well, they just didn¡¯t. Maybe some did, newborns at least but powerful people are different. You don¡¯t defecate after the fourth rank.¡±


    Po frowned. That didn¡¯t sit right with him. People were people and people pooped. What type of person didn¡¯t need to poop.


    ¡°They¡¯re very clean back there, which was ironic when you think about the things they dealt in.¡±


    She said things like this sometimes. Statements about her past followed by what seemed to be fear and guilt. Po had learned to stop asking. She clearly didn¡¯t want to talk about it and Po didn¡¯t want to talk about anything so who was he to pick and prod?


    And clearly, there was pain there.


    But it would rot, like all bad things did. Time would take the filth and turn it into life, it always did.


    He nodded and sat down next to her, listening as she quickly changed the subject back to seeds. There was still guilt and some flashes of horror, but a little less than last time. It would always be a little less than last time.


    Mister Bill had come by a while back and spoke vaguely of the maiden¡¯s situation. Po didn¡¯t understand. How could he, he was a village peasant, the shit man. But for the first time in Po¡¯s life, he felt like he wouldn¡¯t mind just listening, even if all she wanted to talk about was herself.


    After a good amount of talking, Po went off to unload the feces. There were about twenty thousand people within the valley at any given time now. That meant there were thousands of pounds of feces produced on a daily basis.


    Chin had given him a higher budget for the clean-up work. His workforce was double what it used to be and while they wore waterproof gloves and large leather workwear, they still occasionally managed to get something on them.


    It was unfortunate, but it was a part of the job. But Xi had made this strange paste from some strong-smelling plants. When they smeared that just underneath their nostrils, they would smell that instead of the wagon of shit they wheeled behind them.


    It was nice, humanizing even.


    He didn¡¯t hate the job but the smell was always something he could do without.


    Then there was the beast dung. That was a whole work of its own, but Chin had already gotten an area cleared out for them to stay at. And since qi beasts tended to be smart on average, they were all trained in using a single area as their dump spot.


    It was downwind of the village, but even then Po was coming up with methods to fight back the smell, and so was Xi. She talked all day long about what they could do to quicken the composting process, walking by his side as he went about his daily route.


    And eventually, when evening came they said their goodbyes and went to their homes. It was a good day overall.


    Was this how other people felt when they talked? Being heard was nice and having someone who wanted to hear you was even better.


    Maybe that was why people kept talking to him.


    Po Pen smiled as he used the soap to wash over his whole body. It was one of the few luxuries he consistently enjoyed, a daily shower.


    He was also finding himself more tired than most days. A part of him he never really knew ached a little. Conversations drained him, even if it was with Xi, but he didn¡¯t mind.


    In fact, he looked forward to being tired tomorrow too.

 Chapter 72 Awakening

    Babies are weird.


    Nai had been fighting with my tail for the past three hours, and the poor girl was losing. The appendage had a will of its own and as soon as Nai had recognized that fact, she had started to battle with it.


    Small balled fists grabbed onto the tail, but the limb wrapped around her hands and brought them up to her head. Then, it went for the kill striking at her pudgy little belly. Nai laughed and giggled and the tail didn¡¯t slow down the offense.


    Eventually, when tears started to come out of Nai¡¯s eyes, it decided to stop and release her. After taking a minute to catch her breath, she growled and attacked and the cycle repeated once more.


    The tail had been weirding me out for a while now, to be honest. It was mine, I knew it was mine, but it was also not mine at the same time. It was like having an extra consciousness attached to my own. Technically we were one and the same but we also weren¡¯t.


    I didn¡¯t feel threatened by it. I just didn¡¯t understand it. It was simultaneously me and not me at the same time. And when you got to where I did, you understood the very center of your existence with no doubt in mind.


    Yet here was a strange new part of me that I couldn¡¯t grasp. It made me feel like a kid again.


    After twenty more minutes of the tickle cycle, Nai fell asleep all weary and tuckered out. The tail gently carried her to my hands and I swaddled her up and took her to her crib. She was growing substantially, a little more each day I saw her, but children didn¡¯t make good immortals. They could still age once they became an immortal but expecting a child to pick a dao was dysfunctional.


    She had to age before she did that, she had to believe in something.


    After putting her to bed, I made my way down to my basement.


    That was where the door was. The door was unnecessary, but I liked it. It was the way to my pocket dimension.


    And within it was the array. I would call it my array but it was starting to think. I couldn¡¯t own something like that.


    But today would be the first movement, the first stirring of a nearly there child.


    Well, not my child, but sort of like my child. A simulated soul.


    I was giddy.


    Souls were common, making a soul was common, but the nature of that soul was the same. Most beings were a reflection of one of the four primordials, human, beast, plant, or insect. And the soul, the mechanism by which consciousness operated, was based on those beings as well.


    You could change forms, become stronger, influence bloodline, and do all other manners of transfiguration. But souls were hard to change. They were complex.


    Even Dane, a being of the twelfth rank had trouble with altering his soul. He had understood it, but altering it was something else entirely. You could understand how a wheel works and you might even be able to make it, but making a new wheel, one that wasn¡¯t a wheel but functioned like one was a tough task.


    It was the same with souls. The four variants of thinking beings are human, beast, insect, and plant. But this was different, something rare. Not impossible and certainly not a new task that had never been done before. There were many thinking beings that had been made to differ from the path of the primordials, but each of those was different, their own iteration of the wheel.


    But it was something new.


    Something unique to all of reality. My own iteration of the wheel.


    The array¡¯s heart thumped. A metaphysical web of push, pull and hold, and its soul started to breathe. Its eyes opened for a second, looking and seeing for the first time, and it breathed once more.


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    Thump.


    It was already at the immortal rank.


    Bump.


    Then it was beyond it.


    Thump.


    It kept going and going, pushing itself until.


    Bump.


    It hit the wall of the ninth rank.


    It struggled against that barrier for a quick moment, before seemingly settling down.


    The array squirmed and shifted, finally looking at me with what could vaguely be described as disinterest.


    It knew me and I knew it, even if it had only been awake for less than five minutes.


    It asked me one thing and one thing only.


    Let me out.


    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡±


    Why?


    ¡°You¡¯d get me noticed. Too much attention and we¡¯ll both be wiped out.¡±


    I had enough sense of mind to tie its existence to my will, at least in part. I could control where the array went and I could see inside of it clearly, knowing every little thought that might flutter.


    It was weird. I¡¯d seen the universe eating insects and trees that stood outside of space and time, but this was still different.


    Souls dictated nature. A plant grows and insects have no room for empathy or love, merely purpose. Beasts desired strength and humans could dictate their purpose or get consumed by it entirely.


    This thing was different. Its purpose was already predetermined, much like a dao angel but somehow still different. Dao angels were locked into their nature unless they consumed more residual daos that would slowly change their nature over time.


    Otherwise, they would like Rin Wi¡¯s tribulation, tied to one path and forced to follow it no matter what. And she had only broken away through sheer will, tying herself to an interest she had just to defy the path her original dao would have made her take.


    This was not like that. It took all the best parts out of the four primordial natures in my view. It took the growth of a plant, the drive of an insect, the lust of a beast, and the empathy of a human.


    It had a nature all its own and that nature was still growing.


    I had intended to teach it about peace, giving it a lot of rules and boundaries. That was before I had gotten my dao.


    Now I could connect to it, and feed it directly.


    I had been the King of Arrays but I also had been an expert on souls. I had spent my whole existence trying to change mine, wiping and rearranging everything within it.


    In a way this array was what I had wanted to become, everything I had ever learned.


    And yet, instead of understanding the array and pushing me down into the depths of cultivation, it was meant to bring peace.


    I chuckled, how ironic. The very thing I had been seeking all my life stood before me, only for it to be the exact opposite of what I had wanted in the first place.


    There was stagnation, not power. Here was rest, not journey.


    The array grumbled, only in a way that an array could. Strange. Barely ten minutes old and complaining already.


    Then it moved, breathed, and condensed, shoveling itself into my shadow.


    Our existences were tied for now, at least until it matured. It would stick with me and learn, modeling itself to me.


    I smiled. There was always the threat it could become, some strange intelligence far beyond my own. But that was impossible unless it grew beyond my own rank. Cultivators were very smart and at the ninth rank, they were practically omniscient of a certain area around them. Our senses could reach deep into the very fabric of existence and untangle its tapestry.


    In other words, intelligence was tied to rank. It was no smarter than any other ninth-rank being in existence. But it was different, it could grow much faster than most other lifeforms.


    And like a realm, it would provide the area with its own growing bundles of laws and understanding as it aged. There was a light shutter in the valley as it awoke and its presence strained and stressed till it reached the very bounds of the great desert strip.


    ¡°Keep to the immortal realm and produce the same aura as me, otherwise we¡¯ll be found out.¡±


    The array nodded, merely agreeing instead of obeying. It was reading me, searching for what it could take from my existence to make its own more complete.


    And I let it. It fumbled through some of my memories, honing in on earth before quickly moving on to my dao. That it tasted eagerly. It took in my understanding of peace, turning it in its own mind before settling down, and¡­well the only term I could use to describe what it did would be digesting.


    It was digesting my experience, and understanding my peace.


    Quickly it moved on from me and ran around the whole of the Great Dessert Strip, taking from anything that would let it. Some of the more powerful divine beasts warded it off, but most of them didn¡¯t notice. Then it went to the ants beneath the ground, the birds in the sky and the little rodents in the fields.


    It went to the villagers and the merchants, the pack animals and the mortals, and even the plants. It studied them.


    Then it went out into the desert and touched every living thing within it. From the crabs deep beneath the sand to the massive hoards of cultivators that were crossing the Great Desert Strip. Lots of them traversed the strip without coming by the valley.


    It touched upon billions of lives, mostly plants, and bugs, but animals too, but people seemed to take it the longest amount of time to understand. Eventually, it came back to me and wallowed.


    It seemed dissatisfied.


    ¡°Did you think everyone would offer as much as I did?¡± I asked it.


    It shrugged and grumbled, then it fluttered, noticing my tail. It jumped into its shadow as well.

 Chapter 73 Awakening Part 2

    The array did not have a name. Why would it need that? It wasn¡¯t a man or a beast.


    It was an array. An execution, an act given life.


    It breathed, it lived, and its creator was irrelevant to its act.


    It was meant to provide peace, but what was peace? Well, peace was a concept, that it knew. And it had learned what its creator thought it was.


    A paradox, restricting freedom in three parts. And while that was true as far as the array could sense, surely there had to be more.


    Billions of lives, and it had tasted all of them, scrounging through their memories and thoughts, searching for this thing called peace.


    And yet most of them thought it was a feeling. A sense of stability, a predictable tomorrow, tranquility, social balance, a lack of war. All things that could fit in with its creator¡¯s understanding of peace.


    It was looking for something more. Something concrete larger than a feeling but consent of it. Something beyond mere definition, it was looking for an action.


    It was still an array, after all, it was within its nature to act.


    So it had seen it. The tail, something he hadn¡¯t touched. It was his creator¡¯s limb but it had not come from him. It was someone else''s, someone different.


    Surely they had something to offer.


    ¡°Well well well,¡± a voice spoke. A monkey man sat in the distance eating a peach and staring at the little array construct.


    ¡°So you¡¯ve woken, have you? I was wondering when that would happen,¡± the monkey man laughed.


    The array stared at the being. He was there but he wasn¡¯t. The array could not feel his soul or presence. The image was there as well as the sound and the weight of the being, but the array could not perceive even a glimpse of his soul.


    ¡°That was a joke. I knew exactly when you¡¯d awaken.¡±


    Humor was a human thing and so was fear.


    The array ran towards the being''s shadow, trying to shove itself into its mind and read all the monkey man would allow.


    Only for the array to slump into the floor and feel¡­ nothing.


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± the monkey laughed. ¡°What a funny little thing you are!¡±


    The array huffed. It didn¡¯t have pride, that was a human thing. But if it did it would be very offended right now.


    ¡°Look around kid, you¡¯re already where you want to be.¡±


    The array studied the area, once in confusion and then once more in¡­awe. Yes, that was what it was feeling, awe.


    This was not the soul of a God-Imperium, this was the shadow of a soul, the small presence he had left behind.


    And yet it made its creator¡¯s soul look like nothing in comparison. The array ran, searching for memories and ideas, hungering for growth and yet it found itself failing. Here was a place where it was too small. Here was the shadow of a being, an imprint of its presence, and yet the array was still too small.


    It was lost in the gaps between thoughts. A single idea from this being¡¯s mind would overload it, redefine it, and shape its nature to its own. But the Monkey King kept his thoughts at bay.


    This was a shadow, an infinitesimal fraction meant to hide its creator. And yet that shadow overwhelmed all that the little array could conceive.


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    ¡°This would be much too overwhelming for you little fellow. How about a guided tour then?¡±


    A door manifested and another person stepped through. Its creator walked into the world and stopped, looking squarely at the monkey man.


    There was a moment of thought in its creator¡¯s eyes though the array could not tell what the man was thinking.


    ¡°I see,¡± its creator finally spoke.


    ¡°Do you know?¡±


    ¡°In a way,¡± its creator replied. ¡°You are Wukong, correct? A piece of him?¡±


    ¡°A piece is too strong of a word. More like a footprint.¡±


    ¡°But you are still him, right? There is no difference.¡±


    The Monkey King nodded.


    ¡°And the tail, I¡¯ve been trying to understand that for a while.¡±


    ¡°A shadow of a shadow of a shadow of a shadow, I¡¯d say. If you were to look up to what¡¯s casting it, you¡¯d see me. I see you¡¯ve gotten your bearings.¡±


    ¡°You let me live,¡± its creator replied. ¡°I doubt there¡¯s anything I can say that would change that.¡±


    ¡°Yes yes, there are things you could have done, but not now. Not anymore. Not with the path you¡¯ve chosen.¡±


    Its creator smiled.


    ¡°I figured.¡±


    Then the monkey king turned to the array.


    ¡°Now where were we young thing? You were looking for something right?¡±


    The array agreed and though it had no voice or head to nod, the Monkey King seemed to understand it anyway.


    ¡°Peace is it?¡±


    The array agreed once more. That was its purpose, its sole reason to exist. It was meant to bring peace, to protect it. And while peace was simple in the vaguest of terms, it was also complicated.


    Bringing all those things together, the feeling, the state, the security, and even the peace that came after a struggle was something it couldn¡¯t bring together.


    ¡°Well, peace is a bad word for it, don¡¯t you think,¡± the Monkey King asked. ¡°Who would tie your existence to such a vague word?¡±


    The array looked toward its creator with false disdain and Sunwukong smiled.


    ¡°You see little thing, the man who designed you is not the man who stands before you. The person who designed you had no dao, no experience with the concept he wanted you to achieve. So instead of choosing a feeling or a path like the dao angels or making you pursue a certain state of dominant rule like a beast, he designed you to look for peace, a word filled with different meanings.¡±


    Then the Monkey King turned to its creator.


    ¡°Do you know why the dao of peace is so rare?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s too vast and unrefined. More than that it¡¯s paradoxical. Things like virtue and love, or even the path of strength or freedom focus on pure concepts, paths that do not fight themselves,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wukong nodded. ¡°Peace is justice, yet peace is also freedom. Peace is in the mind and yet peace is also within a land. Peace is rest and yet peace is also struggle. It is an end and a process. It is the sky and the earth. It is a lifetime and a moment. It is a thing unique to every living thing and somehow all the same, and yet you¡¯ve burdened this poor fellow with protecting it, how can it do that now?¡±


    Its creator looked down at it.


    ¡°I thought it was a simple thing,¡± he replied.


    ¡°For a human yes. You humans are quite blind to that lying mind of yours and it allows you some strangely fictional things. Peace, what a useless word. You see little fellow, for mortals words like peace and justice, while meaningful are not clear. They are not real, merely ideas. To cultivators, their daos are much more than those words, they are paths. And when your creator made you, he had not touched that path of peace yet, so he left a lazy substitute, a word.¡±


    The array knew this already and agreed.


    ¡°I can redefine it-¡±


    ¡°You can not, changing its soul now would be the same as killing what it currently is and you cannot kill it.¡±


    The array knew this as well. What the Monkey King said wasn¡¯t a command but a description. Its creator had a dao, a path, and that path would not allow the murder of innocent life.


    That had been the original plan. The creator had planned to configure it after its creation. In truth, the array would have preferred that.


    ¡°But your creator has also fallen for the same trap. He has chosen the dao of peace as well and though that dao can change and get whittled down to one direct uncontradictory path, he has not done that.¡±


    Both array and creator stood there in silence.


    Peace. They both sought it and while one could find it, it would be only one part, one element cut from the rest. And the other stood there fastened to the whole world, an amalgamation of ideas that fought over each other.


    ¡°Do you know why I fought the Buddha?¡± Wukong asked.


    ¡°It was done to rebel against the two factions,¡± its creator answered. ¡°The war between good and evil took countless lives. Every cultivator within existence had to fight for one side or another, it was an eternal war raging across existence.¡±


    ¡°True,¡± Wukong said with a nod. ¡°But, I also could not live under them. I could not be defined by either side. I wanted my own power and the freedom to be my own. And yet I still aided the Buddha, creating a middle ground that would grow stronger than either side. While good did not win, evil was averted, and while evil still thrives, good was restricted. In this was freedom, something good that allowed for the existence of evil. A paradox.¡±


    Wukong looked towards both man and array.


    ¡°Daos are not so small as to be defeated by a paradox. To reach for a dao that folds in on itself is a daring move, but not an impossible one. It will be difficult to tie your existence to it, but it will also be rewarding.¡±


    Then the Monkey King started fading along with all the world around him.


    ¡°But I will tell you this, where there is peace, suffering ends. Start there."

 Chapter 74 To Cultivate Part 6

    Man, that guy was terrifying.


    I looked at the array and the little thing growled at me.


    ¡®You fucked up my existence,¡¯ the thing said.


    ¡°Wukong helped with that,¡± I replied.


    The array meandered over to me with expectation.


    ¡°No,¡± I replied.


    Then it¡­ nagged at me, pulling at the fabric of my being like an angry small dog.


    ¡°I¡¯m not abandoning my path just to fix you,¡± I replied.


    Defining peace and tweaking the array was something I had planned to do from the get-go. First I would bring it to life, then I would train and trim it as necessary, cutting off the bits I didn¡¯t need.


    I was going to edit the array¡¯s soul, and I would have been fine with it. But now I had a dao, a path.


    A restriction.


    It was irritating. Throwing away a dao wasn¡¯t hard, people abandoned daos all the time. But when you have a desire to follow that path, it becomes much harder to discard.


    And I simply did not want to give up peace.


    ¡°Having a dao is all the trouble I thought it was,¡± I mumbled.


    The array looked at me and grumbled. It didn¡¯t have the values I held. It didn¡¯t care about living itself and would much rather be changed on a fundamental level to be more efficient at its job. Living was only an unfortunate necessity for its goals.


    And I was one of the few people in existence who could be trusted to edit its soul. It was like a living program that couldn¡¯t edit its source code.


    ¡°Well, the only path forward is cultivation ya know. So, sit tight, cross your legs, and ponder the nature of your existence or something.¡±


    The array, for the first time in its existence, expressed emotion.


    Dismay.


    Poor bastard. I felt bad for it, but it would work through it. I knew my arrays, living or dead and I knew this one would find a way to persevere. I¡¯d put literal billions of years into its creation. This would be nothing more than an early road bump, I was sure of it.


    The array expanded, covering all of the valley and the Great Desert Strip in one length.


    ¡°Nothing beyond the immortal rank!¡± I yelled out to it. Ah-Marin was home to a few decently sized multiversal sects. Communication with the grander multiverse was common here and I didn¡¯t want to risk getting any of the higher-up''s attention, even if I could defeat them all.


    I could have been a big fish in a small pond, but the pond was an endless ocean and big fish attract sharks.


    It would listen. I knew it would, I had hard-wired that part properly at least.


    Then, with a sigh, I walked off.


    ********


    Chin was a very annoyed man, at least that was what most people thought of him. In truth, he was calm and mostly happy, as long as he was farming or with his wife.


    Anything else felt like a waste of time. He didn¡¯t mean to be rude, that wasn¡¯t his nature, but he couldn¡¯t help but see the potential of time.


    Time that could¡¯ve been better spent out in the field, directing other farmers or clearing out the fields. People could always use more food, and he was eager to provide that.


    Sometimes he felt okay with Mister Bill. He didn¡¯t think about farming too much when the two talked, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t annoyed. That old man had a way of grinding his nerves unlike any other.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Chin may have looked older and his body may have been weaker, but Mister Bill would forever be an old man to him. He was ancient, regardless of how he looked.


    Chin sighed and dug his hoe into the earth, then his hands went into the hole and pulled out a handful of black soil.


    Living, his senses told him.


    That was new. He could normally tell the quality of the soil by looking at it, but this wasn¡¯t just his sense speaking. This was something else, it was his qi.


    He could feel it leaking passively from his hand and into the earth. He could feel it mingle with the life within. He could sense the traces of life it had once held and the life it could hold today.


    This field had once been the dumping place for feces. The insects the traders rode through the village were hive-like, meaning they could be instructed to treat one place as a collective dumping ground for their remnants. This was one of those places.


    Chin would rotate the fields every five years, leaving a few sets of fields to compost for the next five years while they all planted their crops on the new one.


    This was how they worked. He knew what this field was, but now, with his qi, he saw what this field was.


    He felt the life beneath him, and more so, the potential for life. He knew what crops would grow best here, most he had already planned to grow, but some he had never even considered.


    He saw the height of the harvest come next season and the way the water flowed deep beneath this plot of land.


    He saw life, and more importantly, he saw death. He saw the harvest, the dung, the waste, the rot. Years of death hibernating, waiting for a chance to spring forth as a living thing.


    Chin¡¯s mind reeled back into the moment.


    ¡°OOOH looks like someone had their first moment of enlightenment,¡± a voice teased.


    ¡°What?¡± Chin replied.


    He didn¡¯t need to turn, he knew the man was behind him already.


    ¡°Enlightenment, you just touched upon it. A little peak at your dao buddy,¡±  Mister Bill replied.


    Chin stood up and frowned. That was the most suitable expression around this man, a firm and ever-present frown.


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Enlightenment, you just saw the edges of your being, your dao and you touched on some very complex laws there Chin, very talented.¡±


    Some more teasing Chin assumed. That was why this man annoyed him. The teasings.


    ¡°No, I really mean it. That takes quite a lot of talent. If any of the sects here had known what you¡¯d done they come and scoop you up immediately. Give you a youth potion and call you young master or something.¡±


    ¡°The Five Sects?¡± Chin snorted.


    ¡°Nah, not them. Some of the bigger guys,¡± the old man replied. ¡°Anyways Chin, welcome to the first rank, and what an entrance I must say. You barged in like a Champ.¡±


    Mister Bill always had strange vernacular. Chin had heard ¡®champ¡¯ before, it meant some kind of champion or man of ability or something. A shortening most likely.


    Chin was an educated man, after all, he made sure to read the language almanac every year from cover to cover. The language almanac of this year had just arrived, but he¡¯d gone through it already.


    Language almanacs were how the empires instituted law and language over such vast regions. Every child was expected to study the Imperial Language, also known as the common tongue throughout their younger years, and the yearly update was taught to the adults as well.


    That was Renk¡¯s job, one of his many duties as Light Master.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel different,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°And yet you are, entirely different from who you were ten minutes ago. Definitely new.¡±


    Chin stared annoyingly at the old man. He had read some fairy tales where old folks talked in riddles and hidden meanings, sometimes that old man reminded him of those beings.


    ¡°Look inside yourself Chin, you¡¯re practically spilling you qi out,¡± Mister Bill said.


    Chin did so, and as he looked he could feel his dantian overflowing. He could see his meridians flooding with qi.


    ¡°Normally you¡¯d be puking up some impurities right now, but I already got rid of those when we first started. Now start closing your meridians and holding in as much qi as you can. Keep it contained and cycle it through yourself in that formation I taught you-¡±


    ¡°The Fat Camel Shape?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Mister Bill replied. ¡°The fat camel one.¡±


    Chin smiled internally. He rarely managed to get one over Mister Bill. He remembered the original name of the technique having five or seven words in it. Something Mythic Heavenly Divine something something.


    But when he connected the cycle through his meridians, it ended up looking like the torso of a camel with two humps, one on top and the other on the bottom.


    So that was what Chin called it, the fat camel cycle.


    It was hard at first, but Mister Bill had made Chin exercise that specific pathway a whole lot during the past few days, to the point where it was almost instinct for him now.


    But this time the qi was immense. He could have never imagined the human body could produce so much of it. Much less his own body.


    Power gushed through him. His joint ache was washed away. His tired back melted into heat.


    And from the sheer amount of energy he had suddenly received, he stood and nearly jumped.


    Then without a second thought, he took off running. He outpaced a horse instantly, and he wasn¡¯t tired by the slightest. He jumped and the crops below him moved away, as if he had tossed the earth away with his feet.


    Then he landed.


    Chin was in awe. He looked, he saw, and he smiled.


    ¡°Someone¡¯s happy,¡± Mister Bill chuckled.


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s celebrate.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, I¡¯m sure Medin would love to make some fried meat or something, maybe Rin could-¡±


    Chin smiled and hurled his hoe at the man.


    ¡°Oh come on!¡± Mister Bill exclaimed, catching the hoe with an outstretched hand.


    Then he made the lazy bastard work till the sun went down.

 Chapter 75 Survivor

    Madam Rose sat in her tent quietly. It had been that way for the past few days.


    All the other workers had given her space. Magney, the half-dwarf, and her ever-present companion stood outside the tent, warding off would-be pursuers.


    The local village chief had been stringent with the negotiations. She had thought him to be a mere farmer at first, and she turned out to be right. But he was also the chief and fairly well educated for living in such an isolated area.


    He had given her a plot of land, under the condition that she and her worker helped clear a large section of the land. Apparently, they were to be part of a new group of settlers and they would help clear the land for those that would come after them, in return for one of the better spots in the area.


    She had expected a lot of noise and distaste. According to that Bill fellow, everything would be left up to the mortal chief to decide.


    That had scared her for a bit. She was more than ready to seduce him to ensure her safety, but that had proved unnecessary, the man had been more than reasonable.


    It was a strange relationship her people had with mortals. The stain of a whore on the glory of a cultivator was a dichotomy too large for their minds. Succubuses were one of the only groups of cultivators who even mortals routinely shunned.


    It wasn¡¯t open of course.


    They would still welcome them with smiles, and let them shop as they needed. But other cultivators were given invitations to inns and mansions. In larger cities, cultivators would receive gifts by the handful, they would be tolerated at worst and hired at best.


    A mortal in power was a fearful thing for her.


    But the old man had been fair if a little firm in creating the rules. The consequences were laid out. The usual village rules applied here, no murder, no violence, no indecency. He had also asked her to not tempt any of the village men or women.


    ¡°If they come to you, I won¡¯t care but I¡¯d rather not have old men and housewives yelling for me to get rid of you because their lover couldn¡¯t keep their pants on.¡±


    That was what he had asked for. And he had asked, not demanded.


    It was a pleasant interaction. No lies, no bargaining, no seducing.


    She couldn¡¯t keep track of how many men had tried to seduce her over the years, thinking their sword would be the sharpest of the bunch. It was like a beggar trying to cook for a chef and expecting the chef to say it was the best meal they¡¯d ever had.


    But there was none of that this time. She had felt a little insulted and a little surprised, but some people were just different.


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    Then she had learned.


    Gai Fang was free. She still thought of him by his old name, he would be Gai Jin now. Lee Heng had come by a few days ago. She had been happy then. This town- this village was paltry for entertainment but at least she was safe.


    But that had turned into an afterthought in an instant.


    The joy, the relief, the eagerness to build something permanent-- all of that had slipped into the river that was Gai Jin. She wasn¡¯t even worried, that was too defined of an emotion.


    She was anxious, scared, worried, happy, sad, and terrified all at once. She didn¡¯t know what to feel so she felt all those things at the same time.


    Overwhelmed would be the proper word for it. Her people, her clan as they sometimes jokingly referred to it, held little actual power. She had heard rumors of seduction sects controlling parts of major empires in the past, but that was not her people.


    They were just outcasts, all lost and broken coming together to make each other whole. They had fallen into the job out of necessity but they had taken to it, and those that hadn¡¯t did different things, like Magney. She was strong and had a hefty build so she served as security. All cultivators had some power, but the ones here didn¡¯t practice any fighting arts, Magney did.


    After Gai Fang had been captured, she had fled. She had cried, she had screamed, but more than anything, she had abandoned him.


    Guilt weighed upon her some nights, guilt with the weight of an ocean. If she had remained silent if she hadn¡¯t told Gai Fang about her discoveries. If only she had said nothing, he might have been free right now.


    And in one swooping instant, that had changed.


    He was free, her younger brother was free.


    Would he see her? Did he want to see her? Did he even know that she was alive? What torment had he been through?


    She had lived out here peacefully, troubled but still, peacefully, and she had done nothing. She could do nothing. That was what she told herself.


    Was that true? She was a cultivator of the fourth rank, she could have tried something. But the monks would have killed her before she could even speak Gai Jin¡¯s name.


    Flashes of Li Fang¡¯s body came to mind. Her elder sister one moment, a corpse the next, that was the power of a fifth rank.


    Fear, guilt, shame, horror, and sadness all coalesced into one overwhelming river of emotion. Self-loathing thoughts came into her mind and hungered.


    And all she could do was stand there.


    ¡°Lui?¡± A voice came from the opening of the tent.


    Magney walked in with speed and quickly wrapped her arms around her, her wide torso cradling her body.


    She didn¡¯t ask what was wrong. She knew it already. She¡¯d known it for the past few days.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetheart, you¡¯re okay.¡±


    Madam Rose, Lui Yong, melted into her friend''s shoulder for the moment, the half-dwarf¡¯s shoulders helping the storm in her soul.


    ¡°I should have done--¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing we could have done. That sect would have killed us the instant we stepped foot in that city.¡±


    ¡°I could have gone alone and--¡±


    ¡°No, you couldn¡¯t,¡± Magney interrupted. ¡°I¡¯d never let you.¡±


    The two held still for a second.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to wait, Lui. He¡¯ll come back. He¡¯s free. Why wouldn¡¯t he come back? You¡¯ll see him then and he¡¯ll be happy that you¡¯re alive.¡±


    ¡°...Will he?¡± Lui whispered.


    ¡°Of course he will. He¡¯s your brother Lui. Have faith.¡±


    She sometimes wished she had died that day with Li Fang. Dying was no worse than living in fear, and dying was far better than living in guilt.


    Even if she had no reason to feel the way she felt, even if she was truly helpless against the sect, she felt guilty.


    She was alive and free while her older sister was dead and her younger brother was imprisoned.


    Why should she be so lucky as to have slithered away untouched?


    ¡°You lived, you got away and that is a good thing Lui, that is a great thing.¡±


    Lui Yong flattened against her friend.


    Yes. She was alive, for better or for worse. And she would face him, eventually, for better or for worse.


    Lui Yong knew this, and she would not run away this time. She would not lose her brother twice.

 Chapter 76 In The Beginning

    ¡°Okay, where do we start?¡± I said.


    Chin sat opposite me across the table. We were outside, right by my home, with a small cup of tea in each of our hands. It was a nice windy day, the kind that would cool you off but wasn¡¯t too chilly.


    I wore a simple gray robe and Chin wore his classic sleeveless shirt and vest. His skin which used to be old and tanned now seemed just tanned. The moles and blemishes had faded and the old muscles on his arm seemed to be more defined.


    His wrinkled face seemed tighter and his eyes burned brighter. He was old and withered, but he looked like a tree stuck between winter and spring, both sprouting and bound.


    ¡°At the beginning,¡± he replied.


    ¡°The beginning of everything?¡± I asked.


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Chin, I have no idea as to how existence came to be,¡± I replied.


    Chin frowned, seeming genuinely surprised.


    ¡°You don¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°No, do you think I know everything?¡±


    ¡°You act like you do.¡±¡¯


    ¡°I know a lot,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But not everything.¡±


    ¡°Then how do you think the universe started?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°The universe?¡±


    ¡°Everything I guess, or whatever came before it. You talk about it sometimes and it makes no sense to me, it all seems so¡­vast.¡±


    I sipped my tea for a moment. I could get that. The grander multiverse seemed so wide and vast, and it was. It was infinitely immense, more so than anything else out there.


    ¡°I guess we start at the beginning then,¡± I started. ¡°Or at least what we know of it.¡±


    ¡°In the beginning, there was a fight. A fight amongst beings so grand and terrifying that expressing their power in words wouldn¡¯t help you understand even the shadow of their being. But there was a fight among a myriad of creatures. Not just man, beast, insect, and tree, but other lifeforms as well. Things that lived and breathed in ways we didn¡¯t. Life itself was eternal and spanning in its forms,¡± I stated.


    ¡°But in the end, only four remained. A man, a beast, an insect, and a tree. Everything else had been broken and destroyed, all meaning had been depleted into something called primordial qi.¡±


    Chin listened, that meant nothing to him, but I could tell he was trying to make sense of it. I waited for him to ask a question, but he never did.


    ¡°Well, eventually the four primordials realized they couldn¡¯t kill each other. They were all powerful and could do anything but kill each other and peace was forced to be had. At least that¡¯s what most cultivators believe.¡±


    ¡°What..happened to them?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°The primordials? They¡¯re still around, but you can¡¯t really go asking the strongest beings in all of existence for a history lesson. They¡¯re not nearly as gracious as I am,¡± I joked.


    Chin took a moment to think.


    ¡°How do you compare to them?¡± He finally asked.


    ¡°Oh I don¡¯t,¡± I answered. ¡°I am small and no words can elaborate on that.¡±


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°Are they dangerous?¡±


    ¡°In a way, like the suns or the rain,¡± I replied. ¡°They just are.¡±


    ¡°Why were they fighting?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Who knows?¡± I shrugged. ¡°There are theories, but no one really knows the true answer.¡±


    ¡°What are the theories?¡±


    ¡°You remember the ranking numbers?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Chin replied sipping some of his own tea. ¡°You build your body, mind, and spirit up every three ranks.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. ¡°But what happens at the sixth rank?¡±


    ¡°Immortality,¡± he answered.


    ¡°Yes, every third rank you face tribulation, and every sixth rank there is a change of nature. From mortal to immortal, from immortal to god. Lots of cultivators believe that the seventeenth rank isn¡¯t the end, but rather the final barrier. They believe there is something after it, the True God rank. The eighteenth rank. They believe as one pushes into immortality at the sixth rank, and into Godhood at the twelfth, that there is a hidden boundary past God-Imperium, something only one cultivator can have.¡±


    Chin¡­frowned. That was his default reaction to anything. It was one of his, ¡®I¡¯m thinking¡¯ frowns not an ¡®I''m annoyed¡¯ frown.


    ¡°Do you believe it?¡± Chin finally asked me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I shrugged. ¡°There are lots of things I don¡¯t know.¡±


    Chin¡¯s frown deepened as if he found that thought to be strange.


    ¡°Well¡­ what happened after that?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Then came the age of the first realm. The Tree-¡±


    ¡°The tree!¡± Chin interrupted. ¡°How does a tree fight anyways and don¡¯t they have names? I can¡¯t keep track of beast, man, tree, and insect. Those are things, not names.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a magical tree,¡± I replied. ¡°As for the names, those words are their names, but we can use another language''s names if you want to. The Tree is Iurn, the Man Adun, the Beast Drehg and the insect is Vethien. Is that better?¡±


    ¡°So they have names in another language?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± I replied with a shake of my head. ¡°Not names, all those words mean those things in that language.¡±


    ¡°What language is that?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°The first one,¡± I replied.


    He frowned. My answers kept leading him to questions and he didn¡¯t like that.


    ¡°After that, they looked around and found there was almost nothing left.¡±


    ¡°What was left?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Pockets protected by themselves. Adun had his people, Vethien had her hive, Drehg was alone, but Iurn had the most beings. Iurn is a tree and trees grow and protect after all. Within her leaves were the remnants of a thing long gone. That is what¡¯s called the Primordial Age.¡±


    Chin nodded and listened, he seemed resolute on listening now and not asking any more questions.


    ¡°In those days, there were no realms, no universes, just void and chaos. And once the primordials decided on peace, things started to reemerge anew. But now existence had nothing but the primordials and a few remnant beings of the past. The four primordials form echoed throughout infinity. Think of it like a clear lake having four large stones being tossed into it, or better yet. Think of existence like a giant empty farm and the four primordials as the strongest four crops left in existence. Their qi scattered into the wind and the rest of existence started to take shape.¡±


    I then took a sip of my tea.


    ¡°Alright Chin, listen up,¡± I stated. ¡°This is going to get a bit complicated.¡±


    Chin straightened in his bench.


    ¡°Universes are like the ground beneath your feet. They are the fabric of rules and matter that hold you up and allow you to live, yes?¡±


    We had talked about this before, and Chin nodded, having seemed to remember it.


    ¡°Good, now back then, there weren¡¯t any. There was only void and chaos, so all things born had to reach the ninth rank under protection and no mortals existed yet.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Chin replied. ¡°They were just born strong?¡±


    ¡°Around the fifth rank, then over a little amount of time, they would work their way into the ninth rank and be able to wander the void of the multiverse on their own.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Chin replied. He had questions, he wouldn¡¯t ask them.


    ¡°In those days, men and women would pop into existence and quickly push themselves into the immortal rank. They would either be lucky enough to find stable spots of qi and forge themselves into a god or they would be viciously torn apart by the void. Only the strongest survived, and they were called the first gods.¡±


    ¡°Now of those first gods, there was a group who sought to make a realm. A stable base for lesser existences to take shape, and that group is known as the First Keepers. Not much is known about them, except for the fact that they, together with Iurn managed to create the first realm, Eden. Shortly after that they disbanded though and a second set of God-Imperiums took their title, these are known as the Second Keepers.¡±


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    I sighed, this part would be hard to explain.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the main thing about the void, it''s an absolute. It doesn¡¯t have direction or meaning but rather thin lines of connections. A realm exists by itself, in its own bubble of existence. Sort of like a book, each story is contained and finished but you can flip through the story and end up at any particular moment. You see, I tell you this happened in the past as if there is a definitive past within the void. There isn¡¯t. There isn¡¯t time, past, present, or future. When the primordials fought, they destroyed reality as it was entirely. It wasn¡¯t so much destruction as it was revocation. Concepts, ideas, laws, worlds, all of them erased. To us, the world before the primordials is a fiction, like a story that got written over.¡±


    Chin took a sip of his tea, thought, then nodded. I could see his brain working on the information. It was too much and it was unimportant, so he would remember it, but he wouldn¡¯t bother trying to understand it.


    ¡°So the First Keepers, what they did was make a stable realm, one with its own time and space, something that could exist as a total fabric. But before that, you have to understand something called relative existence. Imagine a realm like a home in the village. Each home lies next to a road or close to it, or at the very least there are ways to get there, paths to take, landmarks to follow something.¡±


    Chin nodded, seeming more engaged than he had ever been.


    ¡°Those roads, those landmarks, and connectors, within the grander multiverse, that would be concepts. If you pulled yourself closer to the concept of hate and pain you¡¯d end up closer to the hells, if you pulled yourself closer to the concept of joy and virtue you¡¯d end up near the heavens. But the First Keepers came before that. Eden, the first realm, was full of its own unique concepts. It was isolated, and so it was lost. It was meant to be stable and isolated and unlike any other realm, and more than that, it was complicated. It was like a house that was the size of a mountain built thirty miles underground, and because of that it was lost from the grander multiverse, it only exists relative to itself, nothing else.¡±


    Chin nodded, his brain turning in whatever way it could to understand my words.


    ¡°Now, we move on to the other guys, the Second Keepers. They had a much more unique idea. They wanted to create a living realm, a lifeform so strong and powerful, that its existence would be echoed throughout the multiverse, and more than that, they wanted these realms to be connected. To have some sort of shared experience.¡±


    ¡°Like a village,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°Exactly, they wanted to create realms that would always exist relative to each other and they did. That¡¯s when the Keeper¡¯s Sect was born. You have the Keeper of Time, the Keeper of Earth, the Keeper of Light, any common physical property had a Keeper of sorts. Being embodying a certain law and each of them wove into each other to create the tapestry of the first realm. There were around a thousand of them and they were all God-Imperiums. Then the first Celestial Realm was born, and that Chin, changed everything.¡±


    ¡°Remember how I said realms are like the ground beneath your feet?¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Well, this realm was even bigger. Think of a house so big that the roof of a room looks like the sky and so wide that the walls look like mountains in the distance. It would be its own world. That¡¯s a celestial realm. It was wide, it was infinite and it was a thing all its own, and more than any of that, it was alive. It produced qi and resources and power and people would kill any to have it.¡±


    I took a sip of my tea.


    ¡°Now the First Keepers had known this, and that was why they had kept their realm a secret, but the Second Keepers had a solution all their own. They created a second Celestial Realm, one that was not under their control. And all knew that fighting over the unclaimed one would be easier than trying to take the realm the Second Keepers controlled. And that Chin, that is where the history of cultivation begins. In this realm, all the weak gathered and in this realm, all the weak fought. There were other realms, but this one still dominated them all. It was home to God-Imperiums and it had been bathed in primordial qi and God-Imperium blood. That Celestial Realm was the Realm of Imperium. To this day there is no realm more powerful or more wanted than that one. But eventually, somebody broke it.¡±


    ¡°Somebody broke it?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Yes, the Sage who Split the Heavens and the Hells, Sun Wukong.¡±


    My tail perked at the name.


    ¡°The Monkey King?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°The one and only,¡± I replied.


    ¡°I thought that was just a story,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°It is,¡± I said with a shrug.


    ¡°A story with some truths and some lies. Now listen, we¡¯re almost done with the boring stuff. Next comes the final layer of the Grander Multiverse, the Antithesis Edge. Remember how I said there isn¡¯t any real substance within the void, just relations and connections?¡±


    Chin nodded.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s how you navigate the multiverse. When Sun Wukong broke the Realm of Imperium, he divided it into the Heavens and the Hells. Righteous and Evil, right and wrong. Instantly both halves of the realm were pushed to the very edges of reality because relative to the Heavens, nothing exists less than the Hells and the same was true for the Hells.¡±


    I drew a small circle on the table between us and set my cup at one edge and Chin¡¯s cup at the opposite end.


    ¡°If my cup is everything your cup could never be, and your cup was everything my cup could never be, then all other cups exist somewhere between them, does that make sense?¡±


    Chin nodded, slowly.


    ¡°If my cup was black and your cup was white, then any other cup would be left in between them,¡± I reiterated.


    ¡°What if it was a red bowl?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Well, then it wouldn¡¯t be here. A red bowl would be Eden, the first realm of the First Keepers. It exists on its own spectrum. But since all other realms exist as children of the Realm of Imperium, they have some relation to it, even the Heavens and the Hells.¡±


    Chin nodded again, with a little more certainty this time.


    ¡°Now there are also other realms that are antithetical to each other, the Dead Sea and the Life Fire, the land of Dreams and the Halls of Order, the Yin and the Yang, essentially. And if you¡¯re willing to, you can navigate the multi-realm by feeling where you stand in relation to these realms at the Antithesis Edge, and that¡¯s how people navigate around the void.¡±


    Chin leaned back, sipped his tea, and sighed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± he replied. ¡°But it does seem a bit more simple now.¡±


    ¡°Does it?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Chin replied with a nod. ¡°No matter how vast or how large this reality may be, it¡¯s all connected. That makes it more real.¡±


    I understood what he was saying. It was like an ant being told of an empire. The idea that there was anything beyond the hill you occupied was strange. But when you looked at an empire and thought of it as an ant colony, then it made a little more sense.

 Chapter 77 Chieftain Part 1

    Chin chewed on a sugar cane out in the middle of a field. The sun was hidden and the clouds were full.


    ¡°It¡¯s going to rain soon,¡± he muttered.


    ¡°How¡¯dya figure?¡± The farmer next to him asked.


    ¡°It just will,¡± Chin replied. ¡°Get packed and clear the fields, and tell everyone to get inside. This one will be a heavy one.¡±


    The young lad nodded and made his way to the surrounding fields. That was Chin¡¯s doing. He had set up a messenger system. This one lad would go to a field and warn them about the weather, two from there would do the same for someone else, and so on and so forth.


    That was the way it had to be done with this rainy season. The Kong Clan were arrogant bastards. The rain would come quickly and flood them all otherwise. The Void Blade Sect ruled the Empire along with the Imperial Family, and they were in charge of the weather throughout the lands. Someone had to be, otherwise most of the land would become inhospitable.


    Chin had asked Mister Bill how they managed such a thing, not because he cared of course, but because the information might help with the farming. It hadn¡¯t.


    At a few points across the vast empire, someone would be sent out and they would create clouds that would then propagate all over the empire. These points were called storm points and they were strategically located to cover the entire empire in rain for a few months out of the year.


    Now most clans would have the decency to spare whatever resources they had and take their time in producing these clouds, creating the proper amount of them over a certain period of time.


    The Kongs did no such thing. Their rainy season would last two and a half months at most, one and a half at worst, and they would compensate for that by overproducing the necessary clouds. Every rain was a storm and every storm was a flood. They actually overproduced rain in truth. There would be five the amount of rainfall in one Kong season than in any other clan¡¯s doing.


    Flooding was a problem, as was the shortness of the season.


    Chin didn¡¯t plant much during the rainy season, few crops could grow during that time and few more could withstand the flooding. Most of the farmers and village would be busy serving the hoards of merchants that were passing through. And today was no different.


    Standing from a hilltop, Chin could see the tens of thousands of pack beetles littering the place. They were large beasts capable of carrying thousands of pounds of goods, most of which were for mortals. But something was different now, there were more people and yet somehow fewer people.


    The pack beetles were used by mortal traders or people of the first and second rank, transporting goods from one side of the Great Desert Strip to another. And those traders had the most to move.


    Clothing, food, spices, herbs, books, and all other manners of mortal goods came through here, and they took up space. But cultivator goods like jades, spirit stones, cultivation scrolls, pills, spiritual herbs, beast parts, and weapons, were small.


    One of their swords could be worth one full-third-rank spirit stone. It would be made out of a magic metal of some sort and it could slice through rocks and trees as if they were air. And there were a lot more of those types of traders coming through now.


    Single cultivators on the backs of spirit beasts would come trampling through the region with a single chest or one of those storage space devices. There was a fourth rank on the back of a tiger everybody seemed to be afraid of, and a fifth rank who kept trying to talk to the maidens.


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    Rin Wi had smacked that one red and bloody, and the poor bastard had nearly popped.


    He reminded Chin of a tomato by the end of it all.


    There were more cultivators now and Chin was visibly annoyed by that. He grabbed the equipment, along with the other aids, and they all said their goodbye.


    ¡°Goodbye Mister Chin!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see ya tomorrow Mister Chin!¡±


    ¡°Make sure to stay off the fields for the night, Mister Chin!¡±


    Chin just nodded. No one took offense to that, they all knew better.


    Chin walked back to his home, where his amazing wife stood waiting for him with a plate full of food.


    His amazingly stubborn wife. Three minutes later he was on his third plate. This was his punishment, he had forgotten to come in for lunch and he hadn¡¯t finished his breakfast.


    Thankfully the woman let him go after that and he went outside to fetch some water from the well to bathe with.


    An hour later he was clean, full, and tired. It would have been the perfect time to go to bed.


    Chin sighed. He could not. He put on his robes, the uncomfortable ones with the fancy collar and embroidered tree, and went to fetch Rin Wi.


    ¡°Rin, let¡¯s head out,¡± he stated.


    Rin Wi was in the kitchen, cutting up some ginseng into a pot.


    ¡°Chin,¡± a voice boomed.


    Chin frowned.


    ¡°Rin Wi was just making some tea here, want some?¡±


    Mister Bill sat at the table with a cup waiting expectantly. Medin sat with him, talking to him and also hounding him to eat as well.


    ¡°Chiny,¡± Medin stated. ¡°Where ya heading out at this time of night?¡±


    Chin glared at Mister Bill, who was now sipping his tea and looking in any direction other than him.


    ¡°To deal with the cultivators he brought in,¡± Chin stated.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t bring them in, they came here by themselves.¡±


    Chin kept glaring.


    ¡°You want me to kick them out?¡± Mister Bill asked.


    He did.


    Chin didn¡¯t want to talk to cultivators. He wanted to sleep, then he wanted to farm, but because of that old bastard he now talked to some prissy guy in robes.


    But he couldn¡¯t say no. These talks would only benefit the village, not hurt them. And as the village chief, the burden of negotiation fell upon him.


    ¡°Let''s go,¡± Chin stated looking directly at Mister Bill.


    ¡°Who me?¡± Bill stated, feigning a reaction.


    Chin didn¡¯t elaborate.


    ¡°Why do I have to go?¡± The man whined.


    Chin just glared in response.


    ¡°Fine, but Rin is coming with and so is Mei.¡±


    Chin shrugged.


    ¡°Rin, go get Mei Shan.¡±


    Rin, the ever-silent, nodded.


    Chin liked her. She had taken to cooking like he had taken to farming, and she had now become Medin¡¯s shadow, working alongside her and sharing tea and gossip with the woman at any time.


    They had clicked, like an old pair of friends. Medin often told him that Rin Wi reminded her of Chin. She said the girl talked little and cooked a lot, and that she had little tolerance for cultivators.


    Chin liked that. He had started taking her to the cultivator encampments as security. A few of them had threatened Chin and a lot of them had flown off into the wind.


    Rin had taken one fellow and spun him around by his legs so fast that she had started a small tornado in the place.


    She had a name now, Chin had heard. A title, The Silent Guard of The Immortal Oasis Sect.


    Chin just thought of her as the local police. Over the weeks, more and more people had been calling the girls in as authorities, often to mediate.


    And the one with the most talent for that was Mei Shan, followed closely by Rin Wi. She had become the defacto arbitrator of any dispute within the valley. She was always fast and fair, always.


    The other day Chin had been approached by two villagers, one yelling about his sickly dog claiming the other had poisoned it. Mei Shan had quickly figured out the truth, and had even cured the dog, and stated, as a punishment, the neighbor wouldn¡¯t be allowed to have his own dog for a year.


    When the perpetrator rebelled against that, stating he needed his herding dogs to make a profit, she continued to threaten to take his sheep as well. And he could use the dogs for herding, as long as he rented them from Chin. They¡¯d go back to being his within the year and half the income would go to the grieved party while the other half would go to village income.


    Both parties accepted the agreement and the culprit wallowed his way back home.


    She was a good lady, a smart lady, and one capable of resolving most situations. Her presence within the village had lightened Chin¡¯s shoulders mightly. Rin Wi was all well and right but Mei Shan was a natural leader.


    Honestly, he was thinking about making her a village elder and he doubted anyone would have a problem with it. And with the sudden rise of population, they were bound to experience, Chin was slowly growing fonder of the idea.

 Chapter 78 Chieftain Part 2

    Chin walked with a frown.


    A cultivator came to him to talk, a third rank. He bowed to Rin and Mei but he was completely oblivious to Mister Bill. Everyone was.


    Chin sighed.


    ¡°Oh well, the members of the Immortal Oasis Sect are here,¡± someone cried.


    The makeshift streets parted in front of him and people looked.


    They didn¡¯t look at him though, only through. To them, he was a decoration, an extra. Something to do with politics or face, a servant maybe. All they truly saw were Rin Wi and Mei Shan and he was like the dust on a pearl.


    Chin didn¡¯t care. He walked through the crowd, leading the four of them into a courtyard-like area that had been kept just for this type of occasion. There was a tent at the center of it. It wasn¡¯t a bad tent, but compared to all the lavish shades and beautiful fabric the other tents were made of, it was practically rags.


    Chin walked towards it. This was his meeting station. It was where he met with cultivators and merchants, people who wanted to settle down her and set up shops. There was an immortal here, after all, one that did not allow violence. A lot of cultivators knew this, but the news had yet to soak into the region''s mind.


    Immortals were gods to these people, even if someone stated it, that didn¡¯t mean it was true. But it was only a matter of time before that changed, and even now, many flooded his village.


    It was to be expected.


    Chin felt a hand on his shoulder.


    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± Mister Bill said.


    Rin Wi walked past him and stood firmly in front of the tent.


    ¡°Come out!¡± She yelled.


    The tent flap opened to reveal a man behind it. He looked tired, partially asleep, and ragged. He opened his mouth and yawned and Chin saw teeth as black as night. He had blond hair and wore strange striped robes.


    Behind him was another man, this one was awake and well-dressed. His clothes were simple but prim. His robe folded in on itself in the most proper way possible and everything about him seemed just right.


    Except for his eyes. The man had something dark over his eyes, something glass-like held up by two thin metallic bars that hung on his ears. Another metallic bar covered the bridge of his nose, connecting the dark glass circles.


    ¡°Now those are some expensive shades,¡± Mister Bill commented.


    Chin didn¡¯t ask. He knew better now. It was either a cultivator¡¯s phrase or some strange thing from another world.


    ¡°Are you the guy in charge?¡± The man with black teeth asked.


    He had looked at him. The man had looked not at Rin or Mei but rather at Chin, and he was clearly at the fourth rank. He should have been able to sense their power.


    Chin nodded. And the man with black teeth rubbed his head lazily.


    ¡°They said this is where I would find the village chief, they didn¡¯t warn me about the security though,¡± the man spoke.


    He looked the two women up and down, and while that would have been an insult to some, Chin could sense nothing but admiration from his gaze.


    His aura was open and unkempt and his emotions were not hidden. Respect, admiration, envy, and a little bit of fear.


    It was strange.


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    Chin had met many cultivators; none were nearly as open as this one. He had only recently broken into the first rank, but even then, of the cultivators he had met none were as open as this one.


    It was overwhelming, like a stew with too much spice.


    ¡°Right, well I wanted to set up shop here and I guess I fell asleep waiting for you. Oh, and this guy decided to wait as well,¡± the man spoke, pointing at the well-dressed man behind him.


    ¡°Who are ya?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Rou Xin,¡± the man replied.


    Informal, quick to the point. Chin liked that.


    The girls stared at him with light suspicion and worry. Why¡¯d they do that, Chin wondered. Weren¡¯t they stronger than him? Mister Bill was still staring at the other man behind him, eyes glistening in curiosity and his tail waving slowly behind him.


    ¡°What¡¯s your business?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Uh, medicine. I was hoping I could settle down here and start selling some medicine here,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°Got any baggage?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Baggage?¡± The man asked.


    ¡°Any assassins or sects that are after ya?¡± Chin clarified.


    He¡¯d had a few of those, criminals trying to hide from their punishment underneath him. Some he allowed, if he sympathized with them, but others he tossed out with no remorse. Well, Rin Wi did the tossing, but he nodded along from the sidelines.


    ¡°No one¡¯s after me,¡± the man replied. ¡°Maybe my family but, they already know I¡¯m here.¡±


    ¡°Do they wanna kill ya?¡± Chin asked.


    It was an absurd idea, a family wanting to kill each other, but Chin had to ask. These cultivators were strange folk.


    ¡°Nope,¡± the man replied cheerfully.


    ¡°And who would yer services be to?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Anyone really,¡± the man replied.


    Chin thought about this for a second. They already had a doctor who sold herbs and treated people. But she was old and her back ached worse with every growing day. She had children and other people who helped run the shop, but they weren¡¯t nearly as capable as her.


    But Chin would be weary of placing the entire village¡¯s medical needs upon one stray cultivator. That would be stupid and short-sighted.


    ¡°You can live here and work here, as long as you provide some texts and teach some students three times a week,¡± Chin finally said.


    ¡°Students?¡± The man asked.


    ¡°Our doctor¡¯s getting old and she¡¯s wanted to retire for a while. You can take over her shop with her permission and teach her students while you do so.¡±


    ¡°Teaching mortals?¡± The man said, mouthing the words curiously. ¡°How interesting. I¡¯ll do it.¡±


    Then the man stuck his hand out to Chin and without flinching, Chin shook it.


    Rin and Mei still seemed tense for some reason.


    ¡°Mei Shan can get you sorted out for the night and she¡¯ll talk to our doctor for you,¡± Chin said.


    ¡°Thanks!¡± The man replied.


    ¡°And you?¡± Chin asked, looking at the second man.


    ¡°I¡¯m just passing through, seniors,¡± he replied, giving a formal bow to Rin and Mei. ¡°How long are we permitted to stay here?¡±


    ¡°As long as you like if you pay for room and board. If you want to live here though, you¡¯ll have to book that through Mei.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± the man replied suddenly staring intently at Chin.


    ¡°Just head up to the inn over there and ask for a long-term room. We just finished building a few yesterday. There should be one available right now.¡±


    The man stared at Chin for just an instant more before nodding and heading off. Several other cultivators who had been listening in on the discussion also made their way to the inn.


    The building was being done by Madam Rose and her people, along with Bri Lou. The girl seemed to like working with her hands so Chin had assigned her to the local carpenters within the village, and she seemed to be leading the operations, wanting to build taller and taller buildings.


    Chin didn¡¯t know if they had the resources for that, but she and Xi Lu had gotten into talks about sewers, and underground tunnels exclusively for waste management. Apparently all the big cities had them and Bri was insistent on building them before the expansion could grow too far.


    It had been months since the girls had arrived but they had all taken to the village nicely.


    Chin smiled for just the slightest second at that thought. Then he walked into the tent to start on the business. There was a lot to listen to, a lot to plan, and as much as he didn¡¯t want to do it, he knew Mei Shan did.


    He couldn¡¯t read the girl for the life of him, but Rin Wi had told him that was the case.


    He had been annoyed back when they¡¯d been dumped at his doorstep, but now he couldn¡¯t imagine the village without them. They were vital to the place, and more importantly, they were valued.


    More and more villagers wanted to hear Rin Wi¡¯s recipes and have Mei Shan judge over their disputes. Xi Lu and Po Pen were an odd but pleasant pair to see wandering the streets and talking.


    Lin Tai was always busy in the forest doing Heavens know what, but she came back smiling nowadays, and she talked to him and the other villagers with a smile.


    They all stiffened up around cultivators though, and they practically turned to stone around Mister Bill. He scared them, instinctively.


    Every one of them except for Rin Wi started acting differently around that man.


    And that made Chin feel something he had never felt towards the old cultivator, pity.


    The man meant well, he always meant well. He always cared. He was a strange fellow, true, but he wasn¡¯t scary. For all his power, he was just an old and lazy hermit who came down for dinner once in a while.


    Chin sighed.


    If he believed in the gods, he would have prayed for those girls. But then again, the gods were the ones who had done this to them in the first place.

 Chapter 79 Immortality Part 1

    I sat cross-legged staring out into a field of flowers, and I watched. In the distance, thousands of miles away from me was a man.


    I could have used a lot of words to describe this fellow, powerful, angry, resilient, persistent.


    But none of those would be enough.


    He leaped forward banging his fists against the doors of immortality, and once again he was rejected.


    Mad would have been a good word for him, insane maybe.


    But I would call him sad.


    A false immortal was a person who had managed to gain an unaging body, something that would persist for millennia but did not have the dao to persist.


    Ah-Min Tah, I had asked about the strongest person within the region back when I had first talked to Cai, but now that I was looking at him, I felt nothing but pity.


    The body could persist. It could be fixed, healed, remade, and rejuvenated, but the soul was such a delicate thing.


    The man pounded against eternity once more, and eternity did not care.


    The pursuit of cultivation was a beautiful thing. Cultivators themselves could be disgusting, but cultivation, cultivation was beautiful.


    To push yourself beyond the edge and into the depths of infinity, to seek an absolute existence and rely on nothing but your own strength, there was beauty in that. That was the beautiful side, the thing Wukong represented, determination and power, independence and freedom.


    There were also virtuous souls who sought power, not for themselves, but for the world. They sought to be a force of good and to make the world change for the better. I wasn¡¯t one of them, but I admired them.


    And there were the evil bastards, the selfish animals who fought to control all they could and use everything as they pleased. They were repulsive, but beautiful in their own way. Even though they were admirable in their attempts, a great evil was still great after all.


    But this, this failure I looked at. This made me sad.


    I had watched him for three whole days, during which he had failed to break through the gates of immortality five hundred times.


    Only to immediately try again afterward. His failure didn¡¯t register, not anymore.


    Maybe he had been growing at some point, changing each attempt to better push against his mortal coil, but he would not shed it.


    Immortality wasn¡¯t a light thing. It could not be brute forced, at least not by him.


    By living beyond your allocated time, you wore down your very existence. The body then became an anchor giving you more time and if you could manage it, it would become an island. An esoteric healing technique, a strange energy, a sacred artifact, something to keep not aging and alive.


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    After that you¡¯d assume you had all the time in the world. You¡¯d be a bit lazy, then you¡¯d be smart and try to make it into the immortal rank there. And a few would make, a lot would die, this poor bastard did neither.


    Then for the first time in your life, you would feel another thing age. Your soul, your very mind would wither, you would forget lovers and children, lifetimes would slip away like the memories of an errand. First events, then people, then language, and eventually, even whatever dao you had left.


    Time, it was the dementia of the soul.


    I sighed and took a breath, then I moved.


    The man, no, the thing saw me and in its primitive little brain it sensed what I had. It knew what I was, and it striked.


    I dodged and kept dodging. It kept attacking, and sometimes I would block, if only to save any innocent below us.


    After three days, he withered. His qi was all but spent and his soul was all but empty.


    He stood on the ground, glaring hatefully at me for a moment before his eyes lit up.


    ¡°I¡­ lost,¡± the man noted.


    It wasn¡¯t just an admission of defeat, it was the admission of defeat. It was apathy and complete concession.


    The man stood there for a moment, then looked at me.


    ¡°Am I complete?¡± He asked.


    ¡°No,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Oh,¡± then he stared for another moment.


    ¡°I feel complete,¡± he added.


    ¡°You¡¯re not.¡±


    ¡°I¡­see.¡±


    Even now he wasn¡¯t a man, just a shadow of one. This was the dream before the slumber, a last thought before death.


    The man¡¯s eyes widened, then he looked at me and laughed.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have any clothes on you by any chance, would you? And a shaving knife if you got one, and some soap maybe, and could you carry me to a river?¡±


    There was a sad joy within his words, an acceptance.


    I nodded.


    I took him to a river where he bathed himself clean. I gave him a sharp blade to cut himself with and I let him wear fine clothes made with beautiful fabric.


    He looked good after that. He looked civilized.


    ¡°I failed,¡± the man finally said, staring sadly at the sky.


    ¡°You failed a long time ago,¡± I replied.


    The man nodded, still smiling at the sky.


    ¡°Do you¡­ do you know my name?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Ah-Min Tah,¡± I answered.


    ¡°Ah-Min Tah,¡± he spoke, sounding out the name as if he were saying it for the first time.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe I ever forgot that,¡± he chuckled. ¡°And my sect?¡±


    ¡°They left long ago.¡±


    ¡°Did they now?¡± He asked. ¡°Do you know their names? Did any one of them ask about me?¡±


    I simply shrugged.


    ¡°To have outlived them, what a strange thing it is. Though I haven¡¯t outlived them have I?¡±


    I shook my head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember much. I remember struggling. I remember living. I remember my third rank tribulation and I remember, I remember trying. It¡¯s strange, I thought there¡¯d be more than this. Even if I died I always thought it would be in battle, noble and proud, not¡­ not this.¡±


    His eyes didn¡¯t shimmer, his voice didn¡¯t quiver, and the words left his mouth like plain description.


    ¡°Would that have been better, I wonder? Death by the sword?¡±


    Then he turned to look at me.


    ¡°Would it be better?¡± He asked.


    ¡°You can¡¯t kill what¡¯s already dead,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Haha, yes. I suppose you can¡¯t,¡± he laughed.


    He sat there for a bit more before talking again.


    ¡°I¡­ I remember I had a cat when I was young. A small little grey fellow. I was horribly heartbroken when it died. I cried for weeks then. I wonder if that¡¯s why I tried to be an immortal?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Is it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he chuckled. ¡°But if it was then, what a silly little reason to have lived for.¡±


    ¡°Do you regret it?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he laughed. ¡°At least, I don¡¯t think so. What a curious thing.¡±


    Then as the flames died out, they shined.


    ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± he spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t regret it one bit. I regret the way I went about it, but I don¡¯t regret it at all.¡±


    In his final moments before death, he smiled.


    ¡°What a wonderful thing it was.¡±

 Chapter 80 Immortality Part 2

    Gai Jin roared.


    The ground beneath him blurred and his feet broke the earth with the weight of a mountain. He chased.


    Gai Lu ran.


    The man was afraid, but not as afraid as Gai Jin would have wanted. His master¡¯s hand weaved an old sign and a talisman shattered. Instantly, he vanished.


    This was how it had been for the past few days. Gai would search the lands scouring for the man, and eventually, he would find him. And then somehow the old man would find ways to escape.


    This time it was a spacial talisman with secure teleportation. It was expensive but Gai Lu could afford the cost. He had been mining the spirit stone vein created by the demons for centuries now.


    That was why Gai Jin had been in that cave for so long.


    The Bloody Fist Sect had been established on that mountain for a reason. It was their purpose to destroy the remnant qi leaking from those ancient corpses. That had been their job since the very beginning.


    And all the monks before him had pushed for that end, all except for Gai Lu.


    That selfish monk had been tempted by the Hollowed Echo Sect. He had seen their children grow, and he noticed their wealth prosper. Those blind bastards managed to transform all of that demonic qi into something useful.


    And maybe Gai Lu had been honest at first. After all, spirit stones were spirit stones, and the ones underneath Strong Fist City were clear of any demonic influence.


    But that was like letting a wound fester and rot just to enjoy the fever on a cold winter night. Not all of that demonic qi dissipated into the ground. Some of it grew, some of it refused to change and those bits would gather and coalesce into something else, something new.


    That was how the first of the Hollowed Echo Sect had been born, a lone cultivator tainted with demonic infestation. Gai Jin didn¡¯t hate them. They were wrong, they were twisted, but they were still human.


    Some would consider them demonic path cultivators merely because they carried a demonic bloodline. They were right in a way, but demonic bloodlines didn¡¯t make for an evil man.


    In truth, the word demonic meant nothing. The Demonic Path meant nothing. The Orthodox Path meant nothing.


    And the Righteous Path meant nothing.


    They were all words used to describe the system and not the man, this he knew better than anyone else.


    Treating them like the definitions of good and evil was a fault he would never bend to.


    His master had crumbled to that fault.


    His master had killed his older sister to that fault.


    His fury boiled.


    A person¡¯s path was more than just cultivation. It was more than mere practice. A person¡¯s path was their very being.


    None are demonic because they take, nor were any righteous because they gave.


    Those were merely parts of your dao, tendencies, aspects, not defining wholes.


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    What was Gai Lu? Virtuouse to some, yes, kind to many, true.


    But the man had more greed and sin in his heart than any one of those blind assassins.


    He was a fruit, ripe and clean on the outside, but infested and full of maggots within. The virtues he held so highly were nothing more than clothes, a facade. A mockery of kindness and a beautiful coat of paint hiding his rotten heart.


    Rage. Righteous and infallible rage became too much for Gai Jin, and for a moment, he saw it.


    He saw the path to eternity filled with red fists of violence. He saw what he was and what he could become. He saw vengeance and virtue, and he saw himself be the sword that brought the two together.


    He saw his past, Li Fang¡¯s death, and Lui Yong¡¯s tears.


    And suddenly the rage vanished, and there was only sadness left.


    ***********


    Tai Lui was not a broken man.


    Few knew what had happened, and no one but him knew the specifics.


    But even if they did he was not a broken man, no, quite the opposite. He was a healed man.


    The things that immortal had said were true. It wasn¡¯t his pride that was the problem. Nor was it his dao, but rather how his dao worked.


    His mind reached deep within his soul and searched every crevice of that dark place. He touched his dao, his being, the thing that was him and yet was not.


    And he changed it. He saw it was too large, too strong. He saw it defined him in every way. He saw it was changing him rather than him changing it. It was like a heavy sword, unwilling to swing the way he wanted to and straining his very being.


    The sword was sharp and strong, but it refused to move as he wished it to. It refused to change.


    Tai Lui had always thought that a stronger dao meant a stronger cultivator and while that was true, stronger meant many things.


    A diamond was hard but brittle. A sword needed a handle, lest the owner cut themselves while wielding it.


    Tai Lui¡¯s heart churned.


    He had gone into secluded meditation after consulting with Gai Lui. The two had talked for hours without end, both contemplating the fight and learning from it. And Tai Lui had consulted the monk on the actions he should take to deal with Gai Jin.


    The two had a long history. They had been enemies when they first met at an inter-sect tournament. Their last name and similar age ranges became the defining point of the tournament, and as if fated, the two had fought against each other.


    Gai Lui had worn thick metal gauntlets and Tai Lui had used a heirloom sword. The clash between them had been tremendous, the audience had screamed and held onto their every move.


    In the end, it had been a tie.


    A lucky thing, Tai Lui thought. We would have never become friends otherwise.


    Both men were powerful and both held their pride at their core. For Tai Lui, it was the only time he had seen those supposed men of virtue as anything more than fancy beggars.


    Their daos bothered him. Peaceful, kind, giving.


    To what end? For what cause? For what honor?


    It had all seemed so pointless to him, to pray and struggle and read scriptures all day in shaggy clothes, even mortals had more face than that.


    But then he had met Gai Lui, and he understood.


    Then he understood the pride within humility, the reverence of the masses, and the throne of the meek.


    The pride of Gai Lui was not had but given. His people worshipped him. His struggles displayed his resolve and his meditation on dull scriptures showed his care.


    It was not a pride of strength or power. It was not something he placed upon the world, but rather something the world placed upon him.


    Many would beg for his tutelage, some would pray to him. Men and women would come and throw themselves at his feet, all seeking the slightest bit of approval.


    This was not Tai Lui¡¯s way. Tai Lui sought power he could call his own, and obedience birthed from his strength.


    He wanted the winds to bend at his command and the seas to dry by his thoughts. He wanted to blink away the sun and roar away the night.


    Tai Lui wanted his strength to be, more than anything else, impossible.


    He sought to be undefiable, and his Dao, his ever-crescent Dao should have aided him in that regard.


    Tai Lui screamed as parts of his soul withered and bloomed.


    It was necessary. To change himself was necessary.


    And Tai Lui would not waste centuries with that process.


    He could not trim the garden and wait for the next season. He could not prune the roses slowly.


    He would cut them now, and he would feed them all they needed to bloom by spring.


    Outside of the five sects, somewhere deep within the wilds, Tai Lui screamed.


    The ground around him broke and qi flooded the area. Spirit beasts looked up with intrigue, some searching for a hunt.


    But when the storm clouds gathered and the sky darkened, they knew this was not something they could interfere with.


    And so the heavens stuck down, and the carp rushed upriver to leap over the Dragon Gate.

 Chapter 81 Immortality Part 3

    Chapter 81


    I stood out in the middle of the desert completely alone.


    The air was dry and the sky was cloudy. The rain drizzled, most of it evaporating before it could hit the ground, some of it evaporating after. Most of the water would be blown out of the Desert Strip and into the surrounding land, making the area at the edge of the desert into floodlands.


    The desert was too long and strange to have been made naturally. And it would have faded immediately without something keeping it dry, but it persisted.


    It was a scar in the most literal sense.


    Daos and laws were very different but very similar things. Laws were truths of the world and daos were truths of the heart. But sometimes, if the heart was strong enough, it could make the world recognize its truths.


    That was what had happened here. Someone¡¯s being, someone¡¯s truth had scarred the very land beneath me.


    The region of the Five Sects was very clearly an old battlefield. The bat beneath the earth, the dead old man, and the poisons of the snake were signs of that. The Hidden Viper had established their sect after studying the poison left behind by the snake and Hollow Echo had inherited the blood of the demonic bat. The descendants of the warriors who fought the demons had established their own sects, the Bloody Fist, the Raging River, and the Blossoming Sword.


    But even before that, there was an older battle still.


    The desert beneath me was the only denotation of its existence, and even the desert had forgotten his qi, only dao remained.


    On each grain of desert sand was a refusal of water, a denial of moisture.


    It was more than dry, more than empty, it was a thirsty, almost starving thing.


    It was the Dao of Desire.


    These types of daos generally powered people, giving them the strength to gain what they desired, but this was different.


    This was a desire for everything. The technique would probably involve the user getting hit by the attacks and absorbing them. Eating them?


    The long body of the desert strip had been a snake at some point. But after the attack, the dao had eaten them so thoroughly that there was less than nothing left.


    A desire for something.


    I had purposely not touched the land when I first got here. It seemed unfair for me to uproot the history of the place and rob whatever lucky bastard stumbled upon here to gain his reward.


    Here was a legacy, a gift waiting for someone to claim it.


    But that seemed less and less likely as the days went on.


    I dove.


    The sand moved around me like air as I went deeper and deeper into the earth. A hundred miles, two hundred miles.


    For a planet as big as Ah Marin, this was barely a scratch on the crust.


    Three hundred miles. The ground was no longer sand, it was hard compact earth and metals.


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    Five hundred miles.


    Now it was a cavern, one as wide as the Desert Strip itself. The pitch black consumed even the thought of light down here, or really the thought of anything.


    I made light, a small flame and instantly, it vanished.


    It didn¡¯t burn out or die. It was a simple fire, a ball of fire qi lit to burn, but the light hadn¡¯t even touched the ground. It was eaten, and absorbed.


    Down below, the body of an immortal layed undone.


    It was there, and at the same time, it was not there.


    This was a case where the dao outlived the man.


    A hollow thing of desire burned in the place of the corpse. It-- he was still alive, technically.


    But death would be better than whatever this was, and I couldn¡¯t leave him like this. I had ignored it for centuries but now¡­It was like an itch, a need to correct things.


    It was amoral of me, but I had never really cared about human life. I wasn¡¯t evil. I hated evil, but I wasn¡¯t good either.


    I was neutral. I did what I could when I could, but mostly I kept to myself. Caring about a person was hard enough, but caring about whole groups of people, or strangers was new to me.


    At some point, when you knew more dead names than living ones when humans kept dropping like mayflies at every blink. When eons passed like moments and millennia ticked away every second, it became hard to care about lives.


    I¡¯d seen death. I¡¯d seen universes rot. I¡¯d seen civilization wiped out and trillions slaughtered.


    And even after Dane¡¯s ego had died, those memories hadn¡¯t.


    It made me numb. Apathetic.


    Whatever bit of Bill was left struggled against that, but what was one lifetime¡¯s worth of passion against a near eternity of apathy?


    I still cared for people, for Nai, for the maidens, even for Chin and the village. But that was a recent change and even that had been a struggle.


    Until now, that was.


    I walked towards the incorrect thing.


    Ah-Min Tah had failed to break through to the immortal realm. His dao had been too weak.


    Here was the opposite.


    He was alive, his soul was alive at least but he was no longer a person. Everything about him, everything to his very core was consumed.


    He had hungered, he had desired and starved so much that he had consumed his very being.


    It was like a black hole condensing all matter into one singular mass.


    I could see the fight even now. Time wasn¡¯t capable of hiding it from me.


    The man had struck with all he had, an attack filled with the aspect of desire and consumption. An attack so eager to eat that it had eaten the swordsman itself.


    It was absolute.


    He must have been grievously wounded to have resorted to this. To give his very being over to just one aspect, to devour himself and the attacker whole, he must have known this was how it would have turned out.


    He must have been protecting something- no someone.


    I could see his face, not as it is but as it was. I could see his smile, his desire to live and to experience all that was.


    He had the desired experience. He had desired love and joy and pain and hatred, all things he could feel, he wanted. His dao had not been born from endless gluttony but rather willful life, and in the midst of battle, all of that had changed.


    He became this thing, this empty eating thing in order to protect someone. He let one aspect of his dao eat him whole, and now there was nothing left.


    I walked over to the living corpse and touched it.


    It clawed at me with hunger and vigor. I looked at the man¡¯s soul, the book that recorded his very being and there was only one word.


    Devour.


    Even if I were to break it, there would be nothing left. All it was, all it is, was hunger.


    I reached down and slowly pressed my presence into it. And bit by bit, piece by piece, the former person broke.


    I was expecting something. A sense of revulsion or refusal. I was expecting my dao to rise up and prevent me from killing it.


    But that didn¡¯t happen, instead, the man¡¯s soul shattered, his corpse crumbled and his endless desire was no more.


    When I went back up and beyond the surface, the rain fell into the sand and traveled deep below the earth.


    Why?


    That was the question the array posed to me as soon as I came up.


    ¡°Because,¡± I replied. ¡°He wasn¡¯t at peace.¡±


    It was not suffering. It was not in need and it was harmless.


    I took a moment to think. To the array, what I did wasn¡¯t logical. I had killed something, someone who seemed to exist in a neutral form. My actions in its eyes were strange, maybe even wrong.


    How do you know it wasn¡¯t at peace?


    ¡°It had no mind, no soul. It was more of a thing than a person,¡± I explained. ¡°And even then, how could a constant state of hunger be peaceful.¡±


    Does desire counter peace?


    ¡°No. But insatiable desire does. It was broken. He was broken.¡±


    How do you know?


    That was a good question. How do I explain the fundamental wrong that person had suffered? How do I explain that to a being of only logic and conditions?


    ¡°It was like you, I suppose. All it could do was want and not have.¡±

 Chapter 82 Growing Pains

    The array wandered. That''s what it did most of the time, wander.


    It searched for peace, trying to understand it, to define it.


    A list of conditions was all it had for now. A long list of rules with various exceptions and ideas, to the array, that was what peace was, or what peace could be.


    The monkey wasn¡¯t making things any easier.


    Wukong trailed behind him, hidden from everyone except for the array.


    ¡°How goes the search?¡± The God-Imperium asked.


    The array didn¡¯t reply. Why should it? The monkey king wasn¡¯t searching for an answer after all. He knew how the search went.


    Wukong smiled.


    ¡°Come now, you should talk to me you know.¡±


    The array ignored him. The God-Imperium was able to see through him like paper, talking to him was about as meaningful as a stone talking to a man. What could a rock possibly think that a human couldn¡¯t comprehend?


    And so the array wandered and the old monkey king floated by him, watching.


    Yes, the monkey king was watching him.


    When the array had asked him why, the monkey king had just shrugged.


    ¡°You¡¯re a new thing,¡± Wukong had said, and then he just kept watching like a child following an ant with wide eyes.


    The man didn¡¯t give it advice or wisdom, he just watched. Occasionally he would be bothersome, poking him or something or other. If it were mortal, it would have thought less of the God-Imperium.


    It would have thought the God-Imperium stupid or dull. Why would something of its power focus on it?


    But it wasn¡¯t a mortal, and more so, it wasn¡¯t stupid. The being following him wasn¡¯t the whole of Wukong, only a piece of him. He was here and elsewhere all at once. And what was a God-Imperium to do if not lazy about?


    They were all-powerful, beyond reproach and pain by anything not within their own rank. And this God-Imperium was equal to or above all of his peers. The great Sun Wukong, the god of cultivation, and the Sage Who Split the Heavens.


    This mischievous monkey had all of eternity to bother the array. He had all of eternity to bother anyone it wanted.


    So the array ignored him and wandered. It looked to the beasts and it looked to the mortals and it looked to the cultivators and all the life it could reach.


    It looked for peace.


    It looked for understanding.


    It looked for meaning.


    It found none.


    ¡°You know I could have fixed you? Back before you were made I knew your maker, I knew your purpose and I knew your flaws. I could have fixed you then!¡±


    You can fix me now, the array replied.


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    ¡°I couldn¡¯t rob you of such a thing,¡± Wukong replied.


    The array frowned.


    Rob it? Rob it of what? What could a purposeless thing like him lose?


    It was a sentient tool, something made to do. It was a force with no direction. A being meant to act but¡­ there was no action to be had. Its definition, its declaration, and its imperative were flawed.


    It was a crippled mess of a being, and its creator did not care.


    No, Bill cared. He cared too much about what the array was and not what it could be. A simple instant, a moment of interference, and it could work the way it was meant to, even if it wouldn¡¯t be it anymore.


    ¡°You¡¯re quite funny, you know,¡± Wukong commented. ¡°A being made to find peace wanting to end its own existence, what a thought!¡±


    The monkey¡¯s paws smacked together in laughter.


    The array ignored him.


    Wukong walked leisurely through the land.


    The array occupied the whole of the place, its body, mind, and soul spreading throughout the whole of the Desert Strip. It could feel every step of every being, from the germs on a piece of stone to the large hordes of beasts and insects crossing the flat sandy planes.


    It was everywhere within the desert, and because of that, it was always aware of Wukong.


    It¡¯s the center of attention shifted, sure. But what would it look like if not Wukong? The array knew the place already and the only beings beyond its power were some of the beasts, its creator, and Wukong.


    They were the only things above him and the few things he couldn¡¯t see through, so it would watch them most of the time. Watching, learning, seeking.


    It was a waste of time. The beasts were beasts and its creator was strange.


    Wukong, it felt, was the only one truly worth any attention. It was not just because of the man¡¯s power though, but because of his wisdom.


    The array was sure that Wukong could solve its problems. If anyone knew peace, it would be him after all, the being who had ended the eternal war.


    Wukong finally stopped, standing beside a mortal boy within the village. The boy was doing something, staring slowly at a book and running his hands across the text.


    He was reading, or rather he was learning to. There wasn¡¯t much to say about the youth¡¯s attempts. He spoke small simple words and the book didn¡¯t seem to have many big ones.


    Still, the boy failed at some words, mauling some syllables and ignoring a letter or two when he could.


    In other words, the child was a failure.


    The array wondered why Wukong looked at him with such interest but Wukong said nothing.


    And so he watched, and so they watched.


    The day died down, the boy stopped reading and the next morning came. They watched the boy bathe, eat, play, and once again, read.


    He struggled the same this time. Words mixing as they came out of his mouth, he remembered a few of the words from yesterday but he had forgotten just as much.


    And then tomorrow came and he did it again, just a bit better this time, and a little less worse. Overall he improved, barely.


    A week, a month, a year.


    They stood there for a year.


    They watched the boy grow and learn and read his first book easily.


    Other things happened, of course, the land changed, and people came and went.


    The array¡¯s consciousness split, sometimes watching the boy and whatever event went on in the strip, most of the time fully focusing on the boy¡¯s daily life.


    A year later and boy read. His mind ran quickly through the words and even his teachers were impressed with his growth.


    The array watched and so did Wukong.


    ¡°Do you think the boy would love reading if he could do it instantly?¡± Wukong asked. ¡°Do you think he would value it less if he had to do less to get there?¡±


    Yes, the array replied. Humans are like that.


    ¡°Well, then why would I give you the answer when you could struggle for so long to get it?¡±


    I am not human, the array replied.


    ¡°And yet you¡¯re searching for peace?¡± Wukong asked.


    I am not in need of peace, I am in need of understanding it.


    ¡°You are in need,¡± Wukong replied.


    In need of knowledge, the array replied.


    ¡°Tell me, what would happen if I took you from here and never allowed you that understanding? What would happen if I were to trap you in this seeking state for all of eternity?¡±


    The array didn¡¯t feel fear. Fear was a human thing, but something crossed with caution and worry touched its soul.


    ¡°Calm down, it is a mere question.¡±


    The feeling wouldn¡¯t leave.


    I would rather you destroy me, the array replied.


    Wukong smiled.


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    I do not understand.


    Then it looked to the boy, then to the boy¡¯s smile, to the book, then to itself.


    I see, the array spoke.


    ¡°You do,¡± Wukong replied.


    It sought peace, more than the meaning, more than the words, more than its complete state. It sought not only that but peace itself.


    It still didn¡¯t know what peace was, but now it knew, it knew that it did not have it.

 Chapter 83 Itch

    The air was hot and humid, a first for the Great Desert Strip.


    Moisture normally can¡¯t be found an hour after the rains, but it was today. Even within the valley, the outer edges would be slightly dry. The water being protected by the inner forests and lakes would flow into rivers and make its way to the village.


    And while the sands were mostly dry, they were also wet. Not on the surface, but deep beneath it, the water had traveled down into the thirsty earth and¡­ soaked.


    It had yet to disappear or be destroyed. It had merely soaked.


    The desert crabs for the first in thousands of years, all drank. Normally they would need to die to reproduce, sacrificing their innate qi to create water that would nourish their young. But today there was no death. There was no thirst beneath to steal away the rain, and the beasts that knew only struggle and death now tasted something new. That would lead to a population burst eventually, pushing them to breed in the pockets of water without having to sacrifice themselves and multiplying their numbers in a mere season, and while that wouldn¡¯t mean much when one remembered the vastness of the Great Desert Strip, from now on the desert crabs could do one thing they could never do before.


    They could grow.


    They tended to die at the second rank. There simply wasn¡¯t enough qi for them to both reproduce and stay alive.


    I watched as they scuttled about beneath the ground and Chin, unable to see all this, frowned.


    ¡°Keep focus,¡± I told him.


    He replied with an irritated grunt, keeping hold of his meditative stance.


    There would be lots of monster hunters making their way here soon. The flaw with this desert wasn¡¯t just its dryness, but rather the lack of qi. That corpse beneath the earth had been eating it all, making it not only dry but also barren.


    You couldn¡¯t cultivate here and its vastness had made it impossible to settle for any mortals. Even Chin¡¯s ancestors had been nomads, moving from oasis to oasis, and during the hotter seasons, migrating over to either side of the strip.


    But now, that would change.


    Qi was flooding into the area.


    It was as if a large island in the middle of the ocean had suddenly disappeared.


    It would be a minor ripple on the face of the continent, but it would draw in qi from the surrounding areas, if only for a moment.


    Qi flowed naturally, moving with the imbalances, ebbing, and flowing like an eternal tide, even out in the void. Life both produced and consumed qi, but more often it produced it. Those pillars of life who had reached the peak of their potential and outranked everything around them pushed out qi like a waterfall.


    And a new pond had just appeared to drink on their rivers.


    The effects were noticeable immediately. Any cultivator would notice the immediate tug and run with it, hoping to mix the force of the qi into their own meridians, like using a water wheel to grind flour.


    That was why Chin was here cultivating, instead of farming.


    Of the three fundamental forces of qi, push, pull, and hold. Pulling was the one cultivators tended to waste most of their time on. Controlling qi once it was inside of you was an easy endeavor but pulling it to you from the outside was the tedious part.


    But I had set up Chin in a little qi gathering array, something simple really.


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    And that with the mass inwards pull to our little valley would make it so that he wouldn¡¯t have to pull in any qi at all. It was like drinking water from the bottom of the well.


    Of course there were some dangers to it, like the qi overwhelming his meridians and flooding into his dantians and sweeping away all of his innate qi.


    But I had put up a few safeguards against that. One being within the array itself, and the second being the talisman stuck to his forehead.


    Beads of sweat trickled down Chin¡¯s face as he broke in the seventh step of the first rank.


    That was good. Most children worked their way through the first rank quite easily.


    ¡°Chin,¡± I spoke.


    Chin grumbled in reply, most of his mind focused on his qi circulation technique.


    ¡°Do you know why they call it the first rank, Chin? Or the second rank? Do you ever wonder why they don¡¯t give these ranks definitive names?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Chin replied, managing to engage in the conversation without any defect being introduced to his qi circulation.


    ¡°Why?¡± He asked.


    He was getting good at this. At this rate he would break into the second rank by the end of the month.


    ¡°They do!¡± I replied. ¡°But even within this realm, the world is so big and the people so varied that they can¡¯t come together to define the same names for anything below the immortal rank. They¡¯ll call it the qi condensation stage in some place, the grounding stage in others. They only have common names for the tenth rank beings within this realm. And in the grander multiverse, you don¡¯t hear of a common name for ranks until people get to the fifteenth realm.¡±


    Chin nodded in response.


    ¡°Anyway, how¡¯s Medin doing?¡± I asked.


    ¡°She broke into the first rank,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Already? She¡¯s even faster than you,¡± I mumbled.


    ¡°She likes to cultivate,¡± he muttered.


    Rin Wi had been training Medin to cultivate. Rin Wi knew the basics about as well as anyone so Medin was in good hands. And I¡¯d even made a custom cultivation manual and technique just for her.


    When I¡¯d ask Medin what drove her to it, she talked about keeping healthy in her old age and getting the youthful fire in her once more.


    But she really seemed to want to hang out with Rin Wi. To her, cultivation wasn¡¯t a thing you did for the sake of heavenly rebellion and power. No, to Medin cultivation was just a hobby her friend could teach her.


    It was Tai Chi on a Saturday afternoon, bingo at the bowling alley. It was just something she could do to spend time with her friend.


    I¡¯d gotten a good laugh out of that.


    Medin really was something. She had to be to hitch her wagon to this old rock of a man.


    ¡°Chin, there¡¯s some trouble coming our way within a few days.¡±


    Chin instantly cut his cultivation short.


    ¡°What? How? Who? When? Can¡¯t you stop them?¡±


    ¡°Relax. It¡¯s not going to hurt anyone¡­well it¡¯s not going to hurt anything you care for.¡±


    ¡°But what is it?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°A fight, between two fifth ranks within the great desert strip.¡±


    ¡°Again?¡± Chin muttered.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to be involved in it. But one of them keeps trying to sneak in and the other will be sure to follow. I could keep blocking them out but I¡¯m thinking about letting them in.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Chin nearly shouted.


    ¡°It feels right.¡±


    Chin stared at me with a viciously annoyed look.


    ¡°They won¡¯t get into the village, or anywhere near it Chin.¡±


    The man¡¯s face instantly relaxed and he went right back into qi circulation.


    This guy.


    ¡°Anyways, I¡¯m thinking of making a spectacle of it. The guy wants to enter the desert to see me uphold my no violence rule, but he¡¯s a bastard.¡±


    ¡°So? You let that other guy go didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°But I let him go. This guy wants to hole up here and avoid the consequences of his actions. And if I let him do that then other bastards might come to the same conclusion. I don¡¯t want this place to be a haven for criminals, Chin. People can just hide here after a lifetime of evil. Or worse, demonic path cultivators might use this place as their home base and go out and commit their crimes, knowing they have a fortress protected by an immortal to hide behind.¡±


    Chin slowly nodded at my words.


    ¡°Makes sense,¡± He replied. ¡°But it would be better to just punish him instead.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± I shrugged.


    I looked after the village and the surrounding area, sure, but I wasn¡¯t really a righteous path cultivator either. I wasn¡¯t a savior.


    The cost of seeking the righteous path was fighting against the demonic one.


    Suffering was endless, wars were endless. Within existence, pain was eternal and no matter what I did, no matter how many I saved, even if I were to reach the ninth step of God-Imperium, I would change little.


    There was a difference to mortal between one and one billion lives. There was a difference between that and a quadrillion, but I had seen whole realms slaughtered for minor insults. I¡¯d seen infinite sets of lives be burned for petty quarrels.


    The evils of existence were too large, too vast. It wasn¡¯t my place to fight them.


    Leave that to the Heavens.


    That had always been how I thought. But now¡­ I itched. Bit by bit, I found myself unable to sit and tolerate some things. Even if I couldn¡¯t keep all of it safe, I could at least take care of my own backyard, no?


    ¡°Maybe,¡± I repeated.

 Chapter 84 The Misadventures of Nai Part 1

    Change was a hard thing.


    Nai sat over a small hole, her face tight in concentration.


    Change was the thing that drove life and forced it to grow. Age was the medicine to ignorance and the flowerpot of wisdom.


    Yes, Nai thought. This was true.


    Her face scrunched a bit more.


    Only those who clung tightly to this stallion called time could expect themselves to grow. To live was to stay. To stay with life, to stay with soul, and to stay your very being.


    But to live was also to change. The tree would stay, but it would grow, it would shed its leaves and grow stronger through the winds of time. Its roots would dig deep and force the ground apart, and in doing so, it would change.


    Nai¡¯s face grew red.


    To live, to stay, to change, thus was the dichotomy of life.


    Truly, to live was to die in some ways and to grow in others. Bits of your past shedding away and falling to the ground to nurture your future.


    She pushed again, plop.


    ¡°There you go, easy as could be right?¡± Medin asked.


    Nai nodded, her mission was complete.


    ¡°Though I don¡¯t know if a child this young should even be potty trained. You''re barely a few months old. You¡¯ve got years before you need to do such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Aye!¡± Nai protested.


    ¡°Well alright,¡± Medin said with a smile. ¡°If you say so. Now come here, let¡¯s clean you up now.¡±


    Nai nodded and let the woman pick her up. Unfortunately, cleanliness was not something she had mastered yet. But it was only a matter of time, Nai could feel it.


    ¡°Aye!¡± Nai yipped as cold water touched her back.


    ¡°Hold still now,¡± Medin replied. ¡°It¡¯s a little muddy back there.¡±


    Nai froze and let the woman help her. She had to be careful now. The headband on her head kept her relatively weak, but she was still capable of hurting the old woman even with its restrictions.


    A minute later she was clean, though her dignity was stained.


    Nai crawled.


    The floor was a very interesting place. The bugs, the dirt, the bark, and the rocks, were all very interesting.


    She wasn¡¯t supposed to eat them, that¡¯s what Medin said.


    She tried to tell the woman that she would be fine if she ate them. Nai could eat a sword and not feel a thing, but Medin wouldn¡¯t have it.


    Anytime she ate anything strange, Medin would scold her and take her inside for the rest of the day.


    Nai could have opposed it. She could have easily freed herself or even run away, but she didn¡¯t.


    She liked the old woman, loved even though Nai couldn¡¯t say she knew the difference between the two. She cared and she didn¡¯t want to see the old woman sad.


    Most days she played with Tob. He was an old herding dog belonging to one of Chin¡¯s children. He lived here because he was too old to run in the fields and he was allowed inside because he was well trained.


    Medin didn¡¯t want Nai sleeping with the old hound, but Nai rebelled. She liked Tob, and Tob liked her.


    The old dog talked a lot about all the things it had seen.


    That was to be understood, Nai was the first person who was willing to listen so of course it wouldn¡¯t stop talking to her.


    He talked about sheep and herding, occasionally he¡¯d talk about smells and mangy mutts who refused to groom themselves, but mostly he just talked.


    Today was one of those days.


    Tob lay down and Nai worked herself to get on top of the old hound. Medin was inside busy with something, probably cooking and Nai was allowed to play by herself unsupervised.


    Even if Medin didn¡¯t like it.


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    Nai gripped the back of the old hound as he stood up. Her head rested on his shoulder and her feet and toes intertwined with his long hair. She was confident, even a whirlwind wouldn¡¯t knock her off him now.


    Tob started forward, slowly at first but faster with each step. The dog was old and slow and shouldn¡¯t have been as fast as it was, but Nai was helping with that.


    She didn¡¯t quite understand how. It was instinct to her, like breathing. But she helped the dog and as her qi mixed with the old mutt¡¯s it seemed to heal.


    The dog galloped, parading throughout the outskirts of town and running for a few good miles until it stopped next to a tree on a hilltop.


    She hopped off of the dog and crawled beneath the shade of an old tree. From here, Nai could make out an outline of the village along with the merchant¡¯s outpost.


    They were like ants, Nai thought. Insects.


    And from here, she must have been the same to them, a dot beneath a tree.


    Tob scratched behind his ears, brushing off some hair and an old scab.


    He looked better too. His old fur seemed to shine and his joints stood straighter than before.


    He started barking, another ramble about acorns and squirrels. Tob did that, talking.


    He had gotten smarter since Nai had first met him, and now, though he couldn¡¯t quite speak, his woofs and barks sounded like speech.


    Nai didn¡¯t like that idea. How could a dog learn to speak before she did?


    She understood language in a way. Well, she understood auras and those were so much easier to understand. Why would she pay attention to weird sounds when she could just stare at the shadow of a person¡¯s soul and know what they were thinking?


    That was how the powerful spoke, she was sure of it.


    They spoke with projections of will rather than projections of sound.


    But¡­ she didn¡¯t want to speak to the powerful. She wanted to talk to Medin and Chin, and maybe that big fella who always lugged around poop with Xi Lu.


    It wasn¡¯t that the mortals were more entertaining, but that they were always there.


    Nai had seen her older brother. The monkey king had visited her once when Bill was away, and Nai had seen ants, mindless insects beneath the earth. Nai had seen the weak deer that seemed to tower over her at once and the small insect-sized beasts that could devour her whole.


    All of these beings had done something to her, or rather seeing them had. She understood something, innately. She knew.


    But She didn''t know what she knew. She didn''t have a name for it yet.


    Nai looked back against the tree and eyes against the sky. It was a small thing to Nai.


    Her eyes could pierce through the daylight and see the galaxies beyond. She couldn¡¯t make out the details of the moons and such, but the light couldn¡¯t hide the stars from her.


    But that wasn¡¯t what the mortals saw. The mortals just saw a big blue thing with clouds and specks floating above them. Nai could see that too, if she wanted.


    And sometimes she did, now was one of those times.


    Clouds, Nai found, were also interesting things. There were a lot of them lately, but the sky was clearer today, a brief reprieve from the rainy season.


    There will be more clouds tomorrow. Nai could sense that.


    But those would be boring ones, giant uniform masses of vapor. Scattered clouds were the way to go.


    Tob barked something about small rats in the meadows.


    Nai frowned, a habit she had picked up from a very particular farmer.


    Tob was saying the rats and wildlife were growing more disturbed over the days. He said that a rat had tried to fight him the other day and that they had even started using tactics of sorts.


    Tactics? Nai thought. What did the dog know of tactics?


    She listened to the dog bark, grabbing meaning from both his aura and body language. She listened to him speak more and more and realized Tob was speaking.


    Not just talking or barking or expressing emotion, but communicating with intent and reason. He wasn¡¯t using language or anything but he was talking.


    Her little brown eyes grew wide in realization. She had been playing with him for a couple of weeks now, riding him and aiding him every time he helped her.


    It was instinct to her, her mother was Beast and her father was The Tamer, how could it have been anything but?


    She was raising the animal and caring for it. Controlling him and nurturing him, and now the dog had gained a spark of sentience.


    No, it was already sentient.


    Nai¡¯s fingers stroked her chubby little chin.


    A conundrum, a great debacle.


    She had in her foolish ignorance started raising a spirit beast.


    She looked at the talkative dog up and down in assessment.


    And not a very good one either. She had taken an old herding dog at the door of death and extended its life by what? At least a decade. His mind grew larger and that in turn churned his soul.


    What would Bill say about this? Probably nothing. He was a lazy old man after all.


    Beasts, she thought. And once again she let her instincts answer her.


    Beasts were inherently different from humans, as all the primordial archetypes were. While humans developed into intelligence and understanding, beasts grew into it. In fact, intelligence itself was a secondary trait, something they gained to aid them, not define them.


    All there was when they were created was their nature and that was all that grew. Intellect, wisdom, comprehension, all those things were aids, pathways to power for most beings, not an intrinsically defining thing.


    Now each beast¡¯s nature was different of course. Dragons, for example, had a drive to be superior. They strived to know all things and horde because that was their nature, and at high enough ranks, any creature could free themselves of their archetypical limits.


    And there were many mixtures of beasts, varying from simple animals to God-Imperium creatures who created their own archetype that other creatures could be modeled after.


    But a dog was no such being. Nai didn¡¯t know if her father was responsible for taming the first wolf or not.


    Probably not. There were definitely others before him but none got as powerful or spread their powers as wide, so their influence was limited.


    Regardless, a dog was a dog, not a dragon. And the nature of dogs was simple, companionship.


    Dogs worked with humans, aiding, helping, and protecting.


    If Tob had been a wolf she would have set him free. After all, what was one intelligent wolf? But Tob was a dog, and dogs wanted nothing more than to serve.


    Tob kept barking about annoying rodents as Nai sank back into the moment.


    Well, then. That was it.


    Nai nodded firmly to no one in particular.


    She has a dog now. A dog she would feed and raise because she had made him hers. Her responsibility, her eternal burden.


    He would not die. He would follow her, from mortal beast to immortal hound. She would make sure of it.


    But she really had to be careful now. She couldn¡¯t allow this to happen again. One animal companion was enough of a burden for a child like her.


    Nai turned, nodded to her subordinate, and listened.

 Chapter 85 The Misadventures of Nai Part 2

    Smart rats.


    A simple concept, but possibly a terrifying one to most mortals. Rats, Nai knew, were already fairly intelligent, at least compared to most other mortal beasts.


    But these were different. Nai was perked on Tob¡¯s back, and she was watching.


    Mice, rats, skunks, and raccoons gathered within the forest. They believed themselves to be hidden, but to Nai, they were anything but.


    She could easily see through the leaves and into the depths of the strange forest. It was Bill¡¯s forest, something made vast and small at the same time. The forest to a mortal was a forest. Leaves were leaves and trees were trees. They could go in and harvest some wood, forage, even hunt and come out completely unbothered.


    But to cultivators, it was different. It was vast and contained, a realm all its own in a way, and Nai knew that was where the beasts lived.


    Nai was a bit scared of that place. She could walk through it like a mortal of course, but when she had shrunk down and seen the true nature of the place, well, it had terrified her. Even animals seemed larger than gods from that perspective.


    But now she wasn¡¯t looking for the small beasts or trying to enter the magical forest full of small beasts of wonder. Now, she was trying to spy on some rodents.


    Some strangely intelligent rodents.


    Nai watched as the animals started to collide with one another. One of them, the raccoon, was laying plans, pointing out lines of attacks and pointing vaguely toward the village.


    The bastard was waving excitedly and carried a plotters grin. Nai frowned.


    Intellect like Tob, except this was not her fault but rather that of the forests. The array had grown and even if the strange thing liked to zip around every now and then, its main body was still tied to the valley and it produced qi worthy of its rank, qi worthy of a demigod.


    But it had been focusing on one spot for almost a week now, staring down at one singular child. She had asked Bill about it but apparently the array was¡­ meditating, at least that was how Bill put it.


    He had seemed a little uneasy about the whole thing but, he said it would be fine.


    Nai watched the gathering with more attention. This was not her fault, but in the distance, she saw a great war brewing. A war between the critters of the forest and the fair people of the village.


    People have started to call it the Desert Village nowadays, or even the Oasis Village. Apparently, no one named it because it was such an isolated area. You could always say the village with the Great Desert Strip or the Village of the Desert Strip.


    But more visitors had come and eventually, a name had risen out of necessity.


    Oasis Village. Nai liked the way that sounded.


    Her home. Her people. The critters would attack soon.


    They were going after a grain shed that was holding a few bags of the village''s grain supply.


    Nai breathed. The baby crawled to a stray stick and clutched it tightly in her hands.


    She smacked the stick against her open palm in contemplation, then immediately fell over.


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    Walking was still not something she had figured out.


    She pushed herself up via the stick and crawled her way onto the overly energetic dog.


    Her companion. Her steed.


    ¡°Aguah!¡± The baby yelled, pointing towards the shed.


    And the dog ran at her command, both ready for war.


    ********


    The raccoon had a plan. It had always had plans. Ideas came naturally to his mind, but they had grown over the last two months. Complexity had risen from his fevered little mind and now he knew. He thought.


    He wasn¡¯t a genius by human standards. In truth, he would be a moron compared to any human child, but he was a genius among his kind. And if he was a moron, it was only due to his inability to comprehend things as they are, his inexperience.


    But he was a budding fellow, a growing flower. And he had yet to bloom.


    Under the guise of night, a motley mix of rodents, birds, and reptiles moved silently. Bushes shook and the forest ground suddenly found itself to be clear of mushrooms and berries.


    Smaller than them, the divine beasts walked unmoved by the strangeness. After all, these were normal beasts, creatures of the forest. They weren¡¯t worth acknowledging and the regular animals couldn¡¯t even see the small gods that walked beneath them.


    But one phoenix saw them, and she had grown curious. The small phoenix of the House of Wisdom. That was what the divine beasts called her.


    She was one of the few chosen to have power over the last ruling body of the beasts, and her story was a curious one. But today, she would remain a witness watching from a distance.


    The animals gathered together on the small shed, crows perched on the roofs as lookouts. Squirrels waiting with empty cheeks ready to be stuffed. Skunks hung around as last-minute sentinels. Mole rats and groundhogs waited for a small distance away, having created tunnels for transport, which large badgers guarded either side.


    And a line of rats and squirrels stood ready to raid. They would function as the main transport along with the tunnels close by for quick cover.


    The skunk''s spray would function as the alarm sound but the raccoon doubted they would need to do that. He¡¯d been planning this heist for days, gathering different species and plotting different routes of attack.


    The crows had helped admittedly. They had helped a lot, and the raccoon wasn¡¯t even sure if they were changed like the other beasts or if they were always this smart. A bit of both he thought. One of them could even speak, with words like humans.


    They were strange creatures.


    The raccoon shook his head, throwing off those thoughts and coming back to the moment. Then they moved.


    Out of all of them, only he had the ability to lead. For some reason, only he had thoughts that could spread.


    His tail swished and his peers listened. Instantly they knew.


    A small ladder of raccoons waited for him, and he quickly climbed onto his people¡¯s backs, climbing them like stairs. His small hands finally reached the locks and with a twist, the door was opened and--


    His head went up.


    What! No! The skunks had sprayed already? How? How could they fail so quickly?


    A crow squawked and just as they were about to scatter, he got the message. Dogs, four of them. The skunk had used a preemptive spray and both had been run off before they could see the scene.


    The skunk was fine but depleted and his kin would have to stretch their perimeters to cover for him.


    The raccoon swished his tail and they all calmed down. It drained the raccoon but the reassurance made its way around to everyone eventually.


    He dropped. But he had planned for this, at least that was what he told himself. In truth he had given himself the easiest job of opening the door, because he was lazy. But in retrospect, keeping himself from working and just supervising the plan was probably the best approach.


    The door creaked slowly and all the animals listened in both hope and horror.


    But eventually the door opened, and no one came.


    The raccoon smiled as he jammed the doorstop into the door. Finally, Victory. After days of plotting and conniving. He was just seconds away from-


    Thunk.


    The raccoon¡¯s head swiveled in fright. He looked, he stared into the empty room and then¡­ he sniffed.


    A dog. A dog was here.


    He called forward the badgers and the skunks. And they shuffled forward quickly behind him. They all bore their fangs as they looked. The smell of wheat had dulled it but now everyone could smell the dog in the room.


    Behind a crate, a beast walked out. He was old, but his eyes sparkled with light. The moonlight danced upon his dusty brown fur. It gleamed.


    On his back was a sack, no- a human. No- something that looked like a human.


    Thunk.


    She smacked the side of the crate with a stick, and fear devoured the rodents still.


    From the crows, to the skunks, to the badgers and rats a distance away. They all felt it. Something superior was among them and they could not move.


    Nai looked at them with a face full of power, and they could only stare back. None of them moved simply for one reason.


    She didn¡¯t want them to move.

 Chapter 86 The Misadventures of Nai Part 3

    Instinct was a superior thing. It guided everything before knowledge and in a way, it was the truest knowledge of all, written into your very being. Before a baby knew anything, it knew how to breathe. It knew how to cry.


    Instinct, the type you were born with, not the one you developed, was one of the hardest things to overcome. Put a newborn next to a teet and it would suckle instantly, rooting. All without ever knowing why or how.


    It was a fact of life, and one few had to address.


    But the raccoon had to address it now, as did every animal within a mile¡¯s radius. Nai was superior, something in them told them that and they could not dare to deny it. Instincts normally help you survive. The wolf paddling against the depths of a lake, the deer fleeing from any slight noise,


    Fear held them. Fear and something more.


    Respect.


    It was a strange idea to animals.


    Respect.


    They liked things and they could even love each other, but respect?


    No, that was a human thing.


    Tob walked with Nai on his back, standing like a giant relative to the rodents beneath.


    The raccoon watched as the large figure with a stick approached him, and he was quivering. Something told him to bow. The same part of him that told him to eat, to sleep, to hunger, to run, and to hunt, told him to bow.


    How could he possibly deny it?


    The animals all lowered themselves, heads looking straight at the ground and one by one, began to expose their belly.


    Submission.


    Even the crows had come down and lowered their heads to the ground. It wasn¡¯t just pure qi or strength, no if that was all they would run.


    Nai hadn¡¯t released her fifth rank aura upon the beasts. As far as they knew she was just a first rank.


    It was her nature that had brought them down. Her mother howled from beyond and her father¡­ Well, that part had been corrupted by Wukong and the damn sword.


    She still had his nature, but it had mingled with Wukong¡¯s qi. The Monkey King had told her that it was so her father wouldn¡¯t find her. When she asked about her mother, Wukong only laughed.


    ¡°That old monster wouldn¡¯t pay attention to you even if you became my equal,¡± Wukong had stated.


    And he was right. But still, the shadow of her was on Nai, and had any cultivator been close enough, they would have sensed it too, though she doubted any would recognize her aura.


    And she was right, none had.


    Except for a bird in the distance. A small phoenix fell out of the sky and chirped widely to no one in particular. The beasts had known the child was special, part animal in some way, but not this.


    An annoyed Bill grabbed the bird before she could go off and tell her kin and watched the shed in silence.


    He gave the phoenix a very stern set of instructions, and the poor bird nodded before heading off to the distance.


    Nai looked at the animals slightly disappointed. She had come here to defend the shed and the food of the people¡­ but she had also come here to fight.


    She was looking for an adventure, a challenge, yet all the opponents had given up immediately.


    Her club itched for blood and justice and her mind demanded vengeance and--


    Nai sighed. She had thirsted for rage but found herself spitting out the sour taste of politics instead.


    ¡°Augh!¡± She spoke, putting her meaning into the word.


    Humans wouldn¡¯t make any sense of that, but to the beasts that was as good as words.


    Why are you trying to steal the village¡¯s food?


    Nai immediately regretted the question. They were animals, why else would they be trying to steal the village¡¯s food?


    The raccoon looked in her direction with confusion.


    We were hungry, it replied.


    But why here? Isn¡¯t there food in the forest?


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    Yes,  it replied once more.


    Then why not eat that?


    This is easier.


    He looked at her with confusion and she looked at him with annoyance.


    That¡¯s not right! Nai replied.


    It¡¯s not?


    No. The food belongs to the people. They worked hard to make it. You shouldn¡¯t steal things!


    The raccoon frowned. What a stupid thing to say. Food was food. It fed. The more you ate the better, and if these humans couldn¡¯t hide their food well enough, then that was their fault.


    Nai smacked him with the stick.


    No, she reiterated.


    The raccoon sat there quietly clutching his head.


    It¡¯s. Not. Yours. Nai repeated.


    Then she sighed. Of course, an animal wouldn¡¯t understand the concept of private property, much less respect it.


    But they had to learn somehow. Nai knew Chin, and there was no way he¡¯d let something like this happen again.


    The beasts were smart, but they weren¡¯t smart enough. They might get away with this a few more times, but eventually, Chin would send hunters.


    Nai could see one of the hunters reporting back their intellect and Chin questioning Bill on the matter. Even if the animals managed to outwit the hunters, they¡¯d be dust in front of the cultivators.


    Death. That was what awaited them unless Nai did something.


    Nai thought for a second, stroking her non-existent beard in concentration.


    In a way, these animals were the first. Eventually more and more would grow intelligent, and soon, the forest would grow unsafe.


    What could she do? How could she fix this?


    Nai thought and thought but the problem seemed too large for her young mind. There were too many variables. Too many possibilities.


    Nai nodded and Tob marched.


    ¡°Arg!¡± She yelled.


    And the animals followed her from behind.


    On the hill, Bill and a very skittish phoenix were watching curiously.


    ¡°Uh oh,¡± Bill muttered, watching the small horde of animals walk silently through the streets.


    Some of the maidens looked curiously but once they found no threat, they ignored it.


    Rin Wi almost came with her cleavers but Bill stopped her just in time.


    But the night had just started for an elderly couple.


    Chin woke up that night to find a horde of animals at his front door with a very stern-looking baby staring up at him.


    He frowned and turned to Bill who was standing next to her.


    ¡°She wants to negotiate about adding new residents to the village.¡±


    Chin looked at the baby, then back at Bill. That day, he started taking cultivation more seriously, if only so he could one day truly beat up the grinning old man at his door.


    ********


    Medin walked over with tea and honey, giving a bit of both to the men and giving a bit of milk and honey to Nai.


    All three sat there in silence.


    ¡°Well?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well, what?¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°What do you think about Nai¡¯s plan?¡±


    ¡°Ha,¡± Chin grumbled.


    ¡°It sounds like a good deal to me,¡± I replied.


    Chin just frowned harder. I didn¡¯t realize that was possible.


    Then he sighed, taking a sip of his tea.


    ¡°I have nothing against the idea, but there are a few things,¡± he mumbled. ¡°First, what do the animals have to offer? I wouldn¡¯t mind adding them to the village as¡­aids of some sort but I have no idea as to what they would even do. And then there¡¯s the problem of a growing population. Animals and rodents, reproduce much faster than humans. Two rats in a year will have fifty. What then? Do I feed ten thousand useless mouths that just keep growing year by year till the village is out of food and land?¡±


    Chin looked at me with those questions and I shrugged, turning towards Nai instead.


    The little child looked teary-eyed, but she still stared firmly at the old man.


    ¡°Aue! Argh, ab, dou!¡± She replied, smacking her hands against the table in reply.


    ¡°She says that qi beasts reproduce much more slowly than their lame counterparts and that if these beasts were allowed to become spirit beasts, their reproduction would compare to that of humans.¡±


    Medin for her part was smiling silently. The horde of animals had given her quite a fright, but after hearing out Nai¡¯s situation and proposal, her heart had grown soft.


    She was now petting a badger while offering it some sliced fruit. Several crows had also snuck their way into the building and Medin had given them some old bread and seeds.


    The main leader, the raccoon, sat nervously beside Nai. Medin had apparently given him some tea and cookies and while he occasionally munched on them, his main focus was the conversation between the baby and the old man.


    ¡°What about new qi beasts?¡± Chin asked. ¡°How many more will grow out from that forest? It already has those other things, how much more will come from it?¡±


    Now that was a good concern. In truth, the small amount of aware qi beasts hadn¡¯t been born from the forest¡¯s qi. I had fixed that little leak a while back. The trees would grow and so would some of the plants, but I made it so that most of that growth only happens on the other side of the forest, the divine beast¡¯s side.


    These little fellas had come from the new influx of qi within the Great Desert Strip. It was natural. Most of the qi flooded into the desert ground, nourishing the dead land beneath, but of the qi that made it into the valley, some would flood into the village and most into the forests. But the forest was already lush with qi, so it had gone to the small animals instead.


    But before I could say anything on the matter, Nai already had a response.


    ¡°She says they¡¯ll be brought into the fold. That the animals will scour the forest for signs of new intelligence and that they¡¯ll bring every new qi beast to them.¡±


    ¡°What if they don¡¯t want to join?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Emph,¡± Nai breathed.


    ¡°Death. Death or exile,¡± I translated.


    Chin looked a little shocked.


    ¡°Arg abd ab fo,¡± Nai blabbered.


    ¡°She says as long as they don¡¯t hurt the village or the qi beasts, they would be allowed to live, but if they should choose to rebel against her rule, then they would die.¡±


    Chin looked at Nai with wide eyes.


    ¡°She said that?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I suppose if it guarantees a complete lack of rodents and rat infestations then it''s already a good enough bargain. I¡¯ll see what we can do in terms of them earning their keep. Foraging maybe? And they can live off raw vegetables and such. Maybe the dog trainer would know what to do with them? Or maybe¡­¡±


    Chin trailed off in a head full of ideas and I sat there filled with slight surprise and amusement.


    I hadn¡¯t expected this to go well. In fact, I had suspected that I would need to warn off the animals and shove them back into the forest, using the array to keep them from coming back out.


    That or relocation.


    I hadn¡¯t expected Chin to say yes or for Nai to bargain.


    The most peaceful resolution had come to be, and I wondered for an instance if I had anything to do with it.


    But no, I hadn¡¯t done a thing except translate. This was all Nai¡¯s doing.


    I looked closely at the little girl¡¯s soul. Something had compelled her to lead these animals, to dominate them. That wasn¡¯t surprising given her heritage. But something else had also compelled her to care for them, to move them towards peace.


    Her choice.


    Her reasoning.


    Her dao.

 Chapter 87 Wukong

    Wukong looked and beheld all.


    He controlled himself and willed his qi to remain his, not letting it soak and infect the very nothingness outside of him.


    The Monkey King was thinking, well he was always thinking, perceiving more in an instant than the oldest sixteenth rank had since the beginning of time.


    He could feel his impact, his very nature pulsating throughout all of existence and he could feel the fabric grow and crease.


    A part of him was somewhere, a part of him was in Ah-Marin, watching the curious array. A part of him was at Lynoria and a part of him was on the Great Mountain towering above the Cosmic Forest.


    And he was at other places too, many places.


    But this part of him, the main part was thinking. He was concerned with something and not just a part of him, but the whole of him, or at least the whole that gathered here.


    There were many factions within existence, an infinite amount really. But even of the few that mattered to him, there was still an amazing amount.


    A singular God-Imperium was nothing to him. He had killed a lot of those and of the half a million or so that ruled the world, most were solitary beings.


    There were nine minor ranks within each rank. Nine steps to each new realm, and that was the same for God-Imperiums.


    Of all the beings in existence, few were of the ninth step, and anyone below the seventh step was still a child to beings like him. It wasn¡¯t arrogance or pride that made him view them that way, it was mere truth.


    A God-Imperium was omnipotent the moment they entered the rank. They could theoretically wipe out all of existence with a mere thought, and maybe there had been a being like that at some point. A truer God-Imperium of the first step, all-powerful and untethered.


    But that would have been before Wukong, before the Primordials even. And whatever poor bastard had attained that power had been too competent and killed by their inheritor.


    The power of God-Imperium had not waned now, it was still the same. Greater even, now that there were God-Imperiums of the ninth step.


    And maybe the cycle would have continued, one being becoming god till another grew and slaughtered them and reshaped existence to their own image. But somehow, four God-Imperiums had been brought up at the same time and those four had fought, destroying all there was before eventually making a truce.


    A truce born out of understanding, the First Pact of Life.


    They had known then, they had seen it and they had made a choice.


    It was just the truce. That had happened before, they knew and eventually, even that had crumbled, the temptation of power bringing destruction to all.


    So they had done something different, something new to keep reality alive, to make existence a permanent fixture.


    They had sired.


    From their qi new things were born, new gods and beings of potential, and they had allowed them to be, to grow, to reach heights equal to theirs, and to rival them in strength and power.


    New God-Imperiums arose and some even reached that final step. Ninth Step Beings of infinite power, creatures so powerful that their impact would rival even that of the primordials.


    Creatures like Wukong.


    The idea was strange, but it held true. The more God-Imperiums there were, the sturdier reality grew. There were more pillars of existence than just the primordials now, more natures and ideas than just the four. Instead, reality had thousands, at least within the first age.


    That era had seen two eternal wars. The War of Instinct, which was older than even Wukong, and the War of Imperium, which Wukong had brought to an end.


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    And so on and so forth until eight eternal wars had been fought and were still being fought. Eternal wars were eternal, after all; they, like God-Imperiums, marred existence. The wars were so large and so impactful that they had been carved into the very nature of conflict and existence had refused to forget them.


    But that was something else.


    After the third war had come the Second Pact of Life and all the God-Imperium were brought together to agree to maintain all of existence. Then the Guardians had come to be, or as some would know them, the Third Keepers.


    The Second Pact of Life, much like the first, brought all the God-Imperiums together and it was made to¡­well, not govern the Gods but to constrict them. It had been Nei Lo¡¯s doing, and it had been the thing that had finally brought her into the Ninth Step.


    The Imperiums of Death had split from their Pantheons and joined hands. Hades, Masauwu, Anubis, Osiris, Nergal, Yan Wang, Mictlantecuhtli, Hine-nui-te-p¨­, Izanami, Morrigan, Yama, Hel, Owou, all of them.


    Cultivators who hated death, cultivators who loved it. Either way, they had sought to control it and they did, binding themselves together to create the Dead Sea.


    A place of eternal death, and a place where death could not leave.


    Other realms floated on top of it, celestial realms ruled by the Dead Imperiums for even they did not want to rule the Dead Sea. It was not made in the image of death, no matter what they called it. If death were a fruit, some of the gods wanted its flesh, others its peel, some its seeds, and others its juices.


    All the Dead Imepriums ruled death, but they ruled their own death. They ruled by their own judgment. The Dead Sea was like a purred pulp of the fruit, mixed and turned with all things their daos didn¡¯t want to touch.


    But it held death, and when God-Imperiums clashed within it, it would hold back the Death of Existence.


    An unwanted mess of destruction, a dump site of violence.


    That, along with many other measures, curtailed absolute destruction. The first two wars had threatened everything, but the next six, while violent were limited in their effects.


    Each war afterward had left impacts, changing much. He remembered things, concepts that had been erased from existence. He had slain beings and watched what they were turn undone.


    He had seen annihilation.


    It was a hideous thing.


    That was all to say Wukong had lived. He had seen the greatest of wars and he had tasted both its gifts and curses.


    He had seen seven wars and fought in some, but he had hated every single one of them.


    For a war to be eternal, God-Imperiums had to die. Not one, but many. The greatest beings in the universe would be reduced to foot soldiers and everything they were had to be wiped from existence.


    During the War of Instinct, it was said that reality was shattered and destroyed more times than anyone could count. That even though the primordials hadn¡¯t fought, their children had.


    And that had been the case. Wukong had witnessed it, the wars, the rage, even in his early days, and after his accession to the Ninth Step.


    After the Third Eternal War, the Cosmic Forest and the Hive Realms had been made, both grand realms modeled after the Realm of Imperium.


    With each war came a binding, a change, a resolution of sorts.


    The Fourth Eternal War had shattered the Hive Realms, much like Wukong had done to the Realm of Imperium.


    The Fifth War had seen the wrath of all the God-Imperium burning away at the elder things, fragmented concepts not born of the primordials but of things even older than them. Scraps that had survived their wrath by mere luck and apathy on behalf of the primordials.


    Yog-Sothoth had been maimed in those days, cut down along with the rest of his pantheon.


    Now their kind wandered the void and ate at all they could, gluttons seeking to corrupt all that is the primordials into their own image.


    The Sixth War had been petty. Dragons and hords, Wyrms and power. Wukong had watched that one, unconcerned with the outcome.


    The Seventh War had been quick. An old god of war had conspired and brought it to fruition, seeking the eighteenth rank through the action.


    Now that had been a waste of time and a waste of God-Imperium. Once the fighting was done, he had been found and slaughtered by the Hero of Heaven.


    The Eighth War was forgotten, or rather it had been undone. Most knew it had happened but few knew of what had happened.


    But the impact was there. At the edges of reality, you would find pillars of qi, unknown to most. Creatures without shape or form, things only defined by their opposition to each other fighting, dying, rising.


    Those cursed beings.


    War was a disgusting thing, Wukong thought.


    Wukong smiled. He could feel it churning, growing. He could feel the world slowly boiling beneath him.


    War was horrific. Too costly, too great.


    But why then was he smiling now?


    He could tell the possibilities were growing.


    Discord here, conflict there, Tai Jey and his new children.


    Yes, he could feel it now. Existence was tense and it was only a matter of time before something broke.


    He shouldn¡¯t have been smiling. He really shouldn¡¯t have. Eternal Wars were things of great conflict and cost.


    But Wukong couldn¡¯t help it.


    He ached like an old man¡¯s bones.


    And there was only one thing that would soothe his bones.


    Battle.


    He leaped and touched the heavens, rushing to Nei Lo¡¯s domain.


    He hoped he was wrong, but she would tell him. Her and that Enki Maluth of hers.


    But in his heart, he knew. He wondered if that old man knew as well.


    The Fisherman. If anyone would know it would be him. He would see it coming before even the Fates could.


    Wukong smiled.


    ¡°I really am a bastard ape, aren¡¯t I?¡± He thought.

 Chapter 88 The Monk and The Monk Part 1

    Gai Jin was bathed in rage, as he always was. He chased and chased, through the sky, through the air, through the ground at times, but the old man evaded him. He always evaded him.


    He had filled his coffers with stones wrought of demonic qi. He had turned on his duty, using the thing beneath to grow rich instead of keeping it down like he should have.


    But Gai Jin had received something from the demonic corpse as well.


    Battle. Pain. Power. Growth.


    He had borne the consequences of Gai Lui¡¯s actions. He had broken ten thousand demons and he had broken ten thousand more.


    He had drunk their blood when he ran out of water, and he had eaten their flesh when he had run out of rats.


    He remembered the first time he had done it. Demonic qi eats at you. It was poison to a monk like him. It was hell.


    But it was either hell on earth or a slow-waning death, and Gai Jin had too much rage to die in that pit alone. He had learned to cleanse it from his flesh. He had forced his stomach to digest. The Bloody Fist Technique was their holy script, a technique passed down from a seventh-rank immortal.


    And Gai Jin had twisted it, mixing and matching parts of it with an old poison-eating technique. The result was a lesser thing, a disrespect to the technique. But Gai Jin had no choice.


    And that had been the start of his survival. Refine the stomach, refine the legs, refine the skull, bones, and muscle, over and over again. Eat demons, drink blood, and grow stronger.


    He killed evil, he ate evil, and he bathed in it.


    And yet he remained good. Not a bit of him had been spoiled, not a part of him taken. He who had been sent to die in the pit as a mere third rank, had lived.


    For all his suffering, he had grown.


    Ninth Step of the Fifth Rank, on the precipice of immortality. He had reached the Dragon¡¯s Gate, and now all he had to do was leap over it.


    Gai Jin smiled. The expression felt foreign to him, but it wasn¡¯t one filled with joy.


    Immortality was a strange thing. It was never something he had strived for. He wanted to be a great monk, a great person. He wanted to be the type of person he had thought his master was.


    Cultivation, well, that was a path to greatness. It was the means through which he could do good. He was a monk and as some might use a broom or a shovel, he used his qi. The strength was important, but more than that, his dao was important.


    He had to know his path to traverse it. More than the power and the lifespan, he sought his dao.


    And this was the final step. He had to make and choose the thing that would make him immortal, carve out the shadow of his being. It could still change and grow afterward, but a dao was a path after all. It could lead you anywhere, you could make turns and twists and change it as you grew.


    But a wrong turn could get you lost. And if you went the wrong way, well how long would it be until you knew it? How far would you travel until turning back would take too much of you to do so?


    You choose the road, but not the journey.


    Gai Jin leapt and the ground beneath him shattered. He flew through clouds and thunder, rain, and fog.


    There was no use in silence. His opponent had something to detect him with, one of the many treasures he¡¯d gained from allowing that demonic qi to roam free.


    He struck. His master moved.


    They were equals in rank, the ninth step of the fifth rank. Equal in power, but far different in technique.


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    Gai Jin moved.


    The air screamed at his force and even the clouds above parted in agony. The rain went up and the earth was broken, and Gai Lui blocked.


    Flesh met metal. Gai Lui had a shield, another treasure. The echoes of the strike went through them both and the shield threw Gai Jin backwards.


    Enough of this! His master yelled.


    He had spoken with qi and with aura because his mouth would have been far too slow. The words were instant and all at once.


    But Gai Jin didn¡¯t spare them an ounce of thought. He ran back at him with fists that would make even iron. He struck, with both hands this time, one from the left, one from the right.


    Gai Lui chose to block the one from the right and Gai Lui¡¯s right hand turned from a fist to a palm. He grabbed the shield and pain shot through his right arm, tearing at all his muscles and nerves.


    Death qi.


    It was no use. Gai Jin¡¯s right hand remained, pulling the shield and Gai Lui with it. His left hand hammered against his opponent¡¯s forearm.


    And Gai Lui bled.


    In battle, technique mattered. Strength mattered, as well as ability. And while Gai Jin and Gai Lui were tied in those, they differed in three important ways.


    Gai Jin had mastered the Bloody Fist technique completely, incorporating its principles not only into his fist but his legs, skin, and even stomach.


    That was the first difference.


    Gai Jin struck again and this time, Gai Lui bled.


    Gai Lui pushed more qi into the shield and it in turn pushed more death qi into Gai Jin¡¯s arm.


    Gai Jin let go, his left arm hanging limply for a second.


    Gai Lui moved, punching with his shield hand, using the edge of the shield to try and attack Gai Jin.


    But Jin moved with him, leaping into the attack with all his fury. Lui would strike him from the right, this would be true. But Jin would strike him from the left.


    Gai Lui¡¯s unshielded arm still bled and as the two met each other, Lui brought the shield in front of him. Gai Jin¡¯s fist rang against the shield and again it echoed, pushing Gai Jin back and hundred paces.


    ¡°Coward,¡± Gai Jin said.


    Gai Lui pushed a movement technique. The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps.


    Gai Jin matched him. He was a disciple of the Bloody Fist Sect after all. And not just any disciple, but the direct disciple of the soon-to-be Patriarch. He had access to all the manuals he could ever want. He could use any art he sought.


    And Gai Jin had sought them all.


    They were even in everything except three things and of those three, Gai Jin was better at two.


    Gai Jin was gaining on him. It was the same technique, but in Gai Jin¡¯s hands, it was better, faster.


    The second difference was talent.


    Gai Lui had killed a mortal just to be able to raise Gai Jin himself. He had seen the boy¡¯s potential and wanted to nourish him. His lower dantian alone was a rare thing, a one-in-a-billion talent. But that had been just one part of the boy¡¯s gifts.


    He could use techniques in an amazing way. Refine them, mix them, make them into something new, or touch the core of them like no one else could. His mind was keen. He never forgot and ideas that would be complex to his peers seemed like mere math to the boy.


    And even now at the fifth stage, that talent shone.


    The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps were a third more effective in Gai Jin¡¯s hand than in Gai Lui¡¯s. Gai Jin had almost caught up in an instant.


    Gai Lui prepared the shield and took out another treasure.


    The third difference was materialistic. It was something that could be taken away, something that could be lost. But here in the midst of battle, it meant everything.


    Wealth.


    Treasures gained from merchants that came in from outside of the region, talismans made within the Void Blade Empire¡¯s true territory. Objects from where the empire¡¯s soldiers actually stood guard and taxed the denizens.


    Artifacts.


    Gai Lui smacked his talisman and speed came upon him. He was close now. He could see the dry desert lands in the distance and it called to him like paradise.


    All those other attempts, while some had been tests, most had been distractions. Moments, when Gai Jin¡¯s rage was focused on him, allowed his sect to slowly move his wealth into the Great Desert Strip.


    Treasures and spirit stones for his tribute. He had gathered many things, so many that they could not be stored in a single spacial ring, or even a thousand of them. The immortal had kept him out, forcing the teleport sequences away, but surely this would change his mind.


    Gai Lui had prepared his wealth and moved it slowly with the merchants. If worse came to be, he would tell the immortal the source of his wealth and let him have it.


    He found himself lighter, moving at least twice as fast. Gai Lui looked back and sensed Gai Jin growing distant, as much as the man tried to keep up.


    He had sought death the last time he was here, but that had been foolish. It would have been a worthy death, to be killed by an immortal, a death full of pride.


    But that had failed. The man had seen straight through him.


    Now he would enter his domain, asking him only one thing. To keep his rule, to honor his promise.


    To make sure no violence would happen within the Great Desert Strip, by the pride of the Immortal Oasis Sect.


    His pride was hurt by that, but not too much.


    To Gai Lui, he was not running from death or pain. He was running from shame.


    The shame he has hidden so thoroughly came out and chased him under the guise of his disciple.


    He had only killed the whore because she was unworthy of raising such a blessed child. She was shameful. But now that act of cleansing had come back and turned into a horrible thing, a stain he alone couldn¡¯t wash out.

 Chapter 89 The Monk and The Monk Part 2

    Gai Lui ran through the lands that were next to the Great Desert Strip. He was nervous, not so much about Gai Jin¡¯s fury and more so about the immortal. He had enough wealth to make his plea be heard and enough to even be allowed shelter within the sect, he presumed.


    He just didn¡¯t know if the immortal would let him into the Great Desert Strip.


    On the question of killing Gai Jin, well it was impossible. At least it was impossible to do so effectively. Gai Jin was a monster of talent, and with those movement techniques, he could flee and outrun whatever threats pursued him, as long as they were under the immortal rank.


    It would take five fifth ranks above the seventh step to ensure his death, and it would take five more to prevent his escape. Gai Lui could pay for that, but how much more would it cost to keep his secrets?


    If Gai Jin yelled with his qi, the truth would spread and Gai Lui¡¯s shame would be known.


    He should have killed him back then, back when he had initially figured it out, but how could he? Gai Jin was his child, his prodigy, his son.


    His pride.


    Even now he loved the boy the same way a farmer loved his champion bull.


    Smart, capable, talented, and bright.


    What a beautiful thing he had raised. He couldn''t allow himself to kill it back then, so he had sent him to the demons to spare his hands of the shame.


    His younger sister had escaped, the whore. Gai Lui would have killed her, but eventually the hunt for her would cost more than he had and by the time he had gained enough from the spirit mine to afford her death, she simply wasn¡¯t worth it anymore.


    She was just some strange prostitute. What could she have said to bring him down? What could she have done to touch him?


    Nothing.


    And had she said something, any minor insult, that would have given him an excuse to go publically kill her himself, regardless of whatever sect¡¯s territory she had hidden in.


    With her silence, Gai Lui thought he had won.


    He had taken kindly to his rank and brought nothing but prosperity to the Bloody Fist Sect. He had helped people. Millions of people, from poor farmers to rich merchants. He had set up holy sites and temples in other sects territories, spreading the teachings of Buddha onward.


    He was prideful, true. But pride was good. It was because of his pride he had done good. He remembered first cultivating the path of monkhood, his first steps and the compliments of his abbot. He remembered the rewards for his success, the admiration, the praise.


    He wanted it.


    A monk served the people and the people¡¯s reactions were evidence of that. He cared about those underneath him. Virtue? Righteousness? How vague were these things. How stifled.


    A man loved by his wife was a good husband. A king loved by his people was a good king. And a monk loved by humanity was a good monk.


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    The weight of his actions were measured by none except those below. Their praise, their worship gave clearance to his actions.


    Gai Lui was a good man most times, a great man even. But he had made mistakes.


    No, he had taken risks. And one of those risks chased behind him. He had done the right thing within the moment, he believed. He had killed the whore, but so what? She was filth desecrating his holy city and tempting monks on wayward paths.


    Her death was quick and painless. Her kind were shameful, disgusting.


    What else was he to do?


    His pride as a monk, as a cultivator, wouldn¡¯t let her raise that child by herself. He was too much, too amazing.


    Gai Jin should have thanked him for the action. Gai Lui had given him a chance at power, maybe even at immortality. For the life of a whore he had gained everything.


    But Gai Jin didn¡¯t see it that way.


    Children often don¡¯t, Gai Lui thought.


    ********


    Gai Jin couldn¡¯t read Gai Lui¡¯s thoughts, but he could read his aura and for him that was enough.


    There was fear, anxiety, sadness, betrayal.


    Gai Lui felt betrayed. Gai Lui who had slaughtered his sister. Gai Lui who profited from a demon¡¯s corpse. Gai Lui who had thrown him into hell for the sake of keeping his own hands clean.


    And there was not a bit of regret there, but he dared to feel betrayed?


    If rage was a man it would have been Gai Jin. He pushed, circulating his qi through his meridians. A familiar pathway, one slightly modified and improved, churned with qi.


    This specific technique required control and immense concentration. It was a vastly modified version of the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps.


    The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps was a pure movement technique, separate from any combat use, meaning that the meridians and lesser dantians it ran through were useful only for the use of movement.


    Techniques shaped the cultivator, like the slow flowing of water carving out mountains, the flow of qi through one¡¯s body optimized and refined those meridian pathways for efficiency. The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps was a great movement technique, but the meridian pathway it created was stifled.


    It was designed for speed and only speed. It wasn¡¯t a mid-battle movement technique, it was an escape technique. And it was the greatest one the Bloody Fist Sect had.


    What Gai Jin did next was both complex and simple, he ran with his hands as well as his feet.


    The original technique focused on a person¡¯s lower limbs, but Gai Jin had altered it to be effective with his hands as well, in pursuit of a more combat oriented technique.


    He had wanted to empower his hands and run with his legs, giving his fists power while running. It didn¡¯t compare to the Bloody Fist Technique, but it would have fixed the one problem of the technique.


    But it could also be used like this, to run like an animal.


    Gai Jin rushed. The altered technique cost twice as much qi, and it changed the whole rhythm of his run. He was also weaker and more vulnerable.


    He looked like an unkempt animal, running after the monk with his scarred skin and matted hair. He kept on all fours, using each limb to propel himself off the ground and into the air.


    The air fought him and the earth lost chunks of dirt as he dug at the ground with every step. Craters the size of house were the holes each step made and they grew bigger with speed.


    He was as fast as a meteor, as deadly as a falling star. If they passed through a city now, all within it would burn.


    But they both avoided civilians, though each monk had different reasons, and quickly they reached the edge of the desert area.


    Gai Lui¡¯s path was winding, but Gai Jin had kept up, if from a growing distance.


    They had woven around the edge of the desert for a while before Gai Lui had burst in.


    And to Gai Lui¡¯s joy, he had not been stopped.


    The Great Five Sects had seen it happen now. There were several confrontations amongst fifth rank and to all the powerful families, it would be wonderful entertainment.


    The other four heads of the five sect had already set their attention to it and now, even from a distance, they were watching.


    Earth turned to sand and the qi in the air thinned.


    If Gai Lui wasn¡¯t so busy fleeing he might have noticed that there was now qi with the land.


    It took them half a second to reach the village. And the whole chase had only lasted just about seven seconds in total. The earth in most places hadn¡¯t completely settled from their steps. The sky behind them carried a dust cloud that trailed back a thousand miles.


    These were cultivators of course. Two beings on the precipice of Immortality. As slow and open as their fight had been to them, it would have seemed instant to a mortal¡¯s eye.


    It hadn¡¯t even been twenty seconds since Gai Jin had called his old master a coward.

 Chapter 90 The Monk and The Monk Part 3

    ¡°No.¡±


    It was a simple word, one filled with firm rebuke, but Gai Lui still couldn¡¯t understand it.


    The immortal had refused him. The immortal had refused him.


    ¡°I offer you all my wealth Honored Immortal Bill, I beseech you for aid in my time of-¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the word repeated.


    Of course, this was all a conversation of qi. There wasn¡¯t enough time to spend on actual back and forth. Gai Jin would have caught up to him already had he used actual words.


    But the answer had been given and the rejection was made known.


    ¡°You would go back on your word then? You would allow violence within the area of the Great Desert Strip? So quickly you renege on your laws? It¡¯s a wonder your dao didn¡¯t break sooner.¡±


    Now Gai Lui was seeking death, death at the hands of the immortal that is. A far more prideful thing than death at his own wronged student¡¯s hands.


    ¡°This is not a haven for scum, you twisted monk.¡±


    That was all. Those were the words but that was all it took for Gai Lui¡¯s face to twist in horror.


    He knew. How did he know?


    The answer came to him along with Gai Jin¡¯s fists.


    The girl, he thought as his body sped across the sand.


    He knew he should have killed her. A maggot shouldn¡¯t be spared because it was not a fly.


    Gai Lui prepared himself.


    It seemed the worst had come. He would fight his disciple, and one of them would die.


    What a bittersweet thing, he thought. To fight your greatest pupil to the death.


    There was a type of pride there too, an ugly one.


    Gai Lui prepared himself, face still calm and mind still kept.


    He was ready.


    ¡°Do you not feel a single bit of pity? A single bit of regret?¡± Gai Jin spoke.


    ¡°To regret is to be ashamed,¡± Gai Lui replied. ¡°And I am not ashamed, my dear Jin.¡±


    The first movement of the Bloody Fist came down upon him like lightning.


    Gai Jin struck and the weight of the skies was within his fists.


    Gai Lui blocked, the metal ornate shield rising to defend him. There was an echo, a ding, but the Jin did not back away.


    No, another echo, then another, then another. Fists bloody and dying hailed the shield like falling stars. The desert rang with death death-filled sound.


    The death qi ran into Gai Jin¡¯s veins, but Jin still struck. Lui¡¯s eyes widened at the action. This was a fifth rank ninth step treasure, meaning it held the strength of a cultivator of the equivalent rank.


    It had cost him one hundred-fifth rank stones of the highest quality, each mined from the depths of the earth. It was a treasure that had taken him a century to earn.


    And it was failing.


    Still, Gai Lui hadn¡¯t realized the error in his calculations.


    There was a fourth difference.


    Gai Jin¡¯s fists hammered against the shield and the shield was slowly draining off qi, forcing more death in Jin¡¯s arms. His fists should have rotted off by now. They should have been two lifeless limbs dangling from his body.


    And though they were black and scarred and rotting, they remained. Healing, pushing out, and cleansing Gai Jin¡¯s body.


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    Gai Lui growled and slammed the shield forward and attacked. A sword came from his storage ring and a robe appeared on him as well.


    Two golden boots replaced his fabric shoes, and Gai Lui roared.


    This was his peak. Each treasure he carried now would be a priceless treasure for any sect of the region, even the five great ones.


    Cultivators rarely wore armor. That wasn¡¯t a mere stylistic choice, it was also a financial one. Armour for a third rank would crumble beneath the force of a fourth rank, and the same could be said for weapons.


    It was already a burden for a sect to procure swords and weapons for their people. Smiths would toil over metal, enchanting it, forging it, into something better, and the higher ranked the cultivator the greater the weapon needed to be.


    And as the rank of the cultivator increased, the reliance on conventional material decreased. What was the difference between fabric and metal to a fifth rank? They, who could level mountains and carve out canyons?


    It was negligible at best. Enchanted fabric was the same as enchanted armor to them. Thus, beauty is mixed with strength.


    A long flowing dragon-patterned robe hung on Gai Lui¡¯s shoulders. A valuable treasure. It was made of dragon skin and the tapestry alone would make it be worth twice as much as the shield.


    In battle, many things mattered, but what mattered the most was ability.


    What you could do, regardless of how you did it.


    Gai Jin was strong, talented, and had mastered techniques that Gai Lui hadn¡¯t even bothered to memorize. And that had all been born out of need, out of hunger and threat of death.


    But there was also one more thing Gai Lui had forgotten.


    Experience. Gai Lui thought he had more of it than Gai Jin but while Lui was leading his sect, Jin was suffering.


    He had eaten demons. He had drunk their blood. He had invited their very natures into his body. When compared to that, what was a little bit of death qi?


    Gai Jin''s arms began to shed as he expanded his qi to heal them. He stood still now, not out of fear but thought.


    Lui watched Jin.


    Both had prepared, but neither had expected the other to be this strong.


    ¡°You call yourself a monk and yet you fight with a sword and shield?¡± Gai Jin asked.


    ¡°Monkhood is the path and these weapons are merely the means by which I get there.¡±


    ¡°What monk kills-¡±


    Gai Lui blurred and a sword appeared at Jin¡¯s neck.


    Jin moved, raising his newly healed flesh to defend, and the sword cut to the bone.


    Jin stepped back but Gai Lui struck again. He couldn¡¯t let Gai Jin finish that sentence. He couldn''t let the monk announce to the whole world what he had done.


    Gai Lui didn¡¯t think of it as a sin. He had merely killed a whore. But many would hold it against him and then it would become a sin. It would define him.


    He couldn''t let Gai Jin speak.


    Gai Jin defended, blocking strikes with breaking hands. His skin burst open, sometimes being sliced off, other times the sword meeting his bones.


    The Bloody Fist Sect was a refining technique, but even within the depths of the demonic cave, nothing like this blade had touched Gai Jin. His technique was to perpetually face stronger enemies, reforging his fists into something stronger and capable.


    But Gai Jin had never faced such treasures within the demonic cave. Right now, even if the mad cultivator of old was still alive, it would be Gai Lui who was the strongest within the region.


    Each treasure coursed with power, and each treasure contained its own qi, meaning it was not depleting Gai Lui¡¯s qi as he used it. It was as if Gai Lui had five cultivators aiding him. No, it was more than that. It was as if Gai Lui fought with the strength of five cultivators, each with different arts.


    A sword art, a shield art, a movement art, a body enhancing art, and of course Gai Lui¡¯s own power.


    Five into one was much worse than five separate beings. It was not only the power Gai Jin had to worry about now but also the layering effects of each artifact. A simple strike of the sword turned into something six times more deadly when aided by the speed of those boots and the enhancing effect of that robe.


    Gai Jin¡¯s mind worked, studying the auras of each artifact. They couldn¡¯t produce qi, nothing non-living could do that and this was no legendary living weapon. But they each held power and a strike from that sword would be something like a fifth-rank ninth step¡¯s all-out attack.


    Lui moved.


    He used the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps enhanced with both the robe and boots and ran at him, blurring at the edge of Jin¡¯s perception.


    Trajectory, weapon use, experience. Gai Jin thought of all these things now, trying to predict where the strike would be before it got to him.


    But it was too late.


    A blade pierced his chest, cutting through his heart.


    Gai Lui looked Stoic as he murdered his own disciple. He was annoyed it had come to this. These treasures had been bought recently. Another ray of hope that had arrived in the form of an immortal merchant greeting Strong Fist City. A merchant¡¯s dao, something that led them to where they were needed the most, and to where they could earn the most.


    He had been all too happy to buy them, of course. And he planned to use them to rebuild his sect after Gai Jin. Even if he had lost all his wealth to the immortal, even if the immortal suddenly took interest in the corpse, these treasures would have been his windfall.


    The merchants might have overcharged him, but that was little price to pay for victory.


    This was what Gai Lui might have thought and done if it wasn¡¯t for the immediate fist that crashed against his face.


    Bloody Fist Technique, Final Art, Barrage of Blood.


    Gai Lui felt hell upon his face and Gai Jin struck. Even skewered on a sword Gai Jin fought back. Even on the brink of death Gai Jin fought back.


    After all, he was the best disciple of the Bloody Fist Sect, and their¡¯s was the path of pain. Fight till you''re bloody, fight till you can¡¯t, and even then, fight on.


    What was this to the hell of the demonic cave? He had slain fifth-rank creatures as a mere fourth-rank down there.


    What was this suffering to that?


    Gai Jin roared.

 Chapter 91 The Monk and The Monk Part 4

    Gai Lui reeled and kicked Jin off of his blade. The strength of the golden boots pushed and Gai Jin went flying.


    He landed a hundred paces away, hands clutching his chest but still standing. Gai Jin¡¯s hands flashed and a small brown orb appeared in them.


    Gai Lui¡¯s eyes widened but before he could do anything, Gai Jin swallowed the core. Then, even as he stood, Gai Jin went limp.


    And for a moment there was silence.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± an old farmer grumbled. ¡°Can¡¯t they just talk it out? And what was that thing he just ate?¡±


    ¡°A demonic core,¡± the immortal¡¯s voice replied.


    There were more people here now. All the cultivators within the valley had appeared, everyone watching with wide eyes and silence. They were at least a mile away, and though they should have been hurt and running from the shockwaves, if one looked around they would see no permanent damage to the landscape or the people here.


    The immortal was protecting them.


    Gai Lui ignored them and walked slowly to Gai Jin. Eating a demonic core was suicide, especially for a monk like him. Demonic qi was the antithesis of a monk¡¯s. Monks like him slayed demons, so why would the boy-


    Gai Jin¡¯s eyes opened and putrid death left his skin. His body began to heal at a visible rate, cuts closed up, and old flesh dropped to the ground as new growth filled its place.


    Somewhere, a haughty immortal babbled.


    ¡°The core concept of the Bloody Fist Technique is refinement, to refine the fist over through battle and pain. But Gia Jin took that idea to a whole new level. If you can refine your fists, then why not your legs, your lungs, your organs, even your dantians-¡±


    ¡°PREPOSTEROUS!¡± Gai Lui roared, turning to the immortal and staring at him even through the mile divide.


    ¡°I HAVE USED THIS TECHNIQUE FOR CENTURIES, AND WITHIN THE SECT I AM THE ONE WHO HAS MASTERED IT BEYOND ALL. IF THERE WAS SOMETHING GREATER WITHIN IT, I WOULD HAVE KNOWN.¡±


    ¡°No you wouldn¡¯t,¡± the immortal replied, ignoring the disrespect of the outburst.


    ¡°That guy over there had to experiment with his growth. It was either that or death. You took it as it was and held it still. You probably thought, ¡®What a beautiful technique. So strong and elegant. I think I¡¯ll keep it that way,¡¯ and went about with your life. That guy experimented, almost dying during the process, but he experimented nonetheless. He grew.¡±


    Gai Lui didn¡¯t get the chance to reply, as a freshly healed Gai Jin struck him in the face.


    Bloody Fist Technique, Final Art, Barrage of Blood.


    A torment of fists came down on Gai Lui once more. He was still in shock, surprised at Gai Jin¡¯s consumption of a demonic core, but the pain forced him to respond quickly.


    He slammed Gai Jin¡¯s hands away with the shield and moved to stab again, this time thrusting for the head.


    Gai Jin sunk, his head dodging the blade and his leg kicking out, striking his old master in the stomach.


    And it hurt.


    It was worse than a fist, as a kick tended to be. The legs had more muscle, more mass, and in this case, more qi.


    Gai Jin had refined his body, and that included his legs. Whereas his master had covered himself with treasures, Gai Jin had turned himself into one.


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    His leg was as refined as his fists. His kick was deadly. Even with the robe, Gai Lui¡¯s body had only been enhanced, not trained. He was stronger, faster, and more deadly, but the treasure wasn¡¯t a part of him, merely an addition.


    Gai Lui ran backward and kept speeding away from Gai Jin while he gathered his thoughts. Gai Jin still couldn¡¯t match Lui¡¯s speed, but he trailed him. The two danced across the desert, one searching for the throat of the other.


    Flashes of qi burst through the air and attacks that could level cities were traded over and over again.


    The demon core had been that of a fifth rank. Gai Lui hadn¡¯t known there were beasts that powerful within that cave. His hubris and greed had helped him ignore that possibility. But Gai Jin had known and Gai Jin had slain them.


    And now he used that very same demonic qi, refined to purity deep within his dantian, as strength to carry on.


    Gai Lui was not just fighting Gai Jin, but the demons Gai Jin had slain as well.


    Lui was defending again, the shield being used more and more. Lui swung with his sword and the blade cut through Gai Jin¡¯s flesh.


    Jin retreated before it could reach the bone, and ate another demon core.


    This time he did not go limp. Jin attacked, the demonic qi refining within his middle dantian. That, along with Gai Jin¡¯s vast lower dantian made him a monster among the fifth ranks.


    In terms of qi reserve, he was far from Gai Lui¡¯s match. In terms of abilities, he was still even further. Gai Lui had the treasures and each had an active effect on him, from speed to enhancements, to the sword qi the emulated sword intent.


    But what Gai Jin did have was himself. His own techniques and his own experience. His treasure was his body and he had been using it his whole life.


    The Bleeding Monk¡¯s Persistent Steps


    It was what Gai Jin had named it. It wasn¡¯t anything amazing, at least, not to him. All he did was circulate both the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps and Bloody Fist Technique at the same time. The two layered over each other well and were meant to be used together at lower ranks.


    The first movements of both techniques were used simultaneously by junior cultivators of the Bloody Fist Sect all the time. But as the techniques grew more powerful, the required qi grew to be too much. The techniques were powerful, but no cultivator had large enough qi reserves to use them both now.


    But Gai Jin had enough now. His qi was immense, and it needed to be used. At this moment, the limitation of the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps grew to be its benefit. The meridian pathway the technique cultivated couldn¡¯t be used for anything besides the technique. Meaning that the pathways used for this technique couldn¡¯t empower any other technique. The minor dantians and enhanced meridians one grew for this technique were only useful for this technique. Normally, with the amount of qi it took to circulate, that would be one of its faults.


    The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps were wasteful in that sense.


    But not for the Gai Jin of now. The Gai Jin of now had enough qi to circulate both techniques, and the failure of the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps became a boon.


    The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps were wasteful, selfish, isolated.


    Gai Jin could use numerous techniques alongside it while knowing that the two would not interfere with one another.


    If fighting was cooking, then techniques were ingredients. Throw strange ingredients into a pot and they would mix into something strange, but with the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps, it was as if Gai Jin had gained another pot.


    His legs were doubly enhanced now. Two techniques affected him and neither hurt the other.


    Gai Lui¡¯s eyes widened, and Gai Jin was catching up.


    He swung the sword numerous times and sword qi left the blade, seeking to split Jin in two.


    Jin dodged.


    This was no Blossoming Sword Technique, and the blade wasn¡¯t meant for ranged attacks.


    Gai Lui was wasting his qi.


    But still, Jin found himself dodging over and under the strikes. The fault of this weapon was its accuracy, not its power.


    Gai Jin gained upon the man and struck again.


    Jin rushed and reached Gai Lui.


    First Jin took his speed, using one good punch from beneath. Lui used his shield to deflect, and Jin knew he would.


    In fact, he was counting on it.


    Death qi, echoing, and repulsion. That was the shield¡¯s effect. But this time, Jin struck from the ground. He struck from the lower position, his whole body rising up to the shield, and the shield for all it tried, could not force him too deeply into the ground.


    So it lifted Gai Lui up.


    The boots left the ground and their power of enhancing technique was no more.


    Perfect.


    Gai Jin leaped, with all the power of his two techniques, jamming another demon core into his mouth.


    It was a gamble, letting the death qi in his arms and the demonic qi in his dantian coagulate while maintaining The Bleeding Monk¡¯s Persistent Steps, which were two techniques acting as one.


    Yes, that was a profound gamble. But he¡¯d lose this opportunity if he didn¡¯t take it. Rage emptied his soul and though Gai Jin had left that demonic cave, his heart was still there.


    He did not want to die, but he did not want to live either. Pride, and power, these were things his master pursued, and look at where that had gotten him.


    All he had now was hatred, and he would rather die than lose that.

 Chapter 92 The Monk and The Monk Part 5

    Gai Jin jumped into Gai Lui¡¯s range once more, and this time, there was no escape for the man.


    Jin struck at Lui¡¯s wrists with all his strength, depleting half the qi within him in an instant. Another risk, but one he needed to take to capitalize on the moment.


    Lui screamed as the shield was wrought from his wrist.


    Gai Jin held it with one arm and held Lui¡¯s sword hand with another, and struck again, only this time he had the shield.


    Lui¡¯s other arm lost the sword.


    Death qi traveled up his left arm and unlike Gai Jin, Gai Lui could not negate it.


    ¡°No,¡± Lui whimpered.


    Gai moved again, this time ripping the boots from the man¡¯s feet with a quick twist.


    And once more for the robe.


    Then he tossed the treasures, all of them onto the ground.


    Gai Lui was still relatively unharmed. He was bruised in the face and his sword arm had death qi traveling through it but aside from that, Gai Jin had been the one to take up most of the damage.


    By all appearances, Gai Lui had the advantage, at least if they were truly equally matched.


    Gai Jin pushed the man onto the ground and stood firmly between his master and the treasures.


    Lui stood there, clutching his arm and working to push out the death qi Jin had cleansed so quickly during battle.


    They stood fifty paces from each other and Gai Jin chose to walk to Gai Lui.


    Death at the hands of his disciple? There was pride in that, Lui knew. But there was also shame.


    In a way, Gai Jin was a bit of Gai Lui. They shared a first name due to luck and Gai Jin had changed his sure name from Fang as an old ritual, a way of shedding his past and giving it all to monkhood.


    It was a rarely practiced thing in the modern days but Gai Lui had insisted on it, if not for the fanfare then for the symbolism. Gai Fang was the younger brother of a whore. Gai Jin was a man of the Bloody Fist Sect.


    Yes.


    There was shame here. But Gai Lui could bear it if his pride would blossom. Gai Jin was Gai Lui''s work after, his prized disciple.


    He ran at his disciple and his disciple moved. Jin punched but Lui swept under it, entered Jin¡¯s range, and punched toward his head.


    Jin moved, letting the attack glide past his cheek, and kneed Lui in the stomach.


    Lui bent and stumbled backward.


    But no, he would die. He knew this. He would die at the hands of his own disciple but he would be remembered. Their fight would be remembered. His death would be remembered and all would know Gai Lui as the master of the powerful Gai Jin and their fight would be remembered for millennia.


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    He ran, renewed with vigor, and struck again. Jin fought back, but his punches didn¡¯t land so thoroughly, maybe his disciple was tiring? He had used an immense amount of qi after all.


    This time a strike to the face sent him flying backwards in agony.


    Lui stood up again and moved forward.


    Jin stuck hard now, kicking at Lui¡¯s side and while Lui blocked the strike, there was an audible crack as his bones fractured.


    Jin frowned.


    He hated Gai Lui. He hated him. His hatred for the man had been the light that had pushed him forward deep within the cave. His hatred had brought him his strength and pushed him to this moment.


    His hatred had saved him.


    He struck Gai Lui again, striking a rib this time.


    Then why? He thought.


    Again Gai Lui came at him and a few of his master¡¯s strikes landed on him, but against his refined body, they were barely even there.


    Jin struck back and missed as Gai Lui lined up for another shot.


    Jin dodged and elbowed his master in the face.


    Why do I feel this way? Jin wondered.


    He looked, but not with eyes of hatred now but with clear eyes of pity.


    He looked at the master who had raised him, who had fed him and clothed him. He who had comforted him from the storms of the high mountain. The man who had trained him for decades.


    He looked at his master, his father, his family, his betrayer.


    Why do I still care for him?


    Jin moved.


    He had to end this. He had to kill this bastard of a man before anything could make him do otherwise.


    He moved, true and with purpose and he fanned his hatred and for the first time, he felt it.


    Effort.


    But still, he moved. His strikes landed now, his master missed every attack and Gai Jin landed his.


    His master broke, bit by bit.


    The face, the hands, the legs.


    Bones snapped, muscles withered and his body bled.


    Now his master lay there, unmoving, waiting for Jin¡¯s final strike.


    Jin came closer. He felt it now. The weight of it all. The pain. It hurt. He didn¡¯t know why it hurt but it hurt nonetheless.


    He raised his fist. He closed his eyes and he thought of Li Fang and the flame burned once more.


    He moved-


    ¡°You sure about that?¡± A voice spoke.


    Jin held and so did everything else.


    A man stood to his right, squatting over his master¡¯s frozen form.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Gai Jin roared.


    He stood to face the man, eyes focusing on his simple form.


    ¡°Just a watcher,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°Are sure about this though?¡± He asked again.


    Jin glanced at his master¡¯s body.


    ¡°Would you interfere?¡± Jin replied.


    ¡°Oh no. I would have killed him already, but you took so much time and I figured I¡¯d give you a chance to think things over.¡±


    Jin¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°You know nothing of-¡±


    ¡°I know a lot kid. But that¡¯s beside the point. He landed a few hits a while back. Hits you didn¡¯t bother to dodge.¡±


    Jin said nothing.


    ¡°There was also that fight you had just now. Gai Lui, I could understand. He came here first, then used the treasures as a last resort. But you? You don¡¯t care about anything except vengeance, right? So why¡¯d you hold back? Why not overwhelm him at once and kill him? Why stall for so long? Why let him run away when you could have just popped one of those cores and killed him? Why stall? And why be so willing to talk to me a moment before your awaited moment of vengeance?¡±


    ¡°I must do it,¡± Gai Jin muttered. ¡°He killed my sister. I must do it. If I can¡¯t do this¡­if I can¡¯t avenge them then what good am I as a brother? What good am I as a man?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to love,¡± the man muttered. ¡°But it¡¯s also hard to hate, isn¡¯t it? It¡¯s fine to not hate him, kid. Killing him won¡¯t change a thing.¡±


    Gai Jin breathed. He looked down at the man who had wronged him, the man who had condemned him to hell.


    And he called for it. He wanted that rage and hatred. That anger of gods that could burn down continents. He searched for it, but he could not find it, not anymore.


    At that moment, the man he knew now and the man who had raised him became one.


    He looked down and saw only a pitiful man. A pile of burning shame and failure. Hubris so large that it had eaten him whole. Gai Jin knew, that even in death, his master searched for that pride. A tombstone made of gold and diamonds.


    Pity.


    It wasn¡¯t born out of love or compassion. It wasn¡¯t born out of mercy or kindness. Gai Jin was just tired. It was true. Gai Jin was not a man of hatred. He killed demons, but he did not kill people.


    By all judgments, Gai Lui should die.


    But Gai Jin couldn¡¯t bear to stain himself with the action.


    Time continued and the man vanished from his side. Gai Lui breathed again and stared up at Gai Jin.


    Gai Jin spoke.


    ¡°You are not worth my hate.¡±

 Chapter 93 The Face and The Heart Part 1

    No words had hurt him more than those.


    Gai Lui held still. He could not move, but he held still anyway.


    ¡°You are not worth my hate.¡±


    What?


    The words echoed in his mind and drew a picture he could not hate anymore.


    Gai Lui would be brought forward. Gai Jin would explain and all would judge him. He would be executed or worse, imprisoned.


    ¡°You are not worth my hate.¡±


    Even now, when he had given up so much when he had lost so much.


    Now when he had accepted death, longed for it.


    ¡°You are not worth my hate.¡±


    Those words held him. They denied him the last bit of his pride.


    ¡°You are not worth my hate.¡±


    Gai Lui rebelled. He reached, deep within himself and touched that most sacred of places. His lower dantian held all he needed. It held his life, his strength, and his innate qi.


    He used it. To reclaim his pride. To be remembered. To die with his name known to man and to make his disciple fear again.


    His body grew and healed. Bones set themselves right and muscle grew anew.


    He lived again and burst from his old skin like a mayfly.


    ********


    ¡°Oh, come on,¡± I grumbled.


    I¡¯d warned that kid against killing the old man, but that was just light advice. A friendly suggestion of sorts.


    But I hadn¡¯t wanted this.


    I watched as the skies darkened. Storm clouds came through and the wind began to howl.


    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Chin asked, suddenly alarmed by the sudden change in weather.


    ¡°Tribulation,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Tribulation?¡± Chin asked. ¡°As in tribulation to the immortal realm?¡±


    ¡°Yup,¡± I replied.


    I held my hand out and pretended to put some effort into the action. Sweat beaded my head as a false technique covered the Great Desert Strip. By now, any and all fifth ranks were within it. They had all come to observe the conflict, but now I had to put on a show of my own. I pretended to struggle with the barrier, containing the tribulation was as easy as blinking for me but I couldn¡¯t let anyone else know that.


    ¡°Who¡¯s the tribulation for?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Both of them,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Both of them?¡± Chin yelled.


    This time attention was focused on me. I could feel senses gathering around me by the thousands. Everyone wanted to hear what I had to say, even some sense from outside the region were wriggling away like worms in the corner.


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    ¡°It¡¯s called dual tribulation. It¡¯s rare but it happens in conflicts among those just a step away from immortality. They both have to oppose each other in numerous forms, each representing a final trial for the other. Gai Jin is strong but has no care for pride, while Gai Lui is weak but wants it more than anyone else. They are antithetical to each other.¡±


    There was more to it than but that was all I was willing to say. I couldn¡¯t appear too knowledgeable on the subject after all.


    ¡°You¡¯ve seen it before?¡± Chin asked.


    Yes, I¡¯ve gone through it even.


    ¡°No, but I¡¯ve read about it,¡± I replied.


    It wasn¡¯t just antithetical in wants but in needs as well. Gai Jin had refined his body within the demonic cave, his spirit within the battle, and his soul with his choice of letting Gai Lui live. He had aligned with himself truthfully.


    Whatever action he did, he had remained Gai Jin.


    But so had Gai Lui.


    Gai Lui had chased death and blood all in the name of his pride. The one thing he cared for most of all.


    Even in death, he had remained Gai Lui.


    But to be who they were was to destroy something of the other person¡¯s. Their daos, though not opposed in nature were opposed in action.


    For either to remain, the other must fall, and for the victor would be immortality.


    Each man had to be the other¡¯s hurdle. Rin Wi had to conquer her servile past instinct. She had to rip away that definition from herself. In a way, she was the opposite of Gai Jin. She needed to move on and change, and so she faced her past.


    Gai Jin chose to stay himself, so he faced the force that would make him change.


    Gai Lui wanted his pride, so he faced the man who kept it from him.


    Qi leaked from both of them and pushed out into the world, or at least that¡¯s what would have happened in a normal dual tribulation. Each would face their opponent, both empowered by the other¡¯s qi.


    In this case, qi leaked from Gai Jin and went into Gai Lui. Gai Lui was dying. He had given up even his innate qi to remain in the fight and while his body tried to seek tribulation, it did not have the qi to try for it.


    He had nothing to give, all he could do was take.


    So he took Gai Jin¡¯s qi and became the tribulation. If Gai Lui won, he would become an immortal and take everything of Gai Jin¡¯s.


    A parasite¡¯s tribulation.


    ********


    Gai Jin knew. He felt it as if it were an instinct of his soul. Immortality beckoned, and he had to go.


    He saw his qi grow and multiply. It grew to be too much for him to contain and leaked out into the world, a flood bursting from his very soul.


    And Gai Lui drank it all.


    The old monk gurgled in delight. Power flushed and ran deep through his bones, pushing him to a half-step of immortality.


    Gai Jin retreated, pulling trying to hold whatever bit of qi he could within himself.


    Tribulation was different for each person.


    Observed as a phenomenon, it was something that happened when qi was overproduced during vital moments of growth. It happened all the time, from one rank to the next, but it was far more punishing during certain ranks. Those tribulations were something else. They were growth, a shedding of the past, and a trial of the future.


    Between the third and fourth rank, between the fifth and sixth rank, and even between the eighth and ninth rank.


    Something changed. Something fundamental was shifted within you and the tribulation was the expression of it all.


    It was a physical battle, along with a mental one.


    The battle wasn¡¯t always the same and neither were the rules.


    Gai Lui ran at him.


    Gai Jin kept his eyes open and his senses spread, losing his old master¡¯s form for a second. He raised his hand to block the unseen strike.


    Then an impact. Jin found himself flying through the air, his arm fractured and weak.


    He started to heal it. To force it whole when the second strike came down from behind.


    ¡°I AM NOT WORTH YOUR HATE?¡± Gai Lui yelled.


    His body had changed. He was taller and more muscular. His body was practically bloating with energy.


    ¡°ME?¡±


    Another strike, this time from the side.


    Gai Jin ran, channeling the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps and sprinting on all fours.


    His master trailed behind.


    How?


    Gai Jin¡¯s mind raced. He was no fool. He knew how tribulations came and passed, and he had heard that immortal talking about this specific tribulation as well. Gai Lui had drained his innate qi, devouring it to empower himself, and in the process, had eaten Gai Lui¡¯s tribulation, encompassing.


    Gai Lui caught up and swatted at Jin.


    There was no technique in the attack, no enhancement. It was just pure strength powered by stolen qi.


    And it was the deadliest strike Gai Jin had ever received.


    His bones broke and his body was sent tumbling through the air. He skidded across the desert sand like a stone that had been thrown across the pond.


    His hands flashed and he produced three demonic cores from his robes and swallowed them down.


    He saw Gai Lui approaching from the distance and he ran.


    Gai Lui had emptied out his lower dantian, the place where your innate qi rested. But this wasn¡¯t just that, no. Innate qi fueled you. It was the slow fire of your life. But Gai Lui hadn¡¯t just emptied it, he had replaced it.


    He had taken Gai Jin¡¯s tribulation qi and filled himself with it.


    And this was the result.

 Chapter 94 The Face and The Heart Part 2

    Gai Jin ran because realistically, that was the only thing he could do.


    The qi from the three demon cores burst through him and he struggled to refine them as he fled on all fours.


    How was this fair? How was this a tribulation he could beat?


    That was what a lesser man might have thought.


    But Gai Jin knew the world wasn¡¯t fair. Victory could come right before defeat.


    Fairness, he knew, was not a natural thing.


    But still. Gai Jin had felt at peace. He had let his hatred go. He had¡­ accepted things.


    Why couldn¡¯t he have a day or a year to make peace with that?


    His dao was clear to him. His path was clear to him. He had lost himself and after hundreds of years buried deep beneath that cave, he had finally returned.


    That was the hold then, the block in his path forward.


    Gai Jin wondered if he would have become an immortal within the demonic cave had he let his anger go then.


    Then the idea of demons using his tribulation qi popped up and he shuddered at the thought.


    He looked over to his master running behind him. He felt sparks of anger and hatred, but there was no fuel left.


    Even now, all he saw was a pitiful man.


    As if he had heard his thoughts, Gai Lui roared.


    ¡°FIGHT ME, YOU SHAMEFUL RAT!¡±


    But Gai Jin did not fight him.


    Gai Lui approached, running even faster and even copying Gai Jin and circulating both the Monk¡¯s Holy Steps and Bloody Fist Technique, though the combination did little for him.


    Gai Jin had built out meridian pathways for the Bloody Fist Technique that ran through his whole body. That was why the technique gave him speed. But for Gai Lui, whose Bloody Fist Technique only powered through his fists, it was useless.


    Then Gai Lui kneeled and dug his fists into the ground, barraging at him like a rabid gorilla.


    Jin¡¯s eyes widen in shock. He was imitating him. While Gai Jin¡¯s Bloody Fist Technique and Monk¡¯s Holy Steps had been altered to work throughout the entirety of his body, Gai Lui¡¯s techniques only worked in the appointed area.


    But now Gai Lui used them both in a child-like way, using his enhanced fist to dig through the dirt and his enhanced legs to push against the earth.


    It was a butchery of arts, inefficient and damaging to both the technique¡¯s efficiency and the user. But what did Lui care? He was dying and angry, and worst of all, he was shamed.


    He could not allow it. To die like this or to live like this was not an option for him. He had to kill Gai Jin.


    He did all he could to catch up, circulating the techniques at their highest levels. He ran through more qi in a second than he had throughout the first half of the fight. But it was no use. He had power, but pushing it through these techniques was useless.


    You could have a donkey that never tired, but a horse would still outrun it.


    He had all the fuel he needed, but no technique grand enough to use it. Even these techniques layered onto each other didn¡¯t compete with Gai Jin¡¯s altered speed. And though he was at the half step of immortality, that did not grant him power comparable to an immortal¡¯s.


    Half step was a measurement of how close he was to becoming one, not a definition of power.


    And so he chased.


    And Gai Jin ran, and then suddenly Gai Jin ran faster and faster. His golden feet glimmered off in the distance, and his robe shone beautifully even in the storm.


    The treasures, he had run back to them.


    ¡°THIEF,¡± Gai Lui screamed. ¡°SHAMELESS THIEF.¡±


    Somewhere in the distance, an immortal snorted.


    Then Gai Jin turned, sword in one hand, shield in the other.


    Rage and wrath, fury and fire, pain and hatred, and worst of all shame.


    Gai Lui felt all this and pushed. No more technique, only qi ran through his body. He shoved through all his meridians and¡­ burst.


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    The ground and air boomed as a crater of nothing blinked into where he had been. Gai raised the shield just in time, but still.


    Lui punched.


    The man¡¯s muscles tore with the action but the tribulation qi healed them in an instant. His organs failed, died, and lived again.


    Shame.


    With all this strength and power, every second Gai Jin lived was an insult. A shameful mark of failure. He should have been able to wipe him with no effort, but somehow, the boy persisted.


    The shield cracked and Jin flew backward into the ground, but his disciple didn¡¯t falter.


    Jin¡¯s feet moved, using the force of the strike to run backward. He had managed to avoid damage.


    ¡°GAI JIN, I WILL HAVE YOU!¡±


    Again he pushed the qi overwhelming him. It was wasted, rushing through him both hurting and healing him. He was spendthrift with power.


    Another boom, another crack on the shield. This time Gai Jin swung his own sword at him, piercing the man deep in his heart.


    Gai Lui smiled watching his disciple squirm.


    Oh fate did love her irony, He thought


    Bloody Fist Technique, Final Art, Barrage of Blood.


    The shield shattered beneath his hands, and the death qi it contained blew out into the wind.


    ¡°Bow before me and die with some honor, Gai Jin.¡±


    His disciple said nothing, but he wasn¡¯t running now. Merely looking.


    ¡°What a good disciple you are,¡± Gai Lui added.


    Then Gai Jin moved.


    Technique moved with him. He struck at Gai Lui with accuracy and technique, but his strike fell like water on a brick wall. Useless.


    Then the sword cut, flashing from his disciple¡¯s robe with hidden strength, and then Gai Lui felt pain.


    This time it was in his liver. He moved to grab Gai Jin but his disciple had retreated and swallowed down another set of demon cores.


    Lui frowned. How many of those blasted things did he have? He should end this now, while he still had the upper hand.


    He entered Gai Jin¡¯s guard in an instant and felt another strike.


    Lui grunted and grabbed at the sword, shattering the object in two. Had the boy seen him? No, he had merely predicted the action.


    But even then, why did it¡­ hurt?


    Why was that? Was he running out of qi? No, he had too much to run out.


    Then¡­what?


    He sensed something, but before he could put it together, Gai Jin struck.


    A punch this time, aiming for the almost healed cut of the blade, and this time it stung.


    Gai Lui frowned and studied Gai Jin, but nothing had changed on his opponent¡¯s face. But there was a difference. Yes, there was no rage there, no hatred.


    He saw nothing but¡­Gai Jin.


    The boy moved again¡­ and¡­ was he faster?


    No. Lui dodged and struck Gai Jin¡¯s stomach.


    And¡­missed.


    What was happening?


    He felt at the healed cut. It still stung. This time he sent his senses deep within himself. The tribulation qi was still plenty. He wasn¡¯t running out, then what?


    His eyes opened wide.


    ¡°YOU DARE?¡±


    He yelled. From his cut, he expelled bits of demon core. The black dust squeezed out of his wounds, but it was too little too late. It was foreign qi, how had he not sensed it?


    Because all the qi within his body was foreign qi.


    None of it was his own.


    He tried to push qi into his arm, but then his dantian rebelled.


    ¡°What?¡±


    Death qi, but when?


    In the distance a bit of the broken shield glimmered, as if the artifact was taunting him from the afterlife. The broken shield had spewed all its qi into the area and he had been fighting in it.


    Gai Jin had kept him here. Gai Lui was careless, taking in all the qi he could get and devouring it like a hungry animal and he had invited death qi into his dantian.


    It clawed at him from the inside.


    ¡°YOU BASTARD!¡± Gai Lui screamed.


    But it was no use. Jin was weaker than him, but with technique and the aid of the boots and the robe, he was just able to keep up in speed.


    The death qi assailed him but Jin was able to clear his pathways. He had survived within the demonic cave after all.


    Gai Lui rushed, running to Gai Jin and losing out to a barrage of attacks at the man. None of them landed.


    All he needed was one good strike. He would fuel all his qi into it, if he could just get one good hit.


    But Gai Jin knew that and merely waited.


    Jin raised his hand and beckoned the old man.


    He taunted him.


    Lui rushed in anxious rage. Again he attacked but again he missed and Gai Jin was getting faster.


    No, he was getting slower.


    He swung he moved and stuck at Gai Jin¡¯s head, but he missed.


    Again, again, again, he tried.


    But he was a man rotting from the inside out. He was dying.


    And Gai Jin was not.


    The qi within him was enough. There was a great amount of it still remaining, but what use was bread dipped in poison? The more of it he used the more quickly he would die.


    But what else could he do? Desperation, hatred, and the slow impending shame.


    ¡°NO,¡± he screamed. But even the scream betrayed him. His voice was broken and pitched, the death qi eating away at his voice.


    If it had been invasive, if it had come in from the outside then maybe he could push it out. But he had allowed it into his dantian and by the time he noticed, it had mixed too thoroughly with the tribulation qi for him to do anything about it.


    Maybe if he had his own qi, his innate qi. Then maybe he could have known and stopped it earlier.


    Maybe if he had just struck Gai Jin with all his might at the beginning, maybe then he could have won.


    He flailed again and missed again.


    Maybe if he hadn¡¯t thrown Gai Jin into that cave and had just killed him.


    Maybe if he had killed that younger sister of his.


    Maybe.


    Maybe.


    Maybe if he hadn¡¯t killed Li Fang.


    Maybe.


    A world where Jin became a monk and Li Fang and Lui Yong stood by his side flashed before his eyes.


    He wondered if he could have simply paid the girl to quit. He wondered what would have happened if he had just been kind.


    But even then, he didn¡¯t know. It was too late for regret, he would not waste his mind on it.


    The battle lasted for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes of aging, of rotting, of weakening, until Gai Lui was nothing more than a bag of bones swinging slowly at shadows.


    And yet still Gai Jin did not strike.


    You are not worthy of my hate.


    It seemed that statement had held true. To Gai Jin, Gai Lui was simply not worth killing.


    The old man collapsed, his body purple, his muscles gone, his skin sagging.


    Teeth spilled from his lips, painted red with the color of blood.


    And the old man fell onto his back, breathing his last.


    Gai Jin walked over to him and raised his hands.


    Death, Gai Lui dreamed.


    Gai Jin clasped his hands together and prayed. He prayed over his master¡¯s dying body. He prayed prayers of forgiveness and mercy. He prayed prayers of fatherhood and betrayal.


    And he continued to pray while the old man struggled to breathe.


    Gai Jin was a monk after all. That was his dao and he would follow it.

 Chapter 95 Reunion

    Chin grumbled then turned away. He couldn¡¯t really see the fight, so I had given him a bit of aid, strengthening his senses so that he could observe the whole thing.


    But once Gai Jin had finished praying and started to bury the corpse, he became completely uninterested.


    ¡°He¡¯s a good kid,¡± Chin muttered, already turning his enhanced sight to the farmlands.


    ¡°He¡¯s older than you,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Still a kid,¡± he answered. ¡°That damn thunderstorm better not have flooded the lowlands. We weren¡¯t expecting that much rain. Dalther, go and grab the others and do a pass by of the farmland. Melo, go gather some of the teachers and take them to Renk, gods know he¡¯ll be drowning in messages. He¡¯ll need help writing it all down and sending it all back. Go to the alchemists and see if they have anything to increase focus. Send that up to them as well, tell them to come to Fulim for pay.¡±


    The two men nodded and went off towards their duties.


    ¡°The merchants are stompin¡¯ up a storm Mister Chin, what do we do?¡± Someone asked.


    I project a bit of aura toward the merchant camp''s direction. Something annoyed and firm.


    The merchants all quieted down real quick.


    ¡°They¡¯re quiet now,¡± I said with a nod.


    The villager gave me a nod back and turned away.


    The people of the village still didn¡¯t feel comfortable around me, but they were warming up. Chin¡¯s family was completely used to me by now, even Renk. But the people here had only seen the mask I wore for the sects. I was becoming a bit of a celebrity in the area.


    From old cultivators to hidden immortals, lots of talks, myths, and whispers.


    It didn¡¯t bother me, but the people were stirring with rumors.


    Chin kept issuing orders, even dragging the girls over, particularly Mei Shan.


    ¡°Well, what do you think we should do about this whole thing?¡± Chin asked her.


    He had explained his concerns. Chin was worried about the influx of cultivators that might come to the village after the fight. He didn¡¯t know how such things would impact him so he wanted advice.


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Mei Shan replied.


    ¡°Nothing?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Mei Shan repeated. ¡°This new immortal won¡¯t be staying here. He¡¯ll probably go back and manage his own sect. And that will draw most of the attention to his region for the most part.


    ¡°Will it now?¡± Chin said with an unmistakable happy note in his voice.


    ¡°Yup, everybody will want to go and play with the cool new immortal instead of the old broken one. But I have to go talk to him before that can happen.¡±


    ¡°What about?¡± Chin questioned. ¡°He ain¡¯t staying here.¡±


    ¡°Just some personal stuff,¡± I answered.


    Having said that, I teleported over to where the monk was.


    He was in the midst of burying his master, and new immortal qi flowed through him fresh and volatile.


    ¡°You busy?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m burying the dead,¡± he replied.


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    He was using his hands, moving dirt by the handful and resting it over his dead master. He could have used qi or telekinesis to speed up the process, but he didn¡¯t. There was meaning to this simple task, something holy and personal.


    I sighed and clutched my own handful of sand, slowly resting it over the dead body. We worked at a mortal pace and with the both of us, it took just over one hour to finish. A mound of dirt rose up to our waist by the end of it.


    The monk clasped his hands and prayed, and I did the same.


    ¡°He was¡­ my master you know,¡± Gai Jin started.


    Oh no, the guy thought I was here for a backstory.


    ¡°Yeah I know,¡± I replied.


    ¡°He raised me. Taught me all I knew. But-¡±


    ¡°He killed your older sister and tossed you in a cave, I know.¡±


    Gai Jin''s fists clenched as he turned to me.


    Now there was weariness in his eyes. Weariness and strength. He was an immortal now and he knew I was as well.


    ¡°Do I know you?¡± He asked.


    ¡°No, but she does,¡± I replied, pointing towards the valley.


    ¡°Who-¡±


    His senses ran through the place. I had already hidden Rin Wi and Nai was also with her.


    But even if they weren¡¯t Gai Jin might have missed them. His senses locked onto one person and one person only.


    He blurred, running through the distance in an instant.


    ********


    In the village, in a newly built whorehouse, sat a woman. A woman who had just been warned a little over an hour ago to meet her older brother.


    She was starting to get worried at how long it took. Or at least that was what she told herself. Really, everything worried her. If she wanted to even start counting her anxieties, she¡¯d get anxious wondering where to start.


    Centuries worth of worry was on her. Her brother, Gai Jin. Her brother, the immortal. She had seen the fight from the distance, and what was she to do? She could only beg and pray that Gai Jin would live.


    But not only had he lived¡­he had won. Gai Jin had defeated Gai Lui. Gai Lui, who was the demon of her life, the villain of her nightmares. The man she had feared and snuck around for centuries¡­was dead.


    It felt like a dream, and she was desperately afraid of waking.


    Then the air exploded.


    Madam Rose yelped as she was blown backward. There was a hole in her wall and wooden debris floated through the air.


    ¡°Lui Yong?¡± A voice asked.


    She froze.


    ¡°Gai¡­ Gai Jin?¡±


    The man walked up to her, stumbling through the dust.


    ¡°How?¡± He questioned.


    ¡°I¡­cultivated,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    For a moment, there was awkwardness. Not awkwardness born of miscommunication, but one born of time and change.


    Two strangers stared at each other, trying to remember who they were. A layer of centuries separated them, lifetimes of change. How could they know each other? He was an immortal now and she was a cultivator.


    They were the same age but she looked closer to her mid-thirties and he still looked like a youth in his twenties.


    He had slayed demons and became a legend and she had traveled the land and met many people.


    How could they remember their moments together? How could they remember who they were?


    But that was the beautiful thing about pain. Even if you forgot what you missed, even if someday you couldn¡¯t remember your dead mother¡¯s face, you still remembered the day she died.


    Pain was the hole in your heart, and even if you forgot what was in the hole, you knew you missed it dearly. Whatever had been there was a part of you, a piece that you cared for more than anything in the world.


    And that pain was much harder to forget.


    Gai Jin walked and grabbed his younger sister. His mind remembered moments but his soul remembered regret. He remembered regret within the cave, having been in there for a whole century and wondering where she was. He remembered wondering if Gai Lui had killed her. He remembered wondering if she had gotten old and died.


    He hadn¡¯t been strong enough to leave back then, still being stuck in the fourth realm.


    He remembered piling up a small grave for her after a hundred and thirty years within the cave, thinking, She must have passed by now. No mortal can live this long.


    Shame, sadness, guilt, mourning.


    He remembered the weight of her, the outline of her absence.


    ¡°Lui Yong,¡± he whimpered. ¡°Lui Yong.¡±


    He kept repeating her name, his arms still wrapped around her.


    ¡°Little Lui, you¡¯re still here.¡±


    Lui Yong hugged him back. A threat of sobbing prevented her from speaking, so she clenched the back of his tattered robes and silently let her tears fall.


    A certain immortal kept quiet from the distance. This wasn¡¯t his place or his moment. He ignored the building and prevented any other nosey senses from peaking in.


    After some time, Lui Yong started crying. Apparently, not even silence could dam up lifetimes¡¯ worth of pain.


    And for a few minutes, there were no words, just acceptance.


    They were alive, and they were here.


    After that the two began talking, stumbling their way through an awkward conversation. It was strange and long. Gai Jin was still learning how to talk with people after centuries of silence, and Lui Yong was rediscovering the man who was her brother.


    But she was also trying to understand everything else he was. A warrior, a fighter, an immortal. He was so much more than when she had last known him, and she was the same.


    The world did not change. It didn¡¯t suddenly become kinder or brighter for the existence of one person.


    But still, it felt kinder and brighter. The world had not changed, but their world had.

 Chapter 96 The Burdens of a Bureaucrat

    The Five Sects region, officially known to the empire as region number 11276, was sending in numerous reports.


    Mo Whe read them all. He was annoyed but somewhat pleased. Lots of the regions he governed had immortals within them, one even had a seventh rank ruling the place. But from region 11276, he would have expected nothing but degradation.


    Yes, that place had been a battlefield. Most of the areas out here were. A million years ago, there had been a small skirmish here between cultivators and demonic beasts.


    Well, he called it a small skirmish, but billions had died. The Void Blade Sect had been in the midst of political turmoil, and so they had ignored the cries for help coming from some backwater set of regions.


    Billions died, but so what? Billions die every day on Ah-Marin. To the Void Blade Sect, it would have been wasteful to send resources over here for something like that. It was cruel but common, and because it was common, it became less cruel.


    But now that dried-up backwater region has started to blossom. To think that within a year they would have themselves not one but two immortals? What strangeness.


    Mo Whe himself had seen the fight between the two fifth ranks, the dual tribulation as that old immortal had called it. It was a rare experience, something that not even immortals got to witness, and in that, it was a delicacy.


    The old man himself was just as bad as the reports had described him, if not worse. He was at the ninth step of the immortal rank, but he would never venture past that. His dao was crippled and broken and his strength was all but lost.


    He¡¯d heard of immortals doing strange things when their path to cultivation shut down, and compared to that this retirement was tame.


    He shuffled through the jade slips on his desk, reading through the mass of information surrounding him. Each slip was the equivalent of a house full of books and contained more information than a mortal could read in a decade. But that was the way it was for governing.


    With an empire so vast and lands so distant, even the passage of general news took this much information to dictate. That old immortal wasn¡¯t wanted anywhere or by any other empires on Ah-Marin.


    Mo Whe shuffled through the rest of the jades. There were approximately five places of congregation within the realm, aside from Ah-Marin. Ah-Marin, the planet, held most of the cultivators within the universe because it was the only one that produced enough resources to support even a ninth or tenth-rank cultivator.


    But there were numerous places in space that held cultivators and other sects. Out there at the edge of the universe, there was the Realm Guards, an organization made up of members of numerous sects that watched and monitored the entrance to the realm. It had members from the Void Blade Sect, Divine Devourers Sect, and even the Sun Spears.


    Any sect with multiple ninth ranks was expected to send a member over to hold the gate, just in case. But just because only ninth ranks could walk through the void between realms by themselves, didn¡¯t mean that only ninth ranks left.


    Numerous inter-realm merchants sailed the deep void with realm ships, moving universes that traveled through the qi streams between existence. They could even move mortals this way, and the old man could have come from them.


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    But those ships were vast, it wasn¡¯t like a single immortal would have been reported or even noticed by the Guards, they mainly taxed and looked for threats.


    Mo Whe wondered what it must have been like, out there in the grander multiverse.


    Dangerous, he thought.


    He¡¯d heard tales of monsters in the void. Hordes of eighth-rank insects, beasts able to devour realms, and rogue cultivators who snuff out realms with a blink.


    No, it was much safer within the realm. And Ah-Marin, the realm not the planet, had lived through its glory days. It still had resources and treasures, but nothing worth attracting one of those powerful eyes of the multiverse. Mo Whe would never say it to his sect¡¯s face of course, but Ah-Marin had become a backwater sect.


    And he liked it that way.


    He shuffled through some more jades. They had no conscripts for immortals, there hadn¡¯t been one in over five hundred thousand years. And even if there was, they wouldn¡¯t take from a new immortal of a backwater sect.


    Mo Whe looked at the registration protocols. He had to document the immortal local to his register and watch him, but all he should report to the sect was the relative prosperity of the location and explain if it was worth taxing or not.


    After a few more minutes, he went off to compile the report. It was short. Unlike the piles of information the sect enjoyed sending to him, the sect¡¯s bureaucracy hated it when he returned the favor.


    Probably because the sect sent out mass-produced information to many places and receiving detailed info back would waste their time tremendously.


    He was a bureaucrat, he knew the boredom of receiving detailed reports of some backwater village.


    It was just that he was the backwater village in this case.


    Two hands rubbed down his shoulders and a warm face pressed against his cheek.


    ¡°Mo, you¡¯ve been working all day today. Why is that?¡± A voice asked him.


    Gu Xin stared down at the jades with adorable confusion.


    Mo Whe smiled.


    ¡°There¡¯s been a lot to do today and if I don¡¯t see it through then it might lead to a bigger problem, what with these new immortals and all.¡±


    ¡°Is it really that much work?¡± Gu asked.


    ¡°Well the report is fairly simple, but the background checks and the threats they present to their local regions aren¡¯t. For example,¡± Mo Whe said pointing at a map on his desk.


    ¡°11276 is surrounded by empty wilderness but the presence of immortals might attract beasts, merchants, or even other immortals and fifth ranks. And while the regions here have autonomy, I¡¯m still responsible for disputes and wars between them. I have to send some people to run around the area, see the local politics, and determine if things will stay as they are.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Gu Xin spoke in genuine surprise.


    ¡°And there¡¯s also the Money keepers Sect, they¡¯re going to want to send better-suited merchants through the region. They might even request permits to sell immortal-grade artifacts,¡± Mo said with a sigh.


    ¡°They need permits for such things?¡± Gu asked.


    ¡°In my region they do,¡± he grumbled. ¡°Otherwise you get sentient weapons filled with old evil spirits of some sort running about. You wouldn¡¯t let children play with knives, after all.¡±


    ¡°Is¡­is that common?¡± Gu asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Mo replied.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had to work so hard,¡± Gu Xin said with a teasing laugh.


    ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± he replied with a serious tone. ¡°Governing is about making up a bunch of rules and having someone enforce them effectively. I studied all the threats and issues I might face back in the sect and came here with lots of things in mind Gu.¡±


    ¡°And here I thought you were just lazy,¡± she replied.


    Mo turned towards her and laughed.


    ¡°I am, my dear. But only because I made sure everything takes care of itself.¡±


    Her hands wrapped around him tightly and her mouth came close to his ear.


    ¡°Some things you have to care of personally,¡± She whispered.


    Mo When was tempted and had it been any other day, he would have taken her to bed then and there.


    But not today. Mo Whe grabbed Gu Xin, turned her head, and kissed her on the cheek.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry my love, but today there are more worrying tasks I must deal with.¡±


    ¡°There are tasks more important than me?¡± Gu Xin said with a pout.


    ¡°More worrying, my love. Not more important.¡±


    Gu Xin looked at him and then eventually relented, walking off in a tempting way that almost made Mo Whe change his mind.


    Ah, the burdens of a bureaucrat.

 Chapter 97 Mei Shan Part 1

    Mei Shan was correct. She always was. That was why she had been the leader of the group. Her judgment was sound and her eyes were clear.


    She¡¯d been thrown off for a bit. She¡¯d met many beings, some far stronger than even Mister Bill. She¡¯d seen sixteenth ranks of the Divine Beast Emporium. Gods among gods, and yet still the man called Bill was different.


    It was as if a mortal¡¯s perspective had somehow overpowered an immortal¡¯s somehow. After months of thought, that was the conclusion she had arrived at.


    But she was here, and she needed to care of her own. So she started gathering the girls and looking after them. Her sisters, her responsibilities. The servant mothers had been strict and they had accepted it to survive. That was a servant¡¯s duty, to be molded and shaped and empty of any identity aside from what your master needed you to be.


    That was impossible for most people. One would have to become an immortal servant, which was a rare thing even among the God Imperiums.


    But Mei Shan did her best, pleasing every customer she had and taking care of any mistakes she or her sisters had made. She was their protector, their older sister, and that was what older sisters did.


    But things had changed. Back within the Divine Beast Emporium, if you had asked Mei Shan about her dreams, she would have said nothing because servants don¡¯t get to dream. "But she did have hopes. She hoped for a nice life as a servant mother. She hoped for old age and retirement. She hoped to live her sunset years on some planet with her sisters have served her time and usefulness.


    That was the only time servants like her were granted peace, and if she had worked for a few more millennia, she would have gotten that hope, that dream.


    But instead, Kin Jey had chosen her and her sisters as universal trackers. He could have used objects or beasts, but those could be discarded and refused.


    ¡°No one throws away women,¡± he used to say.


    He would then track down whoever he had given them to and kill them with his horde of guards.


    He was the direct descendant of a God Imperium. He didn¡¯t need to kill or steal. He just hunted people down for the fun of it.


    It was sport for him, as it was to all of Tai Jey¡¯s descendants. They were bestial that way and even though they believed themselves to be superior to beasts, in Mei Shan¡¯s eyes they were no better than them.


    She would have never thought that within the Divine Beast Emporium. Her aura might fluctuate and reflect her emotions. There were techniques to manage such a thing but they all involved a calm mental mind, and when she thought about the people who owned her, well how could she keep calm then?


    But anger would have done her no good back then.


    And that was how Mei thought, practically.


    She was reasonable and measured. She couldn¡¯t afford to be otherwise.


    Well, that was all until now. Now she was just¡­lost.


    She was free, well she was freer than she had ever been. She had never propositioned Mister Bill to leave the desert or the realm, but she knew he would say no if she did. But even that was both for her safety and Bill¡¯s. And even with that rule, she was more free than she had ever been. She could choose to work or to lazy around. Her sisters were safe and so was she. Rin Wi had even become an immortal, little Rin Wi.


    She should have been happy. This was her dream after all, to find a place to relax and grow old with her sisters. She should have been content.


    But instead, she was just sad.


    Mei didn¡¯t miss servitude. At least she didn¡¯t miss most of it. But some days when there was no call for her name, no demand for her presence. Some days she couldn¡¯t help but feel empty.


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    She was happy that her sisters were free, she truly was. Even though she had bashed Rin Wi on picking up a dao like that for no reason, she delighted in her victory.


    But she was simply unneeded as of now. Her sisters were all safe. And any minor mistakes they made always went unnoticed, even major ones were excused entirely.


    For the first month of so, Mei Shan had believed this place to be a trick, a cruel prank played by Kin Jey. Maybe they should have all killed themselves or attacked Mister Bill in the name of Kin Jey. She had thought about it.


    The possibility that this was an evil test, a tiny glimpse at freedom made more sense to her than all of this being real.


    But Kin was never this patient. If it were a test, they would have already failed and Kin Jey would have been torturing them in some sick twisted way.


    Mei Shan had often been the one to take up the fault of her sisters in that day. If the mistakes were bad enough, she¡¯d be beaten with a whip woven from an immortal steed''s hair. Her back would bleed and the qi would traverse her meridians, tearing them up and making her nearly mortal.


    She¡¯d be healed to perfection of course. They didn¡¯t like damaged products within the Divine Beast Emporium.


    And there were far worse punishments than that. If you rebelled or tried to run away, which was always futile.


    You¡¯d be fed to the beasts, brought back to life, then fed again.


    That was the way Gods played with mortals.


    Your flesh was remakeable, your soul could be grabbed, and these beings could put you in your own personal hell if they wanted to.


    She had gone through that a couple of times, and the fourth time it happened was when they had broken her. It was when she accepted her place, her nature. She was nothing but a tool and would never be anything more than a tool.


    She didn¡¯t miss that part of the Divine Beast Emporium. No, that whole place could burn brightly in the void and be sieged upon by the Hells for all she cared.


    But now that it was all gone, she found herself wondering what use did she have?


    What was her purpose? Sure she was free, as free as she could be in her situation, but now the practical-minded person who had grown to bear untold hardships was useless here.


    She leaned back, part of her mind still stretched out across the vast desert scape. It was her personal technique. She¡¯d made it back when she was in the Emporium, something to help her watch over her sisters and guide them before they could make the wrong choices.


    Mister Bill had seen it and improved it, giving her an observation technique that would still be useful at the twelfth rank. She pushed qi into it, circulating through her own senses, treating them like limbs and creating temporary false meridian pathways through them.


    It was an advanced, something that was far beyond what she was worth. And it was also the moment Mei had believed this new reality to be permanent. She really was here. She really was free.


    And she really was useless. Joy, happiness, shock, relief, she¡¯d gone through all of those already, and now she sat at the latest feeling, and now unmoored.


    She saw a cultivator about to cut down someone in the distance, and she pressed down her aura hard upon him. He screamed and ran.


    That was what she did to busy herself. She watched over the mortals, these tiny, pitiful weak people. She made sure none of them died or killed each other unduly. She settled disputes between mortals and whatever weaklings passed for cultivators over here.


    It was something. It was duty, but it wasn¡¯t necessary.


    She wasn¡¯t needed. The world could function without her and without that sense of urgency and consequence, everything just felt meaningless.

 Chapter 98 Mei Shan Part 2

    Mei Shan walked through the door of her office. Yes. She had an office now and it was as useless as it sounded.


    Offices were for resources. It was where one stacked papers and information. A place of work, and in this village, a sign of high position. She didn¡¯t need resources and though her position was high relative to the mortals, it wasn¡¯t so high that it warranted a waste of a room.


    But Chin had insisted and while she thought little of the farmer at first, he and his family had quickly proven themselves worthy of respect. Medin had played an integral role in helping out Rin Wi and Chin had given her sisters duty.


    She owed them if only that much.


    She was just sitting down and leaning back when a knock came from the door.


    ¡°Mei Shan,¡± A voice broke through from behind her. ¡°I need you to take a look at this.¡±


    Light Master Renk walked into the door followed by a small girl carrying a set of robes in her arms. They both wore pure white robes, though the girl¡¯s was a little more stained with droplets of food.


    Renk dropped a pile of pages onto her desk. Mei nodded and read through them instantly.


    ¡°Order more supplies,¡± she commented. ¡°Spend as much as you can on everything you can¡¯t produce locally. As for this new imperial book, it shouldn¡¯t matter too much. Just give the delivery face and call one of us to pick it up.¡±


    ¡°More supplies? For what? The rainy season¡¯s halfway done and we have enough to last us through the next year even with the increased population.¡±


    ¡°Well, since the desert scar¡¯s been healed, you¡¯ll have more traffic even during the dry-¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Renk interrupted. ¡°What do you mean the desert scar is healed? What scar?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know? Mister Bill didn¡¯t tell you?¡±


    Renk frowned deeply at the man¡¯s name.


    ¡°Tell me what? What¡¯s ¡®the desert scar¡¯ and why has it been healed?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the reason the Great Desert Strip is empty of qi. It¡¯s tough to explain, but this region is- or rather was unable to hold qi. Mister Bill fixed that and that means that the desert will hold qi again.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand. Will the desert disappear or something?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Mei replied with a shake of her head. ¡°It won¡¯t disappear, but it will be filled with qi again.¡±


    ¡°And that implies spirit beasts? More cultivators?¡± He asked.


    ¡°And more cultivator tools. Cultivators can now take water-producing treasures across the desert. They can use techniques to fend off the sun and traverse the desert heat. And with an immortal living here, along with the new immortal of the Bloody Fist Sect, traffic is bound to increase across the desert.¡±


    ¡°And that would make our village a¡­ trade city of sorts?¡± Renk said, finally understanding her point.


    Mei nodded.


    ¡°There¡¯s more money coming. I suggest a small trade tax and an increase in-¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, of course,¡± Renk said cutting her off. ¡°Heavens know how much time we have before the next wave of cultivators, and I suppose I should warn all the villages at the entrance of the strip as well. Increase food supplies, tell Chin. He¡¯ll be thrilled to have an excuse to farm more. And the lodging will have to go faster as well.¡±


    The man walked off, mumbling under his breath about all the things he had left to do. She liked Renk. He was rude, arrogant, and held great disdain for anyone more powerful than him. But he was smart. All she had to do was draw the edges of the picture and he would pick up on the rest.


    He was better than the other mortals, the ones that asked questions all the time.


    ¡°Uh, Miss Shan?¡±


    Mei Shan looked down at the little girl still holding a pile of scrolls and books.


    ¡°May I study here? I don¡¯t think my master will go back to the tower for a while.¡±


    Mei Shan smiled and nodded towards the child.


    ¡°You may.¡±


    Taura Chin, granddaughter of Chin Chin and one of the few people Mei Shan enjoyed being around.


    The girl was kind, respectful, adorable, and intelligent. Yes, in terms of intellect, she could probably equal any adult in the area. That was one of the reasons Mei liked her.


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    ¡°What are you studying?¡± Mei asked.


    ¡°Common parlance and tongues among the ten major sects of Ah-Marin,¡± Taura answered.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Mei asked. ¡°Did Renk assign you that reading?¡±


    ¡°No. But with an immortal in the region, understanding the grander empire might be important.¡±


    Taura answered as she sat down on the floor and cracked open the tome.


    ¡°And you¡¯ve taken to court parlance as a point of interest?¡± Mei inquired.


    ¡°Well, not particularly but Renk doesn¡¯t buy books pertaining to the grander empire. He says it''s a waste. That we¡¯re too small to even bother asking for information about it.¡±


    That was true. A small backwater village couldn¡¯t afford news of the grander empire and its happenings.


    It¡¯d be a waste for Renk to buy books on that topic. But it wouldn¡¯t be a waste for Mei Shan.


    ¡°You know, that book is coming in a bit. Within the day I think.¡±


    ¡°Mister Bill¡¯s book?¡± Taura asked.


    ¡°Mhm, I can let you read it if you want.¡±


    Taura eye¡¯s tried to widen into plates.


    ¡°Really? But that book is for immortals! It contains the laws and layouts of the empire, wouldn¡¯t Mister Bill get in trouble if he let a mortal touch it?¡±


    ¡°Young Taura,¡± Mei said with a shake of her head. ¡°In the eyes of the empire, Mister Bill is to unimportant to get in trouble.¡±


    ¡°But what about the rules and conducts? Wouldn¡¯t it be theft or a violation of the respect of the empire?¡±


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t kill an ant for stealing a stray crumb would you?¡± Mei asked.


    The small girl thought over the sentence.


    ¡°Is Mister Bill really that weak?¡± Taura finally asked.


    ¡°No, he¡¯s not weak. He¡¯s just common. Immortals are everywhere within the Void Blade Empire. And the codes of the empire aren¡¯t a precious treasure of the empire, but rather just a set of laws every immortal is expected to follow. You could buy them off some vendor within the capital you know.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± The girl repeated.


    ¡°Oh of course. This isn¡¯t a secret technique. It¡¯s a code of conduct, rules, nothing more. I could even get you more things you know.¡±


    ¡°Oh could you? Could you really?¡± Taura said practically bouncing off the floor.


    ¡°Of course I could,¡± Mei said with a nod.


    ¡°But the question is, what could you get me?¡±


    Taura frowned and Mei smirked.


    This reminded her of the past. The days she¡¯d tease her sisters for favors or force them into training servitude even when they hadn¡¯t wanted to. She hadn¡¯t become the de facto leader of the group at first. Everyone liked Xi Lu more back then. But Xi Lu was soft. She would have gotten them killed or punished if she had led the group. So Mei had taken over, forcefully at first in order to make sure her group survived.


    That had been a mistake. The best servants go to the most powerful people, and Mei Shan¡¯s group has over-performed and ended up in Kin Jey¡¯s hands.


    But they had earned merits and were spared from the more¡­forceful jobs.


    Concubines, that was a nice term for them.


    Mei Shan pushed away the dark thoughts.


    ¡°How about this, help me out every week and I¡¯ll get you more books, along with the Immortal¡¯s Conduct.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Taura asked practically bouncing with excitement.


    ¡°Really,¡± Mei Shan smiled.


    ¡°Oh yes! I¡¯ll help! We can start now! What can I do? What do you need?¡±


    Mei Shan needed absolutely nothing from a mortal child. Whatever Taura could do, Mei could do ten thousand times better. Truthfully, Taura would be a burden more than an aid.


    But Mei couldn¡¯t help but be a little bit happy at the sight of a young, smart mortal girl giggling over books. She reminded her of the past. Of a time when a group of young girls faced slavery and death, but found moments of joy within it regardless.


    Childhood joy was the only real joy Mei Shan had ever known.


    Mei felt a shadow of that burden, that sense of being needed weighing down on her shoulders.


    Duty.


    She was wanted and she was needed, by a young giggling girl who wanted to know the world.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure we can find something for you to help me with.¡±

 Chapter 99 Trading Pointers Part 1

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    I have no qualms with it. But a certain farmer of a certain village certainly had his issues.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t they hug somewhere else?¡± Chin asked me.


    ¡°Because he¡¯d be interrupted and pressured if he were to be anywhere else. The kid just became an immortal, let him relax for a moment, Chin.¡±


    ¡°He can relax at the Bloody Fist Sect,¡± Chin replied.


    ¡°Oh yeah, the sect that imprisoned and called him a raging lunatic for centuries will happily embrace the man that just killed their sect master.¡±


    ¡°But Mei Shan said-¡±


    ¡°And she was right. Gai Jin will be the head of the Bloody Fist Sect, but there will be a few weeks of political turmoil before he can be accepted. An immortal is too strong of a resource for them to not claim, but even the ones that hated Gai Lui will have to make some show of offense. Gai Lui¡¯s misdeeds were not well known and the investigation into them will take some time. Meanwhile, people from the other four sects, along with merchants from outside the region will be flooding the place trying to assess him under the guise of congratulations.¡±


    ¡°What if they come over here?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°They won¡¯t. I¡¯ve made sure of it. At worst, you have a few spies every now and again, but they¡¯re nothing to worry about.¡±


    Chin frowned, as he always did.


    But then he did something else. He sighed, with a slight expression of empathy.


    ¡°Must be hard on the poor boy,¡± he said.


    I nodded. I had filled Chin in on the whole story between the two, and while the farmer still didn¡¯t want the cultivator here in his village, he was fine with them staying in the valley. As long as they left, eventually.


    ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯re supposed to spar later today to help consolidate his rank. That¡¯s a good sign.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Well, you remember what it was like after your rank up, right? You were stronger and faster, took you a while to understand your limits?¡±


    ¡°I almost pulled the utters off an old cow,¡± Chin answered. ¡°Still won¡¯t let me milk her.¡±


    ¡°Well, major rank-ups are sort of like that. Gai Jin will be fine at lower expressions of strength concerning everyday activities, but if he had to run across the desert strip or jump over a mountain, he might run out of the region or jump out of it. He needs to go all out on something and understand his new limits before he can even think about going into combat.¡±


    ¡°He can jump out of my village if he likes,¡± Chin grumbled.


    ¡°Chin! Mister Bill!¡± Renk yelled. ¡°I need to talk to you, the both of you! Mei says you¡¯ve healed the desert scar.¡±


    ¡°Well Chin, I¡¯ve got to get going. Busy day. Lots to do,¡± I waved.


    ¡°Will it really cause more cultivators to visit us throughout the year? What about the influx of trade and spirit beasts entering the region? How right was she?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°See ya later buddy. And don¡¯t forget to circulate your qi calmly through your meridians.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s he talking about?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°What¡¯s who talking about?¡±


    ¡°Renk?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t speak pompous. See ya tomorrow.¡±


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Mister Bill, I must have a word!¡± Renk said as he came dangerously close to me.


    ¡°I¡¯d love to but my schedule¡¯s all booked up. Next century maybe?¡±


    I started walking. Chin started following, and Renk desperately waved his hands from an ever-growing distance.


    ¡°What¡¯s he talking about?¡± Chin asked.


    ¡°Ask him, and Mei Shan. She¡¯ll tell you all you need to know, trust me.¡±


    ¡°What about the more cultivators? Renk said that there might be more cultivators coming through.¡±


    ¡°Chin, I didn¡¯t know you spoke pompous.¡±


    ¡°Bill, what is he-¡±


    I jumped out of the village.


    I wasn¡¯t going to be the one to verify that more cultivators bit, leave that to Renk, the sacrificial lamb.


    I listened from a distance as Chin talked to Renk, lost his farming mind. Then marched all the way to Mei Shan to verify the information. Mei Shan, who was apparently cleaning with Taura, calmly explained the issue and how to properly approach it.


    But Chin remained angry. Even if it was safe, even if the cultivators had to follow rules under the threat of an immortal, Chin did not like them.


    He was stubborn that way.


    ********


    Gai Jin moved.


    His speed, his mind, and his strength struck firmly at an open palm.


    ¡°Good strike, but I said hit as hard as you can.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure, Master Bill?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°I understand your new rank gives much more power than you¡¯ve thought possible, but I am several steps beyond you. Your strongest strike might hurt me a little, but it won¡¯t damage me. Again.¡±


    Gai Jin nodded and moved once more. This time his arm carried all the qi, technique, and force it could manage.


    And he struck.


    The thump that came with the strike was deadly. The air shattered like thunder and if it wasn¡¯t for the array beneath it, just the shockwave itself would have caused a mile-wide crater.


    ¡°See,¡± I asked. ¡°Everything¡¯s fine. Now do a full attack, until you''re tired and almost out of qi.¡±


    ¡°But- wouldn¡¯t that hurt you?¡± He asked.


    No.


    ¡°I have defensive techniques. I can take it, but understanding your qi reserves and how long they¡¯ll last you is important. Along with knowing how hard you can push your techniques before they fail you.¡±


    Gai Jin nodded. That had been the fault of his master, after all. If Gai Lui had judged his qi correctly and controlled his intake and use of his reserves, he might have lived.


    ¡°Yes Master Bill,¡± Gai Jin said with a nod. ¡°If you are willing to offer, then I shall selfishly accept.¡±


    Gai Jin attacked. At first, he used only his body, only using his muscles and ignoring his qi. Using only an immortal¡¯s body, Gai Jin could have taken down his master¡¯s tribulation-enhanced body without effort.


    Then he used his qi, enhancing his limbs in the most basic of ways. Now he could have beaten Gai Lui at his peak a thousand times over.


    Then came technique, Bloody Fist, The Monk¡¯s Holy Steps. All hailed down upon me at once. They were mediocre techniques within the fifth rank and that made them abysmal techniques at the sixth. The problem wasn¡¯t the core of the techniques but the integrations between them and the body.


    The bushes stirred and both Gai Jin and I turned to see four pairs of eyes peaking at us.


    We already knew who our intruders were but since neither one of us had brought it up, it had become a silent allowance of their trespass.


    ¡°You might as well watch from the daylight,¡± I yelled.


    Barlo Hew and Rou Xin came out from the bushes.


    ¡°Excuse our trespassing,¡± Rou Xin said with a fanciful bow. ¡°We wished to see an exchange between immortals. We beg forgiveness.¡±


    Bullshit. Barlo Hew was royalty. And not just regular royalty but someone not of this realm. His bloodline tried to hide itself but I could feel it. He descended from a being of the fifteenth rank. But it was suppressed and¡­ stained. A bastard child of a common concubine.


    He had no treasures, no gifts, not even a bloodline talent.


    His bloodline was more of a trophy, but what the kid did have was dao.


    And what a great Dao it was.


    I¡¯d been keeping an eye on him for some time now.


    People with outside connections were more dangerous than even powerful cultivators. A single search party, a master diviner, anyone who was looking for him might come and find me.


    My tail swished as if assuring me that it would guard me from any prying eyes.


    I nodded.


    ¡°You can watch,¡± I said to the duo. ¡°And you can watch too.¡±


    From further off behind them, another pair of eyes revealed themselves.


    Nai rode Tob over to the surprise of both fourth ranks, who hadn¡¯t sensed her at all.


    ¡°What- what is this?¡± Rou Xin spat.


    ¡°She is the victim of a curse. She reached the fifth rank and was struck by a reverse aging technique by someone of the immortal realm.¡±


    ¡°Truly?¡± Barlo asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied.


    ¡°But¡­ why?¡± Gai Jin asked.


    He had sensed them too, but he hadn¡¯t known Nai was a child.


    ¡°Boo,¡± Nai stated, using her aura to speak to the cultivators.


    I knew too much. My techniques were too powerful and he couldn¡¯t allow even my spirit to exist, so he used a curse that took at my very soul, de-aging me and making me forget myself. He stole the days, the years, the centuries of my mind, and even my technique.


    She was overselling it.


    But all three cultivators nodded in awe.


    ¡°A master of time law, then? To think there was a way to attack like that. But why not kill you then? Why do this?¡± Rou asked.


    RESPECT YOUR ELDERS! I AM OF THE FIFTH RANK!


    The two fourth ranks bowed deeply, both sweating slightly at her aura.


    She was really playing it up. She wanted to go around and talk to people but with more and more cultivators showing up in the region, it was getting more and more dangerous to let her roam free.


    So we came up with this story.


    I just hoped she wouldn''t go over the top with it.

 Chapter 100 Trading Pointers Part 2

    Gai Jin defended.


    Consolidating your rank meant knowing your abilities and their limits. Gai Jin had attacked, unleashing all he could and feeling the force flow through him.


    He knew how much he could give.


    I hit three times at his chest, then his gut.


    Now it was time to learn how much he could take.


    Blood left his mouth as he was propelled to the edge of the array.


    ¡°Good. How much qi did that defense cost you?¡±


    I asked him.


    ¡°Ha-half my reserves,¡± he said.


    ¡°Mm, not good,¡± I grumbled. ¡°Defensive techniques are important. But your technique is failing at almost every front.¡±


    I tossed him a pill and he quickly ingested it.


    ¡°How so?¡± He asked, still panting a little.


    ¡°The ideas are powerful, but they are a little limited,¡± I replied. ¡°Do you know the difference between a mortal and an immortal?¡±


    Gai Jin looked at me as if it were a trick question.


    ¡°Yes one lives forever and one doesn¡¯t, but do you know why?¡±


    ¡°You create more innate qi than you need,¡± he answered.


    ¡°Yes, but what is innate qi?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the qi that provides you with life.¡±


    ¡°Yes but why?¡±


    Gai Jin looked a little stumped.


    ¡°Because it is you?¡± Barlo said with false confusion.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I said with a slow nod.


    ¡°Innate qi is qi made by your lower dantian, yes. But it¡¯s also your most personal qi. It is fuel made by you just for you and regardless of how much qi you have, you¡¯ll die if you run out of innate qi.¡±


    Gai Jin nodded.


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    ¡°As an immortal, you produce more innate qi than you consume. So why not use it?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Gai Jin stated. Rou Xin looked just as horrified and Barlo Hew did his best to copy him.


    ¡°Try it,¡± I stated.


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to attack with innate qi, just try mixing the attack with your spirit qi and see what happens.¡±


    Gai Jin looked at me with a bit of worry.


    ¡°You¡¯re an immortal now, you need to fight like one.¡±


    He nodded.


    We both took our places at the edge of the array. Gai Jin breathed, he closed his eyes, and he moved.


    Light lost him for a moment, an instant. An unnoticeable bit of time for mortals.


    He moved. Not with just speed or force, or mere power, but with something more. With his very essence, with whatever part of him made him real. His movement was his own, almost separate from the world and everything within it.


    Then his palms slammed into my hand.


    Gai Jin stood there, staring at his fist for a second.


    ¡°The immortal rank is about lengthening your lifespan, yes. But it¡¯s also about separating yourself from the laws that govern mortal men. First is age, then laws, and then everything else beyond it. At the ninth rank, one becomes a demigod, capable of withstanding nothingness and proclaiming your own existence against the void. At the twelfth rank, one becomes a god, capable of doing almost anything you want. The path of a cultivator is to defy the natural chains of life and to do that, you can not rely on anything, not even the ground beneath your feet.¡±


    Gai Jin nodded, still staring at his hand.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve heard from stronger men anyway. Let''s try that again. You have a real good grasp of who you are and your fundamental dao but you should work on a law.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master Bill.¡±


    ¡°Now once more.¡±


    After that, he kept using his innate qi, nearly draining his dantian empty.


    ¡°I apologize Master Bill. I¡¯ve yet to grow accustomed to this form of combat.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s a bit strange initially, but you¡¯ll get used to it. It¡¯s almost like a baby learning to walk. Balancing, moving, evening turning your head can be hard at first, but you¡¯ll be running before you know it.¡±


    Nai made a noise of agreement from behind me, something about the dangers of using only two limbs to balance.


    ¡°It is strange,¡± Gai agreed. ¡°But it is¡­different. I don¡¯t know how to describe it exactly. I don¡¯t cause more damage with it but I am¡­more.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s resilience,¡± I explained. ¡°Your attacks contain a bit of you in them. Instead of just the concept of a punch or a cut, they contain a bit of you. A bit of your weight and existence. Your actions become more permanent and real. It¡¯s the same reason why this landscape remains unchanged for eons after a cultivator''s actions. From the demon corpses beneath your sects to the Great Desert Strip and even the Flower Sword¡¯s Broken Isles. It was all done by powerful cultivators. People who declared themselves against the heavens.¡±


    It was getting dark and the sun was fighting valiantly against the horizon. The sky was colored pink, with many moons and planets shining in the distance. Cultivators lived there of course, and even some mortals.


    To me, they were like next-door neighbors. I could see them easily from here.


    Gai Jin¡¯s eyes glimmered as he did the same.


    ¡°I did not know the skies were so alive,¡± he whispered.


    ¡°We¡¯re cultivators,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But we¡¯re also human. On the earth, in the skies, and in the void beyond. We live, we push, we are. That¡¯s the best and worst part of all this immortal stuff. The stars may die and the land may change, but people won¡¯t. We¡¯ll always be here, living and dying as we always have.¡±


    ¡°Is that a good thing?¡± Gai asked.


    ¡°No. But it¡¯s not a bad thing either. Humanity persists, as does life.¡±


    Gai Jin nodded and all six of them shared a moment of silence, that was until the dog took a noticeably loud piss not too far away from the fire.

 Chapter 101 The Seer of The Void Part 1

    The Divine Beast Emporium was vast. It contained many things, planets, galaxies, minor realms, and habitats of all sorts.


    But there was nothing wild about it. That was what the Seer of the Void saw, and she saw everything.


    That was her nature. She was a sixteenth rank being, a God King. And her¡¯s was the domain of truth, which was a very risky business to peddle.


    The Enki Maluth was a good example of that. Their ancestor had been slain and their sect had been integrated, which was better than the absolute annihilation that most truth sects faced.


    But she wasn¡¯t in the business of mere truth for truth¡¯s sake. She was a Seer, a diviner and she had a place in the eyes of the God-Imperium. Or at least she knew where she could and couldn¡¯t be.


    It was said that God-Imperiums hated other God-Imperiums the most because it was only their peers that could cause them harm. Because of this, and because of the Second Pact of Life they could not trespass into each other¡¯s domain.


    One God-Imperium couldn¡¯t peer into the powers of another. It didn¡¯t matter the reason or the simplicity of the act. To intrude on the domain of another God-Imperium was an insult. The few times it did happen was when the insult was meant to be given or the power between the two Imperiums was enough for one to oppress the other, and even that was rare. But for a God King? Well, it was the difference between a man breaking into your home and an ant slipping through the cracks.


    Though an ant might go unnoticed, she would not. Any God-Imperium she spied upon would feel her nature, and she was small enough to be allowed. If a God-Imperium truly wanted to hide something, she would never be able to perceive it. She was a formality in their eyes, a way of using someone else¡¯s power to avoid insult.


    She grabbed her staff, a thing made of old wood and blessed by the Fey of the Cosmic Forest, and she readied herself. She was being watched, that she knew. Tai Jey was not the type to hide his eyes.


    She had felt him from within the void, from the steps of her home near the lower heavens.


    He couldn¡¯t reach her there. She was under the protection of another there, under the land of the Blessed King of Camelot, Lancelot. Another binding nature of these beings. There were many unclaimed realms in the multiverse but of the celestial realms, those places from which power overflowed, they were claimed.


    Claimed and governed. Some by sixteenth ranks, but most by God-Imperiums, and only in their realms could you live protected from the others. And even then, you were under their behest. That was celestial kingdoms where certain rights were guaranteed were highly sought after.


    Lynoria had been the first to provide that, but as time went on, many God-Imperiums did the same. Camelot had been built by King Arthur and then abandoned for Avalon. But both were fertile with God Kings, as was any other appealing place. Most God Imperiums had such rules if only to nurture cultivators who might one day become future God-Imperiums.


    Tai Jey was not one of those. His was the domain of enslavement and ownership. His was the power of control and all who lived within his realm did so under his allowance and will.


    The Seer could immediately feel that overwhelming pressure the moment she stepped into the realm. It weighed on her like a collar, pressing her down with divinity.


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    She bowed, a formality, but one Tai Jey wouldn¡¯t let go.


    The realm was infinite in size, but that meant nothing. A celestial realm could be the size of a small room, physical space was only a minor detail to beings of her stature. What mattered more was qi, both the quantity and quality.


    And within this realm, God-Imperium qi flowed. It flowed from Tai Jey and Killaguan, like water flowing from an eternal oasis. Lower-ranked beings couldn¡¯t sense it, not even of the fifteenth rank could grasp the truth of these beings, and she knew that she hadn¡¯t fully grasped the true nature of these beings either.


    Her staff shivered and she shivered with it.


    The problem with God-Imperiums was they were all powerful if unbothered by someone of equal rank. Without others of their kind to limit them, they owned you and all you held. Thankfully for the Seer, she needed to be free from the powers of the God-Imperiums to be useful. If she was beholden to them, then she would be nothing more than an expression of their power and her formality would turn to insult.


    But even then she still needed precaution. While Tai Jey wouldn¡¯t claim her as his own, she still had methods to ensure her own survival. The first of those methods was that she wasn¡¯t all here, not truly. Half of her soul lay within Camelot, protected from Tai Jey¡¯s influence, and with it were all of her secrets and truths, including her name.


    This part of her contained a part of her core, her essence, and if it were destroyed or devoured, it would cost her greatly but the trade-off was equal for Tai Jey. God-Imperiums had need of lesser ranked beings. They were limited by each other, controlled by the Second Pact of Life, but free cultivators not tied to their powers were able to move as they pleased.


    Some God-Imperiums were freer than others, like Wu Kong or The Dethin Witch, but even they had their limits, lest they cause conflict and war. They had their agents of course and while those under them couldn¡¯t act as freely, they were still able to act. So God-Imperiums created sects and governed kingdoms, hoping to bring people under their political power while still letting them be of their own will.


    Which, strangely enough, made Tai Jey one of the less influential God-Imperiums. He liked to mark those under him with his power, limiting their actions within the grander multiverse. While those servants couldn¡¯t directly associate with other God-Imperiums or enter their lands, they could interact with any underneath them.


    Lancelot was one of those lords who made their lands attractive to beings of the Seer¡¯s caliber. She felt comfortable enough to leave her main body there at the very least.


    But Tai Jey was the opposite, everything here was marked with his being, almost soaking in it. There was a strong sense of security here, she could feel that. She could-


    Her staff shook and the thought halted.


    Another precaution. As a Seer, she saw much more than she should. Some things, the God-Imperiums wouldn¡¯t hide. And sometimes, ever so rarely, she could see their secrets.


    It wouldn¡¯t be due to their inability to hide something but rather due to their ignorance.


    They didn¡¯t know what she knew, and while this form of the Seer knew very little. It still knew. Something here had triggered some baren knowledge within her, but the staff had erased it. If she had arrived at the conclusion, at some truth the God-Imperium was trying to hide, she might not have made it back home.


    What the Seer did not know was that the staff remembered. It remembered the observation but not the conclusion. The Seer did not know that the staff and her when rejoined with the other half, would see the observation and conclusion to the fullest. And when she did, she would recognize the security here, the obsessiveness.


    Tai Jey was watching everyone and when that was paired with why he had called her here, it would result in nothing. No true information would be gleamed and she would then realize that the staff had wasted its time.


    But still, it was an important precaution. There were thoughts she could not have around these beings, ideas she could not think.


    But she had seen nothing today.


    And the staff, while not powerful, was more than anything she owned alive. It was blessed by the fey of the cosmic forest, wood of wood, thing of wild. It served no one but her and if Tai Jey would try to claim it, it would shatter before he could. That ability to resist a God-Imperium alone made the staff the most important thing she owned.


    God Kings like her, that is to say, free agents that were tied to no one, needed something like this to deal with God-Imperiums.


    The Seer of the Void, the woman who had put away her own name, and the lady of truth who understood just how dangerous truth could be, walked into the domain of a True God and kneeled.

 Chapter 102 The Seer of The Void Part 2

    "Before God-Imperiums, you were nothing.¡±


    That was an old saying of the multiverse. But it was wrong. The truth was, before a God-Imperium, you were whatever they wanted you to be. They gave effort to nothing, but in their natural state, they could easily dominate you. That was to say a God-Imperium without any will to control you, naturally would. Your qi, your soul, would become theirs and you would be made in their image.


    They had to will themselves to not change you just for you to remain.


    That was their power.


    And never would the Seer get used to it. She had stood before many God-Imperium, far more than most at her level, and yet, she shivered.


    They were death, life, envy, eternity, beauty, and horror all in one. They were everything.


    Describing their power was a waste, even thinking of their power, even memory could not do it justice.


    Only experiencing it held true, and even that was in the moment.


    Outside of here and now, even her mind wouldn¡¯t be able to remember the power of such beings.


    She stood in a great palace, one that was both endless and walled. She saw hallways of cages that stretched out towards infinity. Some occupied, some closed. She saw beasts, animals, spirits, angels, demons, and men. She saw all lifeforms of the existence treading the halls, all tamed and submissive.


    Some drank, some ate, but all had one thing in common. All lived to serve. An infinite realm full of infinite lifeforms, all servile and willing.


    They were decorations, of course, even an infinite number of God Kings would fall to a God-Imperium¡¯s breath. But they were Tai Jey¡¯s in every way that mattered and in a way, an expression of his very being. And in the moment, the Seer envied them deeply.


    So the Seer bathed in it both in great awe and in great fear.


    ¡°Arise,¡± a voice spoke.


    And arise she did, because suddenly she wanted to, she had to, she needed to, she would love to, to arise was her purpose and to stand was her goal.


    A part of her knew what this was. In mortal courts, a king might make the body bow, a God-Imperium however made the soul kneel. Absolute submission. But even then she didn¡¯t care, all she would do now was serve.


    And then she snapped, returning to her true state.


    Her mind didn¡¯t reel. She wasn¡¯t suddenly filled with distraught at her thoughts. She knew this would happen, in fact, she had been prepared for it.


    ¡°Your eternal divinity,¡± she stated with a bow.


    ¡°Unnecessary. Everything between now and the act, is unnecessary,¡± Tai Jey stated.


    She didn¡¯t even have a chance to nod as an object appeared before her. A crystal full of qi appeared and the Seer knew what she had to do. She opened her hands and scoured.


    She was a seer, and her¡¯s was the way of truth. But not just any truth, the way of sight, of looking, of seeking. Her mind looked to the heavens, then the hells, then the Sea of Death, the Silver King¡¯s domain, the Cosmic Forest, Lynoria, Camelot, Avalon, Atlantis, the Warring Lands, the Dragon¡¯s Mountain, and all the other realms within existence.


    She stood for a moment. She stood forever, and her whole being worked to find what it could.


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    Eventually, she found it, and her mind seemed to halt.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Tai Jey questioned.


    Any interference on his part would get her killed, so all he could do was wait as she saw through not only time and space but nothingness as well.


    It was a curious thing, divination. The lesser being might think it was all qi threads. They might believe that relative existence saved them. They saw divination as a person pulling on a thread and that if they somehow cut themselves out of its fabric, then they would be free to go unseen. They believed divination worked purely on connections and that if they cut off that connection, everything would be fixed by merely mixing and dissipating the qi, or letting the cosmic void consume it.


    Well, they were right, and they were wrong. That was the case for lesser divination and beings of lesser ability.


    But she was The Seer of the Void, one at the pinnacle of truth. She was no lesser being.


    The truth was all things were connected if not in qi, then ideas. The God-Imperium knew this. No, she was sure they saw this. Her vision now of the multiverse must have been their vision always.


    Her skill let her see like them, and perceive the world and all around it in totality.


    After all, God-Imperiums shaped reality. From the moment they became, they declared and existence echoed. That was the connections she used to see now. That connection between ideas that traversed through the void.


    And her mouth opened and her eyes glowed, and she beheld.


    ¡°Tai Jey, you dirty old bastard,¡± a voice spoke through her.


    ¡°Wukong,¡± Tai Jey replied.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been fucking my mother, huh?¡±


    ¡°Where is the child?¡±


    ¡°Which one? I think you have most of them no?¡±


    Tai Jey¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°I see.¡±


    ¡°It must have been rough. She doesn¡¯t like it any other way or so I¡¯ve heard-¡±


    ¡°SILENCE BEAST,¡± Tai Jey spoke and the whole realm spoke with him.


    The Seer¡¯s lips sealed shut in compliance. Then, they slowly opened.


    ¡°Is that what you tried to do with her? No wonder she nearly killed you. And be careful with this body here, would you? It¡¯s fragile, unlike my mother you see.¡±


    ¡°Give me the child unless you seek-¡±


    ¡°Yes? Yes? War? A fight? A battle? I seek them all. When and where, Tai Jey? The Sea of Death is the only place we can go all out? Now? Later? Do we bring armies and allies Tai Jey? I do not need them but I have many.¡±


    Tai Jey pursed his lips.


    ¡°Besides, you don¡¯t care for one out of ten thousand do you? No, you care about the implications. You''re preparing your bloodline, mixing it with a being of your polar opposites. Thus freeing it from your control then raising them, breeding them, and having your own functioning and free agents from which you may groom God-Imperiums and beings of war, no?¡±


    Tai Jey stood silent.


    ¡°I lack free agents? Is it wrong of me to seek out my own people?¡±


    ¡°No. It is not. But you bred with the Beast. You talked to her. Begged and groveled I would think. And somehow, you convinced her to do this for you. You convinced her. How? If there¡¯s anything my mother is known for it isn¡¯t favors and if there¡¯s anything my mother wants, she already has. So what was it, Tai Jey? What could you have possibly promised that old monster to get what you wanted?¡±


    Tai Jey was quiet.


    ¡°We all know what she wants, more than anything, the one thing she cannot have. She wants. What they all want, really. Did you promise her war Tai Jey? Do you say you¡¯d let her roar and kill till-¡±


    ¡°Enough,¡± Tai Jey cut in.


    ¡°No,¡± Wukong replied.


    Within his own realm, under his own palace, stood the body of a girl barely any different from a mortal, but it sneered at him with a monkey¡¯s grin.


    ¡°You can¡¯t afford that promise, Tai Jey and she would know that. So what made her believe you? Who made her believe you?¡±


    ¡°ENOUGH,¡± Tai Jey yelled, and the body almost turned to dust with the statement. But that small silver of the monkey held it together.


    ¡°So loud,¡± Wukong stated. ¡°So furious.¡±


    Then Tai Jey felt a palm on his realm. Someone from the outside protruding onto his domain.


    ¡°So weak,¡± Wukong added.


    ¡°YOU DARE?¡± Tai Jey screamed.


    ¡°Do I?¡± Wukong questioned. ¡°Why wait? Why not start now? Why give you time to heal? It is war you planned on, after all, so why shouldn¡¯t I cut you down where you stand?¡±


    Tai Jey prepared himself, gathering all he had and awakening his soul.


    Then the body of The Seer looked down at the floor.


    ¡°Ah. So that¡¯s who they are. Would they come to defend you, I wonder? Could they?¡±


    Deep in Lynoria, an old sword hummed in its sheat and its master petted it down with kindness. A book readied its children and a judge held her blade.


    Up in heaven a great monk looked down and sighed and down in hell a great thing looked up with anger. A woman smiled in anticipation and somewhere away from it all, a Fisherman held tightly onto his pole.


    Wukong left, along with the Seer, for if he didn¡¯t then Tai Jey surely would have killed her. The God King remembered nothing when she woke up on the road to Camelot.


    She remembered nothing except for one thing, that she should never work for Tai Jey ever again. For if he ever saw her face again he would give her a frighteningly painful end.

 Chapter 103 Doubts

    I threw the baby up and up she went. Into the skies trailing high above the clouds.


    Nai¡¯s giggles faded as she shot up and out of a mortal¡¯s eyesight.


    ¡°You were saying?¡± I asked the sect leaders.


    ¡°Yes¡­ well¡­ uh¡­ we were hoping to set up¡­¡±


    His eyes trailed the clouds trying to figure out if Nai would be coming down.


    ¡°Aghem, we wanted to know if we would be allowed to make Oasis City our center of operations Honored Immortal Master, Sir,¡± his friend finished for him.


    These were not the people of the five sects. No, they were some merchant sects whose elders would be cultivators of the third rank. They were small families and warriors who also engaged in other businesses along with cultivation. They catered to cultivators and mortals alike. Some would kill rogue spirit beasts; others would take trade along thousand-mile routes. A few would even farm spirit herbs out in fields and sell them in mass to larger sects.


    These people were merchants who specialized in trade between the five major sects.


    ¡°Oasis City? Is that what they¡¯re calling it?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Ugh- yes, Honored Master Immortal Sir-¡±


    ¡°Just call me sir,¡± I cut in.


    ¡°Of course sire- er- sir immortal.¡±


    ¡°Did you talk to the farmer?¡±


    ¡°What? The mortal? No. We thought it best to get permission direct-¡±


    ¡°Then no,¡± I cut in. ¡°You need to talk to the farmer, and the next time you try to go around him I¡¯ll make sure your caravan never crosses the desert again.¡±


    ¡°But- But, he¡¯s a mort-¡± His friend quickly shoved a painful jab into his ribs.


    I felt Mei Shan¡¯s senses watching me from a distance. She had probably set all of this up, allowing them to sneak their way through me just to get a hard and firm rejection. Hopefully, they¡¯d go around and spread my words and Chin could point to them as an example of what to not do.


    ¡°Yes sir, we will go to the village head and work things out with him,¡± the smarter man commented.


    Then the two turned around and started walking back the way they came from.


    ¡°You know this was a mistake you were allowed to make? Right?¡± I called out to them.


    ¡°Sir?¡± One of them said as the two turned around.


    ¡°You were allowed to make this mistake, and there will be no consequences. But you might be allowed to make other mistakes, and I assure you, there will be consequences for those.¡±


    ¡°Yes Honored Immortal, we understand our trespass,¡± the smart one replied and bowed.


    The not-so-smart one followed his move and did the same, but clearly, he hadn¡¯t heard my warning. I wish I could just spell it out for him, but I was meant to play the old mysterious cultivator role to these people, and besides, his friend would definitely explain it to him.


    Don¡¯t cause trouble. You only got here because you were allowed to. You¡¯re meant to serve as an example of my rules so go and tell other cultivators what happened. And if you see a chance to break another of my rules, don¡¯t. Because if you do you won¡¯t get away easily like last time.


    That was what my message meant. And I¡¯m sure the smarter fellow understood that. I sighed, feeling bad for whatever bastard Mei Shan used next.


    The no-violence rule was heavily enforced, but even then, we had daily rule breakers. I¡¯d given Mei full control over the village''s administration and she had let a few attacks begin before she went in and interfered.


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    Normally, she could¡¯ve stopped the fights before they even started. But a couple of times, she allowed the aggression to be shown, and then she brutally crippled the cultivator''s meridians afterward.


    ¡°Consequences must be real Honored Master. A lion who just roars is no different from a loud dog.¡±


    That was what she had said to me. And so here she was showing the fangs, making examples, and enforcing the rules. I didn¡¯t care as long as no one innocent got hurt.


    These merchants seemed arrogant at worst, not evil. So I gave them a fair warning and sent them on their way.


    Someone else would be the victim of Mei Shan¡¯s example-making quest.


    And I wouldn¡¯t be there to intervene.


    I stretched out my hands, and a baby landed perfectly between the gaps. The sudden deceleration dragged her cheeks down for a moment and then, she laughed. Her arms went up and she smacked on my sleeves eagerly.


    ¡°Again?¡± I asked.


    Nai nodded feverishly.


    This time I used one hand and winded back my arm for dramatic effect. And then, like a pitcher during the final inning, I threw. Not hard of course, just enough to get her slightly above the clouds.


    The giggling screams of a baby faded out into the sky.


    ¡°Master Bill,¡± Rin Wi spoke.


    ¡°Oh, is it already time?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Rin nodded.


    I looked up and waited.


    ¡°Ah, she¡¯ll be fine-¡±


    ¡°We can wait for Miss Nai,¡± Rin Wi cut in urgently.


    ¡°She¡¯s at the fifth rank, a little fall will be nothing for her-¡±


    ¡°I will tell Miss Medin,¡± she added.


    ¡°Alright, alright, we¡¯ll wait.¡±


    Rin Wi nodded at my compromise.


    ¡°How¡¯s immortality treating you Rin?¡±


    ¡°It is strange¡­ I am new to it yet it feels like I¡¯ve been this way forever. It feels like I can¡¯t be any other way like I¡¯ve solidified a piece of myself for eternity.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s immortality for you. You¡¯ve become time-proof.¡±


    ¡°Is this how it always is?¡± Rin Wi asked.


    ¡°For a bit,¡± I replied. ¡°It¡¯s as if you¡¯ve just learned to walk. It feels strange now, waddling along with the support of only two limbs but eventually, you¡¯ll wonder how you ever got anywhere with crawling. How¡¯s your dao going? You did pick it up a bit haphazardly. And what about your law? Have you picked one?¡±


    Rin Wi looked around like a high school senior being asked about their plans for college.


    ¡°I- I do not know. My dao is strange and unsettled, and I chose it so lightly. I might not progress beyond this I fear.¡±


    There was doubt in her voice, along with a strange dead tone of acceptance.


    I looked at her.


    ¡°A dao is practiced Rin. Yes, you chose yours lightly and it is a delicate thing still. But you chose your dao and that itself is a part of your dao. Tell me, what do you think a dao is?¡±


    ¡°Purpose?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but is that all it is?¡± I asked. ¡°Purpose can change, purpose itself has a reason, a drive behind it. A dao is purpose, but it doesn¡¯t just stop at purpose. The reason you chose your dao, the soul of your choice, is also there. The dao is like all things, a path. The path might split, it might twist and it may lead you to a crossroads, but your choice at those points will carry on. Even if you¡¯re no longer at that crossroad, your choice in direction is still there, still present. It''s as much a part of your path as the path you walk upon.¡±


    ¡°Then, what is my dao? Is it truly cooking? Preparing food?¡±


    ¡°Why did you choose food?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Why?¡± Rin Wi thought. ¡°Because¡­because it was the only other choice I had.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but why was it the only other choice you had, Rin? Why was cooking important enough for you to even consider it as a part of your path? Not anything can be your dao, so why was cooking enough to even be considered?¡±


    Rin thought for a moment, trying to conceptualize something she already knew.


    And perfectly timed with her enlightenment came Nai screaming down from the skies. With a soft thump, she landed in my arms.


    And Rin Wi spoke.


    ¡°Because it gives me purpose,¡± she finally replied. ¡°It''s something I choose to do and it helps others. I¡­ I¡¯ve always helped others. I¡¯ve always been a servant, but when I was cooking¡­ I was choosing to serve. I was choosing to help Medin.¡±


    I nodded along, prodding her to speak some more.


    ¡°I¡­ when I faced her¡­ I¡­She was me. She was a part of me that had been hammered by centuries of practice and punishment. She was the way I saw the world and the way I saw myself. A tool. A thing to be used to better ends. I couldn¡¯t erase that, not all of it, so I¡­¡±


    Her hand touched her chest.


    ¡°I changed it. I chose to serve instead of being made to. I chose to be a tool of my own desire.¡±


    Then she started to panic.


    ¡°Honored Master, did I really defeat my tribulation? Did I really expunge her or is she still there, somewhere inside of me determining my actions?¡±


    ¡°Rin Wi,¡± I answered. ¡°She is you. You can¡¯t expunge her. But you did change her permanently. That was your victory. To be a total tool or a device of your own making. You didn¡¯t just choose a new dao, Rin Wi; you altered it. You changed a small and very important part. You became your own.¡±


    Rin Wi looked somewhat troubled.


    ¡°Did you think you could rebuild yourself from nothing? Did you imagine that tribulation would allow you to destroy and recreate yourself as you wanted? It is natural, Rin. To turn back on your path would mean to undo a major part of yourself, of your cultivation. You should not want to undo your whole being for one fault.¡±


    Rin nodded curtly.


    ¡°Should we get going then?¡± She asked.


    I nodded and followed into the forest.


    We had some angry beasts to meet.

 Chapter 104 Laws

    In a forest, there was a house. A building, and within it was the most powerful empire in all of Ah-Marin.


    Beasts.


    They were everywhere, all over the floor and air, swarming the place like a mass of insects. The weakest was at the seventh rank, and the strongest was at the twelfth. Their power was beyond any within the realm aside from the man that kept them.


    But to understand the beasts, one needs to understand instinct.


    Of the four archetypes, beasts were the closest to humans. Our difference was just one thing, but that one thing defined us, and separated us from one another.


    The heart of a man is delicate. It grows and shrinks, blooms, and withers at all it deems worthy. But a beast''s heart is still. Instinct guides it and instinct, it does not question. If a child it must raise and nearly die for, it will do so. If its runt must die for their weakness stains the litter, the mother will slaughter them and feed their body to its kin.


    Man sees his feelings as the grand result of some fundamental inner truth. We seek truth in our internal labyrinth of morals and values. But if a lion loves its cub, it is just so. And if a lion must kill its cub, it is just so. A human will mourn the death of a child, mistaking their instinctual care for the young as some sort of higher moral truth. Innocence, childhood, purity, and youth. We place some value in these things as if that were the reason we yearn to protect the young. As if the young are somehow more valuable than the old. We build something around these instinctual feelings, making them more than they are, and less all at once.


    Man takes instinct and makes it something more. That is our ability. Because we question instinct, we make it into something greater, like morals and laws. And because we question instinct, we make it into something weaker, like self-control and compromise.


    Beasts accept what is while men question it.


    That is our difference.


    That was a quote from one of the old scholars of the Tome.


    The nature of beasts was well-documented. It was speculated to be the reason fas to why beasts didn¡¯t need a dao. They who trusted instinct never questioned themselves. They lived because they lived and they sought power because it was their nature to do so.


    But that had started to change here.


    Here, there were beasts with daos. Not the common dao of beasts, which would be them embracing that which they already were. But human daos, human paths. There were small merchants and creatures of various paths.


    This had been noticed by the leaders and this was something they wanted to address, so they called for a grand gathering, consisting of every divine beast¡¯s representative and the keeper of the forest, Lin Tai.


    I was also here, but I was just there to watch. This was Lin Tai¡¯s domain.


    She sat on a chair in front of a large circular table. The other maidens sat around her, and I sat at the opposite side. On the table was the governing body of the empire.


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    A dragon, a phoenix, a groundhog, and several other beasts sat in a large circle.


    Resources.


    That was the thing responsible for this behavior, and to understand what the beasts sought, one needed to understand laws.


    Laws were the rule of things. They were concepts that had been made in one way or another but had eventually become a thing of their own. There was an argument among scholars as to where exactly laws were derived from. Existence, in the beginning, had no consistency. It was all primordial qi, strange and undefined. But primordial qi sought form, and while everything decayed, the more stable forms became more dominant.


    Well, stable was a bad word for it. It was sort of like God-Imperiums. They existed more than we did. They had more weight than we did. In the Realm of Imperium, Gods had died. Wars had been waged and the heavens and the hells had been birthed.


    The concepts of that realm, the laws that kept it. They had become more real then. Along with existence reflecting the Realm of Imperium, it reflected the rules that governed it.


    Fire had been birthed with the dragon and phoenix, for example. One could burn all things and the other cleansed and renewed. Fire held both natures.


    That wasn¡¯t to say these things were defined by the beings who made them, no, the opposite was true. Laws were laws because they stood on their own.


    They were strange. While daos were at the core of a person, laws were almost outside of them. A dragon¡¯s nature was pride and greed and a phoenix¡¯s nature was renewal and rebirth. Fire was just the expression through which it manifested.


    Beast¡¯s first child had hatched and it was the first dragon. In its greed and pride, it burnt at its younger siblings, and all but one survived the phoenix. The first fire had belonged to the dragon. But it was not fire then, only destruction. Only pain.


    But the phoenix was born in the flames and the phoenix remade them in birth. Warmth, healing, power.


    Then fire was no longer the dragon¡¯s and no longer the phoenix¡¯s. It was its own. Something made of both yet neither.


    If universes were like stories then laws were like letters. They were things that someone might have created at one point but truly belonged to no one. Whereas a dao can only thrive within a mind, a law could thrive outside of one.


    They were like God-Imperiums in that way, eternal and echoing, yet they lacked a mind.


    While a lot of laws were derived from the Realm of Imperiums, others were a mystery.


    Either way, all cultivating beings coveted them.


    Laws were simple for me. Understanding them was pivotal to being an array master, though I never went to the deep end with my studies.


    To cultivators, laws were weapons. Means by which to make their ideas a reality.


    Laws were greater than cultivating beings. They were more real, more impactful. A man without a law was like a mortal trying to cut down a tree with their bare hands. A cultivator''s dao, while it guided them, was not strong enough for them to shape the world.


    Daos were enough for non-immortals. They could strengthen you, but for higher levels of cultivation, laws were important. That was why The Raging River, The Hidden Viper, and The Hallow Echo didn¡¯t need daos. Their techniques revolved around bloodlines and laws. Whereas the Bloody Fist Sect and the Blossoming Sword Sect relied on dao.


    But daos were necessary to step into immortality. Laws were a cultivator''s outer strength, and daos were a cultivator¡¯s inner strength.


    If a dao was the action, then the law was the tool. If a dao was the punch, then the law is the fist.


    Laws were power, they were strength.


    And beasts coveted strength above all.


    ¡°Order! Order!¡± Lin Tai yelled.


    All the beasts stopped arguing at once.


    The girl looked tired and annoyed. It occurred to me that out of all the jobs the girls had taken, Lin Tai, by far had the hardest one. Rin Wi cooked. Mei Shan governed. Xi Lui hung out with Po Pen all day, but Lin Tai had to manage gods.


    I looked around at all the small calm animals around me. Nai looked over my shoulders and did the same.


    But Lin Tai seemed to be doing well enough.


    ¡°Representatives, gather and announce yourself. Then we shall start,¡± Lin Tai spoke.


    And the beasts obeyed.

 Chapter 105 Beasts

    I have sat beneath this bodhi tree, and I have seen the path to Nirvana. I stare at Buhdha¡¯s back and think in his shadow, and though my path is not the same, it shall follow.


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    The Hero of Heaven


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    Empire might have been a bit of a stretch. The beasts were small, but even at their current size some of them could destroy this realm entirely. But still, empire wasn¡¯t the best word for their place.


    Back when I¡¯d made the forest, I¡¯d been inspired. It was a bit of an artistic piece, one inspired by old myths of a different world within a forest. In truth, it was a simple realm overlay, I made a separate realm and tied it with this one.


    A hidden realm of sorts, but with a different variation. It was complicated, but all I had done was change how the beasts existed relative to the forest, along with reinforcing the forest itself.


    It was a bit of common manufacturing for someone like me. I was an array master. We were the ones people hired to build qi streams connecting one realm to another. Dimensional building was, in a way, the highest level an Array Master could get to.


    And while that might seem godly to some, it really wasn¡¯t. I was the construction builder of the multiverse. No, I was the guy who filled the potholes.


    But it gave the beasts room to breathe.


    The House of Many, The House of Strength, and The House of Wisdom all stood atop the table. The House of Many was a republic, each representative being a reflection on their species'' population. The House of Strength accounted for the strongest of the beasts. And the House of Wisdom had been hand-chosen by Lin and me as a balancing force among them.


    The Herd Union, the Fowl Kingdom, the Hunter¡¯s Alliance, and the Free Beast¡¯s Republic. These were the major parties within the current government.


    That¡¯s right, the beasts had political parties.


    Each part represented a certain subsect of beasts. The Herd Union was filled with grazer and herd-like animals. They have included the groundhogs in the party since the last time I saw them. And while I had been keeping a peripheral eye on their actions, I never really paid much attention to them, but maybe I should have.


    ¡°I am Dig, of the Herd Union and I shall speak on their behalf,¡± a male groundhog said as he stepped forward.


    A beast with a name?


    ¡°I am Latimas,¡± a female phoenix said, following the groundhog¡¯s forward step. ¡°And I speak for the Fowl Kingdom.¡±


    ¡°I am Arnim. I speak for the Hunters,¡± a grey wold mimicked.


    ¡°And I am Menimer. I represent the Free Beast¡¯s Republic,¡± a small monkey added.


    They all had names. That was new. I wondered if all the beasts had names, or was it just the important ones among them?


    ¡°First meeting of the court of beasts started,¡± Lin Tai noted.


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    The room quieted. There was something human here. The order, the government, the niceties. It all spoke of order, reason, and reliability.


    But that was all on top of the nature of the beasts. Animals crowded, some hungered, and the killing intent was almost palpable. That was one of the reasons I had to be here. The beasts weren¡¯t civilized. They couldn¡¯t be civilized. They were beasts.


    There were¡­ a few with daos. But they were rare and scattered. Most stood out like beacons in the dark, but their fellow beasts didn¡¯t notice.


    This action was like a clean tablecloth on a shit-smeared table.


    I frowned. The stability here, it was¡­ fragile. And while there was peace among the animals, there was also discord.


    A wolf in a cage, no matter how well-fed and well-kept, would still want to chase and hunt and kill.


    It was an empty peace.


    I sat through the meeting and it was¡­enlightening.


    There were numerous documentaries of beasts behaving in a human manner, but it wasn¡¯t my particular house of lore.


    But just like there were humans who became powerful beings of their own right, carving out a path and becoming an archetype others could strive to be, there were also beasts.


    Dragons were an example. The first child of Beast had been Dragon, and his archetype was as well known as his mother''s. Whereas humans followed their own path that others could follow, beasts did something different. They redefined their nature. Dragons became something distinct, beasts still but something more, something grand. Their instincts drove them to horde power and wealth, and by birth, they could speak and talk, smarter than most humans innately.


    But they were still beasts and a beast was defined by instinct.


    And so were the beasts in the grove. Instinct made them, instinct bound them.


    But they were changing and I didn¡¯t know where that would lead.


    I gave my leave to the girls and left Nai with Rin Wi and Lin Tai.


    After that, I stalked the forest, keeping my eyes on all the things that I could see, which in this place was every atom of every molecule.


    And I saw something strange.


    I was old. I didn¡¯t even know how old because time didn¡¯t exist in the void. I had seen many things.


    All the animals had their own camp, and while the pack animals were grouped together, there was a certain level of organization that threw me off. Beavers built small dams, wolf packs hunted insects, and elephants gathered in puddles.


    The strange thing to me was how much they cared. Not in the way that humans cared but in the way that beasts cared. It was strange to see them hunt when they didn¡¯t need to. The dams and the water, all of it was unnecessary. They were gods and immortals. What use was a drop of water to an elephant that drank from universes?


    Then I saw it.


    The water, for a moment, held law. The prey mantis, for a moment, satiated them.


    Weight.


    ¡°Oh,¡± I spoke out loud.


    I had brought the beasts here as living batteries. Their purpose was to shed. They each contained laws of numerous nature. They were metaphysical powerhouses, each with a different level of control over a law. That was the food for the array.


    If qi was carbs, then laws would be vitamins. I understood a wide variety of laws but lacked the depth that beasts naturally contained. What was my understanding of fire compared to a phoenix¡¯s and what was my understanding of water compared to a water dragon¡¯s?


    But the array didn¡¯t use up all of those laws. Some of them it ate, but some it left, and others it would produce.


    Waste product.


    If the array were a forest, then the beasts were the animals.


    A cycle of resources.


    ¡°Oh,¡± I repeated again.


    For a while now, WuKong¡¯s interest in me had bothered me. The book from the library had bothered me.


    I had nothing for them, at least I thought I didn¡¯t.


    My goal with the array had been simple. A growing stabilizing force, one that would ensure there would be no violence. The Primordials were powerful, but in my eyes, they were stained.


    Each of them fought to survive and their children did the same. War was the natural conclusion to life, insects, ants, humans, animals, and even germs, they all fought.


    But I had changed that. I had failed the array in one way. I had clouded its purpose and made its heart in a simple way.


    But I had succeeded in another way. I had made peace among beasts.


    Dragons danced with fireflies and wolves that could crush realms were sated on insect meat.


    I had failed in my arrogance. I had failed in my attempts to hide. I had failed in my array. I had even failed to be human in many ways.


    I was a man of mistakes, but I suppose I did this one thing perfectly.

 Chapter 106 Ego

    I stared at the book and the book stared back at me. It was ancient. It was old. It was a treasure that anyone under the fifteenth rank would covet.


    And it was mine.


    The room was empty. Nail was down in the village. Wriendlier was asleep. Gauntlet was wandering the forest and I was here, with a book.


    I hadn¡¯t touched it till now. I didn¡¯t like God-Imperiums. I didn¡¯t like cultivators in general, not when they were stronger than me. But then, who did?


    They were scary, like wild monsters deep within a forest. It was easy to grow around my weight when I was the strongest one within the realm but now I stood in front of something beyond my comprehension.


    Physical reactions were beyond me. I didn¡¯t gulp or stammer or shift my feet.


    And to anyone else within this realm, my aura would seem as calm as it ever was.


    But that was a lie.


    I was terrified. Wukiong was different in many ways. God-Imperiums had their natures and Wukong had gifted me something and he had even stared into the very core of my being and laughed at my small thoughts. He had laughed at me and gifted me things. That implied favor and favor implied safety.


    But this was not Wukong. This was a thing of a different nature, an unknown.


    There was the promise of peace, yes. My life might not be in danger. But the promise of peace was not peace itself.


    I was nervous.


    I debated opening the book or not, but then someone else seemed to have decided for me. The book opened and The Book opened.


    I was in a house in the middle of the forest adjacent to the village in the valley located within the Great Desert Strip in a small region in Ah-Marin.


    But I was also in front of The Book.


    Fool, it spoke. Why did you wait so long before consulting me?


    It was like the first time I had met with the Monkey King. The suppression, the power, the overwhelming will threatened to annihilate me. A thought from this thing, a passing idea, was worth more than anything I could gather for all of eternity. I could feel my mind ache and my soul tired.


    I could feel myself thinking, staring, studying, growing, changing.


    Wisdom threatened to consume me.


    Wisdom not your own is not wisdom at all, The Tome spoke and my mind quieted down.


    It hurt. Being in the presence of this thing hurt. It made me think. It made me know. And it wasn¡¯t the type of thinking that happened naturally but the type that took effort. It was like doing complex math against your will.


    Everything was and my mind sought to know the heart of existence.


    Study consumed me and curiosity swallowed me whole. Thought, knowledge, wisdom, desire, I must have it.


    Stop, a voice spoke and my mind came to a halt.


    You things are so fragile. All of you, long-lived mortals calling yourself gods. Preposterous.


    There was a common idea that those who beheld the true form of a god would be burnt to nothing. But that wasn¡¯t true. The real consequence was erasure. The God-Imperium whole being rewriting you into its image.


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    You¡¯d think they could stop. You¡¯d wonder how omnipotent beings couldn¡¯t just limit their own actions. But it wasn¡¯t their own actions. It wasn¡¯t something they did but something you did in reaction to their existence.


    No matter who you were, in front of a God-Impeirum, you were almost nothing. In their presence, you changed and whatever defined you was forgotten in their image.


    It wasn¡¯t them changing you.


    It was you changing for them.


    That¡¯s why Wukong had to do something to stop me and that was why this person, no this thing had to tell me to stop.


    I wondered what the consequences of that would be. What was the outcome for having talked to these creatures? Each time they touched me and commanded me. Would that twist my nature? Break my soul in some way?


    After all, the only thing God-Imperiums couldn¡¯t do was go against their nature.


    They said all of the Heavens and all of the Hells and everything in between could not make Buddha hurt a child.


    Was that the true meaning of-


    Stop, it repeated.


    And I did.


    It took me an instant to get a hold of myself. An instant for me, an eternity for it.


    The world settled down.


    I still felt powerless, mortal, and empty. Except this time, I could still feel my qi but I could also feel these things.


    Not its qi, nor its outline but the shadow of its existence. It was like being in a pit so deep that when you looked up to the opening, all you saw was darkness.


    I felt smothered and overwhelmed.


    Bill Terrance, I have come to meet with you. You have kept me waiting.


    I nodded. Sorry, mercy, what do you desire? All of those things could be said but none of those things needed to be said. It spoke only for me to understand it. It already understood me. It knew me in ways I couldn¡¯t possibly imagine.


    It knew.


    I was like an insect, aware of the giant human mass above me. It studied me and knew of my inner workings, of the things in my soul, of my karma and power and all things about me.


    But all I could do was stare back at the microscope of its all-knowing divine eyes.


    Be not afraid, it spoke like an angel from the bible.


    Yes, like the turning wheel of eyes and fire from your dead world. I just.


    Oh.


    Laugh, it spoke.


    And for a moment I was filled with fear because its joke wasn¡¯t funny and I wondered if it would kill me for not laughing.


    I will not harm you.


    Oh.


    Think as you are, let not my nature infect you. Keep yourself.


    And I did.


    In an instant, I was back in the room staring at the book in front of me.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    To touch you, as Wukong did. You are worth observing. It wrote.


    It was referring to me not like a great hero in the early mornings of his endeavors but like a scientist staring at a beetle he had found.


    I was a curiosity.


    More than that, but not much more, it corrected.


    ¡°Then why? Really why?¡±


    You are mangled. A molestation of the soul the like of which I have seen before. But few maintained their sanity while in such a state.


    ¡°Dane¡¯s soul manipulation?¡± I asked.


    Yes, It replied.


    Did you think you could lie to me? That you could bargain with my people with small lies?


    Oh shit.


    Be calm. I am not offended by your attempts at a fib, Do you remember your talks within my halls? The words you spoke?


    Attempts?


    Yes.


    ¡°You mean-¡±


    Somehow the writing seemed to cut me off.


    Yes. You parade around with the strength, memory, and power of an immortal. But you contain a mortal¡¯s heart. A well-fit piece for a broken soul.


    Then I saw what it meant. That was the best way to describe it. The knowledge and understanding of it all plopped into my mind whole and pure.


    What was sanity, I thought. What was the lens through which we lived? What were the guardrails of the mind that kept the world in place? What was purpose, what was the use of purpose, and what were morals and love? What was spite and hate? What was thought and reason?


    What was the soul?


    That was Dane. Dane the Unravler.


    Dane was insane. He had acted sane and reasonable. He had acted maintained but he was broken. He had broken himself. Immortality had broken him. He had betrayed his nature.


    Words weren¡¯t enough to explain his failures.


    I was though.


    ¡°I¡­. see.¡±


    Primordial qi. Reflection of existence.


    Dane was a human. He had rejected not only humanity but everything in pursuit of knowledge.


    Imagine a man looking at his body and ripping away at every part that would age and slow him down. First the limbs and muscles, then the skin and organs, then the major organs and tissue systems. Then the sensory organs, until eventually all that would be left was the mind. The ego, the center of the soul.


    He had destroyed his humanity. He had tried to become a machine of qi. In his desire to not change, he had destroyed the very meaning of his existence.


    He had destroyed his brain, and when that happened, the soul became nothing but an empty husk, waiting for anything to complete it.


    And then I had come along.

 Chapter 107 Reading

    ¡°But why does that matter?¡± I asked for the book. ¡°I thought you were here to watch the array?¡±


    Because you are important. The first raindrop of a hurricane, the first dustmite in a dust storm. You are a harbinger, but more, you are a creator, but more, you are a broken soul. You are many small things folded over into one. Each interesting, none notable. When I write the Great history books of this era, you will not be in them. But you have piqued my interest, more with your mistakes rather than your accomplishments.


    ¡°My mistakes?¡±


    Yes. You stole from a God-Imperium and assumed you could hide from him. You walked upon my lands and assumed you could hide from me. You made an array yet you were blind to such an obvious fault. Your failures make you interesting, not your acts.


    ¡°I took precautions-¡±


    Ha! It laughed. There it is. There is that mortal nature that refuses to die. Do you not hear yourself? Precautions? Against God-Imperiums? You only managed to do what you did because of luck or dare I say fate. Tai Jey had many like that girl and he had tossed them among his sect to be watched in his moment of weakness. In his struggle to maintain his power, he slipped. And the only thing that could make him give such effort was another Imperium.


    Then there was Wukong, who saved you nearly in the nick of time, and then there is me. Yes, me. Who has come to see what you have and to warn you of your flaw?


    ¡°But-¡±


    Your flaw, boy. You have shown me something I did not see and for that, I tell you this. Your nature is torn between one and the other, your soul wet and delicate like a frozen parchment, but your ego young like fresh ink.


    ¡°How do I fix it?¡±


    Strengthen the soul. Dry out the paper. Dane tore himself in pursuit of power. He refused his humanity. You have found it, but not enough. You are like a mirror reflecting a broken man. The man is one, yes, but the cracks separate him, misalign him, mortal there, immortal there. Slow your growth but deepen it. Care for the cracks in your mind. I will leave you with something, it will be your duty to use it.


    ¡°I understand that, but why? What have I given for you to do this? I don¡¯t think the array is enough for all of this, is it?¡±


    There was nothing for a moment.


    Ah, my wisdom touches you. Very well. I knew you the moment you entered my domain. I knew all you had done, and possibly all that you could be. You are full of possibilities, many failures maybe, but something else as well. Too many things touch upon you, from your soul to Kin Jey to Wukong and even to me. It is not fate nor greatness but something far more simple and intriguing.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    Paradox. You are a paradox of sorts. From your dao to your nature, everything pushes against itself. Paradoxes are rare before the fifteenth rank, and you seem to be a great bundle of them.


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    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I understand.¡±


    You don¡¯t, yet you do. It matters not, you will one day, and when you do, I look forward to seeing what you become, though I already know it.


    Then the book closed and reopened.


    To Heal the Soul, A Collection of Cures for the Fabric of Your Being.


    I frowned.


    Was this how Chin felt when I spoke to him?


    How cruel of me.


    I looked at the book and read its title, then read it again.


    I flipped through the first page, then the second, then the third. Eventually, I had read ten thousand pages but the pages were so thin and so small that the book looked like it was barely opened.


    I grabbed my head. This was a tome, something designed to hold nearly infinite knowledge. Even though it had so many pages, each page also seemed to contain an absurd amount of knowledge. It was unfathomable, the type of stuff that would turn mortals mad with a mere glimpse.


    But for me, it was just a very dense textbook.


    But I kept on reading.


    It turns out the soul is complicated. Extremely complicated.


    It was the one thing that allowed people to create qi. Even gods at the twelfth rank and higher couldn¡¯t truly grasp it, and it was how Dane had died.


    As far as I could figure, mine was still broken.


    I was in awe of the meeting and while a part of me wanted to ponder over the moment for eternity, the things the Tome had said to me had stuck.


    My mistakes. In hindsight, there was nothing insane with my thought process. Not truly.


    I had miscalculated, but the miscalculations were ones that even Dane would make. My fight with Kin Jey was minor, a mere descendent of an Imperium. He was one of millions if not billions, if not trillions.


    Then there was Nai, but how was I supposed to know about her? Then there was Wukong and even then I- I did nothing wrong. I did all I could. If I hadn¡¯t killed Kin Jey, I would have died eventually, even if I had let him go.


    How were these mistakes?


    What other options did I have?


    You could have run away. You could have lost him in the void, a part of me thought.


    But the Maidens.


    You could have tossed all your belongings and run away.


    Then they¡¯d be in his care.


    And what of it? What do you owe them?


    ¡°I- I had to help them? Didn¡¯t I?¡±


    No, it spoke. You didn¡¯t. You owe them nothing. You are Array King Dane. You survived untold eons by hiding. By protecting yourself, regardless of the evil.


    It was a memory, not a soul, not a mind, but a memory. It spoke of what Dane would have done. It spoke of what Dane would have planned. It spoke of Dane¡¯s weariness, caution, and desire for detail and methodology.


    It was Dane that had kept this body alive for this long and it was Dane that had that spare realm that allowed me to avoid an attack of the fifteenth-rank caliber.


    For a twelfth rank¡¯s ability to even avoid a World King¡¯s attack. That spoke of intelligence, of power.


    And it was all Dane.


    Dane would have never gone to the Divine Beast Emporium. He would have captured the creatures himself. He would have hunted for them in the void.


    But my mortal ego didn¡¯t.


    ¡°I am not Dane. I contain all that he was but I am not him.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t a matter of power or soul or even strength. It was a matter of ego. How could the personality of a mortal ever act like an immortal?


    If you took the smartest fifteen-year-old in the world and made him president, would he rule better than his predecessors just because he was smarter than them? Even if the boy was a genius among geniuses, would that make him a competent leader?


    Would that replace the things that age did to you?


    Should I be more like him?


    I am dead and whatever remains lives through you, the memory spoke.


    I could see his mouth moving. A cold still stone man looking at me with nothing but reason. A man who never smiled, a man who never cried. Someone even now from the depths of my memory held true to logic. Someone who would speak of their death as fact, nothing more, nothing less.


    And for all your faults and errors, you are alive. You are a rank higher. You are me but more. Know your failings and fix them. Remember me and remember Bill. You can live as Bill but act as Dane. As kind as a dove and as discerning as a serpent.


    Grow.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Grow,¡± I said out loud.


    And then I turned the page and kept on reading.

 Chapter 108 Giants

    Cai stared out at the village from the hillsides. He did that a lot now.


    Less in wonder and more in contemplation, looking out into the world to try and see more within himself.


    And again, he found nothing.


    The village itself was only a few miles wide. But still, it stood shining a ways away. It would be hard for a mortal to make out anything but he could make things out as if he were right there. At least if he was channeling qi into his eyes he could.


    He could see the Ivin Wood homes. The material was a weed in the cultivator world. He knew Hidden Viper''s outer disciples would walk around their forest and cut down the tree as one of their chores.


    But here it was a revolutionary building material. It grew at a faster pace than other trees and it grew everywhere. Over the course of a year, a single sapling could root ten feet into the earth and grow ten feet in every direction. For cultivators, that was too fast and too much.


    The Hidden Viper¡¯s territory was vast and small forgotten pockets would fill up with this plant within a century.


    But to these mortals, that was almost too slow. They shaped it over the years, growing it around their mud and stone houses and then tearing down the mud and stone and having wood there instead. Their roofs were covered with foliage.


    It seemed silly to him like children making hats with leaves. But that was the way of the mortal world. Whatever trash cultivators threw out mortals would use as treasures. Broken drained spirit stones became their currency and their weeds became their houses.


    Scrolls written by trainee cultivator scribes became things kept in mortal houses as decorations. They were like ants scrounging for the crumbs of the men above. And sometimes those men stumbled and those men stepped on these ants. Then they¡¯d scowl at the dead insects on their feet, wipe their shoe against a stone, and walk forward unchanged.


    This was the cultivator.


    The man above the ants.


    But this was also the cultivator, the ants below the feet.


    That was what he was. Something above the mortals yet below the fifth rank. For a moment he had shined, but then he had been dulled.


    He should have been stepped on. He should have been squashed by that uncaring thing of a man, but another man had tripped him up and here he sat, gazing down at the mortals beneath.


    An ant among ants, that''s what he was now. An insect.


    ¡°Augh,¡± a baby said next to him.


    Cai jumped and stared at the child. She stared back, offended at his offense.


    ¡°Ao Ao bou,¡± she said with an offended front.


    Cai didn¡¯t know babies could look offended, but he picked up her intent through her aura.


    This is my spot. You are the intruder.


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    ¡°Apologies young miss,¡± he said giving the baby a slight bow.


    The baby nodded and was quickly appeased.


    Cai sat back down. What a strange child.


    He was about to go back to relaxing when he felt a hard smack against his missing limb.


    He looked over and the baby had somehow snuck up to his arm without him knowing it.


    She smacked his arm a couple of times and looked around and into the distance.


    Where is your arm, Cai understood.


    ¡°I¡­ lost it, young miss.¡±


    The baby gave him an inquisitive look.


    ¡°Gao,¡± she mumbled.


    Who loses an arm?


    Cai didn¡¯t know how to answer that and the child gave him the most disappointed look possible. The type of look that said ¡®I didn¡¯t know people could be stupid enough to lose an arm. You have individually lowered my standard for humanity.¡¯


    ¡°It- it was taken, young miss. It was taken by a cultivator.¡±


    The baby gasped.


    Arm thieves?


    ¡°I- I supposed. It was an assurance,¡± Cai spoke. ¡°I lose the arm to ensure my life.¡±


    She pointed to his other arm.


    ¡°Ah, well this arm isn¡¯t as strong. Most of my techniques and meridian pathways were located in this arm. I reinforced it with qi. While this other arm is far less capable.¡±


    She nodded in a sage-like manner and stoked her chin in thought. Then she yelled, with qi. It was so loud that it made Cai¡¯s ears ring for a moment.


    A single alert raccoon came out of the woodwork and walked over to her. She whispered to it as if to exclude Cai¡­but still spoke with her aura.


    Watch out for arm thieves. Keep all hands accounted for.


    The raccoon looked confused, then nodded and walked away.


    The child gave him a nod.


    Cai smiled and nodded back.


    Then a dog came by and the baby, who couldn¡¯t have been more than half a year old, grabbed onto his fur and climbed onto his back.


    She gave him a single wave and ran off towards the village.


    He watched them weave through the farmlands, passing by many villagers who occasionally waved at her. And then she entered the village.


    ¡°Who¡¯s baby is that?¡± Cai wondered.


    This place was so strange. First the immortal, then the Bloody Fist Sect, and now¡­ this¡­ cultivator baby?


    Well, he had heard of young prodigies before. Maybe she was just really talented.


    That didn¡¯t seem likely, but it was a curious idea. A curious idea, a curious baby, a curious immortal, and a curious place.


    Cai watched the rest of the village operate. People took small things and put them back. Farmers carried wagons full of crops to the village and some went past the village, the small outpost a good mile or two away from them. That was next to the cultivator camp, and it was also the place where food was cooked for said camp.


    Cai could see a great number of merchants and traders congregating at the spot, thousands it seemed. The village prepared for this season and farmed all year with this specific time in mind, but even this seemed like a larger amount than accounted for.


    Indeed there were warriors, and cultivators just passing through. Rogue clanless men and women sightseeing the home of a new immortal.


    Some had even set up shop, having come up with some kind of compromise with the village chief, a few permanent buildings had been erected on one side of the camp. A whorehouse was the first thing that had been built, which was an attraction all its own for most people.


    They were common in big cities, but whorehouses capable of catering to cultivators were rare. And whorehouses who had ties to immortals were even rarer. The rumor was new but widespread. It was said that the owner of the whorehouse, a lady by the name of Madem Rose was not only close to Gai Jin, the first immortal of the region in ten thousand years, but also associated with the immortal who lived here.


    Cai knew the truth, of course, he had talked to the Honored Immortal, or as he was now calling him, Mister Bill.


    But word had gotten around rather quickly and that had caused an influx of spies and information gatherers quickly flooding the place.


    Overall this village was booming with potential.


    It had appeal and growth, and more than that, it had peace.


    Here was a land of ants and giants, a place where power meant little and survival wouldn¡¯t be tested.


    That was why Cai was here after all.


    He smiled.


    It wasn¡¯t home, but there was something about it that he just couldn¡¯t describe. Seeing a fifth-rank cultivator negotiate with a mortal and be forced to give the man respect was something Cai could never have dreamed of.


    But it happened here.


    Here the ants would yell at the giants and the giants would listen and bow.


    Here, it was safe.


    And that was something all its own.

 Chapter 109 Future

    I finished the book. It was a lot. I had to play with time a bit just to get through it all and for the first time in a long long long time, I was tired. My limits had been tested and pushed.


    I was drained.


    I laid down flat on the ground and the book laid blank next to me.


    Done already?


    It was back, and it was mocking me.


    ¡°I finished reading it.¡±


    The book floated above my head and flipped in mockery.


    And that is all it took to incapacitate you?


    ¡°Apparently,¡± I replied.


    First Wukong now the Tome.


    On one hand, they weren¡¯t really wasting any time or effort on me. To them, talking to me and even conversing with me took less effort than breathing. They were beings of immense magnitude and it wasn¡¯t unheard of for God-Imperiums to engage in such behavior. Some God-Imperiums raised thousands of disciples all scattered across existence.


    Some imbued their very will into the realms they ruled, making their dao a natural law upon the world.


    But this wasn¡¯t that kind of realm and I sure wasn¡¯t a disciple of either Sun Wukong or the Tome. Wukong was here for Nai but what about this Tome?


    I still couldn¡¯t figure it out. I had hunches and guesses but nothing concrete.


    You know your ailment and its nature, now you should move to fix it.


    ¡°I should.¡±


    I once said that the soul was like a book and all that you experienced and thought would be recorded on it. That was a correct analogy for it in more ways than one. If the soul was a book then a God-Imperium was an overwhelming story. That explained the reactions I had to them. My soul was simply incapable of even experiencing their presence without being rewritten in their image.


    And a lot of my soul had been damaged with Dane¡¯s death. My soul, my book was bits and pieces of different stories. Each true but entirely different. It was like Lord of the Rings had been mixed in with an episode of Caillou.


    Mismatched and wrongly written, that''s what I was. Sometimes I acted as Dane, others as Bill. The solution was simple and terrifying.


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    Very well, let us leave then.


    ¡°Us?¡±


    I shall accompany you in partial aid, as Wukong has.


    I looked at my tail and it curled in excitement. Great, a new tumor.


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, I was grateful. But these weren¡¯t gods that would aid me. These were beings that would help me only in ways they deemed fit. Wukong hid me from God-Imperiums and this Tome, well I didn¡¯t know what it was doing yet.


    I will guide you through existence. A necessity. You running into other God-Imperiums would bring disaster.


    ¡°If there¡¯s a place you gotta go, I¡¯m the one you need to know,¡± I muttered.


    Yes. I am the map.


    ¡°You know Dora?¡± I asked sitting up.


    I know everything.


    ¡°To the Hills of Life then, tomorrow.¡±


    The book looked at me and flipped a little aggressively. Then it closed and settled down.


    The cure, or at least a part of it was a plant out in the Cosmic Forest. I would need to leave Ah-Marin and venture out into the greater multiverse to find it. I was fine with the idea, particularly if I had a God-Imperium guiding the way.


    A part of me didn¡¯t want to go through the trouble of fixing my soul. But that wasn¡¯t something I could do anymore. I had made mistakes and unnecessary risks, and for those risks, I had almost died.


    They weren¡¯t mistakes in the truest sense, at least not from where I stood. I felt whole and I was whole, but I was a mortal¡¯s definition of whole.


    Intelligence, wisdom, power, and ability, I matched Dane in all of these things, but perspective was where I fell behind.


    I was Bill. I still used the name Bill. I still thought like him. I was Bill, if Bill had suddenly become Dane, not if Dane had suddenly become Bill. And that was all too easy for me. Dane was empty, lacking. Writting Bill into the big gap that was Dane¡¯s personality was all too easy.


    But that came with its own problems.


    ¡°This is all so sudden,¡± I said. ¡°I just want to close my eyes and settle down.¡±


    You¡¯ve been unbothered for billions of years. Even God-Imperiums are not given eternal peace.


    ¡°Yes, but can¡¯t I just let it be? Do I need to fix my soul?¡±


    You are no fool.


    I frowned. There was a reason it was doing this.


    It probably owed me in some part. Wukong and the Tome were both overly generous. I had given them something, revealed something, and they had reciprocated manyfold.


    There was curiosity of course. I tickled them somewhat. I was unique, as was my creation. My dao was strange and the nature of my soul was strange as well, but something was compelling the Tome to help me.


    I didn¡¯t know what, but my guess was knowledge. Either I had more potential than I thought or-


    Yes. Something is coming. The horizon of existence glows with new light. There is something on the way and I tell you this, Bill, do not be complacent. Grow.


    It was words this time, not pages. Audible words were spoken with the very essence of truth and wisdom. The words came with the ideas, with the shadows, with its worries.


    Something was coming and the Tome wanted me to survive it.


    ¡°SHIT,¡± I spat out. ¡°What¡¯s happening? Why me? What can I do?¡±


    Nothing. For now, you are but a tool. Wukong is fair if anything, so he rewarded you and the same can be said for me. But¡­I see more than he does, or rather I care to look for more than him. You can be something Bill, you can also be nothing. Either way, the effort I exude is miniscule regardless. If you grow, you grow, if you don¡¯t, you don¡¯t.


    The words were simple, but the last part stuck with me. There were consequences to just hiding.


    And if that warning came from a God-Imperium. If a God-Imperium implied concern then what was there for a soul like me to do?

 Chapter 110 Journey Part 1

    I made my preparations. I put Gauntlet in charge of a few things and gave Rin Wi some command over the golem as well.


    Ah-Marin wouldn¡¯t notice my absence, not if I did things the right way. I¡¯d be out and in within the hour. The time flow rate for Ah-Marin was fairly slow compared to the rest of existence.


    But still, I prepped and prepared like I never had before.


    The Tome scared me. It was one of the few keepers of knowledge, an ancient being of wisdom and truth and it had told me that I had made mistakes. Miscalculations. I had slipped up and set my own life at risk, and that was partially true.


    And that terrified me.


    The array was no longer just a strange accident but a horrible fault. I had allowed it to grow incorrectly. I had mishandled a billion-year project. I had faltered.


    Compared to what Dane would have done, my faults were tremendous. But then again, my faults weren¡¯t faults themselves but rather differences. I hadn¡¯t overlooked anything, I had merely not seen it from where Dane would have.


    A difference in perspective, a difference in ego. But the Tome spoke as if that was my fault. It acted like Dane would have seen it, along with any capable being of my rank.


    I felt like a blind man who thought he could see.


    Sure the array¡¯s troubles had been my fault, but the rest of my mistakes? I didn¡¯t really know what I could do about those.


    Maybe they were faults in the most basic sense. Maybe they were accidents that would have led to my death, faults I couldn¡¯t have predicted. But if they were, how could I be expected to take responsibility for them?


    I shook my head.


    ¡°Can I trust myself though?¡± I asked. ¡°If I made mistakes that dire, can I trust myself to go out there?¡±


    Yes. The Tome replied.


    ¡°But how?¡±


    The mistakes do not matter.


    ¡°What?¡± Now I was even more confused.


    They are a symptom of the deeper issue. They do not speak of a notable fault like pride or arrogance. No one word can describe the state of your soul. The problem lies in your mauled soul and Frankensteined essence. You are not whole. One eye sees too close and the other too far. It is not the distance that is the problem but the misaligned vision. For now, every decision you make, you must think over twice. Once as Bill and once as Dane. Bill to choose and Dane to choose wisely.


    ¡°I¡­see.¡±


    That cleared up a lot, and it gave me some confidence back.


    I ran through my supplies and felt Wriendler¡¯s hilt by my side.


    I thought and thought again.


    ¡°To the Hills of Life,¡± I murmured.


    Then I stepped out of Ah-Marin.


    Wukong had scared the shit out of me.


    He was on my side, in a way. But he still terrified me. The whole experience had been, cosmically emasculating. As a cultivator, you spent most of your time fighting for your agency. Even within a sect, the more power you gained, the more freedom you had.


    And over time you gained certainty, an understanding of the world that you knew to be limited but trusted enough to believe in.


    Meeting Wukong had turned that belief upside down. He had found me, known me, and then notified me that if it wasn¡¯t for him, I would have faced certain death. And even then I hadn¡¯t learned my lesson. I¡¯d gone off to Lynoria and wandered within the halls of the Eternal Tome, another God-Imperium.


    And there again I was wrong. The Tome was also on my side, I think. I still didn¡¯t understand it or Wukong really, but they weren¡¯t against me.


    Both of those experiences made me grow weary of the Void and all that lived in it.


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    But then again, what protection did realms give me from God-Imperiums? An ant was an ant out in the open or beneath a blade of grass. And I doubted God-Imperiums would face any challenge from the old realm of Ah-Marin.


    I shivered and clung tightly to my blade.


    Mortal, a voice spoke in my head.


    ¡°What?¡±


    You worry like a mortal, the Tome repeated.


    It was right.


    What would Dane say?


    I was underneath the God-Imperium¡¯s power, but so what? I was no threat to them and they chose to help me anyway. And remaining in Ah-Marin would provide no cover. The best thing for me to do is to go out there and fix myself while avoiding other God-Imperiums.


    And even if I met them, I could call myself a disciple of the Eternal Tome, I had the tail of Wukong and a Tome that denoted their sect. And the Tome had given me the right to call myself that.


    I would be safe so long as no opportunistic being below the sixteenth rank came after me.


    Realistically, this was the safest option.


    But it annoyed me. It annoyed Bill, the guy who wanted to hang out in an old forgotten realm and gaze at the stars at night. It disrupted a new need in me, one that wanted to hear nothing but the winds running through the leaves during midday.


    I worried and feared and that gave way to something else.


    My dao. Yes, there was no peace here in the cracks of reality.


    I walked or rather moved through the nothingness and the itch grew.


    If this was what righteous cultivators felt then I could understand why they ran around constantly attacking anything that they deemed immoral.


    I stopped. I couldn¡¯t travel like this, could I?


    I circulated my qi. I had no dantians, not at this rank. You lost your dantians at the ninth rank, which mixed into the essence of the self.


    It was the moment one entered the demigod rank and was able to leave a realm without worrying about the consequences of the void. You coalesced your being into one form, still made of parts, but no longer defined by physical laws.


    Higher level interdimensional sects didn¡¯t even consider their children to be full grown until they reached the ninth realm.


    Either way, past that rank, all that was left was the self. There was the soul of course, the mind, the spirit, but they were all less of an independent thing and more a part of the whole.


    I moved my qi through them, feeling out each part and then feeling the whole of my being. I breathed.


    It was a breath made of qi, an exhale of myself, and an inhale of the world around me. Chaos came into my being, but it was quickly settled, circulated, understood, and dissipated.


    This world was not peaceful. No matter where I looked, I could see discord and war in the distance and my dao was telling me to move. To do all I could to fix it.


    But I couldn¡¯t. Even if I moved now, I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything before I was flicked away into nothingness.


    So I had to accept it. I had to do all I could without destroying myself. I had to put a value on my own peace, above that of the world.


    My heart stilled and calmed down as I circulated the qi. My dao grew and changed.


    I looked out into existence and saw the Heavens and the Hells. They were beyond me for now, and maybe forever.


    I would do what I could when I could.


    ¡°I wonder, is it the Hills of Life that will fix me or the journey there?¡± I asked the book.


    Both of course. You need the herbs within there, but you also need to live and breathe among your peers. Live as you are, and live with your dao. Growth corrects things in some way and it worsens them in others.

 Chapter 111 Journey Part 2

    The greatest thing about the void was how big it was. In theory, you could traverse its length in an instant. I could stand here and sense both the Heavens and the Hells.


    But size, or rather capacity, was a strange thing.


    In the distance for example shone Lynoria like a bright lantern in the sky. It was a dot, a speck among infinity but it was also infinite itself, containing an endless set of realms and people.


    Yet I could see it. I could know its outline and trace its edges.


    And that was reality. Realms of endless magnitude and power dotted the nothingness, their presence striking through the void.


    Some realms were close, but even distance wasn¡¯t so simple out here.


    The Cosmic Forest was the best example of that.


    It was the Forest. It was everywhere. It was the small shadows in a grove. It was where children slipped to at times with the Fey. It was the home of Dragons and Beasts, Fairies and Elves.


    It was the Forest, every forest from the dark woods of witches and wolves to the delightful groves of druids and refuge. They could all lead to this forest and they all did.


    This was the place of wild things and contradictions. The Celestial Realm that reached both the Heavens and the Hells.


    There were multiple paths of direction out here. One was of course the first and most known, the Heavens up above and the Hells down below. But there was also Order and Chaos.


    On one side lay the outer realm of Laws. That was the home of the Second Keepers, the place where all things made sense, the home of all physical laws. And to the other side was the Chaos Realms. A place riddled with nothing but chaotic qi. Orderless, without any rules or definitions.


    Most beings didn¡¯t go in that direction unless they had a nature tied to chaos. It was dangerous there.


    But this was only two sets of directions. One didn¡¯t affect the other in any way. Navigation out here was all about where you were and where you wanted to go, the journey and distance could vary in infinite ways.


    But more important than any of that was your ability to traverse them.


    Powerful beings took the most direct routes.


    For example, the path from the height of the Heavens to Lynoria was a straight dissent that passed through multiple Celestial Realms, each ruled by a God-Imperium. And unless you wanted to tread through the realm of these beings, you would avoid those realms and instead slowly descend down via other realms.


    It was like a highway filled with powerful cities, each of which would judge you as an individual.


    Lynoria was the best example of this ideal. It was the most popular celestial realm and only one major rule of no fatalities, but even that made it unappealing to certain groups of people.


    Most of the Heavens refused to let anyone who was not a member of their sect or shared their ideals enter. The same could be said for the hells and any of their rulers.


    If they allowed strangers to enter their domain, then it directly related to their cultivation. The Divine Beast Emporium, for example, raised, trained, and kept beasts. That was a part of how they cultivated their dao and selling those beasts only strengthened their dao.


    It was the same in most celestial realms that were ruled by God-Imperiums. There were a few free ones, ones that afforded a level of autonomy to individuals.


    But I would be avoiding those as well. I had not one but two bits of God-Imperiums on me, and bringing those into another God-Imperiums domain might doom me to a death beyond my comprehension.


    That, and my destination wasn¡¯t too far away. The Cosmic Forest was everywhere, like the Sea of Death. There were a few Celestial Realms that it didn¡¯t touch, like the Hive Lands and The Endless City, but aside from those few places, the Celestial Forest was everywhere.


    Any realm that had a forest tied itself to the Cosmic Forest. It was special in that way. It was rare, very rare, but people would stumble into it all the time. Even on Earth, a realm that must have had almost no qi, there were stories of fey.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Some said that the Cosmic Forest even touched Eden and the First Keepers. Others said it led into the backwoods of Olympus.


    A forest was an ecosystem. Less defined by the trees and animals and more defined by the connections between them, and that was what the Cosmic Forest was. It was the food cycle, it was the pattern that all of life came together to sing.


    And it was the home of the Fey, the rulers of the forest.


    It was also a celestial realm but unlike Lynoria or the Divine Beast Emporium, it was ruled by a number of God-Imperiums.


    It was a special type of celestial realm, one of a few like the Hive Lands and the Sea of Death.


    Each God-Imperium had its own domain within the realm, but they all shared some kind of dominion over it. In the Sea of Death, it was an ocean, with Death Gods claiming islands of realms that floated atop it.


    It was the same for the Hive Lands. All of these beings controlled a concept so similar to one another that it served them to be close to each other rather than apart. Their Daos were similar and their natures were similar.


    I traversed the void. Not far, but not close either.


    If other realms were cities then the Cosmic Forest was a forest. It spread and spread and spread, itself to no end. One could enter it at almost any point, but the forest had parts.


    And the part I was looking for, the Hills of Life was not found so close to Ah-Marin.


    I wandered through the void, following small qi streams set up by Array Masters before me, and a few set up by myself.


    They served as connection points for the small beings of the void, beings like me at the thirteenth rank. They had no meaning or laws in them, not inherently. It was merely a wiring of qi, going from one realm to another. Then, regardless of how far apart those realms were from each other, there would always be something to connect them. Something that touched the both of them, tying their existence closer and making the journey quick.


    I liked these pathways. To me, they were like cobblestones. Small roads built by relatively small beings, meant for others like me. And for those weaker than me.


    That was the thing Dane had loved about arrays.


    In theory, they were simple small things. The three fundamental forces of qi are push, pull, and hold, and using those basic concepts a twelfth-rank being was able to tie even realms together.


    It was nothing really, mere ants bridging a puddle. But it was still impressive, at least it was to me.


    I stood next to a small realm and looked around.


    Navigation changed based on where you were and what you looked for. Here, I was on the outskirts of a Celestial Realm, one ruled by one of the more appealing God-Imperiums.


    They won¡¯t care if you trespass on their domain. The peace of us that are with you are minute, and observational in nature. Many disciples of God-Imperium sects carry similar pieces of their kings. You are not so important as to draw out God-Imperiums by the dozens.


    I trusted the Tome, but I also wanted to feel safe. And if that came at the cost of a longer trip, then so be it.


    The problem was that Celestial Realms just glowed. They were like stars in the sky, you could see them and aim for them. But I kept using planets and moons instead, minor realms that just couldn¡¯t be sensed from so far away.


    ¡°Would it be safer?¡± I asked. ¡°Is there some threat hidden along my route?¡±


    I do not protect you or divine your troubles.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll stick to my way,¡± I replied.


    I didn¡¯t think I was important either, but two God-Imperiums now knew my name and had helped me. Obviously, I had done something that I myself couldn¡¯t quite grasp, and while I trusted the Tome, I don¡¯t think it disagreed with my actions.


    ¡°Do you actually want me to travel directly through the celestial realms for some reason or are you just trying to manage my ego.¡±


    I am simply being truthful.


    God-Imperiums sucked.

 Chapter 112 The Forest Part 1

    From here, certain realms were close by, including the Cosmic Forest. But that was always close by. The problem was the specific part of the Cosmic Forest was much further off.


    If I were in the Hells, for example, I would see the Woods of Hell. And if I were in the Heavens, I would see the groves of Holy Druids. But the Hills of Life, the specific part of the Cosmic Forest I was headed to, was still a good way off, assuming I didn¡¯t travel through the celestial realms.


    ¡°Maybe if I head to the Halls of Life and then through the¡­¡±


    My mind raced. There were an infinite amount of realms, along with an infinite amount of paths. I was calculating danger and death and many other possibilities.


    There were celestial sects who specialized in this stuff. The Star Seeker, the Pathmen, many groups made fortunes just navigating the void for people. There were paths for God-Kings, because even they had to worry about celestial realms, paths for ninth ranks, even paths for fresh immortals.


    Realms could be turned into ships. There were universes that changed their nature and were pushed through the void with the qi, traveling through the emptiness. The most well known was the Lying Realm of Plane, it was said to be what Plane wanted it to be.


    The point is that there was a lot of methods to navigate the multiverse. Some were simple, some were complicated and it all depended on your needs and abilities.


    If you were a God-Imperium, you could slide through the void easily. But if you were someone like me, that was where your problems started.


    Aside from God-Imperiums, I was also trying to avoid anything beyond my current rank. Fourteenth ranks and above were far beyond my abilities, and even beings at my own rank could become a threat.


    I wasn¡¯t special. I was at the thirteenth rank, but there were many others at that level. I wasn¡¯t the strongest or most powerful at this rank. Hell, I¡¯ve heard of kids only a thousand years old reaching this rank.


    But the chances of a fight among beings at our level were relatively low. We were established in a way. Immortal. Any being willing to fight someone of a similar rank would be risking death, and that wasn¡¯t common at our level.


    But I still planned for that too. I was ready for a fight. It almost felt like I was expecting it.


    You took my words to heart, the Tome noted.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied.


    It knew me. It knew my thoughts, what I had thought, what I would think, and what I would do.


    So even my thoughts were up to its desires.


    ¡°If you know everything, why do your followers search other realms for knowledge and trade for it?¡± I asked.


    I do not know everything. Things of other God-Imperiums are limited from me, and I have adversaries.


    ¡°Yog-Sothoth,¡± I muttered.


    Yes. Knowledge is the domain of many beings. Even you are unpredictable. You have been touched by Wukong and that blinds me in ways. My peers are ever present and that limits my actions.


    They were an annoying bunch.


    ¡°Why does Yog-Sothoth hate you anyway? Do your domains overlap so much that it wants to eat you?¡±


    No. It is a thing of knowledge and consumption. It seeks to be all and to do that it must know all. I would be a resource, a pool for it to draw from and understand.


    ¡°Strange thing for an eldritch chaos god.¡±


    Chaos is not empty. It has definition, more than anything of order could contain in some ways. It is information-dense and meaningless. Meaning is pattern and truth. It is language, words that form ideas. Chaos is empty bleatings and noises of nothingness, defined only by its existence. It can mimic order, it can have patterns but it isn¡¯t meant to do so. The noises might make words and say sentences, but there is no intention behind them, no knowledge. That is Yog-Sothoth, it contains all but contains none as well. It is greed and consumption, an amalgamation of all things, those with sense and without.


    I said nothing to that.


    Yog-Sothoth was a known enemy of the Eternal Tome. Probably the biggest one. It was a God-Imperium eldritch beast, one of the first to have ever been made. It was the enemy of the Keepers, and part of the reason the First Keepers had hidden Eden away from everyone.


    I looked towards its realm. It stayed near the Chaos Realms, a place empty and mostly realmless. Realms needed order to survive. They were a collection of rules and laws capable of holding lesser existences, bubbles of order in the vast chaos of existence.


    Stolen story; please report.


    It is hideous, the Tome commented.


    I kept moving.


    Realms passed me by the thousands and each step changed the realms in the distance. What was close to one realm would be further away from another.


    To get to the Hells from Olympus for example would be a great distance to travel, but from Olympus to Hades was nothing, and then from Hades to the Hells was only a few steps away. Hades floated on the Sea of Death as all death domains did, but you could travel from them and into other realms. The Sea of Death and the Cosmic Forest were strange in that matter. They were realms with no true boundaries, everywhere yet nowhere at once, concepts that could be found almost everywhere.


    The Hills of Life were located near the celestial realm of Aftol, a realm ruled by a God-Imperium of the same name. She was a plant who manifested in various forms. She was said to be one of the first fruits of Tree, a sister of Yggdrasil.


    But that wasn¡¯t important, at least not to my needs. The important part was that she was a free realm. Anyone could walk through her domain and anyone could do as they pleased within it. The only she didn¡¯t allow was the death of her own kind.


    I wasn¡¯t journaling so close of course. Her realm shined close in the distance, but I had enough sense to avoid her lands. If for no other reason then her species.


    Plants weren¡¯t sentient, and that was by choice. They were growth, the fundamental nature of life. They differed from each other, but it all led back to growth. Even as a God-Imperium, sentience was a secondary trait. To them, souls were more of a tool than an identity.


    Growth was all that mattered.


    They were strange and terrifying in some ways.


    I looked towards the Cosmic Forest and walked towards it. The void dissipated, the nothingness left and suddenly, I was in a forest.


    The Cosmic Forest, The Ses of Death, The Hive Lands, and a few other realms existed like this.


    They were everywhere, due to the nature of these realms. Death could be found in both the Heavens and the Hells, and the same could be said for forests. They were concepts that permeated all realities so thoroughly that they were not limited to one spot within the void.


    Wherever you were, the forest was always there.


    I walked within it.


    Trees surrounded me, though not trees of mere wood and leaf but trees that housed realms by the thousands. Yggdrasil¡¯s children, holders of life and bearers of worlds spread out around me and into infinity. There were other things of course.


    Divine Beasts in the distance, wolf packs howling into the greater void, it was a forest in every sense.


    But I should be safe here, quickly I walked towards the hills in the distance.


    They weren¡¯t hills of course. They were mounds of qi, earth that could withstand the blows of a God-King. And there were many of them, so many, an endless amount it seemed.


    Yet I could see beyond them and into the valley that hid behind.


    It strained me to see it all. My mind hurt beneath the brunt of the information I consumed but I looked at it anyway. I needed to know if there were any threats, any hidden beasts. My sense could only spread so far but I needed to make sure there was nothing there.


    I was like a mortal squinting off into the distance to see if there were any threats in the distance.


    The Hills of Life were fairly safe if you stayed near the edges, but deeper there were said to be God-King-ranked beasts in their depths.


    I sighed.


    The Cosmic Forest, like the Sea of Death, didn¡¯t have a skin. It didn¡¯t have an edge to it. It reached it was a realm without borders, and concepts that were associated with it found themselves within it. The Hills of Life, for example, were right underneath Aftol, but from here you could also see Aftol¡¯s roots digging into their earth. They connected with her domain and parts of them were within it, but they were also a part of the forest.


    But I would be safe if I stayed away from the roots. And besides, the thing I was looking for shouldn¡¯t be too hidden anyway.


    Then I saw the lady and the dragon running at me.